Hisar, March 2
The talks between khap leaders and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on the issue of reservation in government jobs will be resumed at Chandigarh tomorrow. Sube Singh Samain, spokesperson for the khaps, said here today that Hooda had invited a delegation for talks at his official residence at 10.30 a.m.

The talks had broken down at Pipli three days ago when a delegation of khap leaders had met Hooda.

Meanwhile, Hawa Singh Sangwan, president of the Haryana unit of the All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, said today that those leading the current stir were only trying to politicise the issue with an eye on claiming credit for getting reservation benefit for Jats. In a statement he said realising that the community was close to getting reservation, these leaders were hoping to derive political benefit.

Sangwan said the Haryana Backward Classes Commission had almost completed its report. The community should wait till the report was sent to the Centre and endorsed at that level.

The samiti had convened a meeting in Bhiwani on Sunday to finalise its strategy for an agitation in case the community was denied the benefit of reservation.

On the oither hand, Mahendra Poonia, secretary of the All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, said the condition of four persons, who had been on an indefinite fast, was deteriorating as they had refused medical attention.

As many as 23 khap leaders met today at Ramayan to finalise their plan for talks tomorrow. 

Jind, March 2
Even as a prominent khap of the state has served an ultimatum on the state government to either accept the Jats’ demand for quota soon or face their participation in the agitation, another such organisation, the Sarvajatiya Sarvakhap, has scheduled a meeting here on March 6 to decide its stand on the issue. Swami Karampal, president of the sarvakhap, is opposed to the agitation in its present form and wants the agitators to refrain from squatting on the rail track till a way out was reached through a dialogue with the government. He said agitators should not block rail tracks and try to resolve the issue through talks with the state government.

The Sarvajatiya Sarvakhap will prefer to wait for a report of the Backward Classes Commission formed by the state government, said a spokesperson of the panchayat, adding that the khap was in favour of quota for Jats in the state. 

Kurukshetra, March 2
BKU workers agitating for implementation of the Swaminathan Committee recommendations for fixation of the MSP and other demands lifted the road blockade at Pipli last night and also ended their dharna this afternoon following assurance from Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on their demands.

The blockade was lifted after nearly six hours last night after district officials gave an assurance that the Chief Minister would look into their demands. A delegation of leaders, including BKU national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait, left for Chandigarh to meet Hooda.

Gurnam Singh, BKU state president, said Hooda had agreed to solve their problems and a meeting of BKU leaders would be arranged with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the MSP issue.

He said the Chief Minister agreed to look into the issue of banks coercing farmers to give post-dated blank cheques, holding of kisan darbars on the pattern of khula darbar, fixing rates of tractors on the analogy of cars and trucks and providing transformers without any waiting period.

Chandigarh, March 2
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today described as “disappointing” the Opposition members’ views on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s Address.

Replying to the debate on the motion, Hooda said he had expected the Opposition to give constructive suggestions to the government to improve its functioning but it had the same sarcastic remarks repeated over the past seven years.

He said he had always found the Opposition making tall claims about defeating the government on the floor of the House before the commencement of every session. But the claims always turned out to be hollow.

Punctuating his reply with Urdu couplets, Hooda tried to answer the Opposition criticism point by point. To its credit, the Opposition sat through his reply, without much interruption. In the past, the Opposition usually walked out of the House whenever the government replied to a debate.

Opposition members, including Krishan Panwar (INLD) and Anil Vij (BJP), though did try to interrupt Hooda by raising certain “points of order”. When Speaker Kuldeep Sharma did not allow the members to raise points of order, Chautala at one stage threatened to walk out of the House. Later both sides showed flexibility. While Sharma allowed a couple of members to raise points of order, the Opposition remained present in the House.

Taking a dig at Leader of the Opposition Om Prakash Chautala, Hooda read a Urdu couplet “Tere Ko Kuchh Logon ne Sar Ankhon Pe Bitha Rakha Hai; Verna Kia Haqiqat hai teri, Ham Sab Jaante Hain.” Chautala just smiled.

Referring to the Opposition allegation that the farmers were not getting adequate power and irrigation water, Hooda said quoting figures if that was the case, how the state was able to produce a record quantity of foodgrains year after year.

Taking the Opposition head on, Hooda gave a detailed reply to prove that during the INLD regime the farmers were getting much lower compensation for their acquired land than what they were getting now. Referring to Chautala’s demand that Reliance should be asked to return the land it purchased in Jhajjar district from farmers for setting up an SEZ, Hooda said the company had purchased land from the farmers directly, with the government not playing any role. The Jhajjar SEZ was never notified. The land was purchased for setting up industries, which were now coming to the area in a big way.

Though there was no legal binding on the company to pay an annual annuity to those from whom it had purchased the land, yet it had been paying annuity to the owners on the pattern of the government.

He also repudiated the Opposition criticism that the line losses of the power distribution companies had gone up. He said against 39.61 per cent line losses during the INLD regime, these had come down to 25.22 per cent now. 

Chandigarh, March 2
The shoddy disbursal of old age pension united the Treasury and opposition benches. Dissatisfied with the government reply, the INLD even staged a walkout.

It was as if the entire scheme, from eligibility of beneficiaries to the mode of distribution, was under fire from both sides even as members insisted on the government doing away with the income ceiling on eligibility.

The members pointed out anomalies in the distribution of pension during a call-attention motion given by Raj Pal Bhukhri of the Congress, clubbed with that of INLD’s Rampal Majra, Ashok Arora and Parmender Dhull. In the absence of Bhukhri, Congress MLA BB Batra was authorised to move the motion .

While Batra sought to know the criteria for those who did not have an age proof and if pension was being paid through the biometric system, Arora pointed out that while the government had been unjust in fixing an income ceiling as eligibility, most beneficiaries would have a tough time getting an income certificate. He said the bank disbursal had proved to be a damp squib and many beneficiaries had been left bereft of their pension.

Chautala said the idea of old age pension was to honour the aged but it had ended up “dishonouring” them as they were being made to run from pillar to post for its payment.

Social Welfare Minister Geeta Bhukkal tried to explain that the department had “moved back” to the manual distribution of pension though the opening of 20 lakh bank accounts had been a major achievement and that business correspondents of banks would give pension at the doorstep. She said that a senior citizen would be eligible for pension if his total annual income was less than Rs 2 lakh. The limit had been recently raised from a Rs 50,000.

However, Congress’ Anand Singh Dangi outrightly rejected the reply of the minister and charged the government with creating obstacles by introducing an income ceiling. “There are many 40-year-old people taking pension while real beneficiaries are not getting it. These will total to about 50 per cent. The banks haven’t proved to be a good idea because photos and names are a total mismatch and every village does not have a bank,” he claimed. Stating that ration cards should be used for identification he said sarpanches had been doing a good job with distribution till the bank experiment unsettled things.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary Anita yadav, too, sharply criticised the bank disbursal , claiming that pension had not been paid for over seven months in several villages.

Bhukkal said the government was working to sort out the problems and would soon start pension distribution through biometric cards. As she started justifying the roping in of banks, the INLD staged a walkout. 

Panchkula, March 2
A special court today rejected the demand of the National Investigating Agency (NIA) for further 10-day remand of Kamal Chauhan, accused of planting bomb in the Samjhauta Express, and sent him to judicial custody.

RK Handa, public prosecutor, had sought extention in the remand as the NIA wanted to investigate the accused further for his role in the Samjhauta blasts in 2007. Though the NIA had sought 15-day remand, the special court granted only 10-day custody of the accused.