Chandigarh, January 7
No matter what the fora, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal doesn’t spare any opportunity to raise Chandigarh’s status of a shared capital with Haryana and Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is certainly not the one to take this lying down.

This time the occasion was provided by the crucial Chief Ministers’ conference on internal security held in Delhi yesterday. Going as far back as 1966 to the reorganisation of Punjab, Badal brought the issue of sharing Chandigarh to life yet again.

Sources said though he began by making his points on internal security and the threat to Punjab which shares its borders with Pakistan, Badal digressed to the reasons responsible for terrorism. He suggested that issues sensitive to states must be resolved on priority, before molehills became mountains and frustration passed on to the common man and terrorism found roots.

Badal went on to add that the issue of riparian water rights and sharing of Chandigarh had remained unresolved over the years.

The sources added that to this, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who spoke after Badal, chose to politely snub his counterpart in Punjab at the end of his speech. While he made his address at the conference in English, at the end of it, he switched to Hindi to put across his point on Chandigarh.

Addressing Badal as his “elder brother”, Hooda said though this was not the forum to discuss such an issue, he was replying only because the former had chosen to rake up the issue. He maintained that there was absolutely no dispute about Chandigarh and that it collectively belonged to both states, the sources maintained.

Last year, around the same time, minutes before the Punjab government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Airport Authority of India (AAI) for building an international airport terminal at Mohali, Hooda had taken the wind out of their sail by demanding the inclusion of his state as a partner in the project.

Last-minute changes in the MoU listed both Punjab and Haryana as equal partners in the project and Haryana even paid its share for the development of the airport. This move, too, was aimed at underlining Haryana’s equal claim over Chandigarh. 

Hisar, January 7
Government veterinarians went on mass casual leave today seeking pay parity with doctors. They took out processions at all district towns and submitted a memorandum to the respective Deputy Commissioners.

President of the district unit of the Haryana State Veterinary Association Dr RK Rohilla said the parity between veterinarians and doctors in all respects was the essence of recommendations made by the Central Pay Commission.

However, the State Pay Revision Committee headed by the Chief Secretary had diluted the recommendations by clubbing veterinarians with nurses, compounders and Haryana Roadways ticket inspectors, who had all been placed in the same pay scale despite differences in their qualification and the nature of job, he added.

He said the non-practising allowance (NPA) for veterinarians had been reduced to 15 per cent though doctors continued to get 25 per cent as the NPA. He demanded that veterinarians be placed in pay band III as had been recommended by the Centre. Other demands included the assured career progression after putting in four, nine, 13 and 20 years of service.

GURGAON: At an emergency meeting held here today, the district veterinary association condemned and rejected the pay scales given by the Sixth Pay Revision Committee of the state. A delegation of the district body submitted a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda through the local Deputy Commissioner.

Dr Ramesh Kataria, president of the district unit of the association, maintained that the state Pay Revision Committee had not only ignored the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission, but also certain public announcements made by the Chief Minister in this regard.

Dr Kataria disclosed that apart from veterinarians, engineers, lawyers and other technical officers in the state were also dissatisfied with the new pay scales and would soon form a joint federation to press for the fulfilment of their demands.

KURUKSHETRA: Veterinary officers of the district staged a demonstration in front of the Mini-Secretariat here today. They raised slogans and submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Aggarwal. President of the district unit of the veterinary association Vikas Sharma alleged the Pay Revision Committee of the state had recommended upgradation of many scales of different cadres of employees, but veterinary officers’ scale had been kept far behind as per their nature of duties.

KAITHAL: The district veterinary association expressed its strong resentment over the recommendations of the State Pay Revision Committee and handed over a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Amneet P Kumar here today.

Meanwhile, the Haryana School Education Officers (Principals) Association also submitted a memorandum to the DC, which include the removal of anomalies in pay scales by granting pre-revised scale of 12,000-16,500 along with a grade pay of Rs 7,600 to principals.

Reports of veterinarians going on mass casual leave were also received from Rewari and Karnal.

