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KU lecturer attacked
Power board’s unbundling ‘increases losses’
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Rajasthan comes to state’s rescue
BJP mulls alliance with INLD, Janhit Cong
Jat maha panchayat on October 19
Women’s varsity to get UGC funds
Terror mail sends police in tizzy
‘Irregularities’ unearthed in education dept
Property dealer Hari Om Rana, who was found murdered at his Palam Vihar residence in Gurgaon on Monday.
A Tribune photograph
4 acquitted in Bhajan Lal case
Chemists’ strike hits healthcare services
Trader held for ‘destroying’ public property
GJU inks MoU with Kolkata institute
Arguments on framing charges to start on Nov 11
State not to raise VAT on bricks
10,000 cases to be settled at lok adalat
VC of Devi Lal varsity to get Ratan award
Fee remission
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KU lecturer attacked
Kurukshetra, October 7 The president of the Kurukshetra University Teachers Association (KUTA), Dr O.P. Gehlawat, said the KUTA had also decided to suspend teaching work on the campus for a day in protest against the incident and all university teachers would meet the vice-chancellor in his office at 10 am tomorrow. The KUTA strongly condemned the incident and fully supported the cause of college teachers, he added. The injured teacher was taken to LNJP Hospital here and was brought back after the conduct of the medical legal report. The college teachers assembled and marched in a peaceful procession led by Dr Kusum Lata, college staff secretary, from University College to the office of the vice-chancellor. In the absence of the vice-chancellor, the irate teachers called upon registrar of the university Ramesh Sharma and registered their protest. They urged Sharma to beef up the security measures by switching to a private security agency. Sharma assured the teachers that provisions for security cameras would be made on the campus shortly. According to an eyewitness, a person wearing a mask approached Vineet Kumar while he was parking his scooter in the college parking and asked the teacher to listen to him. The moment he responded, another person hit him on his right temple from behind. Before the lecturer could gather his wits, the assailants escaped on a motorcycle. The teachers have demanded immediate arrest of the culprits and provision of a secured environment on the university campus. The teachers expressed their anguish and concern over such incidents showing an increasing trend in the recent past. A few weeks ago, deputy security officer of the university M.L. Saini was attacked by some unidentified persons on the university campus. The teachers demanded that the entry of two-wheelers without number plates and triple riding on the campus should be banned. They said the security personnel patrolling should also be intensified. Meanwhile, the police has registered a case in this connection, but no arrests have been made so far. |
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Tayyab Hussain dead
Gurgaon, October 7 Family members said Hussain had returned to Gurgaon from a marriage function in Ferozepur Jhirka last night. He complained of some breathing problem late in the night and was taken to the Kalyani Escorts hospital, where he breathed his last at 3.30 am. He is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters. His eldest son Zakir Hussain is general-secretary of the Haryana unit of the BSP and party’s candidate for the coming Lok Sabha elections from Gurgaon constituency. He was the former president of the Congress unit of Mewat district. His body is kept at Yaseen Meo Degree College in Nuh, his native place in Mewat district, for public tributes. It will be buried here tomorrow at 2 pm. Senior leaders, including former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, Congress MP from Rajasthan Sachin Pilot, Haryana MLA and chairman of the State Administrative Reforms Commission Karan Dalal, visited his house in Gurgaon to pay tributes to the leader. Born in a family of lawyers on April 5, 1936, Hussain was a prominent leader of the Meo community and held various party posts, membership of various parliamentary committees as well as ministerial portfolios in the three states. He was elected twice to Parliament from Gurgaon constituency. Besides AICC, he remained a member of the Pradesh Election Committee, Rajasthan, and the president of the All-India Mewati Panchayat. CHANDIGARH: Haryana Governor A.R. Kidwai and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda have mourned the death of Tayyab Hussain. In a separate message, they described the former minister as an able parliamentarian and a great social worker. They also conveyed their heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved family. |
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Power board’s unbundling ‘increases losses’
Karnal, October 7 Making this startling revelation at power workers conference here, president of the All-Haryana Power Corporations Workers Union D.S. Hooda said the main reason of mounting T and D losses was power theft, non-payment of bills and tendency of the government to bail out the defaulters. “The system is responsible for erratic power supply and long power cuts but helpless employees were being targeted and beaten up by angry consumers,” he rued. The losses of the Haryana State Electricity Board (HSEB) stood at Rs 660 crore in 1997 whereas the losses of Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) alone have mounted to Rs 1,900 crore and the situation in other power utilities, namely Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN), Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) was no better. Moreover, the situation was so miserable that in some areas people were getting power for hardly four hours, he claimed. He said the average selling rate of power was Rs 4 per unit but in some cases, power utilities purchased power for Rs 11.22 per unit, adding to the losses. Further, 35,000 posts of workers were lying vacant and customer services were suffering but the consumers were holding the employees responsible for deficient services, he regretted. Accusing the authorities of outsourcing 80 per cent works, Hooda demanded a high-level inquiry into the tenders awarded to private companies and added that all these tenders should be cancelled. The conference demanded parity in pay with Railway and Haryana Roadways employees, filling of vacant posts, reversal of policy to outsourcing works and periodic revision in power tariff to reduce the losses. |
