Chandigarh, January 14
The Congress has decided to get its act together in Haryana much ahead of other parties keeping in mind the impact of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the state. In a communication to top leadership that is being kept under the wraps, party in charge for Haryana Shakeel Ahmed has summoned a meeting here on January 21, in which he will have some plain speak with the senior leadership of the state.

The 12-member election committee of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that has been announced does not include any detractor of the Chief Minister. The committee will meet in Chandigarh on January 21 and will be presided over by Ahmed. Neither Union minister and Ambala MP Selja nor AICC member and former Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh, who have openly rebelled against the Chief Minister, figure in the list.

The action of the high command comes following Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s aggressive stand against dissidents within the party and his telling the high command to step in before it is too late. The AAP has suddenly come on to the centre stage of state politics after its announcement to contest the elections with its preparation to repeat the Delhi experiment. Other parties are yet to take note of the impact of the AAP.

During the meeting, the Congress is expected to discuss the names of two nominees to the Rajya Sabha when nominations take place to fill the vacancies of Dr Ram Parkash and Ishwar Singh, whose terms will come to an end. A total of 55 nominations will be made nationwide to fill the vacancies in the Upper House, elections for which will take place on February 7.

Led by Hooda, other members of the election committee are state Congress president Phool Chand Mullana, Haryana Congress campaign committee chairman Venod Sharma, Balbir Pal Shah, Dr Ram Prakash, Shadi Lal Batra, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Geeta Bhukkal, Savitri Jindal, Aftab Ahmed and Raj Kumar Balmiki. Interestingly, Excise and Taxation Minister Kiran Choudhry, once a Hooda detractor who is now close to him, is not in the list.

It is abundantly clear that Hooda has got a free hand to put together and execute a plan that he feels will serve the best interests of the party in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. Haryana is due for Assembly elections in October. A close watch is being made to decide if Haryana should go to the polls along with Parliament or keep its October date.

During the meeting on January 21, issues that need to be highlighted to maintain the lead of the party will be identified. The Haryana Government has launched a number of education and health projects, besides the laying of the foundation stones of a global centre for nuclear energy partnership at Bahadurgarh and a nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur. All this is expected to find a prominent place in the Congress manifesto.

Jind, January 14
At a time when the steep rise in power bills is triggering protests across state, the judgement of the state’s power managers is being seriously questioned. It has emerged that Haryana’s power sector is not utilizing its full installed generation capacity but is meeting the requirement by purchasing power from other states.

As per sources in the Haryana Power Department, state authorities are not using the full installed generation capacity of its various thermal units - and this is being done deliberately in order to take power from Adani’s Mundra (Gujarat) thermal station. As a result, many thermal units of Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) are idle. The reports sent from the Northern Region Load Dispatch Center say: “Closed due to less requisition by Haryana.”

Presently, the average power purchase cost is around Rs 3 per unit plus transmission charges but if the recently submitted recommendation of the Deepak Parikh Committee is accepted by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, then power tariff will rise by at least an additional 60 paisa per unit.

Vinod Gupta, Secretary Finance of Northern India Power Engineers Association castigated the Haryana government for total mismanagement: “The Haryana government has been purchasing power at the rate of Rs 3 per unit plus transmission charges and other taxes imposed by state government. In total, including other taxes and surcharge, the domestic tariff has already crossed Rs 7 per unit in Haryana. Meanwhile, usually eight thermal units remain closed on account of ‘no demand’,” he said.

Quoting various reports of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Gupta said that as per the CEA report, the generation cost at the 1200 MW Khedar unit is Rs 2.95 paise per unit. At the 600 MW Yamunanagar unit, it is Rs 3.21 paise per unit and at the 1360 MW Panipat unit, it is Rs. 3.37 per unit. He questioned why the Haryana Power Department prefers to purchase power when it’s an established fact that own generation is cheaper.

In April 2013, Haryana signed a long term power purchase deal for supply of 1424 MW from Adani’s Mundra thermal project. The three 660 MW units of Adani’s project at Mundra have been earmarked for Haryana.

