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H A R Y A N A |  |
 Friday, July 2, 1999 |
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Will CM's gamble pay off Illegal drug factory unearthed |
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Haryana
to implement SC norms CJM gives one-month salary to
relief fund Anti-flood steps go haywire Haryana to spend 312 crore on
medicare Minister denies hand in poppy husk
case Naib Subedar Madan Singh cremated 4 arrested in robbery case Coop bank to give Rs 280 crore
loan Mango mela at Pinjore |
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Will CM's
gamble pay off HISAR, July 1 — Is the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal, biding time under the pretext of his illness to avoid a decisive meeting with the Congress President Sonia Gandhi? This question is reportedly haunting various state Congress leaders. Mr Bansi Lal was supposed to meet Sonia Gandhi immediately after the Congress bailed him out in the confidence motion. However, due to his "illness" the meeting could not materialise. As the time passes, a thinking is getting reaffirmed that merger with the Congress plus giving up the Chief Minister's chair would be too big a price to be paid to the Congress. The feeling gets strengthened more from the fact that in the 90-member Assembly, Mr Bansi Lal enjoys the support of 43 members excluding the Congress with 35 HVP member and eight independents. One senior HVP leader and minister in the Bansi Lal Government said, it would be illogical to seek the removal of the Chief Minister. The HVP needs the support of only three more members to survive of its own, at least without the Congress. "So why should the CM resign", the minister asked. There is also strong opposition from a large section of the HVP leadership to the idea of merging with the Congress. The Home Minister and another senior leader of the party Mr Mani Ram Godara said on record that the issue of the merger will be the majority decision and not an individual decision. He is reportedly opposed to the idea of merger. Notwithstanding the charges of the BJP leader, Mr Ram Bilas Sharma that Mr Bansi Lal had established contacts with the Congress leadership much before, there has not been any direct meeting so far between him and Mrs Sonia Gandhi. The HVP leaders claim that Mr Bansi Lal can talk to Mrs Gandhi from a position of strength. He has already managed to save his government. Now he has enough time to manage the support of "three members" in a state where floor crossing is not too uncommon. However, the minister clarified that this does not mean that the HVP will go back on the agreement that was reached prior to the confidence motion. At the same time, he reiterated that any negotiations between the Chief Minister and the Congress President will be based on "practical realities". This has placed the
Congress in a piquant situation. In case Mr Bansi Lal
refuses to step down from the Chief Minister's post which
appears to be a likely, it will be difficult for the
party (Congress) to justify bailing him out. Because, the
Chief Minister has nothing to lose in this bargain. It
will be to his benefit alone to bide as much time as
possible and stick to the CM's chair. |
Congress
justifies backing Bansi CHANDIGARH, July 1 — The Haryana Congress today reiterated that it had extended support to the Bansi Lal Government during the crucial vote on confidence motion to thwart the "ugly designs" of the INLD-BJP combine to grab power in the state. In a statement here today, the general secretary of the party, Dr Ram Prakash, said the Congress had taken the decision to support Mr Bansi Lal while keeping in view the larger interests of the people of Haryana, who were still to overcome the "infamous Meham" witnessed by them in February, 1990, when Mr Om Prakash Chautala was trying to enter the Vidhan Sabha through a byelection. Dr Ram Prakash, who was reacting to the statement issued by the Lok Dal general secretary, Mr Pradeep Chaudhary, that the Congress had betrayed the people of the state by bailing out Mr Bansi Lal, said that the "most humiliating defeat" suffered by the unholy alliance of the INLD and the BJP had unnerved the Chautala clan, which was dreaming of taking over the reins of the state after the unethical withdrawal of support by the BJP to the Bansi Lal Government. The Congress leader said the outbursts of the Lok Dal leaders "exhibited their lust for power" and the failure of their plan had led them to level wild accusations against the Congress leadership. Claiming that the
Congress would win all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana,
Dr Ram Prakash advised Mr Chaudhary not to worry
unnecessarily about the "so-called political
hara-kiri" committed by the Haryana Congress chief,
Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, by extending support to the
Bansi Lal Government. Instead Mr Chaudhary should worry
about the expected rout of his party in the coming
elections on account of "continued deception and
betrayal of the state's interests by Mr Chautala, who
looks after the interests of his family and has never
thought of or worked for the welfare of the people,
particularly the farmers." |
INLD wants
