H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

HVC factions clash at CM’s meeting
DHARAMSALA, July 17 — Striking a balance between the two factions of the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC), would not be an easy task for the Chief Minister, Prof P.K. Dhumal. 

CM inaugurates bridge at Barnoh
UNA, July 17 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, said today that 12 lakh computerised “kisan passbooks” with legal sanction would be distributed to the farmers in the state during this year.

Library sans facilities
KASAULI: The Central State Library in Solan was established in 1959. The library serves readers of Arki, Kasauli, Subathu, Kunihar, Simla besides Solan and its surrounding areas.

HP plans to improve health services
MANDI, July 17 — The Himachal Pradesh Health Minister, Mr J.P. Nadda, said here yesterday that despite financial restraints efforts were being made to “improve and refurbish” the health services in the state.

A rain of allergy cases
PARWANOO, July 17 — There has been an increase in the number of allergy cases in Parwanoo and its adjoining areas due to the presence of congress grass, scientifically known as Parthenium hyterop hourus.

Himachal Shiv Sena chief threatens stir
KANGRA, July 17 — The Himachal Shiv Sena chief, Dr Gulshan Kumar, yesterday warned the Maharashtra Government against arresting the Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray, for the 1992 communal clashes in Mumbai.

HVC factions clash at CM’s meeting
From Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, July 17 — Striking a balance between the two factions of the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC), would not be an easy task for the Chief Minister, Prof P.K. Dhumal. This became evident at a public meeting held at Nagrota Suriyan where supporters of the PWD Minister, Mr Mohinder Singh, raised slogans after provoked by the Sukh Ram group.

The Chief Minister had arrived here yesterday to address a public meeting at Nagrota Suriyan, in the Guler assembly constituency after inaugurating a bridge. The trouble started when the general secretary of the Kangra district unit of the HVC, Mr S.S. Guleria, placed a demand before Professor Dhumal, which provoked Mr Mohinder Singh’s supporters.

Mr Guleria, in his address requested the Chief Minister, to drop the PWD Minister from the Cabinet as his presence “was weakening the coalition government of the BJP-HVC. This enraged Mr Mohinder Singh’s supporters and as many as 12 persons started raising slogans in favour of the PWD Minister.

It was only after a BJP leader intervened and asked Mr Guleria not to take up the controversial issue that the supporters of Mr Mohinder Singh were pacified. Following this, Mr Guleria, ended his speech, abruptly and sat down.

However, dealing with the situation tactfully, the Chief Minister chose not to make any mention of the issue. The Chief Minister preferred to remain silent even while the slogans were being raised in support of Mr Mohinder Singh.

It appears that with the Chief Minister, hardening his stand on the issue of the removal of Mr Mohinder Singh, there would be more incidents of similar nature in future, involving the supporters of Mr Sukh Ram and the PWD Minister. The situation could get awkward for the Chief Minister as both the factions are not willing to compromise.

Mr Dhumal, has already given indications that despite being declared unattached by the Assembly Speaker, Mr Mohinder Singh, could continue as a minister, the manner in which, Mr Ramesh Chaudhary, an independent MLA, was the IPH Minister, in his Cabinet.

In his speech, the Chief Minister, accused the Congress of selling the interests of the state by failing to get Himachal’s share under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966. He said due to this the state was getting only 30 MW power from Bhakra Dam instead of its due of 225 MW.

Professor Dhumal, further charged the Congress of failing to solve the problems of the Pong Dam oustees, in spite of being in power at the Centre, in Punjab and in Himachal Pradesh. Refuting the allegations levelled by the Congress that his governments was inaugurating projects originally started by Congress governments, Professor Dhumal said the Congress had laid foundation stones without making any budgetary provisions.

Earlier Mr Dhumal, inaugurated a bridge constructed over the Minniu Khud at a cost of Rs 73 lakh. The bridge will provide an all weather link between Nagrota Suriyan — Baryal Nandpur, benefitting over 10,000 persons of the area.

CM inaugurates bridge at Barnoh
From Our Correspondent

UNA, July 17 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, said today that 12 lakh computerised “kisan passbooks” with legal sanction would be distributed to the farmers in the state during this year. The passbooks would carry all necessary record and enable the farmers to get loans from banks easily. Mr Dhumal was addressing a public meeting at Nangal Salangri after inaugurating a bridge at Barnoh and an upgraded Government Middle School, Nangal Salangri.

The Chief Minister said the government was committed to improve the socio-economic conditions of the farmers in the state. He said the present government had also transferred the ownership of the trees grown on private land to the people by amending the age old law of “Khudro Darakhat Malkiyat Sarkar”.

Mr Dhumal said the government had sanctioned Rs 15 crore for the construction of Una-Talwara railway line besides approving the Una-Jajo railway line.

The Chief Minister said the present government had spent Rs 11.60 crore for the construction of roads and bridges in Una during the past two years at compared to Rs 7.13 crore spent during the last two years of Congress regime. He said in the Kutlehar area alone Rs 1.82 crore had been spent during this period.

He sanctioned Rs 2.50 lakh for the construction of additional accommodation in middle school at Nangal Salangri. He sanctioned one room for community centre at Sanjhot.

Library sans facilities
From Ambika Sharma

KASAULI: The Central State Library in Solan was established in 1959. The library serves readers of Arki, Kasauli, Subathu, Kunihar, Simla besides Solan and its surrounding areas.

