P R A D E S H
Monday, October 12, 1998
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H I M A C H A L P R A D E S H |
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Monday, October 12, 1998 |
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Ministers given portfolios SHIMLA, Oct 11 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, the Chief Minister, today allocated portfolios to the seven new ministers, who were sworn in two days ago. Trauma centres for all |
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Govt policies blamed for low apple
price SHIMLA, Oct 11 — The Himachal Pradesh Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association has blamed the wrong marketing policy for the low prices of apples this season. HVC claims
Baijnath seat Dipti's
body found Naik
held for duping youths |
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Ministers given portfolios SHIMLA, Oct 11 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, the Chief Minister, today allocated portfolios to the seven new ministers, who were sworn in two days ago. The Chief Minister did not touch the portfolios of any of the ministers. He shed some of the portfolios held by him, but retained about a half a dozen important ones, including power and tourism. Each minister of state has been given independent charge of at least one portfolio and attached with cabinet minister for other portfolios. Mr Mohinder Singh of the Himachal Vikas Congress has emerged as the most powerful minister after the Chief Minister. He holds the most important portfolio of Public Works, besides Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Excise and Taxation. Mr Roop Das Kashyap, who was elevated from Chief Parliamentary Secretary to a Minister of State, will continue to hold the independent charge of Urban Development and Housing. He has been attached to the Food and Supplies Minister for Social and Women Welfare Department. The following is the complete list of portfolios held by Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State. Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal (Chief Minister) — General Administration, Finance, Home, Personnel MPP and Power, Tourism and all other departments not allocated. Cabinet ministers:
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Trauma centres for all HP
hospitals HAMIRPUR, October 11— The Himachal Government is trying to set up trauma centres in all district hospitals of the state in a phased manner. This was stated here today by Dr Dharam Pal Sharma, Director, Health Services, while presiding over the seventh annual conference of the Himachal chapter of the Indian Orthopaedic Association. He said in Himachal nearly 400 accidents took place every year claiming 500 lives and injuring 1,500 persons. Under such circumstances, the duties of the orthopaedist increased manifold as more than 50 per cent of the poly-trauma cases died before they were admitted to hospitals. Dr Sharma said there were only 34 orthopaedists in various hospitals of the state and efforts were on to increase their number. Dr L.R. Verma, president of the Himachal unit of the association welcomed the guests and said the association was conscious of its responsibilities towards the poly-trauma patients. He said, industrialisation had brought in a need for mechanised environment. The result, India had the highest accident rate in the world, may it be due to negligent driving, drug addiction, lack of traffic rules or bad condition of the roads. He said in India one
person dies after every 12 minutes and 120 got injured.
Out of the injured, 20 to 30 per cent were seriously
injured and out of these about 30 per cent got disabled
for life. He said trauma remained number one killer in
the below 40 age group. |
Milky route to prosperity SHIMLA, Oct 11 — The success of the milk cooperative movement has put Chanalag, a village in the interior of Pachhad tehsil, on the road to prosperity. The remote village, where residents had come to accept poverty as "destiny", is today buzzing with economic activity, thanks to the efforts of the Dr Y.S. Parmar Milk Cooperative Society which has changed the entire complexion of the village over the past 15 years. Chanalag has not been the only village where milk cooperatives have transformed the life of people. There are scores of other villages which had taken the "milky route" to prosperity. Today there are 218 village milk cooperative societies in Himachal Pradesh with a membership of 17,223 and almost all of them are earning profits. The districts of Mandi and Sirmaur have been the trailblazers with the highest number of 85 and 55 societies, respectively. In fact, out of the total of 12 districts only Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti did not have any milk cooperative societies. It is worth mentioning that there are 25 exclusively women's cooperative societies, indicating significant participation of the fair sex in the movement. The credit for the success of village cooperative societies largely goes to the state milk federation, the nodal agency for development, promotion and extension of milk cooperative societies set up in 1980. The federation has been successful in eliminating middlemen in the marketing of milk to a great extent. It has not only ensured remunerative prices to farmers but also made quality milk available to consumers at comparatively low rates. Right from the registration of milk societies to the procurement of milk, the federation is performing multi-faceted functions. Every member farmer of a village milk cooperative society has been issued a passbook on which the quality and quantity of milk offered is entered daily after sample testing and measure by the secretary of the society at the collection centre. Milk is tested for fat and solid not fat (SNF) contents and the rate is determined accordingly from a minimum of Rs 4.80 to Rs 11.09 per litre. Testing material is provided free of cost to every society by the federation. The milk collected at various centres by the respective societies is taken to chilling plants and processing units. There are 22 chilling centres and three processing plants at Totu in Shimla, Chakkar in Mandi and Dhagwar in Kangra. After processing, milk and milk products are marketed by the federation through its retail sales depots as well as other market outlet on a commission basis. During 1997-98 it procured 56,80,725 litres of milk at an average rate of Rs 6.50 per litre and sold 91,43,693 litres of milk at Rs 10.50 and Rs 11.50 per litre depending on the value of contents. The federation collects every single drop of milk that the societies offer irrespective of demand in the market to ensure their economic well-being. The surplus milk is sold to the national milk grid under an agreement. Last year 15,77,057 litres of milk was marketed to the grid. It also supplies balanced cattle feed to farmers through the societies at a rate lower than in the market. In 1997-98 as many as 13,456 quintals of cattle feed was supplied to various societies in the state on a monthly credit basis. The federation also supplied 8,000 fodder seed mini kits to societies free of cost during the year under the farmers induction programme. Farmers from the state are sent to Anand in Gujarat every year to acquaint them with the latest techniques in dairy farming and milk production technology. A white revolution may
