The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Mention of HC Judge’s name triggers uproar
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 14
The mention of a retired high court Judge’s name during question hour triggered an uproar in the Haryana House today and resulted into the ouster of two opposition MLAs from the assembly.

Mr Karan Singh Dalal (RPI) and Mr Jagjit Singh Sangwan (NCP) protested when Independent MLA Anil Vij mentioned the name of the retired high court Judge and said he had illegally occupied a bungalow at Ambala cantonment. Mr Dalal was the first to get up at the mention of the Judge’s name and demand that the name must be expunged. He was soon joined by the NCP legislator and Mr Ajay Singh Yadav (Cong), who also demanded that the name must be expunged.

Mr Anil Vij, who had also named a blue-blooded Congress politician of Punjab for illegally occupying a bungalow at Ambala, said he did not think that he had done anything wrong by mentioning the Judge’s name as the report of an inquiry conducted by the state government also pointed fingers at these individuals. But the opposition MLAs would not listen to him and insisted that the name of the Judge must be expunged. Finally, Speaker Satbir Singh Kadian directed that all names mentioned by the Independent MLA should be expunged. Mr Dhirpal Singh, Revenue Minister, also made suggestions to this effect. Mr Anil Vij, however, once again mentioned the Judge’s name which led to another bout of vociferous protest by Mr Sangwan and the Dalal. The Speaker then first named Mr Dalal and then Mr Sangwan and asked them to leave the House.

It, however, appeared, that the real intention of Mr Vij for asking the question was to embarrass Mr Bhajan Lal, chief of the Haryana Congress. The Independent MLA dug out an incident in which land was allotted for a petrol pump during Mr Bhajan Lal’s tenure as the Chief Minister to Ms Pushpa Devi, wife of Mr Phool Chand Mullana, a minister in the Bhajan Lal-led Cabinet. The land was leased out at a price much lower than the prevailing rate in the market, Mr Vij said, adding that the lease was cancelled when Mr Bansi Lal became the Chief Minister. He then asked whether the state government would take any action against the officials who also had played a role in the scam.

Mr Subhash Goyal, Minister of State for Urban Development, instead of giving a specific answer, said Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala had already said that corrupt officials would be subjected to strict actions. The case was still in the court and he would, therefore, not like to say anything more on the issue, Mr Goyal said.

Earlier, Mr Bahadur Singh, Minister of State for Education, replied in the negative to Congress MLA Sher Singh’s question about any proposal to open government-run girls colleges in each district of the state. Mr Rajinder Singh Bisla, (Independent) said the government should open girls colleges in interior areas also to benefit students of the rural areas and asked whether the government had any such proposal.

Replying to a question by Bhagwan Sahai Rawat about an assurance for a college at Hathin given by the Chief Minister in the sarkar aapke dwar “programme, Mr Bahadur Singh said that if the Chief Minister had made such a promise, it would certainly be given shape.

Bid to rake up HSIDC loan issue in House
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 14
The Congress today again sought to raise the issue of grant of loan of Rs 7 crore by the HSIDC to a private sugar mill, for which the state government is a guarantor, in the Vidhan Sabha when it gave notice of adjournment motion on the issue.

However, the Speaker disallowed the motion on the ground that the subject matter did not justify the “great importance and gravity of the happening required for an adjournment motion”.

The other grounds for the Speaker’s decision were that the “question proposed to be raised has not arisen suddenly and has not created an emergency situation of such a character which may leave aside all other business pending consideration before the House” and the “matter has not been raised by the members at the earliest opportunity available to them”.

The explanatory memorandum attached with the notice, which was signed by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda; the Deputy Leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav; Mr Bhajan Lal and Mr Shadi Lal Batra (all Cong) and Mr Karan Singh Dalal (RPI), said that for reasons best known to it the Haryana Government, in an unprecedented manner, had given a guarantee for the repayment of the loan advanced to the Naraingarh Sugar Mill owned by private persons.

The memorandum said the mill had incurred a liability of crores of rupees towards cane growers and other creditors. “Since the mill could not liquidate the arrears of amount due to cane growers and other persons, it had gone sick.

“Such action of the state government had brought the entire Cabinet under a cloud. In such circumstances the act of the state government to stand guarantee for the repayment of the loan advanced by the HSIDC almost amounts to filling the coffers of private capitalists.”

