Chandigarh, June 27
Eight months after former Finance Minister Birender Singh lost the Haryana Vidhan Sabha elections, he’s back in business. The Congress high command today cleared his name for the Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana, ending his political exile.

Jat leader Birender Singh, known better for his “freestyle” speech and hard talk, is expected to file his nomination papers on June 29 at the Haryana Vidhan Sabha in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president Phool Chand Mullana.

Though Birender Singh’s candidature was almost certain right from the beginning with the CM’s detractors, including Union Minister Selja lobbying hard for him, a number of other names like Mullana’s were doing the rounds in the run-up to the decision.

Sources maintain that though Birender Singh’s name had been cleared almost a week ago by the party high command, the party was awaiting the arrival of the Congress in charge of Haryana affairs, Prithvi Raj Chavan, who was abroad, before making it public.

Sources said Birender Singh, a five-time MLA and one-time MP, who ruffled quite a few feathers in state politics in his last term as Finance Minister with his plain speaking, was informed of his “selection” this afternoon.

Having earned the sobriquet of “tragedy king” for all his “missed chances” in politics, Birender Singh lost the 2009 Vidhan Sabha elections to Om Prakash Chautala by a narrow margin of 621 votes from the Uchana Kalan Assembly seat in Jind.

In one of the biggest battles of the election, Birender Singh lost his seat at a time when he was aspiring to be the Chief Minister if the Congress returned to power and had even openly made his intentions known.

Following his defeat, he went into hibernation for a while before re-emerging on the political scene and was “accommodated” in the state coordination committee, constituted by the party high command to act as a bridge between the party and the government as also to monitor the functioning of the latter.

He was later given a couple of other assignments, including a say in decision-making for ticket-distribution in Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

However, after his defeat in the Assembly elections, rehabilitation as a Rajya Sabha MP had become almost mandatory to provide him with a platform to remain politically “alive and kicking”. Sources maintain that the CM camp, too, subsequently supported his candidature since it was keen to see him move out of the state politics and “out of their hair”.

While the Congress has cleared the name of its party nominee for the one Rajya Sabha seat that has fallen in its kitty, the Indian National Lok Dal, the other major political party of the state, is likely to finalise the name of its party nominee for the second vacant seat by tomorrow after a meeting of its MLAs.

The two Rajya Sabha seats in the state had fallen vacant following the retirement of Tarlochan Singh and the resignation of Ajay Singh Chautala.

Panipat, June 27
Afraid of the stiff resistance to their love affair, two lovers of different castes today ended their lives by jumping before a train at the Railway crossing near Siwah in Panipat district, the railway police said.

Tina (18) from Lohar caste and her lover Deepak (25) from the Saini community, hailing from Dhera village, were having an affair for the past one and a half years. However, opposition to inter-caste marriage by their family members drove them to commit suicide. Deepak used to run a shop in the village.

Their bodies were handed over to their family members after a postmortem, GRP officials said.

According to the Samalkha police, Tina and Deepak, whose houses were opposite to each other, had disappeared from the village on June 17. Tina’s father Krishan Lohar had lodged a complaint against Deepak and another local resident Anil at the Samalkha police station on June 18, accusing them of luring his daughter with a promise of marriage.

The railway police also recovered a bag from the site that contained four photographs and some receipts of hotel in Hardwar, which indicated that they might have stayed in some hotel after leaving the village.

The Samalkha police arrested Anil and produced him in a local court, which remanded him in 14 days of judicial custody.

The reflection of the gruesome incident was not visible on the faces of villagers and even the father of the girl was not aggrieved. “She saved the honour of the family by committing suicide and it is good for the family,” some villagers were heard saying.

Even the father of the girl looked unrepentant. “It may not be case of honour killing, but certainly the fear of honour killing drove them to death,” said an upset local shopkeeper.

The police said investigations were in progress and more information would be available after the postmortem report. 

Rohtak, June 27
Mystery shrouds the death of an 18-year-old girl two days ago. The police so far has not been able to reach any conclusion over the suspense over her death. While the family claims that the girl committed suicide, the hurry shown in cremating her without informing the police has raised suspicion that it could also be a case of honour killing. The case has been handed over to the CIA for a detailed probe.

Body of the girl, identified as Shalini (18), was retrieved by the police recently from Gurgaon after she had gone missing from her house in Shivaji Colony here. Though a complaint had been lodged with the police with the suspicion of two youths being involved in it, the police was, however, able to recover Shalini from Gurgaon recently. She was handed over to her family after being produced in the court where she claimed that she had gone to find a job there and nobody had abducted her.

