Chandigarh, January 23
Both the INLD and the Congress are rejoicing over the Ellenabad Assembly byelection result. For the INLD, it is an electoral victory; for the Congress, it is a “moral victory in a drawn match”, as Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has termed it.

Hooda said despite 3 per cent increase in the polled votes, the INLD share had come down by about 1 per cent, while the Congress increased its vote percentage by over 7 per cent.

With the victory, the INLD’s strength in the Assembly has gone up to 31, the number of seats it had secured in the general elections. The Ellenabad seat was vacated by INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala, who was simultaneously elected from Uchana Kalan by defeating veteran Congress leader Birender Singh.

The Congress has the consolation of seeing INLD candidate Abhey Singh falling short of the victory margin of his father by about 10,000 votes. Many in the party feel that if the Congress had put up a united face during the byelection, the result might have been more to its liking. The Sirsa Congress was as divided as the main Congress was during the general elections. It is an open secret that many among the Sirsa Congress leaders did not work for the success of the party nominee.

The senior Chautala has, meanwhile, described his party’s victory as a “moral defeat” of the ruling party and demanded that Hooda should quit immediately.

Terming the poll result as a public endorsement of his party’s policies, Chautala said the result was a referendum against Hooda’s “regional bias” and the way the Congress formed the government with the help of horse trading.

Congress spokesman Ved Prakash Vidrohi said the outcome of the bypoll would have no impact on the stability of the government as it enjoyed the support of 53 MLAs in a House of 90. He said the Hooda government would continue to work for the development of all areas of the state.

Vidrohi said rather the INLD should ponder over the reasons why its victory margin got reduced. This only showed that the people of Sirsa district wanted freedom from the Chautalas’ shackles. 

Sirsa, January 23
The Indian National Lok Dal managed to hold together its old voters for victory of its candidate Abhey Singh Chautala in the Ellenabad Assembly bypoll, while Congress candidate Bharat Singh Beniwal lost the battle despite increasing his vote bank by over 10,000 votes.

Abhey Singh got 64,813 votes in the bypoll, the results for which were announced today.

This is only marginally higher than the 64,567 votes received by his father Om Prakash Chautala, when the former Chief Minister won this seat by defeating Congress candidate Bharat Singh Beniwal in the Assembly elections held in October last year.

Beniwal, on the other hand, polled 10,442 more than his previous vote share of 48,144, and got 58,586 votes this time.

Besides the INLD, no other major opposition party had fielded its candidates in this bypoll, while the HJC, the BJP and the CPM contested the October 2009 elections and together they had polled a little less than 10,000 votes - 3,616 by Amir Chand Mehta (BJP), 3,360 by Devi Lal Beniwal (HJC) and 2,605 by PS Khosa (CPM).

People, it is generally perceived, vote either for the Chautalas or against them in their home district, Sirsa.

In a toughly contested bypoll that witnessed strong polarisation of votes, it will be interesting to analyse which party the voters of other opposition parties supported - the Congress or the INLD?

Kusum Chaudhary of the Samast Bharatiya Party, who, unlike other 12 contestants, campaigned seriously since December 26, had to remain content with 1,353 votes only. Sudhir Beniwal, her party’s candidate in the 2009 elections, secured 816 votes in those elections.

Interestingly, the ploy of fielding three more candidates sharing their first names with Congress nominee Bharat Singh Beniwal did not pay off to his opponents.

Bharat Singh Mochiwala, Bharat Singh Banwala and Bharat Kumar had filed their nomination papers in this bypoll and Beniwal had accused the Chautalas of fielding these to create confusion among rural voters.

While the nomination papers of Bharat Kumar were rejected, as he was found of less than 25 years of age, Bharat Singh Mochiwala and Bharat Singh Banwala could secure 157 and 62 votes only.

Deepak Goyal, an Independent candidate, who polled 36 votes, got the least votes among the 15 candidates in the fray.

Sonepat, January 23
INLD leaders in the district today hailed the victory of party candidate Abhey Singh Chautala in the Ellenabad byelection and termed it as a mandate against the policies and programmes of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government in Haryana.

Brig OP Chaudhary, former Vice-Chancellor of the MDU, Rohtak, and state president of the intellectual cell of the party, said the bypoll result was a sort of referendum against the policies and working of the congress government in the state. He was of the opinion that the Chief Minister should tender his resignation.

District president of the party Padam Singh Dahiya said by electing Abhey Singh Chautala, people had reposed faith in the leadership of Om Prakash Chautala.

