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| Monday, August 7, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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‘Refer ST-38 issue to expert panel’ Hire docs, ‘widows’ to grab relief No withdrawal of
ST form: CM Training through
tele-conferencing for teachers Computer coaching for rural students: Sampat
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Rs 84 crore spent on
development works
Sarkar Aap ke Dwar
programme from Oct
2 Arora asks traders not to join
strike Robbers target
school teachers Root out corruption,
Governor tells officers Girls poisoned
by mother
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‘Refer ST-38 issue to expert panel’ CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — Even as the nine-member committee of traders headed by the chairman of the ruling INLD Beopar Cell, Mr Niranjan Lal Bansal, submitted its report on the controversial issue of transit challans (ST-38) to the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, in Delhi this evening, the Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry has demanded that the entire issue should be referred to an expert committee. The chamber’s demand is reflective of the general mistrust about the Bansal committee which is perceived by various trade organisations as a government-sponsored body, constituted to divide the trading community, representative bodies of which have given a call for a Haryana bandh on August 9, which is observed as Quit India Day. The Bansal committee was constituted after a meeting of traders with Mr Chautala here on August 2. The committee held its first meeting in Kaithal yesterday and submitted its report to the Chief Minister today. Mr Chautala had assured the traders that the government would accept the suggestions made by the committee. However, he had also clarified that the government would not dispense with transit challans but would only simplify the procedure. It is likely that Mr Chautala may announce some concessions on the eve of the Haryana bandh, which is also being supported by the Haryana Congress and certain other political parties. The BJP has declared that while it agreed with the demand made by the traders for the withdrawal of ST-38, it would not support the bandh. The party is supporting the Chautala government from outside. In a joint statement issued here today the president and the senior vice-president of the chamber, Mr Manmohan Singal and Mr N.C. Jain, respectively, said to inspire confidence among the trading community, which had supported the INLD in the last elections in a big way, Mr Chautala should refer the entire issue of transit challans and various other demands relating to taxation to an expert committee. The chamber office-bearers said recently the government had subjected traders to a heavy dose of taxation. By imposing professional tax, no establishment had been spared. Manufacturers had been subjected to the local area development tax. The rice industry had been delivered a deadly blow by imposing 4 per cent tax on indirect exports. This had made the Haryana rice industry uncompetitive because other states had honoured the spirit of legislation passed by Parliament in this regard in 1996. Meanwhile, the general secretary of the Ambala Cantonment Traders Federation, Mr R.P. Gupta, has alleged that the newly introduced self-assessment scheme by the Excise and Taxation Department had turned out to be a self defeating one. He said the scheme had benefited only a few wholesalers, who were big traders, and not small traders, who were mostly retailers. He said the scheme envisaged an annual growth of 8 per cent in sales tax. However, when sales tax had been imposed at the first point in the case of almost 99 per cent of the goods, how could a retailer register a growth of 8 per cent. He would be subjected to the usual assessment process, which entailed delays and corruption.
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Hire docs, ‘widows’ to grab relief HISAR, Aug 6 — You have heard of doctors in government hospitals and doctors running nursing homes. But have you heard of doctors practising in courts of law? Well, howsoever inappropriate it may seem but almost every district town in Haryana has at least one orthopaedic practising in district courts. They have neither proper clinics nor regular jobs. Their professional tools are a letterhead and a pen. They earn their livelihood by issuing disability certificates to road accident victims for claiming compensation. Inquiries by The Tribune reveal that these certificates are highly exaggerated. It is learnt that whenever judges have referred such cases to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences at Rohtak for a second opinion, the disability was found to be much less grave than shown in the original certificates. These “court doctors” also issue highly inflated treatment bills to the victims. If you think that is shocking enough hold your breath. Even “widows” are available for hire in courts all over Haryana for appearing in these cases. These whiteclad women charge a part of the compensation package as fee for their appearance during, hearings. In most cases these women appear in fraudulent compensation cases filed by showing an unclaimed body as a victim of a road accident. Now that you have a doctor, a tormented widow and a dead body where do you find a vehicle that you can claim had hit the victim? Duly insured cars are also as readily available. Touts operating in the courts can arrange for one without many hassles. It is learnt that one such car was recently found involved in as many as 14 different road accidents in Punjab and Haryana over a short period. An inquiry is underway to solve the mystery. A member of the legal community reportedly owns the car. Inquiries also reveal that compensation cases have become a means for making easy money. Over the years a nexus has developed which also involves officials of insurance companies. Judges and