8 killed in fog-related mishaps
CHANDIGARH, Dec 26 — Eight persons, including two children, were killed in Hisar district of Haryana in two road mishaps today even as the mercury plunged four degrees celsius below normal and a dense fog engulfed the entire region.

Campaign against bail jumpers
SONEPAT, Dec 26 — The district police has launched a campaign to apprehend bail jumpers involved in criminal cases and declared proclaimed offenders by the courts.

Social service body adopts ailing girl
HISAR, Dec 26 — Sahyog, a voluntary social service organisation, has adopted a Scheduled Caste girl, Rajbala, who is suffering from a serious heart problem.

Saha upgraded to block level
AMBALA, Dec 26— The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala has up graded Saha village to a block level. He announced this while speaking at a public contact programme at Mulana, 30 k.m. from here, today.He said with the creation of the new block various development activities would get impetus.

Jats seek raise in job reservations
SONEPAT, Dec 26 — The Haryana Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti has demanded an immediate increase in job reservations in accordance with the percentage of the population of castes coming under the reserved category.

Education must be nationalised: Jamat
SIRSA, Dec 26 — "The education system must be nationalised to wipe out illiteracy so that the political as well as the entire set up of the country is streamlined", the founding President of Jamat Party, Master Hari Singh, said here yesterday. He came here after starting a public awareness campaign from Chautala, the native village of the Haryana Chief Minister.

BJP constitutes election panel
ROHTAK, Dec 26 — The Haryana BJP President, Mr Om Prakash Grover, has constituted a 21-member Election Campaign Committee to monitor the party's strategy in the coming State Assembly elections.

BJP meeting in Chennai today
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 26 — The seat sharing arrangement between the BJP and the INLD and related issues will take a concrete shape only by the first week of January, BJP sources here said.

The sources said an important meeting of the BJP, which will be attended by top leaders is scheduled to take place in Chennai on December 27 and 28. The issue of elections in Haryana and other states will come up at the meeting and guidelines will be given to the state units. From Haryana, Mr Om Prakash Grover, state president of the BJP, Mr Rambilas Sharma, Leader of the BJP in the dissolved Assembly; and Mr Manohar Lal, party's organising secretary, will attend the meeting.

The sources said a coordination committee of the INLD and the BJP had already been set up to work out the seat sharing arrangement between the two partners. The committee has already met twice, the sources said and added that the third meeting would take place in the beginning of January when the number of seats to be fought by each contestant would be decided finally.

The Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, and a BJP leader, Mr Rambilas Sharma, are both members of the eight-member committee.

It may be recalled that alliance between the BJP and the INLD apparently ran into difficulties, primarily due to the BJP's overambitious state leadership. The allies seemed to be drifting apart as Mr Chautala announced that there would be no common manifesto of the INLD and the BJP, nor there would be joint campaigns. Subsequently, however, Mr Chautala was quoted as saying that "there is complete harmony between the BJP and the INLD.

Meanwhile, observers here are wondering whether the BJP will be able to field worthwhile candidates in case the INLD agrees to its demands of leaving nearly 35 seats for the saffron party.

HVPN recovers 2.43 cr in arrears
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, Dec 26 — The Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) has recovered an amount of Rs 2.43 crore in the form of electricity bills from consumers residing in the municipal limits of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Jind and Sonepat towns during the first phase of a recovery campaign.

Mr S.R.Piplani, Chief Engineer of the nigam, said the power connections of as many as 13,160 defaulting consumers had been disconnected in the four towns during the past fortnight, out of which 10,944 consumers immediately deposited their arrears to the nigam. Consequently, their connections were restored.

Mr Piplani said the nigam had identified 31,731 defaulting consumers in these four towns against whom an amount of Rs 17.33 crore was pending in the form of power bills.

He said special teams had been constituted for the recovery campaign. The teams had directed to ensure that the defaulting consumers, whose connections have been cut by the nigam, did not get the supply illegally.

The Chief Engineer has asked the nigam officials not to disconnect the tubewell connections till January 10 in the wake of directions by the government that such consumers could deposit their arrears without surcharge till then.

