Chandigarh, December 30
The Haryana Government has ordered the transfer of four District Revenue Officers (DRO), 29 Tehsildars and one Naib-Tehsildar with immediate effect. It is learnt that the transfers have been ordered in accordance with the directions of the Election Commission of India.

Mr Hardul Singh, DRO, Panchkula, has been transferred to Yamunanagar vice Mr Sukhdarshan Kumar who has been transferred to Kurukshetra against a vacant post. Mr Ram Avtar Gupta, DRO, Bhiwani, and Mr. O.P. Ranga, DRO, Hisar, swap their respective places of posting.

In case of Tehsildars, Mr Gurdial Singh has been shifted from Pehowa to Ballabgarh, Mr Satish Bhardwaj from Shahbad to Pataudi, Mr Dharambir has also been shifted from Palwal to Bahadurgarh and Mr Godhu Ram from Ambala to Hisar.

Mr Dharam Pal Pannu has been transferred from Hisar to PTS, Hisar, Mr Mahavir Singh from Hansi to Fatehabad, Mr Jagdish Sharma from Bawani Khera to Nuh, Mr R.S. Bhamboo from Bahadurgarh to Ambala, Mr Rajender Singh from Nuh to Siwani and Mr Mahal Singh from Ballabgarh to Pehowa.

Mr Ashok Kumar Malik has been transferred from Fatehabad to Hansi, Mr Atma Ram Badhoo from Punhana to Bawana Khera, Mr V.S. Bhatla from Kalka to Kurukshetra, Mr Raj Kumar Sharma from Jullana to Ferozpur Zhirka and Mr Tejender Punia from Israna to Loharu.

Mr Tarsem Lal has been transferred from Taoru to Narnaul against a vacant post. Mr Chandi Ram goes from Indri to Assandh and Mr P.D. Sharma has been shifted from Pataudi to Beri against a vacant post.

Mr Gopi Chand has been transferred from Sohna to Palwal and Mr R.S. Gahlot has been transferred from Panipat to Ellenabad against a vacant post.

Mr Ami Chand goes from Rania to Panipat and Mr Sarwan Kumar from Siwani to Kalka. Mr R. S. Bundela has been shifted from the Haryana Pollution Control Board, Chandigarh, to Hathin against a vacant post and Mr Sujit Nehra has been shifted from Jagadhri to Karnal against a vacant post.

Mr Pankaj Setia has been transferred from Kurukshetra to Jagadhri and Mr O.P. Bhagotia from Loharu to Sonepat against a vacant post. Mr Mukesh Kaushik has been transferred from the FC office to Sohna and Mr Ram Rishi from Assandh to FC office. Mr Ram Singh Bishnoi has been transferred from PTS, Hisar, to the FC office against a vacant post.

M Mohd Ishaq, Naib Tehsildar, Ballabgarh (A/c) has been transferred to Sohna as Naib Tehsildar (M) against a vacant post.

Rohtak, December 30
A desperate Om Prakash Chautala today appealed to his party men to use their persuasive powers to win over those who were “their own” and not waste their energy on seeking votes of those “who were never theirs”.

Addressing a gathering of Indian National Lok Dal workers here, he said there was no need for trying to seek the votes of those who were “never theirs” because these elements would not vote for their party ever. “All that is needed for a win in the forthcoming Assembly poll is to bring back those to the party fold who had brought the INLD to power in the first place”, he said.

Though he did not specify what he meant by “their own”, the reference obviously was to the Jat community which, too, had deserted his party in the last Lok Sabha poll.

Mr Chautala said the party lost the Lok Sabha poll because the workers remained inactive throughout the campaign. If that happened again, the result would be the same for the assembly poll. The time had come for every worker to come to the aid of the party and ensure its victory, he said.

He said he was not making another bid for the office of the Chief Minister merely to “enjoy the political and administrative power”. Another victory would just provide him an opportunity to serve the masses and to realise the dreams of the late Mr Devi Lal, he said.

Refuting charges of corruption levelled against him by the Haryana Congress, he said, the memorandum presented to the Governor was a “bundle of lies”. Public parks, government buildings and assets of charitable institutions had been mentioned in the document as his properties.

The Chief Minister said during his five-year rule, the state had made record progress. All this would be undone if the Congress came to power. The worst affected would be farmers and the labour class whose interests had been assiduously guarded by his government all these years.

