Shimla, March 23
The police today tried to diffuse the situation at the Bishop Cotton School (BCS) where tension has been escalating over the past some time following dismissal of 33 workers by the school management.

The district police chief, R.M. Sharma, today held aq meeting with the head master of the school, Roy Christopher Robinson, and representatives of the agitating workers at the school campus to resolve the conflict. The school management has been asked by the police to convene a meeting of the executive body of the school so that the situation does not worsen further.

‘I had a word with Bishop Samant Rao in Delhi and asked him to resolve the matter by holding the executive body meeting by first week of April so that the situation does not go out of hand,’ said the SP. He admitted that he had sought record from the school management to see if proper procedure was followed in dismissing the 33 employees who alleged that they were not given an opportunity to be heard.

Following dismissal of the services of 33 mess workers by the school authorities after they observed a two-day strike without prior notice, trouble has been brewing. It was in December after the school closed for winter vacation that the 33 employees were dismissed.

The dismissed employees alleged that they were not given an opportunity to plead their case. ‘The punishment should be in proportion with the offence committed and the way out is not to terminate services straight away,’ said one of the agitators.

The Principal said that there was absolutely no cause for alarm as the situation was very much under control. ‘We are getting full cooperation from the district administration and efforts are being made to resolve the stalemate,’ said Robinson.

He said the case of the 33 dismissed workers was pending before the labour officer and as a law abiding citizen he would honour his verdict. He admitted that the situation had caused anxiety to some parents who had called him up but he had assured them that there was no need to press the panic button.

Shimla, March 23
Is it an attempt by a rape accused to wriggle out of trouble by confessing his relations with one of the victims he was willing to marry even as three other deaf and dumb girls of Prerna institute have accused him of alleged sexual exploitation in the statements recorded by the police?

Even as police investigations in the alleged rape of the six girl inmates at the institute for deaf and dumb run by the Prerna Welfare Association are on, one of the accused teacher while admitting to his relations to one of the victims has said that the two of them intended to get married. However, police officials investigating the case are taking his statement lightly and say this is just a ploy to save his skin.

The police today confirmed that one of the four accused teachers hailing from Bilaspur district confessed to his proximity to a 21-year-old girl, whose medical examination had confirmed that she had been allegedly raped. “He has even gone to the extent of saying that the two intended to get married, though we have yet to get in touch with the said girl or her parents to confirm his claims,” said district police chief R.M. Sharma.

Interestingly, the said teacher has been named by more than three girls as their alleged exploiter in the individual statement recorded by the police and also in the medical report prepared by the doctors. Even as the said teacher made the disclosure that he planned to marry the girl who was one of the accused, the police doubted that this was probably a defence tactic.

The four accused, Vijay, the principal, Vinod, Amarjit and Dinesh, all teachers were today produced in the court following which their police remand has been extended till March 26. Sources said so far only one of them had admitted to his relations and that too with one girl while the other three had denied any kind of involvement.

The police is also trying to probe the possibility of other girls who have studied in the institute in the past of being made victims of similar sexual exploitation. The police has already collected names and addresses of several such girls from the records of Prerna office who will shortly be contacted to find out if they went through the same torture.

Shimla, March 23
Accusing Chief Minister PK Dhumal of “double speak”, president of the state Youth Congress Man Mohan Katoch said today that alleging discrimination by the UPA government and also taking credit for various mega projects sanctioned by it showed him in poor light.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the UPA government had given several projects to the state like central university, IIT, National Fashion and Designing Institute and given nod for expansion of rail network. Besides, it had also launched programmes like National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojna and farm loan waiver scheme for which the Chief Minister had been taking the credit.

However, now on the eve of elections he was alleging stepmotherly treatment by the Centre and making discrimination a poll issue.

The people of the state were not so naive and they were fully aware of what the UPA regime had done for the state and they would not be misled by such falsehood. The BJP government had only burdened the people by increasing bus fare.

Good governance had been the first causality under the BJP rule and the administration had virtually collapsed as evident form the Aman Kachroo ragging-murder case and the incident of rape of deaf and dumb girls by teachers.

He said the slogan “yuvaun ka nara hai, yeh chunav hamara hai” had caught the fancy of the youth and they were coming out in support of Rahul Gandhi in a big way. The Congress was poised to sweep polls in the hill state as the people had been disillusioned by the dismal performance of the Dhumal regime. The state executive of the Youth Congress would meet on March 28 to finalise its programme for the ensuing polls.

Hamirpur, March 23
Even after the Congress high command clearing the name of former cricketer Madan Lal for the party ticket from Hamirpur, the game of one-upmanship between two different factions of the party continues. Two different press conferences were held here today about Madan Lal’s programme.

