Faridabad, June 11
A number of state leaders of the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) today put in their papers in protest against the suspension of former Haryana ministers - Subash Batra and Krishan Murti Hooda - from the party.

The party’s former general secretary, Ramraj Sharma, said he along with a number of state leaders had tendered their resignations. They include Satbir Sharma and Mahaveer Sharma, former state office-bearers of the anti-corruption cell of the party.

A number of senior Congress leaders, who hail from the Punjabi community, targeted the HJC for action against Batra.

Sharma said he tendered his resignation in protest against the “dictatorial” attitude of HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi. He said Bishnoi took extreme action against the two senior leaders without giving them any opportunity to explain their position. He said he was the member of the Disciplinary Committee and the committee was not consulted before taking action against the two leaders. He said the action was “illegal”. Sharma further said more leaders of the HJC would resign shortly.

Sharma said Batra, who was a former Haryana Home Minister and also a state leader of the HJC, was targeted by the leadership of the party as he was making efforts to push in democratic practices in the organisation.

Shyam Sunder Kapoor, who had quit from the HJC, to join the Congress during the run up to the just-concluded parliamentary elections, lauded Batra as one of the “seasoned” Punjabi leader of Haryana.

Kapoor urged all those leaders who were in the HJC and those who had resigned from it to join the Congress.

He said the leadership of the HJC was annoyed with Batra as he was instrumental in giving tickets to Punjabis in the three parliamentary constituencies in Haryana.

Naraingarh (Ambala), June 11
Relatives and neighbours of a youth, Pankaj, who had committed suicide by taking some poisonous substance last evening, blocked the Naraingarh-Raipur Rani state highway here today.

They alleged that local MLA Ram Kishan, who is also the parliamentary secretary, and two of his supporters had been harassing and assaulting Pankaj for a long time which forced him to commit suicide. The deceased has also left a suicide note in which he has levelled similar allegations against the MLA.

The deceased used to run a gift shop in Naraingarh. He was rushed to the local Civil Hospital yesterday evening when he started vomiting. The doctors referred him to the PGI, Chandigarh, where he died today.

The relatives of the deceased while coming back to Naraingarh staged a demonstration outside the DGP’s office in Panchkula. Later, they blocked the highway by placing the body in the middle of the road.

The police had to divert the traffic because of the blockade.

They were demanding action against the MLA and two others. The father of the deceased, Yashpal Khanna, threatened to commit suicide if no action was taken against the MLA and others. Yashpal has also given a copy of the suicide note to the police.

He said a few months ago, a false case was registered against his son at the behest of the local MLA. He alleged that a few days ago, two supporters of the local MLA had beaten up his son, but the police did not register any case against them though they had filed a complaint with the police in the matter.

He said his son had mentioned in the suicide note that he did not want to live such humiliating life. He said in the suicide note, Pankaj had held the MLA responsible for the extreme step to commit suicide.

Meanwhile, MLA Ram Kishan said some of his opponents were dragging his name in the suicide case to defame him. He said the allegations were political motivated and expressed grief over the death of Pankaj.

The Naraingarh police has registered a case under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC against MLA Ram Kishan and two others - Vijay Kumar and Ajit Aggarwal - in the case.

Additional SP, Ambala, Balbir Singh Beniwal said the protesters had lifted the blockade on the state highway.

Chandigarh, June 11
The dispute in the Haryana BSP further deepened today when party chief Prakash Bharati accused defeated party candidate from the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency Maratha Varinder Verma of being in league with the Congress.

Verma had alleged a couple of days ago that BSP national general secretary and in charge of Haryana Man Singh Manhera had helped the Congress in the last Lok Sabha elections for vested interests.

In a statement issued here today, Bharati said not only the allegations levelled by Verma against Manhera were baseless, but he was also tarnishing the image of the party, which had polled 16 per cent of the votes in the elections due to the hard work put in by Manhera.

Bharati said Verma himself was to be blamed for his defeat because he not only failed to make suitable arrangements for proper campaigning but also insulted party workers.

He said the party high command had been informed about the activities of Verma and the party would take suitable action against him.

Rohtak, June 11
Hundreds of residents of Chuliyana village under Sampla subdivision here today blocked the National Highway No. 10 for about four hours and disrupted rail traffic on the Rohtak-Delhi section for about an hour at the Chuliyana railway crossing here in protest against the alleged failure of the police in recovering a youth, Sunil Kumar, who has been missing for about eight months.

The protesters lifted the blockade following an assurance by Rohtak SSP Alok Mittal that the police would try to find out the missing youth within 10 days and all those against whom a complaint in this connection had been got lodged by the family members of the missing youth would be questioned again.

Kaptan and Nirmala Devi, parents of the missing youth, said Karamveer of the same village had taken his son Sunil with him in October 2008 for “getting a job” in the Delhi police, but he had not returned since then.

“Though we have lodged an FIR with the police and expressed suspicion over Karamveer and his family members, the police is neither arresting the accused nor making any serious effort to recover Sunil,” the parents alleged.

