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INLD candidate files 2 sets of nomination papers BJP has punished none for corruption, says Chautala Chautala govt to fall within 3 months
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INLD nominee discloses assets
BJP fields Jaibeer Godara from Hisar Fourteen candidates from various parties in Haryana filed their nomination papers for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections on the second day today. These included two candidates of the Indian National Lok Dal, Transport Minister Ashok Arora from Karnal and sitting MLA Balwant Singh from Ambala. Surjewala no more in rebellious mood He may have caused a flutter by quitting the Indian Youth Congress President's post over the denial of the ticket to him, but Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala is no more in a rebellious mood. In fact a programme scheduled for tomorrow gives the impression that Mr Surjewala is going overboard to show his loyalty to the party. Haryana body to contest SGPC poll The Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee has appreciated the fact that general elections to the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee are to be held on July 11, a notification for which has been issued by the Chief Gurdwara Election Commissioner in Chandigarh. Witness, another shot dead in murder case Two persons, Sewa Singh and Mahender Singh, residents of Jind city, were allegedly shot dead in the local Rohtak Road area in broad daylight today. According to reports, Sewa Singh and Mahender Singh were sitting on the premises of the office of the local Truck Operators union when some motor cycle-borne armed persons came and resorted to firing, killing Mahender Singh on the spot. Students’ technical symposium concludes A two-day state-level students’ technical symposium, Technizance’04, concluded at the Jubilee Hall of the National Institute of Technology here today. Events such as Interface, a general paper presentation contest, Mechvibes, a mechanically oriented paper presentation contest, Ad-Lib, on-the-spot programming contest, Build-Em-All, electronic modelling and quizzes like Nimbus and Savante were held on the inaugural day of the Technizance’04 celebrations. Doctor detained for questioning On the basis of revelations made by Harjit Singh, alias Kala, a dreaded terrorist, a police party from Ambala today raided the house of a Ratia-based doctor in this district and took him away along with a youth.
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INLD candidate files 2 sets of nomination papers Karnal, April 17 He arrived at the Returning Officer-cum-District Magistrate’s office at about 11.15 a.m. along with a few workers and filed his nomination papers at 12 noon. His covering candidate, Mr Hans Raj, also filed nomination papers. Then both of them went to the site where the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, was about to address a public gathering. At the site of the rally, Mr Arora came to know that the party organisers had planned to file the nomination papers of both the candidates by going to the DM’s office in a huge procession to show the party’s strength, especially after the split with the BJP. Soon after the rally was over, the organisers asked the gathering to come along with the candidate in a procession to the DM’s office to file his nomination papers. The candidate again came to the DM’s office leading a huge procession. Mr Arora addressed the gathering using loudspeakers fitted on an open jeep on the premises of the government building without seeking permission from the DM’s office. Later, accompanied by his supporters, Mr Arora again entered the Civil Secretariat building and filed another set of nomination papers at 1.47 pm. Party sources said Mr Chautala was himself likely to accompany the candidate to the DM’s office to file the nomination papers at 12 noon. The Chief Minister’s schedule was slightly changed at the last minute following a protest by the dismissed employees of the Minor Irrigation Tubewell Corporation (MITC) and shortage of time. Therefore, Mr Arora and his covering candidate were forced to file their nomination papers without pomp and show. However, he was forced to come again to pacify the huge gathering that was told by the party organisers to accompany the candidate to file the nomination papers. Regarding the violation of the code by allegedly using loudspeakers on the premises of a government building, the local election office was yet to serve a notice to the candidate. Meanwhile, the District Magistrate-cum-Returning Officer of Karnal, Mr RS Doon, has asked candidates of all parties, particularly the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr I.D. Swami, and the State Transport Minister, Mr Ashok Arora, to stop using red lights on their private vehicles with immediate effect. |
