Chandigarh, November 28
The ruling Congress and the main opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in the state are trying to woo Dalits, which constitute a major chunk of the electorate.

The efforts of these parties gained momentum particularly after the BSP, riding on the success of its social engineering formula in UP, announced its intention to repeat the experiment in Haryana also.

Both parties have announced grand plans to observe the 51st death anniversary of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, celebrated as Ambedkar Nirvan Diwas, on December 6.

While the Congress will organise a state-level function on that day at Bilaspur in Yamunanagar district, the INLD will hold a ‘chetna rally’ at Hisar on December 6.

The Congress recently held a meeting of its office-bearers and other leaders, here, to make arrangements to mobilise people for the Bilaspur rally. MLAs of the adjoining areas were assigned the duties to bring their supporters to the rally site in a large number. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will be the chief guest.

According to former minister and convener of the Scheduled Castes Cell of the INLD R. K. Ranga, his party would organise the rally on the grounds of the old government college of Hisar.

Ranga alleges that because of the “anti-Dalit and anti-poor” policies of the Congress government in the state, the Dalits were angry. They were being subjected to atrocities at various places in the state. As a result of this anger, a large number of the Dalits would participate in the Hisar rally, he claims.

On the other hand, Hooda announced last month that his government would give 100 sq. yard plots to landless Dalits in the villages for residential purposes.

To thank the CM for his generosity, a ‘Dalit samman’ rally will be organised at Karnal on December 9. Though it is not a Congress function, the party leaders have been asked to provide “means” to the Dalits to reach Karnal in a large number.

The Karnal rally assumes importance for Hooda because it would be held just seven days after the Rohtak rally of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and his suspended MP son Kuldeep Bishnoi. It will be an endeavour of Hooda and his supporters to ensure that their Karnal rally outshines the Bishnoi rally. 

Chandigarh, November 28
With only over a year to go for the completion of the Yamuna Action Plan to cleanse the river, the Public Health Department (PWD), Haryana, is now relying on the youth to muster enthusiasm in the public against defiling the river.

Even as the Japanese-funded project for laying of sewerage and drainage facilities in the cities near and around the Yamuna gathers pace, the PWD has sought active involvement of students for creating awareness.

“We are now going to approach the school and college students in the seven cities covered under the project to be our ambassadors and propagate the message of maintaining sanitation and checking pollution in their own localities, villages and cities to reach out to every home,” says Samir Mathur, secretary, Public Health, Haryana.

Under the project, the PWD will entrust project work to students to help them execute a plan to create awareness in their respective area, allocate funds for the same and get results in return. Funds to the tune of Rs 19 crore have been allocated for the same in addition to building the institutional capacity of the local urban bodies in the seven towns.

The “target” cities for the awareness drive include Yamunanagar, Jagadhari, Karnal, Panipat, Sonepat, Faridabad and Gurgaon where a number of non-government organisations are already active in mobilising support for cleansing the Yamuna.

Besides mobilising public support for the mission, the PWD has created additional interception and diversion sewer works in the seven cities at a cost of Rs 34.50 crore. In the second phase itself, the PWD is working on the upgradation of the sewerage treatment plants which were set up in Phase I of the project. The second phase of the project which began in 2004 will finish in 2009 and the department is hopeful of meeting its targets well within the stipulated time.

Though the affluents discharged into the Yamuna is so far within the acceptable standards, the Environment Department and the Pollution Control Department are together working with the PWD to reduce sewerage discharge and filth in the Yamuna. 

Bhiwani, November 28
Congress president Sonia Gandhi today gave a clarion call to women of Haryana and Punjab to restore the skewed sex ratio to the normal level within the next few years.

Addressing the “smriti rally” organised here to pay tributes to a former Haryana minister, the late Surinder Singh, she expressed her anguish over the rampant female foeticide in the two states, saying that she was surprised that this had happened in those states which had pioneered the Green Revolution in the country.

Sonia said she was proud of women in both states where they played an important role in everything. She said she was sure the women would take up this challenge and ensure that in the next few years “there will be more girls than boys”.

She said history was witness to the fact that since Independence the country had progressed only when there was a Congress government at the centre. The same was true of states.

The UPA chairperson said when the Manmohan Singh government came into being at the centre, it faced many challenges and problems. However, the Congress and other alliance partners overcame all hurdles and the nation had witnessed unprecedented growth under this government.

