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GJU promotions spark row
CM Hooda, kin cleared of cruelty charges
2 new Mercedes cars to be bought for Haryana CM
Without power for five days
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Residents protest against power cuts
State to buy power from AP, Kerala
‘Restore Punjabi’s second language status’
Village says no to liquor
Mid-day meal eludes schoolchildren
Police sets up cell for senior citizens
Kanwarias block road in protest
Patwaris’ recruitment in Haryana set aside
Girl raped in own house
Ailing jail inmate dead
Three booked in cheating case
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GJU promotions spark row
Hisar, August 2 As many as 67 GJU employees have been promoted. Several peons have been made clerks and many sweepers, malis and security guards promoted laboratory attendants. A head sweeper has become sanitary inspector while six storekeepers made grade-1 technical assistants. Apart from this, several stenographers and data-entry operators have been made deputy superintendents. Similarly, 14 laboratory attendants-cum-cleaners have been made laboratory technicians. Acting Vice-Chancellor of the university R.R. Fuliya maintains that the decision to promote non-teaching employees was in accordance with state government’s policy on phasing out certain cadres. The move has enraged more officials than it has benefited. Informed sources allege that the grant of promotions was in violation of the directions of a high-powered committee regarding the implementation of uniform promotion policy and service conditions in all state universities. They assert that the move would lead to unrest among employees of other universities in the state. Moreover, the sources point out that the persons who are at the helm in effecting promotions of permanent university employees had nothing at stake as they were either temporary or on contract. While the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar are acting on temporary basis, the Financial Adviser and Legal Adviser are on contract. According to insiders, functioning in the administrative block of the university has also been hit as most of the employees are busy lobbying for their promotions. The sources maintain that the recent spate of promotions has upset the seniority structure of the non-teaching employees which had been settled several years ago. On the other hand, Mr Fuliya, maintained that the promotions had been cleared in accordance with the Haryana Government’s policy to phase-out certain cadres, including sweepers, malis and security guards. He added that only those candidates who fulfilled basic eligibility criteria, had experience and were senior among their cadre were promoted against vacancies. |
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CM Hooda, kin cleared of cruelty charges
Panchkula, August 2 All four had been accused by Mr Deepinder Hooda’s estranged wife, Dr Geeta Grewal, on charges of harassment for dowry, under Sections 498-A and 406 of the IPC. All accused had appeared before the court in person today morning, when
arguments for framing of charges took place. Counsel for the accused pleaded that the police had already requested the court that charges of breach of trust be dropped, in a supplementary challan filed recently. The complainant’s father, Mr
D.P.S. Grewal was also present in the court. The matter was then adjourned for after lunch for pronouncing the order on framing of charges. It may be noted that a case was registered against all of them in 2004. Though Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, his wife and sister-in-law were granted anticipatory bail, Deepinder Hooda left for the USA for higher studies. Later, non bailable warrants were issued against him, and only after he appeared before the court two months ago, that bail was granted to him. Today, all four accused came in private cars, and without any security. No police force was deployed in the courts complex, though later in the afternoon, before the Chief Minister appeared in the court again, the complex had turned into a mini fortress. Cops in plain clothes were all over the place. The banned entry of
mediapersons in the courtroom, while the hearing was on. Initially the court room was out of bounds for everybody, but following protests by the lawyers, they were allowed inside the court room. All four accused again appeared before the court in the afternoon. The judge, Mr Ajay Aggarwal, discharged all accused on the ground that there was no evidence against them to prove that they had subjected Dr Geeta Grewal to cruelty. Later, talking to newsmen, the Chief Minister said he and his family members were law abiding citizens of the country. “The court said prima facie there was no evidence against any of us, hence we have all been discharged,” he said. He also visited the bar room and interacted with the lawyers. The District Bar Association urged him to allow for more chambers to be constructed, and for a Group Housing Society. Mr Grewal later said that he had full faith in the judiciary, and would now approach a higher court with his complaint. |
