Chandigarh, December 9
Haryana Janhit Congress supremo and MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi is in no mood to relent. A week after he sought to know the fate of his five MLAs from Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha, for which a response is still awaited, Bishnoi today demanded their disqualification from the assembly.

Accompanied by his lawyer, Satya Pal Jain, Bishnoi filed five separate petitions seeking disqualification of all MLAs, who had left the HJC and "merged" with the Congress on November 10 as was "pronounced" by the Speaker.

"A week ago, I met the Speaker and was assured that I would be given a copy of the order shortly. It has been a month since my MLAs left the party and the Speaker announced that they had merged with the Congress. Officially, I don't even know whether they are still with me or in the Congress. It is very strange that the very Speaker who announced the merger in 30 minutes has not given a copy of the order in 30 days. The Congress knows it is on the backfoot that is why order is being withheld. The Speaker too seems unsure in the case," he said.

Maintaining that the move of his MLAs was "unconstitutional" and "in violation" of the Anti-Defection Law, Bishnoi, supported by Jain, said there was no provision in the Anti-Defection Act that allowed an MLA to contest on one party ticket and join another party soon afterwards.

"Also, my MLAs who joined the Congress, did not fulfil the criterion of 2/3rd members since one of them, Satpal Sangwan, had been suspended a day prior to the alleged merger. I will make sure that my MLAs go back to the people who voted them to power. For this appeal, too, we will give the Speaker some time to take action. In case there is no response, we will move the court," Bishnoi said.

In the absence of the Speaker, who was out of station, his secretary, Kuldip Singh, accepted petitions filed by Bishnoi who spoke to the former on telephone.

Former BJP MP Jain said: "The Speaker, under the Constitution, has to act like a tribunal and we are confident that he will he will not play a partisan role. The Speaker, in allowing the merger, only acted in his administrative capacity. Let's see what he does with our appeals before we decide to proceed further. Anyway, what the MLAs have done is not permissible and in complete violation of the Anti-Defection Law."

He said the action of the MLAs was not a case of merger but a case of defecting from one party to another. "Therefore as per the Anti-Defection Law, all these five MLAs are liable to be disqualified from the membership of the house," he held.

The HJC, which contested on all 90 seats in the assembly elections, won six seats, which included that of its party chief. The five MLAs, who deserted the party and "crossed over" to the Congress on November 10, justifying their action in the name of "providing a stable government", are Rao Narinder Singh, Satpal Sangwan, Zila Ram, Vinod Bhayana and Dharam Singh Chhokar.

Chandigarh, December 9
The INLD has demanded a white paper on the financial health of Haryana. Blaming the Hooda government for the serious financial crisis in the state, secretary-general of the INLD Ajay Singh Chautala said here today that as a result of wrong policies of the Hooda government and widespread corruption, the state had been forced to borrow money even for its day-to-day activities.

When the Congress came to power in 2005, the state exchequer had a surplus of Rs 1,750 crore.

However, now the state was under an additional debt of Rs 13,000 crore.

The government had failed to fulfill its commitment to pay the arrears of the pay revision to its employees in two instalments.

Now, it had declared that the arrears would be paid in three instalments.

Chautala said due to financial crunch, the development works in the state had come to a halt and the government was planning to sell public properties.

Still, he said, there was no possibility of restarting the development works for another two years. 

Chandigarh, December 9
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has been entrusted with the responsibility of providing security and fire safety to the prestigious 1,200 MW Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Project (RGTPP) at Khedar in Hisar district.

Stating this here today, Sanjeev Kaushal, MD of the Haryana Power Generation Corporation Ltd (HPGCL), said the security and safety of the project, which was being set up at a cost of more than Rs 4,300 crore, could not be compromised at any cost. Therefore, the CISF had been engaged. He said the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had approved the deployment of 193 CISF personnel at the Khedar project on cost recovery basis from the HPGCL.

The CISF was already providing security to the Panipat Thermal Power Station and Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram Thermal Power Station (DCRTPP), Yamunanagar.

Kaushal said the threat perception at the Khedar project was high as it had two 600 MW units, which is the highest capacity of an individual unit in the northern region and therefore was a matter of pride for the state and the country. The presence of Chinese specialists at the project further increased the threat perception.

Hisar, December 9
The Haryana government will establish a veterinary university and hospital here, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced here today.

Speaking at a function held to distribute incentive money to dairy enthusiasts raising Murrah breed buffaloes, he said since animal husbandry had acquired increased importance in a predominantly agricultural economy of Haryana, it was necessary to give a fillip to veterinary sciences in the state.

