Chandigarh, March 27
With less than a fortnight to go for polling in Haryana, it will be rally time as top guns of the Congress and the BJP descend to campaign for their respective parties.

The BJPs prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, will be the first big leader to open the rally account in the state where nine of the 10 parliamentary seats are in the Congress kitty. He will address a rally in Gohana on March 29 and seek votes for Sonepat candidate Ramesh Kaushik along with Karnal and Rohtak candidates Ashwini Kumar and OP Dhankar, respectively, who will share the dais.

The sources in the BJP say party’s national president Rajnath Singh will address a rally on April 4, while senior leader Sushma Swaraj will be coming to the state on April 5. While their schedule stands confirmed, the party is yet to identify where they will address rallies since the effort is to cover the entire state. Swaraj is expected to address a rally in Jind.

Meanwhile, the Congress, too, will hold its first big rally on March 31 when Congress president Sonia Gandhi will campaign for the party candidates.

She will be addressing a programme in Nuh which falls in the Gurgaon parliamentary seat. This contest assumes significance since the party candidate Rao Dharampal, a sitting MLA, is pitted against former Congressman-turned-BJP leader Rao Inderjeet and Aam Aadmi Party’s Yogendra Yadav. The same day, she will address another rally in Panipat.

Sources say though no programme has been finalised for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will campaign for state unit chief Ashok Tanwar, a sitting MP contesting from Sirsa. He will address a rally in Sirsa on April 6. In the 2009 parliamentary elections as well, Rahul had addressed his first-ever rally in Haryana in Sirsa and it was for Tanwar, considered close to the leader.

The Congress vice-president will also address a rally on the same day in Sonepat’s Rai, considered a stronghold of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Sources say the candidates of adjoining constituencies will also be called in for the rally to ensure that the senior leaders can seek votes for all of them.

While Hooda is travelling through the state to campaign in all 10 seats, AAP leader and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has already organised a roadshow for party candidates in a few constituencies.

The Indian National Lok Dal, being a regional party, is relying on senior leader and MLA Abhay Chautala and state unit chief Ashok Arora to woo the voters. The Haryana Janhit Congress, with two seats in its kitty, is banking on the leaders of its alliance partner, the BJP, to address a rally since the party headed by Kuldeep Bishnoi does not have any big names of its own.

Ambala, March 27
The battle of ballot that used to take place on roads and streets of the Ambala parliamentary constituency has moved to dhabas and other eating joints. The only activity one sees is people discussing the emerging scenario over "chai". Unlike in the days of yore, the constituency is totally devoid of all traditional style of campaigning. In the absence of any aggressive campaigning, voters are confused and not sure yet about the way they want to go.

"We put our trust in Kumari Selja, but she remained embroiled in a duel with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and finally chose a way out and opted for a Rajya Sabha nomination to avoid a contest," said Manohar Singh while relishing "paranthas" at the famous Puran Singh's Dhaba in Ambala Cantonment. But his friend Venod differs and while sipping tea says, "The agenda is clear, this time it is going to be a vote for change".

Opinions differ even within close groups, but at the same time, it is obvious that all the work done by Ambala City MLA Venod Sharma will not benefit the Congress as he himself has quit the party. As one gets onto the Canal Road from the National Highway-1, there is a clear contrast between the concrete by-lanes here from those in other constituencies. At the same time, Venod is unable to transfer his votes to anyone else. So it’s an equal fight with each voter forming his independent opinion.

There is a complete lack of enthusiasm among those seeking votes and those who would vote. "We are concerned with inflation and corruption, but none of the parties give any hope of curbing either," says Kunadal Lal, who runs a grocery store close to the Ambala Cantt bus stand. He makes his point about lack of interest by stating that none has come to seek votes yet. "Perhaps, we will try someone with a different background," he adds without revealing his mind.

