Rewari, February 1
Twelve persons, including 11 women, were killed and 17 others were injured, two of them seriously, in a head-on collision between a canter and a pickup on the Rewari-Mahendergarh road, near Jadra village, around 8 km from here, this afternoon.

The dead included canter driver Bahadur Singh of Begumpur Khatola village in Gurgaon district. The other killed have been identified as Prem Devi, Ram Rati, Anokhi Devi, Omvati, Asharfi Devi, Barfi Devi, Kusum Devi, Umesh Devi, Resham Devi, Rajvati and Ramvati, all residents of Manehru village in Bhiwani district.

The seriously injured - Himmat Singh and Dalbir Singh, both residents of Bhondsi village in Gurgaon district - have been referred to Delhi.

The rest of the injured - pickup driver Gadia, Jaipal, Rajpal, Sukhpal, Vijaypal, Sukhbir, Oma Devi, Bhateri Devi, Maya Devi, Anita Devi (all occupants of the pickup and residents of Manehru village in Bhiwani district); and Tarun Raghav, Navin Raghav, Ranjit Singh and Mauj Singh, occupants of the canter and residents of Bhondsi village - have been hospitalised here.

The pickup was on its way from Manehru (Bhiwani) to Naichana village, near Rewari, while the canter was going from Bhondsi (Gurgaon) to Basai village, near Mahendergarh.

All 21 occupants of the pickup, including 15 women, were travelling to mourn the death of a relative.

The seven occupants of the canter were on their way to hand over the “lagan patri”, auspicious documents pertaining to the fixation of the date of marriage, of the bride to the bridegroom’s father.

Deputy Commissioner Chander Prakash said an ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh each would be given to the next of the kin of the deceased from the Chief Minister’s fund, while the expenses of the treatment of the injured would be borne by the district Red Cross Society.

A case of rash and negligent driving has been registered against the drivers of both vehicles, according to a spokesperson of the police.

Rohtak, February 1
The state government has given an academic touch to various designations of doctors teaching in the local Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) and Government Dental College.

According to a gazette notification received here, “professor” will now be part of every designation beginning with Assistant Professor, followed by Associate Professor, Professor and finally Senior Professor.

Thus far, the hierarchy began from Lecturer at the junior level, followed by Reader. Professor thus figured only at the Professor and Senior Professor level.

In the new scheme of things, Lecturer has now been designated as Assistant Professor and Reader as Associate Professor.

The government has also raised the age of superannuation of medical teachers from 58 to 60 years. This had been an outstanding demand of medical teachers.

Besides, the government had been finding it hard to hire senior doctors against posts vacated by retiring teachers.

Under the new scheme, promotions from Assistant Professor to Professor will be time bound with every Assistant Professor reaching the level of Professor in nine years.

So far, a large number of teachers had been retiring as Associate Professor i.e. Reader even after serving the PGIMS over a lifetime.

Also, the share of posts of Senior Professor, which will be filled by promotion, has been raised from 50 to 75 per cent of the posts.

Thus, only 25 per cent posts at the highest level will be filled by direct recruitment from now on.

The new rules also remove an anomaly. Some posts of Associate Professor in the older regime will now be redesignated as Professor.

Medical teachers have welcomed the changes that had been resisted by earlier governments.

Dr R.S. Dahiya, president, Haryana State Medical Teachers’ Association, said more doctors would now opt for teaching in government-run institutions, which had been facing a severe shortage of experienced medical teachers.

Yamunanagar, February 1
If a body is found floating in the waters of Avardhan Canal taking off from Hamida head waterworks or Western Yamuna Canal (WYC) here, do not take it out. Let it flow down, and if it is stuck, push it downstream.

This seems to be the mantra of the district police to save itself from investigations and the subsequent paperwork. During the past six days, three bodies were not allegedly taken out and they floated downstream.

As per police and other sources, the police did not bother to take out a body from the canal this morning and let it flow down. However, it was ‘forced’ to fish out another body which came floating in the afternoon, as the matter had come to the notice of mediapersons. The body was sent to the mortuary and the police was making efforts to establish its identity.

On Friday also, the police was informed about bodies of a boy and girl in the canal. The bodies were stuck in the waters of the canal near the Alahar bridge. Locals requesting anonymity alleged that the police, instead of taking out the bodies, pushed these downstream so that these went out of their jurisdiction. The bodies were reportedly fished out by the Karnal police yesterday.