lawyers say that there have been cases when the claimant and the insurance company settled the matter outside the court if they smelt that the court was likely to award a much smaller compensation than they expected. Needless to say the amount settled was higher. A random perusal of the compensation cases pending in Haryana courts also revealed that no victim of a road accident was without a lucrative means of earning a livelihood. It was found that even while employed almost every victim had a side business too and in most cases this was “dairy farming”. Commenting on the situation a senior judge said: Going by the statistics, it is hard to believe that Haryana ever had an unemployment problem. At times we wonder why such a large majority of accident victims are dairy farmers. The reason is obvious. The victim’s legal heirs use this ruse to claim higher compensation since the package is determined by the financial loss to the dependents due to the death of the earning member of the family. Claimants invariably maintain in courts that the dairy unit had to be wound up after the death of the victim. They produce stock witnesses to substantiate their claims. The judges say they try to be as judicious as possibly but found it hard to ignore such claims. One orthopaedic practising said on condition of anonymity that they found the law very helpful. The law prescribes a minimum amount to be paid as compensation in case of a permanent disability. This ensures that any claimant armed with a disability certificate of even 0.1 per cent is assured of a minimum amount in the range of Rs 20,000. This is what makes orthopaedics an important link in the compensation package. At the same time, the law has left it to the discretion of the courts determine compensation depending on the gravity of the
disability. This lacuna helps orthopaedics to earn handsome amounts as they issue exaggerated certificates to claim a percentage of the award as their free, he confessed. A share in the compensation as fee is fast becoming the norm with lawyers too. This is convenient for the claimant, as he has only to sign a few papers leaving everything else to the lawyer. The lawyer too, in this case, earns substantially more than the usual fee. Nevertheless, this has led to use of the unfair and even patently illegal practices to extract higher compensation. A senior lawyer said: “The orthopaedics and widows would not have any place in the court complexes if we were to confine ourselves to charging only the usual fee as in other cases. It is sheer greed both on our part and that of the claimant which has caused all this degeneration. It is learnt that though separate courts exist for deciding hit-and-run cases, there are few cases pending in such courts. The reason is that compensation is generally much lower in such courts compared to what a claimant can get by identifying a vehicle and filing the normal case of compensation. It is for this reason that insured cars are readily available for production. However, those who can not find such a car use another trick. In the FIR they claim that a Haryana Roadways but hit the victim and even identify the driver. This generally happens with the connivance of the busmen. Depending upon the time of a hit-and-run accident, they provide the number of a bus that passed by the accident site to the victim’s dependents. A judge who recently retired told The Tribune that during one such hearing he noticed that a witness had claimed that he noted down the number of a bus and also identified its driver even though the accident had taken place on an unlit road at 10 in the night. He said he told the witness (unofficially of course) that he would pass by the accident site in the right in a car and challenged him to note the number and identify the driver. “Of course, I did nothing of the sort as I only wanted to prick his
conscience. We have to go by evidence. Ultimately, seeing my attitude, the claimant settled the matter outside the court with the insurance company”, he added. There have been cases in which the genuine claimants have been deprived of the compensation though fraud as the ultimate beneficiaries turned out to be other than the legal heirs. The apex court then ruled that the amount of compensation should be deposited in banks and that only the interest be paid monthly to the victims of dependents. It also ruled that if any withdrawal was to be made from the amount of the deposit, it should be done after the consent of the court concerned. However, in this case too, stock witnesses and touts have ensured the defeat of the very purpose behind the court’s ruling. |
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No withdrawal of
ST form: CM FARIDABAD, Aug 6 — The Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, has claimed that his government has fulfilled a majority of the election promises in the very first year of its coming to power and has been attempting to set new standards of all round development in the state. Addressing district officials at the municipal corporation auditorium here today, the Chief Minister said only 20 to 25 per cent of the work promised by his party had been left and these would be accomplished soon. Appealing the officials to be vigilant, he said his government would not “tolerate” laxity. He said while the honest and dedicated employees would be rewarded, the government would take action against those who failed to perform well. The government would restart “Sarkar apke
dwar” programme from October 2. He asked district officials to tackle the problems of people at their own level, so that the common man was not forced to travel to Chandigarh to air his grievances. He said complaints about power had been maximum in Faridabad and asked Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam officials to improve their performance. Referring to the imposition of form ST-38 on traders, Mr Chautala justified it by stating that it was not going to hurt the interest of any community, especially the poor. Ruling out its withdrawal, he said option of its simplification was open and it would be taken on the basis of the report of the nine-member committee set up recently. Later the Chief Minister addressed meeting of workers of the Municipal corporation, inaugurated a blood donation camp at NIT, and laid the foundation stone of dairy project at Sihi village. |
