Chandigarh, April 19
After the arrest of a Karnal-based pharmacist, who was allegedly an expert in making false pellet injuries in medico-legal cases, two more officials of the Haryana health department are in the dock for allegedly "doctoring" a postmortem examination report.

The Haryana state vigilance bureau yesterday arrested a medical technician posted in the Nuh government hospital in Mewat district for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 2 lakh on behalf of a doctor, who was to prepare a “false” postmortem report.

SP, vigilance, Gurgaon, Rajbir Deswal, who himself led the raiding party, told TNS on the phone that the body of Raghbir Singh(55) of Mintkola village was brought to the hospital for postmortem. Raghbir had a fight with someone a few days ago. He died on April 17, reportedly following a heart attack. However, his family members wanted a postmortem report which would implicate those with whom Raghbir had a fight.

Deswal said a deal was allegedly struck with Dr Lal Singh through Noorudin, medical technician, and Sharif, a middleman, for Rs 2 lakh.

After the complainant approached the bureau, a trap was laid. Permission to conduct a raid was obtained telephonically from financial commissioner, health, Urvashi Gulati. The vigilance team, accompanied by city magistrate of Mewat Satvir Maan, raided the hospital and recovered Rs 2.40 lakh from Noorudin. Deswal said the recovered amount included Rs 2 lakh given to him by the complainant for the “false” postmortem report. He said it was being ascertained from where Rs 40,000 came. Noorudin was arrested on the spot. Dr Lal Singh and Sharif were allegedly missing.

Deswal said two postmortem examinations were conducted in the hospital on Tuesday. While details of one were duly recorded in the register, the report related to Raghbir was incomplete.

He said the bureau arrested assistant district attorney Sher Singh posted in the Haryana Urban Development Authority while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 3,000 on April 17. Similarly, Nain tehsildar Deep Chand of Rewari was wanted in a bribery case in which a petition writer had been arrested. Noorudin was today remanded in police custody for two days.

Fatehabad, April 19
Seeking information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act cost a guest teacher his job at Sanchala village in this district.

Though he has yet not been supplied the information sought by him, the school headmaster has informed him that his services were no more needed.

Jagdish Chander, a resident of Dhani Bhojraj, was appointed as a guest teacher in Government High School, Sanchala, a few months ago.

While working at the school, Jagdish noticed some irregularities and intimated the same to officers of the Education Department.

Jagdish also moved an application to the Director, School Education, Haryana, with the prescribed fees, seeking some information under the RTI.

The teacher sought information as to who should be held liable for preparing results in the school in violation of the semester policy introduced by the government and what action was prescribed for such violation.

He also sought information about the total amount withdrawn from various funds of the school during the last one-year and where that money had been utilised.

The Block Education Officer, Bhuna, received the application from the director’s office on April 12 and forwarded it to the school headmaster for supplying the necessary information to the applicant.

The headmaster instead of providing any information to the teacher removed him from his job by verbal orders.

DEO H S Chhokar, when asked to comment, said he had joined only yesterday.

Under a policy of the state government, it may be learnt, guest teachers are appointed, depending upon the workload, on daily wages basis.

These teachers are neither given any written appointment letter, nor are there any provisions of marking their attendance and are verbally informed when their services are not required. 

Sirsa, April 9
In a significant decision vice-chancellor K.C.Bhardwaj of Chaudhary Devi Lal University (CDLU) has rejected the plea of 150 private college in various states, including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, to allow them to run study centres for those studying in their university centre for distance learning (UCDL). The vice-chancellor took this decision after holding a meeting with UCDL director R.K Singh and other senior faculty members.

While rejecting the applications of these colleges and institutions, the university today decided to refund the fees. However, the university has decided that UCDL’s personnel contact programme and examinations will be conducted only in government colleges, government-aided colleges, teaching departments of the university and university- maintained colleges. Besides it, the university has also fixed the guides’ qualification for the M.Phil courses. Henceforth, only those who had done M.Phil and Ph.D can guide the students. 

Hisar, April 19
Maj Gen P. K. Saighal (retd) said here today that the new economy had thrown up new career opportunities for the younger generation but peer pressure was preventing them from exploring new opportunities.

Addressing students of the local Vidya Devi Jindal School for Girls, he said they must keep their interest and aptitude in mind while deciding on their professional careers, regardless of pressure from parents or teachers.

He said insurance, banking, travel and tourism, retail, aviation, hospitality and architecture were among the new economy areas which offered great career opportunities. The salaries in these sectors were comparable to the best globally.

He also asked them to consider armed forces as a rewarding and fulfilling career. He said the defence forces offered great working environment and challenging assignments. Although salaries were not as good as that in the private sector, the working environment compensated for all that.

Meanwhile, Deborah Fox, a US-based child behaviour consultant, conducted a workshop on creating cooperative classrooms for teachers at the Vidya Devi Jindal School. She demonstrated activities to improve learning among students by making the classroom a more interactive place. 

