Sonepat, October 14
Perturbed over the refusal of his wife to return home from his in-laws’ house, a man threw his two daughters in the village pond. and then committed suicide at his residence in Mundalana village under Gohana Sadar police station last night.

The girls also died at the Community Health Centre at Gohana later. According to sources, Rakesh had gone to his in-laws’ house in Eatal village in Jind district yesterday to bring back his wife, who had been staying there for the past six months.

His wife, however, refused to accompany him and asked him to take their daughters along with him. Rakesh reached Gohana late evening and consumed alcohol heavily.

On reaching the village he threw the daughters Jyoti and Khushi in the village pond and went home. Later the family members retrieved the girls from the pond and rushed them to the health centre.

Rakesh, who had remained in the house, consumed poison and was found dead in the house this morning. Police has also recovered a letter from the pocket of the deceased.

Panipat, October 14
Inder Singh Chhoker, a local Gujjar leader and a loyalist of the suspended Congress MP Kuldeep Bishnoi, died of a gunshot this morning under mysterious circumstances at his office in Samalkha, near here.

According to sources the deceased was cleaning his licensed revolver at his grain market office when the weapon accidentally went off.

He received at least one bullet injury near his chest, said the police sources.

At the time of the incident (around 9 a.m), Chhoker was reportedly accompanied by one of his supporters, who rushed to his office on hearing the gunshot.

After seeing his leader lying in a pool of blood, he immediately informed Chokker's driver, who rushed him to a private hospital in Panipat town.

He was declared brought dead at the hospital. The police has seized the revolver.

Samalkha DSP Rajeev Deswal informed TNS that a team of forensic experts had taken samples from the spot.

Chhoker had contested the last Assembly elections as an independent candidate from Samalkha constituency after he was denied a ticket by the INLD. Later, he became associated with the Bishnoi camp.

His funeral was attended by a large number of people this evening and Bishnoi and other leaders were present on the occasion.

Fatehabad, October 14
Local MLA and parliamentary secretary, Dura Ram claimed today that it was entirely due to the efforts of the Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda that the farmers had got a handsome hike in the prices of wheat and paddy this year.

Talking to mediapersons at Ayalki village in this district today, Dura Ram said Hooda had played an important role in getting farmers lucrative MSP for wheat and bonus for their paddy crops.

He claimed that farmers of Haryana would get a total benefit of Rs 1,000 crore from the recent hike and bonus announced by the central government and farmers from Fatehabad district alone would get an additional benefit of Rs 200 crore, he added.

He said it was for the first time that the MSP of wheat had been increased by Rs 250 per quintal and this proved that the Congress government in Haryana and the UPA government at the Centre cared for the interests of farmers.

Dura Ram also laid the foundation of 3.64 km-long stretch of a new road from Ayalki to Mallad.

The road would be completed by February 2008 at a cost of Rs 54 lakh.

He also announced the construction of a new tubewell for drinking water at the village.

Fatehabad, October 14
Tears rolled down the face of Nand Kishore, the hapless father of HIV/AIDS victim Mohan, when a messenger handed over the first installment of financial help sent by a Dubai-based Indian national Navdeep Rai to him at Rohtak today.

These were the tears of gratitude from a person living in abject poverty with absolutely no idea how he was going to manage his stay at a distant place like Rohtak, where he had accompanied Mohan to look after him.

These were also the tears of acknowledgement of the fact that humanity was still alive and despite the materialism, there are persons whose hearts still bleed when they see others in pain and desperation.

For Nand Kishore, the news of his son Mohan had come as a bolt from the blue early this year, but the timely help he received from Navdeep and a local philanthropist C.P. Batra today came as pleasant surprise.

While sending money for Nand Kishore through Western Union, Navdeep, with all his humility, gave all credit to The Tribune for highlighting the cause and getting Nand Kishore the help he needed.

“My contribution towards this cause is not a one-off event and I would like to keep supporting Nand Kishore in covering his expenses,” Navdeep said in a communication.

At Rohtak, the victim has been admitted to Arpan Care Centre, Gandhi Nagar, Rohtak.

Ambala, October 14
Two persons were killed and three seriously injured when the car in which they were travelling rammed into a tree near Naraingarh here today.

The Sumo car was carrying a patient to PGI, Chandigarh when the mishap occurred.

They were coming from Nahan side when the driver lost control of the vehicle when they were crossing near village Hamidpur.

The car overturned after the accident. Darshni Devi and the driver died on the spot.

One of the injured was sent to PGI while two other occupants of the car were admitted to civil hospital at Naraingarh.

Jind, October 14
The local police has arrested two youths who had allegedly snatched Rs 1 lakh from a woman here in April.

