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Ad hoc panel says no to Nanakshahi calendar
Youth’s Death: Family alleges police torture
CM fails to keep date with Ellenabad
Haryana Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala addresses Congress workers at Ellenabad; and (R) INLD secretary-general Ajay Singh meets voters at Madhosinghana village on Wednesday. Photos: Amit Soni |
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Falling mercury numbs canvassing
Finally, 15 in fray; Jadhav is Sirsa SP
Armed assailants strike at sub-station
Police steps up drive against criminals
Soon, 2 healthcare schemes for kids
KPS Gill favours policy on taking back awards
Power supply to 1,83,620 defaulters snapped
A First: Traffic rules make way into school curriculum
Medical officer alleges harassment by seniors
Despite official orders, school found open
Neha case: Police to approach MEA
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Ad hoc panel says no to Nanakshahi calendar
He stated that it was an unscientific calendar that had been adopted from other regional calendars and thus was completely unacceptable to lakhs of Sikhs in the state. Nalvi, who had been at the helm of the struggle for a separate body to manage the affairs of the Sikh gurdwaras in Haryana, said the ad hoc panel would completely discard the latest calendar once they manage to have a separate SGPC in the state. He said with the latest amendments, the Nanakshahi calendar had lost its original character. Appreciating the calendar prepared by Pal Singh Purewal, a Canada-based retired computer engineer, Nalvi said it was the only scientifically prepared calendar that was accepted unopposed all over the world. Questioning the rationale behind approving the latest calendar, the general-secretary said the SGPC had gone ahead with the amendments without taking the community into confidence. He said till last year there were no problems in going by the Nanakshahi calendar prepared by Purewal and then all of a sudden, objections were raised by some sections of the Sikh community, which he said were in no way associated with the calendar. Following this, the SGPC had constituted a committee to resolve the issue. He said despite objections raised by many, the SGPC went ahead with the move, which was quite unbecoming of the reason. The general secretary said even if the SGPC wanted to bring about amendments in the calendar it should have formed an expert panel which should have been asked to make appropriate suggestions. However, those who approved the calendar were not even aware of the basics of preparing a calendar and they went by the pressure exerted by certain sections within the Sikh community. He said the changes made now were without any rhyme or reason and accused SGPC chief Avatar Singh Makkar of having played into the hands of his political bosses. He said they would soon be approaching the Akal Takht and put up a request to review the decision and reconsider the calendar prepared by Pal Singh Purewal. SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar, addressing mediapersons in Anandpur Sahib yesterday, had said the amendments made in the Nanakshahi calendar were applicable to gurdwaras in Punjab and Delhi . Makkar had said the SGPC had rightly made the amendments after a long debate and a consensus among the Sikh clergy. Therefore, “none has the authority to stop the SGPC from implementing the calendar.,” “Now even Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh has given the green signal to the amended calendar. The amendments have ruffled some feathers in political circles. Organisations working for the cause of religion and humanity have welcomed the new calendar,” he had claimed. |
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Youth’s Death: Family alleges police torture
Kaithal, January 6 His family has alleged that he died due to police torture. Acceding to the police and the civil administration’s request, District and Sessions Judge RS Baswana has ordered an inquiry by the Judicial Magistrate. Judicial Magistrate Ashu Jain had reportedly left for Mohali to supervise the autopsy to facilitate further inquiry. On a complaint lodged by father of the deceased Amrit Lal, a resident of Narwana, a case under Sections 343, 365 and 302 of the IPC has been registered against five police personnel. Meanwhile, SP Simardeep Singh has constituted a special investigation team (SIT) headed by Ram Chander Kaushik, DSP Guhla, to investigate the FIR and submit its report. The SP said keeping in view the allegations, inspector Ravinder Tomar had been transferred to the police lines and inspector Ashok Kumar had been appointed in his place. Earlier, Amrit Lal accompanied by a large number of people met Deputy Commissioner Amneet P Kumar and lodged a complaint against the police and demanded inquiry and action against the guilty, who had picked up his son and tortured him. The DC asked the SP to take necessary action on the complaint, following which SP Simardeep Singh registered the FIR. Amrit Lal alleged that some police personnel claiming to be from Kaithal picked up his son from Narwana on December 27. On January 3, he came to know that his son was in the Narwana police station, but he was not allowed to meet his son. However, the police said on January 4, a message was received from the Kaithal Civil Hospital that a person named Sushil Kumar had been admitted in the hospital with injuries. An ASI reached the hospital for the statement of the victim, but he was told that Sushil’s condition had deteriorated and he had been referred to the PGI. The police yesterday received a message from Fortis Hospital, Mohali, that Sushil Kumar had died, following which the police team left for Mohali. Meanwhile, INLD activists held a procession here today demanding inquiry in the death. According to reports received from Mohali, the postmortem would be conducted tomorrow. |
