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INLD, Cong begin groundwork for poll
Hooda flays govt on waters issue
HVP rally on August 25
Maharshi Dayanand varsity functioning hit |
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Kisan Sabha decries move on panchayat poll
Hisar, August 22 The Haryana Kisan Sabha has alleged that holding panchayat elections before the scheduled time was undemocratic and against the Panchayati Raj Act.
Kidwai launches bio-diesel mission
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INLD, Cong begin groundwork for poll
Panipat, August 22 One of the functions — “Sarkar Udyogpation ke dwar” — was organised by the state government and was meant to listen to and redress the problems of the industrialists of Panipat and Karnal districts. But the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, used this platform to praise the policies of his government and appealed to the public several times not to vote in the forthcoming Assembly elections as it had during the last Lok Sabha elections. The ruling INLD had not won even a single out of 10 seats in the state. Addressing the industrialists Mr Chautala said he had worked 18 hours a day to make Haryana a developed and prosperous state but even then, the people of the state had cast votes against his party. He said he had come to power in the state when it was undeveloped, when roads here were not better than those in Bihar, when regular power cuts were a common feature, when crime had reached at its peak in the state and he had made all efforts to put the state on the fast track of development but even the people of the state had derailed the INLD. The Chief Minister announced the constitution of a committee for the redressal of day-to-day problems of industrialists. The committee will be headed by Principal Secretary B.D. Dhalia. Different state officials and representatives of industrialists will be included in the committee, he added. Mr Chautala reiterated that power shortage in the state would be end by December as seventh and eighth units of Tau Devi Lal Thermal Power Station would be commissioned by then. While seventh unit will be inaugurated next month by the President, the eighth unit will be ready for commissioning in December, he added. Talking about the demands of local industrialists, he said a proposal regarding sewerage had already been sent by the Chairman of Improvement Trust, Panipat, he assured that he would take up the issue of Panipat-Shamli rail line with the Centre. However, he said he would not accept the demand of regularising unauthorised colonies in the state at any cost, come what may. He said his government would deal strictly with the problem of encroachments and unauthorised colonies. Meanwhile, in another function organised by the Congress several office-bearers of the district unit of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), led by its former district President, Harpal Malik left the party and joined the Congress in the presence of the senior Congress leader and former HPCC President Birender Singh here today. According to a PTI report the office-bearers, included senior vice-president Onkar Sharma, vice-presidents Manoj Goyal and Anil Kalra, district president (legal cell) Pawan Garg, general secretaries Sardar Narender and Krishan Dutt, district secretary Baljit Singh, district city president Jitender Singh Gogi and president Samalkha unit Jitender Deswal. Speaking on the occasion, Birender Singh said the Chief Minister O.P. Chautala led INLD had “centralised powers and other public representatives had hardly any say in the party as well as in the government”. He claimed that the Congress under the leadership of its president Sonia Gandhi was the party of “every section of the society” which never believed in the “politics of communalism and casteism”. He welcomed the LJP activists to the party and assured that they would be given due respect in the party. Later, while talking to mediapersons, Mr Birender Singh said the Chautala government’s decision to hold panchayat poll in the state before the expiry of their term was against the “constitutional spirit and was aimed to fulfil selfish political interests”. “The Congress will oppose such a move of the government,” he said. He alleged that Mr Chautala had taken this decision to save his “dwindling political base among the people of the state by disturbing the social harmony of society”. |
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Hooda asks party workers
to gear up for poll
Karnal, August 22 Claiming that the people of the state were fed-up with the prevailing corruption in the state, Mr Hooda said a clean and responsive government that would uplift the standard of living of farming community and the labour class was the need of the hour. He held that there was no dispute within the Congress ever for the Chief Minister’s post. However, the main task before the party was to unitedly contest the forthcoming Assembly elections and to root out INLD from the state. He conveyed the message of the Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, delivered at the AICC session, “Work hard to come back in power and don’t bank upon the negative vote bank in the states where there were non-Congress governments”. He promised that the Congress was committed to the uplift of all sections of society with special focus on farming community and the labour class. Alleging that the INLD Government had betrayed the farming and business community, he mentioned the case of the local MLA Mr Jai Prakash Gupta, by saying, “Even the elected representatives have not been spared from the atrocities of the state government”. Referring to the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue, he alleged that Chautala family had opposed the Rajiv-Longowal Accord-1985 by launching a ‘Nayaya
