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Bhajan censured for showing no intension of honouring promises
Farmer unions submit memorandums
‘Malaria’ deaths: doctors visit village
Kalpana’s father, school joyous
Working days of farm labourers decline
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Land records at click of mouse
Curiosity costs cop Rs 5.5 lakh
3 held in robbery case
XEN held for ‘accepting’ bribe
32 proclaimed offenders nabbed
Youths snatch Rs 3.78 lakh
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Farmer unions submit memorandums
Jagadhri, August 9 In an effort to highlight the condition of farm labourers, the district unit of the Bhartiya Khet Mazdoor Union, took out a massive rally to the civil secretariat here today. The union demanded residential plots for farm labourers and distribution of shamlat land in surplus jungles among farm labourers. The activists later submitted a memorandum to the SDM. Mr
Gurcharan Singh and Mr Krishan Lal, district president and
organisational secretary, respectively, of the unit said the union had
also demanded that the policies should be formed so that farm labourers
could get employment through the year. Hundreds of activists of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) also marched to the civil secretariat and submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister through the Deputy Commissioner against certain clauses of the WTO. The activists feared that certain clauses of the WTO were not in favour of small farmers. State secretary Vijay Mehta and District president Babu Ram of the BKU led the march to the secretariat. Members of the BKU later met Mr S.S Reddy, Manager (Cane), Sarswati Sugar Mill, with a list of demands. The district unit of the Haryana Backward and Mazdoor Kranti Morcha submitted three memorandums. The demands of the morcha include removal of alleged corruption in the Labour Department and issuance of yellow and pink ration cards to Dalits and labourers. The activists of the morcha were led by its state president Jai Chand and district vice-president Mam Chand Kashyap. The activists also held a dharna near the secretariat. Demanding the strengthening of the embankments of the Yamuna to prevent the river water from flowing towards the Haryana side, the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh submitted a memorandum in the DC office. Later the activists of the sangh, led by its district president Rakam Pal, also met the Superintending Engineer of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and demanded that the schedule of supply of power for farmers should be improved. |
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Bhajan censured for showing no intension of Chandigarh, August 9 Taking a serious view of a speech delivered in 1994 by Mr Bhajan Lal —the then Chief Minister — in Balsamand village in Adampur assembly constituency and his written statement about the public utterance, a Division Bench of the High Court ruled that he had no intension of honouring his promises. The Judges observed: “The gist of the written statement is that though a promise was made to the discontented, unemployed and restive youth, there was no intention of honouring it. The entire exercise was designed only to reassure the audience”. The Bench, comprising Mr Justice Harjit Singh Bedi and Mr Justice Viney Mittal, added that the former Chief Minister had himself admitted that “he did not mean what he said”. In their detailed order on a bunch of petition challenging the appointment of patwaris in the state, the Judges added: “We cannot refrain from making some observations which stem from these facts. We clearly deplore the insensitivity of some of our senior public-men, who without the slightest hesitation or flicker of the conscience, exploit the naivete and the gullibility of our youth and give them false hope”. In his speech and written statement, Mr Bhajan Lal had earlier stated that he knew he had to say something about the unemployment problem in the state. The selection of patwaris was going on and the villagers wanted their children to be appointed to the posts. In this background, he “had to make the speech to satisfy them” and convince them that their claims were not being overlooked. Highlighting the problems faced by the Chief Minister, it was added in the written statement that his position as the executive head of the government was “critical in such matters”. If he had conveyed to the audience that “none from their village could be appointed, the people would have revolted against the government.... After all, the ministers are men of masses. They have to meet the public at large and have to listen to their grievances. They are not only to give them hope, but also try to solve the difficulties the public faces. The tenor of the speech has to be understood and appreciated in this matter”. He had added in his speech that if 15 boys were to be appointed and all from Balsamand, it would become difficult for him. But posts could be increased, subtraction and additions could be made. The entire selection was quashed by the Bench on August 2. Delivering the verdict, the Judges had observed that 1248 patwaris would be allowed to continue in service till the end of July, 2007.