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CM fails to keep date with Ellenabad
Ellenabad, January 6 Hooda, accompanied by AICC general secretary Prithviraj Chauhan, was to reach Ellenabad at 12 noon and after addressing a meeting and lunch, he was to address his second meeting at Chopta at 3 pm. Sources said Hooda’s chopper took off from Delhi at about 12.30 pm but could not reach Ellenabad due to the dense fog. The chopper did not get clearance to land either at Hisar or Sirsa as visibility was very poor. It had to return. In his absence, party state unit president Phool Chand Mullana and Congress leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala, Ashok Tanwar, Ram Parkash, Ranjit Singh, Sampat Singh, KV Singh, Jagdish Nehra, Rahul Setia, Mani Ram Keharwala, Sushil Indora, Lal Chand Khod, Ranbir Singh Mohindra and Congress candidate Bharat Singh Beniwal addressed party workers. Hooda will now address workers on January 8 and tour Ellenabad village on January 10 and 11 and then again on January 16 and 17, said Bhupesh Mehta, senior district Congress leader. He said the workers had been instructed to fan out in the constituency and tell people that those who had represented the area for generations had “ not installed a brick in the name of development,” he said. Mullana assigned duties to MLAs, ministers, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries and former ministers and MLAs, asking them to cover all 71 villages in the constituency and 31 municipal wards of Ellenabad. “Those who did nothing for the area during their term are now shedding crocodile tears for Ellenabad,” alleged Randeep Singh Surjewala in his speech. Indian National Lok Dal candidate Abhey Singh Chautala, meanwhile, took a day off from campaigning as his elder brother Ajay Singh went door-to-door for votes in
Madhsinghana. |
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Falling mercury numbs canvassing
Ellenabad, January 6 The chilly weather is affecting the poll campaign of all candidates but the Congress, that is yet to get going is, particularly affected.“ During elections held in summer, we started our campaign at 7 in the morning and continued till late in the evening, sometimes well past midnight,” said a Congress leader, who has contested
10 electoral battles in his career and elected to the assembly five times.
“But, this time it is not possible to set out early in the day and streets in villages are deserted after seven in the evening,” he said.“Bad weather is hindering our campaign, but we are not worried. Our party has covered the constituency almost thrice ever since our leader Om Parkash Chautala won the seat by over 16,000 votes in the elections last October,” said a senior leader of the INLD. Foggy weather is affecting rallies by the Congress as well as the INLD. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s arrival in the town was delayed by over 90 minutes and the fog affected attendance at the rally organised by the Congress on December 30.INLD’s Abhey Singh Chautala filed his nomination papers on January 2. A major rally was planned but a thick blanket of fog throughout the day forced the organisers to shorten the programme as INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala and other leaders reached the venue well after 2.30 pm whereas the scheduled time was 11 am.
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Finally, 15 in fray; Jadhav is Sirsa SP
Sirsa, January 6 Bharat Singh Beniwal (INC) and Abhay Singh Chautala (INLDal) are candidates of recognised parties, Kusum Lata Chaudhary
(Samast Bharatiya Party) and Raj Kumar (Haryana Swatantar Party) are candidates of registered
(unrecognised) parties. Eleven independents, Krishan Kumar, Deepak Goyal ,
Jaiver, Bharat Singh Banwala, Bharat Singh Mochiwali, Mange Ram Hudda,
Rameshwar, Lillu Ram Balmiki, Vinod Aulakh, Vinod Kumar, and Salender Kumar, were issued election symbols today. Meanwhile, Haryana today posted Shrikant |
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Armed assailants strike at sub-station
Jhajjar, January 6 The deceased has been identified as Raj Singh, a resident of Dhakla village. The reason behind the attack is yet to be ascertained and the police has registered a case under relevant sections of the IPC and Arms Act against unidentified assailants. According to reports, the assailants armed with a pistol, sharp-edged weapons and sticks barged into the sub-station at midnight and began roughing up an employee Kuldeep Singh. When Raj Singh, the security guard, intervened he was attacked with a sharp-edged weapon, which later led to his death. Later, the assailants fled from the scene after injuring two other employees - Ashok Kumar and Gugan Singh - who were also deputed at the sub-station. The assailants also reportedly fired several rounds in the air before fleeing. On getting information, Jhajjar SSP, Sourabh Singh, along with a police team, rushed to the spot and took stock of the situation. Later, the injured employees were admitted to the civil hospital and the body of Raj Singh sent to the civil hospital for postmortem. “The motive behind the attack will only be known after the investigation. An alert has been sounded and messages flashed to the police stations of neighbouring districts,” said the SSP.
