Rohtak, April 7
The decision of the Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) authorities to stall the implementation of criteria for shortlisting of candidates to be called for interview for teaching posts has raised eyebrows. Apart from earning sharp criticism from senior faculty members, the decision has put a question mark over the autonomous functioning of the university administration.

The recommendations of a committee constituted by the vice-chancellor for the purpose were on the agenda of a recent meeting of the MDU executive council. However, the item comprising the panel’s suggestions was abruptly withdrawn without any deliberation.

Thanks to this move, all eligible candidates will be called for interview without any consideration to higher qualification, academic merit, research publications and teaching experience as suggested by the committee. This increases the chances of candidates low on merit getting selected by virtue of non-academic considerations.

A glance at the background of the issue revealed that the MDU did not have any criteria to shortlist applicants for interview to teaching posts. The large number of applicants for the posts of lecturer used to make the selection panel’s task time-consuming and cumbersome.

Therefore, the university authorities felt a need to devise suitable criteria for shortlisting the applicants to be called for interview. In view of the forthcoming interviews for various teaching positions, the vice-chancellor constituted a committee for the purpose under the chairmanship of the dean (academic affairs).

The six-member committee, comprising the deans of different faculties at the MDU, studied the norms prescribed by the authorities of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, regarding the matter.

Finally, after holding detailed discussions, the committee recommended certain criteria for shortlisting of candidates to be called for interview for various teaching posts. The committee suggested that higher qualification like NET/SLET in addition to PhD, good academic merit, research publications and UG/PG teaching experience be given due consideration while calling the applicants.

However, to the utter surprise of the committee members and other teachers, the agenda item pertaining to the committee’s recommendations was surreptitiously withdrawn from the executive council meeting.

According to senior faculty members, the said norms would have automatically kept the lesser qualified candidates out of the selection process. The number and chances of the “barely eligible” applicants, including those hoping to make it by virtue of their “links”, would also have been cut down. Had the committee’s recommendations been followed, only meritorious and deserving candidates would have been called for interview for posts of lecturer.

The university authorities’ apparent succumbing to pressure by backtracking from their stance perhaps indicates that one needs to possess some different sort of talent to get the coveted job; more so in an election year.

Chandigarh, April 7
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said recently rain, hailstorm and winds had damaged standing crops on about one lakh hectares. The adverse weather conditions would affect the specifications of wheat for procurement. He urged union agriculture and food and civil supplies minister Sharad Pawar to send a committee to take stock of the situation.

Hooda later said that the exact loss was being assessed and a girdawri would be ordered. Despite the loss to crops, the state government would try to achieve its target of procurement of wheat, Hooda said.

He also urged the union minister to lift the ban on the export of the pusa 1121 variety of paddy in view of its demand in the international market. He also sought the linking of the minimum support price (MSP) of grains with the price index or a formula to fix the MSP.

Hooda, who had a meeting with Pawar today, told him that the cost of investment in agriculture had increased manifold. He said the state government was giving a huge subsidy on electricity supply to the agricultural sector. He wanted the central government to give a bonus to the farmers over the MSP on the procurement of wheat.

Hooda said frost in the winter season had damaged mustard and other crops in the state and the loss was assessed to be Rs 190 crore.

He demanded that the damage caused to crops due to frost should be compensated by including frost damage under the criteria for giving compensation from the CRF. 
Hooda also talked to Pawar about the problem being faced in procuring DAP fertiliser.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by agriculture minister H.S.Chatha and chief secretary Dharam Vir, among others.

Jind, April 7
Two persons, including an eight-year-old boy, who went missing a few days ago, were found dead in the town here today. Their bodies have been sent to the PGIMS, Rohtak, for post-mortem. No arrest has been made so far in the case.

Satbir Singh, a resident of Chanderlok Colony, had lodged a complaint with the police that his minor son, Baljit, went missing on April 1 when he and his family were busy in shifting their household items from the Loco Colony to the present locality.

He had suspected that his son might have been kidnapped. The police, which failed to trace the boy, informed the family that they had recovered a body this morning from a drain near the gypsum factory. The boy was later identified as Baljit, Satbir Singh’s son. The police is clueless about those behind the murder.

