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Haryana does away with entrance exams
Reliance going slow on SEZ
Venod Sharma’s legal notice to TV channel
Anti-encroachment drive fails to decongest roads
Kidnapped girls rescued; 2 held
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Harassment for dowry cases on the rise
Protest against drive to cut connections
Traders shut shops, block road against sealing
INLD: Selja must quit
Preserve Guru’s values: Hooda
Shift Commissioner, demand employees
Timber traders end strike
Woman dies in roof collapse
3 die, 16 hurt in mishap
Two forced to consume poison, die
Youth dies in tractor mishap
3 held for youth’s murder
Drugs hidden in books seized
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Haryana does away with entrance exams
Chandigarh, October 4 The decision was taken by the state Technical Education Department following the success of this procedure, adopted on an experimental basis during the last admissions. The state will not hold any entrance examination in future and all admissions to the BE, BTech and BArch courses conducted in government, government-aided and privately run engineering and architecture colleges will be done on the basis of the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE). Disclosing this here today, Mr M.P Gupta, Director, Technical Education, Haryana, said: “All counselling for admission will be done online with the state adopting the ‘login anytime anywhere’ model”. Haryana has became the first state in the country to implement the “online, off-campus” model on an experimental basis for admission during the academic session (June, 2006). Kerala and Uttar Pradesh have now adopted the ‘Haryana model’ for admission in their respective states. The response to the experiment with online admission has been overwhelming and Haryana has been able to fill 14,700 out of the 15,000 engineering and architecture seats. Many states have been unable to fill more than half the number of seats in the engineering courses. The Additional Director, Technical Education, Haryana, Mr D.K Gupta, said the introduction of the semester system in schools had led to Haryana domicile students seeking higher scores in the AIEEE examination. As a result, 70 per cent of the seats in the 44 engineering and architecture colleges were taken by Haryana students. Girl students comprised 25 per cent of the students who were successful in seeking admission. Besides, all students in the reserved category were able to get admission to government-run colleges. Conducting “online, off-campus” admission will result in students saving effort and money spent on appearing in different examinations. Besides, the admission process would be completed in a time-bound manner within a period of 30 days, Mr Gupta said. “We are advising all potential engineering and architecture students to start preparing for the April 29, 2007, AIEEE examination along with pursuing their regular course of study”, he added. The Technical Education Department has written to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) informing it of the state government’s decision on admission and requesting it to set up more centres for the entrance test in Haryana, particularly at Faridabad, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Panchkula, Chandigarh, Rohtak, Hisar and Sirsa, for the convenience of students. In addition, the department has asked the CBSE to set up more centres for the sale of admission brochures. Haryana colleges became a preferred choice for admission during the current year as 80 per cent of the students passing out of the state’s 44 institutions got good placements. “We are now trying to prepare students to fill the emerging slots in various job / placement hubs in the National Capital Region and the capital region comprising Panchkula and nearby areas”, Mr D.K. Gupta said. The Director, Technical Education, added that the state was taking precautions to ensure the smooth conduct of admissions during the next academic session. “We have learnt many lessons from our last experiment. We will ensure time-bound admissions so that students get more time to study during the semester following the admissions”, he said. The department planned to hold special training and awareness camps for the teachers and students. |
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Reliance going slow on SEZ
Rohtak, October 4 Although Reliance had shown great haste in completing the formalities right from the day it approached the Haryana Government for setting up an SEZ in 10,000 hectares on September 30 last year, it inexplicably slowed down the process after it signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) on June 19 this year. According to sources, between September 30, 2005 and June 19, 2006 Reliance and HSIIDC signed a statement of interest on October 17, 2005 and followed it up with signing a memorandum of understanding on December 12, 2005. Further it obtained in principle approval from the Union Commerce Ministry for the proposed SEZ on March 31, 2006. In between under the December 12, 2005 agreement, a location selection study was carried after which a site was identified which extended from existing Garhi Har Saru SEZ of HSIIDC and further to Gurgaon and Jhajjar. This paved the way for signing of the JV agreement of June 19 last year Under the JV agreement Reliance was to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) – which essentially means a company – to which HSIIDC was to transfer the 1501 acres of land it had acquired to this company. The agreement envisaged immediate transfer of 1395 acres of land. The remaining 106 acres