Ellenabad, January 1
Abhey Singh Chautala will be contesting the January 20 Ellenabad byelection as the INLD candidate against Congress nominee Bharat Singh Beniwal.

Party supremo Om Parkash Chautala announced Abhey Singh’s name today. A party press note said Abhey Singh would file his nomination papers tomorrow, the last date for doing so. A rally would be held in the town thereafter.

Abhey Singh Chautala (46) is chairman of the Zila Parishad, Sirsa, president of the Indian Boxing Federation and vice-president of the Indian Olympic Association.

Abhey Singh represented the Rori assembly seat from 2000 to 2005. He was elected to the assembly from Rori in a byelection in May 2000 following the resignation of his father Om Parkash Chautala.

This time too Chautala won both the Ellenabad and Uchana Kalan assembly seats but vacated the former. During the General Election-2000, Chautala had won from both Rori and Narwana. However, all similarities end here.

The byelection for the Rori seat was held soon after Chautala had won the assembly elections by a thumping majority and there was tremendous goodwill for the government headed by him. Abhey Singh won that election by a record margin of 86,011 votes. But the January 20 byelection for Ellenabad will be held with Bhupinder Singh Hooda in power. Abhey Singh’s candidature, though announced only today, was a foregone conclusion.

With Abhey Singh’s nomination, a keen contest is on the cards. Chautala, whose resignation necessitated the byelection, had won this seat by 16,423 votes against Bharat Singh Beniwal, who has been fielded by the Congress again.

Candidates of all other political parties had proved inconsequential in the October 2009 elections. This time too no other party, except the Samast Bharatiya Party, has opted to thrown the hat in the rink.

It will be interesting to see whether or not the electorate will go with Abhey Singh as it had done with his father. Meanwhile, two more candidates, Murari Lal Dhanuka and Vinod Kumar, filed their nominations today.

Karnal, January 1
Ahead of the Ellenabad byelection, the INLD received a shot in the arm with HJC’s youth president Rakesh Kamboj joining the party here today.

Former CM Om Prakash Chautala said Kamboj would be given due respect in the party.

Speaking on the occasion, Kamboj said he had decided to join Chautala’s party as it was a party dedicated to the common man and believed in working for all sections of society.

Kamboj, a known supporter of Bhajan Lal, has been a former Congress MLA from Indri. When Bhajan Lal’s son Kuldip Bishnoi parted ways with the Congress to form the HJC, he went along him and was disqualified from the assembly for having switched loyalties.In the enauing byelection in May 2008, he lost to Congress candidate Bhim Sen Mehta by a margin of 5,865 votes.

In the assembly polls last October, Kamboj contested from Indri on the HJC ticket and finished third with 26,153 votes.

Meanwhile, Chautala claimed that the Congress, despite tall claims, was in no position to secure the Ellenabad seat. On the Ruchika case, the former CM, who had come under fire for having shielded the former DGP, SPS Rathore, said he would welcome any decision of the court in the case.

He demanded a through probe into the Madhuban case, demanding that the guilty be brought to book. He said the INLD was against privatisation of government utilities and would oppose any move to hand over government functions to private parties.

Chandigarh, January 1
Kurukshetra residents are perplexed as to why the INLD government headed by Om Prakash Chautala extended patronage to the then DGP SPS Rathore facing a CBI inquiry for molesting budding tennis player Ruchika Girhotra, more so when the late Devi Lal had held a rally against him his way of functioning.

A public meeting was organised by the Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD) in Kurukshetra on March 24, 1975.

It was addressed, among others, by BLD president Charan Singh, who later became Prime Minister of the country, and Devi Lal, patron of the INLD who later became Deputy Prime Minister. One of the speakers was former MLA, Dharam Singh Rathi, who was almost blind. Rathi criticised Rathore, then SP of Kurukshetra, and the then Chief Minister Bansi Lal on the case.Immediately after the public meeting, Rathi was picked up by the police.

