|
|
|
|
|
7 convicted of blast on dera chief’s convoy
Baksheesh Singh, the main accused in the attack of on the convoy of Dera Sacha Sauda chief, comes out of the court after his conviction in Karnal on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Ravi Kumar
Villagers block NH-1, torch vehicles as woman dies in mishap
Arrest Naveen Jindal for coalgate, says Kuldeep
HJC chief Kuldip Bishnoi, Kishan Pal Gujjar and Sudha Yadav during parivartan rally in Gurgaon on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Cong regimes doomed to go, says Chautala
INLD supremo Om Parkash Chautala addresses a public meeting at Rania village in Sirsa district on Wednesday. Photo: Manoj Dhaka
Assault on SDO
Formation of HR panel put in cold storage
Dealing With Mayhem
MDU hostellers’ stir enters 6th day
MDU girl hostellers stage a demonstration outside the VC’s office in Rohtak
on Wednesday. Photo: Manoj Dhaka
DELHI-GURGAON EXPRESSWAY
VC calls for joint efforts to raise farm output
Prisons to have jammers to prevent jailbreak
Over 10 schoolchildren taken ill
Schoolchildren under treatment at the community health centre, Bhuna, in Fatehabad on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph
Pensioner running around to prove he is alive
INSO protest march in Sonepat
Two bodies found
Market fees on cotton crop cut
One arrested for mixing water in milk
Power nigam extends last date for VDS
|
|
7 convicted of blast on dera chief’s convoy
Karnal, September 12 The court also convicted four other accused and sentenced them to seven years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 each to all seven convicts. Baksheesh Singh of Yameenwala, Patiala, Swaran Singh of Mansa, Patiala, and Mahinder Singh of Assandh, were convicted under Sections 307 and 120 B of the IPC and Sections 3 A and 6 of the Explosive Act. Four others-- Hoshiyar Singh of Mansa, Patiala, Jaswant Singh of Peeplatha, Jind, Gurvinder Singh of Patiala and Dharmender of Uttar Pradesh -- were convicted under Sections 307 and 120 B of the IPC and Sections 4 A and 6 of Explosive Act and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000. The lone female accused, Parveen Kaur, was acquitted in the case. Advocate for the accused Narender Singh Chima said he would challenge the judgement in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The trial in the case lasted over four years during which 73 witnesses were examined. The convoy of the head of the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, was “targeted with a powerful blast” on the GT Road on February 2, 2008 and it was suspected that RDX might have been used for the “high-powered blast”. Two vehicles in the cavalcade were damaged, but the dera chief escaped unscathed. Following the attack, dera followers staged a massive sit-in at the blast site and blocked the GT Road. The state executive member of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Sabha, Angrej Singh, said the sabha would challenge the conviction in the Punjab and Haryana high Court as the punishment was too harsh and the accused had already undergone 55 months of imprisonment. A large number of Sikhs were present in the court when the sentence was pronounced.
|
|
Villagers block NH-1, torch vehicles as woman dies in mishap
Sonepat, September 12 Sushma Devi (32) was allegedly crushed to death by a dumper on the Kundli-Sersa road last evening when she was returning to her village on a motorcycle that her husband Ranjit Singh was riding. The dumper driver fled the spot. However, Ranjit Singh managed to climb the dumper and informed the police on mobile phone about the incident and the about the driver having fled. A police van chased the dumper and forced the driver to stop the vehicle near the Barota police post on the Beeswan Meel-Bahardurgah road, about 10 km from the spot of the incident. Later, the driver was handed over to the Rai police. A large number of people from the village reached the GT road and blocked it, demanding a ban on the movement of dumpers, lifting of construction material and Yamuna sand dumped on the Kundli-Sersa road and a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the family of Sushma Devi. After assurance from deputy superintendents of police Rajinder Singh and Balbir Singh that their grievances would be redressed, the blockade was lifted around 10.20 pm. The body of the victim was taken to the local civil hospital for a postmortem examination. A case against the dumper driver has been registered at the Kundli police station. During an interaction with media persons, some villagers said they were not involved in the torching of the vehicles. They suspected rivalry among the contractors who have dumped stocks of construction materials on the road behind the torching of the vehicles.
