Shimla, January 15
Sukhvinder Singh, a middle-rung leader, today took charge as the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief. Leaders of all factions turned up at the ceremony, putting up a show of unity.

His installation is being seen as a part of Rahul Gandhi’s drive to bring a new leadership to the forefront. Speeches of senior leaders made it evident that the party high command was working on a plan to effect a transition of leadership.

All former HPCC chiefs attended the function and Sukhvinder Singh made it a point to seek their blessings. Vidya Stokes, Kaul Singh Thakur, Viplove Thakur and Kuldeep Kumar showered liberal praise on him and assured him of their support to his endeavour to strengthen the party.

In a remark to dispel the impression that he was imposed by the party high command, All-India Congress Committee general secretary Birender Singh Chaudhary said the opinion of the Chief Minister and the wish of Congress president Sonia Gandhi prevailed in the selection of the state party chief in any state where the party was in power.

Birender Singh and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh asserted that change was the order of the day. Birender Singh said old had to make way for new. He advised Sukhwinder Singh to induct as many new faces as possible at all levels who had support from the grassroots.

Quoting William Shakespeare, Virbhadra Singh said, “The old order changeth, yielding place to new. God fulfils himself in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world.” He said he had been handpicked to contest Lok Sabha elections when he was 26 years old.

He minced no words in debunking the farce being played in organisational elections. He underlined the need to ensure a transparent, free and fair election to build a strong party.

Sukhvinder Singh thanked Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for picking a leader from a humble background to head the party. He said he would function as a bridge between the party and the government. He said he would take all senior leaders along and ensure that the sentiments of workers at the grassroots were honoured.

He said he would tour the state extensively over the next three months to get authentic feedback from party workers. He added that the assignment was a huge challenge and he would spare no effort to fulfil the expectations of the party.

He further said his first target was to win all four seats from the state in the general election next year. He said he had the advantage of having worked with all previous HPCC chiefs and his experience would come in handy. He said his rapport with senior leaders would help him end factionalism.

The gathering also passed three resolutions, acknowledging the contributions of Birender Singh and Virbhadra Singh in bringing the Congress back to power and thanking Sonia Gandhi for appointing Sukhvinder Singh, who had risen from the ranks, as the state party president.

cong Function Party puts up united show State unit ex-chiefs present Sukhvinder thanks Gandhis Three resolutions passed

Solan, January 15
Sukhvinder Singh was welcomed at various places from Parwanoo to Shimla during his maiden visit to the state capital today. He was accompanied by Birender Singh Chaudhary, All-India Congress Committee secretary Anees Ahmed, Kaul Singh Thakur and GS Bali.

Hundreds of party workers gathered to greet Sukhvinder Singh at Parwanoo, Dharampur, Solan, Kandaghat and Shimla. He was welcomed at Solan by district Congress committee president Rahul Thakur.

Sukhvinder Singh was greeted at Tara Devi with traditional folk music by the Arki block Congress committee led by Sanjay Awasthy.

The emergence of Sukhvinder Singh had given a boost to the youth leadership. Party leaders felt that it would help promote the second line of leadership as the youth comprised about 60 per cent of voters in the state.

Shimla, January 15
Facing embarrassment over the involvement of its newly elected Doon legislator Ram Kumar Chaudhary in the Jyoti murder case, the Congress may take action against him to salvage its image.

State Congress chief Sukhvinder Singh gave an indication in this regard soon after assuming office.

He said the image of the party could not be allowed to be sullied and action would be taken to send the right message to the people.

Without specifying the action, he said he would discuss the matter with the Chief Minister, senior party leaders and the party high command before taking a decision.

He said the image of the party had to be protected at all costs.

Mandi, January 15
As many as 27 passengers had a narrow escape when a private bus (HP31-5616) they were travelling in fell into a 50-ft gorge at Darvyash on the Durgapur-Mandi road this morning.

The injured were rushed to the Zonal Hospital.

Three passengers suffered fracture in their arms while others were reported to be out of danger, said doctors attending on them.

The police has booked the driver of the bus under Sections 279 and 337 of the IPC for negligent driving.

The police said the bus was on its way from Durgapur to Mandi. The passengers were given immediate relief as per the relief manual.

However, further investigations are on.

Shimla, January 15
The state was today given the Krishi Karman Award by the Centre for its outstanding achievements in increasing wheat productivity. President Pranab Mukherjee gave the award to Agriculture Minister Sujan Singh Pathania at a function organised at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi today. The award consists of a trophy, citation and cash award.

Pathania said agriculture was the main occupation of 92 per cent of the rural population and provided direct employment to 69 per cent of the main working population.

“Agriculture contributes to 18.03 per cent of the total 21.31 per cent contribution made by primary sectors to the gross state domestic product (GSDP) of the state,” he said.

