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| Thursday, March 1, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Squabbling in Congress gladdens INLD New house tax in for flak New transport policy formulated Power utilities announces new VDS Rs 90 lakh for
generating sets in Rohtak ‘Tectonic movements dried up Saraswati’ |
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Pre-arrest bail for
ex-DC HIGH COURT
Narnaul, February 28 Mr K.K. Chopra, Additional Sessions Judge, has sentenced Yusuf, son of Ilias Khan (19), Haffiq, son of Israil (20), and Sirajuddin, son of Ajmat Khan (21), all residents of Gujar Nangla village (Gurgaon district) to undergo life imprisonment and also to pay a fine Rs 1,000 each and in case of default of payment they will have to undergo six months further imprisonment of the charge of murdering Sombir (22) of Berla village. Involve more NGOs in family planning: FPAI Haryana postings 7 hurt in clashes Five lakh to
attend PM’s rally Sheetla Devi
complex to
be beautified Traders to support Haryana bandh Boy sodomised, done to death Traffic blocked on highway Labourer killed in accident
Two die after taking liquor
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Squabbling in Congress gladdens INLD Chandigarh, February 28 While presenting the Budget last year, state Finance Minister Sampat Singh, had assured the House that unconventional resource generation as well as cash mopped by the implementation of the uniform sales tax structure would help cover up over Rs 290-crore deficit in the Budget. However, generation of revenue from unconventional sources — such as having a casino at Gurgaon, introduction of online lottery system in the state — has remained a pipedream of the FM. There was a marginal increase in the collection of sales tax, though it did not make much difference in deficit shown in the Budget presented last year. The non-fulfillment of the promises made in last year's Budget as well as introduction of the various taxes by the INLD regime for the traders and other sections of the urban population could be potent issues to be used by the Opposition at the Assembly session starting from March 5. However, INLD ministers feel that the recent spurt in factionalism in the Congress would prevent it from effectively taking up these issues in the Assembly. While stating that the day for the presentation of the Budget would be decided at the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee under the presidentship of the Speaker on the inaugural day of the Assembly, Mr Sampat Singh, however, claimed that even if the Congress was united, it would not have posed much of a challenge inside the House. According to the Finance Minister, the Congress is more comfortable when it is in power but at a loss when it finds itself in the Opposition. However, other INLD ministers are amused at the wrangling between the Hooda and Bhajan Lal-led factions of the INLD being witnessed in the state now. The leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), Mr Bhajan Lal, may not even get the cooperation from the HPCC chief, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, himself an MLA from Kiloi, and legislators who are loyal to Mr Hooda, says an INLD minister. ‘‘ The recent developments indicate lackluster performance by the Congress inside the House which will be good for us’’, the minister said. Incidentally, the differences between Mr Hooda and Mr Bhajan lal had generated caustic remarks by the ruling party legislators during the Budget session of the Assembly last year. In the heat of the moment even the usually restrained Mr Sampat Singh too had brought out this topic to mollify the Congress legislators. With the rift between Mr Hooda and Mr Bhajan lal over the rally called by the latter at Bhiwani breaking out in the open, there would be more such attacks on the Congress in the Assembly, admit INLD
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New house tax in for flak Faridabad, February 28 While the government is trying to justify the policy, leader of various parties are giving statements criticising the move. The Haryana Vikas Party has promised to ‘review’ the policy. Some of the party leaders have been quoted as saying that house tax may be ‘withdrawn’ if the party comes to power in the state. Other Opposition parties, including the Congress, the CPM and the Haryana Nirman Morcha, have already been opposing the hike in the house tax. The Convener of the Haryana Nirmal Morcha and MLA from Palwal, Mr Karan Singh Dalal, yesterday said his front would not accept the house tax policy. He said the morcha would try to build public pressure on the authorities. Appealing to other MLAs of the state, he said, they should pressurise the Chief Minister to give up anti-people policies. He announced the Morcha would organise dharnas and demonstrations to win public support. The former Haryana Agriculture Minister said he had also asked the people of this region not to entertain municipal corporation employees, who came for house tax assessment. The Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and other party leaders condemned the new house tax structure and its assessment procedure. Some of the local BJP leaders have also criticised the hike in house tax which has become three to four times in this industrial town. The income of the local municipal corporation has increased by Rs 6 crore to 8 crore (annually) due to new policy. Several local citizens, including some Congress leaders, have constituted a forum against the hike. The issue came to the fore again a few days ago when the Haryana Beopar Mandal announced Haryana bandh on March 5. |
