Fatehabad, June 14
Tension prevails at Chanpura village in this district after followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda stoned a gurdwara smashing its windowpanes last night.

The police has arrested six dera followers in this connection and locked the village dera after asking followers to leave the place.

Heavy police and paramilitary forces, including two companies of the BSF, one company of the Haryana Armed Police has been deployed in the village.

Dera followers, who have their weekly prayers (naam charcha) at the dera building every Wednesday, put up a loudspeaker for this purpose yesterday.

The Sikh population of the village objected to the installation of a loudspeaker and this resulted in a standoff between the two groups.

When the dera followers were returning home after their prayers, they allegedly stoned the village gurdwara damaging its windowpanes.

This angered the Sikhs, who started gathering in the gurdwara in large numbers during the night and held meeting against the dera.

The Sikhs demanded arrest of those responsible for damaging the gurdwara.

IG, Police Y P Singhal, DC O P Sheoran and SP Saurabh Singh reached the village with strong police force and camped there almost throughout the night to defuse the tension.

The police later arrested six dera followers- Manjit Singh, Sardara Singh, Gurjant Singh, Nikka Singh, Gurmel Singh and Bhana Singh- under Sections 148, 149, 295-A, 427 and 452 of the IPC.

Cases have also been registered against some unnamed persons in this regard. The accused were produced before the judicial magistrate, Tohana, who sent them to judicial custody.

Sirsa, June 14
After the transfer of murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati to new CBI DSP, statements of four witnesses, including the main witness Chattrapati’s son, Anshul Chattrapati and his cousin Mukesh Kamboj, were recorded by the senior official of the CBI recently at its Chandigarh and its headquarters in Delhi.

Chhatrapati’s son and also editor of “Poor Sach” Anshul and his cousin Kamboj told the CBI that Ram Chander Chhatrapati had named Dera Sacha Sauda chief allegedly behind the attack on him while giving statement to the police. But the police official, who had recorded Chhatrapati’s statement before he died, did not mention the name of the dera chief in his report.

Well-placed sources reveal that the statements of the two were recorded on the direction of the new chief investigating officer of the case, DIG CBI, New Delhi. The CBI had called Ansul Chhatrapti to record his statement on May 15 at Chandigarh and later, on May 22 Kamboj was called at the CBI office in New Delhi to record his statement. The CBI had sought time till July 31 to file complete investigation report in the case.

Acting on the petition of Anshul, the Punjab and Haryana high court had ordered the CBI inquiry in the Chhatrapati murder case. However in April when the case was at a crucial stage and the inquiry report was about to be submitted, the CBI transferred the case to DSP Satish Dagar, replacing DSP Dr Armandeep Singh.

In this case two dera men had allegedly shot at Chhatrapati outside his house on October 24, 2002 that led him seriously wounded after he published an anonymous letter of a Sadhvi levelling serious allegations of sexual exploitation against the dera chief in his evening newspaper “Poora Sach”. Later, Chhatrapti died.

The CBI called the two witnesses after recording the statement of the police personnel involved in the investigation of the case at New Delhi. The SI stuck to his earlier version that there was no other person except Chhatrapati in ICU when he had recorded his statement. Besides it, Chhatrapti did not reveal the name of dera chief for attack on him, the SI had added in his statement to the CBI.

While confirming to The Tribune about recent statements, Anshul said “I made a statement to the CBI DSP that I along with my cousin was present in the ICU when SI recorded my father’s statement. Besides it, there were three more patients and four nurses in the ICU. My father had clearly stated that the dera chief was behind the attack on him,” he added. Besides it, the CBI officials also recorded the statements of doctors of Rohtak. 

Chandigarh, June 14
With Haryana moving ahead speedily with the implementation of the National EGovernance Plan (NeGP), officials from almost all departments of the state government took their first lesson in eGovernance. Though, many of them had heard the term eGovernance for the first time, but to their utter surprise they were told that Haryana ranked among the very top in the implementation of NeGP.

