• IMA office-bearers of Haryana

Jindal floats new forum

CHANDIGARH, Nov 27 — The much-awaited future plans of the industrialist-turned-politician, Mr O.P. Jindal, who recently resigned from the ruling Haryana Vikas Party, were unfolded at a press conference here today.

Mr Jindal along with his associates announced the formation of an "apolitical" organisation, "Haryana Sarvjaati Morcha", the primary objective of which would be to liberate the State from its famous trio of "Lals" and their "lals (sons)".

With Mr Jindal himself heading the Morcha, Mr Ashwani Chopra, Resident Editor of the Delhi edition of Punjab Kesri, will be its Patron. Mr Raghu Yadav, stormy petrel of the Ahirwal, is the General Secretary and Mr Arvind Sharma, former MP from Sonepat, who recently resigned as President of the Haryana Shiv Sena, is the Vice-President.

Mr Yadav, who emerged as the main spokesman of the new outfit, asserted that the Morcha was a social organisation rather than a political organisation, at least for the present. However, none of the four leaders could give a satisfactory reply to the repeated queries by newsmen about how an organisation having political objectives could be described as "apolitical" or a social organisation.

Mr Chopra had to ultimately say that the Morcha could be converted into a political outfit in future if need be. Mr Yadav had to admit that the Morcha "is a group to capture power in Haryana". He said members of the Congress, the Lok Dal and the HVP would be welcomed to join the Morcha only if they quit their parties. But in case of members of other parties like the BSP, to which he himself belongs, they need not resign from their parties to join the Morcha.

Mr Yadav’s argument was that since the first three parties had Mr Bhajan Lal, Mr Devi Lal and Mr Bansi Lal as their members, the other members of these parties too were unwelcome in the Morcha. The BJP too was persona non grata as it had a relationship with the HVP.

The Morcha leaders denied that they were anti-Jat or they wanted to isolate the Jat community in Haryana.

They said they wanted equitable distribution of canal water. In non-canal-fed areas power would be given free for agricultural activities. Recruitment to government jobs would be made transparent and jobs would be given districtwise. Procedures would be simplified for the development of industry which would have to give employment to local people.

Alleging that corruption under the HVP Government was at its peak, they said the Morcha would provide a viable alternative of which the people of Haryana were in search.

Specifications yet to be relaxed
By Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 27 — Notwithstanding the fact that a central team had confirmed the poor quality of paddy which arrived in the mandis of Punjab and Haryana, the Union Food Ministry is taking its own time to take a decision on the relaxation of specifications of levy rice to be procured by the Food Corporation of India (FCI).

According to the present specifications, levy rice should not contain more than 22 per cent broken grains, 2 per cent of damaged grains and 3 per cent of discoloured grains.

After unseasonal rains in the region around Divali this year, the quality of paddy deteriorated sharply. The growers and the millers demanded through their respective State Governments that specifications of the levy rice should be relaxed in view of the extensive damage to paddy. Under pressure from the State Governments the Union Food Ministry agreed to send its teams to Punjab and Haryana for test milling of paddy.

The millers want that the specifications should be relaxed to the previous year's level — 30 per cent broken.

According to reliable sources, during the test milling in Haryana the percentage of broken grains turned out to be 30 to 35, that of discoloured grains from 3.5 to 4.5, while the percentage of damaged grains was 4.5 to 5.

The sources say the team submitted its report to the Ministry several days ago.

The millers say for want of relaxation in the specifications, they have been burdened with huge stocks of unsold rice and unmilled paddy. They say it is not possible to prepare levy rice of the quality the FCI wants. Demand in the open market is slack. In earlier years they would sell 75 per cent of their rice stocks to the FCI and the remaining 25 per cent in the open market. Since the payment from the FCI is very quick, their liquidity position was equally easy with the result they could not only make prompt payments to the growers but could also offer more to the growers for their produce.

This year the growers have been doubly unblessed. Not only their crops were damaged by the unseasonal rains but they had to also sell their produce at lower rates because of cash crunch with the millers. They have yet to receive their payments in many cases.

The sources say if the Food Ministry had relaxed the specifications when the paddy was still arriving in the mandis, the farmers would have gained substantially. However, now the paddy arrivals were over.

The millers see a design in the Food Ministry's indecisiveness. The President of the Haryana Yuva Beopari Sangathan, Mr Jai Bhagwan Singla, says that normally in a government department one has to shell out money to quicken the things. "But the Food Ministry seems to have been persuaded by interested quarters to slow down a decision on the relaxation of specifications of levy rice as much as it can," he says.