Bansi Lal to go CHANDIGARH, July 1 — The Indian National Lok Dal has demanded the resignation of Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal for his alleged failure to fulfill his election promise of providing round-the-clock power supply from June 30. The party President, Mr Om Parkash Chautala, in a statement here today said the government's claim of providing round-the-clock two-phase power supply was misleading and was not borne out by facts and figures. During the three-year rule of Mr Bansi Lal, only 45 MW additional generating capacity had been added and that too in the private sector. The two-phase power supply, Mr Chautala said, did not meet the requirements of the industrial and agriculture sectors and the power crisis in the state was still continuing even after the deadline of June 30 by which the Chief Minister had promised to provide round-the-clock power supply. Even by the government's own admission, the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam was unable to provide 24-hour power to about 700 villages. Mr Chautala said when his party was in power, 14,811 transformers were installed in the state in three years. However, during the three-year rule of Mr Bansi Lal only 11,644 transformers were installed and several farmers who were agitating peacefully to press their demand for the installation of transformers were killed in police firings. Mr Chautala said 3958 km
long 11 LVA lines and 5753 km-long ALT lines were laid in
his rule but the Bansi Lal government had laid only 1341
km-long 11 kva and 1861 km-long ALT lines. |
Haryana to
implement SC norms CHANDIGARH, July 1 — The Haryana Government has decided to implement speedily the Supreme Court guidelines regarding solid wastes in Class I cities. A high-level meeting with Chief Secretary Ram S Varma in the chair decided that infrastructure would be a precondition in new development areas. The provision of solid waste management (SWM) infrastructure like waste collection, temporary storage, transfer, processing and disposal of waste should be made a mandatory pre-condition in urban planning by improvement trust or urban development authority etc, in new developed areas and should be strictly enforced. Similarly, local bodies as well as regional planning authorities like the District Planning Committee and the metropolitan planning committees, improvement trusts and urban development authorities would make adequate provision of appropriate land for setting up of temporary waste store depots in each city and for setting up compost plant and sanitary landfill sites in land-use plans, which can remain in use for at least 20 years. It was also decided that a district level committee comprising the Deputy Commissioner, the Municipal Commissioner or the chief executive of the local body concerned and the person in charge of SWM of the civic body concerned should be constituted. This committee would identify suitable sites for urban solid waste processing and ultimate disposal of waste which can serve for at least 20 to 25 years. According to the report of the committee constituted by the apex court, it would be mandatory for all citizens and associations not to throw any waste on the streets, lanes, bylanes, footpaths, open spaces, water bodies. It will also be mandatory to store the organic (food) and bio-degradable waste at source in personal domestic bins. Similarly, recyclable waste, non-biodegradable waste as well as domestic hazardous waste would be segregated and stored separately. Such associations would provide community bins in multi-storey buildings and in commercial complexes. It would also be mandatory to deposit domestic, trade, institutional waste in the hand carts, tri-cycles, community bins, vehicles as may be notified by the local body. It would also trim and garden waste on the days notified by the local body. It is also recommended that the construction waste should be stored within the premises or with outside the premises. Hospitals, nursing homes, health care establishments and industries would make their own arrangements for collection, transportation and disposal of their industrial and bio-medical waste. Similarly, the committee has also made certain mandatory recommendations for local bodies and the state governments which include public awareness campaigns through information, education and communication to motivate the people. Primary collection of waste from doorstep, community bins with or without community participation would also be mandatory. Municipalities should ensure street sweeping on all days in a year, irrespective of Sundays and public holidays, thus making a provision for giving statutory weekly "off" to the workers or compensating them for working on holidays. It would also arrange transportation of waste at regular intervals before the containers start overflowing. The municipalities would also ensure collection, transportation and disposal of market waste, hotel and restaurants waste, construction waste, garden waste, marriage hall waste with the participation of waste producers. The municipalities would arrange for composting of all bio-degradable waste into bio-organic fertiliser. They should also provide toilet facilities to prevent open defecation. The report also suggests making suitable provisions in the building bylaws to earmark place for keeping community bins for the storage of wastes in high rise buildings and commercial complexes. The Haryana Government
has demanded 80 per cent grant-in-aid from the central
government to implement the solid waste management scheme
