Kurukshetra, April 12
Though late, farmers have heaved a sigh of relief as agencies have finally started wheat procurement for the Rabi marketing season.

The farmers had been waiting in markets with their produce since the mid of this week, but the procurement agencies were out as the officials were busy with the election duties.

Officially, April 1 marks the beginning of the rabi season when the government agencies begin procuring wheat for buffer stocks, but due to prolonged cold conditions that caused delay in ripening of the crop and the Lok Sabha elections, the procurement did not begin on time, said market experts.

“Wheat procurement has begun. Some discolouration and damage has been observed, but the overall quality of the produce is satisfactory,” says Ravinder Malik, District Food and Supplies Controller, Kurukshetra.

The farmers were advised to bring their produce to the market after proper cleaning and drying in accordance with the norms set by the government. As per the norms, the moisture content of the produce should be maintained between 12 and 14 per cent, but the current moisture content is around 15-16 per cent due to which some stocks remained unsold. The agencies would procure them later when the moisture content would be as per the norms, he added.

Agencies entered the market on Friday afternoon and procured more than 1,450 quintals wheat from Thanesar and Pipli grain markets.

“Wheat has started arriving in mandis, but we have to wait a little more for the heavy inflow. Arrivals are expected to touch the one-lakhk bags a day mark within next 3-4 days,” said Subhash Kumar, a trader.

No private purchase has taken place and the entire stock was procured by government-owned agencies on the Minimum Support Price which is Rs 1,400 for the current season.

Lifting has always been a problem and situation is likely to persist even this year. Fortunately, availability of labour has improved this time and cleaning and packing would be done in time, said Subhash.

Government procurement agencies such as Food and Supplies Department, HAFED, CONFED, Food Corporation of India, Haryana Warehousing Corporation and Haryana Agro Industries Corporation had been allotted their procurement centres and days.

Balraj Singh, a farmer of Jhirvadi village, who reached the new grain market terminal, Thanesar, said, "Wheat has turned golden yellow and is matured enough for harvesting. The quality and production is better than the last year.”

Above 12,000 quintals were procured by the Haryana Agro, Hafed and the Food and Supply Department from the Thanesar mandi while around 2,000 quintals were procured by Haryana Agro from the Pipli mandi.

Chandigarh, April 12
The Sirsa Lok Sabha constituency registered the highest voter turnout at 77.11 per cent followed by Hisar and Kurukshetra with 76.52 per cent and 76.05 per cent, respectively, said Haryana Chief Electoral Officer Shrikant Walgad here today. During the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the highest polling of 75.29 per cent was registered by the Kurukshetra constituency followed by Sirsa with 75.01 per cent and Bhiwani-Mahendergarh with 72.53 per cent.

This time, Ambala registered 72.34 per cent, Gurgaon 72.14 per cent, Karnal 71.07 per cent, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh 71.03 per cent, Sonepat 69.87 per cent, Rohtak 67.71 per cent and Faridabad 65.18 per cent polling.

The total voting percentage is 71.86 for the 10 Lok Sabha seats held on April 10 against 67.94 per cent in 2009 and the total percentage of women voters was 70 against 66.17 per cent in 2009.

Walgad said the Kalanwali Assembly constituency recorded the highest polling with 80.88 per cent followed by Ellenabad and Rania with 80.76 per cent and 80.51 per cent, respectively.

This time, women in the Sirsa constituency have recorded the highest polling with 75.75 per cent whereas Hisar and Kurukshetra were at second and third place with 75.14 per cent and 75.04 per cent, respectively. In 2009, the highest polling by women was recorded in Kurukshetra with 74.56 per cent; Sirsa came second with 74.26 per cent and Bhiwani-Mahendergarh third with 72.23 per cent.

He said this time, 70.7 per cent women cast their votes in the Ambala constituency, 69.36 per cent in Gurgaon, 68.42 per cent in Karnal, 69.81 per cent in Bhiwani-Mahendergarh, 68.18 per cent in Sonepat, 65.65 per cent in Rohtak, and 62.36 per cent in Faridabad.

The Rania Assembly constituency registered the highest 79.59 per cent polling by women voters followed by Kalanwali and Ellenabad with 79.55 per cent and 79.46 per cent, respectively.

Hisar, April 12
The war of words between political parties has refused to die down even as the fate of candidates has been sealed in the EVMs after polling in the Hisar parliamentary constituency.

