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Jaundhi sarpanch found guilty in exiled couple case
Cong, BJP welcome Assembly poll
Keeping Jat vote in mind, BJP calls for kisan morcha meeting
State forced to shelve plan for new district
Surjewala raises issue of unclaimed bodies with
CEC
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Amendment to Panchayati Raj Act stayed
Training programme on poverty
alleviation ends
Cantonment board school meet begins
7 stone-laying functions cancelled
Uplift of women must, say experts
10-year-term in robbery case
Kalka bus stand to
open today
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Jaundhi sarpanch found guilty in exiled couple case
Jhajjar, December 17 The notice received by the sarpanch late this evening stated that she should explain why action should not be initiated against her under the Haryana Gram Panchayat Act for failing to do her duty and for opposing the resettlement of the exiled couple. She has been asked to submit her written reply by December 21. The notice was issued on the basis of an inquiry conducted by the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Ms Suprabha Dahiya, earlier this month after the district administration received orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on a petition filed by the couple. Ms Pushpa Devi had in her written statement filed on December 7 and 8 denied any knowledge of panchayats being organised in the village to oppose the resettlement of the couple in the village. She had also stated that her resignation submitted after the controversy arose be accepted forthwith. However, the ADC in her report stated that both Aashish and Darshana had stated that the sarpanch organised two panchayats at her residence after they returned to the village on Divali eve to resettle there as per decision taken at a panchayat meeting organised by the Superintendent of Police. They had stated that she asked the villagers to socially boycott the couple and oppose their resettlement. The couple had also alleged that the sarpanch asked her henchmen to collect Rs 50 from each household in the village to meet the legal expenses to oppose their petition in the court. Those refusing to contribute the amount were threatened with social boycott. They said the sarpanch was responsible for getting the street leading to their parental house damaged by removing the bricklining. The report that added that though the sarpanch denied any knowledge of these panchayats, she had failed to prove that these charges against her were not true. Though the sarpanch did not participate in the khap panchayats organised on this issue, she did not make any effort to resolve the row. She also did not seek any help from the authorities for this purpose and extended no help to the exiled couple to resettle there peacefully, it added. The report mentioned the statements of the other elected panches who had stated that neither the sarpanch nor the panches had any role in opposing the resettlement. But the ADC was of the view that as duly elected sarpanch she did not use her influence to resolve the crisis. However, no action has yet been taken against the sarpanch’s husband, Mr Vinod Kumar, who had organised a meeting of villagers on December 12 in which he had virtually announced social boycott of the couple if they resettled in the village. He had also announced that the issue would be referred to a Naugama panchayat – an unofficial body of representatives of nine surrounding villages. He had stated that the couple’s petition would be opposed. At an earlier similar meeting he had addressed, a group of villagers had banned celebrations in the village pending the disposal of the couple’s writ petition. The couple who got married in 1998 were exiled from the village in 2000 for life. Their family was ostracised for two years. They filed the petition after the court came to the rescue of Sonia and Rampal of the neighbouring Asanda village who had been asked by a panchayat to dissolve their marriage and become siblings. |
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Cong, BJP welcome Assembly poll
Chandigarh, December 17 Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee(HPCC) working president, hailed the decision. “With the announcement of elections, the code of conduct for the elections has also come into being. It will stop the Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala from trying to allure the voters by announcing all kinds of sops,” Mr Surjewala said. He added that the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr T.S. Krishna Murthy, during his visit to Chandigarh on December 15, was told by a Congress delegation about Mr Chautala’s strategy of announcing sops. The CEC was urged to announce the Assembly elections at the earliest so that this practice could be stopped. “ We are thankful to the CEC for fulfilling our demand,” Mr Surjewala said. He said he was doubly happy today because the Punjab and Haryana High Court had also put a stay on the state government’s plan to hold panchayat elections before the Assembly polls. “I must reiterate my faith in the judiciary in the wake of its historic intervention in the panchayat election issue,” Mr Surjewala said. Talking to TNS from Narwana, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala, Randeep Singh’s father and himself a former HPCC chief, said the Election
