Hisar, July 28
Former Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan was readmitted to the Bishnoi sect at a brief ceremony held at the Bishnoi Mandir here today. Chander Mohan, who had converted to Islam to marry Anuradha Bali, alias Fiza, a few months ago, was accompanied to the temple by his mother Jasma Devi in an ambulance. He offered aahuti at a havan performed there.

The head priest of the temple in Mukam in Rajasthan, which is the holiest shrine of the Bishnois, offered him holy water and directed him to donate 100 quintals of foodgrains to “living creatures”.

Chander Mohan drank the holy water and agreed to make the donation as a penance. The head priest had been specially summoned here for the ceremony.

Chander Mohan then apologised to the Bishnoi community for the “mistakes” he had made. The sect elders, who were present, accepted his apologies. He also apologised to his mother for causing her “great misery”.

Thereafter he was formally re-inducted into the sect. The entire proceedings were recorded in a register maintained at the temple.

Chander Mohan then went back to the nursing home where he has been undergoing treatment for an infection following a hip fracture.

He has been shifted from the intensive care unit to special room number 29. Incidentally, Bishnois consider this number as holy and lucky as their sect has 29 commandments.

As soon as the news of his re-induction in the sect broke out, a large number of Bishnois made a beeline for the nursing home to meet Chander Mohan. The visitors included several close associates of his father, former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal.

For all practical purposes, Chander Mohan now appears set to rejoin his family too. He had been disowned by his father after he converted to Islam and married Fiza. However, this would depend on whether Bhajan Lal too forgives him and takes him back in the family fold. So far, there has been no word on the entire episode from the former Chief Minister. Family sources, however, said his return to the family fold was just a formality and this could happen in the next few days.

Jhajjar, July 28
Taking exception to the return of the Gehlout family to its native village Dharana here, the Kadyan Barha khap panchayat today served an ultimatum of 48 hours on the family to leave the village. The family has been in trouble for two weeks over the ongoing gotra row, triggered by a “forbidden” marriage.

The khap panchayat warned that if the family failed to leave the village by Thursday morning, a large number of its members and representatives would march towards the village and sit on an indefinite dharna there to get its verdict “enforced”. At a meeting held in Dubaldhan village here today to decide its future course of action on the issue, the khap panchayat made it clear that it would not alter its “judgement”.

The khap panchayat unanimously decided that one more chance should be given to the family for reviewing its decision before taking any “strong step” in this regard. Hence, the family has been given 48 hours for leaving the village.

Talking to The Tribune, Raj Singh, acting president of the khap panchayat, said the panchayat was firm on its stand and would now end its movement only after getting the verdict executed.

“Members and representatives of the khap panchayat will go to Dharana village on Thursday and stage a peaceful dharna there by adopting “Gandhigiri” if the family does not desert the village by then,” said Raj Singh.

“We have been working to ensure compliance of social norms set for maintaining ‘bhaichara’ among the people of the same clan. Hence, we are not doing anything wrong. We are just following our social customs, which prohibit solemnisation of a marriage between individuals of the two gotras involved in the controversy,” he asserted.

The Gehlout family had come back to Dharana village under a heavy security cover yesterday after a week-long “exile” from the village following a diktat of the khap panchayat directing the family to desert the village for alleged violation of social norms by marrying Ravinder Gehlout with a girl of the Kadyan gotra.

Jind, July 28
The district administration has detected an alleged scam regarding salary payment to teachers at a government-aided school in the district. The ‘irregularities’ got highlighted after a team of officials of the Education Department raided the school, Kanya Gurukul, in Shadipur village in Julana in response to a complaint lodged with the authorities concerned.

The officials found that the salary given to some of the teachers in the school was four to six times less than what they deserved to get. The officials seized the school records and submitted a report to the Deputy Commissioner for further action in this connection.

According to the Education Department, certain teachers of the school had lodged a complaint with the district authorities that the school management had been exploiting them by not paying them the salary shown in the official records.

A team led by District Education Officer Jaiveer Dhanda and tehsildar Satish Bhardwaj conducted a surprise visit and inspected the records of the school. The authorities have admitted that there have been some gross irregularities in the payment of salaries to some of the women teachers at the school.

Citing an example, it stated that Urmila, a teacher with the school for the past 14 years, was paid Rs 4,554 against Rs 17,100 shown in the official register.

The school authorities allegedly used to get signatures of salary payment on another (duplicate) register, while the register showing the actual salary amount was different.

According to the inquiry, the salary record of two more teachers of the school was found to be irregular as they had not been paid their due salary by the school. As per the report, two teachers - Anita and Promila (JBT) - were being paid Rs 2,797 and Rs 4,000, respectively, against Rs 10,600 and Rs 12,700, respectively.

