Hisar, September 14
The Director-General of Police, Mr Nirmal Singh, has stated that situations which led to violent scenes in Gurgaon and Gohana could have been handled in a better way. He maintained that both incidents depicted the lack of proper training of officials concerned.

Mr Nirmal Singh was in the city today to chair a meeting of police officials in connection with a statewide campaign to boost the morale of policemen.

Interacting with policemen, the DGP apprised them of the department’s expectations from them and exhorted them to perform their duty honestly and justly. All 962 policemen of the district had the rare opportunity of sharing views with their top boss.

Mr Nirmal Singh later had a brief chat with newsmen at the police lines. The Hisar range IGP, Mr Mahender Lal, the Hisar Deputy Commissioner, Mr Arun Kumar Gupta, and the SSP, Mr Arshinder Singh Chawla, were also present.

“The police authorities are upbeat over their success in combating crime and the morale of our men is high,” the DGP asserted. He expressed satisfaction over the law and order situation in the state. He said owing to the strict measures adopted by the police, criminals had either migrated to other states or were lying low.

He stated that a more humane face would be given to the police so that the common man could approach them freely and fearlessly. He appealed to the masses to cooperate with the police and give information about any criminal activities going on in their area to the police officers.

“Utmost care shall be taken to protect the identity of such persons,” he added.

At the same time, he observed that the people should also understand the constraints of the police officials and approach them only with genuine and worthwhile complaints.

Replying to a question, Mr Nirmal Singh said strict action would be taken against the policemen found aiding or shielding criminals. He asserted that the criminals running their activities from inside the prisons would be dealt with a heavy hand.

On being asked whether the focus of the police authorities had shifted to encounters, the DGP replied in the negative.

Chandigarh, September 14
“Pull up your socks now. Otherwise be ready to face the music.” This was the message the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who had to recently face a lot of flak in the wake of the Gurgaon and Gohana incidents, gave to the Administrative Secretaries here this evening.

According to informed sources, Mr Hooda told the senior bureaucrats at the very outset that he was speaking to them to convey his anguish over their failure to come up to his expectations. He said a similar meeting was held six months ago and the officers were told to be innovative for the development of the state. However, the things were not moving in the desired direction and the officers had shown lack of initiative.

Today’s meeting came in the wake of the series of the meetings Mr Hooda held with individual Administrative Secretaries in the past two days in an attempt to tone up the administration. It is generally felt that the Gurgaon and Gohana incidents were the result of administrative failures rather than any let up on the part of the political leadership.

Not that Mr Hooda is putting pressure on the bureaucracy alone, he has also taken steps to tone up the functioning of the Chief Minister’s office (CMO). Orders have been issued allotting various departments to particular officers in the CMO for issuing directions for the transfer of officers of those departments. So far, there was multiplicity for these directions.

The sources say that a number of the Secretaries, who usually used to maintain “golden silence” during the previous regime, today spoke about what was responsible for the “lethargy” of the administration. Led by the Financial Commissioner, Revenue, Mr K.C. Sharma, the officers said they had to work with the “blunt” tools. Mr Sharma said the manner in which government employees were recruited at all levels during the past five years, was responsible for the administrative inertia. The new crop of employees was ill-trained and under-qualified.

The Financial Commissioner, Irrigation, Mr Anil Razdan, reportedly said the vast majority of the government employees were clerks and peons, from whom much could not be expected. He stressed the need for a reorientation in the training of government employees.

The Financial Commissioner, Tourism, Mr Sanjay Kothari, also supported his senior colleagues.

Mr Hooda said the officers should avoid unnecessary file work. Instead, they should try to expeditiously implement the directions of the political leadership, rather than sending the files back with unnecessary queries.

The meeting, which last for more than one hour, also reviewed the functioning of the department and in particular the plan expenditure, the status of updating rules and instructions of the department and delegation of powers at the field level. The expenditure incurred till now is about 23.7 per cent of the total allocation and it is expected that it will reach the expected level of 35 per cent as prescribed by the Planning Commission of India by September 30, 2005.

It was stated that the process of rewriting the Punjab Financial Rules, Civil Services Rules and PWD Manual is in progress and all out efforts would be made to carry out the bulk of the amendments by December 31 next.

To ensure the quality of construction carried out by the Engineering Departments, an external agency would be hired. It was further decided that the disciplinary cases pending against the employees should be speeded up.

Hisar, September 14
Former Director of Research, Haryana Agricultural University, Dr B.S. Dahiya, appealed to farmers to replace the seeds of self-pollinated crops every three years for better yield.

He stressed that in order to improve agriculture production, it was imperative that seeds of the right quality were made available to the farmers at the right time and at reasonable price.

He was speaking after inaugurating a training session on Integrated Seed Development, being organised by the Seed Science and Technology Department of the university here, today. Officers of the Haryana Seed Development Corporation (HSDC) are taking part in this week-long training programme.

Dr Dahiya said it had been established that the quality of seeds alone can increase productivity by 20 to 25 per cent. He expressed concern over the present rate of seed replacement at the farmers level.

The Head of the Seed Science and Technology Department, Dr J.C. Duhan, emphasised on the proper management of the Seed Development Programme. He said laxity at any step could lead to the failure of the whole programme, thus adversely affecting agricultural production and the economic condition of the farmers.