seem a distant dream in the hill state but milk
cooperatives are fast transforming village life by
improving the economic status of the people. |
Govt policies blamed for low
apple price SHIMLA, Oct 11 — The Himachal Pradesh Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association has blamed the wrong marketing policy for the low prices of apples this season. Mr Sanjay Chauhan, general secretary of the association, alleged that the prices crashed as various government agencies marketed fruit procured under the market intervention scheme in gunny bags. He said in all about 60,000 tonne of the processable grade apple was procured under the scheme. The HPMC and HIMFED, the two procurement agencies flooded the markets in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and other states with the inferior grade of fruit which send the prices crashing. The association had urged the government not to send the processable grade of apple in market before the commencement of the apple season. However, its advice was ignored as a result of which the growers have suffered losses to the tune of Rs 300 crore. The processable grade of fruit fetched only Rs 35 to Rs 90 per quintal, which was not enough even to meet the cost of marketing, indicating that the policy had thus been a big failure. It also decried exploitation of growers by commission agents in the terminal markets of Delhi, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and other big towns. The agents were charging up to eight per cent commission which was illegal and unauthorised. It urged the government to
effectively intervene and save growers from exploitation.
It should take up the matter with the Centre and various
governments to ensure that the Markets Act was enforced
to streamline the functioning of markets. |
HVC claims Baijnath seat UNA, Oct 11 — The Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) has decided to extend the last date for enrolling members till November 30. This was stated by Mr O.P. Rattan, state HVC spokesman and president of the district unit of the party in a press statement here today. Mr Rattan said the BJP must act like the big brother and leave the Baijnath seat for the HVC. He said elections to the Baijnath seat had not been announced as yet and neither the BJP nor the HVC had finalised any candidate. Mr Rattan said Swan river
had caused a lot of damage to agricultural land during
monsoon and the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal,
must take up the matter with the Centre for help. |
HVC support to continue SHIMLA, Oct 11 — The Himachal Vikas Congress will continue its support to the Dhumal government. This was stated today by Mr Sukh Ram, HVC chief, who has been under pressure from a section of the party to withdraw support to the government in case Mr Ram Lal Markandey, one of its legislators, was not inducted into the ministry. He said there were no serious differences between the two parties, though he strongly felt that the HVC, which had played a vital role in dislodging the Virbhadra Singh government, should be given due representation at all levels. He said the issue of cabinet expansion was a small matter and it would be sorted out. Meanwhile, Mr P.K. Dhumal, who has been in constant touch with Mr Sukh Ram, left for Delhi today. He is likely to meet the HVC chief, who is also camping in the national Capital, tomorrow. Besides, the situation arising from the refusal of Mr Markandey to take the oath as Chief Parliamentary Secretary, the two leaders are also likely to discuss the byelection to the Baijnath assembly seat to which the HVC has also staked its claim. Some district presidents
of the HVC had yesterday passed a resolution urging Mr
Sukh Ram to withdraw support if the Chief Minister
refused to give a berth to Mr Markandey in his ministry. |
Dipti's body found BILASPUR, Oct 11 — The body of Mrs Dipti Kasliwal, 25, daughter-in-law of the former Chief Justice of Himachal High Court, Mr N.M. Kasaliwal, was fished out by the police with the help of locals at Bohat Kasol near Harnoda, from the Sutlej river. The body was spotted by locals yesterday morning, about 32 km from here upstream. The Bilaspur Sadar Sub-Division Magistrate, Mr Roshan Lal Rana, said here today that the body was handed over to Mr Kamal Kishore, father and Alok, husband of Dipti. Dipti and Alok were
married at Jaipur on October 1 and were here on honeymoon
on October 5. At Tatapani tourist centre in Mandi
district. Dipti slipped while climbing a rock on the
Sutlej bank. She was washed away by swirling water of the
Sutlej. |
Naik held for duping youths NURPUR, Oct 11 — The police yesterday arrested Sukhdev Singh, a naik in the Army, on a charge of cheating a large number of unemployed youths of Thoda Bhaloon gram panchayat. According to the police a case under Sections 420, 468, 471 and 34 of the IPC was registered against Sukhdev Singh, Prem Singh, a former Captain and Kishor Chand Bugudi for allegedly duping number of unemployed rural youths by taking money on the pretext of arranging jobs for them in the Army. It has taken police remand
for Sukhdev Singh till October 12. The two other accused
have already been arrested and released on bail. |
'Fill tribunal posts' SHIMLA, Oct 11 — The
Himachal Non-Gazetted Services Federation has urged the
government to fill the posts of Chairman and
vice-chairman in the state administrative tribunal lying
vacant for the past quite sometime. |
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