Chandigarh, March 25
After weeks of dodging proceedings, Haryana’s former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal was today disqualified from the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.

Pronouncing the orders against him, Speaker Raghubir Singh Kadian said the orders had been passed after “according him more than reasonable opportunity” to explain his position on the issue of membership of the Indian National Congress (INC).

In his order pronounced in the presence of petitioner Shadi Lal Batra, the Speaker said Bhajan Lal had been disqualified from the membership of the Vidhan Sabha with immediate effect, adding that his constituency, Adampur, also fell vacant.

Two other MLAs, Dharampal Malik and Rajesh Kamboj, were disqualified on March 13, meaning thereby that byelections to the three seats can be held sometime in May as indicated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The Speaker added that Bhajan Lal had voluntarily left the membership of the INC on December 2, 2007, the party on whose ticket he was elected to the Haryana legislature.

The Speaker said the petitioner had sought disqualification of Bhajan Lal from the membership of the House in January this year on the grounds that he had voluntarily given up the INC’s membership. Batra had attached documents, CDs and DVDs about Bhajan Lal having floated a separate party.

After the respondent failed to receive the notices sent through various channels, the same were published in newspapers and he was asked to file his reply. He was given time till February 15 which was subsequently extended after requests from Bhajan Lal’s counsel citing ill-health and later, bereavement in the family.

However, Bhajan Lal was given one last opportunity to file his reply till March 24, but nobody appeared on his behalf yesterday. Ex parte proceedings were initiated against him and the order was reserved.

Citing a Supreme Court ruling, the Speaker said though the tribunal could have disqualified Bhajan Lal at the very beginning for floating a new party in view of evidence, yet he had decided to let the law take its course.

Believed to be the perpetrator of the “Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram” strategy which brought Haryana politics into the limelight, Bhajan Lal had organised an en masse defection of the entire Janata Party ministry into the Congress when Indira Gandhi returned to power in 1980. Though he was a master at the game of political chess, ironically, he himself “fell prey” to the anti-defection law.

However, while he may be contemplating to call it a day in politics, he has passed on the baton of “serving the public and carrying his fight forward” to his younger son and suspended Congress MP Kuldeep Bishnoi, who heads the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL).

Chandigarh, March 25
The INLD today accused the Congress-led regime in Haryana of committing gross irregularities in recruitment of naib tehsildars.

Addressing a press conference here, INLD secretary-general and Rajya Sabha member Ajay Singh Chautala produced a list of names and said all those figuring in the list were going to be recruited as naib tehsildars.

Chautala, who was accompanied by former finance minister Sampat Singh as well as the party MLAs of Haryana, said the interviews for the posts were slated to take place tomorrow. The INLD leader added that he was releasing the list of selected candidates in advance so that the aspirants did not suffer any agony.

The list circulated by Ajay Chautala contained 24 names of the general category and two names belonging to the Scheduled Castes. The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) had advertised as many posts of naib tehsildar, Chautala said.

The first name in Ajay Chautala’s list was that of Chetna Chaudhry, bearing roll number 12922. Chautala said the woman candidate’s father Lalit Kumar happened to be a member of the SSC.

Rakesh Kumar, bearing roll number 6487, was the son of Congress legislator Bharat Singh Chhokker, Chautala said.

The remaining 24 names in the list (including the two SC candidates) were also connected to Congress politicians or SSC members, alleged the INLD leader.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, irrigation minister Ajay Singh Yadav, education minister Mange Ram Gupta, power minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, chief parliamentary secretary Dharam Bir, Congress MLAs Shamsher Singh Surjewala, Anand Singh Dangi, Shadilal Batra and Karan Singh Dalal and SSC members Ashok Jain and R.S. Bhola were named by Ajay Chautala as the benefactors of the others in his list.

Anand Prakash (roll number 8581) and Pratap Singh (19241) were related to Hooda, Chautala alleged. According to him, Hansraj, Rajendra Kumar and Murari Lal, candidates, were going to be selected because of they being friends with a nephew of Hooda.

Jile Singh would make it because he was related to Suryadev Dahiya, the Rohtak-based OSD to Hooda, Chautala alleged, adding that Ranbir Hooda, another candidate in his list, was related to Ravinder Singh, OSD posted at the CM’s official residence in Chandigarh.

Chautala also linked other politicians, and the two SSC members Bhola and Jain, with the other candidates in his list in a similar fashion.

