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Wreaths laid at Veer Smriti
VAT receipts barely touch half mark
3 months on, NREGA workers yet to get wages
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Vote or not, nothing changes here
Kaithal girl to scale Mt Everest
Expectant woman dies of H1N1
Teachers must be evaluated too: Gupta
Bankers strike work
This fiscal, 3 lakh soil health cards for farmers
Four booked for sarpanch’s murder
Martyrs remembered on Vijay Diwas
High Court
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Wreaths laid at Veer Smriti
Chandigarh, December 16 At a solemn wreath-laying ceremony held at the Veer Smriti war memorial, Lt Gen MS Buttar, Chief of Staff, Western Command, and other officers and men paid homage to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country. A wreath was also laid by Air Marshal (retd) Randhir Singh on behalf of war veterans. Other decorated veterans present at the ceremony were Lt-Gen GS Sihota, Maj-Gen DP Singh, Brig BS Gill, Lt-Col ML Sharma, Lt-Col HIS Dhaliwal and Capt GS Punia. Later in the evening, candles were lit at the memorial. It was on this day 38 years ago that over 90,000 Pakistan troops surrendered to the Indian forces, which resulted in the birth of Bangladesh. This day also commemorates the victory of Operation Vijay in 1999, wherein Indian soldiers evicted Pakistani intruders from the extremely rugged heights of Muskoh, Dras and Batalik in Jammu and Kashmir, besides remembering the sacrifices of Indian troops during earlier conflicts with Pakistan in 1948 and 1965. KURUKSHETRA: Vijay Diwas was celebrated at Panchayat Bhawan here on Wednesday to commemorate the martyrs who had sacrificed their lives during the Indo-Pak war held in 1971. Paying tributes to the warriors and martyrs, Additional Deputy Commissioner Nirmal Singh said their sacrifice was a source of inspiration for all of them. “We got freedom from the British rule due to the sacrifices made by our warriors and martyrs,” he added. Col Gurinder Singh, Col KDP Singh, Major Inderjeet Sharma, Squadron leader Dharam Singh, parents and wife of martyr Major Nitin Bali, secretary, district Sainik Board, Major Balwinder Singh, secretary, District Red Cross Society, Ajay Wasan and DSP Ram Chander Rathi were among those who were present on the occasion. Rewari: Shauriya Samman and Vijay Divas Samaroh was held under at the District War Memorial Complex here. While the Finance, Irrigation, Forest and Environment Minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, was the chief guest, Swami Sharnanand presided over the function. Paying tributes to the Indian heroes who scripted history December 16, 1971, the minister proudly recalled the surrender of the Pakistani Army as well as the creation of Bangladesh Enumerating various projects implemented by the Haryana government for the welfare of ex-servicemen, war widows and freedom fighters, Capt. Yadav said that a war museum was being set up in the town to perpetuate the heroic deeds of freedom fighters. The minister asked officials of the Sainik Board to give utmost priority to works of ex-servicemen and their dependents War widows, meritorious students and distinguished heroes were honoured on the occasion The minister placed a wreath at the memorial to pay homage to the martyrs. |
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VAT receipts barely touch half mark
VAT CM says In spite of the global economic meltdown, we have seen a growth in our total revenue collections. It is too premature to say that we will not be able to meet our targets.