On the outskirts of the city, too, there is no sign of any campaigning. Be it villages like Bollana or Naggal on the Hisar Road or Aggarsein Chowk in the city, life carries on as normal with road blocks and unregulated traffic. On nearly 47-km-long stretch from Ambala to Pehowa, only one vehicle with a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) flag was seen on the road.

Irrigation water is a major issue at places like Jansui headworks at Segti, the last village in the Ambala parliamentary segment before the road enters the Kurukshetra parliamentary constituency. Here, the Narwana Branch and the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal run side by side, one almost overflowing, while the other SYL carrying scant water that has over flown from the Narwana Branch. But voters have received no assurance from anyone about redressing their problems, leaving people to decide on their own without any cajoling from the candidates.

Ajay Pal, who runs a small fruit shop close to the headworks of this last village in Ambala, says a lot of work has been done in the constituency. “But it is also a fact that a lot of money has been made by people involved in executing the projects. As a result, the work is of poor standard and the money has been wasted,” he says. He points to a drain built at a cost of Rs 7.5 lakh to take out water from the local Government Primary School to the nearby canal. But the wrong elevation of the drain has not rid the school of water accumulation, making life of the students miserable.

Sirsa, March 27
Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Haryana will get an opportunity to cast their votes with dignity and in a hindrance-free environment this time.

The Commissioner, Disabilities, Haryana, Shashi Bharat Bhushan has written to all Deputy Commissioners of Haryana asking them to provide ramps and hindrance-free environment to PWDs so that they were not deprived of their right to franchise.

“Section 46 of the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, provides for non-discrimination in the built atmosphere,” said the communication of the Commissioner sent to the DCs.

The section makes it incumbent upon the government to provide ramps in public buildings, adaptation of toilets for wheel chair users etc for the PWDs, he said.

Welcoming the orders, Kavita Mehta, a differently-abled school lecturer posted in Kanwarpura village of Sirsa said this would empower people like her to cast their votes with dignity.

She suggested that wheelchairs should also be made available at the polling booths so that people like her could exercise their voting right easily.

“Many PWDs do not cast their votes for the difficulties they have to face. I, however, always cast my vote though for this, my family members have to carry my wheelchair with them,” Kavita said.

Geeta Kathuria, who runs Disha, a centre for vocational training and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities, said it was ironical that the government had not thought in this direction till now.

Stressing the need to do more than just provide ramps, Geeta said the government must realise that the PWDs too had a right to vote and take up their issues with those contesting the polls.

“Owing to the indifference of the authorities, most of the PWDs fail to cast their votes. Only those whose families have the resources to take them to polling booths on vehicles can cast their votes,” she added.

Kathuria said persons with some mental disabilities like cerebral palsy, were kept completely out of the process, though they too had the voting right and the knowledge of their surroundings.

Anshaj Singh, Returning Officer for Sirsa parliamentary seat, said provisions for ramps would be made at all polling booths coming under his constituency.

“I have directed officials to prepare temporary ramps with soil where there were no ramps in the polling booths,” he added.

He, however, said the provision for wheelchairs is made only at booths which are on the first or the upper floors and the PWDs have to use lifts to reach there.

“Since there is no such polling booth in Sirsa, the provision for wheelchairs have not been made,” Anshaj Singh said.

Sirsa, March 27
Avantika Maken Tanwar, wife of Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief Ashok Tanwar, has landed herself in a soup by her controversial utterances during poll campaign for her husband at Surtia village, where she allegedly promised arms licences to villagers after the polls.

The police have made a daily diary entry (DDE) under Section 171-B of the IPC against Avantika.

As per a news report published in a vernacular daily, Avantika had allegedly told the villagers that their works were delayed because the earlier Deputy Commissioner had an obstinate approach.

"I got him transferred and now, the new DC is a "timid" person and it will not be difficult to get their works done after the polls," Avantika was quoted to have said at Surtia village.

Rohtak, March 27
A multi-pronged strategy is being employed by the local administrative-cum-electoral authorities to ensure free, fair and peaceful polling across Rohtak parliamentary segment during the Lok Sabha elections.

