Sonepat, October 3
A 19-year-old newly married girl of Banwasa village under Baroda police station in Gohana was allegedly kidnapped on September 28 from a level crossing in Gohana town by four youths, gangraped and released on October 2.

A married woman — Maafi of Banwasa village — was allegedly involved in this crime.

The accused have been identified as Sunil and Sanjay of Khandrai, Anil of Ahmedpur Majra village and Sarvan of Hadtari in Panipat district.

The rape was confirmed in the medical examination conducted at civil hospital, Gohana. The victim was married about three months back to Sunil of Adiana village in Panipat district.

The victim and the accused belonged to Dhanak caste.

The victim stated to the police that on September 28 she was at her parent’s house in Banwasa village when Maafi informed her that her husband Sunil was waiting for her near a railway level crossing in Gohana town and had asked her to meet him. She was allegedly kidnapped near the level crossing by Sunil, Sanjay and Anil in a car and taken to some unknown place. Later, they were joined by Sarvan of Hadtari village and they all raped her by turn.

She was released by the accused at Gohana bus stand.

After returning home, she narrated the incident to her parents. A case has been registered against Sunil, Anil, Sanjay, Sarvan and Maafi.

The police claimed all accused, except Anil, had been arrested. Maafi was produced in the court late evening and the others would be produced in the court tomorrow.

Rohtak, October 3
In the chain of shameful incidents of rapes in the state, a 12-year-old minor girl was allegedly raped by a middle-aged person at her house in the local Shastri Nagar colony here this noon.

The incident took place when the victim, a Class VI student, was alone in her house. Her father is an autorickshaw driver and mother a labourer. They were away to work when the accused, identified as Prakash Saini of the same locality, forced his entry into the house around 12.45 pm and raped her.

The incident came to light when an aunt of the girl who arrived from Gohana town knocked at the door. It is reported that the accused who was still inside the house at that time managed to flee.

The police has booked the accused. The girl was taken to the civil hospital for medical examination, which reportedly has confirmed the crime.

The accused, Prakash Saini, was arrested late in the evening.

Meanwhile, the women’s wing of the HJC staged a demonstration here today in protest against the rising incidents of crime against women in the state.

“The state government has no moral right to remain in power in view of the unabated spate of crimes, especially rapes, in the state in the recent past and the abject failure of the police administration to curb the crime,” said Kusum Sharma, president of the women’s cell of the party, who led the demonstration and submitted a memorandum to the district authorities.

Chandigarh, October 3
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today pulled up the police force and asked it to get its act together.

The rap on the police’s knuckles came at the first meeting of the State Police Board here today where the Chief Minister seemed upset at the recent spurt in the crime, particularly rape cases. “Any culprit involved in such heinous crimes would not be spared, Hooda told the meeting attended by the top brass of the police and the administration.

Hooda later reviewed the working of the police and various steps taken by it to maintain law and order.

Meanwhile, even as the Haryana Police is fighting with its back to the wall against the backdrop of the recent spurt in crime, RS Dalal, DGP, today came up with an unusual advisory to the parents asking them “to keep an eye on their boys” to check crime.

The parents usually did not give proper attention to their boys and remained unaware of their activities. There had been cases where young boys consumed liquor in the day and were involved in violent activities,” the police chief told the meeting.

However, Dalal preferred to pat the police force on the back, claiming that the number of rape cases in the state had fallen by 80 this year as compared to last year. “It is wrong to say that the number of such incidents has increased. The Haryana Police was very sensitive towards safeguarding women and children,” he quipped

Dalal seemed to blame the “unprecedented development” in the state for a surge in crime. With accelerated development in the wake of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, the challenges before the police have also become manifold, the top cop asserted.

He claimed the National Women Commission had expressed satisfaction over the prompt action taken by the police in the recent rape cases. 

Jind, October 3
In an unabated spate of crime against women in Haryana, another rape incident has surfaced in Narwana subdivision of Jind district. This time, a 26-year-old Dalit woman who became the victim of the lust of a man on Tuesday.

The accused, who was nabbed from the spot with the help of local people, was remanded in three days’ police custody by the local court this morning.

