Rewari, August 29
A three-decade-long struggle of the people of Ahirwal bore fruit when defence minister A.K. Antony laid the foundation stone of Sainik School in Gothra village, near here, today.

The school will be constructed at a cost of Rs 25 crore on 50 acres by the state government in the next two years.

After Bihar and Karnataka, Haryana is the third state where there will be two sainik schools. There is already a Sainik School in Kunjpura in Karnal district. It will be the 24th Sainik School in the country.

These schools have produced over 15,000 officers for the armed forces so far while 158 officers have been selected for NDA this year.

Addressing the function, the defence minister said sainik schools were working as a nursery for inculcating the spirit of discipline, character and selfless services among the youth.

He said the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission would be implemented from September 1. Besides, soldiers would also be given an extra benefit of Rs 6,000 crore.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said from Haryana alone there were over 82,000 soldiers in the armed forces. He said the Haryana government was giving extra facilities and incentives to its soldiers and ex-servicemen. He said the Chief of Army Staff, Gen Deepak Kapoor, was also an alumni of Sainik School, Kujpura.

He requested the defence minister to start a military school in Matanhel village of Jhajjar district, whose foundation stone was laid by the then defence minister, George Fernandes.

He said the people of Pali and Gothra had done a noble deed by donating land for the school. The state government would spend Rs 50 lakh each on the development of the two villages.

In response to a demand raised by local MLA Shakuntala Bhagwaria, the Chief Minister announced that the government would give Rs 10 lakh each for the development of 10 villages named by her.

Among others, minister of state for defence M.M. Pallam, minister of state for defence production Rao Inderjit Singh, the irrigation and PWD minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, and Shakuntala Bhagwaria, MLA (Bawal), expressed their views.

Ambala, August 29
The CBI court today granted permission to the CBI to attach the property of Dr Amit, Dr Jeevan and Dr Upender for further investigation. All three are accused in the kidney scam and are lodged in Ambala jail in judicial custody. CBI Magistrate Abdul Majid adjourned the hearing for September 3.

Earlier, the CBI had filed an application in this court for the attachment of immovable property of Dr Amit and a few other accused. In the application, the CBI had mentioned a list of 12 residential and commercial properties of Dr Amit in various posh colonies of Gurgaon worth crores. Similarly, a list of 11 properties of Dr Upender in Faridabad and Ballabhgarh and a list of two properties of Dr Jeevan were mentioned in the application.

The CBI had also disclosed a bank account of Dr Amit in HSBC Bank, Hong Kong. The CBI claimed that $58,000 were lying in this account. It had requested the court to attach these properties.

The CBI court discharged three of the accused in the kidney scam - Umesh, Harpal and Pooja - form the case today as their names did not figure in the chargesheet. Moreover, no sufficient evidence of their involvement in the scam was established. Earlier, this court had also discharged two of the accused - Ramesh and Suresh - from this case on similar grounds.

The CBI court has also asked Interpol and the Canada Embassy through the department of justice to investigate the property of Dr Amit in Canada. The CBI had earlier filed an application in this regard. It said in the application that the human kidney racket had got wide international ramifications and a lot of doctors, touts and middle men were involved it.

It also added that Dr Amit had shifted his wife Poonam and his two sons to Canada. Poonam happened to be the director of M/s Liberty Health Care Pvt Ltd under which the Gurgaon hospital was being run.

All nine accused, including Dr Jeevan, Dr Amit, Dr Sarj, Dr K.K. Aggarwal, Linda, Manoj, Gayasudeen and Jagdish, were present in the court. Pooja, wife of Dr Jeevan, who was discharged from the case today, said the Gurgaon police had falsely implicated her in this case while she had nothing to do with it. She said she was running an export business of garments, which was adversely affected by the off-beam police action.

Chandigarh, August 29
Justice S.D. Anand of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today dismissed a bunch of applications seeking suspension of sentence during pendency of their appeals filed by 20 persons. These persons were convicted and sentenced by the CBI Special Court of Chandigarh in what has come to be known as the taxation inspectors’ recruitment scam.