The Senior Vice-President of the Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr N C Jain, has openly accused the Food Ministry of working under the influence of the cartel of exporters which, he says, wants the price of rice in the open market to reach rock bottom and make a quick buck.

He said any further delay on the part of the Ministry would ruin the rice industry in the region and it would not be able to come out of red in the coming years. Ultimately the paddy grower of the region would be the sufferer.

Inconvenience, SSSB style
From Our Correspondent

FATEHABAD, Nov 27 — A recent decision of the Subordinate Services Selection Board (SSS Board) Haryana, by which it held written examinations for the candidates for the posts of patwari in November at places away from the places of their residence has come in for sharp criticism from all quarters besides putting the candidates to a lot of inconvenience.

It is learnt that the Board is going to conduct written test for the posts of Patwari on November 29. Nearly 1.36 lakh candidates are going to appear in this test. While 1.27 lakh candidates are from different districts of Haryana, the remaining 9000 candidates are from outside the state. All these will have to move from the place of their residence to the place of their written test on that day. Many of them will have to go to far away places and thus shell out big sums for their transportation.

According to sources, 4803 candidates from this district will appear in the written test on November 29. Of these 1500 will have to take the test at Bhiwani, 3300 at Ambala while the remaining three candidates will appear at Karnal. Likewise a total of 14990 candidates from Hisar district will appear in the test. Of these 1500 will appear at Bhiwani, 2557 at Sirsa, 1779 at Fatehabad, 2360 at Jhajjar, 3300 at Ambala, 3260 at Yamunanagar and 234 at Kaithal.

Similarly 2044 candidates from Panchkula district will have to move to Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar district 4402 candidates from Ambala will have to move to Kaithal and Karnal 4185 candidates from Yamunanagar district will move to Panchkula, Kaithal and Panipat district, 5141 candidates of Kurukshetra will move to Panchkula and Panipat, 6296 candidates for Kaithal district have been divided in four different districts i.e. Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar and Hisar, 9069 candidates from Jind district have been divided into six different groups and they will have to appear at Bhiwani, Kurukshetra, Jhajjar, Yamunanagar, Sirsa and Kaithal respectively. Nearly 13756 candidates from Bhiwani will move to eight different district headquarters i.e. Fatehabad, Karnal, Hisar, Panipat, Narnaul, Rewari, Gurgaon and Kaithal. 7671 candidates from Rohtak will have to move to Narnaul, Rewari, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Karnal and Fatehabad 4995 candidates from Jhajjar will move to Hisar, Faridabad & Narnaul 8658 candidates from Sonepat will move to Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Faridabad, Bhiwani and Gurgaon, 3264 candidates from Panipat will move to Yamunanagar, Kaithal and Faridabad, 6518 candidates from Karnal will move to Panchkula, Ambala and Hisar, 6018 candidates from Gurgaon will move to Faridabad and Narnaul, 7429 candidates from Faridabad will move to Rewari and Panipat, 5787 candidates from Rewari will go to Faridabad, Bhiwani and Gurgaon and 6155 candidates from Mahendergarh will move to Hisar and Gurgaon districts on that day. About 9000 candidates belonging to other states will appear in the written test at Sonepat.

From the above, it is clear that while some candidates have been asked to appear in written test at a district headquarter adjacent to their home district, many more other will have to move to for away places to appear in the test. Besides paying far transport charges they will also have to waste a lot of time for the journey. This has led to a large scale resentment among the candidates, most of whom are unemployed youths.

The Roadways Karamchari Union, Haryana, too has assailed the decision of the board. In a statement issued here today, Mr Nihal Singh, Matana, General Secretary of the state unit of the union alleged that the step had been taken by the government as a well planned conspiracy to encourage private vehicles plying illegally on the roads. He said that the government had directed the Roadways authorities to arrange buses for the movement of the candidates. But this, he said, was not possible with the given resources with the Roadways. He cited the example of Fatehabad which is one of those districts which had the least number of candidates. Even then he said more than 75 buses were needed for Fatehabad which was beyond the reach of the depot. He said this would only benefit the owners of illegal vehicles and cause a lot of inconvenience to the public in general.

