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Thursday,
December 19, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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BJP, Congress focus on Himachal
Sycophants ‘surround’ Dhumal NGO ‘misappropriates’ govt funds 13-cr animal husbandry project for Kangra |
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Blast at Paonta power substation Resident doctors’ strike from Dec 27 Pensioners’ Day function held Rs
22.77 cr for Lahaul development
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BJP, Congress focus on Himachal Shimla, December 18 The Congress high command has already started the exercise to gear up the party for the electoral battle. The strategy committee headed by Mr Manmohan Singh is meeting tomorrow in Delhi. Ms Vidya Stokes, PCC chief, and Mr Virbhadra Singh, Leader of the Opposition, have been invited to the meeting which will work out the gameplan for the party. Another important meeting has been convened on December 20 in which Ms Mohsina Kidwai, AICC general secretary and in charge of Himachal Pradesh, will interact with 21 prominent party leaders of the state. She will take stock of the situation keeping in view the Gujarat debacle. The party high command has called leaders of the Vidya Stokes and Virbhadra Singh factions, indicating that it is keen to bridge the divide so that the party takes on the BJP unitedly. The Congress is not known to project leaders during campaigns and the strategy will be to take along both factions. The party high command is aware of the fact that after the Gujarat defeat, the party cannot take things for granted. The party has already invited applications from candidates. The leadership is likely to work out a broad formula for granting the party ticket, though winning prospects will be the main consideration, party sources point out. The state has been in the election mode for the past few months. While Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, and his cabinet colleagues have been on an inauguration spree, the Congress has been organising rallies, which included three major rallies of Ms Sonia Gandhi, held at Shahpur, Mandi and Shillaroo. The party had won successive victories in various states. However, the outcome of the Gujarat poll has taken some wind out of its sails. It cannot afford to be complacent any more, even though Himachal is not a communally sensitive state and the Hindutva card has never been an effective weapon in the electoral arena. On the other hand Mr Narendra Modi’s spectacular victory has come as a morale booster for the faction-ridden BJP. The victory will help restore the confidence of the cadres which have been demoralised due to party infighting. The popularity graph of the party has been on the decline as some of the moves like the creation of new districts and regularisation of encroachments to woo the electorate boomeranged. The delimitation exercise further widened the gulf between the rival Dhumal and Shanta Kumar camps. Now with the Gujarat win behind it, party men are in an upbeat mood and working overtime to make the “Vishvas Yatra” being started by Mr Dhumal from December 22 a success. Apart from the anti-incumbency factor the party will have to contend with infighting which has assumed alarming proportions with dissidents organising “Mitra Milans” in various parts of the state.
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Congress
to go hi-tech in poll Hamirpur, December 18 The channel will hold a survey and seek the opinion of the people on party ticket aspirants. The names of party nominees will be finalised on the basis of this survey, the sources added. The BJP had earlier hired a private public relations agency ‘Perfect Relation’ for the propagation of its policies.
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Jethi stakes claim to ticket Solan, December 18 Addressing mediapersons here yesterday, he was hopeful of gaining the seat and the party could conduct an independent survey to gauge his standing in the masses. Solan is presently represented by a BJP MLA, Dr Rajiv Bindal. With elections just two months away, rumblings to gain tickets have begun in full swing in the region. While hectic lobbying had begun to gain party tickets, a virtual mud-slinging session by leaders of various parties has also begun with each prospective candidate trying to outshine the other in this war of words. |
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CM’s assurance to press workers Shimla, December 18 The workers demanded that the state government should safeguard the interests of the workers and the industry. Assuring cooperation he said he had pleaded the Deputy Prime Minister to reverse of the Cabinet decision in this regard. He also said he would petition the Prime Minister and the minister concerned to halt the closure proceedings.
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Nurpur MLA flays Congress leaders Nurpur, December 18 Presiding over the function Mr Pathania came down heavily on local Congress leaders for using students politics to meet their political ends. He criticised the Congress leaders for remaining mute spectators when students of the then Arya Girls College launched an agitation for college take-over in 1996 during the regime of Mr Virbhadra Singh.
