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Cabinet reshuffle after poll: Hooda
Dept
withdraws order, to release docs’ salary
Prisoner’s Death
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Boycott poll, ‘Maoists’ ask villagers
Telephone Exchange in Residence
Tanwar banking on Chautala’s kin
Revised Pay
Vote for change, says HJC nominee
Ramesh Chhabra, HJC nominee for the Karnal Lok Sabha seat, addresses a public meeting in Karnal on Saturday; and (right) former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal at the meeting. Tribune photos
Prepare poll rolls alphabetically, DCs told
Jindal’s assets worth Rs 133 crore
Cong has always harmed farmers, says Chautala
Man beaten to death by brothers
HC reprieve for guest teachers
107 more file papers
Man gets life term
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Cabinet reshuffle after poll: Hooda
Chandigarh, April 18 He said only the media was attributing these statements to such ministers, otherwise they had told him that they had not issued any statement harming the interests of the party. When specifically asked about the resignation submitted by Urban Local Bodies Minister AC Chaudhary to AICC president Sonia Gandhi, he said he had not received it and therefore he could not comment on it. Then he added that the Cabinet would be reshuffled after the Lok Sabha elections. Asserting that all Congress leaders would campaign for the party, Hooda said the party would win all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Asked if he would hold a joint election meeting with Finance Minister Birender Singh and Chaudhary to send across a message that the party leadership was united, he said, “I will campaign with all. I am holding my meetings and all are welcome to join these.” Haryana Congress President Phool Chand Mullana and Parliamentary Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala accompanied him. The Congress got a boost in the Sirsa Lok Sabha constituency when prominent HJC leader from there Mani Ram Keharwal quit his party to join the Congress. INLD leader Sharad Batra from Fatehabad also joined the Congress. Fatehabad is part of the Sirsa constituency. |
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Dept withdraws order, to release docs’ salary Rohtak, April 18 According to department sources, the office of the director-general health services in a communication sent through e-mail to all civil surgeons across the state has informed that “It is directed that no further payment of the house rent allowance should be made to the doctors not maintaining the headquarters. However, their salary may be released without any prejudice to the outcome of the disciplinary action to be taken against the erring doctors”. Though the number of erring doctors had not been disclosed, it is reported that about 12 doctors from each of the district had been issued notice in this connection by the respective CMO’s in the past and since the directions of holding salary of the accused doctors had been issued by the office of the commissioner, Health. It is reported that the authorities concerned were pulled up after The Tribune reported the incident of the death of Dr Raj Kumar, an HCMS doctor posted in the district, on April 7. ‘He was suffering from an heart ailment and had sought financial aid of about Rs 8 lakh from the department for treatment.’ But instead of replying to his request, the department held his salary back and this led to his untimely death, claimed a kin of the victim.
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Irate villagers block highway
Bhanu P Lohumi Tribune News Service
Karnal, April 18 The villagers, who are up in arms against the district administration for its “callous and apathetic” attitude, rued that even after nine days of the incident, no arrest had been made and the culprits had not been booked. The villagers alleged that prisoners - Baldev Singh, Subash, Harpal Singh, Jarnail Singh, Gurdev Singh, Anil, Kulwinder Singh, Sahib Singh and Harbhajan, who had deposed against the police and also recorded their statements before the SDM, were being continuously “tortured” by the jail administration to retract their statements. Sukhchain Singh, district president of the Kisan Sabha, and Avtar Singh, prachar mantri, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), stated that the Chief Minister would have immediately rushed to Rohtak and Sonepat had the incident happened there, but in this case not a ripple had been caused during the past 10 days. A case under Section 302 of the IPC was registered against six persons - Deputy Superintendent of Jail Som Nath Bazigar, Numberdar Parmanand Singh, Rajesh and three constables. Gurnam Singh was arrested in a petty offence under the Excise Act on April 6 and asked by the jail staff to do menial works. However, he refused to do the work and instead agreed to pay them Rs 500. However, they wanted the money immediately and Gurnam Singh, who could not pay the money, was allegedly beaten up and forced to clean toilets. And his body bore marks of injury and some prisoners also testified that he was allegedly thrashed by the jail staff. SSP AS Chawla said apprehending trouble they had already diverted traffic through alternative routes. He said the villagers had come to him and demanded action against the erring officials but he explained to them that a case had been registered and a judicial inquiry was also being conducted and till the inquiry and postmortem reports were submitted, no action could be taken. “The villagers were convinced with my explanation and agreed to lift the road blockade after I told them that the inquiry report would be submitted by the end of the month,” he added.
