Chandrao (Karnal), September 12
Chandrao village was marooned and over 12 villages in Karnal district remained submerged in water today even as the water in the Yamuna has begun to recede.

Life was almost paralysed in the Nagli Nabibabad, Sayeed Chhapra, Shergarh Tapu, Mundigarhi, Behlolpur, Devipur, Nasipur, Mustafabad, Peer Badli and Gorhpur Tapu villages with vehicular movement coming to a halt.Those on foot had to wade through knee-deep water.

Residents of the worst affected villages of Chandrao, Hansumajara, Khukhani and Chowgaon held a mahapanchayat and gave a call for boycott of assembly elections.

The SDM of Indri, Satbir Singh, tried to persuade the villagers not to do so, but the mahapanchayat refused to relent.

The angry residents alleged that the villages had been facing the fury of flash floods every year, but the government had neither taken steps to solve the problem nor given any relief.

“Every year, the patwari visits the villages, conducts a special girdawari to assess losses and goes back only to return the next year for a similar exercise,” said a fumimg Ishwar Singh.

Eightyfive-year-old Rashid Ahmed of Gorhpur Tapu village was distresed that his standing crop had been badly damaged. The Mahapanchayat lasted about four hours. The speakers lashed out at the government for turning a blind eye to the miseries of the people.

“We have no jobs or any other source of earning and if the government does not provide us relief for loss of crop, how will we subsist,” asked the village leaders.

“Due to the dry spell earlier, crops in some areas withered away and now the floods have damaged the standing crop too,” rued a resident of Hansumajara.

Chandrao village is marooned with road link to the village snapped. A dozen more villages, including Ghari Birbal village, are under 2ft to 3 ft of water. The flood water is yet to be drained out.

Meanwhile, the discharge of water receded to 56,000 cusecs at Karnal today. Irrigation and public health department officials heaved a sigh of relief with some respite from rains today.

The officials are keeping a close watch on the embankments along the river to ensure no damage has been done by the receding waters.

Chandigarh, September 12
The Yamuna is spilling over. After bringing misery to 50-odd villages of Yamunanagar over the past couple of days, the danger of flood now looms large in at least four districts of Haryana over the next 24 hours as the water level in the Yamuna continues to rise.

Over the next three days, this excess water in the Yamuna is likely to pose a flood threat to Delhi too.

Sources in the Agriculture Department declared a “mini flood” in Yamunanagar as the water level of the Yamuna crossed the 88,000 cusec mark. By the evening, the situation seemed graver with the water level rising to 2 lakh cusecs.

“If the water level goes beyond 2.5 lakh cusecs, it is a flood situation. The water level is continuing to rise in the Yamuna following the release of excess water from the Hathnikund barrage, which in turn is being fed with water from the rain in its catchment areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand,” an official said.

Even as the rainfall claimed two lives in the district today, that of a two-year-old girl and a 28-year-old man, the sources added that the immediate danger of the rising water level could result in a flood in Yamunanagar, Karnal, Sonepat and Panipat where the district administration has already sounded an alert. The incessant rain over the past four days has wreaked havoc with crops on hundreds of acres getting damaged after over 50 villages of Bilaspur, Chhachhroli, Khijrabad, Radhaur and Jatlana were submerged due to the overflow of the Yamuna and seasonal rivulets passing through the district.

While the Yamuna has caused damage in villages falling under the Chhachhroli and Khijrabad areas, the Chetang seasonal rivulet has hit villages in the Sadhaura area and the Som in the Bilaspur area.

A number of villages have been “disconnected” following the downpour. In view the threat due to the in-spate Yamuna, Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar Agarwal and SDM Harish Chand Jain visited the Bilaspur, Jagadhri and Chhachhroli areas to access the damage and monitor the flood-control arrangements. While paddy has been completely submerged in Gumthala, Sandhali, Sandhala, Lapra, Bharoki, Lal Chhapar, Jatlana, Kajewala, Habidpur, Chehadwal, Jehdhar, Dadupur, Bhulkeri, Marau and Nanadgarh villages, incidents of wall and roof collapse were reported from Saduar, Bilaspur and Chhachhroli.

In Ambala too, a 30-foot breach in the Tangri river was reported from Tharuamajri village late last night.

The breach was sealed this evening. The biggest cause of worry for the fifth day continued to be the SYL canal where patrolling has been intensified even as the water level continued to be high.

After a prolonged dry spell and deficient monsoon rains, Karnal received a record 220 mm of rain, the highest in the past four years. As many as 16 low-lying villages and four colonies in urban areas were submerged.

