Gurgaon, November 22
About 300 students today torched three Haryana Roadways buses and damaged about 20 more after a youth was crushed to death under the wheels of a bus today. Firefighters doused the flames before much damage to the buses.

Pappu Yadav of Bihar was crushed to death near Dronacharya Government College. He was trying to board the bus from the front door, but fell and was run over under a rear wheel of the bus. His head was crushed and he was killed on the spot. The driver of the vehicle fled, leaving the bus.

A large number of students assembled on the spot and threw stones at buses near the college. They torched the Jhajjar depot bus near the college. The students later reached the general bus stand, where they were joined by students of the ITI nearby. They threw stones at buses and torched two buses.

They were not deterred by the large police presence. The police seemed hesitant to intervene aggressively. The police removed the body about 40 minutes after the accident. It was sent to the Civil Hospital. The late arrival of the police to remove the body was criticised. The bus was removed after about an hour.

The police registered two separate FIRs against about 50 unidentified persons in connection with damage to buses, but no arrest was made. A separate FIR was registered against the bus driver, but he was not arrested. The in charge of the City police station, where the case was registered, said the driver was yet to be identified.

The body of the deceased was handed over to his family after post-mortem examination. He was residing with his brother at Surat Nagar. He had enrolled for an English-speaking course at Brilliance Institute near Dronacharya Government College.

Chandigarh, November 22
The Punjab and Haryana High Court’s former Judge, Justice Nirmal Yadav, will continue to face trial in the cash-for judge scam. The High Court today dismissed her plea against the framing of charges by the CBI court at Chandigarh. With this, the way for framing charges against her by the trial court appears to be clear.

On the previous date of hearing, tThe High Court had asked Justice Yadav to explain under what provision of law could a High Court stay trial in a corruption case. Taking up the matter, Justice NK Sanghi had made it clear that notice to the CBI would be issued only if Justice Yadav was able to convince the court.

Justice Sanghi had also referred to a Supreme Court judgment pronounced in 2001 on corruption trials. Faced with the situation, her counsel had sought additional time to answer the queries.

As the case came up, her counsel could not convince the Bench on the issue of staying the trial by supporting his arguments with judgments. Already, Special CBI Judge Vimal Kumar had ruled on July 31 that there is an "overwhelming evidence" against Yadav and other accused in the scam.

On September 13, less than two months after the special CBI court ordered the framing of charges against Justice Yadav in the cash-for-judge scam, the proceedings before the trial court had virtually came to a halt with Justice Sanghi summoning the entire trial court record. 

Chandigarh, November 22
The controversy over senior advocate Anupam Gupta’s remarks in the cash-at-judge’s-door scam has deepened.

Gupta had expressed his dismay over the court order on September 13, soon after the Punjab and Haryana High Court had summoned the entire trial court record in the case involving former judge Nirmal Yadav.

After the orders were passed, Gupta came out with a handwritten note saying, “I am deeply distressed by the High Court's order passed today. It betrays sensitivity to judicial corruption...”

"The High Court cannot have a dual approach or standard -one for the judges and another for other accused. Would the court have passed this order if the principal accused had not been a former HC judge?" it said.

The CBI has made it clear that it has nothing to do with the remarks and Gupta had “not been authorised to issue any such statement” on the behalf of the agency.

Justice Yadav, at that time, had moved the High Court against the trial court orders directing the framing of charges. The statement was followed by a notice of criminal contempt by Justice Yadav to Gupta, CBI Director, a Superintendent of Police and an Inspector.

In response to the notice, CBI SP asserted: “The said statement was given by Anupam Gupta on his own. The respondents have nothing to do with this statement as there was no instruction issued to Gupta on behalf of the respondents.”

Chandigarh, November 22
Over 120 dreaded criminals on parole, including 100 murder convicts, continue to outsmart the Haryana police-frustrating the criminal justice system in the state.

With 47 hardcore criminals, including 32 murder convicts, jumping the parole, Ambala jail tops the list where the convicts have not reported to the jail after the expiry of their parole .This is followed by Karnal jail where 35 criminals, all murder convicts, are at large.

