Rohtak, May 22
Startling revelations made by a local child who had gone missing a few days ago have compelled the Rohtak police to initiate investigation into the amputation-cum-begging racket thriving in Bathinda district of Punjab.

Twelve-year-old Rahul had gone missing from the Mata Darwaza area of the town about a fortnight ago. Recently, Pale Ram, a neighbour of the boy, had gone to Jind for some domestic work. He spotted Rahul with some unknown men sitting in a Bathinda-Delhi train.

Showing exemplary alertness, courage and presence of mind, Pale Ram apprised the other passengers on the train about the matter and managed to rescue Rahul. Not only this, he nabbed two of the four men who were accompanying the boy.

Pale Ram brought Rahul to Rohtak and handed him over to his parents.

However, when the nabbed youths were produced before the GRP, the officials concerned refused to take them into their custody. Later, Rahul’s parents and neighbours handed over the youths, Sunil and Vijay, to the Rohtak police.

Rahul informed the police that he was kept in Bathinda and there were many children like him at the place. He said the persons manning the place used to amputate limbs of children and forced them to beg at different places.

Rahul further said he spotted his cousin, Sunny, there, who had gone missing from his home about a year ago. He said his one hand had been amputated and he was forced into begging.

After being apprised of the matter, the Rohtak police swung into action and dispatched a team to Bathinda to get to the bottom of the matter.

Meanwhile, both nabbed youths were produced before a local court, which remanded them in police custody for three days.

Rewari, May 22
Three persons, including a woman and five others were injured, when a pick-up van they were travelling in collided head-on with a truck on Delhi-Jaipur National Highway, near Kasola Chowk, here today.

The injured have been admitted to various hospitals in Rewari, where condition of two of them is stated to be critical. The deceased have been identified as Satbir (40), Meena (35) and Amrit Kaur (70), all residents of Pranpura village in Rewari district.

The incident took place this morning when the van occupants were going to Tapukada in Rajasthan to mourn the death of a relative. As they reached near Kasola Chowk, the van was hit by a truck coming from the opposite direction, injuring the occupants of van seriously.

Hearing the sound of the crash, several passersby rushed to the spot and took the injured to the Trauma Centre in Rewari, where Satbir, Meena and Amrita Kaur were declared brought dead while two of the injured were referred to other hospital due to their critical condition.

Kaithal, May 22
Residents of Sangroli village under Pundri block of the district locked the gates of the Government High School in the village after a guest teacher allegedly gave a severe beating to students. The villagers demanded strict action against the teacher.

Villagers close the gates of Government High School in Sangroli village of Kaithal on Thursday . PHOTO : SATISH SETH

On getting information, Block Education Officer (BEO) Gian Chand Mehla reached the school. Ramesh Kumar, in charge, Dhand police station, also reached the village to maintain law and order.

Sources said Priyanka, Rakhi, Arti, Reetu, Manisha, all students of Class VII, told the BEO that the trouser of guest teacher Rajbir was torn after it got stuck in a table. Following this, he got furious and started beating students mercilessly. The students also alleged that during duty hours, the teacher sang songs and made objectionable gestures.

Denying the allegations, the teacher said some students had not done their homework and when they were reprimanded, they levelled such allegations against him.

The BEO said the teacher had been sent to some other school and further action would be taken after recording statements of the victims and their parents.

Chandigarh May 22
The Haryana Government has decided that period of military service of former servicemen joining government service will be counted towards civil service for grant of casual leave. Besides, in case of promotion to the post of clerk from Group-D employees and restorer etc, the upgrade of minimum educational qualification of 10+2 would be applicable with prospective effect for those employees who have been recruited after November 8, 2013.

The orders to this effect were issued by S C Choudhary, Haryana Chief Secretary, here today. The decision was taken in consideration of the fact that they join government service at a mature age after putting in long years of service in the Army.

Committee for plot transfers

The Haryana Government has constituted a committee for transfer of lease hold plots to free hold plots in excise area of Ambala Sadar under the chairmanship of a Chief Secretary. An official spokesman said Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Financial Commissioner, Revenue, Principal Secretary, Urban Local Bodies and Principal Secretary, Town and Country Planning, are the other members of the committee. 

