Yamunanagar, January 1
The commissioner and secretary of the education department, Haryana, today suspended three officers of the education department posted in the district.

District education officer M.L. Sharma and two block education officers, Kuldeep Mehta (Bilaspur) and Krishna Grover (Radaur), have been suspended in an alleged fan and tubelight purchase scam.

Sources said the tubelights and fans valued at Rs 34 lakh were allegedly purchased without calling tenders.

The suspension order of the three officers was sent to the district administration through a fax. The order dated December 31 became public this morning.

Last year, about 1,800 fans and 2,200 tubelights were purchased for 630 government primary schools in the district.

The Haryana Rajkiya Adhyapak Sangh - 70 had made a complaint about the purchase alleging that the items were purchased at higher rates than those prevailing in markets.

The fans were purchased for Rs 1,150 each and tubelights were bought between Rs 120 and Rs 130, said sources.

District president of the sangh Pradeep Sareen in a press note issued here today welcomed the suspension orders. He said the DEO could have influenced inquiries against him had he remained on the post.

A team of the Chief Minister flying squad led by inspector Satbir Singh had questioned the DEO for more than five hours on December 19.

The DEO had also allegedly provided a fake medical certificate to show that he was handicap.

Chandigarh, January 1
Nearly two weeks after the ministers in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Cabinet were asked to attend to public grievances at the state’s Congress office, compliance remains a far cry.

Only two of the 11 ministers given duties on specific weekdays have bothered to adhere to the directives issued by the president of the state unit of the party, Phool Chand Mullana.

Cocking a snook at the orders issued by Mullana in mid-December, most ministers have failed to attend to the public on designated days.

While some maintained that they were on election duty in other states and were occupied with attending to their “ignored” constituencies, others admitted that they were still to get down to the business of attending to the public while a couple of them were busy attending to previously made commitments.

While the ministers emphasised that they would attend office as per schedule set by Mullana and their absence should not be seen as non-adherence, they failed to explain why they hadn’t already begun the exercise.

Of the 11 ministers, cabinet and state health minister Kartar Devi and state minister of archeology Meena Mandal attended the PCC office of December 26 and 27.

This assumes significance especially since this move, initiated by Mullana, a Dalit leader, has found support only from the two ministers of his own community.

Those who missed their date with the public include irrigation minister Capt Ajay Yadav, finance minister Birender Singh, transport minister Mange Ram Gupta, local bodies minister A.C. Chaudhary besides power minister Randeep Singh Surjewala and state ministers for tourism and revenue Kiran Chaudhary and Savitri Jindal, respectively.

The state president had issued orders that all ministers would sit in the party office and attend to the complaints of the public from Monday to Friday every week. Each minister had been allotted two days in a month and the schedule for all four weeks was worked out keeping in view the number of ministers.

The CM and Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan have been “spared” from attending the office. The final list was prepared in consultation with the Chief Minister and released on December 20 though the announcement had been made way back in August last year during the coronation ceremony of Mullana.

Also, in view of the defeat of the Congress party in the Punjab elections earlier and Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat subsequently, the newly appointed in charge of Haryana will take the first meeting of the state unit on January 8.

Fatehabad, January 1
The education department and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in the district are at loggerheads over the control of alternative and innovative education centres running in various towns and villages of the district.

The All-India Literary Development Committee (AILDC), a Panipat-based NGO, which has been running 37 centres in Fatehabad district, has alleged that the education department had taken over the control of nine of its centres though the centres were functioning well.

The education department, which has also started its own centres managed by the village education committees (VECs), has justified its action, saying that the VECs have to be given priority in such centres.

Under the SSA, the government runs alternative and innovative education centres in villages and towns for looking after the education of dropouts and nonstarter children. The six NGOs ran these centres till the month of November. The government pays Rs 45,000 per annum for every centre to these NGOs for appointment of a volunteer.

Director of the AILDC Gian Parkash yesterday lodged a complaint with the district authorities that the education department had forcibly taken over nine of its centres by pressurising volunteers working at these centres to give an undertaking that they wanted to work under the VECs rather than the NGO.

Parkash alleged that the education department had been shunning the hard work of finding eligible children and took over the centres, which were being run by the NGOs, to complete its target of opening new centres.

District project coordinator of the SSA Nalini Mimani said the centres that had been functioning poorly by the NGOs, had been taken over as per the rules.

ADC C.G. Rajnikanthan, said about 100 of the 305 centres running in the district had been found functioning poorly during inspections and the authorities had written to the state project director to close these centres.

Sonepat, January 1
An official inquiry conducted into the functioning of the Sonepat district jail has raised several questions on the smooth functioning of district and sub-jails in the state.

Jail officials here have allegedly been providing a “safe passage” to certain lifers to move out of the jail on a regular basis.

Though two junior jail officials have been suspended, the state police has failed to track jail superintendent Rai Singh Mandiwal.

He is reportedly missing from duty ever since the top brass of the police raided the jail campus on December 28.

Meanwhile, three jail officials, including deputy jail superintendent R.K. Khatak, sub-assistant superintendent Ram Phal and head warder Duli Chand, have already been arrested by the police.

IGP (prisons) M.S. Mann and other officials following a raid found certain irregularities in the jail.

Five lifers were found missing from their barracks against the jail manuals. However, the barrack bandi register showed that the five were inside the jail.

The raiding party found the five entering the jail campus at 8 pm escorted with an unarmed warder.

