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Hooda takes oath amid show of strength supporters
Rough road ahead for Chief Minister
Bishnoi: No problem in supporting Hooda
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6 dera followers killed in accident
Kernel elongation in Pusa 1121 genetic: Expert
Two party chiefs shown the door in Mullana
Why the Congress lost in south districts
Lone BSP MLA backs government
Three youths held for friend’s murder
Setting up of Kalpana Chawla Medical College
Members of the Kalpana Chawla Medical College Nirman Committee hold a protest to establish a medical college in Karnal on Sunday. Tribune photo: Ravi Kumar
Sumita contender for berth?
Workshop on blood donation concludes
Surcharge waiver
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Hooda takes oath amid show of strength supporters
Chandigarh, October 25 Governor Jagannath Pahadia administered the oath of office and secrecy to Hooda and gave him time till October 31 to prove majority on the floor of the House. At the flower-bedecked Raj Bhawan, enthusiastic supporters poured in from just about every corner to express their solidarity with their leader. The crowds occupied all space in the pandal. Hooda’s mother Hardai Devi and wife Asha Hooda were among the first to arrive. The slogan “Deepinder Hooda zindabad” heralded the arrival of Hooda’s MP son, Deepinder. Also present at the ceremony were Congress observers Prithviraj Chavan, BK Hariprasad and Mohsina Kidwai, state unit president Phool Chand Mullana and the newly elected MLAs. From the detratctors’ camp were MP Rao Indrajeet Singh and Kiran Choudhary, who was accompanied by her MP daughter Shruti Choudhry. Sources said they had especially been asked by the Congress high command to be present at the ceremony. Shanti Pahadia, wife of Haryana Governor, was also present. The large number of supporters who flocked to Raj Bhawan made the arrangement look inadequate with the police facing a hard time controlling them. With the number of supporters swelling inside, security personnel tried to streamline the inflow, but to no avail. The supporters pushed they way through the gates. Inside, too, they jostled and elbowed one another to catch a glimpse of Hooda taking oath. INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala and his sons did not attend the ceremony. Later, replying to questions Hooda said the first priority was to prove majority. He said his party had the support of seven Independent MLAs and one of
the BSP. Asked about the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) joining hands with the Congress, he said that the members of HJC were part of the Congress family. The Congress would welcome them if they extended unconditional support. With October 31 as deadline to prove majority on the floor of the House, sources say the Congress has decided to call the first session of the newly constituted assembly on October 28
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Rough road ahead for Chief Minister
Chandigarh, October 25 With INLD president Om Prakash Chautala threatening to pull down the nascent government on the floor of the House during the trust vote, Hooda faces the first challenge within six days, as the Governor has asked him to prove his majority on or before October 31. He will have to keep his flock together and away from the preying eyes of the Chautalas. One thing, which will help him in doing so, is that no MLA, whether of the ruling party or the Opposition, would like to risk the dissolution of the House so soon. For, even the Opposition will not be able to manage more than a wafer-thin majority. Immediately after passing the floor test, Hooda will face a bigger challenge in the ministry making. With the constitutional restriction on the size of the ministry, Hooda will need all deftness at his command in accommodating the demands and aspirations of the MLAs of not only his own party but also those of the supporting MLAs, who, despite their “unconditional” support, would demand their pound of flesh. One of the supporting MLAs could be adjusted as Deputy Speaker of the Assembly because traditionally the post goes to a supporting MLA or even the Opposition. In Haryana, the ruling party prefers to give this post either to one of its own or to a supporting MLA. How he will manage the claims of the others, only he knows. While his own party men or women could be restrained by the high command, the supporting MLAs will be a problem. Similarly, the HJC MLAs, who may extend support to the government, too, would seek one or two berths in the Cabinet. One via media would be to create several Cabinet-rank posts outside the Cabinet. Hooda would have to work hard in this term to carry all sections with him and to remove grievances of all the regions of the state, which must feel that they, too, are getting a share in the pie. One main charge leveled by his detractors in his own party as well as in the opposition is his alleged bias towards the old Rohtak district. He also needs to win what has been known as the tubewell belt of the state, comprising districts like Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Kaithal and Panipat. The farming community in this belt, which was wooed by INLD patriarch Devi Lal in the eighties, has still been sympathetic towards the INLD. With new power projects, which are like to start generation from the end of this year, would help Hooda in extending his influence in this belt, where the farming community wants adequate electricity the most. With the MLAs calling the shots, the bureaucracy, this time, would not be as unbridled as many feel it was during the first term of Hooda. Now it would be up to the MLAs to use their hold over the district administration for their personal gains or for community’s welfare. Now with five year’s administrative experience behind him, people expect that Hooda would give them better governance. Before the start of his first term, he had promised to make the state free from fear and corruption. While the people of the state are now free from political fear, they are yet to see a corruption-free bureaucracy.
