Faridabad, November 13
The police continues to drag its feet in arresting two BSP leaders, including a councillor of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF), Dhireder Pratap, in connection with the arson and vandalism committed by a mob on the office premises of Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sharda Rathore in Ballabgarh 10 days ago.

In a related development, at least six councillors of the MCF today met Chief Minister Bhupnider Singh Hooda in the national Capital and rallied behind the two accused BSP leaders. They alleged that the police had erred in including their names in the FIRs.

According to sources, the Chief Minister dismissed their plea and told them that such blatant criminal acts would not be tolerated and the police would take suitable action in the matter. A few days ago, a delegation of BSP workers had met the Deputy Commissioner, Faridabad, urging for a review of the charges against their leaders.

The other political leader whose name figures in the FIRs is Om Pal Tongar, who had unsuccessfully contested the last Assembly elections on the BSP ticket. The mob had also set ablaze a PCR vehicle and two trucks on the same day in Ballabgarh following the death of two women after they were run over by a truck.

The police had registered two FIRs in which 22 persons, including the two leaders, had been named. The Sections imposed in both FIRs include 307, which relates to attempt to murder.

The other day Sharda Rathore had a verbal duel with Power Minister Mahender Pratap, who represents the Badkhal assembly constituency in this district, in public alleging that he was shielding the accused, including the two BSP leaders. Sharda Rathore alleged that the minister was exerting pressure on the police to scrap the names of the two leaders from the FIRs.

During her spat with the minister, Sharda Rathore, who also has the status of a minister, threatened to resign if he continued to “side with criminals”.

The police, in the past two days, arrested three residents of Unchha Gaon village in connection with the two FIRs.

Rohtak, November 13
Heavy rain caught farmers unawares today resulting in damage to paddy brought by them for sale at the grain market.

Though the exact loss is still to be assessed, the farmers were shocked after they found their produce drenched in rain, which lashed the city for about half an hour. The affected farmers have blamed market committee officials for not making adequate arrangements and ensuring the safety of their crops, which were lying in the open.

“We are disgusted over the lack of preparedness by the local committee. We have been waiting for the purchase of our crop, but the unexpected rain has left it soaked,” said Swaraj Malhotra, a farmer from Lahli village. “Now, I will have to take the crop back to my village and make arrangements to dry it as the agencies procuring it will not purchase it till it is completely dry,” he added.

He said the crop may now not be able to fetch the desired rate. Due to this, farmers would suffer additional losses as the prolonged monsoon had already affected the produce. They would also face the risk of delayed sowing of wheat for the next rabi season, he added.

“Huge quantities of the crop that the farmers have brought for sale in the mandi has been lying in the open and we will now bear the brunt of the rain,” claimed Ranbir Singh, a farmer from Mokhra village. The government should have ensured proper arrangements for the storage of the crop.

Meanwhile, the authorities claim that the procurement of kharif crops has been going on smoothly and it is likely to continue till the end of this month.

Chandigarh, November 13
One of the engineering departments of the state government incurred, according to its own estimate, Rs 31,970 on legal expenses to recover Rs 17,878 from an engineer. Still the money could not be recovered because the Irrigation Department kept on losing its case right from the civil court to the High Court.

The government expenditure on wasteful litigation, only in one case, came to light when the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered the department to furnish the details of the expenditure incurred by it on the case.

The dispute pertained to 1987-90 during which the government allegedly suffered a loss on account of a job got executed by an SDO. It filed a suit on February 26, 2004, which was dismissed on March 24, 2008. Even in appeal, the state failed.

Still not satisfied, the department approached the High Court, where the case was listed before Justice Rajesh Bindal. Finding the case as “misconceived”, the High Court dismissed it.

The case was so badly handled by the department that the Judge was compelled to observe that “the casual approach with which the appellants (the department) have dealt with the case is evident from the fact that an application for stay of operation of judgment and the decree of the lower appellate court has been filed, supported by an affidavit of literate Executive Engineer seeking stay. What kind of stay could possibly be prayed for as it is a case in which the suit filed by the state for recovery of amount from the respondent was dismissed!”

