Hamirpur, December 22
Another death from the swine flu in the district has created panic among villagers as patients have been reporting with symptoms of the disease.

Phoola Devi (35), wife of Deep Kumar and resident of Ropari village (Bhareri) under Bhoranj subdivision, died last night at the regional hospital. She was admitted to the hospital on Sunday and her H1N1 test report had been confirmed positive.

This was the second death from H1N1 virus as Indu Bala, who also hailed from the district, had died at Dr Rajinder Prasad Government Medical College, Tanda, a few days ago.

These deaths have created a panic-like situation in few villages as the cases of influenza and other cold-related problems have been increasing with the increase in cold conditions here.

Medical health officer Dr PK Katwal had confirmed Phoola Devi positive of swine flu. He said, “We received Phoola Devi’s test report today which confirmed swine flu. We will visit Ropari village tomorrow and treat contact persons of the deceased with the medicine.”

Meanwhile, residents and some of the staff members of the regional hospital have also expressed their concern on earmarking a portion of the special ward as an isolation ward for the swine flu, which is just next to the children ward.

A staff member said, “Making isolation ward for swine flu suspect patients near the children ward can prove dangerous since same hospital staff is doing duty simultaneously in both the wards.”

On being contacted, CMO Dr DS Chandel said, “We have deputed teams for the isolation ward which work in groups and maintain all precautions. Moreover, the children ward and isolation wards are at quite a distance.”

Shimla, December 22
Chief Minister PK Dhumal today said all efforts would be made to involve the private sector in joint ventures to develop tourism in the state.

While speaking at a function of a spa-resort in Banasar near Parwanoo, he said emphasis would be on tourism development, hydel power generation and creation of quality educational infrastructure in the state.

He added funding was being sought for Rs 263 crore project envisioned for giving boost to organic farming, which was gaining market in metropolitan cities.

He said the natural grandeur of the state had vast potential for direct and indirect employment and the government was trying to extract maximum out of it through the tourism sector while protecting the environment.

Chief Minister said on an average 48 persons get employment in the hospitality sector with an investment of Rs 10 lakh. “Vast investment in the tourism sector means more employment to the people which is the need of the hour,” he remarked.

He said the government was according top priority to tourism related promotional activities.

He advised people to exhibit the best traditional hospitality to attract more tourists.

Shimla, December 22
In an initiative to end the “scourge of ad hoc appointments”, the government will come out with a policy to ensure that all recruitments are made on regular basis and through designated agencies.

The mess created by ad hoc appointments in various departments has been leading to unending litigation and matters like deciding the seniority list are becoming a major issue. The problem is compounded when services are regularised in case of employees who have not been recruited following the regular procedure through the state service public commission, the state subordinate services selection board or other designated agency.

Under the new policy being finalised, all departments will be required to assess the vacancy position for each calendar year in advance and accordingly send requisition for making recruitment by December every year. The government has already directed the board to draw a calendar of examinations conducted for recruitment to fill vacancies in various departments. The recruitment agencies concerned will conduct examinations and complete the entire process well before the closure of every financial year.

Chief secretary Asha Swaroop said the objective was to ensure that a regular recruitment procedure was followed for every appointment, including those to be appointed on contract or tenure basis. It would take some time to extend the policy to all kinds of recruitment.

The government has been unable to resolve the issue of appointments of teachers recruited through the PTA , mainly because of procedurals problems. These days even doctors, paramedicals and other staff in the hospitals is being recruited through the Rog Kalyan Samiti and it is bound to create problems in future unless proper recruitment process is not followed.

The new recruitment policy will have to be extended to all kinds of government employment as the government has already decided to regularise contract appointees after eight years of service, while courts had ordered regularisation of daily-waged and part-time staff.

Kullu, December 22
After taking suo motto cognisance of report published in these columns, a Double Bench of the high court headed by Acting Chief Justice SB Mishra and Rajiv Sharma today ordered stay on all construction activities on the 100-MW Malana-II project being executed by Everest Power Private Limited (EPPL) in the Malana valley with immediate effect.

It has asked the Kullu SP to ensure implementation of the order with immediate effect till the case comes for further hearing on January 3.

Issuing the order today, the Double Bench rejected the plea of the Kullu DC and the company and asked the Kullu SP to ensure implementation of the order till further order.

The HC had appointed a two-member panel comprising Rajiv Jivan and Romesh Verma, who submitted a sealed report after inspecting the project site, assessing the scale of violations and damage.

Confirming the receiving of the order, the Kullu SP said the company had been asked to stop the work with immediate effect.

Dharamsala, December 22
The government has recently announced that increments and promotions of schoolteachers in the state would be linked to results of classes they were teaching. The step illustrates the concern of the government towards declining academic standards of government schools.

However, it was not only the teachers but also the successive state governments that were responsible for declining standards of the government schools. The successive state governments had been ignoring merit and carrying out back door entries in teaching fraternity of schools over a period of time. This had also contributed to declining academic standards in the government schools.

According to the data collected by The Tribune, the successive state governments had created eight categories of teachers for making backdoor entries into schools. The famous category of the said kind was that of the PTA teachers recruited by the previous Congress government.

The previous Congress government recruited about 14,000 teachers through the parent teacher associations (PTA) of the schools amid allegations of favouritism from the BJP that was then in opposition. The PTA teachers were recruited keeping aside the laid down procedure of recruiting schoolteachers through the Himachal Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Board (HPSSSB).

The present government ousted many PTA teachers after coming to power. Now, the PTA teachers were carrying out rallies throughout the state demanding regularisation of their services.

The other categories through which teachers were recruited in violation to the laid down procedure include voluntary teachers, vidhya upasaks, contract teachers, ad hoc teachers, stopgap teachers, primary assistant teachers (PAT) and tenure teachers.

