Chandigarh May 21
It is going to be a mutli-cornered contest for the 144 seats of the seven municipal corporations of Ambala, Panchkula, Karnal, Panipat, Hisar, Rohtak and Yamunanagar with 1,079 candidates filing their nomination papers on the last day today. In all, 2057 candidates have filed their nominations.

There was a surge in the number of candidates filing their nominations today (1079) as compared to yesterday when 790 candidates filed their papers. The filing of nominations started with a trickle on May 16 when seven candidates filed their papers, followed by 30 on May 17 and 151 on May 18, sources told The Tribune.

A maximum of 394 candidates filed their nominations for 24 wards of the Panipat MC, followed by 334 for 20 seats of the Hisar municipality. The lowest 220 candidates filed their nominations for the 20 wards of the Panchkula MC. The final picture on exact number of candidates will emerge on May 23, the date of withdrawal.

Meanwhile, the Aadhaar card issued by UIDAI can also be produced as a documentary evidence by electors, who do not have EPIC, State Election Commissioner Dharam Vir said here today. If any elector does not have an EPIC card, but whose names appear in the voters list, he will have to produce one of the 15 documents to establish his identity.

While the BJP and INLD are fighting the election on their party symbols, the ruling Congress and the BJP’s alliance partner, the HJC has left it to the party workers to fight as Independents. In the past the Congress has either supported its workers or adopted like-minded candidates winning the elections.

While the HJC’s decision to allow its cadre to contest has left the BJP red-faced raising doubts about the continuation of the alliance, the INLD and the BJP are leaving no stone unturned to wrest the crucial MCs ahead of the Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections next year. 

Chandigarh, May 21
The last legal hurdle in the way of holding Municipal Corporation poll in Haryana was today removed with the Punjab and Haryana High Court refusing to stay the process.

Taking up a bunch of cases this morning, the court made it clear that the elections would be subject to the outcome of petitions challenging the poll.

In one of the applications before the court, Pawan Singh Rana had contended that he had filed a petition challenging the notification dated January 15, whereby the wardbandi of the Panipat Municipal Corporation was finalised taking into consideration the 2001 Census . The petition was pending for adjudication for July 15.

Rana had added that Haryana vide its May 9 notificationhad declared the election schedule for all corporations and the date fixed for initiation of the process was May 10. “In case the elections were held, the entire petition would be rendered infructuous and the very purpose of filing the writ petition shall be defeated”. As such, the notification may be stayed during the pendency of the writ petition, he had added.

Acting on his application for stay on the notification for elections to “all wards of the Panipat MC and other corporations’, the high court on the previous date of hearing had summoned the Director (Census).

As the case came up for hearing today, counsel for the Director (census) submitted before the court that there was a 20 per cent increase in the population of the state as compared to the 2001 Census. He, however, clarified that this increase in the population would not make any major difference in the wardbandi for municipal elections.

Chandigarh, May 21
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had made it clear that directions have been issued to Haryana for carrying out a survey before initiating action against schools running without authority. In the case of violation of the directions, the Financial Secretary-cum-Principal Secretary, Education Department, could be approached.

The assertion by a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain came on a petition filed by Krishan Kumar against Haryana and other respondents.

He was seeking directions to the official respondents to take action against a school management for running an institute without obtaining permission under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.

Taking up the matter, the Bench asserted: “For the purpose, the requisite direction has already been issued by this court in civil writ petition No 15225 of 2012 (Manoj Kumar Jaswal versus state of Haryana), wherein the government has been directed to conduct a survey; and if during the survey it is found that any school is being run without any authority, take action against that school”.

The Bench added the present writ petition was as such being disposed of by giving liberty to the petitioner to approach the Financial Secretary-cum-Principal Secretary, Education Department, Haryana.

