Panipat, January 22
Six persons were killed while three others sustained serious injuries as the canter in which they were travelling in rammed into a stationary truck outside the Khadi Ashram on the NH1, near here, early this morning.The impact of the accident was such that all the six persons died on the spot. According to eyewitnesses, the canter was coming from Delhi and was loaded with vegetables.They said it appeared that the driver of the canter lost control of the vehicle and hit the truck that parked on the roadside.

The police said the deceased were farmers who belonged to Karnal district and had sought a lift from the canter driver from a sabzi mandi in Delhi, where they had gone to sell their produce this morning.

As the driver of the canter was coming towards Karnal, they asked him to take them along. The vehicle left the sabzi mandi at around 5am and reached Panipat at 7 am, where the accident took place.

Those who lost their lives were identified as Rajkumar of Dabkoli village, Sahib Singh of Darad village, Jai Singh, Raju, Shunty (all residents of Sighoi village) and Vinod of Moti nagar in Karnal district.After getting information, police officials reached the scene to asses the situation.

Jind, January 22
The agitation by the Sarvajatiya Sarvakhap Mahapanchayat on the Mirchpur issue intensified today, with the district virtually getting cut off from the remaining parts of the state following blockades on nearly all major roads. All bus services from the main bus stand here have been suspended and the local bus depot locked by the authorities.

The dharna being staged by the protesters on rail tracks near Julani village entered the eighth day today. The movement of private vehicles has also been affected in the district due to the road blockades.

Even as the authorities tried to persuade the protesters to call off the stir in the wake of the state government willing to request the Centre for a CBI probe into the Mirchpur violence, the mahapanchayat remained adamant on its demands, including a SIT probe and shifting of the trial as well as the accused in the Mirchpur case to Haryana.

Residents of various villages blocked highways connecting Jind with other parts of the state. The bus services from other districts to this town have also been adversely affected.

The movement of traffic on the National Highway No. 10 connecting Rohtak with Hisar was also affected following a blockade at Mundal village. At least three blockades have been reported on the National Highway No. 71 between Jind and Rohtak.

Meanwhile, rail traffic on the Jind- Narwana-Ferozepur section continued to remian paralysed today due to the dharna on the rail track by the protesters. One of the trains between Panipat and Jind could not ply today after residents of Sunderpur village began a dharna on this section also this morning. The movement of trains on the Jind-Panipat and Jind Narwana sections has come to a halt. Only one train could leave for Rohtak totay.

The protesters have reporetdly laid a siege to the railway track near Mayyar village in Hisar, which connects Bhiwani with Hisar.

Meanwhile, the district administration has requisitioned more paramilitary and police forces to deal with any eventuality. 

Hisar, January 22
Traffic from and to several important places in the area, including Delhi, Chandigarh and Punjab, was adversely affected today as members of the Jat community blocked important highways at several places in the district.

The roads were blocked in support of the demand for shifting of the 98 accused in the Mirchpur case from Delhi to Hisar.

Although the panel comprising leaders of various khaps had called off the stir at Jind yesterday after the government agreed to request the Centre for a CBI probe into the violence against Dalits in the village on April 21 last year, various factions of the community decided to intensify the stir by blocking highways.

The blockade at Ramayan village near here prevented movement of traffic from here to Delhi and vice versa. Some distance ahead, hundreds of villagers blocked traffic at the Mundhal village crossing, affecting traffic to Bhiwani and Jind.

Villagers at Ramayan also squatted on the rail track, leading to the cancellation of trains.

Traffic to Chandigarh and several districts of Punjab, including Patiala, Sangrur, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar, was disrupted due to blockades at Sirsaud-Bichpadi village. Villagers also blocked traffic at Panihari, Balak Chowk and Ladwa.

Police sources said the blockades were lifted at Panihari, Balak, Ladwa and Sirsaud Bichpadi villages after talks with the villagers. However, the roads were still blocked at Ramayan and Mundhal when reports last came in.

Hundreds of villagers squatted on the roads and vehicles queued up on both sides. Harried motorists had to look for alternative routes prolonging their journey by several hours. However, later in the day the villagers allowed private vehicles to pass.

Bus services were also affected. While services to many places were suspended, routes had to be curtailed due to road blockades at several points in the area.

However, the protests remained peaceful despite fears of violence. No untoward incident had been reported by the evening.

Meanwhile, Justice Iqbal Singh, heading the one-man panel probing the Mirchpur incidents, held a hearing here today. Despite blockades, five villagers appeared before the commission. However, next of kin of Tara Chand, who had died in the violence along with his daughter, failed to appear before it. The panel had held a sitting at Hansi yesterday.

Gurgaon, January 22
A fortnight-long national exhibition titled “Saga of Swaraj”, being organised at HIPA complex here by the Haryana Academy of History and Culture, seems more like a saga of sycophancy.