The victim had withdrawn the money from a bank and was on way to her house at Urban Estate here when the incident took place.

The police had no clue of the accused except the colour of the motor cycle, which was noticed by the victim. The looted amount has been recovered along with the motor cycle.

The accused have been identified as Ravinder and Sandeep, both brothers and resident of Pindara village in the district.

While they do not have any criminal background, it is claimed that the duo turned greedy after they noticed that a woman, who was alone at that time, withdrew the amount.

According to district police chief J.S. Lamba, as the police had no clue except the colour of the vehicle used in crime, the police had faced many hurdles to trace the culprits and recover the money.

He said while the incident had taken place on April 27, 2007, it took more than five months for the police to zero in on the accused just on the basis of the colour of the motor cycle.

He said the accused had come to the bank to deposit Rs 10,000 on the same day. While a thorough search was carried on to trace the motor cycle from the records of suspected elements who had been hovering around banks that day, he said, adding that the police got a clue after it was cleared that the youths had started chasing the victim right from the bank premises.

Meanwhile, in two separate incidents of accidents, two youths lost their lives in the past 24 hours.

One of the victims has been identified as Vijay who died after he was run over by a canter while he was on way to his house last night. His friend got injured seriously in the accident. A case has been registered.

Kaithal, October 14
A joint team of the city police and local CIA branch has busted an interstate gang of robbers and arrested its seven members while other four members managed to escape.

The police has also recovered one country-made pistol, an air pistol, iron rod, a motorcycle, two scooters and some cash from their possession.

Following interrogation of the accused, the police claims to have solved a case in which Rs 1.50 lakh were stolen from the glove compartment of a motorcycle outside the LIC office here few months ago.

The accused were produced before a local court yesterday which sent them in police custody for 10 days.

SSP Anil Kumar told the mediapersons that SHO Ravinder Kumar received information from his sources that 11 armed members of a gang of robbers belonging to Moradabad were planning to loot persons withdrawing cash from banks.

A joint team then laid a trap at HDFC Bank on the Ambala road here and nabbed them.

Those arrested have been identified as Shashi Kapoor, Sonu, Amit Kumar, Shiv Kumar, Ashish, Parminder Kumar and Barjesh, all residents of Adarsh Colony, Moradabad.

The SSP said those who managed to escape had been identified as Ashish, Jai Kumar and Gian Singh, also residents of Moradabad.

Karnal, October 14
Children’s films are being given a raw deal by film producers in the country, as not enough movies are being made for kids, said Nafisa Ali, former Miss India, and chairperson, Children’s Film Society, India.

Nafisa was here today along with her husband Col R.S. “Pickles” Sodhi for the bhumi pujan ceremony of Alpha International City, a Rs 1600-crore integrated township project being developed by Alpha G: Corp in Sectors 28 and 29. Col Sodhi is the managing director of the company.

Speaking exclusively to The Tribune, Nafisa, effervescent as ever, said the producers had no marketing sense when it comes to making films for children.

“They can spend Rs 20 crore on a mainstream movie and if it bombs they get nothing in return, but they can’t spend Rs 1-2 crore on children’s film which can fetch them at least four times their investment,” she said.

“We are striving hard for promoting and supporting better cinema for children at the grass-roots level,” she added.

Nafisa said the International Children’s Film Festival would be held in Hyderabad on November 14.

Nafisa also heads Action India, an NGO that runs a hospice for sufferers of HIV/AIDS. She also supports many other NGOs that focus on social equality for all and protection of fundamental rights.

When asked about her film career, Nafisa said she preferred to work “behind the camera”.

Her latest movie is “Godfather” opposite Vinod Khanna, which has been released in Pakistan, the UK, Dubai and other parts of the Middle East.

“After I made my debut in ‘Junoon’ in 1979, the next project I took was ‘Major Saab’ opposite Amitabh Bachchan in 1998, she said, adding, “Social issues like the plight of the girl child and HIV/AIDS victims are closer to my heart than acting”.

“I don’t know why the girl child is being so discriminated against when the intelligence level of both sexes is at par. Nowadays, everything is mechanical and automated so macho-ism is out. What a man can do a female can also do,” said a feisty Nafisa.

Jhajjar, October 14
A youth was detained by some anganwari workers in Nimana village of the district today for reportedly duping members of the Saksharta Mahila Samuh and anganwari workers by promising them a permanent government job. Later, he was handed over to the police.

Sources said the youth identified as Shispal, a resident of Narela in Delhi, under a literacy programme had collected Rs 50 and documents of educational qualifications from the members promising jobs.

When he approached Nirmala Devi, a worker in Nimana village, she got suspicious and exposed him after enquiring about his credentials.

A diary and some documents were recovered from his possession, which indicated that he had collected money from about 200 women in different villages.