In another incident, residents of Aprahi Mohalla here got a shock when they learnt about the recovery of the body of Rajkumar (22), a resident of the mohalla, who had gone missing a few days ago. The body of the victim was found floating in the Hansi canal passing through the town this morning. It was found tied with a rope and was packed in a plastic bag before being disposed of in the canal, said police sources.

The body bore injury marks, suggesting that the victim had been strangled and thrown into the canal. Relatives of the victim have informed the police that Rajkumar was involved in a fight with some local youths, who could have kidnapped and killed him. The police has registered a case against four suspects - Bunty, Shalu, Deepak and Amit, alias Mita - on the basis of a complaint lodged with the police.

Hisar, April 7
The BJP has given the INLD a reason to cheer. With BJP chief Rajnath Singh saying his party was not averse to an electoral tie up in Haryana, the INLD cadres are enthused.

Rajnath’s statement last week in Sonepat runs contrary to state BJP leadership’s consistent stand since 2005 that it would not have any link with the INLD in future. The entire BJP leadership and its cadres in Haryana have gone into a tailspin after their top leader undid in one go what they had built up over the past more than three years.

The INLD has more reason to cheer in so far as its ties with the BJP are concerned. The return of former Delhi Chief Minister Madan lal Khurana and the impending return of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti to the BJP will certainly boost Om Parkash Chautala's chances of reaching a pact with its old-time ally. The trio has close personal ties.

The Haryana BJP leaders have been extremely emphatic in ruling out any future alliance with the INLD when it was treated shabbily after Chuatala became Chief Minister in 1999. Although the INLD contested the 2000 assembly elections in alliance with the BJP, he put up his own unofficial candidate in almost every seat it allotted to its partner to ensure their defeat.

The two had an on again and off again relationship throughout the term of Chautala as Chief Minister. The relationship touched its nadir an year before the 2005 elections when the BJP in frustration quit the coalition. The BJP contested those elections on its own and both parties received a drubbing.

The BJP cadres in Haryana were so emphatic in their opposition to Chautala that the party leadership had to publicly adopt an extremely anti-Chautala stance to keep its flock together. The BJP chief's sudden turnaround is not likely to go well with its partymen in the state.

Although the state BJP leaders are trying to project that their national party president's statement did not mean that he was hinting at a possible tie-up with the INLD, the cadres are not buying the explanation because the only other alternative - Kuldeep Bishnoi's Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) - has already been ruled out. Most Bhajan Lal supporters who had joined the BJP last year are back in Bishnoi's political outfit.

INLD leaders said off the record that the BJP was sensing a great opportunity to come to power at the Centre by next year riding the anti-inflation and anti-incumbency wave against the UPA. Thus, it would need every seat it can win anywhere. In Haryana, the party has only one MP and it may not even win this seat in the next Lok Sabha elections unless the party tied up with the INLD. They think that a tie-up will be BJP's compulsion.

Despite the new development, the INLD will also have to decide whether it will prefer to stay within the UNPA it formed last year as the third front at the national level or shake hands with the BJP. And this issue will have to be settled before the forthcoming byelections to the three assembly seats vacated by the disqualification of Bhajan Lal and his supporters.

Fatehabad, April 7
Bhumika Girdher, who has carved a niche for herself as an actor in television soaps, says she is against the run-of-the-mill “saas-bahu” serials being aired on many television channels as they do not portray the Indian culture correctly.

Bhumika, who did her schooling from Ratia and Fatehabad, has acted in several television serials, including “Maano Ya Na Maano”, “CID”, “Maayka”, “Kajal”, “Shhh… Koi Hai” and “Kya Dil Mein Hai”, and anchored a few programmes.

Her latest serial “Chander Mukhi” is currently being aired on DD National.

Bhumika, whose mother Manju Girdhar is a school principal, said she accidentally entered into acting. “I had chosen medicine as my career and with that in mind, I took medical subjects at senior secondary level and did graduation in Botany from Delhi University,” she added.

As she had good communication skills, she anchored many shows while pursuing her studies.

Zee News spotted her and offered her a break as an anchor for their travel show “Rahi Matwale” while she was still in her second year. There was no looking back since then.

She also participated in “Zee Cine Star”, a talent hunt for budding actors by the Zee Entertainment and reached among the top ten girls before she was eliminated.

After that she made Mumbai as her abode as more offers started pouring in.

