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| Saturday, August 4, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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New political equation on anvil in
UP
Ranjit group becomes active in Haryana
Cong Villagers oppose bid to disconnect
power 1 arrested for principal’s
murder |
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Landowners, labourers lock
horns Mushrooming schools push up dropout
rate?
Declare Sonepat drought-hit:
BKU Modernised farming multiplies
income Auto drivers permitted to ply vehicles
daily KALKA DIARY DC for special drive against land
grabbers Board to develop Morni area Power VDS successful One more dead in LPG
tanker fire Probe sought
into SSP’s ‘misconduct’
Scooter-borne youths loot shop MC sadar president for disbanding body
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New political equation on anvil in
UP Faridabad, August 3 While this could lead to an embarrassing situation for the NDA and its candidates, Mr Chautala may also find it tough, if he fails to find an ‘ally’ there. While, Mr Chautala has been holding public meetings and rallies in western Uttar Padesh for the past four months, to the surprise of many, his demand of creating a new state (Kisan Pradesh) has received good response so far. This demand, according to a local INLD leader, has also forced Mr Ajit Singh to stick to his similar demand. The INLD leader also said joining the Union Cabinet at this juncture also exposed Mr Ajit Singh’s stand as he was only interested in becoming a Cabinet Minister. Another INLD activist inquired why Mr Ajit Singh had forged an alliance with the NDA when the party had not supported his demand of ‘Harit Pradesh’ on the agenda of the NDA either. But on other hand Mr Ajit Singh had recently stated that his party’s demand for ‘Harit Pradesh’ was very much there and his becoming a Union Minister would not come in between. Mr Chautala’s party seems to have been sidelined by the BJP-led NDA government at present. He has reiterated that the INLD may field its candidates even if there was no alliance. One of the biggest hurdle according to political analysts, faced by the INLD is the agenda. While the INLD is sticking to its demand of ‘Kisan Pradesh’ other parties in Uttar Pradesh including the NDA, have not made public any such agenda till now. The main parties, including the Samajwadi Party (SP), the BSP, the Congress and other partners of the Lok Morcha have not supported the above demand. While NDA has preferred an alliance with the RLD (Ajit Singh) the Lok Morcha comprises the SP, JD, CPM and the CPI. While it is expected that the INLD may field its candidates under the banner of the Kisan Sanghursh Samiti, such a decision could affect its relations with the NDA. According to some political observers, the INLD seems to be in double mind whether to field its candidates or withdraw from the coming election. There are about 125 Assembly seats in the region and Mr Chautala has already organised rallies at Meerut, Mathura, Muzzafarnagar, Bulandsahar, Saharanpur and Moradabad district. The next rally would be organised on August 11 in Agra. The recent outburst of Mr Ajit Singh against the Haryana Government at Palwal has been criticised by INLD leaders on the grounds that the Union Minister had violated the code of conduct as both the INLD and the RLD were NDA partners now. |
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Ranjit group becomes active in Haryana
Cong Chandigarh, August 3 Mr Ranjit Singh,the younger son of Mr Devi Lal, will figure prominently in the group of “ex-Lok Daliyas” in the Congress. According to informed sources, Mr Ranjit Singh, who had joined the Congress when it was headed by a former Prime Minister, Mr P.V. Narsimha Rao, despite the opposition of the then Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhajan Lal, is working on two plans. In one plan, he is taking the assistance of leaders like Mr Hira Nand Arya, Mr Ran Singh Mann, Mr Atma Ram Godara, Mr Mange Ram (Bahadurgarh), Mr Atma Singh Ratia and Mr Mani Ram Keharwala, to activate his supporters within and out side the Congress. In the second plan, Mr Ranjit Singh has joined hands with Rao Inderjit Singh, Mr Avtar Singh Badhana, Mr Lachhman Dass Arora and Dr Kirpa Ram Punia to form a sort of pressure group within the party. It may be recalled that Mr Ranjit Singh had joined hands with Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda after the latter became the president of the Haryana Congress. However, a few months ago (to be precise before Mr Bhajan Lal organised his much-publicised rally at Bhiwani in March) he developed differences with Mr Hooda, primarily because of the Haryana Congress president’s closeness to the AICC secretary, Ms Selja, who also belongs to Sirsa, the home district of Mr Ranjit Singh. In the past few weeks, Mr Ranjit Singh has held a number of meetings with his supporters at Jind, Sonipat, Rohtak and Kurukshetra. Sources close to Mr Ranjit Singh say he got encouraging response from his supporters at these places. He will now hold a similar meeting at Jagadhari on August 5. Mr Ranjit Singh’s supporters say he can swing the votes of Jats, in favour of the Congress by virtue of being a son of Mr Devi Lal. Moreover, they say, as INLD workers will get disenchanted with their party leadership, they are likely to join hands with Mr Ranjit Singh as they would not mind shifting their loyalty from one son to another son of their