He was tortured and paraded half-naked on the streets of Kurukshetra.

On learning of Rathi’s ordeal, Devi Lal returned to the town and decided to launch an agitation against the police brutality. However, local residents were so terrorised by the police that none came forward to join him in his cause.

So much so that nobody was even willing to lend him a public address system.

But this did not deter Devi Lal the fighter. He walked the streets of the town and invited everyone to the protest rally against Rathore.

The rally turned out to be a big success. Devi Lal also sat in dharna, which continued for days.Ultimately, the government announced a probe by the then Ambala Divisional Commissioner.

It is another matter that this inquiry report, if it was submitted at all, met the same fate as most inquiry reports usually do.

A former officer of the Agriculture Department, Moti Ram, who was a student at that time, said the fact that Chautala had retained Rathore as his DGP had come as a shock to admirers of Devi Lal.

He said it was strange that Om Prakash Chautala had forgotten how his father had fought against the functioning of the man. 

Chandigarh, January 1
The Haryana government has asked all departments to send information regarding the present status of posts filled by differently abled persons so as to clear the backlog of jobs meant for them at the earliest.

Stating this here recently, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment, Dhanpat Singh said the departments had been asked to send the information in a prescribed pro forma before January 15.

He said as per the reservation policy of the state government, 3 per cent posts were reserved for differently abled persons. Of this, 1 per cent was meant for the persons with locomotor disability, 1 per cent for the hearing and speech impaired and 1 per cent for visually challenged persons.

The information had been sought with a view to giving due share in government jobs to the differently abled as per the state government policy. — TNS

Chandigarh, January 1
Keeping in view the low visibility due to heavy fog in the state these days, the Haryana Police has advised transport agencies and other road users to avoid entering the state before 9 am, if possible, or till the time the visibility improves.

A police spokesperson said here today that people had been advised to use pubic transport like buses, railways etc. for safety. He further said the transport agencies had been advised to avoid overloading of passengers and goods, parking on roads, drunken driving and

over-speeding. Drivers had been asked to use fog lights, maintain proper distance from other vehicles and drive their vehicles along the yellow marking.

They had been asked to ensure reflectors on their vehicles too.

In case the vehicles break down, toll free helpline number 1033 and 1073 can be used for immediate help from the police, he added. 

Kurukshetra, January 1
To commemorate the birth centenary of Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Kurukshetra University and the Departments of Science and Technology and Education, Haryana, will jointly hold a science conference here on January 23-24.

Stating this to mediapersons here today, Dr DDS Sandhu, VC, Kurukshetra University, said the university would host the event in which 2,200 students and 200 teachers from various schools and colleges would be invited. They would interact with world-renowned scientists at special sessions.

Dr S Banerjee, chairman, the Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Anil Kakodkar, Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, Prof M Barma from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Prof IV Yakhmi, associate director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Prof SK Brahamchari, DG, CSIR, Prof AK Sood, Indian Institute of Science, and Prof AK Grover from the TIFR would be among the key speakers.

On the theme of the conference, Dr Sandhu said: “The theme is to address the declining popularity of basic sciences among students and to rejuvenate their interest in science education and research.

“Although India has made remarkable progress in the scientific field since Independence, it has been observed by scientists, researchers, and academicians, as highlighted at several fora, that the interest of students in basic sciences has declined considerable due to various reasons.”

Dr Sandhu said the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Education, Haryana, were making serious efforts to motivate the students to choose basic sciences as a career option.

The government was committed to providing funds to schools, colleges and universities to encourage the best talent to take up science as a career option, he added.

“To realise our vision of India as a knowledge society, as stated by Dr Bhabha in many of his deliberations, it is essential to build a strong foundation in basic sciences by attracting a larger number of talented students to this stream. “This foundation in science is needed to create the next generation of leaders and competent scientific talent and teachers,” Dr Sandhu said.

