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INLD Samman Rally at Hisar
Hisar Byelection
Ineligible Beneficiaries
Rs 36.15 lakh loans given to 241 BPL beneficiaries
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Women varsity to set up Indic-Asian studies centre
Four arrested in flesh trade racket in Sirsa
Homoeopathy victim of state ‘apathy’
Gorakhpur atomic project
Jagjit Singh’s fans pray for his recovery
Delay in deciding no-trust move decried
28 cases settled in lok adalat
Cash prizes up to Rs 5 lakh for clean schools
Order to book BDO in fraud case
Drunkard son kills woman
Spurious diesel unit unearthed
Criminals’ gang busted, 7 held
Jewellers booked for blockade
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INLD Samman Rally at Hisar
Hisar, September 25 Ostensibly, the rally was just another regular annual event on the INLD calendar. However, its main importance today lay in its choice of Hisar as the venue. INLD chief and former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala’s elder son, Ajay Singh Chautala, is is due to file his nomination from Hisar tomorrow. So, the entire focus was on projecting the rally as a show of strength. The INLD roped in its trusted ally and family friend of the Chautala clan, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, for the event. Badal has been a regular at the rallies organised on his friend’s birth anniversaries by the INLD over the past few years. The left parties were represented by AB Bardhan, a senior CPI leader, and Inderjit Singh, Secretary of the Haryana CPM. Kanta Aldia of the Bahujan Sandesh Party which has extended support to the INLD in the byelection was also present. Om Prakash Chautala said the byelection would usher in a change in state polity. Charging the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government with making the state bankrupt due to its policies over the past seven years, he said this was by far the most corrupt administration. Not only that, the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre had broken all records of corruption as no other single government had been involved in so many scams. It was for the first time in the nation’s history that so many former ministers and leaders of UPA factions were languishing in jail on graft charges. Chautala said it was time for the people to teach the Congress a lesson and the beginning should be made by defeating the party in the Hisar byelection. He said his father, the late Devi Lal, was the first politician to demand the right to recall elected representatives. He assured that if his party was voted to power in Haryana in the next poll, he would enact strong Lokpal legislation to curb graft. Badal said the Congress was responsible for weakening the country’s security apparatus and the UPA government deserved to quit power on this count alone. He said the result of the Hisar by-election was certain to mark the beginning of a new era in national politics. He said inflation was the direct result of anti-people policies of the Congress and the poor were virtually starving. Badal said the best tribute to Devi Lal would be electing Ajay Chautala to the Lok Sabha from Hisar. TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu sent Nageshwar Rao as his representative to the rally. Rao read out a message from Naidu extending support to the INLD and paying tributes to Devi Lal. Ajay Chautala said he would serve the people of Hisar to the best of his ability. |
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Hisar Byelection
Chandigarh, September 25 Sumita Misra, Chief Electoral Officer, said the account should be opened at least one day before the candidate files his nomination papers before the Returning Officer. The bank account number should be communicated by the candidate in writing to the Returning Officer at the time of filing of nomination, she said, adding that all election expenditure should be made by the candidate only from this bank account. All money to be spent on electioneering should be deposited in the account irrespective of its funding from any source, including candidate's own funds, she said. A certified copy of the account statement should be given by the candidate to the District Election Officer along with the statement of the account of expenditure at the time of filing of the expenditure statement, after declaration of results, she added.
