The Tribune...Haryana

H A R Y A N A

Monday July 13, 1998

weather n spotlight
today's calendar

Roads in pitiable state
YAMUNANAGAR: The condition of roads in the industrial area here is pathetic. The industrial area has many large, medium and small-scale industries. There are five ISO-9000 companies within a radius of 1 km which supply goods to multinational companies...

Sewer bills irk residents
ROHTAK, July 12 — Residents of Para Mohalla (Ward No. 12) were astonished when they received sewer bills recently as sewerage facilities have not been made available to them for the past several
years...

'Govt running on
outdated laws'

'Accept' demands of striking staff
SONEPAT, July 12 — The district unit of the Sarv Karamchari Sangh has urged the state government to accept the demands of the agitating governmet employees by implementing the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission...

ITI building work
in full swing

Panchayat for CBI probe into murder
ROHTAK, July 12 — The Jan Nyaya Panchayat, at a meeting held at Pehrawar yesterday, decided to hold a demonstration in front of the state assembly, Chandigarh, if a CBI probe was not ordered in the Mohini murder case
within 15 days...
Gang of criminals busted
JIND, July 12 — The district police claims to have busted a gang of criminals with the arrest of Satbir and Dharampal. Stating this here today Mr Ranbir Sharma, SP said that the gang was active in Jind, Panipat and Kaithal districts ...

Govt 'should probe' farmers' suicides in Haryana

Roads in pitiable state
From Ashwani Dutta
YAMUNANAGAR: The condition of roads in the industrial area here is pathetic. The industrial area has many large, medium and small-scale industries. There are five ISO-9000 companies within a radius of 1 km which supply goods to multinational companies. Because of the poor condition of roads, sewerage and streetlights in the industrial area, these units find it difficult to transport their goods. Sewerage and drainage are choked most of the time.
Many industrialists claimed that they had to cut a sorry figure whenever their foreign buyers visited their units. They are at a loss to understand whom to approach for the redressal of their grievances — the municipal committee, the market committee or the district administration.
Mr Satish Saluja, a leading industrialist, said poor drainage played havoc during the rainy season. He demanded that the planting of saplings by the District Industries Centre should be taken up on priority. Industrialists should be encouraged to keep their surroundings clean. He said the news of having an express freeway or highway here for Delhi had brought a lot of cheers to businessmen but the project had regretfully been shelved for the present.
Mr Amal Pal Bantra, who is running a boiler auxiliary unit, alleged that roads had not been repaired for the past two years. Congress grass was another menace afflicting the industrial area.

'Accept' demands of striking staff
From Our Correspondent
SONEPAT, July 12 — The district unit of the Sarv Karamchari Sangh has urged the state government to accept the demands of the agitating government employees by implementing the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission.
This demand is contained in a resolution adopted at the annual conference of the sangh held here today. Mr Daya Chand Bagri, president of the district unit of the sangh presided. Other prominent leaders who participated in this conference included Mr Lal Chand Godara, Mr Amar Singh Dhiman, Mrs Krishna Malik, Mr Tirlok Chand Tusir and Mr Balbir Singh Rohilla.
The speakers urged the state government to grant allowances to the employees of the boards, corporations, municipal committees etc at par with other government employees. They demanded the release of salary to the employees of the Haryana State Minor Irrigation Tubewells Corporation in time.
They opposed the privatisation of power sector and grand of facility of free travel in the Haryana Roadways buses to all categories of government employees.

Sewer bills irk residents
From Our Correspondent
ROHTAK, July 12 — Residents of Para Mohalla (Ward No. 12) were astonished when they received sewer bills recently as sewerage facilities have not been made available to them for the past several years.
Criticising the "casual" attitude of the authorities towards the repeated complaints by the residents, the Bharatiya Balmiki Dharma Samaj alleged that the sewer lines existed only in official documents and not in the locality concerned.
The locality is adjacent to a cremation ground and people carrying a dead body have to wade through muddy water during rains.
The residents alleged that they had met officials of the Public Health Department several times but they expressed their inability to lay down sewers due to "inadequate" funds.
Mr Subhash Batra, a former minister, has condemned the officials concerned for sending bills to the residents where sewer lines are yet to be laid.

Panchayat for CBI probe into murder
From Our Correspondent
ROHTAK, July 12 — The Jan Nyaya Panchayat, at a meeting held at Pehrawar yesterday, decided to hold a demonstration in front of the state assembly, Chandigarh, if a CBI probe was not ordered in the Mohini murder case within 15 days.
Delegates of several social organisations, including the CPM, Socialist Unity Centre of India, Akhil Bharatiya Janwadi Mahila Samiti and Haryana Backward Class Association, attended the meeting.
Mohini, a 15-year-old girl of Pehrawar village, was allegedly abducted on May 9. Her father, Harnand, suspects two youths of the same village to be involved in the abduction. The police registered a case on June 8 at the insistence of several social organisations and panchayats.
The supects, when arrested, reportedly confessed to have raped and murdered the girl. The police, however, recovered her body from a canal on June 22, nearly one-and-a-half-month after the incident.

