Chandigarh, September 9
The Haryana Excise and Taxation Minister, Mr Venod Sharma, today had a meeting with a six-member Chinese delegation led by Mr Zhao Leji, Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the Qinghai Province.

Mr Sharma said there were many similarities between Haryana and Qinghai Province and they could benefit much by sharing their experiences. He said like the Chinese province, Haryana too was focussed on how to make agriculture more productive and remunerative for the farmers.

The Minister invited fresh initiative from the Chinese delegation for setting up industrial units in the state. Stating that the two economies were going through a similar phase of development, he said they were facing similar challenges in terms of achieving sustainable development while protecting environment and ecology at the same time.

Mr Leji said like Haryana, in Qinghai Province too 60 per cent of the population was engaged in agriculture.

The delegation had exhaustive discussion with Haryana officials on issues of common interest. Also, extensive presentations were made to the delegation by the agriculture, horticulture, panchayats and rural and urban development departments.

The meeting was also attended by Haryana Chief Secretary G. Madhvan. The members of the Chinese delegation were Mr Ren Qingjia, Mr Wang Jianjun, Mr Ai Ping, all Director-Generals of the Qinghai Provincial Government, Mr Du Xiaolin, Deputy Director for the India and Nepal Desk and Zheng Junlu, Staff Member of the Bureau of the International Department of the CPC.

Chandigarh, September 9
The previous INLD regime’s practice of giving jobs to youths of Haryana without making proper arrangements for their salaries is going to hit 1,800 youths who have been recruited as gram vikas sahayaks.

The state government, it is learnt, has decided to reduce the honorarium received by the sahayaks to Re 1 per month from the existing rate of Rs 3,000 every month. Since the sahayaks are officially known as volunteers (being paid honorarium instead of salary), ideally they should not object to the reduction in their monthly emoluments. However, the reality is that none of the sahayaks is going to work if the honorarium is reduced to Re 1.

The proposal of having sahayaks for assisting the panchayats was implemented by the previous government shortly before the last Assembly elections were announced. It was one of the many sops offered by Mr Om Prakash Chautala to woo the voters before the Assembly poll. According to the Act passed by the Haryana Assembly, the sahayaks would be recruited by the panchayats, which would pay the honorarium to them. However, the panchayats cannot terminate their services. This can be done only by the state government.

There were 6,000 vacancies for sahayaks. By the time the Assembly elections were announced and the model code of conduct came into force, the panchayats had enlisted 2,700 sahayaks out of which 1,800 joined duty. But most panchayats do not have the resources for making regular payments to them. As a result, the sahayaks approached the court for relief. The state government will have to now spend over Rs 6 crore for settling their pending dues.

Alarmed by the financial implications, the state government had a relook at the appointment of the sahayaks and found that it was yet another attempt by the previous government to lure the youths before the Assembly elections. There is, however, provision in the Act to reduce the honorarium of the sahayaks and the government has taken recourse to this to change the amount to Re 1 from Rs 3,000. In effect, the sahayaks are being given marching orders by the state government.

The lapses in recruiting the gram vikas sahayaks is similar to the story of the Haryana Industrial Security Force (HSISF).The HSISF, raised by the Chautala-led government before the last Assembly elections, was supposed to be hired by industries and commercial organisations. The recurring expenditure on maintaining the force was to come from the money paid to the government by those who would hire it. But it was later found that neither industries nor commercial establishments were actually interested in hiring the HSISF and eventually the force had to be disbanded.

Chandigarh, September 9
The byelection in the Rohtak parliamentary constituency is said to be preventing the Congress from launching an all-out onslaught on the BJP for one of its leaders alleged role in the Gohana incident.

A senior police officer here said the family of the murdered Jat youth, Baljeet Siwatch, whose death had led to the Gohana incident, had proximity to Mr Kishan Singh Sangwan, BJP MP from Sonepat and senior leader of the party in Haryana. Police sources said a brother of Baljeet used to be a gunman of Mr Sangwan. The gunman later was deployed on other police duty and died in an encounter. Another brother of Baljeet, too, was an associate of Mr Sangwan, the source said, adding that the police also had “photographic evidence” of one of Mr Sangwan’s son’s presence in the mob that set houses on fire belonging to Dalits in Balmiki Colony, near Gohana, on August 31.

But Congress functionaries are hesitant to come out in the open against Mr Sangwan, and till date have made only half-hearted attempts to nail the BJP Lok Sabha member. Congressmen apparently fear if Mr Sangwan is blamed for an active role in the Gohana incident, it actually can help the BJP candidate in Rohtak, Captain Abhimanyu, to gain the sympathy of the dominant Jat community in the constituency.

The Rohtak byelection is crucial for Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for a number of reasons. His son, Deepender, who returned to India recently after leaving a lucrative career in the USA, will make his debut in politics by contesting the election from Rohtak as the Congress candidate. Mr Hooda himself was the last MP from Rohtak and the seat fell vacant when he resigned to enter the Haryana Assembly. The Chief Minister evidently does not want to take any chance as far as the Rohtak byelection is concerned and is trying to ensure that nothing spoils the Congress candidate’s performance in the byelection.

Having decided to hand over to the CBI the probe into the Gohana incident, Mr Hooda has avoided taking any further action against the alleged culprits (including Mr Sangwan’s two sons and a brother) booked for the arson at Gohana. By the same logic the government should have also refrained from taking any action against the officials concerned for failing to tackle the situation at Gohana. This, however, is not the case as the suspension of the DSP and the SHO of Gohana yesterday showed.

