Jhajjar, December 25
The Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has urged institutions like gurukuls to stay away from politics as politicians had been using these sacred institutions for their vested interests.

The Chief Minister was speaking at a sammelan organised by the Gurukul College in Jhajjar to protect ‘sanskriti and Sanskrit’ (culture and Sanskrit language) today.

Without making any direct reference, he virtually pulled up the gurukuls for playing in the hands of politicians. “Their involvement in the politics of vote had led to deterioration in the quality of education. The institutions and scholars need to work unitedly to save the ancient culture and Sanskrit language,” Hooda stated.

The Chief Minister announced that the state government would formulate a uniform policy to provide financial assistance to institutes like gurukul. Praising the contribution of gurukuls as well as Arya Samaj movement in spreading education, especially women education, and making society aware, he promised to give due recognition to Sanskrit language and encourage the language.

“Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages of the world and many Vedas have been written in this language. This language is the treasure trove of our ancient cultural legacy”, he said and added that he had a high regard for the gurukul system of education which inculcated a sense of hard discipline and sacrifice during the student life.

He stated that the government had sincerely made efforts and Bagat Phool Singh Gurukul, Khanpur Kalan in Sonepat had been made the first ever women university of the country. The Chief Minister dismissed the apprehensions of the Sanskrit scholars that the language would not be discriminated against at any level. The Chief Minister also conceded many demands of the gurukul college and donated a sum of Rs 10 lakh.

The education minister Mange Ram Gupta also assured the gathering that there was no proposal to lower the importance of the Sanskrit language in any way.

Rohtak, December 25
Workers at a local industrial unit today blocked road and staged a protest demonstration against the alleged highhandedness of unit owners.

Workers, who have been protesting for the fulfilment of their demands for quite some time, also alleged that the district administration and other officials concerned were favouring the management of the factory.

The transfer of 23 employees of micro turner unit, a sister concern of A. K. Automatics to Uttarakhand, is the latest bone of contention between the factory owners and employees.

A clash broke out at the industrial unit this morning, in which five workers were injured. The government officials present at the site asserted that the striking workers had beaten up their colleagues for joining duty. On the other hand, factory employees maintain that the management had staged the clash.

Agitated workers blocked the Delhi-Hisar national highway near Hisar bypass chowk for several hours.

The local police and administrative officials, including Rohtak SSP Hanif Qureshi and SDM Mukul Kumar, reached the scene and tried to placate the protesting workers.

But the workers refused to budge and at one point of time, lathi-charge seemed imminent. However, the police, administrative and labour officials managed to convince the protesters to lift the blockade.

Deputy labour commissioner Ajay Batra, who had come from Panipat to resolve the matter, convened a meeting. Some trade union leaders also arrived from Delhi for the talks.

Still, the talks could not take place, as the factory owners were not in the town.

Later, Batra told The Tribune that the protesters had agreed for talks in this regard and a meeting had been called on December 27.

Panipat, December 25
With the elevated highway project likely to be operational from February next year, the much congested stretch of the GT Road passing through the Panipat township, is all set to wear an eco-friendly and attractive look.

According to administrative sources L&T, the construction company executing the highway project, had chalked out a comprehensive plan for the optimum use of the available space, measuring about three km, underneath the flyover.

There are plans to beautify the area, provide space for parking and various other public utilities services.

Sharing details of the developmental project with The Tribune, Panipat deputy commissioner Mahender Kumar said in order to control vehicular pollution on this busy stretch, there was a plan to grow trees that will help in combating air pollution.

He said sufficient paid parking lots would also be established in various pockets, particularly near the educational institutes, banks and commercial towers, situated along the GT Road.

Being the hub of blanket and tapestry industry, a large number of shoppers and traders visit the township daily.

But in the absence of sufficient parking space, visitors find it difficult to reach various markets located in the old congested localities along the NH-1.

But the administration’s plan for paid parking is expected to give some relief to them.

“The Panipat MC will manage the paid parking lots to ensure that visitors are not inconvenienced,” the DC added.

