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| Saturday,
December 30, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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HP Assembly passes two
Bills Questions in Assembly Amendment to Panchayat Act
criticised Pak captive to return home |
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CM lays stress on
austerity MC policy on houses in villages decried 7 SC women eye ZP’s quota post Engineers hail decision on project
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HP Assembly passes two
Bills SHIMLA, Dec 29 — The Himachal Assembly passed the Himachal Pradesh Public Money Recovery Bill and the State Land Revenue (Second Amendment) Bill amidst a walkout by the Opposition Congress on the final day of the winter session here today. The Congress members were against passing the Bills, particularly one pertaining to the recovery of public money. Mr Virbhadra Singh, the Leader of the Opposition, pointed out that since the Original Public Money Recovery Bill was withdrawn on Wednesday, the Bill introduced today was a new one and as such it could not be passed on the same day unless the relevant rule was suspended. Mr Kaul Singh also of the Congress supported his contention and said the members should get adequate time of study the Bill and move amendments. However, the Speaker, Mr Gulab Singh, said there was no change in the withdrawn Bill and he had on that very day ruled that the government could bring the Bill either on December 29 or during the budget session. The Congress members maintained that the Bill could not be passed on the same day without suspending the rule and walked out in protest. Earlier, replying to the debate, Mr Rajan Sushant, Revenue Minister, said the draft of the Bill was approved by the previous Congress government in 1996 and no major changes had been made except that Section 4 had been deleted on the suggestion of the Centre, which had also granted its prior approval to the Bill. Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, said the Bill, which had been pending since 1996, should be passed without delay. The House also passed the State Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill in the face of protest from the Congress members, who staged another walkout when their demand for referring the Bill to a select committee was turned down by the government. Replying to the debate on the Bill, Dr Rajan Sushant, Revenue Minister, said the 113-year-old Land Revenue Act was amended after a prolonged exercise on the recommendations of a high powered committee. He said the only motive behind it was to ensure speedy justice to the farmers by deleting obsolete clauses and amending some others to make them relevant. He said he had incorporated all changes suggested by the members of the Bar Council, the Revenue Officers Association and the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh to make the clauses clear. He clarified that the civil courts were not debarred from taking up revenue cases and the question of title would be decided by the civil courts only. Earlier, participating in the debate on the Bill, Mr Ram Lal said the amendment to the Land Revenue Act could not have been carried out without the prior approval of the Centre as it would have had implications for several central Acts like the Special Relief Act and the Transfer of Property Act. He said there were several
judgement of Supreme Court and various high courts, which had held that title disputes were not be decided by revenue officers but judicial courts. Mr Chander Kumar said the issues raised by the Bar Council had not be addressed in the amendment. Mr Virbhadra Singh said by bringing an amendment to the Bill passed only in the last session had proved the contention of the Opposition that the Bill was passed in haste. It would be better that rather than passing the second amendment in haste, the Bill be referred to a select committee. This view was, however, not accepted by the government and the Bill was passed even as the Congress members staged a walkout. |
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Questions in Assembly SHIMLA, Dec 29 — As many as 3095 posts of various categories of teachers are lying vacant in various government schools in Himachal Pradesh. Stating this during the question hour at the state Assembly, Mr I.D. Dhiman, Education Minister, said these included 147 posts of principals, 183 of headmasters, 166 of school lecturers, 682 of trained graduate teachers (TGTs), 475 of drawing masters and 296 of language teachers. He claimed that the situation had improved considerably over the past two years as the government had recruited a large number of teachers to provide adequate staff to schools. He said there were 981 high schools in the state, but only 97 posts of headmaster were vacant. While not a single post of TGT (medical) was vacant, those of TGT (non-medical) would be filled as soon as the recommendation of the state public service commission was received, he said. Replying to a supplementary question of Mrs Asha Kumari, he said in the category of classical and vernacular teachers, 1879 posts of the total 13,703 posts were vacant. Efforts were on to fill these posts, he said. Mr Kaul Singh, Mr Rangila Ram Rao and other members maintained that many schools in their areas were without staff, whereas in some other areas, there were surplus teachers. Mr Virbhadra Singh, the leader of Opposition said the government had made a mockery of the sub-cadre, specially created to fill posts in backward areas by shifting the employees recruited under it within months of posting. He said if even these employees were transferred after a short stay, the very purpose of setting up a sub-cadre would be defeated. Mr Dhiman said the government had taken steps to rationalise postings of staff and if any instances of surplus teachers were brought to his notice he would take corrective steps. Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, informed Mr Harsh Mahajan of the Congress that as many as 19 hydel projects, including four big ones, were under various stages of execution in the state. The big projects, with aggregate generation capacity of 2,226 mw, were likely to be completed by 2005-06 and an 86 mw project by the middle of 2001. He said the environment impact assessment had been duly prepared and approved. The NHPC had given Rs 48 lakh for compensatory afforestation under the Chamera-II project, out of which Rs 27 lakh had been spent. He assured that requisite staff would be provided by the Forest Department to speed up afforestation work. Replying to a joint question of Mr Kaul Singh and Mr G.S. Bali, Mr Dhumal said the crime graph had shown a declining trend over the past two years. SHIMLA, Dec 29 — The Himachal Pradesh Assembly adjourned sine die today after its five-day winter session.
