Ambala, November 18
We hit a traffic snarl on the Ambala-Jagadhri road near Rookree village around 11 am today. Just ahead, on the right side of the road, I saw a crowd, a twisted motorcycle, a disfigured car and another mangled motorcycle.

As I stepped out of my car to go to the spot, a young man writhing in pain lay on the road, holding his handkerchief to his bleeding nose, unable to move but clinging his bag.

On the left side of the road, another concerned group surrounded the other motorcyclist.

A Haryana Police PCR vehicle was parked alongside the young victim, but policemen were nowhere in sight in the first quick glance.

A closer look at the crowd revealed two khaki-clad men trying to regulate traffic flow. They urged the stop-and-stare passersby to move.

The victim was the object of sympathy as the policemen carried on with their duty. It was 15 minutes since I reached the spot, but there was no attempt to rush the victims to hospital.

I enquired if anybody was accompanying the two victims, but drew a nought. I made my way through the traffic and the crowd to the policemen to ask why there was a delay in sending the victims to hospital.

Policeman Ravinder explained, "We have called for the ambulance. It will be here in some time. We are managing the traffic to ensure this accident does not cause a jam."

I asked him to look at the victims and urged him to take them to hospital in the PCR vehicle. A hysterical woman shouted in the background, "They will not remove him without an ambulance. They will wait for him to die."

Good sense prevailed as Ravinder spoke to his colleague Bhag Singh and they decided to move. The boy was placed in the PCR vehicle and the other victim in an autorickshaw and taken to hospital. Curious about the hysterical woman, I asked if she was with one of the victims.

"My brother and his wife were killed in an accident on this road last August before help reached them. I saw this boy trying to cross the road on his motorcycle when a car from the opposite direction hit him. A motorcyclist following the car banged into the car. We came back when I saw the accident to make sure that the victim did not die like my relatives," she said, identifying herself as Rattan Kaur.

Her husband, Inder Pal Singh of Mustafabad village, the first to the reach the spot and inform the police, said, "The police arrived 20 minutes after the call and waited another 20 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. The two were not grievously injured. I am shocked that the police was more bothered about traffic than the victims."

The victims, Satwant of Yamunanagar, an ex-serviceman, and 28-year-old Yashpal of Ambala Cantonment, were recuperating in hospital.

Asked for his comments on the insensitivity of the policemen, Commissioner of Police Rajbir Deswal agreed that moving the victims to hospital should have been the priority.

The two policemen were transferred to the Police Lines while all PCR personnel were directed to give priority to patients over traffic. The Haryana Police motto of 'Sewa, Sehyog, Suraksha' was a casualty at the accident site.

New Delhi, November 18
The Haryana government today rejected the suggestion of a Supreme Court-appointed committee for re-locating outside Mirchpur about 150 families belonging to the Valmiki community that had fled the village in Hisar district following the anti-Dalit violence on April 21, 2010.

“As a matter of principle, we are opposed to re-locating them outside Mirchpur as this would amount to dividing society on caste lines,” senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Haryana, and the state’s Additional-Advocate General Manjit Singh Dalal told a Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and C Nagappan.

Further, the committee had made the suggestion without consulting any senior government official, Singhvi contended.

Also, a judicial commission headed by Justice Iqbal Singh, a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, had suggested rehabilitation of the victims within the village, not outside, the state government pointed out.

At this, the Bench suggested setting up of another panel comprising three senior advocates of the SC to study as to whether the situation in Mirchpur was conducive to the rehabilitation of the victims within the village.

The court wanted to know the state’s view on the proposal even as senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, who appeared for some of the victims, said this would delay the rehabilitation further.

Dalal sought time to consult the authorities upon which the Bench directed the state government to give its view by tomorrow.

According to the state government, the 150 families are now split into about 250, of which about 80 are living near Hisar while the remaining have returned to the village and leading a normal life for three years now.