The police is investigating the matter, while additional deputy commissioner Ajit Joshi had recommended to lodge an FIR against the youth as many women had filed a complaint.

Sonepat, October 14
Rebel Congress MP Kuldeep Bishnoi today criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for giving indications of backtracking on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Talking to mediapersons here at a restaurant, Bishnoi said the deal was beneficial in the interests of the country to meets its power dreams and the PM should go ahead with the finalisation of the deal.

He termed Chief Minister Hooda’s claim that a large sum of capital investment had already been made in the state as false and alleged that a Japanese firm had blamed the Hooda government for misguiding and making false promises regarding provisions of basic facilities to the firm.

Taking a dig at Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s ‘Bijli rally’ at Jharli village, Bishnoi said soon after the rally, the state was passing through the worst power crisis and it had brought the business and other activities to a standstill.

In reply to a question, he claimed that under the leadership of Bhajan Lal, more and more people were joining their group.

They would announce the name of their party on December 2 at the Rohtak rally, he said. He, however, did not commit whether it would be a political or non-political one. He said so far they had not taken any decision on forging alliance with any other political party.

Panipat, October 14
Industrial workers staged a protest rally under the aegis of various trade unions at Haali Park, here today.

A 15-day notice had been served to the district authorities to transform the safety and working conditions in the Panipat industries failing which industrial workers had threatened to intensify the agitation.

Secretary of the CPM Inderjeet Singh alleged that the state authorities had taken the rightful demands of the industrial workers lightly.

Trade union leaders paid tributes to the workers who had died in a fire accident last week. They demanded that a sum of Rs five lakh each should be given to the families of those killed in the mishap.

Chandigarh, October 14
The Haryana Panchayat and Development Department has sanctioned a sum of Rs 770 crore for executing various developmental works in the state and out of this, a sum of Rs 300 crore has already been released.

This was disclosed by the financial commissioner and principal secretary, Development and Panchayat Department, Haryana, Urvashi Gulati, while reviewing the works sanctioned under Chief Minister announcements and various schemes launched under the Haryana Rural Development Fund (HRDF) in the state here on Thursday.

Gulati said as much as Rs 150 crore had been incurred so far for executing various schemes in the state up to September 30.

She said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had announced as many as 564 developmental works relating to the department, which included construction and repair of schoolrooms, chaupals, veterinary dispensary and hospitals, retaining walls, panchayat ghars, community centres, and ayurvedic dispensaries and out of these 409 works had already been completed.

While referring to the scheme of model village launched by the government, she said as many as 80 villages had already been declared model villages in the state so far.

Chandigarh, October 14
Lok adalats were held today at Sarsehri (Ambala), Sikrona (Faridabad), Gatauli (Jind), Dhamtan Sahib (Narwana -Jind) and Purkhas (Sonepat) villages.

A spokesman of the Haryana State Legal Services Authority (HALSA) said in these rural lok adalats 2,409 cases were taken up and 961 were settled. These included civil, petty criminal, matrimonial and family disputes and mutation and bank loan cases, which were at pre-litigative stage.

He said a lok adalat was held today at Gurgaon also to settle credit card disputes of ICICI Bank. In this lok adalat 29 cases out of the 33 were settled.

Chandigarh, October 14
Haryana Governor A.R. Kidwai offered prayers at Jama Masjid in Sector 20 here on the occasion of Id-ul-Fitr.

Speaking on the occasion he urged the people to work for the welfare of society and the country. He said we would not be able to keep pace with the progress taking place in the world if we failed to impart quality education to our children.

He said the unity and amity among different religions was essential for the prosperity of the country.

There was festive atmosphere in the Raj Bhavan where people from all walks of life offered greeting to Kidwai and his family members.

The Governor himself offered sweets, “seviyan” and fruits to all those who called upon him.

Haryana Chief Secretary Promilla Issar greeted the Governor and offered a bouquet to him on behalf of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who is on a foreign tour these days.

Ven. Rigyal Rinpoche of the Drikung Kagyu sect of the Tibetans also visited the Raj Bhavan and greeted Kidwai.

Among others who greeted the Governor were Director General of Police Ranjiv Dalal, Director of the PGI K.K Talwar and his wife, former financial commissioner K.C. Sharma and Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University R.C Sobti.

Jagadhri, October 14
Haryana education minister Mange Ram Gupta today said the message of universal brotherhood and equality given by Maharaja Aggarsain should be followed by each and everyone so as to build the civilised society.

Gupta was speaking on the birth anniversary of Maharaja Aggarsain at Shibbumal Makhanlal Dharamsala here.

Gupta said Maharaja Agarsain urged the people to eradicate the social evils such as dowry system and female foeticide to build a better society. — UNI