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Sampat, Ranjit file papers for Adampur bypoll
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala shake hands inside the office of the returning officer for the Adampur assembly segment in Hisar on Thursday.
— Tribune photo by P.L. Munday
Frequent power cuts hit state
Lineman electrocuted, two injured
Man shot dead outside school in Gurgaon
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Mob indulges in violence on hospital premises
State seeks WB assistance for projects
Withholding of Diplomas
May Day observed
Intelligence men step up activities
Indri Seat
Youth found murdered
Huge quantity of synthetic milk seized
2 killed in fire in field
INLD supporters raise anti-Hooda slogans
2 ex-INLD stalwarts to join Cong
Factory making fake soft drinks unearthed
Railway workers’ union holds rally
Bhiwani may face water scarcity
High Court
Kidney scam: Three file bail applications
Drugs destroyed
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Sampat, Ranjit file papers for Adampur bypoll
Hisar, May 1 Both the candidates were accompanied by their respective party bigwigs. Ranjit Singh was accompanied by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Haryana Congress chief Phool Chand Mullana. Several Congress legislators from nearby constituencies were also present. Sampat Singh, on the other hand, was accompanied by former Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala and INLD chief Ashok Arora. It so happened that Chautala entered the office of the returning officer even as Hooda was inside. Once inside, Chautala greeted Hooda saying: “Mukhya mantra ji meri ram ram le lo.” To this Hooda responded warmly, walked up to Chautala and shook hands with him. This was a rare show of camaraderie between the two arch political enemies. Both parties held public meetings before their candidates filed their papers. The INLD held one in the grounds of Old Government College. The Congress organised its political show at Mahabir Stadium. Both the meetings were well attended. However, the logic behind holding electoral meetings here was beyond the comprehension of many as Hisar is not a part of the Adampur assembly segment. The wives of both INLD and Congress candidates, Krishna and Indira, respectively, filed nominations as covering candidates for their husbands. Former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s wife Jasma Devi also had filed papers as covering candidate for her husband yesterday. Although, the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to put up Swami Raghvanand, he is yet to file his papers, although he has been campaigning in the constituency for the past several days. Hooda addressed a press conference later at the local Congress Bhawan. He said the Congress had entered the fray on the development plank. He went on to narrate the amount of power bills arrears waived off and the allotment of free plots to the poor. CPM nominee Prabhat Singh also filed his nomination papers today. CPM state secretary Inderjit Singh accompanied him. Meanwhile, campaigning has gained momentum in the constituency. Despite the soaring mercury, political parties’ workers and candidates are touring the villages relentlessly. The stress is mainly on door-to-door campaigning and personal contact. |
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Frequent power cuts hit state
Gurgaon, May 1 The power authorities today claimed that the situation was likely to improve in the coming 3-4 days. Officially, the situation has arisen due to less availability of power in the entire northern region caused by outages of units in several power plants and with the revival of these sick units, the power situation may improve in the coming days. The state, which was banking upon the much-publicised Yamunanagar thermal plant, has been badly let down by it. The political leadership and the bureaucracy had been assuring the people that once its two units would come on stream by the end of March last, the power situation in the state would ease considerably. But the plant is still grappling with what is being described as “teething problems”. Both units have stopped generating power. While one unit has been shut down to install some testing equipment, the other has developed faults. Official sources say unit no. 1 of the Yamunanagar plant of 300 MW went out of generation on April 21 when it was generating at its rated capacity. They claim that the commercial run of this power plant was yet to be started. Moreover, due to sudden increase in temperature experienced in the entire northern region, the demand for electricity has increased and the available sources of generation have not been able to cope with the power requirement. As a result of a wide gap between the demand and supply in the entire northern grid, the system frequency is continuously reeling below 49 Hz and overdrawing from the grid has been strictly prohibited by the load dispatch centre of the northern region. An official said the requirement of southern districts - Sirsa, Bhiwani, Mahendergarh, Fatehabad, Hisar, Mewat, Gurgaon and Faridabad - falling in the DHBVN area was to the tune of 375-380 lakh units per day against availability of 280-300 lakh units. So the scheduled cuts had been imposed to overcome this deficit. However, at times sudden outage of generating units occurs due to technical snags, which was inevitable and beyond human control. The phenomenal outages in the northern grid had been existing for the past 2 or 3 days. The extent of outage was of the level of 3800-4500 MW out of which the shared outages of Haryana was to the extent of 650-750 MW. In addition, the shutdown of two units of Panipat Thermal Power Plant of 110 MW capacity each, which are not likely to be revived soon, has contributed to the acute shortage. The DHBVN authorities said the shortage had been aggravated with sudden outages of unit no. 1 of Yamunanagar Thermal Power Plant of 300 MW on April 21, which was generating power at the rated capacity. The situation in Gurgaon is all the more disturbing. The daily requirement here presently is to the tune of 110 lakh units whereas the availability is hovering around 65-75 lakh units for the past couple of days. Therefore, the shortage here has led to power cuts to the tune of 6 to 9 hours in urban areas, 10 to 18 hours in industrial sector and 2 to 3 hours in rural areas. However, the situation showed some improvement today due to the revival of two units of Faridabad gas power plant as well as the improved position of frequency. |
