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| Friday, March 31, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Plan
for casino in Haryana |
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| Three held for youth’s murder SONEPAT, March 30 — With the arrest of three persons, the Ganaur police today claimed to have solved the murder case of an 18-year-old youth, Pawan, an employee of a video parlour, Ganaur, whose body was found in a gunny bag near the railway track along the Ganaur-Garhi Jhinjhara road last week. Consultative panel meeting AMBALA March 30 — The district consultative committee meeting of Ambala was held here today. Mr V.K. Bakshi, Lead District Manager, said the bankers in the district have disbursed Rs 190.40 crore against the target of Rs 187.63 crore in priority sector advances. 
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Plan for
casino in Haryana CHANDIGARH, March 30 — If the Haryana Finance Minister, Mr Sampat Singh, has his way, the country’s first casino will soon come up at Haryana. A draft proposal, prepared by Mr Sampat Singh with help from experts, envisages a mega entertainment resort at Gurgaon where the “central attraction would be a Monte Carlo type casino”. The tentative name for the proposed casino has been decided to be Casino Haryana. It will be a grand casino with a poker room. It will also have games like roulette, slot machines etc. In addition the casino building will have a mini theatre, a restaurant and a bar and meeting rooms for private functions. The building housing the casino will face an artificial lagoon. A piano bar will be located just outside the principal gaming room. The proposed resort will also have five-star hotels, bars and nightclubs, residential villas, golf course, snow park, condominium and time-sharing villas, swimming pools and tennis courts and also facilities for water sport, health clubs, a convention centre, etc. However, the most important selling point of the proposed resort, tentatively named, the Fun and Fair City, will be the casino. The draft proposal says “our proposals is to make Haryana a gaming destination. This should not be done in a small way — the casino should be something the city could be proud of”. The casino will create demand for the hotels and villas in the resort as “persons coming to Haryana specifically for gambling will like to have a base closer to the action”, the draft proposal explains. According to the draft, while domestic tourism are expected to drop in to the casino, its most important clientele will be the tourists from non-gaming areas such as the Middle East and the Far East. Casino gaming in Haryana will also have the effect of keeping the Indian gamblers from travelling to Kathmandu or Las Vegas, says the draft. The proposal takes into account the rise in disposable incomes of a very large number of people in the world, the changing lifestyle patterns, the reduced working hours of individuals and says that investment in leisure tourism will be an ideal business proposition. The draft also points out that the Asia Pacific region has become one of the major future generation areas for the hotel industry where approximately 40 per cent of the worldwide tourist movement is expected to take place in future. The Fun and Fair City will be in tune with global trend of theme resort which will give a new boost to the tourism industry in India, the draft says. The Finance Minister has already talked to the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, about this project. Now with the blueprint proposal is ready, Mr Sampat Singh will submit it to the Chief Minister for formal approval. The resort has the potential to generate an enormous amount of revenue and Mr Chautala is expected to take this fact into consideration while deciding upon the issue. Mr Sampat Singh wants it to be a joint venture between the state government and private sector. However, if reputed private parties with established track record come forward for this project, the government will not mind it being a wholly private sector enterprise. About 1500 acres at
Gurgaon has been identified for creating this resort. The
Gurgaon land is located near-Delhi airport making the
proposed resort accessible to foreign and domestic
tourists. However, the Fun and Fair City may come up with
its own airport also, in case it gets the desirable
response from revellers. Since the conventional resources
of the State has reached a saturation point, it is needs
to top new avenues to generate funds and the resort will
be step in this direction, the Finance Minister feels. |
Agroha
