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Saturday,
June 28, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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3 more cases against Sharan Haryana shifts Excise
staff to Transport Dept Plot allotment:
HCS officer arrested Bansi Lal decries new Rly zones, move to sell HAU
land M.K. Miglani
HAU Vice-Chancellor In quest for justice Curbs on docs meeting medical representatives |
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Women take oath to check
dowry BKU men restrained from holding dharna Policy on ad hoc staff formulated Seminar held for insurance staff Farmers to get interest if connection
delayed Traders protest in
Uchana
Make Punjabi, Urdu second languages Phone bills can be deposited in
village post offices Man poisons himself, family 2,000 pirated CDs seized, one held Freedom fighter
cremated Woman killed
in attack
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3 more cases against Sharan Chandigarh, June 27 Mr Sharan, who is in police custody for two days, will be produced before the court tomorrow for further remand proceedings. The bureau will open its cards in the court only. The sources say it may seek further police remand of Mr Sharan in the present case which relates to the alleged loss of about Rs 97 crore to the Haryana Financial
Corporation (HFC) when he was its Managing Director. If the court declined further police remand in the present case, the bureau may ask for his police remand in other cases. The sources say though Mr Sharan’s name does not figure in any of the four FIRs registered by the bureau, he can be arrested on the basis of what the bureau may claim to be the disclosures made by certain other officers of the corporation or any of the beneficiaries arrested by it. In the present case also, an FIR about which was registered in April, 2002, Mr Sharan has been arrested on similar grounds. Haryana’s bureaucratic circles, which have been shocked by the arrest of Mr Sharan after the bureau had recommended a departmental action against him, feel that Mr Sharan may be a “medium” to reach a bigger target, who may be either a bureaucrat or a politician. If the bureaucracy’s apprehensions turn out to be true, the ultimate target may be a powerful politician of the state. A bureaucrat, who held an important post when Mr Bhajan Lal was the Chief Minister of the state from 1991 to 1996, may complete the chain between Mr Sharan and the powerful politician. When contacted, the Director-General of the Haryana Police, Mr M.S. Malik, who is also the Director of the bureau, told TNS that the investigations in the case would be taken to their logical conclusions. However, he asserted, that no one, whether a bureaucrat or a politician, would be falsely implicated in the case. He said he could not predict what course the investigation would take at this stage as the course would depend on evidence which would come on record during the interrogation of various suspects and accused persons. Meanwhile, sources in the bureau said it was wrong to say that the bureau had recommended only a departmental action against Mr Sharan. They said it had been clearly mentioned by the bureau that criminal action against Mr Sharan would depend on evidence unearthed during the investigation of the case. They said a number of arrested persons had implicated Mr Sharan in their statements. The Secretary-General of the Haryana Vikas Party, Mr Surender Singh, has criticised the arrest of two former ministers, Mr Narbir Singh and Mr Vinod Marya, and Mr Sharan. He said the Chautala government was pursuing its agenda of political vendetta. Meanwhile, Mr Marya was today remanded in judicial custody. |
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Haryana shifts Excise
staff to Transport Dept Chandigarh, June 27 Official sources here said in an order issued by the state government yesterday, 19 Assistant Excise and Taxation Officers
(AETOs) were appointed as Assistant District Transport Officers (ADTOs) and posted one each in each of the 19 districts of the state to assist the DTOs in the collection of the PGT from vehicles. “More people from the Excise and Taxation Department will be shifted to the Transport Department to strengthen the PGT collection network of the latter”, authoritative sources said. The Transport Department was empowered to collect the PGT following a decision by the state Cabinet on June 2. Before that when the move was being considered by the state government, officials of the Excise and Taxation Department, anticipating that it will entail the shifting of staff from the Excise and Taxation Department (ETD) to the Transport Department, opposed the move saying that deployment of staff from the ETD to the Transport merely for collection of the PGT would result in the under-utilisation of the staff. So far each district of Haryana was having a 12-member team from the ETD for carrying out PGT as well as sales entertainment and excise tax collections. The officials resisting the move reportedly argued that if the entire staff in the district is shifted to the Transport Department for PGT collection, it would hamper the works which would remain with the ETD. While the exactly how many members of the ETD staff are being shifted from the ETD to Transport for PGT collection is still not clear, it is certain that a substantial number of people are going to come to Transport from the ETD for the tax collection work. The sources here, however, claimed that those who were being shifted were previously doing the work of PGT collection only in the ETD. The sources also claimed that the shortfall of personnel would not affect the work of the ETD. They said the PGT collection per annum came to about Rs 450 crore and added that the Transport Department needed a strong network of experienced personnel to ensure that revenue on this score was properly collected. |
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Plot allotment:
