Rohtak, December 6
Members of the recently floated Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) staged a protest demonstration against the alleged deplorable law and order situation and attempt to suppress democratic institutions in the state here today.

The protesters, led by former ministers Subhash Batra and Krishan Murti Hooda, marched in protest from the local Chhotu Ram Chowk to the mini-secretariat, where they handed over a memorandum to the local deputy commissioner.

The memorandum, addressed to the President of India, stated that on directions from the state government, the police committed atrocities on the supporters of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and even journalists and Press photographers were not spared.

In the memorandum, the members of the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) have urged the President to sack the Haryana government, register criminal case against the Chief Minister and impose President’s rule in the state.

KARNAL: The Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) on Thursday presented a memorandum to the Karnal deputy commissioner, B.S. Malik, demanding the dismissal of the Congress government and imposition of the President’s rule in the state.

The workers of the party first gathered at Brahmin Dharamshala near the Civil Hospital and from there they took out a rally to the mini-secretariat shouting slogans in favour of Bhajan Lal and Kuldeep Bishnoi.

Later, while addressing the workers, Zile Ram Sharma, a senior HJC (BL) leader, said the law and order situation in the state had deteriorated to such an extent that democracy was at stake.

He said even before the ‘janhit rally’, the government had started hounding its opponents. Their vehicles were impounded and they were mercilessly thrashed by the police.

Party leaders, Harvinder Kalyan, Tarlochan Singh and Jaipal Sharma, demanded that the false cases registered against the party workers should be withdrawn and instead policemen and district administration officials, who ordered the lathicharge on peaceful demonstrators in Karnal on December 1 should be booked.

REWARI: Activists of the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) held a demonstration and shouted slogans before the district secretariat here on Thursday.

FATEHABAD: Activists of the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) on Thursday held a protest march against the police action at Karnal on the eve of ‘janhit rally’.

YAMUNANAGAR: A large number of workers of the newly constituted Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) led by Satpal Kaushik held a demonstration here on Thursday and sat in dharna outside the Mini Secretariat.

Kaushik, who is still a secretary of the Haryana Congress, submitted memorandums to the President and the Governor through the City Magistrate, demanding the dismissal of the Hooda government for its alleged bid to gag democratic institutions. 

Hisar, December 6
Former Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala today said it was time that the Dalits, farmers and poorer sections of the society united and ousted the Congress.

Addressing the ‘Dalit chetna rally’, he said these sections of society had voted for the Congress for 60 years and yet the party had only exploited them for political gains.

Chautala said this was not the scenario, which late B.R. Ambedkar had visualised and to oust the Congress would be the fittest tribute to the great leader who shaped the Indian democracy.

He said as soon as the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) would come to power, it would fix the MSP for farm produce at appropriate level and the poor would get ration at half these rates. The old-age pension would be raised to Rs 500 a month and the loan waiver would be implemented once again to provide relief to harried sections of society.

The INLD leader promised to constitute a seven-member panel headed by former minister M.L. Ranga to look into the problems of the Dalits and Backward Classes and the report would be implemented immediately to provide more benefits.

He said he would build Dalit hostels in all district towns for students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes.

He claimed that after Dr Ambedkar, his father, former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, was the only benefactor of the Scheduled Castes.

He accused the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government of not implementing reservation of jobs in true spirit. He said no facilities had been extended to the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes commission. He also accused Hooda of misleading the people on the SEZ issue.

Former ministers Sampat Singh, M.L. Ranga and Jaswinder Sandhu, INLD chief Ashok Arora and Rajya Sabha member Ajay Chautala were among others who addressed the rally.  

Bilaspur (Yamunanagar), December 6
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced that Bilaspur would be turned into a subdivision. Addressing a rally to mark Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Nirwan Diwas at Bilaspur, Hooda said Dr Ambedkar was an embodiment of simplicity and struggled throughout his life to improve the socio-economic status of the marginalised sections of the society. 