The convicted persons included the then secretary of the Haryana Subordinate Services Selection Board (HSSSB), A.P. Jain, and five of its members - Bachan Ram, Samay Singh Kamboj, Devi Dayal, Rao Inderpal and Sukhdev Singh. Besides, 14 more persons were sentenced by Special Judge Jagdeep Jain in the case on August 4.

While Jain was sentenced to five-year rigorous imprisonment, the others were awarded three-year term each. Jain is already in judicial custody.

They were convicted for substituting the names of selected taxation inspectors with those who had not even appeared for the examination. They were held guilty under Sections 420, 466, 468, 471, 120-B, read with Section 13(I)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Their appeals were admitted for hearing earlier. But their applications for extending their bails were rejected by Justice Anand today.

Chandigarh, August 29
The Haryana government has decided to make recruitment of doctors an ongoing process under which their applications for jobs would be entertained round the year so that vacancies of medical officers do not remain unfilled. It has also framed a placement policy for the doctors. Stating this here today, Haryana health minister Kartar Devi said a departmental selection committee would hold interviews as often as necessary and offer regular appointment to the eligible candidates. The campus placements would also be restored.

Kartar Devi said under the new placement policy, in community health centres (CHCs) and subdivisional hospitals, one doctor with specialisation in gynaecology, medicine, pediatrics, anaesthesia, surgery and orthopaedics each would be posted.

The existing posts of the medical officers would accordingly be designated. District hospitals would have one doctor each with specialisation in medicine, surgery, pediatrics, gynaecology, anaesthesia, eye, ENT, skin, psychiatry, pathology, radiology and biochemistry. The services of microbiology specialist would also be utilised in district hospitals. Posts of specialists would be provided only if patient load exceeded the stipulated limit.

She said a doctor with postgraduate qualifications would not be posted at primary health centre (PHC).

The CHCs declared as first referral units would get specialist in the first phase. In case of transfer of a specialist doctor, a doctor with similar specialisation would be posted as a replacement. Those who had been imparted training in emergency medical obstetric care and life saving anaesthesia would also be posted in the CHCs.

The minister said the government had also decided to give higher pay scales and non-practising allowance at the rate of 25 per cent of the basic pay to all doctors.

MBBS doctors serving in the primary health centres and community health centres would get a monthly incentive of Rs 5,000, and those posted at the Morni and Mewat areas would be given Rs10,000.

The doctors who have diploma or postgraduate qualifications and are performing duties of specialists in rural CHCs would get Rs 15,000 as monthly incentive. The specialists, who have been posted in the areas of Morni and Mewat, would get a monthly incentive of Rs 25,000. She said in case of contractual appointments, the MBBS doctors would get Rs 20,000 and the specialists would be paid Rs 30,000.

Kaithal, August 29
Many banks failed to advance loans in time to self-help groups, despite the payment of subsidy by the government to banks. This fact came to light during a meeting presided over by Ramesh Verma, additional deputy commissioner-cum-CEO, DRDA, Kaithal, with representatives of various banks here today.

Verma said until the financial institutions reached the poorer sections of society, the object of integrated rural development could not be achieved.

The ADC expressing his anguish over the attitude of the banks said in such a situation, the very purpose of launching social welfare schemes was defeated and the object of economic uplift of the beneficiaries could not be achieved.

He told the senior functionaries to clear the loan applications of the self-help groups speedily or point out the reasons for delay. The bankers and heads of the departments of poverty-alleviation programmes sponsored by the Indian government were among those present on this occasion.

He also expressed concern over the charging of high rate of interest on loans advanced to such groups, which were constituted of people living below poverty line.

He said such groups should also be advance loans at 5 per cent rate of interest as was being done while advancing loans to small farmers. He added that soon regional director of the Reserve Bank of India would be contacted with a request to lower the rate of interest on loans advanced to the self-help groups.

Verma said the bankers agreed not to charge any interest on amount of subsidy and the interest should be charged on individual loans and not on the group. This will reduce the interest burden of the beneficiaries. He further said any interest charged from the beneficiaries against the rules should be remitted in the accounts of beneficiaries.

Sirsa, August 29
An interesting situation developed at the Rania police station in this district yesterday, when a woman came, here, dragging her tipsy husband tied with a rope and handed him over to the police.

