Panipat, May 29
With only 48 hours left for convassing for the Municipal Corporation elections, an intense electoral battle is on the cards in Panipat. The candidates, political parties and leaders have gone all out to woo the voters.

While the BJP and the INLD have fielded candidates from all 24 wards, the rift in the Congress has surfaced in spite of the fact that it is not contesting the poll on symbol. Congress MLA Balbir Pal Shah and another senior leader Prem Sachdeva are reportedly supporting their own loyalists while a few loyalists of local MP Arvind Sharma are also in the fray as independents.

The local issues like sewerage, hanging electrical wires, poor condition of roads, irregular drinking water supply, power cuts, frequent traffic jams, delay in approval of building plans and issuing various documents like birth and death certificates are common in all wards.

The residents in the old city are demanding well-maintained drainage system, while residents of illegal colonies on the peripheral areas are pitching for regularising their colonies and pressing the candidates to give them assurance.

Overflowing sewer pipes during monsoon and waterlogging are other problems. People are also angry over delay in commissioning of projects like shifting of dairy and dying units and cleaning drain no 1 and construction of railway underpass.

Panipat ADC R S Verma said more than 200 candidates had been issued notices for violations of poll code out of which 34 notices were served today.

Chandigarh, May 29
The state Election Commission has issued safety measures for the protection of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) after polling for the Municipal Corporation elections.

While stating this today, a spokesman for the commission said as per these measures it was mandatory to keep these EVMs in a strongroom equipped with a double lock system. One key of the room would be with the District Deputy Commissioner concerned and other with the returning officer of other MC. Adequate security arrangements should be made at the strongroom by deputing police and security guard. Double police security by the officials of the IRB and the HAP would be deployed around the strongroom.

He said all candidates contesting the elections had been given full facility by the administration to keep an eye on the internal security. In case, the candidates were not able to directly see security of the strongroom, they would be provided with the facility to keep a check through CCTV cameras, he added.

He said adjoining to the strongroom, a control room would be operational for 24 hours. He said nobody would be allowed to enter the internal perimeter without a determined protocol. As per this protoco.

Gurgaon, May 29
As the elections draw closer, political activities are gaining momentum in the state. A new political outfit, the National Janhit Congress (AB), was launched here today.

Party president Ashok Bhardwaj and other office-bearers released the party manifesto for the general elections slated to be held next year. The manifesto promises allowance for unemployed youths and employment for those belonging to the minority communities, apart from clean and transparent governance.— TNS

Chandigarh, May 29
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today directed for the constitution of a committee headed by Vice-Chancellor Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Lt Gen DDS Sandhu (Retd) to bring improvements in the higher education system.

The committee will also explore the possibilities to increase teaching days and streamline the examination system of higher education as per the guidelines of the University Grants Commission. However, the semester system in higher education will continue in the state.

Hooda, who was presiding over a meeting of State Higher Education Council here today, directed the committee to submit its report within a month. The committee would continue to review the entire process even after submitting the report. It would also explore the possibilities of affiliation of technical colleges with technical universities in the state.

It was decided that a Centre of Excellence of Science and Commerce would be set up at Gurgaon. It was also decided that BA with English subject would be compulsory for getting admission into B.Ed courses. Exemption in English would be applicable for those who passed Shastri from Haryana.

The Chief Minister also directed to ensure installation of CCTV cameras in the universities as the state government has accorded highest priority to ensure safety and security of women in the state.

Rohtak, May 29
Pt BD Sharma University of Health Sciences will soon get a special grant from the state government to resume the free medicines scheme for the patients reporting at the PGIMS hospital here.

“The university had started the scheme in 2010 but shortage of funds had forced the authorities to suspend the project several months ago,” claimed sources in the PGIMS.

The sources said the hospital over 6,000 patients visit the OPD daily and the scheme was launched to benefit the patients from lower and middle classes.

University Vice-Chancellor Dr SS Sangwan said the PGIMS would soon provide free medicines to the patients as the government has approved additional funds for the purpose.