HCS officer arrested Karnal, June 27 Mr Parshad, who was under suspension, was residing in Karnal where he had constructed a house in a HUDA sector. Mr Attar Singh
Ahlawat, district police chief of Sirsa, told this reporter on telephone that a case under Sections 468, 471, 420 and 13-1D, IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act had been registered against him at a Sirsa police station about five months ago. The case had been registered after a Vigilance inquiry, Mr Ahlawant said, adding that some of the inquiries pending against Mr Parshad had been sent to the Sirsa police by the Chief Secretary of Haryana. The inquiries had been clubbed. Mr Ahlawat said some cases against Mr Parshad related to the “wrong” allotment of HUDA plots while working as the Estate Officer there. The total number of plots involved in which irregularities were allegedly committed were about 200. As per the case registered in Sirsa, some bunglings had also allegedly been found in purchases for the office of the Sirsa Deputy Commissioner. When the police picked up the HCS officer, his wife reached the market place after being informed about the arrest. Asked to comment on the arrest, she said: “I am disturbed. I know nothing.” Mr Parshad had also worked as General Manager, Haryana Roadways, at the Karnal depot sometime ago. |
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Bansi Lal decries new Rly zones, move Hisar, June 27 Addressing mediapersons at Barwala, 30 km from here, he said that hundreds of passengers had lost lives in train accidents in the past two or three years. Earlier, travel in trains was safer. But these days people fear afraid to travelling in trains. He said the Centre should take this issue seriously. Criticising the decision of creating six new railway zones in the country, he said that it was just misuse of public funds. Instead of creating new zones, the government should change century-old railway tracks and ensure proper maintenance of railway coaches. There was need to improve basic infrastructure to save the lives of Railway passengers. Mr Bansi Lal, who is also a former Union Defence Minister, criticised the Centre’s recent decision to open Nathu La pass in Sikkim to resume border trade with China. He said Nathu La pass falls in the Chumbi valley, which spreads from Bhutan to Bangladesh border. This was not a wise decision from the defence point of view as China had three army divisions in that area. When border dispute with China was pending, we could not trust that country because of past experiences, he added. The former Chief Minister also opposed the Haryana Agriculture University’s proposal to sell its land to overcome budget deficit. He said that on the one hand Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala was claiming that his government had sufficient funds while on the other hand a prestigious educational institution of the country was forced to sell its land due to paucity of funds. On the recent BKU agitation, he said that union president Mr Ghasi Ram Nain and Chautala were one unit during the HVP and Congress regime in the state. It was Mr Chautala who instigated BKU activists to launch agitation to defame Mr Bhajan Lal and me among farming community. Later, addressing a public meeting at the Barwala Grain Market, he promised that that he would reduce power tariff if his party came to power in the state. He also promised some benefits to the trading community if the HVP was voted to power in the next election. Mr Surender Singh, former MP and General secretary of the party, addressed the meeting. |
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M.K. Miglani
HAU Vice-Chancellor Chandigarh, June 27 An official press note said here that the board of management of the university, which met at Hisar today, appointed Mr Miglani as Vice-Chancellor by a unanimous resolution. Mr Miglani will replace Mr Vinay Kumar who will be retiring from the VC’s post on June 30. Mr Miglani, a 1967 batch IAS officer, was a student of agriculture and did M.Sc in agriculture from IARI, New Delhi. He worked in different capacities during his administrative career, including holding the post of Secretary of the Agriculture Department. |
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In quest for justice FATEHABAD: A local youth, who had to suffer at the hands of certain officials of a local bank, has been fighting for justice for the past six years even though he has approached the Prime Minister, the Union Finance Minister, the Haryana Chief Minister, the Haryana State Legal Services Authority and several other authorities through letters justice has eluded him. Mr Manoj Kumar Panwar, a resident of the Rattia Chungi area of Fatehabad town, applied for a loan under the Prime Minister Rozgar Yojna
(PMRY) in 1996. The loan was disbursed to him on January 12, 1996, through Punjab and Sind Bank here. He started a shop of tractors spare parts in the Rattia Chungi area. The instalments of Rs 650 each for the loan repayment were to begin from July, 1996. He paid the instalments regularly till August 1997, paying Rs13,500 while the amount actually payable was Rs 8750. Things went wrong on August 23, 1997, when goods worth Rs 95,000 were stolen from his shop. An FIR was registered with the local city police station and the bank was informed in writing on August 25 as the bank had insured the goods and debited the premium to his account. Mr Panwar alleges that a bank official, who was responsible for realisation of his insurance claim, demanded a bribe of Rs 10,000 for this purpose. As he was not in a position to pay the bribe, the bank did not approach the insurance company for the youth’s claim. Instead the bank went on computing interest on the loan amount. The bank officials went to the extent of renewing the insurance cover of Manoj’s shop as if no theft had occurred and the shop was running as usual. The premium was again debited to Manoj’s account. Manoj came to know of all this when the bank served its first legal notice on him in June 2001. When he tallied the accounts with his bankers, he found to his dismay that several unreasonable amounts like penal interest and insurance premium had been debited to his account. The authorities asked Mr Subhash Garg, Lead District Manager
