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IAS officer’s wife in the dock
Pending cases: 67 lakh in lower courts; 45,000 in HC
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State hospitals no match for PGI
Rising accident deaths worry IG
Power engineers sore over arbitrary deployment
Reservation of Wards
7,798 tonne of fertiliser supplied in November
Grenade found in Kangra village
Monkeys destroying crops to be shot
Youth Cong to be revamped
Recruitment of vets flayed
German dead
Swiss national held with charas
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IAS officer’s wife in the dock
The department granted the sanction to the Vigilance Bureau yesterday. Though a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) had been registered against both, Ahluwalia and his wife, in 2008 after the BJP assumed power, the sanction in case of the bureaucrat is still awaited from the Centre. The Subhash is at present serving as Managing Director, the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Corporation at Solan. Since the Home Department has given the nod for the prosecution of Meera, at present serving in the Education Department at Solan, the Vigilance Bureau can very soon present the chargesheet in court. During investigation by the Vigilance Bureau, it was found that she allegedly had moveable and immovable assets disproportionate to known sources of her income. Sources in the Vigilance Bureau said the only cause for delay now was that the bureau would have to make separate cases against the husband and the wife since both had been booked in one case in 2008. “Since the sanction to prosecute Ahluwalia is still awaited from the Centre, we will separate out the two cases and register individual cases against the two so that we can initiate prosecution proceedings against her,” said officials. Another aspect, which came under the police scanner, was the foreign visits of Meera Ahluwalia, twice to the USA and once to Bangkok before 1998. The Vigilance Bureau in its investigation has pointed out that the expenditure that she made during these visits too appeared more than her known sources of income. It has also mentioned the huge expenditure incurred on education of her children abroad in the case, which according to them is more than their known sources of income. During the course of investigation, the bureau found that most of the big transactions had been made from the bank accounts held by Meera Ahluwalia. Investigations also revealed that most of the properties and other assets had been made in her name though there were a number of accounts held jointly by the couple. The Vigilance had taken details of all transactions made by the couple and their two children from the 16 bank accounts held by them. Subhash Ahluwalia’s name had figured prominently in the charge-sheet that the BJP had given to the Governor, while the Congress was still in power. |
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Pending cases: 67 lakh in lower courts; 45,000 in HC
Palampur, November 27 Justice Kurian was here to inaugurate a two-day workshop organised by the HP State Judicial Academy here on the NDPS Act and other Acts. Over 100 officers from the Judiciary, police prosecution, forest and forensic departments were participating in the workshop. He said there should not be any lapse on the part of investigating agencies. They must establish the charge while filing charge-sheets in the court and should assist the court in the best possible manners. Speaking on NDPS-related crimes, he said the police, investigating agencies and courts had to play constructive and effective role to eliminate the drug mafia. He also sought the cooperation of public in this field for assisting investigating agencies. Justice Kurian said in the present system, the police needed to modify its procedure and conduct while handling the criminal cases, and material evidence collected during investigation had to be placed in the courts intact so that courts could do justice in the performance of their duties. He said at the same time the court must play proactive role while delivering the justice. He expressed concern over the piling up of cases in the courts and stressed the timely disposal of cases in the subordinate courts. He quoted that 67 lakh cases were pending in lower courts of the state. Likewise over 45,000 cases were also pending in the High Court. Earlier, welcoming the Chief Justice, Justice Deepak Gupta expressed concern over a figure provided by a local NGO that over 30 per cent school students belonging to the middle class family were drug addicts. “We must prevent them and save their lives.” He said in NDPS cases, the conviction rate was only 39 per cent which was a matter of worry. Justice Deepak Gupta, Justic Sanjay Karol, Justice Kuldip Singh, Justice Rajiv Sharma, and Justice SS Thakur of the Himachal Pradesh High Court were also present on the occasion. |
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State hospitals no match for PGI
Sources also said political interference in appointments, postings and promotions and lack of facilities was keeping many talented doctors away from the state. Many famous doctors from the state like Dr Raj Bahadur, who heads the government medical college in Sector 32, Chandigarh, have preferred to work in Centre-run medical colleges rather than serving in Himachal. Raj Bahadur belongs to Una district and did his MBBS from Shimla medical collge. Dr Raj Bahadur, when contacted on phone and asked as why he preferred to work in central medical college rather than working in state, said he was not given a job in the state. “After completing my postgraduation in 1983, I tried for a job in the state for one-and-a-half years. Then I had to join in Pondicherry,” he said. He, however, praised the Union Minister for Health Ghulam Nabi Azad for giving a super-speciality wing to medical college, Tanda. It is a good start. Dr TC Mahant, a renowned cardiac surgeon, who is now serving as executive director, department of cardio vascular surgery in Fortis hospital, Mohali, is also from Mandi district. He said, “I left the job in Himachal as there was no facility available in my field. Now I am happy that a superspeciality wing is being created at Tanda. When asked if he would join back in the state in case the state government offers him a job, Dr Mahant said: “I would definitely like to come back to my parent state. However, they should first create facilities and infrastructure for working in my field.” The annual budget of the PGI during the last financial year was Rs 385 crore whereas that of AIIMS, Delhi, was Rs 677 crore. A state like Himachal that is cribbing over less allocation of funds by the Planning Commission is unlikely to generate that much funds to equip its medical colleges with the facilities on a par with central medical and research colleges. Another important aspect in which the state medical colleges are lacking is availability of staff. There is acute shortage of doctors in Tanda medical college that has marred its services. The superspecialist doctors are not ready to leave cities and join in rural areas as Tanda are bereft of basic facilities. |
