CM’s visit brings no cheer
SIRSA, Dec 29 — The much-awaited visit of the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal, here again proved disappointing for the people as he hardly conceded any of their demands.

Regional forum flays discrimination
GURGAON, Dec 29 — South Haryana has been grossly neglected first as a part of joint Punjab and now as part of Haryana.

• Main suspect in murder case held
• HPCC plans 'padyatra'

CM’s visit brings no cheer
Tribune News Service

SIRSA, Dec 29 — The much-awaited visit of the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal, here again proved disappointing for the people as he hardly conceded any of their demands.

Although the Chief Minister gave a long speech, except for touching one demand regarding the setting up of a sugar mill, he ignored all other demands. He did not even give any assurance regarding the setting up of the sugar mill. He only offered the support of his government to any cooperative or private body for the setting up of a mill. The Chief Minister made it clear that the government run sugar mills usually proved to be failures.

This is not the first time that the Chief Minister has left without committing anything. In fact during all his visits he has been skipping the demands of the residents here, remarked a local journalist. He said, for the past one year, Mr Bansi Lal had only been harping on providing round-the-clock power to people by July next. "Who knows, if the government is really serious about it", an elderly person sitting among the audience supported the remark.

He pointed out that people were more concerned with the local problems like the construction of roads, lanes, bylanes and drains.

For the past few years a building constructed at a cost of about Rs 2 crore for the regional centre of Guru Jambeshwar University had not been put to use. The government is yet to start postgraduate classes there. The issue was raised at the public meeting of the Chief Minister, but he refused to comment.

Other demands listed at the public meeting included the deepening of Otu lake on the Ghaggar so that the water could be used the year round for irrigation and construction of a bridge on the river at Panihari or Budhabana village.

Sirsa district has been worst-hit district with the problem of waterlogging. Two assembly segments of Darbha and Rorhi are almost completely submerged. The Chief Minister was expected to order some urgent measures. Except for making a general reference to a masterplan prepared by the government, he did not announce any immediate measures. Ram Kumar Neol, who has been spearheading the agitation for providing relief to the affected people told this correspondent that they had lost all hopes from the government. He said, for the past three years they were being told that a big drain would be constructed, but nothing practical was done.

The residents of Sirsa presented a list of 17 demands to the Chief Minister, including those mentioned above. But none of the demands was taken note by the government.

Meanwhile, BJP flags are vanishing from the Chief Minister’s public meetings. No BJP flags could be seen at his public meetings at Ratia and Sirsa.

Our Correspondent adds: Mr Bansi Lal directed the district administration to allot plots to members of the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes on a priority basis from the samlat land in the villages so that they could built their dwelling units.

He was addressing an officers’ meeting at PWD Rest House while reviewing the working of Food and Supplies Department. He said a comprehensive survey should be undertaken for providing ration cards to such people who were living below the poverty line. He asked the authorities to ensure the proper distribution of kerosene and sugar among the needy.

The Chief Minister directed the doctors to provide better health care facilities to the poor.

Mr Bansi Lal ordered the transport authority to check the illegal plying of vehicles and take strictly action against the tax evaders.

Regional forum flays discrimination
From Our Correspondent

GURGAON, Dec 29 — South Haryana, comprising of Gurgaon, Rewari, Mohindergarh and Faridabad have been grossly neglected first as a part of joint Punjab and now as part of Haryana. The valiant people of this area have given a tough fight to Britain during 1857 and the same spirit of bravery was displayed on the battle-lines during the China and Pakistan war. But people of the area were exploited by northern and western leaders of the state who headed governments in Haryana since 1966.

Speaking at a press conference, Mr R.N. Yadav, convener of the South Haryana Vikas Parishad said that, "discrimination in the sectors of education, employment, agriculture facilities, power availability, development and political exploitation etc speak volumes of the bias against south Haryana.

The existence of two medical colleges, five dental colleges, four universities, two agricultural colleges, three law colleges, two veterinary colleges and 95 per cent of technical education colleges in northern Haryana as against not a single specialist college in south Haryana is clear proof of this.

He told reporters that the contribution to the revenue of the state from the south was about 1000 crore per annum but the major portion of this was spent on northern/western Haryana.

Mr Yadav said the South Haryana Vikas Parishad had launched a public awareness programme to apprise the people of this area of discrimination.

