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| Tuesday, May 30, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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HP
to scrap barriers outside towns |
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| Teachers suspend stir till June 30 SHIMLA, May 29 — The Himachal Pradesh University Teachers Association has decided to suspend its agitation, for release of arrears on account of revision of pay scale, until June 30. 3 killed as tractor falls in gorge SOLAN, May 29 — Three persons died on the spot and 34 others were injured, four of them seriously, when a tractor trailer fell into a deep gorge near the shrine of Baba Jawahar Singh at Haripur, 60 km from here yesterday. CITU for CBI probe into murder SHIMLA, May 29 — The state unit of CITU has demanded a CBI probe into the murder of Jagdish, a trade union activist, in Sandholi in Solan district on May 25. Cable TV operators end strike SHIMLA, May 29 — The cable TV operators today ended their two-day-old strike in Himachal Pradesh and resumed their telecast. Follow Vaishno Devi pattern: Governor JWALAMUKHI, May 29 — The state Governor, Mr Vishnu Kant Shastri, has reportedly advocated Vaishno Devi pattern for the requisite improvement in the system of temple management in the state. Rifleman Satish Kumar cremated HAMIRPUR, May 29 — People paid final tributes to martyr Rifleman Satish Kumar when his body was consigned to flames with full state honours at his native village near here today.
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HP to
scrap barriers outside towns SHIMLA, May 29 — The Himachal Pradesh government is considering setting up toll tax barriers at entry points of the state instead of allowing nagar panchayats to collect it in their respective jurisdictions as was being done at present causing harassment to tourists and motorists. The Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal told reporters today that such barriers will be set up at about 14 entry points and the toll tax collected there would be disbursed to the nagar panchayats. The proposal is expected to be cleared in the next meeting of the Cabinet to be held on June 7. Mr Dhumal, who was reacting to a news report published in The Tribune today said the nagar panchayats had set up toll collection barriers under the Panchayati Raj Act passed during the previous Congress regime. Mr Dhumal parried questions as to under what circumstances nagar panchayats being allowed to charge tax from the vehicles plying on national highways. Replying to a question about harassment of tourists whose buses were not being allowed to enter the town before 8 pm, Mr Dhumal said the government was planning to set up a transport hub outside the city limits. Tourists will be brought to the town in cable cars which will be constructed at the hub. Entry of buses in the town was being regulated to prevent traffic jams, he said.
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Mathur: no
threat to BJP-Sena alliance SHIMLA, May 29 — The all-India Vice-President of the BJP Mr J.P. Mathur, said today that there was no threat to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra. Addressing a press conference here, he said reports that the BJP would pull out of the alliance were baseless and misplaced. There could be a difference of opinion and minor irritants but these could be sorted out. The BJP would like to expand its base in the state but that would not pose any threat to the alliance. Referring to the efforts of the Trinamool Congress to forge an anti-Left front by having an adjustment with the Congress, Mr Mathur said the BJP was not directly involved. It was for the Congress to decide whether or not to join hands with the Trinamool Congress. He said Congressmen were a disillusioned lot as their hope that Mrs Sonia Gandhi would be able to revive the party had been dashed. The base of the party was fast eroding under her leadership as she was not familiar with country’s culture, history and traditions. Referring to the situation in Fiji, he said the democracy had been hijacked and more unfortunate was the fact that the coup leader wanted to amend the constitution to debar persons of foreign origin from contesting elections. Regarding Sri Lanka Mr
Mathur said the country’s stand was very clear. It
did not want Sri Lanka to disintegrate but at the same
time the aspirations of the Tamils should be taken care
of. He said the new president of the party would be
elected by the first week of July after completing the
organisational elections in the states. |
Petrol,
liquor to be dearer in HP SHIMLA, May 29 — Petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, liquor and beer will become dearer in Himachal Pradesh from May 31. According to a notification of the Sales Tax Department issued here today, the hike will be because of increase in the sales tax to bring uniformity in the floor rates of taxation. Petrol will be dearer by Rs 2 per litre. Diesel price will go up by about 20 paise. Sales tax on aviation fuel is also being hiked to 20 per cent. The sales tax on petrol is being doubled to 20 per cent from the existing 10 per cent and on diesel from the existing 8 per cent to 10 per cent. The hike will come into force on the night of May 30. The sales tax on liquor, beer and country liquor is being increased to 20 per cent and on wine and cider a sales tax of 8 per cent will be imposed. The sales tax on rectified spirit, molasses and narcotics is being hiked to 20 per cent. A sales tax of 4 per
cent will be applicable on tractors, tractor-trailers and
other attachments. |
Dhumal
denies witch-hunt SHIMLA, May 29 — The Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, said he will not indulge in a witch-hunt against Congress leader and former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, by fabricating cases against him. Mr Dhumal told reporters here today that the Congress should not overreact to the questioning of Mr Virbhadra Singh by a special investigation team of the Vigilance Department into the khair wood “scam” which took place during the Congress regime. He said that so far no case had been registered against Mr Virbhadra Singh and the vigilance team had questioned him only about tamperings of some files relating to the allotment of “khair wood” to a particular firm. An FIR has been registered only against some officials, he said. The Chief Minister said that the agreement with the beneficiary firm was signed by the Congress government on March 23, 1998 — just a day before the present BJP-HVC combine government was installed in the state, without obtaining approval of the Cabinet. He said the allegations that Mr