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Tackle insurgency at grassroots level, says ex-Army Chief
Hearing deferred till May 3
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SC rejects plea on nurses’ promotion
Power nigams to regularise unauthorised load
Rise in temperature aggravates power problem
State pays compensation to land owners
2 shot dead
Open darbars
Villagers rue police inaction
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Tackle insurgency at grassroots level, says ex-Army Chief
Kurukshetra, April 10 The former Army Chief was here today to deliver a lecture on “Countering terrorism and insurgency: An Indian approach” before students and the fraternity of Kurukshetra University. He said the union and the state governments along with the security forces and the administrators should work jointly to uproot the problem. He laid emphasis on winning the confidence of people stating that similar problems in Punjab and Mizoram were overcome with people’s support. The Governor said welfare projects like operation “Sadbhavana” should be launched in the affected areas. He said the dynamics international relations today were witnessing a paradigm shift from containment to engagement. Limited and area specific conventional wars had become a contextual reality in the new international scenario, he said. He said there was a need to evolve a comprehensive strategy to strive towards ensuring an internal and external environment conducive for unhindered progress of the nation. He observed that challenges posed by terrorism and insurgency should be faced with a policy of “iron fist in velvet glove”. The iron fist denotes a ruthless and “no nonsense” approach while tackling with insurgents or terrorists and the velvet glove shows passion. He said there was a need to address issues that had political, economic, ethnic and religious dimensions in areas dominated by terrorism and insurgency. “Had it not been true, the superior military power and strategy of the west would have prevailed in Afghanistan and Iraq,” observed General Singh. A multi-dimensional and multi-pronged strategy at the national and state levels had become imperative, he said. Earlier, Lieutenant-General (Dr) DDS Sandhu welcomed the Governor and lauded his efforts as an army officer with 40 years of illustrious career of velour and glory. He also said General Singh was playing a vital role in the socio-economic development of Arunachal Pradesh as its constitutional head. Prof AS Kaang proposed a vote of thanks. |
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Hearing deferred till May 3
Ambala, April 10 The defence counsel had to cross-examine Hari Daman, the younger son of late Ram Chander Chatrpati, today. Hari Daman is the prime witness of the prosecution in this case. The editor of a Sirsa-based evening daily Ramchander Chatrpati was shot dead in 2002. He had published a number of articles against dera in his newspaper. The argument on the interim bail application of Avtar Singh, who is one of the accused in the Ranjit murder case, was also conducted in the CBI court today. Avtar Singh had filed an interim bail application in this court on the ground that he had to get her children admitted in the schools and also had to harvest his crops. The CBI counsel HPS Verma while opposing the bail application said the court had already dismissed his interim bail application earlier. The judge adjourned the hearing in this case for April 13. The Dera chief is also an accused under Section of 120B, IPC, in this case. Ranjit Singh stated to be the follower of dera was murdered in his native Khanpur Kulian village
in 2002. Sirsa: Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh appeared before the CBI court through video conferencing from the District Courts here today amidst tight police security. The dera chief presented himself before the court through video-conferencing from Sirsa. He entered the court complex at about 9.45 am and remained their till about 11.30 am. According to sources, the evidence of Hari Daman was closed today. The case has now been adjourned to May 3. The hearing in another case of sexual exploitation of a former Dera Sadhvi against the dera chief is listed for hearing before the CBI court on April 13, while the court is likely to give its decision on the bail of the dera chief in the Ranjit Singh murder case on April 17. A large number of dera followers assembled on Barnala Road outside the court complex in view of the dera chief’s appearance and remained there till he left the complex. |
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INLD meets Pahadia, seeks Kanda’s removal
Chandigarh, April 10 A delegation, led by Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly and former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, met Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia. It submitted a memorandum and sought registration of a criminal case against the minister and several others for assaulting INLD workers. The INLD also demanded that all “false cases” registered against its workers should be dropped. Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, Chautala, accompanied by his party MLAs, alleged that Kanda used abusive language which was unbecoming of his position and openly asked the police to fire at INLD workers and other protesters participating in the bandh and holding a peaceful demonstration. “He beat up the protestors, used abusive and filthy language and even ordered the cops to fire at the protestors. The minister must explain which authority he exercised in issuing such a directive which is the prerogative of the duty magistrate only,” he maintained. The INLD also showed the “unfolding of events as they happened” and the “objectionable” conduct of the minister by way of a CD. “The Governor was appalled at what he saw. He has assured action on our memorandum. We are very hopeful that something positive will come out of this assurance,” Chautala said. The INLD also urged Pahadia to institute a high-level probe into the whole incident. The main opposition party, the INLD, had called for a shutdown to protest against the alleged failures of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led government to provide water and power to the people. The protest was organised on a day when Hooda was slated to inaugurate a number of projects in Sirsa. |
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SC rejects plea on nurses’ promotion
