Hisar, November 7
INLD workers led by party Secretary-General Ajay Singh Chautala today staged a demonstration here against inflation, deteriorating law and order situation in the state and problems being faced by farmers.

The INLD supporters gathered at the Katla Ramlila grounds here in the walled city area. Addressing them Chautala said it was from this historic place that his grandfather, the late Devi Lal, had begun his “Nyaya Yatra” to Delhi in 1986. He said if the government failed to address the problems of the common man and the farming community, INLD workers would march to Delhi and gherao it to seek justice.

He said the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre had failed to check inflation which had made life difficult for every strata of society. He said the oil prices had been raised 11 times since June, 2010.

Referring to the law and order situation in the state, Chautala said serious crimes, including rape, murder and kidnapping, had been showing an upward trend for the past several months. The government had failed to check it as the writ of the chief minister did not run in the police.

He said government agencies were not procuring bajra and paddy. There was a shortage of fertilisers all over the state.

INLD workers later marched to Anaj Mandi and submitted a memorandum to the authorities concerned.

Similar protests were also held at Kurukshetra and other places. Memorandums, addressed to the Haryana Governor, were also submitted to the authorities concerned.

Rohtak: INLD workers led by former legislator Nafe Singh Rathi took out a procession and staged a demonstration in protest against the petrol price hike, inflation and corruption. The protesters asked the people to show the door to the ruling party in the next general election. A memorandum addressed to the Governor was also submitted through the local authorities.

Hiking the petrol price 24 times within its seven-and-a-half-year rule, showed the callousness of the central government towards the masses.

The Congress government in Haryana had no moral right to rule after its candidate losing his deposit in the Hisar byelection recently. The ruling party will meet the same fate in the coming Adampur and Ratia Assembly byelections.

Sirsa: The INLD on Monday held demonstrations against the hike in petrol and DAP fertilisers prices and general inflation.

Ashok Arora, a former minister and president of the state INLD led the demonstration at Fatehabad while Ram Pal Machra, MLA from Kalayat, did so here.

Chandigarh, November 7
Health services in government hospitals will be paralysed over the next two days with doctors all set to proceed on mass casual leave tomorrow in protest against “indifferent attitude” of the government towards their demands.

While assurances of senior government officers have failed to appease the doctors, Navraj Sandhu, Principal Secretary, Health, has warned of stern action against those proceeding on leave.

Unwilling to withdraw their call for mass casual leave after a meeting with Sandhu, Dr Rajesh Khyalia, president of the Haryana Civil Medical Services Association, said working at primary and community health centres would be paralysed.

However, doctors, despite being on leave, would ensure normal functioning of emergency and post-mortem services at district hospitals .

Sandhu assured the Haryana Civil Medical Services Association (HCMSA) delegation that the government was considering their demands favourably and most of these would be accepted in due course of time. She urged them to reconsider their call for mass casual leave.

However, this assurance did not have many takers with Khyalia maintaining that the government had failed to honour its word in the past too. “In June, 2010, the file was forwarded to the Finance Department but nothing came of it.

Two months back, we again took up our demands but a decision is still hanging fire.

We were hopeful that the government would decide our demands today. However, we were just given assurances again.

We asked the officers to give us an assurance in writing which they didn’t. Our decision to proceed on leave stands,” he stated.

Khayalia said doctors of PHCs and CHCs of every district would gather at the district hospital concerned and hold a meeting tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Sandhu said the government was actively pursuing their case with the Finance Department.

“However, resolving the issues and issuing orders will take a month or two. The doctors are unwilling to wait though it has been conveyed to them that their demands are being considered favourably,” she said.

Among other issues, doctors are seeking a merger of the non-practising allowance (NPA) with the basic pay for all purposes (it is not included in the LTC and leave encashment), modification in the “lop-sided” policy which permits a doctor to pursue post-graduation after five years of service, a uniform policy for increments to specialists, faster promotions at senior levels and filling of vacant posts.

Chandigarh,November 7
Three “deemed” universities in Haryana face derecognition from the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry for their failure to comply with UGC guidelines.

The universities--Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana (Ambala); Lingaya’s University and Manav Rachna University International University, both at Faridabad--are in the dock following the observations of a Supreme Court-appointed committee which concurred with the earlier review committees that these educational institutions lacked requisite standards to justify their “deemed” status.

In its report submitted to the Supreme Court, the “committee of officers” comprising Ashok Thakur, NK Sinha and SK Ray reportedly said : it "finds no reason to deviate from the conclusions drawn by the committee of experts, which comprised academic experts." The three universities in Haryana are among 44 “deemed” universities in the country which face de-recongition as recommended by the PN Tandon Committee for violating UGC norms. The apex court had constituted the three-member panel on on January 11 this year following a petition by the aggrieved universities challenging the Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry’s decision to strip them of their “deemed” status following the recommendations of the "review committee" and the expert committee headed by Professor Tandon.

After review of their functioning, the"committee of officers” has come to the conclusion that there is no ground to interfere with the findings of the Tandon report that these institutions did not fulfil the norms for a “deemed” university.

Senior officials of the Haryana Government said interests of the students would be taken care of. Every effort would be made to get these educational institutions “affiliated” to the UGC-approved universities, a senior functionary of the government said.

Fatehabad, November 7
The INLD has decided to field its former MLA Gian Chand Odh’s widow, Sarfi Bai, from Ratia and Ram Singh Baswana from Adampur, the two seats going to the polls on November 30.

