Rohtak, July 8
After the arrest of a former sub-inspector of the Haryana Police, the probe into the Apna Ghar case appears to be zeroing in some officials of the district administration for the laxity that led to sexual and physical abuse of inmates of the shelter home, said sources in the Police Department.

While the total number of arrests has risen to 10 so far, including a former sub-inspector, who was the investigating officer of this case initially, reports indicate that the role of some officials, including those in the Child and Women Development and Social Welfare Department, has been under the scanner of the special investigation team (SIT). The team could make some arrests soon, claimed the sources.

Despite getting funds from the Union and state governments for various welfare schemes, Bharat Vikas Sangh, an NGO running the shelter home, had failed to maintain the accounts and details of the money received and spent during the past several years. The NGO had been running at least four schemes when the raid was conducted by a team of the NCPCR and rescued 102 inmates lodged here. The NGO used to receive at least Rs 1,000 per child per month but there was no proper record about the use of such funds.

Meanwhile, despite the announcement made by the state government to hand over the case to the CBI, it is still being probed by the SIT headed by an ADGP.

Chandigarh, July 8
The Haryana Government has directed SPs to complete police verification of staff in all child care institutions (CCIs) and women’s shelter homes by July 10.

A spokesman of Haryana Women and Child Development Department said here today that the Police Department had initiated the appointment of child welfare officers in all police stations. These officers would be imparted training regarding the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.

In all, there are 105 CCIs housing 4,243 inmates in the state. A maximum of 12 CCIs each are in Faridabad and Gurgaon districts, followed by 11 in Karnal and 10 in Sonepat. There are eight CCIs in Panchkula, seven in Sirsa, six each in Ambala and Yamunanagar, five each in Kurukshetra and Panipat, four each in Bhiwani and Jhajjar and two each in Fatehabad, Hisar, Kaithal, Rewari and Rohtak. Jind, Narnaul and Palwal have one CCI each.

Similarly, there are 13 women’s homes in the state and a maximum of four such homes are in Rohtak, followed by two each in Gurgaon and Panipat and one each in Ambala, Bhiwani, Karnal, Sirsa and Sonepat. These homes house a total of 558 inmates. All these institutions have been inspected.

Those institutions where during inspection the district-level committees found shortcomings, the institute concerned has been asked to rectify the shortcomings within a month.

Meanwhile, the Haryana Women and Child Development Department has issued directions to all Deputy Commissioners to ensure that child care institutions (CCIs) and women’s shelter homes are registered by July 20.

Karnal, July 8
The tall claims of “polio-free Haryana” got a beating today with an one-year-old girl of Dabarki Khurd village in Gharonda was found to be suffering from polio. The incident came to light when parents of the girl, Sneh, took her to OPS Vidya Mandir at Sector 13 for a check-up at a health check-up camp organised by Amulya Sahara.

Dr VK Lambha after thoroughly examining Sneh at the camp, made the startling disclosure that the girl was affected by polio.

Sneh’s father, Sher Singh, said her daughter was suffering from mild fever since she was six months old and her leg started weakening and now she and her leg has become so weak that she can’t even stand. Polio drops were administered regularly to her, he added.

CMO Shiv Kumar said he was not aware of any such incidence and if the incident was true a team of doctors would visit the village to find out the truth.

Karnal, July 8
Many NGOs and social outfits have come out in support of young activist and theatre artist Dinesh Kumar (27) who is struggling for his life in a Delhi hospital with a damaged heart valves.

Dinesh belongs to Malikpur village in Gharonda. His family is facing acute financial crisis. In Dinesh’s absence, the only earning member in the family is his aged father, who is engaged under the national rural employment guarantee scheme. Kumar’s wife is in family way.

The Haryana Gyan Vigyan Samiti, Karnal, has come out to help Dinesh and plans to hold a charity show by staging the play “Sava Ser Ghayun” written by Munshi Prem Chand at the CSSRI Stadium on July 10. The collection from the play will be utilised for Dinesh’s treatment.

The play shows the miserable plight of an oppressed, debt-ridden farmer. Finding it hard to make both ends meet, the farmer commits suicide. The play is a tribute by his village theater group to the ailing artist.

Residents of four villages of Bal, Begumpur, Anchala and Rawar have also sponsored ration for 15 artists who are rehearsing for the play in Karnal.

Dinesh had organised a popular street play “Ladki Padhkar Kya Karegi” that motivated five girls of Haripura village to revolt against child marriage for which they were given the National award for bravery.

As a ‘Sutradhar’ (protagonist) and team manager for number of street plays staged under by the Haryana Gyan Vigyan Samiti, Karnal, Dinesh highlighted various social evils issues such as environment protection, female foeticide, child marriages, illiteracy and dowry. 

Sirsa, July 8
The panchayats of two Sirsa villages, Rattakhera and Rajpura, have decided not to pay power bills until the power utilities started giving uninterrupted supply to them.

Officials of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), who visited these villages for collecting payments to power bills yesterday, had to return empty-handed.