Mr Chautala admitted that there was a lot of resentment against his government at present, but he told party workers that they could end this by explaining the positive side of his rule to the masses.

Jhajjar, December 30
Describing both Congress and BJP as capitalist forces, which have been working against the farmers and the working class and pursuing pro-capitalist policies, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, Chief Minister and INLD supremo, alleged that the Congress had been following the policy of divide and rule, which was a legacy of the British rule. He was addressing party workers in Bahadurgarh town here today.

“The Congress is exploiting the electorate by dividing them in the name of castes, communities since Independence”, he said, adding that it only worked for the rich by adopting pro-capitalist economic policies.

“While prices of raw materials used for manufacturing in factories and other commodities are increasing day-by-day, farmers are forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices”, Mr Chautala said. He accused the Congress-led UPA government of sidelining the interests of the working class.

Attacking the BJP, the Chief Minister drew a parallel between the thinking of the BJP and the Congress saying that Mr L.K. Advani’s statement on choosing between these two parties instead of voting for a regional party like the INLD exposed that these were two facets of the same coin.

He asked the party workers to beware of misinformation campaign of the opposition parties.

The Chief Minister claimed that the INLD rule had taken care of every section of society and development was done on an unprecedented scale. He said that the opposition parties were maligning the government by complaining to the Election Commission against the state government’s development works.

He alleged that the Congress leaders, including first Chief Minister of state Bhagwat Dayal Sharma followed by Rao Virender Singh and Mr Bansi Lal, were against making Haryana a separate state. 

Chandigarh, December 30
Aspirants for the Congress ticket for the forthcoming Haryana Assembly elections have started raising their voice against any possible attempt to foist “outsiders” on various constituencies.

Party sources say sensing an easy victory in the elections, certain senior Congress leaders are interested in getting tickets for their favourites from “easy” constituencies.

A number of “favourites”, who have been MLAs from the rural constituencies, want to shift to urban constituencies. Certain “favourites” want the party ticket from those constituencies where the Congress does not have sitting MLAs, even if they do not belong to those constituencies.

The sources say to frustrate such attempts, the aspirants for the Congress ticket in a number of constituencies have joined hands.

According to the sources, 53 Congressmen have applied for the party ticket from Yamunanagar. They held a meeting on Wednesday and decided to oppose the imposition of any “outsider” on the constituency by the party.

They have also decided to meet AICC President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, and urge her to tell the election committee not to recommend any “outsider” for the 
party ticket.

Rohtak, December 30
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad today appealed to the Hindus all over the world to donate the cost of one meal for relief operations in the tsunami-hit areas.

The appeal came at the end of the first working session of the annual meeting of the VHP’s board of trustees here today. The trustees devoted the entire session to chalk out programme for raising funds for the affected areas.

VHP general secretary Parvin Togadia told mediapersons that the organisation had cancelled all its public functions all over the country till January 14 to enable its members to devote their time entirely to relief work.

He said the trustees had issued an appeal to the Hindus to miss a meal and donate the money to any organisation collecting funds for relief to the tsunami hit.

Mr Togadia said the VHP units would collect relief material and funds from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Orissa as these states shared borders with the affected areas and it was easier to transport relief material from there. In the rest of the country, the organisation would auction the material collected and send the funds to the affected areas for providing the desired relief.

The VHP’s unit in the USA had started a relief fund with its chief Dr Jyotish Parekh donating Rs 5 lakh. The fund raising campaign would end on January 14.

The VHP trust has also appealed to the Hindus not to celebrate New Year Eve and donate the money for the relief work. Mr Togadia said several countries had been affected by the tragedy and none of these could cope with the relief work on its own. Funds would have to be raised speedily to begin relief work.

He said the VHP would soon establish an International Hindu Relief Fund. This would broadly work on the same lines as the Red Cross.

The trustees appointed Swami Vigyananand, a former IIT don, as coordinator for the relief operations. Seven camps had already started functioning and more would be functional soon, he said.

He said two of the VHP’s orphanages in Sri Lanka had been washed away and two girl inmates had been killed. A temple had also been badly damaged there. Teams of doctors and paramedics were being mobilised for relief work in the affected areas.