He said this clearly reflected that the agriculture sector predominantly contributed to economic growth of the state and any fluctuation in agriculture production affected the economy significantly.

He said out of the total geographical area of 55.67 lakh hectares, cropped area was 9.79 lakh hectares owned by 9.14 lakh farmers, while the net area sown was around 5.42 lakh hectares. The average size of land holding in the state was around 1.10 hectare.

The minister said the state received an average rainfall of 1,200 mm, out of which 70 per cent was during the rainy season and rest during the winters. At present, only 19.5 per cent of the total cultivable area in the state was under irrigation and the rest was rain-fed, he said.

Pathania said the state government had given top priority to the agriculture sector and the government was allocating 12 per cent of plan resources to this sector. He said the state government had successfully implemented UPA flagship programmes like Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna, National Food Security Mission, Macro- Management of Agriculture and Extension Reforms as a result of which food grain production had increased during the past decade.

He added that the total food grain production was 15.54 lakh tonnes in 2011-12, with wheat being the main grain crop occupying 80 per cent of the area in the rabi season.

Kangra, January 15
Minister for Technical Education GS Bali said yesterday that the local polytechnic, which would be upgraded to a government engineering college, would offer courses in three trades in the first phase.

He said courses would be provided in mechanical, electronics and communication and electrical and power engineering. He said this while addressing officers with the Technical Education Department.

He said there was no facility to impart technical education to students in far-flung areas and the government would open technical institutions in remote areas.

He said 20,000 youth would be imparted technical education under the skill development programme of the 12th Five-Year Plan, following which they would be given jobs in the private or self-employment sectors.

He said strengthening the Technical Education Department was the need of the hour. He said there were limited employment avenues in the government sector.

Hamirpur, January 15
Fourteen passengers were injured when a bus of Nayak bus service fell into a gorge near Badiyala village under Bhoranj subdivision today.

The injured were admitted to a Bhoranj hospital and one patient was shifted to the Regional Hospital, Hamirpur.

Sources said the bus driver failed to negotiate a sharp curve resulting in the accident.

Mandi/Kullu, January 15
Disposal of biomedical waste of government and private hospitals in the region poses a health hazard to the residents of the area as an incinerator at Kullu remains out of order most of the times.

Though the government spent lakhs of rupees on incinerator installed at Raghunath Paddar, it went out of order soon after it was operated by sweepers as the Health Department has no technical operator for the purpose.

Four major private hospitals in the district have outsourced their waste disposal to private transporters, who take waste to a biomedical waste disposal site in Kullu notified by the State Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board (SEPPCB).

“However, the incinerator at Kullu remains out of order most of the times due to which the entire area stinks,” villagers alleged.

They had not obtained any NoC from the panchayat for the incinerator set up there, they claimed.

“The collection and disposal of waste remains erratic and unmonitored as the private transporters collect waste as and when they want,” the villagers said.

The zonal hospital has outsourced biomedical disposal to Eagle Services and Environ, an NGO, who charges Rs 5 per bed per day. The bill is paid from the funds of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti.

“The collector collects the waste every alternative day as per the agreement and disposes it of at the biomedical plant in Kullu,” said Dr JC Verma, medical superintendent, Zonal Hospital, Mandi.

“The collection is proper at the hospital and we are not aware of private hospitals,” said Dr AB Gupta, CMO, Mandi.

“The incinerator at Mandi has been out order for quite a long time as they did not have operators,” he said.

Sanjay Sud, member secretary, SEPPCB, said private transporters, who had been outsourced transportation and collection of waste, were doing their job properly. “We collect biomedical waste from all hospitals in Kullu and Mandi and dispose it of at the waste disposal facility,” he said. However, he added that he was not aware whether it was out of order or not.

Dharamsala, January 15
Dharamsala is once again gearing up for the cricketing season. It is a landmark achievement for the town as the Dharamsala cricket stadium is going to host an international one-day match between India and England on January 27.

Earlier, the Dharamsala cricket stadium has been hosting IPL matches. However, it is for the first time that the stadium will host an international cricket match. Successful hosting of the match will bring the cricket stadium on the map of the ICC for hosting test and one-day matches.

However, the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) will not have the support it used to get during the previous government. The HPCA is headed by Anurag Thakur, BJP MP from Hamirpur and former Chief Minister PK Dhumal’s son. The organisation had been on the target of the Congress during the elections. In fact, five of the total 50 allegations levelled in the Congress charge sheet against the previous government were against the HPCA.

The major allegation against the HPCA was regarding the allotment of common land at Khaniara village near Dharamsala for the construction of a five-star hotel. The Congress had been alleging illegality in the allotment of land. The HPCA, on the other hand, had been claiming that a five-star facility for players was mandatory for hosting international cricket matches at Dharamsala. Since no private party came forward for constructing the hotel, the HPCA had to do it on its own. Though initially the land was allotted for non-commercial use, the previous government later allowed commercial use of the hotel raised on leased land at the fag end of its stint.

