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| Monday, February
19, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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BJP to
continue support to Chautala government Looting
incidents: Hooda visits Ganaur Chautala
hopeful of better power supply Gurgaon
Telecom’s unique drive BDS
hopefuls seek justice |
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Mass
marriages of 12 girls HVP to
hold rally on March 17 Rally to
protest demolition of temple HUDA
scheme for industrial workers INLD
workers hold camp Cleanliness
drive fails to take off Sardool
Sikandar musical evening Imposition
of parking fee resented 
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BJP to continue support to Chautala government Yamunanagar, February 18 Mr Rattan Lal Kataria, State President of the BJP and Member of Parliament from Ambala Parliamentary constituency talking to newsman here last night made it clear that the Chautala government would complete five years. However, he ruled out the possibility of the BJP joining the Haryana Government. Mr Kataria said that as on today, there was no credibility of an alliance between the BJP and the INLD. He suggested that efforts were there from both the sides to resolve differences. He said that the coordination committee demand would certainly strengthen relations between the two. He informed that even BJP Chief of the country Mr Bangaru Laxman had also emphasised in his last visit at Rohtak on February 16 that coordination committee in Haryana should be constituted for the harmonious functioning of the alliance. On Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Kurukshetra on March 6, Mr Kataria said that it would be historical. He informed that the Chief Minister of Haryana had already ensured that there would be more than five lakh people. However, he said that there will also be major participation of the BJP in the rally, as their national leader was coming. BJP Chief appreciated gesture of Mr Om Prakash Chautala for extending maximum help to Gujarat earthquake victims. He said that Haryana had taken lead in the country by sending a team to rehabilitate the victims of 20 villages. He said that the Chief Minister, Haryana, had gone personally to Bhuj in Gujarat on February 16. He stated that BJP unit of Haryana had also sent Rs 50 lakh assistance to Gujarat and in the second phase more assistance would be provided. Mr Kataria said that the Congress in five states, West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry where the elections are due will definitely lose because this party had been exposed. He announced that the BJP would extend support to the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the DMK in Tamil Nadu.. He stated that in Haryana the Congress was divided and confused. He predicted that the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the country would be eliminated because they had neither issue nor leader. About Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana Pradesh Congress (I), President, Mr Kataria said that he had not been accepted as a leader by Congress Traditional vote bank. He said that he had been a flop in the state. Mr Kataria informed that on February 19 in the Lok Sabha Session, he would raise many issues relating to Northern Haryana. He said that issue like much awaited Yamunanagar Super Thermal Power Plant, relaxation in Excise on Plywood and Metal Industry. He stated that he met Ms Mamata Banerjee, Union Railway Minister and emphasised to construct new Railway line i.e. Yamunanagar to Chandigarh via Naraingarh, Yamunanagar to Panipat via Kurukshetra and Pehowa, Yamunanagar to Dehra Dun via Paonta Sahib, special superfast train from Yamunanagar to Delhi and computerisation of Jagadhari Railway Station. Mr Chaman Lal Dhingra and Mr Chander Mehta, President and Manager of the S.D. Public School assured that with the efforts of the people of Yamunanagar-Jagadhari very shortly a college will be started here. |
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Looting incidents: Hooda visits Ganaur Sonepat, February 18 Accompanied by Mr Jatinder Maik, Congress MLA from the Kailana Assembly constituency and other leaders of the party, Mr Hooda also visited the house of a trader who along with others sustained serious injuries in an attack by alleged robbers. People complained that the incidents of looting had been on the rise, thanks to the failure of the police to apprehend the culprits involved in such incidents. Mr Hooda spoke to Deputy Commissioner, Sudhir Rajpal on the telephone and urged him to direct the police to tighten security in the Ganaur Mandi area to avoid such incidents. He warned if no precautionary steps were taken immediately, his party would have no alternative but to launch an agitation. Expressing grave concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, the Congress leader alleged that the INLD-BJP Government had utterly failed to curb the activities of criminals and antisocial elements. The police, he said, was harassing innocent people instead of taking action against criminals. Meanwhile, a meeting of Congress workers owing allegiance to Mr Bhajan Lal, a former Chief Minister, held a meeting at the residence of Mr Dharampal Singh Malik, a former MP, and adopted a resolution expressing anguish over the incidence of looting and murder in the district and urged the government to take effective steps to curb the menace. Mr Kishan Singh Sangwan, a BJP MP, has expressed grave concern over the incident of looting and murder in the Sonepat, Ganaur and Gohana areas, alleging that the law and order machinery had collapsed in the state. Speaking at a meeting of prominent citizens and activists of all Opposition parties at Shiv Mandir, at Ganaur, 16 km from here, yesterday, he also charged the police with shielding antisocial elements and not taking stringent measures to curb their criminal activities. Mr Sangwan warned that if the police failed to apprehend the culprits involved in these incidents immediately, his party would have no alternative but to launch an agitation against the government on this issue. Holding of
