Jind, June 3
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today launched several development schemes worth over Rs 1,330 crore. He also surprised residents of the city by announcing a slew of projects worth about Rs 150 crore. This is perhaps the first time that the state government has showered such largesse on a district that has so far been a back bencher in the matter of development.

Announcing to set up a national-level institute of education and training and launching several projects, including an industrial estate over 250 acres, Hooda said his government had realised the backwardness of the district and had promised to bring on a par with the front runner districts of the state in the matter of development. Visibly upset over the loss suffered by the ruling party in the past elections, Hooda threw a challenge to the electorate of Jind to compare the development of the city during his tenure and during the tenure of INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala.

The Chief Minister said an amount of Rs 2,151 crore had been spent during the past about seven years against just Rs 535 crore during the INLD rule. He asked the people not to be misled by the political forces that were trying to project him as a leader of one region, accusing him of discrimination in the matter of development. Admitting that there could be some lapses, he said Jind would no longer be placed among the backward districts in the next few years.

He said while a new industrial estate would be set up in 250 acres of land, setting up of the national-level institute of education would ensure that Jind came on the national map. Four-laning of highways connecting Jind with other parts and construction of a railway line up to Sonepat would mark a new beginning. The projects announced include upgrading the Civil Hospital to 200 beds, a nursing college, a bus stand (Rs 30 crore), a sports complex (Rs 12.5 crore), sewerage and drainage system (Rs 45 crore), four-laning of the roads connecting Bhiwani and Gohana (Rs 27 crore), extension of the mini-secretariat (Rs 13 crore), among others.

Earlier the guest of honour, CP Joshi, the Union Surface Transport Minister, claimed that it was only during the tenure of the UPA that a large number of development projects took off and got completed. Attacking the NDA rule indirectly, he said not a single penny was spent in Haryana when Chautala was the Chief Minister and Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. Deepender Singh Hooda, MP, urged the people to ensure that Jind was placed in the first seven districts in the matter of development in the next two and half years. Birender Singh, MP, hails from Dumarkha village but none of the speakers mentioned his name at the rally.

Earlier the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone and inaugurated the bypass roads on the Jind-Rohtak and Jind-Lakhanmajra stretches and Julana. He inaugurated the four-laning work of the Jind-Narwana highway, the railway flyover on the Jind-Hansi road, work on the Jind-Sonepat railway Line. He inaugurated the newly built building of the local Government College for Women through remote control. Jitender Malik and Ashok Tanwar, both MPs, several ministers and MLAs also attended the rally.

Jind, June 3
With Assembly poll still two and a half years away, the Vikas Rally held in Jind today seems to have succeeded in achieving two political motives simultaneously. This has been the first rally in the political hub of the state this year. The first gain of the rally has been to retain the political ground lost by the Congress in the last Assembly poll in 2009 when it was routed completely because it lost all five Assembly seats to its main rival INLD, claim political anaylsts.

Lack of any development allegedly led to defeat of the Congress. This has been on the mind of the present government that has also been blamed for the alleged discrimination in the matter of development in the state over the past seven years. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son, Deepender Singh Hooda, MP, claimed that there was no discrimination in the development of any district in the state. Launching of projects worth over Rs 1,300 crore today was a proof of that.

“Annoucing projects worth hundreds of crores of rupees in a single day was perhaps aimed at stumping both the opposition (INLD) and attacking adversaries within the party who had also been charging the Hooda government with discrimination in development. The political adversaries include Ch Birender Singh, MP, who hails from Jind and who did not attend the rally due to unknown reasons. 

Hisar, June 3
Former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s elder son and former Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan today quit the Congress and joined the Haryana Janhit Party (BL) founded by his father and younger brother, Kuldeep Bishnoi.

Chander Mohan, who has been a Congress legislator from Kalka four times, made the announcement at a function held at the resting place of his late father near Adampur, where the Bishnois had organised a prayer meeting on the occasion of Bhajan Lal’s first death anniversary.

Chander Mohan, who had been disowned by his father following his marriage to Fiza, said he had joined the HJC because his entire family and the people of Haryana wanted him to do so.

