Rohtak, April 20
A day after a man allegedly raped his teenage step-daughter in his house, another shocking incident of rape of a 32-year-old NRI woman by her brother has come to light here today.

In her complaint lodged with the police, the victim said she had recently come to Rohtak from Italy on a vacation.

Last night, when she was alone at her house in Sector-2, her brother allegedly raped her. Then he forcibly fed her a poisonous substance, which caused her health to deteriorate, she said in the complaint.

The woman found herself lying on the road near the PGIMS turn when she regained consciousness around mid-night. She immediately called up a woman who admitted her in the PGIMS here.

Chandigarh, April 20
Differences have cropped up within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the reported decision of the BJP-HJC alliance to not contest the forthcoming elections to the seven municipal corporations (MCs) on the party symbols.

A salvo on the issue has been fired by BJP Legislative Party Leader and Ambala Cantonment MLA Anil Vij, who has taken exception to the reported decision taken at the BJP-HJC coordination committee meeting held in New Delhi recently.

“The decision runs counter to the decision of the state executive at Sonepat on April 14-15 which decided that the BJP would contest the forthcoming MC elections on the party symbol,” Vij told The Tribune.

Claiming that the coordination committee had no jurisdiction to reverse the BJP state executive’s decision, Vij urged party president Ram Bilas Sharma to call an emergency meeting to reconsider the decision in the interest of the party.

Recently, the coordination committee of the BJP-HJC alliance, while deciding to contest the MC poll together to put up a united front, agreed in principle not to contest the elections on the party symbol.

At the meeting certain BJP leaders were of the opinion that the two parties had agreed to contest the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in an alliance, which did not extend to the municipal elections. However, there was another view that if the two parties contested the municipal elections separately, it would send a wrong message ahead of the parliamentary and state assembly polls.

Elections to the municipal corporations of Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Panipat, Karnal, Rohtak and Hisar are slated to be held in June. The contest for the crucial MC polls is widely being seen as the semi-final for the political parties ahead of the parliamentary and state assembly elections. In the past, except for the BJP, no other party has contested the civic body election on its symbol and they mostly supported the “like-minded” candidates.

With a sizeable vote bank in the urban areas, the BJP usually performed well in elections of municipal councils and corporations. 

Sirsa, April 20
In a society where some people kill their daughters in the mother's womb, Purshottam Bansal, a small grocery shop owner from Kalanwali in Sirsa, tells how his four-month-old daughter Tarushi has come as an incarnation of Godess Laxmi for him.

A ticket of the Baisakhi Bumper Lottery purchased in Tarushi’s name has transformed Bansal’s fate and made him a “crorepati”.

Purshottam Bansal (24) has a small grocery shop near Mahajan Dharamshala of Kalanwali town.

He has two daughters, the younger Tarushi being 4 months old.

On April 16, he had gone to Maiser Khana temple of Godess Durga and Jwalaji in the neighbouring Bathinda district of Punjab to perform Navratra Devi Pooja during a mela there. Bansal purchased a Baisakhi Bumper lottery ticket from a mela stall in the name of Tarushi.

On Friday, Bansal received a call from the lottery agent that his ticket had won a lottery worth Rs 1 crore.

“First, I did not believe him, but when he told me that he was coming to my house, my joy knew no bounds,” said Bansal.

Bansal’s wife Priyanka too is ecstatic at the sudden turn of events that have changed the family’s fortunes.

“We have decided to provide our both daughters Suhani (4) and Tarushi (4 months) the best of education,” said the lucky parents. He also planned to start some bigger business to provide a good life to his family.

Gurgaon, April 20
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) plans to make the expressway toll-free and is considering Chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s proposal to buy the project.

With Gurgaon residents, including commissioner Alok Mittal, holding the NHAI and the operator responsible for traffic chaos and some of them even demanding an FIR against the them for accidents, the authority has now asked the expressway project's lead lender and its concessionaire to come up with a proposal to remove the toll plaza, claiming that it is a source of traffic chaos.

Interestingly, the authority, which claims to be fed up with traffic problems, not only wants the Sirhoul toll plaza near the Ambience Mall to be removed but also shifted out of the Kherki Daula toll outside city limits towards Jaipur.

“We have lakhs of vehicles crossing the toll every day. Among them are daily commuters from Delhi and Gurgaon who claim to be most fed up by chaos and jams. We have asked the concessioner and lender to work out financial details so that we can do away with the Ambience Mall toll at least because it is the root cause of problems. People are stranded in traffic jams and all measures have apparently failed. The Haryana CM had offered to buy the project in November and it seems to be the most viable way of solving the problem,” said an NHAI official.

The concessionaire, Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd (DGSCL), and the lead lender, Infrastructure Finance Development Company, are perturbed by the development as the move will hit them financially as the Ambiance Mall toll has proved to be a gold mine so far. According to figures available with the NHAI, the DGSCL had taken a loan of Rs 1,567 crore from a consortium of banks led by the IDFC for this project and recovering this amount would be impossible with just one toll. The problem, however, can only be dealt with if the Haryana Government buys the project. It will help in doing away with the problems and prove to be a major booster for the ruling party. 

Chandigarh, April 20
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today described policemen as the face of the government and told them to remain available to public round the clock. He also asked them to attend complainants' phone calls properly for timely redressal of their grievances.

