Sirsa, November 25
In yet another case of “honour killing”, a married woman in her twenties was allegedly either done to death or driven to death for reportedly eloping with a man of lower caste in Rupawaas village.

The incident is said to have occurred sometime in June, but was covered up by the families of the victim and her husband. The incident came to light after an anonymous person wrote a letter to higher officers of the police. The husband of the victim had also committed suicide by shooting himself on the temple.

An inquiry ordered by SP Amitabh Dhillon and conducted by DSP Dheeraj Setia has pointed towards the above facts and exposed the dubious role played by police.

Inspector with the local Police Lines Krishan Kumar, who was the SHO of the Nathusari Chopta police station at that time, has been placed under suspension by the SP. No action has been initiated against the family of the woman so far.

The victim (25) got married to Suresh Kumar of Rupawaas village nine years ago and the couple had a son too. She had been missing from her residence since January 14. Later, it was known that she had eloped with Hanuman, an agriculture worker.

The runaway couple was caught by the Rajasthan police in Hanumangarh on February 1 and the local police was informed about the fact.

A police party from Nathusari Chopta police station went to Hanumangarh with the kin of the woman to take them in its custody but the SHO of the police station, Krishan Kumar, allegedly connived with the kin and instead of recording true facts in the police files acted against the woman under Section 109 of the CrPC and slapped a “false case” of possessing illicit arms against Hanuman.

Later, the woman died under mysterious circumstances and her family members cremated her body without informing the police. No one from the woman’s family attended the funeral.

Meanwhile, someone informed senior officers of the police about the death of the woman and the local police was directed to conduct an inquiry. However, Suresh too died on September 29.

Family members said they were watching television when they heard the sound of gunshots and found Suresh lying in a pool of blood.

DSP Dheeraj Setia, who conducted an inquiry into the case, said the circumstantial evidence pointed that the woman had either been killed by the family members or driven to suicide.

While Suresh’s kin maintained in their statement to Setia that the woman had died of heart attack, her parents claimed that she committed suicide.

Interestingly, none from the two families was disturbed over the woman’s death and said they did not want any police action.

Setia, who recorded the statements of Suresh’s elder brother, woman’s father and the police officials associated with the case, found that the conduct of the local police was also not above board.

He found that the local police connived with the kin of the woman and the role of the then SHO, Krishan Lal, was under scanner.

SP Amitabh Dhillon, however, said nothing could be said with certainty. “The conduct of the suspended inspector is definitely dubious and action has been taken against him for that. We will proceed further if anyone comes forward with any specific complaint,” said Dhillon.

Rohtak, November 25
After spending nearly two months in captivity, 29-year-old Bijender Singh of Kharawar village returned home to a huge welcome at his native village, 15 km from here, this morning.

He was one of the 22 crew members of cargo vessel “Stolt Valor”, freed by Somali pirates after being held hostage for two months. He was one of the two crew members from Haryana. The other one was from Nihal Singh of Palwal district.

A large number of villagers, including family members, gave a warm welcome to him when he reached the village around 6.30 am.

Talking to The Tribune, Bijender, who was overjoyed to see his four-month-old child for the first time, said six members of the ship crew arrived in Delhi this morning from Muscat, where they had gone after they were released from the clutches of Somalian sea pirates.

The Indian Embassy at Muscat threw a dinner party on Sunday in honour of the crew. The members, who reached this morning, included the captain of the ship, Prabhat Goyal.

Recalling the harrowing experience, Bijender, who worked as an AB (able boy) on “Stolt Valor”, claimed that he was not bogged down by the incident and would join his duty on the ship after a two-month break.

He said he would like to forget the bad memories and start afresh with new vigour. He said his father, Ram Niwas, had worked for the Merchant Navy for several years and this gave him motivation and strength to face such hardships.

Married about one and a half years ago, he became father in July. However, he could not see his child at that time as he was on the ship.

He said it was a time for celebration and the family had decided to hold a feast (special lunch) for villagers and family members.

Kurukshetra, November 25
Feeling let down by SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (ad hoc) today ruled out any further talks with the Punjab Akali leadership and declared to go ahead with its action plan to forcibly take control of gurdwaras in the state.

