Yamunanagar/Ambala, February 8
The district police today arrested Vinod Kumar, a JBT teacher posted at a government school in Khera village of the district, for sexually exploiting minor students who attended tuition classes at his Azad Nagar residence in Yamunanagar.

The matter came to light, when a 14-year-boy, who attended the tuition classes informed his parents that he was being sexually exploited by his tuition teacher, who had even subjected him to sexual harassment by showing him clips and films with sexual content.

Following this, the victim’s parents filed a complaint with the city police, which after conducting preliminary investigations, registered a case against Vinod Kumar and arrested him. The police has also confiscated the accused’s laptop and mobile phone.

The police said the victim’s parents had also alleged that the accused had threatened their son of dire consequences, if he told anybody about his sexual exploitation.

Meanwhile, the Education Department has also ordered a probe against the teacher following registration of the case against him.

Ambala, February 8
An 18-year-old girl belonging to Sunam, Punjab, was allegedly raped in Ambala City by a youth today. The accused is a resident of a village near Mohali.

On the complaint of the victim, the police has booked Satish Kumar. He brought her to Ambala City on the pretext of purchasing some clothes for her from the wholesale cloth market. He told her that his sister was also residing in Badshahi Bagh of the city. He took her to an abandoned house and raped her there. — OC

Hisar, February 8
A gang rape victim in Rajli village of Hisar has been forced to leave the village along with two sisters and mother due to the threats the family had been receiving since she lodged a complaint with the police on Wednesday.

The victim’s father, who has three daughters, has sent his wife and daughters to a “safe” place after families of the five accused, who allegedly gang-raped his daughter, as well as some panchayat members started putting pressure for a compromise.

While the victim, a class XII student at the village school, and her two sisters reading in class XI and VII, respectively, have been forced to abandon their schooling midway due to these threats.

“I am myself feeling unsafe. There are a few families of my community while those who perpetrated the crime are Jats belonging to the majority community, who hold sway over the panchayat as well as over the village affairs,” said the scared father.

The victim’s father also plans to shift from the village.

He alleged that some panchayat representatives, including village sarpanch Danpati’s husband, Ram Phal, who enjoys the sarpanch’s powers in place of his wife, had come to him after the incident. “While ostensibly they had come to sympathise with me and vouch their support for getting me justice, they asked me to settle the matter through a compromise for the sake of village brotherhood and ended up giving veiled warnings,” the victim’s father told The Tribune.

He said that though the police and the local authorities have assured him of protection, he could not take chances under these circumstances.

The police, however, denied that there was any threat to the victim’s family. Sukhbir Yadav, SHO, said he had visited the victim’s father and assured full protection.

Five persons, two of them students of her school, allegedly raped the victim. All five have been arrested

Meanwhile, the school has expelled two of the accused, who studied in Class XII in the village school.

Karnal, February 8
Discriminated against by the government in providing medical facilities, employees of government aided private colleges have been forced to pay through their nose for expensive medical treatment and many are deprived of treatment due to the acute financial crunch faced by them.

The situation of retired employees is worse as their meagre income is insufficient even for sustenance.

Kavita Chopra (71) who retired from CMK National Girls College, Sirsa, as principal in 2002, is suffering from cancer and urinary track infection (UTI).

Undergoing treatment at Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital, New Delhi, for the past two years, she has already spent over Rs 19 lakh on her treatment and has to pay Rs 5 lakh in the coming week.

"We are finding it difficult to make both ends meet as unlike government servants, no medical facility has been provided to us. When the qualification, experience, grades and recruitment process is the same and we teach the same classes, the same curriculum and put an equal amount of effort then why we have been deprived of the benefits," lamented Kavita.

M L Mishra, 71, retired from KLP College, Rewari, who has to undergo bypass surgery due to blockade in three arteries says the estimated expenses on operation at BL Kapoor Hospital, Delhi, or any other superspecialty hospital are around Rs 2.5 lakh. But he has not even received the pension for the month of December.

"The government is indifferent to our miserable plight. Do we have to explain the meaning of timely pension for retirees whose sole source of income is their pension and they need it more, especially when they are ailing," he rued.