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Policy soon on encroachments
Shimla, November 27 This was stated by Chief Minister PK Dhumal in a video-conference held with all DCs and SPs from his office here today. He directed the DCs to take effective steps to execute the warrant of ejection in encroachment cases and get the government land vacated. A monthly report has to be submitted to the government showing the progress of revenue cases by every district and ensure that patwaris and panchayat secretaries are available to the public on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, he said. He said people had been repeatedly requesting for disposal of the revenue cases, especially relating to demarcation, mutation and jamabandi at the earliest. He said the Local Area Development Funds (LADA) needed to be procured from hydroelectric projects in all districts and be used for the benefit of the project-affected people. He said polythene-free Himachal was an important programme of the government, which needed to be implemented strictly and the public be made aware about it. Dhumal said the state was gearing up its machinery to ensure peaceful, free, fair and impartial elections to the local urban bodies and panchayati raj institutions wherein the district administration had to play a pivotal role. He directed the authorities to ensure all arrangements for the conduct of polls and extend all possible help to the field functionaries. He directed the DC, Kinnaur, to take effective steps to relocate villagers of Nathpa at Nathpa Kanda village and take expert opinion of the Geological Survey of India team visiting Reckong Peo over the cracks developing in some parts of the town. Rajwant Sandhu, Chief Secretary, said the overall progress of schemes was satisfactory but the districts needed to pay heed towards disposal of revenue court cases, setting up of Lok Mitra Kendras and rainwater harvesting provisions. |
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Rising accident deaths worry IG
Baddi, November 27 He was talking to The Tribune here today after conducting a two-day inspection of the area. He said directions had been issued to all SPs to maintain a strict check on the offenders of traffic rules so as to reduce loss of life and money. Sharma said they were educating the police in detecting fake driving licences as it was found that at least 20 per cent
of the offenders either lacked valid licences or had procured fake ones. This was a major cause of rising accidents. Sharma earlier directed police officials to maintain year-wise lists of case properties so that they could be easily produced when required in the court. Since case properties of several years are lying with the police their lack of proper maintenance can cause undue hassles while proving the cases before the courts. The IG gave direction
to streamline the accounts so that undue benefits were not drawn and bills were cleared after due
verification. He inspected the various records relating to crime detection, traffic maintenance and law and order and gave direction for adopting strict discipline to check traffic violators. SP Chander Shekhar Pandit said they were making efforts to ensure strict compliance of rules and a record of sorts had been established by filing challan in the same day in a case relating to rioting in a private university. While this spoke of their efficiency, the police endeavoured to reduce the pending cases to a minimal level. |
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Power engineers sore over arbitrary deployment
Shimla, November 27 Representatives of the association headed by Rajesh Thakur and general secretary Ram Prakash met principal secretary, power, Deepak Sanan and submitted a memorandum drawing his attention to the irrational postings of engineers in the state power corporation, the state transmission utility (STU), the state load dispatch centre (SLDC) and the energy directorate. They pointed out that the STU required to be strengthened for creating the necessary infrastructure for power from the large number of projects being executed in the private and public sector. There should be at least two chief engineers with associated offices for efficient functioning of the utility. Similarly, the SLDC was purely a technical outfit and should be manned by qualified professionals and not bureaucrats. Its director must be at least of the rank of a chief engineer. Further, 90 per cent of the work in the energy directorate pertained to electrical engineers but there representation was negligible. The quota of degree holders for driest recruitment had been gradually reduced to 36 per cent from 66 per cent and at present out of the total 537 posts of assistant engineer in the HPSEB Limited only 193 posts pertained to degree holders. Out of these 100 posts were vacant. With power sector going hi-tech and new advanced technology being introduced all the time the need for technically qualified manpower could not be overstressed. The association demanded immediate recruitment of at least 85 engineers to restore balance. They underlined the need to manage the state power utilities on professional lines by hiring suitable personnel from central public undertakings to make the HPSEB Limited a competitive distribution company. |
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Reservation of Wards
