Kaithal, April 2
Nearly 36 students of government primary school, Kailram, of this district, fell ill after they took sweet rice as midday meal today. Some students started vomiting and complained of nausea while others had loose motions. The victims were taken to the Civil Hospital here and given treatment. Dr J.P. Saluja SMO said condition of the admitted was stable. SDM Jagdish Sharma and R.S. Mor, secretary, Red Cross, were present in the hospital. Rajinder Kataria, deputy commissioner, who was on tour to Chandigarh left for Kaithal on getting reports about the incident.

According to reports sweet rice mixed with soya bean nuggets was served to 100 students of the school after 12.30 pm under the midday meal scheme. After consuming rice some students started vomiting and complained of nausea, and loose motions. As the news of the incident spread in the village many villagers rushed to the school. Sarpanch of the village informed the BDPO who after informing the SDM reached the village and took affected students of the Civil Hospital in his official jeep.

Some other students were taken to Kaithal in a vechicle which arriaved from Kalayat PHC. Students started arriving in the hospital at 3 pm and by 6 pm 36 were admitted the hospital. Team of doctors comprising J.P. Saluja SMO, Ashwani Bhatia, Alok Khanna, Parbesh Aggarwal and R.D. Chawla assisted by paramedical staff started treatment to them. Dr J.P. Saluja SMO medical superintendent said that timely arrived of a affected students in the hospital helped stabilised their condition.

Jagdish Sharma, SDM, reached the hospital. He said he had sent more ambulance to the village and also directed the official to make announcement in the village that no student, who had taken the midday meal in the school today was left unattended by doctors. He said as the ill students had started responding to treatment there was no cause for worry. The SDM said on the directions of the deputy commissioner a team of doctors had been posted in the village to provide medical help if needed. In meanwhile the administration has sent a team to collect samples of the served food ascertain the cause of food poisoning.

By evening many villagers had assembled outside the Civil Hospital here. Some of them including Nathu Ram a BSF havildar on leave criticised the middayy meal scheme and said the government should stop it as it wa not managed properly and food served under the scheme was of poor quality. They said some other incentive should be provided to the students after consultation with parents. However, Jai Parkash Shastri state deputy general secretary Haryana Teachers Union said the scheme should continue but government should provide proper cooking and storage facility for food grants to save these from getting contaminated. 

Fatehabad, April 2
The marriage of a Bazigar girl to a boy her gotra (sub-caste) has created a furore among the community at Kulan in this district. A mahapanchayat of the community has directed parents of the girl to revoke the marriage and bring their daughter from her in-laws’ house or face excommunication.

Members of the community have also approached the district administration for the cancellation the marriage alleging the girl was not of major. Poli, daughter of Mohinder Singh, of Kulan in this district married Jalalpur (Punjab) resident Darshan Singh’s son on February 8.

The boy and the girl, according to elders of the Bazigar community, belonged to the same gotra and parents of the girl concealed this fact from the panchayat at the time of marriage.

The fact came to light when Piara Singh of Choharkheri village in Punjab visited Kulan last week and revealed this fact to elders.

The self-styled members of the gotra Mahapanchayat organised a meeting of the community members at Kulan last week. Member of the community from Akanwali, Jakhal, Maghera, Kallar Dhani and Tohana of Haryana and Hingakheri, Satrana, Choharkheri and Paghalbarh of Punjab participated in the mahapanchayat.

The mahapanchayat expressed displeasure at the marriage in the same gotra and threatened to excommunicate the girl’s family if it did not cancel the marriage.

The mahapanchayat sent some community elders to Jalalpur residence of Darshan Singh to bring the girl back.

But the boy’s family did not send the girl maintaining they would send the girl only if her parents came to fetch her.

The community members came back to Kulan yesterday, finding the girl’s parents missing from their house.

The community panchayat now has approached the district administration demanding the marriage be declared null and void on the plea the girl was a minor. The SDM Tohana RK Garg said he had received a complaint and was examining the matter.

Kurukshetra, April 2
While inaugurating a judicial courts complex constructed at a cost of Rs 1.35 crore at Pehowa, 20 km from here, Vijender Jain, Chief Justice, Punjab and Haryana High Court, said if we provided facilities to lawyers and litigants, judicial matters would be settled speedily.

Justice Jain praised the Haryana Government for providing infrastructure in judicial complexes in the past two years.

Jain directed the Haryana Government to provide modern judicial complexes at Faridabad and Gurgaon because both towns were industrial towns and the cases of cyber laws and intellectual properties were increasing day by day.