Superintendent of Police K.V. Ramana said that as soon as the police got information about the bodies, it swung into action, but by that time, the bodies had flown down, as the flow was strong.

He, however, assured that he would inquire into the matter to find if there was any laxity on part of the police in taking out the bodies.

Jhajjar, February 1
The post office robbery case, which cost an innocent Maxi Cab driver his life when he was mistaken as a robber and shot by a chasing police party near Bahadurgarh on November 30, still remained a puzzle for the police. While police officials were busy in saving their own skin in the aftermath of the encounter controversy, the real culprits must have taken full advantage of this opportunity to make a safe escape.

After two months of the incident when some youths looted Rs 1.70 lakh on pistol point from the cashier in the post office at Bahadurgarh, the police investigation seems to have struck a dead end. Despite the fact that a pistol was also recovered by the police and the employees gave sketches of the figures and other information about the robbers, the police is treating it as a blind case and now banking on chance arrest of the robbers.

The senior police officials, including the IG, Rohtak Range, and the SP, Jhajjar, had claimed at the encounter spot that one of the robbers had been shot on the run and even some amount was recovered. Giving a pat on the back of the police party, the SP had said that even the jeep which as used in the crime and belonged to the killed youth, was a stolen one.

However, public outrage over the killing of the innocent youth, Vikas of the nearby Dulhera village, forced the administration to order a probe. The probe nailed the lies of the police and the case boomeranged on the encounter team putting it in the dock. The police team, comprising a DSP and three SHOs, which was taking the credit for acting quickly, found itself in deep trouble.

Sensing that there was no way out as the police had to register an FIR under Section 304 of the IPC against police officials without mentioning any names, on the basis of the SDM inquiry report, the guilty police officials looked for an escape route by roping in khap leaders. While the victim’s cause was being taken up by the khap panchayat, the guilty police officials also “arranged” some khap leaders to represent their side in the crucial panchayat organised in Dulhera. Finally, they succeeded in brokering a compromise between the family of the victim, Vikas, and cops.

But this time-consuming exercise apparently gave the real culprits enough time to shift to safer locations and also the clues provided by the eyewitnesses remained useless. The SHO, Bahadurgarh city police station, Mr Mahender Singh Rana, said today that the investigation was on. When asked whether they had any clues to direct their investigation, he fumbled for words saying that whenever they would get any trace, the media would be informed. The SP, Mr Yoginder Nehra, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. 

Chandigarh, February 1
The procurement of wheat during the coming season will fall short of the target considerably unless the Centre raise the minimum support price (MSP) to above Rs 800 per quintal.

This was stated by Haryana Agriculture Minister H.S. Chatha here today.

He said though the Centre had already raised the MSP to Rs 750 per quintal, it was not sufficient to motivate farmers to sell their produce to the government agencies. There were reports that private traders had already promised to buy wheat at Rs 800 per quintal.

He said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had already written to the Prime Minister in this regard. He expressed the hope that before wheat started coming to the mandis, the Centre would act on the request of Mr Hooda.

Mr Chatha said the government wanted the farmers to cut down on paddy cultivation, which put a heavy demand on water, and shift to alternate crops.

He said since soyabean could be a good alternative to paddy, the government was contemplating to buy it from farmers through the State Agriculture Marketing Board.

The minister said scientists of the Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, had been asked to develop new seed varieties of various crops besides keeping records of soil type of each village. The government had also decided to focus on increasing the crop productivity in the state.

Meanwhile, Mr Chatha today launched an SMS service to answer the queries of the farmers.

Kurukshetra, February 1
After over one year, the much-awaited Kalpana Chawla planetarium will be opened to public by April this year. The planetarium equipped with the latest digital and opto-mechanical space view gadgets imported from the USA will be the first of its kind in Haryana.

The planetarium is raised in memory of Karnal-based astronaut, Kalpana Chawla, who on February 1, 2003 with seven other astronauts was killed in NASA’s space shuttle Columbia’s disaster.

Talking to The Tribune from New Delhi today, Dr A.S. Manekar, Director of the National Science Museum, confirmed that the planetarium would be ready in next two months. Dr Manekar, overlooking the project, said work to complete the planetarium was in full swing. He said there would be a special section about the life of the astronaut.

