10,000 miners
rendered jobless
SHIMLA, Aug 7 — At least 10,000 persons have been thrown out of job because of mine operators in Sirmour district stopping the extraction of limestone from their mines to protest against the imposition of 100 per cent sales tax on the material by the state government.

10,000 miners rendered jobless
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Aug 7 — At least 10,000 persons have been thrown out of job because of mine operators in Sirmour district stopping the extraction of limestone from their mines to protest against the imposition of 100 per cent sales tax on the material by the state government.

Extraction has been stopped in all the 62 limestone rich-mines in the Sataun area which supplies raw material to UP, Haryana and Bihar.

The president of the Sirmour Mine Operators Association, Mr Zalam Singh, said that the limestone trade had been rendered uneconomical with the state government increasing the sales tax to 100 per cent per tonne from the existing 8 per cent on a royalty of Rs 32 per tonne. This has thrown the limestone of the area out of competition with that of Haryana and UP.

He said that about 10,000 persons related with limestone mining have been rendered jobless with the indefinite strike of the operators. The district earlier faced unemployment because of disease in the ginger crop and now the limestone mining has also become uneconomical.

Mr Zalam Singh said that with the increase in sales tax,the operators shall have to pay Rs 32 per tonne against the earlier Rs 2.56 on non-LD limestone and Rs 50 against the earlier Rs 4 per tonne on LD grade limestone. The licencees of mines will not be able to compete with those of the neighbouring Haryana and Rajasthan where the taxes were very low.

Besides this, an additional tax of 25 per cent per tonne is also being charged for limestone. This tax is not imposed in any other state.

He demanded that the government should immediately withdraw the irrational increase of sales tax. The miners had met the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, protesting against the increase, but nothing was done despite his assurance that the decision would be reviewed, he added.

Armed men kidnap two
From Our Correspondent

KULU, Aug 7 — Five armed persons reportedly in J&K police uniform, picked up two persons from inner Akhara Bazar here at 5 a.m. today. They forcibly entered a house where some Kashmiri Muslims have been residing for the past six months and asked the residents to get into their rooms.

The owner of the house said the persons said they were J&K police personnel. One of them was an ASI and others were wearing black uniform, he said. Residents of the area got panicky as the local police came at only 11 a.m.

The Deputy Superintendent of Police said he was unaware of any J&K police party

Local residents confirmed that two persons, named Ganni and Ismael, were taken away by the uniformed squade.

Eight injured in group clash
From Our Correspondent

SOLAN, Aug 7 — Shopkeepers observed a bandh and traffic was blocked on the Solan-Arki highway for over two hours today following a clash between two groups at Kunihar, about 35 km from here.

A truck, a jeep and a scooter were set on fire and eight persons were injured in the incident.

A mob of over 500 persons sat in dharna in front of the Kunihar Police station, demanding arrest of the "outsiders", involved in the incident.

The trouble started when one Rajesh, an ex-employee of a wine contractor, allegedly exchanged some hot words with his former employer and his staff at the wine vend, located in the main bazar. The contractor's men were reportedly seen rushing in a jeep towards Rajesh, who left in a Maruti van after the altercation. They allegedly rammed their vehicle into a jeep and later beat Rajesh. This infuriated local people as Rajesh belonged to a nearby village.

A mob soon gathered and targetted contractor's men, resulting in a free-for-all, in which sharp-edged weapons, sticks and brickbats were used.

The SDM, Arki, and DSP (headquarters) rushed to Kunihar after receiving the report about the incident.

Case against engineer
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Aug 7 — The enforcement police has registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act against an executive engineer of the Shimla Development Authority who allegedly awarded work to a contractor in violation of the rules and without inviting tenders. The beneficiary contractor had also been booked.

Giving details, a spokesman of the department said that the contractor, who had secured building work estimated to cost Rs 7.81 lakh in block 20 of the Kasumpti zonal centre in January 1995, submitted an application to the Chief Administrator that he should also be awarded the work in the adjoining block 21 on the same terms and conditions. The Chief Administrator accepted his request and on March 31, 1995, the executive engineer concerned awarded works estimated to cost Rs 16.14 lakh to him without inviting tenders contrary to rules.

Apple trees axed in caste rivalry
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Aug 8 — In a bizarre case of caste rivalry, two members of the Rajput community allegedly axed 40 apple trees in an orchard owned by a Scheduled Caste family in Khamadi village of Nankheri tehsil.

