Sirsa, May 28
After crossing swords in the municipal polls, the Congress and the INLD are again pitted against each other in the Zila Parishad polls.

Polling for Zila Parishad zones falling under Sirsa, Baragura, Dabwali and Odhan administrative blocks is to be held on June 6, while votes for zones falling under Rania, Ellenabad and Chopta blocks will be cast on June 12. The INLD that scored a thumping victory over the Congress in the elections for the Sirsa Municipal Council took was the first to announce its list of candidates for all 21 zones of the Zila Parishad elections last week. All except two of its candidates are now contesting the poll on the symbol of “jeep”. Abhey Singh Khod contesting from zone 14 has been allotted “pitcher” and Ved Prakash contesting from zone 19 “butterfly”.

The INLD list has some heavyweights like Dr Sita Ram, a two-time MLA, who also contested the parliamentary elections last year.

Local Congress leaders, who first appeared disinterested in contesting the polls on the party basis, released a list of candidates for all 21 wards of the Zila Parishad last evening.

Hoshiari Lal Sharma, who released the list on Thursday, said all factions had been taken into confidence before releasing the list. However, unlike the INLD, the Congress has failed to get a common election symbol for its candidates. “It barely makes a difference. Alter all, people vote for persons and parties and not for the symbols,” maintained Sharma.

The Congress list too has some heavyweights like Suresh Mehta, a former president of the District Bar Association, and Darshan Indora, younger brother of former MP Dr Sushil Indora. Abhey Singh Chautala, the INLD MLA from Ellenabad, who spearheaded his party campaign in the municipal polls, is again leading the party fight in the Zila Parishad polls.

Abhey Singh was elected to the Zila Parishad during the last elections and was president of the Sirsa Zila Parishad before he contested the Ellenabad byelection.

Padam Jain, president of the district unit of the INLD, claimed the party would win all 21 seats.The Congress too is confident of a win with Sharma claiming that the party would get a majority of seats.

Sonepat, May 28
After withdrawal of 55 nominations yesterday , as many as 205 candidates are left in the fray in 24 wards of the Sonepat Zila Parishad.

According to the DC-cum-District Electoral Officer, Ajit Joshi, polling for the three-tier panchayati raj institutions in villages falling in the Gohana, Murlana, Kathura and Gannaur blocks will take place on June 6. Voters in Sonepat, Kharkhoda and Rai blocks will cast their vote on June 12.

The results of gram panchayat elections will be announced soonafter whereas the counting of votes for block samitis and zila parishads will commence on June 14. — OC

Sirsa, May 28
The INLD today accused minister Gopal Kanda and his younger brother Gobind Kanda of attempting to “poach” five councillors by offering them money, a charge denied vehemently by Kanda.

Abhey Singh Chautala, INLD MLA from Ellenabad, today produced five newly elected councillors owing allegiance to his party and alleged that money ranging from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh along with a government job for a family member had been offered to them.

Chautala alleged that his councillors have been threatened with dire consequences when they refused to fall for the bait. Councillors Kamlesh Sachdeva, Chandro Devi, Om Parkash Sharma, Jaino Bai and Rajender Malhotra, gathered at the Chautala house here, told mediapersons that the minister’s brother and his confidants had approached them and made the offer.

They alleged that they were warned that the “government has wide powers” when they refused to respond to the offer. Abhey Singh said his party would approach the police to register criminal cases against Kanda and his men.

He claimed his party had the recording of the telephonic talk between Kanda and the councillors. The INLD workers would gherao the DC and the SP in case the authorities did not register cases on their complaint, he warned.

The INLD candidates had won from 19 wards of the 31 wards of the Sirsa Municipal Council, while Congress-supported candidates owing aallegience to the Kanda brothers had won from six wards.

Six other seats went to the Sirsa Vikas Manch, believed to be splinter group of the Congress. The divisions within the Congress had resulted in the victory of the INLD candidates.

The Kandas need the support of at least 10 more councillors if they are to install a municipal chief of their choice.

