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Mango farmers suffer Rs 6 crore loss
Rationalisation of medical staff put on hold
CM stresses on rational use of natural resources
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Robbery leaves police baffled
Selection of asst professors
Son sets mother afire
3 held for beating passengers
2 held with 14 kg of charas
Green film fest begins
Man held with charas
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Mango farmers suffer Rs 6 crore loss
Dharamsala, June 19 On the other hand, native mango (commonly referred to as desi mango) is not finding any buyers. Farmers of semi-hilly areas in the state like Dehra, Pragpur and Dhaliara, who are hoping to make some money from the bumper crop this year, are in despair. Chand Lal Sharma, a mango farmer from Chambi village near the Chintpurni area, said the local mango variety trees on his land were laden with fruit this year. It was after two years that the trees have bore such good crop. However, there were no buyers. We have inquired from local markets and traders were offering just Rs 2 to Rs 2.5 per kg. This would not even cover the cost of taking mangoes to market. So we have decided not to pluck mango from trees and leave it for birds. Asha Sharma had specially visited her village from a nearby town to make some earnings from her orchard in Kanol village near Dhaliara. However, she also had to return empty-handed. The local mangoes that are smaller in size are harder. Due to it, they have escaped the damage from storms. They are considered more nutritious and are also good for pickles. However, since they yield lesser pulp, the state fruit processing units like the HPMC do not buy them. However, the local mangoes are organic since they are not given any fertiliser or sprayed with any kind of chemical. The government marketing agencies can easily sell processed food of such trees as organic produce. The local mango trees also act as green cover and are part of the heritage of lower areas of Himachal. Most of the trees of local mangoes are decades old. The government should intervene to protect local mango crop so that the farmers maintain interest in maintaining the decades-old orchards that are adding to carbon credits of the state. The farmers also alleged that much hue and cry was raised about apple crop. However, the government and officials were comparatively less passionate about the horticulture crops of lower areas. |
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Rationalisation of medical staff put on hold
Shimla, June 19 The Health Department had undertaken an exhaustive exercise over the past two years to examine daily outdoor and indoor patient load, population served by a health institute, staff required and its distance from another health institution, so that posting of doctors and other staff could be done accordingly. A few institutions receive only about 10 outdoor patients. However, two MBBS doctors are posted there. Meanwhile, in other institutes where there is much rush, there is either one doctor and sometimes none. While there are 1,598 doctors in Himachal, there is a huge shortage with the number of vacancies being 350. The shortage of specialists and MBBS doctors has virtually crippled the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) as doctors prefer to join corporate hospitals or start their own private practice. PC Dhiman, secretary, (Health and Family Welfare), said the proposal for rationalisation of posting of doctors and other paramedical staff had been put on the hold as it was still awaiting approval of the government. However, sources confirmed that the government had made up its mind not to go ahead with its plan as this could displease a large percentage of
population. It is inconsistency in distribution of health institutions owing to political considerations which has led to the problem of inadequate doctors and other staff at certain places. It had also been proposed to engage services of ayurvedic doctors in level-one institutes. The basic objective of undertaking the exercise and segregating health institutions into eight levels was to provide staff, funds, infrastructure and other facilities according to requirement of public and not other factors. There were plans to strengthen facilities at the referral institutes so that all medical facilities could be extended. |
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CM stresses on rational use of natural resources
Shimla, June 19 Speaking at the silver jubilee celebrations of the Shimla Press Club here today, he said the press from the pre-independence days had played a very active role in highlighting important issues. “If we wish to secure future of the next generations we will have to protect environment and be very rational in use of natural resources,” he stressed. Dhumal said with the inevitable ill effects of global warming and climate change, there was an urgent need for each one of us to change our lifestyle and conserve water, power and other natural resources. “The importance of environment protection is being stressed upon and schoolchildren are being imbibed such values so that they are more sensitive towards environment,” he added. He said with manifold increase in population, the resources and civic amenities in the town had come under tremendous strain resulting in problems like traffic congestion, water shortage and overcrowding. “Since Shimla was conceived for a population of a few thousands by the British, today a lot of problems are being faced which need to be addressed to make it a world class tourist destination,” he added. Dhumal recalled the long association that Shimla had with the media. “Several important newspapers are published from Shimla since pre-independence days so the town has a lot of significance in that respect as well,” he added.
