Gurgaon, July 11
The Haryana government has planned to construct at least 50,000 houses during the next three years to meet the housing needs of people, including those belonging to economically weaker sections and low income groups.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced this after laying the foundation stone of Vishva Karma Institute of Human Settlement, Management and Research and administrative-cum-hostel building here today.

He said the Haryana Housing Board would construct 3,222 houses at Panchkula, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Sonepat, Madlauda, Bahadurgarh, Bhiwani, Gurgaon, Dharuhera and Faridabad at the cost of Rs 413 crore.

Out of these, 808 dwelling units had been earmarked for people belonging to economically weaker sections (EWS) and lower income group (LIG).

Since the inception of the Haryana Housing Board, as many as 62,537 houses had been constructed by the board.

The housing board had decided to develop housing colonies on the pattern of urban sectors in small towns and big villages for providing shelter to various sections of society to improve their living conditions and environment.

At least 370 acres in 37 villages had been identified by the site selection committee, he added.

Speaking about the upcoming institute, he said the institute would be the first of its kind in the country which would hold training programmes, workshops and seminars to upgrade the knowledge of architects, engineers and project managers working in the field of building construction.

The institute would be constructed in two years at an estimated cost of Rs 16 crore.

Later, the Chief Minister unveiled a life-size statue of Deen Bandhu Sir Chhotu Ram and laid the foundation stone of Chouturam Girls Model Public School at Jharsa village.

He announced a grant of Rs 11 lakh from his discretionary fund to Sir Chhotu Ram Educational and Cultural Society.

Chandigarh, July 11
HelpAge India will set up its first retirement community society project at Manesar in Haryana soon. A single-storeyed campus, having accommodation for around 240 elders, would be constructed having all basic facilities.

In this project, three types of accommodation would be available for the senior citizens - independent flats, assisted living flats and respiratory care person accommodation. Senior citizens, single or couple, who are above 65 years, can avail of these facilities by paying a small amount.

Chief executive of HelpAge India Mathew Cherian said in this society special focus would be given to have counsellors and occupation therapists for the senior citizens.

He said the society would cater basically to senior citizens who were financially independent and preferred to stay in retirement resorts instead of languishing in quintessential old-age homes that they felt were overcrowded and unsafe.

He said the project would be developed on five acres and have all required services such as health care centre, prayer centre, paramedics and emergency services, food and catering, besides housekeeping.

Cherian said they would also approach the Punjab government to allot land for setting up such a project in the state. He said HelpAge India would prefer to set up such a project in Ludhiana or Jalandhar. 

Chandigarh, July 11
The tuition fee of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) students seeking admission to pre-engineering, diploma, BE/BTech, BPharma, BHMCT, MBA, MCA and MTech courses in the government or government-aided colleges or university departments or self-financing institutions located in Haryana and under the control of the department of technical education in the current academic session will be paid by the department of technical education.

Announcing this here today, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said this had been a long-standing demand of various Dalit organisations that the tuition fee should be directly paid to the institutions instead of first asking the students to pay and then get it reimbursed from the government. Their plea was that there were many students who could not arrange the fee themselves.

He said the benefit would be extended only to those SC students who would be admitted through the central counselling except for the pre-engineering course for which the students would be admitted at the institutional level.

For degree or PG level courses, income of the parents of the students should not exceed Rs 2.40 lakh per annum and they should not fall in the ambit of creamy layer whereas for pre-engineering or diploma programmes there was no such restriction.

He said the token fee to be deposited by the SC students at the time of allotment of seats would be 50 per cent of the prescribed token fee of general category students. The institutions would submit the requisite lists of such SC students within a week of the cut-off date of admissions fixed by the Haryana State Counselling Society. The fee would be reimbursed to the respective institutions within one month provided that the student continued to be enrolled with the institution.

Sonepat, July 11
The train services on the Delhi-Ambala-Kalka (DUK) section of the Northern Railway remained disrupted for two hours following a bomb scare at Badli railway station, 45 km from here, yesterday.

The railway authorities received information about the planting of four bombs near Badli railway station.

The Delhi-bound Kalka Mail was held up at Sonepat railway station whereas other trains were stopped at other nearby railway stations.

Thereafter, officials reached the site but nothing was found objectionable. The rail traffic on this section was resumed.

When passengers travelling in the Kalka mail got the information about the planting of bombs, they got down from it and proceeded towards their destinations by buses. — PTI

Chandigarh, July 11
The registration of a criminal case under the Prevention of Corruption Act against staff members of the Bhondsi jail, including deputy superintendent Anil Kumar, at the behest of the Chief Minister’s flying squad, constituted to check corruption in government offices, has raised a pertinent question about the role of politicians in protecting corrupt officers.

That there is widespread corruption in the Bhondsi jail is not disputed. However, the way the government works in dealing with the alleged corrupt persons is baffling everyone.

