Chandigarh, June 30
The Jind administration has detected seven cases of vehicle registration on forged documents at the Registration and Licencing Authority (RLA) office. A case under Section 420 of the IPC has been registered even as investigations to zero in on other vehicles registered in a similar manner are on.

The issue first came to light when Jind SDM Amrita Singh, also holding the charge of the RLA, who unearthed the racket, noticed certain anomalies in the registration of vehicles passed by her office.

“The road-worthiness certificate carried the stamp of the agency from where the vehicle was bought. I checked other documents and noticed that the applicant had submitted voter identity card as proof. I had the doubt that the card number series was not that of Jind. On inquiry from the election office, it was found to be fake. One thing led to another and more cases came to light,” she explained.

After this vehicle was found to be registered on forged documents, the system of registering vehicles at the SDM's office over the last month or so was scrutinised. More discrepancies were noticed in a random search of numbers in the 'G' series.

In a few cases, the SDM sent her staff to various dealers in Rohtak, Sirsa and Bahadurgarh to ascertain whether any sale certificates had been issued for vehicles in question. Of the 25 cases, it was found the agencies had denied issuing a sale certificate in seven cases while stating that they had not sold the vehicles with the particular chassis numbers.

Sources said this could be the handiwork of a gang operating to first register and then sell stolen vehicles on forged documents and a network involving dealers or agents and office staff could not be ruled out.

It was suspected that the gang first produced a fake sale certificate (Form 21), a fake road-worthiness certificate (Form 22) and a forged retail invoice with a forged stamp of dealer.

It was suspected that fake identity proofs of the person, be it voter identity card or ration card, were prepared, after which the vehicle was got passed from the district inspector before getting confirmation of sale certificate in response to the office inquiry.

In a letter to State Transport Commissioner (STC) Sumita Singh, the SDM pointed out that before registration of new vehicles, it had to be passed by the district inspector and the DSP's office or the Motor Vehicle Inspector, which meant that they should have been able to identify an old vehicle immediately.

This could mean that the pass stamp on the file could be fake or there could be negligence in passing the vehicle. The SDM urged the STC to order a special audit of the office of the Jind RLA-cum-SDO. Police sources said a case was registered on the basis of the SDM’s findings and investigations were on.

Kaithal, June 30
Agitated over unscheduled power cuts, residents of Balbehra village in Guhla subdivision of the district yesterday laid siege to the 33-KV substation and locked it. The protesters raised slogans against the government and power board authorities for not keeping the promise of 24-hour power supply.

The villagers said the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) had demanded free land for the setting up of the 33-KV substation and assured 24-hour power supply. “Its been four years since the land was given and the substation was set up. Despite this, they we are not getting adequate power supply for agriculture, domestic and other purposes. The power cuts are frequent and imposed without proper notice. This has adversely hit our lives.

The villagers had brought the matter to the notice of senior functionaries of the power board and were given assurance of improved power supply.

Later, SDE, UHBVN, Surinder Sharma, and police force reached the spot. The officials had a talk with the protesters and were able to persuade them to withdraw their agitation.

Chandigarh, June 30
Simmering with the discontent of “wannabes” eyeing to pull the rug from under Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s feet, the state Congress is on the boil. While the detractors’ camp works overtime to take every government slip-up to the party high command, Hooda--over a year before the state goes to the polls--seems to have turned a new leaf to become “positively aggressive” in the wake of open criticism from party leaders.

Insiders believe it was an “all-new” Hooda who took on his detractors head-on at yesterday’s meeting of party leaders with Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed. Speaking last at the first interaction of the state unit with the newly appointed party in charge, Hooda lashed out at the dissidents, stating that differences were limited to the top rung in the leadership while none existed in the party’s rank and file. This comes as a candid confession of a leader who, till recently, was content dismissing the division within the party as a mere “difference of opinion”.

While Hooda accepted that it was natural for leaders within the party to nurture political ambitions, he is learnt to have insisted that the intention for such ambitions ought never to be “defiled” but backed by hard work. Taking a dig at his baiters, Hooda added that a few party leaders would have already landed in Delhi to fill the ears of the central leadership.

From the reticent, dismissive Hooda of the first term of Congress rule, this was quite an “earful” for those present at the meeting. Sources maintained that this time Hooda exuded complete confidence and seemed totally in command.

Party insiders maintained that this could be “circumstantial” since Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh was the only leader from the detractors’ camp present at the meeting. However, that would be selling it short.

Hooda’s coming of age and finding a voice seems more to do with the complete disarray the Opposition finds itself in today, given the leadership vacuum in the INLD with party supermo Om Prakash Chautala and his elder son, Ajay, in jail, and the big question mark haunting the HJC-BJP alliance.