To look for emergency situations on one of the busiest roads of the country, there is also a proposal to station ambulances, fire tenders and cranes services here. Experts have been called in for landscaping to give a brand a new look to the township.

The new look highway corridor will also be decorated with a mural depicting the three battles of Panipat.

Sources said L&T had engaged certain architects from New Delhi to depict the illustrious past of this town.Besides, there would also be special arrangements to construct several public conveniences this crowded place.

Bhiwani, December 25
In the wake of ongoing dispute among partners in the Khanak mine, the district administration today decided to take over the mine and appoint a receiver.

The administration has also prohibited all kind of mining work for the next 24 hours.

It is worth mentioning that a dispute among the partners of Baba Mungipa Mines and Minerals was for ownership. The partners once had come across each other in a violent manner.

The administration had to deploy heavy police force to avert any untoward incident in the Khanak area. Even then the tension was there.

The partners had levelled allegations on each other and one of them Kunwar Vedpal, who held the presidentship of Khan Suraksha Samiti, had directly included the names of chief parliamentary secretary Dharmbir Singh and member Parliament Jai Prakash for instigating the mine’s matter.

Later, he had issued a statement that he had been framed for participating in the recently held Sonia Gandhi rally in Bhiwani.

He also alleged that the leaders also attempted to grab the ownership of the mine from two contractors of the Baba Mungipa Mines and Minerals and it had worsened the situation.

It is also mentionable that the administration had extended Section 144 till December 31 in Khanak and its adjoining areas yesterday.

Exercising powers under Section 145, the administration today took over the mine area and appointed deputy excise and taxation commissioner Vijay Singh as receiver of the property of Khanak, Dadum and Kharkari Sohan mine area.

The official sources said to avert any clash between two groups of the contractors and to stop the illegal blasting and theft of stones, the administration decided to take over the mine.

District mining officer R. S. Thakran said excavation work would remain closed for one or two days, and after completing necessary formalities, the department would start selling stones.

Contractor Ved Pal Singh while expressing his dissatisfaction said it was an attempt to evict the real leasers of mine and he would go to the court against it.

Bhiwani, December 25
Haryana chief parliamentary secretary Dharmbir Singh today clarified that the BPL families that have already been allotted plots from the government would not be eligible for the grant of plots again.

It was also not necessary that persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes who were having their names in the BPL lists would get the plots.

Singh said 6.51 lakh persons were registered in the BPL lists in Haryana and Punjab had only 2.96 lakh names registered in the BPL lists.

The minister also said only those families fulfilling the required formalities would be allotted 100 sq yard plots and for this a mention of their names in the BPL lists was not a must. He said the plots would be allotted only to the eligible members of the Scheduled Castes.

The minister also said the government had decided that those SC members who had no government service or any non-government service equal to the salary of government service would be given 100 sq yard plots free of cost. And such eligible persons should not own land more than one acre.

Singh further urged them to cooperate with the officials visiting their respective villages for re-survey of the BPL lists and get their claims and objections resolved on the spot.

The CPS further directed the officials engaged in the survey work to follow complete transparency so that no eligible person was left out.

He said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had urged the Central government that the number of BPL families in the state should not be pre-decided and it should only be fixed on the basis of poverty rate.

Sonepat, December 25
Standing wheat crop in an area of 50 acres of land was inundated and destroyed following a breach that occurred in the Nahri canal minor near Saboli village about 25 km from here today.

According to preliminary reports the breach, caused by overflowing of canal water at around 4 a.m, submerged the nearby fields under three feet of water.

Farmers had to plug the breach themselves by dumping earth and sandbags as officials of the Delhi Division of the Haryana irrigation department under whose jurisdiction the canal falls did not respond to their panic calls. — PTI

Chandigarh, December 25
The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has cut off electricity connections of 2,09,345 consumers up to December 15.

A sum of over Rs 167.43 crore was due against these non-payers of electricity dues.

