Karnal, July 10
The first woman Mayor of Karnal, Renu Bala Gupta, took charge today with the agenda of transforming civic services into public-oriented services and bringing about transparency in the administration of the corporation.

District presidents and other leaders of the Congress, the BJP, the INLD, the HJC and the BSP were present, setting alarm bells ringing for Congress legislator Sumita Singh, a bete noire of Renu’s husband Brij Gupta.

Listing priorities, Renu said implementing in toto the 'citizen charter' and bringing about transparency in public-related wings of the corporation would top her agenda.

She said all possible efforts would be made to make the corporation responsive and accountable to the people and time-bound services to the people would be assured.

She said a single-window system would be put in place soon for delivering various public services and redressing grievances of the people in a time-bound manner.

She said a limit of 15 days would be fixed for approving building maps and issuing birth and death certificates and other documents.

She said addressing problems like drinking water shortage, environmental pollution, poor maintenance of roads and buildings and improper sewerage system would be a priority.

She said construction of concrete streets, streetlights with solar energy and regulating traffic would be given attention as well.

Renu said salaries of 'safai karamcharis' would be deposited in their bank accounts to eliminate the role of middlemen and stress would be laid on improving the quality of primary education and health centres.

She further said it would be ensured that every block had a primary health centre for providing free medical care and medicines to patients.

She added that upgrading the municipal corporation building would be taken up soon and the government would be urged to hand over the control of heath and educational institutions to the corporation. 

Chandigarh, July 10
Even as his Cabinet colleagues and party leaders scramble for credit for the inclusion in the National Capital Region (NCR) of Bhiwani and Mahendragarh districts, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda seems to have adopted a please-all attitude.

In a bid to keep in good humour different factions of the Congress, Hooda today tried to play down differences over taking credit for the inclusion, giving credit to all ministers and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Member of Parliament Shruti Choudhry for the decision.

In the wake of the inclusion, Haryana Excise and Taxation Minister Kiran Choudhry and her daughter Shruti Choudhry had given the credit to the party high command, including Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath.

The Hooda camp, comprising ministers Rao Narender Singh and Satpal Sangwan and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Rao Dan Singh, had gone on record eulogising the Chief Minister for the inclusion.

After the decision to include in the NCR the two districts was announced recently, different Congress factions had competed with each other to claim credit for the decision, which would bring an economic boom to the backward districts.

Bhagana (Hisar), July 10
After the razing of the wall of contention, demolishing the wall of mistrust between upper castes and Dalits in the village is a tough task ahead for the panchayat.

The all-caste peace committee today claimed that the row had been resolved with the pulling down of this wall and those still sitting on a dharna at the Deputy Commissioner's office in Hisar would return home soon.

A section of village residents felt that pulling down the wall had not erased the fault lines running through the communities after hostilities began over a year ago. They said it would take more effort and time to heal the wounds of bitterness and enmity between the two communities.

Around 50 of the 70 Dalit families which left the village a year ago had returned, but many of them continued to live in isolation. While some Dalits said their boycott by upper castes was still in force, sarpanch Rakesh Panghal refuted the allegation, saying there was social harmony among all communities.

Twenty-year-old Sandeep Kumar said, "It is a symbolic move. We are living like aliens in our village. No upper caste person talks to a person belonging to the Scheduled Caste. My friends who used to study and play with me have turned away," he said, showing about 15 locked houses in two streets where Dalits reside. He admitted that the strictness of the boycott has been reduced to some extent, but the sense of mistrust still runs deep.

"Our water supply duration is shorter than that of the upper caste locality. No family belonging to the Scheduled Caste is employed in the fields of Jats. We are not allowed to collect hay from their fields. The sports stadium is under the encroachments of upper castes. We have not been allotted plots under the below poverty line scheme," he added.

Former sarpanch Kitab Singh, who is a key member of the peace committee, said only a few families belonging to the Scheduled Caste were dissatisfied with the peace move. "We are satisfied as our main demand has been met. I will try to persuade all families to return home," he said. District Development and Panchayat Officer Sumit Kumar said most Dalit families had been employed under the rural guarantee scheme.

Rohtak, July 10
Students and staff of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here have a reason to cheer. The university has been granted grade A by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council of the University Grants Commission for the first time.

