Chandigarh, May 13
The Congress in Haryana is on the boil. Some state leaders are queuing up at the Delhi darbar for appointment with UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi even as Union Minister for Tourism and MP from Ambala, Kumari Selja has become more active within the state over the past few months.

Sources say party leaders, including a few ministers of the Hooda cabinet have met the Congress president over the past few days to discuss the “fast-changing political situation”.

While Hooda loyalist Education and Health minister Geeta Bhukkal met Sonia Gandhi last week, Finance Minister Capt Ajay Singh Yadav and Hooda’s bête noire Kiran Choudhary met the Congress president over the past two days while senior Birender Singh is learnt to have sought an appointment with her.

These leaders want to present their side of the story and give “independent feedback” on government working following the Mirchpur violence against Dalits, leading to the death of two of them, and the noise created by the khaps demanding amendment of the Hindu Marriage Act to ban same-gotra marriages.

While Hooda is being charged with a bias in favour of Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonepat areas by his detractors, the government is in the line of fire from quarters within the party for its “delayed reaction” to the Mirchpur violence.

Also, the unfettered khaps open threat to gherao leaders “indifferent” to their demand, has not gone down well with state leaders.

Though the Mirchpur fire may have died out and the Dalits may be in a conciliatory mood, the headache for the political leadership seems far from over. “First the khaps went about raising a lot of dust.

Then, Mirchpur happened. Even as the government was trying to tackle the sensitive issue, the khaps turned aggressive, seeking action on their demand. “Then, MP Navin Jindal did the party in by attending a khap meeting. These development speak volumes about how the state is being run,” said a Congress leader.

Meanwhile, the usually low-profile Union Minister, Selja, the party’s Dalit face at the Centre, has been actively touring the state, taking a keen interest in tourism projects.

It may be coincidental but she is among the first senior leaders to have visited the aggrieved families of Mirchpur.

It was a day after her visit that the Chief Minister went to the village to offer condolences and assistance to the affected families. She is widely believed to be behind Rahul Gandhi’s “surprise visit” to Mirchpur which stunned the state government.

Again, at a recent fire that burnt down 200-odd jhuggis in Mansa Devi Complex, she specially came down from Delhi to Panchkula, a part of the Ambala parliamentary seat, to meet the families and share their grief.

The corridors of power these days resound with the talk of the state Congress having being struck by “ill-luck”at a time when the state is in the poll mode with the municipal elections slated for May 20 which are to be followed by the panchayat polls.

What comes out of the “feedback” meetings of various leaders is yet to be seen.

Chandigarh, May 13
Even if the government withdraws the retirement benefits of former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore, who has been convicted in the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case, the pension already paid to him cannot be recovered. His appeal against the conviction as well as the CBI’s petition for enhancing his sentence is pending for adjudication before a Chandigarh court. The decision is likely to come on May 20. Rathore is getting provisional pension so far because when he retired, the Ruchika case was pending against him.

Accountant-General (A&E), Haryana, Balwinder Singh said here today that under the rules, even if the government decided to withdraw Rathore’s retirement benefits, whatever had been paid to him as provisional pension could not be recovered from him, unless the government issued a special order.

He said only those cases of pension got delayed in his office, where the state government departments failed to provide no-objection certificates certifying that nothing was to be recovered from the beneficiary or no case was pending against him.

Surprisingly, topping the list of defaulting departments is not the engineering department, where inquiries against engineers remain pending for long. It is the Food and Supplies Department, which has issued general instructions to Balwinder Singh’s office that no payment should be made to any retiring employee without its consent. Obviously, the most number of employees whose retirement benefits have been delayed belong to the Food and Supplies Department, Haryana.

Balwinder Singh said his office had finalised 32,796 cases of revision of pensionary benefits after the Haryana government notified the revised pay scales with effect from January 1, 2006, in September last.

He said to expedite the pension cases, quarterly meetings with the state government departments would be held to share the status of such cases.

During 2009-10, of the 9,996 cases of service pension received by his office, only 36 cases could not be finalised for want of complete information. He said the annual GPF account statements were issued to about 2.52 lakh subscribers up to March 31 and about 11,000 cases of final payment of the GPF were settled.

Fatehabad, May 13
Are some government officials, who have been entrusted the task of collection of data as enumerators, outsourcing their work? The authorities here received a complaint in this regard recently in which a supervisor under the census operations has sought to be relieved of his work if the outsourcing of work cannot be stopped.

The supervisor has alleged in his complaint that officials working under him as enumerators have been outsourcing their work to some outsiders.

Sources said the practice was prevalent at several other places where government officials entrusted with the task of recording data of residents had been engaging unemployed persons on a contract basis. It is an exercise of vital importance for the country and any laxity in this can lead to false computation of records.

