Sirsa, October 12
A married woman was raped at Jalalana village in Sirsa while another allegedly became a victim of the crime at Bhuna in Fatehabad.

While the police has registered a case in the first case as the victim’s medical examination confirmed rape, the victim at Bhuna alleged she had been running from pillar to post since Thursday morning to lodge an FIR.

Devender Yadav, SP, Sirsa, said Jaskaran of Jalalanab had been booked in the first case.

“Hari Pal, alias Bandar, came to my house at midnight on Wednesday when my husband was away and raped me at knife-point,” alleged a 32-year-old married woman from Bhuna in Fatehabad.

The victim’s father-in-law, mother-in-law and other kin alleged they had been running from pillar to post for lodging an FIR but the police was refusing to do so on one pretext or the other.

Vikas Dhankhar, SP, Fatehabad, however, denied that the police had refused to register the FIR, maintaining that the victim’s family had given it in writing that it needed another day before getting an FIR registered.

Rohtak, October 12
The Mahila Morcha (women’s cell) of the Bharatiya Janata Party held a demonstration to lodge a protest against various issues, including the unabated crime against women, rising prices and LPG cylinder quota.

It was led by the national president of the Mahila Morcha, Smriti Irani, who later courted arrest along with hundreds of women supporters.

Irani blamed the policies and programmes of the UPA government at the Centre and the Congress government in the state for the problems faced by the common man on various fronts. Commenting on the quota of six gas cylinders for each family in a year, she said this had happened due to the faulty policies and corruption.

Lambasting the Hooda government on the issues of law and order and crime against women, the BJP leader alleged that the dubious land deals had left the field open for criminals.

Gurgaon, October 12
In what has raised doubts over the investigation into the alleged gangrape of a 6-year-old, the victim’s father has raised objection over the police registering an FIR against only one person while there were three were involved in the heinous act. Two of them were handed over to the police yesterday.

While the police complaint names one accused, a statement issued by the district administration today mentioned the girl having been raped by three men.

The victim’s father, a rickshaw puller of Laxman Vihar, along with activists of a local NGO met the deputy commissioner of police and claimed that they had already handed over two accused — Chhotu, alias Ravi Das, and Naresh — the police had registered a complaint against only Chhotu and claimed to have arrested him. But it had not mentioned the role of the other two accused.

“Two of the boys were caught from the scene and we handed them to the police. The third boy had managed to flee. But I found that police had tried to cover up the gang rape by naming only one accused and declaring him as being arrested. I want all three to be punished,” he said in a representation submitted to the police.

Neither the police nor the hospital authorities have officially confirmed same. The victim’s kin also alleged that police did not get the medical test conducted for the second accused last night.

Meanwhile, the girl is still in a state of shock. “She is not letting anybody touch her and screams a lot. Last night also she did not allow even the doctor to touch her which delayed her medical examination. A child having gone through this trauma can never be called fine,” said a doctor.

The six-year-old was allegedly lured by three neighbours yesterday and raped in a deserted room.

Sirsa, October 12
A married woman from the Khairpur locality of Sirsa, who lives in Malaut, Punjab, has been running from pillar to post since September 27 with a rape complaint against her husband’s kin and others.

The woman alleged that she was married in 2006 in Gurdaspur and a year later they shifted to Malaut. Her husband allegedly started forcing her to satisfy the carnal desires of his brother-in-law and some others and thrashed her if she resisted.

She said she called her mother and narrated her plight to her on September 22. Her mother brought her to Sirsa the next day.

The woman lodged a complaint with the police on September 27. Superintendent of police Devender Yadav marked her complaint to protection officer Sadhna Mittal under the Domestic Violence Act. In her report, Mittal has informed the police that the woman wanted action under the criminal law and not the Domestic Violence Act. The SP could not be contacted after Mittal’s report. — TNS

Gurgaon, October 12
The Haryana Power Utilities have launched a campaign to nail the major defaulters who owe more than Rs 1 lakh dues and arrears to the department concerned.

Sources say, the authorities concerned have shortlisted nearly 2,500 such defaulters, who owe Rs 75 to 80 crore to the power nigams.

Meanwhile, as part of the drive, the power officials cut the electricity connections of an ice-factory, which is owned by Gurgaon Mayor Vimal Yadav, for the non-payment of arrears amounting to Rs 36 lakh.

The department had disconnected power connections of nine other major defaulters of Gurgaon as well.

These include Jagjit Engineering (Rs 3.79 lakh), Eastern Medikit (Rs 3.41 lakh), Laxmi Industries (Rs 5.05 lakh), Bharti Cellular (Rs 2.29 lakh), Karan Singh of Gurgaon village (Rs 2.67 lakh), DHIR, Sector 37 (Rs 1.16 lakh), Ace Coli Varicaom (Rs 1.57 lakh), Rajesh Sharma (Rs 1.69 lakh) and Rajesh of Sector 37 (Rs 1.45 lakh), the sources added.

Gurgaon Mayor Vimal Yadav could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

"Reminder notices will be issued to the defaulters to clear the dues. If they fail to do so, the authorities concerned can issue orders to disconnect their power connections," the sources said.

So far, the move has shown positive results.

The state power corporations had recovered more than Rs 5 crore within a few days of launch of the drive.

As per the sources, many defaulters are turning up to pay their dues as the exercise to cut power connections of defaulters is being executed in some parts of the state.

According to the sources, two politicians of Faridabad area, including a state minister and a former MP, are also on the list of defaulters.

However, action against them could not be confirmed.

