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| Tuesday, March 28, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Pay power bills, DC tells
villagers Inter-state gang busted, 17 held Housing body to give loans to
individuals IT bug bites Chautala State museum at Panipat soon PM to address rally ‘Need to check female
foeticide’ |
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Well owners to register,
pay fee Liquor vends reauctioned Takkar inducted in panel Undertrial re-arrested Cultural bonanza by AIMT club Telephone exchange inaugurated
|
Luminescent jackets to rescue of
cops AMBALA, March 27 — For the first time in Haryana, traffic policemen in Ambala have been given luminescent jackets which can be spotted in the dark. The traffic policemen wearing these luminescent jackets over their uniform have become a common sight on the GT road. "The police on traffic duty has been allotted 10 jackets and not been issued to individual policemen. A person on duty wears a jacket and passes it to the next person on duty," the Superintendent of Police, Ambala, Mr Navdeep Singh Virk, said. He explained that the traffic policemen were prone to accidents, specially on the GT road where there is a fast movement of heavy vehicles. "About six months ago, a traffic policeman had been run over by a heavy vehicle at Patiala chowk. We realised that traffic policemen, at times, cannot be seen by drivers at night. They are at risk," Mr Virk said. "Keeping that in mind, we had been scouting for something which would enable the traffic policeman to efficiently perform his duty without the danger of being run over, inadvertently, by a speeding vehicle in the dark," he said. Mr Virk said that the luminescent jackets were centrally purchased and then issued to the policemen in Ambala. "Each jacket costs about Rs 1,100 and is supplied by a Delhi-based firm," he said. The SP pointed out that the jacket is worn over the uniform. "In summer there is white shirt, which is visible to some extent but the jacket over it with luminous stripes greatly increases the degree of spotting. In winter, as khaki jackets are worn, it becomes difficult to spot the traffic policeman on duty. This jacket will be useful during all seasons and at all times of the day and night," he said. "There is a very high visibility of the person wearing the jacket and also more importantly, there is a perceived sense of authority. In the past few weeks, the jackets have proved to be effective," Mr Virk said. Initially, there had been a hesitation on the part of the policemen on traffic duty to fully accept the jacket, "but after I educated them on the usefulness of the jacket, they are wearing it." The jackets are comfortable to wear during summer as well as winter, he said. The material used in the striped jackets is scothlite. "The stripes have been given in such a way which clearly denotes the outline of a human body," Mr Virk said. He pointed out that such jackets are common for policemen on traffic duty in large cities like Chennai. "There is a high density of traffic in Chennai and besides the jackets, the traffic policemen there wear a luminescent material on the legs as well as on the palm. There the traffic policemen can put on luminescent material on the palm but here it is not possible, as they have to hold walkie-talkie in their hand," Mr Virk stated. A traffic policeman on the GT road said, "With the jacket we feel more secure that the approaching vehicle must have already spotted us. Earlier, we used to be apprehensive and we were never sure whether the vehicle driver had seen us or not." "On the GT road, heavy vehicles move at high speed and it is dangerous to stop a vehicle which has not seen you. In the past few weeks, we have seen that the vehicle drivers tend to be more cautious and slow down a little whenever they see the gleaming jackets in the dark. The truck drivers have told us that their beam picks up the outline of the jacket from a distance and they know that a policeman is standing there," the policeman said. He pointed out that initially the vehicle drivers were not sure that the person wearing the jacket was a policeman but now people are becoming aware and they immediately respond whenever they spot a luminescent jacket. Mr Om Prakash Thakur, a
bus driver on the Chandigarh-Delhi route, said that
earlier they were never sure of the presence of policemen
on the GT road till the last moment when they could be
seen flagging them down. "The action used to be
sudden and we found it difficult to stop immediately.
