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Selection of Nominees
Dera-Sikh Issue
Tarlochan sees politics
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BJP may field Smriti from Gurgaon
Hansi-Butana Channel
Recovery of Farm Loans
Colleges must curb ragging: SC
School lecturers to boycott marking
Varsity to submit Rs 335 cr proposal to UGC
Varsity gets UGC recognition
1,655 students caught copying
Lathicharge Case
Staff shortage hits fire services
Villagers up in arms against HUDA
Power cuts hit metal, plywood units
Man found murdered
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Selection of Nominees
New Delhi, March 10 Party leaders, who met in Delhi last night, decided that senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj and Chautala will sit together and work on the list. The seat sharing will be on five seats for each of the two partners. The state has 10 seats. The BJP has more or less decided to drop its demand for the sixth seat --- Rohtak. Sources in both parties confirmed the development saying cadres of both parties would give information on possible candidates, but without stepping into the domain of the other. Parties would be independent to pick candidates for the seats in their quota. The matter is that now both parties will be involved in discussing each seat to suggest a candidate who possibly can win the seat. The division on seats will also be clear. For instance, the BJP is likely to contest from Ambala, Karnal, Sonepat, Faridabad and Gurgaon. The INLD will contest from Hisar, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Rohtak, Kurukshetra and Sirsa. A reason for the new formula stems form the BJP-Biju Janata Dal break up in Orissa. The BJP high command does not want to give an impression that it was unyielding to its allies. In the last Lok Sabha elections, the two contested elections separately. The BJP demand for the sixth seat has been dropped as the INLD has suggested the name of MS Malik, former DGP, from
Sonepat. |
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Dera-Sikh Issue
Sirsa, March 10 The members, however, left a written request urging the Jathedar to postpone the religious congregation till the parliamentary polls. The district authorities, including Deputy Commissioner SK Goyal and SSP Subhash Yadav, and members of the peace committee today went to the village in the morning to persuade villagers to cancel the congregation. Later, members of the peace committee, accompanied by some villagers, left for Damdama Sahib for a meeting with the head priest. “We were told that the Jathedar is out of station and he was not responding to our calls on his mobile. So we left a written request at his residence in which we have urged him to postpone the congregation till the elections,” said Jagdish Chopra, a member of the peace committee. The authorities, later, issued a press note, which said the congregation had been cancelled by its organisers and members of the peace committee made every effort to convey this message to Jathedar Nandgarh and Dadu, but could not contact them. However, the information has been conveyed to them through other channels, the press note added. Kala Singh, one of the organisers of the congregation, however, contradicted the claims of the authorities and said the programme would be held as per schedule. “Preparations for the congregation are in full swing and the “dewan” of Guru Granth Sahib will be decorated as announced earlier,” Kala Singh said. Meanwhile, Sant Baljit Singh Dadu has asserted that the congregation will be organised as per schedule and he would visit the village on March 11 and March 12. Rubbishing the suggestion of the authorities that the congregation be postponed till the elections, he said the function was announced much before the elections. He, however, said that keeping in view the requests of the authorities, he would not announce any more congregation till the elections were over. The district authorities had earlier passed orders banning the entry of Dadu into the village apprehending threat to the peace of the area in view of the ongoing dera-Sikh imbroglio. |
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Tarlochan sees politics
Sirsa, March 10 Talking to The Tribune, the MP alleged that the decision of the district authorities at Sirsa banning the entry of Sant Baljit Singh Dadu was not only a pre-planned step taken to flare up religious feelings of Sikhs but also a “mischievous attempt” to interfere in the religious matters of the Sikh
community. “In a democratic country, where every one has the right to profess the religion of one’s choice, no authorities can stop Sikhs from organising a congregation in a gurdwara or deter any Sikh from attending a “dewan” in a gurdwara,” Tarlochan Singh maintained. He said the authorities should better concentrate on maintaining law and order of the area and let people of all religions profess their belief within the four walls of their place
of religion. He said the Congress government must remember the “Jaitoo Morcha” by Sikhs during the pre-Independence era, when even Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru went to the support of Sikhs after the English rulers banned their congregation on the pretext that there congregations took political colour. Tarlochan Singh asked the state government to take immediate corrective steps and direct the district authorities to stop interfering in such congregations as the earlier action of banning Dadu’s entry to the district has already sparked off a chain reaction in Punjab, where some Sikh organisations have announced to send jathas to Punjab deras to ensure their closure. |
