Sirsa, July 22
Ahead of tomorrow’s bandh call, given by some Sikh organisations, the authorities today beefed up security arrangements throughout the district.

All roads leading to the district have been heavily barricaded and every vehicle passing through these barricades is being thoroughly checked.

Security arrangements on Begu Road, where the headquarters of Dera Sacha Sauda is situated, have been particularly tightened.

The authorities have identified 41 villages of Sirsa as sensitive and the authorities are keeping special vigil on these villages.

Commissioner, Hisar Division, P.C. Bidhan and inspector-general of police, Hisar Range, A.K. Dhull today took stock of the situation and addressed senior officers of the administration and the police here.

Deputy commissioner V. Umashankar, SP K.V. Ramana and senior officers of the BSF and the CRPF were present at the meeting.

Talking to mediapersons, Bidhan said the authorities had sufficient police and paramilitary forces at their disposal and no anti-social elements would be allowed to take law in their hands in the name of bandh.

“The police and paramilitary forces will conduct a flag march in all sensitive and hypersensitive areas to instil confidence in people,” he added.

Meanwhile, a meeting of 25-member state committees of some neighbouring states, 15-member district committees and seven-member block committees of Dera Sacha Sauda began here this afternoon.

Though the dera management did not reveal the outcome of the meeting, sources said most of the members expressed their displeasure at the way the authorities handled the situation at Dabwali after the death of a Sikh during the Dera-Sikh clash over “naam charcha”.

Sukhwinder Singh Khalsa, president of the Guru Granth Sahib Satkaar Sabha, meanwhile, has said that tomorrow’s bandh will be peaceful.

Talking to mediapersons in Fatehabad today, Khalsa said no shopkeeper would be coerced to close his shop and Sikh organisations would make a peaceful appeal for the bandh.

Meanwhile, Dabwali town, which witnessed ugly incidents of mob violence on Friday, is fast returning to normalcy.

Though curfew is still clamped on the town, the authorities have been giving relaxation in the curfew from 9 am to 5 pm for the past three days. Shops close at the stroke of 5 pm and paramilitary forces deployed in the town start flag march on roads.

Shopkeepers did a brisk business during the relaxation period yesterday and today.

There were allegations of overcharging for essential commodities like milk and vegetables by some shopkeepers on Sunday, when only a few shops opened.

However, things are back to normal as shopkeepers have now been receiving fresh stocks of these commodities.

Chandigarh, July 22
The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has asked the accountant general (AG), Haryana, to reconsider promotion of two applicants Bhim Singh and Raj Paul, working as senior accounts officer and accounts officer, respectively, to the post of section officer (SO).

The applicants stated that both of them belonged to the SC category and joined service as clerks in 1988. Thereafter the applicants were promoted to their present ranks. The applicants stated that in all there were 22 posts under the SC category.

The applicants asserted that promotion to the post of SO is governed by the statuary rules according to which only those persons who had passed the SOGE test would be eligible for promotion.

The applicants stated that they appeared in the all-India SOGE examination conducted in May/June 2004. The result of the exam was declared wherein the applicants had successfully passed the examination.

On the basis of having cleared the SOGE exam the applicants claimed promotion to the post of SO on ad hoc basis, which was denied. The promotion was declined on the basis of a letter dated January 11, 2005, in which persons who had passed the SOGE exam in January 1996 batch are not entitled to get promotion.

The applicants submitted a number of representations seeking promotion but were rejected on flimsy grounds.

Quashing the letter (issued by the AG’s office) that those who had passed the SOGE exam would be considered for the promotion, the CAT observed: “It is clear from the letter that there is no restriction in conducting the SOGE exam in respect to the reserved category officials. The tone of the above letter is clear that reserved vacancies are not to be kept unfulfilled.”

The CAT stated: “The respondents are directed to consider the case of the applicants for the promotion to the post of section officer (ad hoc) against SC quota wherein such vacancies are admittedly available with the respondents.”

Fatehabad, July 22
Detection of two cases of dengue at Dhangar village near here has put the the health authorities on the alert. Both patients are schoolchildren and have been admitted to Agroha Medical College for treatment.