He said the work of all the departments was going on smoothly and the PGIMS was able to provide medical treatment facilities to thousands of patients at nominal charges each month. However, sources say due to technical snag in the MRI and CT scan machines, the patients are forced to get their tests done from outside at higher charges.

According to sources, shortage of funds has also delayed the work of air-conditioning of the Ch Ranbir Singh OPD, start of the trauma centre and completion of the mother and child care centre and the auditorium of the PGIMS.

The stiff financial condition has also delayed the transfer of the Administrative Building Complex from the MDU to the health university as the latter has been unable to pay Rs 20 crore. The building complex is proposed to be made the Administrative Block of the university.

Chandigarh, May 29
In order to ensure uninterrupted power supply to consumers during the summer and paddy season during night, Haryana Power Distribution Corporations have decided to set up a control room and depute a subdivisional officer in each operation circle.

He will monitor implementation of power regulatory measures as per schedule and co-ordinate with the staff. Simultaneously, one junior engineer will be deputed with his team in each operation subdivision at night .

Devender Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, UHBVN and DHBVN, said the roaster of night shift duties for SDOs and junior engineers would be publicised through notice boards and media.The discoms had already set up 1,700 electricity complaint centres in the state. —TNS

Chandigarh, May 29
Foreign and domestic jaunts of ministers and senior bureaucrats above the rank of joint secretary cannot be kept secret anymore.The state governments will now have to put this information on the government website under Section 4 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The latest instructions on the implementation of disclosure under the RTI Act, issued by the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, makes it clear that the 'public authorities would proactively disclose the details of foreign and domestic official tours undertaken by ministers and officials of the rank of joint secretary to the Government of India (principal secretary at the state level) and heads of departments' since January 1, 2012. These disclosures are to be made every quarter.

Regarding the information to be uploaded, the instructions said it would contain the nature of official tour, places visited, the period, the number of people included in the official delegation and the total cost of the tour.

These guidelines form a part of the compliance mechanism to make large amount of information in public domainto make functioning of the public authorities more transparent and reduce the need for filing individual RTI applications, an office memorandum sent by Manoj Joshi, joint secretary, to the Haryana Chief Secretary said.

Besides official tours, the information relating to procurement made by the public authorities, including publication of notices, tenders, enquiries, corrigenda and details of bid awards containing names of suppliers of goods and services must be made public.

Besides, the authorities must disclose the discretionary and non-discretionary grants and allocations to state governments, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and other institutions by the central ministries.

Details of public private partnerships, transfer policies and citizens charter must be digitally publicised by the state government, the memorandum added.

Chandigarh, May 29
The Haryana Congress Dalit leaders, Pradesh Congress Committee chief Phool Chand Mullana and Rajya Sabha MP Ishwar Singh, are out to score a point in the name of the community they represent.

Both leaders belonging to "opposite camps" within the Congress and will hold programmes separately in Karnal. While Ishwar Singh has announced a "Jagrukta Sammelan" to highlight the "wrong" against the Dalits on June 7, Mullana and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will address a rally on June 8, being organised by the Haryana Kashyap Mahasabha.

Ishwar Singh's proposed conference is being viewed with a certain degree of skepticism since it intends to deliberate on the atrocities being committed against the Dalits, the spurt in crime against members of the community and the issues being faced by them.

Being essentially seen as a show of strength by the the detractor camp within the Congress by the state's top brass since the MP, a confidant of Union Minister Selja, has invited her as the chief guest while Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh, also a Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda-baiter, has been especially invited to chair the conference.

"I have even written to the PCC president to come and address the members of our community. Unlike Mullana's perception, this is not an "anti-party" programme but our efforts to woo the Dalits under the Congress umbrella. This will further strengthen the party," he said.

Mullana, it is learnt, has not taken the idea very well. Nearly a couple of months back when the MP first announced his intention to organise such a conference, Mullana shot off a letter to the party high command stating that the former was indulging in anti-party activity. The two have since been at loggerheads.