Chandigarh, June 11
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today approved the implementation of a Rs 150 crore Social Infrastructure Mission project to lay thrust on three areas of the disability sector, senior citizens and children in the state and named the project after Jawaharlal Nehru.

The Chief Minister was presiding over a meeting on the implementation of the Haryana Social Infrastructure Mission here. It would be the first of its kind project in India taking care of the differently abled, senior citizens and destitute and orphaned children. It was decided to set up infrastructure, including special schools, senior citizens’ homes and children’s homes, under the project. Technical expertise for the project would be sought from the National Institute in each disability.

While reviewing the requirements of differently abled persons, it was decided to set up 10 schools for the visually impaired, 10 schools for the hearing and speech impaired, six schools for the mentally challenged , a state institute for orthopaedic or locomotor disabilities, a state institute for the visually impaired, a state institute for the hearing and speech impaired and two lifelong homes for the mentally challenged for the permanent stay of 50 persons.

The Chief Minister also reviewed the infrastructure available for the senior citizens’ sector. It was decided to set up four senior citizens’ homes in Rohtak, Hisar, Kaithal and Sonepat. It was also decided to set up six children's homes and one observation home.

Rohtak, June 11
Nearly eight-month-old appointments of three teachers for University Campus School in Maharshi Dayanand University here have come under scanner of the Audit Department due to the age factor.

The Audit Department has not only denied admitting their salary pleading that all teachers have already crossed the age bar prescribed for recruitment in the university rules at the time of their appointments but has also asked the university authorities to place the matter before the Executive Council (EC) to take suitable action in all three cases besides fixing of maximum age limit for entering into various services of the university.

According to sources, the university authorities had advertised for three posts - one TGT teacher and two assistant teachers - along with some other posts for University Campus School without specifying any age limit last year.

Later, interviews were conducted in this regard, following which three candidates were selected for the posts, who had crossed 40 years of age. These teachers were Indu Sharma, Saroj Joon and Saroj and their age at the time of joining i.e. October 23, 2008, was 43, 50 and 44 years, respectively, sources said.

The matter came to fore when the Audit Department raised an objection with a plea that as per the provision contained in CSR volume I, part I, no person whose age exceed 40 years may be admitted into the service whereas the age of selected teachers was above 42.

Taking swift action on the objection, the university authorities immediately sought information regarding the age limit for appointments in the university from Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra.

Later, Kurukshetra University in its reply said the maximum age limit for appointment to any post in the university was 50 years. It can be relaxed in special cases by the appointing authority.

Sources said the case with the information obtained from Kurukshetra Univesrity was again referred to the Audit Department which remained stable with the objection saying that as per the rules of Kurukshetra University, the age bar has been fixed as 50 years for appointment of similar persons, but there are no rules in this university (MDU) on this subject and in this context.

In a bid to clear the audit objection, the university authorities will now put the matter at the EC’s meeting scheduled to be held on June 13 for giving relaxation of age to all three teachers treating their case as “special” so that audit requirement for release of their salaries could be met. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr RP Hooda, could not be contacted for his comments on the issue.

Yamunanagar, June 11
The power crisis in the state has further aggravated as one unit of the Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram Thermal Power Plant (600 MW) here has been shut following a technical snag. An increase in demand for power due to early paddy plantation and a rise in the temperature have added to the crisis. The power shortage in the state has increased to more than 100 lakh units per day.

People in many rural areas in the state have been facing power cuts of more than 16 hours while those in urban areas of more than 12 hours every day. The state has 892 lakh units of power supply from all sources while the demand has increased to more than 992 lakh units per day.

Sources said Unit-1 of the thermal plant had become non-functional due to excessive vibrations in the turbine. The closure of Unit-1 has been causing a loss of 300 MW to the state every day.

Early plantation of paddy has led to an increase in the demand for power. Although the state government had asked farmers to go in for paddy plantation only after June 15, they seem to have ignored the directive. The rise in power demand to run tubewells for paddy plantation has put an additional burden of 50 lakh units per day on the state.

Chief Engineer of the thermal plant Sushil Bansal said Unit-1 was expected to become functional within three days.

Fatehabad, June 11
A local court today sentenced a teacher from Kirdhan village in this district to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for enticing away his minor student and raping her. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the teacher.

The victim’s father had lodged an FIR with the police on May 13, 2008, that Bhim Singh, a teacher working in a private school of the village, in which his daughter was studying, ran away with his minor daughter on that day. The duo was later traced by the police after several days.

The medical examination of the girl confirmed rape.

The police had earlier booked Bhim Singh under Sections 363 and 366 of the IPC on a kidnap charge but later Section 376 (rape) was also added to the FIR after the medical examination of the girl.

District and Sessions Judge RS Virk, who decided the case in less than a year, held the accused guilty of offence on Tuesday.

Pronouncing his judgment on the quantum of sentence today, the judge sentenced the accused Bhim Singh to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000.