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Six crushed under Shatabdi Express
5 die in road mishap
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Separate SGPC
Over-confidence much to blame, says Selja
Bumper harvest sees basmati prices crashing
Guest teacher’s appointment
Officer spews anger at senior’s farewell function
Six held for stealing diesel from oil tanker
Rs 11 lakh looted at gunpoint
Cell for senior citizens
Fake notes
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Six crushed under Shatabdi Express
Pataudi (Gurgaon), November 3 One person was injured in the accident. The incident triggered protests by locals, who surrounded the train. According to sources the mishap took place at 7:30 am when six persons, stated to be relatives, began crossing the tracks between Pataudi and Jatauli station, as soon a goods train passed the area and did not notice the approaching train. They were said to be returning from a marriage. An engine was sent from Delhi to facilitate the train's onward movement, which was resumed after almost five hours. Six other trains on the route were delayed. “Due to the impact, the engine of the train failed and the locomotive came to a halt," CPRO, Northern Railways, Anant Swaroop said. He told The Tribune that as many as 4,000 persons had been detained, 14,000 had been prosecuted and
Rs 44 lakh had been collected as penalty by the people who were at fault but still they didn’t take precautions. “It is difficult to stop speeding train at a go so the people should take precautions while crossing,” he affirmed. Incensed over the incident, the locals surrounded the train and resorted to stone pelting. Deputy Commissioner Rajendra Kataria rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation. The Gurgaon administration has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the family and said it would bear the cost of treatment of the injured. The deceased have been identified as Chahat, Alka (45), Kalu (50), Attar Singh (50), Ved Prakash (48) and Veer Singh (50). Alka and Kalu are said to be from Gaziabad and the remaining from Mehchana village, the sources added.
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5 die in road mishap
Sonepat, November 3 |
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Punjab Bandh Ripples
Ambala, November 3 The trains on the Jallandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar route were affected the most and almost all trains on this route were terminated at Ambala Cantonment. The Ambala Division of the Northern Railways set up refund counters and also pressed into action Railways employees to assist passengers getting off the terminated trains onto alternate trains and to help guide them on other options. Taxi and private bus operators had a field day as most of the passengers chose to travel by road on their on ward journey. Almost all passenger trains plying on the route between Ambala, Ludhiana, Jallandhar and Amritsar were cancelled. These include, Ludhiana-Ambala City passenger train, Sahranpur-Nagal dam terminated at Ambala, passenger train between Ambala and Bhatinda was also cancelled. Among the long-distance route trains those that were cancelled include Dadar express, which was terminated at Ambala, Shane Punjab from Nizammudin to Amritsar terminated at Ambala. Duplicate Howrah was terminated at Ambala. Railway officials said that trains would run as per schedule from tomorrow. The Wadali brothers were also among those stranded at the station due to cancellation of the train. |
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INLD legislators back Bhiwani lawyers
He said Bar members were demanding withdrawal of fake cases registered against the lawyers, registration of cases against the SDM and transfer of the DC and SDM. “We will be forced to stage a state-level demonstration on November 6 if our demands are not accepted,” said
Bajad.Meanwhile, members of the Bar Associations of Dadri, Loharu, Tosham and
Siwani, Bhrashtachar Nirodhak Samiti, Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, Ad hoc Karmchari
Sangthan, Dainik Rail Yatri Sangh, Vyapar Mandal Bhiwani, Haryana Pradesh Vyapar
Sangthan, Sector 13 and 23 Resident Welfare Associations also joined the protest.
