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Friday, November 9, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Congress walkout in Haryana House ASSEMBLY SESSION House mourns death of B. K. Nehru |
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Compensate cotton growers: HVP Handicapped block traffic
in Sirsa; ADC intervenes Case against former minister false: Hooda
‘Clarify’ stand on retirement age
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Congress walkout in Haryana House Chandigarh, November 8 Mr Bhajan Lal, Leader of the Opposition, who had earlier requested the Speaker to adjourn the House while making obituary references, reiterated his demand when the Speaker announced question hour after the obituary speeches were over. As the Speaker, Mr Satbir Singh Kadian, refused to concede his demand, Congress members — Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, Mr Raghbir Singh Kadian and Mr Jai Prakash Barwal — got up from their seats and started demanding adjournment of the house as a mark of respect to the Yamunanagar MLA. The Congress legislators were heard saying that the house was adjourned on the inaugural day of the last session after obituary references to Mr Devi Lal. However, the Speaker ignored the Congress members’ plea and started the question-answer session. The infuriated Congress MLAs then entered the well of the House and sat down on the floor protesting against the Speaker’s decision. Mr Bhajan Lal, who was standing near his seat, also sat down on the floor when the Chief Minister Mr Om Prakash Chautala, asked him if he had any problem in joining his colleagues. Even as the question-answer session progressed with Independent and INLD legislators asking questions and ministers or the Chief Parliamentary Secretary replying to these, the Congress legislators kept sitting on the floor, though after a while Mr Bhajan Lal and a couple of other elderly members got up and again sat in their chairs. The dharna continued for about 20 minutes after which the Congress members walked out of the House. They, however, returned before question hour was over. Earlier, replying to a question asked by Mr Ram Bhagat, Independent MLA, on computer education, Mr Bahadur Singh, Education Minister, said that a majority of the students in various schools were prepared to pay Rs 80 as fee for learning computers. “We are giving concessions to Scheduled Castes students only. Seventy per cent of the students are willing to pay for learning computers”, the Education Minister said. While stating that the government had already evolved a mechanism for the maintenance of computers, Mr Bahadur Singh added that 55 out of the total 57 government colleges in the state had been provided with computers. On a supplementary question asked by Mr Dharam Vir, Congress MLA, to the Agriculture Minister, Mr Jaswinder Singh Sandhu, the latter replied that the state government had no plan to give compensation to cotton farmers from the funds mobilised by the Agricultural Marketing Board. “We have asked the Centre to give us funds for giving compensation to the cotton farmers”, he said. On a supplementary asked by Mr Krishan Pal Gujjar, BJP leader, on the related issue of the crop insurance policy introduced by the Central Government, Mr Sandhu replied that the state government had asked the Union Agriculture Ministry to lower the premium rates for states like Haryana which had a good irrigation network. Replying to a supplementary question on who would be authorised to spend the funds under the HRDF, Mr Rampal Majra, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, said that the Gram Vikas Samitis would do so. On the issue of losses by the Power Utilities, the Chief Minister told Mr Puran Chand Dabra that the utilities had suffered a commercial loss of more than Rs 226 crore during 2000-01 as per the provisional unaudited accounts. |
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ASSEMBLY SESSION Chandigarh, November 8 However, the Minister for Urban Development, Mr Subhash Goyal, who was making a statement on a call-attention notice given by Mr Nafe Singh Rathi, INLD MLA from Bahadurgarh, and Mr Anil Vij, Independent MLA from Ambala cantonment, assured the House that the government had no intention of increasing the house tax unreasonably. “The intention of the government is only to make the process rational, objective and transparent and in this endeavour the government has an open mind and is open to all suggestions,” he added. The Congress had also moved an adjournment motion on the issue. However, the Speaker, Mr Satbir Singh Kadian, virtually disallowed the adjournment motion(without saying so) when he allowed a Congress MLA to ask a supplementary question after the Minister had made the statement. Mr Goyal said the earlier house tax policy was neither transparent nor fair. The assessment of tax was arbitrary and subjective. The common man had to pay tax at rates higher than he should have been asked to. On the other hand, the rich and the influential managed to circumvent provisions to get their property assessed at lower rates. He said even the Supreme Court had accepted the recommendations of a committee appointed by it, which said that “property tax is the principal source of income of the urban local bodies in the non-octroi levying states. It is unfortunate that the property taxes are levied at very low rates.... A lot