Rohtak, May 15
While the authorities are still to come out with details of missing children and inmates from ‘Apna Ghar’, a shelter home for orphans which has been in the dock following the detection of child abuse, officials probing the matter have sealed the bank account of the centre.

The total number of accused persons arrested has gone up to seven, including five relatives of the main accused, Jaswanti, and a centre counsellor. The shelter home houses over 100 inmates, including 75 girls.

“We have found three of the six female inmates dropped or abandoned by the accused recently,” said a spokesperson of the district police.

He said six teams had been sent to various places, including Delhi, Aligarh and Jind, to trace the other missing children. He said they could have been sold or sent out during the past few months. The main objective of the police teams despatched to various places was to find the children missing from the shelter home in the past year. The number of such inmates could be six.

The three women who have been found from Dilshad Garden and Rohini of Delhi had been dropped by a vehicle of the shelter home on May 6, a night before the raid conducted by a team of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). The other three inmates are mentally challenged and still missing.

The seven persons arrested so far are the main accused, Jaswanti, her five relatives and a female counsellor of the shelter home. Jaswant, brother of Jaswanti, and Meena, counsellor, were arrested on Monday and remanded to police custody till May 18 by the local court today.

The NCPCR pulled up senior government and police officials of Haryana at New Delhi yesterday and directed the government to report about the action taken in this regard within a month.

Chandigarh, May 15
The Haryana government today made it mandatory for all institutions and organisations providing care services for children to register themselves under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, and the Orphanages and Other Charitable Homes Act, 1960.

Haryana Women and Child Development Minister Geeta Bhukkal said here today all such organisations, whether government or voluntary, must apply for registration to the programme officer, Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), before June 30. She warned that strict action would be taken against institutions found running without registration.

Bhukkal said inspection committees headed by the Deputy Commissioner concerned had also been constituted at the district level. The committees would inspect the child care institutes on various parameters.

Meanwhile, the Programme Officer, ICDS, Rohtak, has been appointed administrator of the shelter home for children and women being run by the Bharat Vikas Sangh. Bhukkal said steps were being taken to shift inmates of the Rohtak shelter home to various other shelters. 

Gurgaon, May 15
A hi-technology “greenhouse”, the first of its kind in Haryana, is being set up in Gurgaon.

The underlying idea behind setting up the “greenhouse” is to improve agricultural production and prepare good-quality, high-yielding and disease-free varieties of plants in accordance with the specific requirements of local farmers.

Work on the project is in full swing and it is likely to be completed in a couple of months. It is being developed at an estimated cost of Rs 76 lakh on about 2,056 square metres of land.

The hi-tech “greenhouse” also aims to enable the local farmers to grow more vegetable crops to meet the demand of vegetables in the urban areas. Farmers will get quality seedlings at reasonable prices through the project as the Horticulture Department follows the policy of no-profit, no-loss.

Stating this here today, Deputy Commissioner PC Meena said, “Quality production is the main objective of this hi-tech green house.” A team of scientists and experts would be deputed for growing quality seedlings at the “greenhouse”, he added.

This “greenhouse” is different from the other existing projects as it has provisions for regulating the temperature according to the requirement of the crop. This means that quality seedlings can be grown here in all weather conditions. A similar green house will be set up at Rohtak as well.

District Horticulture Officer Subhash Chander said interested farmers would have to inform the District Horticulture Department at least 50 days in advance for quality seedlings. The “greenhouse” would employ irrigation techniques which save up to 70 per cent water as compared to normal irrigation practices, he added.

Chandigarh, May 15
A month after Amity University student Dana Sylva M. Sangma died under mysterious circumstances, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today put the Haryana Home Department and the University on notice.

Justice Ritu Bahri issued notice for May 31 after taking up a petition filed by the student’s sister, Balsame M Sangma. She is seeking directions to hand over the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation, or the police outside Haryana.

Seeking a short date, she expressed apprehension that the University may tamper with the evidence related to her sister’s death.

All the way from Meghalaya to Chandigarh to justice for her sister, the 24-year-old civil engineer student Balsame submitted Dana was a strong, independent and rational individual.

It was, as such, highly unlikely for her to take the drastic step of taking her life for an almost insignificant reason of being accused of cheating in an examination.

First year MBA student at Amity University, Dana (21) was a niece of the Meghalaya Chief Minister. She had died on April 24 under mysterious circumstances in her hostel room.

Balsame claimed on the fateful day, Dana was in a cheerful mood. She told her mother that she had studied well and was looking forward to the examination.

“Prior to the incident, it appears that Dana had certain grievances regarding discrimination faced by her. Dana spoke to her father Elickson M. Sangma and indicated that she was facing some humiliation there,” the petitioner added.

Counsel for the petitioner, advocate Utsav Bains argued the only allegation of cheating by Dana, recorded at 11.45 am by the invigilator, was that a mobile phone in the on mode was found in her pocket.

