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Monday,
June 16, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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INTUC
leader Bawa arrested Bansi Lal
blames Chautala for deficit Protesting
chemists lathicharged, 2 arrested BKU
agitation: traffic remains disrupted ‘Bid to
shield’ FCI official Girls
schools ‘popular’ in UK |
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IN FOCUS A view of the Kalka Tonga Station, which is now in a run-down condition. — Photo Madan Mehra 4 held
for dacoity, murder
Green
belt under threat, experts alarmed Panel
members visit railway station
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INTUC leader Bawa arrested Panchkula, June 15 Mr Bawa was reportedly arrested by the police from near the Kalka Railway crossing, while he was coming from Pinjore. The police armed with non-bailable warrants against Mr Bawa, was waiting for him on the National Highway 22 when they learnt that he was coming towards Kalka, for his onward journey to Himachal Pradesh. The police had earlier obtained bailable warrants against the accused when he failed to appear before the court of the SDM on June 5. He was arrested from Shimla on May 4, in a case of wrongful restraining, criminal intimidation and assault , the police had initiated the proceedings against him under Section 110 of the CrPC for restraining him against committing any further offence. Mr Bawa was arrested by the police on a complaint filed by Mr M.K. Shishodiya, a resident of Pinjore. He had alleged that Mr Bawa, his son, Ramandeep, and nephew, Sukha, had followed him and his son on April 27 in a car and assaulted and threatened him with dire consequences. He was released on bail on May 22. The police had made an unsuccessful attempt to arrest Mr Amarjit Bawa from Shimla in a separate case on April 4. While the police party was bringing Mr Bawa from Shimla, they were stopped by a Himachal police party at Dharampur on the Panchkula- Himachal border and the accused was freed. The accused is allegedly close to the powers that be in Himachal Pradesh and was tipped to be appointed as Chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Pollution Control Board. According to the local police Mr Bawa is operating a land mafia and extortion racket in Pinjore, Kalka Parwanoo, Barotiwala and Dharampur. The gang allegedly headed by the three Bawa brothers — Kanwarjit, Jagjeet and Amarjit, and their sons, is involved in over 70 cases of assault, criminal intimidation and rioting. They are also involved in gaining control of transport unions and presently have control over eight such unions. Police sources say as many as 70 henchmen had been employed by the gang to carry on their clandestine operations. |
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Bansi Lal blames Chautala for deficit Yamunanagar, June 15 He said that the politicians today want to divide the nation in the name of Ram mandir, Babri Masjid and caste, which had affected the development of the nation. He suggested that Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian should be given right to go to their religious places for obeisance. Mr Bansi Lal lashed out at Mr Om Prakash Chautala as law and order situation in the state has deteriorated. He alleged that Haryana State had become a deficit state as the state government has taken a loan of Rs 700 crore. He also condemned the district administration for the demolition drive in Yamunanagar-Jagadhri, which had generated unemployment. He said that Yamunanagar district had been deprived by the state government in relief to the drought-affected farmers. The former Chief Minister announced that after he came to power tax structure will be amended so that general public was benefited. He said that Form-38 will be abolished and unemployment allowance would be given to the educated youth. He said that those unemployed youth who are matriculate would be given Rs 200 per month as stipend and Rs 250 per month would be given to the graduates. Mr Bansi Lal questioned the state government that if no other state had introduced VAT system then why Haryana had done so. He appealed to the youth of the country to have some ethics so that the country might prospered, as there was lot of potential in India. Mr Jatinder Singh Kaka State General Secretary and Mr Sahib Singh President District Haryana Vikas Party also spoke on the occasion. |
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Protesting
chemists lathicharged, 2 arrested Yamunanagar, June 15 The chemists kept their shops closed today to register their protest. Mr R.K. Khera, the president of the Haryana Chemists Association, led the agitation. On hearing the news, City Magistrate Mahabir Prasad and DSP (Headquarters) Ashok Kumar reached the scene to pacify the chemists, but to no avail. When the mob started throwing stones at policemen, the police resorted to lathicharge. A few chemists sustained injuries. A shop at the Civil Hospital was given on rent to Mr Sanjeev Kumar Sharma by the Red Cross Society in January 1996. Senior
officials of the state Health Department visited the Civil Hospital yesterday. They were reportedly informed about some irregularities in the working of the chemist shop. Earlier, a
delegation of the European Commission, which visited the hospital on March 29, had recommended the shifting of the chemist shop. Mr Rajinder Singh, the Superintendent of Police, said a case under Sections 341, 353, 332, 283, 147, 149 and 506 of the IPC had been registered against 14 persons in this regard. He said of the 14 persons, two persons, Jatinder Kumar of Krishan Colony in Yamunanagar and Manjeet Sharma of Jagadhri had been arrested. |
