New Delhi, March 13
The Bharatiya Janata Party today went by the formula of relying on the “tried and trusted” as it named candidates for five parliamentary seats in Haryana. No attempts have been made to bring in new faces. All the candidates named today have been ex-MPs.

The BJP is in an alliance with the Om Prakash Chuatala-led Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). The INLD is contesting the other five seats in the state.

Today the BJP parliamentary board met in the national capital and cleared the names. The state-level election committee of the party had earlier pruned the list of candidates. The party’s central organisation just cleared the list as sent by the state committee. Sources said for all the five seats, only one name each had been forwarded to the party’s parliamentary board.

For the Karnal seat, the BJP has fielded former Union Minister of State for Home ID Swami. One of the contenders in the fray, Atam Prakash Manchanda , who is also the BJP state unit chief withdrew his name.

In Ambala the party had relied on Rattan Lal Kataria while Kishan Singh Sangwan, the sitting MP in Sonepat has been retained despite much machinations from all sides including moves by INLD to claim the seat. In Faridabad the party has fielded Ram Chander Bainda while Dr Sudha Yadav will be the nominee from Gurgaon.

The BJP announced the names after sifting through the claims of several others. In Ambala Arun Bhan and Dayal Singh, the son and son-in-law, respectively, of former UP Governor Suraj Bhan, were in the race. One of the claimants was Rattan Lal Kataria’s wife. Same was true in Faridabad where the name of Kishan Pal Gujjar and also a local leader was considered by the party, however, Bainda’s experience tipped the scales in his favour.

Sirsa, March 13
Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala today described the Third Front as an amalgamation of persons drawn by their personal greed.

Talking to mediapersons at Sant Nagar village on the second day of his four-day election tour of the Sirsa parliamentary constituency, Chautala said the Third Front had been constituted several times in the past without meeting any success.

He said his party, the Indian National Lok Dal, too, has been a part of the Third Front at one stage but till the leaders joining the front left their personal greed and worked in the interests of the nation, the front was going to meet the same fate in the coming parliamentary elections as in the past.

Chautala said the INLD had become a part of the NDA so that a strong and viable government could be provided to the country.

He said neither the Haryana Janhit Congress nor the Bahujan Samaj Party would have any impact on the results of the parliamentary elections in Haryana and claimed that people would vote for the NDA to oust the Congress.

Earlier, addressing his village meetings, Chautala said he had come to address meetings in his home district as he may not be able to come again once the campaigning picked momentum.

He urged villagers to root out the Congress in the forthcoming polls.

Meanwhile, Rajesh Vaid, the BSP candidate for the Sirsa seat, has also launched his campaign.

Addressing meetings in villages coming under the Kalanwali Assembly seat, Vaid called upon voters to give Mayawati a chance to serve the country.

Talking to The Tribune, he said he had so far addressed meetings in 350 villages and touched all nine Assembly constituencies.

A meeting of the campaign committee of the CPM candidate, Ram Kumar Bahbalpuria, was organised here today under party’s district secretary Raj Kumar Shekhupuria.

Addressing mediapersons, Shekhupuria said the Assembly constituency-level conventions of the party would be held at Kalanwali on March 16, at Sirsa on March 18 and at Dabwali on March 19.

Kurukshetra, March 13
Seven scientists have been selected to receive Goyal Prize for their outstanding contribution in different disciplines of Science.

The names were finalised by the organising committee, Kurukshetra University, and announced by committee chairman and vice-chancellor of the university RP Bajpai here today.

Four scientists selected in the senior category comprised Ashok K Singhvi, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad (applied sciences); G Padmanaban and S Chandrasekaran of IIT Bangalore (life sciences and chemical science, respectively) and M Barma of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai (physical science). They will receive a medal, citation and Rs 1 lakh cash.

Three young scientists selected for Rajib Goyal Prize for Young Scientists are Sandeep Varma, IIT Kanpur (chemistry), Amit Sharma, ICGEB, New Delhi (life sciences); and K Maiti, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai (physics). They will receive a medal, citation and Rs 50,000 each.

Highlighting the work of these scientists, committee co-chairman Prof SP Singh said Singhvi had made significant contribution in the area of quaternary climate and geochronology, radiation effects and dosimetry while Chandrasekaran was a pioneer in the field of organic synthesis. Padmanaban is an internationally acknowledged biochemist having worked in the field of molecular biology and malaria and M Barma has made great contribution in statistical physics and condensed matter physics.

Goyal Prizes were instituted by NRI Ram S Goyal. These prizes, which were started through a trust being run by SP Singh from 1992 to 2000, are administered by Kurukshetra University through an organising committee.

Committee convener Prof D Mukherjee said the prizes would be conferred in an award ceremony shortly and Ram S Goyal was expected to attend the ceremony.

