Nangal Chaudhary, May 6
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced a bagful of bounties for this block of Mahendragarh district.

Addressing a ‘pragati’ rally here today, the Chief Minister announced that Nangal Chaudhary would get the status of a tehsil, a girls’ college, a municipal committee, a bus stand, an industrial area, a 50-bedded hospital, an ITI based on the public-private partnership (PPP) model and science faculty at the local government college.

Hooda also laid the foundation stone of Baba Khetanath Government Ayurvedic Medical College and Hospital at Patikara village in the district.

The rally was organised by Bhiwani-Mahendergarh MP, Shruti Chaudhary, while her mother and Haryana Excise and Taxation Minister Kiran Chaudhary and Health Minister Rao Narender Singh were also present.

Elated over the presence of a sizeable gathering despite scorching heat, Hooda also announced a special grant of Rs 1 crore for Nangal Chaudhary and Rs 5 crore for the villages located in the block. He also declared block status for Nizampur and maintained that Nangal Chaudhary would be made a subdivision within a year or two.

The Chief Minister said the state government was implementing a Rs 161-crore scheme for providing drinking water to 64 villages of the area. Another drinking water scheme of Rs 105 crore had also been sent to NABARD, he added.

Hooda lambasted the Leader of Opposition, Om Prakash Chautala, for creating obstacles in the way of getting due share of water from the Hansi-Butana link canal and asserted that the government was still committed to ensure every drop of rightful share of water from the Bhakra canal to the people of the state. Appreciating the Hooda regime’s decisions like providing financial powers to village panchayats, Excise and Taxation Minister Kiran Chaudhary remarked that Hooda had taken forward the initiative of the late Bansi Lal. The rally organiser, Shruti Chaudhary, presented the charter of demands on behalf of the people.

Sirsa, May 6
The menace of stray dogs continues to haunt Sirsa residents. Parminder Kaur (23), a resident of Ellenabad town, was going to pay obeisance at a gurdwara on Hanumangarh road when stray dogs attacked her recently.

She fell on the ground as a dog caught hold of her right leg and started dragging her. Passersby rushed to her rescue and saved her .

In a complaint to SDM Nikhil Gajraj, local residents have expressed resentment over the manner dead animals are being dumped on HUDA land leading to an increase in the population of stray dogs in their locality.

In another incident, stray dogs mauled a black buck at Gosaian Bishnoia village in Sirsa on Wednesday night.

Members of the Bishnoi community rushed the animal to a veterinary hospital.

“Stray dogs have been targeting black bucks as well as human beings but the authorities are not doing anything to control the menace,” alleged Om Parkash Bishnoi and Mani Ram Bishnoi, office-bearers of the Bishnoi Sabha, Sirsa.

They alleged that even the death of a 10-year-old girl, who was mauled by stray dogs at Bahiya village, has failed to move the authorities.

Panchayats of Bahiya and Damdama villages met Deputy Commissioner J Ganesan and sought his intervention to get rid of stray dogs.

In Fatehabad, members of the Bishnoi Sabha led by Rameshwar Badopal met Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik and sought prompt action to save villagers from stray dogs.

A 10-year-old girl was mauled by dogs at Bahiya in Sirsa recently while a Class IX boy lost his ear when stray dogs attacked him at Dhani Sanchla Bhojraj last week.

Panipat, May 6
The Civil Surgeon, Dr HS Randhawa, who had marked an inquiry against the radiographer of the Panipat Civil Hospital, which detected the fake x-ray racket being operated from here, has been transferred to the Health Department head office.

In an order, which came on late Saturday evening, Dr Randhawa was asked to report at the head office immediately while the Deputy Civil Surgeon, Dr Anita Tandon, was made the officiating Civil Surgeon of Panipat. It was learnt that after handing over the charge to Dr Tandon, the Civil Surgeon left the city on Sunday.

Sources said some of the senior officials of the Health Department had been mounting pressure on the Civil Surgeon to withdraw the inquiry against radiographer KK Rana, who hailed from the home district of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and had been posted at the Civil Hospital for the past seven years.

The inquiry, in which records of the past two years were scrutinised, had indicted the radiographer for wrongdoing as several discrepancies were found in his working. Out of a total of 5,610 MLC x-rays were performed at the Civil Hospital, 2,732 were found to have been signed by the doctors concerned while there were no signatures of doctors on 1,197 x-rays. The remaining 1,681 x-ray reports issued by the department were neither signed nor marked to any of the doctors at the hospital.

The inquiry also found that there were no records to ascertain as to how much expense had been incurred on x-ray films. Besides, some x-rayfilms were shown to have been given to the Community Health Centre (CHC), Samalkha, without any permission. The OPD register of X-Rays was also not properly maintained.

Sonepat, May 6
Hundreds of residents, including women, of Badkhalsa village under the banner of the “Bhoomi Adhigrahan Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti” protested in Sonepat town against the acquisition of their land for the Rajiv Gandhi Education City and submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner demanding cancellation of the land acquisition process.