But, now things are improving as we know that a policeman
is standing there and we become aware from a distance if
he is trying to stop us," he said. |
Pay power bills, DC tells
villagers ROHTAK, March 27 — The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Rajesh Khullar today visited Pehrawar village to motivate people to pay electricity bills outstanding against their names for the past couple of years. Most of the villages in the district have been declared "problem" villages by the Haryana Vidyut Parsaran Nigam (HVPN) as the rural agricultural and domestic consumers have not been paying their electricity bills and resisting the disconnection of electricity supply to them. Various schemes launched by the successive governments in the past extending concession to the domestic and agricultural consumers for the payment of arrears of their bills had met with limited success. The rural domestic and agricultural consumers in Rohtak city division owe Rs 929.05 lakh to the HVPN whereas the defaulters have piled up dues amounting to staggering Rs 2178.22 lakh in the Meham suburban division. The consumers in the Bahadurgarh suburban owe Rs 322.61 lakh and those in the city division (Bahadurgarh) Rs 606.28 lakh. Mr Khullar held a meeting of the villagers and persuaded them to pay the arrears of their electricity bills. He promised to waive the entire surcharge pertaining to the domestic and agricultural tubewell consumers in case they made payment in full by April 30. He was assisted by the SSP Mr P.K. Aggarwal, Executive Engineer, HVPN Mr S.P. Gupta, and other employees of the HVPN. Over 103 rural consumers of Pehrawar village owe Rs 7.54 lakh only and as such is considered as a ‘soft village’ by the HVPN. There are many villages which owe over Rs 100 lakh. Titoli village, for example, owes Rs 185.46 lakh and Bahu Akbarpur Rs 104.86 lakh. Village like Sunarian owes Rs 72.13 lakh. The consumers at Pehrawar told the Deputy Commissioner that the employees of the HVPN had not visited the village for the past many months and were sending bill on the basis of ‘average reading’. Even those who had left the village nearly two years ago were also getting the electricity bills, they complained. The consumers further complained that seals of most of the meter were damaged and had not been repaired by the HVPN officials. The Deputy Commissioner directed the HVPN officials to hold a durbar in the village on April 1 and solve the problems being faced by the consumers. The villagers assured Mr Khullar that they would clear the outstanding dues without any further delay. Mr Khullar said he would visit every problem village in the district by April 15 and would motivate the defaulting not defaulting consumers to pay arrears of their electricity bills. He said if some
consumers expressed their inability to pay the arrears in
one instalment, they would be allowed to make payments in
three bi-monthly instalments. In case of domestic rural
consumers along with their current bills. The tubewell
consumers could make monthly payments along with current
bills. |
Inter-state gang busted, 17
held SONEPAT, March 27 — With the arrest of 17 persons, the police today claimed to have smashed an inter-state gang of criminals called the ‘Momin Gang’, allegedly involved in more than 200 cases of loot, dacoity and murder in the northern region and operating in Haryana, U.P. and Delhi for the past several years. The Director General of Police, Haryana, Mr S.P.S. Rathore told mediapersons here today that the arrested members of the gang have been identified as Momin, Bhura alias Zahid, Tameel alias Mukesh, Zaindeen, Shankar, Netaji alias Phunda, Kajal alias Gulshad Hassan alias Rindha, Saleem alias Dhoka, Naushad alias Dhama, Keshaw, Sameera, Qayum alias Kanta, Nawab alias Ramzan, Jhangu alias Shau, Jamal-ul-Din alias Rajinder, Mehandi Hassan, and Alamdin. The police, he said, had solved as many as 200 cases of loot, dacoity and murder committed by the gang in Haryana, U.P. and Delhi during the past about three years. These include 75 cases in Haryana and remaining in other states. The modus operandi of the gang was to visit various localities posing as snake-charmers and street performers and spot their targets. Then they would swing into action at night. The gang, always killed inmates of the houses they looted. Mr Rathore said the arrested criminals had confessed to their involvement in the cases of loot and killings of four persons in Sujan Singh Park of this city and nearby villages of Shadipur, Kabirpur and Fazilpur on the night of March 16 last. Similarly they killed a motor-cyclist near Palri village of this district on the evening of March 8. He said the police had
worked out as many as 13 criminal cases relating to
Sonepat district, eight of Faridabad district, four of
Gurgaon district, two of Bhiwani district, one of Karnal
district, eight of Panipat district, one of Yamunanagar
district, three of Rohtak district and six of Jhajjar
district all in Haryana. |
Housing body to give loans to
