Bhiwani, February 24
The body of BJP leader Rakesh Malik was cremated after agitated supporters withdrew their agitation and removed the blockade at the main roundabout in Tosham today.

The supporters and kin of the deceased served a five-day ultimatum on the police to arrest the killers. They would resume the agitation if the police failed to nab the accused in five days, said Kamal Singh, one of the 11 members of the committee spearheading the stir.

He said deceased's brother Krishan Malik had got his statement recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC. The police should take action on the basis of the statement of the deceased's brother, he said. The victim's kin had pointed fingers at Excise and Taxation Minister and Tosham MLA Kiran Chaudhry, her personal assistant Hari Singh and daughter Shruti Chaudhry, MP from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh.

They had refused to cremate the body, demanding a probe into their involvement and the arrest of the killers. The family had threatened to take a drastic step if the police failed to arrest those responsible. Bhiwani SP Satender Gupta said a notice under Section 160 of the CrPC had been served on Hari Singh. "The police investigation is on and we will arrest the killers as soon as possible," he said.

He alleged that some persons were trying to give a political colour to the case. He claimed that the police were conducting the probe in a fair manner and those responsible would be behind bars soon. Tension eased in the town after the removal of the blockade and the cremation, but a heavy police posse was deployed as a precautionary measure.

Chandigarh, February 24
The General Election may be a few months away, but the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh parliamentary seat is already witnessing a battle of sorts.

Haryana minister Kiran Choudhry’s daughter and sitting Congress Member of Parliament Shruti Choudhry is up against arch rival Dharambir Singh, Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) and MLA from Sohna constituency in Gurgaon, who has staked his claim on the seat. He has even expressed his keenness for the party ticket from Tosham in the Assembly elections slated for October this year.

The rivalry between Kiran Choudhry and Dharambir is no secret. Even as the mother-daughter duo is extensively touring the constituency, Dharambir is leaving no stone unturned in drumming up support. “I will contest from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat and have made my ambition known to the party top brass in Haryana as well,” he said.

Sources close to him said the CPS is unlikely to shy away from contesting in case he is denied the ticket. There is speculation that he may even quit the Congress and join another party willing to field him from this seat.

On being asked, he said: “As of now, I have asked for a ticket from this seat and cannot say anything else.” The arrival of Dharambir as a rival may upset the mother-daughter’s calculations, especially since he comes from the same district.

On the other hand, AAP’s decision to focus on Haryana after Delhi and the fact that former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal belongs to Siwani in Bhiwani district has come as another challenge. Sources in the Congress maintain that Dharambir can play a spoiler for the Choudhrys.

However, those close to the Choudhrys said the MP is ready to take on Dharambir as a rival. “She defeated Indian National Lok Dal heavyweight Ajay Chautala in the last election. She is game for this challenge. Let the CPS resign and contest. His rally in Bhiwani on March 9 is an attempt to show other rival parties that he has a base in the constituency. He is vying for seats he will never get,” a Choudhry confidant said. He added that he was looking for an excuse to leave the Congress.

Palwal, February 24
The office of the Municipal Council here is powerless these days. The Power Department had disconnected its supply about a month ago due to non-payment of dues.

Sources said the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam had disconnected the power supply about a month ago due to non-payment of dues worth Rs 88 lakh.

Sources said now a diesel generator was meeting the power demand of the civic body.

An official said as soon as the civic body received payments and funds from its sources, the pending bills would be cleared.

Prem Sagar, a member of the council, alleged that cheques for work to contractors were being cleared on a regular basis, the authorities concerned had failed to clear the pending power bills due to vested interests.

panipat, February 24
The Haryana Congress may see organisational changes at some places before the coming parliamentary and Assembly elections. Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar indicated this while talking to The Tribune at the PWD rest house during his maiden visit to Panipat after becoming the Haryana Congress president.—TNS

Panchkula, February 24
Samjhauta blast driver, said to be the key witness in the 2007 blst, is dead. the National Investigation Agency (NIA) told a special court on the first day of the trial that Kiran Dewan was one of the three witnesses and that he was dead.

There were two drivers and the second driver is yet to depose before the court.

Dewan reportedly died a natural death, as told by the officials. It was after he was summoned that the family informed the NIA about his death.

Another two witnesses- Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Ranjit Singh and ASI Mahender Singh- deposed before special court.

Ranjit told the court that he was the one who lodged the FIR of the blast while Mahender was the one who had produced the records of the FIR.

Amritsar, February 24
The demand for a separate gurdwara committee for Haryana is raising its head again ahead of the general election. Some Sikh organisations have resumed the agitation on the issue and a group plans to contest the polls with this as one of its major issues.

