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RS Poll
Jind Rally Today
Tantrik gets life term
for killing son
Cong gears up for LS polls
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BSP announces 4 LS candidates
Ram Prakash, Ishwar declare assets
Residents begin fast against demolition
College for Kaithal village
Aphid attacks wheat
Missing boy found dead
Two bodies found
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RS Poll
New Delhi, March 15 This was clearly evident when Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his detractors in the party engaged in an unseemly tussle over the nomination of a candidate for the second Rajya Sabha seat from the state. In fact, the events leading up to Ishwar Singh’s nomination do not bode well for the Chief Minister as this episode has resulted in bringing together his detractors on a common platform. Haryana ministers Birendra Singh and Kiran Chaudhary and union ministers Selja and Rao Inderjit Singh have now joined hands in opposing Hooda. The battle has intensified to such an extent that Hooda made every possible attempt to deny the Rajya Sabha ticket to Ishwar Singh even after his name was formally cleared by party president Sonia Gandhi merely because he was not his choice but was nominated by his detractors. Party sources said Hooda made a last-ditch attempt to scuttle Singh’s chances by raking up some old cases against him. In fact, he almost succeeded as word got out late Friday night that Ishwar Singh’s nomination was being withdrawn. High drama followed. When the anti-Hooda camp heard of it, it also activated itself and rushed to Delhi in the dead of night to plead Ishwar Singh’s case. The dissident quartet got together and landed up this morning at AICC general secretary in charge Margaret Alva’s residence. The four explained that Singh had been cleared of all cases by the courts. They followed it up with a meeting with the Congress president where they placed all facts before her. It was only after that Sonia Gandhi signalled her approval for Iswhar Singh’s candidature, which was barely hours before time ran out for filing the nominations. Geetanjali Gayatri adds from Chandigarh: The two Congress candidates, Ram Prakash and Ishwar Singh, accompanied by Hooda and a few ministers filed their nomination papers just after 1 pm. After yesterday’s turn of events where Ishwar Singh managed the party ticket from under the nose of candidates recommended and backed by the Chief Minister, the day began on an even more dramatic note. As the two candidates readied to file their papers, news came in to hold back the filing of Ishwar Singh’s nomination. Sources said at the last minute, the Chief Minister had managed to convince the high command to reconsider Ishwar Singh’s nomination. One argument given against him was that he belonged to the Schedule Caste ‘B’ category which was already getting a number of benefits and it would do the party a world of good to nominate a candidate belonging to the SC ‘A’ category. Hooda had forwarded the names of two candidates of the ‘A’ category, Raj Kumar Balmiki and Santosh Sarwan, along with the president of the state’s Congress unit, Phool Chand Mullana, who comes from the “B” category. It was also brought to the notice of the Congress high command that in 2003, a case of forgery under the Essential Commodities Act was registered against the candidate whose family owns a gas agency. The case was later withdrawn by the Hooda government. Taken aback by these developments, MP and state’s prominent Dalit leader Selja, who reached Chandigarh yesterday, and finance minister Birender Singh, rushed to Delhi late last night. They along with union minister of state for defence production and MP Rao Indrajeet Singh and Haryana minister of state for tourism Kiran Chaudhary met UPA president Sonia Gandhi this morning “to clear the air” about Ishwar Singh. While the meeting was on, Ishwar Singh waited with bated breath at the Haryana Vidhan Sabha and members of both camps of the Congress awaited the final decision anxiously. Finally, the HPCC president, Mullana, got the “go-ahead” call and the procession of the Chief Minister, his ministers, parliamentary secretaries and Congress MLAs arrived in the office of the Vidhan Sabha secretary and returning officer, Sumit Kumar, to file their nominations. Both of them submitted two sets each of the nomination papers to the returning officer and were administered the oath of allegiance to the Constitution of India. The scrutiny of the papers will be held on March 17 while the last date of withdrawal is March 19 after which the two candidates will be declared elected. While this battle is over, it has opened up yet another front for Hooda with a strong quartet emerging as a united force. It remains to be seen how this team will counter this new challenge from within the party. |
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Jind Rally Today
Faridabad, March 15 The Haryana unit of the BJP is understood to have planned to highlight the problems of farmers, particularly in the state, in the rally to neutralise the impact of the Congress rally. Among others BJP president Rajnath Singh will address the rally at Jind. Reports say BJP leaders in south Haryana comprising Faridabad, Gurgaon, Rewari, Mahendragarh and Jhajjar districts, during the ongoing mobilisation campaign for the rally, pointed out that the prices of foodgrains and other edible commodities had increased after the budgetary proposals were announced. Several quarters in the BJP are said to be impressed with the public response to the the “vijay sankalp yatra” recently organised by it in the state. The yatra also drew praise from Rajnath Singh, who was in Rohtak a few days ago. The ruling Congress in Haryana, however, does not seem to be much perturbed over the BJP’s moves. Congress leaders say the party’s popularity among the farming community remains intact on account of pro-farmer policies of its governments in the state and the the centre. |
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Tantrik gets life term
for killing son
Karnal, March 15 Pronouncing the judgment, district and sessions judge P.N. Ahuja also directed him to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 failing which the term would be extended by one year. Ratan Singh was reportedly practising as a tantrik in Rattak village, near Assandh in Karnal. He had chopped off the head of his youngest son with a spade in front of his house on April 17, 2007. The tantrik was a drug addict and his wife was the only earning hand in the poor family, comprising of six persons, including four children. The toddler was believed to be sleeping when his father “sacrificed” him in the wee hours on that day. Ved Prakash, the complainant in the case, had informed the police about the incident. He had seen Rahul in a pool of blood in the middle of the road that enabled the police to crack the case. Ratan was nabbed by the Assandh police on the same day. |
