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BJP, Cong men clash over bridge opening CM lays stone of drinking water scheme Govt taking populist steps, says Cong leader Promise of medical seat costs man 22 lakh Cops to sport
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Four engineers suspended on fraud charge Housing board to be
upgraded Rupees 100 crore sanctioned by the Prime Minister, for the expansion of the Kulu-Manali airport at Bhuntar 10 km could not be made use in this financial year for want of technical approval from the Department of Water Resources and Projects and plants by the IIT Roorkee. Mandi, January 9 Gohar block in the district was selected for setting up as many as 30 hydrams of the total 57 sanctioned for 10 blocks of the district. The fertile Gohar valley is being irrigated by a network of gravity channels for harnessing the water of Juni Khad. Quake in Dharamsala Suspension order of Sangroli revoked
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BJP, Cong men clash over bridge opening Lambloo (Hamirpur) January 9 The foundation stone of this bridge had been laid by the former BJP Chief Minister and local MLA, Prem Kumar Dhumal on February 17, 2002. In all, a sum of Rs 88 lakh was to be spent for the construction of the bridge along with a road leading from Lambloo to Thankri under the PMGS
Yojna. The situation was tense since morning and Hamirpur police personnel led by DSP Madan Lal and SDM
B.R. Kaundel were on duty to prevent any clash between both parties as well as to stop the inauguration ceremony. The administration had put up a road-roller on the main road leading to the bridge to block it. However, a group of BJP workers led by Mr Prithi Singh, former president of the Bamsan Mandal performed the inaugural ceremony from a distance and declared the bridge open for traffic amidst slogan raising. Congress workers present there raised counter slogans and both groups crossed the bridge, raising slogans in favour of their respective parties. Mr Kuldip Singh
Pathania, former Congress MLA who also reached the spot along with his supporters blasted the BJP leaders and workers for trying to perform the inaugural ceremony of the bridge. He said the BJP had no right to inaugurate it as the government was of the Congress and moreover it was to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister on January 13. The situation became tense and workers of both parties clashed with each other when a bus came near the bridge and one of the BJP workers climbed on to it along with a party flag and raised pro-BJP slogans. This was strongly objected to by Congress workers who also climbed on to the bus and snatched the flag from the BJP worker and pushed him. Later the flag was burnt and thrown into the khad by Congress workers. Mr Pyere Lal Sharma, Hamirpur district BJP chief and Mr Ajay Sharma, a senior BJYM leader of the district today strongly condemned the let loose operation performed by the Congress workers at Kandola bridge site. Both leaders alleged that Congress leaders and workers had resorted to hooliganism. BJP leaders and workers held a rally here and warned the Congress not to resort to such tactics. However, Ms Prem
Kaushal, a former mandal president of the Mewa Congress Party and Kuldip Singh
Pathania, former Congress MLA described the allegations of the BJP leaders and workers as baseless. Mr Madan Lal, DSP, Hamirpur, said no case had been made out against any one on this issue so far. |
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CM lays stone of drinking water scheme
Dharamsala, January 9 The Chief Minister, who arrived here on a 17-day visit, said that ineligible and unqualified persons, including relatives of ministers, were given jobs without following the due process, and as many as 2,415 recommendations were sent from the Chief Minister’s office for selecting and rejecting the candidates to various recruiting authorities. He said that two cases of the misuse of power had already been filed against the former Chairman of the State Subordinate Services Selection Board, while three more cases would be filed shortly. The Chief Minister said that the BJP government recruited 200 doctors from outside when doctors were available in the state, and some of the doctors were allegedly having fake degrees or their degrees were not recognised by the Medical Council of India. He said that he had asked the Health Minister to verify all such degrees and take appropriate action in case of fake or non-recognised degrees. Earlier, the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone of a Rs 35.46-lakh drinking water scheme for the lower Dharamsala area and the second phase of the Rs 1.38-crore housing colony for the staff of the school Board at Sidhbari. The Chief Minister announced that Government School at Sidhbari would be upgraded as high school from this year and sanctioned Rs 5 lakh for a playground. He, however, did not accept the demand of Health Minister Chandresh Kumari, who represents Dharamsala, for a separate development block but assured that after the delimitation of the Vidhan Sabha seats, development blocks would also be reorganised and each constituency would have one block. The Chief Minister, who landed at the Gaggal airport, was given a rousing welcome by people.
