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BJP ready for general election: Dhumal
Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal addresses mediapersons at Barwana on Friday.
Students to get summer, winter uniforms together
Transport Minister GS Bali listens to grievances of people of Nagrota Bagwan in Kangra district on Friday. Photo: Ashok Raina |
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Samiti formed to oppose four-laning of NH-22
Plea to fill vacancy from project engineer cadre
No dedicated state body to aid of unorganised weavers: Central team
Guchi growing in a dense Himalayan forest. Photo: Amit Kanwar
Pradhan’s husband caught accepting Rs 5 lakh bribe
Dharampal in custody of Vigilance officials in Dharamsala on Friday. Photo: Kamaljeet
More than 1.65 lakh pilgrims pay obeisance at Bajjreshwari temple
Pilgrims throng the Bajjreshwari temple at Kangra on the occasion of Mahashtami on Friday. Photo: Ashok Raina
JYOTI MURDER CASE
CM criticised for adopting double standard on private varsity issue
CITU’s appeal to curb exploitation in hydel projects
Kanya puja marks conclusion of Devta Mela
Dy Mayor seeks Central aid for sports complex
Two smugglers arrested
National rugby meet from May 18
Absence from review meeting will not be tolerated: MP
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BJP ready for general election: Dhumal
Palampur, April 19 Addressing mediapersons at Barwana, 10 km from here, Dhumal said it was evident from the present political scenario of the country that the UPA Government would not be able to complete its full term of five years and elections could be held any time. He said important allies like the DMK and Trinamool Congress, headed by Mamta Banarjee, had already left the UPA in the past one year and now the UPA Government was being blackmailed by Mulayam Singh and Mayawati. Dhumal said there was a total instability at the Centre and number of important bills had been hanging fire in the absence of adequate number with the UPA in Parliament. He said the women reservation bill, food security bill and Jan Lokpal bill were important, but the UPA government failed to get it cleared from Parliament in the past five years. Dhumal said because of poor performance of the UPA at the Centre, prices of essential commodities had gone up, the economy of the country was worst hit in last five years and it was beyond the control of the UPA to check the same and bring the system on the track. Criticising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Dhumal alleged that despite being an economist, he was a total failure and brought the country on the verge of bankruptcy. Dhumal said the infrastructure development in the country had come to a standstill. Despite budgetary provisions, the Union Government had failed to achieve the targets in the construction and widening of national highways in the country. Referring to Himachal Government, the former Chief Minister said the performance of the Congress in Himachal Pradesh was disappointing in the past three months. The only achievement of the Congress was large scale transfers of employees, reversing decision of previous government and launching a political vendetta against the BJP workers and their relations. He said he would soon visit the entire state to mobilise the party workers for the Parliament elections and apprise them with the anti-people policies of the state government. He said the development projects launched by his government in the state had been suspended, education institutions opened by his government were closed and number of new laws, enacted by the BJP, were withdrawn. |
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Students to get summer, winter uniforms together
Kangra, April 19 Earlier, the minister heard the grievances of the people of Mundla, Sadarpur, Thanpuri, Rokkhar, Badai, Baldar, Suhand and Ramaid villages. The minister said the super-speciality hospital of the DRPGMC at Tanda, a Rs 150 crore project, would be functional in September to provide super-specialised treatment to the patients at Tanda. He said for providing drinking water facility to the people of the his constituency, Rs 2.5 crore would be spent on Sheerathana- Duloan-Baldar water supply scheme. A Rs 2.20 crore Sadarpur-Rajiana-Thanpuri water supply scheme project would come up shortly. He announced that a foot bridge on the Banner khad, connecting Mundula with Tanda, would be constructed. He said that Thanpuri-Jasour road would get metalled. He announced Rs 3 lakh for the construction of a Samudayic Bhawan at Thanpuri. He also announced Rs 50,000 for the construction of additional rooms for the Jausor Primary School building and Rs 2 lakh for the veterinary hospital building.
