Sirsa, May 19
Having been beaten squarely by the Congress in the recently concluded parliamentary elections, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has asked its workers to send written suggestions to the party headquarters for improvement of the party.

Messages have been sent to all key party workers for the purpose. The message says all workers are requested to send written suggestions for improving the working of the party as well as its office.

Sources in the INLD said the party leadership had been preparing itself for the forthcoming Assembly elections. They said the party office in Chandigarh has mobile numbers of some 10,000 key workers across the state, who received messages regarding tour programmes of party supremo Om Parkash Chautala and important meetings of the party on daily basis.

Messages seeking suggestions were sent to all these numbers today. Sources said the party wanted to know that what went wrong in the Lok Sabha elections.

Chautala has also asked party candidates, who contested the parliamentary elections, to contact party workers at booth level to find out the causes of debacle and give their reports to him on June 1 at the time of party’s state-level meeting in Hisar.

Sources said though the party leadership was shocked at the results, it felt that the INLD-BJP alliance had emerged as the only opposition party after the elections.

“The HJC candidates lost their deposits in eight out of 10 constituencies, while all INLD-BJP candidates fared well,” claimed sources.

He claimed that former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s victory was his individual feat and no indication of his son Kuldeep Bishnoi’s party’s popularity.

Source said the INLD leadership was in the process of identifying Assembly seats, where the alliance candidates won or lost by narrow margin so that more emphasis could be laid on those seats.

Karnal, May 19
The Congress has swept the Lok Sabha (LS) polls in the state and completely decimated the INLD-BJP alliance but the emergence of the BSP as a potential third force in some constituencies, especially in Karnal and Kurukshetra has set the alarm bells ringing for the ruling party as well as its main rival INLD-BJP.

The performance of the BSP in twin constituencies was overshadowed by resounding victory of Congress candidates and its impact in some of the Assembly segments falling under these constituencies did not attract desired attention.

BSP candidates polled 3,79,574 votes in 18 Assembly segments of Kurukshetra and Karnal LS seats and the BSP was ahead of both Congress and the INLD-BJP in Nilokheri, Indri and Gharaunda Assembly segments while it polled about 800 votes less than the Congress in Assandh.

The two major parties, the INLD and the BJP jointly polled 4, 63,912 votes in Karnal and Kurukshetra, just 84,338 votes more than the BSP, which contested independently.

Taking an overall view, the BSP on an average polled about 21,000 votes in the 18 Assembly segments and its vote share was 42,223 in Nilokheri, 38,372 in Gharaunda, 34,865 in Indri, 36,487 in Assandh, 29,733 in Radaur, 26,542 in Israna, 21,032 in Ladwa, 20,713 in Pundri and 17,754 in Kalayat.

If the political equations changed in run up to the Assembly elections, due early next year and the BSP found some credible ally like HJC, the outcome could be much different as compared to LS polls.

There was a big question mark over the future of the INLD-BJP alliance and it was unlikely that BJP cadres, which were not happy with the alliance and favoured tie-up with the HJC, would abide by the dictates of the high command to carry the burden till the Assembly polls.

Further, a mellowed down BSP supremo Mayawati would be more pragmatic and not indulge in hard bargain on the seat sharing, paving the way with the HJC.

On the other hand, a large section of BJP workers favouring alliance with the HJC might prevail on the party high command and repeat the old history when the BJP had deserted Devi Lal and forged an alliance with the Haryana Vikas Party.

Chandigarh, May 19
The Congress party certainly is a disciplined army of soldiers and they follow the leader. Small wonder then that the Congress fared “badly” not only in the Assembly constituency of its state unit chief but in seats of certain Cabinet ministers as well.

While the President of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, Phool Chand Mullana, certainly took the cake among Congressmen, four ministers, too, are “in the red” in their respective constituencies if the results are any indication.

Statistics reveal that in Mullana, represented by the PCC president who was a contender for the party ticket from the Ambala seat, the Congress was placed a “shameful” third, getting just over 33,000 votes. Rival party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was on the top of the charts with 38,000 plus votes, while the Bahujan Samaj Party was a close second.

The only other segment in Ambala where Selja lagged behind was in Kalka where the local MLA and former Deputy Chief Minister, Chander Mohan, was “not available” all through the election.

