Chandigarh, June 20
The selection committee constituted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court for selecting the candidates for the 31 vacant posts of the Haryana Civil Service (Judicial) today declared the results.

According to available information, the committee headed by the Acting Chief Justice, Mr Justice H.S. Bedi, has forwarded 36 names to the Haryana Government for appointment as judicial officers.

The general category candidates whose names have been recommended for appointment (in order of merit) are Ms Jasmine Sharma (652.8 marks), Mr Ashu Kumar Jain (617.6 marks), Mr Rajesh Gupta (604.4 marks), Mr Ravneet (597.2 marks), Mr Amit Kumar Arya (596.8 marks), Mr Amit Garg (586.6 marks), Ms Ekta Gauba (586 marks), Ms Saurab Gosain (585 marks), Ms Arti Singh (583.4 marks), Mr Anmol Singh Nayyar (578.6 marks), Mr Puneet Sehgal (578.4 marks), Ms Rashmi Sharma (577.6 marks), Ms Suruchi Atreja (577.2 marks), Ms Gomti Manocha (576.4 marks) and Mr Vijay James (575.4 marks).

The two selected candidates under the backward class category are Ms Yeshika (573.4 marks) and Ms Harshali Chowdhary (523.6 marks).

The 19 candidates whose names have also been forwarded to the government are Ms Monica (574 marks), Ms Parminder Kaur (572.2 marks), Ms Shikha Bansal (569.6 marks), Mr Vijayant Sehgal (568.2 marks), Ms Payal Mittal (567.2 marks), Mr Sunil Chauhan (576 marks), Mr Peeyush Gakhar (566.4 marks), Ms Anupamish Modi (564.4 marks), Ms Jyoti Rani (564.2 marks), Mr Varun Nagpal (562.2 marks), Ms Shelly Arora (560.2 marks), Mr Virender Singh (558 marks), Mr Prashant Rana (555.6 marks), Ms Renu Rana (554.6 marks), Ms Swati Sharma (553.2 marks), Ms Manila Chugh (541.2 marks), Mr Sanjay Kumar Sharma (537.4 marks), Mr Sunil Kumar (531 marks) and Ms Shabistan Aqil (521.4 marks).

According to High Court sources, of the total of 39 candidates, who had cleared the written test by securing the minimum 50 per cent marks, two did not appear for the interview. Of these 39 candidates, 35 belonged to the general category while four belonged to the reserved categories.

Of the 31 posts that would be filled, 15 are meant for general category candidates. It may be recalled that the High Court had been requested by the Haryana Government to conduct the selection process, which had not been held since the past many years.

Rohtak, June 20
Rural Haryana is rollicking to obscene and lewd ‘ragnis’ available in the form of audio cassettes over the counter all over the state.

These cassettes are produced secretly, and therefore, carry no credits. But, the excellent audio quality indicates that the audio porn industry is controlled by professionals.

Each cassette has four to six ‘ragnis’ interspersed with equally dirty jokes and lewd dialogue between couples. The cassettes also have Haryanvi songs set to tunes of top Punjabi pop numbers. The lyrics leave nothing to imagination. Four-letter words are used without reservation.

The ‘ragni’ singers are accompanied by the usual harmonium, banjo, dhabb and gharwa (a percussion instrument made by tying a rubber diaphragm to a pitcher). This again clearly points to the fact that professional ‘ragni’ singers have been roped in to produce these cassettes.

Though the role of women players is limited to the conversations between couples, the voice-over of a woman uttering lewd dialogues and four-letter words is the USP of Haryanvi audio pornography. In rural Haryana, women never utter such words, even when conversing with fellow women. As such, rural youths are going gaga over this.

Haryanvi audio-porn first surfaced here about a month ago. For the first two weeks or so, these cassettes were being played discreetly in the villages. Within days, the craze caught on with college and university students here. Now the lewd noise reaching a crescendo with tractor-trailers which in this area are almost always fitted with cheap audio systems playing these cassettes at full volume here and in neighbouring districts much to the chagrin of women.

Inquiries reveal that the master tracks of these cassettes are recorded in studios in Noida in Uttar Pradesh which then are re-recorded digitally in professional laboratories in Delhi and Bahadurgarh. Each cassette costs Rs 50. The cassettes are sold without covers and carry no markings to hide the tracks of the producers. These are available even in villages.

It is learnt that the trend was first set in Bihar where such cassettes have been popular for the past several years. Bihar, the sources, said had gone further and the in-thing there these days were VCDs depicting topless girls performing on stage to lewd songs.

Police officials said here though they were aware of the fact, no seizures had been made so far. They said normally they raided shops only when a big company lodged a complaint about the infringement of copyrights which in this case is ruled out completely.

Meanwhile, music shop owners said they expected the sales to boom once the colleges and universities reopened after the summer vacations by the month-end. They said the audio-porn virus was slowly spreading to the urban areas too.

Rohtak, June 20
Former minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Krishan Murti Hooda has accused Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda of betraying the peasantry to benefit the Reliance group by signing the agreement on SEZ.

In a statement here today, he said the farmers whose land would be acquired were never consulted and their financial interests were ignored. The chief minister had also not invited open bids for the SEZ which might have thrown up better offers.

