Chandigarh, December 4
Against the backdrop of the ongoing recession in the real estate sector, the “builder-friendly” Hooda Government has given another incentive to the builders by increasing the licence validity period from four to five years.

The decision, which would go a long way in helping the builders to complete the ongoing projects and start the new projects within the new stipulated period of five years, was taken at a high-level meeting presided by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to discuss the issues concerning the real estate sector.

However, the increase of one year in the licence period would come at a price with the state government officials arguing that the builders would pay "at least proportionate increase" in licence fees. A detailed policy would be worked in due course, the sources said.

Batting for increase in the licence validity period at the meeting, several colonisers had argued that since hardly any colonies were completed in four years’ time, there was a need to extend the time limit.

However, the officials opposed the move claiming that the licence validity period had been extended from two to four years in 2010. Besides, the renewal period had been extended from one year to two year.

A consensus emerged for the extension of validity period to five years. However, regarding the extension for the renewal of licence, the department concerned was asked to examine the matter.

Observers felt that with this decision, scores of colonisers, especially in the National Capital Region(NCR), would benefit as they would get extended time to finish their residential and commercial projects. Recession in the realty sector, coupled with default in payment by certain allottees, were the reasons for delayed completion of the projects in the state.

Now with five years to complete the projects, the builders may even stagger the payment schedule of the allottees with the result that the latter would get more time to deposit the cost of construction resulting in lesser number of defaulters.

Chandigarh,December 4
Haryana Health Department continues to reel under staff shortage hitting the healthcare services, especially in the rural areas, badly.

Despite claims of the Hooda Government about improved health services, the Health Department faces a shortage of nearly 500 doctors.

According to information, the shortage at the medical officers (MOs) level is pegged at 407 with only 2,149 doctors working in the government hospital as against the sanctioned strength of 2556.

As far as senior medical officers (SMOs) are concerned, the shortage is 83 with 359 doctors working against a sanctioned strength of 442.

There is a vacancy of one civil surgeon as 39 doctors are working on this post, sources told The Tribune here today.

In fact, acute shortage of doctors and paramedical staff at the grassroots level in the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Community Health Centres (CHCs) is taking its toll on the healthcare in the state.

"As a majority of doctors wanted to serve in the urban and semi-urban areas, the government health institutions in the rural area are left to fend for themselves," a senior official asserted.

Retaining the doctors in the government sector also poses its own set of problems as they are "lured" by the private sector through better pay and perks. This is despite the fact that hundreds of doctors have been recruited by the Health Department through walk-in interviews over the past few years.

However, the full strength of the working doctors hardly there at a given point of time as doctors are on leave, pursuing postgraduate degrees and are on deputation to the other states.

This is perhaps the reason that the doctors' shortage makes the government hospitals the least preferred choice by the common man as the specialists and other paramedical staff are also woefully insufficient.

Those, who can afford, go to private hospitals for treatment with the government hospitals being reduced to the favourite haunts of the poor people, the official added.

Rohtak, December 4
Resentment prevails among the HCMS doctors across Haryana due to the alleged indifferent attitude of the state authorities in addressing their concerns.

At a recent meeting of the HCMS Association’s state executive organised here, the representative of all district bodies expressed their agitation over the non-fulfilment of their longstanding demands.

The association has given a one-month ultimatum to the Haryana government to fulfill their demands, failing which the doctors would launch a statewide stir.

"It seems that the Haryana government is not serious about improving health services in the state. More than 30 per cent posts of medical officers are lying vacant across the state as the Health Department is not serious in filling the vacant posts,” said Dr Kuldeep Singh, president of the HCMS Association.

He pointed out that the doctors were over-burdened due to the acute shortage of medical officers.

“The government is not even filling the vacant posts of senior medical officers by promotion, which does not entail any financial liability,” he added.

Dr Kuldeep Singh lamented that the doctors had been kept in the same pay band-II as the staff nurses in the Health Department.