|
||
|
Arrest Naveen Jindal for coalgate, says Kuldeep
Gurgaon, September 12 Bishnoi was here along with Haryana BJP president Krishan Pal Gurjar to address public meetings in Palda, Shikohpur, Narsinghpur, Khandsa and Tigra villages of the district today. “The Congress-led UPA regime at the Centre is now bullshitting the CAG report on the coal issue in the same fashion as it did when the 2G spectrum scam was exposed. Eventually, the instances of irregularities in the 2G Spectrum case were found to be substantial and union minister A.Raja was sent to jail,” Bishnoi pointed out while talking to reporters on the sidelines of the meetings. The MP maintained that the Hooda-led Congress regime in Haryana should be dismissed as it had lost the moral authority to rule the state in view of the misdeeds of its ministers surfacing one after the other. He demanded the registration of a cheating case against Hooda as well as Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani for misleading the people of Haryana on the creation of a special economic zone (SEZ) in the state. “Shortly after coming to power during his previous tenure, Hooda had promised Haryana residents that the proposed SEZ would generate employment for 1 lakh persons and attract enormous investment in the state?. However, as of now, they have silently dropped the project after acquiring land from
local residents,” Bishnoi alleged. He said the recent happenings in the state indicated a total collapse of law and order even as hapless residents continue to reel under an acute shortage of water and electricity. Haryana BJP president Krishan Pal Gurjar asserted that the BJP-HJC combine would emerge as a viable alternative in Haryana as people were fed up with the Hooda government and did not want to vote for Chautala. “We promise to provide clean governance and ensure equitable distribution of resources, development and jobs on coming to power in the state,” he maintained. Gurjar also invited Bishnoi as well as local masses to the BJP rally at Faridabad on September 28. |
|
Cong regimes doomed to go, says Chautala
Rania (Sirsa), September 12 Considered a pocketborough of the Chautalas, Rania is represented in the state assembly by INLD’s Krishan Kamboj. Three generations of the Chautala clan - Om Prakash Chautala, his elder son Ajay Singh Chautala and grandson Arjun Singh Chautala (son of Abhey Singh Chautala) were present on the dais. Chautala alleged that the UPA government at the Centre had broken all records of corruption and the Rs 1.86 lakh crore coalgate scandal was the latest of the series of scams coming to light. He alleged that a company owned by Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal alone had taken undue benefits worth Rs 50,000 crore in the coal scandal. Ashok Arora, state president of the INLD, who contested the last parliamentary elections from Kurukshetra against Jindal, questioned the MP’s motives behind his campaign for the national Tricolour. Chautala also castigated the Haryana government and alleged that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had thrown all norms to the wind. He said the recent high court decision quashing the appointment of 1,983 PTIs was only one of the many decisions where various courts had struck down government decisions after finding them to be illegal. He also mentioned the high court decision of cancelling the allotment of 20 acres of land near Jhajjar to filmmaker Subhash Ghai’s institute and alleged that Hooda had been functioning as if Haryana was his fief. Interestingly, none of the speakers made any direct reference to former minister Gopal Kanda, at present in judicial custody in Delhi in the Geetika suicide case, though INLD secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala did make an oblique allusion to the case by saying that various ministers in the Congress regime were guilty of immoral activities or bashing up of government officials. No reference was made to Ranjit Singh either, though Chautala referred to the “Nav Nirman Rally” organised by him for Hooda here in March and alleged that none of the Rs 250-crore projects announced by the Chief Minister had so far
materialised. |
|
Public apology sought from Fauji
Geetanjali Gayatri Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 12 While the Diploma Engineers Association, supported by a couple of other unions, backing the subdivisional officer, Dharamvir, sought a public apology from Fauji, it decided to put off the threat to cut off water supply and sewerage disposal to Bhiwani for another 24 hours in public interest. The association had yesterday demanded the arrest of Fauji’s supporters who had beaten up the subdivisional officer while setting the deadline. The Deputy Commissioner, Ashok Meena, held a meeting with the association which demanded that Fauji should apologise for “instigating” his supporters to beat up the subdivisional officer as also those who beat him up. The president of the association, KK Pawar, said the Chief Parliamentary Secretary had agreed to apologise to the subdivisional officer in private. “The Chief Parliamentary Secretary was ready to visit the subdivisional officer at his residence in private to express regret over what transpired during his visit to Ninan village. However, we did not agree with this. When the subdivisional officer was beaten up publicly, the apology, too, should come publicly. So, we rejected this offer,” he claimed. The association has decided to give the administration another 24 hours to act on the complaint and take action against the guilty. “We deliberated on our decision to cut off water supply and sewerage disposal and felt that the innocent public would be inconvenienced. If nothing comes out till tomorrow evening, we will be forced to intensify our stir,” he added. The various protesting unions and associations, claiming that they had been sent feelers to find an amicable solution, will meet tomorrow to decide on the further course of action. Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner confirmed that the main demand of the association was that Fauji and his supporters who beat up the subdivisional officer should apologise. “They were keen the matter be resolved. We are hopeful something will come out of the talks,” Meena said. When contacted on the mobile, Fauji’s secretary said that Fauji was at a meeting and not available for comments. Workers of the Haryana Janhit Congress-Bharatiya Janata Party combine, today, burnt an effigy of Fauji in Bhiwani.
