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| Sunday, March 5, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Bihar Governor ‘misused’
office MDU bodies to meet on March 15 Move to stop subsidy on urea
decried 2 Zila Parishad members elected Rs 317 cr for Haryana Governor greets people Seminar on AIDS |
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Change in phone numbers Youth shot at in group clash MDU exams from April 1 GRP personnel await poll duty dues Vij holds victory rally
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DC denies bonded labour
cases GURGAON, March 4 — The district administration yesterday claimed that there was no case of bonded labour here and alleged that voluntary organisations, activists projecting themselves as social workers were raising the issue. Addressing mediapersons the Deputy Commissioner, Mr T.C. Gupta said some vested interests fabricated cases of bonded labour and thrived on it. The statement from the administration followed the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, headed by Swami Agnivesh, writing to it that there were cases of bonded labour in Chakarpur area. Mr T.C. Gupta said after an inquiry the allegation of the Front was found to be false. Activists of the Front wanted the police and the Sub-Divisional Magistrate to accompany them. As the SDM was pre-occupied with municipal and panchayat polls other officers were sent to Chakarpur. The Front had then cited the case of some migrant labourers from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh who were working in different mines of Chakarpur. These labourers were first engaged in a mine at Palli in Faridabad and had later come to Gurgaon after the mining activities were stopped in the mine concurred by the authorities. The administration produced these labourers before mediapersons to for themselves whether there was a case of bonded labour as projected by the voluntary organisations. The administrative stand was that these labourers had come to work entirely on their own and that they were not detained by the mine owner in Gurgaon. Talking to mediapersons the workers said some of them were not given full wages by the pit contractors. Also, as their dues were not settled for a long time they were forced to work. One of the labourers, Lallu Ram said one contractor Amar Singh harassed them and had also tried to misbehave with their women. Inquires revealed that some of these labourers had to settle their dues with a shopkeeper by doing business from places where they were residing. Suraj Kali, a woman labourer, said she was not going to her native place Banda in Uttar Pradesh as she and her husband did not money for their return journey. She, however, said she had recently visited Punjab. Mr Gupta said these labourers could not be described as bonded labourers as per the Bonded Labour Abolition Act, 1976. At the most it could be called a case of dispute over wages. Mr Gupta wondered how the labourers came to know about the address of the voluntary organisation having its headquarters in Delhi but not complained about harassment by the contractors and middlemen to the local officers and the administration. When he posed this question to the labourers before mediapersons, they said the social workers of the voluntary organisations kept coming to their places of work. However, Swami Agnivesh
said an office-bearer of his organisation had brought the
cases of bonded labour to the notice of the
administration. If it was convinced that there was no
case, so be it. But even disputes relating to minimum
wages had connections with the bonded labour, he added. |
Bihar Governor
‘misused’ office ROHTAK, March 4 — The CPM has criticised the Bihar Governor for swearing in Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister, throwing all constitutional norms and conventions to the winds. The CPM state Secretary, Mr Inderjit Singh, alleged that the Constitution has virtually been hijacked through blatant misuse of office by the Governor. There was no doubt that the BJP had scant respect for parliamentary democracy. He said RJD had emerged as the largest single party and was clearly ahead of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) yet it was not given an opportunity to form government. The Bihar Governor, the Marxist leader said, had prior knowledge that the CPM, the BSP the RSP the MCC and some Independents were supporting the RJD. But as soon as the Governor learnt about the crucial 23-member Congress support to the RJD, he hurriedly appointed Mr Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister, thus murdering democracy". He urged the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Parkash Chautala, to raise his voice against the action of the Bihar Governor and reminded him that the people of Haryana had opposed a similar action by the then Governor, Mr G.D. Tapase, in 1982. The CPM secretariat
called upon the all district units to organise
demonstrations against the filthy game of the Bihar
Governor played at the instance of the Vajpayee
government. |
MDU bodies to meet on March
15 ROHTAK, March 4 — The meetings of the finance committee and the Executive Council of the Maharshi Dayanand University are likely to be held on March 15 at Chandigarh to approve budget proposals for the current and the coming financial years. The Divisional Commissioner, Rohtak division, Mrs Anita Chaudhary, who also took over as Vice Chancellor of the university on Thursday last following the retirement of Lt Gen O.P. Kaushik (Retd). will preside over the two meetings. The budget of the university for the current year has not been approved so far by the Finance Committee and the Executive Council. The matter was placed before the Executive Council at its meeting held on July 9, 1999 at Chandigarh. Though the discussion on the budget were deferred by the Executive Council, its proceedings were annulled by the Chancellor, Mr Mahabir Prasad. The state government has, for the current financial year allocated Rs 11 crore to the university. The University has till date received Rs 8.25 crore and the balance is likely to get before close of the financial year on March 31. The allocation by the state government to the university are expected to increase at least by 10 per cent for the coming financial year. Meanwhile the university
has lodged an FIR against Parveen Kumar, son of Mr Hukam
Singh of Kharawar village on charges of manipulating and
procuring a duplicate DMC and degree showing him 'pass'.
