Karnal :
Blaming the state government for spoiling sports culture in Haryana, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that the new order of the state government was unfortunate. In this order the government has asked the players— those employed with them or any state controlled organisation— to pay one-third of their income from professional sports or commercial endorsements to the State Sports Council.

“Since the BJP government came to power, it has spoiled the sports culture for which Haryana has a name,” said Hooda while interacting with mediapersons at the residence of Ashok Khurana, former executive district president.

He blamed the state government for not taking any concrete steps for the uplift of sports. “We have initiated the policy of ‘padak lao, naukri pao’ (bring medal, get job), but the state government has been doing entirely different,” he alleged.

He blamed Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for not bringing any big project for his own constituency Karnal.

“I have given several big projects to each district, and the present government was only inaugurating the projects started by me. I ask the people what the Chief Minister has done for them. He has failed even to bring a single project for his constituency,” he said.
He did not comment on the allegations levelled by an IAS officer against the senior IAS officer, but said that women were not safe in Haryana. This government has failed to maintain law and order situation.

When asked about his Jankranti Yatra, he said that the third round would be commenced from Mewat. The people had given a good response to earlier road shows.

Chandigarh :
Summoned by the Haryana State Commission for Women (HSCW) to explain her allegations, the woman IAS officer who on Sunday posted on Facebook allegations of sexual harassment against her boss, on Monday emerged out of the HSCW’s Panchkula office dissatisfied, questioning its transparency.

“The senior woman IAS officer, who has already been dissuading me against lodging my complaint, was allowed to sit with the HSCW chairperson and other members. She continued disrupting me whenever I tried to explain my allegations. I lodged my protest against her questions on my statement,” the victim told mediapersons waiting outside the HSCW’s office.

Claiming that she was being harassed ever since she joined three years back because of her honesty, the woman IAS officer said she requested the HSCW to allow some independent agency like the CBI to conduct an inquiry into her allegations.
The woman officer said she had sent e-mails to the Chief Secretary and the police. If she did not get justice, she would fight a battle in court, she said.

Taking suo motu notice of media reports in this regard, the HSWC had summoned the woman officer as well as her boss, an IAS officer of rank of Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), to explain. While the woman IAS officer arrived in the office at 2 pm as scheduled, her boss kept away.

Pratibha Suman, chairperson of the HSCW, said the ACS had been given three days, but they told him to appear before the commission on Wednesday.

The HSCW chairperson denied allegations of interference by a senior woman IAS officer in the proceedings and said she was present because she had been asked by the commission to join investigation.

This was not the first time that the ACS named by the woman IAS officer in her Facebook post had landed in trouble while dealing with woman subordinates.
In August last year, when the officer was posted as ACS in the Forest Department, a woman IFS officer had alleged that she was being subjected to continuous pressure in discharge of statutory functions.

In her complaint to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the woman officer had accused the ACS of “continuous verbal abuse not conducive to establishment of a safe working environment for a lady officer”.

“Words like bloody fool and crooked were used by him over phone. I was told that I would not be spared and would be made to pay. Impartial and unbiased discharge of duty cannot be ensured in such circumstances,” she had written to Khattar, with copies to the Chief Secretary and others.

Refuting the allegations, the ACS had then maintained that if somebody did not perform duty well, he had to tell the officer to do so. He said abusive language was not his nature.
Meanwhile, without commenting on the veracity of the woman IAS officer’s allegations, another senior IAS officer said he was surprised that the ACS had called a meeting in Rohtak on Sunday afternoon and wanted an Additional Secretary to come there. “An Additional Secretary has a job profile of file work in the Secretariat. She is not a field functionary,” said the other senior officer.

The IAS officer facing allegations justified his directive, saying the purpose of calling her to Rohtak was to make her familiar with the problems of field staff in the department. In her complaint, the woman IAS officer had claimed that her boss was forcing her to go to a meeting in Rohtak.

Hisar :
Keen on pursuing medicine, Haryana school board Class XII joint topper Naveen Kumar has cleared NEET, ranked 1,554 in the OBC category,  but  is worried that lack of funds may come in the way. 