“The government is insensitive towards improving the health services, as a result of which doctors prefer private sector to the HCMS cadre,” he maintained.

Fatehabad, December 4
The authorities will take forcible possession of 28-acres of land acquired for the upcoming nuclear power project at Gorakhpur tomorrow as the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) was facing resistance from the farmers.

Fatehabad Deputy Commissioner Saket Kumar today deployed SDM Baljit Singh and a duty magistrate, who along with police force will help the NPCIL official take possession of the land, whose owners have refused to accept the award.

The Haryana government had acquired over 1,503 acres of land for the upcoming Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojna, a nuclear power project with four units of 700 MW each, at Gorakhpur, Kajal Heri and Badopal villages of Fatehabad for the project.

The authorities had issued a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act on July 29, 2010 and announced award for the land on July 18, 2012.

While a large majority of farmers took their award money, owners of 28 acres of land had refused to accept money and were not allowing the NPCIL official to enter their fields for survey related activities.

The NPCIL Project Director TR Arora today met the DC and sought police help to take possession of the land.

Urging farmers to hand over possession of the land to the NPCIL peacefully, Saket Kumar said that the nuclear project would bring newer job opportunities for their children. 

Yamunanagar, December 4
Rajbir Singh of Khadri village never thought that the pesticide got free from the Agriculture Department would not work to save his rice crop from weeds and he would have to plant the crop again.

For crop failure, he had to face not only disappointment, but also spend thousands extra to plant the crop again on his four acres.

Rajbir Singh was not alone to sow the rice through the direct seed method (DSM) in the 2012 kharif season and suffer a huge loss in the form of low yield after using the pesticide given by the department. The rice crop was sown through the DSM on 1,600 hectares in Yamunanagar district and the pesticide was distributed free among the farmers.

“I always planted rice in the traditional way, but last year, for the first time, I sowed the crop on the advice of the Agriculture Department through the DSM. I was given pesticide free, but it did not work. I had to uproot the crop due to heavy infestation of weeds,” said Rajbir.

Sources said agriculture officials purchased in June last year 8,065 units of 22.5-gram packets of the pesticide oxadiargyl (brand name Topstar) of batch numbers TOPSA 20034 and TOPSA 20042 from a distributor.

The pesticide was distributed free to motivate farmers to plant rice through the DSM. The DSM for rice was economical, water-conserving and labour-saving, but weed-prone as well.

Before buying the pesticide for 1,600 hectares, insecticide inspectors with the Agriculture Department drew samples on June 5 during routine checking, after which the dealer supplied 8,065 units of the pesticide.

The samples were sent to the Central Laboratory in Karnal and its report stated that the samples were misbranded (label containing false or misleading statement, design or graphic representation or package deceptive about contents).

M/S Saraswati Agro Chemicals (India) Private Limited (manufacturer) and Bayer Crop Science Limited (marketing company), requested the Deputy Director for Agriculture at Yamunanagar to send the referee sample (which remains with department) to the Central Insecticide Laboratory at Faridabad.

The sample was sent to the Director of the Faridabad laboratory on September 3 last year. It was reanalysed and its report stated that the referee sample was misbranded.

“The sample does not conform to relevant specification in the active ingredient content test requirement and hence, is misbranded,” said the report, signed by RK Sharma, Deputy Director (Chem) and verified by Aradhana Bhargav, Insecticide Analyst. After receiving the report, agriculture officials issued notices to the manufacturer, the marketing company and Krishan Chand and Sons, the distributor.

“We are shocked and surprised to receive the report. We tested the control sample at our laboratory. The report says it complies with required specifications,” said the manufacturer.

“The manufacturer informed us that it tested the control sample of the batch and it complied with required specifications,” said the marketing company.

The department moved an application in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate on March 26 this year against the manufacturer and the distributor. The department made a payment of Rs 8,51,000 for the pesticide three days after filing the case in court.

“We supplied the product to the department without tampering with it. We are not guilty of supplying the misbranded pesticide,” said Satish Goyal, proprietor-cum-distributor.