The team has taken the custody of the monthly salary of the teachers in question after they withdrew it from the bank by depositing the cheque given by the school.

One of the employees of the school told the officials that the practice had been going on since 1998.

The government-aided schools are also required to follow the norms applicable in the government schools in the matter of salary to the staff. However, similar complaints have been received from a large number of such schools in the state.

A detailed report has been submitted to the Deputy Commissioner, who had ordered an inquiry into the matter.

Panipat, July 28
After showing initial inhibitions in taking action against the illegal treatment centres that had flourished across the state in the recent times, the state Health Department has finally got into the action mode. In a commune send to all civil surgeons, the Health Department has asked them to constitute special teams to take action against the illegal treatment centres.

The Tribune had highlighted the flourishing of fake treatment centres that claimed to treat almost all ailments using a South Korean machine.

Even as the director general of health himself had admitted that these centres were “illegal”, he had refused to initiate action against such centres, stating that it was for the police or the district authorities to proceed against them. However, the department has now reviewed its earlier stand and decided to move against the fake treatment centres.

The alleged misdoings of these centres, which were being run under the name of Ceragem World India Private Limited, had come to light after social activist PP Kapoor had sought information from the Health Department regarding these centres under the RTI Act. Though the department had admitted that these centres had no permission from any competent authority, it remained silent on the query as to what action would be taken against them.

Meanwhile, unsuspecting people had been making beelines outside these centres across Haryana hoping to find cure for their ailments.

The company running these centers had been claiming that ailments, including joint pain, allergies, TB, piles, blood pressure, arthritis, polio, paralysis, old pains, infertility and ulcers could be treated easily at the centres using a South Korean machine. It was learnt that unqualified staffers, who were undergraduate with only 15-day training, were treating patients at these centres.

Kapoor had sent formal communes to the Health Minister and the parliamentary secretary for health urging them to check the running of these centres. Kapoor said the decision taken by the Health Department would most likely prove to be a deterrent for the fake treatment centres running in the state.

Chandigarh, July 28
The Punjab and Haryana High Court wants to know if any limits are provided for while granting registration to the newspaper organisations. Justice Ranjit Singh also wants to know the effect, if “such norms are violated”.

The queries are obviously a part of the high court’s endeavour to have parameters laid down for court reporting to prevent the newspaper organisations from going “overboard”.

The issue on norms and its violation cropped up during the hearing of the Aravalis mining case. Justice Ranjit Singh said: “It is noticed lately not only the Times of India, but other newspapers, including the Hindustan Times, Chandigarh edition, have been covering some legal issues relating to the high court, which may not fully fall within the requirement of law, which a newspaper covering such news-items has to keep in mind.”

Making it amply clear the high court wanted to lay down the limits once and for all, Justice Ranjit Singh directed: “A notice may, thus, be issued to the Resident Editor, Hindustan Times, Chandigarh edition, and the correspondent of such news-item. Let them also assist the court in regard to the parameters, which must be followed, while reporting about the court or legal proceedings.

“The counsel appearing for the parties, and the amicus curiae are requested to see if any bounds and provided for the newspapers, while granting registration, and what is the effect if such norms are violated.” The matter will now come up on August 27. Justice Ranjit Singh had earlier said: “Time has come when parameters may have to be laid down as to what extent the press reporters can go while reporting the proceedings which take place in the courts”.

The observations were made, while taking notice of news-reports carried in the Times of India on mining in Aravali hills. Justice Ranjit Singh was of the opinion the case was being covered in an opinionated manner; and had asserted: “Lately, the newspapers have been going overboard and to the extent of even quoting verbal observations of the court...”.

Chandigarh, July 28
The vigilance report on HCS selections has confirmed irregularities noticed in the answersheets of the candidates. The report says in some of the answersheets, marks were either increased or decreased by cuttings and over-writings and the examiners did not attest these.

A PIL for a CBI probe alleging irregularities into the selection was jointly filed by former minister Karan Singh Dalal and two candidates, through former advocate-general Mohan Jain, who now is additional solicitor-general of India at Delhi.

In some answersheets, the signatures of the examiners were in different ink. As many as 14 candidates securing between 62 per cent and 74.4 per cent marks in the written examination could not succeed due to award of mere 13 to 26 per cent marks in the interview.

The report of the special investigating team of the vigilance bureau said list of examiners revealed same persons were appointed examiners in all three examinations. Some candidates benefited, while some others were deprived of the opportunity. The vigilance authorities inspected a total of 117 answersheets, while remaining 78 were in the custody of the high court

Taking up the matter, the court permitted the state vigilance bureau to have a similar look at the record of 78 candidates for Haryana Civil Service. The record is currently lying with the HC.

Allowing the bureau’s application, Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia have now fixed September 24 as the next date of hearing.