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HPCC chief poll: Virbhadra camp springs a surprise
Shanta flays hike in MPs’ salaries
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Fallout of Rohtang project worries tribals
Schools with less than 10 students
Yet another education scam surfaces
Death of eight labourers due to wall collapse
Illegal cannabis cultivation continues to flourish
Saakshar Bharat Mission launched in Chamba
MLA: Enough trucks to carry apples
Rajiv Gandhi award for Dr Puri
Pangi tribal valley to get poly houses, says agri secy
Withdrawal of lending facility
Annual function held
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HPCC chief poll: Virbhadra camp springs a surprise
Shimla, September 11 To everyone’s surprise, three former ministers — Ram Lal Thakur, Chander Kumar Chaudhary and Sujan Singh Pathania — loyalists of the Union Minister, indicated their intentions to contest the election as they collected nomination papers from the Congress office. It now remains to be seen whether they will actually file their nominations or it is a mere pressure tactic by the Virbhadra group. Even though both Virbhadra Singh and CLP leader Vidya Stokes have been engaged in hectic lobbying, it was being felt that the election would be a mere formality where a single-line resolution would be adopted, authorising UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to decide the party chief. Now, with the three leaders taking the nomination papers, the rival camp, led by Vidya Stokes and HPCC chief Kaul Singh Thkaur, have been left wondering about the game plan of the Virbhadra camp. State Returning Officer Rajni Patil arrived here late in the evening. On the other hand, all senior leaders, including Virbhadra, Stokes and Kaul Singh, held a series of meeting with the MLAs, elected delegates and their supporters to chalk out their strategy. Despite the latest developments, senior party
leaders still felt that nobody would dare to defy the high command by filing his nomination papers when it has almost become an established norm to leave the decision to the AICC chief. “I am a candidate for the HPCC chief post. However, depending on the situation that emerges tomorrow, I will decided whether to file my nomination or not,” said Ram Lal Thakur. He added that he was a dedicated soldier of the party and would abide by the directives of the high command. According to sources, Kaul Singh, who is hoping to get a second term with the support of Union Minister Anand Sharma, is keen that there is no election and the decision is left to the high command. With dispute over the PCC delegates from five blocks of Rohru, Bilaspur, Jhanduta, Jawalamukhi and Sulah remaining unresolved, one last effort will be made to amicably solve the stalemate. Rajni Patil will personally hold meetings with the leaders of the five blocks tomorrow in the matter. |
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Shanta flays hike in MPs’ salaries
Dharamsala, September 11 “The hike is unfortunate because of the fact that about 530 MPs in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha are already crorepatis,” he added. The MPs should have suggested measures to help the poor in the country rather than lobbying in one voice for increase in their perks, he said. Interestingly, Shanta Kumar is the first MP to speak up against the hike in salaries of Parliamentarians. He further alleged that the present UPA government had become immune to price rise and corruption in the country. While countries like the US have successfully extracted information regarding black money of their country in Swiss banks, the Indian government is not taking any steps, he said. Shanta Kumar also suggested that to solve the problem of rotting foodgrain, the government should distribute it through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA). “The government can give foodgrain in lieu of labour under MNREGA or it can give 50 per cent labour in cash and the remaining in the form of foodgrain. This method would keep sanctity of the Supreme Court orders and also help save the foodgrain from going down the drain,” he opined. On being asked about the performance of the state government, Shanta Kumar said that it had done well in the past three years. However, corruption in any form should not be tolerated, he added. |
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Concern over people failing the Constitution
Shimla, September 11 Delivering the first Lala Amar Chand Memorial Lecture organised by the Bar Association of India on “Working the Constitution” here today, the eminent lawyer, who has been honoured with the Padma Bhushan, regretted that corruption in the governing structure had corroded the very core of elective democracy. “Moral crisis is writ large on the entire political system as the number of history sheeters in Parliament is on the rise while industrialists are entering the Rajya Sabha with their money power,” he lamented. Expressing his views on the present day compulsion of “coalition politics”, he said dominance of the Congress had not harmed the country as much as the coalition parties, with most drifting from their ideology. “The Election Commission is powerless to discipline such parties and, as such, electoral reforms are a must,” he stressed. “Members of Parliament are most ill-suited to judge the misbehavior of judges and, as such, we need a better method of easing out erring judges,” he opined. He stressed the need for having more experts not just in Parliament, but also as advisers, and suggested a constitutional amendment to make this possible. Rao said poor governance and lack of political stability was giving rise to Naxalism and terrorism across the country. “The recruits are educated youth who are acting