Sources maintain that this new-found confidence stems from the growing belief within the party that the Congress could find itself steering the party to victory the third time. Moreover, ever-so quietly, Hooda has successfully been able to “shrink” the detractors’ base to a “two-leader-few followers” camp while others have been won over or have wilted away.

In his first term, Hooda battled allegations of regional bias in development from the detractors’ camp comprising union minister Selja, Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh, MP Rao Indrajeet, Haryana ministers Ajay Yadav and Kiran Choudhry and a few others.

While Kiran Choudhry was “won over” half-way through the second term, Yadav’s guns have also fallen silent and Rao Indrajeet too is “over” after a stiff battle again Hooda, leaving Selja and Birender Singh to keep this “battle” alive.

With Hooda holding sway at the Centre, it has put him at ease and instilled more confidence. For now, it's as good as it gets for Hooda. 

Kurukshetra, June 30
A bid to leak the question paper of NET (National Eligibility Test) by three persons at Senior Model School, Kurukshetra, was foiled by centre superintendent Anand Prakash, who was assaulted with a sharp-edged weapon by the accused.

The incident took place this morning around 9.30 am when the centre superintendent noticed Dharmender from Jhajjar and two others, Satbir, a teacher in DIET at Palwal, and Devi Chand, a clerk in Government Senior Secondary School, Kurukshetra, who were on examination duty at the centre, trying to take photos of the question paper with their mobile phones in the room of the superintendent before the start of the examination.

When Prakash tried to stop them, Dharmender attacked him with a sharp-edged weapon, injuring him, the police said. The police also recovered high-end mobile phones containing photos of question papers.

The accused were nabbed by other faculty members and policemen deployed at the examination centre. Prakash was taken to the local Civil Hospital, where he was discharged after treatment,” said a police official.

Unfair means reported

Rohtak: Examinees were seen copying in the NET primarily through mobile phones at various centres here on Sunday. Mobile phones are otherwise banned in examination halls. The allegation of leaking out of question papers of certain subjects and their answer keys were also received from some centres.

Over 45,000 students took the exam at four places in the state, including 49 examination centres in Rohtak.

The MDU Controller of Examination, however, refuted the charges, claiming that the test was conducted in a smooth manner.

Sonepat, June 30
A Vigilance team reportedly caught red-handed labour officer Balwan Singh while accepting a bribe of Rs 5,000 from a factory owner at his office here last evening. He was booked under the Anti-Corruption Act and arrested.

Vivek Gupta, who owns a factory at the Kundli Industrial Estate, had lodged a complaint that a labour inspector took a bribe of Rs 10,000 during an inspection of the labour register and told him to pay Rs 5,000 to the labour officer for getting back the labour register.

Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Aggarwal deputed Subdivisional Magistrate Virender Lather as the duty magistrate. A Vigilance team led by inspector Rohtas Tanwar raided the office and recovered the bribe amount.

Shubhash Gupta, an office-bearer of the Kundli Manufacturers Association, claimed that they were in possession of CCTV footage showing the labour inspector accepting the bribe amount.

Sonepat, June 30
Anil of Purkhas village, who carries a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head, was arrested from the Machhri-Juan road last evening. He is wanted in connection with a number of criminal cases.

Talking to mediapersons at his office here today, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Balbir Singh claimed that Anil confessed his involvement in 17 criminal cases during interrogation.

The DSP said those included the murder of two brothers at Chhichhrana village, extortion of Rs 33.5 lakh from a businessman after kidnapping his son, four murder attempts and snatching of cars and looting of petrol pump staff at pistol-point.

The DSP said Anil fired at the police team and tried to escape on a motorcycle, but lost control over the vehicle because of the damaged road and hit a small bridge.

The DSP added that Anil sustained injuries in his leg and was taken to the PGI at Khanpur Kalan, where doctors discharged him after treatment.

Sirsa, June 30
Two persons lost their lives in a storm that hit Sirsa and surrounding areas late last night. While a migrant farm labourer fell into a well, another died when a wall collapsed on him.

Dharmesh, a farm labourer from Bihar, used to work in the fields of Krishan Kumar at Kotli village in Sirsa.

He was sleeping in the open near a well in the fields when a storm hit the area shortly after midnight. Dharmesh got up and tried to run towards a room with his cot.

However, he lost balance and fell into a deep well.

The farm owner informed the police this morning.

The body was taken out of the well and sent to the General Hospital, Sirsa, for a post-mortem examination.

In another incident, Bhushan, a labourer, was sleeping near a wall in his factory at Kalanwali in Sirsa. The wall collapsed during the storm, burying him under the debris. Others extricated him from the debris and rushed him to hospital where he died.

Chandigarh, June 30
The Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC) has made it clear that the grant of childcare leave is a concession and not a right. Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa's ruling came on a petition filed by Anoopika Randhawa against the State of Haryana and other respondents.