Vital targets

In case of promotion to the post of clerk from Group-D employees and restorer etc, the upgrade of minimum educational qualification of 10+2 would be applicable with prospective effect for those employees who have been recruited after November 8, 2013.

Bhiwani, May 22
Three incidents of electrocution of linemen this month, employed as temporary employees of the power corporations, have raised several issues regarding the safety of the employees and the post-mishap compensation and help to the victims and their families.

The Assistant Linemen (ALMs) working with Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBNV) under the outsourcing policy maintained that they were getting no safeguards while repairing the defects and were forced to climb the electricity poles even though they were not authorised to do so.

An ALM, Shubhash Chander, who was posted at the Dhani Miraj sub-station in Bhiwani, was electrocuted when he was repairing a line on Tuesday evening. He was electrocuted as the power line which was under repair was turned on mistakenly. His body remained hanging on the power lines for six hours. An ALM who had been admitted to a private hospital in Hisar with spinal cord injury too is unlikely to return to work. He received the injury when he was posted at the Badhra power sub-station. Another lineman also got electrocuted during his posting in Jui power station.

All Haryana Lineman Association president Mukesh Bhadra alleged that they were not being provided adequate safety measures on job which had resulted in mishaps. “Neither the power corporation nor the contractor provides equipments for our safety. Moreover, the victims and their families are also denied adequate compensation and aid from the government even after they are rendered unable to earn a livelihood”, he said.

Jind, May 22
Worried about the misuse of fake arms licences, allegedly procured from Nagaland, the Jind police have launched a massive exercise to thoroughly analyse all records pertaining to sale-purchase of weapons and ammunition of all arms dealers of the district.

The Superintendent of police (SP) has directed all SHOs to send their detailed reports by June 1.

In the first week of May, the Rohtak police had busted a gang involved in the issuance of fake arms licences from Nagaland. Since the police suspect the involvement of arms dealers also, Jind Superintendent of Police Balwan Singh Rana has sought detailed reports from each SHOs, while the DSP has been made responsible for the compilation of all record at the earliest.

As per police record, there are around 7,300 arms licenses in the district.

Though the police are tightlipped about the ongoing verification of all sale-purchase entries of weapons and ammunition, sources said all SHOs had been checking the records since the start of the business of arms dealers, as they say they do not want to take any chance and want to check the entries of all arms dealers.

Some arms dealers said it was a tough job for them to produce all record and satisfy SHOs about each and every entry as it was a time consuming process. However, police said they would not compromise on any aspect during investigations.

Chandigarh, May 22
Riding the Modi wave in Haryana, the BJP has come a long way in the caste-dominated state with the party winning in 52 of the 90 Assembly segments in the recent Lok Sabha elections. This is a huge improvement over a poor figure of lead in just seven Assembly segments in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

The impressive BJP performance is giving jitters to ruling Congress (which won in 15 Assembly segments) and the main opposition party INLD, which could manage to win from 16 Assembly segments though it won two Lok Sabha seats.

The Congress’ loss has been the BJP’s gain as the Congress romped home in 51 Assembly segments in 2009 when the party won nine of the 10 Lok Sabha seats--a development which portends ill for the party facing anti-incumbency in the state Assembly poll later this year.

The BJP’s junior alliance partner, the HJC, led in seven segments as compared to nine in 2009.The BSP, which took lead in eight assembly segments in 2009, failed to lead in any segment this time.

The BJP led in all nine Assembly segments of the Ambala, Karnal and Faridabad Lok Sabha seats. While the BJP maintained lead in six Assembly segments in Kurukshetra, the Congress led in two followed by the INLD (1). In Sirsa, the INLD led in seven segments with the Congress and BJP’s alliance partner HJC winning in one segment each.

Though the HJC led in six segments in Hisar, yet its chief, Kuldeep Bishnoi, lost to INLD’s Dushyant Chautala, who led only in three Assembly segments. In Sonepat, the BJP led in five Assembly segments followed by the Congress (3) and the INLD (1).

In Bhiwani, Congressman-turned-BJP leader Dharambir led in six Assembly segments with the Congress leading in two and the INLD in one segment. Gurgaon saw another Congressman-turned-BJP leader Rao Inderjit Singh leading in six Assembly segments followed by the INLD (3).

