 |
| Monday,
April 2, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
|
Chautala seeks aid for farmers Chautala calls Cong rallies ‘maar dhar’ It’s Bhajan vs
Hooda Railways neglects hub of
industry Crop in 41 villages damaged by
hail Consumers get ‘wrong’ power
bills |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
HUDA to float 14 housing
sectors 4 killed, 17 hurt
in mishap Sadhus threaten to entomb
themselves ‘Hodal has 448 TB cases’
Martyr’s father honoured
|
|
Chautala seeks aid for farmers Yamunanagar, April 1 He said due to the hailstorm the crops were damaged in Rohtak and Sonepat, in particular, and other nearby districts. He said the Prime Minister had assured that whatsoever the government could do would do it sincerely for the farmers who have suffered. Mr Chautala, who was on his way back after attending an impressive rally near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, said he had already ordered a special girdwari in the hailstorm-hit villages. He added that he had also instructed that girdwara should be undertaken by the Revenue Department along with members of the Gram Samitis so that correct assessment could take place. He said after receiving the report of special girdwari compensations would be given to the farmers whose crops had been damaged. Mr Chautala further stated that he had also instructed all sugar mills of the state to give priority to those farmers, in lifting the sugarcane, whose crops had been affected by the hailstorm, he added that the state government was determined to provide all possible assistance to the peasantry class and their rights would not be snatched. Mr Chautala further said he had already visited a number of villages earlier, where crops had been damaged. He had decided to visit more villages on April 8 in Sonepat and Rohtak districts to have a first-hand knowledge of the crop damaged. While talking about the progress made by the state government in the past 21 months, he stated that a number of historical decisions had been taken by the present government. He said Haryana was now among the first state in the country regarding information technology, computer education and many more. He emphasised the formation of a “kisan pradesh”. He said earlier also it had been proved that smaller state progress was much more as compared to bigger state. He said even the Prime Minister had agreed that the pace of progress in smaller states was much more than big states. He said even now the size of Uttar Pradesh, after the creation of Uttaranchal, was still big, resulting in slow progress. While speaking on Tehelka episode, he said after an enquiry the NDA would come out cleaner. Mr Chautala said Mr Vajpayee was the most popular leader, who has been accepted by all sections of society. Chautala calls Cong rallies ‘maar dhar’ Kurukshetra, April 1 The Chief Minister was talking to mediapersons at Teokar village before inaugurating a bridge constructed at a cost of Rs 1.63 crore. Mr Chautala said his government was committed to the welfare of farmers and for their benefit a cooperative sugar mill would be set up at Pehowa. While referring to the rallies of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, he said the party had no policy and programme and Congress leaders were exhibiting their strength by organising rallies. He termed the rally at Bhiwani as “maar dhar” and the Panipat rally as “narsanghar” rally. He said no purpose would be served by organising such rallies. While referring to the power supply position in the state, the Chief Minister said concerted efforts were being made by the government in this connection and he expressed confidence that after two years there would be no power shortage in the state. He said the sixth unit of the Panipat thermal power plant would be ready soon as the work on the project was going on. He said an additional 50 lakh units of power would be available by commissioning the plant, besides efforts were being made to install 500 mw power plant at Yamunanagar, Hisar and Faridabad. Mr Chautala said Rs 511 crore would be spent during the current financial year for maintenance, widening, strengthening and raising and constructing of roads and bridges. He said 11 national highways were passing through the state having a length of 345 km. While referring national highway No. 1, the Chief Minister said efforts were being made to ease the congestion on national highway from Ambala to Karnal and work was in progress to convert 80-km-long highway into four lanes. It’s Bhajan vs