Repeated attempts to contact UHBVN Managing Director Anurag Aggarwal were unsuccessful.

Yamunanagar, January 14
A police team headed by Deputy Superintendent of Police Ajay Rana questioned Chhachhrauli Naib Tehsildar Anand Singh Rawal for two hours here today.

Rawal had gone missing under mysterious circumstances on January 3, and he returned to his native Kohand village in Karnal distrcit after nine days on Sunday.

He had been booked by the Gharaunda police on charges of manhandling and other offences on the complaint of dhaba owner Dharambir Sharma, who runs his dhaba at Kohand.

A case of kidnapping was registered at the Sadar police station, Jagadhri, on the complaint of the official's family members.

In support of the official, members of the Gurjar community held mahapanchayats twice at Chhachhruali and also staged demonstrations.

Sources said he told the police the same old story which he had been narrating after his arrival.

He told the police that when he was returning from Jagadhri to Chhachhruali by his car on January 3, he was chased by some people in a car. When he reached near Panjeto village, he turned his car towards sugarcane fields.

He said he hid himself in the fields for five hours and after that he went to the Jagadhri bus stand to reach Ambala. From Ambala, he went to Delhi and then to Lucknow and Agra before returning to Delhi.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Sibas Kaviraj said the Naib Tehsildar had been asked to appear before the police to record his statements.

Ambala, January 14
Commissioner of Police Ajay Singhal today ordered a probe into the insurance fraud in which more than 7,000 villagers were duped by unscrupulous agents in the Naraingarh segment of the district. The villagers continued to pay the premium for several years only to realise recently that the premium never reached the company concerned.

The Tribune had recently highlighted the plight of the villagers. The villagers had stated that a team of four employees of the Life Insurance Corporation of India's Chandigarh office had approached anganwari and ASHA workers working in villages in 2008 and asked them to rope in villagers living below the poverty line to pay a premium of Rs 100, Rs 200 or Rs 500 and get an insurance cover under the company's micro insurance scheme. The workers were promised a 5 per cent share of the policies sold by them.

Moved by the attractive offer, a large number of villagers bought the policy and started paying a monthly premium, which was collected by the anaganwari and ASHA workers in their respective villages on behalf of the LIC agents. The agents used to collect the premium every month and even issued receipts to the workers.

The practice continued for more than four years. However, the villagers and the insurance company recently realised that the collected money was pocketed by the agents.

The Police Commissioner asked the Ambala DCP to investigate the matter.

Bhiwani, January 14
After last year's dismal performance, the first semester results of Classes X and XII have shown much improvement this time. The examinations were conducted by the Haryana Board of School Education (HBSE) in November last year. The pass percentage of Class X was 86.14 per cent, while it was 64.55 per cent for Class XII.

The results indicated a marked improvement in Class X as only 50.79 per cent of the total students had cleared the examination last year, compiled in June after completion of the second semester.

HBSE Chairman KC Bhardwaj said a total of 35,2693 candidates had appeared in the Class X examination held in November, 2013, out of which 30,3805 had cleared the examination.

The pass percentage was quite low among private students as 48.14 per cent (65,432 students) of the total 13,5934 had cleared the examination.

In Class XII, 17,1142 candidates had been declared successful out of 26,5140 . Private students too performed poorly in this class as only 43.65 per cent (41,147 students) of the total 94,260 had passed the examination.

The results will be available on the board's website from 9am tomorrow.

Haryana School Lecturer Association (HSLA) president Bhagwan Dass said the outcome of the examinations did not appear to be reflective of any sudden improvement of the education system. "The root cause of the rot lies in the flawed policies. The semester system has not been a successful experiment in Haryana and we have been demanding to abolish it. There has been a shortage of teachers in schools," he said.

Sonepat, January 14
A number of farmers, including women, of Sisana village today staged a black-flag demonstration in front of the residence of Jaiveer Singh, Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS), at Kharkhoda, in support of their demand for payment of compensation for the land acquired to widen the Sisana-Gohana road three years ago.

As the CPS was out of station, Braham Prakash, tehsildar, Kharkhoda, met the farmers and listened to their grievances. He assured them that their demands would be sent to the CPS.