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Samiti formed to oppose four-laning of NH-22
Solan, April 19 Samiti members, including Col (retd) CR Thakur, said despite several pleas put forth by the residents of the areas before the authorities, they had received no assurance on changing the alignment of the project. He said the present alignment, which had been carved out through the
private land, would adversely affect scores of small business establishments. With alternate routes being available through the government land, the samiti has demanded bypassing their private land, which they asserted would also reduce damage to the environment on the account of axing trees. Since the proposed acquisition would dislodge several small businessmen who have been operating from the stretch of the national highway lying between the railway crossing and the National Research Centre for Mushroom, it was unfair to propose to acquire a stretch of about 350 m belonging to private parties alone, leaving alternatives where government land and lesser amount of private land, opined the samiti members. Terming it a forcible acquisition, residents said alternative alignments should be considered through vacant government and private land, failing which they would be forced to file a public interest litigation against the NHAI for the proposed four-laning of the highway. With similar protest being witnessed in the Solan-Brewary area and Dharampur Bazaar, the acquisition of land has become a major headache for the NHAI which has been endeavouring to complete the land acquisition proceedings at the earliest. |
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Plea to fill vacancy from project engineer cadre
Shimla, April 19 Representatives of the association met Power Minister Sujan Singh Pathania here yesterday and impressed upon him the need to give to a project engineer the post to which selection would be made through a direct interview. They said the board had a number of project engineers with more than 30 years of experience in execution of hydroelectric projects. They said it was a cadre post and all project engineers with the HPPCL were from the HPSEB. They said selection of Director (Civil) from among serving project Chief Engineers would be in line with a government notification of 2006 which specified that all posts in the HPPCL of categories in the HPSEB will be filled by deployment. They said lateral entry was not required when experienced project engineers were available. They said selecting any candidate from outside with lesser experience would demoralise the cadre and undermine work environment. The association thanked Pathania for allotting four hydroelectricity projects to the HPSEB and said the decision would be beneficial to the state as well as the power utility. The delegation consisted of MK Sharma, Bhanu Pratap Singh, KD Sharda, HM Dhareula, Rajesh Mahajan and executive members of the association.
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No dedicated state body to aid of unorganised weavers: Central team
Kullu/Mandi, April 19 Sponsored by the Centre, cluster training programmes have made a modest start in Mandi, Kullu and Kangra. “More needs to done for weavers by leveraging their products with value addition and designs to match the best in markets,” said VV Paul, Director of the centre who led the team which met the weavers. The team said they would suggest to the ministry to tell the state government to set up an independent body to look after weavers and their products making them globally competent. Many households had given up traditional weaving on khadi due to reported invasion of cash fruit economy, insiders said. Kullu District Cooperative Development Federation president Satya Parkash Thakur said the body worked only when it had missionary zeal. He oversees the Bhuttico Cooperative Society as well. “We have adopted designs and value addition at Bhutticco which has over 400 members and covers 1,000 weavers,” he added. Weavers in remote areas are struggling to compete with machine-made products from Ludhiana. Weavers in the unorganised sector claimed that fake products had flooded markets and pushed local products out. They alleged that sellers gave huge discounts on fake products to tourists as the latter did not have knowledge of genuine products. Many established cooperative societies have adopted geographical indicator logos to beat the allegedly fake handloom products from Ludhiana. Weavers in the unorganised sector have little knowledge about the Geographical Indication of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act. VK Mehta, General Manager of the Handlooms and Handicrafts Corporation under the Industry Department, said they had trained over 12,000 weavers. “We organise exposure visits, hire instructors and designers for skill and design upgrade and provide raw material and marketing facility at exhibitions and 17 emporiums,” he said. The private sector had come up in a big way and the corporation had limited staff. Emporiums had been outsourced, he added. Industry Secretary Archana Sharma said the corporation had capacity building, training and credit schemes for upgrade of skills. “We are not aware of the inspection of the Central team,” she stated. |
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Guchi mushrooming in hills
Shimla, April 19 It was after years that the expensive edible fungus (morchella esculenta for scientists) is being collected by villagers even in areas at an elevation of around 4,000 ft from where it had virtually vanished due to receding seasonal snowline and deficient winter rain. The winter has been terminating early in recent years and ambient temperature rising abnormally from February when guchi fruiting season commences. This has been an exceptional season when most parts of the state had heavy snow. Frequent spells of hailstorms over the last one month may have caused damage to fruit crops but have created ideal conditions for mushrooming growth of guchi. “Of late, villagers had to trek several kilometres deep to collect guchi. This season, they can be seen even in our fields and orchards,” says Pawan Kumar, a former panchayat pradhan of Chethna in Kotkhai. In the Gohar region of Mandi, it has appeared in low-elevation areas from where no collection has been for years. More importantly, it is being sold instantly at a rate ranging from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per kg by the first collector. Enquiries reveal that villagers in most parts of the state except Chamba are collecting between three and five times more guchi than they normally do. The collection starts in March from low-elevation areas and continues till the end of May with melting of snow up to an altitude of 12,000 ft. The common belief among villagers is that lightning that accompanies thunderstorms and hailstorms around the end of winter triggers the growth of edible fungi in the wild. Mycologist T N Lakhanpal, who has several books and research publications on edible fungi to his credit, explains that thundershowers are usually accompanied by showers which provide moisture to activate dormant mycelium of guchi and trigger the process of fruiting. He says there is no direct correlation of lightning to the spurt in growth of fungi. Villagers have the right to collect minor forest produce and are only charged export fee of Rs 10,000 per quintal by the local panchayat. The bulk of the produce is sold clandestinely and export fee is paid only on a small fraction. The rate of Rs 10,000 per kg was fixed long back when it was sold at between Rs 800 and Rs 900 per kg. The rate has increased almost 10 time since. It can be a good source of revenue for panchayats if the rate of export fee is revised and the produce is auctioned through local bodies.
