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| Tuesday,
October 10, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Discrimination alleged
in demolition drive Haryana bans paddy
from UP Court summons ex-minister, 4 others Local call
network between Sonepat, Meerut Sonia urged to
sack Hooda DC ‘empowered’ to give temporary
custody of vehicles |
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Flawed canal floods some parts, dries others Seven Under Secys reverted Steps to streamline
PDS in Sonepat Illegal liquor shops in business Palwal Coop Mill shows the way Arora new Director
of Agriculture
Vij’s councillors may withdraw support to MC chief ‘Education lacks
morality, patriotism’ Post offices to be modernised
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Discrimination alleged
in demolition drive FARIDABAD, Oct 9 — The leader of the BJP in the state Assembly and MLA from the Mewla Maharajpur Assembly seat, Mr Krishan Pal Gurjar, and his supporters held a demonstration-cum-dharna here today in protest against the alleged discrimination in the ongoing anti-encroachment drive. Addressing protesters in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Gurjar claimed that the authorities had not “spared” any construction undertaken by political opponents of the state government. However, encroachments by workers and leaders of the Indian National Lok Dal had not even been given a notice. He alleged large-scale encroachments by influential persons belonging to the ruling party. The protest was organised under the banner of the Pravasi Haryana Nagrik Manch. A memorandum addressed to the Governor, Babu Parmanand, was submitted to the City Magistrate, Mr S.S. Dalal. It said the administration was bent upon destroying jhuggis and kutcha houses of about 1 lakh families. It also demanded a ban on the demolition drive and sought the rehabilitation of those whose houses had been demolished. |
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DC ‘empowered’ to give temporary
custody of vehicles CHANDIGARH, Oct 9 — The Deputy Commissioner of Ambala, Mr Ram Niwas, has clarified that under Section 25 of the Police act, Deputy Commissioner has the power to give temporary “supurdari” of such vehicles whose actual claimants are not known for a short period. “This is only temporary custody till the actual claimant comes,” he said maintaining that only three vehicles had given on temporary “supurdari” whereas the Additional Deputy Commissioner has given five vehicles on temporary “supurdari.” “However, in all these cases, the temporary “supurdari” has been cancelled and the vehicles have been taken back to the government custody. “In all these cases the mandatory proclamation under Section 26 of the Police Act has also been issued. The temporary “supurdari” was given so that the vehicles remain in running condition otherwise normally they deteriorate while lying parked in police stations,” he said denying that he had anything to do with the vehicle give to Mr Lovekesh as this was only a counterblast of the FIR lodged by him against Mr Lovekesh. The Deputy Commissioner further clarified that not even a single vehicle has been sold by him or by the Additional Deputy Commissioner. The news item to that effect in a section of newspapers, he said, was malicious and a counterblast of an FIR lodged by him against an employee of the District Red Cross Society who had been caught issuing duplicate tickets of the Red Cross Society in connivance with certain touts at the office of the SDM where computerisation had been introduced. |
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Flawed canal floods some parts, dries others JHAJJAR, Oct 9 — Thousands acres of agricultural land in several villages of the district have been flooded with water due to a technical defect in the construction of a siphon (the siphon has an uneven gradient) on the Bahadurgarh minor canal, where it crosses the Gurgaon canal near Mandothi village. As a result the Bahadurgarh minor is prone to overflowing and in its banks caving in each time it is filled to capacity. When this happened recently water flooded at least seven villages of Bahadurgarh subdivision with up to 25 per cent of their land getting submerged. According to an estimate, some 8,000 acres of land here are left uncropped throughout the year because of the Bahadurgarh minor. As a result farmers of these villages suffer a loss of crores of rupees each year. Mandothi, Rohad, Silothi, Daboda, Mehandipur, Daboda, Bupenia and Jakhoda are the most badly affected villages along the canal with around 40,000 bighas of their land submerged for months on end. Sources, however, say paddy growers of the area are also partly responsible for creating this situation as they frequently need water for their produce. The situation is most serious in the rainy season. Ironically, this damaging leakage of water leaves means many villages at the tail-end with little or no water. In fact, while seven villages are facing a flood many other villages along the canal have a drought-like situation with even drinking water not easily available in them. A survey of the flooded and drought-hit areas presented a pathetic picture of the state of infrastructure in the area in general and the canal is particular. A former MLA of the Basdli constituency and a resident of Mandothi village, Mr Dude Singh Dalal, said he had taken up the matter with officials at all levels, including the Chief Minister, several times, but in vain. |