For, the organisers of the exhibition have put the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose with Ch Ranbir Singh Hooda, the late father of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Incidentally, the Chief Minister is scheduled to be the chief guest at the closing ceremony of the exhibition on February 4.

According to academy director KC Yadav, the exhibition, which is slated to begin tomorrow, will have three themes: “Subhas and INA: A Tribute” (dedicated to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose); “Mahatma Gandhi and Haryana: Interaction and Influence” (dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi); and “Haryana’s Role in Freedom Struggle” (dedicated to Ch Ranbir Singh).

Apart from being a freedom fighter, Ch Ranbir Singh had been a member of the Constituent Assembly, MP and minister in joint Punjab.

As per a press statement issued by Yadav, the three-part exhibition will showcase a collection of documents, photographs, illustrations, maps, medallions, coins and stamps, relating to the country’s fight for freedom.

“The audience will also have an opportunity to hear the voices (speech excerpts) of their great national leaders like Gandhiji, Netaji, Nehruji and Haryana’s leaders like Ch Ranbir Singh, Ch Chhotu Ram et al,” the statement maintains.

The exhibition will be inaugurated on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 114th birth anniversary, which falls tomorrow, by Netaji’s 95-year-old living associate and INA veteran Capt SS Yadav.

“Many distinguished freedom fighters, ministers, chief parliamentary secretaries, MPs and state legislature, vice chancellors, distinguished academicians, public figures, social workers, senior officers and media men will come as distinguished guests to the exhibition on different days,” the statement points out, adding that the purpose of this exhibition is “to revisit our glorious past”. 

Chandigarh, January 22
Haryana’s action of giving weightage to candidates qualifying the national eligibility test over the state-level eligibility test in selection of college lecturers has been upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Justice Ranjit Singh has ruled: “There is no justification to interfere in the action of the state of Haryana and other respondents in giving some weightage to those candidates who have qualified NET and not giving such consideration to those who have qualified SLET.” The ruling came on a petition filed by Dr Asha Rani against the state of Haryana and others respondents.

Justice Ranjit Singh ruled: “These are two different tests. It is for the respondents to attach weightage to a particular test and the counsel has not been able to point out any arbitrariness in this regard.

“There is no cause made out for interfering in the criteria adopted for selection, as I do not see anything arbitrary or discriminatory in the criteria so formed by the respondents.

“There is no merit in the writ petition and the same is accordingly dismissed.”

Dr Rani had earlier filed the petition for quashing impugned criteria issued by the state of Haryana, vide letter dated November 21, 2007, for selection of lecturers in the government-aided privately managed colleges.

Justice Ranjit Singh observed: “The sole submission made by the counsel for the petitioner is that the petitioner has qualified the state-level eligibility test, for which no weightage has been prescribed as per the criteria given in the advertisement.

“On the other hand, eight marks weightage is provided to those candidates who have qualified the national eligibility test. The grievance of the petitioner is that prior to 2002, the qualifications were the same and accordingly now giving any weightage to those candidates who have qualified the NET would be arbitrary and discriminatory. No doubt, the candidates who have cleared the SLET, are to be held eligible for appointment to the posts of lecturer anywhere in India, if they have cleared SLET prior to 2002.”

However, “the grant of weightage to a particular candidate would be on the basis of criteria required to be adopted and accepted by the respondents.” 

Popra, (Assandh) January 22
Surinder Kumar (35) of Popra village in the Assandh area of Karnal district, who banked on an agent to get a bride in the wake of the skewed sex ratio in the state, lost not only his money, but also the hope to get married.

With the number of bachelors swelling in Haryana due to the declining sex ratio, the unscrupulous agents have been duping innocent villagers on the promise of getting them brides on the payment of hefty amount.

An agent, Rajesh, allegedly took Rs 30,000 from Surinder for arranging a bride for him, but disappeared after a few days. He returned after two and a half months along with a Nepalese couple, who, he said, would arrange a bride for him in Nepal.

Surinder trusted him and accompanied the couple and the agent to Nepal bearing their expenses. He was asked to pay Rs 25,000 more.

The agent got an affidavit signed from the couple, who never came back to India, to have received Rs 20,000 and promised that the bride would be made available on an additional payment of Rs 30,000.

Surinder said the agent did not fulfill his promise and when he forced him to get a bride, he came with a girl, namely Neeru, the next day and said there was some function in her family and she would come a day after and marry him. However, the girl never returned and later he came to know that the agent had hired the girl.

Surinder said he spent Rs 80,000 by taking loans, but the agent backed out and threatened him against following the matter. “Now I am under heavy debt and can’t even think of getting married,” he said in a choked voice.

“I am the eldest in the family and have two younger sisters, both married, and two brothers, one of whom is studying in school. I can hardly afford the luxury of buying a bride now,” he added. I approached the police, but only to be harassed, he said.

