Gurgaon, December 7
Thanks to timely detection of some fraudulent moves, about 1,900 acres of land belonging to the Sohna Municipal Committee has been saved from going into the hands of land mafia.

On the directions of Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena, FIRs have been lodged against two former naib-tehsildars of Sohna for allegedly favouring the land mafia.

Meena said the “girdawari” record of this land was changed illegally in favour of some private parties by the two naib-tehsildars posted at Sohna in 1999 and 2000.

The Deputy Commissioner has also recommended departmental action against these naib-tehsildars to the Revenue Department.

During his posting as naib-tehsildar at Sohna from March 19, 1999, to June 3, 1999, Mohammed Ishaq pronounced decisions on 11 suits filed in his revenue court.

In his decisions, the “girdawari” of the government land was changed allegedly in favour of some private parties without making the Forest Department a party, which was in possession of the land.

About 206 acres of land was involved in these 11 suits. It has been alleged that the unlawful decision of then naib-tehsildar Mohammed Ishaq benefitted the land mafia.

In another case involving about 95 acres of land of the Sohna Municipal Committee, then naib-Tehsildar Mahender Singh Phogat allegedly took faulty decisions in 12 suits filed in his revenue court.

These decisions were pronounced between July 21, 1999, and March 3, 2000, when Phogat was posted at Sohna. The land belonged to the Municipal Committee, Sohna, but was under forest cover. Its “girdawari” was allegedly changed in the names of some private persons by the naib-tehsildar in violation of the norms and rules.

On the recommendation of the Deputy Commissioner, the Secretary of the Sohna Municipal Committee today lodged an FIR against the revenue officers at the Sohna police station.

Besides these cases, the said naib-tehsildars and other revenue officials at Sohna allegedly committed irregularities involving about 1,600 acres of land belonging to the Sohna Municipal Committee.

Official sources maintained that the details of rest of the land details would come out in due course after the entire matter was probed further.

Chandigarh, December 7
Despite tall claims of the Hooda Government about providing quality healthcare in hospitals, an acute shortage of medical and paramedical staff has taken its toll on healthcare, particularly at primary health centres (PHCs) and community health centres (CHCs)-leaving the patients at the mercy of private hospitals.

The Health Department has a sanctioned strength of 2,206 medical officers (MOs) and 449 SMOs. With the government sanctioning 285 more posts recently, the number comes out to 2,940.

However, the actual availability of doctors is lower than the sanctioned staff. While 2,239 doctors--1,833 MOs and 406 SMO--are on the rolls, about 600 are not available as they are on leave, pursuing postgraduation and are on deputation to other states.

“The acute shortage of doctors, particularly at PHCs and CHCs, hampers the provision of quality healthcare at the preventive levels, asserted Dr Rajesh Khaylia, president of the Haryana Civil Medical Services Association (HCMSA). Low pay packages compared to the private sector and overworked medical staff were reasons for doctors shying from joining the government sector, he claimed.

Besides the shortage of SMOs or MOs, the shortage in other branches of medicine was also playing havoc with the state’s healthcare. For instance, there are only 374 dental surgeons available as against the total sanctioned strength of 528. In the case of staff nurses, the sanctioned strength is 1,935 while only 1,554 were employed with the Health Department. To top it all, there were only 3,835 multipurpose health workers in the state as against the sanctioned strength of 5,149. The case of laboratory technicians was no different, with their number being 531 compared to the sanctioned strength of 692.

In the backdrop of the private sector offering better pay and perks to doctors, particularly specialists, the number of doctors has remained stagnant over the past couple of years. This is despite the fact that the Health Department had recruited over 2,000 doctors under the liberalised policy of recruitments through walk-in interviews in the recent years.

Conceding that there was a shortage of doctors and paramedical staff in the government sector, Dr Narveer Singh, Director-General, Health Services (DGHS), said various vacancies were being filled in a phased manner.

Rohtak, December 7
The minor teenaged girl of Sanghi village, whose kin have been booked in the suspected case of honour killing of a 21-year-old boy on November 23 last, has been rendered homeless. She has been shifted to a women’s shelter (protection home) here after the girl “expressed fear” over her safety. Her mother and two brothers have already been arrested by the police, while her father is stationed outside the state due to his job.

The girl had an alleged affair with the deceased, Deepak Kumar, who was “beaten to death” by some persons at Sanghi village, about 20 km from here.

Though the girl, a student of plus one in a local school, could have been provided shelter by her relatives in the village, the police shifted her after she reportedly apprehended a threat from the kin and other villagers.

The girl has now been lodged in a women’s shelter run by an NGO here, police sources said.

Deepak, an engineering student hailing from Dhimana village of Jhajjar district, had come over to Sanghi when he was caught with the girl by her kin and allegedly thrashed by them. The victim died on the spot and his body was dumped at the Community Centre by the accused, who then fled from there.

The police had registered a case of murder against five persons, including Munni Devi, mother of the girl, Pardeep and Rajesh (brothers), Wazir Singh (uncle) and Hawa Singh, a neighbour, in this connection. While the police has arrested three of the accused, two others have absconded.