Hanging fire for over a decade, the issue had been the limelight during the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee elections in September 2011, when a few Sikh outfits contested the poll with this demand on the agenda and lost.

The Congress had included the demand in its manifesto during Assembly elections.

Led by ad hoc Haryana SGPC president Jagdish Singh Jhinda, a group of activists are staging a dharna outside Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar’s residence in Sirsa. Jhinda said they had taken to the streets, making it a do-or-die battle.

The Haryana Government had set up a high-level committee to look into the demand, but nothing had come out of it. “Disappointed with their response, we have taken it upon ourselves to ensure that the battle reaches its logical conclusion,” he said.

He said Jarnail Singh Brar of Ellenabad had been staging an indefinite fast outside Tanwar’s residence. He said he had a word with Haryana Congress leaders and they had assured him that their demand would be met.

Meanwhile, Deedar Singh Nalvi, who had parted ways with Jhinda, said their efforts had drawn a blank.

He said there was no hope from the Congress and Sikhs should boycott the Congress in the general election.

He said he had formed the Haryana Jan Shakti Party. He said they would field candidates from Kurukshetra and Sirsa, indicating that a separate gurdwara committee might be an issue.

He said they would contest 12 seats during the Assembly elections.

Jind, February 24
The Haryana Government may lose crores of actual payment receipts (APRs) of pension distributed under various heads in Jind district if timely action is not taken.

The records pertaining to lakhs of APRs has been lying unprotected outside of the office of the District Social Welfare and Justice Officer, Jind, near the bus stand here.

The records lie stacked outside the rooms of DWJO Saroj Devi, section officer Mukesh K Pruthi and district investigator of the department Davinder Lather.

“It has been lying here for many days. We have been putting all papers in sequence and also separating the photocopies and original,” said Raj Kumar, accountant of the department. But when asked whether it was legally valid to place such confidential documents in the public domain, he failed to give any satisfactory reply.

Scrutiny of the APRs shows that in total, the department has jeopardised the record of more than 15 years.

The APRs of Ladhar, Palwan, Dhani Ramgarh, Narwana block, Julani, Pondara, Amarheri, Rajpura, Pokar Kheri, Gulkani, Dhanda Kheri, Govind Pura, Bishanpura, Ram Rai and almost all areas of Jind district distributed under various heads like widow, handicapped and old age have been lying in the open. Many bundles have got damaged to such an extent that even the names of the beneficiaries are not visible.

In many papers, the figures of the paid amount are missing. Many files are without main papers, which cause suspicion of deliberate attempts by officers to remove confidential record to cover up a major scam of wrong payments of pension.

“It has been lying here as we are binding all this record. Some record may have been damaged, but we are trying our best to control the situation,” said Davinder Lather, investigator of the department. 

Mahendragarh, February 24
A woman and her family members at Nangal Kalia village here are facing a social boycott. Reason: she “sells liquor” and “vitiates the peaceful atmosphere of the village”.

The panchayat presided over by sarpanch Dharmender Yadav imposed the unusual diktat here yesterday. Not only this, they have also decided to take stern action against those found maintaining any relation with the family.

They said the involvement of the woman and her family in the illegal trade and other unlawful activities was not only vitiating the peaceful atmosphere of the village, but was also having a bad influence on the youths here.

“The family is perpetrating unsocial activities, due to which several people have started shifting to other places, while several others are mulling over the same option,” the villagers at the meeting said. Thereafter, the panchayat decided to socially boycott the woman and her kin for their alleged “misdeed”.

Confirming the order, Dharmender Yadav, the sarpanch, said: “Villagers are worried owing to her unlawful activities and want to get rid of her and her family members. This is the foremost reason which forced the panchayat to take such a decision.”

He said the decision was taken unanimously and no one would maintain any relation with the family in future.

The panchayat also resolved to mount pressure on the police for cancelling the FIR against several villagers, who were booked for blocking the Narnaul-Kotputali road, damaging pubic property and for creating hurdles in performing pubic duty on January 6.

Accusing the police of being hand-in-glove with the family, the villagers also threatened to boycott the forthcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in case the police failed to cancel the FIR. 

Sonepat, February 24
BPS Women University, Khanpur Kalan, has given special mercy chance to students enroled in the under graduate (UG), post graduate (PG) and professional courses (PC) for reappearing.

The university controller of examination, Dr RC Notiyal, said the mercy chance had been given to those students who could not avail the allotted chances earlier.

The students registered in 2006 and in later academic sessions were eligible to apply and the last date for submitting the application forms was March 10.

Sirsa, February 24
The INLD has received 261 applications for eight parliamentary constituencies in Haryana while none has applied from Bhiwani and Hisar, the two seats senior party leader Ajay Singh Chautala has contested in the past.

