Sirsa, May 1
First dates are usually memorable and so was AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s with Haryana, in Sirsa. He drove the crowd crazy at a Congress rally to seek support for party candidate Ashok Tanwar, first with his delayed arrival and then with his “electrifying” presence.

If Tanwar was banking on the first family of the Congress, especially first son of the party, Rahul, to bolster his campaign and strike the right note with the voters, the latter did not disappoint.

Well-briefed about the medley of castes and communities that make the Sirsa constituency, Rahul played the “common man” card to perfection. Stating that the Congress was a party of farmers, Dalits and the common man, he said, “If we have to move ahead, we have to do so together. This was our only commitment five years ago; we have fulfilled it.”

Though this son “dawned” three hours behind schedule, which left the crowd panting and puffing in the scorching sun and prickly heat, he compensated the crowd for his late arrival by going around the barricaded passage to shake hands with the crowd.

The public jostled and pushed for a glimpse of the Gandhi scion who even obliged a 20-something girl by allowing his picture to be clicked on her mobile.

But the crowd wanted more and the no-holds-barred approach of Rahul, which threw his SPG in a tizzy, proved to be a thorough entertainer. His cavalcade slowed to greet people standing on the sidelines while the leader in the making waved to them and they cheered him on. Tanwar, too, addressed the crowd, stating he was a living example to show that discrimination on caste lines was not a Congress “hallmark”.

With the rally time scheduled for 10 am, the crowds, mobilised from all over the constituency, started arriving just after 9 am. Brought in “loaned” buses, they spent over three hours waiting for their leader and eating kulfis and ice-candies as local vendors did brisk business.

For once, the VIPs, too, had to turn to nature. Ministers, MLAs and Congressmen sought shelter under a solitary tree near the main dais.

The less-than-a-minute drive around the venue took Rahul about 15 minutes to leave after it got converted into an impromptu road show. Elated with the crowd response, Rahul craned his neck out from his car and waved to the crowd.

His departure from Sirsa, too, was delayed on account of the prevailing heat wave conditions which were not conducive for chopper flight. Earlier, on his way to the Air Force Station, Rahul visited a family residing in Chatargarhpatti, a slum area. On noticing some children waving at him, Rahul got off his vehicle, spoke to them and accompanied them to their house where he took a glass of water before leaving. 

Nuh (Mewat), May 1
“Think global, act local” was the hallmark of the much-awaited speech delivered by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi during his maiden visit to one of the most backward districts of Haryana today.

Rahul, who was here to seek votes for the Congress candidate for the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat Rao Inderjeet Singh, started his address by apologising for arriving at the rally venue late by more than two hours.

In the beginning, he narrated the achievements of the Manmohan Singh government, including the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which, he claimed, was the world’s biggest employment scheme.

Like a seasoned politician, the Gandhi family scion deftly changed gears and lambasted BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishan Advani for having released terrorists as Home Minister and terming Manmohan Singh as a weak Prime Minister.

Rahul pointed out that it was for the first time that Pakistan had admitted its hand in terror activities in India and there was peace in Kashmir under the present UPA regime.

He asserted that contrary to the “misleading” statements issued by NDA leaders, India had not compromised national interest regarding the nuclear deal and nobody in the world could pressure India.

At the same time, he did not lose track of the local issues and successfully struck a chord with the local masses. Perhaps taking a cue from Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who had spoken before him, Rahul acknowledged the problems of educational backwardness, water scarcity and unemployment of the Mewat area and promised to address these on a priority.

Chandigarh, May 1
Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla today met leaders from various political parties in Haryana, returning officers of all parliamentary constituencies and top officials in the state government to review the poll arrangements.

The CEC first met leaders from various political parties and discussed the arrangements for smooth conduct of poll on May 7. The leaders also came up with their grievances with regard to seeking permission for all poll-related expenditure from the office of the returning officer.

They demanded that the procedure be simplified and permission also be granted at subdivisional offices so that time and effort could be saved.

Representatives from the Indian National Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Indian National Lok Dal and the Nationalist Congress Party were present at the meeting. Representatives from the Bharatiya Janata Party, who could not reach on time, were later summoned by the CEC for a hearing.