|
|
Formation of HR panel put in cold storage
Chandigarh, September 12 The committee, which also had state’s Chief Secretary PK Chaudhary and Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Samir Mathur as members, had reportedly recommended the names of Justice Jagdish Bhalla, former Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court, Justice Bhawani Singh, former Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court, and Mukul Mudgal and VK Jain, both former Chief Justices of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to the high-powered committee. The IP Vashist Committee was formed to assist a high-powered committee headed by the Chief Minister and comprising the Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition, in recommending the names of the chairman and two members to the Governor. However, a senior government functionary told The Tribune today that the process to select a chairman and two members had been set in motion and a final decision would be taken soon. Even as human rights violations had become a way of life in Haryana, the state government, reacting to a petition filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) for setting up of the human rights commission in the state, stated in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it did not feel the need to set up the commission as an “adequate mechanism existed to deal with people’s grievances”. The state government’s “insensitive” stand in the high court drew flak from a cross-section of society. With the state government at the receiving end from different quarters, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was forced to announce the formation of a human rights commission in the state in 2010 While the neighbouring states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and New Delhi have human rights commissions, Haryana, along with tiny states like Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram and Uttarakhand, has the dubious distinction of not having a human rights commission. |
|
|
Maruti trains officials in basic combat
Sumedha Sharma Tribune News Service
Gurgaon, September 12 Though the officials have chosen to be tightlipped about the plan, sources confirm that the company has hired Anuj Sharma, chief instructor at Invictus Survival Sciences, who supervised the first round of a four-hour training in self-defence for 30 MSIL officials at the company's Gurgaon facility. The executives reportedly are being trained in the art which is a mix of krav maga, kaap, systema, defendo, ground fighting and grappling techniques (martial art forms). “We respect their concern, but the officials have not woken up to the root cause of the mayhem. They are making us ready to fight and wage wars but are not eliminating the cause of it. Labour unrest needs to be dealt with. Earlier, they had sent psychologists to our houses to help us fight our fears and come out of the trauma, but all that we were taught was not to quit Maruti because of the incident,” revealed an executive. MSIL had earlier roped in Dr Rachna Singh, counsellor at Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon, to facilitate the psychotherapy sessions of its employees. The company is evidently working to help its executives overcome the memories of the mayhem as it claims to be in the process of attending to mental anxieties of the employees who have not yet recovered from the incident, which resulted in the death of a senior official and injured over 100 staff members.