This is the third such incident in Jind, while the number of such cases across the state has reached seven in the past 40 days.

The shocking incident took place when the victim, a resident of Gurthali village, was being taken to another village on the pretext of meeting a relative. It is alleged that she was sent by her kin for selling her to some persons in Belarkha village. The victim was married to Leela of Gurthali a month back after she was allegedly trafficked from Bahna village of Kaithal district and sold for marriage.

Her husband is the brother-in-law of one of the accused in this case, Seeto Devi. According to the complaint lodged with the police, she was lured by the accused, identified as Dhanwa of the same village, to a field near Belarkha and raped while they were returning to Gurthali after visiting a relative in Belarkha.

It is learnt that she was taken to this village by the three accused identified as Dhanwa, Kala, son of Banta, and Seeto Devi, wife of Banta, on some pretext, but the deal to sell her did not materialise. “The victim was presented before some persons who had come from Singer village of Tohana subdivision of Fatehabad district, but they rejected her,” it is revealed. When she and the three accused were on their way back to the village in a vehicle, the accused got the vehicle stopped at a secluded spot and took her to a nearby field and raped her.

The driver, Gurtej, ran towards the village seeking help for the victim. The accused was nabbed by the locals who rushed to the spot. The rapist was beaten up and handed over to the police, said the police.

“We have arrested the three persons, including main accused Dhanwa. They were remanded to three days police custody by the court at Narwana,” said senior superintendent of police Saurabh Singh. He said Seeto Devi, sister-in-law of the victim, and her son Kala were the other two accused. They are Dalits. The medical examination of the victim has confirmed rape, said the police.

This is the third such incident in the past eight weeks in the district. The police had arrested five persons in connection with the gangrape of a married woman at Pillukhera last week. 

Hisar, October 2
The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) and the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) have extended the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme (VDS) for regularisation of unauthorized load up to October 31, an official spokesman said here.

The VDS for domestic, non-domestic, agriculture and industrial consumers in rural as well as urban areas to declare their unauthorised extension of load voluntarily without paying any penalty was to end on September 30.

Meanwhile, the DHBVN and the UHBVN propose to set up a control room in each operation circle for prompt redressal of consumer grievances and to keep consumers informed of the supply position .

This decision was taken at a meeting of senior DHBVN and UHBVN officers chaired by Devender Singh, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, here.

Devender Singh said the control rooms would be in addition to the call centre, where complaints can be registered by dialling toll-free telephone 18001801615, and the old system of complaint centres which was being revived. The control rooms would not only register the complaints of all rural as well urban consumers but also inform the public about the reasons for any power cut proactively through resident welfare societies.

He said that a new computer-based Consumer Grievance Redressal System (CGRS), launched by the DHBVN, would also be adopted by the UHBVN to enable consumers all over Haryana to register their grievances online.

Meanwhile, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) today assigned 38 11-KV feeders to its senior officers for improving services and quality of power supply within 45 days.

A DHBVN spokesman said here today that Chairman-cum-Managing Director Devender Singh himself had adopted 11-KV feeder Farukhnagar City in Gurgaon district. The Palla feeder in Faridabad had been assigned to the Director, Operations; City III/IV feeder Sohna in Gurgaon to the Director, Projects; Arya Naga in Hisar to the AMD, Taoru in Gurgaon to the CGM (M&P), Hansi City feeder in Hisar to the CGM/P&D; Bawal in Rewari to the CGM/Commercial, and Ballabhgarh-I in Faridabad to the CGM/MM, among others.

All officers will decide a strategy at their level, but it will be ensured that the renovation of the feeders is completed within 45 days. They will get worn out or under-size conductors replaced, maintain all distribution transformers, check accuracy of all existing meters, including replacement of all defective meters, relocation of meters, and regularise kundi (unauthorised) connections. 

Karnal, October 3
Alerted by the reported swine flu death of Preetpal Singh(29) at Dera Kuchpura village of the Nissing area in Karnal district, a team of doctors and other staff headed by the Civil Surgeon of Karnal General Hospital, has rushed to the village to take stock of the situation.

