Mahendragarh, October 30
Traders as well as professionals observed a complete bandh in the town today to register their protest against the recent armed attack on a local trader, Bishan Dayal Saraf, who was stabbed and looted by miscreants a few days ago. Saraf has been receiving treatment at a private hospital in Rewari.

The bandh call evoked a massive response as local markets remained closed during the day. Even establishments like nursing homes, clinics, medicine shops and petrol stations remained shut.

The protesters marched through the entire town and submitted a memorandum addressed to the Haryana Governor to Ombir Singh, ASP. The ASP assured the protesters that the culprits would be arrested expeditiously. In the memorandum, local traders and other prominent residents have appealed to the Governor to intervene in the matter and ensure justice.

The protesting residents said the town, which used to be a peaceful place till recently, had now become a hot spot of looting, extortion, gang wars and other criminal activities.

"While the local MLA and other leaders owing allegiance to the ruling party remain indifferent to the rising incidents of crime in the town, the local police administration is also a mute spectator ," the protesters maintained.

Local municipal councillor Surender, alias Bunty, who had been assigned the responsibility of spearheading the demonstration by local traders' associations, said if the culprits were not nabbed by November 3, they would block the Dadri-Narnaul highway passing through the town on November 4.

Some protesters directly accused the local MLA and other leaders of shielding and patronising criminal elements.

Gurgaon, October 30
The Gurgaon traffic police and the expressway constructor, DGSCL, were at loggerheads again today following a massive traffic jam at the toll plaza which left both commuters and traffic managing officials fuming and fighting with each other.

High drama was witnessed around 9 am today as hundreds of cars coming from Delhi queued up at the toll plaza, waiting to enter Gurgaon. Though the queue extended beyond the prescribed red line, traffic officials and the toll authorities did not lift the barriers but started to stagger the lines which led to more confusion and a protest which worsened the situation.

People started pouring into the lanes from all sides and a majority refused to pay the toll, insisting that because their cars were out of the red line, they be allowed free access as per the court order.

The traffic police officials failed to deal with the chaos and many of them had heated altercations with commuters and some were even roughed up though no official FIR has been registered against anybody.

The traffic police has, meanwhile, held the DGSCL responsible for the chaos which, it claims, has become an everyday affair.

In a letter sent to the company, the traffic department has blamed it for not abiding by the court directive.

“The court orders clearly state that when queues cross the red line the barriers have to be lifted and cars allowed to go toll-free to avoid congestion. The company does not obey the order despite our repeated reminders and warnings. Even today they refused to lift the barriers and forced us to help them in staggering the lanes which led to utter chaos. We have sent it a final ultimatum today and written to the court,” said a senior police official.

When contacted, additional commissioner police (traffic) Ravinder Tomar confirmed that the letter was being sent but refused to divulge details, saying matter was sub judice.

“We have videographed today’s jam and will submit it in the court. I cannot say anything else,” he said.

While the DGSCL chose to be tightlipped about issue, a senior official, on the condition of anonymity, said, “All orders are being followed in toto. It is the failure of police which it is trying to cover up. There was jam but the problem was solved after staggering the line. We will reply to their letter in court.” 

Chandigarh, October 30
The Haryana government today ordered an inquiry into the award of the Rs 300-crore contract for the augmentation of water supply in Haryana to Jindal Saw Limited (JSL) on a representation of six leading manufacturers of the ductile pipes (DI).

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has directed the Public Health Engineering Department to examine the representation by the aggrieved DI manufacturers regarding the finalisation of the annual rate contract. Any further action in this regard would be kept pending, official sources said here today.

In a memorandum to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, six DI pipe manufacturing firms -- Tata Metaliks Limited, Electrosteel Castings Limited, Electrotherm(India) Limited, Jai Balaji Industries Limited, Rashmi Metaliks Limited and Lanco Industries Limited -- had alleged several irregularities in the finalisation of the tender in favour of JSL by a high-powered purchase committee at its meeting on October 8 here.

“While letters were sent to all bidders to be present, they were not called in front of the committee members to present their case,” the memorandum, reported by The Tribune on October 27, said. It demanded a review of the annual rate contract to the single party for timely completion of the critical drinking water projects.

The memorandum questioned the rationale of awarding the annual rate contract to a single firm as last year five firms, incldiung JSL, could not supply material worth Rs 500 crore in time. This time, the total value of the annual rate contract is expected to go up to Rs 700 crore against the backdrop of several ongoing water augmentation schemes in the state.