demonstrations and rallies and the gherao of police stations and officials would be part of this agitation. |
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Chautala hopeful of better power supply Fatehabad, February 18 This was stated by the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, after laying the foundation stone of a 132 kv power sub-station at Ahrwan village today. The sub-station is a part of Rs 42.26 crore project for increasing power supply in the district. Mr Chautala said
ever since he had taken over the reins of the government he had been trying to improve power situation in the state. He claimed that despite all odds, his government had been able to give sufficient power to the farmers. The fifth unit of 210 mw of the Panipat Thermal Plant developed a snag when the power was needed the most. The government was getting 100 mw of power from Rajasthan. Problems have also developed in the power supply from the Central pool, he said and added that only last night he had a meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, and Mr Badal assured him that Punjab would supply 100 mw of power to Haryana. He said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) had been signed with the Central Government for setting up of three power station of 500 mw capacity each in Haryana. He said the 210 mw unit at Panipat would also be synchronised by March 31. Mr Chautala also inaugurated a 3.23 km new link road from Ahrwan to Shekhupur Sottar villages. The road has been constructed by the Haryana Agriculture Marketing Board at a cost of Rs 24.93 lakh. Mr Chautala said that his Government was trying to implement the slogan of the former Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Devi Lal, “Bhrishtachaar band, bijli pani ka praband” (no to corruption and arrangement of power and water). The Finance Commissioner and Secretary, Power Department and Chairperson of the HVPN, Mrs Meenakshi Anand Choudhary, the HVPN Managing Director, Mr Samir Mathur, the Haryana State Marketing Board (HSMB) Chief Administrator, Mr Alok Nigam, the IG, (Hisar range), Mr R.N. Chatia, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anil Malik and the HSMB Chairman, Mr Balwant Singh Maina, were present on the occasion. |
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Gurgaon Telecom’s unique drive Gurgaon, February 18 In its maiden exercise the General Manager of Gurgaon
Telecom, Mr Sudhanshu Ghosh, met journalists, along with his senior officers, to brief them on the achievements of the department and to solicit their opinion on its functioning to streamline the
system. Mr Ghosh said he and his officers would meet people from various walks of life to have inputs for improving the efficiency of his department. According to the general
perception, the latest move of the department to keep its ear to the ground is on account of the heat felt by the privatisation. According to Mr
Ghosh, the projects in the pipeline include setting up a main telephone exchange at the DLF and the parenting the ones at South City and Sushant Lok with it instead of the present Gurgaon Main.Also,3,000 lines of
WLL (wireless in local loop) exchange with both mobile sets and fixed sets exchange installed and is under acceptance testing stage. The projects include new RSU Exchange at Wireless Colony for areas of Hans
Enclave, Islampur, Malibu Town, etc, capacity increase of 500 lines at Sector 18,South City and Sushant
Lok, New 500 lines small exchange at GE Capital premises, similar to Enkay Tower and HECL
Exchanges, New exchange at Sidhrawali and total increase in switching capacity of 4,000 lines in urban area and 5,000 lines in rural area by the end of this fiscal year. Mr Ghosh further said cheque collection boxes would soon be provided at telephone exchange-Sector
37, DLF, Sector 18, Palam Vihar, South City, Sushant Lok to enable subscribers to drop cheques/demand drafts at any time convenient to
them. Discussions are in progress with UCP Bank, Railway Road, for collection of telephone bill payments. Also,
computerisation of telephone bill payments was in an advance stage and would be introduced
soon. This also involves installation of cheques/DD depositing machines for automatic receipt of
payments, he added. Giving details of the growth of Gurgaon
Telecom, he said that the average demand per year had been about 12,000 bookings. During 1999-2000,about 18,500 new connections were
provided. The number of working lines during March, 1999, was about 54,000,thus recording a growth of about 33 per cent in the last financial
year. The present capacity was above one lakh lines (over 87,000 in the urban area) whereas the working lines were about 88,000(over 78,500 lines in the urban
area). The penetration factor for Gurgaon urban area was over 20 telephones per 100 inhabitants whereas for the entire district it worked out to over 5.9 telephones per 100 inhabitants. On the negative
side, Mr Ghosh made a special mention of the poor staff ratio. According to
him, it was probably one of the lowest in the country. About 300 staff are stationed in the entire revenue district giving a staff ratio of about 3.5 staff per 1000 working
