Sonepat, June 5
The Congress will contest the forthcoming Assembly elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar.

This was stated by Asha Kumari, AICC secretary and co-in charge of the party affairs in Haryana, while talking to mediapersons here today.

She said the Congress high command would take a decision on those who worked against the party candidates in the Lok Sabha elections.

She said the dissolution of the party units in the state was an indication that the party high command had taken the anti-party activities seriously. “The party high command will soon constitute new bodies in consultation with the Chief Minister, state party president and other senior leaders,” she added.

On the BJP’s victory in the Lok Sabha elections, the CM said it was not the victory of the BJP, but it was a one-man (Narendra Modi) show. “Now that climax is over and the people in Haryana will vote for the Congress for the sake of development and welfare of every sections of society,” he said.

He reiterated that in the Assembly elections, the party would give 50 per cent tickets to youths and winability would also be the criteria in distribution of the tickets.

Tanwar said after completing the district-level party workers’ meetings at Gurgaon on June 28, the party would start its election campaign in every Assembly segment.

Earlier, they addressed a workers’ meeting and urged them to reach up to booth level to acquaint the voters with the policies and programmes of the government. 

Panipat, June 5
Following the party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections, the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) has started a damage control exercise ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled to be held in October this year.

State Congress spokesperson Karamvir Saini said: “We have decided to re-start liasioning with mediapersons at the district level and make optimum use of the social media. We will ask our leaders to create Facebook and Twitter accounts to spread pro-public policies of the state government.”

He said, “During the Lok Sabha elections, we have failed to inform the public about several welfare schemes launched by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government.”

“Now, we will do away with our shortcomings and leave no stone unturned during the forthcoming Assembly elections,” he said.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will visit Panipat on June 8 to address a meeting of party workers. The meeting will also be addressed by HPCC president Ashok Tanwar and Congress secretary Asha Kumari.

Yamunanagar, June 5
A major revolt has surfaced in the ruling Congress after the Lok Sabha elections.

Expressing displeasure over discrimination against Yamunanagar district, Rajpal Bhukri, MLA from Sadhaura, has demanded an apology from Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and decided to boycott the CM’s visit to Yamunanagar on June 7.

Addressing a press conference at his residence in Jagadhri today, Bhukri said dedicated party workers would not attend the workers’ meeting to be addressed by the Chief Minister and state Congress president Ashok Tanwar on June 7 here.

“Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has ignored Yamunanagar district in terms of development in the past nine-and-a-half years. People of this district have been suffering from a number of problems caused by discrimination in development . So, it has been decided to boycott the CM’s programme,” said Rajpal Bhukri.

He said the dissolution of district units of the party when the state Assembly elections were round the corner was wrong.

Bhukri alleged that district observers were made recently with the CM’s consent. However, many observers were such leaders who had joined the Congress deserting other political parties a few years ago.

“We will complain to the Congress high command and demand the removal of such observers,” said Rajpal Bhukri

Bhiwani, June 5
Students put up a better show in this year’s Haryana Board of School Education (HBSE) exams, though girls continued to fare better than boys.

As many as 60.84% and 72.91% of the total students who appeared in Class 10 and Class 10+2, respectively, were declared pass.

The girls’ pass percentage was 63.8 and 80.62 in Class 10 and Class 10+2 as against 58.42 and 66.99 for boys.

The HBSE, which declared the results today, said 3,52,729 students appeared in Class 10 of which 2,14,584 were successful. A total of 2,68,406 students took the Class 10+2 exam of which 1,95,693 passed. The results shows an improvement of over 10 percentage point in both classes, as compared to the previous year when the pass percentage in Class 10 class was a miserable 50.79 per cent.

Significantly, rural students outsmarted their urban counterparts in Class 10. Their pass percentage stood at 60.96 as compared to 60.44 in urban schools. However, government schools put up a dismal show. Private schools had a success rate of 73.49 while only 50.18 students succeeded in private schools.

Sonepat topped the result chart, where 77.15 per cent of its 19,817 students successful. The lowest pass percentage in Class 10 was in Panchkula at 45.51.

Chandigarh, June 5
Over 15,000 students belonging to the economically weaker sections (EWS) will get free education in private schools across Haryana.