in all the 11 'A' class municipalities in the state. |
CJM gives
one-month salary to relief fund CHANDIGARH, July 1 — The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Panchkula, Mr V.P. Gupta, today became the first judicial officer of the region to donate his one-month salary for the welfare of heroes of the Kargil sector in Jammu and Kashmir. Mr Gupta handed over a cheque for Rs 14,207, which he received as salary for June, to the Deputy Commissioner, Panchkula, Mrs Saroj Swatch as his contribution to the Haryana Chief Minister's War Heroes Relief Fund. Meanwhile, the staff of the office of the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Haryana, has donated its their one-day salary to the relief fund. Expressing solidarity with the soldiers, the Haryana Minister of State for Environment, Mr Subhash Chaudhary today donated a month's salary towards the Haryana Chief Minister's War Heroes' Relief Fund in aid of the valiant soldiers who lost their lives fighting the Pak intruders along the Line of Control. A draft for Rs 11,000 was presented to the Secretary, Rajya Sainik Board, Panchkula, by the minister. Meanwhile, the Kacha Arti Association, Pehowa, has donated a sum of Rs 1,45,100 towards the Chief Minister's War Heroes' Relief Fund for the welfare of the families of the martyrs. The secretary of the
Haryana State Attorneys' Association, Mr Y.K. Sharma,
said all attorneys and other officials of the Prosecution
department would contribute a day's salary towards the
war heroes relief fund. |
HVPN’s
quality power? KAITHAL: Notwithstanding the claim made by the Haryana Vidyut Parsaran Nigam (HVPN) that uninterrupted and quality power would be supplied to consumers, frequent breakdowns, unscheduled cuts, low voltage, delay in attending to consumers complaints and grant of new connections and issuance of inflated bills are the order of the day. The shortage of material has withheld the upgradation and augmentation of many transformers. Complaints of the consumers were not being attended to promptly. Nigam staff has not been provided with wooden ladders to climb electric poles to remove faults. Due to the non-availability of proper equipment the field staff meets with accidents sometimes causing loss of life or limb. Many field workers complain that the strain of work on them was more due to shortage of staff. Consumers were being issued bills not on the basis of their actual consumption of power, but on the average basis. One visit to the HVPN office to get the bills rectified wasn't enough as officers were rarely available. Moreover, the staff on duty is for from being cooperative. Besides this, they have to stand in long queues and brave sun and rain for hours to make payment of their bills. For new connections
personal or monetary considerations override the rules.
However, the charge has been denied by the HVPN. Power
supply to tubewells and homes remains suspended for days.
Even when the supply is on, the voltage is so low that
children find it difficult to study, and domestic
appliances stop.
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Protest
against power shortage JIND, July 1 — Activists of the Bharatiya Kisan Union pelted stones at power sub-centre building at Ram Rai village in this district last night and smashed some panes and damaged doors of the building in protest against the inadequate power supply to fields. Earlier, the BKU
activists organised a meeting in support of their demands
which include regular supply of power and replacement of
damaged transformers. They threatened to start an
agitation if their demands were not accepted. |
Round-the-clock
power supply in Yamunanagar YAMUNANAGAR, July 1 — Power is being supplied round-the-clock in the Yamunanagar operation circle in accordance with a policy of the Haryana Government from June 30. Mr R.S. Nandwani, Superintending Engineer operation circle, Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam, Yamunanagar, stated here today that a new 66 kv substation at Jathlana had been commissioned with an installed capacity of 16 MVA power transformer at a cost of about Rs 5 crore. With the commissioning
of the substation, the supply to about 30 villages which
was previously being given from 66 kv substation,
Yamunanagar and Radaur, had been shifted to the new 66 kv
substation. |
Illegal
drug factory unearthed ROHTAK, July 1 — The Drug Control Authorities have unearthed a factory involved allegedly in illegal manufacturing and packing of drugs and medicines in Industrial Area of Bahadurgarh town of the Jhajjar district. The factory running without any nameplate and in a secret manner was sealed by the authorities after a raid last evening. The raiding team which consisted of the Senior Drug Inspector Mr G.L. Singhal, Drug Inspector Manmohan Taneja, Executive Magistrate Bahadurgarh and DSP Ms Suman Manjri found the factory locked from outside when they reached there. The team found that work at the factory was going on with four workers engaged in the production and packing of the medicines at that time. Finished and unfinished medicines in large quantity were in the factory at that time. A Drug Control official told that production at large scale had been going on in the factory for the past a month. He said it was a complete factory having machines and infrastructure worth about 40 to 50 lakhs. He revealed that the manufacturer had been engaged in such activity previously