Shahabad, February 8
Five persons, including four members of a family, were killed and seven others seriously injured when their vehicle was crushed under a stationary truck opposite a shrine on the GT Road, near here, today.

Those killed were identified as Priyanka, Sarojinder,his wife, Sajinder, and their sons, Kartar and Narinder. Among the injured were Santosh Kumari and her daughter-in-law, Babita, Parvesh Kumar and his daughter, Kanika, Tawinder and Ashok Kumar, driver of the car.

The injured were taken to the PGI and their condition was stated to be critical. The police said the victims were going to Vaishno Devi from Faridabad.

This reporter saw a large number of trucks parked on the GT road where the accident took place. A policeman posted there was unable to control the illegal parking.

Although there is ample parking space on one side of the shrine, no effort has been made by the district police to “encourage” the truck drivers to use it.

Kurukshetra SP Sanjay Kumar admitted that vehicles parked outside the shrine were a traffic hazard. He said the police would take up the matter with the National Highway Authority of India to make parking arrangements on other side of the shrine too.

Talking to TNS, several shopkeepers demanded proper traffic arrangements near the shrine.

Panipat, February 8
Giving political colour to the dispute arising after the bid to demolish an abandoned and dilapidated structure at the Quila Maidan, local BJP leaders demanding the immediate arrest of the accused.

Talking to mediapersons, district BJP president Sanjay Bhatia alleged that the administration had constituted a peace committee to portray the incident as a communal dispute and included the supporters of the accused in it.

The attempt to demolish the structure was at the behest of some Congress leaders, including the chairman of the local municipal committee, he claimed.

Demanding a probe into the incident, the BJP leader said members of the peace committee should be drawn from all sections of society.

He alleged that the accused were hand in glove with the land mafia, adding that the incident was an attempt to grab the prime land at the Quila Maidan.

Sirsa, February 8
To use more water of the Ghaggar for irrigation, the district administration has decided to get the North Ghaggar Canal widened and strengthened under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Farmers of 18 villages in the Ellenabad subdivision will get more water for irrigation with this move.

This was stated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr V. Umashankar, while addressing a meeting of district officials and sarpanches of the villages concerned here today.

He said the farmers of Ottu, Ferozabad, Habauli, Gobindpura, Gadrana, Rampur Thed, Ranjitpur Thed, Dhamaura Thed, Nakauda, Bhadolanwali, Santawali, Haripura, Bani, Thed Shaheedanwali, Haarni, Dharmpura, Jeevannagar and Damdama would benefit.

The officials concerned of the Irrigation Department had been directed to prepare an estimate of the project and get the work on it started by March 15.

An interesting aspect of this ambitious project was that thousands of residents of the villages concerned would be employed for it.

The original capacity of the North Ghaggar Canal was 244 cusecs, but during the rainy season, more water was released into the canal, due to which breaches appeared and tail-end villages did not get adequate water.

Hisar, February 8
Deputy Commissioner Deepti Umashankar has directed the officials concerned to ensure that the children of brick-kiln labourers and residents of ‘dhaanis’ get polio drops.

She was chairing a meeting today in connection with the intensive pulse polio drive to be launched on February 11.

Ms Umashankar asked municipal councillors, panchayat representatives, aanganwadi workers and members of self-help groups, NGOs and other social and voluntary organisations to be present in person at polio booths.

“Instead of considering it an official responsibility, take it as a service to humanity and do your duty with utmost care and enthusiasm”, she said, adding that the purpose of the drive would be defeated if even a single child was left out.

The Deputy Commissioner disclosed that 2,54,925 children of the district in the age group of 0 to 5 years would be given polio drops on February 11.

On February 12 and 13, teams constituted by the Health Department would go from door to door to administer polio drops to children who could not get these on February 11.

She asked the District Education Officer to get the polio campaign schedule announced at the morning assemblies of all schools.

She maintained that schoolchildren should also take out rallies to create awareness and make the drive a success.

Panipat, February 8
The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) has decided to create two new operation circles at Panipat and Kaithal.

These will be headed by a Superintending Engineer (SE) each. With this, the total number of operation circles will go up to nine.

In addition,the Nigam has also created a new operation division at Samalkha to be headed by an Executive Engineer. Similarly,an operation division has been created at Guhla in Kaithal also.

As the Superintending Engineer would sanction load up to 500 KW for the release of new industrial connections and hold bijli sabhas at the district headquarters on the fourth of every month, the consumers of Panipat would especially benefit with the creation of these new offices in this industrial district, claimed a spokesman of the UHBVN from Chandigarh.