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BKU agitation: traffic
remains disrupted Jind, June 15 The BKU reportedly called a meeting of prominent persons of eight villages at Rajpura-Behn village on Friday to seek their support for its ongoing agitation. It is learnt that the BKU failed to get their support allegedly on the ground that the state general secretary of the BKU, Mr Ramphal Kandela, was manhandled by some BKU activists at the Kandela rally on June 10. They condemned the manhandling of Mr Kandela. It was pointed out at the meeting that Mr Kandela is a senior BKU leader. Therefore, disciplinary action should be taken against those who had allegedly manhandled him. Mr Joginder Singh Mor, state executive president of the BKU, reportedly said that an inquiry would be held into the incident and action would be taken against the guilty. It is learnt that a meeting of prominent persons of these villages will be held again on June 19 decide the issue of extending support to the agitation. |
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‘Bid to shield’
FCI official Chandigarh, June 15 Accusing the Assistant Manager of being involved in fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 64 lakh from the Sirsa branch of the State Bank of India, Pratap Singh said that the Sirsa police was trying to give a clean chit to the Assistant Manager because of his proximity to the Chief Minister’s family. Pratap Singh said the money was withdrawn from the FCI’s account in the SBI allegedly by Jaswant Singh, who used four stolen cheque leaves for this purpose. Pratap Singh further alleged that the SP of Sirsa, Mr A.S. Ahlawat, was also trying to influence investigation into the case to please his political masters. The former MLA demanded a probe by the CBI into the case. |
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Girls schools ‘popular’ in UK HISAR: Like India, single-sex schools are popular in the United Kingdom too. Girls’ schools there show better results than co-educational and boys’ schools, says Mrs Hilary Hopwood, Headmistress of the Lancaster Girls’ Grammar School at Lancaster. Mrs Hopwood, who was on a visit to the local Vidya Devi Jindal Public School for Girls under a teacher-exchange programme, said in an interview that there were about 100 girls’ schools in the UK and many of them were at the top of the league table. Citing reasons of popularity of single-sex schools there, she says though there is strong tradition of such schools in the UK but recent research has shown that boys tend to draw teachers’ attention at the cost of girl
students. Generally, boys are noisier and naughty. On the other hand girl students concentrate more on lectures. In this peculiar situation, the girl students tend to suffer as their teachers cannot give proper attention to them in co-educational institutions. The teachers too find it easier to concentrate on their work in single-sex schools. She says parents in the UK are very serious about their daughters’ education. That is why they prefer single-sex schools. In these schools, girls get more attention and this explains why they secure better marks in examinations than boys or for that matter students of coed schools. She suggests that Indian schools should have a two-week practical professional training schedule for their students once they complete their higher secondary school examination as in the UK. During this period students work in various government offices, banks, industries, departmental stores and hospitals to get first-hand experience about the day-to-day working of these departments. This schedule is compulsory in the UK and it is very useful for preparing young students to be good citizens. Under this programme young businessmen were invited for sharing their experiences. She also suggested that courses on different foreign languages must be included at an initial stage in schools. She said though almost all the courses were similar in both the countries but in the UK more stress was laid on foreign language courses. Expressing her desire to visit more schools in other parts of India she said the students of the school had impressed her. She felt that Indian students were more enthusiastic than the British. She said hockey was another common feature between the local Jindal School and her school in the UK. They were planning a series of hockey matches between the two schools in the near future. A delegation of the Jindal School would visit her school in October next. |
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IN FOCUS Kalka, June 15 The run-down building, reminiscent of the days of the Raj, is obscured from view by the wild overgrowth around it. This Victorian-style building is now being used as a store room by the Post and Telegraph office and the old Telephone Exchange, which are housed in the same complex as this tonga station. A few years ago, it was also used as a refreshment room for the Post and Telegraph Department. Piles of batteries used in the telephone exchange line the main door to this historic tonga stand. Termites have attacked the main wooden door, with wooden planks having been damaged beyond repair. Apart from a handful of old denizens of the town, a majority of the population is unaware of the historical importance of this tonga station, which was the gateway for Viceroys, Governor Generals and other senior officers of British India, as well as Rajas and Maharajas of the era, as they proceeded for their annual sojourn to the summer capital, Shimla, by availing of the Kalka- Shimla tonga service. This tonga service was the only means for travelling the 58-mile distance to Shimla after Capt Ross, in 1816, settled on a hill, where Shimla now stands. Till 1903, when the Kalka-Shimla rail tract was laid, the journey from the plains to Shimla was cumbersome. The first major