District president of the Congress Sunil Dutt ‘Bittoo’ and spokesman of the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency Deepak Sharma, who have been maintaining different postures on the nomination of the Congress candidate from Hamirpur, announced the programme of Madan Lal.

They held separate press conferences at the same venue, one followed by other after a gap of two hours, and announced programme giving two different venues for holding workers’ convention on March 28. While ‘Bittoo’ said the venue would be the Bachat Bhawan, Hamirpur, Deepak said the venue would be Town Hall.

As per the programme announced by these leaders, Madan Lal would reach Bilaspur district on March 26. He would be given a warm reception by Congress workers at the boarder of the state.

The next day, Madan Lal would pay obeisance at the Baba Balak Nath temple at Deoth-Sidh and visit his village, Adri, and later go to Una to meet party workers.

On March 28, he would visit Hamirpur and attend a convention of party workers that would be addressed by HPCC president Kaul Singh Thakur.

Mandi, March 23
Training their guns on each other on the issues of the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat, corruption and their respective achievements in the state, the Congress and the BJP today accused each other of misleading voters so as to divert their attention from the real issues relating to development in the state.

State BJP president Jai Ram Thakur said Congress president Kaul Singh Thakur was cut down to size by the Congress high command by declaring Madan Lal Sharma as the party candidate from Hamirpur, instead of Narender Thakur, whom he had projected as party’s choice.

On the other hand, Kaul Singh said he welcomed the decision of the party high command and said BJP’s Anurag Thakur would be clean bowled in the election. “I have only projected the view of party men before the high command that Narender Thakur was a winning candidate,” he added.

He said let alone the Hamirpur seat, the Congress would also retain the other three seats.

He said Dhumal had double standards. He was praising the UPA while getting big projects recently and now he was stating that there had been discrimination against the state. He said the BJP had no moral right to make corruption a poll issue as four ministers and MLAs had levelled written charges of corruption against Dhumal while he was the Chief Minister in 1998-2003.

Jai Ram Thakur said the decision of the Congress high command as regards Hamirpur seat had exposed that the party was a “divided house”. “The BJP has the advantage as it has declared its candidates well in advance. We will wrest three seats from the Congress, besides retaining the Hamirpur seat,” he claimed at a press conference here.

He said Madan Lal Sharma hardly had any connection with Hamirpur people and he would not be able to stand anywhere near to Anurag Thakur. The UPA was disintegrating and so was the Congress leadership in the state.

Shimla, March 23
With the apprehension of acute water shortage in the state this summer and rationing already having been started in the state capital, the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department has chalked out an extensive plan to tackle the situation. The department has even urged the Election Commission to excuse its employees from poll duty.

Special nodal officers have been appointed at all district and division headquarters to monitor the water situation during the summer. Digging of pumps is being undertaken on a war footing so that by the time it is peak of summer, there are other sources to depend on.

The war district administrations all over the state have been asked to make arrangement for water tankers in case supply has to be made to the worst-hit areas.

“In view of scarce rain, there is a high probability that there might be acute water shortage this summer, so we have made all preparations in advance,” said Irrigation and Public Health Minister Ravinder Ravi. He said a request has also been made to the Election Commission not to place any of the IPH employees on election duty as the elections will coincide with peak summer season.

To deal with the problem of water shortage, which afflicts the “Queen of Hills” every summer, the local municipal corporation (MC) has decided to clean and activate about 24 traditional water sources. Officials said, “When the town is hit by water shortage, certain areas having traditional water sources can be relied upon. Efforts are also on to plug leakages that results in wastage of huge quantity of water daily.”

The Giri water supply scheme, which was supposed to relieve Shimla of its water woes by providing 20 MLD at its full capacity, is able to provide barely half the quantity.

However, the minister maintained that the IPH Department was providing about 36 MLD daily to the MC that had said that it did not require any more, at the moment. “Efforts have been made to plug leakages in the pipes of the Giri scheme and hopefully it will start running to its full capacity shortly,” said Ravi.

With very little snowfall and scanty rainfall this winter, the water-table position has also been affected. “There has been a shift in the monsoon pattern as rain occurs more in the months of July-August than in June-July, which necessitates the need for artificial recharge of ground water through measures like rainwater harvesting,” says JS Sharma, scientist and head of the Central Ground Water Board office located at Dharamsala.

Hamirpur, March 23
The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) is undertaking a new initiative at Pong Dam to use telemeters and put radio colouring to migratory birds to track their movement round the year.

The president of the BNHS has been given permission recently by the chief conservator of the forest-cum-chief wildlife warden of the state government to carry survey of the migratory birds in Pong Dam from February to April 2009 through radio colouring.

Since bar-headed goose is considered the flagship species among the migratory birds, this bird would be trapped and a radio colour would be put around its neck or leg.

A large number of migratory birds from many parts of the world as far as Siberia and Europe visit several wetlands of India and according to census of these birds undertaken at Pong Dam this year about a lakh birds alone came here.

