Ambala, January 7
In an irony of sorts, Road Safety Week celebrations in the city today saw traffic on NH-1 blocked for an hour on account of a marathon run organised to mark the end of the week.

Traffic from and to Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Amritsar and New Delhi was stopped near the Kingfisher resort on the highway at about 11.30 am.

Passengers were told that an accident had taken place. It was only later that they were informed of the marathon taking place.

The passengers protested and the police deployed on the spot allowed the vehicles to pass, halting the flow every time a batch of children participating in the marathon crossed the highway.

District officials sounded cut up when questioned about the interruption in the flow of traffic. The marathon run saw star boxer Vijender Singh also participating.

A series of events were organised during the week, some of them in schools to educate students on the importance of road safety.

Karnal, January 7
A 19-year-old boy from Delhi, Raj, who was allegedly kidnapped on January 5, was found dead in a car on the Gharonda-Arianpura road, 25 km from here, today.

The car had been parked on the highway for the past two days and some passersby reported the matter to the police.

The police reached the spot and recovered the body from the boot of the car. His hands and legs were tied with a rope and a cloth was pasted on his mouth.

After preliminary investigations, the police identified the deceased as Raj, a resident of Sector 2, Rohini, Delhi, who was kidnapped on January 5 as per the FIR registered in the Rohini police station. The car was registered in the name of his father Dr Shrimal Rai, a doctor in Delhi. Forensic experts reached the spot and examined the car and the surroundings to collect evidence. The Karnal police informed its Delhi counterpart and family members of the deceased about the recovery of the body.

Though the Delhi police was reported about the recovery of the body, there was no response from their side. Besides, a sum of Rs 40,000 was withdrawn from the account of the deceased from the ATM of the State Bank of Patiala in Ganaur. The police has sought the video recording of the ATM to identify the accused.

Karnal ASP Ved Prakash Godara said forensic reports would be handed over to the Delhi police for further investigations. Sources said Raj was the only son of his parents.

Yamunanagar, January 7
A 22-year-old driver, who went missing four days ago, was found murdered under mysterious circumstances in Farakpur area here today.

The body of driver identified as Survesh Kumar was recovered from his truck, which was found parked near Jorian Gurdwara this morning. Injury marks were found on the face and head of the body, said police sources.

Survesh had come to Yamunanagar from Karnal to carry sand and stone from the mining site four days ago. When the driver did not return, the owner of the truck called him, but his mobile phone was switched off. The police has registered a case of murder on the complaint of Rajesh Kumar of Jind. A police team has been investigating the matter, but no arrests have been made so far in the case. — TNS

Sirsa, January 7
Shrikant Jadhav, the new SP of Sirsa, is among the upright officers in the state police. The government appointed Jadhav in Sirsa with the approval of the Election Commission yesterday after SP Subhash Yadav was shifted following a complaint.

Though he was transferred on a complaint by the INLD to the EC, it was ruling party politicians in the district who were more uncomfortable with Yadav for calling spade

Jadhav was SP in Fatehabad district in 2000 when during recruitment for 80 posts of police constable, he refused to entertain “recommendations” of certain politcians. The then Chief Minister OP Chautala visited Fatehabad within days of the publication of the selection list and while praising the transparency in recruitment, announced that if anyone could prove that money had played a role in these selections, he would get him his money back with interest.

Jadhav was transferred from Fatehabad within days of the publication of recruitment list. He was posted SP, Crime Records Bureau, Madhuban, on November 3, 2000. A few months later, he was sent by the state government to the Centre on deputation where he served as Zonal Director, Narcotic Control Bureau.

He came back to Haryana only after the Hooda government returned to power. It is interesting that Jadhav, who has served long tenures as SP in Hisar, Jhajjar and Panipat during the Hooda regime, had a term each as SP during the Bansi Lal and Chautala regimes, each lasting less than six months.

During his stint as SP in Kurukshetra the during Bansi Lal regime, he had invited the wrath of a “powerful” politician, who wanted him to delete the name of an accused who figured in a robbery case and was transferred within days.

Jadhav is also known for his proactive role in checking crime. As SP of Fatehabad, he constituted an NGO “Paryaas” with the help of local residents and worked for de-addiction in the area known for poppy husk trafficking at that time. Later, as SP in Hisar, Jadhav launched “Mission Stray Cattle” to provide shelter to unattended cows. Yadav, who has been transferred, is also considered among upright officers. 

Ellenabad, January 7
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will take charge of Congress candidate Bharat Singh Beniwal’s poll campaign from tomorrow.

He will address party workers at Chopta and Ellenabad. The chief minister will camp at Sirsa for two days.

He will cover 18 villages each on January 9 and January 10.

Hooda will come again to Ellenabad on January 17 and January 18 and address meetings in 18 villages on each day.He will start his village tour from Mallekan on January 9.

