Chandigarh, January 2
The Haryana Government has made controversial Chairman of the Haryana Schoolteachers Selection Board (HSSB) Nand Lal Poonia resign his post.

Sources said the resignation of Poonia, a close relative of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, had been accepted. A board member Gian Chand Sahota has been asked to perform the duties of the chairman till further orders, sources added.

The recruitments under Poonia have been mired in controversies. On September 30, 2013, the high court while quashing the selection of 1,983 physical training instructors (PTIs) made in 2010 by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) had come down heavily on his role as the commission Chairman. "Here is a case where alterations have been designed with the sole object of downgrading and not upgrading the standards of selection to public employment”, the court said. The order added: "Why was the Education Department in such a hurry or overanxious to give appointments to selected candidates with doubtful academic credentials is beyond comprehension.”

The high court further held that "the journey, starting from the cancellation of the written test up to the decision to call all candidates for interview, was successfully treaded by the Chairman all by himself without taking any member of the commission along".

Only last month, the high court had come down heavily on his role in the selections of the PTIs. The court said since “role and manner” of working of Poonia had “severely been criticised and adversely commented upon” by the court earlier while setting aside the selection of 1983 PTIs under his chairmanship, the state needed to take appropriate decision. It added that it was for the “competent authority” to take a decision at its own end with regard to the continuance or otherwise of Poonia as the Chairman within a “reasonable period” 

Jassaur Kheri, January 2
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation stones of four projects — Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership, a 710-bed National Cancer Institute, Government College and upgradation of the Bahadurgarh-Badli-Chandu-Gurgaon road - here tomorrow.

He would also address a public meeting after laying the foundation stones. Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad would also be present on the occasion.

Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda would receive the Prime Minister at the helipad constructed near the venue.

Deputy Commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi said the Prime Minister would arrive at the helipad at 2:30 pm and then he would proceed to the programme venue by road. 

Karnal, January 2
Development at the cost of life seems to be the mantra of the government. As many as 19,348 trees will be cut for the four-laning of state highways 6 and 7 (Karnal-Ladwa-Yamunanagar road).

The Public Works Department (Buildings and Roads) has been granted permission to cut trees, but there is no mention of how the cutting of trees will be compensated.

The road is accident-prone due to heavy traffic and the two-laned road is being expanded.

“The project will be executed on a build-operate-transfer basis. Approval for cutting trees has been granted by the government,” said PWD Superintending Engineer Neeraj Gupta.

“The Public Works Department has to deposit compensatory afforestation money with the Forest Department. The problem is land acquisition as the price of land is high. The department is in search of land for plantation to compensate the damage,” said District Forest Officer (DFO) Naresh Ranga.

He added that contract farming was also an option. “We are contacting farmers to promote the policy of plantation on their land. The department will take care of saplings planted for three years,” he said.

“It is a requirement to cut trees for development, but two saplings will be planted after cutting a tree. The government will develop a greenbelt along the road by acquiring land,” said Paryavaran Sarankshan Samiti president SK Arora.

Karnal, January 2
As many as 1,240 samples of drinking water in five districts-- Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Kaithal and Yamunanagar-- have failed purity tests in the last one year. They were not found safe as per the parameters.

As per the report of the Intermediate Reference Laboratory (IRL), out of the 2,772 samples collected from Karnal, Kurukshertra, Panipat, Kaithal and Yamunanagar districts, only 1,532 were found fit for drinking.

Dr SL Verma, in charge of the IRL, said these samples were taken by the Health Department of the districts concerned from various sources of drinking water and were examined to detect E-Colie. “E-Coli is a gram negative bacillus, which is commonly found in human gut. The pathogenic strains of E-Colic can cause acute diarrhoea disease and detected by most probable number, said Dr Verma.

Dr Ravinder Sandhu, medical officers, said there were many factors responsible for contamination of water. Due to water leakages in pipes, drain water was getting mixed with potable water and caused water-borne diseases. He added that proper chlorination should be done.

Chandigarh,January 2
Close on the heels of a Rs 200 subsidy to power consumers, the Haryana Government has made the pillar box system more ‘consumer-friendly’.

