Gurgaon, November 6
A preliminary investigation report by an NGO, the People’s Union For Democratic Rights(PUDR), has accused the city administration and the police of courting arbitrary arrests and custodial torture of Maruti workers.

Claiming that the authorities did not care to thoroughly investigate the alleged murder of Maruti human resource manager Awanish Dev, the PUDR has demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter.

The organisation has based its report on interviews with arrested workers, families, counsels and medical reports.

It claims that there has been a miscarriage of justice at every stage — from identifying suspects to dealing with them in jail.

“Workers have confirmed in the MLRs (medico-legal reports) that they were stripped naked and beaten and injured in the groin as their legs were stretched apart ‘beyond capacity’ for sustained periods of time. Some were submerged in dirty water for long durations and rollers were run over the thighs of others. Two of the 12 accused union leaders who were ‘presented’ in Gurgaon after the arrest were seen limping due to injuries sustained during police interrogation. The police had deliberately delayed the medical examination of the workers in their custody so as to dilute evidence of torture and even had management officials witness the torture,” read the report.

The report said the workers were arrested on the basis of a list given by the company rather than the police investigation and many were punished for their role in last year’s strike.

“A large number of the over 145 arrests of workers that have been made in the case are unrelated to the crimes in the FIR. There have been different rounds of arrests. The first 93 arrests, for instance, took place at random on July 18-19 and included workers not even present at the factory site. Subsequently, apart from union office-bearers arrested, many coordinators nominated for routine union work were arrested. Many of the workers who have been arrested are those who were also active in the 2011 protests,” states the report.

“One worker was picked up on August 6 from his residence. Six policemen came in the middle of the night in civilian clothes from the Gurgaon CIA and arrested him. They told the family that the company had given his name to the police. Yet another worker who had worked in Shift A ending at 3 pm on July 18 reached his village at 7 pm. Ten days later, the CIA staff came to arrest him, stating that the company had given his name and he had to present himself at the police station. When he did so, he was arrested and remanded in judicial custody. His family members were not informed.

“On August 17, the station house officer of the Manesar police station admitted in the open court that the basis of several workers being arrested was the list provided to the police by the company. A number of workers, including at least one union member and 25 contract workers who are in jail, were on leave on July 18. The company has been refusing to submit the attendance records, claiming that they were destroyed,” alleged the report.

Sources say that there is at least one instance of a worker who was arrested because his first name was the same as that of an active union member. Despite clarification by relatives of the union member and the later arrest of the union member, both workers are in jail.

The Gurgaon police has refused to react to this report, saying that nobody has approached it against any torture. The report’s take on the fact that despite the conclusion of the inquiry, 500 workers were sacked is bound to fuel the strike by the sacked workers tomorrow.

The laour department of Gurgaon has refused to comment, saying that the report had been submitted to the Haryana government and not the department. 

Chandigarh, November 6
In response to the contempt notice issued by the Punjab and Haryana high court, Gurgaon's Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Ravinder Tomar today claimed that the barricades near the Ambience Mall were removed to ease traffic congestion.

He also told the court that the decision was taken considering the facts and circumstances, and there was no intention to violate the High Court orders. HUDA Administrator Praveen Kumar, also asked to explain the defiance of the orders, could not appear before the court due to some important assignment.

He has been asked to file his response on November 16, the next date of hearing.

The High Court had on October 17 issued show-cause notice to Ravinder Tomar and Praveen Kumar, asking them why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for not complying with the October 8 orders pertaining to the case.

Chandigarh, November 6
Four years after the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) destroyed the records of written examination held for recruiting Mandi Supervisors, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the Commission to name the officers behind the decision.

The Bench of Chief Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain issued the directions, as an appeal filed by Raju Sharma and Bhupinder Kumar came up for hearing. They have challenged the order of the Single Judge passed on March 13.

Passing strictures against the HSSC, the Single Judge had observed that "the conduct of the HSSC in destroying answer sheets before the expiry of three months from the date of declaration of the final result, puts the public institutions, like HSSC, in a very poor light.”

“More so, the officers of the HSSC had definite information from the Advocate General's office that original records were required to be produced in the high court. It is a lame excuse to say that they had not received a copy of the writ petition and therefore they did not know that they would be required to preserve the answer sheets." The Single Judge had, also, awarded cost of Rs 10,000 in favour of each of the petitioners and against the HSSC.