In Manoj Kumar’s case, the petitioner had claimed schools were running in Faridabad without recognition. It is specifically stated that recognition was necessary under the provisions of Section 18 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. Taking up the matter, the Bench had directed the Financial Secretary-cum-Principal Secretary “to conduct a survey in the entire state to ensure that no school is established/allowed to function in violation of the provisions of Section 18 of the Act as well as the provisions of the Haryana School Education Act, 1995.

Chandigarh, May 21
Haryana’s hat-trick of three big-ticket Central projects in three days may well be its neighbours’ envy and the state’s pride but these just didn’t fall into its lap overnight.

Relentless pursuing of these projects with the Centre, persistent efforts by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the state’s proximity to Delhi, personal contacts and the government “land-availability” offers made Haryana the preferred destination for these prestigious projects.

While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation stone of the country’s first National Defence University (INDU) in Gurgaon’s Binola on May 23, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma is slated to lay the foundation stone of the country’s second National Institute of Design in Kurukshetra tomorrow. The Centre of Excellence for Fruits under Indo-Israel project was inaugurated in Mangiana in Sirsa today.

These and many other projects Haryana has “attracted” in the years of the Congress rule have not only put the state on the national map but also come loaded with opportunities for the locals and a promise of burgeoning activity in these districts.

Sources said while Hooda was credited with bringing the two projects, the NID and the Indo-Israel project, entirely on his own, the INDU had essentially been a joint effort of the Chief Minister and former Union Minister of State and Gurgaon MP Rao Indrajeet Singh.

In 2009, the INDU finally came to Haryana with Binola getting the nod from the PMO. However, Haryana’s gain was Punjab’s loss which, too, had been vying for this university. Punjab evinced keen interest in setting up the university and had even agreed to give 100 acres or more. In November 2006, a high-level committee of the Defence Ministry accompanied by Punjab government officials even visited Ropar and Fatehgarh Sahib to inspect the proposed sites.

However, with then Minister of State for Defence Rao Indrajeet Singh, monitoring developments in Delhi, pushed Haryana’s case for the university in the ministry and a high-level committee explored the NCR and selected Binola. Hooda hastened the process and expressed the willingness to provide land for the university.

The sources said the NID coming to Umri village of Kurukshetra, already an education hub with a state university and an NIT, was the “handiwork” of Hooda who used his good offices to bag the project. Rs 100 crore would be spent on the first phase of this project and it would be completed within three years.

The “kinnow-malta belt” of the state has “earned” the Centre of Excellence for Fruits in Sirsa. Given the large tracts of land, totaling to 8,300 acres, under horticulture, the centre is likely to be a boon for the district which produced record 1.80 lakh metric tonnes of kinnows and maltas in 2012-13.

The sources said that the three projects will boost the economy of the three districts by attracting people from all over the country. 

Gurgaon: Dr Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation stone of the country’s first defence university - Indian National Defence University (INDU) - at Binola village in the district on May 23.

The university will be established at an estimated cost of Rs 300 crore on 200 acres acquired for the purpose at Binola village located along National Highway No. 8 near Manesar in Gurgaon district.

It is expected that students and officials of defence forces and civilian administration from different parts of the country as well as foreign lands will undergo various training programmes and courses at INDU.

The proposed university will offer MSc/MTech, Master in Philosophy (MPhil) and doctorate (PhD) level courses in the disciplines of defence studies, defence management, and defence science and technology.

The National College of Defence Studies (NCDS), the Indian Institute of Defence Technology (IIDT), the Indian Institute of Defence Management (IIDM) and the Defence Institute of Distance and Open Learning (DIDOL) will be the constituent colleges and institutions of the INDU.

The long-awaited university has President of India as the visitor and the Defence Minister as Chancellor.

The present institutes of Indian Armed forces such as National Defence College (NDC), New Delhi; Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington; College of Defence Management (CDM), Secunderabad; and National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla, will be affiliated with the INDU.

The university will have provisions for other defence-training institutions to get affiliated for the award of degrees. – TNS

Ballah (Karnal), May 21
A Class XII student today killed a girl and her mother at Ballah village in the district with a knife.

