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IGP Ahlawat had his share of controversies
Mystery deepens over death
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Failure of scheme blamed on lack of building rapport
Kanda buries the hatchet with CM
It’s a political drama: Chautala
100 Sq Yard Plots for Poor
BJP to prepare report on ‘land scam’
Hisar’s Shubham tops PMT
Kalanaur Firing
Girl’s Kidnapping
Honour Killing
SDO held on graft charge
Gang of transformer thieves busted in Karnal
Man kills former wife’s father-in-law
Yamunanagar scrap dealer duped of Rs 21.5 lakh
Sadhu found murdered
10 taken ill after eating ‘kuttu flour’
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IGP Ahlawat had his share of controversies
Chandigarh, June 13 Only in March Ahlawat was virtually admonished by the Punjab and Haryana High Court for apparent “Bench hunting” on judicial officer MM Dhonchak’s petition. An ex-army officer too has been shooting off communications and meeting the powers that be in Haryana for the registration of a case against Ahlawat and others. Rajinder Singh Jain, who fought for the country in the 1965 war and was honoured with a medal, has been seeking “justice” for his 34-year-old son, Manish Jain. The ex-Army officer had claimed Manish “was sick and suffered heavily due to mental and physical cruelty; and stress inflicted upon him by the Jind police”. Manish had breathed his last on February 20, 2006. With Ahlawat’s mysterious death, Dhonchak’ case against the IPS officer and others will go on but is likely to lose steam. Dhonchak had sought a probe into the allegations of forgery and fraud against Ahlawat during his tenure as SP, Rewari, along with other police officials. In a letter, Dhonchak had mentioned that during his tenure in Rewari he had launched prosecution in the cases against Ahlawat. In a bid to browbeat the complainant, Ahlawat got investigations reopened into an FIR allegedly involving Dhanchok’s brother against whom a case under the Essential Commodities Act was registered in May, 1998. It was ordered to be cancelled by the then Gurgaon DIG. The letter added that Ahlawat got bogus official records prepared by fabricating “zimnies”. Later, in collusion with the then SHO, Rewari, Ahlawat projected that Dhonchak had launched prosecution against him as a counter-blast to the reopening of investigation against the latter’s brother. Jain has all along been claiming that a case of criminal breach of trust, subjecting a married woman to cruelty, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy was registered against Manish and his family at Jind on September 18, 2003, even though they were putting up in Baroda. But the High Court in November, 2006, discharged them in the case. Armed with the orders, Jain filed complaints before the authorities concerned. The inquiries that ensued indicted several police officials. Referring to Ahlawat, a confidential communication from the state DGP to the under secretary, Lokayukta, says: “As per the inquiry report, no specific lapse can be attributed to the then SP, Jind. However, he should have expressed closer supervision”. |
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Mystery deepens over death
Gurgaon, June 13 The police authorities continued to maintain a studied silence over the issue despite eyewitnesses stating that Ahlawat fell from the balcony of a fourth-floor flat in Freedom Park Life Apartments. The post-mortem report also confirmed that he had died due to multiple fractures and other internal injuries. Still, strangely enough, no formal attempt has yet been made to ascertain the cause of death or explore the possibility of suicide or foul play, especially as the balcony of the flat from where the IGP fell had a sufficiently high railing. According to sources, Ahlawat had gone to the building by a private vehicle without his securitymen. He had reportedly gone to meet a woman acquaintance, who lives in a flat in the building. The woman, Praveen, used to live there with another person. A security official at the building had maintained that Ahlawat had gone to her flat on Saturday evening. However, the flat has been lying locked after the incident. Ahlawat’s family members had earlier stated that he had gone there along with his brother-in-law to see an apartment for his sister. But like the local police authorities, they also continue to be tightlipped over the matter. The baffling silence of the police as well as of the family of the deceased has triggered rumours. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, his wife Asha Hooda and Haryana ministers Sukhbir Kataria and Gopal Kanda today visited the bereaved family at Ahlawats’ local residence to offer their condolences. |
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Family’s agony ends as sailor walks free after 10 months
