Hisar, April 6
Hundreds of activists of the INLD today staged an angry demonstration here in protest against the hike in power tariff, delay in disbursement of old-age pension, low support price of wheat and a deteriorating law and order situation.

They were led by INLD secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala. The party workers collected at the Tau Devi Lal Town Park from where they marched in a procession to the Chhotu Ram Chowk.

Addressing party men, Chautala said the people of Haryana were being made to pay for the inefficiency and corruption in the government. On the one hand, people were facing long power cuts and on the other hand, the government had rubbed salt on wounds by steeply hiking prices of power.

He said rampant corruption in the government was the main causes of losses to the power utilities. The INLD would continue to oppose the hike till it was withdrawn.

He said the government was indifferent towards senior citizens. The old-age pension had been modified to save money. Besides, there had been inordinate delay in disbursement of pension.

Reports of INLD protests were also received from Kaithal and other places.

Sirsa: Rampal Majra, MLA from Kalayat, led the INLD workers in their demonstration held here on Friday.

The INLD activists assembled in Devi Lal Park and after garlanding the statue of the former Deputy Prime Minister on his death anniversary today, they marched to the mini-secretariat, where the party gave a memorandum to the authorities.

The party alleged in the memorandum that the state government had put a burden of Rs 1,795 crore on people already reeling under power cuts.

Earlier, addressing workers, Majra alleged that the state government was insulting senior citizens in the name of old-age pension, as their four month’s pension was still unpaid.

He alleged that the government was deleting names of eligible persons from BPL lists while ineligible persons enjoying proximity to ruling party leaders were getting included in these lists.

Fatehabad: Former minister Subhash Goyal led activists of the INLD in a demonstration organised by the party here on Friday. Addressing party workers, he alleged that the state government was denying old-age pension to eligible persons in the name of surveys.

He said the government had applied salt to the injury by raising the power tariff.

In a memorandum handed over to ADC Ashok Meena, the INLD also demanded fixing of the MSP of wheat at Rs 2,000 per quintal and provision of subsidised wheat to poor people.

Faridabad: The INLD held a demonstration here in protest against the state government’s “anti-people” policies.

Coinciding the agitation with the death anniversary of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, the INLD submitted a memorandum to Governor Jagannath Pahadia through the Deputy Commissioner demanding, among other things, a rollback of the recent hike in electricity rates, timely disbursement of old-age pension and an improvement in the law and order situation.

The INLD memorandum objected to the appointment of bureaucrats to top public posts in the state after retirement and demanded their immediate removal. 

What made INLD hit the streets

l The steep hike in power tariff’, putting a burden of Rs 1,795 crore on people already reeling under power cuts

l Delay in disbursement of old-age pension

Hisar, April 6
The Haryana Power Engineers Association has opposed the decision of the Haryana Power Generation Corporation to lease four units of the Panipat Thermal Power Plant.

Jind, April 6
In a shocking incident, a young woman and her son were found murdered in their house at Julana town this afternoon. Cash and valuables worth Rs 15 lakh were reported missing from the house, indicating that robbery could have been the motive for the double murder.

The police said the incident took place around 1.15 pm when Savita (28) was in the house along with her two sons. It is suspected that three youths who had an easy entry into the house, stabbed Savita and her son, Sumit (8), to death soon after they were offered water by the woman. The woman’s body found in a pool of blood in the kitchen, had over 12 stab injuries.

Sumit’s body was found in a box with strangulation marks . The incident came to light after an elderly woman residing in the nieghbourhood heard the cries of Nitish, younger son of Savita, who was left unharmed.

Pawan, Savita’s husband, who is a property dealer, had gone to Jind for some work. He told the police that cash, valuables and a gun had been missing from the house. The locks of almirahs and a safe kept in the house had been found broken.

Senior police officials found three empty glasses lying on a table in the living room.

It is suspected that the accused had come on a motorcycle and gained entry into the house, telling the victim that they had come to meet her husband. The accused were reportedly seen by a neighbour while they were coming out of the house after the crime.

The police has registered a case in this connection.

Chandigarh, April 6
Buoyed by the success of nearly 48 per cent reduction in the cases involving the state in the Supreme Court in 2011 as compared to the year 2010, the Haryana Government is keen to replicate the same experiment at the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Taking cognizance of a communication from Advocate-General (AG) HS Hooda, the Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Administration of Justice Department, has directed all Financial Commissioners and Principal Secretaries, Director General of Police, Director General (Prisons) and the Haryana State Legal Service Authority to contact the AG Office in connection with reduction of litigation in the state.

