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Varsity exam system on verge of collapse
INLD to meet EC on ‘violation’ of poll code by Hooda
Varinder is ZP chief INLD, Chander Mohan join hands to keep Hooda men out
Haryana BJP chief offers to quit
Anti-Congress parties fail to unite
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Timely action by admn averts child marriages
Movie off Haryana screens too
Former minister acquitted
in dacoity case
Small traders demand representation
One held in Navneet murder case
Plea dismissed on registration of case
Woman killed in robbery bid
Dr Gurbachan is Director of CSSRI
20-year-old woman raped
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Varsity exam system on verge of collapse
Rohtak, May 20 On Monday, several local examination Centres including the local Government College for Women, University College and the All-India Jat Heroes Memorial College did not receive the question papers in time. While examination began an hour late at some centres, in the case of AIJHM College, the question papers were received at 11.30 a. m. and the students refused to take the examination at that stage. On the same day, question papers had to be faxed to several centres in Bhiwani, Faridabad and Bahadurgarh after these centres reported non-receipt of question papers. Besides, the university cancelled the examination for one of the papers for M.Sc (Mathematics-Final) after it was found that the envelope’s seal had been broken during its journey from the strong room to the examination centre in the university’s teaching department. Two employees were promptly suspended after a preliminary probe. The story was repeated on Wednesday during the M. Phil examinations. The examinations for Hindi, History and English were due to begin at the university’s Indira Gandhi Vidya Bhavan at 9.30 a.m. While the examinees occupied their seats, there was no word about the question paper. Anxious inquiries by personnel on duty from the Vice-Chancellor’s office and the strong room, where the papers are kept in safe custody, yielded no results. The problem was resolved after the conduct branch managed to get hold of the original copies of the question papers and circulated photocopies among the examinees. The examination began more than an hour behind schedule. The university has been following a flip-flop examination policy. Before the examinations commenced, it asked affiliated colleges to build strong rooms inside the campuses much on the same lines as banks. The idea was to store the question papers to prevent leakage. Many colleges spent thousands of rupees on building these rooms. A day after the examinations began, the university decided to store question papers in strong rooms of what it called “nodal centres” located in different towns from where question papers were delivered to the rest of the examination centres by university staff minutes before the examinations were to begin. Incidentally, the university staff carries the papers from the nodal centre to all centres in vehicles. Many college principals objected to the system saying storing these in strong rooms in colleges was a better option than carrying the papers twice daily from nodal centres to various examinations centres. They lamented that their institutions had wasted money on constructing strong rooms which could be put to no other use. |
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INLD to meet EC on ‘violation’
New Delhi, May 20 Addressing mediapersons at the conclusion of a meeting of Haryana INLD, party secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala and party’s Haryana chief Ashok Arora said they would meet the EC to complain about the “misuse of official machinery by the Chief Minister”. Mr Chautala said promises were being made by the Chief Minister with an eye on the election and the state government was going ahead with transfers of officials. Mr Ajay Chautala, MP, criticised Mr Hooda for not taking steps for the
construction of the SYL canal. He said several areas in South Haryana were facing acute shortage of drinking water but the government was not taking steps to mitigate suffering of people. Mr Chautala said the Congress did not have a vision for the state and was reversing the people-friendly measures of the previous government. He said the state government had gone to the extent of claiming back unemployment allowance being given to the youth. Mr Chautala showed a receipt, given to a youth from Bahadurgarh, who he said had deposited back unemployment allowance of Rs 200. The INLD leader said his party was collecting details about such instances. Taking a dig at the promise of the Hooda government to provide a clean administration, Mr Chautala said the state government had restored previous postings to certain officials facing CBI probes. Asked about the Congress promise to probe party’s chargesheet against the INLD government, he said the party leadership was ready to face any probe. “They should come forward if they have proof,” he said. Mr Chautala said that the Congress only uses the issue of corruption to win elections. “They used this tactic against Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal and Mr Chandrababu Naidu,” he said. Mr Chautala said Congress leaders should look at themselves before making allegations at others. “In 1947, elders of both Mr Bhajan Lal and Mr Hooda had a few acres land. Look at their wealth now,” he said. He alleged interference in the administration by the wife of a minister. “She held a meeting with officials,” he said. |
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Varinder is ZP chief INLD, Chander Mohan join
Panchkula, May 20 Mr Varinder Singh