According to Mr Singhu Ram, the owner of the orchard, a few members of the Rajput community had been humiliating him and his family for long and on July 21, Mr Mohan Lal along with Mr Mehar Singh and Mr Ram Singh trees entered his land and axed the apple bearing fruit.

In a complaint to Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, he alleged that the Station House Officer of Rampur police station had not taken appropriate action on the FIR lodged by him. No case had been registered under the relevant sections of the Prevention of Atrocities on Scheduled Castes Act. The culprits, who were moving around freely, were threatening him with dire consequences, he said.

He also urged the Chief Minister to provide security to his family as the culprits possessed lincensed weapons.

Mr A.N. Sharma, Superintendent of Police, when contacted, said he had deputed a Deputy Superintendent of Police to investigate the case. He said if a case of atrocities on Scheduled Castes was made out, action would be taken under the relevant law.

HP forestry graduates face bleak future
By Manjeet Sehgal Warrior

NAUNI (Solan): More than 204 forestry graduates from Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry are facing a bleak future following the parallel system of forestry education and because of the wrong policies of the previous government.

President of Himachal Pradesh Forestry Students Association (HPFSA) Sandeep Kumar, who is also a senior vice-president of the state unit of the NSUI, has criticised the previous government for not safeguarding the interests of the forestry graduates. He says the Congress government did not implement the decision which was arrived at a high-level committee meeting chaired by the then Chief Secretary, Mr A.N. Vidyarthi. Neither the recruitment and promotion rules of the state Forest Department were amended nor were the forestry graduates given direct appointment as range officers in the department. The agreement which was signed on March 10, 1996, between the Vice-Chancellor and the HPFSA was also not implemented in principle.

The first BSc forestry course was passed out by 20 students in 1989. The students at the time of admission were told that they would be given direct appointment as divisional forest officers (DFOs), but were disappointed when the department did not show any interest. This agitated the forestry students. The agitation came to an end on March 6, 1995, following the government decision to amend the recruitment and promotion rules to appoint only forestry graduates as range officers. It was also decided to appoint senior forest officers as Dean of Forestry College.

Later the government, due to certain manipulations, changed its stand and decided to fill 70 per cent posts of rangers from among forestry graduates. This was not acceptable to the forestry graduates due to two reasons. One, the number of posts to be filled after every five or seven years were between six to seven whereas, the number of graduates passing out every year is 20. For instance, the posts filled up in 1990 and 1996 were eight and six, respectively. Secondly, the forestry graduates were being treated at par with the plus two students and were asked to undergo a two-year professional training at Haldwani.

In January 1996, however, the basic qualification for direct recruitment as rangers was elevated from plus two to BSc, but again the forestry graduates, who are taught forestry education for four years, were asked to compete openly with the general science graduates. Following this discrimination, forestry graduates boycotted the recruitment test and resorted to "fast till death" for 11 consecutive days, but the government did not change its stand.

Thereafter, on March 10, 1996, the agreement signed between the Vice-Chancellor, Prof L.R. Verma, and HPFSA representatives contained that the decision to make 70 per cent direct recruitment from forestry graduates would be reviewed at the initiative of the Vice-Chancellor. Sadly, the university authorities even after two years neither initiated the talks to resolve the issue nor reserved the post of Dean, College of Forestry, for senior forest officers.

Though the university has produced over 250 forestry graduates since 1989, not even a single graduate has been assured employment in the state Forest Department. Interestingly enough, 46 candidates who graduated from this university were directly recruited as range officers by the J and K Government. "We have been cheated in the name of professional education. While other professional graduates such as medical and engineering disciplines get right jobs, we are being discriminated against in our home state by ignoring our professional background", says a forestry graduate.

A majority of the forestry graduates believe that the root cause of their suffering is a professional tussle going between the forest officers and the university academicians. According to confirmed sources, senior forest officers of Forest Department are not ready to treat the standard of education being imparted by the university at par with the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun.

While the university authorities boast of a high academic and scientific standard, the forest officers believe it lacks practical approach which in principle is more important than the academic approach. They say, "The curriculum of forestry education adopted by Dr Y.S. Parmar University has been ranked as one of the best curriculums of the world by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) which also controls the FRI, Dehradun. We are suffering because of this parallel system of education. The state Forest Department only considers the FRI graduates worth appointment. The lackadaisical attitude of this department has virtually shattered our dreams."