Congress nominee corners BJP on Kargil
GURGAON, Aug 6 — Congress nominee from Mahendergarh Parliamentary constituency Rao Inderjit Singh, chose the recent intrusion of Pakistani regular troops and militants into Kargil and other aligned issues in a election related public meeting here to corner the BJP.

Nirmal's decision shot in arm for Cong
CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — The decision of the three-time MLA from Naggal, Mr Nirmal Singh, to join the Congress has come as a shot in the arm for the Haryana Congress in Ambala district and its surrounding areas.

Donations pour in
CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — Donations continue to pour in for Haryana Chief Minister’s War Heroes’ Relief Fund, set up to provide assistance to the families of those brave soldiers who attained martyrdom while protecting the frontiers of the country and also those injured during the recent Operation Vijay.

Transporter held for theft
FATEHABAD, Aug 6 — The police yesterday arrested a Punjab-based transporter for the theft of thread worth Rs 10 lakh here.

Poll arrangements reviewed
SONEPAT, Aug 6 — The district administration has geared up its machinery to hold free and fair Lok Sabha elections for the Sonepat parliamentary constituency on September 5. The final publication of electoral rolls has already been made and sensitive polling stations have been identified.

Youth sets brother, mother ablaze
ROHTAK, Aug 6 — In a bizarre incident, a youth allegedly set blaze his mother, Bimla and younger brother after pouring petrol over them at Bahadurgarh today.

• Dharna by Mastnath Institute students
  
• Haryana postings, transfers

• 1 dies as kerosene drums explode
• Legal hurdles for grant to Agroha College cleared

Devi Lal may contest against Sonia
From Vimal Sumbly
Tribune News Service

CHAUTALA (Sirsa), Aug 6 — Former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal feels that he may contest against Congress President Sonia Ghndhi in order to "prevent the country from going into foreign hand."

In an interview at the Teja Khera farmhouse here today, Mr Devi Lal said he was worried about the fate of country if Ms Sonia Gandhi became the Prime Minister. He revealed that he was thinking of contesting against Ms Sonia Gandhi. He said a senior Congress leader, who was recuperating in the same hospital where Mr Devi Lal was admitted into at Delhi had also shared his (Mr Devi Lal's) concern to ensure that Ms Sonia Gandhi did not become the Prime Minister.

Mr Devi Lal remarked he was seeking opinion from friends and other senior politicians. He said although he was not keeping good health, but he would not shy away from contesting the elections as "national interest is at stake".

"Although I may not be able to campaign but I will urge people to vote for anyone but Ms Sonia Gandhi" he asserted. He said "how can we handover the button of the nuclear bomb to a foreign lady".

Mr Devi Lal felt there was no good choice available to the people at this time. "But Mr Vajpayee seems to he relatively better", be observed, while commenting on the present day politicians. He said politicians were no longer interested in serving people and were eager to grab power and earn money.

Mr Devi Lal felt nostalgic about his association with this small village. Despite his poor health and advanced age, he visits this village at least thrice a month. He arrived here yesterday and is staying in the ancestral farmhouse.

Today he met some of his old friends who recalled Tau's deep and nostalgic association with the village.

Mr Devi Lal was much enthused about his son becoming the Chief Minister. He said Mr Bansi Lal "proved to be a destructive ruler" Tau praised his son Om Prakash Chautala, saying that he would rule better than all other Chief Ministers of the state. He said his son would provide a clean, honest and a people-friendly government.

Suraj Bhan desires BJP ticket
From Ravi S. Singh
Tribune News Service

GURGAON, Aug 6 — Governor of Uttar Pradesh and BJP leader Suraj Bhan is understood to have expressed desire to his party leadership to contest from the Ambala (Reserved) parliamentary constituency in Haryana.

There are indications that the BJP think-tank will give nod in favour of Mr Suraj Bhan’s candidature. Mr Suraj Bhan is a former Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and was elected a number of times from Ambala seat on BJP symbol.

The BJP, however, is said to be facing a difficult time in finalising its nominee for the Mahendergarh parliamentary seat. The Haryana unit of the BJP is reported to have sent a list of three names for finalisation of the nominee for the seat. They are a former Union Minister, Col Ram Singh, and his wife, Mrs Sharda Yadav, and Rao Narbir Singh, a Minister of Haryana and leader of the recently floated Haryana Vikas Party (D).

