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Sunday,
November 10, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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BJP heads
for crisis Thakur
challenges CM’s remarks Arrests to
influence SGPC poll: Jaitley Town
without garbage site Dagshai
— victim of govt apathy |
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MBBS
student drowned Legal Services Day observed
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BJP heads for crisis Shimla, November 9 Mr Jaitley was here to take stock of the situation created due to the turmoil in the party over the delimitation with some leaders whose constituencies were affected by the proposals circulated by the delimitation commission alleging the Chief Minister’s hand behind the exercise. Mr Jaitley asked Mr Sharma to ascertain if party men had indulged in a tirade against Mr Dhumal and take disciplinary action. He also made it clear that the elections would be contested under the leadership of Mr Dhumal, who had not only smoothly completed five years in office but also put in place certain policies which would make the state self-reliant in the long run. Mr Jaitley held separate meetings with MPs and other legislators, state office-bearers and district presidents at which the need to enforce discipline was underlined. While authorising Mr Sharma to take action against those guilty of maligning Mr Dhumal, he also emphasised that the conduct of party men would be taken into consideration, besides winning prospects, while allotting the party ticket. The underlying message was that those flouting party discipline could be denied the party ticket. The ball is now in the court of Mr Sharma. It is a no-win situation for the party bosses. While disciplinary action could provoke further dissent and fuel the faction fight and mar the party’s poll prospects, not acting firmly after getting the nod from the party high command will show the leadership in poor light. The party had earlier expelled Mr Narinder Thakur and suspended Mr Mohinder Sofat, two Shanta Kumar loyalists, but that did not deter the ministers and legislators of Kangra district from coming out openly against the government on the issue of delimitation. Mr Jaitley also sought to dispel misgivings among party men over the delimitation exercise. He explained to them that it was being carried out as per the Constitution by an independent quasi- judicial commission over which the Centre and the state government had no control. He said it had to be carried out on the basis of the 1991 census as the published figures of the 2001 census would be available only by 2004-05. The MPs and MLAs were entitled to plead their cases before the commission. Mr Jaitley along with Mr O.P. Kohli, all-India secretary, who was also present at the meetings, asked the state leaders to draw up a detailed programme to gear up the party for the coming electoral battle. |
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Thakur
challenges
CM’s remarks Bilaspur, November 9 Mr Thakur has alleged
that the Delimitation Commission has till now not given any proof that it is prepared to give a patient hearing to all viewpoints in the state regarding the justifiability or otherwise of the proposals. Talking to mediapersons here today, Mr Thakur said since the Delimitation Commission was a constitutional body, it had all the more responsibility to convince all sections of opinion in Himachal Pradesh that it was behaving in an impartial manner and had nothing to do with the political developments in the state. |
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Arrests
to influence SGPC poll: Jaitley Shimla, November 9 Addressing a press conference here today, he said the blatant misuse of the state machinery to wreak vendetta against political opponents and achieve partisan ends had reminded him of the dark days of the Emergency. The mass arrests of innocent workers without any provocation were done as they did not subscribe to the ideology of the ruling party. He said it was the worst instance of abuse of police power to influence the SGPC elections and demanded that the Punjab Government should immediately retract its draconian and undemocratic actions. He said action of the government reflected the “desperation” of the Congress, which was fast losing popularity after assuming office. Taking a dig at Mrs Sonia Gandhi for indulging in empty rhetoric against the NDA government, Mr Jaitley said the Congress President should “review” the last few months of the functioning of the Punjab Government. It had been following anti-people policies from the day one and “wreaking vendetta against opponents”. And it seemed all that was to governance in the vindictive regime. Mr Jaitley said that the problem in the party in Uttar Pradesh was not serious and the party high command was in touch with some rebel MLAs. He, however, defended the police action against dissidents in Uttar Pradesh maintaining that it was part of the legal process as FIRs had been pending against the arrested leaders. Mr Jaitley refused to comment on the ongoing controversy involving the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr J.M. Lyngdoh, and a former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mr Farooq Abdullah. He said it was a serious matter and he did not want the issue to be to blown up. |