Serving on the post of lecturer in history under the Haryana State Education Department, she had challenged the order whereby her claim for grant of childcare leave had been rejected and recovery was sought to be effected from the pay already disbursed to the petitioner.

The counsel for the petitioner had contended that she availed herself of maternity leave from December 2009 to May 2010 after a son was born. She had utilised her earned leave and casuallLeave from July 2010 to September 2010 to take care of the child due to ailment.

The petitioner submitted an application on September 20, 2010, for the sanction of childcare leave for 730 days 'on account of the medical condition of the child and to provide proper and sensitive care'. Vide an order dated September 24, 2010, her claim was rejected.

Dismissing the petition, Justice Dhindsa asserted, "The court cannot sit in appeal over a decision taken in administrative exigency. It was for the responden department to consider the feasibility of granting childcare leave over a long period of time, that is, 730 days, as claimed by the petitioner.

"Even otherwise, the grant of childcare leave is a concession and not a right. The plea of discrimination will not be available to the petitioner. The concept of equality and protection against arbitrary action as envisaged under Article 14 of the Constitution is a positive concept. Such a concept cannot be used as a tool in a negative manner to perpetuate an illegality.

"Even if certain other employees have been sanctioned childcare leave?, the same will not vest any right in the petitioner. In any case, the facts and circumstances of each and every employee seeking the sanction of childcare leave will vary and will be different."

Ratia (Fatehabad), June 30
Abhey Singh Chautala, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) legislator from Ellenabad, has claimed that the government scheme to provide scholarships to schoolchildren from Dalit and poor families is a ploy to keep them away from quality education.

Addressing a state-level meeting of the Dhanak community to mark Kabir's 615th birth anniversary at Ratia in Fatehabad today, Abhey alleged that providing scholarships and promoting students up to class X without examinations attracted them to government schools, which had neither sufficient teachers, nor facilities.

He alleged that this stopped them from getting quality education and becoming employable. He claimed that the scholarship scheme was a farce as the government has started sending notices to children from below poverty line families, demanding a refund of the amount received in the last five years.

In an effort to woo Dalits, Abhey launched a scathing attack on the Centre and the state government, charging them with deceiving the poor and Dalits after getting their votes. “The party had stabbed the poor in the back every time by increasing prices after winning elections,” the INLD leader alleged.

He alleged that Haryana had become the most unsafe place for Dalits as atrocities against them were at the peak during Bhupinder Singh Hooda's tenure. He alleged that victims of a majority of cases of rape in Haryana were from the Dalit community.

Three-time Baroda legislator Ramesh Khatak, former Indian Administrative Service officer OP Indora and former minister Amar Singh Dhanak's son Rajinder Dhanak addressed the rally and assured the community’s support to the INLD.

Rajinder sought one reserved parliamentary seat and five reserved Assembly seats for the community. Abhey remained non-committal, but reminded him that the INLD had got Sushil Indora of the Dhanak community elected to the Lok Sabha twice and got Khatak elected from Baroda thrice.

Referring to the two-time parliamentarian's decision to quit the INLD in 2009, Abhey warned leaders of the Dhanak community not to trust such leaders in the future. Former legislators Nishan Singh, Swatantar Bala Chaudhary and Bhagi Ram were present.

Sonepat, June 30
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Pankaj Aggarwal today pulled up the Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO) and the sarpanch over the use of substandard bricks for a common path at Badwasni village.

The DC ordered the removal of all used bricks and lay the path again with standard bricks. The DC was inspecting village development work this morning after holding a 'night durbar' at the village.

He told District Development and Panchayat Officer Hari Singh Sheoran to submit a report on the work and fix responsibility in this connection. He ordered that village streets should be cleaned immediately and the abandoned well should be covered with an iron cage.

He told the BDPO to get measured the five acre pond land and get removed all encroachments on it. The DC issued directions for removal of unwanted weeds from the pond before the monsoon.

During the 'night durbar', 70 Aadhaar cards and 10 birth and death certificates were prepared and issued on the spot. Forty persons applied for old-age pension, 63 for voter identity card and four for driver's licence.

People were medically examined and medicines were given free to 35 villagers. Additional Deputy Commissioner SB Lohia, Subdivisional Magistrate Virender Lather and Civil Surgeon Suresh Chander were present.

Gurgaon, June 30
The police has failed to arrest anyone in connection with the rape of a child here a fortnight ago. Though the police has released a sketch of the accused and declared a reward of Rs 50,000 on him, it has failed to make any headway in the case.

The government has turned a deaf ear to repeated pleas for help by the victim's family. The victim has been shifted to Artemis Hospital, which offered free treatment to her. "An NGO helped us get treatment here," said the victim's father, who is a roadside barber.

The hospital authorities said the girl, who underwent surgery at Safdurjung Hospital on June 16, was still critical. Doctors provided a passage to pass stool, but a major part of her intestine was hanging out of her body. Doctors said she would have to undergo a number of surgeries to get back to normal. 

