Karnal, October 4
Reeling under an acute financial crunch, with accumulated losses of Rs 3690.33 crore on March 2010, the unrealised defaulting amount of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitaran Nigam (UHBVN) stood at Rs 1947.91 crore at the end of April 2011.

The unrecovered arrears of the UHBVN stood at Rs 2,094.4 crore as in March 2010, but in spite of a record realisation of over Rs 2,658 crore with an average of Rs 265.82 crore per month between April 2010 to January 2011, the unrecovered arrears were reduced by Rs 49.49 crore, which was less than 2.5 per cent.

The government departments, too, were among the defaulters in 10 circles under the UHBVN with arrears amounting to Rs 74.68 crore yet to be realised.

The Jind circle topped the list with a defaulting amount of Rs 732.36 crore, followed by Rohtak (Rs 375.11 crore), Kaithal (Rs 171.07 crore), Jhajjar (Rs 164.88 crore), Panipat (Rs 163.24 crore), Sonepat (Rs 130 crore), Karnal (Rs 125.55 crore) while Yamunanagar, Ambala and Kurukshetra were at the bottom with arrears of Rs 22.70 crore, Rs 33.30 crore and Rs 38.51 crore according to the information procured by an RTI activist, advocate Rajesh Sharma.

The government departments in Panipat and Jhajjar circles owed Rs 19.87 crore and Rs 18.68 crore to the UHBVN followed by Jind Rs 8 crore, Ambala Rs 4.95 crore, Karnal Rs 4.93 crore, Sonepat Rs 4.31 crore and Rohtak Rs 3.94 crore.

The distribution losses were high at 23 per cent to 26 per cent (claimed by the UHBVN) but in districts like Jind, Rohtak, Bhiwani and Jhajjar, the losses were 68 per cent, 61 per cent, 52 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively. The total net borrowings of these companies stood at Rs 7,981.12 crores and in spite of detecting 17,334 cases of theft of electricity from April to November 2010 and even after imposing a penalty of Rs 371 crore on the erring consumers, there has not been much improvement.

However, the nigam claimed to have achieved revenue realisation of over Rs 300 crore for the third consecutive month in January 2011 which was 38.5 per cent more than the revenue in corresponding months last year and the revenue earned from April to October 2010 was Rs 1721,22 crore against a revenue of Rs 1436.41 crore during the previous year, a net increase of Rs 284.81 crore. 

Chandigarh, October 4
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today put on notice Haryana Home Secretary, the Director-General of Police, Panchkula, the Superintendent of Police and another respondent on a petition filed by a follower of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda alleging sexual exploitation of his wife by head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

The Bench of Justice LN Mittal heard the petitioner’s father, Mohinder Pal Gupta -- son of former MLA from Gharaunda constituency Rulia Ram Gupta -- who got associated with the dera in 1970. Later, the petitioner, too, associated himself with the dera.

The Bench was told that petitioner Vishwas Gupta’s father was lured by the dera head to sell off his agricultural land and property. The proceeds were deposited with dera factories, with a promise of returning the amount as and when asked for. But the dera head refused to return the funds.

The Bench further heard the dera head selected a girl of his choice from Fatehabad for marriage with Vishwas Gupta and solemnised the marriage on February 14, 1999. The very next day, the dera head changed the petitioner’s wife’s name.

On December 30, 2009, the dera head declared in the presence of sadhus that he has adopted Gupta’s wife. The petitioner alleged after that his wife was not been allowed by the dera head to stay with him “even for a day and she has been kept by him all the time in the dera by enticing her with intention to have illicit sexual intercourse with her” knowing well that she is a legally wedded wife.

“The petitioner’s belief was shattered when one night the petitioner was in dera and he happened to enter the room (guffa) of the dera head and saw the dera head totally nude and having sex with the petitioner’s wife,” alleged the petitioner.

Gupta further alleged he was assaulted by the dera head and was threatened not to open his mouth. The petitioner and his family decided to shift to Panchkula on July 16, but his wife is still with the dera head, the petitioner alleged. 

Hisar, October 4
To vote or not to vote? This is the question voters here are grappling with after Anna Hazare today asked voters not to vote for the Congress as it had failed to give an assurance on supporting the Jan Lokpal Bill and also not to back any candidate who was not absolutely clean.

With the Congress ruled out from that angle, practically it means that the voters have to choose between the INLD’s Ajay Chautala and HJC-BJP nominee Kuldeep Bishnoi, all the others in the fray being fringe candidates with no chance of winning the byelection. That itself is a Hobson’s choice.

Do Chautala and Bishnoi meet the Team Anna criteria of a candidate being absolutely clean from all angles? Given the stiff norms, both will fail to meet these standards.

Ajay Chautala has recently been charge-sheeted in a graft case. On this count, Chautala is ruled out as the choice of Anna supporters. Moreover, the Chautalas had been voted out in the 2005 Assembly poll mainly because of public perception of their government being corrupt. In addition to Ajay Chautala, his father, former Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala, and brother, Abhay Chautala, too, are facing graft charges.