“The state’s interests would be safeguarded if uninterrupted supplies are ensured by having more parties on the annual rate contract for timely completion of critical drinking water projects,” the memorandum had demanded.

Sirsa, October 30
The “reverse tracking of anaemia”, a scheme to fix accountability in cases of failure to provide iron and folic acid treatment to women during their pregnancies, has started showing results as nearly 100 cases have been reported in the past four months by the health authorities in the district where women with severe anaemia have come for deliveries in government hospitals.

“We reported 21 cases in June, 29 in July, 27 in August and 22 cases of anaemia in September,” said Dr Viresh Bhushan, Deputy Civil Surgeon, Sirsa.

Under the “reverse tracking of anaemia”, reports of pregnant women arriving at the first referral units (FRUs) set up by the Health Department with heamoglobin level less than 7 gm during labour are sent to the headquarters of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in Haryana and the concerned auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) is responsible for the lapse.

It was found that there was a high morbidity and mortality in pregnant women suffering from severe anaemia.

The main reason of such cases is that the patients are not managed properly for anaemia during the antenatal period.

As per the government’s policy, all ANMs possess haemoglobinometers and they are required to measure haemoglobin of women at least three times during their pregnancy.

The ANMs have to provide 100 tablets of iron and folic acid (IFA) in normal cases and 200 tablets in case of women suffering from anaemia during their pregnancy period so that they have good haemoglobin level at the time of delivery.

Through reverse tracking of women suffering from severe anaemia at the time of delivery, gaps in the service delivery are being taken care of well.

However, Sirsa does not have a sufficient number of FRUs and hence all pregnant women from the district cannot be expected to report to these units.

Sirsa has FRUs only at General Hospitals at Sirsa and Dabwali. Dr Bhushan said process to set up such units at Ellenabad and Odhan would begin soon.

An FRU has the services of an anaesthetist, a gynecologist and the facilities of blood storage. 

Ratia (Fatehabad), October 30
Social ignominy, loss of school for his three daughters, pressure to keep his mouth shut and the laxity on the part of the police and the district authorities have left the 13-year-old rape victim’s father at Khai in Fatehabad a broken man.

Even as the police is yet to take any action against teachers, sarpanch and some others on his written complaint, the rape victim’s father was today rushed to the Community Health Centre at Ratia for the third time in 14 days, as his condition worsened after the doctors discharged him on October 28.

The victim’s father had levelled a plethora of serious charges against them in a complaint given to the Ratia police on October 26. Ratia SHO Subhash Bishnoi said the police had recorded his statement.

Doctors attending on him maintained that he was under severe depression. Due to his illness, the victim’s father, who earned wages on daily basis through manual labour, has not been able to go to work till today. “First, they ruined the lives of my three daughters by forcing me to take them out of the school and now I am under pressure to leave the village,” the victim’s father alleged while speaking to The Tribune in the hospital.

The 13-year-old victim, who was raped by a sexagenarian for five months and her two sisters have not gone to school ever since they were removed from their government school at Khai village on October 6.

The Education Department, which has all along been defending the school action by attributing the girls’ removal from the school to their own father, provided them admission to another government school at a nearby Bara village on October 17. However, the girls have not gone to their new school for a single day so far.

Sub-Divisional Magistrate Harish Bhatia said he had asked the Block Education Officer (BEO) to visit the victim’s home to know why the three girls were not going to their new school. The BEO, Dhanpat Rai, did not respond to calls made on his mobile phone.

Manesar, October 30
The Bhupinder Singh Hooda Government has been blatantly misusing the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, to favour certain builders and other vested interests. The Act should be scrapped at the national level and replaced with a pro-farmer Act to safeguard the interests of the farming community.

This was stated by anti-corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal while addressing a mahapanchayat on the issue here today.

Kejriwal termed Hooda a "property agent working for vested interests like Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and DLF".

Citing specific instances, he alleged that in order to favour the Chief Minister's near and dear ones, the state authorities issued notices under Sections 4, 6 and 9 of the Act to farmers.

"However, after the notices are issued, they send their men, who quote prices reasonably higher than the rates of acquisition. The hapless farmers resort to distress sale of their land following which the acquisition proceedings are cancelled and the builders make a fortune," he maintained.

Kejriwal said hundreds of acres of agricultural land in Manesar, nearly 300 acres of land in Sector 37 of Gurgaon and numerous other chunks of prime land had been usurped by unscrupulous builders in this manner.