of disparity is also seen in the manner of assessment of property tax. There is need to have area-based property tax reforms....” He said the new system of assessment of house tax was based on a simple and arithmetical formula. The recovery of tax would improve considerably because of “fairness, transparency and computerisation of the entire process”. Mr Vij said though the policy was good as far as transparency was concerned, the tax burden would more than double because of taxation on vacant land. Mr Mange Ram Gupta (Cong) said the Minister was talking of property tax and not house tax. The government, he said, had made it difficult for the common man to live in urban areas. He said it was better if octroi was reintroduced instead of increasing house tax manifold. Mr Karan Singh Dalal (RPI) suggested that a committee of the House should be constituted to go into the entire issue of house tax. Mr Krishan Pal Gujjar (BJP) criticised both the Congress and the INLD. He said the Congress-sponsored bandh failed because of the infighting in the party. “While one group was asking the traders to close their shops, the other was asking them to keep their establishments open.” He said the failure of the bandh showed that residents of the urban areas were not with the Congress. The Treasury Benches enjoyed the discomfiture of the Congress on the remarks of the BJP leader. However, when he started criticising the government on its house tax policy, the Speaker as well as the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Prof Sampat Singh, suddenly remembered that Mr Gujjar was asked to put a supplementary question and not make a political statement. Prof Sampat Singh even sought a ruling from the Speaker whether a member could only ask a question on the call-attention motion or could he make a statement. Mr Kadian ruled that only questions could be asked on the statement of a Minister. But Mr Gujjar had his say. Intervening in the “debate”, the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, said earlier there was no house tax policy. Without naming the BJP, he said many a political party had promised in its election manifesto that octroi would be abolished. Despite such parties being in the government, octroi was not abolished. But the INLD government gave a respite to the people by abolishing octroi. Mr Chautala said urbanites had rejected the Congress as 95 per cent of the municipal commissioners belonged to the INLD. Before the Chief Minister could complete his reply, he was interrupted by Dr Raghubir Kadian (Cong), Mr Dalal and Capt Ajay Singh Yadav (Cong). There was a brief debate between Mr Chautala and Opposition members on the question whether England had a Constitution. Captain Yadav remarked that while he was a graduate, Mr Chautala was only a matriculate. Mr Chautala retorted: “Yes, I am a matriculate. You are a graduate and so was Mohd Tughlak.” As per the report of the Business Advisory Committee, the session is likely to conclude tomorrow. When the report was put before the House, the Leader of Opposition, Mr Bhajan Lal, protested against it. But it was adopted by voice vote. |
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Assembly session ends today Chandigarh, November 8 Mr Krishan Pal Gujjar, leader of the BJP in the House, said that he and Mr Bhajan Lal, CLP leader, had sought a longer session of the House but their demand was turned down at the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC). Incidentally, the BJP legislators were conspicuous by their absence at a lunch hosted by the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, here today. Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, Congress Deputy Leader in the Assembly, said that his party had demanded a discussion in the House on the report of the BAC under Rule 37 of the Assembly procedures. But the Speaker refused to entertain the Congress demand, he said.
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House mourns death of B. K. Nehru Chandigarh, November 8 While paying tributes to Mr Nehru, Mr Bansi Lal, HVP leader and former Chief Minister, said that Mr Nehru had an association with Haryana which was not known to many people. The association, Mr Bansi Lal said, was that Mr Nehru had started his administrative career from Sirsa, where he was the SDM. The HVP leader added that during a visit to Chandigarh later, Mr Nehru made a trip to Sirsa to see the house where he and his wife had stayed. The House also mourned the death of Mr Madhavrao Scindia as well as his private secretary, the journalists accompanying Mr Scindia and the two pilots, all of whom were killed in a plane accident on September 30. The members also mourned the death of Dr J. P. Sharma, sitting member from Yamunanagar, and Mr Relu Ram Punia, a former MLA who was assassinated along with members of his family. Mr Bhajan Lal, while mourning Mr Punia’s death, urged the Chief Minister to hand over the investigation of the case to the CBI. The members also mourned the death of Rao Dilip Singh, former Haryana Minister, Seth Lachman Dass Bajaj, former MLA, Mr Chander Bhan, former member of the joint Punjab Assembly, Mr Ganga Ram, former MLA, Mr Karam Singh, freedom fighter, and Mr Chuhar Singh, also a freedom fighter. The House also mourned those who died in the terrorist strikes in the USA on September 11 and the victims of the terror attack on the J&K Assembly on October 1.