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Illegal liquor shops in business GURGAON, Oct 9— The local office of the Excise and Taxation department has failed to execute an order regarding the shifting of a liquor shop in Thaithad, about 80 km from here. At the time of auction of liquor shops in Gurgaon district for this financial
year, a provision for a liquor shop was made at Badkali. However, the firm which won bids for the shops in the district shifted the site of the shop from Badkali to Thaithad, about 7 km from Faridabad town. The shop, against the rules was being run from a temporary shed. Reports have it that the firm after shifting the shop to Thaithad, was selling various categories of liquor far below the market price. A bottle of Beer against the market price of Rs 35 was being sold at Rs 20. A bottle of Bagpiper and 8 p.m. whisky, having a market price of about Rs 150 and Rs 170, respectively, was being sold at Rs 80 and Rs 100. Consequently, the sale at authorised liquor shops at Dhauj in Faridabd district was being affected. The department office at Faridabad brought the incident in the notice of the headquarters at Chandigarh. Subsequently, the Prohibition, Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Haryana, Chandigarh, Mr Raj Kumar, issued an order on September 21 to the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner (Excise), Gurgaon, giving direction for “immediately” shifting of the shop from Thaithad to the authorised site at Badkali. Considering the urgency of the case, the order was faxed to the concerned office in Gurgaon the same day. This is, however, not the isolated incident of the liquor traders shortcircuiting the system. A liquor shop was set up a few days ago along the Gurgaon-Jaipur national highway at Sidhrawali village in a tent. According to the rules the shop should have a pucca structure and be 200 metres away from the main road. The shop has been set up in violation to these norms, and that the green belt area. |
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Court summons ex-minister, 4 others CHANDIGARH, Oct 9 — A Jagadhri court has summoned a former Haryana Minister, a former Haryana MLA and three others to stand trial on a complaint filed by the general secretary of the Haryana Krishak Samaj, Mr Sat Pal Kaushik. According to a copy of the orders issued by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jagadhri, Mr A.K. Verma, the former minister, Mr Ram Bhaj, former MLA Roshan Lal Arya and three others have been asked to appear before the court to stand trial under Sections 166, 323, 341, 342, 352 and 506, IPC, on November 28 next Mr Kaushik had alleged in his complaint that last year he had parked his car outside the house of his sister in Model Town, Yamunanagar. After some time an Ambassador car with a red light came there and sounded the siren. When Mr Kaushik came out, he was allegedly beaten up by the driver and gunman along with one more person after they were provoked by Mr Ram Bhaj and Mr Arya. They also threatened to kill him. The Krishak Samaj leader alleged that instead of acting on his complaint, the police registered a criminal case against him. After hearing Mr Kaushik’s counsel and witnesses, the court summoned the accused. |
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Sonia urged to
sack Hooda SONEPAT, Oct 9 — A former Haryana Minister and senior Congress party leader, Mr Krishan Murti Hooda, today expressed concern over factionalism in the party under Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, President of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC), and warned that if the leadership was not changed at this juncture, the party would split into four groups. In a signed press statement issued here, he also feared that the party fortunes would dip if Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda was re-elected as party president. The Congress party, had fared badly in at least three polls under him and there was no chance of strengthening the faction-ridden party in the state if Mr B.S. Hooda continued in the post, he said. He said there had been protests against the continuance of Mr Hooda and if he is re-elected by unfair means as happened in 1997 lakhs of party workers will leave the party. He said Mr Birender Singh, former President of HPCC, and a leading industrialist, Mr Om Parkash Jindal, MLA, were the only leader in Haryana who could lead the party at this juncture. He appealed to Mrs Sonia Gandhi to take steps for the removal of Mr B.S. Hooda from the HPCC President’s post without any delay. |
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Steps to streamline
PDS in Sonepat SONEPAT, Oct 9 — The Food and Supplies Department has taken a series of measures to streamline the Public Distribution System (PDS) and check irregularities and malpractices in the distribution of rationed commodities in Sonepat district. The Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mr Ashok Yadav, told mediapersons here today that the department had cancelled the licences of as many as 31 depot holders for serious irregularities during the current financial year. These included two depot holders whose licences had been cancelled during the month-long special campaign launched by the department in September alone. The department had also confiscated the security deposits totalling Rs 2,500 of the depots. He disclosed that the department had opened 420 fair price shops in the district and of these 310 were functioning in rural areas. The department had issued 2.50 lakh new ration cards to eligible consumers. He also disclosed that the District Magistrate had fixed the rates of bricks to be sold for development works. The prices of bricks ranged between Rs 1,350 and Rs 1,450 per 1,000, including transportation charges. Any violation of the rates would attract the prosecution of the brick-kilns owners. Referring to the purchase of paddy by official procurement agencies, the ADC said only 554 tonnes of paddy had arrived in the markets so far. Of it, 448 tonnes of paddy had been purchased by private traders and the remaining 10 tonnes of the stock by the Haryana Agro Corporation and 54 tonnes by the Haryana Warehousing Corporation |
