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Longest day as bus commuters stranded
Strike hits normal life
Vendors worst hit
Patients bear the brunt
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AAP resents pvt bus operators’ attitude
Jind, Karnal dists included in NCR
Suspected LeT links: 2 let off after questioning
INLD opposes road, property tax
samjhauta
blast
Lab to detect pesticides in vegetables
Man held for murder, rape
Three quacks booked
Sunanda’s schoolmates shocked over developments
‘Amended’ Cong poll panel to be out soon
Power official caught taking bribe
U’khand
disaster
Bogie derails
Helpline launched
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Longest day as bus commuters stranded
Hisar, January 20 “I left Sirsa for Gurgaon (about four-hour journey for 165km) at 6 am, but I am stuck. I hope to reach Gugaon by evening, " said Vikas, an information technology professional. "I changed two vehicles to reach Hisar and am waiting for another bus. I have been told that a private bus will take me to Rohtak or Bahadurgarh. From there, I can continue my journey,” he said. The situation was no different on short routes as private vehicles were diverted to inter-district routes. Private vehicles were dangerously overloaded. Union leader Dalbir Kirmara said, “We have not organised a blockade and private operators are plying their vehicles, but Haryana Roadways buses will remain off the road till tomorrow. The coordination committee of the union will meet tomorrow evening to discuss the situation and take a decision on continuing their strike.” Mild force used
Rohtak: The police had to use mild force on roadways workers who tried to obstruct the movement of buses. Around 40 protesting workers were detained. Union leaders Sarbat Singh Poonia and Dharambir Hooda said several workers were forcibly taken to a local police station even though they were protesting peacefully. Commuters’ nightmare
Sirsa: Anxiety is writ large on Devender Singh's face as he waits for some truck or canter so that he can reach Hisar in time. “I have to attend court in Hisar and it is important for me to reach the judicial complex there by 10 am,” the 35-year-old said. A family of seven, including three women, came to the Sirsa bus stand to board a bus for Rohtak, where they were scheduled to attend in a wedding in their extended family. They found to their misery that the striking employees were not allowing any bus to leave the roadways depot. “We have not found any vehicle, not even a private bus. Taxi owners are demanding exorbitant charges today in view of the strike,” said Gurdial Chand, head of the family. The striking roadways employees reached the Sirsa bus stand at 2 am to ensure that the first bus for Delhi, scheduled to depart at 2:50 am, was halted. When the roadways authorities tried the bus to be driven out the help of a contractual driver and conductor, the striking officials stood in front of the bus, forcing the authorities to drop the idea. Minor skirmishes between striking roadways employees and the police continued throughout the day while commuters had to face a lot of hardship. Stranded for hours
Gurgaon: Hassan Basri (60), who is a native of Hathin, Faridabad, and had come here to meet her ailing niece, wants to forget her nightmare. She was stranded for over two hours at the general bus stand, from where she had to board a bus to return home. She did not find any bus at the parking stations in the compound. She was bemused to see the roadways staff merrily playing cards in the compound. Umma Kochar was among hundreds of others who were stranded. She had to go to Hisar to attend a wedding ceremony. She was apparently disturbed outside the stand when she was told that private buses were not
plied to Hisar. Not only passengers, shop owners in and around the compound were frustrated as their business was affected. Gurgaon General Manager, Haryana Roadways, DR Kunde, claimed that 40 state buses resumed services early in the morning. Venod Sharma, president, All Haryana Roadways Workers Union, Gurgaon, rebutted the claim. Employees flouted the prohibitory order of Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner S Vidyarthi by assembling at the bus stand compound. Thousands of commuters were left stranded. Things were worse for those commuting to Delhi owing to the dharna by the Delhi Chief Minister. “We expected at least Volvo buses to be plied today. We had booked online tickets for an early morning bus to Chandigarh and the news about the strike came as a shock. If this was planned, the authorities should have updated their website. We had to hire an overpriced taxi to reach Chandigarh," said Bimlesh Singh, a government employee. Fatehabad: Striking employees deflated the tyres of four buses when they came to know that the authorities planned to send the buses with contractual drivers and conductors. The employees reached the bus stand and did not allow any bus to be driven out. Fatehabad Deputy Commissioner Saket Kumar, Superintendent of Police Shiv Kumar Atri and other officers tried to persuade the striking officials to let the buses move in view of commuters' difficulties, but Sarbat Singh Punia, state president of the Haryana Roadways Workers Union, refused to budge. |
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Strike hits normal life
Jhajjar, January 20 The authorities ordered striking employees to come back on duty on Tuesday or new drivers and conductors would be recruited through the outsourcing policy of the state government. Earlier, a large number of commuters were stranded at the Jhajjar bus stand and Bahadurgarh town as the roadways buses remained off road. Operators of private buses and jeeps did brisk business. Roadways union leaders said they would not call off their strike till their demands were met. Only 22 buses plied