Sources said that Rao Narbir Singh enjoys the backing of Prof Ram Bilas Sharma. However, president of the BJP, Mr Kushabhau Thakre, along with some other central leaders of the party is said to be having strong reservations on the candidature of Rao Narbir Singh as he is not from party ranks. Moreover, Rao Narbir Singh is said to have queered the pitch for his sympathisers in the BJP for wanting to be the candidate of the National Democratic Alliance and not of the BJP.

Col Ram Singh is said to have come on the left side of a strong section in the BJP for attending a meeting of the leaders in Delhi who had quit the Congress but were allies of the BJP. It may be recalled that the meeting was convened at the initiative of the chief of the Trinamool Congress, Ms Mamata Banerjee.

The BJP leaders are unhappy with that move of Col Ram Singh as he had formally joined the party after quitting the Congress.

While Mr Ram Chander Bainda, the sitting BJP MP from Faridabad, will be renominated by the party, Mr I.D. Swami is tipped to be nominated by the party from Karnal where the Congress’ Mr Bhajan Lal would be in the fray. Mr Swami had won from the seat on BJP symbol in the 1996 elections.

Although the BJP is in conflict with its allies, the ruling Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Haryana as it also wants the prestigious Rohtak seat, it has a long list of prospective nominees. Some of the names doing the rounds in the BJP circles are Mr Sunder Lal Sethi and Mr Pradeep Jain. Also doing the round is the name of the incumbent Vice-Chancellor of Maharshi Dayanand University, Gen O.P. Kaushik. The Vice-Chancellor’s case is reported to be backed by Prof Ram Bilas Sharma. These names are from non-Jat community. From the Jat community, Mr P.K. Chaudhary, who had once contested on BJP symbol, is also in the race.

According to sources, Mr Om Prakash Beri, a former MLA, is also lobbying for BJP ticket from Rohtak. The BJP leadership, however, wants him to formally join the party before claiming the ticket.

To cap it, the BJP is not sure whether the INLD will leave the seat for it in a possible INLD-BJP alliance.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Congress is also having problems in finalising its nominees for the Sonepat, Ambala and Hisar Lok Sabha seats. However, someone from the family of Pandit Chiranji Lal Sharma, who had won a number of times from Karnal as the Congress nominee, is tipped to be the favourite. Dr Arvind Sharma, who had won from the Sonepat seat as an independent, is also lobbying for the party ticket.

From Hisar, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala and Mr Jai Prakash are in the race.

With regard to Ambala seat, the Congress has shortlisted the names of Dr K.R. Punia and Mr Phool Chand Maulana. However, the party hopes to reach an electoral understanding with the Congress and allot the Ambala seat to it. The BSP’s nominee had won from the seat in the last Lok Sabha election.

The Congress has already finalised the names of its nominees for the remaining seven seats.

EC action led to MLA’s arrest
By Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — The INLD MLA from Meham, Mr Balbir Singh alias Bali Pehalwan, who along with his associate allegedly misbehaved with and threatened the Deputy Commissioner of Rohtak, Mr Arun Kumar, on August 3, was arrested yesterday only after the Election Commission of India took up the matter with the Haryana Government.

Mr Balbir Singh was later bailed out.

According to informed sources, the Election Commission sent a fax message to the state government on August 4, the day the incident was reported in The Tribune, asking it to sent a detailed report about the incident as well as the action taken against the INLD MLA.

The sources say the commission’s message referred to The Tribune report and sought the state government’s comments on it.

Following the receipt of the message from the EC, the MLA and his associates were arrested after clearance from the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, who had earlier directed the police to register a case against Mr Balbir Singh and six of his associates on Mr Arun Kumar’s complaint.

Mr Chautala had offered personal apology to Mr Arun Kumar when the latter met the former in Delhi on August 3 and reported the incident to him.

The sources say the Chief Secretary, Mr R.S. Verma, and the Home Secretary, Mr B.D. Dhalia, today went to Delhi to give a report about the incident to the commission.

Free hand to officials, says Chautala
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, has assured free hand to senior civil and police officers in the state saying that there will be no political interference in their working.

The Chief Minister was addressing a meeting of Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police here this evening. The Divisional Commissioners of four divisions, Inspectors-General of Police and administrative secretaries of various departments were present at the meeting.

While pointing out that the motto of his government is service to humanity and clean administration, Mr Chautala said he was in favour of decentralisation of power. Grievances of the people should be redressed at the level of the district administration and there should be no delay in the administration of justice. Elected representatives should be given due respect and officers should try to create a congenial atmosphere for speedy development. He urged them to implement the development schemes with renewed vigour and reshape the projects to make them more result-oriented.

