Karnal, December 17
Former Deputy Chief Minister Chand Mohammad may have been coldshouldered and shown the door by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, but his loyalty to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Congress is intact.

Chand Mohammad, who was at Karna Lake, near here, with his new life partner Fiza, said he would meet Sonia Gandhi shortly to thank her for affording him an opportunity to serve as the Deputy Chief Minister for four years.

Attacking the Chief Minister for acting with a vengeance against him, Chand Mohammad said even during his absence from office, he cleared all files and attended to official work and the claim of Hooda that he was asked to resign due to his long absence was not tenable.

Announcing his decision to contest the assembly polls from Kalka or Panchkula as the Congress party candidate, he said, “I was in the Congress, I am in the Congress and will remain in the Congress”.

Asked about the probability of contesting the Lok Sabha poll, he said he would abide by any directive issued by the party high command. The former Deputy Chief Minister, who was not looking cheerful, disclosed that he would soon convene a meeting of his workers and claimed that party workers were with him.

His newlywed wife, Fiza, who was sitting by his side, said any decision to join politics or contest elections would be taken by her husband. A non-repentant Chand Mohammad said he did not do anything in hiding and marrying Fiza was his personal decision. “Pyar kiya hai koi zulam nahin kiya”, he said, adding that it was his personal life.

“Around 10,000 people, including some eminent politicians, have congratulated me for my decision,” he added.

Ambala, December 17
Condemning the recent terror attacks in India, Anerood Jugnauth, President of Mauritius, has said that if Pakistan is harbouring terrorists, something should be done about it.

He was speaking to mediapersons after inaugurating a herbal park developed by the Haryana forest department in Holi village.

“There is no justification in taking lives of innocent persons,” he added. Maintaining that no policy matters had been discussed, he said he would communicate to the Mauritius government about what could be done to further strengthen bilateral relations.

The President of Mauritius was accompanied by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. They also planted saplings of rudraksha tree in the herbal park.

Later, Anerood Jugnauth and the First Lady of Mauritius Sarojini Jugnauth, accompanied by Justice Nawab Singh, visited the MM University campus in Mullana and inaugurated a newly constructed administrative block of the university.

Accepting the invitation of the President to extend the benefit of higher education in professional areas for the benefit of the young generation of Mauritius, Chancellor of MM University Tarsem Kumar Garg has offered to start an “off campus” of the university in Mauritius.

Bahadurgarh (Jhajjar), December 17
Keeping in view the complaints lodged by various political parties regarding electoral rolls published for the election of the Bahadurgarh Municipal Council, state election commissioner Chander Singh said all complaints regarding duplicate names in the electoral rolls would be verified by inviting objections.

The names of such voters would be deleted from the electoral rolls, if the objections were found correct, he added.

He was hearing the complaints pertaining to electoral rolls at a tourist complex here today. Chander Singh said anybody with an objection regarding these rolls could file a claim or an objection till December 22 in the Bahadurgarh SDM office and respective electoral registration officers shall dispose of the claim or objection by December 31.

Thereafter, the final voter’s list would be sent for publication. No claim or objection would be entertained after December 22.

He also directed the officials concerned to perform their duty honestly and give adequate details of the names of those voters, which were deleted from the rolls.

The commissioner warned that if any official was found guilty of dereliction of duty, he would be placed under suspension.

Jhajjar deputy commissioner Nitin Yadav, Bahadurgarh SDM G.L. Yadav, City Magistrate Virender Sangwan, tehsildar-cum-revising authority Pankaj Satia and representatives of various political parties were also present at the meeting.

Sirsa, December 17
On a call given by the All-India Postal Extra Departmental Employees Union (AIPEDEU), postal employees working in village post offices today went on a strike in support of their demands.

The employees sat in dharna and raised slogans against the central government.

The agitating gramin dak sewaks (GDSs) demanded that they should be treated on a par with the central government employees, and should be paid on a par with postal employees working in cities.

Talking to The Tribune, S.S. Mahadevya, national general secretary of the AIPEDEU, said GDSs were being discriminated against by the government despite the fact that they had been performing the same duties as being performed by the postal employees working in towns.

“We are being paid Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,500 per month while our members have been working overtime in villages to deal with the normal postal work, payments made to labourers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and postal life insurance,” he alleged.

“Our strike is indefinite and will continue till our demands are met,” he added.

