Chandigarh, September 13
Four days after a public health subdivisional officer was beaten up in Ninan village of Bhiwani during the tour of Chief Parliamentary Secretary Ram Kishen Fauji, sewage disposal in Bhiwani district will be cut off from midnight today and water supply suspended from noon tomorrow.

The decision was taken to protest the inaction against the guilty by a committee comprising public health employees, the Diploma Engineers Association and mechanical and clerical staff unions at a meeting during the day.

The committee also suggested that if a public apology was unacceptable to the guilty, they would end their protest if a police case was registered against Fauji who allegedly instigated his supporters to beat up the subdivisional officer and the supporters who are guilty. While the district administration tried to broker peace by being in touch with the protesters, they refused to budge from their demand of a public apology from Fauji and his supporters.

“We gave enough time to administration officials to act, but they seem committed to saving the face of their political bosses without bothering to protecting the self-respect of the official. We are forced to execute our threat of suspending water supply and sewage disposal,” said KK Pawar, president of the Haryana Diploma Engineers Association, who chaired the meeting.

Deputy Commissioner, Ashok Meena said they were still in the process of working out a compromise.

“Our Additional Deputy Commissioner and Subdivisional Magistrate met the protesters. We are keeping our options open and are in touch with Fauji also. We are trying to come up with a solution quickly,” he said.

The police, on its part, doesn’t seem to have concluded its “inquiry” on the complaint received from subdivisional officer Dharmvir Singh on the evening of September 10 at the police station.

Four days on, no case has been registered against any of those named in the complaint. “The inquiry is on,” said Pankaj Nain, SP.

Fauji continued to be evasive, with his secretary answering his mobile and stating that he was “somewhere in the constituency” and unavailable for comment. 

In a late-night development, Bhiwani Deputy Commissioner Ashok Meena imposed Section 144 of the CrPC in the district which prohibits the assembly of four or more persons. He also passed orders stating that disciplinary action would be initiated against employees under the Haryana Service Rules for disrupting sewage disposal and water supply.

Chandigarh, September 13
A perceived meagre relief of Rs 115 crore announced by the Central Government to compensate Haryana for monetary losses caused due to insufficient rainfall has disappointed the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Government and farmers in the state.

In fact, there is nothing new in the announcement of Rs 115 crore relief under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) to the state by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) led by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.

During their August 10 visit to Chandigarh to take stock of the “drought-like” conditions in Haryana, Pawar and Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh had announced Rs 230 crore interim relief for augmentation of drinking water supply and watershed management. Interestingly, the grant of Rs 115 crore under the NRDWP, announced yesterday, formed a part of the Rs 160 crore relief package for augmentation of drinking water supply in the state.

Sources said the state government was “disappointed” at the Centre’s inadequate relief to the state at a time when the government spent a huge amount on “sustaining” the crops in the “drought-like” conditions on account of highly-deficient rainfall till July.

At the August 10 meeting, Haryana had demanded a drought relief of Rs 4,052 crore from the Centre with Rs 1,500 crore for providing 17,000 lakh units power to the agriculture sector during the kharif season (May-October). An amount of Rs 1,100 crore was demanded as compensation for the enhanced cost of cultivation, unsown area and other support measures for the agriculture sector.

Terming the relief as “inadequate”, Mahender Partap Singh, Haryana Revenue Minister, said the state government would take up the matter with the Central Government again so that farmers suffering due to inadequate rainfall could be compensated suitably.

The sources said the state government would take up the matter again with the Planning Commission and the Committee of Secretaries and reiterate its demand of Rs 200 bonus per quintal for paddy and Rs 100 for other crops.

Gurgaon, September 13
A three-hour meeting of officials of Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd (DGSCL), National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the district administration and the Gurgaon traffic police failed to yield any concrete plan to decongest the eway.

A majority of the array of solutions suggested by DGSCL failed to get consent from the other three parties.

Claiming that the widening of the toll plaza was the need of the hour, the company suggested acquisition of more land to add more lanes, but the NHAI rejected the proposal.

“The simplest way to deal with the jams and congestion is to create more lanes and we need the support of both HUDA and NHAI for that. While HUDA supported the idea, NHAI did not approve of it and suggested the alternative of staggered lanes,” revealed an official of DGSCL.

The company had given a try to staggered kiosks after the court’s intervention. However, it had failed to improve the situation.

The company suggested that a few lanes could be made free and the toll could be charged at a distance of 100 metres from the current plaza.

The second solution suggested was to get the traffic police to ensure and strictly enforce lane discipline wherein cash users could be penalised for entering the tag lanes. This would ensure a faster movement of the traffic, especially in tag lanes.

“Now only 35 per cent of the vehicles passing though the toll plaza have tags. If we enforce this plan, we will have better lane discipline and more people would opt for tags, resulting in a faster movement of traffic,” it argued.

While NHAI officials proposed touch-and-go cards, DGSCL officials clarified that the tag already worked on that principle, but it had not helped much.

It was also suggested to close the U-turn at the Ambience Mall and make an alternative route. The suggestion could not be taken further.