lines, he added. Mr Ghosh said that to date, There were only 7,000 waiting list and hoped all would be accommodated by the end of this
month. According to him, There was no waiting list for the STD/PCOs. In response to a specific
question, He said that the department was making moves to segregate the Internet users and ordinary subscribers by using route from Gurgaon to Delhi. The reason being that the Internet operators used the routes for longer
duration, Thereby choking the routes to the detriment of ordinary subscribers. |
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BDS hopefuls seek justice Yamunanagar, February 18 One of the parents, a resident of the district, said here yesterday that many students had taken up the matter with the Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University and the Deputy Commissioner, Ambala and sought their help. The parents alleged that after the entrance test of their wards, counselling was completed from February 8 to 10 and they then deposited fees as per the prospectus. The students were then called on February 13 for a medical check-up. When they reached there they were asked to deposit Rs 35,000 as compulsory hostel fees and Rs 31,500 as college security. The parents further alleged that the college authorities said that the students’ medical check-up would be performed only after depositing the said money. They stated that there was no such provision in the information brochure for BDS entrance examination provided earlier. It was informed that the academic session was started from today and those students, who had not deposited the money, would be ineligible to attend the classes. It may be added that few students had already deposited the money. Parents of eight students, who had not deposited the money, had approached the Vice-Chancellor, Mr R.S. Chaudhry, Kurukshetra University. They pleaded that the management of the college should be directed to admit the students and avoid any confusion. They also met the Deputy Commissioner, Ambala, Mr D.D. Gautam, on February 13 and apprised him about the entire incident. When this reporter contacted Mr Gautam he said that he had deputed the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mr Mohinder Kumar, to look into the matter and submit a report immediately. Mr Gautam made it clear that report would be sent to the Dental Council of India for appropriate action. The parents stated that they had also sent telegrams to the Governor, Haryana, the Secretary, Health, Haryana and the Registrar, Kurukshetra University, to intervene immediately and to help the students. Mr Chaudhry, when contacted today, said he had asked for a statement from the institution. He said that genuine grievances would he looked into and sorted out. |
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Mass marriages of 12 girls PEHOWA (Kurukshetra), February 18 Mr Isham Singh of Patwala village (Karnal district) whose daughter Sahibi Devi was married today told this correspondent with tears rolling down his eyes that he was “able to fulfil the wish of his life” with the cooperation of the Sanghmeshwar Dham. Satyu Ram of Bangran village (Punjab) was happy that he could also celebrate the marriage of his daughter Chhinda Rani and praised the role of the temple management in organising the mass marriage. In order to give succour to the poor families, the Sanghmeshwar Dham in Arunai village here has started this movement. The movement was started by Mahant Gangapuri, general secretary of the Maha Nirvani Akhara, a leading akhara of Dashnami Sadhus, which also looks after the affairs of the temple. The Sanghmeshwar Dham organises mass marriage of the poor girls twice in a year. Mahant Gangapuri said as many as 367 girls had been married so far. This organisation has spread its movement in places like Mandi Gobindgarh, Sirhind, Dhuri, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana and Gurdaspur district. This organisation had organised marriages of 37 girls, a kilometre away from the Pakistan border by crossing the Beas river from Gurdaspur side. Mrs Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder, then Minister of State in the Union Cabinet, had presided over the function. Recently, in Patiala and Khanauri, the dham authorities had organised the marriages of Sikh and Muslim girls. Mahant Gangapuri maintains that girls are married in the same “mandhap”. Mahant Gangapuri said applications were invited from the parents of the poor girls who could not afford the expenses of organising the marriage. The selection of the brides and bridegrooms were done by the parents themselves. Each couple were given sufficient household articles, including a double bed, sewing machine, cycle, utensils, and ornaments at the time of marriage. After the ceremony was over, a common feast was organised in which the parents and relatives of the groom and bridegroom participated. The couples were blessed by Mahant Gangapuri and other saints. Mahant Gangapuri said the money for organising the marriages was raised from donations by the disciples and the Akhil Bhartiya Sangh Meshwar Seva Dal. |
