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Interim Budget of Rs 5,360 crore passed
INLD walkout on HSSC Bill
Retrenchment decision to be reviewed
Martyrs remembered
Punjab’s reorganisation
bred strife, feel scholars
Collisions leave 2 dead, 6 injured
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New train from Una to Ambala
Mustard production may go down by 10 pc
National law institute for Rewari
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Interim Budget of Rs 5,360 crore passed
Chandigarh, March 23 The Vote on Account for the first three months of 2005-06 was presented by the Finance Minister, Mr Birender Singh, and passed by voice vote. Moving the Bill, Mr Birender Singh said the new government would present the annual Budget in the next session of the Assembly. The interim Budget has a provision of Rs 939.74 crore for wheat procurement while Rs 52.91 crore has been provided for relief for those hit by natural calamities. In order to help Class IV government employees, Rs 15 crore has been earmarked to be distributed among them as wheat advance. Mr Birender Singh said adequate provisions had also been made for drainage and flood control and debt-servicing. Deviating from convention, the Speaker, Mr Harmohinder Singh Chatha allowed discussion on the Vote on Account when a former Finance Minister, Mr Mange Ram Gupta, and other Congress members made a request. He said the present government would come up to the people’s expectations through clean and transparent governance. He expressed his concern over rising revenue and fiscal deficits and debt burden of the state. He said: “The finance account for 2003-04 has reported a fiscal deficit at Rs 2933 crore. The debt liability has reached the level of Rs. 27485 crore, including state guarantees of Rs 5869 crore on March 31, 2004; as a result, the interest payments have increased to Rs. 2113 crore. The consolidated debt stock constitutes 36.66 per cent of the GSDP. Growth in these fiscal indicators needs to be checked and contained. A composite strategy of revenue augmentation, expenditure containment and debt management would need to be followed in order to achieve fiscal stability.” He said: “We propose to tone up and streamline the tax administration with the dual objective of public convenience and raising resources. Value added tax (VAT), which is a buoyant and transparent tax system, has been misdirected by the previous government. We would review various aspects of VAT suitably. We have also reversed the excise policy being followed by the previous Government and have prevented cartelisation and a monopolistic regime in liquor auctions. Now, it would be more beneficial to small players as well as the state exchequer. We also propose to simplify the rules and procedures of various taxes for better compliance.” While highlighting the priorities and commitments of the present he said government, the major thrust was on the building and improvement of the economic and social infrastructure in the spheres of power, irrigation, roads, education, health, etc, as it would help generate economic activities and gainful employment opportunities. He said the GSDP of the state at current prices recorded a growth of 12.8 per cent to Rs 74970 crore in 2003-04 from Rs 66,455 crore in 2002-03.
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INLD walkout on HSSC Bill
Chandigarh, March 23 The statement regarding the objects and reasons of the Bill said the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) was granted statutory status through an Act passed by the Chautala-led government in 2004. However, on reconsideration the present government found that there was no need for granting legal status to the HSSC, and, therefore, the Act was proposed to be repealed. Mr Indora opposed the Bill saying that while the existing Act was being repealed, there was no mention about what course the government would follow regarding various steps initiated by the HSSC. “What will happen to the candidates who have applied for jobs following vacancies advertised by the HSSC? What about those candidates whose names have been recommended by the HSSC for selection?” Mr Indora asked. Mr Indora’s protest attracted a sharp reaction from the Treasury Benches with Mr Ajay Singh Yadav, Irrigation Minister, and Mr Karan Singh Dalal leading the attack. While Mr Yadav said the government decision to strip the HSSC of its statutory status had been enthusiastically welcomed by people, Mr Dalal alleged that during the five years of the INLD regime, a number of scams had taken place in the commission. Mr Dalal said be it the recruitment of police sub-inspectors (SIs) or JBT teachers, the HSSC, during the Chautala regime, had selected persons on allegedly extraneous considerations. “Over 100 persons were selected by the HSSC for recruitment as SIs and 80 of them failed to pass a test when they were sent to the academy at Madhuban for training”, Mr Dalal said. He added that not only should the HSSC’s legal status be withdrawn, but those who were responsible for creating the mess in the commission should be prosecuted. Mr Naresh Sharma (Independent) alleged that INLD members were worried about the fate of certain candidates who managed to get their names recommended by the HSSC through illegal gratification. Even as the nine-member INLD group walked out of the House, the Bill was passed by the Assembly by voice vote.