Justice Bindal regretted that at no stage any of the senior officers who dealt with the file at different stages had gone into the judgments of the lower courts and took a decision of not litigating the issue further in this court, considering the merits as well as the petty amount involved.

Expressing dismay at the carelessness of the government, the Judge ordered the Chief Secretary to hold an inquiry to find out how much time and money were spent by the state in the avoidable litigation, and as well fix the responsibility.

It was only in the third report filed by the government, which, too, was taken by the court with more than a pinch of salt, that it admitted that Rs 31,970 was spent to recover Rs 17, 878. The government estimate had not taken into consideration the valuable time of the courts wasted on the case.

The court did not go into the calculations because, it said, its purpose was to send a message to the officers, “who are indulging in frivolous litigation without considering the worth of it. Recovery of even token amount would send a signal to all concerned not to indulge in avoidable frivolous litigation at the cost of the state. The officers should take responsibility in saying no in recording their opinion on the files while considering the merits of a case and the amount involved therein.”

Ordering the court to recover the amount from the officers concerned, the Judge asked the state to file a report in the court before May 18, 2011.

Gurgaon, November 13
Judge Surinder Gupta, Sessions Judge (Vigilance), Punjab, today completed his fact-finding inquiry into the ongoing tussle between Gurgaon Judicial Magistrate, Ankur Lal, and the District Bar Association.

Meanwhile, the lawyers, who have ended their nearly four-week-long strike, continue to boycott the court of Judicial Magistrate Ankur Lal. It was after the lawyers withdrew their stir that Judge Gupta was sent to probe the matter.

Gurgaon District and Sessions Judge, RS Virk, confirmed to The Tribune that the Sessions Judge (Vigilance) from Punjab, who had arrived in Gurgaon on Thursday to conduct a fact-finding inquiry, had left after recording the statements of the parties concerned. After an altercation with the lawyers, Lal had lodged an FIR with the local police, leveling charges of intimidation, insult and casteist remarks against the Bar president, secretary and another lawyer.

Following this, the matter snowballed into a major row with the District Bar Association striking court work and launching an aggressive protest against the Judicial Magistrate. The lawyers of Delhi and some district bar associations of Haryana also backed the agitation.

Due to the lawyers’ stir, thousands of litigants suffered a great deal of inconvenience for nearly four weeks. The bar association also appointed proxy counsels to take care of the urgent matters court work demanding immediate attention, but these were later withdrawn. Sensing the inconvenience being caused to the litigants due to the strike, the District and Sessions Judge appealed the litigants not to get bogged down and come to the courts directly.

The Tribune had also published a report, citing judgments of the Supreme Court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which categorically maintained that as per the provisions of the Advocates Act, the advocates could not strike court work and their clients could even realise costs from them.

Jhajjar, November 13
Displeased over the functioning of a veterinary hospital doctor at Jahajgarh village here, residents of the village not only locked up the hospital but also allegedly forced the staff members to vacate the hospital. The action was reportedly taken in the presence of the village sarpanch.

The villagers have warned the authorities that they will not let the hospital function till the doctor is transferred. Interestingly, no district official reached the village to sort out the dispute despite being informed by the staff members. The villagers alleged that the doctor was mostly found absent and spent little time on duty. In this condition, villagers had to get their cattle treated from private practitioners in case of illness.

“We have lodged a complaint against the doctor with `action has been taken so far,” said a villager. The doctor could not be contacted for comments.

Fatehabad, November 13
The fresh amendments to the Land Acquisition Policy of Haryana, whereby the state government has almost doubled the minimum floor rates payable to farmers and introduced several other benefits for them, were introduced on the intervention of Congress MLA Sampat Singh?

Former minister and Congress MLA from Nalwa Sampat Singh, while hailing the policy, claimed that some of its credit went to him though the liberal amendments were possible only because of the “forward-looking” attitude of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Sampat Singh claimed that Hooda had announced amendments to the earlier policy while replying to his call attention motion on this issue on September 7.

