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Cong ticket: Ball in Sonia’s court
Khap Diktat
Prizes conferred on students
INLD’s list out |
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Nod must for VB to trap govt staff
Underperformance to cost doctors special status
Dabwali Fire Tragedy
Land Release Cases
A marriage truly made in heaven
Former MP hurt in road mishap
Sikhs to decide poll strategy on April 11
HTDC claims it did not violate poll code
Guv, CM mo
246 cases settled in lok adalats
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Cong ticket: Ball in Sonia’s court
Chandigarh, March 29 The Congress, meanwhile, is playing its usual tug-of-war and the scene has now shifted to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s court. Sources said senior leaders of the party had called on her over the past two days to “expose” the musical chairs being played in the ticket distribution at the behest of a certain section within the Congress and being thrust upon them. Though names for six seats have been finalised, the party is yet to arrive at a consensus on the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Gurgaon, Hisar and Sonepat seats. Finance Minister Birender Singh has been pitching for Sonepat right from the start though he has made no formal “application of intent” and found his way through a direct request to the Congress president. The sources said he had not taken too kindly to the attempt by a handful of Congressmen in the state leadership to “monopolise” the ticket distribution. It is learnt that he has not only presented his case to the party high command but has also brought out this fact and the “intentional” attempt being made to shift him to Hisar. Union Minister of State Rao Indrajeet Singh, who has been campaigning in Gurgaon since the day the election was announced, too, turned down the offer of the central election committee to contest from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat. Not only that, the sources said he had met the Congress president to give his feedback on what this exercise in all the four disputed constituencies would achieve for the party. Also, in moving Indrajeet Singh out of Gurgaon, Congress leaders were aiming to “kill two birds with one stone”. Fielding him from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat would have ended the race for the ticket within the Bansi Lal clan. While Minister of State for Forests Kiran Choudhry is lobbying for a seat for her daughter Shruti, Congress MLA and Bansi Lal’s son Ranbir Mahindra is learnt to be canvassing for his son, Anirudh’s candidature. The sources said Choudhry, too, individually had briefed the Congress president about the “rights and the wrongs” as also her take on the proposed shifting. Other leaders, too, are taking turns to give their opinion. The sources said the party had decided to announce candidates of all seats together and not in phases as was initially being deliberated upon. The names, the sources said, would be out in a couple of days after which campaigning would begin in full throttle. |
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Elderly couple garlanded with shoes
Bijendra Ahlawat Tribune News Service
Rohtak, March 29 It is claimed that while the aggrieved parents of the girl have already filed a criminal case against the boy’s family, the parents of the boy of Rithal village were asked to appear before a self-styled panchayat in Barar Khera village to undergo the punishment of being paraded in the village with garlands of shoes if they wanted the girl’s side to withdraw the case from the court. The poor couple is reported to accept the raw punishment instead of court trial. Though more then 24 hours have passed, the police had been waiting for lodging of a formal complaint before taking any action. This is first such incident of such a punishment regarding the dowry death in the region. The accused couple identified as Randhir and his wife Bhagwani, were humiliated in a full public view in Barar Khera village yesterday on the diktats of the khap panchayat, which intervened in the matter related to alleged dowry death, says a report. While residents of the humiliated couple maintained that accused Randhir had taken the initiative of settling the issue through panchayat and then settled down for social punishment of being garlanded with shoes without any inhibitions. As per details, Sukhbir, son of Randhir had been married to Sunita of Barar Khera village in 2006. But she died after sustaining burn injuries on September 23, 2008. Her father in his complaint alleged that she was forced to take extreme step due to incessant harassment for bringing more dowries by her husband and in-laws and later a case was registered under relevant Sections of the Dowry Act. However, after being released on bail, Randhir began his efforts to settle the case through social pressure to avoid the conviction in the court and subsequent jail term for his family members. It is learnt that the boy’s parants approached the Kiloi Barah (khap conglomerate of 12 villages falling in Kiloi region) to mediate his Upon which a Kiloi Barah held a meeting with Kinana Barah (representative khap of Barar Khera village) on March 22. The panchayat handed down the punishment to publicly humiliate victim’s father-in-law (Randhir) and mother-in-law by blackening their faces and put a string of mud-laced shoes around their neck and then parading them in Barar Khera, to settle the case forever. “No complaint had been received so far in this connection, said a police official. A police team went to Barar Khera village today to inquire, but no one come forward with any information,” he stated.