Karnal: Despite the efforts of the district administration, Haryana Roadways services remained affected in Karnal. Employees gathered at bus stand to stop service, but 22 buses were plied to their routes with the efforts of Duty Magistrate-cum-Tehsildar Hari Om Attri, Roadways GM Jaipal Rana and the police. Deputy Commissioner Vikas Yadav directed all departments to take attendance of employees thrice a day. Helpline numbers 0184-2267271 and 9729990750 were released for public convenience. |
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Vendors worst hit
Kurukshetra, January 20 Gopal Das, selling 'gajjak' at the Pipli bus stand for years, said, "Normally, I earn between Rs 200 and Rs 250 a day. Today, it seems that I will not earn even Rs 100 as there are less passengers. Generally, I sell three packets of 'gajjak' in a day. It is 3 pm and I have not sold even half of this 30-piece pack." He added, "Commuters will find alternative means to reach their destinations and workers on strike will get their salaries on time, but what about us? We live from hand to mouth and these days will be tough for us. Considering our age, many of us have reached a stage when we cannot opt for any other vocation." Rishi Parkash, running a tea stall at the Pipli bus stand for 15 years, said, “Generally, I earn between Rs 150 and Rs 200 a day. Today, I have earned only Rs 40 so far. There were only a few passengers and everybody was in a hurry, waiting for buses on the highway. It seems that three days will go like this.” Sanjeev Kumar, selling books in buses, said, "I have not sold a single book today because there were only a handful of passengers. I do not know what I will say when I reach home today. The coming days will be tougher as the number of passengers will drop further. Those who were not aware of the strike came today, but from tomorrow, they might travel by train or opt for some other alternative.” Asked whether they were not aware of the strike, a depressed Gopal Das replied, “We knew that there would be less passengers today, but were here in the hope to earn something. Kya karen, bachche to paalne hain (what to do, have to take care of children).”
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Patients bear the brunt
Ambala, January 20 Rampal said his daughter had been unwell for a week. Her condition suddenly deteriorated last night. Travelling 14 km in an auto-rickshaw, Ramphal and his daughter came to the Yamunanagar bus stand, only to find that there was no bus to Chandigarh today. He finally managed to make his way to Chandigrah in an overcrowded Rajasthan roadways bus.
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AAP resents pvt bus operators’ attitude
Karnal, January 20 The protesters alleged that the government was not serious about the rural population and the strike caused inconvenience to students. Prof SC Jain, media coordinator, AAP, said private buses were directed on many rural routes, but buses were not being run on these roads. Villagers had brought the matter
to the notice of the roadways authority, but to no avail. He said the matter should be taken up with the government. |
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Jind, Karnal dists included in NCR
New Delhi, January 20 The decision was taken at the 34th meeting of the NCRPB that was chaired by Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath. Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, the Union minister said Jind and Karnal had been included in the NCR to decongest the national capital. The national capital had a burden of population, but since the Board had started developing the National Capital Region area of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the growth of population in Delhi had come down. The growth rate of population of Delhi between 1991 and 2001 was 47 per cent, but between 2001 and 2011, the growth rate of population had been reduced to 21.2 per cent. Suburbanisation and providing better facilities of transportation in the NCR was the only way out to decongest the population of the national capital, the Union minister said. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who attended the meeting, said the development of the Haryana sub-region of the NCR had effectively checked migration to Delhi and had even attracted reverse migration, but a lot was still required to be done. He said the NCRPB also decided to reduce the rate of interest on the loan giving to Haryana to develop the NCR. At present, the rate of interest on loan for power infrastructure projects was 9.25 per cent. Now it would be reduced to 7.5 per cent and kept at a par with the interest rate of loans for other basic infrastructure projects in the NCR. Hooda said to meet the increasing demand of power in the NCR, the Haryana Government was regularly supporting power utilities by way of equity. During the 11th Five-Year Plan, support to the extent of Rs 4,687 crore was provided, of which nearly 40 per cent was spent in the NCR. During the 12th Plan, the state government had committed Plan support of Rs 7,332 crore, of which 50 per cent was likely to be spent in the NCR. In view of the fact that this investment was substantially falling within the NCR, the Government of India should provide special grant for supporting the creation and augmentation of this infrastructure. Another major decision taken at the meeting was about sewerage and solid waste management. It was decided that projects relating to this aspect should be extended to cover small towns and big villages.
