Chandigarh, December 8
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said his reason for sacking Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan, alias Chand Mohamad, was the latter’s long absence from office without informing him, which was affecting his work.

The Chief Minister was talking to mediapersons here today. “I had tried to contact him to know his whereabouts, but he remained incommunicado. He did not attend the cabinet meeting and failed to inform me about his absence. It is perforce that I recommended his sacking from the cabinet. His decision to convert to Islam and remarry is personal,” he said.

Asked on a possible replacement, Hooda said there was no constitutional post of a Deputy Chief Minister. He, however, said the cabinet expansion was on the cards, and asserted that one seat would be reserved to give representation to the Brahmin community.

Talking about the success of the Congress at the hustings in three states, the Chief Minister said the people had reposed faith in the policies and programmes of the United Progressive Alliance government and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Chandigarh, December 8
Haryana is all set to implement the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission for its employees from January 2009. The report of the Pay Revision Committee, set up by the state government, is ready and will be sent to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda this week, paving the way for the implementation of the revised pay scales.

The Chief Minister said the report for the implementation of the revised pay scales had been prepared after the Pay Revision Committee heard out representations from 225 associations/ unions of state government employees. “The four-member committee, headed by chief secretary Dharam Vir, is expected to submit its report to the state government this week. A three-member committee of the state government has also heard out pensioners, and is expected to submit its report shortly,” confirmed Hooda, adding that it was a New Year’s gift from the state government to its employees.

However, the employees will have to wait for a month before they begin drawing pay in their new scales. The finance department will issue a notification next month and ask all government departments to fix the pay of its employees according to the new pay scales and submit this to the department.

With parliamentary elections round the corner, the state government is believed to be in favour of implementing the report at the earliest to appease the state government employees. As per the central pay panel report, the employees will get an average hike of 21 per cent in their salaries.

Haryana had made a provision for Rs 1,550 crore in its budget this year to meet the requirement for the implementation of the pay panel recommendations. However, since the new pay scales will have to be implemented with effect from January 2006, the arrears for the last two years, too, will have to be paid. Thus, the state would require over Rs 5,000 crore to meet this expenditure.

M.L.Tayal, principal secretary to the Chief Minister, said a provision for a supplementary budget would be made to meet this additional requirement of about Rs 3,500 crore. “We have enough funds at our disposal to meet this additional expenditure. However, we will be giving the revised pay scales now. The arrears, to be paid from January 2006, would be paid over a period of two years,” he said.

Kurukshetra, December 8
The global race for materialism and overemphasis on human development to meet selfish ends is not only affecting the mental peace and physical and spiritual health of the people but also leading to fragmentation of the “global human community” and putting pressure on scarce natural resources.

This was the substance of the views expressed by experts from different fields at a three-day international seminar on the “Bhadwadgita and universal brotherhood”, which concluded here today.

Many experts were of the view that the Bhagwadgita was the only answer to the problems confronting human society and called for following the teaching of the holy scripture as a way of life.

“The Bhagwadgita is a guide for peace, tranquillity and uplift of human beings and an effective instrument for nation building and global peace,” the speakers said.

Various issues of vital contemporary importance were discussed in open technical sessions and the relevance of Bhadwadgita in the modern age was highlighted.

Some scholars highlighted the “disastrous traditions and practices of human beings” which had created a scarcity of natural resources, especially water.

Dev Raj Sirohiwal, one of the main speakers, said the “cycle of environmental purification” was under threat due to a hole in the ozone layer and attributed the scanty rainfall, melting of glaciers, a fall in the water table and global warming to this phenomenon.

Veteran journalist Radhey Shyam Sharma said the following the teachings of the Bhagwadgita could create the right frame of mind, which was capable of “creating wonders and destroying anything”.

Rajesh Purohit, curator, Sri Krishna Museum, Kurukshetra, also spoke.

About 200 scholars, including 40 foreigners, presented their papers.

Kurukshetra, December 8
Inaugurating a national seminar on “Kurukshetra: Planning for World Heritage City” on the premises of Kurukshetra University here on the second day of Kurukshetra Utsav Gita Jayanti Samaroh yesterday, Haryana Governor A.R. Kidwai emphasised the need to develop a comprehensive plan to strengthen the case of Kurukshetra as the “world heritage city”.

Kidwai also explained various efforts undertaken by the government to conserve the heritage of Kurukshetra. Key speaker from the UNESCO Shaguna Gehilote elaborated on the provisions and procedures to declare a place as the heritage city by UNESCO.

She said the case of Kurukshetra as heritage city was quite profound and asked for a speedy process of putting the case in front of the authorities concerned.

Rajesh Aggrawal, director, Heritage, Ministry of Railways, shared his experience of promoting the heritage properties with special reference to the Kalka-Shimla rail heritage plan. He also suggested certain guidelines to take up the task of heritage city status for Kurukshetra.

Prof Kiran Joshi from Chandigarh gave an exhaustive description of heritage planning with special reference to similar such projects in Israel and Japan while Dr Savita Raje, president, Indian Heritage Alliance, explained the technical aspects involved in the conservation of tangible and intangible components of heritage giving a particular emphasis on Kurukshetra heritage.