But, Dana in a written statement after being accused of cheating stated that the phone was in the switched-on mode in her pocket, but she did not cheat and had prepared well for the exam.

The invigilator, in his written statement, too said her phone was “found in an on mode in her pocket”, contrary to the university's claim that her phone was found in her hand as she was copying from the phone's Internet.

Panipat, May 15
The district police today claimed to have cracked the killings of Kuldeep Singh, a former sarpanch of Nara village, and his security guard, Ram Niwas, who were gunned down by some unidentified persons near Guru Gobind Singh Public School on the outskirts of Nara village on April 27.

District police chief KK Rao while interacting with mediapersons here today said the police had gathered evidence that pointed towards the indirect involvement of Surinder Kala against whom Kuldeep Singh was to depose before a court on the fateful day.

The SSP said the conspiracy to kill Kuldeep Singh had been hatched at the behest of Kala, who at the time of the crime was lodged in jail after he had surrendered before a Gurgaon court in August last year.

Kuldeep Singh was a prime witness in the murder case of his own son, Sushil Kumar, who had allegedly been killed by Kala and members of his gang in May 2009. Kuldeep Singh had been accompanied by two other villagers, Rajesh and Dharampal, who had also sustained several bullet injuries in the incident, while his gunman, Ram Niwas, had been killed in the firing.

The SP said the police had also identified the four assailants who had opened fire at Kuldeep Singh and others, but none had been arrested so far. He said teams had been dispatched to trace them.

Meanwhile, after interrogating Kala for nine days, the police sent him back to judicial custody. 

Chandigarh, May 15
The Haryana Government has constituted a State e-Governance Management Team (SeMT) to give support to various departments in the conceptualisation and implementation of e-governance initiatives. An initiative has also been taken to upgrade the skills of government employees for the implementation of the e-governance project.

More than 33,000 government employees have been trained.

The government has also been imparting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training for women and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in rural and urban areas. As many as 800 girls and women have been trained and it was planned to train 4,200 girls and women this year.

The government has also set up State Wide Area Network worth Rs 102.62 crore, e-District project worth Rs 3.31 crore and State Data Centre project worth Rs 12.38 crore.

To utilise core infrastructures like State Wide Area Network, Common Service Centres and State Data Centre, a new project, State Service Delivery Gateway worth Rs 10.92 crore, is being set up.

Many departments like Transport, Finance, Excise and Taxation, Food and Supply are in the process of rolling out their e-governance initiatives with the help of Information Technology (IT) Department, NIC and HARTRON. 

Chandigarh, May 15
The CBI court today acquitted three officials of the Haryana Prathmik Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad (HPSPP) launched in the state in 1999 in a corruption case. The Court acquitted former District Project Coordinator Kiran Mishra, Assistant Project Coordinator Rakesh Kumar and head clerk Jaiparkash Bhatnagar of all the charges in three separate cases filed against them.

According to the CBI case, the Haryana Government had formulated a scheme for the promotion of education for small children in rural areas. Puppet shows were proposed to be organised in Jind, Haryana, Gurgaon and Hisar as part of the project. In addition, slogan writing and wall paintings were also to be organised to promote education.

It was alleged that Kiran Mishra in connivance with Rakesh Kumar and Bhatnagar did not perform puppet shows as claimed by them. No wall paintings were done and fictitious bills were raised by their offices to get monetary benefits and the accused thus caused a huge loss to the exchequer.

Defence counsel Rabindra Pandit argued before the court that the CBI had not investigated as to from where quotations were called and who all received the payments. The investigating officers did not join the village sarpanches etc to unearth the fact as to whether the puppet shows and wall paintings were done in the villages or not. The CBI Court thus gave benefit of doubt to all the accused and acquitted them of all charges.

Chandigarh, May 15
The Haryana Government has decided to provide insulin injections free of cost to diabetes patients in OPDs of government hospitals in the state.

Health Minister Rao Narender Singh said here today that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had approved the proposal for including insulin injections for diabetes patients (type 1) in the list of free drugs being supplied in OPDs. The decision would cost the government about Rs 30 lakh per annum.

The state had a population of about 2.53 crore. The main treatment for type 1 diabetics was insulin injections. On an average, the cost of two vials was Rs 120 per month. — TNS

Rewari, May 15
Earning promotion on the basis of fake MA degrees, Radhey Shyam, Social Studies Master in Government Senior Secondary School, Asiaki Panchore in Rewari district, has been dismissed from service whereas Parmal Singh, Social Studies Master, Government High School, Gokalpur Kumbhawas ( Rewari), and Manohar Lal, Science Master, Government Middle School, Budana ( Rewari), have been compulsorily retired by way of punishment by the Director Elementary Education, Haryana, Panchkula.

Orders to this effect were recently issued by Ashwani Kumar, Additional Director ,Education, O/0 Director Elementary Education, Haryana, Panchkula.

While Manohar Lal had obtained a ‘fake’ certificate of MA in Mathematics, both Radhey Shyam and Parmal Singh had secured ‘ fake’ MA (English) certificates from Bundelkhand University, Jhansi ( MP) in 1998.

