Plea to enhance winter allowance

11 students held

Factory fire: two more arrested

HP cries for doctors, teachers
From S. P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Dec 15 — Work in health and educational institutions in Himachal Pradesh has come to a standstill due to shortage of manpower.

There are reports that certain health institutions are without doctors. Their work is being looked after by para-medical staff.

The position of educational institutions is still worse. Hundreds of posts of teacher are lying vacant thereby jeopardising the future of the students. A number of schools in the upper areas of Shimla district are without adequate number of teachers for the past six months. Even then the government proposes to open 808 new primary schools this year in Chamba, Sirmour, Kulu and Lahaul-Spiti.

About 8143 posts of teacher of various categories are lying vacant in the state. These include 182 posts of college lecturer and 1542 posts of school lecturer.

Three thousand three hundred and nine posts of JBT teacher are lying vacant. Mandi district has the highest number (865) of vacant posts of this category followed by 325 in Kangra and 305 in Solan.

The highest number of 90 posts of headmaster are vacant in Shimla district followed by 50 in Sirmour. A total number of about 307 posts of headmaster are vacant in the state.

Teaching in schools has been badly affected as 324 posts of lecturer are vacant in Kangra district, 230 in Mandi district, 222 in Shimla district and 187 in Chamba district, besides other places.

The government has so far been able to recruit only 280 school lecturers through the Public Service Commission and 795 appointments have been made on contract basis. Five hundred and twenty posts of TGT and various other categories have also been filled through the commission. About 93 posts of teacher are lying vacant in 15 schools in Kulu district. Out of a sanctioned staff strength of 31 in the senior secondary school at Kungash, 18 posts are lying vacant. Only one lecturer has been posted in the school against 12 sanctioned posts. The vacant posts include that of lecturers in physics, chemistry and biology.

Despite the efforts of the government to fill all posts of doctor, 332 of them are still lying vacant. Mandi district has 77 vacant posts of doctor followed by 64 in Shimla, 46 in Chamba, 34 in Sirmour, 24 in Kangra, 17 in Kulu, 15 in Hamirpur and 13 in Solan.

The position of paramedical staff is equally bad: 1220 posts are lying vacant. The worst position is in the Sirmour district where 206 posts are vacant followed by 204 in Shimla district. The vacant posts in other districts are Una 50, Mandi 115, Kulu 66, Solan 67, Kinnaur 82, Hamirpur 56, Chamba 152, Lahaul-Spiti 58, Bilaspur 49 and Kangra 115.

Although the government has been laying stress on the ayurveda system of medicine, but about 1118 posts of doctor and paramedical staff in this category are also lying vacant.

Many veterinary institutions in the state are also without adequate staff. About 96 posts of veterinary doctor and 974 posts of pharmacist are vacant.

Cut down administrative cost: Hazare
From Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Dec 15 — Rampant corruption and a bulky administrative set-up are the main reasons for the tardy pace of development in the country over the past 50 years, says Mr Anna Hazare, a well known social reformer whose crusade against corruption caused ripples in political and official circles of Maharashtra.

"It is a pity that out of every rupee being spent by the government only 12 to 15 paise is being actually utilised for development works. The administrative expenditure accounts for about 70 paise and of the remaining 30 paise 15 to 18 paise is eaten up by corrupt elements", he lamented during an interview with The Tribune here today.

Mr Hazare, who is here in connection with a symposium of non-government organisations, said cutting down the management cost and evolving a foolproof system to curb corruption were essential to improve the performance on the developmental fund. The administrative expenses should not exceed 30 per cent at any cost and this could be achieved only by involving non-government organisations in the implementation of schemes in a big way.

He suggested a two-pronged strategy to stamp out corruption. Besides bringing transparency in the functioning of the government and non-government organisations, a nation-wide campaign should be launched to create awareness among the people at the grassroot level regarding the ongoing criminal waste of funds. The country had reached a stage where it was not in a position to pay back even the interest on loans raised over the years. Yet no effective steps had been taken to tackle these two important issues.

Regarding the ongoing economic reforms and globalisation, Mr Hazare said the government should realise that bringing in multinationals and foreign money would not help in strengthening the economy. The face of the country could be changed only by ensuring speedy development of villages. No effort for the socio-economic uplift of the poor would succeed, until the focus of planning was shifted to villages.

