Chandigarh, February 26
The Haryana BJP will send a list of its candidates for the Lok Sabha elections by March 2. This decision was taken at a meeting of the core committee of the party held in Delhi last evening.

The meeting was convened by former Himachal and Uttarakhand Chief Ministers Shanta Kumar and Bhagat Singh Koshiari, who have been made in charge of the elections in the state.

Among others who attended the meeting were Vijay Goel, in charge of the party affairs in Haryana, Harjit Singh Garewal, co-in charge, Haryana BJP chief Atam Prakash Manchanda, MP from Sonepat Kishan Singh Sangwan and several former MPs.

Shanta Kumar and Koshiari told the state leaders to convene a meeting of the state election committee (SEC) to finalise the names of the candidates for six Lok Sabha constituencies likely to be contested by the BJP. These seats are Ambala, Karnal, Sonepat, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Rohtak. They also asked the state unit to send the names by March 2 so that they could be put before the Parliamentary Board at its meeting on March 9.

Manchanda said the SEC was expected to meet on March 2 and the names of the candidates would be sent to the high command on the same day. Another meeting of the core committee had been convened on March 4.

According to party sources, INLD, the alliance partner of the BJP in the state, had said it should be allotted a seat in the Jat heartland of the state to contest. Among the seats, which were expected in the BJP quota, only Sonepat and Rohtak were the two constituencies, which fell in the Jat heartland of the state. From Sonepat, the BJP has its lone sitting MP in the state.

Sources said though a final decision on the sharing of the seats between the two parties was yet to be taken, the state unit had been asked by the central leadership to recommend the candidates for six seats.

Manchanda said the possibility of a change in the candidates who contested these constituencies in 2004 could not be ruled out. However, he said he was not in the race because as party president it would be his responsibility to look after the campaigning.

Narnaund (Hisar), February 26
Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh said here today that “there was no harm” in holding the state Assembly polls alongside the Lok Sabha elections.

Talking to newspersons, he said the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government in Haryana had a good image and if the Assembly polls were to be held together with the parliamentary polls, the party could fare well.

Birender Singh said this issue had been raised in the presence of Congress general secretary and in charge of Haryana Moti Lal Vora by senior leader Shamsher Singh Surjewala and he, too, had backed the idea.

The minister said the Hooda government had performed excellently on all fronts and the general public was appreciative of the good work. The development projects launched in the state during the past four years had made a material difference to the lives of Haryanvis.

Later, addressing a public meeting organised by Kulwant Mor, president of the Hisar district rural unit of the Youth Congress, Birender Singh urged the youth to take interest in politics. He said the Congress was encouraging the youth to contribute towards nation building.

Indian Youth Congress chief Ashok Tanwar said Rahul Gandhi favoured participation of the youth in the party affairs. Due to his efforts, more young faces could figure among party nominees in the coming elections.

He said India was a young nation as per the latest demographic data available and it was necessary for the youth to take part in the nation’s governance and development.

Karnal, February 26
Former minister and chairman of the Haryana Congress Campaign Committee Venod Sharma today ruled out the possibility of contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Karnal, putting at rest all speculations in this regard.

Sharma, who was here in connection with the party’s poll campaign, said he had no plans to enter the fray from Karnal. Exuding confidence that Congress would sweep the Lok Sabha polls in the state, Sharma said the election campaign, which had already been kick-started in five districts of Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Kaithal, Ambala and Kurukshetra, would cover all 90 Assembly constituencies by March 9, with the last meeting in Bhiwani.

He said the INLD-BJP combine was not a force to reckon with while the Haryana Janhit Congress had slipped into oblivion.

HPCC president Phool Chand Mullana said the government was aware of the resentment among some sections of employees following the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission report and a committee had already been set up to remove the anomalies. He said the employees were not unhappy with the hike but were resenting that some other categories had been granted still higher scales. 

Chandigarh, February 26
The hearing on the annual revenue requirement (ARR) of Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) was called off today after Tej Singh Tewatia, member of the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC), took exception to the absence of the managing director of the nigam from the hearing and left the hearing abruptly.

Later, Tewatia said it was an insult to the institution of the regulatory commission. “I had been repeatedly asking the officials of the UHBVN to talk to their managing director and ask him to appear before the commission. I waited for a long time, but when I saw that he was in no mood to come, I felt that it was an insult to the commission and decided to withdraw from the hearing,” he said.

Tewatia said he had been insisting on the presence of the UHBVN managing director as the subsidy component was over 70 per cent of the revenue requirement - Rs 9,178 crore was the subsidy component of the ARR of Rs 14,000 crore.

The budget estimates presented by the government earlier this month had, however, said the power subsidy to be given would be Rs 3,055.61 crore.

He said: “As HERC member, I wanted the UHBVN authorities to clarify how the gap between the revenue and the expenditure would be met if the state government was to give just Rs 3,055.61 crore as subsidy, thus I insisted on the MD’s presence,” he said.

