Kurukshetra, May 17
The Haryana Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (HFUCTO) today called off its agitation following an agreement with the government on major demands.

The teachers also withdrew the call for boycott of examination duties from May 19 and decided to resume the evaluation work that they stopped on May 11.

Dr Pradeep Chauhan, president of the HFUCTO, said: “An agreement has been reached on major demands like advance increments for higher qualifications, API system as per the UGC, working conditions, including stay hours, probation period, fixation of pay of directly recruited professors/reader, induction of daily diary, in-service increments, leave provisions, basic qualifications of recruitment, selection and screening-cum-evaluation committee.”

However, the issue of the selection criteria of vice-chancellors and raising the retirement age of teachers to 65 years remained unresolved and on the issue of designation of professor in colleges, the government has agreed to hold regular consultations with teachers’ representatives for studying its feasibility, HFUCTO leaders claimed.

The teachers of four universities, 78 government colleges and 97 government-aided colleges were on warpath after the government had issued a comprehensive notification on the revised UGC scales. The HFUCTO had rejected the notification and urged the government to immediately remove the deviations and the anomalies in the notification.

The talks were deadlocked twice and resumed following the intervention of Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal and the Chief Minister. 

Hisar, May 17
The agitating teachers of Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology ended their six-day-old stir started after a clash between them and non-teaching employees inside the office of the Vice-Chancellor on May 12.

Sandeep Rana, president of the GJU Teachers Association, said the administration had agreed to ask Parkash Arora, former Secretary to the VC, to proceed on leave pending an enquiry into his role in instigating the clash.

Arora had been shifted as Deputy Registrar (Scholarships) yesterday. However, the teachers insisted that he be suspended or sent on long leave so that he would not influence the probe.

Vice-Chancellor ML Ranga addressed the teachers at the venue of their dharna and assured that he would take steps to ensure that such an ugly incident was not repeated inside the campus. He agreed to send Arora on leave and to order a detailed probe into the incident.

The VC also addressed non-teaching employees and pleaded for restoring normalcy on the campus.

Rana said in view of the acceptance of their demands, the stir had been called off and the functioning of the university had returned to normal.

The clash had taken place when a delegation of the teachers came out of the VC office after complaining about the alleged indecent remarks by the then SVC against a senior woman teacher. A group of non-teaching employees allegedly instigated by the official of the VC office clashed with them.

The teachers immediately launched a stir seeking ouster of the official concerned and action against the guilty. The university had to be closed for four days to rule out any further escalation of violence.

Chandigarh, May 17
The state has revised its instructions regarding reimbursement of toll tax to its employees and has also amended general provident fund (GPF) rules for withdrawal of funds for the construction or purchase of second house.

The Finance Minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, said here today that it had been decided that toll charges would now be admissible on submission of the receipt with or without the registration number of the vehicle mentioned on it provided the same was countersigned by the employee concerned. — TNS

Sirsa, May 17
Birender Singh, Rajya Sabha member and AICC general secretary, today said the acquisition of agriculture land for setting up industrial zones or building flats was not in the interest of the state.

Talking to mediapersons at the residence of former state minister Jagdish Nehra here, Birender Singh said Haryana, Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh were the granaries of the country, as over 85 per cent of foodgrain for India’s consumption was produced here.

“If we start acquiring farmers’ fertile land in the name of industrial zones, we will be doing it at the cost of endangering the food security of the country,” the Congress stalwart said.

Birender Singh said he viewed the state’s land acquisition policy in two different parts. “While the second part that pertains to the rehabilitation of farmers is good, though it needed further improvement, the first part, which speaks about the reason for acquisition, is most important and I have my reservations over the way fertile land of farmers have been rampantly acquired in the recent times,” he added. He, however, said land acquisition for public interest projects like power generation and irrigation was necessary and he was not against that.

Later, speaking at a function organised in Congress Bhawan here for his felicitation, Birender Singh regretted that Congress workers in Sirsa district were at the receiving end whether the Congress was in power or out of power. 

Rohtak, May 17
Enraged over the sharp hike in the prices of petrol, activists of the Haryana unit of the CPM staged a demonstration here today demanding an immediate rollback of the hike in the larger interest of the masses.

Describing the hike as a direct assault on the people, the party submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister through the local administration seeking a rollback.

