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HP slanging match on, cricket fans off stadium
Panels to administer HPCA stadia
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HPCA under my power as society, but not as company: Registrar
Dhumal is number one trader, says CM
Rohtang tunnel project has no chief engineer
New Kangra District Bar Assn formed
Paper mill directed to resume operations
Cricket body hails lease cancellation
125 ecologically vulnerable sites identified
Fill ayurvedic doc’s posts, demands association
Mandi police gets undertrial’s custody
Man arrested for wife’s murder
Hospital employee booked for molesting patient
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HP slanging match on, cricket fans off stadium
This despite a double-ton from local lad Paras Dogra. No one, journalists included, was allowed in to cheer the teams following confusion over the HPCA’s status two days after its takeover by the state government in a midnight swoop. The stadium and the adjoining Pavillion hotel thus taken over are closely linked to Anurag Thakur, son of former CM PK Dhumal. Though both the deputy commissioner and the Superintendent of police, Kangra, denied that there was a ban on entry into the stadium, the policemen guarding the stadium left no one in doubt. In Hamirpur, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh sought to clarify his government’s decision to cancel the lease given to Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association for stadiums in the state“The HPCA committed breach of trust. The HPCA became a private property of a family and turned into a private company without informing the state government or seeking its permission to change its status.” The CM’s stout defence of his decision sparked an acerbic reaction from Dhumal. In a statement in Shimla, the former CM accused Singh of reflecting a feudalistic mentality. He said the CM could not claim to promote sports by holding one tournament each in memory of his mother and father. As the political scores were being settled, cricket fans and the players were left wondering if this was the fate of the game in the state. Paras Dogra said like any other player he would have loved the loud cheering from the home crowd. Goa team manager Govind Parab said : “It is for the first time that we are playing without a spectator,” he said. HPCA spokesperson Sanjay Sharma said: “As the police did not allow anybody in, a first class match went on without a single spectator.”
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Panels to administer HPCA stadia
Dharamsala, October 28 Though the state government has formed committees of officials, sources said it would have to form a sports body and get it affiliated with the BCCI in order to conduct matches. The HPCA was the only affiliated body with BCCI in Himachal. Officials of the district administration remained busy preparing records of the properties of the HPCA and Aveda hotel that was functioning in the cricket stadium. The sources also said the officials had confiscated the records of marriage parties that were conducted in the stadium by Aveda hotel as it was a commercial activity. They also said the HPCA was exploring legal possibilities to tackle the sudden action of the state government that had taken them by surprise. It was likely to move the high court in the next two days. The sources said some technical problems might crop up before the government in the maintenance of the taken over properties, especially the international cricket stadium. The stadium had many recurring expenses as power and water bills and salaries of its employees. The sources said the fixed liabilities of the stadium, including maintenance, payment of salaries and payment of power and water bills of the international cricket stadium, amounted to over Rs 1 crore per annum. The BCCI was the parent funding body for constructing the stadium and the HPCA had raised loans of about Rs 34 crore from banks against the cricket stadium and other properties. The salary bill of the HPCA was about Rs 9 lakh per month. At present, the HPCA was bearing these expenses. Now that the state government had taken over the properties, it would have to make budget provisions for the recurring expenses on the properties. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was arriving in Dharamsala this evening on a two-day visit. Congress ministers, during a press conference held here yesterday, had already stated that the Chief Minister would lay the road map for throwing open the properties of the HPCA for the youth of the state. Despite the HPCA being headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, none of the BJP leaders from Kangra came out in support of the sports organisation. |
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BJP men, people misled about HPCA: Cong
Shimla, October 28 Addressing a joint press conference here today, PCC president Sukhwinder Singh and vice-president Harsh Mahajan said BJP leaders were repeatedly saying that the assets taken over by the government were a public property whereas Anurag had stated before the Registrar of Cooperative Societies that the HPCA was a private company and as such not answerable to the state government. The BJP leaders should ascertain the status of the sports body from Anurag. The government had given 450 kanals worth hundreds of crores of rupees to a society even though cricket was not included in the 16 games recognised by the government. The land was leased to the society for the promotion of cricket and not to a company for building five-star hotel and restaurants. They said the HPCA was formed in 1960s and it was granted recognition by the BCCI on September 