The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	CBI to probe fraud charges against MP Tribune News Service Rohtak, April 25 The CBI has started a preliminary inquiry against Wangyuh Konyak, a Lok Sabha member from Nagaland on allegations of extracting Rs 15.5 lakh from a local resident two years ago ostensibly for securing jobs for four persons. The complainant, Amit Lamba, General Secretary of youth wing of the Janata Dal (United), has alleged that he was introduced to the MP by a common friend. Later, he told him that he could secure jobs for unemployed youths in lieu of money. Mr Lamba alleged that the MP duly issued receipts for the money he received stating therein that it was meant for securing a particular job. The complaint stated that the MP took Rs 10 lakh for securing the job of a DSP in Nagaland, Rs 4 lakh for getting two women appointed as teachers in Rajasthan and Rs 1.5 lakh for getting the job of a receptionist at Nagaland Bhavan in Delhi. Mr Lamba alleged that when the jobs were not forthcoming, he demanded the money back and the MP issued him two cheques which bounced. He submitted a complaint to the CBI in March. He has now received a communication from the CBI stating that it was starting a preliminary inquiry into the matter. The CBI has asked him to submit the original receipts and other documents mentioned in the complaint to facilitate the probe.
	HAU scientist shot at Tribune News Service Hisar, April 25 Dr S.S. Bisla, a senior scientist and former Director, Students Welfare, Haryana Agricultural University (HAU) here, was shot at by unidentified assailants last night. He is admitted to a local hospital and is stated to be out of danger. Dr Bisla is the father of Ranji cricketer Manavendra who has represented India in the Under-19 World Cup. Dr Bisla stated that he did not know the assailants, nor had he any enmity with anybody. According to the complaint lodged with the police, two youths reached Dr Bisla’s residence on a black Bolero car last night and started threatening him. The car did not have any registration number and the youths were reportedly in an inebriated condition. When Dr Bisla tried to push them out, one of them shot at him. The assailants fled the scene soon after. Meanwhile, the HAU Teachers Association has condemned the incident and demanded immediate arrest of the assailants. Mr Arshinder Singh Chawla, SSP, said one of the assailants had been identified and hunt was on to nab him. He said after his arrest, the second assailant would also be nabbed.
	Murder case solved Our Correspondent Kaithal, April 25 The police here has solved the murder case of Krishan Lal of Sega village of the district, whose body was found hanging from a tree in February this year. The wife of the victim, her paramour and his friend, allegedly committed the murder. The police has arrested two persons on the charge of murder and destroying evidence. Krishna, the wife of the victim, committed suicide the previous night when she learnt that the police had worked out the case of murder which was earlier made to look like a suicide case. According to the investigation, the murder was committed in the background of the alleged illicit relations of the wife of the deceased with a village resident. Giving this information to media persons here today, the SP, Mr Navdeep Singh Virk, said the body of Krishan Lal, was found hanging from a tree on February 22, 2006. The wife and some other persons told villagers that Krishan had committed suicide due to some family problems and the police too believed that the deceased had committed suicide. Following which the deceased was cremated, though his sister wanted that cremation should take place only after the arrival of her brother Naresh from Hardwar. After some time villagers met the SP, Mr Virk, and requested him to order an impartial investigation in this case, as they had doubt over the suicide theory. The SP constituted a team headed by CIA Inspector to probe the case. During police investigations, it came to light that the wife of the deceased had developed illicit relations with Balwinder of Sega. The wife of Balwinder, Rajbala, also allegedly committed suicide when she came to know about the relations of her husband with another woman. Following this, Balwinder and Krishna found krishan an obstacle in their love story and planned to kill him. Balwinder contacted his friend Hosiyar Singh of Sismor, and they both offered liquor to Krishan and later strangulated him to death and hanged his body on a tree. Next morning, wife of the deceased, as a part of planning convinced the villagers about the suicide by her husband and cremated him. The police has also recovered the rope used for strangulating the victim. Both accused who had been booked under Sections 302, 201 and 34 of the IPC were remanded in 14 days judicial custody by ACJM Bimlesh Tanwar today.