“We have been facing the worst power cuts in this scorching heat. The DHBVN officials tell us that it is a statewide phenomenon. However, the power bills we receive are as high as earlier,” alleged Manak Chand, sarpanch of Rattakhera village. Sahjinder Singh, sarpanch of Rajpura, repeated the allegations of his counterpart in Rattakhera, adding that the decision not to pay power bills had been taken by villagers collectively. Balwant Singh, Superintending Engineer, DHBVN, Sirsa, said he was not aware of the problem as he had assumed charge only two days ago . 

Panipat, July 8
Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) has been forced to shut down its four units at the Panipat thermal plant as power demand nosedive after rains in the region.

The four units of the Panipat thermal plant with capacity of 440 MW were closed after power demand in the state crashed. Even one unit at Khedar was brought down by 100 MW generation and two units at the Yamunanagar thermal plant of 300 MW each and two at Jhajjar of 660 MW each were not producing any power since Saturday evening.

The demand for power on Friday was registered at 1,457 lakh units and the state had to overdraw 83 lakh units from the grid to meet this demand. However, with the rain hitting the region, the demand for power came down drastically and so did the duration of power cuts.

The power demand stood at 5,442 MW and the state managed to generate 642 lakh units from its own thermal units across the state. The generation available from the states own sources also increased to 1,990 MW from 1,770 MW. Besides, the cost of power in the northern region also came down to Rs 1 per unit since Saturday morning giving a much needed relief to the debt-ridden power utilities. The state did not resort to any overdrawl from the grid today and supply was being drawn as per schedule.

Sources said the power demand in the northern region had come down drastically and only two states, including Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, faced power crunch on Friday.

Rohtak, July 8
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today offered to donate his one-month salary with allowances to the Satsang Bhawan of the Shirdi Sai Baba Temple Trust at Kharwar village in the district.

Hooda made this offering after paying obeisance at the Shirdi Sai Baba temple and laying the foundation stone of the Satya Sai Sadan and Langar Hall of the temple.

Hooda urged people to follow the teachings of saints adding that only going to temple and offering 'prasad' was not enough. He said although he was an 'Arya Samaji' yet he has kept 'karma' above everything else.

He said he also visits Shirdi and gets energy from there. He added that it was a matter of happiness that Shirdi Sai Baba Temple had been constructed there and the devotees coming to this temple should take inspiration for doing good deeds.

Hooda also pledged Rs 11 lakh from the Chief Minister's relief fund for the old-age home to be built by the temple. He appreciated the social activities being carried out by the temple trust.

Mementos of Sai Baba replica were presented to dignitaries on the occasion.

Rajya Sabha MP Shadi Lal Batra, MLAs Bharat Bhushan Batra, Shakuntla Khatak and ShriKishan Hooda, Ex-MLA Krishanmurti Hooda and Political Advisor to Haryana CM Virender Singh were among those present on the occasion. — PTI

Karnal, July 8
Noted film star Om Puri was conferred upon the coveted Pt Jasraj Award instituted by Haryana Institute of Fine Arts (HIFA) while 10 outstanding performers in different fields from Haryana were honoured with Karam Yogi Samman and seven budding talents from the fields of art, media and literature were given Karam Bhumi Samman.

Pt Jasraj Award is the highest civilian award carrying a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, a citation and an ‘ang vastra’

Puri had been conferred with many awards, including the National Film Award for Best Actor for the film “Arohan”, Best Supporting Actor Filmfare for “Aakrosh”. Puri said “Aakrosh” gave him recognition and the film was greatly appreciated..

Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Sharma presented the sixth HIFA Awards at a function at the NDRI Stadium here this evening.

The awards are given to people who render selfless service to society and believe in philosophy that “Work is yoga” and stand out in society through their creative work. The selection for awards is made by a jury of eminent persons who evaluate the works of competitors strictly on merit and the awards are confined only to people belonging to Haryana to encourage local talents.

The recipients of Karam Yogi Samman, which carried a cash prize of Rs 31,000 and a citation included Dr Ranbir Singh (education), Bhagwan Singh Ahlawat (handloom and handicraft), Devinder Kumar Handa (heritage conservation), Tripurari (theatre), Dr SKS Marya (medical science), Sudhir Sharma (art promotion), Mishri Devi (differently abled), Kalicharan Gupta (fine arts), Dr Harvinder Sharma (Indian classical music) and Nirmal K Midda (trade and industry).

While Karam Bhumi Samman carrying a cash prize of Rs 21,000 and a citation was given to Memasa Malik (electronic media), Durga Jasraj, daughter of Pt Jasraj (art promotion), Pradeep Kumar (folk music), Suraj Bedi

(Folk Music), Dr Sangeeta Nehra (Alternative medicine), Nazima Jabeen (poetry and literature) and Bhim Mahlotra (fine arts).

Kaithal, July 8
The economic offences wing of the district police has arrested a former head clerk of a local college who allegedly withdrew lakhs of rupees from the bank allegedly by forging signatures of a large number of SC/ST students. The students were the actual beneficiaries of the scholarship money granted by the state government.

