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Jhinda, Makkar groups
lathi-charged
Congress nominee BS Beniwal at an election meeting in Ellenabad on Sunday. Photo: Amit Soni |
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Hooda carries his flock on Vijay Rath
Cop shot dead over drainage dispute
Chautala locks horns with CM over SYL
Demolition drive suspended
Krishna Punia quits INLD, joins Congress
Pulse polio: 26.7 lakh children covered
250 examined at free health camp
Chief electoral officer wants watch on staff
State reels under power cuts
MLA promises speedy development
Retd teacher molests minor, booked
Hooda for independent TV channel for Haryana
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Jhinda, Makkar groups
lathi-charged
Karnal, January 10 HSGPC workers waiting for Makkar at the rest house here to present a memorandum on the changes made in the Nanakshahi calendar by the SGPC learnt that the police had changed Makkar’s route who was to address a congregation on Parkash Utsav of Guru Gobind Singh at Gurdwara Singh Sabha.Agitated HSGPC members proceeded towards the gurdwara but police were intercepted, leading to a scuffle in which HSGPC ad hoc president Jagdish Singh Jhinda was hurt, bleeding from the nose. The infuriated mob blocked the Karnal-Kachwa road for more than two hours and insisted on meeting Makkar. The DSP, headquarters, Surinder Bhoria, pacified the crowd. He asked Jhinda to send a delegation of five members to present the memorandum. Trouble began when supporters of the HSGPC threw a pair of knickers at Makkar as he boarded his car. Provoked, Makkar’s supporters ran towards HSGPC leaders, but the police acted fast and resorted to a lathi charge to avert a clash. Supporters of both groups blandished swords. Later, Jhinda said the SDM had assured them that Makkar would go to the rest house and HSGPC leaders could hand over the memorandum to him there. But the police hoodwinked them and whisked away Makkar to the gurdwara as they waited at the rest house. Lashing out at Makkar, Jhinda said the SGPC had set a bad precedent by making changes in the Nanakshahi calendar under pressure from the RSS. “The calendar was prepared after 15 years of hard work and released in 2003 and there is no justification in making changes on any pretext. This Makkar Calendar will be opposed by the Sikh community,” he declared. Undeterred, Makkar said he would not be cowed by such threats and would make it a point to visit Haryana at least twice in a month in future. Describing Jhinda as a “tout’ of the Congress, he asked the police to register a case against Jhinda and his supporters under Section 307 of the IPC for unsheathing swords with the intention to harm him. He said he was in town for a religious function on the request of the local gurdwara and the attempts by the Jhinda group to disrupt his visit was reprehensible. the SGPC has filed a police complaint against Jhinda and his men. |
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This ‘Robin Hood’ will fight to the finish
Supporters of Bharat Singh Beniwal, Congress candidate for the Ellenabad assembly seat, who is facing bitter criticism from INLD leaders, enumerate his various qualities, maintaining that he is more of a social worker than a politician. “It is political bankruptcy of the Congress that they could not find a better candidate to field against me,” says Abhey Singh Chautala, INLD candidate for the January 20 byelection. “Everyone in the area knows that he has been in jail on murder charges for several years,” he says. “If I am being labelled a criminal, it is because of the Chautalas who slapped nine cases of murder against me, while they were in power during the late eighties,” retaliates Beniwal. He says he has come clean in all these cases and acquitted by the courts. “It is ridiculous that Billoo (Abhey Singh) terms me a criminal. By fielding him as its candidate, the INLD has shown that the party has scant regard for democracy,” Beniwal replies to his opponent’s charge. He says that the INLD candidate is a threat to the democratic system. “It was because of the Chautalas that I have either been in jail whenever they have come to power,” says Beniwal. “The Congress gave me the ticket in 1991 when none was willing to take on the Chautalas in the erstwhile Darba Kalan constituency. People dread the Chautalas but the latter fear me as I refuse to succumb to their intimidation,” boasts Beniwal, who is surrounded by strange-looking persons with a piercing gaze. “Jail was like second home for me those days,” he says in a lighter vein. Beniwal was in the dock when a police party from Uttar Pradesh arrested a wanted criminal, Dharmender, alias Bittu, allegedly from his Sirsa residence in July 2009. Dharmender was wanted by the UP police in 11 cases of loot and murder, including the infamous Fahimpur mass killings near Muzaffarnagar, in which eight persons were gunned down. The criminal allegedly lived in Beniwal’s residence for over three years and accompanied him wherever he went. Notwithstanding these allegations, supporters project him as Robin Hood of the area. Beniwal, too, boosts of his work towards people’s welfare. Beniwal claims that he has so far settled marital discords of over 3,000 girls from 53 villages.
