 |
Friday,
May 10,
2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
HP
regularises 3 lakh encroachments Highway
casualties on rise Separate
corporation for hydel projects sought Irate mob
blocks traffic |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Fresh
norms for kharif insurance scheme Tibetans
seek Chirac’s support
Nod to
BDS admissions Two
women killed as car hits tree
|
|
HP regularises 3 lakh encroachments Shimla, May 9 Mr Sushant said that 57,549 cases of encroachment on nearly 1,23,835 bighas of government land were being tried in various courts. However, according to estimates over 3 lakh cases of encroachment were identified preliminarily. He said that all those encroachments effected before December 31,2000 will be regularised. The rules will be finalised after inviting objections. He said that the regularisation will not be free of cost and the cabinet at its today’s meeting approved rates for this purpose. The encroachments in urban areas up to 10 square metres will be regularised at the prevalent market price of land in the locality, encroachments between 10 square metres to 20 square metres will be regularised at double the prevalent market price, more than 20 square metres up to 30 square metres of encroachments will be charged triple the prevalent market price while those of more than 30 square metres up to 50 square metres will be charged four times the market price. In the rural areas, encroachments up to 5 bighas will be regularised at the prevalent market price, while for the other slabs of 5 bighas to 10 bighas, 10 bighas to 15 bighas and beyond 15 bighas to 20 bighas the penalty for regularisation will be double, triple and four times of the prevalent market price, respectively. A 50 per cent cut in the penalty will be given to those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, identified IRDP families, war widows, dependants of freedom fighters, disabled and economically poor people. The land shall only be regularised in favour of a person who owns and holds land less than 20 bighas subject to the condition that the land owned and held by him plus the land to be regularised under these rules shall not exceed the limit of 20 bighas. The cabinet also amended the policy of lease of government lands and included various other categories, including mahila mandals, youth mandals, landless and widows, for eligibility for being granted lease of government land. The cabinet set at rest the controversy regarding the category to which the new Mayor of the Shimla Municipal Corporation should belong. It was decided that the two and a half years tenure of the Mayor will continue. This time the Mayor will be a member of the Scheduled Caste and there will be no stipulation that he should have been elected from a reserved ward. During the next tenure, someone from the Scheduled Tribe will occupy the chair of the Mayor. However, the post will be open for any category in case the condition of 15 per cent Scheduled Tribe population was not covered. In the next rotation, the post will be held by the general category and then by a woman. It was decided to reintroduce entry tax for vehicles in the state and the 33 identified multi-purpose barriers at various points will be leased by June 1, 2002. This was expected to increase the revenue of the government by 30 per cent. The cabinet also finalised safety rules for adventure tourism, including river rafting and aero sports. Those engaged in such sports shall have to register themselves with the Tourism Department. |
|
Highway
casualties on rise Kasauli Every now and then one hears of a fresh accident in the area. A recent bus mishap near Parwanoo left 11 dead and 23 others injured. Though the government instituted an inquiry into the accident, those at the helm of affairs have not laid stress on the immediate setting up of a trauma centre on the Kalka-Shimla road. Often time is lost in rushing accident victims to hospitals which are not well-equipped to deal with such cases. Though a plan to set up a trauma unit has been drawn up by the state government, the lack of funds is reported to be coming in the way of its implementation. Interestingly, the district administration had to spend Rs 26.90 lakh on paying compensation of victims of 94 accidents in Solan district in the past one year. Had this sum been spent on the construction of a trauma centre, timely help could have been provided to the victims. Accidents in Solan district in the past one year Solan
40
13 lakh
Information collected from the district police authorities indicates that in the year 2000 alone 299 accidents occurred in the entire district leaving 93 dead and 630 others injured. Out of these, 203 accidents occurred on the Kalka-Shimla highway which left 64 dead and 513 others injured. The first two and a half months of this year have claimed 21 lives in 34 separate accidents in the district. A large number of accidents have occurred on the National Highway where the casualty figures are also higher than else-where.
The data on road accidents presents an alarming situation. The police authorities say that human error was responsible for a majority of these accidents with drunk driving the cause of most of the fatal ones. Mechanical defects accounted for a very small proportion of the mishaps. The department had put up a number of boards on the Kalka-Shimla highway a year ago indicating the number of accidents and mishap victims. This was aimed at instilling some fear in the minds of motorists and cautioning them to practise safe driving. Police officials believe this has made a difference. The problem of drunk driving is being seen as a major one. Though the police has the
breath-analyser facility to check drivers on the National Highway, those driving on the link roads are not subjected to such checking.  |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Separate
corporation for hydel projects sought Shimla, May 9 It has suggested that all existing powerhouses with an aggregate capacity of about 350 MW should be transferred to the proposed corporation. It has pointed out that in spite of having sufficient technical expertise and experience in hydel power generation, the board was not in a position to execute mega projects for want of finances. Once the corporation was set up, the revenue realisation from the existing powerhouses would be transferred to it at bus bar through the sale of power to the utilities. It would constitute the basic cash flow of the corporation and enhance its borrowing capacity to raise funds from the market to take up new projects for execution. The association has already discussed the issue with Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister. It brought to his notice that in projects like Parbati and
