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3 Karnal home inmates allege molestation
Deficient rain: CM seeks special package
to cheer at london olympics |
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Ex-Army Chief against Gorakhpur N-plant
Lawyers boycott courts, gherao judges’ vehicles
Hondh Chillar probe panel records statements
Gurgaon-Delhi Expressway
Injured staffers say Maruti asking them not to quit
Ground water use by Gurgaon builders
Highway blocked over power cut
Rs 8 lakh looted from petrol station staffers
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3 Karnal home inmates allege molestation
Three minor gilrs, all sisters, who came on camera, have accused a top functionary of the Karnal Apna Ghar of taking them to his house and physically abusing them. “He even beat us up and threatened us to keep our mouths shut,” the girls alleged. Insiders reveal that the three girls were in the house of Apna Ghar functionary Manav Dass during the raids conducted by the district authorities last year, but the matter was hushed up. Manav Dass even filed a petition in the high court, alleging that he was being harassed, but it was dismissed. Anirudh, a poor labourer from Bihar, had left his three minor daughters and two sons in Apna Ghar as he did not have the means to bring up the children. However, during his visits to Apna Ghar later, he found that the behaviour of his daughters had changed and they had become quiet and frightened. After getting some information from his children, he accused the top management of the NGO, which runs the shelter home, of physically exploiting his minor daughters. About a year back, Anirudh got suspicious about the activities in the shelter home and reported the matter to the district protection and welfare officer. Anirudh wanted to take his children back home, but the management allowed him to take the sons and not the daughters, which further strengthened his suspicion. Later, the administration conducted an enquiry, but the only action taken was to shift the three girls to the Shardhanand Anathashram, an over 85-year-old orphanage. Sources said the administration also got the girls medically examined but neither was the report made public nor any action taken on it. The girls alleged that pressure was mounted on them to give a statement against their father and say that he was exploiting them. Deputy Commissioner Renu Phulia, when asked about the revelations made by the girls, said that the matter would be enquired into and the question of filing an FIR would depend on the findings of the probe. Meanwhile, it is learnt that citing lack of space as the reason, the district authorities have shifted five girls and six boys from the said shelter home to Madhuban Ashram and Nirmal Dham, respectively. However, Anirudh said those who exploited his daughters must be punished. He expressed apprehension that shifting of girls might be another move to hush up the matter. |
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Deficient rain: CM seeks special package
Mullana (Ambala), July 31 The Chief Minister said: “Even before Punjab claimed a special package, the state government had sent a formal communication to the Center to release a special package for the state”. Hooda said that a survey was being conducted to regularise unauthorised colonies. The Chief Minister said the present power crisis was not only affecting Haryana but the entire country. The problem had aggravated due to a snag in the Northern Grid. Though the state thermal units had an installed capacity of 5,050.5 MW, these were generating only 1300 MW daily. Hooda said people were facing problems due to an increase in demand for power. The Chief Minister also laid the foundation stone of Maharishi Valmiki Bhawan and attended the death anniversary of Sri Ramanand Ji Maharaj at Sirasgarh village. Earlier, Hooda honoured members of the Sirasgarh panchayat for providing land to set up Maharishi Valmiki Bhawan. He announced a grant Rs 31 lakh for the bhawan and a special grant of Rs 10 lakh for the development of Sirasgarh village. He also announced a grant of Rs 31 lakh out of his discretionary fund for the completion of construction work at the Guru Ravidass shrine complex. |
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to cheer at london olympics
Chandigarh, July 31 Sources said the names of Sports Minister Sukhbir Kataria, Chief Parliamentary Secretary(CPS) Prahlad Singh Gillankhera and Principal Secretary (Sports and Youth Affairs) Hardeep Kumar are now being forwarded to the Central Government for clearance to cheer the state’s sportspersons, who comprise 18 of the 81 sportspersons representing the country at the sports extravaganza. Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Shiv Raman Gaur indicated here today that while the visit of the full team headed by Hooda was ruled out, a small team comprising two or three members could go to London. Earlier, the Ministry of External Affairs had reportedly cleared the visit of the nine-member team to London from August 4 to 12. However, the Union Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry had reportedly kept the file “pending”, sending the state officials in a tizzy as board and lodging arrangements had already been made by the Indian High Commision in London and air tickets booked for the team. Besides Hooda, his close confidant and Ambala MLA Venod Sharma, Sukhbir Kataria, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries Prahlad Singh Gillankhera and Sultan Singh, Principal Secretary to CM Chhatar Singh, Principal OSD to CM MS Chopra, Hardeep Kumar and Director (Sports and Youth Affairs) OP Singh and senior