Safidon (Jind), February 8
The Jind Vigilance Bureau personnel have caught a mining officer and his subordinate while accepting bribe here today.

According to information received here, Ravi Kumar Garg, a mining contractor, complained to the bureau that Raj Kumar Yadav, a mining officer of the district, was demanding Rs 40,000 from him for clearing his contract till 2009 for quarrying sand from the Hansi branch of the Western Yamuna Canal. An amount of Rs 30,000 had already been paid to the accused, complainded the contractor.

Today the complainant handed over Rs 10,000 to the accused and he handed it over to a clerk of his office, Rajesh Kumar, accompanying him when the Vigilance Bureau team headed by Inspector Baljeet Singh caught him.

Chandigarh, February 8
One person was killed due to lightning in Haryana and the night temperatures again dipped in the north-west region following rain in many areas in the plains overnight.

Lightning struck a youth at Diwana village in Pehowa subdivision of Kurushetra district of Haryana yesterday, killing him. He was working in the fields.

The sky remained overcast at many places as the sun played hide and seek during the day. However, the minimum temperatures hovered one degree to 3°C above normal in the region.

The Weather Office has predcited light to moderate rain or snow at a few places in Himachal Pradesh and light to moderate rain or thundershowers at isolated places in Punjab and Haryana during the next 24 hours.

Rain lashed certain areas in Punjab overnight with Patiala, where the minimum temperature fell to 9.2 degrees, recording 3.5 mm of rainfall. The minimum also dropped at Ludhiana and Amritsar, respectively showing 9 degrees and 8.3 degrees, two degrees above normal.

Rain lashed several areas in Haryana, bringing considerable fall in the mercury in the state. The minimum plummeted at Karnal, Ambala, Hisar and Narnaul, respectively recording 8 degrees, 8.4 degrees, 9.3 degrees and 10°C. Karnal measured 8mm of rainfall, while Nilokheri recorded 34.6 mm and Chachroli 28 mm of rainfall.

Cold wave conditions revived in many parts of Himachal Pradesh after a snowfall in higher reaches in the state yesterday. The night temperature dipped in the hill state with Bhuntar in Kullu district recording 5 degrees, three degrees above normal, and Sundernagar in Mandi district 5 degrees. Shimla, which was lashed by rain, showed 3.3 degrees, one degree above normal. — UNI

Rewari, February 8
Acting on a tip-off, the Rewari district police yesterday raided a hideout at Jaipur in Rajasthan and arrested the alleged abductor, Davender Singh, and recovered the abducted teenaged girl (18) from there.

It is stated that Davender Singh had eloped with the girl from Padla village under Khol police station of this district on January 19. Later on a complaint lodged by the girl's father, Satish Kumar, the police had registered a case of abduction under Sections 363 and 366 of the IPC against Davender Singh.

The girl, whose medical examination here reportedly confirmed sexual assault, has now been restored to her parents.

Consequently the police has also added Section 376, IPC, of rape to the FIR.

Chandigarh, February 8
As the process for inviting applications for liquor vends under Haryana's new excise policy begins tomorrow, hoteliers of the state seem to be divided on the issue of licence fee for bars.

While the president of the Panchkula Hotels and Restaurants Association, Mr J.S. Sangari, has demanded that the licence fee for bars should be reduced, the president of the Hotels and Restaurants Association of Haryana, Mr Manbeer Choudhry, says the government has already accepted six of their seven demands.

Mr Sangari says Haryana charges Rs 5 lakh as the bar fee, while in Punjab, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh, it varies from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.50 lakh. Haryana should reduce the fee to bring it on a par with that prevalent in neighbouring states. He says no VAT is charged in these states on the liquor sold at bars, while Haryana imposes 20 per cent VAT in addition to the licence fee.

Mr Choudhry says earlier the bars had to pay an additional Rs 5 lakh for selling imported liquor. But the present government accepted their demand and abolished the additional fee.

There are about 100 bars in the state. A senior officer of the Excise and Taxation Department said when fee varying from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh was charged from "ahatas", a fee of Rs 5 lakh from the bars was not unreasonable.

Meanwhile, the department has set up a helpline at its head office (0172-2703955 and 2702979) which will be operational during office hours on all working days so that in case an applicant finds any difficulty in submitting his application, he may contact senior officers of the department. The last date for submitting the applications is February 21.

The draw of lots for the allotment of vends for the districts under the Gurgaon and Rohtak ranges, except Karnal district and including Bhiwani district, will be held on February 26 and in the rest of the districts on March 2.