 |
|
Charges framed against Education Minister
HC notices on bad condition of HP
Dhumal concerned at decline in Assembly
sessions
Reduced water discharge perplexes govt
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bumper apple crop expected
Yogesh Khanna is Additional Chief Secy
Dharamsala land records on Net soon
Chamera village to be illuminated
1 dies, 50 hurt as bus falls into khud
|
|
Charges framed against Education Minister
Chamba, January 4 Now the case has been listed for January 19 for further proceedings. It may be recalled that the Enforcement Department of the state government had filed a criminal case against more than 12 persons, including Mrs Asha Kumari, and her husband, Mr Brijendra Singh, scion of the erstwhile state of Chamba, three years ago alleging that they, in connivance with revenue staff and other persons, had grabbed a valuable piece of land measuring about 67 bighas at Jandrighat in the other suburbs of Dalhousie hill station in Chamba district. |
|
HC notices on bad condition of HP varsity centre
Shimla, January 4 The court issued the notices on the petition filed by a law student, Mr Atul Bhardwaj, wherein he alleged that more than one decade had gone since the regional centre was established, yet it did not have its own infrastructure and regular staff. He alleged that in the centre there were only two regularly appointed lecturers till October, 2004. The centre used to hire teachers for Rs 100 per period. The petitioner also stated that the regional centre with eight postgraduate departments and full-fledged law faculty had no land and there was not any building which could be termed as the building of the regional centre. He informed the court that more than 600 students were studying in the centre but the state as well as the university administration had not taken any steps to fill the vacancies of teachers. After hearing the arguments, a Division Bench comprising the Chief Justice Vinod Kumar Gupta and Mr Justice Deepak Gupta directed the respondents to file their reply within eight weeks. |
|
|
Dhumal concerned at decline in Assembly
sessions
Nurpur, January 4 “The government had announced its new industrial policy just after the end of the Assembly session which should have been tabled in the Assembly for discussion,”
he said. He said the BJP had exposed the Virbhadra Singh government in the recent winter session of the Assembly on the issue of debt burden for which Congress leaders had been misleading people during the Assembly elections held in March 2003. He said the Congress had presented the distorted picture of loan liabilities before the people by alleging that the previous BJP government had landed the state into a debt trap of Rs 15,000 crore. He said the present government which was running into a grave financial crisis had taken loans to the tune of Rs 6,300 crore. “These fresh loan figures were presented by the government in the recent Session,” he clarified. He said according to the CAG report, the state had a debt burden to the tune of Rs 6,418 crore when his government had come to power in 1998 but on March 31, 2003, this burden was raised to Rs 12,393 crore. “The then government had taken loans of Rs 5,433 crore only until March 6, 2003 during its five-year term but the present government has taken a loan of Rs 6,300 crore during its 21-month regime,” he said. Demanding a White Paper on the generation of job opportunities, he said the Chief Minister had been making public announcements of having given 70,000 jobs to the unemployed youths but he had admitted in the Assembly that the government was still consolidating information in this connection. |
|
Reduced water discharge perplexes govt
Shimla, January 4 The authorities are considering approaching the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) and the State Council for Science Technology and Environment, to look into the scientific causes as in the past the water discharge has been normally quite heavy during December and January. With the state going all out to harness the 20,000 MW hydel power potential in Himachal, this trend is giving anxious moments to the authorities concerned. The generation at the Bhakra project has also been affected for similar reasons, which will greatly affect not just power generation, but also irrigation supply to other states. The power generation at the Nathpa Jhakri Power Project being executed by the SJVN is less than 19 per cent of what it should have been at this time of the year. As against a target of 260 million units, only 210 million units are being generated and that too with the help of peaking, by storing water. It is a lean period but being the first year of generation, even officials are not sure of the reasons for less discharge. “We are not very sure whether we can term it as a freak year or a shift in the trend as we will have to get this aspect studied scientifically,” observed Mr Tarun Kapoor, Director (Personnel), SJVN. “Rather than the snow we receive, it is the melting of glaciers which determines the generation at our projects in winter, he added. The proposed study on glaciers is likely to look into aspects like their size and the pace at which they are shrinking, with the help of satellite images. Experts said there could be a number of reasons like less rain, erratic monsoons and slow melting of snow because of low temperature in summer, for reduced water. The Joint Member Secretary, State Council for Science, Technology and Environment, Mr S.K. Sood, said the phenomena was of interest to them. “Less water discharge in winter is an indicator of reversal of trend which we would look into scientifically as it is not comparable to global warming,” he said. Experts were of the view that rather than the size of the glacier or the amount of snow, what was more crucial was the adequate melting of glaciers. |
|
Bumper apple crop expected