The patients, Rinku (12) and Sumesh (10), have been suffering from high fever for past some days and on testing their blood samples they were found deficient in platelets, an indication of dengue.

The health authorities here have confirmed that they have received communication from the Agroha Medical College regarding detection of two cases of dengue from a village in Fatehabad.

Dr D.K. Dadhitch, district malaria officer, Fatehabad, said the health authorities have conducted fever mass survey in the village after they came to know of the cases of dengue.

“Fogging has been done in the village twice and potable water tanks are being treated to ensure that larvae of mosquitoes do not grow there,” added Dr Dadhitch.

Meanwhile, the health authorities at Tohana in this district have claimed to have taken several steps to check the spread of malaria and jaundice there.

The Tribune had yesterday highlighted the outbreak of malaria and jaundice at Tohana.

Supply of contaminated water declared unfit for human consumption during laboratory tests was cited as a reason for the spread of jaundice.

Even three staffers of General Hospital, Tohana, were found suffering from jaundice.

Dr Joginder Singh, senior medical officer, Tohana, informed today that the health authorities have started fogging in the area and added that fogging operations will continue for four days.

He said fresh samples of potable water have been taken from the hospital campus as well as from the other areas of the town.

He said some leakages of water pipes have been detected and those were being plugged with the help of the public health authorities.

Gurgaon, July 22
Thousands of commuters between Gurgaon, Delhi and the National Capital Region may feel relieved as 23 CNG-operated buses, including seven low-floor air-conditioned ones, will start plying from tomorrow. The step follows the start of two CNG filling stations here.

Without causing much pollution, the fleet of buses is expected to reduce dependence of commuters on DTC buses and private cabs. The routes of these buses have been identified. Staring from the Gurgaon bus stand, these buses will ply between 6 am and 10 pm. “It should be a great relief for professionals like us as we don’t have any company-owned transport facility. With regular change of work shifts, most of the time we had to keep waiting for some transport vehicle after work to reach home in Gurgaon from Delhi,” said Mohit and Tushar Srivastava, young marketing executives working in Delhi.

There are thousands of professionals and office-goers who work in Delhi but stay in rented accommodation in Gurgaon.

Deputy commissioner Rakesh Gupta said commuters would definitely feel relieved as the number of buses of the Haryana Roadways would increase, plying between different destinations in Haryana and Delhi. This should also help prevent fleecing of commuters by private operators in terms of overcharging of fare.

The buses will ply between Gurgaon, Safdurjung Terminal, Bahadurgarh, Ballabhgarh, the ISBT, Karol Bagh, Nehru Place, the ITO and Dusshera Ground.

The low-floor AC buses will ply on 14 routes. Of these, eight routes are meant for Karol Bagh and two for Shivaji Stadium. The other four routes will go up to Safdurjung Terminal via AIIMS and Mehrauli. Starting at 7.30 am, these buses will daily make 12 rounds of Safdurjung Terminal and another 28 rounds between Gurgaon and Dhaula Kuan, besides 32 rounds between Gurgaon and Karol Bagh. 

Chandigarh, July 22
On a day when UP Chief Minister Mayawati and her allies were busy mustering support against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the Haryana government shook hands to forge “a new alliance” in Lucknow.

Transport minister and Congress leader Mange Ram Gupta, also a state guest during the visit, flagged off two new direct bus services to Faridabad and Gurgaon from Lucknow. Officials of his department also entered into the Haryana-Uttar Pradesh Reciprocal Transport Agreement with the UP transport department.

Though such inter-state agreements are purely official and have little to do with party politics, the timing of the agreement generated a lot of interest. Accompanying the minister on this visit, his brother, A.R. Goyal, said they had gone ahead with the agreement because there was nothing “political” about it.

Today’s “deal” was signed between Samir Mathur, principal secretary (transport department), government of Haryana, and D.D. Verma, principal secretary (transport department), UP government, in Lucknow. Also present were the minister and Ramachar Rajbhar, transport minister, Uttar Pradesh.