A spokesman of the nigam said it had disconnected supply of 43,650 consumers in operation circle Ambala, 40,787 in Yamunanagar, 36,821 in Kurukshetra, 25,890 in Karnal, 24,259 in Panipat, 14,141 in Rohtak, 11,447 in Jind, 11,051 in Sonepat and 1,299 in the newly created operation circle of Jhajjar.

The spokesman added that the nigam had also decided not to release new connections to dwellers occupying government or HUDA land in an unauthorised manner. Similarly, no electricity connection would be released to the dwellers on land belonging to municipal committees or panchayats in case steps were being taken to evict them.

He said for the release of permanent electricity connection to an area under nigam’s jurisdiction developed by colonisers or developers, the coloniser or developer would be required to submit the layout plan to the nigam for approval within a period of three months after the release of temporary connection.

They would also provide land or bear the cost of land jointly with other colonisers or developers in the area so that infrastructure could be created to meet the requirement.

Temporary connection would be allowed for a maximum period of three months and would be disconnected if the layout plan was not submitted within the stipulated time period.

He said in case of bulk supply connections the applicants would be required to give an undertaking that the tariff rate charged by them from the residents would not exceed the rates approved by the nigam.

It would be mandatory to install three-phase four-wire static energy meters having dual registration facility for recording consumption through nigam’s system as well as through their own diesel generator sets.

Kaithal, December 25
A police party of local CIA staff during a routine night patrol busted a gang of dacoits at Rajound police station area last night and arrested nine members of this gang.

The police also seized two country made pistols, live cartridges, four iron rods, torch and two vehicles from them.

SSP Anil Kumar told mediapersons here this evening that two teams of CIA were on petrol duty last night. One party headed by sub inspector Ramesh Chand received an information that some armed youths at Neemwala village were planning to loot vehicles.

Sub inspector immediately flashed the message to another police patrol party and asked them to reach the spot.

The police surrounded the place where the criminals were standing. The dacoits were asked to surrender, but they tried to flee from the spot. However, the police overpowered the criminals.

The SSP said the arrested were identified as Satish Kumar, Tarsem, Rishi Pal, Raj Kumar, Sanjay Kumar, all residents of Faribad village and Rajinder, resident of Ghogrian village in Jind district, Manoj Kumar and Satish Kumar, residents of Pai, and Vikram Singh of Narwalgarh village.

A case was registered under Sections 399, 402 and 25, 54, 59 of the Arms Act against the accused persons.

New Delhi, December 25
Eleven child labourers working in brick kilns in Jhajjar district of Haryana were rescued from the clutches of their employers.

The children aged between 10-15 years were rescued yesterday from four brick kilns in Jahangirpur and Dariyapur localities of Jhajjar, Haryana government officials said. All of them were trafficked from Muzaffarpur district in Bihar.

The operation came after ‘Bachpan Bachao Andolan’, an NGO, approached the Jhajjar district authorities about the practice of using child labourers in brick kilns there.

“A raid was conducted, after the NGO approached us. The Deputy Commissioner and some other government officials, NGO activists and parents of these kids were a part of the team that conducted the operation yesterday,” officials said.

The employers of the kids were identified and a case under Bonded Labour Act would be registered against them.

“The children were brought to Haryana on the pretext that they would be paid Rs 2,000 per month, and would be employed in tiles factories.

They were also told that the work would be for just three to four hours a day, while they were actually made to work for at least 16 hours every day,” claimed R. S. Chaurasia of the andolan.

The trafficking of the children was done through a network of “middlemen”, Chaurasia said, adding the kids were currently staying in the welfare home of the BBA. — PTI

Sonepat, December 25
The crime branch of Sonepat police claimed to have arrested three armed gangsters late last night who were allegedly planning to loot the passer- byes on Kami road.

The police recovered two pistols, five cartridges, an empty magazine and a car from their possession.

SSP Navdeep Singh Virk said the arrested criminals were identified as Ajay alias Chandgi, Sunil alias Nanha and Ram Mehar alias Sony- all residents of village Dajpur. They had confessed that they were the accomplice of notorious criminal Rakesh alias Bogra who was shot dead by the Rohtak police recently.