The Congress also accused the previous government of not charging entertainment tax from the companies that hosted IPL matches at Dharamsala. They also alleged that the HPCA did not pay the state government for providing security during the matches.

Now once again the state government will have to provide security for organising the match. It remains to be seen if the present government provides the facilities to the HPCA that the organisation used to get during the previous government for hosting cricket matches.

The HPCA, on its behalf, has already tried to mend fences with the new Congress government in the state. HPCA president Anurag had said they would invite Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to inaugurate the one-day match between India and England on January 27. However, till date, there has been no official confirmation from the office of the Chief Minister regarding his intention to inaugurate the match.

The cricket match is being seen as a green patch by tour operators of Dharamsala who are facing a very lean season for the last two months. They are hoping that the tourist influx during the match will produce boom time for the tourist industry of Dharamsala around the Republic Day holidays.

Insiders in the government said though the new government in the state might do anything that was detrimental for the organisation of international one-day match in January, the fight for regaining some hold in the HPCA that is dominated by Anurag and his loyalists might just begin after the match.

Kangra, January 15
Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Kangra, Aparna Sharma today remanded for five days a 28-year-old youth of Hamirpur arrested yesterday in connection with the murder of a 23-year-old girl Archana Mahajan. She was found murdered in her rented accommodation at Icchhi village on the outskirts of this town.

Stating this here today, Kangra Sub Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Dinesh Kumar Sharma said the police had pleaded before the court for police remand of accused Chandresh Kumar Sharma. The court accepted and remanded him for five days.

The SDPO said the accused had confessed that he had visited the Archana’s rented accommodation on January 11 last and strangulated her to death because she refused to accept his marriage offer. Chandresh revealed that he had been trying to persuade her for marriage for the past three years.

After the crime he locked the room from outside and stayed for the night at his rented accommodation at Matour near here. Next day on January 12, he had left for Hamirpur. 

Hamirpur, January 15
Himachal Pradesh Technical University (HPTU) has introduced a new course on management and critical thinking for students pursuing a BTech course in engineering colleges of the state.

The course titled “Principles of Management and Critical Thinking” has been introduced for engineering students in the third semester and has been made compulsory along with the engineering curriculum.

The main reason of introducing the course is to make engineering students more adaptable towards future jobs needs. The HPTU felt the need of introducing this course since the role of engineering has changed a lot in the modern times and engineers are also supposed to perform managerial responsibilities along with their technical job.

Moreover, engineers are also supposed to have a critical thinking to analyse things in a better way.

The HPTU, while designing this course, has kept in mind several aspects with an objective to prepare engineers to understand the roles and functions of managers at different levels, to comprehend the significance and necessity of managing stakeholders and to demonstrate critical thinking skills in identifying ethical, global and diverse issues, planning and management.

Dr SK Dhiman, Vice-Chancellor, HPTU, said, “The basic purpose of introducing the course is to equip engineering students to understand and take up managerial responsibilities in their careers. By inculcating critical thinking, we want to widen their perspectives, besides improving their placement scopes after completion of their degrees”.

Shimla, January 15
Thanks to the rare cardiological intervention undertaken by a team of doctors at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) recently, life of Shyam Kumar, a resident of Jwalamukhi, could be saved with 98 pellets lodged in his leg for the past 16 years.

The medical team, led by Dr Arvind Kandoria, Associate Professor at the Cardiology Department at IGMC, performed the rare and complicated intervention. The patient has already been discharged from the hospital. The procedure lasting about 45 minutes cost about Rs 1.60 lakh.

“A surgical intervention could have posed a risk to the patient’s life as he already had undergone stenting of two vessels. We had to be careful while putting three stents to close the communication between the arteries and veins at three places caused by pellets,” explained Dr Kandoria.

Though Shyam had undergone stenting of two heart vessels almost six months back, he came back to the IGMC with the problem of acute pain in the lower leg. It was then that the doctors discovered that three of the 98 pellets that had been left in his leg after he had undergone a surgery in 1996 were causing steel problem, resulting in the blood entering the vein from the artery and improper supply to the lower leg.

Shyam, a 52-year-old shopkeeper from Jwalamukhi in Kangra, recalled how he survived a fatal attack by dacoits in Sasaram district of Bihar in December 1996 while carrying supplies in a truck. “Though the doctors at AIIMS saved my life, 98 pellets lodged in my thigh were left as they did not cause any problem then,” he explained.

Dr Kandoria said the procedure was necessary, but risky as the pellets forming communication had resulted in his veins becoming pouch-like at three places.

Dr Kandoria was assisted by senior resident Nirmal Kolte, senior laboratory assistant Kundan Singh and staff nurses Shalini Thakur and Vanita.

