Chandigarh, June 6
The Haryana Police today set up a high-level team to be headed by MS Maan, Additional Director-General, Law and Order, to probe all aspects of the Rohtak-based “Apna Ghar” shelter home case.

Large-scale abuse and exploitation of children and destitute girls have been reported from the shelter home following which seven persons have already been arrested.

The probe team has been set up following allegations reportedly levelled by certain inmates of the shelter home about the involvement of certain policemen in the misdoings at the home. The allegations were levelled before the four-member committee constituted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Announcing the Maan committee, Haryana DGP Ranjeev Dalal said here today if any policeman was found involved, he would face strict action. Maan would be assisted, among others, by Akil Mohd, IG, Law and Order.

The DGP said since the case first came to light on May 9 , several independent agencies, including the National Commission for Protection of Child’s Rights, had been probing it. Besides, the media had been regularly monitoring the case. No such allegation had surfaced earlier though entire investigation had been well-documented. He said it was only now that the involvement of policemen had been alleged before the High Court committee, which was yet to submit its report.

Seeing the sensitivity of the issue, the government desired that the investigation should be conducted under a very senior officer. The Maan committee had been constituted in view of the government?s directions, Dalal said. 

Sirsa, June 6
In a democracy, parliaments and legislative assemblies are meant for healthy debates and deliberations on Bills as well as public issues. However, in Haryana, the governments, whether the present one headed by Bhupinder Singh Hooda or the one headed by his predecessor Om Prakash Chautala, have been showing scant regard for democratic debates, it appears.

An analysis of state Assemblies of 13 states done by PRS Legislative Research, an organisation that tracks the functioning of Parliament and state Assemblies, shows that Haryana is almost at the bottom of the table in most of the parameters as far as performance of legislative Assemblies is concerned.

PRS Legislative Research did its analysis on performance during the past 10 years — from 2000 to 2010.

The study shows that the Haryana Assembly sat for an average 14 days a year during these 10 years.

This is in sharp contrast to the West Bengal Assembly that sat for an average of 48 days a year, Karnataka and Maharashtra, both 42 days each, and Himachal Pradesh 31 days in a year.

The Lok Sabha, on the other hand, sat for 72 days a year during these 10 years.

The standard of debates in the Haryana Assembly during this period can be gauged from the fact that all the Bills taken up by it between 2000 and 2010 were introduced and passed on the same day, which means these Bills were not debated well before these were passed by the Assembly.

In Himachal Pradesh, only 20 per cent Bills were passed on the day of their presentation, 78 per cent within 10 days of their introduction and 2 per cent took more than 10 days.

In the Lok Sabha, only 6 per cent Bills were passed on the day of their introduction, 28 per cent within 10 days and 66 per cent Bills took more than 10 days for their approval from the state Assembly.

In the Haryana Assembly, all 45 budget demands in 2011 were “guillotined”, according to the PRS analysis.

Six-time MLA Sampat Singh, has expressed concern over these trends in a letter to Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Sharma and has listed some suggestions for improving the performance of MLAs.

However, most of these suggestions pertain to increasing the remuneration of the MLAs and providing them other facilities. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Randeep Singh Surjewala refused to comment.

Chandigarh, June 6
A three-year window to clear the teacher eligibility test (TET) to schoolteachers with four years’ experience sparked off a number of protests last month from candidates who had qualified the test but failed to cut ice with the Haryana Government.

Now, the government may just have to re-think about the exemption with the Centre categorically stating that there is no such provision to permit clearing of the eligibility test once a teacher has been appointed.

Sources in the school education section of the Human Resource Development Ministry said that in response to a query on the exemption to teachers with experience, the section, in its reply sent to the government on June 1, has categorically stated that there is absolutely no scope for relaxation.

The state government, in a letter written to the Centre in May, had sought to know if teachers holding an experience certificate could be allowed a relaxation to clear the test after their selection by the Haryana Teachers’ Selection Board.

Sources in the ministry said that just like the provisions of the National Eligibility Test, conducting a teacher eligibility test by states would be essential without there being any exceptions. Only teachers who cleared the test would be eligible for selection in government schools.

Unlike the rest of the country, Haryana is perhaps the only state to have “fiddled” with the test by announcing an exemption to teachers with four years’ experience. The “disputed” clause states that in case of direct recruitment, the teachers working in privately managed, government-aided, recognised and government schools, are exempted to acquire qualifications of passing the HTET if they have worked for a minimum period of four years on the date of enforcement of these rules.

Stating that this is a one-time measure and sets a deadline of April 1, 2015, to qualify HTET, the clause states that “otherwise their appointment shall stand terminated automatically without giving any further notice.”

However, this came under fire from the Haryana Patra Adhyapak Sangh which, during its protests through May, alleged that in doing so, the government is providing “backdoor entry” to the 10,000-odd guest teachers working in government schools.

