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Thursday,
May 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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FATEHABAD POLL Report
sought on ‘attack’ by VHP men Grades
revised to remove anomalies FOLLOW-UP One held
for impersonation Fodder
train to Rajasthan today |
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Students’ plea to extend
test dates KU gets
new spectrometer Man held for forcing wife into adultery 2 quintals of poppy husk seized
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FATEHABAD POLL Fatehabad, May 7 In all, 15 candidates are in the fray. The INLD nominee, Mrs Swatantra Bala Chowdhary, is pitted against the Congress nominee, Mr. Dura Ram; the Haryana Vikas
Party (HVP) nominee, Mr Prahlad Singh Gillankherd; the CPM candidate, Mr Krishan Swaroop; the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) candidate, Mr Baljit Singh; and 11 Independents, a majority of them dummy candidates for the nominees of the main political parties. Over the years, it has become a practice in Haryana that the major political parties field dummy candidates so that they can send additional polling agents and counting agents inside the polling booths and counting centres. Mrs Chowdhary is a daughter-in-law of Leela Krishan. Mr Dura Ram is a nephew of the former Chief Minister and Haryana Congress president, Mr Bhajan Lal. Both are contesting an Assembly election for the first time. Mr Gillankhera and Mr Krishan Swaroop have contested the Assembly elections twice, though unsuccessfully. Will they be lucky the third time? The about 1.50 lakh electorate will answer this on May 21. The INLD is far ahead of its rivals as far as campaigning is concerned. The Chief Minister and INLD president, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, toured all 84 villages of the constituency immediately after the byelection was announced in mid-April as part of the first phase of the campaigning. In the second phase, the Finance Minister, Prof Sampat Singh, who has been designated as the election in charge by the INLD, again visited the villages to introduce Mrs Chowdhary to the electorate. With Mr Chautala, who hurt himself recently and advised to take bed rest, his younger son Mr Abhey Singh Chautala, is holding the fort for his father. To assist him, his elder brother, Ajay Singh Chautala takes time off from his mission in Rajasthan to visit Fatehabad. A number of ministers, like Transport Minister Ashok Arora, Agriculture Minister Jaswinder Singh, Health Minister M.L. Ranga the Deputy Speaker, Mr Gopi Chand Gehlot, and several MPs and MLAs are also camping here. The president of the INLD’s women wing, Mrs Kailasho Saini, woos women voters with her oratory. Abhey, who has emerged as a star campaigner for the INLD candidate, is a hardtask master. The rural area of the constituency has been divided into 16 zones, with each zone having been entrusted to two or more heavy weights of the party, after taking into consideration the caste composition of the zone. Fatehabad town has been divided into 19 wards. The campaigning is being looked after by ministers belonging to the Punjabi and Aggarwal communities, in deference to the caste considerations. Besides the “heavyweights”, junior workers have been called from the entire state to go from door to door to convince the people of their caste to vote for the INLD nominee. The HVP too started its campaigning immediately after the announcement of the election. After completing the village tour, the party has completed almost 75 per cent of its door-to-door campaigning. The party secretary-general, Mr Surendra Singh, son of former Chief Minister and HVP president Bansi Lal, is leading the HVP campaign. Mr Surendra Singh has made himself popular among the rural youth with his hard punches against Mr Chautala and his sons, coupled with rustic humour, which does not spare even his father and himself. Swami Indervesh, president of the Haryana unit of the Rashtriya Lok Dal headed by Union Agriculture Minister, Ajit Singh, joined the HVP campaign on today. Mr Bansi Lal will also join campaigning from May 11. He is likely to stay here till May 17. The Congress started its campaigning in the villages only on May 2. It is yet to complete the first phase of the campaigning. So far, Mr Bhajan Lal is carrying on the campaign virtually single-handedly, though the father-son duo of the Surjewalas has lent him support in what can be the crucial election for his career. The party has convened a meeting of its workers and leaders here on May 9, at which election duties would be assigned to them. Two party heavyweights — the Leader of Opposition, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and the former president of the Haryana Congress, Mr Birender Singh, — have not so far visited the constituency. It is not known if they will come here on May 9. Mr Bhajan Lal has demanded the deployment of paramilitary forces, citing lack of confidence in the state police as the reason. He also wants the entire constituency to be declared sensitive as he apprehends that the INLD will “recreate a Meham” in Fatehabad in order to win the byelection. A former Haryana Congress president, Mr Dharam Pal Malik, today demanded that a criminal case under Section 304, IPC, should be registered against Mr Ajay Singh Chautala, for allegedly crushing a Dalit minor girl under his vehicle yesterday. However, INLD sources deny the allegation. |
