Kurukshetra, July 7
Heavy rainfall in the area during the past two days has caused about 50-ft breach in the Satluj-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal near Jyotisar, 5 km from here, flooding several acres of land under cultivation and residential colonies, including the nearby Didar Nagar and Shanti Nagar.

The DC, Pankaj Aggarwal, camping on the Kurukshetra-Pehowa road near Jyotisar, said 150 jawans of the National Disaster Management Authority of India (NDMAI) were engaged in plugging the breach and evacuating victims from Didar Nagar and Shanti Nagar under 5-ft water.

Ten motorboats and 20 divers were helping the victims shift to dharamshalas and the two government schools turned into relief camps.

Schools in the district had been closed for the next two days.

At least 5,000 food packets had been distributed among the victims. Water tanks of the municipality were supplying water to the victims. Various voluntary organisations were also helping the administration in the relief work.

The administration has established three control rooms The telephone numbers are 01744-221035 (District Revenue Office), 01744-220270 (DC’s Office) and 01744-220271 (DC’s camp office).

“The flood waters are being drained out from populated areas on a war footing. We are always with the people during such trying times,” said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda after visiting areas affected by the SYL canal breach. Hooda visited Didar Nagar and Shanti Nagar.

He directed senior officers to work round the clock to plug the breach.

Vidhan Sabha Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha, Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal, Shahabad MLA Anil Dhantori and Principal Secretary to CM Chhattar Singh were among those who accompanied the Chief Minister.

Yamunanagar: The rising water level in the Yamuna has created tension among inhabitants of 50 low-lying villages.

The water level of the Yamuna was recorded at 59, 315 cusecs at the Hathnikund barrage this morning. Any further rise in the water level may cause damage to villages in the district, Karnal, Panipat and Sonepat.

The administration today set up control rooms in Chhachhrauli, Bilaspur, Sadhaura and Jagadhri to monitor the Yamuna and rivulet Som.

The Hathnikund barrage has 18 floodgates. — TNS

Chandigarh, July 7
A day after the deluge that inundated Ambala and Kurukshetra, Haryana today stepped up measures to restore normalcy. Traffic on the national and state highways was restored.

While the Irrigation Department suspended drawing water from the Bhakra Main Line and diverted flood waters from the SYL to the Narwana branch, it may take another 24 hours to plug the breach. Power supply to affected areas can be restored only after the water-level recedes. The supply is expected to be restored by tomorrow.

The Public Heath Department has installed gensets to pump out water from inundated areas of Ambala while canal-based water supply has been restored. Officials of the Public Works (Buildings and Roads) Department maintain that it will take nearly a fortnight to carry out repairs on the damaged national highways.

Principal Secretary, Irrigation, SS Dhillon, said the discharge from the BML was down to zero with the state seeking suspension of the 500 cusecs flowing into Haryana till yesterday.

“While there is 7,000 cusecs of water in the SYL as of now, the Narwana branch is also full to capacity with nearly 4,000 cusecs of water. Our effort is to bring down the water level in the two canals from 11,000 cusecs to 7,500 cusecs.

This may take 24 more hours and it’s only after this is achieved that we can plug the breach,” he said. The Engineer-in-Chief, Public Works (Band R) Department, Mahesh Kumar, said: “We are keeping a watch on the waters from the SYL threatening to flood the Ambala-Kaithal highway.”

Claiming that power supply to 90 per cent of Ambala cantt had been restored, the MD, Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, said: “To avoid the threat of electrocution, our team carries out patrolling of 11 KV lines, checks them and declares them safe before power can be restored. Our teams are on the job.” The restoration of power from the 220 KV Dhulkot sub-station, the 60 KV sub-station at Shahbad and another in Ismailabad was likely to be accomplished tomorrow, he added. While life limps back to normal in Ambala and Kurukshetra, it may take a few days for normalcy to return to these areas. That is, if the weather gods continue to smile and there are no more rains over the next few days. 

Mohra (Ambala), July 7
Mohra, the last village in Ambala district, along the GT Road was submerged in water on Tuesday. It looked like a lake, its over 1,000 houses and fields of paddy under 4 ft to 5 ft of water.