From the reading room one has to walk through the busy main road to reach the reference section. A number of vegetable vendors occupy the steps leading to the library.

The four decades old library is run from a rented building. A sum of Rs 45,000 is spent on paying the rent annually.

There are about 35 staffers in the library. As many as three posts of restorers have been lying vacant for the past couple of years. Even the post of chief librarian has been lying vacant since April this year. The appointment to this post has been made on an ad hoc basis.

Sweepers and chowkidars are also appointed on the part time basis.

Housing a rich collection of over 1 lakh books, the library is yet to be computerised. All records are manually maintained. Certain borrowers have returned only covers of quite a few costly books. The library officials blame the loss on the lack of proper scrutiny at the time of returning the books. They further attribute it to the lack of staff.

The furniture is rickety. A sum of Rs 31,000 is required for buying the new furniture.

Over the years the number of visitors to the library has increased. The number swells during the summer. As many as 2800 people visit the library monthly to read newspapers and periodicals. A total of 13,334 readers are currently registered with the library. The Raja Ram Mohan Roy Trust, Calcutta, has donated 20,000 books.

Besides books, audio and video cassettes based on children fiction are also available here. Earlier on Tuesday, children films used to be shown on the television. Due to consistent decrease in the number of viewers this facility has been withdrawn.

A better accommodation and computerisation can go a long way in improving the library service.

The Central State Library, Solan.

HP plans to improve health services
From Our Correspondent

MANDI, July 17 — The Himachal Pradesh Health Minister, Mr J.P. Nadda, said here yesterday that despite financial restraints efforts were being made to “improve and refurbish” the health services in the state.

Inaugurating Rs 13.5 lakh intensive care unit in the local regional hospital, Mr Nadda said an additional sum of Rs 1 crore had been sanctioned to complete the hospital building, now under construction, on a war-footing. He said only a sum of Rs 10 lakh had been provided in the current year’s Budget for the building, but he managed additional amount sanctioned. He said the facility of ‘cat scan’ would be made available in the regional hospital within two months.

Later presiding over the district-level prize distribution function of the Family Welfare Department for the past three years at Beas Sadan in the evening Mr Nadda underlined the need of giving top priority to population control. He said the population explosion was frustrating all development efforts.

He congratulated people of Mandi for attaining top position in family planning in the state and said the tempo should be maintained.

He gave away prizes to individuals, heads of department and representative of various social organisations for outstanding work done by them in the field of family welfare programme in the past three years.

The sadar block was declared the best block while the Sundernagar block and Seraj block got the second and third place. Cash prizes were given to the five best panchayats of the district.

A rain of allergy cases
From M.M. Bhandari

PARWANOO, July 17 — There has been an increase in the number of allergy cases in Parwanoo and its adjoining areas due to the presence of congress grass, scientifically known as Parthenium hyterop hourus.

A majority of the cases have been found in Sectors 4 and 6 of Parwanoo, the housing board colony of Kalka and its surrounding areas as these places have more open land where the congress grass grows freely. Mostly children and old persons are sufferers and the incidence of respiratory allergy is more than that of the skin.

According to Dr Jaswal who runs a private clinic here, the cases of different types of allergic disorders increase during the monsoon season due to the sudden growth of congress in the area. The cases of allergy of the lungs, skin and eyes allergy are more common during this season. The dirty water could be the other reason for the same. Dr Jaswal adds that the cases are found less among women as they are less exposed to the open enviornment.

Doctors of the local ESI hospital feel that cases from slum areas are due to unhygienic conditions and dirty water which is used from nearby sources. The children from these slum areas are mostly suffering from bronchitis. Apart from congress grass, water pollution, smoke pollution, and humidity also attribute to these allergies. The number of cases varies from sector to sector.

Dr Bhaskar says that a large number of residents of this town are suffering from skin and bronchial allergies due to congress grass growing in every open space of the town. Respiratory allergies are more prevalent than skin allergies and children and old persons are more affected. Dr Himani Bhandari said that the cow dung also cause skin diseases.

Mr Ahmed, a patient of allergy from Sector 6 here, says that he has not taken any medicine for allergy for the past nine months but now due to the congress grass, he had started with medication.

Mr Sanjay Dhar, a patient of nasal allergy, says that his allergy has increased for the past few days due to congress grass.

Most of the doctors feel that the administration does not keep a check on the unhygienic food, cut fruits and other items being sold at local dhabas and rehris. No effort has been made by the local Nagar Palika to remove the congress grass.

Nagar Palika officials when asked about this problem, said that the work of removing the congress grass from various sectors had started. They added that due to the shortage of the labour, the work is slow but it would be completed soon.

According to the doctors, the local administration and Nagar Palika along with social organisations and residents, should launch an emergency compaign to eradicate the congress grass.

Himachal Shiv Sena chief threatens stir
From Our Correspondent

KANGRA, July 17 — The Himachal Shiv Sena chief, Dr Gulshan Kumar, yesterday warned the Maharashtra Government against arresting the Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray, for the 1992 communal clashes in Mumbai.

Dr Kumar said the Congress government in Maharashtra was playing with fire. He described the Shri Krishna report as one sided and anti-Hindu.

He said Shiv Sena workers would resort to protests in the state and the Shiv Sainiks from Himachal would go to Mumbai to gherao the state assembly there if Mr Thackeray was arrested.