Yamunanagar, April 24
Kuradin (35) and his two daughters - Babli (12) and Tashmina (10) - of Kalyanpur village committed suicide by consuming poison when his employer Abdesh refused to return Rs 1 lakh he had borrowed from Kuradin.

Abdesh, who runs a shop in Sadhaura, threatened to implicate Kuradin in false case if he demanded his dues again.

Police sources said Kuradin had given his hard-earned Rs 1 lakh to Abdesh when he was in dire need. However, when he asked Abdesh to return his money, the latter refused to do so and threatened him with dire consequences.

Tashmina was declared brought dead in hospital, while Kuradin and Babli, who were admitted to the city hospital here, died later.

The police recovered a suicide note written by Kuradin held Abdesh responsible for his act.

The police has registered a case against Abdesh under Section 306, IPC, following the complaint of victims’ relative Tahir Hussain.

Gurgaon, April 24
A 20-year-old woman was allegedly “gangraped” in a five-star hotel on MG Road here late last night. The incident took place when the woman was waiting for her friend for dinner at Fortune Select Hotel here.

“She has alleged that three staff members - two guards and a manager, allegedly assaulted her as the friend she was waiting for did not arrive. She was allegedly taken to a room on the fourth floor, where the accused allegedly raped her,” said a police official investigating the case. The police has registered a case at the DLF phase I police station but no arrests have been made.

A preliminary medical examination of the complainant has been conducted.

The woman is a resident of Geeta Colony in Delhi. The Gurgaon police is investigating the matter. According to police sources, there might be a possible angle of the complainant being involved in flesh trade.

“She could be among the girls arrested in connection with a prostitution racket busted in Delhi in 2008. We are investigating that angle,” said ACP Sumit Kumar.

Fatehabad, April 24
The state Vigilance Bureau today nabbed two officials of the marketing board for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 10,000 from a Tohana-based rice miller.

A Vigilance team arrested mandi supervisor Gurbaksh Singh while taking a bribe from rice miller Ajay Kumar, while district marketing executive officer ML Makkar, who was on election training duty, was nabbed as soon as he came out of the Government College for Women, where the training was in progress.

Ajay Kumar had complained to the bureau that Makkar had summoned the account books of his firm, Kansal Rice Mills, and demanded a bribe of Rs 20,000 to condone some irregularities in the accounts. Later, he settled for Rs 10,000.

The bureau laid a trap and when Ajay Kumar handed over the bribe to the supervisor, he was arrested. Later, Makkar was also arrested.

Karnal, April 24
Piqued by inadequate arrangements for purchase of wheat at Grain Market and inaction of the government procurement agencies in lifting the produce, arhtiyas joined by farmers and labourers today pulled down the shutters and held demonstration outside the marketing committee office.

Thousand of people gathered at marketing committee office and threatened to block the national highway and boycott the polls if the government failed to act. Some political leaders also reached the venue to express solidarity with the protesting arhtiyas and farmers, but they asked them to stay away and not politicise the issue.

The main grouse of arhtiyas and farmers was that the government agencies were not purchasing the wheat and farmers were being unnecessarily harassed. “Why should we sit in the Grain Market if the government procurement agencies are not coming up to purchase wheat from the farmers,” asked Vinod Goel, president of the Arhtiyas Association.

He said the farmers coming here with their produce were not being allowed to enter the main gate of Grain Market, the labour was not available and arhtis were sitting idle. In case the government did not act immediately, the symbolic protest would blow up into mass agitation, he added.

A deputation of the arhtiyas and farmers met Deputy Commissioner Chander Prakash, who assured that entire procurement process would be videographed and the farmers would not face any harassment.

Sirsa, April 24
Election scene is now becoming more clear for the Sirsa parliamentary seat, where 15 candidates, including eight from national and regional political parties, are in the fray.

Major political parties, along with their candidates, are - Rajesh Vaid of the BSP, Ram Kumar of the CPM, Ashok Tanwar of the Congress, Sita Ram of the INLD and Rajendra Dhanak of the HJC (BL).

Swarn Singh of the Rashtriya Janhit Party and Hans Raj of the Republican Party of India are also in the race.

Interestingly, the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party has also fielded its candidate Raj Kumar.

The Independent candidates, who have been left in the fray after the last date of withdrawal of nomination papers are - Jaibir Singh, Shankar Lal, Vazir Singh, Pushpa Rani, Narender Pal, Des Raj and Pawan Kumar.

Going by the poll campaign of the candidates, INLD nominee Sita Ram and Congress nominee Ashok Tanwar, are miles ahead of others.