As HERC chairman Bhaskar Chatterjee and another member Rohtas Dahiya sat in silence following Tewatia’s departure, senior INLD leader and former Finance Minister Sampat Singh too called the hearing a farcical exercise and walked out of the hearing.

“Though this was a hearing on the ARR, the presentation given by the UHBVN officials highlighted only the achievements of the distribution company without mentioning a single thing about the revenue requirement. Since there is a huge gap in the revenue and expenditure, the UHBVN simply declined to come up with any solution to fill the gap. It seems that they propose to hike the power tariff, but with elections round the corner, they have not come forward with suggestions to bridge the revenue- expenditure gap,” he told The Tribune.

Interestingly, while the UHBVN officials made their presentation, they said a revised ARR would be presented only after the HPGCL and HVPN had presented their revised ARRs.

“The power generation company and the Vidyut Prasaran Nigam have already presented their ARRs in the past two days saying that revised estimates will be presented again. The entire process of hearing seems to be quite farcical as the hearing is being conducted even as these companies have failed to come up with revised estimates,” said the INLD leader.

However, Chatterjee said the hearing on ARR was justified as they were just to approve the cost components. “Even the budget is presented on estimates, which are revised as the situation changes. We are aware of the objections made by the public and these would be considered once we decide on the revised estimates,” he said.

Chatterjee also said it was not mandatory for the MD of the nigam to be present in the hearing as he had not been asked to be present personally. He had deputed his second in command to be there, he added.

Chandigarh, February 26
The Haryana Pollution Control Board says it finds itself “handicapped” in taking action against industrial units in the state that are causing “odour” pollution.

The pollution control board says its helplessness stems from the fact that there are no standards fixed under the “water and air Acts” to tackle with the problem of odour.

Taking a note of the submission, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that it once and for all wants to find a solution to the problem. It has asked the board to file an additional affidavit before the court, indicating whether any steps and measures can be taken to eliminate, or at least reduce, the offensive smell.

The affidavit has to be submitted by the board to the court before the next date of hearing after examining the matter in totality. The directions by the Bench follow a petition filed in the public interest against the State of Haryana and other respondents. In the petition, directions have been sought to the pollution control board to shut down a rubber manufacturing unit at Salaru village in Karnal district.

The petitioner had contended that the pollution caused by emission was nauseating and unbearable for the people living in the vicinity.

As the matter came up for hearing before the Bench, counsel for the board informed the court that chemical reaction involved in the manufacture of reclaimed rubber was resulting in the generation of hydrogen sulphide. This was causing unpleasant odour. Counsel asserted initiating action against the odour-causing polluting industries could be a difficult task. This was because standards had not been prescribed for determining the extent after which odour could be considered offensive. Responding to the contention, the Bench of Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Hemant Gupta wanted to know the details of the standards for odour emission existing in the foreign lands. But the board was unable to inform the court “whether there were any standards prescribed for determining the extent of odour in other countries”.

Jhajjar, February 26
A youth, accused of several heinous crimes, was killed in an encounter with the police near Bisan village on the Beri-Kalanaur road here today. The youth has been identified as Ajit Singh, a resident of Safipur village and one of the accused in the recent triple murder case in the same village.

According to reports, the Beri police received a tip-off that Ajit Singh was going to Beri village from Rohtak on a bike. A team of the Beri police, led by SHO Krishan Kumar, started chasing him. Ajit Singh reportedly opened fire on the police party and the police returned the fire. Ajit Singh sustained bullet injuries and reportedly died on the spot.

Following a property dispute, three members of a family - Badri Nath (70), his wife Rajo Devi (65) and his granddaughter Sweety (12) - were gunned down and two others seriously injured in Safipur village of Jhajjar district on February 15 last. The Beri police had registered a murder case against Ajit Singh and four other persons in this regard. While the four persons were arrested by the police after the triple murder, Ajit Singh was at large. He was an accused in over 10 criminal cases, including those of murder, attempt to murder and robbery.

Fatehabad, February 26
Senior citizens approached District and Sessions Judge RS Virk with a plethora of problems when the judge visited Baghban, a daycare home for elderly people of the Arya Samaj run by the Bharat Vikas Parishad, here yesterday.

A senior citizen, Mehar Chand Gandhi, complained against a patwari, who was not willing to enter the mutation of his property without taking a bribe whereas Ram Swaroop alleged that officials of the Social Welfare Department had been dilly-dallying the preparation of their old-age identity cards.

A social activist, Suman Lata Siwatch, cited cases of some elderly residents of Gorakhpur village, who were not being looked after by their children after inheriting their property.

Virk, who had visited the old age daycare centre as the president of the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to create awareness about the provisions of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Protection Act 2007, said he would take up the matter with the authorities concerned. Addressing senior citizens, Virk said children had a legal obligation of looking after their parents and that too as per their economic status.

