Hisar, August 18
Students of CCS Haryana Agricultural University today staged a demonstration outside the varsity campus to express their solidarity with Anna Hazare’s crusade against corruption. They sang patriotic songs and raised slogans in favour of the Jan Lokpal Bill.

Hundreds of people also demonstrated at Dabra Chowk and Subhash Chowk. At Old Government College grounds a local cartoonist, Manoj Chhabra, drew cartoons depicting the tussle between the UPA government and Anna Hazare.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner has asked heads of schools and colleges to discourage participation of students in protests. He asked heads of educational institutions to keep a close watch on the situation and inform him immediately if they apprehended any violence.

The meeting was organised after girl students of a local school took out a procession in the city in support of Anna Hazare.

SIRSA: More and more people and organisations here are associating themselves with Anna Hazare’s movement.

Hundreds of people today visited the local Town Park, where some social activists have been sitting on a dharna and observing a fast in support of Hazare for the past three days.

Students of Chaudhary Devi Lal University (CDLU) and Government National College boycotted their classes for the second consecutive day today.

Yogesh Sharma, district president of the Indian National Students Organisation (INSO), who led the CDLU students’ strike, said students had always been at the forefront of all movements held so far.

Prehari, an NGO working for the RTI, also organised a dharna here on Thursday.

Members of the District Bar Association, who have been suspending work for the past two days, organised a procession in the town.

Ramesh Mehta, president of the District Bar Association, said the lawyers would organise a dharna in support of Hazare tomorrow.

In Ellenabad town of this district, too, lawyers suspended their work and organised a procession on the roads.

The striking lawyers said a peaceful agitation was the democratic right of every individual and the UPA government had tried to curb that right by arresting Hazare.

FATEHABAD: Activists of various organisations continued their dharna in support of Anna Hazare for the third consecutive day at Ambedkar Chowk here today.

SONEPAT: The Dahiya Khap and villagers of the Rai region today extended their support to Anna Hazare.

Representatives of the Dahiya Khap held a meeting at Jai Narain dharamshala in Kharkhoda and decided to support Anna Hazare’s agitation against corruption. Led by the Khap pradhan, Pratap Singh Pehalwan, they marched to tehsil office and burnt an effigy of the UPA government there.

Residents of Badkhalsa, who have been staging an indefinite dharna near Biswam Meel Chowk on the GT Road for the past 20 days, were joined by people from nearby villages, including Badmalik, Sewli, Patla, Jakholi, Pitampura and Saboli to organise a protest against the UPA government.

ROHTAK: Demonstrations and protests continued in the two districts on Thursday in support of Anna Hazare. While members of the Sarvajatiya Sarva Khap Mahapanchayat continued their fast at Jind, lawyers at Rohtak also resorted to a 24-hour hunger strike. A majority of the 10,000-odd auto-rickshaws remained off the roads in Rohtak to express their solidarity to the cause.

While teachers of MD University, Rohtak, observed a relay fast, students of the university and the Government College for Women held a procession and staged a dharna.

JIND: Activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI) burnt an effigy of the government here. The protest was also joined by college students who boycotted their classes and held a march in the town. Several bodies, including, among others, the Bhartiya Vikas Parishad, and the Lions Club, Jind, held a candle march last night and staged a sit-in at various places. Students of the ITI also staged a march in the town.

PANIPAT: Local industrialists also joined protests in support of Anna Hazare on Thursday. They suspended factory operations for two hours in the evening to expresses unity with Team Anna on a strong Lokpal Bill . The industrialists assembled outside Mittal Mega Mall and took out a candlelight march late in the evening to voice their concerns against corruption in government departments.

In Karnal, a large number of school students gathered at Committee Chowk with national flags and raised slogans condemning corruption.

JHAJJAR: The Jan Lokpal Sangharsh Manch, Sanskriti Rakshak Sangh, Bharat Swabhiman Trust, Jaat Aarkshan Samiti and the Vishvaas Welfare Society today extended their support to the crusade against corruption under the leadership of Anna Hazare.

Besides, the Bahadurgarh Bar Association also announced to support the ongoing campaign against corruption. The association also decided to go to Delhi on August 21 to join the Anna’s crusade.