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Lineman electrocuted, two injured
Jind, May 1 The injured were referred to the PGIMS. The department has ordered an inquiry into the accident. The incident took place when the victim was working to remove a snag in one of the lines in an area located in Narwana subdivision of the district. The employees came into contact with high voltage current due to the start of supply from a neighboring transformer without any intimation to them. Chiman Lal (55), the main person repairing the fault, got stuck to the line while his associate, Subhash, received injuries after being thrown away by the shock. Chiman Lal, however, died on the spot while Subhash got serious burn injuries. A local resident identified as Nakshatra, who rushed to help the employees, also received burn injuries in the process. Senior officials of the UHBVN rushed to the spot soon after. According to an official, it was not known if the employees engaged in the repair work had acquired a permit from the office concerned, as repair work could be carried out only after issuing of a formal permit by the junior engineer of the department. The supply was resumed after the submission of the completion report and the permit to the spot from where the supply had been switched off, he claimed. Meanwhile, the All Haryana Power Corporations Workers Union expressed shock over the incident and blamed the laxity on part of the officials concerned. Spokesperson of the union Subhash Lamba described the incident as most unfortunate. Demanding government employment and a compensation of at least Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the victim, he said it was the duty of the department and the government to ensure that such accidents did not take place. |
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Man shot dead outside school in Gurgaon
Gurgaon, May 1 A case has been registered against the unknown accused on the complaint of the brother of the deceased. As per official information, the incident took place at 7.45 am when the deceased was coming out of the gate of Roseland Pubic School near Hans Enclave after dropping his three children there. As he was about to get into his car parked near the school gate, some unidentified persons shot at him. He was immediately rushed to the Civil Hospital here, where he succumbed to his injuries. The deceased owned residential quarters for labourers. The police recovered a country-made pistol from the spot. The brother of the deceased, Jaivir, said his family did not bear any enmity with anyone. The incident created a scare among students as well as the school staff. Gurgaon police commissioner Mohinder Lal also reached the spot and claimed the case would be cracked soon. |
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Mob indulges in violence on hospital premises
Faridabad, May 1 The police soon intervened bringing the situation under control. However, the irate relatives of the patient continued with their outburst before the hospital authorities, apparently causing enough embarrassment to the hospital staff in the process. The patient, Vikrant(24), had met with a road accident and admitted to the hospital on February 22. The mother of the patient, Kamla Jhakhar, alleged that the hospital authorities had deliberately complicated the medical problem of her son as they were bent on “fleecing” money on one pretext or another. According to her, Vikrant had recovered enough about a month back, but the hospital authorities took a decision to conduct surgery on him just to prolong his stay in the hospital so that the institute could make money. The relatives also alleged that the patient had died about two days back but the hospital was keeping it secret from them and continued inflating the bill on the name of hospital charges. They also alleged that the hospital authorities did not allow them to meet Vikrant. Medical director of the institute A.K. Dubey, however, rebutted all charges against the hospital. Giving graphic details he said since Vikrant was admitted to the hospital in a serious condition with multiple fractures on his head and leg and thigh portion, he was in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for all but four days. He asserted that the relatives were allowed to meet the patients, but in the manner of one person at a time and with strict regulation of movement of the attendants and relatives. He asserted that a team of highly specialised doctors was constantly monitoring the case of the patient and any medical intervention was following collective decision of the team. He asserted that so far the bill was about Rs 7 lakh but the relatives had paid only Rs 2 lakh. This is the fifth violence in the institute by the relatives of different patients, including the present one, in the past five months. The charges in the four previous cases were the same; apathy and moneymaking attitude on the part of the hospital.
