H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Stay against new BCC ‘office-bearers’
SOLAN, Oct 7 — A Senior Sub Judge, Mr K.L. Sharma, yesterday granted an ad interim injunction restraining the 11 persons, who were ‘declared unanimously elected’ in the organisational ‘poll’ for the Solan Block Congress Committee (BCC) held here on September 19, from identifying themselves or functioning as the new office-bearers of the party.

14-km bypass not ready in 11 yrs
KUMARHATTI: The construction 13.79-km-long Barog bypass linking Kumarhatti with Saproon (Solan) is becoming a nightmare for residents of this town and the surrounding villages, particularly for those along the bypass.

US-aided polytechnic for Solan
DHARAMSALA, Oct 7 — Laying the foundation stone of a Rs 30 crore Polytechnic College at Talwar village in the Jaisinghpur area of Kangra, the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, announced that the government proposed to set up another college in Solan district with the help of the University of California, Berkley, USA.

HP to promote temple tourism
SHIMLA, Oct 7 — The promotion of temple tourism is on top priority of the Himachal Pradesh Government which has prepared integrated development plans for the shrines.

Familiarise kids with Army: General
DALHOUSIE, Oct 7 — Maj-Gen T.P.S. Brar, General Officer Commanding (GOC), 27 Mtn. Division, Pathankot, has appealed to Dalhousie Public School to send at least 20 students, including girls, studying in senior classes to their unit base camp so that they could be apprised of the functioning of the Indian military.

Attack on scribe: fresh probe sought
BILASPUR, Oct 7 — The Himachal Pradesh State Journalists Federation has rejected the report of Mr K.C. Sadyal, Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Northern Range), regarding giving a clean chit to two police officers whom a journalist of a Hindi Daily Prakash Badal, posted at Dharamsala, had accused of conspiring to assault and attack him at Kangra Bazar a few days ago.

Cong DROs meet tomorrow
SHIMLA, Oct 7 — A meeting of the district returning officers (DROs) of the Congress organisational elections has been convened here on October 9 to finalise arrangements for conducting elections to the DCCs.

7 Bilaspur wards declared reserved
BILASPUR, Oct 7 — The Deputy Commissioner , Mr Jagdish Chander Sharma, in a notification issued under the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, has declared seven of the 14 wards of the Zila Parishad in the district as reserved. Three wards have been reserved for women of general category, two for women of Scheduled Castes and two for Scheduled Tribes.

Inter-college quiz on wildlife held
SHIMLA, Oct 7 — Government College, Chamba, won the inter-college quiz on wildlife awareness organised by the Forest Department to mark the wildlife week here yesterday.

Gaiety marks Dasehra
SHIMLA, Oct 7 — The festival of Dasehra marking the triumph of good over evil was celebrated with great enthusiasm throughout Himachal Pradesh today.

Need for health policy stressed
SHIMLA, Oct 7 — The need for a comprehensive health policy in the state has been stressed by the Himachal Pradesh Voluntary Health Association.

Stay against new BCC ‘office-bearers’
From Our Correspondent

SOLAN, Oct 7 — A Senior Sub Judge, Mr K.L. Sharma, yesterday granted an ad interim injunction restraining the 11 persons, who were ‘declared unanimously elected’ in the organisational ‘poll’ for the Solan Block Congress Committee (BCC) held here on September 19, from identifying themselves or functioning as the new office-bearers of the party.

Three local Congress men, known to be Virbhadra Singh loyalists — Mr Sunjay Sharma, Mr Satya Narain and Mr Yoginder Kumar — had on September 23 filed an application under Order 39, Rule 1 and 2, CPC, in the court of Mr Sharma, challenging the BCC elections. They had also prayed for ad interim injunction prohibiting the “elected” persons from functioning in their new capacities till the disposal of the main suit.

The plaintiffs had contended that the September 19 elections were ‘never held’ as neither any consensus was arrived at nor were any votes cast. They had further claimed that the Returning Officer had, in fact, left the election venue on the pretext of getting ballot papers, which were being printed at a local computer shop, but he never returned. They further claimed that they had come to know of the “elections having been held” after reading the next day’s newspapers.

