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Congress presents chargesheet
Lack of enthusiasm for Cong rally
Gotra row: Ashish, Darshana return home after 4 years
3-member panel to probe into cheating case
‘Rs 934.47 cr spent to augment water supply’
Suraj Bhan to visit house of rape victim in Bihar
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HUDA Administrator clueless on draw date
Help have-nots live normal life: Kidwai
Workshop begins
Man kills
wife
Website launched
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Congress presents chargesheet against
Chandigarh, November 14 Perhaps he was not aware when he made this allegation before the last Lok Sabha elections that the Choudhary Devi Lal Memorial Society, a closely-held organisation of the first family of Haryana, got a valuable piece of land from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on the recommendation of the former BJP president, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu. This has been brought out in the charge-sheet submitted by the Haryana Congress to the Governor, Dr
A.R. Kidwai, here today. Mr Naidu, who was then the Union Minister of Rural Development, wrote to the Union Minister for Urban Development, Mr Ananth Kumar, that the Choudhary Devi Lal Memorial Society, 100, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, has been set up “to establish, carry on and maintain agricultural, irrigation, public utility and charity, social, educational and recreational activities for the benefit of the general public in the memory of the late Ch. Devi Lal, former Deputy Prime Minister of India”. Urging, Mr Ananth Kumar, to consider the case of the society for allotment of land, Mr Naidu, informed him that it had already submitted the project report and other necessary papers to the DDA. Mr Naidu, wrote the letter on May 17, 2002, when the state unit of the BJP was pleading with its Central leaders to reconsider the party’s ties with the INLD. In the 131-page chargesheet (including eight pages of photographs), the Congress accused the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, and his family of having amassed assets worth crores of rupees after coming to power. The chargesheet was submitted by a delegation led by the Haryana Congress president, Mr Bhajan Lal. The chairman of the party committee, which framed the chargesheet, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala; Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Mr Birender Singh, both former party presidents; Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, officiating leader of the CLP; Mr Karan Singh Dalal and Mr Jagdish Nehra, both members of the committee; were among those who were in the delegation. Mr Surjewala, who summarised the chargesheet before the Governor, said before 1977 when the Chautala family came to power for the first time, it owned merely 32 acre of agriculture land. But now the family was “among the richest, if not the richest, political families of the country”. He pointed out to the Governor how a Kaithal-based journalist, Mr Parmanand, who was later murdered, presented a gold brick to, Mr Chautala, in the presence of the then Chief Secretary. He said the rules provided that any gift worth more than Rs 5,000 received by a Chief Minister must be deposited in the state exchequer. But the gold brick was never deposited in the government treasury. Mr Hooda, told Dr Kidwai, that the government had made a mockery of the recruitment process. He said while one daughter of the Director-General of Police, Mr M.S. Malik, had been recruited as an HCS officer, his other daughter had been appointed Drug Inspector. Mr Birender Singh, too spoke about several alleged corrupt practices adopted by the Chief Minister and his family to make money. The chargesheet gives details about various properties owned by the first family, including minor members of it, in various cities and towns of the country. It also highlights how the family collected money in the name of donations to various trusts floated by it. It alleges that money was collected by giving concessions to various builders and individuals in places where the land prices were very high. Though the chargesheet avoids naming the builders, the annexures attached with it is telling. The annexures include a bank statement of the Choudhary Devi Lal Memorial Society in which several cash transactions worth lakhs of rupees each have been shown. Under the law, no cash transaction more than Rs 20,000 is allowed. The chargesheet says the various modes of making money included misuse of provision for change of land use, illegal mining, auction of liquor vends, extortion from industrialists, local area development tax and exemption from it, grant of no-objection certificates for petrol pumps, misappropriation of funds collected in the name of the former Fiji Prime Minister, government purchases and allotment of various tenders. The delegation was also accompanied by Mr Mohan Jain, former Advocate-General of Haryana, who virtually drafted and finalised the chargesheet. His 12-member staff remained busy for the past fortnight in preparing computer printouts and even binding the copies of the chargesheet. |