Hisar, November 3 Buoyed by the assembly election results, the party has devised a strategy to exploit every small issue that comes up in the state to maintain pressure on the government. The INLD leadership believes the Hooda government is bound to collapse in a few months under its own weight. As part of this plan, the party has directed its legislators to politically exploit every issue that crops up in their districts to mount pressure on the administration. The ongoing lawyers’ agitation in Bhiwani has come in handy for the party. The lawyers have been on a relay dharna there for the past few days seeking removal of the DC and the SDM. The trouble began after a lawyer had a tussle with an employee of the SDM
office. The administration responded by slapping criminal cases against the lawyers. Initially, the lawyers had sought action against the SDM. Now, they are demanding removal of both the DC and the SDM. Two INLD legislators, Col (retired) Raghbir Chhiller from Badhra and Dharampal Obra from Loharu, today met the lawyers at Bhiwani and lent their support to the stir. They were accompanied by a number of INLD workers. The lawyers have now threatened a state-level demonstration in Bhiwani on November 6. The impending bypoll for the Ellenabad assembly segment in Sirsa district after party supremo Om Parkash Chautala quits the seat will provide the party another opportunity to embarrass the government. The party has already chalked out plans for an aggressive campaign for which the tone has been set by Chautala, who is on a “thanksgiving” tour of the constituency. Chautala has declared he would prefer to retain the Uchana Kalan seat. Should the INLD win this byelection, which is highly likely, it will not only raise the strength of the INLD legislative party but will also be a huge embarrassment for the Congress.Chautala has adopted the strategy that his father adopted in 1979 after his ministry was toppled by Bhajan Lal.The late Devi Lal kept reiterating that the Bhajan Lal government would not survive for long. This helped him keep his workers’ morale high for eight years till he finally returned to office as CM with a record majority in 1987. Chautala has adopted the same stance against the Hooda government. Everyday, since Hooda was sworn in, he has been repeatedly claiming that the collapse of the government was imminent, forcing second-rung Congress leaders to refute the claim.The INLD is certain to launch agitations in the near future by latching on any issue that might come its way.This again is part of the pressure tactics to destabilise the government and retain its cadre
strength. The Congress will now have to devise a counter-strategy to foil this plan.
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Separate SGPC
Karnal, November 3 Jhinda, who was here to meet the HSGPC leaders at the Dera Kar Seva said the agitation could be in any form, be it rail roko, rasta roko, gherao of the Chief Minister or any other radical action. The Haryana Sikhs were awaiting formation of the Cabinet and if the government did not take action even after the Cabinet was formed, they would not wait or watch but act, he added. He said that dithering on the separate HSGPC issue cost the Congress heavily in the polls and had the government made the announcement about a separate HSGPC, the party would have won 60 and not 40 seats. Jhinda said the Akal Takhat Jathedars were not in fovour of awarding punishment to him and other Haryana Sikh leaders but Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar were pressurising them. He said he would abide by the dictates of the Akal Takhat and would not give up the struggle for a separate SGPC. He reiterated that he and his associates had not taken over the Chhathi Patshahi Gurdwara in Kurukshetra but only took over the “sewa” which was the right of every Sikh. |
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Over-confidence much to blame, says Selja
POLL RESULTS We went wrong in our assessment of ground situation... Distribution of ticket, too, is to blame for the party's poor showing
Chandigarh, November 3 The state unit of the Congress had recommended early election in the state after the nine-seat win in the Lok sabha elections. It had hoped to cash in on the "pro-Congress" wave. The party high command chose to play along, expecting that the mandate would clearly go in favour of the Congress. "I think over-confidence was the reason why we did not fare well in the elections. We certainly went wrong in our assessment of the ground situation as also in a few other calculations. "I think ticket-distribution, too, was to blame for the party's poor showing," she said in response to a question. In city for a women journalists' convention, she was candid in her admission that the Congress had lost some of the seats because of wrong choice of candidates. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has already stated this as one of the many reasons for the party's reduced number of seats. The minister clearly stated that "infighting" in the Congress, cited as another reason for the party's poor performance, was a rather "relative term" whose impact could'nt be quantified. On the allegation of lopsided development in the state, Selja said the Congress government had greatly emphasised on development in the state during the past four-and-a-half-years. "However, some pockets ended up being more developed than the rest," she said, obviously unwilling to be drawn into any controversy on the issue. She was quick to add that the new Congress government would take care to redress all such grievances and ensure uniform development across the state. "In this term, we will ensure there are no such complaints from any quarter," Selja emphasised. The minister stated that they were fully prepared for the holding of the Commonwealth Games and there would be no difficulty in meeting the deadline for the same. Admitting that swine flu had indeed come as a setback and impacted tourism for a couple of months, she said everything was on track now. "The panic has subsided and we are not expecting any fallout on the tourist inflow during the games," she maintained. Later, the MP representing Bhiwani-Mahendergarh, Shruti Choudhry, also said it would be ensured that there was no discrimination in development. |
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Bumper harvest sees basmati prices crashing
Chandigarh, November 3 In the past fortnight, price of basmati in various mandis of the state have crashed by almost Rs 500 per quintal. The PUSA 1121 variety of basmati was fetching Rs 1,800-1,850 per quintal, as against Rs 2,400 per quintal a fortnight ago, when the crop had started arriving in the mandis. Similarly, the traditional basmati varieties are fetching just Rs 2,600 per quintal as against Rs 3000-3200 per quintal at the beginning of the procurement season. The lower price is being attributed to a bumper crop this year. Not only has the area under basmati, including PUSA 1121, increased in the state, but the crop yield too has gone up substanti
ally. Officials in the Agriculture Department said although the area under traditional basmati varieties has come down, the area under PUSA 1121 variety has gone up substantially. “The total area under various basmati varieties this year is seven lakh hectares, which is up by 20 per cent over the last year. The main reason for this is that the area under PUSA 1121 has gone up from 1.79 lakh hectares to 3.50 lakh hectares,” said Anil Malik, director, Agriculture. Vijay Kumar Arora, a commission agent from Matloda mandi, said the high production has led to the crash in prices. “Last year, the traditional basmati was selling at Rs 3,800 per quintal while PUSA 1121 fetched Rs 3,550 per quintal. This is the reason that many farmers shifted to basmati as against non-basmati varieties. But the high production has led to a crash in prices now, and farmers are losing around Rs 6,000 per acre,”
he said. In addition, the market for India’s basmati is shrinking as exporters are not lifting much stock from the mandis. With Iran increasing its import duty on Indian basmati and exporters payments’ remaining outstanding, they are not ready to pay high prices for basmati. Vijay Setia, a leading rice exporter, said the market would stabilise now as buyers in Saudi Arabia have started buying Indian
basmati. With HAFED too entering the market to buy PUSA 1121 at Rs 1900-2000 per quintal, the prices are expected to stabilise now. In the past one week, HAFED has started buying PUSA 1121 in 23 mandis and has bought 30,000 quintals till date. |
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Guest teacher’s appointment
Chandigarh, November 3 Closing the chapter, Justice Ranjit Singh directed the initiation of criminal or other proceedings and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the petitioner. Challenging the appointment of a guest master in a petition against the state of Haryana and others, petitioner Sandeep Rathee had sought directions for his own appointment. Taking up the matter, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “The actual fact would be apparent from the reply filed on behalf of a respondent. “It is disclosed the petitioner manipulated the attested photocopy of the final DMC of his B.Sc results. It is pleaded the petitioner had produced a forged and fabricated mark-sheet. When the petitioner continued to dispute the actual marks obtained by him in B.Sc., directions were issued to the Registrar,
Kurukshetra University, to intimate the marks obtained by the petitioner year/subject-wise. “The inquiry conducted by the University has now been placed on record and would show the actual fact. The enquiry has found tampering in the DMC issued to the petitioner. “Finding this, a committee has recommended that the DMC and degree issued in respect of the mentioned roll number be cancelled with immediate effect. The committee has further recommended that there is a clear case of tampering with the documents and forgery, for which the University may file an FIR against the petitioner. “There is, thus, no merit in the plea raised by the petitioner to seek his appointment as guest science teacher. “The petitioner has been found to have forged his DMC, which is a serious issue. This issue cannot be left at that. The act and conduct of the petitioner would disclose commission of serious criminal offences. “The university and the state, therefore, would be under obligation to bring this case to its logical conclusion.” “Directions are issued to the respondent-state and the university to proceed further against the petitioner by initiating criminal and/or other proceedings to cancel the degree etc. Needless to observe the action against the petitioner would follow by observing due process of law, giving proper opportunity to the petitioner. The writ petition shall stand dismissed. The petitioner shall pay the costs of this litigation, which is assessed as Rs 10,000,” the court ruled. |