He feared that the government might acquire more land for allotment to other industrial groups at throwaway prices after acquisition.

Mr Hooda accused the farmers’ organisations of failing to protect the interests of the farming community by not protesting against the agreement with Reliance. He said it appeared these organisations were keeping silent on the issue as their leaders expected personal favours from the chief minister for their silence.

He said nevertheless the farmers would give a suitable reply to the chief minister and the Congress as and when the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were held in Haryana.

Ambala, June 20
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) advocate cell district general secretary K.L. Sehgal today criticised the frequent power cuts.

Mr Sehgal said the common people were suffering due to power cuts. He said the power cuts had adversely affected the traders and industrialists. — TNS

Opposition leader switches loyalty to MC chief
Tribune News Service

Jagadhri, June 20
Chinks appeared in the opposition in the Jagadhri Municipal Committee house meetings of which were being boycotted. Its leader pledged support to the MC Chairman and Jagadhri MLA during a house meeting today. The ruling party now has support of 25 Councillors in the house of 31.

Mr Rajesh Rathore, leader of the opposition, today pledged support to MC chairman Darshan Lal Khera and local MLA Subhash Chaudhary in a house meeting. The seven-member opposition had been boycotting house meetings ever since the new committee was formed. Today all of them were present and Mr Rathore, once an archrival of the chairman and MLA today announced his support to them.

“No development has taken in my ward ever since the election. I was elected to carry out development works and there was no idea of unnecessary opposition”, said Mr Rathore. Asked if remaining six members too would support the MC chairman, he said that it was up to them to decide.

Later at a meeting the house passed a resolution to ban use of polythene bags and bottles in the MC area. The house also approved Rs 50 lakh each for the repair of roads and streets in the wards of Jagadhri. The house also passed a budget of Rs 15 lakh for the repair of nullahs in wards.

The house also approved Rs 1 lakh for computerisation of all billing processes, including water bills and house tax assessment. The work on computerisation is likely to be taken up shortly.

Meanwhile, the house also passed a resolution to discontinue licensing of rickshaws, rehris in the committee area.

Chandigarh, June 20
Reiterating its demand for scrapping the agreement between the Haryana Industries and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and the Reliance for setting up a special economic zone (SEZ), the Indian National Lok Dal today accused the ruling Congress of having “sold out the interests of the state to a private company”.

Addressing a joint press conference here, the Secretary-General of the party, Mr Ajay Chautala, and a former Finance Minister, Prof Sampat Singh, said, “We are not going to sit quietly and our party is examining all legal options to help scrap this anti-people deal. We have been holding regular meetings and will take this issue to the people, as their interests have been compromised.”

“The party would soon approach the Governor and the President for their intervention in the matter," they said, adding if the INLD were to come to power in the state it would not only review the whole deal, but also scrap it.

The INLD leaders said the Reliance Industries had been offered a vast chunk of prime land at a throwaway price. Moreover, the Reliance was not going to set up any industry on its own, but it would act as a real estate agent in the name of developing the SEZ. They said it was not just the INLD which had been opposing the deal, but even Congress MP Kuldeep Bishnoi was against it. “Even the Union Minister of State, Rao Inderjit Singh, has said it would have been better if SEZ had been set up in the backward areas of Rewari or Mahendragarh.”

Prof Sampat Singh had objection to the name of the joint venture company also because the name of Haryana “comes after Reliance”. However he added that the INLD was not against setting up of a SEZ in Haryana.

Claiming that it was the opposition by the INLD which forced the government to negotiate with the Reliance for higher equity of 10 per cent for the HSIIDC instead of 5 per cent negotiated earlier, Prof Sampat Singh said the Congress high command had called the Chief Minister not to oppose the deal but for demanding a cut in the booty. 

Chandigarh, June 20
In a major relief to "green industry" the Haryana State Pollution Control Board has issued instructions to all agencies concerned not to ask for a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the board from such category of industries.

A decision to this effect had been taken in view of the new industrial policy of the state.

He said the agencies included the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, the Haryana Urban Development Authority, the Town and Country Planning Department and the Haryana Financial Corporation.

He said the board had simplified the form for the NOC which would be applicable for all NOC cases as per the new industrial policy. The simplified NOC form was available on the website of the board. The board had also put the NOC status on its website for the benefit of entrepreneurs.

Additional Director, Urban Estates
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 20
The Haryana Government today posted Mrs Sukriti Likhi, awaiting posting after her return from leave, as Additional Director, Urban Estates, Panchkula, against a vacant post. Before Mrs Likhi went on leave, she was the Deputy Commissioner of Yamunanagar.

Chandigarh, June 20
The Haryana Tourism Corporation has planned to conserve and restore the heritage buildings at the famous Yadavindra Gardens at Pinjore in Panchkula district.

A spokesman of the corporation said here today that the world renowned Yadavindra Gardens at Pinjore were built by Aurangzeb’s General, Fidai Khan, in 17th century A.D. and were later upgraded by Maharaja of Patiala. Rang Mahal, Shish Mahal and Jal Mahal are the palaces built in the gardens.

He said proposals had been invited from contractors for empanelment for the renovation work.

While disclosing the terms and conditions of the work, he said individuals or the joint venture firms should have completed at least two conservation or restoration works of value not less than Rs 20 lakh each.