Sirsa, April 12
The State Information Commission has imposed a fine on the State Public Information Officer (SPIO) in the office of Higher Education Commissioner for delay in providing information to a teacher of Chaudhary Devi Lal University in Sirsa under the Right to Information Act.

The commission has also directed the SPIO, through the Commissioner, Higher Education, to take remedial measures for effective implementation of the RTI Act in future.

The teacher, Raj Kumar Siwach, had sought some information from the SPIO. The information was of such a nature that it required to be gathered from several other authorities, like some private aided colleges in the state.

When the information was delayed by the SPIO in the office of the Commissioner, Higher Education, Siwach went in appeal before the state commission. Notices under Section 20 (1) of the RTI Act were served on Bhoop Singh, Registrar (Education), VS Malhan, Assistant Director, Colleges- II and SP Singh, Assistant Director (Colleges) in the office of the Commissioner, Higher Education, who acted as SPIO in the office at different periods.

The commission reached the conclusion that Malhan, who received the application of Siwach on November 11, 2009, took a week to forward the application to the public authorities concerned to obtain information.

The respondents, however, submitted before the commission that the delay was attributable to the frequent transfer of SPIOs in the office of the Commissioner, Higher Education.

The commission imposed a fine of Rs 1,250 on Malhan for a delay of five days in forwarding Siwach’s application to the branches concerned.

The commission dropped its notice against Bhoop Singh and issued a warning to SP Singh to be careful in future.

The commission also brought the matter to the notice of the Commissioner, Higher Education, for ensuring that there is continuity in the tenure of the designated officers in the public authority.

It further said that since the response of the respondent public authority to the request of the SPIO for information had been grossly inadequate and delayed, the respondent public authority, through the Commissioner, Higher Education, was directed to take remedial measures for the effective implementation of the RTI Act.

Hisar, April 12
Government veterinarians from Hisar, Sirsa, Bhiwani, Fatehabad and Jind districts sat on a daylong dharna at the mini secretariat here today, demanding parity with doctors.

Raj Kumar Rohilla, Moti Lal Sharma, Vinod Aggarwal, Suresh Sangwan and Om Parkash Wadhwa, presidents of the Hisar, Fatehabad, Jind, Bhiwani and Sirsa district units of the Haryana State Veterinary Association (HSVA) led the protest.

Dr Rajbir Singh, president of the association said though the fifth and sixth pay panels had recommended same scales for veterinarians and doctors, the state anomalies committee had disturbed the parity, granting three assured career promotions (ACPs) to doctors while denying the same to veterinarians.

He said all other subordinate employees and officers of the government were allowed three general or specific ACPs except the veterinarians who had been given two ACPS with the second restricted to only 20 per cent of the cadre posts.

This was the reason why veterinarians faced stagnation in pay for two decades or more.

He demanded that veterinarians be granted three specific ACPs after five, 10 and 15 years of service without any restriction, as was the case with doctors.

The association chief said the Centre as well as neighbouring Punjab and Himachal Pradesh had allowed their veterinarians a grade of Rs 5,400 in Pay Band III. However, Haryana had not extended this benefit to its veterinarians.

He said the basic qualification for MBBS and veterinary courses was the same and so was the course duration. Both veterinarians and doctors performed similar duties and, therefore, merited similar treatment in all aspects.

Rajbir Singh said the association leaders had met the Chief Minister, the Animal Husbandry Minister and senior bureaucrats several times. The CM, despite assurances, had failed to do anything.

The veterinarians will stage a state-level rally at Rohtak on April 14 in support of their demands.

Sonepat, April 12
The state BJP president, Krishan Pal Gurjar, today squarely blamed the Congress-led UPA government for the rising prices of essential commodities by pursuing pro-rich policies. Talking to mediapersons here, he said the prices of essential commodities had increased by 200 to 300 per cent because of mismanagement, black-marketing, utterances of Union Agriculture Minister and the nexus between capitalists and bureaucrats at the highest level. “The producers as well as buyers both are being cheated by middlemen. The producer did not get

remunerative prices and the buyers are forced to purchase at higher prices in retail, ” he alleged.

On the performance of the Haryana government, he said it had failed to meet the power and water requirements of the people and corruption in government offices went on unchecked. “Around 25 per cent of the budget is going towards payment of interest on loans taken by the government, 60 per cent is usually earmarked for the establishment and the remaining 15 per cent is left for people’s welfare and development,” he claimed.

