Karnal, February 9
Piqued over repeated accusations of SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar that horse and relics used for “shukrana yatra” are not genuine and real, the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (ad hoc) has challenged Makkar to substantiate his contention or quit.

Reacting sharply to the reported statements of Makkar, president of the HSGPC (ad hoc) Jagdish Singh Jhinda went to the extent of saying that he would give up the demand for a separate Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, if Makkar proved his allegations.

“It is a serious matter as it tantamount to showing disrespect to the symbols of gurus and politicising a religious affair and as such we would take the matter to the high court also,” he added.

Saying that the eleven-member committee of the HSGPC (ad hoc) had already taken a decision to move the high court in this regard, Jhinda said all facts were being brought to the notice of all five takhats, namely Akal Takhat, Talwandi Sabo, Anandpur Sahib, Patna Sahib and Hajoor Sahib.

Accusing the SGPC chief of misleading Haryana Sikhs regarding the “shukrana yatra”, he said it was purely a religious activity and the HSGPC would hold the Haryana Sikh Sharbat Khalsa on March 27 to chalk out the future strategy for separate SGPC.

Refuting the allegations that the horse and relics (Shastra and Nishani) were fake, Jhinda said Shranjit Singh, vice-president of the HSGPC, deposited Rs 60,000 with Hajoor Sahib for giving the horse and the money was paid by a cheque of the ICICI bank on January 26 and acceptance of payment was confirmed through receipt no 386.

He said twelve symbols were procured from Jasbir Singh Khalsa of Fatehsingh Wala while two other symbols were provided by Paonta Sahib and if Makkar was so confident that there were “fake”, he must prove it or resign as the SGPC chief.

Dubbing the misinformation campaign launched by the SGPC against a separate HSGPC movement as reprehensible, he expressed confidence that Haryana Sikhs would not be misled and take their struggle to logical ends.

Kaithal, February 9
MP Naveen Jindal paid tributes to Guru Ravidas at a function organised at Ravidas Mandir here today. He said the teachings of Guru Ravidas, who took birth centuries ago, were still relevant.

Jindal said Guru Ravidas made efforts to rid society of social evils like casteism and untouchability and gave the message of universal brotherhood.

Earlier, Jindal offered prayers at the mandir and contributed Rs 51,000 to the Ravidas Sabha.

Chairperson and vice-chairperson of the local municipal council Amel Kolia and Surinder Ranjha, respectively, were also present.

Jindal also participated in another function organised to mark Guru Ravidas jayanti in Pundri.

Fatehabad, February 9
With parliamentary elections round the corner, a sudden increase in the activities of the political wing of Dera Sacha Sauda is giving sleepless nights to probable candidates of various parties in Haryana.

The dera has a sizeable following in almost all parliamentary constituencies of Haryana, particularly areas bordering Punjab. The seven-member state-level political affairs wing of the dera has started holding meetings of dera followers at the block level. A meeting of the dera followers was held today in the Sangat Ghar of the dera here for followers of Bhattu and Fatehabad blocks.

The meeting was attended by a large number of dera followers.

Addressing the dera followers, Jagbir Singh Insan, a member of the seven-member wing, said the forthcoming parliamentary elections were a good opportunity to teach a lesson to political leaders who had been “perpetrating excesses” on the dera and its followers.

“Sever your relations if you are already attached to any political party or political leader.

You will get a message at an appropriate time and the names of the party or the leaders to be supported will be decided after knowing the views of the “sadh sangat (dera followers),” Insan told the dera followers.

He said the dera had been wronged in the past by certain political leaders and they would be taught a lesson during the elections.

He told the dera followers that a state-level meeting of the political wing would be held at Sirsa on February 21 in which a decision about the next course of action would be taken.

Dera Sacha Sauda had hit the headlines for its political activism during the last assembly elections in Punjab, when its followers reportedly supported the Congress en masse.

