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H A R Y A N A |  |
 Friday, March 19, 1999 |
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Periphery buildings to be
regularised Hooda
condemns Mann's statement Govt
library sans grant |
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Haryana’s
financial crisis cases Sumer
Chand Bhatt dead Menon
favours Sanskrit as people’s language Three
arrested on dacoity charge |
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Periphery buildings to be
regularised CHANDIGARH, March 18 — The Haryana Government today decided to exempt the areas falling within the municipal limits of Kalka and Pinjore from the provisions of the Punjab New Capital (Periphery) Control Act, 1952, which would automatically regularise a large number of buildings constructed within the municipal limits of these towns. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Haryana Cabinet here today. The Cabinet approved a Bill to amend the periphery Act. The proposed amendments provide among other things, an appellate authority for hearing appeals against orders passed by the Deputy Commissioner under Section 12(2) of the Act. An official spokesman said here today that so far there was no provision for filing an appeal against the orders passed by the DC. As a consequence the affected persons moved the High Court for remedial measures. Now the Secretary, Town and Country Planning Department, would be designated as the appellate authority. The amendments also aim at reducing the requirement of issuing three notices for removal of encroachments to only one notice. At present three consecutive notices of 15 days, 30 days and 24 hours, respectively, are required before unauthorised constructions can be removed by a competent authority. Now only one notice of seven days will be required. The spokesman expressed the hope that with this amendment the government would be able to effectively check unauthorised constructions in the periphery of Chandigarh. The Cabinet also decided that the civic bodies and panchayati raj institutions would be paid Rs 2 per bottle of Indian made foreign liquor of 750 ml sold within their jurisdiction in lieu of octroi or any other tax during the next financial year. A Hindi film, "Border" and a Punjabi film, "Shaheed-e-Mohabbat (Boota Singh) have been exempted from entertainment tax for four weeks and two weeks, respectively. The Cabinet also approved
a proposal for investment of Rs 5 crore by the state
government for installing associated ash handling system
for retrofit electrostatic precipator (ESP) for stage one
of the Panipat Thermal Power Station. It also approved
the transfer of 209 sqmtr belonging to the Irrigation
Department at Faridabad to the Haryana Power Generation
Corporation for setting up a chlorination plan. |
Hooda condemns Mann's statement CHANDIGARH, Match 18 — Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, President, Haryana Pradesh Congress (I) Committee, has condemned Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, President, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), for his reported statement to start filling up the already dug SYL canal in the Punjab territory, namely, the Doon Kheri and Alampur villages near Bassi Pathana from March 20. The Haryana PCC chief said Mr Mann was indulging in anti-national activities by issuing such uncalled-for provocative statements which might create reaction among the people of Haryana. Mr Hooda said the Akali government of Punjab, in 1977, had received an advance of Rs 2 crore from the then Haryana Government for acquiring land for the construction of the national project which had claimed several precious lives of eminent engineers, officials and labourers during its construction in the Punjab territory, involving an expenditure of several crores. The step to fill up the already dug-out portion of the canal at this stage, when both states were claiming their right on the river waters, amounted to gross violation of the country's Constitution, he said. Mr Hooda urged upon the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, to take immediate action by arresting Mr Mann under the National Security Act, for endangering the peace of the neighbouring state by issuing such provocative statements. Mr Hooda also cautioned Mr
Badal not only to refrain himself from issuing
uncalled-for statements concerning the completion of the
remaining portion of the SYL canal in Punjab and flowing
of the river waters, into Haryana, but also to check Mr
Mann from doing any damage to the already dug-out canal.
