Chandigarh, August 16
Haryana’s Cabinet Minister Kartar Devi (66) died at the PGIMER here today after a brief illness. She was admitted to the PGIMER last month following respiratory distress. She was on ventilator for the past few weeks.

A Congress MLA from Kalanaur, she held the portfolios of Health and Medical Education, Social Justice and Empowerment, Women and Child Development and Welfare of the Scheduled Castes and the Backward Classes.

However, in view of her deteriorating condition, all these portfolios were reallocated to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda by the Governor while Kartar Devi continued to be minister without charge.

The Haryana government has declared a three-day state mourning and a public holiday on August 17 as a mark of respect in all offices of the state government, including those of boards and corporations and educational institutions.

The state mourning will be observed form August 16 to 18 (both days inclusive) during which the National Flag will be flown at half-mast throughout the state on all buildings and there will be no official entertainment.

The state funeral will be held in Rohtak district tomorrow. Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda expressed shock and grief over the demise of the minister.

In a condolence message, the Governor described her as a great social worker who was concerned about the poor and weaker sections of society.

The Chief Minister described Kartar Devi as a social crusader who stood for the cause of the poor and weaker sections of society.

Kartar Devi was born on March 5, 1943, at Karontha in Rohtak district. She got her education from Rohtak and Ujjain where she did MA and LLB.

She served as Minister of State in 1984. After she was returned to the State Assembly in 1991 from the Kalanaur (SC) Assembly Constituency, she held the portfolios of Health and Ayurveda and Medical Education and Excise and Taxation Minister of Haryana. In 2005, she became a Minister in the Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Widely travelled abroad, she had held many offices, including the president of the Khetihar Mazdoor Congress, and served as the general secretary of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (I) for seven years.

She has edited Hindi fortnightlies, namely “Janmeet” and “Kranti Ka Bigul”. She has to her credit a collection of poems entitled “Sulagti Chingari”. Several Congress leaders have expressed grief at the demise of Kartar Devi.

Local MLA and Haryana Industries, Commerce and Mines Minister Lachhman Dass Arora said the Congress party had lost an able leader.

Ashok Tanwar, MP from Sirsa, said Kartar Devi was down to earth despite being a minister and always came out with policies that could benefit poor and downtrodden.

Ranjit Singh, Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Board, said Kartar Devi devoted her life for the welfare of women and socially weaker sections of society.

Karnal, August 16
Expressing concern over the lopsided sex ratio in the state, president of the women wing of the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), Sumitra Dahia, today blamed the Congress government for not taking corrective measures to improve the sex ratio.

The situation has become so alarming that brides are being bought for marriage from others states, creating social disorders, she told mediapersons here today.

Stating that north Haryana was being discriminated against in the matter of government jobs and developmental works, she said information gathered through the RTI Act revealed that of 137 jobs given in the Town and Country Planning Department by the government, 96 were grabbed by Rohtak and Jhajjar districts while Karnal did not get a single job.

She said the information also exposed the “brazen discrimination” meted out to Karnal district in the allocation of funds by the Haryana Rural Development Fund Administration Board and pointed out that funds amounting Rs 6,578.02 lakh and Rs 7,917.55 lakh were allocated to Rohtak and Jhajjar districts, respectively, from April 1, 2004, to May 12, 2008, while meagre allocations of Rs 1,635.19 lakh and Rs 638.40 lakh were made to Karnal and Panchkula districts.

She attacked the government for the “deteriorating law and order situation” in the state and said atrocities on women were on the rise and life and property of people were not safe under the present government and claimed that the people were “itching” for voting the HJC-BSP combine to power under the leadership of HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi.

She claimed that HJC workers were enthusiastic about the poll and the party was confident of defeating both the Congress and INLD-BJP combine.

Hisar, August 16
Five persons were killed when a 16-metre-long iron plate fell off a crane at the Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Plant, which is under construction at Khedar village, about 35 km from here, today.

Three other workers were also injured in the mishap. One of them is stated to be in a serious condition.

Sources said two of the deceased fell from a chimney to which they were fixing the iron plate when it came off the crane. Three others, who were working at the base of the chimney, were crushed under its weight.

While three of them died on the spot, two others died in a hospital. Two out of the five deceased belonged to China.

The three deceased have been identified as Shravan and Sukhvinder from Punjab and Rajiv Mandal from West Bengal while the identities of the Chinese nationals were not immediately known. They had been sent by their company, which had supplied the chimney, to oversee its erection.

Labour Minister AC Chaudhary ordered to halt the work temporarily. He also visited the injured in the hospital. He directed officials to take all precautions to prevent such incidents in the future.

