Hisar, March 6
Over 2,000 members of the Jat community today blocked the rail track at Ramayan village near here after holding a pro-reservation rally at Mayyar village in this district in the morning. After the rally ended peacefully, the organisers constituted a 35-member panel to decide the next course of action. It directed that the rail track be blocked at Ramayan village, which is the closest railway line to Mayyar village.

More than 2,000 Jats then proceeded to Ramayan village and blocked the track by squatting on the Hisar-Rewari railway line. Rail traffic on this section has been suspended.

The organisers of the rally said they would meet tomorrow at 3 pm again and decide on their next step. Till then the track would remain blocked.

Earlier, addressing the rally, all the speakers lamented that their peaceful protests had been ignored by the government. They said the Jats were educationally and socially a backward community and as such they should be declared a backward caste in the same category as that of the Gujjar, Saini and Ahir communties.

The speakers included Hawa Singh Sangwan, president of the Haryana Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, Dalbir Panghal, president of the Hisar district unit of the samiti, Moorti Devi Bhagana, chairperson of the women wing of the samiti, and Rajiv Sehrawat, president of the youth wing of the samiti. A similar rally at Mayyar village on September 13 last year had led to the death of a youth in police firing.

This led to further violence and widespread arson. Curfew had to be imposed in the town to prevent escalation of violence. Today’s rally, however, was entirely peaceful. The protesters did not block the National Highway No. 10. However, Haryana Roadways buses took to alternative routes as a precautionary measure.

This appeared to be a tactical move by the organisers in view of the directions of the high court that any damage to public or private property would be recovered from the organisers of the rally. However, the decision to block the rail track came as a surprise to the authorities.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was here on a private visit to attend a marriage today, said he had already written to the Centre to give reservation to the Jats.

The Centre had forwarded the letter to the Backward Classes Commission for further action.

He said the samiti should follow up the issue with the Central Government in a peaceful and democratic manner.

Kalanwali (Sirsa), March 6
Thee persons sustained bullet injuries when policemen of the India Reserve Battalion (IRB) allegedly opened fire in the office of a transport company here this morning.

The brother of the owner of the transport company, Bal Krishan, his nephew Yogesh and driver Pal Singh were shifted to the General Hospital in Sirsa.Their condition was said to be critical.

ASI Baljit Singh and constable Amandeep Singh, both working with the 6th India Reserve Battalion and posted with the Excise and Taxation Department, Punjab, were also injured when they were allegedly beaten up with baseball sticks and rods.

With the transport company owner, Sanjeev Kumar, and the Punjab Police giving different versions of the incident, the local police said the matter would be investigated after the statements of the victims were recorded.

“Four armed miscreants (later identified Punjab cops in mufti) came in an Armada to my office and tried to loot a Tata 407 vehicle from the driver at gunpoint. When he and others in the office resisted, they opened fire, injuring my brother, nephew and the driver.

“People on morning walk rushed to our help and nabbed two of the attackers, while the other two escaped in their vehicle,” alleged Sanjeev Kumar.

However, Ranjit Singh, Commandant, 6th India Reserve Battalion, talking to TNS on the phone, said: “My men were on duty along with excise officials at a barrier near Kanakwal (Punjab). They tried to stop a truck coming from Kalanwali. Constable Amandeep Singh got on to the truck to stop the vehicle, but the driver sped away. Other members of the police party chased the truck to save their colleague. As the truck and the police vehicle reached Kalanwali, the transport owner and his men surrounded the policemen and beat them up with baseball sticks and rods mercilessly.”

He maintained that his men fired into the air to save their lives and “stray bullets hit the transporter’s men.” The officer said he was on his way to Kalanwali to lodge an FIR with the police.

Vikram Nehra, SHO, Kalanwali, confirmed that cartridges had been recovered from the site of the incident.

Gurgaon, March 6
In order to ensure transparency and fairness in the promotion process of police personnel, the Haryana police conducted an online test for the promotion of constables to head constables at two centres in Gurgaon. This is for the first time in the state that an online test has been conducted to test the knowledge of the constables posted in the Haryana police.

The test, called B-1 Test in the Police Rules, was conducted in batches at the IRB Centre, Bhondsi, and GMIT College, Bilaspur, in the district yesterday. Haryana ADGP-cum-Gurgaon Police Commissioner Surjeet Singh Deswal visited the centre at the IRB, Bhondsi, while the test was in progress.