Chandigarh, March 13
Privately managed educational institutions and societies, allocated sites for running schools for senior classes in different sectors of Faridabad, will soon have to shut the gates to the nursery and pre-nursery students.

Taking up a bunch of six petitions filed by the Delhi Public School Society and other petitioners, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked them to file an undertaking within two months before the HUDA estate officer at Faridabad “that they would discontinue pre-nursery and nursery classes from the next academic session i.e. 2009-10”.

The undertaking will clearly state they “would not admit the students in 2009, nor the students would be kept in the nursery class on the pretext that they have been promoted from pre-nursery class”.

HUDA has also been asked to accept the undertaking and pass appropriate directions withdrawing impugned orders proposing to resume the site or premises of the petitioners.

“In case the petitioners failed to file the undertaking, notice of resumption given to them may be taken to its logical end”, the Division Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice Jora Singh ruled.

The petitioners had challenged separate, but identical orders, dated July 5, 2007, passed by the Faridabad estate officer. The Haryana Progressive Schools’ Conference - an association of about 198 unaided privately managed schools in Haryana - was also arrayed as petitioner number two in the petitions.

The estate officer had earlier issued show-cause notices to the petitioners on the ground that the “nursery schools” were ‘illegal’.

The State of Haryana and other respondents had submitted the petitioners could not plead the allotments made for running pre-nursery schools, once the purpose of allotment was specifically mentioned in the letter of allotment “as high/higher secondary/senior secondary school etc”.

It created a restriction on them.

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Kumar asserted: “The specific purpose of allotment has been specified in the letters of allotment i.e. high school, higher secondary school or senior secondary school alone.

“Similar stipulation has been incorporated in the lease deed executed between the petitioners and HUDA.

Therefore, it cannot be concluded that the petitioners could be permitted to use the allotted sites for the purposes of running pre-nursery/nursery classes. We do not find any substance in the claim made by the petitioners that they are running their respective schools for the last 10 to 23 years….”

Karnal, March 13
Hostile attitude of the state government has forced Indira Gandhi Open National University (IGNOU) to close 21 out of 28 centres in Haryana, jeopardising the future of about 15,000 students enrolled in more than 100 courses.

The centres had become virtually defunct after Commissioner (Higher Education) Jyoti Arora shot a letter to IGNOU Director asking him not to engage the faculty of government or government-aided colleges and arrange its own faculty of retired teachers to keep the programmes going.

As 21 centres were functioning from government colleges, directions of the commissioner (higher education) were implemented instantly, resulting in dislocation of teaching work leaving the poor students in lurch.

“Our last session from June-December had gone blank as IGNOU centres in 21 colleges become non-functional after the issuance of letter last year. A number of letters written to the Chief Minister and commissioner (higher education) to sort out the mess had gone unacknowledged, Ashok Sharma, director (IGNOU), Karnal centre, said.

The attitude of the state government was not only hostile but also discriminatory and it did not allow the permission to hold management aptitude test (MAT) for admission to MBA courses in government or aided colleges on February 1. The test had to be conducted at Vivekanand Senior Secondary School, he rued.

On the contrary, NIIT examination was allowed to be held in Government College for Women, Rohtak, on January 18 and it was difficult to gauge that what parameters were being adopted by the government when IGNOU was the largest university set up former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Sharma said.

IGNOU was rendering yeoman’s service in implementing the agenda of the government to bring the dropouts back in main educational stream but unfortunately the attitude of the Haryana government was uncooperative.

The faculty of working colleges and university teachers was being engaged in the states as the classes were held on Sundays and normal teaching work in colleges and universities was not affected at all. It was difficult to understand why the Haryana government was not allowing its teachers to teach in IGNOU centres when it is a voluntary and paid assignment.

To cope up with the situation, IGNOU has been able to arrange faculty of retired teachers for running 10 centres and a meeting would be held on March 16 to finalise the matter.

IGNOU had wide network with 36,822 academic counsellors and about six lakh students are enrolled in it. Besides 2,250 centres in India, IGNOU was running 52 centres in 33 countries, he added.

Meanwhile, the students have sent a letter to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi seeking their intervention in the matter.

Karnal, March 13
The Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), Karnal, has achieved another landmark by registering record production of 5,000 quintals of seeds in all its centres, Dr SA Patil, Director, IARI, New Delhi, disclosed here.

Exhorting farmers to adopt hi-tech and scientific culture, Patil said with a view to providing best quality seeds, the IARI which had been producing PUSA 1121, improved PUSA basmati 1 (PUSA 1460), sankar seed (PRH 10) and PUSA 44 with the help of farmers, had started a major scheme for crop and fish seeds this year.