President of the Pravasi Suraksha Vahini Raj Singh Chowdhari said buying brides had been in vogue for the past many years and in Karnal district alone, hundreds of bachelors, especially from the rural background, purchased brides from distant places like Nepal, Sikkim, Assam, Bihar, Bengal and UP.

He said another disturbing aspect of the problem was that the agents were allegedly forcing girls from far-off states into flesh trade on the pretext of getting them married.

Balancing the sex ratio and keeping a strict vigil on these agents was the only way to save the innocent villagers and poor girls from exploitation, he observed. 

Yamunanagar, January 22
Indian National Lok Dal president Om Prakash Chautala yesterday alleged that the Hooda government was acquiring agricultural land to give benefit to big industrial houses and builders.

Speaking to newspersons here, he alleged that the government had no control over the working of the bureaucracy. Chautala said he had written 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.

Farmers were facing an acute shortage of fertilisers, power and water. Chautala said it was unfortunate that the farmers had to stand in queues for a long time and only got one bag of fertiliser at the end of the day.

Having a dig at the Central Government, Chautala said only two options were left with it, either to set up a JPC into the 2G spectrum scam or to go in for a fresh poll in the country. He said the entire Opposition had joined hands to counter the Central Government. He said inflation had made the life of the ordinary man miserable.

He said the situation in the state was bad. He alleged that farmers were committing suicide because “fertile land belonging to them was being sold to colonisers at throw-away prices. The law and order situation in the state was deteriorating. 

Hisar, January 22
Three policemen, including an ASI, were caught drinking while on duty at the local General Hospital late last night.

On a tip-off, a team of police officials raided the hospital where the three cops, who were supposed to keep watch over the prisoners admitted to the hospital, were found drinking.

The team recovered a bottle of whisky, snacks and glasses in the duty room of doctors. The three cops were so drunk that they were barely able to speak coherently. They were suspended immediately and directed to report to the local Police Lines. All three underwent a medical check up before they were taken to the Police Lines.

A medical officer on duty said he did not have the key to the duty room and had to leave the room unlocked. He said he had asked the cops not to drink on duty and also not on the hospital premises. However, they refused to listen to him.

On earlier occasions too cops have been caught in similar circumstances. Hospital sources said the prisoners who were brought to the hospital generally arranged for liquor and snacks to appease the cops supposed to keep a watch over them. 

Hisar, January 22
Hansi, a subdivisional town in this district, is in the news for late night highway robberies. The town witnessed two armed robberies this week. On Wednesday, a manager of a security firm, who was returning home in his car, was overpowered by some youths near Sorkhi village, 30 km from here. The youths took him to an ATM and forced him to withdraw Rs 15,000 from there.

They then dropped him on the roadside and decamped with his Alto car. In a similar incident, the following night, a local resident was forced to stop near the same village after robbers overtook his car and pointed a revolver at him. They forced him to part with Rs 70,000 in cash and jewellery on his person. — TNS

Jhajjar, January 22
A truck loaded with filled LPG cylinders was allegedly looted by unidentified masked miscreants at gunpoint near Dadri-Toa village here last night. The truck was carrying 306 cylinders.

The looters allegedly drove the truck to an unknown destination after leaving the driver on the Sikanderpur road here. The police has registered a case.

The incident took place when the truck, engaged by the Jhajjar-based Ramesh Gas Agency, was coming back to Jhajjar after getting the cylinders filled from a gas plant in Gurgaon.

The truck was on its way when a Sumo jeep intercepted it at Dadri Toa village. As the driver, Surjeet, stopped the truck, at least six armed youths got down from the jeep and brandished a gun. The miscreants reportedly drove the truck on the Sikandrabad road and left two of their accomplices with Surjeet so that he could not inform the police about the incident.

According to the gas agency owner, the two accomplices who held the driver captive overnight, fled from the spot early in the morning after leaving Surjeet there. Surjeet then informed him and the police about the incident. 

Gurgaon, January 22
The state government has decided to give physical possession of the 100 sq yard free plots to the beneficiaries of the villages where common land is available by March 15.

This was stated by the Financial Commissioner of the Rural Development, Environment and Panchayat departments, P Raghavendra Rao, at a meeting with the deputy commissioners of all six districts of Gurgaon division here.

During the meeting, he also reviewed the progress of the Mahatma Gandhi Gramin Basti Yojana, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Indira Awas Yojana and the Model Village Scheme.

Rao directed the deputy commissioners to get the demarcation of the plots done and give possession to the beneficiaries by February 15 and complete the development works thereon by March 15.

He also asked the DCs to motivate the beneficiaries to start construction on the plots and if required, help them in getting some loan from the banks. He said the village panchayats whose common land had been taken for the allotment of free plots to the poor would be given compensation of Rs 10,000 per acre annually.

Rao said only those poor families whose names figured in the list finalised on October 31, 2008, would get benefit of the scheme.

Gurgaon Divisional Commissioner TK Sharma, besides the DCs, ADCs and DDPOs of all six districts under the Gurgaon division attended the meeting.