Ambala, April 5
Leader of the opposition and senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj today said the people of the country wanted to overthrow the corrupt rule of the Congress government and restore a pro-development government at the Centre. They were fed up of corruption and scams of the UPA government and wanted to get rid of it.

Addressing an election rally in support of party candidate from Ambala constituency Rattan Lal Kataria at the HUDA grounds in Ambala city, she said the performance of UPA -II was full of disappointments and the people were wishing for mid-term poll so that the government of BJP could be established at the Centre.

Sushma Swaraj said the last BJP government under Atal Behari Vajpayee had set new precedents and given a new direction to the country. She claimed that there was a pro-BJP wave across the country and the party along with its alliance partners would form a strong government at the Centre. The NDA would get absolute majority in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election and the Congress would not cross even the double digit mark.

Making an appeal in favour of Kataria, she said he was an old member of the party and had been dedicatedly working for the Ambala constituency. Vouching for his honesty, she said the electorate should vote for him so that they get due representation at the union level after the elections.

While she did not say anything against alliance partner Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), whose president had campaigned in support of the INLD candidates in the state, Sushma Swaraj said the BJP-HJC alliance would win all the 10 seats in Haryana.

Haryana unit president of the party Ram Bilas Sharma said the Congress was a sinking ship and its leaders were now using cheap tactics to came to power again. There was huge resentment amongst the people of the country against the Congress and it would have to pay for its misdeeds in the elections.

The BJP leader reached the rally around four hours late as the helicopter which was scheduled to take her to Ambala could not take off from Delhi airport. Later, a chartered plane was arranged but she had to cancel her Kaithal rally due to the delay.

President of Haryana BJP Ram Bilas Sharma, leader of BJP legislature group assembly Anil Vij, former MLAs Veena Chibbar, Faquir Chand Aggarwal, Jasbir Malor and senior leaders of the party Aseem Goel, Naib Saini, Kanwar Pal Gujjar and Sandeep Sachdeva were also present on this occasion.

Kaithal, April 5
Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj disappointed people who had assembled at the old bus stand here today to hear her as she failed to turn up. She was to canvass for BJP-HJC candidate for Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat Raj Kumar Saini.

The organisers said Sushma's helicopter had developed some problem which had forced her to cancel the visit. The people had started pouring in to the venue of the rally from 11 am. While some local leaders kept giving speeches, the organisers intermittently informed the people that Sushma was on her way to Kaithal.

However, around 1.30 pm the organisers announced that Sushma was not coming and abruptly concluded the rally. 

Safidon (Jind), April 5
With the delimitation of constituencies under the Delimitation Act 2002, that practically came into being during the last elections, voters have been divided in such a way that constituencies no longer provide a distinct advantage to anyone on the bases of caste.

Though there are still pockets that have dominant groups, the Jat heartland, for example, that falls under the Jind district of the state has five Assembly segments, but three Assembly segments are now a part of Sonepat district and one each under Hisar and Sirsa parliamentary segments.

This division has made the task of political parties daunting and they have to work overtime to woo a bigger cross-section of voters to secure a constituency. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has single-handedly moved to each and every Assembly segment to ensure that no area is left uncovered.

In the Jat heartland in and around Jind district, that is traditionally considered to be the backbone of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), managing campaigns are far more difficult now. Julana, Safidon and Jind Assembly segments are now a part of Sonepat parliamentary constituency while Uchana, that sent Om Prakash Chautala to the Vidhan Sabha, is a part of Hisar parliamentary segment and Narwan has been reserved and attached to the Sirsa (reserve) parliamentary segment.

It is said that during his term in office, Chautala had prevailed upon the Delimitation Commission to carve out Assembly segments in a way that would give the INLD a distinctive advantage. This had come as a big disadvantage for the INLD in the General Election as Ghanaur, Rai, Kharkhauda, Sonepat and Gohana Assembly segments in Sonepat parliamentary segment have non-Jat votes that overshadow Jat votes in the three Assembly segments in Jind district.