Mr Chautala directed them to take effective steps to ensure a free and fair poll during the Lok Sabha elections. He said nobody should be allowed to disturb the peace and tranquillity in the state. A sense of confidence should be infused among the people so that they could cast their votes without any pressure from any quarters.

Referring to the scarcity of power and water, he said the power situation was grim but efforts were being made to improve it systematically. He also stressed the need for checking power theft.

Mr Chautala made it clear that the bereaved family of any soldier who hailed from Haryana and laid down his life for the protection of the country would be provided a total assistance of Rs 10 lakh without any delay. The same facility would be applicable to the jawans of paramilitary forces also. In addition financial assistance varying from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 6 lakh would also be given depending on the degree of disability of a soldier. Employment avenues would be provided for the education of their wards.

The Chief Minister directed the Deputy Commissioners to personally inspect the flood protection works and machinery and take immediate steps to deal with any eventuality. The road network in the State, which is in bad shape, would be improved under an action plan, he said.

Congress nominee corners BJP on Kargil
Tribune News Service

GURGAON, Aug 6 — Congress nominee from Mahendergarh Parliamentary constituency Rao Inderjit Singh, chose the recent intrusion of Pakistani regular troops and militants into Kargil and other aligned issues in a election related public meeting here to corner the BJP.

In a late night public meeting here, Rao Inderjit made it known that his party would take the Kargil-related issues and the security of the nation to the masses in its campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress leader wondered why the Atal Behari Vajpayee government and the BJP leaders were gloating over the victory of the Indian forces over the aggressor country. The jawans have done a commendable job. "But how come intrusion took place on such a large scale" he asked.

Rao Inderjit’s focus on Kargil issues in his election campaign is understandable. Mahendergarh Parliamentary constituency falling in south Haryana, encompasses majority of the Ahirwal belt of Haryana. The south Haryana, especially the Ahirwal belt, has a large chunk of its residents who either were ex-servicemen or were serving with the country’s forces. Some of the villages in Mahendergarh and Rewari districts falling in this constituency have about 40-50 per cent families directly or indirectly related to the forces.

Even during the war of independence the Ahirwal belt is known to have made sacrifices of its residents on a large scale , Rao Tula Ram, the hero of independence struggle and the battle between his force and the army of East India Company are part of folklore of this area. Hundreds of persons in the army of Rao Tula Ram had lost their lives in the battle.

Incidentally, Rao Inderjit is related to Rao Tula Ram.

Hence, the Congress’s move to depict images of war is seen as a tactical move to be one up on the nominees of its opponents.

Touching on the local issues, Rao Inderjit alleged that the interests of south Haryana had been ignored by the successive governments in the state.

Referring to the recent political moves of the Haryana unit of the Congress, he said that his party had supported the motion of confidence moved by the Bansi Lal government after the BJP withdrew support to it to facilitate a mid-term election in the state. The Congress was hoping that the Bansi Lal government would recommend dissolution of the state assembly after winning the trial of strength. The Congress wanted the "insensitive" Bansi Lal government to go at the earliest.

Earlier talking to reporters Rao Inderjit, who won from this constituency in the last Lok Sabha election on Congress ticket, ridiculed the INLD and the BJP for not being able to finalise their nominees in the state. He said that the two parties that had joined hands were having sharp differences on sharing of Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Nirmal's decision shot in arm for Cong
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — The decision of the three-time MLA from Naggal, Mr Nirmal Singh, to join the Congress has come as a shot in the arm for the Haryana Congress in Ambala district and its surrounding areas.

At the same time for the HVP, whom Mr Nirmal Singh had been supporting for the past over three years, it is a big loss.

Mr Nirmal Singh had been the President of the Haryana Youth Congress for seven years, which is the longest tenure of any state unit president of the youth wing of the Congress. He had been loyal to the Gandhi family since the days of Sanjay Gandhi.

In the Haryana Congress he had always been close by Mr Bansi Lal in whose Cabinet Mr Nirmal Singh became a minister for the first time in 1986. However, when Mr Bansi Lal left the Congress Mr Nirmal Singh preferred to remain in the party. But he never saw eye to eye with Mr Bhajan Lal though he joined his Cabinet in 1991.

His rise in the politics suffered a severe setback when he was arrested in the Sekhon murder case and was suspended from the Congress. He contested the 1996 Assembly elections from inside the jail as an Independent from his traditional seat of Naggal and won it by about 20,000 votes, the biggest victory margin of his political career.

After Mr Nirmal Singh's exit as president, the Haryana Youth Congress virtually became defunct over the years.

