Jind, January 10
Life was paralysed in a part of the city when students of a government senior secondary school here clashed with the police this morning over a protest regarding the death of one of their schoolmates in a road mishap yesterday.

Rahul, a student of class XI, was run over by a truck while he was on the way home after attending the school.

The police allegedly canecharged the students and opened fire at them, leading to a bullet injury to one of the students, after the protesters pelted the police with stones.

The deputy commissioner and five policemen were among those injured. Several students and onlookers also received minor injuries in the incident. A police jeep was set on fire by the agitated students.

While movement of traffic on the road remained disrupted till the evening, a heavy police force has been posted near the spot. All schools in the town have been reported to remain closed for two days.

Students had blocked traffic on the road in front of the school last evening in protest against the death of the student in the mishap.

Hundreds of them came out on the road this morning demanding construction of a speedbreaker in front of the school gate.

The police, after waiting for about two hours, decided to use force to get the road cleared of the students. Following this, the students allegedly started pelting the cops with stones.

Deputy commissioner Yudhvir Singh was hit by a stone on the left side of his face. He was discharged after first aid in the civil hospital. Jaiveer, a student of the school and resident of Ram Nagar here, was injured in the fire opened by the police.

He was hit by a bullet in one of his arms. His condition is stated to be out of danger. Several rounds were reportedly fired by the police.

At least five cops, including a head constable, were also injured when they were pelted with stones.

The incident also resulted in damage to a motorcycle and minor injury to Satyender, a reporter with a Hindi daily, who was hit by a stone.

The commissioner and IG, Hisar range, visited the city to assess the situation, which returned to normal by the evening.

Surajkund (Faridabad), January 10
The Haryana government got a pat on the back from the National Commission for Women for taking several measures to reduce maternal and infant mortality rate in the state.

The government got the praise from Girja Vyas, chairperson of the NCW, while she was delivering a speech at a two-day South Asian parliamentarians' meeting on the achievements of MDGs (million development goals set out by the UNO) here. The meeting, which commenced today, had maternal mortality as its focus.

The event, organised by the Indian Association of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (IAPPD), was attended by parliamentarians from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Vyas lauded the state government for providing infrastructure and money for reducing the maternal mortality rate.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was the chief guest and who inaugurated the meeting, said in his address that the promotion of clean and safe delivery practices, especially in rural areas, was high on the state's priority.

According to him, the state has come a long way since 1999 after the National Family Health Survey-II. The maternal mortality rate at present in the state is 162 per one lakh live births from 302 in 1999.

The Maternal Health Programme, a component of the Reproductive and Child Health Programme, aims at reducing maternal mortality to less than 100 by 2010, he added.

Also, the infant mortality rate was 42 per 1,000 live births from 61 in 1999. The institutional deliveries were 39 from 22 per cent in 1999. There was also increased use of ante-natal services at 89 per cent from 58 per cent.

Dwelling further on the issue, he said Haryana had taken a number of initiatives for improving obstetric care

services, which included trained human resource. He said to promote institutional deliveries, provision had been made for making primary health centres and community health centres work round the clock to ensure constant presence of at least one medical officer or nurses even after working hours.

With a view to motivating women to opt for institutional deliveries and to minimise the maternal mortality rate and the infant mortality rate in the state, the Jananai Suraksha Yojana had been implemented.

Under this scheme, a cash incentive of Rs 700 was given to rural BPL mothers and Rs 600 to urban BPL mothers for undergoing institutional delivery. In case of delivery at home, a cash incentive of Rs 500 was given in both cases.

Sirsa, January 10
Four police personnel, including an ASI and two head constables, were today suspended for dereliction of duty.

Three cops - ASI Aman Kumar, head constable Sunder Singh and constable Varinder Singh - of the city police station were placed under suspension by SP Vikas Arora for allegedly misbehaving with an employee and the son of another employee of the civil hospital in an inebriated condition.

In another case, head constable Umedh Singh was suspended after an undertrial ran away from his custody from the civil hospital here.

