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March 24, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Plea to extend Dangi’s remand rejected Cut in KU grant may be
restored Urbanites steal power, kisans get blame Conserve rain water to meet demand:
Speaker Dowry death: husband, in-laws get life
imprisonment |
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Facilitating
visit of pilgrims Give lift, pay
penalty Exam centres for single
candidates
Infighting: BSP high command intervenes Encroachment on land meant for park
Hold meeting of promotion
panel: engineers Probe into selection
of Professor sought Villagers demand relief Residential colony inaugurated MC budget
presented
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Plea to extend Dangi’s remand rejected Rohtak, March 23 Mr Dangi is currently lodged in the district jail here. He was formally arrested yesterday by the SVB after obtaining permission of the Special Judges, Ambala and Rohtak. In its appeal, the SVB said investigation of the case was not yet complete and therefore, the judcial remand of the accused should be extended. The Special Court said it did not have jurisdiction in respect of the present case and as such this court could not allow or disallow the remand of the accused. However, the special court said,”In the peculiar circumstances of this case, it would be open to the prosecution to make an appropriate application before the trial court at Ambala for extending the remand of the accused by accepting his notional presence on the basis of certificate of the district jail Superintendent, Rohtak, highlighting the circumstances that the accused cannot be produced in view of the direction issued by the Apex Court.” Deciding another application, the Special Judge today permitted the investigating
officer(DSP) to enter the district jail and to formally arrest Mr Dangi in a case (FIR no.65) registered under sections 217,417, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC on March 14 last at Ambala police station and in another case (FIR no. 275) registered under Sections 420, 467,468,471, and 120-B of the IPC on June 29,1998 at Ambala. |
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Cut in KU grant may be
restored Kurukshetra, March 23 This move will ease the financial crisis being faced by the university. However, it is learnt from highlyplaced sources that the Haryana Government was “unable to provide extra funds to the university” for any new schemes and projects. The government was reported to have made it clear at the meeting that funds for such purposes were not available with the government. The grant-in-aid to the newly opened Regional Study Centre of the university at Sirsa was cut. The sources said the government had agreed to provide a grant of Rs 50 lakh only during this financial year for the Sirsa centre. In the previous year, the government had given a special grant of Rs 1.5 crore for the centre. Earlier, the government was thinking of converting the centre into a full-fledged university. It had also been suggested that it should be named after Mr Devi Lal. The cut in aid to the centre is likely to affect the opening of new courses there. The restoration of cut in grant had been agreed because the grant-in-aid to MDU at Rohtak was not decreased. The meeting of the finance committee was chaired by Mr
R.S. Chaudhry, Vice-Chancellor of the university. It was attended among others by Dr Hoshiar Singh, pro Vice-Chancellor of KU, Mr Yudhvir Malik, Joint Secretary (Finance), Mr Anuradha Gupta, Director, Higher Education, Haryana, Dr
R.K. Rana, Dean Academic Affairs (KU), Dr N.P. Mehta, Principal Regional Engineering College, and Dr Hawa Singh, KU Registrar. The government wants the universities to raise income from internal sources. It was pointed out at the meeting that the university was spending more on its non-teaching staff. The Director, Higher Education, is reported to have pointed out that the ratio between the teaching and the non-teaching staff was 1:5 while the desired ratio should be 1:2. The members brought to the notice of the government that in case of affiliated colleges, it gave grant-in-aid up to 95 per cent of the salary bill of each college but in case of the university, the aid with respect to salary payment was only 56 per cent. The government should, therefore, raise the grant-in-aid to the university as far as the salary payment was concerned. The committee approved the Budget estimates amounting to Rs 6975.99 lakh as the total expenditure during 2001-2002. However, the total income of the university from all sources was pegged at Rs 6683.32 lakh. Last year, the total income was Rs 7459.99 lakh while the expenditure was Rs 668.19 lakh. This left a surplus amount of Rs 791.8 lakh. |
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Urbanites steal power, kisans get blame Hisar, March 23 Going by the sales estimates provided by Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited to the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission, industries with low tension (LT) connections would consume 834.41 million units in the year 2000-2001. This in simple words means that all these units would have operated their plants only for a paltry 2.06 hours per day throughout the year. In other words, it means that almost all such units working for just over two hours a day should have wound up long ago as there is no way an industry can survive on such ridiculously low production schedules. Yet these industries continue to post good sales and profits, which do not match their production schedules based on their power consumption. The HERC, while revising the power tariff for the current