Shimla, January 15
The Himachal Pradesh High Court (HC) has banned the packing of food items in non-biodegradable material from April 1. The HC passed the order on a public interest litigation.

Passing the directions, the HC observed, “A balance has to be struck between the economy, the need to provide essential items to the poor at a minimal cost and the need to prevent the degradation of the environment.”

The HC passed the order after perusing a report filed by the committee constituted by it. The committee had mentioned that junk food items were tasty, but low in fibre content. It had also mentioned that those items had high calorific value and large amounts of refined flour, fat and preservatives.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjay Karol observed, “The committee has indicated that junk food items are harmful and lead to diseases such as obesity, colon cancer, diabetes and low intelligence quotient in children. We had indicated that the health of children was more important than profits of private companies.”

It further observed, “We are not issuing directions that such items be banned because that is not within the purview of the court. The least we can do is to direct that these harmful items should be sold only in biodegradable packing and not in non-biodegradable packing.”

The HC also observed, “Some items identified are normally not packaged. In case those are packaged, those will have to comply with our order and be sold only in biodegradable packing.” It directed that food items identified by the committee in its report, including chips and biscuits, would not be sold in the state in non-biodegradable packing from April 1.

Kangra, January 15
In connection with Swami Vivekananda’s 150 birthday celebrations, Youth Day was celebrated at Guru Dronacharya College of Nursing at Yol Cantonment today and youth were given a call to “Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached”.

Swami Seemashwaranand, Acharya, Chinmayanand Mission Tapovan, who was chief guest, said Swami Vivekananda’s teachings were more relevant today in view of the deterioration in the cultural values.

He said Swami Vivekananda used to say that religion is the soul of India and when people drift away from it, the nation will start sinking.

On the occasion, declamation and skit competitions were held. Renu and Deksha, both BSc nursing third-year students, bagged the first and second positions, respectively, in the declamation contest, and Pooja of second-year won the third prize.

Sister Nivedita House bagged the first prize in the skit competition, whereas second and third prizes were bagged by Mother Teresa House and Florence Nightingale House, respectively.

Kangra, January 15
The Kangra police today recovered a highly decomposed body of a minor girl of Chhattisgarh in bushes near Chetru. She was reportedly missing for the last two months.

Stating this here today, Kangra Sub Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Dinesh Kumar Sharma said the victim was identified as Suwitra, daughter of Yadav of Chhattisgarh. The SDPO said the police came to know that the victim and her father Yadav were working as labourers and putting up in a rented accommodation at Chetru.

The girl was said to be missing for the past more than two months, but her father did not lodge a missing report with the police. Her father had also left the state and gone back to Chhattisgarh.

Sharma said as the body was highly decomposed it could not be verified whether it carried some marks of injuries or not. He said her age seemed to be 14 or 15 years, but it would be verified after medical opinion. The postmortem would be conducted tomorrow, he added.

He said the police had registered a case under Section 174, CrPC. He said the Chhattisgarh police was also informed about the crime and sought its help tracing Yadav.

Bilaspur, January 15
The conductor and the driver of a Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus (HP-69-322) on the Ghumarwin-to-Jabbloo route earned praise from all in the area as they returned a purse containing jewellery and cash worth several thousands to a couple that had travelled in their bus earlier. The woman had left the purse in the bus after they left for their village this evening.

Report said after the bus was parked for the night, conductor Shrawan Kumar noticed a purse lying under a seat in the bus and when he checked it, he found that it contained five gold and five silver ornaments and cash worth several thousands of rupees and some papers, including an ATM card of the PNB. Immediately both members of the bus crew decided to hand it over to its owner.

Later, when passengers Pradip and his wife reached their village, his wife found that the purse was missing. Both rushed to the bus stand at Jabbloo and started looking for their purse.

After ascertaining that they were the real owners of the purse, the bus crew returned them the purse with all its contents. The couple offered some prize to the bus crew, but they refused saying that they had only done their duty.

Nurpur, January 15
In the wake of increasing crimes against women, the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan has launched a campaign, “Santulan”, to improve the status of women in society. While dedicating Lohri to girls, the group organised an awareness camp at their ashram at Bodh near Nurpur on Sunday.

Swami Harishanand, a member of the group, while addressing a gathering said “Female foeticide, dowry harassment, rapes and other atrocities against women are on an unprecedented rise in our country, which is a black spot on our society. Women are not weak. They have a vital role to play in society,” he said.

Bilaspur, January 15
A woman from Ghattewaal village yesterday lodged a complaint at the Kot police station against a youth named Ranvir, alias Tony, of Guru Ka Lahore village alleging that he had tried to molest her.

She said Ranvir had misbehaved with her while she was going to fetch milk from a house in Guru Ka Lahore on Sunday. A case has been registered.