Virbhadra Singh was being harassed as part of a political vendetta were baseless and on innocent person would be harassed. But at the same time the government would not spare anyone found guilty. Mr Dhumal said Mr Virbhadra Singh should not have reacted to his questioning if he considered himself above board and had the BJP government wanted to launch a political vendetta, cases against Mr Virbhadra Singh would have been registered soon after “we” came into power. He countered by saying Mr Virbhadra Singh had harassed even his own Congress colleagues by registering “fake” cases against them and their family members. The Chief Minister said one such senior Congress leader was Mrs Vidya Stokes, who met him just two days ago to complain of cases were registered against her during the Virbhadra Singh regime. Cases were also registered against the son of Thakur Ram Lal, a former Chief Minister and the son of the PCC chief, Mr Sat Mahajan with, Mr Virbhadra Singh’s rival. He did not spare some relatives of Mr Sukh Ram cases were registered against whom by the state enforcement department although the matter pertaining to laying of optical cable fibre was within the purview of the Centre. He said certain Congress leaders were demanding a white paper on the financial position of the state ignoring the fact that the government had already presented facts of the past 20 years. He said of Rs 700 crore received in aid from the Centre so far, the government had to pay an amount of Rs 870 crores as liabilities & interest on loans raised by the previous Congress government.
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Bail plea
of rape accused rejected SHIMLA, May 29 — A single Bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court comprising Mr Justice M.R. Verma has dismissed bail applications of two accused alleged to be involved in the rape of a minor girl (16). The prosecution contended that on January 31 when the girl went to the forest to answer nature’s call her maternal uncle and the brother-in-law of the girl’s mother raped her. The applicants pleaded innocence and said because of some enmity with the father of the girl they had been implicated in this false case. The high court after hearing the arguments of the parties dismissed the bail applications of both, who are residents of Rohru, and observed that keeping in view the relationship the alleged offence was heinous in nature. In another case a single Bench of the high court comprising Mr Justice R.L. Khurana has dismissed the bail application of a resident of Agra alleged to be involved in the murder of his wife and son Chinki (5) for dowry. The Additional Advocate-General argued that Sanoj Kumar, the accused, his wife, son and his cousin Ravi Kumar reached Manali to celebrate new year. While coming back they stayed in a hotel near Baddi. On January 7 the bodies of his wife and son were found in the hotel room. The accused had absconded but was later arrested from Agra on January 9. The applicant pleaded innocence but court after hearing the arguments of the parties dismissed the bail application. Earlier the Sessions Judge, Solan, had dismissed his bail application on May 6.
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RSS man
elected HP BJP chief SHIMLA, May 29 — Mr Jaikrishan Sharma, a hardcore RSS activist, was unanimously elected president of the state unit of the BJP here today. With the rival Dhumal and Shanta factions arriving at a consensus on the issue after the intervention of the party high command his election was a foregone conclusion and only his name was proposed for the post. Mr P.K. Dhumal, the Chief Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar, the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Mr Suresh Chandel, the outgoing President, Mr Kishori Lal, Industries Minister and Mr J.P. Nadda, were among those who proposed Mr Sharma’s name in the first set of papers. A formal announcement of the election result will be made tomorrow, the day for which election is scheduled. The state council also elected four delegates, one from each parliamentary constituency for the national executive. Mr Harbans Singh Rana was elected from Kangra. Mr Kashmir Singh Rajput from Mandi, Mr Virender Kashyap from Shimla and Mrs Urmil Thakur from Hamirpur. Besides, seven women were coopted to the state council as per the constitution. Mrs Urmil Thakur was coopted from Hamirpur, Mrs Lata Kapoor from Kulu, Mrs Hema Thakur from Mandi, Mrs Sarveen from Kangra, Mrs Santosh Saini from Una, Mrs Kamlesh from Bilaspur and Mrs Vimla Kashyap from Shimla to complete the 85-member electoral college. Born on February 11,
1945, at Haroli village in Una district Mr Jai Krishan
Sharma joined the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh when he
was barely 12 years of age and has been associated with
it since. He took over as a “pracharak” in
Gurdaspur district in 1966 after giving up his job in the
Laxmi Commercial Bank and led the underground movement of
the RSS against the Emergency from Gurdaspur district. |
Develop
renewable sources: VC PALAMPUR, May 29 — Dr P.K. Khosla, Vice-Chancellor, H.P. Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, has stressed the need for the transfer of available technology on renewable sources of energy to the farmers so that forests and other natural resources of the country could be saved. Dr Khosla said this while inaugurating a coordinating committee meeting of the all-India coordinated research project on “Renewal sources of energy for agriculture and agro-based industries”, here. In the meeting nearly 50 scientists from all over India participated. He said the development and dissemination of renewable energy sources could play a major role to overcome it. He urged the Indian Council of Agricultural Research to open a centre on solar energy. Dr N.L. Srivastava,
Assistant Director-General, ICAR, said the ICAR had
decided to grant an operational research project centre
to the university. |
Teachers
suspend stir till June 30 SHIMLA, May 29 — The Himachal Pradesh University Teachers Association has decided to suspend its agitation, for release of arrears on account of revision of pay scale, until June 30. The decision was taken in view of the assurance given by the Governor, Mr Vishnu Kant Shastri, who is also the Chancellor of the university that the arrears would be paid by next month. The association urged the Vice-Chancellor, Dr S.K. Gupta, to implement its other demands. It also expressed concern over the manner in which teachers had been deputed to conduct various entrance examinations and demanded that the roaster system should be followed strictly in both entrance and regular examinations.