29,1984, after which it was registered as a society on June 8,1990. However, Anurag amended its constitution and inducted 26 life members, mostly family members and friends from Punjab, with voting rights, making it a captive organisation. Before that, the state body was elected by presidents and general secretaries of the district units of the association, numbering 24. Further, they pointed out that Anurag registered a company, Himalayan Players Cricket Association, in Kanpur in 2005 and the Himachal Players Cricket Association in Chandigarh with same acronym HPCA. Now he claims that the HPCA was a company whereas under the law, a society could not be converted into a company. Another illegality committed by the association was that it not only occupied the prime government land but also demolished buildings of the Education Department worth crores of rupees. There was no mention of trees in the zamabandi for the land given for players' hostel in Khaniara whereas over 2,000 trees were still standing on it and many had been felled for construction of a five- star hotel. The hostel was converted into a five-hotel without taking the matter to the Cabinet which had granted the land on lease, imposing various conditions. Perhaps, Dhumal feared that if the matter was taken to the Cabinet some ministers might oppose it. They urged the government to put in a mechanism in place so that the stadiums could be thrown open to sportspersons and not remain a private asset of the HPCA so that inter-college and inter-university meets could also be held there. |
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HPCA under my power as society, but not as company: Registrar
Shimla, October 28 As per high court directives, it was today that Nazeem gave his 5-page order on the issue of his jurisdiction, raised by the HPCA. “I have no jurisdiction over a company registered under the Companies Act as the Registrar of Societies is functioning under the provisions of the Societies Act, so to this extent the objection raised by the HPCA is accepted,” he wrote in his order. However, in his reply, he dwelt in detail on the powers he enjoyed in dealing with all societies, including the HPCA. “I will continue to have full powers and jurisdiction to look into the functioning of the HPCA as a society under the Societies Act till such time that the juristic person does not cease to exist in accordance with the provisions of the Act,” he wrote. With today’s reply, the government has obliquely indicated that for it the HPCA still exists as a society and the conversion into a company is not valid as per the Societies Act. BJP MP from Hamirpur Anurag Thakur is the president of the HPCA. The Vigilance Bureau has already registered a case against the HPCA, which is being investigated. The Registrar of Societies in his order has also countered the allegations of bias levelled against him by the HPCA on the issue of writing a letter to the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI). “The court has asked me to confine to the issue of jurisdiction but I would like to deal with the allegations by stating that I wrote a letter to the BCCI on September 25 with an objective to point out the facts about the state of affairs of the HPCA,” he wrote. He added that he had not written the letter to harm the reputation of the HPCA. It was following the directives of the high court orders that the HPCA got its preliminary objections registered before Nazeem on September 30 who asked the sports body to produce original proceeding book maintained since 2005 so as to verify the authenticity of their claims. |
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CM behaving like dictator: BJP leader
Palampur, October 28 Addressing a press conference here this morning, Ravinder said Virbhadra Singh, behaving like a dictator, ordered state officials to take over the HPCA before the sunset. He had no patience even to wait till morning. The same orders could have been implemented the next day also as the HPCA was bound to honour the Cabinet decision, he added. He said the BJP had never shielded the HPCA, but at the same time it had opposed illegal action of Virbhadra Singh which was politically motivated to tarnish the image of former Chief Minister PK Dhumal and his son Anurag Thakur. He regretted that the political level of the Congress had come down which was evident from the fact that false cases were being registered against the BJP leaders. The BJP would fight against the misdeeds of the Virbhadra government in the court of law. The HPCA was never a personal property of Anurag or Dhumal. It was for the public and would always be used by the public, he stated. |
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BJP, BJYM activists burn CM’s effigy
Shimla, October 28 "The Congress will have to pay a heavy price for the undemocratic manner in which the government took over the stadiums in the dead of night, which the people of the state are very critical about," said Bhardwaj. He warned that if the government did not reverse its decision on the HPCA, the Congress regime must be prepared to face the consequences. "The government seems to have been rattled by the growing popularity of Dhumal and his son Anurag Thakur and is thus resorting to undemocratic and anti-people decisions," he remarked. He further said the HPCA had played a significant role in the promotion of cricket and the government was now unleashing political vendetta against Anurag with the sole objective of ensuring the victory of the Congress nominee from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat. Mandi: The CPM today hailed the decision and demanded that the government should make some policy so that no association could