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Compensate cotton growers: HVP Hisar, November 8 Addressing mediapersons here, Mr Kanwal Singh, former minister and chairman, Parliamentary Board of the party, said his party had planned to take out procession in five districts of western Haryana next month to press their demand. Party workers will submit a memorandum to the Governor for the purpose, he added. He alleged that American bollworm had destroyed cotton crop in Hisar, Fatehabad, Bhiwani, Sirsa and Jind districts and farmers of this area were not in a position to sow their next crop. He said though the Chief Minister was claiming that he had demanded Rs 102 crore from the Centre but no special survey or girdawari of damaged crops had been conducted. He said Mr Om Prakash Chautala was misguiding the farmers by issuing such statements. He criticised the Chautala government for poor law and order situation in the state. The common man was feeling insecure as criminals were striking in broad daylight, he added. He alleged that the government was misguiding the people on the house tax issue also. He said on the one hand the government was claiming that it would consider suggestions from the opposition and on the other it had served house tax notices last month. He criticised HUDA for raising sewerage and water charges. He said though the government was imposing new taxes yet development activities in the state had come to a standstill.
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Handicapped block traffic
in Sirsa; ADC intervenes Sirsa, November 8 They had assembled here to participate in the ‘multipurpose camp’ which was to be organised by the Social Welfare Department at Panchayat Bhavan today. But the camp was postponed without informing them. Those who had come from far-flung areas of the district got furious and blocked the traffic. When the news of dharna reached to the administration the Additional Deputy Commissioner D. Suresh rushed to the spot along with his staff. He persuaded the agitators and the camp was organised in Panchayat Bhavan. The District Social Welfare Officer, Ms Alka Yadav, said she had received a fax message regarding the postponement of the camp only two days ago. She had tried to inform them but in such a short notice it was not possible to contact them personally. The Additional Deputy Commissioner also admits the lack of coordination in this matter. However, he said that his department had availed this opportunity by identifying those who could be given help under various Central Government schemes like that of ‘Swarn Gramin Swarozgar Yojna’ under which Rs 50,000 would be given for providing self-employment to the physically challenged. Similarly, under the ‘Indira Awas Yojna’, 500 houses would be given to those living below the poverty line. In this 75 per cent assistance was being given by the Central Government and the state had to share 25 per cent. He admitted that such an opportunity needs foolproof arrangement so that the physically challenged persons do not suffer and the benefits of various schemes of the Central and state governments reach them. |
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Case against former
minister false: Hooda Ambala, November 8 Addressing a demonstration in front of the office of the Superintendent of Police, Ambala, he criticised the government for “implicating” former Haryana minister and senior state Congress leader Nirmal Singh and a few others in a “looting case”. “The November 2 bandh against the imposition of new house tax policy was historic and we had got the support of people and trade associations,” he said. Mr Hooda claimed that the state government had lodged false cases as they were bewildered by the success of the Congress bandh. “Ambala has always played a crucial role and we are giving a call for “sangharsh” from here,” he said. He said a meeting of Congress MLAs was held yesterday and this issue was discussed. “In Jind too, false cases have been registered against Congress activists,” he alleged.
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‘Clarify’ stand on retirement age Rohtak, November 8 The members of the association in this telecom district comprising Rohtak, Bhiwani and Jhajjar revenue districts today wore black badges and held a demonstration in protest against the BSNL decision to eliminate the cadre of SDEs from the India Mobile Personal Communication Service (IMPCS) projects proposed to be set up in all territorial circles. They plan to organise a dharna on November 20 in front of the office of the Chief General Manager at Ambala if the BSNL failed to reconsider its decision. The BSNL has even decided to keep Junior Telecom Officers (JTOs) away from the projects. They said the Department of Telecom Services had sanctioned Rs 1000 per month to all group ‘C’ and group ‘D’ employees as deputation allowance last year. However, the group ‘B’ employees were not given any extra financial benefit.
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