But the police got stumped when it was revealed that the girl recovered a day before died the next day and cremated by the family at her paternal village of Kharkara. However, doubts were raised when the family neither told the police about the incident nor took the body for a postmortem examination.

Meanwhile, Shalini’s father has claimed that she had committed suicide and was cremated in the knowledge of the village panchayat and family members.

There has been no complaint of any kind from any one so far in this case and the police was still to get any clue regarding the possibility of an “honour” killing.

The villagers are been silent over the incident and have not provided any inputs so far. 

Sirsa, June 27
The Haryana Public Service Commission has refused to provide breakup of marks awarded in the selection process of veterinary surgeons (HVS-II), results of which were announced in February this year.

The HPSC had advertised 125 posts of veterinary surgeons in February 2009 and interviews for these posts were held in June and September 2009.

The commission had recommended the selection of 78 general category candidates and 13 BC candidates against equal number of vacancies.

Against six posts reserved for the ex-servicemen and three for physically handicapped, the commission received two applications each and while both candidates in the former category were lucky to get appointments, only one was selected from the latter category.

However, against 25 seats reserved for the SC category, the commission could find only 13 candidates suitable for selection, though 21 applied against this category.

Two of the eight rejected candidates from the SC category, Dr Ravi Dutt and Dr Ram Niwas, held MVSc degrees with distinction, besides having passed their BVSc degrees in the first division.

Among the 13 candidates from the SC category selected by the HPSC, only two candidates, Dr Narender Khetak and Dr Rajvinder Kaur, had postgraduate degrees, while others were simply graduates.

Unable to digest their rejection despite having better academic record than those selected by the commission, both Dr Ravi Dutt and Dr Ram Niwas have been making attempts to know reasons for their rejection by seeking information under the RTI Act, but without much success.

In a recent information sought by Dr Ram Niwas for supply of details of marks obtained by successful candidates under various heads, including the academic qualification, experience, research, publication and interview, the state public information officer of the HPSC has said the breakup of marks, as sought by the applicant, cannot be supplied.

Replying to an earlier application, the HPSC had supplied total marks secured by the candidate, without giving the breakup.

“Sixty out of 100 marks were reserved for interview. However, the HPSC is reluctant to provide the details of marks given to successful candidates in interviews,” alleged Dr Ravi Dutt, who secured 29 marks out of which 19 were for academic qualifications and 5 for publication and research.

He said the HPSC should at least make its position clear because the total marks shown against his name indicate that he got five out 60 marks in interview, while many of those much lower to him in academic merits got as high as 42 out of 60.

Both the veterinarians alleged that the expert, who interviewed the candidates, possessed a degree lower than them. However, the HPSC has refused to part with information on this issue on the plea that the information was available with the state government alone.

Rewari, June 27
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda felicitated Padma Shri Dr SS Yadav for providing medical assistance to rural poor while addressing audience at the annual day function of the Meerpur Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS) at Meerpur village, 10 km from here, today.

He said it was creditable that latest treatment was being given to cancer patients at the MIMS where a nursing school as well as a postgraduate course in orthopedic surgery had been running as well.

The CM also called upon the doctors to launch an awareness campaign for the benefit of the patients. Enumerating various measures taken by the state government to provide better health services to the poor and needy persons in rural areas, Hooda said while the National Rural Health Mission had boosted rural health services, over 40 lakh health cards had been made available to children up to the age of 18 years under the Indira Bal Swasthya Yojna and a Rs 1,500 crore mega programme had been launched to strengthen intrinsic infrastructure for health services.

Stating that Haryana was among the few pioneer states in the matter of implementing the National Health Insurance Scheme, he said nearly 5.5 lakh BPL families had already been covered under the scheme.

Regarding steps taken to provide a fillip to medical education, the CM said while the PGIMS, Rohtak, had already been converted into a university, AIIMS-II was being developed at Badsa in Jhajjar district and a women’s medical college at Khanpur Kalan, a medical college in Mewat district, Kalapna Chawala Medical College in Karnal and ESI Medical College at Faridabad were on the anvil as well.

Fatehabad, June 27
Former Haryana minister and Congress MLA Sampat Singh today ridiculed Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s demand of royalty on Ravi-Beas waters and said the demand not only defied logic but also was futile attempt to play to the gallery.

“Royalty is a payment made to people or state who has invented things, owners of property, land or devices used by others or a royal right over minerals and oils granted by a sovereign to a person,” Sampat Singh said in a statement, pooh-poohing Badal’s contention on the issue.

He said water, like air, flows from places to places under the effect of natural forces and was not guided by persons or governments.

