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Dissolve marriage, couple told
Poll outcome will determine RS fortunes
Cautious millers imposing quality cuts
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Anaj mandi water samples not contaminated: SDM
RICO employee dies in clash
IYC elections next, says Tanwar
No mobiles inside counting halls
Villagers rue poor condition of bridge, roads
148 depot holders’ licences cancelled
Shopkeeper gets extortion call
Notice to Independent
Villagers form struggle panel
Birds charred to death
Rallies to mark Indira’s death anniversary
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Dissolve marriage, couple told
Rohtak, October 19 Though the parents of the boy hailing from Sundana village have “agreed” to the directive reportedly issued by the sarpanch of the village, the girl belonging to neighbouring Garhi Ballam village has refused to accept the social diktat claiming that it has been a lawful union and the village or the panchayat has nothing to do with it. The families of both the sides appear to be under pressure and tension following the development. Sundana and Garhi Ballam villages are located at a distance of 2 km. A youth was hacked to death in Singhwal village of Jind district on July 21 following such a marriage. The boy identified as Karamvir Dhaka (21) had married Rekha (20), daughter of Rajender Singh, a resident of Garhi Ballam village of Kalanaur block, here recently. Sources said the couple got married after a prolonged affair that began while they were studying in the same class in Government School in Sundana village. After four years of the affair, they eloped from their house about three months ago, but decided to return to Sundana village recently. However, the problem began when they returned home two days before Diwali and the girl’s family objected to the marriage and roped in prominent social persons, including a former sarpanch of Garhi Ballam, to intervene into the matter. Though both of them belong to different gotras, the fact that they hailed from adjoining villages, which is considered as “gohand” (villages located in neighbourhood have brotherly relations), girl’s father Rajender along with former sarpanch of Ballam village Mahender Yadav met sarpanch of Sundana village Jagdish to discuss the issue. After the meeting, they met the couple and their relatives urged them to dissolve the marriage, as it was socially unacceptable. According to sources, though the groom and his father have expressed their readiness to accept the panchayat’s request (proposal) and to comply with the decision to walk out of the wedlock, the bride has reportedly rejected the snubbed the panchayat’s intervention on the issue. Talking to a section of the media, she admitted that some panchayat representatives had tried to pressurise her to end the marriage and return to her father’s house. “We have got married in court and it is legal and separation is impossible,” the girl reportedly told her parents and village elders. The groom’s father, Ramphal, said he came to know about their marriage on Thursday whey they returned. “I reprimanded them but accepted them in the house as I had no other option,” he added. Admitting that the marriage was against the prevailing custom, he said: “I agree with the panchayat and ready to dissolve the marriage. My son (Karambir) too has expressed to comply with the panchayat’s decision. We have told the girl’s father to take her away and we have no objections. Even I too tried to persuade her, but she is unrelenting so far.” |
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Poll outcome will determine RS fortunes
Chandigarh, October 19 Another RS member elected with INLD and BJP support, Tarlochan Singh, is also scheduled to complete his term as MP then. He had contested as an
Independent.
The remaining three seats are held by Shadi Lal Batra, Dr Ram Parkash and Ishwar Singhof the Congress. Since the political future of Ajay Singh Chautala, a contestant from the Dabwali assembly constituency, hinges largely on the poll outcome on October 22, Tarlochan Singh must be hoping for a sound INLD and BJP performance in the new assembly for retaining his RS membership. In case Ajay Singh Chautala is elected from Dabwali and decides to quit RS, there will be an byelection immediately. Normally, no byelection is held in case the remainder of the term after a vacancy is less than six months. But in this case, it will be a little more than eight months. The byelection will be held soon after the vacancy is notified. Only yesterday, INLD supermo Om Parkash Chautala, accompanied by Tarlochan Singh, held meetings with BJP chief Rajnath Singh and Lal Krishan Advani in New Delhi. Insiders say the meetings were held in a congenial atmosphere. These meetings give credence to a possible post-election alliance or understanding between the two major opposition parties. Though election results are still three days away, yet political permutations and combinations have been the subject of discussion in the corridors of power here and the Capital.While the Congress is hopeful of a clear majority to form its second successive government in the state, INLD and BJP leaders are predicting a change and a possible hung assembly. High turnout in rural and semi-urban areas lend some credence to the INLD and BJP calculations. In some assembly segments in Narnaul where repolling was ordered by the election commission, initial reports indicated a record 95 per cent turnout. Optimism by INLD and BJP leaders also stems from reports of infighting in the Congress and the damage some rebel candidates may have done to the ruling party candidates in some traditional Congress strongholds.