Shimla, January 4 The mercury has plummeted to sub-zero levels in the entire apple belt which will help in meeting the chilling requirement of the apple orchards. On average 1400 to 1800 hours of chilling is required for a good crop. The temperature should remain below 7° C during the period. The low temperature is essential to maintain dormancy of plants during winter. The region has not as yet received adequate snow, particularly the upper Shimla area, which accounts for a bulk of the apple produced in the state. However, widespread rain made up for the lack of snow, which is considered as white manure for the apple orchards. Jubbal, Kotkhai, Chopal, Rohru and Narkanda, which constitute the heart of the apple belt, have had frequent spells of rain during December. Dr S.P. Bhardwaj, the scientist in charge of the Regional Fruit Research Station, Mashobra, near here, who has been closely monitoring the weather, said that by the end of December almost 700 chilling hours had been completed. With fresh round of snow and rain over the past three days favourable conditions were likely to continue and the minimum chilling requirement would be fulfilled. The snow, in fact, helps in maintaining low temperature for a prolonged period, besides ensuring adequate moisture in the top soil. There was every likelihood of region experiencing snow over the next one month. If the region had snow before January 15 the conditions would be ideal for the apple crop, he added. The weather god has been smiling on the apple growers. The state had been over the past several decades experiencing a good crop invariably followed by a poor one. However, favourable conditions had ensured a hat-trick of bumper crop over the past three seasons. The state recorded the highest ever production of 5.25 lakh tonne last year. The state crossed the 4-lakh tonne mark only in 2003 with an outturn of 4.54 lakh tonne. It remains to be seen if the weather god will oblige the growers with yet another good crop. |
|
Yogesh Khanna is Additional Chief Secy
Shimla, January 4 Ms Upma Chaudhary on return from leave takes over as Managing Director of the State Industrial Development Corporation. Mr T.C. Janarta, Secretary, Town and Country
Planning, has been given the additional charge of Managing Director of State Tourism Development Corporation. In a minor reshuffle in the Police Department, Mr S.P.S. Verma, Commandant First India Reserve Battalion, Una, was posted as Superintendent of Police, CID, against a vacant post. Mr S.P. Singh, under transfer as Superintendent of Police, Kangra, has been now posted as Superintendent of Police, Chamba, vice Mr Jai Prakash, who takes over as Superintendent of Police, Solan, vice Mr Gianeshwar who will be the new district police chief of Kangra. He replaces Mr Zahoor Zaidi, who is proceeding on a foreign assignment. |
|
Jobless engineer gets into Limca book
Kangra, January 4 A communication from Ms Vijaya Ghose, Editor, Limca Book of Records to Mr Rajbansh, said, “We will be happy to use your claim of the smallest constitution of the USA in our 2005
edition.” Mr Rajbansh said today that the Limca Book of World Records authorities told him that he
would be honoured with a citation. He said that the thickness of the book was 0.9 cm. He also said that earlier his name was included in the Limca Book of World Records in October last for writing Bhagwadgeeta in Sanskrit, in a smallest size in the world comprising 169 pages, 1.3 cm thickness and 2 cm length and 1.7
cm width. Mr Rajbansh said he was told that he would be honoured with a certificate to this effect from the Limca Book of Records by March this year. Mr Rajbansh had also written constitution of the UK comprising 111 pages with 0.6 cm thickness, with 2 cm length and 1.5 cm in width. It weighs 1.780 gm. He claimed it was also a world record. |
|
Dharamsala land records on Net soon
Dharamsala, January 4 The Tehsildar, Mr N.R. Thakur, said that till now manually-prepared land records were available only with the 24 patwaris and not at the head office. “But now we have procured records from all patwaris and put these records on our hard discs. The offices of the patwaris would also be computerised in the second phase of the project, which has been funded by the Central Government,” he said. Earlier, he added, it used to take at least a month to manually prepare copies of the records for the general public. “The computerisation would definitely make it much faster and less cumbersome. The entire process is being checked,” he said. “Land records of all 178 villages in the Dharamsala tehsil are being put on the computer. The project would soon be extended to other tehsils and then all records would be put on the web so that people do not have to run to different government offices,” he said. The Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, would inaugurate the computerised Revenue Department during his visit to Dharamsala on January 15. |
|
Chamera village to be illuminated
Dalhousie, January 4 Stating this here today, Mr M.M. Mallar, Executive Director (Region-II) of the NHPC said since all stages of the project had been after Chamera village, had NHPC was making endeavours to give a news lease of life to the village. Mr Madan said the village had been provided water supply. He said the building of a primary school had been constructed. The construction of footpaths was addition to the progress of the village, Mr Madan said. Besides, a graveyard had also been developed alongside the village. The undulating barren land around the village on the bank the Ravi had been levelled by filling the rocky patches with useable and fertile debris of the project thereby making it cultivable for crops. This was another help extended to the village by the NHPC, Mr Madan added. |
|
|
1 dies, 50 hurt as bus falls into khud
Shimla, January 4 The bus was on its way from Lalsa to Rampur. There were 59 passengers on board when the mishap occurred. The deceased has been identified as Pooja of Dwalsa village. The seriously injured persons were referred to the Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital here. They have been identified as Madan Lal, Sukh Nanad, Jyoti Lal and Roolp Lal ,all of Lalsa village, and Jai Prakash of Dansa village. |
|
Trespass case against mother, son
Mandi, January 4 |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Nurpur, January 4
