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| Thursday,
April 5, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Chautala harassing farmers: Bansi Lal Six-day week in KU,
MDU Power shortage to end in 2 yrs: CM Irregularities at exam
centre: Registrar Dangi chargesheeted in
land allotment case Cop busts gang
involved in 22 burglaries |
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Loudspeakers down students’ books Couple gets life term for
murder Haryana order
on efficiency bar BKU leader denies
reports of boycott 12 hurt in clash, BDO held 2 sworn in as members of HPSC 8 lakh looted from 2 bank staff
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Chautala harassing farmers: Bansi Lal Sonepat, April 4 Addressing a huge public meeting at Bichpari village, about 50 km from here, yesterday, he alleged that Mr Chautala had earlier instigated farmers not to pay their electricity bills and had promised them that their arrears or electricity bills would be waived off after he came to power. Now after coming to power, the Chautala government was forcibly trying to recover these arrears from the farmers and heavy penalty was being illegally imposed on other categories of farmers in the name of power theft, he alleged. He said the Chautala government instead of giving free power to the farmers had increased power rates which had badly affected all categories of consumers. He also said the government had increased power rates several times, but no steps had been taken to provide adequate electricity to the people. Mr Bansi Lal declared that if his party came to power again in the state, it would ensure uninterrupted round-the-clock power supply to all categories of farmers, and scrap all anti-people and anti-farmer decisions of the Chautala government. He accused the Chautala government of ignoring the interests of the farmers of the state as it had failed to provide remunerative prices to them for their produce. He maintained that during the past about two years, the farmers had to sell their paddy below the support price whereas during his regime the farmers got higher price for their paddy than the support price fixed by the government. He demanded that the support price of wheat should be fixed taking into consideration the cost of the production of wheat. Earlier, talking to mediapersons at Gohana town, Mr Bansi Lal said there was no alternative of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, and only he could lead the country at this juncture. He said the Congress party was a divided house as there were many groups within the party and each of them was led by senior party leaders. The Congress party, he said, could prove itself as an alternative to the Vajpayee government as the moment the AICC president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, became the Prime Minister, many party leaders would oppose her and again put the country in chaos. He claimed that the following of the HVP had increased manifold in the recent past and the Congress party was far behind. Regarding the ruining of the standing rabi crops by the recent heavy rains and hailstorm, Mr Bansi Lal urged the state government to give adequate relief to the farmers whose crops had been severely hit on account of natural calamity. |
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Six-day week in KU,
MDU Chandigarh, April 4 The meeting, which was held under the chairmanship of the Governor, Babu Parmanand, and at which the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, was also present, decided to introduce a six-day week in the universities of the state. The decision will come into force from July 1, when the new academic session begins. Sources at Raj Bhavan say the decision will primarily affect Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and Kurukshetra University because the other two universities in the state, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, and Guru Jambheshwar University, Hisar, already work for six days a week. In MDU and KU also, it is the non-teaching staff alone who observe five-day week on the pattern of Haryana Government offices. The teaching departments in these universities also work for six days a week. The sources say that the Chief Minister, who is unhappy with the lack of work culture in government offices, expressed the view that there was need to examine the desirability of having a six-day week in offices in a larger context. He stressed the need to develop a work culture not only in the universities but also in all departments of the state government. Mr Chautala said the teaching days in the colleges and the universities should be increased to a minimum of 180 in an academic session. He also favoured reduction in the number of holidays to improve the quality of education. Advising the universities to adopt austerity measures to improve their financial condition, Mr Chautala asked their Vice-Chancellors to lay stress on job-oriented courses and the promotion of information technology. Babu Parmanand, who is also the Chancellor of the Haryana universities, stressed the need for bringing about uniformity in the functioning of all four universities. He said a uniform structure should be set up in the universities regarding the working days, examinations, declaration of results, syllabi, date of admissions, pay scales and recruitment of the staff. He also emphasised the need to amend the Acts and statutes of the universities keeping in view the changed educational scenario in the country. The Governor said the re-evaluation system should be streamlined so that the students might not opt for it frequently. He said besides introducing new subjects, the redundant and obsolete subjects should be eliminated from the syllabi. Since education had become very expensive, the universities should generate their own resources for attaining a sound financial position. The issue of the ratio of the non-teaching staff to the teaching staff, which is greatly in favour of the former, the sources say, was also debated at length and it was felt that corrective measures should be taken by all universities. To work out a detailed modus operandi for the implementation of various suggestions given by the Chancellor and the Chief Minister, the high-powered committee constituted a coordination committee under the chairmanship of the Haryana Secretary, Education, Mr P. K. Chaudhery. While the Director, Higher Education, Mrs Anuradha Gupta, will be the member-Secretary, the Vice-Chancellors of all four universities will be the members of the committee, which will also find ways and means to solve various education, administrative and financial problems being faced by the universities. Among others who attended the meeting were the Finance Minister, Prof Sampat Singh; the Agriculture Minister, Mr Jaswinder Singh Sandhu; the Minister of State for Education, Mr Bahadur Singh, and the four Vice-Chancellors. |
