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Sikhs block rail traffic
Various trains cancelled
Inside Babudom |
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ACP murder accused wanted to commit suicide: CBI
MC Chief’s Murder
HUDA under residents’ scanner
Ghaggar Mishap
4 IAS officers get addl charge
HSSC denies irregularities
Health plan for SCs
GJU exams from tomorrow
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Sikhs block rail traffic
Sirsa, June 25 The agitation, which was held following a call given by the Damdami Taksal, oldest Sikh seminary, which was once headed by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, passed off peacefully. It was lifted at 3:15 pm. Though Sikhs had organised agitations at several places in the country, the district was perhaps the only place where the jathedar of a takht was leading the protest. After performing a religious prayer at Gurdwara Daswi Patshahi, agitators proceeded towards the railway station at 10 am. After passing through the Suratgrahiya bazaar, city police station road, Subhash Chowk, Sadar Bazar and Lal Batti Chowk, they reached the railway station. As per the announced plan, they stopped the Rewari-Fazilka train, which reached the station at 10.40 pm. A large number of activists squatted on the railway track in front of the train while some of them climbed atop the train. However, the administration could not prepare a plan. Meanwhile, jawans of the Haryana Armed Police and the Rapid Action Force laid a seize around the railway station. Deputy commissioner V. Umashankar and S.P.K Venkat Ramana reached the venue of the agitation at 12:30 pm. Their persuasion for lifting the agitation did not bear result. Subsequently, the DC, SP and some members of the Peace Committee held a meeting with Sikh leaders led by Balwant Singh Nandgarh, jathedar, Damdama Sahib, in a room at the railway station. The protesters had made arrangements for langar (community kitchen) and potable water for passengers. However, there was no respite from the searing heat. Nandgarh addressed the protesters before the culmination of the agitation. He said the dera chief had been committing crime one after another without impunity. |
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Various trains cancelled
Ambala, June 25 According to the GM, Ambala railway division, H.K. Jaggi, the trains which were cancelled included 2014 Swarn Shatabdi Express, 2204 Garib Rath Express, 4172 Intercity Express, 2716 Sachkhand Express, 5200 Jansewa Express, 2460 Amritsar-New Delhi Superfast train, 2954 Hardwar Jan Shatabdi, 5708 Amarpali Express, the Sharanpur-Nangal passenger train and the Ambala-Ludhiana passenger train. Long-distance passengers who had their reservation in various trains for today had to face a tough time, as no alternative was left with them but to cancel their journey. A ticket refund counter was opened at the Ambala Cantt railway station so that the passengers cancelling their journey could get their refund. Shortage of drinking water on platforms irritated the passengers. FATEHABAD: Passengers of the Hisar-Ludhiana train and the Delhi-Ferozepur train had a tormenting time at the Jakhal railway station in this district, when the two trains had to remain stranded there for hours on Wednesday. The railway authorities, who refused the go-ahead permission to these trains, said Sikh agitators had blocked the railway track on the route ahead. Sikhs from some neighbouring villages of Punjab were protesting against the Mumbai incident in which a Sikh was killed allegedly in firing by the bodyguards of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. The agitators were demanding the arrest of the dera chief. Jakhal is a border town of Haryana and the Punjab area starts immediately after crossing the municipal limits of the town. The Ludhiana-bound train was stopped by the railways authorities at about 9 am, when some angry Sikhs placed obstructions on the railway track in the neighbouring Punjab area. The Ferozepur-bound train was stopped by the railways authorities at 1 pm, when it reached Jakhal. Hundreds of passengers remained stranded at the station without sufficient arrangements of potable water. |
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Inside Babudom
Chandigarh, June 25 Though sources said he felt “suffocated” in a system dominated by political interference, Ramshekhar says the “reasons are too personal to be divulged”. He added that the personal reasons of course entailed realising milestones in his profession. However, beyond that he chose to keep mum, not even wanting to talk of his future plans. “My inner calling lies elsewhere and I think I can contribute more to development in other fields. I have never been bothered about political interference and have got tremendous support from the Chief Minister,” he said. The sources said this move had been on his mind for sometime and he had openly admitted at some meeting that he was dis-satisfied with the functioning of the system and would quit the services shortly. Known to be brilliant, thorough with his job and upright, Ramshekhar, a 1988-batch officer, has also remained Chandigarh’s deputy commissioner during his 20-year service where he was known to call the shots. After his return to the Haryana cadre, he was not known to have been “comfortable” with his political bosses and was particularly dis-satisfied with the functioning of the department. He is a qualified mechanical engineer and has a couple of prestigious courses to his credit from the London School of Economics and Columbia University in New York. The transport department has been running in losses, mainly due to non-availability of tyres and staff shortage. While he did not favour the lowering of standards for the recruitment of drivers, he introduced videography of the recruitment of drivers and conductors to ensure fairness in the process. |
