Nuh (Mewat), September 26
It seems that the Police Department has taken over the reins of the Food and Supplies Department in the district. Police teams are raiding local centres of the department without any requisite request or permission from the department/district authorities. An inspector of the Food and Supplies Department has also been arrested as part of the ongoing police “drive”.

Petrified by police terror, all of the nearly 400 ration depot holders of the district have resigned and shut shops. In their resignation letter, copies of which have been sent to the Chief Minister, Food and Supplies Minister, Commissioner and Director of the department as well as the local authorities, the depot holders have categorically stated that they were unable to operate due to the reign of terror unleashed by the police.

Unable to bear the pressure, almost all staff members of the Food and Supplies Department in the district also went on mass leave to register their protest.

Due to the prevailing situation, the functioning of the department has been paralysed and the kerosene meant for the public distribution system (PDS) supply has not been procured. If the issue is not resolved forthwith, the PDS supply will be adversely affected.

Still, the department or the district authorities have completely failed to take any concrete action in this regard.

It is learnt that a deputy director of the Food and Supplies Department was recently sent to Mewat to resolve the crisis, but nothing worthwhile came out of his visit.

Nuh DFSC Bijender Singh confirmed that the stalemate over the police action in department matters was on. He said on his part, he had brought the matter to the knowledge of the local Deputy Commissioner as well as his state bosses.

It has also been learnt that taking advantage of the local politics, complaints are being invited from villagers against the functioning of the ration depots, apparently in a bid to justify police action.

Chandigarh, September 26
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that a teacher found guilty of indecent behaviour with girl students is required to be dealt with sternly. Such a teacher, perhaps, has no place in service.

The ruling came on headmaster Ravi Kumar’s petition against the “punishment of stoppage of five increments with cumulative effect” on allegations of “indecent behaviour with the students”.

Justice Ranjit Singh ruled: “Indecent behaviour towards a student by a teacher, who is head of the institution being head master, is something which will be and should be intolerable, inviting serious repercussions.

“Schools are not only meant to impart studies alone but are temples of learning. Teachers are gurus and are to teach good moral values to innocent students who spend more time in schools than their homes.

“Teacher, who is the head master, is a parental trustee in whose care the student remains during the school hours. If he starts behaving in an indecent or inappropriate manner, it will be something which certainly would call for serious notice and widest condemnation”.

Going into the background, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: As per a news item, the petitioner is alleged to have misbehaved with female students in Vishvas School, Hisar. Some statements of about 40 female students were recorded under the directions of SDM Ishwar Singh Dahiya.

“The allegations were that the petitioner after washing his hands did obscene acts under the pretext of wiping his hands with the dupatta of the girl students. When the girl students objected, the petitioner threatened them to strike their names off the rolls of the school.

“It surfaced the petitioner used to enter into the classrooms in a filmy style wearing black shades while combing his hair and instead of teaching, he kept devising means to attract the female students.”

Dismissing the plea, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “The punishment imposed is rather lenient. The teacher, who is supposed to be a role model for a student and is meant to build the moral character of a student, is seen behaving in a manner which is indecent, inappropriate and highly undesirable. There is no merit in the writ petition and the same is accordingly dismissed”. 

Sonepat, September 26
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said the government was committed to promoting animal husbandry to make it one of the major sources of employment and income for the people of the state.

He was addressing the 22nd biannual sammelan of the Diploma Veterinry Association organised at Rishikul Vidyapeeth here.

He said the landholdings were shrinking and people in villages were being compelled to look for other sources of income.

Realising the situation, the government had formulated new plans and accorded priority to the promotion of animal husbandry and livestock development, he said, and claimed that the annual budget of the Animal Husbandry Department had been increased around five times from Rs 55 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 272 crore this year.

The Chief Minister said the proposed animal sciences university at Hisar would help bring about qualitative and quantitative improvement in this field and make Haryana “another Denmark in milk production”.

The government would fill vacant 150 posts of veterinary surgeon and an equal number of veterinary livestock development assistants shortly.

Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Paramvir Singh presided over the sammelan.

Sirsa, September 26
The Queen’s Baton relay today entered the state peacefully near Chautala village, where PV Rathee, president of the Haryana Olympic Association, received the baton from his counterpart from Rajasthan Janarthan Singh Gahlot.

Contrary to the claims of the Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti, none of its activists tried to come near the relay that was received on the Haryana’s border with Rajasthan amidst tight police security.

Jawans of the Rapid Action Force and the Haryana police guarded the route taken by the baton relay, which is on its way to Delhi for the Commonwealth Games.

Several sportspersons, including the Arjuna and Bhim awardees, accompanied the relay. The cavalcade of vehicles accompanying the baton relay arrived at Chautala almost three hours behind its scheduled arrival of 12 noon.

A large number of villagers and sports lovers had assembled near the place, where the authorities received the Queen’s Baton. The Baton arrived in Sirsa in the evening after a brief halt at Dabwali town. Haryana Minister for Sports Gopal Kanda received the baton in Sirsa.

The Baton relay halted at Chaudhary Dalbir Singh Indoor Stadium for a few minutes and then went for a round towards Hero Honda Agency and Tara Baba Kutiya. The relay will leave for Fatehabad tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, elaborate arrangements have been made in Fatehabad town to welcome the relay. DC Vijay Singh Dahiya said the relay would arrive in Papiha Tourist Complex at 8 am, where 20 top players from the district would be present. He said over 1,000 schoolchildren would run with the Baton from the tourist complex to the Bhuna crossing.