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Officer spews anger at senior’s farewell function
Chandigarh, November 3 Not that the menu was different from any party organised in the Civil Secretariat. It had the same samosas, same beverages and same sweets as served in any other party. The difference was in the speeches made by certain members to wish the retiring members well. While most of the speakers confined themselves to the usual pet talk of the farewell parties, one member struck a different note. The member, who usually maintains a low key, that day took his colleagues by surprise. He chose the occasion to vent his anger on one of the retiring senior officers. While he said a few kind words about the two, he was particularly harsh and, in the terminology of the all-India service, “politically incorrect” towards one retiring
officer. While some of his colleagues gestured to stop him midway in his speech, the others were too dumb struck to say anything. He poured his disdain on the senior colleague for a considerable time. The retiring officer, who has the reputation of not taking any disrespect from his colleagues, particularly juniors, kindly, said in his speech that he bore no ill-will towards anyone, even the officer who had had potshots on him just a few minutes ago.Another member of the association said the association should adopt a more pro-active role in the state and it should speak up for those members who had not been given good posting by the government. However, many other members disagreed with him. They said the association should not be involved in such issues and the members concerned should fight their own battle. Meanwhile, the association has a new set of office-bearers. While the president is always the ex-officio, that is the Chief Secretary, who is now Urvashi Gulati, secretary Rajan Gupta and treasurer Keshni Anand Arora had submitted their resignations to the outgoing president, Dharam Vir. Before demitting the office, Dharam Vir appointed SS Prasad as secretary and Anurag Rastogi as treasurer of the association. |
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Six held for stealing diesel from oil tanker
Rewari, November 3 The accused have been identified as Sanjay, driver of the oil tanker and resident of Alwar district in Rajasthan, Bhoop Singh, conductor of the tanker and resident of Sangwari village, Dharam Pal and Niranjan Lal, both illicit recipients of the stolen diesel and local residents, and Lahori Prasad Yadav and Naresh Yadav, both supervisors of the
factory. However their another accomplice, Ranbir, another driver of the oil tanker, is reportedly absconding. A case of cheating, criminal breach of trust, theft and retention of stolen property has been registered against them following a complaint yesterday filed by Ripu Daman Gupta, director of the factory. The arrested accused were produced in the court of JMIC Saurabh Gosain, who remanded them in judicial custody. Three of the accused were caught red-handed at a place near Bithwana village, 3 km from here, yesterday when diesel was being stolen from the tanker while their three other accomplices were apprehended subsequently. The oil tanker, carrying diesel, was on the way to the factory from a filling station of the IOC. The police also reportedly recovered Rs 12,000, which was purportedly the sale proceeds of the stolen diesel from Sanjay, as well as 3,500 litres of stolen diesel from two others. |
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Rs 11 lakh looted at gunpoint
Kaithal, November 3 According to information, two employees of Eakansh Motors, local Maruti dealer, were going to local branch of HDFC Bank to deposit cash at about 3.30 pm on a motorcycle. Three motorcycle-borne persons, who were probably following the agency staff from outside agency premises, intercepted the staff vehicle near Ashoka Bar on Ambala road here. While one of the robbers kept the motorcycle started, his two other accomplices brandishing pistols pounced upon the pillion rider holding the cash bag. After snatching cash they fled from the scene. The pillion rider who was pushed by the robbers fell from the motorcycle and suffered minor injuries . After getting the information, the police nakas were alerted and SSP Sandeep Khirwar, DSP Jagat Singh and SHO City Ravinder Tomar rushed to the site of the crime and made efforts to get clues about the identity of robbers from the agency staff . The staff were shown photos of known criminals of the area. The SSP also visited the local HDFC branch to get information about the possibility of involvement of the bank staff member if any as the cash was brought to bank daily at this time. The SSP said that efforts were on to arrest the criminals. |
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Cell for senior citizens
Rohtak, November 3 The police has made available a helpline number (01262-228135), which will be functioning and will provide the required help round the clock. This is first time that such a cell has been set up by the police in the district, it is claimed. A woman Sub-Inspector looking after the women cell has been given the additional charge of this cell. According to Anil Kumar Rao, the district police chief, the cell will provide the help or solve all problems, including personal and health issues.
— TNS |
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Ajay resigns from RS
