Sirsa, August 30
Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala is likely to contest the next Assembly elections from two seats - one from Uchana (Jind) from where the party has already announced his candidature and another from any of the four Assembly segments of Sirsa district.

Ajay Singh Chautala, secretary-general of the INLD, told mediapersons during his mass contact programme in the Sirsa Assembly segment that people of the district had been pressuring Chautala to contest from any of the four unreserved seats of his home district - Sirsa, Rania, Ellenabad or Dabwali.

Talking to mediapersons at Ding in this district today, he, however, added that the final decision in this regard would be taken by Chautala himself.

Ajay Singh said the INLD was fully prepared for the Assembly elections but alleged that the Congress was trying to delay the elections even after dissolving the state Assembly.

He said his party would announce the ticket in three phases and the first lot would be announced immediately after the declaration of the election schedule.

Claiming that the results of the Assembly elections would be diametrically opposite to the results of the parliamentary poll, Ajay Singh said people were waiting for an opportunity to show the door to the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government.

Accusing Hooda of being indifferent to people’s woes, Ajay Singh alleged that the Chief Minister was in the habit of observing silence whenever any public issue was raised before him.

He said he had dared Hooda so many times to have a public debate on issues confronting people, but the Chief Minister, he alleged, had always preferred to observe silence.

He claimed that people were enthusiastic about the latest announcements made by the INLD and hoped they would vote his party to power after the elections.

Refuting allegations that the announcements made by the INLD were infeasible, Ajay Singh maintained that assurances had been made after minutely calculating from where each penny of money required for the implementation of these demands was to come.

He said the party would give full details of the estimated expenditure on the implementation of these announcements and also the sources from where the party intended to generate funds, in its election manifesto.

Ajay Singh addressed public meetings in over a dozen villages of the Sirsa Assembly seat today.

Sirsa, August 30
The MDLR Airline chairman Gopal Goyal alias Gopal Kanda’s decision to contest the forthcoming assembly election from the Sirsa assembly seat has evoked people’s interest even before the announcement of election schedule.

Kanda exhibited a show of strength, when he was received to a tumultuous welcome by his supporters at Delhi Bridge on the outskirts of the town, when he reached Sirsa from Gurgaon.

His cavalcade of vehicles reached Tara Baba Kutiya, a social and religious establishment set up by him on the local Rania Road, by passing through the main markets of the town, with a helicopter showering flower petals on the procession.

Kanda, who is considered to be a close confidant of the Chautala family, announced yesterday that he would contest the election as an Independent, giving first hints of his distancing from his earlier political mentor.

Kanda’s political moves are also being watched keenly by leaders of all political parties, particularly those interested in contesting the poll from here.

Kanda, who is a perfect example of a rags- to-riches story, having risen from the owner of a local shoe store to chairman of an airliner, hotels and malls in less than a decade, came into limelight as a confidant of the Chautalas, after he weighed Om Parkash Chautala against currency notes in Sirsa, when the latter was in power.

He has been organising social and religious functions in Tara Baba Kutiya every year, spending lavishly on these functions, which have been attended by several Bollywood stars and playback singers.

His money power is worrying the prospective candidates of other parties, who are watching with interest the way Kanda has been spending lavishly on publicity and political activities even before the elections have been announced.

Kanda has distributed cash for public projects in several villages of the Sirsa assembly constituency during his village tours ever since he made his intention of contesting the election public earlier this month.

He announced to set up a big hospital with quality healthcare facilities, a big industry to provide employment to the youth, a sports club for children and a counselling and aid centre for the brilliant youth interested to find jobs in big industries or abroad, if elected to the state assembly.

Karnal, August 30
A four-and-a-half-year-old boy, Chander Prakash, was drowned in a nullah (Mughal canal) here today. The victim had gone to a bank of the canal to answer nature’s call and slipped into the nullah, which was full of dirt and filth.

Another boy, Karan, who was accompanying him, saw him drowning in the nullah and rushed home to inform his parents.

Within minutes, people converged on the spot and rescue operations were started. Deputy Commissioner JS Alhawat and SDM MK Ahuja, who reached the spot along with other officers, got two JCB machines arranged to recover the child, but the efforts did not succeed.

NGOs, municipal council and Public Health staff also started rescue operations, which continued for nearly six hours. Divers were summoned from Madhuban.

Finally, the body of the boy was recovered by the rescue parties in the evening from muck at a distance of 250 metres from the site of the incident. The victim belonged to a poor family and his father, Subhash Chander, resides in a slum in Sector 14.

A pall of gloom descended on the colony as the soiled body of the child was taken out and sent for a postmortem. Sumita Singh, local MLA, reached the spot and consoled the parents of the child.

Chandigarh, August 30
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday demanded that the Election Commission of India should look into the extremely expensive self-publicity advertising campaign undertaken by the Haryana government at public expense.

Seeking a bar on the government from indulging in such a campaign, which is “morally and legally” wrong, Vijay Goel, party in charge of Haryana affairs, said the government had been announcing fresh schemes almost daily after the dissolution of the state Assembly.

