Chandigarh : Reacting to Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal’s statement on his style of functioning, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday said he did not need any lessons from the former Deputy CM, who had “devastated the state with his misgovernance during the 10-year SAD-BJP regime”.

In a statement issued here, the CM alleged that given his own total failure on the governance front, Sukhbir had no locus standi to comment on anyone’s governance style.
Capt Amarinder said unlike the Akalis, led by the Badals, he believed in giving a free hand to his civil and police administration to function efficiently without fear or favour. Among his achievements, the CM counted lesser number of gang wars and targeted killings. He said the bureaucracy was now functioning more transparently.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Manpreet Badal also lambasted Sukhbir for “trying to mislead the people with his false statements on state’s financial situation”.

Chandigarh : A week after a controversy erupted around the mention of “unclean occupation” in the admission form to identify beneficiaries for a pre-matric scholarship among school students, its nomenclature stands changed.
The “Pre-matric Scholarship Scheme for Children of Those Engaged in Unclean Occupation” 2011, in the latest circular from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, has been referred to as “Pre-Matric Scholarship to the Children of Those Engaged in Occupations Involving Cleaning and Prone to Health Hazards”. The circular about continuation of the scheme is dated April 2, 2018.
The Manohar Lal Khattar government hoped that the change in name would silence opposition parties, essentially the Congress, which had raised the issue. The BJP had already gone to town to drive home the point that “unclean occupation” was borrowed from the name of the pre-matric scholarship scheme and coined by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre in 2011.

While the changed nomenclature found mention in the ministry’s latest circular, it was unclear when this had been effected. Though the Education Department maintained that the change had been conveyed in the circular for continuation of the scheme, it could well be an oversight that the change in name and use of “unclean occupation” went unnoticed in the past and got noticed only after the Congress raised a red flag.

Government sources maintained that though the controversial name of pre-matric scholarship for children of parents in “unclean occupation” was conceived during the UPA regime, they admitted that it did not find its way into admission forms till the BJP government assumed power in Haryana.

“It was after the BJP government came to power in the state that emphasis shifted to use of information technology, MIS portal was set up and online admission forms conceptualised. It was during the present government’s tenure that the question pertaining to unclean occupation found its way into the form,” said a government functionary, adding that it had been in admission forms for the past three years, but went unnoticed, even by the Congress.

Former Education Minister and Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal insisted that the term was not used by the previous Congress government during its term to identify beneficiaries under the scheme. “The scheme may have been named so during the UPA tenure, but it was never circulated in admission forms,” she pointed out.
Rajya Sabha member Kumari Selja said the UPA government did not introduce any such questionnaire during its tenure and the “100-point student admission” form seeking Aadhaar number of students, besides religion and caste, was violative and demeaning.

Congress caught on back foot

The term (‘unclean occupation’) was not used by the previous Congress government during its term. The pre-matric scholarship scheme may have been named so during the UPA tenure, but it was never circulated in admission forms — Geeta Bhukkal, Congress MLA

Phagwara : Tension prevailed in the town on Saturday as Shiv Sena leader Rajesh Palta was allegedly beaten up by Dalits at Balmiki Chowk here.

Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Tayab and Senior Superintendent of Police Sandeep Sharma are camping at Phagwara since Friday night.
Additional force has been deputed at sensitive places. The meetings of both communities are being held at separate places.

Meanwhile, the visit of Punjab BJP president Shawait Malik to Phagwara to address BJP councillors on Saturday morning has been cancelled owing to the tension.

Jalandhar : There was a tiff between Congress and BSP leaders here on Saturday over the garlanding of statue of Dr BR Ambedkar on his birth anniversary.

Congress leaders were able to perform the ceremony only after police cordoned off Ambedkar Chowk. 

Even BJP leaders Manoranjan Kalia, KD Bhandari and ex-mayor Sunil Jyoti were not allowed to perform the ceremony by the BSP.

BSP leaders have been protesting over no reprieve over the dilution of the SC/ST Act.

Chandigarh : The BJP government in Haryana has decided to make inroads into rural areas of the state with an eye on parliamentary and Assembly elections due next year.
Under the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, MLAs, MPs and ministers of the BJP will reach out to people living in all 6,841villages of the state from April 14 to May 5.
Besides, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is set to visit 260 villages with a population of 10,000 or above after the rabi harvesting season.
Sources say that though the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan is a national programme to be launched with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s broadcast on Ambedkar Jayanti (April 14), the Khattar government is taking this event as an opportunity to make inroads into the rural vote bank that has not been its forte.
Of the 47 seats won by the BJP in the 2014 Assembly elections, 26 were in urban areas — either district headquarters or sub-divisional towns —and 16 in semi-urban areas, comprising municipal bodies. Only five seats were in rural areas.
In contrast, Opposition parties — the INLD and Congress — had won more seats in rural areas.
Before 2014, the ruling party had a weak foothold in the state. Ever since the BJP was founded in 1980, it managed to reach two-digit figures only twice — in 1987 and 1996, when it won 16 and 11 seats, respectively.
On both occasions, the party had contested in alliance with Devi Lal’s Janata Dal and Bansi Lal’s Haryana Vikas Party.
“Immediately after forming his government, Khattar focused on rural development. The government wants to provide big villages with facilities available in urban areas so that villagers don’t have to migrate to towns,” said Rajiv Jain, media adviser to the Chief Minister.
Gram Swaraj Abhiyan itinerary

April 20: Free LPG cylinders to be distributed to villagers eligible under the Ujjwala Panchayat programme

April 22: Awareness programme on the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Pradhan Mantri Saubhagya Yojana

April 24: Gram sabhas will be organised on account of Panchayati Raj Divas

April 30: Swachh Bharat Parv will be observed

May 2: ‘Kisan karyashalas’ to be organised with an aim to double farmers’ income by 2022