Interestingly, Jind district is the only district in the state where the electorate elects three MPs in the elections, yet the district, an erstwhile 'riyasat', remains without an MP. There is a lot of talk about Jind district deliberately being divided in three MP constituencies to weaken the impact of Jat votes and balance the caste factor in non-Jat votes in other constituencies. Hisar has a good number of non-Jat votes, Sirsa has a large number of Dalit votes and Sonepat is known for having a large number of non-Jat votes.

With campaigning drawing to a close, political parties are now doing their last-minute fact-finding to ensure that there is no area where campaigning has not been done at least once. With Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi scheduled to address election rallies in Panipat and Sirsa, electioneering has reached a crescendo.

Chandigarh, April 5
Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma today slammed the Gujarat model of development, terming it as a disaster while alleging that the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate was arrogant. He highlighted the Congress-led UPA’s legal and regulatory framework to bring about transparency and admitted that the Congress had been slack in countering the negative propaganda of the BJP.

Addressing a press conference here today in support of Congress candidates in Haryana, Sharma said, “The Gujarat model of development is a disaster, with the state very low on social indices, whether it is school dropout rate, malnutriotion, power or sanitation. Gujarat has the third highest public debt in the country.”

Launching a scathing attack on Modi, he said the BJP candidate projected himself above the party, country and society. “He is arrogant, bitter and intolerant, relying heavily on falsehood. He does not like being questioned and replies to no one, only makes his point at rallies and leaves. One individual above everybody is the gravest threat to democracy,” Sharma said.

Claiming that Modi had begun to dwarf his party seniors, Sharma alleged, "Beginning with belittling LK Advani, he went on to MM Joshi, Kalraj Mishra and Jaswant Singh. There are others on his hit-list.” Taking on BJP’s Amit Shah, he said the leader, seen as Modi’s closest aide, reflected the character and communal ideology of the party when he exhorted caste groups to be ready to take revenge.

He added that this election was a poll between the Congress that united and the others that believed in polarisation and divisive politics, stating that the UPA deserved another change for the “good administration despite the global slowdown” during its rule.

Claiming that India was the second fastest growing economy, he admitted that inflation had been the biggest challenge, but said the government had done all it could to bring it down. He listed UPA achievements. “The BJP and Modi talk of smart cities, but we have done that. They take our ongoing projects, package those and sell those as their idea when, in reality, these are our projects,” he claimed.

Jhajjar, April 5
Congress nominee from Rohtak and two-time MP Deepender Singh Hooda has said people will not support the INLD and the BJP-HJC alliance in the elections as their leaders encouraged criminalisation of politics and promoted corrupt politics in the state.

"People will never go back to the time when criminals under the patronage of non-Congress governments in the state used to seek extortion money from businessmen, doctors and shopkeepers, besides perpetrating other heinous crime freely," Deepender said while talking to The Tribune.

He maintained that development and corruption were the major issues in the elections and would play a decisive role in deciding the fate of every party. The state had witnessed remarkable development due to sincere efforts of the Congress government during last nine years, he claimed.

Training his guns on the BJP-HJC combine on the corruption issue, Deepender said it was ridiculous that they were raising the issue of corruption. He claimed that one party had been facing serious allegations of selling the ticket to Congress turncoats and removing its leaders from the political scene while the other had been born from corrupt politics and was defamed in the state for this reason.

"Though a lot of development has already been carried out in the state, a lot more needs to be done. I wish to see Haryana on the world map as one of the most developed states like Singapore and Shanghai. The foundation in this regard has already been laid," he said. He called upon the people to exercise their franchise in favour of the party which had a vision of overall development.

Kurukshetra, April 5
The Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (HSGPC) today extended its support to the INLD for the Lok Sabha elections following assurance given by Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and president of the SAD Sukhbir Singh Badal that the Sikh community of Haryana will get what it is entitled for.

HSGPC chief Jagdish Singh Jhinda said the formal announcement was made in the presence of INLD state chief Ashok Arora after a meeting with his supporters.

Jhinda said, “The Centre and the state government have always discriminated against the Sikh community. The Congress has always sought our support during elections, but has never fulfilled its promises. Now we have extended our support to the INLD and will canvass for it in the elections.”

