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Thursday, January 24, 2002,
Chandigarh, India  
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Byelection to test INLD performance Haryana SYL repair to cost 12 cr PGIMS ailing for want of medicines Councillors quit house
tax sub-committees Cong to persuade Rajesh not to contest byelection |
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| Baby’s death puts question mark on pulse polio drive Faridabad, January 23 The death of a one-and-a-half-year-old baby girl soon after she was administered polio drops at one of the villages near Hodal town in the district recently has not only left parents and villagers stunned, but it also has raised a question mark on the success of pulse polio campaign itself. 
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Byelection to test INLD performance Yamunanagar, January 23 Whereas the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, said the Yamunanagar result would not affect the stability of his government but would be a barometer of his government’s popularity, the Haryana Congress President, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and the Congress Legislature Party leader, Mr Bhajan Lal, said the verdict in favour of their candidate would mark the beginning of the end of the INLD edifice. The BJP, whose candidate, Mr Ghanshyam, also filed the nomination papers today, too, put up a good show. Almost all senior leaders of the party were present on the occasion. With both INLD and the BJP fielding their candidates in Yamunanagar, the break between the two alliance partners is almost complete. However, perhaps for the old-time sake, leaders of the two parties avoided criticising each other today. Both had their own reasons for not doing so. Since Mr Chautala claims that his party continues to be a member of the National Democratic Alliance and supports the Vajpayee government, he cannot criticise the party ruling at the Centre. And in the state since the BJP is a “sleeping partner” in the ruling alliance, the INLD leader obviously has nothing to say against it. The BJP, on the other hand, still expects that Mr Chautala will leave to the former to take on the Congress in Yamunanagar. The President of the Haryana BJP, Mr Rattan Lal Kataria, said he would still appeal to Mr Chautala to let it remain a fight between the Congress and the BJP, which had a strong base in the constituency. Another senior leader of the party, Mr Ram Bilas Sharma, and Mr Kataria, however, did not reply when they were asked to spell out if the (non-)performance of the Chautala government would be made an election issue by the BJP. They said they would highlight the performance of the Vajpayee government at the Centre before the electorate. Mr Kataria said they would remind the voters of Yamunanagar the role of its former MLA, Dr (Mrs) Kamala Verma, in the development of the constituency over the past several decades. Mr Chautala and his ministerial colleagues, including Mr Dhir Pal, Mr Ashok Arora and Mr Jaswinder Singh Sidhu, attacked the Congress but made no mention of the BJP. They highlighted various schemes and programmes initiated by their government for the welfare of people. Mr Chautala asked his supporters not to raise any slogan against anyone but to only highlight the positive aspects of the government. The presence of Mr Hooda and Mr Bhajan Lal at one platform gladdened the hearts of Congress workers, who repeatedly raised slogans like “Bhajan Lal, Hooda ek hain” and “awaaz do hum ek hain”. Mr Hooda said Mrs Krishna Pandit, wife of the late J.P. Sharma, the sitting Congress MLA whose death caused the byelection, was the candidate of Mrs Sonia Gandhi and was the choice of all senior party leaders of Haryana. Mr Bhajan Lal said if the Congress nominee won from Yamunanagar, it would be a big setback to the Chautala government. There is a talk in the town that before the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers, the INLD and the BJP would reach an understanding. However, sources close to Mr Chautala rule out the possibility of the INLD nominee withdrawing from the contest. They pointed out that the fact that Mr Chautala had himself accompanied the party nominee for the filing of the nomination papers and also the fact that the Chief Minster’s younger son, Mr Abhey Singh, MLA from Rori, had been told to camp in Yamunanagar till the completion of the elections, showed that the INLD would contest the seat to win it. The INLD has fielded Mr Malik Chand Gambhir, former MLA, while the BJP has fielded a new face, Mr Ghanshyam. The Congress depends upon the widow of the late MLA, possibly to take advantage of any sympathy of the voters. Our correspondent adds: As many as 22 candidates filed their nomination papers till 3 p.m. on Wednesday when the deadline for nominations expired. These include a former Congress minister, Mr Rajesh Sharma (Independent), Mr Joginder Singh Chawla(BSP), Mr Pawan Kumar Dhiman(NCP) and Mr Parmal Singh of the Rashstriya Janata Dal. |
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Haryana SYL repair to cost 12 cr Chandigarh, January 23 While the Supreme Court order asking the Punjab Government to complete the portion of the SYL falling in that state came on January 15, the following day the Irrigation Department of Haryana asked Mr Chetan Singh, Superintending Engineer (SE), Ambala Range, and Mr R.R. Dudeja, SE based at Karnal, to find out about the actual repair work to be carried out in the Haryana portion of the canal. Official sources told TNS that the two officers had completed their work. The cost for repairing the Haryana portion of the SYL had been put at Rs 12 crore as per the rough estimates made by them. The Ambala Range SE had conducted a survey of about 48 km length of the canal and put the cost of repair in that part at Rs 7.5 crore. Mr Dudeja had worked on another 27 km of the canal. The cost of repairing that portion, according to the report submitted by Mr Dudeja, will be about Rs 4.5 crore. The SYL portion falling in Haryana measures 92 km. However, 17 km length of the SYL is part of the Western Jamuna Canal system which is in regular use. The remaining 75 km has been lying unused since 1980 when the construction of the canal was completed in Haryana. Apart from repairing the lining, the canal bed would also have to be cleared of silt and vegetation, it was learnt. The sources added that at normal pace, the work on repairing the canal would take at least a year. The two reports, prepared by the Irrigation Department, would be given to the state government for consideration and arranging the required funds, the sources said while pointing out that Mr Ram Pal Majra, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, had already said that work on the SYL in the Haryana area would be started as soon as an assessment regarding repairing of the canal was prepared. The sources said Rs 56 crore was earlier spent on the construction of the Haryana portion of the canal, which had been lying unused. |
