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Thursday,
January 9, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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INLD for nationalisation of SYL canal Domestic violence: opinions
divided overgender lines ‘Long-term plans’ required for farmers Forum seeks train halt at Kurukshetra
Multipurpose hall project comes a cropper |
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Official caught taking bribe 5 held under Wildlife Act HIGH COURT Schools
closed for 3 days
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INLD for nationalisation of SYL canal Chandigarh, January 8 Mr Om Prakash Chautala, Chief Minister of Haryana, has been harping on the demand of nationalisation of rivers since he became the Chief Minister. According to INLD functionaries here, the task force was constituted by the Centre as a result of the initiative taken by Mr Chautala in this regard. A senior INLD leader also went on to claim that a task force has been already constituted by the Centre in this regard. However, when contacted officials of the Indus Commission in Delhi denied any such move. Any action by the Centre on the SYL issue will come handy for the ruling party of Haryana which has expressed surprise at the Congress decision to hold a demonstration in front of the Prime Minister’s residence in Delhi on January 15 to press the Centre for completion of the canal. Mr Sampat Singh, Finance Minister of Haryana, said the agitational programme in front of PM’s residence was being held by the Congress “too soon”. “The Supreme Court had asked the Punjab Government to complete the canal by January 14 and in case Punjab was found reluctant to do the work, Centre was asked to step in for construction of the canal. Therefore the Congress should have given seven to eight months’ time to the Centre and if still the Union Government was found reluctant to take up the work, agitation could have been launched against the inaction”, he said. Significantly, the Congress decision to stick to its announcement of holding the demonstration on January 15 and, to boycott the all-party meeting called by Mr Chautala on January 14, has thrown into disarray Mr Chautala attempt to seize the initiative in the issue. Mr Sampat Singh engaged himself in an attempt to salvage the INLD’s position on the SYL issue and asked why the HPCC was silent when the onus was on the Congress Government of Punjab to construct the canal. “The Punjab Government cannot complete the canal by the deadline any more now, but they can at least start the work”, he said and added that if Mr Bhajan Lal, HPCC chief, holds a dharna in front of the Punjab Chief Minister’s house on this issue, INLD workers will also participate. On criticisms by Mr Bansi Lal, leader of the HVP and a former Chief Minister and Mr Karan Singh Dalal, Republican Party of India legislator and a former minister, who also ridiculed the idea of holding of an all party meeting by Mr Chautala on the SYL issue now, and said that even during the earlier meeting held in August, they had suggested meeting the Prime Minister regarding the issue, the Finance Minister argued that the decision taken in the August meeting to give a memorandum to the Governor of Punjab was correct. He said at that time it was upon the Punjab Government to construct the canal and therefore it was decided to urge the Governor, the constitutional head of the government, to persuade the Congress Government of the state to abide by the court’s order. “Now it is time to approach the Prime Minister as the deadline for construction of the canal by the Punjab Government will be over on January 14”, he said. |
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Domestic violence: opinions
divided over Chandigarh, January 8 These questions were raised at a national seminar on “Domestic Violence — Dimensions, Implications and Legal Contours”, organised by the Haryana Police here today. The opinions were divided along gender and age lines. The younger group represented by Ms Swati Mehta, Research and Advocacy Officer, Lawyers Collective; and Ms Anuradha Ranjan of the International Centre for Research on Women, demanded stringent laws to take care of domestic violence against women because only “such laws act as a deterrent”. The other side represented by Dr Vijay Nagpal, Reader, Department of Law(DOL), Panjab
University (PU); Mr K.J. Singh, Additional Director-General of Police, ITBP; Mr S.P. Sharma, Commissioner, Women and Child Development, Haryana; Mr R.S. Cheema, senior advocate of the Punjab and Haryana High Court; Dr Bal Krishan, Head, DOL, PU; and Ms Preeti Chawla, Vice-Chairman of the Haryana Women Commission, among others, was for evolving some sort of community mechanism to deal with domestic violence so that the family structure was not harmed by external intervention. Ms Mehta, who made a critical assessment of the Protection From Domestic Violence Bill, 2002, said women victims of domestic violence could get justice only if a “single window” approach was adopted. Instead of a victim seeking justice from courts on various aspects like maintenance, custody of children and right to stay in the marital home under different Acts and laws, her problems should be tackled by one comprehensive law. She said what justice could be expected from panchayats when these institutions had themselves become perpetrators of violence against women, as reports from interiors of many States indicated. Dr Nagpal was of the view that the proposed law, if enacted, would cause more problems to the women, particularly who were economically dependant upon their husbands or those who were totally illiterate or those who belonged to the low income group of society. Mr K.P. Singh, DIG, CID, Haryana, while speaking on “domestic violence, nature, scope and police problems”, said there were ample provisions in the criminal law to deal with domestic violence. But