Gurgaon, March 2
The stage is set for tomorrow’s ‘Insaaf rally’ of rebel Congress MP and former Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh at Pataudi. The Rao faction alleges step-motherly treatment to the south Haryana region and has stepped up its campaign against Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The MP's rebellious attitude has stemmed from his being sidelined in the party organisation at the Centre as well as in the state.

First, Inderjit was dropped from the Union Cabinet and then, the demand of his supporters to make him as the Haryana Congress president also went unheard. The Rao group feels it has been reduced to an insignificant faction having very little say even in its own constituency.

It is in this backdrop that the rebel MP announced the ‘Insaaf rally’ at Pataudi in the pre-election year. There is speculation about Rao resigning from the Congress and forming his own party. Rao's close aides, however, say he is not going to call it quits, as of now. At the most, he is expected to sharpen his attack on the state leadership and assess the mood of his supporters before taking the big decision.

The Pataudi rally may set the ball rolling for a significant political move which may be unveiled in September, sources said. Nonetheless, the Pataudi rally is likely to witness lots of political fireworks with Rao supporters seeking to corner the Chief Minister on the “discrimination” being meted out to regions other than the CM's own area.

Ambala, March 2
Showing no let-up in the drive against the violators of the PNDT Act, the district health authorities sealed the equipment of another ultrasound centre in Ambala district today.

Civil Surgeon Dr VK Sharma said they had taken action against Shri X-Ray,located on the Jagadhri road, after the health team, which had conducted a survey of the centre, found several discrepancies in its working.

He said the raiding squad sealed two ultrasound machines at the centre after detecting more than 20 irregularities. The Civil Surgeon said the owner of the centre had been conducting ultrasound of pregnant women without any doctor's slip, which was required before conducting the test. Besides, the records of the patients were not being properly maintained.

It was only the last month that the heath authorities had raided on as many as four ultrasound centres in the Shahzadpur and Naraingarh segments of the district and sealed one of these centres after detection of irregularities.

The district PNDT Advisory Committee under its nodal officer Dr BB Lala had carried out the raids during which Mittal Nursing Home, which was operational in Shahzadpur was sealed. 

Chandigarh, March 2
The Haryana Government plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore to improve power distribution network in the state and provide quality and reliable power supply on a sustained basis to the consumers.

Sources said on an average, 1,068 lakh units of power were supplied every day to the consumers in the state during the current financial year against 578 lakh units in 2004-05.

While only 724.4-MW generation capacity was added between 1999 and 2005, during the eight years of the Hooda government, the capacity has been augmented by 3,712.80 MW. This is besides other long-term arrangements for procuring power from outside the state, a government spokesman said.

Power having emerged as the cornerstone of progress and development, the state government aims at providing adequate and quality power supply on a regular basis to all the consumers by stepping up generation and strengthening the transmission and distribution system.

The spokesman said that in order to assist the beleaguered power distribution companies, the state government had given in-principle concurrence to joining the Central Government’s “Scheme for Financial Restructuring of Distribution Power Utilities”.

Under the scheme, the state government will take over the entire short-term and long-term liabilities of power discoms in the next three years. It would enable discoms to claim assistance from the Central Government, subject to committed reduction in the Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses.

The scheme would also facilitate financial institutions in providing working capital loans to these utilities. A sum of Rs 5,253.97 crore has been allocated for the power sector. This includes Rs 965.09 crore on plan side and Rs 4,267.88 crore on non plan side.

The spokesman said that in the last eight years, 340 new substations had been constructed, capacity of 574 existing substations augmented and 4,994 km of new transmission lines laid. A sum of Rs 1,800 crore is bein spent for upgrading 37 transmission networks in 2012-13 and 2013-14.

During the current financial year, 2012-13 (up to December 2012) 13,487 tubewell connections had been released and 5,513 tubewell connections would be released by March 31, 2013. Out of 2.36 lakh BPL families, 1,94,442 have been covered under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana.

Ambala, March 2
The district police cracked the Rs 14 lakh robbery case in less than 48 hours of the crime and arrested two members of a gang.

Commissioner of Police Rajbir Deswal said the police after having stumbled upon some clues started tracking the movement of the accused through their mobile phones.

The clues, he said, pointed towards the involvement of Ramesh, alias Kala, of Sahapur and Saurabh of Skiligarh Mohalla. He said the mobile details of the accused confirmed that the three were present in the Sadar Bazaar area at the time of the crime. The third accused in the case, Harmeet, a resident of Machonda, is still at large. 

Chandigarh, March 2
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has reprimanded the Haryana Government for discriminating against a retired lecturer in a case of medical bill reimbursement.

While the government had refused medical refund to the lecturer for a knee-replacement surgery, it okayed the reimbursement case of a retired IAS officer for a similar ailment.

“Prima facie, there appears to be a clear-cut case of discrimination,” observed Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa while disposing of a petition filed by UK Sharma against the state of Haryana and other respondents.

In his petition, Sharma had referred to information received under the Right to Information (RTI) Act in which it was revealed that the medical bills of the said retired IAS officer to the tune of Rs 9,95,000 were reimbursed for treatment of an ailment of identical nature, i.e. knee replacement surgery.

