Chandigarh, June 2
Peaceful polling was witnessed in the seven Municipal Corporations of Ambala, Panchkula, Karnal, Panipat, Hisar, Rohtak and Yamunanagar and the two municipal committees of Farukh Nagar (Gurgaon) and Kalanaur (Rohtak) today. Barring minor scuffles, polling was peaceful in most parts of the state. No major incident of violence, rigging or intimidation was reported from any part of the state.

Counting for the two municipal committees started immediately after polling came to an end while that for the seven MCs would be held on June 4. Official sources just a little over 67 per cent of the 17.08 lakh voters exercised their franchise .

A large police force ensured a free and fair poll in the 1,686 polling stations, including 251 sensitive and 335 hyper-sensitive.

Initial reports said Yamunanagar witnessed the highest polling at 74.27 per cent while Karnal was placed next at 73.5 per cent polling.

Scuffle between candidates' supporters

Panipat: The fate of 318 candidates was sealed in electronic voting machines with 67.75 per cent voters exercising their franchise on Sunday. Simla, Molana and Nizampur villages in ward 1 boycotted the poll to protest against their inclusion in the municipal corporation.

A minor scuffle between supporters of Surinder Garg and Asha Tayal, both independent candidates, over alleged bogus voting marred polling at Government Senior Secondary School in ward 15 after Tayal's supporters complained to returning officer RS Verma that 25 fake votes had been cast by Garg’s supporters.

Candidate's husband found unconscious

Yamunanagar/Ambala: Amid sporadic reports of violence, MC elections passed off peacefully on Sunday. A turnout of 74.27 per cent was registered in Yamunanagar and 67.10 per cent in Ambala.

The district administration led by Deputy Commissioner KM Pandurang maintained a vigil in Yamunanagar. Violence was reported from ward 12.

BSP-supported candidate Sona Devi's husband Ravinder was found unconscious with injury marks on the head and legs. He was allegedly attacked by rival candidates' supporters. He was rushed to hospital. The police said the matter was being looked into.

A few stray incidences of heated exchanges between candidates' supporters were reported from certain wards in Ambala. No case was registered. Election observer RP Gupta, Deputy Commissioner Shekhar Vidyarthi and other senior officials kept a close watch on the election process.

Commissioner of Police Rajbir Deswal said elaborate security arrangements were in place with the deployment of additional personnel at hyper-sensitive booths. There were reports of liquor flowing freely at some wards on Saturday night.

There were reports of Congress supporters working against other party activists to ensure the victory of their respective candidates from wards where more than one Congress candidate was contesting.

Supporters' tents shifted outside centre

Hisar: Over 67 per cent polling was reported in the 20 MC wards on Sunday. Barring a few minor skirmishes betweens supporters of rival candidates, polling was peaceful.

Till the time of filing of this report, the official website showed polling to be 67.13 per cent. A district administration spokesperson said the actual figure would be known in the evening when presiding officers of all 196 polling booths deposited EVMs with the authorities.

“The figures uploaded are based on figures received from officials through SMSes. Once they deposit the EVMs, the exact number of votes polled will be known,” said Amit Panwar, District Information and Public Relations Officer.

HIsar Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik toured all polling booths after polling began at 8 am. He ordered the shifting of supporters' tents outside the polling centre at booths 12 and 13 of the Tractor Training Centre. He said allowing supporters' tents on the campus could lead to clashes.

Gulzar Singh Kahlo, halka president of the HJC, protested the move and described it as autocratic. His supporters raised slogans against the authorities. Supporters of two rival candidates clashed outside a booth in the Azad Nagar area. The police intervened swiftly to avert a major fight.

There were reports of minor skirmishes between supporters of warring candidates at Sector 14. Agents of some candidates adopted hi-tech methods sat with laptops under tents for issuing slips to voters. Many first-time voters were happy to vote. Former minister and Hisar legislator Savitri Jindal cast her vote at ward 12.

Faridabad, June 2
Terming as a conspiracy of the Congress and the INLD the speculations on the stability of the electoral alliance between the HJC and the BJP, Kuldip Bishnoi and Krishan Pal Gurjar asserted at a public meeting here today that it was firm and they would not comment on the issue in the future.