He announced one more judicial officer would be appointed very soon at Pehowa where there were about 4000 pending cases. Judiciary in Haryana would be made number one, he assured. If judicial system existed, the rule of law could be maintained and democracy could be saved, he added.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupender Singh Hooda said the government had decided to construct a modern judicial complex at each subdivision in Haryana and it would cost Rs 30 crore. The construction of district judicial complexes in Jhajjar, Panipat and Mewat would be completed next year. Rupees 162 crore projects had also been forwarded to the union government of India for approval, he added.

Hooda added early disposal of cases in the courts would strengthen democracy and if justice was delayed, people would lose faith in the judicial system.

He announced a first mobile court would be set up in Mewat shortly.

Hooda announced a Rs 10 lakh grant for furniture and law books for Pehowa Bar room library while Kurukshetra MP Navin Jindal announced the Pehowa Bar room would be airconditioned and its cost borne by Jindal. Haryana Agriculture Minister H.S. Chattha, Kurukshetra MP Navin Jindal, Justice Pritam Pal, Justice Nirmal Yadav, Justice Uma Nath, district and sessions judge, Kurukshetra, Hari Paran Singh, deputy commissioner T.K. Sharma and SP Sanjay Kumar were also present on the occasion.

Hisar, April 2
The state government has increased the budget allocation for Sirsa-based Chaudhry Devi Lal University (CDLU) for the current fiscal by a whopping seven times compared to last year.

Vice-chancellor K. C. Bhardwaj told The Tribune here today that the budget allocation for the current financial year was Rs 13.75 crore compared to Rs 2 crore last year.

He said the government representatives in the meeting of the finance committee of the university at Chandigarh two days ago had assured release of at least Rs 13.50 crore for the current year.

The vice-chancellor said most of the funds would be earmarked for infrastructural facilities since the university was still in its infancy and need a strong dose of funds to build infrastructure.

He said besides the massive increase in budgetary provisions Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had sanctioned projects worth about Rs 40 crore during his first visit to the campus in February. These funds would be in addition to the budgetary allocation.

The university has already submitted designs and cost estimates of the projects announced by the chief minister. These included a multipurpose auditorium costing Rs 11.77 crore and an administrative block estimated to cost Rs 10.74 crore.

Other projects are: library building - Rs 9.4 crore, teaching block II - Rs 7.70 crore and various types of housing accommodation - Rs 3.8 crore.

Dr Bhardwaj said the chief minister had issued clear-cut directions to him to develop the university into a centre of excellence.

The announcement of funds for the CDLU has silenced critics of the chief minister who had been alleging that the Hooda government was starving the university of funds because of political considerations. They had even gone to the extent of saying that the government wanted to wind up the university.

Ambala, April 2
The mobile phones of around 38,000 BSNL subscribers of the Haryana circle have temporarily been disconnected.

The subscribers, whose mobile phones were disconnected last morning, have been directed to submit identity proof of their residential addresses along with other relevant documentation and fill up the Excel form.

The BSNL took the step after it was found that the records of thousands of subscribers were not available with them.

A deadline for March 31 had been set and on April 1, the mobile phones of thousands of subscribers all over Haryana went dead. Neither outgoing nor incoming calls could be made.

General manager (telecom) B.R. Kashyap said the decision to disconnect the mobile phones whose records were not available was based on the guidelines of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which had set the deadline for March 31.

“These mobile phones have temporarily been disconnected. After the ID records are submitted, the phones will be reactivated,” he said.

An estimated 38,000 mobile phones all over Haryana have been disconnected due to unavailability of records. “As a matter of fact, the disconnection has been carried out locally. The records are being fed into the central server and thereafter, the connections are re-activated,” he said.

The subscribers whose connections were disconnected had to face a lot of inconvenience.

On March 30 at about 6 pm in the evening, they had received an SMS from the BSNL, Haryana, stating that they had to complete formalities by March 31.

This led to considerable concern since the message had been received very late and hardly a day’s time was given.

An official said they were working round the clock to update the records of the customers so that the mobile phones could be reactivated promptly.

He said in many cases, they were themselves giving calls to check up whether the person who picked up the phone was the same person in whose name the phone had been issued.

Panchkula, April 2
In a move that is likely to provide a breather to thousands of allottees across the state, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has decided to give 15 years time for construction against the existing seven years.

According to this second revision of HUDA's Extension Policy in the past six months, the authority has decided to give a relaxation of 13 years beyond the stipulated period of two years on the payment of requisite extension fee for construction.