Information gathered by Chandigarh-based advocate and RTI activist HC Arora showed that 21 convicted persons, including 19 murder convicts,failed to report to Bhiwani jail after the expiry of their parole. From Gurgaon jail, the number of absconding criminals was 15, 11 of them imprisoned for life for murder. While two murder convicts jumped parole from Narnaul jail, one criminal did not come back after the expiry of parole to Kurukshetra jail.

“That fact that such a large number of murderers are roaming free in society amounted to frustrating the criminal justice system. I will file pubic interest litigation (PIL) in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking overhauling of the Haryana Government’s policy for temporary relief of life convicts on parole,” Arora said.

Conceding that parole-jumping by criminals was a serious challenge for the police, a senior police officer told The Tribune that after the passage the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Amendment Act,2013, the possibility of the absconding during the parole would virtually be eliminated.

Faridabad, November 22
Over 200 families of the employees of the power department here are facing the threat of homelessness as they have been ordered to vacate their accommodation by the authorities concerned at Thermal Power Colony located in Sector 23 here.

The directions in this regard have reportedly been issued in wake of the decision by the state power department for transferring the land to the Haryana Urban Development Authority, after the closure of the thermal plant here a couple of years ago. The All Haryana Power Corporations Worker Union (AHPCU) has threatened to launch a stir in case the authorities fail to provide any relief to the affected employees.

Describing the move to order the eviction as unjustified, Ramdhari, president of the RWA of the colony and an employee of the Dakhin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), said it was a shocker for the employees who had been staying in the colony for the past several years, which he claimed was the only official residential colony for the staff of the department. He said in case of forced eviction, the families of as many as 218 employees would be on road as they had no alternate accommodation at present and acquiring residential space privately was not possible for the majority of them.

Power department sources said the authorities that had already taken the possession of a similar colony, having around 400 houses in Sector 22, have now asked the employees residing in 218 houses of the colony in Sector 23 to vacate the accommodation by December 31. “We have not received any assurance in this regard so far,” claimed Ram Prasad, another employee. However, the sources said the department was set to loose an annual rent income of Rs 1.20 crore in case the colony spread on an area of around 14.99 acres was evacuated. Earlier, the department got the possession of land measuring 42.65 acres located in Sector- 22 and having around 700 houses. Though the houses in Sector 22 had almost reached the stage of dilapidation, the condition of the houses in question (Sector 23) was fit for use as these were built in 1995, claimed Subhash Lamba, spokesperson of the AHPCU, while adding that the employees would be forced to start a stir. He said the department had failed to set up adequate residential accommodations for the staff over the years.

Deputy Commissioner Balraj Singh said the issue had not been brought to his notice so far. He said the department must have taken the staff welfare into consideration.

Kurukshetra, November 22
Highlighting the importance of water in human life, National Institute of Technology (NIT) Director Anand Mohan today said “a drop of water is more valuable to a thirsty man than a sack of gold” and added that conservation of water was the key to social and economic growth of the human society.

Inaugurating a two-day national conference on Current Advances in Hydraulics, Hydropower Engineering and Water Conservation (CAHHEWC-2013) here, he exhorted field engineers, researchers and the academia to promote research in the area of integrated management of water resources.

Mohan appealed to the Water Resources Engineering specialisation group of the Department of Civil Engineering to take up the challenge of focused research in any one area of water resources management so as to develop the department into a centre of excellence.

Chandigarh,November 22
The Haryana Government and whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka today again engaged in a war of words over the record profit of Rs 1.76 crore during the latter’s tenure as the Managing Director(MD) of the Haryana Seeds Development Corporation (HSDC).

While a spokeman of the HSDC claimed that the main reason for the profit during 2012-13 was the abnormal increase in the market rates of guar seed sold by the HSDC during May, 2012, when Vikas Yadav was the MD, Khemka wondered why the authorities were ‘peeved at’ the HSDC’s record profit during 2012-13 and projecting the record profit as a loss.

The corporation earned a profit of Rs 3.41 crore on the sale of guar seed alone which was reduced to Rs 1.76 crore during Khemka’s tenure.The corporation incurred a net loss of Rs 56 lakh on account of interest for only three months (January to March, 2013) on the unsold quantity of 87,000 quintals of certified wheat seed worth Rs 22 crore during Khemka’s tenure, the spokeman alleged.