Rohtak, June 13 Ravinder, a local resident, is likely to reach home by the weekend. “His release has come as a big relief for my family and me, especially as the chances of the sailors’ release were bleak due to the abject failure the government to ensure their release,” says Sampa Arya, Ravinder’s wife. “Had no efforts been made by the Pakistan-based Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, I would have lost my husband for sure,” she said with tears in her eyes. A resident of Srinagar Colony here, she said, “We approached the top authorities, including the Prime Minister, but it didn’t work. “We were left helpless and then luckily we came in contact with Ansar Burney, former Pakistan Minister of Human Rights, and it was due to his efforts and the help provided by the Governor of Sindh province there that the sailors were released. The captive sailors included six Indians, four Pakistanis, a Sri Lankan and 11 Egyptians, who were on board an ill-fated cargo vessel hijacked by the Somalian pirates in the Gulf of Aden. “Ravinder’s hapless kin had met Haryana Chief Minister and had even approached the office of the Prime Minister to help secure the sailors’ release, but it didn’t work as the authorities declined to pay ransom for the release of the sailors,” said Sampa. Ravinder’s father is an ex-serviceman and his wife Sampa lives here with a minor son. Ravinder is employed as Third Officer with a cargo ship of Red Sea Navigation, a company based in Egypt. He had left the country on May 18 last year. The pirates had sought a ransom of $2.1 million. About one-fourth of the amount has reportedly been paid by the Pakistani NGO to secure the sailors’ release, it is claimed. |
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Failure of scheme blamed on lack of building rapport
At least that’s what a report prepared by the state’s Public Health Department indicates. In Seka village of parched Mahendragarh, the adoption level is as low as 3.33 per cent and a request to shift the plant has been made as is the case for many other plants. In Riwasa, the utilisation is only 5.33 per cent and the government’s own report, based on the feedback by Naandi Foundation, which runs these RO plants, states that “people are very happy with the current source of water”. Similarly, elsewhere in the other two districts of Kaithal and Jhajjar, the poor adoption levels underline villagers’ disinterest. Of the 100 plants across three districts, 57 of these are functioning at below 30 per cent utilisation. Of these, 36 plants have utilisation of less than 20 per cent. Financial Secretary, Public Health, PK Gupta, attributes the lack of response to the taste of water and missing of transport linkage between villages. “People cannot fetch this water from the plant to their homes and are unwilling to pay additional transport cost for such services,” he says. Sources, however, add that instead of concentrating the plants in three districts alone, a better way to make the scheme work would have been to spread these out in the problem pockets of southern Haryana, where water is unfit for consumption. Besides, a fewer number should have been initiated on a pilot basis to test the waters. The foundation too is not very upbeat about Haryana’s performance. “At the very onset, we were given a list of 300 villages and 15 days to choose the 100 we wanted to set up our plants in. With the department’s help and no bargaining power in site selection, we chose villages with water and power supply throughout the year. We were given 100 days to set up 100 plants only to realise that some of these had a water or power problem,” explains Manoj Kumar, CEO of Naandi Foundation. Maintaining that 12 plants needed a complete redo, the CEO adds that any plant with less than 30 per cent utilisation is just not viable. “Given the huge losses we suffered in Haryana, it’s very convenient to pack up and leave. However, we want to make it work here and drive home the need for consuming clean water,” he remarks. Admitting that the foundation had absolutely no time to establish a connect with the people, Manoj Kumar says that the foundation assumed that the people of Punjab and Haryana, given their paying capacity, would opt for clean water. “Unlike Andhra Pradesh, our project there has been a runaway success, where we devoted six months to building an equation with the villagers before setting up our plants, we moved ahead on the flawed assumption that our offer of clean drinking water at an affordable cost would be lapped up. This, however, didn’t happen. Our biggest lesson from the Haryana experience is that every community needs education irrespective of its paying power,” he says. The foundation plans a review of all plants running in Haryana next month and pack up and move to new villages where these are “technically viable”.