Scientists for more emphasis on N-energy
From K.G. Dutt
Tribune News Service

KURUKSHETRA, Dec 29 — Top scientists of the country and abroad have expressed the view that India needs to provide impetus to its nuclear programme for meeting the security needs as well as energy fuel requirements of the country. A cross section of over 300 physicists, who have gathered here to attend an international symposium on solid state physics, expressed the view that India was self-sufficient as far as nuclear power Production was concerned. It had complete know-how of the nuclear cycle, starting from mining of uranium to fuel production and fabrication of reactors.

A section of scientists maintained that India had taken its right place amongst the nuclear powers with the Pokhran blasts. Many were of the view that research in solid state physics should be strengthened at the grassroot level. The younger generation should be attracted towards the study of physics. Besides, more emphasis should be laid on the production of nuclear energy for meeting the increasing power requirements of the country.

Amongst the noted scientists who delved on the progress made in the field of solid state physics, Dr S.K. Sikka, Director, S.S. & S.G. of the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, (Mumbai) stated that solid state physics had played a yeoman’s role in the Pokhran blasts. Dr Sikka, who was mainly responsible for the simulation of the three blasts at Pokhran, expressed the view that India had carved out its name amongst the top nuclear powers of the world. Whether anybody admitted it or not, but India today was a nuclear power to reckon with. Dr Sikka wanted that more emphasis should be laid on the study of solid state physics.

Dr P.S. Goyal, Centre Director, Inter-University Consortium for Department of Atomic Energy Facilities, Mumbai Centre, maintained that India had the full capability of handling nuclear waste. "We have our own reactors for power production. We know the mining of uranium to fuel production and are completely self-sufficient in the field of nuclear energy", Dr Goyal stated. Over a period of time India should increase its total components of nuclear power production. He emphatically said that sanctions imposed by the Western powers would not affect India’s nuclear programme in any way. However, on the scientific level, there was some difficulty in interaction with foreign scientists and attending symposia. He was sad that some countries were not allowing interaction with Indian scientists after the Pokhran blasts. This attitude was not going to affect the programme of nuclear energy but it would definitely have some affect on basic sciences. Dr Goyal was hesitant to reply about India’s signing the CTBT, he stated: "As a citizen of India, we should protect our interests. There should be no compromise with security of the country". Dr Goyal maintained that as research facilities were very expensive it was difficult for the universities to build such facilities. He, therefore, suggested that centralised facilities where all scientists should come to work and share their experiences should be created.

Dr M.L. Ranga, Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, stated that ancient Indian texts were full of instances where the country had achieved glory in the field of nuclear science. He maintained that Rishi Karad was the first seer who talked about nuclear energy and itomism in "Vashisht Darshan". Dr Ranga maintained that it was Dr James Franc of Germany who got cue from "Vashisht Darshan" and supported the theory of Itomism of the Indian sage. Dr James Franc was later awarded Nobel Prize for this in 1925. He wanted the scientists to delve deep into the ancient Indian texts to update their energy.

Prof M. Lindroos of the Tempere University of Technology (Finland) maintained that from the environmental point of view, India should go whole-hog for the production of nuclear power. As India was a very large country, it needed to have a comprehensive nuclear programme. Prof Lindroos stated that Finland had four reactors which met 30 per cent of the electricity requirements of the country. Nuclear power production was the safest way to meet the energy requirement of any country in order to keep its ecology pollution-free. He refused to talk about the atomic energy programme of India as he knew little about the progress India had made in the field of nuclear power.

Dr B.K. Godwal, convener of the symposium, claimed that India was at par with countries in the production of nuclear energy and its applications. He maintained that the country was self-reliant in the field of applied research which was required for various applications. He maintained that the Pokhran tests had given us everything which "we required for such tests". The country had received right type of expertise from these tests. He further disclosed that "our devices were very sophisticated". And if the country desired the scientists were in a position to work for the desired aims in future.

Prof N.D. Sharma, Chairman of the Department of Physics, Kurukshetra University, and Local Convener of the seminar, stated that the present seminar had brought international recognition to the Department of Physics of this University. The scientists here were going to receive special attention from the Department of Atomic Energy as well as Department of Science and Technology. Dr Sharma called for more inter-active-collaborative work with the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre and the Department of Atomic Energy at Indore and Mumbai.