Inspite of continuous efforts, the villagers were unable to drain out water with the Maura-Junsun head road acting as a dam. Villagers were seen desperately trying to break the road at several points to make an outlet for water.

They could not pump out the water even with the help of a JCB.

As this reporter waddled ahead with clothes soaked and shoes full of mud, he saw helpless villagers see their belongings perish.

The situation was so grim that it was not possible to reach any roadside dhaba, the entire area being inundated. With no electricity and no customer, dhaba owners looked in gloom at the heavens above.

The rail track appeared to be caving in at certain places. The dargah of Baba Saiyad Ibrahim Nauguga Peer Mulana Jee at Kalyana was also submerged in water. Its caretaker rescued himself somehow, finding his way to the main road.

“The villagers have lost food, clothing and shelter. Even the fodder for their cattle has been destroyed,” he said. Describing the rage of gushing waters he said : “Within two hours, the flood waters had entered the houses.

Many of these collapsed. Walls of mud were washed away by the powerful currents.”

Sirsa, July 7
In view of the heavy showers in the past three days, the district authorities have taken steps to prevent floods in areas falling near the Ghaggar river.

“As of today, there is no threat of floods in any part of the district. The flow of water at the Chandpura head is 2,750 cusecs while in Khanauri the flow is 9,350 cusecs,” said Deputy Commissioner CG Rajini Kaanthan after a review meeting. The DC said there were reports from Guhla near Kaithal that the water flow had increased, but it hovered at 52,000 cusecs for the time being. Kaanthan said the District Revenue Officer Ram Singh Bishnoi had been appointed nodal officer to monitor the situation and a control room set up in his office. Residents could dial 01667-248882 and 01667-235721 for help.Om Parkash, XEN, Water Services Division, Tohana, said the Ghaggar passing through Fatehabad and Sirsa received one-third of the water that flowed near Guhla. 1.5 lakh cusecs at Guhla is considered alarming for our area and with the flow of water at 52,000 cusecs today, there is no immediate threat of floods in the area,”he maintained.

KAITHAL: The increasing water level in the Ghaggar flowing through Guhla in Kaithal district crossed the danger mark this noon following which the administration sounded a red alert and DC Amneet P Kumar accompanied by ADC BB Kaushik have rushed to Guhla.

The water has entered in about half a dozen villages, including Sihali, Paprala , Maingra , Tatiyana, Rattakhera Gharam and Lukman. Guhla SDM Ashok Bansal has been asked to keep a watch over the situation and provide food , drinking water and medicines to the affected people. Government vets have been directed to visit the affected villages too.

As many as 15 boats have been kept ready to meet any eventuality. Earlier, the DC and SDM Hawa Singh visited Keorak village, where the flood waters had entered several localities.

Karnal, July 7
The district administration is not sure of the number of EVMs snatched by some miscreants at Balla village in Assandh block during the counting of votes last evening but has declared the results after retrieving five EVMs from a pool with the help of divers.

While the villagers alleged that six EVMs were snatched by the miscreants and thrown into the pool and the police also corroborated their version, the administration thought it proper to declare the results on the basis of five EVMs.

ADC RS Kharab maintained that the counting of votes had already been completed when the miscreants took away the EVMs and the mandatory form 15 A was also signed and there was no hitch in declaring the results after five EVMs were retrieved by the divers.

However, Assandh SHO Randhir Singh said five EVMs and a ballot box had been recovered and the divers were searching for the sixth EVM and another ballot box. The different versions given by the administration and the police has further compounded the confusion and raised serious doubts about the fairness of the poll process.

The ADC claimed that the miscreants snatched the EVMs as they knew that there candidate was losing and after Rajbir Singh was declared elected as the sarpanch by a margin of 169 votes, the matter ended, he asserted.

The administration has no explanation as to why the results were not declared immediately after the counting was completed and the miscreants were afforded time to vitiate the poll process. 

Chandigarh, July 7
Haryana’s Director-General of Police SPS Rathore today tried to take advantage of non-examination of “witnesses” in the Ruchika molestation case.

As the appeal against the conviction and 18-month sentence awarded to Rathore in the case came up for hearing before Justice Jitendra Chauhan this afternoon, his wife-cum-counsel Abha Rathore claimed non-examination of the persons present at the time of the alleged incident was fatal to the prosecution’s case and sought his acquittal on this very “short ground”.