He said adequate compensation would be paid to the next of the kin of the deceased. The thermal power plant under construction is a prestigious project launched after the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government came into power in 2005.

New Delhi, August 16
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today reiterated his demand for a separate high court for the state.

He sought “urgent intervention” of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard. Speaking at the annual conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of the high courts here, Hooda said: “Haryana still stands deprived of its own high court. Even states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand, which have come into existence in recent years, have already set up their own high courts.”

Hooda suggested that the existing Punjab and Haryana High Court can easily be bifurcated into separate high courts for the two states by dividing the existing premises, judges and staff between Punjab and Haryana in the ratio of 60:40 as was done for the Civil Secretariat and the Vidhan Sabha infrastructure.

He suggested that all aspects of the judicial administration be brought under the ambit of the Right to Information Act. Interestingly, the filing of public interest litigation (PIL) to stall a project came under fire from Hooda as well as his Punjab counterpart Parkash Singh Badal.

Hooda said often popular issues, which get covered in the media, lure members of the judiciary of public attention. However, this must be resisted by the judiciary. The judiciary should be guided only by the constitution of the country and genuine public interest and not the media potential or “popularity” of an issue.

On the other hand, the Punjab Chief Minister appealed to the judiciary to “discourage the tendency for filing of PIL to stall important government projects for development and economic growth of the region.

Badal also underlined the need for sweeping administrative and judicial reforms to make the delivery of justice and services easy and simple for the common man.

“There is a widespread and fairly justified perception in the country that our legal processes are too cumbersome and costly,” he added.

The Chief Minister urged the government to expedite the process of filling up of 22 vacant posts of judges in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. These are vacancies against the sanctioned strength of 68 posts.

Earlier, the Haryana Chief Minister sought an amendment in the law of contempt in the country saying that such a power was prone to abuse.

Hooda said Haryana had already set up video conferencing facilities in 38 courts
and 25 jails.

Faridabad, August 16
Two persons, including a daughter of a labourer, died when a wall of a building under renovation reportedly collapsed in Sector 15 here today.

A three-year-old girl, Kusum, who got caught in the debris, is apprehended to have died. However, the authorities concerned declined to make any comment as the rescue operations were still on.

Two other workers sustained injuries in the mishap. One of them has been admitted to the local Badshah Khan Hospital. The deceased have been identified as Kusum Bai and Poonam (14).

The owner of the ill-fated building, Raj Kumar Gandhi, is a government contractor. However, he had assigned the job of renovation of his house to a private contractor. The two bodies were recovered from the debris after about five hours of the incident.

Kaithal, August 16
The Congress today received a boost as a large number of office-bearers and other activists of the Indian National Students Organisation (INSO), the student wing of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), joined the party today.

Haryana Power and Public Health Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala welcomed them into the party fold.

He alleged that INLD leaders always misguided the youth and used their energy to capture political power.

He claimed that the Congress had a different culture and uses the youth power for constructive activities.

He advised the youth to concentrate on their studies and fulfil the aspirations of their parents. Harbans Bhuria, Jitender Singh, Jaiveer Mor, Surinder Dhull, Hoshiyar Singh and Satish Pehalwan were among those who left INSO and joined Congress.

Sirsa/Fatehabad, August 16
With early elections to the assembly becoming almost a certainty now, common people have suddenly acquired “special status” now, as political leaders aspiring to contest the elections have started reaching out to them to solve their problems.

Power cuts that had been making people spend “sleepless nights” only till three to four days ago are nowhere to be seen and the ever-famous slogan of providing 24-hour supply does not seem a utopia now.

Deputy chairman of the State Planning Board Ranjit Singh toured several villages of the Rania Assembly segment of Sirsa today.

Ranjit Singh was to inaugurate new rooms constructed in schools of two villages, but it was put off due to the death of Haryana minister Kartar Devi.

Speaking to the villagers, Ranjit Singh claimed that it was for the first time that such a huge amount of money had been given to villages under the Haryana Rural Development Fund (HRDF) that the villagers were not in a position to decide where to spend this money.

Parliamentary Secretary, Haryana, Dura Ram today visited over six villages of Fatehabad and laid foundation stones of several new projects.

“I have served the Fatehabad Assembly constituency truthfully during the past four-and-a-half years and do even better if I am given a chance to serve again,” Dura Ram said while addressing residents of Jandwala Bagar village after laying foundation stones of five link roads to be constructed at a cost of Rs 5.25 crore.