Prof Priya Darshan Vashishta, Lovisian State University, USA, stated that the development of new efficient computational algonitems and massively parallel computers would make the production of material properties possible prior to actual synthesise. He stated that future developments in the field of solid state physics would make it possible to synthesise materials with desired properties for high temperature and high pressure applications.

Prof Vincent Mckoy, Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, gave a lecture discussing his work on using large-scale parallel computers to obtain the basic data on electron collision with gases used on semiconductor manufacturing. This data is needed to help improve the simulations of plasma processes and reactors that are widely used in the production of integrated circuits.

National phone directory service soon
From Our Correspondent

AMBALA, Dec 29 — Telephone subscribers in the district will soon have the facility of having a "national telephone directory service" for which they will have to dial 183.

This was stated by the General Manager of the Ambala Telecom District, Mr C.R. Kataria, at a meeting of the Telephone Advisory Committee, here today.

Mr Kataria said the subscribers would be able to know the telephone number of any subscriber in the country free of charge. He said the problem of different formats at different telephone exchanges was being resolved for this purpose. However, initially, the facility would be available only to the subscribers of modern exchanges.

The General Manager said though some government investigating agencies had approached department officials seeking permission to tap the telephones of some persons, the requests had been turned down and no telephone was being tapped at the moment. He said the calling line identification facility would be available to the subscribers from January for which they would be charged once only.

He said as per the new rules of the Department of Telecommunications, rebate would be given to any subscriber whose telephone did not work for more than a week. He said henceforth, cable operators using department's poles would be booked by the police as it was against government directives.

The problem of some service numbers like 197 and 198, not giving satisfactory services, was due to inadequate staff, he said. An inquiry would be conducted into complaints of the use of sub-standard bricks by contractors in the laying of cables.

Several members raised the issue of the non-repair of roads after digging for cable-laying. He said while the department had paid money in advance for the purpose, municipal council official had reportedly diverted the funds. The Deputy Commissioner had been apprised of the matter.

He said 100 per cent automisation had been achieved in the district, adding that, the capacity of the Ambala secondary switching area had crossed 1 lakh lines in October.

Municipal committee poll today
From Rajmeet Singh

PINJORE (Panchkula), Dec 29 — Thirtynine candidates, including nine women, will test their fortunes in the elections to the Pinjore municipal committee scheduled for tomorrow.

This will be the first elections to the committee since its inception three years ago.

The candidates will be contesting for nine of the total 13 seats of the municipal committee. While the election of ward no.1 has been rescheduled for January 17, the candidates in the ward no. 3, 4 and 5 have already been elected unopposed.

The din of electioneering ended yesterday, the last day for campaigning. The voters in this historic township appear to be enthusiastic to cast votes and talk about their favourite candidates. In ward no. 10, which is reserved for women (general category), there is triangular contest between Ms Raj Kaur, Ms Raj Rani and Ms Yashoda Devi. In ward no. 12, also reserved for women (general category), Ms Karnail Kaur and Ms Mohinder Kaur are in the fray. Ms Shakuntla has already been declared elected unopposed from ward no. 4.

While ward no. 1 and 2 are reserved for Backward Class candidates ward no 5, 6, and 11 are reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates. Officials of the Municipal Committee disclosed that 8,273 voters will be exercise their franchise in the elections to the nine wards tomorrow.

In ward no. 2 Ms Gurdev Kaur, Mr Jasmer Singh, Mr Madan Lal, Mr Ram Chander and Mr Sucha Ram are in the fray. Three candidates — Ms Jassi Kaur, Ms Maya Devi and Ms Kamlesh — are contesting in ward no. 6. In ward no. 7 Mr Arvinder Singh, Mr Sanjeev, Mr Om Parkash, Mr Parvesh, Mr Bharat Bhusan, Mr Ranjit Singh and Mr Sanjeev Kumar are vying with one another.

While seven candidates — Ms Indu Devi, Mr Karam Singh, Mr Nehal Singh, Mr Roshan Lal, Mr Rajesh Kumar, Mr Rajinder Mehta and Mr Vijay — are contesting from ward no. 8, there is a triangular contest between Mr Achru Ram, Mr Sant Kumar and Mr Preetan Dass in ward no. 9.

