Hisar, August 13
Activists of the BJP and the VHP blocked traffic here today in response to a nationwide ‘chakka jam’ call in protest against the cancellation of land allotment to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.

Apprehending trouble, traders closed their shops. A large number of policemen were deployed at the crossing to meet any eventuality.

Vehicular traffic came to a halt and roads wore a deserted look during the protest. However, no untoward incident was reported from anywhere.

ROHTAK/JHAJJAR: Activists of the BJP and the VHP blocked roads at several points in Rohtak on Wednesday in response to the “chakka jam” call given in protest against the order cancelling the allotment of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.

The protesters also blocked a railway track passing through Rohtak town, due to which a Panipat-bound passenger train remained halted for about half an hour.

Meanwhile, in Bahadurgarh, police personnel resorted to a mild lathicharge to disperse the protesters near the local bus stand.

SIRSA: The two-hour bandh of the Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti passed off peacefully here on Wednesday.

Activists of the samiti led by its convener Brij Mohan Sharma reached Lal Batti Chowk on the national highway and blocked the traffic.

FATEHABAD: Activists of the Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti held a demonstration here on Wednesday. The protesters went to the mini-secretariat and submitted a memorandum to additional deputy commissioner C.G. Rajnikanthan. Reports of blockage of vehicular traffic were received from Tohana and Ratia towns in this district.

SONEPAT: Hundreds of activists of the VHP and the district unit of the BJP on Wednesday blocked National Highway-1 near Murthal for about an hour resulting in long queues of vehicles on both sides of the highway.

They also staged a dharna and disrupted vehicular traffic for at least an hour. Some of the senior leaders were reportedly whisked away from the spot by a team of administrative officers. However, they were released after sometime.

KARNAL/PANIPAT: A large number of travellers were stranded in blockades put up by activists of the BJP and the VHP on Wednesday in Karnal and Panipat.

In Karnal, NH-1 was blocked at Liberty Chowk for over two hours.

In Panipat, local residents suffered the most from the one-hour blockade.

YAMUNANAGAR: Activists of the VHP, Bajrang Dal and the state unit of the BJP on Wednesday blocked the traffic on the national highway passing through the district at two different places - Fountain Chowk and Kamani Chowk - for at least two hours.

KAITHAL: Activists of the BJP, Bajrang Dal and other organisations held a procession here on Wednesday in protest over the Amarnath land row. Hundreds of workers blocked the traffic movement on Pehowa Chowk for a few hours.

JIND: The ‘chakka jam’ call given by the VHP and the Bajrang Dal over the Amarnath land row led to the blockade of traffic movement at several places in the district on Wednesday. The traffic came to a halt at nine spots in the district.

FARIDABAD: Activists of the VHP and the BJP on Wednesday blocked the Delhi-Agra national highway for over an hour in protest over the Amarnath land row.

BHIWANI: Activists of the VHP, BJP and the Bajrang Dal on Wednesday stopped the Bhiwani-Rohtak passenger train 4-RKD and the Ganganagar-Rewari 348 passenger train for two hours at a junction in protest over the Amarnath land row. Later, BJP workers burnt the effigy of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

New Delhi/Chandigarh, August 13
The Haryana Congress today switched gears and started its pre-poll exercise. The coordination committee of the state Congress today decided to get a survey done to assess what all issues needed to be addressed in the state and what would be the political impact of the delimitation of constituencies.

The committee met in Delhi this morning with party in charge Margaret Alva chairing the meeting.

Sources in the Congress said the foremost point discussed by the leaders was the plan of action before the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

Those who attended the meeting included state Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, three union ministers from Haryana - Hans Raj Bhardawaj, Kumari Selja and Rao Inderjit Singh - besides the president of the Haryana Congress Phool Chand Mullana.

The state Congress will give a report on the impact of the delimitation with political inputs on new combinations.

The delimitation has changed the caste combination in several parliamentary constituencies.

Though Ambala and Sirsa continue to be reserved seats as before, the permutations will change. For example Yamunanagar, a Punjabi-dominated assembly segment, has been taken out of Kurukshetra and added to the Ambala parliamentary seat.