|
|
|
MDU hostellers’ stir enters 6th day
Rohtak, September 12 “We came here to apprise the Vice-Chancellor of harassment caused to us due to the biased attitude of certain officials towards our demand and the delay to remove our grievances. But we could meet only the Security Officer as both the the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar were not present,” claimed a spokesperson of the protesters. Claiming that no action had been taken regarding their demands, the memorandum submitted by the protesters stated that the authorities concerned had been trying to shield the culprit official by making false claims and trying to ignore the issue. It is alleged that the girl hostellers were made to pay extra charges for making late entries in the hostel and no receipt for Rs 100 charged for every late entry for the past couple of years was given to them. “None of the girls had dared to oppose this due to the high connection of the warden concerned,” they alleged. “The hostellers were charged around Rs 2,500 per month for diet, but the quality of food was poor and any complaint in this regard was not entertained by the officials concerned,” reveals the complaint. Regarding the episode of a girl missing from the hostel recently, the protesters said the claim made by the warden and other officials was wrong and an attempt had been made to shield the accused officials as the latter have failed to show an entry in the movement register maintained at the gate of the hostel on the day when she was absent. |
|
|
SC refuses to stay HC order suspending toll
Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, September 12 A Bench comprising Justices DK Jain and JS Khehar advised the corporation to approach the HC if it had been affected by the order. Arguing for the corporation, senior counsel Ravi Shankar Prasad said the HC had restrained the Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd from collecting the toll without making his client a party to the case. Most of the toll tax was going into the corporation kitty and, as such, the suspension had resulted in the civic body losing Rs 25 lakh a day, Prasad contended. The Bench, however, maintained that the corporation should first approach the HC before coming to the apex court and dismissed the petition as withdrawn. The HC had passed the direction on a plea by the Gurgaon police that the agency collecting the tax was responsible for the traffic snarls on the expressway. The concessionaire did not have adequate staff to collect the tax promptly and prevent the long wait for the commuters at the toll plaza. A Bench had also directed the National Highway Authority of India to hold a meeting with the state government and other stakeholders to resolve the problem within 15 days.
|
|
VC calls for joint efforts to raise farm output
Hisar, September 12 Inaugurating a kisan mela at the HAU campus here, he said farmers needed to adopt latest farming techniques to achieve this aim. At the same time, the scientists had the responsibility to develop suitable technology. The government, of course, needed to make available the inputs in adequate measure. He said the main challenges for agriculture were deteriorating soil health, falling water table and weather changes. If global warming continued at the current pace, the foodgrains production in the Gangetic plains could come down drastically. Khokhar lauded farmers and farm scientists of Haryana, saying that the state today contributed 17 per cent of foodgrains to the national kitty. The production had gone up from 25 lakh tonnes in 1966 to 170 lakh tonnes now. This was no mean achievement but more efforts were needed to maintain this pace of production. He advised farmers to diversify in farm-related activities to boost their incomes and improve their lifestyles. The three-day fair is aimed at apprising farmers of latest developments in farm technology. They will be taken round the research farms to demonstrate the benefits of newer technology as well as improved seed varieties. |
|
Prisons to have jammers to prevent jailbreak
Chandigarh, September 12 The petition was initiated after Justice Mahesh Grover took suo motu cognizance of escape by eight prisoners from the Sonepat district jail. As the case came up for resumed hearing before the court, an affidavit by Rakesh Malik, Director-General of Prisons, Haryana, was placed on record. The affidavit said escaped prisoner Atender, alias Channu, was arrested on September 6 and every endeavour was being made to arrest Pardeep, alias Bholu, and Surender, alias Sonu. After going through the affidavit, the court disposed of the petition after asserting that the special teams earlier constituted would continue to make endeavours for arresting the remaining escaped prisoners. “The jammers be installed after getting consent from the Government of India and a report be placed on record of this case,” the court added. Taking suo motu cognizance of the jailbreak, Justice Grover had earlier made it clear that the court was in favour of “futuristic concepts” of keeping the inmates behind bars. Justice Grover had also recommended “immediate strict action” against all wardens on duty when eight undertrials escaped from the Sonepat district jail on the night of January 17-18. |
|
Over 10 schoolchildren taken ill
