Sirsa, May 16
Thousands of followers, including office-bearers of the dera from different states, began reaching the Dera Sacha Sauda here on a call given by its chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to attend the meeting to be held tomorrow.

The office-bearers were called to the dera to decide the next course of action in the wake of appeal of Akal Takh and the SGPC to Sikh sangat to reach Talwandi Sabo on May 17 to attend maha Sikh sammelan to decide action against the dera chief.

Over one lakh supporters are expected to reach the dera tomorrow.

Terming the incident of clash between his followers and Sikhs in different states as unfortunate, the dera chief told The Tribune in the late evening at his dera, about 8 km from here, that the issue was blown out of proportion.

“I have never imitated Guru Gobind Singh. The clash between Sikhs and my followers could only be stopped with mutual cooperation. We are ready to hold talks with the high priest or Sikhs organisations as we believe in peace”.

“I never watch television but I came to know from my followers about the incident of violence and sammelan of Sikhs to be held at Talwandi Sabo. So office-bearers of the dera from different states, including those from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh are meeting here tomorrow to find out the ways to sort out the issue”, dera chief added.

When asked that the cause of clash between dera supporters and Sikhs could be the outcome of Punjab politics as the dera had openly supported the Congress in the recent assembly elections held in Punjab, dera chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim said that politics could be the reason.

“But he has never believed in politics,” he said.

It may be mentioned here that the fight broke between the dera followers and the Sikhs in the different states after the Sikhs protested against dera chief alleging that he had dressed like Guru Gobind Singh.

Yamunanagar, May 16
The ‘dissonance’ in the Sikh community over the creation of a separate gurdwara parbandhak committee for Haryana seems to have been pushed to the background, at least for now.

Today, leaders of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (ad hoc) (HSGPC) joined hands to protest against the alleged blasphemy by Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda, which has triggered widespread protests all over the region.

SGPC member Baldev Singh Kayampuri and HSGPC senior vice-president Joga Singh met at a gurdwara in Model Town and declared to carry out a joint protest. “The Panth is supreme,” was the unanimous assertion.

HSGPC (ad hoc) announced that the decision of the Akal Takht was supreme and they would abide by it. They said they were with the SGPC in the fight against the anti-Panth activities of the dera.

The unity of the two groups on the dera issue is seen as an important development as talks have begun doing rounds that the issue of a separate panel for Haryana Sikhs could be solved without ‘political interference’.

Kayampuri said, “There are no disputes among Sikhs, and if there are any, these will be solved amicably.” The SGPC members added, “Saving the Panth is paramount and other matters can wait.”

Joga Singh said SGPC and HSGPC had joined hands to fight the attack on the Panth. However, he said, “Our movement for a separate panel for Haryana will continue.”

When asked if the issue of a separate panel could be solved amicably, he said, “It depends on Parkash Singh Badal.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of members of the Sikh community gathered at the gurdwara and decided to take out a massive protest march tomorrow.

Demanding a ban on the dera, the members of the community said feelings of the Sikhs had been hurt.

Earlier, a meeting of senior Sikh leaders was held at the gurdwara and it was decided that two protest marches - one from Jagadhri and the other from Yamunanagar - would be taken out and both would converge at the deputy commissioner’s office at Jagadhri.

A delegation would later submit a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the deputy commissioner, it was stated.

It is obvious that for now the separate gurdwara panel issue has been put on the backburner.

Meanwhile, senior leaders of the Haryana unit of the SAD demonstrated and raised slogans against the acts of the dera.

The leaders demanded ban on dera activities that could lead to unrest in the state. Those spoke on the occasion included Sant Singh Kandhari, Gurdeep Singh Bhanokheri, Ajit Singh Sonda, Ranbir Singh Fauzi, Sukhdev Singh Gobindgarh and Harpal Singh Rimpi.

Chandigarh, May 16
The Hooda group, which also controls the organisational set up of the Haryana Congress, has decided to be offensive against supporters of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and his suspended MP son Kuldeep Bishnoi.

The Bhajan group has been trying to rattle the Hooda group by "organising" a series of resignations of its supporters from the party for the past one month. Many of those who have resigned from the party, had claimed to have held one or the other post. Naturally their claims made newspaper headlines.

But now the Hooda group has decided to call their bluff.

Sources in the Haryana Congress say since no resignation had been received in the party office, Working President Dr Ram Prakash ordered an exercise to verify the claims of those, reports of whose resignations had appeared in the media.

According to the party spokesman Ved Prakash Vidrohi, there are 1204 elected delegates of the party from the block level to the AICC level. After checking the record it was found that only two delegates to the Pradesh Congress Committee and two block level delegates had claimed to have resigned from the party. Since their resignations have not been received in the party office, the party has decided to ask them if they had quit the party.

Such letters have already gone to Lehri Singh of Radaur and Jagbir Singh of Bhiwani, both of whom are elected PCC delegates; and to Harender Kalyan of Karnal and Bijender Kadian of Panipat, both of whom are coopted members.

Vidrohi says if they replied in affirmative, their membership would be cancelled. He said the resignations of all such persons who had not been active in the party programmes for the past two years, would not affect the party at all.

Meanwhile, general secretary of the media cell of the party Lakhwinder Singh Lakha said the so-called supporters of Bishnoi had been contradicting each other. He said while Congress Secretary Satpal Kaushik alleged that all development under the Hooda government was taking place in Rohtak, former Minister Subhash Batra, another supporter of Bhajan Lal, had alleged that after Bhupinder Singh Hooda became the Chief Minister, no development had taken place in Rohtak. Lakha said Bishnoi's supporters should consult each other before making baseless allegations.