Gurgaon, May 28
Congress MP from Rohtak Deepender Singh Hooda has exhorted the local residents to put in collective efforts to check the problem of water table depletion in Gurgaon.

Instead of luring people with tall claims and hollow promises, Hooda put across his point in a straightforward manner.

“Without waiting for either the district administration or the government or any other organisation to take up the issue, every citizen should contribute for water conservation, then only our future generations will be able to get water,” the MP stated while addressing a GIREM Gurgaon summit on infrastructure, business and energy connect organised at Epicentre in Sector 44 here late last evening.

Referring to the 20-point agenda prepared by the organisers for making Gurgaon a city of their dreams, Hooda said instead of taking up all 20 points simultaneously, one issue should be focused upon at a time.

“The top priority, as of now, should be to address the problem of water table depletion,” he said, adding that in Gurgaon and nearby areas, the exploitation of underground water was 300 per cent more than the seepage rate.

“This means that against one litre of water that goes into the earth, we are extracting three litres from it. Gurgaon does not have any perennial source of water and presently depends on the Yamuna, in which water has been decreasing at the rate of 5 per cent per year for the past nearly 20 years,” the MP pointed out.

He asserted that in the given circumstances, concrete steps like rainwater harvesting and other water-sustainable efforts were the need of the day.

Hooda appealed to the gathering comprising builders, realtors and industrialists, to help build a mass movement on the issue so that the people realised the gravity of the problem and played a proactive role.

Earlier, Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Rajender Kataria inaugurated the summit in the afternoon.

In the evening session, Gurgaon Police Commissioner Surjeet Singh Deswal deliberated on the law and order situation and appealed the people to follow traffic rules and help in solving the problem of traffic congestion in the city.

SDM (Gurgaon-South) Naresh Narwal, Ramesh Sanka from DLF, Subinder Khurana from the Cyber City Society and Shyam Sunder from GIREM were also present.

Jind, May 28
Even as the authorities concerned claim to have launched a drive to control the menace of water-borne diseases in the town, at least six more patients with similar symptoms reported at the Civil Hospital here today.

Meanwhile, officials of the Public Health and Engineering Department snapped 10 water connections after these were found to be leaking, resulting in the contamination of water in the local Bakshi Mohalla, Jhanj Gate and Ram Rai Gate areas.

One person had died due to diarrhoea in the district a few days ago.

Even though the district authorities claim to have taken a slew of measures to control water-borne diseases, more cases continue to pour in from several pockets of the city.

Some cases have been reported at private clinics with persons complaining of symptoms related to diarrhoea.

According to sources, while six such patients came to the OPD of the Civil Hospital today, the number of such patients in private hospitals could not be ascertained as there is no agency to coordinate such figures.

The authorities have already started distributing chlorine tablets in various localities free of cost and over three lakh tablets have 
already been given.

They have also set up special teams of doctors and paramedical staff in some affected colonies. The sources said the pipes carrying drinking water had rusted in some places, resulting in the contamination of water, which could be the root cause of the diseases.

Faridabad, May 28
The Centre has finally agreed to release the last tranche of its share of funds for the construction of houses for the rehabilitation of slumdwellers in Faridabad under the Jawaharalal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

The houses are being constructed under two projects, one in Bapu Nagar and the other in Dabua colony.

Nearly 90 per cent of the construction work on these projects has been completed. Work had to be stopped a few months ago as the Centre declined to release its share of funds due to lapses on the part of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF).

The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation agreed to release the funds at a meeting with officials of the Haryana government and the MCF in Delhi recently.

As per the plan, 50 per cent of the project cost was to be borne by the Centre. The state government was to bear 20 per cent and the MCF had to share 30 per cent of the cost burden. However, the MCF got into a financial crisis and allegedly failed to meet its obligation for several months.

The cost of the project is about Rs 64 crore. The last tranche of the Central government is Rs 8 crore.

According to Commissioner of the MCF Mahtab Singh Sehrawat, the possession of the dwelling units would be given to the intended beneficiaries within three months.

Panipat, May 28
The Assandh Road Beopar Mandal has decided to move court against encroachers in the market, who, despite being reminded many times, have failed to vacate government land.

