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Vidhan Sabha
Civic Body Polls
7-member panel to pick Cong nominees
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Farmers arm themselves to kill monkeys
‘Unforgettable Himachal’ out
Infant dies after vaccination
Machinery damaged in fire
Two get jail for thrashing woman
Rape accused gets police remand
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Panel to rein in pvt varsities
Regulatory Commission Bill passed Lalit Mohan Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, December 9 A commission will come into force to curtail the autonomous structure of private universities. It will have the power to ensure that admissions in private institutes, including private universities, is carried out on merit achieved in the National Common Entrance test, the State Common Entrance test or any other test notified by the state government. Where no such test is conducted, the commission will ensure that admission is carried out on a merit basis. The commission will also have the power to monitor and regulate fee in private educational institutions. It will be duty of the commission to ensure the standards in admission, teaching, examination, research and extension programmes. The private institutions will also have to shell out 1 per cent of their fee as funds to run the commission. The state government will also give returnable loan to the commission for setting up its infrastructure. As per recommendations of the select committee of the House, it has been decided that the commission will consist of a chairperson and the maximum of two members from among persons of eminence in public life or in the field of education. The persons who have remained on the post of secretary or above in Himachal or union government for three years or more will be eligible for appointment in the commission. A rider has, however, been added that the chairperson and members will not be from the same field of specialisation. The chairperson and members of the commission will be appointed by the state government on the recommendations of a search committee. The search committee will comprise the Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh, the Principal Secretary, Higher Education, and the Principal Secretary, Technical Education. The tenure of the chairperson and other members will be 3 years with upper age limit of 65 years. Kaul Singh, HPCC president, demanded that the search committee should have a UGC official as its members. He also demanded that the bar on the chairman of the commission to join private education institutions in Himachal, which will be 3 years, should be raised to 5 years. The recommendations made by Kaul Singh were, however, not accepted by the state government. The commission will also have the power to summon and enforce the attendance of any person in matter relating to private educational institutions. Members of education societies, who have established private universities in the state, are not happy over the bill. They alleged that the commission would reduce the universities to the status of colleges. Highlights l
Commission to regulate fee
l To ensure admissions on merit l
Private institutes to pay 1% fee to commission l
Will consist of three members |
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Differences delay BJP list
Lalit Mohan Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, December 9 State president of the party Khimi Ram, who chaired the meeting, said the list might be declared on December 11. Sources, however, said many candidates had been selected. In Dharamsala, Varinder Parmar, sitting councillor, had been decided as BJP candidate for the post of president while Omkar Nehria had been decided as the candidate for vice-president’s post. In Palampur, Dr Mamta was the candidate for president while Anil Banta for vice-president. In Hamirpur district, Deep Kumar had been selected for president and Dharmendra Sharma for vice-president. Since it is for the first time that direct elections are being held for the posts of president and vice-presidents of 48 councils in the state, there has been a hectic lobbying by various candidates for tickets. The sources here told The Tribune that in most of the cases, the local MLAs and block officers of the party were being given priority. The BJP was planning to take lead in deciding the candidates from the Congress, however, today’s meeting had brought to fore sharp differences among party leaders at many places. The congress is expected to finalise its list of candidates by December 13.
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7-member panel to pick Cong nominees
Shimla, December 9 Party president Kaul Singh has constituted a seven-member state-level election committee to select candidates under his chairmanship. The other members of the committee are Vidya Stokes, Gangu Ram Musafir, Asha Kumari, G.S.Bali, Kuldeep Singh Rathore and Mukesh Agnihotri. The committee will meet on December 12 at Rajiv Bhawan, the party headquarters here, to decide the candidates for the 48 urban local bodies, including 25 municipal councils and 23 nagar panchayats. The committee will take a decision on the basis of the reports of the observers appointed for the purpose for each district.
