New Delhi, September 19
The Bharatiya Janata Party announced its first list of 55 candidates for the Haryana assembly polls here today, setting to rest all speculations about some last- minute electoral understanding with Bhajan Lal-led Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC).

The full complement of the CEC met here this evening under party president Rajnath Singh. Leader of the Opposition LK Advani was also present on the occasion.

The CEC discussed list of candidates for Haryana and Maharashtra.

In the first list for Haryana, the party has nominated four defectors - Santosh Yadav from Ateli, Anju Chhinkar from Samalkha, Azad Singh Nehra from Ganaur and Mewa Singh from Ladwa.

Curiously, of the three women named by the BJP, only Renu Sharma is from the party. Other two are both defectors, which points towards the scarcity of eligible women candidates in Haryana.

The party has also set up four former ministers, including sitting BJP state president Kishnapal Singh Gurjar from Tigaon, Ram Bilas Sharma from Mahendragrah, Narsingh Dhanda from Kalayat and Balbir Singh Saini from Pehowa.

Incidentally all four lost in the 2004 assembly elections.

Announcing the list, BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar, accompanied by the other general secretary Vijay Goel, who holds charge of Haryana, and Haryana BJP president Kishanpal Singh Gurjar, claimed that the average age of all its candidates was below 50 albeit above 40.

The decision demonstrates that the BJP was working towards generational change, which was emphasised recently by the RSS.

Goel, on his part, claimed that the BJP has tried its best to accommodate all sections of society.

He hoped that the names of all 90 candidates would be decided within the next few days.

Ambala, September 19
Haryana Janhit Congress candidate from the Ambala City constituency Puran Prakash Saini filed his nomination papers here today. His wife Alka Saini filed her nomination as a covering candidate.

Party supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi was also present on the occasion. No other nomination was filed from Ambala Cantt, Mullana and Naraingarh constituency of the district today.

Bishnoi also inaugurated the election office of Saini. Later, he went to Naraingarh to address a party workers’ meeting. Talking to mediapersons here, Bishnoi said the second list of the party candidates would be announced within a day or two. He said 26 candidates, whose names had already been declared, would not be changed at any cost.

He said the HJC would field candidates from all 90 constituencies. He added that the HJC would field a candidate from the Kalka constituency even if Chander Mohan was allotted the Congress ticket.

He further said he was thinking of fielding Seema Bishnoi, wife of Chander Mohan, as she was the member of his family.

BHIWANI: Four Independent candidates on Saturday filed their nominations in Loharu, Dadri and the Bhiwani Assembly constituencies on the second day of filing of the nominations in six Assembly constituencies of Bhiwani district.

Those who filed nominations include Pilot Sandeep Arya and Sadhu Ram, a resident of Khera village, from the Loharu Assembly constituency, Dr Puran Mal Sharma from the Dadri seat and Verender from Bhiwani.

FARIDABAD: Shashi Balal Tewatia of the INLD on Saturday filed her nomination papers from the newly created Prithla Assembly constituency. She filed her papers before the General Manager, Haryana Roadways, Ballabgarh, who is the Returning Officer concerned. Bala is an educationist and had remained the chairperson of the Haryana Red Cross Society during the tenure of the INLD government

Gurgaon: Two Independent candidates filed their nominations on Saturday. While Bir Singh (39) of New Palam Vihar filed from 76-Badshahpur assembly segment, Swarup Singh (51) filed his nomination from 77-Gurgaon assembly segment.

KARNAL: Two nominations were filed from Karnal and Nilokheri Assembly constituencies here on Saturday. Mamu Ram of the INLD filed papers from the Nilokheri seat while Sushil Kumar (Independent) filed the nomination from Karnal.

Chandigarh, September 19
Amidst growing talks of an alliance between the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the former released its second list of the Vidhan Sabha nominees for 32 more seats, taking the total declared seats tally to 74.

