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Chautala keeps rivals
guessing on second seat
Jinnah supporters won’t
be tolerated: Rajnath
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Teachers a divided
lot; babus blamed
NHAI hikes toll, yet
again
PGIMS nurses allege
harassment
Encroachments in
grain market to be removed
Fake currency easily
available in Nepal: Kingpin
US ISKCON devotees to
have Mewat cow milk
Change in BEd
syllabus opposed
Man gets life term
for killing sister
3 of family killed in
accident
2 killed in accidents
Farmer murdered
2-day mourning in
state
Holiday in Jhajjar
today
Subsidy for farmers
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Alliance with BJP
Panipat, September 6 Interacting with mediapersons here today, Bishnoi said he was well acquainted with BJP leaders and had thus gone to meet them. Prior to the Lok Sabha elections in May this year, Bishnoi had been actively pursuing the idea of tying up with the BJP to take on the Congress in the elections. However, the alliance could not be forged due to pressure on the BJP leadership from Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who wanted the BJP to contest the poll in alliance with the INLD. Following the defeat in the parliamentary elections and the BJP withdrawing itself from the coalition with the INLD, a mutual understanding between the HJC and the BJP is likely to be reached soon. Meanwhile, having a dig at the state BSP, Bishnoi said it was "political fever" that had gripped his party and that they were happy to get rid of it before the Assembly elections. The HJC leader, who appeared to be occupied by the election preparations, said the Congress had cheated the state electorate by making false promises and it would be dealt with accordingly by the masses. He said the early elections had thrown open an opportunity for the people of the state to uproot the Congress and bring the required change that was needed by Haryana today. He said the party was deliberating on the name of candidates who would be contesting on the party ticket and these would be announced soon. He said the party would contest the elections on issues related to unemployment, corruption and law and order. |
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Chautala keeps rivals
guessing on second seat
Sirsa, September 6 In the first list of its 42 nominees, the INLD has announced candidates from Sirsa and Kalanwali (reserved) seats from the district, but has chosen to delay the announcement for Dabwali, Ellenabad and Rania. Talking
to mediapersons recently, Chautala’s son Ajay Singh Chuatala, Rajya
Sabha MP and secretary general of the INLD, had said the former Chief
Minister was likely to contest from any of the four open seats from
Sirsa district besides Uchana. Ajay Singh had said people of Sirsa wanted Chautala to contest from his home district by passing resolutions to this effect. Chautala had the option of contesting from Dabwali, Ellenabad, Rania and Sirsa because Kalanwali, the fifth Assembly seat falling in his home district, is reserved for the Schedules Castes. Chautala has given the Sirsa ticket to district INLD president Padam Jain and Kalanwali (reserved) to Charanjit Singh, a zila parishad member, but he has left Dabwali, Ellenabad and Rania unannounced. Sirsa,
being an urban seat, would not have suited Chautala’s political
calculations. However, Dabwali and Ellenabad, which have been made open for all castes after the delimitation, and Rania, which has been carved out as a new constituency, suit Chautala for one reason or the other. As far as Dabwali is concerned, the INLD has won this seat in the last three Assembly elections in 1996, 2000 and 2005. However,
the party finished second to Congress’s Ashok Tanwar in the last
parliamentary elections, when it trailed by 3,332 votes. Ellenabad too has been stronghold of the INLD for the past two decades and even in the parliamentary elections, the party led the Congress rival by over 1,200 votes. The demography of the new Ellenabad Assembly seat is different from what it used to be earlier and now it comprises parts of earlier Ellenabad and Darba Kalan Assembly segments. Incidentally,
both of these have been INLD’s strongholds in the past. Except for
Darba Kalan, the Ellenabad has been represented in the state Assembly by
the INLD. Rania is a newly carved assembly constituency, having parts of erstwhile Ellenabad and part of Rori, both strongholds of Chautalas. The INLD represented both Ellenabad and Rori in the state Assembly. The
Congress is likely to field Chautala’s cousin Dr KV Singh from Dabwali
and younger brother Ranjit Singh or former minister Jagdish Nehra from
Rania. Bharat Singh Beniwal, MLA from the dissolved Assembly, is among several contenders for the Congress ticket from Ellenabad. It remains to be seen that which of these three Assembly segments Chautala finds suitable for him to contest the Assembly elections besides Uchana. |
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Jinnah supporters won’t
be tolerated: Rajnath
Rohtak, September 6 Singh said, “If anyone dares to praise Mohammed Ali
Jinnah, who was responsible for the Partition of our country, along with
all the horrific incidents that followed, strict action will be taken
against them.” Speaking at a workers conference, the saffron leader
said his party had ideological differences on the Founder of Pakistan. Jaswant
was recently expelled from the party, after his book ‘Jinnah: India,
Independence, Partition’ created a furore in party circles. With Assembly elections scheduled for October 13 in the state, Singh accused the Congress government in the state and Centre for failing to control the price rise. He alleged that prices of essential commodities rose whenever there was a Congress-led government at the Centre. He
claimed that the NDA government had checked price rise during its rule
between 1998 and 2004.