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Power shortage to end in 2 yrs: CM Faridabad, April 4 Speaking at a civic reception hosted by the Haryana Pradesh Halwai Union at Ballabgarh town, near here, last evening, Mr Chautala stated that work on setting up new power plants and improving the capacity of existing ones was under way. He said the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, had given the green signal for two power plants of 500 MW capacity. He assured that work on setting up the third unit of 143 MW would start soon at the gas-based power plant at Mujeri village in Faridabad. He said the Panipat Thermal Plant had attained the status of super thermal plant as its seventh unit had also started functioning. But members of the halwai union, who were expecting some relief from the tax imposed by the state government a few months ago, were disappointed as the Chief Minister did not announce any concession. Mr Chautala, on other hand, said the halwais were not poor and by paying the tax, it must contribute towards the development of the state. The state government’s decision to impose a tax of Rs 9000 per ‘bhatti’
(chulha) of the halwais per year had led to widespread resentment among owners of sweet shops. The most affected are the halwais in small towns and villages, where sale of sweets is small in comparison to big sweet shops located in large towns. Mr
J.S. Kohli, Chairman, Mr D.P. Gupta, president, and M Krishna Gopal, general secretary, respectively, of the union also attended the function. Mr Chautala defended the lifting of quantitative restrictions
(qrs) on imports and claimed that it would have ‘no impact’ on domestic agriculture sector due to high rate of duties. |
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Irregularities at exam
centre: Registrar Rohtak, April 4 He said the university administration would not compromise with copying. Several flying squads, including those consisting of university teachers, had been constituted to ensure smooth and fair conduct of the examinations. For the first time since the inception of the university, its pro Vice-Chancellor, Mr J.K. Sharma, was also performing surveillance duty in southern districts of Haryana. The Registrar, Dr S.P.S. Dahiya, and the Controller of Examination, Dr K.C. Bhardwaj, too, were inspecting the centres in the adjoining areas of Meham. During their inspection tour of the centre at Government College in Meham today, the Registrar and the Controller of Examination noticed outside interference on a large scale. Dr Dahiya and Dr Bhardwaj said even the flying squads were not allowed to enter the college campus by the crowd that had gathered outside the centre. The university was likely to take a decision about examinations held there on the return of the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Dahiya said. Major-Gen Suhag said yesterday that students on roll at the Anupam College of Engineering, Gurgaon, had been transferred to other institutes as per the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He said the university would not extend affiliation of the institutes who had neither the necessary infrastructure nor proper laboratory and teaching departments. The university had planned to construct an auditorium, hostels, laboratory for the department of pharmaceutical sciences during the current financial year at a cost of Rs 4 crore, he added. |
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Dangi chargesheeted in
land allotment case Fatehabad, April 4 The charge sheet alleged the former minister intentionally indulged in irregularities in the allotment of land to those who had migrated from Pakistan and in the process helped many of his near and dears owes to get monetary benefits. The bureau had taken in its possession 92 files pertaining to the irregularities in the allotment of land. Out of these, four cases pertain to the land holdings in Sirsa, Bhiwani and Hisar districts. The bureau has maintained that the former minister allotted land holdings to his own men without proper verification of the records. In doing so, he not only causing heavy financial losses to the government, but also allotted government land to those who were not eligible for it. The charge sheet said soon after the partition, the government had made a rule to allot land to Pakistani migrants on the basis of documents produced by them. This practice was followed till 1963 when the Punjab Government issued orders that the government would allot lesser land than the actual claim of the claimant. The order was challenged in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which set aside the orders of the government in 1968. Sultan Singh of Akanwali village in this district had filed a petition in the high court to seek the balance share of land in view of the court’s orders. However, he died while his petition was still pending in the court. The bureau said Gurdip Singh, close to the former minister, forged a fake power of attorney of the deceased in his favour and got the land allotted in his name. The charge sheet alleged that Mr Dangi helped Gurdip Singh. The other accused in the case was the then assistant registrar Rajender Krishan. |
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Cop busts gang
involved in 22 burglaries Faridabad, April 4 Head Constable Bhim Singh posted in the Sector 16 police post has solved a series of burglary cases which had become a headache for the police. In a recent incident of burglary, he worked overtime to find the culprits and their modus operandi. When he went to the house, he found no clue. Later he redialled the number on the telephone kept there. The number was of a cellphone. With help of the local telecom authorities, he contacted the cell company and traced all numbers dialled from the cellphone. This led to the nabbing of Surender who confessed to his involvement in the crime during his interrogation. The other accused, identified as Shalender, resident of nearby Saran village, has also been arrested. They said they used to hire a car or a van from the local taxi stand in the evening and used to return it in the morning after committing the crime.
