Kurukshetra DC, SP replaced

CHANDIGARH, Jan 8: Embarrassed about the miserable failure of the local authorities to provide safe passage'' to Governor Mahabir Prasa...

CHANDIGARH, Jan 8: Embarrassed about the miserable failure of the local authorities to provide 8220;safe passage8221; to Governor Mahabir Prasad through Kurukshetra, the Haryana Government has replaced the Deputy Commissioner, Alok Nigam and Superintedent of Police, Yash Pal Singal. The Governor, who was to inaugurate the 23rd National Sports Meet for Women, was forced to abandon his programme by an irate mob in Shahbad.

The state government has ordered a high-level inquiry by Commissioner Ambala Division Bhagwati Prasad and Deputy Inspector General Resham Singh. The inquiry team, which has been asked to submit the inquiry report 8220;at the earliest8221;, would look into the actions of the Deputy Commissioner and Superintedent of Police. While Singhal has been posted as AIG Training in the office of Director General of Haryana Police against a vacant post, his place has been taken by Shri Kant Jadhav, who was ADC to Governor.

S.N. Roy, director lotteries, who is the new Deputy Commissioner of Kurukshetra, has take charge. However, Alok Nigam is yet to be given his new assignment. The government has also suspended the station house office SHO of Shahbad Police Station, Puran Chand for alleged 8220;laxity8221;.

The incident took place when the Governor reached Shahbad at around 9.50 am but his cavalcade was stopped by an irate mob, which had blocked the G.T. Raod to protest against a murder. The security guards tried to make way for the fleet but failed. The local authorities also failed to repond in time. The Governor was forced to abandon his programme and return to Chandigarh. The incident evoked a sharp reaction from the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee HPCC president Bhupinder Singh Hooda, MP, who expressed grave concern over the circumstances which forced Governor Mahabir Prasad to cancel his journey to Kurukshetra.

In a statement issued here today, Hooda said that when the administration had prior knowledge about the blockade of G.T. Road, it should have taken adequate steps to ensure smooth and uninterrupted journey of the Governor beyond Shahabad through other alternative routes. The grave incident had once again completely exposed the failure of law and order and inefficiency of the state administration in Haryana, he observed.

8220;When the constitutional head of the state had to face such a horrowing situation, what security and safety a common man could expect,8221; Hooda said. The Chief Minister Bansi Lal had forfeited his moral right to govern and must quit on moral grounds. The HPCC leader also appealed to the Governor to take immediate steps for the dismissal of the HVP-BJP alliance government of the state for its failure to maintain law and order in the state.