Chandigarh, June 17
In Haryana politics there is much more than meets the eye. Chaudhary Birender Singh, who was tipped to be a union minister in the Manmohan Singh government, was excluded at the eleventh hour with Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda pleading with the party high command to keep him out lest it sends a wrong signal to detractors within the party. It was finally at 2 am that a decision was taken to make Chaudhary Birender Singh a permanent member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) rather than a Cabinet minister.

Hooda, who has been camping in Delhi, met senior party functionaries after the party high command sent a communication to Chaudhary Birender Singh yesterday asking him to be present in Delhi today. The Congress high command wanted to reward Chaudhary Birender Singh for leading the party to victory in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand .

But Hooda took the plea that having lost the Uchana Kalan seat to Om Prakash Chautala, Birender had been rehabilitated as a Rajya Sabha member. His elevation now would send a wrong signal. Hooda also brought to the notice of the party that Birender Singh had left no opportunity to embarrass his government, the latest instance being the criticism of the Hooda government at a rally jointly addressed by him along with Kumari Selja, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.

The party high command was also contemplating dropping Selja as a union Minister and appointing her as Pradesh Congress President. Since the Union Cabinet would ideally have only one minister from Haryana, Selja's supporters prevailed upon the party leadership to retain her and drop Birender Singh. After taking the decision not to induct Birender, he was personally informed by party President Sonia Gandhi that he was not being inducted into the Cabinet but was being made a CWC member .

A cousin of Hooda, Birender Singh was till now the party in charge in Himachal , Uttarakhand and Delhi. He was dropped as the AICC general secretary yesterday

and informed that he was being inducted into the Union Cabinet and was likely to be given the portfolio of rural development or textiles. Selja, who used Birender Singh's help to make charges against Hooda that his government was not looking after the interests of Dalits, reportedly secured her portfolio by not opposing Hooda's contention to drop his cousin.

It is learnt that Sonia Gandhi told Birender Singh that he would be suitably accommodated; hinting that he may be appointed as a Governor, but Birender Singh told her that he would like to remain in active politics. 

Sonepat, June 17
After discussions with Haryana PWD Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, agitating BKU activists ended their 23-day-long indefinite fast here late last evening. State BKU president Gurnam Singh was also present on the occasion.

Before ending the fast, Surjewala along with Sonepat MP Jitender Singh Malik, MLAs Jai Tirth Dahiya and Jagbir Malik, chairperson of the Haryana Social Welfare Board Sumitra Chauhan, Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Aggarwal, SP Arun Singh, among others, held a meeting with Gurnam Singh and other BKU activists.

Surjewala explained to BKU leadersd that it was not possible for the state government to accept their demands in the current financial year as the entire budget had already been allocated for different welfare schemes and development works.

Surjewala said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had already written to the Centre for bonus to the farmers who had sold their wheat produce to government agencies.

Assuring the farmers that the state government would make efforts to convince the Centre for making a satisfactory hike in the minimum support price of wheat during the next procurement season, the minister said a meeting of BKU activists would be arranged with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Gurnam Singh met the agitating BKU activists after the meeting and decided to end the fast. The indefinite fast had been launched in support of their demands for bonus of Rs 300 per quintal on the purchased wheat and compensation of Rs 25,000 per acre for damaged crops. 

Gurgaon, June 17
Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena has said the state government has decided to appoint introducers to facilitate the making of Aadhaar cards for all residents and to help those residents to enrol who do not have any proof of identity or address.

He said the state registrar of the unique identification number (UID) had felt that there was a need to provide for introducers and verifiers to accomplish the enrolment process. The state government had notified nambardars and sarpanches as introducers in the rural areas and municipal councillors for the urban areas, he added.

Meena said serving patwaris and gram sachivs had been notified as verifiers. Retired Class-III and above employees of the Central and state governments, including retired schoolteachers, could be appointed as verifiers for the purpose of UID enrolment.

The introducers are officially appointed persons who would help residents without any identity or address proof to enrol in the system.

Similarly, verifiers are officially appointed to verify various documents like proof of identity, address and date of birth submitted by the residents at time of enrollment for an Aadhaar card.