A day after Congress nominee Sampat Singh alleged that his election was "hijacked by two big empires", referring to the clans of the Chautalas and Bhajan Lal, and called them "feudal lords" who indulged in the politics of casteism, INLD candidate Dushyant Chautala said the Congress leader had made such statement out of frustration as he had realised that he would face defeat in the elections.

“Sampat had worked with Chaudhary Devi Lal for 32 years to achieve a position in politics. But he stabbed the Devi Lal family in the back and compromised with the interests of the common man just to appease the Congress high command,” said Dushyant, accusing him of corruption.

“I have made best efforts to rid the politics of caste polarisation. The country had to face the consequences of religious clashes in 1947. The caste cauldron can prove disastrous for society if stop divisive forces are not stopped on time,” Sampat told The Tribune.

Meanwhile, infighting in the Congress seems to be intensifying, with different factions accusing some leaders of indulging in sabotage.

Though Sampat maintained that there seemed to be sabotage to some extent, he was more hurt by the politics of casteism. “I am not going to complaint to the party about sabotage and factionalism, but if the party initiates an inquiry on the allegations, I will cooperate,” he added.

Hisar, April 12
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, who will take on Narendra Modi in Varanasi, is set to face a challenge from his own party as AAP Haryana state committee member Sanjay Brahamchari has decided to file nomination from “the battleground” Varanasi.

Talking to The Tribune over phone today, Brahamchari, a law graduate from Ranchi University, said he had decided to contest against Kejriwal as he had deviated from fighting against corruption.

“His (Kejriwal) fight is a sham as he has taken several wrong and misleading decisions,” alleged Brahamchari. Hailing from Bawal village of Mahendergarh district, Brahamchari is the sarpanch of his village and had also aspired for the AAP ticket from the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh segment. Brahamchari had won the election of sarpanch on the plank of Swaraj which was propounded by Kejriwal in the last panchayat elections.

"I was the first public representative to get mandate of the people to implement the ‘swaraj’ concept in the decision making process. But after forming a political outfit and gaining power in Delhi, Kejriwal has deviated from his path. I have several questions for him which I would raise while contesting from Varanasi,” he said.

He said Kejriwal’s style of decision making had turned out to be a farce as people were feeling cheated due to his acts. He said he would raise issues against Kejriwal and Modi during his campaign and would file nomination on April 17.

Sirsa, April 12
With polling for the parliamentary elections over in Haryana, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has decided to keep its workers in the poll mode for the Assembly elections.

The INLD has called a meeting of its executive committee on April 15 in Delhi. The party will assign duties for the April 30 Punjab poll in Punjab and plan a strategy for the upcoming Assembly polls in Haryana.

On April 8 during a rally of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at Sirsa, Abhay Singh Chautala had said party workers would perform duties in Punjab for the SAD candidates post the LS poll in Haryana.

Talking to The Tribune today, Abhay claimed his party would win all 10 seats in the state. Sources in the INLD said the party leadership was expecting to win Sirsa and Hisar seats comfortably and had high expectations from other segments such as Bhiwani, Gurgaon, Sonepat and Kurukshetra.

The party leadership is banking on its “social engineering” on the last four seats, where the INLD is of the view that caste equations can go in its favour.

Expressing satisfaction at the role played by party workers during the LS poll, Abhay Singh Chautala claimed that the Congress and the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) (referred as ‘B’ team of the Congress by him) would be wiped out after the poll.

He said even his party’s critics believe that the INLD would emerge as the party with the highest number of seats in Haryana after the results.

Abhay Singh and state INLD chief Ashok Arora said a meeting of the state executive committee of the INLD would be held at 18 Janpath, New Delhi, on April 15 to discuss its performance in the parliamentary elections and plan strategy for the upcoming Assembly poll.

All MLAs, ex-MLAs, members of the state executive of the INLD, district and assembly segment level presidents and heads of various cells of the party will attend the meeting.

The workers who are assigned duties in Punjab will move there after the meeting. The party is likely to implement its strategy for the Assembly elections soon after the wheat harvesting season.

The INLD’s jailed supremo Om Prakash Chautala often said about his party that its armies never returned to the barracks.

Rohtak, April 12
The toll-tax regime at Makdauli village on the Rohtak-Panipat road, which was a bone of contention between the local residents and the authorities, triggered fresh resentment by increasing the toll charges.

The residents and commuters maintain that increasing the already exorbitant toll charges by Rs 5 to Rs 55 shortly after the polling process amounted to cheating and breach of faith.

Now, the commuters travelling in light vehicle such as car/jeep etc are required to shell out as many as Rs 110 at the Makdauli toll-barrier for a one-way journey and Rs 165 for a return journey within 24 hours.