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BJP may field Smriti from Gurgaon
Faridabad, March 10 The differences cropped up at a high-level meeting of the two parties yesterday in the national capital. INLD supremo and former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister of Himachal Shanta Kumar, who is in-charge of the election affairs in the state, attended the meeting. Regarding Gurgaon, the INLD, before yesterday’s meeting, was adamant that the BJP was in no position to win the seat, as majority of the voters were Meo Muslims. The INLD had demanded that the BJP part with the Gurgaon seat to it. It further suggested that in case the BJP did not give the seat to its share, it had a list of candidates for it and the BJP could field one of them on its own symbol. The BJP’s move to put forward the name of Irani was said to counter the INLD’s stand on
Gurgaon. |
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Hansi-Butana Channel
Chandigarh, March 10 Reacting to the statement, Hooda said it was a fact that out of 3.5 MAF water, which was Haryana’s share in the Ravi-Beas waters, Punjab was allowing only 1.62 MAF and was “misappropriating” the rest. However, for this channel Haryana was going to use 0.8 MAF out of the 1.62 MAF already coming to Haryana and admitted as such by Punjab. Hooda said the Punjab Chief Minister has not been briefed properly by his officers because of which he has made the statement. The water flowing in this channel is already being received by Haryana and this channel is designed only to make distribution of this water within Haryana more equitable so that the parched and arid areas of southern Haryana can be given some relief. He added that instead of making such false statements merely to obstruct such important projects which add to agriculture production and the national food security, Punjab should Hooda emphasised that the government was doing everything in its power to bring out the correct facts before the Supreme Court of India and to expose the falsehood and misinformation being spread by Punjab at the behest of some of the political elements within Haryana. |
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Recovery of Farm Loans
Chandigarh, March 10 While an eight-member committee on the matter has been constituted under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Birender Singh, its first meeting has been fixed for March 12. The committee was constituted by state Governor AR Kidwai, which comprises two other ministers, HS Chatha and Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, besides the All-India Kisan Khet Mazdoor Congress chief and MLA, Shamsher Singh Surjewala. The other three members are the Financial Commissioners of the departments of Revenue, Finance and Cooperation as also the legal remembrances. Constituted for a period of two months, the committee will examine and recommend amendments to do away with provision of laws and regulations, which provide for the auction of land of farmers for recovery of loans. It will look into the possibility of evolving such solutions that will lead to repaying of 50 per cent of the loan amount to banks as ‘Chakota’ for adjustment against loans, and give the remaining to farmers so that they could save their land from being auctioned. The committee has been asked to present its report in two months. At the recently concluded budget session of the Haryana Assembly, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had announced two major incentives for the farmers, which included the decision to completely abolish the black law for the auction of farmers’ lands in lieu of default payment of bank loans. |
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Family to work for saving other Amans
Gurgaon, March 10 Aman’s parents had never imagined that their beloved son, who had gone to study medicine, would meet such a tragic hand. The body of Aman, the victim of ragging scourge, was consigned to flames in Delhi amidst a sizeable gathering this evening. Earlier, his body was brought to his home in Sector 23 here late last night. Aman’s father Prof RP Kachru, mother Priya, uncle Rohit and aunt (bua) Indira Dhar maintained that the boy had been apprising them of the harsh treatment meted out to him and his batchmates in the name of ragging. The family members alleged that according to Aman’s friends, he was beaten up by some of his seniors, who were allegedly in an inebriated condition. “He sustained injuries and was taken to the hospital, but could not be saved,” they asserted. Aman’s father pointed out that some students had even lodged a complaint with the college authorities in this regard, but to no avail. Other family members said the ragging victims had also informed the police and written to the state Health Minister. Aman’s uncle Rohit lamented that despite a Supreme Court ruling of banning ragging, it was going on with impunity in the professional colleges. However, despite having been shattered by the cruel blow of fate, the family of Aman has refused to get bogged down. “We are down, but not out,” said his father RP Kachru. He and other family members, including Aman’s aunt Indira Dhar, asserted that they would launch a campaign to mount pressure on the authorities concerned to effectively ban ragging. “We’ll do this because we do not want that some other student meets the same fate as Aman did,” they maintained. |
