Karnal, August 11
“Effective intervention of Islamic scholars alone can help build peace between India and Pakistan as political leaders are themselves feeling threatened by extremist groups and can do little in this direction,” said Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey here today.

Pandey, who is going to Lahore with a peace mission under the banner of “Bharat Pakistan Shanti Caravan - Aman Ke Badhte Kadam” said: “After our interaction with Pakistanis during the last visit, we realised that the common man of both the countries share the same perception and want to live in peace and harmony, but the vested interests who have no faith in peace are not allowing this to happen,” he asserted.

Taking to mediapersons at Pash Library here, he said the saner voices of Pakistanis have sunk in the atmosphere of fear and mistrust created by anti-peace forces like Pakistani army, ISI and extremists and they did not come out in open against these forces for fear of their lives.

Politicians in Pakistan had only face value and their peace plans were thwarted by these elements. Pandey said people in Pakistan wanted a strong democracy, which was also in the interest of India. However, they could not seek help from India in an atmosphere vitiated by violence and anti-India stance.

Referring to omission of references to heroes of freedom struggle like Bhagat Singh and Mahatma Gandhi in history books in Pakistan, Pandey said progressive people in Pakistan realised the sacrifices made by freedoms fighters from both the countries in the joint struggle. 

Chandigarh, August 11
Already in the line of fire for its failure to protect Ved Pal, who was lynched, the Haryana police’s image today took another hit when the Jind Sessions Judge blamed cops for siding with an accused.

With his assertion, the functioning of the Haryana police has again come under the judicial scanner.

Cops are already facing allegations of making good their escape, as an irate mob attacked Ved Pal. At the time of the incident, Ved Pal, accompanied by a warrant officer appointed by the high court, had gone to fetch his “wife” from her parent’s house.

Placing before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Ajay Tewari a status report, Jind Sessions Judge Ramendra Jain asserted the police was out to delay the decision in the sensational case.

Going into the background, the public prosecutor moved an application under Section 319 for summoning Mohinder Singh as an additional accused.

The application was allowed vide order dated May 19 and he was ordered to be summoned for June 7.

Non-bailable warrants were issued for July 26 after a report was received that Mohinder Singh was evading service of summons intentionally by going into hiding.

The warrants were received back unexecuted. Dissatisfied with the report on the warrants, it was observed that the police was conniving with the accused and had not intentionally executed the warrants.

It was also observed that the police was out and out to delay the decision and accordingly a fine of Rs 10,000 was imposed on the Station House Officer of the Sadar police station in Narwana for dereliction and negligence in duty.

Ved Pal’s Lynching

The HC is in favour of day-to-day proceedings in Ved Pal’s case. The Bench observed: The trial of the case be preferably taken up on a day-to-day basis in view of the urgency involved in the case. The case will now come up on August 18 for further hearing on the issue of interim compensation. The HC had earlier observed Rs 3 lakh compensation would be appropriate at the current juncture

Chandigarh, August 11
Acting on a petition filed by Haryana Janhit Congress president-cum-MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi seeking the disqualification of MLAs who have “defected” from his party, Justice Permod Kohli of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued a notice of motion for September 1 to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker.

The notice has also been issued to the five MLAs - Satpal Sangwan, Vinod Bhyana, Narender Singh, Zileram and Dharam Singh. They had joined the Congress in November 2009. Seeking their disqualification from the membership of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, Bishnoi made Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha a respondent by name. Bishnoi levelled an allegation of mala fide intention against Chatha, accusing him of trying to shield the “defector” MLAs.

Counsel for the petitioner Satya Pal Jain, Dheeraj Jain and Davesh Moudgil said in the general elections to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha held in October 2009, six members were elected on the ticket of the Haryana Janhit Congress, a recognised political party in Haryana.

But in November 2009, the five members submitted applications to the Speaker saying the “legislators of the Haryana Janhit Congress have decided to merge the party with the Indian National Congress”. On the same day, the Speaker, without a notice to the HJC president, passed two orders accepting the alleged merger.

Satya Pal Jain said the Speaker’s orders, accepting the alleged merger, were unconstitutional because he did not give any opportunity of hearing to the HJC president before passing the orders. Even otherwise, the legislative wing of any party is not competent to take a decision on merger.

Jain said the legislative group was just a wing, and its resolution could not be called as original political party. He said the HJC never decided to merge and was still functioning as such in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha and Parliament.