In the memorandum, they submitted that the farmers had been continuing their agitation against acquisition of 282 acres of farmers’ land for the past seven years. Moreover, the farmers had neither given possession of the acquired land to the government authorities nor had accepted the compensation for the land so far.

Addressing the protesters in the mini-secretariat, the samiti’s coordinator, Virender Singh, and president, Ram Chander Dahiya, said that after acquisition of their land for many other purposes in the past, the villagers were left with only 282 acres of land.

The protesters, who came to the town in tractor-trolleys, were accompanied by representatives of “Bhoomi Adhigrahan Virodhi Sangharsh Samitis” of Rai and Kundli and of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (A) on the occasion.

The government had acquired about 2,000 acres of land of nine villages in the Rai region for setting up the Rajiv Gandhi Education City. Except the farmers of Badkhalsa village, the farmers of other villages accepted the compensation amount under protest in 2006-07. 

Chandigarh, May 6
The state government has fixed the rate of interest for various loans and advances given to its employees for the financial year 2011-12.

A spokesman of the Finance Department said here that it had been decided to charge 8 per cent interest on the first advance and 9 per cent on the second advance for house building, motor car, scooter, motor cycle, moped, cycle, computer and marriages loans .

The interest would be charged at 8 per cent on the first advance for the period from April 1, 2011, to November 30, 2011, and at 8.6 per cent on the first advance from December 1, 2011, to March 31, 2012.

Similarly, the rate of interest on the second advance for the period from April 1, 2011, to November 30, 2011, would be 9 per cent and 9.6 per cent from December 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012 .

In the case of misutilisation of any loan, a penal interest would be charged at the rate of 10 per cent per annum over and above the normal rate of interest. — PTI

Rohtak, May 6
“I am unable to trace my younger brother, Sunil Soni (28), who had left last night in Punjab Mail, which met with an accident this morning. He was supposed to appear in a recruitment test for posts of gangman in the Railways in New Delhi today. Sunil had gone along with his friend, Shishpal,” Rajender Soni of Ganganagar told The Tribune on the phone.

“I could not find any help from the Railway Department or from any authority to reach Delhi after the accident,” said Bimal Sharma of Bathinda who got stranded after the mishap.

Anil Kumar (42) of Rohtak said he had to put off his journey to Mathura as he was in state of shock after the accident. 

Karnal, May 6
The Haryana Anganwari Workers and Helpers Union have demanded regularisation of workers and threatened to launch a stir if their demands were not accepted. The demand made at the fifth state-level convention of Anganwari workers and helpers that started here was supported by leaders from other states, who hinted at joining the agitation.

Addressing the convention, nation-level CITU leader K Hemlata said the world was passing through economic recession due to policies of liberalisation and globalisation of economy and the plight of women in India and other developing countries had become miserable.

Hemlata said the onslaught on the rights of working and non-working women was a fallout of wrong policies of the government and cautioned that a nationwide agitation would be launched if the government failed to make policies women and workers friendly.

Supporting the demands of Anganwari workers and helpers, general secretary of the Haryana Sarv Karamchari Sangh said the government had agreed in principle that the demands were genuine but was adamant on "not accepting" the demands.

He said the Anganwari workers and helpers should be regularised, given Class III and Class IV status respectively and these workers be given pension, PF , ESI and other facilities enjoyed by regular workers.

Usha and Saroj Sharma, presidents of the Anganwari Workers and Helpers Unions in Punjab and Himachal, fully supported the demands of the Haryana Anganwari and Helpers Union.

The general secretary of state unit of CITU, Surendra Malik, rejected the claims of the government regarding uplift of common man and said that only capitalists were thriving in the name of development of employee, workers, helpers, mid-day meal workers and other sections, which were being denied proper wages. 

Hisar, May 6
HJC MP from Hisar Kuldeep Bishnoi has demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged involvement of a senior IAS officer of Haryana in multi-crore land scams in Gurgaon.

In a press release issued here, Bishnoi who is also the chief of the Haryana Janhit Congress, alleged that this particular officer had exchanged panchayat’s land of Mewat to a close companion in 2008. At that time he was posted as Land Consolidation Officer.

This issue was later raised by the Sehsola panchayat in the Punjab and Haryana High Court which declared the exchange illegal. The court held that this officer had acquired the land under Section 42 of the the Punjab Land Act 1948 did not apply to the exchange of panchayat land.

In Haryana, the exchange of panchayat land can only be done through the Punjab Rural Community Act 1964 which wass a very long and complicated process. The high court on April 21, 2011 ordered criminal prosecution of the officer concerned. Later, the officer went in appeal before a double bench which too declared the exchange illegal but kept the issue of the officer’s prosecution pending till the next hearing.

Bishnoi alleged that there were 11 cases pending against this particular officer before the Lokayukt for exchanging panchayat land with builders of Gurgaon. He said such illegal activities could not be done without the approval of the Chief Minister. He said the government had made a mockery of the land rules in Haryana and politicians and bureaucrats were minting money.

Bishnoi said he would raise the issue in the Lok Sabha. 

New Delhi, May 6
The first evidence of sexual abuse of minor girls at Superna Ka Aangan, the now sealed children’s shelter home in Gurgaon’s Wazirabad village, came in today with the medical reports of two of the 19 girls examined confirming rape.