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2 new Mercedes cars to be bought for Haryana CM
Chandigarh, August 2 The department concerned has already moved a proposal for purchasing two new Mercedes cars for the Chief Minister. Sanction is likely to be received from the government in a day or two following which the dealers will be intimated for supplying the vehicles. Three cars have been shortlisted. these are the Mercedes E 240, the Mercedes S class and the Mercedes Economy class. Official sources said the government was most likely to acquire the E 240 model costing about Rs 41 lakh each. One of these cars will be kept in Chandigarh and the other in Delhi. The two Mercedes cars (one stationed in Chandigarh and the other in Delhi) being used by the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, at present were purchased in May, 1994, when Mr Bhajan Lal was the Chief Minister. The guidelines on the replacement of VIP cars says that a vehicle must be changed after five years or after it covers 2.5 lakh km. The cars being used by the Chief Minister, it is learnt, are fit for replacement on both counts. The Mercedes stationed in Chandigarh has covered more than 3 lakh km. Mr Om Prakash Chautala, when he was the Chief Minister before Mr Hooda, got the government to purchase a Mercedes when it was not really needed. Mr Chautala, who already had two official Mercedes cars at his disposal, apparently needed a third one for use by his family. After Mr Hooda became the Chief Minister, he passed on the car to the Speaker of the Assembly, Mr H.S. Chatha. This car was manufactured in 2003 and had covered only 70,000 km when it was handed over to the Speaker. |
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Without power for five days
Panipat, August 2 No electricity could be supplied to the locality as transformer has been out of order since July 29 which could not be repaired till filing of this report. “We have been living in almost hellish conditions without power in such a scorching heat for the last five days,” said Ram Narayana, a resident of the locality. “We could not even sleep properly without electricity.” A woman of the locality Sharda Rani said that children and the aged persons were suffering the most in the absence of electricity. Another woman Kamlesh Rani said that they kept on waving hand fans to make their children to sleep but it was too difficult to wave the fans throughout night. They had no option but to sleep inside their rooms because of mosquitoes. Another resident of the locality Deepak Kalra said that the transformer had gone out of order on Friday afternoon. They had lodged a complaint with the HVPN complaint centre within minutes but no employee had come to the locality to repair the transformer as yet. Another resident of the locality, Om Parkash, said that some HVPN employees had come to the locality after four days on Monday but they left the work of repairing the transformer midway. According to the information, the electricity from this transformer is supplied to nearly 1500 houses and half a dozen factories situated in the locality. No work could be done in any of these industries since the non-availability of the electricity. An industrialist Raj Kumar Goel told The Tribune that he had wanted to set up a separate transformer for his factory. He had also deposited the required amount on May 31. But the transformer could not be installed by HVPN despite assurances of its officials. When contacted, Karnal-based Superintending Engineer of HVPN S.K. Chawla and Panipat-based Executive Engineer Rajpal Singh claimed ignorance about the non-availability of power in the Hari Nagar locality for last four days due to faulty transformer. They said they would know the exact position from their subordinates in this regard. |
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Residents protest against power cuts
Yamunanagar, August 2 The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) today started imposing an eight-hour power cut in urban areas of the state. Earlier, the cut was imposed for 45-minute duration but now it has been stretched to two hours, sources in the UHBVN said. Till noon, five-hour cut was imposed here. Reeling under the severe humid conditions, residents lodged more than 110 complaints (80 from Yamunanagar and 30 from Jagdhari) with the electricity department. Because of the cuts, most of the tubewells in both towns remained non-functional. Meanwhile, residents of Arjun Nagar today blocked traffic for two hours near Chotti Line in protest against power cuts. They raised slogans against the government. It was only after the intervention of the DSP, Mr Ashok Sabharwal, and the Superintending Engineer (Public Health), Mr R.C Goel, the agitated residents lifted the blockade. Residents of various villages, including Bapa, Saddura, Mehra, Nachron, Sura, Jubal, Bkana, Knajanu and Ghespur today warned electricity officials that if the supply was not restored they would block the Saharanpur-Kurukshetra highway. |