The Congress president lauded Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for bringing Haryana back on the road to progress and prosperity. Referring to the compensation package devised by Haryana for those whose land was acquired, she said it was an example other states could follow.

Sonia said she was proud of Punjab and Haryana farmers who had played a great role in revolutionising agriculture in the country. Besides, these people had made great sacrifices whenever the nation faced threats from external forces.

She described the late Surinder Singh as “a promising leader” whose career was cut short by a tragic accident. She said she remembered the time when he courted arrest in 1977 when Indira Gandhi was hounded by the then Janata Party government.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said every visit by the Congress president to Haryana provided him an impetus for accelerating progress and development. He recounted the various schemes that had been launched since 2005 during Sonia’s visits to Jind, Sirsa and Jhadli in Jhajjar recently.

Hooda said Haryana was paying the highest minimum wage of Rs 3,510 a month. The schemes for the girl child and Ladli for girls belonging to Dalit families had proved huge successes.

He announced that a polytechnic would be set up here in memory of former Chief Minister Bansi Lal and an industrial training institute would be set up at Tosham to be named after Surinder Singh.

Haryana tourism minister and widow of Surinder Singh Kiran Chaudhry said by unveiling the statue of her late husband, Sonia Gandhi had honoured the entire Bansi Lal clan as also the people of Bhiwani.

Chaudhry said under Sonia’s leadership the UPA government and the Congress governments in states had ensured record economic growth in the country. She said Haryana was among the Congress ruled states which was showing the way to others.

AICC general secretary in charge of Haryana Margaret Alva, union ministers Rao Inderjit and Shelja, HPCC chief Phool Chand Mullana and HPCC working president Kuldeep Sharma were among those present at the rally.

Earlier, Sonia Gandhi unveiled a statue of the late Surinder Singh and also called on his ailing mother to enquire about her health.

Before coming here, Sonia laid the foundation stones of the Dadri-Jhajjar highway and a railway overbridge at Dadri. She also inaugurated the Rs-300 crore Rajiv Gandhi Roads and Bridges Infrastructure Development Programme.

Addressing the gathering there, she thanked the people of Dadri for electing a Congressman to the state assembly and hoped that the new projects would change the face of Dadri.

The Chief Minister said under the programme launched by Sonia Gandhi, Haryana would build new roads and also widen most of the existing roads.

Our correspondent adds: Conscious of the fact that often foundations stones of projects were laid to be forgotten later, Sonia Gandhi expressed the hope that the work on the projects launched by her at Dadri today would soon be taken up.

Hooda said when Dadri was starved of water, Jawaharlal Nehru got the Dadri distributory constructed and brought water to this area. Later in 1971, the Loharu canal was got constructed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The Local MLA, Major Nirpender Singh Sangwan, also welcomed Sonia.

A young man, painted with the slogan “Sonia Gandhi Zindabad” in the Tricolour, was the centre of attraction at the rally ground.

While Hooda presented a shawl to Sonia, Kiran presented a sword to Margret Alwa. Shruti Chaudhary, daughter of the late Surender Singh, presented a “gada” to the Congress chief. 

Bhiwani, November 28
Quite a commotion was created here today when Congress workers owing allegiance to different groups in the party clashed minutes before the arrival of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to address a rally.

A group was seated in the first few rows in the area adjacent to the press gallery. They were surrounded on all sides by supporters of the other group. They nearly came to bows several times before the arrival of the VVIPs at the rally venue. The police intervened and convinced them to maintain order every time.

However, a few minutes before Sonia Gandhi arrived, the two groups clashed using long wooden poles used to erect barricades. At this point, the police resorted to use of mild force to discipline them. Thereafter, the rally progressed smoothly.  

Rewari, November 28
A strange type of fever has reportedly spread almost in an epidemic form at Khaleta, Maan and several other villages of the Khol block in the district.

While members of over 60 per cent of the families are reportedly down with fever at Khaleta village, the number of patients at Maan, Balwari, Mamadia and Dhawana villages is comparatively less.

Owing to a lack of appropriate medical facilities at the community health centre at Khol and the sub-health centre at Khaleta, patients have to consult private doctors. Some private doctors opined that the fever could be Chickengunia.

Meanwhile, the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, a voluntary organisation has urged the deputy commissioner to direct the chief medical officer to rush teams of doctors to the affected villages. 

Chandigarh, November 28
As an incentive to residents of those villages who would opt for the power supply system through the high voltage distribution system (HVDS), the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has decided to supply power to them for 18 to 20 hours daily with effect from April 1, 2008. This facility would also be available to villages where the nigam had already set up the HVDS.