In fact, if the corporation had sold the entire quantity of certified seed of wheat, the profit of the corporation would have increased by at least Rs 4.5 crore during 2012-13. However, Khemka countered it by saying that he had consciously stopped cheating other state and central agencies by lending HSDC's name to the seed supplies of a private middleman at 3% commission, which reduced the HSDC’s profit. “Had the past practice continued, the HSDC profits would have been much more,” the officer claimed.

The HSDC financial health suffered badly due to the huge unsold stocks of certified seed of wheat during the tenure of Khemka(October 15, 2012 to April 4,2013), the spokesman claimed.

However, Khemka claimed that subsidies during 2012-13 were reduced by Rs 11.9 crore as compared to 2011-12. “To apportion the blame on me, the HSDC must give half-yearly financial statement for the period prior to my tenure (April 1, 2012, to October 15, 2012," he said.

Rohtak, November 22
Syed Abdul Karim Tunda, an operative of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was produced in a local court amid tight security today.

Tunda was wanted in a twin-blast case that rocked the town nearly seven years ago. The blasts were allegedly carried out under Tunda’s supervision.

He was arrested by the special cell of the Delhi Police from the Indo-Nepal border in August and is lodged in the Tihar Jail.

The police urged the court to exempt Tunda from personal hearing due to security reasons.

After hearing the plea of the police, the court of Rohtak Chief Judicial Magistrate Ashwani Kumar granted exemption to Tunda from personal appearance in court and allowed his hearing through video-conferencing on December 6. Tunda is accused of masterminding over 40 blasts in New Delhi, Panipat, Sonepat, Ludhiana, Kanpur and Varanasi. He is also accused of involvement in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

Gurgaon, November 22
A local Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court has upheld the contention of a workman against his employer Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and directed it to give monetary compensation to him for dismissing him from service more than a decade ago.

The case had assumed the status of cause celebre in industrial circles as the victim, Amar Chakravarty, was dismissed from job in the wake of well-known agitation of the company’s plant here in 2000.

AK Verma, the presiding officer of the court, directed the company’s management to pay Rs 6,50,000 as compensation to the victim in full satisfaction of all his claims for wrongful dismissal from service. The court, however, did not direct for his reinstatement.

In the order, Verma observed that 13 years had elapsed since the workman’s dismissal from service. He was already above 55 years of age now and near to the age of superannuation. Hence, the relief of reinstatement could not be justified and instead monetary compensation would meet the ends of justice.

The management has been directed to pay the compensation amount within a period of eight weeks.

The workman had put in 15 years of service in the company at the time when he was sacked. He had been appointed Assistant L-04 and was promoted L-09. He was drawing a salary of Rs 18,225 per month. He was also an active member of employees’ union of the company.

He had challenged the legality of his dismissal. He contested that management’s action against him on ground that it violated, inter alia, the principles of natural justice and the provisions of “certified standing order”.

Chandigarh, November 22
About 2,500 common service centres (CSCs) will be established all across the state in a phased manner to enable delivery of citizen services in the electronic mode. As many as 1,600 these centres would be in rural areas and 900 in urban ones. an official spokesman said here today that the first phase of the rollout of these centres would involve the establishment of 500 CSCs by March, 2014, and the rest in the progressive manner. These CSCs would serve as the main channels for delivery of citizen services to people.

He said initially birth and death registration certificates, income certificate, house tax, marriage certificate, payment of electricity bills and other such services were likely to be started at these CSCs. 

Sirsa, November 22
Congress workers today burnt an effigy of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narender Modi for his alleged jibes at Congress President Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

Hoshiari Lal Sharma, a spokesperson of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, who led the agitating Congress workers, alleged that Modi had been vitiating political atmosphere in the country by using offensive language against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress workers started from Congress Bhawan in a procession and went up to Bhagat Singh Chowk where they burnt Modi's effigy.

"Sometimes, he calls Congress symbol 'Khooni Panja', or he speaks sarcastically about Sonia Gandhi's illness and then calls Rahul Gandhi a shehzada in a mocking manner," Sharma alleged, adding that the Congress workers would not tolerate such a language.

He said that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi came from a family whose members have laid down their lives for the country and Congress workers would not take their unparliamentary criticism lying down.