Yudh’ in the state while the BJP had done nothing when they were in power at the Centre for over six years. Surprisingly, the controversial local independent MLA, Mr Gupta who after having parted ways with the INLD was facing investigation in a Rs 92-lakh-paddy scam and a few other cases, made his first ever-public appearance during the past four months at the gathering. The MLA lashed out at Mr Chautala and said, “I am unnecessarily becoming a victim of power game”. Another independent MLA from Indri constituency, Bhim Mehta, who had also parted ways with the ruling INLD recently too shared the stage with Mr Hooda and addressed the gathering. Among others present at the rally were: Mr Harvinder Singh
Chatha, former Speaker of Haryana Legislative Assembly, Dr Ram Prakash, former minister and Rajinder
Balla, organising secretary of the state unit of the Congress. |
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Hooda flays govt on waters issue
Bhiwani, August 22 He said the Punjab Termination of Water Agreement Bill, 2004, had put a question mark on the federal structure of the nation. Holding the INLD and BJP responsible for the delay in the completion of the SYL canal, Mr Hooda said that INLD-BJP government did not pursue the matter before the earstwhile NDA government. He said the coming Assembly elections would show where the Chautala government stood. He disclosed that the party was preparing a memorandum pertaining to every issue affecting the state and would submit it to the President of India and the Lok Sabha Speaker. “The state of electricity and water has deteriorated and corruption is at its highest and law and order situation has collapsed in the state”, he said. In response to a question, the former HPCC president said the Congress followed its own culture and the next Chief Minister would be nominated by the party chief, Mrs Sonia Gandhi. When asked about government’s decision on holding panchayat elections before the Assembly elections, he said that it was just to draw people’s attention. Advocating Congress party’s stand after the passage of the Punjab Termination of Water Agreement Bill, he hoped that the verdict of the apex court would be in favour of Haryana. “We are not begging, it is our right which we will certainly get,” he said. |
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HVP rally on August 25
Sonepat, August 22 He alleged that the central and the Haryana state leadership were equally responsible for the stand taken by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on the SYL canal issue. He said Capt
Amarinder Singh had been maintaining from that he would not let a drop of water from the SYL canal to go to Haryana but the state as well as the Centre had kept silent on the statement. He said now when the Punjab Government had taken steps detrimental to the interests of Haryana, the state Congress leaders had been making hue and cry over the issue. He claimed that more than 1,000 vehicles carrying the people from Sonepat district will take part in the August 25 rally in Delhi. |
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Over 100 booked for rioting
Fatehabad, August 22 A large number of local residents, it may be recalled, had blocked the Chandigarh highway yesterday. They were alleging inaction on the part of the authorities in the case of alleged attacks by some mysterious animal. They had brought with them a youth allegedly been attacked by the animal. The mob damaged the gypsy of the SHO, city police station, Mr Subhash Sehgal, who had gone there to pacify the irate crowd. The mob broke the headlights of the vehicle with lathis and turned the vehicles upside down. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Mahtab Singh Sehrawat, and the SP, Mr Saurabh Singh, had to pacify the mob. The police today registered cases against 100 to 125 persons under sections 148, 149, 153, 186 and 341 of the IPC and Section 3 of the PPD Act. It also named Gora, Shibu, Lila, Satish, Nandi and Rajinder in the case. No arrest has so far been made. |
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Maharshi Dayanand varsity functioning hit
Rohtak, August 22 The university has been without a regular chief executive since March last when the then Vice-Chancellor, Major-Gen Bhim Singh Suhag (retd.) quit to contest the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat on the ruling Indian National Lok Dal ticket. Thereafter, the senior-most professor, Dr Ravi Parkash was appointed Acting Vice-Chancellor. Under this arrangement the functioning at the university was not affected. However, Dr Parkash was replaced by the Chandigarh-based Chief Secretary, Mr Sunil Ahuja, about two weeks ago. Since then he has not attended the office of the Vice-Chancellor here even once. Important files are being sent to Chandigarh, Delhi or other places in the state depending upon his location. The university’s working system is such that all powers are concentrated in the Vice-Chancellor. As such a large number of files require the approval of the chief executive every day. The problem has been compounded by the fact that because of admissions, a large number of cases require the Vice-Chancellor’s approval daily. These include condonation of delays and other relaxations which require immediate approval of the Vice-Chancellor. Teachers say the functioning of the teaching departments has been affected. Dr Vazir Singh Nehra, president of the MDU Teachers Association, said it was virtually impossible for a university to function normally without the presence of the Vice-Chancellor at least for four or five days a week. He said on an average 100 files made