were to be transferred after settling legal issues. However, the sources said, no land had yet been transferred because the SPV was yet to come into being. Interestingly, HSIIDC has already paid the farmers a compensation of Rs 289 crores. Under the agreement Reliance will repay the amount to HSIIDC only after the SPV is set up and till then it will pay only 9 per cent interest on the amount calculated from the date HSIIDC deposited the amount with the Land Acquisition Collector. Former Haryana Finance Minister Sampat Singh has alleged that Reliance was showing no interest because in the end it would pay only 9 per cent interest on the amount HSIIDC had already spent on the project. Banks would have charged a much higher rate of interest, he said. He said the acquisition of land by the HSIIDC and its subsequent decision to pass it on to the Reliance group was illegal because the Haryana Industrial Promotion Board rules limit land acquisition by the government for such projects to 25 per cent of the total in the National Capital Region and 50 per cent in the rest of the state. In this case all the 1501 acres had been acquired by the government. The former Finance Minister said he had maps that prove that the proposed SEZ would have a front of 2.80 km on the Delhi- Jaipur highway. There was hardly any more land available between Gurgaon and Manesar where the SEZ was planned. Thus the land was worth its weight in gold. He alleged that the HSIIDC had auctioned two plots measuring 6800 square meters each at IMT Manesar on June 5, 2006 for Rs 188 crore to Uppal Housing and Ultra Homes. A third plot measuring 5800 square metres was sold to Eros Group for Rs 101 crore. Thus the HSIIDC earned on an average Rs 72 crore per acre. However, he said, the HSIIDC passed on 1501 acres to the Reliance group for Rs 289 crore. The INLD leader said although Reliance would sell off this land further, Haryana would not earn stamp duty on these sales. Further no taxes including income tax, customs, central sales tax, service tax, property tax, electricity duty and Vat were payable for 15 years. Thus, no financial benefits would accrue to the state. He demanded that the government scrap its agreement with Reliance and let HSIIDC develop it if need be. |
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Venod Sharma’s legal notice to TV channel
Chandigarh, October 4 The channel had recently telecast a programme, “Case kay Qatil”, which claimed that three eyewitnesses, Shyan Munshi, Shiv Dass and Karan Rajput, resiled from their testimony given before the police “under threat, coercion and inducement” by Mr Sharma and his family. After the telecast, the Opposition has been demanding the dismissal of Mr Sharma from the Hooda Cabinet. The notice said a critical review of the programme “makes it abundantly clear that such claims are false”. It further said that “despite manipulation and orchestration it could not be concealed that Shiv Dass consistently denied that he was not at the scene of the crime. Similarly, Munshi was painted black because he now knows Hindi better though his entire conversation was in English except for a few sentences in Hindi to specially designed questions”. However, Mr Matvinder Singh has made it clear that the notice to the channel concerns that part of the programme which concerns Rajput. The notice said: “In this part of the programme, my client has been directly maligned and tarnished. It has been projected that he had paid money to Rajput regularly to win him over and that he had looked after him till his death.” Asserting that the programme lacked objectivity, the notice said it was “full of selective information, motivated editing, damaging distortion and deliberate misinformation. It has not been mentioned that Rajput was introduced as eyewitness after an unprecedented delay of one month. This becomes even more glaring in the light of your programme where your star collaborator Jatender Raj has categorically claimed that he had taken Rajput to Mr Amod Kanth, the then Joint Commissioner of Police, who was directly supervising the investigation, within a week of the occurrence.” |
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Anti-encroachment drive fails to decongest roads
Kaithal, October 4 Non-observance of traffic rules by vehicle drivers and lack of parking space in the town have aggravated this problem. The old Anaj mandi in the heart of the town is a big source of air pollution and aggravates traffic problem. Use of pressure horns in the town area is another source of nuisance to people and all pleas to ban use of pressure horns have fallen on deaf ears. Three wheelers and other vehicles belch out black smoke on town roads. Maxi-cab owners continue to overload vehicles and drive rashly and negligently. Automobile workshops continue to work on road-side and no steps had been taken to ban use of roadsides nor efforts made to shift such workshops to the Transport Nagar built by HUDA on the Jind road. Residents of this district headquarter town and others, coming to this place from neighbouring villages and towns have to face a lot of difficulty while driving on roads here. The traffic police have failed to reglate traffic and failed to curb parking on busy roads. The cops challan two-wheeler owners for petty violations. They hardly challan big vehicles for violation of laws. Private vehicle owners and drivers of private buses stop vehicles in the middle of the roads and those coming behind them do not find enough space to pass which causes traffic jams. Private bus drivers use pressure horns in the town area but the authorities look the other way. Old anaj Mandi is the most congested area. it was set up before independence and it has been functioning inspite of setting up of new Anaj Mandi on the Jind road more than 30 years ago. the old mandi should have been de-notified by the government. People feel perhaps vote-bank politics has come in the way. Barricades put up a few years ago to check entry of heavy vehicles in the town have vanished and no efforts have been made to set up barricades again. Residents of the town demand special steps to decongest roads and special parking spaces in all markets so that none parks two wheelers on roadsides in markets and obstructs flow of traffic. During peak rush hours one-way traffic should be introduced after consulting public representatives. |