However, the Congress led in seven segments in Rohtak where CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s son, Deepinder Hooda, scored a hat-trick. The BJP led in other two.

Suprisingly, most of Hooda’s Cabinet colleagues and heavyweights failed to survive the Modi wave with Congress candidates losing heavily in their Assembly segments. These included Randeep Surjewala, Rao Narinder Singh, Rao Dan Singh, Kuldeep Sharma, Phool Chand Mullana, Mahendra Pratap Singh, Balbir Pal Shah, Aftab Ahmed, Ajay Yadav and Savitri Jindal. However, Congress candidates led in the assembly segments of Hooda, Geeta Bhukkal, Kiran Choudhry, HS Chattha and Paramvir Singh.

Chandigarh, May 22
AAP activists held demonstrations in various parts of the state in protest against the arrest of party leader Arvind Kejriwal for non-filing of a bail bond in a defamation case. There were reports that protests were scattered but mainly peaceful.

Reports from Sirsa and Fatehabad said Prahlad Singh Bharukhera, a state executive member who led demonstrators at Sirsa, said the party was with the AAP convener in his fight against corruption.

He said there were at least four precedents in which courts had accepted the undertakings given by Kejriwal in similar cases and did not insist on a bail bond. The party activists assembled in Town Park and then marched in procession to the mini-secretariat to submit a memorandum to the DC. However, they were stopped at the gate of the mini-secretariat . The AAP activists later submitted their memorandum addressed to the President of India to SDM Manjit Singh.

In Fatehabad, AAP activists led by Poonam Chand Ratti, who contested the parliamentary poll from Sirsa, held a demonstration against Kejriwal’s arrest. Reports of similar protests were also received from Ambala, Jind and Gurgaon.

Jind, May 22
“School mein paani kharab hai, is liye sabhi bacho ko yahan kuye (well) pe aana padta hai,” said Amarjeet, a Class VII student of Dhanda Kheri village. An old well is the only source of water for a majority of the villagers as out of three tubewells, only one works, but the water of the tubewell is unfit even for bathing.

“We have repeatedly requested the authorities to provide us at least drinking water but to no avail. We all depend on this well,” said Dhanda Kheri sarpanch Satish.

In this scorching heat, the unending water crisis appears to be far from over in many villages of Jind subdivision.

In the absence of a tubewell, canal water is being supplied to residents of Sangatpura village from the waterworks. But presently, both filters of the waterworks are out of order and the department is supplying dirty canal water to the village.

Officials of the Public Health Department said that they were planning to supply potable water to the village from Jalalpura village tubewell.

A visit to Dariyawala, Jajwan, Julani and other villages is enough to asses the plight of thousands of residents of these villages.

Jind City MLA Harichand Middha said 16 villages of his constituency were facing serious water problem, but no action was taken despite repeated requests.

In Dariyawala village’s water storage pond, a dead pigeon was found floating when The Tribune visited the village.

“In our village, most of the health problems are due to dirty water,” said Phullwati (50) a resident of Jajwan village, where only one tubewell works out of five.

During last month, the emergency of the civil hospital received more than 150 patients suffering from water-borne diseases, while the OPD receives nearly 15 patients everyday.

“Dirty water is the main reason for water-borne diseases,” said Medical Officer Dr Seema Vashishat.

Public Health SDO Jagdev Mor said they were taking steps to solve water problems. 

Sirsa, May 22
Property dealers and consultants held a demonstration and submitted a memorandum to the authorities seeking the lifting of a ban on registration of sale deeds and rollback of the hiked collector rates.

The registration of sales deeds of immovable properties was regulated by the authorities some time back with a view to checking mushrooming of illegal colonies. However, this has hit the business of property dealers adversely, who have been demanding lifting of the ban. The property dealers met in a park on Barnala road under the banner of the Sirsa Property Dealers Ekta Manch and marched towards the mini-secretariat, raising slogans.

Propery dealers Ram Avtar Hisaria, Tarsem Makkar, Manoj Sharma, Tarsem Midha, Sohan Bhatia and others said the government had recently regularised 19 colonies of the town but the authorities were yet to resume the registration of deeds there.

The property dealers also alleged that the collector rates were so unreasonable that the land available for Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,000 per yard carried the collector rate of Rs 500 per yard. 