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New transport policy formulated Kurukshetra, February 28 This was disclosed by Mr Ashok Arora, Haryana Transport Minister, while addressing a number of public meetings at Chalaundi, Ban, Badarpur, Muradnagar, Bapdi, Bhoot Majra, Baroundi, Lathi Dhanura, Barachpur, Gadli and Bodi villages here today. Mr Arora revealed that the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala and the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, had a meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr Aral Behari Vajpayee, regarding the purposed reducing the rates of wheat on the basis of the Agriculture Price Commission report. He said the Prime Minister assured them that the rates of wheat would not be reduced. However, he clarified that if rates were not increased by the Central Government, the Haryana Government would provide bonus to the farmers. While referring to the developmental works being undertaken in the state, Mr Arora said the highest sugarcane price at a rate Rs 110 per quintal were given to the farmers. Besides, various developmental works were also in progress including the construction of classrooms, chaupals for the Scheduled and Backward classes, construction of dispensaries, pavement of streets and construction of retaining walls of the village ponds. Mr Mewa Singh, President of the INLD, Thanesar, Mr Karnail Singh, INLD leader, Mr Puran Chand Barshami, Mr Naseeb Singh Brahan, Mr Satbir Singh Ban also accompanied the minister. |
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Power utilities announces new VDS Chandigarh, February 28 The Chairperson of the Utilities, Mrs Meenaxi Anand Chaudhary, said the scheme would be effective up to March 31, 2001. Under this scheme, no penalty would be charged from consumers who voluntarily declare their unauthorised extension of load. The domestic and non-domestic consumers would simply have to apply on an “application and agreement” form giving details of the load to be extended. She said industrial consumers would also have to apply on the “application and agreement” form along with revised test report, advance consumption deposit and service connection charges for the extended load. The extension in load would be approved by the competent authority. She said in case the extended load caused a change in the category of consumer from low transmission to high transmission, the consumer would be required to declare his contract demand and complete all other formalities necessary for a change in the category. |
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Rs 90 lakh
for generating sets in Rohtak Rohtak, February 28 The meeting of the board was held in Chandigarh on Monday and was presided over by Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala. The board has sanctioned nearly 94 new schemes for controlling floods at a cost of Rs 12.50 crore. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Rajesh Khullar, told The Tribune that the topography of the town was like a saucer which resulted in flooding during the monsoon. The most-affected was the Chhotu Ram Park area. This area had a catchment of 1,200 cusecs and water was pumped out in three stages. Sixty cusecs was pumped out at Sandasor pond and 60 cusecs at the water works. It was then discharged into drain No 8 through the Kanheli drain. The pumps, Mr Khullar said, had to be operated simultaneously but in case of power failure at any of the three pumping stations, only 20 cusecs could be pumped out. The Deputy Commissioner said during heavy rains, about 300 acre feet of water could collect in the park area and with only 60 cusecs pumped out, it would take two and half days to pump out the water. He said it was important to provide additional generating sets. During the rains, there was sometimes power failure for five hours, causing flooding of the town. He stressed that additional generating sets should be made available in the town so that rain water was pumped out in the event of a power failure. After installation of the additional generating sets, 40 cusecs would be pumped out from the HUDA complex, Sandasar pond and second waterworks disposal site and 10 cusecs from Jhajjar road and 35 cusecs from the main disposal site, Mr Khullar said. |
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‘Tectonic movements dried up Saraswati’ Kurukshetra, February 28 Once adored as the Ambitame, Naditame and Devitame (best of all mothers, best of all rivers and best of all goddesses) in the Vedic literature, the Saraswati river used to perennially flow from the Har-ki-Dun glacier upto Somnath in Gujarat vibrating through the receding glaciers in the Himalayan region, Shivalik foothills, semi-arid Marusthali zones in today’s Rajasthan and the marshy Rann of Kutch and Saurashtra. Prof Gyaneshwar Khurana, an eminent historian and a researcher associated with the project on the revival of the river, said Saraswati was desiccated due to many geological factors, mainly due to tectonic disturbances which might have raised the basin and beds of the flowing waters of the river in the Himalayan region. The factor has its basis in the geological parlance too when historians find that the Sutlej river originating from the Mansarovar lake near the Kailash mountain, which was a tributary of the Saraswati, used to join the latter at Shatrana in Punjab, took a 90° turn at Ropar due to tectonic disturbances and migrated from the Saraswati to join the Sindhu or the Indus river, he said quoting Dr S. Kalyanraman, another researcher of the Saraswari river based at Chennai. He said there must had been a rise in the flowing bed due to some sort of earthquakes and the waters flowing from the glaciers must had been diverted to another positions as presently, dividing the waters to the Yamuna, Ganga and Sutlej rivers. Since the Saraswati river was navigable, there were many towns situated on the river banks right from Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh to Somnath through Dwarka and Lothal covering 1,600 kms. The Saraswati river choked up as the flowing waters from the Har-ki-Dun glacier (Badrapunch Massif)tilted towards East and West. The river bed got silted by the sand storms which lashed the area from Haryana to Gujarat during the summer seasons further choking its flow of water even during the rainy
seasons, he said.