Meanwhile, the Congress office here has assigned duties to 85 MLAs, former MLAs and other senior leaders.

“Over 10 leaders are already here, while others are expected to reach by tomorrow when Hooda addresses two meetings in the constituency,” said Bhupesh Mehta, who is assisting Ram Parkash, office in charge here.

Meanwhile, Gopal Kanda and Rao Dan Singh today campaigned in Ellenabad town.

“The Chautalas are responsible for the backwardness in Ellenabad as their candidates did little for the constituency,” alleged Gopal Kanda, while addressing a gathering at Gandhi Chowk.

Addressing mediapersons at Congress Bhawan in Sirsa, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Rao Dan Singh said Ellenabad voters had already made up their minds to support the Congress so as to ensure development in their area. 

Ellenabad, January 7
Karan and Arjun, schoolgoing sons of INLD candidate Abhey Singh Chautala, have joined other family members in a door-to-door campaign in 72 villages of the Ellenabad assembly seat.

The party has divided the constituency into six zones of 12 villages each.

Karan, a Class XII student of Bishop Cotton School, Shimla, is in charge of zone six, while his younger brother Arjun, also in the same school, will look after zone two.

Digvijay Singh Chautala, son of Dabwali MLA Ajay Singh Chautala, has started a door-to-door campaign in zone one with his father looking after zone three.

Aditya Chautala, son of former Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala’s deceased brother Jagdish Singh, is in charge of zone four. Abhey Singh is meeting voters individually in zone five.

The Tribune caught up with Karan while he was campaigning in Pohraka village. Seated on the front seat of his SUV, he stopped at each house, shop and “dhani” and sought votes for his father, hands folded.

Trailing his SUVwere INLD activists in three vehicles, handing over pamphlets to voters.

“Arjun and me came from Shimla yesterday to campaign for our father,” Karan said. Though in school, Karan and Arjun are seasoned campaigners already.

Karan said they had also campaigned for their grandfather Om Parkash Chautala in Uchana Kalan in the recent assembly elections.

“We worked for our uncle Ajay Singh in Bhiwani during the parliamentary elections and for our father’s Rori byelection in 2000,” he claimed with an air of confidence. The party has set up zonal offices at Kagdana village for zone one which is headed by former Deputy Speaker Gopi Chand Gehlot, at Nathusari Chopta (zone two) that is looked after by former MLA Pooran Singh Dabra, at Madhosinghana (zone three) overseen by former MP Surinder Barwala, at Kutabadh (zone four) headed by former MLA Nishan Singh, at Nimla (zone five) by MLA Ram Pal Majra and at Pohraka (zone six) by MLA Sher Singh Badshami.

The well-orchestrated campaign of the INLD seems to be paying dividends with its leaders visiting each voter. 

Ellenabad, January 7
While the Congress and the INLD are battling it out for the byelection for the Ellenabad assembly seat, the Samast Bharatiya Party today said the victory of either of the parties would not alter the plight of voters.

Addressing mediapersons here today, SBP president Sudesh Agarwal said party candidate Kusum Chaudhary deserved voters’ support as the party was a viable alternative to the present politics of “corruption and nepotism.”

Accompanied by his wife and party vice-president Neelam Agarwal and party candidate Kusum Chaudhary, Agarwal said the Congress and the INLD had ruled over the state for several years, but the problem confronting people still stood unattended.

He said all political parties talked of pursuing policies for the welfare of women and the youth, but did not take any step other than the lip service.

Chaudhary said she would raise the voice of the youth and the women in the state assembly if she was elected in the bypoll.

Kurukshetra, January 7
Acting on the verdict of Akal Takht, the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC) ad hoc president Jagdish Singh Jhinda, accompanied by five other leaders, began polishing shoes and cleaning langar utensils at the premises of Gurdwara Patshahi-6 here yesterday.

Jhinda, HSGPC general secretary Joga Singh Yamunanagar, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) member and HSGPC leader Avtar Singh Chakkoo, HSGPC youth wing president Kanwaljeet Singh Ajrana and nambardar Hazoor Singh are undergoing the tankah (punishment) till January 10.

Talking to mediapersons, Jhinda said he considered serving in a gurdwara an honour, but to do so as a punishment was unfortunate.

Jhinda alleged that Akal Takht had become a platform for politics with supporters of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar controlling it.

He said he and his supporters had already undergone punishment at Akal Takht, Anandpur Sahib, Damdama Sahib and Sri Keshgarh Sahib, polishing shoes, cleaning utensils and performing kirtan. Jhinda alleged that Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had failed to meet the promises made to them before the assembly elections.

He maintained that Haryana Sikhs had not withdrawn their demand for a separate gurdwara committee. To a question, Jhinda said they would not support any party in the Ellenabad byelection.

