Chandigarh, November 29
A hot contender for the presidentship of the Haryana Congress, Venod Sharma, former Union Minister of State for Civil Supplies, is on a mission, to prove his trans-Haryana standing among non-Jats.

Sharma, who remained a minister in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Cabinet during the previous tenure, is perceived as a Punjab-based politician who has migrated to Haryana politics. This perception, perhaps, stems from the fact that till he was elected MLA from Ambala city in 2005, Sharma had been contesting elections from the Banur assembly constituency in Punjab.

Only a few know that when he contested from Banur for the first time in 1980, he was president of the Haryana Youth Congress.

He continued to head the Haryana youth wing of the Congress for about eight months even after he was elected from Banur. Sharma was instrument in the appointment of senior Haryana Congress leader Birender Singh as president of the Haryana Youth Congress as his successor.

Since it is an unwritten rule in the Congress that if the Chief Minister of Haryana is a Jat, the party chief has to be a non-Jat, or vice versa, many non-Jat leaders are busy lobbying for the coveted post.

Sources say the Congress high command wants an effective leader to head the party in the state so that he or she can help the party retain its base among the non-Jat communities, which constitute over 70 per cent of the population.

The sources say a section of the central party leaders feel that either a Brahmin or a Punjabi or an Aggarwal should be made the Haryana Congress president to send a positive signal to the non-Jats in the state as these communities have by and large stood with the Congress.

Sharma, who is close to Hooda, does not admit that he is in the race for the party chief’s post. But no one believes him. In the past few months, several functions have been organised by his supporters in various parts of the state, including Mewat, Panipat, Palwal, Bhiwani, Kaithal, in his honour.

The places have been carefully chosen to suggest that Sharma has a trans-Haryana following.

Brahmins, Muslims, Scheduled Castes and certain other economically weaker sections have been organisers of such functions. The objective is too obvious to be missed by any political analyst, to project Sharma as a leader of non-Jat communities.

Sharma denies that these functions are meant to project him as a leader of mass appeal.He says if one goes through the recordings of his speeches at these functions, he would find that he had propagated only the policies of the Congress and its government in the state.

Will Sharma’s efforts succeed? Only time (and Sonia Gandhi) will tell. 

Bhiwani, November 29
INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala has said the UPA government will be remembered for various scams that have rocked the nation recently. Scams of over Rs 1,000 crore relating to the Commonwealth Games, the Adarsh Housing Society and the 2G spectrum have been been unearthed and even in the state, frauds in the name of land acquisitions at various places have come to surface, he alleged.

Talking to mediapersons here recently, Chautala alleged that former Telecom Minister A Raja had brought disrepute to the ruling UPA government. “Despite such a big scam, it seems that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have given their silent approval to corruption by rejecting the demand for a JPC probe,” Chautala stated.

The INLD chief said the stalemate continued in Parliament on the issue and he predicted that the country might face a mid-term poll. He said as and when the elections took place, the Congress would face a Bihar-like recently.

Chautala further alleged that a scam bigger than the Adarsh Housing Society scam had taken place in Haryana in the name of releasing acquired land.

On the Khanak mines issue, Chautala said during the INLD regime, consumers got gravel on cheaper rates and crores were deposited in the exchequer, but now mines were being used to appease Congress leaders. “Arrangements will be made to provide employment to thousands of labourers by runningthe Khanak mines when the INLD comes to power,” he said.

The former Chief Minister said a decision on fielding party candidates in municipal council elections would be taken in the party executive meeting, which would be held soon.

Hisar, November 29
The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has decided to allow a cushion of 20 per cent over and above the sanctioned load of tubewells for considering unauthorised extension of load by agriculture consumers.

Sudhir Rajpal, Managing Director, DHBVN, said here today that no penalty would be levied for the increased load up to 20 per cent of the sanctioned load on tubewells as such small incremental recording of additional load could be due to poor voltage or human error during checking.

