|
|
|
|
|
States will lose power to let in private universities, colleges
Transport Minister Bali hurt in road accident
Growth of wild sea-buckthorn to be cultured, says minister
HPU employees demand increase in grant
Khushi Ram Balnatah is HLP in charge
Anurag faces Cong heat
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Scribes want post of APRO filled
Pensioners seek special provision in Budget
Kol Dam oustees end stir
Farmers protest installation of transmission lines
Hiring regular labour will not hit profitability of companies: Maira
VC for genetically modified crops for food security
Workshop on growing hi-tech vegetables
Minister lays stress on industrial safety
Increase in retirement age of Class III staff sought
Conduct exams for winter schools in Dec: Teachers
Need for transfer of green technology underscored
Govt urged to implement norms for disabled
Women achievers from district to be felicitated on Women’s Day
Dalhousie to Khajjiar road remains buried in snow
Hard work in college key to success, says HPU Vice-Chancellor
Institution to start MTech classes in two disciplines
Appointment of bridge specialists sought
Cochlear implant boon for children with hearing loss
Noose on mining mafia tightened, 5 nabbed
Steps taken to decentralise powers
Parishad members seek redressal of problems
Camp on domestic violence held
|
|
States will lose power to let in private universities, colleges
Shimla, March 3 States will have to fulfil certain prerequisites for securing funds under RUSA which include setting up SHEC and preparing a state higher education plan, which will be the main instrument to guide transformation in higher education as proposed in the draft RUSA document approved by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry. SHEC will be an independent and autonomous body that will function at an arm’s length from state and Central governments. It can be set up immediately through an executive order but must be accorded statutory status within five years. SHEC will carry out monitoring, evaluation, quality assurance, academic, advisory and funding functions. Himachal Pradesh has a regulatory commission which has initiated steps to improve functioning of private universities but promoters have challenged its constitutional validity in the High Court. The RUSA document says states must ensure approval to colleges that are really required and calls for a tight policy on new private institutions. States will have to include the policy regarding private colleges and universities in their plan documents. The previous government had allegedly allowed indiscriminate opening of private universities. There are 21 universities in the state, of which 16 are private, four state and one Central. SHEC will be responsible for planned and coordinated development of higher education for sharing of resources between universities, benefit from synergy across institutions, academic and governance reforms at the institution level, principles for funding, data bank on higher education and research and evaluation studies. It will undertake planning, capacity building, evaluation and monitoring functions. States will have to submit detailed plans in the prescribed format in accordance with norms and indicators prepared under RUSA. The plans will be formulated keeping in view targets over a 10-year time frame and will be broken into yearly milestones and targets. A project approval board at the national level will appraise and evaluate each plan and allocation will be based on achievement of targets and past performance of states.
|
|
Transport Minister Bali hurt in road accident
Shimla, March 3 Both the vehciles by which they were they travelling were involved in the accident. The car of the minister rammed into a stationary truck parked on the Murthal flyover and the second vehicle carrying staff members following it, hit the first from the rear. While Bali, who suffered injuries in the chest, was discharged after treatment at the All-India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi, Rajesh, private secretary, Harjit Pathania, personal security officer, and Lahori Mal, driver, who were injured, have been admitted for treatment. Bali said he had been advised rest for a few days after which he would return to Kangra. He said, “It was a miraculous escape. My life has been saved by the grace of Goddess Chamunda and I will be back on March 8.” The two vehicles had been badly damaged and he was concerned about the condition of his injured staff members, he added. The minster, who was on way to Chennai, had left for Delhi late night after attending the Cabinet meeting. |
|
|
|
|
Growth of wild sea-buckthorn to be cultured, says minister
