 |
H A R Y A N A |  |
 Friday, March 5, 1999 |
|
Ex-IAS officer files complaint
against CM CHANDIGARH, March 4 — A former IAS officer of Haryana, Mr R.S. Malik, today filed a criminal complaint under sections 500, 501 and 502, IPC, against the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal; the Chief Secretary, Mr R.S. Verma; the Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr L.M. Jain, and four others alleging that they had conspired to frame a false case of owning disproportionate assets against him in complete disregard of the guidelines and the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the case of P. Sirajuddin versus the State of Madras. |
 |
|
|
BSP to focus on Haryana GURGAON, March 4 — To counter the threat of the Congress to erode its base, the Bahujan Samaj Party has decided to intensify its activities. The party has included Haryana in its agenda for its activities in north India. Villagers up in arms over murder
probe |
|||||||
 |
|||
Ex-IAS
officer files complaint against CM CHANDIGARH, March 4 — A former IAS officer of Haryana, Mr R.S. Malik, today filed a criminal complaint under sections 500, 501 and 502, IPC, against the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal; the Chief Secretary, Mr R.S. Verma; the Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr L.M. Jain, and four others alleging that they had conspired to frame a false case of owning disproportionate assets against him in complete disregard of the guidelines and the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the case of P. Sirajuddin versus the State of Madras. The complaint came up before the Judicial Magistrate, Chandigarh, Mr Tejwinder Singh who adjourned it for March 29 for recording of evidence. The case against Mr Malik was registered by the Haryana Vigilance Bureau on April 29, 1998. Mr Malik in his complaint alleged that Mr Bansi Lal had old enmity with his family which dated back to 1977 when the former was arrested by Mr Dharam Singh, the then DIG, who was a close relative of Mr Malik. He alleged that the relations between him and Mr Bansi Lal were strained further because he (Mr Malik) had given statements to the press critical of the performance of the HVP-BJP Government. His son, Vineet, had also complained to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, alleging professional misconduct by Mr R.S. Chahar, a son-in-law of Mr Bansi Lal. Mr Malik alleged that a public interest litigation filed by him, challenging the appointment of MLAs as chairmen of various boards and corporations had provoked Mr Bansi Lal to launch a series of criminal and civil cases against him. When the state failed to submit these cases for judicial scrutiny, he had given legal notices to Mr Bansi Lal and his officers, claiming damages for harassment and defamation. The retired officer
alleged that the false case of owning disproportionate
assets was registered against him because he could not be
coerced by Mr Bansi Lal to withdraw various cases filed
by him against the Chief Minister and his men. However,
even after going into the allegations against him for
such a long time the state had failed to file any case
against him in a court of law because, he said, false
allegations were levelled against him only to harass and
defame him. |
BSP to focus on Haryana GURGAON, March 4 — To counter the threat of the Congress to erode its base, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has decided to intensify its activities. The party has included Haryana in its agenda for its activities in north India. The BSP chief, Mr Kanshi Ram, will address his party’s state-level rally at Ambala. Thereafter, the party will go full stream to expand its base in the state. Sources in the BSP said Mr Kanshi Ram was goaded to focus on Haryana on account of the encouraging talks he had with the leaders of the Haryana Sarvajatiya Party headed by industrialist turned politician, Mr O.P. Jindal, for an alliance between the two parties. Mr Jindal and his party leaders have had two rounds of discussions with Mr Kanshi Ram on the issue of forging an alliance for the next parliamentary and assembly elections in the state. It is learnt that Mr Kanshi Ram has made it known to the leaders of the HSP that he had stakes only in national politics and his party was ready to play second fiddle in the Haryana politics. Therefore, he would like to have as many Lok Sabha seats in Haryana as possible for his BSP. He also expressed keenness for five of the 10 Lok Sabha seats for the BSP in the next general elections. The understanding between the BSP and the HSP is expected to be formally announced after the BSP’s Ambala rally. Incidentally, Ambala is a reserved parliamentary constituency and is represented by the president of the Haryana unit of the BSP, Mr Aman Kumar Nagra, in the Lok Sabha. Mr Nagra defeated a former Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and a BJP stalwart, Mr Suraj Bhan - presently Governor of Uttar Pradesh. The sources said the BSP leadership was alarmed at the Dalits and the OBCs veering round towards the Congress in the northern states, as demonstrated in the recent assembly elections in Rajasthan and Delhi. Reports said the trend was the same in Haryana as suggested by good turnout of these two sections in the Jind rally of the Congress on February 13. To make things uneasy for the BSP, the Congress in Haryana has decided to intensify its campaign to win over the Dalits, the OBCs and the minorities. The Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) has constituted a special cell to redress the grievances of the downtrodden. The BSP had forged an
