Yamunanagar, September 3
Tension continued to prevail in Khijrabad town, 35 km from here, today following yesterday’s incident of communal violence. However, the situation is said to be under control.

A contingent of 300 police personnel has been deployed in the town to maintain law and order.

The police has registered a case against 358 persons for rioting and damaging public property. However, no arrest had been made till the filing of this report.

Violence between two communities broke out yesterday after allegations of cow slaughter.

The police has registered a case against Vijay Singhal and 153 others under Sections 148, 149, 427, 436 and 506 of the IPC and the National Highway Act for damaging shops of a community, threatening to kill them and blocking traffic on the national highway.

Besides, a case was also registered against Alisher and 203 others for damaging shops and Haryana Roadways bus, blocking traffic and threatening to kill members of the other community.

A case was also registered against nine persons under Sections 148, 149, 452 and 323 of the IPC for allegedly trespassing into the house of a family and beating up members of the family. All three cases were registered in the Khijrabad police station.

“The situation is under control. After holding a meeting with members of both the communities in the town, a committee comprising local members has been formed to maintain communal harmony in the town,” said SP C.S. Rao.

Additional deputy commissioner Narender Singh said they had appealed to the people of both communities to maintain peace. Besides the police, administration officials had also been camping in the town, he added.

Meanwhile, various political parties, including the BJP, Haryana Janhit Congress and the VHP, demanded immediate transfer of the deputy commissioner following his alleged indifferent attitude.

They also threatened to launch a statewide agitation if the state government failed to do so. The effigy of the deputy commissioner was also burnt by the youth wing of the Haryana Janhit Congress.

General-secretary of the Haryana Janhit Congress Satpal Kaushik demanded the transfer of the deputy commissioner, stating that the state government should appoint a regular deputy commissioner in the district rather then giving additional charge to any deputy commissioner.

Addressing a press conference, senior leader of the BJP Rattan Lal Kataria also demanded the transfer of the deputy commissioner, Ambala, who was also holding the additional charge of Yamunanagar district, Mohammad Shayin.

Yamunanagar, September 3
Communal violence in Khijrabad town could have been avoided if the district administration had followed the new guidelines of the home ministry, which were sent to the state government.

The ministry has suggested that if the due vigilance is maintained, careful planning is done and preparatory measure put in place, then many incidents of communal violence can be prevented.

The ministry has also suggested that if despite these guidelines, communal violence does occur, it can be contained effectively if it is tackled with promptness, grit and determination.

The new guidelines to maintain communal harmony were communicated to chief secretary Dharam Vir by secretary to the home ministry Madhukar Gupta.

The chief secretary had sent these guidelines to all deputy commissioners and divisional commissioners of the state for implementation.

The ministry stated that prevention of communal riots was far important than containing it, so the district administration should carefully assess the communal situation in the district on regular basis and prepare the profile of the district.

This should identify and specify areas, which were prone to communal sensitivities and tensions. All these details should be systematically maintained at each police station concerned.

The SHOs and other senior officials at police stations should keep a close watch on the situation in such areas, apart from periodically visiting them for promoting public contact and interface with the population and community leaders.

In sensitive and hyper-sensitive areas, the district administration should anticipate possible developments that could happen on certain occasions and prepare detailed standard operating procedures and contingency plan to deal with them, so that escalated situation, riots could be prevented, the ministry had further guided the state.

Providing guidelines, the home ministry has stressed that special attention should be given to develop mechanisms for intelligence and information gathering and suitably integrating them with response mechanism.

The intelligence feedback, especially from the ground level, should be effectively made use of by the administration.

The district administration also needs to develop independent sources of intelligence, as such sources will have higher credibility. 

Chandigarh, September 3
Amidst acrimonious scenes among members of the ruling Congress, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Haryana Vidhan Sabha speaker Raghubir Singh Kadian, five members of the INLD were named, while two staged a walkout on the last day of the assembly session here today.

