Handesra, November 11
Overcoming all odds, a 70-year-old man stood guard against the panchayat of his own village to save the 20 acres of village common land, which had almost been reduced to a dumping ground by a private paper mill in one of the villages of Punjab adjoining Ambala.

Sardara Singh, a retired BSNL Divisional Engineer, took on to himself the task of saving the 20 acres of village common land adjoining a private paper mill in the village, which was given on lease to one of the villagers, who then allowed the private mill to use this land to discharge its effluents.

In 2005, the village panchayat, without adopting due procedure, gave on lease the 20 acres to one of the villagers, Pawan Kumar, for a mere Rs 1.75 for a time period of five years. He further allowed the private paper mill to use the land, which was at that time under the cover of eucalyptus trees, to discharge its effluents reportedly for a price.

However, Sardara Singh challenged this leasing of village common land before the District Development and Panchayat Officer (DDPO), who dismissed his plea. Unwilling to give up, Sardara Singh challenged the leasing of the land before Director Rural and Panchayat Department, which saw reason in the contentions put up by him and restored the land to the panchayat in March, 2008.

In July, 2008, Sardara Singh decided to fight panchayat elections and was elected a panch. He then persuaded the panchayat to pass a resolution to develop the 20 acres, which till then was under the cover of eucalyptus trees, but had almost been destroyed by pollution. The panchayat passed the resolution and after selling the eucalyptus trees for Rs 14 lakh, the area was got cleaned.

Now the land, which was almost lost to pollution, started contributing to the panchayat income. The land was given on lease for farming purposes and was being used for cultivating cluster beans. In 2011, the land earned the panchayat Rs 75,000 and the income rose to Rs 1.75 lakh in 2013.

Sardara Singh said while the land was in possession of Pawan Kumar and was being used by the paper mill, the owners laid an underground pipeline to discharge effluents into the next piece of land, belonging to the panchayat of the adjoining Chajumajra village, under the jurisdiction of Ambala.

He said the village panchayat was still fighting a legal battle with the private mill to reclaim about six bighas of the common land, which had been in its illegal possession for the last 15 years.

Chandigarh, November 11
A day after Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda proved his mettle at the Haryana Shakti Rally at Gohana to consolidate his position as a mass leader and reclaim ground lost to his detractors, the state unit is on a high, ready to go to the parliamentary and Assembly polls next year.

If Hooda’s ‘pink brigade’ expressed its solidarity not only by sporting pink turbans, ‘dupattas’, caps and T-shirts, a visibly elated Chief Minister pitched for a third term, promising to be back at the same ground next year after the Assembly elections.

With most of his MPs and MLAs sharing the dais with him, Hooda drew confidence from the public presence before him to announce, “They never knew I would last this long. When I first became Chief Minister in 2005, they said I would not last a month. Then, it was a year and finally, a full-term. I did that and came back for my second innings. Though we did not get the numbers we expected, overnight the figure of 40 changed to 54. Now, I am completing a second term and my alliance to you will bring us back a third time,” he asserted, sending a signal to his party men to realise that he was firmly in the saddle.

Notwithstanding the complete absence of the dissident camp from the show of strength, his supporters within the party are ecstatic about the ‘united face’ the party projected at the rally. “Congress MP Rao Inderjit Singh has already started charting a different course with his Insaaf Manch while the absence of Selja and her two MLAs was on expected lines. The party still invited them, but they chose not to come,” a leader said.

Call it politics of compulsion, but party insiders maintain that a number of leaders not only showed up at the rally, but also wholeheartedly contributed by sending vehicles carrying the public from their constituencies.

“They realise that their identity is only because of the party. If the party loses, they are nowhere. So, in their own interest and given the crucial role a Chief Minister can play in an election, they have chosen to leave differences behind and join hands,” an MLA stated.

However, the dissident camp within the party led by Union minister Selja is sore, maintaining that the present government is not only giving the Dalits a raw deal, but also failing to give a leader of Selja’s stature her due.

“Her absence from the rally is a big minus for Hooda. Had it not been for the differences between the party stalwarts, Congress president Sonia Gandhi or vice-president Rahul Gandhi would have come. The credit would have gone to Hooda. However, all the party did was to send a letter, did not involve us with the rally work and assigned no duty. Also, a letter is no way to invite Selja, the only tall Dalit leader. That is why we stayed away,” a Selja aide claimed.

