Gurgaon, October 29
The much-awaited musical extravaganza of the popular Metallica band, which was originally scheduled to be held at the Leisure Valley grounds here yesterday and later postponed for today, has been cancelled.

Though safety concerns have officially been cited as the reason behind the cancellation of the concert, informed sources maintained that some differences between the Gurgaon district administration and police authorities was the actual reason .

The cancellation of the show came as a big disappointment to the upbeat fans of the band, and a disgrace to the promoters.

Officials of DNA, the promoter of the event, who failed to get fresh permission to hold the show today, were booked for cheating and breach of trust. DNA top functionary Rajesh Kumar and some of his team members were arrested after a case was registered against them at a local police station.

As of now, the show stands cancelled and DNA will issue a notification regarding the refunds within 24 hours.

“We arrived in Delhi on Friday, very excited and ready to play our first show ever in India at the F1 Rocks concert. However, immediately at the end of our afternoon press conference at a hotel near the venue, we were notified that there was a serious question as to whether the show could proceed with regard to the safety of the concert audience. ?Once we, along with DNA, determined that there was a failure of a security barricade in front of the stage that could not be adequately repaired, the promoter reluctantly announced the postponement of the show until Saturday. Unfortunately, on such a short notice, the promoters were unable to secure a permit for the show on Saturday. Therefore, DNA announced that we would not be able to play in Delhi?,” said a notice on Metallica website.

Disappointed over the cancellation of the event, a number of enthusiastic fans of the band gate-crashed into the venue and ransacked it yesterday, damaging equipment installed there.

Metallica came into limelight in 1981 and shot to fame with its albums like ‘Master of Puppets’ (1986), international bestseller ‘Metallica’ (1991), and last release ‘Death Magnetic’.

Hisar, October 29
The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the pro-Bhupinder Singh Hooda faction of the Haryana Congress have found a common cause against the Hooda detractors following their defeat in the byelection to the Hisar Lok Sabha seat.

Both are baying for blood of Hooda detractors Birender Singh and Selja albeit for different political reasons.

The INLD has been alleging that there was a secret nexus between Hooda and the winning HJC-BJP candidate Kuldeep Bishnoi as a part of which the Chief Minister allegedly asked party leaders to get their supporters to vote for Bishnoi as the Congress stood no chance of winning the byelection.

To prove its contention, the INLD points to the extraordinarily high number of votes cast in Bishnoi’s favour in the booths in which senior Congress leaders, including Rajya Sabha member Birender Singh, Union Minister Kumari Selja, former minister Sampat Singh, legislator Ram Niwas Ghorela, former legislator Ram Kumar Gautam, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Vinod Bhayana and former minister Savtri Jindal are enrolled as voters.

On the other hand, the pro-Hooda faction is using the same data to prove that senior party leaders worked against the party candidate in the byelection resulting in a humiliating defeat of the Congress despite Hooda camping here throughout the campaign.

INLD nominee Ajay Chautala had alleged that a secret meeting took place between Hooda and Bishnoi a day before the polling in which they decided to help each other defeat him as the Congress was certain to lose the byelection.

Handbills were distributed in the city giving details of the votes cast to the three main candidates in the booths senior Congress leaders are also enrolled as voters.

It was alleged that in Selja’s ancestral village Prabhuwala the Congress nominee polled just 211 votes against 1,292 polled by Bishnoi and 533 polled by Chautala. Likewise, in Hisar booth no. 93 under which Selja’s residence also falls, the Congress polled a mere 34 votes against 354 polled by Bishnoi and 112 polled by Chautala.

Panipat, October 29
With three thermal units down and generation at the state-owned power plants taking a hit due to a coal shortage, the power utilities resorted to overdrawal of power from the northern grid to meet the state’s power demand .

According to sources in the power utilities, the Haryana Discoms have been overdrawing power for the past four days as three thermal units at different power stations shut down owing to a shortage of coal. The state overdrew 135.34 lakh units on Diwali while the overdrawal was 40 lakh units yesterday .

Both 300-MW units at Yamunanagar thermal were down due to technical problems, one due to boiler leakage and the other due to turbine problems. One unit at Panipat also stopped generation due to a technical snag.

With both units at the Khedar thermal plant were generating optimum power to add 960 MW to the state’s kitty, the state-owned power plants made available 2,157 MW of power available to the utilities while the demand touched the 4,270-MW mark.

Meanwhile, the dwindling coal stock continues to trouble the power authorities. Panipat had a stock of 20,000 tonnes, sufficient for one day. Yamunanagar had 35,000 tonnes, which would suffice for three days but both its units are not operating. At Khedar the coal stock of 50,000 tonnes was barely sufficient for three days. 

Sirsa, October 29
Ruing depleted flow of water in the Nahrana feeder and Barwali distributary which feed their areas, farmers of over 10 villages in the Nohar area of Rajasthan visited the Irrigation Department office here demanding their share of canal water.

Led by Abhishek Matoia, BJP MLA from Nohar, the farmers, who included members of the Zila Parishads and panchayats, alleged that they were not getting enough water in this sowing season due to the indifference of the authorities concerned in Haryana.