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Retrenchment decision to be reviewed
Chandigarh, March 23 He was replying to the debate on the Haryana Appropriation (No 1) Appropriation Bill, 2005, in the Assembly. The Bill related to supplementary expenditure incurred by the previous government. Responding to INLD members’ criticism of the government’s decision to disaffiliate colleges from Ch Devi Lal University at Sirsa, the Finance Minister said in the original plan the university was perceived as a Centre of Excellence. As a matter of rule a university set up as a Centre of Excellence did not become an affiliating university at the same time. The decision to affiliate colleges to the university had sparked off widespread protests. The state government’s step to reaffiliate the colleges to the universities to which these were originally affiliated had been welcomed by the student community, he said. On the issue of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal, the Finance Minister said when the Punjab Assembly passed the Act relating to the abrogation of the water-sharing agreements between Punjab and other states, the Chautala-led government did not challenge the Act in the Supreme Court. “They did not approach the court because Mr Chautala wanted to derive political benefit from the Punjab Act”, Mr Birender Singh said. He added that despite the Congress being in power in Punjab, the Haryana unit of the Congress opposed the Punjab Act. The Act was ultimately sent for Presidential reference due to the pressure mounted by the Haryana Congress on the party’s central leadership. On the Congress MLA, Mr Chhatarpal Singh’s demand that the high fees paid by the previous government to lawyers for defending indefensible cases should not be approved by the present government, Mr Birender Singh said the government would consider the suggestion. The Finance Minister also announced that a comprehensive plan for village development would be presented during the Budget session of the Assembly to be held after three months. The Finance Minister said the government would consider modification of the value added tax (VAT) system in force in the state. Mr Karan Singh Dalal, Mr Sushil Indora, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala, Mr Ramkumar Gautam, Mr Sher Singh and Ms Anita Yadav were among those who took part in the debate. |
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Martyrs remembered
Hisar, March 23 A team of the Haryana Vigyan Manch commenced a drive to generate scientific awareness among people of the state on this occasion. The campaign, which started from the city today, will cover 15 districts and culminate at Rohtak on April 20. During their tour, members of the team will try to create scientific awareness through plays, songs and Haryanavi “ragnis”. Members of the team will also try to dispel certain myths prevalent among them. Members of the Shaheed Smriti Manch, Hisar, paid floral tributes at the busts of the martyrs at Bhagat Singh Chowk and Rajguru Market here. The local chapter of the Bharat Vikas Parishad and the District Congress Committee also remembered the martyrs on their martyrdom day. At a ceremony organised by the Jan Kalyan Sangharsh Samiti to pay homage to the martyrs, experts in different fields exhorted the gathering to follow their ideals. The speakers lamented the emergence of self-centred approach and growing indifference towards the nation and society. They also emphasised the need to inculcate the feelings of patriotism and nationalism among the children. |
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Punjab’s reorganisation
bred strife, feel scholars
Karnal, March 23 These views were expressed by a majority of academicians from various institutes of Punjab and Haryana who gathered at Dayal Singh College to present their papers in a seminar on “Impact of Linguistic Reorganisation on the Politics of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh”. The seminar was organised by the Political Science Department of the college in association with the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research here, today. Dr K.L. Johar, former Vice-Chancellor of Guru Jambeshwar University, Hisar, in his inaugural address said the biggest malady of the Indian politics was the emergence of regionalism due to linguistic divisions. Had the Union Government soon after the Independence implemented Hindi as a compulsory language in the schools and colleges throughout the nation, regionalism and communalism could not have emerged, he said. The weakening of the Union Government as a result of regionalism and communalism had also directly led to a decline in the process of political thought, he said. He also raised doubts whether concerted efforts were made to improve the status of the Punjabi language in Punjab after the reorganisation. Dr P.D. Sharma from the Political Science Department of Kurukshetra University was of the view that the reorganisation of Punjab in 1966 was not purely on liguistic lines but religion had also played a major role in the agitation that ultimately led to the formation of a Punjabi state. He said many inter-state problems between Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh had emerged after the reorganisation that could not be solved as on date. It had on times also increased social tensions within and outside Punjab when linguistic issues were confounded by the politics of communalism, he said. Taking