 |
Tuesday,
January 14, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Centre may be urged to step in Judicial intervention is the key Cong hits back at CM
on SYL Ajay backs Kalam’s
river water policy Be pro-active, CM tells panches MC president issue gains momentum |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Non-functional lights causing mishaps Railway Ground to be upgraded
‘Democracy must be restored in Nepal’
|
|
Centre may be urged to step in Chandigarh, January 13 The so-called all-party meeting will be boycotted by the main Opposition party in the Vidhan Sabha, the Congress, as well as certain other opposition parties like the HVP of former Chief Minister Bansi Lal and the RPI. The meeting will primarily be attended by leaders of the ruling INLD and its supporting party, the BJP, and the Independent MLAs supporting the government. Official sources, however, claim that Mr Jagjit Singh Sangwan of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has also sent his consent to attend the meeting. The proposed resolution is based on a phrase used by the apex court in its judgement delivered on January 15, 2002. In the judgement the court said Punjab should construct the canal within one year of the date of the judgement. In case Punjab failed to complete the canal, the Centre should complete the canal “as expeditiously as possible”. Experts in the Haryana Government argue that by any logical explanation “as expeditiously as possible” cannot be construed as a time-frame exceeding one year given by the apex court to Punjab to complete the canal. The leaders attending the meeting tomorrow also may decide to send a delegation under the leadership of Mr Chautala to call upon the Prime Minister personally to seek his intervention in the matter. Meanwhile, bolstered by the high command’s rebuff to the dissidents, who wanted to hold a parallel programme, the Bhajan Lal group, which is holding reins of the Haryana Congress, is going ahead with preparations for a massive demonstration in Delhi on the SYL issue on January 15 with renewed energy. The removal of the President of the Karnal DCC, Mr Kuldip Sharma, at this juncture by Mr Bhajan Lal points to the confidence the former Chief Minister has gained after the high command deciding to act tough on the faction-ridden Haryana Congress. It seems the high command has taken a decision to back Mr Bhajan Lal to the hilt in his fight against the dissidents. It is a sea change on the part of the high command, which seemed to ignore similar activities of Mr Bhajan Lal when Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda was leading the party in Haryana. In the face of the tough stand of the high command, it may not be possible for several senior Haryana Congress leaders, who are otherwise not favourably disposed towards Mr Bhajan Lal, to dissociate themselves from the January 15 programme. Of course, their participation in the Delhi demonstration may be symbolic. In a statement issued here today Mr Krishan Murti Hooda, a spokesman of the Haryana Congress, said all those who were criticising Mr Bhajan
Lal for the Delhi programme were doing so only for “opposition sake and to get political mileage”. He said the SYL issue concerned the entire State and the canal would not benefit a particular area alone. The party plans to organise a rally at Ramlila Grounds, Delhi, on January 15 before a delegation will try to meet the Prime Minister. Mr Bhajan Lal’s announcement of the Delhi rally, believed to be the brainchild of the former Haryana Congress President, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala, at Jhajjar on December 29 last took the Chief Minister by surprise. For once, Mr Chautala seemed to be lagging behind his political opponents in setting the political agenda in the state. It was only after Mr Bhajan Lal’s announcement that Mr Chautala convened the all-party meeting. Again it was only when Mr Bansi Lal said that if the Congress wanted to stage a dharna on the SYL issue, it should do so outside the residence of Mrs Sonia Gandhi and not of the Prime Minister, that Mr Chautala picked up the thread to criticise Mr Bhajan Lal on the venue of the proposed dharna and demonstration. |
|
|
Judicial intervention is the key Chandigarh, January 13 “This is due to our lack of conviction in the rule of law. Unfortunately, everyone thinks that the law can be circumvented”, an official of the Haryana Irrigation Department lamented. Mr Sampat Singh, Finance Minister of Haryana, who is a strong votary of the point of view that judicial intervention is the only way to solve the vexed problem, however, cited the Supreme Court’s recent success in resolving the water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to underscore that the SYL issue could be solved through the court. The political class of Haryana on the whole has not objected to settling the issue through litigation. Two legislators, however, recently protested when Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala turned down his Punjab counterpart’s call for holding talks on the SYL canal. Mr Karan Singh Dalal of the Republican Party of India and Mr Dharam Vir of the Congress did not openly advocate the holding of talks on the issue but said that before rejecting Mr Amarinder