Kullu, March 3 Addressing a workshop on sea-buckthorn organised by the Lahaul-Spiti Sea-buckthorn Society in collaboration with Agricultural University, Palampur, at Bhuntar, the minister said the Forest Department would motivate farmers, cooperatives and NGOs to raise new plantations under the National Sea-buckthorn Mission in the cold desert region of the state. The Forest Department was the nodal agency under the mission, he added. “It will conserve environment, check soil erosion and give income to locals as they have rights over forest produce under the Forest Dwellers Rights Act,” he said. Dr Virender Sharma, Professor at Agricultural University, Palampur, gave a presentation on sea-buckthorn, highlighting how new variety and wild varieties could be harnessed to conserve environment and build sources of livelihood for the locals. Lahaul-Spiti MLA Ravi Thkaur told the participants that he would encourage locals to go for plantations and training programmes and workshops would be organised in the region. BD Parshera, president, Lahaul-Spiti Sea-buckthorn Society, and vice-president of the society Prem Chand said the private land was limited and the waste government land would be brought under the plantation. They said the society had produced pulp from sea-buckthorn after collecting it from the local collectors and sold it to the Lahaul Potato Society. Representatives of private companies said they had made omega capsules and food supplements from sea-buckthorn after buying its juice and pulp from the society. “Several products can be made from the juice and pulp of the sea-buckthorn and even its leaves can be used as herb,” they added.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HPU employees demand increase in grant
Shimla, March 3 The committee has through a memorandum brought to his notice the financial problem being faced by the oldest university of the state as a result of which the employees had not been paid arrears on account of pay revision and the instalments of dearness allowance had also not been released. It demanded early release of these benefits for which Rs 22 crore were required in addition to the increase in annual grant. It suggested that the arrears be credited to the GPF as delay was causing a resentment among the employees. The retiring employees were not being issued pension payment order (PPO) and thus creating financial hardship to their families. It also drew the Chief Minister’s attention towards the fact that vacant positions arising due to superannuation were not being filled up and the existing staff was over-burdened with additional work, which was affecting the efficiency and causing inconvenience to students. Immediate steps were also required to be undertaken to strengthen the International Centre for Distance Education and Open Learning (ICDEOL) and the main library as with the superannuation, the staff strength had depleted considerably requiring immediate drive to fill-up all the vacant posts, it said. The committee representing various officials and employees association also urged for taking effective action to realise the road map chalked out in the Golden Jubilee Document (Vision-2020) of the university for which an additional land would be required for expansion. Besides, more regional centres of the university should be established in different parts of the state. The monthly pension bill had touched Rs 1.25 crore and the only way out to meet this recurring liability was to set up a pension corpus fund of Rs 150 crore.
|
|
Khushi Ram Balnatah is HLP in charge
Shimla, March 3 The core group of the party, which met here today under the chairmanship of Maheshwar Singh, president of the party, also appointed Subhash Sharma, former president of the Himachal Swabhiman Party as the vice-president and in charge for the four parliamentary constituencies, Dulo Ram for Kangra, KD Dharmani for Hamirpur, BR Mandiyal for Mandi and Dharm Chand Gulerai for Shimla. In charge of the state party office Tikkoo Thakur said Navin Dhiman would look after the youth wing and he would be assisted by Vivek Sharma, while Kanear Vijay Singh had been appointed as the convener of the Kisan and Mazdoor Wing of the party. Two former leaders of the Swabhiman Party, Rama Sharma and Mulk Raj Sharma, have been nominated as the members of the state executive of the party. Balnatah and other leaders would extensively tour the state to strengthen the organisational set up, he said.
|
|
Anurag faces Cong heat
Hamirpur, March 3 On his recent maiden visit to Hamirpur after taking charge, Sukhvinder had criticised the working of the MP, accusing him of not visiting his constituency and making frequent visits to Dubai and Mumbai in connection with cricket. The HPCC president had accused Anurag of not taking up issues of public interest in Parliament and ignoring the development needs of his constituency. Anurag has also been in Development and 20-Point Programme Committee Chairman Ram Lal Thakur’s line of fire. Ram Lal had launched an attack against Anurag during his recent visit to Hamirpur. Ram Lal had accused Anurag of registration of a cricket body under two names, i.e., the Himalayan Players Cricket Association and the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA). Ram Lal charged Anurag with committing a serious irregularity and demanded the registration of a criminal against him. Anurag is the president of the HPCA and joint secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The HPCA is under the scanner of the state government for allotment of government land by the Dhumal-led government for building a hotel in Dharamsala reported to be a commercial venture of the HPCA. The state government had served notices on the government officers responsible for allotment of land in Dharamsala. There are talks of cancellation of the land allotment.