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Robbery leaves police baffled
Solan, June 19 According to Solan SP Vinod
Dhawan, Sufal Kumar Sood, who ran a jewellery shop at Lower Mall, Shimla---Rajinder
Jewellers---was abducted from his house around 2.30 am last night. The three robbers first looted his house, including Rs 12 lakh cash and gold worth Rs 4 lakh, and later took him towards Shimla in their vehicle. Though the exact sequence of events was yet to be confirmed, the police was working on probabilities, stated IG Ashok Sharma, who visited the spot today. Sood was then tied to a tree in the Totu forest area of Shimla where one robber stood guard while the other two went to rob his shop at Lower Mall. They pressurised Sood to reveal the code of his safe where the jewellery was stacked. The robbers succeeded in breaking seven out of eight locks but failed to break the last one and hence the attempt to rob the shop was foiled. Meanwhile,
Sood, who was beaten up and left unconscious in the forests near Tara Devi temple, gained consciousness after he heard chime of bells at the temple. He managed to reach the temple complex and sought help of a caretaker there as he failed to recognise the place. The caretaker helped him call his friend who later contacted the Sadar Police station at Shimla. The Kandaghat police was subsequently informed about the incident. The SP immediately rushed to the spot and sought help of a dog squad and forensic science experts to trace the miscreants. |
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HC asks varsity to redraw merit list
Legal Correspondent
Shimla, June 19 While passing the order the court also quashed appointments made by the university for the said posts. Justice Surjit Singh passed this order on a petition filed by Manisha Thakur challenging the action of the university whereby it had appointed two candidates as assistant professors in the Biotechnology Department in violation of guidelines. The petitioner alleged that she, selected candidates and others were called for an interview and the merit list was prepared. According to her, she was awarded two marks for experience, while selected candidate Sneh Lata was awarded three marks. She alleged that she had 21-month experience while selected candidate had 22-month experience. Her plea before the court was that as per the criteria prescribed by the university a mark was awarded for every six months of experience and she and selected candidate were entitled to be awarded 2.5 marks each, but the interview committee wrongly awarded three marks to the selected candidate and only two marks to her.
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Son sets mother afire
Nurpur, June 19 According to DSP Hari Ram, she sustained 70 per cent burns and was admitted in the civil hospital here this morning by the police when a ward member of the gram panchayat informed them about the incident. Intriguingly, none of the villagers dared to come to the rescue of the victim reportedly due to notorious nature of the accused. Meanwhile, the police arrested Balwinder Kumar for attempt to murder under Section 307 of the IPC. Meanwhile, Rano Devi is battling for life in the hospital and her condition is stated to be serious. |
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3 held for beating passengers
Nurpur, June 19 According to the police, the accused also thrashed the bus driver and conductor when they tried to intervene. Following the complaint of bus driver Kartar Singh, a case under Sections 323, 506 and 341 has been lodged against three persons. The third accomplice is still at large. According to sources, one of the passengers had bought a soft drink bottle from a vendor at Chogan. Since the bus started plying, he could not pay money to him. The vendor, along with his colleagues, chased the bus in a van and stopped it on the Nurpur-Chamba link road. It was there where they allegedly thrashed the passengers.
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2 held with 14 kg of charas
Bilaspur, June 19 Superintendent of Police Kapil Sharma said the duo had been identified as Praksh Chand and Mansha Ram. They were coming from Kullu and were bound for some station in Punjab. He said the contraband was hidden in the mudguards of the vehicle. The police seized the contraband and arrested them under the NDPS Act. The SP said the two were being interrogated to know more about their operations and contacts. |
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Green film fest begins
Shimla, June 19 An initiative of the United Mass Movement for Eco-Friendly and Equitable Development (UMEED), a film festival based on the theme “Sharing Solutions” would be held in 20 academic institutions till July 5. “A series of informative and interesting short films developed by the Centre for Environment Education and TVE Asia pacific will be screened during the festival in various schools,” said Navneet Yadav, programme in charge in
Himachal. — TNS
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Man held with charas
Bilaspur, June 19 Superintendent of Police Kapil Sharma said the accused was being interrogated so as to find any nexus with others in this illegal trade. Sharma said the police was keeping a strict vigil on illegal activities of a few persons here in the district and more such cases were expected to be solved soon.
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