Sirsa, June 21
Reacting on arrest warrants issued against the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the dera today alleged that as part of the pre-planned conspiracy the Bathinda police has registered a case under Section 295-A of the IPC and yesterday also got arrest warrants against against the dera chief.

While submitting a memorandum to the deputy commissioner, V.Umashankar, for the Governor this evening the dera said its followers were prevented from organising religious discourse in various states by the Sikh organisations and were also attacked. Besides it, they were implicated in false cases. The dera requested the Governor to intervene in the matter to protect their fundamentals rights.

While keeping in view the tension in the district after the arrest warrants issued against the dera chief, the four companies of the paramilitary forces were called by the state government from the Centre to maintain the law and order situation in the district.

“The two companies of Rapid Action Force have reached the district while two of the CRPF were kept in Hisar and will be called here if the situation further deteriorated”, told SP Vikas Arora to The Tribune.

Meanwhile, dera followers from different states, including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttaranchal, have begun reaching here since late evening. They are mainly camping in the “majlis” ground.

The dera spokesman has appealed to dera followers from the different states to reach the dera following the ongoing conflict with Sikhs.

Chandigarh, June 21
It will no longer be easy for those causing environmental pollution to get away without being punished.

The Haryana government has initiated a move to closely monitor the safety regulations in installations engaged in the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)/hazardous micro-organisms and its applications.

Besides a state committee, each district will have its own committee of experts that will microscopically keep a tab on non-compliance of r-DNA guidelines or other violations under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

Haryana has reconstituted the State Bio-Technology Coordination Committee through a recent notification after the term of a similar committee constituted earlier elapsed in March last year.

The committee so constituted under the Environment Act is required to frame rules for manufacture, use, import, export and storage of hazardous micro-organisms, genetically engineered organisms or cells, etc.

The nine-member committee constituted at the state level after a gap of over a year will be headed by the state chief secretary and will have secretaries of the departments of environment, health, agriculture industries and commerce, forests, water supply and sanitation as its members.

Besides them, the state microbiologist and chairman of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board will also be its members.

The state committee will have the powers to inspect, investigate and take punitive actions in case of violations through the State Pollution Control Board and Directorate of Health/Medical Services.

Besides periodically reviewing the safety and control measures in various institutions handling GMO and hazardous micro-organisms, it will also act as a nodal agency at the state level to assess the damage, if any, due to release of GMO.

Similarly, to protect the environment from micro-biological hazards at the district level, another committee has been constituted in each district with the same objective, but to be on top of a situation before it turns disastrous.

The district committees will be headed by the respective deputy commissioners and will have factory inspector, officer of the pollution control board, chief surgeon, deputy director, agriculture, executive engineer public health, pathologist and commissioner, Municipal Corporation, as its members.

It has been made obligatory under the Environment Act for these committee members to monitor safety regulations, visit installations engaged in activities involving genetically engineered organisms, formulate charts, find out hazards associated with each of these installations and coordinate activities with a view to meet any emergencies.

Though, it is mandatory for every state to constitute such committees under the Act, but normally such committees remain on paper. Commissioner and secretary, Environment Department, D.S. Dhesi has told his subordinates at the district level that the state government is very serious about the effectiveness of these committees which should be made functional and efficient at the earliest.

Chandigarh, June 21
Secretary of the Haryana Congress Satpal Kaushik has denied of having violated the party discipline.

A show-cause notice was issued to him by working president of the party Dr Ram Prakash on May 10 last asking him to explain why action should not be taken against him for levelling baseless allegations against the state government headed by Bhupinder Singh Hooda and for going to the Press with his allegations.

In his reply, a copy of which was received by The Tribune today, Kaushik said he never issued any statement to the Press against the state government.

However, he admitted having writing two letters to AICC president Sonia Gandhi drawing her attention towards certain very important public issues regarding Haryana.

He had sent copies of these letters to the AICC general-secretary incharge of Haryana as well as to the president of the state Congress.

He requested Prakash to thoroughly investigate the source of leakage of his letters, on the basis of which the Press published reports about his levelling allegations against the state government.

Kaushik said he had full respect for the party constitution, which prohibited any party man from raising any issue outside the party forum.

But, he said, he had a right to approach the party high command and he would continue to raise important issues concerning the development and welfare of the people.

He also urged Prakash to take action against those party men who had criticised him in the Press.

Yamunanagar, June 21
A 72-year-old man of Udhamgarh village of Jagadhri, Som Parkash, allegedly committed suicide yesterday.

