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Rao Narbir Singh, Bawal join BJP Chandigarh, April 28 The Haryana BJP got a big boost in the Ahirwal belt of the state today when two former ministers, Rao Narbir Singh and Mr Jaswant Singh Bawal, joined its ranks.
BJP ridicules promise on jobs
Chhattisgarh BJP leaders to campaign against
Jindal
BJP deputes star campaigners in
Haryana
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Retrenched staff to oppose
INDL, BJP
Hooda lambasts INLD,
BJP
BJP to deploy women workers at polling booths Dalit samiti not to support BSP, BJP HVP, Cong leaders join
BJP BJP candidate
visits Naggal villages SAD (Haryana)
sets condition to support BJP
BKU to support Cong in seven
constituencies
INLD
candidate visits villages
Poor response to proxy
voting
Poll will be fair, says DGP Lal
37 patrol parties for Yamunanagar
TV programme on elections
HIGH COURT
Workshop focuses on clean milk production
Train accident averted
HAU releases list of refresher
courses
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Rao Narbir Singh, Bawal join BJP
Chandigarh, April 28 The BJP candidate, Mrs Sudha Yadav, who was a member of the dissolved House also, is facing a tough challenge from Rao Inderjit Singh of the Congress in the Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency. Along with Rao Inderjit Singh, Rao Narbir Singh is also a force to reckon with in the Ahirwal belt. Earlier Rao Narbir Singh was with the late Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal in the late 1980s. However, before 1996, he joined the Haryana Vikas Party of Mr Bansi Lal and became a minister. Within three years, Rao Narbir Singh parted company with the HVP supremo and joined the Indian National Lok Dal of Mr Om Prakash Chautala after the fall of the Bansi Lal government. Within months of the formation of the Chautala government, the Rao, a rebel at heart, could not pull with the INLD leader. Rao Narbir singh had been in political wilderness since 1999. He was arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act last year and had to spent several months in jail before he was bailed out. The Rao and his supporters allege that the case against him was an an act of political vendetta. When he was released from jail, a large number of his supporters gathered outside the jail to welcome him. Having a considerable influence in the Ahirwal belt, he should prove to be an asset for the BJP in future. Mr Bawal had also moved on to the INLD from the HVP. Now he has quit the INLD to join the BJP. |
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BJP ridicules promise on jobs
Fatehabad, April 28 He said after touring seven Parliamentary constituencies of Haryana, he was confident that the BJP would perform better than what it did in the last elections. Dr Arya said the BJP never believed in making false promises for winning elections and added that the party always believed in doing issue-based politics. He ridiculed at those parties that were promising a job in each family for the sake of getting votes. It was a big joke that in a state where a total number of government jobs was not more than four lakhs and about 10 per cent retire every year, how a party could claim of giving 50 lakh jobs in a year. Congress nominee Atma Singh Gill started his campaign in the Fatehabad Assembly segment from today. Mr Dura Ram, a nephew of HPCC chief Bhajan Lal, who was looking after the poll campaign of Mr Gill, claimed that a wave was blowing in favour of the Congress campaigning in over 24 villages of Fatehabad today, Mr Dura Ram and Mr Gill said the Congress would win all 10 seats in Haryana. Congress President Sonia Gandhi would address an election rally in favour of Mr Gill at Sirsa on April 29. The INLD candidate from Sirsa, Dr Sushil Indora, meanwhile, went to the local courts complex and sought support of lawyers. He also addressed a meeting of lawyers in the Bar Room. He said the Om Prakash Chautala government had broken all previous records of development and votes for the INLD would be construed as votes for development. The lawyers demanded construction of sufficient numbers of chambers in the new court complex. |
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Chhattisgarh BJP leaders to campaign against
Jindal
