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No discrimination against Kangra, says CM
Ambika Soni’s retention blow to anti-CM camp
Gohar BDC chief’s election put off
Cong captures six posts
of BDC chief
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Cong wins BDC seats
Mahajan claims victory
in block samiti poll
Factionalism may lead to cross vote
Practice of nominating members to WCs to
be changed
Khab Dam will increase life of Bhakra Dam
Finally, MC wakes up to plight of roads
Baddi to have police station
Kokje to preside over R-Day function
New turn to rape case
Plan to introduce Urdu as optional subject
HP mulls kids’ vikas yatras
Water scheme stone laid
7 killed as jeep falls into Spiti river
FIR registered in ‘jobs-on-chits’ scam
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No discrimination against Kangra, says CM
Palampur, January 8 The Chief Minister said the defeat of the BJP in the recent elections for panchayats, block development samitis and zila parishads had probed that the people of the state had lost faith in the BJP. Addressing media persons at Sulha, 10 km from here, this afternoon, the Chief Minister said Himachal had become the third state after Jammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra, which had been holding its Assembly sessions outside the state capital at Dharamsala. He said his government was making all efforts to shift a few more offices to the lower areas to reduce the burden on Shimla and to get rid of the increasing traffic problem. Mr.Virbhadara Singh said after the reorganisation of states in 1966, there was a sea change in the shape and development of Kangra district and it would unwise to say that these areas were ignored by the Congress government. He said when Kangra was part of Punjab it was a neglected region and there was only one deputy minister from here in the Punjab Cabinet, but today it had 16 MLAs and two Cabinet ministers. |
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Ambika Soni’s retention blow to anti-CM camp
Shimla, January 8 The AICC chief, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, has retained Mrs Soni as general secretary, in charge of Himachal Pradesh. The anti-Virbhadra camp had been hoping that in the overhaul of the AICC, some other leader would be made in charge of Himachal. It is a known fact that the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, is close to Mrs Soni. Repeated efforts by the rival faction within the Congress to dislodge Mr Virbhadra Singh from Chief Ministership have not succeeded as he enjoys the blessings of Ms Soni. “We would have been happier if someone else, not so favourably inclined towards Mr Virbhadra Singh had been made in charge of Himachal,” admitted a dissident leader. Ever since the Congress assumed power in the state there was a tussle between Mr Virbhadra Singh and Mrs Vidya Stokes for the post of Chief Minister. “Be it the defeat of the party candidate in the Guler assembly byelection or the Kaithu Municipal Corporation elections, the rival faction within the Congress tried its level best to dislodge Mr Virbhadra Singh, though unsuccessfully,” said a Virbhadra loyalist. The dissidents within the party have been approaching the high command against Mr Virbhadra Singh, demanding a change in leadership. With Mrs Soni’s continuation as in charge of Himachal, the rival camp’s hope of seeking Mr Virbhadra Singh’s removal has received a severe blow. |
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Gohar BDC chief’s election put off
Mandi, January 8 The tussle reached flashpoint on Friday evening when Mr Liladhar husband of Ms Kanta Devi, a BDC member and Mr Ram Dutt, father of Mr Inder Singh, a BDC member, both from Gohar lodged an FIR under Section 365 of the IPC charging Mr Jai Ram Thakur and BJP workers with kidnapping two members on December 31 when all elected 17 BDC members had come at Gohar for oath taking. “With this, we postponed the BDC election yesterday due to “law and order situation” under Section 85-IA of the HP Panchayat Elections Rules, 1990 said Mr
D.L. Chaudhary, SDO, Gohar subdivision. Mr Jai Ram paraded 12 BDC members out of 17 before reporters here yesterday and cited written statements of Ms Kanta and Mr Inder, who were also present here. Mr Thakur said the DC, Mandi, had also recorded their statements, stating that they were away from homes on their own and were not kidnapped. “The FIR was lodged at the behest of the local MLA and Congress bigwigs as they feared defeat in BDC election” Mr
