The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Bhajan Lal’s resignation to have long-term effect Raman Mohan Tribune News Service Rohtak, July 3 Irrespective of the outcome of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s reported resignation from the post of Haryana Congress President, his revolt is likely to have a long term impact on state politics. In immediate terms, however, his remaining in or quitting the Congress is unlikely to make any difference at all. As far as the long term and larger political scene is concerned, should Bhajan Lal decide to quit the Congress at any stage, then the Haryana Congress would be without a senior non-Jat leader. In that case the non-Jat communities are more likely to bracket the Congress with the Indian National Lok Dal since the senior leaders of both the parties will be Jats. The dominant personalities in the present Congress set up, include Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Finance Minister Birender Singh, the father-son duo of Shamsher Singh and Randeep Surjewala and Bhajan Lal and if Bhajan Lal were to go, the remaining senior leaders will all be from the Jat community. In that event the Congress will be looked at as a Jat- dominated party much like the INLD even though the Congress Jat leaders are much more amiable than those in the Chautala clan. There are two other facets of Bhajan Lal’s future plans. If he stays in the Congress, then he may, over a period of time, emerge as a rallying point for disgruntled elements within the party. Being a wily survivor who spent about 13 years as Chief Minister, he can always hope to draw the disgruntled Congressmen to his side as time goes by. Haryana’s ruling party politicians, irrespective of their political affiliations, are known to get frustrated if their ambitions remain unfulfilled. At least, Bhajan Lal will be hoping for this to happen. Also, within the Congress too there are many Jat leaders who would like to see Bhajan Lal emerge as a rallying point because it would serve their own political interests. The former Chief Minister may not ultimately benefit from the exercise, but these Jat leaders, nursing political wounds in spite of occupying seats of power, will have in him somebody who will do what they themselves cannot do being a part of the party and the government. Secondly, Bhajan Lal quitting the Congress at any stage is likely to cause a lot of worries to the INLD too because if he joined the BJP or floated his own political outfit and then aligned with the BJP, the INLD would have stiff competition in the next Assembly or Lok Sabha poll. However, it is clear that Bhajan Lal’s revolt is unlikely to destabilise the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government now or at any stage in future as long as the latter enjoys blessings of the party high command. Whatever be the situation Bhajan Lal has nothing to lose, even though he may not gain anything from the revolt. Much will also depend on the state of his health. If he has to put his future plans into action, then he needs to be fighting fit first.
	Give basic pay to ad hoc teachers: KU Tribune News Service Hisar, July 3 There is a reason to cheer up for the teachers appointed on ad hoc by the colleges affiliated to Kurukshetra University (KU). The ad hoc teachers, who were paid meagre salaries, will now get at least Rs 8,000 per month if the university directions are followed by the affiliated colleges. In a communication addressed to the principals and directors of all non-government colleges or institutions, the Dean of Colleges at the university has directed that the employees appointed by them on ad hoc must be paid the initial basic pay of the grade in which they are appointed (Rs 8,000 in case of teachers), in addition to the allowances as admissible under the university rules. A decision in this regard was taken by the university following a meeting with office-bearers of the Haryana College Teachers Union (HCTU). During the meeting, the HCTU had maintained that the university must determine the minimum salary. In the letter, the Dean has directed the heads of all affiliated institutions to strictly comply with the decision. In a related development, the university authorities have also directed the principals/directors of all colleges and institutions to make all appointments, including those on ad hoc, temporary, part-time and contract, after duly advertising the post and through properly constituted selection committees. “Proceedings of the selection committee shall be submitted to the university along with the bio data of the candidate interviewed. A copy of the appointment letter clearly stating the pay scale and other terms and conditions of the appointment as also bearing a passport-size photograph of the appointee, duly attested by the principal, shall also be submitted to the university,” states the letter written by the Dean on June 13. This decision was also endorsed by the College Development Council at its meeting held in May, the letter states.
	Venod Sharma joins issue with Sampat Tribune News Service Chandigarh, July 3 The Haryana Power Minister, Mr Venod Sharma, today termed as a "bunch of lies" the statement of the senior INLD leader, Prof Sampat Singh, which appeared in a section of the Press criticising the government on the issue of power. In a statement issued here, Mr Sharma said Prof Sampat Singh’s statement was politically motivated and had been issued without going into the facts. He pointed out that the state’s own power generation capacity was about 1,500 MW and not 4,000 MW as mentioned by the INLD leader. Mr Sharma said it was again wrong to say that no work on power projects had been initiated by the government. After Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda assumed the office of Chief Minister, he had been continuously trying to improve the power situation in the state which was in a mess because of wrong policies and lack of interest in this sector by the previous government. He said there was a record power supply— a 10 per cent increase over that of last year— during April to June, 2006. He said it was because of the efforts of the Chief Minister that the power situation had improved in the state as compared to that in previous years. While referring to the issue of future planning for power generation, Mr Sharma said it was a lie on the part of Prof Sampat Singh that nothing had happened in this direction. He said work to set up a 600 MW power plant at Yamunanagar had been taken up and the plan would be implemented on schedule. A thermal power plant of 1,000 MW to 1,200 MW capacity was at an advanced stage of implementation at Hisar. A coal-based plant of 1,000 MW to 1,200 MW would come up in Jhajjar district. He said an additional generation capacity of 5,000 MW in the next five years would ease the power situation. The government was serious about its implementation in a time-bound manner. He said on the one hand Prof Sampat Singh was talking about the shortage of power and on the other raising the question of the memorandum of understanding signed for the supply of power on a long-term basis. If the previous government had taken the desired steps to increase power generation, the state would not have faced a situation of shortage.