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HVP to hold rally on March 17 Hisar, February 18 The decision was taken at a meeting of party workers held here today. Prominent among those who attended the meeting were Mr Kanwal Singh, Chairman of the Parliamentary Board of the party, Mr Chhatar Singh Chauhan, former Speaker, Mr Ram Kishan Fauji, party legislator, Mr Attar Singh Saini, Mr Narpender Singh and Mr Satpal Sangwan, all former MLAs. Mr Jagdish Chander Jhajhria, spokesman of the party, said Mr Bansi Lal, former Chief Minister and President of the party, would address the rally. Mr Kanwal Singh had taken the acceptance of Mr Bansi Lal for the rally. Mr Jharjhria said Mr Bhajan Lal, Leader of the Opposition, had challenged their party by announcing his March 4 rally at Bhiwani. All leaders and party workers were of the view that Mr Bansi Lal should address a rally in Bhajan Lal’s home town to give him a stern reply. He said senior party leaders would also address workers’ meetings at Hisar, Hansi, Barwala, Ghirai and Narnaund, all Assembly segments of the district, from March 1 to 4 for ensuring a good turnout in the rally. |
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Rally to protest demolition of temple Faridabad, February 18 The trust and members of the Sadhu Samaj announced that an agitation would follow if the Chautala government failed to tender a public apology and compensate for the damage by February 25. Members of the trust and speakers, which included several religious and political leaders, criticised the state government and demanded the officials who were responsible for demolition be punished. President of Haryana Sant Samaj, Swami Devender Giri, Rajasthan Sant Samaj chief, Swami Falihari and chief of the Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti, Swami Sadanand threatened a massive agitation. They demanded intervention of the Prime Minister. Mr Kishan Singh Sangwan, MP, Mr Surender Singh, general secretary, Haryana Vikas Party, Mr Karan Singh Dalal, MLA from Palwal and former Haryana ministers, Mr Harsh Kumar and Mr A.C. Chaudhary among others addressed the gathering. Mr J.P. Nagar of the Congress promised to allot the land to the ashram and rebuild the structure if his party came to power. The only BJP leader who attended the rally was Mr Sangwan. He said it was the duty of the government to apologise and compensate for the damage. It was wrong to pull down a structure without proper notice he said. |
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HUDA scheme for industrial workers Chandigarh, February 18 The Chief Administrator, HUDA, Mr N.C. Wadhwa, said here today that the aim of this new scheme was to offer freehold residential plots to industrial workers in Sector 25 (II), Panipat. The booking of these plots would commence from February 23 and would close on March 24. He said that 237 plots of eight marla each had been earmarked which included 212 plots for the general category, including oustees, and 25 plots for ex-servicemen and widows. Similarly, 297 plots of six marla each had been earmarked which included 191 plots for oustees, 20 plots for the general category including oustees, and 30 plots for ex-servicemen and their widows and 86 plots for the members belonging to Scheduled Castes, backward classes, war widows, disabled soldiers, the handicapped and blind, freedom fighters and other widows. He said that 465 plots of four marla each had been earmarked which included 292 plots for the general category including oustees, 39 plots for ex-servicemen and their widows and 134 plots for members belonging to Scheduled Castes, backward classes, war widows, disabled soldiers. |
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INLD workers hold camp Fatehabad, February 18 The camp began with the National Anthem and observance of a two-minute silence in memory of the victims of the Gujarat earthquake. Party workers from Sirsa, Fatehabad, Hisar and Bhiwani districts attended the camp. Mr Devi Lal asked the party workers to counter malicious propaganda against the INLD Government. |
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Cleanliness drive fails to take off Sirsa, February 18 The enthusiasm with which the campaign was undertaken by various leaders in the state seems to be waning. The campaign in the native district of the Chief Minister has failed to take off because of the lack of administrative will. Garbage lies piled up at various places in the headquarters while sewers are reported to be blocked and overflowing at a few places. In Kalanwali, garbage is reportedly piling up in various localities of the town, including Harijan Basti, Gowshala Mohalla and Purana Bazar. Reports of the supply of polluted water have been received from several villages, including Odhan. |
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Sardool Sikandar musical evening Ambala, Feb 18 Besides senior railway officers including Divisional Railway Manager, Mr Deepak Krishan and the ADRM, Mr Ashwini Kapoor, NRWWO president, Ms Sangeeta D. Krishan, vice-president, Dr (Ms) Meenu Kapoor, secretary, Ms Anita Singh, treasurer, Ms Namrata Virdi, joint secretary, Ms Neelam Sharma and cultural officer, Mr Ashok Sharma were also present on the occasion. Sardool Sikandar sang various foot-tapping numbers which enthralled the audience at the Kharga auditorium. |
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Imposition of parking
fee resented Ambala, Feb 18 — Imposition of parking fee at the civil hospital, Ambala City, has led to a resentment among the people visiting the hospital. The hospital management has leased out the parking area to a contractor, who has been charging Rs 2, Rs 3 and Rs 5 for parking cycle, scooter and car. Earlier there were no charges for parking vehicles. According to sources no proper procedure was adopted for alloting the parking area on contract. The notice for the contract was published in a local evening paper having limited readership. The hospital authorities had also started charging fees for various blood tests, X-rays and ECG tests. |
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Assembly session Chandigarh, February 18 |
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