Paramilitary forces will be deployed at the sensitive and hypersensitive polling stations spread across Rohtak and Jhajjar districts, apart from the Kosli Assembly segment. Also, CCTV surveillance, videography and micro-observers will help ensure smooth polling process at such booths.

Addressing a joint press meeting here today, Rohtak Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Electoral Officer Dr Amit Agarwal and Jhajjar Deputy Commissioner-cum-DEO Chander Shekhar said a three-phased training programme for the government officials deployed on election duties would also commence soon.

Exhorting the employees to report for their poll duties sincerely, Dr Amit Agarwal warned of strict disciplinary action against employees trying to avoid election duty on untrue grounds.

Dr Agarwal and Chander Shekhar also warned the candidates and their supporters against making any attempt to use muscle or money power, which could attract strict action.

The DEOs advised the representatives of all political parties and aspirants for the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat to hand over their worry list to the local administration and stay assured that it would be taken care of.

Addressing a meeting of candidates, their agents and party representatives, Central Election Commission-appointed Poll Observer Dr A J V Prasad advised them to adhere to the model code of conduct.

As per a statement issued by the district authorities, any person having a poll-related grievance or complaint could meet the electoral observer at VIP Room No 9 of the local Canal Rest House between and 11 am and 12 noon. The poll observer can also be reached on his cell no 9416209147.

Karnal/Sonepat March 27
Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader and star campaigner Abhay Singh Chautala today attacked the Congress party and called it a double-headed snake that repeatedly bites the innocent people of India.

He accused Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for not fulfilling the commitments made in the Assembly election. Abhay addressed a rally organised at Tarori in favour of the party candidate from Karnal Jaswinder Singh Sandhu. He urged the people of Nilokehri assembly to ensure the INLD candidate’s victory.

He claimed that the election manifesto of the Congress was trickery and it was an insult to the people.

Accusing the Congress leaders of betraying the innocent public of the state, Chautala alleged that during Hooda’s regime of 10 years, not only the law and order situation worsened, but also price rise and unemployment touched new heights.

He also attacked Congress candidate Arvind Sharma and the BJP candidate Ashwini Kumar Chopra.

Party’s president Ashok Arora also accused the state government and appealed the gathering to vote for the INLD candidate Sandhu to strengthen the party.

The party will be mobilising the workers at the grass-roots level for ensuring victory in the next Lok Sabha elections in the state, he added.

Jaswinder Singh Sandhu claimed that the main aim of the INLD was to win all 10 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana.

Meanwhile, at a Sonepat rally, Chautala said, “Congress jhooth aur loot ki rajniti karti hai. 16 May ko iska safaya ho jayega (Congress plays the politics of falsehood and loot. It will be wiped out on May 16).

Chautala was addressing an election meeting at Kharkhoda today in support of Padam Singh Dahiya, party candidate from Sonepat parliamentary constituency.

He alleged that the Congress-led UPA government looted the country during the last ten years and the people had made up their minds not to give another chance to the Congress.

He alleged that Congress had used CBI for terrorising and implicating opposition leaders such as Om Prakash Chautala, Ajay Singh Chautala, and others in false cases.

The people were fully aware of such selfish and politically motivated designs of the Congress and would respond on the polling day against Congress and its allies, Chautala added.

He questioned, “How will Narender Modi become the Prime Minister when the tickets are sold and Congressmen had been fielded as BJP candidates? Haryana people are vigilant enough to judge such tactics and have made up their mind to vote for INLD in Haryana.”

The state president Ashok Arora, national spokesman Dr KC Bangar, Padam Singh Dahiya and other senior leaders also addressed the meeting.

Kurukshetra, March 27
Haryana Jan Shakti Party led by Didar Singh Nalwi is the newest ally partner of the BJP in Haryana.

Nalwi made the formal announcement in the presence of BJP in charge, Haryana affairs, Jagdish Mukhi, and State BJP chief Ram Bilas Sharma, here today.

