Gurgaon, September 18
Local DCP (Traffic) Bharti Arora, who took on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway contractor for not managing traffic, was transferred days ahead of the crucial hearing of the case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

While the government termed the transfer of this 1998-batch IPS officer a routine one as 15 others were also transferred after completion of tenure, the timing raised many eyebrows.

Bharti had prepared a case against the contractor and backed it with evidence, which eventually led to the court staying toll collection for 15 days.

The special team constituted by her had ensured a smooth drive on the expressway since then. She had prepared a proposal on how resumption of toll collection could bring back chaos at the toll plaza.

The department had compiled photographs of smooth traffic flow in the absence of toll collection. It planned to submit those in court at the next hearing.

A senior traffic police officer said the transfer was a shock for them, adding that they had conducted a systematic investigation and gathered evidence.

The official said the traffic police had been blamed for the chaos, but she had highlighted the real cause, adding that the department should have waited till the next hearing before asking her to join her new posting.

The government said the transfer would not affect the case as facts were already in court. Residents had lauded her work on the Facebook account of the Gurgaon traffic police.

In recent meetings, Bharti had refused to let a cosmetic decongestion plan get the go-ahead. She had stated that the loss calculated by the concessionaire was incorrect and was a bid to gain sympathy.

She had pointed out that the concessionaire was to blame for not ensuring the free flow of traffic and not providing an alternative pathway on account of heavy traffic flow.

Hisar, September 18
The death of a youth in illegal detention at a police station here threatens to snowball into a major controversy. Praveen was found dead in the police station’s bathroom.

The police maintained that he committed suicide by hanging himself. The police booked three police officials on murder charge. Seventeen others posted at the Sadar police station were shifted.

The deceased was from Dariyawala village in Jind district. Village residents held a panchayat there last evening and constituted a committee to pursue the case.

The panchayat demanded the arrest of the policemen responsible for the illegal detention. It refused to accept the body for cremation till the arrests were made.

The youth was employed as taxi driver by Surjit Singh. The owner had accepted a booking for a runaway couple from Talwandi Rana village, near here, to Delhi on September 11.

Praveen was taken in illegal custody last week after he was summoned by the taxi owner on some pretext and handed over to the police.

The police took his away, saying there was a threat to his life from girl’s family. He was kept in illegal detention for three days. His food was brought by his family from the village.

He was not named in any of the complaints lodged by the girl’s family. No case was registered by the police on the complaint of the girl’s family.

Superintendent of Police B Satish Balan had warned station house officers against detaining anyone illegally for interrogation, but the Sadar police station officials ignored his directive. This was the fourth case of custodial death at a police station in the district in the last three years.

Hisar, September 18
Activists of the women wing of the HJC today held a protest here against hike in diesel price and the cap on number of LPG cylinders to be given to consumers on subsidised rates.

The protesters were led by Kusum Sharma, president of the women wing. She said if the hike in rates was not withdrawn by September 25, HJC activists would gherao All-India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sonia Gandhi on September 26 in Delhi.

She said the UPA government had become totally insensitive to public issues. It was bringing in anti-people policies to benefit the rich at the cost of the common man. Sharma also said almost the entire ministry was involved in corrupt activities and the UPA government should be dismissed by the President.

The protesters marched in a procession which passed through the main markets of the city.

Gurgaon, September 18
Two days after a court granted bail to the owner of the plot where four-year-old Mahi died after falling in a borewell, her mother Sonia attempted suicide by consuming rat poison at her Aligarh house.

Neeraj Updhyay, Mahi’s father, who resumed work as security guard at a Manesar firm, confirmed it and said timely intervention by the family saved her life.

Three months ago, Mahi had died after falling into an illegal 70-foot-deep borewell in front of her house in Manesar. While a magisterial probe was to be completed within 15 days, the report was still awaited.

The family returned to their village in Uttar Pradesh after Mahi's body was pulled out of the borewell, nearly 85 hours after she fell into it.

"Despite Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announcing before the media that my family will be adequately compensated, not a single penny has been paid to me," said Neeraj.

Sirsa, September 18
Three members of a marriage party, including a father-son duo, were killed and three others were seriously injured when their car hit a tree near Bhima village in Sirsa last night.

The victims had come to Sirsa with a marriage party and were returning to their village when their speeding car skidded on the road and hit the tree. Buta Singh, who was driving the car died on the spot, while his son Jasbir and another person Ajmer Singh succumbed to their injuries at the General Hospital here.

Three other occupants of the car, Randhir Singh, Mandeep Singh and Kala Singh, were seriously injured and have been admitted to the General Hospital.

Sirsa, September 18
With students of Chaudhary Devi Lal Government Engineering College remaining adamant on Director-Principal Devender Singh Mor’s removal as a precondition for calling off their week-long strike, a team from the office of the Director-General of Technical Education today conducted an inquiry.

The three-member team comprising Director (Technical) Ram Pal, Additional Director KK Kataria and Joint Director Sultan Singh recorded the statements of students, staff and the Director-Principal.

They said they would submit their report to the Financial Commissioner of the department. Students went on strike from last Tuesday in protest against poor-quality food and lack of drinking water facilities, besides some other demands.

Several teachers and other staff members had extended support to the students. Teachers and students accused Mor of an autocratic style of functioning.

Chandigarh, September 18
Miffed over the manner in which the State of Haryana is handling the cases of workmen, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asserted their services were being dispensed with by not following the due procedure.

