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Monday, December 3, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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‘No retrenchment’ of coal employees 220 lok adalats held in Haryana MC in financial mess Govt to better water availability in villages Girl stages abduction drama, traced Passport speed post service from today |
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3 killed in road mishaps
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‘No retrenchment’ of coal employees Yamunanagar, December 2 Mr Paswan said Coal India would not be privatised and there would be no retrenchment of employees. He clarified that surplus workers would be accommodated. He said since he took over the charge, not a single accident had been reported in the past two months because precautionary measures for the safety of the workers had been taken. However, he admitted that illegal mines were being run. When newsmen pointed out the involvement of government officials in illegal mining, the minister said not a single official of his department was involved in this. He said FIRs had been lodged against those running illegal mines. Mr Paswan, who is the National President of the Lok Jan Shakti Party, said they had a strength of 16 MLAs in Uttar Pradesh. He said the BJP had not taken any initiative as yet to discuss with them the distribution of tickets in Uttar Pradesh. He suggested that the BJP should not waste any more time and discuss the modalities with the parties who were part of the NDA. However, he made it clear that his party would participate in the Uttar Pradesh and Punjab elections, which are due in February, 2002. He said the Lok Jan Shakti Party had its wings in the entire country and had established its credentials. On being asked about the reinduction of Mr George Fernandes as the Defence Minister, he said it was the prerogative of the Prime Minister. He added that the allegations against Mr Fernandes had not been proved in the court of law. |
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220 lok adalats held in Haryana Yamunanagar, December 2 This was stated by Justice V.K. Bali while speaking to mediapersons after inaugurating 26th lok adalat in the district at the Judicial Complex, Jagadhri, yesterday. Asked why Parliament should not prescribe time frames for the disposal of different categories of cases, he said such time frames already existed in many types of cases. Justice Bali said against the sanctioned strength of 40 judges for the Punjab and Haryana High Court, only 26 Judges were functioning and this situation had prevailed for the past more than 25 years. He said even at the district level also the number of Judges was inadequate. He appreciated the role of lawyers in extending their cooperation in settlement of disputes through lok adalats. He also lauded the role of the press for spreading knowledge about the benefits of settlement of cases by mutual understanding through the lok adalats. Talking about the achievements of the Haryana State Legal Services Authority, he pointed out that during the current year as many as 220 lok adalats had so far been held in Haryana. He said about 33,000 cases had been decided and of which 1,450 cases pertained to motor vehicle accidents wherein compensation to the tune of more than Rs 12 crore was disbursed. He also referred to special lok adalats held all over Haryana for the settlement of bank cases of the pre-limitative stage wherein more than 2,000 such cases were settled involving the recovery of more than Rs 14 crore. He said departmental lok adalats were being established in all government departments in the state. On the occasion he also addressed a gathering of panches, sarpanches and
lambardars in connection with legal literacy campaign. Ms Kiran Anand Lal, Sessions Judge, Ambala, Mr R.S. Virk, Additional District Sessions Judge, Mr V.K. Bakshi, Additional District Sessions Judge, Jagadhri, Mr J.S. Dahiya, Senior Sub Judge, Ms Anita Dahiya, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Rakesh Singh, Civil Judge, Junior Wing, Mrs Ritu Y.K. Behal, Civil Junior Judge, were also present. |
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MC in financial mess Faridabad, December 2 The financial record of the MCF, having an annual budget of Rs 119 crore, went into red soon after the state government abolished octroi a few years ago. Since then all efforts to improve its position have proved futile. According to MCF sources, the corporation had not only imposed some new taxes, but hiked some of the existing ones to improve its financial position, but poor recovery of dues, including house tax, professional taxes, water and sewer charges, development and fire taxes, had frustrated the move. As a result several works and development projects were held up or pending. Several contractors had not got their payments. The corporation had recently announced that it would pay salaries to its employees on November 29, but the staff were told later that there were not enough funds. The agitated workers raised slogans and held a demonstration outside the office of the Commissioner of the corporation. The Commissioner directed the MCF officials to release the available funds for paying salaries.This type of situation is faced at the end of nearly every month, claimed an employee. The local Senior Deputy Mayor, Mr S.L. Sharma, who was officiating Mayor from July 12 to August 11, had attempted to highlight the problem by taking up the issue with the higher authorities at Chandigarh. He had also appealed to the government to release a special grant for the purpose. According to experts, however, the main reasons behind the crisis included poor recovery of taxes by MCF officials, including house tax and development