Chandigarh, August 18
A Delhi court today stayed the execution of non-bailable warrants against the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, till August 25 when the court will take up an application filed on his behalf for further hearing.

The Metropolitan Magistrate, Tees Hazari Courts, Mr A.K. Sisodia, had earlier issued the warrants against Mr Hooda on August 10 in a case registered against him under the West Bengal Defacement of Public Property Act. The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by a constable of the Delhi Police.

The allegation against Mr Hooda was that a few posters of a rally to be addressed by him in Delhi were pasted on the wall of Sarvodya Kanya Vidyalya, Delhi. Mr Hooda had organised the rally as the President of the Haryana Congress in 2002 after he led a padyatra in protest against the police firing on the BKU activists at Kadma village in Jind district, in which nine farmers were killed.

The FIR was lodged in 2002 and the charge-sheet was filed in 2003. The police had given his address as MP Flat 97, South Avenue, New Delhi. The first warrants were issued against him on January 4, 2005. By that time he had left the MP flat and shifted to 9, Pant Marg, New Delhi. The prosecution provided his new address to the court only in 2006, though he had become the Chief Minister of Haryana in March, 2005.

While issuing the non-bailable warrants against Mr Hooda on August 10, the court had fixed October 5 as the next date of hearing.

An application was moved by Mr Manjit Dalal and Mr Ajay Siwach before Mr Sisodia today, urging the court to stay the execution of the warrants against Mr Hooda. The court stayed the execution till August 25 when the application would be taken up for further hearing.

In the application the advocates contended that no summonses or warrants were ever served on Mr Hooda. The August 10 non-bailable warrants were issued on the basis of a wrong service report in which the bailiff had recorded that an aide of Mr Hooda at his Delhi residence had noted the date of hearing in the court and had assured the bailiff that he would convey the information to Mr Hooda.

Counsel contended that under the criminal law, the summons or warrants had to be personally served on the person concerned, which was never done in the case of Mr Hooda.

Chandigarh, August 18
The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) today demanded the resignation of the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, in view of the non-bailable warrants issued against him by a Delhi court.

The warrants have been issued against Mr Hooda in a case under the Defacement of Public Property Act. A few posters were pasted on the wall of a school when Mr Hooda led a padyatra to Delhi and held a public rally in protest against the killing of nine farmers in a police firing at Kadma in Jind district in 2002. The police had opened fire on BKU activists who were demanding the waiving of arrears of the electricity bills.

Talking to newsmen here today, the Secretary-General of the INLD, Mr Ajay Chautala, and a senior party leader, Prof Sampat Singh, said the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Ms Uma Bharti, was made to resign when a Karnataka court had issued non-bailable warrants against her in a case relating to the violation of the prohibitory orders imposed under Section 144, Cr.P.C.

The INLD leaders said the Congress, which was in opposition then, had not allowed Parliament to function, demanding the resignation of Ms Bharti. They said now the warrants had been issued against a Congress Chief Minister and the party should adopt the same standards as it had done in the case of Ms Bharti. They said either Mr Hooda should himself resign or the Congress high command should ask him to step down.

Mr Chautala alleged that the people of Haryana had been facing a severe shortage of power and water even during the monsoon season. They were forced to stage dharnas to highlight their grievances. But the Chief Minister and his colleagues were misleading the people by making false claims on the power front. "Every day they make new claims but nothing concrete takes place. They don't realise that they are talking of power projects and selling 'churan'. Except for the Yamunanagar power plant, which was finalised when the INLD was in power, the Hooda government has done nothing to ease the power situation in the state."

He also alleged that the law and order situation was worsening. Mr Hooda was frequently talking of setting up new townships, but was not able to maintain the infrastructure in even his native town of Rohtak.

Mr Chautala alleged that the Hooda government was being run by and for property dealers. He alleged that grave irregularities were committed while framing the new master plan for Gurgaon to oblige certain property dealers.

The INLD leaders alleged that various projects of the government were faltering. Substandard material was being used by the Forest Department for fencing of trees.

Panipat, August 18
Retired teaching and non-teaching employees of aided colleges of Haryana are a harassed lot. They did not get the DA on their pension even after one year of the announcement by Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister.

Dr S.C. Aggarwal, president, Haryana College Teachers and Principals Association, urged the Chief Minister to release the DA soon.

Addressing mediapersons here today, he said the pension scheme was announced in 1995 and implemented in 2001, but without DA.

“We feel cheated as the government while assuring about the release of DA had already procured affidavits from pensioners that we would not move the court in this regard,” said Dr Aggarwal.

The government notified the grant of DA on May 5 but no instructions were issued to college authorities to send the details of calculations on the DA to the beneficiaries till date, he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Anil Kumar, Commissioner, Higher Education, when contacted, said the case was pending with the Finance Department and efforts were being made to release the DA as soon as possible.

Chandigarh, August 18
The President of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Mr Avtar Singh Makkar, today met the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, to protest against the formation of a separate SGPC in Haryana.

Mr Makkar sought that the Chatha committee be scrapped and also the demanded an immediate withdrawal of notices inviting affidavits from residents of Haryana on the formation of a separate SGPC.

Mr Makkar, while addressing mediapersons said, “This was no more than a ploy to divide the Sikhs”. He said that he had told Mr Hooda that the Haryana Government should not interfere in the religious affairs of the Sikhs.

The move to form a separate committee was in violation of the pact signed between Jawaharlal Nehru and Master Tara Singh in 1959. Clause 3 of the pact says that no amendment can be made to the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925 without the same being approved by a two-thirds majority in the General House of the SGPC.