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‘Malaria’ deaths: doctors visit village
Dabwali, August 9 Dr Veena Chug, Director, Malaria Control, visited the families of the villagers who died in Abub Shahar. She assessed the cause of deaths and prepared a report in this regard, she informed this correspondent at Civil Hospital, Sirsa. Though the team ruled out the possibility of malaria in the village, she told reporters that those died had symptoms of jaundice. Today the medical team also took blood samples of 283 villagers. Meanwhile, the acting Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr R.K. Chaudhary, told TNS that the health authorities had been on high alert for the past one month after a few “malaria-like” cases were reported in certain areas of Dabwali subdivision. He said the Health Department had conducted a random door-to-door survey in the district and nine odd cases of malaria were detected out of over 400 blood samples. On the cause of deaths, Dr Chaudhary said he would approach the private doctors who treated the patients. He said no such patient died in the government hospitals. The acting CMO said preliminary inquiries indicated that the doctors did not prepare malaria slides of the deceased. He cautioned the villagers to approach the government hospitals in case of persistent fever and avoid quacks or RMPs. He urged the villagers not to panic as even if there were malaria cases they could be treated by proper medication. |
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Kalpana’s father, school joyous
Karnal, August 9 The Principal of the school, Dr Rajan Kumar Lamba, told The Tribune that several members of the staff had specially gathered in the school in the evening to watch the landing of the Discovery on the TV. They distributed sweets to express happiness over its safe landing. “We can not express our happiness in words over the safe landing of the Discovery but it also reminded us of February 1, 2003, when we lost our dear student Kalpana in the Columbia crash,” Dr Lamba said. “Had Columbia also landed safely, Kalpana would have been among us even today. We know nothing can fill her loss. She has given so much to this school.” Earlier in the day, the students and staff of the school offered special prayers for the safe return of the Discovery to earth. Every year, US space agency NASA invites two students from the school for a familiarisation trip in memory of Kalpana Chawla, who initiated the programme. NASA had invited two students of Class XI of the school, Rahul Gupta and Ankita Suri, this year and they went to the USA a few days ago and watched the flight of Discovery to space. They are returning to India late tonight. Mr B.D. Chawla told The Tribune over phone here that he had become tense when only a few minutes were left in the landing and the day of February 1, 2003, automatically came to his mind at that time. |
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Working days of farm labourers decline
Chandigarh, August 9 It is because of the fewer working days that peasantry indebtedness has been on the rise in almost all agricultural states. The total debt in the agricultural sector in Haryana was estimated to be between Rs 5900 crore and 6100 crore in 2002-2003, says Mr Suraj Bhan Dahiya, Editor, Gazetteers, Haryana. The Revenue Department of Haryana had released two volumes of the State Gazetteer in June of which one was dedicated to agriculture and irrigation. Mr Dahiya has not only traced the history of agriculture in the state but also touched upon several important issues, including growing debtedness of peasants and farmers, declining farm income, deterioration in the health of the soil and the growing clout of the colonisers. Quoting from the 59th round of the National Sample Survey, he says that every farmer household is in debt to the tune of Rs 12,585. Punjab tops the list with per capita debt of Rs 41,576 with Haryana taking the third spot at Rs 26,007. He argues that in spite of increased productivity, advancement of science and technology, and mechanisation of agriculture, farming has remained
unremunerative. He corroborates his argument by referring to the Royal Commission on Agriculture, which, in 1929 had observed that “the Indian peasant is born in debt, lives in debt, dies in debt and bequeaths debt.” Land holdings in Haryana are tiny. According to the agriculture census of 1995-96, the number of operational holdings in Haryana were 17,27,993 out of which 66.7 per cent holdings were below 2
hectres. There was little wage work in the agricultural sector now. |
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Land records at click of mouse
Chandigarh, August 9 The integration of registration of property with the land records is presently being done in eight district headquarter tehsils of Ambala, Panchkula, Kaithal, Jagadhari, Kurukshetra, Kalanwali (Sirsa), Rohtak and Rewari. By the end of this month, anyone owning property in these tehsils can get updated information about the jamabandi, girdawri (in case of agricultural land), change in mutation, or a copy of the record of their land online. By the end of 2006, Haryana aims to implement the online land records system in all district headquarter tehsils. Called Haryana Land Record Information System (HALRIS), a modified version of Haryana Registration Information System (HARIS), this consumer friendly system will link registration with mutations so that mutation notice can be generated immediately after the registration of document. This scheme also ensures that the record of rights (jamabandi) is generated automatically and a copy of the jamabandi (nakal) will be issued to the public immediately at the tehsil level. Jamabandi editing, new jamabandi entry; jamabandi printing; jamabandi nakal; mutation entry; mutation verification; mutation sanction; mutation incorporation; mutation printing; revert mutation — all will be done online. This also replaces the manual deed- writing with computer generated deeds, which in turn have a linkage to registration. A visit to Naraingarh by The Tribune team, one of the earliest sub tehsils where data has been successfully digitized since year 1993, revealed how the system has helped in bringing reforms in the registration of property. Officials say that while HARIS led to an increase in revenue from stamp duty by 40 per cent , it forced Collectors/Deputy Commissioners to restructure their Collector rates segment wise, control area wise and prime area wise. This also reduced the chances of wrong witnesses as photographs of buyers, sellers and witnesses are taken. This project has been generating Rs 6 crore per annum from more than 10,000 registrations as service charges — which is enough for executing the other E-Governance projects related with the Revenue Department. |
