Palwal, April 17
The Congress government launched two state-level mass contact programmes - “janata chaupal” and “Congress workers’ sammelan” here today. The programmes were kicked off by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Hooda said the government would annul its notification regarding ST-38 form that imposed VAT on “intra-district” movement of goods. The demand for doing away with the form was made by the traders and the business community of the state.

Speaking at the inauguration of the workers’ sammelan, Hooda said the programme had been undertaken to bring coordination between the government and the Congress workers and to involve the latter in the process of growth and development of the state.

The programmes will be undertaken at all district headquarters in the first phase and then extended to the subdivision and block levels. The programmes will be next held in Narnaul on April 24-25.

He urged the party workers to sink their differences. Similar sentiments were echoed by president of the Haryana unit of the Congress Phool Chand Mullana. They asked the workers to make the masses aware about the policies and programmes of the government. The workers must ensure that the masses and the intended beneficiaries took advantage of the policies and programmes of the government.

According to him, he chose Palwal to launch both programmes on account of its historical importance as well as the residents’ attachment with the Congress.

He said the “janata chaupal” was conceived for quick and on-the-spot redressal of the grievances of the public. The Chief Minister asserted that the grievances of the people and the complainants per se would not be filtered and screened before they reached them. The public, including elected representatives from 236 village panchayats and three municipalities falling under Palwal district came to the chaupal. While many were solved on the spot, a number of them were referred to the department concerned for further inquiry.

Chandigarh, April 17
The Punjab and Haryana High Court wants the state of Haryana to re-evaluate its litigation policy; and see whether the state agencies should be setting the judicial process in motion in cases involving trivial amounts.

The high court is of the belief that such cases result in wastage of time, expenses and energy. It has also asked the state Chief Secretary to intervene.

The directions by the Division Bench, comprising Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Alok Singh, came on an appeal filed by the Haryana Roadways, Kaithal, and another appellant. They had challenged the grant of inconsequential amount of compensation to a workman terminated from service.

Taking up the appeal against Sukhwinder Kaur and other respondents, the Bench observed: “This appeal has been preferred by the state of Haryana against the order of a Single Judge, allowing compensation of Rs 20,000.

“The respondent workman was employed as a helper-electrician and worked for about one-and-a-half years when his services were terminated. He raised an industrial dispute alleging violation of Section 25-F of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

“The Labour Court did not accept his claim, but the Single Judge, following a Division Bench judgment of this court in the state of Haryana versus Ishwar Singh and another case, allowed the claim to the extent of granting compensation of Rs 20,000.”

The Bench asserted: “We have heard the counsel for the appellants. In view of the Division Bench judgment relied upon by the Single Judge, which is not shown to be distinguishable, no ground is made out to interfere with the view taken by the Single Judge.”

Dismissing the appeal, the Bench added: “The state of Haryana may have a fresh look at its litigation policy and consider whether appeals should be filed in cases where insignificant amounts are involved and when no question of principle is involved”.

Elaborating, the Bench added: “Such litigation may result in incurring unnecessary expenditure, apart from avoidable wastage of time and energy.”

Before parting with the order, the Bench added: “A copy of this order may be sent to the Chief Secretary, Haryana.” 

Gurgaon, April 17
In a high-profile defamation case, a Gurgaon court today issued summons to 34 persons, including former Haryana Chief Minister and INLD president Om Prakash Chautala, his MLA son Abhey Chautala, state INLD president Ashok Arora and Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) president Kuldeep Bishnoi. They have been told to appear before the court on May 22.

Haryana Additional Director-General of Police (CID) PV Rathi had filed a suit of criminal defamation against the aforesaid persons.

Addressing a news conference here today, Rathi said a news item appeared in an English daily on June 17, 2008, which stated that an accused, Dr Sandeep Sharma, owner of Shubham Hospital, Panchkula, had confessed before the CBI that he had bribed Rathi to get police protection.

“On the next day, another reputed English daily investigated the facts and reported that the allegations against Rathi were factually incorrect,” said Rathi, who was accompanied by Haryana Additional Advocate-General Narender Hooda.

He maintained that Dr Sandeep Sharma was facing an inquiry in a case of forgery registered against him under Section 420 of the IPC at a police station of Panchkula.

Dr Sharma then lodged an FIR, demanding police protection claiming danger to his life. In the normal course, the district police is competent to provide such protection and the then SP of Panchkula, Sandeep Khirwar, provided him police protection.

But afterwards when the police came to know that the complaint of Dr Sharma was false, the protection was withdrawn. The case of Dr Sharma was transferred to the CBI.