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Prizes conferred on students
Rohtak, March 29 Vice-chancellor of Pt BD Sharma University of Health Sciences Dr Sukhbir Singh Sangwan was the chief guest. Principal of Government Dental College, Rohtak, Dr Sanjay Tiwari was guest of honour. Dr Sangwan said India’s culture and value system had been getting eroded fast and western values being taken up by the youths at an undesired
speed, which posed a serious threat to traditional culture and values. Appealing the parents for inculcating moral values and scientific spirit in their children to put them on track to happiness and peace of mind, he said it was duty and obligation of teachers, parents and social activists to work for not only preserving the traditional values, but also take up good things from other cultures for a balanced growth. Stressing upon generating awareness among masses regarding education, Dr Sanjay Tiwari said social evils could not be rooted out without getting the people educated so, focus must be on good and moral education. Highlighting the achievements of the Saini Education Society during the past three years, president Vijay Saini said the society was going to start a Women Degree
College and Cricket Nursery for men and women, separately, in the coming academic
session after successful beginning of Saini BEd College in last session. |
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All names on expected lines
Sushil Manav Tribune News Service
Sirsa, March 29
Former Haryana minister Sampat Singh would contest from Hisar, former minister Ashok Arora from Kurukshetra, former MLA Nafe Singh Rathi from Rohtak and Dabwali MLA Sita Ram would contest from the Sirsa parliamentary constituency. Though there is nothing new in the announcement made by the INLD today as Chautala had already given hints of four candidates during his workers’ meetings at Kurukshetra, Jhajjar, Hisar and Sirsa recently and the nomination of Ajay Singh Chautala was never in doubt, but since Chautala had been maintaining that he would release the list later on, any last-minute change by the party was not ruled out. This had also led people to believe that Chautala might wait for the Congress to come out with its list of candidates first. However, the party came out with its candidates today although suspense still continues regarding the candidates of the ruling Congress.
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Nod must for VB to trap govt staff
Chandigarh, March 29 A directive issued by the Financial Commissioner (Home)-cum-Secretary, Vigilance Department, on April 13, 1972, provides that for conducting a raid on any non-gazetted employee, the Director, state Vigilance Bureau, shall get specific permission from the Deputy Commissioner of the district concerned. Likewise, for raiding a gazetted officer, specific prior permission from the Vigilance Department shall have to be obtained. A circular of January 24, 1990, mandates that for raiding IPS/IAS officers, the Director, Vigilance Bureau, has to get such specific permission from the Administrative Secretary of the department. While for raiding non-gazetted employees in the District Courts, specific permission of the District and Sessions Judge concerned is required. The circular further mandates that no such officer, whose specific prior permission is required for raiding any employee, shall give “ex-post facto” sanction for that purpose. Thus the plans of the state Vigilance Bureau to catch any corrupt employee while taking a bribe cannot be secretly executed by it. If the plan is leaked out, a corrupt employee can successfully avoid being caught. SC Sinha, Director-General, Haryana Vigilance Bureau, in his press conference held at Chandigarh on January 1, while giving the details of the achievements of the bureau, had expressed the opinion that the clause requiring prior permission before conducting a raid on a corrupt employee required to be deleted. The apex court had categorically ruled that once the CBI was given the jurisdiction to investigate an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, it is bound only by the provisions contained in that Act for getting prior sanction for prosecution; it is not bound by any executive instruction for getting prior permission before starting investigation. The apex court has observed that in the case of accusation of bribery, which is supported by direct evidence of acceptance of bribe, the level of the officer is not relevant; no directive can be given to the investigating agency in such cases of bribery, including trap cases, for getting prior sanction from any designated authority. The only exception in cases of accusation of bribery, as observed by the apex court was that for the sake of the independence of the judiciary, no criminal cases can be registered against a judge of the high court or of the Supreme Court unless the Chief Justice of India is consulted and he assents to such action being taken.
