New Delhi, October 11
The Supreme Court has directed the state government to pay Rs 50,000 to former Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) Chairman GL Batra by way of cost for forcing him to fight a 16-year-long legal battle since 1997 for pay and allowances despite his retirement in 1999.

A Bench comprising Justices KS Radhakrishnan and AK Sikri also pulled up the Punjab and Haryana High Court for its “failure to remedy the illegality meted out” to Batra, who was the seniormost Additional Secretary in the Lok Sabha at the time of his appointment as HPSC Chairman on July 6, 1994.
The SC set aside the HC judgment and quashed the two state government orders by which Batra’s salary was reduced, besides directing the state to pay all consequential benefits to the retired official.

The HPSC Chairman enjoyed constitutional status and as such the state had no power to reduce the pay, “especially when no master and servant relationship has been established between a constitutional appointee and the state government,” the SC ruled in its October 7 verdict made available today.

As Additional Secretary in the Lok Sabha, Batra was getting a salary of Rs 7,500 a month while on appointment as HPSC Chairman, his salary was fixed at Rs 7,000. On a representation, the state government raised it to Rs 7,500 but withdrew the order in 1996 and started recovering the excess payment. A year later, it brought down the salary further to Rs 4,135 a month, forcing Batra to approach the HC.

By dismissing his writ petition on November 4, 2009, after “conveniently sidetracking and overlooking” the legal points that were in favour of Batra, a Division Bench of the HC had committed “a serious error of the highest order which is clearly inadmissible,” the SC held.

In a similar case involving HPSC member Ram Phal Singh who had been appointed along with Batra, a Judge of the HC had ruled in favour of Singh. Citing this ruling, another Division Bench of the HC had given a similar verdict which was ultimately upheld by the SC.

Batra had brought all these facts to the notice of the Bench which chose to ignore it, the SC pointed out. “The Division Bench should have referred the matter to a larger Bench, if it was in disagreement with the judgement of the single Judge which had already been affirmed by a coordinate Bench and on the doctrine of merger, the judgment of the single Judge had merged with that of the Division Bench,” the apex court explained.

Toba (Ambala), October 11
With the authorities suspending the supply of contaminated water in the affected Indira Avas Colony of this village, the situation is inching back to normal. However, those who have already got infected are undergoing treatment at various healthcare centres.

It was learnt that the villagers were being supplied water from a 50-foot-deep tubewell located in nearby Nagal village. The Health Department has declared that any water available above the depth of 450 feet in this area was unfit for human consumption. The villagers protested as to why the authorities concerned had not installed a 450-foot-deep tubewell to supply drinking water to them.

Deputy Commissioner K M Pandurang visited the village today and assured the residents that all possible steps would be taken to redress their drinking water problem.

Health officials stationed in the village for the past four days said that the number of diarrhoea cases being reported at the special health camp set up in the village had gone down substantially. As of now, 48 patients were undergoing treatment at various healthcare centres and private hospitals.

They also distributed chlorine tablets among the villagers and advised them not to consume water without boiling it properly.

The Public Health Department has been asked to ensure the supply of clean drinking water to the residents.

Chandigarh, October 11
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has rapped the Haryana Government for proceeding against an employee in an apparent unfair manner.

The strictures of sorts were passed after the court took note of the fact that the government's action against the employee was not guided by the principles of fairness, but the fact that he had moved the court against the proceedings initiated against him. The censure came after the court observed that the state was moving against the employee, Dilawar Singh, even after he was exenorated in inquiry proceedings.

Taking up District Food and Supplies Officer Dilawar Singh's petition against the Financial Commssioner, Food and Supplies Departments, Justice Rajiv Narain Raina observed that only after the court passed the order in the matter on August 14 ``calling on the state to file a status report on the disciplinary proceedings against the petitioner'', the department woke up and filed a status report.

Justice Raina observed that the first chargesheet was served in 2008; and parallel criminal proceedings in FIR dated April 4. 2007, were on against him. A decision has now been taken to put on hold the disciplinary proceedings and to await the final outcome of the criminal case.