The SGPC was a representative body of the entire Sikh community and not just the Sikhs living in Punjab, said Mr Makkar while adding that the SGPC is formed through elections conducted across the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. Another 15 members are co-opted from across the country.

When asked why the SGPC was opposing the formation of separate body in Haryana, Mr Makkar said he was in favour of the All-India Gurdwara Act and that all historic gurdwaras across the country be brought under the control of the SGPC.

He termed the “Second Gurdwara Sudhar leher” launched by the Panthic panel as a propaganda of the Congress. The SGPC will protest in front of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Delhi on August 25 against the reported incident where an Indian Sikh doctor has been asked to cut his hair.

Chandigarh, August 18
After the Congress MLA, Mr Karan Singh Dalal, a BJP MLA of Haryana, Mr Ram Kumar Gautam, has also accused the Delimitation Commission of having failed in adhering to the guidelines and methodology set by it earlier for delimiting Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.

Mr Gautam, who is the leader of the BJP Legislature Party in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, has sent a letter to Justice Kuldip Singh, Chairman of the Delimitation Commission, alleging that as a result of the commission’s failure to adhere to its own guidelines and methodology, the constituencies proposed by it for the state were lopsided. The commission, he said, had put at bay the principles of contiguity of administrative units, geographical features, connectivity, public convenience and administrative supervision while proposing the new constituencies.

Earlier Mr Dalal, who is an associate member of the commission, had raised similar objections and had urged the commission to publish his dissent along with the draft proposals.

The BJP MLA said the draft proposals violated the guidelines with regard to unnecessary and avoidable fragmentation of the tehsils, sub-tehsils, subdivisions, kanugo circles, panchayat samitis and the patwar circles.

Mr Gautam said this time also the delimitation was being done on the pattern of 1971 when the constituencies were readjusted to suit certain powerful politicians of the time.

Quoting instances in support of his contentions, Mr Gautam said “as an honest and responsible representative of the people, I am deeply pained by the parochial, biased and opportunistic behaviour shown by the commission”.

Chandigarh, August 18
The Town and Country Planning Department of Haryana intends to complete the unfinished infrastructural facilities in its urban estates.

The department has coined the term “planning audit” to describe its exercise of finding out the status of infrastructure in the estates developed by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), the department’s implementing wing. Panchkula and Gurgaon have been already subjected to the audit. In the former, the decisions taken at a meeting held on July 12 are stated to be under implementation. Among other things, three banquet halls will come up in Panchkula as a consequence of this stocktaking formula.

In the case of Gurgaon, it was noticed that there was a shortage of facilities like hospitals, colleges, fire stations, working women hostels, etc. It has been decided that 324 acres falling in Sectors 24 and 25 in Gurgaon will be utilised for a gigantic infrastructure development plan consisting of two government colleges, a hospital, a fire station, a police station, a banquet hall, a circuit house, a town park of 10 acres, a ground of 5 acres, a site for the grid substation and other amenities.

The department cites court cases over land acquisition responsible for the unfinished infrastructure. However, having already accepted charges from colonisers for the development of the infrastructure in urban estates, it is not possible for the department to wriggle out of its duty.

Fatehabad, August 18
Residents of Tohana town in this district today observed a complete bandh and blocked traffic on the Chandigarh road in protest against the kidnapping and brutal murder of a 12-year-old boy. The police has arrested the alleged killer, a teenaged boy, whose family was the tenant of the victim’s family a few years ago.

Gimmy (12), son of trader Ajit Singh of Tohana town, was kidnapped from a temple on the Janmashtami night. The kidnapped boy had been repeatedly calling the family of the victim and demanding a ransom of Rs 6 lakh. The victim’s father had informed the police the same day.

Yesterday, Gimmy’s family received a call from the kidnapper around 4 pm. The police, who had already been tapping the telephone calls made to the family, came to know that the call originated from a STD PCO situated in the town. The police immediately swung in to action and quizzed the PCO operator. The PCO operator informed the police that the caller was a boy and he was limping due to polio 
affected leg.

The police launched a manhunt to find the youth. It quizzed many persons, who limped while walking. It found Sonu (18), in the market of the town. He was on a bicycle, but as soon as he descended from his bicycle he started limping. The police interrogated him. He admitted to having committed the crime. He informed the police that his father, Dharampal of Farmana village in Rohtak district, and his family was the tenant of Gimmy’s family some time ago. He revealed that he wanted to become a businessman and needed money for that. He knew that Gimmy’s father Ajit Singh was a rich man. So he planned to kidnap Gimmy for ransom.

Sonu took Gimmy, who was well known to him, to his residence where he was alone. He then called Gimmy’s father and demanded a ransom of Rs 6 Lakh. By the night, Gimmy desired to go home. Sonu tried to prevail upon him to stay with him for two to three days. However, when Gimmy did not agree and started crying for help, Sonu killed him by strangulating him. He then kept the body in a vacant shop situated on the ground floor of his house. Even after killing the boy, Sonu kept on making calls to the victim’s family for ransom.

Anger mounted among the residents when they came to know of the brutal murder. They called for a total bandh and sat on a dharna on the Chandigarh road. They alleged that the police could have saved the child had it acted swiftly. The crowd blocked traffic on the Chandigarh road and demanded that the killer be handed over to them. Efforts by the police to pacify the crowd failed and the jam continued when this report was filed. The authorities had diverted traffic coming from Chandigarh towards Jakhal.