Palwal, February 27
Eighteen undertrials, who were being taken from Bhondsi Jail in Gurgaon to appear before a court in Palwal, allegedly attacked the police team escorting them and escaped after breaking the door of the vehicle they were travelling in.

However, the police claimed to have nabbed two of them.

Though district police chief Sanjay Kumar said the undertrials escaped by breaking the security cover, according to reports outsiders attacked the police team and facilitated the escape of the undertrials.

Sources said unidentified car-borne persons surrounded the police vehicle and attacked the escorting team. They also opened fire on the police team.

There were at least 14 police personnel in the team escorting the undertrials. The incident occurred near the Housing Board Colony.

Two police personnel, comprising an ASI and a constable, received minor injuries in the incident.

The two arrested have been identified as Mustaaq and Sajjid. They are alleged accused in a number of criminal cases, including murder and dacoity. The police is not ready to comment much on the development except to say that a massive manhunt has been launched to nab the remaining undertrials.

Chandigarh, February 27
Beginning March 1, mining activity is all set to come to a grinding halt in Haryana courtesy environment concerns.

With the framing of rules for securing environmental clearance for mines still pending, mining activity will have to be closed down in view of the expiry of the window period for framing of such rules to carry on mining given to Haryana by a High Court order beyond February 28.

Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Mines, Yudhvir Singh Malik said, “We will be sending an advisory to our mining officers in the field to ensure that no mining takes place after tomorrow till the time the case of environmental clearance is decided.”

The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), in September 2006, issued a note stating that environmental clearance for all projects would be mandatory and applied it to mining as well.

However, since the MoEF’s preceding notification (1994) exempted mining of minor minerals (essentially construction material), Haryana went ahead with it awarding its mines on lease, maintaining that it was up to the successful bidder to get environmental clearance.

However, this was challenged in the High Court where it was stated that this notification was not applicable to mining of minor minerals.

The High Court, in its order in May 2009, ruled that environmental clearance was mandatory for minor minerals as well. Giving time to Haryana till February 28, 2010, the court said the state should prepare its terms of reference and submit it to the expert appraisal committee for framing rules under the environment impact assessment report.

The government of Haryana prepared the same and submitted these to the committee, which in turn, said it did not have the mandate to prepare the rules under the EIA.

Subsequently, the committee went into a review of the order as did Haryana. The department added that it was willing to frame rules if the need so arises but would require time and sought an extension of deadline.

Meanwhile, a special leave petition was filed in the Supreme Court challenging the time allocated to Haryana by the High Court for framing of rules for environmental clearance.

This SLP will be taken up for hearing on March 19 after which the fate of the mines in the state will be known. The High Court has already expressed its inability to pass any order in the matter since the hearing on the SLP is slated for March 19.

This means that none of the mines, given on contract or lease, can function for the time being. A majority of the mines in Haryana are auctioned for minor minerals.

While those in Panchkula and Yamunanagar have been auctioned for boulders, gravel and sand, those in Ambala, Karnal, Panipat, Sonepat and Faridabad have been given for river sand along the Yamuna while the mines in Rewari have been auctioned for sandstone. A few mines are operational in Dadri as well.

Sirsa, February 27
A three-day national conference on “Environmental Degradation: Effects, Challenges and Remedies”, organised in the Jan Nayak Chaudhary Devi Lal College of Engineering, concluded here today with the message that the situation, though alarming, has not yet gone out of control and can be retrieved with concerted efforts.

“As many as 159 researchers and scientists from different universities of the country presented their research papers,” claimed Gurcharan Dass, convener for the conference.

A research poster, “Anaerobic treatment of dairy effluents by using UASB reactor, a lab scale study”, presented by Savita and Sudhir from the Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, was adjudged the best and bagged an award.

Rani Devi, an Assistant Professor at Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, got the award for the best innovative poster for her work “Preparation of biodegradable polymer from natural resources”.

Ajay Singh Chautala, chairman of the Jan Nayak Devi Lal Vidyapeeth, was chief guest at the valedictory function.

Incidentally, Ajay Singh has recently completed his doctorate and acquired the PhD degree in public administration from Kurukshetra University.

“Population explosion in India and some other Asian countries has become the greatest threat to environment on our globe as forests are being cut to accommodate the growing population,” Ajay Singh said.

“Environmental degradation, falling level of subsoil water, increase in environmental temperature, extinction of several species of living creatures, unprecedented floods and droughts and erosion of soil are all corollary to the depletion of forests from the earth,” maintained Ajay Singh.