A meeting with returning officers of all constituencies in Haryana, district police chiefs, range IGs and the central observers was later held, wherein the CEC gave instructions to ensure that law and order be maintained. He asked the police to remain on alert till the time of polling. Later, he also met the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretary and the DGP to review the poll arrangements. 

Gurgaon/Rewari, May 1
Following a news report published in The Tribune regarding BJP candidate Sudha Yadav inciting communal sentiments of people at a poll meeting yesterday, the authorities concerned have issued a notice to her.

Talking to The Tribune today, Umashankar Singh, election observer for three Assembly segments of the Gurgaon parliamentary constituency and stationed at Rewari, said he had gone through the news report and stringent action would be taken against any candidate found guilty of misconduct and/or violation of the model code of conduct.

Rewari Deputy Commissioner-cum-district election officer CG Rajnikanthan told this correspondent that action under Section 125 of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951, had been initiated in this regard.

“We have issued a notice to Yadav, in which she has been given time till 11 am tomorrow (May 2) to explain why action should not be taken against her under Section 125 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, and Section 153 of the IPC,” he said.

The Deputy Commissioner maintained that if the candidate was not able to give a satisfactory reply, appropriate action would be taken against her.

Meanwhile, according to official sources, the public meetings of Sudha Yadav were being videogrpahed and the earlier recordings of her speeches being reviewed.

Sonepat, May 1
In Haryana “power” is threatening those who are in power these days when the Lok Sabha elections are just six days away. With the sudden sharp increase in temperature in the past few days, electricity has become a commodity in short supply.

Frequent trippings and unscheduled and unannounced power cuts have made life miserable, both in urban as well as rural areas of the state. With no power or inadequate power, the water supply, too, has been adversely affected.

The power shortage is there despite not much demand from the agriculture sector. With wheat harvesting almost over, power is not needed even for thrashing operations. 

Earlier, immediately after harvesting their wheat crop, farmers in the tube well belt of the state used to start preparing their fields for the “Saathi” variety of paddy. This variety of paddy was named “Saathi” because the crop used to be ready for harvesting within 60 days. This used to put a lot of strain, not only on the power supply but also on the underground water. 

Tubewells used to be run as long as the power was available to keep the paddy fields flooded.

However, the government launched a campaign against sowing of “Saathi” paddy in the past few years, discouraging the farmers from sowing it. This year the Haryana Assembly passed a law making cultivation of early varieties of paddy punishable.

In certain pockets of the state, those who used to cultivate the early varieties of paddy have sown sunflower and sugarcane this year. These crops also demand water but at a much less scale than paddy.

Before the elections, Congress poll managers were apprehensive that power might become an election issue. Till late last week, power was not an election issue, despite the hard try by the Opposition.

People believed Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda when he told them that he had inherited the power shortage because previous governments did not put up new generation units. But now several plants were under construction and within two years Haryana would become a power surplus state.

However, in the past few days, when the people were expecting satisfactory power supply, at least till May 7, the polling day, electricity is playing hide and seek with them, leading to protests at some places.

Haryana BJP media in charge Rajeev Jain today led a demonstration outside the office of Superintending Engineer of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam in Sonepat to lodge a protest against the “miserable” power situation.

Chandigarh, May 1
Acting on a PIL on recurrent accidents on the Dhaula Kuan-Manesar stretch of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway, Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Hemant Gupta of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued a notice of motion for July 21 to the Union Shipping and Transport Ministry, the state of Haryana, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) Chairman-cum-Managing Director and other respondents.

In his petition, Kanwaljit Singh Anand of Punjabi Bagh, East, New Delhi, has asked for directions to the respondents to fence both sides of the road and the divider of the eight-lane expressway to check intrusions, which were contributing to the accidents.

In a related matter, an affidavit by Gurgaon DCP (traffic) SK Gupta brought to the fore the alleged highhandedness of the toll plaza staff and villagers from the vicinity. In response to a writ petition filed by Messers Delhi-Gurgaon Connectivity Ltd, he said it was leading to scuffles, as motorists among them decline to pay toll tax.