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Boycott poll, ‘Maoists’ ask villagers
Yamunanagar, April 18 The police has registered a case under Sections 124-A, 153-B, 34 IPC, 125 RP Act year 1951. With a view to building confidence among the villagers, the police has increased surveillance of the Chhachhroli area and deployed additional force to arrest the suspected Maoists. Besides it, the SDM, Bilaspur, along with other officials, held meeting with villagers and assured them proper protection. “We have a list of suspected Maoists and also constituted four teams headed by DSP Mukesh Kumar to probe the matter and arrest them. The posters pasted on the walls were carrying name of Shivalik Jansangharsh Manch,” SP Vikas Arora, after holding a meeting with the officials, told The Tribune. Besides it, the villagers have also been informed that one who will provide information about these suspected Maoists involved in the anti-national activities will be awarded with a cash prize of Rs 11,000,” he added.
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Telephone Exchange in Residence Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 18 No one, howsoever mighty he may be, is above law, Justice Surya Kant observed in the open courtroom. The company had moved the high court against the Haryana Urban Planning and Development Authority’s (HUDA) action of sealing residential premises in Karnal from where it was running a telephone exchange. During the course of hearing it transpired that the company, even before purchasing the house, had taken it on lease and had opened a telephone exchange “Bharti Tele Limited”. The State of Haryana and other respondents, on the other hand, had asserted commercial activities could not be allowed from residential premises. As such, HUDA initiated proceedings under the provisions of the relevant Act for resumption of the site, to prevent its future misuse by the owner. After hearing the rival contentions and going through the documents, Justice Surya Kant observed in the open courtroom that the petitioner was a public service provider with network across the country. As such, its management and authorised representatives were expected to know the regulatory laws, wherever applicable, and ensure strict adherence. Justice Kant added the petitioner ought not to have abused the residential premises by converting it into a telephone exchange in a manner like a bull in a china shop. Rather, the manner in which the petition was filed, and the pleas taken, was merely to suggest statutory authority like HUDA had no existence before it, and as if the petitioner held a position, which made it immune to state laws. Imposing the costs on the company, Justice Kant summed up the controversy by observing the petitioner firstly acted in an unauthorised manner, then violated the laws and misused its position. It, thereafter, took the courts for a ride.
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Tanwar banking on Chautala’s kin
Sirsa, April 18 Although the Sirsa (reserved) parliamentary constituency is going to witness a multi-cornered contest as the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL), the Bahujan Samaj Party and the CPM have also fielded their candidates from here, the past history of the Sirsa seat reveals that it has always witnessed an almost direct contest between the Congress and the political party headed by former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal before the nineties and Om Prakash Chautala in the past two decades. Though the Haryana Vikas Party, the BJP (when not in coalition with Chautala’s party) and the Left parties have fielded their candidates from here on different occasions, the candidates of these parties have not been able to make much impact on the outcome of the results. What impact HJC candidate Rajinder
Dhanak, BSP candidate Rajesh Vaid or CPM candidate Ram Kumar will make in these elections will be known only after the results, but both Congress nominee Ashok Tanwar and INLD candidate Sita Ram have been projecting this election as a direct contest between the two. Though the personal campaign of Tanwar is being manned by his own men, he has been banking heavily on members of the Devi Lal clan and kin of Chautala because of their quality of organising big rallies, a trait inherited from Devi
Lal. If Ranjit Singh, Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Commission and younger brother of Om Prakash
Chautala, has been holding the fort in the Rania, Ellenabad and Kalanwali constituencies, KV Singh, former OSD to the Chief Minister and cousin of
Chautala, is taking on the INLD in Dabwali. Ravi Chautala, son of INLD supremo’s estranged brother Partap Singh
Chautala, has also been campaigning for Tanwar in Dabwali. Interestingly, KV Singh and Ravi Chautala do not see eye to eye and both are claimants for the ticket for the Dabwali Assembly seat, where the INLD supremo is also likely to
contest. Ranjit Singh, on the other hand, plans to contest from the Rania assembly seat, where former Haryana minister Jagdish Nehra is also a formidable claimant for the party
