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| Tuesday, July 25, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Chautala
to rake up graft cases Life term
for wife’s murder upheld Woman
kills four daughters, self INLD
upsets Congress game plan Governor
extols Gurukul system 38
colleges permitted to start new courses |
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2,327
cases of power theft detected Retired
lecturers seek parity in pension
benefits Haryana
step to check delays Case
against SI for beating up complainant Workers
hold procession Couple
jumps into well, dies
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Chautala
to rake up graft cases KAITHAL, July 24 — The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, today said those who had indulged in corruption during the previous regimes would be put behind the bars. The Chief Minister, who was addressing a large rally, held at Ananj Mandi here on the occasion of one year of governance by the INLD in Haryana, said the action initiated against the former Congress Revenue Minister, Mr Anand Singh Dangi, and a couple of others was just "the beginning". "Even the big sharks are going to be arrested", Mr Chautala warned. He said if the Congress party could dig up a seven year-old case against the Shiv Sena chief, Mr Bal Thackeray, they should have no reason to protest against the case filed against Mr Dangi by the State Vigilance Bureau. Mr Chautala, however, started his speech by listing his government’s achievements during one year. He said out of the one year, the government could carry out development activities effectively for six months only because the remaining six months it was hamstrung by elections for Parliament, Assembly, Zila Parishad and so on which necessitated suspension of these works so that the election code of conduct was not violated. The Chief Minister, however, added that on various fronts the government had made significant progress during its one year tenure. He refuted his political opponents’ claim that the government was providing jobs. He said each year 2000 persons would be recruited for the police force. He said 8000 persons would be shortly recruited as school teachers and added that doctors too would be given appointments. Dwelling on the industry front, Mr Chautala said 25 new industries would be coming up in Haryana, including the Honda Motors of Japan. He said about Rs 3000 crore was being invested at Manesar. More than 1700 small industries were being set up in the state, Mr Chautala said. He said the proposed IT industry in the State would provide jobs to five lakh persons. The Chief Minister said from July 27 onwards he would again start touring the State "I will try to address the grievances of the villagers during these meetings or leave instructions with the officers to do the needful", the Chief Minister said. He said despite his trips if people from any area were found to be coming to Chandigarh to get their difficulties solved, the officers of that area would be held guilty of inaction and steps would be taken against them. While conceding that his government has introduced taxes such as local area development tax, Mr Chautala said such taxes would only affect the rich like Mr O P Jindal of the Congress. He said his government would increase electricity as well as water tariffs, but added that this would be done only after ensuring round the clock supply of power and water. The Chief Minister said the State government had purchased power worth Rs 700 crore from Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi, for supplying to the farmers which resulted in the bumper wheat harvest. There was a heavy downpour during the Chief Minister’s speech. The section of the assembly which was outside the covered area, instead of leaving, squeezed in and listened attentively and applauded repeatedly. Some women members, however, got up to leave before the Chief Minister began his speech. They were requested by INLD workers to sit down and they obliged. Mr Chautala’s sons, Ajay and Abhay, his Cabinet colleagues, four INLD MPs (Ms Kailasho Saini could not attend as she is reportedly abroad), MLAs and Independent MLAs supporting the government also attended the function. All the Ministers, except Cooperation Minister, Mr Kartar Singh Badhana, also addressed the gathering. All the four MPs also spoke. The meeting was, however, not without some jarring notes. One of them was the absence of any BJP MLAs or any of the functionaries of the saffron party. Among those whose presence was noticed were the Speaker, Mr Satbir Singh Kadiyan, and the Deputy Speaker, Mr Gopichand Gehlot. Mr Kadiyan also addressed the crowd and spoke about its "achievements". Satish Seth adds: Addressing a Press conference, Mr Chautala said 6 per cent of the state Budget would be spent on education. All new teachers would have to serve for five years in rural areas and those working in cities would also be posted in villages. He said on his request, the Union Railway Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, had agreed to stop the Delhi-Amritsar Shatabadi express at Kurukshetra and the Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabadi Express at Panipat. He said the government had a proposal to form improvement trusts at 29 places where municipal committees had been disbanded so that development works in those areas did not suffer. The Finance Minister, Prof Sampat Singh said Rs 315 crore were being spent on development activities in the rural areas. He said with the better management there had been an increase of 37 per cent in the sales tax collection and 25 per cent in excise duty during April to June this year as compared to the corresponding period last year. The dues of employees of municipal committees and government-aided private colleges had also been cleared. Refuting rumours being spread by opposition parties, he said there was no decision to impose any new house tax. The government was only trying to find out a fresh formula through which there would be uniformity in the imposition of house tax. Among others present on the occasion