	CBI probe sought into out-of-turn liquor vends allotment Our High Court Correspondent Chandigarh, April 25 Counsel for a liquor vend licencee of Haryana today created a flutter in the Punjab and Haryana High Court when he alleged that the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Haryana Government had favoured a Sirsa-based liquor trader by allotting large number of vends out-of-turn to him. Making this claim, advocate Mohan Jain, counsel for petitioner Ram Chander, prayed that an inquiry be ordered to be conducted by the CBI to thoroughly investigate the largesse to Sirsa-based Amrit Singla and his family, as companies owned by him and his family members in various names had been allotted hundreds of vends in various districts of Haryana. The petitioner has prayed for setting aside licences granted to the respondents, alleging that the number of vends was almost doubled only to give undue benefit to the Singla family. The stand of the petitioner, who has been granted licence to sell IMFL in Tohana town in Fatehabad district, is while ordinary businessmen like him paid hefty sums as fees to participate in the draw of lots and as lience fees, the government circumvented the rules to favour its favourites and granted them licences at throwaway prices. It has been stated that the Singla family has been granted licence to operate 119 IMFL and country liquor vends in Fatehabad and Sirsa districts alone. "The number is much more if all districts are taken into consideration," Mr Jain asserted. Today, after hearing counsel for all sides, the Division Bench of Mr Justice A.K. Goel and Mr Justice Rajesh Bindal directed the government to file its reply by April 29, after which the petitioner would file his rejoinder by May 1. Hearing will resume on May 2.
	A web(site) of bloomers Raman Mohan Tribune News Service Rohtak, April 25 Believe it or not but going by the official website of Rohtak subdivision (rohtaksubdivision.nic.in) Deepender Hooda is not yet a member of the Lok Sabha from Rohtak and his father Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is merely an MLA from Kiloi. Notably, Rohtak is the hometown of the Hoodas. Going a little further, the apparently ancient website declares that the Meham and Hassangarh Assembly seats are represented respectively by Balbir Singh and Balwant Mayna of the Indian National Lok Dal and the Kalanaur Assembly segment by Sarita Narain of the BJP. In fact, Meham and Kalanaur are represented in the present Vidhan Sabha by Anand Singh Dangi and Health Minister Kartar Devi of the Congress while the Hassangarh seat had elected Naresh Malik of the BJP in the last Assembly elections. The website says Capt Inder Singh of the INLD represents the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat instead of Deepender Hooda of the Congress who was elected last year. These are not the only bloomers. The website shows Vikas Gupta as SDM of Rohtak in place of Vatsal Vashishta who has been in the post for about a year now. According to the website Sharad Kumar and Alok Roy are the Inspector-General and Superintendent of Police of Rohtak, respectively. Both were posted out a long time ago. The developers of the website – the National Informatics Centre – appear to be poor spellers. Here are some of the words on the website which would make the likes of Shakespeare turn in their graves: artiests for artists, polotical for political, ex-service for ex-servicemen, sports man for sportspersons, sprititual for spiritual, environmentiest for environmentalist, scientiest for scientist and literary for literary. The website was developed sometime in 2001 under an impressive sounding project IDEA. The abbreviation stood for the Initiatives for Development, Empowerment and Accountability. This is how the website declares the reasons for its birth: “Even in Haryana, public services are often in disarray because of apathy of officials towards public, complicated and at times mysterious procedures, illiteracy, ignorance of simple rules by literates, red-tapism unpardonable negligence of one’s roles and responsibilities. Such a state of affairs leads to law credibility of public delivery system. To make administration more people friendly, improve service delivery mechanism and ensure faster development, we have initiated project IDEA in Rohtak Sub-Division.” (sic) About five years after its birth the page called administration is still “under construction” and the court cases page is “coming soon”. Despite all this the then SDM Vikas Gupta had no hesitation in making this claim on the website: This website is the fist website of any sub-division in Haryana and also one of the first in India. We have provided information about different services provided by SDO(C)’s office, different government offices in Rohtak, places of interest in Rohtak and other useful information, which will be required by citizens of Rohtak. One important feature of website is grievance registry system, where citizens can lodge their complaints/grievances online and I will reply personally about action taken .We also aim to make this site transactional where citizen can apply for licences online and can make payments online, depending on response of citizens to this site. I hope this site will help us to achieve the goal of transparent, accountable and responsive government. No doubt the gentleman bureaucrat had taken pains to create the website and the information at that time might have been accurate. But that still does not absolve him of responsibility for the spelling bloomers and other gaffes in language. And perhaps, his successors are equally to blame for letting the website grow old and useless and still keeping it open for the public to access especially now that Rohtak is the seat of political power in Haryana.
