Hisar, October 9
The BJP leadership today assured the people of Haryana that its alliance with Kuldeep Bishnoi’s HJC was not just limited to the Hisar Lok Sabha seat byelection but that it would continue to provide them with a political alternative in the next Assembly elections also.

Addressing an election rally at the Old Government College grounds here, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said the alliance had been accepted by the people of Haryana and the HJC-BJP combine had already emerged as a strong political force.

Gadkari said the alliance was capable of throwing out the Congress from Haryana in the next Assembly poll. He rejected all rumours that the alliance would peter out after the byelection.

He said both the UPA government at the Centre and the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in Haryana were on their last legs and the result of the Hisar byelection would give these governments a final push.

He said the Prime Minister could not absolve himself of the responsibility for all the scams that had emerged by saying that he was unaware of the goings on.

“This only shows he is incapable of running the government. Manmohan Singh Ji should better resign and go on a long pilgrimage to Haridwar or Amritsar to atone for the sins committed by his ministers,” Gadkari said.

He said the Congress governments everywhere were just bands of looters who were robbing the people of their money. Never before had this country been witness to such huge scams involving lakhs of crores of rupees.

Sushma Swaraj said the Hisar Lok Sabha byelection was no ordinary election. It was unusual and decisive as the result would mark the beginning of a political change in the entire country.

She said the BJP had tried all types of political permutations and combinations in Haryana. It tied up with Chautala’s INLD but the people rejected that alliance.

Then it went all alone but the people refused to accept that alternative too. Finally, the people have now expressed their approval of the alliance with the HJC. She said the alliance drew its strength from the acceptance by the people.

Swaraj said the UPA government’s last two years were marked by record inflation and record-breaking scams.

The UPA government was thoroughly “corrupt” and had failed to check rising prices which had made life difficult for the common man.

She said on the one hand, the government had raised the MSP of various crops but on the other hand, it had made agriculture so costly that even with revised MSP, farmers ultimately made losses only.

This she said was a dangerous situation.

This could lead to India begging for food from the rest of the world. However, the UPA government was taking no steps to remedy the situation.

Kuldeep Bishnoi said corruption was the main issue in this election. All the candidates, except himself, were facing all kinds of corruption and other criminal charges. He said he would quit politics if he was found involved in any kind scam or corruption in the future.

Bishnoi accused Hooda of neglecting Hisar and allocating the entire development budget of Haryana to Rohtak and Jhajjar districts. So, if the people of Hisar wanted their lost glory restored, they should elect him to the Lok Sabha.

He said his election would only mean that the HJC-BJP alliance would sweep the next Assembly poll in Haryana.

That was why this byelection was unlike any other routine byelection.

He said his alliance with the BJP was final and the two parties would contest all elections in Haryana together.

Navjot Singh Siddhu, MP, and Haryana BJP chief Krishan Pal Gujjar were among those who addressed the rally. 

Chandigarh, October 9
Several intellectuals of Haryana are perturbed over the manner in which the caste factor seems to have overshadowed all other issues in the Hisar Lok Sabha bylection, including the principal issue of equitable and just development of all the regions of the state.

Noted analyst of the political behaviour of voters, Dr Kushal Pal, Head of the Department of Political Science, Dyal Singh College, Karnal, regrets that while in several states of the country, the people-oriented governance has emerged as the main electoral issue, in Haryana there is a deliberate “reinforcement of Jat and non-Jat as the only governing feature of the voters’ psyche and behaviour.”

He says Anna’s stand on the election issue would lead to directionless poltical behaviour of the voters as specific candidates of clean image have to be pointed out to them.

Prominent Dalit writer Rajinder Badguzar says since the inception of Haryana in 1966, incidents of atrocities on the Dalits have taken place in rule of all dominant political parties, may it be at Dulina, Harsola, Mehmudpur, Gohana, Mataur or Mirchpur. The experience of the Dalits reveals that they should establish their separate political identity and follow the path shown by BR Ambedkar.

