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Municipal poll on May 20
Security in place for today’s bandh
All the makings of INLD show
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A Tribune Exclusive
PTI teachers’ selection subject to outcome of plea: HC
78 stone crushers shut down
Dalits’ killing: Sanghs demand relief for victims’ family
Plan to strengthen power distribution
PFA ropes in ex-Mr India to save big cats
Five gangsters arrested
Jhinda refutes charges
4 IPS officers promoted
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Municipal poll on May 20
Chandigarh, April 26 He said elections would be held for the Faridabad Municipal Corporation, 10 municipal councils of Palwal, Fatehabad, Tohana, Hansi, Jind, Narwana, Thanesar, Narnaul, Sirsa and Sonepat; and 28 municipal committees of Naraingarh, Charkhi Dadri, Ratia, Sohna, Barwala, Jhajjar, Safidon, Cheeka, Gharaunda, Taraori, Assandh, Nissing, Shahabad, Ladwa, Pehowa, Mahendragarh, Nuh, Ferozepur Jhirka, Hodal, Punhana, Samalkha, Bawal, Meham, Kalanwali, Ellenabad, Rania, Gohana and Ganaur. He said the model code of conduct in respect of the municipal elections would come into force from today. No officer or official connected with the election work would be transferred till the completion of the election process. The elections would be conducted with electronic voting machines (EVMs). The State Election Commission had purchased 5,314 EVMs and remaining EVMs would be taken from the Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana. The nominations could be filed from May 3 to May 7 between 11 am and 3 pm. A candidate would have to furnish information in the format prescribed to the Returning Officer by May 8 before 11 am that he was not suffering from any disqualification. The nomination papers would be scrutinised on May 8 at 11.30 am. The last date for withdrawal would be May 10. The symbols would be allotted on May 10 after 3 pm. The poll, if any, would be held on May 20 between 7.30 am and 4 pm. The counting of votes would be held immediately after the polling. The election process would be completed on May 25. Dharam Vir said the expenditure limit was Rs 75,000 for a member of the municipal corporation; Rs 50,000 for a member of a municipal council and Rs 35,000 for a member of a municipal committee. The candidates were required to maintain account of election expenditure and submit the same within 30 days from the declaration of the result to the DC or with any other officer specified by the commission, failing which the defaulting candidate would be liable to disqualification for three years. |
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Security in place for today’s bandh
Sirsa, April 26 The authorities have made elaborate arrangements for the proposed bandh tomorrow and are taking no chances in view of the face-off witnessed during the Sirsa bandh during Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s visit on April 3. On the other hand, INLD leaders in the district are determined to make the bandh a success like the one witnessed during Hooda’s visit on April 3. At a meeting held today, Deputy Commissioner Yudhbir Singh Khyalia has appointed 20 duty magistrates for
tomorrow’s bandh. “Ten companies of the police have been deployed to maintain law and order during the bandh,” Khyalia said. Abhey Singh Chautala, INLD MLA from Ellenabad, today claimed that no shop in the district would open tomorrow
in response to the call of the opposition parties. Talking to mediapersons at his residence today, Abhey Singh maintained that though the 13 political parties of the country, sans the UPA and the NDA, had given the bandh call on the issue of rising prices, but in Haryana there were several other issue confronting the people. He alleged that power and drinking water had become scarce commodities in the state and the situation was worsening by the day. The INLD leader alleged that while law and order was a shambles in the district, the police had been taking orders from the Tara Baba Kutiya, managed by minister Gopal Kanda and his family. Abhey Singh alleged that new sections of the IPC were being included in the FIR lodged against INLD activists on the complaint of the minister’s younger brother Gobind Kanda. “The SHO, who found the allegations of Kanda false and dropped several charges from the FIR, has been suspended and now the new SHO has included Section 353 of the IPC in the FIR,” he alleged. Meanwhile, the INLD leaders led by their district president Padam Jain went to the main markets of the town appealing them to keep their shops closed tomorrow. Hoshiari Lal Sharma, president of the District Congress Committee, has appealed to shopkeepers to keep their shops open as the “bandh is not in the national interests”. |
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All the makings of INLD show
Chandigarh, April 26 The Left has only limited influence in industrial belts of Gurgaon, Sonepat, Faridabad and Panipat. Therefore, it will be primarily left to the INLD to make the bandh a success. The INLD, the main opposition party in the Haryana Assembly, too, has left nothing to chance. For the past several days, the party has been working hard to make the bandh succeed. It has deputed its senior leaders and office-bearers for each of the 21 districts, with party supremo Om Prakash Chautala and his sons, Ajay and Abhey, taking daily reports from their supporters. The elder Chautala said here today that during the bandh, vehicular and rail traffic would not be disrupted. His party men, wearing black badges, would go from shop to shop to urge their owners to down the shutters in protest against the price rise and other failures of the UPA government at the Centre and the Hooda government in the state. On its part, the Congress has not made any effort to counter the bandh call. A senior party leader said in a democracy such protests were routine but the sponsors must ensure that there was no element of force and the people were not put to any inconvenience. |
