Chandigarh, December 5
Alleging a blatant misuse of government machinery in the Ratia Assembly bypoll, the NLD said today that the party would consider filing an election petition against the “irregularities” based on the “evidence” it had submitted to the Election Commission of India.

Addressing a press conference here today, INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala alleged that the Congress “bought” votes for Rs 4,000 each while the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police acted like “agents” of the government. The Congress forced the sarpanches to back its candidate by applying pressure from all official quarters, he claimed.

“While there was no limit on the number of vehicles used by the Congress for campaigning, our vehicles with permits, too, were impounded. There was an open flow of liquor and distribution of cash. We wrote to the Election Commission with evidence every other day about the irregularities but to no avail. We are exploring the possibility of filing an election petition,” he said.

Maintaining that HJC supremo Kuldeeep Bishnoi helped the Congress garner votes through his workers, Chautala alleged that he “paid back” the Congress for their help during the Hisar Lok Sabha byelection.

“The Congress has only won technically. They haven’t won morally. If Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is under any misconception, let him dissolve the House and go in for a fresh mandate. He will know where he stands,” Chautala said.

Accepting the Ratia results, he added that the party would hold a meeting of the executive committee in Delhi on December 8 to analyse the reasons for the defeat, if any.

Claiming that the pro-farmer stance of the Congress was an “eyewash”, he said the government had given the highest sugarcane price when his government was in power in the state. “Now, the rate in UP is much higher. Against Rs 250, Rs 240 and Rs 235 per quintal being paid for different varieties of sugarcane in UP, we are paying Rs 231, Rs 226 and Rs 215. Earlier, their cane would come to our mills. Now, our farmers will be forced to take their produce to UP,” he stated.

Rejecting the move on the FDI, he said it would be not only disadvantageous to small-time shopkeepers but also be politically detrimental in the long run for the country. 

Chandigarh, December 5
In the backdrop of the fact that English is not Haryanvi students’ cup of tea, the Haryana Government has started English language labs in 25 government colleges and decided to develop them as the “centres of excellence” to hone students’ spoken English skills.

The project, which is being implemented by the Department of Higher Education (DHE), is currently benefiting at least 60,000 students. In fact, the project is being augmented with the Haryana Government earmarking an amount of Rs 5 crore for strengthening infrastructure in these colleges, particularly related to the language labs and computerisation, department sources said here today.

The interactive language labs would go a long way in teaching effective communication skills to the students, particularly in the self-learning system. This, coupled with the introduction of a new add-on course, Certificate Course in Communication Skills, would improve the employment potential of the students. Under the course, students would get a certificate for 1st level, a diploma for 2nd year and an advanced diploma for the 3rd year.

Since spoken and soft skills (computer knowledge) were pre-requisites for getting jobs in the private sector, the need for starting these labs was felt by the state government, officials asserted. Since there is a sea of difference between the educational standards of the neighbouring Delhi and the Haryana districts in the National Capital Region bordering Delhi, the starting of these labs was all the more necessary to make students of the state compete successfully with their counterparts in the other states of the country.

Balbir Singh Malik, Director-General, Higher Education, said the communication skills acquired by the students from the language labs would stand them in a good stead in getting better jobs in the government and the private sector.The DHE had tied up with the Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya (BPS University for Women) to train the teachers for running the language labs in the government colleges.

Chandigarh, December 5
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today put MLA Anand Singh Dangi on notice while taking up a petition challenging the allotment of residential plots to Haryana MLAs 
and MPs.

A beneficiary of the scheme, Dangi is an MLA from Meham in Rohtak district. The notice has been issued to him through the Vidhan Sabha Speaker.

Stalwarts of Haryana politics - Deepender Singh Hooda, Kiran Chaudhary, Kumari Selja, Naveen Jindal, Hans Raj Bhardwaj, Chander Mohan, Karan Singh Dalal and Randeep Singh Surjewala - are among the 79 Haryana MPs and MLAs already issued notice by the high court in the plot allocation case. They were allotted residential plots in August, 2009, by HUDA.They were allotted 14 Marls plots each in Sector 6 Mansa Devi Complex (MDC), near Sukhna Lake and Rajiv Gandhi IT Park at “throwaway price” of Rs 28 lakh against the prevailing open market price of nearly Rs 1.5 crore.

The notices were directed to be issued after the HUDA authorities submitted the list of beneficiary MLAs and MPs during the resumed hearing on a petition filed by the Panchkula-based Herald Group Housing Co-operative Society.

The high court has already stayed the allotment of the residential plots till further orders. The high court had earlier issued notice to Haryana Chief Secretary and the HUDA Chief Administrator. 

Sirsa, December 5
Coming to the rescue of a Haryana Forest Department whistleblower, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the operation of an order of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Chhotu Ram Jotriwal, whereby he had suspended Forest Range Officer (FRO) Prithvi Raj for lodging an FIR against FRO Rajesh Kumar for the alleged embezzlement of government funds.

The court has also stayed the operation of Jotriwal’s order of withdrawal of an FIR of criminal breach of trust, forgery and cheating against Rajesh Kumar at a Sirsa police station.