The police has also recovered Rs 9 lakh from the accused. The college administration has sent the money back to the government. The accused was produced in a local court recently, which sent him to judicial custody. SP Kuldip Singh said on March 5, RKSD college principal Dr SK Garg had handed over a complaint to the then SP against the former head clerk Sham Lal Bhutani.

It was alleged that Bhutani who had already retired from service on November 30, 2011, had been handling the work to receive the scholarship money, meant for SC/ST students of the college, from the government.

After Bhutani’s retirement, Kuldip Singh, a student of the college from Dhanouri and some others complained to the principal that the accused had not paid them their scholarship money for 2008-09 session. The cheques were issued in their names but the accused had forged their signatures to withdraw the scholarship fund from the bank, they alleged.

Panipat, July 8
For the first time ever, the Railways Claims Tribunal has asked the Union Railway Ministry to arrange payment of compensation awarded to two Pakistani nationals through the Indian High Commission at Pakistan.

The orders came while settling the compensation claim petitions of Jubeda Begum, wife of Abdul Wahid Khan and Jahida Khan, wife of Saleem Khan, who had lost their husbands in the Samjhauta blasts.

Indian lawyer for the victims of the Samjhauta blasts (both Indians and Pakistanis) Momin Malik said there had been several cases of Indian relatives of Pakistani victims grabbing the compensation amount granted to them. Thus, in this case he had pleaded before the tribunal that directions be issued so that the compensation could be paid to the kin of victims in Pakistan itself as Pakistani nationals were not allowed to open a bank account in the country.

The wives of Abdul Wahid Khan and Saleem Khan were awarded compensation of Rs 4,41,447 each along with an interest of six per cent per annum from the date of filing of the claim petitions. The two victims, who were born at Agra, visited India to meet their relatives at Agra and were returning home when they were killed in the blasts. Their bodies were taken to Pakistan and buried there.

Later, their kin approached Malik, who filed the claim petitions on their behalf on humanitarian grounds.

Jind, July 8
Perturbed over the wrong projection of the state and khap bodies of Haryana over the issue of honour killings in the Aamir Khan-starred programme of ‘Satyamev Jayate’, the khaps have decided not to invite the actor to take part in the mahapanchayat on July 14 convened to discuss the issue of female foeticide.

The mahapanchayat will be organised by the gram panchayat of Bibipur, which recently held the first meeting of the women gram sabha in the village. The Binain, Dhull, Chahal, Kandela, Barah and Naugama khaps will take part in the mahapanchayat.

“We have invited all khaps to attend the mahapanchayat on the issue of female foeticide so that the problem could be addressed effectively,” said Sunil Kumar Jaglan, sarpanch of Bibipur village. He said khap leaders felt that Aamir Khan’s programme aired a few weeks ago on various channels had damaged the image of such bodies and the actor, therefore, did not deserve to be invited to such a programme.

It may be recalled that the panchayat of Bibipur village had held the first all-women meeting of the gram sabha on June 18 on the issue of female foeticide in the village.

The sabha had resolved to step up its efforts to check female foeticide in the village. The videorecording of the proceedings were sent to the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj, whose officials had visited the village on May 29 to take stock of the drive launched by the panchayat in this regard.

Hisar, July 8
Former Power Minister and Congress legislator Sampat Singh said that the INLD and the HJC were not following the policies of their founders, the late former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal and the late former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal.

He said both INLD and the HJC were opposing the setting up of a nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur in Fatehabad district despite the fact that Devi Lal and Bhajan Lal--while holding the office of Chief Minister of Haryana-- had written letters to the then Prime Minister, seeking a nuclear plant at the proposed site.

Releasing photocopies of the letters, Sampat Singh said late Devi Lal had written a letter on November 23, 1987, to the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, requesting that a nuclear power plant be established at Kumharia village in Haryana. He had stated that as Haryana did not have coal mines, a thermal plant could raise the cost of generation. Besides, there was no scope for hydel power projects in the state. Devi Lal had stated that there was adequate availability of water and land in this area.

He said former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal had written three letters to the then Prime Ministers, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao, requesting the establishment of a nuclear power plant in Haryana. The first letter addressed to Indira Gandhi was sent on July 20, 1984. The second one was sent on October 25, 1985, to Rajiv Gandhi and the third was addressed to PV Narasimha Rao on July 16, 1993.

In these letters, late Bhajan Lal had stated that since Kumharia village was far away from the international border, there was no security risk involved. Besides, the site was close to Rajasthan and it would facilitate transmission of power to that state at a low cost. Bhajan Lal also stated that the land was suitable for such a project.

Sampat Singh said it was a pity that the heirs of these leaders were now opposing the establishment of this nuclear plant. He said the leaders of these parties could continue their opposition only if they publicly stated that Devi Lal and Bhajan Lal were wrong and that while seeking a nuclear plant for Haryana they were trying to harm the interests of the state and its people.