	Bank strike on August 1 Tribune News Service Ambala, July 3 Haryana Bank Employees Federation general secretary NP Munjal today said there would be an All-India bank strike on August 1 to protest against Union Government’s policy of bank privatisation and outsourcing. Talking to mediapersons here today, Mr NP Munjal said the Reserve Bank of India had issued a circular permitting banks to outsource all the normal banking services to private agencies on commission and contract basis. “The outsourcing will include opening of bank accounts, withdrawal of cash, deposits of cash, issuance of drafts, sanction and disbursement of loans. This means that the basic banking services will be outsourced,” he said. Mr Munjal said the RBI had also decided to outsource the clearing operations to a private company. The company is National Payment Corporation. Now, clearing of cheques is undertaken by RBI, SBI and other public sector banks,” he said. He stated the government had decided to allow 74 per cent foreign direct investment in the capital of Indian private banks. A Bill has been introduced in the last session of Parliament seeking to delete Section 12 (2) of Banking Regulation Act by which the existing ceiling of 10 per cent of the voting rights will be removed. “Hence, the government wanted to allow 74 per cent FDI with 74 per cent voting rights. The total capital of the 28 private banks in our country is only around Rs 3500 crore whereas the deposits in these banks are more than Rs 3,50,000 crores,” he said. Mr Munjal said there were nearly one lakh vacancies in banks which are yet to be filled. The business volume in the banks had gone up enormously but even existing vacancies were not being filled through recruitment. “Also, bank employees have been demanding extension of one more option to switchover from PF to pension scheme. This needs to be expeditiously settled,” he stated. Branch level demonstration will be held on July 6 while centralised demonstrations will be held on July 11. On July 25, dharna will be held at all state capitals and district headquarters while all-India strike will be observed on August 1.
	Youths to be included in power scheme Tribune News Service Hisar, July 3 The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has introduced the Gramin Vidyut Pratinidhi (micro feeder franchisee) scheme under its jurisdiction to manage meter-reading, bill distribution and cash collection in villages. The GVP would also carry rudimentary maintenance of the distribution system in the villages, including the complaint handling. The scheme would generate employment for the village youths having ITI vocational training in the electricity discipline. A spokesman for the DHBVN said here today that an ITI-trained resident of a village could become a Gramin Vidyut Pratinidhi (GVP) under the scheme. He would be paid recovery-linked incentive, which would be minimum Rs 2,500 per month and maximum Rs 8,000 per month for the three activities, viz. meter reading, bill distribution and cash collection. For every achievement of Rs 10,000 above baseline, he will be given 10 per cent extra. In addition, the revenue will be shared at the rate of 5 per cent of the penalty recovered in case for detection of theft and unauthorised extension of load. The GVP will facilitate as interface between the sub-division of the DHBVN and the village consumers for all activities like new connection, extension of load, correction of bills, etc. He will also carry out the consumer indexing activities, load survey work, mapping of villages, maintaining consumer passbooks etc. Besides, facilitating the utility attending to the grievances of village consumers, the GVP will give feed back about field realities to the utility periodically. He would bring awareness among consumers about electricity saving and safety measures. He may identify village households and assist them in getting power supply connection.
	Gharaunda seat: HC says contentions can’t be ignored Our High Court Correspondent Chandigarh, July 3 The Punjab and Haryana High Court today ruled that the contentions raised by independent candidate Jaipal Sharma, who lost by just 21 votes in the February, 2005, elections to the Haryana Assembly, had merit and could not be ignored. Passing its judgement on the maintainability of the election petition filed by Mr Sharma, challenging the election of the INLD candidate Rekha Rana from the Gharaunda Assembly constituency in Karnal district, the Bench of Mr Justice J.S. Khehar observed since the margin of victory was just 21 in an election in which it has been alleged that 187 invalid or fake votes were cast, it was not possible for the court to reject the election petition. The petitioner had challenged the election of Ms Rana on the ground that the winner indulged in electoral malpractices to ensure her victory. While Mr Sharma secured 25216 votes, the eventual winner polled 25237. He has alleged that the election saw bogus voting and even the dead were shown to have cast their votes. He said while he lost by a margin of 21 votes, he would have had a cakewalk if no bogus voting had taken place. He has prayed that Ms Rana's election should be scrapped and he should be declared the winner instead. Sometime back, the Bench had reserved its order in the matter. Today's order means that the election petition would now be heard on merit.
