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H A R Y A N A |  |
 Tuesday, August 25, 1998 |
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Parties focus on south Haryana GURGAON, Aug 24 — South Haryana has become a centre for the activities of the Opposition in the state. The Congress, vying with the Indian National Lok Dal to come to power in the state today held a procession here in protest against the Bansi Lal government’s alleged failure on several fronts. DCC to hold
100 meetings in Rohtak |
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 Youths rob driver of Rs 3.41 lakh, held REWARI, Aug 24 — Five armed youths robbed the driver of a jeep belonging to liquor dealers of Rs 3.41 lakh after injuring him with a sword. They then decamped with the booty in their white Maruti Zen car. |
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Adverse remarks removed
from ACR Demand
to scrap 1998 power Act Saini
rules out hike in power tariff Woman
killed in road mishap Karamchari
sangh gets a jolt Villagers
pool funds to build centre Servant
arrested for killing old woman One
convicted under adulteration Act Joshi
is chief of architects' panel |
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Parties focus on south Haryana GURGAON, Aug 24 — South Haryana has become a centre for the activities of the Opposition in the state. The Congress, vying with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) — the erstwhile Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya) and the main Opposition party in the Haryana assembly — to come to power in the state today held a procession here in protest against the Bansi Lal government’s alleged failure on several fronts. The procession, led by the state president of the Congress, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, was in protest against the HVP-BJP government’s inability to control the price rise, deteriorating law and order and erratic supply of power and water. Several state leaders of the party, who took part in the procession, also held demonstrations and submitted a memorandum to the Governor through the Deputy Commissioner. Addressing newspersons, Mr Hooda charged that despite the poll promises by the HVP-BJP combine, the law and order situation had become dismal, supply of power and water had become more erratic and no development work had been initiated by the government. Rao Inderjit Singh, a Congress MP from the Mahendragarh parliamentary constituency had launched his party’s mass-contact programme in Mahendragarh a few days ago. Former Chief Minister and leader of the INLD, Om Parkash Chautala has already toured more than 100 villages in Gurgaon, Mahendragarh, Rewari and Faridabad districts which constitute south Haryana. Mr Chautala is slated to address meetings in about a dozen villages in Ateli assembly constituency in Mahendragarh district tomorrow. The Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mr Raghu Yadav is also active for the past couple of months. The compulsion of political parties to concentrate their activities in south Haryana is understandable. South Haryana accounts for 18 assembly seats — three in Rewari, three in Mahendragarh, six in Gurgaon and six in Faridabad districts. The trend in the last two assembly elections was that the people of the area, by and large, voted homogeneously in favour of any political party or political grouping. In the 1991 assembly poll, the Congress, which formed the government, bagged almost all seats. However, in the 1996 assembly poll, it was routed and the HVP-BJP combine bagged 14 seats to form the government. With the voting pattern becoming unpredictable in central Haryana, considered to be the trendsetter of the state’s politics, and the results in northern part of the state remaining fractured, the uniform voting pattern in south Haryana has caught the fancy of the political parties. The mood is summed up by the vice president of the HPCC and a former minister of the state, Rao Dharam Pal and a senior leader of INLD, Mr Gopi Chand Gehlot, who opined that south Haryana appeared to be playing a major role in the state politics. Another senior leader of the area said going by the experience of the past few years, south Haryana had been a fertile ground for the Opposition to whip up passion against the government of the day. The nucleus of all agitations in the area is power and water. The law and order was not
much of an issue, as it is today. The agitation by
farmers in the area before the last Lok Sabha elections
is a testimony to it. The agitation with regard to power
and water which had the genesis in about a dozen villages
in Mahendragarh and Bhiwani districts spread to entire
south Haryana and some other parts of the state. Hence,
the opposition parties are, of late showing priority to
launch a campaign against the government in this area. |
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Youths rob driver of Rs 3.41
