Fatehabad, July 12
Perturbed over erratic supply of power to their area, angry villagers held a junior engineer and two other officials of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) hostage for several hours at Dhani Issar village in this district today.

The villagers took foreman Hanuman Prasad and lineman Rohtash Singh hostage as the two came for their duty in the morning.

Later, the villagers informed junior engineer Mandeep Singh, who too was taken hostage by the villagers when he reached there in the morning. Kuldeep Singh, SDO, suburban subdivision of the DHBVN, also met the same fate when he went to the village to rescue his subordinates at noon.

Efforts by Block Development and Panchayat Officer Yash Pal Sharma failed to yield results as the villagers insisted that senior DHBVN officials should visit the village.

“The DHBVN has failed miserably to fulfil the government assurance of eight-hour power supply to tubewells. We need power very badly due to the paddy season but the situation is pathetic,” alleged the agitating villagers. They alleged that the domestic power supply in the village was even worse.

They said the villagers had given land to the government seven years ago for setting up a power substation in the village but it was yet to come up. Villagers from Dhani Dhaka and Hinjrawan Kalan also joined the protesters from Dhani Issar.

Later, SDM Baljit Singh and Executive Engineer RC Verma assured the villagers that their demands would be taken up with the higher authorities. 

Hisar, July 12
In a bizarre show of anguish, residents of the Patel Nagar area of the city staged a demonstration at the Mini-Secretariat here today, carrying an urn containing the ashes of Vicky Arora, a juice vendor, who was murdered on Friday night.

The protesters, including women, marched from the Patel Nagar market to the Mini-Secretariat sporting black badges and carrying the deceased’s ashes.

The protesters were led by Patel Nagar Market Association chief Tara Chand. He handed over a memorandum to Ashok Garg, ADC, and police officials. It pointed out that the deceased was the sole earning hand in the family. He sought compensation of Rs 20 lakh to next of kin of the deceased, a government job to a member of the family and a police post in the area.

Police officials said three teams had been constituted under ASP Abhishek Garg to apprehend the culprits. A temporary police post would be set up in the area soon.

Sonepat, July 12
In protest against the “negligent” attitude of the local municipal council authorities for not giving the ownership rights to the lease and possession holders of the council’s land, hundreds of protesters today staged a demonstration at the mini-secretariat here.

They handed over a memorandum of their demands to the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Pushpender Singh. The protesters were led by state media in charge of the BJP Rajiv Jain.

In the memorandum, they demanded that according to the government directions, they must be given the ownership rights of the buildings, houses and shops constructed on leased land by fixing minimum rates of land for ownership.

Addressing the protesters, Jain criticised the civic authorities for not implementing the government orders issued in 2008 in this connection. If the orders were implemented, they would give relief to the lease and possession holders and the council would have a huge income from this exercise, he said.

“The council officials hardly care for the directions issued by the Deputy Commissioner, resolutions passed at the council’s meetings and the assurance given by the Local Bodies Minister, Randeep Singh

Surjewala, to the BJP legislator, Kavita Jain, on the floor of the House on this matter,” he remarked, adding that the BJP would continue the agitation till the demand was accepted and implemented. 

Jind, July 12
The district health authorities have announced to activate the existing machinery to check the growing trend of sex determination in the district.

The authorities said the Special Task Force (STF) would meet every month in the district in this connection to review and recommend measures to check female foeticide in the district. The sex ratio in the district has been 869, which is lower than the state-level ratio of 877 girls per 1,000 boys.

Addressing a meeting of the advisory committee, constituted under the PNDT Act, the District Civil Surgeon said the STF would have more members, including the president of the zila parishad. Two of the members would be nominated by the Deputy Commissioner.

The department has emphasised upon the need to create mass awareness and passing on the directives to all ultrasound clinics in a clear-cut manner and inform them of the action that would follow in the case of violation of the PNDT Act.

The Act was enacted and brought into operation from January 1, 1996, to check female foeticide.

While all clinics and centres providing ultrasound facilities need to get registered and obtain permission from the Health Department, it is claimed that the department was busy in issuing registration certificates only and there were hardly any inspections being carried out to detect violations of the Act in the district.

It is learnt that in the case of any raid conducted by the higher authorities, the district officials were kept at bay to prevent the information from leaking out. The drive against he female foeticide has been weak and the success rate of catching the culprits red-handed has been negligible over the past many years, claimed sources in the department.

The Child Sex Ratio as per Census 2011 has been 835 as compared to 817 of Census 2001. The average literacy rate of Jind in 2011 was 72.70 as compared to 62.10 of 2001. 

Bhondsi (Gurgaon), July 12
An education society headed by an IGP will be constituted to take care of the educational needs of children of policemen serving in Haryana, said DGP Ranjeev Singh Dalal after inaugurating Shri Ram Police-Public School on the campus of CPT&R here today.

The school is a joint venture of the Haryana Police and Shri Ram Education Foundation.

“As many as 50 per cent seats in the school will be reserved for the wards of serving policemen,” Dalal said.

He added that the fee structure for the wards of policemen would be “highly subsidised”.

Apart from the children of Haryana Police officials, the school would also cater to the wards of officials serving in Bhondsi prison, CRPF camp and the BSF training centre. 

Chandigarh, July 12
The state is coming up with an objective criteria for appointment to the HCS through nomination.