Later, addressing a meeting of party workers, Gurjar exhorted them to moblise public support for the rally and claimed that around 10 lakh people from different parts of the country, including 50,000 from Haryana, would participate in the rally.

He said under its signature campaign, party activists would obtain the signatures of the people at railway stations and bus stands on April 14, at the universities and colleges on April 15, at DC and tehsil offices on April 16 and in the markets on April 17. Former MP Kishan Singh Sangwan, MLA Kavita Jain, state media in charge Rajiv Jain, and district president OP Atre also addressed the meeting.

Hisar, April 12
Members of the Guru Jambheshwar University Teachers Association (GJUTA) sat on a dharna in front of the office of the Vice Chancellor’s office in support of their demand for a five-day week.

GJUTA president Dr Rajesh Lohchab said the university had introduced a five-day week for its non-teaching employees, but not the teachers.

No work was possible in the laboratories in the absence of lab attendants on Saturdays. Likewise, the computer section and the library could not be functional in the absence of support staff.

Dr Lohchab, pointed out that the other technical university in Haryana in Murthal had a five-day week system for all its employees. He urged the government to immediately look into their demand.

Gurgaon, April 12
The elections for local bodies and panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) in Haryana will be held in May. This time, electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be used in the election for the posts of sarpanch.

This was disclosed by State Election Commissioner Dharamvir while presiding over a meeting of the deputy commissioners and other election-related officials of all six districts falling in Gurgaon division here today.

The meeting was held with an objective to make preparations to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections.

“The exact schedule of the elections will be declared only after the final publication of the electoral rolls,” Dharamvir said and added that the elections to PRIs would be held in 13 districts.

These will be held in two phases in each district so that adequate security arrangements could be made.

The State Election Commissioner said this time, the elections for the posts of sarpanch would be held through EVMs and the result would be declared on the same day.

Dharamvir asked the officials concerned to identify sensitive villages and keep a watch on potential miscreants and anti-social elements. He asked them to send their requirement for EVMs, police personnel, ballot boxes and other election material and make proper arrangements for drinking water at the polling stations.

The state election commission is adopting a different colour scheme for the ballot papers of various posts in the PRI elections as suggested during the last meeting.

Dharamvir maintained that this time there would be fixed hours for accepting nomination papers and asserted that the returning officer (RO) should remain present at the office during the fixed hours.

He warned that legal action would be taken after lodging an FIR against the officials who do not turn up for election duty.

The meeting was attended by Gurgaon Police Commissioner Surjeet Singh Deswal and Faridabad Police Commissioner PK Aggarwal, besides the deputy commissioners, ADCs, DDPOs and other officials concerned of all six districts under Gurgaon division.

Faridabad, April 12
While the ruling Congress is making every effort to further consolidate its base, its arch rival, the INLD, is in the midst of reorganising its frontal cells in various districts to match it head-on in the coming days.

The BJP, too, is in the midst of its organisational elections which will culminate in the election of the state president, next month.

Also, the entire party is using its ongoing mass mobilisation campaign for the April 21-rally being organised by the central unit of the party in the national capital against the price rise to endear itself to the public.

According to the state president of the BJP, Krishanpal Gurjar, the party would use the campaign as an opportunity to expand its base in the rural and hinterland belts of the state.

Some of the Congress leaders say the party has got a boost on account of the policies followed by the state government, which they claimed were benefiting all sections of the society.

The focus, however, is presently on the proposed celebrations of “Dr Ambedkar Jayanti”, a state-level function being organised on April 12 in Kurukshetra. The function will be attended both by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and president of the state Congress Phool Chand Maulana.

A Congress MLA, Bharat Bhusan Batra, who was here, said the Congress government’s decision to accord second official language status to Punjabi in the state re-emphasised the “secular credentials” of his party. The move has not only endeared the party to the Punjabi community in the state, but also across the country, especially in northern India.

The state Congress was gearing up to launch a major campaign to advertise the achievements of its government, he added.

Batra also referred to the government’s decision to give “Dolidars” and their ilks proprietary rights of the land, which was given to them as alms by zamindars. He added the decision benefited the non-jat sections of the society.

However, the INLD and the BJP scoffs at the claims of the Congress leaders. The president of the state unit of the youth wing of the INLD, Baldev Singh (Alawalpur), said his party would shortly launch a campaign to couter the “misguided and self-serving” propaganda of the Congress, whose government had failed on all fronts.

