Party secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala led the demonstration in Sirsa town, while his brother MLA Abhey Singh spearheaded the protests at Ellenabad.<center></center>

MLAs Krishan Kamboj and Charanjit Singh led demonstrations at Rania and Kalanwali and former MLA Sita Ram in Dabwali.

"The prices of items of daily use have been soaring, but the central and the state governments have been shifting the onus on each other instead of trying to mitigate the miseries of the common people," alleged Ajay Singh while addressing protesters in Sirsa.

Memoranda addressed to the Governor were presented to the authorities in each of the five towns. Workers of the PWD held a demonstration in front of their office. They alleged that neither pay arrears were being paid to them, nor demands like revival of LTC and ex-gratia employment were being met.

The Labourers' Union of the local grain market blocked the national highway for over an hour against the arrest of three of their members in a theft case.

They said their members had been arrested following an FIR lodged by a trader 10 days back and while the "real culprits" were roaming free, their innocent colleagues had been arrested.

The Haryana PWD Mechanical Workers Union held a demonstration in front of the office of the Superintending Engineer (SE) against the move to hand over the functioning of the waterworks to panchayats.<center></center>

The demonstrators gave a memorandum addressed to minister Randeep Surjewala to the SE.The Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti of Chaudhary Devi Lal University here held a protest against lack of amenities in the hostel and delay in refund of hostel security.

Fatehabad: The INLD organised protests against rising prices at Fatehabad, Ratia and Tohana.

Swatantar Bala Chaudhary, former MLA, led the demonstration at Fatehabad, while INLD MLA Gian Chand Odh and former MLA Nishan Singh led protests at Ratia and Tohana, respectively.

KURUKSHETRA: Activists of the Indian National Lok Dal led by state president Ashok Arora took out a procession in protest against price rise, corruption, unemployment and black marketing of LPG here on Friday. Arora alleged that the state government had failed to control the price rise.

The Congress government before coming to power had promised to abolish VAT. However, after coming to power, the state government had made a mockery of public by putting an extra financial burden of Rs 500 crore on people of Haryana.

Source: The Tribune INLD spearheads protest against price rise

This is a major blow for the INLD which has been struggling to find leaders from the Yadav community. The INLD has only two other leaders from this community with respectable base namely Rao Ajit Singh and Jagdish Yadav. The move of Shiksha and Professor Singh has left tremors in the camp of all the three Yadav leaders contesting from Gurgaon Parliamentary constituency.

The Congress has fielded MP from the Mohindergarh constituency Rao Inderjeet Singh from Gurgaon, whereas the BJP had fielded Sudha Yadav, former MP and the HJC has fielded Rao Narbir Singh from Gurgaon. The BSP has adopted its formula of social engineering and had given the ticket to Zakir Hussain. With three Yadav candidates and the BSP still managing to woo two top INLD Yadav leaders, the move has created a sense of uncertainty in opposite party camps.

In its complaint to the Chief Election Commission, the INLD has said that Deepender, son of the Chief Minister and Congress candidate from Rohtak had indulged in corrupt practices by announcing a grant of Rs 5 lakh to a society for construction of Sri Krishan Dharamshala at Jhajjar on March 29 after enforcement of the code. The INLD urged the commission to register a criminal case against Deepeneder.

The INLD said Kataria was also the chief administrator of the Shri Mata Mansa Devi Shrine Board, Panchkula, apart from being DC, Panchkula. It alleged that Mullana and Kataria had misused the famous religious place for political benefits and with a view to woo the voters by playing with their religious sentiments.

The Congress banner as well as a banner displaying the names of Kataria and Mullana had been displayed prominently.

The party wanted that a criminal case should be registered against Mullana and Kataria for violating the code.

At the same time, directions should issue to the state government to repatriate Kataria to his parent state, Karnataka, immediately.

Bhiwani: Ajay Chautala
Hisar: Sampat Singh
Kurukshetra: Ashok Arora
Rohtak: Nafe Singh Rathi
Sirsa: Sita Ram

Former Haryana minister Sampat Singh would contest from Hisar, former minister Ashok Arora from Kurukshetra, former MLA Nafe Singh Rathi from Rohtak and Dabwali MLA Sita Ram would contest from the Sirsa parliamentary constituency.

Though there is nothing new in the announcement made by the INLD today as Chautala had already given hints of four candidates during his workers' meetings at Kurukshetra, Jhajjar, Hisar and Sirsa recently and the nomination of Ajay Singh Chautala was never in doubt, but since Chautala had been maintaining that he would release the list later on, any last-minute change by the party was not ruled out.

This had also led people to believe that Chautala might wait for the Congress to come out with its list of candidates first.

However, the party came out with its candidates today although suspense still continues regarding the candidates of the ruling Congress.