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Kidnapped girls rescued; 2 held
Sonepat, October 4 Disclosing this to mediapersons here yesterday the Superintendent of Police, Mr Yoginder Nehra, said Shallo (14) and Priyanka (11) both sisters, were allegedly kidnapped in a car by the accused on September 4 when they were returning from school. After a month-long operation, the CIA unit led by Inspector Ram Niwas succeeded in arresting the accused from Bilaspur Chowk on National Highway No 8 in Gurgaon district on Monday. The SP said Shaloo had alleged that she was raped by Rajesh. After sending the girls to the local Civil Hospital for medical examination, the accused were produced in court which remanded them to police custody. The SP also claimed that out of 17 cases of murder registered in different police stations in the district during August and September, the police had succeeded in solving 15 of them. During this period, the police recovered stolen property worth over Rs 17 lakh in as many as 39 cases, he added. The week-long campaign against liquor smuggling which ended on October 2 resulted in seizure of 1303 bottles of country liquor, 420 halves, 1654 quarters and 1460 halves of English were besides 72 bottles of beer, the SP informed. |
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Harassment for dowry cases on the rise
Rewari, October 4 A young woman, Ms Rekha Devi (27), daughter of Mr Ganga Ram, of Mohalla Bada Talab here, who was married to Niranjan, son of Mr Gyani Ram of Hodal town of Faridabad district in 1998, was allegedly harassed for more dowry by her in-laws who eventually turned her out of the house recently. On her complaint, the city police booked her husband, Niranjan, father-in-law Gyani Ram, mother-in-law Asharfi Devi and three others, all residents of Hodal, on charges of harassment for dowry, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy under Sections 498-A, 406, 120-B of the IPC. In the second such incident, a young woman, Ms Poonam Devi (23) daughter of Paras Ram of Jant village, near here, who was married to Vikas, son of Mr Ram Raj of Yakoobpur village of Jhajjar district in November, 2002, was allegedly tortured by her in-laws for bringing insufficient dowry. Thus when things became unbearable for her at Yakoobpur, she, along with her father, approached the Sadar police here with a complaint following which a case of harassment for dowry and criminal intimidation under Sections 498-A, 406, 506 of the IPC was registered against her husband, Vikas, father-in-law Ram Raj, mother-in-law Bimla Devi and two others. |
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Dowry harassment, 8 booked
Bhiwani, October 4 Ratan Singh of Nangal village said that he married off his two daughters to Dharmvir and Pawan of Dharni village. Soon, he said, his daughters started harassment for dowry. He alleged the in-laws used to beat up his daughters for not
fulfilling their demand and sent them to parents’ home. |
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Protest against drive to cut connections
Ambala, October 4 There is strong resistance against the drive which was started by the Administration yesterday. The shopkeepers and local residents started the protest march from Housing Board Colony and passed through different areas of Ambala Sadar and Mahesh Nagar. Residents of different colonies, including Subhash Nagar, Tribune Colony, Kasturba Colony, Ramakrishna Colony and Ekta Vihar, were part of the protest march. The shopkeepers demanded that the drive to cut connections should be withdrawn by the district administration. A team which had gone to cut connections of commercial activity in Tribune Colony had to withdraw after the local residents strongly protested against the drive this morning. Thereafter, the drive lost steam and the team did not visit other areas. Doctors of Ambala City are up in arms against the drive after the connections of two clinics in Ambala City were disconnected yesterday. While connection to a clinic in Jail Land was disconnected, the other clinic was in Sector 8. The doctors claimed that a pick-and-choose policy was being followed by the district administration. They stated that establishments with glaring irregularities were being left out while small clinics were being targeted by the teams. They said that even nursing homes having due clearance as well as proper plan had been included in the list for cutting of connection. They stated that this clearly was a case of high-handedness and it tantamount to harassment. “We fail to understand as to what will happen to our critical patients if the power and water connections are disconnected,” a doctor stated. The doctors stressed that before the administration targeted the medical fraternity, they should check out the large business establishments which were running in residential colonies. Some bank branches were also existing in residential areas, they said.
