Panipat, December 13
While diplomatic moves have so far failed to bring home a large number of Indians languishing in Pakistani jails, a local lawyer has filed petitions in the Lahore and Karachi High Courts to bring home countrymen against whom no cases are pending there.

Momin Malik, who had recently gone to Pakistan along with a special delegation comprising of Dalbir Kaur, sister of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, who is on the death row in Pakistan, said he had come across more than 400 Indians in various jails of Lahore and Karachi, who had either completed their jail terms or were simply suffering as they lacked proper legal aid.

Moved by their plight, Malik filed a petition in the Lahore and Karachi High Courts, seeking measures to liberate Indians, who had not committed any crimes on Pakistani land or had already competed their jail terms.

Malik said both high courts had directed the authorities concerned to produce details about Indian lodged in their jails.

Meanwhile, as per an official report recently tabled in the Rajya Sabha by External Affairs Minister for SM Krishna, there were 558 Indian nationals in custody in Pakistan. Of these, 232 are civilian prisoners, 252 Indian fishermen and 74 are believed to be missing defence personnel.

Karnal, December 13
Valuable documents of cricketer Harbhajan Singh, also known as ‘Bhajji’, were recovered from green belt in Sector 13 in the morning today, within 12 hours after the theft was committed. The police started search operation in the entire area to recover the documents.

“The cops have recovered all important documents, including the passport, driving licence, membership cards, credit and debit cards,” said SP Rakesh Arya adding that some people have been rounded up on suspicion.

A brief halt at Karnal for a cup of coffee and snacks at Café Coffee Day near Neelkanth on NH1 had proved dear for ‘Bhajji’ yesterday. He was on his way to Delhi from Jalandhar and had to board a flight to Dubai on Tuesday.

Some miscreants smashed the left windowpane of his white coloured car and decamped with his sports bag that contained the documents.

After being robbed last night, Harbhajan Singh had posted on his Twitter account, “Very upset, bag stolen at Delhi-Chandigarh highway. All important documents in it. Please courier my passport and driving licence, I'll ensure no action.”

Arya said that Harbhajan has been informed about the recovery and all the documents named by him in the complaint. The parking of the cafeteria was not a secured zone and the crime could have been prevented if the CCTV cameras were in place, he added.

A case of theft was registered at Madhuban police station against unknown person on the complaint of Harbhajan Singh last night.

Chandigarh, December 13
The INLD today sought a white paper from the Haryana government on the ‘failed’ EDUSAT programme. The INLD accused the government of ‘wasting’ Rs 500 crore on a project that turned out to be a non-starter.

Addressing a press conference here today, the INLD secretary general and MLA, Ajay Singh Chautala, said failure of the programme can be gauged from the fact that the education minister, Geeta Bhukkal, herself admitted that equipment were non-functional in 90 percent schools.

“The government is spending an additional Rs 100 crore per year on the maintenance of the programme, while they have already spent Rs 500 crore on it. The government should issue a white paper on this and the CBI should conduct an inquiry. The primary education sector in the state has completely collapsed,” he said.

Chautala added that the standard of education in government schools is extremely poor which is evident from a study carried out by an NGO that states students of Class II to V cannot even recognise alphabets and numbers.

“Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda sat on a dharna when we wanted half-an-acre university land, while he has taken 100 acres of lands for laying roads. In the Chaudhary Devi Lal University, 80 acres of land, has been returned to the Agriculture Department to prevent expansion,” he alleged.

Chautala maintained that no norms were followed in the appointment of Vice-Chancellors while a number of posts were advertised even when the government was not recruiting people to fill the vacant posts.

He said that the government was discriminating against areas that were not electing Congressmen. “Will there be no development in Adamapur and Hisar just because Congress has lost in these areas? The main road in Ellenabad has not been recreated despite repeated assurances by the government,” he said.

Calling Haryana government ‘anti-farmers’, he said that the state government had miserably failed to protect the interests of the farmers. “The cane prices are higher in UP while the bajra and cotton produce has no takers. Fertiliser prices are up and there is a lack of water and power resources. The government should immediately buy ready crop at least the MSP,” he suggested.

He accused the state government is gambling with the future of coming generation. “There is no institute, including educational and sports, worth of national standards in Haryana,” he said.

Meanwhile, downplaying his party's defeat in Ratia bypoll, Chautala said the INLD's vote share had shown a drastic improvement in the segment.

Hisar, December 13
On the eve of National Energy Conservation Day tomorrow, the DHBVN today appealed to power consumers to eliminate power wastage.

In an appeal the nigam said coal and oil constituted more than 80 per cent of fuel used to generate electricity. So, it was necessary to conserve electricity and reduce electric power utilisation. Every single kilowatt hour of electricity saved got rid of 750 gm of carbon dioxide out in the ambience. Likewise, production in industries and farms could be increased considerably by making sufficient power available for these sectors, which was possible with conservation of electricity.

The state was facing paucity of power on the one hand and soaring demand on the other. The present shortage of electricity could be met by conservation of electricity as there was a potential for saving over 25 per cent of power . One watt saved at the point of consumption was about 1.5 watts generated. It costs about Rs 5 crore to create 1 MW of new generation capacity.

Some smart electricity saving tips to conserve electricity can help tackle the problem of climate crisis and shortage of electricity at the grass-roots level. Most consumers use the remote control to switch off the TV. But this keeps the TV on in a stand-by mode where it may consume six watts per hour. Even when you turn the TV off and never switch off in the plug stage, the TV nonetheless consumes 0.5 to 1 watt of power.

