Ambala Chandigarh Jind Hisar Kaithal

Chautala for early completion of SYL canal
JIND, Sept 26 — Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala has said that the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal is vital for the people of the state and its early completion is necessary so that farmers could get their due share of water for irrigation.

Chautala's promises to backward classes
HISAR, Sept 26 — The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has decided to allot ticket to a member of backward community in every district of Haryana in the Assembly elections.

Farmers advised to rotate crops
KAITHAL, Sept 26 — The state level paddy mela organised by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (CCSHAU), concluded at Kaul, 24 km from here yesterday. Hundreds of farmers, scientists and officials of the Agricultural Department participated in this mela.

CM preparing ground for Assembly poll
Tribune News Service

HISAR, Sept 26 — What Mr Bansi Lal did not do for the BJP in three years, Mr Chautala did within three months. The abolition of octroi in the state by the state government is being attributed to the BJP's pressure on the Chief Minister, keeping in view the almost imminent Assembly elections.

By announcing the abolition of octroi, the Chief Minister besides obliging the BJP has also won the goodwill of a powerful traders’ lobby in the state. The decision has been hailed widely by the business community. The President of the Haryana Beopar Mandal, Mr Bajrang Dass Garg, while welcoming the decision claimed, it had created confidence among the trading community that the present government was sensitive towards their demands.

The announcement of a series of populist measures by Mr Chautala within two months of assuming power is being viewed in the context of his inclination towards holding an early Assembly election in the state. However, Mr Chautala has claimed time and again that he will ensure that the Assembly completed its tenure.

The INLD leadership, however, does not want to share the credit of abolishing the octroi in the state with the BJP nor does it agree with the view that it was abolished because of any pressure from the BJP. Prof Sampat Singh one of the senior most leaders in the party and the Finance Minister, pointed out that the abolition of octroi was very much a part of the INLD agenda.

On many occasions Mr Chautala has taken refuge in the election Code of Conduct to excuse himself from fulfilling various demands. But this time he has announced several populist measures, including an increase in the old age pension from Rs 100 to 200 per month, abolition of registration fee on the transfer of property within the family, resuming the grant to Agroha Medical College, enhancing the minimum age limit for recruitment to government service from 35 to 40 years and assistance of Rs 5,100 for the SC and ST girls at the time of their marriage.

Mr Chautala is understood to be preparing the ground for the assembly elections by offering these sops. The presence of a massive audience at the rally organised here to celebrate the birthday of his father Mr Devi Lal yesterday has encouraged him further.

Surprisingly enough, Mr Chautala has left out the farming community so far and has not announced any sops for the farmers. During his earlier election campaigns (when he was out of power) Mr Chautala had promised to provide free water and electricity to the farmers on Punjab pattern but nothing has been done in this regard so far.

Instead, he has been busy obliging the Punjab lobby and the traders in the state. The move to change the name of Kurukshetra University to Guru Gobind Singh Kurukshetra University, appointment of Mr Ashok Arora as the Speaker of the Haryana Assembly and of Mr Jaswinder Singh as the Parliamentary Secretary are some of the steps taken to please the Punjabi community in the state.

It seems the farmers would have to wait for some more time before he keeps the promises made to them.

ROHTAK, (FOC): The announcement of the abolition of octroi and other sops by the Chief Minister has evoked a mixed reaction from political leaders and organisations. While the BJP, INLD's coalition partner has welcomed the announcements, some other political leaders have described these as a mere political and election stunt.

The President of the district unit of the BJP, Mr Pradip Jain, and members of the Haryana Beopar Mandal have welcomed the decision of the abolition of octroi. They said although the promise was made by the previous government, Mr Chautala had dared to take this all important decision. They said it would lead to the promotion of business and put a check on "Inspector Raj" in the state. The General Secretary of the youth wing of the INLD and member of the Zila Parishad, Mr Vijender Ahlawat, has also welcomed the announcement. In a statement he said the present government had been taking steps to keep the promises made by the party earlier. He said the decision to double the old age pension to Rs 200 per month was very significant.

However, some other leaders have criticised the sops and maintained that Mr Chautala and his party leaders had sidelined election promise of providing power and water free of cost to farmers.

The Haryana Pradesh Congress Chief, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, said it was the only Congress which could provide such benefits to farmers and the poor. He and a former minister, Mr Krishan Murti Hooda, described the "sops" as mere eyewash and preparation for the next Assembly elections in Haryana. They said the announcements had been made in a "haste" and it looked as if Mr Chautala wanted to go for the Assembly poll within the next few months and wanted to gain mileage from such announcements. Mr Krishan Murti Hooda alleged that Mr Chautala had been trying to fool and mislead the people by offering such "sops". He asked the Chief Minister to clarify his stand regarding free power an water supply to the farmers. He, however, said the enhanced old age pension should be effective from August as the promise to this effect was made in that month.

Row over transport charges
By Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 26 — A dispute between the petroleum companies and transporters over the transportation charges is fast threatening to disrupt the supply of petroleum products in the region.

The existing contract between the petroleum companies and the transporters will expire on September 30. Transporters are demanding a hefty increase in transportation charges, while the companies want the existing contract to run for at least another six months after its expiry.