Floods threatened Bharoma, Nangalpar, Budanpur, Bilaspur, Goela Khurd, Tamsabad, Goela Kalan, Rana Majara, Sonali Khurd, Jalmana and Rakshera villages in Panipat district. Several hectares of cultivated lands were submerged in water and standing crops were damaged as the Nardhak canal breached near Papharana, flooding vast areas. SDO (Irrigation) Rajkumar said the Nardhak canal was closed yesterday but an abnormal rise in the water level due to heavy rain caused the breach, damaging crops.

Reports of waterlogging due to heavy rain were received from Bhiwani and Rohtak as well.

While Bhiwani Deputy Commissioner Vikas Gupta said the administration was prepared to deal with any eventuality, the Public Health Department authorities had been asked asked to set up five additional water pumps at the old bus stand, the Naya Bazar street and the Old Housing Board and Dhana roads, where waterlogging was a chronic problem.

Tractor pumps had also been pressed into service at Rohtak Gate, Agarsain Chowk and Vikas Nagar.

In Rohtak, which received about 210 mm of water in the past 48 hours, the rain came as a grim reminder of the floods that had hit the town in 1995.

However, an improved drainage system in the city and a “break” in the rain saved the day for the administration.

(Inputs from Kirandeep, Amrita Dhaliwal, Bhanu P Lohumi, Shiv Sharma and Bijendra Ahlawat)

Sirsa, September 12
The cotton ginning industry in Sirsa, the cotton bowl of Haryana, is happy at the recent moderate rain in this part of Haryana and hopes this will brighten the prospects of better crops this year.

Sirsa counts for about 40 per cent of the total production of cotton and while many parts of the state have witnessed heavy rain during the past two days, Sirsa and Fatehabad, the two districts known for better producers of cotton in Haryana, have witnessed moderate rain, 47 mm in the past two days.

“The rain is beneficial for the cotton crop as we can expect ‘cotton-picking’ till the middle of November.

Fresh flowering on cotton plants after the rain will certainly increase the production of cotton in the area,” maintained Sushil Mittal, president of the Haryana Cotton Ginning Industries, who runs Aditya Cotton Industry in the town.

He said the only problem for the cotton industry was that the arrival of the crop would be delayed by seven to 10 days now, but it not a big issue.

“The initial estimates of the government about production of 45 lakh bales of cotton from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan were later revised to 40 lakh bales after the drought situation.

Now, we hope the production will be somewhere between the old and the new estimates,” Mittal maintained.

Sirsa, September 12
The forthcoming elections of Haryana Vidhan Sabha-2009 being contested as per the territorial Assembly constituencies determined by the Delimitation Commission, a majority of people and in some cases, even the prospective candidates of various political parties, are not well versed with the areas falling under their Assembly segments.

A number of changes in the names and profiles of Assembly seats have been witnessed after delimitation. Sirsa district retained its five Assembly seats after the delimitation, although two of its constituencies Rori and Darba Kalan have been abolished, two new segments Rania and Kalawali (Reserve) have been added and Dabwali and Ellenabad, which were reserved for Schedule Castes earlier, have been made open in the delimitation.

Fatehabad has lost the Bhattu Kalan Assembly seat and is left with only three seats of Ratia (Reserve), Tohana and Fatehabad. According to information received from official sources, the 42-Kalanwali (SC) will now include patwar circles (PCs) of Chattargarh, Bharokhan, Nejadela Kalan, Vaidwala, Farwain, Khairekan, Panihari-I and II, Meerpur of Sirsa, kannongo circles (KC).

The KCs Bara Gudha, Sikanderpur, Lakkarwali, Rori, Kalanwali and Kalanwali (Municipal Committee) of Sirsa Tehsil are also included in the Kalanwali (Reserved) seat.

Kalanwali (Reserved) has been carved out as a new constituency in delimitation. The 43-Dabwali Assembly seat includes the whole of Dabwali Tehsil.

The 44-Rania Assembly segment of Sirsa, again a newly carved out assembly segment, includes the PCs Mangala-I and II, Bhamboor, Jhorarnali-I and II, Moujdin of Madhosinghana KC, KC Panjuana of Sirsa Tehsil and Rania Tehsil.

