Gurgaon, December 4
A non-political peace march against terrorism was organised by SGT Dental College and the Dashmesh College of Physiotherapy, Budhera, here today.

The faculty and students paid tributes to martyrs at the war memorial. A team, led by Dr Harish Yadav, head of the department of prosthodontics, and Dr Suman Yadav, head of the department of conservative dentistry, started this march from Mahavir Park and reached John Hall through Sadar Bazar.

The march was attended by 500 students and 100 faculty members. Students carried placards bearing anti-terrorism and patriotic slogans.

In John Hall, they paid tributes to the martyrs of Mumbai terror attacks by placing a bouquet. They observed silence for two minutes followed by the National Anthem.

Meanwhile, to pay tributes to those who scarified their lives in the Mumbai terror attacks, hundreds of people gathered in the Vyapar Kendra Market of Sushant Lok last evening.

It was a massive outpour of grief and anger with people holding the National Flag and candles. The protest was led by city’s BJP youth wing president Kamal Yadav.

KAITHAL: Stringent laws should be made to face the challenges posed by terrorism to the country.

This was stated by Shamsher Singh Surjewala, veteran Congress leader, while talking to mediapersons after paying tributes to those killed during the terrorist attacks in Mumbai recently.

Surjewala said old laws were not effective to bring the terrorists to justice hence they needed a fresh look.

He said keeping in view the present security environment, the vacancies in the defence forces should be filled on priority.

KARNAL: Hundreds of people, most of them students, on Thursday gathered on the GT Road at Karnal and held a “chetavani rally”, marked by candle-light vigils and a peace march to express solidarity with the terror ravaged Mumbai as the rage over killing of innocent people refused to subside.

Raising slogans like “Stop testing us”, “Terrorism has no religion”, “Common man is not weak”, the protesters sought to warn the terrorists to stop killing innocent people and not to test the patience of the people.

Mihir Banerjee, an educationist, said the objective of the “chetavni rally”, organised by “Saarthi”, a non-government organisation, was to send a clear and loud warning to the terrorists to stop testing the patience of the common man.

Speakers criticised the government for its inaction in curbing terrorism.

They demanded action against Pakistan and vowed to launch a nationwide campaign against terrorism in the near future.

Floral tributes were paid to the cops who lost their lives fighting terrorists.

Chandigarh, December 4
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today had a telephonic conversation with Subedar Fire Chand of 51 Special Action Group of the NSG.

He hails from Jasana village in Faridabad district of Haryana and is undergoing treatment at the Base Hospital in Delhi Cantt.

Hooda enquired about his health. Subedar Fire Chand was injured during an encounter with terrorists in Mumbai recently.

The Chief Minister wished him a speedy recovery and assured him of every
possible help.

Meanwhile, Haryana’s resident commissioner P.K. Mahapatra also visited the Base Hospital today and enquired about the treatment and health of the Subedar.

He also enquired about the health of two NSG commandos of other states under treatment at the Base Hospital.

Jhajjar, December 4
Irate residents, led by sarpanch, today locked the main gate of the Government Girls High School at Chhara village here in protest against the poor results of the students who had appeared in various examinations held this year by the Board of School Education, Haryana.

Holding the school teachers responsible for this dismal performance of the students in the examinations, the protesters demanded the immediate transfer of teachers.

According to reports, residents held a meeting in the morning and decided to lock the main gate of the school after holding a discussion on the issue of poor results.

Thereafter, the residents reached the school and locked the main gate after moving the students out from the school. Later, the protesters sat in dharna outside the school.

Though district education officer (DEO) R.P Sangwan, on getting information, reached the spot and tried to pacify the protesters, they remained adamant on their demand.

Then, additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Saaket Kumar had to reach the spot and persuade the protesters to open the gate.

The protesters alleged that poor performance of the students in the examination was the result of dereliction of duty by certain teachers.

They also held a panchayat in the afternoon and constituted a committee to keep a check on the teachers

On being contacted, the ADC said he was not aware of the incident of locking the gate of the school and no one had informed him about that. He went to the village just to inspect ongoing development work.

Sirsa/Fatehabad, December 4
Sirsa and Fatehabad districts got the government’s nod for some new projects during a division-level review meeting of Haryana chief secretary Dharam Vir today.

The chief secretary reviewed development projects in five districts falling under the Hisar division through videoconferencing. Deputy commissioner, Fatehabad, J.S. Ahlawat told The Tribune that the district had got sanction for an ultramodern MRI/CT scan/digital camera machine for the Fatehabad general hospital at a cost of Rs 5 crore.

The general hospital, which was till now a 60-bedded one, would be upgraded to 100 beds.