Sarfi Bai, (Ratia)/ Ram Singh Baswana (Adampur)

Ashok Arora, president of the state INLD, announced their names at a press conference here today.

Sarfi Bai (65), a housewife, is illiterate while Baswana (60), a resident of Siswal village in the Adampur constituency, is a law graduate, who retired as a District and Sessions Judge this year.

The HJC-BJP alliance has already announced the names of Renuka Bishnoi (HJC) and Mahabir Prashad (BJP) from the Adampur and Ratia seats, respectively, while the Congress is yet to open its cards.

Repeating his party’s old charge that the Congress and the HJC-BJP contested the Hisar byelection with a joint strategy to defeat the INLD, Arora alleged that the two parties would again try to repeat it in the two Assembly byelections.

The INLD leader maintained that the Congress candidate would lose his security deposit at Adampur while the BJP nominee would do so at Ratia.

According to INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala Sarfi Bai and and Ram Singh Baswana will file their nomination papers on November 11 and November 12, respectively.

Meanwhile, Bhagat Ram Singh, head of a religious place at Bhodia Khera village in the Ratia Assembly segment, filed his nomination papers as an independent today. This is the first nomination for the Ratia byelection as no nomination was received on Saturday, the first day for filing nomination papers. 

Sirsa, November 7
Disha, a vocational and rehabilitation centre for disabled and women, today started a campaign “Badhte Kadam” to create awareness among people regarding differently abled persons.

The rally comprising special children and differently abled kids was flagged off from Town Park here. The rally will return to Sirsa on November 30 after covering various parts of Haryana.

Geeta Kathuria, director of Disha, who led the rally, said, “Badhte Kadam’ was a project of the National Trust, an organisation of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for the welfare of persons with autism, mental retardation, cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities.”

She said ’Badhte Kadam’ was aimed at creating more opportunities for participation in society for people with disabilities

The rally also aims at enabling and empowering people with disabilities to access the National Trust and other governmental schemes.

Geeta Kathuria said special children needed support of society to live a decent life. — TNS 

Sonepat, November 7
Haryana Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal today inaugurated a six-day 12th International Children festival, organized under the aegis of the National Youth Project (NYP), at

Shambhu Dayal Modern Public School here.

Around 1000 children aged 8 to 12 years from 25 states of India and four countries- Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Armania and Nepal were participating in the festival.

Bhukkal said the festival would not only enrich local children and their families about the culture of other states and countries but also acquaint the guests about Haryana’s social and cultural values.

She said Haryana was one of the leading states in providing education-related incentives in cash and kind to students

She announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh to the NYP and Rs 5 lakh to the school management for organising this event.

Dr SN Subba Rao, Director of the NYP, said this cultural exchange extravaganza had been organised in Haryana for the first time. The main objective behind organisingthe festival was to promote ‘unity in diversity’ as children from different castes, religions, creeds, languages and customs would stay together. 

Hisar, November 7
The INLD secretary-general, Ajay Singh Chautala, said the fall of the Hooda government was imminent after the byelections to the Adampur and Ratia Assembly constituencies.

He said the Congress had lost the byelection to the Hisar Lok Sabha seat and it was bound to meet the same fate in the Assembly byelections. Once the Congress lost these seats, the countdown for the Hooda government would begin, he added. — TNS

Faridabad, November 7
The Railway police today sent the body of Govind, a resident who was a student of Kurukshetra Polytechnic College, to the PGI, Rohtak, for a second post-mortem examination on the recommendation of police here following pressure from his family members.

The Faridabad police forwarded an application of Govind’s parents to the Deputy Commissioner, Kurukshetra, along with its recommendation for a second post-mortem examination. This was in the wake of an agitation by relatives and residents here who were convinced that Govind was murdered by a fellow student. They kept the body at Saran Chowk yesterday and staged a dharna demanding fair investigation into the case.

Govind’s body was found on a railway track on Saturday near Kurukshetra railway station. Following the first post-mortem report prepared by the Civil Hospital, Kurukshetra, the Railway police made out a case of suicide.

Karnal, November 7
A middle-aged widow, Raj Kumari (40), was allegedly murdered and her body was recovered from her own fields in Samana Bahu village this afternoon.

The brother of the deceased, Pratap, said his sister was having strained relations with her in-laws due to property disputes. “My sister was married to Ram Chander who died eight years back. She had adopted her grand daughter, Sarika.”

Pratap said Sarika (10), who was hiding in the fields, informed him on phone that Raj Kumari’s in-laws were attacking her with an axe. When he reached the spot he found her lying dead in a pool of blood.

The Butana police registered a case under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC against four persons, namely Subash, Surjit, Jagdish and Tali. The police has also said all the four accused were absconding and special teams have been constituted to nab them.

Gurgaon, November 7
Three persons were killed and one was critically injured when their motorcycles rammed into a JCB machine near Badshahpur village in the district yesterday.

Jagram (35), Babloo (30), Rajesh (36) and Monu (17), who worked at a bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation nearby and stayed together, were going to the village market on two motorcycles to buy some groceries when the mishap took place.

They were on their way to the market when a JCB machine suddenly appeared on the road and the bikes collided with it. Jagram, Babloo and Rajesh were killed on the spot while Monu was rushed to a hospital in a critical condition. He was later referred to Delhi.

The deceased as well as the injured belong to Bharatpur in Rajasthan. The victims’ bodies were handed over to their families after a post-mortem examination. The police has registered a case and hunt is on to nab the JCB driver.