Toani Devi/Sandhol, Dec 9
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has asked BJP leaders and activists not to be jubilant over the results of the Assembly elections in four states as these would not make any political difference on the outcome of the upcoming parliamentary polls.

Addressing a public meeting here after inaugurating new blocks at Chamyana and Patlandar schools besides laying the foundation stone of various development works today, he said, “The issues were different in these states and people of the state have always voted on the development plank and our government has tried to bring the maximum development to the state.”

He said, “I have no personal rancour against Prem Kumar Dhumal and am not unleashing any political vendetta against him despite the fact that during his tenure as the CM, the latter registered two criminal cases against me and I was exonerated by the court after the trial.”

Commenting on the HPCA cases, the CM said, “The Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association was given land worth crores by the state government to promote sports but the HPCA converted it into a company in violation of the law.”

Later, addressing a public meeting at Sandhol in Mandi district, the Chief Minister announced to open a government degree college at Sandhol and sanctioned Rs 5 crore for it.

The CM also sanctioned primary health centers for Ped and Tenglah besides asking the PWD to carry out survey of Kamlah-Torkhala and Tihra-Kamlah roads.

He said the state government was carrying out uniform development in every part of the state and health and educational institutions in remote area were being opened.

Shimla, December 9
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu today said the party would take up the issue of resolving problems being faced by common man, including delay in availability of subsidy on LPG cylinders and subsidised ration in fair price shops.

The HPCC chief addressed block-level workers from all over the state. "It is our priority to address the problems being faced by the public and we will take up these issues with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh so that people get timely delivery of subsidised cylinders as well as foodgrains," he said.

He said the party would urge the state government to increase the income limit from Rs 9,000 to Rs 20,000 to grant pension to the elderly, widow and handicapped persons. He added that this way many more people would be able to avail the benefit from the social security pension.

He assured people that the suggestions made by block observers would be taken into account and strategy to woo the electorate be chalked out on the basis of inputs received from the grassroot workers. He would convey the grievances of the party workers to the state government so that these problems were resolved, Sukhu added.

"The Congress will organise a mega rally in Hamirpur on December 25 to celebrate the first anniversary of the state government," the president said, adding that the party workers from across the state would attend this rally.

He said Congress committees at the panchayat level would be formed soon and all Block Congress Committees had been asked to submit the names of workers, who would be appointed in these committees, to the PCC by December 30.

"We will reshuffle those block observers who haven't attended any meeting in the blocks that were assigned to them," he said.

The meeting was attended by HPCC general secretary Harbhajan Singh Bhajji, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries Nand Lal, Sohan Lal and Rohit Thakur.

Bilaspur, December 9
Schemes like MGNREGA, RTI , RTE, National Health Mission, Food Security Act and cash subsidy will help the Congress in winning all four parliamentary seats in the state in the impending elections. This was stated by newly-appointed Congress spokesperson Sandip Sankhyayan and senior general secretary Gopal Sharma here on Saturday.

Both the leaders said the party was propagating the benefits of the schemes like skill development allowance, formation of panchayat-level committees under the Forest Rights Act and subsidies of hundreds of crores to provide cheaper electricity and ration among the people.

They said the party had been electrified at the booth level due to regular party meetings at mandal and district level. They said the activists were working to ensure victory in the elections. They said regular meetings had not only established a rapport between leaders and workers but also highlighted the issues those would decide the fate the party in the next elections.

Sandip Sankhyayan and Gopal Sharma welcomed the legalising of 150-sq metre land, encroached by the oustees here. They said the district Congress committee had urged the Chief Minister to reconsider the policy and revise it so that it covered the oustees who had been compelled to live in house-cum-shops here. 

Shimla, December 9
Promoters of the Jakhu aerial ropeway have been carrying on with the construction activity in the Richmond area of the town despite the directives of the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment and the state environment authorities to stop work immediately for want of environment clearance.

The Jakhu aerial ropeway project is being executed by Jagson International. The latest directives from the ministry has come at a time when the promoters were planning to throw open the ropeway around New Year.

