Chandigarh, June 15
The Haryana Government has decided to entrust the inquiry into the sordid affairs of the controversial Rohtak-based shelter home, “Apna Ghar”, to the CBI.

This decision was taken by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda last night as he was perturbed over the allegations of involvement of policemen levelled in a report submitted by two members of a four-member committee to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Though there is a vertical split in the committee with the remaining two members deciding to submit a separate report, Hooda is believed to have told his aides that it would be appropriate if the case was investigated by the CBI, particularly when the committee had put certain members of the Haryana police in the dock.

Official sources said the modalities for entrusting the investigation to the CBI were being completed before the state government approached the Union Government in this connection. Meanwhile, the state government has announced a new scheme to protect women in distress.

Under the scheme, Haryana Women and Child Development Minister Geeta Bhukkal said shelter homes would be set up and assistance given to various organisations to run them on a no-profit basis.

She said grants would be given to state government agencies, including the Women Development Corporation, Municipal Corporation and panchayati raj institutions for the construction of these homes. The cost of construction would be shared by the Central and state governments in the 75: 25 ratio. A maximum grant of of Rs 30 lakh would be given for the purpose.

Rohtak: The prime accused in the Apna Ghar sex scandal, Jaswanti Devi, has welcomed the state authorities' decision to hand over the case to the CBI.

Talking to reporters at the local courts complex where she was brought for a hearing today, the NGO shelter home manager said she was ready to face any probe and would come out clean.

“I am innocent and happy to know that the CBI would investigate the case," she said.

On being asked why she was allegedly being targeted if she was innocent, Jaswanti said some NGO operators who were jealous of her were forcing the inmates to level wild allegations.

The police produced all eight accused — Jaswanti, her daughter Simmi and son-in-law Jai Bhagwan, driver Satish, brother Jaswant, cousin sisters Sheila and Neelam and Veena — in the court of Rahul Bishnoi, Civil Judge (Junior Division), who sent them to jail till June 29.

Chandigarh,June 15
A day after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) sought to make its presence felt in northern India, the Haryana BSP today unveiled the party’s “Mission 2014” here ahead of the 2,014 parliamentary and state Assembly elections.

Rajbir Singh, BSP’s Haryana in charge, and Narinder Saaran, president of the Haryana BSP, took potshots at the Hooda government for its acts of omission and commission, particularly the deteriorating law and order situation and atrocities on Dalits.

Claiming that the party would play the role of a “kingmaker” in the 2,014 Lok Sabha and assembly elections, Rajbir Singh asserted that his confidence stemmed from the fact that it polled 16% of the total votes in the 2009 parliamentary elections and had a sizeable presence in all assembly segments.

However, Rajbir Singh was non-commital on the possibility of an alliance with any other party, saying that the final decision on the issue would be taken by BSP supremo Mayawati.

Alleging that the state machinery was siding with upper-caste people, who had allegedly forcibly taken away Dalit families’ land at Bhagana village in Hisar district, Saaran asserted that the state government was taking care of the interests of only a particular community while other sections of society were left to fend for themselves.

While Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda led a delegation of Jats leaders to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram for seeking quota for the Jats, Dalits in Hisar were still waiting for justice from the state government, Saaran alleged.

Chandigarh, June 15
The Haryana Police wasted no time in passing off 17-year-old Ali Mohammad's alleged custodial death as an aftermath of a legitimate action on the part of a security guard in Gurgaon.

But the haste it showed in completing the files and presenting its side before the Bench left the Punjab and Haryana High Court suspicious. Sceptical of the undue haste shown by the policemen, Justice Ranjit Singh has now handed over the probe to the CBI.

The case came to the high court's notice after it received a telegram from Ali's father, Wali Ahmed of Gurgaon. He alleged that his minor son had been picked up on January 26 from the Khandsa road.

Wali claimed Ali had been detained illegally and tortured mercilessly. His condition was serious and the policemen wanted to involve him in a false and a frivolous case.

The high court later received another telegram, alleging that his son had been murdered. Inspector Ramesh Kumar and ASI Rakesh Kumar of Sector 10 Police Station were accused of the offence.

The high court issues notice to Haryana and other respondents. But "what followed thereafter was an eye-opener". Justice Ranjit Singh observed: "Unlike the usual lethargy shown by the police in such cases to respond, it was rather prompt in filing the reply on the first date. Perhaps, the police was seeking a decent burial of this case in a hurry."

The police asserted that a case was registered on January 30 on the statement of security guard Leeladhar. The guard reported that he fired in the air after three or four youngsters attempted to enter a plot, where he was on duty, for committing robbery. The firing could have caused injury, he added.

Justice Ranjit Singh asserted the contents of the complaint "may leave enough indication about the complaint being a made-up story"; and the FIR appeared to be a procured complaint.

Justice Ranjit Singh asserted instead of investigating and taking Leeladhar to task, the police foisted a case of attempted robbery on Ali. The conclusions were "recorded so hurriedly that these would sound unreal and made-up one".