Appearing before the Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice Gurdev Singh, Haryana’s Advocate-General Hawa Singh Hooda also asserted that the state would not go ahead with the current selection process. It would now be governed by the new criteria being framed by the government. Hooda also sought four weeks for coming out with the criteria. Taking a note of the assertion, the Bench fixed August 18 as the next date of hearing in the case.

Admitting the petition seeking directions to the state of Haryana to follow justifiable and rational criteria while making recommendations for nomination to the HCS (Executive Branch), the HC had earlier ordered stay in the matter.

The high court, on the previous date of hearing, had placed under suspension further action on the basis of the January 28 notification and the February 2 circular. In his petition, Anand Prakash, the man behind the justice-for-Ruchika movement, had earlier alleged a special recruitment process to appoint HCS (Executive Branch) officers through nomination was being carried out for providing a backdoor entry to the favourites of the government.

Chandigarh, July 12
INLD leader Om Prakash Chautala’s stand on the Hansi-Butana canal has invited strong criticism from Haryana ruling party leaders led by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

While Hooda yesterday described Chautala as anti-Haryana, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala today described the INLD leader as an “agent” of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Accusing Chautala of acting against the interests of Haryana, Surjewala said Badal, Punjab opposition leader Amarinder Singh and Chautala were working in tandem, which was highly objectionable and condemnable.

Surjewala wondered how could Chautala criticise the Hansi-Butana canal after a resolution was passed unanimously in the State Assembly which Chautala and his two sons were party to.

He said it seemed that since the Punjab elections were due, Chautala wanted to help his old family friend Badal by harming the interests of the people of Haryana. It appeared that Chautala wanted to achieve political sympathy in Punjab so that his party could contest the Vidhan Sabha elections in that state in alliance with the Akali Dal.

He pointed out that in the last Haryana Vidhan Sabha elections, Badal’s Akali Dal had contested in alliance with the INLD.

Surjewala said Chautala’s statement that the Hansi-Butana Canal was technically unviable and his objection to the “wall” being constructed by the state government for protecting the people from floods was “ridiculous”. He said the so-called wall was in fact a bund, which was being strengthened to save the people of Kaithal district from floods. 

Karnal, July 12
While the police is yet to take action against former Haryana Transport Minister Om Prakash Jain and ex-CPS Zile Ram, named as the main accused in the complaint lodged by Rajinder Singh, son of deceased ex-sarpanch Karam Singh, hundreds of Sain Samaj members today met Rakesh Arya, SP, Karnal, and demanded arrest of four persons, allegedly inquiring about Rajinder Singh.

They submitted an application to the SP, alleging that four persons came to Rajinder’s shop in a black Safari and inquired about him and the deceased but they fled on seeing the security guard there.

Rajinder said the police had provided him security as some people had been repeatedly coming to his house, asking him to withdraw the complaint after his father’s murder.

Demanding arrest of the persons who had come to Rajinder’s shop, the Sain Samaj furnished the registration number of the Safari.

Karam Singh, a former sarpanch of Kambopura, who was found in a semi-consciuos condition near NDRI on June 7, later died in hospital. Before his death he sent letters to the Chief Minister, the DGP and the SP, alleging that he had paid Rs 12.95 lakh to the former minister and the ex-CPS for three jobs and had gone to the house of Zile ram to get the money back. Karam Singh had also kept a copy of the letter in his bag. His son, Rajinder, later filed a complaint with the police on the basis of the letter and the conversation he had with his father before the latter breathed his last.

Kurukshetra, July 12
The shocked members of the family of Deepak Sharma (31), who was allegedly shot in Indiana (America) yesterday, have urged the Indian Government to use its good offices to expedite the completion of the formalities for getting Deepak’s body at the
earliest.

The distraught members of the family said it appeared to be another case of “racial discrimination” as Deepak was shot brutally allegedly by Mexicans in the chest from a close range while he was driving back home. Deepak died on the spot.

“We do not want to comment on the safety of the Indians abroad as our concern is that Deepak’s body should be handed over to us at the earliest so that we can perform his last rites,” said Shravan, father of the deceased. Shravan said he was informed by a US detective last night that his son had been shot and that he died on the spot.

Deepak, who was working at a mall in Indiana, had last visited his parents in February this year and had a telephonic conversation with his father a few minutes before he was shot.

“I made a routine call to Deepak and he said he was driving back home, little realising that it will be my last conversation with him,” said a sobbing Shrawan.

Deepak was a resident of Kurukshetra and had been to Germany and New Zealand before he shifted to the US two years ago.

The Indiana authorities had also mailed the snaps of the deceased to the members of the family for identification.

The younger brother of the deceased, Pradeep, said, “When we called up Deepak last night, a cop picked up the phone and informed us about the incident. Later Deepak’s friends, who were working with him, confirmed that he was shot by Mexicans.

Sirsa, July 12
The police today registered a case of kidnapping for ransom after a youth went missing from the town last night and his kin received an SMS from his cellphone demanding ransom of Rs 25 lakh for his release.

The youth, Pankaj, a son of a trader, Nand Lal, did not return home after he went out for some work last evening.

His kin continued calling on his cellphone throughout the night, but there was no response from the other end.

When they failed to locate Pankaj at the houses of any of their acquaintance, the members of the family informed the police late last night.

Pankaj’s brother, Sandeep, received the SMS from his brother’s cellphone in the morning with the sender demanding ransom for his release.

The police said that a case under Section 364-A of the IPC has been registered and further investigations were in progress.