Bhumika, who wants to act in serials that could give some positive message and those which are knowledge based, dreams to work with directors like Rakesh Om Parkash Mehra of Rang De Basanti fame.

Her favourite actors are Ajay Devgan, Hritik Roshan and Vidya Balan. Bhumika gives the credit of her success to her family, especially her mother, and requests parents to always believe in their children and allow them to achieve their dreams by offering them full support. 

Faridabad, April 7
The Haryana unit of the Congress has hailed the induction of young faces in the Union Council of Ministers and expressed the view that it will help draw the youth to the organisation.

Working president of the Haryana Congress Kuldip Sharma said the induction of young faces reflected the “sincerity” of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi who had launched a sustained campaign to take the party to the youth.

He said the fact the Rahul Gandhi had “declined” a ministerial berth in the reshuffle reflects his commitment to remain with the cadre of the party and to strengthen it. This, he said, also proved that Rahul did not hanker for power.

Sharma, who was en route to Delhi, asserted that the Congress would win the assembly byelections to the three constituencies of Adampur, Indri and Gohana.

Referring to the recent statement of Kuldip Bishnoi that the Congress was afraid of facing the byelections, he said: “Why is he not resigning from his Bhiwani Lok Sabha seat to face a byelection?”

Kaithal, April 7
The suspended chairperson of the local municipal council, Sunita Bansal, was today removed from her post following the passing of no-confidence motion against her.

As many as 24 elected members out of 31 and local MLA S.S. Surjewala voted in favour of the no-confidence motion. ADC Ramesh Verma, who acted as presiding officer, declared the outcome of the voting.

He said report in this connection would be sent to the director, local bodies. Interestingly, Bansal and her supporters were not present during the passing of the motion. Thus, the hide-and-seek game going on for the past few weeks for her removal ended.

Bansal was suspended by the director, local bodies, on March 25 after receiving an inquiry report from Kaithal DC about her involvement in committing irregularities. The inquiry was based on complaints of some councillors. Bansal, however, had alleged that she was being victimised due to political reasons.

Meanwhile, state power minister Randeep Singh Surjewala in a press conference here today said the allegations of political pressure to dislodge Bansal had no truth and she lost the confidence of the house and today’s voting proved this fact. He said due to her non-cooperative attitude, the functioning of civic body had remained affected. He also said he and his father S.S. Surjewala were committed to the overall development of Kaithal.

Gurgaon, April 7
The manager of Buzz, the Gurgaon bar where an ugly brawl took place between a group of diners and 10-12 drunk youths, has been arrested for keeping the bar open beyond the stipulated time, the police said today.

“We have arrested Mrityunjay Tiwari, manager of the bar, under the Indian Penal Code for not adhering to laws. He kept the bar to remain open beyond the allowed hours,” Gurgaon police assistant commissioner Sumit Kumar said.

Late Saturday, a group of 10-12 youths in an inebriated state allegedly misbehaved with diners businessman Gursharan Singh, pilot Vikram Bal and their wives and assaulted them.

The youths also attacked another pilot, Samarjeet Singh Cheema, Kumar added.

“We are conducting raids on the houses of the other youth involved and they will be arrested soon.” According to Cheema, they were dining at the bar when a drunken youth, later identified as Gaurav, passed some obscene remarks at the women.

“When I protested, the man began fighting with us. After this, he left the pub only to return with 10-12 of his friends. They were all armed with iron rods and hockey sticks. A few were also brandishing guns and threatened to shoot us,” Cheema said.

“They beat us mercilessly and misbehaved with the women. Nobody, including the bouncers (of the bar), bothered to intervene. The assault continued till the police arrived after one of us made a distress call. But we were shocked when the police let the men go.” The police took the victims to a private hospital, where Cheema had to undergo emergency kneecap replacement surgery. His friends were discharged after treatment. — IANS

New Delhi, April 7
The government today issued a notification to the CBI to probe the murder of assistant commissioner of Delhi police Rajbir Singh, who was allegedly shot dead by his friend in Gurgaon last month.

The notification was issued by the department of personnel after the Haryana government made a request for the same following demands from the public, official sources said.

The CBI after completing the formalities would decide whether the agency requires to register a case or not. Under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, the CBI would have to give its concurrence for taking up the case.