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Police steps up drive against criminals
Karnal, January 6 The police recovered looted property worth Rs 114.66 lakh, arrested 79 proclaimed offenders and 63 bail-jumpers, and solved 260 out of 1,153 cases of robbery, dacoity, burglary, extortion and theft, in addition to nabbing 357 persons allegedly involved in these cases during the past fortnight, he claimed, he informed. A major achievement of police during this period was that 161 out of 186 cases of murder, culpable homicide, hurt and kidnappings were solved and as many as 200 accused involved in criminal acts were put behind bars. The police also succeeded in solving 162 cases involving crime against women such as dowry deaths, kidnapping, abduction, rape and molestation, and arrested 186 persons, he added. The state police registered 335 cases under Excise Act, recovered 3,956 bottles of illicit liquor and got 73 culprits convicted. Under the Gambling Act, 45 persons were convicted in 36 cases registered by the police and a sum of Rs 8.70 lakh was realised
as penalty. Similarly, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the police registered 34 cases and recovered 1217.65 kg of poppy husk, 5.18 kg of opium, 1.65 kg of charas, 2.4 kg of ganja and three grams of smack. The police also recovered 17 illegal arms and 14 sharp-edged weapons. The spokesman further informed that with effective patrolling, regulation of traffic and timely help, the state traffic cops managed to save 51 persons involved in 385 serious road accidents in the recent past. The police also solved 104 cases that were pending for more than a year, 276 cases that were pending for over 6 months and 682 cases that were pending for over 3 months. In addition, the state police succeeded in dealing with 65 complaints that were pending for more than three months, 131 complaints that were pending for over two months and 507 complaints that were pending for over one month, during the last fortnight. |
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Soon, 2 healthcare schemes for kids
Karnal, January 6 A helpline would also be provided that would enable people to contact the hospital authorities for eye donation.
Meanwhile, she ruled out regularisation of “guest teachers” and said regular staff would be provided to maintain the standard of education. The services of the present guest teachers would be continued for another year by which time recruitment for regular teachers would be done, she added. Bhukkal announced that good quality and hygienic food would be served to children under the mid-day meal scheme and every school would have its own kitchen as well as equipment for cooking. Necessary instructions have already been issued to all the schools in this regard. She added that services of reputed voluntary organisations would also be sought to run the scheme efficiently. The minister also announced that the practice of seating children on the floor would be done away with and every school would be provided desks and benches. “Under the child vision scheme, free check-up and treatment will be provided. In addition, eye banks will be established in all district hospitals with facilities matching international standards,” she said.
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KPS Gill favours policy on taking back awards
Ambala, December 6 Talking to mediapersons here today, he said the Union Home Ministry should form a definite policy for divesting the medals. He said he was of the view that the medals should be withdrawn only if the medals’ recipient was found involved in terrorist activities or in sedition. Opposing all media trial, especially in the Ruchika case, he said the media should not interfere in the working of the judiciary. He said the government should not strip off former DGP of Haryana SPS Rathore of his medal till he was held guilty by the Supreme Court. He said some self-sponsored human rights organisations had been levelling false allegations against police officials of Punjab, who had bravely fought against terrorism. He demanded that the government should ban such organisations. President of the Anti-Terrorist Front India Viresh Shandilya said the organisation would hols a protest in Delhi in case Gill’s medals were taken back. He said Gill had played an important role in curbing terrorism in Punjab and people of Punjab were proud of him. He said the demand of a former woman IAS officer of Punjab that Padma Shri should be taken back from Gill was totally unjustified.