the police faced several problems, like non-reporting of violence by victims and unavailability of public witnesses, in investigating such cases. He said presumption against perpetrators of domestic violence should be created in law to overcome such problems. Minimising the role of the police in the proposed civil law, Mr K.P. Singh said until all types of social, economic and personal securities were provided in the law itself, it was meaningless “to craft such a law just to have a law”. Mr R.N. Prashar, Commissioner, Transport, Haryana; and Mr Rajan Gupta, IG, Punjab Police, did not agree with Mr K.P. Singh and said the police involvement in cases of domestic violence was unavoidable. Mr Prashar said even in countries like the USA, the preferred method to check domestic violence was considered to be the arrest of the perpetrator. Mr D.M. Mitra, Deputy Director, Bureau of Police Research and Development; regretted that society sometimes considered violence to be the solution of all problems. Ms Ranjan regretted that there was widespread acceptance of domestic violence. Even 58 per cent women perceived abuse within marriage as normal and they felt that only the extreme cases of domestic violence merited external intervention. She also regretted that the legislation in India was not based on women’s real experience of violence they had to undergo. In his keynote address, the Director of the Institute of Social Sciences, Delhi, Mr Shankar Sen, said it was being felt that the acts of violence against children and wives were being committed by the head of the family to maintain the rule of authority within the house. Domestic violence against women was hampering the economic growth and affecting the progress of society. Mr Sen also stressed the need for rationale use of Section 498-A of the IPC. While amending this Section, supportive services like conditions in government shelter houses and police stations should also be upgraded. The Director-General of Haryana Police, Mr M.S. Malik, said just as the charity began at home so did the violence. The Haryana police had introduced a village adoption scheme under which a woman police officer would visit families to redress their grievances by counselling. Mr V.K. Kapoor, former Additional Director-General of the Haryana police, said subcontinental mindset was feudal, ethnic and tribal which considered a woman as property. Mr K. Koshy, Director, Haryana Vigilance Bureau, said the legal recourse to check domestic violence should be the last resort. Dr Ranbeer Singh, Director, National School of Law, Hyderabad, said instead of importing western concepts, indigenous law should be evolved to deal with domestic violence. Mr Om Thanvi, Editor of Jansatta, Ms Vimla Mehra, Joint Commissioner, Delhi Police, and a former Professor of Psychology, Panjab University, Ms Vidhu Mohan, also spoke. Mr Cheema regretted that the Bill was poorly drafted. He pleaded for going back to our cultural roots to check domestic violence. Mr B.R. Lal, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Haryana Police Housing Corporation, said unless a law was to be enforced strictly by the police and the judiciary, it was better not to enact such a law. Prof Veer Singh, DOL, PU, said domestic violence was not wife-centric alone. It could be directed against children, elderly persons and even domestic help. Mr Kashmir Singh Rana, I.G., Law and Order, Himachal Police, highlighted various schemes introduced by the police for the welfare of women. Earlier, inaugurating the seminar, the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, said a law to check domestic violence would be enacted during the next session of the state Assembly. He also released a book, “Manvadhikar Evm Police Tantra”, written by Dr Deepa Singh and Mr K.P. Singh. In his valedictory address the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mr Justice B.K. Roy, said the spectrum of domestic violence was very wide. It was a social problem which required a very delicate handling. |
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‘Long-term plans’ required for farmers Fatehabad, January 8 Mr Ranjit Singh said while the farmers in Punjab and Haryana had brought agricultural production on par with their counterparts in countries like California but the cost of production in India was much higher. He said in countries like California the rate of interest was 4 per cent and power tariff was 0.60p per unit while in India, the costs were highly prohibitive. He said the total consumption of wheat in
India was 240 crore metric tonnes per year but the production was well over 650 crore metric tonnes. He said due to lack of vision and planning on part of policy makers, the government had been spending huge amounts on the storage of buffer stocks of foodgrains. He said markets abroad had been rejecting the foodgrains produced in our country as these were of inferior quality. He said in the next few years the farmers would find no takers for their produce as the government godowns would be overflowing with grains. Mr Ranjit Singh said what was needed today was not politicking in the name of farmers but devising long term plans for farmers. Having a dig at the Haryana Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala, Mr Ranjit Singh said the Chief Minister advocated the farming of fruits and flowers during his public meetings. But perhaps, the Chief Minister was not aware that one needed immense infrastructure like greenhouses and cold storage chain for horticulture and floriculture, which was not possible for our poor farmers to arrange, he added. He said that though India produced 23 per cent of total rice in the world against 2 per cent by Japan but the rice produced in Japan fetched six times higher price than the Indian rice due to its superior quality. He said for farmers to compete in the world market, the planners would have to think of improving the quality and reducing the cost of production. He said unless scientific methods were adopted to improve the quality of agricultural produce, the farmers in our country were destined to a bleak future. |
