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H A R Y A N A |  |
 Sunday, November 21, 1999 |
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Probe ordered into
ex-SDM's order Permits reissued to firms booked
in excise scam |
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MP’s election contested Punjab to supply power to Haryana
5-year rural stint must for new
teachers BJP against mid-term Assembly poll Passbook scheme being modified
Power shortage likely in Haryana Plan to decongest highway |
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Probe ordered into ex-SDM's
order PANIPAT, Nov 20 — The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Sandeep Garg, has ordered an enquiry into alleged sanction given by the former SDM, Mr Pawan Kumar Sharma, for the construction of a school building on municipal land earmarked for a public park in a local colony. It is alleged that Mr Sharma, before his transfer, gave ante-dated sanction to a construction plan for a school on a park, which had been once rejected by the Nagar Parishad and thus paved the way to regularise illegal possession. The said plot is in the posh Narayan Singh Park Colony. While the colony was coming up in 1964 the builders left 25 per cent space for roads and parks in accordance with the prevailing law. The colony was approved on this very condition that 25 per cent of the vacant land would be left for roads and parks and the land became the property of the civil body which is responsible for its maintenance. The park in the colony has a tubewell of the Nagar Parishad and is also utilised as a playground for children and for marriages and other social functions. At present the rate of land in the area is around Rs 10,000 per square yard. According to sources, the original owners of the land "conspired" to take unauthorised possession of the plot earmarked for the public park and in September, 1991 submitted a plan for a school to the civic body for approval. But the proposed plan was rejected in October, 1991. An appeal was filed against this decision of the civic body, in the court of SDM and the same was rejected in June, 1996 by the then SDM. After about a couple of
years in August, 1998, the petitioners made a request to
the then SDM, Mr Sharma, to review their petition. Mr
Sharma is alleged to have held the order of the civic
body to reject the plan, as erroneous and ante-dated the
controversial order in September, 1999, before his
transfer last month. |
Permits reissued to firms booked
in FATEHABAD, Nov 20 — The Haryana Government appears to be going soft with the three liquor contract firms, who were allegedly found to be involved in duping the state exchequer of about Rs 4 crore, with the Excise Department reportedly reissuing permits to the firms. After their ‘involvement’ in the racket was detected, the permits of all three firms — Ram Mehar and Company, Krishen Kumar and Company and Suresh Kumar and Company, holding licences for the sale of liquor in the district — were suspended. Even though most of the amount is yet to be recovered, permits have been reissued to them, sources in the department told TNS. Surprisingly, even after a fortnight of the detection of the scam and subsequent registration of an FIR against eight persons, none of the accused has been arrested so far. The authorities, however, maintain that "the investigations are on and the arrests will be made soon". The police had registered an FIR against eight persons on November 15. They included Raj Kumar Maria, a brother of the Health Education Minister in the Chautala Ministry Vinod Maria. However, Rattan Maria, another brother of Vinod Maria, denied the involvement of his brother in the multi-crore scam. In a fax message circulated among journalists, he charged the Excise Department with committing a criminal offence by falsely implicating his brother. He threatened to sue the department as his brother had no role in the scandal. Mr Maria claimed that his brother was simply an employee in one of the firms and had no role in the scandal. But officials in the department, without wanting to be identified, refuted these charges. They pointed out that the FIR was registered only after deep and thorough investigations. Some persons booked in the case were "known as liquor barons" in the area, the sources added. It is learnt that the department is mainly concerned with the recovery of the embezzled amount and not any action. The sources said about Rs 1.16 crore had been deposited by the three firms so far. While Ram Mehar and Company had embezzled Rs 1.49 crore, Rs 1.25 crore and Rs 1.14 crore were embezzled by Suresh Kumar and Company and Krishen Kumar and Company, respectively. Mr Vinod Maria, after deserting Mr Chautala following the 1996 elections, was a minister in the Bansi Lal government. He later defected to the INLD again. He was recently appointed Minister of State for Medical Education in the Cabinet expansion on November 6. He was not available for comments. Persistent attempts to
contact him after the detection of the scam and reports
of his brother's alleged involvement in it failed. |
Rs 2964 cr coop loan for