“Tau”. |
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Villagers oppose bid to disconnect
power Fatehabad, August 3 Four villages of the district had been declared sensitive by the district administration. The residents of these villages had not been paying their power bills for long. The arrears, along with sucharge accured thereupon, had accumulated to crores of rupees. The HVPN had launched a special drive these days to disconnect power connections of the villagers who had failed to remit their dues despite reminders. The SDO (City), Tohana, Mr K.R. Goyal and the JE’s Mr Krishan Gopal Mehta and Mr Baldev Singh of the HVPN, along with some other officials of the nigam, had gone to Kanhari village near Tohana yesterday. The team of the HVPN officials was accompanied by an Executive Magistrate and a police force. The HVPN team reached the farm of a villager, Nafe Singh. As the officials started the process of disconnecting the power connection, a large number of villagers carrying weapons like jelis, gandasas and lathis assembled at the site. Fearing retaliation by the angry villagers, the team decided to return. But as the members were retuning, the villagers started pelting stones on their vehicles. A windowpane of a jeep belonging to an Executive Magistrate was broken which caused minor injuries to some officials. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr O.P. Indora, while confirming the incident, denied that any official of the nigam had been injured. He said the HVPN authorities had given enough time to the villagers to clear their dues. He said while most of the farmers were remitting their current power bills in time, most of the old arrears were pending. The HVPN authorities had no other alternative but to disconnect their power connections. Farmers of Kanheri village owe more than Rs 1 crore to the HVPN and all efforts of the nigam authorities to recover the amount had proved futile. There had been several incidents of confrontations between the farmers and the nigam authorities. The authorities had once gone to disconnect the power connections of defaulting farmers in January this year but at that time too they had to abandon their plans after a scuffle with the villagers. The HVPN had then started long power cuts in these villages but after an agitation by the farmers, led by the Bharatiya Kisan Union, power supply to these villages was restored. A case had been registered against Nafe Singh, Des Raj, Raj Bir and others, all residents of Kanheri village on a complaint lodge by the SDO (City), Mr K.R Goyal. |
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1 arrested for principal’s
murder Rewari, August 3 The other two assailants are reported to have escaped in a dense forest near the village. The arrested suspect has been identified as Rakesh (24) of Mandothi village near
Bahadurgarh. He reportedly told the police that his other accomplices were Karam Veer of the same village and Bagga of Gurgaon. Mr Manjit Singh
Ahlawat, S.P., told newspersons today that about 1,500 police personnel drawn from Rewari, Mahendergarh, Gurgaon and Faridabad districts were engaged in the combing operations which would continue today to apprehand the remaining two culprits. He said the police had registered a case under Section 302, 394, and 307
I.P.C., and also the Arms Act. The Haryana Health Minister, Dr M.L. Ranga, who was present during the combing operations, lauded the efforts of the police. Meanwhile, principals, lecturers and teachers of various schools of Rewari and its adjoining areas held a condolence meeting on the premises of Government Senior Secondary School for Boys. They demanded a compensation of Rs. 20 lakh each for the families of the deceased, a government job for one member each of the families and gallantary award for Mr Rakesh Bharti who offered resistance to the assailants. They also demanded the payment of salaries through cheques. Later, they marched in a silent procession to the district secretariat with a memorandum listing their demands. Teachers of the local Uma Bharti Public Senior Secondary School have contributed their one-day salary to the families of the deceased. |
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Landowners, labourers lock