Sonepat, May 22
Women of Butana village today blocked the Gohana-Jind road for more than two hours in protest against erratic water supply to the village for many months. The women raised slogans against the Water Services and Sanitation Department and the gram sarpanch.

The blockade was lifted after the Gohana tehsildar, Manav Malik, reached the spot and assured the women that their grievances would be redressed.

The women alleged that water supply pipelines were broken when the streets were dug up. Despite several representations to the gram sarpanch and the department , water supply had not been restored, they alleged.

Kaithal, May 22
A Sumo taxi driver with the help of his companions allegedly looted cash and mobile phones of labourers, hailing from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, on the pretext of offering them lift in his vehicle on the Pundri-Kaithal road.

The robbers took away cash and mobile phones, but handed over SIM cards to victims and also gave them Rs 50 to reach Kaithal.

In the scuffle, mobile phone of one of the thieves fell on the spot. One of the victims quietly picked the phone, which later helped the police in tracing the thieves and later their arrest.

The special staff of the Kaithal police arrested three robbers and also recovered the vehicle used in the crime. The three accused identified as Ramu driver, Vijay and Naresh, all residents of Pai village, were produced in a local court, which sent Vijay, a juvenile, to Children Reformatory Home in Ambala and the other two in two-day police custody.

Roshan Lal Khatkar, a police spokesperson, said the incident took place on the Tuesday night. Three victims - Ramu of Dholpur, Monu and Tatpur of Agra - were waiting to board a bus for Kaithal on Pundri bus stand, when a Sumo driver carrying some passengers arrived there and told the victims that he was going to Kaithal.

The victims boarded the Sumo and after going a few kilometers, the driver with the help of his other companions, robbed the labourers of Rs 4,000 in cash and mobiles at knifepoint. 

Yamunanagar, May 22
The police rescued 43 cattle from the possession of bovine smugglers while conducting a check at three places in the district. The City Police, Jagadhri, had received information last night that a canter carrying cattle was heading towards Jagadhri town from Ambala. The police put a barricade near Jagadhri bus stand and started checking vehicles.

They signalled a canter to stop, however, the driver tried to run over the police team.

In the meantime, the canter engine stopped. The driver and the other occupants managed to escape, said the police. The police seized the canter after rescuing eight cattle.

In another incident, during a checking drive in Jathlana area last night, the police succeeded in catching a truck of cattle smugglers and rescued 25 cattle. The police said the smugglers managed to escape, leaving their vehicle behind. The smugglers have been booked.

The Khizrabad police rescued 10 cattle yesterday during a checking drive near Arayanwala village on National Highway-73-A. The police have seized the truck. 

Chandigarh, May 22
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has set a three-month deadline for Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) to initiate action against allottees violating the terms and conditions of allotment.

Taking up a petition filed in public interest, a Division Bench asserted that the terms and conditions of allotment were set by the HSIIDC itself. “It is their duty to ensure that allottees have utilised the plots in terms thereof”.

The Bench also expressed hope that the HSIIDC would carry out a verification drive to identify violation of terms and conditions of plot allotment and take necessary action wherever the terms were found violated.

The directions came even as the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Arun Palli dismissed the PIL filed by the News Welfare Society with costs of Rs 10,000. The amount is to be deposited to the High Court Mediation Centre.

The society had raised objections to the allotment of industrial plots in Sector 17, Bahadurgarh, by the HSIIDC in 2010 “without completing the requisite formalities”. The petitioners had also levelled specific allegation against four respondents to whom four plots were allotted though they belonged to the same family. It had sought directions for an inquiry into procedural irregularities in the allotment of industrial plots.

The Bench asserted: “It appears that the allotments do not even pertain to the year 2010 but an advertisement was issued in newspapers on November 3, 2005, inviting applications for allotment of industrial plots at specified rates for 357 plots.

“A committee then took a decision to make allotment of the plots based on the project reports….. Insofar as respondents are concerned, it is stated that they are different legal entities entitled to seek allotment for different projects. It is, however, conceded that there is an element of family ownership qua the four plots…..

“These allotments were made in 2005 pursuant to an advertisement. The petition is, thus, highly belated and suffers from gross delay and laches and this delay is sought to be hidden by misdisclosure of facts". 

