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CM
optimistic about alliance with BJP Surjewala for LS poll in May-end India should have greater role in UN, says Swedish PM
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High Court FM’s sops disappoint
Haryana farmers Jaswant makes Haryana
industry happy CPM calls NDA sops immoral Students advised to face challenge of globalisation Technical training
for the poor Zakir,
Avedna surrender
Ambala
man wins first prize under small savings scheme
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CM
optimistic about alliance with BJP Jhajjar, January 10 “The INLD is one of the constituent partners of the NDA and his alliance with the BJP is continuing and will continue. The issue of seat sharing will be settled following the formal announcement of the Lok Sabha elections”, the Chief Minister informed a press conference in Bahadurgarh town here today. Ridiculing the BJP state leaders’ statements on organising anti-government demonstrations, the INLD leader remarked, “The local BJP leaders are immature and behaving like children”. He was returning from Delhi after attending the NDA meeting there yesterday and reportedly got an assurance on the alliance from the top BJP functionaries. Later, he went to Jasaur Kheri village to lay the foundation stone of a residential sector in the village. These sectors are also being developed by the Haryana Urban Development Authority
(HUDA). Five villages have been chosen in each block of the district, including Jasaur
Kheri, Matanhail, Jahajgarh, Badli. Speaking on the occasion he said the state government had decided to develop residential sectors in villages with all modern facilities. Shifting his speech to politics, Mr Chautala said while he had been laying five to seven foundation stones and inaugurating the projects daily, the previous chief ministers were just making false promises. He handed over a cheque for Rs 5 lakh to the Sarpanch of Jasaur Kheri village for making the main street
‘pucca’. |
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BJP should target
Cong not INLD, says
minister Panchkula, January 10 Talking to reporters here, he
said instead of speaking against the INLD, the BJP leaders should
target the Congress. He parried questions whether the INLD would go it
alone in the forthcoming elections, saying that only Mr Chautala was
competent to speak on the issue. Coming down heavily on the formulae
devised by the 11th Finance Commission to allot Budget to various
states, the Finance Minister alleged that the criterion adopted by the
commission penalised performing states. Haryana had incurred a loss of
about Rs 3,000 crore during the past four years as a major chunk of
the Central-sponsored schemes had gone to underdeveloped states. It
was wrong on the part of the BJP leaders to say that the funds on the
implementation of the announcements made under the “sarkar apke dwar
programme” were being spent out of the amount received from the
Centre He said the state government had to pay Rs 300 crore per year
to the Centre as cess on fuel and the current government had already
paid Rs 1,100 crore so far and received only Rs 174 crore under the
scheme. Haryana had a share of 1.02 per cent in the Central taxes but
according to the recommendations of the Finance Commission, the state
received a share of 0.94 per cent thus incurring a loss of Rs 1,107
crore. He said the state had a revenue receipt of Rs 3517.61 crore
from states and other resources during 1990-2000 which had now shot up
to Rs 6225.5 crore showing an increase of 77 per cent. Earlier, he
presided over a meeting of the District Public Relations and
Grievances Committee in which 16 complaints were brought to his notice
and 14 were redressed on the spot. The minister today suspended a
junior engineer of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam for
dereliction of duty. |
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Surjewala for LS poll in May-end Jind, January 10 Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala said that the Union government had announced tax sops with an eye on Lok Sabha elections. He said that the tax concessions would benefit capitalists and the multinational companies. He said government had made air travel cheaper by reducing the excise duty on Aviation Turbine Fuel. He said that this would also benefit rich people because usually rich people travelled by air. He said that the government has not reduced the price of diesel mostly used by the farmers and the common people. Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala said that the Union Government was working against the interests of the common people and the farmers. He said that the government had reduced the interest on the loans advanced by the banks to rich people for the purchase of cars and other luxury items. But has not reduced interest on the loans given to the farmers despite the
