Ambala/Kurukshetra, June 4
Over a year ago, 28-year-old Rekha of Bhagyal village in Ambala, expecting her third child, at the instance of the local health worker, opted for an institutional delivery not only for better health care facilities but also to avail herself of Rs 1,500, paid to Scheduled Caste families under Haryana’s Janani Suraksha Yojna (JSY). However, till date, she is “running after” the health worker to get that amount, but to no avail.

“My daughter was born in February last year. My husband is a labourer with five of us to support. The JSY amount is a big incentive which prompted me to opt for an institutional delivery but I am still awaiting my payment,” she rues. Like her, Seema of Meethapur village is disappointed that she will not walk out of the district hospital, Ambala, with her baby and the promised Rs 1,500 when she is discharged because there are no funds to finance the scheme and there are many others like her.

While all women are given between Rs 700 and Rs 500 from the Centre under the JSY for BPL families after delivery, the Haryana Government had announced an additional payment of Rs 1,500 to all SC families.

Sources in the district hospitals maintain that while the Centre’s component is received on time, the fund flow under the state scheme is erratic. In Ambala, the in charge, Dr Neelam Dogra, says the health worker knows the exact number of cases awaiting payments. “However, we received a one-time payment of Rs 16.35 lakh for April to August last year which was exhausted. We wrote to the department to provide us Rs 60 lakh last October but haven’t heard from the officials concerned. The cases are mounting with every day,” she says.

In the district hospital, Kurkushetra, where five to 10 such deliveries take place on a daily basis, the state component has not been received for the past two months. At the CHC, Pehowa and Shahbad, the amount is yet to be received. At Kaithal’s multi-speciality hospital, which gets 50 to 60 such cases, and at the Primary Health Centre in Keorak, where 280 cases are awaiting clearance, doctors have to turn away women asking for payment. In Palwal alone,over 400 cases are pending.

Explains, PK Das, Project Director, National Rural Health Mission, “When the number of cases recorded in a year exceeds our projections, the problem of delayed payments crops up. The amount for January to March has been cleared recently and will shortly reach the district hospitals.”

Hisar, June 4
The mortal remains of former Chief Minister and sitting Lok Sabha member Bhajan Lal were laid to rest at his hometown Adampur near here this evening marking the end of the era of the politics of the Lal political troika in Haryana.

He was given a state funeral, which was attended among others by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Governor Jagannath Pahadia and former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and a large number of other dignitaries.

A contingent of the Haryana police gave a gun salute and buglers sounded the last post as his body was lowered into a grave as per traditions of the Bishnoi sect to which Bhajan Lal belonged.

The burial ceremony was performed in the presence of his two sons former Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan and HJC legislator Kuldeep Bishnoi. Other members of the Lal clan also paid their last respects to the departed leader.

The burial ground swarmed with his supporters who had started arriving there hours before his body was brought to Adampur from Hisar. The body was placed in an air-conditioned glass-covered coffin and was carried in a flower-bedecked open vehicle.

Chander Mohan and Kuldeep Bishnoi rode with the body. The funeral procession, which included hundreds of vehicles, was about 5-km long at one stage during the journey.

The funeral procession started from here at 2 pm. On the way to Adampur, hundreds of persons queued up on both sides of the road to pay homage.

Earlier in the morning, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Union Minister Selja paid their last tributes to the leader at his residence here. Markets in several areas of the city and nearby towns of Adampur, Barwala and Fatehabad remained closed as a mark of respect to the late former Chief Minister.

Jind, June 4
Expressing solidarity with yoga guru Baba Ramdev in his crusade against corruption, hundreds of residents began their fast here today. The police has made elaborate security arrangements to avoid any untoward incident.

While members of the local unit of the Indian Medical Association, Senior Citizens Forum, Haryana Roadways Brastachar Virodhi Sanghathan and the Sain Samaj Ekta Manch sat on fast near the mini-secretariat, activists of the Pandit Deendayal Upadhayay Smriti Manch started their fast at Shristi Park here.

Dr Satyavrat, who sat on fast today, said a majority of people in the district, state and the country fully support the drive launched by Baba Ramdev to get back the amount of Rs 400 lakh crore stacked abroad by corrupt.

SIRSA/FATEHABAD: Expressing their solidarity with Baba Ramdev, his followers began fast and dharna in Sirsa and Fatehabad.

Som Nath Mehta, Brahmanand Sharma, Anup Rai Verma, Subhash Garva and Hari Singh Jangra, all members of the Bharat Swabhiman Trust (BST), today began their indefinite hunger strike outside the mini-secretariat in Sirsa. Rajesh Kumar, a schoolteacher, observed fast with his wife Saroj and a nine-year-old daughter.

SONEPAT: A large number of persons from the district flocked to Delhi and various social and voluntary organisations extended their support to Baba Ramdev’s “satyagraha”.

Panchkula, June 4
The special CBI court today deferred the hearing in the Chhatrapati murder case for July 2, in the Ranjit murder case for July 12 and in a rape case for July 30 as one of the prosecution witnesses did not turn up in the court. Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is an accused in all the three cases.

Special CBI Judge AS Narang deferred the hearing as one of the witnesses did not turn up for recording his statement.

Meanwhile, the court has issued a notice to the CBI for June 7 as the co-accused, Krishan Lal, has sought interim bail on health grounds. He is at present lodged in a jail in Ambala.

The dera chief has been charged with murder, rape and sexual exploitation in three separate cases filed by the CBI.