The farmers had been staging an indefinite dharna at the village for the last 75 days. Ravinder Jatheri a social activist had also been observing indefinite fast for the last 30 days.

The state general secretary of the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh criticised the government for neglecting the farmers’ demands and threatened to intensify the agitation.

Chandigarh, January 14
Landowners in Haryana will be given compensation at enhanced rates as per provisions of the new land acquisition Act (Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013) for land acquisition notifications issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, in November and December.

Stating this here today, the Principal Secretary, Town and Country Planning, TC Gupta, said the entire rehabilitation and resettlement package mentioned in the new Act would be made available to all landowners even though the notifications had been issued under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

Therefore, the rights of landowners under the new land acquisition Act in respect of this land were duly protected.

He said there was no denying the fact that the new land acquisition Act was passed in Parliament in September, 2013.

However, there was no embargo that action in the existing Land Acquisition Act was not to be taken, especially in cases wherein the proposals already stood finalised and approved.

Chandigarh, January 14
In a significant judgment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that a Haryana government employee hired on compassionate grounds due to his parent’s medical incapacitation on the basis of a 1995 circular cannot be removed by relying on the 2003 rules.

A Division Bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Fateh Deep Singh also made it clear that the rules framed in 2003 could not be deemed to have superseded the instructions issued in 1995.

The judgment is significant as the right to compassionate appointment on account of medical incapacitation was conferred vide a circular dated August 31, 1995. The policy permitted grant of appointment on compassionate grounds to dependents of government servants declared mentally unfit, blind or incapacitated by a special board and retired on or before attaining the age of 55.

But it was claimed that instructions stood repealed in terms of Clause 19 of the Haryana Compassionate Assistance to the Dependents of Deceased Government Employees Rules, 2003.

Taking up a petition on the issue by Harmeet Singh, the Bench asserted: “In the present case, the petitioner has been offered appointment in terms of government instructions dated August 31, 1995.

“Such instructions cannot be deemed to be superseded by framing of the rules which deal with only appointment on compassionate grounds of the deceased government employee. Such rules do not take into their ambit the appointment to the dependents of government servants who are declared medically unfit”.

Harmeet Singh was offered appointment on compassionate grounds on account of medical unfitness of his mother in June, 2005. But in March, 2006, the offer of appointment to him was recalled.

Ordering his reinstatement, the Bench added: “The petitioner was offered appointment and has joined service as well. The termination effected for the reason that the rules do not contemplate appointment on compassionate grounds is wholly unjustified and illegal.

“The termination order is also unwarranted for the reason that it was passed without giving an opportunity of hearing. Consequently, we allow the petition by setting aside and quashing the order dated March 2, 2006. It is further ordered that the petitioner —Harmeet Singh — be reinstated by granting continuity in service forthwith preferably within one month, but he shall not be paid the wages for the period he has not worked for the department.

Chandigarh, January 14
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced to give full exemption of the market fee on fruits and vegetable with an aim to check the increasing rates of fruits and vegetables and give benefit to farmers and consumers.

Hooda said fruits and vegetable had been omitted from the schedule of the Haryana Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1961, for this purpose and there would not be any restriction on the movement of horticulture produce in the state.

The Chief Minister said earlier, the market fee and HRDF on fruits and vegetables were charged at the rate of 2 per cent each. However, the rate of the market fee was reduced from 2 per cent to 1 per cent from September 1, 2012.

Rohtak, January 14
The deadlock over the imposition of exorbitant toll on commuters on the Rohtak-Panipat highway continued today despite the toll management exempting people residing within a 5-km radius of the toll barrier located at Makdauli village from paying toll.

Toll plaza manager IP Singh said: "There is also a provision for issuing concessional monthly passes to residents of area within a 20-km radius of the toll plaza.”

However, local residents as well as organisations described the concessions too little, demanding that the toll plaza be closed down.

The protest against the imposition of exorbitant toll has been supported by sarpanches, panchayat members and other residents of nearby villages and adjoining areas.

