Chandigarh, January 14
The Opposition INLD staged a brief walkout from the Haryana Assembly today to protest against the Speaker’s refusal to admit two call-attention notices. While one notice was about damage caused to crops by frost, the second was about the shortage of power in the state.

The notices were turned down by the Speaker, Mr Raghubir Singh Kadiyan, saying there was no scope for admitting these as there would be no zero hour. He said since there was no question hour, it was not possible to hold a zero hour discussion. The time immediately after question hour is considered zero hour.

Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, tried to blame the INLD for the absence of question hour and said the Opposition should have provided enough questions. Mr Indora said there was hardly any time for giving questions because no sooner had the last session been prorogued, a fresh one commenced. The INLD members then walked out of the House in protest but returned soon after.

Later, while participating in the debate on the Governor’s Address, Mr Indora asked why the session was being held when there was no pressing business. The election of the Speaker could have taken place even during the Budget session, he said.

Mr Indora was going well till he came to the issue of the law and order situation, which, he claimed, had deteriorated under the Congress regime. A drubbing by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister at this point took the steam off Mr Indora’s speech.

Mr Surjewala flung a barrage of charges regarding the INLD’s alleged links with criminals. He did resume his address but it was never the same again. It was made worse by interruptions by ruling party members in the name of “point of order”.

The Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, intervened only once when he requested the Speaker to allow Mr Indora to speak as long as he wanted.

The major issues raised by Mr Indora in his speech were the state government’s move on the equitable distribution of water, the incidents at Gurgaon and Gohana and the power availability scenario in the state. The government was creating divisions among the people of the state in the name of equitable distribution of water, he said.

Mr Naresh Yadav, Independent MLA, also talked about the damage caused to the mustard crop by frost and sought compensation for the farmers.

The other MLAs who spoke included Mr Tejender Pal Singh Maan, Ms Sumita Singh, Mr Arjun Singh and Mr Habibur Rahman. The shortage of power in the state was mentioned by most of the MLAs, including those supporting the Motion of Thanks. The motion was moved by Mr Anand Singh Dangi and seconded by Rao Dan Singh.

Chandigarh, January 14
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today showed his balancing skills while expanding his Cabinet as well as making a Chief Parliamentary Secretary and seven Parliamentary Secretaries.

“A fine balance of regional and sectional aspirations,” this was how the young MP from Kurukshetra, Mr Naveen Jindal, commented about the composition of the Cabinet. But, what he did not add was the political balance Mr Hooda struck today.

Mr Hooda himself said that the considerations which weighed with him while choosing his new colleagues were representation to as many sections of society as possible, representation to women and representation to the youth. He too did not mention the political balancing act performed by him.

It is true that Mr Hooda has given representation to several communities like the Rajputs, Gujars, Balmikis, Bajigars, Aggarwals and the Sikhs. But while giving representation to various sections of society, Mr Hooda chose younger representatives of the communities to which they belonged at the cost of senior and politically more heavy weight ones. Among the Rajputs, he picked up Ms Sharda Rathore, the first time MLA, ignoring Mr Jai Singh Rana and Mr Satvinder Singh Rana. The Aggarwals would be represented by Mrs Savitri Jindal, again a first timer, and not Mr Mange Ram Gupta, who had been an MLA for a number of times from Jind and had also been a minister.

Similarly, the Gujjar community will be represented by Mr Ram Kishan, another first timer, and not Mr Mahinder Pratap Singh, a former MLA.

The message which Mr Hooda wanted to sent is obvious, and justifiable also, because it is he who will get the credit or discredit for the performance of his ministry. He wants the “Team Bhupinder” to take charge of the state henceforth.

Though Mrs Kiran Choudhary has been given a berth in the Cabinet, though only as a Minister of State, by Mr Hooda, “reluctantly” as many feel, to counter balance her in her native district of Bhiwani, Mr Dharambir has been made the Chief Parliamentary Secretary. Mr Dharambir has been a long-time political rival of Mrs Choudhary’s family.

As a carrot to senior leaders, Mr Hooda has kept a vacancy in his Cabinet.

The name of Mrs Meena Rani came as a surprise. Informed sources say there are only two Balmiki MLAs. Since the other Balmiki MLA belongs to Jhajjar, he could not be inducted because that would have disturbed the regional balance.

