New Delhi, August 17
Concerned over the ongoing drift of leaders from the Haryana Congress, the party leadership feels a quick decision on the long-pending issue of the state Congress leadership must be taken.

Party sources told The Tribune today that Congress functionaries in charge of the state, following discussions with various sections in Haryana, have reached a conclusion that indecision on the Pradesh Congress leadership can cost the party dear ahead of elections.

“Workers would not like the situation of drift to persist. The party has lost many leaders. There is a feeling that the drift can be stemmed by addressing the issues of appointment of Pradesh Congress chief, constitution of Pradesh Congress Committee and rejuvenation of district and block level cadres,” a senior Congress leader said.

The Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee has remained in a limbo since the organisational elections were held in 2010. Though Haryana Congress leaders, led by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, through a resolution have authorised Congress president Sonia Gandhi to decide on whether or not to replace the current state Congress chief Phool Chand Mullana, a decision is yet to be announced.

AICC functionaries in charge of Haryana met here today to discuss the issue and a report will now be submitted to Sonia to take a final call.

Congress general secretary for Haryana Shakeel Ahmed said, “We have gathered suggestions and will submit these to the Congress President. Three opinions have emerged - one section wants Mullana to stay, one wants him replaced and a third says zonal in charges under the current state Congress chief may be appointed as has been done in Punjab. The party president is to decide finally.”

The drift of leaders from the state Congress was discussed. Former ministers Mange Ram Gupta and Ramesh Kaushik left the party recently so did Jitender Singh. Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit is on the verge of quitting and is questioning Hooda on change of land use in the state.

Congress leaders say finding a replacement of Mullana, a close aide of Hooda, is another issue. “We must find a replacement for Mullana if at all he is to be changed. But one thing is clear — Congress men in Haryana want a clear announcement — whether it favours Mullana or not,” said a Congress leader.

Chandigarh, August 17
After losing a berth in the Union Cabinet in June, Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh may be in for more disappointment with Congress president Sonia Gandhi unlikely to address his Jind rally on August 20.

Sources said the inability of Sonia to address the rally on Sadhbhawna Diwas, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was conveyed to the MP late last evening.

Birender, however, still stuck to his stand that he had “invited” Sonia to the rally and confirmed that: "I met state general secretary in charge Shakeel Ahmed and he told me that he would be coming. As far as the question of the Congress president is concerned, I stand by what I have already said," he maintained, when asked whether there was any confirmation of Sonia's visit to Jind.

Rally organisers maintain that while they may not have got a confirmation of her coming, they haven't heard a "no" either. At the venue, the organisers have put up one stage for the VVIPs keeping the Congress president in mind, while another separate stage has been set up for the VIPs, including Haryana MPs, ministers and MLAs.

Sources in the government, too, expressed apprehensions over the programme, claiming that the visit was not happening since there had been no correspondence from the SPG with the state government. This usually starts a week in advance and the security followed it up with drill and visits to the venue.

Besides, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has already announced the launching of the food security scheme from Panipat on the same day. He has even deputed ministers and chief parliamentary secretaries to launch the scheme from the districts, thereby ensuring that most Congress leaders, especially those of the detractor camp, cannot make to Jind.

With this, the battle for political oneupmanship between the two warring cousins, Hooda and Birender Singh, is likely to intensify. The MP already suspects that his exclusion from the Cabinet was orchestrated by the Chief Minister. However, publicly, he has maintained that the inclusion or exclusion from the Cabinet is the Prime Minister's prerogative. His close aides also suspect that the recent furore over the Robert Vadra deals was also "designed" to build pressure to sabotage the Congress president's visit to Jind.

Tohana (Fatehabad), August 17
At least eight houses collapsed at different places in Tohana sub-division due to incessant rain in the past 24 hours.

Six of these houses collapsed in Jamalpur village on the Tohana-Fatehabad road, while a house each collapsed at Jakhal and Tohana that received more than 100 mm of rain. Besides, four sheep were buried under the debris of a house that collapsed at Jamalpur.

Tohana SDM Yogesh Mehta said he had sent officials for the assessment of the situation and for providing immediate relief. Mehta said though the authorities had not received any complaint regarding collapsing of the houses, he had acted on his own after reports. The SDM toured the low-lying areas of the town for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.

All low-lying areas of Tohana and Jakhal towns have been flooded with rainwater and a private nursing home at Tohana has come under six-foot-deep rainwater. The patients were rescued from the hospital to a safer place.

Dr Abhishek Kakkar, owner of a nursing home, said though rainwater used to pose problems in the past too, this year the rainwater damaged the rear wall of the nursing home, leading to its flooding.

Meanwhile, the Ram Nagar locality, Milan Chowk, the Bhuna road and many areas of Tohana have been flooded due to incessant rain in the past 24 hours.

Karnal, August 17
Hundreds of irate residents of Suraj Nagar, Katabagh, Krishna Colony and Valmiki Basti in Ward No 6 today blocked the Karnal-Meerut road for about two hours to protest against the overflowing drain water gushing into their houses.

Villagers, raising slogans against the administration, alleged that as the drains were blocked, sewage water seeped into their houses. The residents also alleged that there was an acute shortage of drinking water in their colonies.

Two residents, Karambir and Bimla, complained that their kids have fallen sick by drinking contaminated water and accused the administration of being “insensitive”. “We approached officials at every level but there was no response. We were left with no option but to block the road to wake up the administration”, they said.