The last agreement was signed in 1983 and later amended in 1986. Under the last agreement, the Haryana Roadways was to ply 13,178 km per day and Uttar Pradesh was to ply 12,790 km per day in Haryana in Uttar Pradesh.

However, the distance being plied by the buses of the two departments had increased substantially since the last agreement. Also, Haryana’s transport department was keen on starting new routes in UP and vice versa.

Under the new agreement, Haryana will ply 70,488 km per day in UP and UP will ply 60,644 km per day in Haryana. Haryana will have 463 route permits for destinations in UP whereas UP will have 657 route permits.

Chandigarh, July 22
The Punjab and Haryana High Court believes it won’t be easy for an ex-cop to sustain the allegations of his wife’s rape by the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) inspector Vijaybeer Singh Yadav.

As such, High Court Division Bench of Justice S.S. Saron and Mohinder Pal has refused to interfere with the orders of Karnal’s additional sessions judge, discharging the inspector in the matter.

The fact that complainant in the matter was facing CBI investigations when he accused the inspector of raping his wife at gunpoint and there was no medical evidence on record to substantiate the allegations; weighed on the High Court’s mind while passing the orders.

The complainant had initially alleged that his wife, a lecturer in a local college, was alone at home when the inspector came to his house in August 2004 on the pretext of investigating the case, but left after raping her.

Taking up his complaint, Karnal judicial magistrate (first class) issued orders summoning the inspector, but the additional sessions judge discharged him vide order dated May 25, 2006. Aggrieved by the discharge orders, the complainant had moved the High Court, claiming that the judicial magistrate had rightly summoned the inspector, but the additional sessions judge had gravely erred in discharging him in the matter.

The Bench ruled: The fact that the applicant is facing investigation, in which challan has been filed, as stated by counsel for respondent (Vijaybeer Singh), and also on the mere assertion of the wife of the complainant that she was subjected to rape and without there being any medical evidence on record to substantiate the said allegations, it is difficult to hold that the allegations as made in the complaint would ultimately be sustained.

The Bench added: In these circumstances, the order of the additional sessions judge, Karnal, discharging the respondent in the criminal complaint against him in the facts and circumstances, is just and reasonable and calls for no interference.

The Judges concluded: There is no merit in the application and the same is accordingly dismissed. 

Chandigarh, July 22
International boxer and India's medal hope in the forthcoming Beijing Olympics Bijender today appeared personally before the Punjab and Haryana High Court for withdrawing the petition he had filed against the appointment of cricketer Joginder Sharma and Indian women hockey team captain Mamta Kharab. The two were appointed directly as DSPs in the Haryana police last year.

Hisar, July 22
Hundreds of local residents blocked traffic at Dabra Chowk here today demanding the arrest of those responsible for murdering a youth after picking him up from the venue of his brother's wedding reception two days ago.

The demonstrators included the parents of the deceased. The protesters said none of the culprits had been arrested so far although they had been identified.

Sandeep Dhania (22), a resident of the housing board colony in Vidyut Nagar here, was found murdered on Saturday night.

He was attending his brother's wedding reception at the Community Centre of Urban Estate II when four youths came there. They joined the celebrations. After a dance they asked the deceased to accompany them. When he did not return, the family informed the police which in turn told them that a bullet-riddled body had been found on the Raipur road. 

Yamunanagar, July 22
A youth, Nawada, was murdered and later his body dumped near a private engineering college in Jagadhri here yesterday. The police today registered a case of murder against unidentified persons following a complaint lodged by the victim’s father, Kailash Chand.

Police sources said Nawada (22), who was living in a rented accommodation near the Kali temple here, had an affair with a girl, Kavita, of Patna. He got married to her without the consent of her parents and brought her here. However, the parents of the girl came to his house on July 16 and took her with them. Nawada had left home on Saturday. Later, his body was found near the engineering college.

In a complaint to the police, the victim’s father said the parents of the girl were against the marriage. The police said the cause of the death would be revealed once the post-mortem report was received.