Commission’s announcement regarding the dates of the Assembly elections in Haryana had triggered off widespread celebration at Narwana (from where the PCC working president would contest in the Assembly polls). “People of Narwana had burst crackers and sung and danced on the streets to welcome the elections and the high court decision about panchayat elections. They felt the same way like the persecuted Iraqis had felt when Saddam Hussain and sons were dislodged from power,” Mr Surjewala said. Mr Rattan Lal Kataria, former chief of the Haryana BJP, also welcomed the poll announcement and pointed out that the BJP had demanded early poll when the party members had met the CEC in Chandigarh on Wednesday. |
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Keeping Jat vote in mind, BJP calls for kisan morcha meeting
Panipat, December 17 Keeping this in view the central leadership of the BJP has decided to hold a two-day national executive meeting of its farmers’ cell, Bhartiya Kisan Morcha (BKM), in Panipat before the Assembly elections on January 1 and 2. The BJP could not make a desirable base among Jats in the state as it had contested most of the Assembly and Parliamentary elections in alliance with one or other political party so far. That is why even earlier also the BJP had tried to strengthen its base among the farmers of the state by elevating its Jat leader, Mr Kisan Singh Sangwan, its lone MP from the state, in its organisation by nominating him as its national vice-president. The BJP is giving special importance to the proposed executive meeting of the BKM in Panipat. It is clear from the fact that former Deputy Prime Minister and BJP President Lal Krishan Advani will attend the concluding function of the BKM on January 2. Mr Advani will not only address a select gathering of farmers from all over the state, but will also personally talk to them to know their problems, said Dr Shyam Bhaskar, state president of the BKM, while talking to The Tribune over phone. Dr Bhaskar said that the SYL issue would be discussed prominently in the national executive. Blaming both Congress and INLD for doing nothing for the construction of the canal despite the Supreme Court order, Dr Bhaskar said that all six BJP MLAs had resigned on the issue. Dr Bhaskar further criticised the Chautala government for not providing any bonus to the farmers on their crops. He said that the Centre had its limitaions for increasing the support prices of crops, but the state government could have provided bonus to the farmers. The BKM leader also expressed dissatisfaction over the steep hike in the rates of pesticides. He said all these issues would not only be discussed in the national executive meeting but also be raised during the forthcoming Assembly elections. A former Union Agriculture Minister and senior BJP leader, Mr Rajnath Singh, would attend the inaugural function of the meeting on January 1. Around 100 delegates from all over the country would attend and discuss several issues related to the farmers in the meeting. |
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State forced to shelve plan for new district
Chandigarh, December 17 The notification was slated to be issued first on November 1. But it could not be done in view of the objections raised by the Delimitation Commission. Subsequently, it was decided that a fresh exercise regarding delimitation of constituencies would start after the conclusion of Assembly elections. This prompted the state government to again start correspondence with the EC on the creation of the new district. The state government, highly placed sources said, came to the conclusion that creation of the new district was not in any way affecting the work of delimitation and in view of this, the new district could come into being. The notification for creating the new district was made ready and it was slated to be issued after formal clearance of the proposal by a meeting of the Council of Ministers which was to take place late this evening. But with the model code of conduct coming into force following the announcement of elections, the state government has been apparently forced to shelve its plan to create the district. An official spokesman in fact claimed that no meeting of the Council of Ministers was supposed to take place today. The spokesman also denied that the state government had any plan to keep the offices open tomorrow which was otherwise a holiday. Though no order has been issued to keep the offices open, an officer in the rank of Principal Secretary confirmed that he received information that the offices would remain open tomorrow but was later told that it would remain closed as usual. Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala, former chief of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, telephoned this reporter from Narwana and said that the state government was keeping the offices open on Saturday and Sunday to get various measures approved in "back dates". Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala, working president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, also condemned the “decision of the Haryana Government to surreptitously open all the Haryana Government offices and the Haryana Civil Secretariat tomorrow”. “It is one more attempt by Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala to loot the public exchequer by issuing back-dated orders on a holiday after the announcement of poll by the Election Commission of India and the enforcement of the model code of conduct on December 17”, he said in a statement here. Senior officials of the Chief Minister Secretariat and General Administration Branch phoned all Secretaries and other
officials to come to office tomorrow, Mr Surjewala said. “Mr Om Prakash Chautala wants to issue back-dated orders and release a few thousand crore rupees of doles to influence the outcome of the results of the Assembly elections. Unfortunately, captive bureaucrats are being misutilised to give effect to this unconstitutional conspiracy”, he added. |