Chandigarh, December 16 Figures with The Tribune reveal that till October this year, Haryana had achieved just 46.56 per cent of its target of collecting a total VAT of Rs 9,825 crore. As against this target, the VAT collected by the Excise and Taxation Department was a mere Rs 6,410.275 crore. Though the state’s Central Sales Tax (CST) collections have shown a rise of almost Rs 1,000 crore (from Rs 5,752 crore in November 2008 to Rs 6,736 crore this November), it is primarily on account of the refund on VAT and CST received from the Government of India. It is learnt that the state received a refund of Rs 729.85 crore on account of this compensation for up to October 2009. This has helped the state record growth, inspite of no major upswing in the VAT collections. Talking to TNS here today on the sidelines of a conference on renewable energy, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the total revenue collections in the state
were good. “Inspite of the global economic meltdown, we have seen a growth in our total revenue collections. It is too premature to say that we will not be able to meet our targets. The government is taking all measures to realise maximum revenue this year,” he said. He said Haryana had managed a sturdy growth in excise collections as the new excise policy had helped it mop up Rs 1,500 crore up to November 2009 as compared to Rs 982 crore during the corresponding period the previous year. Though the Chief Minister denied there was a move to increase the floor rate of VAT, officials say the issue is under discussion, especially with some other states having done so to increase their collections. Officials say record paddy production this year, too, would add to the state’s coffers by ensuring a high purchase tax collection. It may be recalled that the state has already received Rs 315 crore as purchase tax from wheat. Meanwhile, Financial Commissioner Excise and Taxationt, said here today that revenue collections of the department had shown a robust growth in the current fiscal as compared to the corresponding period last year. There had been an unprecedented growth in the revenue collections which in the first eight months of the current year stood at Rs 8,526 crore as against Rs 7,014 crore during the corresponding period last year. The increase came to nearly 22 per cent. He said the major contribution in the revenue collections came from VAT nd central sales tax. The growth rate in the sales tax had been nearly 17 per cent in the first eight months of this fiscal.The new excise policy had helped the state mop up Rs 1,500 crore up to November 2009. |
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3 months on, NREGA workers yet to get wages
Ambala, December 16 As per the guidelines under the scheme, it is mandatory that the payment to the labour be made every fortnight. Most of these poor families belong to the Naraingarh area. They have been working under a project managed by a government department since August but they have not got the payment so far. Officers of the department have been assuring them that as soon as they receive the grant from the government, they will clear their dues. Jai Singh Rajbir and Som Nath, both labourers, said they had visited the office concerned in Ambala City a number of times, but officials of the department did not pay any attention to their demand. A few days ago, these families had staged a dharna over the issue, but the authorities did not take notice of it. The Centre has sent a grant of Rs 7.18 crore for Ambala district during the current financial year to implement the scheme. According to the guidelines under NREGA, 50 per cent of the work should be done through panchayats. However, this clause is not being fully implemented. One of the departments owes a huge amount to labrourers who have worked under the scheme. The department has reportedly exhausted the entire grant which it had received earlier. A minimum 100 days’ employment is provided to the poor under the scheme. Asked about the non-payment of wages to the labour under the scheme, Additional Deputy Commissioner Sumedha Kataria said as soon as the second instalment of the grant was received, the payment would be made. |
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Vote or not, nothing changes here
Karnal, December 16 Residents of Badli had completely boycotted the poll in protest against the shifting of their village from the Karnal Assembly segment to the Indri constituency and not a single vote of the 1,737 votes was polled. Deputy Commissioner JS Ahlawat had maintained that “Delimitation of the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies” was a Central subject and after the notification of the new Assembly constituencies, the matter was closed and nothing could be done. There was no dispute over the version of the Deputy Commissioner as delimitation was a constitutional exercise but the reason given by the villagers to boycott the poll was that their village would be completely neglected as the village was far away from Indri and people would suffer. “When our problems were not solved in spite of the fact that the village