Belonging to a family with modest means, he is looking to the state government for help. His father Ran Singh, who works as a compounder with a private clinic, is still smarting under the insult of his son being left out of a reward function in Bhiwani on June 4.  
“I am hurt. Naveen keeps asking why the state Education Minister chose to ignore him while presenting a cheque for Rs 4 lakh to the co-topper, Heena.” He now plans to seek a bank loan to sponsor his son’s education. “The government must extend help to bright students from underprivileged sections,” he adds. 

Naveen claims the government is partial with students from government schools. “I worked as hard as Heena, who passed out from a government school. I am proud that we both belong to the same town. But the government must not treat us differently. This hurts me and my father,” he says.

Jagbir Singh, Haryana Board of School Education Chairman, denies the charge. “Heena was given financial aid as her family had appealed to the Education Minister for it. Apparently, no such request was made by Naveen’s family,” he explains.

Naveen has two sisters older than him. A small house in Shiv Colony and two buffaloes is all that the family has. Naveen had secured the sixth place in matriculation following which his school had waived his entire fee. 

A private institute had offered him free coaching for NEET. He is now awaiting a similar gesture from the government.

Chandigarh : 
A woman IAS officer of Haryana cadre has accused her superior — a bureaucrat of the rank of additional chief secretary — of sexual harassment.

The woman, an officer of the 2014 batch, said in a Facebook post today that the senior officer would make her stay late at work — until 7 or 8 pm, make unwanted advances, and even tried to threaten her into not putting on record dissenting comments about work because it would reflect poorly on the department.

She went on to allege that the officer has also threatened to "spoil" her ACR.
The IAS officer against whom the woman has made the allegations, however, termed these as "false and baseless". He told The Tribune that he had instead gone out of his way to help her after she was posted in the department that he is heading.
"I tried my best to provide all facilities to her. She did not even have a room for her office and I asked my staff to provide one," he said.

He alleged the woman officer had been "finding faults" in every official file that had already been cleared by others and writing notes that the files be sent to Advocate General or Legal Remembrance for opinion.

Rubbishing the allegations of threat to spoil the woman's ACR, the officer said he rather advised her that in case she continued writing adverse comments of files like this, some others could spoil her ACR.

In her Facebook post, the woman IAS officer alleged, "It was on May 22 that he first called me to his office and asked me that I should mend my ways or face music throughout my career. He asked me not to make any comments on files as it highlighted what was going wrong in department and if I did not abide he would not just get me transferred from department within two months but would also complain against me. He also threatened to spoil my ACR."

She claimed that the officer was forcing her to go with him to an event at Rohtak, where he was scheduled to deliver a discourse on spirituality.

"Even my security has been withdrawn and I fear that the officer and his men can harm me physically on way back from Rohtak in the late night," the woman officer has written.
The woman has also accused another senior woman IAS officer of warning her against formally lodging a complaint for sexual harassment.

"I want a thorough inquiry, including review of CCTV footage of the office of my senior, and seek police security for me as I am under constant threat," she said.
When contacted, the woman officer claimed all she had to say — her statement and all her email communication with the government — was available on her Facebook page.
Chief Secretary Depinder Singh Dhesi said Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has already spoken to media on this issue in Panipat.

Asked whether then matter was being referred to the Internal Complaints Committee constituted under section 4(1) of the Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013, Dhesi clarified that the committee constituted on May 11 is for employees of Haryana Civil Secretariat. 

Karnal :
Raj Kumar Saini, BJP MP from Kurukshetra and president of the Loktantra Suraksha Manch (LSM), on Sunday announced that the LSM would contest all 10 parliamentary and 90 Assembly seats in the state next year.

He was here to chair a youth party workers’ meeting. Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the programme, he said discrimination against a large section of society by previous governments had forced him into setting up the LSM.

He promised to end nepotism and give reservation to every category in society. He stated that the name of his party would be announced as soon as it was registered.
Asked about his BJP membership, he said, “I am still in the BJP. The party can fire me whenever it likes.” He praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying none could replace him.

“The need to form this party arose due to discrimination by previous governments, which did not discharge their duties impartially. A particular community which forms 10 per cent of the population holds around 50 per cent state government jobs while 90 per cent have a small share,” he stated.

He accused former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda of misguiding society over reservation for a community, which was set aside by court.

Saini claimed that the present government had failed to resolve the issue, leading to destruction in the state. He pointed out that instead of punishing arsonists, it had rewarded them with jobs and relief.