 |
Tuesday, February 19, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
Haryana
freed 451 convicts in 5 yrs HVPN’s
move on industrial connections rejected Gurgaon
firm ‘illegally’ diverted phone calls CM for
change in political scenario Koshiyari
campaigns for BJP nominee |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Cong to
move no-trust motion on March 4 INLD
luring voters, says BJP vice-chief Vote
fearlessly, says IYC chief AMBALA DIARY RECKTA
members to resume stir Fake currency case unsolved
Inter-college
poetry recitation competition
|
|
Haryana
freed 451 convicts in 5 yrs Chandigarh, February 18 Information to this effect was furnished to a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court by Haryana’s Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary in the Home Department, Mr Birbal Dass Dhalia, while complying with directions issued on a public interest litigation filed for exposing “politico-criminal” nexus in the state. In a 284-page affidavit, Mr Dhalia furnished details of the released convicts along with the date. In 1996, 53 convicts were released, 138 the next year and in 1998, 64 convicts were released, while 75 were released in 1999. In 2000, 45 were released but last year 76 were released. Mr Dhalia also provided district-wise list of cases, mentioning the FIR number, the names of the accused and the particulars of the court orders granting permission for the withdrawal of cases, along with copy of the orders. He added that pardon to accused after conviction was granted under the general policy of the state government and also on individual basis before the completion of sentence. The case will come up for hearing on April 22. The High Court had earlier directed the state to Haryana place on record the judicial orders allowing the withdrawal of cases involving serious offences. The Bench, headed by Mr Justice G.S. Singhvi, had also directed that the list of cases in which pardon had been granted should also be produced in court. In his petition, Rohtak resident Satpal Kadian had sought directions for ordering an independent probe, preferably by the Central Bureau of Investigation, into the withdrawal of criminal cases by the state due to political reasons. Arguing on the petitioner’s behalf, his counsel had also sought directions for reopening all such cases and for punishing the culprits in accordance with the law. Action against a former Chief Minister and another respondent for “abusing the powers vested in them” was also sought. He contended that prosecution in certain FIRs had been withdrawn in gross disregard of public interest. The cases, he had added, included murder offences. |
|
HVPN’s move on industrial connections rejected Chandigarh, February 18 In an order issued on February 16, the HERC also quashed the sales circular issued by the HVPN in this connection. The HERC asked the HVPN to either refund or adjust in the next bill the money deposited by the affected LT industrial consumers in compliance with the sales circular. In a 20-page order, the HERC, after a threadbare discussion on various issues involved in the case, also observed that by lowering the ceiling of applicability of LT industrial tariff from 70 kw to 50 kw, the petitioner had amended the tariff which the HVPN was not competent to do in view of Section 26(7) of the Reform Act. The commission directed the HVPN to submit to the HERC within 15 days any other sales circular concerning any matter connected with tariff such as the categorisation of consumers, terms and conditions of supply, etc, issued by the HVPN after August 16, 1998. While dismissing the HVPN’s plea that the present petition may be considered as filed for approval of the proposed revision and the sales circulars already issued, the HERC stated that following an application by the HVPN, the power tariff was changed by the commission with effect from September 1, 2001. “Hence, another revision till March 31, 2002, is not permissible”, observed the HERC. The HERC studied the cost benefit analysis of the proposed change. It also looked into the total estimated cost of the complete scheme, expected loss reduction, expected increase in revenue and the pay-back period. To study these aspects, the HERC had directed the petitioner to furnish information on the basis of a sample study of 450 affected consumers, taking the data for at least one year. The HVPN submitted separate information in respect of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) and the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN). The HVPN argued that the advantages which would flow from the proposed change included reduction in system losses by conversion of the related LT network to HT. The reduction of such losses would translate into lower tariffs for all classes of consumers. Secondly, the theft of electricity would be checked as direct tapping of an HT line was difficult. Also, the problem of tampering with energy meters by consumers would be obviated as the input metering would be on 11 kv. Consumers in the category between 50 kw and 70 kw would be charged the HT tariff which was currently 19 paise/kwh lower than the LT tariff. The