Dham reopens AGROHA (Hisar), March 30 — The management of Agroha Vikas Trust here reopened the gates of historic Agroha Dham today after assurances from Bhiwani MP Ajay Singh Chautala that the cases registered against protesting bus passengers would be withdrawn. Agroha Dham was closed in protest against the alleged high-handedness of the local RTO for imposing a heavy fine on two pilgrim buses on flimsy grounds on March 26. According to the Chairman of the Trust, Mr Nand Kishore Goenka, they were given an assurance by Mr Chautala that the RTO would be transferred and the FIR registered against 14 persons would be withdrawn. The Deputy Commissioner, Hisar, Mr Apporva Kumar Singh, accompanied by INLD leader Ram Bhagat Gupta and president of the Haryana Beopar Mandal, Bajrang Dass Garg opened the locks of the main gates. Mr Goenka claimed five pilgrim buses, which were on their way to Delhi to attend the All-India Aggarwal Sammelan, from Rajasthan were stopped by the RTO. Mr Goenka, quoting passengers, alleged the RTO demanded a bribe from the passengers. This, according to Mr Goenka, led to an altercation. Subsequently the RTO got registered an FIR against 14 passengers. All of whom were released on bail on the same day. However, the RTO denied the charges. He said he was merely checking traffic and since two of the five buses were found to have incomplete documents, he imposed a fine. At this the passengers tried to manhandle him and his staff. Only then did he approach the police. However, Mr Goenka claimed that while the passengers were arguing with the RTO some maxi-cab drivers stopped and manhandled him and his staff. Agroha Dham in believed
to have been built by Maharaja Aggrasen about 2000 years
ago. Adjacent to the dham are the ruins of an ancient
city believed to be about 2000 years old. The site is an
ASI protected monument. |
Govt gives
6 cr grant to GJU HISAR, March 30 — The Haryana Government has sanctioned a grant of Rs 6 crore for 2000-2001 for Guru Jambeshwar University while its Executive Council (EC) has approved a budget of Rs 13.5 crore. The Rs 6 crore grant is about three times more than the previous year. The Bansi Lal government had sanctioned Rs 2.1 crore for the university in 1999-2000. According to the Vice-Chancellor, Dr K.C. Banger, the budget was approved at the EC meeting held at Chandigarh recently. He said that the university would henceforth be attached with the Department of Technical Education instead of the Department of Higher Education. This would pave way for extra grants to the university. The Vice-Chancellor said efforts were on to ensure financial stability of the university. The Haryana Government had authorised the university to conduct entrance tests for various professional and technical courses of the GJU. This, he informed, would help in generating additional resources for the university. Dr Banger said various decisions relating to the welfare of employees were also taken up at the meeting, which approved the pension scheme for the varsity employees. Besides, the house allotment rules had also been modified in favour of the employees, he said. In a major decision, the council also approved the leave travel facility for the university employees for which special provision would be made in the budget, the VC said.
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Price hike
of PDS items condemned CHANDIGARH, March 30 — Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, President, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC), has condemned the hike in the prices of items distributed under the public distribution system (PDS). In a statement issued here today Mr Hooda said that the rise in the prices of wheat and rice distributed under the PDS, and also hike in the price of levy sugar by Re 1 per kg and increase in the price of kerosene were a severe blow to the poor people. The Congress chief warned that his party would launch a stir in Haryana against the anti-poor policies of the BJP-led Central Government. A meeting was being convened at the HPCC office here on Monday which would be attended by the office-bearers of State Congress and the legislators to draw up a programme of agitation against the price increase, Mr Hooda’s statement said. The statement also
flayed the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, for
supporting the “anti-people actions” of the
Central Government. |
Job-oriented
courses in 17 colleges: CM JIND, March 30 — Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala today called upon students to pay due respect to their teachers. He also asked the teachers to perform their duties with utmost dedication as the future of the country was in their hands. Mr Chautala was addressing the 38th annual convocation and prize distribution function of the Government Post Graduate College here. The Chief Minister announced that to make the education job-oriented a high-level committee under the chairmanship of Education Minister, with Vice-Chancellors and renowned educationists as its members, was being constituted to frame the new education policy. He also emphasised the introduction of information technology in the education institute as it was the need of the hour. He disclosed that the State Government would spent Rs 1,353 crore on the promotion of education during the next financial year. Out of which Rs 231 crore had been earmarked for higher education. He also announced that two government colleges would be opened in Israna and Ratia. He revealed that 30 new courses were being introduced in 17 colleges to make education job-oriented. He disclosed that no objection certificates had been issued under self-financing technical and engineering institute scheme to Hindu Shikshan Samiti, Sonepat, B.M. Institute of Engineering, Sonepat, I.T.M., Faridabad, B.R.C.M., Bhiwani, P.D. Memorial College of Engineering, Sarai Orangabad, Haryana College of Management, Kaithal, Daronacharya College of Engineering, Farukh Nagar and Tilak Raj Chadda Institute of Management and Technology, Yamuna Nagar. He said others who would