Campaign of HJC (BL) candidate Rajender Dhanak is also picking up, while the BSP as well as the CPM have been campaigning among their target voters.

As a matter of fact, INLD supremo Om Parkash Chautala had launched a campaign for the party well before announcing the candidate and covered many parts of the constituency during that period.

The party also organised a rally addressed by Chautala, the day Sita Ram filed his nomination papers and after that Abhey Singh, the younger son of the former Chief Minister has been leading the campaign.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot addressed a meeting for Tanwar on Wednesday, while the Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has visited Sirsa twice after the start of poll campaign.

The Congress workers are also looking forward to the visit of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is expected to campaign here in the first week of May.

Tanwar campaigned in the Kalanwali assembly constituency today.

Though the campaign of Rajinder Dhanak and Rajesh Vaid is no match for the Congress as well as the INLD nominees, they have been reaching out to their target voters. CPM nominee Ram Kumar’s campaign, too, is a low key affair.

Chandigarh, April 24
About 32,000 candidates are likely to take the Haryana Civil Services (Executive Branch) and allied services examination to be conducted by the Haryana Public Service Commission on April 26.

According to Chairman of the commission BB Batra, this will be a preliminary examination and the main examination will be conducted later.

Batra said here today that the examination would be conducted to fill 182 posts of various categories, including 26 of the HCS and 28 DSPs.

The commission is conducted this examination after about five years.

Batra said no stone would be left unturned to ensure a smooth and fair conduct of the examination so that the credibility of the commission, which was eroded in the past years, was restored. The examination would be conducted at 61 centres - 53 in Chandigarh and eight in Panchkula.

A high-level meeting was held between members of the commission and senior officers of the Haryana and Chandigarh administration to finalise the arrangements for the examination.

Haryana agreed to provide about 400 policemen to supplement the equal number of police personnel from Chandigarh to ensure security at the examination centres in the Union Territory. Batra said each candidate would have to pass through a metal detector besides being frisked so that no one was able to take objectionable material inside the centre.

To check the menace of copying, prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC would be imposed within a 100-metre area of each centre. The UT would provide 12 officers who would act as observers.

To discourage cases of impersonation, each candidate would be videographed.

The commission has constituted 19 teams of senior officers to work as flying squad officers/observers. Besides, eight Executive Magistrates would also be on duty.

Batra said if any candidate was found using unfair means, besides disqualification, he would also face criminal action. 

Gurgaon, April 24
In an initiative aimed at ensuring efficient use of energy, the Union Government has made it mandatory for major power consumers to appoint energy managers. These energy managers would submit a report on the status of energy consumption to the designated agency every financial year.

“We have identified nine sectors which consume about 75 per cent of the total energy consumed by the entire industry,” disclosed Devender Singh, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Power, and added that the government’s focus was on bringing energy efficiency in these sectors.

These nine sectors are thermal power stations, fertilisers, cement, iron and steel, chlor-alkali, aluminium, the Railways, textile and pulp and paper.

“In all, the industry consumes 44 per cent of the commercial energy, while it contributes to the tune of 26 per cent of the GDP. To promote energy efficiency, the Central Government has set up a National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency,” Singh said while addressing a workshop on energy efficiency on the campus of Management Development Institute (MDI) here today.

The workshop was sponsored by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Government of India, and organised jointly by the MDI and Haryana Government’s Renewable Energy Department (HAREDA), which is the state designated agency for implementation of the Energy Conservation Act, 2001.

Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of the workshop, HAREDA director Sumita Misra said the workshop was a step towards sensitising the owners/managements of industrial units and commercial buildings for effective implementation of the Act.

She said going in for energy-efficient buildings was in the industrialists’ own interests, but there was a need for creating awareness and orientation on the issue.

“In Haryana, the industrial sector consumes 26 per cent of the total energy and there is scope for at least 25 per cent saving in this sector,” she maintained.

Rajiv Garg and Shabnam from the BEE gave presentations on energy consumption norms and energy conservation building code. Garg explained the process of e-filing of energy consumption reports, while Shabnam disclosed that star-rating of commercial buildings was on the anvil.

N Muthusezhiyan, a senior consultant with the CII, gave a presentation on energy audit and development of energy conservation management plan. Gurgaon ADC Praveen Kumar addressed the participants.

Prof Atmanand, Dean, School of Energy Management at the MDI, welcomed the participants, while BS Yadav, Additional Director, HAREDA, proposed a vote of thanks.