Chandigarh, July 14
In a big blow to the Indian National Lok Dal, one of the party’s senior-most leaders and former Finance Minister, Prof Sampat Singh, quit the party here today.

Announcing the decision, Sampat Singh said he decided to quit the party after realising that he was not needed there.

In fact, forgotten ideology, an indifferent leadership, disappointed workers and a disillusioned leader is what probably wraps up the story of Prof Sampat Singh’s 32-year association with the INLD.

Addressing a press conference, a pained Sampat Singh, said: “I am Chaudhary Devi Lal’s real heir, the Chautalas are only his heirs by birth. They have drifted away from all that he stood for.”

“I joined the INLD under his influence and stayed on through all the highs and lows. I am pained to leave but there’s no option before me,” he said, even breaking down during the course of the conference.

Attributing his decision to quit the INLD “under pressure” from workers and supporters, who threatened to leave him if he chose to stay on with the INLD, Sampat Singh, also closely associated with strategy formulation of the party, stated that he was with Chaudhary Devi Lal out of conviction while he continued to be with the Chautalas out compulsion.

He maintained that unlike the founder, Chaudhary Devi Lal, the present leadership did not favour grooming any leader. “The party supremo too seems to be weighed down by the love for his son. The father and the two sons have some kind of veto power and shoot down recommendations. I sought forgiveness from Chautala for any wrong that I may have committed in the party till date before coming here,” he said.

Sampat Singh maintained that following his defeat in the parliamentary elections, his supporters alleged that he had not lost the seat but was made to lose the seat. “In fact, Chautala is surrounded by a coterie of non-political men, who have nothing to do with the policies of Chaudhary Devi Lal. After my defeat, I went to all nine Assembly segments in the Hisar seat and prepared a 65-point note on the reasons for the poor performance of the INLD. It was brushed under the carpet. Such analysis has no meaning in the party,” he rued.

Owning responsibility for the Meham episode, Kandela and the fall of the Haryana Vikas Party government, Sampat Singh sought forgiveness of the people and the aggrieved.

Speaking about the future course of action, the former Finance Minister said he would go back to his supporters, hold a meeting and then decide. “I have quit at their behest. They will decide my fate, which party I will join and what I will do in the next couple of days,” he added.

Hisar, July 14
Former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala said here today that former Finance Minister Sampat Singh’s exit from the Indian National Lok Dal would not make “any difference to the party”.

Talking to mediapersons at the residence of a local INLD leader, he said he was saddened by Sampat Singh’s departure as he always considered him as a “family member”. However, he added that the end loser would be Sampat Singh.

Chautala said several senior party leaders, including his own brother Ranjit Singh, Kirpa Ram Poonia, Parmanand and Verender Singh, left the party in the past and their political fate was known to all. “The same fate awaits Sampat Singh in the Congress,” he added.

He said it was wrong on the part of Sampat Singh to say that the party leadership wanted to ensure his defeat in the recent Lok Sabha elections.

He said if that had been the case, he would not have been nominated in the first place.

The former Chief Minister said Sampat Singh had always been treated with great respect in the party and that was why he was always given top slots within the party as well as the government when the INLD was in power.

Chautala said Sampat Singh had always professed to follow the policies of late Devi Lal. “I find it strange that Sampat Singh was now joining the Congress - a party Devi Lal always opposed,” he added.

Faridabad, July 14
The BJP and the INLD will constitute a coordination committee in Haryana to channelise their relationship and effectively take on the ruling Congress in the state in view of the coming Assembly elections in the state.

The newly appointed president of the Haryana unit of the BJP, Krishan Pal Gurjaar, who hails from the district, said the coordination committee would be a kind of omnibus body that would resolve all issues relating to the two alliance partners, including preliminary discussions on the sharing of Assembly seats.

In response to a question relating to acrimonious relation between the two parties which led to break up of their ties in the past, he said the future course of actions were formulated by correcting the past mistakes.

Gurjaar hesitated in fielding questions on specifics related to the BJP or the INLD on ground that the aim of the two parties was to strengthen the NDA as part of a larger struggle against the ruling Congress in Haryana and the Congress-led UPA at the Centre.

He made it clear that the INLD-BJP saw the Congress as an archrival of the two parties in Haryana. Regarding the electoral alliance between the HJC (BL) and the BSP, he was showed indifference. The HJC (BL) and the BSP did not have any credibility and the BJP did not think of them as political rivals. Taking a dig at the BSP and the HJC (BL), he said many of their nominees in the last parliamentary elections jettisoned them as soon as the elections were over.