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Bishnoi: No problem in supporting Hooda
New Delhi, October 25 The statement means a lot, as it was earlier projected that he had put Hooda’s removal as a pre-condition for supporting the Congress government. In the past two days, Hooda’s detractors had been highlighting that Bhajan Lal would not lend support unless Hooda was
sidelined. Bhajan Lal’s Haryana Janhit Congress had six MLAs and they had to be roped in, according to Congress bosses, said
a source. A group within the Congress that included Mohsina Kidwai and Moti Lal Vora had contacted Bhajan Lal and his MLA son Kuldeep
Bishnoi. Sources said a deal had been struck according to which the Congress and the Haryana Janhit Congress would join hands
“honourably”. The HJC had been offered two ministerial berths and things would be ironed out in the next few days. Bishnoi has already made it clear that he would be supporting the
government. Vora and Kidwai had a talk with Bishnoi and made him realise that both parties needed each other, hence it was good to join hands.
Bhajan Lal and Bishnoi have also made it clear to the Congress that there was no question of them rejoining the Congress or merging the HJC with
the Congress. |
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6 dera followers killed in accident
Sirsa, October 25 The incident took place when the pick-up van, carrying 15 dera followers, was on the way to Sirsa from Kutel, a Karnal village, for the monthly satsang of the dera. It collided with the rear side of the truck loaded with paddy coming from Rania at about 3.30 am today. A 12-year-old boy, Ajay, fell out of the van and was run over by the truck. Satya, Parkash Devi, Subhash, son of Telu Ram, Subhash, son of Mian Chand, and Jagdish are the other victims whose bodies have been shifted to the local general hospital. Five of the victims died on the spot while another succumbed to his injuries on the way to a hospital. Volunteers of the Green S Force, an organisation of the Dera Sacha Sauda, rushed to the spot and shifted the injured persons to Shah Satnam Multi-Specialty Hospital of the dera, where their condition is stable now. |
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Two party chiefs shown the door in Mullana
Ambala, October 25 The contest, which was close between him and four-time MLA and Haryana state Congress president Phool Chand Mullana, tipped in his favour due to his Brara village, where he gained the maximum lead defeating Mullana by 2,937 votes. Brara was polled 47,185 votes, Mullana 44,248 and BSP state president Prakash Ram Bharti received 28,113 votes. Delimitation proved dear to Nirmal Singh, who lost to Anil Vij of the BJP. Singh, who had won many elections from the now abolished constituency Naggal, contested the elections from Ambala Cantonment. Vij has won twice as an Independent candidate. He was elected MLA fourth time yesterday and was polled 49,212 votes. He defeated Nirmal Singh of the Congress by a margin of 6,336 votes. Nirmal Singh was polled 42,876 votes. Sitting MLA from Naraingarh Ram Kishan Gujjar of the Congress broke the jinx of no sitting MLA winning twice in a row from Naraingarh after defeating his closest rival Ram Singh Kodwa of the INLD by a margin of 8,315 votes. Gujjar was polled 37,285 votes, while Kodwa was polled 28,970. Arjun Singh of the BSP was polled 15,404 votes. It was a clear victory for sitting MLA of the Congress Venod Sharma in Ambala City. He defeated his closest rival Charanjeet Kaur Malour of the SAD-INLD by a margin of 35,550 votes. |
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Why the Congress lost in south districts
Gurgaon, October 25 While voters of the assembly constituencies comprising the Rohtak and Sonepat Lok Sabha segments falling under Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonepat districts ardently voted for the Congress, the party candidates got less than half assembly seats in the southern part of the state comprising Gurgaon, Rewari, Mahendragarh, Nuh, Faridabad and Palwal districts. According to political pundits, the Congress, which won 11 of the 23 seats in south Haryana, could have fared much better, had the state leadership not ignored this part in carrying out developmental works. The INLD got seven seats, while three Independent candidates and one each from the BJP and the HJC got elected to the state assembly from the southern region. The defeats of four-time MLA Dharambir Gauba from Gurgaon, Karan Singh Dalal from Palwal, sitting MLA Bhupinder Chaudhary from Pataudi and Harsh Kumar