New Delhi, May 31
The Supreme Court today directed the Hisar Deputy Commissioner to appear before it on Wednesday with “all relevant facts” over the April 21 attack on Dalits at Mirchpur village in Haryana.

A Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and CK Prasad also issued notice to the Haryana government seeking its response to a PIL filed by some of the victims.The court asked the Deputy Commissioner to take instructions from the state on the issue of rehabilitation of about 150 persons belonging to the Balmiki community “who are said to have been victims of upper castes”.

The court rejected the preliminary objections raised by the Haryana government, describing these as “absolutely irrelevant.”

Clarifying that the court was going only by the affidavits filed by some of the victims and not by newspaper reports, the Bench asked the state counsel to take instructions from the Haryana government.

The atrocities had resulted in the death of two persons belonging to the backward community while 150 persons had left the village fearing for their lives, the court observed.

Panipat, May 31
Enraged over repeated objections by his wife to his drinking habit, a 35-year-old labourer attacked his family with a spade, killing his four-year-old son and leaving his wife and two daughters injured.

Pudiana, a migrant labourer from Bihar, who had shifted to Israna segment in the district a few years ago along with his family to work at a brick-kiln, wreaked havoc on his family after his wife Tara (32) confronted him for taking excessive liquor daily.

The police said the incident took place on the premises of the brick-kiln where Pudiana worked.

The accused got hold of a spade and hit his four-year-old son Goga with it repeateddly, killing him on the spot.

He then attacked his wife and two daughters. While his wife sustained serious injuries, the daughters escaped with minor bruises.

Hearing the commotion, other workers of the brick-kiln rushed to his hutment and somehow managed to rescue his wife and daughters from his fury.

They overpowered Pudiana and grabbed the spade used by him in the attack. The injured were rushed to the local Civil Hospital.

As the matter was reported to the police, a team of officials reached the spot, but by then Pudiana had managed to flee from the crime scene, leaving a trail of blood.

The police said a case had been registered against the Pudiana and efforts were on to arrest him.The body of the four-year-old boy was taken to the Civil Hospital for a postmortem.

The incident left many shaken.

Sirsa, May 31
Students, who came to appear in the MA (Hindi) examination in the local Government National PostGraduate College conducted by Kurukshetra University, were taken by surprise when they were informed that their question papers had not arrived from the university. The examinees waited for their question papers as the college authorities rang up the university authorities for the remedy.

Finally, the problem was sorted out, when the college authorities managed a copy of the question paper on fax and distributed its photostat copies among students.

However, by the time the question papers reached in the hands of the students, one hour had already lapsed.

“This is not for the first time that this has happened. We have been facing this problem almost on alternate days,” complained Dr Suman Gulab, Principal of the college.

“Earlier, we did not receive a single question paper for BBA students. There are such complaints in other colleges too,” she added and said she would send a written complaint to the university in this regard.

Dr Gulab complained that the fax machine of the college was out of order and they had to receive fax messages at PCOs that involved the risk of paper leak.

Vijaya Tomar, Principal of CMK National PG College, confirmed that the examination centre at her college did not receive question papers of MA (economics).

“We had to make an arrangement by sending a special messenger,” she added.

Dr Raghvender Tanwar, Registrar of Kurukshetra University, said it was a serious matter and he would get it examined.

YP Goswami, Controller of Examinations of the university, however, maintained that the university was conducting examinations at 170 centres and they were not facing any problems.

Jind, May 31
The inability of the district police to make any breakthrough so far in solving the triple murder case at Khokri village in the district has left the Kandela Khap enraged. A khap delegation, which met the SSP here today, issued an ultimatum to the district administration either to arrest the culprits by June 9 or face a widespread agitation. The khap has announced to meet at Kandela village on June 9 to discuss the issue. The police has already announced a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh for anyone providing clues in the case.

The khap delegation, led by Tek Ram Kandela, expressed its dissatisfaction over the delay in arresting the culprits who had lynched three women, including two minor girls, to death in their sleep at their house on the intervening night of May 9 and 10. The bodies of Mukesh (30) and two nieces identified as Seema (16) and Tamanna (10) had been found in a pool of blood while Gaurav, seven-year-old son of Mukesh had survived the attack with injuries.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was among those who had visited the victims’ family. The police has been unable to make any arrest of the culprits, said a member of the khap delegation.