announcement by the Union Agriculture Minister, he said. Mr Surjewala said that with increase in the prices of diesel, fertilisers, seeds, insecticides and agriculture equipments the cost of agriculture production has increased. He demanded that rate of interest on agriculture loans should be reduced to six per cent and remunerative prices be given to the farmers. |
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India should have greater role in UN, says Gurgaon, January 10 The Swedish Premier also advocated joint efforts on the part of his country and India in key areas of security, conflict resolution and peace keeping in the world. He advocated elevated status for India in the UNO and said higher status should be granted to it as a matter of right. He emphasised that it was a big country in terms of population and it was only proper that it played a larger role in the UNO and multilaterlism. Mr Persson was here to inaugurate the National Headquarters of Ericcson India Private Ltd a Swedish multi-national firm that is considered to be a world leader in telecommunications. The firm has been associated with India for the past 100 years. In fact, Ericsson supplied its first product — manual switch boards — to India in 1903. Since then Ericcson has contributed in almost every facet of telecommunications in this country. Whlte speaking on the occasion he said India and Sweden were getting closer to each other. His assessment of India could be best summed up when he said: “We can maintain risk and peace.” While specifying that India was contributing to bring about global peace, he stressed that economic growth was important for peace. Dwelling further on the resurgence in the relationship between India and his country, he said it was diversifying. He listed out trade, industry, research and development, information technology (IT), telecom, bio-sciences, environment friendly technologies as the key areas where the two countries could confluence their interests in a big way. |
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Court drama
ends in
4 killings Gurgaon, January 10 Cashing the miscreants, the police killed three of them in Begampur Khatola village, about 7 km from the courts. The fourth person, Deepak, was nabbed in the court earlier, immediately after the firing. The district police chief, Mr Kuldip Singh Sihag, said the injured undertrial, Hemant was taken to Kalyani Hospital. He is said to be out of danger. When Hemant was taken out from a courtroom, the miscreants fired two rounds on him from close range. He was hit on the stomach and the bullet pierced out of his body. When the accompanying constable, Rajesh, tried to nab the culprits, they fired a shot, killing him on the spot. In the ensuing melee, another constable on duty in the adjacent room nabbed Deepak, with the help of the public and advocates. About eight rounds were fired by the accused. The other three accused made good their escape in a Maruti car. As the police launched a hunt for them, it received reports of a car being spotted near Behrampur on the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway. The police gave the vehicle a chase. According to Mr Sihag, when cornered, the miscreants abandoned the vehicle in the fields of Begampur Khatola village. When the police closed in on them, they opened fire. The police returned the fire killing them. A carbine and two 9mm revolvers were seized from the spot. Two of them were identified as Ishwar and Rajesh. Rajesh is from Jhajjar district. Hemant was an undertrial in Bhiwani jail. He was produced in the local court pertaining to a case here. He faces several charges, including those relating to murder. He belongs to Gurgaon. According to the police, the members of a gang headed by Sandeep of Garholi village in this district, are responsible for the shootout. Sandeep is said to be nursing a grudge against Hemant. He has gone underground. The police is on the lookout for him. |
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High Court Chandigarh, January 10 The directions were issued by a Division Bench, comprising Mr Justice G.S. Singhvi and Mr Justice Hemant Gupta, on a petition for restraining the state, the university and other respondents from shifting the project from the village. Taking up the petition, the Bench further directed that the inquiry should be conducted by “an officer not below Financial Commissioner’s rank”. The petition was, however, dismissed in default as no one appeared for the petitioners. The Judges, meanwhile, directed that “accountability of those responsible for wastefully spending the public money” should be fixed. Necessary action should also be initiated for the recovery of the amount, the Judges added. Speaking for the Bench, Mr Justice Singhvi asserted that a copy of the inquiry report should be produced before the Court within four months “so that further direction, if considered necessary, can be given