charges. A huge amount is reportedly outstanding as house tax. The defaulters include various schools and other organisations. A sum of about Rs 85 lakh is reported to be outstanding against a hotel in the NIT area alone. The MCF authorities have warned of action against the officials who are not able to meet their targets in the recovery of various taxes. Apart from this, it is alleged that “rampant corruption” in the MCF has added to the woes of the residents and affected the financial health of the corporation. A few months ago, the state government had transferred several taxes, including development, completion, transfer and extension charges of houses in urban sectors, from the Haryana Urban Development Authority to the MCF with a view to improving its financial position. The MCF had also privatised the cleanliness work in the eastern part of the town and retrenched over 1,000 employees in order to prune the budget for salaries. “But a solution to the corporation’s financial crisis in still eluding, said an employee. |
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Govt to better water availability in villages Fatehabad, December 2 This was stated by Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, while addressing a public meeting at Dhani Dhaka village about 10 km from here, after inaugurating a water works constructed at a cost of Rs 19.75 lakh last evening. It will benefit villagers of Dhani Chhaterian, Dhani Issar, Mallar and Dhani Dhaka. Mr Chautala said the government had decided to repair all water channels in the state on priority basis and all water channels would be made pucca. It had also decided that water-level in all water channels would be corrected to reach water up to tail end. He said it was due to the hard work of farmers of the state that it was able to contribute 65 lakh tonnes of wheat to the central pool. The contribution was 45 lakh tonnes previous year while during the regime of his predecessors it never increased above 25 lakh tonnes. Godowns of the country were full to the brim with foodgrains. The Chief Minister said food for work scheme had been restarted in the state and this would encourage the rural development. Work like digging of ponds in villages, construction of kutcha roads, retaining walls of village ponds and the ring bundhs in villages would be done under this scheme. With the implementation of this scheme, the dream of Mahatma Gandha would become reality, he added. |
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Girl stages abduction drama, traced Kurukshetra, December 2 When contacted on phone, the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Anil Dhawan, said the girl, a Class IX student of a local school, was mentally upset over the atmosphere at her school and was scared of eve-teasing incidents. A few days ago, one such incident had occurred with her elder sister. When her sister complained to her parents, they approached the eve teasers who beat up her father. Mr Dhawan said out of fear of the eve teasers, Neha did not tell of a similar incident to her parents. In her confession statement, she told the police that she invented her abduction story herself and made a phone call to her parents from near the Birla Mandir chowk before reaching school yesterday. She asked her parents for a ransom of Rs 5 lakh by changing her voice. The DSP said after making the call, she boarded a bus for Shahabad and from there she took lift in a car. But the vigilant industrialist, who gave lift to her in his car, informed the police. |
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Passport speed post service from today Karnal, December 2 The Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Karnal, Ms Manisha Bansal, yesterday said this service would be started here at the head post office and Panipat head post office. The Karnal office would cover Karnal revenue district while Panipat post office would cover Panipat, Jind and Sonepat districts. She said these offices would sell passport application forms. Filled application forms would be accepted after checking photocopies. These applications would then be forwarded to the Regional Passport Office at Chandigarh. The speed post centre would provide tele-inquiry number of the passport office and the key number to the customer in order to know about the status of the applications. The passport fee would be payable by the applicant in the form of a demand draft. In addition to this, Rs 100 per application form would be charged for the speed post service. |
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3 killed in road mishaps Hisar, December 2 A woman pilgrim was killed and 21 were injured when a Delhi-bound mini-truck carrying them overturned near Agroha, 24 km from here, on the Hisar-Sirsa road. The deceased has been identified as a resident of Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi. In another incidents, a middle-aged man of Gorakhpur village was killed when his tractor-trailer loaded with sugarcane overturned near the Flamingo market. A motorcyclist was killed and pillion rider received injuries when their vehicle skipped after hitting a woman near the local bus stand. Cases have been registered.
PTI |
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Hukam Singh Dahiya
cremated Sonepat, December 2 According to a report, he was 85. His body was taken to his native village Rattan Garh, about 10 km from here, today where he was cremated in the presence of large number of people and leaders of the Congress and other parties. Mr Dahiya was first elected as a member of the Assembly in 1952 and later in 1991. He was indicted into the Bhajan Lal Cabinet. |
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Diary officers Karnal, December 2 |
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