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Cautious millers imposing quality cuts
Chandigarh, October 19 On any paddy below FCI specifications, the millers are imposing quality cuts on the farmers. In other words, the grower has to sell his produce below the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 980 per quintal to the millers. A few months ago, the FCI rechecked the quality of rice delivered to it during the last paddy season by certain millers at places like Jagadhri and Karnal and rejected about 10,000 tonnes of rice. According to the General Manager, FCI, Haryana, the quality of the rice was slightly below specifications and, therefore, the corporation had asked the millers, who had delivered these stocks to the FCI, for replacement. According to trade sources, now the millers are wary of purchasing paddy with moisture content higher than the permissible limits, forcing the farmers to either dry it or accept quality cuts imposed by the millers. Theoretically, government agencies purchase leviable varities of paddy at the MSP of Rs 980 per quintal. But in practice, it’s the millers who purchase and lift paddy on behalf of the government agencies, which are billed accordingly by the “arhtiyas (commission agents)”, who also receive payment from the agencies. The millers mill the paddy and deliver the rice to the FCI on behalf of the agencies. A miller can purchase paddy for his own milling if he pays more than the MSP. But for this paddy, he has to give a certain portion of the rice to the FCI as levy at a
fixed rate. The rest he can sell in the market at the prevailing prices. The millers justify the quality cuts. They say if the farmers bring their produce after drying it, they can easily fetch the MSP. Those growers, who find it inconvenient to dry their produce in the mandis, prefer to sell the crop after accepting the quality cuts. The millers say they have to employ labour to dry the paddy with higher moisture content to bring it down to the permissible limit of 17 per cent. The PR-201 variety of paddy is not fetching the MSP on account of some inherent damage. Sources say while in Punjab the government has relaxed the percentage of damage to 4, in Haryana it continues to be 3. Some millers said they had yet to receive the bonus amount from the FCI on the levy rice. They said after the government announced bonus on paddy, they had paid an equivalent amount to the farmers even for the paddy purchased above the MSP. But the FCI had not increased the price of levy rice as it should have been calculated after including the bonus amount. This, they said, had made them cautious in purchasing paddy. Meanwhile, over 16.56 lakh tonnes of paddy had arrived in various mandis of the state till yesterday. Out of this, over 13.89 lakh tonnes had been purchased by government agencies and over 2.67 lakh tonnes by millers and dealers. |
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Anaj mandi water samples not contaminated: SDM
Karnal, October 19 The Subdivisional Magistrate (SDM), Assandh, Prem Chand said the water samples sent for test yesterday were not contaminated as per the reports. He asserted that consumption of unhygienic food during the festival season could be the cause for spread of diahorreha as three persons reportedly died due to the disease at different places and only one person died on the mandi premises. He stated that the same water was being supplied to all consumers in the anaj mandi, but there was no complaint of vomiting from other workers in the mandi. The members of the marketing committee had also been getting water through the same source, but none of its member fell sick. However, the locals were not convinced and claimed that water samples were taken from the taps of marketing committee offices and not from the tanks outside which were full of dirt. President of the Haryana Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh Jang Bahadur refuted the claim of the SDM and said why the administration and the marketing committee agreed to get the tanks cleaned, if they were not dirty. He said at least the authorities concerned realised that the labourers required clean water to drink, but woke up only after the disease broke out. He cautioned that the labourers would adopt the path of agitation if the authorities failed to implement the promises made yesterday. The labourers had staged a dharna and gheraoed the marketing committee officials, demanding proper arrangement of clean water, toilets and resting place for labourers. |
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RICO employee dies in clash
Gurgaon, October 19 Ajit Yadav was killed in a clash between two groups of labourers late last evening. His postmortem examination showed that he was hit in the head with a blunt object. Yadav’s body was sent to his native village in Rewari district where he was cremated. RICO workers, who have been protesting for several weeks, allege that violence erupted due to a police lathi charge and use of force by musclemen called by the factory management. But Gurgaon Police Commissioner SS Deswal denies using force on the protesting workers. “A group of protesting industrial workers of RICO attacked another group who had joined duty,” he maintained. The situation remained volatile with the administrative authorities as well as workers’ unions holding separate meetings to discuss the further course of action. Sensing the gravity of the situation, state Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary (Labour and Employment) Raj Kumar, Labour Commissioner Surina Rajan and Additional Labour Commissioner MR Anand visited Gurgaon today. The officers held a meeting with Gurgaon DC Anurag Aggarwal, Deputy Labour Commissoners Suman Kundu and GS Thakur and other police and administrative officials.The meeting decided to constitute a committee under the chairmanship of Gurgaon Additional DC Pushpender Chouhan. SDM (Gurgaon-I) Satender Duhan, Deputy Labour Commissioners Suman Kundu and GS Thakur and General Manager of the District Industries Centre Hardayal Sehrawat are the other members on the committee. The committee has convened a meeting of representatives of the factory management and labourers at the ADC's office at 11 am tomorrow. Different labourer unions have called for a strike tomorrow in protest against Yadav’s death. DC Anurag Aggarwal has appointed seven duty magistrates for maintaining law and order. Tehsildar (Manesar) Pankaj Setia has been appointed duty magistrate for Manesar area, Naib Tehsildar (surplus) Sant Ram for areas adjoining Rico and Sunbeam factories, Estate Officer (HUDA-II) Satbir Singh Lohchab for national highway, SDM (Pataudi) Vatsal Vasisht for the new Gurgaon city, Joint Commissioner of Gurgaon MC Veena Hooda for old Gurgaon city, Naib Tehsildar (Manesar) Lalit Kumar for civil hospital premises and Tehsildar (Gurgaon) Narender Kadian for the mortuary area. Gurgaon had been witnessing labour unrest for quite some time. On October 1, senior Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta and AITUC leader HL Sachdeva were detained by the police while on their way to address agitating workers of companies like Sun Beam and RICO in the town.Dasgupta had later met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and claimed that trade union rights of workers were being violated in Haryana.