Bhau, a known Chander Mohan supporter, was elected as President, while Mr Ram Singh, a long time INLD faithful, was elected as Vice-President of the Panchkula Zila Parishad. Mr Varinder was supported by two other members owing allegiance to Mr Chander Mohan, and three members owing allegiance to the INLD, including Mr Ram Singh. Mr Chander Mohan, who is an ex officio member by virtue of being MLA, was himself present in the meeting. Ms Pankho Devi, who was pitted against Mr Varinder Singh, polled four of the 10 votes. She was supported by the faction which claims to be the Hooda group in Panchkula. This group, led by Mr Umesh Sood and Mr Rajinder Singh, however, did not propose any candidate for the post of Vice-President. It may be noted that Zila Parishad elections are not fought on the party symbol. But in seven of the total 10 wards, Congress workers managed to win at the hustings, while INLD workers won from three wards. In the morning the elections were almost on the verge of being postponed as the Additional Deputy Commissioner-cum-Returning Officer, Mr Praveen Kumar, went on leave. He later delegated the powers to District Development and Panchayat Officer, Ms Monica Malik, to act as the Returning Officer. However, the rift within the local unit of the Congress was apparent. After the elections, Mr Umesh Sood and Mr Rajinder Singh alleged that the elections were an eyewash. They alleged that the MLA had brought his armed gunmen inside the room where the elections were being held, which intimidated the members into voting in favour of Mr Varinder Singh. “The Returning Officer for the elections has to be the Deputy Commissioner or Additional Deputy Commissioner. The latter was appointed as Returning Officer and only he could announce the results. Also, no secret ballot was used for voting.,” they alleged, saying that they would now move the court seeking a stay. However, Ms Malik said the elections were fair and all decisions, including not to use a secret ballot, had been taken with the majority consent. Meanwhile, even at Pinjore, Mr Chander Mohan himself went to see the elections of Pinjore Block Panchayat Samiti. He managed to get his candidate, Ms Shamsher Kaur elected as President and Mr Gurdial Singh Rana as Vice-President. Thirteen votes (of a total of 19) were polled in Ms Shamsher Kaur’s favour and 10 in Mr Rana’s favour. |
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Haryana BJP chief offers to quit
Rohtak, May 20 Talking to mediapersons here he said he had written to the party high command that in view of the embarrassment caused to the party he had no right to continue to head the party's state unit. The BJP leader criticised the Congress and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for playing dirty politics. "This is a fidayeen attack on the BJP. We had no inkling that the dirty tricks department of the Congress was active", he said, adding that the people would never condone such political poaching. Mr Ganeshi Lal, who was visibly upset by the withdrawal, said before launching the campaign Mr Ram Bhaj Hooda had pledged to contest the election. The party had already spent a lot of money on posters and other election materials. All this while, he never indicated he was under pressure from Kiloi voters to quit the contest. He said Mr Hooda had betrayed the party at the behest of the Congress and that there was no truth in his claims that he was pressurised by voters. The fact that he withdrew without informing the party on the last date itself. It indicated that his motive was to deny the party the chance to contest the poll. Answering
a question whether the BJP would now consider extending support to the Indian National Lok Dal nominee, he said he would decide if and when the INLD approached him in this regard. He said the party was consulting lawyers to find out if it could take legal action against Mr Hooda for his withdrawal without the party's approval. |
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Anti-Congress parties fail to unite
Hisar, May 20 Efforts made by local MP Jai Prakash and other Congress leaders notwithstanding, unopposed nomination of the party nominee, Ms Savitri Devi Jindal, could not be achieved. However, the move on the formation of a “saanjha morcha” (United Front) and fielding a common candidate against the Congress nominee has fizzled out. Instead of one, as many as 11 candidates remain in the fray against the Congress. A glance at the political record of these contestants reveals that they are mainly those candidates who either had unsuccessfully contested previous Assembly or municipal elections or had simply bowed out from the contest. A former local leader of the BJP, Dr Rajender Malik, who had joined the Samajwadi Party on being denied the BJP ticket in the recent Assembly poll, is contesting as an Independent. He maintains he is the nominee of the so-called “united front” and claims the support of some other candidates. On the other hand, the district Trade Union Council, who was supposed to play a key role in the formation of the front, has decided to field Mr M.L. Sehgal, who also claims to have the support of several employees’ leaders. Yet another candidate, Mr Surender Arya, a social activist, says he was approached by some leaders of the front, but he did not join their fold. As of now, he is contesting as an Independent. Ms Gayatri Kedia, who unsuccessfully contested the recent municipal poll, is also in the fray. Mr Virender Bagoria of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), who had filed his nomination papers but later withdrew his candidature, says all efforts to field a common candidate against the Congress have failed. Observers maintain that opponents of the Jindal camp, who do not want to come out in the open, have fielded “puppet” candidates to ensure that the Congress nominee is not elected unopposed. |
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Timely action by admn averts child marriages