For such cases, the officer concerned would issue a notice asking that such deficiencies in the consumer’s installations be removed. However, in case the load exceeded the cushion limit, then penalty would be charged on the load exceeding the sanctioned load.

He said the unauthorised extension of load by un-metered agricultural consumer would continue to be treated as theft of electricity, but for the purpose of assessment and compounding of offence, penalty would be levied on unauthorised extended load only.

“Where the consumer has already deposited the assessed and compounding amount in full, the case shall not be re-opened for any refund,” the MD added. 

Panipat, November 29
Shifting of premises to escape paying of power bills will no longer be an option for defaulters as the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) has decided to launch a campaign to tighten the noose around them.

Speaking to The Tribune, Managing Director of the power utility Arun Kumar said the campaign would be executed in a phased manner under which those who had failed to pay bills amounting to Rs 20,000 or above would be identified in the first phase. The focus would be on those non-payers who had shifted their premises.

The modus operandi of recovering the amount would be decided on merit and facts of each case, he added.

The nigam has fixed a target of identifying and locating minimum 10 such cases for each operation subdivision. The checking teams will get a list of such defaulters from the office and then they will visit the sites. In case the targets are not achieved, the commercial and technical staff will be held responsible.

He said the power utility was already scrutinising the performance of the commercial and technical staff in each operation subdivision with an aim to bring down losses and ensure better services to consumers. The worst performing sub-divisional officers would be asked to explain their position in a meeting of senior officers which would be chaired by the Managing Director.

The base of the performance of each subdivision would be load checking, checking of permanently disconnected premises and detection of theft, replacement of electro-mechanical meters with electronic meters, detection of extra load in less than 1kW to 20kW category, performance in revenue collection compared with average rate of growth of the operation circle and general detection of theft of electricity.

He also said the nigam had achieved the highest-ever revenue realisation of Rs 285.04 crore during October. 

Panipat, November 29
The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has completed the pre-commissioning tests and is all set to energise a new 33 kV substation at Mandi, about 25 km from here, soon.

A spokesman for the nigam said here today that two power transformers of 10 mega volt amperes capacity had been installed in the substation and it had been connected to a 132 kV substation at Naultha through a 10 km long line. It had been set up at an estimated cost of Rs 3.5 crore.

The substation would supply power through four feeders of 11 kV to electricity consumers of the area. It has also been decided to supply power to consumers of Mandi, Palari, Pudhar, Balana and Chanrara villages from this substation.

He said about 3,800 consumers of these villages including owners of 1,100 tubewells would be benefited from the substation.

The nigam had also set a target to complete construction work of 33 kV substations at Jalalpur and Babarpur during the current financial year, the spokesman said. 

Chandigarh, November 29
The state government has notified public holidays in its offices for the calendar year 2011.

The birth and death anniversaries of noted personalities and festivals which have been declared as public holidays include Guru Gobind Singh’s birthday (January 5), Republic Day (January 26), Basant Panchmi and Sir Chhotu Ram Jayanti (February 8), Guru Ravidas birthday (February18), Mahashivaratri (March 2), Shaheedi Diwas of Sardar Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev (March 23), Ram Navami (April 12), Baisakhi and Dr BR Ambedkar’s Jayanti (April 14), Lord Parshu Ram Jayanti (May 5), Sant Kabir Jayanti (June 15), Teej (August 2), Independence Day (August 15), Janamashtmi (August 22), Id-ul-Fitr (August 31), Haryana’s Heroes’ Martyrdom Day (September 23), Maharaja Aggarsain Jayanti (September 28), Dasehra (October 16), Maharshi Balmiki’s birthday (October 11), Divali (October 26), Vishwakarma Day (October 27), Haryana Day (November 1), Id-ul-Juha (Bakrid) (November 7), Guru Nanak’s birthday (November 10) and Shaheed Udham Singh’s birthday (November 26).

The festivals and occasions, which fall on closed days, have been excluded from the above list. These are Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati Jayanti (February 27), Holi (March 20), Mahavir Jayanti (April 16), Maharana Pratap Jayanti (June 4), Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday (October 2) and Christmas (December 25).