“India had 22 per cent land under forests at the time of Independence. However, it dwindled to 12 per cent in 1988 and by the next 30 years, we will be left with no forests at all,” Ajay Singh warned.

KS Dhindsa, director-general of the vidyapeeth, said the situation could be controlled with efforts. Rajesh Naithani, Adviser to the Uttrakhand Chief Minister, was the guest of honour.

Bhiwani, February 27
With a view to providing better sports training in the state, the government is contemplating on setting up a sports university in the state.

This was stated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda while giving away prizes to the players during the concluding function of the state-level panchayat sports meet here today.

He said Indian hockey team captain Surender Kaur would be appointed as DSP in Haryana.

Announcing that the boxing academy would start functioning from April 1 in Bhiwani, he said primarily it would be run from a private building and soon a separate building would be constructed for it.

He also announced to set up a synthetic athletic track at a cost of Rs 3.50 crore in Bhiwani. The government was also considering setting up of an integrated cricket academy in Jhajjar, football academy in Gurgaon and kabaddi and wrestling academy in Rohtak, he said, adding that the state government had implemented a new sports policy to promote sports in the state.

Hooda said the government had started a scheme to give Rs 70,000 at the block level, Rs 1.80 lakh at the district level and Rs 25 lakh at the state level to promote sports in rural areas.

All 126 sportspersons, who had come first in the panchayat sport meet, would be given a sum of Rs 5,000. Earlier, this amount was Rs 500 per player, he said.

Chandigarh, February 27
The Haryana government today issued transfer orders of three IAS and 22 HCS officers. A number of City Magistrates and Sub-Divisional Officers have been reshuffled.

Among the IAS officers, Wazeer Singh Goyal has been posted as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA and Special Officer, APZ, Ambala; J Ganesan, ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Jind; and Ashok Kumar Meena as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Karnal.

Among the HCS officers, BB Kaushik goes as Additional Director (Admn) Urban Local Bodies; Sanjeev Verma as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Karnal; Arvind Malhan as Estate Officer, HUDA, Faridabad and Land Acquisition Officer, Faridabad; while Pankaj Chaudhry has been posted as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Sirsa; and SB Lohia as Sub Divisional Officer (C)-cum-Additional Collector, Jind and Estate Officer, HUDA, Jind as also Managing Director, Coop. Sugar Mills, Jind.

Aurbind Sharma goes as City Magistrate, Ambala; GL Yadav as Joint Commissioner, MC NIT, Faridabad; and Narhari Singh Banger as Estate Officer, HUDA, Bahadurgarh, in addition to his present assignment. Pardeep Kumar has been posted as Sub Divisional Officer (C)-cum-Additional Collector, Kosli; while Ritu will be City Magistrate, Panchkula; and Jagdish Sharma goes as City Magistrate, Rohtak; Mukesh Kumar as City Magistrate, Jhajjar; and Amar Deep Singh as City Magistrate, Sonepat. DR Kairon will be the new Land Acquisition Officer, Panchkula; Varsha Khangwal, the Joint Director (Admn) Sports, Haryana.

Sirsa, February 27
Representatives of various political, social and religious organisations today staged a demonstration in protest against the killing of Sikhs in Pakistan and asked the government to take up the matter with the Pakistan government.

Sukhwinder Singh Khalsa, state president of the Shri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Sabha, Jagdish Chopra, state vice-president of the BJP, Padam Jain, district president of the INLD, Bhupesh Mehta, block president of the Congress, and Veer Bhan Mehta, president of the district unit of the Haryana Janhit Congress, led the workers of their organisations and assembled in the local Dasham Patshahi Gurdwara.

The protesters marched towards the Lal Batti Chowk, where they burnt an effigy of the Taliban.

They also gave a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister to the City Magistrate.

They demanded that the matter of Sikhs living in Pakistan should be taken up with the government there so that their safety could be ensured.

The protesters also demanded provision of proper security to pilgrims of Nankana Sahib and Katasraj Yatra.

They also demanded that a deputation of intellectuals and religious persons be sent to Pakistan to assess the situation.

Chandigarh, February 27
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held the state of Haryana in the wrong for denying a police official the opportunity to defend himself.

Justice Ranjit Singh ruled: “The might of the state is pitted against a constable. The result in such cases would be obviously in favour of the mighty state”.

At the same time, Justice Ranjit Singh made it clear that the “courts are the forum where just views prevail, irrespective of the power or status of the litigant”.

The assertion came on an appeal filed against constable Mihan Singh. He was denied two increments, after he objected to the manner in which an inquiry was being conducted.