Under the new system, the government has hiked the rebate in bi-monthly bills for one year to village consumers who have adopted this scheme from 10% to 20%. “Besides, a rebate of 10% will be given to the rural domestic consumers, who have been regularly paying their bills for the past one year, taking the total rebate to 30%”, Anurag Aggarwal, Managing Director of the UHBVN and the DHBVN said here today.

Earlier, the discoms had decided that the scheme could now be implementated in those village where 50% per cent of the total households were having regular connections and the meters were shifted outside the premises (in pillar boxes). The earlier stipulation was 80%.

Meanwhile, Aggarwal claimed that the pillar box scheme electricity distribution was the best solution to give reliable, safe and qualitative power supply.

Under the new system, complete overhauling/renovation of the distribution system was being undertaken at a cost of around Rs 25 lakh for each unit. A system was being put in place under which naked conductors were replaced by insulated cables and meters were relocated in pillar boxes outside the houses. The discoms have already completed the pillar box system works in 81 villages.

The discoms had started the new system with a view to checking transmission losses and recovering arrears of electricity bills.

Ambala, January 2
State power engineers have seen red over politicians connecting houses directly to the mainlines.

Lamenting that political interference would torpedo the ambitious power sector reforms that cannot be put into effect unless the Aggregate Transmission And Commercial (AT&C) losses were brought down, the engineers said the reforms in the power sector would get nullified by the politicians, who were openly promoting ‘kundi connections’ to score a point with the electorate.

The Northern India Power Engineers Federation (NIPEF), which has already taken up the matter with the authorities concerned, said power utilities were finding it difficult to check power theft due to political interference. They said it was resulting in under-recoveries of defaulting amounts.

Official figures put the AT&C losses in Haryana at 20 to 30 per cent in the urban areas and 50 to 70 per cent in the rural pockets.

The engineers said they were capable of reducing the losses, as had been proved by engineers in Punjab, but it was due to political interference that utilities continued to incur losses year after year in Haryana.

Vinod Gupta, secretary of finance, Northern India Power Engineers Federation, said that Haryana politicians were asking people not to pay their power bills.

Gupta said such trends would further dent the financially stability of the power utilities.

The state, till date, had not been able to recover the defaulting amounts because political forces were not allowing the disconnection of default connections. Without disconnection, the arrears could not be recovered.

Hisar, January 2
Activists of the Haryana Kisan Manch and Nagrik Manch today staged a demonstration in protest against ‘inflated’ electricity bills here. The protesters demanded special audit of the power companies - Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam- on the pattern of the Delhi and a cut in power tariffs.

After gathering at the Krantiman Park, hundreds of activists in a procession reached the Mini-Secretariat and raised slogans against the power department. Later, the protesters submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner.

Demanding a cut in the power tariffs on the pattern of Delhi, kisan manch leader Ramesh Beniwal threatened to intensify the agitation if the government failed to provide relief to the people by January 15.

Beniwal stated that revised tariff, fuel surcharge and abolition of the telescopic slab system of tariff had resulted increase of more than 35 per cent in the power bills this year as compared to previous year.

He said, “The distribution companies have been incurring a loss of Rs 3,500 crore every year. Besides, the power utilities showed expenses of Rs 6,000 crore as outstanding in December 2012, which further accumulated their losses. These were given as justification for revision of the power tariff.”

The memorandum submitted to the Deputy Commissioner demands slashing the power tariffs, audit of the power companies by an independent agency, crackdown on corruption in the companies and power theft by unscrupulous consumers, rebate to the consumers who are regular in bill payment, to check power loads to do away with the ‘concocted’ load which is resulting in inflated bills etc.

Kurukshetra, January 2
Hundreds of INLD members led by state unit president Ashok Arora held a demonstration against the sky-rocketing electricity and water bills and property tax in Haryana.

Party members gathered at Jat Dharamshala here before taking out a procession and burning an effigy of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at Ambedkar Chowk. The INLD workers later met Tehsildar Surajmal and submitted a memorandum to him for the Governor of Haryana.