Mr Hooda was also not allowed to speak on the Haryana Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2003, when he wanted to raise certain points about the Irrigation Department. The Bill was passed before the House was adjourned sine die.

Senior citizens’ cases to get priority
Our Correspondent

Kurukshetra, March 14
The high courts all over India had decided that the cases of senior citizens would be settled on a priority basis so that they could get prompt and speedy justice during their lifetime.

Stating this here today, the Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice, Mr Justice V.K. Roy, told reporters that a decision to this effect was taken recently during a meeting of Chief Justices of all high courts of the country.

Talking about filling vacancies which have added to the workload in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mr Justice Roy said there were 40 sanctioned posts of judges, including 38 permanent ones and two of Additional Justices. There were 31 Justices working at the Punjab and Haryana High Court while one of them had proceeded on leave before retirement. Three judges would be retiring within the next one and a half month leaving behind 27 judges. However, the vacancies would be filled in the ratio of 60:40 as Punjab and Haryana had been meeting the expenditure of Punjab and Haryana High Court in this ratio, he added.

In reply to a question, Mr Justice Roy said the designation of Inspecting Judge had been changed to Administrative Judge because he is not an inspector but functioned as an administrator, who supervises and checks the judicial work under the powers vested in him in the Indian Constitution.

Earlier, while addressing the members of the District Bar Association, Mr Justice Roy said the judges could not remain away from the lawyers of the Bars which were nurseries of judges.

Anti-foeticide drive has little impact
Bhupinder Dharmani

Sirsa, March 14
Haryana seems to have taken serious note of the declining sex ratio in the state, but implementation of government instructions appear to have been lost in red-tapism. This was evident from the admission of Haryana Minister of State for Health in the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday that the drive against female foeticide had remained limited to registration of two FIRs for violation of the PNDT Act two years back, confiscation of seven ultrasound machines, registration of 713 ultrasound machines and constitution of advisory committees. Nothing had moved beyond this.

A recent government circular sent to all Deputy Commissioners, Civil Surgeons, SDMs, municipal councils and heads of higher educational institutions highlights the need to record the exact causes of women’s death so that the causes of female mortality can be researched.

The circular also suggests that female literacy be given adequate thrust by the administration.

Similarly, two years back advisory committees were constituted in all districts to check female foeticide. These were headed by the Civil Surgeon and the Director-General of Health Services. The working of these committees more or less remains on paper.

Besides, sources say before the ban, pre-natal sex detection tests would cost about Rs 500. They now cost many times more.

The ineffectiveness of the PNDT Act as well as the district advisory committees constituted to prevent sex-determination tests is evident from the fact that no case has been registered under the PNDT Act so far, said Sirsa Civil Surgeon, Dr SK Batta.

The functioning of the committees had remained confined to holding a seminar on March 19 last year to educate people on the PNDT Act.

DCC opposes casinos
Our Correspondent

Karnal, March 14
The District Congress Committee led by its president Pawan Garg today took out a procession from Congress Bhavan to the Civil Secretariat to submit a memorandum to the Kurukshetra Administration for the President of India and the Governor of Haryana.

In the memorandum, the Congress expressed opposition to the opening of casinos. It expressed concern that the VAT policy was against the interests of Haryanvis and would affect the business prospects in the state.

The memorandum stated that law and order had collapsed in the state and people were being made to pay indirect taxes on sale and purchase of property.

Bail for 14 samiti volunteers
Our Correspondent

Fatehabad, March 14
The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Mr R.K. Sondhi, granted bail to 14 volunteers of the Jan Sangharsh Samiti today. The volunteers, including 5 women, facing charges under Sections 148, 149, 323 and 307 of the IPC, had been in judicial custody since February 5.

The case had been registered after a brawl with followers of a Sirsa-based religious sect. The volunteers had been carrying on a signature campaign, for a CBI probe into the murder of Sirsa journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, near the local bus stand on that day.

K. S. Bhoria
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 14
The Haryana Government has appointed Mr K.S. Bhoria as Commissioner and Secretary, Agriculture Department, relieving Mr H.C. Disodia of the said charge.

Bus stand ready

Kurukshetra, March 14
A four-bay bus stand has been constructed at Thanesar city at a cost of Rs 44.83 lakh.

While giving this information, Transport Minister Ashok Arora said 1,572 new buses had been added to the roadways fleet and some more buses would be added during the current financial year. OC