Release of sugarcane payment, construction of new sugar mill

Karnal :
In continuation to their indefinite strike at Karnal co-operative sugar mill in support of their demands, 14 farmers under the banner of Bhartiya Kisan Union courted arrest on the 11th day of their protest. The demands include starting the construction work of a new sugar mill and releasing the payment of sugarcane farmers.

They raised slogans against the state government and alleged that it had failed to keep its promise and betrayed the farming community. Meanwhile, a police force was deployed there to maintain peace and harmony.

Confirming the arrest, Imran Raza, SDM, Gharaunda, said 14 farmers had courted arrest. Rattan Mann, state president of BKU, said they had given an ultimatum that by Friday afternoon any of the MLAs of Karnal district should come and give them a written assurance over both issues, but none of them turned up to give the assurance, so they courted arrest. “We will continue our protest till the fulfilment of our demands. The farmers will court arrest in Kurukshetra on August 4, in Yamunanagar on 5, in Kaithal on 6 and 7, in Jind on 8, in Bhiwani on 9, in Hisar on 10 and in Karnal women farmers will court arrest on August 11,” he maintained.

However, Harvinder Kalyan, Gharaunda MLA and Hafed chairman, in a press note appealed to the farming community to lift their dharna and assured them that the work on the new sugar mill would start by the end of September.

State Congress president was in Rewari for ‘interaction with students’ programme

Rewari :
A high drama was witnessed outside the main gate of Indira Gandhi University (IGU) at Meerpur village here when HPCC chief Ashok Tanwar along with hundreds of supporters were not allowed to enter the university campus by police personal deputed in large numbers there.

The situation became tense when Tanwar’s supporters resisted the police action and raised slogans against the BJP government and the university authority. Sensing the gravity of the situation, the police arrested Tanwar, state vice president Vandana Popli and youth Congress national secretary Chiranjeev Rao along with their supporters and took them to the Sadar police station in buses. All were released later.

Talking to mediapersons in the police station, Tanwar described the university authority’s action as attack on democratic rights. The Congress leader said he came here just to interact with students about their problems and future plans but the authority tried to suppress his voice by not letting him enter the university campus.

“I have been a students’ leader and use to raise their issues at various platforms during past over two decades but it was for the first time when I was restricted from entering the campus exposing the dictatorial attitude of the university authority,” said Tanwar, adding that the cops also used mild lathi-charge when they tried to enter the campus.
Actually, Tanwar was to attend ‘interaction with students’ programme organised by his supporters in the university premises on Thursday while the university authority issued a notice ahead of his visit disallowing political activities on the campus allegedly with an intention to restrict Tanwar’s entry to the university.

Elaborate arrangements were made to check the entry of outsiders in the university premises. Identity cards of students and teaching faculty were being checked at the main entrance. Except the university employees, vehicles of others were not being allowed to enter the campus, said the sources.

Rewari SP Rajesh Duggal said Tanwar and his supporters were arrested to avert any untoward incident as the ABVP workers had also threatened to show them black flags that might have led to chaos.

“Adequate numbers of police personnel were deployed in and outside the campus on the request of the university authority. The personnel handled the situation efficiently,” said Duggal, adding that 119 persons, including Tanwar, were arrested and released after some time.

No scientific methods used in probe, says Judge

Panchkula :
The Panchkula Additional Sessions Judge Narender Sura has come down heavily on the special investigation team (SIT) of the Haryana Police, which was formed to investigate the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) cash-for-job scam, for not using scientific methods to probe the entire scam.

While granting bail to accused Balwan and Subhash, the Judge said, “From the reply filed by way of affidavit of Adarshdeep Singh, who is member of the SIT, it is clear that the petitioner was having conversation in regard to the selection of many candidates and some of them have even been selected. None of the said candidates has been made an accused. The SIT had not verified the presence of the said persons and the accused at one place from the location of their mobile phones and the SIT had not even collected tower location chart of the candidates who were in touch with the petitioner for their selection to verify whether they were present at one place at any point of time or not. It is also an admitted fact that some of the selected candidates, who were in touch with the petitioner, had got very high marks in the interview i.e. 19 out of 25.”

