Sirsa, December 19
Eyebrows are being raised at the alleged attempts of a team of the Haryana Seed Development Corporation (HSDC) from its Panchkula headquarters to collect “clean chits” from sarpanches of Sirsa villages regarding fair distribution of subsidised wheat seed under the “Village Seed Programme” to the farmers.

Prahlad Singh Bharukhera, a state executive member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and state president of the Haryana Kisan Manch, who had done a sting operation on officials of the HSDC earlier this month, when they siphoned off subsidised seeds and sold it to a private dealer, today wrote to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for a high-level probe into it.

Bharukhera gave copies of his complaint to mediapersons here today.

“Farmers are coming to us with complaints that some officials of the HSDC from its Panchkula office have been collecting “clean chits” from sarpanchs or their kin without asking the farmers whether they have ever received subsidised seeds or not,” Bharukhera alleged in his complaint.

He said earlier when he and his activists helped the authorities catch officials of the HSDC siphoning off government seeds red-handed, the police gave the accused a long rope.

He alleged that the main accused of the seed scam were still roaming free and now efforts were being made to cover up the misdeeds of the officials by obtaining “clean chits” from sarpanches, who are under the influence of the authorities.

Managing Director of the HSDC BS Duggal said an inquiry into the seed programme had been entrusted to KL Karatia, an executive engineer in the corporation.

Kataria said he had completed his inquiry and distribution of seed had been found to be completely fair.

Under the “Village Seed Programme”, the HSDC supplied 20 kg seeds on 50 per cent subsidy to farmers to improve seed replacement rate.

Covering up HSDC officials try to collect “clean chit” from sarpanches of Sirsa villages regarding fair distribution of subsidised wheat Bharukhera alleged that despite catching the officials red-handed, the police gave them a long rope. Efforts were being made to cover up the misdeeds of the officials, he alleged

Rohtak, December 19
INLD workers today gheraoed the local residence of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and staged a protest in front of the house.

Earlier, a drama was witnessed at the medical turn as a large number of police personnel deployed there tried to stop the INLD workers from reaching the CM's house by putting up barricades but the protesters managed to have their way.

The party workers, led by jailed INLD leader Ajay Singh Chautala's son Dushyant, demanded a high-level probe by a sitting Judge of the Supreme Court or High Court into the alleged bungling in HCS recruitments in the state.

Addressing the protesters, Dushyant alleged that the Hooda government was not only selling government jobs, but also gifting these to the near and dear ones of the ruling party leaders.

The demonstration was called off after the Additional Deputy Commissioner came to the protest site and accepted their memorandum.

Samain (Fatehabad), December 19
Discrimination within the family and in society due to gender did not deter her from excelling in her pursuit. She fought against all odds and carved a niche for herself in the sports discipline of her choice through hard work, grit and determination.

Ram Bateri (20), a member of the Indian Women's Kabaddi team who was declared best raider during the World Kabaddi Cup that concluded in Punjab last week, has again proved wrong all those who considered girls inferior than boys.

When their third daughter was born in 1993, her parents named her Ram Bateri. In the Haryana hinterland, it is common practice to name daughters Bateri or Dhapa if a couple have a girl child after two or three daughters.

They believe that by naming their daughter as Bateri, Dhapa or something similar, their prayer for a male child will be heard. Two sons were born to Ram Bateri’s parents after their third daughter.

“The name haunted me throughout my childhood. I always felt bad when my friends teased me due to my name. When I was young, I used to think why my parents named me Ram Bateri after naming my elder sisters Sunita and Mukesh,” she told The Tribune at her village.

“When I grew older, I started understanding that I was an unwelcome child for my parents and was named so because my parents wanted a son instead,” she added. It was then that she decided to tell her parents and the world that daughters were no lesser than sons.

She started dressing up like boys, got a boy-like haircut and started playing games boys played. “I was attracted to kabaddi when I was in Class V. The love for the game went increasing. There was no looking back after I received tips from coaches Dalbir Singh and Rajbir Singh, both from my village,” she added.

Ram Bateri’s parents are proud of their daughter now. Their once unwanted daughter has attained through her hard work what none of the boys in their kinship and among acquaintances has been able to achieve.

Chandigarh, December 19
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is visiting Haryana during the first week of January, 2014, to lay the foundation stone of the Rs 23,502-crore nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur in Fatehadbad district. CBS Venkataramanna, Additional Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy of the Central Government, said 1,503 acres of land had been acquired for the nuclear power plant and compensation amounting to Rs 450 crore paid to the farmers. The setting up of this plant would accelerate the pace to development. Gorakhpur would be developed as a model village under the corporate social responsibility.

