Chandigarh, November 21
The Haryana cabinet, which met here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, decided to create a sort of another recruitment agency in the state. At present, the state has a public service commission and a staff selection commission for selecting persons for government jobs.

The new agency, to be known as the Haryana Group 'D' Employees Selection Committee, will select candidates for appointment to all Class IV (officially known as Group D) posts under the state government. However, such posts in the Punjab and Haryana High Court will not come within the purview of the new committee.

Appointments to posts carrying an initial pay of less than Rs 3,050 per mensem under state public undertakings, boards, corporations, local bodies like municipalities, municipal corporations, town improvement trusts, zila parishads and panchayat samitis and cooperative institutions will also be made on the recommendations of this committee.

The committee will consist of five members, including the chairman. All members will be officers not below the rank of joint secretary. Its tenure will be three years, which can be reduced or extended by the state government.

The cabinet also decided to establish a separate directorate of medical education and research to regulate all colleges and schools in the health education sector.The main functions of the directorate will be the formulation of policies for encouraging quality medical education, administration and control of all government medical schools and colleges, regulation of examinations, admissions, fee structure of private and government institutions and arranging funds for the development of medical education and encouraging investment in health education through public-private partnership.

It will mobilise funds from the union government under various schemes, besides mapping human resources need in the health and medical sector and planning human resources development.

The cabinet also approved 30 posts for the directorate. It decided to grant Class II gazetted (Group B) status to homoeopathic medical officers working in the AYUSH Department.

The cabinet approved amendments to the Haryana Ayurvedic Education (Group A and B) Service Rules, 1999, for filling posts of reader and professor through promotion and enhancing the superannuation age of the teaching faculty of Shri Krishna Government Ayurvedic College, Kurukshetra, from 58 to 60 years on a par with Pt B.D.Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak.

The college is the only government ayurvedic college in the state.

The cabinet decided to take all posts of medical officer (HCMS-II) out of the purview of the Haryana Public Service Commission.The decision has been taken because the Health Department is facing an acute shortage of doctors and the present process of recruitment of doctors through the commission is time consuming. On an average, it takes about eight months from requisition to final selection. The cabinet approved a proposal for converting 61 temporary posts in the state Election Commission into permanent ones.

Panipat, November 21
Musclemen, who had come to grab residential property in Goyla Kehra village late last evening, had to run for their lives as they came under a fierce attack by villagers who killed one of them and injured five others.

According to information gathered by The Tribune, Arvind, son of Brahm Pal Gujjar, had been living in a house which had been owned by his maternal grandfather for the past 40 years. He was in dispute with Vinod Kumar, son of Purohit, of the same village. Last evening, Vinod Kumar allegedly sent for 12 musclemen, who arrived at the house of Arvind and began threatening him and members of his family, including women.

As word spread that some outsiders were misbehaving with women of the village and threatening Arvind, a large number of villagers gathered outside Arvind's house and told the group of men to leave immediately. However, the situation went out of control as the outsiders picked up a quarrel with the villagers, who subsequently attacked them with agricultural implements.

In the attack one of the men, who was later identified as Surinderpal, alias Bablu (30), of Atolapur village was killed on the spot while five others were seriously injured. The villagers took into possession a car and a motorcycle in which the musclemen had arrived in the village, while the others escape from there. The villagers damaged the two vehicles.

A team of personnel from the Baboli police station reached the scene and brought the situation under control. The police sent the injured men to the civil hospital at the district headquarters. They were identified as Jagbinder, Surinderpal, Attar Singh, Ramesh and Rakam.

The police also registered a case against the villagers and the musclemen.The musclemen were booked under sections 34 A, 148, 149, 432 and 452 of the IPC, while the villagers were booked under sections 304, 148, 149, 323 and 327 of the IPC.

Fatehabad, November 21
The Government Railway Police has registered a case of assault and outraging the modesty of a woman against a cop here today.

The incident took place at Tohana railway station yesterday. A case under Sections 323 and 354 of the IPC has been registered against the cop identified as Daya Nand.

Sources said Daya Nand, who was in an inebriated condition, allegedly made some unsavoury remarks and tried to molest a woman, who had come to the platform to board the Ferozepur Delhi passenger train.

When the woman’s husband protested, the cop manhandled with him.

Passengers said they had noted that the cop along with some others was consuming liquor at the platform since afternoon. He had thrown a party to celebrate his promotion.

Irked over the incident, the passengers stopped the train demanding their arrest. Meanwhile, the cops escaped from the scene fearing backlash.

The local police from Tohana led by DSP Chander Singh reached the railway platform and pacified the passengers.

The GRP today booked the cop though no arrest has been made so far. The FIR has been made on the complaint of the woman’s husband, a resident of Kalotha village in Jind district.

Karnal, November 21
Three motorcycle-borne persons looted Rs 5.81 lakh from the Haryana Gramin Bank, Kunjpura, a branch of the PNB, near here, this afternoon.