	Mann criticises Hooda on procurement of mustard Yoginder Gupta Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 25 A former Chief Parliamentary Secretary of Haryana, Mr Ran Singh Mann, who has now joined the BJP, today alleged that the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, had been acting more as the leader of one faction of the party and his “mentality is no different from that of the supremo of a regional party.” Releasing copies of his letter to Mr Hooda here, Mr Mann said the Chief Minister had failed to impress the people of the state as an able administrator because he was depending upon a “visionless bureaucracy”. Several announcements made by Mr Hooda had not helped the public and, unfortunately, he was not in touch with the ground reality because he was surrounded by “sycophants and dishonest people.” Mr Mann also alleged that Mr Hooda was using the delimitation of constituencies as a tool to render those who could raise their voice, ineffective. Accusing Mr Hooda of nepotism, the BJP leader said the Chief Minister was interested only in strengthening the constituency of his son and was not bothered about the character of other constituencies. Criticising the procurement of mustard, Mr Mann said the procurement agency had not taken care of small farmers or those who did share farming while issuing coupons for procuring mustard. The date of payment on these coupons, he said, was as late as July, which had resulted in great hardships to the farmers who were in urgent need of money. Similarly, he alleged, Mr Hooda had not effectively raised his voice against the low minimum support price of wheat or its import. Mr Mann also criticised the new excise policy, increase in the flat rate of power being supplied to the farmers and non-implementation of the announcement regarding reduction in charges for giving electricity connections to the tubewells. Mr Mann said certain things could be done for women without putting any additional burden on the state exchequer. For instance, he said, even a 90-year-old woman had to give an affidavit that she had not remarried before getting widow pension. This was so humiliating. While appreciating Mr Hooda for bestowing the status of a martyr on those who were killed in the police firing during the Kandela agitation of the BKU, Mr Mann demanded a similar concession to those who were killed in earlier agitations of the farmers at Kaadma, Mandiali and Loharu. Mr Mann said Mr Hooda’s attitude on the Congress charge-sheet against the former Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, had disappointed the people and proved that the rulers of the state firmly believed in the principle of “earn and let others earn.”
	Cabinet panel to go into govt staff reinstatement Shubhadeep Choudhury Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 25 Having readied the report on reinstating the employees of cooperative and public sector units retrenched by the previous Om Prakash Chautala regime, the Cabinet subcommittee headed by the Haryana Finance Minister, Mr Birender Singh, is slated to next take up the issue of dismissed government employees. It is learnt that police personnel who lost their jobs during the Chautala regime as a result of a Supreme Court order, 1,200 patwaris recruited by the Bansi Lal-led government and sacked by the INLD government and dismissed employees of the Education and Technical Education Departments are among those whose reinstatement will be considered by the Cabinet subcommittee. The two other members of the committee are the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Chander Mohan, and the Power and Public Works Minister, Mr Venod Sharma. Official sources said the report on the retrenched employees of cooperative and public sector units prepared by the committee would be placed before the Cabinet for its approval. While more than 6,000 employees of such units were retrenched by the Chautala regime, the number of employees available for recruitment at present is said to be 4,300. The remaining employees have got jobs or set up some business or crossed the retirement age. There have been also cases of death among the retrenched employees. It has been recommended by the committee that 25 per cent of the jobs in all government recruitments for various categories of vacancies, including recruitment in boards and corporations, should be reserved for the employees retrenched from boards, corporations and federations. It has been also recommended that in case a post earlier held by a retrenched employee now required a person with higher qualifications, the qualification criterion could be relaxed in the case of an applicant from the retrenched employee category. The age limit fixed by the committee is 55 years or less on May 18, 2006. Retrenched employees who will be beyond that age on the cut-off date will not be eligible for applying for any government vacancy. The committee has also recommended that Class IV vacancies arising in any department, board or corporation should be always filled by retrenched Class IV employees.