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Police to tow away vehicles parked outside houses
Hisar, August 9 On finding a vehicle parked outside a house, the policemen on patrol would first ring the doorbell and ask the owner to park the vehicle inside. However, in case the vehicle was found parked outside on the next visit, they would tow it to the area police station. “If a vehicle parked outside is stolen in the night, the owner comes to know of it only in the morning. In the meantime, the vehicle is usually taken far away from the town, which makes recovery difficult,” the SSP asserted. He maintained that the motive behind the exercise was to ascertain that the residents remained alert and acted in a responsible manner. Cranes would be provided to the patrol parties for the purpose, he added. In response to a question, Mr Chawla stated that a special task force had been constituted to nab the most wanted criminals of the district. He said as many as 17 proclaimed offenders and 37 bail-jumpers had been arrested in the month of July. These included two notorious criminals, namely Dharambir Bawaria of
Narnaund, wanted in 21 cases of looting, theft and robbery, and Virender of
Ludas, an absconding criminal wanted in five cases. The SSP said during the same month, a unit manufacturing illicit liquor was raided and a person arrested in this regard. Cases were registered against six persons for giving false applications. He also warned the residents providing shelter to the criminals of strict action. “In another campaign, efforts are being to instill confidence in the criminals who are being released from jail. The aim is to bring them back into the mainstream and get their help by the virtue of their contacts and information,” said the district police chief.
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Curiosity costs cop Rs 5.5 lakh
Rohtak, August 9 He decided to see his niece first before going to the bank. He was carrying the cash in the toolbox of his scooter. On the way he saw another policeman engaged in a brawl with a three-wheeler scooter rickshaw driver. His curiosity took the better of him. He parked his scooter on the roadside and joined a stream of bystanders watching the goings on. By the time he returned, he found the scooter’s toolbox open and the cash of Rs 5.5 lakh missing. Shopkeepers told him that two youths had opened the toolbox with a screw driver and removed the cash. |
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3 held in robbery case
Ambala, August 9 Mr Deswal said the plan to rob the employees was hatched by a former employee of cable operator, Dara. “Dara used to work for the cable operator. Then he started his own work. Dara came in contact with Ravinder, who was currently employed with the cable operator,” he said. “They then hatched a plot to rob the employees of the cable operator after they had made the month’s collection. They roped in two of Dara’s friends, Ajay and Sanjay, for the task,” he said. Mr Deswal said Sanjay and Ajay waited near Vishwakarma Chowk from 8 am to 10.30 am so that they could intercept the employees. In the meantime, Ravinder told the cable operator that he would not be able to accompany Rajinder for money collection so another employee Punit was sent for the job. Then Ravinder called up his accomplices and they tailed Rajinder and Punit till Tribune Colony and then they intercepted the employees. While Sanjay was driving, Ajay put chilli powder in the eyes of Rajinder. After snatching the bag, they left for Railway Protection Force quarters where Ajay used to stay along with his cousin. “Ajay’s cousin did not have any information about this incident,” Mr Deswal said. Sanjay then took out Rs 60,000 from the bag containing cash and left for Rishikesh. The rest of the money was to be divided between Ravinder, Dara and Ajay. Mr Deswal said Rs 3.17 lakh had been recovered and the motor cycle used in the incident also recovered. He said a police team had been despatched to track down Sanjay. |
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XEN held for ‘accepting’ bribe
Fatehabad, August 9
The team was accompanied by a tehsildar. The XEN had allegedly accepted a graft of Rs 10,000 for clearing the bill of the contractor.
On the other hand, family members of the XEN alleged that he had been implicated. They said the contractor had been making obscene calls to the XEN’s daughter. When the family objected to his acts, he threatened to teach him a lesson.
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32 proclaimed offenders nabbed
Karnal, August 9 A police spokesperson said the POs included two dreaded criminals Pankaj of UP and Satnam Singh, alias
Satta, of Faridkot in Punjab. While Pankaj was wanted by the UP police in several murder, robbery, dacoity and attempt to murder cases, Satta was wanted by the Karnal police in a murder case. Similarly, 12 persons, including a woman of UP, were arrested and 11 illegal pistols, a gun and 12 live cartridges, were seized from them. |
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Youths snatch Rs 3.78 lakh
Ambala, August 9 The employees were on a motor cycle. While Rajinder was driving, Punit was riding pillion. When they reached near Tribune Colony, two motor-cycle borne youths accosted them. One of the youths threw chilli powder in the eyes of Rajinder and the second youth hit Punit on the back. They snatched the bag containing cash and sped towards Subhash Park. The employees then informed their head office and the police. A police official said that youths must have been keeping a watch on the employees. He said they were working on certain leads. |
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