Fatehabad, October 20
Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi's Vijay Rath Yatra and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) secretary general Ajay Singh Chautala's younger son Digvijay Singh's Yuva Jan Chetna Yatra have much in common even though the parties are politically poles apart.

Both leaders undertaking the yatras were in Fatehabad district today. Bishnoi covered various villages of the district till late last night and went to Sonepat for a few hours today to participate in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally. Digvijay's rally headed towards Hisar, covering villages in the Tohana Assembly constituency.

Both leaders are undertaking the yatras in luxury Volvo buses fabricated to provide them all comforts during the journey and the chance to interact with people from the buses. Each bus sports the colour of the party flag concerned -- Bishnoi's is yellow and Digvijay's green.

Both leaders will cover the entire state and the yatras will culminate on December 2 — Bishnoi's at Hisar and Digvijay's at Rohtak. Both parties will hold rallies to mark the conclusion of their rath yatras. The similarities end here. While the INLD has been focusing the attack on the Congress, the first target of the HJC is the INLD.

Sirsa, October 20
The Punjab Police has booked a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), an inspector, a sub-inspector (SI) and a head constable of the Haryana Police, along with five others, for abetting the suicide of a Dabwali-based journalist eight months back.

The journalist, Satish Modi, who worked for television channels, had committed suicide near the Bathinda railway station by consuming some poisonous substance. In his suicide note, he had held then DSP Puran Chand Panwar, inspector Ravi Khudia (the Station House Officer), SI Anil Kumar, head constable Pritam Singh and five others responsible for the suicide.

He had alleged in the suicide note that the four police officials had unleashed a reign of terror against his family, branding him and his wife and two teenage sons as criminals and making them run for shelter for the fear of police torture.

Besides them, Modi had named Deepak, Ashok and Naresh, Roshan Lal's sons, and Ajay and Jitender, Gopi Ram's sons, for driving him to this extreme step. The police had allegedly booked Modi and his wife and sons in a false case of trespass and theft on the complaint of his niece and then demanded Rs 5 lakh from him for settling the matter in his favour.

Modi had stated in his suicide note that he met then Sirsa Senior Superintendent of Police Raj Shri Singh with his representation against the first information report (FIR), who sent him to the DSP for inquiry. The victim had alleged in his suicide note that the DSP demanded Rs 5 lakh from him as bribe to favour him in the FIR against him and his family.

The victim had stated that when he expressed his helplessness to pay such a hefty amount, Panwar unleashed a reign of terror through the other policemen named in the suicide note, raiding the houses of his relatives by branding them as criminals.

Running from pillar to post to escape “police highhandedness”, Modi finally committed suicide on February 17. The Bathinda police completed proceedings under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code at that time, but lodged an FIR against the nine accused under Section 306, IPC, today.

Punjab Police assistant sub-inspector Baljinder Singh, investigating the matter, said the FIR was delayed due to delay in receipt of the report on matching the victim’s handwriting by experts. Panwar had since been transferred and could not be contacted for comment. He and the other policemen had denied their role immediately after Modi’s suicide.

Hisar, October 20
The district administration has told the temple trust which plans to replace the sati temple with a new one to remove the word sati from the temple name or not to go ahead with the project.

Hisar SDM JK Abhir urged Sati Dadi Mangaliwala Trust president Pyare Lal Mangaliwala to remove the word sati from the temple name as the construction of sati temples was banned. The trust president sought time to consult other members before taking a decision.

Mangaliwala confirmed the administration’s displeasure about the construction of the temple. He said the district administration had objections to the word sati.

A controversy erupted when Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Uma Shankar Gupta and Chhattisgarh Health Minister Amar Agrawal laid the foundation stone of the proposed Rs 9 crore sati temple at Sectors 16 and 17 here on September 5.

Social organisations led by the All-India Democratic Women Association had condemned the move to rebuild the temple and lodged a complaint with the district administration. The association had demanded legal action against the ministers who laid the foundation stone.

Rohtak, October 20
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda laid the foundation stone for the building of the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) centre here today.

Mr Justice Satish Kumar Mittal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and chairman of the building committee of the high court presided over the function.

Addressing Bar members, Hooda said the government was trying to ensure timely and proper availability of legal services and facilities across the state.

The state government had granted sanction to set up ADR centres at 16 district headquarters. The state would have 21 women’s courts for which the appointment of 107 posts had been made.

Chandigarh, October 20
The Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) has come out with a new policy for the release and billing of water and sewerage connections in its industrial estates and industrial model townships.

Under the new policy, the water and sewerage bill will be presented to the consumer bi-monthly and will have to be paid within 15 days from the date of the issue of the bill.

