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Cases registered on INLD, Congress complaints
Figure fight till the last
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Kusum may move court
Badal has no moral right to seek votes, says Hooda
7 killed in train-jeep accident
Won’t expunge remarks: HC
All in hands of 1.44 lakh voters
Back franchisee system, Cong urges power staff
Plea for security to RTI activists
1 killed in gang war
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Cases registered on INLD, Congress complaints
Ellenabad, January 19
“I was informed by my workers that two Congress workers, Balwinder Singh and Partap Singh, were distributing money among villagers to influence them into voting for the Congress,” said Abhey Singh Chautala, INLD candidate. He said by the time he reached there with his party men, people had nabbed him with Rs 50,000 and handed him over to the police. “By that time, he had already distributed Rs 50,000 among villagers,” he alleged. However, HPCC president Phool Chand Mullana alleged that INLD worker Devinder Singh, spouse of the sarpanch of Kirpal Patti village, was distributing money among villagers to which his brother, Balwinder Singh, and a villager from Kanganpur, Partap Singh, both Congress workers, objected. Mullana alleged that Devender Singh came with Pardeep Kumar, Kuldeep Singh and Manoj Bandi of Chautala village, Pawan Beniwal of Darba village and Mahavir Bagri of Sirsa and “kidnapped” Partap Singh in a vehicle (HR 25 4917) while he was having his meals. Mullana further alleged that patwaris Harish and Rakesh Sharma had been distributing money among villagers to influence them into favouring the INLD. The police, meanwhile, said, it had received two complaints and registered cases on both. SP Shrikant Jadhav said Balwinder Singh and Partap Singh had been booked under Section 171-E and 136 of the the Representation of People’s Act on the complaint of Devinder Singh. The police has also booked Devinder Singh, Balwinder Singh, Paras and Baldev, all residents of Kirpal Patti, under Sections 323, 506 and 342 of the IPC for assault, criminal intimidation and wrongful confinement. The high-voltage campaigning for the Ellenabad assembly seat ended last evening with the main contenders, the Congress and the INLD, organising rallies at Ellenabad town and Nathpa Chopta, respectively, in a show of strength. Both parties held their rallies in areas of influence and served Bollywood”tadka”.
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Figure fight till the last
Sirsa, January 19 “Hooda claims he spent Rs 1,120 crore on Sirsa, but only Rs 27 crore came to Sirsa district during the four-and-a-half years of his regime, out of which Rs 1 crore came from the MPLAD fund of Ajay Singh and Tarlochan Singh, Rajya Sabha members of our party,” Chautala maintained, addressing mediapersons here
today. Chautala claimed that his government had sanctioned projects worth Rs 144.36 crore for Sirsa district and Rs 134 crore had been spent when his government was voted out in
2005. However, the Hooda government had called back Rs 10 crore that had yet to be utilised, he
alleged. “The government also took out funds from Chaudhary Devi Lal University and shifted Rs 5.78 crore to Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and Rs 3 crore to Kurukshetra University, starving the local university of funds,” he
alleged. Chautala contradicted Hooda’s claim of having spent Rs 270 crore on Ellenabad and said only a sum of Rs 9.78 crore was sanctioned by the Congress government for Ellenabad out of which Rs 4.4 crore was spent and the rest(over Rs 5 crore) called
back. “Prior to the assembly election, the government spent Rs 20.41 crore in Kiloi, Rs 20.51 crore in Meham and Rs 18.31 crore in Kalanaur, but not a paise was spent on Sirsa district.”
Chautala alleged that out of the 108 villages declared “Modern”, 18 were from Rohtak, 12 from Jhajjar and six from Sonepat. Not one was from Sirsa
district. Pooh-poohing Chautala’s allegations, the Congress said that development in Sirsa and Ellenabad during the Congress regime was for all to
see. In this context, Ved Parkash Vidrohi, spokesperson of the HPCC, mentioned projects like the railway overbridge at Sirsa, Ottu Lake and strengthening of the power distribution network. |
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Kusum may move court
Ellenabad, January 19 “I was thrashed and Chautala’s supporters, uttering obscene remarks, molested me. I took shelter in a shop where my supporters informed the police,” Chaudhary had alleged in the FIR.
“I will decide my future course of action, including moving the High Court, after consulting my lawyers when the bypoll ends,” she
said. Meanwhile, Chautala today denied that he or any of his party’s men were connected with the alleged attack on
Chaudhary. “Neither I, nor Tarlochan Singh or Ashok Arora, who have been named in the FIR, have ever met this lady,” he maintained, terming the allegations as baseless. |
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Badal has no moral right to seek votes, says Hooda
Rohtak, January 19 The Chief Minister said this during an interaction with mediapersons here. Hooda said while the SAD-led Punjab government had been depriving Haryana of its share of water, its leaders had been camping in Haryana to seek votes for a particular candidate.He said the SAD leaders and its government should first respond to the “injustice” being done to thousands of farmers in Haryana in the matter of water before holding any public function here. He claimed while Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had announced at several occasions that he would not give even a single drop of SYL water to Haryana, how could he expect a welcome from people of Haryana and what right he had to seek votes for anyone in the
state. Alleging that the INLD, which is the main rival of the Congress in the bypoll, had also adopted double standards, he said while the INLD supremo had supported the move to construct the Hansi-Butana link canal inside the state assembly, he had been opposing or giving misleading statements outside the
House. He said the link canal would benefit all and it was a part of the drive launched by the state government to ensure equitable distribution of water. |
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7 killed in train-jeep accident
Bhiwani, January 19 The incident took place when a family of Bidola village under Tosham subdivision was on the way to attend a funeral in Mithi Rehru village in Rajasthan. When the driver of the jeep was trying to cross the unmanned crossing, the jeep developed some snag in the engine and stopped in the middle of the railway line. Sadalpur-Hisar passenger train, which was on its route, collided with the jeep.
