Chandigarh, August 26
The Assembly elections in Bihar will leave the Haryana Government limping temporarily.

As many as 30 IAS officers from the state are to be deployed in Bihar as observers. Coping with the absence of so many officers at the same time will be a tough job for the state government.

Though the Election Commission of India is yet to announce the date of the Assembly poll in Bihar, it has started the groundwork for the elections well in advance in view of the large number of IAS officers needed to supervise the poll process.

The list of officers prepared by the state government for appointment as poll observers include four administrative secretaries, nine directors of various departments, the managing directors of low-profile corporations, special secretaries and joint secretaries.

The list includes the name of Mr R R Fuliya, Divisional Commissioner of Hisar. However, since deputy commissioners and divisional commissioner are normally not sent on poll duty outside the state, it is expected that Mr Fuliya will be replaced by someone else. The Department of Archives, a low-priority area of the state government, will be the most severely affected by the selection of officers as Mr Harbaksh Singh, Secretary of the department, and Mr S N Roy, Director, have been both chosen for appointment as poll observers.

Three other secretaries chosen for going to Bihar are Mr P.K. Gupta of the Public Health Department, Mr D.S. Dhesi of the Civil Aviation Department and Mr Dalip Singh of the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment and Welfare of SCs and BCs.

The Directors of eight other departments — Urban Development, Cooperative Societies, Consolidation and Land Records, Secondary Education, Sports, Rural Development, Transport and Industrial Training and Vocational Training — too will be leaving for Bihar once the date for the elections is announced.

Jhajjar, August 26
Three unidentified car-borne youths reportedly shot dead a lawyer and his wife near their residence in Sector 9, Bahadurgarh, today.

According to the sources, deceased Pushkar Dayal, a lawyer practising in the Patiala House Court in Delhi, and his wife had shifted their residence from Delhi to here about three months ago.

They were killed just 400 yards away from their residence. Dayal was lying along the road with bullet injuries in his stomach, while the body of his wife was found in a nearby plot. She had been was shot in the head.

However, three assailants who reportedly arrived in a silver-coloured Maruti car, escaped after committing the murders.

The sources said the assailants had also made a bid on their lives earlier also when they were living in Mehrauli in Delhi. But they had escaped with minor bullet injuries. The couple had two sons and a daughter.

The police said the house of the deceased couple was found open and even the cooler was on inside when it reached the spot. The bodies were brought to the Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination. The police has started a hunt to nab the assailants.

The police suspected the accused first arrived at their house and then forcibly took them out where they were fired upon. The police has zeroed in on certain suspected assailants but no arrests had been made so far.

In another incident, a villager was beaten to death by two brothers at Rohad village in the district last night. The police said Ramchander was repeatedly attacked with bricks by his neighbours, identified as Ram Singh and Ramchander, sons of Kamale.

The deceased had reportedly gone to their house. The police has registered a case against the brothers on the complaint of Jagbir, son of the deceased.

Hisar, August 26
Awareness on intellectual property rights (IPR), patenting and WTO regime is must in this era of global competition, especially in view of the dominance of the developed nations. More importantly, the union government should adopt a systematic and organised approach in this regard.

This was stated by Dr J.B. Chaudhary, a former Vice-Chancellor of Haryana Agricultural University (HAU) and recipient of the Padmashree award, while talking to The Tribune here today.

Dr Chaudhary was the chief guest on the concluding day of an ICAR-sponsored summer school on IPR in Relation to Agriculture and Allied Fields organised on HAU campus here. Scientists and educationists from various parts of the country participated in the 10-day training session organised by the Academy of Agricultural Research and Education Management of the Directorate of Human Resource Management of the university.

Dr Chaudhary pointed out that despite India’s rich biodiversity and indigenous technology, nobody cared for getting patents due to lack of awareness. “We woke up when we found multi-national companies based in developed countries started getting things like turmeric, neem and basmati rice patented,” he asserted.

The expert said till recently, patents used to be acquired on industrial and pharmaceutical products and farm equipment. However, there was immense scope in patenting of crops and other agricultural products, he added.

Dr Chaudhary said given the complicated procedures involved in acquiring the patents and the dominance of developed countries therein, awareness regarding the matter needed to be created from the very beginning.