Jagdish Mukhi said, “BJP is the leading party in Haryana currently and we will win all the 10 seats.”

About the allegations levelled by the other parties that the BJP had sold its ticket, Mukhi said, “All the allegations are baseless and the party has tried to give representation to all the communities in the state.”

Ram Bilas said, “The BJP-HJC alliance was strong enough to win all the seats and now the inclusion of HJSP in the alliance had strengthened the party’s base in the region. Our candidates are strong enough and the Modi wave will benefit us in the state.”

Didar Singh Nalwi said, “The party has extended its unconditional support to the Bhartiya Janta Party for the Lok Sabha elections while it will get its due representation share in the Assembly elections in Haryana”.

BJP and Kuldeep Bishnoi-led Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) have been alliance partners in Haryana for the last three years.

On the other hand, HSGPC president Jagdish Singh Jhinda today ended the speculations of extending support to the Indian National Lok Dal for the Lok Sabha elections and said, “The Haryana Sikh Gurudawara Prabandhak Committee would not support any party in the elections as all the parties have always exploited us in the name of HSGPC. The committee will appeal the people to not to vote for the Congress as it has betrayed us.”

Jhinda was here in the Dera Kar Seva, Kurukshetra with his supporters.

Ambala, March 27
Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Balbir Punj said the Congress in its manifesto had failed to highlight the issues of a common man.

Talking to mediapersons here today he said the Congress in its last manifesto had promised to check the price rise and corruption within 100 days after coming to power, but it failed poorly. He said the promises made in the current manifesto were only 'bogus'.

When askedwhether BJP would take up the matter with Prakash Singh Badal that some of the senior Akali Dal leaders, including Sukhbir Badal, were campaigning for INLD candidates in Haryana, he said the BJP had no political alliance with Akali Dal in Haryana and it was free to support any party.

He said the workers of BJP-HJC would work for the alliance candidates and win all the 10 seats in Haryana. 

Kurukshetra, March 27
The Aam Aadmi Party supporters today took out a road show in support of Balwinder Kaur here today. Surender Singh, AAP MLA from Delhi sought support for her. He said corruption was rampant in Haryana as “money and connections” played an important role in deciding zgovernment jobs.

AAP candidate Balwinder Kaur and Bharaitya Kissan Union, Tikait group president, Gurnam Singh Charuni also sought support and appealed the people to vote for the party.

Pipli Road, Mirzapur, Pabnawa, Daand, Pundri and Kalayat were the stopovers of the road show. — TNS

Karnal, March 27
BJP candidate from Karnal Ashwini Kumar Chopra and a Punjab Kesri, Delhi, editor Vijay Kumar have been issued notices by Returning Officer Balraj Singh.

The returning officer said news items being published in the said newspaper were clear cut cases of paid news.

In the report, the committee members reported that the news items were politically advertorial in nature, thereby misleading the general public, affecting and influencing the behaviour of voters and yielding benefit to particular candidate. — TNS

Bahadurgarh (Jhajjar), March 27
Local Congress leaders found themselves in a tight spot when residents of Paahsor village not only slammed the Congress government for not awarding them bonus against their land acquired for the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), but also threatened to boycott the party in the Lok Sabha polls to register their protest.

Though the Congressmen tried to persuade the angry villagers by making assurances that all their grievances would be redressed on priority basis after the polls, but the villagers remained adamant on their stand.

The villagers told the media persons that they had run from pillar to post for getting 20 per cent bonus on price of their land acquired, but no one paid any heed towards it.

“We had also gone to Delhi and Chandigarh many a times to meet Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for getting our dues, but he too did not give us any satisfactory response that caused acute resentment among the villagers,” said Dharam Singh and Jai Bhagwan, farmers from the village.

They said as many as 85 acres of the village were acquired for setting up a power plant for SEZ. As per the conditions laid at the time of acquirement, the landowners were to be given 20 per cent of the land’s price as bonus but it had not been awarded yet, the villagers added.