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Power supply to 1,83,620 defaulters snapped
Chandigarh, January 6 A spokesman of the Nigam said here today that these consumers were to pay Rs 101.43 crore. It had been targeted that 4.45 lakh connections of defaulters would be disconnected during the current fiscal. The Nigam would intensify the campaign of disconnections in the coming quarter. He said 50,988 disconnections had been made in operation circle Ambala comprising district Ambala and Panchkula; 31,509 in Yamunanagar; 29,425 in Kurukshetra; 21,779 in Panipat; 7,703 in Jhajjar; 8,493 in Karnal; 11,823 in Jind; 14,366 in Kaithal; 5,965 in Sonepat and 1,569 in Rohtak up to December 15. More than 58 per cent of the outstanding amount had been recovered after disconnections. The Nigam checked 73,718 consumer premises and detected 6,389 cases of pilferage of power. A penalty of Rs 9.46 crore had been imposed on erring consumers out of which Rs 4.04 lakh had been recovered. It had been targeted to check 1,90,000 consumer premises during the current year. The spokesman said the Nigam had intensified the campaign of detection of theft of power cases. The checking teams detected the highest 290 cases of theft/pilferage of power in a single day under the campaign. The field officers had been directed to initiate stringent action against all those found guilty in a bid to bring down losses to the Nigam. |
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A First: Traffic rules make way into school curriculum
Yamunanagar, January 6 The decision was considered significant keeping in view the rise in the number of accident cases on internal, state and national highways passing through the district. As many as 150 persons had lost their lives while many others were injured in road accidents last year. The police and the administration took the step as the district has been witnessing a heavy flow of traffic, including heavy vehicles, because of industries situated in Yamunanagar and Jagadhri. Besides threat from heavy vehicles, schoolchildren and the youth have become victims of road accidents due to lack of awareness about the traffic rules. The book “Yatayat ke Niyamo ki Jankari” was released by DC Amit Kumar Aggarwal and SP Vikas Arora during a meeting with the principals of schools and colleges of the district at the mini-secretariat here today. Releasing the book, the DC said in order to spread road safety awareness among students, they had introduced traffic rules and regulations as a compulsory subject in all schools and colleges of the district. The book was prepared by the administration and the police after months research and study, he added. “So far, 10,000 copies of the book has been published and are available in book shops in the district. Besides, a 17-minute movie highlighting traffic rules is also made available in form of CDs to the schools and colleges,” Arora said. Besides teachers, who have been provided training about road safety measures, the police had also constituted a road safety organisation comprising cops from the traffic police to impart information and training to students in a regular way and ensure that all schools and colleges properly run classes in traffic rules, he added.
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Bishnoi on different campaign, against deserters
Rohtak, January 6 “What’s crucial for the HJC is to ensure the defeat of the five party MLAs who deserted us for the Congress after the assembly elections,” he said. “All five seats of these candidates will fall vacant and there would be a bypoll in the near future,” he claimed while talking to mediapersons here this noon. Bishnoi looked upset at Rakesh Kamboj’s desertion. Considered one of his confidants, Kamboj joined the INLD recently. He described the development as “ most unfortunate and unwarranted.” The HJC leader said it was, perhaps, the failure of his party to forge an alliance with the BJP or the BSP on the eve of the October assembly elections that had helped the Congress to retain power in the state. Bishnoi said his party had started had launched a personal contact programme in villages against the “deserters”. He blamed wrong policies for the poor financial health of the government. He criticised the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government for its alleged failure to ensure adequate water and power supply in
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Medical officer alleges harassment by seniors
Narnaul, January 6 “On much persuasion, I was handed over written orders in November, which stated that the deputation would continue till further orders,” the doctor said, claiming that the orders were illegal as according to the rules and norms, he could not be put on deputation for more than 14 days without the consent of the state authorities. “However, I have been made to work on deputation for nearly three months,” he maintained. Dr Garg alleged that during his deputation at the Civil Hospital, he was made to be on duty for three consecutive days round the clock, perform postmortems till late in the evenings and intimidated by his superiors. Finally, the doctor went on a fast and sat on dharna in front of the local Civil Surgeon’s office yesterday. Refuting the allegations, the latter said Dr Garg had never approached him with any complaint or representation. |
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Despite official orders, school found open
Jind, January 6 The authorities today confiscated the records of a school here and issued a show-cause notice for keeping the school open in violation of its orders issued recently. According to district education office officials, a raid was conducted at a private school located on the Rohtak road today after reports that the school was functioning as usual despite orders issued by the district authorities to extend the winter break to January 10. The authorities claimed that the school was found open with students present in the school. The record of the school was taken into custody by a team of the officials with the help of the police after the school management declined to accept the directions of the officials of the district education office, it is claimed. The school management has been asked to explain its conduct and in case of unjustified response, the administration will initiate further action. |
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Neha case: Police to approach MEA
Gurgaon, January 6 Neha had reportedly died under mysterious circumstances on board a cruiseliner on way to The Bahamas from Miami in the USA on December 31. Her parents had held her husband and in-laws responsible for her death. About an hour before her death, Neha had sent an e-mail to her brother residing in Gurgaon, complaining that she had been badly beaten up by her husband Ankit, a manager at the same cruiseliner. The Gurgaon Police Commissioner, SS Deswal, today wrote to the Haryana Director-General of Police RS Dalal, urging him to request the MEA authorities to approach the foreign investigators and seek details of the findings in the matter. |
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7-yr-old girl raped
Rewari, January 6 |
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Chief Minis- ter Bhupinder Singh Hooda failed to keep date with Ellenabad today as a dense fog for a better part of the day prevented his chopper from landing in the town.
Panipat, January 6