Addressing the meeting at Prithla organised by a local leader of his party, HJC president Bishnoi attributed the speculations to conspiratorial rumour-mongering by the Congress and the INLD.

He stopped short of alleging that his political opponents were hand-in-glove.

He said, “The HJC-BJP coalition will form the government after the next Assembly elections. The growing popularity of the alliance has unnerved the Congress and the INLD due to which the parties have resorted to cheap tactics against it.”

He further said there was no room for speculation after national BJP leaders, including Rajnath Singh, LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj, had stated in favour of the alliance.

According to him, there would be a direct contest between the HJC-BJP alliance and the Congress in the next Assembly elections.

The HJC leader was critical of the government for its allegedly selective approach to regions on development.

He rubbished the claim of the government that Haryana had achieved the top position in development indices.

Former Haryana BJP president Gurjar echoed Bishnoi's views on the HJC-BJP alliance. He claimed that the government had failed on all fronts and the public had lost confidence in it. 

Sirsa, June 2
Silos will be constructed in rural areas of the state for storage of wheat with the assistance of Argentina and Brazil.

Negotiations with the two governments for an agreement are at an advanced stage. Haryana Minister of State for Agriculture Sukhbir Kataria said this at Sirsa today. He said he had visited both countries. He claimed that Haryana was the leading state in food production. He said grain could be stored at these godowns without any impact of adverse climatic conditions.

Kataria said special discounts would be given to farmers for setting up the godowns which would provide employment to the youth after the agreement was signed.

He said about 60 lakh metric tonnes of wheat had been brought to mandis this season and adequate storage arrangements had been made. He urged farmers to follow rotation farming and horticulture. He said the state government had started various new schemes to encourage horticulture.

He said fruit and vegetable excellence centres had been set up under an Indo-Israel project to provide information about latest technologies to farmers. He said centres of excellence for fruits and vegetables had been set up at Sirsa and Gauranda, respectively. He said 14 advanced exhibition centres were being set up in various districts so that farmers could earn more

Fatehabad, June 2
Ashok Tanwar, MP from Sirsa, today laid the foundation stones of a bypass, new building of municipal committee and several other new development projects at Ratia in Fatehabad today.

The bypass connecting Ratia-Tohana road and Ratia-Budhlada road will be constructed at a cost of Rs 2.93 crore. The total length of this bypass will be 4.8 km and vehicles coming from Punjab would be able to move towards Tohana without entering Ratia town. The new building of the Ratia municipal committee would be constructed at a cost of Rs 84 lakh.

“With these, work on the majority of projects announced by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda after Congress candidate Jarnail Singh’s victory in a byelection held on December 30, 2011, have started,” the MP said. Addressing a rally after the the Congress victory, Hooda had announced a package of Rs 300 crore for Ratia on January 10. Hooda had then announced Rs 20 crore for development of villages, Rs 35 crore for construction of a godown and another grain market over 35 acres. Ratia had got Rs 5 crore for beatification of the town, Rs 17 crore for setting up a 60-bed hospital and four primary health centers in villages of Mehmeda, Alika, Aherawan and Hasanga.

Chandigarh, June 2
The Haryana Roadways has decided to extend the timings of its bus shifts in Gurgaon and Faridabad. It will provide transport facilities to citizens for 18 hours in a day.

Arun Kumar, Director General, Haryana State Transport, said: “In Gurgaon and Faridabad, about 100 buses plied from each place in two shifts. The current shifts are from 6 am to 2 pm and 2 pm to 10 pm. To extend better facilities to citizens, Haryana Roadways has decided to start its morning shift from 5 am instead of 6 am and extend the evening shift to 11pm from 10pm.”

He said it had also been decided to extend free-travel facility to widows of Haryana Roadways employees till the superannuation of the deceased employees.

Arun said there were 715 such widows, who would benefit from this welfare scheme. All of them would be issued an identity card valid for two years. They would be entitled to travel free in Haryana Roadways buses.

Karnal, June 2
Heavy polling was reported for the 20 wards on Sunday with 73.5 per cent voters exercising their franchise. The polling was more than 90 per cent in six of the 206 booths.