The move had invited the ire of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) in that state and the dera followers still allege that dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been entangled in the dress controversy at the behest of the ruling party, although the SAD has denied these allegations. 

Sirsa, February 9
In three different cases of delay in furnishing information under the Right to Information Act and also supply of inaccurate and vague information, the State Information Commission has directed state public information officer (SPIO) of Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, RC Sardana to furnish the required information within 10 days.

The commission has also ordered the issuance of a show-cause notice to him as to why a penalty at the rate of Rs 250, subject to a maximum of Rs 25,000, for each day of delay in furnishing information and also delayed, inaccurate and vague information be not imposed against him.

The commission has also advised First Appellate Authority of the university Anu Shukla to discharge her obligations under the RTI Act with more diligence and decide all appeals within the specified time limit.

Raj Kumar Siwatch, Reader, Public Administration, Chaudhary Devi Lal University, had filed all these appeals in the commission under Section 19 (3) of the RTI Act - 2005. All three appeals were separately filed on the same day on November 6, 2008, and were decided by Meenakshi Anand Chaudhary, State Information Commissioner, on January 21, 2009.

Siwatch received the copies of the orders today, which were dispatched by the commission on February 3.

A study of the orders issued by the State Information Commission give an interesting account of how information sought under the RTI is being denied and delayed by the university or sometimes even vague information is being supplied to those seeking information.

For instance, to a question whether political science and public administration were interchangeable as per the UGC regulations, the university replied on November 13, 2008, that the UGC regulations - 2000 were not available with them but the same authorities placed these regulations on record in case of a separate information sought by the same person on February 15, 2007.

To a question as to who was appointed the scrutiniser for checking the eligibility of applicants for the posts of Reader in the Public Administration Department, the SPIO of the university replied that the name was not mentioned on the synopsis, while the university authorities must have actually paid remuneration to the scrutiniser.

Regarding another information sought by Siwatch, the SPIO of the university had replied that the staff members of that period were no longer in service of the university.

The commission observed that the information is supplied on the basis of the records available in the office and not on the basis of the personal knowledge of the officials.

Ironically, Raj Kumar Siwatch, being a Reader in the Public Administration Department of Chaudhary Devi Lal University, has been delivering extension lectures on RTI in various colleges of the area and has also been acting as guide to students doing doctoral work on the Right to Information Act.

Gurgaon, February 9
Haryana Transport and Education Minister Mange Ram Gupta today said action would be taken against those private schools that had increased the fee without informing the government. The action would be taken within a week, he added.

The Education Department is also collecting information about schools, which have hiked the fee in the mid session.

Meanwhile, district education officer (DEO) Jyoti Chaudhry has ordered all private schools to discontinue charging increased fee this session.

The school administrations have been asked not to hike the fee without prior approval by the government. This was stated by the DEO at a meeting with the managements of all private schools here today.

Chaudhry had asked the school authorities to inform the Education Department in a proper format if they wanted to increase the fee.

Vashisht Goel, president of the Millennium Parents Association, said: “We will organise a parents’ meeting here on February 15 where all seniors of the association will get together to solve the issue and around 4,000 parents are expected.”

The schools should have increased the fee in the beginning of the session and not in the middle of the session, when parents could not do anything, he said, adding that the DEO had told them that they could not stop private schools from doing anything as they did not come under them.

Chaudhary said: “We have asked all schools to fill form number 6 if they wanted to increase the fee and submit in our office. They are required to take permission to do so.”

The DEO said as the new pay commission had come into being, schools would obviously take out expenses from students only. She said: “My daughter also studies in school and I am also paying the increased fee, but increasing the fee in the middle of the session is wrong.”

The schools, which were called for the meeting, included Salwaan Public School, DPS (Sushant Lok), DPS (Sector 45), Ajanta Public School, DAV Public School and Blue Bells.

Regarding Shri Ram Public School, which has increased the fee, Chaudhry said: “I visited the school two days ago, therefore they were not called for the meeting as they were asked to retain the old fee.

