Sirsa, March 20
Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia may have drawn flak for his assertion that those spending `26 per day cannot be categorised as below poverty line (BPL), but for the authorities in Sirsa, those earning `15 a day cannot enjoy BPL status.

The authorities have given one last chance to those families in urban areas of Sirsa, whose names have been deleted from BPL lists after the survey conducted in October 2011.

The authorities have said in the notice that the names of families, whose per member average monthly income exceeds `443.21 per month (less than `15 per day), are not eligible for inclusion in BPL lists.

“This is in accordance with the central government notification of 2007 under which BPL lists were prepared,” said Sushil Goyal, an assistant project officer in the District Urban Development Authority (DUDA), Sirsa.

Acting upon the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the Pradeep Kumar vs State of Haryana case, the authorities had ordered a resurvey of BPL families in the five urban towns of Sirsa in October 2011.

The survey conducted by volunteers of the Zila Saaksharta Samiti found 2,682 families enjoying BPL status though their income was above the government norms.

As many as 701 families in Sirsa town, 500 in Dabwali, 494 in Rania, 588 in Ellenabad and 399 in Kalanwali were found ineligible for BPL status they were enjoying.

The authorities invited claims and objections, which were verified by executive officers of the respective municipalities.

Now, having decided to delete these names from BPL lists, the authorities have told the families concerned to represent their case before the city magistrate if they felt any injustice had been done to them.

The authorities, however, clarified that those families, whose average per member income exceeded Rs 443.21 per month would not be eligible to be in BPL lists.

Jind, March 20
The services of Haryana Roadways buses in the city remain disrupted for at least two and a half hours as employees of the department resorted to a strike and locked the main gate of the bus stand in protest against the non-acceptance of their demands.

It caused harassment and inconvenience to hundreds of commuters as the service was resumed only after the intervention of the district authorities.

The abrupt halt in the bus services came around 12 noon today when a large number of employees of the Haryana Roadways Karamchari Union assembled in the local bus stand to protest against the attitude of the authorities towards their demands. The demands include the withdrawal of the break in service orders issued by the department against hundreds of staffers for participating in the statewide chakka jam that was held in June last year, removal of pay anomalies, and irregularities in the allotment of duties to the staff.

According to a spokesperson of the union, the protesters decided to lock up the main gate of the bus stand when no assurance came from the officials concerned. They alleged that the authorities had been holding back the orders of withdrawal of the break in service of eight employees of the local depot.

“While a large number of commuters were stranded due to the unannounced closure of the bus stand, no bus could leave or arrive. Chaos that prevailed for over two and a half hours,” claimed an employee on teh condition of anonymity.

“I had come with my family to go to Sonepat in connection with an urgent work but became a victim of the clash between the employees and authorities,” moaned Surender Kumar, a resident.

The standoff and disruption came to an end around 2.45 pm after the intervention of the SDM, who assured of action in the matter.

Karnal, March 20
The Haryana government has decided to make direct recruitment of sub-inspectors, inspectors and DSPs on a large scale, DGP Ranjeev Dalal said here today.

“Educated and well-mannered police officers would be the face of the police with the recruitment of 328 sub-inspectors, 70 inspectors and nine DSPs,” said the DGP.

About cases of eve-teasing, Dalal said women PCR vans had been deployed at most girls’ colleges to keep an eye on eve-teasers, but the problem was more acute around coaching centres as no teacher or some responsible functionary was there to rebuke such elements.

Earlier, inaugurating a road safety awareness centre, a joint venture of the Haryana police and Maruti, at the Civil Lines police station here, Dalal said habitual traffic violators would now have to take a long lesson on traffic rules before being asked to pay fines.

Fines were not a deterrent against rash and negligent driving as it did not change the mindset of drivers but compulsory training and driving test would have a salutary effect in this connection, said the DGP.

The third such centre in the state after Faridabad and Gurgaon, it would conduct driving tests, educate cops, school and college students, besides imparting traffic knowledge to violators. Haryana with 11,000 accidents every year ranks 11th in the country.

Earlier, the DGP inaugurated an NGO hostel-cum-officers’ mess and a police station in Madhuban. 

Chandigarh March 20
Unless both men and women change their mindset, empowerment of women cannot be achieved just by enacting laws and formulating various schemes for this purpose, said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda while addressing the northern regional conference of Chandigarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Haryana on “Convergence for Empowerment of Women” here today.

Earlier, Hooda inaugurated the two-day conference being hosted by Haryana.

He said the empowerment of women should be adopted and implemented like a mission as the objective could not be achieved without public involvement and participation. He said female foeticide should be condemned by one and all as this was a blot on society.

Elaborating various schemes implemented in the state for the empowerment of women, Hooda said Haryana had taken up many initiatives in this regard, as a result of which the sex ration had improved over the last five years. The state government had allowed two years’ childcare leave to women employees. He said Rs 31,000 was given to SC families and widows on the marriage of their daughters under the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Vivah Shagun Yojna and Rs 11,000 to families having agricultural land less than 2.5 acres and an annual income of Rs 1 lakh. The government had reserved 30 per cent seats for girls in technical education institutions.

About 200 representatives from six northern states are participating in the conference. 

Chandigarh, March 20
Students, whose monthly family income does not exceed Rs 37,500 per month, will not have to pay tuition fee for getting professional education in private colleges across Haryana in the 2,012-13 academic session.

Bringing technical education within the reach of the “aam aadmi”, the Haryana Government has decided to implement the decision of the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) raising the limit of the Tuition Fee Waiver (TFW) scheme to Rs 4.5 lakh per annum for the economically weaker sections of society. The earlier limit was Rs 2.5 lakh per annum.