" Even Congress leaders have raised questions over the speed of meters", said Ashok Arora.

The state government had not only put an extra burden of Rs 5,600 crore on the people but also imposed a slab system and fuel charges on them, Arora aaded.

The INLD leader asked the government either to abolish property tax and fuel surcharge or face a statewide agitation.

Sirsa, January 2
Reena Birat's appointment as president of the District Mahila Congress has sparked a revolt against Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar with several women activists questioning the appointment.

Prominent activists of Mahila Congress like Sanju Bala, spokesperson of the District Mahila Congress; Raj Rani Jindal, former district president; Kailash Rani, a veteran Congress leader; and Kamlesh, block president of the organisation, today held held a demonstration against Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar, holding him responsible for the change.

Addressing mediapersons at Congress Bhawan here, Sanju Bala

said Reena Birat had become a primary member of the Congress only recently and elevating her to the post of president ahead of those who have been working for the party for years was insult to them.

The Mahila Congress activists threatened to hold a demonstration outside Tanwar's residence if case Reena Birat's appointment was not cancelled.

She said Mahila Congress workers would bring this to the notice of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Kurukshetra, January 2
A large number of guest teachers staged a demonstration and sat on indefinite dharna outside Congress Member of Parliament Naveen Jindal's house here on Thursday.

Alleging discrimination and ignorance by the state government, guest teachers said until the Member of Parliament himself listens to their plea, they will not withdraw the dharna.

Seeking regular job guarantee, Rakesh Kumar, guest teacher's leader, said: "There are about 1,900-2,000 guest teachers in Kurukshetra Lok sabha constituency, who are waiting for their jobs to get regularised."

“It's been eight years now and we will not bear discrimination and ignorance anymore," Rakesh Kumar added

Guest teachers want Naveen Jindal to be with them and lead them in front of the government or arrange a direct meeting of the state committee with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. 

Rohtak, January 2
Residents of Rohtak have got two new police stations.

The police posts at the PGIMS and the old vegetable market have been upgraded as police stations.

The new police stations were inaugurated by Anil Kumar Rao, Inspector General of Police (Rohtak range), yesterday. With this, the number of police stations in Rohtak has reached 11.

Official sources said a plan was afoot to develop the Rohtak police administration on the Gurgaon pattern.

Yamunanagar, January 2
Over 10 poor families of Judda Shekhan village are forced to live under the open sky in the bone-biting cold as they could not construct roofs in their houses for want of grants under the Priyadarshini Awas Yojna (PAY).

Members of these families and animals are falling ill because of severe cold. Their ration, including flour, wheat and sugar, got damaged in rain two days ago.

Keemti Lal and Kela Devi said Rs 90,000 were given to BPL families under the scheme to construct 'pucca' houses. The government had provided them the first instalment of Rs 25,000 but the second instalment had not yet been given.

“We have demolished our mud (kutcha) houses and have been able to construct only walls with the first instalment disbursed under the scheme,” they said.

Both said they had been making rounds of the officials concerned for the past several months to get the second instalment but they were sent back on one pretext or the other.

They added that their family members had to sleep in the open or under a ‘tirpal’ (tent) made of empty bags of fertilizers which was of little use in this harsh weahther.

Dr Satbir Singh Saini, ADC, however, said the second instalment could not be released as they had received complaints against those who were constructing houses under the scheme. Now that the complaints had been found to be false, the second instalment would be released tomorrow,” added the ADC.

Jind, January 2
The lack of potable water in the villages of this district has belied all the claims of the state government.

Residents of Jajanwala, Ital Khurd, Ital Kalan and many other villages are allegedly without potable water. They met INLD leaders and aired their grievances and the leaders have assured full support to the residents of the affected villages.

The villagers are forced to drink highly polluted water, which has caused many diseases among them.

“All sources of water, like hand-pumps, canals and village ponds, have highly toxic water. It carries many pollutants and causes serious health problems. The number of villagers suffering from water-borne diseases has been on a rise for the last many months,” alleged Chanderpati, an aged woman of Jajanwala village.