— PTI and OC |
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Govt taking populist steps, says Cong leader Hamirpur, January 9 He said this while addressing party workers at a sammelan in Phagoti village of the district, located on the borders of Bilaspur district. Nearly 600 party workers and others were present in the sammelan. Prominent among those present were Rajendra Zar, general secretary, HP Congress party, Chander Mohan, president, HP Sevadal, Mr Balak Ram Sharma, district Congress chief. However, none from the camp of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was present in the sammelan. The Congress leader flayed the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre for taking populist decisions to grab the power. He said that no party was able to win elections without the support of its workers. Mr Rajendra Zar, Mr Balak Ram Sharma and other party leaders also addressed the sammelan and supported certain demands of local people. |
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Promise of medical seat costs man 22 lakh Kangra, January 9 The district police chief, Mr S. Zahoor H. Zaidi, today said the case was registered at the Nurpur police station following a direction of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Nurpur, under Section 156-3. He said the complainant, Mr Ranjeet Singh of Dapkaur, had filed a case in the ACJM’s court complaining that he was defrauded by three persons of Rs 22.5 lakh which he had paid them for getting his son admitted in a medical college in Bangalore. The police, following the court’s direction, registered a case under Sections 420, 465, 468, 471, 474, 120B and 34, IPC, against three suspects, Kulbushan Singh of Watari Jammu, Ravinder Kumar Baba of Haldwani, UP, and Swami Sewa Lal of SJES campus, Bangalore, in Karnataka, on the charge of defrauding the complainant of Rs 22.5 lakh. The complainant could not get his son admitted to a medical college in Bangalore despite the payment allegedly made by him. The police said investigation was in progress and no arrests had been made as yet. |
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Cops to sport
new uniform Shimla, January 9 Mr A.K. Puri, Director-General of Police, told mediapersons here today that the department had been trying hard to change the traditional image of the men in khaki. A new uniform would go a long way in achieving this along with the other steps like innovative community policing, internal vigilance to curb corruption, reward for efficiency ensuring transparency in the functioning of the department and separation of law and order and investigation wings at the police station level. He said law and order had been under control in the state and emphasis was now on social policing like saving the youth from the evil influence of drugs and ensure greater safety on roads as many people died in accidents. On an average, 123 murders took place in the state every year during the past 10 years. However, in 2003 alone 619 persons died in road accidents and 126 were murdered. There had been a marked increase in the cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act from 96 in 1998 to 310 in 2003. The police adopted a twin approach to curb the drug menace. Besides, launching intensive drives to nab drug peddlers, it also destroyed opium and cannabis crops in large areas of Kulu and Mandi districts. By the end of 2003, crops over 2990 bighas had been destroyed and 422.19 kg of charas, 36.67 kg of opium and 1673 kg of poppy husk seized. The crime against women declined with the number of cases coming down from 1032 in 2001 to 801 in 2003. There was an increase in offences like eve-teasing and cases under the Dowry Prohibition Act and Immoral Traffic Prevention Act. The cases of rape declined from 137 in 2002 to 126 in 2003 and those of kidnapping and abduction declined from 138 in 2002 to 113 in 2003. School and college girls were being imparted training martial arts like judo and karate and upto December 2003, as many as 10,580 girls had been trained. Another preventive step being taken was to introduce the pre-paid taxi system in all tourist resorts as there were a lot of complaints of overcharging and misbehaviour by taxi operators. The other steps included highway patrolling to check drunken driving and overspeeding. |
