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Panel of 8 Judges formed
Protests against tax on timber trade
9 police officers transferred
HC moved against land acquisition
INLD demands Arjun’s resignation
Farmers demand old-age pension
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Kin putting pressure, says Bansi Lal’s grand daughter
Petrol pumps remain
shut
Protests against tax on timber trade
Welfare schemes explained to war widows
SEZs must benefit locals, says minister
Power conservation drive from Sept 15
Jats block highway
Villagers urged to clean sarovars
Stamp vendors’ commission raised
Youth done to death
Aid for schools following quota system: Mullana
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Panel of 8 Judges formed
Chandigarh, September 1 According to informed sources, the panel has been prepared by the Department of Justice following the decision of the Union Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) to appoint a retired Supreme Court Judge to examine the issue which has arisen out of a Supreme Court judgement, which quashed the sub-categorisation of the Scheduled Castes in Andhra Pradesh into four groups for reservation. Earlier, a five-Judge Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court had upheld the sub-categorisation of the Scheduled Castes. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed a similar sub-categorisation of the Scheduled Castes in Punjab and Haryana recently, basing its judgement on Supreme Court orders. The National Commission for the Scheduled Castes (NCSC) had met the President of India and had demanded that if the Centre wanted to appoint a retired Supreme Court Judge to examine the issue, he should be a member of the Scheduled Castes. The President sought the comments of the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on the demands of the NCSC. Sources say that the ministry has informed the President that it had asked the Department of Justice to provide the names of those Judges who had demitted office in the past two years. The Justice Department had furnished a list of eight retired Judges. It also conveyed to the Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment that it did not keep a caste-wise list of Judges. Opposing the demand of the NCSC for the appointment of a Scheduled Caste Judge to examine the issue of sub-categorisation of the Scheduled Castes, the Haryana Scheduled Castes (Block-A) Forum said here today that only a non-Scheduled Caste retired Judge of the Supreme Court should be entrusted the responsibility of looking into the entire gambit of the reservation policy. The Secretary-General of the forum, Mr M.L. Sarwan, said the issue should be examined only by an unbiased former Judge. To ensure this, the principles of natural justice demanded that only a non-Scheduled Caste Judge should be given this assignment, which had nation-wide ramifications. Mr Sarwan said the Supreme Court verdict quashing the sub-categorisation of the Scheduled Castes was based on the provisions of Article 341 of the Constitution, which, he said, was meant for reservation in Parliament and Assemblies. However, he said, reservation in government jobs was covered under Article 16 (4), which empowered the state governments to make reservation for a class or classes of citizens, which, in their opinion, were inadequately represented in the services under the state. |
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Protests against tax on timber trade
Karnal, September 1 The government on August 8 decided to impose 4 per cent tax, comprising 2 per cent market committee fee and 2 per cent Haryana rural development fee, on timber merchants, who claimed that they were not even informed formally by the authorities. Talking to The Tribune here today, president of the AHTA Shispal Mittal charged the government of harassing the traders. Terming the imposition of the tax as “illogical”, he said the timber merchants of the state would be the sufferers as none of the neighbouring states had any such taxes. According to the merchants, about 95 per cent of the total timber consumed in the state was imported from Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries through sea route and they pay several import duties and taxes but opposed to any new taxes. A delegation of the association met Agriculture Minister H.S. Chattha last evening, who assured them to look into the matter. Mr Mittal said the association had also talked to several MLAs in this regard. YAMUNANAGAR: More than 300 timber merchants associated with the All- Haryana Timber Association on Friday went on a one-day token strike to protest against the imposition of 2 per cent market fee on sale and purchase of timber in the state.The association threatened to go on indefinite strike if the fee was not waived off within one week. A delegation of the association later submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner. The association claimed the imported timber was exempted from market fee as per the Punjab State Agricultural Market Act. Bhiwani: The members of the Bhiwani Timber, Saw Machine and Firewood Association observed a complete strike on Friday in protest against the 2 per cent market fee imposed by the state government. The members submitted a memorandum, addressed to the Chief Minister, to the Deputy Commissioner in this connection. Earlier, a meeting of saw machine owners, timber merchants and firewood traders was held at Kaath Mandi here. The traders said that the imposition of 2 per cent market fee would adversely affect the business and it was totally an unjustful step of the state government. |
