H A R Y A N A

Chautala’s bid to woo Punjabis
Hisar, April 7
Buoyed by his party’s nominee Mr M.C. Gambhir’s victory in the recent byelection to the Punjabi dominated Yamunanagar assembly segment and the election of Ms Sumitra Mahajan to the Rajya Sabha, the Chief Minister, Mr Om Parkash Chautala, took another step towards projecting himself as a friend of the Punjabi community in the state by making a speech in chaste Punjabi at a function organised here last evening to felicitate Mr Gambhir and Ms Mahajan.

Haryana Sikhs to meet PM
Yamunanagar, April 7
The Sikhs of Haryana have decided to have their own gurdwara parbandhak committee in the state due to the indifferent attitude of the SGPC. Mr Harbans Singh Dachar, chief patron, Haryana parbandhak committee, while speaking at Sri Guru Singh Sabha at Jagadhri workshop yesterday said all Sikh committees and associations will give a memorandum to the Prime Minister and Chief Minister of Haryana.

Police torture: guilty remain unpunished
Fatehabad, April 7
Despite directions from the National Human Rights Commission, a physician of the district, who was subjected to inhuman treatment by the local police due to political considerations, has failed to get justice.

Official discharged from exam duty
Ambala, April 7
The Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, Mr Radhe Shayam Chaudhry, visited an examination centre at MDSD Girls College, Ambala City, yesterday. The VC had received a complaint that the examination started 20 to 30 minutes late at the centre in routine, due to which students had been facing difficulty.

Meters installed at 35,000 tubewells
Panchkula, April 7
The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has installed three-phase electro-mechanical meters at 35,000 flat rate tubewells in the areas falling under its jurisdiction. The tubewell consumers, however, will get their electricity bills as per the existing flat rate tariff.

Torn electricity bills found Kalka, April 7 A large number of electricity bills meant for subscribers of this area were found torn and scattered under a culvert in a deserted area here today. Most of these bills were directed to Upper Mohalla, Dhobi Mohalla, Kali Mata Mandir area, Kasuali Chowk, Shimla Road and Gurdwara Singh Sabha area. Torn electricity bills, which were found under a culvert at a deserted area in Kalka on Sunday.

Health Dept budget hiked
Chandigarh, April 7
The Haryana Government has increased the budget of its Health Department to Rs 407 crore to provide better facilities to people.

Chautala’s bid to woo Punjabis
Our Correspondent

Hisar, April 7
Buoyed by his party’s nominee Mr M.C. Gambhir’s victory in the recent byelection to the Punjabi dominated Yamunanagar assembly segment and the election of Ms Sumitra Mahajan to the Rajya Sabha, the Chief Minister, Mr Om Parkash Chautala, took another step towards projecting himself as a friend of the Punjabi community in the state by making a speech in chaste Punjabi at a function organised here last evening to felicitate Mr Gambhir and Ms Mahajan.

Mr Chautala did not make any attempt to hide his keenness to secure the support of the community and claimed that he had been projected as “anti-Punjabi” and a “casteist” by his political opponents whereas facts spoke otherwise. He claimed that his party had also been dubbed as Jat-dominated by the same elements although it had always given due representation to all sections of society right from the days of Devi Lal.

He said the victory in the Yamunanagar bypoll was a proof of his party’s popularity among Punjabis; otherwise the INLD could never have won the seat dominated overwhelmingly by the Punjabis. He said his party chose Ms Mahajan for the Rajya Sabha to give the community its due and to thank it for supporting him and his party.

Mr Chautala claimed that his family had always been associated with the community ever since the partition when his late father Devi Lal played an important role in the resettlement of Punjabis. He said ever since Punjabis occupied a special place in his father’s heart. He was only following the footsteps of his father in ensuring that the Punjabis always got their due.

Describing the community as “gritty and sincere” he said Punjabis had played a very important role in development of Haryana in general and trade and business in particular. He hoped that the community would keep supporting him to help him accelerate the pace of development of the state.

The Transport Minister, Mr Ashok Arora, in his speech thanked Mr Chautala for safeguarding the interests of the community and testified that other political leaders and parties had only “used” the community for their ends. Ms Mahajan and Mr Gambhir also expressed similar sentiments.

Haryana Sikhs to meet PM
Our Correspondent

Yamunanagar, April 7
The Sikhs of Haryana have decided to have their own gurdwara parbandhak committee in the state due to the indifferent attitude of the SGPC. Mr Harbans Singh Dachar, chief patron, Haryana parbandhak committee, while speaking at Sri Guru Singh Sabha at Jagadhri workshop yesterday said all Sikh committees and associations will give a memorandum to the Prime Minister and Chief Minister of Haryana.