Notwithstanding the delay in the completion of the project due to one problem after the other, the latest directives could mean further delay. “The directives for immediate stopping of work have been issued by the Director, Union Ministry of Environment and Forest, and we too asked them to stop the work again on November 5,” said SS Negi, Director, State Environment Department.

He said the directives had been issued under Section 5 of the Environment Protect on Act, 1986, by the ministry as the promoters had yet to obtain the environment clearance.

He added that he had also asked the HP Pollution Control Board (HPPCB) to take necessary action against the promoters for not abiding by the directives of the ministry. A fresh reminder was sent to the HPPCB to take necessary action for not abiding by the directives of the Central authorities.

Officials pointed out that they were under the impression that construction activity must have been stopped, following the directives of the Central authority. “If the promoters refuse to comply with the directives for stopping work, the State Pollution Control Board can disconnect their electricity connection,” said an official.

General Manager of Jagson International Rakesh Sharma said only mechanical work inside the structure was being undertaken. “We did receive the directives of the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment but the matter regarding the environment clearance has been resolved by our head office,” he said.

He, however, said the environment clearance had been obtained for the project.

If the promoters refuse to comply with the directives for stopping work, the HP Pollution Control Board can disconnect their electricity connection.
—An official

Shimla, December 9
The HP High Court has issued a notice to the state government on a petition alleging that the state had wrongly mutated 150 hectares of village common land in the name of private persons against rules to give undue benefit to big landlords in Haroli, Una.

While issuing the notice, a Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmed Mir and Justice Kuldip Singh directed the state to file its reply.

According to petitioners, earlier Una was a part of Punjab and the village common land as per the Punjab Village Common Land Regulation Act stood mutated in the name of gram panchayats in Una and later, the said village common land was mutated in the name of the state government as per the provisions of the Himachal Pradesh Village Common Land Vesting and Utilisation Act, 1974. All the residents of Haroli Gram Panchayat were using their “Bartandari Rights” over 150 hectares of land from the time of their predecessor.

It was further averred that later, the Himachal Act was amended and as per this, the state government issued a clarification to the Deputy Commissioner, Una, to mutate back the village common land in the names of private persons, whereas amendment does not provide so. Resultantly, the entire common land of Haroli has been transferred in the names of private persons.

It was further alleged that due to this action of the state, the petitioners and other inhabitants of the Haroli Gram Panchayat had been deprived from grazing their cattle, collection of fuel wood, etc.

The petitioner urged the court to direct the state government to protect the "Bartandari Rights" of the petitioners and other inhabitants of the gram panchayat over the land. 

Una, December 9
The Director General of Employment and Training (DGET), under the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment, has suspended all the training classes at the vocational rehabilitation centre (VRC), situated in Una, as it is in a dilapidated condition.

The state government and the Una district administration have reportedly continued to be insensitive to the pleas of the DGET over the ‘unsafe’ state of the building.

The VRC is one of the 22 such centres in the country and only one in the state, which caters to the vocational training needs of the people with disabilities (PWDs) from the hill state.

It got functional in 2005 amidst much fanfare in a temporary accommodation provided by the district administration.

An old building, which had ceased to function due to leaking roofs and crumbling walls of the women’s hostel, was handed over to the DGET for training the PWDs, with the condition that a suitable plot of land would soon be handed over to the DGET for constructing its own complex.

The VRC has been declared ‘unsafe’ by the Public Works Department since concrete keeps peeling off the ceilings and walls, dangerously exposing the structure.

Dattatreya Rai, Deputy Director, VRC, said despite repeated pleas by the DGET, state Additional Chief Secretary (Labour and Employment), Principal Secretary (Social Justice and Empowerment) and Labour Commissioner with the Una Deputy Commissioner, the building has not been repaired. He said keeping in view safety of the trainees, the DGET has suspended all the trainings here.

Rai said five vocational trades, including general electronics, automobile mechanics, dress making, general mechanics and computer applications were functional here and till date, 3,276 PWDs had been trained of which 1,017 had been rehabilitated into industries or income generation activities.