Releasing the list of nominees at a press conference here today, INLD secretary general and Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Singh Chautala announced that Yograj Singh, father of cricketer Yuvraj Singh, would be the party nominee from Panchkula.

He disclosed that INLD chief and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala would contest from the Ellenabad Assembly segment besides the Uchana Assembly segment while former MLA Balwant Singh Sadhaura from Sadhaura and former chief parliamentary secretary Rampal Majra will contest from Kalayat. Chautala announced that Kaithal district INLD president Kailash Bhagat would be the INLD nominee from Kaithal while Rajbir Singh, son of former minister Rissal Singh, would contest from Mullana. Two more women candidates, Hisar district women wing president Saroj Mor (Narnaund) and former mayor Anita Goswami (Ballabhgarh), have made it to the second list.

Former minister Mohammed Illiyas will be the INLD nominee from Punhana while former MLA Om Prakash Beri will be nominee from Beri. Chautala added that the final list would be announced soon. It is being contemplated that the INLD will give a majority of the remaining 16 seats to the SAD if the alliance can be worked out.

Addressing mediapersons, Yograj said his entry into politics had been inspired by Chaudhary Devi Lal. “Recently, I stayed in Sirsa with the Chautalas. Both Ajay and Abhey desired that I should contest as INLD candidate. It is my privilege that I am associated to a great family,” he said.

New Delhi, September 19
The Congress Central Election Committee will meet tomorrow to discuss the possible names of candidates for the Haryana Assembly elections.

The state election screening committee headed by Mohsina Kidwai will submit its report on candidates to the CEC tomorrow and the same will be discussed, said a senior functionary, who is associated with the process.

The screening committee will have a final list ready and the central leadership will make adjustments if needed. The party is expected to announce the tickets in phases.

Rohtak, September 19
The police today arrested two persons in the case of Kabulpur killings in which seven members of a family were found murdered on September 14. One of the alleged accused has been identified as Sonam (19), a member of the family who had escaped death on the fateful night. She was found in a semiconscious state in her house on September 15.

The girl, who had been admitted in the PGIMS here, had been maintaining stoic silence over the incident and did not utter anything to mediapersons, who had tried to get her version about the incident.

District Police Chief Anil Kumar Rao said the investigation into the matter had revealed that Naveen Dagar (20), boyfriend of the girl, had allegedly murdered the family members with the help of the girl, who had allegedly laced the food with a sedative so as to ensure that everyone in the house was unconscious. Later, she called her boyfriend to strangle them to death.

The couple reportedly committed the crime as the girl's parents were against their relationship as the boy, a resident of the same village, belonged to the same gotra. According to the police, the girl, had an affair with Naveen, son of Kapoor Singh, a neighbour.

The girl's parents, however, enrolled the girl in a college in Rohtak in 2008 and left her in the hostel hoping that she would forget the boy. However, Naveen too shifted to Rohtak to pursue a computer course.

They reportedly got secretly married on September 3, 2008. However, when this matter got revealed, the girl's parents discontinued her studies and withdrew her from college.The girl's mother had also lodged a complaint with the family of the boy about this development and demanded an action against the boy.

The SSP said the couple hatched a conspiracy to eliminate the girl's parents and grandmother whom they saw as barrier in their relationship.

Naveen brought the sedatives from a shop in the village. The girl who used to cook meals for the family mixed it in the flour and in the milk. The girl along with her boyfriend first strangled her parents, grandparents and then the children. Then they stole valuables and cash from the house to mislead the police by projecting it as a robbery case.

Later, the girl consumed some milk and went to the washroom, where she fell unconscious and Naveen went to Chhara village of Jhajjar. The boy has also been nabbed by the police.

Sirsa, September 19
Going by the records, women from almost every strata of society have been victims of domestic violence in one form or the other in Sirsa district.

