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Sunday,
March 16, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Himachal
court summons Punjab CM
No jobs
were sold, claims BJP spokesman Global
warming worries Stokes |
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Rs 519
cr for education Buddha
Mahotsava fest begins 35 HAS
officers shifted Misuse
of varsity funds alleged Tanda
college working ‘to be streamlined’ Employees offer
cooperation to govt Martyr
cremated Naik Satinder Singh cremated 458
school kids caught copying
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Himachal
court summons Punjab CM Shimla, March 15 Mr
R. S. Cheema, counsel for Captain Amarinder Singh, informed the court that the Chief Minister could not make personal appearance before the court as he was preoccupied with his official duties. Besides, he also cited security reasons for his non-appearance. The plea was opposed by Mr Sat Pal Jain, who represented Mr Dhumal, on the ground that Captain Amarinder was in the town on March 6 to participate in the oath ceremony of Mr Virbhadra Singh at Raj Bhawan and he had been campaigning in the state for the Congress in recent polls as such both the pleas did not hold good. The reasons were not genuine and only a ploy to evade personal appearance before the court. The judge rejected the plea and directed Captain Amarinder to appear before the court on April 5. Mr Motilal Vora, a senior Congress leader and Mr Anand Sharma, spokesperson of the AICC, against whom Mr Dhumal had filed a separate defamation case, however, appeared before the court. They were released on a personal bond of Rs 25000 and a matching surety. |
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No jobs were sold, claims BJP spokesman Shimla, March 15 Addressing a press conference here today he said the Congress secured mandate in Himachal by making misleading allegations. Now as that it had formed the government and even started investigation into the matter, it should refrain from repeating the charges without coming out with concrete evidence. He said the raid on the office of the state Subordinate Services Selection Board and the residence of its chairman had not yielded anything. The Chief Minister should wait for the completion of the investigation and then come out with evidence to prove that jobs were sold during the previous regime. He challenged Mr Virbhadra Singh to prove the charge. Mr Dut said that it was the Congress government which gave jobs on chits and 2910 appointments were made in this manner as revealed by the inquiry reports of the two probes ordered by the Dhumal government. Even colour- blind and the candidates who did not meet physical standards were recruited in the police. He alleged that the Congress government was indulging in political vendetta and harassing BJP workers. He said in Rampur orders had been passed for the demolition of some shops owned by BJP workers. In many cases contracts awarded had been cancelled because the contractor happened to be a BJP activist. |
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Global warming worries Stokes Shimla, March 15 Inaugurating a two-day brainstorming session on “Mountain Environment and Climatic change”, organised by the state Council of Science Technology and Environment, here yesterday, she said the phenomenon of global warming, mostly due to human activities, had set off disturbing changes in the environment which did not augur well for the mankind. She said eight of the 10 hottest years had been recorded in the last decade, the glaciers were receding at an alarming rate, the arctic ocean had lost 40 per cent of its ice cover and scientists predicted that the global temperature might rise by 1°C to 2°C if no effective measures were taken to check the green house emissions. Besides, the use of fossil fuels, which accounted for 80 to 85 per cent of
carbon dioxide emission, clearing of land for logging, ranching and agriculture were some of the factors responsible for climatic changes. Almost 16 million hectares of forest was felled every year and the green cover had already come down to 19 per cent instead of the normative 33 per cent. Mr Avay Shukla, Principal Secretary, Science and Technology, said there could be no blanket policy framework for developed and developing countries. There had to be a separate yardstick for countries like India which quite often depended on natural resources for survival. Further, the population of India had already crossed the billion mark and every single addition carried additional stress on the ever-depleting natural resources. There was need to stabilize population which had correlation with the environment, the use of natural resources and land base. India was expected to enter water stress category by 2025, ground water was being exploited even though the water table had receded to below 40 metres. The replenishment of ground water was not an easy task. He said an attempt should be made to bring the root cause of climatic changes to the fore and a strategy be evolved to suit the requirement of mountainous environment. Prof Syed Iqbal Hussain, Vice-Chancellor of University of Calicut, said organisations involved in the Himalayan Studies should identify benchmark glacier in the headwaters of Himalayan rivers and start monitoring the mass balance to check climatic signals. This was imperative in view of the proposed ambitious project of river networking. The impact of