With the Education Department releasing the second list of over 6,000 students (Class III to Class XII) today, decks have been cleared for free admission of the these students to private schools.

Earlier, the Education Department had released a list comprising nearly 9,000 students of Class I and II for admission to private schools under Rule 134-A of the Haryana School Education Rules .

Sonepat topped the second list with 747 students,followed by Bhiwani (605 students), Kaithal (490). The other districts with the number of students in the second list included Ambala (181), Rohtak (368), Faridabad (154), Gurgaon(117), Hisar(306), Jhajjar(195), Jind(457), Karnal(228), Kurukshetra (340), Mahendragarh (137), Mewat (229), Palwal (240), Panchkula (1), Panipat (318), Rewari (290), Sirsa (287) and Yamunanagar (139). Satyavir Singh Hooda, president of 2+5 Jan Mudde, who fought a prolonged legal battle with the Haryana Government’s alleged apathetic attitude over admission of poor students to private schools, welcomed the release of the second list of poor students by the Education Department.

Satyavir Hooda, however, threatened to gherao Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda if the remaining vacant seats of nearly 2.5 lakh meant for the poor were not filled by the state government within a week.

Jhajjar, June 5
The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was formed to probe fake arms licence racket being run from Deemapur in Nagaland, returned after collecting vital evidence.

Sources said the racket was being run in eight states of the country through a chain of agents reportedly connected with the Collector’s office of Deemapur. Numerous entries had been detected in the bank account of an agent wherein hefty amount had been deposited in the account many times from these states, sources said.

They said the racket was flourishing in Delhi, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, besides Haryana from where a huge amount of cash had been deposited in the bank account of the agent.

The team carried out raids at the possible hideouts of the agent in Nagaland for over a week but could not succeed in arresting him.

The agent had been on the run ever since his name cropped up in the racket, sources added.

The SIT had to face a tough time in collecting evidence as officials of the Deemapur Collector’s office did not cooperate with them, they added.

The SIT would submit its report to Inspector General of Police, Rohtak Range, Anil Kumar Rao, tomorrow.

The state police had so far detected a large number of arms licences that were issued without proper verification.

Several criminals, including those lodged in jails, also managed to get arms licences on the basis of fake documents.

Sources said as many as 10 FIRs had been lodged at various police stations of Sonepat, Panipat, Rohtak and Jhajjar districts. Involvement of some arms dealers in the racket was also being probed.

The police also found involvement of two Bahadurgarh-based arms dealers in the racket.

Bahadurgarh Deputy Superintdent of Police (DSP) Sumit Kumar said the SIT had succeeded in getting important evidence regarding the racket from Nagaland.

Chandigarh, June 5
The forthcoming kharif season crop will give farmers 50 per cent profit and work has begun to revise minimum support price (MSP) in sync with the input cost and the calculations of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices will also be based on the same.

This was stated by the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kisan Morcha, OP Dhankar, at a press conference here today. He said the BJP-led government at the Centre was initiating steps to fulfill its commitment to the farmers and the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendation of 50 per cent profit on the price of crop to the farmers was being taken up on priority.

Stating that the Kisan Morcha will convene a meeting of the national executive body on June 7 and June 8 in Bahadurgarh to discuss farmers’ issues, Dhankar said after fighting for the rights of farmers for 10 years, the time to draft policies on these issues had come.

“Union Agriculture Minister Radhamohan Singh Des will interact with 3,000 state farmers in Bahadurgarh and he will also address farmers drawn from all over the country during the meeting,” Dhankar said.

Demanding a bonus of Rs 150 per quintal from the Haryana Government on the lines of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, Dhankar said the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government has been trying to evade giving money. “The government should pay Rs 300 bonus to give at least little relief to the farmers,” he said.

He demanded security for crops that neither have a fixed market value nor are procured by government agencies. He said a policy had to be formulated rather than leaving farmers to the mercy of the market.

Asked about the fate of the BJP-HJC alliance, Dhankar said the BJP was keen to go into the Assembly election with its alliance partner, the HJC. “However, the parameters of the alliance have to be re-worked according to the changed political scenario in the state,” he said, refusing to directly comment on whether or not the BJP will insist of its own chief minister and stick to the 50-50 seat sharing formula worked out before the Parliamentary elections.