horns Fatehabad, August 3 It may be recalled that the local administration at Rattia subdivision had rescued Bachan Singh last month when his wife lodged a complaint with the police that her husband had been kept as a bonded labourer by his employer. When an Executive Magistrate raided the farms of Baldev Singh, he found Bachan Singh in chains. The police booked Baldev Singh and the district administration took steps to rehabilitate him. The landowners of the area have now come in support of Baldev Singh and are seeking the withdrawal of the case. They allege that it was a case of labourer taking wages in advance and then refusing to work or return the money. They claimed that Bachan Singh had taken wages of a year from his employer and then refused to work or repay the amount. The landowners yesterday converged on the Rattia grain market and formed a Kisan Mazdoor Beopari Raksha Samiti to pressure the government to withdraw the case. They also gave a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner for onward transmission to the Chief Minister. The All-India Khet Mazdoor Union has taken exception to the move by the landowners to hush up the case by using their influence. In a statement issued here today, Mr Ram Kumar Bahbalpuria, state president of the union, said the union would take up the issue during its Bhuna sammelan on August 17. |
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Mushrooming schools push up dropout
rate? Chandigarh, August 3 This was observed in an assessment study of the DPEP conducted by Mr Yash Aggarwal of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA). The first phase of the DPEP, covering Hisar (subsequently bifurcated into Hisar and Fatehabad), Sirsa, Kaithal and Jind, will conclude on March 31 next year. The programme, started in these districts in 1994 for universalisation of primary education, also included reduction in the dropout rate to less than 10 per cent as one of its objectives. However, in Jind, Sirsa and Hisar districts, the dropout rate ranged between 12 and 38 per cent during 1996-97 and 1999-2000. A survey conducted by ORG-MARG found that one-fourth of the students enrolled dropped out. The dropout rate among scheduled caste students was above the overall average of 30 per cent. Concerned by the dropout rate, the NIEPA conducted a survey covering 878 unrecognised schools in 13 blocks in the four DPEP districts of Haryana. The study, published recently, showed that the districts of Hisar and Sirsa had 28 per cent enrolment in unrecognised schools. The proportion of children in unrecognised primary schools in Jind and Kaithal was 16 per cent and 49 per cent respectively. It was found in course of the survey that the growth of unrecognised schools in Haryana was of recent origin. About 70 to 75 per cent unrecognised schools came up during the 90s. This was significantly higher than the corresponding expansion of government schools in these districts. It was also found that enrolment in unrecognised schools doubled every five years. The study also found that outreach of government schools was not taking place due to various organisational and other constraints. “ In view of the popularity of unrecognised schools and demand for English education, the expansion of private schools in various forms (aided, unaided and unrecognised) is likely to continue in future also”, the study observed. It was also found that the proportion of girls in unrecognised schools was very low compared to government schools. “The gender bias in the choice of schools by parents is quite evident”, the survey observed. Teachers in unrecognised schools are paid one-sixth or one-seventh of the salary a regular teacher in a government school gets. While, admitting that parents preferred private schools to those run by the government, Education Department officials here say that the dropout rate in primary schools also went up due to frequent shifting of children of labourers and other sundry workers. The centrally funded District Elementary Education Programme (DEEP), for students of class I to class VIII, will start in 16 districts (barring Mahendragarh, Gurgaon and Bhiwani where the DPEP Phase II is in progress) from April 1.
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Dedication sees him to
top Panipat Mr Brij Mohan Gupta, even though visually challenged, has been working as a teacher for the past 21 years at Government Girls Senior Secondary School in Model Town here. He is the first visually challenged person in Haryana who has been recommended by the Human Resource Development Ministry for being honoured on Teachers Day (September 5). He will receive the honour of Rashtriya Shikshak from the President of India. Mr Gupta received a Haryana state award, Sarvotkrisht Kushal Viklang Sarkari Karamchari, in 1999. The Governor of Haryana, Babu Parmanand, presented Mr Gupta with the Rajya Shikshak award on September 5 last year. He has also won several other awards for his dedicated work. Mr Gupta was born on Divali in 1954 in Samalkha Mandi, Panipat district. He had vision in one eye which, too, he lost when he was about five years old. With help from one of his uncles, he got admission to the State Blind School here. He passed the middle examination with good marks, standing second in his school. He then joined Sanatan Dharam Mahavidyalaya in Ambala and graduated with 59 per cent marks. He obtained the MA (Hindi) degree from the same institution. He was elected a member of the Hindi Parishad, the History Parishad and the Punjabi Sahit Sabha and also became the vice-president of the Yuvavakta Parishad. He won more than 66 prizes during his academic career and got the college colour for his all-round activities. His programmes have been relayed from All India Radio, Rohtak, Kurukshetra, Delhi and Jalandhar and telecast by Kolkata Doordarshan. After obtaining the BEd degree, he got a teaching job at the State Blind School here. He secured 100 per cent examination results for his students up to 1994. In 1994 he was selected as a lecturer and joined the local Government Girls Senior Secondary School. |
