HP gears up to meet militants' threat
DHARAMSALA, Dec 19 — With intelligence reports hinting at militants striking in Chamba before snowfall the state government has started providing prefabricated huts, at police posts in higher reaches.

Manner of paying compensation resented
SHIMLA, Dec 19 — Mrs Asha Kumari, a general secretary of the pradesh Congress committee, alleged some Thein Dam oustees had been defrauded of large amounts in connivance with the revenue staff and disapproved of the manner in which compensation is being paid to oustees

Out-of-turn promotions opposed
HAMIRPUR, Dec 19 — The Himachal Pradesh Power Board Junior Engineers Sangh has opposed the decision of the state power board authorities to give promotion to junior engineers working in the remote and inaccessible areas of the state on an out-of-turn basis.

Drive against leprosy in Mandi
MANDI, Dec 19 — An ambitious plan has been drawn up for eradication of leprosy in the district. Health officials will conduct a door-to-door survey for identifying the persons afflicted with the disease.

Gaddis 'denied' quota
KULU, Dec 19 — Mr Trilok Kapoor, president of the Himachal Gaddi Union, has accused the Congress of denying the community in new Himachal of Scheduled Tribe status.

Trained patwaris wait for jobs
THEOG, Dec 19 — Even after 16 month-patwari training, 178 persons are yet to get the promised jobs.

HP gears up to meet militants' threat
From Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, Dec 19 — With intelligence reports hinting at militants striking in Chamba before snowfall the state government has started providing prefabricated huts, at police posts in higher reaches.

Though the government has decided that this year the posts at the higher reaches would not be shifted down, as has been the practice in the past, but unless the police personnel are provided with proper clothing and other facilities to brave the severe winters, they would be compelled to move down.

The move to provide the prefabricated huts, each one of which will cost around Rs 2 lakh, at the posts located at the higher reaches will definitely be a big comfort to the police personnel. The posts where these huts shall be provided have already been identified and as such all posts at the higher reaches shall be provided with it. Each one of these huts will be able to accommodate over 12 persons.

Another decision that the government is likely to take to tackle militancy effectively, is to provide three weapons each to every Village Defence Committee (VDC). So far 180 VDCs have been formed in villages, under threat from militancy. Though training has been given to the VDC members to handle weapons, but in most cases people do not own weapons nor are they financially sound to buy them. As such the move to provide weapons to the VDCs will definitely make them much more effective and instil confidence amongst the people.

The Superintendent of Police, Chamba, Mr Atul Verma, said that orders had already been placed for the winter clothing, winter shoes, search lights and other things required by the forces. "Unless and until there are some extreme unforeseen conditions, the posts will continue at the higher reaches, for which ration and heating arrangements have already been made", said Mr Verma. He added that planning had been done for the entire winter season, especially for high altitude areas falling in the Kehar and the Tissa sectors.

The district administration is in the process of issuing arms licences to all those who have applied for it. Though more than 4000 applications had been received for seeking licence so far about 800 persons have been granted permission to keep a weapon. Since there are five wildlife sanctuaries in Chamba district, permission has to be sought from the Wildlife Department in areas falling under the sanctuary area.

To make the VDCs more effective, the government has also decided to have one SPO per VDC. At present there are 70 SPOs in the villages under threat from the militants. The VDCs are covering 34 panchayats and have a total enrolment of 1,820 out of which 1,062 have been imparted training. The training of the VDC members has already been completed in the Salooni and the Churah areas.

Within a week or 10 days one battalion of the CRPF, will also be deployed in the Chamba area. Apart from this there is the ITBP, IRB and the Himachal Police, guarding the 167-kilometre border that Himachal shares with the militancy hit state of Jammu and Kashmir. The forces have been keeping complete vigil ever since there have been reports that 16 militants from J and K had infiltrated into the Chamba areas.

Manner of paying compensation to oustees resented
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Dec 19 — Mrs Asha Kumari, a general secretary of the pradesh Congress committee, has disapproved of the manner in which compensation is being paid to Thein Dam oustees of Chamba district and alleged some oustees had been defrauded of large amounts in connivance with the revenue staff. She also demanded an enquiry into the matter.