Jhinda and his supporters allegedly took over the management of the local gurdwara on September 13 last. Although he described his action as part of “kar sewa”.

Taking offence, SGPC president Makkar reached there the same day late in the evening and lodged an FIR against them.

However, after “kar sewa”, Jhinda and his supporters left the gurdwara premises the same day after about 12 hours.

Rohtak, January 7
As many as 27 bio-gas plants set up in the district are functional already. A total 100 such plants are targeted to be established in the district during this year, the Deputy Commissioner said here today.

He said the project was part of a move to improve infrastructure related to non-degradable sources of energy, contain pollution and meet the growing demand for energy.

He said the new models of the bio-gas plant were available in the office of the Agriculture Department here.

The department was offering subsidy to those who wanted to connect toilets to such plants.

The plants set up recently include nine in Rohtak block, four in Lakhanmajra, six in Sampla and seven in Meham.

The main feature of the plant is that it accepts cowdung in the solid state and the residue can be used as manure in fields after getting the gas supply.

The gas supplied from such a plant can be used for lighting bulbs and tubes, besides being a source of energy for kitchen gas stoves.

The waste material left can be used as manure, it is claimed.

The capacity of the plant varies from 1 cubic metre to 4 cubic metre and requires at least 28 kg of cowdung for a plant with a capacity of 1 cubic metre.

This plant can produce gas for making food for three to four persons at a time. This would require two or three cattlehead in the household.

Similarly, one could go for bigger plants depending on the size of the family. The largest plant can be of 4 cubic metre sufficient for supplying gas for preparation of food for 10 to 12 persons at a go.

“The government should offer more subsidy and some kind of rebate to those who wish to go in for such plants, especially in rural areas,” said Pawan Kumar, a local 
resident.

Kurukshetra, January 7
The Kurukshetra University Teachers Association (KUTA) has urged the three-member Vice-Chancellors’ committee, constituted by the government to look into the issues pertaining to the revised UGC pay scales for college and university teachers, to come out with a comprehensive notification on all retaliated issues as per the guidelines of the Union HRD Minister and the UGC.

A delegation of the association led by its president Prof NS Kaushal and Secretary Dr Parmesh Kumar called the committee members, including Dr Pankaj Mittal, Vice-Chancellor of BPS Mahila Vishwavidhlaya, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat, and Prof RP Hooda, Vice-Chancellor, MDU, Rohtak, at their offices today and urged them to come out with their recommendations at the earliest and address the issues not covered in the notifications issued earlier for implementation of the revised UGC scales.

The delegation was sore that the government had implemented the revised scales in “bits and pieces” and left many important issues untouched causing resentment among teachers. The members further demanded raising of retirement age to 65 years, academic grade pay (AGP) of Rs 12,000 for all professors after 10 years of service, re-designate all readers with three years of service as associate professors and place them in Pay Band-IV, release advance increments for higher qualification like MPhil/MTech/PhD/LLM at the entry level to directly recruited teachers and equivalent cadres recruited on or after January 1, 2006.

Chandigarh, January 7
Tennis is a sport that has many members of the civil service, both retired and serving, actively involved.

It may be mere coincidence that the chief of the All-India Tennis Association, Yashwant Sinha, was in the central civil service before he took to politics.

The president of the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association, Rajan Kashyap, also belonged to the central civil service and superannuated as Chief Secretary, Punjab. He was Chief Information Officer of Punjab till last year.

Irrespective of his position in the civil administration, Kashyap always takes time out not only for a regular game of tennis, but also to monitor performance of his young and promising trainees at the CLTA academy.

He has been one of the best sports organisers with more than one international junior tournament in the city every year.

Like Kashyap, DV Bhatia is a regular in his game of tennis.

Other good tennis players that belonged to the civil service include Ajit Kumar, also a Punjab cadre IAS who was ranked national junior player of the country. Surinder Mohan Sharma of the Indian Police Service, Punjab cadre, has been another outstanding tennis player. He recently helped Punjab to clinch the all-India Police Tennis championship.

Now when the general house of the AITA meets on January 9 at Chennai during the ongoing Chennai Open Tournament, another member of the central civil service, DV Bhatia of Haryana, shall be felicitated with honorary life presidentship of the association.

DV Bhatia is not only a vice-president of the AITA, but also president of the Haryana Tennis Association for the past two decades. It is because of his long association with and contribution to the sport in nurturing new players in Haryana that AITA has decided to honour him.

Bhatia, who originally belonged to the Haryana Civil Service, was appointed to the IAS in 1990 and given the 1985 batch. He had two stints with the Chandigarh Administration, in the then Chandigarh Industrial and General Development Corporation and also Assistant Estate Officer.

Many cooperative house building societies were allotted land when he was Assistant EO.