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9 police officers transferred
Chandigarh, September 1 Mr P.S. Ranga, Superintendent of Police, Police Training Academy, Bhondsi, has been given the additional charge of Commandant, 2nd India Reserve Battalion. Mr Paramjit Singh Ahlawat, Superintendent of Police, Regional Training College, Bhondsi, has been given the additional charge of Commandant, 3rd Indian Reserve Battalion. Ms Charu, Assistant Inspector General, Administration, has been posted as Superintendent of Police, Telecommunication, replacing Mr Rajbir Singh, who has been posted as Commandant, 4th Battalion, HAP, Madhuban. Mr Ravi Kumar, Commandant, 4th Battalion, HAP, Madhuban, has been posted as Superintendent of Police, Finger Prints Bureau, Madhuban. Mr Rakesh Kumar Arya, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Hisar, has been transferred as Commandant, 5th Battalion, HAP, Madhuban. Mr Ram Chander Rathi, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kurukshetra City, and Mr Hari Ram, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Headquarters, Kurukshetra, would swap their respective places of posting. |
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HC moved against land acquisition
Chandigarh, September 1 This comes on the heels of the legal challenge to the decision of the Punjab Government to hand over land acquired by the PSIDC to the RIL. The project is to be undertaken by the Reliance Ventures Ltd (RVL), a sister concern of RIL, in association with the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), with the RVL holding 90 per cent stake and HSIIDC holding the remaining 10 per cent. Sometime back, an agreement had been signed between the RVL and the HSIIDC for setting up the country’s largest SEZ at an overall investment of Rs 40,000 crore. The RVL had also proposed to set up a power plant of 2,000 MW to meet the requirements of the SEZ and is contemplating a cargo airport, subject to necessary approvals. The petitioner, Mr Mukhtiar Singh of Garauli Khurd village in Gurgaon district, has challenged the decision of the government to give land acquired by the HSIIDC to the RIL for setting up the SEZ. The proposed SEZ is to be spread over an area of over 25,000 acres in two districts of Gurgaon and Jhajjar. The petitioner has stated that his 5.8 kanal land in Garauli Khurd village was earmarked for acquisition by the government for setting up a SEZ in 2003. After the HSIIDC rejected the objections received from landowners, the landowners were told to vacate the land, following which some of them, including the petitioner, moved the High Court. They had challenged the decision to acquire their land for the SEZ on the ground that the state government had not taken the mandatory approval from the Government of India. Now, in the latest petition, Mr Mukhtiar Singh has stated that by deciding to give the land to the RVL, the government had gone against the land acquisition rules. The petition is likely to be taken up for hearing next week. |
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INLD demands Arjun’s resignation
Chandigarh, September 1 The demand was made in a resolution adopted by the State Executive Committee of the party, which met here today. The resolution was adopted in the context of derogatory remarks contained in certain NCERT books about the Jat community. Briefing mediapersons after the meeting, the Secretary General of the INLD, Mr Ajay Singh Chautala, said that under Mr Arjun Singh, the NCERT was playing with history and deliberately wanted to divide society on caste basis. He said the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, was also misleading the people about the so-called removal of the remarks from the books. He said the books should have been recalled and destroyed immediately. The party also expressed its concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, inflation in the country and shortage of water and power in the state. Mr Chautala said the party would celebrate the 92nd birth anniversary of the late Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Devi Lal, by organising a massive rally at Meham in Rohtak district on September 25. The INLD President, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, who is away to the USA for medical treatment for the past six months, would return on the night of September 24 and participate in the rally. Senior leaders of the party had been assigned to mobilise the people in various Assembly constituencies for the rally. He said the Hooda government was a divided house. Its ministers did not have confidence in the Chief Minister. On various issues raised by the Opposition, “non-elected” persons issued statements defending the government instead of its ministers. He was referring to the statement of Prof Virender Singh, Political Adviser to Chief Minister, issued yesterday, blaming the INLD for the inclusion of the remarks against the Jat community in the NCERT books. A senior party leader, Prof Sampat Singh, said Prof Virender Singh should not forget that he himself was the Chairman of Sugarfed when Mr Devi Lal was the Chief Minister in 1989, the year in which the controversial books were published. |
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Farmers demand old-age pension