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Amendment to Panchayat Act
criticised SOLAN, Dec 29— The DCC President Ram Asra and former Himachal PCC president K.D. Sultanpuri, at a press conference here yesterday, criticised the recent amendment to Section 131 of the Panchayati Raj Act empowering the government to nominate a member of its choice on the panchayats in the event of a vacancy leading to lack of quorum during transaction of important business. They maintained that the amendment, in reality which was a
stratagem devised for the sole purpose of imposing the government’s diktat was nothing but a mockery of the entire democratic process. “The government could remove any inconvenient member of a panchayat by levelling one charge or the other and impose its will via the backdoor by nominating a person suited to its designs.” The two leaders also criticised the provision of appointing vigilance committees on democratically elected panchayat bodies. They said that the BJP could, on the same analogy, appoint vigilance committees on Legislative Assemblies one day, throwing the entire democratic process to the winds. They said that the Congress was determined “not to let the BJP impose its fascist machinations on the people.” Mr Ram Asra and Mr Sultanpuri also alleged that grave irregularities had been committed in the recently concluded panchayati raj elections. “At many places hand written ballot papers, instead of the printed ones were used. At some places the Presiding Officers did not bother to get the signatures of the voters on the counterfoils of ballot papers”, they alleged. The system of making one voter cast five different votes at the same time one each for the panchayat member, up-pradhan, pradhan, BDC and Zila Parishad members was highly confusing for the rural electorate a majority of whom were illiterate. Earlier, the DCC held a meeting to commemorate the 115th anniversary of the foundation day of the Indian National Congress. |
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Pak captive to return home DHARAMSALA, Dec 29 — Seeing the trauma and endless wait of the relatives of Army personnel taken as Prisoners of War over the past several years, the family members, of Charan Singh (20) had almost given up hope, when the news about his release by Pakistan reached the tiny village of Boh in Shahpur. Charan Singh, who was working as a porter at Kargil, had suddenly gone missing on the night of July 26, along with two other men. The Army authorities had confirmed at that time that two porters, one from Nepal and another from Bihar, had been killed after having been taken as hostages in the Khalt sector of Jammu and Kashmir. Charan Singh’s mother Sonia Devi and grandfather Rasila Ram can hardly wait to see their child who had gone to Jammu and Kashmir with the dream of becoming a soldier. Unable to get recruited in the Army, he started working as a porter, helping in carrying ration and other material. Ever since he went missing, Charan Singh’s uncle, who is working in the office of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics at Skara in Leh, had knocked at the doors of the Defence Ministry, the Jammu and Kashmir
Government and army authorities to trace his missing nephew. It is now — after five months — that the news of the release of Charan Singh, reached his family at Boh. He is learnt to have been handed over to the Indian Army along with a Nepali porter by the Pakistani rangers, two days back. Though Charan Singh was taken captive on the night of July 26, it was only in the month of August that his family members got to know about it. Family members and relatives of Charan Singh were grateful to God after hearing the news. “We have heard of a number of families whose wait for the return of their loved ones is still continuing with no specific information about the safety and well-being of those taken as prisoners of war,” they said. The entire village is eagerly awaiting Charan Singh, whose father and uncle have gone to Jammu to bring him back. |
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MLAs complain against
Stokes SHIMLA, Dec 29 — The feud in the Congress took a serious turn today with 15 party legislators handing over a letter to the CLP leader, Mr Virbhadra Singh, accusing the newly-appointed PCC chief, Mrs Vidya Stokes, of making appointments of office-bearers arbitrarily. Some leaders of the anti-Stokes faction, who did not want to be identified, said the letter was signed by 15 of them. Three other legislators had given their consent for the letter on phone as they were not here, they claimed. When contacted, Mr Virbhadra denied that he had received any such letter. However, the anti-Stokes MLAs said they had given 10 days to Mr Virbhadra to take up the matter with the party high command, failing which they might take some “drastic” action. They alleged that Mrs Stokes had appointed Mr Kuldeep Rathore as a de facto president of the PCC by authorising him to function in her place during her absence form the state. Some of the legislators met Mrs Stokes in the opposition lounge in the Assembly and reportedly complained over her style of functioning. Mr Virbhadra Singh, however, told newspersons that there was no question of a revolt in the party. There was simmering discontent among some legislators and other partymen over the delay in the disposal of over two dozen appeals of rigging in the organisational elections. He said the matter should be resolved by the high command soon to restore confidence of the rank and file of the party in the election process. He said several organisational bodies, including the PCC, DCCs and block units, lacked validity because of complaints of rigging. Mr Virbhadra made it clear that everyone in the party was loyal to Mrs Sonia Gandhi. The reports of the possible split in the party were not based on facts. Such stories were being circulated by some vested interests to discredit the partymen, he added. |
