Chandigarh, August 5
Palwal will be the 21st district of the state as the Haryana cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, here today, decided to create the new district in Gurgaon division on the demand of the people of the area.

The Chief Minister had announced at a public meeting at Palwal on March 30 last that Palwal would be made a district. Thereafter, a committee was constituted by the government under the chairmanship of the chief secretary, with the financial commissioner, revenue; the commissioner, Gurgaon division; and the deputy commissioners of Faridabad and Mewat as its members.The panel was asked to identify the areas to be included in the new district.

The cabinet, on the recommendations of this committee, decided that Palwal would be the headquarters of the new district, which would have three tehsils and subdivisions of Palwal, Hodal and Hathin. The district would have 282 villages, a total area of 1,35,933 hectares and a population of over 8.29 lakh. The new district would have a municipal council at Palwal and municipal committees at Hodal and Hathin.

Palwal district is likely to be inaugurated on August 15 when Hooda will the chief guest at the state-level Independence Day function there.

The cabinet also decided that any sitting MLA who has been allotted a flat as a member of the Haryana Jan Pratinidhi Cooperative Group Housing Society in Sector 28, Gurgaon, which was allotted 2 acres with the approval of the Council of Ministers on August 29, 2002, would not be eligible for any benefit under the instant scheme at Gurgaon.

The cabinet was, however, silent whether such MLAs would be eligible to get plots or flats elsewhere in the state.

The cabinet also decided to transfer over 17 acres of the Government Livestock Farm, Hisar, to the Hisar Improvement Trust for the rehabilitation of allottees of commercial plots in Vyapar and Vayavsai Kunj Scheme, Phase I, Hisar.

Welcoming the decision, president of the Haryana Beopar Mandal Bajrang Dass Garg said it was a long-standing demand of the people of Hisar. By accepting their demand, Hooda had again proved that his government really looked after the trading community well.

Ambala, August 5
Despite the instructions of the Supreme Court not to handcuff prisoners while being taken to court or somewhere else without prior permission of the court, the Ambala police had tied up an undertrial woman prisoner with iron chains in the prisoner ward of the Civil Hospital in Ambala following security reasons. Senior lawyer of the Ambala Bar Association Ajay Jain has termed it as a violation of the Supreme Court directive.

The prisoner identified as Madhu is three-and-a-half-months pregnant.

Madhu (28), a resident of Ambala, had been arrested by the Ambala police on a charge of abducting a minor girl, Ruby (13), who had been missing for the past two months.

One of the missing girl’s relatives had lodged a complaint with the police that Madhu had allegedly abducted Ruby.

The police had also registered a case in this regard. The police nabbed Madhu and Ruby on a tip-off on August 1 from Delhi.

Ruby was handed over to her relatives while Madhu was produced before a local court, which remanded her to judicial custody for 14 days.

On August 2, she complained of stomach pain to the jail authorities. She disclosed to the media in the hospital that female prisoners had allegedly beaten her up mercilessly.

However, jail superintendent S.P.S. Chauhan said the allegations were not true. He said as soon as she complained of stomach pain, she was referred to the local Civil Hospital.

Generally, the police handcuffs hardcore criminals with the permission of court, but in this case Madhu was arrested for a minor offence. Moreover, the police had not even obtained permission from the court to handcuff her.

A lady doctor, who attended her on August 2, had advised to conduct an ultrasound on her to verify the pregnancy period, but it was conducted today only through a private ultrasound centre.

The principal medical officer of the Civil Hospital has confirmed that Madhu is three-and-a-half-months pregnant.

Interestingly, the Ambala Civil Hospital has the ultrasound machine but the post of radiologist has been lying vacant for the past 4 years. Patients are forced to go to private ultrasound centres. A few months back, the hospital authorities had engaged a private radiologist on contract basis, but he could not continue.

When the matter came to the notice of senior police officer, the woman’s chains were removed. Ambala SP Sibash Kabiraj said he had ordered an inquiry into the matter.

