Yamunanagar, July 7
In a significant directive, which will benefit thousands of families across the state, the director of the state town and country planning department has directed all deputy commissioners of the state to regularise unauthorised constructions falling under the restricted belt of the national highways and scheduled roads in a time-bound manner. The decision of the director came following the notification in this regard issued by Financial Commissioner DS Dhesi.

Thousands of people have constructed unauthorised buildings within the restricted belt of the national highways and scheduled roads. A few months ago following the court orders, the administration officials in different districts have started demolition drives against illegal structures.

Thereafter, a number of people had taken up the matter with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and requested him to make necessary amendment in the Act in this regard.

The director has directed all DCs to form a committee in each district comprising officers, including one HCS officer of the district administration, district town planner, executive officers of the municipal council. People, who have illegal construction within the restricted belt of the national highways, have to submit a form to the district town and planner to get it regularise.

As many as 3,000 unauthorised constructions in Yamunanagar district are within the restrictive belt of the national highways. After getting directions, DC Amit Kumar Aggarwal today directed Jagadhari SDM H C Jain and Bilaspur SDM Sujjan Singh to complete the work as soon as possible.

Karnal, July 7
Some wistful love stories and others of love gone awry - almost 90 per cent of the inmates at the state’s only Nari Niketan are there because of their love lives. Separation, however, has only added sheen to the halo around love.

In fact, so much are they in love with love that they believe this suffering is only a test of their true love that will end on a happy note. Like Suman (name changed), who ran away with a boy she loved a couple of years ago. “We were living happily in Mumbai before we were traced. I landed at this home, while he was put behind bars. I will soon be 18 years and go back to him. Though we have not met since then, we are in touch through phone. He will come to take me once I am of age,” she says.

For Chitra (name changed), life has been a saga of trouble and love has been the cause. “I’ve been married for three years and have a son. To settle their personal score with a villager, my in-laws asked me to level charges of attempted rape against him if I wanted to stay in the house, which I did. Using this, they threw me out of the house saying I am characterless.

Then, my husband approached my family and asked for my younger sister’s hand in marriage. When I realised that I had been cheated, I told the police the truth after the frame-up. Now, I just want my son back, at all costs,” she narrates with tears in her eyes. If love is the culprit for most inmates spending time learning to stitch, a few have been exploited at the hands of family members too. Some don’t know where they came from and others don’t have anywhere to go while tales of exploitation abound.

“I am 18 now, I just want to leave. Send me with the family of any of the girls. I want to work and be on my own,” is the incessant plea of one of the most vocal girls at the home. “I was working in Delhi when my father got a second wife. I could not stand her behaviour towards me and ran away from home when I realised she was planning to sell me. I have a paternal uncle I want to go to but the authorities won’t allow that,” she says.

All the way from Chattisgarh, Jhoomer came to work as a domestic help. “My brother left me at the house where the family misbehaved with me. One night, they shut the doors on me, saying I steal things. I spent the night begging them to let me in and at least call my brother. Next morning, they tore the slip with his phone number and sent me packing. Wandering aimlessly, an old man found me and took me to the police. I have no address to give them but I terribly miss my family,” she says.

A differently abled girl, too, is putting up at the home. To every visitor, her only refrain is, “send me home”. She knows nothing else. “She used to bite off her skin causing deep wounds. We organised a psychiatric for her and she is better now,” explains an employee.

At the home where the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment has provided coolers, inverters, cooks and attendants, there is no superintendent for the past few months, ever since the earlier incumbent was suspended. The additional charge has been given to the district social welfare officer who has her hands full with a number of other matters and can’t devote the time needed and expected.

For the girls, life continues to move at snail’s pace inside the home. Freedom is only a few steps away, a few months away and till “their time” arrives, love and animated discussions of love light up their lives.

Sirsa, July 7
The police today claimed to have unearthed a unit manufacturing fake desi ghee in a dhani, near Nagrana Ther village in Rania block of the district. The police has arrested two persons and recovered over 6 quintals of ghee from their possession, while another person managed to escape.

According to police sources, they had intelligence reports that certain people were engaged in illicit business of preparing spurious desi ghee with the help of vegetable oils and chemicals for the past some time. The police had inputs that the accused had been selling fake ghee in the state and nearby Punjab and procured the raw material from Rajasthan.

The sources said after getting directions from SP Subhash Yadav, a police party led by Ajaib Singh, an inspector in the CID wing of the police, raided a dhani, near the village, with the help of a police party from Rania police station and recovered 6 quintals and 80 kg of fake desi ghee, 6 tins, 5 cartons, 25 unlabelled packs of ghee, 21 empty tins of Kanha ghee brand and 55 empty tins of Anmol brand from there.

The police has also recovered some material used for making fake ghee and packing material, said a spokesman for the police.

The police has arrested Om Parkash, a resident of Gangwa in Hisar district and Ajay Pal Singh, a resident of Mangala village, while Sandeep, a resident of Nagrana village managed to give police a slip.

