Gurgaon, December 5
The Haryana Finance, Forest and Environment Minister Capt Ajay Singh Yadav has asked people of the state to use water judiciously as they could face a shortage due to the scanty rainfall this year.

"The water level in the Bhakra dam is 40 feet lower as compared to last year, which indicates that the state can face water scarcity," he said while addressing a meeting of district officials here today.

Capt Yadav said the capacity of the NCR canal, being constructed to supply water to Gurgaon, was also being enhanced and it would be completed within a year.

Directing the district authorities to check air and water pollution, the minister said the authority of checking the use of polythene bags of less than 40 micron thickness would be delegated to the level of naib tehsildars, besides ADCs, SDMs and tehsildars.

He advised the officials concerned to promote agro-forestry in the state and directed the Forest Department to ensure the survival of saplings planted every year as it involved huge costs.

Capt Yadav said the state government had decided to get a fresh survey of below poverty line (BPL) families to ensure that no deserving family was left out.

Survey for old-age pension was also being carried out, he said, adding that the officials concerned should ensure that any elderly person who has been getting pension for the past several years is not deprived of the benefit even if he/she has gone out of the village/town on the day of survey.

He also directed the officials to check overloaded trucks, which damaged the roads. The minister asked the district officials to pay special attention to the problems of serving soldiers.

Gurgaon Deputy Dommissioner Rajender Kataria and Deputy Commissioner of Police Rakesh Arya were also present at the meeting.

Panipat, December 5
Overcoming his shortcomings, Anuj Tandon, a district programme manager (DPM) at the civil hospital who suffers from Gullian Barree Syndrome, has been declared as an outstanding employee of the state. He was awarded during a state-level function held at Rohtak to mark the World Disabled Day by Geeta Bhukkal, health minister, who had presided over the function.

Anuj has been working as the DPM at the district headquarters for two years. He is attached with many NGOs and social welfare organisations at the district, state and national level.

Due to Gullian Barree Syndrome, Anuj's whole body got paralysed at the age of three-and-a-half years and he had to be treated at the AIIMS, Delhi, for seven months.

However, he did not let his disability to overcome his desire to make it big in life. He soon started going school and completed his MBA (finance and international business) in 2007.

Even though he is confined to his wheelchair at most times, Anuj is able to drive a four-wheel kinetic scooter and a modified car.

He travels across the state and even outside to attend all official meetings. All these achievements enabled him to bag the prestigious award. Earlier, he has been honoured many times at the district-level functions hosted by a number of organisations.

Anuj said he was overwhelmed by the recognition at the state level and this had encouraged him to put in more hardwork in times to come.

Chandigarh, December 5
The search and seizure operations conducted by the Income Tax Department on the premises of a leading Gurgaon-based highway and infrastructure development company yesterday led to the disclosure of alleged unaccounted income of Rs 71 crore today.

Being touted as one of the biggest “tax evasions” in the northwest region, Director of Income Tax (investigation) Pawan Parmar Singh said the disclosure came after conduction elaborate searches on at least 14 premises, including commercial as well as residential premises, of the company in Delhi, Gurgaon, Kala Amb (HP) and Ropar (Punjab). She said the department had seized Rs 35 lakh cash and jewellery worth Rs 1 crore during the search.

Earlier, another company, involved in several businesses, including textile, rice, and real estate, had surrendered Rs 35.5 crore.

Disclosure was a voluntary action by the assessee during the operation. The party under investigation revealed the income over and above the income it had reported in tax returns. This income is then taxed at a rate of around 33 per cent. However, the investigations will continue and the raiding team will prepare a report on the basis of which further assessment will be made. There are chances that the assessee’s tax liability is also increased later.

A many as 120 IT officers and subordinate staff conducted the surveys under the supervision of Parmar Singh. A team led by AK Tripathi, additional director, investigations, income tax (ADIT), Gurgaon, and assistant director income tax investigations (ACIT), Gurgaon, Mrinali Sapra started the search around 10 am yesterday and continued till today morning.

The construction group has various projects of the National Highways Authority of India and the Airports Authority of India. 

Sirsa, December 5
More skeletons are likely to tumble out of the cupboard even as the inquiry into the alleged sex-determination tests performed by a diagnostic centre here progresses.

DC Yudhbir Singh Khyalia had asked SK Setia, SDM, Sirsa, to conduct an inquiry into the case. Sources said it is now complete and the report mentions that many sex-determination tests were conducted at the diagnostic centre. They added that the report was sufficient to proceed against the diagnostic centre in court and the evidence too was foolproof.

The inquiry reportedly reveals that the diagnostic centre had a roaring business and as many as 7,000 ultrasound tests were conducted in July and August alone.

As many as 614 of these cases were found unreported as these existed in the computer seized by the authorities but were missing in the official record of the doctor owning the diagnostic centre.

“Nearly 250 ultrasound tests were performed in the centre on a daily basis, out of which 150 pertained to ultrasound of the foetus,” said the source.

“A very strong nexus of doctors from Sirsa, other towns of Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab existed as several doctors from these towns used to refer their cases to this centre,” the source added.

The report, according the sources, also indicts the district health authorities for allowing the racket to go on. The diagnostic centre owner had given a particular serial number to each of the referring doctor and index of those numbers has also been found in the computer records.

