Sirsa, March 7
A minor girl was allegedly raped at Bani village of Sirsa last night. The victim’s mother has alleged in her complaint to the police that three youths kidnapped her daughter late on Thursday night from her house and raped her.

The victim’s mother has named a youth, Sonu, and two unknown youths for the crime.

She has also accused Sonu’s sister-in-law (bhabhi) Suman of helping Sonu in the crime and the police has booked her for criminal conspiracy.

The victim’s mother alleged that her 16-year-old daughter was sleeping in her house last night when Sonu and two others allegedly kidnapped her.

The victim, somehow, came back after sometime and narrated the incident to her family members.

The police has booked the accused.

HISAR: The police has arrested two persons for allegedly raping a Dalit married woman at Lohari Radho village of Hisar.

Though the incident is alleged to have occurred two weeks back, the police said the victim’s husband first alleged that it was a case of molestation. However, the woman, in her statement given to the police yesterday, alleged she was gang-raped by Kashmir and Raju.

The police said the victim’s husband had lodged a complaint on March 5 that his 35-year-old wife had gone to the fields to fetch fodder for animals on February 18, when Kashmir and Raju molested her.

When the police recorded the statement of the woman, she alleged she was raped.

The police took the woman for a medical examination and booked the two for rape.

Both accused had been arrested and sent in judicial custody.

Karnal: Surinder of Pyerpur in Bahriech district of UP has been arrested in connection with a minor girl's rape in Karnal.

A minor girl went missing from the Tarauri police station area on March 1. The girl's father lodged a police complaint on March 3.

However, the complainant informed the police on March 5 that his daughter had come back. The police sent the girl for a medical examination which confirmed the rape. The victim's statement was recorded before the magistrate.

The accused will be produced in the court tomorrow, the police said. 

Gurgaon, March 7
Two complaints of molestation were registered here today. A student of Laxman Vihar complained that her neighbour, Nitin Jangra, had molested her. The girl claimed he had been troubling her for a long time. He not only harassed her on the phone but even blocked her way and molested her.

The police has arrested the boy who works in a local company. He has been sent to Bhondi Jail on judicial remand.

A similar complaint was filed by a resident of Malibu town who accused her brother-in-law Raghubeer of molesting her. She also alleged that her father-in-law was hand-in-glove in this. The police has registered a case. 

Chandigarh, March 7
Ashok Tanwar, Sirsa MP and confidant of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, is emerging as the frontrunner for the post of the president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC).

The Congress high command has decided to appoint the new HPCC chief to end uncertainty ahead of next year’s parliamentary and state assembly elections, sources told The Tribune.

The elevation of the 37-year-old to the top post would help the Congress kill two birds with one stone. One, it would send a message to the Dalit community, which has been alleging discrimination at the hands of the ruling dominant caste, that the Congress was still with the lower strata of society. Two, it would go a long way in winning over the youth in next year’s elections.

Earlier, the names of Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit, Power Minister Ajay Yadav, Karnal MP Arvind Sharma, Haryana Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Sharma, Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal and Rajya Sabha Member Ram Prakash had been doing the rounds to replace the incumbent Dalit leader Phool Chand Mullana, who tendered his resignation in the wake of the party’s defeat in the Hisar Lok Sabha byelections in October 2011, but was asked to continue.

The sources said Rao Inderjit seemed to have sealed his fate with the launch of the Haryana Insaaf Manch, recently. Ajay Yadav had had an uneasy relationship with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Congress high command did not want a ‘clash’ of egos in the run-up to next year’s elections. While other contenders share a good equation with Hooda, they are not considered ‘too close’ to Rahul Gandhi to get them a nomination for the post.

It is here that the suave Jawaharlal Nehru University-educated Tanwar fits the bill, a senior Congress functionary said. He does not belong to any group in the state Congress. Besides being close to Rahul,who nominated him from the Sirsa Lok Sabha constituency in the 2009 parliamentary elections, he is even acceptable to Hooda. He has headed the Congress student wing, the National Students Union of India (NSUI), and the Indian Youth Congress, and is currently the AlCC secretary.