alliance with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) for the
last Lok Sabha elections in the state. Out of the three
Lok Sabha seats that it was allotted by the INLD, it
could win only the Ambala seat. The BSP nominees who lost
in the elections alleged that the INLD voters did not
vote for them. The alliance, however, was severed
immediately after the results of Lok Sabha elections. |
Chautala fighting for survival? ROHTAK, March 4 — The rally being organised by Mr Om Parkash Chautala, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo at Delhi on March 6, is aimed at mobilising the party activists and conveying message at the national level that he still rules the roost in Haryana. The INLD chief is making determined efforts to mobilise people for the proposed rally and is not leaving anything to change. The party MPs, and MLAs have been allotted a district each for this purpose. The district-level functionaries, to have been activated for making the rally a success. Political observers here believe that through the proposed rally, Mr Chautala was fighting for survival as after the last parliamentary elections he had virtually followed directionless policies. The INLD supremo, these sources say, had extended unconditional support to the Vajpayee government in the hope that the BJP would withdraw support to the Haryana Vikas Party and help him in forming government in Haryana. The BJP, however, refused to oblige Mr Om Parkash Chautala as withdrawal of support to the Bansi Lal government would have sent wrong signals to its other allies. The defeat of the INLD candidates in the assembly elections in Delhi and Rajasthan resulted in frustration among the rank and file of the party. The political graph of the party also nose-dived after the November 1998 assembly elections and its vote bank among the farmers started drifting towards the Congress. This became evident from the successful rally organised by the HPCC chief, Mr Bhupinder Singh, on February 13 at Jind which mostly comprised of the farmers and the ruralites. Perturbed over the shrinking base, Mr Chautala had no other option but to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government. The hike in prices of urea and other PDS commodities provided him the opportunity to snap ties with the BJP. However, the withdrawal of
support to the Vajpayee government also became a
"non-event". Therefore, the proposed rally
could be described as continuation of the withdrawal of
support to the Centre. |
Villagers up in arms over murder
probe ROHTAK, March 4 — Assurances of conducting a CBI inquiry into the abduction and murder of two school-going boys of Jassia village by the government has failed to calm down the agitated villagers. The two boys — Ravinder (14) and Rajesh (16) — were allegedly kidnapped by unidentified persons in a vehicle on February 22 and their bodies were recovered on the following day from a roadside dhaba near Rookhi village. Shocked over the incident, the villagers blocked traffic on the Rohtak-Gohana road on February 23 to demand immediate arrest of the culprits. Later, the panchayat of Hooda Chaubisi was convened at Jassia on February 26 which asked the police to either arrest the culprits by 7 a.m. on February 27 or face road and rail blockade after the expiry of the ultimatum. The road and rail blockade on February 27 was unprecedented but late in the evening on the same day the Hooda Chaubisi panchayat, the Meham Chaubisi panchayat and Malik Barah Panchayat (12 villages of Malik gotra) jointly offered to withdraw the agitation if the inquiry was entrusted to the CBI. The administration, unnerved over the agitation, immediately contacted the Chief Minister who lost no time in agreeing to the CBI probe. The sitting Sarpanch of Jassia, Mr Suraj Bhan, and former sarpanches Bajhe Singh and Ram Phal and nambardar Ram Mehar today said mere assurances of a CBI inquiry had not satisfied the village youth. They demanded the government should take a decision within 10 days. The village leaders also demanded that the aggrieved families should be paid Rs 5 lakh each and till the CBI starts its inquiry the district police should be directed to arrest the culprits. The district police, which appears clueless and apparently groping in the dark, was reportedly again interrogating ASI Ram Parkash of Baroda (Sonepat) police station and two constables of the same police station. ASI Ram Parkash, accompanied by the two constables, was the first to reach the spot from where the bodies of Ravinder and Rajesh were recovered. It is alleged that Rajesh
was still alive and writhing in pain when the ASI and
these constables arrived at the scene during the course
of patrol duty. Rajesh had, it is further alleged,
disclosed the identity of their abductors and murderers
to the ASI and the constables. The ASI reportedly denied
this and said Rajesh had only disclosed his identity
before breathing his last. |
Family Health Awareness Week from