In his letter, Goel said, “Every other day we find fresh schemes being announced by the Chief Minister which involves an expenditure of hardly Rs 2 to 3 crore annually. The state is hit by a severe drought, witnessing massive power cuts, law and order is crumbling, unemployment of youth in Haryana is rising and despite all this, the government that has already called for fresh election is claiming that Haryana is number one.”

Maintaining that the state-funded campaign individually lauds Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, he said it was virtually an election campaign of the ruling Congress party.

Criticising the Cabinet decision to allocate Rs 1 crore worth plots to all outgoing MLAs in Haryana at Rs 28 lakh in Panchkula, Goel said it would cause a straight loss of Rs 84 crore to the state apart from the loss of revenue in the form of stamp duty loss of around Rs 6 crore due to undervaluing. “This decision of the Haryana Cabinet is politically motivated with a clear intention of passing of financial benefits to people in the government or state apparatus and needs to be nullified by the Election Commission immediately,” he said.

Goel urged the ECI to seek a report from the state government, order an inquiry into plot allocation and announce the election programme so that the model code of conduct could be affected.

Karnal, August 30
The Assandh Assembly constituency in Karnal district, de-reserved after 32 years in the new delimitation, is virtually turning into a new battleground with political bigwigs, deprived of contesting the elections from here for three decades, all set to throw the hat into the ring.

The predominantly rural constituency with about 1.64 lakh electorate was reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidates in the last delimitation and several senior political leaders, who were curiously waiting for the constituency to be opened, have started staking claim to the ticket from here.

Further, some sitting MLAs and other leaders, whose constituencies had either been wiped off or their areas had been drastically altered, are also eying the Assandh seat.

Karnal district Congress president (rural) Surender Singh Narwal, first to stake his claim to the party ticket, claimed that he was a potential contender to the ticket from Assandh.

“I and my family are associated with the Congress since pre-independence days and no member of my family has ever lost any election,” he said while talking to mediapersons.

“My native village, block committee area and the zila parishad are located in the Assandh constituency that strengthens my claim,” he said, adding that several development works, including three important roads being constructed under Prime Minister Gramin Sadak Yojna, had been initiated by him.

A member of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC), Kamal Mann, organised a road show from Karnal to Ballah and addressed a series of public meetings, leaving no one in doubt that she is a potential contender for the Congress ticket. Mann ostensibly organised the road show to inform and remind the people about the policies, performance and achievements of the Hooda government but the message was loud and clear.

Addressing a rally at Ballah, Mann said she and her family had deep roots in Assandh and her only motive was to serve the people, solve their problems and ensure development of the area.

Another senior Congress leader Raghuveer Singh Virk, who is also in line for the ticket for the Assandh seat, claimed that setting up of lone sugar mill in Phaprana and a new court in Assandh were his major achievements. Virk is banking on support of Sikh voters in the constituency.

The name of Tajender Singh Mann, sitting MLA from Pie, whose constituency has been erased in the delimitation, and Shamsher Gogi, who recently quit the BSP to join the Congress again, were also being mentioned among the probable.

Rewari, August 30
Chairman of the Rewari Zila Parishad Satish Yadav has urged Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to order a CBI probe into the “Rewari tehsil office scandal” pertaining to the registration of sale deeds of 548 plots in utter “violation” of the blanket ban imposed on the execution of registry of such plots.

Furnishing documentary evidence at a press conference here today, he said while registry of 267 such plots, all lying outside the municipal precincts here and each plot measuring below 1,200 square yards, was executed by the sub-registrar-cum-tehsildar, the registry of 281 such other plots was affected by the joint sub-registrar-cum-naib tehsildar of Rewari from January1 to June 23.

Stating that the above information was supplied under the RTI Act, 2005, recently to petitioner Meeta Chhabra by the state public information officer-cum-tehsildar of Rewari, he asked how and why the registration of the above plots was executed when a blanket ban on the execution of all such registries had been in vogue for the past four years?

Yadav said involvement of the local minister, who held the revenue portfolio previously, in this huge scandal, as well as that of some big sharks could not be ruled out.

Ambala, August 30
A positive case of swine flu was reported in Ambala City yesterday. Civil Hospital doctors referred the case to the PGI, Chandigarh.

A family of the Durganagar area had gone to Maharashtra a fortnight ago. When they came back, they noticed swine flu-like symptoms in their four-month-old daughter. They took her to a private doctor, who advised them to get her examined at the Civil Hospital.

The hospital authorities sent samples of her throat and nasal swabs to the national laboratory in Delhi for tests. The hospital received the report of the sample yesterday. The report confirmed that the girl was suffering from swine flu. Doctors informed the matter to the parents of the girl and advised them to admit the girl to the Civil Hospital instead of keeping her in the house.

The girl was admitted to the isolation ward in the Civil Hospital at Ambala City. A team of doctors examined her today and referred her to the PGI.

According to hospital sources, over 10 samples of suspected swine flu cases have been sent to Delhi during the past one month, but the test report of only one of the samples had been received so far.

Sonepat, August 30
As many as 500 teachers of primary, middle, high and senior secondary schools, including principals and headmasters, were honoured on the occasion of the 40th foundation day of the Haryana Rajkiya Adyapak Sangh at a samman samaroh organised by the sangh here today.