Rai said while all the other 21 VRCs had their own state of the art sprawling handicap friendly international level campuses, the Una VRC had been crying for a suitable plot of land for setting up a similar center here.

He said the DGET had adequate funds amounting to Rs 20 crore, but during the last eight years, after much dilly-dallying, a 32 kanal piece of land had been identified near Chanderlok colony in Una city. However, the process for transferring the said land to the department had not been initiated.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Abhishek Jain said he was not aware that the training of PWDs at the centre had been suspended. He also said that while the land had been identified for the construction of the VRC building, the case has to be routed to the government through the Divisional Commissioner, which would take some time. Meanwhile, the future of the VRC and its beneficiaries continues to be uncertain. 

Kullu, December 9
A sum of over Rs 18 crore has been spent on various development works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in villages of Kullu district.

This was stated by Karan Singh, Banjar MLA and District 20 Point Programme chairman, while attending a meeting at Devsadan in Dhalpur here today.

He said 89,236 job cards had been issued in the district and 30,984 families benefited from the same. He urged the officials to ensure that the under-privileged were benefited from government schemes. Kullu DC Rakesh Kanwar said the projects under the 20 Point Programme would be completed on a priority basis.

MLA Anni Khub Ram Anand, Kullu Zila Parishad president Hari Chand Sharma, Kullu ADM Vinay Singh, District Congress Committee president BS Thakur and other officers were present.

Shimla, December 9
As many as 18 candidates have intensified lobbying for the post of Vice-Chancellor of the newly established Himachal Pradesh Technical University, Hamirpur, which has been lying vacant since May. The post had been laying vacant since May last after then Vice-Chancellor Prof Shashi Dhiman vacated the post, sources said.

The charge of the university is with the Deputy Commissioner, Hamirpur, since then. The university was opened during the previous BJP regime.

There are over 42 engineering colleges, including two government engineering colleges at Sundernagar and Guma in Kotkhai in Shimla district affiliated to the technical university.

The state government has appointed a three-member selection committee headed by K Sanjya Murthy, Principal Secretary, Technical Education, who has yet to start the exercise. “The other expert members of the panel are Director, IIT, Mandi, and an industrialist,” the sources said. “The panel will shortlist three to four candidates for the post and recommend the list to the Governor, who is also the Chancellor of the university,” the sources said.

The university had received 18 applications for the post, as the last date ended on December 5. The panel would start the selection process soon, said university Registrar Manoj Kumar.

Palampur December 9
In the absence of a garbage treatment plant here, most of the water channels and local streams have turned into a garbage dump.

These channels are the major source of drinking water as the IPH Department supplies water from these.

The local Municipal Council and 12 adjoining panchayats have no provision for the scientific handling of garbage. Therefore, they have no alternative but to dump the garbage in the local water channels and forests.

Though the state government is conversant with the situation, no step has been taken for the disposal of garbage of the town. Heaps of garbage can be seen in panchayat areas.

Ghuggar, Sughar, Aima, Bundla, Lohana, Choki and Bindravan panchyats are the worst affected. In these areas, there is no one to remove garbage for months, with foul smell pervading these areas everytime.

However, in the municipal areas, where only 4,000 people live, the situation is better as the MC has resources to lift garbage daily. Despite repeated requests and public pressure, the state government has failed to include the 12 panchayats into the Municipal Council with a population of 42,000.

The local council was set up in 1955. Since then, its limits were never extended. Though there has been manifold increase in the population of the town, no plan was made to keep the town neat and clean.

Political differences among senior leaders have made the matter worse. Shanta Kumar, who belongs to the town, remained the Chief Minister twice but never bothered to extend the MC limits or grant district status to the town.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has shown little interest in the development of the town because of his difference with the local MLA and who is also the Speaker of the state Assembly. Though the Chief Minister has promised to extend the MC limits during the last Assembly elections, he has not fulfilled his promise, causing a great inconvenience to local residents.