Chandigarh, January 7
The Haryana Government has notified the Haryana Civil Services (Assured Career Progression) Rules, 2008, which have come into force with effect from January 1, 2006.

The objective of these rules is to provide two assured career progression schemes for government servants of the state. The first scheme is the cadre-specific assured career progression scheme for certain cadres/posts prescribing time scales.

The scheme is primarily to remove stagnation in service, in the form of a general assured career progression scheme. This scheme seeks to ensure that all government servants, whose cadres are not covered by any cadre-specific assured career progression scheme, get at least three financial upgradations. It also seeks to ensure that no government servant stagnates without any financial upgradation for more than 10 years.

These rules will apply to persons appointed to the civil services and posts of groups 'A', 'B', 'C' and 'D'. However, these rules will not apply to judicial officers and those employees who are not permanent employees of the state government.

Every employee covered under the general ACP scheme will be eligible for the first ACP grade pay if he has completed 10 years of regular satisfactory service; for the second ACP grade pay after 20 years of regular satisfactory service; and for the third ACP grade pay after 30 years of service. 

Sirsa, January 7
The issue of possession of a prime property belonging to a religious body, Turianand Ashram, has become the bone of contention between two groups, which have been claiming to be its real trustees and caretakers.

Both sides have gone to the verge of coming to blows, but timely intervention by the police saved the situation.

The police has locked up the property and kept the keys in the police station till the issue is resolved.

The ashram was built on prime land situated in C Block of the town on the name of a saint, who migrated from Western Punjab (Pakistan) to Saharanpur and had a good following.

The first ashram was constructed by the followers at Saharanpur and then his followers constructed such ashrams at Haridwar, Jaipur, Talwandi and Sirsa.

When the ashram was built at Sirsa in 1978, Arjun Dass Behl was its main trustee and the land existed in his name.

Behl mortgaged this property to the Haryana Financial Corporation in 1990 for the installation of an industry but later he died in 1992.

The company, started with the help of the HFC loan, also failed and the property was auctioned by the HFC for Rs 43.5 lakh.

Now, the other trustees of the ashram have been alleging that they have purchased the ashram back from the HFC by paying a sum of Rs 43.50 lakh, while Behl’s sons Om Parkash and Sarabjit Behl maintain that the ashram was constructed on their land and hence they were the true owners of the building.

They alleged that they constructed the ashram on their land on the condition that they would remain the caretakers of the ashram for life.

They further maintain that they have paid Rs 20 lakh of the Rs 43.50 lakh paid to the HFC, a claim which is denied by the other party led by Sudershan Bajaj.

Bajaj today maintained that they could not allow the Behls to remain the caretakers of the ashram as they had already committed a breach of trust by mortgaging the trust property for their own use.

The police has been trying to resolve the issue with the help of some prominent persons of the town and has in the meantime locked up the property and kept the keys with it.

Chandigarh, January 7
The Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) has demanded that the government should issue a White Paper on the number of cases in which land under acquisition was released both under the Chautala regime as well as the present Congress government.

Addressing a joint press conference here today, chairman of the media cell of the party Ran Singh Mann and party spokesman Satpal Kaushik said the recent judgement of the Punjab and Haryana High Court restraining the government from releasing land under acquisition to developers and builders was a telling commentary on the state of affairs on how politicians of the ruling party had been minting money by first acquiring land from poor farmers and then releasing it for the benefit of rich builders.

The HJC leaders said since the judgement came on a writ petition filed against the land released by the Chautala government in 2003, it was imperative for the people of the state to know how the two governments had made the release of acquired land a “goldmine” for vested interests.

Mann said the HJC had been suspecting for a long time that the Hooda government was “soft” on former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala. This impression, he said, was created when the state government failed to take any action against him though the Congress had submitted a chargesheet against Chautala, containing allegations of corruption and other misdeeds. The chargesheet was signed by prominent leaders of the Congress. Though the chargesheet was referred to the CBI for investigation, the government had not provided any evidence to the CBI supporting the chargesheet.