Rewari, April 19
Harish Negi, the alleged abductor of a teenaged girl of the Housing Board colony of Dharuhera, was yesterday produced by the police in a local court which remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days.

Simultaneously, the girl was restored to her parents.

It is reported that Harish Negi, a resident of the Nathunagar area of Nainital district in Uttaranchal and who was recently working in a factory at Dharuhera, had taken away the girl on April 15.

The medical examination of the girl here has confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted.

Consequently section 376(rape) has now been added to the FIR which was earlier registered under sections 363 and 366 (abduction) of the IPC on her father’s complaint.

Chandigarh, April 19
Barely after a day of respite from heat temperature in various parts of Haryana and Punjab has shot up.

Frequent and long power cuts have brought heat-wave like condition to Haryana. Temperature recorded at various places indicated one to seven degrees above the normal.

Karnal and Ambala registered sharp rise in temperature recorded at 37.8 degrees and 36.1 degrees celsius, respectively. This is two degrees above the normal.

Hisar which was sizzling two days ago also recorded higher temperature, negating temporary relief felt in the region due to duststorm and rain. Temperature there touched 42.4 degrees celsius on April 16, six degrees above the normal.

Southern Haryana and areas adjoining Rajasthan have been facing problems due to rising temperature and shortage of power.

Haryana already has announced schedule of heavy power cuts in the state. Industry has been told it will receive power from 5 am to 7 am and 7 pm to 11 pm during peak load hours.

It has been decided to supply power to agricultural and rural feeders in two groups.

Sirsa, April 19
The Sirsa police today arrested a most wanted criminal, Rajpal Khileri, who was involved in 22 criminal cases including murder, kidnapping and smuggling of country made liquor, here. The police had announced a reward of Rs 10,000 for providing information about Khileri and included his name in the list of most wanted criminals. Besides the cases pending against Khileri in various police stations of Sirsa district, he was also wanted in cases in Fatehbad district.

Khileri was nabbed by the police while he was taking shelter in his house in Ding town about 20 km from here. The police raided his house after getting tip-off from an informer that Khileri was seen in his house and could be arrested. The police was tight lipped about Khileri’s political links.

However, the sources said that Khileri was enjoying political protection, which was the reason he had not been arrested for a long time, sources added.

Providing details to The Tribune the SP, Vikas Arora, said a team headed by the SHO, Ding police station, Mauji Ram, had arrested Khileri after getting specific information about his whereabouts.

He said recently in this year the police had arrested Khileri from the same place but following protest by his relatives and family members, he managed to escaped. 

Chandigarh , April 19
The Haryana government has decided to bring a paradigm shift in its tourism policy.

So far, the tourism department had been marketing the Haryana tourism corporation (HTC) at national and international fora as if the state had only the highway resorts developed by the corporation to offer to tourists.

Now the department will promote the state as such, and not the HTC alone, as one of the tourist attractions because of its religious, cultural and historical background, says tourism minister Kiran Choudhry.

As a result of this shift, Haryana will participate in the South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE), described as one of the biggest tourism marts, for the first time this year. While certain states like Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat had to pay a hefty fee to be part of the SATTE, opening in Delhi tomorrow, Kiran Choudhry managed a free entry for Haryana.

As many as 25 countries are participating in the SATTE this year. They include Pakistan , Sri Lanka, Japan, England , Malayasia, Dubai, Egypt and Germany.

Kiran said tourism secretary Keshni Anand Arora was able to convince private players in various fields of the tourism industry to come on one platform with the government to promote Haryana as a brand name.

At the SATTE, the Haryana department, in collaboration with the private sector, would showcase private golf courses (a hit with Japanese), farm tourism, places of religious significance like Kurukshetra, and eco-tourism. Kiran will highlight tourist spots in Haryana at the inaugural function.

Pakistan tourism minister Nilofar Bakhtiar, who was recently in the news after a religious organisation in her country issued a fatwa against her, along with her counterpart from Egypt, will be the special guest at the inaugural function of the SATTE. Union minister for tourism Ambika Soni will be the chief guest. 

Chandigarh, April 19
The Haryana government has transferred five IAS officers with immediate effect.

Commissioner and secretary, cooperation, D.S. Dhesi has been given additional charge of commissioner and secretary, environment, in place of R.R. Fuliya, who has been posted as commissioner and secretary, printing and stationery, relieving Manik B. Sonawane.

S.S. Prasad, awaiting posting orders, has been posted as special secretary, finance. P. Raghavendra Rao, also awaiting posting orders, will be the new project director of the Haryana prathmik shiksha pariyojna parishad vice R.S. Vundru, who will now be the special secretary, irrigation, in place of S.K. Gulati, as well as administrator, CADA, replacing Lal Singh.