achievement in this field was the opening of the Grand Hindostan and Tibet Road in 1856. The mode of travel to the hills was by jampans (sedan chair fitted with curtains and slung on poles borne by bearers at an even sling trot) for women, and men usually rode the track via Kasauli, Kakkarhati, Haripur and Syree to Shimla. Then came the Kalka-Shimla tonga service, when two ponies each were attached to a tonga for the journey to Shimla , after passing through Dharampur, Solan and Kairee Ghat. These ponies were used for a two- hour run (10-12 km), till they reached the next tonga station and the ponies were changed. Though the opening of the Kalka-Shimla rail track in 1903 made its dent on the tonga service, it took several more years for this mode of travel to be withdrawn. It was by virtue of this first tonga station being set up here that Kalka town became the gateway to Himachal Pradesh and thus an important halt for the high and mighty during those times. The Post and Telegraph office was set up by the British near the tonga station to facilitate sending of letters and telegrams by the high-ups. |
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4 held for dacoity, murder Sirsa, June 15 According to the District Police Chief here today, Surjeet Singh of village Dadu had lodged a complaint with the police in which he alleged that when Surjeet Singh and his family were going on tractor they were challenged by Gurcharan, his son and three others. Gurcharan and his party started quarrelling over a piece of 20 acres of land during which they opened fire. One of the bullets hit Gurtej while some women also suffered injuries. Gurtej succumbed to his injuries in the local Civil Hospital. On the basis of this complaint police registered a case. Later on June 12 Gurpal and Balwinder surrendered in the court that sent them into four days police custody and the other two accomplices Dharashan Singh and Harwinder were also arrested.
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Green belt under threat, experts alarmed Gurgaon, June 15 The damage has alarmed a body of environmentalists and they are organising themselves to save the remaining flora on the campus. The Gurgaon District Bar Association has already impleaded itself through its Secretary in public interest litigation (PIL) before the Punjab and Haryana High Court to save the green cover. The protests from environmentalists are understandable. The campus, the only green lung in the entire old Gurgaon city, is situated parallel to the Delhi-Jaipur national highway on the one side and the city road connecting the national highway and the new judicial complex on the other. Thousands of people come to attend the courts adjacent to the campus everyday. The Tehsildar’s office, a hub of activity, is also situated in the area. A large number of colonies are also situated within a 5 km radius of the campus. Irony is that the office and residences of officers of the Environment Department, who are required to protect the green belt, are also at the receiving end as environmental pollution has started erupting in the area following the damage to the green belt on the campus. Such a situation has come to pass due to the callous attitude of the government. The Haryana Government, which had given the campus area on a 99-year lease to the HAU to run the kendra in the mid-seventies suddenly got the arrangement terminated. There are wide-ranging allegations that the government wants to set up a casino and other commercial ventures on the campus. The HAU had set up the kendra for research on new seeds, plants, pests and diseases, besides a wide range of activities relating to animal husbandry. A Supreme Court advocate moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the government’s move to wind up the KVK and pleaded for the status quo. The court granted the plea on November 26 last year. However, a visit to the site reveals that the court’s ruling of maintaining the status quo has been violated as a full-fledged department of the District Excise and Taxation (E and T) is functioning on the campus. There are four tubewells in the campus. But none of them is being used, leading to the withering away of a large number of precious plants. There is none to take responsibility as to who had felled hundreds of trees on the campus. None knows who is responsible for the security of plants and trees on the campus. Although the original owner of the campus area is the Agriculture Department, the Excise and Taxation Department has been functioning from the offices of the KVK. |
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Panel members visit
railway station Ambala, June 15 The members reached here in two groups. Five of them arrived in a special coach attached to Jammu Tavi Express while the other two came by Shatabdi Express and Himalayan Queen. The railway authorities had made special arrangements to welcome them on the railway platform. The vehicles which were to take them to Kalka by road were parked on railway platform No. 1, caused inconveniences to passengers. Senior officers including the DRM, Mr Keshav Chander, were present on the platform to welcome the MPs. According to railway sources, the MPs were going to Shimla to attend a meeting of the Railways. |
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Mr
Amarjit Bawa, President of the Himachal unit of the Indian National
Trade Union Congress (INTUC), was arrested by the Kalka police today
after he failed to present himself before the court of the Subdivisional
Magistrate, Kalka, on June 5, where proceedings for declaring him a
habitual offender have been initiated against him.