Haryana farmers FARIDABAD, Nov 20 — Cooperative Banks of Haryana will provide loans worth Rs 2964 crore in the current year for various activities including fertilisers, seeds, insecticides and other inputs to the farmers. This was announced by Mr Kartar Singh Bhadana, cooperative Minister, Haryana, while addressing a state-level Cooperative Day function here today. He was happy that the membership of cooperatives which was merely nine lakh at the time of formation of a separate state of Haryana in 1966, now had gone up to 48 lakh. The working capital of cooperatives had shot up to Rs 8500 crore during 1998-99 which was Rs 59 crore in 1966. Mr Bhadana assured the cooperators that the democratic structure of cooperatives would be strengthened further. More powers for managing the affairs of cooperatives would be given to the elected representatives of the people. For this purpose, if need arose suitable amendments would be made in the existing Cooperative Societies Act. The minister said that the present government under the leadership of Mr Om Parkash Chautala, had implemented various schemes for the benefits of the people in a short span of four months including doubling of the old age pension, a scheme for providing Rs 5100, as ‘Kanyadan’ to the Scheduled Caste girls, abolition of Octroi, payment of dues to the sugarcane growers, regularisation of service of employees who had put in 15 years of ad hoc service and raising up to 40 years maximum age for entry into government service. Mr L.M. Goyal, Financial Commissioner, Cooperation, Haryana, said that the Cooperative banks had started financing non-agricultural activities besides providing adequate agricultural finance. The educated unemployed youths were being provided gainful employment by organising transport societies and labour and construction cooperative societies. Un-employed youths could secure loans up to Rs 15 lakh for starting own enterprise. Mr Krishna Mohan,
Registrar, Cooperative Socieites, said that cooperative
banks had enhanced maximum credit limit of crop loan up
to Rs 60,000 and the rate of interest on loans had been
reduced from 16 to 14 per cent. |
Loss of revenue due to benami SONEPAT, Nov 20 — The Haryana Government has been suffering huge loss of revenue on account of "banami" purchases of paddy by certain traders and owners of rice shellers in Sonepat district particularly at Ganaur mandi. According to informed sources, the racket has been going on with the alleged collusion between the officials of the Market Committee, Sales Tax Department, procurement agencies, unscrupulous traders and the owners of the rice shellers. During current paddy season, most of the traders had purchased not only the bulk stock of paddy direct from the growers but sold the same to the owners of the rice shellers without showing it in stock registers. In this way, they had evaded the market fee as well as the Sales Tax. Some officials of the Market Committee and the Sales Tax Department are said to be involved in this racket. It is alleged that officials of the Food and Supplies Department and other procurement agencies had reportedly allowed the traders to purchase the paddy stock marketed by the growers without showing it in their stock registers, and evade the market fee and the Sales Tax. In the absence of any checking by higher authorities, the racket goes on. Sources also say that some unscrupulous traders have also adopted a new strategy to dupe the state government by showing nominal or less arrivals of the paddy in the mandis. The authorities seem to be silent spectators and they have failed to check the evasion of the market fee and the Sales Tax. Meanwhile, paddy growers have been facing great hardships in selling their produce in the mandis of the district. Many paddy growers alleged that officials of the procurement agencies were reluctant to purchase the entire stock of paddy from them. Instead, they are forced to sell their produce at throwaway price either to traders or the owners of rice shellers. Some farmers point our
that a high-level inquiry into the complaints is likely
to expose the malpractice of the traders and rice
shellers owners as well as the misdeeds of the officials. |
MP’s election contested CHANDIGARH, Nov 20 — Mr Randhir Singh, a resident of Sernada village in Kaithal district, today preferred a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the election of Prof Kailasho Devi, an Indian National Lok Dal MP from the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha constituency, on the ground that his nomination papers were "improperly and illegally" rejected by the Returning Officer, Mr S.N. Roy, who now holds the post of Joint Secretary, Finance and Director of Lotteries of Haryana. Mr Roy had rejected the nomination paper of the petitioner on the ground that he had "failed to lodge an account of election expenses at the general election to the Haryana Legislative Assembly in April, 1996." The petitioner claimed to have filed his nomination paper as a nominee of the Samajwadi Party. He alleged that the Returning Officer rejected his nomination paper at 3.45 p.m. on August 19, although the time fixed for the scrutiny of papers was 11 a.m. He did it when all the candidates had left the place where the scrutiny was conducted. He claimed to have sent a representation to the Election Commission on August 23 questioning the rejection of his nomination papers. He had also prayed for staying or adjourning the election. The Election Commission, however, did not reply to his representation till the filing of this petition. Mr Randhir Singh stated that he had intimated to the Returning Officer of the Pai Assembly constituency in Kaithal district vide his registered A.D. letter dated April 26, 1996, the details of his election expenditure. On April 16, 1996, he had also informed him that he had withdrawn in favour of the Samata Party candidate. The details of the expenditure was again sent vide registered A.D. letter (postal receipt No 2177) dated January 13, 1997. After furnishing the details of his expenses, the petitioner added, he felt satisfied that the matter had been closed and did not make any further enquiry. The Election
