Chandigarh, May 16
In a significant decision, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the Haryana Government to ensure that the process to fill all posts, which are sanctioned and which are currently being manned by temporary or daily-wage workers through regular recruitments is initiated.

In its judgement, delivered on a bunch of writ petitions filed by daily-wage/temporary employees of various government departments seeking directions to the government to regularise their services, the Division Bench comprising Mr Justice M.M. Kumar and Mr Justice M.M.S. Bedi also ordered the government to initiate steps to regularise the services of all daily-wage/temporary workers, as a one-time measure, who were initially appointed regularly in accordance with the mandate of the Supreme Court.

The court also ordered that the government would grant exemption to employees who are working on ad hoc basis in relaxation of rules when recruitment on permanent posts is made.

However, the Bench clarified, the orders of regularisation of such employees that were issued before the Supreme Court judgement in the Uma Devi case would remain intact and would not be re-opened.

The Bench gave these directions while adjudicating the petitions filed by Rajinder Kumar and other daily-wage/temporary workers of various government departments in Haryana.

Referring to the directions issued by the Supreme Court Constitutional Bench, which dealt with Uma Devi's case, the High Court Bench headed by Mr Justice Kumar held that daily-wage/temporary workers, who did not fulfil the eligibility criteria for appointment to a particular post, couldn't seek to be appointed to the same on the ground that they have worked on the post for a long period.

In the case of the petitioners while Rajinder Kumar was employed as a tractor driver on daily wages in the Agriculture Department on May 1, 1996, another petitioner was employed as gardener.

After the services of Rajinder Kumar were terminated on November 30, 1997, he moved the Labour Court. On May 18, 2001, the Labour Court set aside the termination order and granted continuity in service to the employee along with full back wages.

On a representation made by Rajinder, the department considered his case for regularisation, but found that he did not fulfil the requirements. Similar was the case of the other petitioners.

The Bench held that their petitions were liable to be dismissed and hence were dismissed.

Kaithal, May 16
Hundreds of residents of Karora village of this district, including a large number of sadhus of various deras, laid a seize to the town roads and kept the traffic in the town disrupted for more than three hours here today.

The protestors were demanding strict police action against some persons who entered a dera at Karora village last week threatened the Mahant and allegedly tried to kidnap him. They alleged that even after a gap of more than a week, the police has not acted against all those involved in this incident and has arrested only one person whereas a number of persons were involved in this incident.

The protestors squatted on Pehowa Chowk, bus stand and some other roads on the outskirts of the town and did not allow movement of vehicles. As a result, chaotic conditions prevailed for over two hours on the town roads and hundreds of vehicles remained stranded at many places, causing great inconvenience to the road users.

A number of civil and police officers reached the spot and tried to convince the protestors to withdraw from the roads but they did not listen to their pleas. Later the Deputy commissioner, Mr B.S. Malik, and the S.P. Mr Navdeep Singh virk reached the spot and assured the protestors that suitable action would be taken against all those involved in attacking the Mahant. Following their appeal, the protestors withdrew from the roads and allowed normal flow of traffic.

Some miscreants reached dera of Mahant ram Nath at Karora village land week and forcibly entered the dera. They allegedly tried to kidnap dera Mahant. The villagers also alleged that the miscreants were armed with weapons. The village residents got wind of this attempt and resisted the attempt of the miscreants and forced them to leave the village. Some of the miscreants were over powered by the villagers and handed over to the police.

The villagers had been accusing the police of not taking the matter seriously. They demanded suitable action against all those involved in this incident. Mahants of deras and residents of Karora had also gone to Rohtak to apprise the Chief Minster about the incident.

In his absence they met his son Depinder Hooda M.P. who had assured appropriate action in the matter.

Chandigarh, May 16
Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, who is facing a probe by the CBI for disproportionate assets, is apparently heading for more trouble.

An official press release issued here today said that two subcommittees of the Public Accounts Committee of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha had been constituted to identify and scrutinise the remaining parts of the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor- General of India relating to “huge financial irregularities”. Each subcommittee would have four MLAs, it said.

Quoting the Secretary of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Mr Sumit Kumar, the release said the two committees had been constituted under the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Haryana Assembly.

