 |
| Thursday, May 4, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
|
Hooda
seeks probe into allegations Convicts
free despite warrants Petrol
station owner, employee killed Residents
resent power cuts Staff
shortage hits students Chautala’s
remarks ‘misleading’ “Tatkal
scheme” for tubewell connections |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rs 4.1 cr for Rohtak water supply
schemes ROHTAK, May 3 — The Public Health Department will spend nearly Rs 4.1 crore on various schemes to streamline water supply to the town. Mr Ravi Chandra, Executive Engineer, Public Health, said that the machinery installed in 1962 in the local waterworks would be replaced within three months. The booster installed at Government Senior Secondary School for Boys would start functioning within a month and benefit nearly 40,000 residents of the town. Examinees
seek re-examination Man
deprived of car, 1 held Tele-counselling
on HIV started Illegal
structures demolished BKU
to hold rallies Abhey
elected chief of zila parishad New
formula for house tax soon Power,
water crisis in Jhajjar
|
Hooda seeks probe into
allegations CHANDIGARH, May 3 — Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, chief of the Congress Party in Haryana, today demanded a probe into the allegations made against the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, by Opposition MLA Mr Karan Singh Dalal. Mr Dalal told presspersons yesterday that the Chief Minister’s family members had misappropriated vast areas of land at Faridabad and Gurgaon districts. The Congress chief, who was addressing a press conference at the HPCC office here today, said it would be proper if the Chief Minister would order a probe into the allegations so that the truth came to light. Mr Hooda also warned that the Congress Party would also investigate the allegations made by Mr Dalal. Launching a scathing attack against the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Hooda said that the INLD-led government had miserably failed to safeguard the interests of Haryana in various inter-state disputes. Mr Hooda said that the Chief Minister had earlier assured that he would take up with the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, the issue of Haryana’s share of river waters, though later on it was found that Mr Chautala did not have the guts to do so. “Now the issue has reached a dead end, Mr Badal has already said that not a single drop of water will go to Haryana, the Union Home Minister Mr L.K. Advani has also expressed his inability to sort out the issue”, Mr Hooda said. The Congress chief alleged that instead of getting more water, Haryana was, in fact, losing 1300 cusec of water every day as the Bhakra canal was not repaired in time and its capacity had gone down to 9500 cusec from 10800. Mr Hooda said while the Chautala-led government presented a tax free Budget in the Assembly, it started imposing heavy burden on the people within a month. He pointed out the recent increase in bus fares in the state and the recently introduced system of no objection certificate (NOC) for selling of properties at Ambala, and said that all types of taxes were being “ruthlessly” imposed in the state. Mr Hooda said that in many villages, the inhabitants were adamant about not paying the power bills. He cited the instance of Titoli village (falling under Mr Hooda’s constituency), where more than Rs 1.90 crore worth of power dues were pending and the villagers had decided that they would not pay these bills. He added that in villages power was supplied for merely three to four hours daily. The state Congress chief said that law and order situation in the state had also deteriorated like never before and even the incidents highlighted by the media, such as the harassment of an NRI and his German wife at a tourist complex, the incident related to the alleged help by the Pro Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University to his son during examinations (which first appeared in The Tribune), etc, were not being looked into. Mr Hooda said the public resentment against the state government would be reflected in the Rori Assembly seat byelection if fair elections could be held there. “ Then it will be a referendum on the government”, Mr Hooda said, and added that the Congress Party would approach the Election Commission to ensure fair election at Rori. Meanwhile, an INLD press statement, issued barely an hour after Mr Hooda’s press conference, refuted the Congress chief’s charges and said that it was wrong on the part of Mr Hooda to say that Mr Chautala was not taking the inter-state issues seriously. The statement issued by Mr Dharambir Singh, INLD Office Secretary, said Mr Chautala had been impressing upon the Prime Minister for the earliest settlement of SYL canal issue and for implementation of the Eradi Tribunal recommendations regarding the Ravi-Beas waters. The statement claimed that before the Assembly elections, Mr Chautala had announced that power and water would not be provided free of cost, though the surcharge on power bills would not be charged. The statement further claimed that people were now paying the power bills regularly as availability of power had increased. Mr Dharambir Singh also justified the bus fare hike and said that it was done to cope up with the cost of inputs and for improving the quality of services. The State Roadways was suffering a loss of about Rs 100 crore due to mismanagement by previous governments, he said. He said that the HVP and
Congress regimes were responsible for the reduction in
