Sirsa, May 21
Blame game within the Congress has begun over the debacle in the elections to the Sirsa Municipal Council. Haryana minister Gopal Kanda, whose reputation as a popular leader has got a beating, said his candidates had lost because it was “Gopal versus all” in Sirsa.

“Out of nearly 75,000 votes polled for 31 wards of the Sirsa Municipal Council, 31 candidates fielded by me on the car symbol together polled 26,000 votes but won in six wards. “Candidates of the Congress faction fighting under the name of Sirsa Vikas Manch together polled 23,000 votes and bagged six seats while the INLD candidates managed to win 19 seats though their candidates managed 25,000 votes only,” said Kanda.

He alleged that the INLD and the Sirsa Vikas Manch both had been targeting him during campaigning. Most parties, including the BJP and the Haryana Janhit Congress, had been supporting candidates of the manch, he alleged. Even the INLD supported some candidates of the manch, he claimed.

Kanda maintained that the Congress polled more votes than the INLD and it was owing to division of Congress votes that the INLD had managed to win in 19 wards. Meanwhile, Rahul Setia, son-in-law of former Haryana minster LD Arora, today held district Congress president Hoshiyari Lal Sharma responsible for the Congress debacle in the municipal polls and asked the leadership to dismiss him from his post.Sharma as well as block Congress president Bhupesh Mehta had supported Kanda’s candidates. Sharma’s son Raj Kumar Sharma was badly defeated by the INLD candidate.

Setia said Kanda’s popularity could be judged from the fact that he could not ensure the victory of his candidate in his own ward.

Hoshiyari Lal Sharma, meanwhile, has demanded Setia’s expulsion from the Congress, terming his role in the civic polls as anti-party.

There was jubilation in the INLD camp as winning councillors reached Chautala House where workers distributed sweets. 

Faridabad, May 21
The ruling Congress surged ahead in Faridabad and Palwal districts in the municipal poll held yesterday. Compared to the INLD, the arch rival of the Congress, the BSP put up a better performance emerging victorious in three of the 35 wards in Faridabad.

Its nominees Jaggan Daggar, Mahender Singh and Dheerender won from wards 1, 9 and 34, respectively.

With the results going in favour of the ruling Congress, it seems that the party has been able to surmount the “anti-incumbency” factor. Despite the campaign by the Opposition, the voters decided to repose their trust in the Congress and the policies of the government.

Congress leaders went on tp say that the voters have particularly expressed confidence in the “clean” image of the Chief Minister.

In Faridabad, the wife and son of Minister of State, Shiv Charan Sharma turned victorious. Dharamveer Khatana, husband of the outgoing Mayor, Brahmvati Khatana, also won. All of them are pro-Congress.

Chief of the district unit of the INLD, Anita Goswami, won from ward 31. In Hodal and Palwa, where polling percentages were 85 per cent and 71 per cent, the Congress emerged miles ahead of its opponents.

Both civic bodies fall in Palwal district where the Congress had lost all three assembly segments to the INLD in the assembly electionslast year.

In the 31 member-Palwal Municipal Council the Congress- backed candidates won in 21 wards. The remaining wards were won by the INLD. The president of the Haryana unit of the BJP Krishan Pal Gurjar has alleged that the ruling party misused its position and rigged the elections in a number of wards in Faridabad.

Chandigarh, May 21
Haryana Chief Secretary Urvashi Gulati today advocated the need for private participation in infrastructure building not for the purpose of investment only but also for early gain of technological advances, bringing efficiency and for efficient delivery of public services.

Gulati was addressing a workshop on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in urban and social sectors organised here today.

She said the PPP mode was not merely an alternative source for funding infrastructure projects but also to bring managerial efficiency and sharing of risks. Haryana itself had several successful examples of project delivery in PPP mode, she added.

She said Haryana had also been implementing infrastructure projects under various variants of PPP. The Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway was one such major project.

Now, PPP was also being adopted for power transmission and the Transport and Civil Aviation Departments had taken up projects to provide public transport system in Gurgaon and for more effective utilisation of existing airstrips in the state.

She said the state was in the process of bringing out a PPP policy in Haryana which intended to address the required enabling environment of institutional framework, risk management, regulatory and legal framework. Later, the Director, PPP Cell, Department of Economic Affairs of Union Ministry of Finance, Aparna Bhatia, in her presentation on Government of India’s Initiatives for Accelerating PPPs said Haryana had been a leader in initiating PPP projects in basic infrastructure building.