lakh, held REWARI, Aug 24 — Five armed youths robbed Mr Om Prakash Gulati, driver of a jeep belonging to liquor dealers, of Rs 3.41 lakh near the State Bank of India at about 10.15 am today after injuring him with a sword. The youths decamped with the booty in their white Maruti Zen car. However, Mr Gulati along with Surender who had accompanied him to deposit the money in the bank informed the police about the incident and then gave a chase to the robbers who had sped away towards Dharuhera. Meanwhile, after getting a message the police from Rewari, Dharuhera and Bawal too gave a chase. However, sensing danger the assailants left the Rewari-Dharuhera -Delhi road and turned to Kharkhara village where their Zen got struck in the mud. Leaving the vehicle, they went into the fields of Alawalpur village, about 20 km from Rewari. In the meantime the police also reached there. It immediately cordoned off the entire field area and with the active assistance of villagers nabbed all five youths from the fields. According to the SP, Mr R.C. Jowel, the youths have been identified as Daya Nand, son of Ram Singh, Shyam, son of Raghbir, Bhupinder, son of Siya Nand, all residents of Sirhol village, Manjit, son of Mahabir, resident of Gurgaon village and Rahul, son of Hari Singh, resident of Rohini, Delhi. The accused had allegedly snatched the Maruti Zen bearing the number DL 8CC 9598 from its owner at Gurgaon on August 21. Three days prior to this on August 18, Manjit had escaped from Sonepat jail after throwing chilli powder into the eyes of the jail warden. The police recovered the
money, a revolver and a sword from the accused. The
Maruti Zen has been impounded. A case has been registered
under Sections 395 and 397 of the IPC and the Arms Act. |
DCC to hold 100 meetings in
Rohtak ROHTAK, Aug 24 — The District Congress Committee (Rural) has decided to gird up its loins on the presumption that parliamentary elections may be held earlier than expected. The party, at a meeting held here yesterday, has planned to organise at least 100 public meetings in the next month in the Rohtak parliamentary constituency spread over the Rohtak and Jhajjar districts to "educate people about the policies and programmes" of the Congress. The constituency is represented by the PCC chief, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who also participated in yesterday's meeting. The meeting constituted a five-member committee comprising a former PCC chief, Mr Sultan Singh, Mrs Kartar Devi, leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Mr Anand Singh Dangi, Mr Kirpa Ram Punia and Mr Rughbir Singh Kadiyan (all former ministers) to organise and address these meetings. Besides, the party has also decided to hold workers' meetings from the two districts here on September 20 with a view to activate them and establish a direct rapport between the leaders and party activists. Apart from the office-bearers, the persons who acted as polling and counting agents in the past Lok Sabha elections would attend the September 20 meeting. They would also have the privilege of dining with their leaders on that day. The DCC (Rural) president, Prof Virender, said the meeting expressed concern over the deteriorating law and order situation and the steep rise in the prices of essential commodities. The party decided to hold
demonstrations here to highlight these problems. The date
for the proposed demonstration which would be led by Mr
Hooda, had not been finalised as yet, he added. |
Woman killed in road mishap ROHTAK, Aug 24 — A woman was killed and four others were injured in a road accident involving a Tata Sumo jeep and a truck near the Rohad by-pass on the national highway No. 10, about 35 km from here, last evening. According to police sources, the victim, identified as Kitabo Devi, died on the spot when the jeep loaded with passengers collided with a truck coming from the other direction. The injured have been admitted to the hospital. Meanwhile, in another
incident two passengers, who took a lift from a Tata Sumo
to go to Meham, were allegedly beaten up and their
wristwatches snatched by the driver of the Sumo and four
other persons already travelling in it yesterday. The
police reportedly arrested one of the youths involved in
the incident a few hours later. Cases have been
registered in both cases. |
Karamchari sangh gets a jolt ROHTAK, Aug 24 — The Haryana Sarv Karamchari Sangh (HSKS) received a major jolt today when two of its senior leaders resigned from membership and the Haryana Government PWD Mechanical Workers’ Union announced to withdraw its affiliation from the sangh. Mr Shiv Kumar Prashar and Mr Mahavir Siwach, vice-president of the state unit and a senior member of the central committee of the sangh, respectively, are those who have resigned. Both leaders have charged Master Sher Singh and Mr Ramesh Jagga president and general secretary of the sangh, respectively, with misusing the sangh in the interest of a particular political party. At a convention of the union held here today, Mr Prashar alleged that the sangh leaders were indulging in dividing the unity of other employees’ associations for their personal interests. He said three leaders of the state unit of the sangh, Mr Lal Chand Godar, Mr Babu Gupta and Mr Ram Avtar Sharma, had also resigned from membership of the sangh on the same charges some time back. He alleged that due to the biased leadership of the sangh the 84-day-old agitation of the municipal employees had failed and the accord had not been implemented so far. The nurses were also forced to withdraw their 38-day-old agitation without the acceptance of their demands due to the same reason, he alleged. He claimed that several employees’ associations were seriously considering withdrawing their affiliations from the sangh on account of the increasing intervention of the political party into the activities of the sangh. Both leaders, who have deserted the sangh, have announced the launching of a statewide agitation in support of the demands of the union. The union is demanding a promotional scale for Class IV employees, a scale of Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 for technical employees, fixation of service rules and removal of pay anomalies. Rallies would be held at
