Kurukshetra, May 22
It was a red-letter day for residents of Haryana, especially Kurukshetra, as Union Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textile Anand Sharma laid the foundation stone of the country’s second National Institute of Design (NID) at Umri village near Kurukshetra here today.

The NID, declared as the institution of national importance through an Act, will come up on 20.5 acres provided by the state with an investment of Rs 160 crore, (excluding the cost of the land) to be borne by the Central Government and become functional in two years.

Sharma said the world-class design education and training would be imparted by the institute in the field of animation, film, exhibition, graphics, products, ceramic and glass, automobiles, lifestyle, furniture and interior design and it would also meet the need of the design and manufacturing industry in North India.

Japan would be the key partner in the development of this project, especially in the construction of the state-of-the-art labs as well as curriculum and faculty development programmes apart from technology collaboration, Anand Sharma said.

He added that synergy between the National Institute of Technology (NIT), the National Institute of Fashion Designing (NIFD), the National Institute of Food Technology and Entrepreneurial Management (NIFTEM) and the NID to enable the youth to compete globally.

Thanking the Umri village panchayat for providing land, Sharma said eight new Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), five new Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) and five new institutes of science are coming up apart from 30 institutes for information technology and 30 universities.

On this occasion, Haryana Chief Minister B S Hooda announced Rs 1 crore for development of the village and said Haryana is emerging as educational hub and declared that a National Institute of Fashion Designing would come up in Pinjore in Panchkula district.

He said the state government had allotted 50 acres of land to IIT Delhi at Rajiv Gandhi Educational City, Sonepat, for setting up extension campus.

Gurgaon, May 22
In the wake of the recent police lathicharge on sacked workers of Maruti Suzuki and activists of mass organisations supporting their cause, the Left has sought intervention of political parties, trade unions and other organisations in the matter.

Alleging that the Kaithal incident had revealed the real, anti-people face of the Hooda-led Congress regime in Haryana, CPM state secretary Inderjit has lamented that the government was hell-bent on suppressing all voices of protest with its “ruthless” police force.

“The situation amounts to flagrant violation of not only trade union rights, but also democratic rights and civil liberties,” he said, adding that the political parties, trade unions and social organisations must intervene to check the autocratic trend.

Inderjit pointed out that the Haryana Government had hired the services of senior advocate KTS Tulsi and paid him about Rs 1.5 crore to please the Maruti management and shatter the morale of the 150 sacked Maruti workers who were already languishing in jail for nearly a year.

“It is now evident that the state government is openly backing the Maruti management in the matter and can go to any extent to terrorise the workers,” he maintained.

The Centre of Industrial Trade Unions (CITU) and several other associations of industrial workers and mass organisations have been holding protest demonstrations across the state to express solidarity with the dismissed Maruti workers.

Nearly, 500 workers had been dismissed following an incident of violence and arson at the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd in July last year, which left a senior company executive dead and around 100 injured.

Hisar, May 22
With mercury touching 46°C in Hisar, five children of Government Primary School fainted in their classes due to extreme hot conditions today.

Sonika and Komal of Class I, Ravi and Aman of Class IV and Sonu of Class V could not withstand the sizzling hot conditions and fainted in their classes. The incident panicked the teachers, who called children’s guardians to the school and sent them home after providing them first aid.

“It happened at about 1 pm. There was a sudden noise from Class I. When we rushed there, we found two girls, Sonika and Komal, lying on the floor. We immediately took them out of the room in the open,” said a teacher.

Teachers said the two children gained consciousness in a few minutes after they sprinkled water on their faces. After about half an hour from the first incident, two children Ravi and Aman of Class IV fainted in their classrooms.

The teachers were yet to provide any aid to these children when they learnt that Sonu, a Class V child has also fainted in his classroom. This sent children in a tizzy and many of them started crying.

The school head teacher, Jitender Hooda, said the school did not have a power connection for long. He said several requests to the authorities for getting power supply to the school had fallen on deaf ears.