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Suspected LeT links: 2 let off after questioning
Gurgaon, January 20 Hundreds of villagers blocked the Alwar highway, forcing the team to release the two. The police said the youths were in regular touch with the wanted Abdul Subhan Khan. Sources said the Delhi police had been trying to nab Abdul Subhan Khan, who is suspected to be an agent of Pakistan. He was first arrested in 2001 from Gumut Bihari village and is wanted in several cases. The protesters insisted that the youths were innocent farmers and were being framed. They blocked highway for several hours and refused to let the party leave. The youths were taken to a local police station and grilled for almost two hours before being released.
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INLD opposes road, property tax
Jhajjar, January 20 The protesters gathered at the Railway road and shouted slogans against the Congress government for putting additional financial burden on the common man in the name of road and property tax. Thereafter, they took out a protest march in the town which culminated at the Mini-Secretariat where Rathi said the Congress government had weakened the financial condition of people by imposing unnecessary taxes. “The Congress had promised to abolish the house tax during the 2009 Assembly poll, but the government restarted charging this tax last year,” said the INLD leader.
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samjhauta
blast Dharmendra Joshi Tribune News Service
Panipat, January 20 Mohammad Shakeel (32) of Mirpur Khas in Sindh province lost his father Fateh Mohammad, mother Rayesa, sisters Aasea and Sahiba in the blast on February 19, 2007. Actually 19 of the 68 persons killed in the blast have not yet been identified. These bodies were buried in the Mehrana graveyard. Shakeel, who along with his Indian brother-in-law Abdul Sattar of Jaipur came to Panipat for pursuing his compensation case, told The Tribune here that what to talk of getting Rs 10 lakh compensation announced by the Railways to next of kin of each dead person "I have not been even been provided the DNA report by the Indian authorities even though I gave my blood sample at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad in 2008 for identification of the bodies." Showing original railway tickets, Shakeel said:" I and my younger brother Nadeem also boarded the ill-fated train. We were lucky to escape with injuries as we jumped out of the train after the blast. The tickets were in my pocket whereas passports were with my father which were burnt." A halwai by profession, Shakeel has decided to engage a lawyer, Momin Malik, to get compensation. Momin Malik is already pursuing the cases of 19 such persons whose relatives lost their lives in the blast. He said: " First, I will contact the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for getting their DNA report. After getting the report, I will file their claim cases with the Railways Claims Tribunal. Even if I do not get the DNA report, I will file their claim cases on the basis of original tickets."
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AAP workers burn Shinde’s effigy
Karnal, January 20 Neeraj Gautam, district coordinator and Sandeep Saini, district secretary of the AAP said no state government could run its administration unless the Police Department was under its control. They said the police system in Delhi was beyond the jurisdiction of the Delhi government. It was strange that a Chief Minister could not give orders to the police in a state, they added. Prof SC Jain said Arvind Kejrival’s demand was reasonable and genuine. He said many volunteers would go to Delhi tomorrow to lend their support to the Delhi Government. Earlier, AAP activists gathered at the party office and burnt an effigy of Shinde. They raised slogans against the Delhi Police system and the minister.
