Haryana News

Jaibir Singh Virk and Amit Chaudhary, both from Haryana, created a record in the Limca Book of Records recently, for covering 7,050km in 19-days on a tractor from Chandigarh to Kanyakumari, covering 14-states and 28-cities. The duo completed their expedition on a tractor -launching in India next month- which has an AC cabin, a music-system, an LCD-screen, bluetooth and power-steering.

Haryana's CM Bhupinder Singh defended khaps, who banned marriage within same 'gotra' (sub-caste) without any legal-sanctity, saying there was no link between honour-killngs and these community courts. Social activists have alleged that in few cases, khap leaders had direct involvement in killings to which Hooda says that action was taken against those found guilty and that honour-killings are a sin.

After a couple from Rohtak -Ravinder(27) and Jyoti(19)- of different castes eloped and got married in Delhi, a khap panchayat has declared couples from a cluster of eight villages in the region will also not be allowed to tie the knot. Acting on allegations by social activists, Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda defended khaps and said "khaps do not kill anyone".

In what is termed by various social activists as a fake attempt to cleanse their image, Khap panchayats have decided to support inter-caste marriages in Haryana. "However, inter-caste marriages within same village or within villages which have brotherhood tradition won't be supported," said a Khap leader. Khap panchayats have termed this as an initiative to end problems created by casteism.

Accusing him of damaging the reputation of the real estate giant DLF and Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, Haryana government has served a chargesheet to IAS officer Ashok Khemka. The bureaucrat, who is also charged with illegally cancelling the mutation of a land deal between Vadra and DLF, has been asked to respond to the chargesheet within 15 days.

Ludhiana's Harpreet Kaur (24) Friday succumbed to injuries caused by about a litre of acid flung at her few hours before her wedding on Dec-7. Kin say the woman, who had divorced the groom's brother, planned the assault, as she didn't want the family to be happy ever. Six persons have been arrested in the case, including the groom's sister-in-law.

INLD chief and former Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala surrendered at Tihar Jail on Saturday. The court on Friday cancelled his interim bail and asked him to surrender for misusing bail conditions by campaigning for the Oct-15 assembly elections in the state. A special CBI court had last year convicted and sentenced Chautala for illegally recruiting 3,206 teachers in the year 2000.

With just a day left for Assembly polls, voters of Haryana’s Budaak village in Hisar district have decided to boycott the elections. The villagers took the decision in view of lack of drinking water facilities for the last 16 years. Also, the villagers have not allowed any party to campaign for the elections in Buddak.

Amid high security arrangements, polling started for the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra and 90 seats in Haryana at 7 am on Wednesday. In Maharashtra, an electorate of about 8.25 crore will choose from 4,119 candidates in the fray, including 1,699 Independents. In Haryana, about 1.63 crore voters will decide the fate of 1,351 candidates, including 109 women.

Clashes and firing were reported between the BJP and the Indian National Lok Dal supporters in Sirsa, as Haryana went to poll on Wednesday. Two people were injured in the clash. The situation has been brought under control by the police present on the spot. Incidents of violence were also reported from other parts of Haryana like Hisar.

Voting to the Haryana assembly came to a short halt in Sikanderpur constituency on Wednesday as an official told women to show their faces. "How can a woman lift her 'ghoonghat' (veil) before elders of the village...," Ashok Yadav, a resident from Sikanderpur. "We decided to boycott the voting and informed higher authorities," he said.

Haryana registered a historic voter turnout of over 73%, surpassing the previous high of 72.65% in 1967, in the state assembly election on Wednesday. Kaithal (79%) and Yamunanagar (79%) witnessed a healthy voter turnout, while polling was not that high in Faridabad (57%) and Gurgaon (64%). Counting of votes will take place on Oct 19.

Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda has retained his constituency Garha Sampla Kiloi in Jind district in the state assembly polls. Hooda defeated Indian National Lok Dal's (INLD) Satish Kumar Nandal by over 25k votes. BJP is running ahead in the assembly polls counting in Haryana, while INLD is on the 2nd spot followed by the ruling congress in the state.

The 13th Haryana assembly will have 13 women MLAs, the highest in the history of the state. Winning BJP has eight women MLAs while Congress has three and INLD and Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) one each. Uptil now, the highest number of women MLAs elected to the Haryana assembly was 11 in 2005.

According to a report, 75 of the 90 (83%) Haryana’s new legislators are crorepatis, which includes 40 of the 47 BJP members and 14 of the 15 members from Congress. Seven MLAs have declared assets worth over Rs 50 crore and the richest of them is BJP's Vipul Goyal from Faridabad with assets worth Rs 106 crore.

Manohar Lal Khattar, who is considered to be close to PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, was Tuesday unanimously elected the Leader of BJP Legislature Party, thus, making him the first BJP CM of Haryana. He is also the first Punjabi CM of the state. A first-time MLA, Khattar had contested the assembly elections from Karnal.

A major fire broke out at cracker market in Dussehra Ground near Faridabad (Haryana) on Tuesday. Over 200 shops have been burnt in the tragedy and two people have been admitted to hospital with burn injuries, said reports. Around 18 fire tenders have been rushed to the spot and fire-fighters are attempting to douse the flames. Further details are awaited.

Manohar Lal Khattar, a first time MLA and a dedicated RSS pracharak, will take oath as the CM of Haryana on Oct 26. PM Narendra Modi and chief ministers of all BJP-ruled states will be present at the ceremony. Khattar, 60, was Tuesday chosen as the Haryana CM by the BJP, making him the first BJP CM on the state.

BJP’s Manohar Lal Khattar (60) was sworn in as the CM of Haryana on Sunday by Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki. Notably, Khattar became Haryana's first non-jat CM in 18 years. He has been associated with the RSS for 40 years and BJP for 20 years. It is for the first time that the BJP has come to power in Haryana.