On losing the election from Rohtak, Dhankar said it seemed the entire Haryana Government was fighting the election against him. He hinted at internal sabotage, without naming any leader, but admitted that everyone knew Jat leader Capt Abhimanyu had not campaigned in Rohtak.

“He (Capt Abhimanyu) wasn’t even there when our prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, addressed a rally in my favour. I am only saying it would have been good had he been around,” Dhankar said.

Claiming that the party would decide on whether or not he should contest the Assembly election, Dhankar said the party’s central committee was deliberating on naming the chief minister candidate before the poll. “If the candidate is decided before the election, the central committee will announce the name. Post-election, elected MLAs will decide,” he said.

Karnal, June 5
With no arrests being made in the last nine days, in the kidnapping and rape case of an eight-year-old-girl, it was a day of widespread protests in the district.

On one side, the District Bar Association protested by wearing black badges and handed over a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner Balraj Singh for the Chief Minister, on the other, two social activists in Gharaunda shaved their heads and demanded arrest of the accused.

Few protesters also organised a religious ceremony at the Gharaunda temple against police inaction. Meanwhile, the local markets would be closed tomorrow as a mark of the protest against police inaction.

Raj Kumar Chauhan, President of the Bar Association, alleged the police failed to nab the culprit. The family members were in shock and the rape victim’s health was critical. He demanded immediate arr-est of the accused and financial help for the rape victim.

Earlier in the morning the association members assembled in the court and wore black badges. On Thursday morning, locals assembled at a temple and raised slogan against police inaction.

They also organised a religious ceremony and two social activists Shyam Lal and Rakesh shaved their head in support of their demands.

Rewari, June 5
Concerned over having the country’s lowest gender ratio in the first quarter of this year, the district authorities have convened a meeting of officials of the Health, Panchayat, Aanganwari, Women and Child Development Departments here on June 7 to chalk out a strategy to improve the ratio.

Sources said the Deputy Commissioner had sought village-wise report about the current and past gender ratio and efforts made to make the people aware about female foeticide besides executing the PNDT Act efficiently. Moreover, details of registration of pregnant women at health centres had also been sought.

The birth registration record shows the most dismal gender ratio of 674 females per 1,000 males in Rewari district, which is the lowest in the country. Earlier, the district recorded the gender ratio of 797: 1000 in 2011.

Interestingly, the lowest gender ratio has been found in those villages where the health authorities have persistently been running awareness programmes to improve the gender ratio.

Chandigarh, June 5
Admonishing the district administration for failure to perform its statutory duty, the Punjab and Haryana Court has directed the Kurukshetra Deputy Commissioner, the Centre and other authorities to ensure that the road in Birla Mindir vicinity is without obstruction by July 31.

The reprimand and the directions came on a petition filed by Surender and another petitioner against Haryana and other respondents.

Taking up the petition, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Arun Palli observed: “The material annexed to the petition paints a pathetic picture, where in the vicinity of Birla Mindir the road itself has been encroached upon, decreasing its width from 82 feet to 63 feet, a fact verified by information obtained through the Right to Information Act”.

The Bench went on to observe that the petitioners submitted a representation dated February 2 to the Kurukshetra, Deputy Commissioner, but to no avail. “Even the courtesy of response has not been shown. It is a clear case of failure to perform statutory duty”.

The Bench also asserted: “There is also an issue of encroachment on a part of the Railways land and that is the reason the Union of India has been impleaded as a respondent. We call upon the respondent-authorities to take action in accordance with law to ensure that the sanctioned road is without any obstruction and clear for traffic by July 31”.

Disposing of the petition with these directions, the Bench also fixed September 5 as the date for informing the Bench about the compliance of the orders.

The High Court has already asked Haryana to act against encroachers in the State and inform the Bench on action taken to implement a Supreme Court judgment on the issue.

The directions were issued on a petition filed by Balbir Singh and other petitioners on encroachment over a village pond in Karnal district.

Sirsa, June 5
Despite a ban imposed on transplantation of paddy before June 15, hundreds of farmers have planted the crop in their fields in various villages of Sirsa district.