President of the Retired Colleges Principals and Teachers Federation, Haryana, Prof. I J Bharti, said as per the gazette notification issued on April 17, 2009 retirement benefits would be given to college teachers after the completion of 28 years of service, but there was a glaring disparity in the date of implementation which is September 24, 2009 for government colleges and October 12, 2010 for government-aided colleges, a deferment of 13 months.

"Further, in the case of government-aided colleges probation period of two years is not counted for retirement benefits and this gap of 13 months is another disadvantage faced by us," Bharti added.

Sonepat, February 8
The Biradari panchayat has taken back its decision of breaking the marriage of Anil of Joli village and Seema of Umedgarh village after long parleys in Sadar Police station, Gohana, late last night. Both the families belonged to Scheduled Castes and it was an arranged marriage.

Besides the representatives of of Mehra and Sabarwal gotras, Joli sarpanch Ratan Singh also particiaped in the parleys which were necessitated after the newly wedded couple lodged a complaint with the Superintendent of Police Arun Singh against some representatives of the Biradari panchayat and SP assured them of help in the matter.

The marriage articles which were taken back by the family members of Seema on February 5 after the annulment of the marriage by Biradari panchayat, have reportedly been brought back to the house of Anil at Joli and Anil would bring home Seema tomorrow from her village.

Anil of the Mehra gotra was married to Seema of the Sabarwal gotra on February 3 but their marriage was annulled by the Biradari panchayat at a meeting in on Fenruary 4 over the issue of social brotherhood.

Yamunanagar, February 8
A Haryana-based Buddhist forum has roped in leading social activists from Pakistani to protect and conserve the ancient Buddhist monuments in the neighbouring country.

The forum has been working on highlighting the plight of ancient Buddhist sites in different countries of Asia, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Speaking to The Tribune, Sidhartha Gaur, one of the representatives of the forum, said they had got in touch with some of the leading social activists in the neighbouring country who had pledged their support in helping the forum to restore the ancient structures, which at present are in pitiable condition. These include activists like Syed Mumatz Alam Gilani from the Pakistan People Party and a former federal minister of the Human Rights and current Member of Parliament from Bahawalnagar, peace activists of Pakistan Edhi Foundation, Mia Mir Welfare Trust Karamat Ali, IA Rahman and Malia Lodhi along with Dr Mastoor Fatima Bukhari, Professor at Department of Archaeology, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur Sindh.

He said the forum haD collected relevant information about the Buddhist sites in Pakistan, which were unknown to the world community.

He said Pakistan was known worldwide for its rich Gandhara art and ancient sites in Taxila and Peshawar. Ancient Buddhist had been discovered in four provinces of Pakistan, which are of great importance for the followers of Buddhism the world over. Besides, have a potential to be developed into significant tourism destinations were of great spiritual importance for many.

He said the forum had already updated the pictures of these ancient sites on its website, which had attracted the attention of the world community and international organisation, which had already expressed willingness in joining the forum to restore these monuments.

He said the Pakistani activists had assured that they would also be taking up the matter with the Pakistani authorities and a local NGO to improve the status of these sites and develop them to promote international tourism. He said the forum was already assisting the gram panchayat of Topra Kalan village in Radaur segment of the Yamunanagar district to establish the “Asoka Edicts Park” in which replica of King Asoka’s rock edicts located in Manshera and Shahbazgarhi of Pakistan would be showcased to promote these places internationally.

Chandigarh, February 8
HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi today moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the rejection of his plea to disqualify five MLAs, who had shifted their loyalty to the Congress after the 2009 Assembly polls.

The development is significant as a war of words has also broken between Haryana Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Sharma and Bishnoi. Yesterday, the Speaker had allegedly attacked the HJC chief saying that he lacked maturity and was daydreaming to become Chief Minister of the state one day. The “defecting” MLAs, Satpal Sangwan, Vinod Bhyana, Narender Singh, Zileram and Dharam Singh, had joined the Congress in November 2009.

On January 13, Sharma dismissed 14 petitions filed by the opposition HJC and the INLD. At that time, the Speaker had asserted that he accepted the merger of the HJC with the Congress under provisions of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, which allowed such a merger provided it was supported by two-thirds of the party’s legislators.

Bishnoi had then only asserted he would challenge the Speaker’s decision in the high court.

The matter was initially placed before a Division Bench after the Single Judge’s order fixing four-month deadline for the Speaker to decide Bishnoi’s plea was challenged.