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Loudspeakers down students’ books Ambala, April 4 The noise level witnesses a quantum jump during this period due to the loudspeakers at various religious functions. Since summer is approaching fast, the city will have to bear with long power cuts leading to the use of generators. Which cause not only noise pollution but also contaminate the air. The Principal of Gandhi Memorial National College, Mr I.D. Shulka, said. “Examinations are already on and the noise pollution affects the students in their studies.” He said “there are times, when work in classes is disturbed due to loudspeakers mounted on rickshaws used for advertising purposes. I feel that there should be a complete ban on these causes of noise pollution. Mr Anil Kumar, a student of Government College, Ambala Cantt, said for the last couple of days, he had not been able to concentrate on his studies. A religious function is on near my residence and the use of loudspeakers is quite disturbing,” he said. He stated that sometimes he goes to his friend’s residence, located in a different area, in order to concentrate. “One can study well only if there is silence. But the noise pollution is a major disturbance,” he said. Doctors have also termed the steady increase in noise pollution to be harmful. They observe that there are a number of ill effects of this pollution. Doctors state that an increase in noise level leads to a decrease in work output. The president of Indian Medical Association Haryana unit Dr D.S. Jaspal, said noise pollution can have auditory as well as non-auditory impact. “Auditory effect includes temporary loss of hearing if there is specific exposure to noise. The temporary loss of hearing can be for an approximate period of 24 hours when there is exposure to 4,000 to 6,000 CBS,” he said. “If there is continuous exposure to sound of more than 100 decibel then it could lead to permanent hearing loss. And in case the noise level is more than 160 decibels, then even the membrane can rupture,” he added. Dr Jaspal said non-auditory impact of noise pollution includes a rise in blood pressure and an increase in intra-cranial pressure. “Increase in heart rate and breathing rate besides sweating can take place. Giddiness, nausea, fatigue and disturbance in sleep also takes place,” he said. Ambala Cantt MLA Anil Vij said the area is facing an additional problem as it is sandwiched between the national highway and the state highway leading to heavy vehicular traffic throughout the day. “The heavy vehicles generate noise and there is also the use of pressure horns. This also leads to noise pollution,” he said. “In Shastri Colony, for instance, which is located next to the GT Road and the railway track, the noise pollution is high and constant,” he added. He said a long-term solution will be to divert the traffic through a bypass. “There is a need for silence zones so that the noise pollution can be checked to a certain degree,” he said. The district administration also admitted that the problem was fast assuming alarming proportions.The Deputy Commissioner, Mr
D.D. Gautam, said due action was taken whenever any complaint regarding unauthorised use of loudspeakers was received.
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Couple gets life term for
murder Rohtak, April 4 Delivering the judgement a few days ago, the judge said, “The manner in which the accused acted in taking the precious life of their family member, they don’t deserve any leniency in the matter of sentence.” The convicts were directed to pay a fine of Rs 500 each and in case of default, undergo further rigorous imprisonment (RI) for 6 months. Satyawan has further been sentenced to undergo RI for 3 years and told to pay a fine of Rs 500 under Section 27 of the Arms Act as he used his licensed gun for unlawful
purpose. Neelam, widow of Dayanand, deposed that her husband was employed in the Delhi police. She along with her husband, her father-in-law, Chander, and mother-in-law,
Bhagwani, was going from their field to their old house at Makrauli Kalan village to bring wheat on July 18, 1998. As they reached Harijan mohalla, she saw her brother-in-law
Satyawan, and his wife, Sunita, approaching from the opposite direction. Satyawan fired from his double-barrel licensed gun at Dayanand, but missed the target. He again fired a shot in Dayanand’s abdomen. When he fell down, both the accused gave him blows with the butt of the gun and a “jailee” (fork). The victim was admitted to the PGIMS, where he succumbed to his injuries within a few hours. Describing the motive behind the crime, Neelam said that she had an altercation with Sunita in the field a couple of days before the incident. She said despite being in an advanced stage of pregnancy, Sunita kicked her in the stomach, which enraged Dayanand, who slapped Sunita. On learning about the incident,
Satyawan, hatched a conspiracy to eliminate his brother.
