Chandigarh, January 20
After the Cabinet rejig at the Centre, it seems Haryana is also preparing for one. While hopeful Congress MLAs had been eyeing a Cabinet berth for over a year now, the ball has been set rolling with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda reportedly in Delhi to get the nod from the high command.

Sources say the list of probables includes the names of two “defector” MLAs of the Haryana Janhit Congress as also former Minister of State Kiran Choudhry. Though Vidhan Sabha Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha is learnt to be keen on being rehabilitated as a minister, it remains to be seen if Hooda will give in to his demand.

If the Chief Minister does decide to have Chatha in the Cabinet, the Congress will have to find his replacement, creating another vacancy.

Sources say from among the five “defector” MLAs, Satpal Sanghwan from Dadri and Rao Narinder from Narnaul are in the race though the name of Vinod Bhayana is also doing the rounds. The “defectors”, who joined the Congress in Novemner 2009 after the Cabinet was sworn in, have been pressing for a Cabinet expansion, contending that their wait of 15 months should finally end.

Tosham MLA Kiran Choudhry, one of Hooda’s fiercest critics, is likely to stage a comeback in the Cabinet after a compromise was worked out between the two last year. The compromise formula, included a ministerial berth for her.

With four vacancies in the Cabinet, Hooda may well keep his MLAs on their toes. The Cabinet expansion could take place within the next 10 days since the Chief Minister is slated to go abroad on February 2.

Hooda, who returned to the city this morning, again left for Delhi this evening and is learnt to be keen on inducting new ministers. Sources said with Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia away till January 23, a Cabinet expansion could be slated for sometime next week.

The appointment of a new Pradesh Congress chief, too, is awaited and is likely after the expected expansion. Meanwhile, a number of Congress MLAs hopeful of being appointed as chairpersons of various boards and corporations are learnt to be lobbying for the post.

The appointment of the Haryana Public Service Commission has been hanging fire for over a year after its chairman BB Batra resigned from the post to contest elections. A search for a new Haryana Pollution Control Board chairman is also on.

Jind, January 20
The Naugama (nine villages) Khap Panchayat today blocked the Jind- Bhiwani highway at two points till late in the evening in support of the demands of the Sarvjatiya Sarvkhap Mahapanchayat.

The highway connects important roads that link Punjab and Himachal Pradesh with South Haryana and Rajasthan. It is an important route for trucks carrying perishable items to and from Himachal and Punjab areas.

As many as 102 persons observed a one-day token fast in support of the four youths on an indefinite fast demanding a fresh CBI probe into the Mirchpur incident. A team of doctors examined the health of the fasting youths.

Meanwhile, the dharna at the railway track near Julani village continues.The protesters have erected three tents- two near the Jind railway station and the third on the rail track. Residents of nearby villages are providing rations to the protesters.Tea is being served at the dharna site round the clock.

Suresh Koth, convener of the 12-member panel leading the agitation, claimed that the highway was blocked by residents of several villages in support of the stir without the Mahapanchayat giving a call for such an action.

He said the stir would soon be spread to other parts.The Naugama Panchayat covers Bibipur,Ghimana, Ikkas, Igrah, Ramrai, Intelkalan, Intelkhurd, Jalalpurkalan, Jalalpurkhurd, Rajpurabhain, Gulkani and Baganwala villages. The INLD chief and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Om Prakash Chautala, when asked to comment on the agitation said every person had the right to express his viewpoint in a constitutional manner.

Chandigarh, January 20
Five former HJC MLAs have filed their replies to the petitions filed against them by HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi before Haryana Speaker HS Chatha.

The MLAs - Rao Narinder Singh, Satpal Sangwan, Venod Bhayana, Zile Ram Sharma and Dharam Singh Chhokar - had “merged” their party with the Congress in 2009. Bishnoi challenged their act before Chatha and sought their disqualification from the membership of the Assembly under the Anti-Defection Law.

Later, Bishnoi moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court urging the court to issue directions to the Speaker to decide his petitions expeditiously. The court directed the Speaker to complete the hearing within four months.

Along with their replies, the MLAs also filed an application praying the Speaker to exclude “unnecessary, scandalous and vexatious matter” contained in the petitions filed by Bishnoi.

