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Sunday,
March 30, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Abhay’s announcement forces Cong to rethink Embezzlement of 4 lakh: report gathers dust Lawyers for more space in chambers Committee set up to review KU statutes Assurance to jobless disabled |
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Gandhi’s statue unveiled 
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Abhay’s announcement forces Cong to rethink Panchkula, March 29 Though the Congress leadership has dismissed Mr Abhay Chautala’s announcement as an attempt to test the waters, sources within the party say that the leadership is now planning to woo its dissident leaders, elected as Municipal Councillors, who have switched over to the Indian National Lok Dal. Sources within the party deny that they face any threat from the announcement made by Mr. Abhay Chautala on March 12, but admit that they cannot leave anything to chance in this Congress citadel. The Kalka Vidhan Sabha seat has traditionally been a Congress stronghold. It was for this reason that former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal had chosen it for his son, Mr Chander Mohan. The latter has been the sitting MLA since 1993. This challenge for the Congress comes at a time when the party’s decision to boycott the Municipal Council elections boomeranged, with the party losing a sizeable number of its supporters to the ruling INLD. The Congress suffered a major setback when a large number of its supporters and office-bearers, defying the official diktat of boycott, jumped into the fray. With the party leadership seeing these elections as a challenge to the influence of Mr Chander Mohan, it was decided to boycott the elections. Sixteen of the 31 seats were bagged by these Congress men, thus forcing the party to stake claim to the post of President of the council. However, the ruling INLD managed to win over five of these Congress councillors on their side, thus leaving the Congress with no choice but to withdraw from the power game for the council. The INLD itself had managed to win a mere 11 seats, but with the Congress men switching sides, the going seemed smooth for the ruling party. With Mr Abhay Chautala’s announcement, and the local uinit of the INLD all set to ensure a smooth launch pad for him, the Congress has had to rethink on retaining this citadel. Sources in the Congress say that disciplinary action against the Congress rebels is expected only after the election of the council President. Also the Panchkula Block Congress, City Congress, Rural Congress and Pinjore, Barwala and Raipur Rani blocks will see a transformation to woo the dissidents. Also, the delay in announcing elections for the post of President of the Municipal Council here has again resulted in a fluid political situation. After the Panchkula Development Group was formed by at least 12 of the 31 municipal councillors, including eight Congress councillors, to support INLD candidate Seema Chaudhary as President, the Congress is now trying to regroup. A body by the name of the Progressive Group of Panchkula, comprising 12 Congress councillors who had contested elections in defiance of the party’s diktat, is the latest move. Interestingly, at least three of these councillors — Om Prakash from Ward No. 16 , Mahinder Singh from Ward No. 15 and Amar Singh from Ward No. 31— have joined the Progressive Group of Panchkula, after first being members of the Panchkula Development Group. |
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Improve ties with Centre, Chautala told Chandigarh, March 29 In a statement here today, Mr Hooda said the Centre had not given a single penny for the drought-affected farmers while states such as Tamil Nadu (Rs 258 crore), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 224 crore), Gujarat (Rs 150 crore), Chhattishgarh (Rs 62 crore), Orissa (Rs 62 crore), Rajasthan (Rs 68 crore), Karnataka (Rs 62 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 46 crore) and Himachal Pradesh (Rs 26 crore) had got donations from the Centre for drought relief. Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Chhattishgarh had also been allotted grain, Mr Hooda said. |
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Embezzlement of 4 lakh: report gathers dust Chandigarh, March 29 Though Vigilance Bureau sources could not be contacted for ascertaining the facts, a source here claimed that the HSVB had already completed the probe and its report was gathering dust at Haryana Secretariat here. The source added that because of the delay in taking action on the basis of the HSVB report, the guilty persons would escape punishment. Giving details of the case, the source said it dated back to 1991-92 when HARCO Bank had invested a sum of Rs 2 crore in the
HDFC (Housing Development and Finance Corporation) through an agent in Delhi. On the investment of Rs 2 crore, the HDFC paid a commission of Rs 4 lakh which was pocketed by some HARCO Bank employees in connivance with the Delhi-based agent. The issue was raised in the state Assembly and Mr Bhajan Lal, who was Chief Minister, assured that the guilty employees of the bank would not spared and the sum of Rs 4 lakh would be recovered from them. However, he did not take any further step in this direction. But the media gave a wide coverage to the issue and things got really hot as a result of which the bank filed a criminal complaint in August, 1998 (more than six years after the embezzlement) in the court of First Class Judicial Magistrate against the agent. The court dismissed the complaint on October 24, 2002, the source said and added that an “immaintenable complaint against the agent was filed by the bank only to delay action against the guilty employees”. The source alleged that in yet another instance of scam in the same bank, a sum of Rs 224.47 crore was invested by it in Bombay Mercantile Cooperative Bank at its Darya Ganj branch in New Delhi in violation of all norms and procedures. While investing the huge amount, no approval of the Registrar of Cooperative
Societies (RCS) was obtained. Moreover, a sister cooperative concern of the state, HAFED was ready to borrow money from the bank by giving 14 per cent interest. By making the investment at the cooperative bank at an interest rate of 12.5 per cent per annum, HARCO Bank suffered a straight loss of Rs 60 lakh, he said. The alleged “unsound investment” was pointed out in a complaint made by Mr Devender Singh
Yadav, an accountant in HARCO Bank, and on the basis of the complaint, the SP, Cooperative Societies, conducted a probe. Following the SP’s report, the Haryana State Vigilance Commissioner in a letter written on January 28, 1999, to the IGP of Chandigarh, requested the IGP to file a criminal case against those officials of HARCO Bank who were responsible for depositing the whopping sum to Bombay Marcantile Bank. Mr R.R.
