Shimla, April 1
Mrs Vidya Stokes, Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee Chief, today demanded an apology from Gujarat Chief Minister, Narender Modi, for uncharitable remarks against Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Congress president, and Mr Rahul Gandhi.

Talking to newsmen here, said the entry of Rahul Gandhi into elections people’s response to the road shows of the Gandhi’s had created panic in the BJP and utterances of its leaders reflected their frustration. They were sensing with “feel good” gimmick failing to make any impact on the electorate they were resorting to personal attacks on the Gandhis.

She said personal attacks were part of the NDA’s election game plan and Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr L.K. Advani, were party to it. The strategy was to allow leaders like Mr Vinay Katiyar and Mr Modi to heap invectives on Congress leadership, while Mr Vajpayee and other senior leaders keep calling for retrain just for public consumption.

Dharamsala, April 1
The Congress candidate from Kangra, Prof Chander Kumar, today formally launched his election campaign from Sulah. He addressed a gathering of party workers from Sulah at Thakurdwara and later another meeting at Baijnath.

Welcoming Prof Chander Kumar, Sulah MLA Jagjiwan Paul blamed the government at the centre and the previous state government for ignoring the interests of the poor. He claimed that the BJP government in the state was corrupt.

Prof Chander Kumar said at Sulah that while the BJP had blamed the Congress for all ills, the foreign and economic policies of the Congress were still being followed. He accused the Vajpayee government of bowing to US pressure.

Revenue Minister B.B.L. Butail said the Vajpayee government was the weakest in Indian history. He asked Mr Shanta Kumar to give an account of crores collected for Vivekanand Trust, of which he was life chairman. He said allegations of financial irregularities had been levelled by a trustee.

Kulu, April 1
The expelled Congress leaders, if taken back, will only be the “associate members’ and not even primary members in Himachal Pradesh. This was stated by Mr Raj Krishan Gaur, Agriculture Minister at a press conference yesterday at Planet Food at Dhalpur here. Mr Gaur, along with other senior leaders, including the president of the constituency Congress committee, said that they would welcome the readmission of the rebels and abide by the instructions of the “high command”. Mr Gaur refuted the charge of the BJP, that the Congress party was a house divided and said that the election of Mr Anand Sharma to the Rajya Sabha had proved unity in the party.

Shimla, April 1
Mr Suresh Bhardwaj, state BJP chief, alleged today that the financial health of the government had worsened over the past one year because of wrong fiscal policies of Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, who had failed to curtail expenditure or mobilise additional resources.

In a press note, he said the government had been forced to borrow funds from various boards and corporations to meet its day-to-day expenditure. He said yesterday, the government took Rs 18 crore from the state electricity board and school education board. The two institutions were forced to prematurely encash their fixed deposits to bail out the government, he added.

He said a government which could not raise funds to meet its liabilities was not expected to do much on the development front. Development activities had come to a halt ever since it came to power and special assistance of Rs 553 crore given by the Vajpayee government had failed to improve the situation, he claimed.

Dharamsala, April 1
Former Himachal Agriculture Minister Vidya Sagar today announced the merger of his Jan Hit Morcha into the BJP and took a pledge to mobilise other backward classes’ support for former Union Minister Shanta Kumar, seeking re-election from Kangra.

Mr Sagar made this announcement following revocation of his suspension by state BJP president Suresh Bhardwaj yesterday.

Shimla, April 1
Mr P.K. Dhumal, a former Chief Minister, said here today that the Congress failed to safeguard the vital national interests. The country would have lost Kargil to Pakistan had it been in power in 1999, he said.

Reacting to a statement of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, he said the Army had always won on the battlefront, but the spineless Congress regimes frittered away the gains. The Kashmir problem would not have been there had Jawaharlal Nehru not stopped the Army from pushing back the Pakistani forces that were on the run.

Further ,in 1962, it was because of the inaction of the Nehru government that the country lost a large chunk of its territory to China which could not be regained till today, he said. In contrast, in 1965, when Lal Bahadur Shastri was the Prime Minister, the country gave a befitting reply to Pakistan in the battlefield.