Giving details, the police said an employee of the civil hospital, Vijay Kumar, and Sonu had gone to the city police station last night to inform the police about a case. However, when they reached there, three police personnel, who were allegedly drunk, misbehaved with Vijay and Sonu and also used abusive language against them.

The chief medical officer of the civil hospital took up the matter with the SP.

A medical examination of Sunder Singh and Varinder Singh was conducted at the hospital while Aman was not found there later.

After placing the three police personnel under suspension, the SP deputed the DSP, Ellenabad, Pravin Mehta, to conduct a department inquiry against the three.

In another incident, Sohan Singh, an undertrial, who was arrested in a motorcycle theft case, escaped while being taken to a hospital.

The undertrial was in the custody of head constable Umedh Singh. As a result, Umedh Singh was also suspended by the SP.

Sonepat, January 10
The state of affairs in prisons in the state can be gauged from the fact that the Sonepat district jail superintendent seems to have been “spared” by the government by not initiating any departmental action.

Jail superintendent Rai Singh Mandiwal and his subordinate staff were booked on charges of violating the Punjab jail manual and criminal misconduct in the jail administration. Jail authorities had been allegedly taking more than five prisoners out of the jail on a routine basis.

As per jail rules, only five prisoners can be taken out on any given day for work and that too with the permission of the state prisons headquarters. An FIR was registered against four officials, including the jail superintendent, deputy superintendent, sub-assistant superintendent and the head warder on December 29.

All officials except the jail superintendent were arrested and later suspended. The Sonepat police has even failed to ascertain Mandiwal’s whereabouts.

Sources alleged that the jailor had the ‘blessings’ of a strong lobby of politicians and officials, thus evading any action against him.

The top brass of the prisons department too remained tightlipped on the issue but sources said the home department had not acted on the file sent to it to initiate further action, if any, against Mandiwal.

However, the state prisons department said no leave had been sanctioned to him. DGP (prisons) John Vincent George said appropriate action would be taken against him.

Officials of the prisons department had raided the jail premises on December 28 and found several irregularities in its functioning.

Chandigarh, January 10
The Congress has finally woken up to the “damage” done by suspended Congress MP Kuldeep Bishnoi and his team, including former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, and initiated disqualification proceedings against them.

Even in the face of mounting pressure, the Bishnoi camp continues to maintain that the three MLAs supporting it have not received any notices so far.

Replies to the notices served on the MLAs is unlikely since at present Kuldeep Bishnoi and Bhajan Lal are abroad.

However, sources said the notices would be examined for the charges levied against them once these were received.

After months of being on the defensive, the dawn of the new year saw the Bhupinder Hooda camp adopt an offensive stance and attempts to corner Bishnoi and his supporters for floating the Haryana Janhit Congress have gathered momentum.

The ball got rolling this year with the tirade against Bhajan Lal, Gohana MLA Dharampal Malik and Indri MLA Rakesh Kamboj being launched by the Congress MLA who made a case for disqualification against the trio with Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Raghubir Singh Kadian.

Following this, notices were sent to the three MLAs and a period of 10 days was given to them to file their replies.

Meanwhile, AICC general secretary and Haryana in charge Margret Alva during her recent visit to the state said the state party unit had sought the disqualification of the “erring” members so that they ended up losing their seats and that the AICC disciplinary action committee would proceed in a similar fashion against MP Kuldeep Bishnoi by approaching the Lok Sabha Speaker.

A day after she said this, the Congress held a meeting of the central disciplinary committee and gave the nod to the moving of a case of disqualification against the MP. When contacted, Kadian said the three MLAs had been sent notices by registered post.

In case these were not received by them, the law would take its own course whereby the notices would be personally sent and finally published in papers before action was initiated.

The disqualification of the MLAs and the MP would mean byelections in these constituencies wherein the Congress would especially try to win back at least two of the three seats.

Panipat, January 10
The Panipat Federation of Small-Scale Industries today threatened to launch an agitation from January 15 if there was no improvement in the power scenario in
the district.