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Underperformance to cost doctors special status
Sirsa, March 29 Haryana Financial Secretary and Principal Secretary, Health Department, Anuradha Gupta, who has taken several proactive steps to reform the health services, has now written to all civil surgeons to review the performance of specialists posted in the district hospitals, general hospitals and CHCs working under them on regular basis and send report to the Director General of Health Services on fortnightly basis. The government had recently provided several benefits to specialist doctors to attract them into government services, who were earlier lesser inclined to work in government hospitals due to poor salaries and onerous duties of medico legal reports and postmortems involved. The government had not only decided to exempt specialist doctors from such onerous duties, but had also allowed six special advance increments for post graduate degree holders and three special advance increments for PG diploma holders. After loosing their special status, the specialist doctors would not only lose the advance increments awarded to them but would also have to serve in causalities or in the village dispensaries. The decision to review the performance of specialists has been taken after it was observed that the steps taken by the government to ameliorate health services were not showing the desired results. “An analysis of the performance of specialists posted in the district hospitals has revealed that there are specialists who are under-performing. There are instances where eye surgeons, general surgeons and orthopaedic surgeons have not been conducting any surgeries,” the financial commissioner and principal secretary said in her recent letter, while asking the civil surgeons to review the performance of specialists. Ever since the orders have reached district headquarters, the health authorities at the district-level have started the process of review of specialists’ performance.
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13 years on, panel report awaited
Sushil Manav Tribune News Service
Dabwali (Sirsa), March 29 The families of the Dabwali Fire Tragedy that devoured 442 persons and resulted in burn injuries to many others on December 23, 1995, are now tired of the delays in award of The Punjab and Haryana High Court has recently given a further extension of one month to the Justice TP Garg Commission after it stated before the court that time was needed for the submission of a voluminous report before the court. The commission, which was set up by the government on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court almost six years back, has already submitted its interim report but the actual relief still eludes the families of the victims. “Justice delayed is justice denied” is a famous notion of justice. But, justice seems to have been endlessly delayed in the matter of victims of the Dabwali Fire Tragedy. Fire had broken in a marriage place of Dabwali town on December 23, 1995, when the annual function of DAV Centenary School was being organised there. Congested venue and lack of proper exits led to the untimely death of 442 human lives, including 258 women and 136 children. Hundreds others received burn injuries, who will never come out of the trauma they suffered. To get justice to the victims, the Dabwali Fire Victims Association was set up in 1996, which filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking relief for the victims from the government, the marriage place owners and the school management. Justice TP Commission was set up by the government on January 28, 2003, to determine the quantum of compensation for the victims and also to The commission was given a time of six months to complete its job. The commission was to submit its final report before the high court on or before March 31, but the it has now sought a further extension and has been awarded extension till April 30. The families of the victims hope that their miseries would now be mitigated at last and finally, the commission would submit its report this time.
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INLD for judicial probe
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 29 Welcoming the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the functioning of the government and its land deals, INLD secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala said here that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had lost all moral authority to continue in office. He said the court’s observation that “no uniform yardstick had been followed for excluding the land from acquisition proceedings” had exposed the corrupt and illegal practices being adopted by the government. Chautala said there had been a number of instances when the High Court had taken the government to task. It had recently directed the state government to furnish the details regarding the “pick-and-choose” release method of the notified land by it during the past three years. He asked the government to come out with a White Paper on the cases in which land was released after issuing Sections 4, 6 or 9 of the Land Acquisition Act. The INLD leader alleged that land was being selectively released due to the direct involvement of the government-coloniser lobby ever since the Hooda government had taken over four years ago. About 100 licences had been issued to the builders after issuing land acquisition notices under Sections 4, 6 and 9, he added. Chautala alleged that all top functionaries in the Congress government in general and the Chief Minister’s family in particular, had been working as property grabbers or dealers. The Hooda government had been using the tool of land acquisition to compel farmers to sell off their ancestral land at throwaway prices. Once the hapless farmer had been short-changed into selling his land, the government had been quick to release the same land to new buyer to raise colonies.
