World farm scientists attend workshop
Hisar, March 4
Agronomists and weed scientists from America, England, Australia and India today converged at the local Haryana Agricultural University to participate in a workshop held to devise a strategy to deal effectively with phalaris minor weed which posed a threat to the rice-wheat cropping sequence in the Indo-Gangetic plains.

AMBALA DIARY
Exercise in diligence
Ambala, March 4
Himanshu Mittal, a student of DAV Public Senior Secondary School, Ambala Cantt, has prepared a scrapbook on Nobel laureates which were published in The Tribune. Himanshu said he was inspired to prepare the scrapbook by his teacher, Ms Ranjana, and the scrapbook has now become one of his prized possessions. 

Deposit house tax by March 31: DC
Hisar, March 4
The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurag Rastogi, has asked local residents to deposit their house tax by March 31.

Assembly condemns Gujarat violence
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 4
The Haryana Assembly today put on record its condemnation of the gruesome incidents of communal violence in Gujarat.

“The House places on record its deep sense of sorrow on the sad demise of innocent people who lost their lives in communal violence on the Sabarmati Express near Godhra, Gujarat, and at other places in the country”, stated Mr Om Prakash Chautala, Chief Minister, while reading out the obituary resolutions on the inaugural day of the Budget session of the Assembly here.

“The House strongly condemns the shameful incidents of communal violence and resolves to send its heartfelt condolences to the members of the bereaved families”, added Mr Chautala.

The Assembly also sent its condolences to the family members of the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr G.M.C. Balayogi, who died in a helicopter accident, and to the relatives of Ms Serla Grewal, President of the Tribune Trust, and former Governor of Madhya Pradesh.

Mr Chautala said that Ms Grewal, who became the first woman President of the Trust in April, 2000, had held many prestigious posts in the Government of Punjab and the Government of India as well as in many international organisations. “In her death, the country has lost an able administrator”, stated the Chief Minister.

The House also mourned the death of Mr Om Parkash Mahajan, Mr Gajraj Bahadur Nagar and Mr Hukam Singh, former ministers of Haryana, and Rao Sis Ram, a former MLA of the state Assembly.

The House also put on record its deep sense of sorrow at the killing of security personnel by terrorists on the Parliament House premises on December 13. The House also mourned the death of security personnel killed by terrorists at the American Center in Kolkata.

Obituary resolutions were also read out to mourn the death of Lt Veer Singh, Rann Singh, Bhanwar Lal Bahmani, Jhabbar Singh, Ram Nath, Kishori Lal, Darbara Singh Makhna, Khinwan Singh, Neki Ram and Deepa Ram, freedom fighters from Haryana.

The House also bade a tearful adieu to 26 soldiers, including Major Ushnisha Jaitley of Yamunanagar, who laid down their lives while fighting for the unity and integrity of the country.

The House also placed on record its deep sense of sorrow at the demise of relatives of five members.

Mr Bhajan Lal from the Congress, Mr Krishan Pal Gujjar from the BJP, Mr Bansi Lal from the HVP and Mr Gopichand Gehlot, Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, also spoke on the occasion. The Speaker, Mr Satbir Singh Kadian, recalled his association with Mr Balayogi.

The House was adjourned for the day after the reading out of the obituary resolutions as a mark of respect to Mr Balayogi.

Kaithal violence: 20 arrested
Our Correspondent

Kaithal, March 4
The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has lost control over the situation and extremist religious organisations wanted to take the country towards another partition, this was stated by Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala, President, All-India Youth Congress, while addressing mediapersons here last evening.

Condemning strongly the violence in Gujarat, Mr Surjewala said the Gujarat Government had failed miserably to control the situation and Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is leading the government at the Centre had failed to rein in Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi whose incompetence had worsened the situation there. Mr Surjewala said that the Prime Minister had maintained silence under pressure from Hindu extremist organisations.

He also expressed concern over the increasing activities of the ISI in the country and alleged that the Central Government had failed to evolve any effective strategy to tackle the grave situation which posed serious challenge to the security of the country and its citizens.

Mr Surjewala criticised the violent incidents in Kaithal town on March 1 when some religious places of the minority community were damaged by a mob. He called it a failure of the district administration. He, however, expressed satisfaction that no life was lost.

Meanwhile, the police has arrested 20 persons for the alleged involvement in damaging religious places of minority community, violence and torching some places here on March 1.

Giving this information to mediapersons here today, Mr A.S. Chawla, Superintendent of Police, said that those arrested include Kailash, Gopal , Pawan, Hari Om, Ram Kumar , Shiv Kumar , Laxmi, Sikander, Raju, Ramesh, Joginder, Balbir, Rajesh, Susheel and Balwan of Kaithal and Khema and four others, including Jeeta pahalwan, Bunty, Ram Kumar and Mohinder, have also been arrested for the alleged involvement in violence at Kalayat.