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Hooda carries his flock on Vijay Rath
Chandigarh, January 10 Sources said during the past three days, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been making a conscious effort to negate the damage caused by constant leg-pulling by senior leaders. Party leaders maintain that though local leaders initially sent out the “wrong message”, the Chief Minister, during his tour, campaigned with his entire flock to convey to the people that the Congress stands united. Accompanied by state unit president Phool Chand Mullana, local MP Ashok Tanwar, minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, Prahlad Singh Gillenkhera and Gopal Kanda, local leaders Ranjit Singh, KV Singh and Jagdish Nehra, Hooda toured 36 villages and is expected to return to the constituency next weekend. Finance Minister Capt Ajay Yadav is likely to join the bandwagon tomorrow. Sources maintain that the party would have benefited more if local leaders had fanned out into the constituency to win over voters rather than being packed in a bus. But with the INLD harping on “dissensions” in the Congress this had become imperative, they hasten to add. “Each leader has his pocket of influence. Some of the leaders have fought elections from the seat and can serve better canvassing in the field than seated in the bus. But where’s the choice? The byelection is crucial for us given the fact that this one seat can give us a majority on our own without dependence on others,” remarked a senior leader. The local leaders were initially assigned villages in the constituency. However, these duties were withdrawn and their status “enhanced” after they protested on being limited to particular pockets, claiming they wielded influence throughout the constituency. With this, the party warning that it would assess the performance of these leaders on the basis of the number of votes polled in their areas has fallen flat. For now, the party is banking on the image of the Chief Minister and looking to the 10,000 votes that went to parties other than the INLD and the Congress in the assembly election. |
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Cop shot dead over drainage dispute
Jhajjar, January 10 A nephew of the deceased also sustained serious injuries when he tried to protect his uncle during the incident. The deceased has been identified as Krishan Kumar while his nephew,
Pardeep, has been undergoing treatment at a private hospital in
Bahadurgarh, where his condition is stated to be out of danger. Old enmity is believed to be behind the incident. Sources said Krishan had a dispute over drainage of dirty water with his
neighbour, Ishwar Singh, some time ago. Later, the dispute was sorted out following intervention of the village
panchayat, but Ishwar Singh had a grudge against Krishan. Ishwar Singh allegedly opened fire on Krishan Kumar through his licensed gun this morning when he was getting a tent erected in the street for a
programme. Pardeep suffered gunshot injuries when he tried to intervene. Krishan succumbed to his injuries on the spot while Pardeep was rushed to a private hospital by his family members. Ishwar Singh managed to flee from the scene. The police sent the body to the Civil Hospital for a postmortem after taking a stock of the
situation. Jhajjar SSP Sourabh Singh said: “The police has registered a case against Ishwar Singh, his wife Anju and son
Suraj. All are absconding since the incident and the police has started carrying out raids at various places to nab the accused.” In another incident, a youth identified as Joginder was injured when another youth,
Arun, allegedly opened fire on him in Badli village here last night. The police has registered a case under Section 307 of the IPC against Arun and his father Dharampal on the complaint of the victim and launched a hunt to nab the accused. |
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Chautala locks horns with CM over SYL
Ellenabad, January 10 “The INLD alone has made sincere efforts for early construction of the canal,” claimed Chautala, while talking to mediapersons. He accused Hooda of making “irresponsible and politically motivated” remarks on this issue yesterday. “It was due to effective pleading of Haryana’s case in the Supreme Court by the then INLD government that the case was decided in our favour.The apex court directed the Central Government to get the canal constructed by a central agency, but no efforts have been made by the Congress on the matter,” Chautala claimed. Addressing public meetings, he claimed that the Hooda government had came to power by “purchasing legislators” and would fall soon after the defeat of its candidate in Ellenabad. “This is not a simple byelection but a battle for the self-respect of the local people,” said Chautala while making an appeal to the electorate to back his son Abhey Singh. Ashok Arora, state president of the INLD, ridiculed Hooda’s remarks during his campaign on Saturday that he as well as Bharat Singh Beniwal would nurse Ellenabad if they voted for the Congress. “Hooda gave a similar assurance to the people in Indri when the constituency went for a byelection in 2008, but never visited them after his candidate Bhim Sen Mehta won the seat,” claimed Arora. ”This is the reason why the people rejected Mehta in the recent assembly elections.” Ajay Singh and Abhay Singh also campaigned in different villages of Ellenabad today. |