Interestingly, three prominent local Congressmen — Mr Anil Sharma, Treasurer, Mr Bhupinder Kashyap and Ms Krishna Mehta, who had been ‘declared officially elected as vice-president, treasurer and DCC delegate, respectively — had described the elections’ as a ‘fraud’. They had also openly accused the Returning Officer of having rigged the elections.

Later, about 150 persons out of a total electorate of 206 had sent a memorandum to the party high command seeking annulment of the poll and fixing of a fresh date.

The judge also restrained the ‘newly elected office-bearers’ from participating in the DCC and PCC elections.

14-km bypass not ready in 11 yrs
From Jagmeet Singh

KUMARHATTI: The construction 13.79-km-long Barog bypass linking Kumarhatti with Saproon (Solan) is becoming a nightmare for residents of this town and the surrounding villages, particularly for those along the bypass. Work on the Barog bypass, which is being constructed to ease the traffic hazard at Barog, which falls in the snow-prone area, has been proceeding at a snail’s pace for about 11 years. The delay to make the bypass operational within the stipulated time has led to cause inconvenience to residents as a three-km stretch from its starting point here has developed numerous potholes, some are extremely wide. The unpliable condition of the bypass is not the only problem that the residents are forced to bear with, the authorities lackadaisical approach has added to their woes.

During the monsoon the situation worsened as debris from a hill where a huge construction is going on, fell on the bypass. Even after a moderate spell of rain the kutcha bypass is virtually turn into a pool of slush. The residents allege efforts to draw the attention of authorities in this regard have virtually failed, as it seems that their requests have fallen on deaf ears.

A visit by this correspondent to the badly affected areas of the bypass, near here, revealed that at some places the potholes have widened making driving an arduous task for motorists. At some points the uneven track of bypass has made it impossible for a vehicle to pass even at a slow speed. The situation has turned grave as the DAV Centenary School (situated along the bypass) bus carrying around 30 school children plies daily on this bypass. The uneven surfaces of the bypass not give only a bumpy ride to school kids, mostly in the age group of 5 to 10, but the bus tilts at times, which may cause an accident any time. Mr VK Chopra, the principal of school, says despite countless requests to the PWD to level the stretch, nothing concrete has been done so far. Owing to the tardiness of the PWD, school kins are forced to face an ordeal, he rues. The PWD has dumped a huge stock of mud in to a nullah near the school building which often makes its way to the school premises whenever it rains, laments the principal. The indifferent attitude of the PWD has forced the school to spend Rs 40,000 to clear the debris from the school ground.

“We have to service our vehicles whenever we go to meet our children at school, points out Mr Parmood Arora from Dharampur whose children are enrolled in this school. Similar complaints can be heard from other parents.

Mr NK Jindal, Executive Engineer, PWD (N Div), assured that conditions at the bypass would be improved when he was called to attend the Teachers’ Day function at the school but till this date the assurance has not been acted upon.

Mr Jindal, when contacted, said unless the bypass was completed, the department could not improve conditions. He denied that he had given any assurances in this regard. He asserted that the Central Government did not pay for even temporary maintenance of a road under construction. It could not be made a part of national highway unless completed. He said a tender had been floated to expedite work on the bypass.

US-aided polytechnic for Solan
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, Oct 7 — Laying the foundation stone of a Rs 30 crore Polytechnic College at Talwar village in the Jaisinghpur area of Kangra, the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, announced that the government proposed to set up another college in Solan district with the help of the University of California, Berkley, USA.

The Chief Minister said that the polytechnic would be named after former minister and veteran politician, Late Kanwar Durga Chand, in recognition of his selfless service to the poor and downtrodden.

Addressing a public meeting, he said that apart from two polytechnic colleges, an institute of Information Technology would be set up by the private sector, for which efforts were already afoot. “The government will pay special attention towards technical education, so that the educated youth can set up their own ventures and be self-employed,” he observed.