A consumer who fails to pay the bill by due date will have to pay surcharge/interest at 2.5 per cent of the bill amount. If the consumer fails to make payment of two consecutive bills, connection will be disconnected after issuing a show-cause notice.

However, after disconnection, a third bill will be raised. This bills will also be raised as per the standard bi-monthly billing cycle by adding interest at 2.50 per cent every time till the dues are cleared.

However, the connections can be restored after pending bills along with interest are paid. An amount of Rs 1,000 will have to be paid as disconnection charges and reconnection charges each time the connection is restored.

Hisar, October 20
As many as 13,758 eligible families are yet to get the plots in Hisar district under Mahatma Gandhi Gramin Basti Yojna. The Haryana Government had launched a scheme five years back to provide residential plots to the Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes (category A) and below poverty line (BPL) families.

The issue has been gaining momentum with elections are drawing closer. Even Congress leaders are raising the issue who have been getting complaints in this regard. Union minister Selja and Rajya Sabha MP Ishwar Singh urged the state government to expedite the process of giving the plots to the needy families. Chief Parliamentary Secretary Jaiveer Balmiki admitted delay in allotting the plots while promising to speed up the process.

According to information, there are around 35,486 eligible families for getting plots under the Mahatma Gandhi Gramin Basti Yojna in the district. Of which, 21,266 families had been allotted plots while 462 families are in the process of taking possession of the land. But the remaining families -- 13,758 -- are still awaiting the allotment of plots. Officials cite various reasons, including encroachments on the shamlat land and even unavailability of land in some villages.

Hisar has 270 villages spread in nine blocks. Sources said in Adampur, out of 25 villages, there is no shamlat land available in two villages. In Agroha block, despite availability of land in all 22 villages, around 200 families are waiting for plots. Two villages of Barwala block too have no land.

The scheme hit a major roadblock in Hansi first block where 19 out of 36 villages have no shamlat land, causing concern to around 5,000 needy families. Ten villages of Narnaund too have paucity of shamlat land, leaving around 2,000 families out of the scheme so far. Some villages in Hansi second and Uklana blocks too don't have land available with them which has cause hurdle in implementation of the scheme.

District Development and Panchayat Officer (DDPO) Sumit Kumar admitted about problems in giving away plots to all eligible families due to shortage of land in many villages. "We have allotted the plots to around 65 per cent eligible families and the efforts are being made to find out land and to carve out plots for the remaining population also," he stated.

Rohtak, October 20
Haryana continues to be among those states in the country which are accident-prone states and where the accident rate is still on the higher side. With over 10,000 accidents on an average in the past few years, Haryana accounted for around 2.05 percent of the total road accidents reported in the country in the past three years. This was revealed by experts in a seminar held on the subject here recently.

Jointly organised by the Indian Road Traffic Education (IRTE) and the district police, the statistics placed by the experts revealed that out of the total 4.9 lakh accidents reported all over the country in 2012, Haryana accounted for 10,065 accidents (2.05 per cent), which placed the state at fifth slot in the country. According to the details provided by the IRTE, Haryana accounted for at least 4,446 deaths in these accidents out of the total 1,23,258 deaths in the country.

With 3,650 accidents, the state was placed at fourth spot in matter of accidents in the National Highways in the same year. While the research on the subject revealed that the fault of the driver was the main cause (78 per cent) behind the accidents, the speakers stressed on intensive awareness campaigns to bring down both the accidents and mortality rates on roads in the state.

Speaking on the occasion, Anil Kumar Rao, IG, Rohtak Range, said that while the seminar was a positive development, he said a majority of literate and young drivers had starting realising the importance of road safety as he claimed that it was fault of the driver that led to the accident in a majority of the cases.

He said though many of the times several innocent persons or drivers became victims of accidents, he said it was the level of awareness and the respect and regard to traffic rules that was most important. He said though the police was in the process of upgrade and improvement its traffic control system, it was the cooperation of the people that could guarantee the success of any drive.

The training programme delivered by IRTE stressed on importance of highway lane driving, code of conduct on road, lane discipline, overtaking, speeds, U-turns, driver signals, night driving, mirrors, tailgating and made the participants aware about the causes of road traffic crashes and violations, problems faced by drivers in current road and driving environment, importance of traffic control devices, understanding road signs, markings and signals, factors affecting drivers behaviour like health, hygiene, stress, fatigue, hours of driving, drunk driving, drugs and medicines, basics of defensive driving and hazard perception.

Rohtak, October 20
A policeman has been booked for attempt to outrage the modesty of a colleague posted at the Police Training Centre (PTC) in Sunarian village of the district. No arrest has been made so far.

