Chandigarh, May 24
Following in the footsteps of other political leaders, national secretary of the BJP Abhimanyu, who belongs to Haryana, today supported the demand of khap panchayats for an amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act to ban same-gotra marriages. His language was, of course, guarded.

He said though the Act had taken care of the issue by virtue of the provision that local customary laws would prevail over the Act, yet if a demand was made for its amendment, the government must consider it.

Blaming the media for the khap controversy, Abhimanyu said the media seemed to be in a hurry to project the khaps and a particular community in a bad light. He said the khaps derived power from society and if society isolated these, they would be bereft of their power. He went on to highlight the role of the khap panchayats during the first war of Independence in 1857 as well as their role in maintaining a code of conduct when there were no written laws. Asked to be more specific on his stand on the khaps, the BJP leader said it was his personal view as well as that of his party that customary laws must be respected.

On the performance of the UPA government, which has completed a year in power, Abhimanyu said though in the parliamentary form of government the Cabinet functioned on the principle of collective responsibility, the Prime Minister was driving a vehicle, with its wheels moving in different directions.

He claimed that the Cabinet had never been so “loose” in the country as it was under Manmohan Singh. Various ministers spoke in different languages on policy matters, whether it was on the Naxal problem or the country’s China policy.

The Manmohan Singh government, he said, had been reduced to a minority within a year of its existence and the government had to “misuse” the CBI to “manage” its survival during the cut motion in the Lok Sabha.

Referring to the alleged corruption in the allocation of 2G spectrum, the BJP leader said Manmohan Singh was helpless in taking action against the guilty minister because for him integrity was not as important as the survival of his government. 

Sirsa, May 24
In the din of support to khap panchayats by several leaders of mainstream political parties in Haryana, finally a dissenting voice has dared to take on khaps as well as their diktats.

The voice that has challenged the khaps as well as the political leaders supporting these is Pratap Singh Chautala, a former MLA from Haryana.Younger brother of the INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala, Pratap Singh has spared none, including his own clan - Naveen Jindal, Shadi Lal Batra and even Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda - for taking a stand with the vote bank of the khaps in mind.

“A lot of mockery of the Constitution has been made in Haryana, making the state a laughing stock. If the government fails to wake up and curb the activities of the khaps now, the social fabric of the state will be jeopardised, leading to lawlessness,” said Pratap Singh.

Accusing his brother Om Prakash Chautala of raking the issue of an amendment to the marriage laws with the vote bank of the khaps in mind, Pratap Singh alleged that leaders of the ruling Congress had also fallen into Chautala’s trap and those like Naveen Jindal, Shadi Lal Batra and Dharamvir Singh had been leaving no stone unturned to vouch their support to the khaps.

The Chief Minister, he said, had been playing safe and doing a tightrope walk on this issue.

The former MLA alleged that at a time when the grip of khap panchayats was getting loose due to some good decisions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chautala had done a great damage to society for his vote bank politics and even ruling party politicians had shamefully bowed before the khaps in their endeavour to score over the INLD supremo. Pratap Singh appealed to the Jat community living in the Deswali belt of Haryana, the heartland of khaps, to see reason and differentiate between gotra, which is decided by blood relation, and brotherhood.

“If we go by the diktats of the khap panchayats, not only Om Prakash Chautala, his two sons but the the entire Chautala village, including me, will face banishment,” Pratap Singh maintained.

Faridabad, May 24
The local industry is reeling under an acute shortage of power. The situation has deteriorated in the past couple of months. This has adversely affected their production, hitting profit margins.

President of the Faridabad Industries Association(FIA) Sajjan Kumar Jain alleged that on an average the industry was not getting more than six to eight hours of power supply, which was far less than that required to run units at their optimal level.

An office-bearer of the FIA claimed that the industrial production had fallen by about 20 per cent due to the power shortage.

Jain said the industry should get at least 15 hours of power supply to compete in the global market.

Owners of industrial units alleged that though officially the industry was being provided power from 9 am to 5 pm (eight hours), on an average the supply tripped twice during this period, which affected production for more than two hours. Besides, there were frequent fluctuations.

They added that the transformers had become outdated.

They alleged that power officials were unresponsive to their complaints. Besides, consumers were never given information about the power supply position.

Faridabad is an industrialised zone, and according to one estimate, 70 per cent of the units are into manufacturing, which are highly power driven.

GC Narang, who heads the power panel of the FIA, said the units used “captive power source” like capital-intensive generator sets to keep their production going for an additional five hours.

However, this was highly expensive as the per unit cost of power generated by gen sets worked about to about Rs 11. The cost of power per unit supplied by the department was about Rs 5.

Mirchpur (Hisar), May 24
Life in this dusty hamlet rocked by violence on April 21 is fast returning to normal. The affected Dalit families are in the process of settling down. Their houses damaged in the arson are being repaired, the district administration having given them the necessary amount for the purpose.

Deputy Commissioner Yudhvir Singh Khyalia said the affected families had been given the option to get the repairs done themselves or through government agencies. Progress in this regard was being monitored on a daily basis by a team of officials.

He said life had returned to normal in the village and harmony among different communities restored. All differences had been sorted out. Compensation to the affected families had been paid and material as well as logistic support provided. The village had a strong police presence and a police contingent would stay put there for as long as necessary. Sona Devi, a Dalit, said her family now had no fear.

