Chandigarh, November 17
Not so long ago Phool Chand Mullana and Bhupinder Singh Hooda belonged to two rival factions of the Congress and this gave rise to speculation that Mullana as the chief of the PCC chief could be more than a handful for Chief Minister Hooda.

However, it has turned out that rather than having a hostile relationship, the two have actually made a good team.

Mullana, president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC), is organising a function to felicitate Chief Minister Hooda on various steps initiated by the state government for the welfare of Dalits, including Hooda’s latest effort to revive the scheme of giving residential plots to Dalits free of cost.

Earlier also a function was organised at the CM’s official residence in Chandigarh to create hype about Hooda’s announcement on giving free plots to Dalits.

The function was called “dhanyabad samaroh” and its proclaimed theme was expressing gratitude to Hooda by Dalits for his announcement.

Mullana is also organising something on similar lines but on a much larger scale. The PCC chief has got down to organising a state-level gathering at Karnal next month to welcome Hooda’s announcement on residential plots.

It will be a “Dalit samaroh” (assembly of Dalits) in which Hooda would be garlanded and thanked by the organisers for his steps on the welfare of the Dalits.

Mullana, himself a Dalit, is the chairman of the organising committee of the meeting. Mullana has also called a general body meeting of the PCC here on November 20. The meeting, has been convened to begin preparations for the proposed rally.

The Karnal rally is slated to be a significant event also because it will be inevitably compared with the much-awaited rally being held under the aegis of the father-son duo of Bhajan Lal and Kuldeep Bishnoi in Rohtak on December 2.

The establishment here is keeping a close watch on the developments on the Bhajan Lal-Kuldeep Bishnoi front. Sporadic statements have also started appearing from the side of Congress apparatchiks to decry the challenge thrown to Hooda by the dissident faction led by the father-son duo.

Hari Singh, organisation secretary of the HPCC, who had earlier challenged Bhajan Lal in the assembly elections, today issued a statement claiming that the Rohtak rally would disappoint the participants.

“There will be no announcement on forming a new party by Bhajan Lal because both he and his son are afraid to face the electorate in a byelection”, Hari Singh said.

Hooda had earlier inducted Mullana as the deputy chairman of the state planning board of which Hooda himself is the chairman.

The appointment has enabled Mullana to retain some of the privileges he had enjoyed earlier as cabinet minister, including his official residence in Chandigarh. It is now payback time for the PCC chief.

Ambala, November 17
Cases against the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh were adjourned by a CBI court here today.

Special Judge for CBI cases in Haryana R.K. Saini adjourned the cases to December 1. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was present in court.

Counsel for the dera chief sought time for carrying out arguments on the chargesheet while counsel for the CBI said there should not be any further delay in this regard.

The CBI counsel stated that the process for framing of charges against the dera chief should take place at the earliest.

Special CBI Judge R.K. Saini announced that the cases had been adjourned to December 1.

Thereafter, the dera chief went to the Sector 8 HUDA ground where he addressed his followers.

A large number of followers had begun to gather at the HUDA ground since early morning. The dera chief addressed his followers through a special bulletproof cabin.

Police personnel had made elaborate security arrangements to ensure that no untoward incident took place. A posse of police personnel was present outside the court complex.

Incidentally, the dera chief had arrived at the residence of one of his followers in Ambala City last night. His followers were present in large numbers in Ambala City.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh had appeared in the CBI court on October 4 on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

His counsel had moved three sets of application for granting of regular bail on that date. On October 15, the CBI had filed a voluminous reply to the regular bail application. Marathon arguments had taken place on the regular bail application.

The CBI counsel had concluded his arguments on October 20 while the counsel for the dera chief had concluded his arguments on October 22. On October 25, the dera chief had been granted regular bail.

The CBI has filed challan in three cases against the dera chief. The cases pertain to the alleged sexual exploitation of a sadhvi, murder of Ranjit Singh and the Ram Chander Chattarpati murder case.

Chandigarh, November 17
Directing the continuation of a stay on the arrest of the Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a case registered by the Punjab Police on May 20, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today further directed him to join the investigation on December 8.

He has been accused of insulting religious sentiments and promoting enmity between different religious groups.