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Haryana bans paddy
from UP FARIDABAD, Oct 9 — After banning paddy of Punjab, the Haryana Government has banned the arrival of paddy from Uttar Pradesh. According to sources, the state government has directed the District Food and Supply Controller (DFSC) to take action in this regard. This decision has been taken in view of large-scale complaints by farmers that they were facing problems in the sale of paddy. There are mainly five mandis in the district, including Hodal, Ballabgarh, Palwal, Hassanpur and Khambi, where hundreds of tonnes of paddy from Uttar Pradesh arrive. Paddy growers from the Kosi and Mathura belt bring their produce to get a better price and more chances of procurement within a short period in comparison to mandis in their state. The DFSC, Mr Virender Dahiya, said the decision had been taken in the interest of the farmers of the region. The district authorities had set police barriers at all roads connecting to neighbouring states to check the inflow of paddy. District Food and Supplies officials had also been deputed to implement the orders. Meanwhile, a meeting of district officials was held here today to discuss the problems concerning the procurement of paddy. It was chaired by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anand Mohan Sharan. It was learnt that about 519 tonnes of paddy had been procured so far by various agencies in this district. |
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Local call
network between Sonepat, Meerut SONEPAT, Oct 9 — The city will be connected to Meerut and Hapur through the National Capital Region (NCR) telephone network with immediate effect. According to official sources, local call facility between Sonepat and Meerut will be available through the Baghpat exchange. Hapur and Sonepat will be connected through local wires. Representatives of various trade and industrial organisations have welcomed the decision to connect the city to Meerut through a local telephone call network and thanked the Union Communication Minister, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, for the same. |
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Arora new Director
of Agriculture CHANDIGARH, Oct 8 — The Haryana Government tonight transferred its Director of Agriculture, Mr Sarban Singh, who has been sent as Officer-on-Special Duty, Manpower Planning, an insignificent post. Mr Rajeev Arora, who was earlier Joint Secretary, Home-I, will take over from Mr Sarban Singh. Mr Arora will also be the Adviser, Civil Aviation. Mrs Keshni Anand Arora, Special Secretary, Industries, Director, Supplies and Disposal, and Director, Institutional Finance and Credit, has been given the additional charge of the post of Director, Industries, in the absence of Mr S.N. Roy, who has gone to Mussorie for training. Mr Maha Singh, Special Secretary, Revenue and Director, Consolidation, will now be the Special Secretary, Rehabilitation-cum-Chief Settlement Commissioner in addition to his present duties. Mr Sandeep Garg, Administrator, HUDA, Panchkula, becomes the Joint Secretary, General Administration. Mr Garg’s place will be taken by Mr Shrikant Walgad. Mr J.P. Kaushik, Joint Secretary, Secretary Establishment, becomes Additional Deputy Commissioner-cum-Chief Executive Officer, DRDA, Kaithal, in place of Mr Shyamal Misra, who goes as Deputy Secretary, Home-I. Mr Pushp Raj Singh, on return from deputation with the Government of India, becomes ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA,
Fatehabad. |
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Palwal Coop Mill shows the way FARIDABAD: The Cooperative Sugar Mill at Palwal town in the district has been awarded the national prize for being the best financially managed sugar mill in the country for the year 1999-2000. It is for the first time that a sugar mill from Haryana has been selected for the coveted award, which was given recently at a function organised in New Delhi by the Union Finance Ministry. The mill, which was set up in 1984-85, had been facing an acute crisis due until a few years ago but made a turnabout in the past two years. Not only has total plant capacity utilisation improved remarkably, sugar recovery has also gone up quite smartly from 8.43 to 9.29 per cent in 1999-2000. The target for the new season has been fixed at 9.80 per cent. The Managing Director (MD) of the mill, Mr Mehtab Singh Sehrawat, who received the award, said several factions including the recovery of sugar from cane, cane crushing, overtime, expenses, maintenance and the timely payment to cane growers formed the selection criteria for the award. Talking about the achievements of the mill, Mr Sehrawat told The Tribune that its cane area had gone up in the past few years and the quality of the cane had also improved due to the cooperation of farmers. He said high-yielding and early maturing cane variety nurseries had been distributed to growers last year. As a result out of its total production of 1,79,475 quintals of sugar the mill was able to produce about 72 per cent standard grade (M-30) sugar a remarkably high percentage. Giving details he said the mill had released an amount of about Rs 21 crore this