“We have issued notices to 25 farmers in the district. At Santowali Dhani near Jeewan Nagar, the department has destroyed the paddy crop transplanted by a farmer in violation of the rules,” said Wazir Singh, Deputy Director, Agriculture, Sirsa.

Keeping in view the fast depleting groundwater, the state government has banned sowing of paddy before May 15 and its plantation before June 15.

The Agriculture Department said the rotation crop cycle of wheat and paddy had led to depletion of groundwater.

Wazir Singh said as the atmosphere was too hot and there was a very little humidity in the air, 4,500 litres of water would be used to grow 1 kg rice if the paddy was transplanted before June 15.

However, by delaying the transplantation till June 15, the water consumption per kilogram of rice came down to 1,500 litres -- a saving of 67 per cent water.

He said due to lack of humidity in the atmosphere, the evapotranspiration (combined loss of water to the atmosphere due to evaporation and plant transpiration) was almost three times than it was after June 15.

Paddy farmers, however, have their own reasons to go for early transplantation of the crop.

“It is very difficult to find labour for transplantation these days. We have to go for it as soon as we get the labour, as they will not wait for us otherwise,” said a farmer from Rania in Sirsa.

Karnal, June 5
The Crime Branch busted a racket involved in the extortion of money from people on the pretext of withdrawing rape charge.

A member of the gang, identified as advocate Jaipal of Karnal, was arrested and produced in the local court today and sent to judicial custody. Varinder Kumar, Inspector, Crime Branch, said an extortion racket was being run in Karnal by three advocates, who would falsely implicate people in cases relating to rape charges and then force them to shell out money for a compromise.

He said a case was registered by an Ambala woman at the city police station on April 18, under section 376 of the IPC. But, after sometime she retracted her statement.

On the complaint of the girl, the Crime Branch investigated the case and registered a case against the five persons including two women and three advocates in this regard, and one of the accused advocates was arrested. — TNS

Yamunanagar, June 5
A day after a bus with 35 passengers on board, including 32 students, two care takers and a driver of the Balkunj (orphanage) in Chhachhruli, met with an accident, a teams of senior officials from Chandigarh and Yamunanagar visited the Balkunj on Thursday.

Indu Dahiya, general secretary, Haryana State Council for Child Welfare, Chandigarh, visited the Balkunj and took stock of the situation. She also met the injured students and the staff members and inquired about their health.

The general secretary also held a meeting of the staff members and directed them to look after the injured students properly. She also directed the authorities posted there not to commit any negligence in the governance of the Balkunj.

OP Mehra, senior child welfare officer, Chandigarh; Poonam Sood, adoption officer, Chandigarh; Virender Singh Yadav, district child welfare officer, Panchkula, and Richa Budhiraja, district child protection officer, Yamunanagar, also visited the institution and held meetings with the officers.

Sixteen children and two employees of Balkunj under district Yamunanagar had received injures when a bus they were travelling in, rammed into a tree on the National Highway-73A near Manakpur village, on Wednesday morning.

A child in critical condition was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh.

The bus had left for DAV College for Girls, Yamunanagar, where a one-month long summer camp had been organised for the children of Balkunj since June 2.

The bus rammed into a tree on its way to Yamunanagar. The injured, who were admitted at the Trauma Centre, were discharged on Thursday. — TNS

KAITHAL, JUNE 5
On a call given by the All Haryana Employees’ Coordination Committee, the staff of various government departments from Guhla block held a demonstration in support of their demands in Cheeka today.

The members rejected the recently announced regularisation policy for ad hoc employees. They assembled at the Devi Lal Park and later led by block president Dharam Chand Nain raised slogans against the state government at the Udham Singh Chowk.

Addressing the employees, Nain said they could not accept the recently announced regularisation policy of the Hooda government.

He said the Chief Minister had not learnt a lesson from his party’s defeat in the recent Lok Sabha polls. Mamu Ram Sirohi and Raja Ram , the secretary and treasurer of the body, respectively, said the government had promised to follow the regularisation policy on the Punjab Pattern. However, under the recently announced policy, services of only 3,000 employees would be regularised.