Talking to mediapersons recently, Patil said India ranked first in the export of basmati rice in the international market and varieties like basmati 1 and PUSA 1121 constituted a major part of the export of basmati which had reached 11.8 lakh tonnes and earning revenue of Rs 4,000 crore in 2007-08, he added.

Replying to a question that whether the ban on export of non-basmati rice should continue, he said if there was surplus production, the ban should be lifted to enable farmers get better price for their crop.

He clarified that even if people were inclined towards cultivation of basmati, it would not affect the cultivation of non-basmati varieties as climate of western UP, Haryana and Punjab was suitable for basmati production as compared to the south, which was more suitable for non-basmati production. Moreover, two-third of the total produce of basmati rice was consumed in the country itself.

Bhiwani, March 13
Army recruitment office (ARO), Charkhi Dadri, will conduct a written examination on March 29 for recruiting soldier (technical), the registration of which will be held from March 16-19.

A spokesman of the ARO said here today that the exam would be conducted for all districts and categories except for Faridabad, Gurgaon and Mewat. Written examination would be conducted before the recruitment rally. Admit cards would be given to the candidates of Bhiwani, Rewari and Mahindragarh districts on March 16; to the candidates of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonepat and Panipat on March 17; to those of Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad, Jind and Kaithal on March 18 and to the candidates of Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Panchkula and Chandigarh on March 19.

He said eligibility for the recruitment was 10+2 (non-medical) and age of the candidates should be between 17 to 23 years and height 170 cm. The written examination would be conducted on March 29 at Janta College, Charkhi Dadri, and the result would be declared on April 11. The date and venue of recruitment rally would be announced during the exam results.

Karnal, March 13
Deputy Commissioner Chander Prakash today issued orders Section 144 of the Cr PC prohibiting carrying of any weapon like fire arms, swords, knives or any other weapon of offence in the district till the elections were over.

This order shall not apply to the police and other public servants on duties and also not on sheathed Kirpans by bona fide followers of Sikh religion.

The prohibitory orders have been issued to ensure free, fair and violence-free elections.

Sonepat, March 13
Representatives of the Chhatra Abhibhawak Sangh staged a demonstration here today in protest against the steep hike in fees of private schools in the district during this admission season.

The sangh along with some student welfare organisations had given a call for Sonepat bandh today. However, there was not much impact of the bandh.

Led by sangh president Vimal Kishor and president of Disha Chhatra Sanghthan Pankaj Tyagi, the representatives marched through the town raising slogans in support of their demand and against admission policy of the managements of the private schools. They also submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner.

Panipat, March 13
Suspicious that his wife was having illicit relations with a tantrik, a man today stabbed her to death and later surrendered before the police.

According to the police, Pala, a resident of Ekta Colony, attacked his wife, Babita, in the early hours of the morning, while she was asleep. After gagging her, he inflicted several knife injuries upon her that resulted in her death.

Babita and Pala had been married for eight years and had three kids. Pala, a native of Kavi village, owned a tyre repair shop in the village but had recently shifted to the city where he had rented an accommodation in Ekta Colony.

The police said after killing his wife, Pala reached the police station and confessed to his crime. Pala told the police that his wife had recently come in contact with a tantrik, Ramesh, a resident of Katala village in Jind district, who assured her that he would get her rid of poverty. Pala stated that despite objections raised by him, Babita started frequently visiting the tantrik who enticed her into an illicit relationship.

He said even as he repeatedly asked Babita not to go to the tantrik, she paid no heed. Outraged by the contempt, Pala today attacked his wife with a knife and killed her.

Meanwhile, Babita’s father Karamvir, who also reached the city after receiving the information, accused Pala of having killed his daughter as she had not brought him dowry, which he had been demanding. The police said a case had been registered against Pala, who had been placed under arrest.

Jhajjar, March 13
The Haryana police has arrested six drunken drivers and challaned many others under its special checking drive against drunken drivers for the safety of passengers. All drivers were under the influence of liquor up to 100 to 200 mg while they were caught at the sobriety check-point here today.

The drive was launched under the supervision of IGP, Rohtak Range, V Kamaraja and SP, Jhajjar, Saurabh Singh. Later, the arrested persons were produced before the area magistrate by the traffic police.

Talking to The Tribune, the IGP said the Rohtak Range police had set up an alco sensor check-point in Bahadurgarh town here recently. The check-point would carry out its operation on every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

He maintained that since drunken driving had been found to be a major cause of road accidents on the National Highway No. 10, the check-point was required here. Moreover, it would also be helpful in easing traffic congestion in the town.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the police department said such type of checkings were also carried out at seven other such sobriety checkpoints in the state in which the traffic police challaned nine drunken drivers at Panipat and Hodal, eight at Surajpur, six at Gurgaon, three at Hisar and one drunken driver at the Karnal check-point.