 |
|
2 subdivisions without SDMs
Mobile schools for Gujjar children become functional
Youth gets 10-year RI for rape
Police gives clean chit in expired stent case
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WB okays 64-cr irrigation project
Efforts to make HPTDC profit-making venture
Govt proposes to amend Forest Act
No rift with CM, says Viplove
Mehboob Khan remanded in police custody
DA instalment released
2 arrested with leopard skin
Kangra bhavan at Shimla planned
|
|
2 subdivisions without SDMs
Kullu, March 21 The people from 36 panchayats in the Banjar subdivision have been facing difficulty in having their work done. The litigants who had their revenue cases in the court of the SDM are a harassed lot. The public representatives from the area complained that the villagers spend money to reach the SDM court but were given next dates of hearing. The 36 gram panchayat pradhans, 15 samiti members and two zila parishad members have urged the Chief Minister to intervene and fill the posts at the earliest. It may be recalled that Mr Vinod Kumar was posted SDM in November last year but orders were made void by the Himachal High Court. Later the SDM, Joginder Nagar, and the Land Reserve Officer, Kullu, were transferred to Banjar, but they have not joined duty till date. Similarly, the post of SDM, Manali, was lying vacant for the past two weeks. Mr Chhavinder Thakur, president of the Kullu district unit of the Himachal Pradesh Adhivakta Parishad, said the motor-vehicle related works were lying pending, besides the administrative works of the panchayats fall in this Subdivision. He demanded that the post be filled at the earliest.
|
|
Mobile schools for Gujjar children become functional
Chamba, March 21 Giving this information here today, Mr Suman Kumar Minhas, Teachers Training In charge (TTI), of the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) Chamba said these schools were functioning at Phatidhar with 18 children, at Raje-Da-Dera with 21 children and at Ghulei with 23 children. Mr Minhas said the chief objective of the EGSC was to impart free primary education to every child, for which the state government was incurring an expenditure of Rs 845 each child per annum, whereas the teachers engaged for this purpose were being paid an honorarium of Rs 800 per month, adding that each centre was being run by a single teacher. Seventyseven such centres were spread over in distant parts of Banikhet, 29 in Rajnagar, 26 in Chamba, 13 in Bhattiyat and 16 in Bharmour-Pangi areas of the district, Mr Minhas informed, adding that the proposal for opening of three such centres in the next financial year had been submitted to the state government for approval.
|
|
Youth gets 10-year RI for rape
Solan, March 21 The judge further announced five-year RI and a fine of Rs 5,000 for kidnapping the minor girl from her residence. Both the sentences would run concurrently and the fine would be payable to the victim. The crime was committed while the victim was alone at home and Sunil lured her by offering sweets. The minor girl was later kidnapped and taken to the nearby fields where she was raped. Her parents launched a hunt for her after she was found missing in the evening. She was brought back by the victim himself in an unconscious state after which Sunil tried to flee from the spot. He was, however, chased by the people and handed over to the police. Sunil had confessed to the crime at the time of his arrest. |
|
Police gives clean chit in expired stent case
Shimla, March 21 In the 11-page report submitted before the High Court yesterday, the team said that since the label extending the expiry date on the stents was pasted in Germany, the investigations reveal that there has been no offence. Taking suo mottu notice of reports that expired stents had been used on patients, the court had directed the government to register a case against the suppliers and manufacturers and hold thorough investigation into the matter. It has been confirmed that the stickers of extended shelf life were pasted over the actual expiry date of the stents before exporting them to India. However the latest report points out towards absence of standardised procedure for procurement of stents, amongst other things at the catherisation laboratory at the IGMC till May, 2005. Moreover, there are no proper guidelines that govern or regulate the quality of stents in India like the CE in Europe and the USFDA in the USA, says the report. An interesting observation made in the report is the fact that the drug eluting stents manufactured by QualiMed for Bavaria Medizin Technologies GmbH, Germany have not been supplied to any European or US-based medical facilities. “It appears that these stents are not good enough to be sold in the markets of the USA or Europe and are acceptable in India because there are no guidelines for quality or standard,” reads the report. The three-member team headed by the DIG (South), Mr R.L. Sood, has even sought the opinion of eminent cardiologists and other experts. The report quotes the opinion of Dr Upendar Kaul from the Fortis Heart Institute according to which the MeoMed Star drug eluting stent has been released for use before ensuring the stability pattern of the drug polymer combination. The report also points out towards the fact that although the tender contract was given to the Spectrum Medical Devices, Kalkaji, New Delhi, but the order was supplied and billed in the name of the Manchanda Medical Corporation, BCS, Shimla. It has also made mention of the fact that even the Manchanda Medical Corporation had participated in the tender which it did not get. |
|
WB okays 64-cr irrigation project
Nurpur, March 21 Addressing a meeting of the representatives of the Panchayati Raj Institutions in the local Block Development Office on Sunday, Mr Sat Mahajan, local MLA and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister, said the government would soon start work on the project. He said that an industrial estate was coming up in Nurpur subdivision. “As many as 25 industries with an investment of Rs 2,200 crore are being set up in the industrial estate which will render job opportunities to unemployed youths in the region,” he added. The minister said all the gram panchayats were being computerised within the next two years. Welcoming the election of the PCC chief, Ms Vipolve Thakur, as Rajya Sabha member in the state, Mr Mahajan said it was the right decision of the party high command in the wake of publicity being made by the BJP that the present state government was anti-Kangra.