Keeping in view the relevance and importance of computer education today, the government had already decided to introduce this subject in 125 senior secondary schools in Himachal during the current year, he claimed. All other high schools would also be provided with this facility in a phased manner. Computer and technical education was being introduced in the existing institutes of the state.

The Chief Minister said that to ensure that the benefits of the schemes and welfare measures, meant for the poor and the needy reached them, the government proposed to set up Vigilance Committees. “We want to ensure that the prosperous and the affluent people do not take a major portion of the schemes for the poor as this will only widen the gap between the two,” he stated.

Defending the decision of his government to set up societies for the IGMC at Shimla and the regional hospital, he said that this had been done to provide better health facilities. “There is no need for the poor to be panicky as the ones who can afford to pay will be asked to do so,” he assured.

Outlining other welfare measures taken by his government, he said that under the Matri Bima Yojana, 5.86 lakh poor women from IRDP families will be provided with security, without having to pay any premium. He added that the Kisan Pass Books, having legal status, will be distributed to about 13 lakh farmers.

The Chief Minister assured the public that the water problem of the Jaisingpur area would be soon solved as a Rs 65 lakh scheme, under NABARD funding, had been proposed. He later inaugurated the Senior Secondary School at village Gandhar, the community health centre and the Lift Irrigation Scheme at Jaisinghpur.

HP to promote temple tourism
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Oct 7 — The promotion of temple tourism is on top priority of the Himachal Pradesh Government which has prepared integrated development plans for the shrines.

Temples and shrines are scattered throughout the state and there is a great scope for introducing pilgrimage tourism.

About 2,000 deities are worshipped in Himachal Pradesh, which and is known in the ancient scriptures as “Dev Bhoomi” (the abode of Gods) and is a pilgrimage centre for the Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists and endowed with immense natural beauty and spiritual calm. The worship of Shiva, Kali and Buddha is inherent in about 2,000 old temples of Himachal. The sanctums of workship, being diverse in style, can be classified into some basic types i.e. shikhara, pagoda, mandap, flat-rooted, gompas, caves and other indigenous types.

The temples of Masrur, Baijnath, Bajaura and Bharmour are some of the ancient shrines in the shikhara style. A group of 15 shrines at Masrur relates to the eighth century. The entire complex was earlier dedicated to Shiva. The main feature of the Shikhara type of Indo-Aryan architecture is that it has been hewn from a rock and thus serves as a very good example of monolith structure.

The Chamba and Kangra regions are particularly famous for their temples. The Baijnath temple, 36 km from Kangra and built in the Shikhara tradition, is one of the magnificent temples in Himachal and is known for the blend of sculpture and architecture. The Laxmi Narain stone temple in Chamba and the Chaurasi temples of Bharmour are dedicated to Vishnu and Shiva and relate to the 10th century. The two principal ones are dedicated to Shiva under the name of Manimahesh and Narsingh.

Artistic craftsmanship and architectural ingenuity can be seen at the best at Basheshwar Mahadev temple at Bajaura in the Kulu-Manali valley. The temples of Triloknath of Lahaul, Laxmi Narain, Hari Rai and Gauri Shankar of Chamba and Manimahesh of Bharmaur have also been erected in the shikhara style. Triloknath has a six-armed marble image of Avalokiteshwari. The images of Laxmi Narain, Gauri Shankar, Hari Rai and Manimahesh temples hold a very high artistic standard.

The pagoda type of shrines offer a peculiar construction design in Himachal Pradesh. The temples of this style include the Hidimba Devi temple in Manali and the Bhimakali temple in Sarahan. These are well known for their beautifully tiered roofs and the temple of Tripura Sundari at Naggar, Trijugi Narain at Dyar, Adi-Brahma at Kulu, Parashar temple at Mandi, Sungara temple at Nichar district for their pyramidical structures.

Jawalamukhi and Chamunda Devi temples, both in Kangra district, the Naina Devi temple in Bilaspur and Chintpurni temple in Una district have always remained the centres of religious activities.