The HVDS checks the theft of power to a large extent as no “kundi”connection is possible on it. This system also ensures renovation of the distribution system of a village, which gives quality power with better voltage, minimum trippings, less damage rate of transformers, reduction in line losses and more safety for the people.

An official spokesman said here today that the state would get more power after the commercial operation of the two units of 300 MW each of the Yamunanagar thermal plant. To get power for 20 hours, the villagers concerned would be required to have the HVDS erected by the nigam at their own cost, ensure 100 per cent electronic metering and shifting of meters outside their premises.

He said the nigam had planned to erect the HVDS in 200 more villages by the end of current financial year. It had already completed the work in 186 villages and urban colonies in its command area comprising Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Karnal, Panipat, Sonipat, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Jind districts. 

Chandigarh, November 28
Denying the allegations of being related to Haryana Public Service Commission’s former chairman Dr K.C. Bangar at the time of selection, HCS (executive branch) officer Jagdeep has filed a reply before the Punjab and Haryana High Court to a petition seeking the quashing of the selection process.

In his reply taken up by a division Bench of the high court headed by Chief Justice Vijender Jain, Jagdeep has stated that Dr Bangar was not known to him when he appeared before the interview board for selection on October 23, 2001, or even at the time of the final declaration of result on May 4, 2002.

Karnal, November 28
The second M.S. Swaminathan Award for 2006-07 has been conferred on Dr B.S. Prakash, head, Dairy Cattle Physiology Division, National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, informed Dr Sushil Kumar, director, NDRI, here today. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 1.5 lakh, a gold medal and a citation, he added.

Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd. and the Retired Indian Council for Agricultural Research Employees Association (RICAREA) together announced this award for Dr Parkash, Dr Kumar added. He further said Dr Parkash was among 34 nominations received from all branches of agricultural sciences, including animal sciences, fisheries, agricultural engineering and home science.

The award was presented to him by the Union minister of state for human resource development, Andhra Pradesh, D. Purandeshwari, at Hyderabad.

Chairman of the Selection Committee for the award was Dr M.V. Rao, former special director-general of ICAR.

Dr Prakash was awarded for his outstanding research on reproductive physiology of different bovine species, including yaks and mithuns, which could enhance fertility in bovines, especially among buffaloes, ultimately leading to increase in milk production. 

Gurgaon, November 28
The Gurgaon administration has decided to take stringent action and file an FIR under the Damage Property Act against those found involved in damaging government property.

The decision was taken at a joint meeting of councillors and officials of development work chaired by deputy commissioner Rakesh Gupta here today. It was also decided that people caught washing their vehicles in front of their homes, thus damaging roads, would also be covered under this Act.

He said these measures were being taken to check the damage to government property by people and educate them to maintain it as it had been developed using the taxes paid by them.

Gupta also gave directions to the road department of the municipal council and HUDA to complete patchwork on roads in the town by November 30. Besides, he said the road department should also plan the construction of new roads in the town in such a way that their completion was on time.

He said a numbers of councillors had submitted complaints to him regarding encroachments in their areas.

Gupta directed the officials to remove the encroachments in various sectors of the city. He said a number of complaints had also been received by him regarding encroachment in Sector 14, which would be removed at the earliest.

Gupta also directed the officials to work out the details of the tax to be collected from vendors. 

Fatehabad, November 28
In the run up to his much publicised December 2 janhit rally in Rohtak, the rebel Congress MP, Kuldeep Bishnoi, today got a shot in the arm when a former MLA Ran Singh Beniwal bid adieu to the Congress, and announced his decision to join Bishnoi’s rank.

Beniwal was elected to the Haryana Assembly from Bhattu Kalan Assembly segment of this district, defeating former minister Sampat Singh in a by election held in 1980. After that Beniwal has contested the Bhattu Kalan seat twice, though unsuccessfully.

The former MLA today announced his decision in a meeting of Bishnoi supporters held at Bhattu Kalan.

With him, many of his supporters, including Radhey Sham Bansal, a leading industrialist and a Congress leader, also call a goodbye to the Congress.

Several local leaders owing allegiance to the rebel Congress MP, including Rajinder Chaudhary Kaka, Bimla Rohaz, Inderjit Poonia and Arvind Beniwal, were present at the meeting.