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Declare Sonepat drought-hit:
BKU Sonepat, August 3 This resolution was adopted at a meeting of the union held here yesterday. The district was in the grip of drought due to the lack of the rains, an acute shortage of the power and canal water. Frequent power cuts in rural areas have become a routine and these have badly hit the running of tubewells. The erratic supply of the canal water has added to the woes of the farmers whose crops had started withering away. It warned that if the state government failed to mitigate the sufferings of the farmers, they would forced to commit suicide on the pattern of Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. The members present at the meeting flayed the irregular distribution of compensation among the farmers and demanded that the compensation should be distributed in the villages and not in the offices of the tehsils as the officials are not present even during the working hours. |
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Modernised farming multiplies
income Bhiwani, August 3 According to sources, as many as 5910 tonnes of fruit was produced on 108 hectares during 1999-2000 whereas 85,500 tonnes of vegetables were produced on 6425 hectares in this period. However, sources claimed that the target for this financial year was 75,000 tonnes of vegetables on 5300 hectares. The yield of mushroom, obviously a new crop for farmers of this area, was 4 tonnes. The farmers also took deep interest in floriculture. The administration distributed 240 mini kits of spices and 500 kits of vegetables free of cost in order to boost cultivation of spices and vegetables. Medicinal plants were planted in 3056 hectares. Under the state government policy, 4000 fruit plants were also distributed free of cost to popularise horticulture in this sandy area. Under this programme fruit plants were also planted on additional 20 hectares and it proved profitable for nearly 50 farmers. Sources said 61 units were established in order to export flowers. Official statistics show that 70 tonnes of fruit was produced on 100 hectares during the previous financial year whereas 1.1982 tonnes of vegetables were produced on 888020 hectares. |
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Auto drivers permitted to ply vehicles
daily Rohtak, August 3 A delegation of autorickshaw drivers yesterday met the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anil Malik, and sought permission to run their vehicles daily. They urged him that they were suffering financially due to the existing system of alternate plying of autorickshaws.
The Deputy Commissioner has directed the drivers to obey the traffic rules. |
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KALKA DIARY M.M. Bhandari Kalka The students also say that because of the small number of buses in the morning and evening these are overcrowded and sometimes rash driving causes accidents. Students who are studying in government aided schools in Panchkula and Chandigarh, are not given bus passes by the Haryana Roadways. They have to buy tickets every day and that proves costly. The residents of Tipra village near Kalka who commute to Kalka and Parwanoo complain that they face a problem because of an incomplete bridge between Kalka and Tipra near Ram Bag. They say that the condition of the road between Kalka and Tipra is also not good and it becomes unusable during the rains. « « « Traffic jams, particularly in the morning and evening, have become routine in this town and the motorist on the National Highway to Shimla should thank his lucky stars if he is able to pass through the town without getting caught in a snarl. Sometimes it takes more than one hour to clear this bottleneck. In the absence of a proper bus stand, buses on way to Shimla or Chandigarh, stop in the main bazaar known as Gandhi Chowk to drop and pick up passengers. Passengers also prefer to wait for the buses here, avoiding the extra kilometer to the make-shift bus stop. On both sides of the road stand scores of persons waiting for buses. Their condition becomes pitiable during the rainy season and in the scorching heat of summer. « « « The residents of Kalka town complain of the poor quality of drinking water in the town. The Municipal Committee has installed about 50 sluice valves in the town to control the flow of water to various Mohallas and colonies. These valves are fitted in pits that are two or three feet deep. These pits get filled with dirty water which mixes with the normal supply of water. The residents also complain that the polluted water of Nalla from Parwanoo gets mixed with clean water in the reservoir near Dhobi Ghat and the residents have to drink the contaminated water.