— PTI |
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Ineligible Beneficiaries
Gurgaon, September 25 The district administration has warned such residents that if they do not get their names deleted from the BPL list and get their BPL cards cancelled by October 15, legal action would be taken after lodging the FIRs against them. PC Meena, Deputy Commissioner, said he had been receiving complaints about inclusion of names of ineligible people into the BPL list, which was a serious matter. “Several teams have been constituted to verify the antecedents of those whose names figure in the BPL list,” he said, adding that the teams would identify the eligible and ineligible people and send their reports to the administration. Such ineligible BPL card holders can apply for deletion of their names from the list and cancellation of their BPL cards before the Additional Deputy Commissioner up to October 15. Meena said apart from punishing such residents, disciplinary action would also be initiated against the employees who were responsible for including the names of such ineligible persons in the BPL list. VS Hooda, Additional Deputy Commissioner, said there were nearly 44,000 BPL families in the district and as per instructions of the Deputy Commissioner efforts would be made to identify the ineligible persons so that the benefit of the government’s welfare schemes reached the deserving persons. The officers stated that the residents were also free to inform the district administration about the ineligible persons whose names figure in the BPL list. |
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Rs 36.15 lakh loans given to 241 BPL beneficiaries
Sonepat, September 25 The State Bank of India provided loans totalling Rs 25.50 lakh to 170 beneficiaries while the rest got Rs 10.65 lakh from Gurgaon Gramin Bank. Pushpender Singh, ADC, said a beneficiary could take a loan up to Rs 25,000 at a 4 per cent rate of interest for self-employment work. SBI manager Avinash said it was for the first time that the bank had adopted eight girl students from BPL families whose educational expenses up to matriculation would be borne by the bank. The only condition was that such students should secure at least 50 per cent marks in the examinations. |
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Women varsity to set up Indic-Asian studies centre
Sonepat, September 25 With setting up of the centre, the university would become the first and only university in the country to research and study comparative Indic-Asian studies. Indic-Asian studies form part of the curriculum in many western universities including the University of Vienna in Austria and the University of Massachusetts in the USA. The vice-chancellor of BPSMV, Dr (Mrs) Pankaj Mittal, said the objective of setting up the centre was to engage in study of the country’s social, economic, political and cultural affairs. She added that the centre would make an in-depth study of India’s relationship with several Asian countries. The V-C said the centre would also devote itself to issues related to Indo-Asian knowledge systems including science, technology, business, management, arts, architecture, ethics, philosophy, history, culture, societal values, customs and practices, polity and pluralism. |
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Four arrested in flesh trade racket in Sirsa
Sirsa, September 25 The police said the accused had admitted during their interrogation that they brought girls from West Bengal to Delhi by assuring them of providing lucrative jobs. However, after the girls landed in Delhi, they used to push them into the flesh trade on the promise of a hefty income. The spokesperson said the police hoped to expose some other persons on the basis of the information received from these accused. The police had earlier raided a house in the Prem Nagar area of the town on September 21 and exposed a flesh trade racket by allegedly arresting two sex workers, a man running a brothel in his house and a customer. The girls, Pooja and Sonali, were brought from West Bengal and Delhi, respectively, allegedly on a monthly payment of Rs 60,000 each and Suraj, a local resident, was running a brothel in his house. Mayur, alias Monu, a resident of Fatehabad, who had visited the house as a customer, was also arrested by the police. The police said the interrogation of the girls as well as Suraj had led the police to the four accused arrested today. It said Bhatia and Dharmender were the kingpins, who procured these girls from outside and supplied them to the local touts, who further supplied them to brothels and farm houses of some rich and influential persons. |
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Homoeopathy victim of state ‘apathy’