He maintained that they would have been happy staying away from the rally even if it was by design had the party extended some substantial benefits to Dalits, adding that only elections would prove whether or not the numbers at the rally would translate into votes for the party and their leader.

Chandigarh, November 11
The Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, in a press statement today, claimed that the Haryana Shakti Rally at Gohana on November 10 would not just be remembered as the biggest rally of India but also as technologically the most advanced rally of Haryana.

Stating that the rally was streamed live on the website www.haryanacongress.com, the statement added that the flawless transmission was made possible by the Communication Department of the HPCC, headed by its chairman Ashish Dua.

He said this was not only the first time in the history of Congress Party in the state, it was also the first time that an event of such a scale was webcast live.

“The success of the telecast was not just confined to the live webcast but the activity on twitter of Haryana PCC and the hashtag Haryanashaktirally, #Haryanashaktirally, was trending at number 1 for most of the day with visuals of the rally, achievements of the Haryana Government and announcements made by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda circulating on the internet. The success of the rally was both online and on ground, as the traffic on roads leading to the rally ground and the internet space was equally heavy,” he claimed.

The inspiration for the experiment was put forth by the head of the IT cell of AICC, Deepender Singh Hooda, MP Rohtak, who wanted the rally to be a trendsetter in terms of technology and the team took this as a challenge to come out with flying colours, he said.

Chandigarh, November 11
Nearly 17 years after Haryana JBT teachers claimed master's grade on the basis of acquiring higher qualification more than two decades ago, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has accepted their prayer. They will not only get master's grade after the order, but monetary benefits as well from the date of acquiring higher qualification.

The petition is just one of the 2 lakh cases pending in the high court. Attribute it to the shortage of Judges or filing of frivolous petitions, the fact remains that justice comes, but often after decades. The high court, as of now, has a shortage of 21 Judges. It has 47 Judges compared to the sanctioned strength of 68.

The judgement by Justice K Kannan came on a petition filed in 1996 by Prem Chand and other petitioners against the State of Haryana and another respondent. In their petition, Prem Chand and others had raised the issue of granting master's grade to candidates appointed JBT teachers, who acquired higher qualification before March 9, 1990, the date when fresh instructions were issued by the Haryana Government.

As the matter came up for resumed hearing before Justice Kannan, the State of Haryana relied on a Punjab and Haryana High Court Division Bench ruling. Pronounced in January, 1994, a similar claim by the petitioners was rejected by the Bench.

But Justice Kannan observed that the point raised in the writ petition was squarely covered by the Supreme Court decision in the case of Wazir Singh versus the State of Haryana, which was subsequently followed by another Division Bench of the high court.

“In view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court rendered subsequently and followed by yet another Division Bench of this court, there is no room for fresh consideration to deny the petitioners' claim. The writ petition is allowed. The petitioners will be entitled to the claim to the master's grade from the respective dates when they acquired a higher qualification. The monetary benefits shall be calculated and released to them within a period of 12 weeks with interest at 6 per cent per annum,” Justice Kannan concluded.

Hisar, November 11
Even as last-ditch efforts are being made to persuade Haryana Roadways employees against proceeding on a 'chakka jam', workers' unions have ruled out any compromise formula until the government stops the process of issuing 3,519 licences to private transporters in the state.

Around 12 lakh commuters who travel in HR buses in Haryana and on inter-state routes will face inconvenience due to the strike. Haryana Roadways provides inter-state services in around 10 states, including Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.

Leaders said 3,800 buses would remain off the road. They added that the entire 18,000-strong workers. except official staff, would participate in the two-day strike.

Sarbat Singh Punia, state president of the Haryana Roadways Workers Union, said employees affiliated to seven workers' unions had joined hands for the two-day 'chakka jam' on November 13 and 14 in protest against the state government’s policy to issue licences to private transporters.

He said the unions included the Sarv Karamchari Sangh, the Karamchari Mahasangh, the All Haryana Roadways Workers Union, the Haryana Roadways Sanyunkt Karamchari Sangh, the Roadways Ministerial Staff Association and two groups of the Indian National Trade Union Congress.