Solan, December 9
With five drugs from as many as three pharmaceutical firms figuring in the monthly list of the national drug alert issued by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) today, a question mark has been raised over their manufacturing standards.

These drugs include Cipro 500-mg tablets, manufactured by Kala Amb-based Vardhman Labs, which have been found to be substandard by the Tripura government. The unit was illegally manufacturing drugs after the expiry of its licence in 2009 and its nefarious operations were unearthed by the drug control administration of the state during a raid in September. The owners of the firm are still at large, though the police had registered a case of cheating and forgery against them.

Brooks Lab, Kishenpura, in Baddi is the other firm whose Depent 40-mg tablet has failed to meet the standards in Hyderabad.

The most surprising fact was the occurrence of three batches of Intacal-D tablet of a single drug manufacturing firm, BHC Lab, Baddi, which were found substandard by the Kolkata-based Central Drug Testing Laboratory.

Of the 15 drugs declared substandard by various drug control regimes in various states, four pertain to Himachal and the DCGI has issued an alert for immediate withdrawal of these batches from the market.

Drug Controller Navneet Marwaha said the action, including cancellation of product approval and suspension of the licence, was taken depending on the level of negligence or substandard drug content detected in such cases.

He said since the drug inspectors concerned already directed the firms to withdraw batches of such substandard drugs from the market, further action like initiating prosecution would be taken, if the irregularity was severe.

Solan, December 9
Substandard repair work undertaken on the Dharampur-Sanawar Road despite investing Rs 1.37 crore on a 7-km stretch has been exposed with the road developing potholes at several places.

Though the work was completed a few months ago, the shoddy work has been exposed with the developing of potholes.

The wearing off the road began about two months ago and by now several large stretches of the road, especially near Bandkhor and Moti Chona, had developed large potholes where driving had become risky, especially for two wheelers.

To make the matters worse, labourers of the Public Works Department (PWD) were now covering the potholes with soil and were trying to level the formative width with carriageway, where big gaps had developed. The experiment would, however, worsen the condition of the road right after the first winter showers, where mud would lead to slush.

MG Thakur, Executive Engineer, PWD, said since red soil, which was laid earlier had a shorter life span, they were trying to lay other soil in the shady areas where damage was more. He said they would soon get the material examined from a lab to test its load-bearing capacity.

He said since the weather was adverse with cold conditions having set in to undertake proper repair by laying black top, they could not direct the contractor to undertake any repair work, though he agreed that the road was under a guarantee period.

The PWD staff had conducted another unsuccessful experiment a few days ago to repair the road when they had laid dry cut stones immersed in little bitumen at Bandkhor, but since there was nothing to bind this material, it failed to serve any purpose.

The department had not even erected a board displaying the amount spent and work executed on this road, though it was a standard norm.

Shimla, December 9
Fire threat looms large over old ramshackle buildings, including heritage buildings and 258 old houses declared unsafe by the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) in the capital city, which has already reported five incidents of accidental fire this year.“Fire threat increases in winters, when a large number of houses, offices, hotels and hospitals use electric and gas heaters as old houses and hospitals are built of wood,” fire officials said.

Fire inspection of key buildings, including the Rashtrapati Niwas, High Court, SDA Complex, Indira Gandhi Medical College, HP Secretariat, Metropol (MLA Hostel) and Railway Board Building, found certain shortcomings and brought these to the notice of nodal officers of fire preventive committees set up in each building. Even in the Rashtrapati Niwas, fire extinguishers were not refilled, revealed the sources.

The inspection was carried in July and October and there was no compliance report referred to the Chief Fire Officer, the sources said.Certain hospitals like Ripon and Lady Reading and various government offices do not refill fire extinguishers, said fire men. “They take fire safety precautions like repairing faulty electric supplies and misuse of heaters even within the SMC office on The Ridge and The Mall for a ride,” revealed insiders.

“Fire inspection has detected that fire monitoring is not proper even in the heritage buildings as it is not being monitored on a day-to-day basis as per fire safety rules notified by the Town and Country Planning Department. Staff is not sufficient to meet fire exigency and it is not possible to inspect each building every day,” said fire officials.

