Gurgaon, July 18
The meeting-cum-demonstration called by the dismissed Maruti workers to mark the first anniversary of violence at the company's Manesar plant turned out to be a damp squib, with only a handful of sacked workers and their supporters turning up for the event at the Leisure Valley ground here today.

The meeting was slated to begin at 9 am but there was no trace of the workers until 11 am though some of their sympathisers from Delhi-based universities and certain Leftist groups arrived at the venue well in time.

The demonstrators raised slogans against the Haryana Government, the local administration and the police for allegedly siding with the Maruti management and denying the workers a fair probe and the democratic right to protest.

They carried placards demanding the implementation of labour laws, reinstatement of dismissed workers and withdrawal of "false" cases. The protesters also carried a placard bearing a picture of Maruti general manager Avnish Kumar Dev, who was killed in the violence, demanding a fair probe into his death.

The protesters rose to march towards Devi Lal Park at the IMT, Manesar, as planned but sat down on being reminded of the imposition of Section 144, CrPC, by Dr Satender Duhan, SDM (Gurgaon-North), and Maheshar Dayal, DCP (Gurgaon-East) .

After the meeting, a five-member delegation of the protesters went to meet Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Shekhar Vidyarthi and submitted a memorandum to him.

While massive police presence at the venue acted as a deterrent for the protesters, their lack of support was also visible.

According to sources, differences had cropped up among trade unions and labour organisations over the observance of the first anniversary of the violent clash at the Maruti plant in Manesar.

They said a joint committee of labour unions wanted to club the observance of Maruti violence with that of the police lathicharge on Honda workers which falls on July 25, but the sacked Maruti workers did not agree to it.

Though the workers' bodies expressed solidarity with the sacked Maruti workers, they adopted their own course of action to mark the anniversary.

CITU observed "Solidarity Day" today. CITU workers handed over memorandums to the Haryana Governor through the Deputy Commissioners at all district headquarters.

Members of the Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU) as well as other associations of industrial workers also stayed away from today's meeting.

Sources maintained that the sacked workers had decided to hold the demonstration without taking other labour bodies into confidence due to which they distanced themselves from the meeting.

Chandigarh, July 18
Through a three-member committee, the Punjab and Haryana High Court is getting assessed the fee hike by recognised unaided private schools in Haryana.

A spokesman of Haryana School Education Department said here today that such schools included even those affiliated to the CBSE and the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE).

The committee had sent a questionnaire to District Education Officers (DEOs) to forward the same to all schools to seek financial details for 2012-13 and 2013-14. The committee has been constituted by the High Court.

The schools had been directed to obtain the questionnaire from their respective District Education Officers and submit the required financial details by July 31 to Justice Kiran Anand Lal, chairman of the committee.

He made it clear any default on the part of schools was likely to make these answerable to the court.

The committee has in a written communication addressed to all District Education Officers asked them to send a list of all private recognised unaided schools and call upon all such schools to send the information asked for within 15 days of the receipt of the communication. The DEOs would forward the same to the committee within 15 days thereafter.

Sonepat, July 18
Even as Sant Gopal Dass’s refused to end his indefinite hunger strike that entered Day 69 today, the district administration shifted him from Wazirpur village near Gohana to PGIMS, Rohtak, considering his deteriorating health.

Contrary to the expectations of Gau Raksha Andolan activists, Sant Gopal Dass refused to end his indefinite hunger strike as he did not get any official statement on removal of encroachment from gaucharan land in the villages and to constitute a Gau Charan Bhoomi Vikas Board during a Jain Samaj programme at Wazirpur village.

However, Gohana SDM Vivek Chaudhary, DSP Yash Pal Khatana and Senior Medical Officer of Gohana Civil Hospital, Dr Ishwar Singh Punia arrived during the programme and sent Dass to PGIMS, Rohtak, in an ambulance.

Representatives of the Haryana Gau Seva Ayog had assured Dass on Tuesday that the government had accepted his demand. The representatives present in today’s programme and announced that the government had agreed to form a Gau Char Bhoomi Vikas Committee. However, Dass refused to end strike as there was no formal announcement.

Karnal, July 18
The Rashtriya Jat Arakshan Sangarsh Samiti, spearheading the agitation for inclusion of Jats under Other Backward Classes (OBC), today served an ultimatum on the Central government to accept their demand for reservation by September 15, failing which they would lay siege to the national capital.