— PTI |
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Teachers a divided
lot; babus blamed
Chandigarh, September 6 The teaching community in the state has been broadly divided on the lines of university and college teachers. While
the newly formed Ad hoc Coordination Committee of University Teachers’
Associations today rejected the appeal made by the Vice-Chancellors of
all seven universities of the state to call off the strike, the Haryana
Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisations (HFUCTO),
which was leading the agitation till now, has expressed the view that
“the government has largely fulfilled the assurances given by the
Chief Minister to its delegation on August 26 last.” Rejecting the
VCs appeal, president of the Kurukshetra University Teachers Association
(KUTA) and convener of the Ad hoc Coordination Committee of University
Teachers Associations Prof NS Kaushal said the VCs should have brought
the genuine and just demands of the teachers to the notice of the
political leadership. In a statement issued here today he said it was unfortunate that the VCs failed in their duty to protect the interest of the teaching community. On
the other hand, Vazir Nehra and Rajbit Parashar, vice-president and
general secretary of HFUCTO, respectively, said in a joint statement
that “the teaching fraternity of the state sincerely acknowledges the
distinct interest and initiative that the Chief Minister had personally
taken in addressing the major issue of revision of pay scales of the
university and college teachers of the state.” However, they urged the
government to take appropriate steps to resolve the pending issues of
the teachers. Kaushal said a teacher’s salary in Haryana would be
less that what his counterpart would get in the neighbouring states like
Punjab. He said states like UP, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa,
Delhi had implemented the revised grades for the university and college
teachers as per the UGC notification of December 31, 2008. However, president of the Haryana Government College Teachers Association (HGCTA) Dr RS Kundu said the government had fulfilled the promises given to the teachers by the Chief Minister on August 26 at his residence. The pending issues, he said, would be properly addressed in the full notification for which teachers were ready to wait till the formation of the next government. Representing the teachers of government-aided private colleges Dr UV Singh, president of their association, said here today that the notification of the revised pay scales was a milestone in the system of higher education in colleges as it had opened avenues of promotion for college teachers up to the level of associate professor. However, he urged the government to ensure the creation of posts of professors in the colleges as per the UGC notification. He said the teachers had every reason to believe that the pending issues would be solved to their satisfaction. The two factions are, however, unanimous in their anger against the bureaucracy. They believe that if the bureaucracy had not implemented the orders of the Chief Minister in tits and bits, the present problem would not have arisen. President of the Guru Jambeshwar University Teachers Association Rajesh Lohchab said the notifications issued by the state government in bits and pieces was adding to the further confusion in the minds of the teachers. Despite the best intentions of the Chief Minister, the officials were misreading the UGC notification. He said certain officials were making deliberate attempts to misinform the political leadership that the MHRD and UGC notifications were different. HFUCTO also said the present climate of agitation could have been avoided by a timely process of deliberations. It said though the teachers were aware of the importance of structural linkage between the pay revision and the possibilities of restructuring of the college and university system, the approach of the bureaucracy in implementing the UGC notification deserved condemnation. Nehra and Prashar said instead of implementing the UGC pay scales in two phases as the government had done, it should have been done through a comprehensive notification, which would have removed the apprehensions of the teachers. |
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NHAI hikes toll, yet
again