was barely 2 to 3 km from Karnal, one can well imagine the fate when the village is under the Indri seat, which is 40 km away,” residents had lamented. Both the Indri and the Karnal Assembly constituencies fall in Karnal district and the district authorities could have easily pacified the villagers by assuring them that no efforts would be spared at the administrative level to redress their grievances but they found an easy escape route by saying that “it was a political issue”. Similarly, a majority of the voters in Hansu Majra and Chandrao villages had also boycotted the poll to express their anger against the alleged callous attitude of the administration in dealing with frequent flash floods which marooned their fields every year, especially during the rains. However, the Deputy Commissioner described the poll boycott as a personal decision of the villagers and argued that the Yamuna waters that submerged the fields helped increase the crop yield. Over 10 villages, including Chandrao, Hansumajra, Burj and Chowgaon, were submerged by the Yamuna waters during the rainy season this year. Villagers held a mahapanchayat to pressure the administration and finally gave a call for boycotting the poll. |
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Kaithal girl to scale Mt Everest
Mamta will be part of a 15-member team comprising 11 British and four Indian mountaineers. The mountaineering expedition has been organised by Tread Adventure Tourism. A student of MPhil from Kurukshetra University (KU), Mamta has scaled many a peak earlier as well, besides having participated in various inter-university and national handball championships. She also has a keen interest in swimming, river rafting, skiing, kayaking, parasailing, paragliding and other adventure sports. Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Rajender Kumar Kataria, who has been posted as DC at Kaithal as well, presented a cheque of Rs 1.50 lakh to Mamta. The amount has been given by DS Constructions and Delhi-Gurgaon Super-Connectivity Ltd. The total expenditure of the Mount Everest expedition will be nearly Rs 21 lakh, of which Rs 3 lakh is being contributed by the organisers and the rest would have to be paid by the participants. The DC urged the industrialists and corporate houses to contribute their mite to encourage the girl and enable her to meet the expenditure. |
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A mound of protest
Sirsa, December 16 The notices say the site is a “centrally protected monument” under the Ancient Monuments and Archeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. The district authorities earlier this week had pasted notices on walls of the locality, asking the residents to vacate their homes within 15 days after they had refused to accept the notices. Though there are over 1,000 houses in Ther Mohalla with a population of over 10,000, notices have been issued to owners of 437 houses located atop the mound. The notice says that the site is a protected vide notification 31624 dated October 3, 1932. “The construction raised by you is in contravention of the provisions of Rule 8(1), sub-rule 1 of Rule 19 (1) and Rule 33 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Rules 1959 and sub section (1) of Section 19 and clause (1) of sub section (1) of Section 30 of the AM and ASR Act 1958,” say the notices issued by the Archeological Survey of India, Chandigarh Circle. The notices ask residents to vacate their residences and remove structures, otherwise they would be evicted and all expenses of removal of structures recovered from them. “We will not vacate our houses, come what may,” said a determined Jai Kishore, who claimed that Ther Mohalla had been in existence since 50 years. It was inhabited by the poor who made their living pulling rickshaws and selling fruit and other eatables. “The government should provide us an alternative site for making houses elsewhere in the town,” said Jai Kishore. SN Kesarwani, Superintending Archeologist, ASI, Chandigarh Circle, said Ther Mound was a Harrappan era site and several precious antiquities of that period had been found there. |
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Expectant woman dies of H1N1
Yamunanagar, December 16 Earlier 29-year-old Rinku of Gobind Puri and Pardeep (16) of Bhaidthal village had died due to swine flu. A report from Fatehabad said 11 students of a nursing college in Ratia in this district have been shifted to the community health centre (CHC) with symptoms of fever, cough and cold. “They are showing symptoms categorized under “A” type of influenza and have been admitted to the isolation ward of the centre,” said Dr VK Jain, Senior Medical Officer.Eight of these girls belong to Rajasthan, two from neighbouring villages and one is from Sonepat. They were housed in two dormitories. “The girl student from Sonepat had come from her home some time back and doctors suspect that she may have infected the other girls in the hostel,” Dr Jain said. “These girls do not need tests for swine flu at this stage,but we are keeping a watch on their condition,” Dr Jain said. The girls are being administered antibiotics , he added. |
