Karnal, January 5
The Haryana Federation of Engineers today announced to launch direct action to protest against dilution of the Sixth Pay Commission (SPC) scales and threatened to go on “mass casual leave” or resign en masse to seek “just and equitable” pay scales.

The federation at its general body meeting held here today rejected the pay scales granted to the engineers by the government. They formed a coordination committee to finalise the future course of action. As a mark of protest, the engineers have already started wearing “black badges”.

The coordination committee would meet at Panchkula on January 17 and about 2,200 engineers of the PWD, Irrigation and Public Health and other departments would submit their casual leave applications and resignation letters to the committee before that date for deciding the action plan, secretary of the federation and superintending engineer (planning), Haryana Irrigation Department, SS Kadhiyan said.

“The option to give call for mass casual leave or go in for mass resignation is open but the engineers will not accept the lower and undignified scales at any cost,” he added.

The federation further directed the engineers not to draw the salaries as per the revised pay scales and also rejected the “anomalies committee” constituted by the government, describing it as a futile and unfruitful exercise.

“The very fact that no representative of engineers was included in the committee reflected the biased attitude of the government and the engineers would not submit any representation to any committee below the level of the ministerial committee,” the federation resolved.

It also demanded assured career promotions (ACPs) to assistant engineers in pay band-III after five, 10 and 15 years, grade pay of Rs 6,600 to executive engineers to be raised to Rs 7,600 after 10 years and placing them in band-IV after 15 years with grade pay of Rs 8,700.

The federation demanded grade pay of Rs 8, 700 to superintending engineers to be raised to Rs 10,000 after five years and described the ACPs to chief engineer after 10 years as a cruel joke as such situation would never arise. It further demanded grade pay of Rs 12,000 to chief engineers after two years and Haryana administrative grade (HAG plus) after five years and apex pay scale for engineer-in-chief.

The members of the federation urged the government to throw open 20 per cent posts of secretaries and fill these from among the officers in grade pay of 10,000 or above through competition.

The federation also wants grant on non-consultancy allowance to all engineers on the pattern of non-practising allowance given to doctors or allow private consultancy to engineers.

Faridabad, January 5
Shopkeepers of Faridabad, Palwal and Mewat districts held a meeting here today. They served an ultimatum on the government to catch the culprits who fired on a local shopkeeper on December 26 by Friday, failing which they would launch an agitation.

About 400 shopkeepers from the three districts took part in the meeting.

A 31-member core committee of the shopkeepers having representatives from the three districts was constituted in the meeting to study the issue and work out details for the proposed agitation in case the police failed to nab the culprits. While Dhanesh Gupta, president, Faridabad Vyapaar Mandal, was made the chairperson of the committee, Lakhan Singla, member, Public Grievances and Redressal Committee, Faridabad, was made its convener.

Singla said the call for launching the agitation would be taken on Friday.

The shopkeepers also met IG (Gurgaon Range) SN. Vashist and expressed their sentiments.

Vijay Mangla, a shop owner, was fired upon by two youths on December 26 while he was returning home with his son. The assailants had escaped on a motorcycle. Three months prior to the incident, brother of Vijay Mangla, too, was fired upon by two persons riding a motorcycle. He has become physically handicapped on account of the permanent injuries incurred in the attack.

The shopkeepers alleged that had the police been alert and taken the firing incident on Mangla's brother seriously, the attack on him could have been avoided. They were also of the firm view that both attacks had an enmity angle, which the police had all the while avoided.

Gurgaon, January 5
City residents have to move from pillar to post to get a FIR registered despite the apex court’s direction of immediately registering the case. Police Commissioner Mohinder Lal has also issued orders for the strict implementation but the cops chose to offer dumb ears to it.

Rakesh Yadav, resident of Sector 21 here, is making rounds of the Civil Lines police station to get a case registered. One Vikrant Kalra in connivance with his acquaintance Vicky had allegedly robbed Yadav of his car.

“I have been taking rounds of the Civil Lines police station for lodging a cheating and forgery case but without any result,” said Rakesh.

He has a car sale purchase business in old DLF. According to Yadav, Kalra approached him on December 10, 2008, for buying a car.