During question hour, too, the INLD MLAs had a spat with state irrigation minister, Capt Ajay Yadav, while a visiting Bhutanese delegation watched the Vidhan Sabha proceedings. Earlier, speaker of the Punjab assembly Nirmal Singh Kahlon also witnessed the proceedings.

The scene for altercation between the Congress and the INLD was set in the opening question hour when discussion on technical education changed course. Parliamentary affairs minister Randeep Surjewala had finished offering statistics on government’s works related to technical education.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda got up to add that Haryana was at the number one position in wheat and milk production etc. INLD deputy leader Sushil Indora interrupted this statement and said that Haryana was also number one in the below poverty line (BPL) card holders as also in corruption, when Yadav retaliated by condemning INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala for corruption.

Pandemonium prevailed as INLD members and Yadav had a heated exchange. The former even alleged that the latter had not even spared the judiciary, in an indirect reference to the ongoing investigations of high court Judge Nirmal Yadav, who is the minister’s sister. The INLD members also sought to know where his fleet of cars and property had come from.

While Yadav, who lost his cool, was placated by fellow Congressmen, the INLD was asked to maintain decorum in the presence of the Bhutanese delegation. On the conclusion of question hour, Indora tried to raise the issue of the “unconstitutional” special report against Om Prakash Chautala tabled yesterday.

The speaker dismissed the issue and began the call attention motion proceedings. To protest, the INLD members came into the well of the House, seeking time to be heard, which was never granted.

Their protests were shot down by Surjewala, who said that the report was still under consideration of the House, and raising any protest amounted to the breach of privilege. Maintaining that Chautala “briefed” his MLAs and sent them to the House to fight his cause, Surjewala added that Chautala was welcome to attend the session and give his line of defence.

Repeatedly pleading with the Speaker to hear him out, Indora was told that by disobeying the Privileges Committee, Chautala was disobeying the House. “There is no point of discussion,” the speaker justified.

However, the INLD continued with its protests, raising slogans of “dictatorship” in the running of the House and were named one by one by the speaker, who warned them twice. Indora was the first to be named, followed by Ramphal Chidhana, Ishwar Singh Palaka, Balwant Singh Sadhaura and Sahida Khan.

To express solidarity with his party members, Gian Chand, too, announced his decision to boycott the proceedings. Sita Ram staged a walkout after his call attention motion.

Chandigarh, September 3
Urban local bodies minister A.C. Chaudhry had to face an embarrassing situation in the Vidhan Sabha today when the house was debating the Haryana Municipal Citizens Participation Bill introduced by him.

When speaker Raghuvir Singh Kadian read out the title of the Bill, Chaudhry “corrected” him by saying that the title of the Bill was “the Haryana Municipal Community Participation Bill”. When a bewildered speaker again described the Bill as the “Citizens Participation Bill”, Chaudhry showed him the “note for pad” on which it was written the “Community Participation Bill”. Kadian told him that he was reading from the Bill circulated by the government in the Vidhan Sabha.

To save the minister from further embarrassment, parliamentary affairs minister Randeep Singh Surjewala passed on a copy of the Bill as circulated in the house to Chaudhry, who realised his mistake. Senior officers of his department were present in the officers gallery when the incident took place.

The Bill seeks to institutionalise citizens’ participation in the functioning of municipal committees by setting up “area sabhas”. The Haryana Municipality Public Disclosure Bill aimed at bringing transparency and accountability in the functioning of municipalities of the state.

The Vidhan Sabha also passed the Haryana Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill introduced by Chaudhry. It allows the government to hold the first elections to the Gurgaon Municipal Corporation within one year.

The Haryana Town Improvement Bill, also introduced by Chaudhry, will repeal the Punjab Town Improvement Act, 1922, as far as Haryana is concerned. It would enable the government to constitute town improvement trusts in various cities of the state. The Haryana Urban Development Authority (Amendment) Bill aims at avoiding discrimination, disparity and introducing transparency in imposing penalty and to give powers to estate officers to confiscate goods kept at public places without prior permission.