“For the purpose, IPR and patenting cells should be set up in the universities and other research institutes. Moreover, we need to develop a professional approach and focus on quality control to rise to the international standards,” he said.

The course director, Dr Kushal Pal Singh, said though a good beginning had been made, yet much more needed to be done in this direction. He said there was an immediate need to identify the research theses for getting these patented.

Bhiwani, August 26
A numberdar and eight others, including former municipal councillor, have been charged with managing a fake sale deed of land costing lakhs of rupees. A woman is also among them, but no arrest has been made so far in this connection.

In a report filed with the police, Ram Bhagat, a son of Daryao Singh of Hansi in Hisar district, alleged that he was the owner of land situated in Bhiwani and it was worth lakhs of rupees. An ex-municipal councillor, Rajbir, a resident of Meham Road, Bhiwani, in connivance with a Numberdar sold this land by making fake papers in his name.

When he came to know about the sale, he immediately contacted Rajbir who did not give any satisfactory answer.

The police has registered a case against Rajbir of Dubaldhan village, Kalawati of Naya Bazar, Sarbati of Chandruhera Street, Sanjeev, Lalit of Vijay Nagar, Ram Chander of the Somvari Mata area, Subhash Chand, Chandan Singh, Numbardar, and Prem Kumar of DC Colony under relevant sections.

Panchkula, August 26
The Government of India has chosen three heritage properties and two lakes in Haryana under its Destination Development Programme to be developed as tourist destinations.

The exquisite Yadavindra Gardens at Pinjore and Badkhal Lake and Surajkund in Faridabad are the three heritage sites that have been chosen for conservation and restoration under this scheme. The two lakes at Karnal and Rohtak — Karna Lake and Tilyar Lake, respectively — will also be developed as major tourist attractions.

Restoration work at Jyotisar and other historical shrines at Kurukshetra has already been initiated under this scheme. Though a major share for the funding of the conservation and development plan for these destinations has been given by the Government of India, the state government too is contributing for their conservation and development.

The Director, Haryana Tourism, Mr Vijay Vardhan, says that a sum of Rs 8. 30 crore has been sanctioned for the development of the three heritage sites at Pinjore and Faridabad, while the development of the Karna Lake and the Tilyar Lake will be undertaken later. “The conservation work of Surajkund is almost 50 per cent complete. The Sun pool here was restored three years ago. Now, the 5-acre area adjoining the pool will be landscaped and beautified at an estimated cost of Rs 1. 80 crore. A sum of Rs 5 crore has been earmarked for the conservation of the Mughal Gardens at Pinjore and all ‘bowlis’ (water bodies) in the surrounding areas, whereas Rs 1. 50 crore has been earmarked for the development of the Badkhal Lake,” he informs.

The scope of work at the Badkhal Lake has already been finalised by a private consultant hired by the Haryana Tourism. The restoration will involve the conservation of water in the lake as water is receding gradually. It is also proposed to add other water features like fountains here, and work is expected to begin within the next two months.

The Tourism Department is trying to hire consultants for identifying how the Mughal Gardens at Pinjore can be beautified and finding the scope of restoration work of buildings like Rang Mahal, Jal Mahal and Sheesh Mahal. The ‘bowlis’ — water bodies believed to be constructed by the Pandavas, while they were in exile here — which lie in a state of neglect, will also be restored. These bowlis have been reduced to puddles of slush with the waste of the town being thrown here. It is believed that there are 365 ‘bowlis’ in and around this historic town, and each of these is inter-connected, which ensures that they never get flooded.

Chandigarh, August 26
The Haryana Chief Secretary yesterday wrote a letter to all IAS officers of the state to furnish information to him on whether their wives are working as agents of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) or are members of any voluntary organisation.

The officers have been asked to furnish this information by August 29 through fax or a special messenger. A similar letter, it is learnt, has been sent by the Home Secretary to the IPS officers of the state.

Working as an agent for the LIC provides a convenient mode to the wives of IAS officers to accept perquisites in a manner that does not attract any action. For instance, an officer, if he does a favour to someone, will ask the person to buy a hefty LIC policy from his wife.

The wife will thus legitimately get a good commission from the deal.

Voluntary organisations are another alleged racket run by the wives of certain IAS and IPS officers. The wives apparently manage to get hefty donations for the organisations from government and private agencies with help from their husbands.