2 of family die in blast
From Our Correspondent

AMBALA, Dec 26 — Two persons, including a girl, were killed and three injured in a explosion that took place in a rented house of an Armyman in Gwal Mandir near Topkhana Bazaar in Ambala Cantonment today.

According to an information, the Armyman Bhawani Ram and his seven-year-old daughter, Manju were killed on the spot, while his wife, Nirmala Devi, his other daughter, Anju, and a daughter of his landlord, Naina, were admitted to Army Hospital in a critical condition.

However, it could not be officially confirmed. Police sources suspect it to be a bomb explosion. Meanwhile, explosive experts of the state and Army have reached the spot to trace out the facts.

Mustfabad to be made sub-tehsil: CM
From Our Correspondent

YAMUNANAGAR, Dec 26 — The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, today announced that Mustfabad would be given the status of a sub-tehsil and Golni village would soon have a vocational institute.

This was stated by him while hearing the grievances of the people of Jagadhri constituency during a "sarkar aapke dwar" programme here. He thanked the people for supporting the local MP, Mr Rattan Lal Kataria, in a big way.

He promised that his government would ensure that water for irrigation reached each tail-end and power shortage was overcome. Wherever required, new lines, poles and wires would be installed and old equipment would be repaired.

Fresh surveys to identify people living below the poverty line and those qualifying for old-age pension were being conducted. He promised that fresh and clean drinking water would be provided in every village and roads would be repaired by the end of May, 2000.

Mr Chautala met representatives of various gram panchayats of Jagadhri assembly segment. The representatives were from the gram panchayats of Haripur, Mahilanwali, Jaroda, Telipura, Khera Farm, Sudhail Galoli, Mandebari, Golanpur, Harnaul, Jhinjharo, Daulatpur, Dudhla, Damla, Rattangarh, Jaipur, Dhorang, Kunjal (K), Hafizpur, Bhatoli, Chhajju Nagla, Mandhar, Milk Sukhi, Mussimble (M), Mussimble (H), Ponti, Chahron and Mamli. He also met leaders of 26 panchayats of Mustfabad block.

The Chief Minister heard the grievances of people relating to development works like building of class rooms, carpeting of roads and lanes, construction of chaupals, construction of retaining walls, upgradation of schools and setting up of veterinary hospitals. Mr Chautala directed the officers concerned to look into the various problems and provide quick relief to the affected people.

Among those present were the Minister of State for Industrial Training and M.L.A., Jagadhri, Mr subhash Chaudhry, Chairman of the Haryana Harijan Kalyan Nigam, and M.L.A. Sadhaura, Mr Ramji Lal, D.I.G. Ambala Range, Mr H.S. Ahlawat, Deputy Commissioner, Mr Rajeev Sharma, and the SP, Mr K.K. Sindhu.

8 killed in fog-related mishaps

CHANDIGARH, Dec 26 (PTI) — Eight persons, including two children, were killed in Hisar district of Haryana in two road mishaps today even as the mercury plunged four degrees celsius below normal and a dense fog engulfed the entire region.

Four persons were killed and at least six injured when their jeep collided with a truck coming from the opposite direction near Agroha in the district this morning, a report quoting the police said.

In the other accident, four persons were killed and two injured when their car collided with a truck near Garhi village, 40 km from Hisar, on the Delhi highway, the report said, adding both the accidents were probably caused due to reduced visibility.

In Punjab and Haryana, Amritsar was the coldest place with the mercury resting at 0.6 degrees celsius, four degrees below normal, while Hisar with 3.7 degrees celsius temperature was the coldest town of Haryana, a Met Department official said.

Patiala had a low of 3.9 degrees celsius, Rohtak 4.1 degrees, Ambala 4.8 degrees and Chandigarh 7.6 degrees, the official said.

Campaign against bail jumpers
From Our Correspondents

SONEPAT, Dec 26 — The district police has launched a campaign to apprehend bail jumpers involved in criminal cases and declared proclaimed offenders by the courts.

Mr K.P Singh, SSP, told mediapersons here today that the arrested persons had been identified as Mahipal, Chaman and Ompal , all residents of Jagdishpur village. Jagdish of Mohalla Kot, Sonepat, Sahab Singh of Panchi Jatan village, Bitoo of Mohalla Kot, Sonepat, and Om Parkash of Kiloi village.

