Ratia (Fatehabad), November 15
Voters are maintaining a discreet silence even as candidates of all political parties have initiated their poll campaign, though still at a low pitch, for the November 30 byelection for the Ratia Assembly seat.

The voters have been listening to all political leaders visiting their villages, but they have been keeping their cards close to their chest.

“What can we say? It is too early,” is the answer to journalists’ queries to villagers.

Turnouts at the meetings are quite thin, largely due to the ongoing cotton-picking season.

Taking time out from the Adampur Assembly seat, from where his wife, Renuka Bishnoi, is contesting the byelection, the Haryana Janhit Congress supremo, Kuldeep Bishnoi, campaigned for BJP nominee Mahabir Prashad at Ratia on Sunday and today.

Addressing a meeting at Babanpur village, Bishnoi said after the results of the Hisar parliamentary byelection, people had made up their mind to bring the HJC-BJP alliance to power.

The Sirsa MP, Ashok Tanwar, campaigned for Congress nominee Jarnail Singh in over 20 villages of the constituency today. Addressing a meeting at Mehmeda village, Tanwar said the electorate had got a chance to become a shareholder in the government and ensure all-round development for the Ratia Assembly constituency.

Sampat Singh, the Congress MLA from Nalwa, took a dig at both the HJC and the INLD.

Addressing a series of public meetings in Ratia villages, Sampat Singh said the result of the Hisar byelection had taken the toll on both the HJC and the INLD leadership.

“One is not able to digest his victory while the other is finding it hard to swallow his party’s defeat in Hisar,” Sampat Singh said, pointing towards Bishnoi and Chautala.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will address election 
meetings in 17 villages of Ratia on November 18, said the HPCC president Phool Chand Mullana while addressing a meeting of Congress workers here today.

With senior leaders of her party taking a day off from campaigning, the INLD nominee Sarfi Bai went on a door-to-door campaign, seeking votes for herself.

Lacking the gift of the gab, Sarfi Bai, a greenhorn in politics, tried to convey a message to villagers during her campaign that she would try to complete the works her late husband Gian Chand Odh could not complete due to his untimely death.

Meanwhile, with the rejection of five nominations, including the three filed by the covering candidates of the nominees of the Congress, the INLD and the BJP, 19 contenders remain in the fray.

Sirsa, November 15
The Forest Department has decided to reinstate forest range officer (FRO) Prithvi Raj, who was suspended for lodging an FIR against another FRO, Rajesh Kumar, for embezzlement of over Rs 3 lakh .

This followed after The Tribune published a story “Whistleblower penalised by Forest Dept” on November 11, followed by an editorial “Hapless whistleblowers” yesterday.

In his orders dated November 14, Chhotu Ram Jotriwal, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), said Prithvi Raj, who was suspended vide his office orderNo. 273 dated November 4, is hereby reinstated with immediate effect without prejudice to pending inquiry at his original place of posting Hisar.

Earlier, Jotriwal had shifted his headquarters to Firozepur Jhirka, while suspending Prithvi Raj.

Jotriwal has also directed the Hisar DFO to withdraw the FIR registered against Rajesh Kumar and send the draft chargesheet against Prithvi Raj to him.

Prithvi Raj was penalised because he lodged an FIR against Rajesh Kumar, forest range officer (territorial division), posted at Rania on July 27, 2011, for criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and the Prevention of Corruption Act for the alleged embezzlement of Rs 3,56,095.

The FIR was lodged on the directions of Sanjiv Chaturvedi, Divisional Forest Officer (Production), after an inquiry conducted by KC Meena, Conservator of Forests, Gurgaon circle, had found Rajesh Kumar guilty of the charges and recommended criminal proceedings against him.

The complaint said Rajesh Kumar, who was forest range officer (Production) at Sirsa in 2002-03, allegedly sold 103.068 cubic meters of timber to contractors but did not deposit proceeds amounting to Rs 3,56,095 with the government.

Meanwhile, DSP (Detective) Puran Chand Panwar has found Rajesh Kumar guilty of embezzlement of government funds but there was no evidence to prove the charge of corruption against him.

Though Panwar submitted his report on October 5, 2011, the police has not proceeded further in this case. 

Chandigarh, November 15
The innovative first-of-its-kind rural housing scheme of the Housing Board Haryana (HHB) in Matlouda township of Panipat district is set to go places with the state government deciding to replicate its success all over the state.

Buoyed by the encouraging response to the Matlouda scheme, the HHB had already floated another rural housing scheme comprising 142 expandable dwelling units in three categories on a 10-acre plot at Sisonth village in Mahendragarh district on the national highway. “In the backdrop of good response to the two schemes, the HHB is mulling the extension of the housing scheme to other parts of the state with a view to provide quality affordable housing to the local population,” according to MK Mahajan, HHB Chief Administrator.

Sources said the rural housing scheme in the upcoming areas could be an antidote to the fleecing tactics used by the private builders, who launched over-priced housing schemes in the semi-urban areas bordering major towns particularly in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The HHB had come up with the first rural housing scheme having 82 expandable houses, 27 Type I and 55 Type II houses, at Matlauda on five acres. While 27 Type I houses were priced at Rs 15.80 lakh those belonging to Type II houses were reasonably priced at Rs 12.60 lakh. There are 55 Type II houses in the housing scheme.

The sources informed that since housing board projects were situated on strategic locations and the dwelling units were expandable they scored over the housing projects of the private builders.