April 26 CHANDIGARH, March 4 — The Haryana Government has decided to launch a family health awareness week from April 26 to May 1 after the massive success of the pulse-polio campaign. This was decided at a meeting of the State Steering Committee held under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, Mr Ram S. Varma, here today. Mrs Komal Anand, Commissioner and Secretary, Health, said initially the awareness campaign would be launched in five districts of Jhajjar, Rohtak, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Panipat. She said the aim of the campaign would be to scale up level of awareness of HIV/AIDS in rural areas and in other vulnerable groups of population and facilitate early detection and prompt treatment of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and reproductive tract infection (RTI) cases. Mr Varma said a comprehensive programme should be chalked out with a special focus on spreading awareness regarding AIDS. A constant effort should also be made to spread the message of health awareness with the focus on awareness generation on HIV/AIDS through appropriate strategies of communication. Special emphasis should also be laid on rural areas where there was little awareness of the disease. Mrs Anand said there were seven STD clinics in the districts of Yamunanagar, Panipat, Sonepat, Hisar, Faridabad, Bhiwani and Jhajjar apart from one at Medical College, Rohtak. There were 23 blood bank of which 16 were being run by the government, one at Panipat by the Red Cross Society and six private blood banks, two at Hisar, one each at Faridabad, Ambala Cantt, Chandimandir and Karnal. She said medical officers, para-medical staff and other functionaries of various departments would be imparted training. Two camps in each village would be held, one each for women and men. House-to-house contact would be made and contact cards distributed. Mrs Anand said the
anganwari workers, gram sewikas, multi-purpose health
workers, school teachers and other field functionaries
would be involved for social mobilisation and for IEC
activities. |
ST cut
solves
acrylic yarn dispute CHANDIGARH, March 4 — A long-standing dispute between the Haryana Government and acrylic yarn dealers of the state had at last been resolved with the state government agreeing to reduce sales tax on the yarn from 10 per cent to 4 per cent. The dispute arose following a difference of opinion on the nature of acrylic yarn. Dealers had been insisting that acrylic yarn was a thread and hence it should be taxed at the rate of 2 per cent as all threads had been categorised in the 2 per cent slab in the Sales Tax Act. However, the sales tax authorities said acrylic yarn fell in the category of wool because it was primarily used to knit woollens and, therefore, it was subject to the general rate of sales tax which varied from 8.8 per cent to 10 per cent in the past few years. The controversy arose following a decision of the Sales Tax Tribunal which had classified acrylic yarn as wool, following which the department had demanded the general rate of tax on acrylic yarn. The Haryana State Acrylic Yarn Dealers Association (HSAYDA) and the Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry approached the Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal, through a former Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mrs Sushma Swaraj, and pleaded with him for a reduction in sales tax on acrylic yarn. Mr Bansi Lal assured the dealers that their demand would be accepted. However, the bureaucracy took its own time to implement the Chief Minister's assurance. When it was implemented, it was not clarified what would be the rate of tax for the intervening period for which the dealers had charged 2 per cent tax on the yarn. The department asked them to deposit ST as per the general rate of tax. However, now the Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Haryana, has written to the field officers that they should accept ST on acrylic yarn during the period between October 10, 1995, and September 17, 1997, and the period between September 18, 1998, to the date of issue of the new notification (January 20, 1999) by which the tax was reduced to 4 per cent, from the dealers at the rate they had charged from the public and had shown in their ST returns. The senior vice-president
of the chamber, Mr N.C. Jain, the president of the
HSAYDA, Mr Ashok Sabharwal; and Mr Vishwa Prakash Walia
and Mr Ram Prakash Gupta, president and general secretary
of the Ambala Cantonment General Merchants' Association,
respectively, have welcome the decision of the state
government. They said Mr Bansi Lal had saved the acrylic
yarn dealers of the state from great harassment. |
Jagadhri lawyers to call off stir YAMUNANAGAR, March 4 — Lawyers of the Jagadhri Bar Association have decided to call off their nine-day old strike. Mr Nirman Kapoor, general secretary of the association, informed here today that at an emergency meeting of the lawyers in the court complex, it was unanimously decided to call off the strike on March 6. Mr Gopal Vijay Kaushish, advocate and Sarpanch of Chholli village in Yamunanagar district, was beaten mercilessly by encroachers on February 24. He was admitted to the PGI in Chandigarh in a serious condition. Mr Kaushish went to Chholli village along with the police and the panchayat officer after getting an order from the District Magistrate, Yamunanagar, to remove the encroachments. Mr Kaushish was fighting for survival at the PGI, where he was declared dead on March 2. Mr Kapoor informed a case had been registered against the SHO, Bilaspur, Mr Dhanna Ram, the BDO, Chhachhrouli, the ASI, Mr Raghbir Singh, and four