“We are open to talks, but there seems little hope of a breakthrough as the government is not in the mood to amend its policy of issuing private licences. Haryana Roadways has been providing the best transport facility to the people. Around 3 lakh people have signed our demand charter across the state in recent weeks, which indicates the credibility and dependability of our service,” he said.

Regarding the financial losses, Punia argued that there were around 30 categories which were provided subsidies by way of free passes and concessional passes to the commuters. He said they included the police, handicapped persons, aged persons, pass holders, accredited journalists and now, girl students.

Rohtak, November 11
The sops announced by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at the Gohana rally have failed to appease the agitating government employees’ association, which has announced to go ahead with its 48-hour statewide strike from Tuesday morning. The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the employees’ federations reiterated to continue the ongoing stir till the acceptance and implementation of its demands.

Talking to The Tribune here today, a spokesperson for the JAC and a leader of the Sarva Karamchari Sangh (SKS), Haryana, claimed that the rally had failed to address the issues concerning the employees as none of the main demands had been met so far. Describing the announcement of a hike in the salary of some sections of the employees as a farce, he said majority of the announcements had been politically motivated and had nothing to do with the long-standing demands of the state government employees. Revealing that around four lakh employees were victims of the alleged anti-employee stance, he said the government, despite admitting and accepting the demands in principle, had failed to implement these, forcing the employees to resort to agitation.

Employees of all the state government departments, including boards and corporations, would observe a strike for two days on Tuesday and Wednesday, as part of the protest, he added. Casting doubt over the announcements made regarding the welfare of a section of employees, he said as many as 65,000 employees working on contract and ad hoc basis had been awaiting regularisation of their services for the past several years, though a large number of sanctioned posts had been lying vacant.

He said a majority of departments, including power, transport, water supply, sanitation and health, had been facing staff crunch in view of the increased workload over the past few decades. But the government had handed over some of the vital services in private hands in the name of outsourcing and privatisation, without analysing its adverse effects on consumers or the common man. Charging the government of backtracking on its stand at several occasions, the leader said it was easy to understand that the new announcements made at the rally on Sunday may not be able to see the light of the day in view of the past record of the government.

Claiming that the 48-hour strike would be a total success, he said no bus of the Haryana Roadways would come out on road for the two days and added that the JAC was serious regarding its stir and nothing could stop it till the main demands were met. 

Gurgaon, November 11
The first food bank of the state, a not-for-profit food-distribution mechanism which procures food grains and other dry food products donated by various quarters and chanelises it to the underprivileged through a network of institutional feeding programmes, was launched here today.

Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information, Infrastructure and Innovations, and India Food-Banking Network (IFBN) advisory board chairman Sam Pitroda, Randeep Surjewala and Cargill India chairman Siraj Chaudhary announced the launch of the bank before a select gathering.

The Gurgaon food bank launch is part of the IFBN’s ambitious plan to have a food bank for every district with a view to mitigating hunger and malnutrition. The Gurgaon food bank has been designed to support the various feeding programmes in Gurgaon and nearby areas.

The food bank is the first-of-its-kind in the state and second in the country after Delhi. As per an official statement, Cargill India has provided funding support of Rs 54 lakh for the Gurgaon food bank.

“A successful replication of this model at the national level will be a step towards eliminating hunger and we are hopeful that by 2020, every district of the country will have access to a food bank,” Pitroda observed.

Surjewala pointed out that the Haryana Government had recently adopted the National Food Security Ordinance, which ensured that people would have access to adequate quality food at affordable prices. He also urged the corporate houses to come forward and participate in such projects aimed at the creation of a food-secure state and nation.

Chaudhry maintained that the Gurgaon food bank targets sustained daily feeding of around 10,000 beneficiaries in a year’s time in the Gurgaon region and would help improve livelihoods in order to create a productive and socially stable society.

At the event, Sam Pitroda also felicitated the companies that participated in Food-A-Thon 2013. More than 65 companies and over 70,000 individuals participated in the event, an initiative to mark the United Nation’s World Food Day and aimed at leveraging the potential of private companies in the fight against hunger and malnutrition across the country.