(LDM) Fatehabad, to probe the matter. Mr Garg, according to reliable sources, found in his reports dated January 1, 2003 that the bank had acted against the norms by continuing the insurance in stocks of Manoj’s shop while the stock had already been stolen and no shop existed after August 1997. The LDMs report also found certain irregularities in the bank account of Manoj and found that the account had been tampered with. In all as many as six inquiries were conducted by the LDM on various occasions on orders of the Deputy Commissioner. Consequent to the LDM’s reports Manoj was hoping to get justice at last. But these reports have now been lost in the official files somewhere. He was denied copies of the inquiry reports. Even intervention of the Member-Secretary, Haryana State Legal Services Authority, could not get him copies of the inquiry reports. Manoj, however, has refused to give up, adding that he would do
everything possible to get justice. |
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Curbs on docs meeting medical representatives Yamunanagar, June 27 According to highly placed sources the Haryana Government has instructed all Civil Surgeons, Principal Medical Officers, Senior Medical Officers and doctors posted in Community Health Centres and Primary Health Centres to stop entertaining medical representatives during working hours. This initiative has been taken by the government as medical representatives of various firms were wasting time of doctors during OPD ( outdoor patients) hours. In another order issued by the Director-General, Health Services, Haryana, all doctors have been instructed to rationalise the use of drugs for patients. Doctors have been warned of strict disciplinary action if they are found entertaining medical representatives during working hours. A high-level meeting held at Kurukshetra last month decided to curb the malpractice of the use of banned drugs by doctors in the state.
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Women take oath to check
dowry Karnal, June 27 This is for the first time that women en bloc have taken such an oath in the district. Presiding over the meeting, Mrs Bhyan urged the women to check foeticide as it had resulted in a fall in the sex ratio in the state. She warned stern action against those found indulging in this act. Mrs Bhyan told women that the State Women Commission was committed to safeguard the legal rights of women. She urged them to discourage dowry. The Haryana Government had already amended the Haryana Dowry Prohibition Act., 2003. According to the amendment, a dowry prohibition officer had been nominated at each district headquarters. Any complaint regarding dowry could be registered with the officer personally, through a messenger or post, she added. She further said kanya dan scheme had also been introduced to give financial assistance of Rs 5,100 on the marriage of girls belonging to the Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes. More than 100 grievances of women of the Nissin block were redressed at the meeting. Member of the State Women Commission, Santosh Yadav, Nirmala Rathee and Satya Bala Malik were also present on the occasion. |
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BKU men restrained from holding dharna Kaithal, June 27 According to information, the CJM Ms Paramveer Nijjar had issued directions to the respondents that in future they would not block any road and sit in dharna within a radius of 100 meters of the road. A local resident Sahib Singh had filed a plaint in the court against 17 active workers of BKU who along with others had blocked the Chandigarh- Hisar road near Simla village of this district. The plaintiff pointed that the road blockade had caused great inconvenience to the public. Meanwhile the judicial remand of Pala Ram Gaur a former acting president of the BKU who was produced in the court here has been extended till July 8. |
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Policy on ad hoc staff formulated Chandigarh, June 27 The decision was announced by the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, at a meeting he held with a 21-member delegation of the Haryana Karamchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti here today. Mr Chautala said pay anomalies would be removed soon to motivate the employees in discharging their duties more diligently. However, he categorically ruled out the possibility of taking back in service any retrenched employee. But, in case of any vacancy, the government would make efforts to give an opportunity of reappointment to such employees. The government had already paid due compensation to all retrenched employees, he added. Mr Chautala also announced that the uniform allowance to Class IV employees would be increased from Rs 85 per month to Rs 100. The municipal staff would get their salary by the seventh of each month. Among others who participated in the meeting were the Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr B.D. Dhalia. |
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Seminar held for insurance staff Ambala, June 27 Among others, Union Minister of State for Finance, Mr Anandrao Adsul, former Governor of Himachal Pradesh, Dr Suraj Bhan, Mr S.L. Mohan, Prof Ganeshi Lal and Mr A.D. Gandhi were present at the seminar. The general secretary of the All-India Oriental Insurance Employees Union, Mr S.K. Aggarwal, said the purpose of the seminar was to familiarise the employees with the latest developments taking place in the insurance industry in India and the world over. The purpose was also to educate them about the measures Oriental Insurance was proposing to take to combat the onslaught of other players. After the formation of the IRDA for the supervision and control of insurance companies, it had introduced certain new modalities for generating and expanding the market of the general insurance business. It had introduced the concept of corporate agent, broker system and third-party administrator. “Corporate agent means that a firm, including any banker or a big business house, can become a corporate agent in the name of their business. The process of getting a corporate agency is very simple that these corporate bodies have to depute one of their principal officers to attend 100 hours’ training and thereafter pass an examination. With the introduction of this system, the insurance premium is being concentrated in the hands of a few people and the individual agents, who were dependent for their income on the insurance companies, are finding it difficult to earn their bread and butter,” Mr Aggarwal said. Regarding the broker system, Mr Aggarwal said before