The state has done considerable work in the setting up of State Wide Area Network (SWAN), Common Service Centres (CSCs), eDisha, Ekal Sewa Kendras and State Data Centre. The state will be ready to launch the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) by March, 2008.

Expressing surprise and happiness Haryana’s Financial Commissioner, Revenue Promilla Issar said that the officials, at least in her department, were ready to take on challenges for good governance.

She was reacting to a presentation by R. Chandershekhar, Additional Secretary in the Department of Information Technology, Government of India, at the one-day conference on e-Governance organised by the Secretariat for Information Technology, Haryana.

She said that there was hesitation among the elder officials in adapting to technology.

But in view of the growing demand for better services by citizens and the technology becoming user-friendly officials can now use technology for multitasking and reconciliation of conflict interests thereby improving governance.

Earlier, Chandershekhar revealed that Haryana was far ahead in the implementation of SWAN and CSC than the rest of the states in the country. He was of the view that e-Governance had an impact on a lot of people inside and outside the government, in fact, on the whole of society; therefore, it had become necessary for the governments to have an e-Governance agenda. Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, IT, P.K. Chaudhary said that Haryana was of firm belief that IT should be utilised to usher in an era of e-Governance aimed at simplifying procedures bringing in transparency, making need-based good quality and timely information available to all citizens, providing all services in an efficient and cost effective way and identifying services on on-line basis. The day-long deliberations discussed several e-Governance initiatives that were in the process of implementation. In this regard Haryana was computerising agriculture department, land records, property registration, commercial taxes, municipalities, panchayats, police, employment exchanges, transport, treasuries and e-District

Dr Y.K.Sharma, DDG, NIC, gave a detailed presentation on the role of National Informatics Centre (NIC) in assisting states to provide e-Government services to citizens.

Chandigarh, June 14
Southern states that initiated an Information Technology (IT) revolution in the country are no longer in the lead in this sector. Some north Indian states that started much later, but with a clean slate have quickly overtaken their southern counterparts.

Some issues and problems have continuously retarded the growth of IT in the south, while states like Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu rank as toppers in terms of promoting connectivity up to the block or tehsil headquarters.

Stating this at an informal interaction, R. Chandershekhar, additional secretary, Department of IT, Government of India, said some of the smaller north Indian states were taking the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) very seriously. These States were ahead of the others in terms of implementation of all three components of the NeGP that comprises of the setting up of the State Wide Area Networks (SWAN), Common Service Centres (CSC) and the State Data Centres (SDC).

The GOI has spent Rs 23,000 crore on the NeGP during 2002-07 to develop a national IT backbone comprising of the above-mentioned three components.

The government has spent Rs 3,334 crore in setting and running SWANs for a period of five years. Many states like Haryana have opted to pass on the responsibility to run the SWANs to private operators, while some other states have given this responsibility to the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Haryana’s target date of putting the SWAN in place is October 31 this year, while the CSC will be in place by the end of March next year, he said.

Chandershekhar disclosed that the NeGP has identified 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs), which would be implemented in a phased manner by the states and the Central government. These MMPs would extensively use the three components of e-Governance.

With regard to e-Governance, he said the objective was to make all government services assessable to the common man in an efficient, reliable and transparent manner. Nationwide, 1 lakh CSC would be set up and be operational by June 2008. Every CSC would be internet-broadband enabled centre, located in rural area. Each centre would cater to roughly six villages and would provide services offered by the government as well as private operators. A total of Rs 5,742 would be spent on building these centres. Out of this Rs 1,649 would be spent by the government and the remaining would be pooled by private partners.

Ambala, June 14
The recovery of six skeletons from Balapur Kallour village in the Naggal area caused a sensation here today.

The skeletal remains of six persons were found in the village during digging of a pond. Parts of human bones were first found two days back when digging for the pond began in the village. The digging is being carried out under the Indira Gandhi Rozgar Yojana. The pond is being dug to provide water to the animals. The first skeleton was found this morning another five followed on digging more.

