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Friday,
June 13, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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TEACHERS’ APPOINTMENT
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Kalam on cane growers’ demands STATE ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
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SC stays order on demolition of dhabas Cut power thefts, Centre to states Haryana sarpanches’ case referred to CJI Patiala student
for Biology Olympiad
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TEACHERS’ APPOINTMENT New Delhi, June 12 Taking cognisance of the writ petition filed by IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar, who claimed that he had been placed under suspension after registration of a “false” case against him as he refused to oblige the Chief Minister, a Bench comprising Mr Justice R. C. Lahoti and Mr Justice Brijesh Kumar also issued a notice to the Director-General of the Vigilance Bureau, Haryana. The three respondents were directed to submit their replies by June 19 when the petition will be taken up for further hearing. Senior advocates, Dr Rajiv Dhawan and Supreme Court Bar Association President M.N. Krishnamani, appearing for the IAS officer, submitted that he was being “harassed and humiliated at the behest of the Chief Minister.” When the counsel sought a direction to the state government to provide police protection to the officer, the court said it would be considered on the next date. Mr Kumar, a 1985 batch IAS officer, who was holding additional charge of Director, Primary Education, in July 2000, had refused to replace the original list by the “fake” selection list of JBT teachers for 19 districts of the state, prepared at the behest of the Chief Minister and his OSD Vidyadhar after two other IAS officers — Mr R. P. Chandra and Ms Rajni Shekri Sibbal — had declined to oblige the Chief Minister, the petition said. Mr Kumar said both these officers, who were holding charge of the Director of Primary Education prior to him, were transferred because of this reason. He said Ms Sibbal, before relinquishing the charge, had kept the “original” lists of 19 districts in a Godrej almirah under seal by putting tapes around it making it impossible for anyone to break it open. He alleged that after he was given the additional charge of Director, Primary Education, he was called by “respondent No 2 (Chautala) at his house and was directed to call the members of District Selection Committees (DSCs), prepare duplicate lists in accordance with the list of new names to be furnished by Vidyadhar, OSD to respondent No 2 (the Chief Minister) and finally replace the fake list ... with the original genuine list sealed in the above-mentioned Godrej almirah.” When he refused to oblige Mr Chautala by explaining to him that it was not possible to replace the original list with a fake and fabricated one, the Chief Minister and his colleague “ultimately started threatening him of dire consequences in case the original lists of selected candidates were not replaced,” the officer alleged. The officer said when he was facing constant pressure from the Chief Minister, he, in the presence of the DSC members, opened the almirah and released the original lists of candidates on October 7, 2000, and got the entire process documented on a video film through still photography. Within one month of the release of the lists, he was transferred from his post and was “falsely implicated” in an inquiry which was originally instituted against the government press in the text books printing case, the officer said. Mr Kumar further said that he was placed under suspension on December 3, 2001, when he requested the government through a fax message from Delhi to extend his leave as his wife was then undergoing treatment at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences. He was also denied two promotions of selection grade and supertime scale, the officer said. |
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Kalam on cane growers’ demands New Delhi, June 12 A delegation of farmers from Uttar Pradesh under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (KMS) had sought Mr Kalam’s intervention for the redressal of their grievances in April. The President communicated to the sangathan that “since the sugarcane price issue is sub judice, it will be inappropriate for him to intervene in the matter”. However, the KMS convener, Mr V.M. Singh, clarified to the President that as per court orders the state has the powers to fix the SAP as the agreed price, it is the law of the land and needs to be implemented. |
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STATE ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS New Delhi, June 12 “The BJP will focus on development and good governance in the coming Assembly elections and target the Congress regimes in the states on their failures, corruption and inefficiency,” BJP spokesperson M.A. Naqvi told newspersons here after a two-hour meeting of the party’s national election campaign committee. The meeting was chaired by BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu and attended by top party leader including Mr Pramod Mahajan, Mr Rajnath Singh, Mr Sanjay Joshi and Mr Naqvi. Asked whether the BJP would project its pet issues, including the Ram temple, Mr Naqvi was evasive. However, he asserted that while the BJP’s focus would be on prominent local issues in each state, the party would not be