Palampur, April 1
The appointment of the new Vice-Chancellor of H.P. Agricultural University here is likely to be delayed by two months because of the Lok Sabha elections and the model code of conduct. Official sources said here today that Chancellor V.S. Kokjee was in no hurry in this regard and final decision would be taken after the elections.

Shimla, April 1
Concerned over the increasing incidents of leopards invading the human settlements, attacking human beings and cattle, the Wildlife Department has decided to conduct a fresh cat census to formulate a plan to reduce animal-human conflict.

The exercise will be carried out simultaneously in the entire state on June 16. The second headcount of monkeys will also be conducted along with it.

Prowling leopards have been giving sleepless nights to people in the state, particularly in the lower hill areas of Kangra, Hamirpur and Mandi. Over the past seven years, leopards have killed 27 persons, including 13 in the past three years. Leopard falls in the category of highly protected species. Killing them is an offence under the Wildlife Act. With protective measures in place, their population has been steadily increasing.

The last cat census was carried out in 1997. Now, latest data was required to work out long-term plans to find a permanent solution to the problem. There were only 199 leopards in 1984 when the first cat census was conducted. The number increased to 539 in 1989 and to 1,004, including 32 snow leopards, in 1997.

Dharamsala, April 1
Mr Ashwani Guleria, who had been allotted contract for collecting tax at Kandwal toll barrier and which was later cancelled has threatened to immolate himself outside the house of a minister in Dharamsala if the contract was not given to him.

Nurpur, April 1
The sharp decline in sex ratio in Kangra district, particularly in the Nurpur subdivision, has caused concern among the health authorities, notwithstanding a blanket ban on pre-natal sex determination tests by the state government. A recent survey conducted by the Health and Family Welfare Department revealed that the sex ratio of females had come down to 836 as compared to 1000 males in Kangra district followed by 820:1000 in Nurpur. The survey was conducted on 0 to 6 year-old kids. Intriguingly, the adult population sex ratio was reported to be 1027 females as compared to 1000 males in the district. It obviously vindicates rampant pre-natal sex determination tests followed by female foeticides in the region.

As a sequel, disproportionate male and female ratio had been reported. Significantly, there was a provision of punishing the owners of the clinics having ultrasound scanning machines indulging in pre-natal sex determination tests but so far not a single case had been reported to the police in the region.

It had been noticed that people used to visit private clinics at Pathankot for sex determination tests as well as termination of pregnancies. Before the enactment of the law to deal with the menace, private clinics at Pathankot were charging Rs 500 only but now the rate per pre-natal sex determination had shot up to Rs 2000. The tests were being conducted clandestinely with oral reports only. The unabated sex determination tests had virtually encouraged a fall in female sex ratio in this bordering subdivision.

Kumarhatti, April 1
The Dharampur-Subathu road — oldest main road of region —needs repairs. Besides residents, Dharampur panchayat has sought repair of the road but to not avail. “Our efforts to persuade the PWD to repair the road have failed and now we do not know who to approach in this regard”, rued panchayat members.

Built in 1814, the 15-km-long road is the oldest link connecting Shimla with the rest of the world. It carries traffic of the 14 Gorkha Training Centre at Subathu and vehicles carrying cement from Gujarat Ambuja Cement plant at Darlaghat, besides tourists. The road is also used as an alternative route to Solan and Shimla when the Kalka-Shimla highway is blocked.

Shimla, April 1
The Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam has created a record by commissioning all six 250 MW units of the Nathpa Jhakri hydro-electric project within six months.

The six units was synchronised with the northern power grid yesterday. With this, 1500 MW capacity has been added to the grid.

Nahan, April 1
With the arrest of four more persons yesterday, the police has arrested nine persons in the past 56 hours in connection with the murder of two Scheduled Caste persons in Motipur village of Pacchad tehsil in the district. They were beaten to death on Saturday night.

Mandi, April 1
The police has seized over 6 kg of charas and 2 kg of opium in the district. Cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act have been registered.

Disclosing this here yesterday, Mr Ajay Yadav, SP, said a raid was conducted on the house of Shiv Dass of Bhambla village in Sarkaghat sub-division on Tuesday and 2 kg of charas was recovered.