Chandigarh, July 18
Preparations have been completed for polling in the election for the President of India in the Assemblies of Haryana and Punjab, scheduled for tomorrow.

The polling will be held between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The Congress Legislature Parties in the two states met in the evening. In Haryana independent MLAs and those belonging to the parties which are supporting the Congress candidate Pratibha Patil also participated in the CLP meeting. Later, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda hosted a dinner for the MLAs.

The value of each Haryana MLA's vote is 112, while that of a Punjab MLA is 116.

The value of an MLA's vote is calculated according to a formula. The population of a state, as per 1971 census, is divided by the number of seats in the Assembly of that state and multiplied by 1000.

After the polling, the sealed ballot boxes will be taken to Delhi on July 20 for counting. Therefore, it will not be immediately known if there has been cross-voting.

The Secretaries of the two Vidhan Sabhas have been designated as Assistant Returning Officers.

Apart from the MLAs, certain MPs will also cast their vote here. MP from Bhiwani in Haryana Kuldeep Bishnoi and Ambika Soni in Punjab will vote here tomorrow.

The Election Commission of India has imposed a complete ban on the use of cellular phones, cordless phones and wireless sets inside the polling station.

A spokesman of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Secretariat said arrangements would be made near the polling premise to deposit the cellular phone in case any voter brought it before entering the polling station. These instructions would be applicable to the candidates, their representatives and members of the electoral college.

No official, including the observers, would be allowed to use cell phone inside the place of poll. However, a control room with a dedicated telephone line would be set up so that whenever needed the commission could contact the poll officials.

Sirsa, July 18
The Dera Sacha Sauda management has been advised to seek security clearance whenever its chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has to visit sensitive areas. Besides it, the management was also asked to provide information about the dera chief to the administration and the police officials in advance so that proper security arrangements could be made, said the DGP, Haryana, R.S Dalal, here this evening.

He said steps had been taken to maintain proper law and order in view of the violent clash that took place between the dera followers and Sikhs two days ago. He said any short notice about the dera chief’s visit would not serve any purpose for them as they required time to make arrangements.

“We have identified many persons who were involved in the Ghukna Wali village clash and the police will soon arrest them. The police has been conducting raids to nab the violators, he added.

While talking to the press at the PWD rest house here, the DGP said they had maintained restrain and had not taken serious action to maintain the peace. But now they are going to be firm to strictly deal with the miscreants who wanted to take advantage of the tense situation. Even after being advised repeatedly, if any persom takes law into his hand, he would not be spared.

However, the DGP maintained that every individual had a right to hold religious discourse in his house and they would protect his rights.

While answering a query about the Z plus security provided to the dera chief, he said the state had provided the security to protect the dera chief. They would not curtail the movement of anyone. 

Chandigarh, July 18
The Haryana Agriculture Department has fixed a target to bring 10.50 lakh hectares of area under paddy to produce 36.75 lakh tonnes of rice during the ongoing kharif season.

Agriculture minister H.S. Chatha said the success of kharif crops, however, largely depended upon the monsoon rains.

The power utilities had been directed to ensure adequate power supply to the tubewells, he added.

Chatha said the total targeted production of kharif crop this season was 50 lakh tonnes, consisting of rice, jwar, maize, barley and pulses. A total area of over 19 lakh hectares would be covered under kharif crop this season.

Chatha said jwar would be cultivated over an area of 1 lakh hectare to achieve the production target of 45,000 tonnes.

Maize would be over an area of 20,000 hectares to produce 52,000 tonnes, barley would be cultivated over 6.50 lakh hectares to produce over 11.38 lakh tonnes and pulses would be cultivated over 90,000 hectares to produce 90,000 tonnes.

He said for rabi, the total area and production target of various crops had been fixed, respectively, at 26.05 lakh hectares and 102.45 lakh tonnes. An area of 1.50 lakh hectares under gram and 7 lakh hectares under oilseed would be covered to produce 1.5 lakh tonnes of gram and 10.92 lakh tonnes of oilseeds. Twenty-four lakh hectares had been fixed to be covered under wheat to achieve production of 99.60 lakh tonnes.

He said the total production of food grain in Haryana touched new height during 2006-07 when the state became the second largest contributor to the central pool.

Chatha said cultivation of guar, an industrial crop, was also becoming popular in Haryana. Cultivation of guar is also helpful for sustaining soil fertility. Area coverage under the crop was 3 lakh hectares during the last season.

Chandigarh, July 18
The Haryana government plans to promote Kurukshetra - the land of Mahabharata - as religious-cum-tourist destination across the globe.

In collaboration with the Tourism Department, Haryana will tout it as a pilgrimage that will bring people to the birthplace their roots.

Passionate about the project, Haryana tourism minister Kiran Choudhary has asked officials of the department to prepare a master plan to promote the city and other places of historical and cultural significance into a comprehensive pilgrimage and tourist attraction portraying Hindu mythology.

It was during the tenure of Abhilaksh Likhi as deputy commissioner of Kurukshetra that a museum depicting three-dimensional scenes from the great battle was built. The museum continues to attract a large number of visitors from outside the city.

The Haryana tourism now proposes to expand the canvas of the city by beautifying and rebuilding the Brahmsarovar, Sri Krishna Museum, Science Museum (Panorama) and other places associated with  the epic.

Senior tourism officials said the department was open to any suggestion in this regard, especially from Hindus, who live overseas in different states. Currently, the city does not even provide good accommodation for tourists.

The department is bullish on the fact that it may be able to attract a large percentage of the 10 million tourists visiting India, if Haryana is presented as an attractive tourist destination. A proposal to send some senior officials abroad to assess the potential of Haryana in attracting nonresident Hindu Indians is under review.