Elsewhere, the Mahendragarh constituency has been merged with Bhiwani and it will called the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat. Gurgaon will be new constituency that has been largely carved out of areas of Mahendragarh. The others changes are mainly in Kurukshetra, Hisar and Sonepat among others where caste combinations have been altered.

The party will launch an aggressive media campaign to harp upon development and the clean image Hooda enjoys. The ministers will be asked to sit at the party office in Chandigarh and meet people on a regular basis.

The message at the meeting was loud and clear - the state unit of the party and the government were asked to brace for the Lok Sabha elections and present a united front.

While ministers took a rap for “ignoring” the party and its affairs, the government was asked to speed up the filling of vacancies and implementing schemes and projects.

Alva said she would individually meet the MPs to know their constituency position and any grievances they wanted redressed.

She directed the ministers to meet their targets and make it a point to visit the offices of the district Congress committees while on tour.

The discussion at the meeting of the coordination committee went well beyond the agenda with the Haryana government drawing flak from members for the poor progress in the filling of vacancies.

It is learnt that the Chief Minister, who arrived late for the meeting on account of the delayed landing of his plane, informed the general secretary that nearly 1,000 of a total of 14,000 vacancies had been filled so far.

The Chief Minister was also asked to hasten infrastructure development in Gurgaon as committed.

Hooda also gave a status report on the formation of a separate SGPC while Alva “allowed” other members to submit their lists with regard to the appointment of chairpersons to boards and corporations.

Alva asked the state unit to prepare a report on the political situation in each Lok Sabha constituency and submit the same by the end of August. A report complete with maps and detailing the boundaries of constituencies post-delimitation, on the lines of the one submitted by Maharashtra, has also been sought. 

Bhiwani, August 13
Residents of several colonies, inundated even after seven days, suffered a jolt when the public health department withdrew water pumps fitted on tractors today.

People have been unable to understand the questionable move of the administration.

Several houses of the Old Housing Board and Adarsh Nagar are still waterlogged. An official on anonymity said tractor pumps were not viable to drain out the rainwater and now people would have to wait for the normal draining out of water through sewer system.

A resident said the district administration removed these pumps as fast as it had installed them for draining out the rainwater.

A number of areas of the city like Dinod gate, railway line, Ramganj mohalla are still waterlogged.

Irked over this move of the administration, people have been demanding the complete overhaul of the officialdom in the district.

Meanwhile, the administration has swung into action to celebrate the Independence Day. The venue of the function has been changed from Bhim Stadium to Police Lines, as it is also waterlogged. Haryana minister Randeep Surjewala will unfurl the National Flag on August 15.

Residents of waterlogged areas have been facing an acute shortage of drinking water. Several social organisations, political parties have come forward to the rescue of the residents by organising medical camps. These organisations have been distributing free of cost medicines. A few of them have been sending potable water to flood-affected areas.

With the removal of about six pumps, residents are worried about the draining out process. Residents of Manan Pana and Halu bazaar are forced to pass through the waterlogged streets. Worst sufferers have been inhabitants of low-lying areas and they have lost all hope of getting rid of rainwater by next week.

The administration is busy in making arrangements for the celebration of the Independence Day and flood-hit areas have been neglected by the authorities concerned.

Gurgaon, August 13
In view of the Independence Day function to be held here on August 15, the district police has beefed up the security and sounded alert. Haryana Governor A.R. Kidwai will unfurl the National Flag.

As a precautionary measure, the Gurgaon police has started intensive checking of vehicles passing through the district under the supervision of ACPs, inspectors and SHOs.

Contractors of parking lots have also been directed to ensure checking of the vehicles parked in their respective parking lots.

Joint commissioner of police M.S. Ahlawat said owners of all shopping malls, cyber cafes and those of important buildings have been asked to install CCTV cameras with recording facility at all entry and exit point for monitoring suspicious activities.

A constant watch is being kept at the bus stand, railway station, markets, hospitals and other crowded places.

The police today issued challans against 23 persons for failure to comply with the instructions issued under Section 144 to keep record of customers’ identity.

Similarly, it has been made mandatory for owners of hotels, resorts, lodges, dharamshalas and dhabas to keep a register of visitors and note their full particulars, including mobile numbers.

