Hisar, February 5
It's a classic case of a responsible official flouting the norms and ethics with impunity. The Chairman of the DHBVN Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum, Mr Jai Singh Bishnoi, is openly campaigning for the Congress in Punjab.

Though he had resigned from the party organisation on being appointed to the quasi-judicial post, yet he continues to function as an active member of the Congress.

So much so that this official has even sent press releases and CDs bearing his mention and photographs while canvassing for the Congress.

As if to challenge the law-enforcement agencies, Mr Bishnoi's name with his present designation appears prominently on a hoarding put up here to invite the residents to the "navyug rally" to be held at Sirsa shortly. The hoarding has been put up in gross violation of specific orders of the Supreme Court as well as the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In view of his aforesaid activities, the Chairman's objectivity and impartiality in disposing of electricity consumers' grievances has become questionable.

According to Mr Bishnoi's appointment offer letter, a copy of which is in possession of The Tribune, he had applied for being appointed with the forum in reference to a advertisement. He was selected for the post and offered a pay-scale of Rs 15,950-450-20,000 with usual allowances" as admissible to the officer in the Haryana Government of the equivalent post." However, despite drawing his salary from the state exchequer, the Chairman does not seem to be governed by any service rules, leave alone the moral principles.

According to an official press statement issued on the letterhead of the District Congress Committee (Urban), Hisar, it has been clearly mentioned that Mr Bishnoi, Chairman of the DHBVN Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum, had campaigned for party's nominees in Punjab.

The press note, issued by Mr Rajender Bansal, vice-president of the District Congress Committee (Urban), is accompanied by a CD. This CD contains the pictures of Mr Bishnoi addressing public meetings. Mr Bishnoi was not available for comments and the DHBVN authorities are silent over the matter for obvious reasons.

Chandigarh, February 5
The Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, will address the “Nav Yug rally” being organised in Sirsa on February 25 to mark the completion of two years of the Hooda government in Haryana.

This was announced by the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, here today.

He said besides apprising people of the significant achievements of the present government, some major announcements would also be made at the rally.

During the past two years, he said, the political culture of the state had changed from that of corruption, casteism and criminalisation to a culture of development, peace and progress. He said the state government had implemented a number of programmes for the welfare of all sections of society.

Mr Hooda pointed out that never before had a state-level rally been organised in Sirsa and claimed that the Congress rally would be unprecedented in terms of gathering. The ground chosen for the venue of the rally was the largest in the state.

With Mrs Gandhi agreeing to address the Sirsa rally, the Haryana Congress has started working to make it a big success. A meeting of party MLAs was held here today at which they were asked by Mr Hooda and the working president of the party, Dr Ram Prakash, to mobilise people of their constituencies to reach Sirsa on Feburary 25. However, they were categorically told not to expect any help from official machinery as it was a party function.

Among the prominent absentees from today’s meeting were a former Chief Minister, Mr Bhajan Lal, and his elder son, Mr Chander Mohan, who is the Deputy Chief Minister of the state. 

Chandigarh, February 5
Come March and the Haryana Chief Minister will have two surplus luxury sedans at his disposal to offer to his colleagues.

The Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Chander Mohan, and the Finance Minister, Mr Birender Singh, fit the bill to be considered for the largesse. However, it is ultimately going to be the discretion of the Chief Minister to decide which two colleagues of his get the cars.

The Mercedes Benz cars cost Rs 36 lakh apiece and one can safely assume that a sizeable number of persons in the government will be interested in these two vehicles from the Daimler Chrysler stable. Named after 10-year-old Mercedes by her father Emil Jellinek, a wealthy Austrian car race enthusiast, the car is synonymous with opulence. Successive Haryana Chief Ministers, however, have found the Mercedes an appropriate vehicle befitting their status and ideally suited for meeting their transport needs.

Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, after having become the Chief Minister two years ago, has spent over Rs 2 crore on purchasing four of these cars. While two cars were bought in 2005, the state government recently made the full payment of Rs 1.30 crore to the manufacturers for procuring two new Mercedes sedans.

The cars will arrive in March. The arrival of the new cars will make the two earlier Mercedes cars, bought by the Hooda-led government at a cost of Rs 72 lakh, ready for re-distribution.

The branch dealing with the cars has suggested that one of the two surplus Mercedes may be given to the Deputy Chief Minister and the second to any other senior minister. The Deputy Chief Minister has a 1993 model Mercedes that needs to be replaced, the branch has said.