The Congress,which was the poor third in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections from Ambala, is likely to gain a lot in terms of votes with the support of Mr Nirmal Singh. It was not without reason that two senior leaders to the Haryana Congress — Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Mr Birender Singh — left no stone unturned in persuading Mr Nirmal Singh to stage a home-coming. They knew that his presence in the party could tilt the balance in a number of Assembly segments of Ambala and Kurukshetra districts.

According to informed sources, Mr Nirmal Singh decided to take the plunge only after getting personal assurances from leaders like Mr Ahmed Patel and Mr V. George.

Donations pour in
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — Donations continue to pour in for Haryana Chief Minister’s War Heroes’ Relief Fund, set up to provide assistance to the families of those brave soldiers who attained martyrdom while protecting the frontiers of the country and also those injured during the recent Operation Vijay.

Students of Government Primary School, Dhani Gomaram, Hijrawa Khurd in Fatehabad district have contributed Rs 1500 out of their savings.

The Class III and Class IV employees of Pt. B.D. Sharma Post-graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, made a contribution of Rs 1,63,900 to the Haryana Chief Minister’s War Heroes’ Relief Fund. The drafts for this amount were presented to Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala by the Director of the institute, Dr D.S. Dubey.

The Commissioner and Secretary, Agriculture, Mr Naseem Ahmad, presented to the Chief Minister a draft for Rs 10,77,930 contributed by the employees of the Agriculture department. The field offices of the department have already contributed Rs 1,83,689. The staff of the Haryana Horticulture department have donated Rs 94,870 to the fund.

The Class III and Class IV employees of the Hospitality Organisation, Haryana, have also donated their one-day salary towards the fund. The President of Class IV Employees’ Association, Mr Shiv Kumar Sharma presented a draft for Rs 63,000 to the Chief Minister.

The Yamunanagar district administration has sent Rs 77,21,684 to the war heroes’ relief fund. This includes a contribution of Rs 36,000 from Springfield Public School, Yamunanagar; Rs 33,000 by Guru Nanak Khalsa College, Yamunanagar; Rs 21,101 by Lions Club, Yamunanagar-Jagadhari; Rs 11,000 by Saphire Hotel and Rs 38.100 by Jagadhari Small-Scale Stainless Steel Association.

The district administration has also contributed over Rs 2.16 lakh to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund (Shakti).

Transporter held for theft
From Our Correspondent

FATEHABAD, Aug 6 — The police yesterday arrested a Punjab-based transporter for the theft of thread worth Rs 10 lakh here.

According to reports, a truck belonging to the Gill Transport loaded thread worth Rs 10 lakh from the Sangam Thread Factory Bhilwara on July 19. The thread was to reach Ludhiana in Punjab. But truck driver Chhinderpal conspired with the transporter Pooran Singh to, fraudulently sell this thread in the market. The two parked the truck near a school in Khan Mohammad village and went to Ludhiana with a sample of the thread to find customer for the consignment.

When villagers saw the truck parked in the village for the past many days they reported the matter to the police.

The police arrested Pooran Singh when he came back from Ludhiana. when the police asked him to produce the documents of the vehicle, he could not produce the same.

Later the registration number of the truck was also found to be fake. The police said that the owner of the thread had registered case to this effect in the Bhilwara police station.

Poll arrangements reviewed
From Our Correspondent

SONEPAT, Aug 6 — The district administration has geared up its machinery to hold free and fair Lok Sabha elections for the Sonepat parliamentary constituency on September 5. The final publication of electoral rolls has already been made and sensitive polling stations have been identified.

According to official sources, the Sonepat Lok Sabha constituency comprising the six assembly segments of Baroda (reserve), Gohana, Kailana, Sonepat, Rai, Rohat in Sonepat district, Julana and Safidon in Jind district and Bahadurgarh in Rohtak district, has 10,57,044 electorate, including 5,83,129 women. The number of women electorate is more than men.

The Sonepat Lok Sabha constituency will have 1,512 polling stations. Mr Anil Kumar District Electoral Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner reviewed the polling arrangements at a meeting here on Wednesday.

Haryana postings, transfers
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — The Haryana Government today posted Mr R.S. Banswal, who was awaiting posting orders after he was transferred as M.D., Harco Bank, as Joint Secretary, Local Government. He will also be the Project Director of the Swaran Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana.

Mr S.K. Saksena, Director, Sports, will also hold the additional charge of M.D. Hartron. Ms Sumitra Mishra Singh, Joint Secretary, General Administration, will work as Administrator, HUDA, Panchkula.

