Rohtak, November 7
The Haryana government has sanctioned the posts of full-time secretaries for nine legal service authorities in the state to facilitate their smooth functioning and facilitate the provision of justice to the common man.

This was stated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at the inaugural ceremony of a permanent lok adalat here today. He said the state government had decided to establish judicial complexes at subdivision level.

“As part of the move, work on judicial complexes is in progress at Pehowa, Hodal, Ferozepur Jhirka and Naraingarh subdivisions,” he added.

Hooda observed that with the increase in the number of court cases, their workload was also increasing, adding that the lok adalats were helpful in speedy disposal of cases. He asserted that Haryana was the first state in the country to set up a mobile court.

The Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Vijender Jain, pointed out that the concept of lok adalat had been introduced with the efforts of Justice Bhagwati of Gujarat in 1980 and was now proving fruitful.

He appreciated that it was due to the initiative taken by Hooda that permanent lok adalats were being established at division level in the state. While division-level lok adalats had been set up at Hisar, Ambala and Gurgaon, today it was Rohtak’s turn to have one.

The executive chairman of the Haryana Legal Services Authority, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, maintained that the lok adalats were essential in view of the limited number of judicial courts.

He noted that at present, 2.7 crore cases concerning public utilities were pending in various courts of the country.

Hooda, who started his career as a lawyer here, met his old companions at the District Bar Association and recalled their past experiences together.

Earlier, the Chief Minister also heard the grievances of local residents and redressed many of them on the spot. 

Chandigarh, November 7
Haryana will introduce fresh steps for resource mobilisation for the urban local bodies in the wake of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s recent announcement regarding the abolition of house tax in the state.

Hooda had announced at a public meeting at Yamunanagar on November 1 that house tax would be abolished in the state. The abolition will become effective from the beginning of the next financial year (April 1, 2008) and will cover only residential buildings. House tax levied on industrial and commercial buildings has been kept out of the ambit of the sop announced by the Chief Minister.

The urban local bodies, which are already reeling from the abolition of octroi by the previous Om Prakash Chautala-led government, is expected to face a severe shortage of funds as a result of the abolition of house tax.

In lieu of octroi the Chautala-led government had introduced the local area development tax (LADT). However, while octroi was the exclusive domain of the urban local bodies, the excise and taxation department collects the LADT. The urban local bodies with village panchayats share funds collected through the LADT. House tax had thus emerged as an important component of resource mobilisation by the urban local bodies for meeting their expenses.

Talking to TNS yesterday, A. C. Chaudhary, urban local bodies minister of Haryana, said the government was gearing up to introduce indirect taxes to compensate the municipal bodies for the shortfall of funds caused by the abolition of house tax.

He said there was a possibility of the government reverting to the system of imposing municipal tax on liquor (country liquor as well as IMFL) to make up for the loss accruing from the abolition of house tax. He said although it would be direct taxing of the consumers of alcohol, such a step was unlikely to trigger off popular resentment.

Chaudhary said lease money was also likely to be levied on private telephone companies for laying their cables on municipal land. Mobile operators were also likely to be asked to pay lease money for setting up their installations on municipal land, he said. The minister said the specific nature of the fresh taxation was being deliberated upon.

He alleged that the assessment of house tax, following the revision of the formula by the Chautala-led regime, had led to a lot of resentment and was also a source of corruption. 

Chandigarh, November 7
Sanskrit teachers of Haryana have accused the state government of serving a mortal blow to the teaching of the language in the name of carrying out qualitative changes in the education system.

In a memorandum submitted to the secondary education director here today, the Haryana Sanskrit Adhyapak Sangh criticised the government’s move of introducing the system of getting Sanskrit answer sheets for secondary examination checked at the level of the respective schools rather than getting the board of secondary education to handle the papers from 2008-09.

“The move will discourage pupils from studying Sanskrit. It also shows the government as being opposed to the learning of the language which was used by our ancestors to produce splendid texts,” the memorandum stated.

The teachers also opposed the step of making college degree (BA) and B.Ed compulsory for recruitment and promotion of Sanskrit teachers.

The memorandum stated that those who studied Sanskrit at traditional institutions like gurukuls and obtained the degree of ‘Shastri’ developed a much better knowledge of the language than those studying the subject in colleges.

The teachers said while the present state government had upgraded more than 300 secondary schools to the level of higher secondary schools, it had not initiated any move to induct lecturers in Sanskrit in the upgraded schools. “On the other hand, lecturers of Punjabi are being recruited,” the memorandum mentioned and accused the government of discriminating against Sanskrit.

Hisar, November 7
The shocking incident of a student forcibly kissing a girl student in full public gaze to win a bet of Rs 100 in Dayanand College here is the outcome of the rot that has set in the once-renowned seat of learning in Haryana.

Over the years, the college has been losing its sheen because of an utter lack of discipline among students and the preoccupation of its principals with other duties assigned by the DAV College Managing Committee, New Delhi, at the cost of their basic duties as head of a postgraduate college.

Successive principals have also been working as the directors of other DAV institutions in the area basically looking after the financial interests of the New Delhi-based non-statutory body.

The situation has come to such a pass that the only boys’ hostel functioning in the college has become a shelter for antisocial elements. Inmates say there is no check on the entry of outsiders to the hostel, especially at night. The hostel has several inmates who have been failing in their examinations for years and are still in occupation of rooms.

There is no wholetime warden for the hostel as a result of which even the official residence of the warden on the campus has been lying vacant. The chief warden is reportedly living outside the campus and therefore the time he spends on managing the hostel is also limited.

Hostel inmates say outsiders drink inside the hostel every evening without fear of the law. Being inside an educational institution, there is no fear of police raids and the college authorities have shown little inclination to check them. The outsiders even threaten students if they dare to complain against them.

