Gurgaon, April 23
Though being touted as an answer to Rao Inderjit's recent Insaaf rally, the April 25 Rewari rally of the Congress may turn out to be a patch-up between Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda and the estranged MP.

In a patch-up effort by the party in view of the 2014 General Election, state Power Minister Captain Ajay Yadav has personally invited Rao Inderjit to attend the rally.

Rao Inderjit had recently launched the Haryana Insaaf Manch, a non-political outfit, after accusing the Chief Minister of discriminating between his hometown Rohtak and other regions of the state, especially south Haryana. He had made it clear that he would never leave the party, but would not bow to any discrimination among the constituencies.

Captain Yadav, who was in the city yesterday to invite Congress workers for the rally at Meerpur in Rewari, said Rao Inderjeet had been invited for the rally in which Hooda would be the chief guest.

Reacting to the question of rally being an answer to Inderjeet's "successful" rally, Yadav said, "This is all rubbish. Inderjit is still a Congress MP, so how can our rallies be an answer to each other? The CM will be the chief guest and like all other Lok Sabha representatives of the district, I have invited him with a personal letter."

Yadav's efforts to get the two together are an outcome of the fact that his relations with Hooda have always been governed by Hooda's relations with Rao Inderjit. Yadav had hit rough waters with Hooda recently when he cancelled his rally, but things changed soon.

"I feel no discrimination. Three out of six professors appointed recently at the Meerpur Regional Centre are from our area and not Rohtak. Five new government colleges have been set up in Rewari district during the Hooda regime. These are at Pali, Kosli, Rewari, Khakra and Gurawara," said Yadav.

Ambala, April 23
In a development which can have far-reaching consequences as far as the stability of BJP-HJC alliance is concerned, the two parties are all set go solo in the forthcoming municipal elections in Ambala.

Following a recent statement issued by BJP legislative party chief Anil Vij saying that the party was free to go it alone in the municipal elections as the alliance with the HJC had been forged only to contest the assembly or the Lok Sabha elections, HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi has asked his party cadre in Ambala to prepare a list of candidates who could contest the elections without the BJP.

Though political observers have stated that the move by the HJC was a pressure tactic to prevail upon the BJP leadership, the development could spell a split between the two alliance partners in the state.

It is learnt that following the directives from Kuldeep Bishnoi, the district leaders of the HJC convened a secret meeting here on Monday evening in which district chief Bhoom Singh Rana asked the party cadre to shortlist 80 candidates, from amongst whom 20 would be finalised to contest the MC elections from various seats in Ambala.

The sources in the HJC said that though the development had taken place only in Ambala and no such shortlisting of candidates was being undertaken by the HJC in the other districts, this could well lead to straining of relations between the two parties.

In February, Anil Vij had demanded that if the BJP-HJC alliance came to power in the state, the leader of BJP should be made chief minister for the first two-and-a-half-year term and he would be Kuldeep Bishnoi and for the remaining two and a half years, the BJP would rule the state. While his statement had failed to kick off a political storm at that time as BJP state president Ram Bilas Sharma had scuttled the demand, the latest stand of Vij is being perceived to damage the ties between the two alliance partners. 

Chandigarh, April 23
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today put the State of Haryana on notice on a petition filed in public interest against the transfer of around 42 acres in Rohtak district for Savindhan Sthala. It is being built in memory of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's father Ranbir Singh Hooda.

The notice was issued on a petition filed by Sunil Kumar and 11 others of Garhi Bohar village in Rohtak district. This is the second petition to be filed in the high court on the issue. In October 2011, a similar petition was filed but was withdrawn about a month back by the petitioners with the liberty to file it afresh.

The petitioners argued that the state had issued a notification in 2008 and in 2009 to acquire around 42 acres in their village. The land was to be acquired originally by the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation for developing an industrial township, but it was later transferred arbitrarily for the Savindhan Sthala.

Dubbing the action of transferring land as illegal, the petitioners contended it was done without following the procedure. They added that public land cannot be transferred for building memorials of private persons and, that too, on 42 acres.

Chandigarh, April 23
Taking strong note of constructions in prohibited zones around the air force stations in Faridabad and Gurgaon, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the Deputy Commissioners concerned to appear in person.

As the case came up for hearing, Central government standing counsel Onkar Singh Batalvi said encroachers were carrying out fresh construction in the prohibited areas during night despite several directions from the high court and steps taken by the district administrations.