Kurukshetra, April 28 The BJP leaders say that Jindal does not deserve to enter Parliament as he played ‘dirty politics’ two years back in Chhattisgarh. “There are only two persons who polluted politics in Chhattisgarh — one is Ajit Jogi, who engineered defection of 13 BJP MLAs and the other is Naveen Jindal, who financed this dirty act,’’ alleges former Lok Sabha MP Chander Shekhar Sahu while talking to The Tribune over the telephone yesterday evening. The former MP said that he is coming over to Kurukshetra later this week along with a few other leaders of the BJP from Chhattisgarh. The BJP leader claims that Jogi has been voted out of power in the state, now it is Jindal’s turn. In 2001 Jogi got 13 BJP MLAs to defect to the Congress and four out of them later were inducted as ministers. The BJP got a setback in Chhattisgarh then and it took the party almost two years to recover from it. The BJP leaders from Chhattisgarh have also coined a slogan “Jogi-Jindal ki sarkar, ek dhakka aur do’’ for use in the campaign of their candidate Gurdial Singh Saini facing Jindal. The former MP said that we would tell people how Mr Jindal turned Raigarh into Jindalgarh by taking undue favours from Mr Ajit Jogi. He claimed that Jindal got many industrial projects cleared from the Chattisgarh Government through manipulation. Political analysts say that Mr Jindal who is giving tough fight to ruling INLD candidate and Chief Minister’s son Abhay Chautala and BJP candidate Gurdial Singh Saini might face a tough time. The BJP claims to make a dent in the traditional vote bank of the Congress by highlighting ‘misdeeds’ of Mr Naveen Jindal. |
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BJP deputes star campaigners in
Haryana
Gohana, April 28 BJP state general secretary Vir Kumar Yadav, who was in Sonepat to campaign for the BJP candidate, told TNS as the second phase of the poll was over, now the BJP was concentrating on Haryana, especially in Sonepat. The decision was taken yesterday by the BJP high command in Delhi. The party had deputed 12 senior BJP leaders, six state leaders, including Prof Ganeshi Lal, and 1.5 lakh workers in the state for campaigning. Mr Yadav said the BJP had launched vote and note campaign. Party leader started door-to-door campaigning for vote and fund. “We give party coupon to the person who donate in the fund. The party had also prepared video and audio cassettes highlighting the development work done by Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, during his terms. Mr Kishan Singh
Sangwan, BJP candidate in the Sonepat is strong enough to win the elections. Still we are not taking any chance, he said. |
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Retrenched staff to oppose
INDL, BJP
Fatehabad, April 28 He said it had been decided that families of the employees would oppose family members of the candidates of the INLD and the BJP whenever they visited their respective residences or villages for seeking votes. |
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Rohtak, April 28 Addressing an election meeting at the local Palika Bazar last evening, Mr Hooda alleged that the law and order situation in the state had been worsening ever since the Chautala government, supported from outside by the BJP, assumed office in 1999. Incidents of murder,rape, extortion, kidnapping for ransom and robbery had become the order of the day and the people of the state were feeling insecure, he said. —
PTI Kurukshetra, April 28 Addressing mediapersons, the morcha, president, Ms Rozy Malik, said she had called upon women activists to cast their votes fearlessly because womenfolk had been respected during the tenure of Prime Minister Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The morcha, general secretary, Ms Saroj Tanwar, BJP state working committee members Krishna Nagpal and Nishi Gupta, the BJP district president, Ms Nirmal Lathar, BJP state member Ved Kumari and hundreds of BJP women workers attended the meeting. |
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Dalit samiti not to support BSP, BJP Chandigarh, April 28 She said the samiti would also not support the BJP because it had ignored the Dalits and also tried to change the Indian Constitution framed under the late B.R. Ambedkar's guidance. The statement added that the samiti had decided to support various candidates of the INLD, the Congress and the HVP in Haryana, considering the personal commitments of these candidates for the welfare of the Dalits. The candidates the samiti would support were Ms Selja (Cong) from Ambala, Mr Ashok Arora (INLD) from Karnal, Ms Krishna Malik (INLD) from Sonepat, Mr Avtar Singh Bhadana (Cong) from Faridabad, Mr Surender Singh (HVP) from Bhiwani, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Cong) from Rohtak, Rao Inderjit Singh (Cong) from Mahendragarh, Mr Sushil Indora (INLD) from Sirsa, Mr Naveen Jindal (Cong) from Kurukshetra and Mr Jai Parkash (Cong) from Hisar.
Sirsa, April 28 Congress leader Ashish Arora also joined the BJP today at a function organised in the local main election office of BJP candidate Mahaveer Parsad. Welcoming the new entrants district president of the party Jaimal Singh said they had rejected dynasty rule and joined a political party connected with the national mainstream. Speaking on this occasion, Mr Parsad said people were tired of the Chautala government and saw little hope in the Congress. It was because of in fighting in the Congress Kumari Selja, elected twice from Sirsa, had decided to contest from Ambala. He urged party workers to work hard.
