Ambala, December 2
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, at a public rally in Mullana, credited the people of Haryana with making the state the “number one” in the country.

He said the state was number one in terms of per capita investment, per capita income (after Goa), wheat and milk production and sports. Lauding the state sportspersons, the Chief Minister said they had brought laurels to the country and the state winning medals at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. The players would soon be felicitated, he said.

He lamented the defeat of HPCC president Phool Chand Mullana in the Vidhan Sabha elections, saying the area had been adversely affected with the “non-election of an able person like Mullana.”

He said he himself would serve the people of the Mullana assembly constituency as their MLA till Mullana was re-elected and promised development in the area. Hooda referred to schemes implemented for the welfare of farmers, labourers, women, BPL families, SCs, Backward Classes and senior citizens. “Nobody can serve the people of the area like Mullana and me,” he claimed, inviting applause by the crowd. It was a bonanza for the area with the Chief Minister inaugurating a number of development works like a railway overbridge, 66 KV sub-station, two sports stadia, the Rajiv Gandhi Bharat Nirman Sewa Kendra and grain and vegetable market constructed at a cost of Rs 13 crore over an area of 32 acres at Mullana.

The rail overbridge has been built over the Shahabad-Kala Amb road at Barara at a cost of Rs 28 crore. The Chief Minister inaugurated a 66 KV sub-station at Ugala village.The Rajiv Gandhi Bharat Nirman Sewa Kendra has been constructed at a cost of Rs 25 lakh at Barara village and the sports complexes at Sarakpur and Saha at a cost of Rs 62 lakh and Rs 60 lakh, respectively.

Phool Chand Mullana, president, HPCC, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, Paramvir Singh, Agriculture Minister, Geeta Bhukkal, Health and Education Minister Kuldeep Sharma and Working President of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee Venod Sharma, accompanied the Chief Minister.

Chandigarh, December 2
Randeep Singh Surjewala, who holds the portfolios of Public Works Department and Parliamentary Affairs in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Cabinet, has emerged as “poacher-in-chief” for the Haryana Congress.

In the past couple of weeks, Surjewala has successfully lured leaders from other parties into the Congress fold. He was instrumental in bringing former INLD legislator from Uchhana Bhag Singh Chhaatar and another former MLA Ram Bhaj from the BSP to the Congress fold recently. Today, he brought several municipal councillors of Sonepat owing allegiance to the BJP to the Chief Minister’s official residence here.

The BJP leaders, chairperson of the Sonepat Municipal Council, Sadhna Taneja, vice-chairman, Suresh Tushir and councillors Manoj Sharma, Naurang Saini, Poonam Malik, Munish Devi, Gobind Lal, Pramod Sharma and Rakesh Sharma, and two former councillors Lakshmi Narain Taneja and Bijender Malik all expressed their willingness to join the Congress.

However, a formal announcement was held up as Hooda told them that they would be formally inducted into the Congress after he had taken the consent of party leaders at Sonepat. He assured them that they would be given due respect in the Congress after they became its members. The BJP councillors said they wanted development of their town and hence their decision to join the Congress.

Karnal, December 2
The launch of Edusat, aimed at providing sustainable distance education service using the GSAT-3 satellite, has been grounded even before it could take off due to lack of initiative and planning.

The departments involved in implementing the programme did not plan at the micro plan. They did not take care of logistics and ignored local problems. Also, there were not enough qualified engineers and supporting technical staff to remove snags for a smooth run.

The education content was to be broadcast through five channels to primary and secondary classes, colleges and technical institutions. The satellite trans-receiver HUB with a 3.8 meter antenna for uplink was installed at the DIET campus at Panchkula. The lectures were transmitted to the satellite from where these were beamed back to earth, covering the entire state.

The broadcast contents had already been started. Besides providing basic gadgets like a camera, LCD screen, battery, computer and projector, costing about Rs 1 lakh, the government gave Rs 50,000 to each school for construction of Edusat rooms.

In Karnal district alone, over 20 schools were covered under the scheme, which was being implemented vigorously to cover all senior secondary schools running science classes.

The transmission was poor, but no meetings were among the students, teachers and the implementing agencies to address the problem. Significantly, Edusat raised the level of interest of students in the science stream. Manoj, a science student, said the exposure was exhilarating but technical and transmission snags were a dampner.

The question is why was the project dumped when it was producing good results and the snags not removed. Insiders reveal that preparation of quality lectures and other teaching material by teams of subject experts was rather slow and not enough work had been done in this area.

The district education officer, when contacted, expressed ignorance about any instructions on converting the Edusat period into library period.

