Jind, January 15
The Sarvajatiya Sarvakhap Mahapanchayat, formed by the Jat community over the Mirchpur violence, today launched an indefinite dharna on the main railway track connecting Jind with Ferozepur in support of its demands.

All trains running on this route were diverted via Hisar and Panipat.

The mahapanchayat, at a meeting held recently, had asked the government to order a fresh probe into the Mirchpur violence and shift the trial to Hisar. It had threatened to launch an agitation from today.

Though the authorities had deployed a large number of policemen at various places to prevent the disruption of road and rail traffic, the police remained a mute spectator as over 10,000 persons converged on the rail track near the Julani crossing, about 1 km from the main junction towards Narwana.

About 70 trains pass through the route from either side in 24 hours. Some of the trains which were diverted or whose movement was affected include the Jammu-Tawi Express, the Mumbai-bound Punjab Mail and the Intercity Express, besides some goods trains.

However, the movement of trains from Delhi till the Jind city junction was normal, though these were being diverted on available routes, said a railway official.

The mahapanchayat began the dharna at 10 am and the protesters were blocking the railway track when reports last came in.

“We have launched an indefinite stir, which will continue till our demands are met,” Rajbir Dhanda, head of the mahapanchayat, told The Tribune.

He said thousands of persons, including a large number of women, belonging to 101 khaps all over the state had converged here against the alleged injustice to the community.

The demands raised by the mahapanchayat include release of all the accused in the Mirchpur case and a fresh investigation into the matter.

The trial in the case had earlier been shifted to Delhi. All the accused had been shifted to Tihar Jail in Delhi after complaints of pressure being exerted on the victims.

“Though the mahapanchayat had announced to block both road and rail traffic in Jind, it was later decided to block only the rail track in a peaceful manner,” said Dhanda. He, however, warned that the agitation would be intensified by disrupting the movement of buses in the district if the government failed to meet their demands. He said no official of the government had contacted them so far.

About 15 tents have been pitched on and around the rail track by the protesters. The police stopped the movement of heavy commercial vehicles inside the city.

“No untoward incident has been reported from anywhere and we have no instructions to remove the protesters from the spot so far,” claimed a senior official. He, however, added that the police was maintaining vigil in and around the city in view of the threat posed by the protest.

About 45 companies of the reserve police have been deployed in the district to tackle the situation, he added.

Bhanu P Lohumi adds from Kurukshetra: Thousands of commuters were put to great inconvenience as the Northern Railway cancelled two trains shuttling between Kurukshetra and Jind while one train was stopped at the Kurukshetra railway station due to protest by Jats in Jind.

The blocking of the railway track by Jats led to the cancellation of two trains on the Kurukshetra-Jind-Narwana route. Several passengers got their tickets cancelled after waiting for hours.

Chandigarh, January 15
Opening a chapter of non-cooperation, the 12,000-strong force of school lecturers has decided to launch a statewide agitation against their proposed “demotion” and eventually boycott the semester examination to be held in March, if the need arises.

Upset with the government’s proposed three-tier cadre for teachers employed in government schools of the state, the Haryana School Lecturers’ Association has threatened to come out on the road if the decision is implemented.

Under the new plan, from the existing four-level school education, the government has proposed that these be reduced to two levels of primary school (from Class 1 to 8) and senior secondary school (from Class 9 to 12). While JBT teachers will teach Classes I to III, Masters will teach students up to Class VIII. The school lecturers, under the scheme, will have to teach Classes IX to XII, which the association is terming as unjustified.

“We were initially employed to teach Classes XI and XII only. Instead of promoting us to teach college-level classes, the government is demoting us by giving us lower classes. This is not acceptable and we are prepared for a long battle.

“A state-level meeting of the association will be held on January 23 in Sonepat where we will decide our course of action. We will begin by wearing black badges to schools and hold protests in districts and in Chandigarh. We will not shy away from boycotting the March examinations as well if the government still decides to go ahead with its proposal,” says Kitab Singh Mor, state president of the association.

