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Monday, January 14, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Extension of Mewat project period sought Oppn move to remove Haryana Speaker Surjewala demands Kadian’s arrest INLD list within a week: Chautala |
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Haryana amends land use policy Ex-ADC Kasni booked for breach of trust Five held in fake currency racket Contests mark birth
anniversary
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Extension of Mewat project period sought Gurgaon, January13 The international fund, an international funding agency, had approved the $ 15-million (Rs 70 crore) project, which was to be completed within five years. The five-year period comes to an end on December 31. According to the terms of the agreement, the international agency, was to provide $ 15 million to the state government as loan with a proviso that it would add about one-third of the amount to it from its own resources. In other words, in case the state did not use the loan money within the agreed period, it would have to forfeit the residual loan money, which was to be provided in parts. According to the Chairman of the MDA, Mr S. A. Khan, even after the completion of the period of the project, the MDA will have residual loan amounting to Rs 44 crore which was to be provided by the international agency. Along with it at stake for the MDA was nearly Rs 22 crore, the concomitant one-third money from the state government’s kitty. Although the money from the state government associated with the loan could be managed by the state as it pertained to its own book keeping, Haryana, especially Mewat, will be the loser if the international agency does not concede the request of the MDA for extending the period of the project. One of the arguments that MDA plans to put before it is that when the agreement was reached, the value and $ 1 was Rs 31. Now the rupee has been devalued as one dollar was equal to Rs 48. 45. Hence, the MDA and the state government should be provided the latitude by extending the period of the project ! The moot question is, why has the MDA failed to utilise the money or, why did the succeeding state governments not keep a tab on the development with regard to the progress of the project? The preponderant view suggests that all state government’s have been paying only lip service to the cause of Mewat, dominated by minorities. As a remedial measure and damage control exercise, the MDA has submitted a budget proposal worth more than Rs 30 crore for 2002-2003 under the project, to the state government. It has also approached the Planning Commission at the Centre justifying its proposal. Significantly, the Rs 30 crore also includes a part of the loan. In this financial year the MDA would have spent about Rs 24 crores under several heads. It has already spent a majority of the sum in the past eight months. The MDA has cited this as the basis to justify that it has the capacity to spend the amount involved in its budgetary proposal for the next financial year. |
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Oppn move to remove Haryana Speaker Chandigarh, January 13 A similar notice moved by the Opposition in the last session was rejected on technical grounds. The Speaker had taken a stand that the notice could not be admitted because the mandatory notice of 14 days had not been given. According to informed sources, not to be faced with a similar situation, the Opposition this time has decided to give the notice for the removal of the Speaker even before the House is convened by the Governor. The sources say the notice has been prepared by the Deputy Leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, and the concurrence of the HVP President, Mr Bansi Lal, has also been obtained. The notice will be submitted to the Secretary of the Assembly soon, the sources say. |
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Surjewala demands Kadian’s arrest Panipat, January 13 Talking to newsmen here, Mr Surjewala reiterated that Mr Kadian should resign and a CBI inquiry be held into the case. He demanded an immediate end to the state patronage to the criminals and the cancellation of false cases registered by the Chautala government against its political opponents. Coming down heavily on the Central Government and Punjab and Haryana governments for “lop-sided” agricultural policies” Mr Surjewala alleged that the government policy of gradual phasing out of subsidies would wreck havoc on the farming community. The government was giving a step-motherly treatment to agriculture on the directives of the World Bank and the MNCs, he added. Terming the 8 paise decrease in diesel price as a joke cracked on agriculture and transport sectors, he alleged that this had been done with an eye on the Assembly elections next month. Anyway, the price was bound to rise after March 31 as administered price mechanism would cease to exist by then, he said. Mr Surjewala warned the central and the state governments to review their “anti-farmer” policies failing which the Congress would “gherao” Parliament and state assemblies during the winter session. The president of the Haryana Khet Mazdoor Sangh, Mr Tejinder Pal Singh Mann, while criticising the Haryana Government for patronising criminals, alleged that the state’s crime graph had shown an upward trend. He alleged that the state government had implicated over 30 former ministers and MLAs in “false cases”. Later the two leaders addressed farmer rallies at Ootla and Adhiana villages. |