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Power woes in Ambala
Ambala, August 2 The power cuts take place without any prior announcement. Residential areas, industries and business establishments are adversely affected due to the power shortage. A member of the Ambala Scientific Instruments Manufacturers Association (ASIMA) said it was estimated that the scientific instruments industry had suffered losses running into lakhs of rupees due to the power shortage. “The industries have to depend on generators for completing the task. As the goods have to be supplied in time, the cost of running the generator eats into the slender profit margins. The workers have to sit idle if generators are not used. So, we are caught in a bind,” he said. He stated that this is a difficult period, especially for the units which have recently started work. “We had expected power cuts will take place and we had included the costs in our
quotations. However, we had not expected that the power cuts will be so frequent and for such long duration,” he said. The ASIMA members have suggested that there should be captive power for the scientific instruments industries. “We are of the opinion that there should be a dedicated power supply so that the units can perform better. We can compete globally only if our products are priced right. Power cuts not only add to our costs, but also create problem in the timely completion of order,” they suggested. Shopkeepers in Ambala Sadar opined that the power cuts, especially during busy hours, prove to be a dampener for business. “The generators cause a lot of noise and seem to keep the shoppers away. We want that there should be power availability, particularly when it is peak business hours,” a shopkeeper said. |
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State to buy power from AP, Kerala
Panchkula, August 2 Officials in the Utilities say that they will get 12 LUs of electricity from Andhra Pradesh from 5 pm to 11 am daily till September 30.
Kerala Power Utilities, too, have agreed to supply 10 LUs of power to Haryana from 12 midnight to 6 p.m., and 11 pm to 12 midnight. Haryana is facing a shortage of 100 LUs daily. Thus, severe power restrictions have been imposed and supply to big industrial consumers has been shut. Officials say that with the availability of 22 LUs would ease the power crisis and reduce overdrawls through unscheduled interchange from the northern grid, and also reduce load restrictions during peak load hours. |
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‘Restore Punjabi’s second language status’
Kurukshetra, August 2 A decision to this effect has been conveyed by Mr Bhagat Singh Rahi, general secretary, HSSF, in a letter to Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister, Haryana for action. Copies of the letter were made available to reporters here today. Mr Rahi said that Mr Bansi Lal introduced Telugu instead of Punjabi but no one cared to learn Telugu in Haryana. During his second tenure as CM, Mr Bansi Lal, through an order, accorded Punjabi an optional status. On the other hand, former Haryana Chief Minister O.P. Chautala got passed an Act in Assembly making Punjabi a second language. But due to lack of proper infrastructure, again Punjabi as a second language remained a non starter, added Mr Rahi. Mr Rahi claimed that Punjabi Hindu population and Sikhs are 35 per cent of the population of Haryana. Therefore, Punjabi be accorded its pre-October 31, 1968 status in the current academic session and arrangements be made for recruitment and training of Punjabi teachers, Mr Rahi demanded. Also Guru Teg Bahadur’s travel route should be demarcated, because moved by plight of Kashimiri Pandits, who were being converted to Islam and denied freedom of worship, Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib travelled through Haryana to meet Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi where he was martyred at Chandni Chowk and his martyrdom gave inspiration to Hindus to stand against Mughal tyranny. Thus, Guru Teg Bahadur’s travel route should be developed as a state highway and named as Guru Teg Bahadur Marg on the pattern of Guru Gobind Singh Marg in Punjab. So far as demand for a separate Haryana SGPC is concerned, that