Welcoming his brother, Kuldeep Bishnoi said he would be a pillar of strength to him in the absence of their father. The HJC had got a shot in arm with his induction in the party. “We will together fulfill our father’s dream of making Haryana the best state in the entire country”, he added. Bishnoi said his elder brother and he would follow in the footsteps of their father.

Om Parkash Dhankhar, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Kishan Pal Gujjar, Kishan Singh Sangwan, Ram Bilas Sharma, Ganeshi Lal and Vir Kumar Yadav of the Bhartiya Janata Party also paid tributes to Bhajan Lal.

Bhajan maestro Anoop Jalota sang several bhajans at the prayer meeting. 

Chandigarh, June 3
The Women and Child Development Department, Haryana, has decided to rope in the Police and the Health Departments to zero in on the number of shelter homes being run for women and children in Haryana.

In separate letters to the Director-General of Police and the Director-General, Health Services, the Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Dheera Khandelwal, sought their help to map all such homes running in the state.

In her letter to the Police Department, she has sought the DGP’s assistance in directing all the district police chiefs to collect police station-wise information of all NGOs running homes for the destitute through the SHOs.

Similarly, the Health Department’s help has been sought by way of asking for information at the level of the community health centres. The department has given a week’s time to the two departments to gather information.

Meanwhile, it has asked the NGOs and organisations running such homes to register themselves with the department by June 20.

Sonepat, June 3
Hundreds of farmers from over 10 villages of the Rai region under the banner of the “Bhoomi Adhigrahan Virodhi Sangharsh Samitis” of Biswan Meel, Badhkhalsa and Kundli took out a march on the GT Road today in protest against the acquisition of their land for the Rajiv Gandhi Education City and industrial sectors in the region.

The protesters covered more than 2 km on foot and tractor-trailers from the Biswan Meel turning on the GT Road to the main gate of the city, raising slogans against the state government. They pledged to oppose the laying of foundation stones for 12 educational institutes in the education city by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on June 10 .

Talking to mediapersons, Virender Singh, convener of the Badhkhalsa Sangharsh Samiti, said most of the farmers of Badhkhalsa had neither accepted the compensation fixed for their land nor had given possession of about 260 acres acquired in the village.

“We have approached the Chief Minister a number of times in the past six years; but he had not given any weight to our demands,” he alleged.

Virender Singh threatened that if Hooda was adamant on laying the foundation stones of educational institutions on June 10, it would be opposed by farmers of the region.

Ram Chander and Rajpal Sevli of the Biswan Meel Sangharsh Samiti said the state government was adamant on ruining farmers by acquiring fertile land at throughaway prices to benefit people with vested interests.

Speaking in the same language, State BKU (A) president Shamsher Singh said a delegation of farmers would meet the Governor on June 5 to hand over a memorandum in protest against the acquisition of their land.

They said the state government should suspend all its activities on the acquired land till the new land acquisition Bill was passed in Parliament 

Jhajjar, June 3
Raj Singh(35), an army man, was allegedly stabbed to death by his elder brother in a fit of rage at Gijadaud village here last night when he tried to intervene in the brawl between his brother and sister-in-law over some domestic issue. The deceased had come home on leave a few days ago.

The police has registered a case of murder against Ashok (38) on the complaint of the deceased’s wife, Usha Devi The accused was arrested from Rewari Road here this evening.

“Ashok got engaged in an altercation with his wife when she opposed his drinking habits. He later attacked her physically. On seeing sister-in-law being beaten mercilessly by his brother, Raj Singh tried to intervene but he was also assaulted by Ashok with a sharp-edged weapon,” said the police. Raj Singh died on the spot while Ashok fled the spot after committing the crime.

In another incident, a domestic feud turned into bloodshed yesterday when Narender(45) allegedly murdered his wife, Sudesh (42), and sister-in-law Mukesh (45) after assaulting them with an iron rod at his house in Quilla Mohalla, near Silani Gate, here. — OC

Karnal, June 3
Four persons were killed and several others injured in two accidents in Karnal district today. Two members of a family died on the spot while eight were injured seriously when a Tata Sumo overturned on its way back

from Hardwar after being hit by a truck near Jhanana village on the Haryana-UP border early this morning.

In another accident, two members of a family were killed and four sustained injuries when a car met with an accident after its driver lost control over the vehicle near Butana village, 15 km from here, today. — TNS