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BJP has punished none for corruption, says Chautala Karnal, April 17 Addressing a gathering, held to support the INLD candidate from the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency, Mr Ashok Arora, here today, he took a dig at the BJP’s feel-good factor and lashed out at the Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, on the issue of her foreign origin. On the swadeshi and Hindutva issues being raised by the BJP, the INLD leader said the BJP leaders were playing in the hands of foreign powers. He also talked about the rising prices of essential commodities like kerosene, sugar, diesel, petrol, edible oil and cement and said one wondered if the trend was contributing to the feel-good factor. He said the Union Government had given a number of incentives to the capitalists in its last Budget whereas the economic interests of the farmers, the labour class and employees were not safeguarded. These classes of society were mired in poverty without efforts to uplift them by the Union Government, he said. Lashing out at the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on his comments of “zero tolerance” for corruption, he said it was paradoxical that despite scams worth thousands of crores no one had been punished on account of corruption under his regime at the Centre. He also warned the people of the “communal” designs of the PM with regard to his recent promise of construction of the Ram temple at the controversial site in Ayodhaya, if voted to power. The CM said elections should be contested by following healthy traditions of a democratic system without hurting the sentiments of any community. Each political party should contest the election on the basis of its policies and programmes, he added. He spoke about the foreign-origin issue of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and said that the senior leadership of the party was confused over the selection of her name as primeministerial candidate. Meanwhile, the dismissed employees of the Minor Irrigation Tubewell Corporation (MITC) today gathered here to protest against the
Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, and raised black flags. As many as 60 dismissed employees even tried to block the road on the CM’s route in the city but the local police detained them. |
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Chautala govt to fall within 3 months
of poll: Hooda Jhajjar, April 17 Mr Hooda, who is the Congress nominee from the Rohtak parliamentary constituency, said the outcome of the Lok Sabha poll would also set the political momentum for the Assembly elections scheduled for next year. He said he had been making efforts to serve the people of the state and proposed his own candidature for the office of Chief Minister, if the Congress came to power, asserting that his contesting the parliamentary poll would not block his way to Chandigarh. He disclosed that the main aim of contesting the elections was to reach Chandigarh via Delhi. He was interacting with lawyers at Bahadurgarh yesterday. Raising the issue of discrimination against different parts of Haryana in the matter of development, Mr Hooda said: “The south Haryana region, particularly old Rohtak district, has been ignored by successive Chief Ministers due to the policy of regionalism adopted by the state government, adding that Rs 300 crore was spent in the Chief Minister’s constituency while other areas were neglected due to the scarcity of funds. |
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Balwant Singh files papers Ambala, April 17 INLD President and Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala addressed a public meeting at Ambala Cantonment before the filing of the nomination papers. Former Bahujan Samaj Party state president Ashok
Sherwal, who recently joined the INLD, will be filing his nomination as the covering candidate. Addressing the gathering at Gandhi Maidan in Ambala Cantonment, Mr Chautala said. “British were forced to leave the country and we had hoped that when our own government was formed, it would work for our welfare. But, the Congress has let us down. In national interest, we extended unconditional support to the BJP-led NDA government. But the BJP failed as an alliance partner.” Mr Chautala said whenever any public interest Bill was needed to be passed in the Assembly, BJP MLAs would vote against it. “The BJP lacks individualism in Haryana. Whenever they have contested in the past, they have fared miserably. In 1991, they had fought alone and secured only two seats,” he added. He said the INLD had always worked for fulfilling Devi Lal’s dream. “He had a vision for uplifting the lives of farmers, poor, downtrodden and marginalised sections of society. We are working towards fulfilling his vision,” he added. Mr Chautala said the state had never witnessed so much development before. “The Congress in Haryana is following double standard. When, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh takes action against Parkash Singh Badal, they say the Punjab CM is good. But, when I take action against the corrupt, they think otherwise,” he said. He said the Haryana Government was keen on taking over private sugar mills for the benefit of farmers but the Central Government did not give its approval. “Even the Union Budget given has given sops to the rich but there is nothing substantial for farmers,” he said. “BJP is thinking that they have done well in the recent Assembly poll in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. But, the fact is that the people had voted against the Congress and not in favour of the BJP,” he stated. Mr Chautala said thousands of Army men, hailing from Haryana, had made the supreme sacrifice while fighting militants. Later, Balwant Singh along with other party leaders went to the Deputy Commissioner’s office to file his nomination papers. In his affidavit, Balwant Singh declared moveable and immovable assets worth Rs 40