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Report sought on ‘attack’ by VHP men Karnal May 7 The commission has asked the SSP to submit the report within 15 days. Mr Sahota has complained that his son Gopal Krishan Sahota, a Congress activists, was injured by VHP workers with swords and trishuls when he had shown black flags to Dr Togadia during his visit Karnal. He further alleged that his son was attacked at the instance of Dr Togadia and a former Haryana Minister, Mr Shashi Pal Mehta. The injured Gopal Krishan Sahota was admitted to Civil Hospital Karnal, alongwith another colleague, Mr Naresh Sandhu. Also, though the medico legal report showed sharp-edged injuries on Gopal Krishan Sahota, the Karnal police had not registered any FIR against the alleged attackers. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has also directed the Karnal police to probe the matter. Following a petition made to the court by Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala, president of the All-India Youth Congress. |
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Grades revised to remove anomalies Chandigarh, May 7 The pay scales of the Management Consultant, the Financial Adviser and the Personnel Adviser in the Haryana Bureau of Public Enterprises had been revised to Rs 12,000-16,500 as a personal measure to the present incumbents from February 1, 2003. The pay scale of the Director, Fisheries, has been revised to Rs 14,300-18,300 with effect from February 1. The pay scale of the Additional Director, Food and Supplies, has been revised to Rs 12,000-16,500, of Ophthalmic Assistants in the Health Department to Rs 4,500-7,000. However, the pay of the present ophthalmic assistants will be protected. The pay scale of commercial artists has been revised to Rs 5,450-8,000 and that of the Deputy Director, Tourism and Budget and Planning, to Rs 7,450-11,500. The pay scale of senior draftsmen in Engineering College, Murthal (Technical Education Department), has been revised to Rs 5,500-9,000. The pay scales of the Tehsildar(Sales) and the Assistant Registrar, Rehabilitation Department, have been revised to Rs 8,000-13,500 as a personal measure to the present incumbents. The pay scale of Naib Tehsildar has been revised to Rs 6,500-9,900 as a personal measure to the present incumbents. |
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FOLLOW-UP Ambala, May 7 The irate mob of villagers had on receiving the news of Billoo’s death, come out on the streets and set ablaze three shops and a house of the main accused in the village yesterday. A visit to the village today brought out that about a dozen youths in the village have taken the law into their hands and their “jungle raj” had made lives miserable for the 3,000-odd persons residing here. And worse still, they were being shielded by some corrupt police officials in the area. The villagers alleged that they were thriving in their illegal activities only by bribing the police on a monthly basis. No wonder, it took the police a week to arrest them even as a case was registered against them for beating up Billoo mercilessly under the railway bridge on April 30. Narrating their tale of woes, the villagers highlighted the atrocities, which were committed day in and day out by the main accused Jatinder alias Mintoo and his associates. One of the villagers disclosed that they have formed a mafia gang by going to jail together in several cases. He alleged that they were indulging in the illegal sale and smuggling of country-made liquor and drugs in and around the city under police cover. Infact, a large number of bottles and pouches of liquor were found in the shops (general and cosmetics store), which were set ablaze yesterday. A group of villagers pointed out in chorus that if anyone dared to complain about them to the police, they would beat him up mercilessly by taking him to a room, which they had illegally occupied and would call it the `remand room.’ Subhash, one of the accused in the case, who is in the Army and posted at Chandigarh, also prefers to be part of all this and makes someone substitute in his place there by paying money. Several young boys and girls have been victims of their atrocities and the complaints to the police have only fallen on deaf ears and they have never reacted. Surinder, a relative of the deceased, alleged that even on the day Billoo was being beaten up by the accused, two of the police personnel were watching the drama as mute witnesses from the bridge. Such is the terror created by them in the village that girls fear to move out of their houses after sunset. In fact, a sewing centre, which had been set up for the Dalit women in the anganwadi centre in the village a month back, has also closed down. Surinder, a woman in the village, pointed out that “we do not even send our girls to school anymore for the fear of their being picked up.” They further disclosed that at their behest animals were cut into pieces in the dairy farm adjacent to the village, because of which the area stinks. The residents also have to face inconvenience due to the darkness in the area as the gang has over a period of time damaged most of the streetlights here so that they could carry on their alleged illegal activities with ease. Women of this village talked about the partisan role of some police employees in shielding their misdeeds and cooperating with them instead. They just don’t want the accused to return to the village and are hopeful that the assurances given by the DC, Mr D.D Gautam and SP, Mr Hardeep Singh Doon, would not fall flat and that law and order will rule the roost in this village. The DC even assured to provide them with all basic civic amenities. Meanwhile, the accused have been remanded in judicial custody for 14 day till May 21.  |
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One held for impersonation
Karnal, May 7 Parshottam removed the photograph of Manoj and had pasted his own photograph duly stamped in all respect. But a scrutiny by the Assistant Superintendent on duty led to signature verification in which Parshottam failed. Thereafter, he was handed over to the police. Parshottam who passed 10+2 himself was appearing in the B.A. III Hindi paper on behalf of Manoj with two days’ labour on the Hindi Guide provided to him by Manoj. This was disclosed to the UNI at the Civil Lines Police Station by Parshottam. Earlier on April 27, Ramphal of Jaisingh Pura was caught appearing on behalf of Rajkumar, again a regular student in the B.A. II Hindi compulsory paper of the university at the same centre No.78. In both cases, the paper was of Hindi, not so difficult for the students of Haryana and the students that sought the help were regular students of a reputed college.
UNI |
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Fodder train to Rajasthan today Karnal, May 7 The fodder has been a voluntary efforts of the farmers of the district. The District Administration has banned burning of wheat straw in fields. The fodder price in the district ranges between Rs 150 and Rs 170 per quintal. |
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Students’ plea to extend
test dates Ambala, May 7 Around 20 students from the city stated that the students of undergraduate classes had been busy in their final examination and the last date for submission of applications for the entrance tests was April 23. They said the entrance tests for MBA and MCA were scheduled to be held on May 17 and May 25, respectively. These dates were fixed taking in view the fact that the under-graduate final examination were supposed to get over by April 15, but due to the leakage of question papers, the final examination would now get over by May 15. |
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KU gets new spectrometer Kurukshetra, May 7 Dr Chawla said that the machine would promote research activities. The data from this instrument will be used for getting structures of the molecules. |
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Man held for forcing wife into adultery Ambala, May 7 The two have been booked under Sections 498-A, 376 and 120-B of the IPC at the Baldev Nagar police station. According to the SP, Mr Hardeep Singh Doon, Suman Bala, a resident of Matti Dass Nagar, had in her complaint lodged with the police stated that she was married to Narendra Kumar on April 20 and her parents had deposited a sum of Rs 2.41 lakh by opening a bank account in the name of her husband. But her husband along with her mother-in-law Lajwanti started harassing her for dowry. She pointed out that Narendra had threatened to kill her if she failed to have physical relations with Aman Lamba, a resident of Model Town, Ambala city. Aman Lamba allegedly raped Suman on April 28 and May 2. Both the accused would be produced in the court after their medical examination tomorrow. Sources confirmed that the two accused were close family friends. |
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2 quintals of poppy husk seized Ambala, May 7 According to sources in the police, on the basis of a tip-off, Sehvir was nabbed on the Rampur- Sarsehari crossing, under Mahesh Nagar police station, while he was waiting to board a vehicle for going to a neighbouring village in Punjab. He has been booked under the NDPS Act. |
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