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Mayawati, Paswan visit Gohana, seek probe
Gohana incident: PWD to repair Dalits’ houses
Power, water supply yet to be restored in Balmiki colony
For rioting, age is no bar
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Chautala motivates partymen for
Rohtak rally
Stone crushers’ union to launch stir
Selection of constables challenged
Protest march by teachers
Health awareness drive from Sept 26
Air Commodore Patel takes charge
Training programme on physics held
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Mayawati, Paswan visit Gohana, seek probe
Gohana (Sonepat), September 2 BSP leader Mayawati, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan and a fact-finding team of the BJP SC Morcha under the presidency of president Ram Nath Gobind visited Gohana today. Talking to mediapersons separately, both Mayawati and Paswan demanded a CBI inquiry into the incident. However, Mayawati went one step further by demanding dissolution of the Hooda government and imposition of President’s rule in the state. While Mayawati demanded immediate relief for the victims, Paswan said that he would meet Manmohan Singh in this regard. Mayawati said the people of the state had lost faith in the Congress government. Meanwhile, situation remained tense but under control in Gohana as several Dalits, including women gathered at Samata Chowk this morning and raised slogans against Hooda and UPA
chairperson Sonia Gandhi. About 70 per cent shops remained closed in fear of violence here. Protesters blocked the Sonepat-Purkhas road for an hour. On the other hand, Sarv Khap and Sarv Jati Panchayat was also held at New Anaj Mandi on the Jind road, about one km away from Balmiki Colony today. It was demanded at the meeting to give compensation of at least Rs 10 lakh to family members of Baljeet Siwach killed allegedly by some Balmikis on Saturday, withdrawal of false cases filed against 23 persons under SC ST Act on the charge of arsoning and looting Dalit houses and immediate arrest of the absconding accused of Siwach’s murder. When the meeting was going on, two youths were reportedly picked up by the police. On spreading the news, hundreds of participants had blocked the Gohana-Jind road for some minutes. However, SDM Ajit Balaji Joshi reached the spot and assured the protesters that the picked up youths would be released. Following which the blockage was lifted. Meanwhile, representatives of Sarv Khap and Sarv Jati Panchayat also decided to hold another meeting on Sunday. |
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Gohana incident: PWD to repair Dalits’ houses
Chandigarh, September 2 This decision has been taken after the Election Commission of India accepted the request of the Haryana Government to provide relief to the affected families. In a statement issued here today the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Delhi, said the entire cost of repairs or restoration of the damaged houses would be borne by the state government. He said the district administration had been directed to provide food, water and medical aid to the affected families immediately. Mr Hooda said a committee comprising the Executive Engineer
(PED) and the tehsildar of Gohana had been constituted to assess the loss of property on account of disturbances. The committee would submit its report within a week. In order to meet immediate requirements, the Deputy Commissioner had been directed to provide an ad hoc grant of Rs 5,000 per affected family. Meanwhile, three Haryana Ministers, Mr Venod Sharma, Mr Lachhman Dass Arora and Capt Ajay Singh Yadav have issued statements defending the Chief Minister. Earlier, the Election Commission today allowed the Chief Minister to announce compensation package to victims of the Gohana caste violence. The Haryana government had approached the poll panel in view of the byelection for the Rohtak Parliamentary
constituency scheduled for September 28.