Sirsa, December 30
The Haryana Youth Congress has alleged that with an eye on the forthcoming Assembly poll the ruling INLD has appointed an HCS officer in Sirsa, the home district of the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala. Mr Baljeet Singh, City Magistrate of Sirsa, hails from Badagudan village, about 15 km from here.

In a communiqué to the Chief Election Commissioner, the vice-president of the state Youth Congress, Mr Surender Singh Nehra, has demanded the immediate transfer of the magistrate. In the complaint, a copy of which is in the possession of The Tribune, Mr Nehra had alleged that the officer in question was promoted to HCS from the post of clerk due to his family relations with the top INLD leaders.

The native village of Mr Baljeet Singh falls under the Rori Assembly constituency from where the son of the Chief Minister, Mr Abhey Singh Chautala, won the last Assembly poll. Terming the posting of the officer in his home district as an unfair and calculative step by the Chautala government, Mr Nehra demanded his immediate transfer to make the polling process fair.

A delegation of the Youth Congress leaders also handed over the complaint to the District Election Officer, Mr Vikas Yadav, in this regard.

He further rubbished the claim of the general secretary of the INLD and Rajya Sabha member, Mr Ajay Singh Chautala, about appointments in the state. Mr Nehra alleged that the Chief Minister and both of his sons were involved in the violation of code of conduct in the state.

Hisar, December 30
The board of management of Haryana Agricultural University (HAU) here has decided to restore the recruitment process at the university. The decision was taken at a meeting of the board held in Chandigarh recently.

Talking to The Tribune here today, the HAU Vice-Chancellor, Mr M.K. Miglani, said the matter would now be forwarded to the state government for its approval. He pointed out that there was a ban on appointments in the university for the past over seven years.

Mr Miglani said the HAU had constituted a high-powered committee under the chairmanship of Dr A.L. Chaudhry to make recommendations for improving efficiency of the university and rightsizing the staff.

The committee submitted its report in February, 2002. Following this, the university authorities took several steps to implement the recommendations. The HAU course catalogue was revised and the research programme reviewed.

The university constituted working groups to give a new direction to its research plan. Several non-plan research schemes were also merged, reducing the number of such schemes from 130 to 49. “The research schemes now have an integrated multi-disciplinary approach with focus on the farming system,” said the Vice-Chancellor.

The committee had also advocated downsizing of the HAU staff. However, Mr Miglani said since then a considerable number of faculty members had retired, due to which there was now a requirement of more teachers in several departments. “Since the effect of retirements was not the same on all departments, some departments have a shortage of teachers while some others have surplus staff,” he said.

Moreover, various steps were taken to minimise expenses and increase the HAU income. As many as 38 self-finance schemes were initiated to generate additional income for the university.

Mr Miglani said a detailed action taken report (ATR) on the committee’s recommendations was put up before the board of management. The board discussed the ATR in detail and accepted the report.

The board was also apprised of the reasons for not accepting some recommendations of the committee. For instance, the committee had recommended the closure of the College of Basic Sciences and Humanities. This proposal was shot down at the board meeting.

Chandigarh, December 30
If number of cases registered by the police is an indication, Haryana witnessed a “drastic decline” in crime in 2004. The number of cases registered a decline of 2,388 as compared to last year — at least this is what the police are claiming.

As many as 59,401 cases were registered till November this year under provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), besides local and special laws, as against 61,789 cases registered during the corresponding period last year. The police also recovered stolen property worth Rs 21.46 crore during this period.

Revealing this, Haryana’s Director-General of Police, Dr M.S. Malik, said the police worked hard against the anti-social elements for maintaining peace and order. He added that the police nabbed 309 criminal gangs involved in dacoity, robbery, burglary and theft, besides other offences. The police recovered stolen property worth Rs. 5.28 crore from these gangs during this period.

He said the police also recovered Rs. 25.76 lakh from the gamblers and satta players during the period. The police, he added, succeeded in working out 94.66 per cent cases. The police worked out 5482 cases out of 5791 registered during this period.

The DGP said the police waged special campaigns including Operation Alert, Agni, Catch, Chwoksi and Sadhbhawna for curbing crime and strengthening police-public relations. The police communication system was also strengthened.

Haryana police entered an era of computerisation after Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) were made operational. The officers and branches were been inter-linked with each other. All officers were provided independent “ÏP”. In addition, Panchkula district and Sonepat were linked with rest of the country.