She hoped that now it would promote PPP projects at a large scale in social sectors also. Under Viability Gap Funding Scheme, the central government provided funding in the form of grant to meet gap for making a PPP project commercially viable, provided funding up to 20 per cent of the project cost and additional 20 per cent could be given by the sponsoring authority, empowered institution and a committee had been set up for quick processing of cases. 

Chandigarh, May 21
In a major development that could be indicative of things to come, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi met Scheduled Caste legislators of Haryana at his residence in New Delhi, today.

Sources said he met the six legislators individually, beginning 3pm. He reportedly spent five minutes with each. He not only asked them questions about the functioning of the Congress government in the state, but is also learnt to have sought a feedback on the government’s “handling” of the Mirchpur caste violence and continuing protests thereafter. He also asked them about their functioning and the time devoted to their respective constituencies.

On April 21 in Mirchpur, a disabled teenaged girl and her father were burnt to death after members of the Jat community allegedly torched over a dozen houses of Schedule Caste families living in the village. The meeting assumes significance since Rahul Gandhi recently paid a surprise visit to the village without prior information to the authorities for a “reality check” on the situation in Mirchpur, leaving the political leadership “stunned”.

Those who met him today were MLAs Naresh Selwal, Shakuntala Khatak, Ram Kishan Fauji, Ram Niwas Ghorela, Anil Dhantori and Rajpal. However, no such meeting was held with SC ministers in the Haryana Cabinet.

Rohtak, May 21
Taking stern action in the matter pertaining to the alleged molestation of two girl students, Vice-Chancellor of Maharshi Dayanand University RP Hooda today expelled two students who had been arrested by the police yesterday.

The Vice-Chancellor has also banned the entry of these two students - Somvir (Department of Law) and Ashish Nandal (AIJHM College, Rohtak) - on the university campus.

They have been debarred from taking any examination of the university till further orders, said a spokesperson for the MDU.

He said a complaint had been lodged with the police for the registration of a criminal case against the culprits.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up on the MDU campus, with additional security personnel being posted at all sensitive spots.

Two girl students, who were on their way to their hostel after appearing in an examination, were intercepted and allegedly molested by three youths, two of whom were students of the MDU.

Kurukshetra, May 21
Kurukshetra University observed Anti-Terrorism Day today on the occasion of the 19th death anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who fell prey to the designs of terrorists on May 21, 1991.

Leading the university fraternity, Lt-Gen DDS Sandhu, Vice-Chancellor, paid homage to Rajiv Gandhi. Prof Raghuvendra Tanwar, Registrar, administered the anti-terrorist pledge to all senior functionaries, teachers and the non-teaching staff of the university. Anti-Terrorism Day was observed to generate awareness among all sections of people about the danger of terrorism, violence and its evil effects on people, society and the country as a whole.

REWARI: Shanti Devi, mother of Finance Minister Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, district Congress chief Kotu Ram Dhamija, HPCC spokesperson Ved Prakash Vidrohi and others paid tributes to the late Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, at various functions held to mark his 19th death anniversary here on Friday.

SONEPAT: Tributes were paid to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 19th death anniversary by Sonepat MP Jitender Singh Malik, DCC (urban) president Pradeep Gautam and other Congress leaders at a meeting in Congress Bhawan here on Friday. Malik said Rajiv Gandhi during his leadership gave a new direction to the youth for entering in areas like information technology. Gautam said Rajiv was instrumental in the increased role of the Scheduled Castes and women in the present panchayati raj system. Officers and officials of the district administration were administered the oath against terrorism by Deputy Commissioner Ajit Joshi at a meeting at the mini-secretariat here. 

Karnal, May 21
The Gram Panchayat Reservation Justice Committee (GPRJC) today held a protest outside the mini-secretariat to voice concerns against the new reservation policy put in force in the state.

Coordinator of the committee Rajbir Singh Chauhan said latest amendments made in the reservation policy should be immediately scraped and instead the reservation policy that was introduced in February this year should be re-implemented.

He alleged that frequent changes being made in the reservation policy were against the spirit of the Panchayati Raj Act and the government should desist from such moves.

The committee also submitted a memorandum to the administration. — TNS

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court, comprising Justice Permod Kohli and Justice K Kannan, today issued notice of motion to the State of Haryana on a petition for review of orders quashing the appointment of five Additional District and Sessions Judges.

Dinesh Kumar Mittal, one of the five ADSJs shown the door, stated in the review petition that he was eligible and qualified for appointment to the post.Mittal said he was working as deputy advocate-general when the posts were advertised.

His appointment was purely on contractual basis, valid for a year and could be terminated on one month’s notice. At the time of issuance of advertisement, he had worked for only 45 days on the post. He said he had nine years standing as an advocate. — TNS