The Haryana Petroleum Dealers' Association, which held its general body meeting under the chairmanship of its president, Mr Ranjit Singh Chauhan, at Panchkula, near here, today has decided that after September 30, petroleum supplies would not be lifted from the IOC depot, in Ambala till the companies agree to raise the transportation charges.

According to the senior vice-president of the association, Mr Shamsher Singh Gogi, the companies at present pay 58 paise per kilometre as transportation cost, while this cost comes out to be over Rs 2 per km for the tankers owned by the companies themselves.

He said the companies, which knew that the contract would expire on September 30, had not initiated any move for its renewal. Now, the companies were asking the dealers to continue the contract at the old rates for another six months.

The association wanted that as a stop-gap arrangement they should be paid at least when the Haryana Food and Supplies department was paying for transporting kerosene.

The petroleum dealers also wanted that the companies should allow them "temperature variation allowance" as was being given by the Mathura refinery to the dealers of Uttar Pradesh.

Mr Chauhan said the commission of the dealers should be raised to at least 5 per cent because the cost of running filling stations as per the standards laid down by the companies had gone up tremendously.

The president of the Panchkula Petroleum Dealers' Association, Mr S.R. Singla, opposed the reported move of the Chandigarh Administration to roll back the increase in sales tax on diesel despite an increase of six times in its revenue collection. He alleged that the Administration's move had been prompted by vested interests.

Mr Singla said Chandigarh had not lost any business in petroleum products after the hike in ST on these products. Only that business which had come to the city from Haryana had gone back to the state.

The association demanded that there should be uniformity in the rates of petroleum products in neighbouring states and union territories.

Among those who attended the meeting were Mr Ashok Budhwar, president of the Federation of All-India Petroleum Dealers Associations, and representatives of Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab petroleum dealers.

Chautala for early completion of
SYL canal
From Our Correspondent

JIND, Sept 26 — Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala has said that the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal is vital for the people of the state and its early completion is necessary so that farmers could get their due share of water for irrigation.

Talking to newspersons here yesterday, Mr Chautala said due to political reasons the SYL could not be completed. The Chief Minister said the dispute regarding the distribution of the SYL canal water would be resolved through talks between Punjab and Haryana. If the dispute could not be solved at the level of the two state governments, then it would be referred to the Prime Minister for settlement, he said.

Mr Chautala said his government was determined to provide adequate power to people in the state. He claimed that his government has brought considerable improvement in the power situation during the past two months.

He stated that the government would not discriminate with any section of society and problems of farmers, traders and employees would be solved through mutual discussions. He said the state government would not adopt repressive measures.

Mr Brij Mohan Singh, Industries Minister, and Mr Ramphal Kundu, MLA, were also present on this occasion.

20 science teachers honoured
From Our Correspondent

AMBALA, Sept 26 — Mr Om Parkash Jain, Minister of State for Education, today assured the science teachers that their demands would be considered sympathetically. He was addressing the state-level science teachers conference here today.

Mr Jain said that teachers were builders of the nation. He appreciated their role.

Accepting a memorandum, he said he would discuss their demands with the Chief Minister.

In the memorandum the association demanded that science teachers should be awarded a special allowance for practical work on the pattern of Punjab and Himachal. They also demanded that the post of science teacher should be declared technical.

Local MLA Anil Vij also addressed the conference. He said science subjects should be made compulsory up to 10+2 classes.

He honoured 20 science teachers for their outstanding contributions on the occasion.

Chautala's promises to backward classes

HISAR, Sept 26 (UNI) — The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has decided to allot ticket to a member of backward community in every district of Haryana in the Assembly elections.

Announcing this at a public meeting at Hansi near here, INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala said his government would ensure proper representation to backward classes in the Haryana Public Service Commission, State Subordinate Services Selection Board and corporations of the state.

The state government would allot land for any institute built after the name of Vishwakarma and grant double financial assistance to such institutions, the Chief Minister said.

Mr Chautala said the government has decided to constitute artisan development fund to safeguard interests of the artisans who would be imparted training and provided with the loans for self-employment.

Farmers advised to rotate crops
From Our Correspondent

KAITHAL, Sept 26 — The state level paddy mela organised by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (CCSHAU), concluded at Kaul, 24 km from here yesterday. Hundreds of farmers, scientists and officials of the Agricultural Department participated in this mela.

Dr B.L. Jalali, Director, Research of the CCSHAU stressed the need to adopt integrated fertiliser management to get maximum yield of paddy. He said keeping in view the decreasing fertility and lowering of water table the farmers should adopt scientific integrated management to get optimum paddy production. He also advised the farmers to make judicious use of the water resources and pesticides.

Dr S.K. Aggarwal, Director, Extension Education, who presided over the function called upon the farmers to adopt dairy farming, fish farming, floriculture and bee-keeping along with other agricultural activities to augment their income. He said farmers could get training in these at krishi vigyan kendras established at district levels. He also stressed the need of crop rotation.

Scientist of the Rice Research Institute, Kaul, showed paddy grown with latest techniques to visiting farmers.