Chandigarh, March 25
The Haryana government will take action in the matter of the “illegal” recruitment of deputy directors of the animal husbandry department.

This was stated by agriculture minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha in reply to a query during question hour in the Haryana assembly here today.

Replying to a question by MLA Karan Dalal, he said under the Haryana Veterinary (Group A) Service Rules, 1995, there was a provision to fill 25 per cent of the posts of deputy director by direct recruitment and 75 per cent by promotion.

The minister said an amendment was made to the rules in September, 2002, wherein the provision of direct recruitment was abolished, making all posts of deputy director promotional posts.

He stated that even after the amendment, the Haryana Public Service Commission advertised four posts for direct recruitment.

Admitting that an inquiry had revealed that the appointments were wrongly made, he said the government would take appropriate action within a month.

To a question on the number of deaths of persons and cattle by electrocution due to iron electricity poles in Narnaul, power minister Randeep Singh Surjewala said that only three head of cattle had died due to electrocution.

He informed the house that the department had already begun the process of replacing iron poles with concrete ones and the work was likely to be completed by 2008-09.

Replying to a supplementary question by Sumita Singh, he stated that there was no proposal to lay underground power wires.

However, he maintained that the department had drawn up a comprehensive plan to check theft and strengthen distribution for which PVC-coated cables were being used.

The minister said the department was working on a project of segregation of urban and rural feeders which would be completed by the end of the year.

The PWD (B and R) minister, Capt Ajay Yadav, in response to a question by Shamsher Singh Surjewala, said a railway overbridge was being constructed on a road passing though Kaithal town. He stated that other routes were being explored to divert traffic.

Yadav, replying to a question by Radhey Sham Sharma, stated that the Rajasthan government had stopped water of the Sahibi, Krishnawati and Dohan rivulets by constructing check dams.

He said they had already taken up the matter with the centre though the Rajasthan government was yet to be approached in this regard.

Chandigarh, March 25
Members of the Haryana assembly put forward their area-specific demands during the debate on the budget while Indian National Lok Dal members had a minor confrontation with Naresh Sharma during his speech.

Bachan Singh Arya highlighted the need for the upgradation of government schools in his constituency while Mahender Pratap urged the government to keep a tab on the growing nuisance of unauthorised colonies in Ballabhgarh which had outnumbered the authorised colonies.

Naresh Sharma, without naming anybody, said it must be investigated how former Chief Ministers had managed to amass wealth despite their humble backgrounds.

He said that all their money had been looted over the years from the people and that it should be taken back by the government and re-distributed among the poor. At this, INLD members stood up and protested against Sharma’s speech.

However, they were asked to return to their seats after several members pointed out that no names had been taken and there was no reason for the INLD to protest.

Naresh Yadav urged the government to implement a special project to recharge the water table in 200-odd villages in the Ahirwal belt where the water table was falling.

Chandigarh, March 25
Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Raghubir Singh Kadian has nominated nine members to serve on a House committee to inquire into the details of public property transferred, auctioned or allotted during 1999-2000 to 2004-2005.

Haryana Congress chief Phool Chand Mullana has been nominated chairperson of the committee. The other members are Karan Singh Dalal, Sher Singh, Ram Kishan Fauji, Sumita Singh, Om Prakash Chautala, Naresh Malik, Tejender Pal Singh Mann and Radhey Shyam Sharma.

The committee will go into the details of government property belonging to various departments that was transferred or allotted by the Haryana government to the Devi Lal Trust or any other sister body or any other person or body during 1999-2000 to 2004-2005.

It will also go into the details of the size or measurement of property transferred, consideration, if any, mode of fixation of consideration if fixed; its exact location, justification for such transfer, and the mode of transfer.

It will also find out whether such mode of transfer was in accordance with rules for transfer of property and if not, the consequences thereof.

The committee will also go into the details of sale or auction of government property during 1999-2000 to 2004-2005.

The details of the policy of sale or auction; need or reasons for the auction of such property as available on file; size of property and price fetched, comparable land rates at the time of the auction in the area and complaints, if any, received regarding the auction of such property will also be looked into.

It will also be found out whether any person or persons were guilty of transferring such public property without justification. The committee will suggest remedial action.

Sonepat, March 25
Following a series of reports that were published in The Tribune on gross mismanagement in jails, the state government has finally transferred two senior officials from two prisons.