The woman alleged that her husband was a drunkard and did not shun liquor despite several warnings. When he came in an inebriated condition to the house yesterday evening, she tied his hands with a rope and dragged him to the police station. Repeated requests by the husband to free him failed to move the infuriated woman.

Later, the police let him off after he apologised to the woman in the police station and promised never to drink again.

Gurgaon, August 29
The death of a dengue patient in a Delhi hospital on Tuesday night has exposed the claims of the district administration that the killer disease is under control in the Gurgaon city area and that no fresh case has been reported in the district.

The deceased, a housewife identified as Rajeshwari (42) of Dundahera village, died in Batra Hospital, Delhi, where she was referred by the local Saraswati Hospital in a critical condition, said her brother-in-law Mukesh.

The district health authorities, however, denied this, but interestingly undertook fogging of the area after the death was reported from here. “The report of the laboratory test of this patient was negative,” claimed district malaria officer Krishan Kumar, who evaded further queries in the matter.

Officially, 208 dengue cases were reported in Gurgaon during this season. At present, 39 patients are being treated in various hospitals of the district and barring two casualties reported from posh localities of Sushant Lok and Sector 15, the rest are stated to have been cured. The authorities said all 39 dengue patients tested positive were out of danger.

The death toll has increased to three with the recent case.

The fact that almost all patients suspected to be showing dengue symptoms preferred treatment at private hospitals had interestingly exposed their lack of faith in the treatment facilities being provided at the local civil hospital, said sources. The repeated publicity by the health authorities about provision for a separate ward for the patients and comparatively cheaper cost of treatment has failed to inspire them to head for the government hospital.

Deputy commissioner Deepti Umashanker claimed that fogging work had been intensified in the affected areas. The administration had purchased four small and one big vehicle-mounted fogging machine. Till now, the health authorities had covered more than 50 colonies of the city and the drive was still on.

Rohtak, August 29
The 151st meeting of the Academic Council of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here was held here today. The council decided to give provisional affiliation to three new degree colleges to start BA, BCom, BCA, BBA, BBE and BSc courses.

These are Ch Dhajja Ram Janta Mahavidyalaya, Butana (Sonepat), Niam Institute of Applied Management, Faridabad, and Vivekanand Institute of Professional Studies, Faridabad. Affiliation has also been granted to KVM Nursing College, Rohtak, for running the BSc (nursing) course from the session 2008-09.

The council also gave provisional affiliation to 29 engineering/management institutes and 21 colleges of education located in various parts of the region.

Dashmesh College of Physiotherapy, Budhera village, Gurgaon, and Vaish Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Rohtak, were granted permission to start the Bachelor of Physiotherapy and Bachelor of Pharmacy courses, respectively.

The council also approved the creation of additional posts and the abolition of surplus posts in various departments/institutes under the self-financing scheme. As many as 25 additional posts of lecturer and two posts of associate professor have been created in the University Institute of Engineering and Technology, while 18 posts of lecturer have been created in the Institute of Hotel and Tourism Management.

The council also decided to amend the ordinance relating to BE and BTech, along with the general rules of examination.

The council considered the recommendations of various PG boards of studies to register students for the PhD programme. The names of 80 students of various departments were approved for PhD registration.

Prof A.K.Tiwary from Punjabi University, Patiala, and Prof R.K.Sharma from the National Disaster Management Authority, Delhi, have been nominated as outside experts on the faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the university.

The council approved the scheme of examination for MA (education) and amendments to the MDU Act. The members of the council also confirmed the minutes of the 150th meeting of the previous Academic Council. 

Jhajjar, August 29
The position of Municipal Council (MC) chief Kamla Jangra is under threat as most of the councillors have given a written undertaking to the district administration to initiate a no-confidence motion .

According to information, 13 of the 19 councillors met Jhajjar city magistrate Virender Sangwan yesterday, in the absence of the deputy commissioner, seeking permission for moving a no-confidence motion against Jangra and the calling of a special meeting of elected members of the council.

They also submitted their affidavits in which the councillors expressed dissatisfaction over the functioning of the council chief.

Prior to this, the councillors held a meeting at which discussions on various issues related to the council, including the no-confidence motion, were held.

Thereafter, the councillors chalked out a plan of action with the decision of submitting their affidavits demanding a special meeting ,with a notice of 15 days, of the elected members of the council for the no-confidence motion.