“Without verifying the facts from the CBI or knowingly, the four political leaders issued statements against me, saying that I was a corrupt officer,” the ADGP said, adding that they even went to the extent of demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on this issue.

These statements were published in various newspapers from June 19 to 24, 2008. Those newspapers have also been made party in the defamation case.

Rathi pointed out that Dr Sandeep Sharma was arrested by the CBI on August 21, 2008, and hence, he could not have made any statement before the CBI in June, 2008, as reported by the newspaper.

Rathi asserted that he was in no way related to the case of Dr Sharma and had nothing to do with the matter.

“I was not even aware of the case and was taken aback on seeing my name being dragged into the matter,” the ADGP said, adding that the even investigating officer of the CBI, Raminder Kumar, had deposed before the court that even after his arrest, Dr Sandeep Sharma had not levelled any allegation against him (Rathi). Rathi filed a suit of criminal defamation in November, 2008.

After going through the statements of six witnesses and 28 documents, the court ordered: “It is proved that accused No.1 to 30 (newspaper reporters and editors) published and engraved defamatory language in the newspapers in order to defame the complainant (PV Rathi) without any basis and proof and accused No. 31 to 34 (political leaders) made defamatory statements against the complainant which were published without any basis and all these statements were proved to be false… so prima facie, accused No. 1 to 30 have committed offences punishable under Sections 500 and 501 of the IPC and accused No. 31 to 34 have committed offence under Section 500 of the IPC.” Accused No. 31, 32, 33 and 34 are Om Prakash Chautala, Ashok Arora, Abhey Singh Chautala and Kuldeep Bishnoi, respectively. 

Sirsa, April 17
Dr Parijat De, Director of the National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training and Research (NITTTR), Chandigarh, today said the biggest bane of technical education in India today was the lack of quality teachers in this field.

“Technical education in India is at the crossroads today. Opportunities are galore for our younger generation in the area of technical education, but at the same time facilities of teaching do not match the requirement,” Dr De said while speaking as the chief guest in the annual prize distribution function of the Jan Nayak Chaudhary Devi Lal College of Engineering here.

He said, “We have one NITTTR for higher education and research at Chandigarh for the entire north region comprising Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

There are only three more NITTTRs at Bhopal, Kolkata and Chennai to cater to the needs of the rest of the country, Dr De said, pointing to the poor state of affairs in the field of higher education and research in technical education.

Complimenting HRD Minister Kapil Sibal for coming out with the idea of a National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER), Dr De said there was no information in the education circles as to what would happen to the regulatory bodies like the AICTE, once the NCHER came into existence.

Dr Kuldeep Singh Dhindsa, director-general of Jan Nayak Chaudhary Devi Lal Vidyapeeth, who presided over the function, laid emphasis on technical education. Dr De gave away prizes to the students excelling in academic and co-curricular activities.

Mukesh Dalal, a girl from final-year B Tech (IT) got the Best All-rounder Award. 

Sirsa, April 17
A middle-aged man was clubbed to death at Hanumangarh Road in Ellenabad town of this district last night.

The police has registered a case on a complaint of Kalu Ram, brother of the victim Devi Lal (45) and arrested the accused, Dharam Singh.

Devi Lal and Dharam Singh had an altercation on some small issue near a temple in the town last night, according to police sources.

The temple priest, Gobind Giri, tried to intervene, but Dharam Singh allegedly hit Devi Lal’s head several times with a brick.

The victim’s body was found lying on the road in the morning today.

Ambala, April 17
The arguments on the cancellation of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s bail will be held on May 8 in the court of special judge of the CBI court AS Narang.

The court has already granted bail to the dera chief in two murder cases and in a sexual exploitation case. The CBI had filed an application in the court for the cancellation of the dera chief’s bail a few months ago. The hearing in the sexual exploitation case of sadhvis was also conducted in the court today.

Defence counsel SK Garg cross-examined Joginder Singh, a prime witness of the CBI. CBI counsel HPS Verma was also present in the court. The court adjourned the hearing for May 10 in the case. The hearing in the Ranjeet murder case was also conducted in the CBI court today. A witness was also cross-examined. The next hearing in the case has been fixed for May 15.

SIRSA: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh appeared before the CBI court in Ambala through video conferencing from the district courts here on Saturday.

The dera chief reached the local courts amidst tight police security a little before 10 am and remained there till 4.15 pm.

The cases of alleged sexual exploitation of former dera sadhvis and the cancellation of the dera chief’s bail were listed before the court for today. A number of dera followers assembled outside the court complex. s