Chandigarh,June 4
Cocking a snook at directives of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), 85 senior police officers from the region, including RS Dalal, the Director-General of Police, Haryana, believe in keeping their immovable assets a closely guarded secret.

Even four months after the deadline, January 31, these senior officers have not filed the mandatory immovable property returns (IPRs) prompting the MHA to put them on the “defaulters list” on their official website.

Dalal leads the “defaulters list”, which contain the names of 14 police officers, from the front. Following in his footsteps, four DGP-rank officers from the state, Gurjot Singh Malhi, Brijender Rai, Vipin Kumar and Rakesh Malik, also find mention in the list.

In fact, Punjab has the dubious distinction of having a maximum number of 28 police officers in the list. Prominent among those included Ramesh Chandra Singh, Rohit Chaudhary, Barjinder Kumar Uppal, Tehal Singh Dhaliwal, Nirmal Singh Dhillon and Kanwaljit Singh.

Jammu and Kashmir comes close second with 23 senior cops in list. They included P LaL Gupta, SM Sahai, Rashmi Ranjan Swain and Gulzar Singh. Himachal Pradesh has the names of 20 police officers on the MHA website.The prominent IPS officers of the Himachal cadre included Sanjay Kumar, Prithvi Raj, Shyam Bhagat Negi and Atul Verma.

Earlier, the ministry had shot off communications to the states saying every IPS officer was required to fill forms attached to their Performance Appraisal Report (PAR) and submit them to the reporting authority. While submitting their PARs, the IPS officers had been asked to submit property returns for 2011 as on January 1, 2012 to the state government by January 31.

Sirsa/Fatehabad, June 4
Two youths died of electrocution in Dadu village of Sirsa while hundreds of electric poles were uprooted disrupting power supply in 48 villages of Sirsa and Fatehabad in a storm that lashed the area last evening.

Over six villages in Sirsa and three in Fatehabad have been in complete darkness for the past 24 hours while power supply to many others has been affected.

Jaspreet (19), a B.Tech student, and Pappu (16), a Class X student, were trying to drain out rainwater from their houses into a pond when an overhead live wire fell into the pond, resulting in their electrocution. They were shifted to a private hospital at Kalanwali, where they were declared brought dead. They were cremated this afternoon.

The storm has uprooted over 350 electricity poles in Sirsa and Fatehabad. As many as 12 transformers have also fallen in the Sirsa and Fatehabad areas, disrupting power supply.

BK Ranjan, Executive Engineer of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) at Fatehabad, said 155 poles had fallen. Six transformers had also been grounded, leading to disruption in power supply to over 12 villages. Power supply to Bighar and two other villages was completely off and it would take at least 24 hours to restore power supply there.

“We do not have new poles in our stores and we are trying to bring some from Sirsa,” Ranjan added. “A long stretch of Sirsa villages starting from Chopta towards Ellenabad via Madhosinghana, Jiwan Nagar and Rania have been hit most ,” said RK Jain, Superintending Engineer of the DHBVN at Sirsa. He said 200 poles had fallen in Sirsa while one transformer had been grounded. Jain said his men were on the job to restore power supply.

Rohtak, June 4
The police has got clues to some of the women inmates reported missing from Apna Ghar, a shelter home for the destitute here. Police teams have been despatched to recover them.

“The police had published photographs and details of 29 women inmates gone missing from the shelter home in the past about three years.’’ We have received information from places like Bhiwani, Hisar, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Chandigarh and teams have been sent to identify and recover the victims,’’ said a police spokesman.

He said the details of inmates, including at least eight minor girls, had been published in various newspapers recently after the officials probing the matter provided details about the victims, a majority of them mentally challenged.

It may be recalled that initial interrogation of the main accused had revealed that six of the mentally challenged women inmates had been dropped by the shelter home functionaries in Delhi in the first week of May though the police later reported that the number of such inmates could be higher.

