Rewari, June 12
Over two dozen deaths, reportedly caused by dehydration and severe hot conditions, have been reported from various parts of the district in the past 36 hours. A maximum temperature of 46 degree Celsius was recorded here on Monday, which was described as the hottest day of June in the past two years.

Chandni Devi ( 80 ) succumbed to heat in Mohalla Ram Bas here this morning. As many as four aged persons, including three women-Bhagwati Devi (90 ), Mishri Devi ( 80 ), Sharda Devi ( 65 ) and Dev Dutt Sharma (86 ) died at Nahar village, 30 km from here, yesterday. The village sarpanch Kuldeep Kumar said they all had succumbed to the heat wave.

Similarly five persons, including two women, also died of heat stroke at Gokalgarh village, 3 km from here, last evening.

These persons were cremated without a post-mortem examination.

Besides head constable Prakash Chand died of heat stroke at the police post here yesterday. Similarly an old man Jai Dayal ( 75 ) here as well as an old woman Kalawati at Mastapur village, 8 km from here, also succumbed to heat yesterday. Their post-mortem examinations were conducted at the civil hospital here.

There was an unprecedented rush at the Delhi Road cremation ground here where a number of bodies were cremated in a row in the past 24 hours.

Similarly the heat wave also took a toll of about a dozen persons at Kosli, Nathera, Ladayan, Bahu Jholri and various other villages of the Kosli subdivision yesterday.

Chandigarh, June 12
Ordinarily, routine murder cases don’t evoke scathing observations. But in a case titled ‘Satish Sharma vs State of Haryana’, wherein the petitioner had sought that investigation into his brother’s murder case be transferred to the CBI, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has said “the government appears to be washing its hands off the task of conducting a fair investigation”.

The telling comment was made by Justice Ranjit Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in his order wherein he accepted the petitioner’s request and transferred the investigation to the CBI. The copy of the order (dated March 21) was received by the petitioner recently.

Importantly, the petition had been hanging fire in the court since 2001 and a strong note of this point too was taken by Justice Ranjit Singh who asked the CBI to be quick and efficient in probing the case.

Jugal Kishore, a resident of Karnal, was murdered on May 14,2001, and his brother Satish Sharma had lodged an FIR in this regard. Satish had alleged that his brother was stabbed to death by Brij Sharma, Anand Parkash, Vakil and another unknown person.

Following the FIR, Brij was taken into police custody but soon events took a dramatic turn with local Congress leader Satnam Azad allegedly taking the blame upon himself right in the presence of the DC and the SP who, interestingly, had jointly convened a press conference.

Satnam allegedly disclosed that he had lost Rs 7 lakh to Jugal Kishore in gambling and had got him murdered, by hiring two assassins from UP, to avenge his loss.

But the petitioner, Satish Sharma, alleged that Satnam’s confession was baseless and the administration was trying to shield the real accused who were active members of the INLD, the then ruling party.

The petitioner had also submitted that he never made any supplementary statement to the police as was claimed by it and the said statement had been introduced only to save the real culprits. An enquiry by Inspector-General of Police too had refused to acknowledge petitioner’s stand on the murder. It was in this background that the petitioner had moved the high court in 2001 seeking fair investigation by the CBI.

The case took a curious turn when the state government, on February 14, 2007, took a stand supporting the petitioner’s plea that the case be transferred to the CBI to ensure fair investigation. Generally, the state opposes any such plea for the transfer of investigation into a case to the CBI as it reflects poorly on its own force.

The offbeat stand of the state prodded Justice Ranjit Singh to state in his order that “the government was conveniently abdicating its responsibility to conduct fair and impartial investigation into the case”. 

Chandigarh, June 12
After launching special schemes for the better health of women and children in Haryana, the state government has now decided to target adolescent girls, suffering from malnutrition.

For this the Haryana Women and Child Development Department has made an enhanced allocation of over Rs 5.57 crore for the implementation of ‘Kishori Shakti Yojna’.

Disclosing this today, a spokesman of the department said out of the total amount earmarked for the current financial year for the implementation of the scheme, over Rs 4.87 crore would be utilised for nutrition given to adolescent girls.

He said as against this year’s enhanced allocation of the budget, about Rs 2.80 crore was spent for the implementation of the scheme during the last financial year.

He said the scheme aims to target girls in the age group of 11 to 18 years.

The scheme will also undertake promotion of awareness about health, hygiene, nutrition, home management and childcare.

The scheme was being implemented in all Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) projects in the state.

It has so far benefited 61,302 girls by providing them supplementary nutrition and training.

The services under the scheme were being provided through 1,636 Balika Mandals for six months in some Anganwadi Centres, he added.

It may be recalled that the Haryana Government has already enhanced financial norms under the supplementary nutrition programme of the ICDS for mothers, adolescent girls and children and these rates were the highest in the country.

The rates are Rs 3 per day per child and Rs 5 per day per mother or adolescent girl.

As against about Rs 75.41 crore spent during the last financial year under the supplementary nutrition programme, Rs 144.99 crore has been earmarked for the purpose during the current financial year.

He said the programme was benefiting about 11.19 lakh children, 3.19 lakh mothers and adolescent girls in the state.

Rewari, June 12
The Primary Health Centre (PHC) of Guraora village, 30 km from here, has virtually become a white elephant for thousands of residents of Guraora and other surrounding villages of the district owing to the apathy of the state health authorities.

As many as 25 posts of doctors, lady medical officers, pharmacists, staff nurses, lab technicians, X-ray specialists and other staff employees, which have been lying vacant for a pretty long time, have made a mockery of the functioning of the PHC.

Thus most of the patients from Guraora, Kanhora, Kanhori, Gadla, Rattanthal, Jeewra, Chanadanwas, Rohrai and a dozen other villages either receive treatment from RMP’S of these villages or exorbitant treatment from private hospitals of the Rewari city.