Commissioner never informed him that he had been
disqualified for not sending the election expenses of the
Pai Vidhan Sabha seat. |
Punjab to supply power to
Haryana HISAR, Nov 20 — In order to cope with the acute power crisis in the state, the Haryana Government has started getting power from neighbouring Punjab which has agreed to provide 20 lakh units of power per day to the state. Stating this here today, Finance Minister Sampat Singh said the government had made all arrangements to provide adequate power to the agricultural sector during the ensuring rabi season without imposing any cut in the domestic sector. He said, for ensuring uninterrupted power supply to different types of consumers, the government had increased the availability of power from 350 lakh units per day to 400 lakh units per day. About 30 lakh units had been added to the state grid with the commissioning of the second unit at the Faridabad gas-based thermal power station. The minister said, with the enhancement in the quota for Haryana from the unallocated central pool and restoration of one unit of 88 mw of the Anta-based thermal station, the state had started getting about 12 lakh units of power more daily. He said while Punjab was providing about 25 lakh units daily since November 13. Himachal Pradesh was also providing about five lakh units daily. The minister said by these steps the state was getting on an average 50 to 60 lakh extra units of power daily, thus ensuring power supply for 9 to 10 hours daily to the agricultural sector. He pointed out power regulatory measures enforced on domestic and non-domestic consumers in urban areas had already been withdrawn. He said the morning peak-load restrictions for industrial consumers had also been withdrawn and the evening peak-load restricts had been reduced by half an hour. A large number of sick
transformers installed at various grid substations were
being replaced with so as to avoid breakdowns and to
carry out capital maintenance. Special efforts were being
made to strengthen the distribution system by replacing
low-capacity transformers with 100 or 200 kva
transformers. |
M. L. Sarin new
Advocate-General CHANDIGARH, Nov 20 — A senior advocate of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mr Manmohan Lal Sarin, was today appointed Advocate-General of Haryana. Mr Sarin's appointment was announced following the acceptance of the resignation of Mr Mohan Jain from the post last evening. Mr Jain resigned after the three-day talks between him and the Chief Minister Mr Om Prakash Chautala, to work out a formula for a compromise with the dissident MLAs of the ruling party failed. Mr Sarin, "Mac" to his friends and admirers, had been Advocate-General of Punjab twice. He worked as the Additional Advocate-General of Punjab in the late eighties. Born at Shimla on November 24, 1948, Mr Sarin passed his LL.B from the Law Department of Panjab University, Chandigarh, and started practising in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1971. He was designated as Senior Advocate in 1987. Besides practising law, he remained associated with the Law Department of Panjab University for six years as a part-time lecturer. He taught the Code of Civil Procedure, law of contracts and drafting and pleadings. He also taught CPC to the PCS (executive) trainees at the Punjab State Institute of Public Administration, Chandigarh. Recently Mr Sarin was conferred the prestigious "chevalier des Palmes Academiquies" award by the Government of France. He did his LL.M from
Northwestern University, Chicago, USA in 1979. Mr Sarin
had been an editor of a number of law journals. |
5-year rural stint must
for new teachers FATEHABAD, Nov 20 — The Haryana Government has taken a policy decision under which all newly recruited teachers will have to work in rural areas for the first five years of their service. The teachers who get departmental promotion will also have to complete at least three years of rural service before seeking transfers to urban areas. This was announced by the state Finance Minister, Mr Sampat Singh, while addressing a rural gathering at Khan Mohammad village near here, today. The Minister, who represents Fatehabad segment in the state assembly, was on a day's tour of the constituency. He addressed rural meetings in several villages today. Mr Sampat Singh said that the government had initiated the process for the recruitment of 13,000 new teachers in Haryana, which will be completed by the end of next month. The INLD government in the state had been laying emphasis on the development of villages and it would see to it that not a single post of teacher remained vacant in any village. With the aim