Kurukshetra, November 22
Workers of the BJP, led by district party president Dhuman Singh Kirmach, staged a demonstration and burnt the effigies of Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Sharma and Rahul Gandhi near Ambedkar Chowk here today.

They did so in protest against the burning of the effigies of Narendra Modi and BJP state president Ram Bilas Sharma by the Congress workers here yesterday.

Addressing the workers, Kirmach said the Congress workers, especially Kuldeep Sharma, had tarnished the image of the Congress by giving low-level press statements against the BJP.

Ambala, November 22
The friends and relatives of Gitanjali, wife of the then Gurgaon Chief Judicial Magistrate, whose bullet-riddled body was found near his official residence in Gurgaon on July 17, this year, today held a protest in Ambala, blocking the Ambala-Hisar highway for over two hours.

Protesters demanded an action against Ravneet Garg, now posted as the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Ambala, who had been booked by the Gurgaon police on murder charges after the incident.

The protesters, who carried various placards, later took out a march towards the district court complex and raised slogans demanding action against the CJM. SDM Vinay Partap tried to pacify the protesters, who withdrew the protest only after handing over a memorandum to the District Sessions Judge seeking an immediate suspension of the CJM.

Gitanjali's body was found on July 17 at the high security Police Lines area in Gurgaon.

During the post-mortem examination, one bullet was found in her stomach while another bullet had hit her chin and pierced through her head. A third bullet was also fired which injured her neck minutely. The Gurgaon police have later stated that the possibility of suicide could not be ruled out. After the incident, Ravneet Garg had been transferred to Ambala courts. 

Chandigarh, November 22
To provide free and better treatment facilities to people suffering from HIV and AIDS, the Haryana State AIDS Control Society (HSACS) would open a new anti-retroviral treatment (ART) centre at the Agroha(Hisar) Medical College. Also, one sexually transmitted infections (STI) clinic would be opened in the Medical College, Mewat.

Health Minister Rao Narender Singh said here today that facilities were being provided for prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS in the state. These facilities were being provided through integrated counselling and testing centres, sexually transmitted infections clinics, anti-retroviral treatment Centres and opioid substitute therapy centers.

To curb infection of AIDS through injections among addicted people, six new opioid substitution therapy centres (OST) had been opened at Ambala, Panchkula, Fardiabad, Panipat, Sonepat and Bahadurgarh. Apart from this, four new such centres would soon be set up at Rewari, Hisar, Jind and Sirsa.

Rohtak, November 22
Dr Kashyap Kumar Dubey, Associate Professor, Biotechnology, at the University Institute of Engineering and Technology, MDU, has been presented with the coveted Young Scientist Award of the Association of Microbiologists of India (AMI).

The award has been conferred on Dr Dubey for his significant contribution made towards the development of less toxic and more potent anti-cancerous drug (three-demethylated colchicine) in the field of medical microbiology category.

Appreciating Dr Dubey’s efforts, Haryana Governor and MDU Chancellor Jagannath Pahadia and MDU Vice-Chancellor HS Chahal have appreciated that he was the only scientist from Haryana selected for the prestigious award.

The award was presented to Dr Dubey by AMI president Rup Lal during the valedictory session of the 54th conference of the association held on the MDU campus recently.

The other scientists presented with the Young Scientist Award on the occasion include Dr Praveen Rahi from NCCS, Pune, in Agriculture Microbiology; Dr Abhilas from NML, Dhanbad, in Environmental Microbiology; Dr Bhuvanesh Shrivastava from Delhi University in Industrial Microbiology; and Chiranjiv from BIT, Mesra, in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.

An M.Tech and Ph.D in Biotechnology, Dr Dubey’s area of interest is qualitative and quantitative improvement of value-added pharmaceutical products through strain development using recombinant DNA technology, mutagenesis and scale-up bioprocess. He has 35 international research papers to his credit.

Sonepat, November 22
The host and last year’s runners up CRZ Hockey Academy won the 11th Pradeep Hooda Memorial Hockey Championship by defeating the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Hostel, Chauhan Joshi, by 1-0 in a keenly contested match here.

Both teams could not open account till the breather. The winning goal was scored by Abhishek in the second half and the SAI team made efforts to equalize, but CRZ defenders foiled all attempts.

