Sonepat, October 13
The Jat Khap Mahapanchayat held here today failed to take any decision on lowering of girls’ age for marriage and demanded the amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act to curb the increasing incidents of crime against women.

The khap representatives held the electronic and print media responsible for targeting them for no fault of theirs and explained that the decisions taken in the khap panchayats were not individual decision but collective in the interest of families concerned and society.

The representatives said the rise in crime against women, especially, rapes to the obscene content were being broadcasted by television and published in various magazines. The media should understand that the role of the khap panchayats was to preserve culture and promote brotherhood in society.

Reservation for Jats was another topic of debate in the mahapanchayat and it decided to convene a meeting of all Jat khaps on October 19 at Jind to discuss the issue. Representatives of the Arakshan Sangharsh Samitis would also be invited to participate in the Jind Mahapanchayat.

A number of the khap representatives criticised the state government for not doing enough to push reform suggested by the khap panchayat in the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. They suggested that if such reforms were incorporated in the Hindu Marriage Act, then the number of rapes would definitely be checked.

While debating on rape cases, the representatives said these cases were happening with the girls of every caste and to discuss on this issue, a separate meeting of the Sarv Khap Mahapanchayat would be convened.

Nafe Singh Nain, president of the Sarv Khap Mahapanchayat, presided the panchayat, which was also addressed by Baljit Singh Malik, Dada of Gathwala (Malik) Khap, Sube Singh Samain, president of Samain Khap and spokesperson of Sarv Khap Mahapanchayat, Om Parkash Mann, the president of Jat Mahasabha. OP Dhankhar, the president of Dhankhar Khap, Santosh Dahiya, president of the women wing of the khap panchayat and professor in Kurukshetra University.

Kaithal, October 13
The court of additional district and sessions judge R. S. Choudhary, Kaithal, in a rare judgment passed here today sentenced a rapist to life imprisonment and ordered that he will remain in jail till death.

The court also fined him Rs 25,000 and directed the state government to pay Rs 1 lakh as financial assistance to the victim girl within one month of the passing of the order.

The rapist was a neighbour of the victim and related to her.

Superintendent of police Kuldip Singh said here today that the woman, a resident of Bhuna village of this district, used to work as a safai karamchari in a school. The woman had to go somewhere on December 26, 2010 for some domestic urgency and her daughter went to school to perform the job of her mother in her absence. The accused Shyama, alias Daddi, her neighbour and also a relative was present in the school. When the girl was cleaning the room, the accused bolted the room from inside and raped the girl under threat to life and fled the spot.

After investigation, the police arrested the accused on January 22 and filed a challan in the court of additional sessions judge, Kaithal, on March 11 , 2011.

After examining witnesses, perusing the evidence and hearing arguments, the court held the accused guilty of rape under Section 376 and awarded him life sentence and fine. The court also held the accused guilty of threatening the victim under Section 506, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced him to seven years.

The court ordered that the accused will remain in jail till he was alive.

Sirsa, October 13
A 17-year-old girl from Ther Mohalla of Sirsa town has been knocking every door in the district police for lodging an FIR against three youths, who, she alleges, raped her for several days. The police has, however, termed the victim’s allegations as baseless.

In her complaint, the victim as well as her mother have alleged that a youth from Kharkhara village of Hisar, whom the family has known for the past some months, kidnapped her after offering her a cold drink laced with some intoxicants.

She alleged that the accused and his two other accomplices raped her for 14 days before dropping her at Sirsa on Wednesday when she accompanied her mother to the police station.

The girl has met superintendent of police (SP) Devender Yadav as well as other officials in the district police, but the police is yet to give her justice.

The SP said the city police station has the details of this case.

Dalip Singh, station house officer (SHO) of the Sirsa City police station, however, said that the police had not found the girl’s statement to be reliable.

Asked whether the police has got the girl examined medically, the SHO said there was no need for it when her statement was not prima facie worthy of trust.

Chandigarh, October 13
Close on the heels of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s visit to the state, a 30-member parliamentary committee, constituted for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs), will visit the four “rape-prone” districts, Kaithal, Jind, Jhajjar and Rohtak, on October 17 to make an assessment of the crime situation, particularly against Dalit women.

To be headed by Lok Sabha MP Gobind Singh Nakar, the team will visit and meet the rape victims and their families and prepare a detailed report to be submitted to the Central Government. Three MPs from Punjab, Mohinder Singh Kaypee, Santosh Chaudhary and Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, and one MP from Haryana Ishwar Singh will be a part of the team, a senior functionary of the state government said.

However, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his cabinet colleagues have failed to visit any of rape victims’ families except Sacha Khera (Jind) when they accompanied Sonia Gandhi.

The state government, on the other hand, is putting up a brave face saying that measures, including special helpline for women, creation of a special post of the ADGP (crime against women) and the state’s government’s request to the Punjab and Haryana High Court to create fast track courts for trying crime against women would be put forth before the committee.

Jind, October 13
Stung by the criticism over the spate of incidents of rape in the state, the district administration has directed the sarpanches to form committees which would keep an eye over anti-social type of elements in their respective villages and submit a report at regular intervals to the authorities concerned so that such incidents could be prevented.

With at least three cases of rape in the past one month, the visit of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to the house of a victim recently seems to have built a pressure on the state government to take steps. The Deputy Commissioner, at a meeting with the sarpanches here today, directed that special committees at the village level having the participation of women and girls be formed. They would keep an eye on the movement of anti-social elements in the village.