Karnal, May 20 Revealing this to The Tribune, Mr Sanjiv Verma, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development), said on a tip-off from the Child Development Project Officer, he visited Assandh yesterday and met the respective sarpanches and other people of these villages to apprise them that the scheduled marriages of minor girls were illegal and would invite legal action against the panchayat also. It may be mentioned that Jagdish Singh, resident of village Jalmana, had fixed her14-year-old daughter Neelam’s (name changed) marriage with an adult boy on Friday. However, he had put-off the ceremony. “I have even offered to help financially for the education of Neelam if the family is poor and could not afford to bear the expenses”, said the ADC. He assured that the district administration through any sources would help the minor girl complete her education and then settle down in life. Persuaded by the district official, Ajmer Singh, resident of Uplana, has also put off the marriage ceremony of her 14-year-old daughter Rajni (name changed) which was slated for Sunday. “I have also started a special campaign to educate the village panchayats on the importance of stoppage of child marriages and penal action if anyone encourages child marriages”, he added. |
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Movie off Haryana screens too
Karnal, May 20 Talking to The Tribune, Mr Bansal said cinema operators of Haryana did not want to hurt the religious sentiments of the minority community, though the operators would have to suffer heavy losses. The distributor should charge them according to the number of shows screened, he said. Meanwhile, Mr Raghujit Singh Virk, executive member and spokesman of the SGPC in Haryana, has demanded action against shopowners illegally selling the pirated CDs/DVDs of the movie. |
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Former minister acquitted
in dacoity case
Ambala, May 20 The police had registered a dacoity case against Nirmal Singh and others on the complaint of an INLD leader, Mr Pappu Kharbanda, on November 2, 2001. The other Congress leaders who were booked in this case included Brahmpal Rana, Guljar Singh, Balkar Singh Chudiala, Ranjeet Singh, Balkar Singh Gujjar, Rupinder Singh and Gurdev Singh. Later all of them were granted bail. According to prosecution the Haryana Congress had given a bandh call to protest against the enhancement of house tax by the state government on November 2, 2001. The bandh was also observed in Ambala cantonment. Hundreds of Congress workers led by Nirmal Singh, Ashok Jain and Narenderpal Singh Shera took out a procession at Ambala Cantonment to oppose the government decision. On that day on a complaint of Pappu Kharbanda, the police had registered a dacoity case against Nirmal Singh and others. Mr Kharbanda in his complaint had alleged that Mr Nirmal Singh and others had forced him to shut down the shutter of his shop when he did not follow their direction they took out Rs 25,000 from his cash box. The counsel of Mr Nirmal Singh, Mr Satish Jain, assisted by Mr Rohit Jain pleaded in the court that it was a politically motivated case and his client was implicated falsely. Several witnesses were produced from the prosecution side. Today the argument continued for two hours. After hearing the argument of both side the Judge ordered to acquit him and eight others on the ground of lack of evidences. |
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Small traders demand representation
Ambala, May 20 Mr Ashok Aggarwal, general secretary of the association, said usually big industrialists or businessmen were nominated to such committees. They formed a small percentage of the trading community. “No one can deny the fact that 90 per cent of the trading community is formed by small traders and they have no representative in such committees to put forward their problems,” he said. “It is suggested that while selecting 10 members for the consultative committee, proportionate representation should be given to all sections of the trade and industry,” he said. |
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One held in Navneet murder case
Ambala, May 20 A police official said that Navneet, a resident of Bihta village, had left home on May 17 and gone to Saha to get medicine. He had met Raja at Saha, where allegedly an argument took place between them over a girl. The official said that Raja then strangled Navneet. To make it look like an accident, Raja then repeatedly hit Navneet’s body with a piece of wood. He dumped the body near a resort located close to Tangri river. |
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Plea dismissed on registration of case
Chandigarh, May 20 His father is currently in jail on the charge of being involved in the murder of Baldev Singh, the sarpanch of their village. Saying that with the change of government, Chottu Ram, the son of the deceased, has become very powerful as he is close to top leader of the ruling Congress party. |
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Woman killed in robbery bid
Karnal, May 20 The killing came to light when Juggal Kishore younger son of the woman came to house from his shop at 1.30 pm for lunch. The victim was found dead in a room on the first floor of a three-storey house with a dupatta wrapped around her neck. Deputy Superintendent of Police (City) Mr Ram Swaroop Godara who reached the scene said the neck of the woman might have been strangled with dupatta. A post-mortem examination of the body will be done tomorrow.
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Dr Gurbachan is Director of CSSRI
Karnal, May 20 Dr Singh, a renowned Agronomy scientist, cleared the Agriculture Research Service examination in 1978 and was posted as a scientist in the CSSRI here. He served in the institute for more than 20 years before he was transferred as a Principal Scientist (forestry and agro-forestry) at National Research Centre for Agro-forestry, Jhansi. |
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20-year-old woman raped
Karnal, May 20 As per the complaint, Meenu stated that her husband, a driver with an industrial unit in Panipat, didn’t come home yesterday. “Taking advantage of his absence at home, my brother-in-law, Satta, living with us, raped me during the night time”, she alleged. No arrest has been made so far. |
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6 IAS officers promoted
Chandigarh, May 20 |
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Goel appointed
Chandigarh, May 20 |
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