|
|
Scribes want post of APRO filled
Dalhousie, March 3 In a representation submitted to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, senior journalist Rajinder Gupta said the post of the APRO of the Department of Information and Public Relations (IPR) was sanctioned by the state government in 2006. An APRO, who was posted at Dalhousie for some time, was transferred to some other place and since then the post continued to remain vacant, Gupta said in the representation. Gupta urged the Chief Minister to fill the post forthwith as it was indispensable from the tourism point of view. |
|
|
Pensioners seek special provision in Budget
Bilaspur, March 3 It held a meeting at Ghumarwin today which was presided over by unit president Lekh Ram Sharma and attended by a large number of pensioners. State unit senior vice-president JK Nadda and district unit president Rama Nand Sharma and general secretary Jagdish Dinesh also spoke. The pensioners adopted a unanimous resolution appreciating the decision of the Congress to have all provisions for pensioners on the Punjab pattern. This was a part of its manifesto which had been adopted as the policy document. The pensioners expressed the hope that all pending demands would be accepted. They hoped that the decision in this regard would be implemented at the earliest. They rued that their medical reimbursement bills were being kept pending for a long time. They requested that this system be streamlined and all bills cleared every second month. They condoled the death of Chambel Singh Dhiman, Samar Virsingh, Pritam Singh, Nand Lal Soni, Dharam Singh and Mast Ram. Sohan Singh Patial, Amar Nath Bhardwaj, Hukam Singh Thakur, Sita Ram Sharma, Hari Singh Thakur, Sohan Lal, Vijay Singh Chandel, Anant Ram, Om Parkash Sharma, Rattan Singh, Prem Lal Sharma and Tirath Ram were present.
|
|
Kol Dam oustees end stir
Bilaspur, March 3 Reports said the Chief Minister had intervened in the matter and summoned to Shimla NTPC General Manager AK Nanda, Bilaspur Deputy Commissioner Ajay Sharma, Ram Lal and Bambar. Virbhadra Singh had listened patiently to the local leaders and Nanda. He had then ordered that all demands included in the agreement be met and the agreement be signed giving specific description of each point in the demand charter. He was sympathetic to the oustees and had said the government could not forget their sacrifice. He had expressed concern that the agitation was causing delay in execution of the project and had caused a loss of around Rs 95 crore to the state government and the NTPC in the last 18 days. Agitation convener Babu Ram Thakur and the action committee expressed happiness over the agreement and thanked the Chief Minister and local leaders. Addressing oustees later, Ram Lal said their demands had been accepted and each family would be given an amount equivalent to 1 per cent of the power produced in the project which would be at least Rs 10,000 per month. He said oustees and affected families would get 100 units of free electricity for household consumption every month and preference in future employment. He said the Bohat-Kasol road and other approach roads would be restored and the school at Sepda would have a playground. He also said other difficulties that they were facing would be solved under the committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner which included NTPC officials, local leaders and representatives of oustees.
|
|
Farmers protest installation of transmission lines
Palampur, March 3 Unplanned and hazard installation of transmission lines have become a matter of concern. Though the administration is well conversant with the situation, nobody has so far come to the rescue of the villagers. In many villages, people have not only staged protests, but also stopped the execution works. Over 12 power projects are coming up in the region and all the projects have been laying its individual transmission lines. At present, six transmission lines are under instalation in the region. Transmission lines have damaged agriculture land, crops and trees in many villages. Villagers have also met local officials demanding action against the power companies time and again, but to no avail. The villagers demanded that the government should come out with a policy and direct the companies to construct a single transmission line and it should share the same up to the grid. “It will not only reduce the cost of construction, but also minimise losses to their fields”. Meanwhile, a senior official of the state government said the government was well conversant with the problems being faced by the villagers. He said he had already met the affected villagers, adding that he would soon convene a meeting of the owners of the power companies to solve the problem.
