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September 17, 2003, Chandigarh, India
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Poll
campaign tone gets shrill with charges New Delhi, September 16 As a result, important issues like development, civic amenities and decongestion have been given a go by, at least for the time being. The tone was set by the Congress Chief Minister, Mrs.Sheila Dikshit, and BJP chief ministerial candidate, Mr. Madan Lal Khurana, with filing of defamation suits on the issue of corruption. Incensed with Mr Khurana’s allegation that she had received Rs 15 crore as a consideration for releasing Rs 105 crore to the private power distribution companies, Ms Dikshit, on August nine, filed a defamation suit against the BJP leader, seeking a token compensation of Rs 101. She also sought a permanent prohibitory injunction restraining Mr Khurana from levelling any allegation of corruption. Mr Khurana retaliated, but not against the Chief Minister. He served a legal notice of defamation on the Delhi Congress President Chaudhary Prem Singh for alleging that the former had collected a huge amount from traders and industrialists for his ongoing ‘Parivartan Yatra’ . Spin masters of the two political parties, who have been working overtime to identify issues that would give their respective parties the winning edge, are now being forced to concentrate on corruption. Observers say that ‘’corruption’’ and ‘’development’’ will dominate the electioneering in the Capital with the BJP keen to ‘’expose the misdeeds’’ of the Congress government during the past five years and a determined chief minister trying to counter it with focus on ‘’all-round development’’ during her regime. At the local level, issues like water shortage, power cuts, transportation and statehood are likely to be the focal points during the campaigning. While the BJP has announced that “corruption’’ in the Delhi government would be its major poll plank, Ms Dikshit is planning to catalogue her ‘’development works’’. Besides her ‘Bhagidari’ system (collaboration of people and administration), the chief minister has been lauded for privatisation of the power distribution system, introduction of CNG-powered transport, Metro rail and construction of a large number of flyovers. Interestingly, even the BJP is trying to take credit for some of these achievements by claiming that all of these were thought of during their tenure. However, factionalism in both the parties, if allowed to linger, could have a negative impact on their respective poll fortunes. At the same time, Mr. Khurana is being credited with reinvigorating the Delhi BJP by launching his ‘Parivartan Yatra’ and getting some of the populist schemes approved by the party-led NDA government at the Centre. These include concessions in alterations in DDA and Group Housing residential buildings as well as the Cabinet approval to a resolution for grant of statehood to Delhi. But the recent rout of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the youth wing of the BJP, in the Delhi University Students Union elections is weighing heavily on the party leadership. The DUSU elections are normally seen as an indication of things to come. The Delhi Congress is naturally upbeat with the success of the National Students Union of India. In the 1998 assembly elections, the Congress secured an absolute majority by bagging 54 seats.
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Electoral
roll call begins, nets 700 bogus voters New Delhi September 16 Organised jointly by the Campaign on Electoral Transparency, the National Council for People’s Right to Information, Parivartan and the local administration, the exercise was a first step towards ensuring ‘electoral transparency’. The move was the first of its kind, where the citizens themselves took the initiative to implement the Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh’s order. The CEC had, in his order, stated that in urban areas the electoral rolls have to be read out in the meetings of the Mohalla Sudhar Samitis and J J Slum Sudhar Samitis by NGOs, Residents Welfare Associations or any other forum suitable for such an exercise. In tune with the order, the local administration of East Delhi today publicly read out the voter’s list of ‘N Block in Sundernagari area in the presence of Prof Shekhar Singh of the Campaign on Electoral Transparency, Mr K S Singh, Deputy Commissioner (North-East Delhi), the Local Election Officer, area SDM, and representatives of resident welfare associations. Chairing the programme, Prof Shekhar Singh said the Chief Election Commissioner’s orders were indeed appreciable, but now it was more important that people from all areas should come forward and adopt this methodology. The residents of ‘N’ Block in Sundernagari got the bogus names struck off the list in their presence. Besides, new names of voters were added after proof of their eligibility was furnished. The exercise is a follow up of the intensive electoral roll rectification drive carried out in December 2002-January 2003 that failed to bring about the desired result; in fact, large scale discrepancies were detected even after the ‘drive’. As against this, a small-scale electoral roll survey conducted in selected blocks of Sundernagari had revealed startling facts of omission and commission, it was pointed out.