“We have told the Deputy Director for Agriculture at Yamunanagar to supply documents related to the case. We will examine those and take appropriate action,” said Jagdish Barar, Joint Director for Agriculture at Panchkula.

Faridabad, December 4
The indefinite strike by the Contractors Welfare Association of Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF) in protest against the failure of the civic body to clear the outstanding payments since March entered 14th day today. This has resulted in a complete stoppage of the ongoing works to the tune of over Rs 200 crore. It is likely to result in unusual delay in the completion of the projects worth several crores of rupees.

The MCF authorities have, however, described the strike as illegal and have warned that the contractors would be blacklisted in case the development works get stalled.

"The authorities concerned have failed to clear our outstanding payments to the tune of over Rs 60 crore. This has forced us to stop the work as it was not possible for us to continue work when the authorities concerned were not ready to listen to our problems and redress the grievances’’, said Giri Raj Singh, president of the association.

He claimed that while the active members of the association had met the senior officials and submitted reminders regarding the unusual delay in the payments, the authorities had given no time frame to clear these.

He said the association had submitted a letter to the Executive Engineer and when the official concerned failed to provide an assurance, the association resolved to strike work.

He said no one from the authorities had contacted them for any dialogue.

Total value of the ongoing projects of the MCF is reported to be around Rs 250 crore.

Commissioner, MCF, Suprabha Dahiya, claimed that she had no formal information or notice regarding the strike by the contractors' association. Nobody from the association had taken up the issue with her office so far. Describing the strike as illegal, she said the office would take all measures, including blacklisting of those who fail to complete the work on time.

The MCF has around 100 active contractors on its panel. The civic body, which has been faced with criticism and the allegations of poor work in the matter of repairing of roads and maintenance of the civic amenities in city, had received a grant of Rs 50 crore for the development works.

Several of the main and internal roads in the city are in urgent need of repairs, claimed Kailash, a resident of Sector 10 here.

Ambala, December 4
The Municipal Corporation will install Close Circut TV cameras at all major roundabouts, markets and sensitive places for keeping a close watch on the movement of traffic in the city. The nuisance of unsocial elements and eve teasers could also be checked by this. It would also put a check on theft and chain snatching incidents.

A control room for monitoring the traffic activities would be set up in the office of the corpo-ration, which would remain in touch with the police. In case of any traffic jam or other incident the information would be passed on to the police control room immediately.

MK Pandurang, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, who is also holding the post of Deputy Commissioner had briefed about the project in the meeting of municipal councillors, held at Panchayat Bhawan on Monday.

According to information the corporation had invited tenders for the project. Around 24 Close Circut TV camera manufacturing companies have sent their tenders.

The corporation would finalise the tender by the end of this month.

In the first phase, the Close Circut TV cameras would be installed in sectors of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). Later this facility would be made available in other parts of the city. The city would be the first in the district to have CCTVs.

Karnal, December 4
Sensitising the masses on traffic rules, regulations and laws, a quiz competition was organised by the police in which about 3.25 lakh school students of Karnal, Kaithal, Kurukshetra and Yamuna Nagar districts participated.

The question papers were distributed in schools where the quiz competition was to be conducted by respective district police. The competition was in three categories including I to V standard, VI to IX and X to XII.

Karnal Shashank Anand, SP, said the motive of the competition was to aware the general public and inspire the kids to follow traffic rules and regulations.

Near about ten thousand accidents occur every year in the state claiming 4,500 lives, while around 8,000 persons are injured. Youth are not aware about the traffic rules and in majority of cases it has been found that they do not abide by the traffic laws. Driving without helmets and seat belts, rash and negligent driving is the most common among them.

Hisar, December 4
For those cursing 'fast-running' meters or meter-readers and sometimes putting the blame on their families for excessive use of electrical gadgets, here is the reason.

The new system of power tariff and hurry in recovery of fuel surcharge arrears by the two power corporations has inflated power bills by almost 36%, which is around five times the general inflation rate of 7 to 8% a year.