The MLAs are believed to have stated in their reply that a general body meeting of the HJC was held in Karnal on November 8, 2009, in which it was decided that the HJC should be merged with the Congress. Thus, the two parties stood merged on that date.

They said the same day a separate meeting of the MLAs was held, in which five of the six HJC MLAs endorsed this decision.

They claimed that initially even Bishnoi had agreed to the merger.

The MLAs said in their reply that CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda had obtained the confidence of the Assembly on October 28, 2009, and the merger of the two parties 10 days after that had no bearing on the formation of the government. The court in its judgment had observed that but for the so-called merger, the Congress government would not have been formed in Haryana.

New Delhi, January 20
The Supreme Court today took up for final disposal the petitions filed by the Chautala brothers, Abhey and Ajay, challenging their prosecution for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.

A Bench comprising Justices VS Sirpurkar and TS Thakur, which had stayed the trial court proceedings on October 22, 2010, heard the arguments by senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi and UU Lalit on behalf of the brothers and Solicitor-General Gopal Subramanium for the CBI.

Citing SC verdicts in the cases relating to former Chief Ministers Bhajan Lal (Haryana) and AR Antulay (Maharashtra), Rohatgi said prior sanction from the removing authority was necessary if the accused held a public office on the day of taking cognizance of the charge sheet.

His client, Abhey, was an MLA during 2000-05 when he was alleged to have amassed wealth and again from January 27, 2010, while the trial court had taken note of the charge sheet on February 2, 2010. During the two hours of inconclusive arguments by Rohatgi, the Solicitor-General intervened several times to contend that no sanction was necessary to prosecute a person after he had completed his term in the assembly when he was accused of abusing his official position to accumulate wealth. Rohatgi said the CBI should have taken the permission of the Haryana Assembly Speaker before prosecuting Abhey. At this, Justice Thakur said the Speaker was not the removing authority in the case of MLAs. Rohatgi said since the provision for sanction was aimed at facilitating persons holding public office to function without the fear of being subjected to mala fide litigations, his client, being an MLA now ,was entitled to this protection.

The arguments will continue on January 25.

Chandigarh, January 20
President of India Pratibha Patil has come to the aid of whistleblower Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi hounded by Haryana Government functionaries for exposing violations in the Saraswati Wildlife Sanctuary at Kurukshetra and preventing the misuse of government money for plantation on land owned by a MLA close to the then state Forest Minister.

In the first case of its kind in the country, the President has ordered that the charge sheet prepared by the Haryana government against the officer be quashed. The orders have come following the report of an inquiry committee set by the Cabinet Secretary to look into the alleged harassment of the officer chargesheeted by the government in September 2007 without permission from the requisite Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court.

Though the government reportedly contested the quashing of the charge sheet, the inquiry committee comprising the IG, Wildlife, Government of India, and an AIG in the Ministry of Environment and Forests, found that the same was not justified as the officer had been indicted for upholding the law.

Almost three years ago, Chaturvedi had objected to the felling of trees and construction work at the Sarawati Wildlife Sanctuary by the Irrigation Department without permission from the competent authority. When the matter was brought to the notice of the Central Empowered Committee of the SC, it imposed a fine of Rs 1 crore on the Haryana government.

Almost at the same time, Chaturvedi also objected to the alleged misuse of public funds by the state Forest Department which had ordered plantation on private land owned by MLA Prahlad Singh Gillankhera. The state government then issued a charge sheet to the officer under major penalties and he was suspended.

It was only after the officer approached the President of India that his suspension was revoked in January 2008, but the state government refused to drop the charges against him.

In the meantime, the officer approached the State Information Commission which in April 2009 said that the charge sheet against him was wrong and ordered a compensation of Rs 10,000 to the officer.

As the government refused to drop the charges against him, the officer lost out on his promotion in the Junior Administrative Grade.

Karnal, January 20
Ten prisoners, who were brought from the Kurukshetra jail for a hearing in a case, escaped from the police custody from the courts complex here today.

All 10 belonged to the notorious “Bawaria Gang” of Bharatpur (Rajasthan) and were undergoing life imprisonment.

All ten were convicted in another dacoity case under Section 395 of the IPC in Assandh in 2009 and were to be produced in the court today.