The president of the women’s wing of the sangh, Archana Suhasini, said the provision of allowing a teacher to first secure an appointment and then clear the test smacked of the government’s intention to “accommodate” the guest teachers whether or not they are capable.

She said 7,00,000 candidates had cleared the eligibility test and some of them had done so repeatedly while some guest teachers had not been able to clear the test despite repeated attempts. How could the government think that guest teachers or those from other schools and states, holding a four-year experience certificate, get precedence over us?”

It remains to be seen what stace the government takes on the issue.

Rohtak , June 6
The All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti has taken up the demand for quota with the National Commission for Backward Classes.

In a letter to the commission, the samiti has claimed that the demand for quota for Jats meets the criteria of social and economic backwardness. It is stated that though a commission headed by Kaka Kalelkar to provide reservation to other backward communities submitted its report on March 20, 1955, it failed to clarify or identify such classes on a social and economic basis.

Hawa Singh Sangwan, president of the samiti, said the Jat Community was on a par with other communities such as Ahir, Gujjar, Saini, Lodha, Khati, Luhar, Kumbhar, Nai and Kamboj which had already been accorded BC status.

The letter quotes the report of the Gurnam Singh Commission which stated that the Ahir and Saini communities were more economically sound than the Jat community, adding that the Jats could not be divided on religious grounds.

The share of the Jat community in Haryana Government jobs (class-I and class-II ) is lower than that of other castes.

The letter states that while states like Delhi, MP, Himachal , Uttarakhand, UP and Bihar had given reservation to the Jat community, the demand had not yet been conceded in Haryana. 

Fatehabad, June 6
Decks have been cleared for the payment of compensation for land acquired for the proposed Gorakhpur atomic power project (GAPP) coming in Fatehabad.

Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has sent a communication to the authorities giving consent to the award money to be paid to farmers. NPCIL is likely to deposit the award money with the local administration within a week.

Confirming NPCIL’s acceptance of the rates fixed by the authorities, ML Kaushik, Deputy Commissioner, said the corporation wanted the local authorities to provide unhindered access to the project land so that their officials working on the project were not stopped by those opposing it.

The government had issued a notification to acquire 1503 acres, 4 kanals and 19 marlas of agriculture land for the proposed project on July 29, 2010.

The authorities had offered compensation of Rs 34 lakh per acre. The price included Rs 20 lakh per acre as compensation, 30 per cent solatium, 12 per cent per annum interest on this amount from the date of notification and 20 per cent of the core price as no-litigation bonus.

Meanwhile, the dharna of farmers opposed to the nuclear power project entered its 666th day today. 

Fatehabad, June 6
Bus commuters, particularly children, had a tough time today as workers of Haryana Roadways blocked vehicular traffic outside the local bus stand for over two hours after a tiff between the drivers of a bus and a mini-truck.

The roadways workers were angry at the behavour of the bus stand police post in charge, who misbehaved with the bus driver after he went to him with a complaint.

Jagmender, whose bus had a minor collision with the mini-truck, went to the police post to lodge a complaint that the rival driver had slapped him.

Drivers of roadways buses blocked traffic by parking their vehicles on the highway.

Efforts by Baljit Singh, SDM, failed to move the angry protesters, who demanded suspension of the cop. They agreed to lift the blockade only after Jagdish Chander, DSP, assured them that the police post in charge would be shifted. 

Panipat, June 6
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has issued directions to Haryana to restrict overdrawals from the northern grid and ensure that there is no violation of regulations.

These directions were issued after Power System Operation Corporation Ltd filed an interlocutory application before the CERC listing the instances of heavy overdrawals by constituents from the northern grid. This application listed that Haryana had been overdrawing 90 lakh units daily on an average since May.

The state had to resort to heavy overdrawals to tide over the power shortage due to closure of three thermal units on a long-term basis.

The overdrawals by the state amounts to 375 MW round the clock while the maximum overdrawals during a week allowed by the CERC is 165 lakh units.

The overdrawals of power by Haryana in the first week of May was 576.68 lakh units at a cost of Rs 1,745.84 lakh, which works out to be Rs 3.03 per unit. This included a penalty of Rs 40.74 lakh for drawing power at prohibitive frequency.

The overdrawals in the next week was 819.48 lakh units at a cost of Rs 2791.74 lakh and the average cost was Rs 3.41 per unit. The penalty for overdrawing at a low frequency was Rs 61.88 lakh.

A senior HPGCL engineer said the power utility was also incurring additional charges of about Rs 1 per unit due to the forced outage of the thermal units in the state.

Meanwhile, sources in the power utilities stated that even after getting the CERC directives, the state continued to overdraw from the grid. On Monday and Tuesday, the state drew 94 lakh units daily while on May 25, the state had drawn more than 173 lakh units in a single day.