While sex-determination sex test was believed to have been conducted in the diagnostic centre, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP), which is again a punishable offence if held without valid reasons, was done at the clinics of the referring doctors. The authorities have now started the process to reach out to each woman mentioned in the computer records so that the details of illegal MTPs and doctors who performed those operations could be obtained. 

Ambala, December 5
Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ambala, Parveen Kumar has acquitted Baba Piyara Singh Bhaniarawala in a case which was registered against him under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act in Noorpur Bedi police station in Punjab on October 20, 2001.

Later, on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the case was transferred to Ambala.

Bhaniarawala’s counsel Jaspal Singh produced several documents in support and pleaded that the case was politically motivated. Four other cases are still pending against the Baba in the CJM’s court.

The court has fixed January 16 for the hearing of pending cases. — OC

Sonepat, December 5
The death of a four-year-old girl, Nisha of Garhi Ujale Khan village, under mysterious circumstances in March 2007 has taken a new turn as the then SHO of Gohana police station, Lakhwinder Singh, has been placed under suspension and the graves of the village are being dug to exhume the girl’s body for forensic testing on the orders of Additional Director General of Police VN Rai.

A team comprising tehsildar Braham Prakash, senior medical officer Ishwar Singh Punia and ASIs Ishwar Singh Rathi and Ram Ratan was formed to exhume the body.

The team had reportedly dug at least six graves, but without any success, said Dr Punia.

Saroj, girl’s mother, had lodged a complaint with Rai a few months ago alleging that her daughter had not died a natural death, but was murdered and cremated by her husband Nathu Ram Saini. Rai ordered the SHO to conduct an immediate inquiry, but the SHO allegedly did not arrest the alleged accused.

After preliminary inquiries, Rai placed Lakhwinder Singh under suspension about a week ago and ordered to exhume the girl’s body for the DNA test.

Nathu Ram had two wives - Saroj and Maya. Saroj had four children, including Nisha.

However, after an altercation in the family, she reportedly left the house three years ago and started staying with her parents in Ghoghdi Pur village in Karnal district.

However, her four children continued to stay in the village with their father and stepmother Maya, who also have six children. 

Rohtak, December 5
The district court has awarded seven years of rigorous imprisonment to a woman doctor, Promila Malik, in the case of death of her teenaged son about two years ago.

She and her husband, who is also a doctor, had been charged for causing the death of the victim.

The court, however, acquitted her husband Dr Ashok Malik, who was also accused of criminal conspiracy.

The couple had two sons - Piyush (12), who was good in academics, and Abhishek (18), who had been an average student.

They were trying to transfuse the blood of their younger son to the elder one believing that it would result in making their elder son, who was preparing for the MBBS, equally brilliant in studies.

However, the attempt made by the couple at their residence on October 1, 2007, resulted in Piyush’s death.

Promila, who had been a professor of anaesthesiology in the PGIMS, here, however, had resorted to this exercise on the instruction of a tantrik, whom she reportedly saw in her dreams.

Earlier, the police had booked Dr Promila under section 304-2 (causing death due to negligence) of the IPC and her husband Dr Ashok under Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy), who was present in the house at the time of incident.

District and Sessions Judge SS Lamba also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on Promila. Ashok was, however, acquitted due to lack of proper evidence. 

Gurgaon, December 5
The police has arrested three youths on charge of defrauding bank customers of lakhs.The arrested youths, two of whom have been students of BCom and one of MBA, said they turned to this “white-collar” crime as they could not find lucrative jobs.

Police officers investigating the case said the lure of easy money and urge to maintain a luxurious lifestyle led them to the world of crime.

The youths, identified as Apporv, Taranjeet and Ateendra, had allegedly withdrawn about Rs 20 lakh from bank accounts of different customers.

While they allegedly fraudulently withdrew money from two persons of Agra and Ghaziabad, their third reported victim was a Gurgaon-based businessman.

Their modus operandi was like this: They used to gather the details of an account holder and then seek a duplicate ATM card from the bank authorities on the basis of this information. Then, they used to get the duplicate ATM card and pin number from the courier company engaged by the bank authorities.

After that, they used to withdraw money from the account from different ATMs in instalments. 

Sirsa, December 5
A student of the Biotechnology Department of Chaudhary Devi Lal University here today attempted suicide by consuming some poisonous substance. However, he was saved by his companions, who informed the university authorities of his action.

The youth, a student of MSc (final year, biotechnology), had been upset over the refusal of the department to grant him readmission after his name was struck off from the rolls due to non-attendance of classes.

The university authorities have summoned his parents. “The name of the student, a hosteller, was struck off from the rolls on November 6 after he did not attend classes for seven days continuously. He did not even seek readmission within the stipulated period of 12 days,” said Prof SK Gehlawat, chairperson of the Biotechnology Department of the university.

The student, a resident of Bahadurgarh town of Jhajjar district, had been requesting his teachers to allow him readmission and running from pillar to post for past some days, but to no avail.

Sources said the student had today threatened his teachers that he would commit suicide in case he was not given readmission.

“We have been adopting a sympathetic attitude towards the boy and have not lodged any complaint. However, before taking any action, we want to bring the whole episode to the notice of his parents,” said Gehlawat.