He, however, said any efforts made towards conservation, carriage and distribution of waters could be compensated. He said Punjab’s claim of royalty was all the more ludicrous because none of the rivers passing through that state originated from there.

Even the dams, reservoirs, catchments areas and tributaries of the Sutlej and Beas did not fall in Punjab except for some part of Ranjit Sagar Dam on Ravi, he added.

Sampat Singh reminded the Punjab Chief Minister that even India got its rights over waters of the three rivers by signing Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan and paid Rs 110 crore as a fixed contribution.

He said perhaps Badal had raised this bogey in an attempt to come out of the embarrassment his government faced from the Planning Commission’s criticism over supply of free power to the farm sector. He said even the hill states could not claim royalty though all rivers originated from their areas as water was a moving asset. He said rather than demanding royalty from Haryana, Punjab should pay to Haryana the charges for water being illegally diverted towards it by not completing the SYL canal.

Chandigarh, June 27
A five-Judge Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled appointment to the posts of public prosecutor by direct recruitment is permissible in law.

The ruling came on a reference forwarded to the Full Bench on May 24, 1995, by a three-judge Bench, while taking up a bunch of petitions by AK Ahlawat and others against the State of Haryana and others.

Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal, Justice MM Kumar, Justice Jasbir Singh, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Jitendra Chauhan observed the three-Judge Bench had made reference regarding the vires of Rule 9 of the Haryana State Prosecution Legal Service, group “A” and group “B” Rules, 1979. The rules provide for filling up of 25 per cent of the vacancies to the posts of district attorneys and deputy district attorneys by direct recruitment.

It was canvassed by the petitioners that Rule 9 being in sharp contrast to the provisions of Section 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was ultra vires. The petitioners were working as deputy district attorneys and assistant district attorneys in Haryana’s Prosecution Department.

The Bench observed: “On the recommendations of the Law Commission, Sections 24 and 25 were incorporated in the code to keep the prosecuting agency independent and free from the administrative and disciplinary control of the police. The sections were thereafter amended wef December 18, 1978.”

“The statement of objects and reasons of the Act of 1978 suggests the newly-added sub-section (6) of Section 24 was brought into force as an enabling provision for the appointment of public prosecutors or additional public prosecutors from amongst the regular cadre of such officers wherever it had been so constituted by the state government.”

The petitioners contended in view of sub-section (6), posts in the regular cadre of prosecuting officers, could be filled in by promotion only from amongst the deputy district attorneys-cum-additional public prosecutors and assistant district attorneys-cum-assistant public prosecutors.

The Bench held the appointment of a public prosecutor under Section 24 of the Code is “distinguishable from an appointment made against a post or public office within the meaning of Article 309 of the Constitution”. As such, the contention of the petitioners that there is an apparent cleavage between Section 24 of the Code and the Group ‘A’ & Group ‘B’ Rules is reduced to a mere armed-chair criticism, without any legal or factual support.

Panipat, June 27
The Union Textile Ministry has decided to prepare an action plan for effective implementation of various schemes launched for the development of the handloom sector and the welfare of weavers.

This was stated by State Union Minister Panabaaka Lakshmi, who visited one of the textile units here recently, where she saw live presentation on various aspects associated with the production of textiles in the industrial hub of the country.

The minister said there was not only a need to preserve the traditional skills of weaving but also upgrade the designs in a contemporary context to find a market both in the domestic as well as international arenas.

She said the union government was already providing full support through policy measures and with financial assistance for the purpose. She said the total outlay for the handloom sector had been substantially enhanced from Rs 340 crore to Rs 426 crore for 2010-11. She also called upon the state governments to take proactive steps to enable the initiatives of the union government to reach the handloom weavers effectively.

Giving details of important initiatives taken during the last year, the textile minister said the support of professional designers, the technology intervention for design development and availability of designs free of cost on the website in 14 regional languages had made the access to contemporary and traditional designs very easy for the textile industry across the country. She said special designer studios had been set up at Hyderabad Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, Varanasi and Sitapur.

She said textile units should work towards brand building of handloom products which was the need of the day and to make them niche products for the high-end consumers and the fashion-conscious youth and international consumers.

The minister also discussed the feasibility of participation of local textile manufactures in the national and international trade fairs that are scheduled to be held at various places across the globe in the coming year.

Fatehabad, June 27
The police has established the identity of the second victim in Tohana case where two bodies were found hanging in a discarded house three days ago. A Gujarati honey seller, Tulsi, along with his wife had identified the body of his son Gullu yesterday. The couple late last night identified the second body as that of one Mangal, who too was missing along with Gullu since May 25.