Some other women accompanying her alleged that their repeated requests to the Jind district administration and written requests to the government had fallen on deaf ears.

The villagers alleged that the water was not only unfit for human consumption, but was also not fit to wash clothes or even prepare tea after boiling it. Whenever they mixed the water in milk, the milk starts smelling bad and within minutes it turns yellow.

The Jind Deputy Commissioner has denied having received any complaint in this connection.

Hisar, January 2
As the debt of the Haryana Government increased to nearly Rs 67,000 crore this year, each citizen of the state owes Rs 26,570 in debt. However, nearly 68 per cent of the borrowings came in the past four years.

The data, procured by Hisar-based RTI activist Vijay Gupta from the state Finance Department, reveals that not only the accumulated debt has increased, but also the state government took higher amount of loan per year after 2008-09.

Gupta, who is the district convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), got the information after nearly eight months following the intervention of the state Information Commission. He said a huge public debt indicated the financial strain on the state exchequer and also the common citizen.

“The data belies the claims of the state government about its steady fiscal position. Financial mismanagement and corruption are the obvious reasons behind the deteriorating financial condition as the state government has been banking heavily on debt with the loan liabilities going up every year,” he said. "Every year, nearly 9 per cent of the expenditure goes in interest payment,” he added.

Prof NK Bishnoi, head, Economic and Business Analysis, Haryana School of Business, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, dispelled the doubts of any financial strain on the state exchequer and maintained that with the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) around Rs 3,53,440 crore for 2012-13, there was nothing to worry about the debt.

Prof Bishnoi, who was a consultant for the 3rd and 4th state Finance Commission, says devil lies in the ratio between the public debt and the GSDP -- and not the accumulated debt-- where Haryana is in a comfortable position. “In fact, the debt-GSDP ratio is all time low as the debt liability stands at 16.47 per cent of the GSDP. The debt-GSDP ratio was 24.12 in 2005-06 which had steadily and gradually come down in the past nine years which is a sign of good financial management,” he remarked.

Fatehabad, January 2
President of the Sirsa parliamentary constituency unit of the Youth Congress Anandbir Singh Gillankhera said today that the emergence of Arvind Kejriwal in the political arena was a revolution and a welcome sign for democracy.

Gillankhera, who was invited to judge an inter-college declamation contest on the ‘Role of voters in a democracy at Manohar Memorial Post Graduate College, Fatehabad, said even though he represented a party that the Aam Aadmi Party defeated in Delhi, he hailed Kejriwal's success as a citizen of the country.

“Kejriwal’s emergence in the political arena has given a hope to thousands of countrymen, who have now started believing that their vote can bring about a change in the political system. If he succeeds, the country will progress in leaps and bounds, but his failures will shatter common man’s faith in the power of vote,” Gillankhera said. Effusive in his praise for Kejriwal, Gillankhera quoted him several times during his speech and said leaders of all political parties needed to learn a lesson from him.

He said there had been enough of voting on the basis of castes in Haryana and urged the people to vote for the right candidates irrespective of his caste, creed or political alliance. Meanwhile, Kanupriya Nagpal and Mandeep Kaur were jointly adjudged the first position, Charu Mehta second and Karandeep Singh third in the declamation contest.

Rohtak, January 2
The state government has maintained that indulging in corrupt practices was a personal matter and disclosure of such information would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy of the officers concerned.

Stating this, the office of the Deputy Secretary (Personnel) outrightly denied providing any information sought by a Rohtak-based RTI organisation in this regard.

In an application submitted under the RTI Act, Subash, convener of the Haryana Soochna Adhikar Manch, had sought information about IAS, IPS, IRS, HCS and HPS officers serving in the state who had faced corruption charges between January 1, 2000, and October 31, 2013.

He wanted to know what action had been taken against such officers by the government and how many of them had been promoted or demoted after the levelling of corruption charges against them.