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Power
scam: Small fry made to pay for big fish Panipat, September 16 In fact, the local unit of the All Haryana Power Corporation Workers’ Union, which had been spearheading the campaign against the irregularities in the department, today gheraoed the office of the Xen, City Division, for his alleged complicity in the scam. The protesters also demanded that the contractor be penalized as per the terms and conditions of the contract. Narrating the sequence of events to the NCR Tribune, Mr Narinder Khokhar, president of the district unit of the union, alleged that the contractor, who was awarded the contract in June this year, had been allegedly fudging the readings of the big power consumers. During a random survey conducted by the union, it was found that 40,000 units were shown less in the case of 93 bulk consumers. Thias, in turn, had caused a loss of over Rs. 6.50 lakh to the HVPN. Interesting, the camp office of the Deputy Commissioner, Mr M R Anand, was shown to have consumed just 168 units in the last two month as against the previous average of over 5,000 units. In the rip-off, domestic consumers, who had been reeling under heavy load shedding this summer, were billed heavily by the contractor. Over 1,000 consumers, who had been paying their dues regularly, were in for a shock when they received inflated bills recently. These consumers made a beeline for the power department office and, finally, the authorities relented and refunded the excess amount. According to Mr Khokhar, a sum of Rs. 22 lakh was refunded by the power department to these consumers. The Xen had allegedly been turning a deaf ear to the pleas of the union, seeking action against the contractor for about a month. Mr Khokhar declared that the union would continue to agitate till a high-level inquiry by an independent agency is ordered into the scam. |
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PUBLIC
ANGST Ghaziabad, September 16 In protest, the traders downed their shutters in Hapur city. They gheraoed the Hapur Kotwali, raised slogans and pelted stones at the police station. They even ransacked the kotwali and burnt some files. The police had to cane the protestors and fired five rounds in the air. The protestors also set fire to the official vehicle of District Magistrate Santosh Yadav and damaged the car of Superintendent of Police, Pushpak Joshi. The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Meerut Range, Gurdarshan Singh, has issued orders, suspending Inspector Sitaram of Hapur. An official enquiry has been ordered and the reserve police force has been deployed in the town. The three assailants had escaped on a motor cycle after killing Ashok. Now, the police are on the look out for these criminals. While the police maintain that the situation is under control, the anger in the area continues to simmer.
Traders robbed of
Rs 6.50 lakh Criminals in two separate incidents deprived traders of Rs 6.50 lakh within two hours at about 1.30 pm in Hapur town yesterday. A sum of Rs 5 lakh was looted from one trader while the employee of another was deprived of Rs 1.50 lakh at 1.30 pm. On NTPC Dadri Road, yet another trader was robbed of Rs 50,000 in the third incident. The West UP Vyapar Udyog Mandal State vice-president Satish, local president Satinder Chawani and many others had a sharp exchange with the deputy police superintendent at the State Bank branch in Shankar Ganj. Later, the traders jammed the highway. |
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IN
NUTSHELL Noida: Three more cases of dengue having been confirmed in Noida town. This brings the number of confirmed dengue patients to seven. Despite the rising incidence, little has been done by the administration to control the disease. The district medical department has washed its hands off the matter by stating that it is Noida Authority’s responsibility. The Noida Medicare Centre in Sector-30 has confirmed the names of Parminder of Sector-44 and Vaneet Bagga of Sector-40, said to be suffering from dengue. Kailash Hospital in Sector-27 has also confirmed that it has a dengue patient under treatment. Earlier, Max Hospital in Sector-19 and Noida Medicare Centre in Sector-30 had confirmed four dengue patients last week. 18-year-old commits suicide Meerut: Fed up with eve-teasing, an 18-year-old student set herself ablaze in the Dalit basti of village Saini. By the time parents and neighbours barged into her room, she was engulfed in flames. She was rushed to three hospitals in Meerut and finally succumbed to her injuries on Monday evening at Safdurgang Hospital in Delhi. Usha was a promising student of class 11. The girl’s father told journalists that two youths of the village had been teasing her for a month, forcing her to end her life. However, the local police are yet to register an FIR. Several villagers, who gheraoed the Incholi police station, asked the cops to book the duo for abetting Usha’s death.
Drug companies raided Sonepat:
A team of Haryana State Drugs Controller, headed by Mr K K Maheshwari, Assistant Drugs Controller, conducted a surprise raid on the premises of two pharmaceutical manufacturing companies at Murthal, about 8 km from here last evening, and took eight samples of medicines. According to a report, the officials also carried out raids on chemist shops in the bus stand area and Gita Bhawan Chowk and seized samples of various medicines. The chemist shop in front of the civil hospital was also raided.
