Ambala, May 22
Tension gripped Ambala today following a clash between Akali activists and the police near Badshahi Bagh Gurdwara and Manji Sahib Gurdwara in Ambala City.

The situation continued to be tense throughout the day in Ambala City. Stone-pelting near Badshahi Bagh Gurdwara left four police personnel, including Superintendent of Police Amitabh Dhillon, injured. The police had to resort to lathicharge to control the activists.

The activists gathered at Badshahi Bagh Gurdwara to take out a protest march over the dera issue. They were planning to hand over a memorandum to deputy commissioner R.P. Bharadwaj.

Since Section 144 has already been imposed in Ambala, they were advised against taking out the march. Even the DC came to the gurdwara so that the memorandum could be handed over to him.

Suddenly, stone-pelting took place on the police personnel, who were standing outside the gurdwara. A stone hit on the face of SP Amitabh Dhillon.

Thereafter, the Akali activists tried to cross over barricades set up. They wanted to go to the main road. It forced the police to undertake lathicharge in which two persons were injured.

After the lathicharge, the crowd near the gurdwara dispersed. But the situation continued to be tense as Sikhs began to assemble at Manji Sahib Gurdwara in Ambala City.

In the afternoon, a number of Sikh youths arrived at the gurdwara. Akali leaders like Sant Singh Kandhari, Sukhdev Singh Gobindgarh and SGPC member from Ambala Gurdev Singh Bhanokheri were also present.

The group of youths attempted to force their way through the police contingent. The police chased the youths, who entered the gurdwara.

It was then that the police personnel were attacked by stones and bricks which were thrown from the verandah of the gurdwara.

In retaliation, the police personnel threw back the bricks. During the stone-pelting, two police personnel, including Assistant Sub-Inspector Mewa Ram, were seriously injured.

The Sikh youths alleged that the police personnel had hurt the "maryada'' of the gurdwara by pelting stones.

Later, the SP, along with SDM Mukesh Ahuja, held a meeting with the Akali leaders. The SP sought the assistance of the leaders to identify those anti-social elements, who started stone-pelting.

Inspector-general of police, Ambala range, S.S. Deswal said the situation was under control. He said the police had shown restraint in dealing with the situation.

Ambala, May 22
R.K. Saini, Special Judge, CBI Court, adjourned the hearing in Ranjeet murder case for June 9 in which the arguments on the framing of charges against five devotees of Dera Sacha Sauda was to be carried out today.

Ranjeet, who was in the 10-member high-powered management committee looking after the functioning of the dera, was murdered on July 10, 2002.

Some of the functionaries of the dera were of the view that Ranjeet was behind the circulation of the anonymous letter in which several allegations were pointed out against the dera chief.

The police had arrested Krishan Lal, manager of the dera, and four others in this regard. Later, on the directions of the high court, the investigation was handed over to the CBI.

Sirsa, May 22
The district remained peaceful during the bandh called by Sikh organisations following the edict of Akal Takht against the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

More than 2000 Sikhs took out a procession from the historical gurdwara Chila Sahib and passed through different markets here. Most of the shops were closed during the bandh.

The leaders of Sikhs organisations after holding a meeting at the historical gurdwara demanded the immediate arrest of the dera chief for imitating Guru Gobind Singh. They also demanded that the CBI should inquire into all the properties acquired in the form of deras in different states.

They said that dera chief should tender an apology for his wrong doings. They added that the CBI should also submit an inquiry report in three different cases against the dera chief. The Sikh organisations later submitted a memorandum in this regard to the Deputy Commissioner V.Umashankar.

Prominent leaders who addressed the gathering at gurdwara Chila Sahib included Sukhwinder Singh, Didar Singh, Harpal Singh and Avtar Singh.

While at the dera, the followers from Punjab had begun arriving since late evening. The security had been tightened inside and outside the dera.

Karnal: The call of bandh here failed to evoke any major response in most of the cities along the GT road. Commercial and education institutions remained open in most parts of Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat and Kaithal districts.

Several Sikh organisations had unanimously called for the Haryana bandh.

Commercial establishments in certain pockets of Karnal remained closed for about one and a half hours in the morning. Public transport remained unaffected in the area.

Members of the Sikh community held meetings at various gurdwaras but no untoward incident was reported from these districts.

According to the reports, a group of Sikhs staged a protest against the dera at Ismailabad in Kurukshetra but remained peaceful.

Besides the police, jawans of the CRPF were also called in for the security reasons.

Meanwhile, two opponent factions of Sikhs have decided to launch a joint protest against the Kaithal police for allegedly implicating Sikh youths in false cases in the ongoing anti-dera protests.

The Kaithal police had charged over 50 Sikh youths for attacking the police on May 18.

The protesting youth had allegedly attacked the police at Pundri in Kaithal after they were prevented from burning the effigy of the head of the Dera Sacha Sauda.

Talking to The Tribune here today, senior vice-president of the SGPC Raghujit Singh Virk said both SGPC and HSGPC (ad hoc) had decided to stage a protest on May 25 at Kaithal against the state government.

Fatehabad: Traders belonging to the Sikh community observed a bandh in Fatehabad, Ratia and Tohana while almost a complete bandh was observed at Ahrewan and Bighar, two villages of the district, which are dominated by Sikhs.

Sirsa, May 22
Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has once again become unapproachable following a threat to his life.

Patiala, May 22
Urvashi Shailja, postgraduate in philosophy, and Anumati Neerja, postgraduate in English, both residents of Patiala, took admission in the MBA hospital management course through distance education programme of Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, Haryana, for the session 2006-07.