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DC for special drive against land
grabbers Rohtak, August 3 Presiding over a seminar of sarpanches and panches of the Sampla block, yesterday the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anil Malik, appealed to the villagers to end prejudices against women and pleaded for their active participation in the development of villages. The seminar was organised to educate sarpanches and panches about the salient features of various development schemes introduced by the government and the steps taken for the empowerment of the Panchayati Raj Institutions. Mr Malik said though the Sampla block was situated close to Delhi and formed part of the National Capital Region, purdah among women was still vogue in the villages. The purdah custom had become obsolete as women were increasingly replacing men in many spheres, he told the audience. The Deputy Commissioner told the village leaders that the government had formulated a scheme to provide atleast 70 litres of potable water to every villager per day in the next three years. He asked sarpanches and panches to persuade the defaulting consumers to pay the arrears of their power bills. He advised the panchayats to exercise powers vested in them by the Gram Panchayat Act, 1995, in getting encroachments on panchayat and shamlat lands vacated. He explained in detail the provisions of Sections 24 and 25 of the Act and assured full administrative support in implementing the Act. |
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Board to develop Morni area Chandigarh, August 3 It was decided that the Chief Minister would head the board of patrons which would include the Finance Minister, the Revenue Minister and the Chief Secretary. The Commissioner and Secretary, Town and Country Planning, would be convener of the board. While long-term plans for identification of sites of tourist interest, development of infrastructure, watershed development and identification of sources of water supply for sustained water supply schemes and preservation of wildlife and ecological balance in this fragile eco-system would be prepared by the board, immediate steps to popularise the area among people of nearby towns of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh would be taken. Accordingly, the Haryana Tourism would spend a sum of Rs 15.23 lakh on adventure sports, which included Rs 7.45 lakh for water sports equipment, Rs 2.73 lakh for rock climbing equipment, Rs 4.25 lakh for camping equipment and Rs 80,000 for mountain biking. A commitment to open a restaurant and a bar at Tikkar Tal at a cost of Rs 24 lakh was made by the Secretary, Haryana Tourism. It was decided at the meeting that two bridges over the Ghaggar would be constructed at a cost of Rs 2.59 crore for smooth plying of vehicles on the Thapli Badisher road and the Jallah Mandhana road. |
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Power VDS successful Chandigarh, August 3 The press note said the scheme was launched for rural areas for the first time in July in 40 villages of Fatehabad suburbun sub-division of the DHBVN. It said 1132 out of a total of 9771 consumers came forward voluntarily to declare tampering or fault in their meters. The release added that the villagers got the irregularities corrected by paying one-third of the normal penalty imposed on detection of power theft. |
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One more dead in LPG
tanker fire Panipat, August 3 On July 19 around 4 a.m. gas trailer of an LPG tanker which was going to Jalandhar from Mathura got separated from the cabin and overturned near Babarpur on the G.T. Road which resulted in the leakage of gas and subsequently caught fire. Due to heavy gas pressure and wind flow, the fire flames engulfed a roadside dhaba and a factory premises adjacent to the accident site. In this accident, Harbeer, chowkidar of the factory and resident of Babarpur, Ashok, owner of Lucky Dhaba, Waryam Singh, canter driver and resident of Amritsar two brothers of Dadlana village, Shiv Kumar and Madan Lal, Kewal Singh from Kangra (Himachal, Sonu from Sonepat and one more person from Panipat have been killed in this incident. |
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Probe sought
into SSP’s ‘misconduct’ Rohtak, August 3 Mr Inderjit Singh, secretary of the state unit of the CPM, today said the allegation levelled by the woman candidate, who was rejected in the physical efficiency test, against the district police chief was not casual as it was filed in the court. He said the ‘aggrieved’ candidate had tried to meet the Chief Minister during the ‘pragati rally’ held at Bhiwani on July 24. The CPM leader said he was surprised how the candidate was rejected in the physical efficiency test while she had been the best athlete in the local university college as a student. |
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Scooter-borne youths loot shop Ambala, August 3 According to information, two youths with muffled faces reached Bansal Sanitary Store around 9 p.m. on a scooter on Thursday. Both of them were carrying pistols. The owner of the shop, Rajinder Pal, said that they demanded the cash from him. Pardeep, son of Rajinder Pal, who was present in the shop, nabbed one of the youths. The youth made an attempt to fire at him but the trigger did not work. In the meantime the second youth warned Pardeep to release his colleague otherwise he would shoot him. Pardeep set the youth free. Later the youths asked them to give the cash to them. Rajinder handed over the cash. They also snatched the gold bracelet of Rajinder Pal. Later the shopkeeper went to a police post in Sector 8 and reported the matter. The SP, Ambala, and other police officials visited the site.
Ambala, August 3 Expressing helplessness regarding the current state of affairs of the municipal council, Mr Shankar Dass, while addressing a press conference here today, said that it was no longer possible to effectively run the municipal council. “How can I make things work here? What is my fault? I want to undertake development work but due to several reasons, my efforts are unable to bear fruit,” he lamented. “The flooding in Ambala Sadar due to heavy rainfall was not due to bad condition of drains but due to conversion of John Sahab ki Diggi into Subhash Chandra Bose park,” he clarified. Mr Shankar Dass, who completed one year in office on June 30, while taking a dig at the Ambala Cantonment MLA, Mr Anil Viz, said that he had been trying to seek the cooperation of Vikas Parishad MCs. However, for some reason it has not come about, he added. |
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