Moreover, over 29 hydrants in the city was out of order when the fire inspection was carried out a few months ago, though the SMC claimed that all the fire hydrants were working and had been repaired. “Besides, there are 258 old houses in a dilapidated condition endangering lives of people in commercial hubs like the Lower Bazaar, Middle Bazaar, Jakhu, Chaura Maidan, Lakkar Bazaar, Shankli, Chota Shimla, parts of Sanjauli and other isolated localities,” the firemen said.

“Fire threat has increased as dry leaves and weeds surround ramshackle houses,” the locals said.The Vice Regal Lodge (India Institute of Advanced Studies), Rothney Castle, Railway Board Building, Gaiety Theatre, Gorton Castle and CTO Building are architectural heritage of Shimla. Their fire safety measures should be monitored daily, said architects.KC Chauhan, chief architecture planner, SMC, said they had informed the fire wing to inspect heritage buildings and bring out the shortcomings to its notice.

Shimla, December 9
Increasing involvement of “unidentified Nepalese migrant labourers”, arguably a mainstay of Himachal’s horticulture industry, in cold-blooded murder of hapless elderly, including women in the region, has brought to light the fact that the police remain clueless as employers care two hoots about registering them in the nearby police station, which is yet to be made mandatory by the government.Facts speak for themselves.

Out of 520 Proclaimed Offenders (POs) declared by the courts, 170 POs are Nepalese and 10 per cent of them are involved in criminal offences including murders, said police officers.

The murder of Chemkhi Devi, 58, by two Nepalese labourers on November 26 at Himri village in Kotkhai apple belt, has brought to the fore a marked lack of verification and identification of labourers who work in orchards or as domestic help in the region. The accused Hari allegedly strangulated Chamkhi Devi to death as he wanted Rs 5,000 from her, the police said.

Hari was caught by the police after 10 days when he had gone to meet his woman friend at Rohru yesterday and was about to leave for Nepal. The victim family had no photo, address and identity proof of Hari despite he having worked with them earlier.The case is not an isolated one. Five Nepalese stopped a truck from Rohru near Kala Amb in Sirmaur, boarded it, killed the driver and threw his body into a gorge early this year. The police caught all the accused at Rampur, sources said.

The four Nepalese accused, who worked as labourers, killed a caretaker of Bandra Devta in Rohru early this year and decamped with the idol. The police caught them when they were trying to smuggle the idol outside the state.The cold-blooded murder of senior lawyer Chabil Das by his domestic help, a Nepalese, is yet to be solved as the accused fled to Nepal - India has no extradition treaty with Nepal that make the police fend for itself. The police remained clueless as he was not registered at the police station.

"The farmers avoid registration as Nepalese are scared of police hassles and it is difficult to get labour these days," said Balbir Chajta, an orchardist from Jubbal.

“Once the registration is made mandatory, the problem can be addressed," he added.The main problem is that most of the migrant labourers remain anonymous. The employers including orchardists do not verify their identity, keep their photos and addresses and when the crime is committed, it is very difficult to trace them, said Abhishek Dular, SP, Shimla district. They should register the migrant labourers with the nearby police station, but almost nobody follows this procedure, he observed.

More than 1 lakh migrant labourers from Nepal come to the state every season as they have assumed expertise in apple-plucking, local transport, packing and hard labour over the years. Police record showed they are used as couriers in hashish smuggling in Kullu and Mandi and are involved in illicit brewing of liquor in the hills.

“These are isolated instances but each farmer should at least carry the labourer's photos or address to deal with any eventuality," said Rakesh Singha, president, HP apple growers association. “We can sensitise orchardists to verify their identity as most of the households have single families and the elderly are vulnerable targets,” he added.

Labour officials said they register labourers employed in the projects and factories, not the seasonal migrant labourers. The onus is on the employer, they added.