Hisar, January 1
Rajya Sabha member Tarlochan Singh today demanded that the Haryana government issued a white paper on the SEZs in the state. Addressing mediapersons here, he said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was much “enthused” by SEZs when he first assumed office. He had then made tall claims that thousands would be employed at these SEZs.

However, these SEZs were nowhere in sight and all claims of employment generation had proved to be false. Apparently, the propaganda was aimed at getting cheap popularity at the cost of the jobless.

The MP said the Chief Minister had also assured equitable distribution of irrigation waters.

However, Sirsa, Fatehabad and Hisar districts continued to face acute shortage of canal water. He asked the Chief Minister to explain as to why this situation persisted. The MP said Hooda had opposed the politics of “Aya Ram, Gaya Ram”. Yet when the Congress failed to get a majority in the assembly, he resorted to defections to remain in office. He welcomed the permision granted to the CBI to prosecute Sajjan Kumar for his alleged role in 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. He sharply criticised former Home Minister Sampat Singh, saying when Ruchika’s molestation took place he should have ordered registration of a case instead of sending the file to the then CM. 

Gurgaon, January 1
Gurgaon will get inter-city and intra-city bus service before the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi this year.

The Haryana government is finalising the details of the service, which will be based on the public-private partnership (PPP) model, Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Rajender Kataria said.

He said the inter-city bus service would connect Gurgaon with New Delhi and Faridabad.

The buses and bus stands for the buses would be GPS-tracked.

A consultant had been appointed to finalise the routes of the buses, Kataria said.

He also said that efforts would be made to link the workplaces and metro stations with residential areas.

Chandigarh, January 1
"Good does not suffice when better is possible. You have worked well, but there is scope for doing more. The New Year must begin with a new resolve to accelerate development.”

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, under pressure from political opponents to fine-tune the delivery mechanism, gave these directions to administrative secretaries here today.

Hooda, who addressed senior IAS officers on the first day of the New Year, said though in the past five years many new schemes were launched, there was a need to consolidate these and focus on their effective implementation.

“Implementation must be time-bound,” he emphasised.

He directed the officers to focus on core functions of their respective departments and identify key performance indicators.

He asked them to visit the field to ensure effective implementation of schemes and timely utilisation of funds, especially in case of central schemes.

“The officers should identify five to 10 most important performance indicators and convey these to the CM Secretariat by January 10,” he announced. Asking the officers to visit all districts once every quarter, Hooda said they should maintain a diary of field visits. Significant achievements of various departments should be highlighted in the media as these would not only project the image of the department and the government, but also enable many others to avail the benefit of various schemes. He told Chief Secretary Urvashi Gulati to review the progress of various projects on a monthly basis. She was asked to assess by January 15 the central schemes, which needed to be pursued vigorously.

The administrative secretaries were told that in case of delay in the implementation of any central scheme, it should be reported to the Chief Secretary.

A quarterly report on these schemes should be submitted by each department to the Chief Minister Secretariat.

It was decided that each department would prepare its own transfer policy keeping in view its nature of job. Hooda suggested that to check delays, in case an official was on leave, his work should be dealt by other staff members so that one’s absence did not cause more delay.

He sought suggestions from officers on further improving transparency and government functioning. Gulati said the state had developed fast during the past five years that “we have to compete with ourselves".

She urged the secretaries to give priority to issues concerning the establishment and ensure that promotions were done on time and the employees did not take to litigation against the government. 

REWARI: Four armed miscreants reportedly looted two liquor vends - in Kosli town and Gugodh village - on Thursday. They looted Rs 32,000 from the vend at Kosli and Rs 9,000 from the vend at Gugodh. Besides, the gangsters also made an abortive bid to loot two other liquor vends - one each at Lukhi village and at Guriani village in the Kosli region. A case has been registered. In another incident, three persons allegedly looted Rs 3,765 as well as three cartons of liquor and four cartons of beer from Budh Ram Yadav’s liquor vend in Jharoda village, near Kosli, on Wednesday. — OC