While there is no clear demarcation of top party and government posts, there is an unwritten rule that if the CM belongs to the Jat community, the HPCC chief should be from the non-Jat community. Since the incumbent HPCC president is a Dalit, Mullana, the Congress would want a Dalit should head the party into the crucial two elections next year,

Jind, March 7
CPM leaders came down on the state and the union governments on the issues of food security, corruption, agriculture, unemployment and rising prices. Seeking support, they gave a call to step up the stir against wrong policies and ensure a lesson to the ruling party in the next elections.

This came up in the address of senior party leaders, including Brinda Karat who spoke at the public meeting in Danoda village today, as part of the nationwide campaign to take out a march (jatha) from the four corners of the country on the burning issues.

“Whatever the UPA decides in Delhi, the Hooda government in Haryana goes for its implementation in full and almost blindly,’’ said Brinda Karat, national secretary of the CPM. Giving the example of the BPL cards, she alleged that a large number of cards were cancelled arbitrarily, making the common man suffer. "If you have a TV or a bike, the card will get cancelled. Is that a criterion," she asked.

"Foodgrains are rotting in godowns, but they are not distributed to the poor. The government claims that it is working to end poverty, but the measures so far indicate that it wants to end the poor,’’ she added.

Karat said the country was not short of foodgrains, but lacking a proper channel to distribute the extra to the needy.

This was first the public meeting after the north jatha reached the district today.

Hannan Mollah, another senior leader, said corruption was a major deterrent in development and claimed that it seemed to have become the birthright of many leaders.

Secretary of the state CPM unit Inderjit Singh said neo-liberalism policies had pushed the country into an agrarian crisis and rendered the peasantry under debt. He said the cash transfer of subsidy would lead to scrapping of the MSP and PDS.

Earlier, Santro Devi, head of the district anganwadi association, claimed that Rs 1,85,00,000 was collected for insurance but was never deposited with the LIC in the district. She said the anganwadi workers were paid a pittance of Rs 300 with no other benefits for the past several years.

The party leaders claimed that the main motive behind the march was to project alternative pro-people policies not based on caste, communal and pro-corporate considerations.

Bhiwani, March 7
In a heartrending incident, a man allegedly killed his wife and seven-year-old daughter by strangulating them in Krishna Colony of Bhiwani town last night.

The bodies of Jyoti, a contractual employee of the Haryana Board of Secondary Education, here, and her seven-year-old daughter Akshra were found in their house this morning.

The accused, Harish, has absconded.

According to family sources, Harish was unemployed and he used to beat up Jyoti on one pretext or the other.

He allegedly killed his wife and daughter by strangulating them when they were asleep and then escaped after locking the door from outside.

When a woman living in the lower floor of Harish's rented accommodation went on the first floor to offer water to the Sun, she noticed the door locked from outside and got suspicious.

She narrated the matter to her husband, who in turn informed the police.

When the police opened the doors, Jyoti and her daughter were found lying dead in the room.

Jyoti's family members alleged that Harish did not want to do any job and hence used to quarrel with his wife on petty issues.

The police has registered a case of murder and begun investigations. 

Karnal, March 7
Expressing their solidarity with Chandigarh lawyers, who were lathi-charged by the police during their protest, lawyers of Karnal, Kurukshetra and other places suspended their work today.

The call to join the protest given by the bar association of the Haryana and Punjab High Court evoked instant response. Rajkumar Sharma, vice-president of the Karnal District Bar Association, said the brutal lathi-charge on the lawyers was an attack on the democracy and right to expression and speech.

Ambala, March 7
With the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) deciding to create its cadre of senior officials, the Haryana Power Generation Engineers Association (HPGEA) has sought the intervention of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to stall the development.

In a letter written to the chief minister, Hardip Sangwan, general secretary of the association, said that by creating its own cadre the Bhakra Beas Management Boardwould hit the growth prospects of state engineers.

He said the BBMB claim that there was a perpetual shortage of personnel from the partner states was not based on facts, as a number of engineers from the state had already shown keen interest to work with the BBMB.

Every year options for posting in the Bhakra Beas Management Board were being submitted by a several HPGCL engineers, but the same were not being accepted by the board without assigning any reasons.

Hardip said that the chairman of the board was planning to give one step promotion to some of the existing BBMB employees even as engineers from state were willing to get posted in the board in the same post.