Mr Chawla added that the police force had been deployed at mosques and warned that the police would be tough with anti-social elements and anyone found guilty wouldn’t be spared.

Rally for communal harmony held
Our Correspondent

Kaithal, March 4
The Haryana Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Mr Ram Pal Majra led a sadbhavana rally here yesterday which passed through the main bazars, Bhagat Singh chowk, Timber Market, Jind road and culminated at Shaheed Mahesh Chowk on Mahatma Gandhi Road. Local MLA Leela Ram, Amar Singh Dhandey, MLA Guhla, Deputy Commissioner Phateh Singh Dagar, Superintendent of Police A.S. Chawla, SDM Ashok Bishnoi, City Magistrate Sanjiv, Chairman, Improvement Trust, Shiv Shankar Pahwa, secretary, Seva Sangh, Surjit Singh, senior advocate, Dr Dev Raj Miglani and Mr A.L. Madan social workers, and prominent citizens representing various organisations participated in the rally.

Before the start of the rally all those present condoled the death of Lok Sabha Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi and of those who lost their lives in Gujarat and other parts of the country in the recent communal violence.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Majra appealed to the people to maintain communal harmony and brotherhood. He expressed concern over the acts of violence which rocked the city on March 1 in which some religious places of a minority community were attacked and damaged by an unruly mob. He called upon the people to oppose the divisive forces which were bent upon creating disharmony, which weakened the nation. 

State export policy soon
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 4
After the industrial, information technology and education policies, the Haryana Government will now soon announce an export policy to boost exports from the State.

This was stated by the Governor, Babu Parmanand, in his Address to the Vidhan Sabha on the opening day of its Budget session here today.

He said when Haryana came into existence in 1966, the total exports from the state were only to the tune of Rs 4.50 crore, whereas the total export of products and services from the state in 2000-2001 had increased to about Rs 7,000 crore. The multi national companies working in the field of information technology located at Gurgaon were exporting software to the tune of about Rs 3,000 crore. He said out of the total production of cars, motor cycles and tractors in the country, 60 per cent were being manufactured in Haryana.

Describing the Supreme Court judgement directing Punjab to complete the SYL canal within one year as “the message of a happy future for the industrious farmers of the state”, Babu Parmanand said expenditure estimates for the repair of the canal portion falling within Haryana had been prepared and the work would start soon. He expressed the hope that the SYL canal would lead to increased agricultural production in the state.

Pointing out that the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center had adversely affected the international trade and industrial scenario, Babu Parmanand said still Haryana had managed to keep up its pace on industrial development. As many as 20 large and medium units and 554 small-scale units involving an investment of Rs 434 crore had been set up till December, 2001, during the current year. A right of way policy had been formulated for laying an optic fibre network in the state and agreements had been signed with two large companies to create a communication network in the state.

Conscious of the resentment in the urban areas over the new house tax policy, Babu Parmanand specially mentioned the issue in his Address. He said the house tax determination system had been made more transparent, impartial and simple. In the absence of definite criteria for the assessment of house tax, influential persons earlier colluded with municipal employees to have a lower assessment of their house tax.

He described the victory of the ruling party candidate in the Yamunanagar Assembly byelection as “appreciation of the policies of the government by the people and this, in effect, is a popular mandate in favour of my government, which would further inspire us to work even more zealously for the development of the state”.

The government planned to have horticulture in about 2,100 additional hectares in the current year. To conserve natural resources, 4,000 new sprinkler systems would be commissioned this year. Suitable arrangements for procuring 65 lakh tonnes of wheat in the coming rabi season had been made. Two new sugar mills, Ch Devi Lal Cooperative Sugar Mill, Panniwala Mota, Sirsa, and Ch Devi Lal Cooperative Sugar Mill, Gohana, had been commissioned.

The government had procured 100 MW of additional power from the eastern region. Efforts were on to set up two thermal power stations at Yamunanagar and Hisar. Touching upon another contentious issue relating to electronic meters, Babu Parmanand said the old meters were being replaced with electronic ones in a phased manner “in the interest of energy consumers of the state”.

The government had set up a taskforce which would advise it how to ensure that untreated sewage did not contaminate the rivers and drains. It was proposed to set up sewage and water treatment plants in 18 towns at a cost of Rs 350 crore in the second phase of the Yamuna action plan.

The construction of a rail overbridge at Rewari and additional two-laning of the railway overbridge at Kurukshetra was under consideration. The Centre would provide Rs 25 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak and the state government would provide another Rs 31.40 crore during the current year for the improvement of roads.

The per km profit before tax of Haryana Roadways had been the highest among the state transport undertakings in the country. A new organisation, the Haryana Highway Patrol, had been set up to regulate and manage traffic on the four national highways passing through the state. As a result of these efforts the accident rate on these highways had come down by 15 per cent.