Mandeep wanted to marry the girl but his offer was rejected by the girl and her family members.

The girl’s mother Prabho Devi (50) died on the spot, while she succumbed to her injuries in a hospital.

Prabho Devi’s brother-in-law Hawa Singh said Prabho had four daughters and two of them were married recently at a village in Panipat.

Mandeep was related to one of the sons-in-law of the deceased and wanted marry one of the daughters of the deceased but his proposal was rejected.

Hawa Singh said Mandeep often threatened to kill the girl and family members and today he barged into the house and attacked the girl and when her mother came to her rescue, he also attacked her, killing her on the spot.

He said the victim’s younger sister ran out of the house and informed her uncle and cousin.

Police station in charge Mohammad Jamal reached the spot and said the accused would be arrested soon.

Chandigarh, May 21
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has relied, among other things, on a minor girl’s testimony to send her father behind bars for life in a child murder case.

The girl had deposed that her father Wazir had murdered her three-and-a-half-year-old sister, before poising her as well. Taking into account the fact that the girl was herself a victim, the high court accepted her testimony.

The case

Employed with a textile mill, Wazir was convicted for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The prosecution story was that in February, 2006, Wazir thrashed his wife, Indrawati, after “suspecting her character”. Soon after, she went to her parental house at Tohana.

Indrawati’s mother, Ompati, received a message from the accused that he had administered poison to three children and had also taken poison. All of them proceeded to Hisar on receiving information that the children had been admitted to hospital. Alleging that Wazir had poisoned Somna to death and made an attempt to murder other children, Indrawati lodged a complaint with the police on February 28, 2007.

The trial

Just aged five-and-a-half at the time of evidence, the child deposed that her father administered poison not only to Somna, but to her as well as the third sister. The chemical examiner's report also disclosed that brick, steel tumbler and loose earth recovered from his house contained pieces of aluminium phosphide.

His counsel claimed that the trial court, while convicting the accused, failed to notice that the accused took the three children to hospital. Therefore, he “would not have intended to cause their death ”.

The judgement

Taking up the appeal, Justice M. Jeyapaul and Justice Inderjit Singh asserted: “Of course a child witness is always prone to tutoring. Therefore, the court will have to rule out such tutoring of the child before eliance is placed upon the evidence of a child witness. In the instant case, the child witness also was poisoned. We find that the child witness was also one of the victims… The presence of the child witness at the time when her sister was poisoned to death cannot be doubted. Further, she being one of the victims is competent to speak about the occurrence”.

Fatehabad, May 21
As many as eight schoolchildren from Chandrwal village of Fatehabad were shifted to Community Health Centre at Bhuna in this district after they were taken ill following consumption of iron and folic acid (IFA) tablets supplied by the Health Department.

"All these children suffered from pain in abdomen and nausea. While five of them were put on intravenous drips, three others were put on oral medication," said Dr RC Goyal, Senior Medical Officer of the Community Health Centre, Bhuna.

All children were discharged from the CHC by the evening, he said.

Mai Lal, headmaster of the school, said 130 children consumed tablets on Monday. However, 32 of them complained of pain in abdomen, nausea and vomiting today.

Later, the health authorities shifted eight of them to the CHC, Bhuna, while the others were treated in the school. Meanwhile, the health authorities took extra care while giving tablets to children.

"We had sent our field staff equipped with antacid and antispasmodic tablets, besides lemon water, so that they could provide treatment to children on the spot, if needed," said Dr VK Jain, Senior Medical Officer of the CHC, Ratia.

Gurgaon, May 21
The police has arrested two maids of a private school in Sector 56 for allegedly molesting an eight-year-old girl for nearly two years.

The police booked both the maids under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.

In a complaint to the police, parents of this Class III student said the victim was last molested on Friday and after that they approached the school authorities but they were shooed away.