(Concluded) |
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Kanda buries the hatchet with CM
Sirsa, June 13 Sources revealed that Randeep Singh Surjewala, a senior minister, and Prahlad Singh Gillankhera, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, had played a major role in persuading Kanda to sort out his issues with Hooda. Kanda, who was reportedly sore over some remarks made by Hooda during his visit to Sirsa on Saturday, had returned his official car and security staff to the government yesterday. Hooda, who had come here on Saturday at Kanda’s invitation to launch some development projects, had reprimanded him when he learnt that Ashok Tanwar,MP, had boycotted a programme as he was not formally invited. Hooda had bluntly told Kanda that he would not attend the function till Kanda persuaded Tanwar to come. Though the issue seemed to have died down there and then as Kanda participated in all functions of the Chief Minister after the incident and also invited Tanwar to a dinner. However, he surprised all by taking the decision to return his official car and security on Sunday. After leaving his car and security staff at Hisar, the minister had moved to his farmhouse at Gurgaon. Sources said Surjewala and Gillankhera reached Gurgaon last evening as emissaries of Hooda and assuaged Kanda’s hurt feelings, who was sulking as he felt that his status has been denigrated in presence of his community. Later, Kanda was taken to Delhi for a meeting with Hooda late last evening, where he buried the hatchet. |
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It’s a political drama: Chautala
Sirsa, June 13 Talking to mediapersons at Jamal village in the district on the first day of his four-day tour of the Ellenabad Assembly constituency, Chautala said he knew Gopal Kanda closely, and he did not expect the minister to fight any battle on ideological issues. Chautala alleged that Kanda supported the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government with selfish motives, and now too, he must have had some personal motives behind enacting this “drama”. Chautala today demanded a high-level inquiry into the double murder at Ellenabad in which a woman and her granddaughter were killed on May 5. Alleging that the district police had broken all records of bribery, Chautala said the INLD had demanded immediate transfer of SP Satinder Kumar Gupta in a memorandum sent to the Governor after its “Sirsa bandh” on June 11. Chautala also demanded the immediate arrest of former minister Om Prakash Jain and former Chief Parliamentary Secretary Zile Ram as, he said, there was sufficient evidence against them. Earlier, addressing villagers in Jamal, Chautala alleged that the UPA government at the Centre and the Congress government in Haryana were deeply involved in corruption. |
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100 Sq Yard Plots for Poor
Karnal, June 13 The probe into the plot allotment will not be conducted by the sub-divisional magistrate (SDMs) of the same block and ADM MK Pandurang will be a part of probe teams. All SDMs conducting the probe in other blocks will randomly check two villages and find out whether the plots have been allotted to genuine persons. The Deputy Commissioner said 41,848 persons had been identified for the allotment of 100 sq yard plots and 14,195 persons had already been allotted the plots. She directed the officers concerned to give possession to all eligible allottees by June 20. She said there was no panchayat land available in 83 villages, including 11 villages in Assandh, 28 in Indri, nine in Gharaunda, 16 in Karnal, 10 in Nilokheri and nine villages in Nissing. The case has been sent to the government to purchase land for providing residential plots to the poor. As many as 4,460 persons in Gharaunda, 3,296 in Assandh, 331 in Indri, 1,327 in Nissing, 803 in Nilokheri and 990 in Karnal have been allotted plots and all eligible allottees have been asked to construct houses by 2013. The DC said “review and revision” of the below poverty line (BPL) list was in process and asked the ineligible families to voluntary get their names deleted otherwise legal action would be taken against them. The Kurukshetra DC has also directed the officials concerned to complete the process of land identification for allotment of 100 sq yard plots to poor by July 31. He said 23,597 identified persons would be given plots in 243 villages, which included 7,269 in 82 villages in the Thanesar block, 4,804 persons in 51 villages in Ladwa, 4,186 persons in 49 villages in Pehowa, 6,223 persons in 41 villages in Shahbad and 822 in 20 villages in
Baben. |
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BJP to prepare report on ‘land scam’
Rohtak, June 13 National secretary of the BJP Kirit Somaiya, in charge of the anti-corruption campaign of the party, claimed here today that Haryana was among the states where corruption was rampant. Alleging that the biggest land scam had taken place in Haryana, he said about 22,000 acres of agriculture land had been acquired at nominal rates and handed over to private companies and builders at a handsome margin during the past few years. Describing the recent visit of Rahul Gandhi, general secretary of the Congress, to Bhatta- Parsol villages in UP, as a political drama, he said the youth icon of the ruling Congress did not care to come to Gurgaon and Faridabad, where a “massive scam” had taken place in the name of acquisition of land from poor farmers. Demanding a high-level probe into all land deals since 2005, he said he suspected the involvement of ruling party leaders in a direct or indirect manner in more than 50 per cent of the cases in which land had been acquired and handed over to private companies in the name of development. He said a committee had been set up under the chairmanship of Veer Kumar Yadav to look into all cases connected with the land acquisition “scam” in Haryana and it would submit its report by August 15 to the BJP chief. |
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Hisar’s Shubham tops PMT
According to the Controller of Examinations of the Health University, who declared the result this morning, Shubham Mehta, son of Raman Mehta of Hisar, attained the first rank while Nikhil Mehta from Sirsa got the second rank.