He had received a call from an acquaintance Vicky who requested him to give a try of a Honda city car to Kalra. Yadav alleged that since then both have been missing with the car. He went to the Civil Lines police station on December 16 but the daily dairy was submitted only on December 26.

Yadav claimed that he made a complaint to SHO Civil Lines but till date FIR hasn’t been lodged. Now he plans to send complaint to the Chief Minister and the DGP.

A police official on the condition of anonymity said several police officials here had connections with politicians in the state and The Centre and they don't bother about the Police Commissioner’s orders.

Chandigarh, January 5
Former deputy Chief Minister of Haryana Chander Mohan aka Chand Mohammad has sought an appointment with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

According to sources close to him, Chander Mohan has written to her office for an appointment.

When contacted, Chander Mohan’s spokesperson Deepak Walia confirmed that the Kalka MLA, who is in news for marrying a long-term friend Anuradha Bali aka Fiza after both of them converted to Islam, has sought an appointment with Gandhi.

After Chander Mohan’s second marriage, he was dropped from the Hooda Cabinet on the plea that he had not been attending office.

Walia said Chander Mohan wanted to tell his side of events which led to his dismissal from the Cabinet.

Chander Mohan feels that the basis on which he was dropped from the Cabinet is far from the truth. He claims that he never neglected his official work. During the period, which he is alleged to be “missing”, he had cleared about 200 official files. Some of these files had gone to the Chief Minister also for his final approval.

The Kalka MLA wants to explain to Sonia that the charge against him of neglecting the official work is “unjustified and baseless.” He also wants to explain to her that while his conversion to Islam was his personal matter of faith, he had never indulged in any anti-party activity, even when his father Bhajan Lal and younger brother Kuldeep Bishnoi parted company with the Congress to form their own party - the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL).

He will also assure her of his “unflinching loyalty” to the  Congress.

It is believed that certain influential party leaders want Chander Mohan to meet Sonia at the earliest. These leaders are also believed to have assured Chander Mohan that they would plead with the party high command to induct him back in the Cabinet, even if not as the Deputy Chief Minister.

Chandigarh, January 5
Close on the heels of the state unit of the Congress submitting its list of prospective candidates for Parliament seats, the BJP-INLD alliance, too, have their candidate poll rolls ready. The list prepared by the BJP will be handed over to the BJP state election committee by January 15 while that of the INLD is almost ready.

Though seat sharing between the partners continues to remain a contentious issue, both parties have gone ahead in finalising names to be forwarded to their respective party high commands.

While there is clarity about four seats each on both sides and the candidates likely to be given party tickets, the two seats of Gurgaon and Sonepat are still “disputed”. Chautala has staked claim for Sonepat on the grounds that the BJP’s sitting MP from the seat, Kishan Singh Sanghwan’s “winnability factor” is weak since his son lost “miserably” in the Gohana by-election.

The Gurgaon seat is stuck, too, since the INLD top brass feels that if it cannot have its way in Sonepat due to the BJP’s sitting MP, it can fall back on this seat and field a Meo candidate to keep its Meo support base intact.

Barring these two seats, sources in both parties said most other constituencies were clear. While Ambala, Karnal, Faridabad and Rohtak are likely to go to the BJP, the INLD will get Kurukshetra, Bhiwani-Mahendergarh, Hisar and Sirsa.

Sources in the BJP said it was almost certain that former MP Rattan Lal Kataria would be fielded from Ambala. Capt Abhimanyu is being seen as the best bet for the Rohtak seat by virtue of being placed second in the last parliamentary election as also the by-election. 

For the Karnal seat, former MP ID Swami’s name is being forwarded while sources said president of the BJP state unit Atam Prakash Manchanda is also keen, citing one ticket for a Punjabi as his reason.

In Faridabad, the BJP will field a candidate on the basis of the candidate finalised by the Congress. While Karan Singh Dalal and Haryana minister AC Chaudhary’s name is doing the rounds, the BJP is almost clear it wants its former MP Ram Chander Bainda to contest. However, if the Congress decides to field a Jat leader, the seat could go to a Gujjar and Kishan Pal Gujjar is likely to be the party’s choice.

