Faridabad, May 14
Yesterday’s incident, in which a large number of people blocked Delhi-Mathura National Highway at the Bata crossing following the disclosure of the missing of kidneys and eyes from the body of a boy who went missing on April 4, today took a new turn with the police saying that the organs may have been eaten by some animal.

District police chief K K Rao firmly ruled out the possibility of foul play. According to him, Sunil (deceased) may have left the house in a huff and could have been attacked by some wild animals. According to him, the organs are not entirely missing from the body. The post-mortem report also says that there are marks of animal teeth on the organs. He said some portion of neck, abdomen and face have been eaten, he added.

The stand of the police has bemused the people and the relatives of the deceased, who are demanding CBI probe into the matter. Somehow, the version of the police does not seem to convince the people. The moot question is even if the organs were eaten by an animal, what led to the death of the boy. The police chief says that the boy may have been attacked by some animals.

The boy went missing from the Milhar colony here and his body was found yesterday in the forest area surrounding Sarita Vihar near the Apollo hospital in New Delhi. After learning about the death and missing of the organs from the body the relatives and residents of the city blocked the Delhi-Mathura national highway for more than three hours last evening.

They alleged that the police did not act effectively when they registered the report of the missing of the boy.

Sunil’s elder brother had similarly gone missing about three years ago and was yet to be traced.

When asked on the agitation by the people yesterday, he said there was some lapse on the part of the police, as it could not make the relatives understand of the possibility of eating of the organs by an animal in time. When asked to elaborate on his theory of wild animal eating the organs, he said his version was based after studying the entire case and also interaction with the doctors in the AIIMS, who conducted the postmortem.

In a related development, parents of four children, who have allegedly gone missing in the past few months, today met the district police chief and urged him for further investigations. Missing children are Abida from Sector 3, Govinda from A C Nagar, Vivek from Ram Nagar and J K from Ajrounda. All of them are said to be under 12 years.

Chandigarh, May 14
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has expressed dissatisfaction with the way inquiry into “drawl” of sub-soil water in the DLF cyber city was passed on from one authority to another.

Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Hemant Gupta has now asked the Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner (DC), the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and the municipal corporation to “find answers independently” in the matter.

The Bench observed: One of the main issues, and indeed the primary issue, that arise for consideration is whether DLF cyber city, Sector 24, 25 and 25-A, Gurgaon, developed by DLF cyber city development limited, is violating the terms and conditions of environment clearance granted in its favour…

“A complaint with regard to the alleged unauthorised drawl of sub-soil water in the cyber city appears to have been made, which was referred to the DC, Gurgaon. He, in turn, forwarded the same to the commissioner of police, Gurgaon, who obtained a report from the station house officer (SHO) concerned… The net effect is no action was taken against the company, nor any violation detected by the authorities in terms of inspection, if any, made by them.

“We are not satisfied with the kind of inquiry, which the central ground water authority conducted through the DC. It is true the authority could have asked the DC to look into the matter, but we see no reason why it could not itself verify the facts....

“So also, we see no reason why the DC should not have taken up the matter more seriously than simply forwarding it to the commissioner of police, Gurgaon, who appears to have in routine forwarded the matter to the SHO.

The DC could, perhaps, hold an inquiry and verify from the company the total requirement of water and the sources from which the same is being arranged.

“The HUDA could similarly verify whether the company is in any way violating the conditions of environment clearance…. The MC, Gurgaon, can also, in the backdrop, examine whether there is any unauthorised drawl of water. The matter will now come up on July 24, when information on total requirement of the cyber city, the extent of municipal water being received and other issues will be furnished.

Sirsa, May 14
The much awaited interaction of Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Health, Anuradha Gupta, with members of the Mahila Sakshar Samooh of this district through EDUSAT failed to offer the desired results due to the failure of the system at several places and lack of coordination between the Health and the Education departments.

Reports of the failure of the EDUSAT system were received from several villages in the district, while in many others members of the Mahila Sakshar Samooh reached the schools only to find locks on the main gates greeting them.

Mediapersons, who reached Shahpur Begu village, around 10 km from the district headquarters, to cover the programme, found the main gate of the school locked. Meanwhile, some members of the Mahila Sakshar Samooh had also arrived there.

The school headmistress, whom the officials of the Health Department contacted on the phone, expressed ignorance about any such programme.

A teacher finally arrived at 4.45 pm, who broke open the lock as the one who had the keys lived in Sirsa, but the condition of the EDUSAT system inside was so bad that it was not possible to connect it in the remaining time of 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, power went off around 5 and there was no backup in the UPS.

Dr Narender Chaudhary, Civil Surgeon, Sirsa, confirmed that complaints of closure of schools and snags in the EDUSAT system had been found in several villages of the district.

District Education Officer Asha Kiran maintained that the EDUSAT system was out of order in several schools and she had already written about this to the authorities.

She said though it was not her department’s programme and they only provided their systems to the Health Department, she had written to all schools to keep their schools open till 4pm.

Meanwhile, RC Naik, Mass Education Information Officer in the Health Department in the district, said Gupta interacted with women to know health-related problems of villagers and gave tips about safety from some common diseases.

Chandigarh, May 14
College and university teachers are on the warpath. Peeved at the delay in the implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission as per the MHRD notification dated December 31, 2008, the Haryana Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (HFUCTO) has decided to hold a meeting of the executive body on May 18 to decide the future course of action.