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Advani,
Venkaiah to attend BJP Panipat rally Sonepat, September 16 Stating this here today, the vice-president of the Haryana BJP, Mr Kishan Singh
Sangwan, told mediapersons that the main aim of the rally would be to widen the base of the party in the state and boost its image. The party, he said, would also organise a ‘Jan Jagran Campaign’ and party leaders would travel to the villages to mobilise the people to attend the rally in large numbers. He also ruled out any poll alliance with other parties for contesting elections in the state. He said that the politics of Haryana has been confined to three families, with the result that there was a distortion in the politics of the state. The BJP, he said, would provide an alternative to this family-based politics to the electorates. Mr Sangwan claimed that the base of the BJP had been widened in the Haryana as well as in the country as a whole. He held the Congress party responsible for most of the ills in the country today because they had been in power for most of the years since Independence. He accused the Congress of following the wrong policies with the result that the country had come under financial debt. Highlighting the achievements of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre, he said that the coalition had proved that it could provide a stable government. He claimed that the economy of the country had improved since the NDA government came to power. He called upon the party workers to mobilise the people to attend the October 14 rally in Panipat in large numbers. |
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HVP promises uninterrupted power supply Sonepat, September 16 He also informed that the HVP supremo, Mr Bansi Lal, would be arriving at Bahalgarh village in this district on September 21 to address a public meeting. He called upon the people and the workers of the party to attend the rally in large numbers. He claimed that Mr Bansi Lal had installed a plant for the generation of 432 MW of power at Faridabad and erected 25 MW plant at Gurgaon and improved the functioning of the sixth plant at Panipat. Mr Jain said that the claim of Mr Chautala of providing jobs to 50,000 youths was “misleading”. He said the Chautala government had increased the price of recruitment forms of police constables from Rs 5 to Rs 500 and had retrenched 25,000 employees in different departments. He also alleged that the drivers of jeeps and three-wheelers were being challaned on flimsy ground. The HVP leader alleged that the people of the state was “fed up by the false promises” made by Mr Chautala. |
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SPECIAL
FOCUS ON GURGAON Gurgaon, September 16 District 3010 in Rotarian parlance also includes Delhi and some other parts of National Capital Region (NCR). The first “mega project” of the club would be the organisation of blood donation camps. The club, however, would approach the issue with an additional agenda to educate the people about the bio-medical benefits of donating blood. There is no loss to the health or organic mechanism of the body if one donates blood twice a year. However, people still harbour fears and have negative hallucinations on the issue. An exclusive health check-up camp for senior citizens will be part of the package. Besides, the club will also organise camps for eye and dental check-ups along with “Group Exchange Programme” to facilitate cultural integration at the global level. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Batra praised Mr Sabarwal for spreading the social
activities of the club. He made special mention of Rotary Club, Gurgaon, for emerging as the highest contributor of food grains towards drought relief in Rajasthan. He urged all Rotarians to help solve the problems of poverty, illiteracy and health in our society. |
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Statue
of Chhotu Ram unveiled Rohtak, September 16 The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Ashok Yadav, said that a similar statue would be installed at Sampla, a small town close to the native village of Sir Chhotu Ram. He said that the statue unveiled here yesterday had cost Rs 4.50 lakh, out of which Rs two lakh had been contributed by the Bank of Maharashtra and Rs 2.50 lakh by the Vishwakarma Education Society. The Bank of Maharashtra has become first government bank to join in the campaign launched by the district administration for the beautification of Rohtak. The bank has also agreed to bear the expenses for the maintenance of the Chhotu Ram Chowk for a period of five years. It will pay a lump sum amount of Rs 70,000 annually to the district administration towards the maintenance expenses, Mr Yadav said. Mr Yadav further said that statues of veteran BJP leader Dr Mangal Sen and Ch. Devi Lal would be installed at the Medicak Mor, the entrance point for the Maharshi Dayanand University and the PGIMS. |
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MCD
in dock for letting out ornamental parks New Delhi, September 16 According to sources, in Rajouri Garden alone, the MCD has booked 12 ornamental parks which was objected to by some influential people and social workers of the area. However, the corporation refused to cancel the bookings claiming that it had taken security deposits between Rs 3,500 and Rs 10,000 from the people. The officials said that the corporation did not have enough space to accommodate all the functions in the MCD parks and as such ornamental parks were being booked in emergency cases. The Leader of Opposition in the Corporation, Mr Subhash Arya, has requested the Municipal Commissioner, Mr Rakesh Mehta, to return the security deposit to the persons after deducting Rs 10 only as stationery charges. |
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Plan
for 33 KV Sudarshan Park Grid Substation New Delhi, September 16 The plan for the 33 KV Pandav Nagar Grid Substation was unveiled by Mr Maken yesterday. While the Pandav Nagar substation will be fully commissioned and energised by November, the Sushrashna Park station will be commissioned by January. The Sudharshan Park substation will benefit the areas of Basai Darapur, Raja Garden, Sudharshan Park, Bali Nagar, Ratan Park and Ram Garh while the one at Pandav Nagar will benefit Ranjit Nagar, South Patel Nagar, Pandav Nagar and
Khampur.