Suman, Laxmi, Krishan, Krishan and three others died on the spot while four others sustained
injuries. Deputy Commissioner Vikas Gupta has expressed deep shock and grief over the death of seven
persons. Highway robbers held
Ambala: The Ambala Range police has nabbed a state-level gang involved in various highway robbery incidents. IG, Ambala range, KK Sindhu said here on Tuesday that leader of the gang Jitender Singh, a resident of Panipat, and other six members of the gang - Jagpal Singh, Om Parkash, Sonu, Manish, Nirmal and Surender - were also
arrested. He said a special task force team led by Kurukshetra SP KV Ramana was constituted last month. The police had recovered three pistols, five live cartridges, a cash of Rs 10 lakh, two Tata Indica cars, fake driving licence and fake registration number plates from their possession. According to the police, members of the gang used to position themselves near bus stands in a
car. They used to ask passengers waiting for the bus to board their car by paying the fair of the bus. They used to snatch their ATM cards and forced them to disclose the code number of their card. |
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Won’t expunge remarks: HC
Chandigarh, January 19
The orders dismissing Chautala’s appeal were passed in the open court. The detailed order is not yet available.
Describing the action a result of arrogance, Justice Ranjit Singh had earlier held the then Chief Minister and other functionaries liable to pay interest on his pension and related benefits delayed by over five years. Justice Ranjit Singh had ruled: “Arrogance of power by the Chief Minister seems to be at play in this case. The visit of the then CM to Yamunanagar on February 4, 2001, with the slogan “Sarkar aap ke dwar” came with a bitter pill for the petitioner, Kanwar
Bhan. “The Chief Minister made certain allegations against the petitioner and ordered his suspension there and then at a press conference…. The DC sent a memo on February 4, 2001, for issuing a formal order placing the petitioner under suspension.
“The financial commissioner-cum-secretary meekly succumbed and obligingly issued the order dated February 6, 2001, placing the petitioner under suspension with immediate effect. A senior functionary, working as an assistant registrar in the co-operative society was, thus, shown disdain; and humiliated in public without any officer coming to his
rescue. “They all rather became instrumental in perpetuating this arrogated illegality. This in a democratic setup governed by the rule of law would make it look as if we are living in some dictatorial era of archaic
vintage”. Chautala’s appeal came up for consideration before the Division Bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Alok Singh, but he did not get any relief from the High Court. |
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All in hands of 1.44 lakh voters
Ellenabad, January 19 Kusum Chaudhary is the only other candidate to have campaigned tirelessly during the past 20
days. The election authorities have made elaborate arrangements for the conduct of the bypoll and the constituency has been declared
“hypersensitive”. Heavy police arrangements have been made and 15 companies of the central forces deployed.
Over 80 mobile police parties, including 20 on bikes, will be moving around during the
polling. The authorities have set up 142 polling booths, 22 in urban areas and 120 in rural areas.
The Haryana Government has declared January 20 as public holiday in all its offices, including educational institutions, boards and corporations, falling in the
constituency. A notification says that January 20 will be observed as paid holiday under the Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act,
1881. “Every person who is employed in any business, trade, industrial undertaking or any other establishment situated within the constituency will be granted a paid holiday to enable him or her to vote,” says the notification. |
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Back franchisee system, Cong urges power staff
Panipat, January 19 He said it would be wrong to perceive the franchisee system as privatisation of the power utilities as this was not the case. Allaying the apprehensions expressed by employees of the power utilities that the new system might create a job crisis for them, Vidrohi said in 1998 when the government had gone ahead with the trifurcation of the power board, many had raised similar issues. However, the reforms neither lead to privatisation of the power utilities nor any jobs were terminated.
He said the sole purpose of introducing the franchisee system was to bring more efficiency in the working of the power utilities and to bring down theft of power which was causing considerable losses to the utilities.
He claimed that the employees had been misled by some vested interests. |
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Plea for security to RTI activists
Chandigarh, January 19
The petition is based on information carried by The
Tribune.
The petitioner, advocate HC Arora, said the issue on providing protection to the whistleblowers was introduced in the Parliament in 2006, but a bill in the matter did not make any reference to RTI activists.
Elaborating, he said although the Whistleblowers Protection Bill, 2006, was pending before Parliament, it did not take care of those people in the general public, who use the RTI Act to expose corruption in the administrative
set-up. Observing that the courts cannot direct the state to enact legislation for providing protection to the whistleblowers, Arora referred to a number of murders across the country, including the recent incident of slaying of Pune-based Satish Dubeyone. |
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1 killed in gang war
Yamunanagar, January 19 All five members of the gang were later arrested. The police has recovered 9 mm revolver and four country-made pistols from the possession of the
accused. The arrested have been identified as Maneesh Kumar of Panipat, Ravinder Kumar and Pawan Kumar of
Sonepat, Dinesh Kumar of Delhi and Kala of Bilaspur. |
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Ellenabad, January 19
Charges baseless, says Chautala
Rohtak, January 19
Chandigarh, January 19
