Jind, November 3
The state government today announced announced a scheme of providing an immediate compensation of Rs 25,000 to girls and women who become a victim of an acid attack. This is perhaps for the first time that such a benefit has been announced for such victims. Such incidents have witnessed a spurt in the past few years. The authorities have issued a notification to the officials concerned in this regard.

Officials of the Department of Women and Social Welfare said district-level committees would look after the implementation of the scheme and cases of this nature would be handled by their department so that the victims could be provided immediate relief. The aid of Rs 25,000 would be given from the District Red Cross Society funds or any other source at the discretion of the district authorities. “This help could be instrumental as victims normally require hospitalisation and medical treatment and several of the victims are not able to bear the expenses due to their weak financial condition,” stated an official. The state government has also directed district-level officials to ensure maximum financial support and other help to the victims in such cases and have been asked to bear all their medical expenses if they are admitted to a hospital or clinic.

Several cases of acid attacks have been reported in the region, including Jind, Rohtak and Jhajjar, over the past decade. Though the accused have been arrested in a majority of the cases, the state government ought to introduce tough laws to curb such incidents, says Yoginder Dahiya, an advocate, based at Rohtak. It needs to be made a non-bailable offence, he added.

Chandigarh, November 3
The HJC-BJP combine today announced the candidature of Renuka Bishnoi and Mahavir Prasad for the Adampur and Ratia Assembly seats, respectively. The bypoll for the two seats is slated for November 30.

Addressing mediapersons, HJC supremo and Member of Parliament Kuldeep Bishnoi announced his wife Renuka’s candidature from Adampur.

Haryana BJP in charge Harshvardhan said the Ratia seat, which had gone to the BJP kitty, would be contested by Mahavir Prasad. He added that Prasad's name had been recommended by the state unit and would be put up before the party's Central Election Committee for final approval.

State unit president of the BJP, Krishan Pal Gurjar said the HJC-BJP had emerged as an alternative to the Congress and the INLD. “This became amply clear in the Hisar parliamentary seat byelection where our candidate came out victorious. This shows that the coming together of the HJC and the BJP has been well received,” he said.

In reply to a query on why the BJP, a national party, required the crutches of a regional party to prove its identity, Harshvardhan said, "The party has built a strong worker base but now with a steady ally in the HJC, and a parliamentary seat under its belt, we know that the people are happy by our alliance."

The leaders said BJP and HJC workers would work together and ensure a victory for the alliance in both the seats. They added that senior leaders of the BJP would visit the two constituencies during campaigning if the need for the same was felt.

While the Adampur seat fell vacant after sitting MLA Bishnoi won the Hisar Lok Sabha bypoll, Ratia seat in Fatehabad district fell vacant following the death of INLD legislator Gian Chand Odh in September.

Chandigarh, November 3
The four-laning work on National Highway 73, connecting Panchkula to Yamunanagar and beyond, will finally begin soon. With the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) now examining the technical bids, the project could take off before the end of this year.

This project had failed to attract any bidders initially even as the NHAI floated tenders on four occasions earlier. It was only after the fifth tender was floated last December that 35 bids were received for this project. Sources in the NHAI informed The Tribune that after scrutinising the initial bids, technical bids were now being examined before the work on four-laning of the 109-km stretch could be allotted.

The project has been hanging fire for almost two years in spite of getting approvals from the Haryana Government and the Centre. This has also escalated the total project cost. Initially when the project was envisaged, the project cost was around Rs 662 crore and now the cost is estimated at Rs 985 crore.

The four-laning of this highway will be carried out on the Build, Operate and Transfer basis. It will not be done all along the existing alignment of the highway. At least four diversions along the existing highway have been planned, which will help commuters on this highway bypass towns of Barwala, Shazadpur, Saha, Yamunanagar and Jagadhri. The first bypass will be constructed from Sultanpur village just before Barwala, which will join the existing highway at Mauli.

The second diversion will be a bypass from Shazadpur to join back the existing highway at Pathreri, while the third bypass for Saha will digress from the existing highway at Saha and join it at Kalpi. The biggest bypass of 23 km is being constructed to bypass Yamunanagar and Jagadhri and will take off from Prithi Ka Majra to join back at Kalanaur.

