M A I N   N E W S

Revolt brewing in BJP
From K.G. Dutt
Tribune News Service

KARNAL, Feb 2 — Revolt is brewing in district units of the Haryana BJP . The districts which are experiencing the revolt are: Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Gurgaon. The bone of contention is the distribution of tickets.

It is surprising that the revolt in a cadre-based party has reached such proportions that its workers have even taken to streets. In order to contain the revolt the BJP is reported to have deputed certain senior leaders to do the damage control exercise.

It was in Shahbad that the district president of the BJP, Mr Bharat Bhushan Bharati, was gheraoed by the agitated BJP workers who had protested against the allotment of ticket to Vaid Kapoor Chand. The workers walked out of the meeting being addressed by the president. They were pacified only when Mr Bharati expressed regret for his conduct. The workers are reported to have raised slogans against Mr Ram Bilas Sharma. The leaders of the BJP, VHP and even the RSS, including Dr Gulshan Kumar, Mr Sant Lal, Mr Ashwini Jain, president of the BJP Yuva Morcha and RSS leader Ravinder Aggarwal had sent memorandum to the BJP high command. They had stated that if wishes were ignored, they would be forced to “vote against the party nominee”. Their main grouse is that Vaid Kapoor Chand did not care for the feelings of the workers during his tenure in the Assembly.

The situation in Ambala city is more alarming. Mr Nirmal Vij, Chairman of the Ambala city Municipal Council, has revolted against the party nominee. Mr Vij has filed his nomination papers as an Independent. The BJP has nominated Mrs Veena Chibber for the Ambala City seat ignoring the claim of Mr Faquir Chand Aggarwal. Some supporters of Mr Aggarwal, including sarpanches of about half a dozen villages, have already threatened to resign from the party. It is being alleged that although Mrs Chibber was heading the women wing of the party at the state level, yet she has done precious little to enlist more women activists in the party.

Even in Ambala Cantt, where the BJP has given the ticket to Mr K.D. Sharma, there are rumours of revolt among the alliance partners and a section of BJP workers. Mr Sharma had lost to Mr Anil Vij in the last election.

In Karnal city, there is resentment on the allocation of ticket to Mr Satish Kalra, an RSS activist. Mr Mohinder Singh Lather, a former MP and chairman of the Kisan cell of the party, had expressed resentment over the allotment of tickets and threatened to resign. Mr Rajbir Chauhan, member of the district unit of the working committee of the party and state president of the Sainik Sabha has resigned from the primary membership of the party in protest.

In Gurgaon the supporters of Mr Sita Ram Singla even went to the extent of burning the party office and took out a procession in the city against the non-allotment of ticket to him.

Jatinder Sharma adds from Rohtak: Revolt is brewing among local BJP workers against the denial of ticket to former Municipal Committee chief, Mr Sunder Lal Sethi.

Almost all the influential BJP activists of the town met the residence of Mr Sunder Lal Sethi yesterday night. They resolved to abstain from campaigning for the official BJP candidate, Mr Munish Grover. They described Mr Grover as a nominee of Mr Manohar Lal Khattar and not of the BJP.

These workers, as such, did not participate in the procession taken out by Mr Grover in the town today before filing his nomination papers from the Rohtak Assembly constituency. Besides Mr Sethi, prominent among those who participated in the meeting included Mr Ramesh Sehgal, former municipal committee chief, Mr Sita Ram Uppal, Mr Dharamvir Tuli, Mr Om Parkash Juneja, Mr Hans Raj Bhatia, Mr Raj Kumar Hooda, Mr Gulshan Dhingra, Mr Ram Sarup Grover, Mr Bhushan Sharma, Mr Charanjit Ahlawadi, Mr Madan Lal Dhawan, Mr Jai Singh Saini, Mr Ashok Kumar Vij and many others.

Mrs Sarita Narayanan of the BJP has also filed her nomination papers from the Kalanaur (SC) constituency. She is, incidentally the first woman scheduled caste BJP nominee for the Vidhan Sabha elections in Haryana. She came, in a procession from Kalanaur and joined Mr Grover’s procession.