Saying that the state government was serious on the issue of reduction in litigation, a senior government functionary told The Tribune that a huge backlog of cases resulted in considerable financial burden on the state exchequer and other parties in the cases. “A substantial number of cases can be settled in the Lok Adalats saving precious money and time of the state government and the other parties,” he added.

Earlier, in his communication, Hooda had asked the state government to consider the preparation of a synopsis of all cases pending in the Supreme Court and the high court to explore the possibility of settling them amicably as per the provisions of the state litigation policy. “To achieve this objective, even the Lok Adalats can be organised in consultation with the high court. However, all state departments have to identify those cases, which can be settled through the Lok Adalats or at the government level,” the communication said.

Acting on the state’s litigation policy, the state government had been able to reduce a number of civil and criminal cases in the Supreme Court from 1,052 in 2010 to 635 last year.

Gurgaon, April 6
Call it opportunism or business sense - making hay while a trend reigns has become the latest mantra of owners and managers of pubs and bars located in the city, who want to grab any opportunity of catching whatever is in vogue.

With the IPL season on, pub owners are going all out to catch the frenzy and cash in on sports lovers’ infatuation towards the cricket. LEMP Brew- Pub & Kitchen at Star Mall in Gurgaon has installed a giant screen, aimed at blending the love for the game and the after office or weekend pub experience. “The idea is to provide a cricket-full ambience to the crowd as they snack up and shake a leg amidst rounds of our self-made beers,” quips a staffer.

The pub plans to put up photo booths where cricket fans can get themselves clicked with cut-outs of cricket legends, apart from roping in a host of glamorous cheerleaders supporting a given team on demand of those present. DJs, playing popular foot-tapping numbers to match the excitement, add more colour to the fun-filled evening.

Howzatt pub at Galaxy Hotel and Sports Bar at Central Mall on the MG Road, Gurgaon, have also floated a number of offers. Some pubs have put up branded IPL merchandise like caps, T-shirts and beer mugs, besides attractive offers on food and drinks. Though the response is somewhat lukewarm as of now, but the owners hope that it is just the warming-up phase and the enthusiasm will pick up as the tournament progresses.

Kurukshetra, April 6
The 1952 Act regarding film certification and censorship will be reviewed shortly to remove oddities in it and in order to synchronize it with the present-day realities of the Indian cinema.

This was stated by Leela Samson, chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification, at an international seminar on “100 Years of Indian Cinema” organised by the Institute of Mass Communication and Media Technology (IMCMT), Kurukshetra University, as a part of the International Media Film Festival here last evening.

Samson urged Parliament to enact a new legislation soon before the celebrations of 100 years of Indian cinema come to an end. Even the logo on the certificates and some obsolete terms in certificates needed changes.

She stated that the policy of censorship had been liberalised and the producers had been given the liberty to give rating of A or U to their films themselves.

Tripurari Sharan, director-general, Doordarshan, said Indian cinema had a long way to go before achieving its goal of making good cinema. Sharan regretted that there were not enough good training facilities for cinematographers, script writers, choreographers, etc in India. Even our publicity budget was far less than the budget of a blockbuster.

A well-known script writer, Atul Tiwari, felt that introspection was needed to bring in originality in Indian cinema and raise the present stature of film-making in India.

While speaking on “literature in Indian Cinema”, a former Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, Prof Bhim Singh Dahiya, said the impact of films on impressionable minds was great and proper categorisation of good and bad movies should be made before showing it to the public.

While speaking at seminar, the renowned actor Om Puri lamented that the regional cinema in northern and eastern India was not making much progress in comparison to southern India. The dubbed versions of southern films were being made in other regional films and the viewers were appreciating them.

Puri urged the government that it should show those films to the viewers on television, which are not shown in the cinema halls so that producers could be saved from financial losses. The government should include films in the syllabi being taught at the media institutes so that besides becoming responsible citizens, the students may become successful journalists and film-makers.

The Kurukshetra University should organise such film festivals every year so that students could get maximum information regarding film-making, he added.

Gurgaon, April 6
Rotary International, a principal partner in the global polio-eradication initiative, has urged the community not to attribute reported cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) to polio unless and until lab investigations confirm it. It has also expressed relief that the AFP incidence reported in India was not a polio case.

Deepak Kapur, chairman of Rotary International’s PolioPlus Committee, said, “It needs to be reiterated that AFP can be due to any of multiple causes — not necessarily polio. Most of these AFP cases have tested negative for polio in the past.”