Director of seminar Manjula Chaudhary said the seminar deliberated upon the need for conservation of natural and cultural heritage for the overall benefits of mankind. It was observed during the seminar that such efforts were beneficial not only for the existing societies but for future generations as well.

Realising the need to respond to such challenges, the Haryana government had decided to pursue the case of Kurukshetra to develop it as a heritage city and seek its inclusion in the list of world heritage cities, she added.

Rajesh Purohit, deputy director, Sri Krishna Museum, Sudesh Chaudhary from INTACH (Kurukshetra Chapter), Dr A.R. Chaudhary, Surjeet Umar and Amit Kumar also put forward their views.

Rewari, December 8
Rajpal Bawaria (55), a resident of Garhi Harsaru town in Gurgaon district, died in police custody here last evening.

Additional superintendent of police (ASP) Ved Prakash Godara said Rajpal complained of severe abdominal pain and was taken by the police to the local Civil Hospital where he died.

Contrary to this, Omwati, wife of Rajpal, alleged that her husband had been tortured by the police, following which he died. She demanded justice and relief for herself. Inquest proceedings were started into the matter last evening and were completed by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sukram Pal here today.

The postmortem was conducted at the Civil Hospital here today by a board of three doctors.

Rajpal was picked up by the CIA police of Rewari district from his residence at Garhi Harsaru in the wee hours yesterday and brought here for interrogation in a case of theft.

His alleged complicity in the crime was revealed by gangsters, who reportedly told the police that they had given stolen jewellery to Rajpal for sale.

Karnal, December 8
The Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (ad hoc) today accused the SGPC of terminating the services of its employees unwilling to go to Haryana gurdwaras as “task force”.

President of the HSGPC (ad hoc) Jagdish Singh Jhinda claimed that the SGPC at its meeting held in Chandigarh two days ago terminated 15 employees, including inspectors, on the pretext that their work was not satisfactory. However, the actual reason was that they had refused to join the task force for Haryana gurdwaras.

Talking to mediapersons, he alleged that the SGPC had deployed at least 250 persons at seven historic gurdwaras in Haryana, who were not the employees of the SGPC, to intimidate and terrorise Sikhs in rural areas. There were about 300 task force personnel in these gurdwaras, but only 40 out of them were regular SGPC employees, he added.

Asking the government to verify the antecedents of these “unknown” persons, Jhinda said there presence in rural areas and movement with arms had been creating tension in rural areas. The HSGPC (ad hoc) had already sent a memorandum to the Haryana Governor, the Chief Minister and the union home minister to ask the SGPC to withdraw the task force and ensure that peace and tranquility was not disturbed.

Jhinda reiterated that Nihang Sikhs, Amritdhari Sikhs and ex-servicemen would be recruited for security force being constituted by it. He said the force would ensure the security of gurdwaras and after the formation of a separate SGPC these persons would be absorbed as sewadars in Haryana gurdwaras.

On being questioned about the support of the HSGPC to any political party in the coming Lok Sabha elections, Jhinda said that a conference of Haryana Sikhs would be convened after the announcement of Lok Sabha poll and a collective decision would be taken keeping in view the majority opinion.

President of the NRI wing of the HSGPC Amir Singh and youth wing president Harpreet Singh were also present at the press conference.

Chandigarh, December 8
Failure of the Jhajjar superintendent of police to either reply to a habeas corpus petition, or remain present in the court, has landed him in trouble.

Taking a serious view of his inaction, Justice Ranjit Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the issuance of notice to the officer asking him to explain as to “why proceedings be not initiated against him for not complying with the orders of this court in either filing the reply or appearing in person to explain the reasons”.

As the petition filed by Sunil Kumar against Haryana and other respondents for release of his father and brother came up for hearing, Justice Ranjit Singh observed: On November 27, the case was adjourned as no reply was filed. There had, in fact, been no communication from the respondents.

“On request, the case was adjourned for filing reply. It was further directed that the Jhajjar SP would ensure filing of reply before the adjourned date and in case it is not done, he will be present in person to explain the reasons.

“Today, neither reply has been filed on record, nor Jhajjar SP is present. One ASI Rajinder Singh is present in the court and has brought a copy purported to be the reply of Bahadurgarh DSP.

“Though the police has denied the case set up in the petition, let the reply be filed subject to payment of Rs 5,000 as costs, which would be personally paid by Jhajjar SP”. The case will now come up for further hearing on December 15.

Sirsa, December 8
The Haryana Lekhika Manch, an organisation of women writers in the state, organised a workshop on stories and a function to honour women story writers here yesterday. Women writers from all over the state participated in the function.

Chairperson of the Improvement Trust Sunita Setia was the chief guest while director of the Haryana Sahitya Akademi Desh Nirmohi presided over the function.

Chitra Mudgil, a noted story writer, said women had always been the subject of writings by men writers but they had not been able to portray the real pain and sufferings of women.

