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| Monday, June
10, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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BKU
leaders defy law, dare police ‘Illegal’
movement of BKU men: Cong to approach NHRC Govt
refusal to clear canals resented Rs 12 cr for repair of water courses Patient
fined, complaint against doctor dismissed |
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Sanskrit
training camp in progress 400 Dalits
embrace Buddhism Goldsmith’s death: DSP to conduct inquiry
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BKU leaders defy law, dare police Gulkani (Jind), June 9 Mr Ghasiram
Nain, president of the BKU in Haryana, who has been slapped with cases under the Arms Act, arson and other serious charges, today travelled more than 20 km in the open with his supporters to reach
Gulkani, the venue of a condolence meeting, from his “hideout” at
Kandela. “We came via Jind, our vehicle passed through the road by the side of the Jind Sadar police station”, said Mr Nain as he and his supporters broke into a bout of boisterous laughter.” If the police wants to arrest us, we, too, have our own soldiers to prevent any such attempt”, Mr Nain said. He said press reports had already indicated that he would take part in the meeting, but the police did not dare make any attempt to catch him. Evidently, the situation has vastly changed since June 1, when, fearing arrest, Mr Nain and other top BKU leaders, who are in the wanted list of the police, avoided coming to Gulkani and the neighbouring Rajpura Bhain villages where the bodies of the four BKU supporters killed in the police firing the previous day were cremated. Asked why he did not come to the cremation on June 1, Mr Nain replied that he did not come because he had to look after the arrangements at
Kandela. Mr Dharamvir Hooda, president of the Rohtak unit of the BKU, who, too, is in the wanted list of the police but has evaded arrest, said he and his supporters came in four vehicles. “From Rohtak we came to Julana and from Julana we came to Gulkani through Jind. The police does not have the guts to arrest us”, he said. According to the police, there are 39 BKU leaders, who have been declared as proclaimed offenders by the court. “Most of them are staying put at
Kandela”, said a senior police officer. Apparently, the police did not try to arrest them even as they passed right under the nose of the police at Jind because of the government stance transforming from aggression to reconciliation with the
BKU. Importantly, the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, who was supposed to come to Jind by road on June 2 for attending a Grievance Committee meeting, cancelled his visit at the last moment for undisclosed reasons. The cancellation, at least for the BKU supporters, is being linked to the BKU’s call for taking INLD legislators and ministers as hostages. “We had challenged him to pass through any of the roads where we have a support base”, Mr Nain stated. Mr Ajay
Chautala, who has been trying to mediate with the BKU, however, was in Jind yesterday in connection with a court case. He came by a route unaffected by the blockade. “Ajay Chautala came and went back surreptitiously”, Mr Nain said when asked about the visit by the INLD MP, to Jind yesterday. Interestingly, while visits by the INLD MLAs and ministers have been debarred by the
BKU, the Opposition Congress is not facing any such problem. The attitude of the BKU to the Congress now is in stark contrast to what happened in December when villagers of Kandela sent back Congress MLAs Mr Jai Parkash
Barwal, Mr Sher Singh and Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is also the President of the Congress in Haryana, when they went to sympathise with the villagers who had clashed with the police. The deaths of agitators in police firing and the popular grievance with Mr Chautala for not implementing what is known as the Kandela agreement seem to have brought a sea change in the attitude of the farmers of this area who were staunch INLD supporters till the other day. Today roads were cleared of the barricades of fallen trees for the Congress members’ cars to reach the venue of the meeting held to condole the deaths of the five BKU supporters. The red lights atop the cars had made a participant from Kandela furious who down when told that these cars belonged to Congress leaders. |
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‘Illegal’ movement of BKU men: Cong to approach NHRC Jind, June 9 Talking to TNS here today, Mr Hooda said the Congress would take up the matter of the illegal movement of two BKU leaders by the state administration with the National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC). He said the conduct of the Haryana Government regarding Mr Kandela and Mr Ghirana also amounted to contempt of court. “How can a government which indulges in such illegal activities ensure the safety and security of ordinary people”, Mr Hooda asked. Mr
Hooda, who had earlier taken part in a condolence meeting at Gulkani village to mourn the five BKU supporters killed in police firing and read Ms Sonia Gandhi’s message to the farmers there, said the Congress was gearing up for the rally being organised by it in Delhi in support of the farmers’ agitation in Haryana. He said the Congress would start a padayatra from Jind on June 11 which would reach Delhi in the evening of June 20. He said on June 21, the HPCC would organise a big rally in Delhi which would be attended by party supporters from all over Haryana. He said after the rally, the Congress supporters would meet the President of India and present a memorandum to him demanding a probe by the CBI into the incidents of police firing at the farmers and tampering of autopsy reports of the agitators killed in the firing. Mr Hooda was here in connection with the indefinite dharna being organised by the party in Jind, in support of the ongoing agitation by the BKU affecting primarily Jind, Rohtak and Kaithal districts. The sit-in, started by the Congress on June 3, reached its seventh day today. Mr Hooda said the state government had already shown that it had scant regard for the lives of farmers by firing at a peaceful assembly of farmers. He said the Congress would ensure that the incident of firing upon farmers by the government forces did not recur. |
