Balasundari fair

Sister-in-law killed in land dispute

Bank employees for poll duty

Dhumal in mood to accommodate HVC
From Our Correspondent

NAHAN, Sept 3 — The Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, today said he had forwarded the charge sheet against former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to the Prime Minister "under duress".

Speaking to newspersons at a press conference, the Chief Minister said that the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) had not "pressurised" but "suggested" that he forward the charge sheet to the Prime Minister for ordering investigations by central investigating agency.

Earlier, the former Chief Minister had alleged that Mr Dhumal was working under the HVC's dictats. Mr Dhumal said that he was ready to accept a lot of demands from his coalition partners to keep the government running.

"Running a coalition government is a matter of understanding. We have to listen to the suggestions put forward by our partners and agree to them. In this case, there is no question of my personally agreeing with the charges or not. There are specific allegations that need to be investigated. We are trying to order an impartial probe by a professional agency. I do not think there is anything wrong with it," Mr Dhumal said.

He said he was working in "perfect harmony" with his allies.

Mr Dhumal is on a two-day-long visit to Sirmaur district.

The Chief Minister's main purpose in coming to Sirmaur, however, is the day-long celebrations at Gurdwara Paonta Sahib on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Khalsa. These celebrations would start tomorrow and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra are also likely to participate.

The congregation at the gurdwara is seen to be a major show of strength of alliance between the BJP and its allies. The Union Minister for Telecommunication Sushma Swaraj was expected to participate in the convention.

Plea to adopt swadeshi policy
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 3 — Mr Mahesh Chandra Sharma, Chairman of the All-India Khadi and Village Industries Commission has underlined the need to promote self-employment to make the country self-reliant and capable of withstanding the pressures of fluctuating global economic trends.

Delivering a lecture on "Swadeshi employment and self-employment" organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad at the Himachal University campus; here today, he said job opportunities in the organised sector, including government, corporate and private sectors, were squeezing and over 75 per cent of the persons were engaged in self-employment. This was the main reason that the Indian economy was not fragile like those of Korea and certain developed western countries.

He said the Centre was constituting a task force to generate employment for 10 crore persons in 10 years and urged the youth to come forward and help in the task of national reconstruction. He said at present about 60 lakh persons were engaged in self-employment in the khadi and village industries sector and the number could be raised to four crore with imaginative planning and determination.

Mr Murlidhar Rao, organising secretary of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, said swadeshi had become an issue of political polarisation. He lamented that a false impression had been created that the country could not do without foreign capital whereas the fact was that it received only about $ 3 billion as aid every year.

He said wrong economic policies followed by successive governments during the first three decades of Independence brought the country on the verge of an economic collapse. The policies of liberalisation being pursued since 1991 had also placed it in a difficult position. The agricultural and industrial production was stagnating, exports dwindling and debts mounting, the only way out was to adopt the "swadeshi" philosophy.

Bridge building corporation likely
From Our Correspondent

PALAMPUR, Sept 3 — The Himachal Pradesh government has decided to set up a corporation for the execution of work on bridges and roads in the state.

Disclosing this to newsmen here today Mr Mohinder Singh, HP, PWD Minister, said this step had been taken for the speedy implementation of construction of bridges and roads in the state. He said the government would encourage the participation of the private sector in the Public Works Department projects so that people of the state could get better facilities.

The minister was addressing a press conference here this morning. He said the government would spend Rs 288 crore on the construction projects this year. He disclosed that a time-bound plan had been formulated for repair of roads damaged in the rain. He said he was personally supervising this plan so that all roads in the state were put in order by October end. The minister said sufficient quantity of cement, steel, and bitumen had been made available to the Public Works Department and there would be no shortage of funds.

Mr Mohinder Singh reiterated his commitment to root out corruption from the PWD and warned the officials against using corrupt practices.

Himachal sets up finance panel
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 3 — The Himachal government today set up a finance commission to review the financial position of the panchayats and municipalities in the state.

The commission will make recommendations to the government on the principles for the distribution of net proceeds of taxes duties and fees leviable by the state to panchayats and urban local bodies.

It will also make recommendations for the determination of taxes, duties, tolls and fees which may be assigned to or appropriated by the panchayat and municipalities and the grants-in-aid to these institutions from the consolidated fund of the state.

The Finance Commission will also suggest measures to improve the financial position of the panchayats and municipalities and any other matters referred to by the government concerning their financial interests.

The commission has also invited views and suggestions of persons and institutions in this regard which should reach the member secretary before September 30.

Rain damages maize crop
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, Sept 3 — High velocity winds accompanied by heavy rain lashed various parts of the district this evening and last nigh and caused widespread damage to the standing maize crops.

Hopes of the farmers to have bumper kharif crops this time were dashed.

Reports received here from Jangel and Beri gram panchayats of the Sujanpurtira tehsil says that the maize crop have been destroyed.

Mr Harbhajsingh, pardhan of gram panchayat, Jangel and Mr Thakur Dass, up-pardhan of the Beri gram panchayat told this reporter on phone that the rain lasted just an hour but damaged the crops badly. They demanded immediate survey of the area and compensation to the affected farmers.