Sahil of Jind got the third rank while Hemant Tyagi from Rai in Sonepat got the fourth position in this exam. Akansha Chaudhary of Bahadurgarh has been placed at the fifth spot and Saryu Goyal of Ambala at the sixth spot. The seventh and eighth ranks have gone to Manik from Fatehabad and Sagar Yadav from Rewari, respectively. Hitaishi from Hansi and Richa Sharma of Rohtak have got the ninth and tenth ranks, respectively, in the PMT. |
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Kalanaur Firing
Rohtak, June 13 Bali, who was wanted in a firing incident in which one person was killed, had surrendered before the police on May 27 after evading arrest for 22 days. All 17 accused, including the former MLA, were today produced before the court, which extended the judicial custody by two weeks. The police, which admitted that some of the persons named as accused or suspects had probably been named falsely in the case, had cut short the accused list from 22 to 17. While the police claimed that no innocent had been arrested, the investigation process came under a cloud after Sita Ram Rathi, the
complainant in the murder case, had recently alleged that the police was trying to bully them and could possibly
get them framed in a counter case. Vishnu, a resident of Nighana village, was killed in the firing incident that followed an altercation between the former MLA and a commission agent in the grain market of Kalanaur town in the district. |
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Girl’s Kidnapping
Naraingarh (Ambala), June 13 Residents of the village gathered near the police station and protested against the alleged police inaction. She said both accused were seen talking to the kidnapped girl near her house on June 4 night and she was found missing the next morning following which a complaint was lodged with the police. Refuting the allegations, the SHO said efforts were being made to locate the kidnapped girl and assured the protesters that the accused would be arrested soon. |
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Honour Killing
Hisar, June 13 The ASP said the case was registered on Saturday on the complaint of a neighbour Ajit Singh, who alleged that he saw Rameshwar and other male members of the family beating up the girl mercilessly. Ritu had been cremated quietly by the family. The family had claimed that Ritu was ill and had died a natural death. The father and other family members have also been booked for destroying evidence. |
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SDO held on graft charge
Kaithal, June 13 Local contractor Ram Pal, who works for the Irrigation Department here, complained to the Vigilance Bureau that SDO IS Gill had demanded Rs 18,000 from him as bribe to clear his outstanding payments of Rs 1.50 lakh for works executed by him for the department. The deal was struck at Rs 15,000. The state vigilance bureau team headed by Inspector Raj Pal Singh accompanied by naib tehsildar Jai Bhagwan Sharma as duty Magistrate reached the office of the SDO and laid a trap. The contractor handed over the powdered-quoted currency notes to the official, following which the team caught him. The contractor has also alleged in the complaint that he had earlier paid Rs 84,000 to JE Ashok Gupta as bribe to get a payment of Rs 7.50 lakh . The matter is under investigation. |
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Gang of transformer thieves busted in Karnal
Karnal, June 13 The copper coils extracted from the stolen transformers were allegedly sold in Uttar Pradesh. Karnal district police chief Rakesh Arya said it was a big achievement as rampant transformer thefts had been causing inconvenience to the UHBVN, police and power consumers. He said a special investigation team was constituted and three members of the gang were nabbed from Navel Nahar Bridge. Makkhan Singh and Mohar Singh from Moradabad and Khem Singh from Bulandshahar confessed their involvement in 71 cases of transformer thefts involving 81 transformers. The arrested told the police that some copper coils extracted from transformers were sold to Mohammad Shahzad in Hapur (UP), who has also been arrested. The police also recovered copper coils from Shahzad, who runs a junk shop at Badli in Delhi. |
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Man kills former wife’s father-in-law
Fatehabad, June 13 According to reports, victim Sadhu Singh’s son Gorkha had married Chhinder Kaur, a resident of Gharsana in Ganganagar district of Rajasthan three weeks ago. The woman was earlier married to Sampooran Singh from Rajasthan and had three children. The couple had a marital discord and the marriage was declared annulled after a panchayat of elders. Sampooran Singh, alleged Gorkha, had been threatening his family with dire consequences ever since he married Chhinder Kaur. He allegedly came with around 10 persons last night with an intention to forcibly take away Chhinder Kaur. He allegedly opened fire on Sadhu Singh, when he tried to stop him. The police has registered a case. All suspects managed to escape after the incident. |
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Yamunanagar scrap dealer duped of Rs 21.5 lakh
Yamunanagar, June 13 He said he had met Santosh Kumar in Delhi along with Umesh Joshi, manager of Sam Cables at Rudarpur in UP. Parkash said Santosh came to Yamunanagar yesterday demanded 50 per cent of the deal amount. Sawain gave Rs 21.5 lakh to Santosh.However, after an hour Santosh told him that he had dropped the deal and handed over a briefcase, which he said contained the advance money of Rs 21.5 lakh. When he came to his house in Yamunanagar and opened the lock of the briefcase, he found waste paper in the bag. He went back to the hotel, where Santosh had been staying, but he had already checked out. He tried to contact him on his mobile, but it was switched off. |
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Sadhu found murdered
Jhajjar, June 13 Locks of the temples were also found broken during preliminary investigation. The police has registered a case of murder on a complaint from village sarpanch Sanjay Kumar. |
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10 taken ill after eating ‘kuttu flour’
Karnal, June 13 One of the sick persons, Kuldeep, said they had purchased the flour from a shop.
— TNS |
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Chandigarh, June 13
Chandigarh, June 13
Rohtak, June 13