“The Samiti will revive the agitation and lay siege to national capital. All roads to Delhi will be blocked and supplies of milk, vegetables and other commodities to it will be stopped,” Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti national president Col OP Sindhu said here today.

Sindhu further said: “We have been fighting for the reservation for the past seven years and a meeting of all-Jat Samaj would be convened in the last week of August at Tal Katora Stadium, New Delhi, to chalk out the strategy for launching the joint action”, he added.

He said the reservation would be a major issue in the upcoming Delhi Assembly and General Elections and our slogan would be “Reservation do, vote lo”. He warned that the Congress will have to pay the price if the reservation was denied to the community.

Asserting that the Jats are a predominant farming community, whose land was squeezing due to acquisition for industrialisation and housing projects, and they have equal right for reservation under OBC quota, especially when the Gujjars and Sainis have it. He regretted that some Jat politicians thought that it was below their dignity to ask for reservation which was harming the community’s cause.

Chandigarh, July 18
The Hooda Government has gone populist in the pre-election year with the announcement of schemes to consolidate its vote bank.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda set the ball rolling by notifying 10% job quota for five castes, including Jats, Jat Sikhs, Bishnois, Rors and Tyagis under special backward classes quota in January. To escape the backlash from the forward castes, the state government hastily announced a 10 cent quota for the poor among the forward castes.

However, what is considered a “game changer” for the Congress in next year’s elections, Hooda was quick to announce implementation of the UPA government flagship food security ordinance from August 20 covering nearly 1.31 crore beneficiaries (more than half of Haryana’s population-52%). Not only that, the government also announced to provide 2.5 kg pulses per month at a subsidised rate of Rs 20 per kilogram to each BPL family, benefiting around 12.84 lakh families.

The ‘builder-friendly’ Hooda government was not behind when it came to housing for the poor. Recently,the state government ‘re-launched’ the Rajiv Awas Yojana(RAY)-which was first launched in 2011- in a new avatar to provide subsidised housing to the urban poor.

In the wake of widespread criticism of the government’s “irrational” property tax formula, Hooda put on hold the collection of property tax-first on commercial property and then on residential property- and formed a committee to rationalise the tax.

To appease a sizeable section of BPL families, Hooda announced that no punitive action would be taken against over 1 lakh fake BPL families, who had made prepared fake BPL cards and availed certain benefits . Only the 100-yard residential plots allotted to them under the Mahatma Gandhi Grameen Basti Yojana would be taken back, Hooda reportedly said.

While the government effected five power tariff hikes since April 1 last year, it spared its major vote bank-the farm sector. Similarly, though the discoms are in the red, Hooda recently provided for free power connections to hamlets (dhanis).

Mandi Adampur, July 18
Taking a swipe at the HJC supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi on his home turf, Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda on Thursday said since his father Bhajan Lal failed to get the important rail and road projects for Hisar during three terms as chief minister, he should attend the rail-road rally in Hansi town on July 28 to see the fulfilment of long-pending demands of the region.

The Rohtak MP stated that the Hansi-Rohtak rail link and four-six laning of the Delhi-Hisar-Dabwali road would give an impetus to the development activities on the national highway number 10.

“Despite being a resident of Hisar, Bishnoi’s father Bhajan Lal failed to get these projects sanctioned from the Centre during his terms as chief minister of the state. Now, Bishnoi has been criticising every move towards growth which exposes his style of politics. We believe in the politics of inclusive growth while the opposition leaders seem interested in divisive and caste-based politics”, he said.

He added that the rail and road projects and nuclear plant at Gorakhpur village in Fatehabad will set off a new era of growth in the region along the National Highway 10 on the lines of development along the NH 1 and NH 8.

Union Railways Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, Union Minister for Transport, Roads and Highways Oscar Fernandes and Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will lay the foundation stones of two projects, he said Hisar to Sirsa and Dabwali highway will also be widened as the project is in the final stage.

Meanwhile, around 370 families of various villages in Adampur joined the Congress in his presence by leaving the HJC and the INLD in the meeting. Congress MLAs Sampat Singh, DCC chief Jai Prakash, local leader Kulbir Beniwal also addressed the meeting.

Rewari, July 18
Following the complaint of a 20-year-old girl, the Rewari Sadar police has booked one Ranjit Yadav, his mother Jagroshni Devi and his brother Pradeep Yadav, all residents of Rajasthan, for abduction, rape, causing hurt, wrongful confinement, administration of a sedative, fraudulent wedlock and criminal intimidation.

