Fatehabad, October 19
Divergent versions have come in inquiries conducted by two different government authorities on the allegations that a 13-year-old rape victim and her two sisters were shown the door by a government school after it came to light that she was raped by a villager for over five months at Khai village in Fatehabad district.

A five-member fact-finding team comprising Renu, district child protection officer (institutional care), Surjeet Singh, protection officer (non-institutional care), Brijesh, legal-cum-probation officer, Savina, social and outreach worker, and an advocate empanelled with the District Legal Service Authority (DLSA) met the victim, her father, village sarpanch and headmaster of the government school at Khai and recorded their statements.

Harish Gupta, Chief Judicial Magistrate - cum - Secretary, DLSA, had ordered the probe on the complaint of the victim’s father.

The team met the victim’s father at a Ratia hospital, where he was being treated for depression, vertigo and hypertension.

As per the report submitted to Gupta today, the victim’s father alleged that he was pressurised to take away his daughters from the school on October 6.

Later, on October 17, the Block Education Officer and some others took him and his three daughters to another school at nearby Bara village, where they were offered fresh admission.

He, however, said he had no problem with his daughters reading in the new school now.

The sarpanch as well as the school authorities maintained that the girls were issued their school leaving certificates on their own request.

Earlier, the District Education Officer Manju Gupta had conducted an inquiry and found that the school was not at fault and the victim’s father had withdrawn his daughters from the school on his own.

Meanwhile, SDM Harish Bhatia also started a parallel probe on this issue on the orders of Additional Deputy Commissioner Rajiv Rattan today.

Bhatia said he had already recorded statements of the school headmaster and the sarpanch and he would meet the victim’s father on Monday.

Karnal, October 19
“Run, yell and tell” is the catchword provided to women by the Karnal police to thwart any attempt to rape and a 24x7 women helpline (09729990770) in place to help them against any atrocity or crime, superintendent of police, Karnal, Sushank Anand, said today.

As many as 38 cases of rape were reported up to October 17 and in all of them, the accused have been arrested. The girls, especially minor girls, need to be told not to trust even the close relatives as the accused were family members or known persons in most of the cases, he said.

Concerned over the number of rape cases being reported everyday in the state, Karnal Deputy Commissioner Renu S. Phuliya said there was a need to create awareness among the masses on sensitive issues. She said a week-long “sensitisation” drive would be launched during which district, block and other officers and functionaries of Panchayati Raj institutions, anganwari workers and mahila mandals would play a proactive role to educate the masses.

The security of women would be an important part of the drive, aimed at making society and individuals responsible towards their duties and obligations.

The DC also stressed the need to educate the youth in schools and colleges about basic etiquettes and stress should be on character building. She also called for keeping a strict vigil on eve-teasers to instill confidence among girls and women

Kurukshetra, October 19
Despite India’s socio-economic advances, harassment of women by men is a serious issue. The problem is also accepted by UNESCO, said Lt-Gen DS Sandhu, Vice-Chancellor, Kurukshetra University, at a programme on “Sensitisation against eve-teasing and sexual assaults on women” today in the university auditorium.

“The best way to sensitise society is to start at the level of an individual. You are among 13 per cent of India’s youth who are privileged to have higher education. It is imperative to take a lead in spreading the awareness further,” Dr Sandhu exhorted the about 3000 KU students participating in the programme.

District police chief Rakesh Arya said it was important to report incidents of eve-teasing or harassment so that guilty are prosecuted. — TNS 

Chandigarh, October 19
Two Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) Estate Officers are in the contempt loop over allegations of wrongly denying senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka his right to apply for a plot under the service quota.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued show-cause contempt notices to the two. The notice came after the Haryana government admitted its mistake. In fact, an attempt made by the HUDA counsel to save its officers by admitting the mistake did not find favour with a Division Bench. Not taking a lenient view, the Bench minced no words to hold that the "mistake" was intentional.

Following an advertisement issued by HUDA in 2010 for plots, Khemka had applied for plots under the serving government employee quota at three districts- Faridabad, Palwal and Bahadurgarh.