Gurgaon, May 29
In a novel initiative, the Gurgaon police has started roping in panchayat representatives to check criminal activities in villages. Village sarpanches are being called to interact with top police officials and apprise them of the ground situation in their respective areas.

"The underlying idea behind the move was to initiate confidence-building measures by facilitating healthy interaction and take effective crime-control steps based on the information provided by the panchayat representatives," says Gurgaon Police Commissioner Alok Mittal.

Mittal maintains that the initiative was especially aimed at preventing incidents of crime against women and children, many of which usually go unreported. Apart from this, the sarpanches have also come forward to report various criminal and anti-social activities.

Though the move has started showing encouraging results, certain roadblocks (read mindsets) are yet to be cleared. For instance, though the initiative primarily focused on preventing and checking crime against women, the attendance of women sarpanches at the meetings has been negligible.

"Instead of coming to attend the meeting themselves, women sarpanches usually send their husbands or sons or some other male relative," concedes the Police Commissioner.

Chandigarh, May 29
Acting on a petition filed by the Gurgaon-based DLF Park Place Residents Welfare Association, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed the marketing or sale of any property in new group housing project “The Crest.

A Division Bench of Justice S.K. Mittal and Justice Naresh Kumar Sanghi also issued notice of motion for August 27 to the respondents, including DLF Limited and the Director-General, Haryana Town and Country Planning.

In their petition , the petitioners contended that theirs was an association of apartment owners in group housing society "Park Place" developed by DLF Limited and located in DLF Phase V, Gurgaon.

The petitioners asserted that DLF on May 21 launched a group housing project “The Crest" within the floor area ratio of Park Place”.

Claiming that the land rightfully belongs to the petitioner group housing complex, the petitioners added it was a part of the 30 acres earmarked for Park Place in the initial advertisement and brochures of the project.

“Legally the land which forms a part of the area falling within the FAR norms cannot be sold by DLF to any third party or create any further rights thereon without consent of the purchasers of group housing Park Place,” the petitioners asserted.

Despite knowledge of their claim, the Director-General, they added, sanctioned "The Crest" and failed to protect their rights. “DLF has no right whatsoever over this land contiguous to the group housing societies, since it rightfully falls in the share of the apartment owners from the time that they purchased their apartments

Karnal, May 29
The Haryana Police with more than 350 officers of the rank of DSPs and above is facing acute shortage of field staff with over 1,730 posts of Police Inspector (PI), Sub Inspector (SI) and ASI lying vacant.

As per the data procured by an RTI activist advocate Rajesh Sharma, the sanctioned strength of the police in the state was seven DGPs, nine ADGPs, 20 IGs, 14 DIGs, four AIGs, 60 SPs, 21 ASPs and 220 DSPs.

The sanctioned strength of PIs, SIs and ASIs is 800, 2,006 and 4,595, but only 695 PIs, 1,416 SIs and 3,595 ASIs are in position and posts of 105 PI, 590 SI and 1,036 ASI are lying vacant, seriously affecting the efficacy of the police.

The data is a cause of concern as Haryana has population of 2.53 crore as per 2011 census, Sharma said.

Chandigarh, May 29
Haryana Cooperation and Housing Minister Satpal Sangwan said today that the Haryana Dairy Development Cooperative Federation had increased the milk procurement price by Rs 30 per kg of fat for its milk producers.

Due to this increase in the procurement price, the price of all Vita milk brands had been revised by Rs 2 per litre from June 1.

Kaithal, May 29
Wooden furniture and other articles worth Rs 5 lakh were destroyed, when a school furniture shop near Chhotu Ram Chowk here caught fire early this morning.

A short circuit is believed to be the cause of the fire.

Some people of the area noticed smoke coming out of the shop and tried to extinguish the fire but in vain. Later, they called a fire tender which took about half an hour to extinguish the fire. — OC

Faridabad, May 29
Two youths, who had gone along with their friends on a picnic, drowned in a lake in Surajkund today.