|
|
Hiring regular labour will not hit profitability of companies: Maira
Dharamsala, March 3 Chancellor of the Central University Himachal Pradesh and member, Planning Commission of India, Arun Maira, said this in an interview with The Tribune. Maira said companies, especially the smaller ones, were lobbying against ending the practice of hiring labour through contractors. Many smaller companies were hiring labour through contractors on three basic pleas. They were maintaining that hiring labour on a regular basis would affect their competitiveness, especially vis-à-vis industry of China and other Third World countries, where cheap labour was being considered as asset of the small scale industry, he said. However, a recent study conducted by the planning commission revealed that most of the Indian companies were spending just five to eight per cent of their total turnover on the labour cost. Study has also revealed that in case companies pay their contract labourers on par with regular labourers, their profitability will be affected by just one per cent. Therefore, the logic given by owners of business enterprises that hiring regular labour would affect their competitiveness does not seem to hold any logic, he said. “The second logic that the companies are giving for continuing the practice of hiring labour through contractors is flexibility in quantum of labour hired by them. The companies are maintaining that their requirement of labour depends upon orders and in case they hire permanent labour, they will not have the flexibility of firing the labourers when the orders are not there. Maira said the study had shown that the firing flexibility of companies varied between 15 to 20 per cent. However, in many cases the companies were hiring about 70 per cent labour through contractors that defied logic and led to exploitation of employees and bad practices by companies. The third plea taken by the industry in favour of labour through contractors was that they face harassment at the hands of regular employees. “However, the survey has shown that companies might face other kinds of harassments as exploitation at the hands of inspecting officials by hiring labour through contractors,” he said. He said the representatives of various worker unions also met the members of the planning commission and revealed that they were completely in favour of maintaining the competitiveness of the industry.
|
|
VC for genetically modified crops for food security
Palampur, March 3 While addressing scientists and students, the Vice-Chancellor favoured the introduction of genetically modified crops for the food security of the nation. He said the population of the country was growing at a rapid rate. By 2030, India would overtake China in population, he said. Population growth meant more food to be produced to meet food requirements. To achieve this, about five million tonnes increase in foodgrain production was required, he added. Dr Sharma said, “In our country, 250 million people live below the poverty Dr Sharma said people concerned with food security of the country were generally of the view that genetically modified (GM) crops could provide much-needed impetus to increase food growth. Moreover, the introduction of Bt crops was needed in a country like India, where both the food and nutritional needs of populace were unfulfilled, he said. Citing an example of transgenic crops in India, the Vice-Chancellor said Bt cotton or the transgenic cotton was introduced in 2000 and India at present was at the fifth position in terms of area under GM crops. More than 90 per cent cotton grown in India was Bt cotton. “To meet future food needs of the country, we should think of using genetically modified crops as a means to achieve high productivity to have nutritionally rich crops and develop crops with resistance and tolerance to insect, pests, disease and variations in climatic conditions,” he said. The Vice-Chancellor also distributed prizes among the winners of various competitions organised to mark the occasion. Dr GL Bansal, Dean, Basic Science College, and Dr NK Gupta, co-ordinator of the programme, also spoke on the occasion.
|
|
Workshop on growing hi-tech vegetables
Nurpur, March 3 Principal investigator of the project Ashwani Sharma visited various villages of the area to undertake benchmark survey and selected 25 progressive growers for the technical know-how in the workshop. Farmers were imparted technical training for growing hi-tech vegetable nursery by using pro-trays (propagation plastic trays) and coco-peat. Meanwhile, scientists of the RHRC claimed that the technology of producing vegetable seedling was quite economical and ensured improved germination and minimised wastage of expensive seeds, reduced seedling mortality, better root development and less damage while transplanting. Apart from imparting advanced technical know-how of producing vegetable seedlings to the selected farmers, the RHRC scientists will deliver newly produced summer vegetable seedlings at their fields, guide them in transplanting seedlings and also supervise vegetable production until its marketing.