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Power, water supply yet to be restored in Balmiki colony
Gohana (Sonepat), September 2 What to talk of persuading Dalits to return to their houses, the district administration could not even restore power and water supply in the colony for the residents who had returned to their houses and for the relatives of migrated and missing Dalits who had come from different places to know condition of their kin. While most of the Dalits residing in the colony still have not returned to their houses, those who have come back and several relatives of the migrated and missing residents had to spent two nights without power and water. Gomti of Tilak Nagar, New Delhi is among those who had to spend yesterday’s night without power at her parents’ house in the Colony. Talking to The Tribune, she said that she had came to her mother Dulari Devi’s house on Thursday morning but could not find any of her relatives including her mother, brother Gopal Dass, sister-in-law Saroj and niece Anu. She had to spend Thrusday’s night without power at her mother’s house, she said, adding even power supply had not been restored till then. Former Municipal Councillor Raj Kumar, who is residing in the colony, corroborated her statement that power supply had not been restored. He said that he and other Dalits in the colony had to spend two nights without power. Meanwhile Sanjay of Garhi Ujale village in Sonepat and Sonu of Panipat, who had come here to see their relatives in the colony, said that the district administration had not made any arrangements to provide Dalits drinking water and food. Gomti, Sanjay, Raj Kumar and Sonu said that they had been provided drinking water, food, tea and other eatables by representatives of different Dalit organisations and members of the Punjabi and Mahajan community living around the Colony. DC S.K. Goel and SDM Gohana Ajit Balaji Joshi told The Tribune that power would be restored to the colony by Friday night. Mr Goel said that he had directed the Electricity Department to restore electricity to the colony at the earliest. Mr Joshi said that the administration was facing difficulty in restoring power as internal connections and wires of several houses had been burnt in several houses. Temporary connections would be restored by night he added. The SDM said that tankers had been sent to the colony to provide drinking water to the Dalits. However no tanker was seen in and around the colony when The Tribune team visited it on Friday. The DC and the SDM added that langars had been organised at Devi Lal Stadium for the Dalits and temporary shelter provided to them at the stadium. |
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For rioting, age is no bar
Chandigarh, September 2 Following emotional appeals through speeches, mothers permitted their six and seven-year-olds to accompany the elders, armed with lathis and swords, brandishing these on roads. Some, who could not even speak clearly, said they were on the road to ‘see groups clash with the police’, but what the cause of the clash was or why people were fighting, they had no idea. Eight-year-old Ramesh, a class II student at a Mauli Jagran school, told The Tribune: “It was fun breaking the windshield of two cars by pelting stones”. Why did he do it? He had no answer, except “I just followed what others did”. Mani, who said he was 10 and a school dropout, joined the crowds at Rajiv Colony after he heard that “some Balmiki had been killed and unless all of them got together, the government was out to kill more”. These were not rumours, he said. He believed these were true because his elder brother had told him so. Panchkula, often referred to as the ‘Paris’ of Haryana, appeared calm on the surface but the tension was palpable throughout the day with people preferring to keep indoors. The main roads were the worst affected with Haryana Police putting up barricades and deploying vehicles to prevent entry and exit into the city sectors. Many Panchkula roads remained lined with brickbats, stones, tree trunks and other obstacles like half-burnt tyres. Sunny, an eight-year-old resident of Indira Colony, who had come to fight the police with his brother Ramesh, like a parrot that his brother had told him about “houses of Dalits being burnt in Gohana”. But he had no idea about the location of Gohana. While a handful leaders spoke about their unflinching faith in the leadership of the Haryana Deputy Chief Minister, who they said would protect the ‘Balmiks and Dalits’, they repeatedly raised slogans against Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, demanding his resignation. The crowds that went did the rounds of Panchkula streets brandishing swords and lathis, damaging public property and private vehicles was estimated to be around 500. But barring their leaders, a majority of them were teenagers or in their early twenties. A large number comprised of children like Satish (11), Surjit (8), Rakesh (12) and Arun (13), who were there, but did not know why. Though, the Administration has been criticised in some circles for remaining a mute spectator to the violence, some feel that the damage could have been much more had not the police made its presence felt in the city. |
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Chautala
motivates partymen for Rohtak rally Panchkula, September 2 Mr Chautala was at Pinjore to address his party
workers yesterday. He said a rally was being organised on the
anniversary of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal on September 25.
“We will be raising various acts of ommission and commission of the
Hooda government in the past six months. The government has failed on
all fronts,” he said. Mr Chautala criticised the torching of houses
of Dalits at Gohana yesterday. “Casteism has taken deep roots in the
state. The state is unable to protect the interests of the lower socio-
economic classes in the state,” he said, while demanding strict action
against the accused. Mr Chautala also pointed out the alleged police
atrocities against the striking workers of Honda at Gurgaon. He asked
more and more people to join INLD and create a mass movement against the
“repressive regime in the state”.