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Lab to detect pesticides in vegetables
Karnal, January 20 Dr Satinder Yadav, In-charge, Indo-Israel Centre of Excellence for Vegetables, said the quality-control lab was established at a cost of Rs 2 crore. The required machinery has been already been installed and two scientists are about to join the lab. He said the Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed the government to establish a lab in Haryana for the detection of pesticides in fruits and vegetables. These labs will operate under the Horticulture Department of the state. As per records of the Horticulture Department, Haryana has produced 50,11,311 MT of vegetables in 3,60,339 hectares and 5,16,070 MT of fruits in 49,536 hectares, Dr Yadav said. — TNS
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Man held for murder, rape
Panipat, January 20 One gets 10-yr RI for rape
Kaithal: A local court sentenced a rapist of a minor girl to 10 years rigorous imprisonment (RI) and also imposed a fine of Rs 17,000 on the culprit. The court, which decided the case within six months, also ordered the accused to undergo further imprisonment of 24 months in case of failure to pay the fine. According to the prosecution, a villager lodged a complaint with the Cheeka police station that his 15-year-old daughter, a Class IX student, went missing from her house on the night of July 25, 2012. Hoshiyar Singh, a resident of Paprala village and his friend Soni of Ahmedpur, also went missing from their houses. After receiving the complaint, a police party arrested the accused Hoshiyar Singh from Anandpur Sahib after two days. The police also recovered the girl and a motorcycle on which the accused took the girl along with him. A medical examination confirmed rape of the girl. The other accused Soni, was also arrested after two days. The police filed a chargesheet in the court after 11 days. Additional Sessions Judge RS Choudhary after examining the witnesses and perusal of the evidence on the record held Hoshiyar Singh guilty of rape. However, the other accused Soni, was acquitted by the court for lack of evidence. Man convicted for sexual assault on minor
Kurukshetra: The court of Additional Session Judge R S Dhanda held Rajesh alias Rinku guilty and convicted him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Rajesh, a resident of Khedi Dabadlan, was arrested by the police on the complaint lodged by the victim's mother, who had alleged that on March 16 2013, the accused had entered her house, molested her underage daughter and also
beat her. Rajesh has been awarded two years and six months sentence under Section 323 and 452 of the IPC, respectively, and 3 years sentence under Section 8 of the POCSO Act. |
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Three quacks booked
Karnal, January 20 Civil Surgeon, Dr Vandana Bhatia, said under a special campaign, a team of the Health Department checked as many as 25 clinics, hospitals and ultra sound centres.Three unregistered medical practitioners were found practising at Nilokehri, Shiv Colony, Karnal and Gharaunda. She said team members also recovered equipment used for medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) from a clinic in Indri and incomplete record from a hospital in Karnal under the PNDT Act. Cases were registered against two doctors running the clinic and the hospital.
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Sunanda’s schoolmates shocked over developments
Ambala, January 20 They were shocked that the girl who used to be their schoolmate 30 years ago was no more. Sunanda’s father was an Army officer and remained posted at Ambala cantonment for a few years. She spent a few years studying at the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Ambala. During her stay here, she was actively involved in school extra curricular activities. School principal Sister Elise said some teachers had stated that Sunanda was one of the good students. She even headed the Red House of the school. Despite being a shy person, she was a good athlete and participated well in all sporting activities. A local lawyer at Ambala cantonment, Lalit Chaudhary, said Sunanda was a year senior to him and he remembered her because of her confidence.
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‘Amended’ Cong poll panel to be out soon
Chandigarh, January 20 Sources said the proposed HPCC list, heavily inclined in favour of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, had been altered to give due representation to the dissident camp. With the final names bearing the high command’s stamp still awaited, tomorrow’s scheduled meeting of the panel has been pushed to the weekend. Shakeel Ahmed, general secretary in charge of Haryana affairs,is learnt to have received the reconstituted PEC from Congress President Sonia Gandhi today. Since Ahmed is slated to reach Delhi from Bihar tomorrow, the list expected to be out shortly. Sources in the HPCC said they had kept in mind the caste balance while compiling the list. “The MPs were not included in the panel since they themselves are aspirants. We picked leaders to ensure that no caste goes unrepresented. The new list was forwarded to the general secretary in charge a week back,” the sources added. State party chief Phool Chand Mullana said: "Everybody has been recommended" by the HPCC in its list of 17 names. "Leaders are getting insecure and unnecessarily raising a hue and cry. MLA Balbir Pal Shah claims there is no Sikh on the panel even though he has not seen the list," Mullana claimed. While the dissident camp, including union minister Selja and Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh, may have been given a miss by the HPCC, the sources said names for the panel had been sought from all senior leaders. Based on all recommendations, names were forwarded to the Congress President. The sources said the final list would be a mix of the young and the old, the pro-Hooda camp as also those from the detractor camp. Representation would be given to all castes.