The persons wishing to be engaged as introducers or verifiers will have to apply to the Deputy Commissioner (DC) concerned. After scrutiny of applications, the DC would forward the names to state registrar of the UID, who would take steps to notify each person by name.

The persons desirous of being appointed as introducers should have their Aadhaar card prepared and be present at the enrolment centre at the time of enrolment of the person(s) whom they are identifying.

Chandigarh, June 17
With a discharge of 8.06 lakh cusecs in the Yamuna, the state government has sounded an alert in several districts along the river while asking other flood-prone districts to brace up for the monsoon .

Instructions have been issued to all Deputy Commissioners with special attention to those of Ambala, Karnal, Panipat, Yamunanagar, Sonepat, Palwal, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Kurukshetra, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sirsa and Kaithal.

Irrigation Minister HS Chattha said despite the heavy flow in the Yamuna, floods have not yet caused any serious damage to the protection structures constructed along the river .

Chattha said the effect of the peak discharge was expected to reach Delhi within 48 hours after crossing the Hathini Kund barrage in Yamunanagar district .

The Yamuna water at the Hathini Kund barrage had started rising on June 16 morning and the highest discharge of 8.06 cusecs passed the barrage by June 17 evening. Thereafter, the water started receding in the river . The Yamuna level in areas downstream of the Hathini Kund barrage have started rising and the peak discharge of 5.35 lakh cusecs has already been received in Karnal district .

Staff of the Irrigation Department has been given strict instructions to remain in high alert and carry out regular patrolling along the river.

Since there has been a massive discharge from the Hathini Kund barrage in the Yamuna river, the Faridabad district administration has taken all preventive measures as the water is expected to reach Faridabad by June 18 noon .

The Faridabad DC has issued instructions to the officers concerned to ensure that essential services are not affected since the increase in the Yamuna level posed a threat of floods in some villages.

Meanwhile, after evacuating 90 persons stranded at the deras of Shergarh Tapu and 42 from Chandrao village in Karnal district , 13 more stranded at Dabkoli village were also saved. As many as15 more people stranded in the river near Jadauli village have also been saved.

Krishna Mohan, Financial Commissioner, Revenue and Disaster Management, said the DCs had been asked to ensure that no leave was given to district officers.

Hisar, June 17
Six migrant labourers from Bihar were buried alive after a 15-foot-high wall fell in a guar factory at Hindwan village of Hisar this afternoon.

As the wall fell on the poor victims who were stacking sacks of guar 'korma' on one side of it, nearly 20 tonnes of guar powder stored on the other side of the wall also came down on them burying them.

The victims have been identified as Manoj, Chandan Shah, Ranbir, Janardan, Kashi and Jugeshwar, all residents of Khajaria district in Bihar.

Sidharth Dhanda, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Hisar, who reached the site soon after the accident, said the wall had been constructed in gross violation of the structural norms.

"We have registered a case of causing death due to negligence against factory owner Neeraj Bansal, a resident of Ratia town in Fatehabad," said the DSP.

The 30-foot nine-inch wall had been constructed in the middle of the factory shed without any foundation.

While the victims were deployed to stack sacks of guar 'korma' on one side of the wall, huge quantities of guar powder (over 20 metric tonnes) had accumulated on the other side of the wall.

Guar gum, guar powder and guar korma are three products that come out of milling of guar (cluster beans) in factories. While guar gum is used in oil mining and some other industries, guar powder and guar korma is used in animal fodder.

Eyewitnesses said that while the wall dividing the two products was quite weak due to its structural shortcomings, huge quantities of guar powder had been allowed to pile up on the other side putting even more pressure on it.

Though rescue teams from Hisar arrived after some time, these could do nothing as there was no scope of taking JCB machines inside the factory shed.

Volunteers of the Shah Satnam Green S Force of Dera Sacha Sauda arrived there and helped in extricating the victims' bodies manually.

While five bodies were taken out within an hour of the incident, the sixth, which was found buried deep under the debris, could be extricated only after three hours.

Hisar SDM Amarjeet Singh said prima facie it appeared a case of negligence.

Meanwhile, sources in the Industry Department claimed that they had served a notice on the factory owner for the unsafe structure of the shed, but he ignored it.