Bhimakalai at Sarahan (Shimla), Chandika Devi at Kothi (Shimla) and Usha Nichar (Kinnaur) are some of the strives raised in the typical pahari style. This style connotes the timber-bonded stone walls and the slanting roof covered either by slates or shivgles.

The pent-roofed style is well reflected in the temples of Bijli Mahadev (Kulu), Shirgul (Sirmaur), Hatkoti and Gijari (Shimla), Lakshana Devi (Bharmour), Shakti Devi (Chhatrari) and Mrikula Devi (Lahaul).

Among the gompas in Himachal, the Tabo monastery, also known as “the Ajanta of the Himalayas” in Spiti and the Khardang Gompa in Lahaul are among the oldest Buddhist monasteries. A series of frescoes on the walls of the Tabo monastery depict the tales from the Buddhist pantheon. In Kinnaur district the Jangi and Lipa monasteries are among the important Buddhist shrines. The Kee monastery is the biggest in the western Himalayas housing more than 200 monks at a time.

Cave temples are the rarest of all temples in Himachal. Baba Balaknath in Hamirpur district and the Trilokpur shrine in Kangra district are the most visited temples of this kind.

The state has a number of old palaces, forts, havelies and other beautiful buildings. The government is encouraging the development of such buildings as tourist accommodation. Such heritage hotels are exempted from the luxury tax for a period of five years.

Apart from heritage buildings being converted into hotels, there are a number of historical temples, monasteries, churches, forts and other buildings which constitute the cultural heritage of the state. The government would endeavour to associate the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) and private sector in development of these as major tourist attractions. Thirtyseven monuments are being looked after by the ASI and five monuments are being protected by the state.

Familiarise kids with Army: General
From Our Correspondent

DALHOUSIE, Oct 7 — Maj-Gen T.P.S. Brar, General Officer Commanding (GOC), 27 Mtn. Division, Pathankot, has appealed to Dalhousie Public School to send at least 20 students, including girls, studying in senior classes to their unit base camp so that they could be apprised of the functioning of the Indian military.

General Brar was presiding over the founders’ day celebration function of the school here last evening.

He highlighted the need of familiarising the students with the working of the military to infuse a sentiment of discipline, patriotism and the courage to serve the nation.

He stated that equal participation of girls and their contribution in the Army was required adding that he was happy to see the trend of girls joining the Army and carrying out their duties to the nation with grit, dedication and determination.

A fascinating cultural programme was presented and various P.T. displays were performed by students on this occasion. Later, the chief guest gave away prices to the students.

Attack on scribe: fresh probe sought
From Our Correspondent

BILASPUR, Oct 7 — The Himachal Pradesh State Journalists Federation has rejected the report of Mr K.C. Sadyal, Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Northern Range), regarding giving a clean chit to two police officers whom a journalist of a Hindi Daily Prakash Badal, posted at Dharamsala, had accused of conspiring to assault and attack him at Kangra Bazar a few days ago.

The association has urged the Chief Minister, Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, to order a free, fair and impartial inquiry into this incident.

Addressing media persons here today along with a dozen other leaders the State Journalists Federation state President, Mr Jai Kumar, said that an inquiry should not only be impartial but also credible.

He said that after this incident, the state federation had sent a fax to the Chief Minister, urging him to send a senior IAS officer from Shimla to conduct this inquiry, but the request was not heeded and a police officer of the same range was asked to probe the matter against his own subordinates.

An emergency meeting of the State Journalists Federation has been called at the Circuit House here on October 15 to chalk out the future course of action.

Cong DROs meet tomorrow
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Oct 7 — A meeting of the district returning officers (DROs) of the Congress organisational elections has been convened here on October 9 to finalise arrangements for conducting elections to the DCCs.

A member of the state election authority of the party, Mr K.D. Sultanpuri, will address the DROs.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the PCC headquarters here has not so far been provided with the list of delegates who were earlier elected at the primary and block levels. The list of those elected as delegates for the PCC was also not available with the party headquarters.

The elections to the DCCs, which were to be held between September 29 to October 3, are now being held between October 10 to 15. Although only two days are left in between the elections, there is confusion among partymen as they are unaware of the list of delegates.