to develop villages, the government had decided to apply the same yardstick to doctors too, who would have to serve in the rural areas of the state for the first five years of their service. The Finance Minister said that the state government had decided to waive the condition of having less than five acres of land and an annual income of less than Rs 10,000 to be eligible for enhanced old age pension. He said that the process of filling of forms for this purpose would be completed by the end of December this year. After scrutiny, all persons above the age of 60 would start getting a pension of Rs 200 per month, he added. The state government had issued instructions that all damaged roads should be repaired before May 30 next year. Roads would be made fit for vehicular traffic by November 30 this year. The government, he said had made a masterplan of Rs 500 crore for the repair of old roads and laying of new roads. The government had also decided to increase the per capita supply of potable water from 40 litres to 70 litres. The INLD government had decided to conduct a fresh survey of people below the poverty line. Admitting that the state had witnessed an acute shortage of power during the past three months, he attributed this to a lack of rain. To supply power for rabi sowing, the government had to impose power cuts in the residential areas. The government had now made arrangements to supply sufficient power to the farmers without imposing cuts in residential areas. The minister also heard public grievances. The INLD MP, Mr Sushil
Indora, the ADC, Mr M.L. Sarwan, and other senior
officers of the district were also present. |
BJP against mid-term
Assembly poll ROHTAK, Nov 20 — The Haryana unit of the BJP is against mid-term poll for state assembly. Stating this here today,the chief of the state unit of the party, Mr Om Prakash Grover, said there was no need for the mid-term elections. However, he said if the mid-term elections were held in near future, the party was prepared to face the poll. He said if no ‘honorably pact’ was reached with its ally, the party would contest all 90 seats in the state. He, however, added that the state unit would adhere to party high command's instructions regarding any future strategy. The BJP leader flayed inclusion of some MLAs of the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) into the Chautala cabinet. Regarding the demand of
reservation for the Jats in the state, Mr Grover said he
favoured reservation on the basis of economic conditions. |
Passbook scheme being modified CHANDIGARH, Nov 20 — The Haryana State Cooperative Apex Bank has modified its pass book scheme with a view to launching a new crop loaning scheme known as Kisan Credit Card. Stating this here today, the Cooperation Minister, Mr Kartar Singh Bhadana, said a target had also been fixed to disburse Rs 1076 crore as loan for rabi crops this year as against Rs 860.71 crore given during last year. Under this scheme loans were being given to farmers and tenants for raising crops. The maximum credit limit had been raised from Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 for each card holder. Loan for kharif crops would be advanced to farmers from March to August and for rabi crops from September to February to be repaid after harvesting of these crops, he added. He said that the
objective of the Kisan Credit Card scheme was to provide
adequate and timely financial support from the banking
system to the farmers for their cultivation needs,
including the purchase of inputs in a flexible and cost
effective manner. Members of the scheme would be issued a
credit card-cum-passbook incorporating the name, address,
particulars of the land holding, borrowing limit,
validity period etc. which will serve as identity card as
well as facilitate recording of the ongoing transactions.
A passport-size photograph of the holder would be affixed
on the credit card and the borrower would be required to
produce this card along with pass book at the time of
operating the account. |
District PR and grievances panels CHANDIGARH, Nov 20 — The Haryana Government has constituted the District Public Relations and Grievances Committees for all the districts in the state. The Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, will preside over the monthly meetings of District Public Relations and Grievances Committee (DPRGC), Bhiwani, on every second Monday and Jind on every second Tuesday. The Finance Minister, Mr Sampat Singh, will preside over the monthly meetings of DPRGC, Hisar, on every second Tuesday. The Town and Country Planning Minister, Mr Dhirpal Singh, at Rohtak on every Tuesday, the Social Welfare Minister, Mrs Krishana Gahlawat, at Mohindergarh on every second Tuesday, the Cooperation Minister, Mr Kartar Singh Bhadana, at Gurgaon on every second Tuesday, the Food and Supplies Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, at Jhajjar on every second Tuesday, the Health and Ayurveda Minister, Mr Om Parkash Mahajan, at Sirsa on every second Tuesday, and the Transport Minister, Mr Jagdish Yadav, at Sonepat on every second Tuesday. Similarly, the Minister
of State for Public Health, Mr Jaswant Singh Bawal, will
preside over the monthly meetings of District Public
Relations and Grievances Committee, Faridabad, on every
second Monday, the Minister of State for Printing and
