New Delhi, May 12
The Supreme Court today directed the Haryana Government to provide security to the victims of the April 21, 2010, anti-Dalit violence at Mirchpur in Hisar district in view of the threat allegedly being faced by them from the accused in the case.

A Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly also directed the Haryana Government to provide two quintals of wheat a month each to about 100 families of the victims who had taken shelter at a farmhouse near Hisar.

The wheat should be supplied for May and June while the case would be taken up for hearing again in the first week of July, the Bench said.

In the order, the Bench also made the Delhi Government a party to the case and issued notice seeking its response to the pleadings of the victims who were still staying in the national capital.

The court passed the order after senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, assisted by Anubha Rastogi, said about 20 families of the victims had taken shelter in Delhi and about 100 families were staying at the Tamvar farmhouse. Most of the victims had to leave Delhi as they were not allowed to stay at the Valmiki temple after certain period, Colin said.

The victims were not in a position to return to Mirchpur, fearing threat to their lives. Also, they were not being given work under the rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGA) at Mirchpur nor were their children allowed to go to school. Even those who had preferred to stay put at their native village after the April, 2010, violence were forced to flee by people belonging to the higher caste.

The victims were being threatened especially after some of them identified the accused in the trial court at Delhi, Colin said, justifying the plea for security and food for their survival.

The trial of the nearly 100 accused had progressed well and was at the concluding stage, he said. At this, the SC Bench said it would hear the matter in July by which time perhaps the trial would be over. The SC had shifted the trial from Hisar to Delhi as supporters of the accused had created unruly scenes outside the trial court there. Even lawyers of the victims had complained that they were not being allowed to argue the case.

Chandigarh, May 12
When Sunita Rani submitted a fabricated experience certificate to get the job of a senior scientific assistant in the Police Department, little did she realise that data gathered through the Right to Information Act would eventually see the Punjab and Haryana High Court not only quash her appointment, but also describe the act as criminal.

Taking up a petition filed by Bharat Bhushan against the state of Haryana and other respondents, Justice MM Kumar and Justice Gurdev Singh asserted: Apparently she submitted a false and fabricated certificate. A candidate using a false and fabricated certificate to be genuine, looses his/her right to hold the post.

“This act in itself is a criminal act attracting penal consequences. How a person committing a criminal act in order to get himself/herself appointed can be said to have a right to hold the post.

“It was rightly submitted by counsel for the petitioner that the using of that false and forged certificate itself entails the quashing of the appointment of respondent Sunita Rani”.

Going into the background, the Bench asserted: The Haryana Staff Selection Commission advertised posts of different departments, vide advertisement dated December 7, 2007, and those posts included two posts of senior scientific assistant (chemistry) in the Police Department.

“After the result of the selection was published in newspapers on July 10, 2009, he sought information under the RTI about the experience gained by the respondent…”

Giving details, the Bench added: “For selection, the candidate was required to have one-year research and analytical experience in chemistry, biochemistry or forensic science.

“The impugned certificate was issued by International Testing Laboratory and as per that certificate, she worked in that centre in chemicals and instrument section as analytical chemist from June 2005 to June 2006.

“The petitioner obtained the requisite information under the Act and as per that information she worked in that Centre from September 1, 2005, to March 31, 2006. Thus, apparently she submitted a false and fabricated certificate.

“The writ petition filed by the petitioner is accepted and the selection and appointment of the respondent as senior scientific assistant (chemistry) is hereby quashed”.

Chandigarh, May 12
The skewed sex ratio is a social problem in Haryana as are same-gotra marriages and, now, so is digging of ponds for treatment of dirty water flowing out of villages. The Panchayat and Development Department’s ambitious scheme to dig ponds seems to hit a roadblock with panchayats in the Jat heartland unable to reach a consensus about the location of “dirty water” ponds.

Sources said while the scheme had so far been implemented in 15-odd villages, the department plans to cover another 40 villages by year-end. The scheme entails the draining out of a village’s dirty water, collecting it in a pond away from the village and treating it o make it fit for irrigation.