Later, talking to newspersons, Deswal said the candidates were required to answer 120 objective-type questions in two hours. “Each question carries 0.5 marks, while 0.25 marks are deducted for each wrong answer,” he said, adding that each candidate got different sets of questions to eliminate any scope for copying.

Another significant provision had been made that the answersheets of all candidates were marked on the spot and they walked out of the examination centre along with their score-cards.

Deswal said the DGP, Ranjeev Singh Dalal, had got this new evaluation system introduced and a question bank of 10,000 questions had been prepared. The candidates taking the test automatically got a set of 120 randomly selected questions with four multiple choices as answers.

The candidate had to simply click on the right answer. The software had auto-checking facility. Separate boards had been constituted for conducting these tests in each district, consisting of one Superintendent of Police and two Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs), the ADGP added.

DCP (Headquarters) Kulwinder Singh, DCP (West) Maheshwar Dyal and SP (IRB, Bhondsi) DK Bhardwaj were also present at the centre.

Meanwhile, Deswal has asserted that adequate police help would be provided to the district administration for removing encroachments in the district.

Assandh (Karnal), March 6
Four persons, including three women, were killed and nine others were seriously injured when the car they were travelling in collided head-on with a tractor-trailer loaded with sugarcane at Madan Kheri village late last night.

The occupants of the ill-fated car, including Beant Singh from Madan Kheri village, who was driving the vehicle, were returning after attending a marriage in Chogama village.

The tractor had two trolleys and the driver of the vehicle could not sight the second trolley and rammed into it.

Beant Singh and three women - Balwinder Kaur, Gurmeet Kaur and Gagandeep Kaur - died on the spot. A two-month-old child had a miraculous escape.

The injured were admitted to the local hospital while the bodies were brought to the Civil Hospital for a postmortem.

Jhajjar: Two persons were killed and one sustained serious injuries when the car they were travelling in overturned near the Rohad bypass under the Bahadurgarh subdivision on the NH-10 on Saturday night.

The deceased have been identified as Sunny of Main Bazaar and Vikey of Kila Mohalla in Bahadurgarh town, while the injured, Kinni, has been admitted to a hospital, where his condition is also stated to be critical.

The incident took place when the trio was coming back to Bahadurgarh after attending a marriage party. As they reached near Rohad village, the driver of the car lost control over the vehicle. Consequently, the car overturned leading to Sunny and Vicky’s death.

Gurgaon, March 6
The state Finance Minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, has welcomed Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s announcement of not acquiring fertile land of farmers and said it would safeguard the interests of small and marginal farmers. He said this while addressing a press conference here today.

He, however, pointed out that the decision of not acquiring fertile land was taken at a meeting of a Haryana Cabinet sub-committee on February 15, much before Hooda disclosed it to a delegation of farmers led by Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjeet Singh.

The Finance Minister, who is a member of the sub-committee himself, said it had also recommended that the state government should collaborate with the farmers in the developmental projects on their land acquired by government agencies.

“The objective of the recommendation is that the farmers will have the option to get monetary compensation for their land being acquired or be made partners in developmental projects carried out on their land,” said the minister.

Capt Yadav stated that the state Budget would focus on the development of infrastructure, social sector, including health care and education, and conservation of natural water bodies.

Sirsa, March 6
Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, will hold entrance tests for admission to its PhD course on April 9. Dr Dilbag Singh, Director, Public Relations, said the entrance test for biotechnology, law, business administration and physics would be held from 9 am to 10.45 am on April 9. The entrance test for economics, English, chemistry and energy and environment science would be held from 11.30 am to 12.45 pm.

He said from 2 pm to 3.15 pm, the university would hold test for mathematics, physical education, public administration and food science and technology.

The entrance test for admission to PhD course in commerce, education and computer science and applications would be held from 4 pm to 5.15 pm, said Dr Dilbag Singh.

The entrance test will end the long wait of the aspirants, as the authorities have been delaying the test since last year.

As per the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations issued in 2009, applicants have to clear an entrance test before getting admission into the PhD programme.

After getting admission to the PhD programme, the candidates have to undertake pre-PhD course work before they could actually get registered for the PhD.