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| Monday, January 10, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Govt
may have to eat humble pie |
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Schools exploiting
teachers: NSUI Foreigner
with charas held
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Govt may have to eat humble
pie SHIMLA, Jan 9 — After having been forced to reverse its decision to scrap the national wing, the Himachal Government may have to eat a humble pie on its move to abolish the post of Divisional Commissioner. The objective of the decision is to prune the top heavy administration and exercise economy but its implementation will not be easy. The government will have to overcome numerous legal and administrative hurdles, some of which could be surmounted only with the concurrence of the Centre. A number of Acts will have to amended and powers of the Divisional Commissioners will have to be delegated to subordinate authorities which may not be feasible in all the cases. Besides, the adjustment of employees of the divisional cadre will also pose serious administrative problems. While the government proposes to delegate most of the powers to Deputy Commissioners which is not possible in case of service matters. The Divisional Commissioner is the appointing authority for the cadre employees and thus has the power to impose major penalties like dismissal Reduction in rank and compulsory retirement. Such powers can not be delegated as under Article 311 (1) of the Constitution no authority subordinate to the appointing authority could exercise it. Thus the delegation of power to Deputy Commissioner will be violate the provision of the Constitution. Alternatively, if the power is vested in a higher authority the employees lose an appellate channel. Further, certain Acts like the Land Ceiling Act and the Tenancy and Land Reforms Act under which the Divisional Commissioner is the appellate authority will have to be amended. However, this can not be
done without the prior approval of the Centre. These fall
under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. Under
certain other legislations like the Public Premises Act
the powers of the Collector have been delegated to the
Subdivisional Magistrate and the Divisional Commissioner
was the final apellate authority. These Acts will also
have to be amended. |
Bring more area under forests: CM SHIMLA, Jan 9 (UNI) — Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has said an ambitious Rs 126 crore “Sarswati Bal Vidya Sankalp Yojna” had been launched to strengthen primary education under which 13,612 rooms were being constructed within a period of three years to ensure a minimum of three rooms in each primary school in the state. He was addressing a public meeting at Luri after inaugurating the Ani Forest Division at Luri in Kulu district yesterday. Emphasising the importance of education, Mr Dhumal said to ensure that poor and meritorious students of weaker sections, Scheduled Castes and backward Classes were not deprived of higher education, the “Ambedkar meritorious students scholarship scheme” had been started under which students were being given a scholarship of Rs 10,000 annually in the plus one and two classes. He said the government was committed to speedy development of backward and difficult areas of the state, specially those areas, which had remained neglected so far. He stressed the need for joint forest management and added that the present government had introduced the “sanjhi van yojna”, which aimed at involvement of people in the management of forests by raising and preserving these and reaping their benefits. He said 36,986 sq km area was under forest cover in the state and exhorted the Forest Department and the people to put in more efforts to bring more area under forests. Chowai, Nither and Assu ranges would be covered under this division, he said. Mr Dhumal dedicated the 13,765 km Nirmand-Arsu Nither Luri road (Kalog to Bandal) constructed at a cost of Rs 1.38 crore to the people of remote and backward areas of outer Siraj. He inaugurated the Nither Rest House constructed at a cost of Rs 24.75 lakh and also the Rs 32 lakh Shaheed Dule Ram Memorial Government Senior Secondary School at Nither. Mr Dule Ram sacrificed his life for the country in “Operation Vijay” in Kargil. Mr Dhumal was given a
rousing reception. A large number of gates were erected
en route Luri and Nither and people in hundreds stood on
both sides of roads to greet their leader. |
NHPC gives uplift to Chamba CHAMBA: Development in Himachal Pradesh, particularly Chamba district, had been very slow till the '70s. There were times when vehicles had to move in convoys on the Pathankot-Banikhet highway while the vehicles on the other side had to wait for hours for forward journey. Two decades back Dalhousie was a sleepy town in winters with hardly a few shops seen open and hardly any traveller venturing to visit the town. There were days when locals used to claim the hills on seeing some jeep and bus coming towards them while walking on the road. But the construction of projects has expedited the development process in Chamba district. The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) executed construction of major hydroelectric projects of Baira Siul in the remote Churah subdivision of upper Chamba district in '70s and the Chamera hydroelectric project (Stage-1) in Dalhousie subdivision in the '80s and early '90s. The construction of the Chamera project, Stage-II, now in Chamba subdivision on the Chamba-Bharmour highway axis, has opened up a new era of development in this upland region of Chamba district. The shape and form of the Pathankot-Banikhet-Chowrah road seen today is on account of the NHPC as the same was widened and resurfaced for double-lane 80-tonne standards in the '80s for the construction of the Chamera project. Today it happens to be one of the