The highest 62 applications have been received from Karnal followed by Sirsa where 61 are in the line for the ticket.

Ambala attracted the lowest number of ticket seekers where merely 11 have applied.

As many as 24 have applied for Kurukshetra, 32 for Sonipat, 19 for Gurgaon, 29 for Faridabad and 23 for Rohtak.

A nine-member Lok Sabha Election Committee of the INLD visited all 10 parliamentary constituencies to receive applications and to consult party workers.

Sources said the final call on the candidates would be taken by INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala . 

Karnal, February 24
Pash library built in memory of revolutionary Punjabi writer Avtar Singh Pash two decades ago has been vacated for demolition. The 'shaheed smarak' will be shifted to the new Police Lines, under construction on Kaithal road.

Books and furniture of the library have been shifted to other places. These will later be shifted to Pash library, which will be built at the citizen service centre to come up on police land near Mahatma Gandhi chowk.

As per the government plan for Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College, the hospital road will be widened to 15 metres and the library will be demolished.

Dr Yogesh Sharma, Deputy Medical Superintendent, Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College, said Pash library was being demolished and had been vacated.

Chandigarh, February 24
Though the state government today hosted AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi to brainstorm on farmers’ issues to be included in the 2014 Lok Sabha manifesto, the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government has been dragging its feet on notifying the state’s agriculture policy since September, 2012.

The policy was submitted by the Haryana Kisan Ayog, headed by Dr RS Paroda, a former Director-General of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research(ICAR) to the Hooda Government in September, 2012.

The policy suggested some ideas to accelerate the annual agricultural growth to over 4 per cent.

Diversification of agriculture was the major thrust of the draft policy as it noted that “ the major cropping system, namely the rice-wheat cycle, has resulted in overuse of water, fertilizer, mono-cropping and other natural resource management-related problems.”.

Among the issues touched upon by the policy were the declining total factor productivity, rising cost of production and increasing concern on quality of food, increasing international competition due to globalisation of agriculture, more area under the cereal-based (rice-wheat) cropping system, declining acreage under leguminous crops, degrading soil fertility and emerging threats for state agriculture.

Besides, the draft policy underlined the need for food, nutrition, employment and livelihood security for all and linking farmers to markets for increased income. Sustainable agriculture and environmental security were other issues dwelt at length in the policy.

To achieve over 4 per cent agricultural grown, the draft policy expected the state government to ensure uninterrupted power supply to farmers for a minimum 12 hours. As the power supply to the farm sector is highly-subsided and discoms are in the red, this provision could have held the notification of the policy, which was once brought before the Cabinet for approval, sources said.

A senior government functionary, however, claimed that the agriculture policy would be tabled at the next Cabinet meeting for approval.

Faridabad, February 24
The famous Badkhal lake tourist resort located in the Surajkund area of the district is on the verge of extinction. Gross negligence on the part of the authorities, mismanagement, and continuous degradation of natural resources are some of the reasons responsible for the deplorable condition of the largest lakes of the state.

Located in the sprawling tail end of the picturesque Aravalli hills, the tourist resort came up way back in 1969. There are 32 rooms in its motel but the occupancy rate has sharply gone down. This has not only affected the financial condition of the resort, but has also affected the tourist footfall.

An employee said he had not seen water in the lake for several years. "Illegal and unchecked mining of materials over the past several decades and setting up of water bottling plants in the vicinity has made the situation worse. Now the lake is being used as a wasteland, which only attracts cattle herders,” said Sunder, an employee, who owns a kiosk on the premises.

Beeran, a camel owner who got an annual contract here against the payment of Rs 55,000, is virtually jobless. “I spend nearly 10 hours daily waiting for tourists. Hardly anyone visits this place,” said Beeran, who hails from the nearby Badkhal village.

Department sources said though some of the schemes and projects were taken up, none of them could materialise, thanks to the apathetic attitude of the authorities concerned. “Unless we find a permanent source of water, the lake cannot be revived,” said a senior official of the department.

Jind, February 24
Over 350 assistant linemen of Jind district have been working despite the expiry of their “term sanction”. Even after the deadline of February 6, the Haryana Power Department has failed to renew their contracts.

Some assistant linesmen, on the condition of anonymity, told The Tribune that they had stopped working on overhead power lines and electricity poles in the absence of the approval of senior officers.

“We did not want to take a risk as working over high tension wires is risky and who will be responsible if anything untoward happens as right now, we rendering services without any contract,” they said.

They have been reportedly engaged in maintenance works at the ground level only.

“Though it’s not an official order, we have decided not to climb any pole because if there is any untoward incident, the department can skirt its responsibility in the absence of a contract. It would have said that we are not enrolled in its records as our contracts are not renewed by it,” alleged an an assistant linesman.