35 IAS posts vacant: Hooda
Tribune News Service

ROHTAK, Nov 27 — Mr Krishan Murti Hooda, a former Haryana minister, has charged the government with misleading the Union Public Service Commission about the vacancies in IAS cadre posts in Haryana.

He said at least 35 IAS posts had been vacant in Haryana and the government had not held the meeting of the Departmental Promotion Committee since 1993. He said this had led to widespread resentment among HCS officers. The government, in the past two years, had fixed many dates for holding the meetings but these were cancelled for one reason or another.

Similarly, though the state has a cadre of 240 HCS officers but it has only 130 HCS officers on its rolls. The results of the examination held in December 1997 for the HCS has not been declared so far. Many posts of Tehsildar and BDPO have also been vacant in the state.

Mr Hooda has urged the Governor, Mr Mahabir Prasad, to intervene and direct the state government to fix date for holding a meeting of the Departmental Promotion Committee.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the HCS Officers Association has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the State Government to hold meeting of the Departmental Promotion Committee every year.

Houses built on govt land demolished
Tribune News Service

ROHTAK, Nov 27 — The district administration today started demolition of the houses allegedly built by encroaching upon the land owned by the local medical college and hospital.

Incidentally, the houses demolished today were inhabited by Harijan families, who claimed that they had been living here for the past 50 years.

Before launching the demolition the administration told the HVPN to remove electric metres of these houses. But this was opposed by the residents and the HVPN then switched off power supply to these houses.

The SDM, Mr RK Chauhan told that the land belonged to the medical college but these people had encroached upon it. Though these residents lost their case in a court of law, the administration gave them six months' time to vacant this prime land.

The residents claimed that the administration had issued ration cards on these house numbers, enrolled them as voters and provided them electricity connections.

Seventy-year-old Bharpai said that she has been living in this house since her marriage 50 years ago. Rajkumar (45) told that since his birth he has been living in the house which the administration now claim to have been constructed on encroached land.

The general secretary, DCC (urban) and Municipal Councillor, Mr Rajbir Singh Saini has criticised the administration for demolishing the houses of the poor. He said that if the administration was sincere to get encroachments on government lands cleared it should demolish the pucca structures raised on government land in the Model town area by influential persons.

HFUCTO plea for strike period salary
Tribune News Service

ROHTAK, Nov 27 — The Haryana Federation of University and College Teachers Organisation (HFUCTO) has urged the government to release salary for the strike period to the university and college teachers in Haryana.

A deputation of the HFUCTO met the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal last week in Haryana Bhavan at Delhi and told him that the strike was to secure financial assistance to the state from the Centre and was not against the interests of Haryana. The HFUCTO convener Mr Vazir Nehra said that the Chief Minister had set up a committee to examine the demands and advised the deputation to meet the Chief Secretary in this regard.

The deputation also met the Education Minister, Mr Ram Bilas Sharma, who according to Mr Nehra, assured that a final decision would be taken on the demand by November 30.

University and college teachers all over the country had gone on indefinite strike from August 11 to demand implementation of the UGC-recommended pay scales. The strike was called off on September 5 following an agreement between the teacher organisations and the Union HRD Ministry. The agreement also envisaged that no punitive action would be taken against the striking teachers.

Mr Nehra said that the deputation told the Chief Minister that the teachers were doing their best to compensate students for the loss of studies. The number of vacation holidays has already been reduced for this purpose, he said.

IMA office-bearers of Haryana
From Our Correspondent

GURGAON, Nov 27 — The following have been elected office-bearers of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Haryana: president — Dr Subhash Khanna (Gurgaon); Senior vice-president — Dr D.S. Jaswal (Ambala city); vice-president — Dr Rohtash Yadav (PGIMS, Rohtak); Patron — Dr Ved Beniwal (Sirsa); secretary — Dr Anil Aggarwal (Gurgaon); assistant secretary — Dr Munish Prabhakar (Gurgaon); propaganda secretary — Dr Ashok Taneja (Gurgaon); treasurer — Dr Ashwani Kalra (Gurgaon), Editor, HMJ- Dr P.K. Dohli (Sonepat); Chairman, IMAAMS — Dr S.L. Verma (Rohtak city); Director, IMACGD — Dr Y.K. Sangwan (Bahadurgarh); chairman (Sports wing) — Dr R.K. Chaudhary (Karnal) and chairman (women's wing) — Dr Namrata Madan (Panchkula).