	Plea to confer Bharat Ratna on Bansi Lal posthumously Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 25 The Haryana Minister of State, Tourism and Forest, Ms Kiran Choudhry, has urged the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to confer the award of Bharat Ratna on late Bansi Lal, former Chief Minister, posthumously. In a letter to the Prime Minister, she said when Haryana was carved out as a separate state, it was backward in almost every sphere. But due to strenuous efforts made by the late leader and liberal financial support of the then Prime Minister, late Indira Gandhi, Haryana became a hub of developmental activities. Ms Choudhry, who also happens to the widow of Bansi Lal's son, Surender Singh, termed the former Chief Minister as a great visionary and pioneer. Mr Bansi Lal’s contribution as Union Minister for Defence and Transport was well-known and acknowledged, Ms Choudhry said and added that keeping in view the role played by him in development of the state and the country, his name should be considered for Bharat Ratna.
	Court statement contradicts Somvir's public stand Yoginder Gupta Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 25 A statement filed before a Subdivisional Magistrate (SDM) of Delhi goes against the public posture adopted by Mr Somvir Singh, a son-in-law of the late Haryana Chief Minister, Bansi Lal, that he or members of his family were not interested in the property of his father-in-law. The Delhi Police had attached the house(9/5, Sarvpriya Vihar), where Bansi Lal used to live, following a dispute between Ms Shruti, the only daughter of the late Surender Singh, the younger son of the former Chief Minister, and certain other members of Bansi Lal's family early this month under Section 145 of the Cr PC. In the written statement filed before Mr Manish Garg, SDM, Hauz Khas, on behalf of Mr Somvir Singh; his wife Savita; his daughter Sabina; and Mrs Vidya Devi, wife of Bansi Lal, a prayer has been made that the house should be detached and its possession restored to them. Another prayer to the magistrate has been made that he should declare that they were entitled to the possession of the disputed property. They have also attached copies of income tax returns, bank passbooks and certain other documents to prove that Bansi Lal and his wife used to stay in the disputed house. In the statement they have admitted that the house was in the name of Surender Singh, but it was Bansi Lal who used to pay electricity, water and other charges relating to it. They claimed that since Surender Singh died intestate (without executing his will), his mother had become one-third owner of all his property, including this house. However, they admitted that Mrs Vidya Devi executed a will on July 19, 2005, bequeathing her one-third share in Surender Singh's property to Ms Shruti. Claiming that Ms Sabrina had been staying in the Sarvpriya Vihar house for the past seven years, it was alleged that Ms Shruti along with her mother had dispossessed Ms Sabrina and Mrs Vidya Devi of that property and the possession should be restored to them.
	Lathi charge on women condemned Tribune News Service Rohtak, April 25 Former Minister Krishan Murti Hooda, who recently quit the Congress, has condemned the police lathi charge on women protesting against opening of a liquor vend at Sunaria Chowk here yesterday. In a statement issued today, he said this was the first time since Independence that the male cops had used brutal force on women in the hometown of a Chief Minister. He said although Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda claimed to be an Arya Samaj activist, he was promoting sale of liquor in Haryana and even in those areas where the residents were opposed to opening of vends. Mr Hooda demanded a probe into allotment of liquor vends in the town because “most of the allottees were his henchmen”. He appealed to Congress President Sonia Gandhi to sack the Chief Minister to send a message to women in India that they were safe.
	Panel to monitor MP’s area fund scheme Chandigarh, April 25 The Haryana Government has constituted a state-level committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to review the implementation of the Member Parliament Local Area Development Fund. An official spokesman said the committee would monitor the flow of funds through various channels, including allocations, releases, utilisation and unspent balances. It would also ensure that the schemes were implemented as per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Statistics andProgramme Implementation. He said the committee would also look into the complaints received by it in respect of the implementation of the programme, including complaints of misappropriation or diversion of funds, and recommend follow-up action. — TNS
	State committed to Metro link Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 25 The Haryana Government today described a news report published in The Tribune that “Haryana has never made any firm commitment regarding the Gurgaon link to the Metro project and does not even have any budget allocations for the project,” as factually incorrect. An official spokesman said here today that the state government had approved the extension of the Delhi Metro to Gurgaon from Qutab Minar to IFFCO Chowk on June 4, last year, as per the detailed project report prepared by the Delhi Metro Railway Corporation Limited (DMRCL). Accordingly, he said, the funding pattern of the project as per Phase-II of the Delhi Metro was approved by the Haryana Cabinet on June 6, last year, and a budget provision was made for the same in the Budgets of 2005-06 and 2006-07. Later, the MD, DMRCL suggested another funding pattern on March 8, this year, which is under consideration of the government. The alignment of the Delhi Metro to Gurgaon had been finalised by the state government but the route alignment of the Delhi portion had to be finalised by the Delhi Government which was being approached for this purpose. However, the Haryana Government was in principle committed to the extension of metro link to Gurgaon, he added.