The association urged the Chief Minister to immediately intervene in the matter for stalling the BBMB move.

It was learnt that the BBMB had proposed that 174 posts out of the total sanctioned 669 class I and II postsshould form the BBMB cadre.

The BBMB had sought two posts of Chief Engineers, seven posts of Superintending Engineers, 31 posts of XENS and 85 posts of SDO along with 13 doctors in its own cadre along with the posts which the board shares with the partner states.

Karnal, March 7
Delays in receipt of payments and cumbersome paperwork for drawing payments from various government welfare and subsidy schemes for students would be a thing of past as, henceforth, all payments would be made online directly to the beneficiaries.

At present, the payments are sent to schools through the district education officer concerned and the parents of students have to go to schools umpteen times to get the payments.

"Zero balance bank accounts of the students would be opened and the payments of scholarships, subsidy of books, uniforms etc would be directly credited to bank accounts and there would be no manual transactions and paperwork," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Karnal, Dr Chandreshekhar, said.

Karnal district would be the first to launch the scheme from April 1 and preparations like survey, opening of bank accounts, number of beneficiaries are on to meet the deadline.

Nearly 80 per cent survey in the district has been completed. About 65,000 students in the district would benefit from this ambitious scheme, which would be extended to all 21 districts in due course.

The new scheme would also reduce the workload and unnecessary paperwork in schools and the parents would also be relieved, said Asha, a government schoolteacher. 

Bhiwani, March 7
Four persons were killed and another was critically injured when their Hyundai Santro car collided with a truck near Bond village in Bhiwani late last night.

The victims were members of a wedding party and they were going to Loharwada village (Bhiwani) from Rohtak.

Three persons died on the spot. The victims' bodies could be extricated only after breaking the windowpanes of the car.

Karnal, March 7
A "tantrik" was arrested for inappropriate behaviour with women in the garb of religious practices in Bhutana village.

Baba Joginder Singh was doing "seva" at the mazar of Pir in Bhutana and he was caught when he took a girl to a vacant quarter near the mazar. The villagers beat him up before handing him over to the police.

Meanwhile, acting on the complaint of a woman (26) sent through woman helpline-1091, the local police nabbed a minor from Ram Nagar and seized the mobile phone and SIM card which were being used for sending objectionable messages to the complainant. 

Kurukshetra, March 7
Additional Sessions Judge MM Dhonchak sentenced all 10 persons to life term imprisonment under Section 364A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and a fine of Rs 50,000 each as they were found guilty of abducting Snehil, son of Satpal Sharma, Peethadheesh of Bhadrakali Mandir in Kurukshetra, on March 6, 2008.

In addition, they have been sentenced to three years' imprisonment under Section 468 of the IPC and two years' imprisonment under Section 471 of the IPC and a fine of Rs 10,000 each.

The abductors have been identified as Vishveshwar, alias Rinku, resident of Thanesar, Gagan, Pravesh, alias Shanti, and Yogender, alias Yogi, all residents of Devban Saharanpur, Balvinder, alias Billu, Rajesh Kumar, Navneet, all residents of Kurukshetra, Neeraj Kumar, resident of Sisoni village in Saharanpur district, Sunil, alias Shanti, of Bada Gaon village in Saharanpur district and Rajeev Rana of Ambala district.

Besides, Yogender, alias Yogi, was sentenced for four years' imprisonment and fined Rs 20,000 under Section 377 of the IPC and two years' imprisonment and fined Rs 10,000 under Section 200A of the IPC and one-year imprisonment under Section 411 of the IPC.

Five of them were sentenced for two years' imprisonment and each of them fined Rs 5,000 each under the Arms Act.

A woman named Shivani, alias Pooja, resident of Shahabad, was acquitted.

Satpal Sharma told media persons that he would appeal in the high court for death sentence to the abductors and punishment for Shivani who had been acquitted by the court.

Sharma said when Snehil was going to a private hotel here for his birthday party on March 6, 2008, he was abducted by his friends Gagan, Shanti and others who took him forcibly in a car towards UP. He had been kept captive for seven days in the house of one of the kidnapers, Neeraj, resident of Sisoni village in Saharanpur district before the police party raided the house and nabbed the kidnappers.