secretary of CM Shadi Lal Kapur were originally part of the London-bound delegation. However, in the backdrop of the “non-committal” approach of the sports ministry, “drought-like” conditions in the state, recent violence at the Maruti plant in Manesar and the forthcoming vice-presidential elections, Hooda had called off his visit to London. Earlier,the state government had requested to the Central Government to allow the team headed by Hooda to visit London at Central Government’s cost to cheer the players, a majority of whom hailed from the Haryana. Following the reported rejection of the original proposal, the state’s Sports Department offered to bear the tour’s expense estimated at over Rs 83
lakh. |
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Pall of gloom in Kalayat as 22 pyres lit
Kaithal, July 31 A pall of gloom descended on Kalayat town of Kaithal district, 25 km from here, as 22 of the 32 persons killed in the road accident near Siwani in Bhiwani district yesterday belonged to Kalayat. The victims were cremated last evening in the presence of thousands of persons. The scene was heartrending when 22 pyres were lit simultaneously in the crematorium behind the Kalayat bus stand. According to reports, former Haryana Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala, state president of the INLD Ashok Arora, Kalayat MLA Ram Pal Majra, former union minister of state Jai Parkash, former minister and DCC president Tejinder Mann and senior BJP leader A P Manchanda, deputy commissioner Chander Shekhar, Kuldip Singh SP ADC Dinesh Singh Yadav, were among those present on this occasion. Keeping in view the huge rush of mourners, the administration made elaborate security arrangements and deployed teams of doctors to meet any emergency. The accident occurred near Siwani when the victims were returning in a Swaraj Majda vehicle from Umarpur village in Rajasthan after paying obeisance at Jawal Jhari, a religious place. Their vehicle allegedly collided head on with a truck. As the news of this accident reached in Kalayat, a number of persons rushed to the accident site in
their vehicles . ADC Dinesh Singh Yadv said Chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda went to hospitals in Hisar and Bhiwani to condole the deaths. He announced Rs 2 lakh grant to the kin of each of the deceased. Rs 1 lakh will be paid under the Rajiv Gandhi Bima Yojna and Rs 1 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Those not covered under Rajiv Gandhi Bima Yojna will get financial assistance from CM relief fund he added. Those seriously injured will get Rs 50,000 and with minor injuries will get
Rs 20,000 each. |
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Ex-Army Chief against Gorakhpur N-plant
“Uprooting hundreds of farmers from their highly fertile lands for installing a nuclear power plant in a densely populated area hardly 130 km from our international border with Pakistan is not a wise decision,” General VK Singh (retd)said. “Does the Haryana government want to drive the country back to the sixties, when India faced a severe food crisis, by acquiring fertile lands of farmers for development projects whose very logic is questionable?,” the former Army Chief asked. He said he had come here to support the poor farmers, who, he alleged, were being exploited in the name of development. He said if the state government succeeded in its plans, then not only would these nearly 1,000 farmers be displaced, but also hundreds of others who are dependent on these lands would be rendered jobless. MG Devasahaayam, a former bureaucrat from Haryana, said he was confident that the present power deficit in the state could be met by managing transmission and distribution properly. TMC relief for 3 dead farmers’ kin The All-India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) today delivered relief of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of three farmers--- Bhagu Ram, Ishwar Singh and Ram Kumar-- who had died during the farmers’ agitation against the acquisition of land for the proposed Gorakhpur nuclear power plant. |
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Lawyers boycott courts, gherao judges’ vehicles
Yamunanagar, July 31 The lawyers, who reached the district court in the morning, were shocked to read a notice put up on the main gate of the judicial complex, forbidding them from parking their vehicles within the court complex. The lawyers first met the district and sessions judge, but as their pleas failed to find favour, they blocked the Chandigarh-Roorkee national highway 73. Though they lifted the blockade, they staged a dharna outside the court complex. As judges started leaving the court complex in the afternoon, the protesting lawyers gheraoed the cars of nine judges in protest against the notice. President of the District Bar Association Ranvir Singh said the restriction was totally unacceptable. The judges could leave the complex only after Ashok Sangwan, Deputy Commissioner, reached the spot and pacified the lawyers. Interestingly, the whole feud cropped up the
day Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was on a two-day visit to the district to oversee development projects going on in the city. |
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Hondh Chillar probe panel records statements
Hisar, July 31 Garg told newsmen that the commission had so far received 77 petitions, including two received today. He said the next date of hearing for recording further statements was September 10. He said the commission had issued notices to the Director-General of Police, Haryana, and some departments of the union government. Their replies had been received. Ranjit Singh, lawyer for the victims, today pleaded with the commission for higher compensation to next of kin of the deceased. The commission had been set up in March, 2011, to probe the 26-year-old killings. On November 2, 1984, 31 Sikhs living in a dhani called Hondh Chhillar in Rewari district were burnt alive in their homes by a mob following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. However, no action was taken by the government for 26 years. In February, 2011 these killings were highlighted again. The government then appointed the Garg panel to probe the deaths. |
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Gurgaon-Delhi Expressway
Chandigarh, July 31 As the issue of traffic congestion on the expressway came up for resumed hearing this morning, the Bench of Acting Chief Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, in fact, directed the setting up of five toll collection points on either side by August 16. It warned that the failure to comply with the court orders would culminate into the initiation of contempt proceedings. Mincing no words, the Bench added that it would also apply brakes on the process of toll collection in the case of non-compliance. Before parting with the case, the Acting Chief Justice orally observed in the open court that the toll barrier was to be designed to save both fuel and time. But, neither fuel nor time was now being saved and long queues of vehicles on either side of the road were a common sight. The directions are significant as Gurgaon’s Deputy Commissioner of Traffic Bharti Arora had on the previous date of hearing claimed that the toll barrier’s design was also affecting the free movement of vehicles inside Gurgaon. She had minced no words to assert this was resulting in traffic chaos. |
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Injured staffers say Maruti asking them not to quit
Chandigarh, July 31 However, the injured employees claim that the counsellors are trying to talk them out of resigning. “I and many others have decided to quit and told the company that we don’t wish to be dragged in any investigation or courts. The moment we shared this with the media, a group of company representatives claiming to be the employee welfare team reached our houses to asses our needs. All that they did for half an hour was to urge us not to resign and stop speaking to the media. The best way to get out of this trauma is to switching to other company and we don’t need any counselling,” said an executive. “If they had assessed our needs earlier this would not have happened. Ashwini heard them and deferred his resignation and eventually lost his life. We don’t wish to go the same way. The company officials just want us to stay to maintain their image but they are not bothered about our security. It’s surprising that till date no compensation has been announced for us or even Ashwini’s family. We have families to support and thus need to move on. Rather than counselling us, they should strengthen security measures to avoid traumas,” added another. The company, meanwhile, is tightlipped about reports of the resignation of these executives. |
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Ground water use by Gurgaon builders
Chandigarh, July 31 If the committee found that underground water was being consumed for construction purposes by the builders, it would take steps to stop it. The Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner was also directed to hold a meeting with the Central Ground Water Board for constituting the committee for checking illegal borewell connections used for construction works in Gurgaon. The Bench also directed the continuation of its previous directions against the issuance of new licences to builders
till they gave an undertaking that ground water would not be used for construction purposes.
— TNS |
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Highway blocked over power cut
Jind, July 31 The problem erupted after some residents of Sheetalpuri and Shivpuri colonies came out on the road and put barricades to prevent the movement of traffic around 9 pm last night. They claimed that the department failed to supply power for even two hours in a day and they faced severe inconvenience due to the outage. The traffic movement could be restored after 10 pm. |
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Rs 8 lakh looted from petrol station staffers
Hodal (Palwal), July 31 The incident occurred near the Dabchik tourist complex on the Agra-Mathura national highway. The culprits threw red chilli powder into the eyes of the employees and snatched the bag. |
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Karnal, July 31
Fatehabad, July 31