If he failed to do this, the people of Haryana would
resort to retaliation, Mr Hooda added. |
Rare Jain idols found ROHTAK, March 18 — Rare Jain idols, certain rare articles including bricks, coins, pitcher (jhal), walls and old books, broken pots and images of Lord Ganesh were found during excavation here. The Jain Samaj has appealed to the Prime Minister, Chief Minister and the director, Archaeology Department to hand over these articles to the community so that they could place them in Jain temples for worship. A deputation of prominent citizens of Jain Samaj today visited the digging site and inspected the idols. Several idols were found broken and some had been kept by villagers in their houses. The delegation was told that three idols were kept in the house of Hukma Valmiki but when the leader of Jain Samaj approached him for handing them over he refused saying he had already sold them for Rs 600. Mr Anil Lohia, leader of the delegation, told The Tribune that idols recovered included those of Lord Mahavira and Lord Parasnath. It is learnt that the digging work is on over nearly 50 acres of uneven land at this village for the past year. Several villagers have recovered household articles, including a few gold and silver ornaments. Although the Archaeology Department is authorised to take control of such areas and is vested with legal power to take action against those involved in illegal digging villagers continue with the excavations unmolested. The villagers agree that they have found certain articles during the excavation but are unaware of their historical value or importance. They have even sold some finds at throwaway prices. Certain rare articles were
earlier found during excavations at Khokhra Koat here. |
Haryana’s financial crisis cases CHANDIGARH, March 18 — The financial position of the Haryana Government today improved considerably following receipt of over Rs 200 crore from the Centre, according to informed sources. The sources said about Rs 130 crore had been received from the Centre for several Centrally-sponsored schemes. They said the amount had been delayed by the Centre for over two months. Another about Rs 80 crore has been received as the state's share in the Central taxes. Meanwhile, the state's Finance Minister, Mr Charan Dass Shorewala, today denied in a cleverly-worded statement that Haryana was facing an acute financial crisis. Describing the news reports in this regard as "vastly exaggerated", Mr Shorewala said no instructions, verbal or written, had been issued to restrict payment of bills up to Rs 2 lakh or Rs 5 lakh and all the treasuries were functioning normally. Asserting that the financial management of Haryana was one of the best in the country, Mr Shorewala, however, conceded that "certain temporary difficulties were faced by the state government because the flow of resources from the Central Government was less than the Budget provisions and was also delayed,". The minister said: "However, there is no problem as of now and Haryana will be able to meet all its expenditure targets and other obligations as per schedule". Mr Shorewala also denied that the Excise and Taxation Department had asked the successful bidders of the liquor auction to deposit another 15 per cent of the auction money before March 31. He said the bidders were to deposit as per the excise policy of the state and in total they were to deposit 16.66 per cent of the auction money by March-end. The Leader of Opposition and President of the Lok Dal, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, has demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Bansi Lal, "in view of the bankruptcy of the state". In a statement issued here today Mr Chautala alleged that the current financial crisis in the state had been created by the wrong policies of the state government. He alleged that the government had been presenting false figures in the Vidhan Sabha and misleading the people of the state. He said he had warned in the House that the Budget had several wrong figures. The President of the
Haryana Congress, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, also
expressed grave concern over the financial crisis in the
state. He said the Chief Minister should immediately take
steps to stem the rot and improve the financial situation
of the state. He said the government should not resort to
large-scale transfer of government employees as these
involved huge expenditure and inconvenience to the
employees. The government should cut down unnecessary
expenditure to tide over the financial crisis. |
Govt library sans grant SIRSA: The District Library with its majestic building on the Old Secretariat Road impresses passes-by who little know the state of affairs there. It is a government building sans government aid. Since 1989 when the library was shifted into this new building, it has received only a little in the name of facilities from the government. Initially it got Rs 10,000 aid per year for books from the government which was later reduced to 50 per cent. Thereafter it was given only Rs 3,000 a year. At present there is no grant at all. According to its Librarian, Mr Nand Kishore Jaiswal, the library gets aid from the Nehru Yuva Kendra and Literacy Mission. The electricity bills of the library are paid by the Literacy Mission while facilities are provided by Nehru Yuva Kendra. The lawns are maintained by NYK workers. Talking about the problems of stray animals entering the building, Mr Jaiswal said a passage to Bal Bhavan from Prayas School, under construction, adjacent to the library, was made by breaking the boundary wall of the library. Through this stray animals enter and damage the lawns. A worker has been appointed by the N.Y.K. to keep stray animals off the lawns. He conveyed his problems to the authorities concerned repeatedly but nothing has been done about it yet. Sometimes mischievous elements also harm the library as there are no grills on windows. The library is a well-stocked one with about 8,000 books . Books received from the Raja Ram Mohan Library, Calcutta. The staff though short, put in their best efforts to meet the demands of library users. There are 850 regular members on the rolls. It is high time the