The protesters assembled at the Mansarovar park and took out a procession to the mini-secretariat.

Addressing the workers, state general secretary of CITU Surender Singh denounced the UPA government for allegedly cheating people by keeping the steep hike of petrol prices deliberately pending in view of the Assembly elections.

He said instead of protecting the interests of consumers, the government was playing into the hands of petroleum companies.

State secretary of the CPM Inderjit Singh charged the Congress-led UPA government with being highly insensitive towards the masses.

KURUKSHETRA: Activists of the BJP led by district party president Krishan Bedi and former state minister Balbir Saini staged a demonstration and burnt an effigy of the Manmohan Singh government in protest against the hike in petrol price near the old bus stand here on Tuesday. The protesters rode bullock carts in the procession.

Party’s communication cell state president Dhuman Singh Kirmach alleged that the Manmohan Singh government had miserably failed in controlling the price hike.

Chandigarh, May 17
The government has issued the transfer and posting orders of 12 HCS officers .

Ashok Kumar Bishnoi has been posted as ADC-cum-Chief Executive Officer, District Rural Development Agency, Panipat;, Sujan Singh becomes Estate Officer, HUDA, Rohtak, and Land Acquisition Officer, Rohtak, while Yashendra Singh will be General Manager, Haryana Roadways, Gurgaon.

SS Dalal goes as Joint Commissioner, MC,NIT, Faridabad, while Pushpender Singh will go as ADC-cum-Chief Executive Officer, District Rural Development Agency, Sonepat.

SB Lohia has been posted as City Magistrate, Bhiwani, in place of Satbir Singh Lohchab, who has been posted as SDO (Civil), Siwani. Bhal Singh Bishnoi goes as SDO(Civil)-cum- Additional Collector, Pehowa, against a vacant post.

Aurbind Sharma will be the new SDO(Civil)-cum-Additional Collector, Rewari; and Estate Officer, HUDA, Rewari; and Administrator, MC, Rewari.

Prem Chand Gangle (awaiting orders of posting) becomes City Magistrate, Panipat, and Estate Officer, HUDA, Panipat. Subhita Dhaka has been posted as SDO(Civil), Mahendragarh. Satish Kumar Jain will be SDO(C), Panipat.

Fatehabad, May 17
Radha is no more now. The poor mentally challenged woman had stopped eating anything after she was shifted to the pingalwara in Sangrur against her wish on April 27.

Pingalwara managers had shifted an ailing Radha to the general hospital in Sangrur, from where Radha’s brother brought her back to his home on Sunday. The woman, however, died yesterday and was cremated the same evening.

The Tribune had spotted Radha at her brother Gurmukh’s house in Bajigar Basti of Jakhal village in this district, where she was kept in chains in a dingy room under subhuman conditions for the past five years.

It appeared from her unkempt hair and stinking clothes that she had not bathed for several months.

Radha’s day started and ended in the same small room, where she took her frugal meals as also answered to the nature’s calls.

After a news item highlighting her plight was published in The Tribune on April 25, a team from the pingalwara came to Jakhal on April 27 to shift Radha to their branch in Sangrur.

Rajesh Kumar, manager of the pingalwara, Sangrur, said Dr Inderjit Kaur, who heads the All India Pingalwara Charitable Society at Amritsar, had taken the decision to adopt Radha after reading the news item in The Tribune.

Though Radha’s family did not offer any resistance to shift her to the pingalwara, she herself was not willing to go. It was with great persuasion and her brother Gurmukh’s assurance that he would also accompany her to Sangrur that Radha had agreed to go, though she was still hesitant.

The poor woman lived for years when kept in chains among her kin in her brother’s house, but could not survive for even a month after she was separated from her roots. Gurmukh said he got a message from the pingalwara that Radha was ill and was admitted to a hospital. He brought the ailing Radha to Jakhal on Sunday, where she died the next day. Rajesh Kumar said Radha had stopped eating and they had to make a lot of efforts to persuade her to eat something.

Rohtak, May 17
Nine of the 22 accused, who were booked following the death of a person at the grain market in Kalanaur town here on May 5 after a group led by former MLA from Meham allegedly opened fire on the village sarpanch, have surrendered before the police. However, the former MLA is still in hiding.