The court further said, “It is also an admitted fact that no scientific test, including lie detector test etc, was got conducted upon any of the candidates or relatives of the candidates (who had contacted the petitioner) or mediator and without any custodial interrogation of such persons, the investigation team has reached the conclusion that no amount was paid.”

The court said, “It is unbelievable that none of the candidates had not paid any amount. A person, who has got selection through unfair means/by paying money, will not say that he had ever paid any amount. The SIT was required to use scientific tools/methods to unearth the entire scam.”

Scam linked to appointments 

The Haryana Chief Minister’s flying squad had arrested the accused on April 5. The scam is linked to the appointment of drivers, clerks and nurses against posts advertised by the Commission over one and a half years ago.

Charge-sheet filed  

The SIT had filed the charge-sheet against Subhash Sharma, who was heading the confidentiality branch of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC), when the alleged scam took place, besides another Subhash of the HSSC, assistants Anil Kumar, Rohtash Sharma and Sukhwinder, and IT cell employee of the HSSC Puneet Saini, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) employee Balwan, former manpower provider Dharminder and Irrigation Department assistant Surender Kumar. The police had lodged an FIR against the accused on April 5 in the Sector 5 police station under Sections 166, 167, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC and various Sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IT Act.

Panipat :
The controversy on the transfer of Civil Surgeon Dr SL Verma peaked after the transfer orders were received this evening.

Enraged members of the Haryana Civil Medical Services (HCMS) Association decided to suspend healthcare services and 29 health facilities without hampering the maternal and child health services, emergency and postmortem services in the district from Friday.
They submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through Deputy Commissioner Sumedha Kataria about their protest and the suspension of the OPD services from tomorrow morning in the night and also warned that if transfer order was not cancelled till the evening of August 5, all health services, including emergency, postmortem services etc, would be suspended from August 6.

Dr Verma was transferred to Nuh in Mewat district this evening by the authorities and the orders were received on mail. It was being alleged that he was transferred on the directions of MLA Ravinder Machroli.

Dr Narain Dabas, president HCMS, Dr Atish Shahi, general Secretary, Dr Rinku Sangwan, vice-president and other members gathered in the night in the General Hospital and held a meeting after the order was received at the Civil Surgeon’s office.

Dr Dabas said the Civil Surgeon Dr Verma was being victimised after the raid conducted on a quack’s clinic at Dehra village on July 21.

The doctors said it was a biased decision and an honest official was being harassed. The enraged members demanded reversion of the transfer of Dr Verma.
A Health Department team had raided a quack on July 21 in Dehra village in the Samalkha area, but people had opposed the team and had torn government papers and deleted the videos and photos clicked by the Health Department officials.

The villagers had called Machroli. The police booked 103 people on the complaint of Dr Munesh Kumar, Deputy Civil Surgeon and nodal officer, PNDT.

Hisar :
Talks between representatives of the Residents Welfare Association (RWA) and the Chief Administrator of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) broke down after the RWA failed to get a concrete assurance from the government on the demand for the re-calculation of enhancement charges on HUDA residents.

The RWA of Sector 16-17will start an indefinite hunger strike at the resident the BJP MLA Kamal Gupta on Friday, after the talks with the HUDA official failed at the HUDA headquarters in Panchkula. They held a dharna at the HUDA office in Hisar on Thursday.
RWA president Jitender Sheoran said their delegation met J Ganeshan, Chief Administrator, HUDA. During the discussion, the Chief Administrator could not give any time frame for the re-calculation. “Though the Chief Minister has agreed for the re-calculation during the previous meeting, the HUDA official could not give a deadline. We put forth another proposal to remove the enhancement charges included in the accounts of residents until re-calculation is done, the Chief Administrator again expressed inability to fulfil the condition”, said Sheoran.