However, in the Jat-dominated belt of Rohtak, Sonepat and Jhajjar, the scheme is making little progress owing to certain reservations among the panchayats. Sources said that the panchayats had been unable to identify suitable land to dig ponds.

The real problem lies with the social setup in the villages. Sources in the department said the dominant community was averse to letting water from clusters housing low castes flow through the drains constructed in front of their homes.

Sources said while the department proposed ponds based on the gradient and the direction of the wind so that the smell of dirty water collected in the ponds did not flow into the villages, a number of panchayats are opposed to the idea.

“They don’t mention this problem in so many words but wherever the village streets have been paved and drains created, these are blocked at various points by the upper castes to ensure that the water from the clusters of the minority community does not enter their area. In other villages, we are still trying to convince panchayats to see our point of view,” an official said.

Panchayts asked to offer land give various excuses, including offering locations only on the “other side” of the village. For this reason alone, the deliberations with panchayats are stuck at various levels.

Sources said top officials of the department visited Jahajgarh village in Jhajjar where a similar problem was being faced. The matter continues to remain unresolved there with the panchayat failing to offer an alternative site for the pond.

Sources said a meeting of department officials with ADCs on May 14 to review various schemes would take up this issue as well. 

Fatehabad, May 12
With the mercury soaring, residents are facing scarcity of drinking water in some localities in the town.

Women from ward No. 9 in the town today held a demonstration in their street with empty pitchers. They said their taps were running dry for the past two days.

“We have been facing an acute shortage of drinking water in our area and the public health authorities have been adopting an indifferent attitude towards our problem,” alleged Rashmi, a protester.

The supply is either very poor or there is no supply at all in out taps, she alleged.

Shanti Devi, Kiran and Lakshmi, who were among the protesters, alleged that they had been facing the problem for the past three months and had apprised the public health authorities of it a number of times. They said they had been bringing water from other areas in these extreme hot conditions.

Kurukshetra/Karnal, May 12
The fate of 3.5 lakh students of four Haryana universities is in the balance as university and college teachers continued boycotting the evaluation work for the second day today.

The efforts to break the deadlock between the Haryana Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (HFUCTO) and the government on the vexed issue of implementation of the revised UGC scales in toto did not yield any results as the teachers, peeved over distortions in the comprehensive notification issued by the government on April 29, struck to their demand for accepting the UGC recommendations and Union HRD Ministry guidelines in this regard without any dilution. Dr Pradeep Chauhan, president of HFUCTO, claimed that the boycott of evaluation work was complete and the teachers have started returning the answersheets to the university.

About 8,000 teachers of four Universities, 78 government Colleges and 96 aided colleges were deputed on evaluation work and in case the impasse continued, the declaration of results would be delayed, affecting the careers of final-year students who would like to take various competitions for jobs.

The maximum number of students was in Kurukshatra and Maharshi Dayanand Universities.

About 5 lakh students would take the examinations commencing on May 19 and if the university and College teachers carried out their threat to boycott the examinations, the situation could be well-imagined. 

Hisar, May 12
An ugly situation arose in Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology here today when a large number of teachers and non-teaching employees came to blows outside the office of the Vice-Chancellor.

Fortunately, no one was reportedly injured but the warring factions left behind broken glass and damaged furniture.

According to reports, a delegation of teachers had gone to the office of the Vice-Chancellor to discuss its demands and to lodge a complaint against the Secretary to the Vice-Chancellor (SVC) who, they alleged, had used unparliamentary language against a senior woman teacher.

Even as the teachers were discussing the issue with Vice-Chancellor ML Ranga, a large number of non-teaching employees gathered outside the office in support of the SVC.

When the teachers came out of the office there were hot exchanges between them and non-teaching employees. The situation took an ugly turn soon and the two groups came to blows. Several windowpanes were broken and pieces of furniture damaged in the clash.

According to eyewitnesses, the VC escaped from the scene from the backdoor of his office.

The teachers have threatened to suspend work from tomorrow in protest against the incident. They are also demanding stern action against the SVC. A meeting of teachers’ leaders was in progress when reports last came in. Busloads of policemen were rushed to the campus after the clash.