The 45-Sirsa Assembly constituency includes, KCs Shahpur Begu and Ding, PCs Sirsa (Rural) of Sirsa KC and Sirsa (Municipal Council) of Sirsa Tehsil.The 46-Ellenabad Assembly seat has in it the PCs Madhosinghana-I and II, Mallekan-I and II of Madhosinghana KC, KCs Nathusari Kalan, Chaharwala and Jamal of Sirsa Tehsil and the whole of Ellenabad Tehsil.

Among the three Assembly seats of Fatehabad district, the 39-Tohana Assembly seat includes Tohana Tehsil and KC Nadhori of Fatehabad Tehsil.

The 40-Fatehabad Assembly seat has in it the PCs of Dhingsara-I and II, Bangram, Gilan Khera, Bodiwali-I and Bodiwali- II of Dhingsara KC, PCs Dhangar-I and II, Mohammadpur Rohi and Khajuri Jatti of Dhangar KC, KCs Badopal, Bhattu Kalan, Dhabi Kalan and Bhuna, PCs Fatehabad-I and II, Basti Bhiwan-I and II and Majra of Fatehabad KC and Fatehabad (Municipal Council) of Fatehabad Tehsil. The 41-Ratia (Reserve) includes Ratia Tehsil; PCs of Daryapur, Khariati Khera, Kukranwali and Manawali of Dhingsara KC, KC Hirjawan Kalan, PCs Bhuthan Kalan-I and II, Bhirdana-I, II and III of Dhangar KC, PCs Dhir, Ayalki-I and II, Phull & Bhodia Khera of Fatehabad KC of Fatehabad Tehsil.

Interestingly, some of the areas falling under the Ratia (Reserve) Assembly segment, particularly the Fatehabad. KC of Fatehabad tehsil are too close to Fatehabad town. It is to be seen if the exercise will have any impact on the outcome of the assembly elections scheduled for October 13.

Jind, September 12
Jind is perhaps one of the few districts in the state where polling stations in 80 villages and towns have been identified as sensitive. The administration has announced imposition of Section 144 from today to check any development that could disrupt the smooth conduct of the October 13 assembly elections, said Deputy Commissioner M Shahin here today.

He said adequate number of security personnel would be deployed at these sensitive booths in each of the villages and towns. He said among the sensitive places were Digana, Shamlo Kalan, Lijwana Kalan, Pauli, Gadwali Khera, Bakhta, Malwi, Htawala, Dhimana, Bibipur, Julana, Karela, Gatauli, Kila Zafar garh, Karsola, Jhamola, Desh Khera, Pokar Kheri and Igrah villages of the Julana assembly segment where several booths had been found sensitive.

As many as 15 places in the Safidon constituency, including the main Safidon town and 14 other villages i, Haat, Muana, Didwara, Sindhana, Bidtana, Pillukhera, Kharakgadian, Bhurayan, Daroli, Dadrath, Anchrakalan, Kalwa and Budhakhera, are on the list.

At least 24 villages of the Uchana Kalan assembly segment which is likely to witness a tough battle in all probability between the Finance Minister and Congress candidate Birender Singh.

Polling stations in the constituency of ormer Chief Minister and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala have been declared ‘sensitive’ and ‘very sensitive’ as well.

Some parts of Jind city and five villages in the Jind constituency have been marked ‘sensitive’ and so have 20 places in the Narwana Assembly segment, said district officials.

Rohtak, September 12
The Haryana unit of the CPM has announced to field 11 nominees in the state for the Assembly poll, scheduled for October 13. Party secretary Inderjit Singh announced the names of the nominees and their seats here today.

The seats and the nominees are as follows: Sirsa - Balbir Kaur; Fatehabad - Ram Swaroop; Ratia (SC) - Bira Ram; Barwala - Suresh Kumar; Loharu - Dayanand Punia; Kalanaur (SC) - Bijender Singh; Julana - Ramesh Chander; Samalkha - Sunil Dutt; Asandh - Master Baljit Singh; Guhla (SC) - Randhir Singh Sathi; and Panchkula - Mehar Chand Goyal.

Meanwhile, the CPI has also decided to field its candidates from eight seats - Sadhaura, Shahbad, Indri, Israna, Narwana, Tohana, Rania and NIT (Faridabad).

The party will announce the names of the nominees soon, according to sources in the party.

Chandigarh, September 12
Haryana has welcomed the Union government’s decision to revert to the system of having a Chief Commissioner for administering the union territory of Chandigarh from November 16. In fact, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had been writing repeatedly to the Centre that the practice of appointing the Punjab Governor as the administrator of Chandigarh should be dispensed with because the situation under which the system was introduced in the mid-eighties did not exist any more.