During the hearing of the appeal, the counsel for the appellants asserted the HSSC had not destroyed the records before the expiry of three months for the first time. The counsel referred to various instances where in the past also the HSSC had destroyed records prematurely.

The counsel also brought to the Bench’s notice the recent case of “Poonam Rani”, where the records of written examination for recruitment of lecturers in Hindi in the Education Department had been destroyed by the HSSC before the expiry of three months.

The Supreme Court directed the HSSC to conduct a fresh written test and interview for considering the candidature of the petitioners therein and the unsuccessful candidates.

The counsel also prayed that a fresh written test and interview be conducted for the appellants and other unsuccessful candidates, as was ordered by the Supreme Court in Poonam Rani’s case.

Sonepat, November 6
A common concern for the plight of women and the need for a collective resource to empower women, ensure their dignity and rights marked the onset of the three-day national workshop, ‘Towards Change That Respects Rights and Dignity — A Capacity Building Workshop To Prevent Violence Against Women’, in B.P.S. Women University, Khanpur Kalan, today.

The workshop has been organised in collaboration with the Young Women’s Christian Association and Association of Indian Universities.

In her inaugural address, former chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Dr Girija Vyas, said a woman must be treated as a person and not a commodity. She called for tougher laws against violence, an effective implementation of the laws and the establishment of fast track courts for women’s issues.

“Social awareness about women’s status, gender sensitisation and active participation of the civil society to create a woman-empowered society has become the need of the hour,” she said.

Eminent social scientist Kamla Bhasin, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Dr Pankaj Mittal, chairperson of the Haryana Women’s Commission Sushila Sharma, and the university registrar, Dr Asha Kadiyan, also spoke on the occasion.

Later, talking to mediapersons, Dr Vyas said the idea of lowering the marriage age of the girls and banning the use of mobile phones by them were not the solution to the problem. The need of the hour was to provide them security and a secure social atmosphere. Exemplary punishment should be given to those guilty of rape and doing atrocities against women, she added. She said women’s commissions should be set up in the states.

Dr Vyas also cautioned that the anti-dowry Act should not be misused by the family members of brides. 

Rohtak, November 6
Mystery shrouds the death of a 17-year-old student of a private school at Madina village of the district.

While the kin have alleged that the boy committed suicide after he was beaten up in the school, the school authorities have denied the charges.

No case has been registered so far in this regard.

Some family members of the boy reached the school today and staged a demonstration, alleging harassment of the victim by the school authorities. The boy, Deepak, son of Jagbir, belonged to Chiri village and had been staying with his maternal uncle at Madina.

Sources say Deepak committed suicide by consuming poison on Sunday last at his residence. Though he was cremated the same day, a group of persons led by Jai Kishan, maternal uncle of the victim, reached RKP Senior Secondary School, Madina, and charged the school authorities with beating their child which forced him to take the extreme step. He alleged that the victim was beaten by schoolteachers a day before the suicide. Deepak had been feeling harassed and so he ended his life, he added.

The school principal, Ravinder Dangi, denied the allegations and claimed that he was not beaten up by anyone in the school. He, however, said that the boy was reprimanded by the staff over an issue on November 3.

The police said no case had been booked as no complaint had been received by it in this regard.

Yamunanagar/Ambala, November 6
With the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (ATE) asking the states to recover the Fuel Surcharge Adjustment (FSA) from the consumers, the state power utilities are likely to go ahead with the recovery of the fuel surcharge adjustment on a quarterly basis in the state.

The FSA is an additional fuel cost paid to generating companies by power utilities, which till now was not being collected from consumers in the state, which added to the financial burden of power utilities.

Speaking to The Tribune, Devender Singh, chairman and MD of DHBVN and UHBVN, said the FSA could not be taken as tariff hike, but it was an additional cost on the purchase of power, already being paid by the utilities.

He clarified that the utilities would do away with the FSA charges after the additional cost was recovered.

He said the FSA was an automatic cost recovery mechanism approved by Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) and as per the conditions laid in the Financial Restructuring Plan (FRP), the power utilities were bound to enforce the FSA in state.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the cost of power had increased by 330 per cent during the past 10 years against a tariff hike of merely 27 per cent. Thus, the gap between cost and rate of return increased by Rs 2.50 per unit. Resultantly, the two discoms are facing an accumulated loss of Rs 8,830 crore.