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Pre-arrest bail
for ex-DC Chandigarh, February 28 The petitioner has sought quashing of an FIR registered against him by the Special Vigilance Bureau,
Rohtak, on December 31, 1999, containing allegations of corrupt practices in criminal conspiracy with the then Minister for Urban Estates, Seth Siri Kishan
Dass, and others during construction and repairs of roads within municipal limits of
Rohtak. The petitioner alleged that his name in the said case was included only on account of personal malice of Mr Chautala because while posted as Deputy Commissioner at
Rohtak, the petitioner had refused to accept a request for a recount of votes polled during parliamentary elections in which Mr Devi Lal had lost to the Congress candidate by a narrow margin of 383 votes. Mr Chautala was annoyed by this action of the petitioner and had publicly declared that the petitioner would be punished when he returned to power. It was further alleged that before the next elections Mr
Chautala, in his capacity as President of the Indian Lok Dal, had during May, 1999, also written against the petitioner to the Chief Election Commissioner levelling allegations of partisan behaviour and seeking to restrain his posting as Returning Officer. The petitioner stated that he had approached the National Commissioner for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes under Article 338 of the Constitution. The commission had summoned the Haryana Chief Secretary and after perusing the records, made a report on January 17, observing that the petitioner was implicated in a criminal case only because of extraneous considerations. Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the commission in its report had advised the state government to withdraw the criminal action taken against the petitioner and stop further harassment. The commission has further advised the government to revoke the petitioner’s suspension and give him a suitable posting. Action was to be taken on the advice of the commission within 15 days . Counsel stated that Article 338(7) of the Constitution provides that when a copy of the report was forwarded to the Governor, the same was to be laid before the legislature alongwith a memorandum explaining the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations relating to the state and the reasons for the non-acceptance, if any, of any of such recommendations. He submitted that the state government had neither accepted nor rejected the advice given by the commission. In the meantime, the petitioner continued to be under suspension, which according to the counsel was wholly unjustified and mala fide. After hearing counsel for the petitioner, Mr Justice S.S. Nijjar issued notice of motion and stayed his arrest subject to his joining investigation.
HIGH COURT Chandigarh, February 28 Seeking the initiation of proceedings, petitioner Bharat Singh of Karnal had contended that Mr Justice R.L. Anand, while allowing his petition, had set aside orders dismissing him from service. He had added that action on the orders had, however, not been communicated to him. Issuing the directions, Mr. Justice Khehar granted the respondents exemption from personal appearance for the time being. The case will now come up for hearing on May 5. Decide polluting units case in 2 weeks Mr Justice R.S. Mongia and Mr
Justice K.C. Gupta of the High Court directed the state of Haryana and other respondents to dispose of within two months the representation made by Faridabad’s NHPC Officers Association seeking the closure of polluting industries. The petitioners had earlier contended that 1200 employees were suffering from respiratory diseases or allergies due to effluents discharged by the industrial units. |
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3 sentenced to life
imprisonment Narnaul, February 28 According to the prosecution, the complainant, Dharambir, an agriculturist of Gopalwas village in Bhiwani district, on the night of June 5, 1999, was present at his tubewell. Sombir came to him in his jeep, along with three persons and told that these boys had engaged his jeep for Rs 250 for going from Badra to Nawa village and requested Dharambir to accompany them. On way Yusuf, Raffiq and Surajuddin hatched a conspiracy and directed Sombir to ply the jeep towards Kurahawata and Jerpur. One of the boys threw his scarf (Saffa) from the jeep and asked Sombir to stop. The jeep was not stopped by Sombir. They wisked out a pistol and asked Sombir to stop the jeep. In the meantime one of the assailants fired at Sombir, seriously injuring him. The victim stopped the jeep and escaped along with Dharambir. The three alleged accused then took away the jeep. On June 7, 1999, the body of Sombir was recovered by the police from the fields of Kurhawata village. |
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Involve more NGOs in family planning: FPAI Yamunanagar, February 28 Ms Gomez said the organisation was connected with family planning associations of 180 countries and was committed to promoting rights of woman and men to decide freely on the number and gap between their children. The IPPF is providing approximately $3 million annually to the Family Planning Association of India. Ms Gomez said the population growth rate in India was alarmingly high. A proactive approach was required to curb the rate of population growth, she said. Dr Nina Puri, President of the FPAI, said the major challenges were to promote sexual and reproductive health for all, eliminate unsafe abortions, work towards empowerment of women, help youngsters understand their sexuality and provide services that meet their demands. Dr Puri appreciated the government’s initiative regarding family planning but expressed dissatisfaction over the implementation part. She wanted the government to involve and support more. NGOs to carry out the work of family planning in a result-oriented manner. The branch of the association was working for the last three decades and had brought desired results, she said. Ms Renuka Sachdeva, president of the local branch, and Ms Manisha Bajaj gave a presentation of the activities undertaken by the branch. The IPPF delegation also visited Tirath Nagar near here where safe motherhood initiatives project is going on. Ms Gomez also met young members of the Yuvak and Yuvati