The demand was first raised by Hooda about two years ago when he wrote a letter to the Union Home Minister on the issue. Hooda had said if the Centre wanted to continue with the practice of appointing the Governor as the administrator of Chandigarh, then it should be on the rotational basis between Punjab and Haryana. His argument was that since Chandigarh was the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, its administration should be under the control of the Governors of the two states alternatively. Hooda reiterated his demand about two months ago also when he again wrote to the Centre.

Hisar, September 12
Non-teaching employees of aided private colleges of Haryana will stage a demonstration at Uchana on September 27 in protest against the decision of Finance Minister Birender Singh and Financial Commissioner (Finance), Haryana, granting them new scales from January 2009 instead of 2006.

Surinder Kadian, convener of the Haryana Private Colleges Non-Teaching Employees Union, today sent a letter to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in which he stated that as per the official record, the CM office had approved grant of scales from 2006. The Education Department also issued orders as desired by the Chief Minister.

However, when the file reached the Finance Ministry, Financial Commissioner (Finance) AM Sharan defied the Chief Minister’s directive and ordered that new scales be given from January 2009. Finance Minister Birender Singh also approved the proposal put up by the Financial Commissioner.

Kadian said this was a clear attempt to malign the image of the Chief Minister at this crucial juncture when the state was going to the polls next month.

He said non-teaching staff of aided colleges had always been granted new scales with retrospective effect from the date these were given to government employees. He said this was the first time that the government was denying them three years’ arrears without any justification.

Gurgaon, September 12
Gurgaon Police Commissioner SS Deswal said here yesterday that the driving licences of habitual traffic-rule violators would be cancelled and their photographs put on the police website. He said this while addressing a press conference here. Deswal also issued press identity cards to correspondents of the district.

To a query, he maintained that traffic management was the top priority of the Gurgaon police. “The Gurgaon police has identified nearly 300 traffic-rule violators so far,” he said, adding that the police would recommend cancellation of the driving licences of those who violated traffic rules and regulations for three or more times.

The Police Commissioner observed that schoolchildren were often seen riding motorcycles or scooters. He said the Gurgaon police had launched an awareness drive for such students and their parents as well as teachers. “For this, we have deployed two special vehicles with dedicated teams, each headed by a non-gazetted police officer,” he maintained.

Deswal said in order to ease the Gurgaon roads of traffic congestion, meetings were being held with representatives of the Gurgaon Industrial Association, the CII and NASCOM for persuading them to space out the office timings. He said it had been noticed that the problem of traffic jams was more acute during the opening and closing hours of offices. “Hence, if the office timings are spaced out, the problem can be sorted out,” he asserted.

The commissioner disclosed that 25 traffic management groups would be formed in the district as part of community policing. He said besides enforcing traffic rules, the infrastructure like roads needed to be improved for the smooth flow of traffic. He said the Gurgaon police had submitted its suggestions like construction of overbridges, underpasses, and multi-level parkings at various places in the city.

DCP (Traffic) Satender Gupta gave a presentation on the occasion. He revealed that the traffic police in Gurgaon had been divided into three parts - east, west and highways. As many as 15 zonal officers were deputed on these.

He said the Gurgaon police had launched a drive against drunken driving and more than 5,000 challans had been issued during this year.

He claimed that due to the road safety initiatives, the number of accidental deaths in Gurgaon had come down by 20 per cent this year as compared to last year. Gupta said about 300 challans were processed daily, as a result of which a fine, totalling Rs 1.25 lakh to Rs 1.50 lakh, was collected daily.

Karnal, September 12
The Karnal police has booked 12 persons for allegedly duping a youth, Baldeva of Dadupur Rodan, of Rs 19 lakh on the pretext of sending him to the US. The accused allegedly took money in 2004 but neither sent him to the US nor returned the money. The case was registered on the directions of the court.

The accused are Ashok, his wife Neelam, Vinod, Balwan, Pala Ram, Sagga, Prakash, Prabhu, Sabir, Assif and Shilva from Tamil Nadu and Malveen from Mumbai.

The complainant also alleged that the accused were threatening to kill him. The police has registered a case of cheating and fraud under Sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 471, 506 and 120-B of the IPC. However, no arrests have been made so far.

In another case, Baldeva of Kaithal Kachhana village alleged that his wife Kamla was receiving widow pension by conniving with some persons though he was alive. Kamla had been deserted by Baldeva, but she allegedly managed to get a fake widow certificate, the complainant alleged.