“The village bhaichara has been restored. We are happy here. Memories of the violence too have begun to fade,” she added. Another resident of the village, Dilbagh said:

“The dissensions have disappeared. We now mingle freely with others. Our womenfolk move around without any fear. There is no feeling of insecurity anymore.”

Meanwhile, a team of the National Human Rights Commission visited the village today to take stock of the situation. The team met the affected families and interacted with other villagers too.

Sonepat, May 24
Praveen, student of local SM Hindu Senior Secondary School, has topped the Haryana Board of School Education, Bhiwani, by securing 481 out of 500 marks in Class XII examinations.

Harinder of the same school secured the fourth position with 471 marks. Last year too, a student from the school had topped the board examinations.

According to the school authorities, all 432 students passed the examination and 404 of them got more than 60 per cent marks. 

Jind, May 24
Two girl students of the district have made it to the All-India Pre-Medical Entrance Test this year. While Savita of Gurdwara Colony here has attained 182nd rank, another student Poonam of Housing Board Colony secured 720th rank in the exam in which thousands of students from across the country appeared for securing admission in leading medical colleges in the country.

Savita, daughter of Kuldeep Singh, passed her Class XII examinations from Indus Public School with 88 per cent marks. Savita’s father is a political science teacher in a government school here. Poonam passed her Class XII exam from DAV Public School here. — TNS

Kaithal, May 24
Hundreds of men and women belonging to Dalit families from Songri village here continued their dharna for the fourth consecutive day outside the mini-secretariat here today demanding withdrawal of criminal cases and release of seven out of 16 persons arrested by the police in connection with the alleged murder of Bahadur Singh of the same village on April 24.

The protesters also demanded an impartial inquiry by a retired High Court judge in the whole episode leading to the death of Bahadur Singh and subsequent police action.

Demanding immediate release of innocent persons, the protesters today alleged that the police had arrested some innocent persons in connection with the case.

They said the names of Prem Singh, Naveen Kumar and Anil Kumar did not find mention even in the FIR and they lived in Kaithal town and Dilbagh and Balwant of Songri named in the FIR were not even present when the incident took place then also they had been arrested.

A number of residents of Songri supported this version by filing affidavits, copies of which were given to mediapersons.

Two elderly persons - Sher Singh and Maan Singh - aged 85 and 80 years, respectively, had also been arrested in connection with the case. These persons pointed that the alleged murder that took place in Songri was preceded by a clash between two groups of Dalits in Dalit Basti in the village on April 25. Bahadur Singh belonging to the Jat community reached Dalit Basti and after the clash it was noticed that Bahadur Singh was lying unconscious at the clash site.

He was taken to the Civil Hospital, from where he was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh, where he succumbed to his injuries. His body was brought to Songri on April 26.

On a complaint lodged by a nephew of the deceased, the police registered cases under Sections 148, 149, 323 and 302 of the IPC against Dalits and later arrested 16 persons in connection with the case. Villagers also resorted to blockade in which some Haryana Roadways buses were damaged.

A group of protesters had called on SSP Sandeep Khirwar and demanded the release of innocent persons. The SSP told them that the arrests had been made on the basis of the FIR and subsequent investigation and law will take its own course and assured that no innocent person would be harassed.

Meanwhile, protesters said they would continue their agitation till their demand was not met. They also threatened to launch and intensify the agitation in other parts of the state if their demand was not met.

Kaithal, May 24
Libraries and books play an important role in bringing about a social change. This was stated by Randeep Singh Surjewala, state PWD and Public Health Engineering Minister, after laying the foundation stone of a district library building to be constructed at a cost of Rs 1.26 crore on the land adjoining Jawahar Park here yesterday.

Surjewala said: “By reading books one gets information on a wide range of subjects related to history, religion, economics and past and present social setup.” He said the construction works on the library building would be completed within nine months. Internet facility would also be provided in the library so that readers could get information on national and international affairs.

Earlier, the minister heard public grievances at Kisan Bhawan here and directed officials of various departments to address public complaints speedily. He asked PWD officers to keep roads in good condition and public health officials were given instructions to ensure sufficient water supply.

Faridabad, May 24
Five women workers in an industrial unit here fainted while 36 of their colleagues, including a man, complained of giddiness following which they were taken to the local Sarvodaya Hospital.

The incident occurred at Shahi Export, an industrial unit involved in garment business and located in Sector 28. The unit had come into operation about three months ago.

Many of those hospitalised were discharged after a few hours. All of them are likely to be discharged by tomorrow.

Hospital sources said the workers felt giddiness due to less oxygen. Owner of the industrial unit Harish Ahuja could not be contacted. There were about 400 workers on duty at the time of the incident. SHO Abhey Singh said although there was enough ventilation on the three floors, there were not enough water coolers and fans. He said it appeared that the workers fainted due to high temperature. — TNS

Sirsa, May 24
The police today arrested a man for attempting to rape his six-year-old daughter at Panjuana village last night.

The victim’s mother lodged a complaint with the police in this regard. In her statement, the woman said her husband, Bansi Lal (30), was sleeping with their daughter, while she was sleeping with their three-year-old son on a separate bed.

She woke up on hearing the shrieks of her daughter past midnight and found her husband trying to rape her. She raised the alarm and soon other members of the family rushed to the room and rescued the girl.