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Saturday,
March 2, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Dhumal govt shielding corrupt: Cong Dhumal’s phone
bill highest Karzai’s teacher euphoric
Attack on hostel: 4 injured |
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Meeting to finalise cement plant Snow, rain revive cold wave Scholarships for Dalit girls
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Dhumal govt shielding corrupt: Cong Shimla, March 1 Resuming the debate Mr Kaul Singh of the Congress alleged that the government was shielding the corrupt officers and it was even refusing to grant prosecution sanction even in foolproof cases. He cited the example of an officer who was booked by the Vigilance Department for making irregular and excessive purchases during his posting as Additional Deputy Commissioner in the tribal area of Pooh in this regard. He said there was evidence of tampering of record and two officials had even recorded their statements before the Magistrate in this regard but even then the government denied sanction to the Vigilance Department to prosecute him. It was quite surprising as the track record of the officer was such that he had to be removed as the Deputy Commissioner of Lahaul-Spiti within months. He said if the government was there only to protect the corrupt it should wind up the Vigilance Department. The negative attitude of the government had demoralised the police. In such a situation it was hardly surprising that corruption was flourishing. The corrupt officers had been emboldened to such an extent that they openly claim that they had the patronage of power that be. He said the blatant manner in which a Divisional Manager of the state forest corporation awarded a forest contract in Chamba to the kin of a BJP leader of Jammu at an exorbitantly high rate of 55 per cent over the schedule rates was a classic example of it. The local contractor had to move the high court to get the tender cancelled and in fresh tenders the lowest offer was minus 5 per cent as many as 60 per cent lower than the previously accepted bid. However, the Divisional Manager instead of awarding the contract to the lowest bidder called fresh tenders and awarded the contract at the rate 30 per cent. He said there was also large-scale bungling in resin tapping at corporation was giving undue benefit to favoured one by allowing them shortage to the extent 30 to 40 per cent. Mr Kaul Singh said the government had failed to increase the size of the annual Plan which was Rs 1720 crore for the previous year as well as the current financial. This only indicated that the Planning Commissioner was not satisfied with performance of the government. This was contested by Mr P.K.Dhumal, Chief Minister, who said that the Planning Commission had, in fact, appreciated the government’s performance and said it was one of the few states, which had achieved the targets. He also denied that size had not been increased and said the plan size for the previous year Rs 1382 crore. The Congress leader stuck to his position and the debate on plan size remained inconclusive. Mr Mohinder Singh, also focused on corruption in the allotment of hydel projects to private companies. He alleged that the CT scan machine installed at zonal hospital, Mandi, was substandard and demanded that a committee of expert should be set up to evaluate its quality. |
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Dhumal’s phone
bill highest Shimla, March 1 This was stated by Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal in reply to a question of Mr Gangu Ram Musafir (Cong) in the Vidhan Sabha today. Prof Dhumal said the amount included telephone bills amounting to over Rs 30 lakh, travelling allowance to over Rs 6 lakh and DA about Rs 14
lakh. |
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Karzai’s teacher
euphoric Shimla, March 1 Prof Gopal Singh said Mr Karzai told him that he remembered Shimla and would participate in one of the sessions of a three-day seminar on South Asia that was being organised by the HPU from May 8. Mr Karzai was scheduled to make a flying visit here during his recent visit to India, but could not do so because of shortage of time. He was a student of the HPU from 1981 to 1983. Prof Gopal Singh, said it was gratifying that he addressed “his” professors and friends from Shimla before starting his speech at the meeting in which the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, and other dignitaries were present. |
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Attack on hostel: 4 injured Solan, March 1 The SP Mr S.Z.H. Zaidi, said investigations had revealed that the attack was a direct sequel of an earlier quarrel between two ITI students, Rohit and Rahul, over a girl. He said that Rohit along with six other students of local senior secondary school, all armed with sticks and knives, went to the hostel in search of Rahul. When they did not find Rahul there, they started beating up other boarders. During the scuffle that followed, a resident of the hostel, Manish Kumar received stab injuries in his left arm. The Principal, who was immediately informed, rushed the heavily bleeding Manish Kumar to the Zonal Hospital. Mr Zaidi said Rohit and six of his accomplices had since been arrested under Sections 452 and 324 of the IPC. He gave the name of the six as Devendra, Gaurav, Deepak, Bir Singh, Mohammed Dilshad, and Balwinder. They are students of a local senior secondary school. |
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Meeting to finalise cement plant Kangra, March 1 Disclosing this Mr Shanta Kumar said today on phone that the Minister for Industries, HP, Mr Kishori Lal, the Minister for Ayurveda, HP, Mr Mohan Lal, and the Minister for Revenue, HP, Mr Rajan Shushant, had also been invited to attend the meeting. He said the cement plant project would be completed within two years and would produce 10 lakh tonnes of cement annually. He said the plant would directly or indirectly generate employment for 10,00 persons. He said last month he had a meeting with the Mr K.R. Palta, General Manager of the cement company, who informed him that in order to keep the environment of the area pollution free the company had finalised a deal with a South African company for installing environment protection equipment in the plant. |
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Snow, rain revive cold wave Chandigarh, March 1 According to reports available here, tourist resorts of Gulmarg, Pahalgam and the Peer Panjal range of mountains in Jammu and Kashmir were experiencing intermittent snow after recording 2 to 5 cm of snow till this morning. The Solang Nallah in the Manali area of Himachal Pradesh and Gangotri in Uttaranchal received 15 cm snow. Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, reported 0.6 mm rainfall while state’s winter capital Jammu drizzles. Shimla and surrounding areas recorded 3.7 mm of rain and the minimum temperature dipped to 4.4°C this morning. Bhunter and Sundar Nagar and Una recorded 13.3, 4 mm and 1.4 mm rainfall, respectively. In Punjab Amritsar recorded 4.6 mm rain while Ludhiana and Patiala 1.2 and 1.3 mm rain, respectively. Ambala and Hisar in Haryana and National Capital Territory of Delhi 0.2 to 0.3 mm rain. The day temperature in and around Chandigarh today hovered around 19, against 23°C yesterday following 0.2 mm rain. The sky continues to be overcast predicting more rain. Weathermen here said western disturbances over north Pakistan and neighbourhood, coupled with upper air cyclonic circulation system over west Rajasthan and the neighbourhood, was likely to cause more rain or snow at many places in the hilly states and rain or thunder showers in rest of the region over the next 48 hours. SHIMLA: The Hindustan-Tibet National Highway was blocked at many places due to snow at Narkanda and Fagu and vehicular traffic was suspended beyond Pooh in Kinnaur district. The Kalpa bound buses were being diverted via Basantpur and Kingal, a report from PEO said. The entire Kinnaur district was experiencing intermittent snowfall since yesterday and 70 cm of snow was recorded at Kalpa and the district headquarter, Rekong Peo had 60 cm of fresh snow. The Rohtang pass and Dhauladhar ranges in Kangra district also had fresh snow creating piercing cold wave conditions in the adjoining valley areas, reports here said. KANGRA: The Kangra valley experienced heavy rain on Friday thus dropping down the temperature considerably. The Dhauladhar ranges over looking the Kangra valley has also experienced heavy snowfall since this morning. Agencies,
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Hamirpur in grip of cold wave Hamirpur, March 1 |
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Scholarships for Dalit girls Shimla, March 1 Stating this here today, Dr K.C. Katoch, Officer on Special Duty in the Directorate of Education, said the rate of scholarship was Rs 9000 per annum. All students pursuing academic, technical or professional courses at college level were eligible and could apply for scholarship through their head of institution. |
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