He added that AFP could be triggered by disease or trauma affecting the nerves associated with the involved muscles. Only a laboratory test can ascertain whether it is a case of polio. AFP is generally suspected when a child suddenly develops floppiness or weakness or paralysis in any part of the body.

India completed a year without reporting any case of polio on January 13, 2012. At the Polio Summit organised last month by Rotary International and Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India was taken off the polio endemic list by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for successfully completing a year without any incidence of polio.

In 2011, nearly 61,000 cases of AFP were reported in the country, of which only one tested positive for polio in West Bengal. Any case showing symptomatic association with polio is picked up for lab investigation as part of the polio surveillance. If an AFP case is reported positive, mop-up operations are implemented immediately to secure the area and contain virus transmission.

Kapur pointed out that though India was no longer a threat for exporting polio virus, the country remained at risk of importing polio virus and needs to step up vigilance to rapidly detect and respond to any case of polio as a public health emergency.

“Intensive surveillance needs to be maintained, in addition to ensuring that all children up to 5 years of age receive the polio vaccination until the disease is eradicated completely,” he maintained.

Karnal, April 6
The district administration today exhorted hundreds of auto-rickshaw drivers to fight female foeticide by protecting girl child not only in their homes but also those of their relatives and friends.

The drivers took the pledge to save the girl child and vowed to report any case of female foeticide to the authorities concerned .

Deputy Commissioner Neelam Kasni, the brain behind the anti-foeticide campaign, said the administration was trying to generate general awareness among masses in favour of the girl child.

The campaign to fight female foeticide was started in September last year under which pledges against the social evil are organised on the sixth of every month.

Since the inception of the said campaign, the district had registered a slight improvement in the gender ratio which rose from 813 girls per thousand boys to 852 in March this year

Neelam Kasni said while stringent laws against female foeticide had failed to produce the desired results, the campaign launched by the district administration had yielded positive results. 

Rohtak, April 6
The Police Department appears to have taken a serious view of the complaints of corruption and irregularities received against policemen in the district while performing their duties. The situation reflects in the action taken during the past few months in which three policemen, including two sub-inspectors, have been dismissed from service while inquiries are pending against some others. There are around 2,500 policemen posted in the district at present.

It is learnt that the three policemen who have been dismissed from service were facing charges of corruption and other irregularities. While two policemen holding the rank of a sub-inspector and a constable were booked after they were caught by the ASP while taking a bribe of Rs 100 from a truck driver at the Shiela bypass chowk here last year. The duo had been on duty at the police check post.

It is learnt that the probe indicted the policemen, who were dismissed from service last month. The other case is related to another sub-inspector, who had been charged with forcibly occupying a residential plot of a widow here. As the matter was reported in the media, the police authorities took cognisance and ordered an inquiry into the matter. Police sources said the complaint was found true and the department decided to terminate the services of the policeman.

This is perhaps the first time in the past few years that three policemen have been dismissed from job within three months in the district. At least two policemen were also faced with similar charges and a probe was on against them also, the sources said.

Meanwhile, residents of Kharkara village led by the head of the Chaubisi Athgama Panchayat, Shamsher Singh, met the IG, Rohtak Range, here on Thursday and submitted a memorandum alleging large-scale corruption in the Police Department of Meham subdivision of the district. The village residents have sought a probe into the allegations.

Fatehabad, April 6
The authorities have begun preparations for averting damage caused by floods in the Ghaggar every year. After a tour of various vulnerable points of the Ghaggar in the Ratia and Tohana areas of the district today, Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik said the authorities would spend Rs 20 crore on flood-prevention measures.

“A 30-foot wide and four-foot high ring bandh was being constructed on the river to save Ratia town from floods.

A 3.5 km road was being constructed on this bandh at a cost of Rs 2.92 crore,” Kaushik said.

A bridge was being constructed on the Ghaggar near Sadhanwas village ata cost of Rs 6.5 crore , the DC said.

There was a proposal to increase the capacity of Rangoi channel from 7000 cusecs to 10,000 cusecs at a cost of Rs 13 crore as the overflow from the channel had been devastating large areas of Fatehabad 
every year .

Hisar, April 6
Miscreants today looted Rs 2 lakh from three youths who had come here to purchase a Maruti car. The police said Sunil, Surender and Jasbir had come to Hisar from Rawalwas village to buy a car. As they approached the car showroom on Sirsa Road, two youths standing there tried to snatch their bag containing cash. Even as the scuffle was on, more friends of the miscreants arrived on the spot in a black Alto car.

One of the victims informed the police but the miscreants left the scene with the money before the arrival of cops. Incidentally, the incidence of such crimes has been increasing at a breakneck speed in the district.