FATEHABAD: Postal employees working in villages on Wednesday went on an indefinite strike in support of their demands.

The employees organised a dharna and raised slogans against the government.

Amar Chand, state vice-president of the AIPEDEU, said while addressing the agitating employees that the GDSs would not sort or distribute post till their demands were met by the government.

SONEPAT: Hundreds of GDSs of Sonepat division on Wednesday went on an indefinite strike in protest against the alleged apathy of the postal department authorities.

They submitted a memorandum of their demands to the deputy commissioner.

Led by Sonepat division president of the union Ranbir Singh, they marched in procession through the main markets of the town raising slogans against the central government.

Their main demand included that gram dak sewaks be given all benefits of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission and cancellation of the recommendations of the Natrajan Murti Committee report, considered as “anti- employees”.

Chandigarh, December 17
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is grappling with a problem of plenty in Haryana. With the corporation’s warehousing and covered and plinth (CAP) capacity being exhausted with wheat and rice stocks of two years, it has no space to accommodate the wheat stocks coming in the marketing season beginning April, 2009.

The FCI has a total storage capacity of 23.18 lakh metric tonnes, which includes plinth storage of 3.20 lakh metric tonnes. While most of the covered capacity of the FCI has been exhausted, only 6 lakh tonnes space is available, including 2 lakh metric tonnes of plinth storage. Since rice cannot be stored in the open, the entire covered space will now be used to store the rice stocks after the paddy procured by the FCI has been milled. So, the corporation will have no space left for storing the 54 lakh metric tonnes of wheat it hopes to procure in April next year.

Officials said the main problem in Haryana was that even the state government agencies involved in foodgrain procurement - HAFED, the Haryana Warehousing Corporation, the Food and Civil Supplies Department and the Haryana Agro Industries Corporation - too had no vacant space available to store foodgrains. Whatever spare capacity was there, would now be used for storing paddy.

Since the wheat stocks have not moved from Haryana to other states, and procurement has been high this year, the corporation has no space to store more foodgrains. Official sources informed TNS that the reason for the FCI facing a shortage of storage space here was that most of the states in South India were unwilling to lift their stocks from Haryana. “These states lift stocks (meant for public distribution, food for work or under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan) on a quarterly basis. Though we have asked them to lift their stocks frequently, they have declined on the grounds that they do not have adequate warehousing capacity in their own states,” said an official.

The official said the FCI here needed to off-load at least 40 lakh metric tonnes of wheat so that additional storage space could be created. The Government of India has proposed to create additional warehousing space for the FCI in Haryana. However, officials feel that rather than more space, a faster system of off-loading and disposal of old stocks is needed. 

Karnal, December 17
Close on the heels of launching of scheme to provide a set of four compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) free of cost to 18 lakh-odd domestic consumers by the Himachal government, the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) has come out with a scheme to distribute 15 watt CFLs to consumers at subsidised rate of Rs 63 per lamp. The UHBVN will also provide 20 watt CFLs at subsidised rates shortly.

Director, UHBVN, A.K. Tandon, who was here today to address the participants at a seminar on energy conservation in Kalpna Chawla auditorium here, said Haryana had energy saving potential of 700 MW to 800 MW in domestic, non-domestic, agriculture and industrial sectors and this initiative would go a long way in bridging the demand-supply gap. Tandon said the use of energy-efficient gadgets approved by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency would help in reducing the long power cuts.

He disclosed that the transmission and distribution losses of the nigam ranged between 70 to 80 per cent and the UHBVN was yet to recover arrears of electricity bills amounting about Rs 120 crore.

Tandon, who also administered the oath regarding energy conservation, said the nigam had planned to supply power to farmers through high voltage distribution system. Initially, the scheme would be implemented in three district of the state - Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Rohtak.

Chandigarh, December 17
Dera Saccha Sauda chief Sant Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh may soon find himself defending the bail granted to him.

Appearing before Justice Ranjit Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Central Bureau of Investigation’s counsel Dr Anmol Rattan Sidhu, on instructions, said they would be filing a plea for the cancellation of bail granted to him. The statement was made in the presence of CBI DSP.

The development took place during the hearing of bail applications filed by co-accused in the matter Inder Sain and Krishan Lal. The applications were, however, withdrawn by the two accused and were dismissed as such.

The High Court, on the previous date of hearing, was not only critical of the way the entire city was held to ransom with the arrival of the dera chief and 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 bars? The poser was thrown to the CBI and other affected parties during the hearing of the regular bail plea filed by a co-accused.