Sirsa, August 11
Removal of water from Bani village, which has been submerged due to floods since July 17, is proving to be a daunting task for the district authorities.

Large areas of the village are still under several feet deep waters, the worst affected being the two localities named “Panchkula” and “Chandigarh”, where 8 to 10 feet water is standing.

“The water has started receding, but the pace is too slow. My own house went under 8 feet water after the July 17 floods. However, it receded, though slowly. While on Sunday there was one feet water in our area, there is no water in our locality today,” said Neeraj Bansal, who runs a grocery shop in the village. He said the market, where his shop was located, was still under 5 to 6 feet flood water.

“Our immediate task is to clean our house as the deluge has brought mounds of clay and squalor with it,” Bansal added.

Meanwhile, efforts of the authorities to remove water by putting it in the North Ghaggar Canal (NGC) near its siphon under the Rajasthan Canal faced interruption since yesterday due to poor slope for flow of water.

There is a continuous layer of water from Bani till a few meters before the NGC and now to cover that area, slightly elevated geographically, the authorities today decided to dig a 1,000-foot-long drain.

“The drain is being constructed at a war footing and will be completed by tomorrow,” said DC CG Rajini Kaanthan, who visited the NGC site with engineers of the Irrigation Department.

The authorities had been discharging 50 cusecs of water in the NGC after he talked to the district collector of Hanumangarh in Rajasthan. The discharge would be increased to 100 cusecs soon, he said.

Karnal, August 11
Incensed over the alleged failure of the authorities concerned to regulate power supply, residents of Tahkhana village blocked the National Highway No. 1 near Tarawari, 15 km from here, for about two hours today.

The protesters, comprising mainly children and women, pulled down hoardings and went on the rampage, damaging three Haryana Roadways buses of the Panchkula, Ambala and Chandigarh depots.

Hundreds of vehicles and commuters remained stranded on the road and foreigners, who were on their way to Chandigarh, got scared of the protest. Commuters assured them that no harm would be caused to them, said Shoib, who was present there. The protesters alleged that power supply was erratic for the past over five months, but nothing had been done in this regard.

Efforts made by the stranded people to persuade the protesters to lift the blockade failed and it was only after SDM Mukul Kumar reached the spot and assured the villagers that everything would be set right within a week that they relented. 

Chandigarh, August 11
Four new laboratories to check the pollution level of industries in Haryana will be set up at Yamunanagar, Panipat, Sonepat and Bahadurgarh shortly. This was disclosed by the Haryana Finance Minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, while presiding over a meeting of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board here today.

Captain Yadav also stressed the need for launching a special drive throughout the state against the use of plastic carry bags within two months to get the desired results. He also directed officers of the board that they should visit grain markets, kisan mandis and kiryana shops as most of the polythene bags were being used by them to deliver goods to customers.

He suggested that cloth/jute bags should be promoted by sponsorship. He pointed out that hoardings should be displayed where kisan mandis were being organised. Besides, the board has also aired jingles on FM radio to spread awareness among the masses.

The minister maintained that the board had recognised 19 laboratories in the state to carry out analysis of samples. He directed that a joint action plan be formulated with officers of the Health Department for disposal of biomedical waste.

He also directed that a status report about the dyeing units in Panipat should be presented to him quarterly with an action taken report.

Samalkha, August 11
Three undertrials, who were being taken back to Karnal jail from Sonepat district courts, today gave police the slip near Khalila Mor on the NH-1 in this segment of the district after allegedly attacking one of the security guards accompanying them.

The Sonepat police had taken eight undertrials, who were lodged in the Karnal jail, to the Sonepat court on production warrants in connection with hearing of cases registered against them. The eight undertrials included Anil, Sonu, Vikas, Sandeep, Bijender, Rakesh, Surinder and Sanjay.

The accused have been facing different charges ranging from theft, snatching and threatening. After the court hearing, they were being escorted back to the jail by a team of security personnel. After they reached here, one of the undertrials asked a security guard to give him some water. As the guard got down to fetch some water, one of the accused punched him hard. The others also joined him and they pushed the security guard. Three of the eight accused managed to escape. These included Anil of Kathura village in Karnal district, Surindera of Dansoli village of Panipat and Sanjay of Sekhupura village in Karnal.

Bijender Singh, who also tried to escape but was nabbed by the policemen, was later taken to the Samalkha police station, where he was being questioned till the time of filing the report. Meanwhile, the district police has registered a case against the four accused.