YAMUNANAGAR: Seven special teams of the police, including a bomb disposal squad, have been set up to keep tabs on anti-social elements at important places, including the railway station, bus stands, religious places and markets in view of the threat perception from militant outfits on Independence Day here.

These teams will be headed by DSPs, said SP C.S. Rao while addressing a press conference here regarding the police preparedness to tackle any possible threat on Independence Day.

The SP said they had verified the facts, but nothing substantial was found in a threat letter which claimed that the Lashkar-e-Toiba could carry out explosions at railway stations in Haryana, Chandigarh and other important places on Independence Day.

The threat letter, written in Hindi, was received at the Mustafabad railway station in the district last week.

Chandigarh, August 13
Justice Permod Kohli issued notice to Haryana Chief Secretary (CS) Dharamvir, asking him why proceedings under the Contempt of Court Act be not initiated against him.

The notice was issued on a petition filed by Haryana District Food and Supplies Officer, Dilawar Singh. He was seeking directions for punishing the CS for "disobeying" a High Court order by recommending the registration of criminal cases against him "without any rhyme or reason".

He had also alleged attempt at frame up following deputy chief minister's annoyance with him.

As the matter came up for hearing, notice was accepted by state’s Additional Advocate-General, following which Justice Kohli directed the filing of reply in two weeks. The case will now come up for hearing on October 4. Going into the background of the matter, Dilawar Singh had asserted the Bench of Justice Ashutosh Mohunta and Justice T.P.S. Mann had on September 17, 2007, observed that Vigilance Bureau's report clearly showed non-establishment of allegations against the petitioner.

Sirsa/Fatehabad, August 13
The Sirsa and the Fatehabad police had a tough time in managing Sikh activists, who were arrested by the Sirsa police from Odhan while they trying to march towards Ghunkawali yesterday.

The Sikhs, who wanted to stop the construction of the boundary wall of the dera building at Ghunkawali, were taken to Police Lines in Fatehabad late last evening.

It took the police at least three hours in completing the formalities of the arrest of 91 persons, who were held under Sections 107/51 of the CrPC.

Sikh activists, including president of the Shri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Sabha Sukhwinder Singh Khalsa, chief of the Khalsa Action Committee Baljit Singh Dadu and Gurmeet Singh Tilokewala, were released on bail in Fatehabad early morning.

A naib tehsildar from Sirsa reached Fatehabad to accept the bail of Sikh activists. They were then taken to Sirsa in police buses and set free near Gurdwara Dasham Patshahi.

In Fatehabad, the Police Lines was too ill-equipped to receive a large number of unexpected “guests”.

Sikh leaders, who had not eaten anything since morning, called some local Sikh leaders of Fatehabad, who arranged for dinner of around 100 Sikhs late in the night at Ashok Nagar.

In Sirsa, the authorities kept their fingers crossed as prolonged meetings of released Sikh leaders were held in Gurdwara Dasham Patshahi today.

While members of the peace committee were busy in convincing the Sikhs not to go towards Ghunkawali today, the police was deployed near Khairekan village on the outskirts of the town to scuttle their move, if any.

The authorities heaved a sigh of relief late afternoon when Sikh leaders started dispersing from the gurdwara.

Later, Khalsa said they would file an appeal in the district court against the order of the Dabwali court denying the stay on the construction of the dera wall on the application of Sikhs.

Khalsa alleged that false rumours regarding “imminent rapprochement” between the dera and the Sikhs were being spread by vested interests.

Chandigarh, August 13
The Haryana government has decided that the tuition fee of Scheduled Castes (SC) students of the state seeking admission to pre-engineering, diploma, BE/BTech, BPharma, BHMCT, MBA, MCA and MTech programmes in the state in the 2008-09 session will be paid by the department of technical education.

While stating this here today, Haryana technical education minister A.C. Choudhary said the benefit would be given to SC students admitted through central counselling except in the case of the pre-engineering course to which students would be admitted at the institutional level.

Tohana, August 13
Health experts again found larvae of aedes, the mosquitoes responsible for the spread of dengue, in some more localities of Tohana town today, where at least 12 persons have died of fever during the past one month.

