Hisar, October 17
HJC -BJP candidate Kuldeep Bishnoi was today declared elected to the Lok Sabha from the Hisar Lok Sabha seat. He defeated his nearest rival, Ajay Singh Chautala (INLD), by 6335 votes. Bishnoi polled 3,55,955 votes against 3,49,620 polled by Chautala. Congress nominee Jai Prakash had to be content with just 1,49,787 votes.

Kuldeep Bishnoi led in the Hisar, Adampur, Hansi, Barwala and Nalwa Assembly segments. Chautala won in the Uchana Kalan, Narnaund, Uklana and Bawani Khera Assembly constituencies.

Jai Prakash lost in all nine Assembly segments. He got a respectable number of votes only in the Uklana, Narnaund and Bawani Khera segments.

A rank outsider, Om Parkash Kalyan, who contested as an Independent, polled 27,802 votes. His election symbol, road-roller, was deceptively similar to Bishnoi’s tractor symbol.

Counting commenced at 8 a.m. at Hisar and Hansi. Bishnoi kept leading handsomely right from the beginning. At one stage he was leading by over 40,000 votes. However, his margin began to narrow as results from Uchana Kalan, a stronghold of Chautala, began to pour in towards the end of counting.

The declaration of the result was delayed as one of the EVMs from Narnaund constituency developed a snag. It took some time before the number of votes polled by each candidate could be retrieved from the machine.

Celebrations broke out at Bishnoi’s private residence here much before the result was declared. His mother, Jasma Devi, and wife Renuka Bishnoi danced with the women who had gathered outside their residence.

Joyous scenes were witnessed at Bishnoi’s hometown of Adampur. However, Bishnoi’s victory margin from Adampur was below expectations. He led from there by about 23,000 votes. It was expected that Adampur would equal the margin Chautala would get from Uchana Kalan. However, Chautala won from Uchana Kalan by 35,000 votes.

The Congress polled just 7,488 votes from the Hisar City Assembly seat. This is his party’s worst performance from here ever. Evidently, voters from all communities rejected the Congress soundly.

Bishnoi won from Hisar by about 34,000 votes, thus ensuring his victory.

Bishnoi’s overall victory margin is 1000 less than the margin by which his father, the late Bhajan Lal, won from here in 2009. However, he polled over 1,00,000 more votes than his father.

Chautala’s party nominee Sampat Singh had polled 2.4 lakh votes in 2009. However, Ajay Chautala took his tally to 3.49 lakh. Apparently, the Jat votes, which went in favour of the Congress, were this time bagged by Chautala.

Likewise, the non-Jats votes which the Congress lost this time went to Bishnoi.

The seat had been vacated due to the death of Bishnoi’s father, former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal.

Bishnoi described his win as a “tribute by the voters to Hisar’s development by Bhajan Lalji ”. He said he was grateful to the voters of all nine Assembly segments and vowed to fight both the Congress and the INLD in the future too. “I have been given a responsibility and I will discharge it fully”, he added.

Reacting to the result Ajay Chautala said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda should own resposibility for his party's decmation in the contest and quit immediately. "Hooda camped in Hisar with the entire state machinery for three weeks. Now that the people have rejected his leadership and his party decisively, he has lost the right to continue in office", he added.

Fatehabad, October 17
Mohammadpur Rohi, the native village of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, is jubilant at HJC supremo Kuldeep Kuldeep Bishnoi’s victory in the Hisar byelection.

Bhajan Lal’s family settled in this village after migrating from Koranwali in Bahawalpur district, now in Pakistan, where the former Chief Minister was born.

Bhajan Lal’s ancestral house is still located in the village, though he later shifted to Adampur, where he started his business and later took a plunge into politics.

The villagers still have fond memories of the early eighties and nineties when Bhajan Lal was at the helm of affairs in Haryana as many youths from this area, particularly those belonging to the Bishnoi community, got government jobs.

A large number of Bishnoi’s supporters celebrated the victory by distributing “laddoos”.

Suresh Kakar, a Kuldeep Bishnoi supporter, claimed that the victory had established the HJC supremo as the tallest leader of Haryana. He said Bishnoi had defeated both Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as well as former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala as both these leaders had made this election a prestige issue.

The victory was also a befitting answer to those who “engineered” defection of Bishnoi’s five MLAs after the last Assembly elections.

SONEPAT: BJP activists led by MLA Kavita Jain celebrated Kuldeep Bishnoi’s victory at the local party office by distributing ‘laddoos’ on the occasion. Mrs Jain claimed that the victory was a vote against rampant corruption and the people had given their verdict in favour of the BJP-HJC alliance in the state. She claimed this alliance would emerge as a strong alternative in the state.

New Delhi, October 17
The Supreme Court today directed the CBI to investigate the alleged irregularities in the promotion of government employees in Haryana in 2004 and submit a report within three months.

A Bench comprising Justices Altamas Kabir and SS Nijjar passed the order after vacating its stay on the CBI probe granted on November 18, 2005, on a petition filed by the HPSC.