Balancing the caste equation in giving tickets has made former MP Kailasho Saini a strong contender from the Kurukshetra seat while Ashok Arora, too, can be considered by the INLD. Already touring Bhiwani extensively, Ajay Chautala’s ticket is nearly final from the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh seat. If Chautala is supporting Sushil Indora’s candidature for the Sirsa seat from the INLD, his son Abhey Chautala is pushing BD Dhaliya’s name.

Former finance minister Prof Sampat Singh could be the party’s choice from Hisar while former MP Surinder Barwala, also in fray for the party ticket for Hisar, could be moved to Sonepat if the seat goes to the INLD.

In Gurgaon, BJP’s panel will have BJP’s national secretary Sudha Yadav’s name and the INLD has short listed Rao Ajit Singh from the Yadav community and Mohammad Ilyas from among the Meos.

Gurgaon, January 5
In view of the cold wave conditions and foggy climate in the region, District Magistrate Deepti Umashankar has issued orders changing the starting timings in all schools, government as well as private, in the district till January 14.

These orders have been issued under Section 144 of the CrPC and will be applicable with immediate effect. The schools will now start at 10 am.

As per the orders, all city-based schools in Gurgaon will begin at 10 in the morning. However, their closing timings will remain unchanged.

Anybody found violating these orders will be liable for action under Section 188 of the IPC.

The orders have provided relief to schoolchildren, especially those up to primary level, and also to their parents who were in a fix whether to send theirs wards to school or not in this chilly weather. The starting time in a majority of the schools in Gurgaon is 7.45 am, which means that the child has leave for school latest by 7.15 am every day.

AMBALA: In view of the severe cold wave conditions, the district administration has changed the school timings in the district from 10 am to 2 pm, beginning Tuesday. According to District Education Officer Zila Singh, the timings will remain in effect till further orders.

Yamunanagar, January 5
The All-India Council for Technical Education has organised a 10-day staff development programme for teachers to provide latest update and development in the field of technical education. The programme began today at Ganpati College of Management for girls, Shahpur, near here. The training and lectures aim at taking care of newly inducted lecturers of technical institutions of engineering, MBA, MCA and pharmacy.

While addressing the gathering, Kuldeep S Dhindsa, director-general, JNCDL institutions, Sirsa, highlighted the importance of such programmes. He said the training has been started with a perspective to improve quality of teachers. He also advised the delegates to follow the philosophy of Swami Vivekananda and Guru Gobind Singh.

MK Sehgal, chairman of the institute, stated that faculty members from various technical institutions in the state and surrounding areas have been invited here. “We have been trying our best to move to the next level of excellence and quality improvement of faculty and to provide better training and education to students,” he added.

Ambala, January 5
Passengers can hope to have a “delay-free” travel by the Railways in the region soon. The Ambala division is all set to expand its GPS system to all major routes here.

The division had undertaken the pilot project on the Rajpura-Dhuri stretch in 2006. Once the system was established and proven, it was introduced in other divisions.

Here, however, the traditional system of fog detonators is still in place, except on the Saharanpur-Ludhiana and Rajpura-Dhuri track. On these two tracks, the GPS is already in place.

The GPS, which is a modern geographical information system, is installed on the locomotive for which the route is mapped in advance and fed into it. The system works via a satellite. Though not expensive, it is time consuming.

“A stretch of 100-120 km will take about three months to map,” HK Jaggi, divisional railways manager, said. The Saharanpur-Ludhiana stretch was completed in 2007. The Sarhind-Naggal dam route and the Ambala- Kalka route are next in the line.

The delay, officials inform, is because they are trying to cover the loopholes in the system. For example, at many routes where it has been introduced, it has been observed that at times the GPS skips a signal. So at other routes work progresses only once the problem is resolved.

At present a total of 425 trains run through the division daily. 120 of these are goods train, while 184 are long route trains and 121 passenger trains. At an average, 90 per cent of the time the trains are on time. However, during the winter season efficiency falls to a low of 60 per cent.

Chandigarh, January 5
The Haryana AIDS Control Society will establish two blood component separation units at Hisar and Faridabad during the current financial year as part of its drive to check the spread of AIDS.