This alteration to the policy came after a number of representatives met the Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and sought reversion to the original policy which provided for a time period of 15 years.

The Chief Administrator, HUDA, TC Gupta, said the decision to partially modify the existing policy was taken in view of a demand from the public. "The authority had received several requests from all quarters to go back to the 15-year extension period. The representations said while the seven-year period was inadequate, most people undertook construction when they neared their retirement and arranging of huge funds for construction required more time," Gupta stated.

The policy guidelines drafted subsequent to these representations lay down that for those plots in respect of where the allottees have already availed themselves of a period of 15 years or more by December 31, 2006, will be required to complete at least a minimum required construction on their plots.

Further, they would be required to apply for an occupation certificate by December 31, 2007, provided they get their building plan approved by June 30, 2007, instead of December 31, 2006, as per previous guidelines.

The existing policy, drafted last October, stated that a further extension of five years beyond the stipulated period of two years could be availed on the payment of the prescribed extension fee. It added that those who had already availed a maximum of 15 years from the date of offer of possession (as per the previous policy), could avail extension up to December 31 this year.

However, those allottees in whose case a period of seven years (to be reckoned from the date of offer of possession) had expired or would expire before the end of this year, were given a one-time extension up to December 31, 2008.

The office order of HUDA headquarters with regard to the change in the extension policy holds out a caution to the defaulters of resumption of their plots under Section 17 of the HUDA Act.

Following the framing of the existing policy, resumption notices had been despatched to allottees who did not fall in the specified categories, leading to panic. The cumulative affect had been a general scare on account of the government's bold decision to call the bluff of the plots owners while further, checking the tendency among property dealers to keep plots with them.

Ambala, April 2
Haryana minister Randeep Surjewala said today that the government was paying special attention to the education of girls.

Surjewala was addressing the gathering at the annual prize-distribution function of Jain Girls Senior Secondary School and Lord Mahavir Jain Public School. He said the message of Lord Mahavir continued to be relevant in the modern age. If we follow the path shown by Lord Mahavir, then most of our problems will be solved, he added.

The minister said while a women’s university was functional in the state, seats for girl candidates had been reserved in vocational institutions. The girl students must strive hard so that they could excel in their chosen field.

He announced a grant of Rs 51,000 for the school building. He also released the school magazine.

Rewari, April 2
Amisha (6) was crushed to death under truck (PB01 AV-8090) after she fell off the rear seat of a bicycle on the market road at Guriani village near Kosli yesterday.

It is stated a shrill sound of the truck’s horn, unnerved cyclist Anjali, elder sister of Amisha, and she lost control of the machine after which Amisha, on the rear seat, fell off and was crushed to death instantly by the speeding truck.

When truck driver Jai Bhagwan of Hisar district tried to escape he was chased by residents who overpowered him and then handed him over to the police. Simultaneously, shopkeepers of Guriani also closed shops to mourn Amisha’s demise.

Ambala, April 2
Om Prakash Malik, chairman of the Ambala Cantt Subdivision Banao Samiti, today demanded that judicial courts should be set up at Ambala cantt.

In the letters addressed to the Punjab and Haryana High Court chief justice and the Haryana Chief Minister, Malik welcomed the construction of a judicial complex at Pehowa.

He said earlier the government had earmarked a piece of land measuring 5,100 square yards near Football Chowk in Ambala cantt. The site had been duly approved and even a sum of Rs 1 crore had been sanctioned for the purpose in the budget 2005-06.

“Unfortunately, the plan of the construction of the judicial complex has not been implemented so far. We demand the early construction of the judicial complex,” he added. — TNS

Ambala, April 2
A middle-aged woman was murdered in Model Town, Ambala city, this evening.

Rajinder Kaur, 52, was a widow and she was living alone at her house in the posh Model Town locality. Her son Manpreet Singh is settled in the United States while her daughter lives in Patiala.

As the lights of her house had not been switched on in the evening, her relative, who lives close-by, gained entry into the house. He found her body lying in a pool of blood.

She was last seen returning from the local market at about 2 pm. The house had been ransacked.

Police officials rushed to the spot and a dog squad and finger print experts were called.

Ambala SP Amitabh Dhillon said Rajinder Kaur was living alone. “She was spotted at the market in the afternoon. Later in the evening, a nephew of her saw Rajinder Kaur lying in a pool of blood. Her relatives live in a nearby house,” he said.

The woman had been dealt a hard blow on her head. “However, some gold ornaments were found lying in the house. We are looking at the case from various angles,” the SSP said.

The residents of the area have demanded that police patrolling be stepped up in the colony.