The Single Judge had also ruled judicial intervention in the matter was justified. “It can be concluded that the substantive right of petitioner, Bishnoi, to have his dispute decided is being defeated by the procedural facet of extension of time to file replies by the respondent MLAs.

Rohtak, February 8
With the police yet to register a criminal case and the probe on by a seven-member enquiry committee, the answersheet scam of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) appears to be deep-rooted.

The committee is expected to submit its report within a couple of days. It is likely to nail several employees of the secrecy branch as glaring loopholes have been detected in the matter of handling and ensuring the safety of the answer books during the custody of the branch.

The officials had recovered 2,191 unmarked answersheets of the B.Tech and BBA courses recently lying in open on the university campus.

The enquiry committee, headed by Prof SS Chahar (Provost, Boys), continued its investigations for the third day yesterday and questioned several dozen officials and employees of the department concerned.

It has been revealed that the process adopted by the officials concerned regarding receiving, storing and dispatching the answersheet bundles had been full of loopholes as no record has been found to have been kept by the employees concerned.

The strongroom in the basement of the secrecy branch, where the bundles are kept, has two locks on the gates which have three keys, but no one has been found to be accountable for the opening or locking the gate. The branch is headed by an official of the Assistant Registrar and has 60 employees to assist him in the work.

Sources said the engineering section of the branch could be the main culprit as it was its duty to ensure the safety and security of the answersheets till they were dispatched for marking and received after marking.

With one employee of the security branch having been placed under suspension, the VC has sought the police's help to nail the culprits.

Gurgaon, February 8
The Gurgaon administration's earthquake mock drill proved a joke yesterday, with lack of coordination amongst the agencies involved in the exercise.

According to volunteers, an expressway contractor, failed equipment,and a hospital 'inability' to provide stretchers for dummy victims made the exercise a dud.

The scheduled two-hour drill of the Gurgaon Disaster Management Authority (GDMA) and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) ended within five minutes, thanks to heavy traffic on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. Neither the police nor the contractor made any effort to manage the traffic to make the exercise a success.

The failure of the drill started soon after it commenced. When volunteers diverted the traffic (from Jaipur to Delhi) at 11 a.m , saying that the flyover had got "dangerous cracks during the quake", employees of Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited (DGSCL) stopped them from doing so. It was only after ACP Ravinder Tomar's intervention that the traffic was once again diverted to the service lane as per the drill plan.

The mock drill was conducted at four locations — Government College, Sector 14, on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, Mini-Secretariat on the expressway, General Hospital and the flyover on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway near the 32nd Milestone.

The hospital failed to provide sufficient numbers of stretchers for the quake-hit dummy victims and patients.

Volunteers also claimed that the door and window cutter machines provided by the GDMA and NDMA did not work at the Mini-Secretariat. Stonecutting and drill machines also did not function.

The rubber pipe that was used by the fire brigade to deliver water on the floors of multi-storeyed Mini-Secretariat was leaking.

A dummy girl victim who was brought from the Government College was left all alone in the hospital and not dropped back to her college. The authorities, however, claimed the drill was a success.

Rewari, February 8
Sunita Gupta, a senior member of the Justice Juvenile Board here, has held a juvenile offender, guilty of raping a minor girl in 2007 and sentenced him to six-month care and service of cows from 9 am to 5 pm daily in a goshala here. Simultaneously, he has been ordered to get his daily attendance marked at the SP's residence here.

According to the prosecution, when this youngster, a resident of Hisar district, worked as a labourer at Bhuriawas village, near Kosli, he eloped with a minor girl on August 3, 2007, and raped her at an isolated place.

He was arrested and sent to the Reformatory at Hisar.

Karnal, February 8
An attempt to rape by two youths at Nissing, 30 km from here, was foiled as the victim raised the alarm .

As per the victim’s complaint, two youths--- Lovely of Sitamai (Nissing) and Krishan of Dera Dharmpura-- barged into her house on the night of February 6 and tried to rape her but the culprits fled when she cried loudly.

While Lovely was arrested within a few hours from his village yesterday, Krishan (a minor) was arrested today from Dera Dharmpura, Sitamai.

Both the accused were produced in the court today. Being a minor, Krishan was sent to Bostal Jail, Ambala, while Lovely was remanded injudicial custody. The court also recorded the s victim’s statement.