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Pradhan’s husband caught accepting Rs 5 lakh bribe
Dharamsala, April 19 The amount is reportedly a part of the amount demanded for issuing a no-objection certificate (NOC) for setting up the unit. According to rules, an NOC from the panchayat concerned is a must for setting up at any village an industrial unit in the polluting category. This incident has brought to the fore the modus operandi reportedly being followed for getting NOCs for setting up in villages industrial units in the polluting category. Superintendent of Police (Vigilance) Vimal Gupta said complainant Davinder, alias Goldi, a resident of Gurdaspur in Punjab, approached them on April 17. Gupta said Davinder had informed them that he had land in his mother’s name at Tanda village under the Kathgarh panchayat. Gupta said Davinder wanted to set up a stone crusher on the land for which he had approached village pradhan Manju Bala who referred him to her husband Dharampal. Gupta claimed that Dharampal had demanded Rs 20 lakh for giving an NOC and the amount was settled at Rs 10 lakh after negotiations. Gupta said Davinder approached Vigilance officials on April 17 after settling the deal. Gupta alleged that the complainant was to give Dharampal Rs 5 lakh on April 18 and another Rs 5 lakh on April 21 when the NOC was to be issued in the general house of the panchayat. Gupta said a Vigilance team laid a trap for Dharampal yesterday, but he was not in the village. Gupta claimed that Dharampal called Davinder to his house this morning to deliver the amount. Gupta said Davinder went to Dharampal’s house at 6:30 am today and delivered Rs 5 lakh. Gupta alleged that the Vigilance team raided the house soon after and arrested Dharampal. Gupta said a case under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against Dharampal. Gupta said it was the biggest such catch in the state as Rs 5 lakh was recovered. He said the complainant had handed them over a taped recording of his conversation with the accused in which the deal had been finalised. The case brought to the fore the alleged corruption in clearing stone-crushing units on the border with Punjab. There has been pressure for setting up the units in Kangra and Una districts near the border after the Punjab and Haryana High Court imposed a ban on mining in Punjab. The number of stone-crushing units in Kangra and Una districts has mushroomed in the last few years. The setting up of most units is being opposed by village residents even though panchayats had issued NOCs. |
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More than 1.65 lakh pilgrims pay obeisance at Bajjreshwari temple
Kangra, April 19 The Bajjreshwari temple today opened at 3.30 am in the morning and pilgrims, in large numbers, paid obeisances at the temple. The pilgrims were seen waiting in long queues throughout the day to have glimpse of the deities. The pilgrims, from all over the country, visited the Shakti peeths of Bajjreshwari, Jwalamukhi and Chamunda temples in Kangra district and nearly 1,65,000 pilgrims visited the Bajjreshwari temple here alone during the nine-day Navratri festival. Ajit Bhardwaj, SDM-cum-Assistant Commissioner for Temples, said Sat Chandi Mahayagya, which started on the first Navratri on April 11, culminated today and pooran ahooti was offered by C Palrasu, deputy commissioner, Kangra, who attended the mahayagya along with his family. Bhardwaj said the nine-day festival remained incident free. He said residents, business communities and the police authorities contributed in the peaceful culmination of the Navratri fair. Minister for Transport and Food and Civil supplies GB Bali also paid obeisance at the Bajjreshwari temple here today. Free langar was organised by the temple management for the pilgrims. Temple sources said Rs 21.22 lakh were offered by the devotees in the temple, besides 25 gm of gold and nearly three kg of silver during the last eight days of the Navratri festival. |
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Challan against Doon MLA finds no mention of Jyoti's sister
Hina Rohtaki Tribune News Service
Panchkula, April 19 Although this photograph which shows Chaudhary blessing the couple has been attached to the chargesheet, Ishu fails to find a place in the list of 77 witnesses and her statements too have not been recorded and attached to the challan. Upon realising this blunder, the Special Investigating Team (SIT) rushed to Jyoti’s village in Hoshiarpur to record Ishu’s statements last night. According to Buti Ram, father of the victim, as many as five police officials, including a policewoman and Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Krishan Kumar Hooda, visited his place to record Ishu’s statements. “We were asked to call Ishu from her in-laws place. She gave her statement, following which some further interrogation was done by the police,” said Buti Ram. Ishu’s statement In a crucial statement to the police, Ishu has alleged that her sister Jyoti had once referred to her that Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary’s wife had threatened her of dire consequences if she ever met him. This revelation has come to the fore for the first time in the case. “Ishu told the police that Jyoti had once told her that in May 2012 (just six months before the murder) she got a call from Chaudhary’s wife Nidhi, saying that if she ever disturbed Ram, she would be eliminated,” said Jyoti’s father Buti Ram.