The directions were issued by Justice L N Mittal during the resumed hearing of his anticipatory bail plea.

Taking up the matter, the Judge also fixed February 12 as the next date of hearing in the matter.

It may be recalled that the court had directed the investigating officers to question him in his dera near Sirsa.

The court had also asked him to cooperate with the investigating officials and not to hinder the investigations in any manner.

Gurgaon, November 17
The district administration has given an ultimatum to private builders to submit their electrification plan to the power utilities for seeking a regular power connection in the buildings constructed by them within a fortnight.

If they fail to do so within the stipulated period, an FIR under provisions of the Electricity Act will be lodged against them.

The decision was taken in a meeting convened by deputy commissioner Rakesh Gupta with officers of the town and country planning and power utilities departments to discuss the complaints received by him from people residing in the colonies developed by private builders.

In the complaints, they had alleged that private builders were providing them electricity at the rate of Rs 10 to 15 per unit, which was thrice the rate of Rs 4.63 per unit provided by the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam.

Some of the builders had not even applied for seeking a regular electricity connection and were supplying electricity generated from the generators for which they were charging very high rates.

Gupta said legal action would be initiated against the defaulter builders and those who had got the electrification plan approved from the nigam but have not implemented it so far.

There are a number of colonies like Mayfield Garden, Saraswati Kunj, Unitech, Ansal, Trinika City, Vatika City, DLF, Ambience, who have either not applied for a regular connection or have not started the work for setting up of power substations.

According to the terms and conditions of the town and country planning department, it was the responsibility of the developer to meet the power needs of the residents living in the colony developed by them but majority of developers in Gurgaon have failed to comply with it.

An official said the DLF was to set up four power substations but after setting up one, nothing concrete had been done to undertake work of the rest of the substations, though it had already taken necessary approval from the power utilities.

He directed that in future no completion certificate would be issued to a builder or group housing society that had not implemented its electrification plan already approved by the power utilities.

Bhiwani, November 17
The police today arrested the blood bank in charge of the local Civil Hospital, Dr Aditya Swaroop Gupta, in connection with issuing “wrong blood” to a woman patient, who later died. He was produced before a court.

The patient, Kamlesh, of Hanuman Dhani had been admitted after complaint of a cyst in the stomach at the Civil Hospital.

The doctor had advised her operation. During the operation, the woman doctor asked for her blood sample to be sent to the blood bank as blood was required for operation. After testing the blood, they sent the report to the doctor concerned.

It has been alleged that after the blood transfusion, the doctor, seeing shortage of blood in the body, advised for more blood transfusion and sent a slip having the particular blood group on it.

The attendant of the blood bank provided the blood to relatives of the patient, but the same night the patient complained of blood loss through urine and her condition deteriorated.

The ward staff informed the doctor who after investigation found that “wrong blood” had been used for the patient. The doctor referred the case to the PGI, Rohtak, where Kamlesh died.

Kamlesh’s relatives lodged a complaint with the chief medical officer who marked an inquiry to the then principal medical officer, Dr Pankaj Vats.

Dr Vats, in his inquiry report, said there were “technical mistakes” in the blood. He held the lab technician and the blood bank in charge responsible in this matter.

Following the report, the police registered a case against the blood bank in charge and arrested him today.

The in charge, Dr Aditya Swaroop Gupta, alleged that the Dinod Gate police station in charge misbehaved with him and beat him up. He said there was no fault of his in the case as he had only signed after seeing the slip and the blood.

He alleged that the police did not call him up for interrogation in this case.

Ambala, November 17
A large number of migrant labourers working in different brick-kilns spread across Ambala district were attacked today by members of a particular community.

SP Ambala K.V. Ramanna said a case had been registered in the matter. “We have rounded up atleast 25 attackers and further investigations are on. Peace has been restored at the brick-kilns,” he said.

The attack on the brick-kiln workers began at around 11 am at a kiln located near Mithapur village.

Eyewitnesses informed the police that a mob comprising members of a particular community targeted the migrant labourers.

Three women were beaten up, a horse-cart was damaged and the horse was
let loose.