from Hathin would perhaps have taught a lesson to the Congress leadership. The failure of the Congress in quenching the thirst of the Ahirwal and Mewat belts by getting the canal projects completed, apart from selection of politically inappropriate candidates, perhaps cost the party dear in the assembly elections. The Congress leadership chose to ignore the claim of sitting MLA and Deputy Speaker Azad Mohammad for the Ferozepur Jhirka seat in Nuh district, who reportedly ensured that the Congress candidate lost the battle of the ballot. Shakuntala Bhagwaria, the sitting MLA and Congress candidate from the Bawal constituency lost to her rival from the INLD, while former minister AC Chaudhary from the NIT, Faridabad, lost to an Independent candidate. The Congress candidate from Tigaon lost to state BJP president Krishan Pal Gurjar by a narrow margin, and so did the party’s candidate from Hodal to the INLD candidate. On the other hand, Anita Yadav, the Congress candidate from the Ateli constituency in Mahendragarh district, won by a slim margin of a few hundred votes. Nonetheless, “transplanted” Congress candidate Dharambir Singh did spring a surprise from the Sohna assembly segment, where he trounced two sitting MLAs Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria and Shayida Khan, besides strong BSP candidate Zakir Hussain, who had given a tough fight to Congress MP Rao Inderjit Singh in the recent Lok Sabha poll. |
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Sumita contender for berth?
In all, seven women Congress candidates won the elections and two of them, Kiran Choudhary from Tosham and Savitri Jindal from Hisar, were ministers in the outgoing ministry. The other four women MLAs, Anita Yadav from Ateli, Sharda Rathore from Ballabgarh, Geeta from Jhajjar and Shakuntla from Kalanaur, are far less experienced than Sumita Singh. Sumita, who has been president of the Karnal Municipal Council for five years, is also president of the Haryana Mahila Congress. Besides, Sumita Singh represents the composite Sikh-Jat culture. This too may work in her favour for a ministerial
berth. |
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Lone BSP MLA backs government
Yamunanagar, October 25 The support came following a communication from BSP chief Mayawati to national general secretary Man Singh Manhera and state BSP president Parkash Bharti. The INLD too had been making efforts to woo Akram Khan, their old associate. “The BSP supremo, Mayawati, has directed us to support the Congress. The decision in this regard was taken after a discussion between Mayawati and the Congress high command,” Bharti told The Tribune. “Though the BSP managed to win only one seat, it has substantially increased its vote bank,” he claimed. Akram Khan’s father Aslam Khan twice on the Congress ticket from the Chhachhrauli segment in 1987 and 1991. After the Congress denied him ticket in 1996, Akram Khan contested the Chhachhrauli seat as an Independent
and won. He lost elections on the INLD ticket in 2005. Just before the Lok Sabha elections, he quit the INLD, and joined the BSP. This time Khan won from the Jagadhri assembly segment, defeating sitting Congress sitting MLA Subhash Chowdhary, as after delimitation most areas of Chhachhrauli were merged with
Jagadhri. |
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Kernel elongation in Pusa 1121 genetic: Expert
Karnal, October 25 Reacting to the report, geneticist and plant breeder Dr Sarial, specialised in basmati rice research, presently working in Kaul Campus of the Haryana Agricultural University, emphasised that the rice grains absorb water on cooking and thus increased in length, breadth and volume and the increase was both length-wise and breadth-wise. “Lengthwise expansion without increase in girth is considered a desirable trait in high quality basmati rice. Anatomical features such as endosperm cells affect kernel elongation upon cooking. In case of the basmati rice, scientific evidence suggested that these were penta and hexagonal cells arranged in a honey-comb fashion compared to long and rectangular cells arranged in columns of 10-12 cells in non-basmati varieties,” he stressed. Sarial said the kernel elongation was influenced both by genetic and environmental factors, especially the temperature at the time of ripening. “Maximum elongation occurred in grains matured at this temperature and grain elongation of pre-soaked milled rice was greater with intermediate-amylase and low-gelatinisation temperature and some varieties expanded more in size than others upon cooking,” he