in defiance of the authority which can lead to a very volatile situation, especially when 230 districts are infested with militancy,” he said. Speaking on the occasion, Chief Justice of Himachal High Court, Justice Kurian Joseph, said the legal system was faced with a moral crisis. “There is a degeneration of moral values and no longer do lawyers command the kind of respect they did in earlier times,” he remarked. He urged the legal fraternity to mould, lead, guide and show the way in which the Constitution worked. “When we look at the life of people like Lala Amar Chand, we can say that he lived up to the expectations of the society with high moral standards,” he said. Reminiscing his father in whose memory the lecture was held, senior advocate Kapil Dev Sood said he always imparted high values which he himself upheld, both in his personal and professional life. |
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Fallout of Rohtang project worries tribals
Keylong (Lahaul-Spiti), September 11 The tribals welcomed the tunnel project, the foundation stone of which was laid by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at Dhundi near Manali on June 28. However, they urged the Central government to consider its impact on the local environment and culture and include local area development in the project. “It will open floodgates for the mass movement of tourist traffic and pollution in the tribal belt, which otherwise remains closed for six winter months every year,” they add. This is for the first time that such a big project has not taken into account the social and environmental fallout of the tunnel. “It will result in a spurt in construction activity and upset local social harmony and ecology,” says Topdun, a local writer. The tribals say the Centre denied them the tunnel for more than 55 years just because of strong “Jammu and Kashmir lobby in Delhi” that did not want all-weather connectivity to Leh-Ladakh via Lahaul. “This road will divert tourist traffic from the Srinagar-Zozila Pass to the Leh-Ladakh region via Lahaul valley, hitting its tourism, trade and strategic importance,” they claim. Duni Chand Thakur (78), a resident of Sissu village, recalls, “The demand for tunnel was raised in the tribal advisory council in 1955, when Lahaul was the part of Punjab hill state.” Farmers say the Rohtang tunnel will cut down distance by 46 km and transportation cost by 30 per cent. They can sell peas and potatoes in Kullu or other markets in three hours’ time whereas it takes 8-10 hours. However, there are others who say that Lahaul valley will lose its solitude. “Tourists and pollution will make inroads into the valley in winter,” fears Ajay, a poet from Lahaul. According to Border Roads Organisation (BRO) engineers, the Kargil War of 1999 expedited the need for an alternative all-weather connectivity via Lahaul as the Zozila-Leh axis came under the firing reach of the enemy. The Manali-Leh journey will be cut shorter by 10 hours if the Shinkunla Pass is linked through a tunnel, they add. Chief Engineer of the Rohtang tunnel project PK Mahajan says there is no provision for local area development in the tunnel project at the moment. The main focus is to complete the tunnel by 2014, he adds. |
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Schools with less than 10 students
Shimla, September 11 Based on a survey conducted by the department some time back, the government was considering merger of these low strength schools with the nearby educational institutions. However, with the new Right to Education Act, the government is forced to rethink on the issue and as such it can be forced to run some schools even if the strength of students is even one or two. “Directions have been issued to the departments to undertake a fresh survey so that the feeding area of the school can be assessed along with the distance of the nearest school in the vicinity,” Srikant Baldi, Principal Secretary, Education, said. He said in the previous survey, the distance of a school from another educational institute was taken 1 km in the hills and 1.5 km in plain areas. “We are still in the process of fixing parameters with regard to distance and feeding area and the proposal is under the consideration of the Finance Department,” he said. The fact that a large number of these schools were opened on political considerations without taking other factors into consideration led to such a problem of low strength schools. This also resulted in compromise in quality of education as the teachers were very erratic in attending school. Surprisingly, the government is bearing the burden of running 225 schools with less than five students while the number of schools with strength between six to 10 students is about 400. The fact that the government is now duty-bound to provide the right to free and compulsory education to every child even if it means running a school for one child, there are several schools, who were faced with the threat of closure, which will continue now. The fact that there has been a rapid expansion of private schools, especially in the rural areas, will also have to be taken into consideration. To ensure that students studying in schools which would be closed continue their studies, the government will provide a travel allowance where there is bus service. |
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Yet another education scam surfaces