Meanwhile, the INLD has alleged that the Gujarat-based toll company had been given a free hand to impose exorbitant toll as the Haryana Chief Minister's family had a “benami” stake in the said firm.

Youth INLD district president Balram Makdauli and Jitender Balhara said the youth brigade of the party would not let the open loot to continue in the name of toll. They threatened to protest at the toll plaza if the toll rates were not revised to provide relief to residents of the nearby areas.

Meanwhile, AAP national executive member Naveen Jaihind said if the party was voted to power in Haryana, it would abolish toll.

Sirsa, January 14
Several known supporters of the Left parties seem to be jumping on the AAP bandwagon as Arvind Kejriwal's party spreads its wings in Haryana.

Though leaders of almost all political parties, including the Congress, the INLD, the BJP and the HJC, express fears in private that the AAP could make a serious dent in their vote bank, Left parties seem to be the immediate loser with many of their known supporters joining it.

Among the recent entrants to the AAP who have been known exponents of Leftist, socialist and progressive ideology, the names of former HPSC Chairman DR Chaudhry and retired IPS officer VN Rai come on the top.

Poonam Chand Ratti, a former state president of the Sarv Karamchari Sangh, joined the AAP at Fatehabad and is now in the process of collecting 100 signatures each from the nine assembly segments of Sirsa so that he could stake claim to the parliamentary ticket.

In Sirsa, Prahlad Singh Bharukhera, a state committee member of the AAP today is also onetime supporter of the CPM and in fact, he contested a Zila Parishad election on CPM?s ticket against Sita Ram of the INLD four years back, though he lost it by a narrow margin.

Jatinder Kaur, a former district president of the All India Democratic Women Association (AIDWA) at Fatehabad, who still holds a post in the women organization of the CPM, said she would support AAP this time.

Ram Kishan Bhatla, who contested assembly election from Hansi on CPM ticket and Kalpana Jakhar, whose sister-in-law Shakuntala Jakhar is district president of the AIDWA in Hisar, also confirmed that they were going to join the AAP on Yogendra Yadav's visit to their area.

Besides those from the Left background, some leaders belonging to the mainline parties with centrist approach have also been joining the AAP. Prominent among them are former MP Het Ram who remained with the Lok Dal and Bansi Lal's Haryana Vikas Party; Zila Parishad member Suresh Mehta and municipal councillor Ramesh Mehta, both Congress leaders from Sirsa.

Inderjit Singh, state secretary of the CPM, however, said that neither VN Rai nor Poonam Ratti had any direct relation to the Left parties, since they were government employees. DR Chaudhry, he said, had remained with several parties, including the Lok Dal, Congress (Tiwari) as well as the Haryana Vikas Party.

AAP no threat to Congress in state: Bhukkal

Salhavaas (Jhajjar): Haryana Education and Social Justice Minister Geeta Bhukkal has rejected the perception that the AAP could pose a serious threat to the Congress in Haryana.

Interacting with mediapersons after inaugurating a community centre here today, Bhukkal said the AAP would not make any impact in Haryana as the Hooda government had carried out a lot of development in the state and people would surely reward the government in the coming elections. She said those joining the AAP in Haryana had no political background.

Sonepat, January 14
Deepak Kumar, a resident of Sonepat and president of the Haryana Manthan Art Group, has been awarded the Rashtriya Yuva Puruskar by the Union Ministry of Sports and Youth Welfare for his outstanding service in various social and welfare activities relating to sports, art and culture, free legal aid and Red Cross. He received the award from Union Minister of Sports and Youth

Welfare Jitender Singh in the National youth Festival at Ludhiana on January 12.

The award carries a medal, commendation certificate and a cash prize of Rs 40,000.

Hisar, January 14
Confronting the state government, Haryana employees’ unions have decided to observe a statewide two-hour strike tomorrow, which they term as a wake-up call to the government.

They are set to intensify their agitation against the government by resorting to a three-day strike from next Tuesday.

The unions alleged that the government had showed no interest in addressing their issues even after two days of chakka jam and strike on November 13, 14. Even now there had been no move from the government to have a dialogue, they claimed.