Singh’s offer, Mr Chautala should have consulted members of the Opposition as well. Reacting to Mr Dalal and Mr Dharam Vir’s objections, Mr Sampat Singh said that talks at this juncture could only dampen the prospect of completion of the canal. “The future generations would not forgive us if we mess up the issue now by holding talks with Punjab”, he said and added that the political settlements that took place between Punjab and Haryana earlier on water-sharing and completion of the SYL canal had not benefited the state. As the one-year deadline set by the Supreme Court for the Punjab Government to complete the canal expires on Wednesday, the ball would now pass to the Central Government which had been asked by the court to take up construction of the canal in case Punjab did not build it within the stipulated time. The obvious question doing rounds here is whether the Centre will be willing to take up the work in right earnest since the assignment is bound to spark protests in Punjab, from the Akalis who are a partner in the Union Government. Sources in the Haryana Advocate General’s office said they would be able to make an assessment about the Centre’s attitude when it would file its reply to the court on the issue of completion of the canal. The court, following an application moved by Haryana, had slapped notices on both Punjab and Union Governments asking them to file replies to Haryana’s charges. The case was being expected to come up for hearing sometime in February. Official sources here, however, added that even before February, they would get to know about the Centre’s action plan on the SYL canal if the all-party meeting here tomorrow, convened by Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, decided for a meeting with the Prime Minister to urge him to initiate work on the canal. “Depending on the feedback from the Centre, we would decide whether we should start further litigation for resolving the issue”, the sources said. It is, however, learnt that till date there has not been any preparation by the centre for stepping in the case even though it was clear that Punjab would not complete work on the canal. The inertia, according to Haryana Government sources here, is natural as all these days the responsibility was on the Punjab Government to build the canal. Official sources added that though the apex court had not specify any timeframe for the Centre to complete the canal, it was asked to finish the work “as expeditiously as possible”. |
|
Cong hits back at CM
on SYL Hisar, January 13 Addressing media-persons here Mr Kuldeep Singh Bishnoi, son of the president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, Mr Bhajan Lal, said after January 15, the deadline fixed by the apex court, the ball would be in the court of the NDA government. He further said when the HPCC was doing the same protesting in front of the Prime Minister’s residence in New Delhi, Mr Chautala was criticising the Congress. Mr Chautala had failed to put pressure on the NDA government on the issue, he alleged. Mr Bishnoi added that the central leadership of the BJP was favouring Punjab’s interest on the SYL issue as it had no strong base in Haryana. He said if the NDA government did not respond positively then the state unit of the Congress would stage a dharna at the Rajghat and launch a “jail bharo” agitation. |
|
|
Ajay backs Kalam’s
river water policy Sirsa, January 13 Mr Ajay Chautala, while welcoming President Abdul Kalam’s suggestion given at the Governors’ conference, said he himself had raised the issue so many times in the Parliament. He said some states had faced floods during rains. While others did not have water even for drinking. This imbalance was the root cause of various disputes, he added, and emphasised on the need of a national-level water policy so that each state could get the minimum required share of water. With the regard to SYL, the INLD youth leader said the Punjab Government should honour the decision of the Supreme Court Later addressing Jain followers at the local Jain school he announced a grant of Rs 10 lakh from his MP quota for the construction of anuvarta bhavan at Bhiwani. On the occasion he honoured Jain activists for their significant contribution in the field of health, education and other social activities. Those who were honoured are Dr Ramesh Aggarwal Podiatrist from Hisar, Mrs Madhu Jain, Mr Santosh Chander Gupta, Mr Raghunath Priyadarshi, Mr Rajeev Goyal, Mrs Heera Devi Pareek and Mr Shiv Kumar Gupta. On the occasion Dr Seeta Ram, MLA, Dabwali, Dr Darminder Nath, president, Delhi unit, Mr Surinder Jain, president, Haryana unit, Mr Padam Jain, president of the local municipal council, and Mr Lila Krishan Mehta, chairman, Improvement Trust, here were also present. |
|
|