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A Tribune Exclusive
Karnal, April 26 The process followed by the HPSC to make selections without any screening test, leaving wide scope for discretion in selections with 60 marks for interview, has raised serious doubts about fairness in selections. Further, 40 marks are also subdivided into marks for educational qualification, Graduation (15), Post-graduation (8), PhD (2), experience (10) and research work and publication (5) and as such the BVSc degree holders are in a disadvantageous position as compared to higher qualified and experienced candidates. But as per the information received through the RTI, 70 out of 101 selected candidates were simple BVSc degree holders and several candidates with a postgraduate degree and vast experience were rejected. In the general category, Dr Rajan Chaudhary possessing MVSc with 13 years of experience and in the same post in Rajasthan was not among the selected candidates. Since there was no provision of video recording of the interview, the rejected candidates had no way to prove that they were not only academically better qualified but fared better in interview also. Out of the 13 candidates selected in the SC category only two candidates Narender Khetak and Rajvinder Kaur were simple graduates. Janak Kumar and Vinood Kumar failed twice meaning that they completed the degree in seven years and not five years. While candidates like Ram Niwas, a postgraduate with first division with 67.4 in BVSc and 76.4 per cent marks M.V.Sc. and Ravi Dutt who secured 68 per cent marks in bachelors and 81.9 per cent in masters were rejected. The rejected candidates also rued that HPSC advertised 125 posts of veterinary surgeons on February 21, 2009, against which 310 applications from candidates of general category, 21 from SC, 33 from OBC and two each for ESM and PH were received but only 78 candidates from general and 13 SC candidates were selected, the RTI information revealed. The mute question that why only 13 candidates from the SC category were selected when 21 posts were advertised and eligible candidates were available. The rejected candidates Ram Niwas, Ravi Dutt, Rajesh Kumar, Naveen Kumar, Rajender Singh, Randhir Singh, Virender Singh and Rohtash, who claimed that they fulfilled the eligibility conditions and had higher qualifications said the HPSC must be made answerable to explain the reasons for adopting norms that deprived them of posts of veterinary surgeons. |
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PTI teachers’ selection subject to outcome of plea: HC
Chandigarh, April 26 Acting on a petition filed by Krishan Kumar of Bhiwani district and four other petitioners seeking the quashing of selection list “in which 24 seats had been allotted to ex-servicemen female general category”, Justice Permod Kohli issued notice of motion. The Judge asserted: “In the meantime, any appointment made against the advertised post under the ex-servicemen category shall remain subject to the outcome of the writ petition. In the petition filed through advocate Vivek Khatri, the petitioners had earlier alleged the Secretary of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission had advertised posts, including 1983 of PTI teachers, in July 2006. Out of the total, 72 were reserved for ex-servicemen general category. Describing themselves as applicants, the petitioners added they were surprised to see 24 out of 72 seats had been allotted to ex-servicemen general women category, after the commission declared the selection list on April 10. The petitioners claimed the reservation of 24 seats had not been mentioned in the advertisement. Claiming there was “no female candidate who was an ex-servicemen”, the petitioners alleged efforts were being made by the respondents to give the benefits of the posts to the dependents of ex-servicemen. This, counsel Khatri argued, was “totally illegal and unconstitutional”. After taking note of preliminary submissions made by the counsel, the bench fixed July 6 as the next date of hearing in the case. |
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78 stone crushers shut down
Chandigarh, April 26 As a petition raising ecology concerns came up for hearing before the division bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Jasbir Singh, counsel for the Haryana Pollution Control Board Arun Walia said 44 such stone crushers were shut down earlier; and other 34 had met the same fate. The action was initiated following earlier directions of the high court. After taking on record Walia’s assertions, the bench asked the pollution control board to file a detailed response in the matter. Before parting with the case, the bench fixed July 7 as the next date of hearing in the matter. |
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Irate villagers block traffic
Sirsa, April 26 The villagers were also agitated at the attitude of the other teachers and staff members of the government school who, they alleged, had the knowledge of the activities of the accused teacher, but did not deter him. The angry villagers today marched towards the school in the morning, but no teacher had arrived anticipating backlash from the villagers. The villagers, including a large number of women, blocked the road opposite the school, demanding immediate arrest of the accused. Anil Ahlawat, a teacher from the village school, is accused of raping his student, a minor, and has been absconding since a case has been registered against him. “The police is hand in glove with the accused as the police had initially caught him, but then let him off without showing his arrest in papers,” alleged the angry villagers. Balbir Kaur Gandhi, district president of the All-India Democratic Women Association (AIDWA), alleged that the local police pressured the victim’s family to withdraw their complaint. “Family members have told me that the police went to the extent of telling them that they should be grateful that the girls have been recovered,” Gandhi alleged. Later, SDM Satish Jain reached there and assured the villagers that the accused teacher would be arrested within two days. |