misuse the government land for furthering individual and political agenda as was being done by the HP Cricket Association in the state. While BJP criticised the government move, Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) activists burnt the effigy of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today after staging a protest in the town against the government takeover of the HPCA stadia at Dharamsala, Nadaun, Lal Pani and Guma in Shimla district in wee hours on Saturday. However, BJP senior vice-president Ram Swarup Sharma, Seraj BJP MLA Jai Ram Thakur and Mandi BJP president Jawahar Thakur slammed the Virbhadra government for taking the leased land and the HPCA properties. “The action is unethical as it was carried out in the mid-night and is a blow to the cricket and other sports”, they alleged in a statement here. Ram Swarup said the Congress was acting like a big brother undermining the democratic institutions. It had cancelled the lease given to the Ramdev trust early this year, which had been a blow to the unemployed youth and medicinal plant growers, he claimed. District CPM general secretary Bhupender Singh alleged the BJP MP Anurag Thakur-led HPCA was the "association of select BJP men for the BJP-minded people". "We demand that the stadium and grounds should be made available for all sports, including cricket," he added. He said the HPCA was being run to promote the BJP ideology like their private property. "The government action came late as it should have been taken long time ago," he claimed. Slogans raised against govt
Bilaspur: At least 100 BJYM activists burnt the effigy of the Himachal Government and raised slogans for taking over all stadiums of the HPCA here this afternoon. Led by morcha district president Brij Lal Thakur, general secretaries Dinesh Chandel and Vikas Rao and Kisan Morcha state spokesman Roshan Thakur, they protested against the highhandedness without following any legal procedures and warned that this would soon boomerang on the Congress government if the decision is not immediately reversed. They also protested against destroying of all BJP hoardings in the town and in the local Luhnu cricket stadium by Congress youths and demanded immediate action against them. These hoardings depicted large pictures of both Anurag Thakur and Narendra Modi standing together, declaring Anurag as leader of youths and Modi that of the country. Later they went in a procession to meet the Superintendent of Police but met Additional SP Vinod Sharma in his absence and presented a memorandum to him against police protection given to alleged goonda elements of the Congress who, they said, raided local Luhnu stadium during night hours and took this stadium forcibly in to their "illegal possession". |
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Dhumal is number one trader, says CM
Bhoranj (Hamirpur), October 28 The Chief Minister said, “Even Dhumal’s son Anurag Thakur had filed an affidavit showing his citizenship of that of Punjab state to secure a petrol pump in Jalandhar.” He said, “Enjoying political power is the main objective of Dhumal’s family and when there is a chance to get power in the state they come here, otherwise move to Punjab; Dhumal is a number one trader,” he added. “I am a permanent Himachali. I will work here, die here and don’t believe in castism or regionalism,” the Chief Minister said. Talking about development carried by Congress governments in the state, the Chief Minister said, “Major development works in the state during the Congress government from the time of the first Chief Minister of the state Dr YS Pramar were undertaken, which were carried forward by the later Congress government.” He sanctioned Rs 17,39,000 for raising a boundary wall in Government Senior Secondary School, Bhoranj, and announced to upgrade Government High School, Kajyan, to Plus II.” The CM earlier inaugurated the mini-secretariat building at Bhoranj. The meeting was also addressed by Chief Parliamentary Secretary ID Lakhanpal, president, Hamirpur Market Committee, Prem Kaushal, women leader Promila and AICC member Suresh Kumar. |
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Rohtang tunnel project has no chief engineer
Manali, October 28 Already running behind schedule, the 8.82-km-long Rohtang tunnel that aims at providing an all-weather road connectivity to the landlocked Lahaul valley and alternative access to Leh and Kargil, has yet to get the full-time chief engineer. Former Chief Engineer PK Mahajan had joined another assignment with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), Delhi headquarters, early last year, revealed insiders. The Chief Engineer is of great importance as the Rohang tunnel project has been facing the water ingress and loose strata at the Seri Nullah stream in the south portal and the recent collapse of the loose strata at the north portal site from Sissu side in Lahaul-Spiti, revealed sources in the project. Going by the present speed of work, the project is set to miss its 2015 deadline for excavation as it has excavated just 4 km in three years time, revealed insiders. The Ministry of Defence, which controls all special projects of the Border Roads Organisation, has deputed the Superintending Engineer SP Sharma to officiate as Chief Engineer of the project in 2012 after Mahajan's exit. According to sources, the ministry appoints a Brigadier rank officer and Chief Engineer of the Border Roads Organisation as Chief Engineer in all BROs special projects alternatively. As Mahajan was from the Border Roads Organisation, his replacement should have come from the Army, but the ministry has so far failed to appoint a full-time Chief Engineer so far to head the Rohtang tunnel project, revealed sources. |