the capacity of Bhakra main-line canal. The statement
also denied the allegations of landgrabbing by Mr
Chautala’s family members. |
Convicts free despite warrants HISAR, May 3 — Shriyans Kumar Jain, one of the convicts in the sensational Krishan Kumar Khandelwala murder case, whose life sentence was pardoned by the Haryana Governor last year and which order was set aside by the Supreme Court yesterday, has served only a few months in jail while two others convicted in the same case are about to complete their life terms, it is learnt. Not only that, another convict in the same murder case, Ram Nath Bhumla, whose acquittal by the Punjab and Haryana High Court was set aside by the Supreme Court on December 12, 1998, along with that of Shriyan Kumar, is also a free bird so far. He should have been in jail serving the life sentence immediately after the apex court's order. However, the police has failed to nab him despite warrants issued against him. Krishan Kumar Khandelwala, one of the candidates for the post of president of the Hansi Municipal Committee in this district, was shot dead on October 13, 1987. Three years later, the sessions court sentenced all five accused P.K. Chaudhary, a senior BJP leader and former MLA, Shriyans Kumar, Ram Nath Bhumla, Gurvinder Singh and Krishan Kumar Jakhar to life imprisonment. In the meantime, the accused had obtained bail from the high court after spending a few months in jail. They again spent sometime in jail following their conviction by the sessions court, but were freed on bail yet again. The five filed an appeal in the high court, which acquitted P.K. Chaudhary, Shriyans Kumar and Ram Nath Bhumla, but upheld the sentence of Gurvinder Singh and Krishan Kumar Jakhar. However, a brother of
the deceased and his widow filed a special leave petition
in the apex court challenging the acquittal of the three
accused. The apex court in its judgement on December 10,
1998, upheld the acquittal of P.K. Chaudhary but
sentenced the other two, Shriyans Kumar and Ram Nath
Bhumla, to life imprisonment. |
Petrol station owner, employee
killed ROHTAK, May 3 — Petrol pump owner Mohinder Singh (55) and his employee Krishan Kumar were murdered when three persons attacked them with sharp-edged weapons in the wee hours today at Subhana village near Salhawas in Jhajjar district. Another salesman, Anand has sustained multiple injuries and has been admitted to the Pt B.D. Sharma PGIMS here. The deceased and the injured were sleeping at the petrol pump when three persons, reportedly in their twenties attacked them with lathis and sharp-edged weapons. The assailants, it is said, knew the deceased and spoke local dilect. The Senior Superintendent of Police, Mr Akil Mohammed told that the police has registered a case under Section 302 and 34 and 20-B of the IPC against Parmod, resident of urban estate, Jind and his accomplices on the complaint of Rajiv, younger son of deceased Mohinder Singh. The complainant reportedly told the police that Parmod has an old enmity with his father and other family members, who also belong to Jind and have set up a petrol pump at Subhana. No arrest has been made so far. Vishal, the elder son of Mohinder Singh deceased, it may be recalled, was allegedly involved in the Sant Lal Pahwa kidnapping case of Jhajjar, had hit headlines about a couple of years ago. Although the accused in
the Pahwa kidnapping case were arrested by police, Vishal
was still absconding and has been declared a proclaimed
offender by a Jhajjar court. Kaushalya Devi, wife of
deceased Mohinder Singh, was also then arrested on
charges of offering bride to the then Senior
Superintendent of Police, Jhajjar for not implicating her
son in the kidnapping case. She was, however released on
bail later. |
Residents resent power cuts GURGAON: The electricity infrastructure is stretched to its limits in the summer as demand begins to peak. It is also the time when the state imposes unscheduled and extended power cuts. While the industry takes these conditions in its stride by installing captive power generation plants, rationalising the expenditure by claiming lower generation costs per unit, those who cannot afford to pay both to the state electricity board and the private generator or inverter manufacturers, face the brunt of a hot summer. Residents here are most agitated over “unscheduled” power cuts, which they say, throw normal routine out of gear. They allege that these cuts sometimes last between two hours to four hours during daytime or at night. Mrs Jyoti in Sector-14 said that her children, who are presently studying for their board examinations, had to suffer as they could not study for long periods when power disruptions took place. “Just when the previous state government was trying to ensure round the clock power, it was ousted”, she regretted. She complained that despite paying such high charges to the state electricity board for power, consumers have to run from pillar to post to get even a wrong bill rectified by the local office. “Moreover, when all of us are paying such high charges, I fall to see where all the money is being spent and why we have to invest in expensive inverters. At this rate all of us may as well combine our resources to set up captive power plants in each residential sector,” she suggested. The Superintending Engineer of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitaran Nigam Mohinder Singh, while responding to the issue described it as a statewide problem and maintained that the rectification of the problem was out of