I will be visiting them in a day or two to check the status and if required action will be taken.”

Hisar, February 9
Haryana Governor AR Kidwai said today that a new international consensus was required to protect the environment and combat the devastating impact of climate change.

Inaugurating a three-day international conference on “Changing environmental trends and sustainable development” at Guru Jambheshwar University of Science of Technology here, he said climatic change was now considered to be a sustainable development issue which impacted a wide range of economic, social and environmental factors. Development in agriculture and industry would not be a problem if we used solar energy. Solar energy was a fact of life and the country must propagate its use.

In the next 30 years, there would be 2 billion more persons on the planet. Forty per cent of the population was already short of fresh water and this would rise to 50 per cent by 2030. In west Asia, the figure would be 90 per cent. One-third of the world’s fish stocks and one quarter of the world’s mammals were threatened with extinction, he added.

Kidwai said low carbon economies could serve as a means to avoid catastrophic climate changes. The global carbon market had become a crucial element of the future international climate regime. The carbon market was the bridge between environment protection and economic concerns. It delivered real reductions in greenhouse gases at the lowest cost, he said.

Vice-chancellor Devinder Dayal Singh Sandhu said integrated environmental and development policy at international level was essential for improvement in living standards without adversely affecting the world’s environmental future. Destruction of various ecosystems, degradation of environment, diminishing water resources and biodiversity along with problems of food security and energy were alarming issues.

Dr Russ Schnell Schnell, deputy director, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA, who was the guest of honour, said his organisation would like to work with students and faculty members of the university on various projects under implementation in the area of environmental sciences.

The technical education quality improvement programme (TEQIP) of World Bank has sponsored the conference. About 250 delegates from India and abroad are taking part in eight different technical sessions spread over the next three days. The Governor also presented Madhu Bhasin Memorial Award to famous environmentalist Sant Balbir Singh of Nirmal Kuteya, Seechewal.

Chandigarh, February 9
The “boxing” between the two factions of the Haryana Olympic Association (HOA) headed by PV Rathee and Abhey Singh Chautala, respectively, continues.

Secretary-general of the Chautala-led HOA MS Malik today described the claim made by Rathee here two days ago that his faction had been recognised by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) as “misleading and contrary to the facts.”

His counterpart in the Rathee-led HOA Narinder Hooda has retaliated with a threat of launching contempt of court proceedings against Malik.

In a statement issued here today, Malik further claimed that the HOA (Chautala) continued to be affiliated to the IOA. He said the Panchkula courts had also turned down the specific request made by Rathee for directions to the IOA for affiliating his body.

Malik said it was “quite unfortunate” that the office-bearers of the “fake and illegal body headed by Rathee” had misinterpreted the legal position as it was a matter of record that the courts had only restrained Chautala and him (Malik) from using the banner and flag of the HOA and attending the meeting of the IOA in Pune on October 10 last and sending the teams to the 34th National Games at Ranchi.

He said the HOA (Chautala) had also challenged the “fake” election of Rathee and the case was listed for hearing on February 20.

Malik also claimed that the IOA had not issued any letter of affiliation to the HOA (Rathee). He said Randhir Singh, secretary-general of the IOA, had only informed SM Hashmi, organising secretary of the 34th National Games, about the order of Anshu Shukla, Civil Judge (Senior Division), Panchkula.

He said it was clear from the above facts that the HOA (Chautala) was a legal body, which continued to be affiliated with the IOA.

Hooda said Malik had told only the half-truth. He said Malik had not mentioned about the endorsement made by Randhir Singh to Rathee, in which, the former described the latter as the president of the HOA.

Hooda said the HOA was already affiliated with the IOA. The dispute was about whom the IOA accepted as the president of the HOA. The endorsement of Randhir Singh’s letter to Hashmi acknowledged Rathee as the president of the HOA.

Hooda further threatened that since Malik had used the banner of the HOA for issuing a “wrong and misleading” statement, he would initiate contempt of court proceedings against him.