“In any case, there is no denial as regards the averments made in respect of the officer. It can well be taken that there is a tacit admission with regard to such averments,” Justice Dhindsa added.

“It has been held consistently in many judgments that the right to life is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India and it will certainly relate to even an activity relating to medical treatment of a citizen and a former employee of the state,” he further observed.

Without giving a final view in the matter, Justice Dhindsa added that the facts in the present case would certainly call for intervention and hence the need for directions to be issued to the respondent to reconsider the petitioner’s claim for medical reimbursement.

“It shall be open for the petitioner to submit before the respondent a detailed claim afresh within a period of two weeks.

“In case any such claim is made, it shall be obligatory for the respondent to take a final decision in the matter,” Justice Dhindsa observed.

The final decision in the case would be based on reconsideration of the matter only after considering the fact that the retired IAS officer’s medical bills had been reimbursed, Justice Dhindsa added. 

Chandigarh, March 2
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has refused to release a gang-rape convict on parole. For the purpose, the Bench relied on the instructions issued by the Haryana Government, which say parole in such cases is not to be granted.

Gola had moved the high court against the State of Haryana and other respondents for the parole. The counsel for the petitioner had contended that the convict’s sister was to be married and his presence was essential for performing the ceremony. It was added that the convict had availed parole before.

As his petition came up for hearing before Justice Ranjit Singh, the state counsel pointed out that the petitioner was convicted for an offence under Section 376(2)(g) of the IPC. The state counsel also referred to the instructions issued by the government as per which parole in such cases was not to be granted.

Section 376(2)(g) of the IPC deals with the offence of gang rape. The section says "whoever commits gang rape shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than 10 years, but which may be for life and shall also be liable to fine”.

After hearing the state counsel and the advocate appearing for the petitioner, Justice Ranjit Singh added, “The marriage is of petitioner's sister and his presence would not be essential for any purpose of performing the marriage. The plea by the counsel that the petitioner earlier availed parole is no ground to ignore the instructions issued by the government”.

The development is significant as the Delhi gang rape has led to a demand for tough laws on sexual assault and stringent implementation of the existing laws. Already, a government-approved panel, which reviewed laws on sex crimes, and the Cabinet have recommend tough laws after the Delhi gang rape. The panel had called for quick trial and longer sentence for rapists. However, the panel refrained from recommending death penalty to the rapists.

Rohtak, March 2
The ultrasound machine of the gynaecology department of the PGIMS, the largest government hospital of Haryana, is out of order for the past over three months, resulting in severe inconvenience to the patients.

"While around 80 to 90 patients report at the OPD daily and a majority of them require to take such a test (ultrasound), but the machine has been out of order for almost four months. The patients are at the receiving end in terms of both inconvenience and financially as the test proves costly at private diagnostic laboratories," claim sources in the department.

The machine, costing several lakhs, had developed a snag in November. Though it became functional after about three weeks, it got out of order after about a week and since than it has been lying out of order, according to reports.

The machine was awaiting needs some spare parts costing around Rs 2.5 lakh, a section of the staff believes that it was better to replace it with a new one as the cost on its repairs was too heavy and the breakdowns becoming frequent.

The department requires two or three ultrasound machines but it has a financial crunch as the release of the grant allocated under the Janani Suraksha Yojana of the NRHM. The authorities concerned had released an amount of Rs 60 lakh last year but no such help has come so far. 

Rewari, March 2
The police arrested two miscreants, who were out to rob residents in the Azad Nagar Colony of Dharuhera last evening. The accused were identified as Noor Mohammad and Mohammad, both residents of Alwar, Rajasthan. However, another accused Taufiq managed to flee from the spot.

The police seized three cartridges from the accused. The police has registered a case of attempt to robbery. Noor Mohammad and Mohammad were produced in a local court, which remanded them in police custody.

Rewari, March 2
On a compliant filed by Rajender Singh, who reportedly lost his left eye after infuriated Sonu, a petty shopkeeper of Kosli, allegedly penetrated a key of his shop’s shutter into his eye on Monday night, the Kosli police registered a case of causing grievous hurt by means of a dangerous weapon against Sonu.

A police official said a case under Section 326 of the IPC had been registered against Sonu after an eye specialist, who examined Rajender’s injured eye at the PGIMS, Rohtak, opined that Rajender had lost vision.

The official further said efforts were on to apprehend the accused who was on the run.

The incident took place when Rajender, who is employed at a shop at Kosli, went to the local bus stand to catch a vehicle for Nahar village. He was stopped by Sonu, who runs a shop there, and asked him to fetch a bottle of wine from the nearby liquor vend for him. But when he refused to oblige him, Sonu, in a rage allegedly penetrated the key into his eye. 

Faridabad, March 2
Devotees of the Dera Sacha Sauda headed by its chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim today took upon themselves to clean the streets, roads and open nullahs in Faridabad today.

A Dera spokesperson said more than three lakh devotees took part in the sanitary drive.

Many of them, including professionals, housewives and students, came in jathas from various parts of Haryana, he added. The drive was launched early morning at the BK Chowk near the Faridabad Municipal Corporation headquarters.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim said, “It is every citizen’s duty to keep the city clean. Cleanliness is correlated with good health.”