Barring the mysterious death of a person of the Kashyap community in Phusgarh under ward 5, which triggered protests and made the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police rush to the spot to pacify the protesters, the polling was peaceful.

The recovery of 44-year-old Sher Singh’s body near Uttam Nagar agitated the victim’s family, villagers and community members who squatted in front of polling booths 9 and 10 at Government Primary School, Phusgarh, and demanded the culprits’ arrest.

The residents alleged that he was killed by musclemen who were pressuring them to vote in their favour.

There are 1,000 votes of the Kashyap community in the ward who are reportedly supporting independent candidate Santosh Kashyap who is backed by the BSP. The deceased is survived by three children.

Deputy Commissioner Renu S Phulia and Superindent of Police Shashank Anand rushed to the spot and assured the protesters that justice would be done and persuaded them to disperse. Polling was brisk in the morning with long queues at polling booths.

The newly included villages of Uchana, Kailash, Daha, Jhanjari and Dholgarh reported nearly 90 per cent voting. Booth 5 (Dholgarh) of ward 20 reported the highest turnout (93.96 per cent) while the minimum voting was reported at booth 11 (NDRI) of ward 11 (46.9 per cent).

Bhiwani, June 2
Girls have outshined boys once again in Class XII results of the Board of School Education, Haryana, announced today.

The results will be available to students on the official website from midnight today and they can get the results through an SMS from 9 am onwards on Monday, said Dr KC Bhardwaj, Chairman of the Board of School Education, Haryana.

As many as 59.31 per cent candidates are successful in the senior secondary examination and girls outshine boys by showing 16.31 per cent more pass percentage than the latter.

Bhardwaj said the pass percentage of girls was 68.33 and that of boys was 52.02. He said 2,52,158 candidates appeared in this examination and 1,49,570 were declared as successful.

He said 46,725 students had got reappear. As many as 1,39,425 boys appeared in this examination and 72,529 boys were declared as passed whereas 1,12,733 girls appeared in this examination and 77,041 were declared successful.

Bhardwaj said in case of regular students, 1,54,479 candidates appeared in the examination and 94,718 were declared successful giving a pass percentage of 61.31.

In case of private candidates, 96,007 candidates appeared in the examination and 54,017 of them got through thus giving a pass percentage of 56.26. He said 45.66 per cent candidates were successful in the Senior Secondary reappear examination.

The chairman said 31,100 candidates had appeared in this examination out of which 14,203 candidates got through.

As many as 23,480 boys appeared in this examination and 10,520 boys were declared pass which works out to a pass percentage of 44.80 whereas 7,620 girls appeared in this examination and 3,683 were declared pass which works out a percentage of 48.33.

Gurgaon,June 2
A godown of an online shopping portal was reduced to ashes as a major fire broke out yesterday. The godown is situated near Jamalpur village in Pataudi. Six fire engines of the Fire Department were still struggling to control the fire that destroyed goods worth crores.

Fire officer Mahender Bhardwaj said it was around 5 am that the Fire Department got information about the fire in Homeshop18 godown. Seeing the intensity of fire, 10 fire engines were immediately rushed to the spot but soon eight additional engines were pressed into service.

Bhardwaj said a broken tin roof had further aggravated the situation. The company officials were unavailable to give details of the exact amount of loss incurred due to fire. The godown stored electrical and electronic goods like fridge, laptops, air conditioners etc.

Sirsa, June 2
The Nagrik Parishad, an organisation of prominent citizens of Sirsa, is up in arms against the authorities on the issue of construction of the Sadar police station at its present place.

Members of the Nagrik Parishad yesterday performed a 'hawan yajna' near the police station as a mark of protest against the authorities, who, they alleged, were adamant on going ahead with their plan ignoring peoples' inconvenience.

The Nagrik Parishad, which has been demanding four-laning of Court Road from Bal Bhawan to Lal Batti Chowk, maintains that once the Sadar Thana is constructed at its present place, there will be no scope left for the widening of the road or straightening its curves that lead to road accidents.

