Manesar/Gurgaon, June 23
It has been three days since Maahi, a four-year-old girl, fell into a bore-well in front of her house while she was playing with other children. Though an intensive rescue operation is on, she is still stuck there, and nobody knows whether she is alive.

While Maahi’s mother, Sonia, has given up hope, her father, Neeraj Upadhyay, who hails from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh and works as a security supervisor with a local company, is still hoping against hope.

As of now, a rescue operation spearheaded by a team of the Army’s 3rd Engineers Regiment is on to extricate the girl from the borewell.

The whole episode has raised several questions on the functioning of the administrative machinery and the abject inability of the authorities “concerned” to learn lessons from past happenings.

There have been a number of incidents of small children falling into such uncovered borewells across the country. While some of them lost their lives, some were lucky to be saved. The instance of Prince, a young boy of Kurukshetra in Haryana, is a case in point.

In view of such cases, the Supreme Court has issued specific and stern directions to take effective measures so as to prevent such occurrences and save small children from falling into borewells.

The case of Gurgaon is even more critical. Apart from the risk such uncovered borewells pose for children, the district is on the brink of a water crisis with its level of underground water going down alarmingly.

In view of this, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has specifically directed the Gurgaon district administration not to permit the digging of any borewells without seeking its concurrence.

The orders came in 2010 after the Public Health Department maintained that at the current rate of consumption, Gurgaon would run out of groundwater by 2040. The Central Ground Water Authority has also declared Gurgaon as a notified area and banned digging of borewells here without prior permission.

Still, illegal borewells continue to be dug across the district. Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena said the district administration had dismantled and sealed as many as 538 borewells in the past one year.

As far as the present case is concerned, the borewell was dug by the owner of the house where Maahi’s parents live as tenants. An FIR under Sections 188 and 336 of the IPC has been lodged against the house owner, Rohtash Tayal of Delhi.

Meena has also directed Gurgaon ADC KM Pandurang to conduct a magisterial probe into the entire episode.

On June 20, Maahi,4, falls into a 68-ft-deep borewell around 11 pm as her family celebrates her birthday in Khoh village, Manesar. Her father, Neeraj Upadhyay, calls up PCR

2006: Prince, 6, was rescued from a 50-foot deep borewell in Haryana's Kurukshetra after two days of rescue operations back in 2006

2007: Two-year-old boy fell into an open borewell in Madeli village in Gujarat and died

2009: A five-year-old boy fell into a 250-300 feet deep borewell in Jaipur. The child was rescued safely

2011: A four-year-old boy dies after falling into a 200-foot deep borewell in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu

Panipat, June 23
A three-day sting operation carried out by the district police laid bare the involvement of its own vigilance inspector in blackmailing a rich landlord from Karnal, who was lured into a trap using two Russian girls.

SP KK Rao said his office had received a complaint from Kayandeep, a landlord from Karnal, who alleged that vigilance inspector Jaswant Singh and two of his accomplices, Viond and Anil, were trying to extort Rs 1 crore from him on the pretext of saving him from legal proceedings. The three were reportedly mounting pressure on Kayandeep stating that two Russian girls had filed a complaint against him accusing him of having raped them at a local hotel on June 18.

In his complaint, Kayandeep told the police that Vinod had recently introduced him to Noora and Irina, two Russian girls, who had been living in Vasant Kunj in New Delhi. On June 18, Noora had called him up and invited him to a party at a local hotel in Panipat to celebrate the birth of a child to her sister in Russia.

Kayandeep said he along with Vinod reached the hotel at 9:30 pm where the girl after serving them drinks started to lure them to bed. He told the police that sensing that something was wrong, he immediately left the place.

However, the very next day, Vinod told Kayandeep that the two girls had filed a complaint with the police alleging that he (Kayandeep) had raped them in the hotel. Following this, Jaswant started calling up Kayandeep and demanded Rs 1 crore to help him forego legal action against him. However, Kayandeep, instead of succumbing to the pressure being mounted by them, reported the matter to the police which installed audio-video devices and recorded all meetings and phone conversations of Kayandeep with Jaswant Singh, Anil and Vinod. During the three-day sting operation, the police also recorded the meeting of one of Kayandeep’s friends with the Russian girls in Vasant Kunj in New Delhi. During the sting operation, it was revealed that Kayandeep had done nothing wrong and instead Jaswant and his two accomplices had hatched a conspiracy to trap him and extort money from him.

SP Rao said the police had already arrested Jaswant and Vinod while Anil was still missing.