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State seeks WB assistance for projects
Chandigarh, May 1 A 19-member high-powered delegation of the World Bank headed by executive director, India, Dhanendra Kumar, and including other executive directors, met Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and senior officers of the state government here. The Haryana government has sought financial assistance of Rs 5587.97 crore for the implementation of projects of roads, Rs 3803.98 crore for power projects and Rs 2956.84 crore for water supply and sanitation projects. Hooda asked the World Bank for early finalisation of its assistance and grants for the state’s projects. He said the government’s objective was to achieve all-round development in agriculture, industrialisation and infrastructure development as well as growth in health and education. Haryana chief secretary Dharam Vir said the state had several success stories and the bank had played an important role in financing a few projects of the government in the past. The power sector proposal posed to the World Bank by the government included renovation, modernisation and uprating of generation plants as well as transmission and distribution schemes. The road project posed to the bank involves the upgradation of mainly state highways and major district roads. The comprehensive project of water supply and sanitation posed to the World Bank will cover 54 towns. The resource management and livelihood project proposal posed for external funding has the objective of sustainable management of degraded natural resources. Earlier, financial commissioner and principal secretary, power, Ashok Lavasa made a comprehensive power point presentation on Haryana. Administrative officers of various departments of the state government were also present at the meeting. |
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Nursing institute’s director refutes charges
Our Correspondent
Rewari, May 1 Serious allegations of arbitrarily withholding their diplomas and exacting one-year (honorary) services from them at the cancer hospital were levelled by 11 of the 18 trainees as well as their guardians at a press conference held at the PWD rest house here on April 29. They alleged that even after the full-fledged accomplishment of their three-and-a-half-year-long training for diploma in general nursing and midwifery in March last, their certificates had not yet been released by the management, which was also forcing them to put in honorary services at the hospital. Refuting the allegations at a corresponding press conference convened here yesterday, Yadav said there was no question either of withholding their certificates or coercing them to serve the institute for a year. He went on to explain that to acquire eligibility for admission to the school of nursing in 2004, the trainees had “voluntarily” executed a bond to serve the institute for a period of one year after passing their general nursing and midwifery examination and had also undertaken to keep their original certificates in custody of the school principal till the completion of the bond period. Simultaneously, in case any trainee failed to serve the institute for the bond period, she would have to pay the bond money i.e. Rs 1 lakh to the management before her certificate was released by the school principal, he added. Yadav asserted that their certificates would be released only after September, when the bond period expired.
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May Day observed
Yamunanagar, May 1 A survey of persons working in private organisations should be carried out so that they could take the benefit of ESI facility and the minimum wages announced by the state government, said Jai Chand Chauhan, state president of the morcha. According to him, child labour despite legislation against it was rampant in the district. Speakers at the rally complained that industries were not implementing safety measures for the labourers. Members of the Sarv Karamchari Sangh, Haryana, and Trade Union, CITU, also organised a joint function to mark the day. They later took out a procession from Kanhaiya Sahib chowk to the office of the deputy commissioner and submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the DC. Speakers at the function complained that the Chief Minister had not full filled the promises he had made to the sangh. Mahipal Chamrori and Nanak Chand Kalsian, senior leaders of the sangh, alleged that labourers were made to work 15 to 18 hours in industries and they were not even getting minimum wages announced by the government.