Dr Malik said there was sharp decline in fatal accidents on all the National Highways passing through the state. In fact, there was a remarkable decline in the number of accidents. The police registered 1463 accident cases till November against 1590 during 2003. This was achieved by proper maintenance of roads, regulating smooth flow of traffic and observance of traffic laws. Haryana Highways Patrol and Road Safety Organisation had also taken a number of steps to avert accidents and ensuring smooth flow of traffic.

Haryana Police acquired two ultra modern digital interceptors to check speed of the vehicles besides several other machines to modernise traffic management. First aid facilities were also provided to the accident victims. The police also challaned drivers and realised a compounding amount of over Rs 54.91 lakh till November.

Policemen on traffic duty were provided goggles and nose masks to protect them from heat, dust and inhaling vehicular pollution, he added. The DGP said the police succeeded in conducting Parliamentary polls in a free and fair manner during May, 2004.

As many as 1600 new vehicles were also added to the fleet increase the mobility of the force. For the benefit of the personnel, 4000 houses are being constructed, along with seven police lines and several police stations.

The DGP claimed that the Haryana Police was adjudged “best police force” for implementing modernisation plans. Another achievement was the accredition of Haryana Forensic Laboratory (FSL) at Madhuban. It was accredited for its technical competence by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) as per communication received from the Union Government’s Department of Science and Technology. 

Panipat, December 30
A Delhi Police official and a dreaded gangster were killed in an encounter here late this evening.

Dr Suman Manjri, Superintendent of Police, district Panipat, told TNS that a Delhi police team from the special branch, led by Sub-Inspector Mehtab Singh, was chasing three gangsters who were on the run since afternoon on a motor cycle from Delhi.

The Delhi Police team in civil dress while chasing the gangsters on two vehicles gave information to the Panipat police when the gangsters entered the district. Accordingly, special nakas were established immediately, forcing the gangsters to take alternative route from the national highway.

The gangsters changed their route towards the Gohana road through Nangal Kheri village but the chasing police team finally challenged the gangsters by opening fire in Sat Kartar Colony behind the sugar mill that led to an encounter between them.

During the encounter, Mehtab Singh killed the gang leader, identified as Sunder Singh, alias Sundra. However, in the encounter the SI was killed as he was hit by two bullets fired by the other two criminals who later managed to flee taking advantage of the low visibility, said the SP.

Mr Karnail Singh, Joint Commissioner of the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, also reached here within a couple of hours to monitor the situation. He said Mehtab Singh was married just three months ago. “I am sorry to say that he even could not celebrate his birthday that was unfortunately on this date”, he added. The deceased SI belonged to Bhadurgarh (Haryana).

Meanwhile, the Panipat police had sealed the entire area and a hunt has been launched for the other two criminals in a joint operation with the Delhi Police. The other two criminals were believed to have taken shelter somewhere in a nearby place.

The SP who reached the spot immediately when the encounter took place said that the bodies of both deceased had been taken into custody and kept at the mortuary of the Civil Hospital for post-mortem that would be conducted on Friday.

Both police officials kept mum on the recoveries from the gangster, saying that the operation to check the encounter site was still going on.

Another Delhi Police official said that two cases of attempt to murder and under the Arms Act were recently registered against Sundra and his associates at the Nangloi police station in Delhi. He belonged to Kitoli village falling in Rohtak district, but was active in criminal activities at Delhi and in surrounding areas of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Kaithal, December 30
A strange case has come to light in which a man went for second marriage as his desire to get more dowry had remained unfulfilled from parents of his first wife . The police has registered a case against the man and six other persons following a complaint lodged by the father of his first wife .

Mewa Ram, a resident of Nand Karan Mazra, in a complaint lodged with the police has alleged that he married his two daughters, Bimla and Saroj, with Balwinder and Jagdish of Pai village . He had given sufficient gifts at the time of marriage, however, their in-laws started harassing them for more dowry.

Unable to bear the torture, the daughters returned to their parents’ house .

The complainant further alleged that Balwinder married another girl, Rekha of Kalsora village.

When he objected to this action he was threatened with dire consequences .

In another case Anita of Dhand village has lodged a complaint with the police that she was married to Mahabir Singh of Maandi village. Her in-laws started harassing her for more dowry .

The police has booked Mahabir, his father Jagat Singh and mother Rani under the Anti-Dowry Act