a dig on the political parties of both Haryana and Punjab, he said none of the political parties was serious of solving the inter-state issues like SYL because the vote-bank politics. Dr Ramji Lal, Principal of the Dayal Singh College, highlighted the theme of the seminar and explained the status of various languages in the nation. He was of the view that politicisation of languages after the Independence had badly affected the communal harmony among the Indian society. However, Prof Ranbir Singh, consultant in the Haryana Institute of Rural Development (HIRD), was of the view that the problems for which the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab was being held responsible by most of the speakers could be ascribed to other factors like emergence of politics of populism, economic crisis, criminalisation and commercialisation of politics. He said it would be wrong to see only the negative effects because the tremendous progress that Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh had made in the post-reorganisation period too could not be overlooked. He emphasized the need of comparative studies of these states based on an inter-disciplinary approach and objective analysis for finding out the truth in this context rather than a one-sided view. |
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Collisions leave 2 dead, 6 injured
Patti Kalyana (Panipat), March 23 Both the deceased belonged to Punjab and had been identified as Surender, son of Harbans of Tarntaran, and Ravindra of Jawahar Nagar, Ludhiana. Both of them reportedly died on the spot. While Surender was boarding the gas tanker, Ravinder was the conductor of a mini bus. Some of the injured had been identified as Arjun, Charanjeet, Mahender and Surjeet.The condition of Arjun was reportedly serious. They had been admitted to a nearby hospital . According to the information, one of the collisions took place when the driver of a Delhi-bound container (bearing number HR 38 C 8127) lost control over the vehicle near Patti Kalyana village. The vehicle then crossed the divider on the road and collided with a speeding Panipat-bound gas tanker (bearing number HR 29 D 4742). In another collision, a speeding Delhi-bound truck (HR 37 A 7679) suddenly applied brakes following which the drivers of the mini-bus (PB 01 4526) and a Punjab Roadways bus (PB 12 C 9069), coming behind the truck, rammed into it. Both the collisions took place near Patti Kalyana village at around 11 pm on Tuesday and it took 12 hours for the police to remove the collided vehicles from the national highway. Following the collision, hundreds of vehicles remained stranded in the traffic jam and long queues of vehicles were seen on both sides of the road. The jam reportedly lasted 12 hours. Some of the vehicles were seen passing through the villages situated near the GT road to reach their destinations, while the others were left with no option but to wait for the clearance of the GT road. None of the officials —The Panipat SP, Mr Anil Kumar, the SP, Highway Traffic, Mr Vikas Arora, and the Samalkha DSP, Mr Badan Singh Rana — could be contacted despite repeated efforts to ascertain the cause behind delay in the removal of collided vehicles.
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New train from Una to Ambala
Chandigarh, March 23 The DMU passenger train will be flagged off by Minister of State for Railways R Veelu from Churaru Takarala at 3 pm on March 25, railway sources said. From the next day the timing of the train will be : departure from Churaru Takarala at 6 a.m and arrival at Ambala at 11:50 a.m. on its return journey the train will leave Ambala at 2: 10 p.m and arrive at Churaru Takarla at 7: 10 p.m. The train will pass through Rajpura, Ropar, Anandpur Sahib, Nangal and Una. |
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Mustard production may go down by 10 pc
Sirsa, March 23 The farmers are also not happy with the government agencies as they have yet to start procuring the seed crop in the district. Talking to this correspondent, a number of farmers rued over the poor yield despite the fact of a ``good’’ crop in the season. ``Hailstorm has badly affected the crop from which we were expecting good return,’’ said a farmer in the local mandi. Another villager said the panicked farmers had started harvesting their crop due to heavy rains. Though the state agriculture had set the target of covering 7700 hectares of land for mustard, experts fear a reduction in the total output. The Deputy Director of the Agriculture Department, Mr Jagdeep Singh Brar, said the production might decline by 8 to 10 per cent this year. Disease is another factor attributing to this decline. ``We are getting reports of crops getting affected by white rust, which is caused by dampness,” said Mr Brar. Meanwhile, the District Manager of HAFED said the agency had geared up to procure mustard seed. |
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National law institute for Rewari
Chandigarh, March 23 Mr Hooda said only two such institutes existed in India at present and the third one would come up in Rewari. He said the Central Government had assured him full cooperation for setting up the institute. Mr Hooda also announced that fresh surveys would be conducted soon in the state for identifying persons eligible for old-age pension and families which would be categorised as living below the poverty line. |
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