year pointed out that the load factor of 8.6 per cent for low tension connection was highly unreasonable. It has now directed the HVPNL to appoint an independent agency to conduct a survey to find ways of plugging leakage of substantial revenue in this category. The other culprit is the urban domestic consumer. The HVPNL has found pockets in every town where line losses on feeders have been in the range of 75 per cent or more. This is precisely why the power authorities launched a drive to check power theft in these areas leading to clashes between the public and power men. The authorities are now replacing the electro-mechanical consumption meters in these areas with electronic meters on a priority basis to prevent tampering. These thefts are possible only with the connivance of power employees though certain sacked and retired employees have been also found involved in facilitating theft of power. But official involvement does not end here. To keep the line losses on paper up to a certain level, officials fudge the figures of power supplied to the rural areas by crediting the amount of power stolen by the urbanites to the accounts of farmers. What makes it possible is the system of unmetered supply to tubewells at flat rates. Since there is no way to cross-check the actual power consumed by agricultural consumers with unmetered connections, power officials grossly overstate the hours for which power is supplied to this sector. The HERC noted in its recent order on tariffs that the HVPNL claim that agricultural consumers (unmetered supply) were running their tubewells for six hours a day throughout the year was highly unreasonable. |
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Conserve rain water to meet demand:
Speaker Panipat, March 23 Mr Kadiyan was addressing a mass awareness programme organised by the Central Groundwater Board, North western region, Chandigarh, here at Bal Bhavan today. He suggested a change in cropping pattern and agriculture management to ensure that minimum groundwater was used and crop production was upto the satisfaction of the farmers. The Chairman of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board, Mr H.S. Bains, stated that the state government had planned to shift all dying units to Sector 30, which would be developed with financial assistance from the Central Government. The boards had already submitted a Rs 31-crore project to the Government of India in this regard, he added. Expressing concern over the decline and contamination of groundwater in and around Panipat town due to unregulated use of groundwater and discharge of effluents from industries and dying units, Mr Bains said the installation of common effluent treatment plants (ETPs) was the best solution to overcome the menace of contaminating of groundwater. He further said the number of ETPs here had increased to 107 from 45 within the past two-three years and 90 per cent of the discharged water was being treated. The board was providing subsidy to the tune of Rs 10 lakh for the installation of a common ETP, he added. He stated that the board had planned to open eco-clubs in as many as 100 schools from April to create awareness among the students and to make them environment-friendly. He further stated that a study conducted by the board had revealed that the unregulated discharge of effluents from industries had caused alarming increase in fluoride, zinc, copper, iron, lead, etc. in groundwater, making it unfit for drinking. He said a common ETP had been installed at Faridabad. The General Manager of the Panipat refinery, Mr K.K. Acharya, said about 99 per cent of groundwater was being used in the villages and towns for various purposes. He stressed treatment of chemical effluents to make the polluted water fit for drinking and other purposes. Among others who spoke on the occasion included Chief Engineer, Irrigation, R.P. Ranjan, and representatives of different industrial associations. |
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Dowry death: husband, in-laws get Panipat, March 23 According to details of the case, Kusum Lata of Shergarh village in Karnal district was married to Ram Phal of Ossar village under Madloda police station in 1993. After the marriage the in-laws started demanding more dowry. The complaint further alleged that on August 1, 1997, Ram Phal and his brother-in-law reached Shergarh village and demanded Rs 30,000 for a motor cycle. However, Kusum’s father Maan Singh expressed his inability to meet the demand. After four days, Maan Singh received a message that his daughter had died due to burns. When he reached Ossar village he found his daughter’s body lying on the floor. His demand for a post-mortem examination was turned down by the in-laws, but he brought the body to the Civil Hospital. When the Civil Hospital authorities declined to conduct a post-mortem examination, he took the body to PGI, Rohtak. In the examination, it was established that the cause of the death was not burning but suffocation and breaking of the neck bone. On the complaint of Maan Singh a case under Sections 302, 201 and 34 of the IPC was registered against Ram
Phal, his father Prithvi, mother Roshni, uncle Jeet Singh and brother
Vijender. In another dowry death case the Additional Sessions Judge Dr Neelima
Shangla, rejected the bail plea of an accused for the second time today. According to the case, the accused Dhoop Singh of Manana village under Samalkha police station had murdered his wife Rekha by burning her on August 25, last year. On the complaint of Rekha’s brother Prem Singh, a case was registered under Section 148, 149 and 320, IPC, against her in-laws. But after a month the police changed the sections of the case to 306 of the IPC by showing it as a case of suicide. |