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Surjewala raises issue of unclaimed bodies with
CEC
Sirsa, December 17 The Tribune had highlighted in its columns on November 28 the deteriorating law and order situation in the home district of the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, where the police recovered over 50 unclaimed bodies. Talking exclusively with this correspondent at the residence of senior Congress leader, Mr Jagdish Nehra, Mr Surjewala said that the party had apprised the CEC personally on December 15 about the alleged role of the ruling party leaders in the unclaimed bodies case. Talking to The Tribune, Mr Surjewala blamed the prevalent politician-criminal nexus responsible for poor law and order in the state. He alleged that both sons of the Chief Minister, Mr Abhey Singh Chautala and Mr Ajay Singh Chautala, were frequent visitors to different jails of the state. He alleged that they had links with gangsters and demanded explanation for their unrecorded visits to the jails in Sonepat, Rohtak and Jind jails. The state Congress leaders also urged the CEC to assure better jail management during the elections. Due to political patronage offered to dreaded gangsters, the jails in the state had become a haven for the criminals, he added. He alleged that the jails authorities in Sonepat, Rohtak and Jind were offering all facilities to these criminals, including cell phones in the jails. He demanded that the state government should clear its stand on the issue. He blamed the members of the ruling party for the swelling number of such cases in the district. The law and order situation in the state had deteriorated due to political interference in the affairs of the state police, he added. Commenting upon the poor state of police administration in the state, the young political leader said that Mr Chautala had politicised the police. He alleged that the state government had implicated several Congress leaders, including him in false cases. |
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Amendment to Panchayati Raj Act stayed
Chandigarh, December 17 The amendment provided for holding of early elections to panchayat bodies. Taking up a bunch of petitions challenging the amendment on the ground that it was
ultra-vires the Constitution, the Bench of Mr Justice S.S. Nijjar and Mr Justice Uma Nath Singh, while staying the amendment, ordered that the same would not be given effect till further orders. Admitting the petitions, the Bench fixed the hearing on the petitions for January 11. Three petitions in public interest had been filed to challenge the amendment. Today’s order means that the government plan to hold elections to panchayat bodies four months prior to the expiry of their terms, instead of two months as permitted in the original Act, has been thwarted. The Bill had been passed by the Haryana Assembly, where the ruling party has absolute majority, on December 1. It received the assent of the Haryana Governor on December 7. However, the petitioners had sought quashing of the amendments, saying that these were “anti-people” and were passed with mala fide intentions. Pointing out that the Bills were passed again without considering the objections raised by the Governor, the petitioners said these were aimed at dividing the people with an eye on the forthcoming Haryana Assembly poll. It may be recalled that during the last hearing, Haryana Advocate-General Ashok Aggarwal had told the court that the government had no intention of curtailing the tenure of the existing
panchayats. The Bench, however, had directed him to file an affidavit regarding the matter. |
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Training programme on poverty
alleviation ends
Nilokheri, December 17 Dr Surat Singh, Director, HIRD, said the institute had conducted this training programme to sensitise the government and non-government agencies directly or indirectly related to SGSY so as to further promote this scheme for the benefit of the poor. The main focus was on Self–Help Group’s (SHG) approach to employment generation and poverty alleviation through capacity building of the rural poor who were living below the poverty line, he said. Mr Puran Singh Yadav and Mr K.K. Mor, faculty members of the institute, coordinated the training course. They said the contents of the course like objectives, importance and salient features of SGSY, process of social mobilisation for the formation of SHGs, their capacity building, selection of key-activities, planning of activity clusters, project formulation, infrastructure build up, technology, marketing, special projects, importance of credit and role of stake-holders were debated upon in detail. The course was based on participatory and interactive methodology. For learning by seeing, the participants also visited the villages in the service area of Central Bank of India, Bhadson, where the DRDA and Bank had nurtured SHGs under SGSY scheme. Besides the faculty members, Mr Anil Bhatnagar, Assistant General Manager of NABARD, Mr Dalip K. Gosain, Senior Scientist of NDRI, and Prof Mahinder Singh of Kurukshetra University delivered the lectures on this subject. |
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Cantonment board school meet begins