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Forum seeks train halt at Kurukshetra Kurukshetra, January 8 Mr Virk said the general public also had to face difficulty due to this problem. The unavailability of trains was against the policy of the government which was planning to spend cross for the development of this ancient historical holy city for tourism purposes. The meeting unanimously resolved to urge upon the Union Railway Minister to look into the matter and consider the demand of senior citizens for ordering the stoppage of all mail and express trains at Kurukshetra railway junction. Mr Virk said the trains would provide proper transport facilities to the tourists, in particular, who come to visit this holy city of Mahabharata to have holy dips in sacred sarovers, besides promoting tourism here in accordance with the policy of India, Ministry of Tourism. This would also help in raising the revenue to the Railway Ministry, the resolution added. Mr Virk further said the Forum had also dispatched its request in this connection to the Union Railway Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar. |
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Multipurpose hall project comes a cropper Ambala, January 8 The Guru Gobind Singh multi-purpose hall project would have fulfilled the need of Ambala Cantt residents for a spacious air-conditioned area where a variety of events could be held. Guru Gobind Singh’s birth anniversary falls tomorrow. The foundation stone for the Rs 1 crore project was laid on August 3, 2000. The hall was to come up on a piece of land next to the fire brigade building on the Jagadhari road. Following the delay, a piece of cloth has been strung up on the foundation stone. The local MLA, Mr Anil Vij, said the hall was named after Guru Gobind Singh as during that period the tercentenary year of the inception of Khalsa was being observed. “We named the hall after Guru Gobind Singh as a mark of respect to the great guru,” he said. “The multi-purpose hall was to be constructed by the Municipal Council, Ambala Sadar. While a part of the money was to be arranged by selling off property, the remaining amount was to be managed on a self-support basis,” he said. “I have already raised the issue of starting work on the project at the earliest during the “sarkar apke dwar” programme,” he added. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr D.D. Gautam, said the funds for the Guru Gobind Singh multi-purpose hall project were awaited. The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee member, Mr S. Niddar, stated that the work on the prestigious project should start soon. “It is unfortunate that more than two years have elapsed since the foundation stone was laid for the Guru Gobind Singh multi-purpose hall project,” he said. Mr B.S. Bindra, general secretary of the Ambala Kendriya Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee, said the hall should have been completed by now. “We offered to undertake the project as Municipal Council, Ambala Sadar, is facing a fund problem,” he said. “We have already twice demanded from the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, that the project be started at the earliest but to no avail,” he added. Mr Bindra said it was an important project and the auditorium would have been specially beneficial for the city residents. |
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Official caught taking bribe Ambala, January 8 According to information, the owner of Prakash Oil Store, Shashi Pal, filed a complaint with SP, Vigilance, Ambala, that an officer of the Ambala Food and Supply Department, Mr Madan Gopal, had been demanding Rs 2,000 to give him a clean chit on the raid conducted on his oil depot on December 22. The SP constituted a raiding party, the tehsildar of Ambala, accompanied the raiding party as executive magistrate. This morning, as soon as Shashi Pal handed over Rs 2,000 to the official the raiding party nabbed the official red-handed and recovered the amount. Last week, the bureau had arrested an ASI of the Naringarh police station for taking a bribe of Rs 1,400 from ex-police personnel. |
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5 held under Wildlife Act Kurukshetra, January 8 Fatehabad, District Wildlife Inspector, Satpal Singh, along with his team, while on patrol detected five snake-charmers with three pythons, near Dharamshala road here. They told the Wildlife team that they had caught these pythons from the Sabalpur forests in Raaokalan District in Orissa state two months ago and had come here to earn livelihood by entertaining people . The Wildlife Department, Fatehabad registered a case under Sections 9, 39 and 40 of the Indian Wildlife Act against Orissa snake-charmers, Gareebo Podadar, Gulshan Munda, Ravi Podadar, Zamindaar Munda and Ram Dass. The Environment Court ordered the release of three pythons to reserve forests near Pehowa,
Seonsar. |
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HIGH COURT Chandigarh, January 8 The directions were issued on a petition filed by the Indian Oil Corporation against the state of Haryana and other respondents. The Corporation, in its petition, had sought adequate security against blockade of roads by villagers, besides the maintenance of law and order. |
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Schools
closed for 3 days Sirsa, January 8 Three persons, have reportedly died of cold so far. According to the District Education Officer, Mr D.D. Verma, schools in the districts were being closed in compliance of the orders of the Deputy Commissioner. |
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Reader suspended Kurukshetra, January 8 |
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