ticket. Ranjit Singh and KV Singh, too, are at daggers drawn with each
other. Abhey Singh Chautala has already announced his decision to contest from this seat in the next Assembly elections. If Chautala’s kin have become charioteer for Tanwar’s campaign in Sirsa district, he is banking on Dura Ram, a nephew of Bhajan
Lal, another famous Lal of the Haryana politics and father of HJC (BL) supremo Kuldeep
Bishnoi. While Dura Ram’s capacity to catch Bishnoi votes, a stronghold of Bhajan
Lal, will be on test in these elections, Tanwar will also be banking on him in
Fatehabad, Ratia and Tohana, where Bishnois are in good numbers. |
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Justice Garg seeks HC’s intervention
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 18 Accordingly, he made a request to the Financial Commissioner and the Principal Secretary to the Government of Haryana for the initiation of necessary steps for enabling him to draw the revised pay and allowances. The status report, seeking intervention of Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur for directions to the state for granting the necessary sanction, was today placed before the Bench of Justice JS Khehar and Justice Uma Nath Singh. Justice Garg added that the necessary budgetary allotment had already been made by the state government under the head “TP Garg salary”, but there was no response with regard to the sanction from the state government. Going into the background, he said the state of Haryana was required to pay remuneration admissible to a judge of a high court, in terms of the high court order on the judicial side. Justice Garg said directions were required to be issued urgently so that he could draw the requisite amount of arrears of pay and allowances at the revised rates well before April 30, the date on which the commission’s term expired. The one-man commission, headed by Justice Garg, has submitted its report on what was the worst fire tragedy the country has seen. Thirteen years ago, a devastating fire during an annual school function at a marriage palace at Dabwali town in Sirsa district of Haryana had killed as many as 442 people, many of them children.
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Vote for change, says HJC nominee
Karnal, April 18 A new entrant to electoral politics, Chhabra filed his nomination papers today in the presence of Bhajan Lal with a clarion call to the people to support him to emerge as a “symbol of change”, implying that they must reject both the Congress and the INLD-BJP alliance. Asked why he opted to contest the election, Chhabra, a doctor by profession, said he believed in the dictum that “it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness” and would be happy if he could light happiness in people’s lives by “burning” himself. Chhabra did not share the view that being a Punjabi, he should concentrate on Punjabi votes and said he would seek the support of all sections of society. “As a doctor, I never asked any patient about his state, caste or religion and treated him and I am sure that the people would treat me the same way when I approach them for votes”, he asserted. Son of a teacher and a topper throughout his career, Chhabra was peeved at the betrayal of HJC supremo Bhajan Lal by the Congress and said the people would give a befitting reply to the Congress for dumping Bhajan Lal. Chhabra expressed concern over growing unemployment. Employment to local people would be ensured and a mandatory provision would be made to bind the industry to recruit at least 80 per cent Haryanvis in their projects, he said. |
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Prepare poll rolls alphabetically, DCs told
Yamunanagar, April 18 The instructions came after new guidelines issued by the Election Commission to all chief electoral officers of the state and union territory in this regard. As the Election Commission has been receiving reports from various sources that some times at the time of polling, electors and polling personnel find difficulties in locating the names of electors in the electoral rolls. Besides, other new guidelines, which has been issued to the DCs first time that for each premises and building, where three or more polling stations are located, a team of officials will be appointed for each such premises with the objective of facilitating the voter to locate his or her particular polling station number and the serial number of that voter in that electoral roll in the polling station concerned. The state electoral officer also instructed the DCs that in single and double polling station buildings, no separate team or voter assistance booth would be required. Instead, in such cases, the list of alphabetical electoral roll shall be provided to presiding officer of each polling station for easy identification of electors inside the polling station. Confirming the new guidelines, DC Amit Kumar Aggarwal told The Tribune that the EC had also instructed that the voter assistant team would locate the booth number and serial number of every voter seeking such information from them and inform the voter. The alphabetical list should preferably be printed in English wherever the roll is printed in other language the same can be translated in English if the database is in UNICODE. In case of problem, the alphabetical arrangement of names can make in the same language in which the roll is printed, he added. |