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Govt refusal to clear canals resented Kaithal, June 9 According to information, the state government decision has made the desilting and cleaning of canals and other water channels difficult. The Engineer-in-Chief of the state Irrigation Department has issued instructions to all Chief Engineers and the Superintending Engineers in the state that the length of 3 km upstream of tail-ends is not to be cleared by the department and such portions be kept for clearance by the farmers. This fact came to light recently when some local farmers met the officers of the Irrigation Department and demanded the clearance of the water channels choked with the wild growth to ensure better supply of canal water to their fields for kharif crops. The affected farmers here and at other places have questioned the logic behind the decision. Some of them, talking to this correspondent said it was most unfortunate that they were being discriminated against. On the one hand they were not getting canal water for irrigation of their fields and on the other the authorities concerned were not ready to take up the cleanliness of water channels. Some farmers said if the top officials of Irrigation Department did not change their attitude, they would be forced to file a public interest litigation in this regard. Department sources said the department continued to face shortage of beldars who are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the canal system. They said in the state, hundreds of beldars and mates had retired from service but no fresh recruitment had been made for the past more than 10 years and this had made the desilting and cleaning difficult. At some places the problem of growth of jalkhumbi and other wild grass has aggravated the problem and the water channels remained partially choked, affecting water supply to tail-end villages. The department has evolved a rather strange strategy to deal with this problem. To carry out the annual cleaning of canals and water channels before kharif season, labour is employed. Rather than putting more men on the job, they have increased the length of canal to be cleared by each labourer. According to information, the officials working in the fields have taken strong exception to this move. They have pointed out that it was impossible to achieve this target and as a result of this the desilting and cleaning would be adversely affected, which would invite strong protest from the farmers. According to information received from various districts, the department has not yet started the cleaning of canals and drains this year in the state, which will not only affect the running of canals for irrigation but may also create havoc in case of floods. |
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Rs 12 cr for repair of water courses Chandigarh, June 9 The Chief Minister was presiding over a meeting covened here yesterday to review flood control works. It was decided at the meeting to earmark Rs 12 crore for the repair of lined water courses in the districts of Rohtak, Sonepat, Bhiwani, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Rewari, Narnaul, Jind and Hisar. These water courses were damaged due to heavy rainfall and floods during 1995-96 and 1998. |
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Patient
fined, complaint against doctor dismissed Kaithal, June 9 Mohinder Pal of Kalayat fractured two bones of his right leg in a road accident on March 19, 1998. He was admitted to Jindal Dental and Orthopaedic Clinic, Kaithal, the same day. The orthopaedic Surgeon, Dr R. K. Jindal, plastered the leg. Mohinder Pal dissatisfied with the treatment went to Dr Vijay Gupta, a surgeon of Karnal. He filed a complaint against Dr
R.K. Jindal and demanded a compensation of Rs 2 lakh alleging deficiency in service. The affidavit filed by Dr Gupta before the forum stated that the treatment given by Dr Jindal was the best under the circumstances. The forum dismissed the complaint and imposed the fine. |
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Sanskrit
training camp in progress Bhiwani, June 9 Addressing a press conference here today, an All-India training chief of Sanskrit Bharti, Mr Janardan Hegde, said nearly 6,000 training camps were held by the Sanskrit Bharti every year in the country in order to popularise it as a public language. The students studying in colleges and schools were trained to converse using simple words of Sanskrit language, he said. The state convener, Dr Surender Mohan Mishra, told that 29 teachers, 91 students, besides 50 local residents were being trained at this camp. |
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400 Dalits embrace
Buddhism Kurukshetra, June 9 It is for the first time that such a large-scale conversion has taken place in Haryana. Since Kurukshetra is considered to be a religious and historical town settled in the epic age, leaders of the higher Hindu castes here are perturbed over this socio-religious development.
UNI |
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Goldsmith’s death: DSP to conduct inquiry Ambala, June 9 Mr Manoj Yadava, SP said, “The inquiry will go into different aspects of the case, including the alleged beating up of the victim,” he said. Mr Yadava said ASI Janak Singh had been put under suspension and transferred to the Police Lines. |
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