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Thursday,
April 17, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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FATEHABAD BYELECTION Oppn working on joint candidate Mixed response to Devi Rupak scheme Special offer for rail passengers to Shimla Stolen bank money recovered from cashier’s
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Woman commits
suicide Arrest in-laws of
victim: women
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FATEHABAD BYELECTION Fatehabad, April 16 During his visits to Dariyapur, Karnoli, Mallad, Dhani Thoba, Dhani Bija Lamba, Chan Chak and Ayalki villages the Chief Minister interacted with the villagers. He enquired about the crop, irrigation facilities in their villages, power situation and drinking water facilities. He then told that due to the death of their MLA, a byelection had been necessitated. He sought their votes on the basis of the performance of the government during the past three years. Earlier, the Chief Minister hinted that his party would field a candidate belonging to the Punjabi community in the May 21 poll to the Fatehabad Assembly seat. Talking to mediapersons here last evening, Mr Chautala said people of the Punjabi community had also supported the INLD and he was in favour of fielding a candidate from the Punjabi community. The byelection has been necessitated due to the death of INLD MLA Leela Krishan, also a Punjabi. Mr Chautala also sought to clear misgivings on the value-added-tax (VAT) issue and said VAT was not anti-trader as was being projected by his detractors. He said the taxation system adopted by the state would not increase the existing taxes in any way. It would only ensured the detection of theft of sales tax, he added. Mr Chautala hinted that he would soon proceed against certain persons, holding high positions during the previous governments under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Addressing rural meetings, Mr Chautala said his government had detected many financial irregularities in the functioning of his predecessors and action would soon be initiated against those found guilty. Mr Chautala also attended a dinner meeting organised by the local Aggarwal community at the local Aggarwal Dharamshala last night. Mr Ram Niwas, Mr Ved Parkash and Ms Meena Bansal, all leaders of the community, assured the Chief Minister of their community’s support in the bypoll. The Chief Minister also visited the local grain market and inspected the procurement operations there. He talked to the farmers and directed officials of the government procurement agencies to purchase all grain brought to the mandi by the farmers. He enquired about the arrangements made by the market committee. Meanwhile, the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) on Wednesday announced its candidate for the May 21 bypoll to this constituency, said a PTI report. Talking to reporters here, HVP general secretary Surinder Singh said the party had decided to field Prahlad Singh Gilla Khera for the Fatehabad constituency. He said the HVP would highlight the alleged “anti-people, anti-farmer” policies of the Om Prakash Chautala government. |
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Oppn working on joint candidate Chandigarh, April 16 According to sources, the CPM, which has a considerable influence in the Fatehabad area, has agreed in principle to support the Congress candidate. the CPM, however, wants to strike a bargain with the Congress. Though the CPM has not yet opened its cards, it may seek a promise from the Haryana Congress that it would leave the seat for the left party in the next assembly elections. One of the key persons, who is working for a joint opposition candidate, Mr Karan Singh Dalal, (RPI) is in touch with leaders of opposition parties, including the BJP. Sources say since it will be impossible for the BJP to support the Congress candidate against the INLD, a partner in the NDA, it will adopt a neutral stand, while giving a free hand to its workers and supporters to vote as per their conscience. Mr Dalal is scheduled to meet a number of opposition leaders tomorrow in Delhi. A hitch has come in the way of those who want a one-to-one contest in Fatehabad. The Haryana Vikas Party(HVP) of Mr Bansi Lal has already fielded Mr Prahlad Singh Gillankhera, whose grandfather was the first MLA from Fatehabad in 1952. Mr Gillankhera has twice contested the assembly elections from the neighbouring constituency of Darba Kalan In 1996 and 2000 on the HVP ticket unsuccessfully. While in 1996 he lost by a narrow margin, in 2000 his performance was not good. The HVP, sources say, wants to establish that it is firmly set on the comeback road and its performance in the Yamunanagar Assembly byelection, when it finished second, was not a flash in the pan. For the HVP there could not have been a better candidate than Mr Gillankhera. The HVP is unlikely to agree to support the Congress candidate. Meanwhile, six senior Haryana Congress leaders — Mr Bhajan Lal, President; Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly; Mr Harpal Singh, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala and Mr Birender Singh, all former party chiefs; and Ms Selja, Secretary of the All-India Congress Committee(AICC) — met at the AICC headquarters in Delhi today to select a candidate for Fatehabad. The sources say though Mr Bhajan Lal suggested that Mr Surjewala or Mr Birender Singh should contest the byelection, the other leaders said since Fatehabad was his native district, Mr Bhajan Lal should find a suitable candidate. The meeting was adjourned to April 21, when the AICC General Secretary in charge of Haryana, Mrs Mohsina Kidwai, is also expected to be present. Mr Bhajan Lal will too submit a list of likely candidates. The strategy of Haryana Congress leaders opposed to Mr Bhajan Lal is obvious. They do not want to take the responsibility of ensuring the victory of the party candidate in a byelection, which will be contested by the ruling party very aggressively. They also do not want to give any excuse to Mr Bhajan Lal by opposing his candidate. Sources say earlier Mr Ranjit Singh, younger brother of Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, was interested in contesting from Fatehabad as the Congress candidate. However, he is now believed to have changed his mind. It is generally believed that if Mr Bhajan Lal fields his younger son, Kuldeep, who had been an MLA from Adampur, the Fatehabad byelection will no longer be a one-sided game. |