police constables. Mr Kapoor said the work will resume from Saturday because the ashes of Mr Kanshish will be immersed in the Ganga at Hardwar on Friday. Mr Kapoor said it had been decided by the Bar Association that a trust would be formed in the name of Mr Kaushish at Chholli. The law and order situation in Yamunanagar district has been deteriorating and has shaken the confidence of the residents. Before this incident, two boys were pushed in the Yamuna by a group of at least 12 persons. It is alleged the accused started chasing the deceased from the court complex to the river in Yamunanagar. In another incident on Holi day a teenaged girl was allegedly forced to commit suicide. It is alleged the girl was provoked by youths. On the night of March 2 a contractor of the Yamunanagar Municipal Council was seriously injured. A deputation of senior
citizens of Yamunanagar met the Superintendent of Police,
Yamunanagar, Mr Sheel Madhur, yesterday and apprised him
of the law and order situation in the district. He
assured the deputationists that he himself would monitor
the law and order situation in the district. |
Nagarpalika staff hold dharna YAMUNANAGAR, March 4 — Employees of the Nagar Palika Karamchari Sangh, Haryana, observed a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office here today in protest against the non-acceptance of their demands. Mr Rajinder Kumar, secretary of the district unit of the sangh informed here today in a press note that Haryana Government was determined to give stepmotherly treatment to the municipal employees in the state. The district president, Mr Ramesh Chinaliya, said the agreement which was signed on March 4, 1997, had not been implemented as yet. He alleged the Fifth Pay Commission report had also not been implemented in keeping with the commitment made. He stated the cases which were registered against the employees during the strike period had not been withdrawn as yet. He said if the demands
were not accepted till March 12 a demonstration would be
held on March 14. |
Three held for assaulting JE BHIWANI, March 4 — The police has claimed to solve the case of assault on a junior engineer of the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) by arresting three of the four accused. Disclosing this here today at a press conference, Mr S.S. Deswal, SP, told that the main culprit Bijender is still absconding. The accused had attacked the JE at his residence in morning hours on February 15 and fled away with ornaments and a Maruti car. They shot at the JE, Mr S.C. Sardana, who was later admitted to the general hospital. Mr Deswal said that the police had faced a lot of problems due to non-cooperation of the victim but with efforts of city inspector Suraj Bhan and CIA inspector Rattan Singh and their team the police had arrested the accused. He said that Bijender was posted on compassionate grounds in the HVPN after the death of his father Mahabir Singh but his services were terminated for disobedience and wrongful deeds and many cases are pending against him in the local courts. He said Bijender had planned carefully to snatch the car with his friends. He said that Bijender and other co-accused entered the house and demanded the key of car. They manhandled Mr Sardana and his children and fired a shot. They took away some valuables and the car with them. He told that the police had recovered all items and car from Satinder, alias Shakti, son of Mange Ram, Manoj, alias Mindu, son of Dalip Singh and Vinay, alias Guddu, all residents of Bhiwani.
|
Drug smuggler dies in mishap SIRSA, March 4 — Surjeet Singh, an opium smuggler was killed on the spot and two others were injured when their jeep collided with a tree on the GT road near Raghuana village in the district yesterday. Mr B.S. Sandhu, SSP Sirsa, said here today that on receiving information about smuggling of drugs the Badagudha police started patrolling the G.T. road to arrest the suspects. The accident occurred when Surjeet tried to speed away on seeing the police. The two other accused, identified as Mahavir of Jawaharnagar and Nihal Singh of Hisar, disappeared after the accident. The police seized 8.5 kg of opium from the jeep. Surjeet Singh was a
resident of Badra village in Bhiwani district. The police
has registered a criminal case, under the NDPS act. |
Vehicle thieves' gang busted FARIDABAD, March 4 — The police has busted a two-member gang of vehicle thieves who had stolen more than 20 vehicles in the recent past. They two have been identified as Kuldip Singh and Rohtash. A police spokesman said
here today three scooters, three motor cycles, and a
Maruti car had been recovered from their possession. They
also admitted having stolen 12 other vehicles from
various parts of Faridabad district. |
INLD MLs assail Bansi Lal's move CHANDIGARH, March 4 — Two senior MLAs of the Indian National Lok Dal — Mr Dhirpal Singh and Mr Mani Ram — today condemned the fixation of panchayati sammelan on March 6 and described it as "another attempt by the Bansi Lal government to muzzle the Opposition voice." They said holding of the
sammelan to coincide with the INLD rally in Delhi on the
same day was a clear attempt to sabotage the success of
the Opposition efforts. |
 |
||
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | Chandigarh | | Editorial | Business | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | World | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