Ajay Singh Chautala, Rajya Sabha member and secretary-general of the INLD, told The Tribune here today that the party had prepared documentaries to be shown to the voters during the NDA's election campaign in Haryana.

"Promises that have not been kept by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in Haryana and the atrocities committed on the common people have been incorporated in the documentaries prepared for the election campaign," Ajay Chautala said.

The party has also prepared compact discs of these documentaries and these would be distributed among voters so that they could see these on their DVD players or computers and also show these to women members of the families, who usually do not attend election rally.

Besides the documentaries, the party has also prepared teams of its workers to enact street plays on the "failure of the Congress government in Haryana and the centre".

Exuding confidence about the NDA forming the next government at the Centre after the parliamentary elections, Ajay Chautala said the UPA was already on the way to disintegration as many of its constituents had been leaving it before elections.

Pooh-poohing the Third Front, the INLD leader said only the NDA was an alternative to the UPA and the so-called Third Front was merely an assembly of some disgruntled politicians, who did not have any future. He claimed that the NDA government, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had been considered the best government that ruled the country so far and added that now Lal Krishan Advani would also provide good governance to the people after the coming elections.

Ajay Chautala said incidents of terrorism had increased in recent years and the government had not been able to do anything to stop these acts of terror.

He regretted that the constituents of the UPA even doubted the credentials of security personnel who laid down their lives fighting terrorists.

Ajay Chautala alleged that the plight of farmers had gone from bad to worse during the tenure of the UPA government and farmers had been forced to commit suicide due to the "wrong policies" of the government.

The BSP appears to be ahead in its political campaign at the moment so far as its clarity on the choice of candidate and the issues it would raise in its poll campaign are concerned.

The INLD-BJP combine appear to be clear-headed on the issue that it would agitate against the UPA government at the centre and the Congress government in Haryana during the campaign, but the cobweb continues to be there as far as its possible candidate is concerned. Although the BJP had earlier won from this constituency and it had moral right to claim this seat from its alliance partner, the jury is still to be out on the issue.

The BSP announced its nominee in former cricketer Chetan Sharma a few months back. The party has already launched a high-profile election campaign. According to the general secretary of the Haryana unit of the BSP, Suraj Pal (Ammu), former cricketer Kapil Dev will soon start campaigning for Chetan Sharma in Faridabad.

Kapil Dev, Chetan Sharma and Ammu recently met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati in Lucknow. According to Ammu, Kapil Dev has assured Mayawati to campaign for Chetan Sharma and also wished him success.

Source: The Tribune INLD-BJP, BSP intensify campaign in Faridabad

Chautala, who was on a whirlwind tour of Gurgaon villages today, lambasted the Hooda regime over the alleged irregularities in acquisition and subsequent release of land at the behest of certain Congress leaders."They (government) first issue notices for acquisition for a said chunk of land. The land is then purchased by persons close to ruling party leaders at low rates. Under pressure of acquisition, the owners go in for distress sale of their land. At a later stage, the acquisition is cancelled, following which the land is sold at much higher rates," he asserted, adding that many farmers of the state had thus been cheated.

The INLD leader warned the villagers that if this situation was allowed to persist, they would be forced to work as labourers on their own land. The former Chief Minister, who was accompanied by state INLD vice-president Anant Ram Tanwar, former Deputy Speaker of Haryana Assembly Gopi Chand Gehlot, Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh's brother Rao Ajit Singh and local INLD leader Ramesh Dahiya, also castigated the Congress government for the "deteriorating" law and order situation in the state.

Chatting with the villagers in chaste Haryanvi in between his speech, Chautala urged them to cast their votes unitedly in favour of the INLD if they thought that his rule was better than that of the present regime. He promised to hike the old-age pension to Rs 700 per month if his party came to power.

The tour, which started from Sikanderpur village of the district early this morning, culminated at Gurgaon Gaon late in the evening.

Local INLD leaders held a meeting on Monday, announcing their support to the farmer's agitation. About 60 workers of the BJP's Haryana unit led by former education minister Ram Vilas Sharma attempted to march towards the SEZ site to express solidarity with the farmers.

They were arrested by the police on the way. On July 4, Kuldip Bishnoi, who broke away from Congress party, joined the agitating farmers and had attempted to organise a rally at the SEZ site in Harsaru village.

Bishnoi, who leads the Haryana Janhit Congress, was arrested along with his supporters and prevented from marching. On Monday, local MLA and former deputy speaker of Haryana Assembly, Gopi Chand Gahlot, announced the launch of a full-fledged stir against the Haryana government.

He said his party would decide on the future course of action in a bigger meeting on July 13 against the state government to oppose transfer of state government's 1,400 acres of land for the Reliance SEZ. Gahlot also condemned police suppression against farmers. "The police have started implicating the farmers in fake criminal case and have registered FIRs to terrorise them.