Citing the example of the work undertaken by him under the Adarsh Gram Yojna in Maharashtra, he said the areas which had been facing droughts year after year were now exporting vegetables. In Ralegan Sidh, his own village, the annual per capita income had increased from Rs 200 to Rs 2100 over the past two decades which was remarkable.

In all 300 villages were included under the scheme which had now been adopted by some other states like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

An important feature of the scheme was that politicians and officials had no role in selecting the village. A state-level committee of non-government organisations made the selection on the basis of backwardness. One voluntary organisation had been set up in each village which implemented the development schemes in collaboration with the local Gram Sabha. The funds were placed at their disposal directly.

The chief executive office of the Zila Parishad along with the officials of the departments concerned visited the village to formulate schemes in consultation with the local people. The people of selected villages had to observe nasha bandi, nasbandi, charanbandi (no-grazing) kulhar bandi (no-axing of trees) and offer shram dan (voluntary labour) for two days in a month.

The Maharashtra government was giving Rs 300 crore over a period of five years under the scheme. In addition the Hind Swaraj Trust, headed by him, had adopted another 100 villages which were being developed with the assistance of CAPART (Centre for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology.

Mr Hazare said expertise had been evolved in the area of watershed management in Maharashtra which could be gainfully utilised in hilly states like Himachal Pradesh. His organisation would extend all help to Himachal in this regard. He had already offered to provide six-month training to 40 to 50 persons who could further take up implementation of watershed management schemes in the state.

The soldier-turned-social-reformer admitted that a large number of fake non-government organisations had come up in recent years. They had been set up solely with the objective of making money and there was on social commitment. He said effective steps should be taken up to weed out such voluntary organisations. He had mooted the idea forming a national forum of non-government organisation to curb the growth of bogus bodies.

4 held under Child Marriage Act
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, Dec 15 — The Barsar police in the district has arrested four persons under the Sections 5 and 6 of the Child Marriage Act. This was state here today by the district police chief, Mr Jagjit Kumar Gupta.

Mr Gupta told reporters that a girl, Reena (16), who was engaged to Mr Sarwan Kumar of the Bangana area of Una district was married off to Mr, Hemraj of Narg village of the Barsar area. The police made the arrests under the Act on receiving a complaint by Mr Sarwan Kumar.

The police has arrested the girl's maternal grand father, her mother, husband and a village Pandit who had performed the marriage ceremony.

Conserve national parks: WHC
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Dec 15 — The World Heritage Convention (WHC) has urged UNESCO to lay emphasis on the conservation of the Sunderban and Manas national parks in India, besides 61 natural sites in the world.

The recommendation was made at a recent meeting of the WHC held at Berastagi in Indonesia.

Mr V.P. Mohan, former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chairman of the Hindukush Himalayan Forum for Forest Conservation and Management, participated in the meeting.

The WHC also stressed the need for recognising the value of conserving outstanding examples of harmonious and sustainable human relationship with forests.

Plea to enhance winter allowance
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Dec 15 — Mr Y.G. Negi, zonal Secretary of the HP Non-Gazetted Employees Federation, Kinnaur, has demanded that the winter allowance for employees working in the tribal areas should be increased to Rs 300 per month from the existing Rs 60.

He has also demanded that the tribal area allowance should be enhanced to Rs 250 from the existing Rs 100 per month.

11 students held
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, Dec 15 — The police today arrested 11 students of the local Regional Engineering College in connection with an incident in which the students allegedly ransacked a watch shop in the Gandhi chowk area of the town today and caused heavy damage to the shop.

Mr Madhusudan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, told reporters in the evening that immediately after getting report of the incident the police swung into action and arrested the stone-throwing students. Fifteen others, however, fled the scene. A case under Sections 147, 451, 323 and 427 of the Indian Penal Code had been registered.

Factory fire: two more arrested
From Our Correspondent

SOLAN, Dec 15 — The police today arrested state vice-president of CITU Daljit Singh and district president Om Dutt Sharma on charges of burning and damaging the machinery and building of Engineering Innovations Limited and also on charges of rioting and trespass on the night of December 12.

With these arrests the number of those booked in the case had risen to nine. The factory management had put the loss at around Rs 4.52 crore and had named the arrested persons along with some others who are yet to be arrested.