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CM criticised for adopting double standard on private varsity issue
Shimla, April 19 Spokesperson of the party Chander Mohan said here today that the CM had been denigrating private universities and during the poll campaign he had repeatedly asserted that on coming to power, the Congress would close these down. “However, now he has no qualms about awarding degrees of these universities. It has fully exposed his political double-speak and the people are feeling cheated by voting for the Congress,” said Mohan. Congress leaders had persistently accused the BJP government of allotting thousands of bigha of land to private universities, but now during the Budget session it informed the Vidhan Sabha that no government land had been given, said Mohan. He also wanted to know from the CM the compulsions of the government in allowing a hefty hike in the fees of private universities. He said the Congress that it had promised the people that it would rein in private universities, but it had virtually given alicence to private universities to fleece students. |
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CITU’s appeal to curb exploitation in hydel projects
Chamba, April 19 In a meeting of the organisation held here yesterday, CITU general secretary Sudesh Thakur urged the government to implement the provisions of the labour laws in the ongoing hydroelectric projects in the district in letter and spirit, thereby, curbing the exploitation of the workers there. It was also decided in the meeting to take out a demonstration on May 6 at the district headquarters to register their protest against the untimely payment of honorarium of mid-day meals workers and their retrenchment as well as the diversion of the budget earmarked to the mid-day meals, Sudesh stated. She said the issues relating to the vital labour problems were discussed in the meeting and the activists of the organisation were asked to make the cases of the labour exploitation known to the public and resist this illegal activity.
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Kanya puja marks conclusion of Devta Mela
Sundernagar, April 19 The procession took a round of Sundernagar town and finally concluded at Community
Centre. The chief guest firstly performed the ‘kanyas puja’ at Community Centre and then performed puja of hill gods. She also offered them ‘chadder’ at Jawahar Park as per the tradition. The mela committee SDM presented a memento and shawl to the chief
guest. Pratiba Singh was accompanied by MLA Sundernagar Sohan Lal
Thakur, former Congress MLA from Nachan Tek Chand Dogra, former chairperson of the Milk Federation Chet Ram
Thakur, former presidents of the Sundernagar Municipal Council Harinder Sen and Husan Lal and president of the Block Congress Committee Hement Sharma. This year, more than 150 devtas attended the five-day fair that is popular among the residents of the middle region of the state. |
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Dy Mayor seeks Central aid for sports complex
Shimla, April 19 The Deputy Mayor said there was only one indoor sports complex in the
town which was a major tourist attraction with a high population growth rate. He said the old badminton court at Boileauganj which had been built during the British era was in a dilapidated state and required immediate intervention. He said there was a dire need to develop sports facilities to progressively channelise the energy of the youth. He said the town had
been witnessing unprecedented challenges. He discussed with the minister a plan to develop sports infrastructure in various wards keeping in view the needs of the growing youth population. |
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Two smugglers arrested
Bilaspur, April 19 A number of pedestrians have been caught with
charas, while walking on road. Earlier, the police was successful in intercepting many vehicles for catching such smugglers. The police has arrested two pedestrians within last two days with 520 gram of charas while walking on a road. The police arrested Bakhtawar Singh of Dadhraana village near Suharghat when he was walking on the village road towards National Highway No. 21 (Chandigarh - Manali) and recovered 230 gram of charas from their possession. In another case, the police got suspicious about activities of Talab Ram of Gadgaam village of Mandi district. They recovered 390 gram of charas from his
possession. — OC
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National rugby meet from May 18
Bilaspur, April 19 This was said by Ram Lal Thakur, the national president of the All-India Rugby Football Federation and chairperson of the state Planning Development. He was presiding over at a meeting of the officials and non-officials for finalising arrangements of the championship here today. He said all arrangements had been made to make the championship a grand success, which is being held in the state for the first time. He said sub-committees of officials and non-officials for performing various duties had also been formed.
— OC |
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Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Prem Kumar Dhumal today announced that the BJP was ready for the general election, which could be held by November or December this year.
Under the Mahatma Gandhi School Uniform Programme, students studying at the government schools will be provided uniforms for the summer and winter seasons together.
Dharamsala, April 19
Kangra, April 19
Panchkula, April 19
