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Bachittar’s widow suffers setback
Medico wanted in CPMT paper leak case
Improved flood situation stabilises apple market
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Acute LPG shortage
Ensure quality, CM tells engineers
Threat letter to
manager of pvt firm
Departmental exams
from February 15
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Improved flood situation stabilises apple market
Shimla, September 14 Prices in the Delhi market, which had plunged due to floods in consumer states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and southern states, have risen appreciably. The superior varieties like royal delicious are fetching Rs 750 to Rs 850 per box as against Rs 550 to Rs 600 last week. The prices during the period last year ranged between Rs 500 and Rs 600. It has been a lean year and the upswing in the market towards the end of the harvesting season will provide some relief to apple growers. Till yesterday only 82 lakh boxes had been sent to various markets out of the state as compared to 1.40 crore boxes last year. As many as 233 trucks carrying apples left the state yesterday and in all about 22,000 trucks have been sent out so far. Last year as many as 38,000 trucks had been marketed over the same period. According to Mr R.P. Sharma, Director, Horticulture, most of the crop had been harvested and only about 25 to 30-lakh boxes of fruit in the higher belt and Kinnuar district were left to be harvested. As such the total production was not likely to exceed 1.15-crore boxes, which was about 40 percent of the last year's outturn of 2.65 crore boxes. Besides, 4,800 tonne has been procured under the Market Intervention scheme. The Adani Group had also entered the apple market and had set a target to procure 9-lakh boxes. However, with production dwindling sharply, the target was not likely to be achieved. The weather remained unfavourable through out the growing period. Sharp variations in temperature during the flowering, fruit -setting period and heavy premature dropping of fruit due to hail storms ruined the crop.
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Bachittar’s widow suffers setback
Mainjha (Palampur), September 14 In an interview with The Tribune, Mamta, who is living in a small room with her three small children in the house of her brother-in-law, says had everything been fine, Bachittar would have come back in August, with nearly Rs 10 lakh he had saved in the past 13 years stay in Saudi Arabia. “He had not sent a penny in the past one year as the employer owned him salary for several months. Finally, he wrote to me just before his death that he would come to India forever in August, build a small house and live happily with their three children,” she says with moist eyes. Seventy-year-old Jhanjhru Devi, Bachittar’s mother, says it is hard to come to terms with the news of her son’s death till the family gets to see his body. “I still believe that he’s gone missing and the police would be able to find him,” she says. Bachitar’s elder brother, Ishwar Das, says after the district administration got in touch with the Indian
embassy in Saudi Arabia, they asked for a power of attorney in the name of Abdul Kadoor, a fellow Indian working with Bachittar, and his employer, so that they could take possession of the body and pass it on to the embassy, in accordance with the law of the land. “But we are told that Kadoor has refused to claim the body. When I spoke to him last night, he said he would do this only after getting instructions from the employer,” he says. “No political leader has come forward to offer help in tracing Bachittar’s body and we have been fighting the battle alone. The district administration too got into action after the news spread that villagers had started collecting money to be paid to the employer for sending us the body,” he says. It was on July 14 that Kadoor called up Bachittar’s sister in Chandigarh and told her about his sudden death, believed to be due to heart attack. She, in turn, informed his family in Mainjha village. “Whatever has unfolded since then is hard to believe. The children still think their father is alive, working in a foreign land. My four-year-old son is anxiously waiting for his bicycle his father had promised him last month,” says Mamta. “He had bought a car and a mobile phone in Saudi Arabia and told me that he would sell off everything to come back home. The dream of leading an affluent live has been suddenly shattered and I’m burdened with bringing up three small children, one of them just 10-month-old,” she adds. |
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Medico wanted in CPMT paper leak case
Shimla, September 14 It was during interrogation of one of the prime accused in the scam, Dr Goverdhan Singh Gaba, that the police was able to extract this piece of information. The police is likely to send a team to arrest this medical student. According to police sources, three persons, including the student of a premiere medical college, tutored the candidates who had been alleged beneficiaries of the paper leak at Mussoorie in physics, chemistry and biology. A large number of medical college students, including some boys studying in private medical colleges in Lucknow, have been involved at the tutoring level. Meanwhile, a Punjab court today extended the hearing on the bail application of Ajmer Singh Kalra, who is also wanted in the case, till September 22. As such the Himachal police team, which had gone there to arrest him, could not do so as he never appeared in the court. Kalra happens to be an accomplice of Dr Goverdhan Singh Gaba, who is already in the custody of the Himachal police. Both Dr Gaba and Kalra are residents of Makhu village in Ferozepore district and are also wanted by the Punjab police in connection with the Punjab PMT question paper leak. A police team is soon being sent to Bihar to arrest Munir Alam, the main tout who looked for interested parents keen to send their children to a medical college at any cost.
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Acute LPG shortage Parwanoo, September 14 The closing of the HP bottling plant at Baddi has affected the cylinders supply. The plant had been
supplying 12000-14,000 cylinders in a month to private agencies based at Parwanoo, Dharampur and Solan. The plant that was run by a private party has been closed for the past two months. To Fill the supply deficit to some extent HP is was now supplying cylinders from its plant at Jind in Haryana. To meet the deficit caused by the closing of the Baddi plant Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has been approached, said Mr Yadvinder Paul, District Controller, Food and Civil Supplies Department, Solan. For further improvement the supply, department was regulate the supply through private gas agencies, maintained Mr Paul. The supply days and timing would be fixed.
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Ensure quality, CM tells engineers
Shimla, September 14 Addressing a conference of the state Public Works Department Junior Engineers’ Association here on Tuesday, he said the government had made a record allocation of Rs 2,000 crore to the department for the construction of roads and it was the responsibility of engineers to evolve a mechanism for ensuring quality and execution of works in a cost effective manner. Mr Virbhadra Singh said he was aware of the demands of diploma holder Junior Engineers and had already provided a large number of posts to them. More posts would be created to complete the backlog, besides making available more promotion avenues. The Chief Minister said promotional avenues had been created for almost all categories of employees and services of thousands of daily wage employees had been regularised during the past three years.
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Threat letter to
manager of pvt firm
Baddi, September 14 The letter was sound by one of the employees yesterday and handed over to commercial manager Ravi Sharma. Mr Sharma told The Tribune that he immediately informed the police about the letter which said in case the money was not given, he would be shot. A specific place was also mentioned where the money had to be delivered. The investor said he was being careful about his security. The SP, Mr Gianeshwar Singh, however, said the police had been alerted, but it appeared to be a “false” threat. TNS
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Departmental exams
from February 15
Shimla, September 14 A spokesperson for the board of departmental examination said for the convenience of candidates taking examinations only in financial administration, the examination would also be conducted at Dharamsala and Mandi, besides Shimla.
— TNS |
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