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Rajasthan comes to state’s rescue
Chandigarh, October 7 Whenever Rajasthan is hit by drought conditions, people of Haryana immediately respond to the distress call from their neighbourly state and dispatch large quantities of fodder. Last week, it was the turn of Rajasthan to repay. The power supply in Haryana was adversely affected when “excitation transformer” of unit IV of the Panipat thermal plant got burnt and the 110 MW unit tripped on October 2. The important transformer supplies DC current to the turbine, without which power cannot be generated. The German-made transformer is 40-year old and rarely develops snags. Therefore, these are not easily available in the market. The Haryana Power Generation Corporation (HPGC), which runs the plant, found that no company would be able to supply the Rs 40-lakh transformer before four to five months. Even repairing the transformer would have taken the same time. This would have meant a huge generation loss. MD of the corporation Sanjeev Kaushal immediately asked his men to locate if any of the generation companies in the country had a spare transformer. To his relief, his men reported that Rajasthan had a spare transformer in Kota. Haryana financial commissioner and principal secretary, power, Ashok Lawasa, requested his counterpart in Rajasthan to “loan” the transformer to Haryana till the time its transformer was repaired or it procured a new one. Lawasa also gave an assurance to his Rajasthan colleague that in case of emergency, the transformer would be immediately returned. His request was immediately accepted. Special arrangements were made to transport the transformer to Panipat, where it was installed yesterday. This morning the tripped unit restarted generating power. |
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BJP mulls alliance with INLD, Janhit Cong
Chandigarh, October 7 Grewal, when questioned on the issue after taking over as the chairman, said the BJP was clear that it would seek the cooperation of all anti-Congress forces. He said since the INLD and HJC fit this description, the saffron party was ready for a tie-up with both of them. When questioned whether the state BJP leadership was averse to any tie-up with the INLD based on the earlier experience, Grewal said he did not think this was entirely correct. He, however, added that the party high command would take the view of the state leadership before arriving at any political understanding with any other party in Haryana. According to BJP sources, in line with the party thinking to have a tie-up with both INLD and
HJC, the saffron part was proposing to offer seats to both parties. The sources said under this arrangement, the BJP could leave a few seats to the INLD as well as the HJC and fight the remaining seats itself. They said this arrangement would ensure a consolidated fight against the Congress and do away with the prospect of triangular contests in all constituencies, which could go in favour of the Congress. The BJP would have to, however, sell the idea of an “indirect alliance” between all three parties to the HJC as well as the INLD, which are urging the saffron party to choose one among them. Meanwhile, it is to be seen how such a tie-up will come about. This is because HJC leader Kuldeep Bishnoi has very recently ruled out any tie-up involving the INLD even while admitting that he is not averse to an electoral alliance with the BJP. During the last parliamentary election, the Congress had only fought five seats and left the remaining five to the INLD under an electoral alliance. |
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Grant of OBC Status Tribune News Service
Karnal, October 7 The maha panchayat will be presided over by a former Chief Justice of the Kolkata High Court, Justice Devi Singh Tavetia. President of the All-India Jat Federation Bhale Ram Beniwal, who is visiting various parts of the state for mobilising Jats for the maha panchayat, said the support of the Jats to any party in the coming Lok Sabha elections would be linked to the grant of OBC status to them. He regretted that successive governments in the state headed by Jat Chief Ministers like Bansi Lal, Om Prakash Chautala and B.S.Hooda had let down the Jats and failed to give OBC status to them. Implementation of the recommendations of the Gurnam Singh Commission would be a major issue for seeking the support of the Jats in the elections, he added. He lashed out at Hooda for not fulfilling his commitment to give OBC status to Jats while in the opposition and alleged that he had done nothing in this direction during the past four years in office. He said the then Haryana Chief Minister, Hukam Singh, had given reservation to Jats in 1991 but later Bhajan Lal withdrew the benefit for extraneous reasons. "Give reservation, get votes" would be the slogan of Jats in the elections and if the Hooda government failed to implement reservation, the Jats would ensure the defeat of the Congress in all 10 Lok Sabha constituencies, he added. The president of the employees’ cell of the Jat Federation, Randhir Singh, said the Jats had suffered a lot due to the denial of reservation to them in educational institutions and jobs.