Among the 165 women who have filed complaints at the office of Protection Officer (PO) appointed under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, in the last six months or so there are officers, professionals, teachers, housewives and even those having live-in relationships. The type of violence in these cases ranges from physical and emotional to the economic.

"I have received 165 complaints under the Act since March 2009, when the office was set up here. Out of these, 54 cases have been disposed after compromise; court cases have been filed in 30 cases as no compromise could be reached and the rest are pending," said Sadhna Mittal, Protection Officer for Sirsa district under the Act.

Among the complainants are a class I lady officer, wife of a senior Army officer, teachers, nurses, housewives and also a woman having an 11-year-old live-in relation.

In one of the cases, a woman, within two months of her marriage with a person working in a private company, has complained of unnatural sexual conduct of her husband due to which she suffered severe medical problems. In another case, a woman, after a long live-in relation, was thrown out by her partner.

However, she was provided maintenance allowance for her two children by a local court on the basis of domestic incident report (DIR) filed by the Protection Officer.

Jind, September 19
The police has arrested a former District Food and Supply Controller(DFSC) of the district in connection with a “rice mill scam” of about Rs 2.75 crore during the present financial year.

The official of the Food and Supply Department had reportedly been placed under suspension after he went absconding and did not attend the police investigation following registration of a case against him and two others in connection with the scam.

The accused official identified as Hansraj Bhadu, who had been posted as the DFSC at Jind a few months back was booked by the police at Narwana on May 25, 2009, in connection with alleged irregularities in connection with the allotment of a milling contract to a rice mill located at Narwana town.

It is alleged that the authorities concerned did not ensure the recovery of the required amount of shelled rice against the quota of paddy given for providing the prepared commodity. The mill was given about 13,236 tonne of paddy for milling against about an allotted quantity of 5,000 tonne. The mill, which was expected to give back milled rice of the required quantity did not do so which led to a loss of Rs 2.79 crore a probe conducted by the authorities concerned said.

A case has been registered on a complaint lodged by the Financial Commissioner of the state against four persons, including the DFSC and the rice mill owner in this connection. It is learnt that the DFSC, who had been absconding since then was also suspended by the authorities.

The police arrested him yesterday. He was produced in the local court, which remanded him to judical custody. The police has already arrested the other accused of the case, including the mill owner and two other persons.

Sonepat, September 19
Dr NS Saxena, director general, NTPI, Faridabad, has stressed the need for environment friendly solutions like energy conservation and widespread use of renewal of energy to combat climate change. He delivered a lecture on “Power engineering solutions to combat climate changes” at the 42nd Engineering Day celebrations at Deenbandhu Chhoturam University of Science and Technology, Murthal.

He said the energy production grown must improve by 10 to 11 per cent. New resources include wind energy and solar power. Solar thermal power could also be used as it was more efficient. Ocean algae could also yield power. Vice-chancellor HS Chahal expressed concern over the ever increasing gap between the demand and supply of the power. He stressed the need of green energy by cutting down consumption and finding alternatives to electrical energy usage.

Dr SK Gupta, professor, electrical engineering department, described the scope of sharing knowledge and resources of the university with the NPTI.

Karnal, September 19
The Sessions Judge Vinod Jain today convicted three accused in a murder case and sentenced them to life imprisonment. He also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each on them.

In case of default of payment of fine, the convicted persons will have to undergo an additional imprisonment of three years.

An FIR was lodged against the accused on December 28, 2007. Later, a case was registered under Section 302 of the IPC read with Section 34.

As per the prosecution, the convicts, Pradeep and Kuldeep, residents of Hisar, and Vijay Kumar, a resident of Sonepat, had approached taxi driver Pawan Kumar for hiring a taxi.

However, Pawan refused to go with them, following which a heated argument took place and one of them fired on Pawan, injuring him critically.

The accused fled the spot, but one of them was later caught by the people and handed over to the police.

Pawan was immediately rushed to the trauma centre at the Civil Hospital, Karnal, where he succumbed to his injuries.