Karnal, May 3
Former Chief Minister and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala today “cautioned” the official and political machinery, including election officials, against acting in a way that is undemocratic during the byelections.

He said he feared rigging by the ruling party during the three byelections.

He targeted Karnal deputy commissioner Balbir Singh Malik for allegedly acting in favour of the Congress.

In a scathing attack on the DC-cum-district election officer, Chautala alleged that the official had removed the returning officer and had acted in a biased manner in appointing a Congressman as the chairperson of the Nilokheri Municipal Council.

Similarly, the panchayat of Nissing was suspended by the deputy commissioner after it raised its voice against the poor power scenario.

He alleged that residents of Shergarh Tapu and Rehat Khana villages were falsely implicated in cases at the behest of the administration.

He “cautioned” the deputy commissioner not to interfere in the election process.

Interestingly, Malik was once handpicked by Chautala as his personal staff when the latter was the Chief Minister.

Malik said he had performed his duties according to the law and refused to comment further.

Chautala was addressing mediapersons after accompanying Ashok Kumar, party nominee for the Indri bypoll, for filing nomination papers this afternoon.

Chautala charged the state government with violating the model code of conduct by offering jobs in the electricity department. He claimed that a complaint had been forwarded to the Election Commission in this regard.

Interestingly, Chautala and his supporters reached the mini-secretariat in cars, which were more than the prescribed limit.

In a blatant violation of the rules, several vehicles fitted with red beacon and sirens remained parked for over half an hour.

Rohtak, May 3
Accusing major political parties in Haryana of ignoring issues of public interest, the CPM has called for a debate on matters concerning the common people.

“Instead of addressing the problems being faced by the common man in day-to-day life, all major political parties in the state are indulging in nepotism and autocratic rule,” said Nilotpal Basu, former Rajya Sabha MP and member of the CPM central secretariat, while addressing a news conference here today.

The CPM leader pointed out that while the life of the common people was getting tougher day by day, the ruling as well as major opposition parties were busy blowing their own trumpet.

Citing the instance of the coming byelections to the state assembly, Basu said the Congress, the Haryana Janhit Congress as well as the INLD had made the whole electoral affair a prestige issue.

“ Elections for choosing people’s representatives should be contested on issues of public interest and not for the so-called prestige of a given leader,” he asserted.

In response to a query, Basu said Leftist parties had backed the UPA at the centre to keep communal forces at bay. “However, the UPA regime has proved to be no different than the previous NDA government as far as economic and other policies of vital national interest are concerned,” he observed.

CPM state secretary Inderjit Singh said contrary to the tall claims being made by the Congress as well as the Janhit Congress regarding the development of the Adampur assembly segment, people of the area were under acute distress.

“Thanks to repeated crop failures, many farmers of the Adampur area have committed suicide,” he said, adding that it was this kind of grassroots-level issues that his party wanted to bring up.

Kaithal, May 3
The police today busted a racket of sale of textbooks issued under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which were being illegally sold in the market.

SP Anil Kumar Rao here today said three persons, Sanjay Kumar, Satpal and Ram Phal, were arrested in this connection under Sections 409 and 411 of the IPC.

He said the textbooks were issued by the Haryana Education Board and were meant for supply to students free of cost.

On receiving complaints about such a racket, a three- member team was constituted under the leadership of district education officer Harpal Singh.

The team raided two shops in the town and seized a book from one of them which carried the “not for sale” stamp.

The owner of the shop claimed that he had bought the book from another shopkeeper and also presented a bill in support of his claim.

The team then raided the main shop and seized some books of class V from him. When employees of the Haryana Education Board, Bhiwani, were interrogated in this connection, they failed to give a satisfactory reply.

Therefore, the police is not ruling out their involvement in the crime.

Rewari, May 3
Three members of a family died while the driver, S.K. Chauhan, was seriously injured when the car they were travelling in reportedly collided with a truck on the Rewari-Narnaul road near Kund, 22 km from here, today.

The deceased have been identified as Jagdish Tanwar (38), his wife, Sharda Tanwar (35), and their daughter Tona (11), all residents of Dabla town of Sikar district in Rajasthan.

The owner of the car, Chauhan, who was driving the car, has been referred to a private hospital in Gurgaon.

The mishap occurred when they were returning to Dabla after attending a marriage at Jatauli village near Pataudi in Gurgaon district while the truck was on its way from Narnaul to Rewari.

The police has registered a case of rash and negligent driving against the truck driver, who absconded after the accident.

Fatehabad, May 3
The police today solved the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a Tohana-based rice miller by recovering his body from the Kudni head of the Bhakra Main Canal.

The trader, Suresh Bansal, was allegedly kidnapped and killed by his neighbour Randhir Singh.

SP Saurabh Singh said Randhir Singh was a JBT teacher and lived a lavish lifestyle despite his meagre income. Bansal lived near his rented accommodation in Model Town, Tohana. Randhir Singh allegedly planned to kidnap Bansal for ransom with a fellow teacher, Vikram.

The two allegedly did reconnaissance of daily movements of the trader for a few days and then kidnapped him on April 29 in his car when he had gone for a morning walk.

As Randhir Singh knew Bansal, he shot him dead on the same day fearing of being exposed and threw his body in the canal. Kin of the trader were unsure of his fate as his slippers were found near the riverbank and the police too had been working on several theories, including that of suicide.

However, the police got an inkling of the car used in the incident and rounded up the accused yesterday. On interrogation, the accused admitted his crime.

The body of the trader was fished out from the canal after several hours of search today, the SP said.