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Dalits’ killing: Sanghs demand relief for victims’ family
Yamunanagar, April 26 While carrying banners seeking justice for the victims, the employees carried out the protest march in different parts of the city and held meeting in front of the mini secretariat here. Later, they submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister, via the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), demanding proper compensation for the victims. In view of the protest, a heavy police force was deployed in different parts of the city, along the National Highway-73 and also at the mini secretariat. In the memorandum, the karmchari sanghs has alleged that the unfortunate incident occurred due to indifferent attitude of the administration and police officers and have demanded strict action against the officers who failed to carry out their responsibilities. The karmchari sanghs have demanded a Rs 25-lakh compensation for the victims’ family members, Rs 5 lakh each for the families whose houses were burnt, and those who suffered burn injuries. Besides, the sanghs have demanded proper security for the community. If the government fails to help the victim’s families, the sanghs will launch agitation, the members of the sanghs further said. |
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Plan to strengthen power distribution
Hisar, April 26 Sudhir Rajpal, Managing Director, DHBVN said here today that under the project, Rs 167.41 crore would be spent to strengthen power distribution system in Faridabad and Rs 119.43 crore and Rs. 27.10 crore would be spent to strengthen the system in Gurgaon and Dadri, respectively. For advance metering infrastructure (AMI) in the DHBVN, Rs. 116.54 crore has been earmarked. Within next 18 to 24 months, schemes meant for Dadri, Gurgaon and Faridabad would be completed. He said 80 per cent of the cost of the project would come as loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and 20 per cent of the cost of the scheme would be contributed by the borrower as equity. Major objectives of the project are: reduction in transmission and distribution losses and improvement in revenue collection efficiency along with giving better quality of power supply to consumers. Under this ambitious plan, the DHBVN has identified 94 feeders of 11 kV for high voltage distribution system (HVDS) where the system is over-stretched, particularly in areas having un-planned growth of residential and commercial establishments. While laying this system of international standards, complete system of the feeders would be renovated and additional transformers would also be set up as per requirement. Once the system becomes operational, voltage up to the last distribution transformers of the feeders will improve; losses will come down and the consumers, who have been hooking on to the system without a valid connection, will have to apply for a new one. Under the AMI scheme, there is a provision of installing intelligent meters supporting advance metering infrastructure on all the 78,000 non-high tension consumers in the DHBVN. |
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PFA ropes in ex-Mr India to save big cats
“I hereby accept the proposal of the PFA to be brand ambassador for the “Save Tigers and Save Leopards” campaign. I am feeling honoured to be part of the campaign to save these big cats and all other animals,” he said in a communication to PFA. He said he was in favour of strict action against leopard killers. Recalling that two leopards were killed by the Haryana Police at Jind and Karnal recently, Rana said both the leopards, which had left their natural habitat in search of water, were not man eaters and killed for no reasons. “I strongly condemn these killings and endorse all points raised by the PFA in its petition addressed to the President of India, seeking action against the erring policemen responsible for shooting the leopards,” he added. The PFA had also petitioned to President to direct the Forest Wild Life Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) to probe both the cases. The PFA had expressed apprehensions that the cases against police personnel allegedly involved in killing of leopards would be diluted if the probe was conducted by the state investigating agencies. |
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Five gangsters arrested
Sonepat, April 26 After getting a tip-off, three teams of local civil lines police station raided a deserted room in sector-12 here last night and arrested the gangsters, who have been identified as Harish and Ashu of local Jeevan Nagar, Gautam of Rajiv Colony, Sanjay of Ashok Vihar and Jatin of Taranagar. According to SP Mahender Singh Sheoran, a stolen three-wheeler, two country-made pistols, two live cartridges, a dagger and a knife had been seized from their possession. They were produced in the court today and the court remanded them in police custody, he added. The arrested gangsters had confessed their involvement in around 18 cases of loot, theft and vehicle lifting registered in various district of Haryana as well as in Delhi. The seized three-wheeler was stolen about 20 days back from local Char Marla colony by them, the SP said. |
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Jhinda refutes charges
Karnal, April 26 Talking to mediapersons here, Jhinda said he would expose the people behind it. He said the leaders of various Sikh parties alongwith SGPC Amritsar, would be invited to attend the mahapanchayat.
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Karnal, April 26