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Documentary on female foeticide shot at Tiara DAV School
Kangra, October 28 Principal Shekhar Modgil said as the film shooting by the Him Kala Sanskriti Natya Kala Manch was organised in this school, some students also acted and participated. Modgil said the documentary would be telecast on Doordarshan. He said artistes from Mumbai, Punjab, Chandigarh, Amritsar and many local artistes like Dheeraj Sharma, Pahari singer, Monika Sharma, Chander Kalra, Ashwin Sharma and Rachna Dhiman were part of the cast. Surinder Panyari was the director of the documentary. |
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Rozgar Mela held at Mandi college
Mandi, October 28 Addressing a gathering, she said the aim of the mela was to provide employment opportunities to youth at the doorstep. The companies should provide security and other facilities to women employees and lodging and food to all workers at the workplace, she said. She said 3,401 applicants had been given skill development allowance worth Rs 36.37 lakh under the Skill Development Scheme for the Unemployed Youth in the state so far. Out of them, 981 applicants were from Mandi district alone, she added. Besides, the Social Welfare Board had provided benefits to 562 artisans in Mandi district this year, she said. The Rozgar Mela would be organised in rural areas in the near future, she added. Labour Commissioner Nandita Gupta gave a brief account of the activities of the department. |
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New Kangra District Bar Assn formed
Kangra, October 28 Stating this here today, Katoch said a meeting of the seven bar associations of Kangra, Baijnath, Palampur, Dehra, Jawali, Nurpur and Indora was held and Himal Chand and Naval Kishor Sharma were elected as senior vice-presidents of the Kangra Bar Association here. Katoch said the newly formed body had urged the state government, which had announced the reconstitution of the Administrative Tribunal, to form this tribunal at the earliest and be stationed at Palampur. He said it was further requested that a Bench of the High Court be constituted and stationed at
Kangra. |
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Paper mill directed to resume operations
Kala Amb, October 28 Ruchira Paper Mill has also been directed to submit a monthly progress report both to the state Pollution Control Board as well as the CPCB regarding the working of its effluent treatment plant. Pollution had assumed alarming proportions in Ruchira Paper Mill and it had been directed to close its operations on August 28 following a raid conducted by the Environmental Surveillance and Squad Division of the CPCB. Serious violations had been detected in its effluent treatment mechanism and maintenance of Ambient Air Quality norms. These violations included the presence of multiple discharge points for its untreated effluents whose subsequent analysis had proved that various parameters had exceeded the safe limits. The CPCB had also noted that the untreated toxic-ridden effluents were let out into the Jattan Nullah which meets the Markandey river, thus adding to substantial water pollution. Other parameters of National Water Quality norms were also violated, thus reflecting on the poor stability of the Effluent Treatment Plan. Even the stack samples were found to have high levels of particulate matter, thus proving how the unit had failed to comply even with the National Ambient Air Quality Norms. The unit management was, thereafter, issued a show-cause notice on December 31, 2012, following the adverse findings and it was directed to explain its position. It’s response however failed to be satisfactory and the CPCB finally issued directions to the unit to close its operations on August 28 this year. HP State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) had disconnected its power supply on October 1 this year although it had received a letter from the CPCB on September 19. The power supply was, however, restored on October 12 after receiving a written request from the unit management though no such direction was issued from the CPCB. Since, the unit had its own captive power unit and it synchronises its power supply from the power received by the HPSEBL, board officials had allowed the unit to synchronise its system after restoring its supply after disconnecting it. AK Sharda, Regional Officer of the State Pollution Control Board, said the unit’s power supply was suspended a few days ago though they were yet to receive written intimation from the CPCB about the recent directions. |
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Kangra, Delhi schools reach finals
Kangra, October 28 GAV Public School defeated Jesus Senior Secondary School, Morinda (Punjab), by 21-9 in the semi-finals crashing into the finals. Army Public School, Delhi, defeated Sri Ram Shiksha Mandir, Delhi, by 30-10 and entered the finals to be fought against GAV Public School tomorrow. In the boys under-14 category, the final match will be played between Bhai Parmanand Vidiya Mandir, Delhi, and Army Public School, Delhi, tomorrow at the municipal stadium here. Earlier today in the semi final, Army School defeated Neo Convent Public School, Delhi, by 13-5. In another semi final match, Bhai Parmanand Vidiaya Mandir, Delhi, defeated Genius International Public School, Ropar (Punjab), by 18-7 and entered the finals. In the under-14 girls league match, GAV Public School, Kangra, defeated Sri Ram Shiksha Mandir, Delhi, by 7-6 in a neck and neck match. In another league match, Saint Marks, Delhi, defeated GAV Public School Kangra by 8-7. In the under-19 girls league match, Saint Marks, Delhi, defeated GAV Public School, Kangra, by 11-9. Sukhvinder Singh, Principal, GAV School Public School, said the first two teams would be selected from the North Zone-1 for the nationals. |