The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam abolished the telescopic slab system of power tariff in June, which is mainly responsible for the steep rise in bills.

A number of domestic consumers have approached the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) against the 'steep and unjustified' tariff hike.

They have demanded that the telescopic slab system should be reintroduced and the recovery of fuel surcharge arrears (FRA) should be staggered over 36 months.

The abrupt rise in power bills has evoked a sharp reaction as many villages have stopped paying bills while residents of Bhiwani have launched an agitation on the issue.

The petitioners argue that the power utilities should try to bring down distribution losses, around 31% for the last many years, to the benchmark of 20%, which can yield about Rs 2,200 crore as revenue.

Gaurav Singh (Hisar), Ram Niwas (Yamunanagar), Sudesh Jain (Ambala), Arvind Singh (Karnal), Rajender Bansal (Fatehabad), Raghunandan Varma (Palwal), Naveen Chaudhary (Faridabad) and Sanjay Bothra (Panchkula) filed the review petition in the HERC on November 11 against the revised tariff system.

They petitions said the new tariff system had imposed an enormous burden and there was a quantum jump in tariff on domestic consumers.

"If a consumer consumed 101 units a month under the old dispensation, his power bills went up by 36% as per the new tariff rate, which took electricity beyond the paying capacity of consumers," the petitions stated, adding that FSA charges were exorbitant and should be staggered over 36 months.

HERC Director (Tariff) Sanjay Varma said some consumers had demanded the reintroduction of the old running slab system, but had delayed the filing of the review petition. "The commission will consider their plea to condone the delay in the filing of the review petition and would then take further action," he added.

Faridabad, December 4
The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has been able to recover around Rs 9.5 crore as penalty from about 885 cases of theft detected by the department in the first 10 months of this year. The department, faced with a lineloss of over 25 per cent at present, has been carrying on with a drive to recover the pending amount and check the pilferage of power at various points, including at the end user level.

As per the reports, the department was carrying out several raids and checks to detect power theft in both domestic and commercial sectors and as part of the drive, thefts and pilferage to the tune of several lakh units per day had been detected in the period between January and October this year. Though the average number of raids had been around 250 per month in the circle having over 5.65 lakh connections at present, about one fourth of the connections were found to be having involved in some kind of theft or pilferage, revealed the sources in the department.

The authorities which carried out as many as 258 cases of checking, was able to detect thefts in 78 cases from where it recovered a penalty of around Rs 63,04,640 in the month of January this year. While the amount of recovery and the number of cases of thefts constantly on the rise, the department imposed and recovered an amount of around Rs 1,02,56,839 as penalty from 114 cases of theft detected in October last year.

The highest recovery was made during the month of August, when a penalty of Rs 2.22 crore was imposed on the offenders. The accused also included some restaurants, workshops and RO water plants.

It was alleged and suspected that power theft at a bigger scale could have been going on the behest of the insiders of the department, though the authorities were still to come out with any revelation in this regard. The circle had around 4.47 lakh domestic and 22,170 Bulk and Heavy (LT) connections on July 31 last. The number of non- domestic connections here were around 52,000. The authorities concerned, however, claimed that the lineloss had come down over the past few years and the department was working on several projects, including installation of pillar box system, besides the continuous drive to check thefts and pilferage at present. The department was still to recover over Rs 400 crore from various defaulters in the circle.

Kurukshetra, December 4
Haryana Bureau of Public Enterprises chairman and Shahabad MLA (M) Anil Dhantori inaugurated the 30th crushing season of Shahabad Cooperative Sugar Mills Limited (SCSML), here yesterday.

Dhantori said SCSML had set the target of crushing 70 lakh quintal of sugarcane during the season. It would likely to produce approximately 7.21 lakh quintal of sugar as against 5.98 lakh quintal sugar produced during the last crushing season.