The power demand in the state is more than 1,200 lakh units and the shortage is around 200 lakh units a day. The main reason for the overdrawal is forced closure of three units with a total generation capacity of 1,200 MW due to turbine problems.

These include the 600-MW unit at Khedar, which is down since April 28 due to damage to the turbine blade and the two 300-MW capacity units each in the Yamunanagar thermal power plant, which are also down due to turbine problems. The rotor of unit 2 is undergoing balancing at Mumbai and the unit has been scheduled to commission by October 30. For the other unit, no decision had been taken as yet.

Hisar, June 6
The Haryana Agricultural University Senior Citizens Welfare Council has demanded immediate payment of one-month pension in lieu of leave travel concession, as decided by the state government in 2009.

Yashwant Singh Badal, president of the council, said the government had directed the university administration in 2009 to give a month’s pension to all retirees in lieu of LTC.

The university sat on the directive for two years.

In December last year it issued orders for payment but only three days’ notice was given.

As a result, a vast majority of the retirees were left out.

When they approached the administration they were told that the matter would be referred to the state government.

Originally, the benefit was to be available till March this year.

However, no payments were cleared after December 31 last year.

He said there was no justification for the denial of this benefit to a large number of retirees.

Badal said if the payment was not released soon, a delegation of the council would meet the Chancellor to apprise him of the denial of benefits.

The arrears accruing from introduction of new pay scales were also pending. 

Sirsa, June 6
Devender Singh Yadav, SP, has marked an inquiry by a DSP after a woman safai karamchari working in the Municipal Council alleged that an official of the council had been sexually exploiting her under threat of deducting wages. A number of safai karamcharis accompanied the woman to the SP’s office, where they demanded that the official be booked.

The woman alleged that the accused has been raping her for the past three years under threat that she and her husband would lose their jobs or their salaries would be deducted by showing them absent. She alleged that the accused tried to forcibly take her away on his motorcycle, when she was working near Bhai Kanhiya Park.

The safai karamcharis today held a demonstration outside the Municipal Council office and later met the SP to submit a memorandum demanding the registration of a case against the official.

Yadav said a case would be registered in case the accused was found guilty in the DSP’s inquiry. — TNS

Hisar, June 6
The INLD has claimed to have enrolled 1.5 lakh new workers in Hisar district. The list of new members was handed over to INLD secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala by the president of the Hisar district unit of the party Umed Lohan here. Chautala said the INLD was a cadre-based party and workers were the backbone of the party. He said the party was steadily gaining ground in urban areas.

Making light of the HJC-BJP combine claims about being an alternative to the Congress, the INLD leader said their party was the only credible alternative to the Congress in Haryana. Chautala said the workers should thwart all efforts by the rival parties to dub the INLD as a party of a particular community. — TNS

Rohtak, June 6
The Aamir Khan-hosted TV episode of “Satyamev Jayate” on honour killings aired on June 3 has not gone down well with a section of people, mainly the Jat community.

“Though the programme had invited several persons from Haryana, they could not either present their views properly or had been prejudiced on the matter and thus ‘failed’ to reveal the truth,” feels Ranbir Singh, president of the Society for People’s Advancement, Technology and Heritage (SOPATH), an NGO based here. “It would have been better for Aamir Khan to contact other people on the functioning of khaps and the implications on marrying into the same gotra (subcaste)” says Singh.

Singh said the rules followed by Jats were more liberal, democratic and universal. Claiming that it was is in this caste only that re-marriages of widows was allowed and khaps had never recommended or perpetrated crime against young ones provided they took into confidence the community and did not violate the minimum level of rules that were part of their culture.

“The programme spoiled much of the time in arousing feelings of victims of honour killings and provided little opportunity to khap leaders or elders to fully present their case,” claims Raj Singh Hooda, a social activist here. He said none from this community would ever support criminals or support perpetration of heinous crime against lovers provided certain conditions that preserved biological and racial traits.

A former minister Krishan Murti Hooda claimed that the presentation on honour killings were not balanced as it presented the Jat community in poor light. He said though the host commented that honour killings were prevalent across the country, he asked then why the participants and the incidents quoted in the programme were only from Haryana. 

Chandigarh, June 6
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued notices to the Union of India, State of Haryana, its Director-General of Police on a public interest litigation petition seeking action against khap panchayats and their members for passing dictates and illegal orders.

A social activist and former general secretary of Zirakpur-based Human Rights Watch prayed to the high court to take appropriate and punitive action against all such self-styled agencies passing dictates, resulting in honour killings.

The petitioner said the institution of khap panchayats should be dealt with heavily by the authorities and strict action shoud be taken according to the judgement of the Supreme Court.

He has sought directions to the Union and Haryana governments to make appropriate laws to tackle the "menace" of khap panchayats.