Sources said Rai Singh Mandiwal, the controversial jailer of Sonepat district jail, and Kulbeer Singh, deputy superintendent of Rohtak jail, were yesterday given orders to join the prisons headquarters in Panchkula.

Interestingly, the state police has so far not reacted to the demand of handing over the case involving Mandiwal to the crime branch.

Raising serious doubts on the Sonepat police, DG, prisons, John Vincent George had written to DGP Ranjeev Singh Dalal to hand over the case to the crime branch for “fair investigation” after the police gave him a clean chit.

Mandiwal and his subordinate staff were charged by the prisons department for “violating the Punjab jail manual and criminal misconduct in the jail administration” and an FIR was registered against him and others on December 29, 2007.

The Sonepat jail officials were accused of taking more than five prisoners, undergoing life imprisonment, out of the jail without any permission from the headquarters.

Moreover, Mandiwal was charged by his parent department for being absent from the office for months as no leave was sanctioned to him.

Though his three subordinate jail officials were arrested and later suspended, no action was taken against the jailer.

In another case, sleuths of the state prisons department had raided the Rohtak jail premises on January 26 and found that 220.28 quintals of wheat, which was actually meant for prisoners, was missing.

Ambala, March 25
Cinema-goers in smaller towns of the country will soon have a reason to cheer as coming soon to run-down theatres in their localities are Talkie Town fun cinemas, a new initiative to take cinema to the grassroots level.

The fun cinemas will redo old run-down theatres in smaller towns of the region to give the average cinemagoer a feel of the multiplex experience. Talkie Town, still in its nascent stage, will see its first cinemas come up in Patiala, Muktsar, Abohar, Panipat and Hisar.

These cities will have one such cinema each. The basic concept of Talkie Town is to take on lease an existing single-screen cinema hall and redo it, giving it a fresh coat of paint, new exteriors and interiors.

“Old cinemas have been taken on a lease of 15 to 25 years,” says Vishal Kapur, COO, Fun Multiplex. “At places where we cannot have multiplexes, we are initiating the concept of Talkie Town.

The aim is to make watching a movie a more pleasurable experience and also affordable.”

At present there are only two Talkie Town cinemas operational in the country - one each in Karnataka and Hyderabad, says Kapur, who was recently in town.

Gurgaon, March 25
The police has arrested the property dealer, Vijay Bhardwaj, who had allegedly shot dead the Delhi police special operations squad assistant commissioner of police, Rajbir Singh, yesterday over a monetary dispute.

He confessed that he had killed Rajbir Singh. Rajbir’s body had been taken to the Civil Hospital, Gurgaon, for postmortem examination.

While talking to mediapersons, Gurgaon police commissioner Mohinder Lal said Rajbir Singh reached Bhardwaj’s office on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road at around 8 pm.

Bhardwaj killed the official after heated arguments between them over return of Rajbir’s money, which he had lent to Bhardwaj for investment in property.

Vijay told the police that, in frustration, he shot at Rajbir thrice, out of which two bullets hit him at the back of his head and he was killed.

After the murder, Bhardwaj telephoned his lawyer and TV news channels. He told them that he had killed Rajbir after a heated argument.

Lal said the police nabbed Bhardwaj from IFFCO Chowk in Gurgaon and they recovered Rajbir’s body from the dealer’s office.

He said the interrogation of the accused was still on and as per his statement a dispute over property in Gurgaon, which could be worth several crores, was behind the murder.

Lal revealed that the property dealer, who had confessed of having shot Rajbir, took the extreme step as the top cop had threatened to kill him over a property dispute.

He said the .32 bore revolver, which was used in the murder, was lent to the accused by the official himself.

Gurgaon, March 25
The wait of Gurgaon residents for water will hopefully be over if claims of the district administration regarding providing regular water supply in all areas of the city by tomorrow evening are to be believed.

Stating this here today, deputy commissioner Rakesh Gupta said the repair work on the Gurgaon water channel was almost complete.

He said water in small quantity would be discharged from this channel so that the repaired portion of the channel did not collapse due to pressure of water.

This water would be stored in the water treatment plant at Basai from where it would be supplied to all parts of the city from tomorrow evening.

Till then, the consumers of the affected areas would have to rely on water tankers for their needs.

The deputy commissioner said the district administration had made elaborate arrangements to supply water to the affected areas and 400 tankers from the neighbouring districts and the Army had been requisitioned for the purpose. Gupta said the western part of the city was the worst affected.