As per the government policy, farmers would be paid Rs 301 per quintal for the early cane variety, Rs 295 per quintal for the mid cane variety and Rs 290 per quintal for the late cane variety, he said.

The mill has prepared a cane development plan of Rs 11.62 crore for the 2014-15 crushing season. Farmers will be provided interest-free cane seed loans and other incentives, he said.

The first three farmers who brought sugarcane to the mills were given prizes by Dhantori and DC Gajraaj.

DC Gajraaj said SCSML had achieved first prize in technical efficiency at the national level for 2012-13. Management and workers of the mill were putting their best efforts to achieve this year’s award. 

Sirsa, December 4
Suman (14) and Manju (16), two siblings from Madhosinghana village in Ellenabad block of Sirsa, were saved from getting married in June last year.

Rani (16) and Rajjo (15) from Kussar village were saved due to the resistance put in by their widowed mother, who sounded the authorities after their maternal uncle finalised their wedding to two real brothers of Dhottar village. The uncle was desperate to marry the girls because in return the bridegrooms’ family was to give brides to his sons.

At Kumharia village in Sirsa, the entire panchayat took a decision to ostracise the family of a person, who they suspected had tipped off the authorities regarding marriage of four minor siblings of the village in March last year.

The panchayat members, who thought it was an individual’s right to decide on the marriageable age of his children, had gone to the extent of disconnecting power and water supply to the house of the informer.

In this year alone, the authorities have so far saved 47 minor girls from wedlock by timely intervention.

Similarly, as many as 25 child marriages were stopped by the authorities in the year 2011.

But, many others were not lucky enough as their parents succeeded in marrying them off without anyone complaining against the illegal act.

A paradoxical situation exists in Sirsa villages, particularly those neighbouring Rajasthan, where on one hand people have to bring procured brides from other states due to a skewed sex ratio while on the other hand, there is no decline in the number of girls being married at a tender age.

Going by the demand and supply principle, parents of the girls should be dictating the terms and could wait for the best match for them, but in most of the cases, parents have been found marrying their girls at the first possible opportunity.

As per a survey by the Women and Child Development Department in Sirsa, out of 6,354 marriages held in 2010 in rural areas of the district, brides came from out of Haryana in 3,036 cases.

“Many child marriages in our area are directly linked to the problem of skewed sex ratio which is making it difficult for people to find brides for their children. If we approach a girl’s family with matrimonial proposal for our son, more often than not, the girl’s family demands a suitable bride from our immediate or extended family for an unmarried boy in their family,” said Om Prakash, a resident of Jamal village of Sirsa.

This way, in the barter system of marriages that has emerged out of this situation, the childhood of a minor girl is sacrificed for the sake of her brothers.

“Safety and security of girls is another concern on the minds of parents when they decide to marry their daughter at a tender age,” said Sadhna Mittal, Prohibition Officer under the Child Marriage Prohibition Act in Sirsa.

Sirsa, December 4
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’a announcement of sops for government employees during his Shakti Rally in Gohana last month seems to have opened a Pandora's box as employees' associations, who have been left out, have started airing their discontent one after the other.

After roadways workers, school lecturers and ASHA workers, the latest to join the chorus is the Haryana Federation of Engineers.

The federation has alleged that their members were being “maltreated” by the government in the matter of pay scales.

A meeting of the Haryana Federation of Engineers was held under its president RK Sharma, an Executive Engineer, to discuss their demands and the state government’s response.

“While granting us pay scales in accordance with the recommendation of the 6th pay commission, the government kept our members one step down. Later, while rectifying the anomaly on our demand, the government gave us revised scales with effect from 2009 while it should have been from January 1, 2006,” RK Sharma said after the meeting.

“Sub Divisional Engineers (SDEs) in Haryana have been given scales equivalent to Class III employees. The status of SDEs in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh is of Class I officers. Other officers equivalent to SDEs in Haryana, like the HCS, the HCMS (government doctors), the ATPs and Senior Account Officer have been given grade pay 3,” he said.