Ending the seven-week-old truce to allow time to the SGPC to find an amicable solution on the separate Haryana SGPC issue, the HSGPC executive at its meeting here today took a serious notice of the “delaying tactics” being adopted by the SGPC and declared that from today onwards “the HSGPC will forcibly take over the control of any gurdwara at any place anytime” and complete its action plan to control all major gurdwaras in the state before the Lok Sabha poll.

Charging Akali leaders with breach of trust, the HSGPC executive threatened to “greet Makkar, Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal with black flags” whenever they entered Haryana and resolved to oppose any political party which allied with the SAD in the Lok Sabha elections.

President of the HSGPC Jagdish Singh Jhinda said the hidden agenda of the Akali Dal and the SGPC was exposed during the SGPC elections when only one member from Haryana - Baldev Singh Khalsa - was included in the 11-member executive whereas earlier there were two members from the state.

This clearly indicated that the SGPC was keen on marginalising Haryana Sikhs and creating a divide among HSGPC leaders. The HSGPC would present a memorandum to the home minister to direct the SGPC to either hold fresh elections or include another HSGPC member in the committee.

The HSGPC was equally critical of the Haryana government for delaying the release of the Chhatha committee report on the separate SGPC issue and asked Harminder Singh Chhatha to resign from the committee if he could not submit the report.

The Congress would have to pay a heavy price in the coming Lok Sabha and assembly elections if it failed to gather courage to implement its poll promise on the separate SGPC issue, it said.

Yamunanagar, November 25
Exposing the administration’s failure to tackle an increase in the number of dengue and malaria cases, 26-year-old Jaswinder Singh of Ratuwala of Sadhaura subdivision died due to dengue here.

The health authorities here today confirmed that Jaswinder died due to dengue. This was the third death in the district due to dengue and second death from the same village. Earlier, a 35-year-old woman of Batholi village and Raj Kumar (50) of Ratuwala had died due to dengue recently.

Despite tall claims of the health authorities and the administration, the district has registered a growth in the number of mosquitoes this season. As a result, the district witnessed 14 cases of confirmed dengue, 231 cases of unconfirmed dengue.

As many as 997 cases of malaria have been reported from the district so far. The authorities not only failed to stop the mosquito breeding but also failed to provide proper medical facilities to patients. Patients rued that they had to suffer a lot due to lack of proper medical facility in the district.

Patients opting for private hospitals in Chandigarh and Mohali have to shell out heavy amount for the treatment. The cost of dengue treatment in private hospitals costs from Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh while in the PGI, due to rise in the number of dengue cases, patients have to purchase an additional platelet kit worth Rs 6,500 and two to three such kits are required during the treatment.

Atma Ram of Ratuwala, father of Jaswinder Singh, said first his son was admitted to a private hospital due to lack of proper facilities in the government hospital. Later, he was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh, where he died.

Chandigarh, November 25
A petition for directions to annul the selection process for recruitment to the Haryana Civil Service (judicial) was today dismissed by Justices Mehtab Singh Gill and Justice K. Kannan.

The petition was filed by Delhi-based Tarun Chandiok, who had appeared in the written examination.

Chandigarh, November 25
Haryana Governor A.R. Kidwai, on the advice of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, today divested minister of state for tourism, forest and environment Kiran Choudhry of the portfolio of environment with immediate effect.

Now, this department will be held by the Chief Minister himself, in addition to his existing portfolios. Choudhry will now hold the portfolios of tourism and forest only.

She was not happy with the functioning of the State Pollution Control Board and had been openly critical of its chairman A.S. Chehal.

Only last Saturday, Choudhry had presided over a meeting of senior officers of the board in Panchkula, at which the officers received a severe tongue-lashing from her for their alleged acts of omission and commission.

She had told the officers that if things did not improve by the next review meeting, she would start ordering their suspension.

In fact, at the meeting itself she had asked the chairman to immediately place a woman officer of the board under suspension.

The name of the officer had figured in a controversy recently when a Panchkula restaurant was sealed and desealed by the board the same day.

It is alleged that there was a dispute between the restaurant management and the officer over a bill for a reception hosted by the officer.

The reception was attended, among others, by the chairman and the secretary of the board. Choudhry had described the incident as “a bribe by another name”.

In fact, Chehal had not been attending the meetings convened by the minister, who wrote against him to the Chief Minister.