Regarding the poor show of the INLD-BJP alliance in the parliamentary elections, he said the issues were different. According to him, the issues during the Assembly elections would be state specific. The Congress government had not fulfilled its poll promises, specially relating to supply of water and power and law and order situation.

Referring to the controversy raised by LK Advani on the credibility of EVMs, he said it would be better if elections were conducted through ballot papers.

Jhajjar, July 14
How much dense is the root of khap panchayats’s verdict in this era of modernisation can be assessed evidently at Dharana village under Beri subdivision here.

A family belonging to Gehlaut gotra (sub-caste) has been living under social boycott for the past two days, following their son’s marriage with a girl of Kadiyan gotra. Thanks to prevalent social customs that compel the inhabitants of both Gehlaut and Kadiyan gotras at the village not to solemnise marriage of their kin in each other gotras.

Bowing to the judgment of the Kadiyan Barha Khap Panchayat, the residents of the village have been abstained from interacting with the “socially boycotted family”. While the newly-married couple had been staying in Delhi since then, the family having several members in the village are virtually finding a sword hanging on their head after the Khap Panchayat (Kadian Gotra) passed an order on Sunday asking him and his family either to annul the marriage or leave the village within 72 hours. The Kadiyan Barha Khap Panchayat had called a meeting in the village on Sunday to give its verdict on the wedding issue. The deadline expires tomorrow.

The panchayat attended by a score of people from 12 villages belonging to Kadiyan gotra also directed the residents of Dharana village not to have any interaction with the family of Rishal Gehlaut otherwise they have to pay a fine of Rs 21,000.

Meanwhile, sensing the gravity of the situation, Rohtash Gehlaut, father of the groom, has reportedly approached the Jhajjar SSP and demanded security cover for his family members, terming khap diktats as totally unjustified and of medieval style.

Rohtash, father of Ravinder, in his written complaint terming 18 persons of Dharana village and committee of Kadian khap as accused, stated that these “anti-social elements” had an eye on their land and had hatched a conspiracy against his family with the intention to throw them out of the village and grab the property. He asserted that his son (Ravinder) had been staying with his sister Ishwanti in Sultanpur in Delhi since last 15 years. He maintained that his family has disowned his as he had been ‘adopted’ by his sister.

Urging the police to ensure safety of his family members comprising three brothers from these persons, he claimed that he had informed the pradhan of Kadian khap about three months before the marriage of his son to avoid any problem.

The grandson of Rishal Singh, Ravinder got married to Shilpa daughter of Ved Prakash Kadian, resident of Siwah village in Panipat on March 24 this year, which stirred a controversy. People belonging to about a dozen gotra, including that of Kadian and Gahlot live in Dharana village. The Kadians of this village and other nearby villages had banned the marriage of any Kadian girl, wherever she hails from, to any youth in these villages irrespective of his gotra (sub-caste) on the plea that all Kadian girls should be considered as sisters. The Kadian khap served the diktat on the same plea.

Meanwhile, SSP Jhajjar Saurabh Singh admitted of receiving a complaint and has claimed to launch an investigation into the matter. However, no FIR has been registered so far in this regard.

Jind, July 14
All 306 villages in the district will soon have para-legal cells to help people solve their disputes at a local level under the direct supervision of the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA). The authorities concerned have already constituted such cells in 65 villages of the district.

Speaking after inaugurating a cell at Dariyawala village in the district, Additional Sessions Judge Jaiveer Hooda and Civil Judge (Senior Division) SK Khanduja asked the people to take an advantage of the opportunity, which they said would ensure the saving of both time and money, besides the undue harassment in form of court cases.

The villagers were told that the para-legal cell could be of immense help if people having any dispute contact the cell members on time. The cell members, who would be appointed under the supervision of the DLSA would try to find an amicable solution, which would then be put before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, who would then talk to both the parties and pronounce the agreement.

“Since this agreement or judgement would have the court endorsement, any party or individual who had consented earlier would be liable to be prosecuted in event of non-implementation or violation of the agreement later,” said an official.

The cell would provide free services with no court or application fee from the applicant and it would try to solve the dispute in minimum time period.

Sirsa, July 14
Guest teachers in government schools of Haryana will now get salaries during summer vacations too.

The Commissioner and Director, General School Education, Haryana, has written to all District Education Officers (DEO) and District Elementary Education Officers (DEEO) to release the salary for June 2009 to the guest teachers. However, he has attached a rider that the salary be released subject to the final outcome of the writ petition CWP 4562 of 2009 and other connected petitions pending before the high court.