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A marriage truly made in heaven
Fatehabad, March 29 Two daughters of Narsi Ram, a resident of Bothan Kalan village, were to be married on Saturday. The baraat of his elder daughter was to come from Phoolan village, while the younger one was to be married in a Dhani. While the other marriage party from Phoolan village arrived in time, there was no news of the baraat from the nearby Dhani. When the wait was growing longer someone informed the family that bridegroom Main Pal was missing since Friday and the marriage-band party and vehicles that had been hired by his family had already returned. The news came as a shock for Narsi Ram’s family and bride, who fell unconscious after hearing the news. The marriage of the elder sister was solemnised in the morning after which both bride’s and Main Pal’s families searched for him at all possible locations, but in vain. In the meantime, the other bridegroom’s (Vinod Kumar) cousin Ramesh Kumar proposed to marry Narsi’s younger daughter. After the bride’s parents agreed to his proposal, he went back to his village and came with his baraat.The marriage of the younger daughter was happily solemnised in the evening.
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Former MP hurt in road mishap
Hisar, March 29 He was touring villages of the Hansi Assembly constituency along with HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi. After one such meeting, he left the meeting venue for the next village as a member of the advance party. As his Safari reached Sorkhi village on the Hisar-Delhi national highway, a child suddenly came in front of the vehicle. Ramji Lal’s driver swerved the vehicle towards the right to save the child. Although the child escaped being run over, the HJC leader’s vehicle collided head-on with a Qualis coming from the opposite direction. Ramji Lal was rushed to a private hospital here for treatment of head and facial injuries. Doctors have described his condition as stable. They said he was completely out of danger. Ramji Lal has been a close friend of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal for more than seven decades. During Bhajan Lal’s heyday, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha. |
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Sikhs to decide poll strategy on April 11
Kurukshetra, March 29 The committee will decide to support or oppose any political party on April 11, HSGPC president Jagdish Singh Jhinda said here today. This decision was taken in a congregation of the Sikhs held here this evening. The meeting was presided over by Jhinda. The HSGPC had invited all political parties to attend this congregation and clarify their stand on the issue of support or opposition on the issue to a separate committee for the Sikhs of Haryana to manage the affairs of its gurdwaras. The Amritsar-based SGPC has been managing the affairs of a number of historical gurdwaras in Haryana and this has been resent by a section of the Sikhs of the state. All parties except the India National Lok Dal and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which controls the SGPC, had sent their representatives to participate in the deliberation. The speakers criticised the Congress and the SAD for dividing the Sikh community on political lines and harming their interests in the state. They made a passionate appeal to all Sikhs of the state to unite as the community has electorate of over 12.5 lakh in Haryana.
— UNI |
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HTDC claims it did not violate poll code
Chandigarh, March 29 Refuting the charge levelled by the INLD and making light of its demand that the Election Commission of India (ECI) should issue a notice to the corporation for violation of the code of conduct, an official spokesman made it clear today that the corporation had taken prior permission of the ECI on March 23.
— UNI |
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Guv, CM mo
urn Capt Kanwaljit’s death
Chandigarh , March 29 In a condolence message issued here today, the Governor and the Chief Minister described Capt Kanwaljit Singh as a great social worker. They both conveyed their heartfelt sympathies to the members of the bereaved family and prayed that the departed soul might rest in peace. |
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246 cases settled in lok adalats
Chandigarh, March 29 While disclosing this, member secretary, Haryana State Legal Services Authority (HALSA), today said these Adalats were held at village Murtjabad (Palwal-Faridabad), Lohari (Panipat), Ishaq (Pehowa-Kurukshetra), Banknaur (Ambala), Alikan (Dabwali-Sirsa) and Kairu (Bhiwani).
He said 408 cases were taken up out of which 246 cases pertaining to civil, petty criminal, pre-litigative, revenue, summary, mutation were settled.
— UNI |
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