The medical team examined the victim’s family members and supplied temiflue and triple layer masks to 10 family members, prepared 62 slides of villagers and did fogging as a preventive step.

The Civil Surgeon asked Preetpal’s family members to report to the Karnal General Hospital in case of symptoms of cough, cold and fever. He said a separate isolation room had been set up for patients having symptoms of swine flu.

The medical officer of the Nissing Community Health Centre has been directed to rush suspected swine flu patients to the hospital and the health workers have been asked to keep a close watch on patients with influenza-like symptoms and visit their homes.

Jhajjar, October 3
The Gulia Khap, which is active in 24 villages of the Jhajjar region, in collaboration with a social outfit —Sailor Relief Fund (SRF) — will felicitate six human and civil right activists of Pakistan for their outstanding efforts in the social sector at an international sadhbhawna samaroh at Laadpur village here October 14.

“Ansar Burney, a former Pakistan Federal Minister for Human Rights and adviser to the UN Human Rights Council, will lead the Pakistan activist group,” said Sampa Arya, chairperson of the SRF, here today.

She maintained that this was for the first time in Haryana when a khap would honour foreign human right activists. 

Mahendragarh, October 3
The protest demonstration by residents of Jant and Pali villages for reservation in jobs and admissions in Central University being set up on their land today received a shot in the arm with Congress MP from Gurgaon Rao Inderjit Singh visiting the dharna site and extending support to the villagers.

Mincing no words, Rao Inderjit said the struggle being put up by the villagers was justified as they had given their land almost free of cost for the university, hoping that their children would get reservation in jobs and admissions there.

“However, the promise of providing reservation to the residents of these villages has been dishonoured,” said the MP.

The former union minister assured the protesting villagers that he would take up the matter with the central authorities concerned to get them their rightful due.

He urged the villagers to continue their dharna but let the construction work on the university campus continue. The villagers maintained that they would allow construction on the university campus for another 15 days.

It would be pertinent to mention here that the panchayats of Pali and Jant villages had leased out nearly 500 acres for the university at a token rate of Re 1 per acre per year on the promise of reservation in university jobs and admissions. However, when the villagers approached the university authorities in this regard, they were shown the door.

Tired of running from pillar to post for justice, the villagers decided to stage a dharna in support of their demands. The dharna began on July 30 but it failed to elicit any concrete and favourable response from the authorities concerned.

Sirsa, October 3
Watching village youths falling prey to intoxicants helplessly for years, some residents of Biruwalagura village have taken upon themselves the responsibility of making their village free from drugs causing addiction.

On the initiative of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Students Club, the village panchayat met in a dera on Gandhi Jayanti on Tuesday and took some decisions, which will go a long way to make Biruwalagura free from alcohol and drugs used for a kick.

The villagers called owners of medical stores and medical practitioners running clinics in the village at the meeting and asked them to take a solemn vow in front of them that they would not stock or sell any drugs, which are used for a kick.

The panchayat announced that anyone found selling intoxicants even after taking this pledge would have to pay fine of Rs 10,000 to the panchayat.

“Enough is enough. We have been helplessly watching our younger generation falling prey to intoxicants. Despite several complaints, the authorities have failed to take cognisance of our problem. Now, we have decided to end this menace on our own,” said Beant Singh, sarpanch of Biruwalagura.

The sarpanch said out of the fine of Rs 10,000 recovered from those found selling intoxicants, Rs 2,000 would be paid as reward to the person providing information of this illicit trade.

Hamjinder Singh, president of the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Students Club, said he was happy with the panchayat decision.

“We will ask our members to keep a vigil and assign them duties for this purpose,” he added.

In another move, the panchayat passed a resolution that the villagers did not want a liquor shop in Biruwalagura.

The sarpanch said the panchayat would send the resolution to the excise department, requesting it not to open any shop in the village.

Drug addiction of youths has been the bane of Sirsa villages, particularly those having proximity to Punjab.

Though the Food and Drug Administration has taken some steps to end the menace, the efforts of its officials have been limited to Sirsa, Dabwali and Kalanwali towns, leaving the drug stores and medical practitioners in villages sell intoxicants with impunity. 