He further alleged that state leaders carried out such activities with the help of corrupt bureaucrats, who were suitably rewarded with plum postings.

Giving specific examples, he pointed out that the top bosses of key departments like Town and Country Planning and HSIIDC continued to remain comfortably saddled in their respective positions for several years while honest and upright officers were transferred frequently.

Kejriwal even dared the Haryana Government to appoint senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka as the head of such departments, stating that if it was done, numerous cases of land scams and property frauds would tumble out.

Taking on former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, Kejriwal remarked that he had no moral right to oppose the corrupt practices of the present state regime as "he himself owns property worth hundreds of crores of rupees across the country".

Exhorting the farmers to fight for their democratic rights, Kejriwal even asked them to forcibly reclaim their land which had been acquired for an SEZ which was never developed.

"Reliance people have already returned the land to the HSIIDC...now you have every right to reclaim your land as the purpose for which it had been acquired has not been served," he asserted, adding that he and his India Against Corruption (IAC) team would support the farmers' movement.

Sonepat, October 30
Deepak (25) of Puthi village was killed on the spot when his motorcycle was hit by a truck on the Rohtak-Panipat national highway at Rukhi village this morning. The victim was going to Rohtak from his village.

After the death, residents of Rukhi and other nearby villages blocked the highway for about four hours. A large numbers of vehicles were stranded on both sides of this busy highway.

Shishil Kumar, SDM, Gohana, and the police reached the spot and persuaded the villagers to lift the blockade. However, the blockade was lifted only after the administration started constructing speed- breakers within the village boundary limits. The police has booked the truck driver who managed to escape.

Fatehabad/Sonepat, Oct 30
Private schools remained closed for the second consecutive day today against the implementation of Rule 134-A of the Haryana School Education Rules -2003, which states that all recognised schools of the state have to reserve 25 per cent of its total seats for meritorious students of the economically weaker sections (EWS).

Representatives of the private schools today staged a dharna outside the Mini-Secretariat and raised slogans against the government. The representatives will give a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister to the authorities here tomorrow.

“We welcome the provision of 25 per cent reservation for the EWS as provided in the Right to Education Act, but the manner in which the state government wanted to implement it under its Rule 134-A is not acceptable to us,” maintained owners of various school sitting on dharna.

A spokesperson of the schools said the 2003 rules were amended in 2007, which stated that the expenses incurred by a school on 25 per cent students of the EWS category would be recovered by it from the remaining 75 per cent students.

The rules further specified that the expenses to be recovered would be equal to the fee applicable in government schools.

On the contrary, the Right to Education Act provides that the expenses incurred on EWS students would be reimbursed to schools by the government.

The rate of reimbursement would be equal to either the fee charged by a school from the general category students or the expenses incurred by the government on each student, whichever is less.

Meanwhile in Sonepat, representatives of the district unit of the Haryana United Schools Association today staged a dharna at Subhash Chowk here and closed their schools in protest against the implementation of Rule 134A in private schools.

Led by the district president, Ajmer Singh, the protesters demanded that the benefits being given to the students of poor families should be extended to the private schools. They pointed out that these benefits were being given in other states, but Haryana was not willing to extend them to the private schools.

The representatives resolved that they would continue to protest against this discriminatory and one-sided decision of the government. The association would submit a memorandum of its demands to the Deputy Commissioner on October 31.

Rohtak, October 30
Hundreds of members of the Government School Computer Teachers and Lab Assistant Association of the state (CTLAA) staged a dharna at Mansarover Park today and courted arrest in support of their demand for regularisation of services.

Surender Kumar, president of the CTLAA, said: "Computer teachers and lab assistants posted in various government schools are being paid negligible monetary benefit in the name of salaries while they ought to get salary and other benefits at par with other teachers. Claiming that they were doing their duty honestly, they deserved better treatment

Anticipating a law and order problem, a heavy police force was deployed near Mansarovar Park as protesters had announced to gherao the Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s residence . However, the plan was foiled by the police by erecting barricades and deploying policemen at all points leading to Hooda’s residence.

Finding no way out, the protesters squatted on Sonepat road for about an hour and raised slogans against the state government before courting arrest around 4 pm. They were later released.

Kurukshetra, October 30
Under the district water and sanitation mission, the Public Health Department would distribute 70,000 water testing kits among panchayats to ensure safe drinking water in all villages of the district, said Ashok Sharma, executive engineer, Public Health, here today

Sharma said water sanitation committees had been formed in all 382 villages of the district. Ten village panchayats would be honoured for conservation and proper use of water this year.