Panipat, December 13
Miscreants today shot dead a farmer and fled with Rs 2.84 lakh the victim was carrying. According to the police, Rohtash(52), a farmer from Chajpur village of the district, was on his way to the district headquarters when he was intercepted by the miscreants near the village canal. The robbers opened fire at him from a countrymade pistol As Rohtash fell on the ground, the robbers got hold of his motorbike and fled.

Passersby, who saw Rohtash lying in a pool of blood , rushed him to a hospital in Panipat, where he succumbed to his injuries.

The police later found Rohtash’s motorbike abandoned at a secluded place .

The police has registered a case. The body was handed over to the victim’s relatives after a postmortem examination.

Rohtak: A farmer was shot dead while he was watering his fields in Karaur village of the district last night.

Though the assailants have not been identified so far, it is suspected that the murder was an outcome of rivalry between two groups in the village.

The police said Jai Bhagwan(42) was irrigating his fields when four or five youths arrived there and opened fire at him, killing him on the spot. Jai Bhagwan's brother,Ramesh, who was also in the fields, rushed to the spot, but the assailants had fled the scene by then.

Rohtak DSP Sumit Kumar said the victim used to plough agricultural land owned by former village sapanch Shribhagwan, who is lodged in jail in connection with several criminal cases.

A case has been registered against unknown persons on Ramesh’s complaint.

Jhajjar, December 13
Rupesh Kumar (18) of Aazamgarh in UP, who was pursuing mechanical engineering (first semester) at CBS Group of Institutions here, was found hanging in the institute’s hostel at Fatehpur village on the Jhajjar-Kosli road today. His father is a constable in the UP police.

The incident came to light this morning when the deceased’s room-mate, Pawan Kumar of Bihar, found his room No 302 locked. Sensing some trouble, he informed the hostel warden and other hostellers, who later broke open the door and found Rupesh hanging with a bedsheet from a ceiling fan in the room.

The police rushed to the spot and sent the body to the civil hospital here for a postmortem examination.

“Rupesh, Abhishek, Manish and Sirajudin had consumed liquor at his room last night. Thereafter, Rupesh had sent the trio to their rooms, saying that he wanted to talk to his girlfriend in Lucknow,” said the police, adding that no suicide note was recovered from the spot.

Pawan Kumar in his statement said since Rupesh was enjoying with his friends, he had gone to the room of a friend to study last night.

The police said prima facie this appeared to be a case of suicide. However, the exact cause of the death would be known only after the postmortem examination.

Chandigarh, December 13
The state government would launch a mass movement to acquaint people with their right to get 36 services from various departments within the specified time limit.

Issuing instructions to senior officers to this effect here today, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the campaign should involve representatives of panchayati raj institutions, nambardars, patwaris and other officials .

The officers informed Hooda that a mechanism was being evolved to inform the citizens about the status of the service sought by them through SMS. They can also opt for delivery of ration cards and driving licences at their home addresses through speedpost on payment of Rs 25.

It has been decided that apart from the offices concerned, e-DISHA centres would also accept and give forms for ration cards and SC/BC/OBC/domicile/ ST/income/rural area certificates. Applications for sanction of mutation will be accepted at Tehsil e-DISHA counters and the tehsildar/naib tehsildar concerned would fix a programme to sanction mutations ensuring that each village is covered at least once in 12 working days.

District-level conventions would be organised where people’s representatives and opinion-makers would be informed of their rights and time limits within which they can seek those services. Forms and procedures would be further simplified for hassle-free delivery of services.

In another people-friendly decision, the people would not have to go to the state treasury to submit fees for ration cards as the same would be accepted at the e-DISHA/ departmental office. 

Faridabad, December 13
DHBVN employees today held demonstrations at the subdivisional level in protest against the state government’s move to further open the power sector and hand over distribution of power in Gurgaon and Panipat circles to franchisees .

The All-Haryana Power Corporation Workers’ Union, spearheading the agitation, threatened statewide demonstrations at the division level on December 29.

Subash Lamba, general secretary of the union, said : “The employees will intensify the agitation if government persisted with the move.”?

The demonstrations today were part of a one-day-agitation in response to a call given by the union.

As per a recent statement of Haryana Power Minister Ajay Yadav, the franchisee system would be introduced in Gurgaon (DHBVN) and Panipat (UHBVN) from January next year. Depending on its success it would be implemented in other parts of the state.

Sonepat, December 13
Sunil, a young farmer of Bhadana village, was shot dead by about ten armed persons on Sonepat-Kakroi road today. The victim along with his younger brother Anil and two others was returning to his village in a tractor-trailer after collecting fertiliser from Sonepat.

He was shot ten times in this indiscriminate firing allegedly done by the village Sarpanch Umed and his associates who reportedly escaped on a motorcycle and jeep from the spot after committing the murder. The panchayat elections related enmity was stated to be reason behind the murder.

A case has been registered against the alleged accused. — OC

Hisar, December 13
Two youths looted Rs 4.54 lakh from the State Bank of India branch in Bhatla village, near here, this evening.

According to bank manager Yashpal Sardana, two youths with their faces covered with cloth came to the bank around 2 pm and fired a shot in the air. As bank employees ran for cover in an adjacent room, the robbers snatched the keys of the cash counter from the teller. They removed Rs 4.54 lakh lying in the cash counter and walked away, brandishing their pistols.

Sardana said the robbers had come to the bank on a Splendour motorcycle.

Chandigarh, December 13
Haryana has been selected for the fourth consecutive year for a national award for energy conservation.

This year the state has been chosen for the second prize at the national level under the state designated agency’s category for implementing the energy conservation programme efficiently during 2011. — TNS