However, Professor Virender, Political Adviser to the Chief Minister, said the Ellenabad result was not going to have any impact on the state government.

KURUKSHETRA: Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda described the result as “moral victory” of the Congress.

Talking to mediapersons on the Kurukshetra University campus here on Saturday, Hooda said in the Assembly elections, the Congress candidate had lost from Ellenabad by a margin of about 16,000 votes, but now this margin had reduced to merely 6,000 votes.

CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal has said the decisive victory of Abhey Chautala is a reflection of the pent-up anger of the people against the Congress for deliberately manipulating price rise.

In a statement issued here, he said the election had shown that people of Haryana did not recognise the Hooda government that was standing on the “crutches of Independents managed through horse trading”.

Kurukshetra, January 23
A two-day science conference to mark the birth centenary of renowned Indian nuclear scientist Homi J Bhabha began here today with emphasis on developing nuclear energy to meet the energy requirements of the country, which will increase manifold in the future.

In his keynote address, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, Dr S Banerjee, exhorted students to opt for science and be the “masters of gadgets, not their slaves”.

Expressing concern over bright students not opting for science, Banerjee said it was unfortunate that bright students were being wooed by fashion-driven careers and were not opting for science.

He said nuclear energy was the need of the hour and should be developed fast to meet the energy gap and to cope with increasing energy needs in the future.

Dr Anil Kakodkar, former Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, underlined the need for creating a balance between the GDP growth and the current energy requirement of India and also plan to meet the future requirements of energy.

Detailing the advantage of nuclear energy, he said: “If we import 40,000 units of uranium now, we can produce 40, 000 MW by using the three-stage closed cycle and multiplier factor and the uranium once imported can be used many times in the future. This is energy independence, but a lot of research and development is required and we have to take students to a level from where they can solve problems independently,” he added.

Inaugurating the conference, organised jointly by the Department of Science and Technology, Haryana, and Kurukshetra University, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said taking a cue from the multi-faceted personality of Dr Bhabha, the Haryana government had made concerted efforts to harness science and technology to resolve the problems of the people, be it agriculture, animal husbandry, industry, mapping and monitoring of natural resources or any other sector.

He said to motivate students to opt for the science stream, the number of schools offering science at the plus two level had been increased. Expressing gratitude to the Department of Atomic Energy for its decision to set up a 2,800 MW nuclear power plant in Fatehbad district, he said it would ease the energy situation in the state.

He also requested Banerjee and Kakodkar to set up a research centre in the state, especially in the field of water technology, nuclear medicine, biotechnology and solar energy.

Education Minister Geeta Bhukal said the government proposed to open a science museum in every district and upgrade the laboratories in schools and colleges. 

Chandigarh, January 23
Haryana will launch two new schemes for schoolchildren on this Republic Day.

Stating this here today, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the new schemes would be known as Indira Bal Swasthya Yojana and Nehru Drishti Yojana.

He said the Indira Bal Swasthya Yojana would be a novel concept of providing preventive and curative healthcare to all children from their birth up to 18 years of age. The scheme would be implemented jointly by the Departments of Education and Women and Child Development. It would focus on timely detection and treatment of deficiency diseases and disability in children.

The scheme would be implemented in four phases and it would cover more than 40 lakh children. In the first phase, 14 lakh primary school students would be covered. The scheme would be launched in Jhajjar on January 26 and it would simultaneously be implemented all over the state.

He said referral slips with the IBSY stamp would enable the children to get treatment on priority at health centres. Child health clinics would be organised in district hospitals on every second Saturday. During these camps, specialist doctors would examine children and give free-of-cost treatment.

Giving details of the second scheme, Hooda said the Nehru Drishti Yojana aimed at controlling blindness. The state required about 3,200 cornea whereas only about half of the requirement was being met.

The major reasons were lack of awareness and absence of eye collection centres in the state. To make it convenient for relatives of eye donors, 20 eye collection centres were being established. The scheme would be launched in Faridabad on January 26.

He said health ambulance service no 102 had been linked with eye donation. Anyone who would like to donate eyes could call 102 and doctors from government hospitals would reach his residence to collect the eyes.

Panchkula, January 23
Providing relief to thousands of plot holders of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), the Supreme Court has directed that allottees cannot be issued demand notice against enhancement till there was no award on the land from a court of law.

Disposing of a special leave petition of HUDA, the apex court also directed that in case the plot holders have already paid enhanced price or part thereof, then the allottee shall be entitled to seek refund of the excess amount.