In another chargesheet dated January 29, 2009, the inquiry report was submitted on December 24, 2009, exonerating the petitioner. But, instead of taking action on the inquiry report for four years, the department took a decision on September 25 to serve a dissenting note to the petitioner for failure to safeguard the wheat stock and the same was under process. There was a third chargesheet dated November 27, 2008, but the inquiry report submited November 30, 2009, the petitioner was exonerated.

``However, it appears that because of the court intervention by the previous order, the department has woken up again and taken a decision on October 1 by contemplating disagreement note. ``The manner in which the department has proceeded after the culmination of inquiry proceedings in 2009 till the stage of submission of inquiry reports does not speak well of fairness in action''.

Before parting with the order, the Judge asserted: ``Let the dissenting note in cases two and three be produced on October 24, the next date of hearing''.

Chandigarh, October 11
The Haryana Government has prepared a Rs 215.95-crore action plan under the Nirbhaya Fund of the Centre for strengthening measures to curb or deal with crimes against women. Additional Chief Secretary for Home Samir Mathur said the Centre had set up Nirbhaya Fund of Rs 1,000 crore for securing various measures and policies for the protection of women in the country which could be drawn by states for implementing schemes and programmes to ensure security of women.

The action plan had been prepared by the state government for funding under Nirbhaya Fund to create a strong protection mechanism which would ensure security for women in the state, he added. The action plan consisted of women-only police stations, mahila PCRs, anti-human trafficking units, outdoor surveillance system, police-community liaison, victim counselling centres, women and child desks at police stations, awareness and self-defence training, increase in strength of women police, protection officer for each police station and augmentation of DNA analysis facility.

Mathur said one women police station would be created in all 21 districts of the state which would equipped with all facilities, including vehicles, furniture, arms and ammunition and computers.

He said under the action plan, one vehicle costing about Rs 5 lakh would be provided to each of the other 267 police stations for use by women police staff for preventive patrolling and timely and quality response to crimes against women, including counselling victims, taking them to court for hearing and use by protection officers under the Domestic Violence Act. He said Haryana had five anti-human trafficking units, but there was a need for five more such units in the state at different locations. An amount of over Rs 1.13 crore would be incurred on it, he said. To curb eve-teasing, there was a proposal for installation of CCTVs at strategic positions in all districts, he said.

In view of the rising numbers of reported crimes and need for scientific investigation, at least three regional forensic science laboratories were required at Gurgaon, Hisar and Ambala, he added. In order to provide counselling to victims as well as their families, a victim counselling centre would be set up in each district, he further said.

He said in order to strengthen police infrastructure for establishing women and child desks staffed by women police officials to deal with women and child complainants, funds amounting to Rs 2.67 crore at Rs 1 lakh per police station had been sought under the fund.

Sonepat, October 11
There was heavy rain accompanied by wind with speed up to 60 kmph in the district this morning. There were fears of damage to standing paddy, bajra and cotton crops.

Life in the town was thrown out of gear due to waterlogging. In three hours, 46 mm rain was recorded in the Kharkhoda region, 42 mm in the Gannaur area, 37 mm in the Sonepat region and 25 mm in the Gohana area.

The untimely rain hampered the harvesting process as well. The standing paddy crop was flattened at Kakroi and Badwasni villages.

Farmers said they had never seen such untimely rain and it would damage crops to a large extent. They feared that it would adversely affect ripening of the paddy seed and the crop might be infected by pests and insects.

Expressing concern over the untimely rain, state BJP vice-president Rajiv Jain demanded a survey of damaged crops and suitable compensation for affected farmers.

He said the farmers had spent a lot on inputs and were not in a position to bear the loss of damaged crops.

State All India Kisan Sabha vice-president Shradha Nand Solanki demanded a survey of damaged crops and compensation for crop loss to farmers.