He said this impression had been further strengthened when Congress Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dixit conferred the Bharat Gaurav award on Chautala’s elder son, Ajay Singh, on the behalf of an NGO, the Bharat Maitri Parishad, run for former CBI director Joginder Singh. He said it was impossible to believe that both Dixit and Joginder Singh would not know that the CBI had already chargesheeted Ajay Singh in one criminal case and the agency was investigating two more cases against him, including the chargesheet submitted by the Haryana Congress against him and his family.

Mann said the time had come when the judiciary must act against such organisations which were formed for obliging someone.

Kaushik said the state must implement the Sixth Pay Commission report on the pattern of the Centre so that justice could be done to the employees.

Rohtak: The state unit of the BJP has demanded the release of a White Paper on the acquisition of land by the state government in the past three and a half years.

The party has alleged large-scale irregularities in the work and claimed that the real beneficiaries in the process had been influential persons rather than those who land had been acquired. The state BJP general secretary, Capt Abhimanyu, in a statement here on Wednesday alleged that the state government had been misusing the process of land acquisition for the benefit of big land dealers at the cost of land owner farmers.”Property dealers used to purchase at low rates land for which the state government had issued acquisition notices and the same land was subsequently released”,he stated. It was claimed that that land dealers had earned a lot of money through this process while the government and the actual land owners suffered financial losses.

Alleging that it was a multi-crore land scandal in which ruling party leaders and big land dealers were involved, the BJP leader demanded a judicial probe by a former high court judge into what he described as a major land scandal .He asked the state government to issue a White Paper giving details of the land released after the initiation of the land acquisition process at different places in the state after the installation of the present government in the state in March 2005.

He also charged the government with making changes in the master plans of some towns with the intention of extending undue benefits to land dealers at the cost of the state exchequer. 

Yamunanagar, January 7
Intense cold coupled with two non-functional units of the super thermal plant at Panipat has added to the woes of residents of the state. The state is reeling under acute power shortage and residents are facing power cuts of more than 10-14 hours everyday.

To top it, people in urban areas have been facing cuts of more than 10 hours everyday, while the duration of cuts in rural areas is more than 14 hours.

Sources said the situation had worsened due to the less availability of power supply from the central grid. While the power consumption in the state had increased up to 800 lakh units per day, power supply from all sources was only 620 lakh units. Moreover, two units of the thermal plant, including one of the 110 MW and another of the 210 MW, had also become non-functional due to technical faults, they added.

The sources further said the less availability of coal stock in thermal plants could further cause troubles. Both major thermal plants, the super thermal power station, Panipat, and the DCRTPP, Yamunanagar, had been facing coal shortage.

The DCRTPP, Yamunanagar, had been left with a day stock, while the super thermal power station, Panipat, had only stock for three days , the sources added.

Hisar, January 7
Additional District and Sessions Judge, Hisar, SK Kaushik today acquitted four persons, including Sukhwinder Bawa, a former coach of cricketer Yuvraj Singh, in a case relating to the gangrape of a national-level judo player of Hisar, as the victim backed out of her complaint.

The other three are Joga Ram of Jandli village in Fatehabad district, Ram Prashad, also of Jandli village, and Suman, a resident of Bamla village in Bhiwani district.

According to the prosecution, a case was registered against Sukhwinder Singh, alias Bawa, and three others for allegedly abducting and sexually harassing a 17-year-old judo player of the Defence Colony, Hisar, on a compliant filed by the girl’s father on July 20 last year.

He had alleged that his daughter was abducted from Chhotu Ram Chowk in Hisar on July 17 in a car.

The girl was found in Meerut on August 1 from where she was brought to Hisar.

In the case, Sukhwinder Singh was arrested from Chandigarh on August 13 last year.

Interestingly, the medical report had confirmed the gangrape. While Bawa was in jail, Suman had got anticipatory bail and Joga Ram and Ram Prasad had got bail.