hand. He said Gurgaon received power from five or six sources having frequency check systems. As soon as the frequency went below 48 Hz due to overloading, the system automatically shut down to prevent major damage to the grid. Further, the headquarter at Panchkula often orders the local office to impose an unscheduled power cut. Mr Singh explained while there was a quota of 32 lakh units per day for Gurgaon district, it became irrelevant when there was no power supply due to frequency swings. He also informed while Magnum, a private power generation unit, was providing 3 lakh units per day, The Maruti Udyog plant was not able to supply 4 lakh units per day after one of its transformers sustained damage. It would take a month to repair it, he added. *** Ten lakh devotees are reported to have visited the famous Shitla Mata temple here during the 10-day ‘mela’ here recently. The pilgrims had to face a few problems because the proposed construction work taken in hand three years ago, is hanging fire. In the presence of then Deputy Commissioner, a number of private builders and developers had promised to combine resources to renovate the temple. Of these efforts, the “bhandara ghar” (dining hall) and the “satsang bhawan” (prayer hall) have been completed while the holy tank and the library is still half complete. The builders who were supposed to complete these sections are claiming that they have already spent the money they had offered to invest in the reconstruction of the temple. Recently when the Chief Minister visited the temple, he reportedly directed the district administration to convince the builders concerned to complete the unfinished work. *** The district administration has started a campaign to remove unauthorised encroachments in the town and rural areas. Deputy Commissioner T.C. Gupta is reported to have ordered the demolition of about 1300 structures constructed without proper authority. A few of these structures were demolished recently to convey the message that the administration was serious about its resolve. Other unauthorised encroachment on the roadsides by shopkeepers and hawkers are also being demolished. *** The Haryana State
Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) received a
shot in its arm when the US Ambassador, Mr Richard F.
Celeste, visited the industrial model township project at
Manesar recently and lauded the role of the HSIDC in this
regard. |
Staff shortage hits students ROHTAK, May 3 — The ‘staff shortage’ in non-government colleges in Haryana had been posing several problems to students’ studies and overall functioning of these colleges, mainly due to the ban on recruitment imposed by the state government after the last Assembly elections. It was claimed by the President of the Haryana Non-Government College Management Association and a former MP, Mr Ramkishan Gupta while talking to reporters here last evening. Mr Gupta, who is head of several educational institutions in Bhiwani district has decided to challenge the ‘ban’ in the Punjab and Haryana High Court very soon. Alleging that the Haryana Government withdrew the ‘ban’ on filling of vacant seats vide its letter No. 26/31-99-CIV(I) dated 24.01-2000 in response to his petition filed in the High Court for quashing the annexure F-III dated 2.4.99 in which appointment and recruitment in government-aided colleges had been banned as part of the overall ban, he said the present government while informing the honourable court that ban had been lifted on January 24 this year again imposed such a ban on March 16, 2000 by issuing a circular to all departments concerned and institution. Claiming that the decision to impose a ban again amounted to contempt of the court and he said he had decided to file a petition in this connection when the matter came up for hearing in the High Court. He said that the letter issued by the Director of Higher Education to the Advocate-General of Haryana on 24.01.2000 had made it clear that the government withdrew the ban in toto and not only this the government requested and Advocate-General to bring the fact to the notice of the High Court on January 25 last when the case came up for hearing. He said while the petition had still been pending the government imposed the ban again which he claimed had led to the contempt of the court. He said while there had been about 118 private colleges which had been aided by the government, there were at least 800 posts not filled causing problem of the staff shortage had been going on for the past three years. This he said had not only hampered the studies of the thousands of the students studying in private colleges on the overall work of such institutions had been getting hampered. About the grants to such colleges, Mr Gupta said this was also getting delayed for about two to three months which caused problems in releasing the salaries of the staff on time. He said the decision to re-impose ban had also caused financial loss to aided private college. He said he had also
highlighted the issue in his letter to the Chief
Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala written on April 21 last
but added that any response was awaited in this regard. |
Chautala’s remarks