for ensuing the recovery of public money spent for construction of roads and boundary walls at the site which was wholly unsuitable for establishing the Regional Centre”. The Judge further directed that a copy of the order should be given to Haryana’s Senior Deputy Advocate-General Jaswant Singh for being forwarded to the Chief Secretary for compliance. In its petition, village gram panchayat had initially sought the issuance of a writ in nature of mandamus or other appropriate directions for restraining the respondents from shifting the locus of the project from Mirpur village in Rewari district. SHO shifted After a Faridabad district resident accused the Station House Officer (SHO) of a police station in Palwal of threatening him, Mr Justice Nirmal Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed Senior Superintendent of Police concerned to shift the officer to a non-public-dealing post. The petitioner, Mr Ashok Kumar, had submitted that SHO Krishan Kumar, along with Deputy Superintendent of Police Raj Singh, were pressurising him to withdraw his petition for transfer of investigation in the matter. Going into the background of the case, the petitioner had submitted that he had initially filed a complaint before the police after a water purifier he purchased for Rs 2.8 lakh turned out to be defective. But instead of returning the money, he was pressurised by the police and the accused, the petitioner submitted. The case will now come up for further hearing on January 12. |
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FM’s sops disappoint
Haryana farmers Chandigarh, January 10 In fact, suspicion appears to be predominant in the minds of state government officials here in the wake of the steps proposed by the Finance Minister.An official here said announcements made by the Central Government earlier regarding bringing down the interest rate on agricultural credit to 9 per cent from 11 per cent had created a lot of excitement among the farmers. Their hopes were, however, dashed were to the ground when it was found that the reduced interest rate was applicable only for loan up to Rs 50,000. Loans normally taken by farmers are mostly above that amount for which the interest rate of cooperative sector banks continues to remain 11 per cent. Calling the previous step by the centre regarding reduction in interest rate as "simply eyewash", officials here said that further reduction in the interest rate of agricultural loan would benefit the farmers only if the credit limit was increased substantially. On other aspects of the Finance Minister's proposal such as the creation of a corpus for supporting agricultural infrastructure, the officials remained non-committal and said whether or not there would be any tangible benefit to Haryana from the fund could be said only when the details of the proposal were available. Prior to his announcements for the farm sector, Mr Jaswant Singh had announced similar sops for the urban middle class which drew some scathing criticism from Haryana Congress leaders, including the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who accused the Central and state governments of being indifferent to the farmers. Mr Hooda said the Central Government had increased the minimum support price of wheat by only Rs 10 in this season even though prices of diesel, fertiliser and other farm inputs had gone up manifold. |
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Jaswant makes Haryana
industry happy Panchkula, January 10 In a statement here, Mr C.B. Goel and Mr
Rajneesh Kumar, president and general secretary, respectively of the
HCCI, said the cut in the customs duty and abolition of surcharge
would bring the Indian duties on a par with ASEAN and give a boost to
the Indian economy. They said the relief in the import of iron and
steel would bring down the prices of the vital commodity which was a
raw material to all engineering industrues. The reduction in the
customs duty on the non-ferrous metal would help the electrical goods
industry and the auto-parts industry. The reduction of duty on the
capital goods might have a negative impact on the margins of capital
goods industry but would lead to increased order, thus giving a fillip
to the economy, they said. The reduction in the customs duty on power
plants from 25 per cent to 10 per cent would benefit the SEBs and
transmission companies. The relaxation of the bureaucratic controls
for senior citizens and the salaried class would lead to the
consumption of consumer durables and the IT industry, they said. |
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CPM calls NDA sops immoral Rohtak, January 10 Talking to newsmen here, he said the CPM believed in the principle that there should be no taxation without representation. Therefore, announcing such drastic measures outside Parliament was uncalled for. Mr Mohlla said although the CPM had no objection to the NDA’s plans for an early Lok Sabha poll, it was against such announcements as these undermined Parliament. He said the sops would benefit big multinational companies and industries only and not the common man. |