Singh said the cost of power had increased by 335 per cent, but there had been only two tariff hikes during this period including an 11 per cent hike in October, 2011 and 16 per cent hike in April, this year.

He said that to meet their operating expenses, the discoms had to borrow additional fund which added to the interest burden of Rs 1.50 per unit. The total debt amounts to about Rs. 19,000 crore.

He said the utilities had already asked the engineers to bring down the aggregate transmission and commercial losses (AT&C) by 60 paise per unit by reducing the losses from 30 per cent to 15 per cent.

Hisar, November 6
The Haryana power distribution companies (discoms) have decided to release all 2,810 non-domestic and 1,730 industrial connections, pending for more than three months, by the end of January next. All pending 16,663 tubewell connections against which complete payment has been deposited will be released by the end of May next year.

This was stated by Devender Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, DHBVN and UHBVN, here today.

He said the pending applications included those applications also that were pending for want of availability of capacity in the transmission and distribution system. In such cases, the utilities had decided to release all non-domestic and industrial connections having a demand of load up to 200 KVA during the lean period up to December. The connections against applications of non-domestic category demanding load up to 200 KVA would also be released irrespective of the availability of capacity. The capacity of the system would however, be augmented by April next year so that system constraints were did not prove to be a hurdle in maintaining uninterrupted power supply during the season of peak demand.

The discoms would take up with the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam the need for augmenting or strengthening the transmission network so that the new connections were released expeditiously. The capacity of existing substations would be augmented to meet the load demand in order to speed up release of new connections. A three-tier plan was being drawn up to strengthen the power transmission and distribution system.

The DHBVN and the UHBVN had decided to release tubewell connections also expeditiously. Officials in field had been directed to release all pending tubewell connections immediately against the applications for which all complete charges had been deposited by farmers.

The nigams had issued guidelines for fixing priority for the release of connections under which first of all those connections would be released immediately where only the cable was required without augmentation of transformers’ capacity. Then the connections in which erection of one or two poles was required would be released.

Chandigarh November 6
INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala today reiterated his demand for setting up a commission of inquiry headed by a serving Supreme Court judge to probe the alleged shady land deals during the eight-year tenure of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda .

Addressing a press conference here today, Chautala alleged that companies floated by influential persons, including companies belonginZXg to close relatives of a senior Congress leader, had cornered prime properties in the National Capital Region (NCR) and earned crores of rupees after getting licences to develop them.

“During Hooda’s tenure, licences had been granted for over 21,000 acres of land which had benefited influential businessmen and politicians,” Chautala alleged.

He alleged that master plans for the entire state had been altered to suit the interests of big businessmen and colonisers, compromising the interests of farmers.

Answering a question on former Army Chief, Gen VK Singh, sharing the stage with him during the November 1 rally at Rewari, Chautala said doors of his party were open to the former Army Chief as and when he desired to join politics.

The INLD chief claimed that the Third Front would form the government at the Centre after the 2014 Lok Sabha poll as the people were fed up with both the Congress and the BJP.

Fatehabad, November 6
Renuka Bishnoi, MLA, wife of HJC Supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi, has launched a campaign in Fatehabad for the December 2 rally of her party in Sirsa.

A member of the Haryana Assembly from Adampur, Renuka Bishnoi has been assigned the task of mobilising support for the rally from Fatehabad and Hisar.

She addressed a meeting of her party workers here and visited several persons during her mass contact programme.

Anoop Dutch, a former Youth Congress leader, announced his decision to join the HJC in her presence.

Addressing workers Renuka Bishnoi alleged the Congress government had driven the state on the path of devastation.

Admonishing the government on the law and order situation in the state, Renuka alleged that 722 incidents of rape had been reported in Haryana in just one year, leading to a sense of insecurity among women. She called upon people to participate in December 2 rally in large numbers.

New Delhi, November 6
The Delhi High Court today adjourned hearing on former Haryana Minister Gopal Goyal Kanda’s bail application till November 19. Kanda is an accused in the alleged suicide of Geetika Sharma, an employee of his company.

He had surrendered before the police on August 18. Geetika had committed suicide on August 5.