‘misleading’ SONEPAT, May 3 — Mr S.N. Solanki, President of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Haryana, today lashed out at the Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala and accused him of misleading and befooling the working classes on the issue of increasing the minimum wages of workers. In a signed press statement issued here today, Mr Solanki alleged that the Chautala Government had not increased the minimum wages of workers to Rs 1905.82 per month but it had decreased these from Rs 1,902 per month to Rs 1,851 per month in January last year. Hence, Mr Chautala’s announcement on May Day about the increase in the minimum wages of workers was misleading. He urged the Chief Minister to convene a special meeting and fix Rs 3,600 per month as the minimum wages of workers. Describing the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre and the Chautala Government as “anti-workers” and “anti-people” the CITU leader criticised them for increasing the prices of rationed commodities, petroleum products, urea and fertilisers as well as bus fares in Haryana and called upon the people to oppose the price hike. He also announced that
his party would continue its struggle against the
“anti-worker” and “anti-people”
policies of the Central and Chautala governments. |
“Tatkal scheme” for
tubewell connections CHANDIGARH, May 3 — After Maruti Udyog Limited and the Railways, it is the turn of the Haryana power utilities to start a “Tatkal scheme” for power connections to tubewells. There is one catch — connections under the scheme will be charged by meters. Over 60,000 applications for tubewell connections are pending with the power utilities, which are unable to release connections because of lack of resources. The Chairperson of the Haryana power utilities, Mrs Meenaxi Anand Chaudhary, said here today that all those applicants who applied before December 31 last, could opt for the “Tatkal scheme” Earlier, a common seniority was being maintained for all applicants, irrespective of the fact whether they fell under LT, HT, single pole or a cable connection category. Mrs Chaudhary said under the new scheme, separate seniority of the willing consumers would be prepared under the categories of cable connection or single pole connection. Those consumers whose connections could be released with a cable of not more than 20 metre length from the nearest LT pole, they would be required to pay Rs 10,000 which would not be refunded. The applicants whose premises fell within 90 metre of the nearest LT line, their connections would be released under the single pole category and they would be required to deposit a non-refundable amount of Rs 20,000. In both cases, the
applicants would have to deposit 50 per cent of the
amount along with their consent letters and the remaining
50 per cent before the release of the connection. |
Rs 4.1 cr for Rohtak water
supply schemes ROHTAK, May 3 — The Public Health Department will spend nearly Rs 4.1 crore on various schemes to streamline water supply to the town. Mr Ravi Chandra, Executive Engineer, Public Health, said that the machinery installed in 1962 in the local waterworks would be replaced within three months. The booster installed at Government Senior Secondary School for Boys would start functioning within a month and benefit nearly 40,000 residents of the town. The department was supplying drinking water to nearly 2.40 lakh persons in the town through 125-kilometre-long pipe line. He said Rs 50 lakh would be spent on laying pipeline. Mr Chandra admitted that piped water was not being supplied to nearly 25,000 persons residing especially in unauthorised localities in the city. Mr Chandra said the department had submitted a Rs 110-crore project for approval which involves the construction of the third waterworks in the town to meet the rising demand for piped water. About the supply of contaminated water to certain localities, he said pure water was being supplied from both waterworks. Contamination was mainly found in localities where drains ran among the roadside. He urged people to raise the level of their water supply lines as compares to drains so as to check contamination. Meanwhile, the number of
patients suffering from jaundice has attained alarming
proportions in the town. As many as 222 cases of jaundice
have been detected by the health authorities in different
localities up to April 28 — Janata Colony (105
cases), Shivaji Colony (53) and Naya Parao (30). |
Examinees seek re-examination SONEPAT, May 3 — Candidates of M.A. English (previous), now appearing in the annual examinations held by Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, are upset over the change of style of the question paper of English Literature. They have alleged that the guidelines laid down by the university have been violated by the paper-setter in so far as questions on individual author were set in the paper. The candidates further alleged that last year also, the paper-setter had set the question paper on similar lines and after protests from the candidates, the university had allowed grace marks in the paper. The candidates asserted had the university taken some action against the paper-setter, the anomaly would not have been repeated. The candidates have demanded re-examination in the paper. Man deprived of car, 1 held KAITHAL, May 3 — Two miscreants deprived a person of the Maruti car at knifepoint near Simra village of Kalayat police station last evening. The police has found the vehicle and arrested one of the suspects. Two youths hired a taxi
from Narwana for Kalayat, they pushed the driver out of
the vehicle. The victim raised an alarm. The police
alerted nakas and four the vehicle after chase, near
Masour village. The DSP, Mr Amir Singh, told Joginder
Singh alias Bhola of Patran (Patiala) has been arrested
and his accomplice Tarsem of Rampur Dugal was absconding.