Faridabad/Palwal, August 18
The administrative authorities in Faridabad and Palwal districts have been put on high alert in the wake of release of more than 1 lakh cusecs of water from the Okhla barrage in the Yamuna this morning, causing a flood-like situation in a number of villages along its belt.

Following an assessment of the situation this morning, the Deputy Commissioner, Palwal, Ramesh Verma, requisitioned a team of divers from the NDRF wing of the Indian Army.

The additional water released from the Okhla barrage in the Yamuna has caused it to flow over its basin in the two districts. The overflow has resulted in the water entering agricultural fields in villages in the two districts.

The release of water from the Okhla barrage was necessitated due to the release of about 6.5 lakh cusecs of water in the river from the Hathini

Kund barrage on Tuesday. The water released from Hathini Kund flows to the Okhla barrage from where the river flows through Faridabad, Palwal and then enters Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.

In Palwal, the water from the river has also started entering residential areas in Mohabatpur village and Indra Nagar. People have started shifting to two relief camps set up in Khatak village and Acheja.

The administration in Palwal has identified about a dozen villages, including Mohbalipur, Indra Nagar, Tappa, Gurwadi, Kusak and Phata Nagar as sensitive. The villages lie along the river belt.

The villages in Faridabad, however, are said to be geographically better placed. Although water from the river has entered some of the agricultural fields in about half a dozen villages in Faridabad, including Lalpur, Kidwal and Basantpur, the authorities say that there was no cause for alarm.

Jind, August 18
Holding a couple guilty of killing their daughter and her boyfriend, the local court has awarded the death penalty to the girl’s father and life term to her mother.

According to the judgement delivered by the court of the Additional District and Sessions Judge, the convicts, identified as Ramraji and his wife, Kailasho, had murdered the girl and the boy after they were caught in the town on September 12 last year.

The duo were students at the same institute and had an affair that was not liked by the girl’s family. Holding them guilty of double murder, the court sentenced the father and mother of the girl to death and life imprisonment, respectively. A fine of Rs 10,000 was also imposed on the convicts. The court, however, acquitted two uncles of the girl in the case.

The double murder had come to light after a complaint was lodged by Ramesh Kumar, a resident of the Sangatpura locality and the father of the boy. He had told the police that his son, Vikas Dhanda, 20, and Ritu Sharma, 18, both IIT aspirants, were students at an institute in Delhi where they had fallen in love. As they belonged to different castes (the girl was a Brahmin while the boy was a Jat), their relatioship was unacceptable to the girl’s family.

According to reports, the ghastly incident took place on the night of September 12 when the boy and girl were spotted at a place in Krishna Colony and were caught by Ritu’ father and some persons.

While the girl managed to give them a slip, they took away Vikas. Sensing danger to the life of Vikas, Ritu immediately called Ramesh Kumar, seeking his help in saving the life of Vikas. Ramesh along with another man arrived at the booth and they tried to contact Vikas on his phone which was found switched off. It is reported that both were thrashed and then strangled separately.

The boy was killed after he was abducted. His body was found dumped near Sector 8. The girl was also murdered soon after and was taken to the ancestral Brahamanwas village in Rohtak for cremation. 

Gurgaon, August 18
In a bizarre move, notes of English paper meant for BA-I students of the distance-learning programme run by MDU, Rohtak, now contain Hindi translations as well.

While English teachers at different institutions of higher learning term it as “yet another indicator of the deteriorating academic standards at the university”, insiders at the MDU’s English Department maintain that they were not consulted before making this “weird” move.

Academicians assert that with this move, the Directorate of Distance Education at MDU had stooped to the level of those publishing cheap guides and help-books. “This has further lowered the quality of education at the university, which is already struggling for sound NAAC ratings,” they lament.

And, that is not all. The kind of authors and institutes selected by the MDU authorities for preparing these notes has also led to the raising of eyebrows in the state’s academic circles.

Take, for example, the notes of English paper for BA-I based on “The Pointed Vision”. The notes booklet bears the name of a manager of a private concern in the business of education as its author.

Similarly, another booklet, which contains notes of English paper for BA-I based on “Chronicles of Time”, has been authored by an associate professor in the Faculty of Management studies at a recently established university.