Fatehabad: Top officials of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) are in Fatehabad to make arrangements for the PM’s visit to Gorakhpur. He is to address a public meeting at the plant site. Senior officers of the DAE, NPCIL and the district administration deliberated about setting up a helipad, a parking site and a stage on the site. — TNS

Hisar, December 19
A British national who came to meet the Dalits of Mirchpur village, while on a business visa in India, seems to have landed in trouble as the district police have written to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for taking action against him for alleged violation of visa manual.

The police sources said the superintendent of police-cum-foreigner registration officer, Hisar, had sent a letter to the Bureau of Immigration at MHA by fax today to take action against John Edwin Griffin, who visited Hisar on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a team of an organisation, Human Rights Law Network (HRLN).

The delegation met the Dalits living at a farmhouse on the outskirts of the town on Wednesday.

The district administration, however, inquired from the team about their documents when they were going to meet the Dalits and inspected the same. Griffin was found having a business visa while another member of the delegation, Jilly Jilna, carried a professional work visa as she was working as a reporter, which was a valid visa.

The sources said as per the agreement in the business visa, a person can do activities mentioned in the visa only.

The letter mentioned that the delegation had tried to vitiate the atmosphere by visiting the victims of caste violence in Mirchpur village who are staying in a farmhouse here as the matter is sub-judice in the Supreme Court.

Rohtak, December 19
Job aspirants who have cleared the UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) for lecturership have demanded that they be exempted from the Haryana Teachers’ Eligibility Test (H-TET) qualification criterion for appointment as school lecturers in Haryana.

Talking to The Tribune here today, several UGC NET-qualified job aspirants maintained that the state government was in the process of recruiting schoolteachers, including junior lecturers, to teach students of classes XI and XII at government schools in the state.

The candidates asserted that as they had qualified the UGC NET exam meant for college lecturership, they should be considered eligible for appointment as school lecturers as well.

“The Haryana government has exempted the NET-qualified candidates from H-TET qualification for appointment at Arohi Model School. We welcome the decision and urge the state authorities to implement the same for all government schools,” they stated.

The aspirants further pointed out that there was a paucity of jobs at college and university-level due to which many career avenues were not available for them.

They said as a considerable number of vacancies of school lecturers were being advertised, the NET-qualified candidates should be considered eligible for those along with the H-TET candidates.

Panipat, December 19
The Haryana State Information Commission (HSIC) has taken a strong notice of denial of information by the Haryana Tae kwon do Association (HTA) to RTI activist P P Kapoor. It has directed the Public Information Officers (PIO) of the association and the First Appellate Authority (FAA) to furnish the desired information to the applicant within 15 days.

State Election Commissioner Major General J S Kundu also issued notice to the information officers of the Tae kwon do Association, under Section 21(1) of the RTI Act, asking him to show cause as to why penalty at the rate of Rs 250 per day, subject to maximum of Rs 25,000, should not be imposed on him for delay in furnishing the information.

The applicant, P P Kapoor, said the commissioner, in orders passed on November 23, also asked the officers to send the reply by January 13, 2014 and personally appear before the Commission on the next hearing fixed for February 5, 2014.

Kapoor had sought information about 10 issues, including the constitution of the Association, grants and donations received and expenditure incurred by it, list of referees for the competitions organised by the HSTA between 2008 and 2011, TA and DA paid to referees and procedure and record of proceedings for black listing international referee Gobind Verma (black belt-III).

Kapoor said firstly the association refused to receive the RTI and then it denied information on the pretext that the record had been lost and attached a copy of daily dairy report (DDR) of Ambala police station. But in reply to another RTI, the association gave the balance sheet of the same period of which the record was allegedly lost.

The application was filed on October 29, 2012 but the information officers of the association refused to give the information on the plea that it was not covered under the RTI and the First Appellate Authority also did not respond to the appeal filed by him on December 10, 2012.

Ambala, December 19
A joint team of the drug authorities in Mohali and Ambala yesterday unearthed an illegal drug manufacturing racket in Ambala with the recovery of thousands of unlabelled injections from a private hospital here. Not ruling out the possibility of the injections being of narcotics or other banned drugs, the authorities started an investigation and sent the samples for chemical examination.

The drug inspectors who conducted the raid at Tara Hospital in Baldev Nagar said the hospital owner's brother owned the pharmaceutical company Star Pharma at Mohali, the licence of which had been withdrawn by the Punjab Government in 2008 after certain irregularities were found in its working.

The Punjab drug authorities recently received a tip-off that the company was still manufacturing certain injections. They conducted a raid on the Star Pharma premises and found evidence that injections were still being produced, which were being sent to Tara Hospital for storage.

During the raid, the authorities discovered huge quantities of injections which did not have any labels. The authorities found some injections bearing Star Pharma labels with 2011 as the manufacturing date. The owner of the hospital, Dr Daya Nand Tara, contended that the stock was old and supplied before 2008. The mention of 2011 as the manufacturing date raised the suspicion how Star Pharma manufactured injections up to 2011.