has been forced on Haryana Sikhs by the Punjab Akali Dal. Mr Rahi has alleged that the Punjab SGPC had mismanaged and misused Haryana gurdwara funds. Thus the Haryana Sikhs are being deprived of Rs 22 crore gurdwara income annually. Having control over its use, the funds can be used to complete medical colleges at Shahabad, open more engineering and fine arts colleges in Haryana and sports facilities can be provided to the Haryana students which Haryana needs. Moreover, the Punjab SGPC has employed only Punjab-based persons in Haryana gurdwaras while a large acreage of Haryana gurdwaras agriculture land is not leased for contract farming but allowed to be cultivated by relatives of SGPC functionaries bringing very low income. There are many such other discrepancies, Mr Rahi added. The Punjab SGPC further did not, on purpose, appreciated the reality. The Gurdwara Act, 1925 stood repealed after partition and Pakistan, rightly has their own SGPC. Again, in 1966, the Gurdwara Act, 1925 suffered another repeal. Moreover, the Reorganisation Act Punjab/ Haryana/HP has provision for relocation of facilities for Sikhs to manage their religious places and institutions. The necessary legislation might be enacted for the formation of Haryana SGPC, Mr Rahi asserted. Mr Rahi pointed out that no doubt the Congress party had included this matter in their manifesto, and has now appointed Mr H.S. Chattha Committee for reviewing the matter in consultation with Haryana Sikhs so that necessary legislation could be enacted possibly over the next couple of months, the committee’s report might be expedited, Mr Rahi added. |
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Village says no to liquor
Hisar, August 2 A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the sabha chaired by the village sarpanch, Mr Mahabir Singh. According to the sarpanch, the atmosphere in the village was getting vitiated due to the illegal sale of liquor in the residential area of the village. Hence, the decision to impose a ban on the sale of liquor within a radius of 500 metres of the populated area was taken. Mr Mahabir Singh stated that the decision of the sabha had been announced in the village and legal action would be taken against those found violating the ban. He said to implement the prohibition orders, the village panchayat and the youth club as well as administrative officials had assured active support. |
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Mid-day meal eludes schoolchildren
Yamunanagar, August 2 Earlier, the schools were not provided with utensils to cook the meal. Now the utensils have been provided but there is no rice, wheat, ghee, sugar and other items to cook the food. Tenders for the purchase of foodstuff are yet to be invited. Sources in Confed, the agency which supply the grocery, said it was only on July 29 they got the demand of food products from the office of the District Primary Education Officer (DPEO). However, sources in the DPEO office blamed the schools and Block Education Officers for the delay in submitting the demand. On the other hand, the DPEO, Mr Zile Singh, claimed that schools were using the groceries, which were supplied before the summer vacation, and children were getting the meal. He, however, admitted that none of the schools had been supplied grocery after the schools re-opened. “Schools have enough grocery and I have no information of any schools which has run out of the grocery”, claimed Mr Zile Singh. When asked about the delay in sending demand by the Block Education Officers, he said as soon as his office received the demand, it was forwarded to Confed. A visit to schools in Ganauli, Banoli, Sherpur, Sabepur, Dayalagarh and Sudh villages revealed that the mid-day meal had not been served for the past many days. Mr Umesh Sharma, district president, Haryana Government Teachers Association, said the grocery was supplied to a few schools only before the vacation as rest of the schools had refused to take the supply fearing theft during holidays. |
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Police sets up cell for senior citizens
Ambala, August 2 Mr Deswal said problems of senior citizens would be handled by the newly formed cell. “We do not want senior citizens to wait for their task to be taken up. This cell will promptly look after the policing needs of the senior citizens. The complaints by senior citizens will be attended to at the earliest,” he said. He said the senior citizens cell in charge had been empowered to take action. “The cell currently has four personnel,” he said. To a query, Mr Deswal said he would take up the issue of security of banks with their managements. “I will meet the Deputy Commissioner and we will convene a meeting to sort out this matter,” he said. He said banks located in remote areas were prone to robberies and their managements should provide adequate security there. |