come forward to set up such institutions under this scheme would also be given clearance. Mr Chautala remarked that it is very sad that politics had penetrated in the sports also. Steps should be taken to select the talented sports persons so that they can earn laurels at the national and international meets. On this occasion degrees were conferred on 83 post graduates in various disciplines such as 15 in English, 16 economics, 20 commerce and 32 Hindi and 377 graduates which included 253 arts, 59 commerce and 65 science. He also distributed prizes to the meritorious students and sports persons for winning laurels to the college during 1998-99 session. He also awarded Roll of Honours for 1999-2000 to Senior Under Officer Sandeep Sangwan and Under Officer Amit Kharab. They had represented Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh Directorate in the Republic Day parade. Earlier, the NCC cadets of the college presented Guard of Honour. Those who were present
included Mr Surender Singh Barwala, MP, Mr Ram Phal
Kundu, Mr Ram Kumar Katwal and Mr Bhag Singh Chattar, all
MLAs and Mr Desh Raj Namberdar, Chairman, Khadi Board. |
One Bar,
two associations AMBALA March 30 — A controversy is brewing over the newly elected office-bearers of the Bar Association of Ambala Cantonment, with two associations claiming to be the actual Bar. The two Bar Associations of Ambala Cantonment are the Bar Association Ambala Cantonment (estd 1936) and the Bar Association Ambala Cantonment. According to the former, in view of the election notice dated March 25, Mr M.L. Gupta and Mr Kamal Jassi applied for the President's post, Mr S.K. Ghai and Mr Paritosh Kapil for the Vice-President's post, Mr Jatinder Kumar Sharma and Mr Pawan Goel for the General Secretary's post, Mr Punnit Sirpal and Mr Arvind Kumar Sonkar for the Joint Secretary's post and Mr Arun Shankar for the Treasurer's post, a press note said. On March 29, the date of scrutiny, the outgoing President of the Bar Association Ambala Cantonment (estd 1936), Mr Samrat Singh Rao discussed all aspects of the applications with other office-bearers. The applications of Mr Kamal Jassi, Mr Paritosh Kapil, Mr Pawan Goel and Mr Arvind Kumar Sonkar were rejected. Mr M.L. Gupta, Mr S.K. Ghai, Mr Jatinder Sharma, Mr Punnit Sirpal and Mr Arun Sonkar were declared elected unopposed. According to press note
by Bar Association Ambala Cantonment, the annual general
meeting of the Bar Association was held on March 29 under
the chairmanship of Mr M.G. Bagga. The following were
elected office-bearers: President — Mr R.K. Dua;
Vice-President — Mr Inderjit Singh Gill; General
Secretary — Mr Virender Verma; Joint Secretary
— Mr Arvind Sonkar; and Cashier — Mr Manoj
Gupta, it claimed. |
Three held
for youth’s murder SONEPAT, March 30 — With the arrest of three persons, the Ganaur police today claimed to have solved the murder case of an 18-year-old youth, Pawan, an employee of a video parlour, Ganaur, whose body was found in a gunny bag near the railway track along the Ganaur-Garhi Jhinjhara road last week. The Senior Superintendent of Police told mediapersons here today that the arrested persons had been identified as Uttam Jheewar, Sanjay, alias Kala Banjara, both residents of Ganaur and Arvind, alias Misra, of Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh). The police had also recovered a VCR and some cassettes from their possession. The SSP said two youths came to the owner of Raju Video Parlour, and hired a VCR and some cassettes from him on March 6. The owner asked them to give a surety and one of them told his name as Mycal and asked the owner to send his employee with them for installing it in his house on the Garhi-Jhinjhara road. The owner sent Pawan along with them to install the VCR. When Pawan failed to return by next morning, an FIR was lodged with the police. The Ganaur police has also arrested three more persons who used to loot people in the area, and claims to have solved a number of robbery cases. The arrested persons have been identified as Sunil, alias Sheela, a blacksmith of Ganaur mandi, Amit Jogi of Sawka (Uttar Pradesh) and Raj Kumar, alias Hero, Balmiki of Gumar village in this district. The police seized a
country-made pistol, two live cartridges and two iron
rods from their possession. |
Consultative
panel meeting AMBALA March 30 — The district consultative committee meeting of Ambala was held here today. Mr V.K. Bakshi, Lead District Manager, said the bankers in the district have disbursed Rs 190.40 crore against the target of Rs 187.63 crore in priority sector advances. In agriculture, the banks have disbursed loans to the extent of Rs 120.02 crore. Mr B.P. Chopra, Senior Regional Manager, Punjab National Bank, Chandigarh region, while delivering the key note address said the banks in the district have total deposits of Rs 1363.22 crore and during March, 1999, to December, 1999, the increase in deposits is to the extent of Rs 245.18 crore. In advances, the growth of the district is around 23 per cent and in agriculture sector, the growth is 26 per cent, Mr D.K. Kapoor, AGM, NABARD, informed that there are 72 SHGs and 22 Farmer’s Club in the district. The Deputy Commissioner,
Ambala, Mr Ram Niwas, launched the district credit plan
for the next financial year 2000-2001. |
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