When contacted, District Drug Control Officer Sunil Dahiya said the Haryana authorities confiscated all injections and those would be produced in court while samples were sent for chemical examination. He said the department would investigate the matter further to bring out all facts about the racket.

Karnal, December 19
The Panipat Deputy Mayor and councillors today came forward in support of the Karnal Mayor and 10 councillors, who have been sitting on a dharna outside their office for four days. They have been protesting the non-cooperative attitude of the administration.

The Deputy Mayor and four councillors of Panipat alleged that they had no power. The councillors also announced that they would sit on an indefinite dharna in front of the DC’s office in Panipat from January 1.

Deputy Mayor Seema Pahwa said the administration was non-cooperative and the councillors had no financial or administrative powers. They were helpless in solving the problems of the residents, she said. The councillors rued that only single house meeting had been called till date and nothing had been done so far.

Karnal Mayor Renu Bala Gupta said their protest was not to gain power but for providing good governance to the residents who voted for them. She alleged the MC staff was not accountable to them and no development work was being carried out in villages.

“It is the impact of our agitation that development works worth Rs 14 crore have been passed. Meanwhile, Karnal MP Arvind Sharma assured the councillors that he would arrange for a meeting between the councillors and the Chief Minister.

Kurukshetra, December 19
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev today directed all the workers of Patanjali Yogpeeth to get ready for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, due in 2014, and expressed the possibility of a “maha gathbandhan” in Haryana.

“Time is ripe for a revolution and the people of Haryana must come forward to change the course of politics”, said Ramdev, who was here for a workers’ meeting at Gurukul today.

“I will not contest but I will help Narendra Modi become the next Prime Minister of the country”, he added.

Ramdev said there can be no comparison between Gujarat Chief Minister Narender Modi and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. People had already accepted Modi as the future PM and he was the most suitable person for the post, while Rahul Gandhi had no clue about the country and its people, he added.

Ramdev criticised the Congress and its leaders for "rampant corruption" in the country and said the only way to retrieve the situation was to throw out the Congress-led UPA government.

Jind, December 19
The political choice of Jind residents, who have elected an INLD candidate as MLA, appears to have angered the state government so much that the district has not seen the completion of a single development project.

It has only got a long list of announcements made by none other than Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The information procured by Jind city INLD MLA Harichand Midda, under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, has exposed the alleged regional discrimination with the residents of Jind by the government.

“Jind has been facing discrimination only because the voters supported me. Hooda wants to win a third time, but announcements like construction of Kurukshetra University regional centre, made in 2006, are yet to be fulfilled while such a regional centre, announced for Sonepat many years later, has been completed. Is it not regional discrimination by CM Hooda” said MLA Midda while showing the copies of the RTI.

He alleged that not only education, but the city residents were yet to see any improvement in health facilities also as the announcement to upgrade the present 100-bed civil hospital to 200 beds, made on September 10, 2012, was yet to see any implementation.

He alleged that the RTI information showed that the Finance Department had received a letter of approval from the government, but there was no action to fulfill the announcement.

On June 3, 2012, the CM announced the construction of a new bus stand on 20 acres of land. On February 3, 2013, a committee, under the chairmanship of the SDM, was formed and the committee sent a proposal for land acquisition in Pindara village, but nothing happened after that.

Thousands of commuters had been facing inconvenience as government had failed to construct a bypass road in Jind. The announcement for the same was made by the CM on February 3, 2008, and the foundation stone was laid. But there was no progress in the matter till date, he added.

“Like the CM, I do not make baseless claims and allegations. If there is any false allegation, I am ready for an open debate over the discrimination with Jind” said Midda.

Yamunanagar, December 19
Three persons were killed in two road accidents in the district due to fog last night. Two persons sustained injures in two other accidents.

The police said Rajesh Kumar alias Binder of Darwa village and Ajay Kumar of Mumidi village were on their way home riding on a motorcycle last night. Their motorcycle allegedly collided with a road divider near the Rakshak Vihar police post, Jagadhri, following low visibility due to dense fog.

However, their kin, Ram Lal and Ram Karan, claimed that their motorcycle was hit by some vehicle and killed them. They were rushed to the Jagadhri civil hospital where they were declared brought dead. They were working as a contractor in a private housing company.

On the other hand, an auto overturned near Kail village on National Highway-73 last night due to dense fog. Karam Chand of Yamunanagar died on the spot.

The bodies of all the three deceased were handed over to their kin after postmortem today.

In another road accident, Suresh Kumar, a JBT teacher, who is posted at a government school in Bholiwala village, sustained serious injuries when his motorcycle was hit by a truck near Samailpur village in the Sadhaura area last night. He was taken to the Sadhaura CHC from where he was referred to a trauma centre here.