district headquarters from September 7 to November 20 and
memoranda submitted to the respective deputy
commissioners under the agitational programme. |
Villagers pool funds to build centre ROHTAK, Aug 24 — Provoked by the administration's refusal to undertake any development project in their village, inhabitants of Titoli have pooled resources to construct a community centre at a cost of Rs 16 lakh. The district administration has as a matter of policy decided not to undertake any development work in the villages whose residents have not paid their electricity bills for the past many years. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anil Kumar, told TNS that priority in development projects would be given to those villagers who pay their bills regularly and behave like responsible citizens. The electricity consumers of Titoli village had stopped paying their bills a couple of years ago on the call of the Bharatiya Kisan Union which had demanded supply of free power and water to the agriculture sector. The electricity consumers of this village owe more than Rs 60 lakh to the state electricity board. Since both the Pradesh Congress Committee and the Indian National Lok Dal have announced to provide free power and water to the farmers if voted to power, the electricity consumers seem reluctant to pay their bills. The attitude of the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam, which has replaced the state electricity board, towards such consumers is yet to be known. A coercive method adopted to recover the pending bills is fraught with grave political consequences as the defaulters are not confined to this village alone. There are nearly 12 villages in the Rohtak parliamentary constituency which are religiously following the diktats of the Bharatiya Kisan Union. Mr Dharm Pal, zila
parishad member, said besides Titoli, the district
administration had refused to undertake any development
work at Khirwali, Ghanaur, Makrauli and Kiloi villages
also. The electricity consumers of these villages too had
not paid their bills. |
One convicted under
adulteration Act CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Sat Prakash, today convicted Garja Singh under the Food Adulteration Act. He sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year, apart from paying a fine of Rs 1,000. A Food Inspector had taken
a sample of the milk that Garja Singh was selling. The
laboratory test found that the milk was adulterated. |
Saini rules out hike in power
tariff CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — Reacting quickly to the statement of the former Leader of the Opposition, Prof Sampat Singh, made at a press conference here today, the Haryana Minister of State for Power, Mr Attar Singh Saini, claimed that there would be no increase in power tariff on account of the ongoing reforms and the farm sector would continue to get power at a subsidised rate. Mr Sampat Singh had claimed that the power tariff would go up manifold and the subsidy to the farm sector would be reduced. Mr Saini said there was clear provision in the Haryana State Electricity Reform Act, for the State Government to pay subsidy. Due to increase in efficiency in the power sector, the transmission losses would come down substantially which were being currently subsidised by the State Government. Hence, that amount would be available with the State Government for other development works. He said it was astonishing that who did nothing for the development of the State, especially the power sector, were now criticising the ruling party to gain political mileage. Had they taken any interest in the development of the power sector, the situation would have been different today. Mr Saini urged the people
not to be misled by the "irresponsible"
statements of the Opposition leaders. He assured the
people that the HVP's promise to supply power round the
clock would be fulfilled shortly. |
Adverse remarks removed from ACR CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — Perhaps for the first time in the history of the IAS in the country, the President of India had ordered expunction of all adverse remarks recorded in the annual confidential report (ACR) of Mr S.C. Chaudhary, a senior Haryana cadre IAS officer, for the year 1991-92. A letter from the Union Personnel Ministry to the Haryana Chief Secretary, inter alia said: "The competent authority, after carefully considering all the facts and materials on records, has decided that the adverse remarks recorded by the reviewing authority (the then Minister of Industrial Training, Mr Tejendra Pal Mann) and endorsed by the accepting authority (the then Chief Minister) along with the gradings given by them be expunged from the ACR of Mr S.C. Chaudhary, a Haryana IAS officer of the 1977 batch". These orders were issued
