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H A R Y A N A |  |
 Sunday, March 21, 1999 |
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CBI probe sought into
murders Traffic
woes of Panipat |
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Aggressive auctioning pays CHANDIGARH, March 20 — Aggressive auctioneering by Haryana excise officials has earned rich dividends for the state. Although formal auction of vends has yet to come to a close, the Prohibition Excise and Taxation Department is likely to earn 23 per cent higher revenue as compared to last year. Chautala for Bansi's sack HVPN's
preventive steps backfire BSP,
morcha to have poll pact Woman,
paramour burnt to death Haryana
to have more warehouses |
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CBI probe sought into murders HISAR, March 20 — Relatives of the victims of the Matrasham murders have sought a CBI probe into the incident. They alleged that the police was trying to shield the main accused Ishwar Singh, sarpanch. Chander Singh, younger brother of the sarpanch, who survived told reporters at the hospital that the police was trying to distort the facts. He pointed out that by implicating an ex-sarpanch of the same village, Mahavir Singh, the police was trying to exonerate Ishwar Singh. The police yesterday claimed to have identified Mahavir as the main accused and had already arrested him. Six other persons had also been arrested in this connection. According to the police, Mahavir had some old enmity with Ishwar Singh. The latter reportedly gave some panchayat land on contract to a brick-kiln owner. This was opposed by Mahavir Singh. Moreover, Ishwar Singh reportedly refused to issue ration card to Mahavir. The police said on the fateful night of March 17, Mahavir along with several other persons finalised the plan to eliminate Ishwar Singh and his family. They, according to the police, had been observing the moments of Ishwar Singh for several nights. Ishwar Singh, according to the police version, used to wake up at about 2.30 a.m. The same time was chosen by Mahavir and his accomplices to attack Ishwar Singh's family. While Ishwar Singh was roaming outside his house, the assailants attacked members of his family. As he saw the armed persons and heard gunshots, he fled from the scene. However, Chander Singh, his younger brother, Shamsher Singh, Ishwar Singh's brother-in-law, Om Prakash, and Ishwar Singh's father-in-law, Manphool Singh, disputed the police claims, and said it was Ishwar Singh who had committed the crime. Narrating the sequence of events, Chander Singh said at around 2 a.m. he heard a knock on his door. As he opened the door, he saw Ishwar Singh and his accomplices who fired at him. He received bullet injuries in the chest and in one of his legs. He felt unconscious and the assailants fled presuming him to be dead. Chander Singh who lost his wife and son in the incident, said he became conscious only after he felt that his foot had caught fire after his body had been sprinkled with petrol. He tried to go into another room but he could not see anything except smoke. He crawled and reached a tank. He said fearing that he might die he wrote Ishwar Singh's name at three places on the tank so that people will come to know that the crime had been committed by Ishwar. He alleged that on March 17, Ishwar Singh had served specially prepared cheese to his own family his (Chander's) wife and his son Naveen. He pointed out that the cheese had been mixed with some sedative, which incidentally he did not take. Chander Singh and Om Prakash (Ishwar Singh's brother-in-law) alleged that Ishwar Singh was having an affair with a woman which had caused strain in the relationship between the husband and the wife. The facts gathered by TNS
revealed that on the day of the incident, Ishwar Singh
took Rs 200 from his uncle and boarded a truck for Hisar.