J.R. Thakur claimed. Even relatives BJP-supporters have been transferred to pressurize the members into voting for the Congress candidate”, he alleged. On the other Mr Tek Chand Dogra criticised Mr Jai Ram Thakur and dismissed his charge as baseless, stating that he had confined the BDC married women-members and other innocent members. “Even if he claims a majority he should let them vote freely. To take members to an unknown place without the knowledge of their family members is an act of kidnapping”, he alleged. DC Mandi, Subhasish Panda, said the two members named in the FIR had given a written statement to him that they were not kidnapped and were out of their homes on their own. “We are investigating the case and a fresh date for election will be announced soon”, he added. |
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Cong captures six posts
of BDC chief
Palampur, January 8 The Bhwarna, Sulah, Nurpur, Kangra, Fathepur and Nagrota Surian blocks were captured by the Congress, while Dehara Gopipur went to the BJP. There are 14 block development councils (BDCs) in the district. The election to the remaining seven BDCs could not be held for want of quorum. Those elected as BDCs presidents are Mr Lekh Raj Rana from Sulah, Mr Narinder Mongra from Kangra, Mr Baljesh Rai Dhiman from Bhwarna, Mr Sahib Singh from Nurpur, Mr Dharmsingh Vaid from Fathepur and Mrs Subh Kanta from Nagrota Surian. In Nagrota Bagwan, the election for the post of president had to be postponed as Transport Minister G.S. Bali and Mrs Chandresh Kumari, MLA from Dharmsala, could not reach any adjustment for the post of BDC president. Supporters of Mrs Chandresh Kumari did not participate in the election and later it was deferred. Similarly, at Panchrukhi both the groups of the Congress also could not finalise the name of president. Therefore the election was postponed. Later in the evening when Chief Minister Virbhadara Singh, who is camping at Dharmsala, came to know about the growing groupism in the Congress, convened a meeting of all party MLAs and ministers at Dharmsala and told them to work unitedly for the elections of BDCs in the district. |
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Cong wins BDC seats
Mandi, January 8 Mr Hoshiar Singh from Chauntra block, Mr Jawahar Lal from Seraj block, Mrs Kanta Verma from Karsog block, Mrs Kamla Devi from Gopalpur block, Mr Nagheshwar Singh from Balh block were elected as new BDC chairpersons. In Kulu district, Mr Sashi Pal from Kulu block, Ms Kanta Negi from Nimand block and Mrs. Bodh from Naggar block, all from the Congress, were elected chairpersons. The District Panchayat
Officer(DPO), Mandi, Mr SL Saini, said the election in five blocks — Sundernagar, Dharampur, Gohar, Drang and Jogindernagar — blocks had been postponed as the houses did not have required quorum. |
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Mahajan claims victory
in block samiti poll
Dharamsala, January 8 Talking to media persons, he said the candidates associated with the Congress had won the post of chairman in six of the total seven blocks where the election results were declared on Saturday. It was only in Dehra that the post of chairman went to a BJP-supported candidate. |
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Factionalism may lead to cross vote
Kullu, January 8 The Civil Supplies Minister, Mr Singhi Ram, an observer for Kullu, met the ZP members of the Congress factions here yesterday, but failed to have at a consensus among them. The Congress frontrunner for the chairman post is Mr Rupinder Kanwar, who claims the support of two ZP members — Mrs Indu Patial and Mr Divender Negi. Mr Kanwar is being opposed by Congress leader Dharamvir Dhami, but he enjoys the support of Mr Rajkishan Gaur, Agriculture Minister, and the Kullu Congress MLA, reveal insiders. Mr Dhami met Mr Virbhadra Singh early last week at Shimla and sought support for his wife, Lalita Dhami, who won a ZP seat. He is supporting Mr Sesh Ram, former vice-chairman,
ZP, but internally Mr Dhami has sought the support of six women members for his wife, reveal insiders. Mr Dhami and Mr Gaur are relatives, but they have been rival contenders for the Kullu Congress MLA ticket over the years. Mr Gaur is opposing Mr Sesh Ram because he is being supported by Mr Dhami. This in turn, would block the way for his son, Mr Budheshwar Gaur, who is the Congress president, Kullu constituency, insiders say. The district BJP also faces factionalism among its ZP members — one group headed is by former Mandi MP Maheshwar Singh and the other by his opponent, Mr Khemi Ram, MLA from
Banjar. Mr Maheshwar Singh is supporting Mr Pradeep Parmar, district BJP president, who won ZP seat from
Ani, while Mr Khemi Ram is supporting Mr Partap Thakur, who defeated Mr B.S. Thakur of the Congress, the outgoing chairman,
ZP. Mr Kunj Lal Thakur, former Kullu BJP MLA, and his son, Mr Gobind Thakur, are trying to rope in members to support his sister, Ms Dhaneshwari Thakur, for the ZP post in case cross-voting takes place. |