Tara Chand, a 70-year-old Dalit, and his physically challenged daughter were killed in the April, 2010, violence by a mob that also set ablaze the houses of the Balmiki community.

In October, 2011, a Delhi court convicted 15 persons for attacking the Dalits and sentenced three of them to life term and five persons to imprisonment for varying periods, the maximum being five years. The convicts have challenged the verdict in the Delhi High Court.

Chandigarh,November 18
A BJP delegation led by state unit president Ram Bilas Sharma today submitted a memorandum to Governor Jagannath Pahadia, demanding the dismissal of Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma for his "derogatory" remarks against the party.

Sharma’s remarks against the BJP had denigrated the constitutional office of the Speaker and the Governor should dismiss him, demanded state spokesman Vir Kumar Yadav.

Besides Sharma and Yadav, the delegation comprised Rattan Lal Kataria, Anij Vij, Leader of the BJP Legislative Party, among others.

Ambala, November 18
A sum of Rs 60 crore will be spent under the Rajiv Gandhi Housing Scheme in Ambala for the supply of drinking water, construction of drains, roads and fixing of streetlights.

This was revealed by Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Kumari Selja while addressing public meetings after laying the foundation stone of these schemes, which will provide basic facilities to 26 colonies behind BD Floor Mill in Ambala Cantt.

The minister said the Union Housing Ministry, under community housing and slum development programme, was incurring crores of rupees to provide basic amenities to the poor people living in the colonies. She said there was no shortage of funds with the government for the development activities and in the coming months, Ambala would witness all-round progress and would be free from the menace of unemployment.

Meanwhile, Kumari Selja was given a warm reception on her arrival in the colonies.

Various office-bearers of the Rajat Mahashabha said it was for the first time in the history that a MP was visiting the colonies to know the problems of the residents.

After hearing the grievances of the people, Selja assured them that a government school and a police station would be set up in the colony.

She also announced a sum of Rs 5 lakh for the development of the colony. 

Gurgaon, November 18
More than a year after the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) forged an electoral alliance with the BJP, a large chunk of its workers want the leadership to seek more Lok Sabha seats for the party.

Sources in the HJC say workers from the state are putting pressure on party president Kuldeep Bishnoi to hold talks with the BJP on the seat-sharing arrangement.

Although they are vocal regarding Lok Sabha elections, many are unhappy with the seat-sharing formula for Assembly elections. The workers want two more Lok Sabha seats for the party.

The HJC and the BJP announced their alliance on September 15, 2011. The BJP was allotted eight Lok Sabha seats and two went to the HJC.

Regarding the Assembly elections, 45 seats each was agreed upon. The post of Chief Minister would be rotated, with Bishnoi to assume charge first.

The HJC workers' anxiety was attributed to the encouraging public response to Bishnoi's statewide Vijay Rath Yatra, being held from October 6 to November 30.

Gurgaon HJC president Begraj Yadav said large turnouts along the routes of the yatra was unexpected. He claimed that a large number of people turned up in Gurgaon when the yatra entered the district on Thursday.

Sonepat, November 18
Ten farmers, including women, of Kundal village in Kharkhoda tehsil have sought permission from the President and the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to commit suicide in protest against the acquisition of their land by the state government at low prices.

The permission has been sought by sending an e-mail and a written appeal. The farmers are Sheela, Shakuntala, Om Pati, Samvati, Raj Wanti, Kamlesh, Bansi Lal, Naveen, Surender and Hari Chand. They announced this at a panchayat meeting at Kundal village of representatives of 10 villages where land had been acquired for setting up an IMT.

Their main demand was that all farmers whose land had been acquired should be given compensation as per provisions of the new land acquisition Act of the Centre. They rued that farmers could not buy a plot or fertile land at market prices from the compensation amount.

They said the government was adamant on destroying sown crops in the name of taking possession. The panchayat unanimously resolved that it would not give possession of the land acquired until the demand for compensation as per the new land acquisition Act was not accepted.