Announcing his decision, the former MLA said workers were considered the backbone of any political party, and the party whose leadership did not respect its workers was destined to doom.

He alleged that workers were being ignored by the Congress leadership in Haryana and it was for that reason that most of the workers were disillusioned with the present dispensation.

Beniwal alleged that power and water had become a scarcity in the present regime, and law and order situation was in a shambles.

Karnal: Meanwhile, as the janhit rally approaches, the supporters of Bishnoi are busy giving final touches to their campaigns to garner maximum support and participation in the rally.

Rakesh Kamboj, dissident Congress MLA from Indri and Bhajan Lal supporter, here on Wednesday flagged off a prachar rath to educate masses about the shortcomings of the present government, and request them to participate in the rally to make it a success.

He said the Bhajan-led Congress party was the real Congress party, while the present setup in the state is fake. He also said many Congress MLAs were not happy with the Congress leadership and wanted a change in the state.

“All the MLAs from Karnal district should listen to their conscience and then decide if they want to side with Bhajan or Bhupender Singh Hooda,” said Kamboj.

Harvinder Kalyan, a staunch Kuldeep supporter and former secretary, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, said the scheduled janhit rally was evoking a huge response in the Gharonda Assembly constituency.

“The present government has completely lost touch with common man and even the Congress grass root workers, which are the foundation of the party, are being ignored,” said Kalyan. 

Kurukshetra, November 28
The district police has busted an inter-state gang of dacoits and vehicle lifters here today. District police chief Amitabh Dhillon said on a tip-off, the police nabbed seven persons from a deserted house at Mirzapur village, near here, when they were planning to commit a dacoity here.

The accused had been identified as Kundan Singh of Gandhi Nagar, Kurukshetra, Sarbjeet Singh, alias Babboo, of Shadi Pur, Harnek Singh of Bazaa Gali, Amritsar, Jagtar Singh of Khulda village, Amritsar, Jagdish of Sujanpur village, Gurdaspur and Amandeep and Monu Sharma, both from Batala in Punjab.

The police had seized a stolen property worth Rs 6.5 lakh, including a Mahindra gypsy stolen from Amritsar (bearing fake number PB 02-7653 and having real number HR 20 P 6749), one Maruti gypsy stolen from Paatran in Punjab, four motorcycles, a country made revolver, a live cartridge, a fake revolver, two swords and an iron rod, from their possession, 
Dhillon said.

The accused were produced in the court and three of them were remanded to police custody for two days, while four of them were sent to jail in judicial lock up. 

Kaithal, November 28
Dipanker Mukeerjee, a former MP and national secretary CITU, while speaking at the 11th state-level function of the Haryana Roadways Workers Union at Geeta Bhawan here yesterday said workers had got their trade union rights after mass movements and a long struggle, and these were not given to them on a platter.

He said privatisation of the transport sector would not solve any problem, but it would go against larger public interest and it might aggravate the pollution problem.

While hitting out at economic and industrial policies of the government, he said in the name of improvement, the government was introducing contract system in various government departments, which had given birth to many problems.

Many farmers had committed suicide during the past few years due to the government’s faulty land policies. Even after 60 years of independence, about 30 per cent population of the country found it difficult to have both ends meet and they have to sleep hungry.

He also expressed concern over the continuous increase in power tariff all over the country, and held the private sector responsible for this situation.

The problems faced by common man following privatisation of education, health, transport and other welfare departments were highlighted on the occasion.

However, general secretary Satbir Singh, CITU Haryana, strongly criticised the state government for its failure to implement its own announcement regarding payment of Rs 3,510 monthly as minimum wages. 

Rewari, November 28
The Khol police has booked five persons in a case pertaining to the dowry death of Reena (22), who succumbed to her burn injuries at the civil hospital on Monday night.

Reena’s husband Kuldeep, father-in-law Bharat Singh, both residents of Bohka village, sister-in-law Seema, her husband Som Veer and father-in-law Chap Singh, all residents of Suthani village have been booked.

Following a complaint lodged by Rajender Singh, father of the deceased and a resident of Rewari Khera village in Jhajjar, the police registered a case under Sections 498-A, 304-B and 34 of the IPC.

He alleged that her daughter Reena, who was married to Kuldeep on June 27, 2006, was subjected to cruel treatment as he failed to fulfil the dowry demands of her in-laws’.

He said it was due to them that his daughter was forced to end her life.

Reena who suffered severe burn injuries died before she could make her dying declaration to the Duty Magistrate.