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Cricket body hails lease cancellation
Bilaspur, October 28 The state government had spent crores of rupees. It was taken away from his association by Anurag Thakur. Vikas, son of Congress leader Ram Lal Thakur, alleged that Anurag had turned the HPCA from a society to private limited company and land of stadiums was given by the government for society, and not for any company. — OC
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125 ecologically vulnerable sites identified
Shimla, October 28 The sites have been indentified on the basis of 11 indicators which have a bearing on environment. These are land use, forest cover, population and its caste composition, wastelands, protected areas and biodiversity to work out the index for vulnerability of landscape areas to climate change. Sanjiva Pande, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests who is in charge of GIM, said while the sites in the high altitude areas had been found vulnerable due to lack of adequate forest cover, in the lower hills such as the Shivalik ranges, the degradation of environment was largely on account of increasing population pressure. In the mid-hill areas, the inadequate forest cover and surging population were both responsible for the degradation, making the areas vulnerable to the impact climate change. The action plan to slow down and mitigate the impact of climate change in the identified vulnerable the landscapes will be undertaken by creating awareness among the people and actively involving them in adaptation measures, enhancing livelihoods, undertaking bio-engineering works to stabilise slopes, increasing forest cover and adopting sustainable practices, including switching over to new crops from the traditional ones. Detailed baseline data will be generated for the identified sites with the previous information available from bio-physical, socio-economic and institutional monitoring to help in impact the assessment by observing the status of springs and stream flow, ecological studies, particularly relating to biodiversity, biomass, timber, fuelwood, fodder, and non-timber forest produce removal studies. The impact of the adaptation measures and steps taken for rehabilitation of the degraded areas will be evaluated on the basis of the baseline data over a period.
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Fill ayurvedic doc’s posts, demands association
Nurpur, October 28 Yogesh Raina, state president of the association, in a statement here today said 340 posts would fall vacant by October 31, which would further swell to 400 by the end of the current fiscal year. He also sought the revision of the pay scales of contractual ayurvedic doctors. “The previous BJP government had decided in September last year in its Cabinet meeting to grant equal pay scales to them on a par with allopathic doctors, but simultaneously put a condition of two years’ regular service after a period of six years’ contract service, which had disappointed the latter,” he rued. He pointed out that a contractual ayurvedic doctor had to wait for eight years for getting an equal pay scale. He urged the Chief Minister to waive off this condition in the larger interest of contractual ayurvedic doctors who had got appointments just a few years before their retirement. |
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Mandi police gets undertrial’s custody
Mandi, October 28 Local jeweller Jaipal Singh had lodged an FIR here in March after he received an SMS threat from an unknown mobile number, threatening to murder him in case he did not pay him Rs 30 lakh as ransom. The Mandi police team, led by Chet Singh, the city police in charge, traced the mobile phone to Ranjit in Ambala Jail. Ranjit was also an accused in an attempt to murder case, SP, Mandi, RS Negi said while briefing mediapersons today. The Superintendent of the Police said Ranjit's mobile phone was kept on observation after the city jeweller had lodged the complaint. The police said Ranjit hailed from Jalani, Ambala, but he had shifted his family to Patiala to evade the police. SP RS Negi said he was produced before the judge today who remanded
him in police custody till November 6.
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Man arrested for wife’s murder
Mandi, October 28 The police registered a case of murder after recording the statements of Sumna’s parents and Tambod Devi, pradhan, Binga gram panchayat, and arrested him after the cremation of the victim. The relatives and parents of Sumana raised slogans against the police at Sarkaghat Hospital, where her body was brought for postmortem examination today. They wanted the custody of the body and wanted to perform her last rites, but the police handed over the body to husband and his family members. The police said they recovered the boulder with which Rakesh hit her head and beat her to death. The neighbours had gathered at the spot and informed the police. The father of the deceased, Longu Ram, alleged that Rakesh used to beat his daughter in the past as well. The police said investigation was on.
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Hospital employee booked for molesting patient
Nurpur, October 28 She was molested by an employee of the hospital at about 2 Friday night. She raised an alarm and other staff members of
the hospital thrashed the accused. A case under Section 354, IPC, has been registered against the employee.
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Dharamsala, Hamirpur/Shimla October 28