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3 killed
as tractor falls in gorge SOLAN, May 29 — Three persons died on the spot and 34 others were injured, four of them seriously, when a tractor trailer fell into a deep gorge near the shrine of Baba Jawahar Singh at Haripur, 60 km from here yesterday. The deceased have been
identified as Sankari Devi (60), Suman (9) and Heena (8).
The serious injured — Swarn Kaur, Kuldeep Kaur,
Kaushalya and Rani were rushed to the PGI, Chandigarh.
Others were admitted to a rural hospital at Nalagarh. |
CITU for
CBI probe into murder SHIMLA, May 29 — The state unit of CITU has demanded a CBI probe into the murder of Jagdish, a trade union activist, in Sandholi in Solan district on May 25. Mr Rakesh Singha, President of the state committee of CITU, alleged that the Barotiwala police registered an FIR 24 hours after the incident. Instead of arresting the alleged influential accused, it lathicharged agitating workers, and took into custody some local CITU workers. He demanded unconditional release of arrested workers failing which CITU would launch a statewide stir. He also demanded a
compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the family of the deceased.
Meanwhile a probe team of CITU has left for Baddi to
probe the case. Cable TV operators end strike SHIMLA, May 29 — The cable TV operators today ended their two-day-old strike in Himachal Pradesh and resumed their telecast. A spokesman of the
striking cable operators said that the decision to
withdraw the strike was taken following their meeting
with the Excise and Taxation Minister, Mr Parveen Sharma,
on the issue of imposition of 20 per cent entertainment
tax on them. 2 pradhans resign SHIMLA, May 29 — Two panchayat pradhans of the Chopal area, Mr Surat Singh and Mr Jiwan Singh, have resigned from the HVC and joined the Congress. This was stated here
today by Mr Yogendra Chandra, Congress MLA of Chopal. |
Follow
Vaishno Devi pattern: Governor JWALAMUKHI, May 29 — The state Governor, Mr Vishnu Kant Shastri, has reportedly advocated Vaishno Devi pattern for the requisite improvement in the system of temple management in the state. He has said that the purpose behind advocating the Vaishno Devi pattern is to promote pilgrim tourism. Moreover, it will add new dimensions to the multifarious development of the state with particular reference to tourism. The proposed move will definitely boost the economy of the state. He bemoaned that the particular communities which have been connected with temples for years together are themselves deviating from even the routine rituals. He said there was an urgent need to recite Sanskrit ‘shlokas’ with accuracy and meticulously. He said he might
introduce a two-phase study system. One phase will be for
the children of priests and the second will be a 15-day
refresher course at the university level. |
Rifleman
Satish Kumar cremated HAMIRPUR, May 29 — People paid final tributes to martyr Rifleman Satish Kumar when his body was consigned to flames with full state honours at his native village near here today. Rifleman Satish Kumar was killed in an ambush by Afghan mercenaries in Jammu and Kashmir recently. A close relative of the martyr lighted the pyre. His other brother is also serving in the Army and posted in Assam, according to official sources. The martyr is survived by his wife and daughter aged three years. Prominent among those
present at the cremation included the Deputy
Commissioner, Mrs Anuradha Thakur, the SP, Mr N.
Vanugopal, and other senior officers. Road to Kaza opens SHIMLA, May 29 — The road to Kaza via Kunzam pass has been opened for vehicular traffic, which was earlier blocked due to heavy snowfall and glaciers in October last. This was informed by Dr
Ram Lal Markanda, Minister of State for Animal Husbandry,
today. He said Kaza-Kullu bus service would be started
from June 1. Snag in telephone exchange SHIMLA, May 29 — The telephone exchange in the industrial town of Baddi in Solan district has been out of order for the past two days. The snag in the exchange was caused due to the lightening.
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