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Friday,
May 30, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Judicial officers’ case: HC calls Coop bank under VB’s fire Federation alleges interference by Dhumal
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SSSB job scam: houses of 3 searched Train mishap: crew acquitted after 11 years Couple
held for murder Fires engulf Palampur forests
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Judicial officers’ case: HC calls Chief Secretary Shimla, May 29 A Division Bench comprising Mr Chief Justice Vinod Kumar Gupta and Mr Justice Kuldeep Chand Sood today observed that the government was unnecessarily complicating a very simple issue by doing away with the three years experience as the eligibility criteria for the recruitment in the HP Judicial services. The High Court on May 15, 2003, had directed the government to amend the rules regarding the eligibility and had directed the public service commission to complete the process of filling the posts in a stipulated period. The state government today filed an application in the court, expressing its inability to comply with the orders within two weeks and sought more time. The government stated in the application about the resolution passed by the state legislature on March 26 this year and further stated that the matter was also taken up in the apex court. The application suggests that the government wants to place the matter again before the Vidhan Sabha. There was no averment in the application with regard to disagreement with the directions of the Supreme Court with regard to eligibility criteria, but the centre of the controversy was the apex court’s direction about the payment of enhanced salary to judicial officers. The Bench observed that this application was a clumsy attempt on the state government’s part, both to mislead the court as also not to comply with and implement the court’s directions passed on May 15, 2003. The court observed that this was a deliberate and purposeful noncompliance of its order and that of the apex court by the state government and called for the initiation of action against the government and its functionaries. |
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Coop bank under VB’s fire Shimla, May 29 The Vigilance Department has initiated a preliminary inquiry into the recruitment of clerks in January 2003, before assembly elections, on the basis of a complaint. The management of the bank has been asked to handover the entire record of the selections made on the basis of a written test held in September 2002, followed by personal interviews on January 5, 2003. The charges include that certain favoured candidates were selected on fictitious certificates against the 36 posts reserved for trained secretaries of cooperative societies. Out of these, 29 posts were under the quota for the primary agriculture cooperative credit societies and seven for other cooperative societies. Besides this, it was also alleged that those who had qualified the written tests were not called for interview held a couple of days before the code of conduct for elections came into force. The complaint was lodged by one of the candidates, Mr Vijay Kumar of Kumarsain. Meanwhile, the probe into the scams has made much headway and it has been established that the guest house hired by the university at Panchkula belonged to Mr Devinder Kumar, a son of Dr Suraj Bhan, a former Governor of the state. The university authorities rejected a well-furnished accommodation with facilities like television and air conditioner and chose to hire the unfurnished house at a rent at Rs 27,000 per month. Thereafter, about Rs 3 lakh were spent furnishing it. Thereafter the accommodation was not used at all. The vigilance agency had sought a written reply to its queries pertaining to various scams from Dr S.D. Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, where his direct or indirect involvement is suspected. He has been categorically asked whether the security press in, which question papers were published, had been changed after his taking over or was the proprietor of the printing press was related to him in anyway. Other queries pertained to diversion of Rs 20 lakh from the NRI fund, meant, for development, the printing of question papers, the increase in printing expenses from Rs 18 lakh to Rs 55 lakh and the errors in question papers. It was also revealed during investigation that the decision of the Vice-Chancellor to entrust the work pertaining examination to a Deputy Registrar in his own office was against the statutes of the university. It was the responsibility of the Controller of Examination as per the statutes. |
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Federation alleges interference by Dhumal Shimla, May 29 Addressing a joint press conference here today, the leaders said a meeting of the federal committee was convened at Jwalamukhi to decide the dates for the elections, but Mr Ganga Singh, the president of the federation, announced deferment against the wishes of delegates. They said the elections would be held at any cost and they had already asked the affiliated departmental associations and district bodies to complete the process by July 31. In case Mr Ganga Singh failed to declare the schedule, they would go ahead with the election of the state body, they added. Denying the charge of victimisation of employees levelled by Mr Ganga Singh, they said as compared to 1.40 lakh transfers during the Dhumal regime, the present government had shifted only 2 per cent employees. Some unwarranted transfers, which were apparently carried out at the behest of self-styled employees leaders, were cancelled after the matter was brought to the notice of the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh. They urged Mr Virbhadra Singh not to order any transfers at the instance of employees leaders as it was not their job. They alleged that the federation was politicised during the Dhumal regime and employees leaders were forced to issue statements in the favour of the BJP. |