A ‘head’ of the migrant labourers working at that particular brick-kiln was allegedly forcibly taken away by the members of the particular community.

Thereafter, the mob moved onto a kiln at Mahmoodpur followed by attacks on migrant labourers in three kilns in Barara, two in Kadasan and one in Panjokhra.

The migrant labourers alleged that over 12 of them were injured in the incident while there was no information about a couple of them. It is believed that some of the labourers had run away when the attacks took place.

Two different reasons are being cited for the attacks. According to one, the reason behind the attack was that some payments were due to some former brick-kiln workers who were laid-off. These workers had carried out the attack so that they could get their dues.

However, according to another reason, members of a particular community are upset with the migrant labourers as they are ready to work at a price lower than what has been set by them.

They had been insisting that the migrant labourers work at rates set by the local community members. But when the directions did not have the desired effect, they resorted to strong arm tactics leading to today’s attack.

Faridabad, November 17
The police has nabbed the kingpin and the last member of a criminal gang, which used to steal ghee and refined oil from shops.

Earlier, the police had held five of its members. So far they have robbed about 11,000 litres of ghee and refined oil packed in canisters.

The kingpin, Ramji Lal, was nabbed at Ballabgarh railway station by the police following a tip off. The gang members used to carry out their operations in Ballabgarh.

According to the official version, the five members of the gang were arrested on November 7, while they were planning a dacoity.

The police also recovered the robbed canisters following disclosures by the kingpin of the gang.

Jhajjar, November 17
A Muslim woman, who was working at a brick kiln in Bhadani village of the district, died yesterday.

Her body was buried in a village cremation ground. However, when the villagers objected today, her body was taken out of the grave and again laid to rest in a Muslim graveyard at Dujana village of the district.

According to information, the deceased, Majida Begum, died of illness yesterday at Sher brick kiln.

Her husband, Mohsin, and other relatives buried her in the cremation ground as per Muslim rituals, but when the villagers came to know about the incident, they protested over the burial in their cremation ground.

Some villagers went to the kiln today and directed the husband of the deceased to exhume her body and bury it elsewhere.

The husband and other relatives too acceded to their demand and took out the body. The body was later taken to the Muslim graveyard at Dujana village and again buried in the evening today.

The couple hails from West Bengal and had been working at the brick kiln for about two years. The woman is survived by a two-year-old daughter.

The villagers, however, were not prepared to talk about the incident. The sarpanch of the village was also not available for comments.

Sonepat, November 17
A large number of women workers of Toy and Toy Industrial Unit today staged a protest at local mini-secretariat against the SHO of Rai police station.

They have been facing unit’s lock out for the last two months. The SHO allegedly abused the women workers when they were holding a gate meeting at the unit on November 12.

Led by veteran union leader and state convener of Haryana Kisan Sabha S.N. Solanki, the workers handed over a memorandum to deputy commissioner D.P.S. Nagal demanding action against the SHO. Solanki said he had spoken to SSP Navdeep Singh Virk about the incident.

However, SHO Rai Nar Singh denied the allegations ans said he had asked the women workers to only vacate the gate and the road leading to the gate.

Chandigarh, November 17
Haryana has recorded second conviction of a doctor for sex determination under the Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Rohtak, has convicted Dr S.N. Danvantri and sentenced him to one-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 under Section 22 (3) of the PC and the PNDT Act, 1994.

Stating this here today, Haryana health minister Kartar Devi said Haryana was the first state in the country to get a doctor convicted under the PNDT Act in 2005.

Dr Anil Sabhani and Kartar Singh, a technician, from Palwal in Faridabad district were sentenced to two-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 each was imposed under the PNDT Act.

She said two more cases had been registered against Dr Surinder Yadav of Gurgaon and Dr S.N. Indora of Faridabad under the PNDT Act.

The charges had been framed against the erring doctors, who had been booked under the PNDT Act by the health department.

Regarding two other convictions under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, Kartar Devi said the court of N.P. Dewett, Additional Session Judge, Gurgaon, had convicted Dr Rajni to rigorous imprisonment of one year with a fine of Rs 1,000 under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956.