A spokesman for the society said here yesterday that the Rohtak PGIMS blood bank would be upgraded as a model blood bank. Besides, two blood banks would be established at Jhajjar and Fatehabad during the year.

He said AIDS, which could be prevented, had assumed alarming dimensions in the state and the society had taken a number of steps to create awakening about AIDS among the masses, particularly the youth. Different modes of information, such as newspapers, radio, television, cable network, hoardings, street plays, posters, pamphlets, booklets, workshops, meetings and functions were being adopted for this purpose. As many as 102 Red Ribbon Clubs in colleges had been strengthened, besides setting up 2,130 such clubs in schools for creating AIDS awareness among the people.

He said a target intervention programme had also been implemented in the state. Under the programme, various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were working in high-risk sections i.e. men having sex with men, female sex workers, drug users, truckers and migrants. These NGOs sought to effect behaviour change in members of the high-risk sections of society by promoting the use of condoms and disposable syringes so that they became less vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.

He said that an Anti-Retroviral Centre (ART) had been set up in the PGIMS, Rohtak, where a CD4 Count machine had been installed. 

Chandigarh, January 5
The Haryana government is focusing on upgrading skills of staff members of the Health Department by imparting them training to enhance maternal and child health and family planning services in the state.

A spokesperson for the Health Department said here yesterday that stress was also being given on induction training to newly recruited medical officers, professional development courses for doctors, refresher training for various categories and financial management training.

He said non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had been involved in facilitating usage of basic health services, community mobilisation and generating awareness about healthcare services. As many as 16 mother-NGOs had been approved by the Centre for Bhiwani, Gurgaon, Panchkula, Sonipat, Yamunanagar, Narnaul, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa, Kurukshetra, Fatehabad, Faridabad, Jind, Kaithal, Karnal and Panipat districts.

Karnal, January 5
The 20th meeting of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Regional Committee (No. V) has recommended that different components of agriculture like horticulture, floriculture and animal husbandry,

including dairying, fisheries, poultry, bee keeping and mushroom farming, be treated on a par with farming by providing these the same facilities and also covering these under the same policy.

The one-day meeting further recommended launching of a network mode participatory research programme to solve the twin problems of waterlogging and soil salinity in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi and named the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute as the nodal agency to lead the programme.

The meeting also recommended a network programme to study heat tolerance of different crops to be initiated in view of recent climatic abrasions.

The meeting recommended the formulation of policies on different aspects of commercial dairying such as credit, housing, feed, marketing, cattle breeding, artificial insemination, cattle clinics and processed milk products.

It stressed the need for regularisation and standardisation of agricultural input services like credit, subsidy, seed, fertilisers, irrigation and equipment for strengthening agriculture in the region.

The meeting underlined the need for e-connectivity among stakeholders, technology empowerment of Krishi Vigyan Kendras and reforms in the agriculture-education system.

About 125 delegates from ICAR institutions, state agricultural universities and various departments participated in the meeting, inaugurated by Dr Mangala Rai, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education and Director-General, ICAR.

Inaugurating the meeting, Dr Rai expressed satisfaction over the action taken on the recommendations of the previous meeting and drew the attention of the participants to the emerging issues like soil-nutrient imbalance, groundwater depletion and public-private partnership to tap national and global markets.

Sirsa, January 5
While hundreds of villagers belonging to the Scheduled Castes have been visiting the authorities with complaints of omission of their names from the below poverty line lists thereby depriving them of the 100 yards plots announced by the state government, there are six villages in the district where there are no takers for free plots.

Thousands of applications have been received by the authorities from the 333-odd villages in the district for the allotment of plots under the Mahatma Gandhi Gramin Basti Yojna.

Committees have been constituted under the village sarpanchs to select the eligible candidates.

The authorities have received 49,474 applications from villagers coming under the Scheduled Caste categories alone from different villages of the district.

The authorities have found only 25,275 applications were correct.

Besides, 30,838 applications were received from the BPL families from castes other than the scheduled castes. But, only 8,267 of these applications were found correct.

Of the 333 villages of this district, as many as 271 villages have their own "shamlat" land for allotment among the poor.