Though Khemka’s application was considered in Faridabad under the said quota, the same application was considered in the general category at Palwal and Bahadurgarh by the HUDA officials.

The Bench headed by Justice Jasbir Singh on the previous date of hearing had issued notices to former Administrator of HUDA, asking him to explain why contempt proceedings be not initiated against him for filing a false affidavit.

The then Administrator, in an affidavit before the high court, had claimed that Khemka had applied under the general category and that his petition was bereft of merit. After Khemka’s counsel contested the same, the court summoned the original record. On October 7, it was conceded by the HUDA counsel that Khemka had applied for the government quota.

During the hearing, Khemka told the court that the HUDA authorities deliberately informed him of his application status a week after the draw in order to ensure that he was deprived of applying under the government quota.

The draws of lots in Palwal and Bahadurgarh were to take place from June 21 to June 25. Khemka alleged it was on June 29 that he was informed that his application has been considered in the general category. But, HUDA in its written reply has claimed that the letter was dispatched on June 18.

Chandigarh,October 19
On the back foot after the October 15 order of whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka cancelling the mutation of the Rs 58-crore Robert Vadra-DLF Shikohpur (Manesar) land deal, the Hooda government has failed to name the members of the inquiry committee constituted to look into the issues raised by the officers even after four days.

Though the inquiry committee reportedly headed by Krishna Mohan, Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management, was constituted on October 16 following the orders of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, there is officially no word on the composition of the inquiry committee which was to have two senior officers of the state government besides the Additional Chief Secretary.

The inquiry committee, which is mandated to look into the legality of actions taken by officials concerned, including acts of omission and commission, will submit its report within a month.

Sources said the state government was in the process of framing the terms of reference for the committee which would inquire into various aspects of the cancellation of the mutation of the “high-profile” deal.

Khemka was shunted from the post of Haryana’s Director-General of Land Consolidation and Land Records-cum-Inspector-General of Registration allegedly for probing land deals involving Vadra. On October 12, Khemka issued a letter formally ordering an inquiry across the four districts of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Palwal and Mewat into the “alleged under-valuation of some properties registered by Robert Vadra or his companies as vendor or vendee.”

Incidentally, Vadra was transferred by the state government on October 11 night but joined office in the afternoon of October 15 after passing the Shikohpur land cancellation order.

Khemka cancelled the mutation of the 3.531- acre plot that Vadra’s company, M/s Sky Light Hospitality, which he had sold to DLF on September 18, 2012. In his order, he said the mutation violated the States Consolidation Act and was done not by a revenue officer but by the Assistant Consolidation Officer of Gurgaon who was not competent to do so.

In fact, Khemka dared the stakeholders -- Haryana Government, Vadra and DLF -- to approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court if the order was not proper. Since the order was quasi-judicial in nature, only the high court was competent to take a decision on this, sources said. 

Chandigarh,October 19
Government employees in Haryana will not be able to default on their electricity bills now. The Power Department has come up with a new policy under which the departments concerned would be responsible for recovery of arrears from the defaulting employees.

Under the new policy, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) and the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) have decided to put in place an institutional mechanism to ensure timely payment of electricity bills by government employees and recover power bill arrears.

Sources said a proper management information system (MIS) would be implementated under which an individual code would be given to each employee under the existing system of .billing .

While the employees of the Power Department will be given GEP as the code, employees of the state government and state government undertakings would be under the GES code. Central government employees will be under the GEC code. The executive engineers (operations) concerned would be responsible for the identification of government employees as per the codes for monitoring the payment of power bills.

In the first phase, the code of employees belonging to the Power Department is being fed into the billing database. In the second phase, connections of the employees of other departments will be codified. In the third phase, employees of the Central Government will be codified. The mechanism is likely to be ready within three months.

The codification of government employees will be renewed every year in March/April.