Ambala, November 18
Governor Jagannath Pahadia today gave away wheelchairs, tricycles, clippers, hearing aids, elbow and walking sticks, amounting Rs 36 lakh, to 617 differently abled persons at a joint function organised in the War Heroes’ Memorial Stadium, Ambala Cantonment, today.

He also distributed cheques to differently abled persons for self-employment ventures under various schemes of the Social Justice Ministry.

Kumari Selja, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, presided over the function.

Speaking on the occasion, the Governor said relentless efforts were being made for the upliftment of the differently abled persons in society. The development of the society was measured by the welfare work done for the differently abled persons, he added.

Kumari Selja said keeping in view the needs of persons with disabilities, the Union Government had created a separate department for greater focus on the policies and schemes for the empowerment of the persons with disabilities.

She said about 2.5 lakh disabled persons were being benefited under this scheme every year. The minister said Backwad Classes and Economically Weaker Section Kalyan Nigam had released an amount of Rs 39.20 crore for the benefit of 7,511 disabled persons in the state.

Sirsa, November 18
A youth died of dengue in Sirsa town , raising serious concerns on the spread of vector-borne diseases in the district.

The victim, 18-year-old Vipul, was first admitted to General Hospital, Sirsa, with fever and reduced platelets count, a condition peculiar to dengue.

When Vipul’s condition deteriorated, his kin shifted him to a private hospital in the town.

He died at the hospital yesterday and his kin said they were informed that it was a suspected case of dengue.

The youth’s death comes within three days of the death of a 45-year-old woman, who was suffering from malaria, at Budhabhana village of Sirsa.

The blood samples of the victim had confirmed the presence of plasmodium falciparum, a protozoan parasite responsible for the most dangerous form of malaria among humans.

A spokesperson of the health department at Sirsa said Vipul’s death could have been caused by a viral fever or some other reason.

He said as a preventive measure, the department had sent health teams to the Kirti Nagar area, where the victim lived.

As many as 68 positive cases of dengue have been detected in Sirsa this year, out of which 54 cases have come to the fore in November.

Reports of nearly 70 samples sent to Agroha for testing of dengue are still awaited.

Besides, over 1,580 cases of malaria have also been detected in Sirsa this year.

During a survey conducted in the end of October, the health authorities had found larvae for aedes mosquito, which is responsible for the spread of dengue, at 131 places in the old Sirsa town.

Rohtak, November 18
A sizeable number of suspected dengue cases are still being reported in Rohtak and nearby areas despite the onset of winter season in the region. Suspected dengue patients are thronging medical as well as diagnostic centres.

However, the district health authorities do not seem to be even aware of the large-scale prevalence of the disease, let alone the question of taking effective measures to tackle and contain it. The slack attitude of the district health authorities leaves much to be desired.

Local medical practitioners maintain that the number of suspected cases of dengue this year is much larger than that witnessed during the recent years, but the dengue virus being less virulent this time has proved to be the saving grace.

“Dengue infection is broadly categorised into four types, but not all of these are dangerous. Though more cases of suspected dengue infection have been reported during the current season, fewer deaths have been caused due to the increased awareness, early detection and control and less virulent virus,” maintains Dr Ravi Mohan, a leading medical practitioner of Rohtak and secretary of the local chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

According to rough estimates, the number of dengue cases has crossed 2,000 in Rohtak alone, and the number includes a considerable number of children.

Informed sources, however, point out that the exact number of persons suffering from dengue in the district cannot be ascertained as most of the medical practitioners base their diagnosis on the result of the NS1 antigen test (commonly known as the card test) and do not go in for the confirmatory tests due to the high costs involved.

Faridabad, November 18
With more cases of malaria and dengue surfacing in the city, the threat of these diseases has failed to subside even as the temperature has scaled down drastically. The onset of the winter season is seen as a negative factor for the germination of the mosquito larvae. The dengue cases have crossed 350 in the district this season.