nationalisation, the insurance premium used to be placed through brokers and they used to indulge in many unfair practices vis-a-vis the companies. “Even one of the objectives behind the nationalisation of general insurance in 1971 was to prevent concentration of wealth in a few hands but, again, with the introduction of corporate agents and broker system, we are moving in the same direction,” he said. Mr Aggarwal said the purpose of third-party administrator (TPA) was avowedly to provide services to the client in case of a claim. “We understand that although it is not mandatory for the companies to utilise the services of the
TPAs, all the four public sector general insurance companies have unanimously introduced this system with effect from January 1, 2003. Service charges to the extent of 6 per cent of the net premium of each insured person will go to the TPA which is being recovered directly from the public in the shape of additional premium,” he said. |
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Farmers to get interest if connection
delayed Chandigarh, June 27 While stating this here today, Major-Gen (retd) B.S. Rathee, Chairman of the power transmission corporation and the two distribution corporations, said in some of the districts there had been an excessive number of applications for new tubewell connections under the scheme leading to a glut. He said the distribution corporations were purchasing 12,000 additional transformers of 25 KVA capacity to accelerate the release of tubewell connections. |
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Traders protest in
Uchana Jind, June 27 It may be recalled that six motorcycle-borne armed youths looted Rs 1,50,000 from Mr Khazan Chand a trader of Uchana on pistol point while he was going to his shop after withdrawing money from the bank. They fled on the motorcycle after committing crime and fired shots in the air. The traders of Uchana had earlier served an ultimatum that if the culprits were not arrested within three days they would start an agitation and observe bandh at Uchana on June 27. A meeting of the traders was held at Uchana today in which office-bearers of the Haryana Pradesh Beopar Mandal from Jind, Narwana and Hisar participated. Mr Bajrang Dass Garg, state president of the mandal presided over the meeting. |
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Make Punjabi, Urdu second languages Ambala, June 27 In a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, Mr Malik said that a sizeable population of Haryana had been demanding for Punjabi and Urdu as the second official language as these languages were popular in the state.
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Phone bills can be deposited in
village post offices Ambala, June 27 Senior Superintendent of Post Offices Hoshiar Singh said that the rural telephone users can deposit their bills at the nearest rural post office. He said that this would help in reducing queues at the urban post offices, a release said. Mr Hoshiar Singh said that boxes had been set up in some post offices for depositing bill through cheque. The boxes have been set up in Ambala GPO, Sadar Bazar, Jagadhari, Yamunanagar, Naraingarh, Panchkula and Kalka. The bills put in these boxes would be deposited the same day and the receipt sent through post.
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Man poisons himself, family Hisar, June 27 Police sources said the bodies of Bishambhar Khattar (35), wife Veena Rani (30), daughter Babli (11) and son Mithu (2) were recovered from their house this morning. The incident came to light when the milk vendor came to their house in the morning nobody came out for collecting the milk. Initial investigations have revealed that Bishambhar was heavily in debt. He had taken money from many people and was unable to repay them.
PTI |
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2,000 pirated CDs seized, one held Kaithal, June 27 He told that an FIR has been lodged under Sections 51/52a, 63/68a of the IPC and under section 420 of the IPC. Apart from 2000 pirated CDs and some pirated MP3 audio CDs, two VCD players have also been seized from the accused. On getting information the anti piracy cell of T-Series contacted S.P. Yogender Nehra who formed the raiding party. He also told that in the past few days several raids were made in Kaithal and nearby areas to check on piracy. |
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Freedom fighter cremated Karnal, June 27 Sub-Divisional Magistrate Bhupinder Singh, along with revenue officials of Nigdu, placed wreaths on his body on behalf of the district administration. —
UNI |
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Woman killed
in attack Sirsa, June 27 According to information, Joginder Singh, along with his wife, Baljeet Kaur, and two children was attacked by certain persons with sharp-edged weapons when the family was sleeping in its house in the fields. While Baljeet Kaur died on the spot, Joginder Singh and the children sustained serious injuries. They were admitted to the local Civil Hospital. The police has registered a case and was making investigations. |
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