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Rs 519 cr for education Mandi, March 15 Speaking at the 54th annual prize distribution function of the local Post Graduate Vallabh Government College, he said there were only 325 schools in the state when it came into being with literacy percentage of only 6.8. Today the state was proud of having developed a network of 14000 educational institutions, three universities, medical, engineering and dental colleges and a number of industrial training institutes. The literacy percentage had gone to 82 and the state had acquired number two position in literacy in the country. He said that the government would bring about total transparency in all matters, and jobs would be given on merit alone. The minister said that the campaign to provide free education to girls up to university level had yielded astonishing results and over two lakh girls had benefited from this. He expressed confidence that soon Himachal Pradesh would acquire first position in literacy in the country as education was one of the top priorities of the government. A sum of Rs 519.18 crore had been set apart for education, he added. Earlier, Principal Krishan Vaidya read the annual report and spoke on various achievements and activities of the college. |
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Buddha Mahotsava fest begins Mandi, March 15 Mr Virbhadra Singh said the event at the ancient lake of Rewalsar had been funded and sponsored by the Union Ministry of Tourism with the view to drawing tourists from all parts of the world. The Chief Minister said an ambitious Rs 6.53 crore integrated Buddhist Circuit Development Project, sanctioned by the Union Ministry of Tourism, had been launched to draw Buddhist pilgrims from all parts of the world. The project covered to circuits (a)
Chandigarh-Bilaspur-Rewalsar-Kulu- Manali-Rohtang-Keylong- Udaipur-Jispa-Serchu (b)
Shimla-Rampur-Sangla-Kalpa-Jangi-Pooh-Kaza-Losar- Chhota Dhara Keylong. He said Rs 55.58 lakh would be spent at Rewalsar under the project on the beautification, tourism reception centre, sanitary provisions, landscaping, parking and repair of the banks of the lake. The project would be completed by March 2004, he added. Later addressing a public meeting the Chief Minister said all efforts would be made to bring the state on world map. He said Buddhism had originated from India and spread all over the world and added that there was a tremendous potential for harnessing pilgrim tourism in the state. Expressing gratitude to people for bringing the Congress back to power with a massive majority he reiterated the commitment of the party to root out corruption and bring about transparency, clean administration and accountability in the state. Mr Rangila Ram Rao, Excise and Taxation Minister and Major Vijay Mankotia, Tourism Minister also spoke. |
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35 HAS officers shifted Shimla, March 15 Rajinder Singh Negi, Registrar, State Administrative Tribunal, has been posted Commissioner, Shimla Municipal Corporation in place of a N. Sharma, while Anita Tegta would be new Director of Ayurveda. Balbir Tegta has been posted as Managing Director, Himachal Pradesh State Cooperative Bank at Shimla while J.C. Chauhan will be the new Managing Director of Kangra State Cooperative Bank at Dharamsala. Additional Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, Shekhar Gupta has been posted as Secretary, State Electricity Board, while the Director, Primary Education, Rajinder Singh, has been posted as Director, Town and Country Planning. B.M.
Nanta, Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner, has been posted as Director, Primary Education, and Budhi Ram Verma will be the new Director of Technical Education at Sundernagar. Dinesh Malhotra, on return from training abroad, has been posted as Registrar, Himachal Pradesh University, while AMIT Kashyap has been posted as Joint Commissioner, Shimla Municipal Corporation in place of M.P. Sood who goes as Deputy Commissioner, Relief and Rehabilitation at Talwara. R.L. Mohil has been posted as Additional Director, Industries in place of Mohan Chauhan, who goes as Managing Director, Himfed. Urmila Gyan Bharti, Member Secretary, Mahila Ayog, has been given additional charge of Joint Director, Ayurveda, while Nand Lal Sharma will be Land Acquisition Officer, HPPWD, at Mandi. Amitabl Awasthi and R.S. Gupta have been posted as Additional Deputy Commissioners at Bilaspur and Mandi, respectively, while H.N. Kashyap has been posted as ADC, Karsog and Sundernagar. O.P. Sharma, ADC, Hamirpur, has been posted as Additional
Secretary to the Chief Minister and Director, Small Savings. Padam Singh Chauhan, Managing Director, Himfed has been posted as ADC, Una, while Amar Singh Rathore has been posted as Chief Executive Officer, H.P. Village Industries and Khadi Board. Prem Singh Bharadwaj has been posted as Land Acquisition Officer, HPPWD, at Kangra while Ashok Sharma will be the new Registrar, State Administrative Tribunal. Nirmal Singh Suman, Additional Secretary to the Chief Minister, has been posted as ADC, Shimla, while B.L. Raghv, Deputy
Secretary (GAD) has been posted as Assistant Commissioner (Protocol) to Deputy Commissioner, Solan, at Parwanoo.
