Jhajjar, August 7
Coming out openly in favour of the Gehlout family, which has been facing “social boycott” in Dharana village here since a month owing to the Kadyan Barha khap panchayat’s dictum, the Gehlout khap panchayat has launched a parallel campaign across the state with a view to mobilising various khaps in support of the family.

The Gehlout khap has started contacting other dominating khaps to convince them for mounting pressure on the Kadyan Barha khap panchayat to get its verdict softened at the proposed meeting of the Sarva khap panchayat on August 9 in Beri town here.

Under its ongoing campaign, a vital meeting of the Aath Gaama panchayat (council of eight villages) of the Gehlout khap was held at Farmana village in Rohtak district yesterday to quicken the pace of its movement to bail out the Gehlout family from the trouble.

During the meeting, an eight-member committee was formed to organise meetings with other khaps to persuade them to extend their support to the Gehlout family. Sarpanches of Ridhau, Farmana, Salimsir Majra, Maujnagar, Nijampur, Guna and Jasrana Kale Ramayan villages are the members of the committee that organised a meeting with the Hooda khap in this connection yesterday evening.

“The Hooda khap has assured us that it will not only follow the motive of maintaining brotherhood among the people but also make efforts to convince other khaps in this regard to find out an amicable solution to the controversy,” said Raj Kumar, representatives of the Aath Gaama panchayat, claiming that the Ahlawat khap had already come out in their support. He maintained that the Gehlout khap would take all necessary steps to protect the Gehlout family during the proposed meeting of the Sarva khap panchayat.

Meanwhile, Naseeb Gehout, one of the uncles of groom Ravinder, said they had so far not received any invitation regarding the meeting.

“We are ready to go to the meeting to give answers to all questions put up by the Kadyan khap panchayat if invitation is sent to us,” he said, asserting that they would not leave the village at any cost. The Gehlout family has been living under a heavy security cover in Dharana village.

New Delhi, August 7
The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Haryana and central governments on a PIL filed by the Bhartiya Kisan Union, Haryana and 17 others from Sonepat challenging the acquisition of their agriculture land in the “guise of public purpose” only to hand it over to private builders, developers and industrialists.

A bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justice SB Sinha, who retired today, also tagged the PIL with other similar petitions from various states.

According to the petition, filed through advocate Ranbir Yadav, the strategy under which the state was allying with corporations to dispossess people of their livelihood “is nothing but development terrorism irrespective of any political label of parties in office.”

The petitioners contended the Haryana government had violated various provisions of law while taking away their land. They were not even served notice under section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act, they added.

On November 17, 2005 the entire land of eight villages - Sewali, Patla, Budkhals, Ajawarpur, Ferozpur, Khadar, Jakhauli and Khewela - in Sonepat district was acquired through a notification by the state government.

“A massive land grab by large corporations is going on in various guises, aided and abetted by the land acquisition policies of both the central and state governments,” the PIL said.

Chandigarh, August 7
A special Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court headed by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur today agreed to clarify its judgement on a notification issued by the Haryana Forest Department in 1997. The other member of the Bench was Mr Justice Surya Kant.

The court had held on May 15 last that the areas notified under Sections 3 and 4 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900, by the department would be considered as forest areas. Since no non-forest activity can take place in a forest area, this led to the stoppage of mining of stones and sand in a vast area of Haryana, leading to not only a severe shortage of construction materials but also rendering thousands employed in mining and related activities jobless. Even construction activity came to a stop on about 9.5 lakh hectares out of a total of 44 lakh hectares of the state’s area. The prohibited area includes the entire district of Gurgaon.

The Haryana Government approached the court for a clarification. After hearing Advocate-General H.S. Hooda at length, the Bench called upon Narinder Hooda, who was appearing for the state, to assist the court. Counsel for the petitioner, Ravi Sharma, also agreed that a clarification was needed.

Thereafter, the Bench said indeed a clarification was required and the appropriate orders in this regard would be passed. 

Madhuban (Karnal), August 7
The first Indian Reserve Battalion of the Haryana police has been deployed to guard the international borders in Jammu and Kashmir.

The battalion will move to Jammu and Kashmir within a week on the orders of the central government under the command of Haniff Querishi.

Haryana DGP RS Dalal announced this while addressing the new recruits at the passing-out parade of the 71st training course.

The battalion had already successfully discharged election duties in sensitive northeastern states on the directions of the Chief Election Commissioner and its deployment in Jammu and Kashmir was a rare honour for the police and a tribute to valour and courage of the jawans, he added.

Calling upon the police force to keep service to people above personal interests, he said the safety and security of the state was in the hands of 50,000 strong state police force and it must discharge its duties with utmost dedication to come up to the expectations of the people.

Showering praise on the Haryana Police Academy, Dalal said it had carved out a niche for itself and performed remarkably during the past 33 years since its inception.

He also gave a cash award of Rs 11,000 to judo player Anil Kumar and also inspected the parade. He announced that Virbhan had been promoted as the Inspector of Police in recognition of his commendable services.

Additional Director General of Police VN Rai said the Haryana police was heading to become a highly skilled professional modern police force. He said the Haryana police training college was upgraded into a police academy in 2002 and it had imparted training to 1,40,757 cadets, including 7,034 recruits, from Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Andaman and Nicobar, and Chandigarh till June 2009.

Faridabad, August 7
The police today registered a case against a man and six others, including his parents, in connection with the murder of his wife allegedly for dowry. The husband, Yogesh, and the six others have been booked on a complaint of Gaurav, brother of the victim, Pooja.

Pooja was found dead this morning at her in-laws’ house in Sector 8. Her body was found hanging from a ceiling fan. The sister-in-law of the deceased informed Gaurav about the death. The impression given to him was that his sister had committed suicide.

The parental side of the victim, however, got suspicious and pursued the matter. Preliminary findings revealed that it was a case of murder.

Pooja, whose parental house is in Khanpur (Delhi), got married to Yogesh in April 2007. According to the complaint lodged by Gaurav, the in-laws of Pooja were pestering her for dowry. The police has also booked the victim’s sister-in-law who informed Gaurav about Pooja’s death.

Sources say the police has rounded up four of the accused, including Yogesh and his parents.