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Town without garbage site Hamirpur, November 9 The local civic body has found a new site in the dense forests of Dang Di Kwali on the Hamirpur-Sujanpur road for the same near the official residence of the Deputy Commissioner. Garbage and filth collected from various parts of the town is dumped there and then burnt, thus emitting a foul smell and causing health problems to the people living nearby. Earlier, the garbage was dumped near Hotel Hamirpur on the Hamirpur-Dharamsala highway. However, that was stopped following an agitating by residents of the newly constructed Housing Board Colony of the town. However, no so-called environmentalists of the town has so far come out openly to prevent the local civic body from dumping the garbage on the Hamirpur-Sujanpur road. When contacted, Mr Raj Krishan Sharma, Executive Officer, said a new site had been selected for dumping purposes on the Hamirpur-Nadaun road. Work on digging of pits at the new site would be started in a day or two and the town’s garbage dumped there once the work was completed. He, however, clarified that work on the Solid Waste Management Project for the town would be undertaken on a permanent basis near Rajuri area of the district. This work would cost Rs 50 lakh for which money had been given by the state government from a centrally sponsored scheme. It is worth mentioning here that the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, had strictly instructed the district administration to find a suitable site for garbage disposal, during a press conference here recently. |
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Dagshai
— victim of govt apathy DAGSHAI:
Dagshai has now become a faded copy of its past splendour. The place,
endowed with enchanting natural beauty that had attracted the British
to set up a cantonment here, has been losing its importance and
pristine charm, thanks to the apathy of the successive state
governments and the Dagshai Cantonment Board. The cantonment was set
up in 1847. Spread over 827 acres, Dagshai in the very beginning of
the 20th century had a population of around 2000. The British made
it an important station where traders used to come from far-flung
areas for transacting wholesale business. The commercial downfall of
Dagshai started after Independence. Moreover, the decision of the
Defence Ministry to establish an army school in 1986 in place of a
regiment hastened its fall. Before Independence, around 100 families
of Muslims, a few of them landlords, resided at Dagshai. After
Partition all Muslims families departed to Pakistan. Colonel Fairly,
Station Commandant of the Baluchistan regiment at that time, had
ensured the safe exodus of Muslims from Dagshai as a handful of
revolutionary Hindu youths at Dagshai were planning to create problems
for them following the arrival of some riot-hit Hindu families from
Pakistan here. The Muslim families were sent through the narrow gauge
Kalka-Shimla train that was stopped somewhere near Patta ka Mour
(Kumarhatti) and Colonel Fairly, along with his battalion personnel,
boarded the train to abort any anti-Muslim attack on the way to
Kalka. The Dagshai central jail now being used as a godown by the
Military Engineering Service (MES) was built in 1849. This jail came
into limelight when a number of Irish freedom fighters were executed
here, prompting Mahatma Gandhi to rush here to make an on-the-spot
assessment of the situation. No efforts have been made to maintain the
jail which could certainly be preserved as a monument. Four
revolutionaries of Kamagata Maru were also executed at Dagshai. The
Catholic and Protestant churches built during British rule are now in
a deplorable condition. Similarly, the condition of two British-time
cemeteries is bad. Ironically, the condition of the cemetery near
Anchech village is worse. It has the grave of Mary Rebecca Weston, who
died at Dagshai in December, 1909, along with her unborn baby. Her
husband, who was not at Dagshai at that time, later brought an
exquisite marble statue of her wife and unborn baby. The marble statue
was put up on the grave of Mary. During British rule, Indians were not
allowed to enter this area. It was said that a woman who would possess
a piece from the marble statue would be blessed with a baby boy. This
superstition led to the desecration of the memorial, leading to its
defacement. Recently two youths badly damaged the memorial and took
away Mary’s head. As a result the memorial has almost gone beyond
recognition now. These youths are yet to be nabbed even through the
number of their car was conveyed to the police. Similarly, some old
graves in this cemetery are in a bad condition. The road leading to
the cemetery has not been repaired for the past over 25 years. Local
Christians have expressed their inability to maintain the historical
places of British period for want of funds. Just two buses, one of
them private, currently serve the Dagshai population of around 2200.
Most of the residents of Dagshai have to trudge a distance of 1 km to
catch buses from Kumarhatti. |
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MBBS student drowned Hamirpur, November 9 The students offered prayers at the Sankat Mochan temple, near Bhaleth and thereafter went to the river, where Ashish slipped and fell into the Beas. He hailed from the Dosarka area of the district. |
Legal Services Day observed Kulu, November 9 Mr
R.K. Mittal, Chief Judicial Magistrate here, stressed upon awareness campaigns to provide legal aid to the poor.  |
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