included Speaker and Deputy Speaker, Haryana Vidhan Sabha, ministers,
Members of Parliament and MLAs of the INLD, chairpersons of boards and
corporations, district presidents of the INLD and a number of other
prominent persons. |
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Life
term for wife’s murder upheld CHANDIGARH, July 24 — Dismissing an appeal, Mr Justice H.S. Bedi and Mr Justice A.S. Garg of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today upheld the orders of Gurgaon’s Additional District and Sessions Judge convicting and sentencing a 40-year-old ex-Air Force official to life imprisonment for murdering his wife by burning her. The convict, Gurpreet Singh, was earlier booked by the Haryana Police under Section 302, IPC after a Sub Inspector, informed by the neighbours of shrieks from the house of the accused, found Kalpana lying burnt in a room in February 1994. The accused, the prosecution had stated, was sitting in another room. The prosecution had added that Kalpana and Gurpeet Singh in December 1993 had filed a joint petition seeking divorce by mutual consent before Gurgaon’s District Judge as they were not getting along very well. The accused, when confronted with the incriminating evidence against before the trial court, had, however, denied the allegations. Claiming to be innocent, he had asked for a trial. Deposing before the court, the accused had expressed ignorance regarding the circumstances leading to Kalpana’s death. Pronouncing the orders, the Judges observed that the most important factor in the case were the photographs showing the deceased sitting on a sofa set. The Judges also observed that Kalpana had not moved. "If she had moved here or there, burn marks would have been on other walls of the room also. The posture of the deceased clearly establishes that if the case had been of suicide she would have struggled and moved here and there." The Judges concluded: "We are of
the view that there is more than sufficient circumstantial evidence to
connect Gurpreet Singh with the sordid crime he committed. The order
of conviction and sentence of the Additional District and Sessions
Judge is upheld and the appeal is dismissed." |
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Woman
kills four daughters, self ROHTAK, July 24 — A woman reportedly committed suicide along with her four minor daughters by consuming insecticide at nearby Baliana village yesterday. The deceased have been identified as Yashwanti, alias Isho (30), and her daughters, Rekha (11), Rakhi (9), Preeti (4) and Anju (1). However, the fifth daughter, Rajni (5), escaped as she was away at the time of the incident. Today all people were silent about the incident. A few old persons said Mahender Singh, husband of the deceased, was an alcoholic and addicted to gambling. He often used to beat his wife. An old woman said, Yashwant was compelled to commit suicide as the husband would torture her frequently by touching a hot iron to her body. They said the victim belonged to Maina village and married Mahender 15 years ago. Mahender is the eldest of three brothers and possess 2 acres of land. They added Mahender borrowed Rs 3,000 from his neighbour for gambling on Saturday last. The wife of the neighbour reached the house of Mahender next day (yesterday) and asked his wife to return the amount. Meanwhile, Mahender came to the spot and scolded his wife when the latter criticised him for borrowing money for gambling. Distressed at the ‘rigid’
behaviour of her husband Yashwanti served ‘lassi’ laced with
insecticide to her daughters. She reportedly fed the drink to her
youngest daughter Anju (1) with a spoon. After that she came out in
the street and announced that she had devastated her family by serving
them poison. Then she herself took the can containing the insecticide
to her mouth and drank it in the presence of several women despite
resistance from them. |
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INLD
upsets Congress game plan ROHTAK, July 24 — The ruling INLD appeared to have outsmarted the Congress in the game of one-upmanship here today. The opportunity was provided by the District Congress Committee (Rural) which had announced "honouring" parents of those persons from the district who had been provided government job during the one-year rule of the INLD. The game plan of the Congress, according to political observers, was to convey a message to the people that the Chautala government was discriminating against the unemployed youth of Rohtak district in the matter of providing employment. The INLD, however, outwitted the Congress when it collected 40 to 50 persons carrying their respective appointment letters and sent them to the venue of the Congress meeting. The arrival of "employed" persons in such a large number caught the Congress on the wrong foot and it appeared that its leaders had not done their homework properly before launching such a campaign against the ruling INLD. It appeared the Congress was completely out manoeuvred by the INLD in its campaign to