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| Monday, September 18, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Anand Sharma allays
fears on rigging Four youths found dead ABVP eyes HPU students’ body Electoral college list nullified Himachal college poll results |
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Tehsils to have
senior assistants: CM Enforce Directive
Principles: panel Winter school on fruits
inaugurated Cong misleading people: Nadda Artificial limbs’ camp
inaugurated Police post
inaugurated HP cops told to brief tourists
Lively show by Punjabi Munde Boat service poor, allege commuters
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| Anand
Sharma allays fears on rigging SHIMLA, Sept 17 — Mr Anand Sharma, spokesperson of the AICC, today said the constitution of the three-member election authority in every state to conduct organisational poll had minimised the scope of rigging and asserted that apprehensions being expressed by certain party leaders in this regard were misplaced. Talking to mediapersons here today, he said it was for the first time that instead of appointing returning officers, election authorities had been set up in each state to ensure a free and fair poll. Senior leaders, who had held high positions either in the party or government, had been made members of the election authority. He said there could be differences in the party at the local level, but to cast aspersions on the integrity of senior leaders was unacceptable. The Congress, he said, was a democratic party and the members were free to express their views within the parameters of the party discipline. It was unfortunate that certain leaders had gone to the media instead of taking up the matter with the state election authority or the central election authority which were the proper fora for redressal of complaints pertaining to the organisational poll. It was a serious breach of party discipline. Mr Sharma disapproved of partymen taking election matters to the court and termed it as an “undesirable attempt to subvert” the ongoing poll process. It tantamounted to expressing ‘no confidence’ in the election authority. Regarding the charge of rigging levelled by 17 party legislators, he said as far as he knew, all sitting legislators were given assistant returning officers of their choice and as such it was surprising that they apprehended foul play. Referring to Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s visit to the USA, he said there was increasing realisation in the West about the dangers of terrorism linked to religious extremism and hopefully some resolute coordinated effort, as indicated during the visit, would be made to combat international terrorism. He said the opening of the country’s economy and the image created by Indian Americans had contributed a lot in bringing the two countries closer. He said corporatisation of
the Telecom Department was a hasty step, particularly when the
Mahanagar Telecom Nigam and the Videsh Sanchar Nigam were already
there. |
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Four
youths found dead PALAMPUR, Sept 17 — Four youths , all below the age of 25 years, Rajiv
Sood, Ajay Sood, Gopal Sood and Bhupinder Katoch, were found dead at
Paprola, near here, last night. All four were running their shops at Paprola and had gone to nearby school premises to celebrate a local function. Business establishments in the town were closed owing to the function. In the afternoon, the youths decided to celebrate and purchased a bottle of liquor along with three bottles of soft drinks and went to the school premises. They had hardly consumed half of the drink when they died on the spot. The two bottles of soft drink were found intact near their bodies. A sealed packet of eatables was also found. However, there was no drink left in the four glasses. At about 7.30 p.m., school watchmen Bhartu Ram went into the school compound on his routine visit. He found four youngmen, lying in the corridor. He informed the panchayat pardhan, Mr Raj Kumar Kaura, who immediately reached the spot and shifted the four to Civil Hospital, Baijnath, where all were declared dead. A doctor in the hospital told newsmen that the deaths had occurred much earlier. Mr Prithvi Raj, SSP, Kangra, told newsmen that the police had registered a case and three wine shops had
been sealed at Paprola and Aweri. He said the deaths might have occurred because of poisoning. The bodies were handed over to the family members of the deceased after postmortem. All business establishments at Palampur, Baijnath and Paprola remained closed today to mourn the unnatural deaths of the youths. |
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ABVP eyes HPU students’ body SHIMLA, Sept 17 — Buoyed by its spectacular victory in the elections to the students central associations of the 50-odd colleges in the state, the Akhil Bhartiya