Abha, assisted by her advocate daughter Priyanjali Rathore, said so many persons were present at the Haryana Lawn Tennis Association office in Panchkula on August 12, 1990, when the alleged incident took place. Yet, they were not made to depose before the trial court. Their testimony was vital for corroborating the testimony of Ruchika’s friend Aradhana, around which the whole case was spun by the prosecution.

The prosecution had failed to even establish Aradhana’s attendance at the time of the alleged incident by not examining her, she insisted in the presence of her father Anand Prakash and their counsel Pankaj Bhardwaj. Ruchika’s father SC Girhotra also attended the hearing in the relatively empty courtroom. Also present was CBI counsel Ajay Kaushik.

Elaborating, Abha said ball boy Paltu, the coach and another person had been left out though they could have come out with the whole truth. Their deposition would have thrown light on the nature of incident. It would have also established whether Aradhana was ever there, for how long she was there, and if she was ever asked to call the coach.

The prosecution should have identified all persons present and gone ahead with their examination, she suggested. The hearing also saw Abha asking the court to draw “adverse inference” in the matter. “Adverse inference” is a legal term suggesting the drawing of “unfavorable deduction by the fact-finder from the failure of a party to produce a normally expected witness”.

By suggesting “adverse inference”, Abha made it clear that the court should take it that the witnesses, if produced, would not have supported the prosecution version. She quoted an apex court judgment to support her contention.

The issue of adverse inference was also raised in the high-profile molestation case involving Punjab’ former DGP KPS Gill. The case will now come up for further hearing on Thursday.

Sonepat, July 7
The rejection of the vote of a councillor during the counting of votes for the election to the post of chairperson of the Sonepat Municipal Council today forced returning officer-cum-SDM Jag Niwas to seal the ballot box as Congress-supported candidate Veena Rani and Sadhana of the BJP-led Opposition, including the INLD, were tied at 16 votes each.

In the polling, the councillors were given slips carrying the names of the candidates and they were asked to write “han” (yes) or “naa” (no) in

front of candidates name. The councillor whose vote was rejected had written “hai” instead of “han” in front of the name of BJP candidate Sadhna.

The rejection of the vote was strongly opposed by the BJP-led Opposition, which raised slogans against the government and the SDM, demanding that the rejected vote be counted in favour of the BJP candidate.

State media in charge of the BJP Rajiv Jain claimed that the councillor had already written the name of the BJP candidate for whom he wished to vote

and instead of writing “han”, he had written “hai”.

However, the SDM said 33 votes - 31 of councillors and one each of Congress MP Jitender Singh

Malik and BJP MLA Kavita Jain - were polled. During counting, one vote was rejected and it resulted in a tie between the two candidates, who got 16 votes each.

The SDM said there was a controversy over the rejection of the vote following which he took the decision to seal the votes and bring the issue to the notice of the higher authorities.

Chandigarh, July 7
Haryana State Election Commissioner Dharam Vir has ordered a repoll in 30 booths of nine panchayats in Hisar, Panipat, Karnal, Rohtak and Gurgaon districts. Polling at these places was held yesterday.

The repoll has been ordered due to errors in printing of ballot papers, allotment of symbols, clashes between rival groups and snatching and destruction of ballot papers, electronic voting machines, ballot boxes and other election material.

The repoll will be held on July 10 from 7 am to 4.30 pm.

He said a repoll in two booths of two panchayats in Sirsa district, where elections were held on June 12, would also be held on July 10.

Sirsa, July 7
Though there seems to be little improvement in the skewed sex ratio and incidents of honour killings refuse to stop in the state, efforts to change the mindset of society do come as a silver lining.

The “Beti Bachao Abhiyaan” launched by Additional Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Chaudhary has been sending positive signals in society, where the birth of the girl child is taken as a scourge.

Family members of three newborn girls yesterday celebrated the entry of the new members to their families.

Women members of the family as well as those from the village performed “kuan pujan” ceremonies as a ritual for celebrating the child’s birth.

Nirmala Devi of Kelnia village gave birth to a girl, who has been named Sakshi, and the family celebrated the birth.

Women went to the well singing folk songs rendered during such rituals and offered prayers.

