Fatehabad, August 10
The police today booked over 50 villagers for rioting, criminal intimidation, causing hurt and using force to deter a public servant from performing official duties after a 220 kV substation here was ransacked by villagers last night.

The villagers were angry over erratic power supply to their area.

Some villagers from Bhodia Khera entered the 220 kV substation located near their village at about 10 pm yesterday and started damaging the furniture and smashing windowpanes.

The angry villagers alleged that the power supply to their village had been cut for long without any schedule.

The villagers alleged that the supply to their village was erratic and repeated requests to the authorities had failed to evoke any positive response.

Junior Engineer Mandeep Singh and other staff present in the powerhouse tried to pacify the villagers and informed them that their supply had been temporarily disconnected for repairing a snag in the Bangaon power line.

However, the villagers were not moved and went on the rampage, damaging the telephone, furniture, windowpanes and some machinery installed in the powerhouse.

Owing to the damage caused by the angry villagers, Fatehabad town, Badopal, Adampur, Bahbalpur. Bhattu Kalan and over 40 villages of the area remained plunged in darkness till 2.30 last night.

It was after hours of hard work that workers were able to restore the supply to these areas last night.

SDM Baljit Singh and Executive Engineer of the DHBVN Ramesh Verma reached the powerhouse in the night to review the situation.

On a complaint of Kuldeep Singh, an SDO posted in the powerhouse, the police has booked over 50 villagers under Sections 147, 148, 149, 506, 332 and 353 of the IPC and Section 3 of the Damage to Public Property Act.

The police has rounded up a few villagers, though their names have not been revealed by the police as yet.

Chandigarh, August 10
Ambala and Panchkula are now one, from the policing point of view. The state government has combined the two districts to set up the third Police Commissionerate in the state. The other two police commissionerates are at Gurgaon and Faridabad.

According to a notification issued today, an officer not below the rank of the Inspector-General of Police will be appointed as the Commissioner of Police for the Police Commissionerate for Ambala-Panchkula districts. For the purpose of administration and supervision of the police force, the Commissionerate of Police, Ambala-Panchkula, shall be a Police Range.

It will be divided into three police districts - Ambala, Panchkula and Rural Ambala. The Ambala police district will comprise Ambala City, Baldev Nagar, Panjokhera, Ambala Sadar, Naggal, Ambala Cantt, Mahesh Nagar and Parao police stations. The Panchkula police district will comprise Kalka, Pinjore, Sector 5, Panchkula, Sector 14, Panchkula, Sector 19, Panchkula, and the Mansa Devi Complex and Chandimandir police stations. Similarly, the Rural Ambala police district will comprise the police stations of Naraingarh, Raipur Rani, Shehzadpur, Mullana, Barara and Saha.

The Commissioner of Police will have the powers and duties of a District Magistrate for the purpose of Sections 22 and 23 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Act 2 of 1964), in relation to officers subordinate to him and for the Acts mentioned in the Schedule, subject to the control of the Director-General of Police.

An Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) will also be appointed to assist the Commissioner of Police.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police will head a police district.

Chandigarh, August 10
Nearly 27 years after 23 members of the Sikh community were “brutally killed” in “horrific incidents of communal violence” in Haud Chillar village in Rewari district, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today dismissed a bunch of petitions seeking a probe by a retired high court Judge with the assistance of the CBI.

The state of Haryana has already told the high court that a one-man commission, appointed to look into the matter, would submit its report in six months.

The petitions were dismissed by a Bench of Acting Chief Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice AK Mittal.

As the petitions filed in public interest by New York-registered Sikhs for Justice and the All-India Sikh Students Federation came up for hearing about a month ago, the state told the Bench that a retired Judge from the Allahabad High Court, Justice TP Garg, had already been appointed to probe the Haud Chillar massacre.

In their petition against the state of Haryana, Rewari Superintendent and another respondent, the petitioners had earlier sought a probe by a retired high court Judge.

CBI assistance for the retired high court Judge was also sought. The petitioners, through counsel Navkiran Singh, asserted that the victims’ belongings were burnt and even a gurdwara was reduced to ashes.

But, the state on January 16, 2006, pronounced a compensation only for the deceased. No compensation was provided for the other losses.

Navkiran Singh had added that the FIR, dated November 3, 1984, registered under Sections 148, 149, 302, 436 and 34 of the IPC at the Jatusana police station, had not been investigated properly. “None of the eyewitnesses have ever been contacted by the police in the investigation and the crime has gone undetected”.