He claimed that the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government had implemented several welfare schemes for common people and would again come back in power in Haryana. Gopal Goyal, alias Gopal Kanda, chairman of MDLR Airlines, who has announced to contest the forthcoming elections as an Independent candidate from Sirsa, toured over a dozen villages of the constituency today.

Kanda paid obeisance at a gurdwara in Dhani Majra village and gave a contribution of Rs 1.51 lakh. He appealed for support in the forthcoming elections.

KV Singh, former OSD to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who has been active in the Dabwali Assembly segment, was to tour several villages of the constituency with MP Ashok Tanwar and was also to lay foundation stones of some new projects, but the tour was postponed due to the death of Kartar Devi.

Sunita Setia, daughter of Haryana minister Lachhan Dass Arora, who is aspiring to contest from Sirsa this time in place of her father, has also been busy meeting voters and has so far organised several rural meetings with her father. She has also announced several new projects from the HRDF funds.

Bhupesh Mehta, block president of the Sirsa Congress, has been staking his claim to the party ticket and campaigning in several villages.

Other prominent leaders, who have become active in their prospective constituencies, are Jagdish Nehra (Rania), Pahlad Singh Gillankhera (Fatehabad), Gurdeep Singh Gill (Ratia) and Ravi Chautala (Dabwali), all from the Congress, sitting MLA Sita Ram (Kalanwali), Swatantar Bala Chaudhary and Krishna Poonia, both from Fatehabad from the INLD, Devi Lal (HJC) from Fatehabad and Veer Bhan Mehta (HJC) Sirsa.

His brother Surinder and sister-in-law Shruti, who were also in the same car, were
also hurt.

Chandigarh, August 16
The Haryana government has sought financial assistance of Rs 3,168.75 crore from the Centre to mitigate drought-like conditions in the state.

Urging the Centre to announce bonus and minimum support price (MSP) in advance for both paddy and bajra, the state has also sought relaxation in specifications of paddy and bajra.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, in a memorandum to the Centre, said the state was most adversely affected due to weak and erratic monsoon.

Although the state government has not formally declared any part of Haryana as drought hit, drought-like conditions are prevailing in 13 out of 21 districts, namely Ambala, Bhiwani, Faridabad, Fatehabad, Gurgaon, Mewat, Hisar, Sirsa, Panipat, Rohtak, Kaithal, Kurukshetra and Panchkula.

Due to scanty and erratic rain, kharif crops have been sown in only 26.57 lakh hectares as against 28.92 lakh hectares in the corresponding period last year.

He said the problem had been compounded due to low availability of irrigation water in major reservoirs where the availability of water was at the level of one-third of the last year’s level.

Chief Secretary Dharam Vir said the requirement of special assistance had been necessitated to provide for additional power purchase, additional cost incurred on diesel, seed for the unsown area, bonus on MSP, lining of water courses, construction of water channels for village ponds or boring of tubewells, medicines and fodder for the cattle or seed for horticulture crops, subvention of interest on long and short term loans to the farmers and debt relief.

Maintaining that the state government, on its own, might not be able to sustain the burden of liability incurred on account of power purchase agreement and other relief measures given to the farmers to mitigate the effects of drought-like conditions.

The Chief Secretary said but for special measures, kharif crops would have withered away and large tracks of land in the state would have remained barren and unsown.

Sirsa, August 16
The Haryana government has finally decided to give away awards to outstanding journalists working in the state, for which the state Public Relations Department had invited entries last year.

Governor Jagannath Pahadia and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will give away state-level and district-level awards at a function to be organised in Tagore Theatre, Chandigarh, on August 22, said Sanjay Arora, Media Coordinator of the government for Hisar Division, while talking to mediapersons here today.

Arora said 11 journalists would be conferred with state-level awards, carrying Rs 51,000 and a citation each, while 147 district-level awards (seven journalists from each district of Haryana), carrying Rs 21,000 and a citation each, would be given.

The two dignitaries will also confer the Satyapal Saini Memorial Journalism Award and the Rajinder Hooda Memorial Award for budding journalist on the occasion, he said.

He said the government would announce the names of journalists selected for the awards soon.

The awards for 2008, for which the government had invited entries last year, were to be given on November 16 on the occasion of National Press Day, but had to be delayed due to the indisposition of Chief Minister’s father Ranbir Singh Hooda.

Before the government could announce a fresh date for the award ceremonies after his demise in February this year, the parliamentary elections came staring on the face of the state government.

With the Assembly elections expected in October this year, the state government, it appears, wants to fulfil its announcement with the regard to journalists before going for the poll as it is already late by over nine months as per the earlier announced schedule.