Vidyarthi Parishad is making a determined bid to hoist the saffron flag on the Himachal Pradesh University campus which has remained a pocket borough of the Left forces led by the Students Federation of India all these years. The campus is buzzing with feverish activity with the three main contenders, the SFI, the ABVP and the NSUI, engaged in a no holds-barred battle for supremacy in the students Central Association on the campus. With just three days to go for election, slated for September 21, student leaders from all over the state have descended on the campus to canvass for their respective unions. The results of the elections in colleges, which were held after a gap of five years, have come as a big setback to the SFI which reigned supreme in the students politics for the past about two decades. It could manage to retain its hold only in about a dozen institutions whereas the rival ABVP made a clean sweep in 29 out of the total 53 colleges where elections were held. Besides it won three out of four posts in another six colleges. The NSUI, which was all but completely wiped out, did well in just half a dozen colleges. The stage is now set for keen electoral battle for the presitigious SCA of the campus. The SFI is fighting with its back to the wall to save the ‘red’ bastion. More so the ABVP has made violence as the main poll issue. It blames the SFI for it and cites the murder of its leader Mr Kuldeep Dhatwalia in 1995. Some leaders of the SFI were indeed convicted in connection with the violent incidents in 1995 which led to the scrapping of the SCA poll. Mr Kamal Nayan, President of the campus unit of the Parishad said the peace-loving students of the hill state had rejected the cult of violence propagated by the SFI by handing out a crushing defeat on the Leftist students outfit and avenged the murder of Mr Dhatwalia by ensuring overwhelming victory of the Parishad in colleges. The SFI had on the other hand made saffronisation and commercialisation of education as its main plank. Mr Tikender Singh, a senior SFI leader, feels that the irregularities in appointments and perennial resource crunch being faced by the university were the main concern of the students. As these would affect the academic standards. He claimed that although the results of elections in colleges were not up to the expectations of the federation but it did fairly well by maintaining its supremacy in five main institutions in district headquarters. The main reason for the good show of the ABVP has been that it did not toe the line of the government even after the BJP came to power in the state and vigorously pursued the demand for the restoration of SCA elections and opposed commercialisation of higher education. The decision of the Bilaspur Students Union to join hands with the Parishad had boosted its electoral prospects further and the two decided to field a common panel of candidates. On the other hand the NSUI’s position had been severely undermined due to the emergence of the Himachal Students Union, a parallel outfit floated by its disgruntled leaders. Its presence in the fray has added to the prevailing confusion on the campus. A clear picture will emerge tomorrow after the filing of nominations. |
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Electoral college list nullified SHIMLA, Sept 17 — Enraged by the deletion of names of several pro-Virbhadra Singh delegates from the electoral college list of the organisational poll, the executive committee of the District Congress Committee (Urban) yesterday nullified the “tampered” list and urged the party high command to immediately replace the District Returning Officer
(DRO) and the Assistant Returning Officer (ARO), who were allegedly favouring the anti-Virbhadra Singh faction. An emergency meeting of the executive committee was held here yesterday to condemn the “unsatisfactory functioning” of the DRO and the
ARO. The committee adopted a resolution nullifying the list of delegates prepared by the ARO and authorised the DCC chief, Mr Om Prakash
Sood, to prepare a fresh list. The DCC has also faxed complaints to the AICC chief, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the Central Election Authority and the Pradesh Election Authority against the “rigging of the election” by the anti-Virbhadra Singh group. Certain members of the party have filed a petition in a court against the deletion of names. Resentment was also expressed over the absence of all three members of the Pradesh Election Authority (PEA) from here while complaints of rigging of the organisational election were being reported from many places. The Chairman of the PEA, Mr V. Hanumantha Rao, and other members, Mr Mangat Ram Sharma and Mr K.D. Sultanpuri, were not available to receive the complaints, several Congress workers alleged. They alleged that neither the DRO nor the ARO of Shimla (Urban) district was present here for conducting the election. The ARO finalised the list of voters while at Solan and when he was summoned here yesterday, he did not come, Mr Om Prakash Sood said. He said names of Mr
A.N. Bazwaria, member, AICC, and permanent Secretary of the PCC, and Mrs Veena Gupta, Assistant Secretary, were also not on the list. Justifying the action of the executive committee, Mr Sood said Section 10 of Article 23 of the recently amended constitution of the Congress party provided that “any dispute regarding election at the primary unit level and the block-level can be disposed by the DCC
executive.” |