apologetic on “our ideology or on our stand on ideological issues.” Mr Naqvi said the Central leadership of the party in consultation with the state units would prepare separate manifestoes for each of the state going to polls. The BJP spokesperson said the party would come out with a chargesheet against the Congress governments and the task of preparing it had been assigned to Mr Balbir Punj, who is a member of the campaign committee. As part of the exercise to streamline its preparation for the Assembly poll, the meeting appointed a three-member committee each for Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi. BJP General Secretary Sanjay Joshi would be in charge of elections in Madhya Pradesh, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi in charge of Chhattisgarh, another General Secretary Pramod Mahajan for Rajasthan and Mr Naqvi for Delhi. The four ministers who have been made in charge of state affairs are Mr Arun Jaitley (MP), Mr Rajnath Singh (Chhattisgarh), Mr Ravi Shanker Prasad (Rajasthan) and Mr Ananth Kumar (Delhi). |
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SC stays order on demolition of dhabas New Delhi, June 12 The stay was granted by a vacation Bench comprising Mr Justice R C Lahoti and Mr Justice Brijesh Kumar on Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) filed by nine dhaba owners. The Bench, which had also granted a stay in an identical case on June 10, issued notices to the Haryana Government on the SLPs, seeking its reply. The dhaba owners had contended that the order was illegal as the state had not complied with various provisions of the Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas (Restriction Unregulated Development) Act, 1963 applicable in the state. The SLP was filed against the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order rejecting their petitions. The petitioners also contended that their dhabas were situated 30 metres away from the road, and therefore, did not violate Section 3 of the Act, which prohibits raising a structure within this limit of the road. The state government had swooped on the dhaba owners stating that under the 1985 notification issued by it, no person was allowed to raise any structure or excavate soil and indulge in other such activity at a place declared as “controlled area”. |
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Cut power thefts, Centre to states New Delhi, June 12 Union Power Minister Anant Geete said minimising transmission and distribution losses, an euphemism for theft of electricity to a large extent, was vital for the success of the reform programme. The government was determined also to meet the targets of electrification of all villages by 2007 and provision of electricity to each and every household by 2012, the minister said. The ministers were participating in a one-day conference of Power Ministers organised here by the Union Power Ministry for expediting capacity addition programmes to meet the Tenth Plan target of 41,000 MW, besides the accelerated power development and reform programme (APDRP) and rural electrification. Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, who also holds the power portfolio, said his state had already introduced several reform measures, but still the private sector was shying away. He appealed to the Centre to provide more financial assistance to the state so that it could be declared a model state for the power sector. Haryana was providing a subsidy of Rs 925 crore for agriculture to enable the supply of electricity at cheaper rates to the farmers. He urged the Centre to reduce the rate of interest on loans to set up power stations. Besides the state Power Ministers, the meet was attended by Secretaries, Chairmen of the SEBs and CEOs of central power utilities. Union Minister of State for Power Jayawanti Mehta, in her concluding remarks, urged the states to clear the backlog of unelectrified villages. |
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Haryana sarpanches’ case referred to CJI New Delhi, June 12 A vacation Bench comprising Mr Justice R.C. Lahoti and Mr Justice Brijesh Kumar gave a direction to this effect while issuing notices on two writ petitions filed by Mr Lakhpat Singh, the Sarpanch of Basal village in Gurgaon district and another Sarpanch, Mr Dharmvir Tuli. Issuing notices to the Haryana Government on their petitions, challenging the provision of Section 175(1) of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, barring a person with more than two living children from contesting panchayat elections, the court said a status quo should be maintained with regard to the government’s orders in their cases. Advocates Mahabir Singh and Ujjal Singh, appearing for the two petitioners respectively, contended that more than 200 such writ petitions had been filed in the court since the state government started taking action against the sarpanches and
panches. |
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Patiala student
for Biology Olympiad Mumbai, June 12 The selected students are Srivats Madhavan (Chennai), Praveg Goyal (Agra), Ankur Mahindroo (New Patiala) and Kovid Trivedi (Udaipur). The IBO will be held in Minsk, Belarus, from July 8 to 15, according to Dr Arvind Kumar, National
coordinator, Olympiad programme in physics, chemistry and biology. PTI |
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