Bansal, MD of HARCO Bank, however, had described the findings of the SP as “lop-sided and motivated”. While claiming that the approval of the RCS was not required for making a short-term investment like the one in question, he said despite the RCS withdrawing the letter directing the SP to conduct the inquiry, the SP had gone ahead with the probe. |
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Lawyers for more space in chambers Karnal, March 29 Mr Chopra said the district administration had provided inadequate space for the construction of lawyers chambers in the new Justice Complex, which was under construction. He said that hardly 50 per cent of the members of the Bar could be accommodated in the space provided in the new complex. Meanwhile, Mr Justice Sodhi is reported to have called the Haryana Chief Secretary, the Chief Administrator, HUDA, and the Chief Secretary of Haryana for a meeting on April 4 to sort out the problems of the lawyers. Other members of the Building Committee, including Mr Justice R.L. Anand, Mr Justice V.M. Jain and Mr Justice Kiran Anand Lal were also present at the meeting to hear the lawyers’ grievances.
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Committee set up to review KU statutes
Kurukshetra, March 29 The Committee will review the amendments and the additions made to Statute-22 of the Kurukshetra University Act and Statutes, 1986. The Chancellor directed the Court to form the Committee when Court members pointed out lapses and anomalies. According to the University Registrar’s notification dated March 20, 2003, the University Executive Council in a resolution 93 of October 26, 2002 had approved this amendment whereas the Chancellor had already given his assent to this amendment on June 19, 2002. Such changes were made in the Registrar’s notification of March 20, 2003, according to which juniors would interview persons for senior posts for Professor. Some of the members urged the University Court that the Chairpersons of Specific Departments should be nominated members of the selection committees. On the members concern that the students were suffering for not filling the posts of the teachers, the Chancellor told the Director, Higher Education and Secretary, Finance, present at the meeting, that the teaching posts be delinked from other Government posts freezed by the State Government. The Court members also criticised the Haryana Government directing the educational institutions to introduce self-financing courses, because, these courses were meant for middle and upper class family students but not for the Dalits’ and poor students. |
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Assurance to jobless disabled Chandigarh, March 29 While stating this here today, a statement issued by the council said the Chief Secretary also directed that necessary action should be taken for revising conveyance allowance of disabled persons and for giving employment to one dependent child of disabled parents. He also assured the delegation that the issue of selling expired-age government houses to disabled allottees would be sent to the Chandigarh Administration for favourable consideration. The delegation was led by Mr Keshav Chander
Wadhwan, senior vice-president, while it included Mr S S Shukla, Mr Shadilal
Kapoor, Mr B.N. Verma and Mr C.L. Malhotra. The official side was represented by Mr
Mathur, Ms Veena Eagleton, Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment, and others. |
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Gandhi’s statue unveiled Ambala, March 29 The unveiling of the statue puts to rest a controversy over another statue of Gandhi being removed from the spot. The new statue has been brought from
Jaipur. The pedestal has been set up in the garden opposite the Principal’s office. Mr Laxmi
Sagar, Dr R.R. Malik, Dr Desh Bandhu, Dr Kiran Angra, Dr U.V. Singh, Dr
Gasso, Prof V.K. Puri, Dr Vinay Malhotra, Prof Gulati, Dr Kansal, Ms Shanawar Khan and Mr Hira Lal Yadav were among those present on the occasion. |
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Power nigam centres open today Panchkula, March 29 |
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