This, despite the fact that there are numerous state-run and established universities and other reputed institutions of higher learning in and around the state which offer postgraduate and doctorate-level courses in the given discipline. This also suggests that there is more than what meets the eye.

Though some old-timers in the teaching profession tend to justify the decision on the ground that it would make the subject easier to understand for the students having a weak base, most well-meaning and concerned educationists, including serving as well as former faculty members in the subject, term the move as ill-advised and unfortunate. 

Chandigarh, August 18
The monsoon session of the Haryana Assembly, which opens tomorrow, will be used as an opportunity both by the Congress as well as the main opposition party, the INLD, to embarrass each other.

The opposition will try to raise issues agitating the minds of the public like price rise, corruption, alleged irregularities in land acquisition and subsequent release in favour of influential persons, including the land given on lease to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust in Gurgaon district.

On the other hand, the Congress will like to use the issue of land for the trust to “expose” the duplicity of the INLD. The ruling party is believed to have collected all details of the land given by the panchayats as “gift” to various trusts run by the first family of the INLD, when the latter was in power. The Congress will also place on record of the House how land was sold to the organisations run by the Chautalas at low prices by various departments.

The start in this direction was made by former Finance Minister and Congress MLA from Nalva Sampat Singh, when he had demanded that the INLD itself should come out with all details of the land gifted by the panchayats to various trusts owned by its leaders. Sampat Singh had made this demand soon after the controversy over the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust had erupted and the INLD had demanded a judicial probe into it.

The government had immediately asked various departments to compile all details in this regard. But instead of making this information public, the government kept it reserved to be used in the Assembly.

Once the entire facts about the land to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust had come out in the public domain, the INLD has been maintaining a studious silence over it.

The session is a formality, which the Constitution demands. Otherwise, the government says it does not have enough legislative business to prolong the session.

After meeting for about half a day tomorrow, the House will adjourn till August 23 as the intervening three days are holidays on account of Saturday, Sunday and Janam Ashtami. It is highly unlikely to continue beyond August 25. 

Chandigarh, August 18
The Haryana Government has constituted a service delivery review committee under the Chief Secretary to recommend steps to ensure efficient and timely delivery of services to citizens.

An official spokesman said the committee would suggest changes in processes or forms or monitoring mechanism. It would also suggest new services to be included for time-bound delivery and any other issue incidental to the above. It would also perform any other task assigned to it from time to time, he added.

The spokesman said a task force headed by Tarun Bajaj, Commissioner, Rohtak Division, had also been constituted to assist the committee. The Yamunanagar, Kaithal and Mahendergarh DCs and Administrator, HUDA, Faridabad, would be its members. The task force might co-opt any member required for any specific service review.

The service delivery review committee and the task force would submit its report within a month. — TNS

Chandigarh, August 18
The Haryana Government has constituted Haryana State Innovation Council under Chief Secretary Urvashi Gulati to support the state government in the promotion of innovations in the state.

The council would identify and reward talent in innovation, encourage young talent in local colleges, universities, medium and small scale industries and R and D institutes in the state, besides facilitating linkage or networks among all educational and knowledge institutions at all levels for promotion of innovation in the state. It would also encourage innovations in governance and public service delivery. 

Rohtak, August 18
Two youths were shot dead by unidentified assailants at Sanghi village, about 20 km from here, last night. Old enmity is stated to be the main cause of the double murder. The police has registered a case but no arrest has been made so far.

According to police sources, the victims, identified as Narender and Satish, both residents of the village, were on their way to attend to the irrigation work in their fields around 10 pm last night when they were intercepted by some persons and fired upon from a close range. The duo who were on a motorcycle died on the spot. The accused managed to flee before anyone could reach the place. However, some of the locals, who reached there after hearing their screams, took them to the PGIMS where they were declared brought dead. Forensic experts lifted samples of the blood and other marks from the scene of the crime. The police has registered a case against as many as six persons, said the SSP, Satish Balan. The bodies were handed over to the families after a post-mortem examination on Thursday.