“The toll as well as the state authorities had assured us that our demand to scale down the toll rates would be sympathetically considered after the elections. However, an increase in the toll rates soon after the conclusion of voting indicates their anti-people and mala fide intentions,” said Raj Singh, a resident of a nearby village.

Activists of AAP also staged a demonstration at the Makdauli toll plaza and raised slogans against the move.

Local AAP leader Naveen Jaihind maintained that increasing the toll charges soon after the elections underlined the indifferent and callous approach of the state authorities.

“The people have seen through the intention of the state leadership and will teach them a lesson in the upcoming Assembly elections,” he asserted.

The toll-plaza management has been facing protests by the local residents and commuters against the imposition of hefty toll-tax ever since the toll operations commenced.

Due to stiff opposition from the residents, the authorities had offered concessional monthly passes to the regular commuters on the route, though the protest continued even after that.

The INLD, BJP and AAP had decried the imposition of hefty toll-tax and opposed the toll regime.

The protest movement against the imposition of exorbitant toll-tax had been supported by sarpanches, panchayat members and other prominent residents of the nearby villages and adjoining areas.

However, adding insult to injury, the authorities’ move to hike the toll charges is likely to trigger fresh protests.

Sirsa, April 12
‘Satta’ bazaar, a betting syndicate, is giving five seats to the BJP, two to the INLD and one to the Congress in Haryana that went to the poll on Thursday.

The ‘satta’ bazaar gives Faridabad, Gurgaon, Bhiwani, Karnal and Ambala seats to the BJP, Sirsa and Hisar to the INLD and only the Rohtak parliamentary seat to the Congress, where Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s son Deepender Singh Hooda is contesting from the ruling party.

The Sonepat and Kurukshetra seats are being considered locked in triangular contests and the ‘satta’ market is avoiding risking money on these seats.

With fate of all candidates who contested the parliamentary elections in Haryana sealed with the EVMs till May 16, the predictions of the ‘satta’ bazaar, an illicit trade of betting, has assumed importance for those who debate possible electoral results in gossips.

A leading ‘satta’ king from the town said the rate of INLD nominee from the Sirsa parliamentary seat Charanjit Singh Rori was 22 paisa to 26 paisa in the ‘satta’ market.

In ‘satta’ parlance, the lower the rates of a candidate, the brighter his chances of their victory.

These rates indicate that punters give Rori very bright prospects of victory from the Sirsa parliamentary seat.

This means if one wants to bet on Rori’s victory, the ‘satta’ bazaar will give him Rs 22,000 for every Rs 1 lakh put on the betting by him.

On the contrary, if one is to bet on Rori’s loss in the Sirsa electoral battle, the market will give him Rs 1 lakh for every Rs 26,000 invested by him on his bet.

Similarly in Hisar, the ‘satta’ market is predicting victory for Dushyant Singh Chautala of the INLD.

The bazaar gives BJP’s Rao Inderjit Singh from Gurgaon, Krishan Pal Gujjar from Faridabad, Ashwani Kumar Chopra from Karnal and Rattan Lal Kataria from Ambala and also Congress’ Deepender Singh Hooda from Rohtak very bright chances of victory.

It gives the rates of 10 paisa each to Rao Inderjit Singh, Deepender Singh Hooda and Ashwani Kumar Chopra, while it has set 15 paisa for Krishan Pal Gujjar.

For Rattan Lal Kataria, the bazaar does not have any ‘bhav’ (rate), because the market treats his victory a foregone conclusion.

The ‘satta’ market was still unsure of the possible results at Kurukshetra and Sonepat and considered triangular fights between the Congress, BJP and INLD at these two seats.

"Many candidates tend to manipulate ‘satta’ rates in their favour during campaign to create a ‘hawa’ (wave) in their favour,” said the 'satta' king.

A candidate from Haryana who switched loyalties and got a ticket from another political party this time is said to have spent Rs 20 crore on ‘satta’ to maintain suitable ‘bhav’ for himself during the entire campaign.

Sirsa/Fatehabad, April 12
Hundreds of litigations were settled with the mutual consent of opposing parties at the mega lok adalats held in Sirsa and Fatehabad districts today.

As many as 814 cases were settled in lok adalats held in Sirsa district courts, 175 in Fatehabad district courts, 166 in sub-divisional courts in Tohana in Fatehabad district, and 340 and 155 in Ellenabad and Dabwali sub-divisional courts in Sirsa, respectively, today.