Una, December 9
Industry Minister Mukesh Agnihotri directed government officials to redress complaints regarding the selection of below poverty line (BPL) beneficiaries on priority. Presiding over a meeting of the district grievances redressal committee at Bachat Bhawan, he said since the selection of BPL families was being done by panchayats, a number of complaints had come up.

The minister said officers should ensure that right beneficiaries were selected for poverty alleviation programmes.

He advised the representatives of the panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) to rise above the petty politics. Agnihotri said while the number of BPL beneficiaries in the district was about 92,000, the district Food and Civil Supplies Department had inadvertently distributed 1.25 lakh cards among panchayats.

Responding to a question on deviations from proposed work schedule on the ongoing World Bank funded 48-km-long Mehatpur-Mubarikpur state highway project in Una , Agnihotri directed the highway authorities to stick to the provisions and not to extend undue benefit to any individual. He informed that eight bridges between Una and Mehatpur would be constructed at a cost of Rs 75 crore.

The industry minister took a tough stance against Saber Paper Mills whose promoters had purchased a plot few years ago in Tahliwal industrial unit from a local resident for Rs 15 lakh but reportedly connived with Revenue Department officials to enhance the cost of the land in the registration papers to Rs 7.5 crore. Agnihotri said on the basis of the registration papers, the mill management secured a bank loan of Rs 267 crore.

Now, he said the management had abandoned the unit without paying salaries to the employees.

The minister said the erring officers would be brought to the book. He further directed the Excise and Taxation Department to ensure that the management did not remove any machinery from the unit without settling the employees' dues.

Sundernagar, December 9
A delegation of representatives of the Chambi gram panchayat, along with other farmers organisation of the town, met Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh during his visit to the town.

They demanded that the MoU signed by the government in 1995 with Harish Cement Ltd to set up a cement plant near here be scrapped and alternatively some eco-friendly industry should be set up.

The delegation demanded that the mining lease granted to the firm should be cancelled as no forest clearance had been accorded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to transfer around 6,000 bighas of land which had been transferred in favour of a cement project keeping aside the provisions of law. They further welcomed the government decision to cancel leases of forest land in the state and demanded that the lease granted to the cement project should be cancelled and the officials concerned be brought to book.

It was also demanded that Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act be withdrawn as the development of farmers had stopped due to it. Even they could not seek any financial assistance for development from various financial institutions.

They were not allowed to raise poly houses as per the scheme of the government on their land.

The Green Bench of the HP High Court had already quashed various environment clearances and the land acquisition notification of the project in December 2010.

The then BJP government had wrongly given permission to purchase the land against the provisions of law at low prices, causing a loss of revenue in crores to the HP government.

Palampur, December 9
Senior BJP leader and MP Shanta Kumar in a press statement issued here today stated that the results of the Assembly elections had clearly indicated that people had rejected the Congress.

He said the results were a verdict against rampant corruption and anti-people policies of the UPA government at the Centre. "The election results show that the voters have rejected the policies and programmes of the Congress, which were launched to woo the voters," he said .

He added that in the Indian politics, people elect only those who perform.

Shanta Kumar said the results had pointed towards the fact that the NDA was going to sweep the 2014 parliamentary polls under the leadership of Modi. He congratulated all BJP leaders and workers for the impressive victory.

Bilaspur, December 9
A seven-day medical camp by Government Medical College, Tanda, will be held at Ghumarwin from December 17 to 23.

This was stated by Chief Parliamentary Secretary Rajesh Dharmani while addressing a public meeting on the occasion of the “bhoomi poojan” of the Rs 1.81-crore Silha-Naina road at Luharwin, near Ghumarwin, near here, on Saturday.

He said medicines, tests and surgical operations by specialist surgeons would be performed free of cost.

Dharmani said this road would be metalled within the next year and further linked with Mehran.

He said roads were the lifelines of any area and essential for the faster development of any region.

He told IPH officials and field staff to ensure supply of regular clean drinking water and ensure that regular chlorination of water in storage tanks was done without fail.

He said drinking water problem of several villages of the area would be solved soon as the Silha-Nain drinking water supply scheme would be soon upgraded.