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INLD list within a week: Chautala Jind, January 13 Regarding an electoral alliance, Mr Chautala said so for the INLD had not joined hands with Any party. But the INLD could forge an alliance with like-minded party, he said. Regarding the payment of pending electricity bills of
farmers, Mr Chautala said the government had formulated a policy under which surcharge and interest on pending bills been waived and the provision for paying the bills on easy instalments had been made. He said the farmers could contact the district authorities and officers of the Haryana Vidyut Parsaran Nigam. Later, he presided over a district grievances redress committee’s meeting. He ordered the registration of a case against a contractor who had allegedly stolen bricks belonging to a government department. He also ordered the registration of a case against a salesman of a mini bank of Nidani village for producing a fake matriculation certificate for getting employment in the dark. On a demand by Sarpanches of Julana, Malvi, Kamach Khera and Desh Khera villages, the Chief Minister directed officers of the Irrigation Department to brick-line water courses of these villages. |
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Haryana amends land use policy Chandigarh, January 13 According to informed sources, the amended policy was approved by the state Cabinet recently. However, permission for allowing commercial activities in the residential areas will be subject to certain conditions. The sources say the conditions stipulate that the area of such projects should be a minimum of 1 acre and a maximum of 2 acres. Only 0.5 per cent of the sector area in terms of permissible FAR will be allowed for the proposed uses. The site should be located on V-2 or V-3 roads approachable through slow carriageway or other internal distributary road considered suitable by the government. Conversion charges, external development charges and any other fee will be on a par with the commercial rates. The sources say the Town and Country Planning Department has decided that to bring such proposed change of land use matters at par with commercial licences, the licence fee as applicable in commercial licence cases will be recovered in the form of additional conversion charges from developers. For ancillary commercial or office needs, 10 per cent of the FAR in the form of shops and 5 per cent for offices may be allowed as an integral part of the project. The site should be in a compact block and the applicant must be financially capable and should have experience in such projects. |
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Ex-ADC Kasni booked for breach of trust Kaithal, January 13 She has pointed in her complaint that initially the matter was brought to her notice by computer in charge in her office following which she wrote a letter to Mr Kasni to return the goods taken by him. The staff concerned also established contact with the official for returning the things. But the said official refused to own responsibility and knowledge for the missing items. The matter was brought to notice of the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Phateh Singh Dagar also. M.S. Dahiya has requested the police to investigate the matter and take appropriate action. The police registered a case under Section 409 of the IPC against the former Additional Deputy Commissioner Kasni. |
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Five held in fake currency racket Fatehabad, January 13 The district police chief, Mr Hanif Qureshi, told mediapersons that the police received a tip-off that Dhari and Mukhi, residents of Ratia, were possessing fake currency notes. When a police party led by Mr Charan Singh, ASI, rounded up these persons, they tried to bribe him and offered him Rs 7,000 to let them off. Upon interrogation, they revealed that Ladi, alias Surender Singh, a computer centre owner at Ratia, was running a fake currency racket. The police raided Ladi’s residence and seized a HP laser jet colour printer worth Rs 5 lakh, a scanner and a computer used to print fake currency notes. The police also seized fake currency notes of 50,100 and 500 denominations, amounting to Rs 15,700. Ladi managed to escape but the police succeeded in arresting his accomplices, identified as Gurcharan Singh, Ashok Kumar and Inderjit Singh. Mr Qureshi said Inderjit Singh was a former employee of Punjab & Sind Bank whose services had been terminated due to embezzlement charges against him. |
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Contests mark birth
anniversary Pinjore, January 13 Mr
T.D. Bhatt, school administrator, said that competitions were organised to provide platform to the budding artists and promote Indian traditional art. Ms Jyoti
Arora, who was the chief guest, asked the students to participate in extra co-curricular activities, besides studies. She also distributed prizes among the winners of different contests, informed
Flg. Officer Piyush Punj, manager of the school.
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