New Delhi, April 10 A Bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and AK Patnaik passed the order on April 7, accepting the contention of the nurses that the institute’s Director had committed a grave illegality by not considering their candidature for promotion to the post of nursing sisters. Appearing for the nurses, senior counsel Mahabir Singh and Nikhil Jain had contended that the High Court had rightly ruled that the government’s administrative instructions issued on November 16, 1973, had no bearing on the interpretation of the 1964 rules or the 2002 rules. Also, the instructions could not override the statutory rules framed under proviso to Article 309 and an “additional condition of eligibility cannot be imposed by executive fiat.” The institute had argued that there were no vacancies and the staff nurses did not even fulfil the necessary conditions under the rules. Cancellation of Bhiwani plots
The Supreme Court dismissed a bunch of petitions yesterday which had challenged a Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict cancelling the allotment of industrial plots in Bhiwani by HUDA. A Bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justice Deepak Verma refused to entertain the petitions that questioned the HC’s wisdom in cancelling the allotments on a PIL filed by some advocates, though there was no categorical finding relating to infirmities in the selection process. Appearing for one of the affected allottees, senior advocate Mahabir Singh, assisted by Nikhil Jain, argued that there was no justification for the HC’s intervention only in one location, leaving the allotments at other places, Roj-Ka-Meo, Hathin, Bahadurgarh and Hissar. HUDA had announced the schemes for all the places through a common advertisement and had adopted a uniform
procedure for all the five locations, he contended. The Bench, however, said the apex court had dismissed similar petitions earlier and hence was not in a position to entertain the fresh pleas. |
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Villagers celebrate birth of girl child
Sirsa, April 10 Traditionally, the ritual is being performed in the rural areas since time immemorial to celebrate the birth of a male child in the family. The couple, Amandeep Kaur and Ramesh Kumar, of Kariwala village took this initiative by celebrating the birth of a girl child in their family. Piar Kaur, grandmother of the newborn, showered her blessings on the couple during the “Kuan Poojan” ceremonies and said she was happy at the birth of “Goddess Lakshmi” in the shape of her granddaughter in the family. Hundreds of women from the village participated in the ceremonies and pledged to carry the initiative taken by the couple forward. Additional Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Chaudhary, who is a crusader against female foeticide, was present on this
occasion. “We have decided to make Kuan Poojan a campaign in the district, as it will help curbing the social evil of female foeticide,” she said after congratulating the couple. Emphasising the need for educating children, Chaudhary said illiteracy was the root cause of several social evils in the society. She said education of the girl child was all the more important as an educated woman could ameliorate the condition of her parents family as well as her husband’s family. |
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2 girls disappear from school
Sirsa, April 10 The girls identified as Yogita and Sareen, both students of class IX of the school, went missing from the school yesterday. The fact came to the notice of the school authorities when Yogita, who comes to the institution by a school bus, did not board the vehicle after the school time. Later, it was noticed that Sareen, who comes to the school on her bicycle, was also missing and a girl informed the school authorities that the two had left the school together. The police has registered a report on the complaint of Advocate Kulwant Rai Jindal, president of the school managing body. “Both the girls were present in their class in the fifth period, which was the last period that ended at 1.45 pm,” claimed the school authorities in their complaint to the police. The complaint said the parents of the two girls were informed and the school authorities had searched them at all possible places. The school authorities said their discussion with the mothers of the two girls hinted that they had gone somewhere together or had been lured away by someone. Parents of the girls are furious at the attitude of the school authorities and alleged that the school’s “negligence” was responsible for the girls’ disappearance. “The school authorities adopted a callous attitude in the case and lost several hours in reporting the matter to the police,” alleged Jaspal Rai, grandfather of Yogita. “Had they taken some timely measures, the girls could have been found,” he maintained, demanding action against the school authorities. School principal Kiran Rathore, however, denied the allegations. “The school authorities are not responsible for disappearance of the students after the school time is over. The girls attended the school till their last period and went missing after that,” Rathore maintained. She added that even the delay in the lodging of the complaint was attributable to the parents of Sareen, who continued insisting that the girls would return home on their own by the evening. “At the first place, it was the duty of the parents to file complaints, but the school authorities took the initiative on humanitarian ground,” Rathore maintained. |
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Power nigams to regularise unauthorised load
Hisar, April 10 The scheme will remain operational from April 15 to May 15. A spokesman for Haryana Power Distribution Corporations said here today that under the scheme, the unauthorised load declared by farmers voluntarily would be regularised without charging any penalty. They were required to pay only the advance consumption security for the increased load. The tubewell consumers could declare the extended load of motors of their tubewell connections by submitting an “Application and Agreement” form. The consumer willing to get the load extended is required to submit a test report for the extended load along with the advance consumption security. The extension of load will be regularised with the existing system if lines and transformers can take up the additional load. However, if the existing system cannot take the additional load declared by the consumer, then the existing system will be augmented by the utilities. The consumers, who have extended existing electricity supply to new bore in case of bore failure, may also intimate the office of assistant general manager/operation concerned. In such cases no case of unauthorised use of electricity or theft will be registered against them and the supply to the new bore will be regularised as per the existing norms of the nigam. The benefit of the scheme will be extended to consumers who are not defaulters or who have no outstanding dues. |