From there he took Rs 50,000 from an "arhtiya"
and boarded a taxi for Delhi. He got down at Hansi and
reportedly went to Rajasthan. From there he went to Delhi
and contacted an influential politician from Haryana. On
his advice he reportedly surrendered. However, the police
said he had contacted the police from Delhi and sought
protection. |
Traffic woes of Panipat PANIPAT, March 20 — Haphazard traffic in the city has been posing problems for local residents. In the main bazars of Insar Chowk, Sanoli Road, Amar Bhavan Chowk, Railway Road, Court Road, Pachranga Bazar and S.D. College Road, the problem is quite acute. In Pachranga Bazar, the traffic is held up for several hours. Although the district administration has banned the entry of tractors and bullock-carts in the busy bazars of the city the orders are being violated with impunity. On the Railway Road, it is difficult to move about. The Sanoli Road which is the busiest is also facing problems due to encroachments in front of shops. The district
administration had launched a drive to remove the
encroachments, but in vain. Similarly, in Amar Bhavan
Chowk, which has a handloom market, the traffic remains
blocked for several hours. Trucks and other vehicles are
haphazardly parked on local Veterinary Hospital Road
which also leads to traffic congestion. Punjab National
Bank on Amar Bhavan Chowk, Central Cooperative Bank on
Railway Road and Panipat Urban Cooperative Bank on Gur
Mandi do not have sufficient parking areas which results
in vehicles being parked on the roads. |
Six SPs in three years YAMUNANAGAR, March 20 — The frequent reshuffling of police officers in Haryana has not paid any dividends to the state government for maintaining law and order in the state. In the past three years Yamunanagar has got six Superintendents of Police. The present regime of Bansi Lal took over the charge on May 11,1996, when Mr Shiv Shakti Rao was the Superintendent of Police. After his departure, Mr Khushi Ram assumed the charge. He completed over seven months in the district when the third SP, Mr M.S. Malik, was posted. After Mr Malik, Mr Ranbir Sharma was transferred from Kurukshetra to Yamunanagar. Mr Ranbir Sharma handled the situation during prohibition very effectively and did not succumb to any pressure of political persons. The political bosses got annoyed with him because of this attitude and got him transferred. In October, 1997, Mr Sheel Madhur was posted as the fifth SP and on March 18,1999, the sixth SP, Mr K.K. Sindhu, who was earlier SP, State Vigilance Bureau, Chandigarh, has been posted here. Mr Madhur has been posted as Commandant, Ist Battalion, Ambala City. In spite of frequent transfers of senior officials of the police the law and order situation in the district has been deteriorating. Four members of a family were murdered, including a couple at Jagadhri on September 2,1998. The police was unable to solve the case. Yamunanagar being an industrial town has been witnessing labour problems and on December 7,1998, 18 persons, including four policemen were injured in a clash between employees of the Haryana Distillery and the police. On December 23,1998 three persons, including a pregnant woman, were seriously injured when they were attacked by certain persons at Jagadhri and looted gold and cash. In this case four
policemen were suspended as they were on duty but did
nothing in this regard when they were informed. The
general public now feels that political interference may
lead to further deterioration in the law and order
situation of the state. |
Aggressive auctioning pays CHANDIGARH, March 20 — Aggressive auctioneering by Haryana excise officials has earned rich dividends for the state. Although formal auction of vends has yet to come to a close, the Prohibition Excise and Taxation Department is likely to earn 23 per cent higher revenue as compared to last year. With the Ballabgarh group of vends still to be auctioned, the state has earned Rs 596 crore by way of auctions as compared to Rs 491 crore last year. The auctions will net about Rs 606 crore. While 5 per cent of the bid money came with the fall of the hammer at each district headquarters where the auctions took place, the rest 11.67 per cent of the bid money out of a total of 16.67 per cent (which will serve as security) to be deposited after final approval of the bid will come within 10 days and in any case before March 31. The rest of the licence fee, that is the auction bid amount, will be distributed in 11 instalments over the year. With auctions having gone up substantially, the government has raised the minimum sale price of liquor. A bottle of country liquor will now cost at least Rs 55 as against Rs 49 last year. The minimum price of a pint will be Rs 28 and that of a nip Rs 15. Similarly, the minimum price of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) bottle will be Rs 