Hooda Sirsa, April 1 At today’s programme, local Congress MLA Lachhman Dass Arora, ex-Haryana minister Ranjit Singh, ex-HARCO Bank Chairman and ex-MLA Mani Ram Keharwala, ex-President, Municipal Council, Sirsa, Om Parkash Sethi and Ms Nisha Rathore were present with their supporters. When the correspondent asked Ch Ranjeet Singh whether they would participate in the Panipat rally of the Congress on 8 April, he evaded a direct reply and said there was still time to decide. Replying to a question about their absence from yesterday’s demonstration , he said he had received the intimation late and by that time he had already chalked out today’s programme. Earlier, addressing the Congress workers at the local Congress Bhavan, Mr Ranjeet Singh said Tehelka had exposed the double-standards of the BJP and also its leaders’ “patriotism”. He said the BJP, which used to make hue and cry over the Bofors issue, was now defending the persons involved in taking money as shown in the tapes. Criticising the state government for its failure on all fronts, he said law and order in the state had crumbled and people were not feeling safe. Farmers were not getting appropriate price of their crop and on the other hand prices of essential commodities and services being used by them had been hiked, he added. In his address, Mr Lachhman Dass Arora said due to the anti-people and anti-farmer policies of the state and Central Government the condition of the farmers had reached a pitiable level. This had forced the Congress to come to the street so that the present misrule could be ended, he added. Later, a march was taken out through the main bazars of the city and a memorandum was submitted to the Deputy Commissioner addressed to the President and the Governor by Hooda supporters. |
|
Railways neglects hub of
industry Yamunanagar The Yamunanagar-Jagadhri belt, known as the industrial hub of Haryana, provides over Rs 120 crores to the state as well as central exchequer. The manufacturers and traders, especially dealing in wood, are unhappy with the railway authorities for not providing basic infrastructure to them. The Railways earn more than Rs 7 crore per annum from incoming and outgoing goods. About 5,000 persons travel to and from Jagadhri railway station, which was constructed before partition but since then not many facilities have been added. Due to non-availability of goods sheds, stocks are kept on the platform in the open subject to the vagaries of weather. Many a time goods have been damaged due to heat and rain. The business community’s repeated requests made to railway authorities including Railway Minister have so far fallen on deaf ears. Interestingly, though former Railway Minister Ram Bilas Paswan’s relations live in Yamunanagar, he did not take any action to improve the facilities. The worst part is that there is no quota of berths for passengers and as a result passengers have to go to Ambala or Saharanpur for reserving berths. There are only four berths available for a super-fast train (8682), limited to the AC class. The residents allege that even as the population of the district had gone up manifold nothing had been done for the travelling public. More than 35 trains pass through Jagadhri every day which include many super-fast trains like Barani Express, Himgiri Express, Akal Takht and Lohit Express, but none of these halt here. Residents demand that Puja Express, which runs between Jodhpur and Jammu via Delhi and Rewari, should be diverted on this route since there are already a number of trains running on the Delhi-Rewari route. From Jagadhri to Jammu there are only two trains i.e. Sealdah and Shalimar express and passengers are annoyed because the reservation quota is so less. Many associations have demanded that a super-fast day train should be started from Jagadhri to Delhi but their demand has been ignored. One cannot even phone the station for enquiries as there is no permanent employee at the counter to attend to the telephone. |
|
Crop in 41 villages damaged by
hail Sonepat, April 1 According to unofficial estimates, the loss is as high as Rs 40 crore. Official reports in this regard are still awaited. The situation was reviewed at a specially-convened meeting of officials of the Revenue Department at Panchayat Bhavan here yesterday. Mr Ashok Yadav, Additional Deputy Commissioner, presided. The meeting decided to undertake a special girdawari in the affected villages beginning today to assess the losses suffered by farmers. It was decided that every small village would be covered by a patwari and every big one by two patwaris. They would be helped by two members of the Gram Vikas Samiti. The kanungo concerned would supervise the work and would be responsible for any irregularity or malpractice. The meeting constituted a six-member inspection team headed by the ADC to be assisted by senior officials, including the SDOs (Civil) of Gohana, Ganaur and Sonepat, the District Revenue Officer, the District Development and Panchayat Officer and the Tehsildar. The ADC-cum-Chief Executive Officer of the District Rural Development Authority (DRDA), Mr Ashok Yadav, directed the officials to immediately formulate development schemes for providing jobs to farm labourers. Mr Yadav said the state government had already been approached for granting sanction to the special development schemes and their execution. |
|
Consumers get ‘wrong’ power