The Pradesh Congress chief, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Leader of the CLP in the dissolved Assembly, Mrs Kartar Devi and DCC (Rural) President, Mr Virender Singh, have also filed their nomination papers from Kiloi, Kalanuar and Hassangarh Assembly constituencies respectively. They also took out a joint procession before filing nomination papers.

Today could be described as a day of processions in the city. The candidate of every political party, who filed nomination papers took out a procession in the city.

These processions jammed traffic at various places. Mr Naresh Malik, an independent candidate from the Hassangarh Assembly segment, did not want to be left behind as he too, took out one of the most impressive procession. Farmers in large numbers had turned out in their tractor.

Among others who filed their nomination papers today included, Mr Sumesh Kumar - Ind (Kalanaur), Mr Satya Kumar - BSP (Rohtak), Mr Inder Singh - Cong (Rohtak), Mr Ramesh Dehraj - Rashtriya Chetna Manch (Rohtak), Mrs Nirmla Devi, Mr Suraj Mal, Mr Ved Parkash and Mrs Sarla Malik - all Independents (Kiloi).

Former Union Minister and BJP nominee, Mr Chand Ram also filed his nomination papers from the Jhajjar (SC) constituency. Mr Suraj Bhan of the INLD and Mr Devender Jakhar of the HVP have filed nomination papers from the Salhawas Assembly constituency. Mr Santosh Gochhi filed papers as independent and Mr Kultaj Singh as the HVP nominee from the Beri Assembly constituency today.

Mr Satya Pal Deswal of the HVP and Prof Hari Singh, an Independent filed nomination papers today from the Badli constituency.

Former minister and prominent HVP leader, Mr Siri Kishen Dass is unlikely to contest the ensuing Assembly elections due to ill health. His political secretary, Mr Vijender Jain, is likely to contest from the Rohtak constituency on the HPV ticket. He will file nomination papers tomorrow.

HIV cases highest in Amritsar
From Rashmi Talwar

AMRITSAR, Feb 2 — The registered count of HIV cases in Amritsar is the highest compared to the official figures for the whole of Punjab, according to Dr S.P.S. Dhillon, District Health Officer. There are a total of 802 reported cases of HIV with the health authorities.

However, there is discrepancy in the official figure as the local medical college zonal and the government blood bank have reportedly not been sending the number of detected HIV cases to the Health Department. These two centres since the past four months have been asked to report the HIV cases directly to the Director, Health Services.

At present, the Health Department is getting reports from six outlets while earlier it was getting them from eight sources.

The HIV figures for 1998-99 were 152 and that from May 1999 to January 2000 79 new ones.

Among the latest figures, 21 are women and three are children below the age group of five years. Even boys as young as 14 and 17 years old are among some of the HIV cases. Most of these cases are from the Majha belt, Beas, Baba Bakala, Tarn Taran, Rayya etc.

The maximum number of HIV cases is in the age group of 20 to 30. Earlier reports suggested a wide segment of an HIV group from 25 to 40 years.

It has also been observed that a majority of the cases are either from affluent families or from the low income strata of society.

The reasons cited for this is the high promiscuity rate due to the permissive lifestyle of society among the rich, an overdose of foreign culture promoting such a life-style etc.

Drug users account for 20 per cent of the cases, blood transfusion for 30 per cent and unsafe sex for 50 percent, says Dr Ravi Kumar, block extension educator for AIDS. Since the symptoms take about eight weeks to appear, the infected person remains unaware and may unknowingly pass on the infection to others.

Ear and nose piercing from quacks, especially in the rural areas, is a matter of concern for the health authorities.

Asked as to why the HIV count in Amritsar was the highest in Punjab, Dr Ravi said the reasons were several. High infection rate among truck drivers, migrant labourers and use of unsterilised needles in rural health care camps were some of them.

Also the fact that medical facilities at Amritsar allowed people of adjoining areas to report as Amritsar residents.

Dismissing the official figure, he stated that the number of undetected cases was believed to be 20 times more.

Dr Dhillon said medicine for the malaise was available at Amritsar. A daily does could cost a patient about Rs 650.