Chandigarh, May 22
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Navraj Sandhu has asked the private blood banks to provide blood and blood components free of cost to all thalassaemia, haemophilia, sickle cell anemia and other blood dyscrasia patients.

Sandhu, who was presiding over a meeting with the representatives of the private blood banks here today to rationalise the processing charges, said the Government of India had revised processing charges for blood and blood components for private and government sector blood banks.

She made it clear that the Health Department would reimburse the cost of platelets for dengue patients of the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category admitted to the government hospitals where there is no component facility.

Chandigarh, May 22
More than a decade after they made it to the HCS, some officers may soon find themselves in the dock. The Punjab and Haryana High Court today made it clear that it was not averse to suggestion of examining the answersheets of some candidates to verify the allegations of tampering. The officers were selected in 2002 during the Chautala regime.

As the case came up for resumed hearing this afternoon, a Division Bench headed by Justice SK Mittal was provided with a list of 27 candidates whose answersheets were allegedly tempered with to enhance their marks in the written examination.

Prominent HCS officers whose answersheets could be examined include Jagniwas, Kamlesh Kumar Bhadu, Kuldhir Singh, Dilbag Singh, Pramod Kumar, Ranjit Kaur, Sujeet Kumar, Surender Kumar, Veena Huda and Ghanshyam Singh. The issue of examining the answersheets is expected to come up on Tuesday when the court takes up the matter again.

An inspection carried out by the Joint Registrar (Judicial) in 2009 had found large number of cuttings/overwriting and tampering in the answersheets of these selected candidates.

Around 67 HCS (Executive) officers were selected by the Haryana Public Service Commission in 2002 when Om Prakash Chautala was the Chief Minister. The matter was brought to the High Court’s notice initially by Haryana’s former Advocate-General Mohan Jain, now Additional Solicitor-General of India in Delhi. Jain was appearing as the petitioners’ counsel in a PIL for a CBI probe into alleged irregularities, jointly filed by former MLA Karan Singh Dalal, and two candidates.

Taking cognizance of the matter, the high court had summoned the entire record of the selection. During the arguments, the petitioner side argued that the inspection report of the selected candidates’ answersheets clearly showed tampering and overwriting.

It was also argued that some of the meritorious candidates were given fewer marks while those having fewer marks in the written examination were given the maximum marks so they could be selected. 

Chandigarh, May 22
The government has promoted two IPS officers as the Additional Director-General Police (ADGP) in and five IPS officers as DIG.

Those who have been promoted as ADGP are Mohammad Akil and R.C.Mishra.

Those who have been promoted as DIG are Sibhash Kabiraj, Rajshree Singh, Jagdish Chander, K.Ventaka Ramana and Rajinder Singh. 

Panipat, May 22
The Model Town police have arrested a resident of Jatal road here for allegedly raping his minor stepdaughter.

In her complaint to the police, the victim’s mother alleged that her husband Ramgir raped her 12-year-old daughter on May 5. He also threatened to kill her if she narrated the incident to anyone. The accused was produced in a court, which remanded him in 14-day judicial custody.

Neighbour held on rape charge

Gurgaon: The police today arrested a resident Jyoti Park here for allegedly raping a nine-year-old girl daughter of his neighbour.

Uttam Singh, 40, entered the house of his neighbour where the victim and her parents were sleeping. He picked up the girl and took her to the roof of the building. The parents came to know about the incident when they heard cries of the girl.

The accused was produced in a court which sent him in judicial custody.

Two get 20-yr jail for rape

Sirsa: A local court today sentenced two youths to 20 years imprisonment each for the gang rape of a minor girl at Chak Sahiba village in Sirsa district.

The victim had gone to a wedding party in the village on March 3 last year. After returning home, she went out of her house to answer the call of nature, when the accused Mukhtiar Singh from Chak Sahiba and Nachhatar Singh from Mallekan village, gagged her and took her towards a nullah on their motorcycle, where they gang raped her till she fell unconscious. Her family were unable to find her. The victim returned home in the morning after gaining consciousness. She narrated the incident to her family members, who lodged a complaint with the police. Medical examination of the girl confirmed gang rape. Both accused were arrested.