The Chief Minister’s secretariat felt that this task could be performed by delegations of Haryana officials, including the Chief Minister, when travelling abroad. But officials of the Tourism Department felt that this objective could only be met by officials travelling with a specific objective of selling Haryana as a tourist destination aboard by collaborating with big travel  agencies.

Besides tourism, Haryana has also taken a conscious decision to exploit its rich cultural heritage by clubbing culture with tourism. “Combined the two can not only earn tremendous revenue for the state, but has a huge potential for employment generation,” said tourism officials.

Nearer Chandigarh, the department has drawn up an exhaustive plan to beautify the Mughal Garden at Pinjore. The proposal includes the repair and re-construction of the water bodies believed to be constructed by the Pandavas, when they spent time here during their exile.

Another proposal under consideration of the state tourism minister is to make Suraj Kund Art Festival into a round the year event.

Yamunanagar, July 18
As many as 14.25 lakh saplings would be planted on 1,500 hectares of land in the district during the current financial year. The district Forest Department would provide the saplings free of cost.

This was announced by deputy commissioner Nitin Kumar Yadav while speaking at the 58th state-level van mahotsava function held at Kathgarh village in Bilaspur, here, today.

The DC, his wife Meenakshi Yadav, SP K.V. Ramana, ADC O.P. Lohan, SDM Narinder Singh, DPRO Dr Kuldeep Saini and almost all officials of the district planted saplings on the occasion in the area.

The DC claimed that all efforts were afoot to develop Adi Badri area, here, as a tourist spot. There was a budget of Rs 1 crore to develop Adi Badri and Kapal Mochan.

M.S. Malik, DFO, said the target of the government was to bring 20 per cent of the area under forests by 2025. He also announced that 3.50 lakh saplings of popular trees would be given free of cost to farmers in the next year.

The deputy commissioner announced that Kapal Mochan would be extended to Adi Badri this year as 80 per cent of the pilgrims who visit Kapal Mochan also visit Adi Badri.

The mela will be held in November and more than 7 lakh pilgrims from North India had participated in the last mela.

Rewari, July 18
Abhey Singh, 43-year-old undertrial from Dharuhera, who was lodged in a district jail, here, died today.

Sources said arrangements were made to take him to the Civil Hospital after he complained of chest pain. However, he died on his way to the hospital.

Judicial magistrate Rajesh Garg held an inquest under Section 176 of the CrPC into the circumstances which caused Abhey’s death.

Postmortem was conducted by a board of three doctors comprising Dr Ashoka Saini, Dr J.K. Saini and Dr Chander Shekher.

On a complaint filed by a farmer of Jharsa village in October, 2006, the Dharuhera police had registered a case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC against Abhey and two others.

Subsequently, Abhey was arrested by the police on June 7 and then was produced in a local court which remanded him to judicial custody. Since then he had been facing the trial in the above case. — OC

Yamunanagar, July 18
On a deputy commissioner’s complaint, the police has registered a case of cheating and forgery under the Arms Act against a Jagadhri resident for allegedly trying to renew a fake arms licence. The said license was produced in the district magistrate’s office for renewal in 2005.

As per police sources, DC Nitin Kumar Yadav complained to the police that Milap Singh had produced a licence of carbine rifle for renewal. The licence bore that it was issued from the district magistrate’s office of Dimapur, Nagaland.

When the local office verified the authenticity of the licence from Dimapur office, it was found that the said licence had no record.

It is to be mentioned here that the same licence was renewed from a district of Uttarakhand in 2001 on provisional basis. The Uttarakhand office too had asked for verification of the licence from its Dimapur counterpart, but when the office did not reported back, the license was renewed till 2005.

In 2005, Milap Singh again applied for renewal in the local office. However, as per the complaint, it was found that the licence had no record in the Dimapur office and hence was a fake one.

The police has registered a case under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC and 25, 54 and 59-A of the Arms Act.

Hisar, July 18
Deputy Commissioner Deepti Umashankar today directed City Magistrate Ashok Bansal to fix a date for a meeting of the municipal corporation as demanded by dissident members of the corporation. The dissidents are likely to move a no-confidence motion against MC chief Bihari Lal Rada at this meeting.

Several dissident members of the corporation had submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner a few days ago. This memorandum was forwarded to the City Magistrate today with the direction that a meeting be summoned early.

The controversy over election of the municipal chief has been raging ever since Arvind Kharinta managed to defeat Rada two years ago. Rada was at that time supported by Naveen Jindal, MP, a son of former Power Minister the late Om Parkash Jindal and Haryana Local bodies Minister Savitri Jindal.

However, Rada avenged the defeat when he managed to win the poll defeating Anil Jain Tinu of the Kharinta group some months ago.

The dissidents have regrouped again and are seeking to oust Rada. The memorandum was a step in this direction. If Rada is ousted, it will be serious political setback for both Naveen Jindal and his mother. 

Ambala, July 18
Saroj Gairi, INLD leader, was remanded to police custody for one day. The police had arrested her on Tuesday after the seizure of opium and poppy husk from her possession. A case under the NDPS was also registered against her.

He was produced in a local court. The police filed an application in the court in which it requested for the remand of Saroj so that she could be interrogated. Except a former president of the local unit of the party, no functionary of the INLD was present in the court.

Talking to mediapersons outside the court room Saroj said the police had falsely implicated her in the opium case. She said someone had kept the opium in the terrace of her house. She said she would fight for the justice.

Meanwhile, district president of Ambala INLD Surjeet Singh Sonda said Saroj was not even the primary member of the party and she had never hold any post in the party. President of the district unit of woman cell of the party Sashi Kesri said Saroj had never remained in the INLD.

It is to be mentioned that Saroj had been participating actively in the various function of the INLD for past several years.