He alleged that the SGPC had paid no attention to the Sikhs community of Haryana therefore no development work had been undertaken for the upkeep of gurdwaras, Sikh educational institutions of Haryana. He said various Sikh committees contribute 34 crore to the SGPC but very little money was being spent for gurdwaras and connected work by the SGPC in Haryana. Mr Partap Singh, convener, Haryana Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee also endorsed the views of Mr Harbans Singh.

Mr Joga Singh who presided over the meeting stated that he along with his supporters would visit different town and cities of the state to mobilise the Sikhs. He said all Sikh committees of Haryana will meet at Kurukshetra on May 15. He appealed to the state government to start the work of enlisting voters of Haryana through patwaris so that every Sikh was registered as a voter. Mr Joginder Singh Chawla, convener of the meeting said in Haryana there were more than 35 constituency which were dominated by the Sikh community. He asked Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, to give due representation to the Sikhs.

Mr Chawla said the Sikhs had always remained in the forefront in all development activities in the country.

The members from Ambala, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Shahbad and Yamunanagar district participated in the meeting.

Police torture: guilty remain unpunished
Our Correspondent

Fatehabad, April 7
Despite directions from the National Human Rights Commission, a physician of the district, who was subjected to inhuman treatment by the local police due to political considerations, has failed to get justice. The physician, Dr S.S. Bhargava, has now written to the Director-General of Police, Haryana, reminding him that the guilty police officials still remains unpunished even after more than one year of the NHRC directions.

The NHRC had found the police officials on duty at Tohana police station in the district in 1997 guilty of committing atrocities on the physician at the instance of the then minister, Mr Vinod Mariya. The doctor had alleged in his petition to the NHRC that due to personal enmity with the then minister, criminal cases were registered against him.

Official discharged from exam duty
Our Correspondent

Ambala, April 7
The Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, Mr Radhe Shayam Chaudhry, visited an examination centre at MDSD Girls College, Ambala City, yesterday. The VC had received a complaint that the examination started 20 to 30 minutes late at the centre in routine, due to which students had been facing difficulty.

Later talking to mediapersons, Mr Chaudhry said the superintendent of the centre had been relieved from the duty and the deputy superintendent directed to resume the charge till further directions. He said he had got a complaint that the superintendent was not staying at Ambala, and so the examination started late.

The Vice-Chancellor said earlier he had sent the Controller of Examination to probe into the complaint. He said the Controller had reported to him that the superintendent had misbehaved with him. Mr Chaudhry said action would be taken against the superintendent in this regard.

He said university had been providing maximum facilities to superintendents posted at various examination centres. He said the superintendents had been directed not to leave the station of the examination centres without prior permission of the appropriate authority.

Meters installed at 35,000 tubewells
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, April 7
The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has installed three-phase electro-mechanical meters at 35,000 flat rate tubewells in the areas falling under its jurisdiction. The tubewell consumers, however, will get their electricity bills as per the existing flat rate tariff.

An official spokesman of the nigam said here that the meter reading of these three-phase meters is being carried out by the field staff for energy audit purpose only and its use will be limited to the calculation of correct distribution losses on the 11 KV feeders.

The proper accounting of power energy is in the interest of tubewell consumers as it would help the nigam to identify the actual consumption levels, which in turn would not only bring about reduction in line losses but also improve the supply of quality power to farming sectors.

The nigam issued directions to all its sub-divisional officers to ensure that all unmetered tubewells were billed on flat rate tariff only, the spokesman added.

Torn electricity bills found
Harjit Singh Jaggi

Kalka, April 7
A large number of electricity bills meant for subscribers of this area were found torn and scattered under a culvert in a deserted area here today.

Most of these bills were directed to Upper Mohalla, Dhobi Mohalla, Kali Mata Mandir area, Kasuali Chowk, Shimla Road and Gurdwara Singh Sabha area.

The date of issue of the electricity bills is shown as March 26, 2002, and last date for payment of bills is April 12, 2002. While residents of these areas will be waiting for the same, the official, whose duty was to distribute these bills, seems to have relieved himself of his duty by throwing these bills under a deserted culvert.

Since the affected subscribers will not be able to deposit their bills in time they will have to bear the late fee, for no fault of theirs.

Residents of the town have demanded a strict action against the official concerned for negligence of duty.

Health Dept budget hiked
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 7
The Haryana Government has increased the budget of its Health Department to Rs 407 crore to provide better facilities to people.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Health, Mr M.L. Ranga, here today on the occasion of World Health Day. Mr Ranga, said that a health mela would be organised at Yamunanagar on Baisakhi which would presided over by Dr C.P. Thakur, Union Health Minister.