Rohtak, September 2
A protest against power cuts last night turned violent after hundreds of residents of Ismaila village in the district torched a Haryana Roadways bus and damaged several other vehicles, including a bus and a police gypsy.

Traffic movement on the National Highway-10, connecting Rohtak with Delhi, was restored this morning. Traffic also remained disrupted on the highway between Rohtak and Hisar following a similar blockade at Kharkara village, about 20 km from here. Angry protesters blocked this highway at the same spot this evening as well.

Though this was perhaps the first incident in the district this year when the protest turned violent, several protests have been held earlier in the past few months against power shortage and frequent outages. A resident of Ismaila village, located adjacent to the highway, said after officials of the Power Department turned insensitive toward their problems, villagers decided to block the highway.

Sources said over 300 residents of the village came out on the highway near the railway flyover around 10 pm and blocked the road by parking their tractor-trolleys and other vehicles. As traffic movement came to a halt, policemen from the Sampla Police Station reached the spot after about an hour.

As no senior police officer reached the spot to persuade the protesters to lift the blockade, the enraged villagers started throwing stones at stranded vehicles. One of the buses of the Haryana Roadways’ Bhiwani Depot was torched after it was evacuated.

Though the police diverted vehicles after they failed to clear the highway, hundreds of vehicles had to cover extra miles to reach their destinations. Traffic on the route was restored around 6am this morning after the intervention of senior district officials.

A case has been registered against several persons for blocking the highway and resorting to violence, said a police official.

The movement of traffic also went for a toss at Kharkara village on the Rohtak-Hisar highway, about 20 km from here, and near Kultana village on the Sampla- Beri road during the same period against power crisis.

Unruly behaviour

* Over 300 residents of Ismaila village parked their tractor-trolleys and other vehicles on the Rohtak-Delhi highway at 10pm on Saturday

* Residents torched a Haryana bus and damaged another. A police gypsy and other vehicles too were damaged

* Police diverted hundreds of vehicles to other routes

Fatehabad, September 2
With fresh cases of diarrhoea and vomiting coming to the fore in Badalgarh, the health authorities have launched a fresh survey in the village.

Civil Surgeon Suraj Bhan Kamboj and Ratia Community Centre Senior Medical Officer VK Jain visited the village to take stock of the situation after villagers locked the village sub-centre alleging indifferent attitude of the health authorities.

Villagers raised slogans against the authorities and alleged that they were indifferent to the gravity of the situation.

So far, nearly 350 cases of diarrhoea had been reported in the village after the villagers ate langar held on August 25. One person had later died.

After fresh cases were reported, the health authorities took samples of drinking water being supplied to the villagers.

Kamboj said the situation was completely under control and only 13 new cases had come to the doctors camping in the village.

He said reports of the water samples taken from the villager were yet to arrive, but prima facie, these were cases of food poisoning.

Chandigarh, September 2
Despite availability of power, rural domestic feeders are getting only 10 to 11 hours of supply while their urban counterparts are getting supply for 20 hours.

Sources said even after the August showers coming as a relief to the “overburdened” Power Department, the supply to the rural domestic feeders continued to be around 10 to 11 hours as they owed about 70 per cent by way of bills to the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) and the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN). The department is continuing to give its committed eight-hour supply to the agriculture sector.

“There is no shortage of power at this moment in Haryana. We have enough power and can supply more power to domestic rural consumers provided we get returns by way of timely payment of bills. The utilities are not even being able to pay Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited the amount spent on coal usage,” Power Minister Ajay Singh Yadav explained.

Yadav said the violence in three villages of Rohtak had nothing to do with regular power supply. “I have gathered from my officers that the main supply line developed a snag. Our staff reached the village and began repair work soon afterwards. The fault was rectified and the power was restored,” Yadav said.

Arun Kumar Gupta, Managing Director of the UHBVN, said the problem started when the feeder which begins supply around 7.30 pm failed to do so because of a technical snag.

“Our staff immediately tried to shift the supply to another feeder which could not take the additional load. Finally, we cut the supply of an industrial feeder and diverted it to the domestic rural feeder, which was giving trouble. The supply was restored within a few hours,” Gupta said.

Meanwhile, the villagers or rural domestic feeders where recovery of bills is not posing a problem will be given 30 per cent additional power compared to others where payments are being either withheld or being given erratically.

The meeting to decide all such villages, which will now be rewarded for paying bills on time, is slated for September 5.

Sonepat, September 2
On the complaint of eight members of a panchayat, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Pankaj Aggarwal has ordered an inquiry against the sarpanch of Jhundpur village, Krishna Devi, for alleged misappropriation of panchayat funds to the tune of Rs 30 lakh.