A police team rushed to the spot. DSP Bhupinder Singh said preliminary investigations showed that it was not a criminal incident. “Apparently, the skeletons have been recovered from a spot which used to be a graveyard during the pre-Partition period. Muslim community used to inhabit the area before Partition,” he said.

He said the skeletons were of persons who were buried more than 70-80 years back. “The skeletons were found about 7 ft below the earth. The skeletal remains have been recovered from an area spread over 2 acres,” he said.

“Experts have taken samples of the skeletal remains so that further investigation can be carried out. Prima facie it seems that the dead bodies were buried a few decades back,” the DSP said.

Old revenue records of the village have been checked to find out details about the site from where the skeletons have been recovered.

Hisar, June 14
Buy an energy saving three to five-star rated refrigerator and you can win another one free! The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) will provide you this opportunity under a lucky draw scheme it has launched for its consumers who purchase three to five starred energy efficient electrical appliances. The scheme is aimed at promoting energy conservation.

A spokesman of the DHBVN said here today that any consumer who purchased a three to five starred electrical appliance could deposit a copy of the receipt, a copy of his latest electricity bill and a certificate by the manufacturer that the appliance conformed to BEE's star rating system at the nearest nigam office. He will be issued a receipt for lucky draw.

The nigam will conduct draws at all the operation circle headquarters for each circle and each category of appliances. Three lucky winners in each category will win a highest star rated appliance free. For instance, in case of draw for refrigerators at an operation circle level, each of the three winners will be given a five starred refrigerator free. Other appliances that qualify for the draw include air conditioners, motors, ovens, pump sets, fans, water coolers and CFLs.

The receipts for lucky draws will be available at all customer care centres and sub-divisional offices from June 15 onwards. However, all star-rated appliances purchased after January 2007 onwards will be eligible for the draw.

A committee of senior nigam officers will conduct lucky draws on September 14, December 14, March 14 and June 14 every year. The first draw will be conducted on September 14 next.

Under the provisions of the Energy Conservation Act - 2001, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE has already started awarding star rating to electrical appliances.

The lowest rating is one star which means the product consumes power heavily.

The highest rating is five stars - for appliances that consume the lowest amount of electricity.

Ambala, June 14
Union minister Kumari Selja has said the Congress has always worked for the downtrodden and marginalised sections of the society.

Selja was addressing villagers in Bihta after inaugurating a community centre. She said special priority has been given to the poor, workers, farmers and Dalits by the UPA government.

She said previous governments had ignored the rural areas and the problems faced by farmers had not been addressed. The Congress government had solved the problems faced by the farmers, she added.

The minister said Ambala had been included in the Rashtriya Grameen Rozgar Guarantee Yojana. She said the gram panchayats would not face any monetary hindrance in carrying out development works in villages.

The power shortage was the result of the lack of initiative taken by the previous governments, she said, adding that now under the Rajiv Gandhi Vidyut Pariyojana, feeders were going to be separated so that supply to the villages improved considerably.

Those who present on the occasion included Brahmpal Rana, Amneet P Kumar, Mukesh Ahuja, Karan Rana, Laxman Das, Sreepal and Darshan Lal.

Rohtak, June 14
The police has busted an interstate gang of criminals with the arrest of three of its members. According to the police, the gang was allegedly involved in several cases of murder and theft in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The senior superintendent of police, Dr C.S. Rao, disclosed here today that the gang members had confessed to having murdered a woman teacher of Sheetal Nagar and a boy of Uttam Vihar in Rohtak recently.

“In both the cases, the gang members had entered the houses with a motive to steal cash and jewellery, but killed the teacher and the boy as they woke up and raised the alarm,” Rao maintained. The arrested persons have been identified as Naresh, alias Neshi, of Faridabad, Ashok, alias Gunga, of Namhera village and Prem Kishore of Gurgaon. Prem Kishore is said to be the kingpin of the gang.

Addressing a news conference at his office, the SSP asserted that more than a dozen cases had been registered against the members of the gang at different police stations in Haryana and neighbouring states.