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Mixed response to Devi Rupak scheme Chandigarh, April 16 Now, bad news. The other objective of the Devi Rupak scheme was to improve the state’s sex ratio which is alarmingly tilted in favour of man (820 females per 1000 males according to the 2001 Census). On this score, the scheme apparently has failed to make much of an impact despite the allurance of reaping the maximum benefit from the scheme in case either of the couple opts for permanent termination of pregnancy after giving birth to a girl child who also happens to be its only issue. In such cases, Rs 500 per month will be deposited in the joint savings bank account of the couple by the civil surgeon concerned. However, of the total 167 instances of operations under the scheme, the number of cases of sterilisation after having the only girl child is only seven. An overwhelming majority of the cases were of operations after having a single boy. As many as of the 167 cases are of this nature. The incentive for this category of people is Rs 200 per month. The lowest number of beneficiaries are under the category of sterilisation after the birth of two girls. They too will get Rs 200 and the number of such cases is only four. Not only does society love the male child more, there is apparently hardly any case of the father undergoing sterilisation under the scheme. Figures in this regard are not readily available. In the district-wise break down of beneficiaries under the scheme, the maximum number of cases were recorded at Kaithal where 413 couples got registered out of which 21 had been operated upon. The worst performance under the scheme was in Fatehabad district where only 12 cases were registered though none has got operated upon till date. Sirsa, the native district of Devi Lal and the present Chief Minister of Haryana, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, is also a poor performer with only one operation done so far against 10 registrations. |
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Special offer for rail passengers to Shimla Ambala, April 16 Talking to mediapersons Mr Chander said he had been taking up the matter with the higher authorities to give heritage status to the Kalka-Shimla rail section as it deserves international recognition from the tourism point of view. He said two summer special trains had been started from Kalka to Shimla to meet the rush of tourists in this season, and more trains could be launched on the route if required. Replying to a question, he said the Railways had planned to enhance its revenue through non-conventional resources. The Ambala
division had planted trees on its vacant land and had earned a revenue of Rs 6 crore during this year. Recently, the Division had decided to lease 67 acres on the vacant Chandigarh rail section to private parties for plantation. Talking about the expansion of the Ambala cantonment railway station, he said the newly built ticket-booking centre of the second class would be started by next month, which would provide relief to passengers. Later at a function at the Ambala Cantonment railway station, Mr Chander awarded 232 individual awards and 36 collective awards to the Railways staff. Mr Chander said that during the year 2002-03, the Ambala Division recorded the highest-ever earning of Rs 1133,88 crore as against Rs 647.61 crore achieved last year. The division recorded the best efficiency index of 29.72 since its formation in 1987.
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Stolen bank money recovered from cashier’s
home Karnal, April 16 The mystery, which made the bank staff jittery, has been solved within 24 hours and the police has also recovered the amount from the residence of the head cashier. According to police sources, a case was registered against head cashier Dalbir Singh on April 12 for allegedly misappropriating bank money. During investigation Dalbir Singh “admitted” that he had stealthily taken away 27 bundles of currency notes of Rs 500 denomination each from the strongroom of the bank. Prior to that he had managed to procure the joint custodian key from the drawer of the bank manager. After allegedly taking the money from the strongroom, he quietly kept the key back in the drawer. After that he proceeded on four day’s leave. The loss came to notice when another employee, Mr Satish Kumar, counted the cash in the presence of a committee of employees. The entire amount was recovered from the home of the head cashier when a police party raided it. |
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Woman commits suicide Karnal, April 16 Dhani Ram alleged that his daughter, who was married to Birbal a year ago, was forced to commit suicide by her in-laws as they tortured her to bring more dowry.
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Arrest in-laws of
victim: women Kurukshetra, April 16 Earlier, the deputationists had demonstrated here yesterday, alleging that the police was trying to protect the culprits by avoiding their arrest. |
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