Chandigarh, August 5
The first hurdle in the fulfillment of the aspirations of Haryana Sikhs to have their own gurdwara management committee was overcome today when Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda asked agriculture minister H.S. Chatha, who is heading a committee in this regard, to submit his report within 15 days.

The Chatha committee was constituted in 2005 to know whether Haryana Sikhs were in favour of a separate SGPC for the state. The committee had invited affidavits.

Sources said the committee received about three lakh affidavits, almost all of which supported the demand for a separate SGPC. However, its report was kept pending for reasons best known to Chatha and the Chief Minister.

But there is general impression that Prime Minister did not want the Haryana government to go ahead with the move as it might annoy the Akalis in Punjab, who are vehemently opposing the creation of a separate SGPC for Haryana.

Recently, when a delegation of Haryana Sikhs met the Prime Minister, he reportedly told the delegation that he had advised the Haryana government to wait till the Assembly elections were held in Punjab. He told the delegation that he had no objection to the creation of a separate SGPC for Haryana if the Sikhs living in that state wanted so.

It is believed that after the Akalis decided to vote against the first Sikh Prime Minister of the country on the confidence motion moved by him in the Lok Sabha last month, the Congress decided to go ahead with the creation of a separate SGPC for Haryana.

The Akalis had argued that the confidence motion was a political issue and religion did not matter while taking political decisions. The Congress will now use the same argument to support the creation of a separate SGPC. Its leaders will say that they are doing what the people of their state, particularly Sikhs living in Haryana, wanted them to do.

Meanwhile, general-secretary of the Haryana Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (ad hoc) Didar Singh Nalvi has welcomed Hooda’s request to Chatha to submit his report.

Rohtak, August 5
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued a notice to the local PGIMS administration over the allotment of some MBBS and BDS seats to NRI candidates. Several successful PMT candidates had approached the high court with the plea that there was no provision for allotment of seats to NRI candidates in the prospectus.

However, at the time of counselling, the PGIMS authorities maintained that a certain number of seats would be allotted to NRI candidates.

A few days later, an advertisement was inserted in newspapers regarding the filling of MBBS/BDS seats meant for NRI candidates. These include five MBBS seats at the Rohtak PGIMS, three at Agroha Medical College and two BDS seats at Government Dental College, Rohtak.

In their petition, the affected candidates have asserted that “nothing has been mentioned by the respondents with regard to NRI quota in the prospectus…Therefore, this action of the respondents is illegal, arbitrary, against the principle of natural justice and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution and liable to be set aside”. The petitioners have also pointed out that the PGIMS authorities had not implemented the roster system while conducting the MBBS/BDS counselling, despite specific directions.

The high court has also issued notices in this connection to the union government, the State of Haryana, the director-general of health services and the authorities of MDU. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for August 7.

Chandigarh, August 5
Coming down heavily on the state government, secretary-general of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Rajya Sabha member Ajay Chautala, today said widespread nepotism was rampant in appointments being made in the government sector.

Substantiating his claims, Chautala said candidates chosen as naib tehsildars were closely related to the Chief Minister, ministers and MLAs, just as the INLD had “predicted” nearly four months ago.

Addressing a press conference here, Chautala demanded that the appointment of naib tehsildars and others made in the past three years should be scrapped, the Haryana Subordinate Staff Selection Commission be dissolved and a sitting judge of the high court be asked to conduct an inquiry into all appointments.

Chautala said in a bid to hide their identity some influential candidates had given temporary addresses, which could not be considered permanent addresses by any standard.

Referring to a selected candidate who gave a Panjab University hostel address, he said police verification and service books could not be based on such addresses.

He charged the government with misleading unemployed youth of Haryana and accused it of “distributing” government jobs on the sole basis of relationships and corruption. The INLD leader said selected candidate Chetna Chaudhary was the daughter of HSSSC sitting member Lalit Kumar and Navneet was the nephew of member, HSSSC, R.S. Bhola. He said Vikram Singla and Vikas were close to education minister Mange Ram Gupta and Palwal MLA Karan Singh Dalal, respectively.