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Teachers must be evaluated too: Gupta
Karnal, December 16 He stressed the need for greater involvement of colleges in revision and updating of curriculum and syllabi at the university level to keep pace with the fast changes taking place in field of education. Saroj Siwatch, Commissioner, Higher Education, welcomed the initiative of the HCTA to improve the overall system of education in government-aided colleges and hoped that this step would go a long way in making the system student oriented. Initiating the discussion, Dr Rajbir Prashar, general secretary of the HCTA, said the conference was the beginning of a series of activities and seminars . Prof TR Kundu, Dean , Colleges, KU, said the main responsibility of a teachers was to convert classrooms into a hub of creativity. |
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Bankers strike work
Sonepat, December 16 However, private banks, including ICICI, HDFC and Urban Cooperative Bank, did not observe strike. Members of the district units of the All-India Bank Officers Association and the All-India Bank Employees Association led by general secretary of the Haryana Bank Employees Federation NP Munjhal staged a demonstration at Geeta Bhawan here today in support of their demands, including withdrawal of reforms process in the banking sector and not to continue with the merger and integration of various banks. |
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This fiscal, 3 lakh soil health cards for farmers
Chandigarh, December 16 As many as six lakh soil health cards had already been issued to farmers in the state during the tenure of the present state government. He said a drive to promote soil conservation had been launched in the state to supplement the income of the farming community by maximising the agriculture production in the state. Under the drive, soil health cards were being prepared on the basis of soil test report and these were being provided to farmers free of cost. The spokesman said subsidy on land levelling was also being provided to farmers so that more area could be brought under cultivation by levelling undulating areas. |
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Four booked for sarpanch’s murder
Sonepat, December 16 In his complaint, Nawab has said that Ramesh of adjoining Lath village came to their house and requested him to send his father with him as the panchayat was holding a meeting there. At night, Ramesh’s brother Bhanu brought Sunder Singh home in a three-wheeler, claiming that he had been injured after a fall from the three-wheeler. As Sunder Singh was being taken to hospital in Gohana in the same vehicle, Bhanu jumped out and escaped. Doctors at the hospital referred Sunder Singh to the PGIMS in Rohtak but he succumbed to his injuries before he could be shifted there. Nawab alleged that his father had been murdered under a well-planned conspiracy. |
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Martyrs remembered on Vijay Diwas
Chandigarh, December 16 In a wreath-laying ceremony at the Veer Smriti War Memorial, Lieut-Gen MS Buttar, Chief of Staff, Western Command, and other officers and men paid homage to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country. A wreath was also laid by Air Marshal Randhir Singh (retd) on behalf of war veterans. Other decorated veterans present at the ceremony included Lieut-Gen GS Sihota, Maj-Gen DP Singh, Brig BS Gill, Lieut-Col ML Sharma, Lieut-Col HIS Dhaliwal and Capt GS Punia. Later in the evening, a candle-lighting ceremony was also organised at the memorial as a mark of remembrance, which was attended by families of personnel based at Chandimandir. It was on this day 38 years ago, that over 90,000 Pakistan troops had surrendered to the Indian forces, which resulted in the birth of Bangladesh. The day is also observed to commemorate the victory in Operation Vijay in 1999, wherein Indian soldiers evicted the Pakistani intruders from the extremely rugged heights of Muskoh, Dras and Batalik in Jammu and Kashmir, besides remembering the sacrifices of Indian troops during earlier conflicts with Pakistan in 1948 and 1965.
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High Court
Chandigarh, December 16 He directed the service to be effected through Hisar Chief Judicial Magistrate. The case will now come up for hearing on January 11. The directions were issued after the Sant did not turn up in the court, despite directions. Haryana entry unconfirmed Even though Senior National Fencing Championships at Hyderabad is just a week away, Haryana team is still uncertain about participating in the event. The State Fencing Association has sought a judicial intervention following the failure of the Fencing Association of India (FAI) to grant it the affiliation. The matter is now before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Acting on the petition by Kundli-based HFA general secretary Sant Ram Bahrdwaj, Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia has issued notices.
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Gurgaon, December 16