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Intelligence men step up activities
Karnal, May 1 Seats of Indri, Adampur and Gohana assembly constituencies fell vacant after the three rebel MLAs led by Bhajan Lal, once considered as one of the most influential Congress leaders, were expelled for their anti-party activities. Political observers opined that it would be a question of “do or die” for the state party leadership to sustain its political future. It is learnt that the state intelligence authorities have deputed additional force to gather information on the political inclinations and subjects of electoral discussions. Besides accessing political press conferences and press notes, the officials have also been following mediapersons to get “valuable” inputs about the leaders of the ruling and opposition parties. Sources said it was due to such inputs that Indri was being supplied with improved power supply for the past four days. Though the officials termed it as a “sympathetic” step to provide relief to the localities from the ongoing power crisis, sources hinted that it was merely to avoid the heat of the public in the forthcoming byelections of the rural belt. For the past couple of days, Karnal had been facing a shortage in power supply whereas Indri was being given enhanced power supply. It has also been observed that certain officials posing as journalists tried to dig out inputs from political leaders of various parties. They make a beeline for different places, including the office of the returning officer, where election papers are deposited by the contestants, to know the number and mood of the party followers of the opposition parties.
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Arya files nomination
Vishal Joshi Tribune News Service
Karnal, May 1 Later, talking to mediapersons, senior party leader Ram Bilas Sharma demanded the deployment of the CRPF to ensure smooth completion of the election procedure. Manchanda categorically denied that the BJP had any secret pact with the BSP or any other political outfit. He said the party had direct fight with the Congress and hoped to emerge as the winner. Meanwhile, in his declaration, the high school pass BJP candidate, Arya, furnished that he had a fortune worth crores of rupees. According to the mandatory details furnished to the RO, Arya owns 11 acres of agriculture land worth Rs 4.40 crore in Karnal district. Similarly, he has a shop and a booth at the grain market, Taraori, which has a market value of Rs 45 lakh. Besides, business interest in a firm with an annual income of more than Rs 18 lakh, the BJP candidate has a capital investment of more than Rs 5 lakh. Arya has Rs 60,500 in cash and Rs 7,845.55 in different banks. According to the affidavit, Arya does not possess any jewellery whereas his wife has gold jewellery worth Rs 11,500. The assembly seat contestant owns a car, whereas the scooter is registered in his wife’s name. He has also furnished that loan amounts of Rs 2.87 lakh and Rs 63,000 was outstanding towards the Oriental Bank of Commerce and the Shamgarh Co-operative Society Limited, respectively. No other candidate filed the nomination papers today.
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Youth found murdered
Panipat, May 1 The deceased, who has been identified as Pratap Singh, a resident of Matlodha village, is believed to have been murdered following a personal animosity between some villagers. The body was first spotted by some of the passersby, who immediately reported the matter to the police. A team of police officials from Chandnibagh police station soon reached the spot to take a stock of the situation. The police said it had found inconclusive evidences from the site where the body was found. After conducting preliminary investigations, the police said from the circumstantial evidence, it appeared to be a case of murder, but the matter was still being verified. It said the real cause of death could only be ascertained after a postmortem examination. The police said a case in this regard had been registered and the matter was being further investigated.
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Huge quantity of synthetic milk seized
Ambala, May 1 The police also has taken in its possession around four quintals of milk, milk powder and some chemicals used for making synthetic milk from there. The owner of the dairy, Yashpal, managed to fled before the raid was conducted. The police has also recovered a car that may have been used for the supply of the synthetic products. According to information, the dairy owner belongs to a village of Meerut and had been dealing in this business for the last several years. He used to supply the synthetic milk and other milk products in various cities of Haryana and Punjab. A case was registered against the dairy owner. The police has also seized a note book from the dairy in which the names of some of the famous sweet shops of Ambala City, Ambala Cantt, Yamunanagar, Karnal and Panipat are mentioned.
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2 killed in fire in field
Sonepat, May 1 After receiving information, Gannaur SDM Sujan Singh Yadav, DSP Badri Prasad along with the police force, fire tenders and medical ambulance reached the spot and brought the fire victims to the hospital. A team of veterinary doctors and para-medical staff also reached the village to treat the cattle. According to available information, a farmer in the adjacent field was reportedly burning wheat stems. The fire spread to the adjoining fields after the area was swept by a storm around 3.30 pm. Within minutes, the 5-acre harvested field of Bhupinder was engulfed in the fire. The victims were reportedly collecting “silla” (remains of harvested wheat) and heads of cattle were grazing in the field.