The employees would also be allowed any two holidays to be chosen out of the restricted holidays, which are Id-e-Milad or Milad-ul-Nabi (February 16), Good Friday (April 22), Budh Purnima (May 17), Guru Arjan Dev’s Martyrdom Day (June 5), Shaheed Udham Singh’s Martyrdom Day (July 31), Raksha Bandhan (August 13), Karva Chauth (October 15), Govardhan Puja (October 27) and Guru Teg Bahadur’s Martyrdom Day (November 24) and Muharram (December 6).

As per a notification to this effect issued by Chief Secretary Urvashi Gulati, all Saturdays and Sundays will also be observed as public holidays in the government offices.

Faridabad, November 29
The much awaited inauguration of the Badarpur flyover on the Delhi-Agra national highway in Delhi adjoining the Haryana border today has brought cheer to the public, but generated a tug of war between the ruling Congress and Opposition parties over their share of the accolades.

Residents have heaved a sigh of relief as the project has been completed and officially dedicated to the public after about 15 years since the time it was envisaged and sanctioned.

The opening of the Badarpur flyover will result in better connectivity for local residents with the national Capital and would boost the overall development of Faridabad. It will save about 40 minutes while commuting from Faridabad to Delhi. Ram Singh, a resident of Sector 16 here, says it used to take him about one and a half hours to reach India Gate largely because of traffic jams at the Badarpur border, but today after the opening of the flyover, it took him about 40 minutes.

President of the Faridabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ramesh Jhawar said the commissioning of the flyover would further boost the development of Faridabad.

However, while Congress leaders claimed that the project was completed due to the efforts of their party government in Haryana, Delhi and the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, the Opposition, including the BJP and the INLD, reminded them that the project was conceived by the BJP-led NDA government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee. President of the Haryana BJP KP Gurjar alleged that the Congress owed an explanation to the people for the delay in the project. 

Kurukshetra, November 29
With a view to improving and upgrading the syllabi of courses offered by Kurukshetra University, the academic council of the university has decided to start an annual audit of the syllabi by all departments and institutes at their Board of Studies meetings.

At a meeting, the academic council decided to pay fee to outside experts attending the Board of Studies meetings.

The council also called for a mandatory provision for informal programmes instead of a formal examination to improve communication skills and personality of students studying in the university and its affiliated colleges and stated that outside experts and agencies would be engaged to help students improve their communication skills.

Stressing the need for bridging the gap between the academia and the industry, the Vice-Chancellor, Lt-Gen DDS Sandhu, suggested that to ensure greater collaboration, members of the industry should be put on the Board of Studies in professional and science courses.

The ordinance for PhD as per guidelines from the UGC regarding the “minimum standard degree and procedure” for the award of MPhil/PhD degree was accepted by the academic council. The Vice-Chancellor said the university was in favour of decentralising supervision of PhD degree by allowing college teachers to become research guides.

However, there were certain issues that needed to be deliberated upon by a separate committee before taking a final decision in this regard, he added. 

Karnal, November 29
Martyr Bhagat Singh was not only a revolutionary who challenged the might of the British and sacrificed his life for the country but also a thinker with a distinct political ideology, which is relevant in the present times also.

This was the crux of deliberations at a two-day UGC-sponsored seminar on “Ideological evolution of Bhagat Singh”, organised jointly by the departments of History and Political Science, which concluded here today.

An eminent scholar, Prof MS Warraich, who has done extensive research on Bhagat Singh, in his valedictory address, said Bhagat Singh was a revolutionary, a thinker and philosopher who had done his best to promote an ideology not only for the country’s freedom but also against all kinds of exploitation, and his philosophy had great relevance even in the present times.

Bhagat Singh was a multifaceted personality who could not be confined to a particular region, section or class, he added.