affected consumers would also get better voltage, argued the HVPN. However, after analysing the data, the HERC found that there would be a reduction of the average distribution loss of 28.6 units per month on an average consumption of 5,500 units per month per consumer. “This would mean a saving of Rs 122 per month per consumer after an investment of Rs 35,000 per consumer. If we take an interest rate of 12 per cent per annum for such borrowing, there will be an interest charge of Rs 350 per month as against a claimed saving of Rs 122 per month. Evidently, such as expenditure cannot be called ‘prudent’ “, stated the HERC. It also turned down the HVPN’s claim that the change would reduce system losses as the HVPN had failed to provide “reliable statistics”. The HERC also felt that there would not be much change in the scenario relating to the theft of electricity either, since there would still remain a vast network of LT lines which would continue to remain exposed to direct tapping. The financial analysis given by the HVPN was also found flawed by the HERC as it indicated that the pay-back period for this investment would be 286 months (23 years 10 months). “ The economic life span of a distribution system is around 25 years”, the HERC pointed out. The HERC also expressed reservations on the HVPN’s claim that it was difficult to tamper with HT meters. The HERC also added that while it was true that the affected consumers would get supply at 19 paise/kwh less, on the whole they would have to pay a few thousand rupees more every month, besides having to repay the principal amount borrowed to meet the initial estimated expenditure of Rs 1.75 lakh. The HERC also felt that the promised gain of better quality power to the affected consumers had also not been quantified by the HVPN and it remained vague. “ Even otherwise, the tariff charged is for the supply of quality power”, stated the HERC. The order was passed on the basis of a majority view even as Lt-Col Raghbir Singh (retd), the latest entrant in the HERC, submitted a dissenting note. He was of the opinion that approval should be granted for any reduction in the lower ceiling of connected load from 70 kw to 50 kw for the HT category. The proposed revision and the sales circulars were challenged by consumers by filing civil writ petitions in the high court which in its order dated July 2, 2001, asked the HERC to decide the matter after obtaining representations from the UHBVN and the DHBVN. The HERC had organised three public hearings on the issue. Written objections to the HVPN move were received by the HERC from 60 consumers. |
|
Gurgaon
firm ‘illegally’ diverted phone calls Chandigarh, February 18 Recently concluded investigations into the matter by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have revealed that international voice calls were being received illegally from the USA and other countries on telephone lines installed on the premises of the communications firm by using sophisticated equipment attached to a satellite antenna. These calls were then diverted through this link to various subscribers through the local telephone network, thereby bypassing VSNL, which is the sole authority in the country for providing international telecom services. The firm had obtained 195 telephone connections for which it had deposited a security of Rs 5.85 lakh with the Department of Telecom (DoT). Following the investigations, a charge sheet has been filed before the Special CBI Judge at Ambala by the regional CBI office here. Investigations had been initiated into the matter following a complaint filed by the Chief Vigilance Officer of the Haryana Telecom Circle, Ambala. The charge sheet alleges that no licence for the installation of a satellite antenna and associated equipment had been obtained from the Wireless Planning and Co-ordination Wing (WPCW) of DoT. The equipment had been procured from a company in the USA and its import had been cleared by the Customs Department in New Delhi. The firm is also stated to have received Rs 1.5 crore from the US company, with which it had signed a memorandum of understanding. Since international calls were bypassing the VSNL gateway, this resulted in a substantial loss to DoT as the US communication authorities were imposing a charge of $0.50 per minute on international calls, out of which 50 per cent was transferred to the Indian authorities. This amounted to a loss of about Rs 5.11 crore to DoT. During the course of the investigations, surprise checks were also conducted on the firm’s premises by CBI sleuths along with technical experts from the WPCW and VSNL, where the satellite system was found receiving and automatically diverting international calls to various telephone numbers in Delhi, the charge sheet states. |
|