He said a comprehensive code of conduct had been enforced in colleges to ensure accountability of the teaching community.

The Governor said the government was committed to providing security to all citizens and maintaining peace and security in the state. The state police was being modernised at a cost of Rs 51.37 crore.

He said he had full faith in the capability and sincerity of the employees of the state and the government was committed to providing an administrative environment where the citizens could lead life with dignity and without fear.

The lone RPI MLA, Mr Karan Singh Dalal, interrupted the Governor, saying that his Address was a “bundle of lies” and it should be taken as read. But Babu Parmanand continued to read out his Hindi Address (specially written for him in the Persian script) unfazed, though he skipped certain portions of the Address. 

Police remand of voucher scam accused extended
Our Correspondent

Ambala, March 4
The Judicial Magistrate, (First Class), Mr Najar Singh, has extended the police remand of Joginder Pal, an accused in the refund voucher scam in Ambala Excise and Taxation Department, till March 7 here today. The other accused in the case, Neena Gupta, a resident of Ambala Cantt, was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days. Earlier, this court had remanded both of them in police custody till March 4.

The counsel of Neena Gupta, Mr Davender Bansal, also filed an application seeking interim bail for his client in this court today but it was dismissed by the Magistrate. Mr Bansal stated that his client was not involved in the scam at any level. He said “she deals in finance business. She borrowed the money from Ansari and Sons only through cheques and moreover, she did not commit any offence by taking loan for the business”. He requested the court to grant her interim bail as she has to look after her three children.

The Public Prosecutor, Mr Mukand Lal, filed an application in the court for the grant of further seven-day police remand of Joginder. He said during interrogation the police had revealed that Joginder also owned property in Faridabad and several other places. The police was yet to recover cash from him. He requested the court to extend the police remand of Joginder for seven days more.

The Magistrate asked the police to give the day-to-day details of investigations in the case during the period when Joginder and Neena had remained in their custody for one week. The police briefed that after revealing the information gathered during interrogation the police had checked the accounts of Ansari and Sons and Joginder Pal in State Bank of India (Mandi branch), Ambala City, Bank of Punjab and Central Bank of India at Ambala Cantt. The police had also verified several records in Treasury and Excise and Taxation offices in this regard. The police also recovered several four-wheelers owned by Joginder while one more vehicle was yet to be recovered.

While opposing the application for demanding further police remand of Joginder, his counsel Sandeep Sachedeva said his client had been remanded to police custody for one week. It was more than sufficient. There was sufficient time with the police to interrogate him and now there was no justification for demanding further police remand.

Meanwhile, the police said it had attached two kothis owned by Neena Gupta worth Rs 50 lakh located at Ambala Cantt. The police has also taken two cars belonging to her in possession. Joginder’s house, worth Rs. 30 lakh located in Sector 9, Urban Estate, Ambala City, had also been attached, the police added. The police had also sealed four shops owned by Joginder’s family members at Jagadri Gate. Ambala City on Sunday. The police said the bank accounts of Joginder, Ansari and Sons and Neena Gupta in half a dozen banks at Ambala City and Ambala Cantt had also been sealed.

The scam had come to light when the Joint Commissioner of the Department, Mr D.P. Sarohi, checked some refund vouchers and later ordered an inquiry into it. Later, a case was registered against Joginder Pal on the complaint of Deputy Commissioner, Excise and Taxation, Ambala, for drawing Rs 2.23 crore from the treasury by producing forged refund vouchers. Besides Joginder Pal the police had also arrested Neena, when it was found that Rs 95 lakh had been deposited in her account through Ansari and Sons, a bogus firm believed to be formed by Joginder.

Dispute over dera land: 4 held
Our Correspondent

Sirsa, March 4
The dispute over the land of Dera Baba Bhuman Shah near village Sanghar Sadha took a new turn with the arrest of four persons, including the Chairman of the Dera Management Committee, followed by the arrest of yet another disciple who was their defence advocate under different sections of the IPC.

There is simmering anger among disciples of the dera over the police action. Mr Chaman Lal, Mr Sarvmitar Kamboj, advocate, Mr Daulat Ram, trustee of the dera, Mr Dev Raj, Mr Kashmir Chand, former minister Hajar Chand Kamboj told this correspondent yesterday that these arrests had been made in connection with an incident which occurred in November last year and an FIR for which was registered on February 20. The FIR had been registered in spite of the report of the Deputy Superintendent of Police, who conducted an inquiry and had found the allegations baseless.

The dera, situated 20 km away from Sirsa, is an ancient one which owns about 650 acres of highly fertile land out of which 250 acres of land is being cultivated by the Dera Bhuman Shah Chairtable Trust itself, according to the six representatives of the disciples who have sitting on a dharna on the disputed land for the past three days.