Karnal, October 19
Strengthening of the seed sector to enhance production and overcoming the challenge posed by shortage of farm labour are the two major problems to be addressed in the agriculture sector, said Dr KS Khokhar, Vice-Chancellor, Chaudhary Charan Singh Hisar Agriculture University, Hisar.

Inaugurating the inter-institutional annual convention of various institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) located in Haryana and organised by the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Dr Khokhar said agricultural universities and state departments had provided a platform to strengthen inter-institutional interface and Karnal was acting as a hub for such interface.

“The institutes of the ICAR have national significance and these institutions are expected to address the needs of the states as being done by the state agricultural universities,” he added. Director, NDRI, Dr AK Srivastava stressed on establishing linkages in crop production, marketing and consumer need was essential for overall growth and development in the rural areas and underlined the need of irrigation facilities in the rain-fed areas to benefit farm families.

Focusing on the growth and development in the livestock sector, Dr Srivatava said 70 per cent of the milk produced in the country comes from marginal and landless families having two to four dairy animals and therefore special focus should be made on such segments in terms of dairy production technologies.

He called for carrying out cloning of dairy animals at various bull farms to have elite bulls and said the country required 47 million doses for carrying out artificial insemination. A special session for the farmers-industry interaction was also organized in which progressive farmers, entrepreneurs and experts from the industry interacted and shared their views. — TNS

Rohtak, October 19
The controversy over the land deals involving Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has generated fresh political heat between the ruling Congress and the main opposition party, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).

The latter today burnt the effigies of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Rahul Gandhi after a protest by Congress supporters on Thursday. Congress leader Sampat Singh denied the INLD charges.

Hundreds of INLD activists took out a procession and burnt an effigy of Rahul Gandhi and Hooda on the issue of alleged defacing of the statue of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal and the reaction of Congress workers over the statement of Om Prakash Chautala regarding the alleged evasion of stamp duty in a land deal involving Rahul Gandhi.

Earlier, the opposition parties in the state had lambasted the ruling party and the government for the action taken against a senior IAS officer over the land deal involving Robert Vadra, son-in-law of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The youth wing of the party staged a protest, demanding an enquiry by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court into allegations of evasion of stamp duty regarding the land deal involving Rahul Gandhi.

On the reported defacement of Devi Lal’s statue in New Delhi, they demanded an apology within 48 hours.

The Youth Congress workers had described the allegations levelled by Chautala regarding the evasion of stamp duty as derogatory and defamatory and burnt the effigy of the INLD supremo at various places in the state on Thursday.

Meanwhile, senior state Congress leader and MLA from Nalwa Sampat Singh denied the charges of evasion of stamp duty in the purchase of about 6.5 acres of land in Hassanpur village of Hodal in March, 2008. He said both Rahul and the person from whom he had bought the land had paid stamp duty per the collector rate prevailing at that time.

Sonepat: INLD activists burnt an effigy of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here in protest against

the blackening and tearing of rally posters carrying a photograph of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal.

INLD leaders said such activities would not be tolerated by the party.

Kurukshetra: Youth INLd workers led by Ladwa MLA Sher Singh Badshami took out a procession and burnt effigies of Rahul Gandhi and Bhupinder Singh Hooda near Maharana Pratap Chowk here .

Addressing the protesters, Badshami alleged while the Sonia Gandhi family was involved in land scams, Hooda had tried to save his post by helping in finalising the deal between DLF and Robert Vadra.

Addressing INLD district unit office-bearers at Jat Dharamshala here, the INLD women wing president Sheela Bhayana alleged that the Haryana Government had no right to remain in power because it had miserably failed in checking gang rapes in the state.

Faridabad: Activists of the INLD youth wing burnt an effigy of Rahul Gandhi in protest against Om Prakash’s allegation that the Congress leader had evaded stamp duty on purchase of land in Hassanpur village in Palwal They took out a funeral procession with Rahul Gandhi’s effigy from BK Chowk to Neelam Chowk before consigning it tothe flames. Theyalso raised slogans against Gandhi and Chief Minister Hooda.