Fatehabad, February 8
Additional District and Sessions Judge LN Jindal, who heads the special court set up for trial of crime against women in Fatehabad, today sentenced a rapist to imprisonment for seven years.

The victim's mother, a resident of Tohana, had lodged a complaint with the police that Lakhwinder Singh, alias Kalu, a resident of Maniana village of Sangrur, had enticed away her minor daughter.

After the girl was recovered, her medical examination confirmed that she was raped.

While holding Lakhwinder guilty of the crime, the court sentenced him to imprisonment for seven years and a fine of Rs 15,000.

Bhiwani, February 8
A woman consumed poison along with her two children under mysterious circumstances at Jhinjhar village of Bhiwani today.

While Sushila and her 11-year-old son, Naveen, died before they could get any medical help, her nine-year-old daughter, Swati, is battling for life.

Swati has been referred to the PGIMS, Rohtak.

The police has sent the bodies for a postmortem to the General Hospital at Charkhi Dadri.

Sushila’s mother, Kailo Devi, has reportedly told the police that the victims had consumed poison by mistake.

Surajkund, February 8
Visitors at the Surajkund International Crafts Mela make a bee-line to the sprawling Food Court which houses stalls relating to various states at the mela ground.

They present an impressive range of cuisines pencilling the uniqueness of the regions of their origins. Enticing aroma of herbs and spices wafting from the stalls beckons visitors.

If sukka chicken and masala dosa from Karnataka, the theme state at this year’s mela, is in demand, litti-chokha of Bihar appears to have emerged as the toast of visitors.

K Seenappa, a functionary of the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation, claims: “People are happy to eat authentic South Indian delicacies at our stalls, and also evince interest in our recipes.”

From Mumbai’s famous bhelpuri, Rajasthan’s dal-batti-churma, to the humdrum street food - golgappe, chaat, flavoured milk, pav bhaji – are also in demand. Nariyal pani, the ideal thirst-quencher, is available in plenty.

Spicy Hyderabadi biryani is another delicacy drawing the attention of the public.

Sonepat, February 8
The police has arrested three youths for the murder of a Bihari labourer Lalit at local Shiv Colony last year. The accused have been identified as Neeraj, Pramod and Sumit. They murdered Lalit after he had some altercation with Neeraj.

The accused have confessed to the murder.

Fatehabad, February 8
Questions are being raised over the manner in which the management of Maharaja Agarsen Senior Secondary School has allegedly flouted building norms in the construction of the school building that collapsed on Tuesday night even as Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik has ordered an inquiry.

Residents, particularly parents of the children studying in this school, are demanding action against the school authorities for 'negligence'.

"It was sheer good luck that the building fell in the night. What would have been our condition had the accident occurred in the day ," said a Tohana trader, whose two children study in this school.

The mother of another child alleged that the authorities woke up only after a major tragedy occurred.

She said had this tragedy occurred during school hours, over 1,000 children could have run to risk to their lives or limbs.

Almost the entire three-storey school building had come down with a loud noise on Tuesday night.

Fatehabad Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik has constituted a three-member committee to investigate the reasons behind the collapse of the building and submit a report soon

Kaushik has also directed the District Education Officer to inspect all private schools of the district and submit a report.

Chandigarh, February 8
The Karnal District Town Planner has been asked by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to ensure investigation after the registration of an FIR against illegal colonisers. The Town Planner has also been asked to prevent further illegal construction.

The directions by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain came on a petition filed in public interest against Amit Kumar and another petitioner against the State of Haryana and other respondents.

In the PIL, Kumar and other petitioners had earlier alleged that unauthorised construction was being carried out after encroachment on agricultural land near Mangal Colony in Karnal.

As the case came up for hearing, the Haryana Irrigation Department specifically stated that the land in dispute did not belong to it. The land, rather, was private property. As such, the allegations of encroachment on the land were incorrect.

Referring to the charges of illegal construction on the land by colonisers, the District Town Planner, on the other hand, specifically stated in the reply that a complaint had been forwarded for lodging an FIR against the illegal colonisers as well as the property dealers. A copy of the complaint too was placed before the Bench.

The department also informed the Bench that the complaint was preceded by statutory notices to the colonisers.

The Bench was also told that even a demolition drive was carried out by the Town Planner.

A report on the drive too was furnished.

