Hisar, September 1
University teachers in Haryana today resigned en masse from additional assignments held by them in protest against the failure of the state government to implement the new UGC scales in totality. They also continued their strike.

A spokesperson for the teachers said here today that senior teachers of all universities today resigned from the assignments they held in addition to their original posts. These included posts of chairman, proctor, hostel warden and dean. Kurukshetra University teachers had quit such posts yesterday.

He said teaching remained suspended in all universities and teachers staged dharnas on their respective campuses.

Rakesh Lohchab, president of the GJU Teachers Association, said the teachers would make up the academic loss to students as and when teaching resumed. He appealed to various sections of society to support the university teachers’ agitation.

He sought the intervention by the Governor and the Chief Minister in resolving the crisis.

KURUKSHETRA: Supporting the demands of university and college teachers, INLD state president Ashok Arora said here on Tuesday that it was a matter of pity that the teachers were compelled to take to the streets for getting their demands accepted.

Arora demanded that the teachers should be granted the UGC scales.

SIRSA: Teachers of Chaudhary Devi Lal University here on Tuesday submitted their resignations from additional assignments being handled by them.

The teachers, who have been on strike for the past one week, submitted their resignations through a joint note to the university authorities.

“As many as 26 senior teachers of the ranks of Professor, Reader and Lecturer have resigned from 62 additional assignments,” said Dr Deepti Dharmani, Reader in the department of English and spokesperson for the striking teachers.

The teachers have also decided that they will not attend meetings of the academic council, the executive council, the university court, the postgraduate board of studies and the departmental research committee till their demands are met.

Chandigarh, September 1
The BJP today claimed that the Election Commission of India announced the poll dates for Haryana early “to put a break on the advertisement spree launched by the Hooda government.”

This claim was made by BJP General Secretary Vijay Goel after a delegation led by him called on Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla.

The delegation included Haryana BJP president Kishan Pal Gurjar and other office-bearers of the state unit.

Goel claimed that officials of the commission told him that the commission could have waited for some more time to announce the elections, but decided to go ahead with the announcement in a bid to put a “stop to the self-promotion spree of the present state government.”

The BJP leader said this had proved the Hooda government’s bad governance, misutilisation of hard-earned public money and the way innocent electorates were being befooled.

Goel complained to Chawla that the Haryana Assembly was dissolved on August 21 last making the next elections inevitable. Despite this, Haryana’s Chief Minister wrongly spent crores of rupees from public funds for self-publicity, electoral gains and political mileage.

He along with Gurjar demanded that Hooda should be made to account for the entire public money he had spent on advertisements after the dissolution of the Assembly.The commission should take action against him if he had intended to draw political and electoral gains out of it.

On the one hand Haryana was reeling under drought and the state government was asking for grants from the Central Government while on the other hand crores of rupees were wasted on self-propaganda. Goel added that government hoardings were still in place in the state but hoardings relating to religious and social events were being removed.

The BJP leader said this had led to apprehension that the elections in Haryana would not be free and fair.

He said if the Assembly had to be dissolved, the elections could have been held along with the Lok Sabha elections to save crores of rupees. The commission should see that no Assembly should be dissolved within one year of the Lok Sabha elections to save public money.

The district authorities of Haryana should be directed to remove all government hoardings and advertisements from public places and it should also be ensured that no government guest house or government vehicle was misused.

Chandigarh, September 1
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today allowed a bunch of appeals by a total of 43 sub-inspectors, summarily dismissed from service in 2005.The Division Bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Daya Chaudhary directed the grant of benefit of continuity in service, but without financial benefit for the period they were out of job.

The appellants had moved the high court against the February 3 orders of the Single Bench, filed by Pradeep Kumar and others, whose services had been dispensed with. All petitioners were recruited for now defunct Haryana state industrial security force. In a significant submission on July 28, 2005, state advocate-general Hawa Singh Hooda had asserted as the 2003 Act governing newly raised HSISF was never notified, the very appointments were not in consonance with the law.

New Delhi, September 1
The Election Commission has made special reference regarding the electoral rolls in Haryana. The EC said the electoral rolls of the three states were revised on January 1, 2009.

The commission once again ordered a special summary revision of the electoral rolls in these states with the same qualifying date of January 1, 2009.

In case of Haryana, a special revision was again undertaken in two assembly constituencies - Badshahpur (76) and Gurgaon (77) as there were complaints about the omission of names in the electoral rolls used for the conduct of the Lok Sabha elections.

The electoral rolls of these two constituencies will be finally published on September 3. A special revision was also ordered in six parts of the electoral rolls of Faridabad NIT Assembly constituency (86), four parts of the electoral rolls of Ballabgarh assembly constituency (88) and three parts of the electoral rolls of the Tigaon Assembly constituency (90) to rectify the defects in the areas assigned to these Assembly constituencies as per the new delimitation order 2008. The rolls of the affected parts of the three Assembly constituencies of Haryana shall be finally published on September 11.

The General Elections in the states of Maharashtra and Haryana will be conducted on the basis of the electoral rolls revised with reference to January 1 as the qualifying date prepared in accordance with the newly delimited constituencies by the delimitation commission.

Chandigarh, September 1
With the Haryana unit of the Congress welcoming one and all into its fold even as the scramble for Assembly elections has begun, the latest to join the party bandwagon are the Independent members of the dissolved state Vidhan Sabha.

The president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, Phool Chand Mullana, today, inducted nine members at the party office while one other Independent MLA joined the party a couple of days back.