Akshdeep Mahajan, Chief Judicial Magistrate (Legal Services Authority), at Sirsa said under the National Lok Adalat that began on April 1, the district courts in Sirsa and sub-divisional courts in Ellenabad and Dabwali had already settled 273, 38 and 67 cases, respectively, till yesterday.

Today, various courts of the district took up 1,925 cases in the lok adalats and settled 1,309 of them.

District and Sessions Judge SC Goyal said at Fatehabad, 256 cases were settled by various courts during National Lok Adalat from April 1 to 11, while 175 cases were settled today.

He said the courts took up 584 cases in today’s adalats.

In Tohana, sub-divisional judicial magistrate Sunil Jindal and civil judge Amit Sihag took up 293 litigations and settled 166 out of these.

Sonepat: As many as 905 cases of different nature were settled on Saturday in a mega lok adalat at Sonepat, Gohana and Gannaur judicial complexes under the aegis of the District Legal Services Authority (DSLA).

Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Harshali Chowdhary said 1,622 cases were taken up at the lok adalat.

The cases settled in the adalat included 449 cases of civil nature, 20 cases under the Hindu Marriage Act, 12 cases of MACT, 11 cases of mutations, 12 cases of labour court, 65 cases of summoning, 23 cases of pre-litigation bank recovery cases and 286 cases of other nature.

A compensation of Rs 11.25 lakh was sanctioned in the MACT cases and decreetal amount of more than Rs 2.50 crore was sanctioned in the land acquisition cases.

Kurukshetra: As many as 831 litigations were settled with mutual consent of the parties in a mega lok adalat organised at the district court complex here on Saturday. As many as 1,439 cases were placed before the lok adalat.

Secretary District Legal Services Authority and CJM Sumit Garag and District and Sessions Judge Lalit Batra resolved the cases on the spot.

Kaithal: As many as 1,116 cases were settled at the mega lok adalat in the district courts here on Saturday. District and Session Judge Ritu Tagore presided over the proceedings.

CJM Gagan Deep Mittal and DLSA secretary, while giving details of the settled cases, said under the MACT, 14 cases were settled, in which compensation amounting to Rs 26 lakh was given to accident victims or their dependents. As many as 164 civil, 635 petty criminal and eight cases under the Hindu Marriage Act were settled during in the adalat. At least 109 summary cases, 25 cases relating to mutation and 103 pre-litigative bank cases and 39 cheque bounce cases were also settled.

Jhajjar, April 12
The Additional District Judge today sentenced 16 persons, including two women, to life imprisonment after holding them guilty of killing a woman in Aasauda Todran village here six years ago. The court slapped a penalty of Rs 10,000 each on them, failing which they would have to undergo an additional jail term.

The convicts are Sunita, Anita, Satish Kumar, Virender, Takdir, Sunil, Pradeep, Jagat Singh, Ishwar Singh, Devender Kumar, Sandeep, Ravinder, Jagbir Singh, Dharampal, Jagdish and Devender Singh, all residents of Aasauda Todran village.

Krishna Devi was killed and several others injured after a clash broke out between two groups in the village on April 16, 2008, when members of a group were lifting sand from a shamlat (common) land. Both parties had been nursing a grudge against the other over the issue.

The police had registered a criminal case against the accused on the complaint of Krishna Devi's kin in this regard. The accused were later arrested. The court pronounced its verdict today, awarding life imprisonment to the 16 convicts.

Gurgaon, April 12
Apprehending malpractices in the counting of votes in the Gurgaon parliamentary constituency, BJP candidate Rao Inderjit Singh today urged the Election Commission to take special care during counting.

Drawing the Election Commission's attention to sensitive areas like Mewat, he said special measures should be taken to ensure that no untoward incident took place and counting was not hampered.

"Mewat district is a sensitive zone throughout the year, especially during elections. This has been compounded by the lacklustre performance of the district administration," he wrote in a letter to the returning officer.

"Please ensure that nothing goes wrong in counting in the three Mewat Assembly segments on May 16. Care needs to be taken in the appointment of counting staff," he wrote.

Jind, April 12
In a shocking incident, four boys allegedly molested their 21-year-old teacher, prepared an MMS of the act and uploaded it on the Internet. Though the MMS was allegedly prepared in the end of February, her parents came to know about it last evening and informed the Jind City police station.

After receiving a complaint in writing, the police registered a case against the four minors. The police arrested three of the accused, one of whom was aged 13 years, the second 14 years and the third 15 years. The fourth accused, aged 16 years, was yet to be arrested.