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Demolition drive suspended
Rohtak, January 10 The dismantling work would now take place again in the next few days, claimed a district official, who said this was necessary to decongest the road that had been encroached upon and had been causing a major bottleneck in the traffic movement. Sources said a petition by some shopkeepers had already been dismissed. Earlier, the demolition squad led by the tehsildar reached the spot and started removing the structures, including shops. Local shopkeepers started raising slogans against the move of the local administration and obstructed the work of JCB machines. The squad could demolish only a few shops and suspended the drive due to an opposition by the shopkeepers, who sat on dharna in front of their shops. The district authorities had served notices to the owners of these shops a few days ago asking them to either dismantle their structures or face a demolition by the administration, as the area had been acquired under the National Highway Acquisition Act and had been given due compensation already. However, the shopkeepers claimed that they had not been given an alternative site for their shops despite an assurance. The final notice of dismantle was pasted on the properties of these shopkeepers on Thursday. |
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Krishna Punia quits INLD, joins Congress
Ellenabad, January 10 Several other senior leaders of the INLD, Satpal Bansal, former municipal chief of Fatehabad, Deepak Arora, former district president of INSO, student wing of the INLD, Santosh Sharma, secretary, Geeta Budhania, cashier and Krishna Sheoran, secretary, and several executive committee members of the women’s wing of the INLD quit the party and joined the Congress. These leaders have been Devi Lal loyalists and Krishna Punia’s son Vineet Punia was additional political secretary to the CM during the Chautala regime. Punia was a contender for the INLD ticket during the recent assembly elections and party nominee Swatantar Bala Chaudhary had complained about her role to the party leadership. The development may not have any direct effect on the electoral fortunes of the parties as none of these leaders belong to the Ellenabad constituency. Hooda, meanwhile, completed his two-day campaign of Ellenabad constituency today. Party sources said Hooda’s son Deepender Singh will campaign in the constituency from tomorrow. Hooda will revisit Ellenabad on January 16 and January 17. |
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Pulse polio: 26.7 lakh children covered
Chandigarh, January 10 State Health Minister Geeta Bhukkal said all arrangements were made for the successful implementation of the round. A total of 16,125 IPPI booths were set up that were manned by more than 64,000 officials from the Health and Education Departments and Integrated Child Development Services, besides NGOs, Indian Medical Association, self-help groups and community volunteers. About 4,000 supervisors were pressed into service to oversee the functioning of the vaccination teams and to ensure that no child was left. Nodal officers from state headquarters and independent monitors from the PGIMS, Rohtak, monitored the activity to ensure quality and complete coverage. A target has been set to cover about 41 lakh children during the ongoing round of the IPPI campaign. While today the children were given polio drops at the booths, teams would go door-to-door in the next two days to cover those children who were left today. She said as many as 703 polio cases were confirmed in the country last year, out of which 680 cases were from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. One polio case was confirmed in Faridabad district. As Haryana was bordering Uttar Pradesh and gets a lot of migration, it was important to implement high quality IPPI round. Focus during the current round was to ensure coverage of every child under five years of age. |
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250 examined at free health camp
Sonepat, January 10 The camp was organised on the premises of Little Angel Senior Secondary School here to pay tributes to the departed soul. As many as 62 volunteers donated blood at the camp that was inaugurated by Deputy Commissioner Ajit Joshi. Similarly, at least 250 persons were examined at the health camp inaugurated by SP Mahender Singh Sheoran. Sonepat MLA Kavita Jain distributed blankets donated by the society amongst the poor. Additional Deputy Commissioner Anita Yadav, City Magistrate Yash Pal Yadav, SDM Jag Niwas, DSPs Badri Prasad, Rajinder Singh and Satvir Singh Hooda, chairman of the Municipal Council Ashok Chhabra, principals of various educational institutions and office-bearers of various social, religious and voluntary organisations paid tributes to Deepak. President of the Memorial Society and father of Deepak VP Sharma and senior vice-president Ashish Arya said the society had also decided to organise free-of-cost ayurvedic medical camp every month and to solemnise marriage of five destitute girls free of cost every year on November 21, Deepak’s birthday. The society would also adopt two poor and needy students on the same day and would bear the expenses of their studies, they added.