Many of the farmers have fled their homes and there is curfew-like situation in villages such as Harsaru, Garoli Kala and Garoli Khurd where the state government acquired the land and passed on to Reliance," he said. Umesh Aaggarwal the publicity secretary of the BJP in Haryana, said party leaders have decided to meet on July 18 to oppose the state government on its stand on Reliance SEZ. "We have decided to take the agitation further in support of the farmers whose land was acquired.

Our party opposes the transfer of land to Reliance for SEZ," he added. The working President of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, Kuldeep Sharma, said the government was helping the Haryana State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation in taking possession of the land because the corporation has 10 per cent equity share in the SEZ. He said by sharing equity, the state government wanted to have its say in matters related to SEZ so it can pressurise entrepreneurs to employ local in the units to be set up there.

There were irregularities in the deal and land had been allotted to the RIL at a very cheap price, they alleged. In its 20-minute meeting with the Governor, the INLD alleged that the land had been handed over to the Reliance group without following rules and regulations or adopting competitive bids. ‘‘The Governor said he will inquire into the matter. This is a very positive response from him. We are satisfied with his reply. This indeed is the biggest-ever scam in the country,’’ claimed Sampat Singh, while addressing a joint press conference later today with Ajay Chautala and Ashok Arora, state INLD president.

RIL had last month signed a deal with Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIDC) to set up a Rs 25,000-crore special economic zone in Gurgaon district, that would boast of a dedicated airport and a 2,000 megawatt captive power plant.

The RIL, besides pumping the Rs 25,000 crore into the SEZ, would seek additional investment from third parties totalling Rs 1,00,000 crore. The deal had raised a political storm in the state, with the main Opposition INLD and BJP and ruling Congress MP from Bhiwani Kuldeep Bishnoi demanding that the deal be scrapped. They had alleged foul play and claimed it had serious irregularities in it.

Sampat Singh pointed out that the HSIIDC was the first to get the permission for setting up of the SEZ for which it also procured 1,715 acres of land in Gurgaon. However this land has now been given to the Reliance Haryana SEZ project without any open bidding or tender process. Singh said that the land had been given at rates ranging between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 21 lakh whereas the market price was anywhere between Rs 6 crore and Rs 72.50 crore per acre. This would result in a massive loss to the farmers of the state who had been paid very little compensation. Sampat Singh said that it was surprising that 1,400 acres of land was being given to the Reliance group for Rs 290 crore whereas just four acres of land at nearby Manesar had recently been auctioned by the HSIIDC for a similar amount.

Talking to media persons here, Mr. Sampat Singh said the government had been making claims that Haryana was producing 4000 MW of power and its need was 9000 MW.

He termed the claims as false and said the fact was that the generation capacity of the state was 4000 MW and precisely this was the demand at the moment. But the generation units were working at 75 per cent capacity only resulting in a shortage of 1000 MW of power.

He said that as far as the need of 9000 MW of power in the state was concerned, it was for the next five-year plan due in 2012.

He said the state government had announced the setting up of five gas-based power plants of 1000 MW capacity each at Panipat, Hisar and Faridabad and two at Jhajjar.

He said that he had warned at the very onset that these would not be feasible as Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) had already expressed its inability to provide any gas till 2009. He said Abbon Llyod, which was to construct these projects, was yet to start work on these projects.

Mr. Sampat Singh produced before the media persons, the minutes of a Cabinet meeting held on May 3, 2006, during which the state government decided to purchase power through negotiation from a single party, Lanco Group of Industries, based at Hyderabad.

He said the Cabinet had itself mentioned in the minutes of the meeting that the fate of the proposed gas-based power projects in the state was very uncertain due to non-availability of gas. The Cabinet also mentioned in the minutes that nuclear-based power project at Kumharian in Fatehabad district was not likely to be completed before 2015.

He alleged that the Cabinet decided to enter into an MoU with the company for purchase of power on long-term basis by negotiations though it should have invited tenders for the purpose.

He said the overall power scenario in the state was very bleak but the government was trying to befool the people by claiming that it would be able to produce 9000 MW of power in five years.

He said that not only there was an acute scarcity of power in the state, even the infrastructure of power was not up to the mark. There was shortage of electric poles and other equipment.

Terming the state government as total failure, the INLD leader said the government had not been able to provide Deputy Commissioners in all districts. He said that posts of DCs remained vacant in two districts for more than six months and another district remained without an SP for two months.

   Said Karamjit Singh, commissioner in the Electoral Commission of London: `` I am very impressed with the use of technology and the role of the media in educating the country about the electoral process. The election commission site was updated immediately as well as the news channels were flooded with every possible information.'' India, apart from USA is the only country in the world that does not use paper ballots for its elections.