Mihan Singh’s case is significant as it also brings to fore the failure of the senior police functionaries to redress the subordinate staff’s grievances; rather how they are proceeded against even as they try to fend for their rights. It has also brought under the high court scanner the functioning of senior police authorities, acting as inquiry officers.

Going into the background, Justice Ranjit Singh observed the constable was proceeded against after he objected to the inquiry officer’s directions to a witness to depose on the lines of statement made by him in preliminary inquiry.

Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “The inquiry officer, who was of DSP rank, apparently felt offended and did not like this. The inquiry officer did not appreciate that the constable was only praying for a right to defend and was expecting him to conduct inquiry without taking side.

“It appears that the respondent thereafter desired to make an application before the SSP and ultimately left the inquiry proceedings, when the inquiry officer did not pay any heed to his pleas…. The Superintendent of Police considered this act of respondent as an act of disassociation from the inquiry, insubordination and indiscipline.”

The Karnal SP, subsequently, punished the respondent with stoppage of two increments with future effect; and his appeals before the DIG and IG were rejected.

Dismissing the state appeal, Justice Ranjit Singh held: “The conduct of the inquiry officer in telling the witness to go through his previous statement and then make a statement on identical line certainly was something, which would show his bias and the fact that the procedure adopted, if allowed, may have prejudiced the case of the respondent.

“The manner the case was treated would bring out that fair opportunity was denied to him. What he had asked for was only to defend himself, which led to another proceeding against him. The SP instead of seeing reason got unnecessarily swayed by the fact that respondent was constable and had violated the norms of discipline”.

Rohtak, February 27
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has announced to unleash his preparations for a direct jump into the political arena of the country after having established his brand image in the yoga and moral fields.

Ramdev claimed that he was in the process of making his presence in the political field also in a bid to cleanse the existing system which he said had got polluted to an extent that had failed to come up to the expectations of the people since the country got independence.

He aimed to field his candidates on all 543 seats of the Lok Sabha in the next general elections. Speaking to the media here today after holding a meeting of his followers at the Tagore auditorium of the Maharishi Dayanand University here, Ramdev stated that he did not have any personal political ambitions.

“My aim is to overhaul the present political system which has been ridden with corruption, nepotism and inefficiency leading to stagnation on all fronts in the society,” he said.

Ramdev added that his political outfit would not accept any funds or donations from the corporate houses or industrialists and would raise the funds by collecting donations from members to contest the polls.

He told that the name of the party would be announced at an opportune time and it was likely to take three years to get into the concrete shape.

He said he had been preparing the ground by enrolling about lakh members in each constituency in the next couple of years.

Strongly advocating to bring back the money stacked by Indian politicians in foreign banks, he said: “As per the details available with him, the cash of approximately Rs 250 lakh crore have been deposited by Indians in foreign banks, besides another Rs 60 lakh crore black money available in the country. In this way, if we are able to retrieve this money, every village will have a share of Rs 100 crore”.

He said, “I have dared to take on the system and hope that the people will also come forward to join hands with me”.

The yoga expert demanded that there must be no compromise on corruption, terrorism and rape incidents in the country. “The accused in crimes like these must be awarded the capital punishment and even the President’s constitutional power of awarding amnesty to the accused in these crime categories should be withdrawn,” he said.

Sirsa, February 27
Special children, suffering from disabilities like autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities, had a day of celebration today in Sirsa.

Disha, a school for special children, organised its annual function today, while special children from another institute, Paryaas, celebrated the Holi festival with prominent persons of the town.

Gopal Kanda, Minister of State for Home and Industry, Haryana, was the chief guest in Disha, while Ashok Gupta, a noted psychiatrist, distributed colours among special children in Paryaas.

Arun Mehta, a member of the advisory committee of Paryaas, and Parveen Gupta, a local pathologist, were present.

Children performed bhangra and presented other cultural items in Disha.

Gurgaon, February 27
Some armed persons took away an ATM of a private bank after overpowering the security guard deployed there.

The miscreants, at least three in number, reached the ATM of ING Vysya Bank located near Sector 4-5 roundabout here last night. Two of them went straight to the man guarding the machine and reportedly asked him to switch off the lights.

The guard, Surender Kumar, stated that he refused to do so and asked them to show their identity proof.

On this, one of the miscreants allegedly drew out a country-made pistol.

Then, the duo reportedly locked the security guard in a cupboard and took away the ATM in their vehicle parked there.

The site where the ATM was located is at a stone’s throw from a police post.