The office-bearers of the teachers’ body also arrived there and demanded a change in the timings till summer vacations. They said the authorities in Gurgaon had already changed school timings and made it 7 am to 12 pm instead of the usual 8 am to 2.30 pm.

Meanwhile, mercury hit a high of 46.2°C in Hisar today, five degrees above normal.

Weather forecast from the Metrological Department suggests that it will remain dry during the next three days and mercury may hit a high of 48°C from Thursday to Saturday.

Bhiwani, May 22
The authorities in Bhiwani have changed timings of schools in view of the heat wave prevailing in the area. District Magistrate Ashok Kumar Meena today issued orders asking all government and private schools to change their timings from 8 am to 2.30 pm in force till today to 7 am to 1 pm from tomorrow.

The orders said that the new timings will come in force from May 23 and will remain till May 31.

The orders said if any government or private school was found violating the orders, action would be initiated against them. 

Jhajjar, May 22
To prevent the entry of outsiders, the Haryana Education Department has decided to issue identity cards to both students and teachers of all government colleges. Haryana Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal stated this while interacting with mediapersons after

listening to public grievances at the PWD rest house here recently.

She said students and teachers of government colleges would now have to carry their identity cards without which they would not be able to enter the premises.

“Entry into colleges will be allowed only after producing identity cards, which will be made available to all students and teachers soon,” she said, adding that the state government and the Education Department were constantly taking effective measures to provide better educational environment to students in the educational institutes. The department had already announced the scheme to install CCTV cameras in all government colleges in the state.

Karnal, May 22
A hapless man whose minor daughter was raped and wife, who cried for justice, was allegedly murdered by people of a dominant class, has been running from pillar to post to get justice for the past eight months but to no avail.

The 15-year minor daughter of Dharampal was allegedly raped by two youths of a dominant community and his wife, who raised her voice and cried for justice, went missing on September 3, 2012, and her body was retrieved from Sirsa branch (canal) two days later.

With no response from the insensitive administration, Dharampal, a resident of Kalsi village, has sent a letter to Chief Minister BS Hooda, alleging that while justice was denied to the deceased wife, the administration was constantly harassing him. “I get court notice but no one tells me that who is investigating the case”, he added.

“The police and administration is not even prepared to tell anything about the progress of investigations and the status of the case and he did not know that the case is being investigated by the state police or the CBI”, he said.

The police arrested all three accused Aman (18), Kusum (mid-twenties) and Krishan (35) and booked Aman and Krishan for gangrape and murder while Kusum, who lured the minor into accompanying the culprits, had been booked for abetting the crime.

However, no action was taken against the two accused. The case was registered under pressure after the body of wife was recovered. Even the Bhutana police station SHO, who also refused to intervene in the matter, did not get any punishment, Dharampal said.

He said when he approached the Deputy Commissioner, Karnal, and requested her to issue him a BPL card so that he could continue his daughter’s education in some other school in Chandigarh as going to the same school in the village with stigma of being raped was not possible, she shunted me out from her room saying, “Are you a beggar, haven’t you received the compensation.”

The issue came to light when The Tribune reported the matter. Dharampal alleged that the police refused to register his complaint as the accused were the relatives of ASI Ram Prakash.

However, the Haryana government has provided a relief of Rs 3.75 lakh as compensation for the death of Kamlesh and Rs 60,000 to the rape victim but it did not mean that he should stop his fight for justice, he lamented. 

time line

* August 6, 2012 - Minor girl raped
* September 3 - Mother of the minor girl abducted and police refused to register the case
* September 5 - Body of mother recovered from canal
* October 20 - National Commission for Scheduled Castes visited the family

Chandigarh, May 22
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has deprecated the practice of frequent transfers ordered by the authorities concerned in Haryana. Mincing no words, a Division Bench of the High Court has asserted that repeated transfers are not only affecting the employee, but also the official work.