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Practice of nominating members to WCs to
be changed
Nurpur, January 8 Mr Sat Mahajan, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister, while addressing newly elected members of the local Block Development Committee
(BDC) here yesterday said all elected representatives of the gram panchayats would be considered members of the WCs. He said henceforth, the BDCs would also control the WCs, constituted to undertake the watershed projects in the state. Mr Mahajan said the government would construct its own panchayat bhavan in every gram panchayat and provide basic amenities like potable water, electricity and village paths. “All gram panchayats will be computerised by the end of this year,” he said. Mr Mahajan said the government was emphasising on rural development and state’s annual budget had been enhanced in every passing fiscal year. Denying categorically any political motive or discrimination in reservation exercise undertaken in gram panchayats before elections to panchayati raj institutions, he asserted that the rejection of 16 out of 17 appeals filed in the high court against the reservation exercise had vindicated that the government had not interfered in the exercise. |
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Khab Dam will increase life of Bhakra Dam
Shimla, January 8 The Khab Dam project will cost over Rs 13,000 crore and have an installed capacity of 1020 MW. The 275 m dam will be the highest in the country and account for more than 50 per cent of the total cost of the project. Initially, two separate projects
,Khab-I and Khab-II, with a combined generation capacity of about 1,100 MW, were planned but the problem of excessive silt, which led to repeated shutdown of the 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri project, forced the engineers to go for a storage project upstream. Studies conducted by the engineers of the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam
(SJVN) indicated that a high dam is required to arrest the 12 million cubic metre (MCM) of silt which the snow-fed Sutlej and Spiti, its main tributary, bring down annually. Accordingly, it has proposed a 275 m dam with a storage capacity of 95 million cubic metre and life span of 28 years. It will be the second highest concrete gravity dam of the world after the 285 m high Grand Dixiens Dam in Switzerland. At present the 261 m Tehri dam is the highest in the country, followed by 225 m Bhakra Dam. The proposed structure will reduce the flow of silt into the Bhakra reservoir and the under-construction Kol Dam reservoir considerably. The engineers have calculated that the life of the Bhakra reservoir will be increased by nine years and that of Kol Dam reservoir by 14 years. Further, two more dams are proposed upstream on the Spiti river at Rangrik and Poh to enhance the life of the Khab Dam reservoir. The cost of project without a dam has been worked out at Rs 6,000 crore and the generation cost will come to around Rs 3 per unit. However, with storage dam the cost will be more than doubled and generation cost will touch Rs 6 per unit. Thus, to make the storage venture viable a mechanism will have to work out for sharing the cost of the dam by the projects located downstream which will be directly benefited from it. A forum of power producers of the Sutlej basin has already been formed to address the common issues but effective intervention of the Centre will be required to put in place a cost-sharing mechanism for the vital project. |
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Finally, MC wakes up to plight of roads
Parwanoo, January 8 While talking to the Chandigarh Tribune, Mr Sushil Kumar Mittal, the Executive Officer of MC, said the work would start soon. The internal roads in Sectors 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 would be repaired. The MC would carry out no repair on roads in Sector 6 of town as it falls under jurisdiction of
HIMUDA. Due to the lack of timely repair, the condition of all important internal roads has gone bad to worse. The plying of loaded trucks on internal roads has wreaked havoc on them. In most cases, the bitumen has disappeared from roads thus making them
