Kurukshetra, December 22
The Indian Oil Corporation officials with the assistance of the Kurukshetra police raided the Mathura refinery, Jalandhar pipeline of the IOC, near Ameen village here today and seized a truck loaded with diesel pilfered from the pipeline.

Following a tip-off that some miscreants were pilfering diesel from the pipeline of the IOC, the officials raided the spot along with the police.

Seeing the police, the miscreants tried to flee, but the overloaded truck struck against a marshy road. The miscreants abandoned the truck and ran away. The police seized the truck loaded with 20,000 litres of diesel worth Rs 6 lakh. A case has been registered.

Harjinder, security guard of the pipeline, said he was alerted by officials at the Ambala depot of Indian Oil that there was some problem in the pipeline near Ameen village. “I rushed to the spot at 3 am and saw that some people were pilfering oil from the pipeline and siphoning it into a truck parked close to the pipeline. I immediately informed the authorities, who in turn informed the police,” he added. 

Chandigarh, December 22
Congress workers in Haryana are up for adoption! This is particularly true for constituencies represented by Independents who have been accommodated in the Hooda Government.

It is in these Assembly seats that workers are particularly sore over the treatment being meted out to them and do not know who to turn to with their godfathers reduced to a mere “nobody” and the Independents unwilling to adopt them

To add to their woes, the ministers are not bothered about redressing grievances , primarily because directions in the Congress are given to be relegated to papers.

That explains why the circular issued by the Congress office to ministers asking them to visit the office of the District Congress Committee to meet workers while on official tour to a constituency, has failed to elicit any response from those in power.

The Congress government, when it came to power almost a year ago, had, at a PCC meeting, asked its ministers to regularly meet workers. Reminders of the same have been sent to the ministers but have failed to cut ice with the ministers. The “indifference” assumes significance with the plenary session of the Congress making much noise about giving workers their due. Such acknowledgement, it seems, is best left for election time in Haryana.

Workers, applauded as “foot soldiers” and “the backbone of the party” in the last election, have themselves become “victims of indifference” while the Congress leadership in the state finds itself helpless as directions are given the go-by.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, however, has organised a couple of workers’ meetings in Chandigarh.

The Congress tried to revive its public contact programme whereby ministers are assigned days to meet the public and workers at the Congress office on appointed days. The ministers, however, have not even bothered to respond to the letter sent two months ago. Barring Education and Health Minister Geeta Bhukkal, the others have reverted to the office.

The ministers have their own reasons. Maintaining that they are available to the public at their homes when in town, they add that work can only be executed if they are in office, making this idea “an exercise in futility”.

“Now, the directions from the party high command are very clear. The workers cannot be ignored. We will communicate the sentiments to the ministers and they will be made to fall in line,” said Congress working president Kuldeep Sharma.

Chandigarh, December 22
Criticising the Opposition parties in Haryana for spreading canards about the legitimacy of the Haryana government, the Congress seemed on the defensive as it re-iterated that it faced no threat from any quarter.

Addressing a press conference here today, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala and the party’s chief whip BB Batra charged the Opposition with vitiating political atmosphere.

“The INLD and the ‘splinter’ group of the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) are misleading the public with their government-will-fall rhetoric. They seem to have forgotten that the Congress emerged as the single largest party after the assembly elections last year and we have 52 legislators, 44 Congress men, seven Independents and one BSP MLA, in the House,” Surjewala said.

Explaining that the government had not come to power with the help of the four HJC-turned-Congress MLAs, he said they were not even present in the House during the vote of confidence.

“Since that vote of confidence on October 28, there have been many instances, including voting on the finance Bill, where the government has proved it is firmly in the saddle. The Opposition wants to mislead the public to remain politically relevant at a time when it has lost its support base,” Surjewala claimed.

On the future course of action following the four-month deadline to the Vidhan Sabha Speaker by the High Court to decide the case of the “defecting” MLAs, Surjewala said it was for the Speaker to see and act.

“The order says that the government gained legitimacy because of these MLAs, but the facts are otherwise. It is up to the Speaker or the MLAs to pursue the matter. As far as the Congress is concerned, the five MLAs merged with the Congress and were accepted into the party fold.”

In his opinion, the court could not direct the Speaker on regulating the procedure, Surjewala said. Batra, too, held that the judiciary could not interfere in the working of the legislature and cited the example of Jharkhand and that of former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee where the court directions pertaining to the legislature remained only on paper.