In ward no. 11, Mr Girdhari Lal, Mr Phool Chand, Mr Bhura Ram, Mr Ramesh Chand and Mr Sham Lal are in the fray. Four candidates — Mr Gulzar Singh, Mr Naresh, Mr Balak and Mr Mohinder — are contesting from ward no. 13.

Meanwhile, over 80 policemen have been deployed to man the 10 polling booths.

White Paper on power sought
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH Dec 29 — The former Haryana Power Minister and senior Lok Dal leader, Prof Sampat Singh, today demanded that the HVP-BJP Government should publish a White Paper on the power scenario of the State with particular reference to the "so-called reforms" in the power sector.

Talking to newsmen here, Prof Sampat Singh said the White Paper should be accompanied with all relevant documents and there should be a public debate from a common platform in which representatives of the Government and the Opposition should participate.

He alleged that the Government functionaries, including the Chief Minister and even the Deputy Commissioners, were misleading the people of the State everyday on electricity reforms.

Challenging the Government's claim that it had obtained a loan of Rs 2400 crore from the World Bank for reforming the power sector, the Lok Dal leader said so far only Rs 240 crore had been sanctioned by the bank as part of the adaptable programme loan (APL-I), out of which only Rs 32 crore had been received by the State. Talks on APL-II were still on.

Prof Sampat Singh said it was doubtful if the bank would disburse the remaining amount because to get the loan the Government had to hike the power tariff for tubewells and the agriculture sector by 50 per cent and for the urban areas by 10 to 15 per cent in the next financial year. He said it was to be seen if the Government was courageous enough to raise the power tariff for the agriculture sector.

Terming the Government's claim to provide round-the-clock power supply by July next as "highly misleading" he said the sixth unit of the Panipat thermal plant of 210 MW would become functional only by the end of 2000. Even in case of the 432-MW Faridabad gas-based thermal plant work had started only for generating 146 MW which would be completed by next year. This project, he said, was being executed by the NTPC and the State would have to buy power from it.

He said no work had yet been started on the Yamunanagar and Hisar thermal plants. He said the Yamunanagar thermal plant stood where it was left by the Janata Dal Government.

He alleged that the present government could ensure round-the-clock power supply only after disconnecting power supply at a large scale. He also alleged that targets for disconnection had been given to the field staff on the pretext of inflated bills as well as the bills prepared on the basis of minimum charges or sanctioned load. He said it was absurd to impose minimum charges when the government could not assure the power supply. He also alleged that in many cases the people had not operated their tubewells for a long time because rain water was still standing in their fields. Still they were being made to pay flat rate or minimum charges for the power supply. He said when the present government took over, the State had 3.75 lakh energised tubewells. Now their number had come down to 3.45 lakh. Over 70,000 applications for power supply to tubewells were pending.

Prof Sampat Singh also criticised the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal, for agreeing to the imposition of a hydel-power cess of 5 paise per generated unit of power. This money, he said, would be used to clear the arrears of the State with the central power generation authorities.

He said there was resentment among engineers over the "bureaucratisation" of the HVPN and Genco. He alleged that the government had changed its stand on the electoral promise of round-the-clock power supply to all sectors. Now the government was promising round-the-clock power supply on to the domestic sector and only for eight hours to the rural areas and that too after July next. This, in fact, was an admission that at present the rural areas of the State were not getting power even for eight hours.

Protest against Bansi Govt today
From Our Correspondent

SONEPAT, Dec 29 — The Haryana unit of the National Platform of Mass Organisations has decided to observe December 30 as protest day and hold rallies at all district headquarters in the state to register its protest against the repression let loose on the government employees and workers by the HVP-BJP alliance government, headed by Chief Minister Bansi Lal.

Announcing this, Mr S.N. Solanki, president, Haryana state committee of the Centre of India Trade Unions (CITU) told mediapersons here today that the Chief Minister was bent upon the crushing of the voice of government employees who had been agitating for the acceptance of their just and legitimate demands for the past couple of years. He condemned the use of ESMA against government employees and the arrest of atleast 500 employees on December 11 when they joined the nationwide strike, the call of which was given by various political parties and trade as well as the employees unions.

Mr Solanki described the action of the Bansi Lal government as anti-democratic, unjust and uncalled for.

He appealed to the people, particularly the government employees and industrial workers to join tomorrow's protest by holding rallies and demonstrations and express their solidarity with the agitating government employees and workers.