The deceased have been identified as Vivek and LM John, students of the Jagannath Institute of Management and Delhi University, respectively.

The deceased along with four others, all residents of Ghaziabad, pitched their camp near the lake this noon. While they were taking a walk around the lake, the two youths lost balance and fell into the lake. Surajkund SHO Hitesh Kumar said two divers had been roped in to recover the bodies.

Hisar, May 29
After the death of four members of his family, Mohan (name changed) who consumed poison with his wife, two sons and a daughter under a suicide pact at Bhairi Akbarpur in Hisar district, has landed in jail for the murder of his family members.

The police took Mohan in custody from the General Hospital, Hisar, where he was getting treatment for the past 20 days and produced him in a local court, where he was remanded to judicial custody.

Mohan’s arrest was carried secretly and no one from the police was available to confirm the arrest or reveal the sections under which he was arrested.

However, sources said the police had booked Mohan for the murder of his family members and also for escaping from the police custody when he was undergoing treatment at the PGIMS, Rohtak.

Mohan, a poor labourer in his early forties, had to take the extreme step after his eldest daughter, who was allegedly raped by a villager, had disappeared some days after the incident and the police was pressurising him to produce the girl so that they could produce her in the court.

While the poor family was already in distress after the rape and subsequent disappearance of Mohan’s eldest daughter, the police, which was under pressure from the court to recover the girl and get her evidence recorded in the rape case, had been allegedly threatening and intimidating Mohan asking him to produce the girl.

Unable to cope with humiliation due to rape and disappearance of his daughter, highhandedness of the police and abject poverty, Mohan decided to end his life and informed his family members about the decision on April 21.

As per the statement, he gave to mediapersons on April 22 in the General Hospital his wife and children also volunteered to end their lives with him. Under a suicide pact, the family consumed Celphos mixed water in the wee hours on April 22.

Mohan’s 13-year-old daughter and wife Sunita (38) had died on the day they consumed poison, while his two sons Rajiv (11) and Amit (9) died in PGIMS, Rohtak.

Mohan, the lone survivor of the family, had escaped from the PGIMS, Rohtak, but the police later arrested him

Bhiwani, May 29
Two young lovers — a 15-year-old schoolgirl and a 20-year-old boy who worked as a helpers on a shop — allegedly ended their lives by consuming poison at Ratera village in Bhiwani last night.

The bodies of the girl Pooja, who hailed from Ratera village and the boy Sonu, who belonged to a dhani near Chang village, were found in the fields today.

Villagers spotted their bodies this morning and the village sarpanch informed the police.

DSP Amit Bhatia visited the scene of crime and called a forensic team to collect evidence from the site.

The police believes that prima facie, it was a case of suicide. The girl’s parents said she was sleeping on her bed till 9 pm on Tuesday night. They found her missing from the bed in the night and launched a hunt in the village.

Later, they found bodies of the two lying in the fields this morning. A bottle of poison and a box of sweets were also found lying near their bodies. Villagers said the two were in love and their families were against their relation.

Fatehabad, May 29
The State Vigilance Bureau (SVB) arrested Vijay Singh, a head constable posted at Hanspur police post in Fatehabad, while receiving a bribe of Rs 10,000 from a villager.

Vijay Singh had allegedly demanded Rs 30,000 from Mangat Ram of Nakta village in a a dispute between two villagers.

The villager approached the SVB, which laid a trap to arrest the head constable red-handed. Mangat Ram negotiated with the head constable, who scaled down the demand to Rs 10,000. — TNS

Sirsa, May 29
The police today booked three youths for gang rape of a minor girl at Hanzira village in Sirsa.

The victim, a Class X student of the village school, has alleged that a youth from Gosainana village of Rajasthan kidnapped her and took her to a secluded place where he and two others raped her.

The incident occurred on the night of May 26, when the victim’s father had gone out for some work. Later, the youths left the girl outside the village next morning.