Karnal, September 25 He said, “It is strange that no homoeopathic doctor has been posted as Ayush district officer in the state under the NRHM and ayurvedic doctors have been preferred even though the number of homoeopathic dispensaries are more”. During the past 20 years only three regular homoeopathic dispensaries have come up in the state and out of the total 187 homoeopathic colleges, including 31 postgraduate colleges and one National Institute of Homoeopathy (Kolkata), there is just one college in the state, he said.“We have received more than 15 proposals for opening colleges of homoeopathy from various states but the response is so poor in the state that even private parties are not coming up for opening the colleges,” he added. Singh said he would meet the state Health Minister to apprise him of the present scenario and also urge the government to give grant-in-aid to existing colleges and also to the prospective investors, keen to open homoeopathic institutions in the state, on the pattern of the Gujarat Government. Questioning the rationale to start three-and-a-half year condensed bachelor courses, Dr Ramjee said: “It is unfortunate that the government is planning to start three-and-a-half year bachelor courses in homoeopathy to cater to the rural areas as qualified doctors are already available and 12,000 homoeopathic doctors are passing out annually.” Replying to a question about doctors practising with fake degrees, he said action had been taken in several cases and massive drives had been launched in Bihar and UP to track down such quacks. |
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Gorakhpur atomic project
Fatehabad, September 25 Sanjay Gumasta, project manager of the project, said the Indian nuclear programme had the backing of operational experience of NPCIL engineers in erceting 315 safe reactors over the past 40 years. Allaying fears of perils to human health and heavy cost of nuclear energy, as cautioned by social activist and Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan during his recent visit to Fatehabad, Gumasta maintained that nuclear energy was neither risky not costlier. He said the 4 X 700 MW proposed project at Gorakhpur in Fatehabad would prove a milestone for the social, economical and infrastructural development of Fatehabad as well as Haryana. Gumasta said he had interacted with more than 1,400 persons having their direct or indirect stakes in the project as a part of NPCIL’s untiring efforts to apprise people about the benefits of this plant. “A lot of confusion has recently been generated regarding safety and health considerations of people,” said Gumasta, clarifying that no such conditions existed in nuclear industry where more than 20 reactors were already operational and contributing power to the national grid. Nuclear energy, he said, was one of the cheapest and green sources of energy. |
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Ginners refuse to call off strike
Sirsa, September 25 Gobind Kanda, who had earlier made an attempt to resolve the issue, visited the ginners on their dharna site here today and assured them that the state government would take a favourable decision on their demand by the next month and appealed to them to end their agitation. The ginners stuck to their guns even after Gobind Kanda’s visit today and announced that their strike would continue till the government reduced market fees from 4 per cent to 1 per cent. Sushil Mittal, president of the Haryana Cotton Ginning Industries Association (HCGIA), alleged that the bureaucracy was misleading the state government on this issue and said the government was not going to lose anything by reducing market fees on cotton. “The state government collected Rs 120 crore from market fees and VAT last year, and we can give a written undertaking that the total revenue collection will not be less than last year’s figures, if the government reduces market fees,” maintained Mittal. Though the members of the industry do not accept it on the record, they admit privately that due to a large-scale evasion, the market fees was being paid hardly on 25 per cent of the total cotton coming to the markets. They claim that they have no option, as the market fees in the neighbouring Rajasthan and Punjab is 2 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively. The ginners maintain that once the government reduced market fees rates to 1 per cent, the evasion will end, which will not only ensure good collection of the market fees, but also an increase in the recovery of VAT. |
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Liberty Factory
Gharaunda, September 25 Left in lurch, these workers are staging a dharna outside the factory here but some of them even ended their lives due to financial problems. Some of them tried to cope with the changed situation by taking up menial jobs like pulling rickshaws, working as a domestic help or working on rehris but succumbed to burden of family responsibilities. A worker, Mahender Kumar (32), jumped into a canal and ended his life. His father Surajbhan alleged that his son who was working in Gharonda unit of Liberty factory ended his life due to financial crises. “My son was one of thousands of workers who became jobless in 2006 and fed up with daily squabble and unpleasant arguments in the family over financial problems, he jumped into the canal and ended his life, leaving his wife and a four-year-old son behind,” he added. Kamlesh, wife of Roshan, who also lost his job