According to them Mahant Amar Nath, Chairman of the trust, who of late is living in Dehra Dun, had given 57 acres of the dera land to Satbir, a resident of Jind, on lease. This action annoyed the dera followers. The managers challenged the lease and the general power of attorney in a court of law. The Chairman of the Managing Committee of the dera also filed a case in the court for the land. The court has directed to maintain status quo and the Mahant to exercise restraint. They also alleged that even then the Mahant had not only leased the land but had also given a general power of attorney to Satbir.

When asked about the police action, they alleged that the role of the police was not impartial and it was ignoring the court directions just to fulfil directions from influential leaders of the present regime. They also alleged that this was being done because Satbir who got the so-called power of attorney in spite of courts order against it had further leased 43 acres of land to his son Lokesh. It is also alleged that about 95 acres of land has been leased to Krishan and Anup of the Modiakhera village who are close relatives of a powerful leader of the ruling party.

When contacted for the version of the police, the Superintendent of Police was not available in spite of repeated attempts. 

World farm scientists attend workshop
Our Correspondent

Hisar, March 4
Agronomists and weed scientists from America, England, Australia and India today converged at the local Haryana Agricultural University to participate in a workshop held to devise a strategy to deal effectively with phalaris minor weed which posed a threat to the rice-wheat cropping sequence in the Indo-Gangetic plains.

The workshop was to be inaugurated by the Vice-Chancellor, Mr Vinay Kumar, but the opening ceremony was curtailed due to state mourning following the death of Lok Sabha Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi. Copies of his address were circulated among the participants. The Vice-Chancellor expressed concern over the losses being caused by the herbicide-resistant phalaris minor to the wheat crop.

Presiding over the opening session, Mr Kerry Groves, First Secretary, Development Cooperation, Australian Embassy, gave a brief account the of Indo-Australian cooperation in the agricultural research. He said both countries enjoyed free flow of information on science and technology.

AMBALA DIARY
Exercise in diligence
Tribune News Service

Ambala, March 4
Himanshu Mittal, a student of DAV Public Senior Secondary School, Ambala Cantt, has prepared a scrapbook on Nobel laureates which were published in The Tribune.

Himanshu said he was inspired to prepare the scrapbook by his teacher, Ms Ranjana, and the scrapbook has now become one of his prized possessions. He began preparing the scrapbook from the first day when information on Nobel laureates was published in the The Tribune.

The scrapbook has information on the Nobel laureates from 1901 to 2001. Besides pasting the cuttings on one side of the page, Himanshu has written down additional information about the Nobel prize winner which was available on the other side. To get extra information, he used to spend time at the school library.

School Principal, Ms Dolly Jaitly, said maintaining a scrapbook is a learning experience. “Himanshu has diligently maintained the scrapbook and the information about the Nobel prize winners is definitely an inspiration for him as well for other students,” she said.

* * * * *

Students of class IX of Lord Mahavir Jain Public School bade farewell to the students of class X at a function organised at the school.

A cultural programme was presented by the students on the occasion and the students of class X were given gifts and titles by their juniors. While Shweta Sharma was selected “Miss class X Akshat was selected as “Mr class X. Priyanka Mittal and Arvind were first runners up in both categories. Pallavi Chhibber was given the award of best student for all round contribution and performance.

School principal Sudha Mathur, in her address to the students wished them a bright and prosperous future and advised them to fight the battle of life with courage and determination.

* * * * *

Citizens Council and Ambala Cantt Traders Federation has demanded that the district administration must take suitable steps regarding the deteriorating condition of Babyal road.

The council stated that the road had been linked with Jagadhri road and passes through Mahesh Nagar leading to Babyal and connects about 12 villages. The condition of the road is so bad that it is difficult to move on it on foot.

They stated that when the Municipal authorities, Ambala Sadar had been informed about it but they said the road was looked after by PWD authorities.

* * * * *

The literary society of MDSD Girls College, Ambala City, has won two trophies. While one trophy was won at the declamation contest held at SA Jain College, the other trophy was won at declamation contest held at Arya Kanya Mahavidyalaya, Shahbad.

Shivani and Geetika won first and second prizes, respectively, at the declamation contest held at SA Jain College. Pallavi and Neeraj won second and third prizes at Shahbad.

Deposit house tax by March 31: DC
Our Correspondent

Hisar, March 4
The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurag Rastogi, has asked local residents to deposit their house tax by March 31.

In a press note issued here today, he warned that the administration would display the list of defaulters at public places and main crossings of the town after the deadline. Besides, the municipal council would also take strict action against the defaulters.

He said the council would accept house tax at old rates as the recently held survey had been cancelled by it.

The council was unable to start development works in the town without the recovery of the house tax, he added.