Justice Ranjit Singh concluded, "The wailing father of the deceased cannot be allowed to go unheard.... The guidelines and safety measures were given a complete go-by.... There is need to ensure proper and fair investigation in this case..."

Chandigarh, June 15
Functioning of the cooperative societies will come under e-governance in the state. The move aims to instil transparency in the functioning of these societies and check the mushrooming of bogus societies and ineligible members.

Under the new system, which had come into being after a notification of the Haryana Registration and Regulation of Societies Act, 2012, each society would be allotted a unique number of registration to facilitate e-governance in its next stage of functioning. It would help avoid duplicity of names and the registration number of the society, sources said.

In fact, the rules, which were approved by the Cabinet at its recent meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, would also be applicable to the existing societies as they would also have to get a new registration number within one-and-a-half year.

To check bogus membership, it has been made mandatory that the membership fee shall be paid by the applicant from his bank account through a bank instrument such as demand draft and cheque.

Meanwhile, the procedure to shift registered office from one district to another has been made foolproof. The process for amalgamation and division of societies has been spelt out. Similarly, the qualifications, remuneration of the administrator, returning officer and the observer have also been clearly laid out in the Act.

“A number of forms dealing with a different service or an event have been prescribed under the rules, to make various transactions easy and for smooth implementation of the e-governance process,” official sources said.

With the approval of these rules, the state government has come out with a self-contained and comprehensive legal framework on the functioning of the cooperative societies, sources added.

Hisar, June 15
Petrol pumps of Hindustan Petroleum (HP) are likely to go dry tomorrow because of the agitation by the HP Dealer and Transporter Association, which are demanding revision of the transportation rates fixed 11 years ago.

Sandeep Singhal, general secretary of the association, said the transportation of HP products from its depots in Haryana to petrol pumps had been affected as the transporters had refused to ferry oil because of the low rates offered by the company.

He said the company wanted them to accept the same rate of Rs 1.17 per kilometre fixed 11 years ago. The cost of operating tankers had almost doubled during the period. Other companies were paying between Rs 1.80 and Rs 2.20 per kilometre.

Singhal said the transporters lost money because of uneconomical rates, which many of them tried to recoup through malpractices. He said the company must revise the rates immediately.

Meanwhile, HP dealers and transporters continued their dharna outside the HP depot here for the second day today in support of their demand. 

Hisar, June 15
The importance of switching over to nuclear power was underlined at a workshop organised here today to remove misgivings in the minds of people about the safety of such power plants.

The workshop was organised by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Addressing mediapersons, Anuj Sinha, a former adviser to the Department of Science and Technology, said the only answer to India’s burgeoning energy needs was nuclear power. He said thermal power plants, whether coal-fired or gas-fired, caused much pollution and consumed so much fuel that it would be impossible to supply them fuel in the years to come.

He said nuclear power plants had thus far been found the safest and cleanest way to generate ample power.

Sinha said the media had a great role to play in removing the misgivings in the minds of people about the safety of nuclear power plants. These misgivings could be removed completely if the media helped bring out scientific facts to convince those who were opposing such plants.

Sinha said modern nuclear plants were completely safe and there were no issues relating to disposal of radioactive waste.

Another expert, Dr Devakinandan, said the level of radiation around nuclear power plants was insignificant compared to safe radiation levels prescribed by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. He said these plants were being opposed as people were not aware of the facts. 

Sirsa, June 15
A harassed lot of villagers held protests and raised slogans against the authorities, as senior officers of the Dakshin Haryana Bijlee Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) failed to turn up after announcing a “Bijlee Baithak”, an administrative camp to redress people’s power-related grievances, in a powerhouse situated at Panjuana in Sirsa.

The DHBVN had announced that senior officers led by the Executive Engineer of the nigam based at Sirsa would hold a “Bijlee Baithak” at Panjuana today and redress grievances like erroneous bills, excessive readings, replacement of meters, new power connections, replacement of damaged poles and other problems related to distribution of electricity.

An official press release issued by the DHBVN yesterday said that registration of grievances would be completed till 10 am today followed by redressal by senior officials.

In view of the announcement, a large number of power consumers started arriving in the 33-KV powerhouse of Paunjana, but no senior official turned up to listen to their grievances.

Much to the irritation of the power consumers, the SDO of the local powerhouse, too, failed to turn up today.

“We have been sitting here without food or water since morning. But the DHBVN authorities have not even bothered to inform us about the reason for their absence,” alleged villagers Avtar Singh from Sahuwala and Surjeet Singh 
from Panjuana.

RK Jain, Superintending Engineer of the DHBVN at Sirsa, said his officers were occupied with a meeting with senior officers of the nigam over power crisis. 

Chandigarh, June 15
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has suggested to the Union Government that subsidy on fertilisers should be paid directly to farmers.