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Himachal college poll results CHAMBA, Sept 17 — The Students Federation of India (SFI) has bagged four top seats in the elections to the Students Central Association at Government College, Chamba. These are: president — Baldev Negi; vice-president — Ved Prakash; general secretary — Kuldip Singh; and secretary — Pratap Singh. In Government College, Chowari, the National Students Union of India (NSUI) won two seats, viz. president — Amit Sood and joint secretary — Chaghar Singh. The Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) also won two seats: vice-president — Rajeev Singh and general secretary — Swaran Singh. And out of nine class representative (CRs) the (NSUI) bagged seven, the ABVP one and an Independent one. In DAV College, Banikhet, the ABVP swept four important posts these were: president — Ashok Kumar; vice-president — Anita Jaswal; general secretary — Vishal Rana; and joint secretary — Bhupender Chauhan. BILASPUR: All four key posts of the Students Central Association in the election of Government Post-graduate College here were captured by the ABVP the results of which were declared here on Friday night. Kapil Dev was declared president, Rakesh Kumar Sharma vice-president, Abhey Vatsayayan general-secretary and Pawan Kumar joint secretary. Most of the posts of class representatives were also bagged by the ABVP. The ABVP also captured the Students Central Association election at Government Degree College, Ghumarwin, when its candidates Santosh Kumar, Rajinder Kumar and Ashwini Kumar were declared elected as president, general secretary and joint secretary. Similarly, election of the SCA at a private college named Rulduram Sanatan Dharma College at Nainadevi, all four posts were won by the ABVP and Rajesh Kumar, Balvinder Kumar, Umesh Kumar and Bandana were elected as president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary, respectively. |
Tehsils to have
senior assistants: CM HAMIRPUR, Sept 17 — The Chief Minister, Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, has said the government is committed to provide a transparent and responsive administration to people and added that this would not be possible without the cooperation of employees. He said the employees were the backbone of the government and efforts would be made to safeguard their interests. Addressing a state-level function of the DC Office Employees Association here today, the Chief Minister said the employees should devote their energy for doing people’s work. He said senior assistants would be posted in each tehsil and the post of reader to the Deputy Commissioner would be upgraded to the rank of Superintendent (grade II). Free travelling allowance of notice servers would be linked with their pay scales, he said. Mr Rajan Sushant, Minister of State for Revenue, justified the Amended Revenue Act. He said the Act was amended to help the poor, especially those living in rural areas. He said if it was found after a year that it was not in the interest of the masses, it would be amended again. |
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Enforce Directive
Principles: panel SHIMLA, Sept 17 — The Minorities and Social Welfare Parishad has urged the Constitution Review Commission to recommend suitable amendments to make the Directive Principles enforceable by law. In a memorandum to the commission, members of the parishad pointed out that the directives enjoining the government to work for the economic equality, social justice, universal education etc remained mere moral precepts and needed to be codified by legislation. They also underlined the need to make the right to work, education and health care should be made fundamental rights. To avoid political instability, the Prime Minister should be elected by both Houses for a five-year term through secret ballot. The Council of Ministers should be formed in proportion to the strength of the parties and percentage of the votes polled. The system of proportionate representation by a single transferable vote should be introduced to provide adequate representation to minorities in the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan
Sabhas, they added. |
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Winter school on fruits
inaugurated SOLAN, Sept 17 — The Vice-Chancellor of Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Prof R.P. Awasthi, inaugurated an ICAR-sponsored winter school on the enhancement of productivity of temperate fruits at the university campus at Nauni, near here, yesterday. He said China had registered a 400 per cent growth in fruit production during the past seven years and had emerged as the number one fruit producing country in the world. Professor Awasthi said Indian Horticulture scientists would have to work hard far introducing disease-resistant and high-yielding varieties. The university Director of Research informed that the area under fruit in Himachal Pradesh had increased 200 times during the past 50 years. Yet apple production per hectare in the state was four to five times behind countries like the USA. He said the winter school would focus on the need for increasing fruit production to the prevailing international standards. Thirty scientists from Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and the ICAR are participating in the winter school. |
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HP cops told to brief tourists DALHOUSIE, Sept 17 — The police in Dalhousie, Khajjiar and Chamba hill stations have been directed to advise tourists to take precautionary measures for their safety and security in the wake of recent attacks on the tourists in Kulu. In a press note issued here today, Mr Sanjay Kundu, SP, Chamba, said police personnel had been told to educate tourists regarding the attacks which were being motivated with the view of robbing them. The tourists were being advised to carry minimum cash and to make use of travellers’ cheques. They were being suggested to inform the local police about their arrival and their probable tour