government provided basic facilities and revive grants to
the library. |
Sumer Chand Bhatt dead CHANDIGARH, March 18 — Mr Sumer Chand Bhatt, a former Deputy Speaker of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, died at the PGI here this afternoon. He was 65. Mr Bhatt, who remained Deputy Speaker from 1991 to 1996, was a life member of the Servants of Peoples' Society and the Society's Secretary from 1963 to 1980. Mr Bhatt complained of congestion in the heart in the morning. He was admitted to the PGI at 1 p.m. and died here three hours later. He leaves behind two sons and a daughter, besides his wife. Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda,
President of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee,
mourned the death of Mr Bhatt. He described him as
dedicated party and social worker. |
Haryana police transfers CHANDIGARH, March 18 — The Haryana Government today transferred several IPS officers, including SPs of a number of districts. Mr Laik Ram, Commandant, IInd Battalion, HAP Madhuban, has been posted as Superintendent of Police, Commando, Newal, vice Mr O.P. Singh, who goes as Superintendent of Police, Hisar. Mr M.S. Maan, Commandant, Ist Battalion, Ambala City, has been posted as SP, Narnaul, vice Mr R.C. Mishra, who has been posted as SP Rewari. Mr Sheel Madhur, SP, Yamunanagar, has been posted as Commandant, Ist Battalion, HAP, Ambala City. Mr K.K. Sindhu, SP, State Vigilance Bureau, Haryana, Chandigarh, will be SP, Yamunanagar. Mr Kulyash Kumar Sharma, AIG/T&T, Haryana, has been posted as AIG, Administration, office of DGP, Haryana, against a vacant post. Mr Sudhir Chaudhry, SP, Kaithal, has been posted as SP, State Vigilance Bureau, Chandigarh. Mrs Kala Ram Chandran, SP, Rewari, goes as such to Jhajjar. Mr Manjit Singh, Ahlawat, SP, Hisar, has been posted as SP, Jind, vice Mr Ranbir Singh Sharma, who goes as AIG, T&T, office of DGP. MR Sanjeev Kumar Jain, SP Computer, Madhuban, has been posted as SP, Cooperative Societies, Haryana, vice Mr Shatrujeet Kapoor, who goes in Mr Jain's place. Mr Khushi Ram, SP, Gurgaon, will be SP, Kaithal, vice Mr Sudhir Chaudhry, who goes as SP, State Vigilance Bureau, Haryana. Mr Navdeep Singh Virk, SP,
Jhajjar, has been posted as SP, Gurgaon. |
Menon favours Sanskrit as
people’s language KURUKSHETRA, March 18 — Dr K.P.A. Menon, Chancellor of Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, here today urged both the Government and Sanskrit scholars to make Sanskrit a "Lok Bhasha" (language of the people). He said if this was done and Sanskrit mastered by ordinary people, the country would have "access" to the vast knowledge contained in Sanskrit literature and texts. Dr Menon was speaking as a chief guest at the inaugural function of the "Samskrita Samvatsara" organised by the Department of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit of the University Gita Sadan here. The function was organised to mark the start of Sanskrit year which the Government of India has decided to observe during the golden jubilee of Independence of the country. Dr Menon maintained that even Swami Dayanand Saraswati had admitted that knowledge accumulated in Sanskrit was "lost in the wholesale destruction caused by the Mahabharata war." Dr M.L. Ranga demanded that Sanskrit be made the main national language along with Hindi and be treated at par with Hindi, as it was the mother of all languages. He also demanded that study of Sanskrit be compulsory upto plus two all over the country. Only then will we be able to preserve our culture, traditions and customs he said. He regretted that a number of Sanskrit Vidyalayas had closed down because of paucity of Sanskrit teachers. With today's function KU became the first university in the country to start a year-long Sanskrit celebrations. Four eminent Sanskrit scholars including Dr Menon, Dr Satvrat Shastri, Dr Maan Singh and Dr Satdev Verma were honoured on the occasion. Dr Usha Gupta, Chairperson
of the department, described the steps which Kurukshetra
University would take for the growth of Sanskrit and
Sanskrit year celebrations. Almost all the speakers chose
to address the gathering in Sanskrit. |
Haryana postings CHANDIGARH, March 18 — The Haryana Government has ordered that Mr H.R. Ghandhi, Under Secretary, Mines and Geology, PW (B&R) and Architecture, and Mr O.P. Rekhi, Under Secretary, Indusries, will swap their places of posting. Mr Sube Singh Behmani,
Under Secretary, Cooperation, has been posted in the
Development Department against a vacant post. |
Ram Bilas Sharma on waters
issue AMBALA, March 18 — The Haryana Education Minister, Mr Ram Bilas Sharma, said here today that the state would soon get its share of 3.5 million acre feet of water from Punjab and the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, would call a meeting of Chief Ministers of both the states in order to solve the long-standing issue just like the issue of the Cauvery water dispute. Mr Sharma was addressing a
meeting at Matheri Sekhan village near here on the