The shelter home had around 102 inmates, a majority of them women and girls who were either destitute or had been rescued by NGOs from various places. While 75 per cent of them have been sent to other places during the past about two weeks, the shelter home here has been left with around 30 now. The district authorities and police officials probing the matter have failed to provide an update on the inmates lodged here and the reason behind shifting a large number of them to other places. ‘’ The move to shift the inmates could scuttle the probe as many of the victims might not be able to provide accurate and correct information pertaining to the allegations which include rape, immoral trafficking and labour bondage‘’, claimed sources in the department.

Chandigrh , June 4
As many as 67.82 per cent candidates passed the senior secondary semester examinations held in March by the Board of School Education, Haryana. Girls scored over boys, showing 17 per cent more pass percentage.

The board’s secretary DK Behra said that the result would be declared tomorrow. The pass percentage of private candidates was 59.70.

Behra said the result could be downloaded from the websites- www.bseh.gov.in, www.hbse.nic.in, www.indiaresults.com, www.examresults.net and www.amarujala.com from 9 am onwards tomorrow. Those who wanted to take the September,2012, examinations for re-appear or additional subject or improvement could send their examination forms without late fee up to June 25 and with a late fee of Rs 100 up to July 2. A late fee of Rs 300 would be payable up to July 9 and of Rs 1,000 up to July 31 for examination forms. The examination forms would be available at the district-level coordination centres of the board, board headquarters at Bhiwani and registered booksellers throughout the state. Forms sent through courier services would not be accepted.

Sirsa, June 4
Noted Punjabi littérateur Harbhajan Singh Renu lost his battle against cancer in a private hospital last night. As per his wish, Renu’s body was today donated to Maharaja Agarsen Medical College, Agroha, for research.

Former Minister Jagdish Nehra, Director of Punjabi Sahitya Akademi Sukhchain Singh Bhandari, former chairman of the Bar Council of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Gurinder Pal Singh and local litterateurs Puran Mudgil, Harbhagwan Chawla, Roop Devgan and Laj Pushp were among those who paid homage to Renu before his mortal remains were transported to Agroha for donation.

Born in Arzada village of Sialkot (Pakistan) on May 7, 1941, Harbhajan Singh Renu penned seven books on poetry — Bhukh, Agan Pakheru, Matak Ander Sooraj, Antene te Baithi Son Chiri, Sukrat nu Millan Jane, Bhumika to Bagair and Mere Hisse de Varke.

Known as a people’s poet as he penned pains and miseries of the common man, Renu’s three books were awarded by the Language Department, Haryana; the Haryana Sahitya Akademi and the Haryana Punjabi Sahitya Akademi.

Harbhajan Singh Renu had been fighting cancer for the past three years. The Punjabi Sahitya Akademi had given financial help of Rs 20,000 to him recently.

Yamunanagar, June 4
As many as 10 ATM card holders of SBI and State Bank of Patiala have filed a joint complaint with Yamunanagar police station, stating that money has been withdrawn from their accounts using fake ATM cards.

The complaint stated Rs 38,400 had been withdrawn from the account of Amrit Pal Singh, Rs 40,000 from the account of Asha Rani, Rs 74,700 from the account of Satish Kumar, Rs 1.20 lakh from the account of Sanjiv Jain and Rs 75,000 from the account of Suresh Kumar Saini. Sums of Rs 22,500, Rs 1.20 lakh, Rs 38,000, Rs 13,000 and Rs 23,900 had been withdrawn from the accounts of Rishi Pal Singh, Mahinder Saroop, Maha Singh, Hitesh Kumar and Kanhiya Parsad, respectvely, through fake ATM cards.

The victims have reported the matter to their banks. The police is probing the matter.

Hisar, June 4
A grocer, Pankaj Wadhwa, was stabbed to death at Dhani Kutubpur village, near Hansi, today. A resident of Kharar village near here, he was on his way to his shop in Hansi on a motorcycle when miscreants forced him to stop and stabbed him repeatedly. They took away his wallet and mobile phone. The injured grocer was rushed to a private hospital here where he succumbed to his injuries.

As news of his death reached Hansi, shopkeepers gathered on the Delhi Road and blocked traffic. Senior police officials managed to get the blockade cleared after assuring the protesters that the culprits would be arrested within 72 hours.