unpliable. Potholes, peeled-off bitumen and blocked roadside drainage have become common features of roads here causing great inconvenience to the residents. In Sector 1, roads leading from Sandeep Metal Works towards Chemipalst are in bad shape, as it has not been metalled for the past many years. The road leading from Amar Flour Mills has potholes while the road to the electricity office is completely damaged. Sector 1-A, which has only one circular road, is in a bad state making it dangerous to heavy vehicles. The road condition in Sector 4 is also bad. The state of roads in Sector 5 is also similar. Meanwhile, the MC was still clueless to improve the condition of sewerage in town. The old sewerage has come as a major problem for town residents. It needs immediate improvement but the MC has no provision for high amount of funds required to revamp the whole sewerage management that would cater to the present population of town. The delay to get Rs 5-crore grant from the Central Government under a project to improve the infrastructure in industrial area has proved to be a setback to the MC. |
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Baddi to have police station
Solan, January 8 The government has instead swapped the two and downgraded the Barotiwala police station to a police post even though a recent Cabinet decision had given a go-ahead for the up-gradation of the Baddi police post. With investment worth crores being made in the area the number of migrant labourers has also increased manifold. Interestingly, the Barotiwala police station had managed to procure a vehicle from the Industry while the government had failed to provide it despite repeated assurances given by various ministers from time to time. Police officials rue that they were expected to perform to their optimum despite restrictions on petrol use, telephone calls and a limited number of personnel at their disposal. The police station at Baddi would now cater to an area of 14 Gram Panchayats as against five Gram Panchayats left under the Barotiwala police post. The government has effected a partial increase in the staff strength. While a part of it has been shifted from Barotiwala to Baddi. However, sources in the police department while flaying this arrangement said two police stations would have meant sufficient police force. Adequate housing and building infrastructure would have to be created at Baddi now. The district police which had hitherto posted a section of a battalion here as well as men from the police lines doesn’t see much respite by this swapping arrangement. Officials said the arrangement had left hardly any force in the police lines and a battalion from an adjoining district will have to be summoned in case of any eventuality. The industrial belt has witnessed a number of armed robberies, industrial agitations where the police had to fire in air to disperse mobs during the past two years. While the upgradation of the Baddi police post has been welcomed the downgrading of the Barotiwala police post has been termed a negative step by some residents. |
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Kokje to preside over R-Day function
Shimla, January 8 The Speaker, Mr Gangu Ram Musafir, will preside over the Republic Day function at Solan, Power Minister, Vidya Stokes at Bilaspur, IPH Minister, Kaul Singh Thakur at Kangra, Revenue Minister, Sat Mahajan at Chamba and Excise and Taxation Minister, Rangila Ram Rao at Kulu. Forest Minister, Ram Lal Thakur will preside over the district-level function at Hamirpur, Agriculture minister, Raj Krishan Kaur at Sirmaur, Horticulture Minister Singhi Ram at Kinnaur, Industries Minister, Kuldeep Kumar at Mandi, Animal Husbandry Minister Harsh Mahajan at Keylong and Transport Minister, G.S. Bali at Una. |
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New turn to rape case
Kangra, January 8 The DSP, Mr Virender Singh Thakur, who is investigating the case under Sections 376 , 366 and 313 of the IPC and under sections of the SC atrocities Act, said today that during investigation the police came to know that the complainant had delivered a baby in the Pathankot Civil Hospital, who was later thrown in bushes. He said the baby was noticed by Mr Devi Dass, a resident of Pathankot, who took her to his home. The DSP said Santosh Kumar had told the victim that the newly born child was dead and it was better to leave her there. |
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Plan to introduce Urdu as optional subject
Dharamsala, January 8 Presiding over a meeting of the state Minorities Welfare Board here last evening, he said all ‘madrasas’ would be required to get themselves registered with the Education Department to avail of the special incentives being provided to such schools. The state government was already operating mobile schools for the education of gypsies, especially the Gujjar community. All private educational institutions run by religious organisations would be required to adopt a uniform pattern of education of the state or Centre so that they could enroll students for the higher classes. The officially recognised syllabus would be mandatory for the recognition of any such educational institution and the educational activities of all private institutions would be monitored strictly. The Chief Minister said a meting of the newly constituted Sikh Pilgrimage Committee would be convened soon to facilitate the Sikh devotees to visit Nankana Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan. He said the matter would be taken up with the relevant authorities to further increase the number of Sikh pilgrims to 50. |