Karnal, November 11
In yet another novel initiative towards rehabilitation of prisoners after completion of their sentence, the Karnal Model jail has proposed to set up a “semi-open” jail to give exposure to the prisoners and make them socially acceptable after release.

Jail Superintendent Sher Singh said a proposal in this regard had been sent to the Director General of Prisons, Haryana, and the new initiative would go a long way in the rehabilitation of the convicts.

The prisoners, whose remaining sentence was less than four months and falling in the age group of 25-55 years, would be kept in the “semi-open” jail, subject to the conditions of good conduct and no record of offence while in jail, he added.

He said the eligible prisoners should also be medically fit and physically agile to work.

The prisoner should be a resident of Haryana with social and family liabilities, should have availed parole and not fall under the category of a hardcore criminal. A barrack in the jail would be declared as semi-open jail and thus there would be no additional financial burden, Singh added.

The prisoners of the semi-open jail would be engaged in agriculture, construction, industry and public utility works. To start with, 20 prisoners would be identified by a committee to be shifted to the semi-open jail. As the new police lines complex adjoining the jail was under construction, the contractor had agreed to engage the prisoners in various trades like masonry, electrician, welder, carpenter, plumber and engineering.

Two public schools and two resorts-cum-marriage complexes, rice shellers, petrol pumps and dairy farms, within 10-km radius, had also agreed to provide jobs to the convicts as per their skills, knowledge and experience, he added.

The basic idea of introducing the concept of semi-open jail in Karnal district came up during an interaction at the 33rd Asian and Pacific Conference of Correctional Administrators, held in New Delhi last month.

Singh said it would be beneficial for prisoners as they would be able to earn between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per month and it would instil confidence in them that they were socially useful and take reforms to a new level.

• The first computerised jail in the state, Karnal Model Jail is also the first jail to start tele-booking for interviews of the inmates with their families and open a bakery unit on the jail campus.
• It runs a vocational training centre with twelve trades, including carpenter, plumber, swing, weaving, computers, bakery, wielding, catering, beauty culture and tailoring, registration of children of inmates in reputed schools, stenography courses and typing and shorthand courses for female inmates.
• Prisoners are making 47 eco-friendly products from paper. Music, language, drawing and painting rooms, apart from five schools, have been established on the premises.
• The jail authorities regularly hold stress management programmes like spiritual healing, meditation and workshops.
• It has also introduced programmes for lessons and training from NDRI scientists on agro-farming and cattle breeding.

Chandigarh, November 11
Lakhs of apartment owners across Haryana, including members of cooperative group housing societies, are up in arms against the new property tax regime notified by the state government last month.

Apartment owners have alleged that they are being discriminated against regarding charging of property tax vis-à-vis independent plot owners.

“An independent house owner having a plot area of 300 square yards in A-2 cities will pay property tax at Re 0.75 per square yard, which comes out to Rs 225 per year. A person owning a flat having a carpet area of 1,400 square feet will be required to pay property tax at Re 0.75 per square foot, which works out to Rs 1,075 per year,” said SK Aggarwal, general secretary of the Joint Action Committee of Cooperative Group Housing Societies, Panchkula.

Aggarwal alleged that they were not given a personal hearing by the Surjewala Committee formed by the Haryana Government to rationalise property tax, resulting in the current anomaly. In fact, the new property tax regime had sparked off widespread resentment among flat owners, he alleged.

It was a double whammy for flat owners as they were also supposed to pay for maintenance of streetlights, power transformers, water supply and internal road network, he added.

Meanwhile, terming the new tax regime as illogical and irrational, the action committee shot off a representation to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to intervene in the matter and rectify the anomalies in property tax.

The Haryana Government recently came out with the new property tax formula on the recommendations of the high-powered committee headed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala.

The notification approved the slab system and divided municipal corporation towns into two categories, A-1 (Gurgaon and Faridabad) and A-2 (Ambala, Panchkula, Karnal, Panipat, Rohtak, Hisar and Yamunanagar). Towns having municipal councils and municipal committees were categorised as B and C, respectively.

Property tax was scrapped in 2010 by the Congress government. As a consequence, the Cente stopped the release of Central grants. The Hooda Government would now be eligible to get Central grants amounting to over Rs 750 crore after the imposition of property tax, which would be payable with effect from April 1, 2010.