He said it was due to Dr Ambedkar's efforts that the rights of the marginalised and poor sections had been protected.

He said the plan budget of the Scheduled Castes and the Backward Classes Welfare Department had been enhanced to Rs 100 crore which was more than six times from the earlier budget of Rs 16 crore in the year 2004-05.

Hooda said the Haryana Scheduled Castes and the Financial Development Corporation would provide loans of Rs 87.65 crore to about 17,000 beneficiaries for setting up their own ventures, besides the Haryana Backward and Economically Weaker Sections Corporation would provide loans amounting to Rs 47.50 crore to 7,250 people during the current financial year.

He said classes at Government College, Chhachhrauli, would commence from the next academic session and a 220-KV sub-station would be set up at Malikpur village.

He said no conversion fee for tubewells would be charged from those farmers engaged in horticulture. He also announced that a bridge over the Som river would be constructed at a cost of Rs 2.50 crore.

Hooda said a sum of Rs 90 crore had been sanctioned by the government in the first phase for the construction of the Hathnikund-Nauhni-Naraingarh canal, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 390 crore.

Earlier, Hooda inaugurated the new building of the sub-tehsil of Sadhaura, constructed at cost of Rs 81.93 lakh. He also inaugurated a tehsil building of Bilaspur built at a cost of Rs 69.67 lakh.

The Chief Minister said Rohtak district had been selected for the implementation of a pilot project for the computerisation of land records under the Survey of Settlement Scheme which envisaged the digitalisation of land maps. He said there were 7,081 villages in the state, out of which the jamabandi of 6,977 villages had been completed and the remaining villages would be covered up to December end.

Hooda said the state government had given special thrust for the computerisation of land records and till now 40 computer centres had been set up at the tehsil-level and 46 at the sub-tehsil-level.

Union minister Kumari Selja, HPCC president Phool Chand Mullana Haryana minister Meena Mandal, parliamentary secretaries Dr Krishna Pandit and Ram Krishan, MLAs Subhash Chaudhary and Geeta Bhukal, financial commissioner and principal secretary Dharamvir, press advisor Sunder Pal were also present. 

Sirsa, December 6
In a bizarre incident, BJP leader Jai Veer Godara, who is a proclaimed offender (PO) and a bail jumper, was honoured as a progressive farmer in the presence of former Lt. Chandravati, Governor of Pondicherry, among others at Nathusari village in the district on December 3.

Godara, a resident of Sherpura village, is on the list of the most wanted persons in Haryana and Rajasthan and had been declared a PO by a Sirsa court.

In 1990, Godara was arrested by the then Sirsa police inspector Harcharan Singh and produced in a court, which granted him bail and he jumped it.

At Pallu (Rajasthan) he manhandled a cop and a case is still pending against him. His warrants were also issued there.

On July 14, 2004, during a demonstration by BJP activists on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal issue, Godara along with some persons was booked for torching a Punjab Roadways Bus. He was a co-accused in a criminal case registered at Hisar.

Surprisingly, all these cases are still pending against him. When contacted, Godara told reporters that he never knew that he was ever declared a PO.

Officials present on the occasion when asked to comment on the matter feigned ignorance about Godara being a PO. — PTI 

Fatehabad, December 6
A pall of gloom descended the town today when the news of the death of two local young entrepreneurs in a car accident reached here.

Yogesh Chaudhary, alias Bunty, Pawan Chawla, alias Mangalvi, and Manoj Chaudhary had gone to attend a marriage at Kaithal last night. When they were returning, the car they were travelling in met with an accident and fell in a gorge after hitting against a tree.

Pawan’s sister noticed the car in the morning when she was coming to Fatehabad in a bus from her in-law’s house at Kaithal on learning that her brother was missing.

Bus passengers took out the three from the vehicle. Pawan had already died, while Yogesh succumbed to his injuries on his way to the hospital. Manoj Chaudhary, who was sitting on the rear seat of the vehicle, is said to be out of danger.