Yamunanagar, May 3
Anil Kumar of Milkara village of Bilaspur block here got the shock of his life when he applied for issuance of his birth certificate with the registrar of births and deaths and was issued a certificate which showed that he had died on April 8, 1990. As per the government records, he was never born but died on the above date.

Actually, April 8, 1990, is his date of birth and the village watchman had accidentally made the entry of his birth in the death registrar. Hence, Anil Kumar was never born in records of the health department.

Neither Anil Kumar nor his family knew about the mistake of the watchman. Like other children of the area, he was admitted to a government school. In those days, birth certificate was not mandatory for admissions in school and schools used to accept the date of birth as told by parents.

Anil Kumar passed his matriculation examinations recently. In March, he needed his birth certificate for some purpose. At that time, his result was awaited and hence he did not have the birth certificate-cum-DMC issued by the Haryana School Education Board. Therefore, he applied to the health department for the birth certificate. The registrar of birth and death office issued a certificate, which showed that he had died in April,1990.

“The day of death mentioned in the certificate is actually my birthday,” said Anil Kumar.

It was later found out that the goof up was due to the mistake of the village watchman whose duty was to enter births and deaths in specified registers.

These days, Anil Kumar has been making rounds of government offices, but to no avail. He also brought the matter to the notice of the deputy commissioner.

“The watchman admitted his mistake and even gave the same in writing but his letter was not sufficient to prove that I am not dead but alive and live in the village,” he said. A senior official in the health department said if such a mistake had taken place, it could be corrected.

Gurgaon, May 3
A jawan allegedly killed his colleague on duty with his service weapon after a minor argument at CRPF Group Centre, Kadarpur, about 15 km from here, yesterday night.

As per preliminary investigations, the incident took place around 9.30 pm when the accused sentry, Jai Prakash Pathak, was resting after his duty a few steps from the post.

The deceased sentry, Ajit Singh Laharia, who assumed duty after him, was speaking over mobile phone to somebody regarding his lost ATM card. Allegedly, this disturbed the accused, who after some argument shot his colleague killing him on the spot.

DCP south Inder Singh Saini said the accused had been arrested and sent to police remand for two days. Senior CRPF officers also reached the spot.

The body of the deceased would be sent to his native place in Madhya Pradesh after completing formalities.

Gurgaon, May 3
Haryana finance minister Birender Singh today ordered suspension of an upper division clerk, Ramniwas, of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) on finding him guilty for entering exaggerated meter reading in the electricity bill of a resident of Sector 37 here.

The state finance minister passed the order during the district-level monthly grievances redressal meeting held here under his chairmanship. In all, 24 complaints were taken up for hearing at the meeting. Of these, 22 were redressed on the spot.

According to the complainant, which was submitted before the minister, the reading shown in the electricity bill for July 24 to August 21, 2006 was wrong. When it was brought to the notice of the concerned bill clerk of the DHBVN, he assured the same would be rectified in the next bill and the amount charged from him adjusted accordingly. But nothing was done in this regard and the latest bill amounted to Rs 1,46,110 on the basis of the cumulative meter reading till now.

Disposing another complaint related to fraudulent sale of a residential plot, the minister ordered registration of an FIR against the seller, Sita Ram, and his arrest in the case.

The alleged accused was found to have sold the same plot to two different buyers as well got their registrations done by concealing the facts.

The matter was inquired by the zonal administrator of the Marketing Board, who had recommended action against Sita Ram.

In yet another case of the Ariyant Group Housing Society, Sector 56, Gurgaon, registration of an FIR was ordered against the former president of the society, Naresh Ahuja, for alleged irregularities committed by him in the case during his tenure.

The case was entrusted for inquiry to ADC Abhe Singh Yadav, who after examining the case said persons who were not members were allotted flats by the society.

Ahuja was also found guilty for remaining president of the society for more than 10 years, which was in violation of the constitution of the society.

In yet another case, the minister directed the HUDA authorities to give possession of complete area of plot number 134-A, Part-2, in Sector 5 owned by Saroj Parmar.

As per the complainant, the area of her plot fell short by 14 square metres despite making payment of the complete area of the plot.

In another case related to widow pension, the FM ordered to resume the same with immediate effect as well as to pay arrears to Jai Dai of Nanu Kalan village. She had complained that the sarpanch of her village had got her pension stopped by misinforming the authorities concerned that she was no more.

Yamunanagar, May 3
Senior citizens of Mustfabad block here were paid old-age pension due in April in May.

Pension beneficiaries said earlier they used to get the pension in the second week of every month, but for the past few months they were getting it in the last week.

However, this time they were given April’s pension in May.

Senior citizens Om Parkash and Shiv Ram said when they came to know that they would be given pension today, they were happy as they thought they would get the pension for April and May together.

However, they were given only one-month pension.

The senior citizens demanded that they should be given pension by the seventh of each month. 

Sonepat, May 3
Kitab Singh (70) of Anwali village and his 10-year-old granddaughter Sarita were burnt alive in a fire in the fields yesterday.

With their death, the toll in fire tragedies in the district has gone up to four within two days. Two women, Roshni and Prakashi, of Ahulana village were burnt alive in a fire in the village fields on Thursday.

Kitab Singh had reportedly gone to the fields yesterday morning along with Sarita. When they did not return home by the evening, family members went to the fields and found Sarita burnt alive and Kitab Singh with serious burn injuries.

They were taken to the CHC, Gohana, from where doctors referred Kitab Singh to the PGIMS, Rohtak, where he succumbed to his injuries late last night.

Despite a ban on the burning of stubble, the practice continues with farmers not caring two hoots for the law.