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Lack of enthusiasm for Cong rally
Karnal, November 14 Factions of the top leadership of the party, including those of Mr Bhajan Lal, a former Chief Minister and President of the HPCC, Chawdhary Birender Singh, a former President of the HPCC, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, MP from Rohtak, and Mr Shamsher Singh
Soorjewala, a veteran leader, are trying to isolate each other. The local MP, Dr Arvind Sharma, who is in charge of organising the rally, is in a tight spot due to factionalism in the district, besides his own weaknesses. Ms Sumita Singh, president of the state unit of the Mahila Congress, Mr Suresh Gupta, organising secretary of the HPCC, Harvinder Kalyan, secretary of the HPCC, and Mr Zile Ram Sharma, district president (rural), all loyalists of Mr Bhajan Lal, have not worked together for the rally. Except Mr Kalyan, who has toured as many as 104 villages on the Gharaunda area in the past two weeks, none of the above mentioned leaders has gone out to seek support for the rally. Sidelined by local leaders within the same
faciton, Dr Sharma had visited only a few areas of his parliamentary constituency. Leaders from this faction, including city president of the Congress Tarlochan Singh, have not shown much interest in canvassing for the rally. No public announcements have been made and neither has the media been invited to cover the rally. The local MLA, Mr Jai Prakash Gupta, MLA from Indri, Mr Bhim Sen Mehta, and district president (urban) of the party Suresh Gupta, confidants of Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, have shown little interest in the rally since the rally is being projected by Mr Bhajan Lal to please the party high command. Senior Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Janardhan
Dwidvedi, in charge of the state affairs of the party, will address the rally. Loyalists of Chowdhary Birender Singh and Mr Shamsher Singh
Soorjewala, both former presidents of the HPCC, have adopted a positive posture towards the rally. Political observers say the division among local leaders and party workers of the Congress had surfaced in the recent past, particularly after the election of Dr Arvind Sharma, an outsider (not a resident of district Karnal), to the Lok Sabha. Moreover, there are a number of claimants for the party ticket from the Karnal Assembly constituency who are aligned with different factions of the party. |
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Gotra row: Ashish, Darshana return home after 4 years
Jaundhi (Jhajjar), November 14 The couple, determined to make a homecoming, could not wait for November 16, the date fixed by the panchayat of Dagar and Gahlawat Khaps last week, and shifted to their parental house on Divali even without informing the police and away from the media glare. Their realignment with villagers was almost complete as no one from the village objected to the couple’s return to their house and even some of them wished them a happy Divali. The district police come to know about their shifting to the village only yesterday and dispatched a police party to provide security to the family. The SP, Mr Mohammad Akil, called the couple to his office today to know about their wellbeing. He assured all help to them. When a police team led by DSP Teeka Ram visited the couple in the morning, Ashish said he had no inhibitions or ill will against anyone and he wanted to start his life afresh. He told the DSP that he was feeling secure at his home now. Darshana was seen busy putting her house in order that was lying unattended for long. She felt that after passing through painful conditions, they would return to normal life soon. Members of their family, including their grandmother Chameli and uncle Birender Singh, were also feeling relieved. The couple had been making efforts to get the decision of the Khap panchayat scrapped that ostracised and exiled them for life from the village following a controversy over their marriage. Ashish, a Dagar, had married Darshana from Gahlawat family. The panchayat maintained that marriage between these two gotras was unacceptable. However, motivated by Sonia’s bravery in another gotra episode in nearby Asanda village, the couple approached the court and the district administration seeking their rehabilitation. The village panchayat, in a meeting held on November 9, had allowed their partial rehabilitation asking them to live in the fields outside the residential limits. Ashish had later requested to allow him to live in his parental house keeping in view his poor financial condition. Mr Vinod Kumar, husband of Sarpanch Pushpa Devi, said they had no objection to Ashish’s residing in the same house and they would obey the orders of the district administration. He said the situation was normal in the village and Ashish had been mingling with villagers. The DSP said a police party had been posted at Ashish’s house as a precautionary measure. |