Badguzar is of the view that the welfare of the Dalits has nothing to do with the path propagated by Anna Hazare as he is a “classical Gandhian, whereas the historical evidence proves that Gandhi and Ambedkar had totally separate views on democracy. In Anna’s perspective on governance, there is no place for the Dalits and their legitimate rights have been denied to them through the continuation of caste biases and discrimination.”

UV Singh, head of the Department of History, SD College, Ambala Cantt, thinks that the caste division hampers both social cohesion and economic development. He says Team Anna should understand that social transformation requires deep churning, mere diktats at the time of elections or “proxy indulgence in politics” are unlikely to serve any purpose.

Rajbir Parashar, a teacher activist, thinks that caste politics in the state has already gone out of proportion and it is of no help to any particular caste. The much talked about Jat versus non-Jat issue is basically a deflection from the real problems like the condition of agrarian sections and unemployed youth, which are common to all castes.

Attar Singh, general secretary of the Haryana Democratic Forum and teacher at CR Jat College, Hisar, says since the Hisar byelection is the first election in Haryana after the recent movement against corruption, it is natural that corruption should be among the major issues. But unfortunately, the caste factor is the prominent issue of discussion among the people.

He attributes the increased caste polarisation to the Mirchpur incident and the Jat reservation movement. The issue of corruption is also being discussed among the people but keeping in mind the profile of the main contenders, it is becoming difficult for the people to fix their preference on this basis. 

Chandigarh, October 9
The Congress will organise a rally to garner support for the party candidate from the Hisar parliamentry constituency, Jai Prakash, tomorrow at the old Government College ground in Hisar city.

The Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson, VP Vidrohi, said all arrangements for the rally had been completed, adding that it would be addressed by senior party leaders, including AICC gernal secretary and Haryana affairs in charge, BK Hari Parsad, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, Union Minister Selja and national party general secretary Virender Singh besides senior leaders of the state.

Vidrohi said the Chief Minister and other Congress leaders had completed two rounds of all the areas of the Hisar parliamentary constituency; also the Congress leaders had made contact with every voter in each of the booths. The Congress workers had completed a personal-contact programme to garner votes for the party candidate.

Vidrohi added that the main emphasis of the party election campaign was on the development and welfare policies of the Congress government. On the other hand, the opposition party's campaign is based upon castesim, regionalism and false allegations. He appealed to the party workers and people of the Hisar parliamentary constituency to turn up in large numbers to show their solidarity with the Congress candidate, Jai Prakash. 

Hisar, October 9
The CPM and the CPI yesterday issued an appeal to the voters to support the INLD nominee for the byelection to the Hisar Lok Sabha seat, saying that it was the only political party capable of defeating both the Congress and the HJC-BJP combine.

Issuing the appeal, secretary of the Haryana unit of the CPM Inderjit Singh debunked both the Congress and the HJC-BJP combine. While the ruling Congress, both at the Centre and in the state, had not kept its commitment to the ‘aam aadmi’ on whose support it rode to power, the BJP, too, was not its alternative.

He also cautioned the voters not to fall for caste issues raised by some political parties during the election campaign.

On the other hand, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is the star campaigner for the Congress, came down heavily on both the INLD and the HJC, saying that they were promoting only their family members.

Hooda made an emotional appeal to the voters saying that their support to his party’s nominee would encourage him to speed up development projects in the area.

He said both the Chautala and Bhajan Lal clans were in the habit of contesting elections from various parts of the state whereas he had always contested elections from his home district. He said such attempts by individuals to widen their political turf were dangerous.

Former Chief Minister and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala, in his public meetings in about two dozen villages in the Nalwa Assembly segment of the Hisar parliamentary constituency, criticised the Congress saying that it was against the common man.

Chautala alleged that the Congress government was deliberately humiliating senior citizens by delaying payment of the old-age pension. The Hooda government was also denying benefits to the BPL families. 

Chandigarh, October 9
Senior Haryana Congress leader Karan Singh Dalal has decided to corner Team Anna by asking them to point out which candidate is eligible to get votes according to the criteria laid down by it.