Be pro-active, CM tells panches Kaithal, January 13 The Chief Minister stated this while addressing the panches and sarpanches in a sammelan organised here last evening to secure the participation of the masses in the functioning of the state government. He asked them to keep aside their political differences of opinions and cooperate with the state government in accelerating the pace of the development process and act as a link between the rural masses and the administration. To realise the dream of Devi Lal to develop the rural sector on a par with the urban areas, various schemes had been initiated for the overall development of the rural areas and the PRIs had been adequately empowered to involve the rural people in the development process. Mr Chautala also announced an award of Rs 5 lakh for a panchayat for its outstanding performance at the district level and a similar award of 10 lakh for the panchayats at the state level. He said the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal would be completed during the next year, adding that he would impress upon the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, to handover the canal work to some other agency in case the Punjab Government failed to carry out the work. The people of Haryana would definitely get water from SYL canal and would be able to irrigate over 7.5 lakh acres of land. He exhorted the panches and sarpanches not to be misled by the false propaganda of some people with vested interests and focus their attention only on the development and welfare of the rural people. He said soon after assuming office, his government had got the elections to the PRIs conducted in a fair and peaceful manner. The PRIs had been empowered adequately with administrative and financial powers as the policy of the government was to decentralise power. |
|
MC president issue gains momentum Ambala, January 13 The parishad seems to be running out of patience with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “lack of response” over the issue. The Ambala Cantonment MLA and Vikas Parishad chief, Mr Anil Vij, today said the parishad had set January 15 as the deadline over the MC president issue. “We have been waiting for a satisfactory reply from the BJP, but there has been a lack of effective response,” he said. “We will hold our meeting after January 15 to decide over the next course of action. After this deadline lapses, we will not hesitate to exercise any one of the democratic options,” Mr Vij stated. Mr Vij said no BJP functionary till date had been able to state clearly when the process of change of guard would take place. “The activity being undertaken now by the BJP should have taken place before December 31, he said. He said the MC president, Pandit Shankar Dass, had already been reminded of the agreement but he passed on the responsibility to the BJP mandal president. The BJP mandal president said he would talk to his superiors in the party. “We have already referred the issue to mediators in the agreement,” he said. However, the BJP Ambala Cantonment mandal general secretary, Mr Shubhadesh Mittal, said the issue had already been referred to senior functionaries. “Our seniors are currently busy with the Panchkula elections,” he said. Mr Mittal said a meeting of municipal councillors would be held very soon to deliberate over the issue. “Meeting is going to take place after January 19. Let me stress we are not opposing the agreement which we had entered into,” he said. |
|
|
Non-functional lights causing mishaps Ambala, January 13 Vehicles heading towards Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Punjab use this road. Thousands of vehicles pass through this road daily. Moreover, hundreds of local residents residing in the Housing Board Colony and Baldev Nagar cross this road a number of times everyday. The National Highway Authority that looks after the maintenance of various national highways, is aware of the fact, but it did not bother to initiate steps to put the traffic lights in order. One of the officials of the authority said it was the responsibility of the municipal council to get the traffic lights repaired, whereas the NHAI was only concerned with the maintenance of roads. Residents of the area have lodged several complaints with the competent authority, but no action has been taken so far. Traffic police constables control traffic while standing on the one side of the road but it is not proving much effective. Generally, vehicle drivers are not able to observe the signals made by the constable standing on a side. People are of the view that traffic on the highway cannot be controlled in proper manner until traffic lights are got repaired. Some major mishap may occur if the traffic lights are not repaired at the earliest, the say. |
|
|
Railway Ground to be upgraded Kalka, January 13 Mr Sharma said it was a long pending demand of Railway employees to have a stadium in the township. On this occasion, Railway employees in the town, and the president of the Senior Citizen Association, Mr Sangat Singh Nanda, also demanded that all trains coming to Chandigarh, especially the Janashatabdi, be extended to Kalka. |
|
|
‘Democracy must be
restored in Nepal’ Sirsa, January 13 It was announced that the Indo-Nepal Friendship Society would be constituted. Mr Sushil Kumar Koirala said the Nepali Congress was carrying on a public campaign for the restoration of democracy in Nepal. He said Nepal, like India, was facing terrorism. |
|
Swaran Jayanti bus Karnal, January 13 |
|
|
HIGH COURT Chandigarh, January 13 The directions were issued on a petition filed by Bhag Singh of Fatehabad district seeking directions regarding an industrial shed. Pistol seized Ambala Police claim Ambala |
 |
| 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 | |
