 |
|
HVP to
go it alone in LS poll
Over 10
former MLAs to join BJP, says Mehta Probe
demanded into ‘police action’ against YC activists |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
LS poll
to test Dalit influence Sonia
to visit 3 districts soon Ex-MP
claims victory for Congress Family’s
own language! Reconnection
charges of tubewells cut DGP
presides over college function One
gets life term for murder 700
attend science day celebrations
|
|
HVP to go it alone in LS poll Jind, February 29 Mr Bansi Lal said the law and order situation in the state was bad and alleged that the INLD government was protecting criminals. He said after coming to power, the HVP government would improve law and order situation on priority basis and the criminals would be put behind the bars. Referring to the electoral alliance, Mr Bansi Lal said the HVP would contest coming the General Election alone. He said the BJP had deceived him earlier while he was Chief Minister of Haryana from 1996 to 1999. He said out of 11 BJP MLAs, he had inducted eight BJP MLAs in his ministry and three MLAs were appointed Chairmen of different corporations. He said in spite of this, the BJP tried to pull down his government. Speaking at the meeting, Mr Surender Singh, secretary-general of the HVP, said the Chautala government was pursuing anti-people policies. He said the government was working against the interests of all the sections of society. Mr Kanwal Singh, Chairman, Parliamentary Board, HVP, Mr Chattar Singh Chauhan, Mr Harish Kumar, Mr Jagbir Singh Malik and Mr Balbir Saini were among those who addressed the meeting. |
|
3 BJP activists
killed on way to rally
Ambala, February 29 Addressing the rally, Mr Pramod Mahajan raked up the issue of foreign origin of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. “We cannot allow a person of foreign origin to become Prime Minister,” he said. He said Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee is a statesman of international stature. “There is no comparison between Mr Vajpayee and Ms Sonia Gandhi. Under Mr Vajpayee’s leadership, the nation has grown from strength to strength,” he said. Criticising the road show of the Congress President, Mr Mahajan said “only foreigners need to carry out a road show since they have not seen it before. We have grown up and lived our life here.” He said that voting will take place in Ambala on May 10. “May 10 is a historical day since the first war of independence started on that day. In 1947, the `Whites’ were forced to leave the country. On May 10, the electorate must ensure that no `White’ should come to power,” he stated. Taking a dig at the morning’s incident of black flags being shown by Congress activists, Mr Mahajan said he feels happy when such incidents take place. “I know that our message has gone home,” he said. “We cannot compare Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee with Ms Sonia Gandhi. As a matter of fact, the Opposition is without leadership,” he added. Mr Mahajan said eminent people from different walks of life are joining the BJP. “Politicians, filmstars and Navjot Sidhu has joined us. There is no option for the Congress as they have let people down”. Union Minister Mr I.D. Swami said under the leadership of Mr Vajpayee, India has made giant strides in different fields. Among others, Mr Sat Narain Jatia, Mr Ashok Pradhan, Prof Ganeshi Lal, Mr Ratan Lal Kataria, Mr Vir Kumar Yadav, Mr Bharat Bhushan, Mr Kanwar Pal Gujjar, Ms Kamla Verma, Mrs Veena Chibber, Mr Faqir Chand Aggarwal and Mr Ranbir Fauji were present. Later, BJP leaders went to meet the injured activists at Civil Hospital, Ambala City. The injured persons said the accident took place near Anaj Mandi when they were headed towards the rally venue. They said the tractor-trailer turned turtle. Two of the activists died on the spot while the others were rushed to the Civil Hospital. Another person died at the hospital. Out of the 12 persons who were injured, three of them are stated to be in a serious condition.  |
|
Over 10 former MLAs to join BJP, says Mehta Ambala, February 29 Talking to mediapersons here, Mr Mehta said the former MLAs were likely to join the BJP at a rally to be held in Ambala City on February 29. “The BJP rally at Ambala City will showcase the support which we are receiving from the people,” he said. Mr Mehta added that senior party leaders, including Mr Pramod Mahajan, the party president, Mr Venkaiah Naidu, and Mr Rajnath Singh will address the rally. He said outgoing MP Ratan Lal Kataria had carried out considerable work in the villages, which had brought about all round development. “Mr Kataria had spent more than Rs 14 crore in his tenure. It is clear that the people want Mr Vajpayee to become Prime Minister again,” he said. Meanwhile, Atal Sandesh Yatra was taken out in the Naggal area by organising a motorcycle rally. The rally was flagged off by Mr Ratan Lal Kataria. The rally was led by Mr Mange Ram Panjail. The rally passed through
Adhoya, Adhoi, Ugala, Subri, Rajokeheri, Barara, Sarakpur, Sohana,
Mullan, Kalpi and Nahauni. |
|