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Kanwarias block road in protest
Karnal, August 2 According to information, several Kanwarias of Hathlana village falling under Nissing block in the district were brining the holy water from the Ganga through “dak” kawad when the motor cycle of two of their companions was hit by a truck-trailer. While one of the Kanwarias, Rajesh (32), died on the spot, Parveen (19) succumbed to his injuries in the trauma centre of the Civil Hospital here. Agitated over the deaths of their two companions, the Kanwarias blocked the national highway. A large number of vehicles were stranded in the blockade, and long queues were seen on both sides of the road. The SP, Mr Sibas Kabiraj, and the SDM, Mr Girish Arora, reached the spot and tried to persuade the agitated Kanwarias to lift the blockade. A large number of police personnel also reached there to avoid any further untoward incident. Following repeated appeals by the police and civil officials, the Kanwarias lifted the blockade at around 5.30 p.m. Meanwhile, the Karnal MP, Mr Arvind Sharma, visited Hathlana village and expressed sorrow over the death of two Kanwarias. |
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Patwaris’ recruitment in Haryana set aside
Chandigarh, August 2 Quashing the selections, the Bench of Mr Justice Harjit Singh Bedi and Mr Justice Viney Mittal also directed the government to make fresh selections for the same by July, 2007. Till then, the candidates whose selections have been quashed would continue to work. They would also be eligible for fresh selection. The petitions challenging the selections had been filed by Mr Rajpal and others. In their petitions, Mr Rajpal and others had sought quashing of the selections on grounds of large-scale irregularities in the entire selection process. In 1994, when Mr Bhajan Lal was the Chief Minister, 1,248 Patwaris were recruited, while in 1999, 1056 Patwaris were recruited during the tenure of Mr Bansi Lal as Chief Minister. The petitioners had alleged that merit was completely ignored during the selection process. Citing media reports, they pointed out that in one of his speeches, Mr Bhajan Lal had said that there would be a patwari from each household in the Adampur constituency. Notice issued
The High Court on Tuesday issued notice of motion for August 18 on a petition filed by a group of promotee Deputy Superintendents of Police of the Punjab Police. In their petition, the cops have challenged the seniority list issued by the Punjab Government on July 7. They have alleged that the list has been compiled in violation of rules and law laid down in the Tulsi Ram versus State of Punjab case. However, during preliminary hearing, counsel for the direct recruits sated that the case was not covered under the Tulsi Ram judgment. Hearing will resume on August 18. |
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Girl raped in own house
Karnal, August 2 According to information, the victim was alone at her house. Kaku entered her house, when she had gone to fetch water from the neighbour’s house. When she returned, Kaku overpowered and raped her. On hearing the cry, her neighbours gathered there. However, he managed to flee from the spot. |
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Ailing jail inmate dead
Karnal, August 2 According to information, the jail inmate, Jaswant Singh of Dera Sunder in Jhanjana town of UP, was arrested by the Indri police just four days ago in connection with a theft case of 1997. Thereafter, he was shifted to the district jail and was an undertrial in the case. While his cousin, Bagga Singh, levelled allegations of adopting neglectful attitude by the jail authorities in treating his brother, the jail authorities termed the allegation as baseless. The jail authorities said that he had been admitted to jail hospital when he complained about uneasiness. However, he died today on his way to the Civil Hospital, they added. |
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Three booked in cheating case
Karnal, August 2 According to information, the complainant, Gajjan Singh, reportedly paid Rs 25 lakh to Shakuntala Devi and Prem Chand of Delhi and her son Sanjay Kumar of Chandigarh about two and half months back in instalments as they had assured him that they would send his sister-in-law and his nephew to the USA. However neither they sent them to the USA nor did they return the money. On the contrary, they allegedly threatened to eliminate him when he asked for his money. Following which, he lodged a complaint with the police and an FIR under sections 420, 506 and 120-B, IPC was registered against them at Sadar thana today. |
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