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Women’s varsity to get UGC funds
Sonepat, October 7 A team of experts from the UGC had recently visited the university and unanimously recommended the inclusion of the university under the Act, following which the university has now become eligible for receiving central assistance from the UGC and all central government organisations. All departments, faculty members and students can now apply under various UGC schemes like special assistance programmes, innovative courses, major and minor research projects, research awards, research fellowships and scholarships and travel grant. Besides, the university will get assistance for holding seminars, symposiums and conferences. The university has now become one of the 180 universities of the country (out of a total of 440 universities) to get registered under the said Act. The BPSMV has been registered under the said Act after the team of experts examined the standards of teaching, examination and research at the university. An official spokesman for the university said it was due to the relentless efforts made by the first regular vice-chancellor of the university, Dr Pankaj Mittal, that the university was the quickest of all to get recognition under the Act. The VC said it was a major achievement for the university. She expressed confidence that the university would stand up to the challenges and emerge as one of the leading institutions of the country. |
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Terror mail sends police in tizzy
Faridabad, October 7 According to Singh, he received the communication in his mail yesterday evening. It was written on a postcard, which was in an envelope and on the top it was written- “Indian Mujaheedeen
Jindabad”. The letter threatened that there would be blasts and “stop them if you can.” He said the seven places, which were specified as the targets, were SRS Mall (Sector 12), Railway Station, Fortis Hospital, B.K. Hospital, Vasishno Devi Temple
(Trikona Park), Subham Tower and Market No.1(NIT). Significantly, they all are busy centres of the city. With festival season around, especially the ongoing
Navratras, the crowd is more at these places. Singh said the stamp on the envelope could not be deciphered and would be sent for investigations. Following this, the entire police administration swung into action. Singh said the specified areas were sealed after the threat. In fact, Market no.1 remained closed whole day . He said the problem for the authorities was that the letter did not specify which month did it indicate about the possible blasts. Today was October 7, hence, the police remained alerted to prevent any untoward incident. Singh said the threat could not be taken lightly, in spite of the earlier hoax experiences in the city. According to a senior officer, about 700 police personnel were pressed into service. The police has assured public of its full alertness and said it was prepared to meet any challenge. The police urged them to remain alert. |
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‘Irregularities’ unearthed in education dept
Bhiwani, October 7 He said he had obtained the information through the Right to Information from various sections of the department. He said the funds of Rs 7 crore allocated by the director of education department were not sent to schools at proper timings and the officers did not distributed 25 per cent of the fund among students. The funds were inappropriately distributed under various schemes. He said in Yamunanagar, the amount of stipend was distributed as Rs 3,700, while it was Rs 2,010 in Ambala . Bhatala said to take the personal benefits, the officials showed maximum numbers of the SC students than the real admissions. In Hisar, Narnaul and Rewari districts, the number of the SC boys was shown as 1,37,959 and girls as 62,701. Whereas, the population of the SCs was only 9,52,545, he said. He said there was a lot of difference between the criteria fixed by the state government and the district education officers. In block Lakhan Majra, each student was given Rs 500 for a dress, whereas, it was Rs 300 at Meham and Rs 225 at Kalanaur. He alleged that the authorities concerned were wrongly showing private schools students in the government schools attendance registers and a serious embezzlement was being committed by showing fake attendance under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. On the other hand, state education minister Mange Ram Gupta said that the entire case was in knowledge of the government and vigilance and the state enquiries were being conducted separately. He said he had suspended several officials, who were directly involved in the case. |
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Ban on Karnal congregation sought
Karnal, October 7 In a letter addressed to the SSP, president of the federation Jasbir Singh Ladawa alleged that Dhadhariawale was propagating the cause of Khalistan and provoking the people and there was apprehension of breach of peace. He recalled that slogans were raised in favour of Khalistan in a similar congregation held at Hanumangarh in Rajasthan from August 12 to14 and Khalistani maps were distributed. “We are not opposed to religious functions but arousing religious feelings and inciting people to indulge in anti-social activities under the “garb” of religion should not be permitted,” he added. He cautioned that if the administration failed to take necessary preventive action, it would be responsible for any untoward incident, as the federation would not allow any individual to encourage extremism.
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Property dealer found murdered
Gurgaon, October 7 According to sources, the preliminary investigations showed that the deceased had returned to his house after leaving his wife and daughter at his native Bajgera village. The incident came to light when his father called him on his phone, which went unanswered. Later, when he came to his house, he found the body of his son lying in a bathroom. The police said the incident might have occurred around midnight after the deceased came home after attending a party. The body of the deceased bore deep wounds by some sharp-edged weapons. The police has registered a case in this regard.