malign the government. These persons later raised slogans against the Congress when they alleged that the Congress had failed to "honour" them in keeping with the announcement made by it. Not satisfied with humbling the Congress at its own game these "employed" persons stormed into The Tribune office here to complain that the Congress had "insulted" them by not "honouring" them. Major Hari Singh Kadyan, who claimed that his son Satyender Singh had been appointed SDO in the B and R Department during the Chautala regime, alleged that instead of honouring their own statement the Congress leaders started asking for proof of domicile etc. Mr Manoj Kumar of Kathmandi here claimed that out of the 40-odd SDOs appointed in the B and R Department during the past one year, five belonged to Rohtak district. He was supported by Mr Vikas Chaudhary, also from the city. He, too, has been appointed SDO by the INLD government. Mr Sanjeev Phogat, another beneficiary in getting employment during the INLD regime, said as many as 38 to 40 persons from the district had been appointed teachers, six had got employment in the Health Department and three were appointed Dental Surgeons during the one-year rule of Mr Om Prakash Chautala. The DCC (Rural) president, Prof Virender, however, claimed not a single person from the district had been provided employment in the past one year by the INLD government. He said that in response to his appeal to the INLD and social organisations to provide him with names of persons whose wards had been given employment by the Chautala government only two persons from Rohtak district claimed to have got a job. But on verification it was found that they were given employment by the previous regime and were not allowed to join duty. They had, however, joined duty on the orders of the courts, the DCC chief said. The Congress through
a resolution announced launching a mass agitation against the
anti-people policies of the Chautala government. The party, it said,
would hold meetings in August and September next to enroll volunteers
for the proposed agitation. Through another resolution the party
criticised the government for imposing fresh taxes on the trader and
announced its support to the threatened bandh on August 9. It also
criticised the INLD government for registering criminal cases against
political opponents. The meeting also expressed serious concern over
the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. |
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Governor
extols Gurukul system KARNAL, July 24 — The Haryana Governor, Babu Parmanand, here today commended the ancient concept of "Gurukul" type of education in schools. He appreciated that such a system was being followed by sainik schools in the country for imparting education. The Governor during his first visit to Karnal was presiding over the 40th Founders Day of Sainik School, Kunjpura, about 10 km from here, today. The Governor stressed the need for retaining the Indian traditions in the education system. He said imparting education should be a mission which should be followed by dedicated teachers. The Governor called on students of the school to imbibe the qualities of cooperation, self-confidence, team spirit and character building. These qualities were essential for making ideal citizens. Babu Parmanand lamented that there was shortage of officers in the defence forces of the country. However, he was confident that schools like Sainik School, Kunjpura, would play a vital role and come up to the expectations for preparing students for the defence forces of the country. He also deprecated the rising hold of materialism in the education system in the country. Earlier, welcoming the Governor,
Commander V.K. Verma, Principal of the school, while acquainting the
Governor with the achievements of the school disclosed that 14 cadets
had joined the prestigious National Defence Academy, Pune, from the
school this year. |
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Retired
lecturers seek parity in pension
benefits YAMUNANAGAR, July 24 — Retired college lecturers of Haryana are seeking pension and gratuity benefits from April 1, 1995. Prof K.C. Thakur, the president of the Haryana Retired College Teachers Association (HRTCA) said there had always been a parity between government-aided college lecturers and government and university lecturers regarding pay scales, grades, nature of work and duties. The Haryana Government had sanctioned revised pay-scales to both categories of lecturers from January 1, 1996. He said in a press note issued here today that the pension scheme was introduced for teachers of Haryana universities from April 1,1995, and the implementation of similar scheme for college lecturers was started on May 11, 1998, vide the Haryana Government notification May, 1999. He said retired college lecturers challenged the propriety of the Government’s decision for fixing May 11, 1998, as the cut off date for pension benefits for them. He said they had approached the authorities time and again with a request to remove the anomaly of date, because fixing an arbitrary date for one category of lecturers and another for college lecturers was unconstitutional, illegal and against Section 14 of the Constitution. Professor Thakur said
the order had upset the retired college lecturers of Haryana who had
filed a writ petition against the Government. The petition has been
admitted. |
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38
