Chandigarh, March 18
Joint Action Forum against atrocities on dalits in Haryana yesterday took the matter of dalit violence in Salwan village of Karnal to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

In a civil writ petition filed against Secretary Home, Haryana, SSP and DC Karnal today, the forum sought directions to remove the biased police officers from Salwan and post a fair police force. The Forum also sought directions for payment of compensation to dalit victims in accordance with the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Rehabilitation of dalit families and reconstruction of their houses on state's expense was also requested for. Besides, the court was requested to ask respondents to submit a statement of loss of dalit properties and accordingly work out compensation.

The petition comes soon after 10 dalit organizations met in Chandigarh to take stock of the increasing dalit valance in Haryana. The forum resolved that judicial intervention was a must to seek justice for dalits in Haryana where six cases pf atrocity have occurred in one year. And all these cases have followed similar patterns.

"Dalits are first attacked, their houses ransacked and their properties looted by upper class. Finally dalits have no option but to leave. These atrocities have taken place at Gohana, Budram, Mohammadpur, Jafargarh, Daloha and Salwan," petitioner Surinder Pal Bhagat, convener of joint action committee stated in the petition.

The writ also details the report of the fact finding committee which National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) formed after the violence in Salwan took place on March 1. The report, which is part of the petition, states that the violence was triggered by a Rajput's murder.

Since the accused were two dalits, the incident led to attacks on the community in which 200 dalit houses were destroyed. Haryana police however says only 4 properties were destroyed; 40 were marginally damaged. SSP Karnal adds that Rs 8 lakh were given as compensation though dalit bodies refute the claim.

The petition further details the events of March 1, as documented by the NCDHR fact finding committee, whose report has been sent to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. It states that on February 26, dalit boys Pradeep and Ram were grazing their sheep near the field of Mahipal, a Rajput. Mahipal apparently got annoyed and abused the youths, which resulted in an altercation.

The next day Mahipal's body was found at 6 am and the two dalit boys were picked up and forced to confess," the petition alleges, adding that dalit families of Salwan got a hint that the Rajput community had organized a caste panchayat and decided to castigate dalits. So they fled.

Chandigarh, March 18
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said here today that the Congress lost the 1996 elections because loyal and veteran party workers were ignored and new faces, who had no loyalty nor had any base in the party, were given preference.

Hooda, who was addressing Congress workers at his residence, assured them that he would never overlook the interests of loyal workers and at the same time would also give due respect and recognition to new party members. The workers were called by the Chief Minister to thank them for the success of the Navyug rally held in February at Sirsa to mark the completion of two years of the Hooda government.

Attributing the success of the rally to the party workers, Hooda said the Sirsa rally was the biggest-ever rally held in the northern region of the country, the reverberation of which had even been felt in Delhi.

The Chief Minister called upon the party workers to remain alert against the false propaganda by the Opposition parties and counter it.

Later, he held separate meetings with the workers district wise. Working president of the Haryana Congress Ram Prakash and political advisor to the Chief Minister Virender Singh also addressed the party workers. 

Chandigarh, March 18
Dr Sanjiv Marwah has taken over as the director of the Maharshi Markandeshwrya Institute of Management, Mullana, in Ambala district.

Dr Marwah has the teaching experience of two decades. He is an expert in strategic marketing and customer relationship management. He was earlier head of Marketing at Apeejay, Delhi, besides being the chief co-ordinator of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Management Development promoted by the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).

He has published several research articles in various national and international journals. Dr Marwah is a visiting professor of Philadelphia University, USA.

Chandigarh, March 18
The Haryana Public Works (B&R) Department has involved IITs and other leading independent technical organisations to ensure quality construction of roads.

An official spokesman said here today that the third-party inspection system had been introduced through reputed institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology(IITs), Delhi and Roorkee; the Delhi College of Engineering; the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) and the National Council of Building Materials, Ballabgarh; the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra; the Birla Institute of Science and Technology, Pilani; the Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh; and the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research, Chandigarh.

He said the third-party inspection included quality-testing of works and proof-testing of designs and estimates. These IITs and organisations would visit various PWD(B&R) sites where works were being executed and carry out inspection and pick up samples of the material for lab-testing.

He said retired chief engineers and other experts were appointed as state quality monitors to act as watchdogs on the works being undertaken by the department. While quality monitors were being involved in projects of routine nature, institutes like IITs and CRRIs were engaged in the execution of big projects.

He said to monitor both physical and financial progress of the works, the department had evolved a web-based management information system (MIS) which enabled the higher-ups to download the physical and financial progress of the works, district-wise, head-wise and constituency-wise. Steps had also been taken to ensure complete transparency in the allotment of works to contractors.

He said all tenders worth more than Rs 25 lakh were put on the website of the department www.haryanapwd-bandr.org. at least 15 days in advance, besides being published in the press. The tender forms could be downloaded from the website. Steps were also being taken for e-tendering in the near future to make the entire process more transparent.

Sonepat, March 18
Complying with the directions of the Supreme Court the district administration has demolished building of 16 “dhabas” constructed within 50 metres controlled area of GT road between Murthal and Gannaur. The two day demolition drive ended today as the administration is required to submit the action taken report in the Supreme Court on Monday.

Besides suffering losses due to demolition, the decades old business of dhaba owners has been affected and hundreds of workers would be jobless. After independence, Murthal dhabas had become popular with motorists particularly truck drivers.

The demolition teams with JCB machines were led by the Sub Divisional Magistrates of Sonepat and Gannaur with many police personnel.

However, some dhabas in the area were not demolished as the owners said they had obtained stay orders from the court.

The dhaba owners lost their case in Supreme Court on February 4, 2005 when the court gave its verdict in favour of the state government, and directed the government for the removal of dhaba structures from the controlled area of the GT road.

Moreover, according to District Town Planning Officials the dhaba owners had not obtained the change of land use (CLU) permission from the authorities concerned for using agriculture land for commercial activities.