|
|
Efforts to make HPTDC profit-making venture
Palampur, March 21 In reference to a news item appeared in The Tribune yesterday, Mr Shreedhar clarified that the HPTDC was paying salaries to its staff regularly. Besides, the process for the regularisation of daily wagers and ad hoc staff was almost complete. He said as far as renovation of its hotels was concerned, it was being taken up in a phased manner and soon all the complexes all over the state would be renovated. He said after the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission, the financial health of all the PSUs had deteriorated. He said all efforts were being made to make the corporation a big profit-making venture of the state. He said as far as occupancy in the hotels was concerned, the hotels in Shimla, Manali, Dharamsala, Dalhousie and Chandigarh had a high rate of occupancy, but the hotels situated in the tribal and snow-bound areas like Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti, Sarahan and Narkanda had a poor occupancy. Therefore, the average occupancy in the HPTDC hotels was restricted to about 50 per cent. Mr Shreedhar said the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh was taking keen interest in the affairs of the HPTDC and the state and Central Governments had been providing the necessary financial assistance to the HPTDC from time to time.
|
|
Govt proposes to amend Forest Act
Shimla, March 21 The state has been facing difficulties in implementing development works as under the Forest Conservation Act forest land cannot be diverted for non-forestry use without the prior approval of the Centre. All government wasteland had been declared as forest land vide a notification in 1952. As such almost 67 per cent of the total geographical area of the state has been classified as forest. There is virtually no other land available for the construction of educational institutions, dispensaries, hospitals and other developmental activities. The previous BJP government had taken out these categories from the purview of forest land through a notification. However, the Centre had termed its action as illegal and asked the state to withdraw the notification. The present government also took up the matter with the Centre but it maintained that the notification violated the Forest Conservation Act. Thereafter a sub-committee of the Cabinet was constituted to suggest legal ways to take out these categories of land from the purview of the forest land. The committee recommended that the Forest Act be amended in a suitable manner so that these categories of land did not fall under the definition of wasteland. According to official sources, the Law Department has been asked to come out with a proposal for amending the Act. However, the state will have to obtain the assent of the Centre for the proposed amendment. The Centre has been appreciative of the difficulties being faced by states in implementing development projects and recently it delegated power to them to divert up to one hectare of forest land for the non-forestry use for certain specified development activities. |
|
No rift with CM, says Viplove
Shimla, March 21 She maintained that Mr Virbhadra Singh had not gone to high command with the signatures of 41 legislators in support of Mr Natha Singh. Such reports only appeared in a section of the media. He had left the matter to the party President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, who nominated her for the seat. In fact, the Chief Minister had hailed her nomination and she had been elected unopposed. She said she would efficiently discharge the twin responsibilities of the HPCC chief and member of the Rajya Sabha. She would take up issues pertaining to the state with the Centre in close coordination with other party MPs, particularly the vexed interstate matters like proper settlement of the Pong Dam oustees which might require the intervention of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. Mrs Thakur made it clear that the organisational work would not be neglected and she would spend her entire time, except when the Rajya Sabha was in session, touring the state to strengthen the party. She said she had asked the general secretaries to extensively tour the districts assigned to them and interact with the grassroot workers. She specifically asked them to monitor the implementation of the employment guarantee scheme to ensure that all deserving unemployed persons benefited from it.
|
|
Mehboob Khan remanded in police custody
Chamba, March 21 According to Mr Jitender Kumar, Station House Officer (SHO), Chamba police station, Mehboob Khan was wanted in the gunshot episode, which occurred in the office of a local lawyer K.K. Gupta on the night of January 22. The SHO said the accused was arrested in Shimla yesterday and was brought to Chamba to be produced before the court of the CJM today. Mehboob Khan had been granted anticipatory bail by the Himachal High Court. After the expiry of bail period, the accused approached the high court to get extension of anticipatory bail, but the court refused him the bail. |
|
DA instalment released
Shimla, March 21 The employees will get 4 per cent additional dearness allowance from April, 2006, and the arrears up to March will be given in two instalments. It will put an additional burden of Rs 110 crore on the state exchequer annually. |
|
2 arrested with leopard skin
Solan, March 21 The two were on the lookout for a buyer and had just stepped out of their house when the CIA team, on a tiff-off, nabbed them with the skin. A case under Sections 51 and 52 of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972, has been registered against them.
— OC |
|
Kangra bhavan at Shimla planned
Shimla, March 21 The parishad, which met under the chairmanship of Mr P.C. Kapoor, its president, here yesterday, also decided to honour people belonging to Kangra who have excelled in various fields in the country during its annual day function. Apart from this social activities, the parishad would also provide scholarships to the brilliant students and financial and other help to the poor people of Kangra suffering from serious ailments. A telephone directory of all Kangra people living in Shimla will also be published soon. |
| 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 | |