He said that the federation had demanded pay scales for Junior Engineers, Sub Divisional Engineers, Executive Engineers and Superintending Engineers on par with those of their counterparts in Punjab so that its members could work honestly.

Chandigarh, December 4
Whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka has demanded an independent inquiry into the alleged collusion between the Haryana Seeds Development Corporation (HSDC) and the ICICI Bank for round-tripping of priority sector bank credit, resulting in hurting farmers’ interests.

In a letter to Finance Minister P Chidambaram, RBI Governor Raghuraman Rajan and Chief Secretary PK Chaudhery, Khemka demanded that the authorities needed to “find out all such round-trip transactions done by banks to circumvent government policy regarding priority sector lending”.

The letter said, “The ICICI Bank made a 90-day advance of Rs 20 crore at 10% annual rate of interest to the HSDC, classifying it as priority sector agriculture credit, on March 23, 2012, which was invested as 90-day fixed deposit at 11% annual rate of interest with the Union Bank of India (UBI) the same day. The deposit account with the UBI matured on June 21, 2012. The loan (with interest) of the ICICI Bank was repaid using maturity proceeds from the UBI the same day.”

The letter said, “The HSDC obliged the ICICI Bank by issuing a false end-use certificate that the advance was utilised for agricultural purposes. Round-tripping helped the ICICI Bank achieve its target for priority sector credit and earned the HSDC interest arbitrage of Rs 4.93 lakh.” The ICICI Bank reportedly refuted Khemka’s allegations.

Round-tripping happens when money loaned by a bank for a priority sector like agriculture does not find its way to the beneficiary (farmers) and is returned to the bank by the government agency (borrower) while showing on paper that the loan was disbursed.

Chandigarh, December 4
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to provide complete details of plots allocated under the “discretionary quota” of the state government.

Justice Daya Chaudhary passed the orders during the resumed hearing of a petition on irregularities in allocation of plots. Terming the allotment of more than one plot to applicants as a multi-crore scam, the High Court on the previous date of hearing had directed HUDA to file a status report. It was asked to specify how many plots, under which category, had been allotted by it.

Justice Chaudhary asserted: “The act of HUDA is no less than that of a property dealer, which has a collusion of lower to higher-level officers”.

Addressing HUDA chief administrator AK Singh, Justice Chaudhary had also questioned: “How did you fail to verify false affidavits submitted by persons along with their applications. You verify many things when it comes to purchase of even a single shirt. Then how could such a mistake happen? You are representing HUDA and this is the matter of plots worth crores of rupees”.

Justice Chaudhary added: “Take action against all illegal allottees, whether they are defence officers, other reserved categories, press people, judges or advocates”.

The chief administrator, on the other hand, told the court that they have initiated the process of taking legal action against the defaulters. “We have registered 325 FIRs against the 379 complaints. There are as many as 188 defence persons out of 379 who have been issued more than one plot”, he said.

Haryana Advocate-General Hawa Singh Hooda suggested to the court that the committee set up by HUDA should be authorised to investigate the matter. “If anyone is found guilty, the committee will take the final decision against the person concern”, he suggested.

Kaithal, December 4
Criminals looted Rs 44 lakh cash of State Bank of Patiala (SBoP), ADB branch, from a vehicle in which it was being taken to another branch here today. The miscreants reportedly also snatched the gun of the security guard.

The police nakas all over the district have been alerted and a massive manhunt has been launched to catch the criminals. SP Kuldeep Singh Yadav and DSPs Ravinder Tomar and Surinder Bhoria examined the crime spot. They inquired about the incident from the bank officials. A team of forensic experts collected vital clues.

According to the information, Shilpa Thukral, cashier, accompanied by another employee Sudha and an armed security guard, was bringing Rs 44 lakh from SBoP, Mini Secretariat ADB branch, to the main branch of the bank in the new grain market in a car. As their car reached the outskirts of mandi at about 4 pm and was about 300 yards away from its destination, another car overtook their vehicle and stopped in front of it. Three men, one of them reported to be masked, got down from the car and threw chilly powder in the eyes of the driver through the open window and hit him with a brick.