The incident, which brought shame to the police force, took place when the prisoners were sitting in the prison van. They broke the grill and escaped one by one. Only the driver was inside the van when the convicts dodged the police and escaped.

The six-member escort headed by Sub-Inspector Prem Singh included three ASIs Suraj Bhan, Krishan Kumar and Rajender Singh, one head constable Joginder and a driver.

Eyewitness said the prisoners silently broke the grill and managed to escape, while two of the cops had gone to take the warrant and the other three were standing outside the police van.

Advocate Shamsher Nain said there were 72 prisoners in the court complex today who were guarded by just a handful of cops.

The police launched a massive manhunt and managed to arrest three of them, namely Mangal, Ashok and Santosh.

The seven others, including Jeewan, Lakhan, Chandan, Rajesh, Alia, Laxman and Ghansham, are still at large.

Karnal SP Rakesh Arya said red alert had been sounded and a manhunt launched to arrest the remaining seven culprits.

The police has registered another case against the prisoners and booked the members of the escort for laxity in duty on the basis of the statement of the driver, the SP added.

Sirsa, January 20
Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh today got exemption from personal appearance before the CBI court in the criminal cases pending against him till January 25.

The dera chief has been appearing through video conferencing before the CBI court, which has been hearing cases against him in Ambala.

Sources in the district courts said the CBI court had given him exemption from personal appearance till January 25 on an application moved on his behalf. The court will, however, continue hearing cases against the dera chief on daily basis as usual.

Followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda had started staging demonstrations outside the local courts complex ever since the CBI court had started hearing cases against him on daily basis since January 5.

The district authorities had to impose prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC on January 10. However, the prohibitory orders failed to deter the followers, who continued to block the highway outside the court.

The court gave the dera chief a reprieve on January 12, when the cases were adjourned till January 19. Hundreds of followers again held a protest yesterday in protest against the dera chief’s appearance.

However, the dera chief did not turn up and a senior functionary of the dera informed that the court had given him exemption from personal appearance till January 25.

Faridabad, January 20
At a public meeting held in connection with the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s nationwide yatra (which is to end in Jammu and Kashmir on Republic Day with the hoisting of the Tricolour at Lal Chowk), the BJP today focused on its demand for doing away with Article 370 of the Constitution, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The BJP MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh and president of the Bharatiya Jananta Yuva Morcha, Anurag Thakur, who is leading the yatra, was the main speaker.

The yatra, which started in West Bengal on January 12, entered Haryana from Hodal in the adjoining ditrict of Palwal last night. It left for Delhi today and will re-enter Haryana via Sonepat tomorrow. Addressing the meeting, Thakur said the yatra’s objective was to rouse public awareness on the alleged failure of the Centre to weaken ISI-backed voices in the state.

He said there was an effort by forces inimical to India to dampen the morale of security personnel stationed in J&K. He cited the cases of stone-throwing in this connection. BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu alleged that the Centre’s faulty policies had led to rise in corruption and food prices in the country.

Sirsa, January 20
The Command Area Development Authority (CADA) claims that none of its officials are involved in the siphoning of 150 bags of cement meant for construction of a watercourse at Karamshala village in this district.

The police had yesterday arrested a cement dealer, Nand Kishore, and recovered 150 bags supplied to him allegedly by the contractor working on the watercourse after an anonymous called tipped off the police.

The police has registered a case under Sections 420, 406 and 34 of the IPC.

The police is looking for the contractor, Krishan Sahu. He had got the cement bags issued from the CADA for construction work.

Nand Kishore, the police said, had revealed that he would purchase the government cement at Rs 180 per bag and sell it at Rs 220 per bag. He was today produced before a local court.

Despite efforts of the zoo employees, Rani could not be saved. Apaya had killed another tiger in December 2009 and a caretaker. — OC

Chandigarh, January 20
The Haryana Education Department has signed an agreement with Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab for scientific evaluation of various educational programmes introduced by the state government.

This was disclosed by Haryana Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal in Jhajjar recently. She said under the agreement, the programmes and policies introduced for disseminating education would be evaluated and the evaluation would be used by the department as a guide while implementing future decisions.

The teachers were also being imparted training in a hi-tech manner so as to provide quality education to children.