Rewari, June 30
The Narnaul Sadar police of Mahendergarh district has arrested Satbir Thakur (36) on the charge of raping and murdering a Dalit widow at Rambas village, near Narnaul, about 65 km from Rewari, on Friday night.

He was today produced before the Duty Magistrate at Narnaul, who remanded him in police custody for one day. Sources said the 32-year-old woman, who eked out a living by tending cattle, was called by the accused to his field on the pretext that her cattle had strayed into his field.

The accused took her forcibly to an adjoining forest, where he allegedly raped her and axed her to death. The body was recovered by the police the next morning after it was spotted by villagers.

The victim's medical examination confirmed sexual assault. The police registered a case of rape and murder and under the SC/ST Act.

Gurgaon, June 30
The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) and the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) plan to create a safe and reliable system of power supply in nearly 1,000 villages of the state within a year.

The villages will get the status of zero-power cut, which means that whenever necessary, the supply will be restricted in towns first and thereafter in these villages.

This was said by Chairperson and Managing Director of the DHBVN and UHBVN Devender Singh while addressing a gathering after inaugurating the safe and reliable system of power supply at Kuhrawatta village in Mahendergarh district yesterday.

Kuhrawatta village has become the first village of Mahendragarh to get round-the-clock power supply. Devrali and Rathiwas villages in the district have also started getting 24-hour power supply from today.

As per a press statement issued here today, the DHBVN and UHBVN have started erecting new safe and reliable system of power supply in about 300 villages fed from 215 feeders of 11-KV level to give 24-hour power supply. The work has been started with the voluntary consent of villagers and the feeders have been selected on first-come first-serve basis.

Devender Singh pointed out that with the insulated cables replacing bare low tension conductor and relocation of all meters in pillar boxes outside the houses, the line losses in these villages had come down considerably.

“Hence, the villages qualify to get 24 hour power supply for domestic and commercial purposes,” he said, adding that the power supply to the villages had already been increased from 11 hours a day to 14 hours.

He further said all connected hamlets would get rural domestic supply within the next six months. For this, the residents of the hamlets are required to deposit 5 per cent of the estimated cost. Rest of the cost will be borne by the discoms or the government. 

Gurgaon, June 30
Gurgaon will soon be among the cities having human milk banks. Rao Narender Singh, Health and Medical Education Minister, gave this assurance.

The minister was here today to take part in a meeting of the national consultative committee to formulate guidelines on human milk banking in India.

It was stated in the meeting that there were currently 10 milk banks in the country, including five in Mumbai. "Mother's milk is a must for a child’ proper development and no substitute can replicate its nutritious value,” said Rao Narender Singh.

Chandigarh, June 30
The Haryana Housing Board has uploaded details of registered applicants for triple-storey flats for below poverty line (BPL) families with complete particulars for each district on its website www.hbh.nic.in. The draw of lots will be held from July 9 to July 18.

Stating this here recently, a spokesman of the board said all lists had been made available for inspection to the office of the Haryana Housing Board in Panchkula. The Gurgaon list was available with the Estate Manager in Gurgaon and the Dharuhera and Rewari lists were available with the Estate Manager in Rewari.

The Faridabad list was available with the Estate Manager in Faridabad. The Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad and Ratia lists were available with the Estate Manager in Hisar. The Kaithal and Kurukshetra lists were available with the Estate Manager in Kurukshetra.

The Panipat and Narwana lists were available with the Estate Manager in Panipat. The Jhajjar and Sonepat lists were with the Estate Manager in Sonepat. The lists for Karnal, Rohtak and Amravati in Pinjore were with the Estate Managers in Karnal, Rohtak and Panchkula, respectively.

The spokesman said discrepancies and objections could be submitted in writing to the Secretary of the Haryana Housing Board in Panchkula till July 5. He said the lists of successful applicants would be prepared by a draw of lots subject to eligibility. The draw for Panipat would be held at Sector 39, Panipat, on July 9. The draw for other districts would be held at Awas Bhawan, Sector 6, Panchkula.

The draw of lots for Sirsa, Fatehabad and Karnal would be held on July 10, for Rohtak, Hisar and Jhajjar on July 11, for Kaithal and Rewari on July 12, for Kurukshetra, Dharuhera, Ratia, Narwana and Amravati in Pinjore on July 15, for Sonepat on July 16, for Faridabad on July 17 and for Gurgaon on July 18.

Rewari, June 30
A married youth, Ramesh Chand, committed suicide by hanging himself at Asiiaki Gorawas village under the Rohrai police station in the district on Friday.

Sources said his addiction to liquor had embittered his wife and she had recently left for her parents' house. 22-year-old Ramesh could not bear this and committed suicide. The police held inquest proceedings and treated it as a case of incidental demise.