While one of them grappled with the security guard and snatched his gun, the others forcibly took out the cash box containing Rs 44 lakh, put it in their car and fled from the spot, along with the snatched gun.

An eye witness, Hukam Chand Jindal, said he heard a gun shot and saw some men grappling with the bank staff.

He immediately understood that it was a looting. He rang up the police and told them about the incident, he claimed. Two cops on motorcycles reached the spot after about 20 minutes and soon other officials arrived on the spot, he added. 

Naraingarh, December 4
The district police today recovered the body of an unidentified person from a truck parked outside a dhaba on the Ambala-Shahabad road at Nagla village in Saha segment of the district in wee hours.

The man was identified as Shivam, driver of the truck and a resident of Chamba in Himachal Pradesh. The police has traced the owner of the truck who was identified as Lakwinder of Baddi.

The police said that Lakwinder revealed that Shivam had gone to Lucknow on November 24 to drop some goods. He was returning after collecting payments.

The body was first discovered by the owners of the dhaba, who went to wake up the drivers of the trucks parked outside his dhaba around 5 am. As he got no response from the driver of the said truck, he opened the side door and found a body lying in a pool of blood behind the driver's seat.

He immediately reported the matter to police. A team of Saha police, which reached the spot to take stock of the situation, said the truck had been taken into custody and the body of the deceased had been sent for post-mortem examination.

The police said that from the preliminary investigation carried out it appeared that the Shivam had been murdered inside the truck by some unidentified persons, who then drove the truck to the dhaba and left it there, the previous night. 

Yamunanagar, December 4
The police have booked three youths under various sections of the IPC and the SC and ST Act for molesting a minor and making casteist remarks on her.

The minor’s father, a resident of Maheswari village, in his complaint to the police, said his 14-year-old daughter had gone for a domestic work on November 28.

Rahul, a resident of Habatpur village, dragged her in a house and molested her. At the time of the incident, two of his friends were also there. They were identified as Vishal alias Gullu and Nanu of Maheswari village, he alleged.

He said her daughter raised an alarm and managed to escape. She narrated her ordeal to her mother after reaching home.

He alleged that he went to the Thana Chhapar police but they did not lodge his complaint. Later, he approached Jagadhri DSP Rajesh Kumar. On his directions, the Thana Chhapar police booked the three boys.

DSP Kumar said a case had been registered against the youths for molesting and making casteist remarks on the minor. They were also booked under the PACSO-2012 Act.

Jhajjar, December 4
The Badli police have recovered the semi-clad body of a middle-aged woman from the NCR canal passing through Badli village in Bahadurgarh subdivision yesterday.

The body was spotted floating in the canal by some passerby, who informed the police. They rushed to the spot and took the body out.

The body was sent to the Civil Hospital at Bahadurgarh for post-mortem examination. Photographs of the body were sent to police stations and police posts nearby for identification, the police said.—OC

Kaithal, December 4
A teacher, who had allegedly paid her parmour Rs 26,000 to purchase a pistol and kill her husband, has been arrested by the police. The accused was produced in a local court which sent her in judicial custody till December 17.

Police sources said the teacher, residing in Pundri, was working at Government Girls School, Habri. Her husband, Ramesh, was also a teacher at Government Middle School in Habri village.

Ramesh had lodged a complaint with the police in December 2012 that Mohan Lal, a resident of Bhana village, who used to supply school uniforms, had kidnapped his wife. But his wife could not be traced. The aggrieved teacher then approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, following which a raid was conducted and she was recovered after two months.

The accused, who was brewing a grudge against Ramesh, attacked him with the help of his armed accomplices on April 5, 2013. However, Ramesh had a miraculous escape as he fell off his cycle. On the basis of his statement, a case was registered.