Official sources claimed that the “pro-people” decision would go a long way in bringing engineering and management education to the common man as they would not have to pay tuition fee which constitutes the major share of college fees and other charges in the private educational institutions.

According to the AICTE scheme, 5 per cent of the seats in each institution would be reserved for students from economically backward backgrounds, who would not have to pay tuition fees. The 5 per cent seats would be in addition to the total seats and they would not have any effect on the meritorious students, a senior functionary of the state government told The Tribune here today.

However, while the scheme seems to be a good initiative for taking technical educational to the grassroots level, certain unscrupulous promoters of the private institutes may try to scuttle scheme. If the previous experience of several states, including Haryana, when the income limit for the scheme was Rs 2.5 lakh per annum is any indication, the Department of Technical Education would have an uphill task in implementing the scheme in a proper way to benefit the deserving students.

Vox populi

Ram Kumar, a resident of Ambala and an aspirant for pursuing engineering, wondered whether the scheme would be implemented in letter and in spirit.“If students from the economically weaker sections like me are admitted for technical degrees in private colleges without the tuition fee, our dreams of getting professional education may turn true,” he stated.

Hisar, March 20
The Haryana Janhit Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party will stop trains at Panipat, Tohana, Bhiwani and Faridabad for four hours from noon on April 3 to protest against the “corrupt” policies of the UPA government at the Centre.

This decision was taken at a meeting of leaders of both parties from seven districts of Haryana here today. The coordination meeting was addressed by Dharampal Malik of the HJC and Ram Bilas Sharma of the BJP, among others.

According to a press release issued after the meeting, both parties are working out a joint plan to launch a stir in Haryana against the policies of the Congress government. Both parties have set up a panel each to work out the details. The HJC panel is headed by former MP Jangbir Singh and the BJP committee has Anil Vij as its chairman.

Once the two panels prepare their report, the two parties would jointly submit memoranda to the Centre and the Haryana governor seeking action against the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government, it said.

Panipat, March 20
The alleged incident of the chopping of a Sikh boy’s hair by some miscreants has angered the community members, who after getting a case registered against unidentified persons, are demanding the arrest of the accused.

Pradeep Singh (22) allegedly became the victim of some miscreants, who after robbing him of his cash and mobile phone, chopped his hair, while he was returning home, late last evening.

Narinder Singh, one of the boy’s relatives, said that three persons stopped Pradeep near the railway lines on the Asandha road around 9.45 on Monday night and took out two knives to rob him of his cash.

As he tried to resist the robbery, the accused allegedly stabbed him in both his legs and in one of the shoulders and fled with Rs 300 and his mobile phone. And, reportedly, in order to teach him a lesson for resisting them, the accused chopped off his hair with scissors, said Singh.

Some passersby, who spotted Pradeep lying in a pool of blood, took him to the civil hospital, where the doctors informed his parents about the incident.

As word spread, members of the Sikh community gathered outside the hospital and later assembled at the GRP police station, where a case under Sections 394, 295 and 34 of the IPC was registered against unidentified persons.

Harchand Singh Dhmmu, district president of the Haryana Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, said that it was a serious matter and, if need be, they would take up the matter with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. He said a Sikh delegation would also apprise the Akal Takht Jathedar about the incident and seek the intervention of the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs.

Meanwhile, investigating officer Rajbir Singh said that they had inspected the crime scene from where a pair of scissors, hair and a torn pocket of Pradeep’s shirt had been found.

Gurgaon, March 20
The police has arrested 10 persons, including nine workers and a contractor, of garment manufacturing-cum-export company Orient Craft after yesterday's violent clash and rampage.

The workers alleged that Lovely, a contractor, had attacked their colleague, Rajesh, with a pair of scissors. Following the incident, irate workers damaged property, torched vehicles and pelted stones.

The protesting workers also clashed with police personnel called to control the situation. Several workers as well as policemen were injured in the violent clash.

The company management, however, claimed today that a clash between two groups of workers had turned violent, following which the rampage took place.

The police later arrested nine workers and the contractor under various charges.

Meanwhile, Haryana Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Shiv Charan Lal Sharma, today visited Gurgaon and reviewed the situation. Expressing concern over the issue, he ordered an inquiry into the circumstances leading to yesterday’s incident.

Ravi Yadav, Joint Director, Industrial Safety and Health, has been entrusted with the inquiry and asked to submit report within three days. Sharma asserted that strict action would be taken against the culprits on the basis of the inquiry report.

The minister also called upon the CMD of the garments company and discussed the latest situation.

Additional Labour Commissioner Naresh Narwal said he visited the unit today and found that all permanent workers had joined duty and about 60 per cent of the contract labourers had also returned to work.

Rohtak, March 20
Three members of a family lost their lives in a road accident today in the district.

They were run over by a speeding truck on the Sampla-Kharkhoda road here this evening.

This is the second such accident in the district in the past 24 hours in which three members of a family have been killed in road accidents. Three members of a family had died in such a mishap on Monday.

According to reports, Ranbir Singh (50), hailing from Seri Khanda village of Sonepat district, was riding a motor cycle along with his daughter Komila (26) and a minor kin identified as Priynashi (8) towards his village from Kultana in Rohtak, when the accident took place around 3.40 pm.

It is reported that a truck following them failed to reduce its speed at a speedbreaker near Naya Baans village and ran over them.

Komila was eight months pregnant and this resulted in the death of her unborn child also, said the police, which has registered a case in this connection.