their way to the Vice-Chancellor office every day and most of these were urgent. According to the MDUTA leader, at present only the bare formalities of administrative approval were being completed by sending the files to the Chief Secretary for his signature en masse. Important issues requiring an appraisal of the situation by the Vice-Chancellor had not been taken up yet. Dr Nehra said the association had written to the Chancellor and Haryana Governor to appoint a regular Vice-Chancellor soon to facilitate normal functioning of the university. Senior administrative officials said on the condition of anonymity that despite his own heavy workload the Chief Secretary was trying his best to cope with the situation. However, it would be naive to expect him to devote the time the university required of him to function normally. The situation has arisen because of the state government’s eagerness to have its say in the functioning of the university. After the departure of General Suhag, the government did not find it easy to convince Dr Parkash to do its bidding. Matters came to a head when the university executive council annulled the decision appointing two members of the search panel for selecting a Vice-Chancellor. These two members had been nominated at a meeting presided over by General Suhag before he had actually resigned. Those nominated were the Vice-Chancellors of Guru Jambheshwar University and Haryana Agricultural University, both retired bureaucrats considered close to the Chief Minister. The council later made fresh nominations thwarting the government’s attempts to appoint a Vice-Chancellor of its choice. The government’s efforts were also stonewalled by the then Chancellor Babu Parmanand who had a row with the Chief Minister. His removal from the post of Governor at least paved the way for the appointment of the Chief Secretary as acting Vice-Chancellor. Notably, MDU had functioned without a regular Vice-Chancellor for about two years way back in the eighties when the then Chief Secretary, Mr P.P. Caprihan, was appointed Acting Vice-Chancellor. However, he visited the campus regularly and stayed here long enough to dispose of the work. Since then the workload and problems have increased manifold. |
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Kisan Sabha decries move on panchayat poll
Hisar, August 22 Mr Gorakhpuria condemned the formation and subsequent disbanding of village development committees, alleging that these committees spent crores in the name of rural development. The farmers’ leader demanded that the farmers should be compensated for losses due to flood and drought, crop and animal insurance scheme implemented and reasonable prices fixed for agricultural produce. Meanwhile, the Panchayati Raj cell of the Youth Congress has also condemned the state government’s move to advance the panchayat elections. Mr Mahender Singh Dalal, district president of the cell, has threatened to move court in this regard. |
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Kidwai launches bio-diesel mission
Hisar, August 22 Jatropha curcas is a plant which can yield oil in the form of bio-diesel and has been found suitable for its various favourable attributes. The Governor was shown the tissue culture laboratory, green house and vermi-compost production unit by the university Vice-Chancellor, Mr M.K. Miglani, and the Director of the Plant Tissue Culture Centre, Dr Vijay S. Beniwal. The Governor evinced keen interest in the functioning of the centre and appreciated the efforts of the staff. Dr Kidwai was also taken around the research farm of the university, where he saw various medicinal plants, bajra and cotton crops, apart from horticulture and veterinary clinics. Later, the Governor also attended a state-level function to mark the Teej festival at the university auditorium. He advised the farmers to adopt diversification of crops and urged the farm scientists to develop high-yielding varieties of different crops. The Governor also laid stress on reducing the cost of cultivation, which, he said, was possible by adoption of new techniques. Mr Beniwal said the Union Government had allotted Rs 141 lakh for the bio-diesel mission to raise plants with the help of tissue culture. He said during the next three years, the centre would raise 2.5 lakh Jatropha plants per year for distribution. He said the centre would provide elite plant material to various government departments, universities and farmers free of cost. Further, Rs 10 per plant would also be given to meet the post-plantation expenses. |
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5 bridges to be built across link drain
Karnal, August 22 A senior official of the Irrigation Department says that the proposal has especially been approved to construct the bridges by relaxing norms by the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, keeping in view hardships being faced by the people of this area. The distance between two bridges will vary between 0.53 km and 0.935 km, after the relaxation of norms. Each bridge will cost Rs 1 lakh and these will be ready in the next couple of months. The first bridge will create a link between Dhanana village and fields; the second will serve the purpose of a village path between Dhanana and Hathwala villages. Similarly, the other three bridges will link Rindhana village with fields of that area. All the five bridges will be constructed between RD (reduced distance) 119500 and RD 136300 feet in Gohana tehsil of Sonepat district. |
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Panel to redress industrialists’ woes