“The Speaker is not answerable to the court in matters of the House. A judicial review is only applicable to a decision of the legislature and not on the procedure,” he stated. 

Hisar, December 22
Union Minister for Tourism and Housing Selja today called upon the youth to expose the true face of the BJP. The minister, who was addressing a Yuva Jagriti Samaroh here, said the BJP was a party which believed in dividing the nation on communal lines.

She bitterly criticised the party for not letting Parliament function normally during its winter session. “This only proves that the BJP does not believe in a democratic form of government. Parliament is the only forum in a democracy where all matters of importance to the nation can be discussed. But the BJP did not allow this to happen,” she said.

This was her first political function in her hometown in several years.Though Selja visits her hometown frequently, she has avoided political activity here ever since she shifted base to Ambala years ago.

Selja said the late Rajiv Gandhi had dreamt of transforming India into a modern and developed country. However, his untimely demise left his dreams unrealised. His son Rahul Gandhi was now committed to making his father’s dream come true.

She said Rahul’s commitment to principled politics was the key to the nation’s future. She said every Congress man should strengthen the hands of Rahul Gandhi in making India a superpower.

The minister said the system of governance was outdated and needed overhauling. “We remain buried under the weight of files and are cut off from the masses. This system will do no more. We have to change all this,” she emphasised.

Selja did not make any reference to the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government, good or bad.

But she was all praise for the UPA government for empowering the people by enacting the Right to Information Act. Ostensibly a meeting of the youth, the front rows in the auditorium were all occupied by older Congress leaders. 

Chandigarh, December 22
The Indian National Lok Dal today alleged that the Haryana government was acting vindictive and registering false cases against its party leaders.

After submitting a memorandum to Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia on the “complete collapse of law and order” in the state, INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala, speaking to mediapersons, said he had apprised the Governor of the sorry state of affairs.

He alleged that the government had no control on the working of the bureaucracy whatsoever.

."We told him that the government, every now and then, was registering false cases against our legislator from Palwal, Subhash Chaudhary.

“He is being victimised because he defeated the then sitting MLA Karan Singh Dalal who is related to the Chief Minister," Chautala alleged.

Accompanied by his party MLAs, Chautala said he had complained to the Governor that the Congress government was working like a property dealer, acquiring land of farmers for a pittance and selling it to big business houses.

"They are taking land in the name of Special Economic Zones and selling it. While these zones have not attracted any major investment, these are further being let out by private agencies for real estate, " Chautala alleged.

On the five "defecting" MLAs of the Haryana Janhit Congress, Chautala reiterated that they would have to be disqualified and the Congress government's days in the state were numbered.

Kurukshetra, December 22
The Kurukshetra University authorities have managed to trace the IP addresses of the miscreants who hacked its official website and efforts are under way to figure out their locations. The internal security of the university is holding an inquiry into the matter.

It was a 15-minute nightmare for BTech students of the university as the official website was hacked and students were informed that the III semester examination, slated for December 22, had been postponed to December 28.

The hacking was detected as there were an unusual 3,600 clicks per second against the highest number of 2,000 clicks per second when the results were declared. Suspecting that something was wrong, the technical head, Sunil Singh, immediately blocked the website.

He said it was a pre-planned mischief and the website showed the changed information for just 15 minutes, from 10.15 pm to 10.30 pm.

He said, “We immediately corrected the misleading information and began preliminary investigations that revealed that the hacking was not from the server.”

However, the examination was held as per schedule in spite of the confusion created by the changes in the website, though inconvenience was caused to students.

The goof-up has raised serious questions about the functioning of Kurukshetra University, which has been making tall claims about computerisation and introducing the Wi-Fi system on the campus. 

Bhiwani, December 22
The Haryana Board of School Education, Bhiwani, will declare the results of re-appear (first and second semester) secondary examinations, October 2010, of private and regular candidates tomorrow.

Board spokesman said the heads of all schools had been advised to collect the results from the office of the District Education Officer concerned from 11 am to 5 pm on December 23 and from 9 am to 3 pm on December 24.

Students could also get the results through BSNL SMS service from 7 am onwards by messaging Secondary-Hr 10<roll No> to 56666 and www.hbse.nic.in and bseh.gov.in.

Besides, students could also enquire about their results at the board’s helpline 01664-254000.