Karnal, December 7
Reviving its agitation for the establishment of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (HSGPC) in compliance with Section 72 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, the Nalvi faction of the committee today submitted a memorandum to Haryana Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Sharma, Karnal MP Arvind Sharma and MLA Sumita Singh.

Nalvi said, “We are submitting the memorandum to all elected representatives of the assembly as well as Parliament as it is their collective and individual responsibility to fulfill the commitment given to the Sikhs.”

Stating that the Waqf Board was created by the Chautala government without Haryana Muslims even asking for it, Nalvi asked that when Chaudhary Charan Singh and Kurukshetra Universities has been established as per the Act, why had the Sikhs in the state been denied their due.

Even after the notification of the Punjabi language as the second language in the state, the government had not taken the necessary steps for its implementation and the hundreds of qualified unemployed Punjabi teachers were the living proof of this.

The Congress included the creation of the HSGPC in its election manifesto twice and had “misled” the Sikh voters of the state even after being voted to power in the 2005 and 2009 assembly elections.

Nalvi warned the Congress to stop the “discrimination” against the Sikhs in the state and demanded that the Bill should be passed in the Budget session of the Haryana Assembly, otherwise they would be forced to convene a Sikh conference to chalk out the future course of action.

Fatehabad, December 7
Kiran Chaudhary, Haryana Minister for Public Health and Excise and Taxation, gives the credit for the Congress victory in Ratia to the hard work done by grassroot workers and Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar and people’s disillusionment with the INLD.

Kiran Chaudhary, who was in her late husband Surender Singh’s maternal grandparents’ village, Bothan Kalan, to meet his old loyalists, said she had come here to thank them for working hard for Congress nominee Jarnail Singh’s victory in Ratia. Bothan Kalan is part of the Ratia assembly segment.

“I was to come to Ratia for campaigning in favour of Jarnail Singh, but Shruti (her MP daughter) caught chickenpox, forcing me to cancel my visit,” Kiran Chaudhary said when asked about her absence from the Congress campaign in Ratia.

She said the Ratia and Adampur results had proved that people were disenchanted with Om Prakash Chautala and his INLD.

Later, speaking at a function in Kharian village in Sirsa, Kiran Chaudhary said the government would spend Rs 2410 crore for strengthening water supply in the state in the current financial year.

Chandigarh, December 7
Less than a week after the Punjab and Haryana High Court summoned the entire record from the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker on the disqualification petition filed by MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, the documents were submitted this morning.

The case will now come up for further hearing on December 19. On the previous date of hearing, Bishnoi’s counsel had asserted that the Speaker was deliberately deferring the hearing on one pretext or the other. Taking a note of his assertion, the Bench headed by Justice MM Kumar had directed the production of the entire record.

The ‘defecting’ MLAs --Satpal Sangwan, Vinod Bhyana, Narender Singh, Zileram and Dharam Singh -- had joined the Congress in November, 2009.

Panipat, December 7
The district police chief today ordered the challaning of 29 cops for violating traffic norms. On a visit to the city and the sadar police station, the SP found that several policemen had put up police signs on their vehicles in violation of traffic norms. As many as 11 challans were issued at the city police station and 18 at the sadar station.

The SP said that in order to curb traffic violations, it had been decided to start the campaign from the department itself. The campaign against the violators would be executed in a phased manner and no one would be spared.

He said the public perception was that the staff of the department were not challaned and it was only the common man who was targeted. — TNS

Hisar, December 7
The All-India Kisan Sabha has decided to launch an agitation against continued neglect of the farming community by the Centre and the state government.

In a press release issued here today,sabha general secretary Harpal Singh said the policies of liberalisation and globalisation were affecting the interests of farmers adversely. The rates of cotton and basmati had fallen this year, causing huge losses to growers .

On the other hand, the prices of agricultural inputs had been raised several times, making agriculture a loss-making proposition.

He said because of the indifference of officials of the Irrigation Department, water was not reaching the tail-ends of canals and watercourses.

These problems had been brought to the notice of the government several times, but no action had been taken.

Harpal Singh said the sabha volunteers would create awareness about these problems among farmers from December 10. It would launch a statewide stir on these issues in February.

Sonepat, December 7
Rakesh Devi, a 35-year-old widow of Khewra village, was today shot dead at her father’s residence here in Jeevan Nagar, allegedly by her brother-in-law, Narender of the same village.

On the complaint of her father, Dharampal, a case of murder has been registered at the local sadar police station against Narender, who reportedly escaped after the crime.

According to information, after the death of her husband Vinod about four years back, Rakesh Devi, along with her three children, started living with her father in Jeevan Nagar.

The dispute between Narender and her started over the ownership of a house in the village.

Narender reportedly came to meet Rakesh Devi in Jeevan Nagar and after an altercation, he allegedly fired at her. She was rushed to the local civil hospital, where the doctors declared her as brought dead.

Karnal, December 7
Five cops, including Bayana police station in charge Deep Chand, two constables of Indiri police station and a PCR driver, were today suspended by Karnal SP Rakesh Arya. Police sources said there were complaints of corruption and involvement in illegal mining against them. However, Deep Chand said the authorities were misinformed as the Indiri police station in charge were pressuring them to indulge in malpractices and help illegal miners.