Chandigarh, August 10
Issuing a notice of motion for August 24, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed the arrest of model-cum-actress Mira Chopra in an abetment-to-suicide case. She is also actress Priyanka Chopra’s cousin.

Claiming to have been implicated in the case registered under Sections 304-B and 120-B of the IPC at the DLF Phase II police station in Gurgaon, Mira Chopra in her petition placed before Justice Rajesh Bindal had sought anticipatory bail.

The FIR was registered on July 5 after Ruchi’s death on the basis of a complaint furnished by her mother Sudha Gupta.

She had alleged that prior to his marriage with Ruchi in December 2005, her husband Sumit Bhutan and Mira Chopra were friends.

She had added that Ruchi was being pressured and described as a barricade, after Bhutan and Mira again came in touch after two or three years of marriage.

She had added that her daughter died “due to the acts of Bhutan and girlfriend Mira as he wanted to marry her” after the death of her daughter.

Mira, on the other hand, contended that she was pursuing a career in acting and was a well-known face in the South Indian movie industry.

She had added since Bhutan’s marriage, she was not in touch with him and was ready to hand over her mobile, laptop and sim cards for verification purposes”.

Sirsa, August 10
A 52-year-old woman was allegedly strangled to death by her son and daughter-in-law at Dudianwali village in this district last night.

The victim, Kamla Devi’s husband Inderaj alleged that his son Mahabir and the latter’s wife Raj Bala had killed his wife for property.

Inderaj alleged in his complaint to the police that he found Kamla dead when he returned from the fields this morning. Inderaj informed the police and alleged that his son and daughter-in-law had strangled his wife to death for property.

The police has registered a case on a complaint of Inderaj against the husband-wife duo though Mahabir and his wife have denied the charge.

In another incident, a man was murdered in a temple at Phaggu village in this district.

Villagers said the victim, Jeet Singh, a resident of a village near Bathinda, was a frequent visitor to the temple and was found dead in the temple this morning.

Some unidentified killers had clubbed him to death.

The police has registered a case.

Panipat, August 10
After a long gap the Panipat Thermal Power Plant has secured a berth among the 22 thermal plants of the country, which achieved more than 90 per cent plant load factor (PLF) in July.

As per a report by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the Panipat Thermal Plant produced 907.995 million units of energy in July. The second stage units of the plant, including five to seven produced 657.309 million units with more than 96 per cent PLF. The overall PLF of 1,360 MW thermal plant was 90.51 per cent.

The CEA in its monthly report for July has stated that the electricity generation in the country during July had been 74,104 million units with a remarkable double digit growth of 12.49 per cent as compared to the generation in the corresponding period of last year when the generation was 65,874 million units.

The cumulative electricity generation in the country during April to July had been 291,139 million units with a growth rate of 9.29 per cent as compared to the corresponding period of last year, which was 5.28 per cent.

The electricity generation from the coal-based plants during July had exceeded its target by 299 million units due to 100 per cent availability of coal requirement for the month.

The report stated that the gross monthly electricity generation of the country during the month was 102.98 per cent. The total thermal generation increased by 8.08 per cent over same period previous year.

Karnal, August 10
Taking serious note of complaints against unscrupulous property dealers and builders developing unauthorised colonies in and around Karnal and duping the buyers, Deputy Commissioner Neelam Pradeep Kasni today raided a number of illegal colonies causing panic among property dealers and workers at construction sites.

The DC said it was a matter of grave concern that unscrupulous persons were promoting illegal colonies and they even managed to tinker with land records. The matter would be investigated and action would be initiated against those involved in developing these illegal colonies. Kasni, who led the raiding team at the colonies, found that residents in these colonies were drawing power illegally and directed power nigam staff to immediately disconnect the power supply.

Kasani visited the Durga Colony, Rajivpuram, and Dayanand Colony where illegal constructions and theft of electricity was rampant due to negligence of officials and sanitary conditions were poor.

She directed the tehsildar to take immediate action against the defaulters.

She also detected three cases of power theft and the defaulters were fined Rs 50,000 by Superintending Engineer (Power Nigam) Raj Kumar at her instance. The raid caused panic among the property dealers who fled from the scene leaving their offices open, allegedly involved in developing illegal colonies.

The local people complained that the sanitary and hygienic conditions had deteriorated due to springing up of illegal colonies and there was a threat of outbreak of disease. She directed the officials concerned to take immediate action and launch special cleanliness campaign in these areas.