Dharamsala, September 11 However, the education institution has already given one-year advance diploma certificate in Industrial Accountancy to many students across the state. As per documents available with The Tribune, the certificate was issued to a student on July 20, just 23 days after the registration of education society. According to sources, jurisdiction of the registered education society was just Churah tehsil of Chamba district. However, it has already started functioning across the state. The matter came to the fore when OP Sharma, original proprietor of NIPS institute at Dharamsala, filed a police complaint in this regard. In his complaint to the police, Sharma alleged that the study centre was being run by his former partner Sanjay Kumar. “I dissolved my partnership with Sanjay due to his involvement in illegal activities,” he said. Earlier, Sanjay was running one Kukreja education that offered PhD degrees through correspondence to students. Billboards of Kukreja education were removed by the district administration. Omkar alleged that due to illegal certificates being issued by NIPS education, his institute was getting defamed. Meanwhile, the police has registered a case against Sanjay on the complaint of
Omkar. |
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Death of eight labourers due to wall collapse
Solan, September 11 The report has clearly pointed out that lack of provision to provide residential accommodation to migrant workers, who did not have any dwelling, at a reasonable distance from the unit was ridiculous and uncalled for. The employer should not only be legally bound to provide residential quarters to such labourers where work continues till late evenings but also the Labour Laws should have a provision to make it mandatory. This was considered a crucial finding as the eight labourers were residing in a shed whose wall was a common boundary between two units. The wall had collapsed after a huge stack of limestone, piled on the other side of the wall, gave way due to heavy downpour. The tragedy could have been averted had these labourers been provided a residential accommodation. The report has also expressed concern over the lack of regulation of labour contractors and has stressed that they should be registered with the Labour Department with complete details. The report has stressed categorisation of such units, like limestone and mining, separately and displaying the names of their registered labour contractors on the website of the Labour Department so as to help check malpractices. It was observed that migrant labourers were employed for shorter durations and when such incidents take place, unit managements shied away from owing them. Regular checks by labour officials can help regulate the system in such vulnerable units where exploitation appears to occur. Further, owners and promoters of dump yards of minerals and stones, lying in the Sataun area, should be directed to immediately construct boundary walls and erect proper gates, along with displaying the name of their units, within three months of issuance of such directions. With no liaison among various government departments, such units managed to give the norms a go by. Hence, it was emphatically suggested that a joint inspection should be conducted by various departments before issuance of permanent registration certificates to the units. This would also ensure that all employees were issued identity cards and all laws were complied with. |
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Illegal cannabis cultivation continues to flourish
Kullu/Malana, September 11 The cannabis has been detected in villages around Manali, Halan-1 and Halan-II, Lug valley, Manikaran-Tosh-Pulga-Kheerganga belt, Pinsu, Malunder, Ougal Thatch, Rasol areas in Parbati valley. The recently launched anti-drug drive is yet to reach these areas even as the contraband is being harvested in lower altitude, revealed local residents. According to sources, drug dealers and charas mafias continue to cultivate the hybrid cannabis in the remote forest areas which are allegedly manned by migratory Nepalese labourers who make fast buck from the illegal trade. The fact that they are operating right under the nose of the police also cannot be denied. The story is no different in certain pockets of Shimla, Sirmaur and Chamba districts, they added. At Malana village, a drug dealer, allegedly in connivance with a few locals, has cultivated the high-quality cannabis in isolated patches in the Waiching and Chandrakhani area in over 500 bighas. The police opened its post near the village recently and villagers have stopped cultivating on private land. Anti-drug drives and training camps, conducted by the HP Judicial Academy at Manali recently, have yet to achieve results. The illegal cultivation is making it difficult for cooperative societies and the NGOs trying to win over villagers to grow alternative crops, said OP Sharma, founder of the Malana Vikalp. “The forest staff should be made accountable under the NDPS Act,” he asserted. Also, the illegal cultivation is showing no signs of abetting as local politicians have been promising poor illiterate villagers that they are legalising cultivation of opium and cannabis like it has been done in certain states in the country, the sources pointed. Kullu SP KK Indoria said a team, comprising over 150 men, had already destroyed cannabis and poppy in the Ani, Khanag and Banjar areas in over 2,100 bighas, so far. “We have involved the forest, revenue and PWD departments, besides local villagers, under MNREGA and the response is very positive,” he said. Kullu Forest Conservator PK Sharma said forest field staff was coordinating with the police. However, they had no exact information about the forest areas under illegal cultivation. DFO Anil Kumar said the matter was being looked into. |
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Saakshar Bharat Mission launched in Chamba