The convict, Neera, who was undergoing medical termination of pregnancy, had also been sentenced two years of rigorous imprisonment for commission of offence.

She said in case of second such conviction, a trained dai, Joginder Kaur, and her assistant Rekha, who had been running an illegal clinic in Ambala, were awarded two years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,000 was imposed on them by a fast track court under the MTP Act.

Director-general, health services, Dr Avinash Sharma said with a view to address the issue of adverse sex ratio, which stands at 857 females for every 1000 males, the state had been making all possible efforts to eliminate sex-selective abortions.

A number of decoy raid operations had been undertaken at various ultrasound centres across Haryana. The state had also registered 950 ultrasound clinics or genetic clinics and 66 genetic counselling centres under the PC and PNDT Act.

As many as 46 ultrasound machines had been registered in the government sector. At least 100 ultrasound machines had been seized and sealed by respective district appropriate authorities. Also, 5,760 inspections of various ultrasound clinics had been conducted.

Registration of 165 ultrasound centres had been suspended or cancelled for violation of various provisions of the PNDT Act. Also, 36 prosecution complaints had been filed in various courts of the state. — UNI

Bhiwani, November 17
Farmers of three villages falling under Badhra Assembly area today gheraoed and locked out the 132 KV Badhra power substation in protest against failure of recommencement of construction works on Kari feeder.

Later, the farmers sat on a dharna under the leadership of the district president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Dharmpal.

He said the union had warned the administration two days ago. Authorities concerned, whenever contacted for the construction work, said the cable, which was to be used in the feeder, had been stolen and the work would start after receiving the next lot of cable.

Dharmpal Singh said the sowing season was in full swing and farmers needed the feeder badly. The feeder on completion would benefit hundreds of farmers of Karimod, Badhra and Bhandwa villages.

Sources said the authorities assured the agitators that the work would start as they had got the cable.

The farmers are struggling for their demand of 12-hour uninterrupted 3-phase power supply and adequate supply of canal water.

Disclosing this here today, leader of the Kisan Sabha Ran Singh said the joint action committee of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti and Kisan Sabha was demanding a 12-hour power supply, pending connections for farmers, free of cost cables and poles, canal water up to tail end and implementation of the Dr Swaminathan report.

He said the farmers of Jui, Badhra, Loharu and Jhojhu would court arrest in five phases starting from November 23 if their demands were not accepted by
November 22.

In the letter, it has been mentioned that the farmers of the area are entitled for round-the-clock water supply in lieu of the free land and labour provided by the farmers for the construction of the canal in 1872.

He said the interviews had been postponed. He said the candidates who were not allowed to attend the interview were not eligible for it.

Yamunanagar, November 17
Shantanu of Sant Nischal Singh Public School here has bagged the first position in science exhibition competition held during a national science fest, ‘Junoon-2007’, at Ganpati Group of Institutions in Bilaspur here.

More than 1,000 students from classes IX to XII from 56 schools participated in the fest. Dr M.K. Sehgal, chairman-cum-CEO, Ganpati Group of Institutions, said the idea behind holding the fest was to inculcate managing and coordination skills among students. The results are as follows (in order of position):

Group song: Aashra, Varnis and Group (S.A. Jain Senior Secondary School, Ambala Cantt), Swatika, Surbhi (Arya Girls Senior Secondary School, Jagadhri)

Science exhibition: Shantanu (Sant Nischal Singh Public School), Amit Gupta (Government Model Sanskrit Sr. Sec. School, Bilaspur

Slogan writing: Neel Kamal Mukherjee (Swami Vivekananad Public School, Yamunanagar), Ritika Malhotra (Anand Public School)

Poster Making: Richa Gupta (Anand Public School), Dhwani Gupta (St. Nischal Singh Public School)

Science quiz: Chetna Bakshi and Shalini Dhingra, Davinder Singh and Vinod Kumar (both teams from St. Nischal S Public School)

Declamation contest: Prachi (St. Nischal School), Sanya Sharma (Golden Public School, Lalru)

Debate: Tridev Vadhera (Sh G.R.S.D. Senior Secondary School, Sargodha, Ambala Cantt) and Isha (S.A. Jain Senior Secondary School, Ambala City).