Chandigarh, September 6 The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has yet again notified a moderate to steep hike in toll charges in the northern region. This is perhaps the second major hike in less than four months. For example, the NHAI toll barriers have pasted computer print outs at the collection windows on the Chandigarh-Ambala stretch of national highway and the Karnal Toll Plaza announcing increase in the charges effective from midnights of September 1 and September 5. In case of Chandigarh-Ambala plaza, the toll has been revised upwards by 25 per cent. Instead of Rs 20, the car drivers have to dish out Rs 25 for a single journey. “This
25 per cent increase in toll is shocking. What extra the NHAI or its
contractor has done for the road users to make this abrupt and steep
hike,” says Hardeep Singh, a businessman who travels from Chandigarh
to Ambala in his car every second or third day. Several other frequent
travellers on the Chandigarh-Ambala or Chandigarh-Delhi stretch have
echoed the same sentiments. “The toll we pay must be reflected in
improvement of road travel facilities. In this case, we have been only
witnessing increase in toll charges. Earlier, it was at Dera Bassi
Bridge where the contractor continued to charge even after his valid
contract had expired.” In case of Karnal, the hike is nominal. From
Rs 75 for a single entry, it is gone up to Rs 78 now. For a return
permit valid for 24 hours, toll charges have gone up from Rs 108 to Rs
117. The NHAI should inform the public through newspaper
advertisements or other media channels. “Increase in charges is
announced without any prior notice. Yesterday, when I had only Rs 75 to
pay at the toll plaza in Karnal, I was told that it has been raised to
Rs 78 from midnight. Fortunately, my co-passenger had some coins,
otherwise the toll plaza staff were well withing their rights to turn my
back,” commented Sant Singh, a villager from near Shahbad Markanda. The road users want that the NHAI should make public the formula by which the toll charges are decided and the reasons that necessitate hikes so frequently. In 2009 alone, they rue, toll charges have already been revived four times. Those who travel between Chandigarh and Delhi complain that instead of two toll collection plazas, the number has gone up to three now with a new plaza for Panipat elevated road. Incidentally, the toll charges at Panipat Plaza remain unchanged at Rs 20 for a single car entry. |
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PGIMS nurses allege
harassment
Gurgaon, September 6 Instead of considering their demands sympathetically, the authorities concerned added insult to their injury by appointing a staff nurse - the junior-most post in the nursing cadre - nursing superintendent, who heads the nursing wing. The story had been highlighted in these columns yesterday. In normal course, a staff nurse becomes nursing sister after putting in several years of service; and is subsequently elevated as matron and then as nursing superintendent. However, in this instance, these norms were bypassed and the said staff nurse was directly made nursing superintendent. As if to facilitate the appointment, the authorities concerned changed the eligibility criteria for the post of nursing superintendent prior to making the appointment. After being elevated as nursing superintendent, the said official issued a press statement, to which the nurses took a strong exception. As many as 270 nurses gave a signed representation to the Vice-Chancellor of Pt Bhagwat Dayal Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, alleging inappropriate use of post, power and misrepresentation of facts by the nursing superintendent. Copies of the communiqué were also sent to the Haryana Governor, Chief Minister, Health Minister and Health Commissioner. The state authorities recently directed the university administration to inquire into the matter. PGIMS nurses allege that following this they were being harassed and forced to withdraw their name from the complaint. “Nurses
are being made to sign declarations that they had been tricked into
putting their signatures on the said complaint or these were not their
signatures,” maintained a PGIMS nurse who did not want to be named. According to legal experts, it seems highly illogical that the complainants, whose full names, designations and departments had been clearly mentioned in the representation along with their signatures, could claim that the signatures were not theirs. Nonetheless, what stance do the university authorities adopt regarding the matter remains to be seen. |
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Couple found dead;
suicide suspected
Karnal, September 6 The deceased identified as Hawa Singh (24) was found hanging with a rope in the room while his wife Moni was lying dead.