While giving a call to the electorate not to vote for the Congress for its failure to give a commitment on the Jan Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare had also said people should not send a corrupt person to the Lok Sabha or the Vidhan Sabha, which are temples of democracy. Dalal said he had sent a “fact sheet” of misdeeds and corruption charges against INLD candidate Ajay Singh Chautala and HJC nominee Kuldeep Bishnoi to Anna and members of his team like Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal so that they could decide whether any of them deserved the electorate’s support.

He said he had pointed out in the “fact sheet” how charges had been framed against Ajay Chautala, his father Om Parkash Chautala and brother Abhay Chautala under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the Kadkadduma CBI court in Delhi. The father-son duo was also charged by the CBI under Sections 120B, 420, 468, 471 of the IPC in the JBT teachers’ recruitment case.

Dalal said alleged that Chautala and his son arm twisted officers to change the selection list of JBT teachers but the bold IAS officer Rajni Sekhri Sibbal was not bothered by their threats. She informed the court that she had received threats to her life for not changing the selection list, he added. The Congress leader alleged that the Chautala family had a long list of misdeeds. The people had not yet forgotten the infamous Meham mayhem during their regime. He also accused Bishnoi of being involved in various controversies. 

Fatehabad, October 9
Social activist Anna Hazare, who is agitating for enactment of strong laws against corruption, may not have thought in his wildest of dreams that some unscrupulous persons will use his name for carving out an illegal colony in gross violation of the law of the land.

“Anna Hazare Colony”, carved out on eight acres of land on the upcoming bypass on the Delhi-Fazilka NH 10 in this town, is one of the more than a dozen unauthorised residential colonies coming up in Fatehabad these days.

Thanks to a slack attitude of the Town and Country Planning Department, private colonisers are thriving at the cost of common people, who invest their hard-earned money in the hope of some appreciation, but end up purchasing a piece of land which is neither demarcated nor are there any civic amenities around.

Many a time, the hapless buyers wake up to the realisation that the authorities do not acknowledge the existence of any such colony in their records.

As many as 18 families from the local Ekta Colony, an unauthorised colony, are a classic example, who are staging a dharna for the past eight months after the government acquired the land on which their houses are situated for a paltry Rs 400 per square yards, whereas the actual market rate today is Rs 16,000 per square yard.

Though the authorities have taken action in some cases and even FIRs have been registered, most of the colonisers manage to go scot-free.

Ravinder Dhull, District Town Planner, who holds the additional charge of Fatehabad along with Sirsa, said he had only one junior engineer in the district and was handicapped due to shortage of staff.

He, however, said that the department had razed some illegal colonies at Bhuna in recent times.

Construction of commercial complexes by razing old residential buildings in the town is another area where realtors have been making a quick buck, much to the detriment of common people.

Four-Marla Colony of the town is one such location where more than a 100 houses have been pulled down to raise commercial complexes in gross violation of the Building Bylaws of the Urban Development Department.

Bylaws regarding the floor area ratio (FAR), maximum permissible coverage and maximum permissible height are being given a go by with the active connivance of the municipal authorities and as a result leading to zigzag development in the town.

SP Dhuria, junior engineer of the Municipal Council Fatehabad, said they had been passing site plans only for the purpose of shops and if some people were violating laws to carve out multistorey shopping complexes without permission, they were doing it at their own risk. 

New Delhi, October 9
Cracking the whip, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today dismissed 10 workers, terminated five trainees and suspended 10 employees in connection with the strike and violence on the Manesar factory premises.

In a statement, the company said the strike by the workers and the violence thereafter violated the agreement signed by the workers with the company management on October 1 in the presence of the Haryana government officials.

"The company has dismissed 10 employees, suspended 10 others and terminated the training of five trainees in connection with the strike and violence on the Manesar factory premises," the statement said.

The MSI said it continues to be concerned about the safety of people as well as the plant and machinery and today the company "rescued" another 100 workers who were being "held under duress" by the striking workers in the factory. "These 100 workers were rescued with the help of police.

“Yesterday, the company had similarly rescued 355 workers with the help of the police. Many of these workers had been beaten up by the striking workers," it claimed.

