Ambala :
Amid the controversy over former President Pranab Mukherjee’s decision to attend an RSS meet, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij on Wednesday said it should be mandatory for everyone to spend time with the organisation.

“The RSS is a nationalist organisation. It should be mandatory for all countrymen to go to the Sangh for some time. Many problems of the country will be resolved,” he tweeted.
Later in a statement, Vij welcomed the former President Pranab Mukherjee’s decision to accept invitation to the RSS invitation in Nagpur. “The RSS is a nationalist organisation that develops a person’s character,” he said.

The outspoken BJP minister is not new to controversies. On Wednesday, he had compared Congress president Rahul Gandhi to Nipah virus that left more than 10 dead in Kerala. “Rahul Gandhi is like Nipah virus. Any political party that comes in contact with him will be destroyed,” he had tweeted.

Earlier this month, he had backed a demand by several groups to ban namaz at public places and in the vicinities where the majority is of Hindus.

On April 24, Vij took to Twitter to attack the Congress. He wrote that the party’s flag should be red in colour as it was soaked in the blood of millions of innocent people.

Chandigarh :
In a major reprieve to guest teachers working in the state, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the termination of their services. The Bench has also put the state on notice for October.

The order by Sudhir Mittal came on a petition filed against the State of Haryana and other respondents by Kusum and other guest teachers through senior advocate Puneet Bali and Vibhav Jain.

Appearing before the Bench, Bali contended that the petitioners were amongst the 193 guests teachers whose services were initially terminated vide order dated January 1, 2015. But the Supreme Court, vide its order dated July 11, 2016, stayed the operation of the orders passed by the High Court. As a result, all guest teachers had to be taken back in service.

In the meanwhile, the petitioners, unqualified at the time of their appointment as guest teachers, acquired requisite qualifications or subject combination. Taking a note of the developments, a Division Bench of the HC held in May 2016, that such subsequent qualifications were required to be considered, even though the services of the guest teachers were to be replaced by regular employees.

Bali added the petitioners, as such, were entitled to remain in service at least till the time of their consideration for filling up the posts by regular employees. He added the impugned order dated May 16 this year was unsustainable as there was no justification for terminating the services of the petitioners during the currency of the Supreme Court order as well as High Court directions issued in May 2016.

After hearing the submissions, Justice Mittal stayed the operation of the impugned order. No less than 4,073 guest teachers were earlier shown the door. A Bench hearing the matter had asserted that guest teachers were appointed since 2005-06, but their services were not dispensed with even after appointment of regular teachers. Even those guest teachers, whose services were dispensed with, were re-engaged even after two to four months of their removal.

The Bench had added: “It is established that the state circumvented the order passed by this court either by not making the regular appointments and allowing the guest teachers to continue or despite making large number of appointments, adjusted the guest teachers against other vacancies. All the vacancies in any other cadre are never filled up…. The connivance of the appellants and the state as even observed by this court earlier is well established beyond doubt. This court cannot be a party to their design”.

Chandigarh :
Not enhancing the retirement age of government employees from 58 to 60 years, the Haryana Cabinet, which met under Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar here on Wednesday, decided to offer re-employment to those working in certain departments. 
Significantly, ahead of elections in Haryana, the Cabinet gave its nod to increasing MLAs’petty grant from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 15 lakh per annum from this current financial year. 
While no head of department (HoD) will now have a tenure of more than three years, accepting the recommendations of a Cabinet sub-committee, the Council of Ministers decided that officials in key departments would be given extension beyond retirement. 
Re-employment beyond the retirement age would be allowed only in case of departments looking after law and order, work of administrative importance, infrastructure development and basic public service.

The Administrative Department would assess the level and class of officials whose services needed to be retained beyond their retirement. Such a proposal would be approved by a committee chaired by the Haryana Chief Secretary.

The Cabinet also approved one-time relief to unauthorised commercial constructions and gave its nod to a comprehensive affordable housing policy in all municipalities. 
A decision was taken to revise water rates for “irrigation purposes” and “other than irrigation purposes” with the amendment of the Haryana Canal and Drainage Rules, 1976, and to transfer land measuring 446 acres of the total 846.43 acres with HMT Ltd, Pinjore, back to the state. It will be handed over to the HSIIDC for setting up an industrial estate.

Chandigarh :
The Haryana Government is set to purchase the vacant  land of the now-shut tractor unit of Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) Limited, located in Pinjore, and then develop it into an industrial estate. 

The move comes after an out-of-court settlement in a case pertaining to the resumption of the land.

A proposal in this regard will reportedly be tabled in the Cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

Under an agreement  between the Union Ministry of Heavy Industries and the state, over 440 acres of the tractor unit will be purchased at two rates. The land usable for setting up the industrial estate would be purchased at the prevailing collector rate, while the undulating terrain would be bought at a notional price, sources said. 

In 1962, Punjab had gifted 839 acres in Pinjore to the Centre for setting up an HMT unit to manufacture machine tools and allied products on an  understanding that the land would be returned once the factory was shut or moved out.

However, the HMT unit came up only on a part of that land. An area of around 446 acres was left vacant. Of these 446 acres, only 306 acres is usable land. Over the years, the “ailing” unit began to crumble due to recurring losses, making it difficult to break even or pay salaries.

With the Centre announcing closure of the watches and tractor units, the state issued a notice seeking the land back. This was challenged in court. Under an out-of-court settlement, the state would pay for the land and the money would be utilised to take care of salaries.

Rohtak :
A team of the West Bengal Police have arrested a woman on the charge of involvement in a child-trafficking-cum-prostitution racket in a joint operation with the Rohtak police.
The woman, identified as Geeta Saroj, had been residing in Rohtak and allegedly running the racket for about nine years.

The woman was arrested from the Asthal Bohar area in Rohtak on Monday. She was taken on transit remand by the West Bengal Police.

Haryana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights member BK Goel, who was present at the time of the operation, said no girl had been rescued from Rohtak and efforts were on to get details.

“Girls were sent from West Bengal in the name of jobs as domestic help or nurse through agents. The matter came to light when a trafficked girl managed to escape, returned to West Bengal and lodged a complaint in this regard,” Goel said on Tuesday.
A case had been registered at the Lake Town police station in Kolkata and some persons arrested from West Bengal. On the basis of information extracted from them, the police got to know about Geeta, based in Rohtak.

“She used to supply girls, mainly to university and college students. Several contact numbers were recovered from her. This was a big lead for us,” said Goel.

Rishi Kant, a representative of the NGO Shakti Vahini, said many cases had surfaced wherein minors were being brought to Haryana, Delhi and the NCR in the name of arranging jobs as domestic help and later pushed into prostitution.

Urban Estate police station SHO Parveen Kumar said the West Bengal Police had taken Geeta on transit remand. “If she reveals any information pertaining to our area during interrogation, we will take action accordingly,” he said.