In his suicide note, he blamed his four sons for the death. He had handed over the note to a rickshaw-puller, who in turn handed it over to the village sarpanch.

Sarpanch Amarjeet Kaur gave the note to the police. The police took the possession of the body before its last rites could be performed.

A case under Sections 306 and 34 of the IPC has been registered against the four sons - Ramesh Chand, Jaspal, Jai Chand and Banarsi.

Family members performed the last rites after a postmortem examination was conducted at the Civil Hospital today.

Exact cause of the death could not be known in the examination and viscera from the body were sent to a forensic laboratory for chemical examination, said police sources.

Sources said a meeting was held between Som Parkash and his sons at the house of the sarpanch yesterday. After the meeting the sons went on to their respective jobs.

Som Parkash reportedly hired a rickshaw and gave the note to the rickshaw puller. Later he reached his home and got ill, following which he was rushed to a private hospital, where he died.

On the other hand sons of the deceased today moved an application before superintendent of police K.V. Ramna claiming that the allegations in the suicide note were baseless. Ramesh said his father had taken a loan and they were helping him in repaying it.

Fatehabad, June 21
Hundreds of schoolchildren today took out a procession to demand second term for President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Children drawn from various schools of the town assembled in the local Ambedkar Park in the morning and marched towards Jawahar Chowk in a procession.

They carried placards with slogans like 'Kalam Chacha Aage Barho, hum tumhare saath hain' (come on Kalam uncle, we are with you), 'Bharat ko bachana hai, Kalam chacha ko lana hai'(bring back Kalam uncle to save India) and Bharat ka gaurav hai Kalam, bhavishya kare tujhe salam'. (Kalam, the pride of India, the future salutes you.)

Children said that the manner in which President Abdul Kalam had given his India 2020, a vision for the new millennium for the country, he was the one who could take India forward on road to success.

Schoolchildren demanded that leaders of all political parties should form a consensus and re-elect Kalam for the second term.

They said in case the political leaders failed to respond to sentiments of people, it would mean a defeat for democracy.

Rewari, June 21
Two persons, including the car driver, died, while the third occupant got seriously injured when their Maruti car abruptly slid off the Jaipur-Delhi highway at Naichana Chowk, 18 km from here, and went away into a field where it overturned last evening.

Driver Bharat Singh of Bakahapur village near Bawal died on the spot while his friend Sunder Singh of the same village succumbed to his injuries in a private hospital here.

The injured, Nathu Singh, of Ibrahimpur village near Bawal is getting treatment at a private hospital here.

The mishap occurred when the trio was returning to the village after attending a marriage at Kutputli town in Rajasthan.

It is presumed that the three friends, including the driver, were under the influence of liquor.

Kaithal, June 21
To provide marketing facilities to fish farmers of Haryana, the state government is going to set up new fish mandis on foreign pattern at Bahadurgarh and Gurgaon.

This information was given by Dharam Singh Bharti, deputy director, fisheries, Haryana, to mediapersons here today.

He said modern mandis had already been set up at Yamunanagar, Panipat and Faridabad.

A plan to modernise fish seed farms was being implemented so that the fish farmers could increase per acre production.

The farmers were being given training for fish farming through polyculture and monoculture methods which were based on new techniques.

Under polyculture, besides Jhinga farming, the stress was on increasing production of Katla and Rahu variety fish, whereas under monoculture the stress was on increasing production of Jhinga fish .

Elaborating further about steps taken to promote pisciculture in the state, Bharti said schemes were introduced under which 50 per cent subsidy was being provided on feed and fertilisers to farmers.

Minimum of two units will be set up in each district under these schemes and besides this, under the national fish rearing scheme the ponds having an area of 5 hectares will be selected and the farmers will be given subsidies for feed and renovation of such ponds.

Those farmers who had already availed benefit of subsidy under any other scheme will also be entitled to benefits under this scheme.

The deputy director further said that fish farmers were being paid an allowance of Rs 100 per day during training period and they were sent for refresher courses at Hisar.

He said to create awakening among the youngsters about pisciculture, aquariums were being set up in five schools of each district and added that per unit power charges for fish hatcheries had been reduced from Rs 4 to Rs 2 per unit.

The farmers constructing ponds on their own land were being advanced a loan of Rs 2 lakh per hectare and Rs 60,ooo per hectare if the pond was constructed on panchayat land.

There was a subsidy of 20 per cent on such loans for general category farmers and 25 per cent for SCs and STs.

He said Haryana had 14 hatcharies and the same number were in the private sector. The production of ornamental fish had been started at the government fish rearing farm at Karnal, he added.