The victim, a private teacher of the accused, had not disclosed to her parents earlier that she was allegedly molested and an MMS prepared as the boys reportedly kept threatening her that they would upload the MMS on the Internet if she reported the incident to anyone.

The victim did not know that the boys had reportedly uploaded the MMS on the Internet some days back. A friend of the victim's father told him about the recording last evening and the family approached the police.

"Two of the accused are class IX students and the other two study in class X. They are in the age group of 13 to 16 years. They molested the victim when she was alone at home on the evening of February 27, which was Mahashivratri, and prepared the MMS. We are conducting investigations whether or not she was raped," said Jind City Station House Officer Kamaldeep.

The victim resided in the Janjh Gate area and the four boys had been taking tuition classes from her. It was found during the police investigation that the four boys did not join tuition classes together. The police were trying to find the reason behind the crime.

The three boys were produced in a local court. "We are conducting the investigation from all aspects. We have sought the help of our cyber cell for a further investigation into the case. We have sent the three boys to the observation home in Hisar," said sub-inspector Surinder Singh, the investigating officer.

Yamunanagar, April 12
The police today arrested two teachers of an ashram for allegedly sodomising a 12-year-old student.

The police said Balram of Khurdi village and Krishan of Jaipur village allegedly sodomised the victim thrice.

The police said the victim had reported the matter to his parents but they had overlooked it. Later they took the incident seriously and informed the police.

The accused were produced in a local court, which sent them to 14-day judicial custody.

In another incident, the Farakpur police booked one person on the charge of rape and two accomplices on charge of kidnapping a minor. The police said a 17-year-old girl was kidnapped on April 3 and raped by one of the accused.

Hisar, April 12
The vigilance bureau (VB) today arrested a revenue official (naib tehsildar) for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh from a villager to confirm the registration of a sale deed in Hansi town.

Naib tehsildar Shamsher Singh had demanded Rs 10 lakh from Balraj Singh of Puthi village for the registration of the land which was in litigation in the High Court. However, on getting a favourable judgement recently, he wanted to dispose of the issue and contacted the official. The naib tehsildar demanded Rs 10 lakh for executing the sale deed and threatened to challenge the HC judgement in court if money was not given.

The complainant paid Rs 8 lakh in first instalment, but later decided to approach the VB. The vigilance team, led by inspector Bhupender Sharma, arrested the accused red-handed. 

Sonepat, April 12
Rajinder of Gannaur was beaten to death and his relatives seriously injured when they were allegedly attacked with sticks by five persons at a water tank in Gannaur last night. The injured were referred to the PGIMS, Rohtak.

Rajinder was declared brought dead. A case was registered against Praveen, Anil, Pankaj and Vikki of Garhi Kesri and Virender of Madina village.

Panipat, April 12
Thieves struck at four shops at Kacha Camp in Guru Nanak Pura locality and decamped with some cash and items yesterday.

The owners of the shops came to know about the thefts when a morning walker informed them after seeing broken locks of their shops. The police were informed.

Meanwhile, Subash Manchanda, a resident of the locality, expressed concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in the area.

He said a number of chain-snatching incidents had taken place in the area in the recent past. The police detained a suspect for striking at the shops. An FIR was registered at the Model Town police station. —TNS

Chandigarh, April 12
Relaxing the model code of conduct, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to allow various activities in states and union territories, including Delhi, Haryana and Chandigarh, where polling has been completed, except in districts where a repoll, if any, is pending.

Shrikant Walgad,Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana, said in a letter addressed to Chief Secretaries and Chief Electoral Officers of Delhi, Haryana and Chandigarh that the ECI had allowed certain activities.

These included tours of ministers to districts and officers accompanying them on such tours, review and implementation of ongoing programmes in the field and review with field officers, except for officers who were on election duty.

Calling a review meeting of officers at the headquarters, except for officers on election duty, and tour of ministers outside the state or the country were among other activities which had been allowed by the ECI, he added.

Sirsa, April 12
Under an exercise to create a record for the world’s largest simultaneous blood donation camp, Dera Sacha Sauda today organised mega blood donation camps at 200 locations the country and abroad.

“We have already collected 62,928 units of bloods for entry in to Guinness Book of Records,” said Pawan Insan, a spokesperson of the Dera.

The figure is likely to increase further as people were still queued up in Sirsa, Delhi and other locations.

He said over 2 lakh people from across the country had registered for the cause.

The earlier record of the largest simultaneous blood donation camp was in the name of HDFC Bank that has collected 61,902 units on December 6 last year, he said.

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh inaugurated the camp at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, Delhi, said Insan.