With this, all 10 Independent members of the dissolved House have been formally inducted into the party. Those inducted into the party are Harsh Kumar (Hathin), Habib-Ur-Rehman (Nuh), Sukhbir Singh Jaunpuria (Sohna), Bachan Singh Arya (Safidon), Dinesh Kaushik (Pundri), Tejendra Pal Singh Mann (Pai), Radhey Shyam Sharma (Narnaul), Shakuntla Bhagwaria (Bawal), Sukhbir Singh (Rohat), Naresh Yadav (Ateli).

Most of them were Congressmen before the last Assembly elections in 2005 and had been elected to the House as Independents after being denied party tickets.

Mullana said they had become associate members of the Congress during the term of the state government and their membership, now, had only been renewed. “We don’t need the approval of the general secretary in charge for this since they already were associate members of the party,” he said.

Karnal/Kurukshetra, September 1
Haryana university teachers, agitating for the implementation of the revised UGC pay scales strictly in accordance with the December 31, 2008, notification issued by the Union HRD Ministry and the subsequent fitment table released by the UGC on June 4, 2009, have been left in the lurch with the model code of conduct for the Assembly elections coming into force.

The teachers of all universities in the state - Guru Jambheshwar University, the Deen Bandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Murthal, Chauudhry Devi Lal University, Sirsa, the MDU, Rohtak, Kurukshetra University and Haryana Agriculutural University, Hisar, decided to continue the seven-day-old indefinite strike and declared that any proposal which amounted to dilution, deviation or distortion of the HRD Ministry notification would be rejected outright.

A delegation of associations of university teachers, led by Prof NS Kaushal, president, KUTA, held deliberations with the Chief Secretary, the Education Secretary and the Commissioner (Higher Education) regarding their demands.

Leaders of the teachers claimed that the discussions were held on a positive note, but a comprehensive notification on the basis of the talks was awaited.

They made it clear that the strike would continue till the final notification was released and all their demands were adequately addressed.

Meanwhile, the non-teaching staff of aided colleges went on a statewide strike, affecting the functioning of colleges.

They were protesting against the non-release of the revised pay scales and also 40 per cent of the arrears and staged a dharna at their respective institutions.

Hisar, September 1
Teaching in aided private colleges of the state was suspended once again today with non-teaching employees going on a strike in protest against the decision of the state government to give them the new pay scales from January 1 this year instead of January 1, 2006.

Teaching had resumed in the colleges just yesterday after the striking teachers called off their agitation. However, non-teaching employees today gathered outside their respective colleges and students went back as classrooms were locked.

A spokesperson of the Haryana Private Colleges Non-Teaching Employees Union said the strike would continue tomorrow also unless the government issued a notification sanctioning new scales w.e.f. 2006 as had been done for all other categories of employees over the entire country.

He said the union would hold a dharna at Rohtak in front of the private residence of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on September 3 and start indefinite dharna and chain hunger strike there from September 7 if its demand was not met by then. This is the first time that non-teaching employees of aided private colleges have gone on a strike.

Yamunanagar: The non-teaching employees of all the government-aided colleges of the district observed the strike on Monday. They rued that the government has implemented revised pay scale with effect from September 1, 2009, instead of January 1, 2006. Kirpal Singh, the president of the Haryana Aided-colleges’ Non-teaching Employees Union, said if their demand was not accepted immediately, then they would proceed on fast unto death. The non-teaching staff of GNKC, Hindu Girls College, MLN College observed the strike.

Giving details, he said the teachers had been granted the revised pay scale as per their demand, on the other hand, the non-teaching employees were completely ignored.

Hisar, September 1
Thousands of farmers owing allegiance to the All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) gheraoed the office of the Commissioner, Hisar Division, here today demanding that Haryana be declared drought-hit immediately.

They had come from five districts of the division - Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad, Jind and Bhiwani.

Harpal Singh, general secretary of the Haryana unit of the sabha, said the government had reduced the amount of compensation to drought-hit farmers. Besides, the compensation was being paid only if the losses exceeded 51 per cent.

He said the cost of agriculture had gone up considerably. Besides, the farmers were reeling under the impact of rising prices of essential commodities. As such, the level of compensation should have been increased.

The farmers marched in procession to the Commissioner’s office where they submitted a memorandum to the authorities.

It demanded that the entire state be declared drought-hit, the amount of compensation be raised to Rs 6,000 an acre for losses up to 26 per cent, Rs 8,000 an acre for crop loss of 51 per cent and Rs 10,000 per acre for more losses.

Besides, the memorandum sought supply of canal water for irrigation for at least two weeks in a month and stern action against farmers stealing water.

The protesters were addressed among others by Haryana CPI state secretary Inderjit Singh and Krishan Sarup Gorakhpuria, vice-president of the Haryana unit of the AIKS.

Hisar, September 1
Teachers of government polytechnics, who are seeking higher pay scales, remained on strike for the fifth day today.

A spokesperson for the Polytechnic Lecturers Welfare Association, Haryana, said the association had been pressing the government for the acceptance of their demands for a long time.

However, nothing had been done so far. He added over 40,000 students had been affected by their strike.

He also sought immediate reinstatement of the principal of the local polytechnic who had been suspended by the government a few days ago.

He said the principal had been victimised for supporting the teachers’ stir.

Rewari, September 1
A newly married woman ended her life by setting herself on fire after sprinkling kerosene, at Dhani Thether village, 24 km from here, yesterday.

The deceased Sangeeta (19) was married to Bhupinder Singh, a resident of Dhani Thether village. The police has registered a case of dowry death against Bhupinder, father-in-law Vikram Singh and mother-in-law Isna Devi, following a complaint filed by Hira Singh, brother of the deceased.