Chandigarh, February 11
After the shock of losing its five MLAs to the Congress, the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) is now on the path toHJC to gherao Assembly resurrection. As a show of strength, HJC supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi today said that his party workers would gherao the assembly on March 5, the first day of the Budget session.

In the city to present a memorandum to Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia, Bishnoi said he had urged the former to bar the five MLAs who had joined the Congress from attending the session as the matter was “sub-judice”. During the session, his party workers would organise dharnas outside the House to protest against rising prices, power crisis, regionalism and corruption.

“The Congress government is taking the people for a ride. We will not allow this. Our workers will arrive in Chandigarh from all over

“Haryana and gherao the assembly to drive home the point. I will attend the session only if the five MLAs from my party are barred from sitting in the House since their fate is yet to be decided.

“If they are allowed to share platform with me, it would be a mockery of the system and I will not be party to it,” said Bishnoi, adding that he may come to the House only to participate in the debate on the Governor’s Address to “expose” the government.

Committed to reviving his party, Bishnoi said: “Betrayal does weigh on the mind,but you can’t keep a party on its knees for long. The Congress does not have a non-Jat face worth its name. The Jats are clearly with the Chautalas. The recent assembly election results have shown where they stand. The downfall of the Congress has begun.”

“I will be touring the districts to muster support for this March 5 gherao of the assembly. After the session, we plan to move the High Court, urging it to fix a timeframe for a decision on our MLAs. I don’t understand why notices to the HJC-turned Congress MLAs can’t be pasted on their walls if they refuse to take these. In such a situation, the courts are the only answer.

“Our enrolment drive will be over by March-end and I expect nearly 3.5 lakh new faces in the party,” he says, indicating he has his hands full for the next two months.”

He said the Governor had heard them patiently and assured to look into their demand for barring the “turncoats” from attending the session .

Kaithal, February 11
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said in view of the increasing number of court cases in the state, a proposal to set up four evening courts on trial basis was under consideration.

The Chief Minister was speaking at the inaugural function of the Judicial Complex, Guhla, today. It was inaugurated by Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Mukul Moudgil.

Hooda said a sum of Rs 109 crore had been spent on the development of the judicial infrastructure in the state during the past five years to provide better facilities to the judicial staff.

Modern judicial complexes had already been constructed at 18 district headquarters and at 25 sub-divisional headquarters and construction work on judicial complexes at 11 sub-divisional headquarters was on.

He said the state and the central governments had taken a number of steps, including setting up of lok adalats, fast track courts and mobile courts, to provide quick justice to the people.

Haryana was the first state in the country to set up a mobile court at Punhana (Mewat). As many as 16 fast track courts had been set up in the state to deal with special cases.

Hooda said: “He himself being a lawyer is well aware of the problems of the lawyers. Residential plots developed by Haryana Urban Development Authority have been reserved for them. Practising law is a noble profession and it entails a lot of labour. People related to the profession need a well-equipped library.”

The Chief Minister announced to give a grant of Rs 10 lakh to the District Bar Association.

Fatehabad, February 11
The district authorities yesterday made the draft publication of the electoral rolls for the elections of municipal committees and councils.

District Election Officer CG Rajnikanthan said yesterday that the first publication of the draft publication of the electoral rolls for Fatehabad, Tohana and Ratia municipal councils and committees had been made for inviting claims and objections from the public.

“The electoral rolls can been seen in the respective municipal committee and claims and objections be filed on or before February 20,” he added.

The claims and objections would be resolved on February 25.

Appeals against resolution of the claims and objections could be filed before March 2 and they would be disposed off before March 12. 

Rohtak, February 11
The Haryana Power Engineers and Workers Joint Action Committee has come down heavily on the move of the state government to outsource jobs in the department.

The committee has threatened to step up agitation by halting all work in the department if the government goes ahead with its plan.

“The JAC met here today and held a demonstration in protest against privatisation of the department. It announced to stop work in offices of power corporations if job tenders were allotted to private companies/bodies as part of the outsourcing programme launched by the government,” claimed Subhash Lamba, a member of the 
committee.

He said the government would be responsible for the consequences if it failed to respond to the warning of the staff. The financial losses, which were Rs 400 crore in 1998, had mounted to a whopping Rs 4,039 crore this year due to the “wrong policies of the authorities,” he alleged.

Line losses and overall loss of revenue had been on the rise for the past several years. Lamba said the JAC had submitted a memorandum to the government and its officials against fanchisees for routine jobs, but there had been no positive sign from the government so far.

Handing over commercial hubs like Gurgaon and Panipat to franchisees would result in further deterioration of services and a major loss to the state exchequer.

This could propel the companies to hike power rates from Rs 4 to Rs 8 per unit. This was certainly against the interests of the consumer, he added.

“The JAC is confident of getting things on track if the government fills all 30,000 posts and accepts the just demands of the employees. This will help the department come out of the red and the consumer will be the ultimate winner, he claimed,” said Lamba. The JAC has appealed to the CM to intervene on the issue and ensure steps to resolve the problem. 

Sirsa, February 11
Sirsa will soon have a multi-speciality hospital having world-class healthcare facilities in the private sector.

Haryana Minister of State for Home and Industries Gopal Kanda, who is also a leading businessman and chairman of MDLR Airlines, will set up this hospital.

“Talks are on with Dr Naresh Trehan’s Medicity, Gurgaon, and soon we will get the foundation stone of the hospital laid by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda,” Kanda said, adding that 5 acres on the local Rania Road had been earmarked for this purpose.

The project is likely to begin within three months, he added.

Kanda was interacting with mediapersons after a function today, where he distributed cheques for Rs 30 lakh among sarpanches as government aid for development activities.

Giving details of government development projects for Sirsa, Kanda said the Haryana Housing Board would construct 1,345 dwelling units in Sirsa at a cost of Rs 56 crore for people of economically weaker sections, lower income group and industrial workers soon.

He said after Bahadurgarh (Jhajjar), Sirsa would become the district with the second highest number of residential houses for weaker sections of society.