Interestingly, several such steps (of blocking U-turns and dividing lanes between cash and tag users) have already been tried, but they have not helped much in decongesting traffic. The officials will soon meet again to resolve the issue.

Chandigarh, September 13
Expressing dissatisfaction with the measures taken by the concessionaire for decongesting the Gurgaon-Delhi Expressway, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today asked the company to come out with some viable steps.

As a petition filed by
the concessionaire, Delhi Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited (DGSCL), came up for resumed hearing, the court minced no words to say that it was "not satisfied with the steps taken".

Refusing to vacate the stay, the court fixed September 20 as the next date of hearing. DGSCL had earlier asserted that the Delhi Municipal Corporation had filed a contempt petition against it for failure to deposit the toll collected by the company on behalf of the MCD.

Referring to news-items, the Bench asserted the contempt has been dismissed by the Supreme Court and that the application filed by the concessionaire does not hold any meaning anymore.

Faridabad, September 13
A criminal case has been registered against three police officers, including one of the Surajkund police station in Faridabad, for having tried to save two men who were nabbed along with narcotic substances in their possession by first implicating innocent persons in the case and subsequently extorting money from the latter.

Faridabad police commissioner Shatrujit Kapur said this evening that departmental action would be taken against the accused.

The three officials have been identified as Abdul Saheed (inspector) of Surajkund, Deep Chand (sub-inspector) and Amar Singh (assistant sub-inspector). They have been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 218 of the IPC.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sarai, Dharshan Lal, was deputed to investigate the case. He said the case pertained to the CIA unit of DLF and took place in June. The accused were then posted in the unit with Abdul Saheed as head.

He said the case was registered yesterday after the inquiry against the officers was completed.

Lal said the accused officers nabbed two men along with a huge quantity of narcotic substances and a countrymade pistol in June. A Honda City car in which the narcotic substances were transported was taken into custody. The two men were kept in detention for a day at the CIA unit. Subsequently, the officers allegedly struck a deal with the two to bail them out from the case.

Then, as part of a conspiracy, the accused tried to frame one Jafru and his brother of Khedi Kalan village in this district in the case.

Jafru, on whose complaint the FIR against the police personnel was lodged, alleged that the latter took Rs 60,000 to extricate him and his brother from the case. They also took his Honda City car from his house and demanded Rs 10,000 for its return. They also threatened his family of dire consequences if the matter was made public.

The officials, perhaps, developed cold feet and finally registered a case against the actual accused under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act four days after they were nabbed.

When the case was referred to the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crime, Mohinder Sethi, he noticed several faultlines. Several facts were underplayed against the accused which raised a suspicion in his mind.

The case was examined by Sethi who also recommended action against the officers.

Sirsa, September 13
Indiscriminate use of alpha beta arteether injections in malaria by some private practitioners is making the task of health authorities difficult as malarial parasites are becoming resistant to chloroquine, the drug generally used for treatment of malaria.

Alpha beta arteether is a new drug used for the treatment of chloroquine-resistant malaria, complicated falciparum malaria and cerebral malaria.

“However, some private doctors have been using the drug indiscriminately, making people resistant to chloroquine, the most common drug used by the health authorities for malaria,” said Sheel Kaushik, Deputy Civil Surgeon Sirsa, after her visit to malaria-hit areas .

After The Tribune carried a report regarding spread of malaria in some parts of Sirsa last week, Deputy Commissioner J. Ganesan had asked the health authorities to take effective measures to control it.

Villages falling under the Community Health Centre, Madhosinghana, have been affected the most as nearly 900 of the 1700-odd cases of malaria reported so far in the district have been found.

Cases of relapse of malaria have also been detected in Darbi and some other villages.

Kaushik said those who test positive for malaria had to get radical treatment for 14 days.

Chandigarh,September 13
Four major pro-quota Jat organisations have come under the banner of the Sarvkhap Jat Mahapanchayat and served an ultimatum on the government to accept their demand for a quota in jobs by December 15.

At a meeting of the mahapanchayat at Danoda village in Jind district today, the pro-quota organisations, the All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (both Hawa Singh Sangwan and Yashpal Malik factions), the Jat Aarakshan Samiti and the Jat Mahasabha, decided to abide by the decision of the khaps on the reservation issue.

. “It’s the final call to both state and the central governments to heed our demand by December 15 or face agitation by the community,” a resolution passed at the meeting presided over by Nafe Singh Nain of the Binain Khap, said. The meeting was attended by representatives of 141 khaps of Haryana and the neighbouring states of UP, Rajasthan, Delhi and Gujarat.

“We are firm on our demand for inclusion of the Jat community in the OBC list as the the community has been a victim of bias for a long time. We need the quota to move ahead socially and economically”, asserted Nain.

Through another resolution, the meeting urged the Centre to elevate a judge belonging to the Jat community to the Supreme Court.

Representatives of the prominent Dahiya, Hooda, Sangwan, Kadian, Kathura and Kandela khaps, besides the Meham chaubisi, attended the meeting.