According to the jail manual, any prisoner taken out legally to work is required to wear a ring in the left ankle and it is mandatory to take them back in barracks an hour before sunset.

Chief probation officer Raj Kumar in a written statement provided to The Tribune had said the possibility of the five lifers visiting their residence couldn’t be ruled out.

He further stated that five other prisoners, who were currently lodged in Sonepat jail and undergoing life imprisonment for murder, rape and heinous crimes, were also taken out of the jail premises regularly without any authorisation and permission of the competent authority since October 10.

Meanwhile, the deputy superintendent of Borstal Jail, Sonepat, has been given the temporary charge of the Sonepat district jail.

Jail superintendent Rai Singh Mandiwal and his deputy R.K. Khatak have a shady past. 

Sirsa, January 1
A day after Ajay Gupta, a local trader’s son, had reported to the police that he was robbed of Rs 1.05 lakh, it has now turned out that he concocted the story to grab the amount.

Ajay, son of the owner of Neeraj Cotton Industry, today admitted to providing false information about the incident.

He had yesterday lodged a complaint with the police that three unidentified miscreants robbed Rs 1.05 lakh from him at Anaj Mandi when he was on his way to a bank to deposit the money.

The police said after preliminary investigations, the CIA staff got suspicious of Ajay. On questioning, Ajay admitted that he had made up the story.

He had kept Rs 99,000 at the residence of his friend in the Housing Board Colony and Rs 6,000 with himself. Later, after lodging the complaint, he asked his brother to collect the money from his friend.

The complainant is suspected to be an addict. The police said a case would be registered against him.

Chandigarh, January 1
The Haryana Revenue and Disaster Management Department has notified the policy for rehabilitation and resettlement of land owners-land acquisition oustees.

Stating this here yesterday, a spokesman for the department said as per the policy, the land owners would be paid an annuity of Rs 15,000 per acre per annum over and above the usual land compensation for 33 years. The same would be increased by a fixed sum of Rs 500 every year.

He said in respect of land acquired for setting up of special economic zones (SEZ), technology cities and technology parks, in addition to the rehabilitation and resettlement package, a sum of Rs 30,000 per acre per annum would be paid for a period of 33 years by private developers, and this annuity would be increased by Rs 1,000 every year.

He maintained that the policy of paying annuity would be applicable to all cases of land acquisition by government, except land acquired for defence purposes. For allotment of plots by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and the Haryana State Industrial Infrastructural Development Corporation (HSIIDC), the allotment would be made to each co-sharer depending upon his share in the land acquired for the HUDA and the HSIIDC as per the scale mentioned in the entitlement.

The plots would be offered if the land proposed to be acquired is under the ownership of oustees on the date of publication under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act and if 75 per cent or more of the total land owned by the owner in that urban estate is acquired, he claimed.

Only one-time benefit of this policy would be given to the land owners whose land is acquired in pockets at different times. In case, the land owner becomes entitled for a bigger-size plot due to subsequent acquisition of his land, then differential of the plot already allotted to him should be allowed to him.

He said this benefit would not be allowed to the applicant whose land has been released, and he would not make any request to the government for release of his land. No litigation should be pending except that of enhanced compensation in any court. The maximum size of the plot to be allotted would be restricted to 350 sq yards.

He said in case the land was acquired for purposes other than residential sector, the plots would be allotted in the residential sector to be developed next in that urban estate. The development agency would earmark a separate chunk of land preferably close to the village as part of the Toshi Abadi. Area in the close vicinity of the village would be set apart not only for rehabilitation, but also for necessary village social infrastructure.

The land required for social infrastructure could either be exchanged with the land of village panchayat or the land acquired in continuity of the village can be transferred to village panchayat together with the infrastructure developed thereon for its day-to-day management.

He said the rehabilitation policy would also be applicable to those land owners whose residential structures, houses and dwelling units fell within alignment of essential infrastructure services and was acquire under urgency clause.

Chandigarh, January 1
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda flagged off the “Haryana vikas sandesh rath yatra”, aimed at publicising the policies and programmes of the state government, at a function here today.

Hooda praised the Congress Sewa Dal for undertaking the rath yatra. He said it would help in acquainting the people, especially those living in rural areas, about the welfare schemes of the government so that they could avail maximum benefits of these.

President of the Bhiwani unit of the Congress Sewa Dal Ashok Kadian, who is leading the programme, said the rath would pass through 10 districts.

These were Panchkula, Ambala, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Jind, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Bhiwani and Mahendragarh.

Kadian said the rath yatra would culminate on January 7 at Narnaul where a function would be organised. It would be presided over by Deepender Singh Hooda, MP, he said.

Those present at the function included Congress MLAs Karan Singh Dalal and Shadi Lal Batra, political adviser Virender and a number of workers of the Congress Sewa Dal.

Fatehabad, January 1
The district police today resolved to improve its image and began the New Year by performing a yajna at local Police Lines here.

People from all walks of life witnessed the yajna, in which cops resolved to deal with the public in a more humane manner.

District inspector of the police Devender Singh performed the yajna. SP Saurabh Singh, additional district and sessions judge J.S. Dahiya, civil judge, senior division, Anita Dahiya and senior advocate Dwarka Prasad attended the function.

The police also organised an exhibition on traffic rules and signals.

The SP said the purpose of organising a religious ritual on the occasion of the New Year was to let cops take a firm decision to serve people in a better way in future.