Davender Zaildar, a councillor of the Zila Parishad, said union minister of defence production Rao Inderjit Singh had recently sent a communication to health minister Kartari Devi urging her to fill up the vacancies in the PHC expeditiously.

Simultaneously, village sarpanch Pinki Yadav said the village panchayat too had made repeated requests to the health authorities for filling the vacancies. But it is deplorable that all such requests have remained unheeded till date.

Under such circumstances the villagers want the PHC to be closed so that the services of its existing staff may be utilised elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Dr Ram Chander, CMO, Rewari, said the two doctors, who were recently posted at the PHC, were expected to join it soon.

Chandigarh, June 12
Making a scathing observation that power utilities should not take advantage of shrewd technical pleas to harass consumers, the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Panchkula, has quashed an order of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd (UHBVNL) whereby it had imposed a penalty of Rs 11.40 lakh on a gravel-washing plant owner.

The facts of the case are that Dinesh Rana was the proprietor of Jai Durga Washing Plant, Raipur Rani, Panchkula. The said plant was sanctioned the electricity load to the tune of 56.537 kw by the UHBVN.

The power bills of the complainant, Dinesh Rana, varied from Rs 18,000 to Rs 25,000 when his power connection was through the Raipur Rani feeder as he used to get supply from 18 to 20 hours a day.

Rana’s connection was transferred from Raipur Rani to Trilokpur feeder in July 2006 for the reasons best known to the nigam, the forum observed. Importantly, Rana had never made any such request seeking transfer of the connection.

The transfer resulted in a considerable reduction in power supply to the plant. In fact, the plant was receiving supply only for eight hours and that too on alternate days. Due to this poor supply of power, Rana’s power bills came down to Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000. Also, the plant remained closed due to annual repairs for the period from first week of August to first week of October 2006 during which there was no consumption of electricity.

On October 16,2006, the nigam officials had allegedly checked the plant’s electricity meter in the absence of the complainant. The AEE (Vigilance) had removed the meter after disconnecting the supply and sealed the meter in a jute bag but did not put any seal of the complainant on the bag.

Thereafter, Rana received a notice, dated October 16 only, wherein it was alleged that both the M and P seals of CT chamber of MCB were found to be missing. However, the two M and P seals of metering chamber of MCB in upper portion were found intact.

The forum took a serious view of the notice and observed that no seals could be found missing unless these were broken. The AEE’s assertion that seals were missing but his silence on the fact as to whether they were broken too irked the forum. It observed that the AEE, being a technical man, was supposed to mention this fact that the seals were broken and missing. The seals can’t go missing without being broken, it was emphasised.

The forum accepted Rana’s complaint and quashed the UHBVNL’s notice and also imposed costs of Rs 2,000 on it. The nigam was also directed to restore the power connection of the plant.

Ambala, June 12
R.K. Saini, special judge, CBI court, Ambala, has refused to grant bail to Awtar Singh, a member of Dera Sachha Sauda, in the Ranjit Singh murder case.

The court had recently framed charges against Awtar Singh and four others in the case. Awtar had filed a bail application on which the judge had reserved the order for yesterday.

Other members of the dera against whom the court had framed charges are Kishan Lal, Inder Sain, Sabdil Singh and Jasbir Singh.

It is to be mentioned that Ranjeet, a resident of Kurukshetra, who was in the 10-member management committee looking after the functioning of the dera, was murdered on July 10, 2002. Four persons were arrested in this connection and case was transferred to the CBI.

Yamunanagar, June 12
Hundreds of members of the Sikh community yesterday participated in the bhog ceremony of akhand path of Guru Granth Sahib held in connection with the burning of religious scriptures in the Mastgarh gurdwara, Chhachhrouli.

Jathedar of Akal Takht Joginder Singh Vedanti was among several Sikh religious leaders who participated in the ceremony. Antisocial elements had burnt religious scriptures in the gurdwara on June 2.

The leaders demanded that culprits should be apprehended and made to apologise before Guru Granth Sahib. The leaders also appealed for unity among the Sikhs, irrespective of political affiliations.

Rohtak, June 12
Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh released a book titled “Haryana at Crossroads: Problems and Prospects” at the Myna tourist Complex here today.

The book, penned by eminent educationist, writer and social thinker D.R.Chaudhry, focuses on the socio-economic atmosphere prevailing in the state since its inception and analyses of various contemporary issues.

The topics covered in the book include the functioning and relevance of khap-panchayats, casteism in state politics, agro-based industry, crisis in education sector, condition of women in Haryana and its tussle with Punjab.

Addressing the gathering of intellectuals on the occasion, Chaudhry observed that bridging the gap between the materialistic progress of Haryana and its cultural development was must for the healthy growth of the state.

Renowned educationists Prof Suraj Bhan, Dr K.C.Yadav and Prof Rajender Singh expressed their views about the book on the occasion. A discussion on various aspects covered in the book was also held.

Kumar Vikram from the National Book Trust (NBT) asserted that this book was an experiment under the NBT’s initiative termed India: Land and People.

Rewari, June 12
A young woman, Sumitra Devi, was administered poison allegedly by her father-in-law Ram Singh Yadav and her two brothers-in-law Rakesh Yadav and Mukesh Yadav at Lisan village, 30 km from here, on Sunday.

She was admitted to the civil hospital in a critical condition here, however, the doctors were able to save her life.

It is alleged that owing to family bickerings Sumitra, wife of Raj Bahadur Yadav, eldest son of Ram Singh Yadav, was given poison by her in-laws who wanted to eliminate her.

On her complaint, the Khol police has registered a case under Sections 328 and 34 of the IPC against the in- laws.