The university has cancelled both the documents alleging
that the student was involved in unfair means case and
debarred from appearing in any university examination for
two years in June 1996. He had obtained the DMC and the
degree on the basis of tampered result-sheets, the
university alleged. |
Move to stop subsidy on urea
decried ROHTAK, March 4 — Criticism of the Budget proposal to withdraw 15 per cent subsidy on fertiliser, including urea is continuing. Several leaders and parties have intensified the demand to roll back the hike. In a statement here senior Congress leader and newly elected MLA from the Beri Assembly constituency described the hike in price of urea as 'anti-farmer'. He said the policies of the BJP had been always anti-agriculture and the Budget proposals had proved the point. He said, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, had no right to assume "Chief Ministership" if he failed to make the Vajpayee government withdraw the hike. A former Haryana minister Mr Krishan Murti Hooda has also condemned the Budget proposal to withdraw the subsidy. He said the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, should take back the hike after discussions. He said the protest by the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala and Andhra CM Chandra Babu Naidu had been commendable. He however, appealed to other leaders including Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members from Haryana and Punjab to protest in Parliament on the issue. Meanwhile, the Chairman
of the Haryana Agro Industries, Corporation, Mr Inder
Singh Dhull, has congratulated the Chief Minister, Mr Om
Prakash Chautala on keeping his Cabinet small. |
2 Zila Parishad members
elected PANIPAT, March 4 — Two members of the local Zila Parishad - Sona Devi from ward No 4 and Ranbir Singh from ward No 5 have been elected unanimously following withdrawal of nominations by all other nominees. Now as many as 43 candidates in remaining 10 wards of the Zila Parishad have been left in the fray after withdrawal of 42 nominations on Friday. The polling for these wards will be held on March 12 and 16. There will be direct contests in ward No 1 general between Azad Singh and Rameshwar and in ward No 7, (reserved) Dharmbir will take on Rajpal.Except a triangular contest in ward No 3, which is reserved for scheduled caste woman, multi-cornered contests will be witnessed in other seven wards. In the 12-member Zila
Parishad, ward No 4, 10 and 12 have been reserved for
general category, women and ward No 3, 6 and 7 for
Scheduled Caste, woman, backward classes and Scheduled
Caste, men, respectively. |
Rs 317 cr for Haryana CHANDIGARH, March 4 — NABARD has sanctioned Rs 317.22 crore to Haryana for the development of infrastructure and other projects such as construction of drainage system and flood protection works, construction of link roads and bridges and widening of roads, an official release stated. It added that the
relevant information was given at a one-day state credit
seminar for Haryana organised here last evening. |
Governor greets people CHANDIGARH, March 4 — Haryana Governor Mahavir Prasad has greeted the people of Haryana on the occasion of Mahashivratri. Mr Prasad also visited the Shiva temple at Saketri near Panchkula and paid his obeisance to Lord Shiva. The Governor was
accompanied by his Secretary Manik Sonawane, Panchkula
Deputy Commissioner S.K. Monga, Superintendent of Police
Sudhir Chaudhary and other civil and police officials, an
official release said. |