Sources said the incident took place in the residential quarters of the centre where both were residing.

Sources said a wordy duel resulted into a quarrel and Ravinder Kumar allegedly manhandled the victim. The complainant alleged that the accused tried to outrage her modesty during the incident.

Rohtak, October 20
The police has arrested four youths who had allegedly helped a most wanted criminal to flee from the PGIMS here recently.

Two pistols and some crude weapons have been recovered from them.

The police said Deepak, Ravinder, Suraj and Neeraj were nabbed from near Karontha village, about 12 km from here, last night when they were planning to carry out a loot in the region.

He said the accused tried to flee when challenged by a police party which had reached at the spot after information about their movement. Two pistols a cartridge, a rod and a stick was recovered from them, it is claimed. It is revealed that the accused admitted their involvement in the incident in which the dreaded criminal Ashok, alias Doga, escaped from ,police custody while undergoing treatment at the PGIMS about 10 days back.

Doga, who faces 12 cases, is wanted in four cases of murder. He carries a reward of Rs 20,000. All accused were remanded in police custody by a local court.

Sonepat, October 20
A Xylo car was looted at pistol point by three miscreants from the Gohana-Meham road in Gohana on Friday night.

On the complaint of Xylo driver Bhagat Singh, a resident of Girnawati village in Rohtak district, a case had been registered against the unidentified persons at the Baroda police station.

Bhagat Singh stated that he was using his car as taxi and when he was returning to his village, a youth signaled him to stop the car.

As soon as he stopped the car, two other youths forcibly entered the car. The miscreants took control of the car at pistol point and dropped him near Kathura village on the road.

Chandigarh, October 20
To curtail wasteful expenditure and discourage the tendency of filling vacant posts without proper sanction, the Finance Department has put its foot down on the filling of posts by the Haryana Government.

In the latest directive to various departments, the Principal Secretary, Finance Department, has said: “The posts lying vacant for more than two years, whether newly created or old, should not be filled without the prior approval of the Finance Department. The two-year period shall be calculated as the period preceding September 1, 2013.” The directive is a part of the economy measures-prioritisation of expenditure in the current financial year.

However, these instructions would not be applicable to the posts for which requisition had already been sent to the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) and the Haryana Subordinate Service Commission (HSSC) and for which advertisements had already been issued.

Relaxations could be granted in exceptional circumstances with the prior approval of the Chief Minister and the Finance Department, the directive said.

Meanwhile, the directive asked all administrative secretaries to hold detailed discussions with the officers concerned and identify the areas in which expenditure could be curtailed. The directive asked the departments to avoid unnecessary expenditure with a view to curtailing the wasteful expenditure.

It may be recalled that filling of posts without the sanction of the Finance Department was currently a routine affair in the state.

Sirsa, October 20
The Dabwali Fire Tragedy Victims Association have reacted sharply to former bureaucrat MP Bidlan’s expression of interest to contest the 2014 parliamentary poll from Sirsa on the BJP ticket.

Addressing mediapersons after a meeting of the association at the fire memorial built at Dabwali, the office-bearers of the association castigated the BJP for promoting Bidlan as its prospective candidate.

Bidlan was the Sirsa DC when a devastating fire left 442 persons dead and more than 150 injured during the annual function of a school on December 23, 1995.

“He was attending the function as the chief guest when fire broke out in the pandal, Bidlan asked his security staff to close the exit for his safe escape instead of saving the lives of children crying for help,” alleged Vinod Bansal, general secretary of the association.

Bidlan was suspended after the incident and an inquiry committee had recommended his removal from service. However, he was later let off with minor punishment.

Bansal said residents of Dabwali would never forgive Bidlan for his role in the worst fire of the country and teach him as well as the BJP a lesson.

Gurgaon, October 20
Gurgaon will host a meeting of foreign ministers of 49 countries of Asia and Europe from November 8 to 12.

Deputy Commissioner Shekhar Vidyarthi today called a meeting of the officials concerned as part of preparations of the meet being organised by the Union Ministry of External Affairs.

Vidyarthi assigned duties to the officers and said the issue of security would be looked after by the Gurgaon police. A dedicated lane will be kept reserved for the delegates at the Delhi-Gurgaon toll plaza.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Bharti Arora will supervise the traffic arrangements while Joint Commissioner of Police (Headquarters) Maheshwar Dayal has been made the nodal officer for the policing arrangements. Additional Deputy Commissioner Pushpender Singh Chauhan will be overall in charge for the arrangements for the meet while SDM (Gurgaon- North) Satender Duhan has been appointed the nodal officer for maintaining liaison with the Ministry of External Affairs.