Challenging the CBI investigation, ordered by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the HPSC had contended that the allegations against the commission were baseless as the state authorities had not recommended the names of some of the eligible candidates for promotion.

According to some of the affected employees, who have also approached the SC, the government had ignored their seniority and other qualifications meant for promotion.

Haryana’s Additional Advocate-General Manjit Singh Dalal said the HC had ordered a probe as the then government had rejected the claims of some of the employees over their eligibility.

The SC Bench said the case could be divided into two categories: those involving an element of mala fide and the others involving misinterpretation of the legal provisions to reject the claims of employees for promotion.

Listing the case for next hearing on January 17, the Bench asked the CBI to submit its report by then.

Panipat, October 17
The girl who had been arrested by the police for posing as a CBI official to threaten a family of Babarpur Mandi was produced before a local court, which granted her bail along with Navdeep, another accused in the case.

The girl, Sonam, a resident of the Sethi chowk area, and Navdeep were granted bail by the court of the duty magistrate where the two were produced by the district police.

Sonam had impersonated as a CBI official and held the family of one Sanjay hostage for three hours to settle a score with him. — TNS

Chandigarh, October 17
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed Gurgaon police commissioner to ensure that the workers of Suzuki Power Train India Limited (SPIL) should protest outside the 100-metre area of the Manesar plant.

The workers are agitating for the past few days in support of the Manesar plant’s labour force. SPIL supplies diesel engines and transmissions to Maruti Swift car.

Reiterating that the agitating workers should not restrain the company’s loyal workers, Justice Surya Kant also asked the Police Commissioner to provide a suitable place to such workers to holdprotest.

The directions came after hearing a petition filed by Suzuki Power Train Limited. The counsel for Suzuki Power argued that some workers were camping outside the plant and not allowing anyone inside.

The workers had halted the work at the plant to express their solidarity with the other workers of Maruti plant.

Refusing to declare illegal the strike at the Manesar plant, the high court on October 13 had issued a slew of similar directions to ensure the smooth functioning of the facility, including adoption of measures to prevent the harassment of the loyal workers.

Fixing November 29 as the next date of hearing in the case, Justice Surya Kant also issued notice of motion to the State of Haryana, the Labour Commissioner and the Police Commissioner. They have been asked to file their reply on the issue.

Sirsa, October 17
Workers’ unions of different government departments organised a dharna here under the CITU banner in support of the striking workers of Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) at Manesar.

The trade union leaders sat in dharna outside the local mini-secretariat and submitted a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to the DC.

Workers’ leaders alleged that Maruti workers had been fighting battle since long for implementation of labour laws in the company, but the management had been flouting all rules.

The striking workers alleged that the MSI management had been behaving as if it was a law unto itself.

Fatehabad, October 17
A woman was beaten up by her husband and other members of his family for not covering her face under ‘ghoonghat’.

Monu somehow escaped from her in-laws’ home at Talwandi Rana in Hisar and reached her parents’ home at Ratia in this district, where she was admitted to the Community Health Centre (CHC).

Dr VK Jain, SMO of the CHC, said the woman had blunt injuries on her body and it appeared that she had been badly beaten up.

The woman has lodged a complaint with the police.

Monu said she was being harassed for dowry since her marriage to Vikas of Talwandi Rana village nine months ago .

She said two days back her husband objected to her not covering her face under “ghoonghat”when a youth was standing on the roof of a neighbouring house.

She alleged her husband refused to listen when she reasoned that she was not aware of the presence of the youth and started beating her up.

She ran from her marital home at night and took refuge in the house of a panchayat member and called up her father on his mobile.

However, when her father came next morning to resolve the matter, Vikas allegedly started beating her up in his presence. 

Jind, October 17
The Haryana Soochna Adhikar Manch, an NGO, has asked the state government to bring certain amendments to the RTI Act to make it simpler and accessible to the common man.

The manch has demanded reduction in the application fee from Rs 50 to Rs 10 with immediate effect.

In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister, the manch has demanded that the application fee should be reduced to Rs 10 so that even a poor person could avail himself of the benefit of the Act. A spokesperson of the manch said the implementation of the Act, which had proved a milestone in the process of achieving transparency in the functioning of the administration, had completed six years, but there appeared to be certain loopholes that should be plugged so that its introduction could prove more fruitful and justified.

Subhash, spokesperson of the manch, said here today that the authorities ought to provide replies in the same language in which the application was submitted. Claiming that since the reply was given in a language other than the language of the application, the applicant found it difficult to apprehend or interpret the meaning many a time. He said the authorities should also introduce the system of video-conferencing to hear the petition of the applicant at the state level. The authorities have been asked to make the names of the appellant authorities public by putting their names and contact numbers on a website and ensure appointment of intellectuals, social activists and retired judges as office-bearers of the Information Commission. Besides vacant posts in the RTI cell of each of the government departments and other autonomous bodies should be filled.