CM for change in political scenario Yamunanagar, February 18 Mr Chautala, who was addressing a largely attended Saini Sammelan organised in his honour yesterday by the local Saini Samaj here in the Prahladpur locality said the change would be possible only with the people’s cooperation. He said the BJP and Haryana Vikas Party had assured the people in 1996 that octroi would be abolished but this age-old system was abolished by his government. Mr Chautala said the Opposition parties were now getting nervous as they were not able to digest the massive support being given by the people to the INLD candidate. None of the opposition parties had responded to his repeated open invitation of debate on the issue of development. Contrary to it, they were complaining to the Election Commission against the INLD on one pretext or the other so as to stop the process of accelerated development. The secretary of the Saini Samaj, Dr Jai Singh Saini, presented a turban to the Chief Minister as a mark of respect and assured him of the continued support of the Saini Samaj. MLA Ram Kumar Saini, State Secretary of the INLD Raj Kumar Saini, Chairman, Improvement Trust, Dalmira Ram Saini, were among others present at the function. |
|
Koshiyari
campaigns
for BJP nominee Yamunanagar, February 18 He stated work on the Tehri project which had been hanging fire for the past 20 years had been started and would start generating power within two years. Mr Ram Bilas Sharma, former minister, said they had met the election observer and apprised him of alleged misuse of official machinery. He said the CRPF should be deployed. Mr Rattan Lal Kataria, BJP chief of Haryana, said he had been empowered by the state BJP executive to apprise it of the behaviour of the INLD with the BJP in Haryana. He said he would meet BJP President Jana Krishnamurthi after the conclusion of the election process. |
|
Cong to move no-trust motion on March 4 Yamunanagar, February 18 He admitted that in the February, 2000, elections, the distribution of tickets was not proper, due to which the Congress could not emerge as the single largest party. Mr Bhajan Lal said a no-confidence motion would be moved on March 4 during the session of the Haryana Assembly against the Speaker. He said the Haryana Vikas Party had promised to extend support to the no-confidence motion. He stated that two MLAs, Mr Karan Singh Dalal of the Republican Party and Mr Jagjit Sangwan of the Rashtriyawadi Congress Party had also decided to support the motion in favour of the Congress. Lashing out at the INLD government, he said thousands of Haryana Government employees had been retrenched without any notice. |
|
INLD luring voters, says BJP vice-chief Panipat, February 18 Talking to mediapersons at the PWD Rest House, he lambasted INLD supremo and Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala for fielding his candidate in Yamunanagar which had been a traditional seat of the BJP. He alleged that Mr Chautala had deployed the entire government machinery in Yamunanagar and voters were being lured and threatened to vote for the INLD candidate. “Even election duty staff will be of his (Chautala) choice with the aim to rig the polls,” alleged. Asked to clarify about the BJP-INLD alliance in Haryana, he stated that the BJP had withdrawn its support and would sit in opposition in the future. He said Mr Chautala had fielded his candidates in Uttar Pradesh with a view to harming the interest of the BJP and Mr Ajit Singh. |
|
Vote fearlessly, says IYC chief Yamunanagar, February 18 Mr Surjewala said senior party leader. Oscar Fernandes today met the Chief Election
Commissioner in Delhi to complain against the “misuse” of official machinery ahead of the Yamunanagar byelection. He appealed to the people to vote in favour of the Congress. |
|
AMBALA DIARY Ambala, February 18 Mr Ajay Jain of the Citizens Council said for the past one week two monkeys had become a menace in the area. They have not only taken away clothes and food material, but also scared passers-by. He said despite repeated requests to the Municipal Council, Ambala Sadar, no action as yet had been taken to catch the monkeys. He urged the Deputy Commissioner to issue necessary instructions in this regard.
Best
cadet
Pankaj Joshi, a BA final year student of SD College, has been declared the best NCC cadet in the Ambala zone. He has been awarded a trophy and a cash reward.
Awareness campaign
The Rural Environment Enterprises Development Society (REEDS) has actively participated in the family health awareness campaign held this month. The society is also working on the targeted intervention project on truckers in which they generate awareness among the target group regarding AIDS. In a recent camp held at Ambedkar Park, Mochi Mandi, a number of truckers from Katik Mandi, Bakra market, Gwal Mandi, Mochi Mandi and near Hindustan Petroleum complex participated. The truckers were explained the ways and means for prevention of AIDS.
Sports function
The three branches of SD Kanya Mahavidyalaya organised a cultural programme and annual sports function on the occasion of Basant
Panchmi. The programme began with ‘Saraswati Vandana’. Senior school girls sang a song on ‘Basant’ which was followed by a Haryanvi group dance by Class VII students. ‘Rasleela of Radha and Krishna, skit ‘Bhari
Basta’, dance by Class XI girls and a Haryanvi song was appreciated by the audience. A fancy dress competition, Rajasthani dance and Gidda was well-received. Among others the Principal, Ms Rajinder Kaur Dhillon, Prof Tara Chand and Mr Moti Lal Parsad were present.