Earlier, the JBT teachers engaged as guest teachers for primary classes were paid Rs 225 per day, while mathematics, science and social studies masters engaged for middle and high classes were paid Rs 70 per period subject to maximum of six periods in a day.

No salary was paid to them for summer or any other vacations.

However, in March 2009, the government took a decision to engage the services of guest teachers on annual contract basis instead of the earlier engagement on daily/period basis.

Now, the JBT teachers are being paid Rs 10,000 per month, while mathematics, science and social studies masters are paid Rs 11,000 per month.

The government has also decided to pay salaries to the guest teachers for this year’s summer vacations - from June 1 to July 6 and the government has asked DEOs and DEEOs to release salaries of the guest teachers for June 2009 subject to the final outcome of writ petitions pending in the high court.

Chandigarh, July 14
The Haryana government will take up the cause of getting a “validation” of graduate and postgraduate degrees of passouts from the Distance Education Centre of Kurukshetra University from the Distance Education Council (DEC).

Acting on the report of unrecognised degrees issued by the Centre, published in The Tribune, Principal Secretary, Education, Rajan Gupta said he had spoken to the Registrar of the university and asked him to pursue the matter with the DEC.

“We were not aware of this a problem till now and nobody pointed it out also. Since the lack of recognition of the degrees directly affects our alumni, we will take it up on priority. If need be, a letter from the state government will be sent, asking the DEC to expedite the matter,” he assured.

Meanwhile, a statement from the university claimed that the Directorate of Distance Education, KU, established in 1976, had grown as one of the leading centres of distance learning in the country.

The DEC became the nodal agency for regulating distance education programmes offered by various institutes and universities. KU applied for recognition of its directorate and approval of its programmes in 2004. It was granted provisional recognition for its courses from 2007 onwards and allowed the directorate to continue the programmes till the Expert Committee of the DEC actually visited the university.

The university has written 15 letters to the DEC for taking up the process of permanent recognition but there is no response from the DEC. The university will send a team of senior teachers to meet the authorities at the DEC and pursue the matter of permanent affiliation on July 16. The team will take up the matter of post-facto sanction of courses offered by the university in the period of 1995 to 2007, adding that the degrees were not “invalid” but post-facto sanction was awaited.

Ambala, July 14
Finance Minister Birender Singh said Assembly elections could be held in the state even before its scheduled time. However, it would depend on the proper arrival of the monsoon.

Talking to mediapersons here today, he said in fact the Assembly elections were due in February 2010, but the state Congress was fully prepared even for the mid-term poll.

“The opposition parties were on the edge of split and several senior leaders of those parties were approaching the Congress leaders for the entry,” he added. He said the opposition parties did not have any positive issues to pull off the confidence of the people and the united opposition could not fight the Congress, as it had emerged as the only choice of the people.

When asked whether he would welcome the joining of senior INLD leader Sampat Singh in the Congress, he said he would welcome the entry of all those leaders in the Congress, who express their faith in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and the Congress policies. He said Sampat Singh was a senior leader and he would welcome his entry.

He added that in his three-decade long political carrier he had been witnessing for the first time that the opposition leaders are so demoralised in the state.

Panipat, July 14
A large number of residents of Dharamgarh village today blocked the state highway in Matlauda in protest against the murder of a youth of their village.

The youth identified as Devinder (25), who used to work at a Panipat refinery, was allegedly attacked by a gang of criminals in the forest area between the refinery and Dharamgarh village on the intervening night of July 3. The assailants allegedly beat him up badly and left him in an unconscious condition. They wanted to rob him of his money, stated his family members.

On July 4, his family members and other villagers found him lying in the forest area in critical condition. They immediately rushed him to Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi, where he succumbed to his injuries today morning.

The villagers alleged that Devinder had been attacked by the gang of Surinder Kala, who was already wanted by the police in connection with the murder of Sushil, a youth of Nara village. Sushil was kidnapped from his house on April 15 and later his body was found outside a petrol station at Matlauda village on the same night.

The villagers said he was accompanied by two other persons - Dinesh and Surinder - sons of Karan Singh of Dharamgarh village.

Meanwhile, the police, which had registered a case under Sections 323 and 506 of the IPC against the three accused, has added Sections 302 and 120-B of the IPC to the FIR. The police said a hunt had been launched to nab the accused.

The villagers threatened to hold more protests in case the police failed to arrest the accused.