Gurjar said people were fed up with the state government and wanted to see its back.

Chandigarh, April 12
The holy land of Kurukshetra, which had provided the battlefield for the Mahabharata, which is believed to have changed the social and political systems at that time, will once again host a big congregation tomorrow, which may go a long way in finding out a solution to the ticklish issue of same-gotra marriages.

This issue has been causing social upheaval in the rural areas of the Haryana and even neighbouring states, leading to certain “Talibani” decisions by the self-styled khap panchayats. The khap panchayats have gone to the extent of ordering dissolution of marriages and ordering the husband and wife to live like brother and sister.

The leaders of these panchayats even ignored that the victim couple had children.

The death sentence awarded to five persons by a Karnal court for the “honour killing” of Manoj and Babli, who had married not only in the same gotra but also belonged to the same village, has shaken the khap panchayats.

In the backdrop of the Karnal verdict, a meeting of all khap panchayats has been convened in Kurukshetra tomorrow.

According to sources close to the organisers, the “mahapanchayat” is likely to demand an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act, prohibiting same-gotra marriages. The panchayat is also likely to pass a resolution against same-village marriages.

However, some panchayats are demanding that the restrictions regarding the marriage in gotras belonging to relatives like mother and grandmothers as well as in nearby villages should be relaxed. This demand is being raised in view of the difficulties being faced in finding suitable matches for eligible boys and girls.

Meanwhile, secretary-general of the INLD Ajay Singh Chautala has said that his party would extend its support if the government brought an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act prohibiting same-gotra marriages, which, he said, were not even genetically good.

Chandigarh, April 12
The Sangwan community’s honour is at stake and the khap has stepped in yet again.

Only this time, it’s no runaway couple who has decided to marry within the same gotra, as is usually the case. In the line of fire this time is an entertainment channel for a serial it has been airing for the past many months. Claiming that the serial is anti-women and encourages discrimination against the girl-child, the president of the Sangwan khap, Zorawar Singh Sangwan, on behalf of the Sangwan khap, has shot off a letter to the government top brass. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Information and Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni and Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda all have been urged to intervene and pull the show off air with immediate effect.

The letter says the UPA government, which is pushing a women’s reservation Bill, should act immediately, failing which the Sangwan khap will be compelled to initiate stern measures.

Stating that the serial is “insulting” to the Jats spread over Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, the letter says the serial particularly showed the Sangwan gotra in very poor light.

It states that though the directors of the serial claim that the characters are imaginary and bear no resemblance to any particular caste, community or area, the entire story revolves around a family of the Sangwan gotra.

The objectionable part is that women in the family are shown being subjected to torture.

It goes on to add that there is simmering resentment among the Jats in general and the Sangwan gotra in particular spread all over the region against the manner in which their culture is being painted and presented.

“We heard of the serial only a few days back and monitored the serial being aired for a week. Notwithstanding the claims of the directors that they are protesting against the atrocities on women through this serial, we are convinced that the whole concept is very derogatory.

“Last evening, the working committee of the Sangwan khap met and decided that the government must step in to protect our honour.

“ If they fail us, we will be forced to resort to other ways,” Sangwan said.

The khap has decided that a delegation of the working committee of the Sangwan khap will meet the leaders individually to seek action against the channel.

Sirsa, April 12
The Haryana Punjabi Sahitya Akademi today honoured students getting top positions in Punjabi in the examinations conducted by the Board of School Education, Haryana.

At a function organised here today, the akademi felicitated 20 students from Sirsa and Fatehabad districts, who have secured top positions in Punjabi in their annual examinations of classes VIII, X and XII.

Deputy Commissioner Yudhbir Singh Khyalia and akademi Director CR Modgil gave away the prizes to the students.

The akademi gave a commendation certificate, a memento and a dictionary each to the 20 students honoured today. Teachers of Punjabi were also felicitated with shawls.

“The Haryana Punjabi Sahitya Akademi has initiated awards in eight disciplines for the promotion of Punjabi, besides distributing books of Punjabi literature free of cost to libraries and educational institutions,” said Modgil on this occasion.

The students honoured by the akademi today are Shilpi, Komal, Deepak Verma, Navjot Kaur, Suneha, Radha, Sahil Kumar, Khushwinder Kaur, Puneet Arora, Priyanka Rani, Sahil Kumar, Renuka, Sukhdeep Kaur from Sirsa district and Prashant, Shubham, Neeru, Parveen, Rani, Hamir Kaur and Meenaksha Rani from Fatehabad district.