Around 25 to 30 cases of suspected dengue have been reported from the local government civil hospital in the past two days. The number of such cases could be higher, as the patients reporting at private hospitals and clinics was still to be revealed, said health department sources.

“We have sent the suspected cases for tests and the report is expected in a couple of days,” said a health department official. The total number of dengue cases in the district has crossed 350, though the suspected cases registered this season have been a little over 1,600.

Claiming that the threat of both malaria and dengue had subsided considerably due to the change in climate, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Ramindra Kumar said even though the number of suspected cases had thinned down, the cases of viral fever could not be ruled out. Sources in the department said the threat of malaria was still lurking due to lack of cleanliness and unhealthy living conditions in residential colonies in the city. “Fogging has not been done in our locality in the past few weeks,” said a resident of Sanjay Nagar locality, while adding that dumping of garbage in the open was a major problem. Tushar Kumar, a resident of Sector-10, said there were several spots in the locality where water had stagnated, making it a perfect breeding ground for germs and pests.

Hisar, November 18
Hundreds of villagers, under the banner of Haryana Kisan Manch, demonstrated in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here today in protest against the ‘pillar box system’ being installed in the villages by the power utilities department.

The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has been installing the pillar boxes in the villages by replacing the existing meters to streamline supply and to put a check on power thefts.

The scheme, however, evoked protest from several villages in the district.

The farmers’ body said several villages, including Shiswala, Bhiwani Roila, Bhachra, Ralwas Khurd, Hiranwas, Kirtan, Sarsana etc, were opposed to the installation of the pillar boxes.

Manch secretary Anil Bishnoi alleged that the villagers were getting much higher electricity bills after the replacement of meters with the pillar boxes.

They also raised the issues of shortage of canal water supply and demanded 100 per cent subsidy on tubewell connections to farmers, besides fixing wheat MSP at Rs 1,000 per quintal. — TNS

Rewari, November 17
Six meritorious teachers, Anil Rapadia, director of DM Haryana Senior Secondary School , Barwala (Hisar), Satyavan Nain, mathematics teacher of Saraswati Senior Secondary School, Danoda (Jind), Ajay Lohan, Government Senior Secondary School, Narnaund (Hisar), Anand Sharma, director of Asha Senior Secondary School, Panihar (Hisar), Narender Sethi, headmaster of Genius High School, Khedi Varki (Hisar) and Naresh Bhiyan, Ridvanath Senior Secondary School, Balak (Hisar), have been selected for the Haryana Gaurav Award for their notable performance in the domain of school education.

Besides, 23 students of various higher secondary and senior secondary schools of the state have been declared winners of cash awards of a state-level talent search 
contest held recently under the auspices of the Raah Group (RG), a non-governmental educational organisation.

Furnishing detailed information in this regard, Naresh Selpar, managing director and Sudesh Sangwan, Event Coordinator of RG, said the list of the 23 state-level prize winners comprised 13 awardees of the sub-junior group and five each of the junior and senior categories. The winners would be given cash prizes at a state-level prize distribution function to be held in Hisar in the last week of January 2014.

Besides the six selected teachers would be awarded cash prize of Rs 1,100, a citation and a shawl each, he added. 

Rohtak, November 18
Thousands of teachers serving at MDU, Kurukshetra University,and the 200-odd state-run as well as government-aided colleges across Haryana will stage demonstrationsin support of their longstanding demands in their respective campuses tomorrow.

The unit-level symbolic dharnas will be held after the classes between 12 noon and 2 pm across the state. After that, local units of the university and college teachers’ associations will forward their 10-point common charter of demands to the state authorities concerned.

The Haryana Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (HFUCTO), the umbrella body of the teachers’ unions, has maintained that if the state leadership still does not initiate concrete steps to address their concerns, a state-level demonstration would be held in Panchkula on November 26.