An eminent scholar and renowned historian, Dr KL Tuteja, in his presidential remarks, pointed out that Bhagat Singh was an ideologue who became a symbol of the forces who questioned the authority of British rulers and the ideas floated by him were relevant even today and continued to inspire the younger generation.

Dr Kushal Pal, head of the Department of Political Science and co-ordinator of the seminar, said 20 research papers were presented and 10 resource persons made an effort to de-mystify the ideological Bhagat Singh and discuss his relevance to modern Indian political thinking. Bhagat Singh was known to the masses as a “revolutionary” and the purpose of the seminar was to remember the martyr in a different way and throw light on his political and social ideological notions, he added. 

Sonepat, November 29
Sonu of Kathura and Jagdeep of Rindhana, who were members of the Indian kabaddi team which won the gold medal at the Asian Games, were accorded a warm welcome at their native villages today.

Congress MP from Rohtak Deepender Singh Hooda, congratulating the medallists, said the state was on its way to becoming a major sports hub in the country.

In view of the stellar performance of the state players at the CWG and the Asian Games, “a sports university in the state has become the need of the hour,” he said. Cash incentives, job reservation, opening of academies and training facilities at the village level had lent a momentum to sports activities.

The MP announced opening of a sports nursery in Kathura village. 

Chandigarh, November 29
Haryana is not setting up a commission for protection of child rights, but is coming up with a children’s court, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today heard.

In reply to a petition filed in public interest by social activist Hemant Goswami, Haryana’s Deputy Secretary, Women and Child Development, Hardeep Singh said the government had decided not to set up the commission, but had taken a decision to go ahead with the constitution of a children’s court in the state. In the petition placed before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Goswami had brought to the fore the alleged violation and non-compliance of provisions of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. Appearing for the petitioner, advocate APS Shergill had earlier cited Panjab University’s example, where children were made to work. The petitioner said whenever such cases were highlighted, the illegally employed child was victimised, instead of being rehabilitated. The petition reads: “That in spite of the constitutional and statutory provisions which expressly prohibit child labour; the practice of employing young children forcefully or by taking advantage of their poverty and miseries has been noticed in almost every area of Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana. The next date of haring of the matter is April 28, 2010.

Chandigarh, November 29
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has upheld the Haryana government’s notification making it mandatory for guest teachers to clear the state teachers’ eligibility test (STET) for appointment as regular teachers in the state.

The Division Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice Ritu Bahri also dismissed a bunch of 10 petitions filed by the guest teachers.

They had challenged the amendments to the statutory rules vide notification dated July 24, 2008. The guest teachers had also challenged the prospectus for holding STET as advertised on August 13, 2009, prescribing passing of the said test as an essential condition for recruitment of teachers in all categories.

The Bench asserted it was not impressed with the argument that the guest teachers, working since 2002, were required to be treated differently than those applying for the first time for posts of regular teachers.

“When the guest teachers were recruited, they were made aware that their appointments were made for a specified period and it was no substitute for regular appointment,” held the Bench.

The Bench also stated the argument that adequate number of teachers had not been recruited due to high standards of the eligibility test did not have any weight.

“It is for the state government to frame its policy…. The court can’t re-write the policy of the state unless it is found to be against the mandate of the Constitution.” 

Karnal, November 29
Former Director-General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) Navin Joshi today exhorted all functionaries of the “criminal justice system” to work with commitment to ensure justice, punishment to the offender and compensation to the victim.

Inaugurating an orientation course for Notified Public Prosecutors, Assistant Public Prosecutors and Government Pleaders, at the Haryana Police Academy here today, he said though the criminal justice system consisted of different functionaries such as the police, prosecution, judiciary, prison personnel and also NGOs, which were independent functionaries, yet they all were inter-dependent and interrelated.

He emphasised that every government upheld the law and maintained order in society that it governed, and this was essentially done through the criminal justice system. “In the absence of commitment, the most important fallout of the system has been the ever-decreasing conviction rate in the country as well as in the state”, he observed.