Factory owner Neeraj Bansal could not be contacted as his mobile phone was found switched off.

Chandigarh, June 17
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has announced to institute a new award to commemorate the memory of noted folk litterateur and artist Baje Bhagat. The award carrying Rs 51,000 in cash would be given through the Haryana Kala Parishad.

Hooda was speaking at the Sahityakar Samman Samorah organised by the Haryana Sahitya Akademi at the Raj Bhawan. Governor Jagannath Pahadia and Hooda gave away awards to 32 litterateurs for their outstanding work.

The Pandit Madhav Prasad Mishra Samman carrying Rs 2.5 lakh in cash and the Mahakavi Surdas Samman carrying prize money of Rs 1.5 lakh for 2012 were given to Puranchand Sharma and Rajbir Singh Dhankar, respectively.

The Babu Balmukund Gupt Award was given to Ramkumar 'Attraya' and Madhukant. The Lala Deshbandhu Gupt Award was given to Kewal Krishan Pathak and Arun Naithani. The Pandit Lakhmi Chand Award was given to Savitri Vashist and Sumer Chand. The Haryana Gaurav Samman was given to Punyamchand Manav. The Aditya-Alhar Hassya Samman was given to Manik Verma and Jamini Haryanvi. The Jankavi Mehar Singh Samman was given to Raghuvir Singh Mathana and Vishvabandhu Sharma. The Shresth Mahila Rachnakaar Samman was given to Sudha Jain and Kamal Kapoor. All these awards carry a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh each and a citation.

The Vishesh Sahitya Sevi Samman carrying Rs 51,000 in cash for 2011 was given to Lakshman Singh, Om Parkash Kadiyan, Shamim Sharma, Sandeep Joshi, Lal Chand Gupt 'Mangal', Manmohan Sapra, Dinesh Raghuvanshi, Rajbir Deswal, Halchal Haryanavi, Ram Sahaya Verma and Mohan Matraiye. For 2012, this award was given to Madan Sahani, Acharya Baldev Raj 'Shaant', Dharampal, Krishan Kumar Rattu, Surender Bansal and Tajender Sharma. The Governor and the CM also released a Souvenir-2013 of the Haryana Sahitya Academi, a booklet of the Haryana Granth Academi namely ‘Katha Samay’ and the book ‘Before he was God -Ramayana’ written by former Chief Secretary RS Varma.

Chandigarh,June 17
The state government has decided to earmark Rs 25 lakh for documentation of Punjabi folk songs.

This was announced during the Punjabi Sahityakar Samman Samaroh organised here today by the Haryana Punjabi Sahitya Akademi. Noted Punjabi singer Dolly Guleria will be convener of this fund.

Governor Jagannath Pahadia, Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal and Minister of State for Information, Public Relations and Cultural Affairs Shiv Charan Lal Sharma gave away awards to 28 litterateurs for 2011 and 2012 for their outstanding work in promotion of Punjabi literature .

The Haryana Punjabi Gaurav Puraskaar for year 2011 and 2012 carrying a cash prize of Rs 1.5 lakh each was conferred upon Kartar Singh Suri and late Harbhajan Singh Renu, respectively.

The Mahakavi Bhai Santokh Singh Puraskaar for year 2011 and 2012 carrying a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh each were given away to Kedar Nath Kedar and Karamjit Singh, respectively. The Baba Sheikh Fareed Puraskaar for year 2011 and 2012 carrying a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh each was bestowed upon Kabal Virk and Surinder Singh Oberai, respectively.

The Sant Taran Singh Wahimi Puraskar carrying a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh for 2012 was given to Jagir Kaur Sandhu.

The Raagi-Dhadhi/Lok Gayak Puraskar for year 2011 and 2012 carrying a cash prize of Rs.21,000 was conferred upon Neele Khan and Joginder Singh Mukta, respectively.

The Pustak Puraskar in poem writing, story writing, novel, play, child literature and lok sahitya for 2011 was conferred upon Nirmal Singh, Joginder Kaur Agnihotri, Ram Sarup Rikhi, Prem Sethi, Iqbal Singh and Sadhu Singh Kissan. All these awards carries a cash prize of Rs.21,000.