“The Om Prakash Chautala government had approved a plan under which the present site of the Sadar police station was to go to the Haryana Urban Development Authority for construction of a residential-cum-commercial complex and in lieu of it, HUDA was to construct the police station on some alternative land,” said Jagdish Chopra, president of the Nagrik Parishad, Sirsa.

“However, the present government has changed that plan and now the old building of the Sadar police station has been pulled down to construct a new building in its place,” he said.

The Nagrik Parishad maintains that once the police station is constructed, no scope will be left for removing bottlenecks from Court Road.

Hisar, June 2
In an era where women are making a mark in almost every field, the 38-year-old, Raj Bala, from Hisar wants to become the first woman driver of Haryana Roadways.

She took a drivers’ recruitment test at the Hisar Depot of Haryana Roadways here. She surprised all those present at the depot with her control over the wheels of a bus while taking the test.

“If I get the job, I will be happy. But if I fail the test, I will try till I succeed,” she said.

“Driving a roadways bus as a regular driver has been my long cherished dream,” said Raj Bala, whose 22-year-old son runs a restaurant in Sirsa and another son (19) is preparing for the civil services examination.

She, along with her younger sister Ritu, joined training for driving heavy vehicles on August 8, 2007, and cleared it.

Initially, the two sisters were shown the door when they visited the Haryana Roadways office in Hisar for learning driving of heavy commercial vehicles in 2007. They were told that women are not trained here.

"But, the then GM of the depot intervened and we were allowed to undergo a training," said Raj Bala.

“Driving heavy vehicles fascinated us from the childhood. When we saw bus drivers controlling the steering with immaculate perfection, the idea of driving such buses used to come in our minds,” she shares her and her sister Ritu’s childhood memories.

"We were always rebellious. Any kind of gender discrimination was not acceptable to us. It was then we decided to do something that only men do," she said.

Both sisters later got jobs in Sirsa in 2008, where Raj Bala worked as driver of the school bus while Ritu ferried girls to Government College from their villages and back to their village.

The jobs, however, were not remunerative and sometimes, they had to wait for the months for their meagre salaries.

Daughters of a carpenter from Hisar town, both sisters are married to two real brothers of Meerkan village near Hisar. Raj Bala’s husband Krishan Kumar earns his living by selling milk, Ritu’s husband Ram Singh is an accountant in a brick-kiln. 

Sirsa, June 2
Sirsa residents will soon get fresh vegetables and fruits from air-conditioned carts coming to the streets of the town. The Haryana Horticulture Department has acquired 95 AC carts and 15 such carts, the highest in number in the state, have already reached the district.

The authorities have planned to provide these to vegetable sellers belonging to Schedule Castes on heavily subsidised prices.

In fact the beneficiary of the scheme will have to pay merely 10 per cent of the actual cost.

"The actual cost of these AC carts is Rs 1.40 lakh per unit, but we will provide these carts to people belonging to Schedule Castes for a price of Rs 14,000 on 90 per cent subsidy," said the Deputy Commissioner, J Ganesan.

He said the AC carts besides providing employment to Schedule Caste youths would also help local people in getting fresh vegetables on their doorsteps.

The AC carts would also be useful for the vegetable-growing farmers for local marketing of their produce.

The body of these carts would be such that these would be easier for peddlers to take these to the streets.

The carts were mechanised and they had steering, gear and brakes like a car.

The AC carts would have inbuilt solar energy systems in them. The solar systems would help vendors keep their fruits and vegetable fresh in the air-conditioned environment without having to spend on electricity or diesel.

"Before the arrival of these AC carts, we had invited applications from vendors belonging to the Scheduled Castes. In all, 62 applications were received. The Horticulture Department sent these applications to its head office after selecting them on first- come-first-served basis. Out of the 62 applications, 15 were finally selected," said Ganesan. 

Ambala, June 2
Seven years after a few miscreants sold land on the basis of a fake general power of attorney (GPA) reportedly prepared in Thatipur tehsil of Gwalior district in Madhya Pradesh, the Vigilance Department has arrested three property dealers for their alleged role in the deals.

Those involved in the racket had lured local investors to buy residential and commercial plots on the basis of a GPA which was shown to have been prepared in Gwalior district.