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IYC elections next, says Tanwar
Fatehabad, October 19 Along with Haryana, a membership drive will also be taken up in Rajasthan and central Uttar Pradesh. “We were to start our membership drive in Haryana from September 1 when the Election Commission announced the election schedule on August 31. “Even, our tents had been pitched,” said Ashok Tanwar, Sirsa MP and president of IYC, who was in town on Diwali. “Now, we plan to start a membership campaign as early as possible after the government formation process in the state is over,” he said. He said the election process had been completed in Punjab, Gujarat, Daman and Diu and Pondicherry. “In Tripura and Tamil Nadu, where the process of membership is in progress, we have had an immense response from the youth. One lakh new members have been registered in Tripura with a population of only 20 lakh and 14.5 lakh in Tamil Nadu alone,” he added. The IYC is not only holding fresh elections, it is also changing its organisational structure from the earlier practice of block, district, state and national units to assembly, district, parliamentary, state and national-level units. Tanwar claimed that the Congress would improve its 2005 tally of 67 seats in these assembly elections in Haryana and form the next government. “All four Youth Congress leaders fielded by the party are in a very comfortable position and are poised to win,” he claimed With more youths joining the IYC , their increased participation in electoral politics was on the cards, he added.
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No mobiles inside counting halls
Sirsa/Fatehabad, October 19 The counting of votes for Dabwali, Rania, Ellenabad, Kalanwali (reserve) and Sirsa assembly seats is to be held in Government Polytechnic for Women, Sirsa, while counting for Fatehabad, Tohana and Ratia (reserve) seats will be held at Government Polytechnic, Fatehabad, on October 22. “Foolproof arrangements are being made for peaceful and uninterrupted counting,” said an official spokesman. He said only persons duly authorised by the Election Commission would be allowed to enter the counting halls. Three counting halls, duly separated from one another through barricading, have been set up in Fatehabad.JK Abhir, SDM, Fatehabad, who is overseeing arrangements for setting up of the counting centres, said a media centre was also being set up to facilitate journalists. Computers with internet connectivity, TV sets, fax and other facilities were being provided at the media centres in Sirsa as well as Fatehabad. Meanwhile, District Election Officer-cum-DC, Fatehabad, CG Rajini Kaanthan, today addressed a meeting of officials associated with the counting process. “Counting of votes is a sensitive job and should be carried out with complete transparency and honesty,” said the DC directing them to leave behind their watches, mobiles, matchboxes, belts and pens, that could be used as weapons, before coming to the hall for counting. |
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Repoll: More than 90 pc turnout at 9 booths
Naurnaund (Hisar), October 19 The repoll was ordered because the turnout in these booths on October 13 was more than 90 per cent. Voters queued up outside polling booths well before polling began at 7 am. Groups of voters collected at the booths and raised slogans in support of their candidates. The district administration had deployed police personnel in strength in all villages where the booths were located. No untoward incident was reported. The main candidates, Ram Kumar Gautam (Cong), Capt Abhimanyu (BJP) and Saroj Mor (INLD) visited all booths. The voters were blatantly partisan and objected to the presence of candidates other than they supported. However, the candidates displayed restraint and left the scene whenever required.