excellent highways of hilly areas of Himachal Pradesh. There was hardly any access to areas like Khairi, Simbleu, Baggi, Sherpur and other areas. Even during the investigation stage of the project helicopters were used for transhipment of men and material. Today these are linked with double lane surfaced roads. Trailers, buses and all kinds of vehicles ply on these roads day and night. According to Mr S.K. Dodeja, General Manager of the Chamera project, for Chamera, Stage-I, the NHPC has constructed around 80 km of new roads besides widening the Pathankot-Goli highway being the additional development and this coasted more than Rs 30 crore to the NHPC during the '80s. Similar development of roads for Baira Siul project was also taken up in the '70s and many villages got connected through the road network. For these projects, the NHPC has constructed five bridges over the Ravi (excluding foot bridges) thus changing the whole scenario of inter-linked of roads and villages. The Baloo bridge near Chamba town was the first constructed by the Baira Siul project across the Ravi. For the Chamera project,
Stage-II, there is a plan to construct three more bridges
across the Ravi. The road from Baloo to Hardaspura has
already been widened and the widening of the Chamba-Bagga
road is in progress. |
Blood shortage in hospitals SHIMLA, Jan 9 (PTI) — The three government hospitals in this capital town are facing acute blood shortage. According to Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital sources, the blood bank is almost empty and the hospital authorities have approached local voluntary organisations to help meet the shortage of blood for emergency cases. The hospital needs at least 20 to 40 units of blood daily for patients. Similar is the situation in Kamla Nehru Lady Hospital and the Regional DDH Hospital situated in the heart of the town. At the instance of the IGMC authorities Asha Deep, a local voluntary organisation, will hold a blood donation camp here on January 14 at Town Hall which would be inaugurated by 115 times blood donor Prof V.D. Kuthiala. The chairman of Asha
Deep has appealed to all blood donors and voluntary
organisations to come forward to donate blood to meet the
shortage in all local hospitals which would otherwise put
the lives of several patients in danger. |
Schools exploiting teachers:
NSUI SHIMLA, Jan 9 — Mr Kewal Pathania, president of the state unit of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) has expressed concern over the exploitation of teachers by managements of private schools and demanded immediate corrective measures. He said the teaching and non-teaching employees of private schools, were not getting even one third of the emoluments being drawn by their counterparts in government school. While the basic pay of a primary teacher in a government school is Rs 4060, private school teachers were being paid a fixed salary ranging between Rs 1200 and Rs 1800 per month. The management were charging heavy fees from students but not giving the teachers their due. He urged the government to give justice to the staff.
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Doctors seek revised scales MANDI, Jan 9 — The District Medical Officers Association which met here today expressed resentment against the appointment of a bureaucrat as Additional Director Health Services, Himachal Pradesh, and demanded that the government should immediately reverse its decision which had agitated doctors throughout the state. The decision to withdraw rent-free accommodation was also criticised by the doctors who urged the government to restore it in case of doctors keeping in view the nature of their duty. They also called upon the government to release the revised scales of doctors without further delay. They also demanded that
specialists should be given additional increments in
keeping with their higher professional qualifications. In
the present situation, there was no distinction between
MBBS and postgraduate doctors. Consequently, no
specialist would like to serve in Himachal. |
Father of Kargil hero hurt at govt decision PALAMPUR, Jan 9 (PTI) — Father of the winner of the highest gallantry award during the Kargil operations, the late Capt Vikram Batra PVC, Mr G L Batra has demanded that the Centre should adopt a firm policy while dealing with terrorists. Talking to mediapersons here, he expressed anguish at decision to release three dreaded terrorists on the demand of hijackers of the Indian Airlines plane recently. He said the release had negated the supreme sacrifice of the valiant soldiers who had sacrificed their lives while combating the terrorists who were being financed and trained by Pakistan. Mr Batra demanded that
the Centre should have a firm policy on terrorists and
separatists and special courts should be set up so that
cases relating to terrorism and such activities were
decided soon. |
CM inaugurates link road SOLAN, Jan 9 — Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal inaugurated a road linking Domehar and Mamlig villages and a bridge over the Gumber khud near Mamlig in Kandaghat tehsil of this district today. Addressing a public meeting at Mamlig, Mr Dhumal said the new road and bridge, both constructed at a cost of Rs 60 lakh, would benefit 50,000 people living in 16 villages and shorten the distance between Mamlig and the tehsil headquarters by 15 km.
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Foreigner with charas held KULU, Jan 9 — The Manikaran police raided the house of a foreigner in Karga village, about 22 km from Manikaran, and recovered 2 kg of charas from his possession. The foreigner, identified as Poji Lusiano of Italy, was nabbed by a police party following a tip off. He was taken into
custody under Section 20 of the Narcotics Act. The local
court here sent him into police remand till January 10,
the police said. |
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