The reports of other girls are awaited even as the district administration, acting under the orders of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), sealed the accounts of the institution and handed over its management to Gurgaon’s Integrated Child Protection Unit.

The girls have meanwhile been sheltered at the same home to enable the probe team set up by the NCPCR to profile children. Commission member Vinod Tikoo, overseeing the probe, today told The Tribune that he had issued orders to the Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner against shifting the victims out of the city to government-run shelter homes in Rohtak and Karnal as they had done in the case of the last instance of child abuse at Drone Foundation.

The commission confirmed to TNS that medical reports of two of the six known victims of Raju, the caretaker-cum-cook at the home, accused of sexual abuse, had confirmed rape.

Proof has further been gathered of subhuman conditions in which Superna Sethi, the owner of Superna Ka Angan, had been forcing the children to live. Report on its condition prepared by the NCPCR states that 19 girls were living in a single room and were being made to sleep out in the verandah.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner has called a meeting tomorrow of all district officers concerned to take stock of protection homes in Gurgaon.

Asked what would happen to Sethi, currently in judicial custody, the NCPCR probe team said the laws were weak and she could easily get bail this week.

“We were surprised when the city police did not seek her police remand. She has to explain things like how she got these children when her home is not even registered; who is funding her. We are sure she will soon be out on bail,” Rishi Kant of the NCPCR probe team on the case said.

Preliminary findings have revealed that not all children housed in Superna Ka Angan are orphans. Most of them belong to migrant families who have left them here for want of resources to raise them.

The commission is tracking down families of victims.

Rohtak, May 6
A former Chief Minister and INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala has claimed that the ruling Congress has lost the confidence and support of the common man due to its “utter failure” on various issues and “victimisation” of people due to poor governance. ’’The ruling party will be shown the door in the next elections and it will be only the INLD that could redress the grievances of the masses in an effective manner,’’ he added.

Chautala, who addressed a meeting of party workers here yesterday, charged the State and the Union Governments with not coming up to the expectations of the people and not keeping the promises made in the last elections. He lambasted the Hooda government on various fronts, including law and order, corruption and inflation.

Describing the recent recovery of mobile phones from the district jail, he alleged that the jails at several places in the state, including those at Rohtak and Jhajjar, had turned into hubs of criminals as these places did not have access to facilities, including mobile phones.

Regarding corruption, he said students of MD University here were lathi-charged by the police when they demanded a probe into the allegations of corruption in the functioning of the university.

He said the Chief Minister had no right to remain in power after the recent exposure of irregularities in the selection process of Hindi lecturers in the state. The answersheets of the candidates had been deliberately destroyed to prevent any probe into the selection process.

On the problems faced by farmers in wheat procurement, he said despite a bumper crop, the state government had been unable to provide gunny bags on time and delay in lifting had resulted in both inconvenience and damage to wheat at several places in the state. Describing the financial condition of the state government as poor, he claimed that a loan of Rs 650 crore had been taken by the government to release the salary of the government staff and old-age pension.

Sirsa, May 6
Under the Haryana State Legal Service Authority, free legal aid will be provided to industrial workers for their disputes with the employers.

Harish Gupta, Chief Judicial Magistrate (Legal Service Authority), who addressed a legal awareness camp for workers organised at the Industrial Area here, said the Labour Department had already started registration of workers for this purpose.

He said the Haryana Buildings and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board was providing various facilities to the industrial workers.

However, people were not able to get benefit due to their ignorance.

The welfare board provides assistance of Rs 21,000 for the marriage of a daughter and scholarships up to Rs 12,500 for the education of children.

He said the workers were entitled to free medical treatment of their family up to the maximum limit of Rs 30,000 per annum for normal diseases and up to Rs 1 lakh for communicable diseases.

The industrial workers are entitled to pension of Rs 500 per month after attaining the age of 60 and pension as well as an assistance of Rs 30,000 if they are incapacitated due to a disease.

The women workers get maternity allowance of Rs 5,000, the CJM said.

The industrial workers are also entitled to get loan on easy instalments for the construction of a house while the next of kin of a worker get Rs 1.25 lakh in case of an accidental death and Rs 75,000 in case of natural death of a worker.

Chandigarh, May 6
Just about a fortnight after Padma Shri Anjolie Ela Menon painted the Haryana Government in bad light by claiming that her land was being acquired to facilitate a housing project, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered stay on her dispossession.

Fixing July 30 as the next date of hearing, a Division Bench headed by Justice Hemant Gupta also stayed the dispossession of co-petitioner-cum-writer Primila Lewis.

In a petition Menon and “celebrated writer of non-fiction” Primila Lewis said: “The land was being acquired for the ostensible public purpose of building a 60-metre-wide sector road east of the Ghatta bundh…

“The true purpose of the proposed Sector road is evident from the ongoing construction, and advertisement for sale of the large private luxury IREO project. The proposed 60-metre-wide sector road has no apparent purpose other than to serve as a secondary access to the IREO luxury development”.