Hamirpur, November 27 The DC, Hamirpur, has fixed a meeting in this regard on November 29 in which 50 per cent reservation of women will be decided through draw of lots. On the basis of 50 per cent quota for the women in the civic body’s election, six wards out of total 11 wards will be reserved for women candidates. The reservation for the Schedule caste (SC) candidates in the wards under the Hamirpur nagar parishad will also be decided on the basis of population criteria. At present, there are 11 wards under the Hamirpur nagar parishad and in the outgoing House, four wards were reserved for women candidates and one for SC candidates. Ward no 1, 4, 7 and 10 were reserved of the women candidates out of which ward no 4 was reserved for women SC candidate and ward no 9 was reserved for the SC candidate. All existing wards falling in the reservation category for women will be changed in the present roaster. |
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7,798 tonne of fertiliser supplied in November
Shimla, November 27 Stating this here, director (Agriculture) JC Rana said fertiliser had been supplied in excess in most of the districts with Bilaspur receiving 266 tonne against the demand of 220 tonne, Chamba 165 tonne against 100 tonne, Kangra 1,804 tonne against 1,300 tonne, Kullu 1,055 tonne against 900 tonne, Lahaul-Spiti 150 tonne against 100 tonne, Mandi 1,159 tonne against 1,100 tonne, Solan 762 tonne against 430 tonne, Sirmaur 639 tonne against 540 tonne, Una 816 tonne against 690 tonne and Hamirpur 402 tonne against 450 tonne during the month. Shimla had been supplied 548 tonne and Kinnaur 32 tonne and adequate arrangements had been made to rush more supply to both these districts so that demand was met over a next few days. He said 1,865 tonne of complex fertiliser was available at Chandigarh, which was being rushed to these districts and would reach within this week. With 2,600 tonne from the IFFCO and 1,000 tonne from the RCF complex already allotted, the
total availability will be 13,263 tonne against the requirement of 8,500 tonne, he added. |
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Grenade found in Kangra village
Kangra, November 27 He said Ramesh informed the local patwari who intimated the police and the area was cordoned off. He said as the grenade was live so Army assistance was sought to defuse it. It was in the evening that the grenade was defused without any harm. Kholi village is adjacent to Kachiari where the Army firing range is located. Such grenades were detected in the Kachiari and Kohala localities on the outskirts of the town earlier too and three boys of Kohala were killed last year when a grenade, which they were playing with, exploded. Residents of Kachiari and Kohala had been demanding that the Army firing range should be shifted from the locality. Today residents of Kholi village too joined them. The police, the Army, the civil authorities and the local residents had a number of meetings for shifting of the firing range area, but no avail. “The police said that the sifting needs a government notification and the government was silent on the issue,” alleged Kewal Choudary, a resident. |
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Monkeys destroying crops to be shot
Shimla, November 27 Convener of the samiti Kuldeep Singh Tanwar said here today that the operation would last till December 23 as the farmers had decided to kill the animals who were destroying their crop. “A huge number of requests that will be received by forest officials for seeking permission for culling of the animals will be an eye opener as people are fed up now,” he remarked. Tanwar said it was a myth created by NGOs and animal rights activists that people would never take to culling of animals because of their religious beliefs and sentiments. The wild animals like monkeys, langurs, wild boars, bear, rabbits, parrots and deer are causing an annual loss of over Rs 400 crore to the crops of farmers and now they have decided to kill them,” he said. He said the farmers had been forced to launch mass culling operation as they had been asked by the government to take care of their own crops. He said that with more than 10 lakh families associated with farming, it was no longer possible for them to bear the losses. He warned that neither animal rights activists nor any other NGO must create hurdles in the culling operation. |
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Youth Cong to be revamped
Nurpur, November 27 “Apart from this, members from the Schedule Castes and the Schedule Tribes, minorities and women will get priority in the organisation, he added. Mohanti said panchayat-level YC activists would be elevated in state working committees after reviewing their performance. He said district-level Schedule Caste sammelan was also organised in Sirmaur district after the success of first district-level panchayat sammelan held at Rehan in Kangra district as pilot
project. — OC |
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Recruitment of vets flayed
Chamba, November 27 President of the HP State Veterinarians’ Association Dr DK Soni in a press release here today said as per the decision of the state government 50 per cent posts were to be filled through batch-wise process, but it did not happen. Soni sought the government to fill vacant posts of veterinary doctor by adopting batch-wise procedure so that the decision of the government could be implemented in letter and spirit. Taking exception to the disparity of pay scales between the veterinary doctors and the medical doctors working on contract basis, Soni demanded disbursement of pay scales to the vets on a par with the doctors being recruited in the Health Department as regular doctors of both these departments had already been getting equal pay scales.
— OC |
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German dead
Manali, November 27 According to company sources, Knoll was brought to Lady Willingdon Hospital, Manali, on this morning when he complained about severe chest pain. Chief medical superintendent of hospital Dr. Philip Alexander said efforts had been made to save him but they did not succeed. Tunnel officials and other personnel mourned the sudden death of Knoll and the excavation work on the Rohtang tunnel remained shut. — OC |
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Swiss national held with charas
Kullu, November 27 Muldev Mathihes, a Swiss national, was nabbed near Kasol in the Manikaran valley with 105 gm of charas. In another case, Chet Ram, a resident of Damseen village, was arrested with 800 gm of charas near Thach Bridge. |
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Shimla, November 27
Dharamsala, November 27