Batalvi added that the IAF authorities informed the Gurgaon administration on April 20 and the Faridabad administration on February 26 about the illegal construction activities in prohibited zones. Taking up the matter, the high court directed the DCs of Gurgaon and Faridabad to appear in person before the court on April 29.

Chandigarh, April 23
The Directorate of Secondary Education, Haryana, will conduct a selection test or writing skill test for the post of Principals in Aarohi Model Schools on April 29 at DIET Building, Sector 2, Panchkula, from 1 pm to 3 pm

An official spokesman said here that all eligible candidates were directed to reach the venue by 9 a.m. sharp for verification of the documents, including the experience certificate and the required affidavit.

The admit cards can be downloaded from the website of C-DAC, Mohali. The candidates were also directed to bring with them the original fee receipt and original certificates pertaining to qualifications and a set of photocopies of the same which is to be submitted to the department for verification of eligibility.

The selection process for posts of PGT and Librarian would commence later.

Kaithal, April 23
A large number of Dalits from Pabnawa village today took out a procession, sat in dharna and held a demonstration in front of the Mini Secretaiat here, demanding the arrest of the remaining accused in the violence and looting incidents which rocked the village about 10 days ago.

The Indian Bahujan Sandesh Party (Kanshi Ram) also held a demonstration in support of the demands of Dalits of Pabnawa even as Haryana Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal visited the violence-hit village to restore confidence among the residents. Two BJP MPs also visited the village after Bhukkal.

The demonstrators shouted slogans against the Haryana government and the police. They said the adminitration had failed to provide them protection. They said the Dalits who had left the village were scared of upper caste people and were not ready to come back.

Later, they handed a memorandum of demands to Deputy Commissioner Chander Shekhar. Their demands included the arrest of all accused, a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for each of those injured in last week's violence, Rs 3 lakh each for those whose property was damaged in the attack and the creation of an atmosphere of safety for the Dalits in Pabnawa.

The Indian Bahujan Sandesh Party Haryana chief Kanta Alriya came down heavily on the administration for its "failure" to prevent the violence and take steps to bring all the guilty to book. She regretted that the police had so far arrested only about 20 of the accused while there were a total of 400-odd accused, of whom 52 had been identified and named.

In the evening Haryana Minister Geeta Bhukkal visited Pabnawa and talked to its residents to resolve the issue. Dalits' representatives said the upper caste people were "punishing" them after the violent incidents. They were refusing to give them any eatables and their children were being denied even items like milk.

The minister said efforts would be made to create an atmosphere where all lived without fear. She said the Haryana government had formed a committee to ensure the protection of Dalits in the village. She said that a bus would ply for school-going children and a police post set up if a demand was made for this.

Karnal/ Kaithal, April 23
Number of lapses on the part of police and system failure were responsible for perpetration of brutal attacks on Dalits by upper caste goons in Pabnawa village in Kaithal district, which forced dalits to flee the village. This conclusion was drawn by a team of BJP MPs, led by Arjun Meghwal which visited the affected village and got first hand information from the victims.

Arjun Meghwal said the situation was still tense in the village and fear of fresh attacks from upper caste people loomed large over Dalits who were skeptical about bringing the women members of the family back to the village. The Dalits had shifted the women and kids to safer places after the upper cast people had served ultimatum on them and only male members and few elder women of Dalit families are living in the village.

Virender Prakash, in charge organisational affairs of BJP for Haryana, held the CM responsible for the atrocities against Dalits and said that only 24 of the 50 persons had been arrested.

Hisar, April 23
With the death of 9-year-old Amit (names changed to protect the identity of the victims) in the PGIMS, Rohtak, this morning, the death toll in yesterday’s incident of consumption of celphos poison under a suicide pact by a family of five members at Bhairi Akbarpur village in Hisar has reached three.

The condition of the family’s elder son Rajiv continues to be “very serious”, while the family head Mohan’s condition is stable.

The Human Rights Cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party has taken up the matter with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), seeking suo motu cognisance of the case.

RP Malhotra, state convener of the Human Rights Cell of the BJP, said the way the family was treated by the police after its daughter was raped and then kidnapped was a violation of human rights of the family.

Meanwhile, in his statement recorded before a magistrate, Mohan has repeated that he was being pressured by the police to produce his eldest daughter so that it could take her to the court for evidence in the case of her rape. He said he was distressed over the developments. He said he was also under pressure to repay the debt, which he had taken following the rape and disappearance of his daughter.

