Hisar, November 18
The Board of Management of Haryana Agricultural University (HAU) has lifted the ban on recruitment at the university.

The board, at its meeting held in Chandigarh yesterday under the chairmanship of the HAU Vice-Chancellor, Dr J.C.Katyal, decided to fill the posts lying vacant in the university shortly.

Disclosing this here today, the HAU Registrar, Dr R.S. Dalal, asserted that the board had given its consent for filling of the vacant posts of teaching as well as non-teaching cadres. The case of filling up 148 posts of teachers would be submitted to the government for approval, he said.

The requirement for filling up of non-teaching posts would be reviewed by a committee, headed by Mr Kulvinder Singh, Special Secretary, Department of Finance, Government of Haryana, he said, adding that the committee would submit its report to the university authorities within a month.

“Following this, a combined proposal for filling up of both teaching and non-teaching posts lying vacant would be sent to the government,” the Registrar stated.

He revealed that the board had also approved the appointment of 27 Heads of Departments of the university. Promotions of Assistant Professors and equivalents to the posts of Associate Professors and those of Associate Professors to the posts of Professors as recommended by the assessment committees were also approved at the meeting.

The board expressed satisfaction over the progress made by the university administration in the implementation of action plan for mutual collaboration with the Agricultural University of Maryland, USA.

To strengthen the collaboration, the board decided to send a delegation of the university, led by the Vice-Chancellor, to Maryland. The line of promotion to the cadre management of stenographic staff was also approved.

Ambala, November 18
Former Ambala Cantonment MLA Anil Vij today strongly criticised the Haryana Government for not referring the multi-crore Agrofed scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Talking to mediapersons here, Mr Anil Vij said in response to a query made under the Right to Information Act, State Public Information Officer, Home Department has stated that no CBI enquiry had been ordered.

“It is intimated that no CBI enquiry has been ordered by the government as the district police has already registered criminal cases and the court is seized of the matter,” the response stated.

Mr Anil Vij said the response has several shortcomings since the complete information they had asked for was not provided. “We are going to appeal to the appellate authority on this issue. We had not only sought CBI enquiry, we had raised certain serious queries in our memorandum,” he said.

He said that none of the queries had been answered. “We had pointed out that fake Agrofed chairman had been provided red light and who had given permission. Also, the Sainik Rest House was used during the scam period. Who had given permission for using it,” he said.

Mr Vij stated that they also wanted to know how many people had become victims of the scam and who all were agents in the job scam. Also, the exact amount of the scam had not yet been disclosed. “Those who were given employment were medically examined in government hospitals. A least 40 such persons were examined at Civil Hospital, Ambala City. Who granted permission for the extension of this service,” he said.

He said that Union Minister Kumari Selja had admitted in a TV interview that she had recommended a person for job in Agrofed. “Her role must be investigated so that the truth can emerge,” he said.

Panipat, November 18
The local police threatened to implicate the labour leaders in false cases when they assembled to protest against the move of police officials forcing the relatives of a labourer, who died in a factory mishap, for accepting the meager compensation from the employers.

This was alleged by Mr P.P. Kapoor, state convener of the Indian Federation of Trade Unions, Haryana, here today.

Later, the police had to register a case against the factory owner when hundred of labourers assembled at the Civil Hospital, where the body of the deceased was sent for post-mortem, and protested against the move of police officials, said Mr Kapoor.

The copies of the complaint against this attitude of the police favouring the industrialists at the cost of interests of poor labourers had been sent to the Human Rights Commission and Mr Ranjeev Singh Dalal, DGP, Haryana, said the IFTU convener.

Pappu, alias Pardip (20), was killed in a mishap when he was working on his machine at a factory in Des Raj Colony last evening.

“I got a call on my cell phone from CID sleuth Joginder Singh and he asked me to leave the hospital premises saying that I would be arrested by the local police and then SHO of city police station Sabha Chand threatened me to implicate in false cases if I did not leave the place,” alleged Mr Kapoor.

The union leader, who is heading the agitation of labourers from the past one year demanding the implementation of the Factory Act with registration of labourers in the attendance register so that they could avail the facilities like provident fund and ESI, alleged that the deceased was not enrolled in the attendance register by the employers also.

Though the factory had been running for the past 20 years employing 28 employees, not even a single person was shown on rolls, alleged Mr Kapoor.

More than 30 workers were killed during this year in factory accidents as no safety measures were implemented in the local factories, Mr Kapoor said.