The girl, whose medical examination has confirmed sexual assault, recorded her statement in a local court today.

As per the girl’s complaint, Ranjit, who worked with her father at a liquor vend, had eloped with her on September 19, 2012. Ranjit allegedly administered some sedative to her and took her to Satadia Buhana village in Jhunjhunoo district of Rajasthan.

He deceitfully entered into wedlock with her. Thereafter, the girl was allegedly raped for over nine months by the accused. She was kept in confinement and occasionally beaten up by Ranjit’s brother and mother.

The girl somehow managed to get out of their captivity and reached Bikaner. She narrated the whole incident to her parents, who along with her approached the district police chief with a complaint.

Hisar, July 18
The Hisar police has asked the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) to take possession of the 2,500-square yard disputed land in Barwala town, which had sparked violence leading to the death of three Dalit youths in a shootout three days ago.

Superindent of Police (SP) B Satish Balan said here today that the police was trying to establish the status of the land, which belonged to the Wakf board. “Presently, the police is trying to identify and arrest the accused in the murder case. The inquiry is also going on in the land dispute, but so far it is unclear as to which party was given the lease of land by the Wakf Board. The board officials are unable to state the facts so far,” the SP said.

Bhiwani, July 18
Three women were killed and two injured when a Scorpio collided with a truck near Mudhal in Bhiwani last night.

The deceased, Kailash Devi, Jagwanti and Parvati, were going to Hisar from Nazafgarh in Delhi .

While Kailash Devi and Jagwanti died on the spot, Parvati died on the way to hospital.

Gurgaon, July 18
The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has introduced a new incentive scheme for the recovery of defaulting amount from old permanently disconnected consumers whose premises are not traceable.

This was stated by Devender Singh, Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of the Haryana Power Corporations, at a meeting of senior officials of the DHBVN called to review the operation activities of the nigam here today.

Director VK Chaudhary, all chief general managers and general managers of the operations wing were present at the meeting.

Devender said as per the new scheme, 20 per cent of the amount realised from such consumers would be given to the person who traced the location/premises and gets the amount realised. The scheme would be open for all.

The amount of the incentive would be released to the person by the superintending engineer concerned after ensuring that the amount had actually been realised with the efforts of the person. The incentive would be given in those cases where the defaulter was permanently disconnected before December 2010, he said.

An incentive equal to 20 per cent of the recovered amount should also be paid if direct theft, if any, was found on the premises after realisation of the penalty, he said.

The CMD said the lists of 200 top permanent disconnected defaulters of each circle of the period before December 2010, whose premises were not traceable, would be uploaded onto DHBVN website www.dhbvn.com, where any person could see the names of disconnected defaulters and make efforts to get the arrears recovered.

He said for recovery from permanent disconnected consumers existing before December 2011 by nigam officials, an incentive of 10 per cent of the recovered amount would be allowed to be spent on office work/facilities in their operation sub-divisional office.

The CMD directed all the superintending engineers to prepare the lists of permanent disconnected consumers as above and get the same placed on website within 15 days.

Chandigarh, July 18
Kurukshetra University (KU) and Guru Jambheshwar University toppers can now get gold medal on the basis of re-evaluation results.

For, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has struck down a rule in Kurukshetra University calendar to the extent that it deprived toppers of gold medal on the basis of re-evaluation result.

The ruling by Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Augustine George Masih came on a petition filed by Kuldeep Singh against Hisar-based Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology.

A topper in BTech (Mechanical Engineering) in 2004-2008, Kuldeep Singh was denied gold medal in view of provisions contained in clause 18.4 of the Kurukshetra University calendar adopted by Guru Jambheshwar University. The clause made it clear that “marks obtained as a result of re-evaluation shall not count towards determining the position for award of prize or medal.

Responding to his prayer for award of gold medal, the university in its reply said Kuldeep Singh did not clear the fifth semester examination in the first attempt. Marks were increased subsequently after re-evaluation.

“The initial result declared by the university will be taken as the correct result,” it was contended.

Referring to the Rule 18.4, it was stated the rationale behind awarding gold medal to students securing highest marks in the first attempt was to finalise the result and not to leave it open to uncertainties.

“Marks obtained on re-evaluation cannot be treated as a first attempt on the part of the student and, therefore, the petitioner has rightly not been granted the first position and the gold medal,” it was added.