Sirsa, October 3
A few days before the farmers were scheduled to harvest a bumper crop of cotton this season, the spread of red-leaf disease has come as a new cause of worry for them.

Farmers apprehend a fall in the overall production due to the disease characterised by the reddening of leaves.

The red-leaf disease has hit large areas of the crop in the Dabwali, Odhan, Rania and Ellenabad areas of Sirsa.

Bhagirath, a farmer from Nuhuanwali, said the disease had hit this area only in the past couple of days.

He said he and several other farmers like him have used pesticide to check the menace, but to no avail.

Devi Lal, another farmer, said the disease dries up the plants, thereby affecting the total production of the crop considerably.

Gurjeet Singh Mann, a progressive farmer from Kirpal Patti in Sirsa, said the outbreak of red-leaf disease is significant in the area, though it may not cause much damage to the crops at this stage.

He said the picking season had already begun and, hence, there may not be much damage to the final production.

Dr Dilip Monga, Principal Scientist and Head of the Regional Centre for Central Institute of Cotton Research in Sirsa, however, said the farmers need not worry much because of the reddening of leaves in their crops.

He said the red-leaf disease is generally found in Central Asia. It is caused due to a deficiency of certain micronutrients.

“The reddening of leaves in cotton crop in this part of the world is generally due to the senescence process, particularly if there is a fall in the temperature during maturing. The chlorophyll pigment that keeps leaves green converts into anthocyanin pigment, which leads to the leaves turning red,” he added.

He, however, said that if the reddening of leaves is accompanied by infestation with sucking pests, then it could cause much damage to the crop. 

Kurukshetra October 3
The police found a youth’s body near the Pipli mini zoo, 5 km from here, today. The victim has been identified as Sushil Kumar of Patel Nagar in Kaithal. The deceased’s father told the police that Sushil Kumar left Kaithal for Pehowa in his Alto car(HR08N-8722) on Monday morning but did not return home in the evening. 

He was informed by the Police that an Alto car was found abandoned near the Pipli mini zoo. He reached Pipli, identified the car but no clue was found to his son. However, the police told the victm’s father today about finding an unidentified body near the zoo. As the body was decomposed, it could be identified only from the victm’s clothes. Three mobile phones had been recovered from his car.

The police has sent the body for a postmortem examination. 

Ambala, October 3
Even though the NHRC and the Supreme Court have issued guidelines on handcuffing a prisoner while taking him to court or elsewhere, it seems that junior officers of the Ambala police are not fully aware of these.

The police brought a 66-year-old prisoner Jaipal to the Civil Hospital handcuffed from Ambala Central Jail after he complained severe pain in his chest in the wee hours on Tuesday, violating the guidelines. The handcuffs were not removed even during Jaipal’s medical examination.

According to the Supreme Court guidelines, the police cannot handcuff a criminal admitted to hospital unless permitted by a court

Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashok Kumar said he was not aware whether the police had sought permission from the court for handcuffing the sick prisoner or not.

He promised suitable action after probing the matter 

Karnal, October 3
Now, halwais preparing sweetmeats and milk products would have technology knowhow for making protein-rich, unadulterated products and kits for the detection of detergents and other residues in milk.

The National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), which has developed such techniques under the World Bank-funded National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP), has planned an interface with members of the Punjab Halwai Association at the Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), Ludhiana, to showcase new technologies for adding value to their products, besides making the products more hygienic and free from adulteration.

The major technologies developed by NDRI include rapid kits for the detection of detergents and other adulterants in milk, bacterial contamination, aflatoxim M1 and antibiotic residues in milk.

This kit would enable the dairy farmers and halwais to know whether the milk was adulterated or pure and free from bacteria.

The other technologies include the preparation of protein-rich iron-fortified biscuits, dietetic Masti dahi, cereal-based fermented beverage (rabadi), technology of feta cheese, ready-to-reconstitute kheer mix, rasmalai mix, basundi mix, Arjuna herbal ghee, reduced calorie naturally fermented dairy beverage, novel preservatives for enhancing the shelf life of food etc.