Chandigarh, November 3
Hisar, where the Congress, the HJC-BJP alliance and the INLD were locked in a tug-of-war during the recent Lok Sabha byelection, has emerged as the “crime capital” of Haryana with the highest number of heinous crime cases being reported from the district. Panchkula is the least crime-prone district in the state.

Data collected from the recently released “Crime in India — 2010” report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of the Ministry of Home Affairs revealed that Hisar led crime in Haryana with 91 murders, 25 rapes, 85 kidnappings and abductions, five dacoities and 51 robberies during 2010.

Hisar was followed by Gurgaon in the National Capital Region (NCR) where 84 cases of murder, 45 cases of rape, 58 cases of kidnappings and abductions, five cases of dacoities and 119 cases of robberies were reported last year. Sonepat with 81 murders, 27 rapes, 75 kidnappings, nine dacoities and 62 robberies was placed at number three in the crime chart.

Rohtak, home district of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has not lagged behind on the crime front and accounted for 72 murders, 51 rapes, 32 kidnappings and abductions, seven dacoities and 34 robberies.

On the other hand, Panchkula reported the least number of heinous crime cases with just 20 murders, 10 rape cases, 16 kidnappings and abductions, four dacoities and seven robberies.

So far as another heinous crime — dowry death — was concerned, Sonepat reported the highest number of 26 dowry deaths with Faridabad reporting 23 such deaths. While Gurgaon and Bhiwani reported 22 dowry deaths each, Karnal reported 21 such cases.

However, Gurgaon had the dubious distinction of registering the highest number of 8,647 cases — both cognisable and other cases under the IPC. Gurgaon was followed by Faridabad where 6,237 cases were registered. As many as 4,532 cases were registered in Sonepat followed by 4,015 in Rohtak. Panchkula retained its “least criminal” character with 1,771 cases.

In all, Haryana reported 1,005 cases of murder, 720 cases of rape, 963 cases of kidnappings and abductions, 147 cases of dacoity and 734 cases of robbery. The maximum number of 16,266 cases of theft were reported in the state with the maximum cases (3,124) being reported from Gurgaon. Faridabad accounted for 1,672 cases of theft while Sonepat reported 984 cases. Among the burglary cases, Gurgaon also reported the highest number of 492 of 4,445 cases in the state. Hisar with 320 cases and Ambala with 288 cases were placed second and third.

Gurgaon, November 3
A day after Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda stated at a news conference that Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) was not shifting its base from the state, the MSIL management has clarified that its investment plans for Haryana were intact.

“The company wishes to clarify that its investment plans for Haryana are on course. The MSIL has direct investment plans of over Rs 3,400 crore lined up towards the installation of a 2.5 lakh-capacity assembly line at Manesar (Manesar-C plant) and a world-class Research and Development Centre and test course at Rohtak,” the company said in a statement issued here today.

In addition to the company’s investment, its vendors and joint venture partners will continue to invest in Haryana for future expansion, it added.

The Maruti management maintained that a section of the media had reported on Maruti Suzuki’s decision to purchase land in Gujarat and termed it as “moving out of Haryana and shifting its base to Gujarat”.

“The company wishes to clarify that the decision to purchase land in Gujarat is towards building additional capacity. Further, it has no link whatsoever with the recent industrial unrest faced by the company. The company’s plan to invest in Gujarat started much before the industrial unrest situation at Manesar,” it asserted.

The MSIL management stated that its Board of Directors had approved the purchase of land in Gujarat for future capacity requirements of the company last week.

The logistics of transporting the finished cars to the large domestic markets in west and south India and the close proximity of the Mundra port for future exports played a crucial role in the decision, it added.

Chandigarh, November 3
The Haryana Government today transferred orders of five Superintendents of Police with immediate effect.

Satender Kumar Gupta, Superintendent of Police, Sirsa, has been posted as Superintendent of Police, Fatehabad, in place of Vivek Sharma who has been posted as Superintendent of Police Rohtak.

B. Satheesh Balan will be the new SP, Bhiwani, in place of Ashwin who goes as Superintendent of Police, Hisar. Devender Yadav, Additional Superintendent of Police, Ambala, has been posted as Superintendent of Police, Sirsa.

The transfers were necessitated since Vivek Sharma was holding charge of Superintendent of Police Hisar and Fatehabad.

The Indian National Lok Dal, during the Hisar parliamentary seat bypoll, had complained against him to the Election Commission and sought his transfer on the grounds that he was related to a senior Congress leader.