individuals CHANDIGARH, March 27 — The Haryana State Cooperative Housing Federation has decided to amend the bylaws of the federation and provide loans to individuals directly. Earlier the system was to advance loans only through societies registered with the federation. An official press note said a decision to this effect was taken at the 15th annual general body meeting of the federation held in Manimajra. The meeting was presided over by Mr Bal Krishan Kamboj, Chairman of the federation. The press note said, quoting Mr Kamboj, that Rs 20 crore had been earmarked by the federation for providing loans for construction of 1,000 houses during the year 2000-2001. The maximum limit of loan had also been increased from Rs 3 to 5 lakh for further benefit of the middle and lower income groups. Mr C. M. Singal,
Managing Director of the federation, said all loan
accounts would be computerised during the coming
financial year. He also said the recovery of overdue
loans had increased during the current year and more
stress would be laid on the recovery of loans during
2000-2001. |
IT bug bites Chautala HISAR, March 27 — Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala is understood to have shifted his focus from agriculture to information technology. Agriculture may continue to be his traditional priority, but IT is said to be his latest love. Mr Chautala is expected to unveil an IT policy next month. Senior bureaucrats and technocrats are reportedly busy working on one. The Chief Minister is reportedly keen on making Haryana one of the key centres of information technology in the country. His optimism is based around the growth of Gurgaon and Faridabad as IT centres due to their proximity with Delhi. The Chief Minister has already held a high-level meeting in New Delhi on March 7 which reportedly discussed the framework for developing IT centres in Haryana and popularising them. It was disclosed in the meeting that Gurgaon contributed about ten per cent of the total software exports from the country. This was without any efforts or encouragement from the government. The state plans to encourage private investors to set up units in Gurgaon to make it one of the top IT centres in the country. In this connection the government is reportedly planning to set up an Institute of Information Technology at Gurgaon for training software professionals. The institute will primarily admit fresh students. However, in-service personnel including teachers, technocrats and bureaucrats will also get orientation at the institute. Special IT parks will be developed in the vicinity of the institute. The sources said, a few IT giants have already expressed their willingness to invest in Haryana, provided the government extended its cooperation. The Chief Minister is scheduled to meet one of the country’s top industrialists on March 29 as part of the process. The March 7 meeting emphasised the need for IT literacy in schools, colleges and universities. This will include upgradation of electronic and computer science courses both at diploma and degree level for providing quality manpower in the IT. The meeting felt the need for developing Gurgaon as an IT centre to be marketed as a leading IT destination for software companies in the country. Panchkula also needs to be developed as the second IT centre for Haryana, the meeting felt. A concerted effort in
collaboration with governments in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh
needed to be carried out for developing a
"multimedia supercorridor" on the lines of
Malaysia. A similar experiment can be carried out by
developing Panchkula, Chandigarh and Mohali as another IT
corridor, it felt. |
State museum at Panipat soon PANIPAT, March 27 — Haryana will have its first state museum here soon if the efforts of the Archaeology and Museums Depart-ment of Haryana are any indication. From depicting the life and times of the medieval era, storing the remains of the Indus Valley civilisation excavated from Kunal and Banawali in Fatehabad and providing an insight into the tradition and culture of Haryana, the museum billed to be named as "The Panipat Museum" has been envisaged to become a treasure house of artefacts, implements, tools, weapons, clothing, maps, musical instruments, utensils and ornaments of the medieval period. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Sandeep Garg said "The museum initially is being set up at the canal rest house at Binjhol, 5 km from here, and will be shifted to Kala Amb with in a year time." Already work was going on at war footing at the canal rest house. The district administration was hopeful that the museum would be thrown open to the public by April-end. Talking to the TNS from Chandi-garh, Mr Dashrath Singh Malik, Deputy Director, Archaeology Department said the government planned to have three sections for the museum — the first one would cover the three battles of Panipat fought in 1526, 1556 and 1761. The second section will be called as the Haryana gallery, exhibiting the excavated remains of the Indus Valley civilisation and the third one will depict the cultural heritage of Haryana. ‘’The state has only a zonal museum at Hisar but we plan to make this one the best in the world,’’ he added. The Battle of Panipat Memorial Society headed by the Governor of Haryana has already initiated work to set up the museum. It has asked the Deputy Commissioners of various districts, particularly Mahender-garh, Jind, Ambala and Rohtak, to look out for people who have priceless artefacts belonging to the medieval era and persuade them to contribute their bit towards the setting up of the museum. Mr Dashrath Singh, who himself belongs to Panipat, says that he has also been trying to convince people to deposit weapons, implements, utensils and search for these pieces of history. Couple of days back a meeting of the senior government officials with people from the Marathi community was convened in Delhi to seek their help and cooperation in finding artefacts belonging to the Maratha culture. A 200-year-old doorway,