Dharambir Phogat, president of the Sarv Karamchari Sangh (SKS) and a member of the joint talmel committee of the SKS and Karamchari Maha Sangh (KMS) said tomorrow’s two-hour strike would be a wake-up call for the government. “The employees are in no mood to relent and they have shown their unity in the previous demonstrations. The Haryana Roadways employees would resort to four-days chakka jam from January 20 to 24 while other employees would remain on strike from January 21 to 23”.

“We have been waiting for a response from the government. Finally, we decided to step up the stir as the assurances from the government proved to be hollow so far,” he said.

The roadways employees had been protesting against the attempt to privatise the public transport system by issuing 3,519 licences to private transporters in the state. They also urged the government to purchase another 6,000 buses and recruit more drivers and conductors, he added.

The unions had been raising the issues concerning the employees with the government while opposing outsourcing, privatisation and demanding regularisation of temporary and contractual employees.

“Around one lakh temporary and contractual employees are serving in various departments. The government must come up with a specific policy to regularise them,” Phogat said.

Besides, Haryana police personnels who are demanding pay parity with the neighbouring states of Punjab, Himachal and Chandigarh have also decided to hold a meeting in Rohtak on February 2 to press the government for their demands.

Dilawar Singh, president of the Haryana Police Sangthan (HPS), said the police personnels are not satisfied with the risk allowance and interim relief announced by the state government. “Our main demand to revise the pay scale has not been addressed. We have been raising the demand without indulging in any indiscipline and would continue to do so until the state government accept our demands.

Hisar, January 14
After months of speculations, former minister and Congress leader Hari Singh Saini quit the party today. Though he has not revealed his further political move, sources said he could join the INLD in the next few days.

Saini, 77, who had been a minister during Lok Dal government in 1987, called a press conference to announce his decision to leave the Congress, stating that his voice was not being heard in the government regarding development of the town. — TNS

Rohtak, January 14
The detection of an impostor in the test for the posts of clerk-cum-data entry operator at Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here has exposed a cash-for-job racket going on at the university. The investigators maintained that the impostor, Ravi, had allegedly struck a deal with the job-seeker, Anoop, for Rs 2.5 lakh.

As per the deal, Ravi went to appear in the first stage of the test on behalf of Anoop. However, as he underwent fresh photography and videography at the exam centre, he reportedly became apprehensive of being caught and refused to take the second exam.

Hence, Anoop went to take the second exam himself and got caught as his face did not resemble the photograph of the candidate (Ravi) who had taken the first exam in his name.

Rohtak, January 14
Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) today inked an agreement with the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (USA), for academic and research collaboration. MDU Vice-Chancellor HS Chahal and Prof Jack Ahern, a representative of the University of Massachusetts, signed the pact.

Chahal said both universities would venture into joint academic and research programmes. Faculty and student exchange would be facilitated under this programme. Collaborative research in the area(s) of biotechnology, nanotechnology, environmental science, physical and chemical sciences would be facilitated. — TNS

Rewari, January 14
Jyoti Yadav (20), wife of Kedar Yadav, hanged herself at Bhoorthal Jat village, about 10 km from here, last evening.

The police has registered a case of dowry death against her husband, father-in-law Prem Chand Yadav, mother-in-law Murti Devi and two other residents of Bhoorthal Jat Village, on a complaint filed by Mahender Singh Yadav, father of the deceased and a resident of Alwar district in Rajasthan.

He said his daughter Jyoti, who got married to Kedar on March 14, 2012, was persistently harassed by her in-laws to bring more money . — OC

Rohtak, January 14
A team of the Health Department raided an illegal medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) centre at Sampla township in the district and arrested a woman, claiming to be a doctor, who was running the centre.

During her interrogation, the woman, Raj Mehta, admitted that she had been using wooden surgical tools, called laminaria tent, to conduct abortions.

Apart from the laminaria tent equipment, certain injections which were used in pregnancy termination procedure long ago were also found from the centre.

The woman has been booked under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code as well as under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.

According to the local residents, the illegal MTP centre had been operational in Mahajan Mohalla of the township for several years.

Interrogation of the quack was going on till the filing of this report.