Rohtak, May 30
Haryana Roadways employees of Rohtak depot are up in arms against the local roadways authorities for the alleged oppressive attitude of the depot general manager. The agitated employees, under the aegis of the Haryana Roadways Employees Joint Struggle Committee, have decided to "gherao" the said official on June 1.

Sensing that the situation was grave, the district administration has imposed Section 144 with effect from June 1 to maintain peace. According to the orders issued today by District Magistrate R.S.Doon, assembly of five or more persons within a radius of 20 metres from the new bus stand and the Model Town Camp office of the Chief Minister has been banned. Carrying of fire-arms and other weapons like sword, lathi, axe and knife etc has also been banned.

On the other hand, the employee leaders have alleged that the GM Roadways had got Section 144 imposed as he wanted to suppress their democratic protest. The employees' union has threatened to "expose" his functioning before the higher authorities if he remianed adamant on his stance.

Talking to The Tribune, Baldev Singh Ghanghas, state president of the Haryana Roadways Employees Union, said the employees had to resort to GM's gherao as he was indifferent towards their genuine demands. "Instead of listening to employees' grievances and sorting them out through talks, the said official is functioning in an autocratic manner. Hence, we were left with no other alternative in view of the prevailing situation," he maintained.

Ghanghas asserted that many employees of the depot had participated in a national strike on December 14, 2006. "Despite specific orders issued by the state government, the depot authorities are treating the employees who participated in the strike on leave without pay," he said, adding that the said official was not willing to listen to their just demands. The GM, however, could not be contacted for comments.

The employee leader pointed out that the GM and his supporter-employees could go to any extent to justify their stance. He maintained that they would also meet the Deputy Commissioner and apprise him of their side of the story.

Chandigarh, May 30
Close on the heels of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declaring theft of electricity as a cancer that could prove dangerous for the national economy, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has come up with a novel scheme to reduce power losses through theft and positively contribute towards the generation of 100000 MW power across the country to meet the national requirement for power by the year 2008-2009.

The power body has come out with a “cajole and threaten” policy hoping that “bad” consumers will feel the heat and give up power theft. One option for these consumers with “irregular” connections or consumption is go in for the voluntary disclosure scheme, which gives these “power thieves” one chance to get their services regularised by June 14.

But for those who choose to ignore the scheme, after June 15, the power body will launch a special ‘power theft detention campaign’ and the consumer who is caught stealing power, will have his meter encaged in a box with a unique design that will be painted red and placed prominently in his or her house.

But if the consumer is honest for a period of one year, the box of his meter will be replaced with a box of normal design and colour. And in case a consumer is caught stealing power for the second time, box of his meter will be kept red for two years.

Not just this, the power body will get the name and photo of the “power thief” published in at least five newspapers. Names and photographs of such persons caught committing theft of power will also be pasted on panels to be set up on the premises of DHBVN’s offices.

Senior officials of the nigam said today that the DHBVN for the time being was going ahead with the implementation of this voluntary disclosure scheme for theft or unauthorised use of electricity for declaring irregularities, including tampering of meters, committed by the domestic and non-domestic consumers in its area comprised districts Sirsa, Fatehabad, Hisar, Bhiwani, Mahendragarh, Rewari, Gurgaon, Mewat and Faridabad.

Consumers who decided to turn honest will have to make a small deposit as regularisation charges. For declaring theft voluntarily, a consumer single phase meter will have to deposit Rs 200 per kilowatt load as regularisation charge. While a consumer having three-phase meter shall deposit Rs 300 per kilowatt load as regularisation charge.

For declaring theft or unauthorized use of electricity, a domestic or non - domestic consumer shall have to apply to the Nigam's local office by filing an application along with a photo copy of recent bill and prescribed regularisation charges.

According to the details worked out by the nigam, once a consumer declares his meter to be faulty, it will be replaced immediately. But if for some reason replacement is not possible, the consumer of single-phase connection would be charged at the rate of 40 units per kilowatt per month and three-phase consumer would be charged for 60 units per kilowatt per month.

Chandigarh, May 30
The Haryana Government is considering bringing employees of private schools, nursing homes and brick-kilns in the ambit of the employees state insurance healthcare scheme.

This was told by parliamentary secretary Sharda Rathore in a press conference here today.

She said the newly created directorate of employees state insurance healthcare had also decided to construct a 200-bedded hospital at Gurgaon at a cost of Rs 22 crore to cater to the needs of the industrial employees. The layout of the hospital had already been approved. She said a 50-bedded hospital would also be opened at Manesar for which a piece of land measuring 2.75 acres had been purchased from the HSIDC at a cost of Rs 5 crore.