The assertion is significant as this is, perhaps, the first time in recent past, the High Court has given its opinion in the matter of transfers, as generally the courts do not interfere with the process, unless malafide intention is established by the petitioners. This is because transfer is considered “an incidence of service”.

The significant assertion by the Division Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice RP Nagrath came on an appeal filed by Haryana Forest Department employee Anil Kumar Sharma against the state and other respondents.

In his appeal, Sharma had challenged an order dated January 15, whereby a Single Judge had dismissed his writ petition challenging the transfer orders.

Taking up the appeal, the Division Bench asserted that the appellant and the respondent were both working as foresters in the Forest Department, Haryana. Acting on their plea, the Single Judge was “right in observing that the transfer is an incidence of service and such orders are issued normally in exigency of service”.

The Judge added, “Since the appellant failed to make out a case of personal malice, we are not inclined to interfere with the order under appeal passed by the Single Judge. However, we deprecate the practice of frequent transfers as it affects not only the employee but also the official work”.

Kurukshetra, May 22
Hundreds of workers of the Indian Bahujan Sandesh Party (IBSP) (Kanshiram) led by its national president Kanta Alariya, demonstrated and raised anti-government slogans at HUDA Park, Sector-10, today.

At 12 pm, when workers started their march to the mini-secretariat here, they were intercepted in front of the new bus stand by a strong contingent of the police led by DSP Sheetal Singh Dhariwal.

Protesting against this, all protesters sat at a dharna near the new bus stand gate and demanded that the Deputy Commissioner (DC) should come to the venue so that they could submit their memorandum addressed to Haryana Governor.

After one hour SDM Ashok Bansal reached the venue, recieved the memorandum and assured them that the administration would do its maximum to solve their problems.

In the memorandum, the IBSP has demanded that the government, which had lost its control on its administrative structure had no right to remain in power. President’s rule should be introduced after dismissing such government in the state so that the poor might get their rights.

Meanwhile, Kanta Alariya gave an ultimatum to the government in the presence of the SDM and the DSP to allot free plots measuring 100 yards each to the deserving families within two months, otherwise the party workers would be compelled to demonstrate in front of the DC office.

Chandigarh, May 22
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has congratulated mountaineers Ram Lal Sharma and Kanta Duhan for scaling Mount Everest. Both have brought laurels to the country by climbing the world's highest peak.

Hooda said the state is proud on their achievement and this marvellous feat would inspire other youngsters also.

Ram Lal hails from Tohana in Fatehabad whereas Kanta Duhan, head constable in the Haryana Police is posted at Bhuna Police Station, Fatehabad.

MP Ashok Tanwar also congratulated them for their significant achievement. He said efforts had been made to provide the world-class infrastructure to the sportsperson in the state.

He said that Rs.6.5 crore had been received for Sports Academy to be set up at village Dariyapur in Fatehabad.

The work of academy would be started shortly. A first of its kind synthetic astroturf would be constructed in the academy so that sports facilities matching international level could be provided to the sportspersons.

Sonepat, May 22
Three migrant labourers from Bihar, Pradeep, Bharat and Rajbir, died on the spot after inhaling poisonous gas in Inland Katha factory located near Bahalgarh today. They entered the tank to rescue another labourer Jairam who had gone inside to clean it.

Jairam was rescued but his condition was serious and was referred to PGIMS Rohtak by doctors here in the Civil Hospital.

The bodies of the deceased were handed over to their family members after conducting post-mortem.

According to information, Jairam was the first one to enter the tank to carry out its cleaning. When he did not return, Pradeep, Bharat and Rajbir also entered the tank and they also did not come out of it.

Sensing the situation as dangerous, other labourers of the factory taking precautionary measures retrieved all the four in unconscious condition. They were rushed to the Civil Hospital where the doctors declared Pradeep, Bharat and Rajbir as brought dead and Jairam was referred to PGIMS Rohtak.

After receiving information, the police reached the spot and conducted a preliminary investigation and recorded the statement of other labourers. The police said the case was being investigated. 