The SSP and the DC had assured a positive result soon when khap members and the kin of the victims had blocked the main road here on May 20, and demanded to solve the case soon or face an agitation.

The police requisitioned the services of dog squad and finger print experts, but could not get any hard evidence about the suspects so far. According to village sources, there might be involvement of some persons close to the family.

Several politicians, including former Haryana Minister Mange Ram Gupta and HJC leader Kuldeep Bishnoi, visited the spot and condemned the police failure on this account.

Faridabad, May 31
Justice AK Mittal, judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, today launched a welfare scheme for women and children victims in an effort to strengthen and humanise the criminal justice system.

The scheme was the first of its kind in the country, which would be implemented under the aegis of the District Legal Aid Authority, headed by District and Sessions Judge BB Prasoon. The scheme is in consonance of a 1995-judgement of the Supreme Court.

The scheme has been launched to provide moral and legal strength to women and children victims, who visit police stations to register their complaints about crime against them. They feel out of place in the presence of police officials.

Also, a number of incidents in the country suggested that the personnel at police stations filter the facts presented by women and children victims jeopardising the entire judicial process, thwarting the very justice to them in the process.

The filtered statements extenuates the gravity of the crime and weakens the prosecution against the accused, denying justice to victims in the end.

As per the scheme, launched at a function in which top civil and police authorities of the district were present along with members from the public and legal fraternity, female advocates have been attached to all police stations in Faridabad district. Justice Mittal lauded the scheme and said it would go a long way in strengthening the criminal administration.

Justice Mittal, who is also an Administrative Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for Faridabad Session Division, which comprises revenue districts of Faridabad and Palwal districts, later inaugurated a hospital in the district Jail.

He also launched a control room in a jail, which will facilitate video conferencing of under trials with the courts concerned.

Chandigarh, May 31
As many as 63.98 lakh voters will exercise their franchise on June 6 and 12 to elect 3,971 sarpanches and 38,596 panches in 13 districts of Haryana.

Stating this here today, State Election Commissioner Dharam Vir said 12,566 polling booths had been set up for the panchayat elections.

Besides the sarpanches and panches, 1,792 members of panchayat samitis and 244 members of zila parishads would also be elected through this election process.

He said foolproof arrangements of security, electricity and water had been made at all polling booths. Additional security arrangements had also been made at sensitive and hypersensitive polling stations.

To ensure fair and peaceful conduct of panchayat elections, arrangements of supervisors and police teams had been made in such a manner that they might patrol each polling booth every hour and could reach a polling booth within 10 to 15 minutes in case of any unexpected incident, he added.

Dharam Vir appealed to all voters to exercise their franchise in the elections to elect village representatives, as panchayat elections were the base of a democracy.

Polling for panchayat elections would start at 7. 30 am and continue till 4 pm in the state.

He directed all deputy commissioners and superintendents of police that close relatives of candidates should not be put on election duty to ensure fair elections.

Hisar, May 31
The local police and the fire brigade today conducted a mock drill to control fire at the local oil depot where national oil companies store petrol and diesel.

The drill was part of the exercises ordered to be conducted at sensitive places by the Director-General of Police (CID), Haryana.

The local fire station was informed of the fire at the depot. It responded to the call and fire engines reached the depot speedily. Firemen, employees of oil companies and policemen coordinated the fire-control exercise.

The fire was controlled easily. One employee of the oil depot, who had fainted, was provided first aid at the spot. Senior officials of the oil companies were also involved in the exercise.

Superintendent of Police Subhash Yadav said more such mock drills would be conducted at other sensitive places in the district soon to keep the entire machinery prepared for meeting any eventuality.

Gurgaon, May 31
Magsaysay awardee Rajender Singh, who was instrumental in overcoming the acute scarcity of water in the Alwar area of Rajasthan, today suggested that the conservation of rainwater should be made mandatory by the state government.

Addressing a seminar on “Save water, save earth” here today, Rajender Singh asserted that discipline in the use of water was a must for its conservation. He suggested a water-budgeting system to measure the exact amount of rainfall and quantity of water poured into the earth and advised the state government to focus on community-driven decentralised water management system and form its river policy.

“The government’s policies and programmes cannot succeed until the community plays a proactive role in water conservation,” he maintained.

The president of the Haryana chapter of the Indian Council of Social Welfare, Asha Hooda, said water conservation was a collective responsibility of all and everybody should contribute his mite for the noble cause in the larger interest.