occasion of the birth anniversary of RSS founder Keshav
Baliram Hedgewar. |
Interim bail cancelled ROHTAK, March 18 — The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr L.N. Mittal, today cancelled the interim anticipatory bail of Manoj, the main accused in the alleged robbing of three trucks near Brahmanwas village on the Rohtak-Panipat road a few days ago. The applications of three other accused in the case have been rejected by the court. It is interesting to note here that Ms Krishna Gahlaut, MLA from the Rohat Assembly constituency was removed from the ministerial post by the Chief Minister for "supporting" the culprits involved in this case. The police raided unsuccessfully the houses of these suspects to arrest them soon after the cancellation of their anticipatory bail. It was alleged by the
police that the main accused did not cooperate with the
investigating officer. |
Three arrested on dacoity charge FARIDABAD, March 18 — The Delhi police has arrested three persons on the charge of committing two dacoities in Faridabad in January this year, police sources said here today. The dacoits, who have been identified as Ramchand, Sher Singh and Rajbir, have already been handed over to Faridabad police for interrogation. Armed with deadly weapons they had barged into the house of Ajay in Lakadpur village, beat up his wife and her sister and escaped with cash and jewellery. When Ajay chased them he was fired upon resulting in injuries in his leg. The same day the criminals committed another dacoity in the house of Sita Ram and decamped with cash. The police has also
arrested Pinku and Bijendra who were involved in a number
of cases of chain snatchings from women. |
HUJ office-bearers BHIWANI, March 18 — The Haryana Union of Journalists affiliated with the National Union of Journalists India has elected the following office bearers of the Union. This was disclosed by the General Secretary of the Union here today, President Mr Y.P. Gupta, senior vice president — Mr Vishnu Dutt Sharma, Vice Presidents – Mr DN Diwakar, Mr Vinod Jindal, General Secretary — Mr Ajay Malhotra,secretaries – Mr Yad Ram, Mr Jasmer Malik, and Rajendra Chauhan, Cashier – Mohendra Batra. The Members of the Executive Committee are; Mr Yogendra Gupta, Mr Sat Pal Saini, Mr Vijay Sharma, Mr Vinod Jindal, Mr Yad Ram Bansal, Mr Ajay Malhotra, Mr Suresh Chand Gupta, Mr Vinod Kumar, Mr ML Verma, Mr Rajendra Jain. Mr Vishnu Dutt Sharma, Mr
Ashwani Dutta, Mr Ajmer Malik, Mr DN Diwakar, Mr Rajendra
Saini, Mr Rajendra Chauhan, Mr Parveen Khurana, Mr
Mohindra Batra, Mr Ram Kumar Yadav. |
Civic staff allege
discrimination SONEPAT, March 18 — Mr Janardan Prasad Kothari, President of the Sonepat district unit of the Sarv Karamchari Sangh, Haryana, yesterday condemned the discrimination against civic employees by the HVP-BJP alliance government. In a press statement, Mr Kothari also criticised the state government for granting new pay scales to civic employees from April 1, this year whereas other government employees had been given the similar scales from January 1, 1996. The decision of the government in this regard, he said, was unjust and it created resentment among the civic staff. Mr Kothari urged the state
government to follow a uniform policy for all the
employees and grant new pay scales to civic employees as
well as the employees of Board and Corporations from
January 1, 1996 to avoid confrontation with them. |
Kerosene "being sold on black
market" SONEPAT, March 18 — Sonepat city has been facing an acute shortage of kerosene. People find it hard to get the supply from the fair price shops. Many consumers alleged that a large quantity of the commodity was being sold on the black market by some unscrupulous depot-holders in connivance with officials concerned. Mr R.S. Dahiya, a social activist, in a memorandum to the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal, and other higher authorities, alleged that a kerosene mafia operated in the area which diverted kerosene from fair price shops to the black market. He also alleged that a wholesale dealer had sold two tankers of rationed kerosene at Panipat instead of supplying it to owners of the fair price shops at Sonepat. Mr Dahiya urged the Chief Minister and other senior officials of the department concerned to order a high-level probe into the racket and punish officials and wholesale dealer guilty of malpractices. He also alleged that local
officials of the department had failed to take any action
against the erring officials and the wholesale dealer
involved in it. |
Haryana JD chief’s plea on
SYL canal SONEPAT, March 18 — The president of the Haryana Pradesh Janata Dal, Mr Ved Parkash Vidrohi, today urged the national leadership of the BJP to clarify its stand on the construction of Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal in the territory of Punjab and the river waters dispute between Haryana and Punjab which had been hanging fire for the past three decades or so. In a press statement here, he said that the recent statement of Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister of Punjab, opposing the completion of the SYL canal in Punjab territory had created apprehension in the minds of the people of Haryana particularly the farmers on Haryana's share of river waters. He appealed to all political parties of Haryana to take a united stand against the refusal of Punjab Government to give Haryana's due share of river waters. He appealed to leaders of
all political parties to safeguard interests of Haryana
farmers. |
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