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Traders shut shops, block road against sealing
Hisar, October 4 Several teams sent to seal residential premises being used for commercial purpose had to return following protests by the traders. Deputy Commissioner, Phateh Singh Dagar, and Estate Officer, HUDA, Dr Jai Krishan Abhir, had convened a meeting of the traders yesterday, but the issue could not be resolved. The local unit of the BJP also opposed the exercise. President of the Haryana Pradesh Vyapar Mandal, Bajrang Dass Garg, has stated that the orders regarding enforcing the sealing operation had ignored the interests of the businessmen, especially the small traders. |
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INLD: Selja must quit
Chandigarh, October 4 The Haryana INLD chief and former Transport Minister, Mr Ashok Arora, alleged that the Union Minister had attended a wedding reception on October 2 at which liquor was openly served. October 2 is observed as a dry day all over the country. Mr Arora claimed that by her act Ms Selja had forfeited the right to hold any public office and demanded that she should resign immediately from the Union Ministry, failing which she should be sacked. |
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Yamunanagar, October 4 Reminding about the sacrifices made by Guru Arjan Dev, he said that it was high time to preserve those values for which the great Guru had fought. He announced to give Rs 11 lakh to Guru Nanak Educational Society for promotion of sports and welfare of sports persons. — PTI
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Shift Commissioner, demand employees
Hisar, October 4 Employees’ agitation, which started on September 29, has spread to other districts of the range as well. Secretariat employees from Fatehabad observed a strike and participated in today’s dharna, while the employees from Bhiwani will join the stir tomorrow. President of the association, Naresh Goyal, told reporters here today that if the range-level protest demonstrations did not evoke the desired response, the agitation would be taken to the state-level. The protesters maintained that Divisional Commissioner, R.R. Fuliya, used to misbehave with his staff and charge-sheeted them at the drop of a hat. They said of the 31 employees serving at the Commissioner’s office, 22 had been charge-sheeted in the past about one year. Mr Fuliya could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. He was stated to be away to Mount Abu. |
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Timber traders end strike
Yamunanagar, October 4 Director of Safeda and Poplar Ahartiya Association, Vinod Sharma confirmed that the strike had been ended. “MP Naveen Jindal has assured us that he would remain in touch with the government regarding the problems faced by timber merchants,” he said. |
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Woman dies in roof collapse
Sonepat, October 4 According to official information, Jagbir, his wife Kamlesh, children Sonu, Amit and Sonia, and elder brother Sant Ram were sleeping in the house when the roof collapsed. The villagers removed the victims from the debris and took them to the local Civil Hospital where Kamlesh succumbed to injuries during treatment. Mr Sant Ram and Sonu have been admitted to the hospital whereas Amit and Sonia who suffered minor injuries, were discharged after treatment. On receiving information, the DC, Ms Neerja Shekhar, reached the spot and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1 lakh on the death of Kamlesh under the Rashtriya Gramin Parivarik Bima Yojna and assured all possible help to the family. |
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3 die, 16 hurt in mishap
Rewari, October 4 Two of the deceased have been identified as Hari Kishan Yadav of Pali village near here and Subhash Garg, a journalist of Punjab Kesri from Bhojawas village near Ateli while the third one was yet to be identified. The seriously injured person, who is yet to be identified, was referred to Safdarjung hospital, New Delhi, by doctors of the civil hospital here. The injured persons, some of whom belong to the Narnaul area while some others are from Alwar and Jaipur districts of Rajasthan, were given treatment at the civil hospital here. The mishap occurred when the maxi cab was coming from Narnaul to Rewari. |
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Two forced to consume poison, die
Rewari, October 4 They were brought to the Civil Hospital here where they were declared dead by doctors. In a complaint to the Ateli police by Lal Singh Yadav, father of deceased Sunita Yadav and a resident of Patikra village near Narnaul, alleged that her daughter and granddaughter were being shabbily treated by the in-laws who forced them to consume poison to end their lives. The Ateli police registered a case of murder and causing hurt by means of poison.
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Ambala, October 4 The tractor driver fled the spot. The body was taken to the Civil Hospital for postmortem. A case has been registered. — TNS
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3 held for youth’s murder
Panipat, October 4 According to information the accused threw Ravinder within Delhi parallel canal when they had a tiff after consuming liquor. The police rounded up Mandip, Amrish and Mahesh three friends of Ravinder as the family members of Ravinder suspected them for his disappearance. On interrogation the accused confessed that they had consumed liquor on Monday evening and during that they had a fight with Ravider when they threw him into the canal, said the police. |
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Ambala, October 4 Last evening, a youth, probably of African origin, had gone to a courier company near Tanga Stand in Ambala Sadar and told them that he wanted to send some books to the Netherlands. The youth claimed to be a resident of Baldev Nagar in Ambala City. The courier company officials asked him to produce residential identity proof. The youth left and did not return. This morning, the company officials informed the police. When the police personnel opened the package, they found 10 pouches of narcotics concealed in the books. — TNS
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