Fatehabad, September 12 Teachers maintained that they distributed these tablets among children on the direction of the Health Department “Within minutes of consumption, all children started complaining pain in the abdomen and some of them started vomitting” said a teacher. The teachers rushed the ailing children to the village subsidiary health centre, where health workers referred them to the community health centre, Bhuna. Some of the children developed fever by noon. Six children were admitted to Bhuna hospital. “They have administered old and substandard tablets to our children,” alleged angry villagers Ramesh Kumar, Dalbir Singh, Rajinder Singh, Balbir Singh, Hoshiar Singh and others. “Samples of the drug should be taken and those who purchased such a medicine for schoolchildren should be brought to book,” parents demanded. Dr RC Goyal, senior medical officer at the Bhuna CHC, maintained that this particular batch of albendazole tablets had been received from the headquarters only five days ago. Dr SB Kamboj, Civil Surgeon, said these tablets were being given to schoolchildren under the Indira Bal Swasthya Yojna
|
|
Pensioner running around to prove he is alive
Kurukshetra, September
12 Stating this to mediapersons here last evening, Mam
Chand, son of Paras Ram resident of Kheri Shahidaan, 30 km from here, said his name has been struck off the old age pension list of March, 2011 released by the Social Welfare Department of
Haryana. Mam Chand said he had been running from pillar to post since March, 2011, to prove himself alive to get pension but could not succeed in his mission so far. He that when he sought information under the RTI Act from the department concerned here recently, he was told that the local department had written a letter no. 3023 dated November 29, 2011 to the higher authorities in Chandigarh, saying that Mam Chand had been shown as dead in the computer list but he is alive. Action would be initiated for the payment of his old age pension after getting orders from the head office, Mam Chand was told. |
|
|
INSO protest march in Sonepat
Sonepat, September 12 Led by the state publicity secretary of the
INLD, Raj Kumar Ridhau and INSO’s state general secretary Kunal Gahlaut and district president Sumit
Rana, the activists marched to the mini-secretariat and handed over a memorandum, addressed to the Governor of
Haryana, to the DC office superintendent in the absence of the Deputy Commissioner. In the memorandum, they demanded a judicial inquiry into the misdeeds of the Congress government in
Haryana. Addressing the protesters, Mr Ridhau said as the Hooda government had lost confidence of the people of
Haryana, it had no moral right to remain in power. |
|
|
Two bodies found
Sonepat, September 12 Another youth’s body with four bullet injuries was also found lying on the Rajlu Garhi-Gannaur road near Rajlu Garhi village. “KAJU” and tatoo signs were engraved on his right hand. The body was noticed by villagers youths when they came on the road for exercises. The police brought the bodies to the local civil hospital for a postmortem examination. |
|
Market fees on cotton crop cut
Sirsa, September 12 According to Bajrang Dass Garg, chairman of Confed, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda gave this assurance to a deputation of the Haryana Cotton Industries Association today. Last year, after a protracted agitation by the association, the government had reduced the market fee as well as the Haryana Rural Development Fund (HRDF) from 2 per cent each to 0.8 per cent each, decreasing the levy from 4 per cent to 1.6 per cent. However, the rebate ended on July 31 and the authorities had started charging the old rates again from August. Hooda assured the deputation that the market fees will now be charged at the reduced rates in the coming cotton season too.
— TNS |
|
|
One arrested for mixing water in milk
Rohtak, September 12 Police officials said the racket of mixing water in the van carrying raw milk to the plant was exposed recently when a police team raided a spot near Karontha village, about 10 km from here, where two persons were mixing water into the milk tank of a van ( HR- 57- 5313) . One of the accused, Jagbir of Jeetpura village of Bhiwani, was nabbed while his accomplice managed to escape. Jagbir was produced in a local court which remanded him in judicial custody. Meanwhile, the police has recovered a car (DL-3C-5913) snatched by gangsters from a motorist on the Rohtak-Jind road recently near Lakhanmajra. The accused fled, leaving the car near Hathwala village late last night. |
|
Power nigam extends last date for VDS
Chandigarh, September12 The nigam will regularise the extended unauthorised load without penalty during this period, said Devender Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, UHBVN and DHBVN, here. The last date had been extended to bring similarity in both power utilities. The procedure for getting the extended load regularised had been simplified. |
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Additional district and sessions judge of Karnal Ravi Sondhi today convicted Baksheesh Singh, main accused in the blast on the convoy of Dera Sacha Sauda chief on February 2 , 2008, and two other accused Swaran Singh and Mahinder Singh and sentenced them to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Lok Sabha member and HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi has demanded that Congress MP Naveen Jindal be arrested, allotment of coal blocks cancelled and a thorough CBI probe conducted into the coalgate.
Rania (Sirsa), September 12
Rohtak, September 12
Fatehabad, September 12