programme. |
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Cong misleading people: Nadda SHIMLA, Sept 17 — Mr J.P. Nadda, the Health and Family Welfare Minister, today charged the Opposition Congress of misleading the people on the decision to set up autonomous societies to manage the state and district hospitals and assured that there was no move to hike medical charges as was being alleged. Talking to newsmen after inaugurating a vaccination camp organised by the Rotary Club to immunise people against Hepatitis-B, here today, he said the formation of autonomous societies was part of the government’s effort to ensure accountability and efficiency in the functioning of big hospitals through decentralisation of administrative and financial powers. Besides, the main objective was to prevent the misuse of the free medical care facility by people who were not entitled for it. Medical charges had been levied for the past many years but most of the patients were availing the free treatment facility meant for the poor. He said the steps being taken by the government to streamline the functioning of the hospitals would ensure that the benefit of the highly subsidised health care services reached the target group. He said the people would not be misled by false propaganda of the Congress and would give a befitting reply to it by handing out crushing defeat to it in the ensuing panchayat and local bodies poll. He said there was not even an iota of truth in the Congress allegation that the charge for the hospital slip would be hiked from 25 paise to Rs 10 and other medical charges would be increased manifold. He condemned the Congress for rejecting outright the new initiative taken by the government to improve the functioning of the hospitals even before giving it a try. It clearly indicated that the campaign of the Congress, which was struggling to keep its eroding support base, was politically motivated. He said the government would not benefit from the societies in any way as the resources generated from the hospitals would be utilised only for the upgradation facilities. At least 2,500 persons, including about 1900 children, were vaccinated during the camp. Earlier speaking at the conclusion of a two-day workshop on pelvic fixation at Indira Gandhi Medical College, Mr Nadda underlined the need for continuing medical education programme to enable the inservice doctors and teachers to remain abreast of the latest advancements in various disciplines. |
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Artificial limbs’ camp
inaugurated HAMIRPUR, Sept 17 — The Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, today inaugurated a five-day artificial limbs camp organised here by the Ambuja Cement Foundation, in collaboration with limb experts of Rajasthan. In his inaugural address, the Chief Minister lauded the efforts of the foundation in the noble work. He gave a clarion call to people to donate a portion of income to help disabled persons. He said such efforts would go a long way in instilling confidence among the handicapped persons to live respectfully in the society. Professor Dhumal honoured limb experts from Rajasthan. He stressed the need for organising such camps in the state to benefit the needy. Mr Suresh Neetia, Chairman and Managing Director of the foundation, welcomed the Chief Minister on the occasion and assured him that more such camps would be organised. Next camp would be held at Darlaghat, he said. |
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Police post
inaugurated SHIMLA, Sept 17 — Irked over a number of burglaries in the area, residents of Vikas Nagar here have made contributions for constructing a police post which was inaugurated in the locality yesterday. The police post was inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr P.C. Katoch. The SP, Mr A.N. Sharma, was also present. The president of the Residents Welfare Society, Mr Arvind K. Batish, said Mr Sharma had assured them that adequate personnel would be deployed in the police post. |
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Lively show by Punjabi Munde PARWANOO
The show started with “Jind meri mahi mahi kookdi”. Quite a few youngsters from the audience joined them on the floor with the number “Chori chori kothe utte aaja goriye ni chann charhiya” and anothe song “Punjabi munde aa gei aa gei” went down well with the audience. The said they belonged to
Mullanpur, near the PGI Chandigarh, and had received their initial training in “dhadi” singing, from their father and uncle. Both have also received training in bhangra and they claim that they are the first bhangra band in India. |
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Boat service
poor, allege commuters BILASPUR, Sept 17 — A large number of commuters, who travel by motor boats here across the
Gobindsagar, have expressed resentment at the irregular service being provided by motor boat contractors. The commuters alleged that there was hardly any check on the contractors, who were “totally ignoring the convenience of passengers”. They urged the state Health and Family Welfare Minister, Mr Jagat Prakash
Nadda, and the district administration to intervene in the matter to ensure the observation of rules by the contractors. |
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