Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Singh granted 40-day parole
Chandigarh (PTI): Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Singh, serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples, has been granted a 40-day parole, sources said on Tuesday.
Singh (57) will stay at his Sirsa-headquartered Dera during the 40-day period beginning Tuesday, the sources said.
This comes months after Singh walked out of the Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak after being granted a 21-day furlough in April.
In January, Singh was granted a 30-day parole, ahead of the February 5 Delhi Assembly polls.
He was also granted a 20-day parole on October 1 last year, ahead of the October 5 Haryana Assembly polls.
Singh was convicted in 2017 for raping two of his disciples.
In May last year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted the Dera chief and four others in the 2002 murder of the sect's former manager Ranjit Singh, citing "tainted and sketchy" investigations into the matter.
Earlier, a special CBI court sentenced them to life imprisonment in the nearly 20-year-old murder case. It held Singh guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused.
The Sirsa-headquartered Dera Sacha Sauda has a number of followers in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and other states. In Haryana, the Dera has a sizable number of followers in many districts, including Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Hisar.
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Karnataka govt seeks agency to manage rural drinking water units: Minister
Belagavi (Karnataka) (PTI): Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge on Wednesday said the state government is working to appoint an agency to manage clean drinking water units in rural areas.
The state Rural Development and Panchayat Raj minister was responding to a question by Hirekerur MLA U B Banakar in the legislative assembly.
"In the rural areas of the state, many clean drinking water units have been set up under corporate social responsibility (CSR) grants, including contributions by MLAs and MPs, and handed over to gram panchayats. After the maintenance period, problems have arisen in keeping these units operational," Priyank said.
He added that a proposal has been made to award a maintenance contract to one of the country’s reputed drinking water unit manufacturing companies, but so far, no companies have come forward to take up the work.
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"The government is continuing its efforts and will resolve this problem soon," he said.
On a query regarding fluoride content in water, the minister said water quality testing is being conducted monthly in all zilla panchayats.
"Laboratories have been opened for this purpose. Around 6.5 lakh water samples have been tested across the state, and water testing kits have been provided to villages," he added.