The inquiry would be conducted by the District Development and Panchayat Officer (DDPO), HS Sheoran who had taken possession of the panchayat record to initiate investigation into the matter.

The DDPO said he had taken possession of the panchayat record and allegations of embezzlement and misappropriation of funds would be inquired impartially.

If the sarpanch was found guilty, action would be taken against her, he added.

The panchayat members, including Braham Pal, Ishwar, Surender, Rohtash, Sheilo Devi, Mahipal, Roshni Devi and Irfan, lodged a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner alleging that the sarpanch had withdrawn cash amount without passing of the resolutions for the purchases.

The sarpanch had raised fake bills for many works which were actually not carried out, they alleged.

Chandigarh, September 2
After dragging its feet on the mushrooming of “teaching shops” in the form of off-campus centres and study centres of the state universities for several years, the state government has finally cracked the whip on them by banning them.

In a development that would go a long way in checking the commercialisation of higher education, the recent monsoon session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha has passed four Bills amending the State University Acts to ban the off-campus centres and study centres inside and outside the state. The Haryana Private Universities Act, 2006, had already been amended to ban the setting up of off-campus study centres by the private universities.

The Bills were passed following directions from the UGC. Among the Bills passed were the MDU (Second Amendment) Bill, 2012; the Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Viswavidyalaya, Khanpur Kalan (Second Amendment) Bill, 2012; the KU (Second Amendment) Bill, 2012, and the Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, (Second Amendment) Bill, 2012.

Sources said the UGC had asked the state government to “take suitable steps for amending the existing Acts to bring these in conformity with the observations made by the Supreme Court.” Similarly, the UGC had also asked the state government to make statutory provisions to ensure that the private and state universities did not operate beyond its territorial jurisdiction in the form of off-campus centres, study centres, affiliate colleges and centres operating through franchisees.

However, the amendments will not be applicable to postgraduate regional centres. If the university had well-maintained postgraduate regional centres with all requisite infrastructure, these will continue to be administered by the university.

Gurgaon, September 2
The Punjab and Haryana High Court’s focus on traffic congestion at the Delhi-Gurgaon toll plaza seems to have started yielding results. Certain temporary measures taken by the expressway concessionaire following the court orders have eased routine traffic jams to a considerable extent.

The steps include setting up of temporary additional tax-collection kiosks and staggering of collection points by keeping a few boom-barriers open and collecting tax from vehicles passing through these at some distance from the toll plaza during peak hours.

The commuters, however, maintain that given the enormous volume of vehicles passing through the toll plaza round the clock, some permanent mechanism should be put in place for a lasting solution.

On the other hand, the Toll-Hatao Sangharsh Samiti has maintained that the expressway concessionaire had failed to implement the HC directions in letter and in spirit and the measures taken to ease traffic congestion at the Delhi-Gurgaon toll plaza were inadequate.

Samiti office-bearers said today commuters were still facing inconvenience due to lack of facilities and insufficient toll-collection windows.

The samiti members even appealed to the local residents and commuters not to pay the toll though they failed to explain how it would be possible practically. Samiti chairman Col (retd) Kanwar Bhardwaj and coordinator Attar Singh Sandhu said they would hold a demonstration for the removal of the Delhi-Gurgaon toll plaza on September 9.

The samiti would also wage a legal battle against the expressway concessionaire in case the situation did not improve.

Jhajjar, September 2
Ajit Balaji Joshi, Deputy Commissioner (DC), Jhajjar, found no patwari on duty when he along with other administrative officers carried out a surprise checking at Patwar Bhawan here.

An outsider, who was checking official files illegally there at the time of checking, was detained and handed over to the police .

The Deputy Commissioner not only sought a report about the absent patwaris but also directed the District Revenue Officer (DRO) to initiate action after seeking an explanation from them in this regard.

The DC also asked all government officials posted here to remain present in their offices during working hours so that public did not face any inconvenience. No one found absent from office during duty hours would be spared, the added.

It may be mentioned that the Deputy Commissioner had been receiving complaints about patwaris coming late to the patwar khana or remaining absent without any official intimation.

Kurukshetra, September 2
Students of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra, ended their six-day long strike this evening on the assurance of officiating director VK Arora of the institute.

“We have accepted one of their demands to name a hostel after Tejasvi Arora,” said the officiating director of the institute.

The students had been demanding the resignation of the institute director on moral grounds and a new hostel being constructed to be named after Tejasvi Arora, who had drowned in the Bhakra canal recently.

Students went on strike after the death of Arora, a third-year BTech student of the institute.

The protesting students alleged that had the director taken timely action, Tejasvi could have been saved.