About 14 other villages do have their own "shamlat" land but that is situated at a distance from the village population and hence the authorities will need to transfer this land with villagers, who have their land near the "abadi".

About 34 villages in the district do not have their own land for distribution among the poor.

In the Baragura block of the district, the authorities have received applications from 41 out of the 47 villages, while in six villages there are no applicants for the free plots.

Chhataria, Kamal, Karamgarh, Panjmala, Sawaipur and Chak Bani are the villages, where the authorities have not received applications for the free plots.

The authorities, while confirming the fact, have stated that they will have to find reasons for people not approaching for the free plots.

However, they admitted that the fact is yet to be established whether there was no eligible person in these villages.

Kaithal, January 5
Hundreds of dismissed constables of erstwhile Haryana State Industrial Security Force held a procession here today. They were demanding their reinstatement. Later, the procession culminated at the camp residence of the Deputy Commissioner where a memorandum addressed to the Haryana Governor was handed over to SDM Hawa Singh.

In the memorandum, the dismissed constables have alleged that they had been made victims of politics. They also stated that they were selected through a transparent selection process during the tenure of the previous Chautala government and when they had almost completed their training, they were forced to leave their training centres as the government had repealed the Haryana State Industrial Security Force Act-2003.

The protesters also pointed that when their pleas failed to evoke any positive response from the government, they were forced to protest at Rohtak during which lost some of their colleagues.

They have alleged that though the Chief Minister had promised to consider their case, later the government did not reinstate them. The dismissed jawans have appealed to the Governor to ask the state government to consider their reinstatement as thousands of youth are frustrated due to a bleak future ahead for them.

Bhiwani, January 5
Two persons were killed while eight others sustained injuries in a head-on collision between a Tata Sumo and a truck on the Loharu road, 2 km from here, this morning.

The truck was coming from the Devsar village side. The accident is believed to have been caused due to poor visibility as a result of dense fog.

The driver of the car, identified as Naseeb (25), died on the spot. The other person killed in the accident has been identified as Ram Kishan (50) of Bamla village.

Passersby helped in the rescue operations. Later, the police arrived and the injured were shifted to to the Civil Hospital. The injured included three women.

The police has registered a case against the truck driver, who fled from the spot. 

Panipat, January 5
In order to avenge the insult of having been beaten up in front of his friends, a youth today stabbed his fellow to death in the Model Town locality here.

The incident took place in the afternoon when Manjit, son of Rajkumar, who belongs to Sanghi village in Rohtak district and lives in the local Shanti Nagar, attacked Naresh, son of Prem Singh, a resident of Atwala in the district.

According to the police, a few days ago, Naresh had beaten up Manjit in front of his friends. Since then Manjit was nursing a grudge against him.

Today, Manjit called him up and asked him to meet him at a hotel in Model Town. When Naresh reached there in his car, Manjit, along with his three friends, allegedly pounced upon him and stabbed him in the stomach.

The four fled after committing the crime. Manjit’s friends who were accompanying him have been identified as Jitesh, Mohit and Raju.

Manjit was rushed to a nearby private hospital where doctors declared him dead.

The matter was reported to the police after which a team of officials reached the spot and started investigations.

On a complaint filed by Naresh’s father Prem Singh, the police registered a case against the four.

The body of the victim was handed over to the relatives after conducting a postmortem.

Sonepat, January 5
Two labourers, identified as Naseem and Firoz of Madhya Pradesh, were killed while six others were injured when the roof of an under-construction building of the BSNL in Sector 15 here collapsed late last evening.

A case of negligence has been registered against contractor Veer Bhan Mittal at the local Civil Lines police station.

The labourers were working on the first floor of the under-construction building at about 7 pm when a portion of the roof suddenly collapsed and some of them were buried under the debris.

SDM Amarjeet Singh Maan and DSP Badri Prasad reached the spot after the incident. A JCB machine was pressed into service to remove the debris. The injured were taken to the Civil Hospital.

Naseem, who was injured seriously in the incident, died in the hospital. Two other injured, Firoz and Jahar Lal, were referred to the PGIMS Rohtak, where Firoz reportedly succumbed to his injuries.