The Pustak Puraskar in poem writing, story writing, novel, play, child literature, lok sahitya and creative writing for year 2012 was bestowed upon Sushila Sargam, Harsimran Kaur, Prem Singh Barnalvi, Praduman Bhalla, Manjit Kaur Ambalvi, Puran Singh Nirala and Upenderjit.

Chandigarh, June 17
The Haryana Government has decided to extend the facilities of a Cabinet minister to the former Chief Ministers at Chandigarh.

The Chief Secretary issued a notification to this effect here. If any individual is already entitled to a facility at the state headquarters in view of any other office he holds, he could choose to avail one of the two sets of facilities, stated a press note issued here . —TNS

Sonepat, June 17
The Gathwala (Malik) Khap, the largest khap of the Malik Gotra Jats, unanimously resolved to relax a norm pertaining to gotra marriages. The khap has decided not to take into account the gotra of grandmothers in such marriages.

These decisions were taken at a khap panchayat held at Ahulana village near Gohana on Sunday. The panchayat was presided by the khap dada (social head), Baljit Singh Malik, and attended by representatives from different states. The khap also decided to support stringent punishment for rape accused and create social awareness against female foeticide and dowry menace. Malik also laid the foundation of a ‘Khap Chabutra’ at Ahulana village.

Later talking to mediapersons, Malik said the Gotra’s “nikasi” had taken place from Ahulana village and not from Chhichhrana village. He said the khap would take action against those who were allegedly making false claim of ‘nikasi’ from Chhichhrana village.

Prominent among those who attended the panchayat were former minister Ved Singh Malik and Kulbir Singh Malik from Haryana, gotra’s second in command, Dada Har Kishan from Uttar Pradesh, Kanshi Ram from Rajasthan, Baldev Singh from Punjab and Azad Singh, Bhupinder Singh and Joginder from Delhi.

Chandigarh, June 17
At the time when Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is under attack from different quarters on the issue of atrocities on Dalits, the ruling party has fielded state government’s Dalit face and Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes Minister Geeta Bhukkal to counter the CM’s detractors within and outside the Congress.

While atrocities on Dalits, including rapes, seem to have become a way of life in the state, a vocal Bhukkal seems to have gone in an overdrive to defend the Hooda government, which is apparently on the back foot in the backdrop of the state government’s public criticism by Union minister Selja and Rajya Sabha member Ishwar Singh, both Hooda detractors.

In fact, the minister has issued at least three press notes listing a slew of measures and schemes for social security and all-round development of the people belonging to the SC category under Hooda’s leadership.

“The state government is doing quite well as far as safeguarding the interests of the SCs is concerned,” claimed Bhukkal. She further said the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi Gramin Basti Yojana by the CM offered free of cost 100-yard plots where a majority of the beneficiaries were Dalits.

An ‘empowered’ Haryana State Commission for the SCs would be set up soon, the minister stated.

The parliamentary panel had castigated the state government in the wake of a spurt in rape cases against Dalit girls last year.

The minister also took pains to explain how the Chief Minister had approved a Rs 4.5-crore coaching scheme for Dalit students and had doubled the relief for repair of houses under the Dr BR Ambedkar Housing Scheme from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000.

The exercise is being seen as an effort by the government to minimise the damage to its image ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections next year.

Rohtak, June 17
A team of doctors led by senior gynaecologist Dr Pushpa Dahiya successfully operated upon a 50-year-old woman to remove an ovarian tumour weighing around 18 kg at the PGIMS, Rohtak, on Sunday. The victim is recuperating after the operation.

“The patient who could not even walk was brought to the hospital by her kin recently. She was facing difficulty in breathing as one of her lungs had stopped functioning due to the tumour,”said Dr Dahiya. She said the tumour had started developing about four months ago and had reached a stage where the patient could not even move around.

The patient, who hails from a village in Jind, revealed that she took medicines from private doctors, but failed to get any relief before someone advised her to visit the PGIMS. It took PGIMS doctors over three hours to remove the tumour. “It could have burst anytime. We have sent the tumour to the pathology department to know if it is benign or malign,” said Dr Dahiya.