The panchayats have been asked to talk to the parents of youths in the habit of loitering and if they fail to heed to their warning, their names could be passed on to the police. The panchayats have also been asked to speed up the work of construction of toilets in the houses so that the women were not forced to go the fields to attend to the call of nature.

Gurgaon, October 13
If the Hooda-led Congress government in Haryana feels that it has received enough bashing over issues pertaining to atrocities on Dalits, it may have to think again.

In a queer development, residents of Sihi, a Dalit-dominated village located on the outskirt of Gurgaon city, have alleged that they have been deprived of adequate electricity supply due to the “biased attitude” of the authorities concerned.

Their allegations seem to hold ground in view of the fact that of the 38 villages of the district that were brought under the ambit of the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG), Sihi is the only village which has not been connected to an urban power feeder/substation.

“All our neighbouring villages, including Kherki Daula, Narsinghpur, Mohammadpur and others, have been getting round-the-clock power supply for the past several months. However, we get electricity only for a few hours as our village is yet to be attached to some urban power substation,” laments former village sarpanch Surender Kumar.

The panchayats of the 38 villages had been dissolved after these were brought under the jurisdiction of the MCG.

Thanks to the move, all of the 37 other villages have been attached to urban power substations and are getting electricity supply on urban pattern.

On the other hand, the residents of Sihi village -- having a population of nearly 1,200 mainly comprising inhabitants of Scheduled Castes and Backward Castes -- have only got assurances in this regard.

“We have not got our due because we are Dalits. We have no clout, no political connections, and hence, no power,” said Sihi nambardar Sunder Lal while talking to The Tribune.

The sarpanch, nambardar and other prominent residents of the village assert that they have been running from pillar to post to get their due, but to no avail.

Gurgaon Superintending Engineer (Operations) Sanjeev Chopra, on being told about the situation, said the matter was not in his knowledge.

“Now that I have come to know about it, I will get it examined and ensure that Sihi village gets its due at the earliest,” he said.

Gurgaon, October 13
The power distribution system in 36 towns of Haryana having a population of more than 30,000 will be renovated and strengthened under the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (RAPDRP) of the Central Government.

This was revealed at a meeting held under the chairmanship of Devender Singh, Chairman and Managing Director of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, here today.

Execution of part A of the project was discussed at the “pre-kick-off meeting” in which all senior officers of the two utilities, including directors, chief engineers and superintending engineers, participated.

Devender Singh informed that the RAPDRP would be executed in two parts. Under part A, the power distribution system would be made information technology (IT)-based while under Part B, the power distribution system in the towns would be strengthened and renovated.

Under part A, the nigams plan to give a strong information technology base to the electricity distribution system by way of consumer indexing, GIS and asset mapping, metering of feeders and distribution transformers, automatic data logging, feeder segregation, ring fencing, information technology applications, establishment of base line data system, etc. Part B of RAPDRP, Devender Singh said, covered renovation, modernisation and strengthening of 11-kv level by way of addition of distribution transformer, re-conductoring of lines at 11-kv level and below, feeder segregation/bifurcation, HVDS by way of using aerial bunched cable in thickly populated areas etc.

The 36 towns include Hisar, Dabwali, Narnaul, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Hansi, Hodal, Palwal, Barwala, Rewari, Ellenabad, Sirsa, Tohana, Fatehabad, Faridabad and Gurgaon in the area of the DHBVN and Ambalacantonment, Ambala City, Panchkula, Kalka, Jhajjar, Bahadurgah, Kaithal, Cheeka, Jind, Narwana, Karnal, Gharaunda, Thanesar, Pehowa, Shahbad, Sonipat, Gohana, Rohtak, Yamunanagar and Panipat in the area of the UHBVN.

Yamunanagar/Ambala, October 13
The financial constraint faced by Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) has led to a crisis-like situation at the state thermal plants.

According to the daily report of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the coal stock at the 1320-MW Jhajjar thermal plant is 42,000 tonnes which is just sufficient for two days. At the 1,200-MW Khedar thermal, the coal stock is of about 1 lakh tonnes which is would last six days only. Even at NTPC’s 1000-MW Jhajjar thermal plant, the coal stock would not last more than two days. According to official sources within the HPGCL, the reason for less receipt of coal at thermal plants was non-payment by the power utility.

The state-owned Coal India has turned down the power utility's request for enhancing the coal linkage from 4.5 million tonness (MT) to 5.48 MT for 2012-13. The power utility had also requested for the conversion of coal grade from 'F' to 'D' for its 2x600 MW Khedar Thermal Power Plant, which had also been denied, the sources said.

The Panipat Thermal Plant also faces coal shortage as the present coal stock of 1,34,000 MT at Panipat is just sufficient for seven days. The power utility has already sought allocation of 1.6 MT of additional coal for the thermal project, the sources said.

Meanwhile, the 300 MW Unit 2 at the Yamunanagar thermal plant which suffered turbine damage on September 25, last year, is likely to be revived with in this month. The rotor was got repaired at the Siemens workshop at Baroda which cost the power utility about Rs 5 crore.

The 300-MW Unit 1 of the plant which had also suffered failure of turbine blades on March 31 was sent to China by sea in June for repair. The turbine blades could not be repaired in India as the Chinese firm has no repairing facility in India.