"Make them sit and carefully listen to their complaints. This will not only raise the confidence of the complainant but would also improve the goodwill of the police department," he said. Hooda was addressing the annual conference of the Deputy Commissioners (DCs) and Superintendents of Police (SPs) here.

Describing the concept of night camps in villages by senior officers as an important grievance-redressal mechanism, Hooda directed the DCs to spend at least two days in a month in villages falling under their jurisdiction. He said they should be accompanied by the SP concerned so that they could jointly deal with villagers' issues on the spot.

Hooda directed the DCs to conduct inspections at hospitals and other institutions which are regularly visited by public. He told them to check whether proper medicines are being given to patients and whether requisite medical and para-medical staff is present in health institutions. He asked them to conduct surprise inspections in schools to ensure the presence of teachers. He said sitting in their offices for an hour was not enough. He told them to spend more time in their offices instead of the camp office so that people could get justice on time. "Being a face of the government, employees, particularly police officers, should be available round the clock to people," he said.

While reviewing the procurement of wheat, Hooda directed the DCs to monitor payments to farmers and ensure that they get their payments soon after wheat is filled in bags.

The Chief Minister directed the DCs to check unauthorised colonies in their respective districts. He directed Chief Secretary PK Chaudhery to constitute a committee for Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonipat and Bhiwani districts in the first phase to check this problem.

He said the state government was committed towards ensuring security and safety of people. He directed the SPs to maintain district-wise record of hardcore criminals and stressed the need to strengthen the District Intelligence Cell to anticipate criminal activities.

He said SPs should have a proper coordination with patwaris, nambardars and chowkindars of their respective areas as they could prove to be valuable sources of information for them. 

Faridabad, April 20
Farmers of Faridabad are miffed over the government’s alleged failure to make payments for their wheat, which were purchased by its agencies.

The procurement of wheat by the agencies commenced in the district mandis on April 8 and will continue for another week. The farmers, however, alleged that they had not received the payments yet.

Brijlal Watts, a farmer of Panehra Khurd village, warned that the farmers would launch an agitation if it did not ensure the payments soon. A sangharsh samiti would be constituted to spearhead the proposed agitation, he said.

The farmers said they had registered their protest with Haryana Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Mahender Pratap a few days ago. Also, the commission agents in the six mandis of Faridabad, who had facilitated the procurement of wheat, are worried as the agencies have adopted a lackadaisical approach in shifting the procured wheat to the storages.

The agents in the Ballabgarh mandi in the district alleged that they were unable to accommodate new arrivals of wheat in their premises as the agencies had not shifted the stock purchased by them.

A national leader of the farmers’ wing of the BJP, Mool Chand Sharma, who visited the Ballabgarh mandi, alleged that the government was apathetic to the cause of the farmers.

Sirsa, April 20
Members of the Indian National Lok Dal today said they will gherao officials of the wheat procurement agencies across Haryana on Monday if the state government failed to announce a bonus of Rs 250 per quintal and improve conditions in grain markets by that time.

INLD MLA from Ellenabad Abhay Singh Chautala said owing to delayed procurement and tardy lifting of stocks, farmers had been facing a plethora of problems in various grain markets of the state.

Chautala alleged that farmers had been sitting with their crops in grain markets for several days but the authorities were not purchasing their wheat. Later, addressing a state-level convention of the 'Doctors Cell' of the INLD in Sirsa, Abhay Singh alleged that his father Om Prakash Chautala and brother Ajay Singh had been sent to jail merely because they had provided jobs to unemployed youths. He said the INLD had released a list of the 13 officials appointed by the Haryana Vidhan Sabha recently, which pointed to irregularities in the appointments.

Addressing the convention, INLD state president Ashok Arora said when Om Prakash Chautala and Ajay Singh were jailed by a Delhi court, their opponents started rejoicing and termed it as an end of the road for them. —TNS

Gharonda (Karnal), April 20
Panic gripped Alipur village in Gharonda late last night after some anti-social elements allegedly set on fire a makeshift hut (jhopri) erected on a disputed land in the village. Five persons, including the sarpanch's son, were booked in the case.

There is a dispute between two communities for the past two months over the construction of Ravidas Bhavan on the panchayat land and as the news that the jhopri constructed by Dalits has been set on fire spread, tension mounted and a large number of Dalits assembled.

DSP Joginder Rathi reached the spot and assured the villagers of necessary action against the accused.

Policemen have been deployed in strength in the village to prevent any untoward incident.

Gurgaon, April 20
The Gurgaon administration today took the possession of 65 acre farmhouse of Punjabi pop singer Daler Mehandi.

The land of the farmhouse situated in Sohna was taken by Daler a decade ago from the Sohna Municipality.

It was, however, a verdict from the Supreme Court in 2011 that transferred the ownership of the land back to the municipality.

Gurgaon SDM Vivek Kalia had passed an order in this regard on April 4 and it was today that the possession team of naib tehsildar Jevender Singh reoccupied the farm house.

Sirsa, April 20
A seven-year-old child, Manvijay, was drowned in a pond at Sukherakhera village of Sirsa.

The victim’s body was fished out late night yesterday. The body was cremated today.

The child, according to villagers, was putting feed for fish in the pond near his house, when his father suddenly called him from behind. As Manvijay responded to his father’s call, he slipped and fell into the pond while turning back.

When he did not return home for long, his parents searched for him around.

When they could not find him anywhere, they searched for him in the pond.

The boy’s body could be fished out of the pond after concerted efforts of a number of villagers for several hours.