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Facilitating visit of
pilgrims Pehowa In the past, during the three-day mela in which Sikhs of the Malwa region and Hindus offer “pinds” to their departed ancestors, there used to be a stampede as the bazar leading to the tank and various temples on the ghat was narrow. Over the years the mela administration had been negotiating with the Teerath Purohit Sabha to demolish the encroachments in the main bazar. Persuasion by the SDM (Civil), Pehowa, Mr Gurmeet Singh Panjeta, yielded results. The teerath Purohits have now demolished encroachments up to 4 ft on either side of the main bazar road. The earlier narrow road has been widened up to 20 ft. Mr Gurmeet Singh rejected the allegation that the administration had bulldozed the shops of the Purohits. He also denied that precious historical records of the Purohits were destroyed during the demolition work. The SDM said that a master plan was prepared to widen the road and renovate the area for the benefit of pilgrims. According to the revenue map of 1854, the entire land surrounding the Saraswati tank was “shamlat deh”. It was under the tutelage of the state government. However, over the years a number of teerath Purohits extended their shops and encroached on the road. He said the administration did not use any force to get the area cleared. A meeting of representatives of the sabha, including two advocates and two Municipal Commissioners, was called to sort out the matter. The administration brought to their notice that as per the master plan, the main road was to be widened up to 8 ft. Again, a meeting of 35 members representing the shopkeepers was called at which the Purohits agreed to voluntarily demolish encroachments up to 4 ft on either side of the road. The sabha wanted that the work of road carpeting and the construction of drains should be undertaken by the administration. Mr Gurmeet Singh said nearly 40 persons had already demolished their encroachments. In the meanwhile, one of them approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court and got a stay. There had been no demolition after the court’s stay. Ms Rajbala Sharma, who owns six shops in the bazar, told this correspondent that she had undertaken the demolition work voluntarily. She was happy that the road had been widened. It would benefit all, she added. A number of persons demanded that all roads leading to the sarovar should be made wider. Mr S.D. Murar, a former president of the Municipal Committee, said as the bazar earlier was narrow, pilgrims were put to inconvenience. He said the teerath purohits and other shopkeepers had undertaken demolitions on their own. He alleged that the protest by a section of the Brahmins was aimed at maligning the community. Mr Bharat Bhushan Bharti, president of the district unit of the BJP, said it was through the goodwill of the sabha that the bazar road had been made wider. Give lift, pay
penalty Ambala, March 23 According to information a youth Vivek Kumar was standing in front of a shop near Peer Baba in Ambala City. In the meantime two constables came there and asked him to drop one of them at Urban Estate police post. The youth accepted their request and took the constable to the police post on his bike. After dropping the constable there, as he kicked his motor cycle to come back to his destination the constable asked him to show his helmet otherwise he would be challaned. The youth did not have a helmet at that time. The constable asked one of his colleagues to bring the challan book. Then he suggested the youth that he would not be challaned if he was ready to pay Rs 50 to him. As the youth refused to pay him any amount, he was challaned for travelling without helmet. The constable took the registration document of the vehicle. The matter was brought to the notice of the police officials of the post, but none was ready to comment over the issue.
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Exam centres for single
candidates Faridabad, March 23 One such centre came to light today when only a plus two student appeared for his examination at a centre in Hodal town in this district. The centre had one superintendent, two supervisors and two policemen. The candidate identified as Ranbir Singh (Roll No 40526) had appeared as a private candidate. He was the only examinee to appear for the test at the Arya High School centre. Another centre was hardly 300 yards away. Residents said the authorities could have shifted or adjusted this lone candidate to a nearby centre where several examinees took the test. They said improper planning had resulted in copying. Meanwhile, the district administration and the board authorities have stepped up their campaign to check copying. Several cases of copying and impersonation have been detected.
Chandigarh, March 23 A section of the party has been comlaining against the “dictatorial attitude” of the president, Mr Aman Kumar Nagra, to the party high command. The vice-president of the BSP, Ms Mayawati, has convened an urgent meeting of party workers from Haryana at the headquarters of the party in Delhi on March 25 to resolve their differences. According to a notice issued by Mr Nagra, Ms Mayawati has directed that 20 party workers from each district should participate in the meeting. While10 members should be the supporters of Mr Nagra, the other 10 members from each district should be his opponents. Mr Nagra clarified that from no district would more than 20 workers be allowed to attend the meeting, presumably so that no group takes its supporters in a big way to the Delhi meeting.