The time was ripe to fix responsibility of officers, violating the mandatory provisions of the law, Justice Rajesh Bindal, after taking up a petition by a Sub-Divisional Officer against Satish Kumar and another respondent. The SDO had challenged the Labour Court award dated June 12, 2009, passed on a workman’s plea under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

Justice Bindal asserted that the Labour Court on March 6, 2002, directed the workman’s reinstatement with continuity of service and full back wages, after finding that his services were dispensed with in violation of the Act.

Plea by the SDO was dismissed by the high court on April 20, 2004. The SLP was also dismissed. He was required to pay back wages immediately, but even after he was reinstated on August 4, 2005, the back wages were not paid. The impugned award was then passed by the Labour Court.

Justice Bindal asserted: “In case due care is taken at the time of termination of services of the workmen and the provisions of the Act are complied with unnecessary harassment of the workmen will be avoided. It will also not only reduce the litigation, but unnecessary burden on the state exchequer, wherein the state is required to pay to the workmen wages for years together without working. The amount being in lakhs and crores can be better utilised for other purposes.”

Justice Bindal added: “The award passed in their favour is not complied with. Many a times, they have to even fight for execution thereof. In many cases, either the management, which is the state, or a corporation/board, remains unrepresented or its defence is struck off due to non-filing of reply.”

“The matter is not examined threadbare by the authorities concerned before taking a decision to challenge the award of the Labour Court before this court. The failure is not only on the part of the officers. Rather, the Labour Department is equally responsible as even during conciliation proceedings, the issues are not settled. Majority of this litigation is avoidable. The matter needs to be examined by the authorities concerned. The action taken be placed before the court.”

Sonepat, September 18
The police interrogation of three vehicle looters has solved loot of another truck loaded with liquor boxes on the July 22 night near Pipli Khera village on the GT Road.

The police has not only seized 300 liquor boxes, but also got the vital information about the looted truck. The police said the accused looted the truck at gunpoint from the truck driver. The liquor was loaded in the truck at Yamunanagar. The police claimed that the truck would be recovered soon. — OC

Chandigarh, September 18
Students of the primary school in Saini Majra village of Kurukshetra did not have to run for shelter when it poured this morning. They finally attended classes in the rooms meant for them instead of sitting in the corridor of the school building.

Acting on the report of The Tribune published today that highlighted how the local sarpanch had prevailed upon the school staff and stocked the classroom with cement bags and pushed out the students, local officials finally came to the students’ rescue.

Confirming the removal of the cement bags, school in charge Pushpa said that an SDO arrived at the school premises this morning and summoned the sarpanch’s husband Rishi Ram.

“He was asked to unlock the classroom, immediately remove the cement bags and shift these to another location in the village so that the students do not suffer. Some of the stocks were used up yesterday while the remaining were moved out today,” she said.

However, the school in charge maintained that contrary to Rishi Ram’s contention that he had arrived at an agreement to stock the cement in the classroom, she was never in favour of doing so.

“I resisted the move a couple of times when he first proposed to shift the cement bags into the classroom and suggested that the classes be held in the open. However, when I rejected the move, he roped in a few members of the committee to build up pressure. Since we too live in the village, it becomes nearly impossible to turn down such a request especially when he said it was to make the village pathway,” she said.

The watchman who occupies another room on the school premises too has been asked to vacate it.

A class V student, Mehak, said that for the first time in many days they sat in the classroom while it rained outside.

“Whenever it rained earlier, we would have  to move into the room meant for the anganwari, disrupting their operations. Today, there was no such rush and our classes went on uninterrupted,” she said.

Rishi Ram, too, tried to justify his actions, stating that the room had been vacated and the children had moved into it after it was thoroughly cleaned.

“The rains were unexpected and the cement stock was lying in the open. We had no choice but to move it to a dry area and the classroom seemed to be the best bet. However, the last of the bags was removed after an official directed me to do so on the phone,” he said.

Mahendergarh, September 18
It’s a typical case of how politicians cheat the common people and even make them part with their precious belongings by promising them something tempting, but undeliverable. Once their purpose is served, the political rulers sit back in their ivory towers while the hapless commoners run from pillar to post to claim their rightful dues.

Needless to mention, the bureaucracy is used as a tool to further their vested interests. Having fooled the panchayat members of Jant and Pali villages in the district to lease out their 500 acres of land for 99 years at a token rate of Re 1 per acre per year, the Haryana Government functionaries are now telling them that the power to grant reservation at the Central University being set up on their land rests with the Union Government and not with them. The villagers, who gave their panchayat land on a 99-year lease almost free of cost for the Central University under government pressure and on the promise of getting preference in jobs and admissions at the university, are now being asked to furnish proof of the promises made to them in this regard.

In a bid to gain their sympathy, certain local politicians considered close to the top state authorities are now trying to convince the villagers that the provision of reservation at the university comes under the purview of the Union Government.

Residents of Jant, Pali and several neighbouring villages have been staging a dharna in front of the university gate for the past 50 days, but their demand for reservation in jobs and admissions at the university has been falling on deaf ears.

Official sources said the local Deputy Commissioner has written to the state Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary (higher education) in this regard. In the letter, he has cited the example of Haryana Agricultural University (HAU), Hisar, also a Central University, but provides reservation to the residents of the villages who gave their land for the university.

After the protesters threatened to stop the construction of the Central University buildings, a local MLA approached them and sought some more time to get the matter settled.