The parliamentary secretary assured that the vacant posts of doctors and other para-medical staff in ESI hospitals would be filled soon.Financial commissioner and principal secretary, labour department, Manik Sonawane said Haryana was the only state where the control of ESI hospitals and dispensaries was not vested with labour department alone. He said with the labour department now controlling the ESI hospitals and dispensaries, all the workers would uniformly benefit from the scheme.

Yamunanagar, May 30
The Uttar Haryana Bijali Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) has regretted before the State Information Commission for not providing complete information to a local resident, Naresh Uppal, under the Right to Information Act-2005.

They amended their several sales circulars because they did not had the information sought by the applicant.

Naresh Uppal of Model Town on July 11, 2006, had asked for information that who should be the appellate authority against the vigilance enquiries or raids and what would be the parameters to calculate the fine in case of over loading.

Interestingly, there was no appellate in case of vigilance raids or checking on power consumers in districts.

The UHBVN has now authorised superintendent engineers of each district as appellant authorities against vigilance checking.

The department in name of information handed him sales circulars. Unsatisfied Uppal moved to the commission on August 19, 2006. The commission summoned officials of UHBVN to appear before it on September 12.

However, the department carried out amendments in its circulars before its officials were to appear before the commission. He again went to the commission as the UHBVN had still not given the complete information. He complained that the UHBVN had not told him about the parameters to calculate fine in case of over loading by a power consumer.

The commission sent the matter to the director of the UHBVN, who is also the first appellate authority to provide the information. However, the first appellate authority rejected the case.

Uppal moved the commission for the second time in March, 2007. The UHBVN officials regretted that relief could not be provided to the applicant at the time of deciding the first appeal.

The panel felt that the respondents - director operation and chief engineer of the UHBVN - were not able to controvert the stand of Uppal that different interpretations, contrary to information furnished to him were taken by the field staff.

Sirsa, May 30
A large number of people from the Gujjar community today held protest against killing of Gujjars during a clash with the police personnel in Rajasthan here today.

Raising slogans against the police cruelty, they began their march from Rania gate, which passed through various markets of the city. Later they submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner, V. Umashankar, in this regard. Yesterday, there were violent clashes in Rajasthan in which more than a dozen people were killed. Even the CM had to bear wrath of the injured at a hospital.

Chandigarh, May 30
The People's Union for Democratic Rights(PUDR), a Delhi-based NGO, has alleged that the Haryana Government is using indiscriminately Section 124-A(sedition) to suppress the voice of student and Dalit activits, who had been speaking against caste oppression.

The allegation was levelled by two activists of the PUDR, Ms Sharmila Purkayastha and Harish Dhawan, who are teaching in Delhi University, while releasing a 17-page report, "Silencing Dissent : A report on Caste Oppression, People's movements and the charge of sedition", here yesterday.

The report alleged that the Haryana Police had unleashed a reign of terror in Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Jind districts for the past one month when 13 activists of the Jagrook Chhatra Morcha(JCM), the Krantikari Mazdoor Kisan Union (KMKU) and the Shivalik Jan Sangharsh Manch(SJSM) were picked up and charged under several sections of the IPC and Arms Act, including sedition.

The PUDR activists said the charge of sedition was a serious allegations, which should not be used to suppress the voice of those who were speaking for the interests of the Dalits. The state government had not implemented the provision that 30 per cent of the panchayat land should be allotted to the Dalits for cultivation. Wherever any organisation raised its voice in support of the Dalits, its activists were charged with sedition and projected as "Maoists".

They said earlier the Chautala government had implicated activists of the Bharatiya Kisan Union in the sedition cases.

The PUDR activists said they did not support use of violence by anyone.

On the current Dera Sacha Sauda controversy, they said fundamentalism in religion must be opposed and liberal traditions should be 
encouraged.

Ambala, May 30
A general house meeting of the Ambala Sadar Municipal Council was postponed today following objections raised by a section of councillors.

The councillors filed a written application in which they stated that since the meeting for no-confidence motion was scheduled for early next month, they would not like the general house meeting to be chaired by MC president Neelam Sharma.

The application bore signatures of 22 councillors, including two nominated. Initially, Sharma was reluctant to accede to the demand of the councillors. However, she later relented and postponed the meeting indefinitely.

Sharma said the agenda of the general house was fixed on May 23. “Thereafter, the no-confidence motion issue came up, the meeting for which has been fixed for June 7,” she said.

The councillors said they had their reservations about the MC president chairing the general house meeting since she must first win the confidence of the house and only then chair the subsequent meetings. They stated that in case she loses the vote of no confidence, the new incumbent would be authorised to chair the meetings.