Stranded people faced inconvenience as long queues of vehicles were seen on either side of the road. Some patients and ambulance vehicles were also stuck in the blockade.

Local MLA Sumita Singh, ADC Garish Arora, SDM Mukul Kumar, DSP Joginder Rathi and Tehsildar Hari Om Atri reached the spot and pacified the irate residents. It was only after the administration made the arrangements to drain out the water, the blockade was lifted.

Hodal(Palwal), August 17
More than 1,000 persons of Hodal and its surrounding villages today blocked the Delhi-Agra national highway for about five hours in protest against police failure to stop lifting of cows by a mafia who trade in flesh of milch cattle.

The trigger for the agitation was an alleged “misbehaviour” by personnel at the Hodal police station with residents of a nearby Gadhi Patti village who seized a vehicle and arrested its driver. The vehicle was splattered with blood and detained in the fields of the village this morning.

The villagers suspected that the vehicle had come after transporting beef. They also suspected that the mafia was involved in cow trade in the area.

The policemen cane-charged the driver when he was handed over to them by the villagers. However, the villagers asked the police to torture them. The police allegedly retorted back to them which led to the flare up.

The villagers headed to Hassanpur Chowk and blocked traffic. Shopkeepers of the market downed their shutters and joined the protesters. INLD MLAs from Hodal and Palwal Jagdish Nayaar and Subash Chowdhary along with their activists and BJP leaders also took part in the agitation.

The blockade was lifted after the Superintendent of Police of Palwal Jagat Singh Hooda acceded to their demands which included transfer of policemen.

Fatehabad, August 17
Activists of various organisations opposed to the proposed nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur in Fatehabad today organised a dharna and vowed to fight till the government decided to abandon this project.

The activists of various organisations gathered under the aegis of the Parmanu Virodhi Morcha at the grain market here today. They alleged that the Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojna would spell a doom for the future generations of this area.

Rohtak, August 17
Around 6,000 patients reporting daily to the out-patient department at Pt BD Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) were at a receiving end today, as the resident doctors of the institute went on a strike following the incident of an alleged assault of a doctor at an emergency ward on Friday night. This is the second case of alleged assault on a doctor here in the past six months.

Majority of resident doctors kept away from their duty in protest against the assault of a junior resident doctor. “The doctors had decided to strike work from today, seeking a strict action against the guilty and a secure environment for them in the institute,” said a spokesperson of the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA).

Giving details, he said Dr Anshul, who was on duty at the emergency ward, was allegedly manhandled and assaulted by a couple of persons, including a woman, without any provocation. The accused “slapped the doctor” for allegedly not attending their relative, who had consumed a poisonous substance and was serious.

The spokesperson said the patient, Bindu, however, died an hour later. The enraged doctors announced to strike till the acceptance of their demand.

Meanwhile, Medical Superintendent Dr Ashok Chauhan said senior doctors had been deputed on the job to deal with the problem. He added that the RDA had been invited for talks on the issue. He said no complaint had been lodged by the junior resident doctor or the association so far. The PGIMS has around 350 PG doctors, who along with other faculty members attend around 6,000 patients in the OPD daily.

Chandigarh, August 17
In its drive to check the misuse of medicines as intoxicants in the state, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) Department has taken action than 200 licensed and unlicensed shops for violating various provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules, 1945.

A spokesman of the FDA said the drug licences of 150 shops had been cancelled and licences of more than 50 shops were suspended in addition to legal action.

Apart from this, 22 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, have also been registered for stocking narcotic and psychotropic drug formulations in huge quantities without holding any license under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.

Fatehabad, August 17
A suspected case of diphtheria, a fatal communicable disease, has been reported in Fatehabad.

Though the health authorities are still not confirming that the 3-year girl from Ayalki village admitted to General Hospital here is suffering from the communicable disease, a private doctor has confirmed that the report of the girl's throat swab tested in a laboratory at Hisar has shown the presence of organisms like Klebs Loffler Bacillus, the bacteria responsible for spreading diphtheria.

The paediatrician, Dr Sameer Tuteja, who diagnosed the girl as a suspected case of diphtheria, said a culture test was needed to confirm the disease, but the girl's father shifted his daughter to General Hospital.

He said the girl had symptoms of sore throat, fever, difficulty in breathing, formation of membrane in throat and some other indications associated with diphtheria.

He added that he had informed the General Hospital authorities about this.

Dr Mukta Kumar, Medical Superintendent of General Hospital, Fatehabad, who is a pediatrician, however, denied that the girl suffers from diphtheria.

"I have examined her and it seems a simple case of upper respiratory catarrh, as no membrane is noticeable" she maintained.

Chandigarh, August 17
A delegation of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), led by its president Avtar Singh Makkar, yesterday met Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister, the delegation demanded a ban on haphazard constructions around the historic Gurdwara Nada Sahib on the National Highway 73, near Panchkula.The delegation also demanded more parking space for the devotees around the gurdwara as the number of devotees had substantially gone up in the recent years.

Bhiwani, August 17
A para-medical employee of a private hospital molested a woman patient who was admitted to the hospital on Friday. The woman was rescued by patients who also thrashed the employee.

The woman’s family members today blocked Circular Road in protest against the incident and demanded registeration of a case against the accused. The police said a case of molestation had been registered against the accused identified as Ajmer and the police had started a hunt to nab him.