Chandigarh, December 2
A pilgrim who died in Nepal has got justice from the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Birbal was one of the 54 pilgrims who had hired a tour operator’s service from Karnal for visiting Haridwar, Ayodhya, Jagannath Puri and Nepal. The bus fell into Trishuli rivulet, drowning all passengers.

One of the preliminary objections by the insurance company was that the petition was not maintainable as the accident had occurred in a country where the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act were not applicable. The claims tribunal had rejected the claim without going into the merits of the case, observing that it could only hear and dispose of cases on accidents taking place within the limits of the country, to which the provisions of the relevant Act were extended.

Reversing the findings in reference to the case in hand, Justice K. Kannan ruled: “Here, the tour operator was an Indian operating an Indian vehicle commencing and concluding the tour within the places in India, but merely taking a foreign country as a place of transit in the interregnum. “The major part of the cause of action, except the fact of accident itself, has taken place in India…. The Indian elements to the facts involved in the case are far too many to be discarded and to reject the jurisdiction of the Indian tribunal out of reckoning”.

Justice Kannan added: “An Indian court may not have jurisdiction in a case where the tour operator was a foreigner and the accident had taken place in a foreign country. The petition filed before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal was, under the circumstances, perfectly justified and I set aside the order of the tribunal rejecting the claim and direct the case to be taken on file and dispose of the case in accordance with law”.

Chandigarh, December 2
The Haryana government has nominated Prof RC Sobti, Vice Chancellor, Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Dr Vivek Lal of the department of neurology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, as members of the Court of Pt Bhagwat Dayal Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak. Dr Raj Bahadur, director-principal, Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh, and Dr KK Talwar, Director, PGIMER, Chandigarh, have been nominated members of the university’s executive council .

The tenure of these members will be two years. 

Gurgaon, December 2
Nargis Juneja (45), director of KidZee Preparatory School, was allegedly hacked to death at her residence in DLF Phase-III here last night. The police has rounded up some persons in this connection, though no arrest had been made till the time of filing the report.

A domestic help and a security guard were also present in the house when the incident took place. On the basis of details produced by them, the police has also released the sketches of the murder suspects. The husband of the deceased, Rakesh Juneja, runs an export house.

According to police sources and eyewitnesses, two youths entered the house and locked the guard in a bathroom. The assailants also overpowered the maid and allegedly killed Nargis by slitting her throat with a sharp-edged weapon.

Meanwhile, the maid raised the alarm, following which some more security guards and neighbours rushed to the house. But by then, the assailants had fled the scene.

“Prima facie, it does not seem like a robbery bid, as the assailants did not take anything,” said DCP (east) Vikas Arora, adding that they were working on other angles like old enmity. However, it is not clear whether the assailants did not intend to loot valuables or they did not get a chance to do so as the maid raised the alarm and many persons reached the scene.

Sirsa, December 2
Kin of a schoolchild allegedly thrashed his teacher after he scolded the boy in the classroom for indiscipline at Darba village.

The teacher has lodged a complaint in the police station and other staff members of the school have also supported their colleague.

The victim, Subhash Chander, a Hindi teacher in Government Senior Secondary School, Darba Kalan, alleged in his complaint that Vijender, a student, was eating groundnuts when he was teaching in the class yesterday.

He reprimanded the boy and told him to sit properly in the class. Later, the boy came with his kin, who beat up the teacher.

Other teachers of the school intervened and came to the rescue of Subhash Chander .The teachers locked up the school in protest and demanded action against the attackers.

Hisar, December 2
A man threw acid on his young housewife, Anju (24), who was admitted to a local clinic with 35 per cent burn injuries, primarily on the face, here last evening.

Anju married Harish Bansal in February last year after a long love affair. Initially, their parents were bitterly opposed to their relationship as they belonged to different castes.

However, the families relented on the insistence of the young lovers.

Within months of the marriage, their ties soured, resulting in frequent quarrels and domestic violence. Anju, who gave birth to a girl a few months back, came to her parents’ home here two months ago and filed a divorce suit.

Harish reportedly came to see his wife and child last evening.

He threw acid on an unsuspecting Anju and escaped on his motorbike. Anju’s younger sister Pooja is an eyewitness in the case. The police has registered a case and investigations are on. 

Jhajjar, December 2
Three persons, including a child, were killed and five others sustained injuries when a shed of a poultry farm collapsed in Dubaldhan village here late last night.

The deceased have been identified as Anjan, alias Abdul, Jonu (4) and Idul. The injured have been admitted to the PGIMS in Rohtak, where their condition is stated to be out of danger.

The incident took place when nearly 10 labourers were resting under the shed. Suddenly, the shed collapsed and all got buried under it. Jhajjar SP Sourav Singh said the police had not received any complaint in this regard, hence no action had been taken so far. “Investigation will be carried out if a complaint is lodged in this regard,” added the SP.