Curiously, the reply furnished by the office of the Deputy Secretary stated that: “The application in respect of IAS and HCS officers is personal in nature and is exempt under the provisions of section 8(1)(j) of the Right To Information Act. It further maintained that the performance of an employee in an organisation was primarily a matter between the employee and the employer and normally those aspects are governed by the service rules, which fall under the expression “personal information” the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest.

“On the other hand, the disclosure (of such information) would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy of that individual,” the RTI reply remarked.

Subhash maintained that he filed another application to the First Appellate Authority - the State Public Information Officer-cum-Secretary to the Government of Haryana - but failed to get the desired information as the said authority also maintained that the disclosure of names of corrupt officers and action taken against them was a matter of privacy between the employee and the employer.

“The stance of the top state authorities raises suspicion as how can divulging the details of corrupt officers who have faced corruption charges, jailed and their names published in the media can amount to breach of privacy,” questioned the RTI activist.

He said he had he had filed a complaint against both government agencies with the State Information Commissioner, seeking suitable action against those shielding corrupt officers in the name of privacy.

Fatehabad, January 2
Animal rights activists belonging to the Bishnoi community are up in arms against the government’s proposal to lay the foundation stone of the proposed nuclear power project at Gorakhpur village in Fatehabad before implementing any conservation plan for hundreds of wildlife, particularly blackbucks living in the area.

The government had announced that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would lay the foundation stone of the Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojna (GHAVP) in the second week of January.

Sushil Bishnoi, president of the Fatehabad District Bar Association, has written to UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to address the issue of wildlife conservation before going ahead with the project.

Bishnoi said over 100 blackbucks live in site acquired for the nuclear power project and nearly 300 such animals had their natural habitat in land acquired for a colony of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) at Badopal in Fatehabad.

He said before granting clearance to the NPCIL for the project, the Environment and Forest Ministry had got a survey conducted from scientists of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun.

The WII report, he said, clearly stated that the NPCIL should leave the colony site for setting up of a conservation reserve for blackbucks. 

Yamunanagar, January 2
A 23-year-old girl died after she accidentally consumed the milk with a lizard in it at Jaidhar village in the district last night.

Rishipal said all his family members had milk last night. However, his daughter Archana kept the glass of the milk uncovered and got busy in some work, he added.

Rishipal said when as soon as the girl consumed the milk, a dead lizard was found in the glass.

She was immediately rushed to a private hospital, but she died on the way.

No case has been registered in this regard.

Kurukshetra, January 2
The police have arrested a truck driver of Haryana from Gaya, Bihar, for allegedly duping the Dabur Company of a truck loaded with its consignment.

Stating this here today, the police spokesperson said truck driver Sinder Singh, a resident of Binola village in Karnal district, was arrested from Gaya in Bihar.

On his identification, the police recovered the stolen truck from Thana Raniganj, Vardhman district in West Bengal, and Rs 2 lakh cash from his possession.

Pradeep Kumar, a resident of Ambala Cantonment, in a complaint to the police at Shahabad police post on December 16, had alleged that the consignment was loaded in a truck, driven by Sinder, at Landi village on November 22. Sinder then departed for Kolkata but the truck did not reach its destination.

During investigations, the police arrested Sinder on December 22 and after getting his transit remand, he was produced in a court here on December 26, which remanded him to police custody for seven days.

Sinder confessed to his crime during interrogation. He told the police that he had sold the consignment worth Rs 30 lakh in Rs 12 lakh fraudulently to Riddi Raj of Narayani Tube Well Private Limited, Tikari Road, Dhamitola, Gaya. He had received Rs 4 lakh out of the total money and the balance was yet to be received. 

Jind, January 2
The Jind police have recovered a mutilated body of a youngster from near the bridge of Hansi branch canal, located in the thick forest area near the city. The police have taken the body in custody and have started further investigations.

The city police received information today morning that a body was lying in the forest area. A police team, led by Hira Lal, sub-inspector, reached the spot and took the body in custody.

During medical investigations it came to light that the deceased was attacked with sharp-edged weapons on the head, mouth and other parts of the body.

“We have registered a case against unidentified persons, but our priority is to first identify the deceased, which would help in investigations” said Hira Lal.