Meanwhile, the Haryana Government PWD Machanical Workers Union, the Socialist Unity Centre of India, the Sarv Karamchari Sangh and CITU today announced their decision to take part in tomorrow's protest day, rallies and demonstrations.

Main suspect in murder case held
From Our Correspondent

SONEPAT, Dec 29 — The CIA staff of the police department today claimed to have arrested Satish, alias Bubla of Fatehpur village, main suspect in the case of the alleged kidnapping and murder of Ramesh Kumar of HUDA Colony here, his wife Luxmi and their sons Sonu and Monu in September.

The SP, Mr K. Selvraj, told mediapersons here today that two other suspects, Rajinder of Baroli village and Dharamvir of Kanehli village, had already been arrested and the number of arrests in this case had now risen to three.

He also said Satish had confessed that he, along with his accomplices, had taken Ramesh Kumar to Rohtak in a car and shot him dead and threw his body into a canal. Later, they returned to the house of Ramesh Kumar and took his wife and sons in the same car to Nandnaur village in this district and shot her dead. The accused threw the boys into the Yamuna.

According to the SP, the suspect also confessed that he along with Rajbir and Mohinder of Thana Khurd village and Jaswant, alias Zile of Adarsh Nagar, had robbed two truck drivers at gunpoint near Fatehpur village. The police had arrested all three culprits involved in the incident.

Congress to hold function at Yamunanagar
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 29 — The Haryana Congress has decided to hold a State-level function to celebrate the tercentenary of the birth of Khalsa at Yamunanagar in the first week of April next.

The decision was taken at the first meeting of a committee set up by the party for celebrating the 300th birth anniversary of the Khalsa held here today under the chairmanship of Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, President of the Haryana Congress.

A spokesman of the party said here today that the State-level function would be followed by regional functions at Rohtak, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Ambala, Gurgaon and Sirsa.

The committee also decided to publish a booklet in Hindi and Punjabi on the mission of the Khalsa mentioning the places of historical importance visited by the Sikh Gurus before April, 1699, and afterwards.

A group of senior Haryana Congress leaders led by Mr Hooda will participate in the padyatra programme of the Punjab Congress in connection with the tercentenary celebrations.

HPCC plans 'padyatra'
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, Dec 29 — Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee chief Bhupinder Singh Hooda will perform a "padyatra" from Kalka to Jind to expose the "anti-people" policies of Chief Minister Bansi Lal and to convey the message of AICC President Sonia Gandhi. This "padyatra" is to be concluded at Jind where a virat rally will be organised to launch a statewide campaign in order to root out the HVP-BJP Government.

Mr Hooda said yesterday the dates for the "padyatra" and the rally would be fixed at the HPCC meeting scheduled for December 30 at Chandigarh.

Mr Hooda said another three such "padyatras" would be started from Dabwali, Palwal and Kaithal.

Seven killed in jeep-tanker collision
Tribune News Service

ROHTAK, Dec 29 — Seven persons were killed and nine injured in a head-on-collision between a jeep and an oil tanker, near here, today.

The ill-fated jeep was going from here to Sampla when it collided with a tanker coming from the opposite direction. The jeep driver, Sanjay, it is said, could not see the tanker due to dense fog. He was among those killed.
The deceased have been identified as Behari Lal of Jagdish Colony, Vinod Kumar of Mohalla Kayasthan, Tilak Raj, of DFL Colony, Savita of Arya Nagar, Pradeep of Chawla Colony, Malkhan Singh of Serai-Aurangabad village (Jhajjar) and Sanjay of Bahu-Akbarpur village.

While four persons died on the spot, two succumbed to their injuries on way to the Medical College and Hospital. One died in the hospital.

The police has registered a case under Sections 279, 337, 304-A, IPC, against the driver of the oil tanker, Shiv Kumar, who has reportedly absconded.

Police seeks records in phone pole case
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, Dec 29 — The police has requisitioned the records of the Telecom Department here in connection with the alleged theft of 330 telephone poles. The poles worth about Rs 1.25 lakh were seized from the house of an employee of the department have been lying in the city police station here for about a month.

According to the police sources, the records store of the Telecom office have been requisitioned to enquire whether there was any shortfall of the poles in the store. Mr P.K. Agarwal, SSP, said that the probe into the case had been going on and the mystery behind these poles was likely to be unfolded very soon.