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INLD supporters raise anti-Hooda slogans
Hisar, May 1 A large crowd of supporters of the INLD had gathered outside the mini-secretariat here while the two leaders were inside accompanying their respective party nominees for filing their nominations. Hooda waved at the crowd as he came out of the building but the INLD supporters instead responded with slogans and a few even hurled cardboard banners towards the motorcade. Hooda, however, boarded the car unruffled and kept waving smilingly at the crowd. This happened despite the fact that the two politicians warmly greeted each other inside the office. |
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2 ex-INLD stalwarts to join Cong
Sonepat, May 1 The rally will be addressed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and HPCC president Phool Chand Mullana. After the rally, the congress candidate, Jagbir Singh Malik, will file his nomination papers. While confirming his joining the Congress tomorrow at Gohana, Ved Singh Malik, a former minister, said he took this decision after witnessing that the state had been taking rapid strides in various fields of development for the past three years. |
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Factory making fake soft drinks unearthed
Sirsa, May 1 According to police sources, a complaint had been lodged with the police by a leading soft drink company alleging that three persons were involved in manufacturing fake drinks at Rania. Acting on the complaint, the police raided the premises of Anurag in ward no. 5 and recovered a gas cylinder, 288 empty bottles and 58 filled bottles of Pepsi, which were fake. In another raid conducted in the Gurdwarawali gali in Rania town, the police recovered some equipments for making soft drinks, 2 gas cylinders, 120 fake bottles of Pepsi and 960 empty bottles. It arrested Satpal and Vedpal whereas the factory’s owner, Satish, managed to escape. The police has registered a case under various sections of the IPC. — PTI
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Railway workers’ union holds rally
Ambala, May 1 Putting forward their demands, union members demanded that the minimum pay of railway men of group D railway staff should be Rs 11,000 per month, pay of group C and D should be revised and the rate of increment as suggested by the Sixth Pay Commission should be revised to 3.5 per cent. The union members also put forth a few suggestions demanding changes in the suggestions made by the Sixth Pay Commission. |
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Bhiwani may face water scarcity
Bhiwani, May 1 Presently, there is only 35 feet water level in tanks of the public health department and if water supply discontinued for any reason in the next week, the town will have to face great difficulty. The town is being supplied about six feet water from the water tanks on daily basis. However, the department has only one-week stock in its hand. A junior engineer of the department said the present supply was insufficient. However, he claimed that alternatives had been arranged to keep smooth supply of water.
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High Court
Chandigarh, May 1 He was seeking initiation of proceedings under the Contempt of Court Act against the police chief for not complying with the high court orders to provide him security. The petitioner has now been provided security cover of three gunmen. The Judge ordered incase one of the three gunmen was going away on leave etc., the replacement should be provided within six hours of the start of the leave in view of the apprehension expressed by the petitioner. Kamboj was disqualified by Haryana Vidhan Sabha speaker Dr Raghubir Singh Kadian under the anti-defection law and is contesting from Indri as the candidate of Bhajan Lal-led Haryana Janhit
Congress.
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Kidney scam: Three file bail applications
Ambala, May 1 The accused who have filed the bail applications include Dr K.K. Aggarwal, Linda (nurse) and Harpal. The other three accused - Dr Upender, Gayasudeen and Jagdish - who had earlier filed their bail applications in this court, have withdrawn the same today. It is to be mentioned that as many as 12 accused, including the main accused Dr Amit, are in judicial custody in Ambala central jail.
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Drugs destroyed
Kaithal, May 1 The drugs had been recovered in cases related to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The drugs were destroyed in the presence of IG (Ambala) K.K. Sindhu, Kaithal SP Anil Kumar Rao, Kurukshetra SP Amitabh Dhillon and Ambala SP K.V. Ramana. |
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Indian National Lok Dal nominee Sampat Singh and Congress nominee Ranjit Singh today filed their nominations for the Adampur assembly segment byelection slated for May 22.
Gurgaon, May 1