These will be displayed in the exhibition to be organised for the halwais, Dr A.K.Srivastav, director of NDRI, said.

Major technologies

* The major technologies developed by NDRI include rapid kits for the detection of detergents and other adulterants in milk.

* The kit would enable the dairy farmers and halwais to know whether the milk was adulterated or pure.

* The technologies include the preparation of protein-rich iron-fortified biscuits, dietetic Masti Dahi, cereal-based fermented beverage (rabadi), feta cheese, ready-to-reconstitute kheer mix, rasmalai mix, basundi mix, Arjuna herbal ghee, reduced calorie naturally fermented dairy beverage, novel preservatives etc

Fatehabad, October 3
The gochar land controversy of Dhingsara village in Fatehabad that led to some villagers showing black flags to MP Ashok Tanwar and chief parliamentary secretary Prahlad Singh Gillankhera last week, is threatening to cast its shadow on Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s proposed visit here on October 7.

The announcement by villagers that they would meet Hooda in connection with the controversy that has Gillankhera’s close kin at its centre has sent the authorities in a tizzy.

Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik today called a meeting of the farmers who have been agitating on this issue.

Earlier, Gillankhera met the villagers in the rest house at Bhuna last evening and discussed with them the way to end this imbroglio.

Kaushik said he had appealed to the farmers to avoid wasting their energy on the agitation and, instead, move the court to seek justice.

“I have also assured them that we will rectify whatever wrongs have been committed by some officials of the revenue department in this matter in the past,” Kaushik added.

A group of villagers from Dhingsara has been opposing Gillankhera for the alleged “encroachment of gochar land (village common land) worth several crore rupees with the connivance of some revenue officials” by his close realtives.

Gillankhera, however, has been maintaining that his kin were lawful owners of the land as they have a court verdict in their favour.

Things took a bad shape when Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar and Gillankhera, who were on a village tour on September 27, were shown black flags at Dhingsara.

The Gochar Bhumi Bachao Samiti, a group of farmers agitating to save the “village common land” from the alleged encroachment of Gillankhera’s kin, has now said they would meet Hooda, who along with Union Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Ajay Maken is scheduled to visit Dariyapur in Fatehabad to lay the foundation stone of a football academy.

Sirsa, October 3
The verbal orders of the mine and geology department permitting manufacturing of bricks to some select brick-kiln owners in Sirsa against its rules have raised many eyebrows.

The mysterious silence of the authorities in the department is making people smell something fishy.

In pursuance of the Punjab and Haryana High Court orders in a civil writ petition of 2012, the mine and geology department had issued notices to all brick-kiln owners, asking them not to operate the mining quarries before getting prior environmental clearance as per the environment impact assessment (EIA) notification of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The notice also said that legal action would be taken against them in case they operated their kilns without obtaining the EIA clearance.

Since obtaining environment clearance is a cumbersome process requiring more than a year, all 190 brick-kilns in Sirsa and nearly 3,000 in Haryana were yet to start their operations after they closed their units before the arrival of the monsoon, said those in the trade.

However, the brick-kiln owners were surprised when they noticed a new unit starting its activities near Modia Khera village.

Two others - one near Karamgarh and the other close to Poharka village - also started manufacturing bricks in the district in the last three days.

“We have been told by officials of the department that the brick-kilns were having old stocks of earth with them and that they were not mining now. However, their claims are difficult to believe because one of the units that started its activities is new and may have barely got a licence from the food and supplies department,” said Bhim Jhunthra of the Sirsa District Brick-Kiln Owners Association.

“If the claims of the departments are right, why don’t they issue written permission to these kilns?” Jhunthra added.

The association has demanded that a transparent policy be made in this regard, because if the officials were allowed to issue verbal permission for operations in the name of old stocks of earth, all would claim to possess last year’s stock.

Mahabir Singh, an inspector in the department said his boss RK Yadav, an assistant mining engineer who sits in Hisar, had issued the orders and only he could tell the reasons for granting permission.

Yadav, after he had listened to the query posed by The Tribune to seek his version, said he was in the washroom and would reply shortly.