The Haryana Appropriation (No.3) Bill would enable the government to utilise Rs 339,51,01,000. The Haryana Tax on Entry of Goods into Local Areas (Amendment) Billprovides for levying of higher tax on petroleum products brought from outside the state.

Later Kadian adjourned the house sine die.

Chandigarh, September 3
On a call-attention motion moved by six INLD MLAs on increasing cases of malaria, dengue and viral fever, the health minister said a plan of action was already in place to tackle malaria and dengue.

On another call-attention motion moved by Karan Dalal on the exit of Tata’s Nano car project from West Bengal, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the state was more than willing to offer land for this prestigious project. Haryana had received applause from several quarters for its forward-thinking policies with regard to bringing big industry to the state.

On the motion moved by Dr Sita Ram, Dr Sushil Indora, Ramphal Chidna, Balwant Singh Sadhaura, Sahida Khan and Gian Chand in which they maintained that a large number of cases of fever had been detected and some deaths had also been reported, health minister Kartar Devi failed to give a “satisfactory” reply.

She informed the house that while all precautionary steps were being taken by the health department and urgent meetings to survey the affected areas were being held, community involvement, too, had been initiated.

While other INLD members barring Dr Sita Ram had been named by then during zero hour, he too staged a walkout after the minister’s reply. He said he was appalled at the health department’s casual approach in the reply and failed to understand why the department relied on a reactive approach instead of adopting a pro-active strategy.

On the motion moved by Karan Dalal, Chief Minister Hooda offered to provide all facilities for setting up the Nano car project in Haryana.

He said the Haryana government would make land available in the state if Tata decided to have this prestigious project in Haryana.

Rohtak, September 3
Widespread “anomalies” in the norms for the appointment of polytechnic lecturers and “dual selection procedure” adopted for the purpose have put a question mark on the fairness of the entire process.

Resentment prevails among applicants for the posts of lecturer at government polytechnics, who have alleged arbitrary selection norms being adopted for appointment to these posts.

As many as 44 aspirants for the aforesaid posts have written a letter to the Chief Minister, urging him to intervene in the matter and get the anomalies removed.

Talking to The Tribune here today, some candidates for the posts of polytechnic lecturer pointed out that the root cause behind the anomalies was the adoption of a dual selection procedure for the purpose.

They maintained that till now, the selections were done by the Haryana Public Service Commission or the Haryana Staff Selection Commission. However, as of now, the selections were being done by Government Polytechnic Education Societies of Uttawar, Manesar, Loharu, Nathusari Chaupta and Sanghi.

These societies have fixed 20 per cent marks for the interview, while the rest 80 per cent marks have been divided between the candidates’ score in various classes and experience.

However, according to the candidates and their parents/guardians, the criteria adopted in the division of the crucial 80 marks are arbitrary.

For instance, as per an advertisement for the posts of lecturer in various disciplines inserted by the Government Polytechnic Education Society, Sanghi, as many as 20 of 80 marks have been kept for matriculation score and 25 marks for senior secondary level.

On the other hand, merely 20 marks have been kept for the qualifying examination (BTech/MSc/MCA etc); 10 marks for higher qualification like MTech or MPhil and 5 marks for work experience.

The candidates and their parents feel that these selection criteria are arbitrary, anomalous and illogical as much more weight has been given to the Class X and XII marks compared to the higher qualifications and experience, which are more significant.

Moreover, the societies have decided to call a small number of candidates, equal to three times the number of vacancies. This also goes against the majority of candidates holding higher qualifications and teaching experience.

The candidates and their parents/guardians have requested the Chief Minister to get the anomalies removed in the larger interest and also halt the ongoing selection process till this is not done.

New Delhi, September 3
More than three years after the CBI had registered a case against Haryana IAS officer Sanjeev Kumar, the investigating agency has now filed a chargesheet against the officer claiming that he amassed properties in several cities across the country.