|
|
Minister lays stress on industrial safety
Shimla, March 3 In a public appeal on the eve of National Safety Day, which is observed on March 4 every year to sensitise people regarding industrial safety, he urged managements and workers of all the industrial establishments to deliberate upon safety precautions to be adopted. Agnihotri said issues and actions related to safety were not limited to industrial establishments, but should be extended to houses, offices, traffic and other areas to ensure safety of people in day-to-day life. He said the main reason behind this was the lack of awareness about safety issues and non-observance of relevant legislations. It was the duty of every citizen to spread awareness about safety issues and extend cooperation to government agencies in compliance of the related legislations, he said. He said his department was ensuring that personal protective equipment were used by workers, machinery was tested regularly and all the safety measures were observed by the managements in order to ensure safety of the workers
in accordance with the Factory Act, 1948. The government had made it mandatory to issue
identity cards to workers in factories and so far, 2,65,061 identity cards duly attested by labour officials had been issued to the workers, he said. Every factory was being inspected prior to registration in order to ensure compliance regarding safety, health and welfare of the workers, he said. He said the department was providing necessary advice to help comply with the safety provisions. It had organised training programme at Baddi for managers and workers of small and medium-scale industries in order to increase productivity by way of adopting measures related to occupational safety. Mukesh Agnihotri said to sensitise the employers about observance of
|
|
|
Increase in retirement age of Class III staff sought
Bilaspur, March 3 This was stated at a meeting of the state executive committee of the federation held here recently, under the chairmanship of state president Ram Singh. Talking to mediapersons here, Ram Singh said leaders had demanded an increase in the retirement age as employees in the state, including Class IV employees, IAS, IPS, HAS and HPS officers were retiring at the age of 60 years. The resolution said apart from Central Government employees, there were several states where the retirement age had been increased to 60 years for all the employees. |
|
|
Conduct exams for winter schools in Dec: Teachers
Mandi, March 3 “Students come back to schools after 42-day-long winter holidays in January and February and seem to have forgotten what was taught to them throughout the year in snow-bound areas,” said Bhang Chand, president, Principals and Head Masters’ Association. “It is difficult to reach schools in 2-3 ft snow. Most of the time, there is no electricity also. We do not understand how students will take up examinations. All our pleas to conduct examinations in December in winter schools have been ignored by the previous government,” he said. “The learning levels are falling in schools as students come back blank,” teachers said. They demanded that examinations should be conducted from December 6 to 11 in schools in snow-bound areas in eight districts. PC Kapur, state president, Himachal Government Teachers Union, said they had taken up the matter with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and hoped the department would do something for them. “The old system was better. There is no teaching work even in Shimla town, leave alone other areas where snow and chill have made it difficult to conduct examinations,” said SS Ranta, Shimla district president of the union. “The new system is posing practical problems in snow-bound areas,” said Dr Dinesh Jhagta, state president, HP DPE Association. In districts like Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Una and Kangra, the Directorate should carry out examinations in March. “We have no problems if Class XII board examinations are held in March,” teachers said. Narotam Thakur of the Himachal School Lecturers Association said the new system had this thought that students come blank to schools, but sometimes it snows even in December. “The government must take a rational view,” he added. However, the Directorate of Education is sticking to its new schedule this year as examinations for Class VI to IX will start in the first week of March. “The idea is to conduct board examinations once a year with CBSE examinations for Classes IX and XII,” said Dinkar Burathoke, Director, Education. “The two-system burden the board as they have different sets of questions papers for winter and summer schools,” he added. “The state Cabinet has to effect the change and we will consider the demand for the next session,” he said. |
|
|
Need for transfer of green technology underscored