He said the students, who wanted to submit their forms for re-appear or additional subject or improvement examination to be held in March 2011, could submit their application forms by January 12, 2011, without a late fee, by January 19 with a late fee of Rs 100, by January 27 with a late fee of Rs 300 and by February 2 with a late fee of Rs 1,000. 

Sirsa, December 22
A litigant at the Districts Courts was yesterday chased by advocates.

He took shelter in the courtroom of a senior judge who directed his staff to provide him protection and call the police.

The litigant, an official of a cooperative bank, had a dispute with a Dabwali-based lawyer who had filed a criminal complaint against him under Sections 323 and 506 of the IPC, said police sources.

Both parties had come to the District Courts in connection with the case and had a heated exchange of words.

Soon, they came to blows and at least six lawyers allegedly started thrashing the official. As he ran for cover, the angry lawyers chased him till he entered the courtroom presided over by a senior judicial officer.

Later, the police and some lawyers intervened and resolved the issue.

Vijay Bansal, president of the District Bar Association, said the matter had been resolved and the advocate had agreed to withdraw the criminal complaint against the litigant after consulting his colleagues in Dabwali. 

Dabwali, December 22
Compensation will not heal the scars of 24-year-old Suman. Nor will the money enable Gagan, Seema and Geeta to get on their feet again. Suman was nine when a devastating fire shattered her life on December 23, 1995. She suffered 100 per cent disfigurement. She cannot muster the courage to see her reflection in the mirror, she says.

Gagan’s legs had to be amputated up to the thighs and those of Seema and Geeta up to the knees. Even after 15 years of the tragedy, the wounds remain unhealed.

“I don’t want to talk about the incident,” said Geeta, when contacted on phone. Asked if the money received after the court orders was being used on her welfare, she snapped the phone line.

Suman said the money (Rs 30 lakh approximately) she had received had been used for purchasing a residential plot and on her treatment.

as many as 442 persons, 258 women and 136 children, were killed in the fire that broke out during the annual function of the local school DAV Centenary School at Rajiv Marriage Palace.

The Justice TP Garg Commission constituted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 28, 2003, to decide the quantum of compensation and those liable to pay it, took six long years and over 12 extensions to reach a conclusion.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court finally announced compensation to the victims in November last year.

The court directed the school and the marriage palace to pay 55 per cent of the compensation but the school management approached the Supreme Court against it.

The case is now listed for notices to the respondents on January 5, 2011.

Vinod Bansal, general secretary of the Dabwali Fire Victims Association, said: “A 100-bed hospital was promised to us but the commitment has not been honoured. There are no facilities for treatment of burn injuries in the hospital here despite several 

Faridabad, December 22
Five persons of a family died on the spot and four were critically injured when the vehicle they were travelling in collided with an oil tanker on the Agra-Delhi national highway near Sikri village late last night.

The incident took place when the victims were returning home from Agra after attending a social function related to the Aggarwal community.

The deceased have been identified as Pushpa (45), Shanti (70), Dhruv (7), Abhinav (10) and Bipin (26). The condition of the injured was stated to be critical. They were referred to Badshah Khan Hospital here.

The driver of the oil tanker abandoned the vehicle and escaped. The police has taken the tanker into its custody and a case has been registered.

Sonepat: Two youths - Naveen and Sumit of Gamri village - died on the spot whereas another Naveen of the same village was seriously injured when the car they were travelling in collided against a tree near Khanpur Kalan village late last night.

The victims were on the way to Gumar village near Gannaur and the incident took place when the car driver reportedly lost control over the vehicle.

In another incident, Vishal, a class IV student and resident of Kishora village, was crushed under the school bus in Raipur village today. The school bus driver was reversing the bus after the students of Raipur village got down from the bus. Vishal was standing behind the bus at the time of incident. The police has registered a case against the bus driver. 

Jind, December 22
An Executive Engineer (XEN) of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam was caught while taking a bribe of Rs 15,500 from a resident at Safidon town in the district today during a raid conducted by the state Vigilance Bureau.

The raid was conducted after Ram Jawari lodged a complaint with the department that the official, Raj Kumar Oberai, XEN, Civil, was demanding a bribe for some work.

The official was trapped today by a Vigilance team during the raid. The complainant is the owner of a mobike agency at Safidon town.

A case under Section 7/13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act had been registered against the accused, who had been been arrested.