While supporters of the sarpanch of Basana village have threatened to block the road connecting Rohtak with Bhiwani on Wednesday in protest against the alleged failure of the police to arrest the accused, including former MLA Balbir Singh, alias Bali Pehalwan, residents of Mokhra village also announced to gherao the Chief Minister’s residence in wake of the alleged delay by the authorities concerned to conduct a probe into the matter before carrying out the arrests.

They claimed that the former MLA had been framed wrongly in the case on political grounds.

Vihnu of Nighana village was killed in firing following a clash over collection of donation for a cow shelter on May 5.

V Kamaraja, IG, Rohtak range, said while seven of the accused have surrendered, two others were arrested on Monday. Regarding the arrest of the former MLA, he said the police did not want any clash or violence and was awaiting his surrender.

Chandigarh, May 17
Haryana IAS officer SC Goyal is in the dock in a village land exchange matter.

Holding the post of Director, Consolidation of Holdings, Goyal had allowed exchange of gram panchayat land “without legal authority”.

Referring the matter to the Mewat Deputy Commissioner for necessary action, Justice Ajai Lamba asserted: “I am constrained to observe the order was not passed by the Director,Consolidation, for legal considerations as they flow from the statute….

“The order has been found to be without jurisdiction. The Director,Consolidation, had no authority to allow exchange of gram panchayat land… The facts and circumstances emanating from the record clearly indicate even commission of criminal offence, including that of fraud. The Deputy Commissioner, Mewat, is directed to enable the initiation of criminal proceedings”.

The directions came on a petition filed by Maherdin and others for quashing the order dated November 10, 2008, by the Director,Consolidation. The order came on an application filed by Gurgaon resident Medha Gupta against Sehsola gram panchayat. She had sought the exchange of her land with the panchayat land, as a drain passing through her area had divided it into several parcels.

The case was accepted after sarpanch Sham Lal and panch R. Mohammad appeared for the gram panchayat and gave the concession in Medha’s favour.

Challenging the order, the petitioners claimed there was no panch by the name of R. Mohammad in the village.

Justice Lamba asserted: “The fact that Medha Gupta is the niece of the officer, who was then serving as Director,Consolidation, has not been denied”.

Justice Lamba added: “The officer then serving as Director-Consolidation, SC Goyal, IAS, was required to at least examine his legal authority to deal with the application….”

Quashing the order, Justice Lamba asserted: “The exchange of land of the gram panchayat, allowed by the Director,Consolidation, under the Consolidation Act, is clearly arbitrary, unreasonable…. The order is fanciful, injudicious, irresponsible and unaccountable….

Justice Lamba added: “The affidavit filed on behalf of the gram panchayat clearly indicates that a fraud has been played on the gram panchayat insomuch as no resolution was passed authorising the sarpanch or the panch to give the concession on behalf of the gram panchayat…

“Surely the authority was required to refer to the document which authorized the person representing and appearing on behalf of the gram panchayat. Conveniently, no such exercise was conducted by SC Goyal. The respondent, therefore, enabled the fraud to be played on the gram panchayat, resulting in the gram panchayat losing its land”. 

Jhajjar, May 17
At least seven persons, including two women and two kids, were killed and eight others were injured when the jeep they were travelling in collided with a dumper on the Beri-Kalanaur road near Beri town here late last night.

The injured have been admitted to the PGIMS in Rohtak, where condition of some of them is stated to be serious. The police has registered a case of rash and negligent driving against the dumper driver, who absconded after the incident leaving behind the vehicle.

The deceased have been identified as Sardara Singh (68), Atul (6) and Ramrati (48), all residents of Gujrani village in Bhiwani district, Imarti Devi (50) of Kharak Kalan village, Seema (15) of Mundhal village and Ram Niwas (70) and Sandeep (25) of Bhiwani.

The incident took place when Sardara Singh along with his family members and relatives was on the way back home in the jeep after attending a family function in Faridabad district. The jeep reportedly rammed into a dumper, when the dumper driver suddenly applied the brakes.

According to Sombir Singh, in charge of Beri police station, four occupants of the jeep died on the spot while a woman succumbed to her injuries on the way to the Jhajjar Civil Hospital. Later, two others died in the PGIMS in Rohtak.

“As many as eight injured identified as Dharmbir, Rajender Singh, Roshni, Sudesh, Urmila, Jyoti, Annu, Diksha and Jai Kishan are undergoing treatment in the PGIMS,” said Sombir.