70, for a pint Rs 38 and quarter Rs 26. The government has also increased the country liquor quota for sale from 300 lakh proof litres to 370 lakh proof litres. The enthusiasm of bidding parties was so overwhelming that at half a dozen places the officials auctioning the vends had to invoke the special provision of demanding payment of one-third of the bid money on the spot, if the bid amount exceeded the reserve price by more than 35 per cent. At Narwana, the Satnali group gave a bid as high as Rs 1.14 crore for vends which had fetched only Rs 54 lakh last year. At Nangal Chaudhary (Mahendragarh), the bid went up by 101 per cent. At Jind the auction fetched the highest increase this year. A well-established group for years together finds itself ousted from the Narwana area. Collections from various districts from the auctions are as (with last year's figures in brackets) Ambala Rs 34.29 crore (Rs 28 crore), Karnal Rs 37.32cr (Rs 26.03), Kurukshetra Rs 23.40 cr (Rs 17.29 cr), Panipat Rs 28.98 cr (Rs 21.32 cr), Sonepat Rs 33.42 cr (Rs 26.06 cr), Rohtak Rs 26.10 cr (Rs 20.46 cr), Bhiwani Rs 28.67 cr (Rs 22.17 cr), Hisar Rs 49.16 cr (Rs 36.88 cr), Jind Rs 31.05 cr (19.72 cr), Faridabad Rs 59.66 cr (Rs 84.58 cr), Gurgaon Rs 53.25 cr (Rs 51 cr), Rewari Rs 17.71 cr (Rs 12.94 cr), Yamunanagar-Jagadhari Rs 28.14 cr (Rs 22.16 cr), Kaithal Rs 27.68 cr (Rs 18.57 cr), Jhajjar Rs 22.86 cr (Rs 17.51 cr), Sirsa Rs 31.22 cr (Rs 23.35 cr), Fatehabad Rs 24.56 cr (Rs 18.22 cr), Mahendragarh Rs 17.33 cr (Rs 10.98 cr) and Panchkula Rs 21.54 cr (Rs 13.82 cr). Only in Faridabad the
department suffered substantially. It is believed that
last year's bid was too high to be viable. |
Chautala for Bansi's sack SIRSA, March 20 — Mr Om Prakash Chautala, INLD leader, visited 12 villages of the Darba Assembly segment in this district yesterday. Addressing a gathering, he said the law and order situation in the state had deteriorated. He said the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal, had failed in maintaining law and order in the state. He urged the President to dismiss the State Government immediately. Talking to mediapersons
here, he condemned the brutal killings of the family
members of a sarpanch of Matershah village in Hisar and
said the police had been overpowered by anti-social
elements. He alleged that incidents of murder, rape and
abduction had increased and the police was being used by
the politicians in power for their vested interests. He
said that the Bansi Lal government had lost the faith of
people. |
HVPN's preventive steps backfire ROHTAK, March 20 — The preventive measures adopted by the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) to check the theft of electricity appears to have backfired as these meters stop recording energy consumption when a magnate is placed on the right side on their display window. The HVPN had a couple of months ago decided to replace the electro-mechanical meters with electronic meters to check power theft. It had purchased 1.15 lakh single-phase and 23,000 three-phase meters under the world Bank financial emergency action plan It was charging Rs 4,832 for installing a three-phase meter 'from industrial consumers. As soon as the HVPN learnt about the tempering of the electronic meters, It decided to stop the installation of these meters. Although the two new companies constituted for the distribution, Power Discom (North) and Discom (South), will come into existence on April 1, these are unlikely to function independently as the Haryana Power Regulatory Commission has failed to issue the licence to distribute power. Before issuing a licence the regulatory commission failed to issue a notification inviting objections from the public. Therefore these two companies would continue functioning in the name of HVPN till the regulatory commission issue the necessary licence. The government, however, has already appointed managing directors of these new companies and the powers have also been delegated to the chairman and managing directors. The boards of management of these companies are likely to be constituted and time. Meanwhile, the revenue of the HVPN has shown an upward trend after it launched a campaign against power theft to recover defaulting amount. It has received Rs 1634.88 crore till February, 1999, as against Rs 1457.03 crore in the corresponding period, last year, showing an increase of nearly 13 per cent. According to informed
sources, the revenue collection for the current month has
crossed Rs 100 crore on March 18. The average monthly
collection of revenue was Rs 132.08 for 1998-99. |
