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BJP wins Guler Assembly seat
BJP’s regional bias, caste cards worked
Virbhadra should quit, says BJP
Virbhadra announces sops for tribal areas
Govt’s move to lease out tourism units flayed |
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Manali-Leh highway opened
Devgan, Kajol munch snacks near Parwanoo
Rei panchayat gets road link
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BJP wins Guler Assembly seat
Dharamsala, October 16 Out of the 38,853 valid votes, Mr Rana got 18,806 votes, Mr Bharti got 17,699, Sqn Ldr (retd) Lakshman Singh of the HVC got 265 votes and 604 people voted for Ms Brahmi Devi of the Bahujan Samaj Party. The two Independents, Mr Bhanu Prakash Chaudhary and Mr Subhash Chand, got 958 and 541 votes, respectively. According to the election office, 38,879 votes were cast in the byelection and 26 postal ballots were received, of which six were declared invalid. Of the total votes cast, 20,559 were by women and 18,294 by men. Among the postal ballots, 14 were for Mr Bharti and six in favour of Mr Rana. The remaining four candidates did not get any votes by way of postal ballot. In the first phase of counting, the BJP got 4,903 votes and the Congress got 2,284 out of 7,494. The margin narrowed down to 2,394 votes for the Congress and 2,347 for the BJP in the sixth round, before the BJP took the lead in the seventh and final round of counting. |
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BJP’s regional bias, caste cards worked
Shimla, October 16 Though the death of the wife of the BJP candidate, Mr Harbans Rana, during the elections did manage to get some sympathy votes for him, Congress leaders admitted that the dropping of three ministers from Kangra district during the downsizing of the Cabinet gave the BJP a clear advantage. Moreover, with not even a single Rajput MLA from Kangra being inducted in the Cabinet, the community, forming a sizeable chunk of the electorate in Guler, clearly seemed disenchanted with the Congress. It is for the first time after the 1983 Banikhet election, when the Congress lost the seat to Mr Kishori Lal of the BJP despite being in power, that a ruling party has lost a byelection. Despite extensive campaigning by the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, in Guler, Mr Neeraj Bharti, Congress candidate and son of Lok Sabha MP, Mr Chander Kumar, lost by over 1,100 votes. With two Congress rebels, Mr Bhanu Prakash Chaudhary and Mr Subhash Chand, both contesting as Independents and the HVC candidate, Mr Lakshman Singh, and the BSP nominee, Ms Brahmi Devi, all belonging to Jwali, the native place of the Congress candidate, there was a clear split in Congress votes. All five candidates put together polled almost 2,500 votes, ensuring the defeat of the Congress. The BJP’s lead of about 3,500 votes from the 17 panchayats in the Kotla belt, Mr Rana’s native area, saw the party through. On the other hand the Congress was unable to maintain its lead from the Jwali area, which was reduced to almost half. Utterances of a former Tourism Minister, Mr Vijai Mankotia, about discrimination against Kangra, did a lot of damage to the Congress. The BJP, on the other hand, was able to effectively raise the issue of discrimination with against Kangra, be it in the selection of conductors or pharmacists or development works. The presence of a former Union Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar during the campaigning, after his return from abroad, did help the BJP. Though it was basically Shanta loyalists like Mr Kishan Kapoor, Mr Ramesh Chaudhary and Mr Dulo Ram who were managing the campaign but the BJP more or less put up a united face as Dhumal loyalists pitched in their support. |
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Virbhadra should quit, says BJP
Shimla, October 16 Addressing a press conference here today, he said the Chief Minister had lost the moral right to continue in office as the people of Guler had given the mandate to the BJP. “Though Mr Virbhadra Singh should have resigned much earlier, when notices were issued to him in the alleged land scam and Sagar Katha cases, following the Congress defeat in Guler, he should step down immediately,” he demanded. Mr Sharma, said the electorate of Guler had given a befitting reply to the Congress which had raised the bogey of regionalism and dynastic rule. “Now since the poll outcome is before all of us the Congress must come out clean on issues like the MoU on fiscal reforms and the unemployment scenario in the state,” he said. Mr Sharma, further said despite misuse of official machinery and violation of the model code of conduct, the people of Guler had proved that they were no longer willing to be taken for a ride. “Contrary to the normal trend of a party in power winning byelections, the BJP victory in Guler goes to prove that people are fed up with the Congress rule,” he remarked. |
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Virbhadra announces sops for tribal areas
Shimla, October 16 The Chief Minister, who was presiding over the 34 th meeting of the State Tribal Advisory Council, here today, said the pace of development in the tribal areas would be further accelerated. “Stress is being laid on the formulation of pure development oriented plan by excluding the non-productive expenditure like salary of employees, subsidy, scholarship and pension from the plan,” he informed. He announced that a policy decision had been taken by the government to launch recruitment campaign for Class III and IV categories of employees, from the educated unemployed youth of the tribal areas. This, he said, had been done with the objective of providing employment to the people of the tribal areas and relieve employees who had completed their tenure in these areas. He said based upon population percentage, 60 to 85 per cent of such posts had been reserved for tribal candidates. The decision had been taken after taking into consideration the increased number of vacancies in different departments, especially the educational institutions in tribal areas. |
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Govt’s move to lease out tourism units flayed
Dalhousie, October 16 With this move tourism in the state is going to be discouraged and the government appears to be doing more harm than good. At present there are many such units, which have either been closed or are running at a loss, thanks to the apathy of authorities concerned. In Chamba district, there are two places nearing closure, Shradhanjali Cafe at Panjpulla in Dalhousie and Geetanjali Cafe at Dhundhiara, 15 km from Dalhousie. Even Champak Hotel, Chamba, on the verge of being closed down or leased out to a private entrepreneur. According to official sources, these cafeterias are lying closed for a long time due to shortage of staff. Moreover, no incentive is given to tour operators as well as tourists to visit these places. The tourism outlets of the HPTDC are having good infrastructure and trained staff, which can be utilised on commercial lines. It is high time that the government give proper thought and start these ventures, thus earning revenue and providing employment to the locals. |
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Manali-Leh highway opened
Mandi, October 16 The trucks and buses that had got stranded in 3-foot snow at the
13,048 feet high Rohtang Pass were retrieved and left the place for their destinations. Talking to The Tribune Mr Rameshwar Sharma, SDM, Manali, said the GREF that maintains the highway had cleared it around 7 pm yesterday. However, the trucks and buses stranded at Rohtang Pass for the past five days restricted the movement of traffic. “The vehicles, including those which participated in the Raid De Himalayas Rally last week, had moved to their respective destinations after coming from the Lahaul valley since last evening”, he said. Officials said potato transportation was resumed today and all the produce would hit the market in a few days without much damage. |
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Devgan, Kajol munch snacks near Parwanoo
Solan, October 16 Much to the surprise of the restaurant staff, the star couple preferred a range of fruit juices, including plum and apple, and tasted some famous pickles produced locally. The star-duo carefully avoided any noon-vegetarian stuff or cooked food.They were returning from Shimla after the shooting of “Dil Mera Torro Naa.” |
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Rei panchayat gets road link
Chamba, October 16 According to an official spokesman, the road was constructed at a cost of 51 lakh. The state government has also speeded up the construction of the Sugalbus bridge in the Purthi belt and an irrigation scheme for Shaur village in the Pangi valley. |
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