|
Tele-counselling on HIV
started YAMUNANAGAR, May 3 — Dr P.C. Jindal, Director, Health Services, Haryana, inaugurated the first computer voice response system in Haryana for HIV/AIDS counselling today at the premises of the local branch of the Family Planning Association of India. Speaking on the occasion Dr Jindal warned that HIV/AIDS was spreading like an epidemic in the state. It had already reached at an alarming level in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. He emphasised the need for awareness among the masses to curb the spread of this dreaded disease. He said the state government had set its target to cover four lakh students under one of its awareness programme. He invited the NGOs to join hands with the government in its struggle to fight AIDS. Mr Rajiv Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, assured the district administration would help the NGOs who want to operate whether in the field of family welfare, development or environment protection. Dr Nina Puri, president of the FPAI invited the masses to join hands with the FPAI to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in the district. Illegal structures demolished SONEPAT, May 3 — The district administration has intensified its campaign against encroachments upon municipal, panchayat and public land in this district. Deputy Commissioner
Sudhir Rajpal said here today that officials of the Town
and Country Planning Department had demolished
unauthorised structures along the G.T. Road near
Bahalgarh Chowk in this district. |
BKU to hold rallies SONEPAT, May 3 — The Haryana BKU has decided to launch a mass contact campaign and hold rallies at all district headquarters in the state to apprise farmers with its achievements. Mr Hari Singh Khokhar, president of the state unit of the union, said here today that the union would hold rallies on May 18 at Pundri in Kaithal district, on May 25 at Bhiwani and on June 15 at Karnal in the first stage. Similar rallies will be held in the remaining districts of the state. He criticised the Central and Chautala governments for pursuing “anti-farmer” policies and blamed them for putting a great burden on the farmers by hiking the prices of urea, fertilisers and other essential commodities. Mr Khokhar also lashed
out at the Haryana Government and the Uttar Haryana Bijli
Vitran Nigam and alleged farmers were being harassed and
arrested during the campaign for the recovery of
electricity bills. He warned the BKU would not tolerate
such atrocities. |
Abhey elected chief of zila
parishad SIRSA, May 3 — A meeting of the newly elected members of the zila parishad was held in the local Panchayat Bhavan where Mr Abhey Singh Chautala, a son of the Haryana Chief Minister, was unanimously elected as President of the Zila Parishad, whereas Mr Prabhu Singh was elected as Vice-President of the parishad. The election was held under the supervision of the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mr D.D. Gautam. On the other hand, the
district INLD President, Mr Padam Jain, was unanimously
elected as President of the Municipal Council here at a
meeting of the newly elected Municipal Councillors. Mrs
Krishna Phogat, Councillor from Ward No. 8, was elected
as Vice-President of the corporation.The election was
held under the supervision of Mr Vikas Yadav, SDM, Sirsa. |
New formula for house tax
soon SIRSA, May 3 — A new formula will be formulated for fixing house tax in the city, Mr Padam Jain, Chairman of the Sirsa Municipal Council, said after assuming his office yesterday Mr Jain said his
priority would be beautification of the city park.
Committees on the ward level would be constituted to
associate masses with cleanliness and beautification of
the city. |
Power, water crisis in Jhajjar JHAJJAR, May 3 — The district has been reeling under an acute water and power crisis as most of the wells and ponds have dried up. It is learnt the
government has released grants for water supply to every
home in certain villages but to no avail. Water supply in
city areas of Jhajjar is also irregular. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | In Spotlight | 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 119 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