Kaithal, May 16
Attacking the Haryana government for failing to maintain the law and order situation in the state, BJP Haryana state unit Atam Parkash Manchanda claimed that the BJP would form the next government in the state.

Addressing a press conference, Manchanda accused the government of forcefully setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the state and said the same should only be set up on barren land. He added that a family member of each family whose land is taken up for setting up an SEZ should be provided a job by the industrial house on priority basis. The BJP president said the farmers whose crops were damaged due to hailstorms and untimely heavy rains in the recent past had not been compensated suitably in many districts. He also called the compensation between Rs 10-250 for damaged crops as ‘a big joke’ and said the government should enquire into such reports and take appropriate follow-up action.

Manchanda said the BJP state unit had chalked out a strategy to strengthen and gear up the organisation to face the next Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Manchanda said in the present political scenario, BJP was the only party that could fulfill the aspirations of the people.

Rohtak, May 16
The Vice-Chancellor of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here, Prof R.S. Dhankar, has nominated Dr Raj Pal, lecturer, Department of Commerce, as member of the Academic Council (AC) of the university under provision of Statute-13 of the MDU Act. Dr Raj Pal’s membership will be effective with immediate effect for two years.

Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor yesterday inspected various construction works in progress on the varsity campus. Prof Dhankar visited various construction sties, reviewed the progress and issued instructions for quality work and time-bound completion of works.

He visited the construction sites of university auditorium, Central Library extension work, and working women’s hostel. The dean, Students’ Welfare, Prof Rajbir Singh, the Superintending Engineer, R.S.Yadav, and the Controller (Security), M.S. Nandal, along with other officials of engineering cell of the varsity, accompanied the Vice-Chancellor on his inspection visit.

Chandigarh, May 16
Edusat, the Indian satellite in education programme, will be formally dedicated to the people of Haryana on May 19 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Prime Minister will inaugurate the Edusat system during his visit to Hisar on Saturday.

Disclosing this here today, the Haryana Education Minister, Mr Phool Chand Mullana, said the infrastructure would primarily be used for education in the schools of Haryana, but after school hour the infrastructure can be used to impart training to other groups.

Earlier reviewing the semesterisation of school education in the State, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Education, Mr R.S.Gujral, who is also chairman of the Haryana School Education Board, said the experiment had proved to be very successful.

Haryana, he said, was the third State in the country to introduce re-evaluation system for schools. Earlier, there was a system of recounting of marks only for final examination, but now in case of any doubt about marks scored in a particular subject, the students have an opportunity to get their answer-sheets re-evaluated. However, they will have to pay a fee of Rs. 1000 per subject.

Director General, School Education, Mr K.K.Khandelwal said that plasma TV sets had been provided to 800 schools out of 1200 senior secondary schools.

Hisar, May 16
The rift in the district Congress continues even as the Prime Minister is scheduled to visit on May 19. The differences among senior party leaders have resulted in a situation where Manmohan Singh would be addressing two public meetings within a span of a few minutes - one at Khedar village where he is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of a thermal power plant, and another at Barwala. The two venues are just over 10 km apart.

Originally, the Prime Minister was scheduled to lay the stone at Khedar and address a rally at Barwala. Khedar is a part of Congress legislator Chhattarpal Singh's assembly segment Ghirai. Meanwhile, Congress MP Jai Prakash’s brother Randhir Singh represents Barwala in the assembly.

The meeting at Khedar came about after Chhattarpal Singh reportedly met Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and insisted that the PM address a meeting there. As a solution, it was decided that the PM would address two public meetings. Since then, the supporters of Jai Parkash and Chhattarpal Singh have been grabbing every opportunity to denigrate the opposite camp.

The verbal duel, however, assumed significant dimensions today when the Barwala Block Congress passed a resolution seeking the expulsion of Chhattarpal Singh from the party during a meeting. Copies of the resolution were sent to HPCC working president Dr Ram Parkash, the CM and Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi, who is in-charge of Haryana.

The resolution alleged that Chhattarpal Singh had been virtually “functioning as an agent of suspended Congress MP Kuldeep Bishnoi”. The majority of the persons present at the recent Barwala meeting were reportedly those who had quit the Congress at the behest of Bishnoi or those who had opposed the Congress in the last assembly poll.

Perhaps, taking a cue from the top leaders, the other functionaries of the district Congress have been holding separate meetings of their supporters and assigning duties to them for the proposed rally.

Confed chairman Bajrang Das Garg and urban district Congress chief Sushila Sharma have held separate meetings for the purpose. So have many others, thus leaving the party workers confused.

Being a close aide of former CM Bhajan Lal, chief of district Congress’ rural unit former MP Ramji Lal is understandably lying low. It seems he is biding time before he too quits the party in support of Bhajan Lal's son Kuldeep Bishnoi.

Ambala, May 16
The district administration today demolished a major part of under-construction multi-storey commercial complex at Ambala City located on Ambala-Hisar road. Two JCB machines were pressed into operation to dismantle the building.

Senior officers of the administration and a police team were present at the site.

A senior officer said the land on which the part of commercial complex was constructed was under the possession of the HVPN and the construction was illegal.

On the other hand, builder Ashwani Sareen said around one month back the chairman of the Ambala Grievance Committee and health minister Kartar Devi after examining the documents of ownership had directed the administration to hand over the possession of disputed land to him. The district revenue officer had also favoured him in his report submitted to the deputy commissioner. He said after getting the possession of the land he had started construction on it. Sareen said he would take legal remedy to the action.