Showing records of the Assembly, Sampat Singh said he had placed his call attention motion in the Assembly on September 1, which came up for discussion on September 7.

“While announcing his decision to amend the minimum floor rates, Hooda had assured that the new rates would be applicable with effect from September 7, and while issuing the amended policy, the Chief Minister made it a point that the new policy will be implemented from that date,” the former minister said.

Calling Hooda “champion of champions” in cricket terminology in the matter of framing and implementation of “people-friendly” policies, Sampat Singh said the number of policies the Hooda government had framed in its six years in power, were unparallelled in the history of Indian democracy.

He said the Haryana government’s policies on sports had recently shown results during the recent Commonwealth Games and now the neighbouring state of Punjab had also implemented the same with minor alterations.

Kurukshetra, November 13
The DAV College for Girls, Yamunanagar, clinched the overall trophy in the three-day 33rd Inter-Zonal Youth Festival of Kurukshetra University, which concluded with a spectacular presentation of selected items by teams from different zones in the university auditorium here yesterday evening.

After giving away prizes to the winning teams and participants, Mr Ajit M Sharan, Financial and Principal Secretary to the Government of Haryana, said cultural festivals played a vital role in the overall development of a student’s personality as it instilled values of leadership, team spirit, communal harmony, self-motivation and discipline among them. It was not winning or losing that was important rather the participation that carried weight, he added.

Prof Raghuvendra Tanwar, Registrar of Kurukshetra University, in his presidential remarks, said it was very important to bring out the hidden talent in the students by organising such functions and Kurukshetra University left no stone unturned to provide such opportunities to its students.

Mr Anoop Lather, Director of the Youth and Cultural Affairs, Kurukshetra University, said more than 1,200 students from seven different zones participated in the three-day Inter-Zonal Youth Festival which had 27 different items.

Dr Sushma Arya, Director of the Cultural Council, Kurukshetra University, proposed the vote of thanks and said the presence of the chief guest had added special grace to the occasion.

Sirsa, November 13
District and Sessions Judge Shiva Sharma sentenced a mother and her paramour to imprisonment for life for the murder of her young son at Chormar village.

Sukha Singh, a youth from Chormar village, had died under mysterious circumstances on September 12, 2009 and was cremated by his family without postmortem. Later, the victim’s grandmother, Sujan Kaur in a complaint to the police alleged that her widowed daughter-in- law, Malkiat Kaur (45), had done Sukha to death over her paramour, Charanjit Singh (22).

Sujan Kaur had said she had gone to see her daughter, when she learnt that Sukha Singh had died. She had alleged that Malkiat Kaur had illicit relations with Charanjit Singh and Sukha Singh had objected to it. She had also accused Sukha’s elder brother, Jagmit Singh, of involvement in the crime as he had cremated Sukha’s body without postmortem.

The police had booked the three under Sections 302 and 201of the IPC. Though the police collected the ash and bones of the victim, the cause of death could not be ascertained. However, the court relied on circumstantial evidence and the extra judicial confession of the woman and sentenced both Malkiat Kaur and her paramour Charanjit Singh to life imprisonment.

The court did not find any evidence against Jagmit Singh and acquitted him.

Earlier, the court had held the woman and her paramour guilty of the offence on Thursday and reserved the issue of quantum of punishment for today.

Bhiwani, November 13
A man was allegedly stabbed to death at Loharu, 60 km from here, on Thurday night. The incident took place when the victim was sleeping in his shop. The assailants are still at large.

The Loharu police has registered a case. The body was handed over to the family after a postmortem.

The deceased identified as Surender (25) of Fartia Kehar village used to run a tea stall on the main Loharu-Dadri road. His father Bahadur Singh said he left for his house after leaving Surender in the shop at 8 pm. Surender used to sleep in the shop, he said, adding that when he went to the shop today morning, he found Surender lying in a pool of blood. The body bore marks of sharp-edged weapon, he said. Loharu police station in charge Ashok Kumar said Surender was stabbed to death and a case had been registered against unidentified assailants. — OC