“I could see gradual changes in her behaviour in the past two years, but never took it seriously. I was shocked when my maid told me that she had seen my daughter touching herself many a times inappropriately. When I questioned her, she told me that a school maid taught her this in Class II and she used to do it in a toilet with her every day. She also told me that of late, a new maid had joined the ‘game’ which they last played on Friday,” alleged victim’s mother in the FIR.

Gurgaon, May 21
While the police may have acted promptly in the case of alleged molestation of 8-year student by school helps for two years in a Sector 56 posh school, the alleged indifference of the school authorities have highlighted the sheer ignorance of the city's education fraternity about the protection of children from sexual offences.

According to a recent circular issued by the CBSE, it is the responsibility of schools to report and avoid such offences. It highlights the fact that any exploitation by school staff makes him liable for higher punishment.

A child's security on the premises is the school's responsibility. The authorities irrespective of affiliated boards are accountable for any exploitation or harm done to a child in school and school hours," said RJ Khanderao, regional director CBSE.

While it's the DEO office which is expected to inquire the matter but DEO Manoj Kaushik is unaware of the incident.

"I am hearing it from you but if it is happened, it is shameful because if schools cannot assure safety then who will? What can we do till we get a complaint?," said Kaushik.

The victim's mother, who has named the school in the FIR, has alleged that they played down the child's molestation. "As a mother I went to them seeking help but they blamed us," said the mother.

Chandigarh, May 21
Lokayat, a group for people’s movement solidarity, today flayed the Haryana Government for lathi-charging workers of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union at Kaithal on May 19.

Addressing a press conference here today, leaders of the Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union and RS Bains and RS Hooda, both advocates of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, alleged that around 6.30 p.m. on May 19 the police started a brutal lathi-charge on protesters, including women and children, when they were protesting outside the house of Haryana Industry Minister Randeep Surjewala at Kaithal.

Hooda alleged that the state government was portraying the entire trade union movement as the movement of a group of criminals.

Meanwhile, the Lokayat demanded that false cases registered against leaders and workers should be withdrawn immediately and all workers should be reinstated. 

Jind, May 21
After residents locked two government schools in their villages in protest against alleged incidents of sexual abuse and molestation, girl students of several villages hired a bus to go to their school in order to avoid any untoward incident.

Sources said over 90 students of Government Girls Senior Secondary School at Uchana Mandi, about 30-km from here, hired a bus to ferry them to their school from their villages. The bus service was launched on April 1 this year. The bus owner charges Rs 250 to Rs 300 per student per month.

“Earlier, they had to take private maxi cabs or Haryana Roadways buses to go to school, which was not only inconvenient but also the girls were at risk of facing eve-teasing and harassment,” said a resident of the town.

The girl students belong to nearby Karsindhu, Burayan, Makhand, Bhogra, Kakrod Uchana Khurd, Kheri Masania, Kharkbhura and Kheri Sapha villages.

The bus was hired after the Transport and the Education department failed to provide special bus service to the girl students, said Harish Garg, a local resident.

Meanwhile, schools at Farain Kalan and Farain Khurd remained closed for the sixth and second day, respectively. The villagers had locked these schools in protest against the recent incidents of sexual abuse.

Karnal, May 21
Irked over auction of grazing land at Dhumsi village, cow protection activists blocked the national highway near Namaste Chowk here today.

The activists said the administration had earlier assured them that there would be no further auction of “gochar bhumi” (pasture land).

The protesters demanded that there should be no further auction of pasture land and the land that had already been auctioned by panchayats be restored back to the villages and a “gochar vikas board” be constituted without any further delay.

Led by Sant Gopal Dass, cow protection activists, including members of the BJP’s youth wing, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, blocked the national highway and said their agitation would continue till lakhs of hectors of pasture land was released and restored for grazing of cattle. Das said he had written to the President, Chief Justice of India and other dignitaries and explained them the status of “Gochar Bhumi” and also the fallout of shrinking pasture land. “We have urged them either to send us and our cattle to some other country or give us mercy killing in case the pasture land cannot be restored,” he said.