Ambala, April 28 He visited Shahpur Machonda, Dukheri, Mohri, Dhurala, Kalera, Jansui, Niharsi, Sonda, Sondi, Chormastpur, Balana, Matheri Sekhan, Gada Bada and Jalbera. Addressing a public meeting at Rasoolpur village, Mr Kataria said the future of the country would be decided by this election. Mr Kataria said under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, 31,000 villages had been connected by road. He said telephone facility, besides potable water and better health facility had been provided in villages. He claimed that he had various carried out development works in all villages in the Ambala constituency through the MPLAD Fund.
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SAD (Haryana)
sets condition to support BJP Ambala, April 28 The meeting decided that the request for support would be considered only if the BJP was willing to leave the Ambala seat in favour of the SAD Haryana candidate. SAD Haryana would extend support to the BJP in rest of the nine seats in the state. Chief General Secretary of the SAD(Haryana) Kartar Singh Takkar said they had discussed the letter and decided that they would extend support only if their demand for the Ambala seat was met. "We are happy to have directly received this letter since it shows that
SAD(Haryana) is now no longer receiving direction from Mr Parkash Singh Badal,” he said. |
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BKU to support Cong in seven
constituencies
Shahzadpur (Ambala),
April 28 The BKU President, Mr Ghasi Ram Nain, announced support to the Congress candidates in seven seats at a well-attended “Maha panchayat” held here this afternoon. “Till now, we have decided for seven seats in favour of the Congress. We will announce our decision regarding Sonepat, Bhiwani and Karnal soon,” he said. The Congress has received support from the BKU for the Ambala, Faridabad, Hisar, Kurukshetra, Mahendragarh, Rohtak and Sirsa seats. Mr Nain said the rally at Shahzadpur had not been planned in advance and he had come on the invitation of local people. “This is a panchayat of people who are dependent on agriculture. Farmers are unhappy with the government since their problems have not been solved. They have to run from pillar to post but to no avail. The government has ignored the issues concerning farmers,” he said. Mr Nain observed that farmers all over the country, irrespective of caste, creed or political affiliation, are suffering. “Farmers work hard. They toil in the hot and cold weather. Yet they are marginalised and they have to live below the poverty line. The conditions force farmers to commit suicide,” he said. He stated that there is less production per acre this year due to less rainfall. “From May end, we may begin to receive news about farmers committing suicide. The reason is very clear. Farmers are unable to fulfil the commitment of the commission agents and they do not have any money left. From where are the farmers going to pay for education, health and other basic amenities?” he asked. Mr Nain stated that there is no feel good factor in the country. “It is being said that India will be a developed country by 2020. I wish that we become developed by 2015 but will development help the farmers to be free from loans. I do not think it will remove unemployment,” he said. He queried, “Do MPs live in villages?”. MPs lose their love for villages when they are elected. Mr Nain said education had become a factory of industrialists. “Colleges cost crores to be constructed and the fees is beyond the reach of the poor farmers. We do not know whether we will be able to cast our vote since might rules here. We all know how the system works,” he said. He said exit polls are showing a hung Parliament and two phases of polling are left. “We must not cast our vote for the wrong person on May 10. The so-called intellectuals have misled us. They have brought in actors and dancers. We need to be together and think about casting our vote for the right person,” he said. Mr Nain said Mr Chautala had promised free power and water during last elections. “We supported the INLD but they let us down. The rate of horsepower in agriculture sector was hiked from Rs 65 to Rs 104 while the industry power rates witnessed only a 11 per cent hike. How can the INLD government say that it is farmer-friendly?” he asked. The Ambala Cantonment unit president, Mr Ashok Jain, welcomed the announcement made by Mr Ghasi Ram Nain. |
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INLD candidate visits villages
Ambala, April 28 The INLD spokesperson, Mr Bhag Singh Damdama, said Mr Balwant Singh was accompanied by Mr Pawan Dewan Saini, Mr Harbans Singh, Mr Gurdev Singh, Mr Jagir Singh, Mr Amrik Singh and Mr Gurpal Singh. TNS |
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Poor response to proxy
voting