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ACP murder accused wanted to commit suicide: CBI
Ambala, June 25 The CBI had arrested Bhardwaj on a charge of murdering Delhi police ACP Rajbir on March 24. The CBI, in the chargesheet filed in the CBI court in Ambala City a few days ago, has disclosed that it recovered the suicide note during the search of the house and the office premises of Bhardwaj. He had to pay a huge amount and a number of his cheques for Rs 3 crore had bounced. On August 8, 2007, he had written a suicide note and after closing it in a envelope he handed it over to his servant Krishna and asked him to give it to his friend Anil Malik. The servant opened it and handed over the note to the former’s brother. The brother persuaded him and assured to share his debt. According to the chargesheet, Bhardwaj and ACP Rajbir were close friends and used to jointly deal in property. Bhardwaj had made 181 calls and a number of SMSes to Rajbir from January 1 to March 24 form his mobile number 9811444999. According to the chargesheet, Rajbir had met Bhardwaj for the first time in 1999 when he came to his office Vijay & Associates in Gurgaon to purchase a plot. Later, they became fast friends and Rajbir invested a good amount in the property business. The business continued in profit for several years but in 2007 they had to face a huge loss. Bhardwaj could not pay the amount of Rs 60 lakh to Rajbir and it led to a dispute between the two. A few days before the murder, Bhardwaj told Rajbir that he had to take a huge amount from a property dealer in Sirsa and he would pay his debt at the earliest. Rajbir offered him a revolver of one of his subordinates, stating that the route to Sirsa was not safe. However, Bhardwaj could not go to Sirsa and Rajbir repeatedly insisted that he pay his amount. Bhardwaj asked him to come to his office on March 24 to get it. On March 24, the day of the murder, Bhardwaj met some of his friends and asked them to lend him money, but he did not succeed. He rang an ASI of the Gurgaon police at around 11 am that he wanted to surrender in a cheating case pending against him in this police station. He felt that he would escape the wrath of his creditors, including Rajbir, by going to jail. Later, he changed his decision. In the evening Rajbir arrived at Bhardwaj’s office, leaving his PSO and driver in his private car. He sent an SMS to Vijay that he had reached. Receiving the message, Rajbir asked his servant Krishna on the mobile to bring some eatables from the market. After a few minutes, Vijay reached his office and asked his servant on the mobile not to come back to office, stating that Rajbir was very annoyed. The CBI said there was a conflict between them over the payment. He informed his servant and elder brother Kripal Bhardwaj that he had murdered Rajbir. At 9.20 pm, he informed the Gurgaon police in this regard. Vijay is in the judicial custody in Ambala jail till June 30. |
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MC Chief’s Murder
Bhiwani, June 25 Chawla was shot dead by three unidentified assailants on Monday. The assailants had fled from the scene after committing the crime. The police has been clueless about the killers so far. Superintendent of police Sanjay Kumar said the police was working on several angles in the case. He said the identity of the informer would be kept secret. The police was contemplating on releasing the sketch of suspects. He said a few persons were being interrogated and three of them had been sent to Madhuban for lie detection test. “Since this is a blind murder so the police is taking every possible caution in disclosing the names of those being interrogated as it can affect investigation,” he said. Sources revealed that the police had rounded up two municipal councillors and a husband of a councillor. Several municipal councillors today met the deputy commissioner and superintendent of police and asked them to speed up the police investigation into the case. In a press note, Rajya Sabha MP and INLD secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala said the state had become “number one” in crime these days. In a meeting of the Laghu Udyog Sangathan held here today, members announced to stage an indefinite dharna if the killers of Chawla were not arrested by tomorrow. Condemning the heinous act, state president of the sangathan Ramesh Bansal said the crime graph had risen in the district during in the past three years. |
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HUDA under residents’ scanner
Chandigarh, June 25 With a view to improving its performance for the welfare of the people, the HUDA has started this one-of-its-kind public assessment and grievance redressal programme through its estate officers (EO) in collaboration with the Residents Welfare Associations (RWA) in February. Four months down the line, HUDA’s estate officers have visited 59 sectors to know problems of the residents and initiate action on complaints received. The assessment, on a set pro forma, carries marks allotted by the RWA for basic facilities like roads, sewers, street lighting, rainwater and signposts in sectors. Some of the reports, which have come in from the field, have thrown up interesting results. In Karnal’s Sector 8, the RWA has given 10 out of 10 to HUDA for parks, sewers and cleanliness while street lighting has scored a nine on 10. In Faridabad’s Sector 3, 10, 9 and 8 marks have been given for street lighting, parks