HVP ministers to face action
From Jatinder Sharma

ROHTAK, Nov 17 — The Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) has decided to initiate legal action against those legislators who have joined the Chautala government while continuing as members of the HVP.

The HVP General-Secretary, Mr Surinder Singh, today said that these legislators had refused to accept the whip issued on the opening day of the Vidhan Sabha session. Instead they preferred to stay away from the Vidhan Sabha, he said.

The HVP would soon file a petition before the Assembly Speaker against these legislators for violating the provisions of the Anti-Defection Act. If necessary, the party would not hesitate in approaching the high court against the defaulting MLAs, he said.

Mr Surinder Singh claimed that the HVP was prepared to face mid-term elections. He said that the party proposed to set up units at the village level after holding constituency-wise meetings by the end of December.

Though the HVP would contest from all 90 assembly segments, its options were open for an alliance or seat adjustments with other parties. The HVP would have no objection to an electoral alliance with the BJP if it snapped ties with the ruling INLD.

Mr Surinder Singh claimed that because of the reforms initiated during the Bansi Lal regime, the state would become self-sufficient in power in the coming year.

The generation capacity of the four existing units of 110 MW each in the Panipat Thermal Power Plant would increase by 270 MW by the end of next year. The state, he claimed, would get additional 1200 MW of power due to the steps initiated by the Bansi Lal government.

Later, Mr Surinder Singh led a procession taken out by HVP in protest against the steep hike in the price of diesel. In a memorandum submitted to the Governor, through the Deputy Commissioner, the HVP urged the INLD government to pressurise the Vajpayee government to roll back the diesel price or withdraw support to the Centre.

The party also called upon the Chief Minister to provide power and water free of cost to the agriculture sector as was promised by Mr Om Prakash Chautala during electioneering. The HVP accused the Chief Minister of going back from his commitment on the issue of supplying free power and water.

The memorandum demanded that southern Haryana, comprising the districts of Bhiwani, Mahendergarh, Rewari, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Jhajjar, Sonepat and Rohtak, should be declared as drought affected areas in view of the failure of rains and non-availability of power and canal water.

The party demanded that the recovery of bank loans in these districts should be suspended immediately and arrangements made for providing seeds, pesticides and fodder at reasonable rates.

The HVP urged the Governor to impress upon the Chief Minister to take appropriate steps to ensure completion of the SYL canal in Punjab's territory. The memorandum said that it was the right time to settle the dispute as Punjab, Haryana and Delhi were being ruled by 'friendly' parties and allies.

The HVP alleged that the farmers were forced to sell basmati rice at throwaway prices as the government had failed to make proper arrangements. Basmati, which was sold at between Rs 2200 and Rs 2300 per quintal during the Bansi Lal regime, was today selling at Rs 800 to Rs 900, the party claim, asking the government to provide remunerative prices for agriculture produce.

The memorandum further demanded reduction of the market fee from 4 per cent to 2 per cent.