PWD workers’ protest
The Haryana Government PWD Mechanical Workers Union held a demonstration under the presidentship of Mr Chaman Lal Walia to press for their various demands. The union demanded that their 15-point charter of demands should be met at the earliest. They criticised the anti-workers policy of the government.
|
|
RECKTA members to resume stir Kurukshetra, February 18 Stating this to mediapersons here today, the RECKTA secretary, Mr
M.K. Gupta, said since no satisfactory headway had been made regarding the fulfilment of their demands, the members wore black badges to express their resentment. Frustrated by the repeated “empty” assurances given by the college administration since September 10, 2000, the RECKTA had decided to resume its agitation, he added. Mr Gupta claimed that the pension scheme had been implemented in most other Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) of the country and for almost all employees of the state, including those of Kurukshetra University, under whose jurisdiction REC, Kurukshetra, falls. The CAS, as provided for by the Firth Pay Commission, had not been fully implemented for college employees, he said. Mr Gupta said a committee consisting of the Vice-Chancellor, Guru Jambheshwar University
(GJU), three principals of engineering colleges of Haryana and the representative of the Director, Technical Education, Haryana had convened a meeting in the board room of the REC in February, 2001. In this meeting, representatives of the teachers’ associations of
REC, Kurukshetra, YMCA, Faridabad, and CRCE, Murthal, were also invited and given a hearing regarding demands regarding the
CAS. The committee agreed to implement various provisions of the CAS, such as senior scale, selection grade, designation of Assistant Professor to selection grade lecturers and promotion of readers (assistant professor) to Professor. However, even after a year of the meeting, the situation had not yet changed, Mr Gupta said. He said the college employees were paid the arrears of pay scales of the Fifth Pay Commission after considerable delay. Though a section of the college employees had been paid interest on the arrears, a big section had been denied this right, thus creating a disparity. Talking about the contributory provident fund
(CPF), Mr Gupta said: “The CPF Act makes it obligatory for the employer to deduct a fixed percentage of the salary of each employee and contribute a matching amount towards his provident fund account. Under the provision of the Act, the contribution has been enhanced from 10 per cent to 12 per cent on the salary (basic pay and dearness allowance) of each employee. Presently, the college is contributing only 10 per cent of the basic pay towards the CPF account of its employees while a similar college in Punjab is making the contribution based on the total salary, i.e. basic pay and DA.” In Haryana itself, employees of the Minor Irrigation and Tubewell Corporation (MITC) were also getting CPF contribution on the total salary, Mr Gupta added. |
|
|
Fake currency case unsolved Ambala, February 18 Around two weeks back, the police had raided a house at Shajadpur after getting a tip-off. During the search of the house, the police found fake currency worth Rs 89,000 along with liquor pouches. The police had arrested a person, Jitender Pal, from that house, who had allegedly told the police that he was being supplied this fake currency by Kulbir Singh, resident of a nearby village. He had been arrested, but the police remained clueless. During interrogation, Kulbir had disclosed that Harpal Singh was the key man behind all this. The police was on the look-out of Harpal. It had raided several places, but he was still absconding. |
|
|
Inter-college poetry recitation competition Ambala February 18 The competition was organised by the Punjab Sahit Sabha under the guidance of Prof Ratan Singh Dhillon. Around 20 teams from different colleges of North India participated in the competition. Dr Deepak Manmohan Singh, Chairman, Sheikh Baba Farid Chair, Panjab University, Chandigarh was the chief guest. GMN College team comprising Shaminder Singh and Inderjit Kaur won the Manjit memorial trophy. While Shaminder Singh of GMN College, Ambala Cantt, finished first, Sunil Baggan of SD College came second and Vikramjeet Singh of GGDSD College, Hoshiarpur, came third. In original poems, Gurpreet Singh of Government College, Ambala Cantt, was first and Gurinder Kaur of Guru Nanak Khalsa College, Karnal, came second. |
 |
| 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 | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