	Ban drug to save vultures, says minister Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 25 The Haryana Government has urged the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to ban the veterinary use of diclofenac drug in order to save the extinction of three species of vultures (gyps indicus, gyps bengalensis and gyps tenuirpstros). The vultures are nature’s most efficient scavengers and also help in maintaining ecological balance, Ms Kiran Choudhry, Haryana Minister of State for Forests, wrote to the Prime Minister. Ms Choudhry wrote that it was detected through various tests that diclofenac, used as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug on animals, had turned out to be the killer agent for vultures who feast on the carcasses of the animals. She said meloxicam, another non-steroidal anti-inflammatory veterinary drug, had been tested on the vultures and four other bird species and found suitable to replace diclofenac. The PMO wrote back to Ms Choudhry saying that her proposal was being examined.
	Samiti to hold rally on May 1 Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 25 Mr Gaje Singh Muwal, president, Haryana Pradesh Chamar Sangharsh Samiti, yesterday announced that the samiti would hold a rally at the Jantar Mantar ground in Delhi on May 1 to protest against the alleged division of the members of Scheduled Castes in two categories in Punjab and Haryana. Addressing a press conference here, Mr Muwal said they would also demand the raising of a Chamar regiment in the armed forces. Mr Muwal said on February 5 an awareness convention was organised at the Ramlila ground in Delhi by the samiti to protest against the “splitting of the people belonging to the Scheduled Castes in two categories” by various state governments.
	Women helpline introduced Vishal Joshi Tribune News Service Panipat, April 25 Now womenfolk need not hesitate in lodging complaints against any atrocity meted out to them, including those by khap panchayats. All they have to do is to dial women helpline 9416500100 and ask for police assistance. Aimed at curbing crime against women, the Haryana Police has introduced the state’s first women helpline from Monday in Panipat district. Though sources said if the project yielded the desired results, it might be extended to other districts too. The police helpline will assist and guide the caller. The district police will take complaints on the phone and take further action, including registering an FIR, wherever required. Sources said a number of cases regarding atrocities on women were not reported to the police due to lack of a “comfortable” platform. The sources said with the cases of crime against women on the rise, the state authorities had chalked out the plan. An official said observations revealed that women in rural areas were as prone to “victimisation” as their urban counterparts. The state police was understood to have taken serious note of the sudden spurt in controversial decisions by khap panchayats in different parts of the state. An official said it was a taboo for women to approach the police for help, but now at least they had an alternative.
	Monetary benefits for defence award winners Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 25 The Haryana Government has decided to grant a cash award, a monetary grant in lieu of land and annuity to the recipients of the Vishisht Seva Medal awards. A recipient of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal will get Rs 15,000 as cash award, Rs 1 lakh as monetary grant in lieu of land and Rs 2,400 as annuity, according to a statement issued here today. An Ati Vishisht Seva Medal awardee would get Rs 7,000 as cash award, Rs 50,000 as monetary grant and Rs 2,100 as annuity, whereas a Vishisht Seva Medal awardee would get Rs 3,000 as cash award, Rs 20,000 as monetary grant and Rs 1,800 as annuity. These benefits would be admissible only to defence personnel who were domiciles of Haryana at the time of joining service or at the time of the award. All ranks of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force would be eligible for these awards. In the case of awardees who could not claim or receive monetary benefits for the awards in their lifetime, their widows would be eligible for the same benefits. The recipients of Bar to the decoration would be entitled to additional benefits as were applicable to each award.
	Boy, girl commit suicide Our Correspondent Rewari, April 25 Raju (22) and Darshana (21), both residents of Bambdoli village, near Bahadurgarh in Jhajjar district, reportedly committed suicide by jumping before a train on the Rewari-Jaipur track, near the New Grain Market here, last night. The bodies, which were recovered from the track this morning, were brought by the Government Railway Police ( GRP ) to the Civil Hospital here for autopsy. It is stated that they belonged to two different communities of the Dalit Samaj. They left the village about three days ago and took the extreme step last night. After a post-mortem examination the bodies were handed over to the respective family members here this evening.