While the development has left university officials elated, many believe that work remains to be done in terms of the academic atmosphere and autonomy in faculty recruitment. The MDU has a campus strength of around 15,000 students and regular teaching staff of about 350. "Grade A is an indication of the work done on various fronts," claimed a spokesperson of the university. Admitting that the grading had slipped from B-plus to B a few years years ago, he said the authorities had worked hard to remove snags and ensure changes to ensure that the work was recognised.

Officials said the work included development of infrastructure, introduction of new courses, sharp jump in research work and collaboration with reputed national organisations. The MDU public relations officer said 16 new courses, includes 13 postgraduate ones, had been started in the recent past.

A section of staff and students felt that the university required freedom from political interference. "Most selections are not free from political interference and this has adversely affected the quality of teaching," claimed a senior faculty member on the condition of anonymity. About 160 appointments had been made in the last five years.

The answer sheet scam had not only marred the image of the MDU, but pointed to a nexus in the administration. Over 2,000 unmarked answer sheets were recovered from the roof of the administrative block. "While a probe is on, the authorities will have to root out the problem," an MBA student said. 

Hisar, July 10
The All-India Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti headed by Hawa Singh Sangwan hasannounced an agitation from August 16 on the quota demand and threatened to march towards the residences of Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.

Addressing a press conference here today, Sangwan said they were waiting for the appointment of the president of the National Commission for Backward Classes as its president retired on May 31. “We will wait for the Centre to announce the inclusion of Jats in the Other Backward Classes category by August 15. The next day, we will start a march to Delhi,” he said.

Another group of the samiti headed by Yashpal Malik had announced to resume the stir on September 13 from Mayyar village of Hisar. 

Fatehabad, July 10
The police today heaved a sigh of relief when it succeeded in recovering Dayyar village sarpanch Balwan Singh’s elder son Bhup Singh, who was kidnapped over a gotra controversy in his younger brother’s proposed marriage.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Vikas Dhankhar said the police had recovered the sarpanch’s kidnapped son.

None of the nine persons booked for the crime has so far been arrested.

Before Bhup Singh was recovered from Bhardra in Rajasthan, a large number of villagers had blocked vehicular traffic on the national highway in the morning.

Bhup Singh was allegedly kidnapped by some villagers belonging to Kaswan gotra because they were opposed to his younger brother Anup Singh’s marriage to a girl from the Kaswan gotra.

The kidnappers had threatened to kill Bhup Singh if the sarpanch did not cancel his younger son’s wedding.

Earlier, supporters of the sarpanch, many of them women, had blocked National Highway-10 near Laal Batti Chowk demanding immediate recovery of Bhup Singh.

The villagers had alleged that the police was not doing enough to locate the kidnapped Bhup Singh.

Dayyar village is dominated by Jats from Kaswan gotra, while the sarpanch Balwan Singh belongs to the Chahar gotra.

Villagers belonging to Kaswan gotra were of the view that a girl of their gotra, who would be considered a sister or a daughter in the village, could not be allowed to come to the village as a daughter-in-law.

When the villagers belonging to Kaswan gotra could not succeed in persuading Balwan Singh through negotiation, some hardliners allegedly kidnapped his elder son to force him to agree to their diktat.

The police today freed Bhup Singh from a Dhani in the Bhadra area of Rajasthan.

Sources said the police had taken some kidnappers into custody, though the police did not confirm it.

Chandigarh, July 10
The judgement of the apex court today, declaring Section 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act as ultra vires, will have no immediate impact on the political scene in Haryana.

The section struck down provides protection to sitting legislators and Members of Parliament who have been convicted and sentenced for more than two years.

By virtue of this provision, they could continue their membership of the legislature provided they had appealed to the higher court within three months.

At present, three Haryana legislators, Om Prakash Chautala, his elder son Ajay and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) Legislature Party deputy leader Sher Singh Badshami had been sentenced to 10-year imprisonment in the junior basic teacher recruitment scam.

Their membership of the Vidhan Sabha will not be affected by the Supreme Court judgement because the Bench comprising Mr Justice AK Patnaik and Mr Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya has stated that the decision will not apply to Members of Parliament, legislators and other lawmakers who had been convicted and had appealed to the higher courts before the pronouncement of the verdict today.

Haryana legislator Gopal Kanda may not be so lucky if he is convicted. Kanda is in jail and is facing trial for abetment to suicide of an airhostess of his airline.

Minister Sukhbir Kataria is facing trial for corrupt electoral practices. Former minister OP Jain and former Chief Parliamentary Secretary Zile Ram Sharma are facing a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation for the death of a surpanch under suspicious circumstances.