Sundernagar, March 3 The occasion was a national workshop on renewable energy, organised at Jawahar Lal Engineering College, Sundernagar, today. While addressing participants, Prof Chander Shekhar, from the Instrument Design and Development Centre, IIT, New Delhi, said solar technology as a cheaper and competent resource with thermal and hydropower energy was available, but it needed the will to transfer it and make it workable for commercial, industrials and domestic use. Earlier, inaugurating the workshop organised by the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Centre for Sustainable Development, Prof Rajnish Srivastava, Director, NIT, Hamirpur, and the chief guest of the event, underscored the need for focusing on solar and wind energy in the country, mainly the hill states like Himachal. The Government of India had a national policy to tap non-conventional sources of energy in five-year plans, but nothing substantial had been done in the field for the last 10 years. Director, Technical Education, Vijay Chandan urged the government to provide technical support and take initiatives in science and technology for clean and cheap energy. Director, engineering college, Prof RL Sharma said the need was to reverse the trend of main reliance on thermal, fossil fuels etc and integrate the greener sources like solar and wind energy which benefited farmers and industry. Prof SS Chandel from NIT said the solar and wind hybridisation promised a good future for Himachal. It saved LPG and fossil fuel and promised a clean source to stakeholders. Dr Sudhir Kumar Syal, from JP University, highlighted the role of biogas technology by harnessing energy from solid waste. |
|
|
Govt urged to implement norms for disabled
Shimla, March 3 Ajai Srivastava, chairman of the foundation, has in a letter to Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment DR Shandil said examinations of undergraduate and postgraduate classes were to commence shortly and any delay in its implementation would cause grave injustice to the disabled. These norms were to be adopted and implemented in all the academic and recruitment examinations. The ministry had circulated the new norms on February 26 to bring uniformity with regard to time to be allowed to disabled persons to write the examinations. As per the guidelines, disabled persons would now be given not less than 20 minutes extra per hour of examination, which meant that universities and colleges would now be obliged to allow four hours to them for a three hour duration exam. It was a major relief to them, as at present only half-an-hour extra time was being given. Srivastava said the use of new technology in conducting examinations was an important feature in the new writing norms, which clearly mentioned that the examining body should also provide reading material in Braille or e-text or on computers having suitable screen-reading softwares for open-book examination. Similarly, online examination should be in accessible format and question papers and all the other study material should be accessible as per the international standards. The disabled should be given the option of choosing the mode for taking the examinations in Braille or on the computer or in large print or even by recording the answers as the examining bodies could easily make use of technology to convert question paper into such formats. Another major relief was that there would not be any criteria of educational qualification of the scribe. Instead, the invigilation system would be strengthened, so that the candidates did not indulge in malpractices during examinations. |
|
|
Women achievers from district to be felicitated on Women’s Day
Kangra, March 3 C Palrasu, Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, today called upon all block-level officials, district officials and NGOs to send nominations, along with a brief descriptive note on work, approach and its significance, references documentary evidence, contact details by March 6 to the ADC, Kangra. He said the district-level Women’s Day function would be celebrated on March 8 jointly by all the departments at the Gandhi Ground, Nagrota Bagwan, where GS Bali, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Transport and Technical Education, would be the chief guest. He said eligible role models would include women pradhans and social activists. Dr RK Sood, district AIDS control officer, said anganwari workers, who had strengthened HIV AIDS response at community level through stigma reduction and associated women affected with HIV in SHG income generation activity, too, would be eligible for being a role model. He said those who had raised health awareness among women, besides journalists and editors, who had advocated and raised issues relating to women empowerment, too, could be selected as a role model. The Deputy Commissioner said the congregation of women at Nagrota Bagwan would discuss challenges being faced by women in various spheres of life. He said the recognition of rural women would give a boost to women empowerment. |
|
|
Dalhousie to Khajjiar road remains buried in snow
Dalhousie, March 3 The Dalhousie-Khajjiar road, which is deep in snow nowadays, has been hampering the tourist inflow from the plains to reach Khajjiar, an official of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation revealed. On the other hand, official sources, however, maintain that road engineers accompanied by their workforce along with the requisite machinery had been pressed into service to clear the snow from the road as early as possible, claiming that work for the restoration of the road was going on a war footing so that transportation services could be resumed soon. |
|
|
Hard work in college key to success, says HPU Vice-Chancellor
Sundernagar, March 3 He appreciated the royal family of Suket estate (now Sundernagar) for giving land and buildings to the institution and assured further help to the institution. Earlier, Hari Sen, Chairman of the college, who hails from the royal family of Suket, welcomed the chief guest, along with Principal Ashok Sharma and staff of the college, and presented a shawl and a Himachal cap to him. During the function, students presented cultural items, debate, rangoli, solo songs, fancy dress, mime, declamation, mehndi, skit, poster making and science quiz. |