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Villagers rue poor condition of bridge, roads
Yamunanagar, October 19 The bridge’s condition has been deteriorated to such an extent that railing on both the sides has been destroyed. Villagers of other areas have also been suffering due to poor conditions of internal roads in Sadhaura, Radaur and Jagadhri, which have now become accident-prone. The villagers rued that the bridge over the hydel canal project is the only way to reach other places in Chhachhroli area. However, they have to risk their lives due to poor condition of the bridge. They have highlighted the need to repair the bridge to the authorities concerned many times, but to no avail. Now, they have been left with no option other than plying on the accident-prone bridge, they complained. Situation is somewhat similar in villages in Jagadhri and Sadhaura areas. Internal roads in Kaganawala, Mandali, Habidpur villages to Jagadhri and Sadhaura are also in a state of neglect. The condition of roads was deteriorated during the rainfall and due to overflow of water in villages from seasonal rivulets and Yamuna during the monsoon. Since then, no one came here to repair these roads. The situation has become miserable for commuters who travel during night due to pathetic conditions coupled with absence of lights along these roads. Accidents have now become a routine on these roads, especially for two-wheelers, complained the villagers.
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148 depot holders’ licences cancelled
Chandigarh, October 19 An official spokesman said here today that essential commodities were being provided to the people through 9,438 fair price shops, which were located near industrial units, student hostels and far-flung areas of the state. Out of the total 9,438 fair price shops, 6,723 were located in rural areas and 2,715 in urban areas. As many as 77 fair price shops were located near industrial units and 22 near schools/hostels, he added. He said during August, over 40,228 metric tonnes of wheat was distributed through fair price shops among the below poverty line (BPL) families and the beneficiaries of the Antyodaya Anna Yojana. To ensure effective check over the fair price shops and supervise the distribution of controlled commodities, village-level committees of members of panchayats and others were functioning in the state, he added.
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Shopkeeper gets extortion call
Rewari, October 19 The caller, who identified himself as Sunil Chaudhary, said he had been released from the Bhondsi jail of Gurgaon district recently. He reportedly threatened that if he failed to deliver him Rs 2 lakh by evening at a specified place in Harsoli town of Alwar district in Rajasthan, his shop as well as his house at Bawal would be blown off by a bomb. The caller also told him that the blast which was triggered off in a car parked near his house in Mohalla Hasanpura in Bawal on October 14 was precipitated by them under the impression that it was his car. The blast had severely damaged the car which actually belonged to Dr Anil Kumar Yadav, who lived in the adjoining house. Meanwhile, police protection has been provided to Ved Prakash. Simultaneously, the police has registered a case of intimidated extortion under Sections 384 and 511 of the IPC. Besides, the police has also taken into possession Ved Prakash’s mobile phone on which the threatening call had been made. The police has launched vigorous proceedings to trace the whereabouts and apprehend the culprit. |
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Notice to Independent
Chandigarh, October 19 According to Hisar District Revenue Officer Suresh Kumar, a complaint was received against this candidate alleging that he had utilised this amount during elections and had violated the directions of the Election Commission of India. It may be recalled that earlier also a notice was issued to Sihag asking him to explain the purpose of drawing such a huge amount. Now, a fresh notice has been served on him to explain the purpose for which he had drawn the amount from the bank. Otherwise it would be presumed that he had utilised the amount for election purposes and action would be taken against for violation of the model code of conduct. |
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Panch’s Abduction Tribune News Service
Panipat, October 19 The sarpanch of Noorwala village has been made the president of the committee. Later, the committee met the SHO of the city police station where a case was registered against Jain’s son Atul and four others, including Jain’s brother and two other youths from Sihwa village, on October 15. The committee demanded that the accused in the case be arrested immediately and appropriate action be initiated against them. In a complaint, Bhisham had alleged that Jain’s brother Rambaj, who met him outside the polling booth, asked him to accompany him to his car on the pretext of speaking to him, following which Atul and four others kidnapped him and beat him up. Meanwhile, the police said the matter was being looked into and after conducting a thorough investigation appropriate action would be taken against the accused.
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Diwali Misery Sushil Manav Tribune News Service
Sirsa, October 19 Hundreds of birds, including black sparrows, “murgabis” and partridges, were charred to death while several other creatures like snakes lost their lives. The incident took place when a fire engulfed the old historical pond of Rori town after a firecracker fell on the dry vegetation there. The pond spread over several acres had been lying in a dry state for long and birds and other wildlife have made it their habitat. The pond situated near the main bazaar of the town gave a pleasant look due to chirping of hundreds of birds, who had made it their abode. “Fire tenders were called from neighbouring Kalanwali town but it took more than two hours to extinguish the fire,” said Jagdish Joshi, in charge of Rori police station. Though some birds managed to save their lives by flying in time, several others were charred to death.
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Rallies to mark Indira’s death anniversary
Chandigarh, October 19 In a letter to this effect, the Chief Secretary has asked all the Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners that nationalistic and patriotic songs should be sung and speeches should be delivered by well-known personalities, besides quoting the speeches of Indira Gandhi in these rallies. |
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