Main markets of the town remained closed to mourn the death of the two youths.

In another accident, two persons were killed and six others, including the bride and the bridegroom, were injured when the car they were traveling in was hit by a canter at Akanwali village today.

The driver of the car, Ravi, and a youth Kulwant were killed. The car was coming from Malaut in Punjab.  

Chandigarh, December 6
Meeting a long-pending demand for a sainik school in Rewari, the Haryana government has finally recommended the case and forwarded it to the Government of India for approval.

This was disclosed by Haryana chief secretary Promilla Issar in an interaction with mediapersons here today.

She said the government had identified 71 acres in Gothra Tapa Khori village of Rewari district for the project and sent the proposal to the Union Defence Ministry, GoI, for the final nod.

“The Chief Minister cleared the matter on December 3 after the land for the school was identified. They had asked for at least 50 acres of land for the school campus whereas we are offering just over 71 acres. We are reasonably sure the proposal will come through and work on the project will begin soon,” she said.

Union minister of state for defence production Rao Inderjeet Singh, representing the area, had been advocating the cause of a sainik school in his constituency. 

Kaithal, December 6
Additional sessions judge Dr Neelima Shangla here today sentenced Sangeeta’s husband Dhan Singh and aunt Sunita to life imprisonment and fined them Rs 50,000 each for killing her under Section 304-B read with Section 34 of the IPC.

According to information, Sangeeta, a resident of Beer Gaggar, Chandimandir, Panchkula, was married to Dhan Singh, a local resident. However, the accused, Dhan Singh and Sunita, started harassing Sangeeta for bringing insufficient dowry. On May 26, 2003, the accused set her afire. Initially, under the pressure of relatives, Sangeeta gave the statement that she received burn injuries due to bursting of a stove.

But later she told the truth alleging that the accused had set her afire. Sangeeta died at a hospital in Chandigarh.

The police had registered a case and arrested the accused.

The judge after hearing the arguments of prosecution and defence held the accused guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The court has ordered that the amount of fine recovered would be paid to the family of the victim and the accused would further undergo an imprisonment for three years, if they failed to pay the fine. 

Karnal, December 6
The police on a tip off has nabbed a gang of motorcycle thieves from Indri. The arrested persons have been identified as gang leader Sandeep and his associates, Sunny and Mohinder, all residents of Pathera village, Arshad Ali and Sazid Ali, residents of Dera Jain Pur.

Eight motorcycles have been recovered from different areas falling in the jurisdiction of the Indri police station. All five have been sent to the judicial custody.

Kurukshetra: The police has arrested an interstate motorcycle thief and seized six stolen motorcycles from his possession.

The district police chief, Amitabh Dhillon, said the arrested person had been identified as Rohit Sharma, a resident of Bathinda in Punjab.

Dhillon said during the interrogation, Sharma told the police that he had brought the stolen motorcycles here to sell on the behest of Kundan Singh, ring leader of a gang of dacoits, seven members of which were arrested from a deserted house at Mirzapur village near here on November 27 while planning a dacoity.

He said the police, on a tip off, conducted a raid at Kundan Singh’s Gandhi Nagar residence here, where Sharma was apprehended under suspicious circumstances.

Sharma told the police that he was a member of the Kundan Singh gang and used to steal motorcycles on his order. Later, he used to sell these after fixing fictitious number plates. 

Sirsa, December 6
A 14-year-old physically challenged boy accidentally killed his mother when he pulled the trigger of .312 bore revolver assuming that it was unloaded at Shahuwala village, about 15 km from here, last night .

The mishap took place when the boy was resting on the bed and his grandfather left his licensed revolver by the boy’s side and moved away for some domestic work.

Police sources said apparently the boy was playing with the revolver and was unaware of the fact that it was loaded. As he pulled the trigger, the revolver went off and the bullet hit his mother Harjit Kaur (33), who was talking to her relative on the phone that time. She died on the spot.