The police also rounded up the two Russian girls, who were brought here today for questioning to ascertain their role in the blackmailing racket. Rao said in case the two were found to be involved in the racket, they would also be placed under arrest.

Chandigarh, June 23
Shedding its insensitivity towards the physically challenged, the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government has finally initiated the process to fill nearly 2,400 posts, including 782 Class “A” posts, meant for the persons with disability in the state.

All departments have been asked to give requisition to the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) and the Haryana Service Subordinate Commission for the filling of the posts reserved for these persons.

Special drives to fill vacant posts for persons with disability have already been launched to fill the vacant posts in accordance with various provisions of the Persons with Disability (Equal Opportunities) Protection of Rights and Full Participation Act, 1995, according to sources.

In fact, the state government is mulling the holding of special placement fairs for physically challenged to recommend suitable candidates for vacant posts.

Last month, The Tribune had reported that a recent meeting presided over by former Chief Secretary Urvashi Gulati was informed that nearly 2,400 posts for persons with disability were lying vacant in the state.

These included 254 posts belonging to Class “B” and 215 posts belonging to Class “D” besides 783 Class “A” posts. In fact, the maximum number of vacant posts - 1,112 - belonged to Class “C” exposing tall claims of the Haryana Government for the welfare of the persons with disability.

It is learnt the HPSC has started the process to fill 473 posts of physically handicapped by the end of the year.

A maximum of these posts were in the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam where 228 assistant linemen and 25 lower division clerks would be recruited, followed by 29 posts of patwari in the Directorate of Land Records, 23 junior engineer of Irrigation, 18 canal patwari of office of Engineer-in-Chief, Irrigation.

Meanwhile, general secretary, Rashtriya Drishtiheen Sangh, Haryana unit, Jageram, urged the state government to fill vacant posts at the earliest.

Jhajjar, June 23
In protest against the scarcity of drinking water for a long time, scores of residents of Saankhol village under Bahadurgarh subdivision here today blocked the National Highway No. 10 for over an hour.

The protesters lifted the blockade after an assurance made by the district administration officials that adequate supply of water would be restored soon, but the infuriated villagers have threatened the district authorities that they would again block the vehicular traffic on the national highway if their grievance was not redressed by Monday.

The protesters stated that they had been facing acute shortage of potable water for the past three months but no district administration officer was ready to sort out the problem despite being informed.

Earlier, the villagers, including women, gathered at the village chaupal in the morning and decided to block the national highway to mount pressure on the district authorities to attend to the problem. Commuters had to face a tough time due to the blockade. They had to opt for alternative routes to reach their destinations.

The villagers had also organised a demonstration in front of the Executive Engineer’s office of the Public Health Department in the village and shouted slogans against the government nearly two months ago. The district authorities had at that time assured them to provide ample water supply to the village.

“We have to buy drinking water to meet our daily requirement following inadequate water supply in the village,” said the women protesters.

Besides Saankhol, a large number of villages here have also been reeling under acute scarcity of potable water since the beginning of the ongoing summer season.

Villagers either have to fetch drinking water from far-flung areas in this searing heat or buy water from private suppliers. Significantly, the villagers have on many occasions informed MP Deepender Hooda also about the situation, but the water crisis still remains unsolved provoking public anger. 

Chandigarh, June 23
The Haryana Government has implemented an ambitious scheme to encourage sportspersons belonging to Scheduled Castes by giving them scholarships.

While stating this here today, a spokesman of the Haryana Sports and Youth Affairs Department said applications had been invited to give Fair Play sports scholarships for a year under special component scheme for Scheduled Castes on the basis of achievements of such sportspersons during the previous year. The applications have been invited online and the last date of submission of such applications has been extended up to June 30.

He said those sportspersons who had won medals at state-level sporting events and belong to Scheduled Castes family living below poverty line would get the scholarship for a year. For state-level participation and winning first three positions, the amount of scholarship would be Rs 1,500, Rs 2,500, Rs 3,000 and Rs 3,500 respectively. For the national-level medal winning achievements that is first three positions, the amount of scholarship would be Rs 3,000, Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively. In case of international level comparable achievements, the amount of scholarship would be Rs 5,000, Rs 6,000 and Rs 7,000 for first three positions, respectively.

He said an additional amount of Rs 1,000 would be given in case of female athletes belonging to Scheduled Castes.

The applications forms are available at website haryanasports.gov.in <http://haryanasports.gov.in>, which can be submitted online at sports@hry.nic.in <mailto:sports@hry.nic.in>.