	Diploma courses in yoga, panchakarma Tribune News Service Chandigarh, July 3 Two-year diploma courses in yoga and naturopathy and panchakarma will soon be started at Shri Krishna Government Ayurvedic College, Kurukshetra. This was stated by the Haryana Health Minister, Ms Kartar Devi, while addressing a press conference here today. She said the syllabi for the two diploma courses had already been prepared. The Health Minister said with a view to integrating the allopathic system of medicine with ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and homoeopathy (AYUSH), 40 community health centres had been identified for providing comprehensive healthcare under the National Rural Health Mission. The comprehensive system would provide an option to patients to choose any therapy. Also, special clinics of AYUSH would soon be set up at the Civil Hospitals in Gurgaon, Hisar and Ambala, she said. A specialised therapy centre would also be set up at the Civil Hospital, Jind. The Central Government had already provided Rs 52 lakh for the purpose, the Minister said. On the issue of maintaining the quality of ayurvedic drugs, she said a drug testing laboratory of AYUSH and a government ayurvedic pharmacy would be established at Kurukshetra with central assistance of Rs 2.50 crore. In reply to a question she said Rs 3 crore had been provided under the Annual Plan of 2006-07 for continuing various programmes related to AYUSH.
	Rotary Club plans community service projects Ambala, July 3 Mr O.P. Soota, who has taken over as the president of the Rotary Club of Ambala, today said the club was going to undertake several community service projects. Talking to mediapersons here, he said the club would be completing the building of a healthcare centre for cancer and TB patients. Eye check-up camps would also be held. “Artificial limbs, crutches and callipers will be given to polio-affected patients,” he added. He said in an effort to improve literacy programme, they were going to adopt and renovate dilapidated school buildings. “A similar programme was executed in Chennai and it was a success,” he said. Other office-bearers of the club for 2006-07 are: secretary — Mr S.C. Khurana; treasurer — Mr Inderjit Guglani; sergeant at arms — Mr Ashok Garg; directors — Mr Rajesh Choudhary, Mr Suket Dhawan, Dr Neeraj Prashar, Mr Ajay Aggarwal, Dr Desh Bandhu and Mr N.K. Sadan; president elect — Mr Pardeep Jain; vice-president — Mr Ravinder Dhawan. — TNS
	1.31 crore grant for construction of rooms in govt school Tribune News Service Kalka , July 3 The Haryana Government has decided to spend over Rs 1.31 crore on construction of rooms and boundary walls of various government schools under the Sarav Shiksha Abhiyan in the Kalka Assembly constituency. The government has also released a part of the grant sanctioned to the schools situated in Ramgarh, Panchkula, Raipur Rani and Morni blocks of the Kalka Assembly constituency, represented by the Haryana Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Chander Mohan. Sources disclosed that a sum of Rs 40,000 each had been sanctioned for the construction of rooms, and boundary walls of schools - Government Primary School, Bhoor; Government Primary School, Kajampur; Government Primary School, Abheypur; Government Primary School, Mauli, and Government Middle School, Bhoor.
	Doctor arrested on graft charge Tribune News Service Karnal, July 3 A team of the Vigilance Department arrested a doctor at the Civil Hospital here today while accepting bribe from the family of a patient. Duty Magistrate Mahinder Singh, who headed the raid, told The Tribune that the Vigilance Department recovered Rs 1,000 from the possession of Dr Vinod. He said the family of a patient had approached the Vigilance authorities against the doctor over the issue of discharge of the patient. Sources said that a patient from the Kunjpura area was admitted to the hospital after certain persons had attacked him. The family alleged that the doctor had connived with the other party to weaken the case and was keen to discharge the patient. The complainant alleged that he had demanded Rs 1,000 as bribe.
	Man booked for bid to drown wife Our Correspondent Rewari, July 3 A dowry-esurient husband Prithvi Raj allegedly made an abortive bid to drown his young wife Geeta Devi into the canal near Bisoha village, about 35 km from here, on last Monday. Her mother-in-law Sharda Devi, sister-in-law Sunita and six others have also been booked. Geeta Devi had been living at her parental house at Mumtajpur. On June 26 Prithvi Raj came to Mumtajpur to take her to Kotia, and her parents yielded to his plea. Geeta started for Kotia on his husband's motor cycle. But when they reached a bridge near Bisoha village, Prithvi Raj along with the motorcycle plunged into the canal to drown Geeta. Prithvi Raj swam across the canal while Geeta, who incidentally survived by catching at their suit case, raised an alarm. A passerby jumped into the canal and rescued her.
	50 donate blood at camp Our Correspondent Bhiwani, July 3 A blood donation camp was held at Red Cross Bhavan here today where 50 youths from rural areas donated blood. Inaugurating the camp, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Mahender Kumar, said: “If we want to do service of human welfare, nothing was better than blood donation. We can save a life through a single drop of our blood.” Appreciating working of the Red Cross Society, he said that 38 blood donation camps had been organised between January and July 3, 2006. The Deputy Commissioner honoured Mr Pyare Lal Sangwan of Loharu who had donated blood 55 times so far and Mr Suresh Yadav of Bhiwani who saved the life of a woman of Dinod village by donating blood on July 1.