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PGIMS ailing for want of medicines Rohtak, January 23 The Commissioner and Secretary, Health, Mr Bhagwati Prasad, visited the institute on Saturday last to have an on-the-spot assessment of the situation. The PGIMS authorities, it is reliably learnt, admitted that they had neither medicines nor essentials in store. The PGIMS reportedly expressed its helplessness in making local purchases because of the ban imposed by a former Health Secretary, Mr Madhvan, on such purchases. He had directed that all purchases of medicines and essentials should be made through the Director, Supplies and Disposals, Haryana. The situation has proved a boon for chemists and dealers of essential items. Not only has the sale of medicines
and other medical goods gone up, many spurious drugs and duplicate surgical goods have also entered the market. Due to the non-availability of life-saving medicines and essentials, even in the Casualty Department, patients have to wait till the medicines are purchased from the market. This leads to a delay in starting treatment, even in emergency cases. Sources told TNS that only 25 per cent of the budget allocation of the PGIMS had been utilised so far though only two months were left for the current financial year to end. If the budget allocation was not utilised by March 31, the remaining allocation would lapse. Interestingly, the Director, PGIMS, was empowered to make purchases of items costing up to Rs 10 lakh. However, these powers of the Director were withdrawn in January,2001, and tenders, floated by the then Director, Dr S.B. Siwach, were cancelled by the government. In the middle of the current financial year, the Director was again given powers to make purchases up to Rs 3 lakh. However, in the controversy over interpretations of certain phrases, the institute has not been able to buy anything. Meanwhile, the institute is without a head since the past over nine months. |
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Councillors quit house
tax sub-committees Ambala, January 23 Cutting across party lines, the Councillors who were part of the house tax sub-committees tendered their resignations at a meeting of the Municipal Council, Ambala City held today. They protested against the imposition of new house tax policy as well as fire tax. The house tax issue came up for discussion after the normal agenda of the meeting had been completed. In Municipal Council, Ambala City, there are five house tax sub-committees each having three members. As many as 15 Councillors from different parties were part of the house tax sub-committees. Mr Bharat Bhushan of the Congress raised the issue of house tax and said it was an excessive strain on the common man. He asked “What is the need for house tax sub-committees when the Municipal Councillors cannot give relief to the people? There are several genuine cases and nothing can be done about it since the state government only wants to calculate the house tax based on a fixed formula. “We refuse to act merely as a rubber stamp,” he added. The Councillors said the imposition of house tax was proving to be a major burden and they did not support the move. The issue of digging of roads was also taken up. The Councillors demanded to know how permission had been granted to two private telecom companies to carry out digging of roads. “Is there any guarantee that they have not exceeded the permission they had taken and if they have exceeded it, what penalty is going to be imposed on them?” he asked. The Councillors wanted to know why prior permission of the House had not been sought before allowing such a major work to be undertaken in Ambala City. A Councillor stated that there had at least been two incidents of rickshaws carrying school children overturning due to the digging of roads. The Executive Officer, Mr S. Ahlawat, said the Councillors can form a committee which can check up the extent to which digging work has taken place and a report can be submitted to the House. The Congress Councillors opposed a resolution regarding handing over an octroi post to the Improvement Trust. |
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Cong to persuade Rajesh not to contest byelection Yamunanagar, January 23 Addressing newspersons here today, Mr Bhajan Lal said since the ticket had to be given to one person Mr Rajesh Sharma should have sympathy for Dr Krishna Pandit, wife of the late J.P. Sharma. He said he tried to contact Mr Rajesh Sharma on the telephone but in vain. He said the Congress would work hard to ensure the victory of its nominee. He expressed the confidence that the Congress would win the election and said the present government had failed to deliver. |
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Baby’s death puts question mark on pulse polio drive Faridabad, January 23 According to reports, the victim was daughter of Mr Nassruddin of Beesru village. It is stated that the child’s condition deteriorated soon after she was administered polio drops on January 20. She died within few hours. Meanwhile, residents of the village have sought an inquiry into the matter. The Senior Medical Officer of the region, however, said he had no information about the incident. |
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