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Power official caught taking bribe
Sonepat, January 20 According to information, Rama lodged a complaint with the Vigilance alleging that Balwan had demanded Rs 4,000 from him for reducing the load of his electricity meter. He had already paid Rs 2,000, but the accused was demanding Rs 2,000 more. Deputy Commissioner Chander Shekhar deputed the Sonepat BDPO as duty magistrate with the Vigilance team, led by Inspector Rajiv Soni for nabbing the accused. When Nand handed over the amount, the team raided nigam’s office and recovered the sum from Balwan’s possession. A case under Anti-Corruption Act has been registered against the accused.
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U’khand disaster
Karnal, January 20 Mukul Kumar, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), handed over the cheques for Rs 3.5 lakh each to the relatives of 11 victims who died in the disaster. Eight cheques were sent to the relatives who were not present on the occasion. —TNS
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Bogie derails
Ambala, January 20 The derailment brought to a halt the Patliputra Express and Shatabdi Express. A team of technical experts rushed to the site and initiated measures to put the train back on track. Sources said as the goods train, which was coming towards Ambala, derailed at a slow speed, no untoward incident took place. They said from the preliminary inspections revealed that not much damage was caused to the track or the train. — TNS |
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Ringside
view A former MP is in a strange dilemma these days. Former MP Sushil Indora, who quit the INLD to join the Congress in 2009 when his party preferred to field Dr Sita Ram, has decided to bid goodbye to the Congress this time as he does not see any future in the party till AICC Secretary Ashok Tanwar is there. Indora has confided in mediapersons more than once that he would quit the Congress by month-end. However, he does not name the party he is going to join. Dr Indora, a senior HJC leader said, was waiting for the BJP and the HJC the to reach an understanding on seat sharing first. “Indora will join the BJP if Sirsa goes to the saffron party but he will join the HJC if the seat comes in its share,” the HJC leader said. Indora was elected to the 12th and 13th Lok Sabha from Sirsa in 1998 and then in 1999 on the INLD ticket. Indora lost to Atma Singh Gill of the Congress in 2004 but he was elected to the state assembly from Ellenabad on the INLD ticket. However, when the INLD did not field him in the 2009 parliamentary elections, Dr Indora quit the party. The Congress fielded him from the Kalanwali assembly seat in October, 2009, but he lost the election to Charanjit Singh of the SAD(Badal). ‘Captive’ audienceA group of women participants in the state-level ‘Kisan Sammelan’ kept Jhajjar district administrative officials on toes. Those belonging to nearby villages wanted to leave after four hours but the officials did not let them move as Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was yet to address the gathering. The officials had to swing into action because Hooda saw women getting up to leave the venue. A woman complained to mediapersons that they had taken permission for one or two hours from their kin but the programme lasted over five hours. Now we would have to face the music at home. Eating humble pie
The challan of the wife of a senior Hisar district officer has been a talk of the town. The woman with her son and security personnel in toe had gone to the market in a personal vehicle which was parked in the no parking zone at Rajguru Market on Saturday evening. However, a traffic cop took no time to challan the vehicle for traffic violation. As the security guard alerted the cop and his seniors, the matter was ‘resolved’ amicably after the intervention of a senior officer. The traffic police has done a commendable job after B Satish Balan, SP, took several measures to crack down on the violators. But the police had to eat humble pie this time. Key Sampat aide quits Cong
With the desertion of some key local leaders from the party, the Hisar Congress unit seems to be in an embarrassing situation. After former minister Hari Singh Saini who left the party last week, Chhotu Ram, who had been Nalwa MLA Sampat Singh’s private secretary for several years, also quit the party on Saturday and joined the INLD. It is considered a personal setback for Sampat Singh, who has close social ties with Chhotu Ram. All those Kurukshetra leaders who left their parties and joined the Aam Aadmi Party are now finding themselves in a dilemma. During a workers’ meeting a leader who wanted to present his views and share the stage along with AAP executive member Yogendra Yadav, had to bear AAP leader Naveen Jaihind’s tongue-in--cheek remarks. Addressing the workers, Naveen Jaihind said: “All those workers who have joined the Aam Aadmi Party to gain something out of it can leave the party right now. One must either behave like a common man or go and join some other political party. No one will get any kind of privilege here and will be treated like a common man.” —Contributed by Sushil Manav, Ravinder Saini, Deepinder Deswal and Nitish Sharma |
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Panipat, January 20