BSP, morcha to have poll pact FARIDABAD, March 20 — The Sarvjatiya Morcha headed by Mr O.P. Jindal, a former MP, and the Bahujan Samaj Party have entered into an agreement to jointly contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in Haryana. Reliable sources said a decision to this effect was taken at a meeting held in Delhi recently. Among those who attended the meeting were Mr Kanshi Ram, BSP president, Mr O.P. Jindal, Mr Ashwini Kumar Chopra, patron of the morcha, Mr Aman Kumar, BSP MP, Mr Arvind Sharma, a former MP, and Mr Raghu Yadav. A formal announcement about the electoral understanding will be made at a joint press conference of BSP and morcha leaders at Chandigarh on April 4. According to the understanding between the two parties, the morcha would contest 60 Vidhan Sabha seats and the BSP 30. The Lok Sabha seats would be equally shared between the morcha and the BSP. Political observers feel
that the understanding between the morcha and the BSP
would make the task of the Haryana Vikas Party and the
BJP alliance in the next poll difficult. |
Woman, paramour burnt to death HISAR, March 20 — Mystery shrouds the killing of a woman and her alleged paramour who were reportedly burnt to death in the Tibha Dnansher locality here last night. While the woman Veena Devi died on the spot, her alleged paramour, Rohtas, was taken to hospital in a serious condition. However, Veena's sister has held Rohtas, who is a constable posted at Fatehabad, responsible for the crime. In an FIR registered at city police station, she alleged that Rohtas along with an accomplice, Raj Kumar, sprinkled petrol on Veena and set her afire. She reportedly grabbed Rohtas who also suffered severe injuries. The police has registered
a case of murder. Raj Kumar had been detained, police
sources said. |
Haryana to have more warehouses CHANDIGARH, March 20 — The Haryana Warehousing Corporation has decided to construct warehouses with a capacity of 44,000 metric tonnes under the RPDS and 20,500 metric tonnes under general warehousing during the next financial year. Stating this here yesterday, the Chairman of the corporation, Mr Rattan Lal Kataria, said work on the construction of a 17,690 metric tonnes capacity godown would commence soon. Another godown with a storage capaicty of 18,170 metric tonnes was under construction and would be ready for use during the rabi season this year. He said the corporation was operating 103 warehouses with a total storage capacity of 10.75 lakh metric tonnes. There had been significant improvement in the utilisation of warehouses during the current year which rose from 61 per cent in 1997-98 to 86 per cent in the current year. He said work on the inland container depot at Rewari was in progress and was likely to be commissioned during the next financial year. A makeshift inland container depot would start operating at Rewari soon. Mr Kataria said due to lack of holding capacity and knowledge of scientific storage of foodgrain, farmers were forced to sell their produce immediately after harvest and were deprived of remunerative prices. The corporation was
launching "kisan sahara scheme" for providing
financial assistance to farmers against the produce
deposited in warehouses in Ambala and Kurukshetra
districts in the coming rabi season. |
New grainmarket assured AMBALA, March 20 — The Haryana Minister for Marketing, Mr Jagbir Singh Malik, said here yesterday that a new grain market and "ghaas mandi" would be built for cantonment on the G.T. Road on 57 acres of land near here. He said that HUDA would shortly transfer the land in question to the Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board and work on these mandis would start in the next financial year. The minister inspected
repair of roads in the Cantonment, which had developed
cracks. He warned concerned officials against using
substandard material. |
Mann assailed for damaging
canal CHANDIGARH, March 20 — Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, President of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, has condemned the action of Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, President of the Akali Dal (Amritsar), in damaging the SYL canal near Doomcheri village in the Punjab territory today. Mr Hooda said it was an "anti-national, most disgraceful and provocative act of Mr Mann in causing loss of crores of rupees spent on the construction of the canal." Mr Hooda said Haryana had full right on the river waters. The Eradi Tribunal, set up as a result of the Rajiv-Longowal Accord, signed in July, 1985, had allocated river waters between the states concerned and it was the constitutional and moral responsibility of the Punjab Government to take necessary precautions for the safety and security of the canal. Mr Hooda said the Punjab Government had received crores of rupees from Haryana and from the Union Government (on its behalf) for the acquisition of land for the canal as well as the construction thereof. He demanded immediate
arrest of Mr Mann and his men under the National Security
Act, for damaging the national property. |
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