and cleanliness, respectively, by the RWA while EO Narinder Singh Yadav has said the marks given are higher than they deserve. In Kurukshetra’s Sector 17, the RWA has given a zero to the estate office in all fields except street lighting where three marks have been given. To this, EO Sumedha Kataria has said the RWA has been unreasonable in its assessment. Similarly, the exercise is being carried out elsewhere in other parts of the state. Within hours of the assessment, the office of the chief administrator, HUDA, gets a mail of the report by the RWA which is posted on the authority’s website. The report carries the entire layout of the sector, level of satisfaction of the RWA, comments of the EO and the names and phone numbers of those who were part of the inspection team. “We have initiated this public participation exercise to know what ails sectors maintained by us and bring about improvement wherever possible. We decided to rope in the RWAs to get a true feedback. We put it on the website immediately so that the reports are not tampered with,” said T.C. Gupta, CA, HUDA, who initiated this entire exercise. Following the feedback, the action taken with regard to the problems is reviewed every Friday. Under this exercise, all seven EOs are supposed to inspect a sector fortnightly while part-time EOs are required to inspect one sector a month. “The effort has helped us reach out to the people and their problems. It has brought the performance of the EOs under a scanner. Going through the pro forma, I realised that none of our complaint centres has a telephone and the public can complain only by visiting the centre. Now, we have decided to install phones so that the public can dial-in its complaint,” Gupta added. |
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Ghaggar Mishap
Fatehabad, June 25 Junior engineer R.K. Mehta had been placed under suspension and had been asked to report at
Ambala, an official spokesman said. Earlier, executive engineer of the department Chander Mohan was transferred to Chandigarh headquarters. People of Ratia have been demanding action against the contractor and the authorities for their negligence in the
matter. Sonu Garg and his son Jatin were killed when the road along the bridge collapsed on June 16. Meanwhile, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal visited the family of the victims in Ratia yesterday. Expressing condolences, he offered all possible help for the family. The former Chief Minister asked the state government to provide suitable compensation to the
family. Bhajan Lal alleged that the Haryana government had rubbed salt on the injuries of the local people by registering criminal cases against them. He said the law and order situation in Haryana had ebbed and murders, rapes and robberies had become the order of the day. He said the incidents of the murder of Bhiwani municipal chief Nand Lal Chawla and suicide by a Rohtak woman had exposed the government. |
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4 IAS officers get addl charge
Chandigarh, June 25 Ashok Lavasa, financial commissioner and principal secretary (FC&PS), power, has been given the additional charge of FC&PS, renewable energy sources department, during the leave period of S.C. Chaudhary. Ankur Gupta, director, industrial training and vocational education, will also look after the charge of special secretary, industrial training and vocational education department, during the training of Vijay Singh. Subhash Chandra, joint secretary, rehabilitation-cum-chief settlement commissioner and joint secretary, revenue and disaster management-II department, will also look after the charge of joint secretary, revenue and disaster management department, director, consolidation of holdings, director, land records, special collector (HQ) and special LAO during the training of Rajeev Ranjan. Brijendra Singh, DC, Faridabad, will also hold the charge of administrator, HUDA, Faridabad, during the training of J.S. Ahlawat. |
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HSSC denies irregularities
Chandigarh, June 25 In a statement issued here today, the secretary of the commission said Majra’s statement was misleading and baseless and had been made merely to malign the commission. He said 3,780 candidates were called for interview against 164 posts of principal and of these 3,181 candidates appeared in the interview. He claimed that the successful candidates were selected according to the rules. |
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Health plan for SCs
Chandigarh, June 25 The first instalment of 50 per cent amount of the total estimated medical expenditure is released directly to the hospital before operation and the rest of the payment is made on the basis of the medical bills. Haryana Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes welfare minister Kartar Devi said SCs having an annual family income of less than Rs 50,000 were eligible for availing assistance under the scheme. |
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GJU exams from tomorrow
Hisar, June 25 Sandhu said the university had set up 61 examination centres across the country. These were located in Delhi, Hisar, Faridabad, Panchkula, Gurgaon, Bhiwani, Karnal, Fetehabad, Ambala, Jind, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Narnaul, Panipat, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa, Tohana, Yamunanagar, Amritsar, Barnala, Bathinda, Patiala, Sangrur, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Sikar, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Shimla, Jammu, Rewa, Hyderabad, Rajamundri, Cochin and Datia. |
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