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Monday,
September 2, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Kataria to stay state BJP chief Bhajan for work on
SYL canal Chautala inaugurates vocational institute Rice belt farmers fear inadequate relief Drought hits traders too Employees oppose govt policies |
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Matter will be taken with
Army top brass: MLA R.R. Jowel transferred Mob sets afire liquor shops 
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Kataria to stay state BJP chief Chandigarh, September 1 The all-India BJP Vice-President, Dr Harsh Vardhan, who looks after the party affairs in Haryana, today described the reports suggesting a change in the leadership as “absurd and nonsense”. Dr Vardhan was talking to newsmen at Panipat after a joint meeting of all front organisations of the party. He went to the extent of saying that “who is Mr Om Prakash Chautala to take a decision about the BJP affairs. It is for our party high command to take such decisions. Mr Kataria will continue as the Haryana BJP chief. He is working hard to strengthen the party.” According to party sources, the atmosphere at the meeting, which was the first of its kind in Haryana, was surcharged. Several workers complained that though the Chautala Government was receiving financial aid from the Centre, the entire credit was being cornered by the INLD. They urged Dr Vardhan to ensure that no BJP union minister should visit the state without the concurrence of the Haryana unit of the party. The leaders complained to Dr Vardhan that yesterday Mr Chautala inaugurated a drinking water supply scheme near Ambala, which was constructed with the funds provided by NABARD. But no BJP leader, even the party President, who represented Ambala in the Lok Sabha, was invited to the function. They said they had no objection to the party’s support to the Chautala Government because the INLD was a part of the NDA. But the BJP high command should not ignore the state unit. Meanwhile, a meeting of the Haryana BJP Legislature Party will be held here tomorrow under the chairmanship of Mr
Kataria.
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Bhajan for work on
SYL canal Yamunanagar, September 1 Addressing a public meeting here today, he said the President should dismiss the Gujarat Government and Governor’s rule should be imposed for the conduct of free and fair elections. Mr Narender Modi should be remove as Chief Minister of Gujarat because he had violated the code of conduct by criticising the office of the Election Commission, he said. Mr Raj Kumar Saini, former Minister from Naraingarh and Mr Manphool Singh, former MLA, joined the Congress today. He said if the Congress came to power in Haryana, all retrenched employees, including police department staffers, would be taken back, even if the law had to be amended for it. |
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Chautala inaugurates vocational institute Bhiwani, September 1 The Chief Minister announced on the occasion that the government had decided to start computer education in all colleges and 1,000 government schools in the state. The computer education had already been started in 400 schools. The government had also introduced English language from class one and computer education from class six in all schools in the rural areas. He said technical education was also being given special boost in the state and during the past three years the number of vocational training institutions and other technical institutions had increased from 58 to 196. The student strength in these institutions had increased to 24,000 from 9,000. He informed that the Vocational Training Institute in Chang village would start training in five trades from September 2. Mr Chautala also agreed to the demands of the local MLA, Mr Shahi Parmar, regarding initiation of various developmental works in and around the village. He also honoured the kho-kho team of Sya village which had achieved the number two position at the national level and had been number one at the state level thrice. Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated State Educational Management and Training Institution in Bhiwani which has been constructed at a cost of Rs 1.45 crore. |
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Rice belt farmers fear inadequate relief Karnal, September 1 Source told the Tribune that the special Girdawari held by department of Agriculture for assessing the damage to the paddy crop due to drought condition has shown that the “kharaba” i.e. damage was to the maximum extent of 5 per cent in these areas. This extent of this damage does not fall in the “kharaba” percentage fixed by the government for payment of drought compensation. The farmers here are sore that while they have put in higher investment for keeping the green look of the state, they would not enjoy its fruit. Official sources point out that the extent of drought damage during the special girdawari has been found to be between 80 per cent in the district of Bhiwani, Fatehabad, Hisar, Jhajjar, Riwari etc. Therefore, the main amount of compensation will be distributed among the farmers in these areas. On the other hand the farmers in the rice belt have spent about Rs 3,000 per acre more as additional cost of production of paddy crop. This fact was also pointed out by some deputy commissioners at a meeting of DCs held recently in Chandigarh. A survey conducted by the Agriculture department has revealed that pits of about 2000 tubewells have been lowered in this area. This has cost the farmers more. Furher, the paddy production per acre is likely to be lesser than usual. |
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Drought hits traders too Fatehabad, September
1 But things have not been the same this year. His business returns have fallen considerably. The sales are down to less than 25 per cent of last year. Under these conditions, he is finding it difficult to bear routine business expenses.
