Yamunanagar, February 24
Ran Singh Saini of Kisanpur Damla village, a murder accused, fell ill while in custody of the CIA-I here today.

He was immediately rushed to the Civil Hospital at Jagadhri, which referred him to the PGI, Chandigarh, but his family members took him to Gaba Hospital, where his condition was said to be stable.

Family members and relatives tried to block traffic opposite to the Gaba Hospital on the Jagadhri-Ambala stretch of the NH 73. However, the police foiled the attempt.

His son, Rajinder, alleged that his father fell ill because of police torture. Vidya, wife of Saini, too made similar allegations and demanded action against police personnel involved.

According to sources in the police, Saini complained of chest pain in the morning. In charge, CIA-I, Desraj said he was immediately taken to the hospital.

Sources at Gaba Hospital said blood pressure of Saini had fallen and now his condition was stable.

Rajinder said his father and Kamlesh, wife of Satish, another murder accused, were picked up by the police yesterday. “Today we came to know that he was taken to the hospital,” he added.

He alleged that his father had been kept in an illegal custody. However, Desraj said he was arrested today.

According to information, body of Gulshan (29), a resident of the village, was found from fields a few days ago. On the complaint of his father, the police had registered a case of murder against Satish and others under Sections 304 and 34 of the IPC.

Yamunanagar, February 24
Mandeep Kaur was adjudged “Miss DAV” at the annual prize distribution function of DAV Girls College here today.

At least 270 students were honoured for their achievements in academics, sports, cultural affairs and extra-curricular activities.

Commissioner, higher education, Haryana, Shiv Raman Gaur, who was the chief guest at the function, appreciated the role played by the college in improving the academic standards in the area.

Principal of the college Dr Sushma Arya read out the annual report of the college. She said academic achievements of the college included 72 merits and 71 university positions.

Mandeep Kaur, Sonia and Sapna were given awards for their excellent performances in music while Apoorva and Samita won honours for excellence in theatre. Neha was adjudged the best NCC cadet and Ekta was declared the best NSS worker.

Rajni was declared the best sportsperson of the college. College students also presented a cultural programme on the occasion.

Yamunanagar, February 24
Twenty per cent reservation will be given to constables belonging to Schedule Castes in the Haryana police in B-1 test held for promotion to head constables.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced this while addressing a public meeting held in connection with the birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Ravidas at Guru Ravidas Sabha here this evening. He also announced that in view of the forthcoming school examinations, power supply would be ensured in morning and evening hours.

He claimed that the government had taken several welfare steps for members of the SC community. He said the government had decided to provide free computer training to SC students in government colleges and they would be provided free computers after the completion of the training.

Hooda said great people and saints did not belong to any particular religion or community, but they took birth for the well being of the human race. He said Guru Ravidas fought against the evils and taught love, affection and brotherhood.

The Chief Minister said leaders like Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Swami Vivekananda and Jawahar Lal Nehru followed the teachings of Guru Ravidass and furthered the cause started by him 630 years ago.

All these leaders advocated the spread of education and that was why the state government was observing 2008 as the education year.

He said the government had set a target to educate all children belonging to the Scheduled Caste community in the state. According to him, 70 per cent of the children belonging to SC community leave school after primary classes.

He said to encourage them to continue their studies, the government had decided to provide scholarships.

Talking about the steps taken for the uplift of SCs in the state, Hooda said under the Indira Gandhi water supply scheme, 8.5 lakh SC families would be provided with water tanks and free water connection.

The Chief Minister also announced a grant of Rs 20 lakh to the Guru Ravidas Sabha and promised the sabha that the government would look into their other demands.

The Chief Minister also inaugurated an Ayurvedic dispensary at Milakhas village. The dispensary building was an ancestral property of HPCC president Phool Chand Mulana, which he donated to the government.

Mulana said Guru Ravidas advocated socialism and the Congress was following it.

Chandigarh, February 24
Frequent postings and “meddlesome” politicians are together spelling doom for the government’s public delivery system.

This issue has repeatedly come up in the interaction during the meeting of the Haryana Administrative Reforms Commission with various departments.

Though there is no immediate solution, members of the commission have put their heads together to give it a serious thought.

The commission is of the opinion that bureaucratic transfers in quick succession and the interference of politicians in the functioning of government departments have already caused “irreparable” damage to the administrative system.

“If the system has to be saved, all this must stop. We have had 25-odd meetings with various departments and every department has a similar story to narrate.

The bureaucrats are getting away citing this as an excuse for non-delivery of services while the politicians are happy playing musical chairs to have ‘their men’ at crucial posts,” says the chairman of the commission, Karan Dalal.