Chandigarh, May 16
The Congress MLA from Palwal, Mr Karan Singh Dalal, today dared Mr Ajay Singh Chautala, elder son of the former Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, and secretary-general of the Indian National Lok Dal, to hold a discussion with him from a public platform about the assets of the Chautala family.

Claiming that he would prove the CBI allegations against the Chautala family about the assets owned by it in disproportion to its known sources of income, Mr Dalal alleged that in fact the assets of the Chautalas were much more than what had been unearthed by the CBI so far.

He said here that Mr Ajay Singh should make it public how much money was received by various trusts floated by the Chautalas in the name of the late Devi Lal when they were in power and how much money was received after they went out of power. He said if the Chautalas had nothing to do with the Devi Lal Trust, how come Mr Abhey Singh Chautala, the younger son of the former Chief Minister, was its president. Mr Dalal said when the Chautalas were in power, these trusts were getting a lot of money but now no more "donations" were coming in.

Similarly, Mr Dalal alleged, the Jan Sewa Trust, which had property worth crores of rupees in Gurgaon and Delhi, was headed by the maternal uncle of Mr Abhey Singh. Since the newspaper, Jansandesh, the trust was publishing, was not seen in the market, it was a matter of inquiry from where the trust had acquired so much property. He also alleged that the building of the trust was constructed in violation of the rules and the change of its use had been wrongly approved.

Mr Dalal, who had been constantly "exposing" the Chautalas when they were in power for five years, put up a brave defence, though weak on occasions, when newsmen repeatedly questioned him about the alleged soft attitude of the Hooda government towards the Chautalas, against whom the Congress had given a charge sheet to the Governor when the party was in the Opposition. Mr Dalal had also played an important role along with the former Advocate-General of Haryana, Mr Mohan Jain, in framing the charge sheet.

Referring to the claim of Mr Ajay Singh that his family had been paying income tax, Mr Dalal said in 1997, Mr Om Prakash had given an affidavit in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that he did not own any property except his share in his ancestral property. While filing an affidavit before the Assembly elections, Mr Om Prakash admitted that he and his wife had assets worth crores of rupees.

Mr Dalal also released copies of his letters written to the Governor, Haryana, and the Director, CBI, in which he alleged that the Chautalas owned property worth more than Rs 10,000 crore inside and outside the country. He urged the Director, CBI, to take the help of Interpol in unearthing the Chautalas' assets outside the country.

He also alleged that when Mr Pratap Singh, younger brother of Mr Om Prakash, had lodged an FIR against the latter regarding his "disproportionate" assets, the investigating officer had given a report that the Chautalas had no hotel in Manali because by then Mr Om Prakash had become the Chief Minister. But now the Chautalas had admitted that they constructed the hotel after taking a loan of Rs 35 lakh. He demanded action against the then investigating officer also.

Medicos block traffic
Tribune News Service

Ambala, May 16
Continuing their agitation for the second day on Tuesday, medical students of MM Medical College, Mullana, blocked busy Saha chowk.

The blockade by the medical students, who are protesting against caste-based reservation, threw traffic out of gear on the Jagadhari highway. Roads leading towards Naraingarh, Jagadhari, Ambala cantt and Saha growth centre witnessed a major traffic jam.

The students came onto the Jagadhari highway and blocked the highway near Hema Majra. The students then blocked the traffic at the Saha chowk.

The students began to march towards Saha chowk. They carried placards criticising caste-based reservation. They demanded that there should be equality. They raised slogans against Union Minister, Mr Arjun Singh and Congress led UPA government. The students were also critical of the Haryana Education Minister, Mr Phool Chand Mullana, after their delegation failed to meet him.

The students said that they would continue their agitation till the government acceded to their demand. They said that they were planning to hold similar protest at Ambala cantt and Ambala city.

A posse of police personnel led by DSP Mahender Singh tried to pacify the students. The traffic blockade was cleared at about 1.30 pm.

Chandigarh, May 16
The Haryana Government is gearing up to make farmers aware of the profitability of growing medicinal plants.

Ms Kiran Choudhry, Haryana Minister of State for Forests, said lectures and interaction sessions with farmers would be organised in each district to promote the cultivation of medicinal plants. She said land was also being identified in all blocks for the growing of such plants.

Ms Choudhry said the Union Government had chosen Haryana for imparting training in the growing of medicinal plants to Indian Forest Service officers of various states.