Investigations conducted by the Vigilance ( crime branch), Hisar, prima facie established that the trio were in possession of fake MA degrees. An inquiry conducted by VP Batra, IAS ( retd), fully substantiated the charges levelled against the trio in his report submitted to the Directorate of Elementary Education on February 28, 2012. 

Chandigarh, May 15
A Haryana Congress leader has criticised the alleged ultimatum served by the Jat Arakshan Samiti to the Haryana Backward Classes Commission to recommend the inclusion of the Jat community in the category of Other Backward Classes (OBC) and submit its report by July 31.

In a statement issued here today, former spokesman of the party Ved Prakash Vidrohi described the action of the samiti as “illegal and immoral”.

Appealing to the chairman of the commission, Justice K.C. Gupta (retd), not to submit his report under the threat of the Jat Arakshan Samiti, Vidrohi said it was the prerogative of the commission to decide which caste was backward and which not after examining all facts and figures.

He said the threat of the samiti that if the commission’s report recommending the grant of OBC status to the Jats was not submitted by July 31, the samiti would block the roads and rail lines in the state and stop the supply of milk and vegetables to Delhi from September 1, was an open challenge to the state government and the police. 

Ambala, May 15
At least four persons were killed, including a one-day-old infant, who were on their way to the PGI, Chandigarh, when the ambulance in which they were travelling rammed into a truck on the Ambala-Hisar highway near Naggal village, around 20 km from here, early this morning. Two of the occupants of the ambulance were referred to the PGI, Chandigarh.

The deceased belonged to Devand village that falls in Kaithal district. They were identified as Naresh Kumar, father of the infant, Sunil Kumar, a relative of Naresh, and Dilbagh Singh, driver of the ambulance. The infant, whose father was killed in the accident, had died on the spot. One of the injured admitted in the PGI is stated to be serious. The mother of the infant is admitted to the Civil Hospital at Kaithal.

Naresh Kumar had admitted his wife to the Civil Hospital, Kaithal, for delivery. After the delivery, the newborn male child developed complications and was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh. Naresh along with his mother-in-law Moorti Devi and three other male relatives rushed to Chandigarh in an ambulance.

When they were near Naggal village, the ambulance rammed into a truck as the truck driver applied brakes suddenly.

Ram Niwas, an occupant of the ambulance who escaped unhurt, said the truck did not have red lights on its back and the driver of the ambulance spotted the truck when the ambulance had reached quite close to it.

The ambulance was badly mutilated. The police took out bodies from it after two hours’ struggle. These were handed over to their relatives after postmortems this noon.

The driver of the truck fled after the accident, leaving his truck abandoned. The police impounded the truck and registered a case of negligent driving against the truck driver.

Fatehabad, May 15
A study conducted by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) during 1995 to 2010 has concluded that employees working in the nuclear power stations in close proximity of radiation were found to be less prone to diseases particularly cancer than the general public.

In a workshop-cum-press event titled “Scientific Meet on Radiation and Cancer” organised by NPCIL here today, experts from the field of medicine, oncology and health physics tried to allay fears of people regarding the “ill effects” of radiation coming out of nuclear power plants.

Dr SK Jain, Chief Medical Superintendent of NPCIL, Dr Sarbani Laskar, a senior faculty member from Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, and Dr HR Bhatt, Chief Engineer (Health Physics), made an attempt to dispel apprehensions of ill effects of nuclear power plants on public health through their presentations.

DK Goyal, Executive Director of NPCIL, TR Arora, Chief Project Engineer for Haryana, and SK Gumasta, Project Manager of the Gorakhpur Atomic Power Project (GAPP), also addressed mediapersons.

“The workshop is a part of the series of initiatives to provide information to people of Gorakhpur in Fatehabad, where NPCIL has started project activities for four units of 700 MW each,” said Gumasta.

NPCIL has been facing stiff opposition from a group of farmers as well as anti-nuclear energy activists and now former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala has also announced that the INLD would not allow the government to start GAPP in Fatehabad.

“According to scientific studies, the average natural incident rate of cancer among the general public is 98.5/lakh as against 54.05/lakh among NPCIL employees. Similarly, the mortality due to cancer in general public is 68/lakh against 29.05/lakh in those working in nuclear power plants,” said Dr Laskar.

She further said that incidents of cancer caused due to radiations were much less than the disease caused by other factors like tobacco, gutka, paan and lifestyle.

Bhatt said there were several misgivings regarding radiations, which, he said, were present everywhere in nature, including in our houses, the water we drank and the food we ate.

He said the human body was adapted to endure radiations up to a certain level and hence it was the amount of radiation, which was important.

He said medical tests like X-Ray, CT Scan etc delivered radiations several times higher than what nuclear power plants emitted.

“An X-Ray for chest exposes a patient to far more radiations each time than a nuclear power plant would in about 20 years,” said Dr Laskar.