Some time ago, Hooda had asked chief secretary Dharamvir to sort out the differences between the two.

While it is not known if Dharamvir succeeded in his mission or not, Chehal started attending the meetings afterwards. Choudhry had been pursuing her agenda against pollution with zeal.

Sources close to Hooda said Choudhry’s portfolio was taken over by the Chief Minister himself so that he could personally supervise the functioning of the board.

They denied that the Chief Minister’s action was against Choudhry “in any way”. They said Hooda had allowed Choudhry to retain the forest portfolio, in which she can do a lot for environment.

Incidentally, Choudhry wants the Congress ticket for her daughter, Shruti, for the next Lok Sabha elections from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh constituency.

Chandigarh, November 25
Unknown names, high prices and questionable efficaciousness, that’s the long and short of prescriptions gathered from government doctors booked in Bhiwani for prescribing “propaganda” drugs to unsuspecting patients.

After action against the doctors, the health department has now trained its guns on the manufacturers of these medicines and the authenticity of the medicines, given the fact that there is a big market of spurious medicines also.

The drug control officer, Bhiwani, who carried out a thorough investigation into the case before submitting his report, procured all medicines listed in the prescriptions.

A close scrutiny of these medicines revealed that some of them did not have names of manufacturing units for these drugs raising serious doubts about genuineness.

The labels of medicines, collected during investigation, clearly show that these companies are not of good repute. In one case, the place of the manufacturing firm M/S Royal Organic (Ginovit Cap) is missing on the label.

Similarly, in the case of Hampton tonic, the name of the company and place of manufacture is blurred and illegible.

The report states that an Eltron injection costing Rs 48 from one such company is available for Rs 5 by reputed companies, an Amoxycillin injection is for Rs 180 against Rs 60 of Clavmentin 1.2 marketed by Merind.

Similarly, 10 tablets of Cefixime 200 mg cost Rs 200 against Rs 55 for Acef-200 by Franklin and Rs 60 for Cefxo-200 by Medley. Ofloxacin 400 mg is available for Rs 90/10 while Oflar-400 (lark) is priced at Rs 17 for 10.

A Nandrolone Decanoate injection in propaganda drugs is available for Rs 120 while the same is marketed by Wockhardt for just Rs 17.

Ofne 400 tablets cost Rs 100 for 10 tablets against Oflar-400 (lark), which costs Rs 17 for 10 tablets.

There are many others drugs, which are priced far higher than the drugs sold by reputed companies.

“We are now examining if these medicines are spurious since their labels say little about the units’ manufacturing. In others, the name and address of the company is not easily identifiable. Clearly, the only motive for prescribing such medicines with high prices has to be commission,” said principal secretary, health, Anuradha Gupta.

Despite the fact that the efficaciousness of these drugs is questionable, prescribing these is burning a hole in the common man’s pocket.

The report of the drugs controller has said these products are marketed by companies located in Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Jaipur (Rajasthan), Kangra (HP), Pant Nagar (Uttarakhand), Karnal (Haryana), Thane (Maharashtra) among others.

While the common man suffers by paying through his nose for these “propaganda” drugs, medicines available in hospitals free of cost fail to move and expire lying in the store only, causing avoidable loss to the government and failing to benefit the patients they are meant for.

Reacting to the Bhiwani case, the president of the Haryana Civil Medical Services, Dr Vijay Dahiya, said the stand of the association was clear that they were unwilling to shield the guilty.

“We agree that “propaganda” drugs are prescribed for commissions and cuts. However, it is unclear that which company should be considered “reputed” and which should be rejected. Also, chemist shops selling these drugs and manufacturers should not be spared if these are spurious instead of focusing on the doctors alone. There are only five per cent doctors in the government set up who are prescribing these drugs. The rest are prescribed by private practitioners. These must also be checked,” he emphasised.

Hisar, November 25
The Red Ribbon Express, which is carrying exhibits on AIDS control, arrived at the local railway station today.

Housing and revenue minister Savitri Jindal inaugurated the exhibition on the special train’s bogies. Speaking on the occasion, Jindal said the Red Ribbon Express was a novel endeavour by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and the National AIDS Control Organisation to create awareness about the dreaded disease.

She said AIDS was one disease which could be controlled only by creating awareness among the masses, especially the youth. She appealed to all those present at the function to help remove misgivings about the disease and the steps which could be taken to prevent it.