Sources said the councillors who had submitted their affidavits included Om Prakash, Sakuntla Devi, Rajni Devi, Manish Bansal, Shri Kishan, Mukesh Nagpal, Shyamo Devi, Kalawati, Harmesh Saini, Dharampal Khokal, Radha Kishan, Arun Saini, Santosh and nominated member Hukam Singh.

Talking to The Tribune, councillor Mukesh Nagpal alleged that the MC chief did not pay any heed to the councillors and residents’complaints related to ongoing development works in the city.

Consequently, resentment prevailed among the councillors for a long time. Several complaints against various contractors were pending in which serious allegations had been levelled but Jangra did not want to inquire into these, he added.

On the other hand, Jangra refuted the allegations levelled against her saying that the councillors were making false complaints to serve their personal interests.

Sirsa, August 29
The Haryana Janhit Mahila Congress (BL) today held a demonstration here against inflation, scarcity of power, water and LPG gas, and alleged irregularities in the preparation of BPL lists.

Kusum Sharma, state convener the HJMC (BL), led the agitating women that included Veena Sharma, vice-president, Raj Rani Jindal, district president, and Neelam Arora, president of the city unit.

Former MLA Mani Ram Keharwala and Veer Bhan Mehta, president of the local unit of the party, were also present.

Addressing the protesters in Janata Bhawan, Kusum Sharma alleged that the present governments at the Centre and in Haryana had proved to be the worst for the poor as inflation had touched new heights and essential commodities had become scarce.

She alleged that Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was not concerned about the problems being faced by the common man and his only occupation was to please his political bosses in Delhi.

She said on the one hand the Haryana government was observing “women empowerment year” while on the other women were not safe even in police stations in the state.

Later, they marched towards the mini-secretariat in procession raising slogans against the UPA government and the Hooda government.

The protesters burnt an effigy of the Chief Minister and presented a memorandum, addressed to the Governor, to deputy commissioner V. Umashankar in which they demanded the dismissal of the government.

Talking to mediapersons, Sharma said the women wing of the HJMC (BL) had been organising demonstrations at the district level and today’s demonstration was the twelfth in a series.

Fatehabad, August 29
The District Planning Committee today approved schemes worth Rs 427 lakh for 2008-09 at a meeting held under the chairmanship of deputy commissioner J.S. Ahlawat.

MP from the Sirsa parliamentary seat Atma Singh Gill, Dura Ram, parliamentary secretary, Haryana, Kulbir Singh Beniwal and Bharat Singh Beniwal, both MLAs from Bhattu and Darba, respectively, and various officers of the district besides zila parishad members were present.

The state government had made an allocation of funds amounting to Rs 312 lakh for general works and Rs 115 lakh for works related to the Scheduled Castes for the current financial year.

Priority, according to the agenda presented to the committee, will be given to expenditure on health, horticulture, panchayats and development and integrated child development schemes.

The expenditure on different administrative blocks of the district will be Rs 74 lakh for Fatehabad, Rs 44 lakh for Tohana, Rs 60 lakh for Ratia, Rs 49 lakh for Bhuna, Rs 40 lakh for Bhattu Kalan and Rs 23 lakh for Jakhal.

In the municipal areas of the district, Rs 44 lakh will be spent on Fatehabad, Rs 18 lakh on Ratia and Rs 38 lakh on Tohana. 

Karnal, August 29
After organising training camps for the party rank and file at various places across the state in view of the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has now mobilised its women cell to woo the people to support the party in the elections.

The state Mahila Congress today organised a meeting of women leaders and workers from across the state at the district headquarters. The meeting was attended by president of the All-India Mahila Congress Prabha Thakur and local legislator Sumita Singh.

Sumita Singh said Congress president Sonia Gandhi was keen on promoting women participation in political affairs of the state. She said measures were being taken by the party to consolidate the women leadership.

The legislator said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had initiated steps to bring womenfolk on the forefront.

Prabhu Thakur said women had an important role to play in garnering support for the party for the Lok Sabha elections.

Fatehabad, August 29
A Dalit woman was allegedly raped by a youth in Laloda village in this district last night.

The woman has alleged in her complaint that her husband was away when Kuldeep entered her house and raped her. A case has been registered.