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Saturday,
March 16, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Jaundice
under control in Mandi: CM Fiscal state causes concern Papers for RS
seat found in order Forest
land dug up, trees felled HC asks MC
chief about encroachments |
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Woman
appeals to rights panel for justice Scribes’
body opposes inquiry by retired judge Proclaimed
offender escapes MLA
opposes shifting of college Mandi
phones to be modernised Himachal
to open five ITIs HP
formulates youth policy Ayurvedic
docs resent remarks Tibetan
parliament elects chairman Labour
unions protest against privatisation School
lecturers for practical allowance
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Jaundice under control in Mandi: CM Shimla, March 15 Intervening during a call-attention mention on the issue brought up by Mr Kaul Singh, Mr Jai Ram and Mr Mohinder Singh, he said samples drawn from the drinking water supply were not found to be contaminated. However, the samples taken from about six “bowlies” in the town were contaminated. He said the disease was localised and under control. He had visited the town, held a meeting with officials to review the situation and issued necessary directions. He said a part of the town still did not have sewerage facility and the sewage might have flowed into the Beas. The incubation period of the bacteria was four to six weeks and the infected persons must have consumed contaminated water more than a month ago, he added. He said the Irrigation and Public Health Department was resorting to hyperchlorination as it was a water borne disease. Besides, people had been advised to take all necessary precautions like using boiled water and maintaining hygiene. Mr Ramesh Dhwala, the Irrigation and Public Health Minister, said the water-treatment plants were functioning normally and assured that if any complaints regarding the scheme were brought to his notice, necessary corrective action would be taken. In his reply, Mr J.P. Nadda, Health Minister, said the disease had been confirmed as hepatitis-E by the National Institute of Communicable disease and in all 233 cases had come to notice. Since there was still no vaccine to check its spread, people had been advised to take preventive measures. Three lakh tablets of chlorine had been distributed to people for treating the water and another 6 lakh tablets despatched, he said. Earlier, moving the motion, Mr Kaul Singh attributed the outbreak of the disease to untreated water being supplied by the Irrigation and Public Health Department. He said source tanks and filterbeds along the nullahs and rivers had been either become defunct or washed away due to floods. The disease had spread even to far-off villages in Chachiot and Jogindernagar, he said. Mr Mohinder Singh also drew the attention of the government to old water schemes and said subdivisional magistrates should be directed to inspect all natural sources of water. Mr Jai Ram underlined the need to disinfect the “bowlies” whose water was being used by people. Mr Ishwar Dass Dhiman, Education Minister, rejected the demand to review the shifting of Government Degree College from Palampur to Paror. Replying to the call-attention motion of Mr B.B. Butail, he said the decision was taken by the committee set up to find a suitable location for the college which was currently housed in an old dilapidated building. He said the committee decided to construct the new building at Paror after it failed to find any suitable site in and around Palampur town. He said the new location was only about 12 km from the town and would help serve a larger area. Earlier, Mr Butail alleged that the decision to shift the college was politically motivated and taken at the instance of a BJP legislator, Mr Vipin Parmar, who had failed to get a college for his constituency as promised by him during election time. He said he was in favour of having a college for the people of “Changer” area, adding that Mr Parmar should have got sanctioned a new college instead of shifting the existing one from Palampur. He said though he was a member of the committee, he was never informed about the decision. |
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CM's Jaisinghpur visit on March 18 Jaisinghpur, March 15 |
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Fiscal state causes concern Shimla, March 15 Participating in the debate on the budget proposals for 2002-03 in the Vidhan Sabha, he said the Budget figures presented a frightening scenario with the total loans crossing the Rs 20,000 crore mark, including Rs 10,141 crore, which the state owed to the Centre. The annual interest burden was a whopping Rs 2,000 crore as against the state’s own income of around Rs 1000 crore. The gravity of the situation could be seen from the fact that the per capita loan had shot up from Rs 16,000 to Rs 34,000 over the past five years and the per capita interest burden had also more than doubled from Rs 1100. Worse, the crucial economic indicators were not showing any improvement. In fact, the agriculture sector, which was the core sector on which 71 per cent of the population was dependent, had been on the decline. The contribution of agriculture to the gross domestic product had come down from 36.6 per cent in 1988-89 to 27.41 per cent in 1999-2000. The state had failed to achieved the target of foodgrain production over the past several year. For instance, the output was only 13.36 lakh tonnes against a target of 15.50 lakh tonnes in 1995-96 and 13.10 lakh tonnes against the targeted 15.85 lakh tonnes in 1999-2000. Mr Lal expressed concern over the growing unemployment and said
Himachalis were not being employed in industrial units. They did not constitute even 25 per cent of the total work force in Baddi, Kala Amb and other industrial areas. Mr Kaul Singh accused the government of concealing the deficit which he said was a whopping Rs 2453 crore. He said the Dhumal
government had become a symbol of corruption and scams and scandals had been surfacing with unfailing regularity. The government was put in the dock by its own minister and legislators who levelled serious charges of corruption against it but yet no action had been taken on issues raised by them. |
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Papers for RS
seat found in order
Shimla, March 15 The scrutiny of the nomination papers was conducted at the office of the Secretary, Vidhan
Sabha, Mr Ajay Bhandari, who is the returning officer for the Rajya Sabha election. The leaders of both parties were present when the scrutiny was done. The polling would be held on March 27. The ruling BJP has 35 members in the 68-member House and two HVC members and an Independent member are supporting the government, while the Congress has a strength of 28 and former Public Works Minister Mohinder Singh is an unattached member in the House.