By putting radio colour around the leg or neck of the birds the BNHS would keep itself abreast with an one-year global positioning of these birds by using telemetric technique.

It is notable that four new species of migratory birds were located at Pong Dam this year and during a census by the Wildlife Department migration of a large cormorant from Siberia was also confirmed.

This large cormorant was trapped and bended in Siberia and was spotted in Pong Dam this season.

By colouring bar-headed goose, which migrate from Siberia during winter months to a bit warmer wetlands in search of food, its movement would be tracked enabling researchers to study migratory birds.

The Wildlife Department authorities have confirmed that they have permitted the BNHS to carry survey of migratory birds at Pong Dam by putting radio colours.

Sundernagar, March 23
The police has booked 20 persons who have razed the house of freedom fighter late Padmanabh Sharma at Ruhani village in upper Behali panchayat, near Sundernagar, yesterday. However, till now no arrest has been made.

According to information, the police has lodged an FIR against the villagers who damaged the house, including ward member of the Behali panchayat Chaman Lal, Kamli Devi, Gangi Devi, Banti Devi and Sukh Ram and 15 other persons under Sections 147, 149, 448, 427 and 506 of the IPC.

According to the police, investigation was going on and the police has identified eight persons.

According to Sundernagar DSP Raj Kumar Chandel, the police has sent teams in search of culprits but no arrest was made so far.

Yesterday a group of villagers have damaged the house of a late freedom fighter and threatened his daughter Lajja Devi.

The villagers have done all this to oblige few influential persons as the house was coming in the way of a link road. Also, an electric pole was causing hindrance in the path so the villagers tried to remove the old house instead of the electric pole.

According to Sundernagar SDM RK Gautam, no grant was given to the victim, as there was no provision for this in the relief manual.

Relatives of the victim were not satisfied with the police investigation. They alleged that the police had registered case under lighter Sections.

They appealed to the Chief Minister to intervene into the matter, as the culprits were relatives of a senior police official.

Palampur, March 23
The state government today ordered a probe into the incident of beating up of an inmate (Bidhi Chand) of the government-run old-age home by its employee at Baijnath.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal took note of the news report published in The Tribune today and asked the Department of Social Justice and Welfare to conduct an inquiry into the incident and initiate action against the erring employee.

He had also asked the department to send a team of senior officials to all old-age homes in the state so that measures could be taken to stop such incidents in future. He termed the happening as unfortunate one.

Meanwhile, Baijnath tehsildar BS Lagwal reached the old-age home and started an inquiry into the case today. He recorded statements of all inmates there. The victim, Bidhi Chand, narrated everything about the incident to the tehsildar. He complained about maltreatment being met out to the inmates of the old-age home. Other inmates, however, remained silent. May be, they were apprehensive that if they were discharged from the home, they would have nowhere to go.

Lagwal told mediapersons that the statement of the employee involved in the incident could not be recorded as he was on leave.

A team of officials of the Welfare Department, Shimla, was also likely to reach here by the evening to inquiry into the incident. It would submit its report to the Chief Minister in the next three days.

Bilaspur, March 23
The seven-day state-level Nalwari fair concluded here late this evening. Soni of Ludhiana was declared the best wrestler of the five centuries old wrestling bouts of Nalwadi mela as he downed Inder Singh of Laliyan-Garh Shankar in the final bout here at the Luhnu Ground.

Both wrestlers grappled for about 45 minutes after repeated extensions of time and then the jury decided in favour Soni as he succeeded in giving a “downing” to his rival Inder Singh.

Chief guest Ashwini Kapoor, Divisional Commissioner Mandi Zone, gave away cash prize of Rs 51,000 to Soni and the silver mace of “Malli” called Bhim Gada while Inder Singh got a cash prize of Rs 31,000.

Kamaljit of Ropar was declared third and awarded Rs 15,000.

Earlier, Gaurav Rana of Una was declared “Himachal Kumar” (the best Himachal wrestler up to 21 years in the state) and was given a cash prize of Rs 21,000 and silver mace called Abhimanyu Gada. He defeated Mukesh of Kangra.

Some 500 renowned wrestlers drawn from 12 states participated in the wrestling bouts.

Manali, March 23
To provide quality education at affordable price to the children of Casual Paid Labour (CPL) and GREF personnel, which forms backbone of the Border Roads Organisation, a school was inaugurated by Neeru Doon, wife of SK Doon, Commander, 38 Border Roads Task Force, here today.

The school named -38 Tiny Tots School having nursery, LKG and UKG classes is also opened for admission to the children of civil population of Manali and was designed to admit about 50 children.

No admission fees would be charged from the children and the fee structure of the kids of the CPLs was kept at Rs 50 per month. The school would also provide free books and clothing to them.