colleges permitted to start new courses CHANDIGARH, July 24 — The Haryana Government today gave permission to 38 aided private colleges in the state for starting various courses with a view to encouraging higher education in areas having a high job potential. Mr Bahadur Singh, Minister of State for Education, said the courses included undergraduate courses in business administration, computer applications, information technology, computer software, statistics, accountancy, tax procedures and practices, public administration and commerce. He said postgraduate courses in information technology had also been allowed in addition to Masters in Commerce. The colleges concerned had been asked to start classes in the ensuing session. The colleges granted
permission to start these courses were GMN College, Ambala cantt, DAV
Colleges and S.A. Jain College, Ambala city, Guru Nanak Khalsa
College, MLN College and Guru Nanak Girls College, Yamunanagar,
Maharaja Agrasen College and Hindu Girls College, Jagadhri, Adarsh
Mahil Mahavidyala, Bhiwani, APJ Saraswati Kanya Mahavidyalya, Charkhi
Dadri, Banawari Lal Jindal Suiwala College, Tosham, Nirankari Baba
Gurbachan Singh Memorial College, Sohana, GGDSD College, Palwal,
Aggarwal College, Ballabhgarh, DAV Centenary College, Faridabad, SD
Girls College, Narwana, Dayal Singh College, Karnal, IG National
College, Ladwa, SD College, Panipat, MN College and Arya Kanya
Mahavidyalya Shahabad, Bhagwan Parshuram College Kurukshetra, Ahir
College, Rewari, Gaur Brahmin Degree College, Sri L.N. Hindu College,
MK Jat Kanya Mahavidyalya and Vaish Girls College, Rohtak, CMK
National Girls College, Sirsa, MP College for Women, Mandi Dabwali,
Shah Satnamji Girls College, Shahpur Begu (Sirsa), MA College for
Women, Jhajjar, Hindi Mahila Mahavidyalya, Sonepat, Karma Mahavidyalya,
Kharkhauda, Tilak Raj Chaddha Institute of Management and Technology,
Yamunanagar, CRA College, Jind, Dayanand Mahila Mahavidyalya,
Kurukshetra, Fateh Chand College for Women, Hisar, and K.L. Mehta
Dayandand College for Women, Faridabad. |
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2,327
cases of power theft detected CHANDIGARH, July 24 — Officials of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN), the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) and the Enforcement wing of the Vigilance and Security Department of the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) detected 2,327 cases of theft of power between July 1 and 21. Giving details, a spokesman for the UHBVN said here today that 1,172 cases were detected by his organisation, 800 by the DHBVN and the rest by the Enforcement wing of the Vigilance and the Security Department. The spokesman added
that a total penalty of Rs 1.66 crore was imposed on the erring
consumers, out of which Rs 55 lakh was recovered on the spot. |
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Haryana
step to check delays CHANDIGARH, July 24 — The Haryana Government today directed all heads of department to prepare by January every year lists of those officials who will attain the age of 50 or 55 years in next two years. These lists will help the departments in reviewing the cases of such officials in time. They were also directed to send copies of such lists to the Administrative Secretaries concerned and mark the cases datewise so as to check delays.  |
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Case
against SI for beating up complainant JIND, July 24 — The police yesterday registered a case against Sub-Inspector Virender Singh and Head Constable Chander Singh on the charge of allegedly beating up and harassing Mr Ram Sarup, according to a report received here today. Mr Ram Sarup was allegedly beaten up and illegally detained at the police post for about four hours by the then ASI Virender Singh and Head Constable Chander Singh. A year ago, Mr Ram Sarup had lodged a complaint at the Civil Lines police post that a few persons had encroached upon his plot and when he resisted he was manhandled by the encroachers. According to Mr Ram Sarup, when he went to the police station next day, he was beaten up and detained. Mr Ram Sarup reported this incident to the higher authorities and an inquiry by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Narwana, revealed that both Virender Singh and Chander Singh were guilty. However, they have
not been arrested so far. |
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Workers
hold procession SONEPAT, July 24 — Workers affiliated to CITU held a procession here today in protest against the illegal lockout by the management of a textile mill at Chidana village in this district. The procession was led by Mr Howa Singh, president of the district unit of CITU, and others. Carrying placards and raising anti-government and anti-management slogans, they later held a demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office. The leaders of CITU and the workers’
union also submitted a memorandum to the district authorities
demanding immediate lifting of the lockout and stern action against
the erring management. The memorandum alleged that the management had
failed to release the salary of the workers for June and deposit the
amount in the GPF accounts of the workers. |
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Couple
jumps into well, dies FATEHABAD, July 24 — A couple reportedly committed suicide at Dhani Daulatpur village near here, last night by jumping into a dry well. According to reports, the victim
Sukhdev and his wife Lajwanti worked on the fields of Ram Parkash. The
couple had a minor scuffle after which they jumped into the well. |
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