PTI |
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Misuse of varsity funds alleged Dharamsala, March 15 The university could not pay the salaries to its employees till yesterday as funds were not available and the state Finance Department refused to bail out the university, alleging the institution had exhausted its annual budget. It was only after the intervention of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh that funds were released. But the university recently renovated the residence of the Vice-Chancellor at a huge expense and another Rs 4 lakh is being reportedly spent on renovating a room meant for the nodal officer of the NATP projects. The allegations about large-scale bungling in the purchase of computers and equipment for various projects and misutilisation of funds for air travel are subjects of intense debate amongst university employees. According to information gathered by this correspondent, more than 100 computers have been purchased from little-known firms at exorbitant prices when branded computers were available for less. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr Tej Partap, has justified the expenses on air travel, saying the funds are not out of the budget allocated by the state but out of the research funds. Similar sentiments were expressed by the Director of Research, Dr R.S. Thakur, who emphasised that there was no restriction on air travel under the NATP rules. Dr Thakur said the funds available for the NATP projects were from World Bank loan through the Indian Council of Agriculture Research, and the state government had no role in this. He said the unspent funds have to be returned to the funding agency. He accepted that in some cases, funds meant for travel under the NATP were spent when other work was conducted but hastened to add that work of projects was also done during these visits. Meanwhile a demand is being raised for a thorough inquiry into purchases and travel expenses by various investigating officers. There are allegations that the Vice-Chancellor allowed veterinary college teachers to travel by air despite objection from the college. According to sources, some locals plan to bring these allegations to the attention of the Chief Minister when the latter visits Palampur on March 19 for the concluding function of the Holi festival. |
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Tanda college working ‘to be streamlined’ Dharamsala, March 15 Talking to media persons here yesterday, Mrs Chandresh Kumari alleged that the previous government had allowed the matter of the construction of the 500-bedded hospital at Tanda to be delayed beyond reasonable time when they were aware that the building had to be completed before December 2003. She said though the MCI had accorded provisional recognition to the college till 2006, the completion of the hospital building was one of the requirements. |
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Employees offer
cooperation to govt Mandi, March 15 Addressing a news conference here today he assured Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh that employees would extend full cooperation to the government for the execution of development and power projects so that the state could achieve economic viability. He demanded that the recognition of the trade unions hand in glove with the BJP government should be withdrawn and action taken under service rules. He also called upon the government that transfers on political reasons should be stopped as these generated corruption. He pointed out that unscrupulous elements having political connections had been charging money from employees for transfers and cancellation thereof. Describing Mr Virbhadra Singh as friend of the employees he reminded that during his earlier tenure he had given benefits to the extent of Rs 300 crore despite financial constraints. He welcomed the declaration of the Chief Minister that justice would be delivered to employees victimised by the previous government. |
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Martyr cremated Hamirpur, March 15 He is survived by his wife, son, two daughters and mother. The SDM, Nadaun, and DSP, Barsar, represented the state government at the cremation of the martyr. Shops and other commercial establishments remained closed here today as a mark of respect to Subedar Daljeet Singh. |
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Naik Satinder Singh cremated
Nurpur, March 15 |
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458 school kids caught copying Kangra, March 15 Disclosing this here today, Mr Vikas Labroo, secretary of the board, who was here in connection with the raids conducted on various examination centres told this correspondent that all efforts were being made to curb the menace of copying. He said cases had been registered against those caught cheating. |
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HP order on transfers Shimla, March 15 All administrative secretaries, heads of departments and Deputy Commissioners in the state have been directed to comply with the instructions. |
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Chauhan
is Lok Janshakti chief Shimla, March 15 Mr Chauhan replaces Mr Romil Singh
Badyal, who has been made party national general secretary by Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, President of the party. Mr Chauhan has been authorised to restructure the party state unit and its executive committee.
UNI |
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Ashes of Sanyal immersed Dharamsala, March 15 Daughter of Sanyal, Ms Amba along with members of her family and residents of Andretta preformed the ceremony. The painter had wished that part of his ashes be immersed at Andretta where he had spent his formative years and was attached to the place. |
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