He said work had been suffering and the department must have renewed our contracts in advance.

Sources said, the department had hired assistant linesmen on a monthly salary of Rs 7,800 and later, their salaries had been revised to Rs 11,800 per month. The department used to sanction their services bi-annually in the absence of regularisation.

“Their services should be regularised immediately. It is unfortunate the department has failed to sanction (renew) even their temporary services,” said Suresh Khasa, district president, Haryana State Electricity Board Workers’ Union.

When contacted SK Bhardawaj, Superintendent Engineer, Power Department, Jind, he confirmed that the sanction expired on February 6.

“We have written to our seniors for the sanction at the earliest of the services of 350 assistant linemen,” he said.

But when asked that who would be responsible if anything untoward happens, he did not give any satisfactory reply. 

Karnal, February 24
The Himalayan Queen Express (Delhi-Kalka) and the Ekta Express (Kalka-Bhiwani) made a two-minute halt at Nilokehri today.

Local MP Arvind Sharma greeted the passengers at Nilokehri railway station when the train stopped for the first time today.

Nilokheri residentshad been been demanding the stoppage of this train for the past 50 years.

Chandigarh, February 24
The Haryana Government has decided to reempanel five private hospitals for another two years to provide medical facilities to employees, officers and pensioners of the state government and their dependants.

Giving this information, a spokesman for the Health Department said these hospitals were QRG Central Hospital and Research Centre Limited, Faridabad; Lala Harbhagwan Dass Memorial and Prem Hospital, Panipat; Park Hospital, West Delhi-18; Saraswati Mission Hospital, Pehowa, Kurukshetra; and Maan Multi Specialty Hospital; Rohtak.

He said earlier, these hospitals were empanelled for two years and now after reconsidering the matter, their empanelment period had been further extended for another two years which could be renewed further by the government keeping in view the performance and track record of the hospitals.

The period of two years would be determined from December 6, 2013, he said.

He said the rate of reimbursement of medical bills would be according to the rates of PGI Chandigarh and AIIMS, New Delhi, plus 75 per cent of the remaining amount.

All empanelled hospitals would provide treatment to employees during emergency without asking for deposition of the cost of treatment in advance. The patients would pay the dues before discharge from the hospitals. However, they would verify the identity of the employee or his or her dependant to avoid impersonation, he said.

Kurukshetra, February 24
A house on the Jhansa Road was set ablaze at around 2:15 am today. Five persons-- Saroj Devi, Vikas, Sushil, Akhil and Komal-- were in the house when the miscreants set the house on fire. All of them sustained burn injures and were taken to a local hospital. The accused are yet to be identified. 

Doctors said the victims were out of danger. Vikas, a victim, who runs a furniture shop on the ground floor of his house, said he was sleeping in this house, along with his mother, sister and two brothers, when he heard some noise.

Inspector Gulab Singh said a case had been registered in this regard.—TNS

Yamunanagar, February 24
A person committed suicide, while another died in a road mishap in Yamunanagar district. The police said Krishan Lal of Jathlana village committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his house in Jathlana village on Monday morning, when deceased’s sons, Rajbir and Rohit, were out for work, while his wife was at her neighbour’s house.

They said when Krishan Lal’s wife returned at 10 am, she found the room locked from inside. She informed her sons, who broke the door and found their father hanging.

In another incident, Praveen of Bankat village died after his motorcycle was hit by a car near Mahmudpur village while he was returning home from Yamunanagar last night.

Praveen was rushed to the Trauma Centre in Yamunanagar, where he was declared brought dead. After postmortem, the body was handed over to his relatives today.

Surender Singh, ASI, Bilaspur police, said on the complaint of deceased’s brother, Karam Singh, the police have booked the unidentified car driver. 

Kurukshetra, February 24
The body of a youth was found hanging from a tree near Kurukshetra railway station today. GRP officials said the youth was yet to be identified.

Man held for raping minor

The district police have arrested a person for allegedly raping a minor girl. The victim said Sunil, alias Rahul, of Kamalpur village in Karnal district, raped her at his friend's room here. 

Yamunanagar, February 24
The police have booked four persons for allegedly developing colonies without obtaining licence from the Director, Town and Country Planning,Haryana.

In his complaint to the City Police, Jagadhri, Anil Narwal, the District Town Planner, Yamunanagar, said Parma Devi, Norangvati, Jagbir and Tarsem Lal, all from Bhagwangarh village, were developing colonies illegally at their village and were selling plots to people.

Sub-inspector Joginder Singh, said four persons had been booked under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975. He said efforts were on to arrest them.—OC