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| Tuesday, January 9, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Extortion cases up in Haryana Cook’s death: stir continues Rathore seeks exemption from appearance Drive against power theft intensified Bills worth 26 lakh due: DHBVN Frequent power cuts irk industrialists Villagers block road, demand more water |
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| 2 more engg colleges for Haryana Distinction for 2 KU history scholars MC restrained from building shops New HUDA scheme Panel to consider draft of bill on gurdwaras Haryana panel on schemes, grants SDM inaugurates workshop Training programme Medical reps join nationwide strike Gang of robbers busted 
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| Extortion cases up in Haryana HISAR, Jan 8 — Criminals in Haryana have taken a fancy to extortion sending shock waves in the business community. Reports from different parts of the state indicate that several businessmen, big and small, have, of late, been receiving threats to their lives in the event of their failure to pay ransom. In Hisar alone, at least six businessmen have received such threats in the past two weeks. Surprisingly, the threats came in the form of letters. While none of them has paid up as yet the police is still groping in the dark about the identity of the person who had sent letters to owners of chosen firms operating from the local Grain Market. A doctor based at Barwala near here has also been asked to pay a ransom of Rs 2 lakh. He has been threatened with death if he failed to pay up. The doctor has, however, reported the matter to the police. He has been provided security. The threat to the doctor is being taken very seriously since it has come from a notorious criminal Subhash Fauji Fauji has been evading the police for the past several months although his name figures on top of the most wanted criminals list. Fauji, an Army deserter has let lose a reign of terror in the area through extortion demands and his involvement in a large number of cases of murder and dacoity. He was arrested by the police a few months ago from Balsamand village but was freed by a mob, which ransacked the police post. He has since been active in the area, Inquiries from other parts of the state also indicate that there has been a sudden spurt in cases of extortion. Thus far this kind of crime was limited mainly to Faridabad and Gurgaon because of the involvement of Delhi and Noida based criminals. However, petty criminals all over the state have now taken to extortion because it is considered as the safest crime with high returns. A senior police officer said extortion was assuming menacing proportions because it involved minimal violence as a majority of the victims chose to pay up rather than risk their lives by informing the police. Besides, he said, the criminals operated under a cloak of secrecy and anonymity thereby reducing their chances of getting caught substantially. He said extortionists were mostly notorious criminals having links with bigger gangs based in metropolitan cities. They used their notoriety to force their victims to compliance. However, to maintain fear in the minds of the victims, these criminals could go to any extent, including murder. Commenting on the recent spurt in this kind of crime, he said, criminals who were active during prohibition had now taken to extortion. They had earned a clout and had developed links with hardcore criminals based in Delhi. Besides, a number of criminals recruited by the Chhota Rajan gang from Haryana recently had been helping their accomplices back in their home state logistically. It is learnt that many of the extortionists belong to Jind district, which of late had acquired the dubious distinction of being the nursery of criminals in Haryana. Several criminals hailing from the district have now bases in Delhi and they operate through their junior gang members in different parts of Haryana. |
| Cook’s death: stir continues HISAR, Jan 8 — Non-teaching employees of Haryana Agricultural University continued their dharna in protest against the death of cook Narayan Singh under mysterious circumstances for the fourth day today. According to a spokesmen of the action committee spearheading the agitation, the stir would continue till the arrest of those responsible for his death. Several other organisations have also threatened to launch agitations if the culprits were not arrested soon. Members of the Uttaranchal Sabha, Kumaun Sabha and Garhwal Sabha held a meeting here last evening and submitted a memorandum to the district administration in this regard. They demanded the probe be transferred to the CBI immediately. Work in the university offices continued to suffer as no employee attended office for the fourth consecutive day today. Meanwhile, the police recorded statements of a relative of the deceased, Mr Gopal and members of Narayan Singh’s family yesterday. |
Rathore seeks exemption from appearance AMBALA, Jan 8 — Former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore, involved in the Ruchika molestation case, filed an application for the exemption of personal appearance in the court of Special Judge for CBI cases in Haryana, Mr A.K. Tiyagi, here today. The judge has issued notice to Public Prosecutor of CBI Chander Mohan Sahgal for January 11 on this application. Mr Rathore, in the application filed through his counsel, said he was issued a summon for personal appearance in the court on January 11. In this continuation the court’s attention is drawn to the new report published titled “Ruchika prakran mein pradesh se hajaron log Ambala court mein kooch karenge.” The statement was issued by Mr Daya Singh Pawar, District President, DYFI. Mr Rathore said a constant malicious campaign had been organised by the media at the behest of Mrs Madhu Anand and Mr Anand Prakash who were assisting the prosecution. | |