Kaithal, May 22
A tractor-trailor driver had a miraculous escape when his vehicle was hit by a train at an unmanned railway crossing on the Kaithal-Narwana railway track near Kalayat town near here yesterday. But the tractor driver escaped with minor injuries and was rushed to nearby hospital.

This mishap took place when the Jind-Kurukshetra passenger train reached the unmanned crossing no 15, 2 km away from Kalayat around 9 am. A person driving his tractor did not notice the train and tried to pass through the unmanned crossing. There was a collision and the tractor was badly damaged but the driver reportedly escaped with minor injuries. — OC

Sirsa, May 22
The police today busted a racket of fake currency notes by arresting its kingpin with counterfeit notes worth Rs 1.47 lakh. With his arrest, the police has so far arrested four members of the gang and recovered fake currency totalling Rs 3,24,500 from them.

Saurabh Singh, SSP, Sirsa, informed mediapersons that the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) staff had arrested Sukhdev Singh alias Sukha, a resident of Choke village falling under Rampura Sadar police station of Bathinda district, with the fake currency.

Sukhdev Singh was produced before a local court where he was sent to police custody for two days.

Based on his interrogations, the police arrested Riasat Ali, a resident of Chaknaiwala in Hanumangarh, with fake currency notes totalling Rs 27,500.

Saurabh Singh said after a tip-off, the CIA staff of the district police arrested Gurnam Singh, a resident of Bhambhoor village of Sirsa with fake currency notes of Rs 1 lakh.

Based on the revelations made by him during his interrogations, the police arrested another member identified as Nasib Singh, a resident of Kariwala.

The police recovered fake currency of Rs 50,000 from him.

It was Gurnam’s interrogations that led to the arrest of the kingpin Sukhdev Singh and now, the police is interrogating him to unravel the entire racket. 

Pathankot, May 22
Two persons, including one student from Haryana, were killed, while four other students sustained serious injuries when their car went out of control and hit a tree near Mirthal village on the Pathankot-Jalandhar National Highway today.

Chowki in charge of Nangal Bhoor police post Bharat Bhushan disclosed that a group of students from different towns of Haryana undergoing the Elementary Teachers Training (ETT) course were on the way to Kathua (J&K) in two cars when one of the cars suddenly spun out of control and hit the tree killing car driver Surinder (28) and a student Ashok Kumar (24), both from Bhiwani, on the spot. Four other students, including Harish Kumar, his female colleagues- Sudesh Kumari, Sukhwanti and Priyanka, were rushed to the Pathankot Civil Hospital.

Doctors attending on the injured said all four students were out of danger and treatment was being administered to them by specialists.

Pathankot SSP SK Kalia said parents of all injured students had been informed. The family members of the driver and the deceased student, Ashok Kumar, had been also informed.

The SSP said the Traffic wing of the district police had been asked to be more vigilant in the area because of the increasing number of accidents that were occurring on this particular stretch of the road.

Hisar, May 22
The police has arrested a clerk working in the PWD of the state government for stalking and criminal intimidation after a woman lecturer working in a college alleged that the accused had been harassing her for long.

The woman lecturer alleged that accused Dharmender, who had been following her for long, stopped her two-wheeler yesterday and tried to molest her.

She alleged when she protested, the accused threatened to kill her. The police arrested Dharmender.

The accused was produced in a local court where he was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.

Rewari, May 22
The police has registered a case against a man for raping and abducting a married woman. A case of molestation has been registered against his uncle.

The woman alleged that six months ago, when she along with her three children was living away from her husband, Pinku enticed her along with her three children to Neemrana town of Alwar in Rajasthan on a promise to marry her.

She said while he continued to exploit her sexually during her 6-month stay with him at Neemrana, recently when she insisted on entering into a wedlock, he said this could materialise only after she got rid of her three children.

She added that under such circumstances, she returned to Rewari and then filed a complaint. The police said the matter was now under investigation.