said. Genetically, kernel elongation was controlled by one or two major genes, influenced with few modifier genes and reports of quantitative nature of inheritance were also available in literature, he added. Different types of Indian and Pakistani Basmati, Afghanistan’s Sadri and Myanmar’s D25-4 (Nga Kyee) possessed this extreme elongation property and Pusa 1121 evolved recently was among them with longest kernel (8.00 mm) and elongation after cooking up to 20.0 to 22.0 mm, he added. Pusa 1121 was evolved through conventional plant breeding technique. Thus, the stigma that Pusa 1121 was a genetically modified variety as reported in media was incorrect, misleading and had no scientific basis, he asserted. |
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Three youths held for friend’s murder
Panipat, October 25 Three persons have been arrested while another accused is still absconding. Initially, the police could not identify the body. Later, it was found that the body was of Amit, a resident of Desraj Colony. There were many injury and burn marks on the body. Family members of the victim had named some of the suspects following which the police had started investigations. The accused have been identified as Suraj, a resident of Indira Colony, Arjun of Bari Pahard locality and Samrat and Gora of Rajiv Colony. Though Suraj, Arjun and Samrat have been arrested, the police is on a lookout for Gora, who has been absconding. The police said the four youths were the victim’s friends. However, they had recently picked up a quarrel with him over a girl. Though they had sorted out the matter amongst themselves, the accused had been nursing a grudge against Amit, which ultimately led to his murder. The police said Amit was first gagged to death by the accused, who later tried to set the body on fire to conceal his identity. However, going through the details of Amit’s mobile phone, the police got the leads that finally enabled them to solve the murder case. |
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Setting up of Kalpana Chawla Medical College Bhanu P Lohumi Tribune News Service
Karnal, October 25 Giving details about the mode of agitation, convener of the committee Pritpal Singh Pannu said activists of more than 100 Karnal-based social, cultural, religious, educational, trading, employees and other community organisations would form a 20 km-long human chain to express their resentment over “stepmotherly” treatment being meted out to them by not fulfilling their long-pending demand. He said Kalpana Chawla sacrificed her life for mankind and did proud to Karnal by bringing it on the world map and also gave an opportunity to send two students to NASA space centre in USA every year. He said the committee would mobilise people of the district to participate in human chain on November 5, which would have participation of all students of Tagore Bal Niketan School, where Kalpana Chawla had her education. District president of Sarv Karamchari Sangh Om Parkash Sinhmar and president of the Haryana Rajya Karamchari Mahasangh Sat Pal Sharma have announced full support for the cause, while the District Bar Association has announced to suspend work on November 5 to express solidarity with the cause.
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Workshop on blood donation concludes
Sirsa, October 25 “Emphasis was laid on the need to register as many voluntary donors as possible because blood obtained from them is considered the safest,” said Beniwal. He said the workshop was organised during the World Blood Donation month and the participants included secretaries of Red Cross societies, representatives of voluntary organisations and blood banks and regular blood donors. Blood groups of 1,000 donors were tested during the workshop. |
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Surcharge waiver
Chandigarh, October 25 A spokesman of DHBVN here today said the scheme was launched for all categories of consumers in the urban and rural areas in the state. It is applicable to connected and disconnected consumers of private as well as the government sector. Under the Surcharge Waiver Scheme, cent per cent delayed payment surcharge amount is being waived off on the liquidation of outstanding principal amount in
lumpsum. — TNS |
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Cheering crowds greeted Bhupinder Singh Hooda, attired in a white kurta-
pyjama with a black jacket, as he climbed up the dais to be sworn in as Chief Minister for the second term at Haryana Raj Bhawan here today.
Sirsa, October 25
Karnal, October 25