Sirsa: INLD youth wing activists torched effigies of Rahul Gandhi and Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Sirsa and Fatehabad The party workers organised a protest march shouting slogans against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Robert Vadra and Hooda before burning the effigies Jaswinder Sandhu, district president of the Indian National Student’s Organisation (INSO), said in Fatehabad that the INLD would continue exposing those sitting at the helm in the Centre.

Kurukshetra, October 19
“The choice of a poverty line should reflect the cost of achieving basic human needs,” said Prof N Kakwani, New South Wales University, Sydney, Australia, while inaugurating a two-day international seminar on “Poverty in Developing Countries: Challenges and Policy Options” here today.

The seminar was organised by the Department of Economics, Kurukshetra University, and co-sponsored by George Washington University, Washington DC.

Prof Kakwani said different individuals require different resources to achieve basic capabilities. He made a case for new measures of poverty in terms of capability, deprivation and income approach.

A scholar of international repute working on poverty, Prof Stephen Smith, George Washington University, spoke on “The scale and scope of human deprivation — Why research and action for ending poverty remains a priority”, based upon his book, ‘Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works’.

Lt-Gen (retd) Dr DDS Sandhu, Vice-Chancellor, Kurukshetra University, said: “To get rid of all problems associated with poverty, we need to control population.” He quoted Malthus for making a strong case for population control more forcefully.

Prof Ashok Mittal of Aligarh Muslim University made a case for prevention of food adulteration through initiatives for foodstuffs of quality and quantity to reach the right places and persons at the right time at affordable cost.

A book, ‘Economics of Human Resource Development in India’, authored by Dr MM Goel, professor of economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kurukshetra University, was also released.

Prof James Foster from George Washington University, USA, Prof Rohini Somanthan from Delhi School of Economics, Prof Amaresh Dubey from Jawaharlal Nehru University and Prof Halima S Rizvi from Jamia Millia Islamia, Prof Lakhwinder Singh, Panjabi University, Patialala, Dean Academic Affairs Prof Girish Chopra, Prof TR Kundu, Prof VN Attri, Prof TL Jain, Prof RK Rana were present on the occasion.

Yamunanagar, October 19
Deputy Commisisoner Ashok Sangwan today asked Raj Narayan Kaushik, SDM, Jagadhri, to probe the ouster of a Dalit family from their native Amadalpur village over the inter-caste marriage of its son with a Rajput girl

Sangwan said he had also asked district welfare officer Satnaam Singh to get in touch with Gulab Singh’s family currently putting up at Bakana village and submit a report after ascertaining if there had been any violation of the SC/ST Act.

Sangwan said action as per the law would be taken if anyone was found guilty of violating the fundamental rights of the family.

The family of Gulab Singh, who works as a sweeper in the Amadalpur government school was forced to leave the village after his son, Arvind, married Shikha, a Rajput girl. The two eloped on July 7 this year.

It was learnt that Shikha had been living with her paternal uncles in the village. After she eloped with Arvind, they initially refused to take any action against Arvind’s family. But this did not go down well with the dominating Rajput community in the village, which convened a panchayat. The panchayat forced Gulab Singh to leave his ancestral village.

Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Arvind and Shikha, who have been facing threat to life, are not known. 

Jhajjar, October 19
Two middle-aged men were found murdered in fields of Rohad village under Bahadurgarh subdivision in the district today. The deceased have been identified as Raj Karan, 45, and Rajbeer Singh, 50, both residents of the village.

The police has registered a case of murder against unidentified persons under Section 302 of the IPC on the complaint of Raj Karan’s son Ravinder in this regard.

The incident came to light in the morning when Ravinder went to the fields and spotted his father, Raj Karan, and Rajbeer dead near a mobile phone tower. He immediately informed the village sarpanch and the police about the incident.

Bahadurgarh Sadar Police Station SHO Vijay Dahiya immediately rushed to the spot and sent the bodies bearing injury marks on their heads to Civil Hospital for post-mortem examination. Later, a team of forensic experts also visited the spot and collected some samples from there.