If Mullana failed her, Ambala City and Ambala Cantt came to her rescue. The lead she took from these two segments proved decisive in the end. In Ambala city, campaign committee in charge Venod Sharma came out in Selja’s support and helped her get a “substantial” lead of nearly 13,000 while she got another 9,000 votes from the Cantt.

In Hisar, the “credit” for the defeat of the party candidate, Jai Prakash, is primarily shared by the ministers of the Haryana Cabinet. Leading the ministers in the “poor performance” segment from the Hisar seat was Finance Minister Birender Singh, an MLA from Uchana Kalan. While the Congress got 22,000 votes, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) got over 47,000 votes from this Assembly seat.

Again, in Hisar, represented by Minister of State Savitri Jindal, the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) polled nearly 17,000 votes more than the Congress which ended up with a total tally of 14,324 votes. These votes are especially significant because HJC candidate Bhajan Lal won by just over 6,000 votes from his nearest rival, the INLD.

Again, in Jind which falls in the Sonepat seat, represented by Education Minister Mange Ram Gupta, the BJP polled over 4,000 more votes than the Congress candidate, Jitender Malik. However, Malik won by a comfortable margin in the end.

Also, a similar situation was witnessed in the Narwana assembly seat, represented in the Vidhan Sabha by Power Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala. A part of the Sirsa Lok Sabha seat, Narwana polled 36, 664 votes in favour of the Congress, while the INLD got over 51,000 votes. The seat, following delimitation, has now been reserved.

The Congress party lagged behind in as many as 31 Assembly segments, including those of the ministers. However, this “poor performance” counts little since the party is celebrating its “unexpected” win in nine of the 10 seats.

The Working President of the Congress, Kuldeep Sharma, said the poor performance need not imply anti-party activity since it could be because of anti-incumbency being faced by the individual candidate or various other local factors. “We will study the results once the new government takes over in the Centre. These are important because the Assembly elections are due early next year,” he said. 

Fatehabad, May 19
A large number of parents, whose children study in Akal Academy, Ratia, today held a demonstration and blocked vehicular traffic on the Fatehabad road at Ratia, demanding arrest of those responsible for the ransacking of the school on May 8.

The demonstration continued for over an hour, resulting in long queues of vehicles on both sides of the road and causing a lot of inconvenience to commuters in the scorching afternoon.

The demonstrators, including president of the Gurdwara Committee Ranjit Singh, criticised the police for not arresting the accused even after 11 days of the incident.

Later, SDM SK Chahal, DSP Suresh Kaushik and SHO Sant Lal reached the spot and persuaded the demonstrators to lift the blockade.

They also assured them that all those against whom the FIR had been registered in case of ransacking of the academy and hurting religious sentiments would be arrested soon.

Sant Lal, Ratia SHO, when contacted, said raiding parties had been sent to nab the accused. He said the arrests could not be made earlier as the police had been busy with the elections.

It may be recalled that Rajdeep, a student of the school, was found ill in the bus when he reached home after attending Akal Academy on May 5.

He was hospitalised and later shifted to Hisar, where he died the next day.

Angry protests were made against the academy accusing the school staff of negligence. During the protests, the academy was ransacked by some miscreants.

The police had arrested the school principal, a teacher and an attendant on the demand of protesters. They were later given bail.

Chandigarh, May 19
Convicts serving in Haryana jails can look forward to break the shackles of financial misery. Their wages, fixed about a decade back, are now in for revision. Concerned with the welfare of the families of the convicts --- health and education included--- the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the state to set up a wage fixation board for “skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled convicts in Haryana”.

The last time the board fixed the wages was on July 15, 1999. The skilled were offered daily wages of Rs 16, the semi-skilled Rs 12, and the unskilled Rs 10.

For this, the state literally received rap on its knuckles. “We are not at all impressed with the manner in which the state has dealt with the matter of constituting a wage fixation board.

“If the state had considered the plight of the victim’s families, and the plight of the families of the convicts, the fixation of wages would have been done more realistically; and the convicts would also have been made to work much more productively,” the Bench of Justice KS Garewal and Justice Sham Sunder ruled.

The Bench also directed: The board shall consider the need for payment of compensation to the victims and monthly maintenance to the families of the convicts.

The Bench has also asked the state to “redesign the vocational and production activities in the jails, so that the victims learn contemporary vocation in accordance with their skills, and produce marketable products instead of mundane ones.