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Chief electoral officer wants watch on staff
Chandigarh, January 10 She said here today that in case such officials were found involved in political activities, information in this regard should be forwarded to her office. She said complaints had been received by her office, alleging that some officials of the state government or of semi-government organisations were either going on leave or trying to take medical leave to join the poll activities. She also urged them that the reasons for the leave of such officials should be got verified by a competent officer. If an official applied for medical leave, he should be sent to the Chief Medical Officer for his consultation and a copy of the medical certificate and of the advice of rest given by the doctor should also be sent to her office. The authenticity of doubtful cases should be reviewed. After review, the leave of such suspected officials should be cancelled. She also urged them to issue instructions in this regard to all departments, boards and corporations under them. She made it clear that these instructions aimed at checking the involvement of officials in political activities. However, in case an official was a voter, there would be no ban on his right to vote.
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State reels under power cuts
Panipat, January 10 Power cuts in the main cities have increased to 6 to 8 hours. Besides, water supply is also being affected due to power cuts. The agriculture sector gets power supply for just five hours a day and farmers have been protesting in various parts of state as they need water to sow wheat. The closure of two thermal units in Panipat due to technical faults has worsened the situation. Unit 5 (210 MW) of the thermal plant has been shut down due to a problem in the control valve and 110 MW unit number 3 is down due to boiler leakage. According to sources, both the units would likely be revived on Monday. Sources say the thermal plants of state produce 317 lakh units and the state is overdrawing 83 lakh units to tide over the present situation. The power demand met during peak hours is 4,089 MW and there is a shortage of 511 MW during this time. Meanwhile, coal stock in Panipat and Yamunanagar thermal plants was critical, sources said. The Panipat thermal plant has 62,000 million tonnes of coal, which is sufficient for just three days. The reason behind the coal shortage is high generation. The Yamunanagar thermal plant has a coal stock of 41,000 MT which is sufficient for four days, sources say.
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MLA promises speedy development
Narnaul, January 10 Stating that she was indebted to the people of the constituency for reposing faith in her in the recently held assembly elections, she listened to the people’s grievances and directed the officers of the departments’ concerned to take immediate action. The MLA said the main aim of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was to raise the status of the girl child in the family and society. The government had made all attempts to improve the status of mother in the family, she added. The state government had launched various schemes for women and children to meet their nutritional requirements, said the minister, announcing that all demands raised by the people would be solved soon.
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Retd teacher molests minor, booked
Jind, January 10 According to information, the police has registered a case against the accused, Sushil, and two youths, Sanjay and Ashok, on a complaint lodged by the father of the victim. He said the accused had threatened him with dire consequences after the punishment given by the panchayat. The alleged incident had taken place on December 14 last when the victim (aged about seven years) had gone to pay obeisance at a religious place. It is alleged that the accused had molested the girl on pretext of giving her prasad. The head of the accused had been tonsured on the orders of a Panchayat that was held on December 15.
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Hooda for independent TV channel for Haryana
Chandigarh, January 10 In a letter to Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, Hooda said Haryana needed an independent satellite TV channel as the “state is humming with activity and welfare programmes and other policies of the state government are not being adequately communicated to the masses through Doordarshan channels as in other states, including Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, which have their own independent satellite channels.” “The state has only one regional centre at Hisar and its low power transmission covers an area in a radius of 15 km to 25 km. This regional centre does not cover the entire state and being a relay centre, it transmits programmes for about two hours daily in the evening only, he said. |
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Chandigarh, January 10
Ellenabad, January 10