Pawan Kumar’s is not an isolated case. The drought conditions this year have affected the business in this town. The customers in the market, particularly the rural ones, have become a rarity. The economy of this district is predominantly agricultural. According to the last census, 87 per cent of the population of this district lives in villages. They are dependent on agriculture for their living. The industry in this district too is predominantly agriculture based, mostly oil and rice mills. The recent drought has broken the backbone of the farming community. While the crops of farmers whose lands are situated on the northern side of the National Highway Number 10 passing through this town, have been saved to some extent due to facilities of canal and tubewell water, those situated on the southern side have been badly affected. Tubewell are a rarity in these areas as water table is very low in this area. Crops in this belt have been almost totally damaged, making the plight of farmers miserable. Refusal by the grain market traders to advance more money to the farmers has made the position of the farmers all the more difficult. The traders have their own share of problems. Due to the failure of cotton crops in the late nineties, many traders had been ruined as they had advanced too much to the farmers and it was not possible to recover the money. Some traders of the local grain market had even fled, leaving their creditors in the lurch. The cash-starved farmers have been forced to sell gold ornaments of their womenfolk. A jeweller confirmed that the number of farmers coming to him to sell their family ornaments had been on the rise. Not a day passes when he does not receive a farmer coming to sell gold ornaments. The poor business in the area has also affected the collection of the agents of the wholesale markets of Delhi, who come here on weekly basis to collect payments of the goods supplied. Local businessmen rue that if the state of affairs continue for some more time, many of them would have to close their businesses. They say that while the government provided relief to the farmers whose crops were destroyed by natural calamities, there was no provision of any relief for the businessmen although they too have been suffering because of the same reason. |
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Employees oppose govt policies Jind, September 1 Criticising the government policies of privatisation, retrenchment, and lockouts, the announcement for the second stage of the agitation was made at the rally. Mr Dhara Singh, president of the Haryana Karamchari Mahasangh and leader of the joint action committee, said in the second phase of the agitation, protest meetings in all offices of the Haryana Government would be held from September 9 to 11. There would be a pen-down strike for two hours on September 18 and on October 2, all MLAs would be given charters of demand, and there would be a strike on October 17. In today’s rally a resolution was passed demanding the reinstatement of the employees of HSMITC, Small Scale Industries and Export Corporation, Confed and Municipal Council, Faridabad, and their adjustment in other departments, ban on rationalisation in the Education Department, abolition of the contract system, grant of autonomy to universities, adequate rise in salaries and allowances, regularisation of the services of daily wage workers and temporary employees, removal of anomalies in the pay scales, filling of the vacant posts, and revival of trade union rights. |
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Matter will be taken with
Army top brass: MLA Ambala, September 1 Mr Anil Vij said that an FIR had been registered in the case. “I have learnt that senior Army officers, including the Station Commander, visited the spot today,” he said. He said a telegram was sent to the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, last night. “We are preparing a complete report and this will be submitted to senior Army authorities. We demand that prompt action must be taken against the erring Army and CRPF men,” he said. Mr Vij said the matter was being taken up with senior Army authorities so that in future the Army did not try to take the law into its own hands, particularly within civilian areas. “We want to stress that there should be harmony between the Army and the civilians,” he said. The Superintendent of Police, Ambala, Mr Manoj Yadav said an FIR had been lodged in the case. “We are investigating and no arrest has been made so far,” he said. A senior Army officer said the incident concerns purely A-1 army land. Nobody else has got jurisdiction over any sort of activity over the Army land,” he said. |
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R.R. Jowel transferred Chandigarh, September 1 Mr Sunil Ahuja, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Science and Technology Department, has been given additional charge as Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Revenue and Consolidation Department. Mr Chander Singh, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Finance and Excise and Taxation Departments, has been given additional charge of the post of Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Planning and 20-point Programme Departments, following the retirement of Mr Virender Nath yesterday. Mr R.R. Jowel, Commissioner, Hisar division, Hisar, has been transferred as Special Secretary, Housing Department, relieving Mrs Jaiwanti Sheokand of the said charge. |
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Mob sets afire liquor shops Kaithal, September 1 Villagers from Mansa headed to the shop of M/s Satpal and Co, at Pehowa Chowk here. They manhandled the staff before going on the rampage. The police arrived on the scene after the damage was done. The mob retaliated to the beating up of Ram Diya, an elderly man of Manas by the staff of the liquor contractor on Friday following an altercation over driving in the village. It is reported that the victim was injured and he had to be shifted to the PGI, Rohtak. |
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