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| Sunday, August 20, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Royal heir booked for tree felling Army Vice-Chief for more facilities Chauhan heads
HPUTA
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Cong ‘charge sheet’
gimmick: minister Mother moves rights
panel on son’s death HPSEB papers
given to CBI Cong sends relief for flood victims
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Royal heir booked for tree felling CHAMBA, Aug 19 — The Forest Department detected illicit felling of three deodar trees on a private land of lower Jhumar forests, 12 km from Chamba town, yesterday. Mr Brijendra Singh, a member of the royal family of Chamba and the husband of Mrs Asha Kumari, a Congress MLA from Banikhet Assembly constituency, was arrested in this connection. He, later, was released on bail. On receiving the information about the illegal felling going on in the lower Jhumar forests, the Divisional Forest Officer, Mrs Anu Sharma, directed forest guard, Nek Raj, to rush to the site. After reaching the site, the forest guard asked the persons felling the green tress whether they had sought permission from the Forest Department. They showed him a sanction letter issued by the DFO Chamba, which, it was later discovered, to be forged. Five trees, each to two persons, Mr Brijendra Singh and Mrs Padma Kumari, had been sanctioned according to the forged letter, but intriguingly, the date mentioned on this forged document was August 27, 2000. According to the DFO, the guard seized the forged letter, which purported to be an official document of the DFO. On the basis of the letter, the DFO got an FIR lodged with the Chamba police. The felled trees have been seized by the Forest Department. The Superintendent of the Police, Mr R.M. Sharma, said a case had been registered under Sections 379, 420, 467 and 468 of the IPC and Sections 32 and 33 of the Indian Forest Act. When contacted, Mr Brijendra Singh described this entire episode as a conspiracy to defame the royal family of Chamba. He appealed the government to nab the ‘actual culprits”. Mrs Asha Kumari, Congress MLA and the wife of Mr Brijendra Singh, when contacted, refused to comment on the episode. |
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Army Vice-Chief for more facilities SUBATHU (Solan), Aug 19 — The Vice-Chief of Staff, Lt-Gen Chandra Shekhar, PVSM, AVSM, co-architect of the magnificent victory of the Indian Army in the Kargil sector doesn’t think much of his contribution during ‘Operation Vijay’ but prizes the less eventful time he spent commanding a para brigade in 1975. The General, who was here to chair this millennium first Biennial Conference of the
1st and 4th Gurkha Rifles at the 14 Gurkha Training centre here yesterday spent a few minutes with mediapersons, reminiscing about his 41-year long career in khaki. He is due to retire on September 30. A wistful smile spread across his face when this correspondent asked if the Kargil victory, coming a few months ahead of his retirement could be described as the ‘crowning glory’ of his eventful stint with the army. “I, as Vice-Chief of Staff did contribute my bit towards the Indian Jawan’s singular achievement of driving the enemy away from our sacred soil, against heavy odds from the Kargil, area. But you see....a lot of credit must go to the young officers who lead their men from the front up the steep slopes, with the well entrenched enemy occupying the heights. And of course the men were simply magnificent.” “My best moment in the army was when I was ordered to command a para brigade on the Line of Actual Control in J&K in the seventies. The Paras are simply the best. They are bold and always ready to take uncommon risks for the sake of the motherland. Their courage is infectious. I executed my maiden jump from an airborne aircraft without having undergone any formal training. Commanding the Paras was indeed an honour and I prize it as the best part of my army life.” Replying to a question, General Chandra Shekhar said even though the government had recently made hefty increases in the pay packets of Army officers and other ranks, yet the fact remained that a burning desire to serve the country constituted the main motivation towards someone joining the army. He expressed satisfaction at the fact that the quality of fresh recruitment to the officers’ cadres during the past two years was as per expectations despite the greener pastures of multi-nationals. However, the Vice-Chief of Staff favoured a better package of welfare measures for ex-servicemen. He said the government had recently taken welcome decisions to enhance retirement benefits for Army officers and Jawans and to increase ex-gratia payments in case of casualties. “Yet there was need to give due consideration to the housing, education and health care needs of ex-servicemen and their families. Some provision must be made for vocational training of ex-servicemen so that they continued to do their bit towards society”, he said. Earlier, the General placed a wreath at the War Memorial of the 14 Gurkha Training Centre and inaugurated a new wing of the Centre’s boys’ hostel. He released the maiden brochure of the new millennium of the 14 GTC, aptly titled “Arising Horizons” He took time off to mix with the officers, the NCOs and their wives as also with other ranks. A short film documenting the history of the 14 GTC was also