The Congress elections in the state have already become controversial with one of the groups alleging large-scale rigging.

7 Bilaspur wards declared reserved
From Our Correspondent

BILASPUR, Oct 7 — The Deputy Commissioner , Mr Jagdish Chander Sharma, in a notification issued under the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, has declared seven of the 14 wards of the Zila Parishad in the district as reserved. Three wards have been reserved for women of general category, two for women of Scheduled Castes and two for Scheduled Tribes.

Patta ward, which is at present represented by Mr Rattan Lal Chopra, Congress leader of the Ghumarwin area, and Ghandir ward, which is represented by Congress leader and Zila Parishad Chairman Dilaram Dhiman, have been reserved for general category women.

Samch ward, at present held by Mr Hardyal Singh Guleria of the BJP and Kotkhas ward, represented by the CPM leader, Mr Vijay Sharma, have been reserved for the Scheduled Castes women. Barmana ward, represented by the CPI leader, Mr Bhagat Singh Verma and Behal ward represented by the Congress leader, Mr Hoshiar Singh Thakur, have been delcared reserved for the Scheduled Tribes.

The wards which are now open and unreserved are those of Pantehada, Lehadisarel, Kuthed, Barthin, Kalol, Chandpur and Jukhala.

Earlier, Pantehada was reserved for the general category women and represented by Ms Meera Verma of the Congress. Same was the case with Lehadisarel ward.

Kutheda ward, represented by the BJP president, Ms Rajkumari Chauhan, has been declared unreserved. It was earlier reserved for women. Barthin ward, represented by Ms Shakuntla Kaushal, has also been declared unreserved.

Similarly Kalol, Chandpur and Jukhala wards which were earlier reserved for the Scheduled Castes women have also been declared unreserved. Suinsurhaad ward has been declared reserved for the general category women.

Thus, the status of all 14 wards of the Zila Parishad have been changed and the present incumbents will have to either seek re-election from other wards or will not be there in the new parishad after January , 2001.

Inter-college quiz on wildlife held
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Oct 7 — Government College, Chamba, won the inter-college quiz on wildlife awareness organised by the Forest Department to mark the wildlife week here yesterday.

Its two-member team comprised Satinder Jaswal and Subhash Chandra. Sunil Kumar and Rakesh of Government College, Sarkaghat, were the runners-up and Deepa Rana and Vishal Mahajan of Government College, Dharamsala, got the third position.

The inter-school competition was won by Akhileh Negi and Kanwar Pragati Singh of DAV School, New Shimla. The second position was bagged by Bhaskar and Vineet of Government Senior School, Lalpani, while Rita and Hema of Senior Secondary School, Phagli, came third.

Gaiety marks Dasehra

SHIMLA, Oct 7 (PTI) — The festival of Dasehra marking the triumph of good over evil was celebrated with great enthusiasm throughout Himachal Pradesh today.

Burning of effigies of Ravana, Kumbhkaran and Meghnad around sunset rung down the curtain on the 10-day-long Vijay Dashami celebrations ‘vijay dashami’.

The nine-day-old navratra fairs at famous devi shrines of Chamunda, Naina Devi, Chintpurni, Jwalaji, Brajeshwari, Kalibari, Taradevi and other temples also concluded today.

The Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, presided over the main function at the Jakhoo Temple where thousands of people witnessed the burning of the effigies.

Reports of Dasehra celebrations were also received from various places in Punjab and Haryana.

Need for health policy stressed
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Oct 7 — The need for a comprehensive health policy in the state has been stressed by the Himachal Pradesh Voluntary Health Association.

This was highlighted in a three-day state advocacy meeting on child healthcare and other related issue, which was organised here by the association.

It was stressed that the nomadic tribes and socio-cultural attitude of the people should be taken into consideration while formulating the health policy.

The executive secretary of the association, Mr Rajan Mahajan, emphasised that the role of NGOs should be specific and clear in such policies. Voluntary organisations should be provided special funds as was being done in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.