PTI |
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Forest land dug up, trees felled Kulu, March 15 Ms Kaushalya Devi, chief Mahila Mandal, Sharabai, expressed surprise that the block development office at Kulu had sanctioned Rs 1.5 lakh under the Vikas May Jan Sahyog scheme. The Divisional Forest Officer, Parvati range, confirmed that the road was being constructed without permission, for which the department had taken action under the Forest Act, 1980. The DFO said Rs 1.29 lakh had been collected as fine from the management of Gompa Mandir, a Buddhist monastery. The DFO said at least seven chil trees and about 40 small trees were cut or damaged, for which Rs 54,395 was charged as compensation and Rs 16,193 as fine. He said a sum of Rs 36,255 had been charged as fine for digging up the forest land. He said a sum of Rs 4858 as sales tax and Rs 931 as income tax was also charged from the monastery management. The villagers have resented the action of the Forest Department and demanded an inquiry into the matter. The DFO, however, said the application of the monastery management was considered and the latter allowed to take its goods after paying Rs 50 per tractor-trailer. The DFO said the case of transfer of the forest land to the Block Development Department had also been initiated. |
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HC asks MC chief about encroachments Shimla, March 15 Mr Kashyap, who personally appeared in the court, was directed to file a detailed reply to these issues before May 3. The court further directed to disclose the number of proceedings initiated against the defaulters under the provision of law and also disclose the remedial steps, which have been undertaken in compliance with the order passed by the high court from time to time. These directions were issued by Mr Justice Kamlesh Sharma on a contempt petition filed by a local resident, Mr Desh Bandhu Sood, in which he alleged that the Municipal Commissioner had failed to implement the directions issued by the high court from time to time, which had resulted in the congestion of already narrow roads and had also led to the degeneration and degradation of the environment and ecology of the Shimla town. The petitioner further alleged that the Commissioner had wilfully disobeyed the directions issued by the court on September 29, 1983, in which the high court directed “the Commissioner to start performing his duties to keep the bazaars of the town clear of all projections, etc in order to ensure the free movements of ambulances and the fire brigade. Again, since the malady has existed for a long time, we will expect the Commissioner to ensure that within next one month this bazaar is cleared of all obstructions”. |
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Woman appeals to rights panel for justice Nurpur, March 15 In her complaint, whose copies were given to mediapersons here today, she alleged that a head constable of the chowki, with the motive of helping his relative in a land dispute case hatched a conspiracy to teach her family a lesson. She said following a court decision, her husband was constructing a house in the village. The head constable, along with two constables, came to the construction site and threatened her husband with dire consequences if he did not stop the construction, she alleged. When he showed the court’s decision in this connection to the police, it started abusing her husband and brother-in-law, she alleged. Both were brought to the police chowki and kept in custody. A false case was also registered against them, she alleged. Later, they were bailed out next day by the Jawali tehsildar. The complainant has appealed to the human rights commission to provide justice and initiate action against the erring police personnel. |
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Scribes’ body opposes inquiry by retired judge Bilaspur, March 15 Addressing mediapersons here yesterday, federation president Jaikumar expressed surprise that the government had issued a notification in this regard without taking the federation into confidence. He said the federation had repeatedly made it clear to the Chief Minister that it would not accept an inquiry by a retired judge. The president said the federation came to know of the inquiry order only from newspapers. He said if the government insisted on going ahead with the inquiry by a retired judge, the federation would have no alternative but to boycott it. |
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Proclaimed
offender escapes Nahan, March 15 According to information, two police personnel and two criminals, including Kalyan Singh, were injured in the encounter between the police party and Kalyan Singh and his four accomplices. Kalyan Singh and his accomplices fired three rounds from country-made pistols. A pistol was seized by head constable Mukhtiar Singh. All criminals, however, managed to escape. Additional forces from Paonta were rushed to the area and the whole area was sealed from Shillai and Paonta side. |