It was alleged that this officer while working as a public servant with the Haryana government in different capacities from 1998 onwards had amassed assets, immovable and movable, in his name or in the names of his family members in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ranchi, Dhanbad and New Delhi.

The CBI has said investigations have confirmed that the accused official had indeed acquired disproportionate assets, movable and immovable, to the tune of Rs 4 crore, which was 570 per cent more than his approximate income.

This has been done on the basis of strong documentary and circumstantial evidence. The CBI filed the chargesheet after completion of investigation at the designated CBI court in Patiala House, court complex, here.

The chargesheet has said the officer was guilty under Section 109 of the IPC read with 13(2) 13(1) (e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

It was on the directions of the Supreme Court in November 2003 that the CBI took over the case from the State Vigilance Bureau, Haryana. A preliminary investigation was conducted and a regular case was registered by the CBI in February 2005.

Most of the assets were acquired by Sanjeev Kumar between April 1, 1998, to March 31, 2003. Sanjeev Kumar had then contested the CBI raids saying that he had filed a PIL relating to employment of teachers in Haryana. The scam pertains to the appointment of over 3,000 JBT teachers by the previous Om Prakash Chautala-led government.

Rohtak, September 3
Residents of Ismaila village in the district blocked the Delhi-Hisar national highway no. 10, passing through the village, yesterday in protest against alleged police inaction in a kidnap case.

Thousands of commuters were put to great inconvenience as the blockade continued for several hours. Eventually, the traffic had to be diverted through an alternative route.

The protesting villagers were demanding prompt action for recovering Ravinder, an eight-year-old boy of the village who went missing on Monday.

The boy, who had gone to school, did not return home in time. Following this, Ravinder's parents and other family members went out searching for him.

They were reportedly told by some villagers that the boy was seen with Naveen, a youth residing in the same village. However, on being approached, Naveen denied having any knowledge about the whereabouts of the child.

Ravinder's parents lodged a complaint with the police, after which Naveen was detained for interrogation. This morning, the villagers blocked the Delhi-Hisar road passing through their village in protest against the failure of the police in recovering the boy.

Meanwhile, Naveen admitted during his interrogation that he had kidnapped the boy and strangled him to death. On the basis of information provided by him, a police party recovered the boy's body.

A DSP-level officer informed the villagers that Naveen had confessed to murder and the boy's body had been found. Following this, the villagers lifted the blockade.

Meanwhile, residents of Naya Baas village blocked the Kharkhauda-Sampla road to register their protest against erratic power supply. The villagers demanded that they be supplied power from urban feeder. The blockade was lifted after much persuasion by administration and police officials.

In yet another related development, local residents blocked road near Mata Darwaza area of the town. They were protesting against police inaction in a stabbing case. 

Ambala, September 3
Special Magistrate of the CBI court Abdul Majid committed the kidney scam case to Sessions Court today.

Now the proceedings of this case would be carried on in the court of Special Judge of CBI cases A.K. Verma. The Special Judge has fixed September 12 for the next hearing in the case.

After committing the case in Sessions Court, the arguments on framing charges against the nine accused of the kidney scam would begin. It is to be mentioned that the CBI, in its charge-sheet, has included Dr Amit, Dr Upender, Dr Jeevan, Dr Sarj, Dr K.K.Aggarwal, Linda, Manoj, Gayasudeen and Jagdish as accused, while five of the accused, including the wife of Dr Jeevan who were earlier booked by the CBI in this case, were discharged from the case for lack of sufficient evidence.

The CBI, in its charge-sheet, has alleged that Dr Amit and other accused had removed the kidney of several persons and transplanted these to the beneficiaries by taking huge amounts from them. The Mumbai police has also registered a similar case of kidney removal against Dr Amit.

Dr Amit and other accused have been lodged in the Ambala central jail for the past around six months in judicial custody.