HFUCTO president Raj Kumar said the main demandsincluded parity in the age of superannuation among teachers of universities and government as well as aided colleges, posts of professor for college teachers to remove stagnation , workload and grant of advance/additional increments as per UGC recommendations and effective implementation of UGC norms in recruitment of teaching staff.— TNS

Ambala, November 18
Shobit, an engineering student of Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, has made it big by bagging a Rs 18 lakh job with the Microsoft Corporation.

Microsoft picked Shobit, a final-year student of he department of electronics and communication who was trained by the training and placement department of the university, after he competed on an all-India basis.

Hailing from a rural background, Shobit was placed second among the top three candidates who were selected for the assignment.

MS Laddher, head of the training and placement department of the university, said efforts of the students, supported by the institution, helped him bag the job.

Bhiwani, November 18
The authorities at the Choudhary Surender Singh Memorial Zoo here are struggling hard to keep the only baby gharial survive as three others had died in the past two months reportedly due to climatic conditions.

A zoo official said they had spotted four eggs about five months ago in the gharial enclosure. But after sometime, three baby gharials died, he added.

Divisional Wildlife Officer Shakti Singh said, “We are trying our best for the survival of the baby even though this region is not a natural habitation for this engendered reptile species.”

“We got one of our employees specially trained from Lucknow to take care of the babies and keep them under observation. But it seems the sudden fluctuation in the temperature has resulted in the death of the three babies. The gharials have better survival chances in the free flowing waters,” he said.

The officer said they had also set up a special enclosure and trying to give them normal temperature and fish feed. 

Chandigarh, November 18
Haryana is set to have a university of sports sciences at Rai in Sonepat district bordering New Delhi in the NCR.

The first sports university in the state will have state-of-the-art facilities. Besides, it would provide scientific support to players to excel in their chosen areas of specialisation, sources told The Tribune.

Sudhir Rajpal, Director-General, Sports and Youth Affairs Department, said a consultant had already been appointed to chalk out the modalities for setting up the university.

Sources said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a keen sports enthusiast, was eager to set up a university to give exposure to budding sportspersons.

Gurgaon, November 18
The controversy surrounding the death of an accused in police custody in Sohna here yesterday has deepened in the wake of a revelation that he and his relatives were detained and beaten up by a former sarpanch of his village in Palwal district, prior to his arrest.

Sukhvir, the deceased, and his cousin Rajesh, who hail from Likhi village in Palwal district, were allegedly arrested by the CIA, Sohna, last Saturday. An FIR had been registered against them in Sohna police station in a robbery case.

The police claimed that when Sukhvir complained of dizziness, he was rushed to the hospital.

Bhola, the brother of the deceased, in his complaint to the police, has said Sukhvir was detained, along with other family members, on the outskirts of Likhi by former sarpanch of the village M Lal. He added that the detainees were beaten up by Lal and his associates. Later, all except Sukhvir and Rajesh were let off. And yesterday the family was informed of Sukhvir’s death by the police, he said.

Although the police has registered a murder case against Lal and five others on the version on Bhola’s complaint, there are a number of unanswered questions which also put a question mark on the role of the police.

Legal experts feel that if Bhola’s version is to be believed, then what explains the presence of Sukhvir and Rajesh in police custody.

Many feel that it could also be possible that CIA staff had laid a trap to nab the deceased with the help of the former sarpanch.

Although the custodial death is under judicial probe, the complaint of the deceased’s brother has, as of now, shifted the blame for the death on the former sarpanch, taking the police out of the dock in the case.

The police is tight-lipped on the issue on the pretext that the matter is under judicial probe.

According to Sohna SHO Anil Sharma, the post-mortem had confirmed that Sukhvir had died before reaching the hospital. The cause of the death will be established only after the viscera report, he added.

Meanwhile, the body was handed over to the deceased’s family late last evening.