Probe demanded into ‘police action’ Ambala, February 29 The demonstration by the Youth Congress activists reportedly turned into a verbal altercation and delayed Mr Mahajan near the Model Town crossing for a few minutes. While seven Congress activists reportedly sustained injuries, five others were rounded up. Mr Pramod Mahajan made a passing reference to the incident during his speech at the well-attended BJP rally. The media in charge of the Congress for the Ambala Lok Sabha seat, Mr Pradeep Chauhan, criticised the police action on the activists during a “democratic demonstration” and demanded that the Youth Congress activists, who were rounded up, should be released immediately. We are going to meet the Superintendent of Police and apprise him of the correct situation, he said. Mr Chauhan stated that they had planned to show black flags to Mr Pramod Mahajan to protest against his remarks made against Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her children, Priyanka Vadra and Rahul Gandhi. “We waited near the Rest House at Ambala Cantonment at about 11 a.m. However, we learnt that Mr Mahajan may drive down from the airport so we changed our plan. Since we did not know the route, we reached the Model Town crossing,” he said. Mr Chauhan said that at 12.40 p.m., when Mr Mahajan’s motorcade reached the spot, the activists began showing black flags and we raised slogans. However, Mr Mahajan used intemperate language, he alleged. “Following that, a few Youth Congress activists got onto the bonnet of the vehicle in which Mr Mahajan was travelling.” The police mercilessly beat up the Congress activists, he said. Mr Chauhan said that the activists who were injured included Mr Bhoom Singh Rana, Mr Tarun Chugh, Mr Chetan Chauhan, Mr Ajay Saini, Mr Rajdeep Singh, Mr Sanjeev Kumar Bhola and Mr Jitender Gupta. He said that the Indian Youth Congress President, Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala, had been apprised of the incident. “Mr Surjewala strongly criticised the incident,” he added. |
|
LS poll to test Dalit influence Chandigarh, February 29 While the Bahujan Samaj
Party (BSP) claims that it has become strong enough to contest all 10 Lok sabha seats in the state on its own, the Haryana unit of the Confederation of SC/ST and BC Organisations is also flaunting its influence among the Dalits to step up pressure on the government for fulfilment of their demands. There is only one BSP legislator in the 90 member Haryana Assembly and no representative from the party from Haryana in the Lok Sabha. But Mr Ashok Sherwal, President of the Haryana BSP, claims that the scene has undergone a change during the past three years and the BSP has emerged as a strong force in the state. “We have strengthened our organisation in the state and set up units in every district and block. This would pay off at the time of the elections, he said and added that Ms Mayawati would announce the names of BSP candidates at a rally at Rohtak on March 10. “Our leader has asked us to prepare for all the 10 Lok Sabha seats and we are doing accordingly. She will decide on alliance also,” he said. Mr Narender Kashyap, a member of the UP Legislative Council and in charge of the BSP in Haryana, claimed that the Dalits of Haryana had already identified with the BSP and that they would go along with them. Mr Karamveer Singh, President of the Haryana unit of the All India Confederation of SC/ST and BC Organisations, has threatened that they will put up candidates under the name of the Justice Party in the Lok Sabha elections. The confederation, which got a lot of media coverage due to its drive to convert Dalits into Buddhism, has also announced a series of public meetings to mobilise opinion against the Om Prakash Chautala-led government. Starting from February 29, the public meetings will be held at Yamunanagar, Chandigarh, Tohana, Fatehabad, Hisar, Rohtak, Kalanaur, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Dadri, Kanina, Narnaul and Rewari. The confederation’s complaints against the state government are mostly related to Dalit employees. The most serious charge brought by the confederation against the state government is while the government, in a recent decision, has regularised thousands of ad hoc employees with minimum three years service, it is yet to regularise the casual workers from the Scheduled Castes who are working as sweepers in schools and other institutions for at least 10 to 15 years. Haryana has over 20 per cent voters from the Scheduled Castes. In the last Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, most of these votes went to the INLD-BJP alliance if the results of the reserved seats are taken as an indication. The Congress is also traditionally strong among the Dalits. |
|
Sonia to visit 3 districts soon Bapauli (Panipat), February 29 Criticising the feel-good factor campaign launched by the BJP to woo the voters, a senior Congress leader, Mr Arjun Singh, said the BJP was playing with the sentiments of the people. The party had done nothing to feel good about anything. Talking about Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mr Arjun Singh said the BJP had been using Vajpayee as a mask to woo the voters. The party had no other thing to highlight in the elections, he said. |
|
Ex-MP claims victory for Congress Yamunanagar February 29 He said he would contest the Lok Sabha poll from Kurukshetra constituency if the party high command gave the green signal. On asking about that if party high command give ticket to any outsider then what would be the fate of Congress, Mr Tara Singh refused to comment. |
|
Family’s own language! Ever heard of a family which speaks
its own ‘language’ and nobody else outside the family has any clue of
