Faridabad, May 3
A Haryana policeman has been arrested by the crime branch of the Delhi Police in an incident of alleged abduction and loot worth over Rs 40 lakh from a parcel boy of Delhi recently.

Sources said the policeman, identified as Surender Kumar of the Faridabad police, was part of the security of the EVMs at sector 16 when the Delhi police took him into custody. The accused is posted at a police post located at Kheri Pul here.

Surender, who hails from Narnaul district of the state, was part of a gang of four persons that had allegedly abducted Rishi Chand, a parcel boy, from the Delhi railway station on April 13. They had snatched his bag containing cash and mobile phones worth several lakhs. The parcel was sent by Rajender Singh, a worker at a cargo courier company from Allahabad. While the information regarding the parcel was given by Bhola of Allahabad to Vasudev Parsad, a railway contractor, the members, including Raj Bhahdur, a Delhi policeman, Surender, Sanjay, Vasudev, abducted Rishi from the station and brought him to Surajkund, where he was beaten up. Both Raj Bahadur and Surender were in police uniform of the Delhi Police and claimed to be part of the crime branch when they abducted the victim.

The Delhi Police has recovered an amount of Rs 12 lakh and items worth Rs 1.5 lakh from the possession of the accused. 

Panipat, May 3
In a setback to the Congress, Satish Sharma, general secretary of the traders’ cell of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC), has quit the party with his supporters to contest the Assembly elections as an independent from Panipat (Rural).

Sending in his resignation from the primary membership of the Congress to HPCC president Ashok Tanwar, Sharma accused Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda of ignoring all areas in development except the Jat belt around Rohtak.

Claiming that several Congress workers were dissatisfied with the working of its state leaders, Sharma said others might follow in his footsteps. Stating that he had raised the issue of providing basic amenities to illegal colonies of Panipat Rural in the last four-and-a-half years, he said his demand had been ignored every time.

He said he had written a number of letters to get illegal colonies in Panipat Rural regularised as local MLA Om Prakash Jain was in jail in a criminal case, but no illegal colony was regularised whereas a number of such colonies benefited a few months ago.

Replying to a query, he said he would contest the Assembly election from Panipat (Rural) as an independent candidate, but he did not rule out the possibility of joining any other party, including the one being launched by former Haryana minister and Brahmin leader Venod Sharma.

Accompanied by former municipal councillor Baldev Raj Kapoor, father-in-law of ward 2 councillor Madan Lal Majoka and social activist NC Jain, Sharma said the people of Haryana were annoyed with the Congress and this would be proved in the results of the General Election on May 16.

Jind, May 3
The wheat lifting process in the state has is slowed down by unpredictable weather conditions in the last two days.

Figures show that the authorities have purchased 5,57,128 metric tonnes (MT) of wheat in the district, but lakhs of bags are still to be lifted.

Many commission agents alleged that due to drizzling and dust storm in the last 48 hours in different parts of the district, the lifting process was slow. The authorities were not taking steps to accelerate lifting, they said.

“More than 4 lakh bags are waiting lifting. If there is rain, the stock can get damaged as we do not have required arrangements to cover it. Government authorities should understand our problem and accelerate the pace of wheat lifting,” said a commission agent of Narwana.

Another commission agent from Uchana alleged that 50 per cent of the purchased stock was lying in the grain market.

Jind Deputy Commissioner Rajiv Rattan said he had directed senior officials of purchase agencies to accelerate lifting, so that hard earned wheat of the farmers could be saved from unpredictable weather.

Sonepat, May 3
Officials of various departments led by SDM Gannaur Regan Kumar yesterday visited the Bari industrial complex of the Haryana State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and Lalheri village and inspected the industrial units that have been releasing polluted water in the open.

Earlier, villagers threatened to block the GT road over the release of contaminated water in the sub-soil zone and in the open.

The team inspected the Effluent Treatment Plants in the zone and collected the samples of the water being released by the units. The SDM directed one of the units to stop the release of the water in the open.

Deputy Commissioner Samir Pal Srow had directed the officials of the Pollution Control Board and the HSIIDC to ensure that the contaminated water was neither released in the sub-soil zone nor in the open.

Residents of Lalheri village have been facing the problem of chemically- contaminated sub-soil water for the last three or four years. They informed their problems to the administration, but to no avail.

At a meeting on Thursday, the villagers threatened to block the GT road, if the administration did not take any action in seven days.

Village sarpanch Geeta said they had complained to Speaker Kuldeep Sharma, HSIIDC officials and sent fax messages to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the last two years, but to no avail.

“We want that polluted water should not be released in the subsoil and water samples be tested in laboratories,” she said. 