lakh. Balwant Singh owns six acres and four marla of land worth Rs 18.70 lakh in
Ghel, Chuhurpur and Bhogpur villages and has investments worth Rs 4.31 lakh. He owns three vehicles, including a Scorpio and an Accent car, with a total worth of Rs 10.62 lakh. He owns 380 grams of jewellery worth Rs 2
lakh. Balwant Singh has shares of the Oriental Bank of Commerce for Rs 36,000, while his policies amount to Rs 13 lakh. He has Rs 3.28 lakh in five different bank accounts and three fixed deposits. |
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INLD nominee discloses assets Sirsa, April 17 According to the information, Dr Sushil Indora had admitted that he owned Rs 1.58 lakh in cash and Rs 59,463 in bank. He had MEP and MasterGain worth Rs 8,000, policies worth Rs 6 lakh and gold jewellery worth Rs 18,000. He also owned three cars and a scooter. Giving the details of his immovable property, he said he owned plots worth Rs 17.70 lakh in Fatehabad, a kothi worth Rs 13.32 lakh, besides his share in the paternal property that amounts to Rs 1.77 lakh. Mr Nirmla Indora, wife of Mr Sushil Indora, according to the affidavit, owned jewellery worth Rs 2.4 lakh, policies of 3.5 lakh, NSCs of Rs 42,000, proprietorship of Indora Filling Station, Fatehabad, worth Rs 5.12 lakh, a building worth Rs 11 lakh and cash of Rs 15,208. Dr Sushil Indora had also given the details of the property in the name of his mother who had gold and silver of Rs 96,000, Rs 10,000 in cash and agricultural land worth Rs 50,000. |
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BJP team to visit villages in Haryana Ambala, April 17 The president of the state unit of the BJP, Prof Ganeshi Lal, today said a five-member team — Mr Krishan Pal Gujjar, Mr Ranbir Singh, Mr Sarvanand Arya, Mr Narsingh Sherwal and Prof Ganeshi Lal — would visit various villages of the state. He said the team would visit villages in all 10 Lok Sabha constituencies. “We will hold extensive interaction with villagers. We started the village outreach programme yesterday and it will continue till April 30. We will cover 1,000 villages in the next fortnight,” he said. Prof Ganeshi Lal addressed meetings in Bilaspur, Sadhaura, Sarawa, Mustafabad, Boodhia, Khizrabad and Chhachhrauli yesterday. Today, he addressed meetings at Ambala Cantonment, Ambala City and Raipurani. “We have already declared candidates for nine Lok Sabha seats, while the 10th candidate will be announced later today. The BJP was the first party to announce five candidates. As part of our strategy, we announced four candidates later. We deliberately left out Hissar,” he said. Prof Ganeshi Lal said: “We are going to achieve better success this time. Voters in Haryana are politically aware and they will cast their vote in the favour of the BJP since they want to see Mr Vajpayee get another term in the office”. He opined that there would be no fallout of the Lucknow incident on electioneering in Haryana. “The Lucknow incident is an unfortunate incident,” he said. He said they were planning to hold major rallies in the state. |
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BJP fields Jaibeer Godara from Hisar Chandigarh, April 17 In a press communique issued here, the BJP said Mr Godara is a member of the national executive of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. He was also vice-president of the Haryana unit of the BJYM, the communique said and added that Mr Godara and Mr Mahavir Prasad from Sirsa were the two young leaders put up by the party in Haryana. The communique added that Mr Arun Shouri, Union minister, will come to Haryana on April 25 and participate in "intellectuals' meets" which were being organised as part of the BJP's election campaign. |
14 file papers in Haryana Chandigarh, April 17 These included two candidates of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Transport Minister Ashok Arora from Karnal and sitting MLA Balwant Singh from Ambala. The other contestants are Mr Atam Prakash (Kurukshetra), Mr Hans Raj Badhla (Karnal), Mr Anup Singh and Mr Ranbir Singh (both Rohtak), Mr Subhas Baghol (Faridabad), Mr Ved Prakash
(Mahendergarh), Mr Mehta Anup Kumar, Mr Mangal Singh Pooran Mal (all from Bhiwani), Mr Ryar Chand and Mr Naresh (both from Sirsa). |
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Surjewala no more in rebellious mood Chandigarh, April 17 In fact a programme scheduled for tomorrow gives the impression that Mr Surjewala is going overboard to show his loyalty to the party. Mr Surjewala, it was learnt, has called a meeting at Narwana tomorrow to urge his supporters to vote for Mr Jai Prakash, Congress candidate for the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency. Mr Surjewala was considered a firm favourite in the race for the Congress ticket for the constituency but Mr Jai Prakash was eventually given the ticket following insistence by Mr Birender Singh, Congress leader from Haryana and member of the party's Central Election Committee. Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Leader of the Opposition in the Haryana Assembly, also opposed Mr Surjewala's candidature. Mr Surjewala, who was an MLA from Narwana, has a substantial following in the constituency. The IYC chief, it was claimed by a source close to him, had called the meeting tomorrow so that Mr Jai Prakash could get enough votes in the Narwana segment of the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency. Given the level of infighting in the Haryana Congress, Mr Surjewala's altruistic plan looks bizarre. Moreover, Mr Jai Prakash himself is not expected to turn up at the meeting. A veteran Congress leader, however, explained tomorrow's programme at Narwana saying that Mr Surjewala was only completing a formality. "Otherwise the party will take exception," he said. Though Mr Surjewala's first choice was Hisar, he was reportedly open to the idea of fighting from Kurukshetra and intimated this to the party in writing. When it became clear that he would not be considered for either of the two constituencies, he resigned because he apparently found it too embarrassing to head one of the party's frontal organisations after being denied ticket at the last moment. Though his resignation was rejected by Ms Sonia Gandhi, Mr Surjewala returned to his Panchkula residence yesterday. Sources said he was expecting to be formally relieved from the IYC chief's post after the Lok Sabha poll. |
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Haryana body to contest SGPC poll Kurukshetra, April 17 In a statement issued here today, the HSGPC ad-hoc general secretary, Mr Didar Singh Kamboj, said his organisation would contest the elections on its own. He said Sikhs in Haryana had been struggling for the past four years for the establishment of a separate gurdwara prabandhak committee for the state. The SGPC elections would be fought on this issue and the HSGPC would put up candidates dedicated to this cause. Mr Kamboj said a meeting of the HSGPC executive would be held at Dera Kar Sewa here on April 25. |
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Witness, another shot dead in murder case Jind, April 17 According to reports, Sewa Singh and Mahender Singh were sitting on the premises of the office of the local Truck Operators union when some motor cycle-borne armed persons came and resorted to firing, killing Mahender Singh on the spot. Sewa Singh, who was seriously injured in the firing, died on way to hospital. The assailants, whose number was said to be three, fled on their moto cycle after committing the crime. Old enmity is said to be the cause behind this double murder. It is learnt that Chand, Sunil and Pawan, three family members of the late Sewa Singh, were shot dead in front of the local Chamber Dharamshala in October 2002, due to the enmity. The police had arrested a few persons in this connection and the trial of the murder case was going on a court in which Sewa Singh was reportedly one of the witnesses. It is alleged that to eliminate the witness, Sewa Singh was shot dead today. The police has registered a case under Section 302 of the IPC against Purshotam, Vinod and Sushil at the local city police station in connection with the murder of Sewa Singh and Mahender Singh. |
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Students’ technical symposium concludes Kurukshetra, April 17 Events such as Interface, a general paper presentation contest, Mechvibes, a mechanically oriented paper presentation contest, Ad-Lib, on-the-spot programming contest, Build-Em-All, electronic modelling and quizzes like Nimbus and Savante were held on the inaugural day of the Technizance’04 celebrations. These events elicited much response from the crowd. Events like CYBERBYTE, CIVIERA and a working model contest, Nirmaan, were held on the second day which saw some creative entries from students. An item, Heroes of Haryana, depicting an Indian astronaut, Kalpna Chawla, Indian cricketer Kapil Dev, a martyr, Major Nitin Bali, and political leader Sushma Swaraj, was also presented. Mr H.S. Saggu and Mr Arun Malhotra spoke about their experiences in entrepreneurship in an industrial organisation and in marketing. Earlier, in his inaugural address, the NIT Director and Technizance’04 patron, Dr S.N. Mahendra, laid emphasis on the virtues of sharing knowledge and enlightening society. He also spoke on the importance of creating confidence among all, including the budding engineers. Teams from more than 10 colleges participated in Technizance’04. |
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Doctor detained for questioning Fatehabad, April 17 Kala had taken the house on rent and lived there for about three months. A police party from Ambala had earlier raided the house and seized 20-25 cartridges. Mr Balbir Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), said the Ambala police had arrested Harjit Singh, a dreaded terrorist of the Khalsa International, after an encounter a few days ago. He was wanted in connection with over a dozen murders. During his interrogation it was learnt that he had been living in the rented accommodation and working as a financier. Today the police had raided the house owned by Dr Bhagwan Dass and detained him and a youth, Tony. The DSP clarified that so far no link of the doctor with the terrorist had been established, The police had taken him in custody for interrogation. |
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Wheat crop, husk destroyed Jind, April 17 According to reports wheat crop was destroyed in about 100 acres while wheat husk in about 500 acres. Fired tenders were summoned from Kaithal, Karnal, Panipat, Hansi and Jind. The Deputy Commissioner ordered a special “girdawari” to assess the loss. |
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Cheques distributed Fatehabad, April 17 |
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