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HP mulls kids’ vikas yatras
Dharamsala, January 8 Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh stated this today while addressing a public meeting at Sulah in Palampur subdivision after inaugurating the Janed Khud bridge on the Noura Chowki road, constructed at a cost of Rs 1 crore, which was expected to benefit at least 5,000 persons of three gram panchayats. He announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh for the Government Senior Secondary School at
Sulah. He inaugurated the Primary Health Centre at Sulah, constructed at a cost of Rs 39 lakh. He laid the foundation stone of a motorable bridge on Rain Khud on the Tuhun-Tara-Harbharoi road, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 47 lakh. The Chief Minister said the Education Department would be working out the modalities to implement the scheme for the students so that they could tour different places and get acquainted with the pace of development in the state, besides acquiring information about development projects. He said the state now had a vast network of over 15,000 educational institutions. Almost every gram panchayat in the Sulah area had motorable roads and adequate water supply, he added. He said a programme for providing adequate water supply was being implemented for the 6,000 partially covered villages by spending Rs 500 crore in the coming two years. He further said around 250 gram panchayats would be connected by motorable roads in the coming two years and the Prime Minister had sanctioned an additional sum of Rs 200 crore for this purpose. |
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Water scheme stone laid
Kangra, January 8 He said this while addressing a gathering at Hatwas, near Nagrota-Bagwan, in Kangra district after laying the foundation stone of the Hatwas water supply scheme. The scheme would be completed in two phases at a cost of Rs 62 lakh. He said he had taken up the matter with the Union Industries Minister, who had agreed in principle for setting up the SEZs. The Chief Minister said the SEZs would further boost employment opportunities. He said the government was committed to give momentum to the cottage industry. Mr G.S. Bali, Transport and Tourism Minister, who was also present, said Dharamsala had been developed as the second town after Shimla with the highest concentration of government offices. He said the state had implemented the Right to Information Act that would entitle every person to access information from the government offices. |
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7 killed as jeep falls into Spiti river
Reckong Peo, January 8 Police sources said that the jeep (HP-41-0579) carrying 14 passengers was coming from Kaza to Chango village in Kinnaur district. When the jeep was in between Hurling and Sumdo, it slipped down from the road due to heavy snowfall. Five persons died on the spot and two died in Army Hospital at Sumdo. Five women, who were travelling in the jeep, were still missing, the sources said. Those who died on the spot were identified as Dev Singh, driver of the jeep, Jai Prakash, Loon Dup, Chon-Jun and Lan-Jin. Those who died in Army Hospital were Dorje-Giapo and Dolma. The missing included Padma-Angmo, Chomo-Dolkar, Choran and Palmo. One Nepali woman was also missing. Except for the Nepali woman, all others belonged to Sumra village in Kinnaur district. They were going to Chango village to attend a funeral. Meanwhile, the local administration of Spiti launched a hunt to trace the missing women. |
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FIR registered in ‘jobs-on-chits’ scam
Shimla, January 8 An official spokesman yesterday said that SP (Enforcement) R.S. Negi had been appointed an inquiry officer. The state high court, on a public interest litigation (PIL), has directed the state government to register a case in this regard. According to official sources, during the previous Congress regime (1993-98), 2,910 persons were given job on chits in various boards and corporations, reportedly issued by politicians and others by misusing their influence. The BJP government, after coming to power, had constituted two office committees under the chairmanship of Harash Gupta and Abhay Shukla, which had confirmed such appointments.
— PTI |
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