Chandigarh December 19
The Haryana Government has issued instructions for writing performance appraisal reports of HCS officers by reporting, reviewing and accepting authorities.

An official spokesman said here today that where more than one person supervised the performance of an HCS officer during the relevant assessment year, the person who supervised the performance for the maximum period (minimum of 3 months) during the relevant year would report or review the performance of the officer concerned.

In case the periods of the officers who supervised the performance during the relevant assessment year are the same, then the latter would report or review the officer's performance during the relevant assessment year. The spokesman said quite often an officer held more than one post simultaneously. In such cases, a committee comprising the Chief Secretary and the administrative secretaries of both departments would report or review the officer's performance. —TNS

Fatehabad, December 19
The evaluation of answer sheets of examinations conducted by Kurukshetra University has come under the scanner after a Haryana Forest Services (HFS) officer, who appeared in the LLB examinations, obtained a photocopy of his answersheet by invoking the Right to Information (RTI) Act and found that his answers had not been checked at all.

“The examiner has awarded me marks on the first page of my answersheet, but none of the inside pages where I have attempted the questions bear any tick mark or the marks awarded to me,” said Shakti Singh, posted as Divisional Wildlife Officer at Hisar.

A copy of the answersheet is with The Tribune now.

He said even if it is presumed that the examiner awarded me marks directly on the cover of the answersheet, what about the breakup of marks in question number 9, which had eight parts and the candidates had to attempt four of them.

Singh has now filed another application under the RTI seeking breakup of marks he obtained in question 9 (a, c, f and h) which he attempted. Though the cover page has columns for marks obtained part-wise, the examiner has awarded him total marks only.

Shakti Singh, who did his LLB as an evening student from CR Jat College of Law, Hisar, invoked provisions of the RTI to obtain a copy of his answersheet, when he obtained 36 out of 100 marks in Civil Procedure Code in his fifth semester, while in other papers of that semester he had obtained an average of 60 per cent marks.

Dr Hukam Singh, Controller of Examinations in the Kurukshetra University, however, saw nothing wrong in the marking.

“It is entirely the discretion of the examiner to award marks question wise on the inside pages and then carry forward those on the outer page or award marks directly on the cover page of the answersheet,” he said.

Plugging loopholes Forest officer, who appeared in the LLB examinations, obtained a photocopy of his answersheet by invoking the Right to Information (RTI) Act The photocopy of the sheet showed that he was awarded marks on its cover page while inside pages remained unchecked With another RTI application, he sought breakup of marks obtained in question number 9 of Civil Procedure Code paper

Chandigarh, December 19
Power Minister Ajay Singh Yadav administered the oath of office and secrecy to Jagjeet Singh as a member of the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC).

Jagjeet Singh, a retired Joint Director and Controller of Exams, ITI, Haryana, has been appointed on the recommendations made by a selection committee in its meeting held on November 22, 2013.

The state government had constituted a selection committee under the chairmanship of Justice IP Vasisth with Chief Secretary PK Chaudhery and Neerja Mathur, chairperson, Central Electricity Authority, as its members.

Fatehabad, December 19
Three persons, including a father-son duo, have been arrested on a charge of rape of a 13-year-old girl.

She was allegedly raped in a house situated on the Bighar road here last night.

The victim, a girl from Bihar, was allegedly purchased for Rs 45,000 by Jai Singh, who has told the police that he bought the girl to marry her to his son Sunil.

The police have booked Jai Singh, his son Sunil, Nanhe (labourer) and a woman, who allegedly sold her to the father-son duo, under Sections 376-D, 342, 120-B and 34 of the IPC and Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, said SHO Gaurav Sharma.

The victim was noticed running in distressed condition last night by the watchman of a private school and a farmer, who had fields near the place where Jai Singh worked.

The girl told them that an “aunty” had left her at the fields of Jai Singh on the pretext of a job as a domestic help in the afternoon and went away.

In the night, Sunil allegedly pounced on her while she was sleeping and when she cried Nanhe also helped him in his crime. She alleged that Sunil raped her and she had run away from there.

The watchman and the farmer informed the matter to the police, who recorded the girl’s statement and took Sunil, Jai Singh and Nanhe in its custody.

Jai Singh told the police that he had purchased the girl for Rs 45,000 for marrying her to his son Sunil. He maintained that the woman who sold the girl to him had described her age as 19.

Kurukshetra, December 19
The department of geophysics, Kurukshetra University, has received a grant of Rs 2.45 crore to strengthen the postgraduate teaching facilities under the Fund for Improvement of Science and Technology Infrastructure 2013 programme from the Department of Science and Technology, GoI.

The grant will be used to procure geophysical instruments, software and books, said Prof Dinesh Kumar. — TNS