There had been a constant demand that Public Prosecutors/ Government Pleaders be trained to cope with the challenges they faced while defending the cases of prosecution in courts.

Hence, a monitoring committee headed by the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court of both Punjab and Haryana, decided that the prosecutors be put on training for improving their working skills.

Hisar, November 29
The district administration stopped the marriages of three minor girls in this district yesterday.

On a tip off, the District Child Marriage Prevention Officer rushed to Balsamand village, near here, where Hawa Singh was preparing to solemnise the marriage 
of his 14-year-old daughter Monica. The marriage party was to arrive from Jogiwala village in Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan. Armed with a court directive and a police posse, the officer directed the father of the girl to cancel all ceremonies. The girl’s parents gave an undertaking that they would not marry their daughter till she attained adulthood.

Shortly thereafter, the authorities got another tip- off about the weddings of two minor sisters in Talwani Badshahpur village.The District Child Marriage Prevention Officer found that Suman (17) and her sister Shakila (14) were about to be married at their maternal uncle’s home. The officer asked the girls’ parents to cancel the weddings or face prosecution. 

Sonepat, November 29
Anuj of Buwana in Delhi and his 13-year-old son, Daksh, were killed while three others - Anuj’s father Om Prakash, Savita of Bahadurgarh and her daughter Deepu - were injured seriously when the car they were travelling in rammed into the divider on the Murthal flyover on the GT Road early this morning.

The victims were returning after attending a marriage in Samalkha.

The injured were referred to the PGIMS, Rohtak, by doctors at the local Civil Hospital, but their family members got them admitted to Balaji Hospital in Delhi.

According to information, Anuj, along with his father and son, had come to Samalkha as member of a barat and while returning, Savita and her daughter also accompanied them in the car. The police has registered a case.

Sonepat, November 29
The Government Railway Police (GRP) at Sonepat has arrested three gangsters identified as Shiv Kumar, Amit and Sonu of Tazpur village in Panipat district for allegedly looting Bihari farmworkers on a Delhi-bound passenger train between Rathdhana and Narela last Thursday.

According to the SHO of the GRP, Sultan Singh, during search of the compartment, a mobile phone was found by the police and during investigation, it was found that the phone belonged to Shiv Kumar. A team of the GRP raided his house in the village and took him into custody for investigation.

During interrogation, he confessed to have committed the crime and named his accomplices as Amit, Sonu and Sanjay. The police succeeded in arresting Amit and Sonu and they also confessed to their involvement in the loot. The SHO said the fourth accused was yet to be arrested. The accused were produced in a court here today and remanded in police custody.

Fatehabad, November 29
A case has been registered against SBI branch manager RM Madan and deputy manager Upma Bansal under Sections 406 and 409 of the IPC (criminal breach of trust) on a complaint by an elderly couple that their gold ornaments had gone missing from the bank locker.

Gian Chand Chaudhary, whose wife Krishna Chaudhary has a locker in the bank, said they were informed by the bank  on November 17 that their locker had been “found ajar”.

When the couple rushed to the bank, they found gold ornaments as well as a fixed deposit certificate missing from the locker.

Though the couple had lodged a complaint immediately after the matter came to their notice, the police waited for a few days before registering an FIR.

The SBI has also started a probe into the incident. Sources said an officer of the rank of Chief Manager was holding an inquiry.

Panipat, November 29
Jasmer Singh Gulia and Jasmer Jassa, members of the national kabbadi squad that bagged the gold at the Asiad (both natives of Gurdsham village of the district) returned home today to a rousing welcome.

The players were honoured by a number of educational institutions at an impressive ceremony organised at the local Senior Secondary School on NH-1. Students showered flower petals on the two. Minister for Tourism and Transport Om Prakash Jain, receiving the players, said it was a matter of pride for the locals that two lads from the district had made it to the national team and returned home  victorious.

The players said they looked forward to competing at more international competitions and would be putting in greater effort to win more medals for  the country.

They were presented with mementos in recognition of their achievement. Later, they were escorted to their village in a procession.