The DCP suggested it would be better if the vehicle-owning villagers frequenting the highway were provided passes by toll plaza owning company for using the road. The matter will now be taken up again on May 15. 

Chandigarh, May 1
Justice Rajan Gupta of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today opted out of hearing the bail plea of Haryana police DSP Dheeraj Setia, nominated as an accused by the CBI in the Sarita rape and suicide case.

The case now stands referred to Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur for assigning it to some other Bench for further hearing.

Prior to his elevation to the Bench, Justice Gupta was for several years the senior standing counsel for the CBI, explaining Justice Gupta’s decision against hearing the plea with the CBI as a respondent. After preliminary hearing two days ago, the Bench had issued a notice to the CBI to submit its response to the anticipatory bail plea of the accused.

The accused had contended that he was the investigating officer of the Sarita rape case registered against two state police personnel Silak Ram and Balraj Singh. However, the CBI had falsely implicated him. The matter is now likely to be taken up sometime next week.

Faridabad, May 1
About 24 persons were officially said to have received injuries, although the figure is understood to be much more in an outbreak of fire in well-known Lakhani (Vardan) Pvt Industries located here in Sector 24.

The fire broke out around 5 pm and the authorities could not douse the fire by 9 pm, the time of filing this report.

According to witnesses, the fire broke out on account of blast in a high power boiler. There was a massive explosion as a result of which glass panes of nearby industries, including Escorts, were shattered. The Escorts is more than 100 yards away from the place where boiler was located in the factory. The unit manufactures shoes and slippers.

According to V V Prashar, Chief Medical Officer of ESI hospital here, 24 injured persons in the fire were admitted in his institute. Three of them have been referred to Safdarjung hospital, New Delhi, on account of more than 90 per cent of burns. While some were still kept in ESI, others have been referred to other hospitals of the city.

It was an inferno at the factory place where the fire had broken out. Faridabad DSP Kharaiti Lal, who was on the spot with a large number of police personnel, expressed ignorance on the exact number of casualties, both in terms of injuries or death.

He even failed to give an indication on the cause of the fire. He said the first task was to douse the fire and nothing could be said with any certainty on any issues relating to the fire. He said legal action would be initiated against the management of the firm, if they were at fault, after the investigation.

The chairperson of the Lakhani Group of Industries, K C Lakhani, expressed the same kind of ignorance. He told mediaperson that he took them as spectators and was not in a position to make any comment.

Although the official version was not forthcoming, either from the police side or management of the firm, there is apprehension that a number of workers may have been trapped and burnt to death in the inferno. According to Balam Singh, one of the workers admitted in Badshah Khan hospital, he did not know how the fire broke out. Suddenly a wave of fire line crossed him. He was soon engulfed with fire.

More than 20 fire brigades were reportedly pressed into service.

Jhajjar, May 1
The last rites of Pushpender Singh Nara, Wing Commander, were performed with full state honours in his native village, Madana Khurd, here today. Nara had died in an aircraft accident yesterday when a fault occurred in his plane near Rajmanthai village in Rajasthan.

His mortal remains were brought to the village this morning, where it was consigned to the flames. His relatives and several others distinguished personalities paid tributes to the departed soul of the brave heart of the country.

Wreaths were laid on his mortal remains by Air Vice-Marshal Anil Chawla on behalf of Chief of the Air staff. Paying tribute to the departed soul Chawla said with the untimely death of Nara, the Air Force had lost a talented pilot and a trainer. Nara was a very talented pilot trainer and was posted in Delhi.

He trained pilots in various parts of the country, Chawla said, adding that on the tragic day, he was returning from Pokhran field firing range after imparting training to a pilot when the aircraft met with an accident.

He is survived by his parents, wife and two daughters.

Others, who laid wreath, were Vidhan Sabha Speaker Dr Ragubir Singh Kadian, Sukhender Hooda, Kulbir Hooda, Balwant Berry, Rishi Prakash, Manphool Singh, former MP Capt Inder Singh and Dr Bijender Ahlawat, besides senior officers of the district administration.