Delhi police’s encounter specialist Rajbir Singh, whose career had its share of both glory and controversy, was gunned down allegedly by a property dealer in Gurgaon on outskirts of the national capital on March 24.

Property dealer Vijay Bhardawaj was arrested immediately after the murder. The accused claimed before the media that he had pumped bullets into the head of the ACP out of fear as he owed some money to the victim.

The controversy further became murkier after the police claimed that the gun recovered from the property dealer belonged to a Haryana police official, who had lost it during the duty.

Singh’s family had demanded a CBI probe claiming they did not expect to get proper justice in the case. Later, state Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced that the state government would hand over the probe to the CBI. — PTI

Chandigarh, April 7
A brother strangulating his own sister after sodomising her - you would have found it disgusting even in a television serial. A Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has upheld the life term and conviction of a “sex obsessed maniac” after taking into consideration his father’s deposition and other factors against him.

The accused, Vikram Singh, facing prosecution in a murder case, was out on bail when the incident took place in June 1995. An Inspector with Haryana Roadways, Om Parkash, returned home only to find son Vikram dragging his sister with ‘chunni’ tied around her neck. Blood was oozing out of her nose and mouth, and her salwar was not tied up.

The prosecution story was that Vikram Singh, subsequently, made an extra-judicial confession and was produced before the police. Placing reliance on his father’s deposition, the trial court convicted Vikram Singh before sentencing him to life imprisonment.

Taking up his appeal, Division Bench comprising Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice S.D. Anand ruled: “A sex obsessed maniac. An incestuous pervert. A slur on the pious relationship of brother and sister. An individual unworthy of being a son or a brother. A reincarnation of Satan. Our enumeration of expressions is likely to be inexhaustible. The quest is for an expression, which could appropriately befit the appellant, who stands convicted for having sodomised none else or other than his own sister and, then, murdered her in order to screen himself from the liability.”

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Anand added: “Irrespective of whatever may go on in the world in the name of development on different fronts, the human nature continues to be the same. It just cannot be expected that a father would falsely depose against his own son. As a normal father, Om Pakash must have undergone mental ordeal to decide to notify the offence to the police. There is no earthly reason why a father would like to get his deceased daughter defamed and report against his own son, particularly in the context of the heinous crime with which he stands charged.”

Sonepat, April 7
Taking note of the day-to-day incidents of eve teasing and harassing of women passengers, particularly school and college-going girls, in local trains and at railway stations, the Government Railway Police (GRP) on the Delhi-Ambala section has devised a strategy to check this menace.

According to Bharti Arora, Superintendent of Police, GRP, besides stepping up checks, the GRP would enroll about 12 volunteers under every GRP police station from among daily commuters who could provide feedback about the incidents and also identify the persons involving in activities disliked by other passengers.

These persons will be issued identity cards with code numbers for three months and they will also suggest preventive measures during their regular meetings with the police staff.

To begin with this new planning, a meeting of the in charge, GRP, Sonepat, and representatives of the Dainik Rail Yatri Ekta and the Seva Sangh was held here recently during which as many as 10 volunteers were enrolled.

The participants suggested that a police post be set up at Holambi Kalan railway station in Delhi where incidents of stone throwing on the compartments of Sonepat-bound trains have become a routine affair for the past few months. Several passengers had received injuries in such incidents and despite repeated complaints to the authorities, no remedial steps have been taken.

Other demands included the computerisation of newly opened booking window at Sonepat railway station and construction of a toilet between platform no. 2 and 3.

Chandigarh, April 7
The Haryana government will open new government polytechnics at 22 places across the state as per its policy to open at least one polytechnic in each district to give a fillip to technical education.

While stating this here today, technical education minister A. C. Chaudhary said the new polytechnics would be opened at Narwana, Sapla, Rohtak, Dahar in Panipat, Rajpura in Jind, Umri in Kurukshetra, Nanakpura in Panchkula, Dabwali in Sirsa, Pabnawa in Kaithal, Dhamlawas in Rewari, Sugh in Yamunanagar, Tohana in Fatehabad, Odhan in Sirsa, Dudhola in Faridabad, Bapoli in Panipat, Gharonda in Karnal, Morni Hills in Panchkula, Faridabad, Khizrabad, Gurgaon, Bhiwani and Meham.

He said these polytechnics would be established under government-owned societies.