HAU student shot dead
Tribune News Service

HISAR, Oct 1 — A student of Veterinary Sciences College at Haryana Agricultural University was shot dead allegedly by one of his classmates past midnight today. The deceased was identified as Manav Marwah, a third year student of B.V.Sc.

According to a complaint lodged by the Chief Security Officer of the university, one of the classmates of Manav, Ashok Mann, entered his room in the college hostel at around 1 a.m. in the night. The complaint was lodged on the basis of the statement made by Manav Marwah to other students in presence of the Chief Security Officer of the university.

Manav and Ashok talked for about half an hour. Subsequently, Manav told Ashok that he was feeling drowsy and wanted to go to sleep. Manav was quoted as having said that when Ashok started to leave the room and he (Manav) returned to his bed. Ashok fired at him from behind with a pistol. He later on managed to escape.

Manav rushed outside his room and woke up other students in the hostel. He was bleeding profusely and reportedly lost a lot of blood by the time he was referred to the university hospital. The doctors in the hospital reportedly expressed their helplessness and referred him to the civil hospital. From the civil hospital he was referred to a private hospital, which also refused to admit him. From there he was reportedly referred to another nursing home from where the doctors referred him to PGI, Rohtak. Manav reportedly breathed his last on way to the PGI as he had lost a lot of blood.

As the news of the murder spread in the campus, the students came out of their hostel rooms. They alleged "non-cooperation" by some of the officers in the university. The students forced the closure of all departments and the administrative block. They also locked out the offices of the Vice-Chancellor and the Director, Students Welfare. The angry students damaged the vehicle of the Chief Security Officer also.

The police has registered a case. However, the accused is yet to be traced. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the two students, Manav and Ashok, belonged to two different groups. The two groups have a history of mutual rivalry. A few months ago, another student was seriously injured after he was stabbed.

The general impression on the campus is that the university authorities have not taken any firm action in the past when such incidents took place. A senior professor in the university pointed out nobody had been punished for the stabbing incident that took place about eight months back. He said had the university authorities acted firmly at that time today's tragedy may have been averted. Moreover, he disclosed that there was no proper monitoring of the hostels and even outsiders were staying there.

Meanwhile, the university was closed today to mourn the death of Manav Marwah, a spokesman of the university said.

He disclosed that the university administration had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Dr I.J. Singh, Director, Academy of Agricultural Research and Education management, to inquire about the incident. The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the Deans, Directors and various heads of departments held under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor, Mr Vinay Kumar.

While condoling the death of Manav Marwah, the Vice-Chancellor assured the agitating students that anyone found guilty of negligence in providing medical aid to Manav would be punished.

The Haryana Agricultural University Teachers Association (HAUTA) while condemning the incident has demanded adequate security arrangements on the campus. The association expressed grave concern at the "deteriorating law and order situation on the campus" and stressed upon the university administration to take firm and effective measures to prevent such incidents in the future.

Land grab a way of life
From A.S. Prashar
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, Oct 1 — Encroachment on government land, which has become a flourishing multi-crore-rupee business involving the lowly as also the high and mighty in this megacity, appears to have received a serious setback following a sustained and determined anti-encroachment drive launched by the Improvement Trust and the municipal corporation during the past few months.

Encroachment on government property is a way of life in Ludhiana. And everybody who is anybody in this megacity of 25 lakh seems to be involved in it in one way or the other. Jhuggis, temples, gurdwaras, pucca houses, shops, commercial establishments, ice cream parlours, fast food joints, restaurants, hotels, marriage palaces, multi-storeyed shopping centres and even palatial residential houses have been raised on government land with impunity.

No place here seems to be free from encroachments: roads, streets, mohallas, corridors, open spaces, public parks, industrial plots, land belonging to the Improvement Trust and the municipal corporation and even the good old Budha Nullah passing through the heart of Ludhiana has been encroached upon.

And those charged with the task of administering the city and saving it from encroachments have either been turning a Nelson’s eye to the problem or actively conniving with the violators. “Whosoever wields a little clout with the administration in Ludhiana or the powers-that-be at Chandigarh has been able to get away with even blue murder”, says an old timer who would not like to be identified for obvious reasons.

“Money makes the mare move in Ludhiana....You can get anything done if you know how to go about it”, he adds.Till recently, nothing seemed to move in the offices of the municipal corporation and the Improvement Trust.

Clerks and other officials whiled away their time advancing one excuse after another for doing nothing while harassed citizens crowded the corridors for relief. In many cases, even the city fathers proved to be ineffective.

So rampant has been the problem and so deep-seated has been the official connivance that in one case a tracer who became an XEN through dubious means commenced construction of shops in a public park along Pakhowal Road and ordered his staff “not to bother” the builders.

A recommendation from the corporation that he should not be promoted because of his bad service record has been ignored. The gentleman has been promoted as SE and posted at Jalandhar.

In another case, a landscape officer who “posted” several corporation malis to his own orchard in Himachal Pradesh and remained suspended for a long time in several other cases involving acts of omission and commission has been cleared by the Vigilance Department. Despite opposition from here, the government has lost no time in promoting him as an XEN. He has been posted to Amritsar.

In yet another another case involving a senior IAS officer posted in the Department of Local Bodies. The officer apparently had an “unofficial wife” in Ludhiana and bought her a house and a shop in the megacity.

After her death a few months ago, the officer has been pressing the staff here to dispose of the house and shop and “refund” the money estimated to be around Rs 11 lakh to him in Chandigarh. Since both the structures have been built upon encroached public land and are therefore illegal, he has threatened to have them demolished in case there is opposition from any quarter.

The move is, however, being stoutly resisted by the parents of the deceased woman who have moved the corporation against it. The matter is being inquired into.In an incident on Saturday, Lala Lajpat Rai, a local BJP MP, physically intervened to prevent the corporation staff from demolishing a multi-storeyed shopping complex at Bharat Nagar chowk.

The MP called the Minister for Local Bodies, Mr Balramji Dass Tandon, on his mobile phone from the site of the demolition and asked Mr Goutam Kumar, Town Planner, to speak to him. The minister reportedly told the town planner to go back home. The demolition work on the building was called off.

In yet another case, a gurdwara built illegally years ago in the Millerganj area on land belonging to the Industries Department, which is worth crores of rupees, by a local Akali leader has reportedly been “regularised” now.

The Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, has himself been visiting the gurdwara to hold political and religious conferences. Incidentally, dozens of shops have been constructed along the entire stretch in front of the gurdwara and the monthly rental income from these runs into lakhs of rupees.

Another Akali leader has built a hotel-cum-restaurant near the main bus stand by encroaching upon public land in the heart of the city. It is said to be awaiting “regularisation” from the authorities.

Despite a pronounced tendency on the part of the powers-that-be in Chandigarh to drag their feet when called upon to proceed against the violators, nearly 3,000 illegal structures have been demolished in the Budha Nullah area in recent months.

Another 300 structures have been removed from Industrial Area “A”. Yet another cluster of structures numbering nearly 900 in the Subzi Mandi area besides 1,500 structures in Saheed Bhagat Singh Nagar have been demolished.