The police has booked the accused under the Essential Commodities Act and has informed the health authorities for taking samples of the fake ghee. The police said investigations have revealed that the agriculture land on which the dhani had been made, belonged to a Sonipat-based person and was hired by Ajay Pal Singh. Civil Surgeon Narender Chaudhary and district health officer GS Somani said they have received communication from the district police and were sending the government food inspector for taking samples.

Sirsa, July 7
Residents of Fatehpuria village locked a primary school here today in support of their long standing demand of upgrading the school to middle-standard level. The school had reopened today after the summer vacations. The villagers reached there and locked its main gate after sending the children back to their homes.

The villagers, including sarpanch Gulzari Lal Dhaka, alleged that they had been demanding to upgrade the status of the village school from primary standard to middle standard for long, but the authorities have turned a deaf ear to their demand.

“The children have to cover a distance of 10 km to Rania to continue their education after the fifth standard. They have to face a lot of difficulty as drivers of the Haryana Roadways refuse to take schoolchildren,” alleged Dhaka.

The villagers alleged that it was mockery of the state government’s claim to provide education to all, when the children of the village cannot get education after the fifth standard. District Elementary Education Officer Sher Singh Khicher reached the village and tried to persuade them to open the school, but villagers refused to relent.

They, however, opened the school at about 2 pm when Khicher assured them that he had talked to his seniors at the state headquarters about their case.

Later, Khicher told The Tribune that the case to upgrade the village school had already been sent to the head office and it was pending there. He maintained that the list of upgraded schools was yet to be released and the primary school of Fatehpuria would be upgraded soon.

The amount had been kept as the security deposit of a contractor and was to be refunded to him after the completion of a contract worth Rs 55 lakh.

The court order came in wake of a complaint lodged by a local contractor, Mahender Singh. In his complaint to the court, the applicant claimed that he had completed a contract to construct some roads in the city in 2007.

While the total cost of the project was Rs 55 lakh, the civic body had kept Rs 4.09 lakh as security deposit. According to the contractor, he had applied for the refund of the above stated security deposit. He claimed that though he visited the office of the civic body several times, the officer concerned did not release the payment and kept on making excuses.

The applicant also visited senior officials of the district and the state administration for help. Later, certain officials in the civic body told him that the cheque towards his payment had already been released. However, he claimed that he had not received the cheque till date.

Stating that while there is a record regarding the issuance of cheque, he alleged that some officials of the civic body had taken the payment in a fraudulent manner.

The court of Chander Hass has now directed the authorities concerned to register a case under Sections 409, 419, 420, 465, 471, 474 and 43 of the IPC against the accused officials of the civic body.

Faridabad, July 7
The BJP staged a demonstration outside the mini-secretariat here today in protest against the district administration for its alleged failure to provide adequate power and water and its failure to maintain law and order in the district.

Activists of the BJP, led by former leader of the party in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Krishan Pal Gurjaar, held a protest march before staging a demonstration against the Haryana government.

Later, a delegation of the party submitted a memorandum to the Haryana Governor vide the district administration seeking his intervention to ensure proper supply of water and power. It also drew his attention to the falling standards of law and order in Faridabad.

The memorandum also said if the Congress government could not ensure safe life and property to the people at large then it had no business to be in office.

Senior leaders of the party, district president of the party Gopal Sharma and five councillors of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) also addressed the gathering outside the mini-secretariat.

The BJP leaders alleged that the people of Faridabad had been facing an acute shortage of water and power.

The officers concerned were neither amenable to people’s complaints nor accessible to the general public.

They also alleged that the law and order situation had worsened in the district. Incidents of murder and robbery had increased and the police had failed both on prevention and follow up aspects on crime incidents.

Gopal Sharma cautioned that in case the government does not improve the situation regarding the power and water supply, his party would be forced to intensify its struggle.

Chandigarh, July 7
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda called upon Congress workers to start preparations for the assembly elections from today and announced that the party ticket would be given to those communities

which had so far been overlooked in this regard.

The Chief Minister was addressing a sammelan of party workers belonging to the Scheduled Castes and backward classes at the office of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee here.

He cautioned the workers not to be misled by vested interests and said it would be better if those who had left the party because of misunderstanding to return to its fold.

While describing the members of the Scheduled Castes and backward classes as complementary to the Congress, Hooda assured them of his continued support.

Hooda cautioned them against alliances between the INLD and the BJP and the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) and the BSP, saying these were hand in glove because of their vested interests. The real alliance was between the Congress and the people of the state, he said.

Earlier, former MLA Dev Raj Dewan, who contested the Lok Sabha elections on the BSP ticket, joined the Congress in the presence of Hooda and PCC president Phool Chand Mullana.

Speaking to mediapersons later, Hooda said although the elections to the state assembly were due in February next, it was up to the Election Commission to fix the schedule.

When asked whether the Congress was prepared for early elections, he replied in the affirmative saying the party was always prepared.