Besides DV Bhatia, JK Duggal (former Home Secretary) and LC Gupta (former Chief Secretary) remained closely associated with the Haryana Tennis Association. Even Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been a good tennis 
player.

Chandigarh, January 7
The Punjab and Haryana High Court wants to know from the state of Haryana, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and other administrative functionaries the “causes for delay” in former Director-General of Police SPS Rathore’s trial in the Ruchika molestation case.

The Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Jasbir Singh has also asked the state and others to give details of officers responsible for the delay, if any; and to elaborate on the procedure adopted in promoting and recommending for honours, officers with pending criminal cases. Was the procedure followed in Rathore’s case? the Bench has questioned.

A query on the applicability of the Children’s Act and the Juvenile Justice Act on Ruchika’s brother Ashu Girhotra was also posed. In all, five queries were posed on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a comprehensive and an independent inquiry into Ruchika case right from the day she was molested till the final decision.

Fixing January 27 as the next date of hearing on the petition, the Bench also issued notice of motion to the state and other respondents and asked them to file responses within 10 days. The Bench, as of now, did not deem it fit to issue notice to Sacred Heart School, as the UT Administration was already looking into the institute’s role in Ruchika’s expulsion. “We would like to await for the inquiry report,” the Bench asserted.

As the petition filed by city-based advocate Ranjan Lakhanpal came up for hearing this morning, the Bench made it clear that the court would not go into issues of a pending criminal trial, the appeal, and issues already covered in an apex court judgment.

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Mudgal said taking into consideration the seriousness of the matter raised in the petition, they were issuing notice of motion for considering five “cardinal issues”, including delay on behalf of the prosecution and the administration in the conduct of Rathore’s trial.

Other issues included whether the departmental inquiry was recommended, contemplated or held; and whether directions given by the Supreme Court in Prem Shankar Shukla versus Delhi Administration were adopted while arresting Girhotra.

The Bench made clear its intentions to know what were the general guidelines to be adopted by the police and the administration in child molestation cases, considering the nature of sensitivity of such cases; and what were the guidelines for objective procedure to be adopted when senior police officers were accused in such cases. 

Gurgaon, January 7
The family members of 23-year-old Neha, who died in mysterious circumstances while on a luxury cruise-liner near The Bahamas on December 31, have alleged that the police is deliberately delaying investigations in the case.

Neha's father-in-law Dr SS Dalal, who is posted as Civil Surgeon in Gurgaon, is quite close to Haryana Director-General of Police RS Dalal. Neha's family members have been alleging from Day 1 that the police is biased against them.

They assert that first the local police authorities refuse to lodge an FIR, then they did not book Neha's in-laws under the IPC section of abetment to suicide and now they are dilly-dallying the case.

"The police authorities, who are obviously biased towards Neha's father-in-law, are trying to give ample time to Neha's husband Ankit Dalal and his family to seek anticipatory bail by not taking any concrete action on our complaint," said Neha's father Suresh Chhikara here today.

He pointed out that Neha had a life insurance of a large amount (running into crores) as it was mandatory according to the contract for all employees on board the cruise-liner.

"The beneficiary of the claim is Ankit and if investigations are carried out in the right earnest, it will be established that Neha's death is part of a criminal conspiracy in which the Dalals would get her insurance money as well," alleged Chhikara.

Demanding that the case be investigated by the CBI as the police was biased against them, Neha's father asserted that the local police authorities were not listening to any of their pleas.

He maintained that whenever they tried to meet the local Police Commissioner, they were told to contact the SHO at the Sector 17 police station. "However, when we meet the SHO, he also turns a deaf ear to us," he added.

The Chhikaras further stated that Neha's father-in-law had recently approached them, asking them to withdraw the case.

Panipat, January 7
In ensure strict implementation of the Abolition of Bonded Labour Act of 1976, the district administration constituted a district vigil committee here today.

Presiding over a meeting, Deputy Commissioner Vijay Singh Dahiya said the committee would comprise the ADC, SDMs of Panipat and Samalkha, Lead bank manager, MD of Cooperative Bank, labour inspector and two representatives of the Schedule Castes.

Issuing directives to the committee, the DC said the committee should carry out surveys in all brick-kilns, mines, shops and the farm sector from time to time to ensure that no labourer was forced to work in violation of the Act.

He said in case the committee came across any such case, it should immediately take action as per the law and help free the bonded labourer.

Dahiya said last year the administration had received 13 complaints related to bonded labour from various parts of the district, which had been resolved as per the law.

He appealed to the general public that in case anybody came across any case of bonded labour, the matter should be brought to the notice of the officials concerned so that appropriate action could be taken.

He also directed the officials concerned to make sure that the benefits of other welfare schemes for labourers started by the state government should reach the deserving persons.