Chandigarh, September 1 They have decided to hold “satyagrahas” at district and sub-divisional headquarters throughout the state from September 18 to 20 to apprise the State Government of their demands. “Our 17-member executive committee was here to submit a memorandum to the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda. But unfortunately, he is away. So we submitted a copy of our memorandum to his Principal Secretary,” says Mr Satpal Singh, General Secretary of the Haryana Kisan Sabha. Though Haryana is ruled by Jats for a long time but demands of the farming community of the state, say the Haryana Kisan Sabha leaders, have remained unfulfilled. Master Kartar Singh and Mr Ajaib Singh, both Vice-Presidents of the Sabha, said that numerous promises in the past notwithstanding, “no government could rid us of our cooperative loans on which we had been charged exorbitant rate of interest.” The Sabha wants the recovery of arrears of loans to be suspended till a new loan policy was announced. Small and marginal farmers should be given interest free loans and cooperative loans facility should be extended to all farmers in villages. The rate of interest on farm loans should be reduced to 4 per cent. The private financiers, commission agents and other private agencies be barred from charging more than 12 per cent interest on loans advanced to farmers. “The State would do well to set up a Commission to examine all aspects of loaning to farm sector and suggest ways to make it farmer friendly,” they said. Mr Gurbhajan Singh, Secretary of the Sabha, said that one of major demands of farmers has been remunerative prices for their produce. “We want Rs 750 a quintal for paddy, Rs 3500 a bale for cotton, Rs 2000 a quintal for
guarra, Rs 2500 a quintal for basmati and Rs 850 a quintal for wheat”, he said. The Sabha is also demanding crop insurance and establishment of a corpus fund of Rs 10,000 crore to help farmers in distress anywhere in the country. Farmers over the age of 60 years should also be given a pension of Rs 600 a month as they toil hard to keep the country self sufficient on food front. Besides, welfare schemes like Public Distribution System (PDS) should also be extended to rural areas. |
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Kin putting pressure, says Bansi Lal’s grand daughter
Chandigarh, September 1 In a statement issued here today, Ms Shruti alleged that due to this pressure, the health of her grandmother was deteriorating continuously. She alleged that after the death of her grandfather, her relatives, as “a part of a pre-planned conspiracy”, forcibly took her grandmother and ransacked their Delhi house. She also alleged that she and her mother, Ms Kiran Choudhry, who is the Haryana Minister of State for Forests and Tourism, were not being allowed to meet Ms Vidya Devi “to hide the truth from her.” Ms Shruti claimed that once they were allowed to meet her grandmother separately, the “situation would become more clear”. She also alleged that her “greedy” relatives were forcing Ms Vidya Devi to sign “fake” documents and were dragging her into a “meaningless” controversy as there was no dispute over the ancestral property. |
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Petrol pumps remain
shut
Hisar, September 1 Besides, the dealers have alleged that they were getting lesser quantity of petrol and diesel, due to which they were facing heavy losses. “Each lorry supplies 70 to 100 litres less diesel and petrol per 12,000 of these products to the dealers,” said Mr Dinesh Goel, president of the district unit of the association. Meanwhile, timber merchants in the district also observed a strike today in protest against a government move to impose market fee on wood. The merchants have decried the decision to impose market fee and rural development tax. They staged a protest demonstration and submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the local Sub-Divisional Magistrate in this regard. BHIWANI: Petrol filling stations here too remained closed today. A spokesman for the Bhiwani Petroleum Dealers Association said here today that they had to resort to strike after several representations to the oil companies regarding their demands. He also alleged that the oil companies were committing excesses under the Marketing Discipline Guidelines (MDG) 2005. Although the association had informed the media through a press conference four days back about the strike on September 1 yet people were caught unaware and were found requesting for fuel for their vehicles. |
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Protests against tax on timber trade
Karnal, September 1 The government on August 8 decided to impose 4 per cent tax, comprising 2 per cent market committee fee and 2 per cent Haryana rural development fee, on timber merchants, who claimed that they were not even informed formally by the authorities. Talking to The Tribune here today, president of the AHTA Shispal Mittal charged the government of harassing the traders. Terming the imposition of the tax as “illogical”, he said the timber merchants of the state would be the sufferers as none of the neighbouring states had any such taxes. According to the merchants, about 95 per cent of the total timber consumed in the state was imported from Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries through sea route and they pay several import duties and taxes but opposed to any new taxes. A delegation of the association met Agriculture Minister
H.S. Chattha last evening, who assured them to look into the matter. Mr Mittal said the association had also talked to several MLAs in this regard. YAMUNANAGAR: More than 300 timber merchants associated with the All- Haryana Timber Association on Friday went on a one-day token strike to protest against the imposition of 2 per cent market fee on sale and purchase of timber in the state.The association threatened to go on indefinite strike if the fee was not waived off within one week. A delegation of the association later submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner. The association claimed the imported timber was exempted from market fee as per the Punjab State Agricultural Market Act. |
