Hisar, July 14
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has suspended 10 officials of the department on the charge of taking bribes for transferring a plot.

A decision to this effect was taken by the HUDA Administrator, Mr M.P. Bansal, here yesterday.

The suspended employees include junior engineer Om Prakash Maanju, assistants Jagmohan and Balraj, Superintendent H.C. Girdhar, clerks Rajrani, Madhu and Devi Lal, record clerk Baljit Singh, despatch clerk Jogi Ram and another employee Subhash.

Meanwhile, the Vigilance Bureau has arrested two officials allegedly for taking bribes in separate cases.

According to official sources, Dadri CIA in charge Ratan Lal was caught red-handed by a Vigilance Bureau team while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 7,000. Jaswinder had lodged a complaint against Ratan Lal, stating that a case had been registered against his brother and the CIA official had threatened to implicate him and his mother also. He had allegedly asked for money for not doing so.

On the other hand, another Vigilance Bureau team arrested Head Constable Madan Lal from Sirsa, allegedly while taking a bribe of Rs 2,500 from a property dealer Jagdish for not registering a case against him.

Panchkula, July 14
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has found over 75 per cent of the applicants of group housing societies (GHS) ineligible for the draw of lots for sites at the urban estates in Panipat, Rewari and Palwal.

Various discrepancies were detected in the applications during shortlisting carried out by HUDA. Of the seven urban estates, Panchkula, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonepat, Panipat, Rewari and Palwal, coming up in the state, HUDA has shortlisted applicants for Panipat, Rewari and Palwal sites.

Highly placed sources in HUDA disclosed that 1250 applications (under different categories) of the GHS were received for 70 sites at the three urban estates. While 489 applications were received for 20 sites at Panipat and 467 applications for 20 sites at Rewari,252 applications were received for 30 sites at Palwal.

Similarly, 3415 applications have been received for 30 sites at Gurgaon and 1273 applications for 40 sites at Sonepat. Offering a maximum number of sites (130) at Faridabad, HUDA has received 4036 applications while Panchkula tops the list with 4766 applications for 44 sites.

HUDA has also issued letters intimating the applicants about the discrepancies. They have also been asked to contact the office of the Chief Town Planner in Panchkula before July 20 for the rectification of the discrepancies in their applications.

The lists of eligible housing societies (under different categories) have been made available at HUDA offices at Panipat, Rewari and Palwal. In addition, the lists have also been made available on its website www.huda.nic.in.

The HUDA office here has been receiving hundreds of telephone calls from applicants from all over the region to confirm the status of their societies as the Authority's website is not easily accessible. Moreover, a majority of the applicants whose documents had discrepancies have also not received the intimation letters issued in this regard.

HUDA had extended the last date for the registration of the GHS to February 28 from February 14. The decision was taken since a large number of societies could not get registered due to holidays in Delhi and Chandigarh on account of Moharram. 

Rewari, July 14
With the arrest of Baba Dharmanand, alias Balak Nath, of Shri Balaji Temple, Nehrugarh village, near Kosli, Rewari district, the police has claimed to have busted a huge yoga camp racket.

The camp, which was scheduled to be held at Nehrugarh village from August 4 to 11, had been given wide publicity by Baba Dharmanand through posters, which carried names of Swami Ramdev and certain noted saints of Hardwar and Rishikesh.

After taking Swami Shrananand of south Haryana and prominent villagers into confidence, Baba Dharmanand had started collecting money, wheat and desi ghee for the camp.

When Swami Ramdev met Swami Shrananand during a yoga camp at Khanpur in Gurukul, near Narnaul, on July 6 and 7, denied that he given his consent to anyone for a yoga camp at Nehrugarh village.

The news that Baba Dharmanand had been committing a fraud spread, after which he went into hiding.

He was arrested by the Government Railway Police at Rohtak on July 11 while going from Bhiwani to Delhi.

His identity was disclosed by a co-passenger, Mr Ram Kumar of Nahar village, near Kosli.

The Kosli police had then taken Baba Dharmanand in its custody from the Government Railway Police.

He was produced in a court at Kosli yesterday, which remanded him in police custody for three days.

A case of cheating under Section 420 of the IPC had been registered against him.

A police party, along with the accused, had been sent to his house in Sangrur to recover the amount he had collected from the people for the camp, which was now allegedly with a woman disciple.

During interrogation, Baba Dharmanand had allegedly revealed that his real name was Sushil Kumar Sharma and his native village was Ramnagar in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh.

He had reportedly also divulged that he had an ashram each at Sangrur and Bhiwani.

Hisar, July 14
The authorities of Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology here have decided to introduce the credit-based marking system on the pattern of IITs and other premier institutions in the country and abroad.

This was stated by the university Vice-Chancellor, Dr R.P. Bajpai, while talking to The Tribune here today.

Under the new system, each subject and topic has certain credit points. Every subject is to be taught in a specific time, following which a test has to be conducted. Besides, quarterly and annual tests are also held and the average of the credit points forms the final score of a student.

The new system ensures that all topics and subjects are thoroughly covered in the classroom throughout the academic session and preparation for exams is not confined to a few days.

Moreover, under the system, the students will also give grading points to their teachers.

A formal approval to the proposal is likely to be granted at a meeting of the Academic Council of the university, which is scheduled for July 19.

Dr Bajpai, who has recently returned from Germany, disclosed that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Max Plank University of Germany regarding an academic exchange programme was also on the cards.

In response to a query, the Vice- Chancellor maintained that the process of making fresh appointments would begin soon. 

Chandigarh, July 14
INLD leader and former Haryana Finance Minister Sampat Singh today alleged that the Congress was playing politics on the proposed Hansi-Butana link canal.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Sampat Singh said the state government was yet to obtain the requisite clearance for the project from the Central Water Commission (CWC), the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) and the Punjab and Rajasthan Governments.

He said the Punjab and Rajasthan Governments as well as the BBMB were made parties in a court case filed by Jaswant Singh in the high court here challenging the construction of the canal. Both state governments had opposed the construction of the canal in their replies filed before the court, Mr Sampat Singh said.

He said the Rajasthan Government had said in its reply that the proposed canal was violative of the Bhakra Nangal Agreement of 1959 and its construction should be stopped immediately. The Punjab Government also gave a similar reply, Mr Sampat Singh said. He added that the BBMB also said the BML (Bhakra Main Line) was a common channel, thus indicating that Haryana had no right to puncture the channel to bring water to the proposed link canal.

The former Haryana Finance Minister said the state government had no right to squander Rs 260 crore from the exchequer for constructing the canal as it was still uncertain whether water would flow through it at all. Mr Sampat Singh said the Haryana Government would seek permission from Punjab for puncturing the BML only when the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) replaced the Congress as the ruling party of Punjab. This would give an opportunity to the Congress to run down the INLD in Haryana for its close links with the SAD, Mr Sampat Singh said.

He added that the INLD was not opposed to the construction of the canal. However, the INLD would appreciate it if the canal was constructed after guaranteeing its proper use and ensuring that it was not converted into a political tool by the Congress , Mr Sampat Singh said.

He said the SYL canal had been put on the back burner by the Congress in total disregard of the aspirations of the people. There was no case pending in any court of the country regarding the construction of the SYL canal, Mr Sampat Singh said and added that Congress politicians were trying to befool the people by claiming that the construction of the SYL could not be taken up due to pending litigation.