On one hand, the case has been registered at the instance of the Chief Minister’s flying squad and on the other hand, the same government had reinstated Anil Kumar after he was placed under suspension for being negligent in duty, which had led to the murder of an undertrial prisoner.

Not only he was reinstated, he was posted back in the same jail from where he was suspended.

According to sources, an undertrial prisoner, Sudesh, alias Chhelu, was sent out of the jail for appearing in the court along with another undertrial prisoner on December 18, 2006. Apparently, they were to attend their court case and their presence in the court was required. Their opponents attacked them on their way to the court and both were killed.

Later, it was found that while Sudesh’s colleague was to appear in the court because the hearing of his case was fixed on that day, case against Sudesh was not fixed for hearing on that day.

If deputy jail superintendent Anil Kumar, whose duty it was to check which prisoners were to be produced in the court, had not sent Sudesh out of the jail, he would not have lost his life. Senior officers smell some thing more sinister than mere negligence.

Anil Kumar was placed under suspension and transferred out of Gurgaon. Later, he was reinstated and posted in the same jail allegedly due to his connections with certain politicians.

It needs a probe to know who spoke to the government on behalf of Anil Kumar and got him reinstated. Sources said had he been dealt with suitably at that time, the Chief Minister’s flying squad might not have been compelled to register a case against him now.

The flying squad started investigating against Anil Kumar and his colleagues after the jail department received an anonymous complaint against them.

A senior officer said: “You name the allegation, it was there in the complaint.” The allegations were supported by the facts, which could be known only to an insider.

The department conducted an inquiry into the complaint but no one came forward to give evidence. Such was the terror of the persons against whom the complaint was made. The department forwarded the complaint to the flying squad for investigation.

Gurgaon, July 11
The Haryana government has decided to set up a state energy conservation fund besides ensuring compliance of energy conservation building code (ECBC) in phased manner in all new buildings to be constructed in the government sector by April 2010.

In the first phase, new government buildings covering 1 lakh sq feet will be constructed in compliance with the ECBC.

The state government had also decided to make energy efficient street lighting systems mandatory with effect from April 2009 thus saving 222 MW of electricity, said Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda after inaugurating a national-level workshop on “Promoting the energy conservation building code” here today.

The workshop was organised by the Haryana department of renewable energy in collaboration with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) of the union power ministry.

Hooda observed that the decision to have an energy conservation fund had been taken to meet expenditure on the promotion of various programmes and projects aimed at conservation of energy.

He said energy efficient street lighting system would be mandatory for all existing and new colonies, urban areas notified by the urban local bodies department, sectors of Haryana Urban Development Authority, industrial estates of the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, housing complexes and colonies and townships developed by private or semi-government or autonomous institutions of the state.

The CM pointed out that with the change in building designs and installation of energy efficient equipments in the buildings, as much as 27 to 40 per cent of energy could be saved.

He was of the view that the designs of buildings should be prepared in such a way that these provide natural light and air, which would help in less consumption of energy.

He also released two books on energy conservation.

Yamunanagar, July 11
Poverty forced four members of a debt-ridden family to consume some poisonous substance here today.

Two persons, including a woman and her son, died while woman’s husband and her daughter were admitted to a private hospital here in a critical condition.

Mohan Lal along with his three family members, all residents of Jagadhari, took the extreme step as he was not able to return the loan that he had taken from a financier and was allegedly under pressure to pay his dues.

The police said Mohan Lal (37), his wife Aruna (35) and their two children, Neha (13) and Anshul (4), left their house about 7 am to visit Panchmukhi Hanuman temple at Bilaspur town in the district.

After paying obeisance, Mohan Lal gave celphos tablets to his wife and two children and then himself consumed the tablets outside the temple.

Sources said Mohan Lal had yesterday received a call to return the debt amount. Therefore, apparently he decided to end his and family members’ lives.

Neha told the police that her father gave four tablets to her mother and three each to her and her brother along with the “burfi” and then he himself consumed four tablets.

Thereafter, passersby first admitted them to a hospital in Jagadhari, where her mother Aruna was declared brought dead.

Three family members were later admitted to a private hospital in Yamunanagar. Later, Anshul died in the hospital.

Mohan Lal’s brother Sushil said his brother, who used to run his house by making candles, took a loan of Rs 20,000 from a financier and had already paid Rs 50,000. However, the financier allegedly demanded more money.

Mohal Lal was under tremendous pressure to return the remaining dues, he added.

Duty magistrate Rajiv Goel has also recorded the statement of Neha in the hospital. The SP, Dr C.S. Rao said so far debt seemed to be the cause behind the incident.

Neha in her statement said her father yesterday received a call regarding the payment of debt.

He said the police had been investigating the call details and thereafter a case of abetment to suicide under Section 306 of the IPC would be registered against the person concerned.

Rewari, July 11
Prashant Bhardwaj, newly appointed working president of the Rewari district unit of the Congress, was allegedly threatened on the phone last night by Surender Dhankar, a junior engineer in the district town planning office, with dire consequences if he failed to meet his demand pertaining to construction material.

