Shimla, December 3
Mr Sohan Lal was today re-elected as Mayor amid a virtual revolt in the Congress with seven elected and three nominated councillors resigning from the party.

The state Cabinet had turned down the proposal for extending the term of the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor to five years.

Mr Shashi Shekhar was elected Deputy Mayor.

Though the 17 Congress councillors abided by the party choice as far as the fielding of candidates for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor was concerned, later 10 of them lodged their protest by resigning from the party. They submitted their resignations to Mr Amar Nath Bajwaria at the HPCC office.

The councillors are Mr Shashi Shekhar, Mr Ashok Sood, Mr Harish Janartha, Mrs Mala Singh, Mr Devinder Chauhan, Ms Maya Kataria and Ms Archana Dhawan. The nominated members who quit are Mr Om Prakash, Mr Inder Lakhanpal and Mrs Kusum Chauhan.

Later, all 10 councillors met the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, to lodge their protest against the selection of Mr Sohan Lal and handed over their resignations. “We have honoured the verdict of the high command by voting for Mr Sohan Lal but since we are committed to our people, we have resigned from the party as he is not acceptable to the people,” said Mr Ashok Sood.

Echoing similar sentiments, Mr Shekhar said after resigning from the Congress, they would be free of the party whip and could raise issues as per the wishes of the electorate. They added that it was under pressure from the public that they took such a step.

Mr Sohan Lal defeated the BJP Councillor, Mr Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, as he got 15 votes against the five polled by the latter.

Councillors, Digvijay and Mr Rajeev Thakur were absent while two votes were declared invalid for the election of the Mayor.

In the morning, the HPCC chief, Mr Kuldeep Kumar, Irrigation Minister, Kaul Singh Thakur, and Food and Supplies Minister, Singhi Ram, met the councillors to seek their opinion. It is learnt that though not many of them were keen on giving a second tenure to Mr Sohan Lal, with the active support of the local legislator, Mr Harbhajan Singh Bhajji, there was consensus on his name.

Shimla, December 3
The Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, said today that special children need to be given equal opportunities by society so that they could lead a secure and normal life.

Mr Virbhadra Singh was speaking at a function organised to celebrate World Disabled Day, here today. He said the government had opened three schools in Shimla, Mandi and Dharamsala for providing educational to these special children.

“These children should be encouraged to lead a normal life, which can be possible only if every section of society offers them equal opportunities,” he stressed. He emphasised that the efforts of the government could bring about results only with the active support and help of the voluntary organisations. He lauded the services being rendered by NGOs, social service groups and individuals who were helping the cause of these children.

He said the government had started production of artificial limbs at Indira Gandhi Medical College here with the help of the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. “The government has identified 64,000 handicapped persons in the state who were being provided various benefits, including social security pensions, he added.

The Chairman, State Human Rights Commission, Justice N.K. Jain, said the society should provide a free environment and have a positive attitude towards these special children.

Shimla, December 3
Unfavourable weather conditions have delayed the start of the ice skating session this season, much to the disappointment of the winter sports lovers.

With snow becoming increasingly scarce due to rapid degradation of environment, ice skating is the main attraction for winter revellers who throng the queen of hills in large numbers. As the water is frozen naturally in the rink, much depends on the weather. Normally a thick layer of ice covers the Asia’s oldest natural ice skating rink by November 25 and the regular session commences on December 1.

However, this year the water has not even started freezing even in the first week of December because of relatively high temperature. The temperature dipped to almost freezing point for the first time last night raising hope that water will start freezing, provided the sky remains clear, particularly during night. It will take at least three to four days to have a sufficiently thick layer of ice to start the regular session.

Mr Bhuvnesh Banga, secretary of the Shimla Ice Skating Club, is confident of the session commencing next week. The recent spell of rain and sleet have cooled the atmosphere and it will certainly help water freeze naturally. A week-long spell of snow in the tribal areas and other higher reaches in the second week of October caused the temperature to dip sharply and ice skating lovers were expecting an early start to the season. However, the weather changed abruptly and the average temperature was higher than normal in November, he points out.

There was a time when the mercury plunged below the freezing point towards the end of October and as many as 150 sessions of skating were possible in a season. During the peak season the temperature plunged to 13°C below the freezing point. However, these days it seldom falls below minus 5°C.

Further, a large portion of the rink has been exposed to sun due to felling of trees on the hill side. As a result the effective area of the rink has been reduced considerably and much fewer evening sessions are possible.

The rink is being give a new look. The old pavillion has been demolished and a new one was nearing completion.

Mandi, December 3
The Indian Council of Conservation Institutes (ICCI), Lucknow, a division of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), has come to the rescue of Himachal’s rare paintings, manuscripts and other artifacts which are rotting here.

Though the ICCI has begun a move, the state’s Art Language and Cultural Department has yet to send its District Language and Cultural Officer to see the artifacts.

Referring to a story published in The Tribune on November 25, the Director-General, ICCI, Dr O.P. Agrawal, shot a letter to Mr Dinu Kashyap, brother of the late Chandra Mani Kashyap who had set the art museum, saying that they would be sending an expert to prepare a report on the museum and then prepare a project to protect the artifacts.

Dr Agrawal has told Mr Kashyap that if desired the ICCI would be glad to assist in the conservation of art objects in the museum. “In the first instance we shall prepare a condition report,” he added.

The Delhi centre of the ICCI has started work to restore the historic Radha Krishna Temple at Pragpur, Kangra, and had submitted a project report on the conservation of the HP State Library, Shimla, to the state government.

Mr Kashyap, president of the HP Progressive Writers Association, said they had yet to see an official from the states Art, Language and Culture Department. “We need space to house the museum in the town,” he said.

The Director of Art, Language and Culture, Mr Prem Sharma, said he would ask for the report on the museum from the District Language Officer, Mandi.

Dalhousie, December 3
The scion of the erstwhile state of Chamba, Brijendra Singh, and owner of Jandrigat Palace has lodged an FIR saying that a theft had taken place in the palace.

On December 1, he came to the palace, which he visits occasionally and found the locks of the main gate broken. Articles worth over Rs 50,000 were missing.

The ASP, Mr N.D. Sharma, said here today that a case had been registered under Sections 457 and 380, IPC. A manhunt had also been launched to nab the thieves.

Mr Brijendra Singh is the husband of Mrs Asha Kumari, State Education Minister.