The government had also given its approval for the expansion of the mini secretariat building in Fatehabad at a cost of Rs 5 crore, Ahlawat said.

Sanction had also been given for the construction of a tehsil office and block division office at Jakhal in Fatehabad.

Here, in Sirsa district, the government had directed the officials of the district administration to send the project proposal for the use of 100 acres of vacant land of Fulka village for the construction of the building of the regional centre of Kurukshetra University.

Deputy commissioner S.K. Goyal said the chief secretary also reviewed progress of the work on the Ottu Lake in Sirsa.

A sum of Rs 67 crore would be spent on digging work on this lake.The first phase of the work had been completed at a cost of Rs 15 crore.

Goyal said a plan for the building of Government College for Women at Dabwali had also been sent to the government for approval.

The court, while postponing the issue of process, asked the police to investigate and report by December 23.

Chandigarh, December 4
The Punjab and Haryana High Court was not only critical of the way the entire city was held to ransom with the arrival of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Sant Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, with his followers, for joining investigations in a case, but also posed a vital question of law having bearing on his liberty.

Can the court cancel the anticipatory bail granted to the co-accused in a case to maintain parity with the other accused, who are behind the bars?

The poser was thrown to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and other affected parties by Justice Ranjit Singh of the high court during the hearing of a regular bail plea filed by a co-accused.

The question of parity cropped up for consideration while Justice Ranjit Singh was going through the petitions filed by 75-year-old Inder Sain, and another accused.

Sain was seeking the grant of regular bail in a case of murder, criminal conspiracy and common intention registered by the CBI on December 9, 2003, under Sections 302, read with Section 120-B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The case pertains to July 2002 murder of Ranjit Singh.

If the high court eventually comes to the conclusion that the interest of justice can be met by maintaining parity between the accused in the case, the bail granted to the dera chief can either be cancelled, or the other accused in the case can be granted bail on this very ground.

As the case came up for hearing, Justice Ranjit Singh was of the opinion that the entire law and order maintenance machinery had been misused and nothing less than an attempt to override the law had been made.

Justice Ranjit Singh verbally observed in the open courtroom that the dera chief, an accused in a case, had come to the city with a large number of followers, almost 50,000 in number.

In the process, the system had to bear the brunt. The matter will now come up for further hearing on December 17.

In the petition, Sain lodged in Ambala Central Jail had claimed that the CBI had proceeded in an inimical manner against him.

The petitioner had added it was wrongly alleged he was the dera manager, while he was just an ardent follower of the dera chief.

Chandigarh, December 4
Haryana’s decision of fixing the price for sugarcane between Rs 160 and Rs 170 per quintal during the current crushing season is under the high court scanner.

In a petition, it has been claimed the decision is illegal, arbitrary and without the backing of a rational policy.

The petition for quashing the announced price has been filed by Yamunanagar-based Sarswati Sugar Mills, through vice-president Pankaj Malik and another.

State Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had on November 18 announced the state advised price (SAP) ranging from Rs 160 to Rs 170 per quintal to be paid by sugar mills in the state. It was purported to be the highest in the country.

The petitioner’s grievance was the absence of consultation for formulation of a realistic policy on sugarcane price.

In related development, Haryana Kisan Sangh and Ganna Sangharsh Samiti, two bodies of sugarcane growers, also prayed that their application be heard before court reaches a conclusion.

The matter was listed before Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, but was directed to be placed before another bench. The petition is to be heard by another bench on Friday itself.

Karnal, December 4
A newly born baby girl was abducted from the local Mahabir Dal Hospital here early this morning by a woman and was recovered after a few hours due to swift action taken by the police.

The accused, identified as Anu from Karnal, surrendered at the Rohtak police station after she was informed that the police had launched a manhunt to nab her.

Anu, who appeared to be in her late twenties and was dressed up like a nurse, reached the hospital around 6.00 am and went to room No. 11 where a woman, Sukhwinder Kaur, was sitting with her newly born grandson.

She took the baby on the pretext of taking him to the doctor, but Sukhwinder got suspicious and took the baby back.

In the meantime, Anu disappeared but again returned after a few minutes and targeted a new born baby girl in room No. 12 and took the baby along ostensibly for weight check.

Soon after, Deepa, mother of the two-day-old baby girl, and her husband Suraj, a mechanic from Mangalpur village, realised that their daughter had been abducted. A hue and cry was raised and the police was immediately informed.

The distraught parents were inconsolable and Deepa cried for her infant baby, born nine years after the marriage. Suraj said his wife was admitted to the hospital on Monday and the girl was born on Tuesday night.