Mohan (40), along with his wife Sunita (38), daughter Sandhya (13) and sons Rajiv (11) and Amit (9) had consumed celphos poison in their house in Bhairi Akbarpur village of Hisar in the early hours yesterday. The family was living in abject poverty and the victims had not taken any food for the past two days.

Mohan’s eldest daughter (15) was allegedly kidnapped and raped for two days by a villager, Rohtash, on May 15, 2012. He was arrested on May 17 and since then he is facing trial in the case of rape and abduction in a Hisar court. The rape victim had later disappeared on July 6, 2012. Mohan had lodged a missing report with the police in this regard.

As the case had come at the stage of prosecution witnesses since January this year and nearly four dates had passed without the evidence of the victim, the police was under pressure to produce the girl before the court for evidence.

On the last hearing of the case, the court had taken strong notice of the failure of the police to recover the girl and had told it to bring the victim for evidence on the next date -- April 30. The police, it is alleged, had started putting pressure on Mohan, who himself was already distressed at the turn of events.

Though, in his statement to media persons, Mohan alleged that the police had threatened to book him if he failed to produce his daughter, in his statement before the magistrate, he said the police told him that it would land in trouble if he did not reveal her whereabouts of the girl. Superintendent of Police B. Satheesh Balan said the police did not put any pressure on the family.

Hisar, April 23
The Health Department in Haryana does not seem to take lessons from the past and reverts to its old practices within days of showing intentions of improving the conditions.

This was noticed in the General Hospital here on Monday, when the authorities referred three members of the family that had consumed poison at Bhairi Akbarpur in Hisar to the PGIMS, Rohtak, some 100 km from Hisar, despite recent directions from the Director-General of Health Services, Haryana, warning the doctors against indiscriminate referrals.

When the victims from Bhairi Akbarpur in Hisar were brought to the General Hospital, a 200-bedded district hospital, as per the claims on department’s website, the authorities did not provide any medical aid to the poor victims and, instead, told the villagers who had brought the victims to shift them to PGIMS, Rohtak.

One of the victims later died in the PGIMS, Rohtak.

Medical experts say that treating poisoning cases was the least that was expected from a 200-bedded district hospital.

However, the hospital authorities referred to the PGIMS the victims, who kept gasping for breath for half an hour in the hospital before they were shifted to ambulances and driven towards Rohtak.

After the incident of a delivery on the road outside the General Hospital at Fatehabad on April 7, the Director-General of Health Services in Haryana had directed all civil surgeons to sensitise doctors, nurses and para-medical staff about the protocol and ethics involved in treating, and if need be, for referring patients.

“Detailed reasoning on the case file as well as on the referral slip be mentioned while referring a patient,” said the letter of the Director-General, who had warned that no delinquent doctor or paramedical staffer would be spared.

When the victims from Bhairi Akbarpur were brought to the General Hospital for treatment, the doctors told the villagers that they did not have ventilators - a basic facility available in more than 25 hospitals in Hisar.

As per the Health Department’s protocol, the doctors could have borrowed this facility from some private hospital.

Civil Surgeon Ashok Chaudhary replied that they had received two ventilators, but these were returned as the hospital did not have an intensive care unit. 

Sirsa: A minor girl, who was allegedly sold by her parents to a middle-aged man in the name of marriage, has lodged a complaint of rape against her “husband” and that of human trafficking against her parents. The 17-year-old girl from Fatehabad met Sirsa Senior Superintendent of Police Raj Shri Singh on Monday and alleged that her parents forcibly sold her off to a middle-aged person at Jodhka village in Sirsa on April 17.

She alleged that despite her resistance, she was “left” with Ramesh Kumar, where he allegedly had been raping her since April 17. She alleged that Ramesh Kumar paid Rs 80,000 to her parents as her price. The SSP sent the girl to the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer. A case has been been registered against Ramesh and the girl’s parents. 

Sirsa, April 23
A woman living in the Sirsa Police Lines has lodged a complaint accusing a cook posted there of molesting her last night.

Daughter of a cook posted in the Police Lines, the woman, a student in a local college, alleged that she was sleeping in her house near a window last night when she felt that someone was fondling her. When she woke up, she found that a cook posted in the Police Lines was standing near the window and “touching” her body.Frightened, she cried in fear and the accused ran away.

The woman alleged that the accused had been teasing her in the past too.

Though a case has been registered under Section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman), IPC, the police is disbelieving the complainant

“The woman seems to be mentally upset and her complaint appears doubtful,” said Raj Shri Singh, SSP, Sirsa.