Hooda said dairy farming could provide alternative livelihood to farmers as landholdings were becoming increasingly smaller. As a farmer himself, he said, he saw no other profession which could provide adequate means for earning a livelihood in villages.

He said because of their superior genetic properties Murrah buffaloes were getting popular around the globe and this had presented a good opportunity to cattle breeders. This breed, he said, had played an important role in making Haryana the acknowledged land of “doodh and dahi”.

He said in Haryana the per capita consumption of milk had gone up to 668 gm against the national average of 236 gm. This had been possible because of Murrah buffaloes.

He said he was pleased to note that rural women of Haryana were playing a big role in rearing milch cattle and thus helping raise family incomes.

Hooda said his government had raised the budget allocation for animal husbandry five times in the past four years.

The Chief Minister distributed Rs 108 crore as incentive money to 17,624 Murrah breeders of the state.

Agriculture Minister Paramvir Singh underlined the need for creating greater awareness about the Murrah breed in the state so that more breeders could establish dairies. 

Hisar, December 9
The Guru Jambheshwar University Teachers Association (GJUTA) has demanded that an Assistant Professor and an Associate Professor be included among the elected members of the Executive Council of the university.

The GJUTA chief, Dr Rajesh Lohchab, said here today that teachers had been demanding adequate representation of all categories of teachers on university bodies for greater say in university affairs, but the demand had been ignored for long.

He said teachers had been denied the benefit of past services in other institutions which was unjustified.

The demand had been pending before the authorities and no solution had been found so far.

Deploring the indifferent attitude of the authorities towards promotion of the engineering faculty on the AICTE pattern, he said there was no justification for denial of promotions which would only lead to these faculty members shifting to other institutions.

Lohchab said huge amount of arrears remained unpaid to teachers despite repeated requests to the university authorities to clear the arrears. No action had been taken so far in this direction.

The GJUTA chief also sought additional increments for those teachers who had acquired MPharma, MTech and Master of Physiotherapy degrees.

He said there was an acute shortage of housing for teachers.

He said more Type-D houses should be constructed expeditiously and those who had quit the university service should be asked to vacate their houses immediately.

Karnal, December 9
The University Grants Commission (UGC) is not in favour of using coercive measures to bind the state to implement its recommendations as education is in the concurrent list and states have freedom to take their own decision.

This was stated by vice-chairman of the UGC Prof Ved Prakash in reply to a question regarding raising the age of superannuation of college and university teachers to 65 years as recommended by the UGC in several states.

Prakash, who was here for here to deliver the valedictory address at the closing session of National Symposium on “Application of bio-nanotechnology and anima sciences for food security” said the retirement age had been raised to 65 years in the central universities but the UGC has not issued any direction to the states in 
this regard.

However, Prakash said the UGC was not in favour of stopping grants to the universities or pressurise the states to implement its agenda as any such step would be anti-development.

Most of the universities in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have not raised the retirement age from 60 years and the teachers of these universities were upset over the failure of the state governments to implement the UGC recommendations in toto.

Defending the decision to discontinue PhD and MPhil through distance education, he said it had been done in the interest of raising the quality of higher education as distance learners got less exposure as compared to regular students. However, the UGC was firm on its decision that clearing NET examination would be compulsory for admission in MPhil and PhD and there would be no relaxation in this regard.

He said 15 central universities were already functional and 14 more central universities would be set up during the 11th Five Year Plan. It was a gigantic task as each university required an investment of Rs 600 to 700 crore and recurring annual expenditure of about Rs 100 crore.

Admitting that the existing universities had failed to take lead in offering job-oriented courses, he said it was the lack of initiative that had helped private players to occupy a dominating place in vocational courses, especially in the IT sector. 

Chandigarh, December 9
The government today transferred three Deputy Commissioners with immediate effect.

Chander Parkash, who was posted as DC, Jhajjar, will now be DC of Mahendragarh vice A Sreenivas, who goes as DC, Rewari, in place of Satyaprakash TL.

Nitin Yadav, who was transferred yesterday, will continue as DC, Jhajjar.

Arun Kumar, Director, Industries and Commerce and Mines and Geology Departments, will now be Mission Director, National Rural Health Mission and Director, Environment. Satyaprakash TL will replace him. RS Kharab, ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Rewari, and Mona Sreenivas, ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Mahendragarh, will swap their places of posting. — TNS