Seminar on AIDS AMBALA, March 4 — The possibility of transmission of AIDS to the child through her mother is less than half per cent. It was disclosed by Dr V.K. Jain head of a government blood bank. He was speaking at a seminar organised by Philadelphia Hospital on AIDS and blood safety here today. He said according to a survey conducted by the AIDS Control Society recently, the incidence of transmission of AIDS through sexual contact was the highest which was about 80 per cent of the total. He said through blood transfusion, the incidence of transmission was found to be about 7 per cent, while syringes were responsible for 5.5 per cent of the case. Dr Jain said the society had also conducted its survey in different states which indicated that Maharashtra was the most affected state in this regard. In Haryana, as many as 17,033 suspected AIDS cases were detected through specialised tests. Out of them, 632 were found HIV positive and 65 cases of fully-bloomed AIDS were found. Of these, 13 patients had already lost their lives so far in the state, Dr Jain added. Dr Sunil Sadik, Director
of Philadelphia Hospital, while addressing the seminar,
said the people should be made aware of this disease. He
said besides seminars, different competitions on AIDS
awareness should also be organised in the educational
institutions so that students could know about this
disease. |
Change in phone numbers FARIDABAD, March 4 — Telephone numbers of Faridabad and Gurgaon were changed yesterday. Now digit '5' has been prefixed for Faridabad numbers and digit '6' for Gurgaon numbers. The telephone numbers
for Palwal and Hodal have also been changed. The first
digit '5' of these numbers has now been changed to '3'
according to Mr P.C. Aggarwal, Divisional Engineer,
Department of Telecommunication, Faridabad. |
Youth shot at in group clash ROHTAK, March 4 — A youth was injured seriously by a gunshot during a clash between two groups at nearby Bahu Akbarpur village today morning. According to police sources, the youth identified as Karamvir was wounded when he was shot at by a person from the rival group following a quarrel due to an old enmity. The injured youth was rushed to the PGIMS hospital for treatment. A case has been
registered against two persons identified as Surender and
Narender of the same village. No arrest has been made so
far in this connection. |
MDU exams from April 1 ROHTAK, March 4 — The Maharshi Dayanand University here, will hold the annual examinations of undergraduate (theory) courses from April 1. According to a university press note, the post graduate (MA/MSC) examinations will commence from May 1, next. Other examinations, including that of MBA, BBA, BE and B.Tech, would be starting from March 6, onwards. About 1.23 lakh students
are likely to appear in under-graduate courses while
about 39000 are to appear in post-graduate and other
professional courses examinations. About 130 examination
centres have been set up and as many as 1800 teachers
have been deployed on examination duty. |
GRP personnel await poll
duty dues AMBALA, March 4 — Around 60 GRP personnel who were deployed in Jind district for the Assembly elections duty have not got their election duty allowance so far. The allowance is normally paid the same day. The President of GRP Association, Mr Babu Ram and the General Secretary, Mr Tajinder Singh, in a letter addressed to the Superintendent of Police, Jind, have stated that 65 GRP personnel of Ambala district were deployed in election duty in district Jind on February 22, while 22 of them were not paid even a single penny, the remaining were paid only Rs 50 each while they were entitled for Rs 165 each. When the personnel
contacted the line officer in this regard, he showed his
inability saying that the amount was paid to the SOs
deputed in different constituencies and they were
responsible for the disbursement of the allowance. |
Vij holds victory rally AMBALA, March 4 — Mr Anil Vij, who has been elected for the second consecutive term from the Ambala Cantonment seat as an independent candidate, held a victory rally here today. A car-scooter rally was held in the afternoon with the victory procession passing through the streets of Ambala Cantt. The rally began from Gandhi Maidan and passed through different places, including Punjabi Mohalla, Mahesh Nagar and other important markets. A beaming Mr Vij stood atop a jeep which was bedecked with flowers and his supporters danced to the beats of drums. The slogan Kaam Kiya Hai
Kaam Karenge was touted as the one-line manifesto by him. |
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