In case of contract, stopgap and tenure teachers, the school principals were given the power to recruit candidates. Many of the teachers who were recruited through the said categories did not even fulfil the basic criteria. The teachers were slowly absorbed in the government schools after about eight years of service. However, this method of recruitment contributed towards lowering standards in government schools.

According to sources, the system of backdoor entries establishing various categories in teaching fraternity had led to exploitation of education in the state. They were initially paid petty sums when recruited under the said categories. They were also made to work in many cases at salaries lower than minimum prescribed wages for years before being absorbed permanently in government jobs.

Interestingly, though the teachers of all said categories were doing the same job of teaching students in government schools, they were being paid varied salaries. Since there were ample number of unemployed teachers registered in the employment exchanges of the state, the government should recruit teachers from among those qualified candidates rather than creating escape routes for back door entries.

Kullu, December 22
Kusum (28), wife of Rajesh Kumar of Hathithan village, near here, died of burn injuries at her residence yesterday while her husband suffered 36 per cent burn injuries.

According to preliminary inquiry, Superintendent of Police KK Indoria said the woman had set herself on fire after sprinkling kerosene oil. The cause of taking the extreme step was being looked into, he added.

However, Rajesh tried to save her and suffered burn injuries. He was admitted to a hospital here and his condition was stated to be stable.

Meanwhile, parents and the in-laws had not expressed any foul play in the case, according to police information.

The SP said a case under Section 174 of the IPC had been registered.

The body of the deceased was handed over to the relatives after a post-mortem examination today.

Shimla, December 22
To save over 20,000 trees from being axed during construction of three roads, the forest authorities have sought a rethink on the issue so that the green cover can be saved from shrinking further.

These three road projects, including Kumarhatti-Nahan, Siuntha-Draman and Ranital Kotla, work for which has already been awarded by the Public Works Department to the contractors are likely to claim over 20,000 trees during construction. Since work has already been awarded, the PWD is opposed to any alteration and is determined to carry forward the work being undertaken as part of the World Bank road project.

“Since the damage is huge we want that a traffic survey should be undertaken to assess if at all widening is required when the number of trees involved, especially in the Kumarhatti-Nahan road, is too huge to be lost in one go,” said a senior officer.

The Forest Department has also suggested reducing of work points so that rather than undertaking work on the entire stretch on these roads only select points are dealt with. Besides this, they feel restricting maximum work on the valley side could also save a few hundred trees.

The issue assumes significance especially in view of the fact that the court has already pulled up the PWD for causing damage to many more trees than those for whom permission had been granted. “If we are serious about this talk of green bonus we need to calculate the economic benefits accruing from these projects and balance it with the ecological damage,” he said.

“In case there is any going back on these projects there could be complications not only from the World Bank side but the contractors to whom work has been awarded would also seek a compensation,” said a senior PWD officer. He added that the PWD was being far more cautious in undertaking work so that there was minimum possible damage to trees and it was also resorting to bio-engineering works, compensatory plantation and ensuring better survival of plants.

Citing the latest figures in the forest survey reports, officials say that Himachal has now taken to a declining trend. 

Mandi, December 22
The state-government-run 14 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), declared as the “centre of excellence” to produce multi-skilled technical work force under a centrally sponsored project, still cry for basic infrastructure, including laboratories, tool kits and other machineries, even after six years of its launch in the state.

The funds meant for creating the mandatory infrastructure and technically trained teaching faculties have been diverted to spruce up the “offices of chairmen” in the department over the years, sources revealed.

Not only this, the Industrial Management Committee (IMC) that was responsible for running the ITIs had developed a novel way of hoodwinking the inspection team sent by the Director-General, Employment and Training (DGET), which oversees the functioning of the centre of excellence in the country.

“The IMC ensures that kits and tools even faculty reach the ITIs before the DGET team hit the venue to save its face,” the sources added.

But the centre of excellence had become “centre of mediocrity” as trainees enrolled in these ITIs still cry for facilities as the State Technical Education Department failed to install mandatory tool kits and machineries for trainees in most of the so-called “centre of excellence”, trainees rued.

“Most ITIs are run on ad hoc basis and have outdated tools and kits. Even courses and trades are outdated,” the trainees added.

According to sources, with allocation of funds worth Rs 160 crore the central government has started over 500 ITIs across the country out of which 400 were started in the state government sector with 75 per cent funds from the Centre and 25 per cent from state sources. “Another 100 ITIs were asked to arrange their own resources”.

The state government declared 14 ITIs as centre of excellence in the state ever since this project was launched in 2004 in the country. Under the project, each centre of excellence had to install state of art tools, machineries, other machineries and the trained faculties to train and produce multi-skilled technical work force, the sources added.

Director technical education SS Guleria claimed that 70 per cent of the new equipments were being installed in the centre of excellence in the state and remaining 30 per cent would be installed in due course. “There was a problem earlier, but all 14 are being upgraded and Himachal ranks fourth in country,” he claimed.

Hamirpur, December 22
Education Minister ID Dhiman has asked the government school teachers to work with missionary zeal to face the stiff competition posed by the private schools.

Speaking on an annual day function at Senior Secondary School, Jharaldi, today, Dhiman mentioned that the government was spending Rs 2,287 crore on the education in the current year and had made an education code to raise standard of the education.

The minister also stressed on forming an annual academic calendar for the students and provide them maximum opportunities for their overall development.

Dhiman also announced to give Rs 1lakh for building a badminton court in the school, Rs 2 lakh for basketball court, Rs 3 lakh for raising a wall and Rs 1 lakh for carrying repairs in the school. The minister also gave away prizes to meritorious students in this function.