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Colleges must curb ragging: SC
Chandigarh, March 10 The apex court gave this definition on a writ petition filed by the Vishwa Jagriti Mission, an organisation floated by spiritual leader Sudhanshuji Maharaj in 1998. It held that ragging could be stopped by creating awareness among students, teachers and parents that ragging was a reprehensible act and by simultaneously sending a clear message that no act of ragging would be tolerated and any act of ragging would not go unnoticed and unpunished. The court said that the failure to prevent ragging should be construed as an act of negligence in maintaining discipline on the part of the management. If an institution failed to curb ragging, the UGC/funding agency might consider stoppage of financial assistance to it. A university might consider disaffiliating a college or institution failing to curb ragging. Ragging, if it became unmanageable or amounted to a cognisable offence, it could be reported to the police. However, the court expected the police to deal with such incidents by keeping in mind that it was dealing with students and not criminals. The action of the police should never be violent and be always guided by a correctional attitude. The court also set up a committee headed by Dr R.K. Raghavan to suggest measures to stop ragging. Accepting some of the recommendations of the committee the court held that the college authorities were responsible for maintaining a ragging-free environment in the college. The court said the punishment had to be exemplary and justifiably harsh. Every incident of ragging where the victim or his parent or the head of institution was not satisfied with the institutional arrangement for action, an FIR must be filed by the institution with the police. Failure on the part of the institution or deliberate delay in lodging the FIR should be construed to be an act of culpable negligence on its part. The apex court also directed its subordinate courts to take up the cases of ragging on priority to send the message that ragging was to be dealt with sternness. |
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School lecturers to boycott marking
Rewari, March 10 State president of the HSLA Anil Yadav said here yesterday that it was disheartening that on the one hand the State Implementation Committee had given them a paltry hike of Rs 50 over teachers while fixing the basic pay of the lecturers and the teachers. And on the other, it had unjustifiably followed the pattern of Delhi PGT teachers, whose qualifications were not compatible with those of school lecturers of the state. He said while school lecturers in the state possessed a master’s degree with 50 or over 50 per cent marks in the subject concerned, even third-division holders having marks much lower than 50 per cent enjoyed eligibility for the post of postgraduate teachers in Delhi. Yadav further complained that the school lecturers in comparison to headmasters of high schools were not getting a fair deal in the matter of departmental promotion to the post of senior secondary school principal. He explained that it was 60:40 ratio between lecturers and headmasters, whereas, the lecturers’ strength stood at 12,086.There were only 2,004 headmasters in the state. He further said the HSLA, therefore, wanted a raise of at least 80:20 ratio as per the numerical strength of the lecturers. As regards their grievances with the
HSEB, Yadav said at present, the HSEB was giving them a fixed emolument of Rs 40 daily for invigilation duties in the Board’s examinations, while the HSLA wanted the TA/ DA to be paid to them in accordance with the government rates. Similarly, the HSEB was paying them Rs 6 as evaluation charges per answersheet, while the HSLA had been demanding evaluation charges of Rs 12 per copy, which was already being given by the Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi, to its examiners. |
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Varsity to submit Rs 335 cr proposal to UGC
Sirsa, March 10 The university has recently received recognition from the UGC under Section 12-B of the UGC Act and has become eligible for its various grants. The expenditure is to be made on building, infrastructure, academics, staff and other heads during the Eleventh Plan, ending 2012. The university authorities are in the process of compiling the demands received from various departments and will forward the proposal to the UGC. Earlier, the university authorities had asked all departments working under it to submit information regarding their needs. In a letter to chairpersons of all departments, Prof Sultan Singh, convener and Director of University Centre of Distance Learning, sought information from all departments. “We have received the information and are in the final stage of its compilation,” he said. Vice-Chancellor KC Bhardwaj said the university proposal included Rs 100 crore for building and infrastructure development, Rs 100 crore for the salaries of new teachers and Rs 50 crore for the salaries of new non-teaching staff, Rs 10 crore for the development of library, Rs 10 crore for new research activities, Rs 10 crore for new extension and outreach activities, Rs 25 crore for ICT development, Rs 25 crore for new equipments and Rs 10 crore for other miscellaneous activities. “A UGC team will soon visit the university for an inspection before a final decision on our proposal is made,” he said. |