Chandigarh, April 4 A spokesman of the Finance Department said the clarification had been issued in view of a directive sought by some departments in regard to those employees who had not crossed their efficiency bar in the old pay scales and whether they should be permitted for pay fixation and benefit of increment in the revised scale with effect from January 1, 1996, without crossing the efficiency bar in the old scale.
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BKU leader denies
reports of boycott Sonepat, April 4 In a press statement, he maintained that Mr Braham Singh Dahiya, vice-president of the district unit of the BKU, had already been expelled from the union and a unanimous resolution in this regard was adopted at a meeting of the union on February 2. He also said Mr Dahiya had no authority to issue any statement on behalf of the BKU on any issue. He warned that if Mr Dahiya continued his anti-union activities, the BKU would take legal action against him. The BKU leader also stated that the union was not convening a Mahapanchayat of farmers on April 8 at Bhatgaon village in the district and said the reports published in a section of the Press in this regard were misleading and baseless. Referring to the damage to rabi crop in the district by recent heavy showers and hailstorm, the BKU leader said 150 villages of the district had been affected. |
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12 hurt in clash, BDO held Panipat, April 4 The police has rounded up 17 persons, including Block Development and Panchayat Officer, Madloda Vikram Malik, who is also a resident of Rajakheri and former sarpanch Seva Singh. An old dispute over filling up of a village pond and removal of encroachment is stated to be the reason behind this group clash. One group reportedly erected a fencing around the encroached land whereas the other group started removing the fencing. A complaint was lodged by one of the injured Jagdish about this clash in the city police station alleging that last night about 24 persons of a particular group armed with lathis and sharp-edged weapons attacked and injured more than 12 persons of other group. Five of the injured were admitted to the local Civil Hospital. When contacted, the police confirmed rounding up of 17 persons. Out of the 17, seven including Vikram Malik and former sarpanch Seva Singh have been taken into custody. |
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2 sworn in as members of HPSC Chandigarh, April 4 Mr Bhardwaj (58) hails from Jind district and is a lawyer by profession. He has been associated with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and had even unsuccessfully fought the Assembly elections son the INLD ticket. Mr Gupta (39) is a resident of Ismailabad in Kurukshetra district. They will fill the posts vacated by Ms Sudha Malik and Mr N.S. Bishnoi. The swearing-in ceremony was attended by the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, the Speaker of the Assembly, Mr Satbir Singh Kadian, the Finance Minister, Mr Sampat Singh and other ministers and MLAs. |
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8 lakh looted from 2 bank staff Fatehabad, April 4 The bank employees Sham Sunder and Amar Singh, were returning to the bank after withdrawing the money from United Commercial Bank when the rickshaw in which they were travelling was stopped by two pistol-wielding youths who came on a jeep. The youths snatched the money bag while their third accomplice kept sitting on the driver seat of the jeep. The miscreants escaped towards Hisar after committing the crime. |
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Farm students burn degrees Hisar, April 4 Student leaders said unemployment among agriculture graduates was rampant and there was no meaningful use of their degrees. They said the high-powered committee on education under the chairmanship of the state Finance Minister, Mr Sampat Singh, had submitted its report to the government last year. |
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Insurance cover for cops Chandigarh, April 4 |
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World Health Day observed Chandigarh, April 4 |
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Lok Adalat in Rohtak on April
7 Rohtak, April 4 Stating this here today, Mr R.S. Madan, District and Sessions Judge, made an appeal to litigants to avail this facility for on the spot disposal of their cases. He said bank cases, motor accident claims, cases under the Motor Vehicle Act and the Hindu Marriage Act etc could be settled at the lok adalat. The chairman will also hold a meeting of the Sessions Judges and Chief Judicial Magistrates (CJMs) of Bhiwani, Rohtak, Hisar, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Narnaul after the lok
adalat. Interviews cancelled Chandigarh, April 4 |
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