Mahendragarh, May 3
The Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) has proposed to set up Sanskrit and publication departments and a Haryana art and culture unit at the Central University of Haryana (CUH) in Jaat Pali village here.

Prof Uday Prakash Sinha, officiating Vice Chancellor of the CUH, stated this while addressing a meeting of the academic council (AC) of the varsity here today.

“The university is starting 20 departments from the coming academic session to provide quality education to the students. The admission process for these courses is already going on," said the VC.

The council discussed various isuues such as syllabus for various courses, setting up of NSS and Red Cross Cells, introduction of the earn while learn scheme for students, establishing the Rural Economics Department in collaboration with Ministry of HRD and health/ accident insurance for students at the meeting.

Registrar Dr AK Jha, Dean (academic) Dr Beer Singh, Prof Ram Naresh Mishra, Dhiresh Kulshrestha, Satish Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar, Saarika Sharma and Pradeep Kumar were present at the meeting.

Mahendragarh, May 3
The Mahendragarh police are yet to recover a minor girl of Bucholi village who was allegedly abducted by three youths of Meghanvaas village five days ago.

Though the police claimed to have carried out raids at hideouts of the accused, villagers are not satisfied with their progress.

Irked over police inaction in the case, they blocked the Dadri-Narnaul state highway at the Tularam chowk for two hours and locked the main gate of the Sadar police station last evening.

The police have registered a criminal case against 50 villagers for blocking the road. The villagers protested registration of the case against them.

Later, they cleared the road after the assurance of DSP Sarif Singh and tehsildar Manbir Singh that the kidnappers would be arrested soon.

The police have booked three youths- Praveen, Deepak and Sonu of Meganvaas village- on the complaint of the girl’s father. He said, in the complaint, that his daughter was home alone on April 28 when the accused barged into the house and kidnapped her.

Confirming registration of the case against 50 persons of Bucholi village for blocking the road, Mahendragarh SP Simrandeep Singh said all efforts were being made to recover the girl and to nab the accused. He refuted the allegations of police inaction in the case.

Chandigarh, May 3
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today directed officers of the Public Health and Engineering Department to complete ongoing work in the state in a time-bound manner and send him district-wise details of work that had been started, was going on and had been completed.

Hooda was presiding over a meeting of the State Sanitary Board. Public Health Engineering Minister Kiran Choudhry was present in the meeting.

He told officers of the Power Department that all pending cases of power connection to public health tubewells in the state should be disposed of by May 31, after which power connections to such tubewells should be issued within a month after getting demand notice from the Public Health Engineering Department.

Hooda was informed that over Rs 1,446 crore would be spent on 3,520 ongoing work during 2014-15, which included over Rs 402 crore on urban water supply, over Rs 410 crore on urban sewerage, Rs 31.72 crore on urban storm water drainage and Rs 601.20 crore on rural water supply in the state.

It was stated at the meeting that 100 per cent water supply and sewerage facilities had been ensured in 12 of the 14 towns under the economic stimulus package.

Hooda was informed that Rs 18 crore would be utilised for operation and maintenance of rural water supply schemes, Rs 12 crore for sustainability schemes and Rs 960 lakh for support activities under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme during 2014-15.

The Chief Minister was informed that the construction of a sewerage treatment plant and ID sewerage in Jind had been completed at a cost of about Rs 36.08 crore and extension of the sewerage scheme to Pehowa, the cost of which was about Rs 4.93 crore, was expected to be completed by June.

Jind, May 3
The police today intervened to end the rift between Silla Khera village and Rattakhera village by forming a committee which will resolve their issues.

Residents of Rattakhera had announced social boycott of Silla Kheri village over the alleged repeated attacks on its residents.

“We have withdrawn the social boycott call as the police and residents of Silla Kheri village have assured us that there would be no attack on any resident of our village from the youths of other village. We have formed a joint committee to resolve our problems,” said Sushil Saini, sarpanch, Rattakhera village. The police today called the sarpanches of both villages at the Safidon police station and solved the matter.

“There was some misunderstanding and it has been cleared. We will take steps to ensure that both villages do not face any problem in future,” said Pawan, sarpanch, Silla Kheri village.

Panipat, May 3
Lawyers continued boycott of work for the third consecutive day today against rescheduling of court timings during summer.

District Bar Association president Satender Singh said the Punjab and Haryana High Court rescheduled court timings in Haryana for three months from May.

The rescheduling timings would affect their work and lawyers in other districts were against new court timings during summer, he added.

The District Bar Association president said he had sent a memorandum in this regard to the High Court Registrar General and would meet the Chief Justice next week.