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Lawyers
protest razing of 142 chambers Sonepat, September 16 An emergency meeting of the District Bar Association was also held under the presidentship of Mr Prem Atrey, president of the association. It decided to extend support to the agitating lawyers of Kaithal. The strike by the lawyers has hit the functioning of the judicial courts in the city and elsewhere in the district. Ad hoc teachers’ demo:
According to a report, they submitted a charter of the demands to the Deputy Commissioner urging the state government to withdraw the powers from the zila parishads for posting of the primary schoolteachers, remove the anomalies in the pay scales and regularise the services of all ad hoc and daily wages teachers. According to another report, the residents of Jakhauli village held up the traffic on the link road in protest against the non-repair of the link road in spite of repeated representations to the authorities concerned. The residents of Jakhauli, Sewli, Aurangabad, Manoli, Aterna, Pabsara and Patla had been facing great hardships on account of non-repair of this road. Prohibitory orders:
According to a report, the order comes into force with immediate effect and will continue till September 28. This step has been taken to check the outside interference and menace of copying in the examinations. Meanwhile, the board has set up 17 centres for the middle and matriculation examinations and four flying squads in the district. As many as 11 centres will be for the matriculation and six for the middle standard examinations beginning from today. The exams will be conducted between 1.30 pm and 4.30 pm on the dates fixed by the Board. Body found:
According to another report, the police have found the body of an unidentified youth, lying on a road near Mundlana village and sent it for a post-mortem. The police believe it to be a case of road accident. |
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NCR
BRIEFS Sonepat, September 16 According to another report, a judicial Magistrate, Mr Sudhir Parmar, has imposed a fine of Rs 500 on a youth Virender of Panipat on the charge of chain-pulling and travelling without ticket in the train. Five other persons Amit of Rathdhana village, Vinod of Bhatgaon village, Baidyanath and Parkash of Bihar and Jaiveer of Harsana village were fined Rs 50 each by the court for travelling on a buffer of the train. Supplementary
exams Faridabad: About 12,000 students are appearing in the supplementary examinations of the Haryana Board starting today and ending on September 28. The authorities have set up as many as 16 flying squads including six teams of the education board, to check copying. A meeting of local administration was held here yesterday in which the centre superintendents were asked to take all measures to stop the menace of copying. While about 36 examination centres have been set up, Section 144 has been imposed around the centres. Consumer awareness The Laghu Udyog Bharti, an association of small industrial units and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has decided to organise an ‘awareness programme’ for consumers here on September 18. According to Shri Ram Agarwal, general secretary of the Laghu Udyog Bharti, the programme would be held at Magpie Tourist Co. DHBVN offers settlement scheme again Bhiwani:
The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has decided to once again offer an attractive scheme to all its consumers of domestic, non-domestic, industrial agriculture and bulk supply categories with effect from September 15 for settlement of cases out of court. While stating this today, a spokesman of the Nigam said that the scheme aimed at avoiding prolonged litigation and settle pending court or arbitration cases. The scheme would remain operational up to October 15, 2003. The scheme would be applicable in case all disputes were pending in courts or in arbitration as on July 31, 2003 and still pending on date of settlement wherein the defaulting amount involved was up to Rs 5 lakh including surcharge except for those cases where the dispute is on account of transfer of defaulters’ amount from one connection to another. He said that under the scheme, the DHBVN has offered the consumers to settle all those disputes out of court where penalty has been levied by paying only 50 per cent of the amount of initially assessed penalty along with simple interest at the rate of 12 per cent per annum on the unpaid balance amount of the reduced amount. Hooda to visit Kiloi Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, leader of the Opposition in Haryana Assembly would visit his assembly segment, Kiloi on September 19. In a statement here today, Prof Virender Singh, president, District Congress Committee (Rural) said the political activities of Mr Hooda had come to a standstill as he had been seriously ill since the accident in Hardwar on July 31. |
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DELHI
DIGEST New Delhi, September 16 DPCC opens training camp: Addressing the Congress activists, he said that the speed with which the development was carried out by the Congress government in Delhi was a remarkable achievement. The Congress government has always given due consideration to the problems of Delhiites instead of making vague promises. In the coming days, Delhi will achieve massive development as the government has tried to involve all sections of people so as to ensure that the benefits reached out to everybody to bridge the gap between city dewellers and those living in villages, JJ clusters and unauthorised colonies, he said. Walia’s call to check
mosquitoes:
