Chandigarh, September 25
The last list of five candidates cleared by the Congress high command early this morning, the last day for filing of nomination papers, bore the stamp of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The candidature of these leaders was being vehemently opposed by Hooda’s detractors.

Haryana Minister of State for Tourism and Forest Kiran Choudhry, whose daughter Shruti represents the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency, did not want Chief Parliamentary Secretary Dharambir Singh, Parliamentary Secretary Dan Singh, former BCCI President Ranbir Mahendra and Radhey Shyam Sharma, Independent MLA from Narnaul, who later joined the Congress, to be renominated. The assembly segments of these leaders fall in the Bhiwani-Mahendgarh Lok Sabha constituency.

Hooda was equally determined on their renomination. The high command preferred to delay the final decision on their candidature.While Hooda succeeded in getting the Congress ticket for his men, Kiran succeeded in seeing her bete noire Dharambir Singh out of Bhiwani district.

Dharambir Singh has got the ticket from Sohna in Gurgaon district. His assembly seat, Badhra, has been given to Mahendra, whose constituency, Mundhal, was abolished in the delimitation exercise. Dan Singh has been renominated from Mahendragarh while Sharma will contest from the newly formed constituency of Nangal Choudhry.

Similarly, Local Bodies Minister AC Choudhary, who had raised a banner of revolt during the Lok Sabha elections, has been renominated from Faridabad. In view of his conduct during the Lok Sabha elections, it was widely expected that he would be denied the ticket this time.

Congress MP from Faridabad Avtar Singh Badhana, who joined the ranks of Hooda’s detractors, had demanded that ticket be denied to Choudhary, Karan Singh Dalal and Mahendra Pratap Singh. While Hooda was able to get the ticket for Dalal and Mahendra Pratap earlier, in the case of Choudhary, he did find the going difficult.

The delay in finalising the Congress ticket has given the Opposition, particularly the INLD, space to surge ahead in campaigning. But general secretary of the media cell of the Haryana Congress Lakhwinder Singh Lakha said the delay was deliberate. The Opposition parties, which did not have their own candidates, had been waiting for the Congress list so that they could allot the ticket to possible rebels. By delaying the list, the Congress had denied this advantage to the Opposition, he claimed.

Tohana (Fatehabad), September 25
Five armed miscreants today decamped with over Rs 30 lakh from the local branch of the State Bank of Patiala situated on the Railway road by holding employees and customers as hostages at gunpoint.

The miscreants came to the bank at 3.15 pm when the employees had started arriving after the lunch break.

According to bank officials, one of the miscreants entered the bank by telling the guard that he wanted a cheque deposit form and snatched his gun by placing a pistol on his neck.

Meanwhile, four armed youths entered the bank and asked all employees and customers to hand over their mobile phones and sit on the ground.

The miscreants then went to manager Gulab Singh’s cabin and asked him to hand over the cash lying in the bank.

They also disconnected the landline telephone of the bank. The manager told them that cashier Simran Bhatia had not returned after the lunch break.

While the miscreants were arguing with the manager, the cashier arrived and was immediately overpowered by the men. They forced him to hand over the money lying in the chest as well as in the strongroom.

The miscreants also damaged the CCTV cameras. The miscreants escaped with the booty after locking all employees and customers inside the bank. The miscreants threw the mobile phones snatched outside the bank building.

SP CS Rao, SHO Bimla Devi and other police officers reached there within minutes and ordered the sealing of all routes of escape.

According to eyewitnesses, four of the accused were wearing turbans, while one had a French beard. 

Sirsa, September 25
The three-day zonal youth festival of Kurukshetra University began in JCD Vidyapeeth here today.

Editor, Dainik Tribune, Naresh Kaushal inaugurated the cultural extravaganza, in which over 300 students from 45 colleges of Sirsa and Fatehabad districts and Narwana sub-division of Jind district are participating.

Addressing participants and teachers, Kaushal observed that while Haryana had a very rich cultural heritage, factors like Taliban-like diktats of khap panchayats, gender discrimination and female foeticide had become a slur on society.

Kaushal said women in many parts in Haryanvi rural society had been performing the dual job of home keeping as well as working on fields and taking care of animals, while men idle out enjoying hookah and playing cards.

He said women should again take the lead and come out against social evils as they were the worst sufferers.

A wide variety of cultural items were presented on the occasion.

Jind, September 25
The INLD-SAD launched their election campaign here today with a blistering attack on the Congress government.The Samman Divas Samaroh to mark the 96th birth anniversary of Chaudhary Devi Lal turned into a massive election rally with all speakers joining the “oust Congress” chorus.

The rally, addressed by Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal, Rajya Sabha member Tarlochan Singh, Lok Janshakti Party leader Sangpriya Gautam and Bihar minister Ram Kumar Thakur, son of former Bihar CM Karpoori Thakur, was much bigger than the BSP rally of Mayawati here last week.

It was a sea of humanity with the huge pandal packed to capacity and people pouring in till the end of the rally and even lining up along roads.

Enthused by the gathering, Badal said if the turnout at the rally was any indication, the people “have already made up their mind to vote the INLD to power.”