Tehsildar Om Prakash said every property dealer must get a valid licence, failing which action would be taken against the defaulting dealers.

Karnal, August 10
Agitating workers of Liberty Shoe Company today adopted a novel way to register their protest and burned “old brands” of Liberty shoes at Committee Chowk here.

The workers, who have been sitting on dharna at Gharaunda for the past 22 days, are agitated over the indifferent attitude of the management towards them.

The agitators got a boost with state Youth Congress president Chiranjeev Rao extending support to the workers and leading them in today’s action of burning old branded shoes to give vent to their ire.

Addressing the workers, Rao warned the Liberty owners of dire consequences if they did not stop victimisation of the employees and said that the day was not far when the Liberty management would be forced to take all employees fired by it back in service.

He said the case was in the knowledge of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi and the agitation would be taken to its logical end.

Ambala, August 10
SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar claimed that the SAD would win all 11 seats of Haryana and Sikh leaders demanding the separate SGPC for the state would be exposed in the SGPC poll.

Makkar was accompanying SAD (Badal) candidates of Ambala filing their nominations for the poll at Ambala City today. SGPC members Gurdeep Singh Bhanokheri and Surja Singh filed their nomination as SAD (Badal) candidates.

Harpal Singh Pali and Amrik Singh filed their papers as SAD (Haryana) candidates. HSGPC (ad-hock) president Jagdish Singh Jhinda was accompanying them.

Makkar said the Congress was conspiring to divide Sikhs of Haryana. He said no Sikh would support the HSGPC (ad-hock) candidates getting support from the Congress behind the curtain. He added that the SGPC had actively worked for the independence of the country and it was the only authenticated body of Sikh community.

On the other hand Jhinda said the Akali Dal (Badal) had been using Sikhs of Haryana for its political benefit. He said the income of gurudwaras of the state was being used in Punjab. He said the demand of the separate SGPC would be the main issue of his party in the poll.

Kaithal, August 10
The police has registered a case under various sections of the IPC against eight named and about 250 unidentified persons who were involved in blocking the NH 65 passing through Kaithal on August 4.

The protesters demanded the arrest of accused involved in attacking Rula Ram, a Dalit of Badsikri Kalan, who later died in a multi-speciality hospital here on August 3 night. They also demanded a compensation of Rs 20 lakh for the deceased’s family, employment to one of his family member and action against SHO, Kalayat. Those booked had been charged of blocking the highway and obstructing government officials from performing their duty. This case had been registered on the complaint of EHC Suresh Kumar.

The case had been registered against Ram Kumar of Farshmajra, Bharat Singh of Keorak, Ram Niwas and Sukhdev of Badsikri, Suresh, Dalbir and Rameshwar of Balu, and Surinder of Sirta village.

A team constituted by SP Simardeep Singh had arrested all accused who were named in the FIR.

Meanwhile, Badsikri residents who called on district officials here on Monday had accused the administration of not fulfilling promises made to them when they agreed to lift the blockade. They had threatened to start an agitation again if their demands were not met.

Sirsa, August 10
Sirsa is the only district in Haryana where neonatal care centres have been set up in each of the 146 delivery huts in different villages of the district.

The centres have been set up in Sirsa at a cost of Rs 1.10 crore from the Backward Region Grant Fund scheme of the Central Government.

Under the scheme, the Health Department, Haryana, is in the process of setting up neonatal care units in various health institutions ranging from general hospitals to primary health centres to provide all kinds of health facilities to the newborn in the state.

The Civil Surgeon, Dr Dayanand Sharma, said in general hospitals, 16 beds would be arranged for the newborn where modern equipments like incubator, respirator, warm bed, oxygen cylinder, phototherapy, ambubag and laryngoscope would be kept in place.

He said paediatricians, other doctors and staff nurses would be put on duties to keep neonatal care units in operation round the clock.

Staff working in the neonatal care centres would be imparted training at the PGIMS, Rohtak.

Jind, August 10
The Forest Department has planted about four lakh new saplings under the ongoing forestation drive so far. The department has targeted to plant around six lakh new plants this season.

Revealing this the officials concerned have claimed to have been working speedily on the programme and have announced to achieve the target by August 15. “Besides the official target, the department has also planned to provide another 13 lakh saplings free of cost to anyone who wanted to plant a tree anywhere in the district,” SS Dahiya, Range Forest Officer, said. He said as many as eight lakh saplings had been distributed so far by the department.