On the agenda is boycott of the postgraduate examinations which commence on May 23, dharnas and relay fast to ensure that the Haryana government sits up and takes notice of the teachers’ demands. “The HFUCTO has expressed its displeasure over the inordinate delay in the implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. We will be forced to resort to harsh steps in case the state government does not come out with the notification for the revised pay scales. Our course of action will be chalked out at the meeting of the executive,” HFUCTO president NS Kaushal said.

Stating that the Haryana government’s decision of providing interim relief equivalent to 40 per cent of the arrears was a welcome step, Kaushal added that this decision should have been taken before March 31, 2009, as in case of other state government and university non-teaching employees.

He said the state government had still not addressed the actual demand of the teachers for uniform, simultaneous and in-toto implementation of the MHRD notification. He urged the state government to immediately implement the MHRD recommendations so that the teachers were not forced to suspend teaching.

Rajbir Parashar, general secretary, HFUCTO, alleged that the government was pursuing changes in the system of higher education without taking the teaching fraternity into confidence. He reminded the state government of the HFUCTO convention at Kurukshetra on December 9, 2008, in which the Chief Minister had promised a consultative mechanism with teachers.

Parmesh Kumar, secretary, Kurukshetra University Teachers Associoation (KUTA), said the teachers were not happy over the release of the interim relief. He criticised the bureaucracy for this inordinate delay and not putting the case of the teachers to the state government in right perspective.

Urging the state government to restore the university autonomy in all academic matters, Bhagwan Singh, member, Executive Council, KU, said these were presently being decided by the bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, sources in the Education Department said the demand of the HFUCTO was unjustified since the UGC was still in the process of finalising the guidelines for adopting the notification in toto. Officials added the notification would be adopted as soon as the guidelines were read while stating that the Haryana government, in the interests of the teachers, had already paid interim relief double of what had been sanctioned.

Panipat, May 14
A recent notification by the state government, through which it withdrew relaxation given to researchers of qualifying the National Eligibility Test (NET) for appointment as lecturers in the universities and colleges, has drawn criticism from the scholars in the state.

The state government had earlier given relaxation of the NET to researchers in 2006 and 2008, following the UGC guidelines.

However, the matter was reconsidered by the government and it withdrew the notifications in March. The move irked the research scholars, teaching associates and part-time lecturers of the state, who called the withdrawal to be “great injustice” to them.

The Researchers (MPhil and PhD) Union of Haryana said latest notification issued by the directorate of higher education was against the UGC norms and guidelines. It stated that the matter was being politicised to meet some vested interests, while ignoring the researchers and higher education in the state. It even said criteria laid down by the UGC for appointment of lecturers and other staff in the universities and colleges was being distorted to benefit the politicians.

President of the union Dr Vikram Kharb said this was adversely affecting the academics and research activities in the state and was also demoralising the scholars. All other states in the country have already done away with the NET, while PhD and MPhil were being considered as criteria for eligibility for lectureship, he said.

Dr Kharb said the scholars would be submitting a memorandum to the state government demanding withdrawal of the new notification. The union was quite hopeful that the Chief Minister would take positive steps in favour of higher education and withhold the new notification.

This would enhance the research structure for higher education and would also motivate students to take up research studies and bring about improvements to the field of education, Dr Kharb said.

Rohtak, May 14
Supporters and workers of the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) held a torchlight procession in the town this evening in protest against the alleged irregularities in the polling for the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat on May 7.

The protesters wore black badges and placard to display their anger and resentment over the matter and alleged that their protest so far had not been given the required attention.

They submitted a memorandum to the returning officer of the Rohtak parliamentary seat demanding a re-poll in the entire constituency.

The protesters were led by Krishan Murti Hooda, a former minister and the HJC candidate for this seat.

Hooda in the memorandum claimed that there were widespread “irregularities” in the poll process, as he alleged that a large number of polling booths had been “captured” in a secret manner and the election agents of the HJC and other parties (opposition) were shunted out forcefully by the elements having the silent support of the police and the local administration employed on the poll duty.

Alleging that “bogus” voting had been done, he said his workers and agents were beaten up and thrashed by some anti-social elements, who did not allow the voters to exercise the franchise in a free and fair manner. Charging that the polling process failed to maintain the secrecy element, which was the main ingredient of the poll.

It is claimed that the matter had been raised before the authorities for three times, but no action had followed into the complaints lodged so far.

Sonepat, May 14
Three motorcycle-borne gangsters today looted 700 gm of gold ornaments, valued at around Rs 10 lakh, at pistol-point from a jeweller’s shop in the Halwai Hatta market in the town.

The owner of the shop, Subhash, lodged a complaint with the police. According to him, one of the gangsters entered the shop while he was offering his prayers. The criminal put a pistol on his back and asked him to hand over gold ornaments. When the shopkeeper offered resistance, two more gangsters entered the shop and threatened to shoot him following which he gave up and the criminals fled with the booty.

Chandigarh, May 14
The HCS selection matters trudged ahead with Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Hemant Gupta directing Haryana’s former advocate-general-cum-counsel for the petitioner Karan Singh Dalal to provide names of about 10 selected candidates in whose case alleged irregularities had allegedly been committed.

Dalal and two other petitioners, alleging irregularities including tampering with the answer sheets and enhancement of marks in the written test and interviews, had specifically mentioned, among others, the cases of candidates considered close to the then chief minister OP Chautala, his political advisor Sher Singh Badshami and the then HPSC chairman Dr KC Bangar.