Mandals. |
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Haryana
postings Chandigarh, February 28 Mr Dinesh Singh, awaiting posting orders, has been posted as Subdivisional Officer (Civil), Bahadurgarh, and given additional charge as Estate Officer, Bahadurgarh. Mr A.S. Mann, awaiting posting orders, has been posted as General Manager, Haryana Roadways,
Narnaul, against a vacant post. |
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7 hurt in clashes Faridabad, February 28 According to police sources, six persons of Prithla village were injured in a clash between two groups over an alleged “molestation” of a girl. Condition of one of the injured was stated to be serious. In another incident eight youths were booked on the charges of beating up a shopkeeper in Chawla Colony of
Ballabgarh. The shopkeeper, Satish, reportedly had intervened when some youths tried to molest a girl yesterday. |
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Five lakh to
attend PM’s rally Chandigarh, February 28 The Haryana Transport Minister, Mr Ashok Kumar Arora, who also represents the Kurukshetra Assembly constituency, said the Prime Minister, who was visiting Haryana on the request of the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, would also dedicate to the nation the Kurukshetra Panorama and Science Centre and lay the foundation stone of a project of Brahmsarover. The Chief Minister appointed conveners for various districts so that people from all parts of the state could attend the rally.
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Sheetla Devi
complex to
be beautified Chandigarh, February 28 The Chief Minister was presiding over a meeting of Sheetla Devi Shrine Board in New Delhi. He announced that the land would be acquired to expand the complex of Sheetla Devi. He sanctioned Rs 5 lakh to illuminate the complex and directed the management to undertake the renovation of the complex on priority basis. He also directed that roads leading to the shrine complex be repaired. The Chief Minister sanctioned money for an ambulance and for the setting up of ward for the treatment of burnt cases at General Hospital at Gurgaon.
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Traders to support Haryana bandh Rohtak, February 28 The call for the bandh was given by the Haryana Beopar Mandal in protest against the hike in the power tariff and the professional tax and the deteriorating law and order condition in the state. In a statement here today the general secretary of the association said traders in the town would keep the shutters of their business establishments down on March 5. |
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Boy
sodomised, done to death Jhajjar, February 28 According to an information, Pradeep (14) took Amit, a first standard student, outside the village yesterday by aluring him. After sexually assaulting the boy there, he strangled him in fear that the boy might disclose his crime to the people and left the body in the fields. However, late in the night, the parents of the deceased launched a manhunt for the boy and interrogated Pradeep. During the interrogation Pradeep disclosed the truth and took the villagers to the spot. The police has arrested the accused and registered a case. In another case, a mentally challenged youth, Anil Kumar, committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Mandauthi village in the district today. |
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Traffic blocked
on highway Yamunanagar, February 28 According to an information received here, two persons — Satish and Suresh of Kharwan village here — were going to their factory near Dimple cinema in Jagadhri. They met with an accident with a truck, resulting in a fight between the two parties. The complaint lodged by Satish said the transporters along with their supporters attacked their timber establishment and injured some persons — Ramesh, Tarun, Sumerchand, and others. The police has registered a case against 20 persons under various sections of the IPC. |
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Labourer
killed in accident Jhajjar, February 28 According to information, Ganeshi along with Shambhu and Chiranjeev was going to the factory when a speeding tempo hit them. They were rushed to the Community Health Centre at Bahadurgarh where Ganeshi was declared brought dead. All victims hail from Samastipur district in Bihar. A case has been registered against the tempo driver under Sections 279, 337 and 304A of the IPC. In another incident, four persons were injured in an accident between a car and a Maruti van near Jakhoda village of the district. All injured were the occupants of the van. The injured were admitted to Jaipur Golden Hospital, Delhi. A case has been registered. |
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Two die after taking liquor Sirsa, February 28 According to the information received today, a friend of Khyali Ram of Mattuwala village invited him and few others to celebrate the solemnisation of Khyali Ram’s daughter marriage to Kasnia family of Kharian village in the district. They consumed the liquor at the night and reported uneasiness in the morning. By the afternoon their condition deteriorated after which they were taken to a local private hospital. After giving the first-aid they were sent to the government Civil Hospital where Devi Lal, brother of village sarpanch died yesterday evening while Maru Ram, the brother- in-law of Khayali Ram died today morning. Khyali Ram and his friend Napender Singh have been referred to Rohtak Medical College. According to the doctors the liquor had excessive methyl substance which acted as a slow poison. Sources in the Mattuwala village said that Chiman Lal, Krishan and a youth also fell sick after consuming this liquor.
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