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3-member panel to probe into cheating case
Sonepat, November 14 Meanwhile, the police teams that were sent to raid Manohar Lal’s suspected hideouts in Delhi have reportedly returned empty-handed. Manohar Lal has cheated hundreds of depositors of around Rs 30 crore and has been missing for the past one week. Mr Umed Singh of Nathupur village told mediapersons that he deposited Rs 8 lakh in the post office on February 28, 2002. A few days back, he contacted Manohar Lal, who used to work as small savings agent for the post office. He told him that an interest amount of Rs 2 lakh had been deposited in his account. “But when I went to the post office for making a withdrawal, the official concerned informed me that the amount had already been withdrawn from my account,” Mr Umed Singh said. How it could be possible without the involvement of post office officials, he said. Similarly, Nirmala Devi, Manjit Singh, Vinod, Ashu, Anju, Mool Chand, Fateh Singh Batra, Jai Bhagwan Sharma, Maan Singh, Kela Devi, Ram Rati, Surat Singh and many others have alleged that withdrawals have been made from their accounts without their signatures. According to the police Manohar Lal has reportedly contacted the family of his friends, Jagdish Gulati, in Delhi on mobile phone saying that he was in Singapore at present and would return after 10-12 days. The police has asked Jagdish Gulati to come to Sonepat for an inquiry. The Superintendent of Police, Mr Kuldeep Singh Sihag, said Manohar used mobile phone number 98217-03042 for contacting Jagdish’s family. “In fact, when Manohar Lal’s phone call came, Jagdish was reportedly out of his house and the call was received by his wife,” he said. |
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‘Rs 934.47 cr spent to augment water supply’
Fatehabad, November 14 The Chief Minister was addressing villagers after inaugurating the water works at Kukaranwali village in this district. The project had been completed at a cost of Rs.92.50 lakh. The project would facilitate in providing 70 litre per capita potable water to 4000 odd population of the village. Mr Chautala said the Haryana Government had set up 306 new waterworks, 899 new tubewells and augmented the capacity of 652 waterworks in the state during its present term of five years. He added that water channels for supplying canal water to 220 waterworks in the state had so far been made ‘pucca’ while open channels of 192 waterworks had been replaced with RCC pipes. The pumps of 424 waterworks had been replaced and 681 shallow tube wells had been installed to supplement the water supply to waterworks getting their supply from canals. The Chief Minister said when Haryana was first carved out as a new state in 1966, only 170 villages out of a total of 6745 villages had the facility of piped water supply. He said in the current year alone, Rs 1.44 crores had been spent on supplying 70 litre per capita water to 557 villages of the state and added that a further sum of Rs 1.27 crore would be spent on augmenting the water supply of 557 more villages. He said a sum of Rs 194 crore would be spent on 294 waterworks schemes in 14 districts of the state, including, Fatehabad district under the Nabard scheme. The Chief Minister also inaugurated a waterworks scheme at Dhabi Khurd village in this district yesterday. Ms Vidhya Beniwal, MLA from Darba Kalan, Mr
S.B. Munjal, Chief Engineer, Public Health, Mr Mahtab Singh Sehrawat, DC, Fatehabad and Mr Saurabh Singh, SP, Fatehabad were present on this occasion. The Chief Minister also laid the foundation stone of a primary health centre
(PHC) at village Pilimandori village. The Health Minister, Dr M.L. Ranga, the Director-General of Health Services, Haryana, Dr B.S. Dahiya and local MLA Swatantra Bala Chowdhary were also present. |
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Suraj Bhan to visit house of rape victim in Bihar
Ambala, November 14 Talking to Chandigarh Tribune he said he would also visit the residence of the Dalit girl of Madha village which falls in Vaishali district. She was allegedly raped and later murdered by some persons stated to be close to a leader of the ruling party there. He said the commission had received a complaint in this regard by the family of the deceased. Mr Bhan said he had summoned the Director-General of Police and Director-General of Health, Bihar, on November 2 at Delhi to assess the follow-up action of the Bihar administration in this case. He said the administration had compensated the victim’s family by providing simply one quintal of wheat so far. He said he had received the information that all necessary tests were conducted on the rape victim which could have raised suspicions on the role of police and the health authorities there. He said the victim was not provided security despite threat to her life which made her an easy target. She was raped on August 15 and was later murdered on August 26 this year. He allegedly said the police would not be able to prove the charges of rape, as it had not taken up this case seriously. The FIR was lodged after two days of the incident. When asked whether he had written any official letter to Chief Minister of Bihar Ms Rabri Devi in this regard, he said the commission had been investigating the matter at its own level. He however said he would recommend the state government to add the section of atrocities in the FIR registered against the alleged rapists of the Dalit girl. |