The Delhi-Chandigarh highway was blocked for more than 90 minutes and the traffic was diverted towards Sector 4 to avoid any inconvenience to motorists.

The protesters lifted the dharna after serving a five-day ultimatum on the administration and warned that the national highway would be blocked if their demands were not accepted. Demanding a CBI probe, he said nearly 3.32 crore acres of pasture land had disappeared since 1968.

Tehsildar Hari Om Atri, who pacified the agitators, said when residents of Dhumis village, including the gram sabha members, wanted auction of the land, how could he stop it? He said the authorities had asked for the data relating to utilisation of the village land for policy decisions and they had assured the protesters that a meeting of the gram sabha would be convened to cancel the auction.

Chandigarh, May 21
The Department of Sports and Youth Affairs has declared the calendar of youth affairs' activities for 2013-14.

These activities will start with adventure sports activities with the objective to instill risk-taking capacity, appreciation of nature and ecology among the youth.

This was disclosed here by Amit Jha, Principal Secretary, Sports. He said around 3 lakh selected youths would be benefited by these activities. The adventure water sports activities will start on May 16 to May 30 at the Regional Water Sports Centre, Pong Dam, in Kangra. The 105 boys will attend a 14-day Basic Water Sports Course in this institution up to May 30. The girls will attend this course from June 16 to June 30. Simultaneously, 4 batches of boys and girls from all over the districts will undergo river rafting course in Ganga at Kodiala, Rishikesh under the Garwal Mandal Vikas Nigam.

Jha said basic courses in trekking and mountaineering are arranged from June 1 to July 2 at the High-Altitude Trekking and Skiing Centre at Narkanda in Shimla district and from June 12 to June 23 at the Regional Mountaineering Centre, McLeodganj, in Himachal Pradesh.

The workshops on disaster management will be organised at four divisional headquarters in Ambala, Hisar, Rohtak and Gurgaon in June, September, December 2013 and January 2014.

In these workshops, expert resource persons from the Centre for Disaster Management (CDM), Massoorie, the National Disaster Management Authority (DMA) of India, New Delhi, and HIPPA, Gurgaon, will deliver the presentations on the subject to sensitise and train the participants. To improve the skills of culture in the youth, the workshops of music, dance and drama will be organised at each district of the state from June 1 to June 10. State-level cultural workshops will be conducted from November 22 to November 27 at Narnaul.

A conference on Anti-Drug Day will be conducted on June 26 at Hisar. Veer Sahidhi Diwas will be celebrated on September 23 in each district. Training to the youth in mushroom breeding and compost fertiliser will be arranged in the Mushroom Breeding Centre of Haryana Agro-Industry Corporation at Sonepat from July 3 to July 13.

Similarly, the state-level Career Guidance Mela for Youth Employment is scheduled from July 24 to July 26 at Rohtak. A state-level Female Foeticide Awareness Camp will be organised on October 10 to October 13 at Karnal.

District-level youth festivals will be organised from August 12-20 in each district. The Youth Festival will be conducted from August 29 to August 31 in Hisar. The Youth Day and Youth Week will be celebrated on January 12 and January 12-19, 2014, in each district of the state. A state-level Youth Club seminar will be organised in February 2014 at Kurukshetra.

Chandigarh, May 21
The INLD has welcomed the decision of the Delhi High Court to give interim bail to the party chief Om Prakash Chautala.

Party's senior leader and MLA from Ellenabad Abhay Singh Chautala and state INLD president Ashok Arora stated that their party had always respected the judiciary. They also said hopefully the INLD chief and other party leaders would soon get regular bail. On health grounds, the high court had given interim bail to Chautala for six weeks and permitted him to have treatment from Medanta Heart Institute, Gurgaon.