He further said the Rai police, in coordination with officials of the Excise Department, intercepted a truck on the GT Road near Bahalgarh Chowk and recovered 50,000 liquor pouches.

Social service body adopts ailing girl
Tribune News Service

HISAR, Dec 26 — Sahyog, a voluntary social service organisation, has adopted a Scheduled Caste girl, Rajbala, who is suffering from a serious heart problem.

Disclosing this here yesterday, the chairman of Sahyog, Mr Rahul Tayal, said the NGO would bear all expenses incurred for her treatment, which also required an open-heart surgery.

Rajbala, is currently undergoing treatment in the PGI, Chandigarh. As her parents were unable to bear the cost of her treatment, they approached Sahyog, which decided to adopt the girl.

Mr Tayal said, Sahyog would raise funds for her treatment from the general public. Sahyog had already helped several dowry victims, particularly those who were burnt by their in-laws, and also provided financial assistance to families of Kargil martyrs, he added.

Saha upgraded to block level
From Our Correspondent

AMBALA, Dec 26— The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala has up graded Saha village to a block level.

He announced this while speaking at a public contact programme at Mulana, 30 k.m. from here, today.He said with the creation of the new block various development activities would get impetus.

The Chief Minister announced the construction of link roads between Landa to Mohri, Malikpur to Dera, Saha to Kalpi and Jaipura to Bihta. He announced the upgradation of primary schools at Talheri, Harioli and Sabapur and middle school at Haldri. He announced the construction of one room each at Gola, Mahmoodpur and Rampur Sarsehri villages.

On this occasion, Mr Rasal Singh, MLA of Mulana, the IG, Ambala range, Mr Hari Singh Ahalawat, and the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Ram Niwas were present.

Jats seek raise in job reservations
From Our Correspondent

SONEPAT, Dec 26 — The Haryana Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti has demanded an immediate increase in job reservations in accordance with the percentage of the population of castes coming under the reserved category.

Mr Tara Chand Mor, co-convenor and spokesman of the samiti, told mediapersons here today that the Jats believed in the principle of "live and let live" and they did not want to encroach upon the others' quota. He said the reservation quota for the Jats could be increased up to 80 per cent on the pattern of Tamil Nadu.

He announced that the samiti had decided to intensify its agitation and would hold rallies on January 14 at Jhajjar and on February 15 at Hisar to press its demands. The rallies, he said, would be addressed, among others, by Mr Dara Singh, president of the All-India Jat Maha Sabha and a noted film star.

Meanwhile, a deputation of the samiti, headed by Mr Mor, called on Mr Raj Kumar Jogi, Chairman of the Second Haryana Backward Commission, here yesterday and pleaded for the inclusion of Jats in the backward community category.

Education must be nationalised: Jamat
From Our Correspondent

SIRSA, Dec 26 — "The education system must be nationalised to wipe out illiteracy so that the political as well as the entire set up of the country is streamlined", the founding President of Jamat Party, Master Hari Singh, said here yesterday. He came here after starting a public awareness campaign from Chautala, the native village of the Haryana Chief Minister.

Master Hari Singh stressed upon the need to inculcate inner democracy in the political parties. He said the root cause of all evils and corruption was the hold of families over political parties. He suggested that appointments on constitutional posts like Governors and Chairmen of selection committees should be made through a presidium to make these apolitical.

Master Hari Singh said the main purpose behind the three-month-long Jan Jagran Abhiyan was to educate the masses regarding their responsibility towards the nation and to seek their help in bringing about a positive change in the state of affairs.

Later he also addressed a public gathering at Paniwala Mota village in the district.

BJP constitutes election panel
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, Dec 26 — The Haryana BJP President, Mr Om Prakash Grover, has constituted a 21-member Election Campaign Committee to monitor the party's strategy in the coming State Assembly elections.

A 15-member Election Management Committee has also been set up under the chairmanship of Mr Om Prakash Dhankhar, General Secretary of the State BJP.

All the five BJP MPs have been included in the election campaign panel. The other members include some former ministers, former MPs and Union Ministers.