However, while Gupta had denied his relation with the candidate in the past, Dalal, too, said he had nothing to do with the said candidate. Samalkha MLA Bharat Singh Chhokar’s son, Rakesh, and a close relative of Kaithal MLA Shamsher Singh Surjewala, Navdeep Singh, had also been “selected” as naib tehsildars, he alleged. The INLD secretary-general said another selected candidate, Sandeep Dahiya, was closely associated with the Chief Minister while Rannvijay Sultania was the nephew of the irrigation minister. He said Sanjay Chaudhary, Sunil Kumar and Sanjiv were the other “chosen” candidates who had close proximity to the Chief Minister’s family members.

Sirsa, August 5
Baljit Singh Dadu, head of Gurdwara Granthsar and chief of the Khalsa Action Committee, which has been spearheading a tirade against Dera Sacha Sauda, has reacted sharply to the suspension of arms licences of 43 persons in Dadu village and the registration of cases against seven persons allegedly at the behest of the dera.

Talking to mediapersons today, Dadu alleged that the authorities had been playing a partisan role in the controversy involving the dera and harassing innocent Sikhs at the behest of the dera.

He alleged that 43 arms licences of Sikhs from Dadu village had been suspended and they had been told to deposit their weapons while not a single dera follower had been told to do so. He alleged that the police had been raiding houses of seven Sikh youths, who had been forced to run away from the village.

Dadu said villagers had made a 15-member action committee of Sikhs for dealing with the authorities and they would not allow the police to raid houses of innocent Sikhs.

Meanwhile, the Youth Welfare Federation of the dera has demanded the arrest of Dadu and president of the Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Sabha Sukhwinder Singh Khalsa for bringing peace to the district.

Kurukshetra, August 5
Additional District and Sessions Judge Neelima Shangla sentenced Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Mirchaheri village here, and Harsimranjeet Singh, a resident of Sector 13, HUDA, to life imprisonment for murdering Ajay Pal here today.

She also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on them and in case of default of payment of fine, the duo will have to undergo a rigorous imprisonment of three years.

The accused after consuming liquor at Ajay Pal’s house on August 18, 2006, got involved in an altercation with him. Sanjeev Kumar allegedly shot dead Ajay Pal with his country-made pistol after Harsimranjeet Singh forced him to do so. The duo escaped after the incident.

After a few days, Sanjeev Kumar was arrested in another case for murdering a person of Tarori in Karnal district and a pistol was recovered from his possession.

During interrogation, he told the police that he had shot dead Ajay Pal in Kurukshetra with the same pistol, which was scientifically examined at FSL, Madhuban, Karnal.

The accused, Sanjeev Kumar, along with Sultan Handa has also been involved in another case of demanding ransom in Kaithal court.

Sirsa/Fatehabad, August 5
On a call given by the Haryana Roadways Karamchari Joint Action Committee, roadways’ workers today planned their strategy for tomorrow’s proposed demonstration in front of the residence of Haryana transport minister Mange Ram Gupta in Jind.

The workers organised demonstrations and gate meetings in Sirsa and Fatehabad today and expressed their resolve to make tomorrow’s protest a success.

Ram Kumar Verma, joint secretary of the Haryana Roadways Workers Union and executive member of the joint action committee, today led agitating workers in Sirsa while Sarbat Singh Poonia, state secretary of the union, led the demonstrators in Fatehabad.

The leaders alleged that despite assurances by the government, the transport department issued a letter regarding outsourcing of posts of conductor and driver on June 2.

They said tomorrow’s demonstration and the proposed strike of August 20 were part of the decision taken by the joint action committee against the government’s “anti-roadways’ workers policies”. Meanwhile, the government today warned the workers that stern action would be taken against those found absent from duty and indulging in any unlawful act and causing inconvenience to the general public.