Hisar, June 17
The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) and the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam have an ambitious plan worth Rs 280 crore to strengthen the power transmission and distribution system in Hisar district wherein nine substations will be set up and the capacity of five others will be augmented.

The plan includes construction of a 220-KV substation at Masudpur village, a 132-KV substation at Barsi village and 33-KV substations at Mirchpur, Bithmara, Chaudharywas, Kheri Lohachab, Jamalpur, Masudpur and Sector 14 of Hisar district.

The capacity of the 132-KV substation at Polysteel Hisar and 33-KV substations at Barwala, Mundhal, Koth and Shyahrwa is being augmented. The construction of the substation at Masudpur is nearing completion and is likely to be commissioned soon.

A spokesman has said this plan includes setting up 2,000 new distribution transformers and replacing 200 old transformers with new ones with higher capacity. The government will add 955 km of power distribution lines to the network.

Fifteen overloaded and lengthier 11-KV feeders will be divided into feeders with proper load and length while old and worn out conductors of some feeders will be replaced with new conductors with higher capacity. A programme for maintenance and renovation of the distribution system is in progress to avoid power complaints.

Singhran, Chirod and Chulli Bagrian are the first three villages in Haryana to get round-the-clock power supply. The agricultural and domestic load in rural area has been segregated to give reliable and qualitative power supply to agricultural tube wells and three-phase supply to domestic consumers with additional 11-KV feeders.

The government spent Rs 350 crore in the last eight years to strengthen the power transmission and distribution system in the district. It constructed 16 substations, augmented the capacity of 20 others, set up 11,000 transformers, augmented the capacity of 787 old ones and laid 2,975 km of distribution lines.

Fatehabad, June 17
The DHBVN has completed the construction of two 33-KV substations at Chander Khurd and Buwan villages in Fatehabad district at a cost of Rs 5 crore. A spokesman has said a 10-MVA transformer each has been commissioned and the provision for an additional transformer each has been kept.

The substations have been connected to the 132-KV substation at Tohana at present and will later be connected to the 220-KV substation at Samain. The commissioning will benefit about 10,000 consumers of 18 villages which have 1,615 
tubewells.

Chandigarh, June 17
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is constructing 9,728 houses at a cost of Rs 349.41 crore for the economically weaker sections (EWS).

A HUDA spokesman said the four-storeyed flats were being constructed under the Ashiana scheme. He said 7,352 houses had been constructed at an estimated expenditure of Rs 259.44 crore. As many as 2,027 flats had been constructed in Panchkula at a cost of Rs 64.78 crore. He said 3,080 such flats had been constructed in Faridabad, 560 in Gurgaon and 1,640 in Ambala. 

Sonepat, June 17
The police has recovered the ransom amount of Rs 16 lakh and jewellery from the alleged accused involved in kidnapping of nine-year-old Harsh from Sector-15 market here on June 3.

DSP Ajit Singh said Rs 90,000 and jewellery was recovered from the alleged accused Amit of Suwana village in Jhajjar district and Vishal of Shahdra in Delhi when they were arrested on June 12 here on the Bahalgarh road.

The recovery of the remaining amount of the ransom, which they had extracted from Harsh’s father before releasing the boy on June 5, made by the police included Rs 11.60 lakh from the Amit’s house and Rs 3 lakh from Vishal, the DSP said.

Kaithal, June 17
A joint team of the Food and Civil Supply Department and the CIA wing of the district police today raided a house in Tara Garh village and seized a large number of filled and empty LPG cylinders.

The raiding party also noticed that the accused had stored a huge quantity of beer, IMFL and country-made liquor following which it called the officials of the Excise Department, who seized the liquor stored illegally. The main accused managed to flee from the spot, but his father was taken into custody.

After getting a tip-off, the team raided the house. They found that 67 filled and empty cylinders of Indane, HP and Bharat Gas were stored in the adjoining cattle shed. During the raid, some villagers informed the raiding party that a huge quantity of liquor was also stored in adjoining room. Then the Excise officials were called and the room was searched in presence of the sarpanch and some villagers and boxes of whisky, and beer were seized.

It is learnt that over a year ago a similar raid was conducted and cylinders were seized from this house.