which was a remnant of the third battle of Panipat,
fought between the ruler of Afghanistan, Ahmed Shah
Abdali and Maratha leader Sadashiv Bhau, has also been
brought to the museum from the Victoria Memo-rial hall in
Karnal. The doorway which was said to be constructed from
the wood of mango trees at Kala Amb has been dismantled
and is being chemically treated to protect it from
termites and other hazards at the make-shift museum. |
PM to address rally AMBALA , March 27 — Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, will address a Dalit rally being organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi on April 17, the MP from Ambala, Mr Ratan Lal Kataria said here today. Talking to newspersons, Mr Kataria said the rally will be addressed, among others, by Mr Vajpayee, Mr Advani, Mr Kushabhau Thakre and leaders like Mr Sanghpriya Gautam, Mr Bangaroo Laxman, Mr Satnarain Jatiya, Mr Muni Lal and Mr Ramnath Kovind. “The Congress is
alleging that under the constitutional review we are
trying to change the Constitution. This is absolutely
untrue and the Dalit rally will prove beyond doubt that
the BJP has always been for the SC/ST,” he said. |
‘Need to check female
foeticide’ AMBALA, March 27 — About 20 lakh female foeticide cases are reported every year in India. This was stated by Deputy Commissioner Mr Ram Niwas. He was speaking at a workshop, organised by the District Family Welfare Office on the issue, “Pre-natal diagnostic technique act” here today. He said the national sex ratio in the country is 927 females against 1000 males, while in Haryana it is 793. He said besides prohibition for the determination of sex of the foetus, leading to female foeticide there should be public awareness in society. He said sex-determination tests should only be made for some specific genetic disorders. The Indian culture always paid high regards to the female and it should be followed, he added. Speaking on the legal aspect of the Act, advocate Jasbir Singh Kohli said the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique Act 1994 was notified and came into force from January 1, 1996. He said every offence under this Act is cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable. The act provide punishment for advertisement relating to PNDT, which may extend to three year’s imprisonment and with fine which may extend to Rs 10,000. Mrs Mamta Singh,
Additional SP, Ambala said, “through seminars and
workshops we could not achieve the goal. We should start
a social campaign against this evil.” |
Well owners to register, pay
fee AMBALA, March 27 — Considering the critical situation of ground water in Ambala, the Central Ground Water Authority has declared Ambala Municipal limits as “notified area”. It has been declared a notified area “for the purpose of registration of ground water abstraction structures for regulation of ground water extraction”. Under this category of notification, the owners of all existing ground water structures (wells, tubewells, borewells and any other form of ground water extraction structures whether used for drinking and domestic, industry, irrigation or any other purpose) whether government or private are required to be registered with the authority, a release said. During Water Resources Day celebration on March 29 in Ambala, a counter for registration shall be available. The fee for domestic/drinking and agricultural use well is Rs 100 per well and for other uses it is Rs 1000 per well. The failure to register the ground water structure may lead to penal action under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986. Talking to newspersons here, Mr M. Mehta, Regional Director (NWR), said the Central Ground Water Board will celebrate Water Resources Day-2000 at Ambala. “The main aim of celebrating this day is to create awareness amongst common people towards indiscriminate use of the ground water leading to large-scale effect on this precious natural resource. It is proposed to organise an exhibition, on-the-spot painting competition by school children, quiz contest and talk by eminent personalities on the issues of water as a whole and ground water in particular,” Mr Mehta said. The CWGB commenced ground water mapping and exploration during sixties in Haryana. As on today, the entire state stands covered under ground water surveys and exploration by drilling, construction of wells and testing of wells. “In all 325 exploratory bores have been drilled by CGWB in Haryana out of which 16 are in Ambala district. The CGWB also took up special project of ground water exploration in Ambala Cantonment under which seven exploratory wells were installed down to 450 metres,” Mr Mehta said. “In addition, the
CGWB installed a number of deep tubewells for Ambala
municipal authorities from early 1970 onwards to mitigate
the perpetual problem of drinking water supply in
Cantonment and the city areas. The yields of many of the
tubewells are above 1,00,000 litre per hour. If pumped
for 15 hours a day, they can meet the water requirement