| Drive against power theft intensified SONEPAT, Jan 8 — The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has intensified its campaign against consumers indulging in power theft in the Sonepat operation circle. Mr Prem Sagar, Superintending Engineer, Operation, told media-persons here today that during the first three days of this month, officials detected 36 cases of power theft. They imposed a penalty of Rs 1.12 lakh on the erring consumers and two cases were sent to the police. He disclosed that the nigam had collected Rs 2.99 lakh which was outstanding against consumers. He said the officials also checked 58 premises in the city division during the first three days of this month and detected 16 cases of power theft. They imposed a penalty of Rs 92,000 on the erring consumers. |
| Bills worth 26 lakh due: DHBVN Bhiwani, Jan 8 — Consumers from villages in this district are burdened with a heavy debt because of non-payment of electricity bills which have been lying outstanding for several years. Stating this, the Managing Director of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, Mr Narainan said bills amounting to crores of rupees were due to be paid in the Bhiwani operation circle. He appealed to the villagers to cooperate to enable the nigam to provide them uninterrupted power supply. Mr Narainan said the nigam had provided the scheme of relaxations in the penalty amount and interest in depositing bills several times, but a huge amount was yet to be realised from consumers in this district. He denied there was any scheme under consideration to condone these bills. Electricity bills amounting to Rs 26.03 lakh were yet to be paid, he added. |
| Frequent power cuts irk industrialists AMBALA, Jan 8 — Residents of Ambala City and Cantonment especially the entrepreneurs have been facing one of the worst ever power crises these days. The unannounced power cuts by the HVPN have been causing concern among the residents of the city. The Chairman of the Ambala Trader Federation, Mr N.C. Jain, said the small scale industries were the main sufferers as these units did not have any alternative arrangements to deal with power cuts. He said industrialists of Ambala Cantonment had met Ms Meenakshi Chaudhry, Chairperson HVPN, a few months back and had demanded that a separate electricity line should be made available through Shahbad to Ambala so that during the tripping period of BBMB power could be arranged through this alternative source. Mr Jain said Ms Chaudhry had assured them that the special line would be installed before September last year. But nothing had been done in this regard so far. The industrialists of Ambala City have also demanded uninterrupted power supply. They alleged that besides the mixi industries some other cottage industries were on the verge of closure due to poor power supply. They demanded that the frequency of power should be maintained in the city too as in Chandigarh. They said due to low frequency power tripping was frequent in Ambala while Chandigarh got uninterrupted power supply. | |
| Villagers block road, demand more water HISAR, Jan 8 — Residents of the nearby Balsmand and other neighbouring villages today blocked the Hisar-Bhadra road in protest against inadequate supply of irrigation water to the area. The call for the blockade had been given by the Yuva Vikas Mandal of the village. The residents alleged that earlier the Irrigation Department had been supplying water to the area through the Balsmand minor for 15 days a month. But it had now been reduced to seven days a month. They said the acute shortage of water in the area was affecting their crops. They alleged that the Chautala government was discriminating against them because of political reasons as Mr Bhajan Lal, leader of the Opposition, represented the area in the state assembly. |
| 2 more engg colleges for Haryana CHANDIGARH, Jan 8 — With a view to promoting technical education in Haryana, the state government today issued no-objection certificates to self-financing trusts and societies for setting up engineering colleges, pharmacy degree colleges, Master’s degree in computer application colleges and Master’s degree in business administration colleges. An official spokesman of the Technical Education Department said engineering colleges would be set up at Yamunanagar and Faridabad during 2001-2002 and pharmacy degree colleges at Sirsa (2000-2001) and Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar (2001-2002). One MCA college would be opened at Hisar and two at Yamunanagar during 2001-2002 and one MBA college at Faridabad during 2001-2002. He added that in the sphere of technical education, sports and co-curricular activities had been made part of the curriculum and the holding of annual sports and cultural competitions had been made compulsory. The skill-based curriculum had been updated for all disciplines by introducing computer as a compulsory subject. An inspection mechanism had been developed for monitoring and supervising the implementation of various activities. In view of the information technology policy-2000, as many as 1,930 new seats had been created exclusively for IT-related courses during 1999-2000. The spokesman added that in order to make technical education job oriented, institute-industry interaction cells had been activated and 10 to 12 industries located around each polytechnic had been identified for establishing liaison. A target of 75 per cent placement of students had been fixed for all polytechnics during 1999-2000. |