Not known to mince words even though it goes against his fraternity, Dalal remarks, “With ‘their men’ at top positions, politicians are calling the shots and capability has been given a go-by.

In most departments, the directions come from political bosses while the accountability lies with the bureaucrat who signs the file.

These double standards won’t work. Capable people and not ‘connected people’ should be at the helm of the affairs in any department, especially those dealing with the public”.

Holding that the politicians have virtually taken over the entire administration of the state, he insists that the only way out of this mess is to either amend rules and let the politicians run the show, as is the case in America, or to reorient the mindset of politicians and bureaucrats so that each may mind his own business.

Chandigarh, February 24
The Haryana BJP seems to have decided to shrug off the recent desertion from its ranks to Kuldeep Bishnoi’s Janhit Congress, which left the party virtually in a limbo for several weeks and march ahead.

Of course, those who left the BJP to join hands with Bishnoi were always known to be Bhajan’s men. Right from the day they joined the BJP, many believed that they constituted an “advance party” of the former Chief Minister, so that if need be, these men could put pressure on the BJP leadership to have a tie-up with him.

When they had joined the BJP, Bhajan Lal, who had been sulking at being ignored by the Congress high command for the post of Haryana Chief Minister, was keeping his options open - whether to join the BJP straightway or form a regional outfit of his own and then enter into an alliance with the national party.

In both cases, members of the “advance party” would have proved useful. But once Bishnoi, the real man behind Bhajan “mukhota” (mask), decided to have his own party, the members of the “advance party” like Krishan Murti Hooda and Ran Singh Mann started returning “home”.

Coupled with these desertions, the fact that those politicians who were “neither here nor there”, particularly former members of the erstwhile HVP, had put their plans on a hold, made the BJP leaders a miserable lot.

The leaders of the Haryana BJP are unanimous that their party should not enter into an alliance with any party, particularly with the Indian National Lok Dal of Om Prakash Chautala.

These leaders are allergic to Chautala personally because the latter treated most of them shabbily when he was the Chief Minister.

But they also realise that since winning in the next Lok Sabha elections is the top priority for the party, they would be under pressure from the central leadership to have a tie-up with Chautala.

Hence, the success of the proposed “vijay sankalp rally” at Jind on March 16 has become crucial for the state leaders of the BJP.

The Jind rally will be addressed among others by the party’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani, party chief Rajnath Singh and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The presence of Modi at the rally is important because he was the in charge of the party affairs in Haryana before he was moved to Gujarat.

He was one of those who were opposed to a tie-up with Chautala in the last Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

If the Haryana BJP is able to put up a good show at Jind, its leaders will have a staunch advocate in Modi in opposing a tie-up with the INLD.

It is no secret that Modi’s opinion will be hard to be ignored by the high command.

To make the Jind rally a success, the Haryana BJP has planned four “vijay sankalp rath yatras” in various parts of the state.

The yatras will be led by party president Atam Prakash Manchanda, Capt Abhimanyu, Ram Bilas Sharma and Kishan Singh Sangwan, respectively.

Recently, the party got a moral boost when former general secretary of the HVP Rajiv Jain joined its ranks.

A former media adviser to then Chief Minister Bansi Lal, Jain was the nearest rival to the successful Congress candidate in the Sonepat assembly constituency last time when he contested as an Independent.

With his influence among the ex-HVP cadre, Jain is likely to bring many more of his colleagues to the BJP fold in the coming days.

He can be an asset to the party if his experience with the media is put to good use by the Haryana BJP, which, so far, woefully lacks good media managers.

Faridabad, February 24
The BJP kicked off its “vijay sankalp yatra” from here today. The yatra will cover three parliamentary constituencies and 27 assembly segments before terminating at the historic Meham Chaubisi in Rohtak disrict on March 4.

Addressing a gathering during the launch of the yatra here, the general secretary of the Haryana unit of the BJP, Capt Abhimanyu, who is leading the campaign, asserted that it would highlight the achievements of the preceding NDA government.

It would also highlight the “all-round failure” of the Congress government in Haryana, he added.

The leader of the BJP in the state assembly, Raj Kumar Gautam, flagged off the yatra. The party also launched two other similar yatras, one from Panchkula and another from Kalwaki in Sirsa district today.

These, too, would conclude at different places on March 4.

One major objective of the campaign is to galvanise and mobilise support for the BJP’s state-level rally in Jind on March 16.

Although the BJP has no MLA in this district, the general perception is that the gathering at the time of the launch of the yatra as well as the interest that was evinced by the public must have added to its stature.