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PFC reduces interest rate on loans Manali, May 29 Expressing his views at the inaugural function of the one-day meeting of the PFC here today, the minister said that the reduction in the rate of interest would be effective from June 1. In another significant announcement, the Power Minister said that the term for the repayment of the loan for hydro-power projects, too, would be extended from 10 to 15 years, and the moratorium would go up to 20 years. He further added that despite efforts being made by the government to ensure power facility to all states in the country, 45 per cent people were without power. Mr Geete pointed out that transmission and distribution losses were the main reasons behind the loss being faced by the state power boards and corporations, for which the PFC was taking effective measures. He said the Centre was committed to set up power projects generating 50000 mw power, and added that this was possible if there was better rapport between the Centre and the states. He said that new sub-stations were required to be set up to reduce the transmission losses. The minister said that the PFC now figured among the top 10 profitable PSUs in the country. The PFC enjoyed good rapport with all its clientele, which was reflected in the high recovery rate of 99 per cent with nil non-performing assets (NPAs). Ms Jayanti Ben Mehta, Union Minister of State for Power, said the PFC was performing a significant role in the all-round development by providing loans at liberal interest rates to the hydel-power projects, non-conventional projects and mini-micro power projects in the country. Ms Vidya Stokes, Minister for Multi Purpose Power of the state, urged the PFC to finance the hydel projects on a priority basis. |
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SSSB job scam: houses of 3 searched Una, May 29 The houses of Dilbag Singh of Dehlan village, Pawan Chandla of Chalola village and Dr Rakesh Awasthi of Baduhi were raided, SP (Vigilance) Mr Gianeshwar Singh said that documents related the case were recovered from one house but he did not name the accused. He also said that Puran Chand of Dathwara and Satish Purohit, a resident of the Kutleharh constituency, were also summoned by the Vigilance Department, but let off later. Sudhir Nishchal Chadda who was arrested by the police while he was offering Rs 50,000 as bribe to a DSP probing the SSSB scam. He was produced in a court after three days’ remand. The court extended his remand by two days. There was commotion in the court room when Sudhir Nishchal Chadda placed an application before the court. This application signed by him and addressed to the court a copy of which was marked to SP Una was read out in the court. The accused in his application had requested the court to take action against a bureaucrat working in the then Chief Minister’s Office during the BJP regime and a brother of former BJP minister who, as per application, had received a large some of money from him, but failed to provide a jobs as promised. The application was not placed on record and was returned to the accused since an application written by an accused in police custody had no meaning. The court remarked that the application should have been moved by the counsel of the accused. The court ordered that the accused be allowed to meet his counsel twice a day between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Till the filing of this report three persons whose houses were searched yesterday and were being interrogated have not been arrested by the police. |
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Train mishap: crew acquitted after 11 years Jawali (Nurpur), May 29 The police had registered a case under Sections 304A, 337 and 338 of the IPC against Railway crew members for negligence and rash driving which led to the mishap. After hearing the case for over 11 years the court observed that the complainants failed to prove the charges mentioned in the FIR. |
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Couple held for murder Kangra, May 29 District police Chief Zahadhi said today that a DAV school teacher Arvind Dogra of Khera village whose body was found under a heap of stones in a forest near Paplah yesterday was killed by a young couple for money. He said that Arvind Dogra was called by the couple to see a fair. He left his home on a scooter (HP 56 0700) at 1.30 pm on Tuesday last but did not return. He said the police suspected Vishal alias Munoo (29), and his wife Vavlesh Kumari’s involvement in the murder. Both confessed that the couple planned to kill Arvind for money from his parents. The SSP said that couple confessed that when Arvind on their call reached Paplah, Vishal told him that a girl was waiting for him nearby. When Arvind moved in the husband hit on the head of the victim and the couple strangled him and smashed his
face. OC |
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Fires engulf Palampur forests Palampur, May 29 According to reports, pine forests in the Kandi, Paror and Gopalpur areas were burnt this afternoon. Pine forests near Thural and Khera were also on fire since the last evening. Villagers had made efforts to control the blaze, but did not succeed due to heavy rains. According to another report, pine forest near Baijnath also caught fire last night. Later, staff of the Forest Department managed to control the fire. In another incident, a forest, near Chobin, was also burnt this morning. The fire had engulfed the entire area till the filing of this story. Talking to mediapersons, a senior forest officer said the department was not getting cooperation from villagers to check the forest fires. The villagers are also the right holders of these forests. He said with the rise in temperature, the forest fires were spreading and all efforts were being made to check these. Field staff of the Forest Department was also working round-the-clock to control fires, he added. |
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Posthumous honour for bravery Shimla, May 29 A communiqué from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs said that her name had been approved for the award for her act of bravery. Biasa Devi saved Meera Devi (16) and Pushpa Devi (14) from being washed away by a strong current while bathing in the river on June 16,2002. She jumped into the river even though she did not know how to swim. She pulled her friends out of the river but herself was drowned. Her name figures on the top of the list of those awarded the Uttam Jeewan Raksha Padak posthumously. The award will be given to her father Mr Ram Singh at New Delhi. It also carries cash award of Rs 30,000. |
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