   Delegates from about 38 countries were in Delhi to attend the conference organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat in cooperation with the Election commission of India, from February 24-26.

   While the election officers from various countries discussed issues like role and nature of election management body, use of technology, relationship between management bodies and political parties, about 16 delegates from Maldives, Malavi, Nauru, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and the UK witnessed the voting process in Faridabad and the counting process in Gurgaon.

The visitors also hailed Gurgaon as an ``economic success'', saying that the IT destination of India, would soon be the IT destination of the world. They were overwhelmed by the numerous MNCs that dot the landscape of Gurgaon, along with the several highrises and swanky malls. Another delegate, Victor Ashby from Granada, commented on the culture, Bollywood and the electoral process. He said `` India is progressing in leaps and bounds and is rooted to its culture as well.''

• Way back in the '70s it was the first state to pioneer highway tourism.
• And, now it has taken the lead in giving concrete shape to the concept of rural tourism which at the level of the Centre is still in the realm of intent.

Haryana Tourism has since come out with a colour brochure with an evocative theme. Opening with a quote from Tagore on his brush with nature it asks,

• 'When was the last time you chased chickens.
• Roamed in the fields with pure wind on your face.
• Found yourself jiggling up and down to the thrills of a bullock cart or a tractor ride?'.

  Farms tourism, it says, seeks to awaken the child in you…to experience the unforgettable whiff of the countryside…plant baby seeds...enjoy the delights of organic food and experience many spontaneous joys of nature that you may have never known before.

A massive rally, and a show of support that dwarfed anything the opponents could coble together, amassed at the Gaushala Maidan for Bhai Gopi Chand Gehlot helped close the phase of public campaigning. Now, the power is in the hands of the voters.

The sea of INLD green and the Chashma (Spectacles) stretching as far as the eye could see sailed thru the major parts of the city, enthralling the viewers with an awesome show of support. The march started at the Anaaj Mandi and wound its way amidst the beating of drums and dancing by supporters.

Bhai Gopi Chand Gehlot led the march to the Gaushala Maiden where he was joined on the stage by actors Yukta Mukhi and Sanjay Kapoor. To make a point about the chashma, both actors took off their sunglasses and reminded people of the election symbol - chasma yani spectacles.

Bhai Gopi Chand Gehlot flanked by Miss World Yukta Mukhi and Actor Sanjay Kapoor at a massive rally in the Gaushala Maidan on Feburary 01, 2005.

Distilling the messages from campaign speeches that he has delivered hundreds of times to small and large groups, he reminded the sea of supporters that the campaign was on the ascent. Now it was not a question of victory, but it was a question of whether it would be by a record margin.

Charging his opponent with incompetence he said that someone who did nothing for Gurgaon when he was in power for 15 years, was now trying to to divide people on basis of caste, creed, and greed. "But, the public of Gurgaon is smart," said Bhai Gehlot. "The public knows who has worked."

"The citizens of Gurgaon know that I have been among them throughout the last five years. They know that I have travelled to every nook and corner to listen and solve their problems, and they know that I have stood should-to-shoulder with them. And they know that the development works of the current administration have happened in every sector, every village, and every dhani. I was the representative of all of Gurgaon and not only the people who voted for me - and I have shown that with my deeds."

Bhai Gopi Chand Gehlot addresses the last rally and asks for continued support for the development and progress tasks that were put into motion in the last 5 years. Gurgaon and become NUMBER 1 today, and must stay at Number 1. Incidentally, the name of Bhai Gopi is also NUMBER 1 on the Electronic Voting Machine, and that is what you should press. Chashma yani Spectacles.

"And what is this hava? I have faced these havas in all the previous elections, and against the same opponent since 1991, but the citizens have always supported me in increasingly large numbers. And now that they can compare my 5 years of track record with the opponents 15 years of non-performance and rest assured that their vote was for the right person. And I promise, that the developemnt in the last 5 years is just the begining, and the next 5 years are going to be historical in their impact."

Attracting mammoth crowds, that the state leaders or even national leaders roped in by the opponents could not draw, Bhai closed the elections campaign of crowds that were many times larger than those of his opponents. Bhai Gopi Chand Gehlot demonstrated convincingly that the tide had now turned. The mood of the electorate was now set - and the electorate had now chosen Bhai Gopi Chand Gehlot.

Bhai Gopi has now addressed his last rally and sung his last song, as the public campaign came to an end last evening. Now, the decision is in the hands of the voters. And, all indications are that the voters will return Bhai Gopi to the Vidhan Sabha with a thumping majority.

that will start from the Anaaj Mandi and crisscrossing the whole city & main Sadar Bazaar, will culminate into a public rally at the Gaushala Maidan - just like it was done during the last time.

It promises to be the definitive public display of the deep and broad support that he enjoys in Gurgaon. Many mega stars and top heroines will grace the occasion.