The first clue about the identity of the suspect was provided by Hospital guard Rajiv Kumar, who recognised the woman while she was leaving the hospital.

Incidentally, Rajiv was working in a company before joining the hospital and Anu was also a receptionist in the same company.

The police, which had already sounded a statewide alert, immediately went to her house and enquired about her from her husband.

He contacted Anu on the phone who told him that she was going to Rohtak but when she informed her that the police had identified her and was on the trail, she surrendered at Rohtak and was brought to Karnal.

On interrogation, Anu said she had given birth to a child in the same hospital about two months ago but her son was suffering from some serious disease and was weak.

She was under depression and left her son at her sister’s place. She went to the hospital where she first attempted to take the baby from room No. 11.

But she left him when she learnt from the grandmother that a son had been born after three daughters.

When she came again, she saw the pretty girl in room No. 12 and could not resist the temptation of taking her away.

She told the police that she wanted to go to Shirdi and bring up the girl and spend her life in the company of the girl.

The police registered a case under section 364 of the IPC and arrested Anu
but ruled out the possibility of the accused being linked to any organised racket
of child abductors.

She said six tubewells and boosting stations were connected to this hotline costing Rs 30.72 lakh. All water supply tubewells would be connected to the hotline in a short time.

Yamunanagar, December 4
Coal shortage again hit the state due to less supply from coal mines in Jharkhand. As a result the two major power stations in the state include the Super Thermal Plant, Panipat, of 1360 MW and the DCRTPP of 600 MW in Yamunanagar have been facing acute shortage of coal and said to be in the super critical stage.

The reason for the paucity of the coal supply cited as due to less supply of coal from Central Coalfield Limited, said sources.

Ideally the coal stock of 25 days required to be kept in the thermal plants. However, due to the shortage of the coal, only three days coal has been left with these two thermal plants.

The daily requirement of Panipat thermal plant is 22,600 tonnes while 8,600 tonnes of Yamunananagar, the sources revealed.

If the coal supply in the thermal plants could not normalise then it could worsen the power situation in the state.

As the power shortage has been aggravated due to rise in the power consumption and due to closure of the unit-2 of 300 MW of the DCRTPP of Yamunanagar.

The unit-2 of the DCRTPP has been shut down since November 29 due to high vibration at generator exciter and causing loss of 72 lakh units to the state every day, the sources further said.

Rohtak, December 4
Disappointed over the alleged failure of the authorities of Maharshi Dayanand University in meeting their demand for action against those involved in an assault on some university students recently, agitating students of the varsity today allegedly burnt tent material at the dharna venue on the campus and threatened to resort to “direct action”.

Though they did not clarify what they meant by direct action, they said peaceful means had so far not been able to move officials of the university and “we can go to any extent to get justice”.

The students are demanding action against the assailants and they want the
MDU registrar to be removed. The students have been staging a dharna in support
of their demands.

Meanwhile, the Students Federation of India has expressed concern over the incident and held the district administration and the MDU authorities responsible for the present crisis.

Gurgaon, December 4
No one can stop him from completing his target of touring the globe, be it the hot weather of the Sahara desert of South America or deep forest of Amazon or frozen weather of Dhru.

Ram Chandra Biswas (55) from Kolkata has a great passion for cycling and wants to spread the message of love, peace and equality. He started his journey on April 21, 1982, when late Indira Gandhi flagged him off.

Till now he has covered more than 5,97,500 km, through 156 countries and 2,283 cities, including all of Africa, south, central and north of America, Caribbean island, east or west Europe, including Scandinavia, many states of Russia, the south and north poles, including Alaska, Green land, Spitsburgen and Siberia, all pacific islands and Australia.

He is on a mission to visit remaining 44 countries in next five years. Biswas also has been a photojournalist and a painter. He left his job with the Post And Telegraph Department to fulfil his mission.

He started with $1 in his pocket and knowing one language, but now he knows more than 10 languages.

Coming from Bhiwari he’ll be visiting Delhi’s external ministry and will decide where to go, but otherwise has planned to visit China.

He also owes a museum where he has displayed more than 10 lakh items he gathered during his travels.

Biswas is also planning to write a book on his experiences once his journey is completed. “We can surely achieve world peace through our own truthfulness and self-determination, which is for sure,” Biswas feels.

He adds that, “I have received love, respect and care throughout where ever I have visited,” he affirms.

He says, “Every country stores good as well as bad things in itself and all depends on our mind.”

The department has decided to remove the wrong poles and disconnect the power connection, which was provided in violation of the rules.

The SDO stated the complaint himself admitted that he had given a bribe to the electricity officials to get electricity connection about two years ago.