bills Faridabad, April 1 According to complaints surfacing from various residential areas, the consumers having single-phase meters have allegedly been ‘overcharged’. The three-phase connections have, on the other hand, been ‘undercharged’ as both categories of consumers have been given bills for 2 kw power load. Although it is not known whether this is due to human error or a computer fault, a large number of consumers allege that it is a case of ‘harassment’ by the power staff. According to power officials, one-phase meters have a power load of less than 6 kw, while the load of three-phase meters ranges between 6 kw to 20 kw. A resident of Sector 22 complained that he had been handed over a bill of about Rs 2,000 while he had occupied the house concerned only for the past five or six days. Similarly, several consumers residing in areas like NIT, (NH-5, NH-1) Sectors 28, 29, 19, 21, 18, 15, 16 and Ballabgarh towns have also reported wrong billing. While consumers having single-phase meters claim that their bills are highly inflated, consumers having three-phase meters are surprised as they have been charged only for a load up to 2 kw. They have claimed that the load at their premises had already been increased and some of them have three-phase connections for the past over 8 to 10 years. For single-phase meters which are found faulty, the nigam charges a flat rate for consumption of 340 units, while for a three-phase connection the charge is for at least 740 units. The nigam authorities had launched a ‘voluntary disclosure scheme’ (VDS) for increase or decrease of load of consumers. The scheme, which was initially up to March 31, has been extended to April 15. It is learnt that bills are prepared by a Noida-based firm on contract basis. The DHBVN authorities have promised to look into the alleged wrong billing. |
|
HUDA to float 14 housing sectors Kurukshetra, April 1 This was stated by Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala after laying the foundation stone of the Gymkhana Club building here to be constructed at a cost of Rs 80 lakh. It is expected to be completed within 18 months. He provided “developmental gifts” to the people of Kurukshetra worth Rs 9.14 crore on the occasion of ‘Navratra.’ Mr Chautala said HUDA had already taken the lead in developing cities. A sum of Rs 574 crore had been earmarked during the current financial year for acquisition of land as compared to Rs 225 crore during last year. The Chief Minister claimed that HUDA had floated a record number of 25,000 plots in various towns of the state during the last year. Out of these about 5000 were allotted to economically weaker sections with income up to Rs 2100 per month. The Chief Minister also laid the foundation stone of Bhim Park to be constructed by HUDA at a cost of Rs 90 lakh over an area of 17.5 acres. He laid the foundation stone of a storm water disposal scheme to be constructed at a cost of Rs 2.33 crore. Town and Country Planning Minister Dhir Pal Singh said a budget of Rs 967.14 crore had been made for HUDA during the current financial year as compared to Rs 750.12 crore during last year. He said it would soon develop two new residential sectors, four and eight at Kurukshetra.
UNI |
|
4 killed, 17 hurt
in mishap Faridabad, April 1 All victims belonged to Gurdaspur district of Punjab and were on their way to Patna in connection with a religious function. The accident took place at 6 a.m. Two trucks carrying 60 persons, a majority of them from Gurdaspur district, were on their way to Patna. The driver of one of the trucks lost control when it was hit by a third truck, while overtaking. The second truck was overturned. The injured were taken to the Civil Hospital, Ballabhgarh, where four of them died. The dead were identified as Gurmesh Singh, son of Bal Singh of Naseer Fatehpur village, Kulwinder Kaur (30), wife of Sukhdev Singh of Parwal village, Balwinder Kaur (45), wife of Joginder Singh of Vishniyal village and Manohar Singh (65), son of Sohan Singh of Parwal village. The police has booked a case. |
|
Sadhus threaten to entomb
themselves Rohtak, April 1 Addressing a press conference here today, Yogi Rakesh Nath, secretary of the math, said Mahant Budh Nath of Chandigarh and Mahant Ravi Nath sat on a dharna yesterday in protest against violation of the dignity of the math. He alleged the Sonepat police was dragging the name of Mahant Chand Nath of the math in the case of murder of Baba Azad Nath a few years ago at the behest of the government. He said the police had illegally picked and later released Dr Markandey Ahuja, in charge of the eye hospital and Dharamvir, a peon of the math, in the name of interrogation to pressurise the sadhu samaj. Besides, he alleged the police hurt the religious sentiments of the devotees by raiding the math without-taking off their shoes. He apprehended that the police was hatching a conspiracy to implicate Mahant Chand Nath in the case of murder of Baba Raju Nath at Jinda Mui in Sonepat a few years ago. |
|
‘Hodal has 448 TB cases’ Faridabad, April 1 According to the authorities looking after the TB Centre at Hodal, doctors examined 1,320 persons and found that 448 were suffering from the disease. The special campaign to detect and check this disease was started on March 24 last year. Four TB centres were set up at Faridabad, Ballabhgarh, Hodal and Palwal subdivisions. The Hodal centre also covers Hassanpur and Rappa.
Martyr’s father honoured Ambala, April 1 A cheque for Rs 10 lakh was handed over to Mr Gopal Singh Saini whose son, gunner Rakesh Kumar, hailing from Subri village, had been killed in Jammu and Kashmir. Later, Mr Chautala heard the grievances of the people in the Sarkar Apke Dwar held at Barara this evening.
|
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
