Chandigarh, February 22
A bitter war of words has broken out between the BJP and the Congress ahead of AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Gannaur in Sonepat on February 24.

The BJP Kisan Morcha has shot off a set of 10 questions related to the sorry state of the farming c ommunity to Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, in a counter-attack, has tried to question the credibility of the BJP in championing the cause of farmers.

Rahul Gandhi will be in Gannaur to take feedback from farmers to incorporate their suggestions in the Congress manifesto for the general election.

Leading the attack, Om Prakash Dhankar, president of the morcha, during a candlelight march in Sector 17 here today, wanted Rahul Gandhi to answer why 1.45 lakh farmers had committed suicide in the last about 10 years.

Dhankar urged the AICC vice-president to clear his stand on the non-implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report and the disaster management report of the Chief Ministers’ committee. He aksed why the Haryana Government had failed to return the land to farmers where special economic zones had been de-notified. He stepped up the attack on the issue of minimum support prices failing to keep pace with the increase in prices of input cost and why land of his brother-in-law Robert Vadra was not being given back to farmers.

National spokesman of the morcha Vineet Joshi asserted that the Congress-led UPA government owed an explanation to the nation why the farming was becoming un unviable profession.

In his spirited defence, Rann Singh Mann, Congress general secretary (media), dared the BJP to compare welfare measures taken by the Hooda government for the farming community with those in BJP-ruled states, including Gujarat.

Mann claimed that Haryana had implementated the disaster management report of the Chief Ministers’ committee, providing for Rs 10,000 compensation per acre in case of crop failure.

He said the Centre had brought down the rate of interest on farm loans to 4 per cent while Haryana was giving the highest rate of Rs 301 per quintal for sugarcane in the country.

He alleged that the INLD-BJP government in Haryana was responsible for the death of at least six farmers on account of power bill arrears. The bill waiver scheme was formulated when the Hooda government came to power in 2005, he claimed.

Mann questioned the BJP on the issue of change of land use in Haryana when the same practice was being followed in BJP-ruled states.

Jind, February 22
Khaps have refused to change their stand on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) despite some recent positive gestures by senior leaders of party and have refused to attend its first-ever big rally in Rohtak tomorrow.

"Since AAP leaders have spoken against khaps in the past without having proper knowledge about the working of khaps, neither will we attend the rally, nor do we plan to have a meeting with them," said Kuldeep Singh Dhanda, convener of the sarv-khap panchayat after a meeting here last evening.

Dhanda said almost all khaps in the state supported this decision. He added that they would oppose all those who were against them and their ideology.

"Khaps are not political parties and are purely non-political. We solve disputes of our people and do many things of social welfare. We do not want to join politics, but will not tolerate any baseless statement against us," he said.

New Delhi, February 22
A day before of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to organise its first election rally in Haryana at Rohtak, the party today alleged that Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led government was harassing its workers in the state.

“The Congress government is creating trouble for us. Hooda has ordered removal of posters for the rally and auto drivers, who are campaigning for us, are being fined. Even HUDA, on whose land we are organising the rally, is harassing us,” said AAP leader from Haryana Naveen Jaihind.

He said notices were also sent to schools which were providing buses to ferry volunteers to the venue.

Kurukshetra, February 22
Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today said, “There is a big difference between what former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says and does”. Nishank was here to attend a marriage function.

He said it was not the way of running a government. Kejriwal himself was a corrupt person as he had taken the support of a party which he had projected as the most corrupt, he said, and added that the Aam Aadmi Party would not make much difference in the Lok Sabha elections.

The former Chief Minister said there was no comparison between Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. “People have already accepted Modi as the next Prime Minister and he is the most suitable person for the post,” he said.

Defending support of yoga guru Baba Ramdev, he said, “The Congress has been targeting Ramdev ever since he started exposing corrupt practices of the party.”

Faridabad, February 22
The police have arrested four youths for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl at Bijopur village in the district.

Sources said Altaf, Hasin, Ashu and Zahul, all residents of the same village, allegedly raped the victim on Thursday evening when she had gone to a nearby field in the village.

In her complaint, the victim alleged that the accused forcibly took her away to a nearby hut, where Altaf, Hasin and Ashu took turns to rape her while Zahul stood as guard outside the hut.

The accused fled the spot when her sister reached there and asked for her.

Jind, February 22
Ruling out a post-poll alliance with any political party in Haryana, national BJP spokesman Capt Abhimanyu said the BJP-HJC combine would win all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

He was talking to mediapersons during a ‘NaMo Chai Chaupal’ here today. About the allegations levelled by former Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi over his alleged links with Reliance Industries, Abhimanyu said Kejriwal was not above the law and there was a legal system in the country.

Chandigarh, February 22
The government tonight terminated the service of 10 guest teachers who had been on a relay fast in New Delhi for the last few days.

Sources said action against at least 20 more teachers was being contemplated as studies were being adversely affected.

Karnal, February 22
The family of an 18-year-old girl, who was found dead yesterday, protested at the Indri police station today. Accompanied by INLD activists, they demanded the arrest of those responsible and gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the police.

The father of the deceased, a resident of Johar Majra village, alleged that his daughter was brutally murdered and no accused had been identified yet. He said the police were saying that they were trying their best, but the result was zero.

Indri MLA Ashok Kashyap and other INLD activists, along with the family of the deceased, reached the police station and demanded the arrest of the culprits.

They raised slogans against the slow progress in the case. The father of the deceased said they would protest on a large scale if the culprits were not arrested in 24 hours.

“The reason of death and whether or not she was raped was not clear in the post-mortem report. We are awaiting the forensic report,” said Anil Kundu, adding that the police were trying their best to arrest the culprits.

Bahadurgarh (Jhajjar), February 22
Acting on a tip-off, the Food and Drugs Department has unearthed an inter-state racket involved in illegal transactions of Chinese ultrasoundmachines with the arrest of a local factory owner here.

The department has also confiscated nine ultrasound machines from M/s Kospi-Care System factory in Modern Industrial Estate (MIE) here.

Dr Rakesh Gupta, Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration, said the racket was being run in the NCR, wherein the accused, Vijay Dandeva, owner of the factory, used to supply portable ultrasound machines at throwaway prices to otherstates.

“The accused used to assemble the machines at his factory before supplying these to nearby states at a nominal price of Rs 1-2 lakh against the cost of Rs 25-40 lakh. The conventional ultrasoundmachines were being used regularly for sex determination,” said the Commissioner.

He said a decoy customer was sent to the factory last evening to buy an ultrasound machine. The accused sold him a machine without anyproper verification and mandatory registration of buyer under the PNDT Act, he said.

"The facilities for conducting the sex detection test was being provided at the doorstep by the user of such machines in view of its small size. The sale details of such machines are being gathered to assess the ground reality about the quantum of supply of these machines throughout the country," said Gupta.