Located on the Kurukshetra-Pehowa road, the Rs 6.5 crore project is nearing completion.

Shahzadpur (Naraingarh), February 1
The Haryana Health Department has finally come to the rescue of a Pajeton village family that had lost three of its members to HIV/AIDS and forced to see a seven-year-old boy Chaman (name changed) dying a slow death for the last over four years.

A team of health officials from the Civil Hospital, Ambala, visited the family in the village and took blood samples of Chaman and his brother and sister. The reports, whoever, confirmed Chaman positive for the virus but other siblings were found to be
negative.

The family members were also told that the Health Department had also sent blood samples of Mandeep and Ritu for certain another tests to detect any possibility of virus. Though the family had a sigh of relief after being told that the two siblings were found negative, yet their fate was still uncertain till the results of other reports were known.

Efforts to contact Mr NK Sharma, Director- General, Health Services, Haryana, proved futile till late in the evening while Mr OP Lamba, Project Director of the Haryana State AIDS Control Society, said, ”I have been out of station for 10 days. I will talk to you later”.

The department came into action after the plight of the family was highlighted in these columns.

Three members of the family comprising the couple and its teenager daughter, had died due to the virus while another boy is struggling for life.

A truck driver by profession, the father of Chaman reportedly caught virus in Maharashtra and subsequently transmitted it to his wife. Their first daughter too died of the same disease over a month ago. The family is virtually at the mercy of neighbours for food and medicare.

Chandigarh, February 1
Haryana Sikhs may have their own gurdwara parbandhak committee after the Punjab Assembly elections.

It has been a long-standing demand of the Haryana Sikhs that the state should have a separate Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee(SGPC) to look after the Sikh shrines in the state, on the pattern of the Wakf Board, which, too, has been trifurcated now. Earlier there used to be a common board for Punjab, Haryana and Himachal. But now all states have their own boards.

The Haryana Congress had promised in its election manifesto that the party would sympathetically consider the demand for a separate gurdwara committee for the state. After the party came to power in 2005, a draft Bill in this regard was prepared. But before it could be placed before the Assembly, the Akalis in Punjab raised a hue and cry against the move. The Congress developed cold feet as its leaders felt that the issue might affect the party’s electoral prospects in Punjab, which was to have Assembly elections after two years.

A committee was formed under the chairmanship of the then Speaker of the Haryana Assembly, Mr H.S. Chatha, to examine the issue in detail. The government said it would take action in accordance with the recommendations of the committee.

Mr Chatha, who has now become the Agriculture Minister of the state, today said the committee had invited affidavits from the public on the issue. About three lakh affidavits had been received by the committee supporting the demand for a separate SGPC for the state. No one had opposed it.

He said the committee would submit its report to the government before the next Assembly session.

Since by the time the next Assembly session would be held in Haryana, the Punjab elections would be over and the decks would be clear for the formation of the separate SGPC for gurdwaras in the state.

Haryana Sikhs allege that a large portion of the income from the gurdwaras of the state is taken away to Amritsar and is not spent on the upkeep of the religious places in their state.

Ambala, February 1
Major Naveen Bindal, who hails from Ambala, has been awarded Shaurya Chakra for his brave and gallant action in Jammu and Kashmir.

Major Naveen’s parents here are ecstatic on learning about their eldest son’s being awarded Shaurya Chakra. “The award is the second highest peace time gallantry award and we are proud of him,” Major Naveen’s father Col RK Gupta (Retd) said today.

Col Gupta said Major Naveen Bindal has got the Shaurya Chakra for displaying exemplary courage, bravery, professional competency and skill of proficiency in execution of a mission. “His brave act foiled the evil designs of three hardcore militants,” he said.

Major Naveen Bindal, who is from Army Air Defence Regiment, was with the 58 Rashtriya Rifles when the incident took place in August, 2006. 

Ambala, February 1
Deputy manager of a bank was caught red-handed by vigilance sleuths today.

Deputy manager Satpal Singh of the Patwi Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society was caught after he accepted the bribe for clearing the loan of a farmer.

Complainant Jaswinder Singh, resident of Jathwad village, had applied for the loan. He told vigilance officials that the deputy manager had demanded Rs 2,000 to clear his loan. Deputy manager Satpal Singh was held by raiding party led by a DSP.