Armed with country-made pistols, the robbers entered the bank branch and took all three employees and two customers to a corner. While one of them kept them there at gunpoint, the other two took Rs 2.50 lakh from Vinod Dua , officer dealing with cash. Dua was then forced to open the locker and hand over the entire cash.

The robbery was well-planned as it took only 5 minutes for the criminals to complete the operation. Before fleeing towards Uttar Pradesh on a motorcycle the looters locked up all five persons in the strongroom and also took away their mobiles.

By chance a mobile of a customer escaped their attention and the bank employees used it to inform the police and nearby residents.

Manager of the bank Sanjeev Rawal told The Tribune that the robbers, who appeared to be in their early thirties, were casually dressed in trousers and shirts and spoke Punjabi. They were not wearing masks.One of them had a beard while the other two were clean shaven.

Before committing the crime, the looters came to the bank and enquired about the transaction timings on the pretext that someone wanted to withdraw cash and left. After about 15 minutes they looted the bank, he added.

The bank, which opened on March 29 last, has nearly 1,200 customers who are handled by three employees, including the manager.The normal daily transactions range between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh. There was no security guard at the bank and the manager said that negotiations were on with a security agency for appointing a guard.

The SSP, A.S.Chawala, who visited the scene, said a case of robbery had been registered under section 392 of the IPC."We have some vital clues and police parties have been sent to adjoining Uttar Pradesh and other places," he said, adding that all banks had been asked to install CCTV and the Gramin Bank was also in the process of installing the facility. 

Jhajjar, November 21
The Dhakla encounter has stirred up another controversy with Akhil Bharatiya Aadarsh Jat Mahasabha leaders raising a question mark over the magisterial inquiry and demanding a CBI probe into the case with grant of the status of "martyr" to Jasbir Singh who was killed in firing on October 12.

Mahasabha president Pawanjeet Singh alleged that there was inordinate delay in the completion of the inquiry into the case just to give undue benefit to the accused. He demanded that the case should be handed over to the CBI for a fair inquiry; immediate stern action against the accused;compensation of Rs 50 lakh to the family of the deceased; grant of the status of "martyr" to Jasbir; and giving of a government job to a member of the family.

On the other hand, SDM Satyender Duhan, who is probing the case, rejected the allegation of inordinate delay in the inquiry.

"The statements of 13 persons have so far been recorded and vital proof and information regarding the case have been gathered. Besides, videography of the whole investigation process is being carried out to remove any possibility of bias," Duhan said.He maintained that stern action would be taken against anyone found guilty in the probe.

Meanwhile, the police registered a criminal case against 12 unidentified persons on a charge of damaging public and private property yesterday. Residents of Dhakla village, along with representatives of various social and political outfits, had blocked roads and smashed the windowpanes of a roadways bus and a car in front of the mini secretariat here. Jasbir of Dhakla village was killed and two cops sustained bullet injuries in an exchange of fire as criminals opened fire on the police party in Dhakla village on October 12. The police had gone to the village to raid the house of the deceased after receiving a tip-off that a wanted criminal was hiding there. Later, Sombir, brother of Jasbir, alleged that the police picked up Jasbir from their house and shot him dead in the street outside the house. 

Karnal, November 21
In the wake of the recent attack on Dr Sahshi Bhushan Madan by some villagers here, the National Integrated Medical Association (NIMA) today decided not to visit any patient after 9 pm and also not to examine patients in the clinic without prior appointment at night.

In a resolution passed at its meeting here today, the association directed its members to display their mobile numbers at the clinic to facilitate the patients to seek appointment at night.

The Haryana state president of the association, Dr Markanda, said a deputation of the association would meet Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda tomorrow and submit a memorandum seeking implementation of the Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property Act, Punjab, in Haryana also and provision of arms licence on priority to medical practitioners.

Markanda, who was here to express solidarity with the Madan’s family along with the members of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Medical Representative Association, Chemist Association and the Karnal Veopar Mandal, said they were apprehensive of another attack on the doctor’s family and demanded police protection for the family.

Thanking SSP A.S. Chawla for providing security to the family members of Dr Madan, he said the government should ensure safety and security of the doctor in general public interest.

The SSP said all four accused arrested in the case had been sent to a 14-day judicial custody and the fifth accused, who had been hospitalised, would be taken into custody after he was declared fit by the doctors.

Dr Madan, who was attacked by some persons from Gogripur village at his clinic, has been admitted to the PGI, Rohtak, with hairline brain fracture and sub-dural hemorrhage.

Chandigarh, November 21
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today allowed recognised, eligible and affiliated colleges in states of Punjab and Haryana to fill up the vacant B.Ed seats on the basis of merit in the qualifying examinations.

The development is significant as several thousand seats for B.Ed course are currently lying vacant in the two states.

Pronouncing the orders in an open court on a bunch of petitions, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Jasbir Singh allowed the pleas “but only in part and to the extent” that “the colleges, duly recognised by the NCTE and affiliated to the universities in the states of Punjab and Haryana and those who have been included in the list of colleges eligible for admitting students by the university holding the CET, shall be free to fill up the seats that are lying vacant by admitting suitable candidates eligible for such admissions to the B.Ed courses.”