Acting upon a civil writ petition filed by Prithvi Raj, Justice Mahesh Grover of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued notices of motion for March 30, 2012, to the State of Haryana, the PCCF, Haryana, V. K. Jhajharia, Conservator of Forests (Territorial Wing), West, Hisar, and Rajesh Kumar, FRO (Territorial Wing), Rania, Sirsa.

In his orders dated November 4, 2011, Jotriwal had also directed the Divisional Forest Officer, Hisar, to send the draft of the chargesheet against Prithvi Raj to him and had fixed his station during the suspension period at Firozpur Zirka.

However, Jotriwal had modified his orders partially on November 14, after The Tribune published a story and an edit on this matter.

However, the PCCF, Haryana, did not revoke his orders of withdrawal of the FIR against Rajesh Kumar, though a police investigation conducted after the registration of the case said that the offence of embezzlement of government funds was made out against him.

Prithvi Raj had merely acted upon the orders of his superior, Sanjiv Chaturvedi, Divisional Forest Officer (Production), and lodged an FIR against Rajesh Kumar under Sections 405, 406, 407, 409, 420, 463, 464, 466 and 467 of the IPC and various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for the alleged embezzlement of Rs 3,56,095.

The FIR was lodged after an inquiry by K. C. Meena, Conservator of Forests, Gurgaon Circle, had found Rajesh Kumar guilty of the charges and recommended criminal proceedings against him.

Earlier, an audit party had also found Rajesh Kumar guilty of the charge and recommended criminal proceedings.

Rajesh Kumar, who was an FRO (Production) at Sirsa in 2002-03, allegedly sold 103.068 cubic metres of timbre belonging to the department to contractors and did not deposit the proceeds amounting to Rs 3,56,095 with the government. 

Chandigarh, December 5
The Haryana Government has designated officers for monitoring the scheme under which 15 sets of services, which cover 36 identified services, will be provided to the people of the state in a time-bound manner. Besides monitoring, the officers who will be responsible for receiving complaints for the non-delivery of the services have also been designated.

A circular to this effect has been issued by Chief Secretary Urvashi Gulati. The food inspector or the assistant food and supply officer of the district concerned has been designated for the monitoring of the scheme for services to be rendered by Food and Supplies Department, and the district food and supplies controller will be the authority for receiving complaints. 

Gurgaon, December 5
With a view to checking the misuse of red beacons atop vehicles, Gurgaon District Magistrate PC Meena today invoked Section 144, Cr PC, to give more teeth to the police and other law-enforcing authorities in this regard.

The Gurgaon Traffic Police had launched a campaign for the purpose but it did not prove to be much effective as the police had the authority to impose a fine of Rs 100 for unauthorised use of red beacons on his/her vehicle.

As per the orders issued today, the violators will be booked under Section 188, IPC, and punished for violating the prohibitory orders under Section 144, CrPC, besides being fined. The Secretary, RTA, and the Gurgaon Traffic Police have been directed to enforce these orders strictly. — TNS

Hisar, December 5
Teachers of Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology wore black badges and staged a dharna in front of the office of the Vice-Chancellor here today.

They were demanding counting of past service of teachers, representation of assistant and associate professor in the executive council, completion of university rule book, no violation of the University Act, framing of rules for attending and organising national and international conferences, early release of the 6th Pay Commission guidelines and a five-day week for teachers.

Sandeep Rana, president of the GJU Teachers Association, said despite repeated assurances the authorities were not accepting these demands. Cases of past service counting had been pending for the last more than five years. GJU was the only university of Haryana which had not given representation to assistant and associate professors in the executive council.

There was no published rule book of the university, causing ambiguity, delay in taking decisions by the university authorities. Due to delay in issuing the 6th Pay Commission guidelines for technical universities, there had been no recruitment of faculty for the last seven years.

He said if the demands were not met soon the teachers would be forced to go on an indefinite strike. 

Jhajjar, December 5
Three minor students, including two girls, were crushed to death by Delhi-Ludhiana Shatabdi Express near Parnala village in Bahadurgarh town here today.

The deceased have been identified as Mamta, Aarti and Aneesh of Chhotu Ram Nagar in Bahadurgarh. While Mamta and Aarti were class X students, Aneesh was studying in class V at Government High School in Parnala village located adjacent to Bahadurgarh .

Railway traffic remained disrupted on the Delhi-Rohtak railway track for over two hours due to the accident .

The incident took place in the morning when the three were on their way to school. They reportedly changed track after watching a goods train coming at the railway crossing outside Parnala village. Unluckily, they were crushed to death by Shatabdi Express coming from Delhi as soon as they attempted to cross the track.

People often cross the track as a short cut to reach Parnala village, 3 km from Bahadurgarh town.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) rushed to the spot and sent the bodies to the civil hospital for a postmortem examination. The bodies were handed over to their kin in the evening.

Meanwhile, residents of Chhotu Ram Nagar have demanded a government school in the locality and its surrounding area as hundreds of students residing in Chhotu Ram Nagar daily go to government schools located in Tikri village of Delhi and Parnala village of Bahadurgarh after crossing railway tracks.