Taking up the matter, the Bench asserted, “From the pleas taken by the respondents, it is clear that the purpose of this petition stands served.

However, it is made clear that since respondent Karnal District Town Planner himself accepts that the construction is unauthorised, he will ensure that no further construction comes up.

“He will also ensure that the FIR is duly registered, investigated and challan filed in the court for prosecuting the illegal colonisers. The writ petition is disposed of in these terms.” 

Manesar, February 8
The scourge of terrorism can only be defeated by a sustained and comprehensive collaboration of all states and stakeholders, relevant organisations and civil society.

This was stated by the National Security Guard (NSG) Director-General, Arvind Ranjan, while addressing an international conference titled “Countering IEDs - Strategy and Training” organised by the National Bomb Data Centre (NBDC) on the NSG campus here on Wednesday.

“Seamless flow of intelligence is a pre-requisite. Unless intelligence is collected, collated and disseminated in an institutionalised manner, the success of operations against the terrorism network will always suffer. Once that happens, achieving coordination between various agencies operating in the field becomes the next aim. If we can work these aspects out, then attacking the terrorist network will become an achievable target, thus reducing the incidence of the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) attacks,” he maintained.

The participants said it was important for the international community to counter the spread of the IEDs and bombing incidents, which, they noted, had been growing in the recent years across the globe.

“We also need to ensure that our counter measures also work in the most likely urban battle-zone of future and the Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) and the Naxalism-affected areas, we need to prepare for weapons that get up and move to the designated targets,” Ranjan said.

The conference also backed the need for measures aimed at tackling the LWE and deliberated on the strategies to counter them.

A demonstration of the IEDs, simulation of an IED blast and the futuristic IEDs to be tackled by the security forces was also conducted, along with a display of equipment, which demonstrated the futuristic equipment and items, which could assist the security forces fight against terrorists and anti-national elements.

Nearly 160 delegates from foreign countries, Central paramilitary forces, state police organisations, research institutions, the Army, the Air Force and others spent two days at the NBDC, Manesar, in connection with the seminar. The event brought together national and international experts to share their experience in the field of the IEDs and how to increase level of assistance with each other.

The National Bomb Data Centre is a one-of-its-kind institute in the country, which collects, collates, analyses and disseminates information on the bombing incidents happening in different parts of the country as well as abroad.

Karnal, February 8
Haryana farmers protesting against the decision of power discoms to recover 20 per cent cost of stolen transformers from them, held a rally at the mini-secretariat here yesterday and submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda through the tehsildar.

Asking the government to revoke the decision, Rattan Mann, vice-president of the Bhartiya kisan Union (BKU), spearheading the agitation, said putting 20 per cent burden on farmers was unjustified and they would never accept it.

Alleging that the government had failed to check transformer thefts, which had remained at the same level even after 2010, when the new policy was implemented, Mann said that farmers cannot be penalised for the lapses on the part of the law enforcing machinery.

Sirsa, February 8
With the number of swine flu cases increasing in Sirsa, the health authorities in the district have taken steps and issued instructions to monitor every case of cough, cold and fever coming to government hospitals and health centres.

Sirsa, with 25 suspected cases, 11 positive cases and three deaths due to the H1N1 virus, is at the top in the state, as far as the number of swine flu cases is concerned.

If one includes another person from a neighbouring Rajasthan village, who died of swine flu in a private hospital in Sirsa, the number of dead due to H1N1 touches four.

Addressing a meeting of medical officers and in charges of the community health centres and primary health centres here yesterday, the Civil Surgeon, Dr Daya Nand, asked them to keep a record of the patients with complaints of cough, cold and fever and send their reports to the headquarters regularly.

He also told them to provide tamiflu tablets to all patients suffering from “B” and “C” categories of swine flu.

The Civil Surgeon said 220 family members of the 11 patients who had tested positive for the H1N1 virus had been given tamiflu.

Dr Daya Nand said a separate isolation ward was set up at the General Hospital in Sirsa two weeks ago and now a separate OPD had been started for patients coming with symptoms of the disease.

He said the cooperation of private doctors would be sought in case some patient needed to be put on ventilator.

The civil surgeon appealed to people to keep a safe distance from the patients suffering from cough and cold.

He said they should contact a doctor if they felt any symptom of swine flu, including cough, cold, high fever, breathlessness, loose motions and stomachache.