shown. |
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Cong ‘charge sheet’
gimmick: minister SHIMLA, Aug 19 — Mr Kishori Lal, Himachal Industries Minister, Mr Mohinder Singh, Public Works Minister, Mr J.P. Nadda, Health Minister, Mr Mansa Ram, Welfare Minister, Mr Narender Bragta, Minister of State for Horticulture, Mr Roop Dass Kashyap, Minister of State for Urban Development and Mr Rajan Sushant, Minister of State for Revenue, have described the ‘charge sheet’ submitted by the Congress as political gimmick and a futile bid to divert attention of the people from the achievements of the present state government. In a statement here today, the ministers said that if the Congress was so sure of its “charge sheet” and there was any truth in it, it should had gone to the Lokayukta. The institution set up to look into charges against the ministers including the Chief Minister, so that truth could come before the people. They said that it seemed this charge sheet was nothing but off-repeated statements of Congress leaders otherwise they would have definitely gone to the Lokayukta. Ridiculing the “charge sheet”, the ministers said that the Congress was afraid of losing ground among the masses due to the popularity of the present government headed by Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal during the past 28 months which had been vindicated by successive victory of the BJP-HVC in all elections held in the state after 1998. |
Chauhan heads
HPUTA SHIMLA, Aug 19 — Dr Rajinder Singh Chauhan has been elected President of the Himachal Pradesh University Teachers Association
(HPUTA). The other office-bearers are: Dr R.G. Shandil — Vice-President; Dr Shiv Raj Singh — Secretary; Dr Shyam Lal Kaushal — Joint-Secretary; and Dr
A.S. Guleria — Treasurer. Dr Mohan Jharta, Dr M.L. Parmar, Dr Surinder Singh
Narta, Dr (Mrs) K.K. Kaushik, Dr B.S. Marh, Dr Kailash Thakur, Dr Rajinder Sharma, Dr
R.K. Chauhan and Dr (Ms) Usha Chauhan have been elected members of the executive. |
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Mother moves rights
panel on son’s death NURPUR, Aug 19 — A hapless mother and a widow Shakuntla Devi of Fetehpur village in Jawali subdivision has been running from pillar to post to get investigated the mysterious death of her son, Ramesh Kumar. She, in a letter submitted to the Himachal Pradesh Human Rights Commission on August 14 had alleged that her son had been running a small shop at Fetehpur. One person on Wednesday took him in his Maruti van. She was informed at 10 p.m. on the same day that her son was killed in an accident. She alleged that the Assistant Sub-Inspector of Fatehpur police chowki had let the van driver to escape, who was under the influence of liquor. The police had failed to get the driver medically examined. She criticised that a false accident story was concocted to suppress the facts of his son’s death. She suspects that her son was murdered and the Jawali police had registered an accident case to hush up the matter. |
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HPSEB papers
given to CBI SHIMLA, Aug 19 — The Himachal Pradesh Government today handed over to the CBI the original documents pertaining to raising of loans from the private sector by the HPSEB to tide over its financial crisis during the previous Congress regime. A team of the CBI, which is enquiring into the allegations listed in the chargesheet of the Himachal Vikas Congress against the previous Congress Government headed by Mr Virbhadra Singh, had arrived here yesterday to collect some documents. It is learnt that the papers pertaining to granting of permission to a private party for opening an engineering college at Kala-Amb near Nahan have also been handed over to the CBI team. |
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Cong sends relief for flood victims SHIMLA, Aug 19 — Mrs Sonia Gandhi, president of the AICC, has sent 4350 blankets and other relief material for victims of the flashflood in the Kinnaur and Rampur areas. According to the PCC chief, Mr Sat Mahajan, 950 sweaters, 225 jackets and milk bags have also been sent. The truck carrying the relief material has already reached Rampur. The PCC has urged people to donate liberally for rehabilitation of the affected people. |
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