So did the family members of Geeta from Bansudhar, who gave birth to her second girl child and Saroj from the same village, who too gave birth to a girl child.

The “kuan pujan” is performed in the Jat heartland of Haryana, conventionally on the birth of a son.

Tradition has it that praying at the well, the only source of water in olden times and the lifeline of the village, will not only bring good luck for the newborn son, but will also earn the blessings of the God in the process ensuring that the next birth in the family too is a son.

Ever since she has joined as ADC in Sirsa, Pankaj Chaudhary has been relentlessly working for her “Beti Bachao Abhiyan” and has motivated over a dozen families to perform such rituals in her short tenure of four months in Sirsa.

“I tell villagers to treat girls on a par with boys as girls are not behind boys in any field. Rather, girls are outshining boys in academics and other fields,” she said.

Sirsa, July 7
The detection of a suspected case of polio at Gadrana village in this district has put the health authorities on alert. The authorities have taken samples of the stool of the 15-month-old victim and sent these for testing to Kasauli.

The victim, Harman, son of farmer Gurtej Singh, from Gadrana village fell on the ground while walking on June 20 and could not stand again.

Gurtej Singh said when he took his child to a doctor, he told that it could be polio.

He claimed that he had administered doses of polio drops regularly to his child and was worried as to how he suffered from the disease despite that.

Later, he took his child to the community health centre, Kalanwali, where doctors took samples of his stool. Dr Viresh Bhushan, Deputy Civil Surgeon, Sirsa, however, maintained that the child suffered from symptoms of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP). He said in all such cases, samples of the patient were taken and sent to Kasauli for testing to rule out the possibility of polio. The report of the samples, he said, could take 10 or more days.

Dr Bhushan said cases of the AFP had been reported in the district in the past too, but during tests, these had been found to be negative for polio.

Karnal, July 7
Internationally acclaimed Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal, has bagged the prestigious Sardar Patel Best Institute Award, 2009, instituted by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).

This annual award is bestowed upon to select the ICAR institutes credited with creating an impact on the agricultural practice and the agriculture research scenario.

Union Minister of Agriculture Sharad Pawar would present the award to CSSRI director SK Gupta, on the ICAR’s Foundation Day function to be held in New Delhi on July 16, 2010. The award is recognition of the CSSRI’s pioneering research work done by the institute in crucial areas of reclamation and management of salt-affected soils and waters in different regions in the country, which had impacted the agriculture production.

With this, the CSSRI has earned the distinction of getting the Best Institute Award for the second time. Earlier, the institute was conferred with the award in 1998.

The institute has made its mark by developing and popularising alkali land reclamation package, which has been extended to about 12 lakh hectares of degraded land, contributing more than three million tonnes of additional food grains. Path breaking researches on prevention and control of water logging and salinity in canal commands by the CSSRI led to development of technology package, irrigation system improvement and subsurface drainage for monsoon.

Sirsa, July 7
Five members of a family died while another one is in a critical condition after they consumed poison at their residence in Chautala village in this district this afternoon.

The victims, Kalu Ram (35), a Dalit and head of the family, his wife Murti Devi (30) and four children - daughters Sona (11) and Kavita (5) and sons Gobind (9) and Sunil (7), were rushed to the village Primary Health Centre in a critical condition around noon today.

They were shifted to the general hospital in Dabwali, where Murti Devi, Gobind, Sunil and Kavita were declared brought dead, while Kalu Ram and Sona were referred to the general hospital, Sirsa. Sona later died in the Sirsa hospital.

Kalu Ram is in a critical condition and unconscious and has been kept in the intensive care unit of the hospital.

Kalu Ram’s mother, Bimla Devi, who works as a cook in the village anganwari, said she found the victims in an unconscious condition when she returned home around noon today.

She called neighbours and shifted them to the village health centre.

SDM Munish Nagpal, DSP BL Yadav and local Congress leader Ravi Singh Chautala reached the Dabwali hospital after hearing the news.

The circumstances under which they consumed poison (celphos) are not yet known as none is in a position to explain.

Kalu Ram, according to villagers, was a landless labourer and poverty, it is being presumed, led the family to take the extreme step.

However, DSP Yadav clarified that the exact circumstances of the incident were yet to be investigated.