In a statement here yesterday she said strangely enough payments were made by cheques to the residents of Khairi village after the office hours from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Moreover, bank officials were also present with cash to encash the cheques which provided ample scope for corruption.

She demanded that in future the SDM concerned must hand over post-dated cheques personally to the oustees so that these could not be encashed at least for a week so that corrupt elements could not defraud them.

She also alleged that the names of oustees were being sponsored for employment arbitrarily. She demanded that the list of sponsored candidates be displayed prominently at the office of the SDM and the patwar ghar or panchayat ghar concerned. This would go a long way in ensuring that candidates were sponsored from amongst the oustees only.

She said that displacement allowance should be paid to oustees immediately without any discrimination as the families were expected to move out from the dam area by February, 1999. The amount payable should also be made known publicly to avoid any disputes later.

Fake certificate racket found
From Our Correspondent

SHIMLA, Dec 19 — As many as 31 students with fake plus two certificates from Bihar and Gaziabad have been identified by Government College, Sanjauli.

According to Mr S.C. Rai, Director of Education, Himachal Pradesh, special teams from Shimla were sent to East Champaran district of Bihar and the CBSE in Delhi.

The Secretary, Education, Bihar, when contacted ordered an inquiry. It was found that the certificates were fake.

Some teachers, talking on the condition of anonymity, informed that the racket was going on from the past some years and a "private college" in the vicinity was issuing these certificates. A plus two science certificate was being sold for Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000. The involvement of college teachers could not be ruled out, they said.

Out-of-turn promotions opposed
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, Dec 19 — The Himachal Pradesh Power Board Junior Engineers Sangh has opposed the decision of the state power board authorities to give promotion to junior engineers working in the remote and inaccessible areas of the state on an out-of-turn basis.

Mr D.S. Dhatwalia, general secretary of the sangh, said in a statement here yesterday that the decision would affect those junior engineers who had been awaiting promotion since 1971. While JEs recruited in the board after 1974 were being given out-of-turn promotions, others recruited earlier were facing stagnation. The association had apprised the board management that it was opposed to promoting junior persons, ignoring the claims of senior ones.

He said if justice was not given to senior JEs, the association would be compelled to launch a stir.

Drive against leprosy in Mandi
From Our Correspondent

MANDI, Dec 19 — An ambitious plan has been drawn up for eradication of leprosy in the district. Health officials will conduct a door-to-door survey for identifying the persons afflicted with the disease. All treatment expenses will be borne by the government.

Mr Prabodh Saxena, Deputy Commissioner, who also heads the leprosy eradication committee, said over 600 trained health workers would spearhead the campaign. He urged the people to cooperate with health workers for complete elimination of leprosy.

There were only 58 leprosy patients in the district who were being treated. A sum of Rs 7.26 lakh had been allocated this year for the purpose.

A vigorous drive for the eradication of tuberculosis has also been launched. As many as 232 medical and health officials had been imparted special training in this connection.

TB units had been set up at Mandi, Jogindernagar, Karsog and Sarkaghat. There were about 3,500 registered TB patients in the district. Non-government organisations were also being involved in the TB eradication programme.

Gaddis 'denied' quota
From Our Correspondent

KULU, Dec 19 — Mr Trilok Kapoor, president of the Himachal Gaddi Union, has accused the Congress of denying the community in new Himachal of Scheduled Tribe status.

In a press statement issued here, he said after the reorganisation of states the Gaddi community settled in areas of new Himachal were deprived of the Scheduled Tribe quota whereas those in old Himachal were still enjoying the benefit.

Mr Kapoor alleged that at the organisational level, too, the Congress had been ignoring the Gaddis.

Trained patwaris wait for jobs
From Our Correspondent

THEOG, Dec 19 — Even after 16 month-patwari training 178 persons are yet to get the promised jobs. These trained patwaris had also sat on a 10-day fast. They say that a number of patwari posts in the Settlement Department were lying vacant.