Kaithal :
The Congress will win all 10 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana without any alliance in the Lok Sabha poll next year as people in the state are fed up with the ‘anti-people policies’ and ‘misrule’ of the BJP.

This was stated by HPCC president Ashok Tanwar while addressing a ‘Mazdoor Kisan Ekta Rally’ organised by Eklavvya Group at Kalayat in Kaithal district on Sunday.
Tanwar said Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme had been diluted by the NDA government, depriving lakhs of 100 days of guaranteed employment.
He said the government had levied GST ranging from 18 per cent to 24 per cent on variousagricultural implements, fertilisers and pesticides used by farmers, increasing their input costs.

He said the implementation of Swaminathan Commission report was a distant dream for farmers and they felt cheated by the BJP government.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had patted his own back for marginally increasing the MSP of some crops, which would not meet long-standing demands of farmers.
Saying the government had taken credit for opening bank accounts, he asked how it could bring prosperity as most accounts had zero or meagre balance while people awaited the Rs 15 lakh promised by the BJP.

Tanwar pointed out that the government had not waived the bank loans of farmers, who were still reeling under debt with many of them having committed suicide.
He termed the slogan of providing jobs to the unemployed youth as a hoax. He said loans worth lakhs of big industrial houses had been written off, proving that the BJP was anti-farmer and anti-poor.

Taking the BJP to task for dividing society on caste lines, he said it was a very dangerous trend for society and the nation as a whole.

Later, during a press conference, Tanwar said there was complete unity in Congress cadres and everybody wanted to see the BJP out of power both at the Centre and in the state.

He called upon Congress workers to remain united and strengthen the party. He said the Congress was the only party which had roots in all corners of the country and was acceptable to people in all regions.

Sonepat :
Farmers’ welfare is one of the top priorities of the BJP governments both at the Centre and in the state, said Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar during a ‘Kisan Dhanyawad Rally’ at Gohana in Sonepat district.

He said the state government was taking steps to ensure that the MSP was double the input cost by 2022. He said the BJP government had increased MSP by 50 per cent according to Swaminathan Commission.

Accusing the Opposition of levelling baseless allegations, he said the government had given employment to around 28,000 youths and about 30,000 more would be given jobs within six months.

He stated that skill development programmes for the youth had been started so that they could get employment in the private sector as well.

He said Haryana was a small state, but exports from the state were more than those from Uttar Pradesh. “It is third in the country after Maharashtra and Gujarat,” he asserted.
Referring to demands from the area, Khattar announced various development projects for the Gohana Assembly segment involving an investment of around Rs 56 crore.
He announced development grants worth Rs 10 crore for rural areas of the constituency and Rs 5 crore for the Gohana Municipal Council.

Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar, Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwar, Women and Child Development Minister Kavita Jain, Minister of State for Cooperation Manish Grover, Sonepat MP Ramesh Kaushik, MLA Mahi Pal Dhanda and CM’s media adviser Rajiv Jain also spoke on the occasion.

Earlier, Khattar launched six development projects estimated to cost around Rs 53.11 crore.

Jassia (Rohtak) :
The All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) will relaunch the stir for reservation from August 16 in a phased manner.

An announcement to this effect was made at a ‘bhaichara sammelan’ organised here.

In the first phase, the samiti members will stage dharnas at the venue of the programmes of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal and Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu organised in the rural areas of nine districts Rohtak, Jhajjar, Dadri, Bhiwani, Hisar, Kaithal, Jind, Panipat and Sonepat.

These dharnas will not be staged in the Assembly constituencies of the Chief Minister and Finance Minister. The stir will be intensified gradually and five more districts and the urban areas will also be included in the next phase.

Samiti members will launch drives to expose the “divisive face” of the BJP during Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. ‘Jat sammelans’ will also be organised in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar.

Addressing the gathering, samiti president Yashpal Malik said the government had accepted their demands on several occasions, but some were yet to be met.
“The government wants to curb the agitation by implicating samiti members in a CBI case, but the stir will continue till all demands are met,” he said, adding that the agitation to be launched on August 16 would be peaceful and democratic.

Direction issued for selection processes other than that of teachers

Chandigarh :
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) will carry out comparison of fingerprints with Aadhaar cards of candidates to establish their identity in selection processes other than that of teachers.
Justice Amol Rattan Singh made it clear that the direction would be subject to final orders by the Supreme Court regarding “mandatory reference to Aadhaar cards for different purposes by the government”.

Justice Amol Rattan Singh added that the order would be treated as overruled if mandatory linkage or usage of Aadhaar cards was not approved by the Supreme Court regarding selection processes. As such, the HSSC chairperson would file a report once the Supreme Court pronounced its judgment.

In his order on an application by the HSSC, Justice Amol Rattan Singh referred to an affidavit by chairperson Deepti Umashanker on Aadhaar authentication.

It said software application for performing the task generated an authentication packet using Aadhaar number and biometric data of individual to be verified. It was sent to the UIDAI server for authentication.

Justice Amol Rattan Singh added that the court, in an earlier order, had expressed satisfaction with the process, but it could be implemented for future selection.
The previous experience of manual fingerprint check from forensic science laboratory was not a happy one as the selection processes at that time were put on hold for a long time.
Justice Amol Rattan Singh observed that in his opinion, the prayer for physical comparison of fingerprint or thumb impressions of successful candidates with those taken at the time of the Haryana Teachers Eligibility Test (HTET) was impractical, especially as it was conducted at different points of time since 2008, with ‘proper’ biometric data not available for all selections as contended.

Justice Amol Rattan Singh, during the course of hearing, asked the state counsel to explain why fingerprints and thumb impressions taken in the HTET held in November and December 2017 and subsequent examinations would be subjected to scrutiny by the UIDAI to establish the candidate’s identity for competitive examination with the HTET as base criterion.

The state counsel, in response, submitted that digital biometrics was made compulsory in the HTET and any other examination since November 2017. Comparison with the UIDAI database, as such, could not be made prior to that.

Justice Amol Rattan Singh observed that in all ongoing selection processes by the HSSC, where the HTET had been taken by the candidates prior to November 2017, fingerprint matching need not be done by the commission unless it developed a methodology.
“But all selection processes where the HTET-2017 is the base test or criteria for selection as regards those candidates who had taken the test November 2017 onwards, the fingerprint matching exercise shall be done as has been given in the chairperson’s affidavit,” the Bench ruled.

Sonepat :
Akhil Bharatiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti president Yashpal Malik announced that Jats would not block roads, stage dharnas or came out of their villages in support of their demands for reservation.

While addressing a district-level “bhaichara sammelan” at Gohana in the district, he said that they would devise a new strategy which would force the state government to accept their demand.

“But, the new strategy will be announced in a state-level “bhaichara sammelan” at Jassia village in Rohtak district on August 12,” he said.

He also announced that the agitation would continue till the withdrawal of cases registered against Jat youths and release of the youths from jails by the state government.
Malik asked the people to know about the role played by BJP’s Jat leaders, including Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu, Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankhar and state president Subhash Barala.

Section 144 imposed in Rohtak

Rohtak: District Magistrate Dr Yash Garg has imposed Section 144 of the CrPC in the district in view of the “bhaichara sammelan” slated to be organised by All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) at Jassia village in the district on August 12.As per the orders issued here on Friday, the assembly of five or more persons and carrying of any lethal weapons and firearms has been prohibited. The orders have come into force with immediate effect and remain in force till further orders.