The state-of-the-art dwelling units are expandable in nature and have been provided with rich specifications, including vitrified tiles, flooring and glazed ceramic tiles in kitchen besides landscaping of the residential complex, Archana Choudhary, architect with the HHB, informed.

Meanwhile, officials said the Type I houses in the Sisonth housing scheme with a covered area of around 95 square yards would cost Rs 10.40 lakh while the Type II houses with an area of 160 square yards would be available for 17.40 lakh. The Type-III houses covering 200 square yards had been priced at Rs 21.80 lakh.

Chandigarh, November 15
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that a government employee’s service record, containing adverse entries, and even details of punishments, does not lose its significance even if he is subsequently promoted.

The high court has also drawn a distinction between compulsory retirement and punishment. The Bench of Justice Permod Kohli and Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa has asserted: “It may be noticed that an order of compulsory retirement is not a punishment. It also does not imply any stigma.”

“It is the entire record of a government servant that is to be examined while forming an opinion to compulsorily retire an employee...”

The significant observations came on an appeal filed by ASI Gurbachan Singh. He was ordered to retire compulsorily from the service by the Ambala SP with effect from February 27, 2010. The order was upheld by a single judge of the high court.

Dismissing the appeal, the Bench asserted: “While considering the case of an employee for compulsory retirement, public interest is of paramount importance. The dishonest, corrupt and dead wood necessarily deserve to be dispensed with”.

Going into the background of the controversy, the Bench added: “The single judge, while dismissing the petition has taken notice of various acts of misconduct attributed to the appellant. Such acts of misconduct included awarding of punishment of stoppage of two annual increments in 1998, having been involved in the alleged removal of case property under the NDPS Act, being involved in two separate case FIRs under Sections 363, 366, 342, 376 and 34, IPC and under Sections 148, 149, 301, and 302, IPC.

Karnal, November 15
In a harrowing incident, a teenaged girl jumped from the window of the office of a private firm at Mughal Canal to thwart the attempt of her employer to outrage her modesty.

The girl, a resident of Rajiv Puram, was appointed as a receptionist after an interview and her first day in the office proved a nightmare for her.

The relatives of girl alleged that her employer called her into his room and tried to molest her. She got scared and sensing that no one would be coming to her rescue, she climbed the window and cried for help. She jumped from the window, but was saved by the people who had rushed to the building on hearing her cries.

The police was informed and the employer was taken to the police station but no case had been registered against him till the filing of the report. The police said it had received the complaint and the matter was being investigated, but the victim had not filed any complaint yet. 

Panipat, November 15
The special measles immunization campaign named “catch-up”, which is aimed at vaccinating more than 3 lakh children of the district got underway in this industrial hub of the region.

According to HS Randhawa, Civil Surgeon, under this campaign the health authorities had constituted 59 mobile teams comprising two members each, which would be visiting every nook and corner of the district to vaccinate children falling in the age group of nine months to 10 years.

He said along with the mobile teams, a total of 6,373 health representatives, who were divided into 535 teams, would also be participating in the campaign. These teams would be supervised by around 260 senior health officials, who would be reporting directly to a four-member team of experts, said Randhawa. He said the department had trained health and ASHA workers to administer the vaccine to children.

The Civil Surgeon said measles was a preventable disease, which had been claiming many lives in the country. He said it was in November, 2010, that the Union government supported by UNICEF and the WHO had launched the measles campaign with an aim of reaching out to millions of children in 14 high-risk states, to prevent an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 child deaths annually.

Dr Randhawa said said in the first few weeks after contracting measles, a child’s immune system weakens, which leads to severe health complications, such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and encephalitis.

The campaign would continue for the next 21 days during which all government and private schools, community centres, construction sites, factories and deras would be covered.

Yamunanagar, November 15
The 34th Inter-Zonal Youth Festival of Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, concluded here today at the DAV College for Girls in which Dinesh Yadav, Additional Deputy Commissioner, was the chief guest.

Anup Lather, Director, Youth and Cultural Affairs, Kurukshetra University, welcomed the chief guest and appreciated the efforts of DAV college in conducting the festival successfully. Yadav encouraged the students by sharing some poetry with them. He added that the youth and festivals were synonyms of each other as one is incomplete without the other. He also appreciated the efforts of DAV college.

The last event of the festival was Haryanavi Dance in which six zones participated and made people dance on the beats of Haryanavi dance and music. An extravagant show was put up that included bhangra performance, mimes, folk songs and group songs. Yamunanagar zone’s DAV College for Girls bagged the overall trophy while Ambala zone’s SD College, Ambala Cantonment, got the runners-up trophy.

Lather and the Principal of Hindu College, Dr Ujjawal Sharma, presented the trophy to the winners’ team.

Gurgaon, November 15
The Gurgaon police has arrested a Delhi-based couple on the charge of trafficking a local woman after luring her in the name of getting her a job.

A local resident, Anil Chawla, had lodged a complaint with the police, stating that Ezaz Ahmed and Ayesha Fatima of Jamia Nagar in Delhi had promised a job to his wife Neelam, 37, through the Internet.

On being called by them, Neelam went to Delhi to meet them, but she did not return. Following this, her husband lodged a complaint with the police. Chawla alleged that the couple had sold off his wife in some foreign land.

The police investigated the matter and arrested the couple from Delhi. They are now being interrogated and according to the investigators, an international human trafficking racket is likely to be unearthed as police teams are being sent to different places on the basis of information provided by the couple.