In the petition, Sain lodged in Ambala central jail had claimed that the CBI had proceeded in an inimical manner against the petitioner. The petitioner had added it was wrongly alleged he was the dera manager, while he was just an ardent follower of the dera chief

Gurmit Ram Rahim is alleged to have murdered former Dera employees Ranjit Singh and a Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chatterpati.

Chandigarh, December 17
Haryana will soon have a law to prevent the early sowing of paddy in the state.

Agriculture minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha said the new law would help check the depleting water table. The law would be in place before the next paddy season.

Chatha said an artificial recharge scheme was being implemented in those areas where the water table was depleting speedily.

Besides, farmers were also being encouraged to cultivate pulses and oilseeds and other crops, which required comparatively less water.

In addition, micro irrigation, especially the sprinkler and drip irrigation systems, was being given impetus to economise use of the available water and arrest the depleting water table. Rs 43.19 crore had been earmarked for the current financial year.

Sirsa, December 17
When Kamlesh and her husband Des Raj were on an evening stroll on Monday, they found a newborn baby lying on the railway track.

The baby had little movements and was on the verge of dying, when the couple lifted the little one and rushed it to a nearby hospital. It was there that they found that the newborn was a girl.

The couple informed the police, which then shifted the little one to the local general hospital after initial care.

The newborn is four days’ old, according to doctors attending on her and has already covered her journey from the hospital, where she was born, to the railway tracks to a private hospital and now to the general hospital.

Oblivious of what destiny has done to her, no one knows where she will go from here.

Lying in the maternity ward of the general hospital, nurses rock her cradle by rotation.

Her biological mother may have abandoned her for some reasons, but she has found many caregivers in the form of staff nurses in the maternity ward of the general hospital.

Nirmala, Moni, Gayatari, Meenu and Inderjit Kaur, all staff nurses working in the maternity ward of the hospital, have been providing the care of a mother to the little one and rock her cradle turn by turn.

Sweety, as she is called by the nurses, is improving in health by the day as she is being bottle-fed in the hospital.

Her ultra-soft skin bears bruises received from barbs and sharp pebbles lying on the track.

“She weighs 2 kg and is slightly underweight,” says Nirmala, a staff nurse, while she feeds milk to Sweety from a bottle.

“Sweety was born in some hospital at the hands of some professional doctor or nurses as her umbilical chord has been found clamped, as is done in hospitals only,” she adds.

Yamunanagar, December 17
Alleging police inaction in a kidnap case, a large number of residents of Shivpuri today protested on the National Highway-73 and also the city police station. They were aggrieved over the failure of the police in arresting the kidnapper of Dalbir Rana of Shivpuri. Dalbir was kidnapped on December 14 and the police has not been able to trace him so far.

The protesters marched in procession on the national highway and later staged a dharna in the city police station.

Sudhir Rana said his father Dalbir Rana, who was working as a guard in a paper mill, was on his way home on the night of December 14 when he was allegedly kidnapped by Raja Ram, a former employee from Madhu Colony, in order to take revenge.

“Raja Ram, who also used to work for the paper mill, was caught by my father stealing some items following which he was sacked,”

Senior police officials assured the protesters that the police would soon solve the case following which the dharna was lifted.

Police officials said Raja Ram was yesterday called for interrogation. However, after leaving the police station, he reportedly consumed some poisonous substance. He was admitted to the Civil Hospital and later referred to the PGI, Chandigarh. A case of kidnapping has been registered against Raja Ram.

Yamunanagar, December 17
A 33-year-old man was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a local hotel here this morning.

The deceased has been identified as Virender of Aman Nagar, Jalandhar. He was working as sales executive with Evergreen Publication and had come here along with his driver yesterday.

Police sources said the incident came to light around 8.30 am when Virender did not respond to the knocks at his room’s door in Vishal Hotel here.

The hotel officials called the police, which found him lying dead on the floor. DSP Laxman Sharma along with a team of forensic officials inspected the spot.

However, the cause of death had not been ascertained as yet. The cause of death would be revealed only after a postmortem, which would be conducted tomorrow, the police said.

The driver, Sube Singh, said he along with Virender reached here around 4 pm yesterday and after keeping their belongings in separate rooms, they left for their official works. They returned to the hotel at 8.30 pm. Virender had come here for the sales promotion of the publication.