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Students advised to face challenge of globalisation Yamunanagar, January 10 Dr Singh said boundaries between subjects such as Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and environmental sciences were becoming indistinct. Dr Singh said the Congress represents more than 12,000 scientists from the country. He said we had to inculcate scientific culture in the minds of younger people. He informed that the 92nd session of the Congress to be held at Ahmedabad from January 3 to January 7, 2005 would focus on “Health Technologies for the Nation Development”. Dr Singh lauded Guru Nanak Khalsa College especially Mr Bhupinder Singh Jauhar, Chairman, for bringing revolution in the field of education in this part of the country. Dr S.P. Singh, Professor, Emeritus, Kurukshetra University asked the students it was an era of competition where only the fittest survives. |
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Technical training
for the poor Nilokheri (Karnal), January 10 This was decided at a meeting of local NGOs and officials of the lead bank, small scale industries, NABARD and NDRI held here under the chairmanship of Dr Surat Singh, Director HIRD. The training is being imparted under Swaranjayanti Grameen Swai-rozgaar Yojna (SGSY), initiated by the Union Ministry of Rural Development. The ministry has agreed upon to release at least a sum of Rs 4 crore for the four-year-long project. |
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Zakir,
Avedna surrender Ambala, January 10 The application filed by Avedna Sharma through her counsels stated that the petitioner had been named as an accused in a case at police station Mahesh Nagar, Ambala Cantt, and was wanted by the police. “The petitioner surrenders before the court in the case as the said police station falls within the jurisdiction of the court. It is, therefore, prayed that a notice of this application may kindly be issued to the police and appropriate order regarding the custody of the petitioner passed,” the application stated. An FIR was lodged in this regard on August 24, under Sections 419, 420, 465, 467, 471, 506, 295, 124 A, 153 A, 363, 366, 120 B and 216 of the IPC. Avedna had gone missing two days
after her marriage with a Delhi-based man in July last. Avedna had
apparently disembarked from the train while the couple was travelling
to Jammu. She had gone missing from Ludhiana.  |
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Iodine deficiency in rural Haryana Chandigarh, January 10 Dr Rukhsana, after visiting villages in the Raipur Rani block, had prepared a report which was forwarded to the Haryana health authorities. “Though there has been a lot of improvement after the project was started but we found that in some of the villages people do not have access to iodised salt as it is not available at shops,” said Dr Arun K. Aggarwal, Assistant Professor in the Community Medicine Department. The team of doctors from the PGI also found that some of the salt brands labelled as iodised did not have the requisite iodine content which could lead to deficiency disorders. “Though every health sub-centre has been provided with an iodine testing kits provided by UNICEF. These are not available in the market so salt cannot be tested anywhere,” Dr Aggarwal said, adding that such kits should be available in the market as it would enable the frequent testing of iodine content. He said the project had been able to send across the message to villagers that the use of iodised salt was a must to prevent deficiency disorders. Sarpanches of these villages have requested the doctors to provide them with the testing kits. |
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Ambala
man wins first prize under small Panchkula,
January 10 He was speaking
at a function organised for the draw of lots under the Haryana Small
Savings Prizes Scheme here. A total of 9,768 cash prizes worth Rs 1.09
crore were drawn for the investments made between April 1 to September
30, 2003. The first prize worth Rs 5 lakh went to coupon No. 3528118
belonging to an investor from Ambala. Two second prizes worth Rs 3
lakh each were won by coupon Nos. 2261949 of Kurukshetra and 2683923
of Jind. Five third prizes worth Rs 2 lakh each were won by coupon Nos
4388677 (Karnal), 2545987 (Jhajjar), 1497575 (Sirsa), 4770872
(Yamunanagar) and 3394118 (Ambala). The Financial Commissioner and
Principal Secretary, Finance, Mr Chander Singh, said the draws were
conducted in a timely manner. The Commissioner and Secretary, Ms
Anuradha Gupta, also spoke on the occasion. |
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Two killed in accident Ambala,
January 10 |
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