Capt Abhimanyu ruled out electoral alliance with any political party in future.

Gurgaon, February 24
Irate over inordinate delay in the construction of foot bridges on the Haryana stretch of the Delhi-Gurgaon highway, 50 women from Narsinghpur, Khandsa, Naharpur Rupa villages and adjoining localities, adjacent to the high-speed corridor, disrupted the traffic near Hero Honda crossing here today.

Though over 300 persons from these villages had gathered to discuss the issue of safe passage of pedestrians, women took charge of the campaign.

Villagers said they had set a one-month deadline for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and administration to start the work, else they would disrupt traffic on this stretch.

Villagers of these villages gathered at Khandsa village and decided to take ahead their fight for the pedestrians’ rights, if nothing improved.

The additional deputy commissioner said they would collect a copy of communication from the NHAI stating that the safe crossovers would be completed in the next six months.

According to eyewitness the brief disruption caused a long traffic pile-up despite heavy deployment of security personnel.

However, police officials who were supervising the situation, claimed that they managed to let the traffic flow in two lanes. “There was only partial disruption of traffic flow,” said a police official.

Villagers have demanded the safe pedestrian passages at Narsinghpur, Kherki Dhaula, Khandsa, Hero Honda and Naharpur Rupa to cross the expressway.

Sources said the NHAI had floated tender for the construction of foot over bridges for the third time and the ministry of shipping, road transport and highways had directed to award the tender even if this time there was a single bidder.

Gurgaon, February 24
Local advocate Paramjeet was seriously injured in an attack on him by four unidentified assailants on the Khandsa road here this evening.

A police official said Paramjeet was going in his vehicle from the Khandsa road to his residence at around 5 pm when a black Satro hit his vehicle from the rear.

Before Paramjeet could react, one of the assailants sitting in the Santro started firing on him. Seven bullets were fired, of which one hit the lawyer on his shoulder following which he fell unconscious.

The attackers then went towards Khandsa village in their vehicle.

The official said as soon as the police got information about the incident,it cordoned off Khandsa village. He said the Satro had a Karnataka number-plate and there were four occupants in it.

He said the injured was immediately shifted to the local Kalyani hospital for medical aid and was referred to Batra Hospital, Delhi.

The injured advocate is the nephew of INLD state general secretary Sukhbir Kataria.

Talking on the phone, Katari said Paramjeet was out of danger and his condition was stable now. He said he was not aware about the reason behind the attack.

Karnal, February 24
Terming female foeticide a curse on society, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said here today that it could be eradicated only through a mass awakening campaign not only in the state but the entire country.

He stressed the need for adopting the principles of non-violence and truth as enunciated by Bhagwan Mahavir for getting rid of social evils like female foeticide.

He was speaking on the occasion of 60th “diksha jayanti” of Shri Manohar Muniji Maharaj organised by the Jain Samaj here.

Hooda said enacting laws and formulating different schemes alone would not eradicate female foeticide from society. A sustained mass awakening campaign was the need of the hour.

He claimed that with the joint efforts of the judiciary and the state government there had been a considerable improvement in the sex-ratio in the state which had noted an increase to the extent 892 to 893 per 1,000 in some districts of the state.

He lamented that the sex-ratio in Karnal, Kurukshetra and Kaithal districts had not improved much.

Referring to the demands of the Jain Samaj, Hooda announced that the road dividing sectors 13 and 14 here would be named as “Ahimsa Road”.

Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Vijender Kumar Jain said the Jain religion was not communal and was for the welfare of the entire humanity.

He said the evil of female foeticide should be curbed with the cooperation of all sections of society. He asked the people to take a pledge to get rid of this evil.

Saint Manohar Muniji said, “We can get rid of social evils like female foeticide and dowry only by adopting the path of ‘ahimsa parmo dharma’.”

He pleaded that “we have to understand our culture and establish the principles of truth and non-violence in our life”.

Later, Hooda flagged off “sankalp rath yatra” started by the Maharaja Aggarsain Charitable Trust to create public awareness among the people about female foeticide. The yatra will cover all villages and towns of the state.

Faridabad, February 24
The police has zeroed in on ensuring rules on drivers of scooters and motorcycles and pillion riders in an effort to minimise road accidents and to have effective control on crimes like chain snatching.

Rules like wearing helmets and minors driving motorised two-wheelers, forms the substance of the on-going campaign by the police.

District police chief Alok Kumar said the two-month campaign launched by the department, which started on January 1, had shown positive results.