New Delhi, September 2
One of the absconding accused, who had escaped from police custody in the 2010 Mirchpur Dalit killings case, has surrendered before a Delhi court.

Accused Jasbir, who fled on May 24 last year when he was being brought to the Rohini court here along with other accused for a hearing, has surrendered before Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Kamini Lau, who had decided the case last year.

The court had declared Jasbir a proclaimed offender. The ASJ has now called the Investigating Officer (IO) in the case to identify the accused.

"The IO is directed to appear in person to identify the accused on September 3 and the applicant (Jasbir) is sent to judicial custody till then," the judge said.

On April 21, 2010, a 70-year-old man and his 18-year-old physically-challenged daughter were burnt alive allegedly by a mob of over 100 people of the Jat community at Mirchpur village in Hisar district. The mob had also burnt down 18 Dalit houses.

The case was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court on the plea of the families of the victims.

Fifteen persons were convicted while 82 were acquitted in the case. In October last year, the court sentenced three persons to life imprisonment while others were sentenced to varying jail terms and fine. — PTI 

Sirsa, September 2
Intervening in a dispute among brothers over a plot cost policemen at Odhan in Sirsa dearly as members of the other party whom the police wanted to take away, allegedly attacked them,tore the uniform of a head constable and smashed windowpanes of police vehicles.

The police has booked a man, his son and two grandsons and several others, including women.

The police has arrested Sadhu Ram, who had a dispute over a piece of land with his two brothers, Mahabir and Rameshwar.

Bhartender Dhillon, SHO of the Odhan police station, said the police had gone to the village on the complaint of a woman from Rameshwar’s family that Sadhu Ram had used abusive language against her.

However, Sadhu Ram’s kin allege that the police went to arrest Sadhu Ram and his family members at night at the instance of his brothers so that he could be pressured into agreeing to their terms in the land dispute though there was no FIR against them. They alleged that a cop slapped Sadhu Ram and took him to the police station.

Alleging the police action as mala fide and done out of ulterior motives at the instance of a woman member of the complainant’s family who works in the police, Sadhu Ram’s kin alleged that their entire family, including women members, had been framed to put pressure on them.

The SHO, however, maintained that Sadhu Ram, his son Hardwari Lal and some others started using abusive language as soon as the police reached there. He further said they beat up policemen, smashed windowpanes of police vehicles before managing to escape. He said Sadhu Ram, his son Hardwari Lal, grandsons Sandeep and Parveen and some others, have been booked.

Chandigarh, September 2
The Haryana Health Department will launch pentavalent vaccination in October, wherein vaccination for five vaccine preventable diseases will be given in a single injection, as part of its campaign aimed at reducing infant and child mortality rate in the state.

Health Minister Rao Narender Singh said the state government had been making concerted efforts to reduce infant and child mortality rate by treating sick infants and children through implementation of the Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illness (IMNCI) Programme.

Sirsa, September 2
Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar has alleged that the BJP is unnecessary clamouring on the CAG report on allocation of coal blocks based only on conjectures and surmises.

Addressing his party workers in the Congress Bhawan here yesterday, Tanwar said a majority of coal mines were situated in BJP-ruled states and the governments of these states had also concurred to the allocation.

Tanwar, who is also a national secretary of the All-India Congress Committee, said the proper platform to discuss these issues was the country’s Parliament. But the BJP, he alleged, was shying away from discussing the issue in Parliament. He alleged that the BJP was not serious and it just wanted to draw some political mileage from the issue.

Tanwar also castigated the main opposition party, INLD, in Haryana and alleged that rather than discussing issues in the state Assembly, the party believed in walkouts.

He said it had now been proved that the opposition is bereft of issues in Haryana as well as at the national level.

He alleged that the opposition was frustrated by the welfare policies being pursued at the Centre as well as in Haryana and hence they were trying to mislead people.

Later, addressing workers in Bhattu Kalan, Tanwar alleged that the INLD as well as the other political parties wanted to do politics on Gorakhpur nuclear power plant issues while the villagers had already accepted their compensation.

Sirsa, September 2
A Special Lok Adalat was organised by the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) here . Harish Gupta, Chief Judicial Magistrate and secretary of the DLSA, along with judicial magistrates Tayyab Hussain and Mainka Singh, heard 25 cases of undertrial prisoners.

Out of these, eight cases were settled on the spot and the prisoners were released by considering the time spent by them in jail as the punishment undergone.

“On the directions of Justice SK Mittal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, who is also chairman of the Haryana State Legal Services Authority, Special Lok Adalats are held in jails to dispose of cases of petty crimes, where accused have already spent much period behind the bars,” said Harish Gupta. — TNS