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MLA opposes shifting of college Dharamsala, March 15 Lashing out at Minister for Technical Education Ravinder Ravi and Sulah MLA Vipin Parmar, he accused them of unnecessarily politicising the issue and dragging his name into the controversy. “It was on my request that Mr Virbhadra Singh had opened a government college in Palampur, which has been named after Capt Vikram Batra. Shifting it now would hurt the sentiments of not only the Batra family but also the general public,” he observed. Mr Butail said that the BJP leaders should instead have asked Mr Dhumal to open a college at some other place in the changer area. SHIMLA: The state unit of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) on yesterday submitted a memorandum to the Governor, Dr Suraj Bhan, against the decision of the state government to shift the Palampur College. The state president of the NSUI, Mr Kewal Singh Pathania, said the college was named after the Kargil war martyr Captain Vikram Batra. The shifting of the college would be an insult to the Kargil martyr, he said. Besides, it would hurt the sentiments of the parents of Vikram Batra as well as these of the people of Palampur, he added. He demanded that a new college be opened instead of shifting Vikram Batra Degree College. The memorandum threatened to launch a statewide agitation if their demands were not accepted. |
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Mandi phones to
be modernised Mandi, March 15 Many new services of latest technology, including intelligent network services and integrated semi-digital network (ISDN), have already been introduced and more would be provided by the end of this year or early next year, he said. Public grievances services would also be provided by the end of this year to remove faults at the earliest. Mr Pradeep Kumar said mobile service by the BSN would be first introduced in areas adjoining national highways by December this year and would be extended in a phased manner to all other areas. The work of providing a mobile network in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and western UP had been assigned to a multi-national Swedish company,
Ericsson, he added. |
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Himachal
to open
five ITIs Jaisinghpur, March 15 The minister was talking to mediapersons at the PWD rest house here last evening. He said the five new ITIs were to be opened at Sadwan in Kangra, Sidilaj in Sirmour, Bani in Hamirpur, Sainj in Kulu and Kumarsain in Shimla district. In order to strengthen the existing ITIs, project of Rs 173 crore, another project of Rs 32 crore for the Polytechnical Institution Talwar (Jaisinghpur), and a project of Rs 23 crore to provide basic infrastructure to various technical institutions in the state, had been forwarded for approval to the Centre Government, he said. |
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HP formulates youth policy Shimla, March 15 The minister, in reply to a question of Mr Jai Krishan Sharma and Mr Rajiv Bindal, said the policy had been prepared keeping in view some nodal points, including education training, drug abuse, technology and biotechnology. He said the committee set up by the state government included experts and youth leaders, who had been invited to give their proposals. This committee also includes many non-official members, besides MLAs. Replying to supplementaries, the minister said he would welcome any suggestion in this regard which could be incorporated into the policy after due consideration.
PTI |
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Ayurvedic
docs resent remarks Dharamsala, March 15 He advised allopathic doctors to improve their image among the public. The dedicated services of ayurvedic doctors had made this system of medicine popular as was evident from the public demand for opening more ayurvedic institutions. |
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Tibetan
parliament
elects chairman Dharamsala, March 15 Ms Dolma Gyari was elected vice-chairperson of the Tibetan parliament. She has been the member of parliament since 1991 and this is her third term. The swearing-in ceremony of the chairman and the vice-chairperson of parliament will take place in the presence of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. |
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Labour
unions protest against privatisation Shimla, March 15 The unions were protesting against the imposition of income tax on poor sections of employees and the disinvestment in the public sector. They alleged that labour laws were loaded in favour of capitalists and against labourers. The memorandum pertaining to the state government demanded the setting up of a labour advisory board and regularisation of services of those employees of boards and corporations who had completed five years’ service. It also demanded that demands of employees of the HRTC should be implemented without further delay and the Labour Department be strengthened. |
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School
lecturers for practical allowance Shimla, March 15 The association lamented that the government, which refused to accept even its petty demands on the grounds that it was facing financial crunch, had, in fact, showered benefits on several categories of employees. If the government could shell out Rs 4 crore to grant non-practising allowance to ayurvedic doctors, it could certainly give a practical allowance of Rs 500 to school lecturers as the total burden would be only around Rs 60 lakh annually. It had also opposed the creation of posts of Headmaster in senior secondary schools, which would create administrative problems, besides putting an additional burden on the state exchequer. |
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