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Garewal also recommended nothing less than green and white revolution in the prisons. “Most jails have large tracts of land, which can be used for farming. Jails can also think of dairy farming and sale of milk and milk products to enhance its income.

“All these activities can be undertaken in the jails to provide more income to the jail departments and realistic wages to the convicts,” Justice Garewal asserted.

The Judge also made it clear the kin of convicts covered under the definition of below the poverty line (BPL) families should receive benefits of ration cars and other central or state-sponsored social welfare schemes.

“The families, which can be brought under NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), should be helped in all possible manner to overcome the deprivation of income of the members of the family undergoing jail sentence.”

Sirsa, May 19
Tarlochan Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana and a former chairman of the National Commission of Minorities, today took strong exception to a reported state move of discouraging optional subjects like Urdu and Punjabi and said it was an attempt to finish minority languages from the state.

Tarlochan has written to the state Governor AR Kidwai seeking his intervention on the issue.

“I am sorry to bring to your kind notice that the Haryana School Education Board has decided not to count the marks of optional subjects like Urdu and Punjabi in Class VIII examinations. This will not only deprive all those students who are keen to study the minority languages but will also affect the teachers who are recruited for these languages.

This will definitely create most unhealthy conditions and will finish these two minority languages which are mother tongue of large number of people in the state,” Tarlochan said in his letter sent to the Governor.

“Punjabi was a compulsory subject in Middle and Matriculation examinations till Haryana was the part of the combined Punjab. Still, large population of Punjabi-speaking people lives in many districts of the state.

On one side the Government of India is committed to promote minority languages all over the country but on the other hand this is totally ignored in the state,” he said.

Drawing attention of Kidwai, Tarlochan said as an eminent educationist, the Governor could understand the need of subjects like Punjabi and Urdu in the state and sought his intervention in this regard.

Rohtak, May 19
Residents of Mayna village locked Government Senior Secondary School here today. They were protesting against irregularities and problems being faced by students here.

The villagers, who later agreed to the request of the officials of the Education Department to open the gate of the school, were irked over delay in construction of rooms and non-performance of the teachers.

They claimed that their requests and appeals to the school authorities had failed to improve the situation. The District Education Officer (DEO) assured justice to them.

They said students were facing problems due to irregular attendance of teachers and unavailability of books and other facilities.

A majority of government schools in the district face similar problems, including shortage of subject-specific teachers, lack of accommodation, furniture, books and drinking water facilities.

The deterioration of teaching standards have forced a large number of people in rural areas to shift their wards to private schools, whose results were better than government schools, said Tirath Singh, a retired headmaster of a government school.

Gurgaon, May 19
Here is some good news for pregnant women who wish to avail themselves of services of trained gynaecologists for delivery but cannot afford the charges of private hospitals. Now, free-of-cost delivery facility will be available at government hospitals round the clock on all seven days of the week.

Following specific directions from the state authorities, the Gurgaon Civil Hospital has put four gynaecologists on duty in different shifts.

“We have also taken various other steps like ensuring cleanliness and hygienic conditions for both mother and newborn child,” said the Civil Surgeon, Dr S.S.Dalal. The operation theatre of the civil hospital would also be kept open round the clock, he added.

He said as the state government was very particular about institutional deliveries, all facilities, including health check-up, pathological tests and medicines, etc, were provided free of cost to pregnant women at the government hospitals.

“If required during delivery, blood is given free of cost and without replacement. Even if a Cesarean section is required, the entire treatment would be given free of cost,” Dr Dalal said, adding that all these facilities were being provided at the community health centres, primary health centres and delivery huts.

In case of complications if the patient is to be referred to the civil hospital at district headquarters or to some specialised hospital, the transportation charges are borne by the government.

Dr Dalal maintained that the civil hospital had the latest facilities like the MRI, digital X-ray, pathological lab, blood bank and a Jan-Aushadhi store, where medicines were available at much lower rates as compared to the market.

The Civil Surgeon claimed that all these facilities were either provided free of cost or at nominal charges. Citing an example, he said the facility of MRI was provided to indoor patients at Rs 1,000 and to OPD patients at Rs 2,500.

“Moreover, any patient getting treatment from some private hospital can avail this facility by paying Rs 4,500, he said, adding that private diagnostic centres charged at least Rs 8,000 for an MRI.