They also confessed that the recovered arms were given to them by Bogra who used to visit the ‘tubewells’ room in the fields of Ram Mehar and Ajay, the SSP said and added that Ajay who had earlier been arrested in the cases of murder, train robbery and arms act, had been taken in to two days police custody; whereas Ram Mehar and Sunil were sent to judicial custody by the court today.

Virk also claimed that Sonepat district had witnessed a sharp decline in the cases of atrocities against women during this year in comparison to the cases of last year

He disclosed that the police had registered 18 cases of dowry death last year; whereas only six cases of this crime have so far been registered in different police stations this year. Similarly, against 23 cases of molestation only 15 cases of this nature were registered this year.

The incidents of chain snatching also declined from 22 last year to only seven this year so far, he said and added that 11 cases of rape were registered against 14 cases last year.

He also claimed that there had been considerable decline in other cases of crime like murder, loot, extortion etc. As a result of special drive against the criminals as many as 119 persons possessing illegal arms were arrested against 37 last year.

Yamunanagar, December 25
Thana Chhapar police has booked two cops of Himachal Pradesh police (Nahan) allegedly for helping an undertrial to escape.

The two cops had given misleading information to the district police after the prisoner escaped on December 22 from here.

On the basis of a complaint lodged by Virinder Singh, SHO of Jagadhri police station (city), a case has been registered against head constable Saminder Singh, constable Rajneesh Kumar and the undertrial Gurvinder.

Gurvinder, a resident of Kheri Darshan Singh village here, who was lodged at a central jail in HP was also facing a trial in the district courts here in a case of liquor smuggling.

On December 22 the two HP cops had brought him to a court here.

Later, the prisoner was reported to have escaped. The two cops told the local police that Gurvinder escaped from their custody while being taken to HP from Jagadhri bus stand.

However, during investigations the local police found that the two cops had taken him to his native village and he had escaped from there.

A case under Sections 223 and 224 of the IPC has been registered against the three.

Karnal, December 25
To increase milk yield and improve the quality of livestock, the animal husbandry department till the month of November, through the method of artificial insemination, impregnated 40,068 cows and 71,519 buffaloes.

This resulted in birth of 12,239 cow calves and 22,567 buffalo calves. Giving this information here yesterday, DC B.S. Malik said the animal husbandry department provided training to the unemployed village youth in dairy farming and how to increase the milk output.

He said to encourage dairy farming, competitions were held from time to time animals giving maximum milk were given prizes.

An owner of a buffalo of Murrah breed would get Rs 1,000 if the buffalo delivers 12-15 kg of milk, Rs 5,000 for 15-18 kg and Rs 6,000 for over 18 kg.

He said 4.74 lakh heads of cattle had been vaccinated against life-threatening diseases, adding that under an project 3.33 lakh animals were given injections free of cost.

Sirsa, December 25
Pradeep Godara, an accused in the murder of prominent Congress leader of Dabwali, Chander Singh Brar, was today remanded to two days police custody by a local court.

The CIA staff of the police has requested the court for the police remand of the accused to find out more details of his involvement in the murder case.

Godara had yesterday surrendered before a local court in Dabwali and had been sent to a day’s judicial custody.

Brar was shot dead on April 29, 2006, near Dabwali town allegedly by Godara and his two associates Shah Alam and Vinod Arora.

Jind, December 25
Senior leader and politburo member of the CPI (M) Sita Ram Yechury has called upon the poor people to get united and bring a proper change in the political leadership to bring a qualitative change in their lives.

The common man would have to be a part of the campaign that would ensure that every person’s basic needs were taken care of and the benefit of development reach to poorest of poor than to just a handful of the total population.

Speaking at the state level ‘Jan Vikalp’ rally of the party at HUDA ground here today, Yechury claimed that the party had been preparing ground for helping the people to get an alternative in the present political mess which had been exploiting the common man in way or the other.

Asking the people to shed the support of all ‘Lals’ and family politics, he said the real ‘Lal’ in Haryana was the red flag of the CPM, which serves their interest to the best instead of depending on the worn out system which he claimed had been serving the interests of selected few and befooling the majority of the voters since the country gained freedom.