Fatehabad: INLD supporter Suman Lata Siwach has refused to end her vow not to eat any type of foodgrains till her leader Om Prakash Chautala is acquitted.

Advocate by profession, Suman Lala Siwach had pledged that she would not take any foodgrains - rice, wheat, grams, pulses, beans, soya and others, till Chautala was acquitted of the charges levelled against him.

“I am very happy that the court has granted him (Chautala) bail for six weeks on medical grounds, but my vow will end only when he is finally acquitted by the court.

Suman Lata Siwach is a former district president of the women wing of the INLD.

Chandigarh, May 21
Haryana will soon have a well-equipped hepatitis-C Management (HCMC) cell and those suffering from hepatitis C would get latest treatment as Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has approved a proposal to this effect. The cell will be established in the office of the Director-General ,Health Services, at an estimated cost of Rs 10 crore.

A spokesman of the Haryana Health Department said here that this decision was taken following surveys conducted under expert guidance of the Social and Preventive Medicine Department (SPM) of the PGIMS, Rohtak. The first such survey to detect those suffering from hepatitus C was conducted in 78 villages, 17 wards and three colonies in Ratia of Fatehabad district from February 13 to 25, 2012. The samples were taken from suspected positive HCV cases. — TNS

Gurgaon, May 21
The searing heat has forced the authorities to change the timings of

primary schools in the district from Wednesday.

Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena said classes in primary schools would now be held from 7 am to 12 noon instead of 8 am to 2.30 pm. — TNS

New Delhi, May 21
The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to top police officers in Haryana after taking cognisance of media reports that one of the accused wanted in connection with the attack on Dalits in Kaithal resurfaced on May 14 and attacked another Dalit boy in the same area.

As many as 17 people, who were absconding in connection with the attack on Dalits at Pabnawa village in Kaithal, attacked another Dalit boy on May 14 causing grievous injuries to him. At present, the victim is undergoing treatment at the PFIMER, Chandigarh.

The NHRC said contents of the press report, if true, raised a serious issue of violation of human rights of Dalits. It has issued notices to the DGP and SP, Kaithal, calling for reports within four weeks.

Sonepat, May 21
A large number of representatives of the Dhanak Seva Sabha led by state vice-president of the BJP Rajiv Jain today handed over a memorandum of demands to Deputy Commissioner (DC) Pankaj Aggarwal for the construction of a building of a primary school, which is being run at present at a mandir in Dhankan Basti for the past over 30 years in the town.

The DC assured that he would take appropriate action for identification of the proper land in the area for the construction of a new building. The representatives suggested two-three sites of government land for this purpose.

Jain pointed out that there was no congenial atmosphere for teaching in the schools for want of the facilities like drinking water, toilet, electricity etc in the mandir.

“Moreover, the study is disrupted whenever there is some religious programme or a marriage ceremony,” he added.

Around 90 per cent of students in the school belonged to the Scheduled Caste and other backward communities, he said and added that it was the duty of the government to provide a congenial atmosphere of studies at primary level.

They were accompanied by municipal councillors Sunaina Bhardwaj and Ravinder Dilawar, BJP’s district general secretary Vikki Bhardwaj and president of the Dhanuk Harijan Sevak Sabha Shyam Lal.

Yamunanagar/Ambala, May 21
The Haryana Power Generation Engineers Association (HPGEA) yesterday held gate meetings at all three thermal plants of the state in protest against the management of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) for not filling the quota posts of state engineer.

The engineers urged the government and the HPGCL management to intervene and ensure that the rights of the employees were not ignored by the BBMB management.

Praveen Dahiya, a spokesperson of the association, said the employees of the Rajasthan State Electricity Board were being taken in excess of their strength, while the employees of the Haryana power utilities were being ignored.

Till date, five Superintending Engineers of the RSEB had been posted in the BBMB against the quota of one post, whereas even the requests of many engineers of the HPGCL were turned down by the BBMB management.