Panipat, August 22 He was addressing industrialists at a Sarkar Udhmion ke Dwar programme here today. He said the government had been promoting information technology and food processing industries in a big way. As a result, 80 per cent of the total investment made in India by Japanese companies was in Haryana. Mr Chautala said adequate supply of electricity would be provided, adding Haryana would become a “cut-free” state from January 1, 2005. He said President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam would inaugurate the 250 MW seventh unit of the Panipat thermal plant on September 25 and the eighth unit of similar capacity would be commissioned on December 31. The Chief Minister said a number of concessions for the industrial sector, including exemption from re-payment of internal development charges, introduction of a composite application form on the pattern of other states, decentralisation of powers for sanctioning building plans and the reduction in transfer fee by 50 per cent. |
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Minister redresses public grievances
Fatehabad, August 22 The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Mahtab Singh Sehrawat, SP, Mr Saurabh Singh, ADC, Mr Nitin Kumar Yadav, INLD MLAs, Mr Nishan Singh and Ms Swatantra Bala Chowdhary, and senior officers of the district and members of the committee were present on the occasion. Mr Dharam Pal, a farmer from Partan village in this district, complained that the water channel to his fields was not properly made and as a result his fields were not properly irrigated. The minister directed senior officers of his department that a sum of Rs 20,000 be paid from his funds for constructing the water channel for his fields. On another complaint regarding wrong entry of mutation of a piece of agricultural land, the minister asked the police to book the erring patwari and kanungo. |
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Counselling for MBBS, BDS courses on August 28
Rohtak, August 22 According to a press note issued by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) on Saturday, the counselling for reserved category candidates, who attended the first counselling, would be held in the forenoon and for candidates of general category having provisional rank from 1 to 1600, it would be held in the afternoon. It said those who did not want to make any change need not attend the second counselling but those who missed the first counselling would not be entertained. No separate intimation will be sent to the candidates. |
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Rice millers asked to upgrade
Karnal, August 22 He addressed a workshop on “the recent trends in rice processing” organised by the Small Industries Service Institute (SISI) for the rice millers under the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) programme here, today. He expressed his concern over the downfall of non-exporting units in the area, which had suffered heavy losses during the past few years due to outdated machinery. “By modernising the machinery one can save cost inputs on power and manpower, besides gaining profits through export of rice with minimum breakage”, he added. The Director of the SISI Suresh Yadvendra while welcoming the delegates mentioned about the need of quality, cost efficiency and delivery aspects for better quality and customer satisfaction. He advised the mill owners to upgrade their machinery in view of the WTO agreement coming into force completely from April 2005 so as to sustain in the industry.
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Lok Adalats to be held on Aug 28
Chandigarh, August 22 While stating this here today, the Member-Secretary of the Haryana State Legal Services Authority, Mr Shekhar Dhawan, said 646 cases were settled at the Lok Adalats which concluded at Sonepat, Kurukshetra, Ganaur and Hansi last evening. These included 104 cases pertaining to death or injury arising out of vehicular accidents under the Motor Vehicles Act. A compensation amounting to Rs. 1.23 crore was awarded in these cases. Also, 542 other cases like those registered under the Indian Penal Code, Hindu Marriage Act and those pertaining to bank loans were decided. He said the main aim of the Authority was to settle disputes between the people in an amicable manner without wasting time. |
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Lok Adalat on August 28
Fatehabad, August 22 Mr Jagdish Rai Duggal, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Fatehabad, and Secretary of the local District Legal Services Authority, told mediapersons here today that a total of six Benches would be set up in the Lok Adalat on August 28 to settle various pending disputes on the spot. Mr Duggal informed that disputes pertaining to marital discords, civil matters, accidents claims etc. would be resolved during the Lok Adalat. A women’s Lok Adalat would also be set up for settling matters relating to women. He further informed that another Lok Adalat would be organised on August 27.
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9 consumer councils
Chandigarh, August 22 |
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Remand of rape accused extended
Jhajjar, August 22 The accused, all college students identified as Pradeep, a neighbour of the girl, Sumit, and Anuj, both residents of a Delhi village and Yogesh of Badli village in the district, had abducted Pooja, daughter of an industrialist Manoj on August 18 to seek ransom. However, their plans went awry as they were immediately identified by the police. They reportedly strangled the girl and threw the body in fields of Paprawat village, Najafgarh, Delhi. The role of a Delhi police Sub Inspector and a woman head constable, who are relatives of the accused, has also come under scanner. |
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