Those present at the meeting, which was held here, criticised the poor
ower management.

Yashpal Malik, president of the federation, said the local industry was facing huge losses as adequate power was not available to various units.

“As the units are unable to operate, workers, too, have been rendered jobless,'
 he said.

Kurukshetra, January 10
All great literature, whether created by William Shakespeare or Kalidas, transcends the boundaries of time and space and has perennial value and relevance in all ages and for all times.

Great Literature is immortal. These views were expressed by Rupen Desai, former professor and head, Delhi University, at the Sarup Singh Memorial Lecture - 2008 organised by the Dr Sarup Singh Chair in the English department of Kurukshetra University here yesterday.

Focusing on the contemporary relevance of Shakespeare in the globalised world, Desai said gender relationships treated in Shakespeare’s plays were a subject of keen interest for social scientists today, particularly in the wake of feminism and other women empowerment movements.

He recalled that this was an area of special interest to Dr Sarup Singh as well, who emphasised that more important than old structures of stability in man-woman relationship was the assertion of individual identity and personal freedom, specially for the women in the family.

Desai reiterated that in order for literature to enhance the general competence of students, there was need for committed teachers like Dr Sarup Singh.

Prof Bhim S. Dahiya, in his presidential address, recalled how great teachers like Dr Sarup Singh, by their insights and eloquence, could enthuse students into reliving characters and events in Shakespeare’s plays. Dr Sarup Singh, Dahiya remarked, was a uniquely ideal teacher of English literature.

In his welcome address, Dr K.K. Kathuria, Prof of the Dr Sarup Singh Chair, highlighted the versatility of Dr Sarup Singh as a teacher, scholar and administrator.

Sirsa, January 10
The Liberal Member of Parliament from Scarborough-Agincourt, Canada, Jim Karygiannis, yesterday advocated the need for more international cooperation on the issue of global warming, stating that pollution in any corner of the world needed to be tackled as it had a global effect.

“It’s time to think globally and act locally to protect the environment by controlling pollution,” he added. “We have to make the earth a better place to live in”.

“Small efforts by an individual can do a lot. Those using four-wheelers for ‘prestige’ can change their attitude and use these only if necessary. Besides, use of CNG in vehicles can also help. This is my 14th visit in India. It’s great to see a lot of development all over, as India is growing fast. The 21st century belongs to India,” said Jim, who has been elected MP for the sixth time.

Jim was here to interact with students of JCD Vidyapeeth and was accompanied by its director-general and eminent scientist Kuldeep Dhindsa.

Talking to The Tribune, Jim said he had participated in many trade missions to India, Pakistan, China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and Egypt. He was also a member of the Team Canada Mission to China in 2001.

“I believe strengthening bilateral trade relations with Canada is important in the development of emerging global markets. I believe in the power and potential of the human race. For me the word RACE stands for respecting our neighbours, accepting our differences, celebrating our rich diversity and embracing our heritage,” he said.

On the need for cooperation in the education sector, he said there was need for more educational exchange programmes for students and teachers of both countries. He invited students of Vidyapeeth and its director-general to visit Canada for exchange programmes.

Jim said that he was first elected to the House of Commons in 1988. On January 23, 2006, he was re-elected for a sixth consecutive term with 63 per cent popular vote.

Fatehabad, January 10
Two youths allegedly raped a married woman here last night. The police has registered a case.

It is on a look out for the accused and their female accomplice, who allegedly assisted the duo in the crime.

The victim (25) lives in a rented accommodation in Lajpat Nagar along with her husband, who is a taxi driver, and two children.

According to information, the incident took place when the woman along with her landlady, Shakuntala, was on the way to a hospital as her daughter had fallen ill.

On the way, two youths, who were acquainted with Shakuntala, offered the victim to take lift in the car.

But instead of taking the victim to a hospital, the youths took her to a secluded room in the fields near Kuldeep Resorts and raped her.

DSP Naripjit Singh said the police had recorded the statement of the victim and registered a case against Shakuntala and the two unidentified youths. The accused would be arrested soon.