Claiming that support of the CPM to the UPA government at Centre had resulted in launching of several pro- people policies and programmes in the past three years. Had the CPM not been a part of the UPA, the results would have been different.

He said the achievements of the party’s presence in the union government had been multiplied which include a check on the privatisation move, dropping of the controversial Bill on pension, delay in handing over of the power sector to private companies and the setting up of the Sixth Pay Commission for employees.

He said the support to Manmohan Singh government had been based on the policies and not on the interests of any individual or party.

This move he said had a multiplier affect as it not only stopped the communal forces to take over the reins of the government, but made the Congress led government in the Centre to adopt policies favouring the common man.

Describing the Nuclear Treaty with the United States as against the interests of the country, he said the claims of the government had been false and misleading on the issue. Stating that the claim of getting help in setting up new power plants based on nuclear energy had been wrong.

The concept would make the country poorer by a huge amount of Rs 2.5 lakh crore, as it would be required to set up such plants, while this amount was adequate to set up 2.5 lakh schools or starting at least 20,000 hospitals to provide free treatment to people.

He said the country had enough resources to produce cheaper power than to go for nuclear plants as production of 1 MW of power would cost around a sum of Rs 11 crore. He warned that the present Prime Minister may lose his post if the treaty goes through, and he should learn a lesson from some other countries whose heads of government had been dethroned as they had dared to support the US blindly, in the past one year.

Reacting on the BJP victory in Gujarat, he said though his party respect the mandate, he said the people should also take into account the factors which led to the BJP’s win there. He claimed that fear and terror was the mainstay of the BJP’s victory.

Nilotapal Basu, Hannan Molla (both former MP’s) and the secretary of the Haryana unit, Inderjit Singh also addressed the meeting, which adopted several resolutions including the criticism of the policies and programmes of the present state government.

Earlier, the police resorted to lathi charge the workers of the BJP and the ABVP, who tried to waive black flags and raise slogans against the CPM and its rally. Several persons were injured in the incident.

Chandigarh, December 25
Haryana irrigation minister Ajay Singh Yadav has directed the officers of the Irrigation Department to ensure supply of water at tails and carry out intensive patrolling with the help of the police for this purpose.

Yadav also asked the officers to advise all farmers to use sprinkler sets while using the canal water, especially in the lift irrigation areas in the head reaches, so that water could reach the tail end.

He said inflow in river Yamuna went down and the supply in WJC (western Jamuna canal) as on December 21 was of the order of 1992 cusecs (including 1,059 cusecs for Delhi Jal Board) while inflow in rivers Sutlej, Ravi and Beas were even less.

He said storage in Pong reservoir was less as compared to the corresponding period of last year. Same is the problem with Ranjit Sagar Dam, he said.

The irrigation minister said keeping in view the grim situation of availability of surface water, Haryana had reduced its irrigation requirement from Bhakra reservoir.

He added that owing to the scarcity of water, channels of Jamuna system including channels of Narwana branch were being run in four groups of eight days running rotation with total rotation period of 32 days.

The channels of tail Bhakhra Main Line (BML) system and the channels of BML Barwala Link Sirsa Branch System were being run in three groups of eight days running rotation with total rotation period of 24 days.

Fatehabad, December 25
The police today booked a Delhi based couple and their son for duping a villager in the name of sending him to Canada.

Lakhbir Singh, resident of Kanakheri village in the district had lodged a complaint against the trio in this regard.

In his complaint he said that he met Himanshu, his father Anil and Anil’s wife during a train journey last year and during conversation they offered to arrange him to send him to Canada for Rs 6 lakh.

Himanshu called him to Delhi with Rs 1 lakh and his passport, which he delivered to his parents in Himanshu’s absence.

After a few days, Himanshu demanded a further amount of Rs 3 lakh, which he paid to him on July 13, 2006.

On August 17, 2006, Himanshu again demanded Rs 50,000 for purchase of his ticket and told him that his visa papers and the ticket would be delivered in a few days.