By giving representation to women in a large number, Mr Hooda has shown how serious he was when he declared 2006 as the year of girl child. 

Sonepat, January 14
A large number of angry residents held up traffic on the Sonepat-Rohtak road near Thana Kalan village today in protest against the non-replacement of the burnt electricity transformers by officials of the UHBVN for the past 20 days.

According to a report, the residents held a demonstration and raised anti-government and anti-UHBVN slogans and did not allow any vehicle to pass through. A large number of vehicles were lined up on both sides of the road. On receipt of information the police and officials rushed to the site and tried to lift the blockade but they failed in their attempts as the residents were bent upon for immediate replacement of the burnt transformer. In the meantime, Mr Ashok Saroha, a Youth Congress leader, who happened to pass through the road contacted officials of the UHBVN and urged them to accept the demand of the residents. The officials agreed to replace the burnt electricity transformer within three hours. The residents lifted the blockade, and the traffic was normalised on this busy road.

According to another report, irate residents of Kheri Gujjar village thronged the office of the SDM at Ganaur today and apprised him about the burning of the electricity transformer for the past 20 days with the demand of its replacement at the earliest. The SDM reportedly promised to look into their complaint and contact officials of the UHBVN for its replacement.

Chandigarh, January 14
Today’s action of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Haryana Government in appointing a party MLA as Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) and seven others as Parliamentary Secretaries (PS) will be challenged in the Punjab and Haryana High Court by the state unit of the BJP.

Confirming that a decision had already been taken within the party to mount a legal challenge to the “unconstitutional” appointment of the MLAs as CPS and PS, Mr Satyapal Jain, former Chandigarh MP and national convener of the legal cell of the BJP, said the chief of the Haryana unit of the BJP had already consulted him on the issue.

“We are certainly going to move the High Court against the appointments. The Himachal Pradesh High Court has already held similar appointments by the Congress regime there as unconstitutional. Though the Himachal Government has moved the Supreme Court, no stay has so far been granted on their appeal,” Mr Jain told The Tribune.

While the appointment of the CPS and PS in Himachal was set aside by the High Court, the Punjab and Haryana High Court is still to give its judgement on a bunch of petitions in this regard.

Incidentally, one of the PILs pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking directions to the Punjab Government to remove the Parliamentary Secretaries, has been filed by a BJP worker.

This petition as well as other similar petitions state that the appointments are a drain on the state exchequer and are illegal as no such posts exist under the Constitution.

“The appointment of CPS and PS is nothing but a retrograde step by the Congress governments to circumvent the Constitution. It is ironic that the state governments of a party — the Congress — which supported the 91st Amendment to the Constitution, restricting the number of ministers to not more than 15 per cent of the total strength of the legislature, are blatantly violating the Constitution. This is very unfortunate,” Mr Jain added.

Kurukshetra, January 14
The Kurukshetra police has arrested two persons, including a woman, under the Anti-Prostitution Act.

Stating this here yesterday, the district police chief, Mr Sanjay Kumar, said on a tip-off, a decoy customer was sent to a house at Sector 7 of the Urban Estate here.

Two persons were arrested when they were coming out of the house in a Maruti Zen car.

Mr Sanjay Kumar said during interrogation the arrested woman admitted her crime.

She told the police that she and the car driver, Jaswinder, were involved in the flesh trade at the behest of another girl.

Three signed currency notes of Rs 100 each were seized from her.

These currency notes were given to her by the decoy customer before the police raid.

Kurukshetra, January 14
Noted scientist and former Chairman of the UGC, Prof Yash Pal, today addressed a seminar on reinventing education for tomorrow at the Senate Hall, Kurukshetra University, here.

The seminar was organised as part of the golden jubilee year celebrations of the university.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Yash Pal said even as science today was flourishing at a fast speed, yet the scientific temper was continuously on the decline.

Elaborating his views, he said the term scientific temper, which was coined by late Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru, was something which becomes manifest in our concern for the growth and development of humanistic attitude.

For example, we could not wipe out the menace of terrorism simply bombing the terrorist basis. We would have to get at the root cause of this ill. The world would never be at peace with itself unless we removed the economic, social and other disparities prevailing in the human society.

The scientist expressed dissatisfaction over the fact that there was hardly any interaction among various departments in a university.