Arora, who also reached there, thanked the committee members for their support and said, “The INLD is with the Sikh community and we will make sure that they get what they are demanding. A formal announcement is expected to come after April 30.”

Joga Singh, state secretary, HSGPC, said, “Sukhbir has given an assurance that a sub-committee would be constituted, which will take care of all the matters related to the gurdwaras of Haryana. The sub-committee would have the autonomy and only the president of the committee would be from the SGPC. All other members would be of the HSGPC. The budget made would be sanctioned by the SGPC without any alteration and the donation would be spent on the gurdwaras of Haryana only.”

Chandigarh, April 5
Finding an antidote to teachers’ shortage in government schools, the Haryana Government has formulated a new policy to re-employ retired teachers.

In a communication to District Education Officers (DEOs) and District Elementary Education Officers (DEEOs) on April 4, the Director-General (Elementary Education) directed them to engage retired teachers up to five per cent of sanctioned strength to tide over the shortage of teachers.

“To operationalise the system, a central information database will be created. This database will be linked to the school information site which has updated information on class-wise and subject-wise information of students and teachers. The demand will be examined against the information available to calculate the actual requirement of additional teaching staff,” the communication said.

Against the backdrop of the acute shortage of teachers in government schools, a high-level meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on June 6, 2013, decided in principle to prepare a panel of retired teachers up to five per cent sanctioned strength.

Under the re-employment scheme, teachers would be entitled to a fixed remuneration of entry level pay plus grade. While postgraduate teachers would be paid Rs 16,890 per month, trained graduate teachers would get Rs 14,830 and primary teachers would be given Rs 13,500 per month.

Official sources said under the RTE Act, the vacancies should not exceed 10 per cent of the total sanctioned strength. However, teachers are entitled to various categories of leave such as half-pay leave, commuted leave, earned leave and study leave, besides maternity leave and child care leave for female teachers.

The number of teachers going for leave, coupled with general shortage of teaching staff, has necessitated the need to recruit retired teachers teach so that children’s studies are not affected adversely in the new academic session, the source added.

Sonepat, April 5
Asha Hooda, wife of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, today sought votes for son Deepender Singh Hooda and Congress nominee Jagbir Singh Malik in Sisana village.

She reportedly chose Sisana village as it is one of the most densely populated villages in the constituency and adjoining her native Matindu village of the Dahiya khap.

While addressing an election meeting, she said before 2005, the Kharkhoda assembly constituency was categorised a backward area. No one in the previous governments in the state had taken care of the people of this region, she alleged

“After the inception of Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s government in Haryana in 2005, the area has witnessed a sea change,” she said and claimed that with the completion of the ongoing projects, the Kharkhoda area would become a favourite destination of MNCs.

Chandigarh, April 5
Admonishing Education Secretary Surina Rajan for failure to provide basic facilities to the panel constituted for regulation of fee charged by private schools, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today verbally observed that the Bench would not hesitate to put her behind bars for defiance of judicial orders.

Rajan was present in the court when the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul made the verbal observations.

The rap came after a letter was received from Justice (retd) Kiran Anand Lal on the indifferent attitude of the Education Department in providing basis facilities to the panel.

In her letter, Justice Anand told the High Court that she was provided a small room not sufficient for functioning. She added the state also failed to provide her a complete list of schools in the state and she was not being compensated for the work.

The High Court had constituted the committee headed by Justice Kiran Anand Lal to see whether private schools in the state were charging reasonable fee. The court had also directed the Secretary to provide a suitable office to the committee.

Yamunanagar, April 5
The police have arrested three youths, two of whom are brothers, on the charge of raping a Jagadhri resident.

The police said the accused had been identified as Rahul and his brother Rohit, alias Joni, and Naveen of Jagadhri.

The victim said the youths raped her when she was alone at her house on February 20 and prepared an MMS. She said they threatened to upload it on the Internet and started blackmailing her.

She added that when she turned down their demand, they upload the MMS on the Internet and then she informed her family about the incident.

The police booked and arrested the three youths yesterday. They were produced in court today, which remanded them in 14-day judicial custody.