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CM lays stress on
austerity SHIMLA, Dec 29 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, has stressed effective implementation of government’s decisions and bringing efficiency in the administration to deliver goods to the people. He was addressing secretaries and heads of departments here today. The Chief Minister expressed concern over the fact that most of cases in administrative tribunal and other courts were pending due to casual approach. Stressing on adhering to austerity and economic measures imposed by the government, the Chief Minister said that any departure from these would be viewed seriously. He said lavish spending on furnishing and repairs of government houses would not be allowed. The approval of a competent authority for taking up repairs and furnishing of government houses would be must in the future, he said. He said the government was committed for decentralisation of powers to the Panchayati Raj and local bodies institutions in the state and every department should follow actively in this respect. |
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MC policy on houses in villages decried SHIMLA, Dec 29 — The Kagna Dhar Welfare Society has urged the government to scrap the present retention policy and frame a new one keeping in view the status of existing houses, in the merged villages of the Shimla Municipal Corporation constructed while these areas were under panchayats. It pointed out that these villages were merged forcibly into the corporation despite protests from the residents and now the house owners were being harassed by enforcing a defective and impracticable retention policy framed for the regularisation of buildings. Since the houses were constructed while the area was under panchayat, these should be regularised on “as is-where-is” basis without any conditions. The society had reiterated that Mr Roop Das Kashyap, Himachal Urban Development Minister, had promised that people of these areas would be exempted from taxes for 10 years or till they were provided with basic amenities. His denial to this effect on the floor of the House was shocking and had caused much resentment among the residents. |
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7 SC women eye ZP’s quota post MANDI, Dec 29- Legal experts those days are debating whether the post of Zila Parishad President, which is reserved for a Scheduled Caste woman, can be contested for by a Scheduled caste woman elected from the general ward not reserved for the Scheduled Caste women. Four women have been elected from the reserved wards for the Scheduled Caste women. They are Badamo Devi, Man Dassi, Padma Devi and Umavati. These four women claim that they alone are eligible for contesting the post of Zila Parishad President. However, three other powerful women belonging to the Scheduled caste who have been elected from the non reserved wards are the strong contenders for the post of Zila Parishad chief. Two of these women are Advocates- Paro Devi and Punam, while the third one is Kalawati, wife of Himachal Food and Supplies Minister Mansa Ram. What decision on this point the District Returning Officer takes when the election is held on January 8, 2000 is to be seen. |
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Engineers hail decision on project SHIMLA, Dec 29 — The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Project Engineer Association has welcomed the decision of Mr P.K. Dhumal, Himachal Chief Minister, to entrust the 176 mw Kashang hydro-electric project along with the Siul and Ghanwi-II projects to the power board. Mr Vijay Attri, general secretary of the association also hailed the announcement of incentives to engineers and other employees associated with the completion of Ghanwi project. He urged the Chief Minister to call a joint meeting of the senior officers of the NJPC and the board along with the representatives of engineers and employees engaged on the Nathpa Jhakri Hydro-Electric project to resolve the pending issues. 23 Head Constables
promoted ASIs SHIMLA, Dec 29 — Twenty-three Head Constables in the wireless set-up of the Himachal police were promoted today assistant sub-inspectors.
According to Mr Jagjeet Kumar, DIG Wireless, these posts had been vacant for some time past. Morale of the police personnel in the state has been boosted with this major promotion order, he added. |
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