at Gurgaon and had shifted to this place about a month ago. The factory had been reportedly producing Anti-biotic and Anti-bacterial drugs and other types of "sensitive" medicines including some syrups for children in unhygenic manner. No proper cleanliness and hygenic environment which was most important for a factory manufacturing medicines was maintained by the factory owner. The unit had no licence or authorisation from the Drug Control authorities and thus had been involved in saving Sales Tax and excise worth lakhs of rupees in a month. The authorities took ten samples of various medicines and raw material for testing and took into custody about 30 to 32 types of drug kept there. About one truckload of empty bottles, caster filled syrup, raw material powder having no label and liquid solution without any label was recovered from the spot. Four workers present in the factory at the time of raid were later handed over to the police for further investigation into the matter. The Drug Control officials are likely to take similar action against another such factory operating in the same area, which reportedly had been supplying some of the medicines for packing in this unit. The authorities have taken action against five factories in Rohtak and Jhajjar districts on charges of various irregularities in the past about a year. A case under Section
18-c of the Drug Control Act and Section 420 of the IPC
has been registered against the owner of the factory, who
is reported to be residing in Delhi. |
Anti-flood
steps go haywire ROHTAK, July 1 — Food protection measures in the Meham subdivision appear to have gone haywire as the inhabitants of Bahu Akbarpur continue to oppose the digging of the Lakhan Majra drain through their territory. The Meham subdivision, as also other parts of the district are prone to floods due to its topography and natural contours. In the 1995 flood most parts of the Meham subdivision and Rohtak district, including Rohtak town, remained submerged under 6 feet to 10 feet of water for nearly a month. The Chief Minister, Mr. Bansi Lal, immediately after assuming office in 1996 had announced the digging of the Meham and Lakhan Majra drains for protecting villages falling under the Meham subdivision from future floods. He had also sanctioned Rs 25 crore for these projects which were to be completed by June 30,1997. However, the digging of the Lakhan Majra drain was disrupted when the residents of Bahu Akbarpur protested against its alignment. Thus the construction of the drain on the 5.5-km-long stretch passing through the village is still incomplete and all efforts made by the administration to persuade the villagers seem to have failed. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Arun Kumar, today invited prominent villagers to seek their intervention and help in completing the already delayed drain but the meeting ended without promising any assistance to the administration. The villagers appear to be divided on the issue. While a majority of the farmers, whose land was acquired for the drain, have accepted the compensation, the others are unwilling to oblige the administration. Forty prominent villagers who attended today's meeting with the Deputy Commissioner were divided over the issue. Mr Arun Kumar told TNS that he was not disappointed over the outcome of today's meeting. There appeared some misgivings in the minds of certain villagers which would be dispelled. He said the Meham drain, which could not achieve full efficiency last year due to sloughing near Garhi Balab village, would function smoothly from this season. He said this problem had been solved by excavating the drain to its designed level. The work of increasing its bed-width was in progress and was likely to be completed within a couple of days. With the widening of the bed-width, he said, water in the low-lying villages like Mokhra, would be dewatered speedily. The Meham drain will
outfall in Drain No 8 near Jaitpur village in Jhajjar
district. Its discharge at the outfall would be 518
cusecs. The 45-km long drain originates from
Kharak-Bainsi village and would benefit villages,
including Mukhra, Kalanaur, Anwal,Garhi,Kahnaur and
Jaitpur. |
Haryana to spend 312 crore on
medicare CHANDIGARH, July 1 — The Haryana Government will incur nearly Rs 312 crore on providing better health care facilities, including ayurveda and medical education, in the current financial year. Stating this Dr Dharamvir Yadav, Health Minister, Haryana, said the government was committed to providing more health facilities to the people of rural areas. He said that posts of 330 medical officers were being filled. Most of the doctors would be posted in rural areas so that proper medical care facilities could be provided to the people living in the far-flung areas. The minister disclosed that Haryana was the first state in India to introduce Hepatitis-B vaccine in the state immunisation programme. Five lakh doses of Hepatitis-B had already been procured at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore. He added that new-born babies would be administered the vaccine by the medical and paramedical personnel. Dr Yadav said to provide quality health services to the rural population of the Mewat area a 50-bed hospital at a cost of Rs 10 crore was under construction at Mandi Khera in Gurgaon district. The hospital would be equipped with the latest equipment and have all modern facilities. Besides, this, six mobile vans had been pressed into service for the Mewat areas, one in each block of Mewat. The minister claimed