Chandigarh, April 28 Sources at the Haryana Election Office reveals that the number of proxy voters registered by the office has not even crossed 100. This makes it just about 0.1 per cent of the registered service voters from the state. According to data complied by the office there are a total of 62,991 service voters in Haryana. This figure, which includes Armed Forces as well as paramilitary personnel pertains to personnel who are registered as voters in their home towns, but are posted elsewhere and hence are eligible to register proxy voters. Though the number of registered proxy voters in Punjab were not readily available, election officers feel that the figure could be similar to that of Haryana as the onus of registering proxy voters lies on the servicemen and their respective organisations. There are a total of 43,806 service voters, including paramilitary personnel, in Punjab. Grant of proxy voting rights had been a consistent demand of Armed Forces personnel and it had been raised at several forums numerous times in the past. Even ex-servicemen’s associations had campaigned vigorously for this demand. This demand was finally accepted by the government in September and this is the first time this right is being exercised by servicemen. Even formation headquarters had been repeatedly asking personnel down the chain of command to get themselves registered for proxy voting. As per procedure, Army personnel other than officers are required to submit their forms to their respective Regimental Centres, which maintains all their personal records. The centre in turn forwards the forms to the election authorities concerned. “The poor response could be because proxy voting is being tried out for the first time and information about it was not adequately disseminated,” a senior officer at the Haryana Election Office remarked. “Also, we received a large number of forms which were incomplete or incorrectly filled,” the officer added. Despite the proxy voting scheme being virtually a non-starter, there is still some hope for servicemen as they can cast their vote through postal ballots. “Proxy voting is an option with them. They can still exercise their franchise through postal ballots,” an officer said. Both Punjab as well as Haryana election officers despatched the postal ballots today. The postal ballot system too has its lacuna. In the 1998 general election, for example, less than 1 per cent of soldiers posted in the Western Command area were able to cast their votes because ballots did not reach them in time. |
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Poll will be fair, says DGP Lal
Kaithal, April 28 Mr Lal had taken over as DGP after Mr M S Malik had proceeded on leave till May 13, amidst protests by the BJP against his continuing in the office while his wife Ms Krishna Malik was contesting the Sonepat LS seat as Indian National Lok Dal candidate. Haryana would request for central forces, if needed Mr Lal said. The DGP asked district police chief Sukhdev Singh to provide special security to the Dalits of Harsola who had been camping here for more than a year now. The DGP, earlier addressed officers and jawans of his force here and asked them to perform their duty without fear or favour. |
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37 patrol parties for Yamunanagar
Yamunanagar, April 28 The Yamunanagar SP, Mr Rajinder Singh, said here today that demand for staff had been sent to the police headquarters. He said to ensure fair elections, they have demanded five DSPs, six inspectors, 116 ASIs and sub-inspectors, 202 head constables, 1085 constables and 859 Home Guards. He said there were 723 polling stations in Yamunanagar district out of which 101 had been identified as hyper-sensitive and 101 as sensitive. He said as per the directions of the Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana, the Deputy Commissioner and the SP would visit hyper-sensitive and sensitive polling booths. He said hyper-sensitive booths had been reduced to 50 and sensitive booths to 50 because villagers had assured them that there was no tension in their area. He said an officer of the DSP level and a sub-divisional magistrate would frequently visit sensitive polling booths. |
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TV programme on elections
Chandigarh, April 28 The programme will be shot on the top of a fabricated double-decker bus near Sukhna Lake, Chandigarh, tomorrow, stated a press release. The show will be hosted by Mr Sudhir Chaudhary, added the release. |
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HIGH COURT
Chandigarh, April 28 Taking up the petition, the Bench came down heavily on the petitioner, Dr. B. Singh, and while dismissing the writ imposed costs of Rs 25,000 on him. In his PIL, Dr Singh had said that if the Director General of Police can be ordered to be shifted on the ground that his wife is contesting the election, so he can influence the elections, the Chief Ministers of Punjab and Haryana should also be shifted on similar grounds. Pointing out that while the wife of Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh is a contestant from the Patiala Lok Sabha seat, the two sons of Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala are the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) nominees for Bhiwani and Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seats. Saying that politicians are being treated as super human beings by the Election Commission, Dr Singh has sought shifting of the two Chief Ministers for the same reason. He has also said that by not taking any action against the two Chief Ministers, the Election Commission has violated the spirit of the elections. SDM summoned A Division Bench of the High Court comprising Mr Justice Swatanter Kumar and Mr Justice Amar Dutt has summoned Sub-Division Magistrate of Panipat in the court on May 4. Giving this directions during hearing in a petition seeking action a probe by an independent agency such as the CBI into the manner in which the 587 acres of land in village in Panipat attached by the government was managed, the Bench also asked all the naib tehsildars, who have been in charge of the land, to file affidavits in the court in this regard. The land was attached by the government in 1982 after it became the cause of law and order problem among some parties. Claiming that the land has not been properly managed in all these years, resulting in huge loss of income, the petitioners have said that the loss should be recovered from the naib tehsildars who controlled the land. Interestingly, while the Deputy Commissioner of Panipat has told the court that the total revenue from the land so far is about Rs 7 lakh, the Naib Tehsildar of Bapoli sub tehsil, who is in charge of the land, has said that the revenue is somewhere around Rs 5 lakh. However, the petitioners have said that as per the going rate, the revenue should have been in crores of rupees. The petitioners have also requested that in view of the facts the Naib Tehsildar should be removed from the charge of the land. The case will now come up on May 4. |