However, just a few days ago they received a letter from the joint director of the university saying that it is not viable to run the course.

Both students had deposited Rs 7,000 each as fee for the course in September and were allotted the roll numbers.

The university offered them three options, to continue admission in the next academic session with the same fee, to take the refund of fee or to get transferred to MBA (general) with any of the specialisation areas, including financial management, marketing management and human resource management.

The parents of both students told The Tribune that it was a highly unprofessional manner the university was being run in.

They said university authorities were now offering us to change the course or take the fee refund.

“How will this move compensate for the one-year academic loss to the students?”

After putting in around six or seven months in the course, the university was telling them that it was not feasible to run the course in the current academic session, the students alleged.

They have been contemplating moving the court against the university to seek compensation for the loss of one academic year.

The university authorities were not available for comment despite repeated efforts to contact them on the phone.

The telephone numbers of the vice-chancellor, as mentioned in the prospectus of MBA hospital management course, has been disconnected.

Chandigarh, May 22
A central government communiqué asking state governments to take mandatory permission of the Centre for creating ex-cadre posts for all- India service officers has created consternation in bureaucratic circles in Haryana.

The instructions, it is being feared, may create roadblocks for promotion of the next batch of IAS officers in the state to the rank of financial commissioner.

Haryana has 14 sanctioned posts of financial commissioner against which the state government has created an equal number of ex-cadre posts.

Four out of the 28 posts of financial commissioner are now vacant as a result of retirement from the service by officers and one officer going to Delhi on central deputation.

Three officers of 1981 batch are in the pipeline for promotion against these vacancies. Next in the line of promotion will be members of 1982 batch.

Ideally, the 1981 batch should have been promoted in January. But the promotion got delayed as completion of various formalities took its toll on the process.

And then arrived the communiqué from the Centre asking the state governments to refrain from acting independently in the matter of creating ex-cadre posts.

Since 10 bureaucrats are already posted as financial commissioners against ex- cadre posts, it will be perhaps uncharitable on the part of the state government to keep in abeyance the promotion of the next batch of officers as financial commissioners.

Chandigarh, May 22
The Indian National Lok Dal has alleged that the performance of the UPA government in the past three years "is a big zero".

INLD secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala said in a statement issued here today said that the UPA government had failed miserably on all fronts and the people were unhappy with its performance.

The people wanted immediate general elections so that they could change the government.

He said the recent elections in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Maharahstra had clearly indicated that the people were looking for an opportunity to throw out the government out of power.

Chautala said in its three-year rule, the UPA regime had neglected the real concern of the people in general and Haryana in particular.

"All three years Congress rule had neglected Haryana and Haryanavi interests, no progress was made on SYL canal and no new project was given to the state," he rued.

The INLD leader said the only achievement of the UPA government was the betrayal of practically every promise made to the people before coming to power.

Therefore, it was not surprising that even the ministers were asking for "course correction".

He said the prices of food items, medicines, diesel, petrol, kitchen gas, housing and all other essential commodities and services had gone up sharply and the government had not taken any meaningful steps to control the prices.

It was the first time in the history of India that the minimum support price of the crops was far less than the prevalent market prices.

Chandigarh, May 22
A letter written by Pakistani tourism minister Nilofar Bakhtiyar to Haryana minister of state for tourism Kiran Choudhry inviting her as the chief guest in an international tourism event in Karachi landed up in the minister’s office today creating much excitement.

The letter, dated May 2, took 20 days to reach its destination at Chandigarh. During the period, an important development had taken place in Pakistan in the form of Bakhtiyar resigning from her post on Sunday in protest against her party’s reluctance to defend her in the face of the frenzied attack launched against her by the clergy in Pakistan.

The Pakistan minister’s mistake was that she was photographed hugging her French paragliding instructor.

Pictures of the minister embracing the Frenchman, that appeared in the Pakistani papers, were enough to infuriate the hardline Islamic elements of Pakistan.

Choudhry met Bakhtiyar in Berlin recently during a tourism fair and the two hit it off instantly.

When Nilofar visited Delhi last month to participate in a tourism festival, the Haryana minister invited her and other members of the Pakistani entourage for a dinner at her home in Delhi.

Panchkula, May 22
President of the Haryana unit of the BJP Atam Prakash Manchanda today said party organisations at all levels would be in place by June-end, after which the party would begin with its mass contact programmes.

Addressing a press conference here today, Manchanda said the party had planned the schedule of entire year and in July they would begin their “chalo gaon ki aor” programme where party district and mandal heads would target villages to highlight the achievements of the BJP.

“We will also expose the poor governance of the Congress-led UPA government. We are preparing to fight next elections without the support from any other political outfit.

The Congress failed to come to power in Haryana because they had launched an offensive and the public had decided they wanted to end the INLD-rule. By the next election, we too will be on sound footing,” he said.

While the party plans to hold meetings of its workers in August at 28 places across the state, September and October will be dedicated to tapping the masses in the cities and urban areas.

“We have decided to organise prabhat pheris, samiti meetings, raise issues of public interest besides our regular programme. We are also holding a meeting of our local leaders in Kurukshetra on May 24. We are gearing up for the next election,” he said.

Replying to a question, Manchanda said there was no question of liaison with former Congress president of Haryana Bhajan Lal.

“As of now, he is nowhere. He is not in the Congress and he is not out of it. His new party seems unlikely to happen anytime soon. So, how can we talk of any tie-up,” he remarked.

Stating that he was touring the state, Manchanda said there were problems aplenty in every district and his recent visit to Mewat and Jhajjar had been an eye-opener.

Reacting to the dera issue, he said it was an intelligence failure.