The caller allegedly used abusive language warning Bhardwaj that if he did not immediately send a trolley-load of bricks to his construction site at Kanina, 35 km from here, he could be eliminated.

Soon afterwards, Prashant made a complaint following which the police registered a case of obscenity (indecency) and criminal intimidation under sections 294 and 506 of the IPC against the JE.

Chandigarh, July 11
The Haryana police has purchased equipment worth Rs 1. 40 crore during the current year while equipment worth about Rs 1 crore is in pipeline, which will strengthen its fingerprint bureau and forensic labs.

A police spokesman said here today that the equipment included live fingerprint scanners, which would help the local police to take fingerprints of criminals on the spot and get the same compared with the data bank at the state crime record bureau by an automatic process. Laptops had also been purchased for fingerprint experts deployed in the districts. He said this would help in better and quicker comparison of fingerprints.

He said an advance fingerprint system was also being modernised to expand its storage capacity and it would soon be  web enabled.

In order to create a data bank of criminals and to assist the district police through the crime-criminal sharing system, 23 servers had also been bought and given to all districts, including the GRP, Haryana.

Rohtak, July 11
A day after the All-India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (AIFUCTO) demanded immediate removal of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) vice-chancellor Ram Phal Hooda, the INLD and the BJP today condemned the “deplorable” state of affairs in the university.

While the district units of the INLD youth wing and students’ organisation - INSO - gave a week’s ultimatum to the vice-chancellor to withdraw the university works allotted to his son Ramneek Hooda’s firm, the state BJP general secretary, Capt Abhimanyu, maintained that the MDU had become a den of corruption and nepotism.

The Tribune had recently exposed how a number of projects at the MDU were allotted to the firm of VC’s son within a few months of his taking over the reins of the university.

Addressing a press conference here today, Jitender Balhara, president of the district unit of the INLD youth wing, alleged that the image and credibility of the MDU had taken a severe beating in the recent past.

“In the latest instance, the firm of the MDU vice-chancellor’s son has been engaged to provide architectural consultancy in various university projects worth crores, flouting all norms and ethics,” he asserted.

Balhara, who was accompanied by INLD leader Satish Nandal, district INSO president Naveen Kadyan and MDU INSO leader Kuldeep Nara, demanded a high-level probe into the matter by some competent central agency.

The youth INLD and INSO leaders gave a week’s ultimatum to the MDU vice-chancellor to withdraw the works allotted to his son’s firm allegedly without following the prescribed norms and rules.

“If this is not done within a week, we will gherao the vice-chancellor,” they said, adding that they would also approach the MDU chancellor and urge him to take appropriate action in view of the serious and sensitive nature of the issue.

The INLD activists asserted that such large-scale and blatant misappropriation of public money would not be tolerated and threatened to intensify their campaign if the authorities concerned failed to take action in this regard.

In a separate press conference, the Haryana BJP general secretary, Capt Abhimnayu, also decried the goings-on at the MDU. Pointing out that the university functioning had been marred by nepotism and corrupt practices, he alleged that the fountainhead of corruption lied in the state leadership.

Fatehabad, July 11
A 10-year-old girl had a narrow escape after she fell into an open manhole of a sewer line at Jakhal town here yesterday. Hearing her screams, passersby rushed to the spot and rescued the girl.

Locals expressed resentment over the apathetic attitude of the public health authorities for leaving manholes uncovered in the town.

Residents alleged that a manhole on the Jindal road at Jakhal had been lying uncovered for long like many others in the town.

The girl could not see the manhole as the whole road was submerged as it had been raining since morning in the town.

Sarpanch of Jakhal panchayat Janak Raj Singla said they had apprised the authorities concerned of open manholes several times, but to no avail.

Ambala, July 11
Sikh leaders of Haryana, demanding a separate SGPC, began a five-day dharna in front of the residence of HPCC chief Phool Chand Mullana in Ambala City this morning. The Ambala unit sat on dharna today while the Kaithal unit would continue it tomorrow.

The president of the proposed Haryana SGPC, Jagdish Singh Jhinda, and 10 other senior leaders - Khushpal Singh Batrohan, Jasbir Singh Khalsa, Niranjan Singh, Baldev Singh Beeta, Joginder Singh, Ram Singh Sonda, Gayan Singh Sandhu, Ramesh Singh, Sukhvinder and Rajinder Singh - sat on dharna.

Jhinda said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Mullana had promised the Sikh community of the state that a separate SGPC would be constituted for the gurdwaras of Haryana. He said the Congress had also mentioned it in its election manifesto.

He said the Sikh community of the state was annoyed over the delay in the Chatha committee report on the issue. The commitee was set up nearly two years ago. He said if the government did not fulfil its promise, the Sikh community would take to the streets.

Mullana was not present in his residence when the Sikh leaders were raising slogans against him. Khushpal Singh said they would continue their dharna for the next four days. He said if the government did not meet their demand, they would protest in Chandigarh.