The sources only conceded that in a separate case, the power connection of a hotel belonging to relatives of a former minister had been cut owing to non-payment of dues.

Chandigarh, October 12
Frequent technical snags in the Chinese equipment used in the recently commissioned power plants of Haryana have forced the state government to scout for Chinese engineers to run these plants.

The state government now proposes to hire Chinese engineers to repair the Chinese machinery installed at the Yamunanagar and Khedar power plants . The state government has taken up the matter with the Centre to employ Chinese nationals.

Talking to The Tribune here today, Capt Ajay Yadav, Power Minister, said the government proposed to employ these engineers on contract for six to 12 months. “ We are trying to recruit those engineers who have worked with the suppliers of these Chinese equipment installed at these power plants,” he said.

It may be noted that ever since the commissioning of the two above-mentioned power plants, there have been numerous technical snags in the Chinese equipment.

There have been instances of bursting of valves and other equipment due to poor quality of material used in the two plants.

The Khedar plant has been consuming much higher levels of coal than was normally required by a thermal plant.

State government engineers are also finding it difficult to understand the drawings of boilers, turbines and auxiliaries as these are written in Mandarin language.

Yadav, however, ruled out any probe against the companies involved in setting up these plants for using “inferior” Chinese equipment.

Kaithal, October 12
Hundreds of dismissed employees of the Manesar plant of Maruti Udyog and Haryana government employees, including anganwari workers, under the banner of CITU and Haryana Sarv Karamchari Singh held a dharna outside the residence of Haryana Industries, Public Works and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala here today.

The union leaders blamed the government of ignoring their demands, forcing them to organise protests.

Their memorandum of demands include a judicial inquiry into the July 18 incident of violence in the Manesar plant, arrest of hundreds of employees and registration of criminal cases against the others. They also demanded the reinstatement of the dismissed employees and release of all those arrested. — OC

Chandigarh, October 12
A separate teacher education cadre for the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) and State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) will be constituted in the state.

A decision to this effect was taken at a review meeting of the Education Department held under the chairmanship of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Hooda announced that new DIET centres would be set up in Mewat, Palwal, Jhajjar and Fatehabad districts and Block Institutes of Education and Training in Ambala, Sirsa and Ratia of Fatehabad district.

Sirsa, October 12
None of the 25 civil judges (senior division) of the state who appeared in the written examination for four posts of additional sessions judges of the Haryana Superior Judicial Services, has been able to clear the test.

Of the 25 judges - seven of them chief judicial magistrates - 13 remained absent from the three examinations held for this purpose and were consequently awarded zero mark in each test.

Six were awarded zero mark in the aggregate, as they failed to secure a minimum of 40 per cent marks required for clearing the examination.

Six others were awarded 169.5, 83.5, 88, 183.5, 84 and 91.5 marks, respectively, in aggregate out of the total 600 marks and they too failed to qualify.

As per the results of the examination conducted on August 24, which is available on the website of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, a civil judge (senior division) posted at one district headquarters of Haryana could get merely 34, 30 and 41.5 marks out of 200 each in the three papers of civil law-I, civil law-II and criminal law.

The maximum marks secured by a judge in a paper are 102 out of 200 in the criminal law paper. The judge, who is posted as chief judicial magistrate, managed to clear the paper of civil law -I too, though by securing merely 81.5 out of 200 mark, he failed to clear the civil law -II paper and, hence, failed in the aggregate.

Similarly, another chief judicial magistrate cleared the civil law-I and criminal law papers by securing 80 and 89.5 marks, respectively, but he failed in the civil law -II test scoring only 70 marks in this paper.

Ballabgarh, October 12
The police has shut the case of the suspected rape of a woman by an assistant sub-inspector posted at the Police Lines on Wednesday as there was no complaint.

The police said the woman was admitted to the Civil Hospital because she had consumed sleeping pills after being allegedly manhandled by the wife of a policeman at her house in Tirkha Colony.

Deputy commissioner of police Raj Kumar Vashisth said she left her house after consuming the pills and does not remember anything after reaching Sector 2, where she was found unconscious at midnight.

The woman was admitted to the Civil Hospital at 12.40 am. However, mysteriously her relative shifted her to a private institute at about 4 am without getting the medical test conducted for rape.

The hospital in charge, Dr Rajiv Batish, evaded a reply on the matter.

Chandigarh, October 12
The Haryana Government has transferred six IAS officers with immediate effect.

Ashok Khemka, Director-General, Consolidation of Holdings, Land Records, Special Collector (Headquarters) and Special Land Acquisition Officer, becomes Managing Director, Haryana Seeds Development Corporation, in place of Vikas Yadav, who goes as Joint Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management and Health Departments and Director, Consolidation of Holdings, Land Records, Special Collector (Headquarters) and Special Land Acquisition Officer.

Anil Malik, Managing Director, HAFED, will also look after the work of Director, Sports and Youth Affairs, against a vacant post.

Arun Kumar Gupta, awaiting orders of posting, has been posted as Director-General and Special Secretary, Secondary Education, vice A. Sreenivas, who has proceeded on leave.

Subhash Chandra, Special Secretary, Irrigation Department; MD, HSMITC and Administrator, CADA, has been posted as Secretary, State Human Rights Commission, against a vacant post.

Brijendra Singh, awaiting orders of posting, will be MD, Haryana Warehousing Corporation.

Meanwhile, Yash Pal, HCS, awaiting order of posting, has been posted as General Manager, Haryana Roadways, Faridabad, relieving DR Kundu. -- TNS