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Workshop focuses on clean milk production
Karnal, April 28 He said: “The number of livestock needs to be fixed by upgrading their breed through introduction of good germplasm to enhance the milk production at minimum cost”. Dr S.S. Ghosh, Vice Chancellor of the West Bengal University of Fisheries and Animal Science, said the nation was expected to produce 300 million tonnes of milk per year by the year 2020 and the industry should be prepared to utilise this overproduction to gain more foreign reserves through exports. Dr Nagendra Sharma, the Director of the NDRI, said the governments should support the small farmers to improve their breed through improved germplasm so that the unwanted dairy animals are phased out in the coming years in a natural way. Dr U.V.S. Rana. Joint Director of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Dr Lino Componovo from Intervet, Switzerland; Mr Hemant Ogale, Managing Director of Delaval, Pune, and Mr Sohrab, a former Director of the Bureau of Indian Standards, presented their papers on “Animal Management: Aspects of Clean Milk Production” in the morning session. Dr S.R. Garg, Associate Professor from Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar; Dr A.K. Kaura, Director Dairy Development, Punjab; Dr G.R. Patil, Head of the Dairy Technology Division of the NDRI, and Dr S.K. Tomar, Senior Scientist from the Dairy Microbiology Division of the NDRI, presented their papers on “Processing and Marketing Aspects of Clean Milk Production” in the afternoon session. |
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Train accident averted
Sonepat, April 28 The train was running at full speed when its driver noticed the open railway crossing gate near Hindu College and vehicles plying on the tracks last evening, official sources said today. The driver braked and managed to stop at the signal, thus saving many lives, they said. — PTI |
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HAU releases list of refresher
courses
Hisar, April 28 Mr M.K. Miglani, Vice-Chancellor, said here today that refresher courses on agricultural research and extension management, computer application and human resources management would be meant for in-service scientists, teachers and researchers of the university and other agricultural universities, as well as ICAR institutes. Giving details of the courses, he said refresher courses in education technology, communication and reporting skills, research management, extension management, linguistic skills and computer education would begin on June 3, June 24, July 13, August 24, October 25 and December 8, respectively. Besides, advanced courses on food and environment security, statistical methods for agricultural scientists and upgradation of behavioral skills would also be held on September 27, November 17 and January 27, respectively. He said the Academy of Agricultural Research and Education Management of the university had decided to conduct the first session of Post-Graduate Diploma in Agricultural Journalism from August 3 to 12 and a short-term course on the use of ultrasonography in veterinary practices from September 13 to 25. A short-term training course on gender and development would also be conducted from January 11 to 21. Mr Miglani said so far, over 3,500 university teachers, research managers, administrators and policy makers from all over the country had been trained through various courses and
specialised training programmes conducted by the academy. |
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Dalit samiti not to support BSP, BJP Chandigarh, April 28 In a statement here today, Ms Seema Bahadur, president of the samiti, said the BSP was trying to gobble up all the Dalit movements taking place in various parts of the country. While the BSP was claiming that it was against the Brahmanical caste system, the real ideology of the BSP was "money making" and nothing else, Ms Bahadur said. She said the samiti would also not support the BJP because it had ignored the Dalits and also tried to change the Indian Constitution framed under the late B.R. Ambedkar's guidance. The statement added that the samiti had decided to support various candidates of the INLD, the Congress and the HVP in Haryana, considering the personal commitments of these candidates for the welfare of the Dalits. The candidates the samiti would support were Ms Selja (Cong) from Ambala, Mr Ashok Arora (INLD) from Karnal, Ms Krishna Malik (INLD) from Sonepat, Mr Avtar Singh Bhadana (Cong) from Faridabad, Mr Surender Singh (HVP) from Bhiwani, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Cong) from Rohtak, Rao Inderjit Singh (Cong) from Mahendragarh, Mr Sushil Indora (INLD) from Sirsa, Mr Naveen Jindal (Cong) from Kurukshetra and Mr Jai Parkash (Cong) from Hisar.
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