The minister said Haryana was also affected by the spread of the disease. In 1999 there were only 70 patients of AIDS.

The figure now stood at 1,219. She said such a steep rise in the number of cases in less than a decade was really alarming.

She said the district administrations and NGOs could play a meaningful role in controlling the disease. She hoped the administration would seek the help of NGOs.

Deputy commissioner O.P. Sheoran said AIDS patients should not hide their disease but seek immediate medical help which was readily available in all government hospitals. He said the disease spread fast if it was concealed.

Red Ribbon Express CEO Mohan Singh Rana said the train would cover 174 stations in the country. This was the biggest mission of its kind ever undertaken by any AIDS-control organisation in the world.

Rana said the train had carried publicity material in all regional languages spoken
in various parts of the country. The exhibition attracted hundreds of visitors,
mainly youth.

Karnal, November 25
BSP general secretary Man Singh Manhera today squarely blamed the Congress and the BJP for perpetuating corruption, leading to unemployment and poverty.

Addressing the “Ekta Rally” of the party here, he said all corrupt people would be put behind the bars if the BSP came to power at the Centre after the next Lok Sabha poll.

Manhera promised jobs to all unemployed people, including uneducated and unskilled workers, and alleged that “wrong polices” of previous governments were responsible for increasing unemployment, which had reached the 15 lakh mark in a small state like Haryana.

Ruling out a Jat Chief Minister if the BSP came to power, Manhera said the Jat community would be given due representation. Referring to an alliance with the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), he said “Bhajan Lal and Kuldeep Bishnoi are welcome to join the BSP” to forge any such alliance.

Pleading for reservation on the basis of economic backwardness, the BSP leader said poor people of all castes would be given reservation.

BSP Lok Sabha candidate from Karnal Varinder Singh Maratha also addressed the rally and said a Jat sammelan would be organised on January 9 on “nirvan diwas” of Jat leader Chhotu Ram.

Sirsa, November 25
Resentment prevails among librarians working in the district libraries and libraries of government colleges in the state due to the alleged step-motherly treatment given to them in the matter of promotions.

They allege that their voice is not being heard by the government. “As many as 64 posts of senior librarian are are lying vacant in the state for long and no promotions or fresh recruitment for the posts have been done for over a decade. We, who qualify to be appointed to the posts, have been working as junior lecturers for the past 20 or more years,” said Neeta Samagh, a junior librarian working in the local Government National PG College.

“The work of librarians has become a specialised job now after the advent of computers. Earlier, it was all about issuing and taking back books, but now it requires a lot of technicalities,” added Sunil Mehta, another junior librarian.

They alleged that there were 90-odd posts of senior librarian in Haryana, of which 64 were lying vacant.

A delegation of junior librarians, they informed, met Haryana education minister Mange Ram Gupta in this connection recently and impressed upon him the need for filling the posts immediately as the work was suffering for want of senior librarians.

Sonepat, November 25
Ram Kumar of Chhichhrana village and his two sons, Baljit and Kuldeep, have been sentenced to life imprisonment by Additional District and Sessions Judge Bimal Kumar Bakshi in a murder case.

According to an FIR registered in the Baroda police station, farmer Dalip of the same village, along with other family members, was working in his fields on September 29, 2007, when he was attacked with sharp-edged weapons by the convicted persons over a water dispute in a paddy nursery of Dalip.

In this attack, Dalip died on the spot and a case was registered on the complaint of Dalip’s son Baru Ram. The court imposed fine of Rs 9,500 on each convicted person. 

Rohtak, November 25
The ongoing standoff between the authorities of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) and a group of students turned ugly this noon when some unknown persons allegedly assaulted students sitting on dharna outside office of the vice-chancellor.

Some of the students, who received minor injuries in the incident, announced to step up their stir till the removal of the present registrar.

Alleging that they were assaulted on the behest of a senior official of the university, students said they would carry on their agitation till their demand was met.

Vice-chancellor R.P. Hooda met the agitating students belonging to the Jai Hind Morcha, a local outfit of students of university, and urged them to end their protest.

It is reported that university officials had got a case registered against two students of this organisation on November 21 after they had allegedly resorted to violence in the office of the assistant registrar of the result branch over the matter of not issuing a duplicate mark sheet.