that under the Disease Surveillance Programme, the
laboratory services in the districts of Gurgaon,
Faridabad, Sonepat and Karnal were being strengthened. He
added that two eye banks had also been set up. |
Minister denies hand in poppy
husk case FATEHABAD, July 1 — The recovery of 60 bags of poppy husk from a private driver of the Haryana Minister of State for Sports Ram Swaroop Rama yesterday by the police is being viewed here against the backdrop of the recent political crisis in the state in which Mr Rama is said to have links with HVP dissidents. The police had taken recovered poppy husk worth Rs 10 lakh and arrested Mukhtiar Singh, alias Ghona, in this connection. Ghona is said to be personal driver of the minister. Mr Rama, when contacted by this correspondent over telephone, denied that Ghona was his driver. He said that being of the same village, he knew him. He admitted that Ghona had accompanied him on some occasions voluntarily to drive his personal vehicle but he was not his regular driver. He also said that he was convinced that the person who has been arrested with the contraband was not a drug trafficker. He said only an independent probe can reveal that he had been falsely implicated to malign his image. It may be recalled that a real brother of the minister was also arrested by the police last year. Then the police had recovered a large quantity of poppy husk from a truck. The driver of the truck on interrogation had revealed that the contraband belonged to the minister's brother, whom the police had arrested from the minister's residence. On that occasion too, the minister had alleged that his brother had been falsely implicated. At an earlier occasion, a close relative of Mr Rama was arrested by the Punjab police at Sangrur with the contraband. The minister had disowned his relative at that time. When the police raided
the house of Ghona, yesterday, the minister was also
present at Rattangarh village. |
Naib
Subedar Madan Singh cremated HISAR, July 1 — Naib Subedar Madan Singh (36) of EME the Battalion, who died in the Kargil sector on June 28, was cremated with full state and military honours at Sarangpur village of Hisar district today. Earlier, the body was brought from Delhi Airport by officials of the Army and the district administration this morning. Mortal remains of Madan Singh were consigned to the flames by his elder son, Narender. He is survived by his widow, Sharda (30) two sons, Narender (6) and Virender (4), and two daughters, Kiran (11) and Manju (8). Mr Aproov Kumar, Deputy
Commissioner, laid wreaths on behalf of the Governor and
the Chief Minister. He also announced that Government
High School of the village would be renamed after him. |
4
arrested in robbery case PANIPAT, July 1 — The district police has arrested four persons allegedly involved in robbing Manjeet Singh, owner of Shweta Milk Agency of Rs 23,000 the the Sanoli road on June 26, according to district police chief, Manoj Yadav. He said a police party,
on receiving information that some unidentified persons
were planning to commit robbery at Malik Petrol station.
The police raided their hideout and arrested Rohtas,
alias Tashi, Suresh, Rupesh and Sunil. During
interrogation, the four confessed their involvement in a
number of crimes. The police also recovered the looted
amount of Rs. 23900 from Rohtas, Suresh and Sunil and
seized the car which was used for committing the crime.
The car was stolen by them from Noida about 15 days ago. |
Coop bank
to give Rs 280 crore loan CHANDIGARH, July 1 — The Haryana State Cooperative Land Development Bank will disburse loans worth Rs 280 crore in the current financial year as against Rs 243.68 crore advanced last year in agriculture and non-agriculture sectors. Disclosing this here today, the Minister of State for Cooperation, Mr Jagdish Yadav said, the bank had initiated various ambitious loans schemes for minor irrigation, animal husbandry, horticulture and unemployed youth. The bank has also started providing loan for the purchase of tractor-trailer, harvester combine and cultivation of strawberry, mushroom, poplar, eucalyptus and rearing of silk worm, cultivation of flowers, etc. Under non-agriculture scheme, the bank has also started providing loans up to Rs 15 lakh to educated unemployed for setting up small units. He said farmers would be given loan on easy terms for setting up of shallow and deep tubewells, diesel engines, sprinkler sets and for purchase of motors, tractors, establishment of dairy units, sheep and pig rearing, bee keeping etc. Mr Yadav claimed the
bank had advanced Rs 1781.91 crore, benefiting 7.87 lakh
beneficiaries since its inception. |
Mango
mela at Pinjore CHANDIGARH, July 1 — The Haryana Horticulture department in collaboration with Haryana Tourism Development Corporation, will organise a national-level mango mela on July 3 and 4 at Yadvindra Gardens, Pinjore. As many as 300 progressive mango growers are expected to take part in the festival. Stating this here today, Mr Jagbir Singh Malik, Minister of State for Horticulture and Marketing said, the aim of the function was to encourage mango cultivation. A seminar on mango
cultivation would be organised on July 4 at 11 a.m., he
added. |
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