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Rise in temperature aggravates power problem
Yamunanagar, April 10 While people of rural areas of many districts had been facing more than 16 hours of power cuts, cuts of over eight hours had been extended to the cities, revealed sources. Sources said the state had been facing a shortage of 250 lakh units per day. While power consumption of the state had been increased to 833 lakh units, power supply from all sources in the state was 602 lakh units per day. “Haryana’s own generation is 1,097 MW while the state is also resorting to over drawl to the tune of 33 lakh units from the northern grid,” sources added. The power shortage has surfaced with the closure of one unit of 600 MW of Hisar thermal plant that was tripped on Thursday evening due to boiler leakage and expected to become operational tomorrow while 210 MW unit number- 5 of the super thermal plant has also tripped. Besides, 250 MW unit number 7 and 110 MW unit number-1 of the Panipat thermal plant has been shut down for annual maintenance. Besides, power deficiency had further increased due to a manifold increase in the use of ACs and coolers in the state for the past one week triggered by the rise in temperature, sources further said. |
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Make Army training compulsory for
students: Surjewala
Kaithal, April 10 Addressing a press conference here today, he said it had become a habit of a large section of people in the country to violate laws of the land. This, he said, had brought a sort of disorder in society and adoption of crime was one of the byproducts of this situation. Evils like terrorism and Naxalism too flowed out of this situation, he observed. “It is regrettable that the common man neither obeys traffic rules nor allows any kind of checks to be imposed on himself by the administration,” he said. Surjewala, who is also the former president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, said thanks to the violation of traffic rules that maximum fatal accidents took place in India. Unfortunately, ordinary people did not even know about the traffic rules. The veteran Congress leader claimed that in reality 4-5 lakh persons were killed in road accidents every year. However, many accidents go unreported. Another instance of prevalent indiscipline in society was the growing number of encroachments in markets by shopkeepers. He said he would urge the central and the state governments to make one-year Army training mandatory for students before they were awarded graduation degree. Surjewala said he would also approach intellectuals and other prominent citizens to muster their support on the issue. |
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State pays compensation to land owners
Chandigarh, April 10 While stating this here today, a spokesman of HUDA said in addition to the compensation, the land owners, whose lands have been acquired, are being rehabilitated by a way of allotment of plots under the oustees policy. Residential plots for re-employment and livelihood of land owners are allotted to them. Annuity amount Rs 15,000 per acre per annum is being paid to the land owners with increment of Rs 500 per year up to 33 years. An annuity of Rs 39.51 crore has been authorised out of which Rs 19.74 crore has already been disbursed to the land owners up to March 31,2010, he added. He said that in addition to the above, 2,478.20 acre of land stood notified under Section-4 and 8,842.95 acres under section-6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. The further process of acquisition would be undertaken as per provision of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and priority by HUDA for acquisition of land. |
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2 shot dead
Kurukshetra, April 10 One of the dead Mange Ram’s son Joginder told media that the accused, Naresh, came to their house and asked his father to open the door. The moment the door was opened, he shot his father dead. Mange Ram died on the spot. He was taken to the hospital where he was declared dead. Before killing Mange Ram, the accused also shot at retired police officer Sat Pal, who was playing cards near a tube well adjoining Jhansa road, killing him on the spot. Both the dead bodies were shifted to the LNJP hospital where these were handed over to their kins after the postmortem today. However, the irate relatives of the deceased, accompanied by a large number of local residents, carrying dead bodies jammed the traffic on Jhansa road and flyover. They were demanding immediate arrest of the alleged killer. However, the jams were lifted after SP Sultan Singh assured them of arresting the culprit within a couple of days. The police has registered a criminal case under section 302 of the IPC against the accused who is reported to be absconding so far. |
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Open darbars
Jind, April 10 According to the district authorities, these darbars will be held at district and sub-divisional levels every month and it will be presided over by the Deputy Commissioner. A darbar will be held on every Wednesday at the district headquarters and for sub-divisional matters of Jind subdivision, a darbar will be held at all subdivisions in the district. The day for such an event at Narwana will be the first Friday of each month, whereas at Safidon it will be on second Friday. City Magistrate Subhash Sihag said here yesterday that the heads of all departments of the district would be present in every darbar. |
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Villagers rue police inaction
Rewari, April 10 They said it was all the more agonising that when the name of the suspect had already been conveyed to the police, it was still groping in the dark. They met DSP Mahender Singh and sought prompt and effectual action in the matter.
— OC |
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