No senior minister has been named for allotting the second car. Following Mr Venod Sharma’s exit from the Cabinet, Mr Birender Singh is now the seniormost member of the Cabinet after the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister and thus qualifies for getting the Mercedes. It is, however, believed that instead of the Finance Minister, it is the Agriculture Minister, Mr H .S. Chatha, who has a better chance of getting the Merc.

Mr Om Prakash Chautala, when he was the Chief Minister in the last regime, had made sure that Mercedes cars were kept for his exclusive use or for important central ministers visiting the state. Mr Hooda, on the other hand, has been quite liberal in this respect. Soon after becoming the Chief Minister, he “gifted” one of his official Mercedes cars to the Speaker of the Assembly.

The remaining Merc, an old one, was passed on to Mr Chander Mohan. The Chief Minister had bought two brand new cars by that time to replenish his fleet.

These two cars are going to be disposed of by the Chief Minister now as he gets his next delivery of limousines costing approximately twice the last amount.

Chandigarh, February 5
The Haryana State Election Commission has issued the programme for holding general elections to the Municipal Committees of Julana, Sadhaura, Hathin, Farukh Nagar, Kanina and Ateli Mandi and byelections to the Municipal Committees of Barwala and Nilokheri.

The State Election Commissioner, Mr Chander Singh, said that it had been decided to use electronic voting machines for the first time in the municipal elections.

He said the byelections to the two municipalities were being conducted because vacancies had occurred due to the death of Mr Sheo Chand (member, ward no. 13 of the Municipal Committee, Barwala) and of Mr Manjit Singh (member, ward no. 17 of the Municipal Committee, Nilokheri).

He said notice would be published by the Returning Officer on February 6 inviting nominations. The nomination papers would be scrutinised on February 19. Candidatures could be withdrawn till February 20 up to 3 p.m.. The symbols would be allotted to the contesting candidates on February 20 after 3 p.m. and the list of the contesting candidates and that of the polling stations would be posted the same day. Mr Chander Singh said the polling would be held on March 2. 

Kurukshetra, February 5
The Sikhs of Haryana are happy over the statement of the state Agriculture Minister, Mr Harmohinder Singh Chatha, that they may soon have their own gurdwara prabandhak committee. The Chatha panel is likely to submit its report to the Haryana Government before the next Assembly session.

Expressing joy on behalf of the Sikhs of the state, Mr Didar Singh Nalvi, member SGPC and general secretary of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (ad hoc), termed this announcement as historic, which shall go as a milestone in the history of the Sikhs of Haryana.

Mr Nalvi stated that the state Sikhs had been struggling for this genuine and legal demand for the past over seven years. Though this demand for the creation of a separate committee for the management of Sikh shrines in Haryana was incorporated by Parliament in the Punjab Reorganisation Act 1966, yet this genuine demand of the Sikhs remained only on paper. None of the state governments since 1966 had cared to honour the above provision of the Act of Parliament.

He said during the course of their struggle they called upon former Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, Akali supremo Parkash Singh Badal, late Gurcharan Singh Tohra and other numerous Sikh leaders, but none of them were sympathetic to their aspirations.

Mr Nalvi recalled the golden day when some three years back, a delegation of the Sikhs of Haryana met the All India Congress Committee president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, under the leadership of the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and the Union Minister for Poverty Alleviation, Ms Kumari Shelja, in Delhi and presented them a memorandum containing their request to honour Section-72 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act-1966. This section mandated the Haryana Government to enact a legislation for the establishment of a separate committee for the management of Sikh shrines in the state. As a result of this meeting, Ms Gandhi promised to include this demand in the election manifesto of the Congress on the eve of elections to the Haryana legislative Assembly in February 2005.

Mr Nalvi continued that the Sikhs were grateful to the Congress leadership in general and the Chief Minister in particular for acceding to this genuine and legal demand of the Sikhs.

He also expressed his gratitude to the eight-member Chatha committee. 

Kurukshetra, February 5
Though courts had brought accountability through the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, there was a need for an amendment to the Act to strengthen it. Prof S.C. Srivastava, a labour law expert, said this While addressing the valedictory function of a two-day regional seminar on ‘Consumer Protection in India-An Agenda for Awareness’, organised by the Law Department of the university in the senate hall here today.

The Kurukshetra University, Registrar, Prof V.K. Aggarwal said the freedom of trade had been lost in the present scenario. Though the Consumer Protection Act was a successful legislation, success had not been achieved on a desired goal.

The university Vice-Chancellor, Prof R.P. Hooda, said “consumer is indeed a king” but they need the support of law.— OC