year as payment towards farmers and said no payment was outstanding. He said from the coming season payment to farmers would be made through banks. The mill has supplied about three quintals of sugar, at the instance of central government officials to the National Sugar Industries at Kanpur to be used as a standard sample to various sugar mills in the country. The mill, which had crushed about 15 lakh quintals of cane in 1998-99, increased its target to 19 lakh quintals in 99-2000. The target for the coming season (2000-2001) has been fixed at 24 lakh quintals. Its cane area, was 20,000 acres last year. This has increased to 23725 acres this year. Most of the crop this year in improved high yielding varieties and some 10,000 farmers will be supplying cane to the mill in the coming season. The mill has a capacity of 1250 tonnes of cane daily. Its capacity utilisation was 125 per cent last season and is likely to touch 130 per cent this year. |
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Seven Under Secys reverted CHANDIGARH, Oct 9 — The Haryana Government today reverted seven Under Secretaries to the post of Superintendent in pursuance of the Supreme Court judgement delivered in the Ajit Singh Janjua versus State of Punjab case. The judgement was delivered on September 16, 1999. The Under Secretaries who have been affected are Mr Sadhu Singh, Mr B.L. Grover, Mr Bharat Singh, Mr Tara Chand, Mr Puran Mal, Mr Sumer Chand and Mr Sube Singh. They are all members of the Scheduled Castes and were promoted under the accelerated seniority scheme. The three-page order says that provisional seniority lists of officials working in the cadres of Assistant, Deputy Superintendent, Superintendent, Under Secretary and Deputy Secretary were circulated after the apex court judgement. After considering the objections raised by certain persons, the provisional seniority lists were finalised on April 3, 2000. It is learnt that the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, approved the reversion orders before he left on his foreign tour. However, the orders were conveyed only today because of holidays during the intervening period.
Vij’s councillors may withdraw support to MC chief AMBALA, Oct 9 — The MLA, from Ambala cantonment Mr Anil Vij, said he might direct the municipal councillors who support him to withdraw support to the president of the Sadar municipal council, Mr Shankar Dass, if he did not stop hindering the development work of the city. Addressing mediapersons here today, he said Mr Dass had been ignoring him and his supporter councillors. He claimed that he had forwarded hundreds of complaints of the people regarding their problems to the president, but he did not even acknowledge them. He said local BJP leaders had been misguiding the people regarding the community centre to be constructed in Lal Kurti. They had been claiming that the local MLA had been opposing it. He said, “we are not against the construction of the centre, but we are not in favour of it being constructed in Swarn Jayanti Park”. He said the people of the locality had been providing alternative space for it, but the council president was adamant. Mr Vij alleged that the council president had been encouraging encroachment in the cantonment area.
‘Education lacks
morality, patriotism’ AMBALA, Oct 9 — The former Sar Sangh Chalak of the RSS, Mr Rajinder Singh, known as Rajju Bhaiya, said the education being given to our students was not providing lessons in morality and patriotism. He was addressing the annual function of Nand Lal Geeta Vidya Mandir at Tepla village here today. He also laid the foundation stone of Vivekanand block on the school premises. He said, “Education plays an important role in our life. We have to promote education, especially in rural areas, to check the social evils affecting our society.” He said the Vidya Bharti had been running around 16,000 schools in the country and providing value-based education to lakhs of students. He urged students to give priority to the interests of the country. Swami Kalyan Dev said, evils have been polluting society. He said our country needed patriotism, honesty, hard labour and discipline. He added that he had established around 250 educational institutes throughout the country. Mr Rattan Lal Kataria, MP, distributed prizes to the students. He said man was incomplete without education.
Post offices to be modernised AMBALA, Oct 9 — Five post offices in Haryana will be modernised this year. It was stated by the Chief Post Master General of Haryana, Mr Tej Ram Sharma, here today, on the occasion of the World Post Day. He said the post offices that are to be modernised include Sirsa, Narnaul, Pataudi, Gharaunda and Ratia, while 32 post offices had already been modernised. He said 70 Panchayat Sanchar Sewa Kendras were also proposed to be opened this year. Some sub post offices will also be opened. He said, out of the 15 Head Post Offices, savings bank operations had been computerised in 10. The General Post Office at Ambala city and the Head Post Offices at Karnal and Panipat have been computerised. Mr Sharma said a training centre had been set up in the Circle Office to make the field staff computer literate. He said a target of Rs 4.25 crore for the Speed Post business had been fixed for the current year, out of which Rs 3.28 crore had already been procured by the circle. He said the sale of the UPSC application forms had already begun in post offices at Ambala city, Ambala cantt, Rohtak, Faridabad, Karnal, Panipat, Sirsa, Kurukshetra, Hisar, Gurgaon, Sonepat, Bahadurgarh, Narnaul, Bhiwani and
Jind. |
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