Among redressal of pay anomalies and other issues, the association has also demanded that the government should adopt the Andhra Pradesh (AP) model for promotion of lecturers.

“In AP, school lecturers get promoted as college lecturers on 75 per cent posts while only 25 per cent college lecturers are directly recruited. Instead of opening avenues by promoting us to colleges, the government is giving us lower classes,” Dalbir Singh Panghal, general secretary of the association, maintains.

Another major demand the association wants the government to accept is that of increasing the promotion quota of lecturers as principals. The members of the association contend that the quota distribution between lecturers and headmasters (60:40) hasn’t been revised for nearly 20 years while there are only 1,600 headmasters now.

“As a result, we get promoted as principals after 20 years while a headmaster gets his promotion in about six years. According to the present strength in both cadres, the quota should be 86:14,” Mor claims.

However, despite the threats, Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal is not impressed. “Our department was set up to make it student-centric whereas it has ended up serving the teachers alone. Anyway, we are only following the Right to Education Act and they have to be given 45 hours of work. We will be increasing the class timing from 35 minutes to about 50 minutes in the new academic session because the Act necessitates it. We will try and explain this to the association and resolve the differences,” Bhukkal added.

Sirsa, January 15
The truck carrying 523 bags of wheat, which was impounded by the police at Kalanwali town on January 3, was bound for Sirsa town. This was revealed by truck driver Jagdish during interrogation.

Kalanwali SHO Vikram Singh Nehra said the consignment of wheat bags had started from the Kalanwali storehouse of HAFED and the names of some officials of the agency as well as the security agency responsible for guarding the storehouse had come up during the interrogation.

Nehra refused to divulge details about the officials or the exact destination where the wheat bags were to be delivered. Meanwhile, the police produced the driver in the court at Dabwali, which sent him to judicial custody till January 29.

The police had initially said the truck was being driven by Kala Singh, a resident of the local Khairpur Colony of Sirsa town, and had named Amar Singh and Hari Singh of Makhosarani village as the joint owners of the vehicle. However, after the driver’s arrest, his identity was revealed as Jagdish of Rajasthan.

Meanwhile, according to sources, the HAFED authorities have decided to take up the issue of “additional storage gains” with the state government.

All state procurement agencies, including the HAFED, store the foodgrains on behalf of the FCI. While taking the delivery, the central agency demands “storage gain” of 350 gm per bag for wheat stored in the open and 500 gm for that stored under the covered storehouses.

However, the “storage gain” in normal circumstances, unless the wheat contained high moisture content at the time of procurement, is more than the FCI norms.

Till last year, the state government used to have its own norms, which were higher than the FCI norms. The norms were later lowered to make them equal to the FCI norms on the demand of the officials of state procurement agencies, who rued that they had to pay from their pockets to meet the state government norms. Presently, there are no guidelines on the storage gains and it is on the discretion of the officials to pass it on to the FCI or “misappropriate” it for them.

The HAFED has written to the government to either restore the earlier higher norms for the “storage gains” or to issue clear guidelines.

Rohtak, January 15
The statue of freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose is in a state of utter neglect. It has not been given a fresh coat of paint and looks discoloured. The country will be observing the 114th birth anniversary of the leader on January 23.

“The state of the statue is appalling, despite the fact that the local administration had taken up beautification of the spot,” said social activist Raj Singh.

The statue located in the heart of the town and called Subhas Chowk was a stone’s throw from the district headquarters, he said. While the amount spent on the renovation of the spot was yet to be made public, a sum of over Rs 2 lakh was reportedly spent on shifting the statute several metres back to make the road around it wider.

A boundary and lighting work comprised part of the renovation work, sources informed. “The maintenance of other statutes and public spots is not up to the mark either,” said Dr Gayatri Arya, a local resident.

She said the “Vijay Dwar” constructed by the administration in memory of Kargil martyrs at Shantmai Chowk was also in a poor state with the gate covering having caved in at several points.

The condition of Gandhi’s statue at D-Park near Model Town was in a similar state with banners of political leaders and activists donning the spot, rendering the statute almost invisible, said Balraj Kaushik, another activist.