Mr Hooda’s problem is twofold. If he sets the police on the alleged perpetrators of the Gohana incident, it will alienate him from Jats. He cannot afford to ignore Dalits either because this can jeopardise Congress chances to reclaim the support of Dalits in the country’s other states. Thus, when some Dalit miscreants went berserk at Panchkula on August 2, the police remained a silent spectator.

But the police inaction can give a shot in the arm to Mr Hooda’s political rivals, some of whom may politicise the law and order situation. The burning of a bus at Narwana on Monday is a case in point. The youths who burnt the bus were not Dalits. Narwana MLA Randeep Singh Surjewala is now the Transport Minister and the burning of a government bus in his constituency may be part of a political conspiracy, say police sources.

Kurukshetra, September 9
Delivering a lecture on “Domestic violence”, organised by the Women’s Studies Research Centre, Kurukshetra University, here on Wednesday, US Full Bright Scholar, Dr Robin N. Haarr, talked on theories, risk factors and impacts of family violence.

Dr Haarr, who has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Arizona State University, USA, for the past 11 years, has done extensive research and analyzed many types of violence perpetrated against women and children. She has also examined how female police officials frame and manage issues of gender, race and sexual orientation in workplace.

Dr Haarr said one of the most significant ways to reduce violence was its repulsion by women themselves.

Earlier, the Centre director, Dr Reicha Tanwar, in her introductory lecture, gave an overview of the sex ratio in Haryana.

Talking about family violence, she emphasised that violence against aged women was very common in our country.

Mr Yudhvir Singh, Registrar, Kurukshetra University, suggested that women cells should be made effective. “We have to reach those masses of women, who are actually having problems. Men should be included or should be given their representation in various women’s cells,” he added.

Jhajjar, September 9
Hundreds of enraged residents of Silani village, most of them women, blocked the Jhajjar-Rewari road in protest against the non-availability of potable water in their village today. The women alleged that the sarpanch of the village was deliberately delaying the completion of the project due to his vested interest.

According to information, the women of the village gathered on the National Highway No 71, and raised obstacles on the road. As a result, the vehicular traffic came to a standstill and the commuters had a harrowing time as they did not allow a single vehicle to pass.

The residents, including Roshni Devi, Murti Devi, Bimla and Mahender, complaint that they were facing hardships due to non-availability of water and blamed the sarpanch of the village for the state of affairs. They said the previous panchayat had collected Rs 500 from each family to provide connections of water about three years ago. But the present sarpanch, Mr Raj Singh, had commissioned his own water supply scheme and providing connections for a security of Rs 5,000 and a monthly charge of Rs 100 to about 400 houses.

Later, police and civil officials, including DSP and Executive Engineer of the Public Health Department, rushed to the spot. The officials assured the agitated women that the water supply would be provided within one week.

Chandigarh, September 9
The Haryana Dairy Development Cooperative Federation (HDDCF) has taken the Army authorities to the court over the denial of tender form for supply of milk and butter.

The case will come up for hearing before a Panchkula court on September 14.

According to sources in the HDDCF, the federation was invited by the Army authorities directly as well as through the National Cooperative Development Federation of India (NCDFI) to participate in the tender process for supply of milk and butter to the Army units in Delhi and Haryana for 2005-06.

However, the sources say the Army authorities in Chandimandir refused to give the tender form to the HDDCF “without assigning any reason”. Mr Sunil Kumar, a representative of the NCDFI, recorded on the HDDCF’s request for the tender form that “there is some instruction from the Army headquarters not to issue tender form” to the HDDCF.

The HDDCF sources say the Army had awarded the contract for the supply of milk to the Haryana federation last year. Before that the Army used to purchase milk at the rate of Rs 15.65 per litre while the HDDCF supplied milk at Rs 14.29 per litre, which saved the Army Rs 55 lakh.

When the Managing Director of the NCDFI, Mr R.N. Ghatak, intervened, he was informed by the Army authorities that they were within their right to deny the tender form to the HDDCF.

Chandigarh, September 9
The first meeting of the newly constituted eight-member committee to ascertain the need, jurisdiction, feasibility and organisation of a separate gurdwara parbandhak committee for Haryana will be held on September 29 in Chandigarh.

According to sources, Haryana Assembly Speaker H.S. Chatha, who is chairman of the committee, will chair the meeting.

The other members on the committee are Mr Bhupinder Singh Jauhar (Yamunanagar), Mr Gurcharan Singh Aneja (Kurukshetra), Mr Mohinder Singh (Fatehabad), Mr Raghubir Singh Virk (Karnal), Mr Kuldip Singh (Rohtak) and Mr Kulbir Singh Kalyana (Karnal).

The District Attorney in the office of the Advocate-General, Haryana, Mr N.S. Bhinder, is member-secretary of the committee. 

Ambala, September 9
The body of the brother of the District and Sessions Judge, Ambala, which was recovered from the Ravi in Himachal Pradesh after a search of 15 days yesterday, was cremated here today. The deceased, S.R. Gupta, was employed in the Haryana Marketing Board.

A number of senior judicial officers of the state, including the District and Sessions Judge, Kaithal, Ms Neelam Sankhla, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ambala, Ms Kanchan Mahee, and the SDM, Mr Mukesh Ahuja, attended the cremation.

According to information, Mr Gupta had gone to visit Mani Mahesh in Himachal Pradesh along with three of his colleague, Sushil Kumar, Mukesh Thaper, and Vijender Kumar, on August 25. When they were on way to Sirmaur their vehicle fell in the Ravi.

The body of Mukesh Thapar was recovered after two days of the incident but the bodies of S.R. Gupta and Sushil Kumar were recovered yesterday. Besides local divers, divers of Navy also participated in the search operation.

Vijender Kumar and the driver of the vehicle had survived in the accident.