Chamera-II, being executed by the NHPC, the agreed participation share for HPSEB engineers was 30 per cent, but not even half the agreed share was fulfilled because the level of equivalence of HPSEB engineers vis-a-vis their NHPC counterparts was far less than what they deserved in the case of Kol Dam. It was agreed that the NTPC would take 30 engineers from the HPSEB on an absorption basis. So far, out of the engineering executives selected by it, only 10 have joined because of the low level of equivalence. The association requested the Chief Minister to take up the matter with the Union Energy Minister and impress upon him that the equivalence agreed upon by the NJPC should also be followed by the NTPC and
NHPC. It said pending finalisation of equivalence by NTPC and NHPC, no project should be given to these agencies in future. In case some projects were to be executed by a Central agency, the same could be got executed through the
NJPC, where the equivalence and other terms and conditions had been settled. |
|
Irate mob blocks traffic
Dharamsala, May 9 The Superintendent of Police, Mr Sanjay Kundu, along with other police officials, rushed to McLeodganj after the situation became tense as the mob sat on a dharna and blocked vehicular traffic. Trouble started when some youths got into an argument with police officials accompanying the SDM, Mr
A. L. Sharma, and the Executive Officer of the municipal council, who have been undertaking the task of getting all encroachments removed since yesterday. Following a heated argument between the officials and the locals, the police allegedly beat up some youths and whisked them away for creating obstruction in removing the
encroachments. The authorities, who had given time to the shopkeepers and other locals to remove their illegal structures by noon, swung into action when the violators did not comply. After the alleged beating up of the youths by the police, the locals assembled at the main bus stand and blocked traffic. |
|
Fresh norms for kharif insurance scheme Shimla, May 9 The scheme, which covers crops like maize, paddy, potato and ginger, has been implemented on a compulsory basis in respect farmers, who avail seasonal crop loans from financial institutions. It has been made optional for
non-loanee farmers. While the uniform level of indemnity for maize, paddy and potato has been kept at 80 per cent of the “average yield”, the indemnity level for the ginger crop will be notified, separately. The Ghumarwin tehsil of Bilaspur district has been selected for the implementation of the scheme on experimental basis. Regarding small areas crop estimation approach, for estimation of crop yield at Gram panchayat level district Hamirpur has been chosen to take up the maize crop during kharif-2002 on a pilot basis. Crop wise limit of sum insured and corresponding premium rates have also been fixed. For paddy and maize the maximum coverage has been fixed at Rs 11,806 and Rs 16,973 per hectare, respectively. Similarly, the premium rates for paddy and maize have also been fixed at 1.95 per cent and 3.45 percent respectively. For the potato crop, the sum insured may be any amount upto the maximum of Rs 1,04,163 and the premium rate for this has been fixed at 6.70 per cent. An official spokesman said to facilitate the poor farmers the government was providing subsidy of 30 per cent on the total premium amount to the small and marginal farmers. The state-level bankers committee, the cooperative banks and the general insurance company have been asked to take immediate steps to ensure the effective implementation of the scheme in the state. The GIC has also been asked to make necessary arrangements to monitor the performance of the scheme from time to time. |
|
Tibetans
seek Chirac’s support
Dharamsala, May 9 The president of the
NDPT, Acharya Yesho Phuntsok, in his congratulatory message to the French President, hoped that he would continue his fight against genocide and gross human rights violation in Tibet under the Communist Chinese regime. “We are confident that the manner in which you raised the issue of Tibet with the Chinese President, Jiang
Zemin, during your visit to Beijing, you will continue your support to the Tibetan people” he
remarked. Acharya Yeshi said the Tibetans were hopeful that China under pressure from the international community will be compelled to negotiate with the spiritual and temportal leader of the Tibetans, Dalai
Lama. Acharya Yeshi said that his political party, NDPT, had been floated as part of the democratisation of the Tibetan set up, initiated by the Dalai Lama, in the
sixties. He added that the Tibetan’s commitment to democracy remained resolute and firm along with their struggle for independence. |
|
HC orders release of Israeli nationals Shimla, May 9 A Division Bench of the high court, comprising Mr Justice
R. L.Khurana and Mr Justice M. R. Verma, set aside the order of the Sessions Court and acquitted both girls of the offences. The court ordered that the trial of the girls stood vitiated and they could not be convicted for the offences under Section 20 of the NDPS Act since the mandatory requirement under the section 42 of the Act had not been complied with in their case. These girls were arrested near Bhuntar on June 12 last year when they were allegedly found carrying 2,500 gm of charas. Ravit Shriki gave birth to her daughter, in the Central Jail at Nahan on February 9. The court ordered that the amount of fine of Rs 1 lakh each imposed by the Sessions
Judge, Kulu, of already recovered from these girls be refunded forthwith. Both these girls were lodged in the jail and Shirki came in the news recently as she gave birth to the baby in the prison. The court observed that the entire story put forth by the prosecution regarding seizure of the contraband from them was not free from doubt. Mr Om Prakash and Mr Anup Chitkara appeared in the court on behalf of the two appellants who had challenged their conviction. Mrs Mazal
Shirki, mother of Ms Ravit, had come from Israel and was staying at a hotel in Nahan to take care of the new-born baby and pursue her daughter’s appeal in the court. |
|
Nod to BDS admissions Shimla, May 9 Mr Vikram Bhojia, secretary of the college trust, said here today that the permission of the Centre had come on the recommendation of the Dental Council of India. Permission for the third-year course of BDS had also been granted. Himachal Pradesh University is now expected to make fresh admissions to the college on the basis of the existing PMT list. So far, only 20 seats of BDS course have been filled this year in Government Dental College here. |
|
Two women killed as car hits tree
Dharamsala, May 9 According to the police, the two couples were on their way from Dehra to Kangra when the mishap took place around 1 p.m. The two women, Sarabjeet Kaur and Kiran died on the spot after the car hit a tree near Ranital. Their husbands, Yashpal and Somnath, have been rushed to the PGI at Chandigarh. The two couples belonged to Santokhgarh in Una district and were travelling in their Maruti car. Meanwhile, a major mishap was averted due to the alertness of the train driver at the Megh Raj Pura station near Nagrota Suriyan, today morning as he spotted a huge piece of metal placed on the railway track well in time. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Video