Setia said literature was the reflection of society and regretted that western culture had taken precedent over India’s culture in today’s literature. Mudgil released a book, “Ek Sach Yeh Bhi”, written by a local writer, Sheel Kaushik.

Women story writers - Kamal Kapoor from Faridabad, Gian Devi from Karnal, Sudershan Ratnakar from Faridabad, Sheel Kaushik from Sirsa, Kashmir Devi from Rohtak and Manisha Priyamwada from Panchkula - narrated their stories. Harbhagwan Chawla and Nisha Goyal reviewed the stories.

The Mahadevi Kaushik award was given to Chitra Mudgil while Chaudhary Mohar Singh Kamboj award was given to Sudershan Ratnakar.

Dr R.S. Sangwan, Roop Devgan, Sukhchain Singh Bhandari, Raj Kumar Nijat, Harish Jhilmil and several other literary figures were present on the occasion.

Sirsa, December 8
The non-teaching staff of Chaudhary Devi Lal University here today held a demonstration and gave a memorandum of their demands, addressed to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, to the local deputy commissioner.

The non-teaching staff of the university, led by Rajesh Sharma and Mohan Lal, assembled on the campus in the morning and raised slogans against the university authorities.

They alleged that hundreds of non-teaching employees had been working at the university on a contract basis and the contractors exploited these employees and rarely paid their salaries on time.

“We have complained about this to the university authorities a number of times but our complaints have fallen on deaf ears,” alleged Mohan Lal.

Meanwhile, the local wing of the All-India Students Federation also came in support of the striking non-teaching employees.

The non-teaching employees said they would meet Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda during his visit to Sirsa on December 14 and bring their plight to his notice.

They submitted a memorandum to deputy commissioner S.K. Goyal in which they demanded a ban on contractual appointments and regularisation of their services.

They threatened to intensify their strike in case no action was taken on their demands.

Sirsa, December 8
Accusing officials of the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) of conniving with private ginners, hundreds of cotton growers today blocked traffic on the Sirsa-Dabwali National Highway no. 10.

Raising slogans against the CCI and the state government, the farmers parked their vehicles in the middle of the road and did not allow traffic from either side to cross the barrier put up by them.

The farmers alleged there was a nexus between CCI officials and private ginners, who had been fleecing the farmers by purchasing their crops at rates lower than the minimum support price (MSP).

They also said that hundreds of farmers had been arriving in the town with their produce every day only to be told by the CCI to wait for a few days.

Several farmers had been awaiting their turn for four or five days, but the CCI had been adopting a "go-slow" policy on purchases.

"I have been here with my crop since Thursday. The CCI has not been purchasing my crop. The private ginners offer Rs 2,600 to Rs 2,650 per quintal against the MSP of Rs 2,700 per quintal. There is collusion between CCI officials and traders to fleece gullible farmers," alleged Rajesh Koth, a farmer from Arnianwali village in this district, while talking to The Tribune.

"Procurement by the CCI was closed within an hour of its start in the morning today and when we went to private ginners, they offered a much lower price after finding fault with our produce. We have no option but to block the road to air our grievances," added Darshan Singh, a farmer from Jandwala Jatan.

R.C. Bansal, branch manager of the CCI, denied the farmers’ allegations."We are not in a position to buy 4,000-5,000 bales of cotton arriving in the Sirsa market daily these days. We purchased 700 bales on Friday. We do not have arrangements to weigh more than this quantity in a day," said Bansal, when contacted.

He said the problem was expected to continue in the coming days as so far the CCI had been able to procure only around 1.25 lakh quintals of the 13 to 14 lakh quintals produced in this district this year.

He said a sharp fall in the prices of raw cotton due to the global meltdown had caused this problem.

The ginners, he maintained, were not in a position to purchase cotton at the MSP and the CCI did not have the wherewithal to procure all cotton produced in the district.

The standoff was resolved after SDM Harish Bhatia and DSP Dheeraj Setia had a meeting with farmers, CCI officials and market committee officials and asked the market committee to regulate the inflow of the crop.

Fatehabad: Irked over the indifferent attitude of the CCI authorities towards the procurement of cotton, hundreds of farmers blocked traffic near the local bus stand.

The farmers alleged that the CCI officials had been deliberately going slow to help ginners fleece the farmers.

Fatehabad, December 8
Two persons, including a woman, were injured in an explosion in a grocery shop in Bighar village, near here, today.

The shop caught fire after the blast due to the presence of kerosene on the premises.

The woman, Sunder Devi, wife of the shopkeeper, Om Parkash, was shifted to a Hisar hospital seeing her serious condition, while Harvinder Singh, a customer, who was standing in the shop at the time of the explosion, is being treated in the local general hospital.

SP Saurabh Singh said forensic teams had reached the village. Prima facie, it appeared that some substance used to shoo away birds from the fields exploded accidentally. He said it might have been potash.

Sunder Devi was sitting in her shop when Harvinder Singh came to purchase a pen.

Neighbours rushed to rescue the two victims, who were trapped inside the shop, and took them to the local general hospital from where Sunder Devi was shifted to Hisar.