Fourteen principals, 18 headmasters, 103 lecturers, 181 masters and 112 C&V teachers from Rai, Sonepat, Gannaur and Kharkhoda education blocks of the district were honoured for bringing out 100 per cent results in annual examinations - 2009.

The samaroh was presided over by district president Sanjiv Mor.

State press secretary of the sangh Satyapal Siwach and state secretary Krishan Kumar Nirman exhorted the teaching community to bring improvement in the quality of education in government schools.

Siwach said in a letter issued by the Finance Department on August 18, salaries of the teachers had been reduced. A deputation of the sangh met Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on August 24 and the CM assured to redress their grievances.

“We met the Chief Secretary also and are now waiting for the action to be taken by him,” he said, adding that a state-level meeting of the sangh had been convened in Rohtak on September 6 to decide the future course of action.

Rohtak, August 30
Even as the process of filling up teaching vacancies is in full swing, there are still some government schools in the district and elsewhere in Haryana where teachers have yet to get their salaries for the past several months. Among them are headmasters of about 27 middle schools who have been waiting to be paid since April.

“Though we have raised the matter with the authorities concerned it has yet not been resolved due to reasons unknown. Headmasters, who otherwise should be giving their full attention to their staff and students, have been a worried lot due to not receiving their salaries for the past several months”, said Anand Kumar Bangar, vice-president of the Headmasters’ Association of Haryana.

He said though the headmasters had been given drawing and disbursing powers, their work had almost come to a standstill due to paucity of funds.

Last year the state government sanctioned 377 posts of headmasters for middle and high schools, which came into existence last October. However, only about 27 posts have so far been filled up in various districts. These included ten in Rohtak, 9 in Jhajjar, 3 in Mahendergarh, two each in Karnal and Jind and one in Fatehabad.

According to a spokesman of the association, till March this year the new headmasters’ salaries were paid from the non-Plan budget but, as no funds were released in the new budget (2009-10), their salaries could not be paid since April. Though the matter had been taken up with senior officials of the state school education department, no funds had been released despite several assurances, the spokesman added.

Among the schools in Rohtak district whose headmasters have been affected are Government Middle School, Sector 3, Janata Colony, Sampla Mandi, Makrauli Kalan, Singhpura, Nigana, Farmana Bhadshahpur, Baini Surjan, Lahli and Indergarh villages. The association has sought immediate intervention by the chief minister to resolve the matter.

Chandigarh, August 30
Sushama V Dabak has taken over as Principal Accountant-General (Audit), Haryana. She is an Indian Audit and Accounts Service Officer of the 1981 batch.

She will exercise audit jurisdiction over all offices of the Haryana government, its boards and corporations, panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies. Besides, government offices, autonomous bodies of the central government situated in Haryana will also fall under her jurisdiction.

Rohtak, August 30
Alleging a threat to his life from extortionists, a doctor here has been running from pillar to post to seek protection for him and his family, but in vain.

In a statement issued here recently, Dr Sanjiv Kumar Singla, who runs a private hospital near the local Sheila Bypass Chowk, alleged that he and his family members, including his two brothers, one of whom owns a chemist shop in the same area, had been threatened with dire consequences and attacked thrice in the past few weeks.

An attempt to kidnap him had also been made on August 4 by some criminals, who had been allegedly operating an extortion racket.

He said they had asked him to pay Rs 2 lakh or face dire consequences.

He said while he had met the SP on August 5 and had lodged a complaint with the Model Town police station, the accused again assaulted his younger brother, Dr Rajesh, an ayurvedic practitioner, and left him injured on August 6, just 48 hours after the first attack.

The incident was reported to the police post in Sector 4 here and it is learnt that one person was arrested, but was bailed out after a couple of days. The same accused had been threatening him and his family again.

He alleged that two youths - Ashok and Salwinder, both residents of the Kishanpura locality, had been threatening them and were “responsible” for the attacks and had been named in the complaint.

Chandigarh, August 30
The Haryana government has launched a new scheme, the Annusuchit Jati Chattra Ucch Shiksha Protsahan Yojana, to support the higher education of 5,000 girls belonging to the Scheduled Castes from this financial year.

The government has also expanded the scope of the Dr Ambedkar Medhavi Chhatara Yojna to cover 25,100 students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and backward classes.

This was stated yesterday by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Fatehabad, August 30
Two persons were killed and six others injured in an accident involving three vehicles near Kharakheri village here today.

The deceased have been identified as Gurcharan Dass, a resident of Budhlada town, and Pardeep, a resident of Kharakheri.

According to police sources, the accident took place when the driver of a jeep carrying passengers towards Fatehabad suddenly applied brakes.

The driver of a truck, which was following the jeep, could not react sharply and hit the jeep on the side and later collided with a Santro coming from the opposite direction.

The car went under the truck and Gurcharan Dass, who was driving the car, died on the spot. His son Ajay and the other person travelling with them were seriously injured.

Five persons travelling in the jeep were also injured and one of them, Pardeep, later succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.

The police had registered an FIR on the complaint of Ajay, said SHO Kapil Sihag.