There is a likelihood that by the time they are tried, if at all, and convicted, the term of the House will have expired. Assembly elections in the state are due in October, 2014.

Fatehabad, July 10
After two more black bucks were killed allegedly due to the fencing erected by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) at Badopal in Fatehabad, animal rights activists and members of the Akhil Bhartiya Bishnoi Jeev Raksha Samiti today lodged complaints against alleged negligence of the NPCIL with the police and the wildlife protection authorities.

Badopal police post in-charge as well as inspector of the wildlife protection department said they would seek guidance from their seniors before taking any action on the complaints.

A female black buck was killed allegedly due to the fencing this morning while another lost its life last evening, taking total number of animals killed in the past five days to six.

Vinod Kumar Karwasra, district president of the People for Animals (PFA), showed a notice issued by the wildlife authorities to Manohar Lal, a resident of Daroli in Hisar on November 28, 2012, which directed the farmer to remove barbed fencing from his agriculture land within 15 days to prevent any injury or death to black bucks.

The notice said the farmers would be held liable if any black buck died due to his fencing.

“If a private farmer is held liable for the loss of life to black bucks due to his negligent act, why can’t senior officials of the NPCIL not made to suffer for their act of reckless negligence?” asked Karwasra.

Meanwhile, the authorities have launched a campaign to capture stray dogs from the area, so that they did not chase black bucks in the area.

Earlier, after the death of four black bucks, the NPCIL authorities had announced to cover the fencing with tarpaulin.

Karnal, July 10
More than 90 per cent paddy transplantation has been completed in the state. However, the area under paddy cultivation has been reduced by 60,000 hectares this year.

An official of the Agriculture Department said the government was encouraging farmers to diversify from paddy to maize and the farmers were being given a subsidy of Rs 4,000 per hectare for sowing maize out of which Rs 2,000 would be deposited in the bank account of the farmers and the rest would be in the form of agricultural inputs like seeds, pesticides etc in kind.

In order to boost crop diversification and curtail over-exploitation of ground water, the Centre had sanctioned Rs 224 crore and Rs 98.50 crore for Punjab and Haryana, respectively.

These funds would be utilised to reduce area under paddy crop to other crops including cotton, sugarcane, basmati, maize, agro forestry etc, and Haryana plans to divert 60,000 hectares of area under paddy to other crops, including guar (16,800 hectares), maize (9,250 hectares), poplar (25,000 hectares) and short-term rice (3,000 hectares) in the ongoing kharif season.

The official said the low-lying areas like Indri and Gharonda in Karnal district, which are generally flooded with rainwater during monsoon, had been identified for maize as kharif crop.

Experts opined that diversification from paddy to maize would increase the yield of the crop. The low water consuming maize crop would produce 10-15 per cent higher returns as compared to paddy. 

Ambala, July 10
Several trains were delayed on the Ambala-Haridwar section after one of the bogies of a goods train derailed between Barara and Kesri railway stations near here today.

The bogie of the Punjab-bound goods train was derailed at 11 am.

The driver of the locomotive immediately informed the station masters of the Kesri and Barara railway stations.

A seven-member team from Ambala rushed to the spot and put the bogie back on the track after putting in more than three hours of effort.

This delayed the Kala-Delhi and Meerut-Ambala passenger trains and Shri Ganganagar-Haridwar Express and the Shalimar Express.

Jhajjar, July 10
Raw material worth lakhs was destroyed in a fire that broke out at a private footwear godown in the old post office market here last night.

Several fire tenders were requisitioned and took four hours to put out the flames. A short-circuit is believed to be the cause of the incident.

Shopkeepers first noticed the blaze on the rear portion of the godown. They informed the owner of the godown and the fire office.

Jhajjar DSP Joginder Sharma and municipal council chairman Ishwar Sharma visited to the spot and took stock of the situation. — OC

Fatehabad, July 10
A married woman has accused a teacher posted at a government school in Munshiwala village of Fatehabad of raping her after taking her to a classroom of the school.

The teacher has refuted the allegation and accused her of trying to blackmail him. The police has taken the woman to a hospital for medical examination.

The woman reported that she had went to the school after school hours for plucking 'jamuns' from a tree when the accused called her to a room and raped her.

The teacher alleged that the woman had come to him with her daughter and sought a temporary loan of Rs 5,000. “When I refused, she lodged a false complaint against me,” he claimed.