The police officials played the role of middlemen only in settling the meager amount of compensation to the relatives of the deceased whenever a labourer died in a factory accident to let the industrialists go scot free, alleged Mr Kapoor.

Mr Sabha Chand, SHO (City), refused to talk. Mr Alok Mittal, SP, Panipat, was also inaccessible.

Fatehabad, November 18
The All-India Kisan Sabha today appealed to farmers to organise their fraternity for forcing the government to change its alleged anti-farmer policies rather than going in for extreme steps like suicide.

Addressing farmers at Gorakhpur village in the district today, Mr Lahman Singh Taggar, secretary of the sabha, said suicide was no alternative for getting rid of the hardships of life.

He was leading a jatha of the sabha, which started from Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir and will culminate in New Delhi on November 20, where the sabha is organising a rally on that day.

Three other such jathas have started from the South, the West and the East in the country, all of which will reach New Delhi on November 20.

He said the policies of privatisation and liberalisation adopted by successive governments since 1991 were responsible for the farmers’ plight.

He demanded the implementation of the Swaminathan report on agriculture.

Hisar, November 18
Setting aside all speculation, disgruntled Congress leader Bhajan Lal today said he would neither quit the party, nor float an outfit.

“There is no question of quitting the Congress and forming another one,’’ he said while talking to mediapersons at his residence here.

He, however, said: “Our struggle within the party would continue according to the wishes of the people and everything will be set right at the right time.’’ — UNI

Kurukshetra, November 18
The district police arrested nearly 25 students this morning on a charge of breaching peace on the Kurukshetra University campus here.

The police loaded them in a bus and took them to the Police Lines.

These students were raising slogans against the university and the state government over the issue of reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes in admissions to BEd courses in colleges of the state.

They wanted to stall the process of admission which was to commence today for students of the Scheduled Castes.

Kurukshetra SP Sanjay Kumar said the arrests had been made under Section 107/151 of the CrPC so that the admission process to the BEd colleges could be conducted in a peaceful manner. — UNI

Kurukshetra, November 18
Omkar Chaudhary, Resident Editor, Haribhoomi, a Hindi daily, suggested that media should evolve a code of conduct so that credibility of the Press could be re-established.

He was speaking at a seminar on ‘New Challenges Before Media’, organised on the occasion of the Press Day by the department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Kurukshetra University, in collaboration with the Haryana Sahitya Academy at the university senate Hall here yesterday.

Mr Chaudhary said the media should always keep country and society’s interests on top. The media’s credibility had declined because nation building was not our priority. Unfortunately, Indian news channels had been focusing on programmes that increase TRP, he added.

In his presidential address, Vijay Chopra, editor-in-chief, Punjab Kesri Group of newspapers, called upon students of the department attending the seminar, to use their pens for their rightful purpose and not as swords.

Kaithal, November 18
The CIA branch of the district police has arrested three members of a gang who had looted 454 bags of rice loaded in a truck on November 10 from near Mohna village in this district. The culprits, one of them in khaki uniform, had used a vehicle with red light atop to stop the truck. The accused were produced in the court and were taken on police remand for five days for further interrogation.

Giving this information here yesterday the SSP, Mr Navdeep Singh Virk, said on November 10. Baldev Singh, a resident of Harni village under Allenabad police station, loaded Basmani rice worth Rs 4 lakh in a truck from Ellanabad Mandi at about 2 pm. The rice was to be delivered at Nissing in Karnal district. At about 11 pm when the rice-laden truck reached near Mohan village in Kaithal district a car with a red light overtook the truck and stopped it. Some persons, including one in khaki uniform, got down from the car and asked the driver about the quantity of rice being taken in the truck. When the driver told him that he was carrying 22 tonnes of Basmati rice, the accused pointed that the truck was overloaded. The culprits allegedly pulled out a pistol and asked the driver and cleaner to get down from the truck. Later they put their own men on the driving seat of the truck and drove towards Nissing. The driver and cleaner were dumped in a sugarcane field.

The SSP said that following this incident two teams under the DSP AEC, Mr Surinder Singh Bhoria, were constituted. After getting some clues about the robbery a police party conducted a raid at the shop of Malook Singh at Amloh and arrested Harminder Singh, a resident of Sonti, Manpreet, a resident of Bhollian and Malook Singh, a resident of Machheraikalan. The police is looking for other members of the gang.