The HC has asked the Delhi Police to file its reply to Kanda’s bail application . “You just file the reply to the bail application put up for hearing on November 19,” Justice Pratibha Rani told Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Siddharth Luthra.

The hearing for today was deferred twice because Kanda’s counsel, Ramesh Gupta, had not reached the courtroom. “Your counsel is still on his way to the court. No more passover can be granted. I am adjourning the matter to some other date,” said Justice Pratibha Rani. — TNS

Gurgaon, November 6
A delegation of global youth leaders from various parts of the world, who have come here to participate in the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit, visited Manesar village in Gurgaon district a day ahead of the conference.

The global youth leaders, led by Zimbabwe Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, visited the Anganwari Centre at the village and were impressed by the facilities being provided there.

The delegation appreciated the scheme aimed at the welfare of women and children.

The Zimbabwean Deputy PM stated that he desired to set up similar centres in his country."There are many countries in Africa where a number of expecting mothers and newborn children die due to malnutrition," Mutambara said, adding that he would recommend the Zimbabwe government to initiate such a scheme to provide nutritious food for healthcare of women and children.

Madhugaur Yashki, a Lok Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh who is also a member of the delegation, told his fellow members that Haryana was one of the states where the Anganwari scheme was being implemented in the right perspective.

Officials of the Women and Child Welfare Department of the state government apprised the delegation about the scheme and the facilities available at the anganwari centres.

The visitors were told that there are 25,699 anganwari centres running in 127 villages and 12 towns of Haryana. 

Faridabad, November 6
The authorities are going all out to make arrangements for Congress meet at Surajkund in this district on November 9 which will be attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Faridabad deputy commissioner Balraj Singh spent a major part of his working hours today giving final touches to the preparations. Officers concerned were assigned duties and vehicles issued special passes. He reviewed the arrangements with senior officers of the district. They inspected the approach roads connecting Surjakund.

Singh said the bulk of the district administration’s preparations related to security issues.

Although security at Raj Hans Hotel in Surajkund, the venue of the meeting, would be taken care of by the elite Special Protection Group, the district police would manage the security bandobust in the sprawling tourist complex of Surajkund. Faridabad police commissioner Shatrujit Kapur said an additional force consisting of about 1,000 personnel had been requisitioned from the state to beef up the security arrangements which will be strictly in accordance with the ‘Blue Book’. He said 70 VVIPs would attend the meeting. Bomb disposal squads, sniffer dogs and mountain police will start reaching Surajkund from tomorrow.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda visited Surjakund yesterday to oversee the preparations.

The authorities have set up two helipads at Surajkund. 

Jhajjar, November 6
Employees of various government departments under the aegis of the Haryana Karamchari Mahasangh today took out a march here in protest against the state government’s attitude towards their long-pending demands.

The protesters also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the City Magistrate, Jhajjar, to concede their demands at the earliest or face a statewide agitation.

Earlier, the employees gathered at Shri Ram Park in the morning and staged a dharna.

Raj Singh Dahiya, president of the mahasangh, said: “The employees have been struggling hard for a long time to get their rights but the government is not paying any heed to their demands. Now the employees are planning a massive agitation to get their demands fulfilled.”

The mahasangh was demanding regularisation of the services of temporary employees, removal of pay anomalies and withdrawal of the privatisation policy, he informed.

Later, the protesters carrying black flags took out a protest march in the town.

Sirsa, November 6
The police has decided to send the vaginal swab of the Dalit girl to the Forensic Science Laboratory for testing after her medical examination failed to substantiate the allegation of rape.

A panel of doctors conducted medical examination of the minor girl from Prem Nagar in the town, whose parents had alleged that she was raped by a man on November 1, late last evening.

The police had booked accused Poonam Chand (45) under Sections 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) and 452 (criminal trespass) of the IPC on November 4 on the complaint of the victim’s mother.

The statement was recorded in the presence of advocate Sunita Verma, counsel for the District Legal Service Authority.

However, after intervention of Congress leader and advocate Sanju Bala, the police had taken the victim to General Hospital for medical examination last evening.

The police said the medical examination had not substantiated the allegation of the victim’s parents.

Sanju Bala alleged that the police did not get the girl medically examined on the day their kin came with the complaint and in the process; vital evidences had been lost, as the victim had taken bath thrice since then.