There is one girls’ hostel, too, on the college campus. This hostel, however, has a wholetime warden. But inmates say here, too, thefts are as common as in the boys’ hostel.

Over the years, certain principals have been accused of various irregularities, including the misappropriation of college funds. Kurukshetra University is currently probing allegations of financial irregularities against the present principal.

Principals have been purchasing luxury cars from college funds and engaging drivers for which there is no provision under the KU rules governing principals’ service conditions. Successive principals have furnished their offices from time to time diverting college funds.

Under the circumstances, principals have failed to lead from the front and keep the teachers and students motivated. The vacuum has eroded discipline to such an extent that a student could think of forcibly kissing a fellow girl student in full public view on the college premises. 

Chandigarh, November 7
Haryana will explore the possibilities of joint collaboration in the field of agriculture, especially in the biomass, bio-fuel and biotechnological sectors with Canada.

This was decided at a meeting between Haryana financial commissioner and principal secretary (agriculture) Raj Kumar and a five-member delegation fro Canada headed by deputy minister, food & rural initiatives, Manitoba, Barry Todd here today.

It was also decided to explore the possibility of collaboration between Haryana and Canada in the fields of hybrid seed production, better agronomic practices for harvesting and processing and value addition. The collaboration between the two could help in developing food processing and value addition in Haryana. Genetically modified canola hybrid varieties having high yielding potential. — TNS

Gurgaon, November 7
An international-level indoor auditorium is coming up at Bhondsi, near Gurgaon, which will be completed before the commencement of the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

This was disclosed by DGP Ranjeev Dalal while laying the foundation stone of the administrative and recruitment blocks at Police Recruitment and Training Centre of Indian Reserve Battalion at Bhondsi yesterday.

Dalal said Rs 3 crore had been sanctioned by the Haryana government for the construction of the auditorium. He said the capacity of the auditorium would be around 2,000 spectators.

Dalal said the formalities were being finalised to make this research and training centre as an intensive training and research centre of the police department. The centre would also provide inter-disciplinary courses for professionals in various streams. He also revealed that the state government had sanctioned Rs 50 lakh for the firing range at the centre. The department was also increasing the residential capacity of the centre.

The department was planning to adopt Cosmo flower as the state police flower. Dalal said the recruitment of 4,500 jawans was under process and the training of 4,000 jawans was going on at present in the state. — TNS

Yamunanagar, November 7
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) will open a sub-office at Kurukshetra so that those managing gurdwaras in the state do not need to go to Amritsar too often.

Avtar Singh Makkar, president of SGPC said this here today. He was here to lay the foundation stone of a dewan hall at Pehli and Dasham Patsaha Gurdwara in Bilaspur.

He later went to the Banda Bahadur Gurdwara in Mustfabad and addressed a congregation. He said that in the name of separate gurdwara panel for Haryana Sikhs, the Congress was trying to divide the community.

He said the earnings of the SGPC from Haryana gurdwaras was about Rs 3 crore while it was spending Rs 5 crore on educational institutions at Sahabad alone. The SGPC has provided two vehicles for propagation of Sikh religion in the state. He announced Rs 2 lakh for construction of a langar and dewan hall at the gurdwara. — TNS

Yamunanagar, November 7
The prices of crackers have shot up by 30 to 40 per cent as compared to last year and yet cracker sellers are doing brisk business.

As per a rough estimate, crackers worth Rs 50 crore were on sale in the state. A local cracker wholesaler said last year crackers worth Rs 2 crore were sold in the district and this time the sale was likely to be higher by at least Rs 50 lakh.

Sellers are hopeful that all their stock would be gone by Diwali. Chinese crackers are also available in the market.

Sources said the rise in prices of crackers could be attributed to ban on Chinese crackers, ban on child labour in cracker factories and less production of crackers.

Local heavy crackers are available between Rs 500 and Rs 5,000. Rockets are being sold between Rs 200 and Rs 500 and ‘anar’ and ‘chakri’ packets are available between Rs 40 and Rs 200.

Sudhir Kumar, a cracker seller, said he had already sold half of his stock. “I wish, I had bought a larger stock of crackers,” he added.

The district administrations have imposed a ban on certain types of crackers, including the ones which produce a sound of 125 AB (AL) in a 4 metre area. People can fire crackers between 6 pm and 10 pm.

The district administration has appointed magistrates to oversee the sale and burning of crackers in development blocks.

Rewari, November 7
The police has booked a young man Daya Kishan’s wife Nirmala Devi and his mother-in-law Bhagwati Devi, residents of Modi village, on the charge of abetment to suicide.

Earlier, Daya Kishan’s death at Mandola on September 22 was treated as a case of suicidal death by the police. But now after his father, Pooran Singh, handed over the suicide note, written by Daya Kishan, to the police, it booked the duo under Sections 306 and 34 of the IPC.

Pooran Singh alleged that Nirmala and her mother Bhagwati had meted out a cruel treatment to Daya Kishan when he recently went to Modi to bring back his wife. He further alleged that the treatment compelled him to take the extreme step soon after his return from Modi to Mandola.

According to information, Daya Kishan, resident of Rajpura Istemurar village, got married to Nirmala about six years ago. After marriage, he started living with his in-laws at Modi, but shifted to Mandola when his in-laws started humiliating him.

Jaypee depot inaugurated
Tribune News Service

Ambala, November 7
Ambala depot of Jaypee cement was inaugurated here yesterday.

Company’s joint president Sharad Aggarwal was the chief guest. A distributors meet was held on the occasion.

Sharad Aggarwal said Jaypee group is expanding rapidly in different fields.