Sukhchain Singh Bhandari, Darshan Singh and a number of other litterateurs of Punjabi were present on this occasion.

Modgil said this was the first function to honour the students.

In the second such function to be organised in this series, students of Kurukshetra, Karnal, Panchkula, Kaithal and Yamunanagar districts would be honoured, he said. Modgil claimed that after 2005, the Haryana Punjabi Sahitya Akademi had initiated a number of new awards, besides increasing the award money of the existing ones.

He said the state government had initiated an award of Rs 51,000 in the name of litterateur Taran Singh Vahmi of Budhimedhi village in Sirsa district. The prize money of the Haryana Gaurav Award had also been increased to Rs 1.25 lakh. He thanked the Chief Minister for according the status of second language to Punjabi in the state.

Yamunanagar, April 12
Roads in bad shape and an inadequate infrastructure, this is what you witness when you enter the industrial area of the district.

Though there are 2,500 industries, mainly plywood and metal, which are the major contributor of revenue to the state, all of them have a common demand of basic infrastructure.

Being adjacent to the hill states of Himachal Pradesh, UP and Uttarakhand, the district could have been the place of strategic importance as it is the gateway to these states. Ironically, with the indifferent attitude of the government towards their plight, many industries are relocating to neighbouring states.

So to protect the industry, members of the Yamunanagar-Jagadhri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, are asking Central and state governments to provide better facilities to facilitate and promote to the industry.

The chamber also brought this to the notice of Union Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Tourism Minister Kumari Selja after meeting her here recently.

In their representation to Selja, who is also an MP of this area, Members of the chambers demanded that Yamunanagar should be considered as a station for loading goods as a rail fright corridor from Amritsar to Kolkata is already in the pipeline.

This will help the industry to supply goods easily to various parts of the country and also to export them. To advantage of the state, it would act as a feeder for industries situated in the neighbouring states.

“A fair and transparent policy needs to be framed by the government so that a certain percentage of the revenue collected from any area is automatically ploughed back for the development and maintenance of the industry.

“Yamunanagar and Jagadhri have been two of the oldest and foremost industrial towns of the state. The plywood industry fulfils more than 50 per cent requirement of the country. Besides, the industry here exports steel utensils and engineering products.

There is also a leading machine market of the country and sugar and paper mills.

We need a concrete policy to protect the industry. We have been neglected on the development front so far,” President of the Yamunanagar-Jagadhri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Samira Saluja, said after meeting Union Minitser Kumari Selja.

Thousands of crores of rupees are generated as income to the government from mining and sale of stones for construction from these two districts.

However, all access as well as internal roads of the town, especially in the industrial area, have been practically non-existent for a very long time, she further complains.

“The experienced and competent staff from outside the district is impossible to call here as they are put off by the lack of facilities.

“Unfortunately, immense difficulty is being faced by the industry and the people of Yamunanagar here,” she further stressed.

Chandigarh, April 12
An IAS officer of the 1991 batch of the Haryana cadre, Abhilaksh Likhi, has been appointed to the Organising Committee, Commonwealth Games, Delhi, 2010, as Additional Director-General (Broadcasting).

He is currently posted as Director (Broadcast Development) in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. The Commonwealth Games are going to be held in New Delhi from October 3 to 14, 2010, in 17 sporting disciplines in which 8,000 athletes from 71 countries will participate.

Prasar Bharati is the host broadcaster for the production and coverage of the games and will set up an International Broadcasting Center (IBC) in ITPO, Pragati Maidan from where the video and audio signal will be available to the right holding broadcasters from Commonweath countries. The games, for the first time, will be covered in the high definition (HDTV) format. Likhi earlier held charge as Project Director (Host Broadcaster Cell) in Prasar Bharati.

Panipat, April 12
The skull of Vikas, a student of SD Vidya Mandir whose body was recovered from a canal in Rohtak a few days ago was recovered from Jawaharlal Nehru Canal in Kasandi village of Sonepat, around 50 km from here. The murder of Vikas, son of Karamvir, who was reportedly in love with a girl of the same school and had gone missing a fortnight back, was suspected to be another “honour killing”.

The police arrested three persons - Ravinder, Rajinder Gupta and Shobhi in connection with the case last night. The trio was produced in the court of Additional Sessions Judge JD Gupta, who remanded them in three-day police custody. The skull has been sent for a DNA test, said police sources.