Kaithal, August 18
The CIA branch of the district police arrested two armed criminals last night. The police seized one revolver, a pistol, 30 cartridges a hand grenade, a grenade detonator, a Swift Dzire car and four fake registration number plates.

One of the youths, Vikas, was wanted by the Rohtak police for his alleged involvement in a double murder case. Vikas of Kathura in Sonepat district was currently living in Jind while second accused was identified as Balwinder, alias Kala, of Patti Afgan in Kaithal district.

The accused were produced in a local court here, which sent them in 14-day judicial custody.

A case under sections 398, 401 , 483, IPC, and 25/54/59 of the Arms Act was registered against the accused .

Karnal, August 18
Garima, the first surviving cloned buffalo of the world which lived for two years, today died at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI).

According to sources in the NDRI, the buffalo had been lying low for the past one month and its health had started showing signs of deterioration. Even as a team of six veterinary experts had been attending to it round the clock, they failed to revive its health as the cause of its ill-health could not be diagnosed.

Director AK Srivastava, while confirming that the clone had died, stated that the cause of death had not been ascertained as yet. He said the buffalo was now staying with other buffaloes under normal conditions.

He said they were quite hopeful that the clone would get back to its normal self, but its sudden demise had come as a shock to many.

The female clone was born on June 6, 2009, through “Advanced Hand-guided Cloning Technique”. The birth had been hailed as a major breakthrough by the NDRI as the technique was expected to bring a revolution in dairy industry.

Born through a caesarian operation conducted by six doctors, the clone weighed 43 kg at the time of birth and was accepted by the mother buffalo on the second day.

In the case of Garima, the donor cell was used from the foetus and was an advanced modification of the “Conventional Cloning Technique” which was significant in N-number of ways.

The survival of the second buffalo clone was important for the scientists as the first clone born in February 2009 had died six days after its birth and another clone had aborted in the seventh month in March. The NDRI is now left with two clones, namely Garima II, a female, and Shreasth, a male clone. 

Panipat, August 18
Arsh Shah Dilbagi, a class IX student of DAV Public School at Thermal Colony here has bagged a top award for his project on unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) under the INSPIRE scheme of the Union Ministry of Science and Technology.

Arsh received a cash award of Rs 20,000 and a special electronic kit by the Department of Science and Technology from President of India Pratibha Patil in New Delhi, where his model of UGV was exhibited along with 800 other models from across the nation. His model was selected as the best amongst those presented from north India.

Arsh underwent a three-stage selection process at the district level after which his UGV model was included amongst 40 projects selected at the state level for display during the three-day national exhibition at Pragati Maidan from August 14.

Prof Kishan Lal, president of the Indian Nation Science Academy, has invited Arsh to meet him to discuss any aspects of the project.

An elated Arsh said his project displayed a prototype unmanned ground vehicle, which was capable of operating outdoors and over a variety of terrain. The UGV could be maneuvered by an operator through a joystick based on sensory inputs such as a wireless web camera. It could prove effective in meeting emergency situations like search-and-rescue operations after earthquakes. Besides, the UGV could also be used for intelligence reconnaissance and surveillance missions, target identification and collection of environment data, he said.

Earlier Arsh had won Indian Robot Olympiad, Noida, 2010, after which he was selected for the Word Robot Olympiad, Manila (Philippines) where he received a certificate of excellence. 

Sirsa, August 18
The Development and Panchayat Department will transfer funds up to Rs 10 lakh online to the accounts of village panchayats from now.

After attending a meeting addressed by Anand Mohan Sharan, director of the department, through video-conferencing, Yudhbir Singh Khyalia, Deputy Commissioner, today directed department officials to ensure that all panchayats opened their online accounts in time.

He said each panchayat would be having two bank accounts -- one for the central funds and the other for the funds issued by the state government. The state government would transfer the funds online to the accounts of the panchayats from headquarters. — TNS

Hisar, August 18
HAU will organise its annual farm darshan mela on September 21 and 22, said Dr JS Dhankhar, Director, Extension Education.

The visiting farmers would be taken on guided visits of research farms where they would be shown standing kharif crops cultivated with latest scientific knowhow. Arrangements for rabi crops seed sale, field soil and water testing would also be made at the mela venue. — TNS