Fatehabad SP JS Lamba said elaborate security arrangements had been made for the security of the relay.

Karnal, September 26
A woman constable deployed at the Madhuban Police Academy committed suicide in the academy complex, near here, late last night allegedly due to harassment by her in-laws for dowry.

The constable, Sudesh Kumari, hailing from Jind, was recruited in the Haryana police three years ago. She had got married to Jagjit Singh of Gohana on March 7 this year.

Her brother, Pradeep Kumar, alleged that Sudesh was being tortured for dowry by her husband and in-laws though she used to give her entire salary to her in-laws. Pradeep said she ended her life last night by consuming poison as she could not bear the torture anymore.

The police has registered a case of abetment to suicide against her husband Jagjit Singh, father-in-law Sat Narayan, mother-in-law Satwanti, sister-in-law Kavita and Mahabir Singh.

Sonepat, September 26
A large number of residents of Revli village yesterday blocked the GT Road near Murthal for around three hours in protest against the murder of Bijender of the village. He was allegedly shot dead by some armed persons on Friday evening at his house in Bahadurpur village.

The victim’s family had purchased 10 acres in Bahadurpur village. He along with his wife Anita had gone there on Thursday to spray the paddy fields.

According to Anita, Bijender was allegedly shot dead by unidentified armed persons while she was in the other room of the house. She saw three-four persons escaping after committing the crime, she added.

After receiving information of the blockade, SSP KK Rao and ADC SS Dalal reached the spot and persuaded the protesters to lift the blockade assuring that the case would be investigated and the alleged accused would be nabbed soon.

Vijender’s brother Suresh, who was serving as assistant lineman in a power nigam at Murthal, was also allegedly murdered when he was going to his office on September 1. His body was founding lying on the Devru road here.

Sirsa, September 26
The Haryana Federation of Engineers (HFE) has sought pay parity with HCS (executive) officers, doctors and lecturers.

The federation claims that the pay scales of sub-divisional officers and assistant engineers working in various public works departments have always remained on par with doctors working in the Haryana Civil Medical Services (HCMS), college lecturers and HCS (executive services).

However, disparities have now crept in after the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission to the detriment of the engineers.

RK Sharma, state president of the HFE, said their members, who had been agitating to bring parity in their scales with effect from January 1, 2006, had announced to end their agitation after assurance of the government on September 1, 2009.

However, nothing has been done so far done by the government in this direction.

He said after the Fourth Pay Commission report in 1986, the doctors, engineers and the HCS officers enjoyed equal pay scales of Rs 2,200-4,000, which were increased to Rs 8,000-13,500 for all these categories after the implementation of the fifth pay panel reports in 1996.

In all three categories, the senior scales of Rs 10,000-13,900 were to be given after five years of initial appointment.

The federation leaders allege that the parity in the scales that had been continuing since decades had been disturbed after the sixth pay panel.

“While HCS officers are being given Rs 15,600-39,100 with pay band 3 and grade pay of Rs 5,400 from the beginning, the HCMS doctors are being given this scale after completion of their probation i.e. two years.

“The engineers are being treated badly by giving them a scale of Rs 9,300-34,800 with PB 3 and grade pay of Rs 5,400,” alleged Sharma.

He said though after the completion of five years of service, all three categories had been placed at a similar scale of Rs 15,600-39,100 with PB-3 and GP of Rs 6,000, the starting salary given to them was discriminatory. 

Karnal, September 26
Renowned cardiovascular and cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Naresh Kumar Trehan has expressed concern over Indians falling prey to heart diseases at the young age of 35 to 45 years and the number of heart patients increasing at a rapid pace.

Dr Trehan, who was here for an interactive session on World Heart Day on invitation of the Indian Medical Association, Karnal, said there were already 6 crore heart patients in the country, which was increasing at the rate of 12 to 15 per cent every year. A more worrying aspect was that these patients would grow at the rate of 25 to 30 per cent in a decade.

“The average age of foreigners falling prey to heart diseases is 45 to 55 years. However, the silver lining for Indians is that a new technique in which the stem cells of an individual are processed and injected back into the heart, which creates new arteries and increases blood supply to the heart, has kindled hope for them,” he added.

Attributing the heart ailments to factors like high blood pressure, stress, family history, fat and tobacco, Dr Trehan said even a healthy person had 3 per cent chance of becoming a heart patient.

Exhorting the audiences to adopt a healthy lifestyle by taking a balanced diet, reducing weight, and doing yoga, Dr Trehan advised that every male should go for screening once a year till the age of 30 and every woman till the age of 35 years, as females were less prone to heart diseases as compared to males. 

Kaithal, September 26
The Haryana College Teachers Association, which represents government-aided private colleges of the state, has alleged discrimination by the government against the retired teachers of the aided colleges.

Rajbir Parashar, general secretary of the HCTA, said here today that despite several requests to the Higher Education Commissioner and the Education Minister, the pension and gratuity of the retired teachers had not been revised as per the Sixth Pay Commission. However, this benefit had been extended to retired university and government college teachers.. He said teachers recruited after January 2006 were frustrated over the “non-deduction of the PF under the new pension policy”.

The HCTA will launch a campaign from October 4 to October 9 in support of their demands.