The couple said they could not identify the body earlier as they were in shock after seeing the body of their son. Mangal’s sister was married to Ajay, elder brother of Gullu.

Meanwhile, another incident of May 30 has given a new twist to the case and the police was investigating the case by linking the two.

Mangal’s brother Mukesh has also been absconding since May 30 after he allegedly beat up another Gujarati youth Deepak, who later succumbed to his injuries.

Tulsi lodged a report on June 3 after his son Gullu and Mangal went missing.

The police quizzed Tulsi in Deepak’s case to know the whereabouts of Mukesh from him. It was after this that Tulsi shifted to Jind with his family.

The manner in which the two bodies were found hanging at the two ends of a single rope has raised doubts regarding the suicide theory.

However, the police said they would wait for the postmortem report before reaching any conclusion.

The bodies have been sent for postmortem examination to the PGIMS, Rohtak, today. 

Panipat, June 27
In order to check encroachments and to avoid any disputes when the administration carries out anti-encroachment drives, the local civic body has decided to videograph the city roads. Besides, the videos would be used by MC officials to fine the encroachers.

The new system being adopted by the MC will not only save its staffers from getting into any confrontation with the encroachers, but will also help the city get rid of the encroachments in an effective way.

According to MC officials, those caught encroaching on the roads for the first time would be fined at least Rs 1,000 and regular violators would end up getting their goods confiscated by the MC. Earlier, the fines were quite low and even if goods were confiscated, these were returned after the violator deposited a fine ranging from Rs 200 to 500. For putting the new system into effect, the MC authorities have divided the city into three zones and one sanitary inspector each has been assigned the duty to supervise the videographing of the areas under them.

Inspector Balwan Singh Singh Kuandu would be looking after Model Town, Asandh Road and the eight Mrlah area. Inspector Sudhir Singh has been handed over the responsibility of NH1, Sanoli road, vegetable market and Inspector Sant Lal would be taking care of Tehsil Camp, Old Market, Neoorwala to keep an eye on the encroachers.

The new system would also solve another problem for the anti-encroachment squad that at times encroachers remove their goods from the roads after the word about the anti-encroachment drives spreads. The officials said the activity to video-graph the road would go unnoticed and thus, it would be an effective way to deal with the problem. This would not only save working hours, but also expenditure incurred on such drives. 

Sirsa, June 27
A man was allegedly lynched by over six persons and his body was thrown in a pond at Bakrianwali village here today.

The victim identified as Mahabir (45) was killed because the killers suspected that he had illicit relations with a woman of their family. The police has booked six persons in this regard.

Originally, a resident of Rawatsar in Rajasthan, Mahabir had been living in Bakarianwali village with his family since long.

According to the police, the victim was asleep at about 3 am, when the accused barged into his house and started beating him up as they dragged him out of his residence.

His son Rakesh tried to come to his rescue, but he too was beaten up. The victim was allegedly beaten up till he died.

Rakesh informed the police, who later took out the body out of the pond. The police has registered a case against Partap, Mani Ram, Raju, Satbir, Kalu and Surjeet, all residents of the same village. The accused are absconding.

Jind: A 25-year-old youth was allegedly beaten to death here today by a mob after he molested a woman. The deceased has been identified as Dharam Puri and is reported to be a sadhu hailing from Pai Dera in Kaithal district. The police has arrested four persons and a case has been registered against about a dozen others.

According to reports, the incident took place when the sadhu, who had come to Pindara village for a religious occasion, tried to molest a woman sleeping on a cot in the street.

The woman raised an alarm and her husband and other family members asleep nearby threatened him with dire consequences.

The accused initially went away, but, according to the complainant, the sadhu came back and allegedly tried to disrobe the woman.

This resulted in his beating. They tied him with a tractor-trolley parked nearby and kept beating him with sticks till he succumbed to his injuries. 

Sirsa, June 27
Four members of a Dalit family, including a woman, were injured when some persons allegedly attacked them with lathis and other weapons in Ottu village here last night.

The attackers also allegedly damaged household items of the victim’s family. Sunil, one of the injured persons, have alleged that Pardeep, Deepak, Sandeep and Jagjit came to their residence last night and beat up him, Mohan Lal, Bhup Singh and Balwant Kaur, injuring them seriously.

The police has booked the accused under Sections 452, 147, 148 and 323 of the IPC. However, Rania SHO Maha Singh maintained that the case was not related to the panchayat elections.

He said according to the preliminary investigations, one of the victims had used abusive language against the accused in drunken state yesterday, following which the accused attacked them. — TNS