The manch had suggested that the appeals of the applicant should also be taken up at the divisional level so that it could save the time and the money of the applicants who had to travel to Chandigarh or the state headquarters of the commission.

Setting up of the district-level committees, monitoring of the past work and implementation of section 4 of the Act were the other demands of the manch. 

Panipat, October 17
The state’s power situation during the festive season continues to remain dismal as generation has not yet resumed at the three thermal units shut down due to technical hitches.

According to sources, unit No 2 at the Yamunanagar thermal power plant had developed a major technical problem and experts from China had been called in to get it fixed. Though senior officials at the thermal plant maintained that the problem would be rectified within two or three days but staff working on repairs said it could take a few weeks.

Unit No 4 at the Panipat thermal power plant and unit No 2 at the Kheder plant also remained out of operation even today. Following the shutdown of the three units, the state thermal power plants with a total installed capacity of 3230.5 MW were generating only 1860 MW.

However, HVPNL was drawing 1184 MW against a sanctioned load of 1124 MW to meet the state’s power demand. The extra power was being bought at Rs 5.91 a unit, adding to the losses of the power utilities.

It is increasingly becoming difficult to sustain generation at the thermal units in view of the depleting coal stocks at the power plants.

Karnal, October 17
The district police has registered a case against three persons on the charge of having killed a 17-year-old boy over a minor issue in Saguga village of the district.

According to the police, Narinder Singh, who was a student of the local ITI, was killed by his paternal uncle, Ranjit Singh, and his sons after they picked up a quarrel with him over throwing of water in the village lane. The police said the two families lived in adjoining houses but had not been on speaking terms for long.

After the altercation, Ranjit Singh and his sons entered Narinder’s house and stabbed him repeatedly with knives, which resulted in his death. His father, Isham Singh, and brother, Sonu, who had come to his rescue, were also injured seriously in the attack. While Ishan Singh had to be taken to the PGI, Chandigarh, Sonu was admitted to a private hospital.

The police said a case had been registered against the accused and the matter was being investigated. 

Faridabad, October 17
Four persons were booked today for assaulting and making “casteist” remarks against members of a Scheduled Caste family in Nawada village in the Ballabgarh area of the district. They were sent to 14 days’ judicial custody.

One of the accused is still at large. The accused and the victim are from Nawada village.

The area SHO, Jeetender Dhanda, said Hansraj, the main accused, Krishan and Bholu, named in the original FIR, were arrested yesterday.

The names of Dharamveer, who was arrested today, and Bhupi, who is on the run, were added today to the original FIR during the course of the investigation.

The SHO said the accused had been booked under the Scheduled Castes/Schedued Tribes Act and under several sections of the IPC.

The police version is that Hansraj allegedly misbehaved with Akash, son of Ram Prasad, and often made casteist remarks against him in the factory in Munjesar where both of them were employed.

On a complaint by the victim’s family, a police team visited them last Saturday. While the police was on its way to the house of the sarpanch of the village in connection with the case, Hansraj along with his friends went to Akash’s house and allegedly beat up his father and mother. Both were injured and hospitalised. 

Ambala, October 17
The SGPC president, Avtar Singh Makkar, announced here today to soon open a polytechnic at Jind and six more public schools in Haryana in Jind, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Yamunanagar and Panjokhra for which an amount of Rs 50 crore had been approved by the committee.

Talking to mediapersons, in his first press conference in Ambala after the SGPC poll, he said efforts were being made to start the medical college and hospital at Shahabad Markanda.

The construction work of the building had already been completed. The total cost of the project was Rs 150 crore.

Makkar said he had already discussed the issue of the Meeri-Peeri medical college at Shahbad with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and had demanded a no- objection certificate (NOC) to start the college.

He said the SGPC had fulfilled all the conditions to get an NOC.

Makkar said the SGPC had come up with several proposals to strengthen its network in the field of education in Haryana, adding that allotment of land was being sought in Faridabad and Panipat.

He said the Congress should not interfere in the internal religious matters of the Sikh community and the results of the SGPC poll had made clear that a majority of the community did not want a separate gurdwara committee in Haryana.

He expressed his unhappiness about the Congress government in Haryana promising a separate SGPC in its election manifesto during the last Assembly elections in the state, which created an unnecessary rift in the Sikh community.

Chandigarh, October 17
The Haryana Industrial Training Directorate has decided to organise the 48th state-level skill competition at the government Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Bhiwani, from October 21 to October 25.

A spokesman of the department said a committee under the chairmanship of JS Nain, Deputy Director (Headquarters), had been constituted to conduct this competition. Pardeep Dahiya, Principal, ITI, Sonepat, would be its member and GC Bansal, Principal, ITI(W), Ambala City, would be its member-secretary.

He said all principals and instructors of the government ITIs and the private ITIs had been asked to ensure that all students who got first position in the final trade test held in July 2011 should take part in this competition. The students taking part in this competition would be given to-and-fro fare and the student getting the first position in this competition would be sent to take part in the all-India skill competition. — TNS