Kaithal, March 27
Residents of Daban Kheri village of Guhla sub-division in Kaithal district, who had announced on Wednesday to boycott the Lok Sabha elections, agreed to participate in the polling process today on an assurance given by officials of the civil administration and PWD that their road would be repaired.

Guhla SDM Ashok Bansal called the Subdivisional Engineers (SDE), PWD, to his office and asked him to address the grievances of the villagers. This was done in the presence of the sarpanch and other villagers. The SDE assured to take prompt action on this demand following which the villagers withdrew the poll boycott call.

The villagers had decided to boycott the polls to express their resentment against the condition of the road connecting their village with Har Chandpura village of Punjab, which was constructed about four months ago, but the road had caved in at a number of places.

On Sunday, the agitated villagers seized a road roller and other machinery belonging to the contractor and forced his labourers to leave the place.

Chandigarh, March 27
The Haryana Government’s move to impose VAT on developers engaged in sale of flats, apartments and dwelling units has come under the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s scanner.

Karnal-based CHD Developers Limited has filed a petition challenging the provisions of the Haryana VAT Act, 2003, the rules framed under the Act and the notices issued to the developers “in so far as they seek to charge VAT”.

Taking up the matter, the Division Bench of Justice AK Mittal and Justice Anita Chaudhary has issued notice of motion to the state. The case will now come up for further hearing on April 23. The Bench has also stayed the finalisation of the assessment by the assessing authority till the next date of hearing.

The developer through counsels Sandeep Goyal and Puneet Aggarwal argued that the value of land was to be included while computing the tax on building contracts, though it was barred by the Constitution.

They argued as per the Act the value of labour and services were to be excluded from the total value of contract, meaning that the value of the land has been included contrary to the Supreme Court judgement in the case of Larsen and Toubro delivered recently.

Ambala, March 27
Senior Akali leader of Haryana Kartar Singh Takkar (85) died after a brief illness this morning. He remained member of the SGPC for 25 years and was also associated with the Shiromani Akali Dal. Takkar was also associated with education and religious institutions.

Spokesman of Haryana Akali Dal Sant Singh Kandhari and several Akali leaders mourned the Takka’s death.

BJP leader Ratan Lal Kataria, INLD leader Kusum Sherwal, Congress leader Raj Kumar Balmiki and BSP leader Kapoor Singh expressed grief over the death of senior Akali leader.

Hisar, March 27
The families of four Dalit girls who were abducted and sexually assaulted by five youths of Bhagana village in the district have started a dharna at the Mini-Secretariat here demanding arrest of all the accused involved in the case.

The families alleged that certain villagers belonging to upper caste had been trying to pressurise them and they were feeling threatened in the village. They demanded that all the accused be arrested and adequate security arrangements be made in the village so that they can return to their houses.

Accompanied by a section of Bhagana residents who were continuing with their dharna at the mini secretariat since several months after a row between Dalits and upper caste surfaced on various issues, kin of a victim girl said "We have left the village and arrived here to seek justice. The police have arrested only two of the accused so far and the remaining are roaming free. There is a group of youngsters who used to roam around in the village. The same group seemed to be involved in this incident".

When asked whether there had been any incident of issuing threat or eve teasing with the girls, he denied it. "We have been living in peace in the village, though the girls dropped out of school after the tension between our people and the upper caste", he said. One of the victim girls was a school student while three others had dropped out, he added.

Meanwhile, village sarpanch Rakesh Panghal denied any kind of tension or threat to any of the families of the victims.

"A village panch, accompanied by family members of the girls, approached me on Monday morning to inform me about disappearance of the girls. I asked them to immediately lodge a complaint with the police and also joined them in their search. Finally, we managed to find their location near Bathinda. We reached there and located the girls near the railway station".

Police spokesperson Harish Bhardwaj said the arrested accused were produced in court today which remanded them to three days police custody. "The remaining accused too would be nabbed soon", he said.