| Distinction for 2 KU history scholars KARNAL, Jan 8 — History scholars from Kurukshetra University were bestowed with two distinctions at the 51st session of the Indian History Congress which concluded at Kolkata two days back, according to Dr Chattar Singh, History Department, Kurukshetra University. Dr Chattar Singh, who was a delegate to the Indian History Congress, told TNS today that Dr Sanjay Subodh of the Department of History of the University, was bestowed honour for the ‘best research paper’ by the nobel prize winner, Dr Amartya Sen, who inaugurated the three-day conference of the congress. Mrs Sunita Pathania of the university was elected, president of the non-Indian history section of the Indian History Congress for its 62nd session which would be held at Bhopal in December next. Dr Chattar Singh further stated that the congress conferred three best paper honours to the young history scholar in order to encourage research work in different fields at the Kolkata conference. Mr N. Athiyaman of Thanjavoor bagged the first prize in the Indian history section while Mr Arvind Deshpande of Goregaon was declared the best in the modern section. In the medieval section, it was Dr Sanjay Subodh of Kurukshetra University who bagged the honour for his research paper ‘Material remains and historical sense’. The paper was co-authored by Mr Amit Chaudhary, a research student under Dr Sanjay Subodh. | |
| MC restrained from building shops KARNAL, Jan 8 — The Additional District Judge, Karnal, Mr S.C. Goyal, has restrained the Karnal Municipal Council from constructing shops on the Meerut road where a “farshi kanda” existed. The learned judge restrained the municipal council after an appeal filed by Amir Chand through his legal heirs against the judgement of Mr A.K. Bishnoi, Additional Civil Judge who had allowed the municipal council to construct shops on this thorough fare. The applicants had stated that the site where the municipal council had constructed the shops was a thorough fare and part of the Karnal-Meerut road. Therefore, the construction would not only block the thorough fare but deny public the right to public utility sites. The petitioner had further stated that the construction of shops would also lower the value of their property which was located behind the shops. The petitioner presented a musavi (land map) for the year 1904-09 in which it was clearly shown that the site on which the municipal council was engaged in constructing shops was part of a public path. However, on the other hand, the municipal council pleaded that a “farshi kanda” and an octroi post existed at the disputed site for 40 years prior to its demolition. The municipal council undertook the construction and had even allocated the shops to the highest bidders. However, the Additional District Judge, in view of the record presented by the applicant, restrained the municipal council from constructing shops at a public utility place till the case was finally decided. The Judge fixed the next hearing of the case on January 10. The successful bidders have been stopped from undertaking further construction at the site. |
| New HUDA scheme Chandigarh, Jan 8 — Buoyed by the success of the Group Housing Scheme-1998, HUDA today floated the Group Housing Scheme-2001 in its 11 urban estates in Panchkula, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Karnal, Rohtak, Panipat, Sonepat, Yamunanagar, Rewari, Kurukshetra and Bahadurgarh. An official press note, quoting the Town and Country Planning Minister, Mr Dhirpal Singh, said that 219 acres would be offered under the scheme, including 70 acres in Panchkula, 35 acres in Gurgaon and 63 acres in Faridabad. The press release said that booking under the scheme would start from January 11 and the last date for the receipt of applications would be February 28. |
| Panel to consider draft of bill on gurdwaras Chandigarh, Jan 8 — The Haryana Government has constituted an 80-member committee under the chairmanship of the Agriculture Minister, Mr Jaswinder Singh Sandhu, to consider the draft of the All-India Sikh Gurdwaras Bill, 1999. The committee will examine the draft bill — proposed by the Chandigarh-based Gurdwara Election Commission for replacing the existing Sikh Gurdwaras Act — and recommend amendments and suggestions to the state government. The state government will give its comments on the draft bill to the Union Government on the basis of the committee’s observations. Five ministers of the Chautala-led government ,as well as MPs, MLAs, SGPC members from Haryana, Vice-Chancellors, senior government officers, including the Chief Secretary, journalists, etc, have been made members of the committee. The Joint Commissioner, Gurdwara Elections. Haryana, will be the member secretary of the committee. | |
| Haryana panel on schemes, grants CHANDIGARH, Jan 8 — The Haryana Government has constituted a state-level empowered committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to sanction schemes and monitor the utilisation of special or upgradation grants recommended by the 11th Finance Commission. Other members of the committee are the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, the Financial Commissioner and Secretary, Finance, and the Financial Commissioner and Secretary, Planning. The Joint Secretary, Finance (Budget), will act as the member-secretary of the panel.