Dr Walia informed that the Aedes mosquitoes that cause dengue breed in stagnated clean water at homes, work places and in surrounding places particularly in coolers, water tanks and unused broken articles, he urged upon the citizens to clean and mop dry desert coolers once a week. He also said that creation of mosquitogenic condition is an offence under the Municipal Laws and is liable to prosecution and fine up to Rs 500. Over 59 lakh houses were visited this year and the law was followed in a strict manner. As many as 23,110 houses were found to be breeding mosquitoes and 17,249 persons were served legal notices while prosecution was launched against 6,111 persons. The meeting was attended by the Principal Health Secretary S P Aggarwal, Dr R N Baishya, Municipal Health Officer Dr K N Tiwari and other doctors. |
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Liquor worth over Rs 1 lakh seized near Palwal Faridabad, September 16 The officials also raided a house in the NIT area and recovered about 106 bottles of English wine on Monday. Two separate cases have been registered in this connection. Despite occasional raids and checking by the authorities in the district, smuggling of illicit liquor has been flourishing. It is learnt that illicit liquor worth crores of rupees is pushed into the market every year. Although the Excise Department and police have recovered illicit liquor from individuals on a regularly basis, the quantity is rather small. It is reported that the mafia and the smugglers, who trade in such illicit liquor in large quantities, are hand in glove with the authorities and manage to carry on their business without detection. Moreover, in most cases it was only the drivers or the lower staff who were apprehended in such raids, an insider said. A large quantity of ‘low quality’ liquor from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are dumped in Faridabad, which is in great demand here. The Excise officials had also seized a truck in June, which contained illicit liquor worth over Rs 2 lakh. It was reported that liquor worth over Rs one lakh was also seized from Sector-24 here in May. According to reports, the Excise Department in the district had seized smuggled liquor worth about Rs 25 lakh in 2002. It is reported that illicit liquor produced in states such as M.P. and Rajasthan usually fetch double the price in Haryana. Moreover, Haryana is often used as a transit point to deliver illicit liquor to Uttaranchal, Himachal and other northern states. |
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Psychotropic
drugs seized from New Seelampur New Delhi, September 16 “The accused had been exploiting the drug addicts who could not afford to buy heroin. He was selling injections and tablets with impunity,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Narcotics) D L Kashyap. These injections, if taken, will keep the addicts under intoxication up to 16 hours, and if taken muscularly, they will be in trance up to 12 hours. The father of the accused is a registered medical practitioner and his brothers are also doctors. Businessman robbed
of Rs 2 lakh:
According to police, two youths in their 20s knocked at the door and said that they had come to give the wedding card of one of their relatives. The women welcomed the youths and offered them water. As they entered the kitchen to bring water, four other youths entered the house. They tied the women in a room and asked for the cash and jewellery. The women were so scared that they disclosed the place where the cash and jewellery had been kept. The youths decamped with the booty. The victims managed to untie themselves and informed A.K. Baba. Mr Baba reported the matter to the police. A case of dacoity has been registered in police station Hazart Nizamuddin. The police said that it could be the handiwork of known people who were aware of the victim’s background. |
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Woman
held for stabbing husband to death Rohtak, September 16 Impersonation case:
The supplementary examinations of middle, matric and senior secondary classes commenced today and would continue till September 25. Satish Kumar, a student of ninth class of Surya Public School here was taking the exam of tenth class in place of his cousin, Jai Prakash at IPS School today. It is learnt, Jai Prakash is admitted to ward number 4 of Pt B D Sharma PGIMS. Chain snatched:
Ms Rajrani, a resident of old Arya Nagar locality here stated in her complaint that two miscreants on a motorcycle snatched her chain and zipped away while she was going for shopping. |
Net services out of line for 10 days Sonepat, September 16 According to facility users—Sanjay Mudgil, Shushil Kumar and others, there are around 100 Internet consumers in the area. Whenever No. 172233 is dialled for availing the service, there is simply no response. Many subscribers tried to find out the results of Indira Gandhi National Open University on Internet, but they were disappointed. The officials of the Internet service take the plea that there is a fault in the local telephone exchange. However, the BSNL officers at Sonepat tell the complainants to inquire about the fault from Faridabad. The Faridabad authorities have other story to tell. They claim that if there was any fault at their end, it would affect the Internet services throughout the state. Hence, they plead, that the problem lies at Sonepat and the Sonepat authorities should be contacted for this. The subscribers allege that the BSNL authorities do not give satisfactory response to their complaints, sometimes telling that the fault would be removed with one or two days. |
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