Sirsa, November 11
The health authorities yesterday said there was no new case of diarrhoea from the Ellenabad colony where a three-year-old girl had died and more than a hundred residents had fallen ill due to the supply of contaminated drinking water.

Dr Pramod Sharma, in charge of the Community Health Centre, Ellenabad, said there was no new case of diarrhoea though eight patients were still admitted in the indoor ward of the hospital.

The Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department had attributed the spread of diarrhoea in Ward 15 of Ellenabad to adulterated Diwali sweets and the proximity of dry toilet pits to water pipes, which had led to the contamination of drinking water.

The PHE Department had cut the water supply to the locality and started supplying water through tankers to control the situation.

Hisar, November 11
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has served a notice to the Hisar Commissioner to submit a detailed action-taken report in the gang rape case of a girl from Dabra village in the district. The victim has complained that she was not being provided proper medical care and had to face taunts of fellow college girls.

Zonal director of the NCSC Raj Kumar Channena confirmed today that he had issued a notice to the Commissioner, asking about the circumstances which led the victim to lodge the complaint.

He has also asked for an action-taken report on the issues she has raised in her complaint. A day after the complaint, the district authorities contacted her and assured her all support. — TNS

Jhajjar, November 11
Giving a jolt to school lecturers boycotting evaluation of answer sheets of Senior Secondary semester I (regular and re-appear) and semester II (re-appear) Examination for the past four days, the Haryana School Education Board (HSEB) has roped in lecturers of recognised schools, government-aided schools and guest lecturers appointed in Government schools to carry out the evaluation process.

A communique number 1636-1656/confidential/ dated 9.11.2013 in this regard has been sent to all District Education Officers (DEOs) from the office of the Joint Secretary of the HSEB wherein the DEOs have been directed to appoint lecturers of government-aided and private recognised schools, besides guest lecturers, for evaluation of the answer sheets.

Taking a swift action on the communique, Sadhu Ram Rohila, Jhajjar DEO, directed all guest lecturers posted in the Government Schools here to reach evaluation centres well in time tomorrow morning to evaluate the answer sheets. The DEO has also asked principals and directors of private recognised schools here to dispatch their school teachers of various subjects to evaluation centres for the task.

The district authorities had set up two evaluation centres- one each in Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh town- to carry out the evaluation works. However thousands of answer sheets are lying unchecked at the centres, owing to the Haryana School Teachers Association (HSTA), under which school lecturers have been boycotting the evaluation process for the past four days to build pressure on the state government for getting their demands met.

The Association is demanding grade pay of Rs 5,400 at parity with the headmasters, special quota for PhD and NET qualified lecturers in higher education institutions, change of nomenclature of the newly appointed lecturers as PGT and setting up of an inter-college cadre on the lines of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Ambala, November 11
SN Vashisht, Director General of Police (DGP), Haryana, inaugurated the building of law classrooms at a training centre running in HAP, Ambala City, and laid the foundation stone of an auditorium in Police DAV Public School.

Vashisht said there was an acute shortage of class rooms for the purpose of law training at the training centre. The building, which covered an area of 17,218 sq feet and cost Rs 218 lakh, would enable the authorities to overcome the shortcoming and ensure that there was no dearth of infrastructure, he added. Later, Vashisht visited the Police DAV Public School and laid the foundation stone of an auditorium on its premises. This auditorium would be constructed on an area of 26,525 sq feet and would be completed within at a cost to Rs 636 lakh.

Following this, K Salvaraj, ADGP law, inaugurated the building of Police Hospital at Ambala City. The building has been built on an area of 7,057 sq feet with a cost of Rs 130 lakh. — TNS

Karnal, November 11
Two persons were killed when a speeding truck rammed into a stationary container from the rear, near FCI godown on National Highway 1 late last night.

The truck, coming from Panipat, hit the container parked on the roadside with such intensity that the driver of the truck died on the spot while the driver of the container, who was changing the wheel, succumbed to his injuries on his way to PGI Rohtak.

The deceased were identified as Subash, a resident of Nalagarh in Himachal and Daljeet, a resident of Hisar. The bodies of both the deceased were sent for post-mortem.

Owner of the truck, Pradeep, alleged that the vehicle was parked on the wrong side and there were no indicators.