Moni, a resident of Ambala, got married to Hawa Singh about one and a half years ago. The incident came to light when Suman
Devi, mother of Hawa Singh, went to their room to give tea. However, no one opened the door despite repeated knocks. Suspecting something ominous, she went to the back of the room and peeped through the window, only to find her son hanging with a rope. Hirda Ram, father of
Moni, in his statement said the couple committed suicide after an argument this
morning. Karnal ASP Ashwani Shenwi, assistant director, FSL, Madhuban, Sahib Singh and other police officials sent the bodies for a postmortem after spot examination and collecting forensic evidence. The ASP said a case had been registered and investigations had been started. The cause of the death would be ascertained after the postmortem report, he
added. Hawa Singh was the youngest among six sons of Suman Devi and had no child, which often became the cause for altercations, family sources said. |
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Encroachments in
grain market to be removed
Panipat, September 6 The Tribune had recently highlighted that the officials concerned were finding it hard to proceed against the encroachers at the Samalkha grain market fearing that any action against them could lead to strong resistance by the illegal occupants. The board, at a recently held meeting in Panchkula, observed that it was a serious matter and hence it was decided that the encroachments be removed. The executive officer-cum-secretary of the Samalkha grain market, along with other senior officials of the department, was asked to seek help from the district administration as well as the police to undertake an anti-encroachment drive to vacate the government land. As per the official records, the HSAMB had come up with a new grain market at Samalkha under a special World Bank scheme. Soon after, plots were allotted to commission agents and 6,562.65 square yards of land, meant for roads and sewerage, was allegedly encroached upon by them. The commission agents allegedly constructed concrete shops on the encroached land. According to the figures, the market price of the said land was calculated to Rs 24.11 crore. Though a number of complaints were filed with the senior authorities, no action was initiated against the encroachers. Under pressure from various quarters, the local market committee passed a resolution in which it was decided that the encroached land would be registered in the name of those who were occupying it, at the market prices. However, this move was thwarted as the land meant for roads and sewerage could not be allotted to the commission agents. According to a report prepared by the market committee, of the 151 shops that exist in the grain market, 109 had been made after encroaching upon government land. The move of the HSAMB came in the wake of an RTI petition filed by social activist PP Kapoor, which forced the authorities to initiate action in this regard. |
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Fake currency easily
available in Nepal: Kingpin
Yamunanagar, September 6 He further said two kinds of fake currency are prevalent there; one amounting to Rs 1 lakh, comprising fake currency notes of Rs 500, which can be procured against the payment of Rs 40,000, and the other of same amount against the payment of Rs 45,000. Incidentally, the main supplier of fake currency in the two states, Chauhan, was running a vegetable shop in a border village of Nepal. He got involved in this fake currency racket to make easy money, eight months ago. Chauhan, a Nepali resident, who was caught along with his three accomplices by the Punjab police on August 1 was brought here on production warrants. He allegedly supplied more than Rs 1.5 lakh fake currency notes of Rs 500 to a resident of Ghanauli, Bina Devi, here. Bina was caught by the police with fake currency notes from the city on August 5. The fake currency of Rs 500, which is available for Rs 45,000, is difficult to be differentiated from the original one. He had made three trips to Punjab and Haryana and had supplied around Rs 11 lakh fake currency notes of Rs 500 to his contacts, Chauhan told the police. The fake currency was easily available in Kathmandu. Chauhan was getting it from there, DSP Mukesh Kumar said. “The
name of Chauhan surfaced as kingpin after Bina Devi was arrested with
fake currency amounting to Rs 1 lakh. Rs 500 seized from her were of “fine
quality”, the DSP further said. |
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US ISKCON devotees to
have Mewat cow milk
Nuh (Mewat), September 6 A delegation of the ISKCON, USA, visited the Mewat area and appreciated the efforts being put in by the SIP to encourage cattle rearing among the local populace, which comprises mainly Meo Muslims. The delegation, which comprised USA-based ISKCON trustees and devotees - Avinash, Anil, V Joseph and Rodrigues - placed orders for the supply of 20,000 raw and chilled cow milk from Mewat to the USA daily. “The
visitors also agreed to set up a milk chilling plant in the Mewat area
at an estimated cost of Rs 1.5 crore,” disclosed Mohan Singh Ahluwalia,
a former Haryana Commissioner (disabilities), who has been spearheading
the movement for several years. But how did it all happen? To this,
Ahluwalia replied that they had sent some ghee made of their cow milk to
a gaushala (cowshed) in Kosi Kalan village. “They sent some of it to
ISKCON, New Delhi, from where it eventually reached the USA,” he