Deputy Commissioner CG Rajini Kaanthan, however, said the complaint had been found to be wrong. He said the tehsildar was asked to probe the matter and he found that there was no truth in the complaint.

He said the supervisor, who made the complaint, would soon be replaced for he had not been able to work along with his team members.

Rohtak, May 13
An undertrial was gunned down in broad daylight near Kheri Sadh village, 10 km from here, today. The driver of his car was also killed in the incident which is suspected to be a revenge attack. Two of the accused have been arrested.

Phool Singh (45) of Karor village was on his way to Rohtak, along with his son Himmat (17), driver Surender and gunman Bansi Lal, when their Indica car was intercepted by a Tavera and a Pulsar motorcycle.

The assailants rammed their vehicle into the car even as they opened indiscriminate fire. Phool singh and his son got off from the car and ran for safety into the fields. They were chased by the attackers who pumped several bullets into Phool Singh, killing him there and then. His son escaped unhurt. About 20 rounds of bullets were fired, said the police sources.

The driver of the car was also killed on the spot. The security guard armed with an SLR saved his life by hiding behind the car dashboard.

Phool Singh and his brother, an ex-sarpanch, faced triple murder charges.

While Phool Singh was on bail, his brother is said to be in judicial custody.

Swift actionby the police resulted in the arrest of two of the accused, Pradeep and Ballu.within a few hours. But four opthers are yet to be traced.

Jind: An undertrial was shot dead from close range by armed persons near the local courts this morning. Ram Niwas of Khatkar village in the district, accused in several cases, was shot as he was about to get into a car.

He was declared brought dead by doctors of the Civil Hospital. The assailants escaped in a car parked on Gohana road about a hundred yards from the court complex.

They gave the police the slip despite barricades at various roads and exit points of the city.

The victim, aged 32, was a history sheeter, said the Additional SP, Simrandeep Singh.

He said a hunt had been launched.

Chandigarh, May 13
Dismissing the parole plea of convict Ganga Raj, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today admitted an appeal filed by him and six others in the Manoj-Babli case.

The appeal comes less than two months after a sessions court in Karnal awarded the death penalty to five convicts for the murder of the young couple, while two others were sentenced to life imprisonment and seven years.

The couple had earned the wrath of the khap panchayat by marrying within the same gotra. Ganga Raj, who had called the pPanchayat that declared the marriage invalid and was present when the killings took place, was awarded the life term. The appeal was placed before the Division Bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Jaswant Singh. This was, perhaps, the first time that conviction and death sentences were handed down in a case of honour killing in Haryana.The judgment is seen as a stern message to the khap panchayats.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Vani Gopal Sharma, facing threat for the “strong judgment”, had placed the case in the category of “rarest of rare”, while sentencing to death Babli’s brother Suresh, uncles Rajender and Baru Ram, and cousins Gurdev and Satish.

Another accused, Mandeep Singh, driver of the car in which the bodies were transported to a canal, was sentenced to seven years in jail.

Karnal, May 13
The Haryana Yuva Balmiki Mahasabha has threatened to gherao the Taraori police station on May 17 if the police fails to take “some effective action” to nab the culprits allegedly involved in the killing of Rajesh Kumar near the Chapra bridge in Taraori on April 24. In a memorandum submitted to Deputy Commissioner, JS Alhawat, leaders of the mahasabha claimed that there were many clues to trace the culprits but the police had not taken any action.

Mahasabha leader Joginder Gogri said the cycle of Rajesh was found at the house of Sheru and his father Krishan Lal had informed that he (Rajesh) had parked the cycle there and left. Another coincident was that a co-worker, Suresh Kumar, and his wife Saroj had gone missing from the day of the incident.

Further, Neelam, a washerwoman, had allegedly threatened to kill Rajesh five days before his murder, family members said and demanded immediate arrest of Suresh, Saroj and Neelam. Gogri said even after 18 days of the incident, the police had no substantial evidence. Earlier, activists of the mahasabha staged a protest march from Karan Park to the mini-secretariat and raised slogans against the administration. 

Sirsa, May 13
One of the two teachers facing allegations of sexual harassment by a student of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department had approached Sadhna Mittal, protection officer under the Domestic Violence Act, during the course of the inquiry and offered to tender a written apology before the authorities in this case.

Mittal, the inquiry officer appointed by Deputy Commissioner Yudhbir Singh Khyalia in this case, submitted her final report yesterday and has recorded this fact in her report. A copy of the report is with The Tribune.

Sadhna Mittal, who had earlier submitted a report of the inquiry on May 3, was asked to probe further, when some students, mostly girls, alleged that these teachers were using internal assessment as a tool for harassment of students.

The inquiry officer recorded the statements of the two teachers, the complainant, her roommate in the hostel, and six other students of the JMC Department.