stated that her husband met with an accident and died on the way to hospital. Even if he had survived, she could not have afforded his treatment. She has two sons and there is no bread earner in the family. If the Liberty owners pay the compensation and give her a job on a compassionate ground, she can make a living, she said sobbingly. Another worker, Rishipal (38), who was beaten up mercilessly by the police during a lathi charge at Bastara said that he lost one leg due to the beating and even after a long treatment, the leg had to be amputated. With four daughters to bring up, Rishpal who was the only bread earner is without a job and also handicapped. Amaranth Singh alleged that his 45-year-old brother who went to mark his attendance on December 28, 2006, had some alterations with the management was missing till date. As the police refused to file an FIR here, the matter was reported in our hometown in Bihar, a copy of which was submitted in Gharonda police station, he added. |
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Disproportionate Assets Case
New Delhi, September 25 The trial will start on November 11 with recording testimony of prosecution witnesses. Paving the way for start of the trial of Chautala, Special CBI Judge PS Teji found "prima facie" evidence against him and framed charges under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. “I am of the considered opinion that prima facie case for framing charges under Section 13(1)(e) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act is made out against the accused for acquiring assets disproportionate to his known sources of income,” the judge said. The court in its order said Ajay Chautala was possessing assets, which were 339.27 per cent exceeding his legal income. Ajay's legal income between May, 1993, to May, 2006, was Rs 8.17 crore. However, he acquired assets worth Rs 27.7 crore, the CBI alleged. "It has been demonstrated that during May 24, 1993, to May 31, 2006, Ajay Singh Chautala was having income of Rs 8.17 crore whereas he acquired assets worth Rs 27.74 crore, that is 339.27 per cent, which were disproportionate to his known sources of income,” the court said. It said the sitting Haryana MLA had failed to give any explanation with regard to the assets accumulated by him. He had failed to disclose the sources from which he acquired such assets.
— PTI |
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Maternity benefit scheme ready for 4,900 beneficiaries
Chandigarh, September 25 The Centre has already released over Rs 1 crore in two instalments of Rs 50 lakh (which came in March 2011) and Rs 65 lakh (the current financial year’s fund) to the department which, on its part, has completed the survey to identify those eligible for the Rs 4,000 grant under the scheme. However, the release of the money to the beneficiaries, despite its availability, was held up because the scheme lays down that no disbursement should be by way of cash or cheques. Since most of the beneficiaries had no bank accounts to enable direct transfer of the incentive, the implementation of the scheme hit a roadblock. However, that, too, has been taken care of. Under the scheme, any pregnant woman, above 19 years, whose husband is not in a government job is entitled to the incentive which is disbursed in three instalments for the first or the second live birth. While the woman is entitled to Rs 1,500 at the end of the second trimester, she gets another Rs 1,500 three months after delivery and Rs 1,000 on the completion of six months after delivery. The scheme has been introduced on a pilot basis in Panchkula which is one of the 52 districts chosen across the country and the only one in the state. Speaking of the scheme, the Principal Secretary, Women and Child Welfare Department, Dheera Khandelwal, said the idea behind the scheme was to improve the health and nutrition status of pregnant and lactating women and their infants. “It is common knowledge that women especially in the rural belt are generally underweight. The incidence of an underweight mother giving birth to an underweight baby, too, is high. This may primarily be because women continue to work outside their home during pregnancy and soon after delivery. Due to economic constraints, they neglect their health and nutrition which adversely affects the baby’s health as well,” she says. This incentive, then, is essentially targeted at encouraging mothers to follow good practices in pregnancy and lactation for themselves as also to partially compensate them for wage loss. “To avoid any duplication of beneficiaries, we involved the anganwari workers to identify the beneficiaries,” she said. While 4,931 beneficiaries have been identified, there could be others who are still not aware of the scheme. For this purpose, the department now intends to rope in the panchayats of the villages in the district. “We feel the scheme has not been amply publicised and there may be beneficiaries who are still not on our list. As a part of our campaign to take this schemer to the people, we will seek the help of the panchayats so that every deserving case gets its due,” she said. |