Coming to Kuldeep Bishnoi, the founder- patron of his party, the HJC (BL), former Chief Minister, the late Bhajan Lal, had many firsts to his credit which added new dimensions to corruption in politics.

He defected to the Congress in 1980 and took along with him around four dozen Janata Party legislators after Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister. This is the sole example of its kind in the history of electoral politics in India.

Later on, Bhajan Lal was instrumental in saving the Narasimha Rao government by allegedly buying the support of JMM MPs. It is another matter that he escaped any legal action after the apex court ruled that the actions of the MPs inside the House were not open to judicial scrutiny.

The Devi Lal government had in 1987 slapped a graft case against him.

The case was still under investigation when Bhajan Lal became the Chief Minister again in 1991. The case fell through when investigations were completed under his rule.

Kuldeep Bishnoi is mainly defending the Bhajan Lal turf in this election. But given his father’s track record, it is unlikely that he can meet the standards set by the Team Anna.

Suryakant Sharma of Hisar said Anna’s diktat had left him in a quandary. When no candidate meets the criterion, was he supposed to abstain from voting? That would only help the candidates who did not meet these requirements.

His view is shared by Jaswant Nehra, another voter from a nearby village.

“Abstaining is no choice as it will isolate Anna supporters. But given the stiff standards, no candidate, not even any of the fringe candidates is eligible for my vote,” he added.

However, there are many who say that they will have to choose a candidate from amongst the three main candidates on the basis of who has the minimum disqualification points. But, will that be what Team Anna wants? That’s a 
moot question.

Chandigarh, October 4
In battlefield Hisar, the candidates are on their toes and, for once, it does not have to do with wooing the voters. Their expenditure, too, is now weighing on their minds with a vigilant administration and an expenditure observer keeping tabs.

That’s probably why, over the last few days, the administration has received as many as 150 requests for revoking of permits. These permits were sought by the candidates — the Congress, the INLD and the HJC-BJP combine -- for the plying of vehicles during the election.

Sources said these requests have essentially come in to reduce the expenditure being incurred by the candidates on a daily basis. By reducing the number of vehicles campaigning for them, the parties are hoping to keep their expenditure within check even as the administration is maintaining an independent account of all their expenses.

According to information available, the complied expenses so far suggest that the HJC-BJP has already touched the Rs 30-lakh mark while the Congress has spent about Rs 26 lakh and the INLD’s tally stands at Rs 24 lakh.

The sources said the administration had specified three dates to enable the candidates to submit their accounts. While the first report of the expenses was submitted on October 1, the other two reports will be submitted on October 5 and October 10.

The entire campaign of the main candidates is being videographeed since the Election Commission has asked the administration to keep track of the expenditure of the candidates.

Deputy Commissioner, Hisar, Dr Amit Aggarwal, said that a team of three members had put a value to the smallest expenditure that can be incurred in an election. “We have an exhaustive market rate list of all election- related activity like hiring of vehicles, shamina, chairs. To add to that, every duty magistrate has been given an area of 20-30 polling booths to videograph any election related activity. These recordings are studied thoroughly by a team and every expenditure is accounted for,” he said.

In fact, huge hoardings have also been removed by the parties to cut down on their expenses since these were being booked at commercial rates on a daily basis. With nine days still to go for election, the political parties are on a cost-cutting overdrive to ensure their expenditure does not cross the Rs 40-lakh threshold set for them.

The sources said that the candidates, realising that over-stepping the expenditure limit could be their undoing, are feeling cornered and trying to stay within the prescribed limit. However, despite these measures, there could still be “unaccounted for” expenditure which is not visible as posters or hiring of vehicles.

Meanwhile, the Chief Electoral Officer, Sumita Singh, who reviewed the arrangements in Hisar, said the officials had been asked set up additional nakas to keep a check on the flow of cash and liquor.

“While the district administrations are monitoring the expenditure on a daily basis, I have asked the officers to be out in the field to regularly carry out surprise checks. The arrangements seem satisfactory and everything is in order,” she said. 

Sonepat, October 4
The local police claimed to have busted a gang of thieves of electricity wires and transformers with the arrest of seven members of the gang identified as Munesh, Mahesh Mehto, Vikram, Phool Babu and Manish of Bihar, Raju from Uttar Pradesh and Ram Bahadur of Nepal from their hideouts in Delhi.

They were produced in the court today and were remanded in police custody for the recovery of stolen property as well as to arrest the other four identified members of the gang. According to police spokesman Ramesh Dalal, in the wee hours on Sunday, the gang was cutting and stealing the electricity wires in the fields of Jakholi village. Some of the villagers who were in the fields saw them cutting the wires and challenged them.