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Computer coaching
for rural students: Sampat FATEHABAD, Aug 6 — The Haryana Finance Minister, Mr Sampat Singh, said today the Haryana Government had implemented the new education policy to ensure that students in rural schools could compete with their urban counterparts when it came to getting admission to professional colleges or finding suitable employment. Mr Sampat Singh was speaking at a rural gathering at Nehla village under the Bhattu Kalan Assembly constituency in this district. He said under the new policy, students of rural areas would be imparted computer education, which was hitherto not possible for them. Besides this they would be taught English as subject from class I. Mr Sampat Singh, who represents Bhattu Kalan segment in the Assembly, said that the state government had taken a number of projects for the welfare of people in this area. A Rs 4 crore project of the Pabra link canal which was hanging fire for the past 10 years had been sanctioned by the state government and the people would be able to get irrigation waters through this canal from October. Mr Sampat Singh charged the previous governments of adopting a step-motherly attitude towards Bhattu Kalan and said no development work had been done in the area during the past four years. He said the previous government had failed to clear pending payments of over Rs 15 crore to contractors. Hence, no contractor was willing to accept a contract, but the INLD government had cleared all pending payments and started development works again. He accused the previous governments of doing nothing to improve the power situation in the area. He said government employees rarely got salaries on time but now the government was ensuring that every employee get his salary in time. He said the government was conducting a fresh survey of persons eligible for old-age pension and those who had been left out would be included for this benefit. Speaking on the occasion, the INLD MP from Sirsa, Dr Sushil Indora, said a sum of Rs 11.38 lakh had already been spent on development activities in this constituency out of his MP fund and another Rs 40 lakh had been sanctioned which would be released soon. |
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Rs 84 crore spent on
development works AMBALA, Aug 6 — a sum of Rs 84 crore had been spent on development works during the past one year in Ambala district. This was disclosed by Mr Ram Niwas, Deputy Commissioner, here today. He said during Sarkar aap ke dwar hold by Mr Om Prakash Chautala, Chief Minister, out of 578 statements the work on 183 statements had been completed and the work on rest of the statements would be completed within the next two months. Mr Ram Niwas said loans to the tune of Rs 1.22 crore had been given through various banks to become self dependent. To lay 129 km of roads, Rs 10.63 crore had been allotted to the Haryana Agricultural Marketing Board. He said that a Rs 5.34 crore had been distributed as old age, widow and handicapped pension by the Social Welfare Department. He said Rs 5.69 crore were disbursed to the Panchayati Raj Department and works completed were mainly rooms of 65 schools, retaining walls of 10 schools, construction of 52 chaupals and repair of 35
roads. |
Sarkar Aap ke Dwar
programme from Oct
2
FARIDABAD, Aug 6 (UNI) — Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala today directed state government officers to investigate the problems and grievances of the masses on a priority basis. Addressing a meeting of district-level officers at the municipal auditorium here today, Mr Chautala said abiding by government directives or implementing government plans and schemes was not the sole objective of the officers but it was also obligatory on their part to render concrete suggestions on specific problems. The Chief Minister said his government believed in decentralisation of powers and consequently Panchayati Raj institutions were given more powers. He said it was because of the “refined” attitude of officers that the recovery of power bills was increasing day by day. He recalled that the previous government had to indulge in firing at
Nising, Kadma, Tohana and Mandiali on this issue. The Chief Minister suggested that power officials should establish control rooms like the police where public complaints could be heard round the clock. The Chief Minister announced that the second round of the “Sarkar Aap ke
Dwar” programme would commence on October 2 on the occasion of Gandhi
Jayanti. All announcements made by him during the first round would be implemented by that time although a majority of development works had already been completed under this
programme, he claimed. Mr Chautala said the Haryana Government had provided a sum of Rs 12 crore to the Punjab Government for desilting and repairing the Bhakra canal in Punjab area so that Haryana could get 10,500 cusecs. The Chief Minister said due to the facilities provided to farmers by the state government wheat production had increased from 38 lakh tonnes to 45 lakh
tonnes. He said Haryana had won praise by sending maximum relief material to calamity victims of Gujarat,
Rajasthan, Bihar, Assam and Orissa. He said that consequent upon the implementation of the new industrial policy, 25 large-scale and 1745 small-scale industrial units had been set up in
Haryana. Multinationals were opting for Haryana for further investment. He said the new education policy would provide employment opportunities to the educated youth. Later, Mr Chautala addressed a workers’
meeting. |
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Arora asks traders not to join