Hundreds of people are getting treatment at Tohana, Hisar and other places for fever coupled with decreased platelets count.

The experts collected larvae and mosquitoes from Bhatia Nagar, Krishna Colony and the auto market of the town.

The team will visit the town again tomorrow and conduct a survey in some other localities. Meanwhile, six teams of workers taken from various departments today cleaned coolers of people in the worst-affected areas.

Aedes mosquitoes are found in clear water and hence find water in coolers, drinking water tanks and discarded tyres as ideal places for them. The teams also provided temiphos, an insecticide used for killing aedes mosquitoes, to residents.

The authorities have also started fogging of the affected areas.

“Fogging was started in the morning, but the process was hampered by intermittent rain. We will intensify indoor and outdoor fogging from tomorrow,” said Dr Joginder Singh, senior medical officer, general hospital, Tohana.

He claimed that the number of fever cases was on the decline now and the situation was under control. 

(Rattanpura) Yamunanagar, August 13
A large number of residents of 12 villages today staged a dharna outside the Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram Thermal Plant (600 MW) here in protest against the failure of the authorities to keep the promise of providing jobs to the village youth in the plant and round-the-clock power supply to the villages.

The aggrieved villagers, who live in the vicinity of the thermal plant, claimed that the government had made these promises to them when 1,200 acres were acquired from them for setting up the thermal plant.

The villagers rued that they had been given “less price” for the land by the state government.

Many villagers, whose land was acquired, had to purchase land in a nearby district of Uttar Pradesh.

The villagers also complained that they had been suffering due to the ash pollution released from the plant.

The villages “affected” due to the construction of the thermal plant include Rattanpura, Tazikpur, Fatepur, Nayagaon, Behrmpur, Rampur Majra and Kalanaur.

“The government purchased five acres from us for the plant and gave us Rs 38,000 per acre. However, the actual price of the land was Rs 43,000 per acre in 1983. As not much land was available here, many affected villagers moved to Uttar Pradesh. We purchased land in Sirsawa in UP, said Nathu Ram (80) and Sandeep (26) of Rattanpura, who were sitting in dharna.

“The cost of farming has increased as we have to go to UP every day for farming while we stay here. Besides round-the-clock power supply and a job to one member of each family of the affected villages, the government had assured us that special facilities would be provided in their villages as they had donated land for the plant. However, nothing was done for us,” lamented villagers Kishan Singh Rana and Chander Bhan.

General secretary of the Haryana Janhit Congress Satpal Kaushik, who led the agitation, said the villagers had given a memorandum to the Chief Minister, apprising him of their problems. The villagers had given their precious land for the plant. Now, it was the moral duty of the government to fulfil its promises, he added. 

Jind, August 13
The owner of a private school in Sentli village in the district was beaten to death allegedly by a mob in the village this morning after he was allegedly found in a compromising position with a former girl student of the school.

The crowd, mainly comprising villagers, also ransacked the building. A case has been registered against several persons, but no arrest has been made so far.

The school owner, identified as Rampal, hailing from Litani village in Hisar district, was running SD High School for the past several years.

A large number of local residents assembled outside the school this morning after someone told them that the owner of the school was with a former girl student in a room who had passed out class X from here last year and that both of them were having an ‘illicit’ relations for quite sometime.

It is reported that the villagers got the door of the room opened and found the school owner with the girl in an objectionable state and got furious.

He was pulled out of the room and questioned. His reply did not satisfy the villagers who allegedly beat him up to death.

By the time the police reached the spot, he had died.

A probe into the matter has been ordered.

Rewari, August 13
Two persons reportedly committed suicide and a student was charred to death in various parts of the district yesterday.

A married man, Prem Prakash Yadav (27), reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Motla Kalan village near Jatusana yesterday.

Sources said Yadav committed suicide as he could not bear the shock of the demise of his wife.

In another incident, Ranbir Singh Gujjar allegedly committed suicide by consuming celphos at Asalwas village, 12 km from here, yesterday.

Megha Yadav (15), a student of class X and daughter of Kailash Chand Yadav, was reportedly charred to death in a fire, which was caused by the erratic functioning of a stove in the kitchen at Chitadoongra village yesterday.