Stationery, Mr Bhim Sain Mehta, at Yamunanagar on every
second Monday, the Minister of State for Sports, Mr Raj
Kumar Saini, at Rewari on every second Monday, the
Minister of State for Wakf, Mr Akram Khan, at Kaithal on
every second Monday, the Minister of State for Revenue,
Mr Kailash Chand, at Panipat on every second Monday, the
Minister of State for Tourism, Mr Om Parkash Jain, at
Kurukshetra on every second Monday, the Minister of State
for Industrial Training, Mr Subhash Chaudhary at
Fatehabad on every second Monday, the Minister of State
for Environment and Wildlife Preservation, Mrs Kanta
Devi, at Panchkula on every second Monday, the Minister
of State for Elections, Mr Narender Sharma, at Ambala on
every second Monday and the Chief Parliamentary
Secretary, Mr Jaswinder Singh Sandhu, at Karnal on every
second Monday. |
Power shortage likely in
Haryana CHANDIGARH, Nov 20 — Certain areas of Haryana are likely to face power shortage on November 21 and 22 because the availability of power in the state will be reduced to the extents of 60 lakh to 65 lakh units on these days. A spokesman for the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam, said here today that the availability of power would be reduced due to "external causes" beyond the control of the HVPN. He said the Power Grid Corporation of India has allowed the Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Board to shut down its HVDC Bi-pole on November 21. This system transmits power generated at Singrauli, Rihand and Anpara thermal power stations. The shutdown had been allowed for some urgent maintenance. Haryana gets 60 lakh units per day from these stations. On November 22 the gas-based power station of the NTPC at Faridabad would remain closed for the installation of urgent controls on the GAIL gas pipeline. This station generates 65 lakh units per day and supplies entire power to Haryana. The spokesman said the
HVPN had made all efforts to maximise the power
generation from its own and other sources to compensate
for any reduction in power supply. |
Plan to decongest highway PANIPAT, Nov 20 — To decongest this town of the heavy vehicular traffic from the national highway, the State government and the Ministry of Surface Transport (MOST) has drawn up a plan to erect an elevated corridor on National Highway 1 on a build-operate-and-transfer (BOT) basis. Announcing this, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Sandeep Garg, said that the vehicular traffic passing through the town on the highway resulted in acute congestion in the town. The proposed elevated corridor would be about 5 km long and would be constructed at an approximate cost of Rs 112 crore. He said the project had been agreed to in principle and the construction work was likely to start by 2001 and take about three years for completion. In addition, as an
immediate measure to decongest the town, the
Administration would launch a drive to clear the service
lanes adjoining the national highway. The lanes, when
cleared of the encroachments and parked vehicles, could
serve as an alternative path for the slow-moving traffic.
The Administration was also contemplating diverting the
traffic coming from Jind towards the town from Model Town
to an alternative road. |
Minor raped, done to death YAMUNANAGAR, Nov 20 — An eight-year-old was raped and then strangled to death by unidentified persons. A team of doctors conducted the post-mortem at the Civil Hospital here today. Dr B.L. Madan, Senior Medical Officer (SMO), said the crime seemed to have been committed a week back. According to sources, on November 10, the victim who belonged to Tirathnagar village, near here, left home for her grandmother’s house. But she failed to reach her destination. Her parents started a search. They later informed the Yamunanagar Sadar police and lodged a complaint. Some villagers found the body of the girl floating on water near the banks of the Yamuna yesterday. The police has
registered a case against a suspect who has not been
arrested yet. |
Another fire victim dies at
PGIMS ROHTAK, Nov 20 — With the death of another person at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) hospital here this morning the toll in the fire incident at Sonepat on the eve of Divali has risen to 49. All the injured, who had sustained burn injuries and had been shifted to the PGIMS here have succumbed to their injuries. While Ravinder (25) died this morning after struggling for life for 13 days, the other two patients Pinky (22) and Jyoti (6) had died earlier. Ravinder had sustained
about 70 per cent burns in the November 6 fire incident
in Sonepat. |
6 booked for poll irregularities ROHTAK, Nov 20 — The police has registered a case under the election laws against six persons in connection with the alleged irregularities during the Lok Sabha elections at a booth in Gochhi village of Jhajjar district. The Election Commission had to order a repoll at a booth here after it was found that 208 votes had been polled in excess to the total number of voters at the booth. The six — Dara
Singh, Surajbhan, Ishwar, Sumer and Amir Singh — are
reported to be government employees and were on election
duty on that day. Electronic voting machines were used
for the first time in the Rohtak Lok Sabha constituency
this year. |
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