The Haryana authorities, they alleged, had not only failed to check theft of water but also not cared to clear of silt a portion of the canal in their area .

The Nahrana feeder and Barwali distributary originate from Nahrana head for carrying water exclusively for Rajasthan villages .

“We have been receiving less than 175 cusecs of water against 332 cusecs due to a large-scale pilferage of water in the Haryana area. Farmers have been stealing water with pipes along the 28- km distance in Sirsa but the authorities here have failed to check it,” alleged Matoria.

He said that if they failed to get 225 cusecs of water for the next 15 to 20 days, the farmers of these villages would not be able to sow their rabi crops.

Matoria alleged that over 32,000 acres of land in Deiya, Bhagwan, Dhani Lal Khan, Chandela, Thobarian, Sonarhi, Sinkara, Asarjana, Maliya, Birkanwali, Lalpura and some other villages was being affected due to scarcity of water.

SP Parihar, Executive Engineer of Nahrana division of the Irrigation Department in Sirsa, however, maintained that the problem had arisen due to non-cleaning of the canals. 

Karnal, October 29
Surinder Sharma, who yesterday tried to shoot a judge in his courtroom with a country-made pistol, believed that justice had been denied to him which led to his father’s death.

It is learnt that Surinder had a dispute with Jagjit Pal from whom he bought a Canter in 1999. He filed a civil case in 1999 which was decided in 2009 by the court of Hemraj Verma. As the verdict was not in his favour, Surinder Sharma moved another petition in the sessions court but he lost the case again. His review petition was also dismissed in August this year following which Surinder lost his father.

Blaming the judicial system for his miseries, Surinder decided to avenge his father’s death by killing the judge who had pronounced the verdict against him. Sources said that Surinder was fighting four other civil suits in various courts .

Surinder bought a country-made pistol for Rs 7000 from Bareilly to kill judge Hemraj Verma. However, he could not succeed as the pistol did not fire though he tried thrice to do so. The police said Surinder had no criminal record and sheer frustration made him take this step.

Meanwhile, the district police today secured Surinder Sharma’s remand till October 31. 

Sonepat, October 29
In a daring act of loot, Rs 2.20 crore was looted from a builder by some car-borne gangsters on the GT Road near Murthal last night. The victim, Naresh Gupta, of DLF Gurgaon, was on his way to Delhi from Ambala.

Gupta’s car was stopped by some armed gangsters driven by his driver, Om Prakash, when they were crossing the Murthal flyover around 1.30 am. Before Gupta could raise any alarm, they looted the bag containing Rs 2.20 crore at gunpoint and sped away from the spot.

A case has been registered against the unidentified persons.

Fatehabad, October 29
Facing opposition from farmers whose land is sought to be acquired and from the organisations opposed to the nuclear power projects, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has decided to launch an “awareness campaign” in the area to educate people about misgivings associated with the nuclear projects.

TR Arora, Chief Engineer (Projects Infrastructure), who was here in connection with the upcoming Gorakhpur Atomic Power Project (GAPP) in the district, said the corporation planned to associate social organisations of the area with it for its awareness programme.

Arora said there were 20 operating nuclear power projects in India with an experience of 335 safe reactor years, but not a single accident had so far been reported.

He said animation videos would also be used to educate villagers on this issue. He added that a group of people, including some mediapersons, would be taken to NPCIL project at Narorain UP to clear people’s doubts about the nuclear projects.

Chandigarh, October 29
Government health institutions in Haryana are providing not only free services to pregnant women, but also giving them free diet to promote institutional deliveries.

Health Minister Rao Narender Singh said all concerned had been directed to provide free diet under the Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram to pregnant women coming
to general hospitals, community health centres
and primary health centres for delivery.

In case of normal delivery, each woman would
get diet of up to Rs 100 thrice a day for three days. In case of a caesarean delivery, free diet would be provided for seven days or till the patient was discharged from hospital. The facility would also be available at night.

He said as a result of the facilities being extended by the government to the pregnant women, the rate of institutional deliveries had reached 74.3 per cent in the state.

The minister said after the successful implementation of the Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram in Haryana, facilities of free delivery, diet, blood,
ultrasound scanning and other tests were being provided to women for delivery in all government health institutes.

Besides, free infant care facility for 30 days after delivery and free transport to pregnant women was also being provided.

He said steps were also being taken to look after infants at home. For this, training would be provided to ASHA workers so that quick medical assistance could be provided to the mother and the infant. Incentives would also be provided to ASHA workers for this purpose.

Sirsa, October 29
The health authorities today carried out a house-to-house survey in Dharampura village of this district after Nirpal Singh(40) died of suspected dengue yesterday. The villagers found suffering from fever were being monitored.

The victim had been sick for the past six days. The platelets count in his blood fell considerably, a symptom found in dengue cases.

“There is no conclusive evidence of this being a case of dengue as no test was conducted to confirm it,” said Dr Bhushan Garg, in charge of the Primary Health Centre, Kalanwali. The platelets count could fall in some other conditions too.Dr Garg said the victim was getting treatment in a private hospital at Talwandi Sabo in Punjab, where he died after severe pain in the abdomen.