This was revealed by Hooda while addressing farmers, who visited his residence to felicitate him for abolishing stamp duty charged on mortgage deeds for obtaining agriculture loans from commercial banks. The farmers honoured Hooda by presenting him with a turban, a siropa and a plough.

Listing out the steps taken by the state government for the welfare of farmers, Hooda said Haryana was the first state in the country to reduce interest on crop loans of cooperative banks from 11 per cent to 4 per cent. Besides, Haryana had also repealed the black law under which farmers who could not repay cooperative loans were arrested. Again, Haryana was the only state to waive electricity bills amounting to Rs 1,600 crore in one go.

Jhajjar, June 15
A 55-year-old man, identified as Laxmi Chand of Dariyapur village here, was shot dead allegedly by his co-villager near Badli village under Bahadurgarh subdivision here today. The assailants fled in a car after perpetrating the crime. Laxmi Chand was an electrician by profession and had been running a shop at Badli village.

The police has started an investigation after registering a case of murder against Mahesh of Dariyapur village on the complaint of the deceased’s nephew, Dinesh Kumar. Enmity is believed to be the reason behind the killing.

The incident took place when Laxmi Chand was going to his shop on a bicycle from Dariyapur village in the morning. As he reached near the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal overbridge on the Badli-Gurgaon road, a car hit him from behind and Mahesh opened four rounds of fire on him after getting down from the car. Laxmi Chand died on the spot while Mahesh sped away from the spot, said Devender Dangi, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the police.

The Badli police came to the spot and sent the body to the Civil Hospital for postmortem after taking stock of the situation.

“Laxmi Chand’s wife and daughter have been running a tailoring business at their house in the village. Mahesh’s kin had engaged in a verbal duel with Laxmi Chand’s wife in connection with tailoring clothes some months ago. Mahesh had been nursing a grudge against Laxmi Chand’s family since the incident. However, the village panchayat had made them reach a compromise,” said Dangi, adding that two police teams had been constituted to conduct raids at the possible hideouts of the accused.

Laxmi Chand’s body was handed over to his kin after the postmortem at the Civil Hospital this evening, said the PRO. 

Fatehabad, June 15
The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha(BJYM) today held a demonstration and gave a memorandum addressed to the President to ML Kaushik, DC, against rising prices, unemployment, corruption and several other issues.

BJYM activists, who assembled at Ambedkar Chowk, alleged that the UPA government at the Centre and the Congress government in Haryana had proved a failure. The government had allowed education to become an industry and admissions to all technical courses were now available on capitation fees.

The BJYM also criticised the government’s decision to set up a nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur, saying that it was against the interests of farmers and local people.

The activists then marched to the mini-secretariat, where they submitted a memorandum to the DC.

Rewari, June 15
Former Army Chief, General VK Singh, was accorded a warm reception by ex-servicemen of the Baghot region at Baghot village in Mahendragarh district, 55 km from here, on Wednesday.

General VK Singh offered prayers at the legendary Shiva temple in Baghot.

Addressing the gathering, he said that although over 350 organisations were engaged in the welfare of ex-servicemen throughout the country, they stood deprived of fair redressal of their genuine problems.

The former Army Chief went on to say that he had constituted a commission to go into pay scale disparities. He advocated collective efforts to bring back black money stashed in foreign banks.

Jhajjar, June 15
Rambeer of Siwana village, an undertrial in a murder case , was yesterday found dead in his barrack at the district jail in Dulina village on the Jhajjar-Gurgaon road here . Rambeer had been lodged in the jail since January this year.

The incident came to notice this morning when counting of prisoners was done by jail officials. They started looking for Rambeer when he was found missing in the counting session.

Rambeer was found lying unconscious on the floor at barrack No. 6. The officials immediately called the doctor who declared him dead. Later, his postmortem examination was done at the Civil Hospital in the presence of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM). The postmortem report revealed that he had died of cardiac arrest.

Sirsa, June 15
The authorities seem indifferent to stray dog attacks in Sirsa even as 133 such cases have been reported in May.

Kamini, a six-year-old daughter of Bihari migrant farm labourer Kali Mandal, became the latest victim of stray dogs at Damdama village, near Ellenabad, in Sirsa on Wedneday.

Kali Mandal was working in fields barely a few hundred metres away from his house when his wife, Lalpari, sent the little girl with a cup of tea.

However, a pack of stray dogs attacked Kamini from all sides and mauled her badly.

Had her father and mother not rushed to her rescue with sticks immediately, the dogs could have killed her .

She was shifted to the local General Hospital with multiple dogbite injuries. “Against 280 dogbite cases in 2011-12, 25 cases were reported in April and a staggering 133 cases in May ,” said Dr Daya Nand, Civil Surgeon, Sirsa.

“We have constituted joint teams of the Wildlife department and the Animal Husbandry Department to deal with the menace,” said Deputy Commissioner J Ganesan.

He said he had asked the village panchayats to cooperate with these teams to catch stray dogs. — TNS