The Panipat police had booked six persons of an influential business family of the district in this connection after his headless body was recovered from a canal near Rohtak recently.

Vikas’s father Karambir Singh, a Junior Engineer in the Irrigation Department, had told the police that his son had been receiving threats from the girl’s family and they were even contemplating to leave the city in view of these threats.

However, Vikas went missing before their plan to shift materialised and his beheaded body was retrieved from a canal in Rohtak.

On a complaint of family members that Vikas was missing, the police registered a case under Sections 302, 201 and 120-B of the IPC. All accused were at large and three of them were nabbed after a massive manhunt, the sources said.

Jhajjar, April 12
The process of recruitment of thousands of regular teachers in government schools has been initiated and according to the education policy, eligible candidates will be given full chance.

Haryana Education and Health Minister Geeta Bhukkal stated this here yesterday while interacting with those candidates who have cleared the State Teacher’s Eligibility Test (STET) and have been staging an indefinite dharna in front of the local residence of the minister for the past five days.

They have been demanding recruitment against thousands of posts of teacher lying vacant in government schools till June 30 this year. Following an assurance by the Education Minister, the protesters lifted the dharna. Thereafter, addressing a gathering as chief guest of a function organised by the Yadav Society at Shri Krishna Bhawan, Bhukkal said the objective of the state government was to ensure that no student was left uneducated because of dearth of money.

“Apart from providing free-of-cost education to children under various schemes, free-of-cost study material is also being provided to them.

Textbooks will be distributed in all government schools of the state with the commencement of the next session,” stated the minister, adding that the Right to Education

Act was being implemented effectively in the state and under this the recruitment of thousands of regular teachers would be made.

She maintained that education was the key for the development of a nation and the state government was fully committed to educating each and every child. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had a clear vision to eradicate the problem of unemployment and a series of constructive steps had been taken in this direction by the government, the minister added.

Bhukkal said mere construction of bhawans could not unite the society. It required discharging of social responsibilities with utmost devotion.

Kurukshetra, April 12
The European Union (EU) and India are working out modalities to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) by the year-end to facilitate mobilisation of resources in the two regions.

Interacting with the media during her visit to Haryana Community Forestry Project (HCFP) sites along with EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, EU Ambassador Danielle Smadja said EU was keen on signing the agreement.

It is learnt that bureaucrats from India and EU are working on formulating the agreement acceptable to both sides.

With the agreement, the 27 member-states of EU would be following a common code to facilitate Indian entrepreneurs set up businesses in EU.

The pact provisions would make it easy for Indian entrepreneurs to import machinery or manpower from here without any hassles.

On the EU stance on changing visa procedures, Smadja said people from this part of the world were welcome to migrate legally to any of the member-states of the EU. However, illegal migration could not be allowed.

Under the new visa rules, put into force from April 6, the EU member-states have adopted a uniform visa procedure that enables a visa-holder to visit any of the states in the union.

Smadja said the US was working towards further centralisation of visa norms, which would soon lead to a federal policy on migration. However, the states would continue to deal with cases of illegal migration as per their own jurisdiction, she explained.

She said EU had taken up several projects in India to promote health and education and was also venturing into vocational training.

For this, it had tied up with some NGOs. Besides, experts from both EU and India were working towards developing new technologies to harness solar energy.

Chandigarh, April 12
Giving relief to farmers, Haryana has decided to increase the rate of subvention on interest of State Cooperative Agricultural and Rural Development Bank loan from 3 per cent to 5 per cent for well pay masters under its ”interest waiver scheme” that has been further extended up to December 12.

Agriculture and Cooperation Minister Paramvir Singh said the scheme would be effective from January 1 this year A provision of Rs.27 crore had been made in this financial year for effective implementation of the scheme.

Under the interest waiver scheme, which was started in the year 2009, as many as 17,951 farmers have been benefited . A total of Rs 5.66 crore was waived off up to December 12, 2009.

Sirsa, April 12
The police last night seized 31 kg of poppy husk from a Maruti car in the Sawant Khera area of Dabwali.

The police has arrested a youth in this connection.

A team of the Crime Investigation Agency, Dabwali, stopped a Maruti car (DL8CB-6680) and during checking 31 kg of poppy husk was seized from it. A youth, Harish, a resident of Salam Khera, was arrested on the spot.