Change in library timing resented
From Our Correspondent

KASAULI, Sept 3 — Resentment prevails among library-goers of the district following the recent changes made in the library schedule.

Readers allege that the library timing has been changed to suit library staff and not the readers. The timings for all tehsil, district and central state libraries have now been fixed between 11 am to 6 pm for all seasons.

Earlier, the timing in summers was 9 am to 12.30 pm and 5 pm to 8 pm and in winter 9.30 am to 1 pm and 4 pm to 7 pm.

The new timing, according to the readers, have decreased the number of library hoppers as the utility of newspaper reading is before 11 am.

Readers have urged the government to reschedule the library timing.

2500 seek gun licences
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 3 — There is a beeline of gun licence-seekers in Chamba following two major incidents in which Kashmiri terrorists massacred 39 persons.

According to the Deputy Commissioner, Chamba, Mr Tarun Kapoor, atleast 2500 applications for gun licence have been received during the past few days from Tissa and Salooni areas.

Mr Kapoor said the applications were being scrutinised on priority basis.

He said nearly 1400 volunteers of 120 village defence committees (VDC) were being trained at six places by the Special Security Bureau (SSB) to meet any terrorist threat.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, has urged the Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, to deploy four additional battalions of the ITBP in the state.

The Chief Minister asked Mr Advani that the Centre should bear the cost of surveillance by helicopters in the Chamba area.

Condition of road to Deotsidh poor
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, Sep 3 — The overall condition of the 20-km long link road between Salauni and Deotsidh, the seat of Baba Balaknath, is very poor. The road is full of potholes and drains are badly damaged.

Several hundred buses, trucks, jeeps, cars and two-wheelers ply on this road daily, but the attitude of the PWD is unsympathetic. This road is one of the main links to the shrine of Baba Balaknath from the Hamirpur, Kangra, Shimla and Mandi side.

Due to the bad condition of this narrow road, a number of accidents take place.

Increase in Balaknath temple income
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, Sept 3 — There has been an unprecedented increase in the income of the Baba Balaknath temple at Deotsidh from the offerings made by devotees in the first seven months of 1998. The total offerings during this period have been recorded at 2,29,29,225 as against Rs 1,58,81,074 during the corresponding period last year.

This was stated by temple officer, Mr S.S. Chauhan, while talking to this reports on Tuesday evening. He claimed it was because of more facilities being according to the pilgrims.

He hoped that the income of the temple would exceed last year's figure of 2,67,19,273.

Balasundari fair from Sept 21
From Our Correspondent

NAHAN, Sept 3 — Balasundari fair will begin in Trilokpur, about 15 km from here, on September 21.

The 14-day fair attracts devotees from all over Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi.

The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Rakesh Kaushal, said all arrangements had been made for the fair. The carrying of arms and ammunition and lethal weapons had been banned.

Sister-in-law killed in land dispute
From Our Correspondent

CHAMBA, Sept 3 — In a land dispute, Chaman Singh yesterday clubbed the wife of his brother, Durgo, to death with a burning piece of wood at Loha village, about 20 km from here.

The police said here today that a quarrel arising out of a land dispute between the two brothers resulted in the murder of Durgo (35).

Chaman Singh (25) has been arrested and a case registered against him under sections 302 and 452, IPC.

The body of Durgo has been sent for a post-mortem.

Shortage of I-tax return forms
From Our Correspondent

MANDI, Sept 3 — Resentment prevails here over the non-availability of new return forms.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes had extended the last date of filing income tax returns to September 30, but the forms are still not available in the Mandi office of the Assistant Commissioner.

The Mandi Bar Association has urged the Commissioner of Income Tax, Shimla, to provide return forms without further delay.

Tax advocates are finding it hard to file the returns of assesses within the extended time.

The association has urged the Central Board of Direct Taxes to further extend the last date of filing the returns as forms have not been supplied in time.

Bridge repaired
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 3 — The Bailey bridge over the Sutlej at Wangtu in Kinnaur was damaged by falling rocks on Tuesday night.

The Public Works Department swung into action immediately and repaired the damaged parts of the bridge to restore traffic within 12 hours.

According to a spokesman for the department two reinforcement chords also suffered minor damage but they did not require immediate replacement.

The bridge which connects Kinnaur with the rest of the state was launched by the Army in June last.

Bank employees for poll duty
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 3 — The services of the employees of local authorities, universities, nationalised banks, the Life Insurance Corporation and other government undertakings can now be requisitioned for deployment on election duty. For this purpose Section 139 of the Representation of Peoples Act has been amended.

The Election Commission of India has in its latest institution reiterated that bank employees may be deployed on election duty to the minimum extent possible, only in a constituency where sufficient number of employees were not available or in circumstances such as strikes by government employees.

It has also been emphasised that care should be taken to ensure that normal functioning of the banks is not affected. Further, if possible, deployment of bank employees to any polling station outside their normal place of duty should be avoided.