Chamba, September 11 Before the launch of the mission, the DC gave a brief report on the status of the percentage of literacy in the district which was below 50 per cent and also summarised certain activities and programmes initiated to eliminate illiteracy in the district. Later, addressing mediapersons, the DC said the SBM was aimed especially at the female populace but not excluding the male populace, considering that the female literacy rate was not at par with the male literacy rate of the district. The DC said a sum of Rs 7.23 crore had been earmarked to be utilised on the mission covering all 283 panchayats, including the Pangi tribal subdivision of the district. |
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MLA: Enough trucks to carry apples
Kullu, September 11
He said more than 200 trucks were leaving this district everyday with apples, besides many small vehicles arranged for carrying the produce. He said keeping in view the bumper crop of apples, the government had exempted the trucks of other states reaching Himachal from road tax for three months to carry the fruit. He further said the BJP government had always remained farmer-friendly and introduced many schemes for the benefit of farmers. |
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Rajiv Gandhi award for Dr Puri
Shimla, September 11 The award will be presented to Dr Puri at a function to be held at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, on September 19. These awards are given for yeoman services rendered by those in various fields like science and technology, education, industry, fine arts, politics and social work. Dr Puri has rendered services in various capacities in the Health and Family Welfare Department. She is currently the project director of the State AIDS Control Society. |
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Pangi tribal valley to get poly houses, says agri secy
Chamba, September 11 This was stated by Secretary (Agriculture) to the Government of Himachal Pradesh Ram Subhag Singh while presiding over a meeting of officials at Killar, the tribal sub-divisional headquarters of Pangi, recently. He said Kisan Miter (a friend of farmers) would be selected in 16 gram panchayats at a gram sabha meeting on October 2 so that special emphasis could be laid on agriculture and other developmental works. He informed 15,000 improved variety of plants would be provided to the farmers in the valley from CSK Agriculture University, Palampur, for revitalising their economy. He directed officials of the Animal Husbandry Department to give wide publicity of Rs 300 crore to the Doodh Ganga Yojna among the farmers of Pangi valley so that they could avail the benefits under the scheme. He also asked the officers of animal husbandry to provide medical kits to sheep-rearers under the “Bhed Palak Samridhi Yojna”. He directed agriculture authorities to give improved variety of vegetable seeds to the farmers of the valley so that they could fetch remunerative prices for their produce. Referring to organic produce, he underscored the need to declare local rajmah, kali masur, thangi pulses which were popular in the valley due to its quality production, as organic produce. He said as per the farmers’ demand, the hybrid pea seeds would also be provided more than one-and-a-half times. He informed that post of agriculture officer would soon be filled in Pangi valley. He also held a meeting with public representatives of the Pangi valley to redress their grievances. |
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Vivekananda’s teachings recalled
Kangra, September 11 The event was organised by local branch of the Vivekananda Kendra Kaniya Kumari to commemorate the historic speech delivered by Vivekananda on September 11, 1893. Dr Sushant exhorted the youths to make Vivekananda’s teachings their guiding principles which was the need of the hour. He described corruption at almost every level of society as unfortunate. Swami Gangeshanand, Acharya Chinmayanand Mission, Tapovan, in his address, stressed upon adopting the path of righteousness shown by Swami Vivekananda. Pravin Dobhalkar, joint general secretary, Vivekananda Kendra Kanya Kumari, elaborated the mission of the kendra. A declamation contest was also organised on the occasion the topic of which was religion, drug abuse and ragging. Priya of Vikram Batra Government College, Palampur, bagged the first position while Nitika of MCM DAV College, Kangra, bagged the second. The overall running trophy was bagged by Vikram Batra Government College, Palampur. Dr Sushant gave away the prizes to the winners and lauded their achievements. He also announced a grant of Rs 2.25 lakh from the MP funds for local branch of kendra for running its
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Withdrawal of lending facility
Shimla, September 11 Unlike commercial banks, the corporation was funding even high-risk ventures just to give boost to economic activity in the state. As such, its withdrawal from lending activity would give a setback to economic growth of the hill state, he added. He urged the government to review the decision and ensure that the corporation continued with its lending activity. It should focus on recovery of loans rather than discontinuing lending. The Rajdhani Taxi Operators’ Union has also expressed concern over the decision and said it would affect the transport industry the most as it had been liberally financing commercial transport vehicles like trucks and taxis. |
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Annual function held
Kullu, September 11 Swami Krishan Kanta, president, Vishav Shiksha Niketan Sansthan and International Brahmrishi Mission, Panchkula, presided over the function. She said the school tried hard to bring awareness among the new generation about the strength of our culture besides providing quality education. Later, she distributed the prizes to the meritorious students. |
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