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Welfare schemes explained to war widows
Hisar, September 1 The president of the DOT Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA), Ms Neeru Grewal, addressed the war widows and assured them of all possible help. She maintained that the Army was like a big family and all grievances of the war widows would be redressed. The AWWA president informed the war widows about various welfare schemes being run for their benefit and urged them to avail their benefits. She said apart from lifelong pension facility for the wife or mother of the soldiers killed during service, there were a number of other facilities and relaxations for them. “These include allotment of gas agencies and petrol stations, relaxation of norms for their children interested in joining the defence services, besides reservation and scholarships in various courses and the Army’s educational institutes,” she said. — TNS |
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SEZs must benefit locals, says minister
Gurgaon, September 1 Mr Injerjit said here today that he had also demanded employment opportunities and other benefits to the local population in these projects. He said keeping in view the scarcity of water in the state, the SEZs should be asked to create their own source of water. According to him, apart from Reliance Industries Ltd, which has been assigned to set up SEZ spanning from Gurgaon to Jhajhar on about 25,000 acres, there are other about 12 firms that would be setting up SEZs in other parts of the state. |
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Power conservation drive from Sept 15
Rohtak, September 1
The Representatives of the district administration, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, opinion makers, municipal councillors, architects, electricity contractors, and intellectuals would attend these seminars. The Nigam is also planning to arrange rallies by students to create awareness about energy conservation in October. Essay, poetry and slogan writing competitions would be arranged in educational institutions in the month of November.
— TNS |
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Jats block highway
Rohtak, September 1 The panchayat had given a call for a day-long bandh in protest against the derogatory remarks against the Jat community in NCERT books. Although the Chaubisi had emphatically stated yesterday that traffic would not be hampered in any way, the villagers squatted on the road and blocked traffic early morning. Queues of stranded vehicles stretched to several kilometres on both Rohtak and Hisar sides of the highway. The blockade was cleared around noon after authorities persuaded the elders to clear the road. All markets remained closed in Meham while government offices, banks and other semi-government offices functioned normally. |
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Villagers urged to clean sarovars
Kapal Mochan, September 1 Enthusiasm among officials to clean the ponds brought cheer on the faces of the locals and villagers volunteered to remove vegetation and silt. Women of the area took pledge to give their one day for the cleaning of holy sarovars. In Mochan sarovar, the largest of three sarovars here was almost free of all vegetation growth by noon. Today’s shramdan by district officials drew motivation from residents of Milakhas and Aharwala villages who took to kar seva to clean the Kapal Mochan sarovar. The Tribune had reported the voluntary work by villagers. The kar seva was taking place at the sarovar for almost one week now. The scene at Kapal Mochan and Rin Mochan sarovars today was different. District officials removed grass from the sarovars for three hours. D.C. Kaushik led the Their efforts were supplemented by villagers and devotees reaching Kapal Mochan gurdwara and demand the sarovar. Four to six feet high grass had grown in the sarovars. Shepherds used to graze cattle in sarovars and children of the area used to play cricket on the beds. After shramdan was over, Mr Kaushik told the gathering that in future too people’s participation would be sought for beautification works in district. |
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Stamp vendors’ commission raised
Chandigarh, September 1 The Finance Minister said the step had been taken to fulfil the long pending demand of the Haryana Stamp Vendors Union, who would now benefit to the tune of an additional earning of Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 3 crore per year. He said it had also been decided to issue identity cards to all stamp vendors. Vendors had been advised to renew their licences every three years, Mr Birender Singh said. |
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Youth done to death
Ambala, September 1 Shankar’s father, Mr Som Nath, told the police that Shankar had been missing from home since August 30. He alleged that his son was murdered by his other son. Mr Som Nath said while he and his son Shankar were living together, Som Nath’s wife and his other son Mahesh were living separately. He alleged that a property dispute had led to the murder of Shankar. Shankar’s body has been sent to Rohtak for forensic examination. A case under Section 302 has been registered. |
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Aid for schools following quota system: Mullana
Chandigarh, September 1 He said that government aid would not be extended to such institutions. |
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