While the two teachers have denied allegations of the complainant in their statements, four other students of the department, including three girls, have also defended them.

While a girl, who was allegedly present during the incident, has denied the allegations of the complainant, the other students defending their teachers have described them as “helping” and termed the complainant as “short-tempered”, in their almost identical statements.

Conversely, the girl, who shares room with the complainant in the hostel, said in her statement that she found the complainant distressed on April 6, the day of the alleged sexual harassment, and broke down when she wanted to know the reason.

The complainant, her roommate said, narrated the incident of her sexual harassment by the two teachers.

With the report, a memorandum by over 100 girl students of the university and a joint statement by some local residents, who alleged that they have met the university authorities too in this regard, but have no hope of justice from them, is also attached in the file. On the issue of internal assessment, both teachers have maintained that it is not necessary that the students getting good marks in the semester examinations will perform well in internal examinations too.

The report further said that even the girls, who defended their teachers, have not said anything against the complainant, except she being a “short-tempered” girl.

The student’s guide, as recorded by Sadhna Mittal in her report, came to her and offered a written apology in the case. 

Sirsa, May 13
The three-member committee constituted by the Chaudhary Devi Lal University authorities to look into the complaint of harassment of a woman Assistant Professor, allegedly by the Professor and chairman of her department, is unlikely to probe the matter.

The committee held its first meeting today, but, according to sources, its members were reluctant to probe the matter.

The members finally decided to refer the matter back to the establishment branch of the university that sent the matter to them for the probe.

The members, the sources said, were of the view that the matter, due to the nature of allegations, should be probed by the women complaints committee set up by the university to probe cases of sexual harassment in the light of the Supreme Court judgment in the Vishakha case.

The sources said the members of the committee were impelled to take this decision partially due to the contents of para 4 of the complaint of the woman Assistant Professor, and largely due to a communication of the Haryana State Women Commission.

The commission, in its communication received here today, has asked the university authorities to get the matter probed by the women complaints committee of the university and send a report.

Meanwhile, the Haryana State Women Commission has taken a strong view of the university authorities adopting a “lackadaisical approach” in cases of sexual harassment occurring on the university campus.

Chandigarh, May 13
The Punjab and Haryana High Court wants the state of Haryana to provide information on how much land had been released in the state to accommodate or benefit realtors, builders, businessmen and others.

Directions have also been issued to provide information on identity of such persons or builders; whether they were local, regional, national or international players and nature of project envisaged by such colonisers or industrialists. The directions were issued on the basis of issues raised by amicus curiae in land acquisition cases pending before the Bench headed by Justice MM Kumar.

As the case came up, the amicus curiae asserted the state could not release land already acquired, especially when the land was released with a motive to help colonisers, realtors, businessmen and others. It was clear abuse of power.

The amicus curiae also sought directions from the Bench for providing the additional information, which was crucial at the current stage. Accepting the suggestions made by Gupta, the Bench has directed the Haryana state to provide this information on or before the next date of hearing, which has been fixed for May 24.

Sonepat, May 13
The proposal of Reliance Industries to set up a slaughterhouse at a site in the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) complex at Rai has met with stiff opposition from different sections of society.

After reading a news item about the proposal in a vernacular daily, hundreds of people from Rai and the adjoining villages and representatives of industries at Rai today held a protest at the HSIIDC office complex and handed over a memorandum, addressed to the Managing Director of the HSIIDC, to the AGM of HSIIDC at Rai, Om Dutt Vashist, against the setting up of the slaughterhouse.

The protesters alleged that about 300 acres in Rai village were acquired in 1994 for a fruit and vegetable market but later it was handed over to the HSIIDC for setting up industrial units. Any attempt to set up a slaughterhouse would be opposed strongly, they said.

President of the Small-Scale Industries Association, Rai, Madan Lal Gandhi a supported the villagers. Vashist clarified that there was no such proposal.

Bhiwani, May 13
The Board of School Education, Haryana, will declare the results of Secondary (Regular & Private) Semester Examination, March 2010, on May 14.

A spokesman for the board said 3,10,799 candidates appeared in secondary second semester examination, out of which result of 2,53,785 candidates declared pass giving a pass percentage of 81.66.

He said 1,73,169 male candidates appeared, out of whom 1,40,688 got through . The pass percentage stood at 81.24.

Similarly, 1,13,097 were declared pass out of a total 1,37,630 female candidates. Their pass percentage was 82.17. He further said in government schools, as many as 1,55,273 candidates appeared and 1,18,528 were successful.

The result would be available from May 14 from 6am onwards by SMS on BSNL mobile hr10<roll no>56666 (SMS code) and on helpline number 01664-254000 set up at board headquarters and on website http://bseh.gov.in and http://results.nic.in from 9 am onwards. — OC