Gupta said four control rooms had been set up by the administration where the consumers could contact for their water-related problems.

The control room for the municipal council area was in the public health billing office in New Colony and its phone number was 0124-2220111.

Similarly, the control room number for the estate officer (1) area was 0124-2321253, for the estate officer (2) area, 0124-2571346 and for the entire HUDA area, 0124-3254425.

These control rooms would remain operational from 7.00 am to 8.00 pm during the crisis period.

Chandigarh, March 25
INLD MLAs staged a walkout in the Haryana assembly today in protest against the severe water shortage in Gurgaon following a breach in the water channel bringing water to the “millennium” city.

Raising the issue during zero hour, former Chief Minister and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala accused the government of having failed in its primary duty of ensuring adequate drinking water to the residents of the state.

Intervention by parliamentary affairs minister Randeep Singh Surjewala led to an exchange of hot words between Chautala and Speaker Raghubir Singh Kadian, following which the INLD members walked out of the house.

While going out of the house, deputy leader of the INLD legislature party Sushil Indora continued to raise slogans saying that a government which could not ensure adequate supply of water and power must quit.

In the absence of the INLD members, expressing mock concern Surjewala urged the Speaker to find out the cause why the otherwise “peaceful” colleagues of Chautala were agitated and disturbed the proceedings only when the former Chief Minister was present in the house.

He said normal water supply in Gurgaon would be restored by tomorrow as the authorities had plugged the breach last night. So far the police had arrested 15 persons suspected of breaching the channel.

He said as soon as news about the breach came, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda convened a meeting of senior officers and directed them to set up a permanent police post on the banks of the channel so that such mischief was not repeated.

The banks would also be patrolled at night. Repair of the breached portion was taken up on a war footing.

Intervening Hooda thanked the defence secretary and the army chief for sending water tankers to Gurgaon immediately after the state government requested them for help.

He also congratulated chief secretary Dharamvir and the Gurgaon administration on initiating urgent measures to save the situation from worsening.

Irrigation minister Ajay Singh Yadav said to ensure adequate water supply to the national capital region, work on the 65-km-long Sonepat-Gurgaon channel had started.

In the first phase the channel would carry 500 cusecs of water, which would later be raised to 800 cusecs.

After sometime one of the groups left the park from the rear gate of the secretariat and the other went away from the main gate.

Rohtak, March 25
A two-day state-level seminar on the “Energy scenario in India: a future perspective” concluded here today with a call to focus on tapping solar energy, improving electricity-generation technologies and end-use efficiency to bridge the demand-supply gap in the power sector.

The seminar was organised by the Government College for Women under the aegis of the directorate of higher education, Haryana. Dr Ishwar Singh, dean (physical sciences) at Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here, was the chief guest at the valedictory function.

Addressing the participants, he emphasised the need for research and development of energy-efficient building material to utilise solar energy, which was available in abundance.

Dr V.P.Seth, a former head of the department of physics at MDU, was the guest of honour on the occasion. He spoke about various physical aspects involved in power generation.

Dr Nawal Kishore from the department of applied physics at Guru Jambheshwar University (GJU), Hisar, gave a presentation on “Nanotechnology: a solution to world’s future energy problems”.

Dr Yogender Kumar Yadav from Haryana Agricultural University (HAU), Hisar, also emphasised the need to tap the immense solar energy.

The experts noted that there was need to improve the technology employed in tapping solar energy so as to make it more user-friendly and easy to maintain.

Dr R.C. Sharma from Dronacharya Government College, Gurgaon, Dr Ravinder Singh from Government College, Bahadurgarh, Dr R.N.Yadav from Janta College, Charkhi Dadri, Neetu Ahlawat from the department of applied physics, GJU, Anil Kumar Ojha from Government College, Mahendragarh, Dr Ved Prakash Sheoran and Dr Sunil Chaudhry from Neki Ram Sharma Government College, Rohtak, Praveen Kumar from Government College, Bhiwani, Dr R.K.Gupta from Vaish College, Bhiwani, Rosy Manchanda, a research scholar from CDLU, Sirsa, and Dr Satpal Wadhwa from Government College for Women, Rohtak, presented their papers during the seminar.

Earlier, the host college principal, Dr Ram Kirti Arora, welcomed the guests
and delegates.