According to him, the major concern of the police was the crime of chain snatching. He reeled out statistics to assert that since the start of the campaign to date, there had been only one case of chain snatching. The total number of cases was 150 in 2006 and 87 in the last year.

Although the police chief held out the statistics, it is the general perception that the actual number will be much higher as in majority of cases the victims do not report the matter for varied reasons.

The trend of chain snatching had been on the rise not only in Faridabad but also in other cities and towns falling in the National Capital Region.

He said generally chain snatching was often done with one or two pillion riders. The result of the campaign is that now the percentage of drivers of motorised wheelers had increased from about 50 per cent to 80 per cent. Also, youths now think twice on pillion riding, if it is more than two in number, he added.

They said purchases worth crores were being made in the name of the HVDS whereas junior engineers were being harassed by stopping their salaries.

Kaithal, February 24
Chairman of the All-India Kisan Khet Mazdoor Congress and Kaithal MLA Shamsher Singh Surjewala along with some members of Parliament, MLAs and presidents of Pradesh Congress Committees of three states on Friday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi and demanded one-time waiving or settlement of all outstanding loans of farmers and farm workers.

Addressing a press conference here, Surjewala said they impressed upon Gandhi that such a step would enable farmers to take full advantage of the pro-farmer policies of the UPA government.

The delegation also demanded a comprehensive rehabilitation or resettlement package for the farmers whose land had been acquired for creation of special economic zones.

Other demands of the delegation included lowering of interest rates to 4 per cent and abolition of three-tier system of the banks, enhancement of support price of paddy to bring it on par with wheat price, insurance of all crops, free medical health insurance for all poor people, increase in wages of daily wage workers and provision of life imprisonment for selling spurious agricultural inputs.

Chandigarh, February 24
The Haryana State Legal Services Authority has released the schedule of legal literacy camps to be held on holidays in remote rural areas and urban slums of the state up to March 31.

A spokesman for the authority said 20 such camps would be held in villages and slum areas of Bhiwani district.

In Bhiwani, the camps would be held at Manheru village on March 2, Tigrana village on March 9, BTM Chowk on March 16 and Dhani Mahu on March 30.

He stated that in villages falling under Charkhi Dadri, the camps would be held at Mandola on March 1, Makrana on March 8, Sanwar on March 15 and Kheri Bura on March 29.

In subdivision of Siwani, a camp would be held at Mohilla on March 7, Badwa on March 14, Jhumpa on March 21 and Jumpa Khurd in March 28. In Loharu subdivision, the camp would be held at Dighawa on March 2, Behal on March 9, Dhani Rahimpur on March 16 and Sohansra on March 30.

He said 12 camps would be held in Faridabad, 15 in Fatehabad, six in Gurgaon, seven in Hisar, 17 in Jind, five in Jhajjar, six in Karnal, 11 in Kurukshetra, 10 in Kaithal, five each in Panchkula and Panipat, 12 each in Rewari, Sirsa and Rohtak, 13 in Sonepat and six camps in Yamunanagar.

His marriage was scheduled to take place today. The cause behind his tragic end could not be ascertained.

The mandal decided to send a delegation to meet the minister concerned to urge him to effect amendments to the policy.

Bhiwani, February 24
Haryana finance minister Birender Singh today said the state government had decided to increase the number of posts of lecturer by 25 per cent every year so as to generate employment opportunities.

He was speaking at the convocation of Government Postgraduate College here. He said by increasing the number of posts of lecturers, the students, especially in rural areas, would get experienced teachers.

He said the government had also decided to make computer education compulsory for all students in colleges so as to enable them have job-oriented education in this era of information technology.

The government had also decided to give an additional increment in the salary of those members of the nursing staff who have attained higher education.

He also urged the teachers to inculcate moral values in students besides academic knowledge. — UNI

He left the bottle in the cabin and got down at Rohtak. “Now I suspect that the person wanted to loot me but luckily I escaped,” remarked the truck driver.

Jhajjar, February 24
Irked over prolonged power cuts, residents of Rayya, Hasanpur and Kunjia villages locked the power substation situated in Kunjia village to lodge their protest here today. They also threw away the articles and documents lying in the office.

According to information, villagers were facing hardships due to erratic supply of electricity for the past few months.

They had complained to concerned authorities in the past but the situation continued to deteriorate further.

However, hundreds of villagers gathered at the 133-kV power substation in tractor-trailers. When they failed to elicit any satisfactory reply from the officials, the villagers went berserk and then locked the substation.

Later, the police and officials of the electricity department reached there and assured that at least four hours of uninterrupted supply would be supplied in these villages and the complaint of the villagers would be sent to higher authorities.