strike SHAHABAD, Aug 6 — The Haryana Transport Minister, Mr Ashok Arora, today called upon traders not to participate in the proposed August 9 strike. The minister said here today that the call for the strike was politically motivated and it was a handiwork of some politicians who had been rejected by the people in the Vidhan Sabha elections, with a view to creating problems for the state government. He criticised the sponsors of the strike for being in too much haste for giving the strike call. They did not wait even till August 7 when the nine-member committee appointed by the State Government, was to give its report on tax reforms. The Chautala government, he stated, was fully aware of the problems of the traders. It was determined to end the inspector raj and hence it had simplified the tax procedure for the convenience of the traders. Referring to the form No. 38 he stated that it was introduced to check the tax evasion. Mr Arora stated that he was confident that being a partner in the Chautala-led government, the BJP would cooperate with the government on this issue. Mr Arora, however, made it clear that nobody would be allowed to force others to close their shops. |
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Training through
tele-conferencing for teachers CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, has said that prominent educationists will impart training through tele-conferencing on every 10th day of the month to primary school teachers regarding simple methods of teaching English. This experiment, from September, will bring about a revolution in the education field, he said. While addressing teachers through tele-conferencing Mr Chautala said here today that the Haryana Government had framed a new education policy after intensive discussions with people belonging to all sections, keeping in view the needs of advanced technology. He said under the new policy, English would be taught in Haryana schools from class I. He said the district Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was being implemented in collaboration with the Union Government. Primary teachers were imparted training through tele-conferencing on different aspects of education. The DPEP was a collaborative project of the IGNOU and the NCERT which aimed at providing technical support to the ongoing training programme of 15 DPEP states covering about 250 districts. |
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Robbers target
school teachers ROHTAK, Aug 6 — An alarming rise in the incidents of chain and purse snatching increased insecurity among the working women in the town. The youths in the age group of 20 to 25 years have been found involved in these incidents. At least one such incident was reported daily in the town for the past four days. Nearly 10 such incidents were reported in the town in the past one month. According to a survey, school teachers are the main victims. They were robbed of their purses while returning from the schools in afternoon. In most cases two motor cycle-borne youths pass by the side of the teachers and snatch away the purse. The unnumbered motor cycle zips away. Two unidentified motor cycle-borne youths snatched away the purse of Ms Santosh Devi, a teacher at the local Government Senior Secondary School, while she was returning home at Sector 14 on July 6. In the FIR she said the purse contained some cash and gold bangles worth Rs 10,000. Ms Kusumlata of Vijay Park was robbed of her purse containing nearly Rs 8,000 on July 29 in the same way. Ms Asha Bangar, a teacher at nearby Chandi village and a resident of Vikas Nagar locality, Ms Seema Devi, a teacher at Madina and a resident of the local Jawahar Nagar, Ms Sangeeta Prasad, a teacher at the local DAV School and a resident of Sector 1 and a teacher of Vikas Nagar fell a prey to such criminals on Aug 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively. It is learnt four such cases were registered by the police. A teacher of the local Model School said she lost her purse in the same manner but did not report the matter to the police as she was unable to provide any clue regarding the criminals. Ms Sunita Malhotra, Reader, Psychology Department, Maharshi Dayanand University, said frustrated youths who do not get enough money from their parents to fulfil their ‘royal’ desires indulge in such acts. |
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Root out corruption,
Governor tells officers SONEPAT, Aug 6 — The Haryana Governor, Babu Parmanand, has called upon officers to root out the evil of corruption, red-tapism and work independently and fearlessly to maintain the dignity of the office and improve the image of the state government. Addressing a meeting of district officials here yesterday, the Governor also asked them to speed up the implementation of various development and welfare schemes launched by the state government so that the benefit of the same could reach the common man. He claimed that Haryana was one of the most prosperous and progressive states in the country. The Governor had an intensive interaction with the senior officers of the district at a meeting held at the PWD (B&R) Rest House and reviewed the implementation of various development and welfare schemes launched by the state government in this district. |
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Girls poisoned
by mother ROHTAK, Aug 6 — An eight-year-old girl died of poisoning — at the PGIMS here today. She was brought to the institute yesterday. According to information, Savitri (35) of Nidana village served
poisoned water to her two daughters-Manju (12) and Anju (8). Later, she herself consumed the poison. Savitri and Manju died yesterday while being taken to the PGIMS. However, Savitri’s two sons escaped as they were away at the time of the incident. Rajbir, husband of the deceased, denied having any quarrel with his wife. A next-door
neighbour said he was unaware of any dispute between the two. |
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