of 15,000 people,” he said. |
Liquor vends reauctioned GURGAON, March 27 — In the reauctions of liquor vends of nine districts of the state held here today the highest bid was for Faridabad, followed by Gurgaon. The reauctions were held for country made and Indian made foreign liquor vends in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panchkula, Jhajhar, Jind, Sirsa, Mahendergarh, Hisar and Fatehabad. Significantly,there were no new bids for the vends in Hisar and Fatehabad. The reauctions of these two districts will be held on March 29 at Chandigarh. In the earlier auctions, held a few days ago, the final bid for all the vends in Hisar district amounted to Rs 34.80 crore and for those in Fatehabad Rs 15.26 crores. The total bid for the vends of Faridabad district was Rs 66.11 crores and that of Gurgaon Rs 55.75 crores. For vends in Panchkula the bid amount was Rs 15.71 crores and that for Jhajhar was Rs 25.55 crores. The bid for vends in Mahendergarh district closed at more than Rs 12.10 crores. The government had ordered reauction of the vends in these districts as, in comparison to the auctions held last year, it faced a fall in revenue loss of about Rs 5.69 crores in the auction held some days ago. The government’s move to go ahead with reauctions paid off as the reauction of vends in Gurgaon district alone fetched an additional sum of Rs 8.46 crores. According to a
source,the contractors and liquor barons were compelled
to hike their bids after it would reject the lower bids. |
Takkar inducted in panel AMBALA, March 27 — Mr Kartar Singh Takkar, a senior leader of the Sarv Hind Shiromani Akali Dal, Haryana, has been inducted as a member in the tercentenary celebrations of the Foundation Day of the Khalsa Panth, Committee, constituted at the Haryana level by the state government. Jathedar Joga Singh (Yamunanagar) and Bharpoor Singh Khalsa (Hisar) have also been inducted in it. Mr Takkar said in a
press release here today that for organising the
concluding function of the celebrations, a meeting had
been called at Yamunanagar on March 28. The Chief
Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, will preside over the
meeting. |
Undertrial re-arrested ROHTAK, March 27 — An undertrial prisoner, Vijay Kumar, alias Pappu Gaba, has been arrested by the police again. He had escaped from the police custody two days ago. According to the police, the accused was arrested while he was trying to flee from a house in the town, where he had been hiding after his escape. The police has also arrested two persons, Sujan Singh and Raj Kumar, on charges of helping the accused. It is reported that
Pappu Gaba got injured in his attempt to escape when the
police party raided his hideout. He has been admitted to
PGIMS Hospital for treatment. Pappu Gaba is facing murder
charge at present and is lodged at the local jail. |
Cultural bonanza by AIMT club AMBALA , March 27 — The Youth Management Club of the Shri Atmanand Jain Institute of Management and Technology (AIMT), Ambala City has organised “Aagman - 2000” . Various events such as corporate quiz, ad-mad show, debate, seminar presentation, Rangoli and on the spot painting competition were a part of the cultural festival, a press note said. Prof Mukesh Sehgal, Director AIMT, highlighted the achievements of the institute in the past few years. He stressed that in today’s competitive era, mere knowledge of books could not help the students become successful persons . In all, 44 students
participated in the events. |
Telephone exchange inaugurated GURGAON, March 27 — The issue regarding the staff shortage at the local telecom office would be taken up at higher political and bureaucratic levels, according to Mr Sudha Yadav, member of Parliament from the constituency. While inaugurating a new telephone exchange at a remote area of Farrukhnagar, 25km from here, she said she would request the Chief General Manager, Haryana Telecom Circle, to shift some staff from other districts to Gurgaon or give permission for ad hoc recruitment. She would also meet senior politicians to sort out the problem, she added. Gurgaon Telecom General Manager Shubhendu Ghosh said this new 1000-telephone-line capacity exchange would feed around 20 villages in the block. He further said
telephone connections would be on demand in the
surrounding villages within three months. |
1 dies in road mishap AMBALA, March 27 — One person was killed and six other were injured in a road accident here this morning. According to police
report, a Tata Sumo collided with an other vehicle on the
GT road near Ambala City. One person, who was in the Tata
Sumo, died, while the injured were admitted to the local
Civil Hospital. |
Panel found for family health
week CHANDIGARH, March 27 — The Haryana Government has constituted an 11-member state coordination committee to celebrate family health awareness week from June 1. The committee will ensure effective coordination between different functionaries of public, corporate, private and voluntary sectors. The committee will be
headed by Financial Commissioner and Secretary of the
Health and Medical Education Department. |
House prorogued CHANDIGARH, March 27
— The Haryana Governor, Mr Mahabir Prasad has
prorogued the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. |
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