"With the rescue of about 450 persons, the number of striking workers on the factory premises has come down to around 1,500. About 170 regular workers have stayed away from the strike from the start," the company said.

The MSI said in a meeting convened by the Labour Department on Manesar issue, its management pointed out that the striking workers have violated the agreement signed on October 1 in the presence of the Haryana Government. The company has sought action against the striking workers from the Labour Department and the Haryana Government, the company said.

As per the agreement, the workers had agreed to sign the good-conduct bond laid down by the management. Further, while the company had agreed to reinstate 18 trainees, 44 regular employees were to be suspended.

Workers at the Manesar plant went on stay-in strike on Friday afternoon affecting production. The total number of workers who went on the stay-in strike inside the Manesar plant was around 2,000. This included all categories like regular, contractual, apprentices and trainees. — PTI 

Rohtak, October 9
The district police has launched a scheme to train the policemen in various aspects of Information Technology to enable them to face the challenges of cyber crime.

A computer laboratory has been set up to provide training to the policemen for the first time in the local Police Lines.

Stating this, the district police chief, Satish Balan, said here yesterday that training of the policemen in the field of Information Technology had become essential in view of the rising incidents of cyber crime and the inability of the policemen to handle such cases.

He said the policemen would get training on computers and in the related fields so that they were not dependent on others in matters relating to cyber crime.

This training would also be helpful in the introduction and impelementation of an ambitious porgramme, Crime-Criminal Tracking System Network, to be introduced in 2013. This was part of the capacity-building process.

Under the programme, all police stations in the state and other parts of the country would be linked up so that any resident anywhere could track any case or complaint and have information on the status of the case.

The computer laboratory that would be set up here would provide training to all the policemen in batches.

According to the SSP, around 245 policemen of the ranks up to sub-inspector, including women policemen, had cleared the online test after getting training in the laboratory here.

Under the programme, every policeman had been given training in various software programmes, including web browsing, Internet and email operations.

He admitted that some of the policemen who had been on the verge of retirement or were not computer literate had been reluctant in joining the course, adding that strict action would be taken against the policemen who showed disinterest in the programme.

According to sources, almost 40 per cent of the policemen are in the age group of 45 to 55 years and had either no knowldge of computers or no interest in such a training. 

Sirsa, October 9
Two brothers, Subhash and Jagmal, from UP, who were on their way to Dabwali from Delhi to purchase animals in a cattle fair, were drugged and robbed by some unidentified persons in a Haryana Roadways bus last night.

Both were found lying unconscious in the bus that arrived at the Dabwali bus station this morning and were shifted to the General Hospital for treatment by the police.

The police recovered Rs 96,000 from the pocket of one of the traders. When Subhash regained consciousness for a while this afternoon, he informed the police that they had boarded a Dabwali-bound bus of Haryana Roadways at 11 pm last night. A youth, who was sitting with them on a seat, offered them biscuits when they were having tea at a stoppage.

What happened after that was not known to them, as perhaps, they fell unconscious after eating those biscuits.

Subhash said he had Rs 1.70 lakh in his pocket, which were missing now, while Rs 96,000 kept in Jagmal’s pocket were intact after the incident.

The police said a case would be registered after the two bothers were declared fit to record their statements. 

Karnal, October 9
The body of a minor girl, who disappeared from her house in Dayal Singh Colony here on the Dasehra night, was found in Khukrana Miner (Nallah) on the Panipat-Assandh road in Panipat this evening.

“The body of Nitika (13) was swollen but bore no marks of injury. The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination to the PGI, Rohtak,” Pankaj Nain, SP, Panipat, said.

The parents of the girl immediately rushed to Panipat after they were informed that the body was found. Nitika, a student of class VIII, was unwell and had gone to a doctor with her father, Keval Singh, who dropped her at home after her check up. When he returned home, he found that his daughter was not there. He contacted all relatives and friends to locate her but to no avail.

The matter was finally reported to the police.

The girl’s family, who suspected that their daughter had been kidnapped, also met the IG, AK Dhul, and narrated him the entire story.