Karnal :
A 19-year-old girl from the district’s Sekhpura Sohana was arrested on the charge of extorting money from a man on the pretext of implicating him in a rape case.
The police refused to reveal her name.

Mohan Lal, SHO, City police station, said Ramesh, alias Sonu, on Wednesday approached the police, claiming that a girl was threatening to implicate him in a rape case.

In his police complaint, he said he came in contact with the girl through Facebook around four months ago. They fell in love and, after some time, she started blackmailing him on the pretext that she got pregnant, Ramesh claimed.

He gave her Rs50,000 to settle the matter, but she demanded more money. When she demanded Rs50,000 more, he approached the police. In support of his case, he submitted to the police a record of the chat between them.

Currency notes worth Rs50,000 signed by the police were seized from her. The police also recovered Rs10,000 which the girl had allegedly extorted from the man.
The girl has been booked under Sections 384 and 389 of the IPC.

Chandigarh :
An Army Major, presented gallantry award on August 15, 2009, by the President for displaying exemplary courage in hostage rescue operation in Trident-Oberoi hotel by NSG commando during the Mumbai terror attack, on Wednesday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the denial of benefits to him by the Haryana government.

He was told that Mumbai operation was not declared war by the Government of India. As such, he was not eligible for award money. In his petition placed before the Bench of Justice Rajiv Narain Raina, Major Karamjeet Singh Yadav stated he was deputed with the National Security Guard during 'Operation Black Tornado' in Mumbai from November 26 to November 30, 2008.

After the gallantry award, the petitioner applied for one-time cash award in accordance with the policy of the Haryana government "for war-time and peace time gallantry award for Defence personnel".

The petitioner asserted he received a letter on January 25, 2011, that his claim for cash award had been turned down by secretary, Rajya Sainik Board, Haryana. He was told that the case was not covered under the Haryana government policy "and incident occurred during the peace time". 

He added the stand in the letter was "totally illegal and not according to the law". 
Claiming that the petitioner was clearly denied of all benefits despite his entitlement, Major Yadav said it was clearly "in violation of fundamental rights of citizen of India and it is clearly violation of Constitution of India of the Article of 14 & 16".

Selja, Surjewala, Deepender, Bishnoi find place in revamped working committee of party

Chandigarh :
Assembly elections, due next year, seem high on the agenda of the Congress high command with four leaders finding place in the revamped Congress Working Committee (CWC). Their choice is aimed at striking a caste balance while appeasing various factions in the state unit.

While Rajya Sabha member Selja has been nominated as CWC member, AICC media incharge and Kaithal MLA Randeep Singh Surjewala has been picked as permanent member. MP Deepender Hooda and MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi have made it to the CWC as special invitees.

The representation outweighs the small size of the state, which votes along caste lines. The inclusion of two Jat leaders, Surjewala and Deepender, has been balanced by giving representation to Selja, the Scheduled Caste face of the party, and Bishnoi, who recently merged the Haryana Janhit Congress and returned to the Congress fold to reclaim his position of a non-Jat leader.

While the caste factor is important, the constantly warring factions in the state unit are equally significant and the party high command has failed to bring them on a common platform.

To placate the leaders clamouring to give former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda his due and elevate him to the post of president of the state unit, the high command has accommodated his son Deepender in the CWC. Deepender is seen as a youth leader in his own right and is the only Congress MP to be re-elected from Haryana in the 2014 General Election.

Though representation to the faction of state unit chief Ashok Tanwar and Congress Legislature Party leader Kiran Choudhry has been overlooked, the CWC representation may be an arrangement worked out by the high command to silence Tanwar’s critics, pressing for his removal. No state unit chief has made it to the CWC.
As Tanwar’s replacement, Selja’s name has been doing the rounds as a contender for the post of PCC president. Over the last few months, her field presence has gone up and her equation with Hooda improved.

Surjewala has already carved a niche for himself, rising from a party spokesperson to become the AICC media incharge and be counted in a party where “seniors” abound.
Sources say this attempt at giving representation to all these leaders in various capacities is the party leadership’s attempt to resolve differences among top leaders to ensure that they hit the tarmac running when elections are announced.

Kurukshetra :
A Class IX student of a boarding school near here was found hanging from a ventilator in his hostel room on Tuesday night, the police have said. The deceased has been identified as Jatin (14).

He was a resident of Jhajjar’s Majri village. He had joined the boys’ boarding school Gurukul last year.

The police suspected it to be a case of suicide. Jatin’s father Shashi Kumar, however, disputed the police version. He alleged foul play, demanding an investigation.
“The school authorities informed me about Jaitn’s death at 9.10 pm on Tuesday. As per the school warden, Jatin allegedly hanged himself at 6.55 pm, but the school authorities swung into action at 7.55 pm. I was informed quite late,” Kumar said.
He said his son had rejoined the school on July 9 after the summer vacations.
“Last Sunday, I had a telephonic conservation with Jatin and he sounded normal. I have watched the CCTV footage captured from the cameras installed in the hostel corridor. Jatin was seen munching on snacks and entering his room around 6.30 pm. The school authorities claim he died a few minutes later, but Jatin was seen moving around and eating,” Kumar said at the post-mortem department of Lok Naik Jai Prakash Civil Hospital here.

Kulwant Saini, the president of the school management committee, said Jatin appeared to be under family pressure to stay in the hostel. “Jatin did not join other students for dinner. His body was found hanging later.”
“Jatin was considered an introvert. In his Class VIII exams, he scored about 80 per cent,” Saini said.

The SP, Abhishek Garg, said the post-mortem examination report would throw light on the cause of death. “The CCTV footage did not capture the movement of anyone entering Jatin’s room after he entered his room till the time the body was found,” he said.

“There was no injury mark on his body. The circumstances do not hint at murder. The police are investigating the case,” the SP said.

Himachal Governor Acharya Devvart is the patron the institute.

Chandigarh :
The new rice shoot policy 2018 for the upcoming kharif season has restricted the use of canal water for paddy transplantation.

In fact, getting the rice shoots — temporary openings on water channels for paddy crop — will be difficult with the Haryana Government putting in place stricter norms under the new policy.

Under the new policy, no rice shoots will be allowed on any main line, branch line or feeder channel as the state government has decided that no outlets would be provided on these channels.

The policy prescribed that only 10 per cent of authorised discharge would be made available for rice shoots in the Bhakra Command System, while a maximum of 25 per cent additional discharge would be allowed for the Western Yaumna Canal System.
“There will be no shortage of water at the tail when temporary rice shoots are sanctioned. Similarly, rice shoots will not be given on those channels where tails did not get proper and authorised irrigation during the past two years,” the policy said.
Similarly, no rice shoots will be allowed to persons found guilty of unauthorised irrigation in the past five years. Besides, the minimum area for a rice shoot will be 20 acres, out of which 25 per cent of the area has to be grown with a crop other than rice.
“The department concerned will not recommend rice shoot where ‘sathi’ paddy (60-day crop) is sown in the canal irrigation area. The rice shoots already in operation will be cancelled as the state government has already banned sowing of ‘sathi’ paddy,” the policy added.