The Bench ruled the “admissions against the excess seats shall be made only on the basis of merit of the candidates in the qualifying examination. In the event of seats being less than the number of candidates seeking admission to any college, the college shall grant admission strictly in accordance with the inter-se merit of the candidates.

The Bench further ruled: “The College shall conclude the admission process and submit a list of candidates admitted by them to the university concerned latest by December 5”.

Making it clear that the “institutions shall not grant any admission to any candidate after December 5 for academic session 2008-09, the Bench asserted: In the event of violation of these directions, the university concerned and NCTE shall initiate proceedings for withdrawal of recognition and for de-affiliating the defaulting college/colleges.

In an attempt to enable the students to cover up the portion they could not study due to late admissions, the Bench said the colleges admitting students against the excess seats pursuant to the order, “shall take steps to ensure that special classes are held by them so that the candidates are in a position to complete 180 working days and other requirements of attendance and practice teaching etc.

“The universities shall not, by reason of this order, relax its academic standard stipulated for the courses in any manner whatsoever. The admissions granted shall not exceed the intake capacity of the colleges. Any default thereof, shall expose the college to risk of de-recognition and withdrawal of affiliation”.

Before parting with the orders, the Bench added: In the totality of circumstances, the unfilled excess seats available with the institutions, could be allowed to be utilised by the institutions by admitting students, who are otherwise eligible as per the NCTE norms.

Chandigarh, November 21
The Punjab and Haryana High Court wants universities, granting affiliation to BEd colleges, to take care of the problem of plenty.

A Division Bench has asked the affiliating universities to “examine and take an appropriate decision regarding mechanism to be adopted for filling up unfilled excess seats in the institutions for the session 2009-10 and onwards” for the future.

Partly allowing the petitions filed by “Association of Education Colleges (self financing) of Haryana” and other petitioners, the Bench of Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Jasbir Singh ruled: “In a country with a population of over one billion, the problems generally arise out of scarcity of resources and infrastructure.

“That is true even in regard to seats available in educational institutions where candidates far exceed the number of vacancies available.

“The present batch of petitions, however, presents a different scenario. The problem here is not of scarcity but one arising out of plenty. There are more seats in different colleges offering Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) courses in the states of Punjab and Haryana, than the candidates seeking admission against the same.

“This situation has arisen entirely due to setting up of a large number of institutions in this region. It is common ground that in the State of Haryana alone there are 456 colleges offering B.Ed course to candidates as against 176 such institutions in the state of Punjab.

“The total number of seats available in these institutions is so large that even when the last candidate who appeared in the Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission is admitted to the course, thousands of seats have remained unfilled”.

Dealing with the matter, the Bench asserted the affiliating universities “shall consider whether the colleges can be allowed to fill up the remaining vacant seats of their own after the admissions through CET had been completed within the time frame stipulated.”

Sirsa, November 21
Journalists, representatives of political parties, educationists and members of social organisations paid rich tributes to Ram Chander Chhatarpati, slain editor of a local evening daily, “Poora Sach”, on his seventh death anniversary here today.

He was allegedly killed by some followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda here on November 21, 2002. Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is among the four accused, who have been facing a trial in a CBI court in connection with Chhatarpati’s murder. The case is now listed for framing of charges for December 12.

Prominent social worker and CPI leader Baldev Bakshi, senior BJP leader and former president of the District Consumer Forum, Rohtak, Jagdish Chopra, chairperson of the journalism and mass communication department of Chaudhary Devi Lal University Virender Singh Chauhan, secretary of the National Union of Journalists Bhupinder Dharmani, president of the district unit of the Haryana Union of Journalists Baljit Singh, senior vice-president of the Haryana Patarkar Sangh Surinder Bhatia, senior journalist Jagan Nath Gautam, noted littérateur of Hindi language Harbhagwan Chawla and leftist leader Jai Chand Saharani paid homage to the slain journalist.

Speakers were unanimous in their views that concerted efforts should be made to set up a suitable memorial for preserving the memory of Ram Chander Chhatarpati. They said pressure would be built on the government to take suitable steps in this direction. Chauhan said the memorial should not only be physical but it should also be metaphysical in way of initiating a yearly lecture or instituting some award after his name. The speakers said the CBI trial in the Chhatarpati murder case should be allowed to reach its logical conclusion.

Chandigarh, November 21
The High Court today made it clear that leniency could not be shown to a delinquent police officer.

Upholding the orders terminating the services of a Gurgaon-based police official booked on the basis of a sting operation aired on a satellite channel, a Division Bench observed in the open court that the public would suffer, if leniency was shown to officers facing serious allegations.

In the petition placed before the Bench of Justice Mehtab Singh Gill and Justice K. Kannan, the official had sought quashing of an order dated June 19 whereby he was ordered to be dismissed from service.

The petitioner had claimed he was posted as in charge of a police post in Mewat district when he was implicated in the case.

The FIR was registered on the basis of a sting operation in which the petitioner had allegedly promised help to two persons for getting their work done. He was also alleged to have stated that lesson would be taught to some others persons.