In the semi finals, CRZ defeated the Bharat Hockey Academy, Delhi, and SAI Hostel team made it to the final by defeating Chandigarh Hockey Academy. In an exhibition match, Mahila Hockey Academy, Sonepat, defeated veteran men hockey team by 2-1.

The cash prizes of Rs 31,000 and Rs 21,000 were given to the winning and runners up teams, respectively. Besides giving a cash prize of Rs 11,000 to other two semi finalist teams, Sonepat Mahila Hockey Academy was also rewarded with a cash prize of Rs 5,000.

Chandigarh, November 22
Cooperation Minister Satpal Sangwan has said that Haryana is leading in terms of providing subsidy of Rs 4 per litre to milk producers in the state. As many as 80,805 milk producers were being benefited from this decision.

In a statement issued here today, Sangwan said the Haryana Dairy Development Cooperative Federation was purchasing on an average 2.94 lakh litre milk everyday through dairy cooperative societies. He said the federation had increased the milk handling capacity of its five milk plants from 4.70 lakh litre per day to 8.80 lakh litres.

The minister said the government had launched a scheme for milk producers . Under the scheme, a committed member, who has supplied milk continuously for the past three years both in lean and flush season, had been insured for Rs 1 lakh for accidental death by paying only Rs 10. He said that under the scheme, as many as 1,78,868 milk producers had been insured till October 31. 

Fatehabad, November 22
The Fatehabad police has booked Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) junior engineer (JE) Sunil Machra for his mother’s murder here on November 10. Sunil is in the custody of the Sirsa police for gunning down his mechanic friend at Kharia village.

The police had completed modalities under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code for accidental death after the JE’s mother Kamla was found dead at her house on November 10 under mysterious circumstances.

Gaurav Sharma, SHO of the Fatehabad City police station, said a case under Sections 302, 120-B, 201 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code was registered against Sunil and his friend Sanjay Kumar of Sirsa for Kamla’s murder and destroying evidence.

Sharma said the case was registered on the basis of Sunil’s disclosure statement before the Sirsa police. He said the police was yet to arrest the two accused.

Questions were being raised over the functioning of the Fatehabad police. Had the police investigated Kamla’s death properly and arrested Sunil, Kashmir Chand could have been saved.

The police was justifying its action and said proceedings under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code were done after Sunil gave a statement in writing that his mother’s death was accidental.

Rewari, November 22
A woman has been arrested for murdering her husband in Rewari. Following persistent demand raised by the father of the deceased and other residents of Bas Batodi village, the Khol police arrested Manisha Yadav.

Manisha was today produced in a local court which remanded her in judicial custody. Jatin Yadav (21), a BTech student, was found dead at his residence on October 23. Jatin’s postmortem showed that it was a case of suicide.

However, on the demand of the deceased’s father, Raj Kumar, the police registered a case of murder against Manisha and two other youths. No arrests were made by the police for about three weeks. In his complaint, Raj Kumar had alleged that Jatin’s sour relations with Manisha, who had affairs with one or two youths, had led to victim’s elimination. A senior police official said they were investigating the matter.

Jhajjar, November 22
The Bahadurgarh police have arrested a woman for allegedly killing her husband in their house at Dayanand Colony in Bahadurgarh town here three days ago.

Asha had hatched a conspiracy with her lover, Umesh, to eliminate her husband, Rohit.

The police today produced the accused before a local court, which sent her to judicial custody for 14 days.

The murder case was solved after an intensive grilling of the accused. She confessed that she, along with Umesh, strangulated Rohit to death.

Earlier, the police had registered a case under Section 174 of the CrPc on Asha’s statement, wherein she had stated that her husband died of electrocution on Tuesday night.

A case of murder has been registered against Asha and Umesh. Raids were also being conducted to arrest Umesh, who was absconding, said the police.

Sirsa, November 22
A married woman received serious burn injuries when she allegedly set herself on fire. Her husband also sustained burns on his hands when he tried to save her at Rori in Sirsa today.

Both Saravjit Kaur and her husband, Balkar Singh, have been admitted to the local General Hospital.

While Balkar Singh said that as his wife was under depression, she set herself on fire, Saravjit Kaur's kin have alleged that Balkar used to beat his wife.