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Jindal’s assets worth Rs 133 crore
Kurukshetra, April 18 Jindal, who filed his nomination papers here yesterday, gave a separate account of his individual assets (Rs 69.73 crore), his assets as karta of the HUF (Rs 59.92 crore), spouse (Rs 3.03 crore) and children (Rs 13 lakh) and paid Rs 424.54 lakh as income tax and Rs 2.41 lakh as wealth tax during 2008-09. Jindal has deposits in banks and other non-banking financial institutions worth Rs 1,259.43 lakh, his wife Shallu Jindal has deposits of Rs 16.71 lakh while his deposits as karta of the HUF stood at Rs 51.67 lakh. Jindal and his family members hold 246 lakh shares and debentures valuing over Rs 100 crore while the value of 13,600 gm gold and diamond jewellery was pegged at Rs 463.63 lakh and silver utensils of the HUF weighing 54.66 kg valued Rs 54.66 lakh. Shallu Jindal possessed 8,836 gm of gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 220.61 lakh while his son Venkatesh has 793 gm of jewellery valuing Rs 12.60 lakh. Jindal’s investments in insurance, saving schemes, the PF and the PPF stood at Rs 602.71 lakh while Shallu Jindal has Rs 1.82 lakh in the PF while the other assets like claims and interests of Jindal, including those of the HUF, amounted Rs 142.87 lakh. |
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Cong has always harmed farmers, says Chautala
Kurukshetra, April 18 Addressing an election rally here, which was organised prior to the filing of nomination papers by Arora, Chautala lashed out at Congress, describing it as a three-edged sword, which had always harmed farmers, labourers and the nation. Terming the Congress as anti-farmers, Chautala said the farmers were not getting the right price for their produce and had to buy agriculture inputs by paying high prices. Due to the “wrong policies” of the Congress government, farmers had been forced to commit suicide, he added. Chautala reiterated that black money lying in Swiss banks would be brought back to India and used for the development of the country if the NDA government came to power. Addressing the rally, Arora promised that he would leave no stone unturned for the welfare and development of Kurukshetra. He appealed voters to support him and assured that he would come up to the people’s expectations. |
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Man beaten to death by brothers
Yamunanagar, April 18 The police has registered a case against them under Sections 302, 34 of the IPC, acting on the complaint of their mother Kailesh Kaur. Giving the details, police sources said last night Amar and Sohan had heated arguments with Gurnam. The duo had also allegedly beaten up Gurnam’s wife Pinki. She was admitted to a private hospital. Despite their mother’s interference, Gurnam was beaten to death by his brothers. |
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HC reprieve for guest teachers
Chandigarh, April 18 The process was to be followed by fresh appointments through a proper selection criteria and process. The recall orders came on a review petition filed by the guest teachers federation against the April 1 orders. It was pointed out that the orders of termination had passed without giving them an opportunity of hearing. Justice Tewari has now fixed May 4 as the next date of hearing. |
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107 more file papers
Chandigarh, April 18 The maximum 28 candidates filed their nomination papers from the Hisar parliamentary constituency, 13 from Kurukshetra, 12 from Gurgaon, 10 each from Sonepat and Karnal, nine from Ambala, seven from Sirsa and six each from Rohtak, Faridabad and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh. Prominent among those who filed their papers today were former minister Krishan Murti Hooda (HJC) - Rohtak; Ashok Arora (INLD) - Kurukshetra; and RD Goyal (BSP) -
Hisar. |
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Man gets life term
Kurukshetra, April 18 In default of the payment of the fine, he shall further undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months. |
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Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said here today that he would reshuffle his Cabinet after the Lok Sabha elections.
Hooda, who was talking to newsmen in the Haryana Congress office here, gave an evasive reply when asked if action would be taken against Cabinet members who had given statements alleging irregularities in the party ticket distribution and had thus harmed the interests of the party before the Lok Sabha elections.
Haryana Janhit Congress nominee from Karnal Ramesh Chhabra will seek vote for change and mobilise the youth to defeat the forces of “status quo”.