The gangsters, who were armed and had come in a canter, opened fire on the villagers and sped away from the spot with the stolen wires in the canter. On the complaint of a villager, Shushil Kumar, a complaint was lodged in Rai police station. On the basis of the information, the police raided their jhuggi-jhopri hideouts in Haiderpur, Bhalaswa, Jahangirpuri and Seelampur localities of Delhi and arrested them. During interrogation, they confessed to have committed more than a dozen thefts this year in the fields of the villages located under the jurisdiction of Rai, Gannaur and Murthal police stations, the spokesman added.

Kalanwali (Sirsa), October 4
In a setback to the INLD, in the home district of the party’s supremo Om Prakash Chautala, Rajiv Kumar, president and Jagsir Chand, vice-president, respectively, of the Kalanwali municipal committee, have been ousted from their post through a no-confidence motion passed by the municipal councillors today.

Eleven out of the House of 13 councillors participated in the voting held for the purpose of deciding the fate of the motion while the Sirsa MP, Ashok Tanwar, who is also an ex-officio member of the House also cast his vote. Ten votes went against Rajiv Kumar and Jagsir Chand while only two voted in their favour. The Subdivisional Magistrate, Roshan Lal, who conducted the proceedings of the house, confirmed that the posts of the president and the vice-president of the municipal committee had fallen vacant following the success of the no-confidence motion.

Rajiv Kumar and Jagsir Chand are supporters of the INLD and they were elected to their posts after the municipal elections in the presence of Abhey Singh Chautala and SAD MLA from Kalanwali, Charanjit Singh.

Charanjit Singh and two municipal councillors, Lakhwinder Kaur and Raj Rani Mehta, skipped today’s important meeting. Earlier, eight councillors had met the Deputy Commissioner some days back, had expressed lack of confidence in the two, and had demanded fixing of a meeting to vote out the two.

Deputy Commissioner Yudhbir Singh Khyalia had fixed the meeting for today and had deputed SDM Roshan Lal to conduct the proceedings of the meeting. Ashok Tanwar said the councillors were unhappy with the functioning of Rajiv Kumar and Jagsir Chand and resultantly, the works of the municipal committee were being affected. 

Rohtak, October 4
At least 60 per cent of those selected as defence officers from the Youth Centre of Skill Development (YCSD) of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) in 2010-2011 have been girls. A total of 40, including 15 girls, here have made their way to the defence services in the past three years.

Daughter of a farmer of Chappaar village of Jhajjar district, 22-year-old Manisha is among those who have made it to the defence services. She is an ex-student of the Engineering Department of the MDU. She has been selected as the Flying Officer of the Indian Air Force. Eldest of three siblings, Manisha opted for this career after she learnt that skill development facility was being given here.

Shweta Rathi (21), is another girl from the semi-rural background who has opted for a career in the Army.

Daughter of a retired Navy personnel, she decided to opt for a career in the defence services after she was motivated by her uncle, who was serving as a Colonel in the Army. After completing her BTech from BIT, Bhiwani, she cleared the SSB and will soon be joining the training session.

Deepali Malhotra, a resident of Rohtak, has already been undergoing training at the Officers’ Training Academy (OTA). She will be joining as a Lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch of the Army.

She has completed six months of training and is here on a short vacation to motivate other students who have come for a 20-day skill training course run by the YCSD under the supervision of Lt-Col DS Deswal (retd).

Neeti Uppal, an ex-student of the Law Department and Lalita Malik from the Engineering Department of the MDU have also been selected in the Army and the Air Force, respectively. Among boys Gaurav Dhankhar, Pravin Kumar, Vishal and Pravin Joon have made it to the defence services.

Karnal, October 4
1,100 unmarried girls were worshipped on Ashtami (eighth day of the Navratras) by a social organisation, Jhandevali Samiti, sending across a clear message to “save the girl child.”Acknowledging the fact that the sex ratio in the state is declining, the samiti resorted to this noble way of spreading awareness against female foeticide last year by worshipping 500 girls.

Karnal Deputy Commissioner Neelam P Kasni, who inspired people to script a new history by taking a "mass pledge" to eliminate female foeticide on September 6 last month, took the lead by washing the feet of five girls and said that people should be made to realise that both boys and girls were "gifts” of God and discrimination against the girl child was "insult of God".

Karnal is one of the districts where the female sex ratio in the 0-6 age group is only 820 and the situation is worsening during the current year with only 813 girls taking birth against 1,000 boys. But with the will of the administration that roped in the residents, social, political, religious bodies and panchayats in the campaign, the sex ratio has increased to 816 at present.

A saint who was the a part of the activity opined that our ‘shastras’ talked about worshipping the ‘panchtatva’ — Prithvi (earth), Vayu (air), Surya (sun), Aakash (sky) and Jal (water) —essential for sustaining life and worshipping girls on this day would go a long way in changing the mindset of the masses.

Responding to the appeal of the Deputy Commissioner to repeat the oath on the sixth of every month as a “reminder” and to campaign for girl child, the residents of various sectors here have given a call to take a pledge to save the girl child on October 6.