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| SDM inaugurates workshop KALKA According to Mr Hari Chand, Principal of the college, nearly 100 students from various colleges affiliated with Kurukshtra University are participating in the workshop. During the first five days of the workshop, the students will be taught how to prepare for different competitions, including debate, declamation, poem recitation and symposium. For this purpose, experts from different fields will deliver lectures. On the sixth day, competitions on different topics will be organised. Mr R.S. Chaudhary, Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, will distribute prizes.
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| Training programme CHANDIGARH, Jan 8 — A training programme on mushroom production and technology will be organised from January 9 to 11 at the newly constructed campus of the Integrated Mushroom R and D Project at Murthal. An official spokesman said 60 farmers from different parts of Haryana and adjoining states would attend the programme.
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| Medical reps join nationwide strike SIRSA, Jan 8 — Haryana Medical Sales Representative Union (HMSRU) members have gone on strike from today in response to the nationwide strike call by the Federation of Medical Representative Association of India (FMRAI). The spokesman of the local HMSRU and the member of the Union State Executive, Mr Raj Kumar, said here today that 45,000 medical representatives had joined the strike demanding fulfilment of their long pending 27-point demands. |
| Gang of robbers busted JIND, Jan 8 — The local police yesterday busted a gang of robbers with the arrest of five members. Stating this here today, Mr O.P. Singh, Superintendent of Police, said the arrested were Satyavan of Karsindhu village, Raja of Kabarcha village, Suresh of Alipur village, Anand of Palwa village and Dharampal of Karsindhu village. He said Ramphal of Pokri Kheri village, however, managed to escape. Two country-made pistols, 13 cartridges and three sharp-edged weapons were also seized from them. The SP said on a tip-off, that some armed persons were hiding in a room near the Uchana bus stand and were planning to commit a robbery in the Uchana grain market, four police parties raided the room and nabbed the robbers. A case under Sections 399 and 402 of the IPC had been registered against them. | |
Three persons rounded up AMBALA The SP, Ambala, Mr Sandeep Khirwar, said the police station concerned was informed by the Punjab Police before carrying out their job. On Saturday night, the Punjab Police personnel arrived at Sultanpur village and rounded up a junk dealer. Then they proceeded to a nearby village, from where they rounded up two more persons.
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15 tonnes of brass sheets looted YAMUNANAGAR, Jan 8 — Brass sheets worth lakhs of rupees were stolen at gunpoint by more than 12 persons in the wee hours today. According to information received here today more than 12 miscreants forcibly entered B.G. Dhatu Udyog in industrial estate here at 1 a.m. Chowkidar Devinder informed the police later that they were equipped with lethal weapons and loaded about 15 tonnes of brass sheets in a vehicle whose number plate was not visible. The factory workers were locked in a room during that time. The accused later fled away after taking the brass sheets. The workers informed that the miscreants had covered their faces and their dialect was of Uttar Pradesh. | |
Scooterist dies in accident SONEPAT, Jan 8 — A scooterist was killed on the spot when he was hit by a Haryana Roadways bus on the GT Road near Kundli village, about 25 km from here, yesterday. According to the police, the victim could not be identified. However, a case was registered with Kundli police station in this connection. |
| Girl killed in accidental firing SONEPAT, Jan 8 — A five-year-old girl, Komal, was killed when a bullet accidentally hit her while she was witnessing a “baraat” passing through the Anand Nagar area here yesterday. According to a report, members of the marriage party were firing shots in the air when one of the bullets hit the girl who died on the spot. |
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