Panchkula, September 14
The vulture breeding programme at the Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre at Pinjore has run into trouble with wildlife officials of Haryana.

The wildlife officials in the state say though the centre was set up for breeding of the highly endangered white-back, long-billed and Himalayan Griffon vultures (Schedule I birds), but in the past over three years no breeding of birds has taken place at the centre. The centre is run jointly by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and the Forest Department, Haryana.

Interestingly, while the wildlife wing of the Forest Department is gunning for the centre, Forest Department officials have come in support of the Centre, claiming that there were no discrepancies in its flagship project — the vulture breeding programme at Pinjore.

In a report submitted to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, the wildlife officials have said that the scientists at the centre cannot even identify the sexes of the birds.

“The Principal Scientist of the BNHS at the centre, Dr Vibhu Prakash, has conceded that they are not even sure if breeding in the coming years will take place or not,” reads the report.

“As per the report submitted by Dr Vibhu Prakash, there has been no breeding of vultures at the centre so far, during the past three and half years since April, 2002. According to the scientist, vultures breed only when they are four to five years’ old. Though there are sufficient number of such vultures at the centre, during the past three to four years, yet no breeding has taken place till date”... says the report submitted to the ministry. It also says that five of the 51 captured birds died at the centre from January to June this year, because of rock bee sting attack.

It was on the instructions of the Government of India that a quarterly report was sought from the centre officials by the Chief Wildlife Warden, Haryana. Information was sought regarding area of capture, date of capture, sex of captured birds and their health. The centre has been allowed to capture 150 Gyps species of vultures, on the condition that they submit a quarterly report to the ministry through the Chief Wildlife Warden.

The report submitted by the centre on August 29, said that identification marks had been put on all 51 captured birds, aviaries are maintained properly, vultures are normal and are fed on freshly slaughtered goats. The report also admits that there is no breeding of vultures, though a few white backed vultures have shown signs of pair formations.

In spite of repeated attempts to contact the Director of the BNHS, Dr Asad Rehamani at Mumbai and Dr Vibhu Prakash, over the past two days, they were not available. However, senior forest officials say that breeding generally takes a long time. “The vultures died at the centre of bee attack, and not for any negligence. With regards to the charges levelled against the centre for being unable to identify the sexes, sexing is an evolving technique in India. The centre for Cell Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, which is evolving this technique has been contacted for the job. We are also trying to get in touch with some foreign agencies, which have patented sexing of birds, to identify the sexes,” says a senior forest department officer.

Kaithal, September 14
The CIA wing of the district police has recovered one pistol with three live cartridges and passport from Balwan Singh, one of the three accused, arrested by the CIA wing of the district police a few days ago on the charge of entering into a conspiracy to eliminate former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and Baba Bhaniarwala of Panjab by taking a ‘supari’ of Rs 1 crore.

During police remand, the police has also recovered three diaries in which addresses and telephone numbers of some of other accomplices are reportedly written. All three, namely Balwan Singh, Roshan Lal and Surjit Singh, were produced in the court of Ms Bimlesh Tanwar, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, here today. The court has remanded them to judicial custody till September 28.

After recovery of pistol from one of the accused, the police added Sections 25, 54, 59 of the Arms Act to the Sections already applied under various sections of the IPC. The accused were produced in the court under heavy security and large police force was deployed keeping in view the sensitivity of this case and the alleged links of the accused with terrorists of Punjab.

Local police officers, including the S.P. Mr Sat Parkash Ranga, refused to give any details about the investigation. However, it is learnt that police was desperately trying to nab Amarjit Singh of Bulla Kheri (Jind) who is stated to be a main accused in this conspiracy and who had been in constant touch on telephone with all those arrested.

Kaithal, September 14
Twelve Out of 14 students of Pinjupura Government Primary School of Kalayat block, who were admitted to civil hospital here yesterday when after they fell sick after consuming poisonous food provided under the Mid day meal scheme, were discharged today afternoon. Two other students were kept under observation and treatment and two class IV employees who too were admitted after they complained of nausea, were also discharged.

The students reportedly had consumed boiled gram and wheat in which a lizard allegedly had fallen. DEO Ms Ram Kaur revealed that two teachers of Primary School where this incident took place have been suspended following the visit of senior officers from the state headquarters .

Following the discharge of students from the hospital, district administration heaved a sigh of relief but senior officers from Chandigarh kept on visiting this town to apprise themselves of the causes of this incident and fix responsibility for any negligence by school staff. It is learnt that the Chief Minister’s office too moved fast this time and after receiving an information about the incident yesterday sent Director Health Services Ms Veena Chugh to Kaithal who reached here late last mid night and visited the victims in the to civil hospital.

District Education Officer Ms Ram Kaur said reporter today that Mr Anand Sharma Director Primary Education and Shish Pal Singh Yadav Joint Director Secondary Education Haryana also reached here and after visiting the sick students in the hospital they went to Pinjupura school and recorded statements of teachers and other members of the staff.

After reviewing the situation the officers suspended two teachers Dilbagh Singh and Som Datt a Sanskrit teacher in connection with yesterday’s incident.