Badal declared that all Akali ministers, MLAs and workers would vigorously campaign for the INLD candidates till the day of polling to ensure that the party repeated its feat of 1987 when it won 85 of the 90 seats. Comparing Devi Lal with leaders like Lincoln, Gandhi, Mandela and Jai Prakash Narayan, Badal said he had sacrificed the post of Prime Minister in 1989 for VP Singh.

Badal said poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and inflation were the result of the Congress rule.“Aapko desh ka vasta, is bar ghalti mat karna,” he appealed to the electorate

.Om Prakash Chautala dubbed the Congress as a triple- edged sword that had injured farmers, workers and the common man alike.

He alleged that the Congress government had imported “rotten” foodgrains for “commission.”Lashing out at the UPA government for the Rs 1080 per quintal MSP when the production cost as evaluated by experts was Rs 1250, Chautala announced Rs 1400 MSP if his party was returned to power.

Chautala promised to increase the honorarium for the elderly by Rs 100 per year and said that it would become more than Rs 1200 per month after the INLD government was formed.

He also announced 25 kg of free foodgrain to all BPL families every month and subsidised wheat at the rate of Rs 700 per quintal to other poor sections.In an attempt to woo the youth and SCs, Chautala said that eligibility test for teachers would be done away with while the backlog of reserved posts in the government would be cleared.

Hisar, September 25
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today kicked off the election campaign of Congress nominees from assembly segments in this district here today, saying his party was on a firm footing “because of its electoral, political and developmental alliance with the people of Haryana”.

Hooda addressed party workers at a hurriedly convened meeting at Aggarwal Bhawan.

The Chief Minister said the alliances tried by various opposition parties had fallen apart as these were mere “opportunistic arrangements.”

He said if returned to power he would carry forward his agenda of making Haryana the“number one” state in the country. Hooda, however, asked Congressmen not to be cpmplacent. “We need to work hard to drum up support and propagate the party agenda. There is no room for complacency,” he warned.

Four Congress nominees, Sampat Singh from Nalwa, Savitri Jindal from Hisar, Ram Niwas Ghorela from Barwala and Jai Parkash from Adampur, were present at the meeting. Rohtak: The Chief Minister will not canvass in any assembly constituency in his home district. A proposal to this effect was made by MP Deepender Hooda at a gathering of Congress workers at Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda Chowk here on Friday. The workers approved the proposal by raising their hands. Earlier, the CM filed his papers from Kiloi- Garhi Sampla, Bharat Bhusan Batra from Rohtak and Shakuntla Khatak from Kalanaur (reserve).

Chandigarh, September 25
A custodial death case of 2005 resulted in the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordering an interim compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the victim’s widow today. It also ordered the registration of a case against nine police and other officials, including three medical officers, an SDM and a DSP.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been asked to carry out further investigations into the case; and strictures have been passed on Rewari’s then ADC for sitting over the matter. The victim, Chhajju Ram, was in the custody of the Rewari CIA staff at the time of the incident in July, 2005.

In his order encumbered with scathing observations against the administrative machinery, Justice Mahesh Grover asserted: “The court expresses its deep sense of anguish that the death of a citizen has been treated in such an apathetic manner as has been done by Nitin Kumar Yadav, the then Additional Deputy Commissioner, Rewari, as he slept over the matter and did not submit the inquiry report for almost 16 to 17 months till he was transferred and relinquished the charge on January 8, 2007, without doing anything in the matter.”

“It is more shocking that this happened despite the fact the petitioner, Khello Devi, was pursuing the petition before this court. The facts leave no room for doubt in the mind of the court that attempts of Yadav, the police officials and the doctors reveal the existence of an unholy triumvirate, which was intent on covering the tracks of truth with tar, with each one of them trying to outwit the other in the process”.

In his detailed order, Justice Grover directing the state of Haryana, the Rewari SP and another to register a criminal case against nine respondents, including DSP Pat Ram, SDM Sujan Singh and medical officers of Rewari general hospital, Dr PD Mehra, Dr JK Saini and Dr Ashok Saini.

Directing further investigation by the CBI, Justice Grover added: “The special investigating team has failed to carry out a convincing investigation. Simultaneously, it is directed that appropriate proceedings against Yadav be immediately initiated for showing laxity in the matter, which ought to have been granted utmost priority since it involved the death of an individual in police custody…”

“In the given set of circumstances, when the court is prima facie convinced that Chhajju Ram died in police custody due to injuries that remain unexplained, the state of Haryana, through the Chief Secretary and the Rewari Deputy Commissioner, is directed to pay immediately an interim compensation if Rs 5 lakh to the petitioner,” the court said.

Chandigarh, September 25
The Punjab and Haryana high Court Division Bench of Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia today reserved the verdict in the Dabwali fire tragedy case, after the conclusion of arguments on the quantum of compensation for the affected.

The one-man commission, headed by Justice TP Garg, was appointed by the high court to decide on the compensation to be paid to the families of over 442 victims. The commission has recommended commission between Rs 30,000 and Rs 16 lakh to the affected families. The main burden has been placed on the host DAV Public School and its New Delhi-based managing committee.