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4 acquitted in Bhajan Lal case
Kaithal, October 7 However, the court has sentenced two out of four persons to two years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 500 each for possessing illegal arms. The police in September 2005 had received information that four persons had hatched a conspiracy to kill former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. Acting on this information, the police had arrested Balwan and Surjit, residents of Bullakheri in Jind district, Roshan Lal of Kithana (Kaithal) and Amarjit Singh, an alleged activist of Damdami Taksal, Amritsar. The police had recovered pistols from the possession of Balwan and Amarjit. Following their arrest, the accused were put on trial. After hearing the prosecution and the defense, the court held that there was no sufficient evidence against the accused for hatching a conspiracy to kill the former CM. However, the court sentenced two accused, Balwan and Amarjit, under the Arms Act. |
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Chemists’ strike hits healthcare services
Sirsa, October 7 Pawan Bajaj, a chemist arrested by the police yesterday, was today produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate Gopal Krishan, who remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days. Meanwhile, the police has registered another criminal case under Sections 201, 206, 434 and 380 of the IPC for causing disappearance of evidence, fraudulent removal or concealment of property to prevent its seizure and theft and mischief by destroying a landmark created by the authorities against the proprietors of the local Bajaj Medicos, who allegedly broken the seals fixed by the drug authorities on their shops. Members of the chemist association condemned the action of the authorities and alleged that the raids were conducted due to extraneous reasons and out of malice. Later, they met deputy commissioner V. Umashankar in this connection. |
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Trader held for ‘destroying’ public property
Rewari, October 7 Shekhar was today produced in the court of ACJM Sukram Pal, who remanded him in police custody till October 9. A large number of rickshaw-pullers held a protest yesterday when the town’s old rickshaw stand as well as the abandoned office of the municipal octroi post adjoining the station complex were reportedly demolished and the debris removed illegally on Sunday night. They demanded stringent action against the alleged land grabbers. |
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GJU inks MoU with Kolkata institute
Hisar, October 7 An official press note said the staff of the TCGLS would be enrolled for regular PhD programmes in GJU through entrance tests. PhD scholars of the TCGLS would work in university-approved laboratories. It also said the departments of chemistry, pharmacy and bio-nano technology would participate in the programmes under the MoU. |
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Sarita Suicide Case Our Correspondent
Ambala, October 7 The CBI had filed a chargesheet in the case under Section 376, 506 and 34 of the IPC against two police officials of the Rohtak CIA staff for allegedly raping Sarita, a resident of Rohtak. Sarita had committed suicide in front of the police headquarters in Panchkula on June 9. CBI DSP Satish Daggar, who was present in the court today, said the suicide note of Sarita was an important document, which would help the prosecution a lot. The court also heard the bail application of Seelak Ram and Baljeet. The court adjourned the hearing on the bail application till October 21.
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State not to raise VAT on bricks
Chandigarh, October 7 This was announced by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda after meeting a delegation of the Haryana Pradesh Brick Kiln Owners Association here today. It was also decided to give extension to all 238 brick-kilns in urbanisable zone up to June 30, 2009. Also, after the enforcement of Section 4 in a controlled area, the brick-kilns could function up to six months only. Also, after the enforcement of section 4 in a controlled area, the brick-kilns could be able to function up to six months. |
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10,000 cases to be settled at lok adalat
Sonepat, October 7 Stating this here today, District and Sessions Judge (DSJ) Virender Singh said to achieve the target of the settlement of the cases, a Core Committee had been formed under his chairmanship. Besides, the judges in the district, the deputy commissioner and superintendent of police or their nominees would be the members of the committee. The DSJ said the high court had set the target to settle 2 lakh cases. |
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VC of Devi Lal varsity to get Ratan award
Sirsa, October 7 The award will be conferred on Bhardwaj by Haryana governor Dr A.R. Kidwai in a function to be held in the GGDSD College, Sector 32-D, Chandigarh, on October 12, according to a press note issued by the university. Former election commissioner of India Dr G.V.G. Krishnamurty will preside over the function. |
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Fee remission
Sirsa, October 7 Dr Kuldeep Singh Dhindsa, director-general of the vidyapeeth, said 24 students of BTech and 36 of the polytechnic would get the benefit. Students whose parents' annual income was less than Rs 2.50 lakh would be considered under this scheme. |
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The unbundling of the Haryana State Electricity Board has neither helped in improving the power supply nor has reduced the losses but has increased the transmission and distribution losses from 27-30 per cent to 69 per cent.