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Farmers arm themselves to kill monkeys
Shimla, December 9 It is on the occasion of World Human Rights Day tomorrow that thousands of villagers in the state will kill monkeys who have become a menace, forcing many farmers to abandon growing maize and vegetables. Several thousand farmers after obtaining licences from the Wildlife Warden to undertake culling of monkeys will start eliminating monkeys, wild boars, jackals and blue bulls from tomorrow. It is under the aegis of the Himachal Kisan Sabha (HKS) that the farmers have decided to shun all religious inhibitions, as it is a question of human survival. “Since the human-animal conflict has becomes intolerable, we have been left with no option but to kill monkeys for which we have already collected over Rs 3,000 and the story is same in all other adjoining panchayats,” asserts Hira Singh, a social worker of Cheog. Thousands of farmers in Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur, Hamirpur, Kullu, Mandi, Chamba and Bilaspur have obtained licences to get rid of the monkey menace. “The approach of the state government to undertake their sterilisation is completely impractical as till date only 23,828 monkeys out of a total of about four lakh have been sterilised and it will be better if they provide financial help to farmers to undertake scientific culling,” says Kuldeep Singh Tanwar, president of the HKS. The forest department had set up three monkey sterilisation centres and was spending Rs 14 per day per monkey in the primate parks which proved to be a complete flop. “In fact, the lackadaisical and soft-peddle approach of the government towards the issue has forced people to pick up the gun, though the wildlife department should have undertaken culling with the help of professional shooters,” says Tanwar. Since killing blue bulls and brown bears can be done only by professional shooters, the HKS has got in touch with a Hyderabad-based agency to train villagers. The farmers have been demanding lifting of the ban on export of monkeys for bio-medical experiments as this will help solve the problem. |
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‘Unforgettable Himachal’ out
Dharamsala, December 9 The book contains photographs and information regarding 170 remote destinations of
Himachal. Sharma said the book had aimed at providing information to tourists across the world regarding remote destinations of Himachal that could take them close to nature. The major destinations covered by the book include Bara
Bhangal, Bharmour, Chamba, Pangi, Kala Top wildlife sanctuary, temples of the state,
Masrur, Gobind Sagar Lake, Kibber, Pin Valley and the confluence of Chandra and Bagha rivers. |
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Infant dies after vaccination
Hamirpur, December 9 While the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Hamirpur, has denied vaccination as the cause of the death of the boy, he has ordered an inquiry into this incident. The boy Subham was son of Vipin Kumar of Jharnot village under Badsar subdivision. He had an acute diarrhoea after undergoing DPT and Hepatitis vaccination yesterday by a health team from health sub-centre, Bhota, at anganwadi centre, Ujhen. Other children given vaccination are stated to be perfectly all right. Immediately, after getting this news of the child being suffered from diarrhoea, a health team, headed by block medical officer (BMO), Badsar, Dr PC Sharma, visited Jharnot village and brought the child to the regional hospital, Hamirpur, keeping in view his critical condition. But the child could not be saved. Though the health officials are denying the death of the infant due to the vaccination, villagers are questioning why post-mortem was not conducted in this case. Hamirpur CMO Dr DS Chandel said, “I have ordered an inquiry into this incident but vaccinations can’t be the cause of the death as the infant reportedly died because of acute diarrhoea.”
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Machinery damaged in fire
Kala Amb, December 9 No loss of life was reported as the unit had shut its operations around 9:30 pm while a loss of Rs 10 to 12 crore was estimated as the entire machinery had been gutted. The lone security guard, who was sleeping in a nearby chamber, was awakened around 3:00 am after he heard the glass panes cracking with a blast. The fire appeared to have been caused due to a short circuit as per preliminary investigations and it had been simmering inside since long but it was noticed only when smoke plumes started rising from the gate. |
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Two get jail for thrashing woman
Bilaspur, December 9 Earlier, Additional District Attorney Champa Suril told the court that on October 16, 2003, the accused Javed and Imran suddenly accosted Zarina, wife of Farouq Ahmed, after she was returning to her house from the market. Both of them suddenly attacked her and beat her up. They also threatened to kill her. However, she was saved on intervention of the shopkeeper and others. The medical examination report of woman revealed serious injuries on the victim’s body. |
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Rape accused gets police remand
Shimla, December 9 The police yesterday arrested the receptionist on the basis of the complaint filed by a married woman of Delhi. A case of rape has been registered by the police even though there seem to be many loose ends in the accusation. The police said the receptionist had denied having committed the crime and said he had gone to the room only to leave tea. The husband of the complainant had thrashed him without any provocation. — TNS |
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Raising funds to buy cartridges on a large scale is certainly not an easy job for residents of Cheog village but since the price is too small compared to the loss being caused to the crops and fruits by monkeys, the villagers are more than willing to make monetary contributions to shoot the simians even overcoming religious beliefs.