She said the Haryana Board for Medicinal Plants had so far got 105 projects sanctioned from the National Medicinal Plants Board. Ninety of these projects had been sanctioned during the present state government's tenure, she said.

Jhajjar, May 16
The conspiracy to kill a cable operator in Bahadurgarh was hatched by his rivals in business. The cable operator was killed by a supari killer in his house in March 8.

This was disclosed by criminal Sanjay Tyagi who surrendered before the Delhi police last month and was brought here on transit remand for interrogation.

While confessing his involvement in the murder, he said. Yogesh, sarpanch of Sarai Orangabad village, and one Sunil of the same village had given him ‘supari’ to kill Ashok Sharma.

The deceased was a partner in Pooja Cable Network with Satyavan while Yogesh is the owner of SNS Cables operating in Bahadurgarh. While Pooja Cable was doing good business, its rival SNS Cable was lagging way behind.

The DSP, Mr Man Singh, informed a press conference here today that the owner of SNS Cable struck a deal with Sanjay Tyagi, a sharp shooter associated with the Krishn Dichao gang, that he would be paid Rs 50,000 as legal assistance apart from Rs 1 lakh per month if he killed Sharma.

Tyagi called his accomplices, Kamal, Mahabir and Sandeep, all residents of Delhi. While Tyagi and Kamal went to Sharma’s house to shoot him, the other remained in his house in Sector 6. The DSP said Yogesh and Sunil, real conspirators in the case, would be arrested soon. Raids were being conducted to nab them. They appeared to be on the run.

Rewari, May 16
With the arrest of three of the five miscreants- Balbir, Guddu and Saddak- all residents of Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh, the district police has cracked the case pertaining to the murder-cum dacoity in Vikas Nagar Colony of Maheshwari village near Dharuhera in the wee hours of SundayMay14.

The police has also arrested Abbas and his wife Rayeesa, parents of the fourth miscreant Akram, a resident of Ghaziabad district in UP, on charges of possessing looted property.

A part of the booty was recovered by the police from their possession.

All five accused were yesterday produced in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Baljeet Singh who remanded them to police custody for seven days.

Mr Ram Singh Bishnoi , SP, said efforts were on to apprehend the remaining two miscreants- Imran and Mohammad Shahid- who were still at large.

The crime was committed in the early hours of Sunday when Krishan Kumar, a mechanic at a furniture manufacturing unit of Rambir of Maheshwari village, was done to death and cash and ornaments worth Rs 1.60 lakh looted. Rambir and his wife Sumitra were injured.

On Sumitra’s statement, the Dharuhera police registered a case of murder-cum-dacoity under Sections 396,395and 397 of the IPC.

As soon as district police chief Ram Singh Bishnoi , who himself was handling the case, got clue regarding the hideouts of the miscreants, a police party was promptly sent to Meerut region to nab the culprits.

Yamunanagar, May 16
After a brief lull, smuggling of cows to slaughter houses located across the Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh has started again from here. Last evening the police seized a truck carrying 17 cows that were being taken to a slaughter house in Uttar Pradesh.

During the past three days, it was the second such seizure. Sources in the police admit that a significant number of smuggling cases go unnoticed as smugglers keep changing route and are aided by some local persons who alert them regarding police presence.

The police impounded a truck from near Chhachhrouli last evening and seized 17 cows being taken to a slaughter house in Uttar Pradesh. The truck (UP 78N 8349) being used in the smuggling has been impounded at least four times earlier too, said a senior police official.

Sources said cows and oxen were being brought from parts of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh to various ghats of the river in the district and taken to slaughter houses in Gangoh, Saharanpur, Dugdhgarh, Chilkana, Tajpur, Raipur, Behat in UP.

Rewari , May 16
Mr Raj Kumar, Additional Sessions Judge of Hisar, has sentenced Subodh (husband), Surender Kumar (father-in-law) and Santosh Devi (mother-in-law), to imprisonment for 10 years, holding them guilty of the death of Seema, daughter of Suraj Bhan, a resident of Kosli town of Rewari district.

The judge has also imposed a fine of Rs 2000 on each of the convicted.

Seema was married to Subodh on February 27, 2002.

Hisar, May 16
The driver of an auto-rickshaw was killed and nine women teachers travelling in it were injured when the vehicle fell into a nullah near Sainipura in Hansi township of the district today. — TNS