Mr Maha Singh, Special Secretary, Revenue, will also look after the post of Director, Consolidation and Land Record. Mr Rajan Kumar Gupta, Director, Industrial Training and Vocational Education, has been given the additional charge of Director, Technical Education.

Mr R.P. Chander, Director, Primary Education, will work as MD, Haryana State Land Reclamation and Development Corporation, in addition to his present duties.

Mr Abhey Singh Yadav, HCS, on his repatriation from UT, Chandigarh, has been posted as Additional Transport Commissioner (Commercial).

Mr Daveshwar Dayal Gaur, Special Collector, Fatehabad, has been posted as General Manage, Haryana Raodways, Bhiwani.

Youth sets brother, mother ablaze
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, Aug 6 — In a bizarre incident, a youth allegedly set blaze his mother, Bimla and younger brother after pouring petrol over them at Bahadurgarh today.

The victims succumbed to their burn injuries at Safdarjang Hospital, Delhi.

According to reports, Bimla was married to Ram Bhagat. Her relations with her in-laws got strained where she gave birth to a male baby even after vasectomy operation of her husband. They suspected that she might had illicit relations with somebody.

According to police sources, Vijay, a son of Bimla along with his three companions planned to eliminate his mother as she was a source of disgrace for him. The accused allegedly sprinkled petrol over Bimla and her son (born after vasectomy) and set them afire.

The police has registered a case under Section 302 and 34 of IPC against Vijay, Chetan, Mohan and Sunil.

1 dies as kerosene drums explode
From Our Correspondent

HISAR, Aug 6 — A woman died and at least 20 persons, including women and children, were injured when some drums containing kerosene blasted in a fire in a house in Dhani Jaidev here early this morning.

The victim has been identified as Khajani aged about 50. The injured are — Sadhu Ram, Shiv Kumar, Ram Prashad, Bal Kishan, Rani, Chameli, Ram Dass, Sikand, Sunil, Raj, Santosh, Suman, Pradeep, Bahadur, Vishnu Devi, Rohtas, and Kavita. They have been hospitalised here in civil hospital where the condition of at least 11 persons is stated to be critical.

All victims were living in the same house. According to fire brigade sources, the kerosene drums kept in a store unauthorisedly caught fire at about 5 a.m. When people tried to extinguish the fire, the drums blasted injuring several persons including women and children. One of the women later succumbed to her burns in the hospital. According to hospital sources at least 11 persons have 90 to 100 per cent burn injuries. Family members of the injured persons later shifted them to private hospitals due to the lack of facilities in the civil hospital.

Dharna by Mastnath Institute students
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, Aug 6 — Students and staff of Shri Baba Mastnath Education Institute, Asthal Bohar, 5 km from the town, today staged a dharna outside the office of the Vice-Chancellor of Maharshi Dayanand University and started a chain fast in protest against the university directions to stop admissions to various professional courses being run by the institute.

Led by Yogi Anand Nath, General Secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Yogi Maha Sabha, the protestors announced that the dharna would continue till the withdrawal of the alleged unjustified orders by the university.

The Haryana Chhatra Sangharsh Morcha, The Haryana Students' Youth Party and the Amebdkar Students' Front have expressed solidarity with the agitators.

On the other hand, the university sources claimed that the decision to stop admissions to different courses being run by different colleges of the institute was taken when a university inspection team visited the colleges and found that the specified conditions were not fulfilled by them. They said the repeated letters in this connection by the university were not even answered by the institute.

They also alleged that the banners raised by agitating sadhus and students and staff of this "spiritual" institute bore highly indecent and vulgar slogans against the Vice-Chancellor.

Legal hurdles for grant to Agroha College cleared
Tribune News Service

HISAR, Aug 6 — All legal hurdles for resuming the grant to Agroha Medical College have been cleared, with the Additional Sessions Judge, Mr P.C. Goyal, granting permission to the Haryana Government to withdraw the appeal against providing grant to the college.

After assuming power, Mr Chautala had announced resumption of grant to the college stopped by the Bansi Lal government. As a follow-up action, the government sought permission to withdraw an appeal against the decision of a lower court which had ordered resumption of grant to the college. The appeal against the lower court order had been filed by the Bansi Lal government.

Last year, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr S.K. Goyal, had ordered resumption of grant to the college. The order was challenged by the government in the Sessions Court.

The government yesterday pleaded it was no longer interested in furthering the case and wanted to withdraw the appeal.

This is obviously the first significant step taken by the Chautala government to resume grant to the college.