The following have been elected office-bearers of the IMA (Gurgaon branch): patrons — Dr N.K. Jain and Dr R.S. Yadav; president — Dr Ashok Taneja; vice presidents — Dr I.P. Nagia, and Dr Mahesh Gupta; secretary — Dr Kapil Midha; Chairman, IMAAMS — Dr NPS Verma; and secretary, IMAAMS — Dr Munish Prabhakar.

New scholarship scheme
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 27 — With a view to encouraging meritorious students of Haryana domicile, the Haryana Higher Education Department has introduced a new scholarship scheme.

The Haryana Education Minister, Mr Ram Bilas Sharma today said that 380 scholarships worth Rs 5 lakh for medical and non-medical girl students would be created under the new scheme. He said a sum of Rs 16 lakh had been earmarked for the current financial year. A sum of Rs 55 lakh had been proposed for the Ninth plan.

Scholarships would be awarded according to district-wise merit list of 10+2 class examination held during 1997-98 of the Haryana School Education Board. Twenty scholarships would be allocated to each district.

Applications from eligible girl students with 60 per cent or above marks in 10+2 had been invited up to December 31 through the heads of institutions, he said.

Jind HVP chief resigns
From Our Correspondent

JIND, Nov 27 — Mr Sri Chand Jain, President, Haryana Vikas Party Jind circle, has resigned from the post-of presidentship in protest against the alleged anti-people policies of the State Government.

Mr Jain is considered to be a close associate of Mr O.P. Jindal, an industrialist turned politician, who had recently resigned from the Haryana Vikas Party.

In a statement issued here today, he alleged that the government had failed on all fronts and it had no moral right to remain in power. He said law and order situation in the state had deteriorated.

He alleged that the government had not fulfilled its promise of abolishing octroi and no concession was given to traders. He said the government could not maintain adequate supply of DAP fertiliser which had resulted delay in the sowing of rabi crops.

Mr Jain also resigned from the membership of the district Grievance Committee.

Naib tehsildar, wife, 2 sons booked
in abduction case
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, Nov 27 — The police has registered a case under Sections 341, 364, 323, 506, 504 and 120B of the IPC against a Naib-Tehsildar Rishi Prakash, his wife Renu Sharma and his sons Vikas alias Vikki and Dikki on the charge of abducting a girl student of the local Sri Baba Mastnath Ayurvedic college here today.

Though no arrest has been made so, far, the girl was recovered from the house of the naib tehsildar. She was produced in the court of the chief judicial magistrate today and later handed over to her father.

Mr Ravi Raj, father of the girl stated in the FIR that her daughter had gone to hostel of the college to study there on November 19 and she was to return the next day. But he said when she did not turn up they started searching her and were informed that she had been kept at the house of one Rishi Prakash.

When Mr Ravi Raj, alongwith some members of his family reached the house of Mr Rishi Parkash at Sector-1 here, the accused with two sons denied the presence of girl at their house. Suddenly Mr Ravi Raj heard the screams of her daughter from inside the house and insisted to take her back at this the accused allegedly manhandled Mr Ravi Raj and drove him backaway.

Shakti sena to hold protest march
From Our Correspondent

SONEPAT, Nov 27 — The All-India Hindu Shakti Sena will organise a march of Hindus from Delhi to Jammu-Ranbir Singhpura Border under the leadership of Jagatguru Shankaracharya of Jyotish peechhadhi-shwer next month in protest against the increasing militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and the failure of the government to protect the lives and property of Hindus in the state.

In a signed press statement issued here, Swami Virendranand Giri, national vice-president of the sena, said the march was aimed at boosting confidence among the Hindus of the area who were migrating from time to time in view of the growing activities of the militants.

He alleged that the unchecked activities of anti-national organisations had threatened the unity and integrity of the country. It was on this account that the Hindus of Jammu and Kashmir had to migrate to places of safety.

The Swami also alleged that the Hindus were feeling unsafe in Jammu and Kashmir.

Suspect surrenders in court
Tribune News Service

ROHTAK, Nov 27 — Rajesh suspected of killing three youths surrendered in the court of Mr S.P. Singh, Civil Judge (Senior Divn), Jhajjar, on Thursday.

His advocate R.C. Dalal said the police was surprised when Rajesh surrendered.

The bodies of the three victims were found in a well at village Chimni (Dharana) on September 12 last.

Two of the deceased persons, in their twenties, belonged to village Kanina and the third hailed from village Gudha.