ITI building work in full swing
From Sushil Manav
FATEHABAD, July 12 — Work on the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) building being constructed at Bhodia Khera village, near here, is in full swing. The institute will be the first of its kind in the area.
The approval of the institute was given by former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. He also laid the foundation stone of the institute building, but work on the project could start only on May 24, last year.
The Rs 32-lakh project will have two components — the administrative block and a workshop. The slab work on the administrative block has already been done while the plastering on walls is in progress. The construction work, on the workshop has reached the roof level.
The contract of the project has been given to a Sirsa-based construction company. Till now, an amount of Rs. 22 lakh has already been spent on the project. According to the terms and conditions of the project, the work should be completed by October next year. Initially, the construction agency was asked to complete the work within one-and-a-half year, but the period was later extended due to the scarcity of funds.
Mr R.C. Sikka, Executive Engineer, PWD(B&R), said he hoped to get the work completed within the stipulated time frame. Giving details of the ITI building, he said the administrative block of the building would have 12 rooms, including a room for the principle, an office, a staff room, six class rooms, a demonstration hall, a library and a drawing hall.

'Govt running on outdated laws'
From Our Correspondent
AMBALA, July 12 — Mr Joginder Singh, a former CBI Director said here yesterday that both bureaucrats and politicians were responsible for the corruption and turmoil in the country. Mr Singh was speaking at a seminar on "democracy and rule" organised by the Bharat Vikas Parishad. He said the bureaucracy was having a poor image in the country. He said this had been proved by a study conducted by the World Bank and the Transparency International of Germany.
He said the state of the affairs in the country was very unfortunate and there was a dire need to pay attention to that. He said it was a matter of concern that even after 50 years of country's Independence, the British system of governance was prevalent. There had been no change in the 1861 police Act and even the proposals made in 1903 the to improve functioning of the police had not been implemented. He said that the administration could not be run on the basis of old laws.
The former CBI Director said the politicians had made transfers of officials an "industry" and that was why the bureaucrats often toed the lines of their political bosses.

Govt 'should probe' farmers'
suicides in Haryana
From Our Correspondent
HISAR, July 12 — Mr Virender Singh, a former Irrigation and Power Minister, has said that the outright denial of reports of suicides by farmers on account of growing rural indebtedness in Haryana without going into the details of the matter by Mr Karan Singh Dalal, Agricultural Minister, amounts to doing disservice to the farmers of the state.
He said a list of names of farmers who had allegedly committed suicide due to indebtedness or other economic reasons, presented by Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala, was sufficient to go into the depth of the problem.
According to Mr Virender Singh, on an average, every farming household in the state reels under heavy debt and there had been a spurt in the number of cases of suicide in rural areas during the past three years. There had been many unreported cases of suicide in villages due to consumption of insecticides etc. The number of cases in waterlogged areas and the cotton belt in the state was larger, he said.
He said the government should seriously consider the crisis being faced by farmers. The financial problem had to be deeply studied and investigations should be carried out into the reasons that forced farmers to take such extreme step, he added.
Mr Virender Singh said what was required was the initiative to generate additional income in the farm sector, which is being characterised by the deminishing returns.
He said, apart from laying emphasis on agro-industries in rural areas, farmers should be encouraged to go in for diversification.
In addition, areas of comprehensive crop insurance scheme, village-support system, credit system, price-fixation system and environmental practices needed a thorough review and several other short-term measures were required to be taken immediately, he said.

Gang of criminals busted
From Our Correspondent
JIND, July 12 — The district police claims to have busted a gang of criminals with the arrest of Satbir and Dharampal. Stating this here today Mr Ranbir Sharma, SP said that the gang was active in Jind, Panipat and Kaithal districts and had committed robberies and snatched vehicle in the past one month. He said five members of the gang were still at large.
Giving some details of crimes committed by the gang the SP said the gang had looted Rs 1.05 lakh from a patwari. The gang had looted cash from a petrol station at Narwana and had also looted a petrol station at Barsolo village in Kaithal district.
He said the gang members had forcibly taken away a car from its owner near Karkhana village and another car from its owner on the Assandh-Karnal road.
Mr Sharma said the police had seized two pistols from the two and recovered Rs 85,000.