After investigations, the police arrested Mohan Lal and Balinder of Bhana, Ranbir and Balwan of Kaul and Jasbir of Mohna village and recovered a pistol and cash from them. During interrogation, it came to light that Ramesh’s wife had withdrawn Rs 26,000 from her bank account and had given this money to her paramour to purchase a pistol and eliminate her husband.

Sirsa, December 4
The State Vigilance Bureau (SVB) today arrested an assistant posted in Elementary Education Department at Sirsa red-handed while he was receiving bribe of Rs 10,000 from a suspended JBT teacher for moving his file.

Phool Kumar, a DSP in the SVB at Hisar, said that Surender Kumar, a JBT teacher in Kalanwali area was suspended sometime back for outraging the modesty of a woman under section 354 of the IPC.

The teacher alleged in his complaint to the SVB that in a departmental inquiry, his name was cleared of the charge, but the revocation of his suspension was hanging fire due to delay by Rati Ram, who had demanded Rs 10,000 as bribe for clearing his file. — TNS

Rewari, December 4
The Jatusana police
of the district arrested Dharmender (24) on the charge of raping a 16-year-old Dalit student of class XI, at Berli Khurd village, about 20 km from Rewari, yesterday.

He was produced in a local court today which remanded him in 14-day judicial custody.

Earlier, on a complaint filed by the victim, the police registered a case of rape, criminal intimidation and under the SC/ST Act as well as the POCSO Act.

The girl was medically examined here last evening. She alleged that when she was going to the village field to defecate, Dharmender dragged her inside a room and sexually assaulted her.

She further alleged that when she raised an alarm, he forced a piece of cloth into her mouth and also threatened her with dire consequences. 

Sirsa, December 4
A man reportedly drugged his wife and two children, strangulated them and threw them in a canal at Nathor village on the night of November 30.

The next day, 32-year-old Vinod Kumar, driver of a school bus, lodged a police complaint that his wife was missing. The police claimed that they solved the case today when he admitted his crime during questioning.

Vinod reportedly told the police that he had an illicit relationship and his 10-year-old son once played the recording of his conversation with the woman over the mobile phone in the presence of his wife Suman.

He reportedly admitted that the relationship of the couple deteriorated and he thought of killing his wife and three children to marry his paramour.

Vinod reportedly brought ‘burfi’ and intoxicating tablets on November 30, mixed the medicine in the sweetmeat and offered the ‘burfi’ to his wife, 11-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son, but spared his three-year-old child.

He reportedly strangulated his wife and two children after they fell unconscious and put their bodies in the school bus.

He reportedly drove the bus to the Rajasthan canal, three kilometres from the village, and threw the three dead bodies in the canal.

“We were suspicious and started watching him. During a glance at the call details of his mobile phone, it was found that he was talking to a woman late at night and early in the morning while his wife and children were missing,” said SSP Saurabh Singh.

When the police called Vinod to the police station and questioned him, his replies increased the suspicion as he told the police that his wife and children were seen going towards the canal, the SSP said.

When the police became tough, Vinod admitted to having killed his wife and two children, he said. The police converted the FIR into one of murder and took Vinod in custody. They would try to recover the bodies.

Shahbad, December 4
Celebrity women's hockey coach Baldev Singh, credited with making this sleepy town a nursery of women's hockey, has been given a one-year extension in service in recognition of his contribution to hockey.

This is the sixth consecutive extension for the coach, who has been training budding talents at the Shahbad Hockey Academy for the last 20 years and contributing five or six players to the national team for years.

Confident of the capabilities of the girls, Baldev Singh says at least 10 of them should have been in the women's hockey squad.

He has thrown an open challenge to the Indian women's hockey team to defeat the academy team and get Rs 20 lakh as a reward.

Putting up a case for a women's hockey league, he argues that women's hockey is doing better than men's hockey. A league will give better and highly talented players, he says.

"I want to churn out the best and ensure that they participate in international events in the age group of 18 to 22 years. The Shahbad women's under-13 players are the future of Indian hockey," he asserts.