Surender, Naresh, Amit and Manjit had been declared proclaimed offenders in the case. — PTI, UNI

Kaithal, January 7
The court of Special Judge, Kaithal, AK Shori, convicted a revenue patwari to four years imprisonment under Sections 7 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, here today. It also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him failing which the convict would have to undergo a further one-year imprisonment.

Ramesh Kumar, a farmer of Sinand in the district, had complained to SVB inspector Virender Singh that revenue patwari Dilbagh Singh had demanded a bribe of Rs 1,000 for issuing a copy of jamabandi of his agriculture land. He needed this document for getting the Kisan credit card.

Following this, a team of the SVB and the then DRO, Mohinder Singh, laid a trap on September 22, 2005. As the farmer handed over the amount to the Patwari, the team reached the spot.

The accused took the plea that the money handed over to him was a government fee for the issuance of documents. The court after hearing arguments of both parties held the patwari guilty.

Chandigarh, January 7
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today impleaded Haryana and Chandigarh as parties in the Red Cross mis-utilisation of funds case. As the matter came up for hearing, Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Hemant Gupta observed: Keeping in view the controversy that arises for consideration, we deem it just and proper to implead chief secretary, state of Haryana, and UT Chandigarh through the home secretary. The petition for CBI probe will now come up for further hearing on January 12.

Additional time declinedThe high court today declined the grant of additional time to Haryana Public Service Commission’s former chairman Dr KC Bangar. He wanted to put forth his arguments in connection with the petition filed by ex-minister Karan Singh Dalal and another petitioner. The petitioners are seeking a CBI probe into the allegations of irregularities, nepotism and favouritism in the selection process, including the written test and the interviews for Haryana civil service (executive branch).

Karnal, January 7
The police today arrested three persons suspected to be involved in the midnight loot at the residence of the principal of Harkrishan Public School here.

The suspects - Jhangir, Sultan and Ajay - all residents of JJ Colony in Buana village under the Narela police station in Delhi, were produced in a local court, which remanded them in police custody till January 15.

The police had earlier arrested Mohammad Ali, a Bangladeshi national and resident of the same colony, in connection with the case and had recovered gold worth Rs 1 lakh.

Cash and valuables worth Rs 5 lakh were looted from the house of Jasbir Singh Gulathi, Director-cum-Principal, Harkishan Public School, on December 13.

About 15 persons, armed with knives and swords, and one of them carrying a country-made pistol,

ransacked the house behind the Shani Temple in Sector 5 at night and decamped with cash, jewellery and other valuables after tying the hands of all inmates and severing all telephone links.

They even took away the mobile phones after completing the operation at leisure in two and a half hours.

The robbers entered the house after breaking a windowpane and tied the servant Raju, his wife Khushboo, two children and a relative, Mohan, and asked for cash and valuables.

The assailants then entered the rooms of Jasbir Singh and his wife Devender Kaur and daughter Supreet, and tied their hands and asked them to hand over the valuables.

Jhajjar, Januray 7
The Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) organised a felicitation function to honour three NSG commandos, Rajesh Kumar of Chhudani village and Varun Dalal and Surender Singh of Chhara village in the district, at Chhara village here today. These commandos were a part of the NSG team, which rescued hundreds of people from militants during the Mumbai attacks.

Former state minister and party vice-president Krishan Murti Hooda said all these brave men had made the entire country proud as they showed commendable patriotism by fighting against terrorists and succeeded to rescue innocent people who were made captive in the Taj Hotel and Nariman house by terrorists.

Sonepat, January 7
AICC secretary and state observer RC Khuntia said here today that the list of booth-level agents (BLA) of the Congress in the state would be finalised by January 15 and booth-level committees be constituted by January 30.

Talking to mediapersons, Khuntia said the Election Commission had sent directive for the appointment of BLAs by November 25, but the state Election Commissioner convened a meeting of the representatives of various political parties on 
November 21.

He said it was not possible to accomplice this task within four days as there were around 12,000 polling booths in the state.