The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Thursday, January 25, 2001,
Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

Budget on Feb 28 likely
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan 24 — The Budget session of Parliament would begin from February 19 and end on May 11, the Union Cabinet decided today. The session would start with the customary joint address to both Houses by the President.

Both Houses would adjourn for a short recess from March 23 and reassemble on April 16. The 82-day session would have 41 sittings, 23 in the first part and 18 in the second.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pramod Mahajan said he had also approached leaders of various political parties to hold the Budget on February 28.

It has been suggested that on the Budget day, question hour should be skipped and the Finance Minister should proceed with the proposals straightaway. While for several years the Budget proposals were announced in the evening, as per the British practice, the present government presented it at 2 p.m. last year.

Mr Mahajan said the Cabinet was required to clear the Budget proposals before it was presented in Parliament.

Game of names begins in Majitha
Amarinder Singh wary of EVMs
From Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

MAJITHA, Jan 24 — The sudden announcement of byelection to the Majitha Assembly seat has come as a rude shock to the Majitha family.

“Aje tan a sardar da siva vi thanda nahin hoyia” (the ashes of Sardar Parkash Singh Majitha who died on January 19 are still to turn cold). The bhog ceremony is to be held on January 28. The mourning seems to have subsided. This is perhaps the first byelection of the country which has been given the shortest time for electioneering. This is what residents of this sleepy town have been discussing since the announcement of the byelection.

Politicians of various hues have started making a beeline to Majitha — once a hotbed of militancy. All roads seem to be leading to one of the most “neglected” towns of the border belt.

The implementation of the code of conduct notwithstanding, a bulldozer and men of a government department were seen levelling bridge road on the Amritsar-Majitha road. Certain government officials have also rushed to the town to “distribute backdated cheques” for carrying out development works in villages.

Mr Amarinder Singh, president, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, was the first leader to launch his party’s campaign from Gopalpura village which falls in the Majitha constituency. The second senior leader was Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, president, Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal, who visited the town today.

Mr Majitha was perhaps the first minister of Punjab who remained “without a portfolio” for about three years on health grounds. Since he was not keeping good health, Majitha town could not reap the benefits of the SAD-BJP government during the four years of governance. However, Mr Rajmohinder Singh Majitha, a Rajya Sabha member, tried to compensate the presidents of Majitha by distributing liberal funds from his “MP quota”.

Mr Amarinder Singh said he was going to meet the Chief Election Commissioner at New Delhi tomorrow with the request that the electronic voting machines should not be used in the Majitha byelection. He said “a chip of computer” could play havoc if electronic machines were used. “We cannot take chances now as we have already suffered in the past two byelections. He said if at all election voting machines were to be used these should be brought from New Delhi or other states. He said developed countries had already rejected the EVMs as these were not dependable.