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Stone crushers’ union to launch stir
Hisar, September 2 While the main demand of the protesters is the withdrawal of cases registered against crusher owners and others involved in mining activities, they have also been seeking the cancellation of the contractors’ lease and a CBI inquiry into the alleged multi-crore scam which began during the Chautala regime. The crusher owners and labourer leaders allege that the local police was registering cases against them at the behest of the lease-hold contractors. They have formed a joint action committee to register their protest in this regard and held a meeting at Khanak today. Talking to The Tribune here today, representatives of the stone-crushers’ association pointed out that in March, the Assistant Mining Engineer had issued a notice to the leaseholders, stating that their lease would be cancelled in case they did not stop violating the lease agreement. However, no action has been taken so far in this regard. “The lease-hold contractors have not paid the due amount for the past three months. They were also supposed to give 15 per cent of the lease amount to the village panchayat concerned, but they have not deposited this amount either,” they asserted. After coming to power the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government had granted a big reprieve to the crusher owners and labourers by announcing the lifting of royalty checkposts, which had come to be known as “goonda” tax nakas. However, after some time the government strangely decided to revert to the same old system, though at a reduced rate. This move of the Hooda regime sparked widespread protests. A little later, the checkposts were again lifted. However, the lease was not cancelled, neither was a probe instituted. This made the crusher owners and labourers to continue their stir, but to no avail. The mining activities, which had resumed for a brief period have again come to a standstill. |
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high court Our High Court Correspondent
Chandigarh, September 2 Selections were made following advertisement of 1,600 posts of constable. The petitioner, Mr Surender Singh, was not selected by the panel constituted by the government, despite the fact that he was highly qualified and I had scored the maximum marks in the physical test.After his representation against non-selection was summarily disallowed by the then Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ambala Range, the petitioner moved the High Court. In his petition, he has alleged that the interview panel headed by the then Superintendent of Police, Ambala, Mr Mohammad Akil, adopted a pick-and-choose policy while awarding marks for the interview. Thus, while the petitioner and scores of other eligible candidates were given low marks, influential candidates, particularly those belonging to Mr Chautala’s Assembly constituency Narwana, were awarded good marks. Of the total 37 candidates in the general category sent for training for the Haryana Armed Police in Ambala Range, only one was a graduate, while all others were 10+2. Also, 20 hailed from Narwana and two were related to the then DGP, Mr M.S. Malik. The petitioner, a postgraduate, scored 20 out of 20 marks in the physical test, but was awarded only one mark out of the maximum 15 in the interview, resulting in his failure to make the grade. He has also alleged that the record was tampered with to favour some candidates. Interestingly, a perusal of the marks awarded by the interview panel shows that candidates who had scored the maximum (20) marks in the physical test were awarded low marks while those with poor scores were given good marks in the interview. Today, the Division Bench of Mr Justice H.S. Bedi and Mr Justice Viney Mittal was informed by Haryana Advocate-General Hawa Singh Hooda and Additional Advocate-General Anmol Rattan Sidhu that the present government had no objection if an inquiry was ordered into the selection process. The petitioner’s counsel has been seeking a CBI inquiry into the selections. After hearing all parties, the Bench admitted the case for hearing within a month.
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Protest march by teachers
Rohtak, September 2 The activists had come here from all over the state to join the protest march to the Chief Minister’s private residence here. After the demonstration, a deputation of the sangh went to the CM residence and presented a memorandum, which demanded, among other things, unconditional absorption of JBT teachers appointed in 2004 in the Education Department and release of salaries. |
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Health awareness drive from Sept 26
Chandigarh, September 2 This was stated by the Haryana Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Health and Medical Education, Mrs Urvashi Gulati, after presiding over a meeting of non-governmental organisations to review the implementation of the target intervention programme to check the spread of HIV and AIDS in Panchkula yesterday. |
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Air Commodore Patel takes charge
Ambala, September 2 Air Commodore Patel is an alumni of National Defence Academy. He was commissioned in the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force in December, 1975. He has flown over 3450 hours on various types of fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force. He is a postgraduate from Defence Services Staff College, a qualified flying instructor and has undergone Long Defence Management course. In his 30 years of service career, Air Commodore Patel has held a number of important staff and field appointments. He commanded a fighter squadron and the aircrew examination board. Prior to taking command of Air Force Station, Ambala, he was the Director of Weapon at Air
Headquarters. AOC’s wife Vijayalakshmi Patel took over as the president of the local unit of the Air Force Wives Welfare Association. |
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Training programme on physics held
Ambala, September 2 In his inaugural address Dr V.B. Kamble, Director, Vigyan Prasar, Ministry of Science and Technology, explained that the year 2005 not only marks the centenary of the theory of relativity, it also marks the centenary of the Golden Decade 1895-1905 in which momentous discoveries in physics were made. Dr Kamble inaugurated the Vigyan Prasar Club in the school under the aegis of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Dr D.P. Asija, Principal of the Sohan Lal DAV College of Education, and Prof Manmohan Singh also spoke. |
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