The Haryana BSP has one MLA in the Haryana Assembly. |
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Encroachment on land meant for park Sonepat, March 23 The residents allege that appeals to local politicians and the police have resulted in little else than assurances. Any move to remove the encroachments is shelved time and again, say the residents, alleging that encroachers have backing of the police and politicians. Enquiries made by this correspondent have revealed that a temple has been constructed on land meant for a municipal park in the Prem Nagar area along Atlas Road. A library building has also been constructed in the Model Town Park near button factory. Land worth lakhs, reserved for the park, has also been grabbed by shopkeepers near the ESI dispensary in the Model Town area and they have levelled it for the parking of vehicles, etc. Most of the shopkeepers along the Atlas road between Subhash Chowk and the Railway overbridge have grabbed land on both sides and the PWD (B&R) authorities have allegedly failed to take any action against them. Some hotel owners are using this land to put up chairs and tables to attract customers. According to an estimate, municipal and public land as well as HUDA land worth Rs 100 crore has been illegally occupied, thanks to the failure of the authorities concerned to check the menace. |
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Hold meeting of promotion
panel: engineers Chandigarh, March 23 The association deplored the “wilful delay” on the part of government in holding Department Promotion Committee
(DPC) meetings, which were to be held in the beginning of every year for filling posts subsequently falling vacant in the entire year. If this situation was allowed to persist, there would be no Chief Engineer after March 31, said a press note. This would adversely affect the working of the department. A similar situation could crop at the levels of Superintending Engineer and Executive Engineer as seven new SEs and 27 new EEs were yet to be promoted. But no DPC meeting had been held till date, said the association president, Mr M.S. Nijjar. The association demanded the holding of a DPC meeting before March 31, and the settling of all pending charge sheets against officers due for promotion. It said in future no charge sheet under Section 8 should be issued without giving a show-cause notice.
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Probe into selection
of Professor sought Hisar, March 23 In a press note issued here today, Dr Narsi Ram Bishnoi, president of the association, said the university had violated the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines while selecting Mr Kuthiala for the post. He said Mr Kuthiala, who is the Chairman of the Communication Department, was not eligible to be appointed even as a lecturer. Kalka, March 23 During this darbar problems of the residents fo 15 villages, which include Toren, Meerapur Bakshiwala, Bhogpur, Ganeshpur, Bhotia, Nolta, Bhawana, Jaithal, Janoli, Kajiana, Khoi Bhagarani, Patan, Jodhpur were listened by the SDM. During this darbar a total of 70 demands were received, out of which most of the demands were decided on the spot and remaining were marked to the concerned officers. Twenty driving licences and some caste certificates were also issued. |
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Residential colony inaugurated Faridabad, March 23 He was speaking at a function held on the inauguration of a residential colony constructed by the Haryana Housing Board in Sector - 55 here last evening. Mr Chautala claimed that his government would strive hard to provide basic facilities, including housing to every resident of the state. He said the Housing Board and HUDA had constructed several thousand houses for economically weaker sections in the past several years. The Urban Development Minister, Mr Dhirpal Singh, said the state government had been working on several schemes to end the shortage of houses for government staff and poor sections. The Chief Minister also inaugurated 187 multi-storeyed flats constructed by HUDA for its employees in Sector - 16-A here. He handed over allotment letters to several allottees. |
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MC budget
presented Faridabad, March 23 No new tax has been proposed and the annual income of the corporation crossed 119 crore, which is over Rs 5 crore more than the expenses. The MC covers a population of over 10 lakh. Although the Budget proposes to take up the renewal water scheme, but it speaks of only taking measures to get a loan of Rs 8 crore from NCR project sanctioned during the coming financial year. The scheme is reported to have made little progress due to non-release of funds by the MC. It owes about Rs 20 crore and no amount has been released so far. The MC proposes to spend about 61 per cent of the development fund on beautification of the city. It proposes to earn Rs 23 crore from capital income, Rs 48.05 from taxes, Rs 17.21 crore as licence fee and Rs 31.48 crore from other means. The corporation proposes to sell its land worth Rs 12 crore in the coming year. |
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Economic conference Yamunanagar, March 23 |
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‘Sham-e- qawwali’ on March 25 Karnal, March 23 |
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TB scheme to
cover more dists Chandigarh, March 23
11 head constables promoted Ambala, March 23
Increase in MSP
welcomed Chandigarh, March 23
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