what they are speaking. The Walia family of Ambala Sadar used to
speak in their own language. The language was spoken and not practiced
in a written form. The ‘language’ is based on Hindi, but does not bear
resemblance to any other language. Mr Vishwa Prakash Walia said the
language was developed by the family after 1942. “We were young when
this language was developed. My elder brother, the late Dr Chandra
Narain, developed this language.” They would speak in the unique
language whenever they were in company and they did not want others to
understand what they were speaking. “It was particularly useful while
conversing in front of servants since they could not follow what we
were speaking,” he said. Mr Walia said the language was spoken by his
brothers, Mr Suraj Narain, Dr Chandra Narain, Mr Hari Kumar, himself
and his nephew. “My mother as well as my niece could understand what
we were saying.” He said the ‘language’ was developed on the
principle of prefixing and suffixing certain Hindi alphabets to each
word. “For instance, the word ‘Tera’ in Hindi would become Tes Mera
and the word ‘Khana’ would be spoken as Khas Mana,” he said. “We were
using the alphabets ‘Sa’ and ‘Ma’ to change the word.” Mr Walia said
gradually with the passage of time, nobody in the family used the
language. Mr Nem Chand Jain of the Ambala Cantonment Traders
Federation said the ‘language’ spoken by the Walia family was unique.
“I remember that the brothers would speak in their own language. We
would not be able to follow what they were saying. The linguistic
effort was indeed commendable.” |
|
|
Reconnection charges of tubewells cut Hisar, February 29 Mr Bhoop Singh Rathee, Chairman of the corporation, announced this here yesterday while addressing a meeting of local officials of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN). He said there was a long standing demand of farmers of Haryana to reduce re-connection charges of permanently disconnected tubewells as the charges of re-connection were equal to the charges of releasing a new tubewell connection. Considering the demand, the corporation had reduced the charges to Rs 3,000 during the last kharif session. Now, the corporation further reduced it to Rs 1,000 only. He said with the start of the next financial year, the corporation would also start releasing tubewell connections within one month of depositing all charges. Under this scheme, the charges against only that number of applications would be accepted for which connections could be released within 30 days. In the areas, where demand of new tubewell connections was relatively higher, the work for releasing of connections might be given on contract to avoid unnecessary delay. He said the pace of release of new tubewell connections in Haryana had gained momentum with the purchase of 12,000 transformers of 25 KVA capacity and one lakh poles at a cost of Rs 38 crore. Over 6000 transformers were being purchased to meet requirements of other sectors, he said. Mr Rathee said if a farmer, in the area of the DHBVN, came forward to get regularised the unauthorised extension of load voluntarily, his load would be regularised without imposing any penalty. Under this scheme, the farmer would have to deposit Rs 100 per kw extended load as Advance Consumption Deposit (ACD). There would be no need to go the Nigam office after submitting the farm for extension of load completing all formalities. The extended load would automatically be regularised after one-month period of depositing of the ACD. |
|
DGP presides over college function Jind, February 29 Dr Malik persuaded the students to avail themselves of the sports incentives being offered by the state government. He said sports schools at Nidani like Chaudhary Bharat Singh Memorial Sports and Bhai Surinder Malik Sports School had produced nearly 40 wrestlers of international repute. Dr Malik also gave away prizes to students. A cultural programme was performed by students. The Principal, Mr Karan Singh Duhan, spoke on the occasion. |
|
One gets life term for murder Ambala, February 29 According to prosecution, Kehar Singh, a resident of Jharmari village, had owned land in Sonta village. He had given a part of his land to a person on lease. On November 2, 1998, he went to village Sonta to lease out the rest of the land. When he did not turn back even after two days, his grandson Gurwinder along with his uncle went to village
Sonta. Some of the villagers told Gurwinder that Kehar Singh was seen with Maya Chand, Amar Singh and Nachatar Singh two days back in the village. On the basis of suspicion Gurwinder filed a complaint against the three in the Naggal police station. The police arrested Maya, Nachatar and Amar in this regard. The court on Saturday sentenced life imprisonment to Maya Chand. Another accused Nachatar Singh was convicted for five years by the court. Amar Singh was acquitted by the court. |
|
700 attend science day celebrations Kurukshetra, February 29 Addressing the concluding function, Science’ Faculty, Dean of Kurukshetra University, Dr L.R. Kakkar, called upon the students to take all aspects of life scientifically. To make the science popular among the students, various science competitions were organised on February 26. 27 and 28. About 700 students, from Class I to X from various schools in and around Kurukshetra, participated in the three-day celebrations. |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