They had dropped Shivani before reaching Saharanpur.

Sharma further said the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs 70 lakh to release Snehil, but he delivered them a bag containing Rs 1.5 lakh at Thana Bhawan at Khachavari village, near Shamli. When the kidnappers asked him for the rest of the amount, he pleaded for some time to arrange the money so that police could get time to take action.

Faridabad/Palwal, March 7
The Yamuna Mukti Yatra from Mathura to Delhi undertaken by activists to press for release of ample water in the Yamuna resumed this morning after a night halt at Palwal amid tight security.

The yatra, which will halt in the night at Prithla in Palwal district after having covering 15-km stretch, will enter Faridabad tomorrow via Ballabhgarh. It was flagged off in Mathura on February 28 and will conclude at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on March 11. The Delhi-Mathura stretch of the NH-2 will be the route of the yatra to reach the national capital.

Around 20,000 activists, who took out march here, created traffic snarl on the highway for about three hours. The police had a difficult time managing traffic. The Delhi-Mathura stretch is considered to be the busiest part of the highway.

The activists, who are from Mathura and around, which are collectively known for "Brij" culture on account of the birth and exploits of the mythological Lord Krishna, splashed ‘gulal’ along the route.

Baba Jai Krishan Daas, a leader of the yatra, alleged that sufficient water was not released in the Yamuna from the Hathni Kund barrage located in Haryana. Consequently, the river generally remains polluted on account of a huge quantity of sewer water, industrial waste and other kinds of pollutants discharged in it.

The downstream direction of the river is from Haryana to Delhi from where it re-enters Haryana via Faridabad and Palwal district from where it flows into Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, he added.

Chandigarh, March 7
The Haryana Youth Congress has decided to institute awards in memory of the Delhi bus rape victim.

President of the Haryana Youth Congress Amit Sihag said the awards had been named Nirbhaya Awards and would be given in each Lok Sabha constituency . The awards would be given to women who had become role models in their respective areas owing to their significant contribution. The awards would be presented on International Women's Day tomorrow.

Sihag said the Youth Congress would undertake "Yuva Sandesh Yatras" in each Assembly constituency from March 11 to highlight major schemes of the UPA and Haryana governments. Party workers would also apprise people of facts about the JBT scam in which former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and others had been convicted by a CBI court.

The yatras, he said, would intend to make the Youth Congress a bridge between 'aam aadmi' and the government. 

Chandigarh, March 7
Concerted efforts are being made to make Haryana a ‘medical intoxicants-free state’ in 2013-14. The State has already emerged as the first ‘hookah bar-free state’ in the country during the year 2012-13.

A spokesman of Haryana Food and Drugs Administration Department said here today that Haryana was also the first state in the country to implement the Infant Milk Substitute, Feeding Bottle and Infant Food (Regulation of Production, Supply
and Distribution) Act, 1992/Amendment Act, 2003. The Act aims at discouraging promotion of infant milk substitute products and promoting breast-feeding .

The online licensing and registration of food business processors under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, would also be introduced. In Haryana, the conviction for violations under the Drugs and Cosmetic Act was more than 75 per cent. The outlay of the department had been raised from Rs 4 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 14.42 crore in 2013-14.

Sonepat, March 7
The gram panchayat of Badmalik village has taken a number of initiatives, including social boycott, to curb female foeticide in the village.

At a gram panchayat meeting held yesterday and presided by the sarpanch, Poonam Devi, it was decided that if anyone was found indulging in female foeticide, he would be socially boycotted.

Anyone giving information on female foeticide would be given a cash award of Rs 1,100 and his identity would be kept secret. The panchayat would also reward the volunteers with a cash award of Rs 500 for their active participation against this social evil, the panchayat decided.

The gram panchayat also decided to adopt all customs like 'Thali Bajana', 'Kuan Poojan' and 'Chatt Pooja', which were being observed on the birth of a male child, on the birth of a girl child.

Poonam Devi said this social evil could not be eradicated without the active involvement of the people at the ground level.

“The people have to understand the evil effects of female foeticide on society and take remedial steps,” she added.