Ambala, December 17 Brig GS Malhi, Commander PH & HP (I) Sub Area, was the chief guest while CEO Ms Sonam Yangdol was present. The meet is spread over three days. In 100 m, junior boys, Gulshan of Jalandhar was first, Deepak of Amritsar was second while Ajay of Delhi was third. In 200-m, junior boys, Gulshan of Jalandhar was first, Deepak of Amritsar was second while Manoj of Delhi was third. In 400-m, junior boys, Ajay of Delhi was first, Arjun of Ferozepur was second while Deepak of Amritsar was third. In 4X100 m junior boys, the first prize winning team comprised Gulshan, Naveen, Hunny and Sanjay, the second prize winning team comprised Manoj, Tarun, Ajay and Sobat while the third prize winning team comprised Chand, Raj Kumar, Jasvinder and Deepak. In 4x400 m junior boys, the first prize winning team comprised Gulshan, Sourabh, Santosh and Sanjay, the second prize winners were Sobat, Manoj, Tarun and Deepak while the third prize winners were Sonu, Rahul Siva, Arjun and Rahul. In 100 m junior girls, Nisha of Jalandhar was first, Antim of Delhi was second while Jyoti of Ferozepur was third. In 200 m junior girls, Rajni of Jalandhar was first, Preemika of Ferozepur was second while Gunjan of Ambala was third. In 400 m, junior girls, Jyoti of Jalandhar was first, Komal of Ferozepur was second while Gunjan of Ambala was third. In 4x100 m junior girls, the first prize winning team comprised Nisha, Rajni, Kamni and Jyoti, the second prize winners were Jyoti, Komal, Preemika and Suman while the third prize winners were Antim, Shalu, Karamvati and Gunjan. In 4x400 m junior girls, the first prize winners were Anju, Nisha, Kamni and Jyoti, the second prize winners were Komal, Premika, Seema and Suman while the third prize winners were Shalu, Sonia, Pooja and Anita. In 100 m senior boys, Raj Kumar of Jalandhar was first while Rakesh of Delhi was second. In 200 m, senior boys, Rajinder Kumar of Jalandhar was first while Siddharth of Delhi was second. In 400 m race senior boys, Rajinder Kumar of Jalandhar was first and Rakesh of Delhi was second. The 4x100 m relay race was won by the team comprising Sonu Kumar, Mahesh, Siddharth and Rakesh. In 4x400 m relay race, the first prize winning team comprised Raj Kumar, Rajinder, Sunny and Pramod, the second prize winners were Pankaj, Rohit, Ashish and Raju. In 100 m senior girls, Manjeet of Jalandhar was first while Sonu of Delhi was second. In 200 m, Amandeep of Jalandhar was first and Nisha of Delhi was second. In 400 m senior girls, Sunita of Delhi was first while Kusum of Jalandhar was second. In 4x100 m the first prize winning team comprised Amandeep Kaur, Manjeet, Amandeep and Poonam while the second prize winners were Sonu Kumari, Savita, Shalu and Nisha. The first prize winners of 4x400 m relay race were Manjeet, Poonam, Preeti and Kusum. In long jump junior boys, Gulshan of Jalandhar was first, Ajay of Delhi was second while Ganpat of Ambala was third. In long jump, junior girls, Antim of Delhi was first, Asha of Jalandhar was second while Neha of Ambala was third. In long jump, senior boys, Raj Kumar of Jalandhar was first and Sonu of Delhi was second. In long jump, senior girls, Manjeet of Jalandhar was first and Savita of Delhi was second. In shot put junior boys Sohbat Singh of Delhi was first, Naveen of Jalandhar was second and Sunny of Ferozepur was third. In shot put junior girls, Arti of Delhi was first, Mansa of Ambala was second while Savita of Jalandhar was third. In shot put senior boys, Gurjot of Jalandhar was first and Sonu of Delhi was second. In shot put senior girls, Sarbjeet of Jalandhar was first while Savita of Delhi was second. |
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7 stone-laying functions cancelled
Yamunanagar, December 17 However, work on the developmental projects would start without a formal stone laying ceremony. Sources in the district administration said the money for the projects had been sanctioned and the code of conduct would not come in the way of carrying out the work. Meanwhile, over 15 Congress aspirants for the five Assembly seats in the district have rushed to New Delhi for ticket, said sources. A Congress leader, on his way to Delhi, told The Tribune that he would be meeting Mr Bhajan Lal, in charge of party affairs in Haryana, Mr J.D. Dwivedi and Haryana Congress President Randeep Singh
Surjewala. |
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Uplift of women must, say experts
Hisar, December 17 More than 100 home scientists, social activists, newspersons, NGO volunteers and experts from various walks of life and different parts of the globe participated in the conference. The HAU Vice-Chancellor, Mr M.K.Miglani, chaired the valedictory session. He underlined the need for women uplift and empowerment. He said it was crucial not only for the women themselves, but also for the whole nation. Mr Miglani exhorted the participants to come forward and help the poorest of the poor women in deriving the maximum benefit of globalisation. He congratulated the organisers for their painstaking efforts. |
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10-year-term in robbery case
Rewari, December 17 However, his other accomplice, Vikram, alias Manoj, who jumped bail in the case, was earlier notified as a proclaimed offender. According to prosecution, the miscreants looted at pistol point Rs 4,71,682 from employees of the Pali sub-station of the Haryana electricity board, at a place near the railway station of Khori village, about 10 km from here, on the Rewari-Narnaul road. Kalka bus stand to open today Kalka, December 17 The six bays bus stand has been constructed at a cost of Rs 1.56 crore. Till date, the buses would stop on the highway itself for off loading or boarding of passengers, thus causing major traffic snarls on the highway. The demand for construction of a bus stand here was a long pending one.
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