He said parents could get their rights legally enforced on their children through courts free of cost. “Our main concern is the harassment of senior citizens at the hands of their children,” Virk said.

Rohtak, February 26
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath laid the foundation stone of a national-level Footwear Design and Development Institute at IMT in Rohtak today.

Spread over 13 acres, the institute will cost around Rs 100 crore.

Assuring that steps would be made by the ministry to provide reservation to the youth of the state in for admission in the institute, he said this would help in overall growth of business and employment in the region.

The union minister said the institute would be developed as a world-class design institute having latest machinery and electronic tools based on design support. He said the institute would be operational from 2010-11 with a capacity to train 600 to 700 students in various fields related to footwear and leather products manufacturing technologies.

He said the government had decided to set up four footwear design institutes in the country, including Chindwara in Chattisgarh, Kolkata, Chennai and Rohtak. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the state had emerged as a front-runner in matter of speedy growth and development in various sectors in the past five years.

He said the leather industry had already made its presence in Haryana with several national and international-level manufacturers operating from here and the design institute would further help in strengthening the base of the leather industry in the state.

Chandigarh, February 26
The Haryana government today notified amendment of the Haryana School Education Rules, 2003, which provide relaxation for recognition of all those private schools, which had applied for permanent recognition before April 10, 2007.

Haryana Education Minister Mange Ram Gupta said under the new rules, about 2,500 private schools would be benefited. Such schools would not be required to submit No Objection Certificate (NOC) regarding land use to the department for the purpose of recognition or upgrading.

With the amendment of the rules, a long standing demand of the students, parents, and private school managements has been satisfied.

Gupta said to facilitate schools, powers had been delegated to district-level committees headed by the Deputy Commissioners concerned for processing of applications and grant of recognition to the schools included in the list. These committees have been further empowered to decide the stage up to which a particular school could be recognised in accordance with the availability of the land and buildings vis-à-vis the prescribed norms.

He said the committees had also been empowered to grant relaxation in norms up to 10 per cent. The committees had also been asked to fix the number of students which could be admitted in a class and in whole of the school based on the availability of infrastructure, subject to the condition that minimum 10 sq ft area per student for secondary and senior classes and 9 sq ft area per student for elementary classes was made available.

Rewari, February 26
A large number of persons of the Rewari region have been duped of lakhs of rupees allegedly by a racketeer of Andhra Pradesh in the past few months.

Sources said the racketeer had launched a website in December 2008, which offered to double the depositors’ amount in 100 days by paying them fabulous interest.

Entrapped by such an attractive offer, numerous persons of the region deposited hefty amounts in the racketeer’s account, which he had reportedly opened in a local bank.

It is alleged that the racketeer withdrew the depositors’ amount recently.

When Naresh Kumar of Hansa Ka village, who had reportedly deposited over Rs 2 lakh in the racketeer’s account here, realised that he and many others like him had been cheated he made a complaint, following which the Model Town police here registered a case of cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy in this regard.

ASI Daya Nand, in charge of the economic cell of the Police Department here, is now investigating the matter.

Gurgaon, February 26
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate the Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Supply Project in Kondal village in Palwal district, near here, on March 1.

Sonepat, February 26
In a bribery case, Chief Judicial Magistrate RP Goyal has ordered two police personnel to return Rs 30,000 taken as a bribe along with the period interest at the rate of 9 per cent to the complainant.

He also issued directions that criminal proceedings of the case would continue in the court against the alleged accused.

Arender of Bandh village in Panipat district and class VIII student of local CRZ School used to stay along with his brother Amrender in a rented accommodation. On February 5, 1998, Arender was shot dead and on the complaint of Amrender, the police registered a case of murder against Mukesh of west Ramnagar here and investigation was started by the then SHO, Gulshan Rai, and ASI Rao Ram Kumar.

Later, Amrender’s father reported to the police that Mukesh was innocent. The investigation was handed over to SHO of Mahila police station, Satyavati, who, after investigations, discharged the case against Mukesh on March 23, 1998.

After his release from the judicial custody, Mukesh filed a complaint in the court alleging that he was given mental torture by Gulshan Rai and Rao Ram Kumar and his father gave them Rs 30,000 as bribe for not beating his son in the police custody.

After hearing of the case, the CJM found the police personnel guilty of taking bribe and delivered the judgment yesterday.

Karnal, February 26
The mysterious death of 40-year-old Ashish, a resident of Rajiv Puram here, has caused panic in the town.

Ashish was found dead in his vehicle behind American Institute here this morning. He was the owner and driver of the vehicle.

He was noticed by some drivers, who reported the matter to the police.

The body of Ashish was sent for a post-mortem and a team of experts from the forensic laboratory at Madhuban was called in to assist in the investigations.

The police has registered a complaint under Section 174 of the IPC.

Family members of the deceased said Ashish left the house around 10.00 am yesterday and informed around 8.00 pm that he was going to the airport with some passengers and would not come at night.