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Four engineers suspended on fraud charge Shimla, January 9 Three other officers — Mr Ashok Parwan, Executive Engineer, Mr Ajay Sharma, assistant engineer, and Mr D.R. Sood, assistant engineer (retired), will also be proceeded against in the case. An inquiry ordered by the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, revealed many irregularities like excessive expenditure of Rs 1.35 crore over and above the approved estimates of Rs 1.25 crore, frequent change of road alignment both on the hill and valley sides leading to the construction of many retaining walls and breast walls and adoption of non-engineering practices without obtaining approval from the competent authority. The findings of the inquiry conducted by Mr Ranjodh Singh, Superintendent Engineer (Design), Dharamsala, prima facie proved that while executing the work at the site, both horizontal and vertical alignments had been shifted towards valley side, resulting in the construction of a number of additional retaining and breast walls. The vertical alignment had also been lowered ranging from 2 m to 6 m resulting in extra cutting of the hill. Neither technical control was exercised to construct the road as per the approved drawings nor approval of the competent authority for deviation of works obtained. Cost revision was also not got approved from Nabard, the funding agency. The Public Works Department has also been directed to take corrective measures so that this road is completed on priority. |
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Housing board to be
upgraded Shimla, January 9 Stating this here today, Mr Mukesh Agnihottari, Chief Parliamentary secretary and in charge of the housing portfolio, said that the proposal to amend the state housing board Act would be put before the cabinet during its meeting on January 14 at Dharamsala. At present, the Board did not have any powers to take action against encroachers or regulate the construction activity. As a result, it was finding it difficult to remove encroachments and illegal constructions. Keeping in view the response of entrepreneurs to the new industrial policy, the Board had decided to carve out new industrial areas at Baddi in Solan district and Taliwal in Una district. The Board, which met today, had given the go-ahead to acquire 300 bighas in Baddi. In all, 101 industrial plots were proposed to be developed. The Board also decided to entrust the task of preparing detailed project report for the proposed new township at Vakanaghat to HUDCO. |
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Airport extension hangs fire Kulu, January 9 The Deputy Commissioner said that it was agreed that a bridge across the river would be more feasible for which IIT Roorkee had been studying 1000 years’ record of the behaviour of the river. He added that the bridge was considered feasible water level during the highest food of 1995 was below the required height. He however, added that the design of dimensions of the bridge on which the runway and airstrip would come up would be provided by IIT Roorkee for which CDs’ were required from the ‘Remote Sensing Centre’ Hyderabad, provided by the Himachal Government to IIT
Roorkee. He said the final report from IIT Roorkee was expected by January end 2004. Mr
R.K. Bhandari, Senior Aerodrome officer at Kulu-Manali airport said the work on the apron, taxi track and parking tarmac was on and the Airport authority of India (AAI) would construct the new terminal building after the completion of the ongoing works of taxi track. He added that the bridge for the extension of the runway would be constructed after technical clearance of design and plan was received. He told that the land required for the extension of the runway up to 6000 feet, has to be allocated to the AAI by the Himachal government though funds for the expansion have been sanctioned by the Union Government. |
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Hydram machinery lying idle Mandi, January 9 The fertile Gohar valley is being irrigated by a network of gravity channels for harnessing the water of Juni Khad. There was hardly any justification for installing hydrams there. Consequently machinery worth several lakhs is rusting outside the office of Block Development Officer, Gohar. As many as 57 hydrams had been sanctioned for Mandi district in 2000. At that time, of the 25 hydrams installed only 17 were functional. The installation cost of a hydram roughly works out to Rs 2,24,300. Of this farmers have to contribute a sum of Rs 24300 by way of voluntary labour. The balance of Rs 2 lakh is provided by the bank as loan and subsidy on the 50: 50 basis. In other words for installing a hydram a subsidy of Rs 1 lakh is given, of which 75 per cent is shared by the Centre and 25 per cent by the state government. The balance of Rs 1 lakh is loan given to the beneficiaries of the scheme at a nominal interest. |
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Quake in Dharamsala
Dharamsala, January 9 No loss of life or property was reported and the intensity of the tremors was measured at 2.7 on the Richter scale by the Wadia Himalayan Studies Institute and the epicentre of the quake was 15 to 40 km north-east of Dharamsala. During the past one and a half months, the Dharamsala area has been rocked by earthquake for the sixth time but the redeeming feature was that the intensity of the tremors was low.
— PTI |
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Suspension order of Sangroli revoked Shimla, January 9 He was suspended in July along with several other employee leaders on the basis of statements given in support of one political party or other
during elections to the Shimla Municipal Corporation. |
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