H A R Y A N A

Get SC order on SYL enforced, Surjewala urges CM
Kaithal, January 20
The former Haryana Pardesh Congress Committee Chief and Rajya Sabha member, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala urged Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala to make sincere efforts to get the Supreme Court order on the completion of the SYL canal implemented at the earliest and not to waste energy for deriving political benefit from this judgement of the highest court.

Follow SC verdict, Chautala to Punjab
Chandigarh, January 20
The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, today appealed to the Punjab Government to abide by the Supreme Court judgement on the completion of the SYL canal within one year.

Industry owners to move court on taxes
Panipat, January 20
The Samalkha unit of the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation Industrial Association has decided to move court against the imposition of house tax, fire tax, and professional tax by the Samalkha Municipality.

Convict escapes from custody
Hisar, January 20
A criminal escaped from police custody from the court complex, at Hansi, near here, yesterday. According to the police, Sandeep Singh of Uttar Pradesh had been sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with a murder case and was lodged in Central Jail here.

Fake receipt racket detected
Panipat, January 20
A fake receipt racket has been detected by the local municipal authorities and a case has been registered against a former employee who was absorbed in another department after the abolition of octroi.

Get SC order on SYL enforced, Surjewala urges CM
Our Correspondent

Kaithal, January 20
The former Haryana Pardesh Congress Committee Chief and Rajya Sabha member, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala urged Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala to make sincere efforts to get the Supreme Court order on the completion of the SYL canal implemented at the earliest and not to waste energy for deriving political benefit from this judgement of the highest court. He was addressing reporters here today. He decried statements giving credit to former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal and Om Prakash Chautala for pursuing the SYL canal issue.

Mr Surjewala said that it was a matter of record that the Eradi Tribunal was constituted following the Rajiv Longowal accord and it had awarded 3.5 maf water to Haryana in 1986, after holding that Haryana was a riparian state and it had every right on the water. The tribunal had given one year time to complete the canal, but the Lok Dal government led by Mr Chautala made no efforts to get the SYL canal constructed between 1987 and 1990. Mr Surjewala said that the Supreme Court had based its recent judgement on the Eradi Tribunal report and the case before the Supreme Court was filed in 1995 by the then Congress government and Mr Bhajan Lal was the Chief Minister. On the other hand Mr Devi Lal and Om Prakash Chautala always opposed the Rajiv Longowal accord at Jind rally and threatened to scrap this accord after coming to power. These leaders even opposed the Indira Award of 1976 which gave Punjab and Haryana 3.5 maf of water each , Mr Surjewala added.

He said that the Punjab leaders should not oppose the Supreme Court verdict just for the sake of politics.

Mr Tejinder Mann, former Haryana Minister and Chairman HPCC Kisan Cell who was also present on the occasion send that Jan Jagran Abhiyan launched to expose misdeeds of the present government led by Mr Chautala was getting good response from people and he had already covered more than 150 villages. He strongly criticised the government for releasing hardcore criminals convicted by courts from jails after giving them amnesty and added that these very criminals were responsible for bad law and order situation in the state. He said that the present state government which claimed to be pro-farmer was responsible for police firing on peacefully agitating farmers at Kandela in Jind district last month.

Follow SC verdict, Chautala to Punjab
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 20
The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, today appealed to the Punjab Government to abide by the Supreme Court judgement on the completion of the SYL canal within one year.

He said here that the Punjab Government should implement the apex court directions in the national interest as the canal was the lifeline of Haryana, several parts of which were starved of water. He said the political parties in Punjab were making “irresponsible statements” on the apex court judgement “just to gain political mileage” in view of the Assembly elections.

He said the apex court judgement had exposed the duplicity of the Congress. While the Haryana Congress president, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, had hailed the judgement, his counterpart in Punjab was opposing it. The AICC was singing a different tune.

He said if Punjab did not abide by the court judgement, the Centre would have to complete the canal as per the judicial directive. He said Haryana’s share in the river waters was not based on riparian laws but on succession laws.

He reiterated that if Haryana was not given its full quota of 16 judges in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, he would demand a separate high court for the state.

Rejecting the Rajiv-Longowal accord, Mr Chautala said Haryana recognised only the Indira Gandhi Award, under which Abohar-Fazilka along with 107 villages were given to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh.

Industry owners to move court on taxes
Our Correspondent

Panipat, January 20
The Samalkha unit of the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) Industrial Association has decided to move court against the imposition of house tax, fire tax, and professional tax by the Samalkha Municipality. The decision was taken at a meeting of the association held on Saturday evening.

The meeting also decided that the units would not pay any tax until the court decided the case of recovery of maintenance expenditure by the municipality. An appeal in this regard is already pending in the court.

The general secretary of the association, Mr S.P. Garg, told reporters that the union had raised demands at DC’s open darbar at Samalkha on January 9, but no action was initiated. He pointed out that though no facility was provided by the municipality to the units located in HSIDC estate, yet imposed various taxes. Unit owners were only paying these taxes to the HSIDC.

He also alleged that the Public Health Department had declared the sewerage constructed by the HSIDC, illegal and closed these resulting in overflowing of the sewage on roads.

He demanded opening of these connections.

Convict escapes from custody
Our Correspondent

Hisar, January 20
A criminal escaped from police custody from the court complex, at Hansi, near here, yesterday.

According to the police, Sandeep Singh of Uttar Pradesh had been sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with a murder case and was lodged in Central Jail here. A police party had brought him to Hansi for production in a court in connection with another case.

On the way, a person had given him some chemical powder, which he threw in the eyes of policemen and ran away. The Hansi police has registered a case.

Meanwhile, the Judicial Magistrate, Mr J.D. Chandna has sentenced a person to seven years of imprisonment for raping a minor.

According to the prosecution, Mohamad Hamid, working at a cotton factory, was residing in a house at Mayar village two years ago. He had raped a daughter of the houseowner.

Fake receipt racket detected
Our Correspondent

Panipat, January 20
A fake receipt racket has been detected by the local municipal authorities and a case has been registered against a former employee who was absorbed in another department after the abolition of octroi.

According to information, the racket came to the knowledge of the municipal authorities when a powerloom owner complained that he had made the payment of a licence fee amounting to Rs 660 but even then a payment notice had been issued to him.

Inquiry revealed that the payment receipt was not of the council and bore the signatures of a former employee. Similar complaints were also received from other powerloom unit owners.

The authorities have lodged a complaint with the police.

Villagers hold demonstration
Tribune News Service

Ambala, January 20
Residents of Pilkhani village today held a demonstration at War Heroes Memorial Stadium where the Haryana Minister, Mr Risal Singh, had come to inaugurate the National School Gymnastics Tournament.

The villagers were demanding the district administration to look into a controversy regarding a piece of land in the village. They claimed that the land was a cemetery and some persons were trying to grab it. They alleged that some trees on that land had been felled.

The Deputy Commissioner, Mr D.D. Gautam, has directed an official to look into the matter.