Kaithal: Heavy rain in parts of Kaithal district on Thursday added to worries of farmers. The untimely rain had resulted in accumulation of water at mandis and left huge quantities of paddy under water at some places.

In the prevailing whether conditions, farmers were a depressed lot. A number of farmers said they would suffer huge losses and would be ruined if any damage was caused to their standing crops and produce at mandis.

Kurukshetra, October 11
The Kurukshetra University (KU) undergraduate compartment examinations, which were postponed due to the agitation by the KU Non-Teaching Employees Association, will start on October 21, a KU spokesman said here today.

The new schedule has been uploaded on KU website www.result.kuk.ac.in.

Gurgaon, October 11
Her family of 12 has fallen prey to water-borne infections, with two children having been hospitalised, but there is nothing much that Hamida Bano can do as clean water is not an option for her. It has not been an option for thousands like her living in around 100 villages of Mewat, who are forced to buy water from private tankers and drink from unhygienic underground storage tanks.

Villages like Kherla, Untaka, Muradabad, Meoli, Akera, Malad, Bhadas, Shamshabad, Khanpur and Ghati are at a stone's throw distance from Gurgaon.

Residents of these villages are among those identified by the United Nations who do not have access to drinking water sources that are neither improved, nor protected from outside contamination.

The villagers, a majority of whom struggle to earn a living, do not have the choice of either spending between Rs 500 and Rs 700 every second week to buy water or go thirsty.

The village authorities say the government built a 1,00,000-litre tank and necessary infrastructure about a decade ago, but they were yet to see a drop of water flow through pipes.

“Around 300 villages of the district got water from Rajiv Gandhi project, but we were left with promises. People save money to but gold and land, but our women save to buy water, lest families go thirsty,” says Noordin Noor, president of the Mewat Zila Parishad.

“We get water, but it is stored for 15 days in tanks which are seldom cleaned. This leads to various diseases, but we have no choice. Numerous letters, requests and complaints have failed to yield any result,” he adds.

Chandigarh, October 11
The Haryana Lokayukta, Justice Pritam Pal, today issued notices to the Chief Secretary and certain electronic channels to submit evidence in the cash-for-CLU case showing CDs of certain Congres MLAs or their kin allegedly demanding money for CLU licences.

The main Opposition, the INLD, had released clippings of five Congress MLAs, Ram Kishen Fauji, Vinod Bhayana, Naresh Selwal, Jarnail Singh and Ram Niwas Ghorela, two clippings of Congress MLA Sampat Singh’s son and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Jaleb Khan’s son, besides those of Congressman Sanjay Chokkar, on September 6.

The release of CDs by the INLD had raised a political storm in the state and forced the Hooda Government to make a reference to the Lokayukta to ascertain if there was any transaction of money as shown in the CDs.

Sources said the Lokayukta might issue a notice to the INLD as well.

However, the INLD has already rejected a probe by the “government-appointed” judge with senior INLD leader Abhay Chautala demanding that the inquiry should be conducted by a sitting judge of the high court. Even the BJP has demanded a probe by the CBI.

The Hooda Government’s decision for a Lokayukta probe was seen as a smart move to put the issue in ‘cold storage’ as it would take several months for the probe to be completed due to a severe staff crunch in the office of the Lokayukta. Even in the event of the submission of the report, its findings would only be recommendatory in nature and not binding on the government, sources asserted.

Sirsa, October 11
As many as 36 unrecongnised private schools have been closed down in Sirsa district. These schools were running in violation of the Haryana School Education Act, 1995, and the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.

The Education Department had recently asked the owners of 1,372 schools to close these or the authorities would do so with police help. Out of these 1372 schools, 72 were in Sirsa district.

Hearing a PIL, Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had on September 4, 2012, directed the Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary, Haryana, to conduct a survey in the entire state to ensure that no school is allowed to function in violation of section 18 of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and the Haryana School Education Act, 1995.

Sources in the Education Department said 36 schools in Sirsa had so far ceased their operations while some others had applied for recognition.