The accused had bought land from local farmers and sold it to investors without getting it registered in their name, causing losses to the exchequer. The deals had been registered with the Revenue Department and the mutations carried out.

As the matter came to light, a Vigilance probe was marked and the authorities imposed a ban on registration of land deals on the basis of the GPA. It was soon revealed that the GPA was forged as Thatipur, mentioned as a tehsil, was not a tehsil and all signatures and stamps were forged.

No arrests were made immediately, but investigations were continued. After collecting enough evidence to prove the guilt of local property dealers instrumental in finalising the deals, the Vigilance Department arrested Arvinder, Suresh and Guatam.

They were booked under Sections 419, 420, 467, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. They were later produced in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate which sent them to police remand.

It was learnt that the accused had sold over 300 plots to investors in Ambala while a similar modus operandi was used to sell 600 plots in Kurukshetra, Karnal and Kaithal districts.

Sources said the Vigilance Department was investigating how the accused got prepared the fake GPA and from where they got the stamps. They said the involvement of more property dealers had not been ruled out and more arrests could follow.

Gurgaon, June 2
A woman was allegedly gang raped by two men on the pretext of getting her a job in a call centre. The victim was then made to marry one of the accused’s younger brother, who also raped her.

Though the incident took place in December last year, she reported the matter to the police today blaming her confinement for delay in the complaint.

The victim lived in Laxman Vihar along with her mother and two brothers, who are security guards. The family had a single mobile phone used by all. She alleged that in November she received a call from Pradeep who claimed to be her brother’s friend and offered her a job in a call centre. He had also asked her not to tell anybody about the call.

“He then called me many times and it was on December 14 that he told me that I had to undergo three-day training for the job. He asked me to meet him near the Daultabad flyover. I went there and found Pradeep with another man Neeraj. They took me to a room in Nangloi and raped me for three days. They had a pistol and threatened to shoot me,” she said.

The victim further alleged that when the duo got a whiff that her family had lodged a missing complaint with the police, they then threatened and forced her to marry their younger brother Kedar.

“They got a fake school certificate from UP and forcibly married me to Kedar at Arya Samaj Mandir. I was kept at gunpoint and brought to the city where I was made to say in court that I had married Kedar with my own wish. I couldn’t even tell my family and was then taken away by Kedar who also raped me. They kept me confined in their house where their mother and maternal uncle would guard me. It was only now that I managed to flee and come to my mother,” she said.

Rohtak, June 2
Around 67.74 per cent voters exercised their franchise at the 20 wards on Sunday. The polling remained peaceful. It was slow till 11 am but picked momentum around noon and was the maximum in the last two hours.

According to a spokesperson, the time for polling had to be extended as many voters came late and were allowed to cast their vote till 6 pm. The authorities deputed around 2,200 police personnel, including 550 women, on poll duty.

The police arrested 17 youths on the charge of attempting to disturb polling at certain booths. A spokesperson said the armed youths were roaming under suspicious circumstances and two pistols and 10 live cartridges were recovered from them.

Faridabad, June 2
Five armed men chased four youths travelling in a car and fired several rounds at them, injuring one. The injured, Amit, who was hit in a leg by one of the gunshots, is said to be out of danger.

The police registered a case on Saturday, but no arrests have been made so far. ACP Dinesh Yadav said the culprits had not been identified. “The victims were not able to see the culprits and could not note down the number of the Bolero,” he said.

The ACP said several raids had been conducted in the city to nab the accused. Amit, a Class XII student, was on the way to a hotel with his three friends, Rahul, Amar and Duleep. They were travelling in a car. Five men came in a white Bolero opened fired at their vehicle near Bata Chowk . A bullet hit Amit’s leg.

Soepat, June 2
Swaran Singh and Neeraj of Chandigarh died on the spot and eight others were injured when a mini-bus dashed against a tractor-trailer parked on the GT road near the Bhigan turning around 4 am today.

While the doctors declared Swaran Singh and Neeraj as brought dead, they referred the injured to the PGIMS, Rohtak. The police has booked the tractor driver. The bodies were handed over to next of kin after a postmortem examination. The accident victims were on a religious tour.