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Varsity gets UGC recognition
Sonepat, March 10 A seven-member team of the UGC had visited the university on January 23 and 24 for inspection and had submitted its report to the commission. Chahal said the recognition would help in the development of the university. |
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1,655 students caught copying
Bhiwani, March 10 As many as 1,655 students were caught copying during the examinations and 66 teachers were relieved for dereliction of duty. The exams at 15 centres were cancelled to maintain the sanctity of the examinations. Secretary of the board A. Srinivas said here today that a flying squad had raided various examination centres and registered 181 unfair means cases and relieved 10 teachers for dereliction of duty. He said nearly 11,98,133 students had appeared in the examinations. Around 19,000 observers were also deputed and 385 flying squads were constituted to ensure the smooth conduct of the examinations. The date and time of re-examination of the cancelled exams would be announced later, he added. |
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Lathicharge Case
Karnal, March 10 Justice Surya Kant observed during the hearing on the case that prima facie it appeared that there was an effort to hush up the case. Initially the police showed reluctance even in lodging an FIR even though it was a cognisable offence, the court said in its order observing that the very attempt to scuttle independent investigations into the incident pointed towards the seriousness of the matter. Rakesh Kamboj, who got his leg fractured when the police allegedly resorted to a lathicharge while he was on a “prachar yatra” near the national highway on December 1, 2007, to muster support for the Rohtak rally of HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi to be held the next day, had filed a petition in the high court for seeking justice. He produced evidence and some photographs in support of his contention. Counsel for Kamboj Pankaj Nanhera said the orders were passed by the high court on March 5. Kamboj said he faced the wrath of the government because he had joined the Haryana Janhit Congress founded by former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. |
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Staff shortage hits fire services
Karnal, March 10 The haphazard growth of colonies and jhuggis in the suburbs has created hurdles to the smooth movement of fire engines. Moreover, a shortage of trained and regular staff has hit the fire services in Karnal. The local fire station, with three heavy fire engines and a light vehicle, has around 25 staff members, including fire officers, but only six of them are regular. The remaining staff deployed in the fire station is on contract. The authorities concerned have not taken any action to strengthen the fire services in Karnal and other parts of the district and in spite of the increase in population, the demand of the local fire station for two additional fire engines has not been accepted so far. There has been sharp increase in the number of fire incidents in Karnal. More than 300 fire cases (mostly field fires) were reported from April to June last year but the fire safety infrastructure had not been upgraded accordingly, said a local fire officer, Bal Krishan Sharma. The position in other tehsils of the district regarding fire services is no better. |
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Villagers up in arms against HUDA
Ambala, March 10 The farmers say that HUDA is offering them Rs 165 per square yard, which is very less compared to the collector rate for the area, which is Rs 850 per square yard. The farmers are demanding that they should be paid on the pattern as has been the case in Punjab. HUDA intends to acquire 318 acres to set up Sector 22. The farmers are sitting on a dharna in front of the district headquarters, demanding that the acquisition process should be stopped. They have threatened that if the process was not stopped, they would express their protest in their mandate in the coming elections. |
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Power cuts hit metal, plywood units
Yamunanagar, March 10 Industrialists rued that despite a number of reminders to Haryana Vidyut Parsharan Nigam Limited to ensure at least eight hours of supply, nothing had been done so far. There are nearly 1,000 small and large-scale metal industries in the district besides 450 plywood units. President of the Plywood Association Devinder Chawla said this problem had been causing much losses to the plywood industry. “If we use generators, then the cost of products increases by 25 per cent,” he said. Exporter Sumit Goel said the industry was not able to meet the domestic demand of metal products. |
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Man found murdered
Sonepat, March 10 Brother of the victim Krisha has filed a complaint in this regard against Sushil, Kanha, both resident of Kharkhoda, and others suspecting their involvement in the murder. According to the complaint, Sanjay left his house yesterday to meet his sister in Sonepat. But he did not reach at her residence and was found by some people lying on the roadside, near Lahrada village. The police said investigations were on and a case would be registered after receiving the postmortem report. |
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