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HUDA Administrator clueless on draw date
Gurgaon, November 14 The draw had been fixed for October 29 but the applicants who had assembled at the local HUDA Gymkhana Club got a shock when they were informed that the draw had been called off. The confusion was confounded as HUDA officials were not in a position to say whether the draw had been shelved or cancelled. They were surprised to find a posse of policemen at the venue. The HUDA, Administrator, Gurgaon, Dr P.K. Verma, said he had no clue as the decision was made by the government. The dominant view is that the government has collected about Rs 1,500 crore from the applicants as earnest money. The number of plots which were claimed officially to be disposed of was 3,200. However, it dwindled to 2,000 and later to 1,700. One does not know for sure how many plots have been reduced from the original plan. However, the applicants say that the government attributed it to litigation on the land concerned by villagers. |
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Help have-nots live normal life: Kidwai
Rohtak, November 14 Presiding over the state-level Children’s Day function here, he said, according to the latest census, 5 per cent of the country’s population was handicapped in one way or another. Of these, 2 per cent were mentally challenged. It was the duty of society at large to ensure that this section was not deprived of a chance to live a life as close to normal as possible. The Governor said the government alone could not provide the care and special attention this section of the population required. If their lives had to be changed, the entire society of “haves” had to step in and complete this Herculean task, he said. Mr Kidwai inaugurated the newly set up computerised Sharda Library at the local Shravan Institute of Special Education and Research and the Shravan Centre for Rehabilitation of the Mentally Challenged Adults. He lauded the district administration for setting up the institute at a cost of Rs 1.11 crore in record time with public donations in kind. He said other districts should follow the example set by Rohtak and establish centres for the handicapped on similar lines. He ensured all help to the administration for introducing the M Ed (special education) course from the next academic session. The Governor distributed ATM cards and passbooks among mentally challenged adults who would be lodged at the centre for the rest of their lives. |
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Workshop begins
Fatehabad, November 14 Addressing mediapersons before the inauguration of the workshop, Mr R.C. Jagga, general secretary of the SKS, said that both the central as well as the state government had been adopting policies which were detrimental to the people. He alleged that the governments had bid good-bye to the concept of a welfare state and were exploiting common people. He said that services like education, health, transportation, power, water supply and sanitation were being privatised and hence commercialised. |
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Man kills
wife
Jhajjar, November 14 According to the police, Surender Singh, an ex-serviceman, hit his wife, Sushila, with a rod in the morning. She was rushed to the PGIMS, Rohtak, where she died later. The police has registered a case under Section 302 of the IPC on the complaint of his son, Amit. The complainant said his parents were not having cordial relationship for a long time as his father suspected the character of his mother. |
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Website launched
Ambala, November 14 Called "anchorplus.net" and "anchorplus.com", the website offers domain name registration, website designing, hosting the website and submission and promotion. "I have learnt the nitty gritty of computers myself. I have worked hard to ensure that a website is created which can be useful to all," said Mr Vij. Mr Vij said that anchor plus network solutions also provide facility for website promotion. "The website is simple and user-friendly. Everything has been explained step by step so no body will face any difficulty. We have domain name profile creation, search engine submission and search engine ranking facility," he said. "Anchor Plus maintains 99.99 per cent uptime, we offer personalised name servers in the company's name and dedicated |
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