|
|
Institution to start MTech classes in two disciplines
Sundernagar, March 3 The institution has completed all the formalities such as recruitment of staff and infrastructure for the two courses. It has already moved the case for an approval to the competent authority. The SIRDA Group of Institutions has already been running an engineering and a polytechnic college at Naulakha, near Sundernagar, for the last many years. |
|
|
Appointment of bridge specialists sought
Bilaspur, March 3 The Gobind Sagar Ghats Sudhar Sabha, under the chairmanship of its president Ram Singh, said there was no bridge specialist in HP Public Works Department (PWD) and all bridges had to be designed from outside the state. A resolution passed by the sabha said their claims had been proved by the total failure of the design of the Rs 32-crore Baghchhal Bridge on the Gobind Sagar for which the Public Works Department paid huge sums of amounts as “consultancy fee”. The Gobind Sagar Ghats Sudhar Sabha also said there was another example of the Berry Dadollan bridge over the Sutlej (Gobind Sagar) in which the Public Works Department increased the construction cost several times. |
|
|
Cochlear implant boon for children with hearing loss
Kangra, March 3 Dr Sanjay Sachdeva, Director, ENT, Head and Neck Surgery, Max Group of Hospitals, said this here today on the conclusion of a free ENT two-day camp organised by the local branch of Vivekananda Kendra, Kanayakumari, a spiritually oriented service mission, as its monthly feature. He said cochlear implant was making children form a productive part of society. He said a few states in the country had started funding for these implants. He said deafness was prevalent among 7 to 10 per cent of the population of this hill state, above the age of 50 years, which was suffering with nerve-related hearing disability. Dr Sachdeva said in major cities of the country the prevalence of this type of hearing disability was commonly seen in people in the age group of 65 to 70 years, whereas it was the early 50s in this hill state. He said this 7 to 10 per cent population did not include those who suffered of deafness because of ear discharge and other reasons. Today during the camp, 200 patients from all over the state were treated for ENT ailments at Gopal Bagh here and 50 free audiometry tests were performed in collaboration with Chinmayanand Organisation for Rural Development (CORD). The kendra will hold a free ENT surgical camp tomorrow at the Government Zonal Hospital, Dharamsala. |
|
|
Noose on mining mafia tightened, 5 nabbed
Chamba, March 3 A team of forest officials, headed by Dr Kirupa Sankar, DFO, Chamba, caught the offenders while dumping muck on the bank of the Ravi between the Forest Colony (Barga) and the Sitla bridge. Taking cognisance of the illegal sand mining from the Ravi at Bagga and Jarangla on Chamba-Bharmour highway, a tractor transporting stone and gravel from Udaipur, without valid documents during night hours, was seized last week. Confirming the news, Chief Conservator of Forests, Chamba, ARM Reddy, CCF, said the vigil on such illegal activities had been beefed up and raids were being carried out. He also reiterated that field forest officials had been told to conduct regular patrolling to keep a watch on the Sarotta nullah at Mehla, where a lot of building waste had been dumped in the past, including hospital waste, muck dumped by PWD contractors and municipal waste disposal unit. “The department recently cracked its whip on illegal miners of sand as well as offenders carrying out muck dumping activities in the wee hours of the day into the Ravi,” Reddy claimed.
|
|
|
Steps taken to decentralise powers
Hamirpur, March 3 Talking to mediapersons here yesterday, he said subdivisional magistrates (SDMs) had now been given powers to give financial aid up to Rs 1,500 from the Red Cross fund. Similarly, the SDMs, Tehsildars and Naib Tehsildars have been authorised to pass bills of routine expenditures. He said now wages for MNREGA works would be directly transferred in the accounts of beneficiaries by the respective Block Development Officers. The DC said the direct benefits transfer scheme was also being implemented in the district and a few other schemes were also under way. |
|
|
Parishad members seek redressal of problems
Bilaspur, March 3 They also demanded swimming pools at various wards and an artificial lake on the bank of the Gobind Sagar dam so that tourism could be developed. Members Bir Deen, Shashi Kala, Soma Devi, Sonika, Sonia and
Aditya Mohan were present in the deputation.
|
|
|
Camp on domestic violence held
Hamirpur, March 3 The judge said a specific law was enacted in 2005 to protect women from any kind of domestic violence. He said, “Through such workshops we intend to discuss the issue threadbare and find a solution to this misery of women.”
|
|
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Transport Minister GS Bali and three members of his personal staff were injured in a road accident near Sonepat in Haryana early today.
Hundreds of villagers in the Palampur region staged a protest over the “high-handedness” of a power company, which has been installing transmission lines, felling trees and damaging standing crops in their fields without prior permission.
Nurpur, March 3