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CM dedicates water scheme to people Hamirpur, December 18 At a function held at Bara Badar village, he declared the scheme functional by switching on the power supply. Nearly 35,000 residents of the town and its nearby seven villages will be benefited from the scheme. The Chief Minister inaugurated the zonal office of HIMFED at Bajuri, near here, and attended a function of self-help groups. |
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Sycophants
‘surround’ Dhumal Kangra, December 18 Mr Sagar said that the Chief Minister had damaged the party by accepting his resignation. He said the Chief Minister had not understood him correctly. Mr Vidya Sagar said that he was leaving for Delhi tomorrow to apprise the national leadership about the injustice meted to him. He said he would impress the national leadership to get his demand of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs accepted by the state government for the party’s benefit. He said that five or six Assembly segments in the district were given more grant but Kangra was ignored. He demanded resignation of Mr Rattan Jagat Amba, as Kangra Zila Parishad chief. Mr Jagat Amba, a confidant of the Chief Minister is a rival of Mr Sagar. |
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NGO ‘misappropriates’ govt funds Solan, December 18 The NGO, which held an exhibition at the local Durga Murari market hall from December 14 to 16, was granted Rs 2 lakh by the Department of Khadi and Village Industries Commission of the state government. The sum, which was to be utilised for making arrangements, had not only been underutilised but inquiries made by this correspondent revealed that the organiser, Mr Rajesh Mendiratta, also tried to get inflated bills from various offices. There include bills of advertisements which had appeared in various newspapers giving information about the exhibition. While Rs 50,000 had been earmarked for newspaper advertisements under the government scheme, inquiries revealed that only Rs 10,000 had been spent towards it and advertisements had appeared in only three vernacular dailies, besides the local cable network. As against Rs 30,000 earmarked for hiring accommodation for holding the exhibition, only Rs 13,000 had been spent. Most of the entrepreneurs who had set up their stalls were dissatisfied with the low-cost rooms hired by the NGO for accommodation and preferred to make their own arrangements. They also lamented that the lack of publicity had attracted less people to the exhibition. Besides this, Rs 30,000 earmarked for the publication of pamphlets and other material had also not been utilised appropriately. Only Rs 2,000 had been spent on the publication of invitation cards. Another Rs 300 had been given to a newspaper vendor for distributing 3,000 pamphlets. Mr Mendiratta not only asked the vendor to prepare a bill of Rs 10,000 but also requested newspaper men to grant him bills of inflated amounts. Mr Mendiratta, however, said he had overspent the sanctioned amount of Rs 2 lakh and Rs 24,500 had been spent on getting the pamphlets published from Kulu. He put the total cost of publicity at Rs 50,000 and of rented furniture at Rs 70,000 though he expressed inability to explain the individual cost. The Director, Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Mr Amar Singh, though agreed that the cost of the exhibition was less than Rs 2 lakh but added that the bills would have to be produced for the expenditure made by the organiser. Sources also revealed that this was not an isolated case and NGOs often swindled government funds. The connivance of officials was not ruled out. |
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13-cr animal husbandry project for Kangra Dharamsala, December 18 Giving details, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Prabodh Saxena, said by implementing the project, farmers would be benefited while improved cattle breeds and better grasslands would improve the overall economy. He said the project was participatory in nature and while the Centre had been approached for financial assistance of Rs 8.64 crore, the state government would invest Rs 2.88 crore as its share. The beneficiary families would be helped in obtaining loans from banks to the tune of Rs 1.49 crore as their share. The Deputy Commissioner said though the number of cross-bred cows in recent years had increased, the milk yield due to lack of expertise and unscientific management had not improved. The project would lay emphasis on training the farmers in best animal care. The training would be provided by experts, who would also ensure that selected families, once trained, shared their experiences with other families.
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Blast at Paonta power substation Nahan, December 18 According to Mr S.P.S. Verma, who visited the spot today, no one was injured in the incident. Machinery of the substation is reported to be safe. Mr Varma said such explosive balls were used to kill wild pigs and other animals that damaged crops. In the preliminary inquiry, it did not appear to be a sabotage but such possibilities could not be ruled out, he said. The police has registered a case. After the terrorist attack on Parliament last year some places in the district were identified as soft targets for terrorists activities and Jataun Barrage and the Giri Nagar power house were one of these.
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Resident
doctors’ strike from Dec 27 Shimla, December 18 The members of the association have also decided to return the gold medals awarded to them at the convocation by the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal. The resident doctors will also go on one-day casual leave en masse on December 20 and start relay hunger strike from December 23. If no steps are taken to implement the demands, they will proceed on an indefinite strike from December 27 during which even the emergency services will be suspended. The main demand of the doctors is grant of stipend to postgraduate students on the Punjab pattern. At present they are getting a stipend of Rs 7,500 per month, whereas in Punjab they are paid Rs 9,000 plus dearness allowance, and the total emoluments come to over Rs 14,000 per month. The other major demand is the implementation of new recruitment and promotion rules for the post of registrar under which an MBBS student will be eligible for the appointment.
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Pensioners’ Day function held Solan, December 18 Speaking on the
occasion the association president, Mr K.L. Parashar, thanked the district administration for favourably considering his body’s demand for the allotment of land for the construction of an oldage home-cum-pensioner’s meeting hall here. Mr C.L. Rajput, general secretary of the association, said the state Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, at a meeting held with representatives of the HP State Pensioners Association at Shimla, on November 15 had agreed to set up a state-level pensioners advisory committee, for speedily addressing pensioners’
grievances and problems. The committee, to be headed by a Cabinet minister, would have secretaries of Finance, Health and General Administration, alongwith three pensioners representatives, as it’s members. He also demanded enhancement of the basic pension by 5 per cent and 10 per cent upon attaining the ages of 65 and 75 years, respectively, by the pensioners. |
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Rs 22.77
cr for Lahaul development Shimla, December 18 He said Rs 4.67 crore was being spent on the construction of roads and bridges in Lahaul division during the current financial year. He said Jobrang and Salgran bridges would be constructed in the Lahaul valley with Nabard assistance and Rs 1.93 crore would be spent on the construction of each bridge. |
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School
lecturers’ rally today Nurpur, December 18 Mr Vinod Choudhary and Mr Harbans Lal Acharya, president and general secretary of the Kangra district unit of the association, respectively, issued a joint statement here today. |
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