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Jagjit Singh’s fans pray for his recovery
Karnal, September 25 Jagjit Singh enthralled the audience with his scintillating performance and was cheered lustily when he sang some of his choicest ghazals like “Thukrao ab ke pyar karo, mein nashe mein hoon”, “Tumko dekha, to yeh khayal aaya”, Hazaroon khwahishein aisi, ke har khwahish pe dam nikle”, “Hosh walo ko khabar kya” and “Tum itna jo muskara rahe ho” . Members of the HIFA have sent thousands of messages to people to observe “one- minute silence” and pray for early recovery of the legendary ghazal singer. “Jagjit Singh, who turned 70 on February 8, had announced to hold 70 concerts to mark his 71st year and we pray to God to give him life to fulfil his cherished dream,” said an ardent fan of the ghazal king. |
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Delay in deciding no-trust move decried
Rewari, September 25 Talking to mediapersons at Jarthal village, near here, yesterday, he stated that when the veracity of the no-confidence resolution presented by the above councillors to the ADC here, had already been duly ascertained, the delay being shown in its implementation was something beyond comprehension. Alleging discrimination against Ahirwal youths in the matter of government employment, the MP asserted that while youths of the Rohtak and Sonepat areas had been getting 80 per cent of the government jobs, a 20 per cent of the jobs were being dished out to youths in the Ahirwal region. |
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28 cases settled in lok adalat
Sonepat, September 25 According to the Chief Judicial Magistrate-cum-Secretary of the authority, DN Bhardwaj, in six cases of Motor Vehicles Act, a compensation amounting to Rs 12.45 lakh was settled. Besides, four cases of the Hindu Marriage Act, six cases each of execution and civil nature, five cases of criminal nature and one case of confession were settled with mutual compromise. These cases were settled in the courts of the District and Sessions Judge, the Additional District and Session Judges, Kuldeep Jain, Reetu Garg, Pramod Goyal and Alka Malik, and other judges in the district courts. Besides these cases, four cases were settled in the Gannaur lok adalat and five cases in the Gohana lok
adalat. |
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Cash prizes up to Rs 5 lakh for clean schools
Sirsa, September 25 The prizes will be given separately to senior secondary schools, high schools, middle schools and primary schools, respectively. The schools achieving this feat at the district level will walk away with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh while those
topping their block will get Rs 50,000. Yudhbir Singh Khyalia, DC, said the state government would spend Rs 3.42 crore on this scheme, while Rs 18 lakh would be spent in Sirsa district under this scheme. |
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Order to book BDO in fraud case
Sirsa, September 25 Shivraj Singh, sarpanch of Masitan village, had filed a criminal complaint against the BDO, Ram Singh, alleging that the officer made some unwarranted payments from the panchayat account and thus misused his authority. The complainant said the SDO (Panchayati Raj) conducted a probe after he lodged a complaint with the DC and found that the officer had, by his act and conduct, caused losses to the tune of Rs 99,703 to the state exchequer. Later, upon another inquiry ordered by the DC, the Executive Engineer of the PWD (B&R) Department confirmed the findings of the SDO (Panchayati Raj).
— TNS |
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Drunkard son kills woman
Fatehabad, September 25 However, Ram Kishan hit his mother with an iron rod, killing her on the spot. Ram Kishan and his wife, Shakuntala, did not tell anyone and planned to cremate the victim’s body in the backyard of the house. The police has booked Ram Kishan and Shakuntala and sent the body for a postmortem examination. |
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Spurious diesel unit unearthed
Gurgaon, September 25 The police seized 48,000 litres of kerosene stored in underground tanks in the factory. Kerosene was mixed with black oil to make spurious diesel. The police arrested seven persons, all belonging to UP. They were produced in a local court, which sent them in judicial custody.
— TNS |
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Criminals’ gang busted, 7 held
Kaithal, September 25 All the accused were produced in the court of Duty Magistrate Prashant Rana. Five of them were sent in police remand while two others were sent in 14 days’ judicial custody.
— OC |
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Jewellers booked for blockade
Sirsa, September 25 The police said a case under Sections 341, 284, 147, 149 of the IPC and Sections 8-A and 8-B of the National Highway Act for wrongful restraint, rioting and other offences had been registered against 12 named and more than a hundred unnamed jewellers for yesterday’s incident.
— TNS |
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