The case dates back to four years ago in January 2006 when the plot holders of Sector 26 moved the high court against demand notice of fourth enhancement at the rate of Rs 453.57 per square metre issued by HUDA.

The allottees contended that the demand notice was vague as no court of law had declared any award on the land for which they were being asked for the additional amount.

They also contended that HUDA was calculating the rate of enhancement by its own method and it was not justified.

On July 20, 2006, the high court delivered its decision in favour of the plot holders against which HUDA moved to the Supreme Court.

HUDA said the high court had ignored the fact that by virtue of award dated December 12, 1998, passed by additional district judge in the reference made at the instance of the landholders it had become necessary to charge additional price.

Now on January 18, disposing of special leave petition filed by HUDA, Justice GS Singhvi and Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly of the Supreme Court observed that: “The respondent (allottees) has placed on record order dated July 25, 2006, passed by single judge of the high court who after taking cognisance of the fact that the award passed by the additional district judge has been set aside by the high court and the matter has been remitted for fresh determination of the compensation payable to the landholders, quashed the demand of enhanced price.”

The apex court further directed that the petition is disposed of as infructuous with liberty to the petitioners herein to raise demand for additional price/enhanced price as and when it becomes necessary to pay higher compensation to the landholders in terms of the award passed by the competent court.

Faridabad, January 23
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today launched the first phase of the City Bus Service here which will connect various parts of the city and felicitate its connectivity with Delhi, Gurgaon and Palwal.

Hooda said the government was committed to restoring the earlier glory of advancement of Faridabad. The bus services have been started under a central scheme known as Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. In the first phase, a total of 150, including 45 AC buses, have been sanctioned. All of them are low-floor buses. Besides, 20 mini-buses have been included for the city.

Principal Secretary and Financial Commissioner, Transport Department, Haryana, Sameer Mathur and Transport Commissioner, Haryana, Anand Mohan Sharan said 125 bus stands would be created in Faridabad city. Eighteen routes have been identified in the city. The buses as well as the bus stands would be laced with geo positioning system (GPS) that would display the location of the buses on routes. 

Sirsa, January 23
In what is being claimed as the world’s largest dancing event, 15,000 men and women danced in unison for world peace in Dera Sacha Sauda here last evening.

Those who performed in the event were volunteers of the Green S Welfare Force of Dera Sacha Sauda and the occasion was its foundation day.

“As many as 9,000 men and 6,000 women volunteers of the force danced in harmony,” claimed Pawan Insan, a spokesperson for the dera.

He said the dance event was dedicated to world peace.

He claimed that it was a “world record dance performance” in which 40 lines of 150 women each and 60 lines of 150 men each danced on the chanting of bhajan by dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

The Green S Welfare Force was set up by the dera after the Gujarat earthquake in 2001 and since then it has volunteered services during the Bihar floods, heavy snow in Jammu and Kashmir, in Andaman and Nicobar and Tamil Nadu during tsunami and during the Rajasthan drought. The force had 32,000 members, said Insan. 

Fatehabad, January 23
Justice Sham Sunder of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today said lawyers had a greater role to play in the development of the country.

Addressing members of the District Bar Association after inaugurating the newly constructed lawyers’ chambers in the district courts, the judge said lawyers played a positive role in providing justice to those, whose rights had been infringed upon by others, including the government.

He said good lawyers contributed towards strengthening the faith of common people in the judicial system.

PS Gillankhera, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Haryana, said lok adalats had played a vital role in minimising litigations in courts. He announced a grant of Rs 3 lakh from his discretionary funds for the chambers.

Surinder Sain, president of the District Bar Association, said 146 chambers had been constructed in the courts at a cost of over Rs 2 crore. 

Jind, January 23
Eight persons, including six women and a child, were killed and at least 12 were injured when the Tata Sumo they were travelling in collided head-on with a milk van near Hatho village on National Highway-65 here today.

The accident is said to have caused due to thick fog. While the injured have been shifted to the Civil Hospital here, nine of them, including three children, who were grievously injured, have been referred to the PGIMS, Rohtak. The police has registered a case against the driver of the milk van, who fled after the mishap.

The police said all passengers travelling in Tata Sumo were on their way to Sherukheri village in Kaithal district from a pilgrimage in Bhanbhori village of Bhiwani district. The driver of Tata Sumo was also killed in the accident.

Sources said Sumo was overloaded and carrying about 20 passengers, all residents of same village.