The students alleged that due to corruption and mismanagement, the mark sheet was not issued despite several visits and reminders.

The registration of a case against two students and the reported orders to get the hostel room, occupied by the accused students, vacated forced them to stage a protest demonstration. The have been demonstrating for the past two days.

Alleging that some wrestlers were hired from outside to beat them up, the students sought registration of a case against the accused officials.

The vice-chancellor has, however, asked the students to maintain peace and harmony on the campus and assured them of a proper action into their demands.

He said no one from outside the campus would be allowed to vitiate atmosphere. A team of policemen has been deputed on the campus to avert any untoward incident.

Sirsa, November 25
On a call given by the All-India Insurance Employees Association, Class III and IV employees of the LIC today observed a strike for two hours from 11.15 am.

The agitating employees came out of their offices and raised slogans against the government. Tajender Lohia, president of the North Zone Insurance Employees Association, addressed the striking employees.

He said the last wage pact with the employees had expired on July 31, 2007, and the issue of revision of their wages had been hanging fire since then.

He said insurance employees would raise their voice against the proposed Bill to increase the FDI from the present 26 per cent to 49 per cent in the insurance sector. FATEHABAD: Employees of the LIC on Tuesday observed a strike on the issue of revision of their wages and the proposed amendments to the Insurance Acts of 1938 and 1956.

Ram Chander Shakya, president of the LIC Employees Association, alleged that the government had been working under pressure of the multinational companies and had been working to the detriment of investors.

He threatened that insurance employees would be left with no alternative but to start an agitation in case the government did not pay heed to their demands.

Rewari, November 25
The ATM card of Ajit Singh Yadav, a resident of Sector 4 here, was reportedly replaced with another card by an unidentified person in the State Bank of India’s ATM booth at the bus stand here on November 17.

The incident took place when Ajit Singh while counting the withdrawn amount randomly placed his ATM card there. Unknowingly, Ajit Singh put the new card into his pocket and returned home.

Meanwhile, the swindler with the assistance of the usurped ATM card reportedly withdrew Rs 60,600 from Ajit’s account on November 17 and 18, much to the ignorance of Ajit in this regard.

Yesterday, when Ajit went to the ATM to withdraw cash, he was stunned to see that the card did not work.

He went straight to the bank from where he learnt that the unknown trickster had withdrawn Rs 60,600 from his account and the ATM card he had was a stolen one.

Consequently, he filed a complaint, following which the police registered a case of cheating under Section 420 of the IPC in this regard.

Chandigarh, November 25
The Haryana government has terminated the services of Assistant Advocate-General Anuradha Bali with immediate effect.

Sources said the order of termination of services was issued by the government stating that her services were no longer required.

Bali, who has been Assistant District Attorney (ADA) in Chandigarh, was removed from the position in 2002 also and then again, when she was appointed Assistant Advocate-General (AAG) in Punjab during the Congress rule.

Subsequently, she had joined as AAG in Haryana. Though her name had not figured in the first list prepared by the government, she was given the appointment after over a year of the Congress government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda coming to power in the state.

Karnal, November 25
The Karnal Regional Centre of the Sugarcane Breeding Institute has developed two new varieties of sugarcane, resistant to the “red rot" disease.

The new varieties - CO 0118 and CO 0238 - had been recommended to the union agriculture ministry for approval and release, principal scientist Bakshi Ram said, adding that these early-growing varieties had a higher yield as compared to the existing varieties and would help farmers grow COJ 64 which was the best variety so far but unfortunately prone to “red rot”.

Bakshi hoped that both varieties would be released by the end of this year and available to farmers by the next sowing season.

He urged extension agencies and progressive farmers to propagate the new varieties and also educate farmers about scientific cultivation of these varieties.

Meanwhile, the director of the Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, Dr Vijayan Nair, has stressed the need for cultivating sugarcane as it not only produces sugar but also facilitates generation of electricity.

Nair, who earlier inaugurated a kisan mela, said farmers in Haryana were getting the highest prices for sugarcane and sugar mills could also get higher returns by installing sugarcane-based captive power plants.

About 400 farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand participated in the kisan mela and were apprised of high-yielding sugarcane cultivation techniques.

An exhibition was also organised to demonstrate the use of agriculture implements and medicines to the farmers.