The land along the Assandh road had been leased out by the Wakf Board for 99 years to a number of persons, who constructed houses and shops there about 37 years ago.

However, after 1996, when the government got a railway overbridge constructed here, no space was left along the bridge for service lanes as most of the land had been encroached upon by shopkeepers.

This affected the shopkeepers’ business, who after putting up a strong resistance for a while, finally decided to surrender 5 ft of land in front of their shops for the construction of service lanes, which could revive their business. Though most of the shopkeepers voluntarily surrendered the land, some continued to occupy the land illegally.

The beopar mandal tried to convince those who did not surrender the land, but in vain. In the meantime, it was discovered that the land actually belonged to the government and according to the revenue records there was an 82.5 ft wide road there, which eventually had been reduced to 55 ft following encroachments.

In 2002, the beopar mandal, along with officials of the district administration, initiated a process to remove the encroachments. However, one of the shopkeepers filed a petition in court seeking a stay on the demolition.

The civil judge, in an order passed in November 2006, denied the stay, stating that government land had been encroached upon and the applicant was not entitled to any relief.

However, the court stated that the beopar mandal had no right to take law in its own hands and it could not be allowed to interfere with the land which was in possession of the applicant even in the encroached area.

A shopkeeper said on condition of anonymity that most of the shopkeepers had willingly surrendered the land, but there were few because of whom the whole market was suffering for the past 15 years. He said the mandal felt that keeping in view the orders passed by a district court, the encroachments could only be removed through court orders for which it had been decided to move a PIL in the High Court.

Meanwhile, due to the encroachments, the Assandh road, one of the most used roads in the city, witnesses frequent traffic jams, causing a lot of inconvenience to commuters.

Karnal, May 28
The Karnal police today registered a case of murder in connection with the mysterious death of a jail inmate yesterday after the postmortem report confirmed that he was hit on the head and strangled to death.

The FIR was lodged by Superintendent of the Karnal jail Jagjit Singh. The case has been registered against some unknown persons under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC, according to police sources.

The jail inmate, Pratap Singh, undergoing 10 years’ sentence for rape, was found dead near the jail wall yesterday morning and it is suspected that he died in the wee hours yesterday.

Pratap Singh, who got a two-and-a-half-year remission in the sentence, had almost completed the jail term and was to be released after two months.

The police suspects that the murder could be the result of some old enmity.

Meanwhile, the police has arrested two of the five persons who allegedly attacked a witness, Puran Singh, in the court complex yesterday with swords, axe and lathis.

Both arrested - Ranjit Singh and Gagan Singh - were produced in a local court and remanded in two days’ police custody.

Kurukshetra, May 28
Kurukshetra University instituted a peace award of Rs 1 lakh in the name of noted philanthropist Ram S Goyal from the next session.

Hailing from Jind, Goyal, who died recently, had instituted Goyal prizes to promote science since 2000 and a large number of scientists had received these awards.

The peace award was instituted due to the efforts of Akshima, wife of late Ram S Goyal, who flew from California and presented a cheque of Rs 10 lakh to Kurukshetra University. The cheque was received by registrar Prof Raghvendra Tanwar on behalf of the university here today.

Seven scientists were selected this year to receive the Goyal Prize for their outstanding contribution in different disciplines of science.

Prof Tanwar expressed gratitude to the Goyal family for making it possible for the university to honour senior scientists of the country with the Goyal prizes in recognition of their contribution to science.

Sonepat, May 28
Junior engineer Pawan Kumar and draftsman Sat Narain of the local municipal council have been placed under suspension by DC Ajit Joshi after finding irregularities in approval given to building plans.

Maps for buildings not constructed in accordance with the rules were being okayed by the two. The DC has now directed the council that applications for approval of building plans be sent straight to the SDM’s office which would forward it to the DC’s office within two days with remarks.

After examining the plan, the application would be sent back to the council by the DC’s office.

If approved by the latter, the council would put its seal on the building plan.

An NOC would be issued after ensuring that construction was in accordance with the approved building plan.