He said the government had now increased social security pension to Rs 500 per month from Rs 450 and today 21,344 elderly people, widows and differently abled persons were getting advantage of this scheme here in the district.

He said the government had also increased house construction subsidy from Rs 48,000 to Rs 75,000 for the poor families.

Kullu, December 9
The district administration has stepped in to regulate the prices of essential commodities and fruits and vegetables. Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kanwar fixed the maximum profit margins on essential commodities for wholesale and retail markets.

In a notification issued under the HP Hoarding and Profiteering Prevention Order, 1977, a profit margin from 2 to 15 per cent for various essential commodities had been fixed.

He said special flying squads would keep vigil on the markets.— OC

Bilaspur , December 9
The Himachal Pradesh State NGOs Federation has urged the government to reconsider its recruitment policy.

Addressing mediapersons here today, federation executive committee state president Ram Singh said no post had been filled on retirement of employees and even after their death, and during the Past 10 years, at least 50 per cent of the employees had retired and no appointment had been made to replace the posts vacated by them.

There were several offices where the workload had increased manifold due to several new schemes, making things worse for alredy working employees.

He said if the present recruitment policy continued, there was all likelihood that during the next 10 years, there would be no employee to run these offices due to retirement of thousands of employees in this offices every month.

The federation demanded that the government should decide to fill half of the vacant posts, if not all, and ensure that work did not affect due to staff shortage in the offices.

Shimla, December 9
The Students Central Association (SCA) yesterday demanded that university authorities should fix responsibility in cases where students could not take up examinations due to unavailability of roll numbers and tender allotted to a firm for printing detailed marksheets and degrees.

Among other things, the SCA also demanded that the university should issue the detailed marksheet and degree and diploma certificate only for the consolidated marksheets rather than for all classes.

The office-bearers of the Students Central Associationsubmitted their memorandum to the university. They also met the Registrar, Dean of Studies and Students Welfare over the issue.

SCA president Rajan Harta and secretary Piyush Sewal demanded that the university should fix responsibility in cases where students could not take up the examinations due to the non-availability of roll numbers, study materials and centres. 

Nahan, December 9
Dr Rajiv Bindal, former Health Minister and MLA from Nahan, has urged Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to reconsider the decision of shifting a fire brigade station from Kala Amb to some other place.

In a letter to the Chief Minister, the Nahan MLA said the fire-fighting station was opened by the previous BJP government, which was benefiting residents of adjoining 20 panchayats during different emergencies.

He said under such circumstances, it would be unjust to shift the fire-fighting station from the Kala Amb industrial area and the state government should review this decision.

Others who voiced concern for this issue included Deendayal Verma, president, BJP Nahan Mandal, state executive member Pratibha Kaushik, Rekha Tommar, Om Prakash Saini and Saneh Kumar Garg.

Una, December 9
The Una branch of State Bank of India (SBI) distributed cheques amounting to Rs 1.06 lakh among 31 beneficiaries under its Girl Child Adoption Scholarship Scheme today. The programme is being implemented by the Himotkarsh Parishad, a voluntary organisation in the region, on the behalf of the bank .

A workshop on female foeticide was also held on the occasion. Earlier, Himotkarsh chairman Kanwar Hari Singh elaborated on the activities of the organisation. He told about the women’s college and a vocational training institute run by the parishad. — OC

Kullu, December 9
With the efforts of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), now transportation will continue till December 15 on the 13,050-feet-high Rohtang pass. This was confirmed by AK Anthony, Commanding Officer 70R C C.

This news has spread a wave of happiness among Lahaul residents while the work on the north face of the Rothang tunnel would get some acceleration.

Earlier, the transportation use to come to a halt after November 15, but this time due to the efforts of the BRO even Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) buses are plying on the Lahaul to Kullu rout. Lahaul and Spiti Deputy Commissioner Beer Singh Thakur confirmed that the BRO had restored Keylong, Udaipur, Darcha and Sissu roads during last winter and had assisted in transportation and providing medical facilities to the needy in winter.