maintained. Now, it so happened that there was a NASA scientist among the ISKCON devotees in the USA. He got the ghee tested in a laboratory there and found it pure and good for health. Following this, they began tracking down the source of the ghee and finally reached Mewat. “It’s
like a dream come true for poor cattle rearers of the area, who have to
face many hardships… it seems that our efforts have started bearing
fruit,” Ahluwalia observed. He revealed that another delegation from the USA would visit the place again to identify a location for the milk plant and work out the other modalities in this regard. |
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Change in BEd
syllabus opposed
Chandigarh, September 6 The Association of Educational Colleges has protested against the change at this late stage. In a letter written to the Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, vice-president of the association AS Oberoi said though the change in the syllabus was welcome as this had come after a decade or so, it should have been implemented from the next academic session. The university has deleted some of the options available under the head of teaching of school subjects like music, art, economics, geography and civics. The change was noticed, Oberoi said, on the university website only on September 2, while the classes started from August 18 last. He said there were certain students who could not opt for any other subject but music and art, as they had not studied any other subject at the graduation level. Oberoi urged the Vice-Chancellor to continue with the old syllabus for the present session so that the students who had already taken admission should not suffer for no fault of their. |
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Man gets life term
for killing sister
Fatehabad, September 6 The police had booked the accused, Chander Singh, on the complaint of his brother, Gurmail Singh, a resident of Khanauri, on March 15, 2009. He alleged that their sister got married 14 years ago and her husband had died four years after the marriage. She married another man, but the marriage did not sustain for long and she came to Khanauri to live with her parents. Chander Singh allegedly suspected her character and killed her with a sharp-edged weapon on the fateful day after a verbal duel on the issue. She was admitted to the general hospital in Tohana, where she succumbed to her injuries. |
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3 of family killed in
accident
Rewari, September 6 The deceased have been identified as Ashok Kumar (35), his six-month-old son Anshu and his mother-in-law
Ram Rati. Rekha Devi, wife of Ashok Kumar, who was critically injured, has been referred to the PGIMS, Rohtak, while driver Raj Singh has been hospitalised here. Ashok Kumar, a resident of Dhani Kolana village, 28 km from here, along with other family members, was on his way to Palwal from Dhani Kolana. He was employed in the state panchayat department in Palwal. His wife Rekha Devi too is a government employee. |
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2 killed in accidents
Rewari, September 6 Pinki (16), a student of class IX and daughter of Prithvi Singh, died when the bicycle she was riding on was reportedly hit by a truck on the Rewari-Garhi-Bolni road near Dawana village, 5 km from here, yesterday. The mishap occurred when she was returning to Dawana village after attending the school. In another incident, Pramod Kumar (17), a resident of Alwar district in Rajasthan, was killed while his cousin Lokesh Kumar, a resident of Delhi, was injured when the motorcycle they were riding on reportedly collided with an unknown vehicle on the Rewari-Jadra road in Balawas village near here last evening. The mishap took place when they were on their way to Rewari. The police has registered cases in this regard. |
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Farmer murdered
Yamunanagar, September 6 The land dispute was suspected to be the cause of murder, said the police. Rampal was living alone and owned valuable agricultural land. He was sleeping when assailants entered his house and hit him repeatedly with sharp-edged weapons. Having sustained multiple serious injuries, he died there only. The
incident came to light when the victim’s servant, Bahadur, found
Rampal dead late last night. Later, Bahadur informed the neighbours and
the police about the incident. |
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2-day mourning in
state
Chandigarh, September 6 Governor
Jagannath Pahadia and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda have
expressed deep shock and sorrow over the death of Brar. — TNS |
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Holiday in Jhajjar
today
Chandigarh, September 6 The holiday has been declared in view of the cremation of former Union Minister Sher Singh, who died yesterday. The cremation will take place tomorrow at his native village, Bhaghpur, in Jhajjar district. |
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Subsidy for farmers
Kaithal, September 6 Additional Deputy Commissioner RC Verma said here today that to create interest among farmers for sugarcane cultivation it had been decided to advise them to sow other crops along with the main crop so that they could increase their income. Under this scheme, farmers will be provided interest-free credit for purchasing sugarcane seeds. Besides, those opting for sugarcane farming will get a bag of DAP and a bag of urea free of cost. |
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Alliance with BJP