He said all rural water connections would be provided taps till March, 2013, to avoid wastage of water.

The Public Health Department had also launched a training-cum-awareness programme for safe drinking water and its proper use in the rural areas.

Chandigarh, October 30
To minimise loss of life and property in case of any chemical disaster, Haryana is planning to set up accident hazard cells in its industrial towns of Gurgaon and Panipat.

The two cells to be established with an investment of Rs 3 crore aim at lessening the impact of any possible chemical disaster in the industrial units functioning in the cities, a Labour Department spokesperson said. He said the department was also in the process of setting up two hygiene labs at Gurgaon and Faridabad at a cost of Rs 1.27 crore to provide health care to workers of industrial units.— PTI

Chandigarh, October 30
All samples of suspected dengue cases in Haryana are tested in 10 Sentinel Surveillance Hospitals (SSH) set up in districts of Ambala, Faridabad, Gurgaon, General Hospital, Hisar, medical college, Agroha, Hisar, Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panchkula and PGIMS, Rohtak, without any charges from the general public as the ELISA test kits are supplied by the Central Government free of costs.

While stating this here today, a spokesman of Health Department said the department had taken a number of curative and preventive measures to check dengue as apart from constituting Rapid Response Team, blood sample collection and confirmation of all the dengue suspected cases had been undertaken.

He said, “Wards have been reserved in all district, sub-district hospitals for dengue patients. Instructions have been issued to all civil surgeons. Platelets separation and transfusion facility is available at PGIMS, Rohtak, and Karnal.”

He said, “A total of 415 confirmed cases of dengue have so far been reported in the state during the current year and out of these 325 cases are from Gurgaon district alone. Also, 47 cases are from Panchkula district and 54 cases have been reported from other areas in the state.” Two persons had lost their lives in the state due to dengue, one person had died in Gurgaon and the other in Rohtak, he said, adding that 415 cases of dengue had been confirmed by MAC-ELISA kit test in different hospitals in the state.

He said the disease was first reported in Haryana in 1996 and since then sporadic cases of dengue had been reported from some parts of the state.

In 2008, a total of 1,159 confirmed cases of dengue were reported in the state and there were nine deaths due to the disease, but during 2009, only 125 cases of confirmed dengue were reported.

Similarly, during 2010, there were 866 confirmed dengue cases with 21 deaths reported in the state out of which 631 cases and 13 deaths were from Gurgaon district only that was 72 per cent of the total cases reported in the state. In 2011, only 267 cases with three deaths were reported.

Karnal, October 30
Four armed miscreants today looted Rs 9.18 lakh from the Barsat branch of the Canara Bank in the district.

Armed with pistol and knives, they held the bank manager hostage and one of them stabbed him before fleeing towards Pundri with cash.

On getting information, the police reached the spot and started investigations in the case.

Bank manager Sandeep Batra said around 3pm four miscreants with their faces covered entered the bank and hit security guard Lakshman Singh. One of the miscreants went to the cashier’s cabin and took away Rs 9.18 lakh from the counter.

At the time of the incident, there was no customer in the bank. The injured bank employees were taken to a hospital.

Kurukshetra, October 30
Kuldeep Sharma, Speaker of the Haryana Legislative Assembly, has called upon students to participate in extra-curricular activities. He was the chief guest at the prize distribution function of the 27th four-day Haryana Day state-level festival - Ratnawali - at Kurukshetra University here today.

University teaching departments, KU, won the overall running trophy of the Ratnawali festival and DAV College for Girls, Yamunanagar, was declared the runners-up.

Sharma said, “Extra-curricular activities are a medium of self-expression. To succeed in life, one must be an all-rounder.”

He congratulated the university for successfully organising Ratnawali and gave credit to Kurukshetra University, where Haryana’s first cultural programme was organised in 1985 as Haryana Day.

The Vice-Chancellor, Lt-Gen Dr D.D.S. Sandhu, said culture and society were co-related and students acted as ambassadors to propagate the culture. Sandhu said that Kurukshetera University was showcasing Haryana culture on the national and international levels.

He congratulated the winners of the events and said participation in such programmes was important to learn values of team spirit, discipline and self-motivation.

The director of the Youth and Cultural Affairs Department, Anoop Lather, said new additions such as rasia dance and folk theatre had been added to the festival.