During the course of hearing, counsel for the respondent university said it was difficult to defend the rule in view of judicial pronouncements. Taking up the matter, the Bench asserted that “pari-materia” rule regarding Maharishi Dayanand University has already been struck down. “Pari-materia” means on the same subject.

Chandigarh, July 18
Nearly three months after the Punjab and Haryana High Court today took suo motu notice of a letter written by a law student on the delivery of a baby outside the Fatehabad general hospital, a Division Bench today asked the Haryana to fill the vacancies of doctor.

The directions came after the High Court was told that 631 posts of doctor were still vacant. The state told the court in its reply that 111 of the 438 sanctioned posts of senior medical officer were vacant. In the case of medical officers, 2,556 posts were sanctioned of which 520 were vacant.

Taking up the letter referring to a news report carried in The Tribune, the High Court in April had treated it as public interest litigation.

The student, Anil Saini, said he was "very sad" that due to "lackadaisical attitude and irresponsible behaviour of the authorities of Civil Hospital, Fatehabad" a woman was forced to give birth to her child outside the hospital.

The reason given was a function was to be held by the Sirsa Member of Parliament to create awareness among general public about health problems.

The student stated that the hospital authorities were insensitive towards the plight of patients.

Kaithal, July 18
The court of Additional Sessions Judge RS Chaudhary here awarded life imprisonment to two youths for killing a girl and injuring another in a shootout at Peedal village of the district in November. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 each on them.

According to prosecution, Sheekha and Amandeep Kaur, both students of Class XII, were going to school on November 7, when two motorcycle-borne youth fired at them. Sheekha died on the spot, while Amandeep was critically injured and rushed to a hospital in Patiala.

Following investigation, the police arrested Jagdev of Peedal, who is also the cousin of the deceased, and Sandeep and recovered a pistol, which was used in the crime.

Both the accused were convicted under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and awarded life imprisonment. Jagdev doubted the character of his cousin, therefore, he with the help of his friend killed her.

Faridabad, July 18
The Gujjar community, in a meeting held here today, served an ultimatum on the Uttar Pradesh government to arrest the culprits who had raped and murdered a first year MBBS student, Neeraj Bhadana - a local - within five days, failing which it will convene a “mahapanchayat” of all caste and communities in Moradabad on July 23 to decide on launching an agitation.

The community’s tough stand was preceded by a condolence meeting convened in Lakarpur, the victim’s native village in the district. The meeting, which was attended by prominent persons and leaders cutting across party lines, including Union Minister Sachin Pilot, expressed concern over the delay in the arrests of the culprits.

The victim was a student of Treethankara Mahavir University, located in Moradabad. She died under mysterious circumstances on the campus. Though the institute’s authority called it a case of suicide, the victim’s relatives, however, said the post-mortem report confirmed that she was raped before strangled to death. There were more than 15 injury marks on her body.

They further alleged that the UP police registered the FIR after much dithering. Even though the charge of murder was invoked against the vice-chancellor and six others staff members of the institute, the police invoked the charges of rape after public pressure was mounted.

Karnal, July 18
Teachers of Government Senior Secondary School, Ghauranda, were given a dressing down by Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal, who conducted a surprise visit at the school and found students learning from guides (help books) in the class.

The minister told the teachers to teach from books prescribed by the government and not from guides and cautioned them that it was not acceptable.

She inspected the attendance register of teachers, tasted mid-day meal, went around computer lab and EduSat room, interacted with the students and asked the principal to be careful in maintaining quality of mid-day meal.

She said effective measures would be taken to improve the quality of education and it would be ensured that all the programmes of the government were implemented properly. She warned that anyone found guilty of dereliction in duty would face strict action. She said all the schools would be inspected and stringent action would be taken against teachers using guides for teaching in classrooms.

However, former spokesperson of Haryana Adhyapak Sangh KK Nirman, who is against the use of guides in teaching, said the government was providing books in schools till Class VIII, but unfortunately the books had not been sent to schools.

Bhiwani, July 18
A man murdered his friend by slitting his throat with a knife at Mitathal village in Bhiwani late last night.

The accused, Sumer, as per the police version, has a criminal past and has remained in jail in the past too.

The victim, Anand (28), was sitting at a chowk in the village last night when Sumer came there. After an argument over some issue, the accused took out a knife and slit the victim’s throat and fled the spot. — TNS