This is the first incident of its kind in the history of the university though there have been sporadic incidents of student groups clashing inside the campus in the past.

The clash is the outcome of a power struggle going on between two teachers with several senior non-teaching functionaries taking sides with either of them. The clash has sent shockwaves through the academic community here.

Chandigarh, May 12
The Haryana Government has come up with an ambitious scheme to eliminate corruption in tehsils of the state. Under the scheme, the registry documents will henceforth carry a photograph of the tehsildar, besides that of the buyer, seller and the nambardar.

The buyer will be handed over the registry documents immediately after the registry is done. Sharing broad contours of the new scheme at a meeting with officers of the Revenue Department here today, Revenue Minister Satpal Sangwan asked them to deliberate on the proposal.

Sangwan said the work of registration was being done by a clerk of the Revenue Department and the photo was being taken by computer operators appointed by Red Cross Societies after verification of the documents. Thereafter, the tehsildar signed the registry papers. Both the buyer and the seller were asked to come again in case the papers were found lacking in any respect. This resulted in a lot of wastage of time.

Sirsa, May 12
More than a dozen shops were ransacked by protesters as most markets remained closed today in response to a call given by Dalit organisations against the killing of a Dalit youth at Bani village on April 30.

Demanding the arrest of the main accused in the killing of Mukh Ram, agitating youths of the Dalit community, led by Shanti Swaroop, Vijay Kandara, Suresh Goga, Shiv Kumar, Rajesh Balmiki and Raja Ram, went from shop to shop asking traders to close their establishments.

Earlier, the Dalit organisations had given a call for “Sirsa bandh” for today against alleged police inaction. The agitators ransacked the shop of a wholesale “beedi” dealer, when they found it open.

The protesters then marched through Suratgarhia Bazar, Subhash Chowk and Hisaria Bazar and smashed the windowpanes of a jeweller shop in Noharia Bazar.

The jeweller alleged that some miscreants among the protesters looted silver ornaments from his shop.

The protesters later ransacked a medical store in Sadar Bazar.

The protestors damaged windowpanes and furniture in several other shops in the market. While all this was happening, the police remained a mute spectator.

Irked by the action of the protesters and inaction of the police, a large number of traders assembled at Laal Batti Chowk on the Sirsa-Dabwali road and blocked vehicular traffic in protest.

The traffic on the road remained paralysed for over two hours leading to long queues of vehicles on both sides.

Some other traders blocked traffic at Ghantaghar Chowk and later went to the police station and held a demonstration against the police.

Later, DC Yudhbir Singh Khyalia had a meeting with representatives of the traders, who demanded shifting of the City Police SHO, arrest of those responsible for looting of shops and security for shopkeepers in the future.

Though the traders lifted the road blockade after their negotiations with the authorities, Hira Lal Sharma, president of the District Beopar Mandal, threatened that the traders would organise a Sirsa bandh tomorrow, if their demands were not met by the evening.

Dalit leader Shanti Swaroop, on the other hand, denied the hand of any Dalit activist in the incidents of looting and maintained that it was the handiwork of some anti-social elements.

DSP (Headquarters) Puran Chand Panwar later said the police had apprehended three persons for ransacking of shops during the Sirsa bandh and their motorcycle had been impounded.

Mukh Ram, a dalit youth was murdered and his body chopped off by members of the dominant community of the village at Bani on April 30 over a panchayat election-related rivalry.

While the police has arrested five persons in connection with the murder, the main accused are still at large. 

Kurukshetra, May 12
At least 12 persons were injured when some upper caste persons allegedly barged into the house of a Dalit at Ajrana village in Kurukshetra district, beat up the family members and ransacked the house.

The injured have been admitted to a local hospital.

According to sources, a minor altercation took place between some Dalits and upper caste persons last evening over the parking of a three-wheeler, but the matter was settled.

However, both groups clashed again this morning and upper caste persons allegedly forced their entry into the house of a Dalit and allegedly beat up the family members, including women and children, and also damaged the belongings.

Kurukshetra SP Sultan Singh said the matter was being investigated and strict action would be taken against those found guilty.