by the President on a "memorial" Mr Chaudhary
had submitted to him in 1996 through the state
government. The government had, however, delayed
forwarding of the "memorial" for about two
years. It was, however, forwarded to the President on the
intervention of the Haryana Governor with parawise
comments. |
Joshi is chief of architects'
panel CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — Local architect, Mr Vinod Joshi, working as an architect in the Haryana Architecture Department, has been appointed Chairman of the Employed Architects' Committee of Indian Institute of Architects' for the term 1998-2000. This is the first time
that a city architect is on the body of the all-India
committee that has around 8,000 members countrywide. |
Demand to scrap 1998 power Act CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — The Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya) today demanded that the State's Electricity Reforms Act, 1998, should be scrapped because it was "neither in the interest of the State nor of the consumers". Talking to newsmen here today the former Leader of the Opposition, Prof Sampat Singh, who is also the Chairman of the HLDR's Committee for Policies and Programmes, said the Act had merely paved the way for the privatisation of the power sector in the name of reformation. Instead of taking all parties into confidence the HVP-BJP ruling combine did not allow important Opposition leaders to participate in the debate when the Bill was brought before the House. He alleged that the Government had surrendered before the World Bank to sell out the HSEB on the terms and conditions of the farmer. While the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal, was claiming that only one distribution company would be in the joint sector, the government had made a commitment with the World Bank that both the distribution companies would be in the joint sector with the private sector holding a majority share. The companies would not own a major part of the current liabilities of the HSEB but they would inherit the assets of the board at a price to be reduced by 50 per cent. Thus the companies would share only about Rs 400 crore liabilities out of about Rs 4571 crore worth of liabilities of the board which would be the responsibility of the State Government. Similarly, he said, Mr Bansi Lal was misleading the consumers by saying that there would be no increase in the power tariff for one year and the farmers would continue to get power at the subsidised rate of 50 paise per unit. He said as per the written agreement with the World Bank, the tariff for non-agriculture sector would be increased by 44 per cent by 2003 (excluding 15 per cent increase ordered in June last) while for the agriculture sector the increase would be 136 per cent during the same period. Power to the tubewells would cost Rs 174 per horse power instead of Rs 55 per horse power as of now. In contrast the subsidy to be paid by the government would come down to Rs 200 crore in 2002 from Rs 720 crore to be paid in 1999. Asserting that the possibility of an "underhand deal" could not be ruled out, Mr Sampat Singh said when his party would come to power, it would scrap the Act. Even now, he said, his party was in touch with legal experts so that it could challenge the Act in a court of law. He also described the
Haryana Power Regulatory Commission as a "body of
handpicked persons". |
Servant arrested for killing old
woman ROHTAK, Aug 24 — The police has arrested a Nepali youth in connection with the murder of Phoolawati an old woman, and robbery here yesterday. According to police sources the suspect identified as Kishan, 19, had reportedly confessed his involvement in the crime. He had worked as a domestic help in the house of the victim and had left the job about 15 days ago. It is learnt that another servant hailing from Bihar who, helped the suspect in the crime had reportedly absconded. It is learnt that the suspect told the police that he alone had entered the room from a side wall after everybody in the house went to sleep. He said the room of Phoolawati was not locked from inside and he had no problem in going inside. He hit the woman on her head with a wooden bat and gagged her. He said he was being nagged and abused by the victim during his job there. The post-mortem report
confirmed the death by strangulation. The police is
stated to have recovered the ornaments, including two
bangles, two ear-rings and a gold chain from the suspect. |
Karamchari sangh to hold conference SONEPAT, Aug 24 — The district unit of the Sarv Karamchari Sangh, Haryana, has decided to hold a district-level conference here on September 23 to plan its future course of action for launching an agitation against the state government for its failure to accept genuine demands of government employees. Mr Janardan Prasad Kothari, president of the district unit of the sangh told mediapersons here yesterday that delegates from all over the district would attend the conference. He also disclosed that the
sangh would also hold a demonstration on October 2 in
front of the residence of a local minister to protest
against the anti-employee attitude of the state
government. |
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