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Cong gears up for LS polls
Rewari, March 15 Later, he addressed a press conference at PWD Rest house here in which he disclosed that the district committees of party activists would be constituted for all districts by March 31. The committees would take up the responsibility of hassle-free implementation of the loan waiver scheme for the farmers as well as efficient functioning of the public distribution system for beneficiaries of the poor sections of the society. Stating that as many as 58 assembly segments and 8 parliamentary constituencies in Haryana had undergone major changes owing to the new delimitation process, he said changes would be made in the organisational set up to ensure rich electoral dividends for the party in these constituencies during the next elections. Describing the Haryana Janhit Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi as an “immature” politician, he asserted that Bishnoi’s activities would only harm his own party and claimed that the Congress would easily come out victorious in the byelections, which would be held for the seats vacated after the disqualification of Dharampal Malik and Rakesh Kamboj. Reacting to a query that farmers in Haryana were a harassed lot owing to the ban imposed by the central government on the purchase of wheat by private traders, he said they would approach the union government for the removal of such ban and added that the interests of the peasantry in Haryana would be protected at all costs. |
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BSP announces 4 LS candidates
Rohtak, February 15 The announcement was made by BSP general secretary and in charge of party affairs in Haryana Maan Singh Manheda here today. The candidates are Raj Kumar Sharma from the Rohtak parliamentary constituency, Devraj Dewan from Sonepat, Gurdayal Singh Saini from Kurukshetra and Chander Pal from Ambala. Manheda, who had come here to attend a state-level party function held in connection with the birth anniversary of BSP founder-president Kanshi Ram, said the party would announce the names of the remaining six candidates within two months. |
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Ram Prakash, Ishwar declare assets
Chandigarh, March 15 While the former mentions that his spouse has 380 gm of gold worth Rs 4.50
lakh, the latter maintains that he has jewellery worth Rs 30,000 only. In the details of other movable assets, Dr Ram Prakash has stated that while he has bank deposits of over Rs 1.5
lakh, he owns a Ford Endeavour car and 12 bighas land and a house in
Kurukshetra. Ishwar Singh has stated that he has bank deposits of over Rs 3
lakh, 10 acres and a house worth Rs 50 lakh. |
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Residents begin fast against demolition
Bhiwani, March 15 Residents carried the body and held a demonstration outside the residence of the local MLA and raised slogans against the administration. They alleged that the administration misbehaved with women and children during the drive. They alleged that the police had registered cases against “innocent people”, who were protesting peacefully to save their houses. The protesters demanded compensation and a government job to the next of kin of the deceased. They also demanded that police case against the residents be withdrawn. Meanwhile, residents of the colony reportedly began a fast near a petrol station on the Rohtak road today. They are demanding that the administration withdraw its demolition drive. They said about 500 poor families, mostly of ex-servicemen, had constructed their houses in the colony. They demanded that their houses should be regularised. |
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College for Kaithal village
Kaithal, March 15 This was stated by power and water and sanitation minister Randeep Singh Surjewala while speaking as the chief guest at the annual convocation of Indira Gandhi Mahila Mahavidyalya here today. He said women had been playing an important role in building our rich culture since ages and now they had proved that they do not lag behind their male counterparts in setting new records in various fields. The present government was very serious in spreading education to every nook and corner of the state and the government had increased the education budget by 90 per cent. He said a new college would be soon constructed at Jagdish Pura village. A large number of students in various fields were awarded degrees on the occasion. |
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Aphid attacks wheat
Karnal, March 15 According to agriculture experts, wheat crop had been sown in 1.70 hectares in the district and if the requisite steps were not taken by farmers to prevent this disease, the losses might further increase to any extent. Experts said the disease was caused by Chepa insect, which by sucking the stem and leaves of the wheat plant adversely affects its production. Deputy commissioner B.S. Malik said the agriculture department had launched a campaign in the district to create awareness among farmers about the prevailing diseases in wheat crop and its treatment.
— PTI |
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Missing boy found dead
Bhiwani, March 15 Father of the deceased Ravinder Kumar said his son Arjun had been missing since March 10. They tried to search Arjun but failed to locate him and lodged a complaint with the Sadar police station, Bhiwani. He alleged that the police did not take any interest in locating his missing son. He said a shepherd noticed the boy’s head. He immediately informed the villagers, who in turn called the police. The police dug the land and recovered the body. The body was sent for postmortem examination to Civil Hospital here but it was referred to the PGIMS. |
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Two bodies found
Yamunanagar, March 15 There were no apparent marks of injuries on the body and the GRP believed that he died of heart attack. The youth was about 18 years of age with dark complexion. In another incident, the body of an unidentified woman in her early thirties was found lying along railway tracks near Musftabad today. She was presumably run over by a train. Both the bodies have been kept in a mortuary of the civil hospital here and the police is awaiting identification. |
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Karnal, March 15
