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| Wednesday, March 7, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Shanta blamed for
revolt in BJP Govt ‘losing’ grip on
admn
Efforts on to placate rebels
Probe rebels’ charges: Stokes Dhumal, Shanta gheraoed |
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Move to
make India ‘hunger-free’ HP Govt wants
back Annandale Ground Baramula martyrs cremated Private trees to get
royalty Forest fires belie
department’s claim Vehicle lifters’ gang
busted, 1 held Panel to recommend reservation for Dalits Muslims living in panic, says Virbhadra
HP increases resin price Roads in
Lahaul, Spiti opened Sacked employees demand justice
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Shanta blamed for
revolt in BJP Shimla, March 6 Today it was the turn of the dissidents to hit back at the loyalist who have been blaming Mr Shanta Kumar, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, for the revolt. Mr Des Raj, a rebel legislator, took exception to the remarks of Mr Kirpal Parmar, a Rajya Sabha member, against Mr Shanta Kumar and said that the party was paying the price of promoting such rootless and immature persons. In a strongly worded statement, he said it was the misfortune of the party that non-entities like Mr Parmar had managed to become members of the Rajya Sabha. He said Mr Parmar, who had been pursuing his political agenda from Pathankot, had no standing in the state and had been hobnobbing with Congress leaders like Mr Vikram Katoch to upstage established BJP leaders. He tried his best to get the BJP supported candidates defeated in the elections to panchayat samitis and the Kangra Zila Parishad. He had been distributing funds placed at his disposal under the MP’s Local Area Development Scheme at the instance of Congress leaders. Mr Des Raj warned the leadership that if the party failed to check upstarts like Mr Parmar, disciplined partymen would be compelled to go to the Press to expose them. Meanwhile, Mr Jaikrishan Sharma expressed the hope that the crisis in the party would be settled amicably. He urged the partymen to make allout efforts for the success of the rally being held at Hamirpur on March 24 to mark the completion of party’s three years in power. |
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Govt ‘losing’ grip on
admn Mandi, March 6 He lamented that the Dhumal government which came to power by a narrow margin did not have a grip on the administration and the party. Mr Dhumal, he alleged, launched a one-point programme to divert all funds to his area, neglecting all other districts of the state. The discrimination in development and employment assumed such alarming proportions that a revolt started brewing among MLAs and ministers of the ruling party. He said it was not difficult to imagine the plight of the constituencies represented by Congress MLAs. He said the four dismissed ministers and three MLAs had placed “stark facts” before the people of Himachal, alleging blatant discrimination in development, corruption, favouritism in employment and postings and large-scale bungling in police recruitments. Only last week the Agriculture Minister, Mr Vidya Sagar, had made similar allegations and had added that he was feeling suffocated and might resign. The former Chief Minister alleged the Subordinate Services Selection Board at Hamirpur had become a “den of corruption” and the selection lists were being approved in the office of the Chief Minister. He expressed concern that a mafia had become active in the state and enjoyed political patronage. Timber, liquor, drugs, contractors and mine mafias were playing havoc with the connivance of the government. The forest wealth was being destroyed with impunity. The police had been demoralised due to political meddling and had become ineffective, resulting in mounting increase in crime in the state. He said during the short rule of the BJP attempts had been made to gag the Press and numerous cases of assault on mediapersons had been reported. Such things never happened during the Congress rule. What happened recently in Kangra was shameful when musclemen intimidated not only the mediapersons but also made the administration and police paralysed. Newspersons were being forced to toe the line of the ruling party. Mr Virbhadra Singh lamented on an emotional note that he was not only fighting the BJP but also facing attacks from some of his own partymen which was indeed unbearable. He declared that he would continue his relentless fight against the BJP and expressed confidence of bringing the Congress back to power. He said he would reach people in every corner of the state to acquaint them with the doings of the BJP-HVC government which had brought the state to the brink of bankruptcy. Mr Virbhadra Singh demanded a CBI inquiry into the charge sheet submitted by the Kaul Singh committee supported by documents. “Our allegations have been substantiated by the ruling party ministers and MLAs also,” he said. |
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Efforts on to placate rebels Shimla, March 6 Mr Jai Krishan Sharma, president of the party and Mr Swaroop, secretary organisational matters, took the initiative and held talks with some dissidents. They discussed various ways and means the deadlock. One of the option discussed to break the ice was that the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, might restore status quo by re-inducting the ministers and they would then withdraw the letter released to the Press by them in which they had levelled serious allegations against him and the government. Thereafter the issues could be settled at the level of the state leadership. The demands like change in leadership and replacement of Mr Narinder Modi as in charge of the party affairs in Himachal Pradesh, concerning the high command could be considered by the high command. The dissidents are likely to discuss Mr Sharma’s offer tonight and give their response tomorrow. When contacted the dissidents maintained that there was no change in their stand so far and they were firm on their demand for a change in the leadership and removal of Mr Modi. In another important development Mr Krishan Kapoor and Dr Rajan Sushant met Mr Sukh Ram, Himachal Vikas Congress chief. Refusing to divulge the details of the talks Mr Kapoor said they only wanted to put across their viewpoint to him. Mr Sukh Ram reportedly told them that he could not do much regarding their demand for a change in the leadership and the removal of Modi as it was the prerogative of the high command. However, he said he would be too happy to take up issues concerning their constituencies with the Chief Minister. Later Mr Sukh Ram called on the Government, Dr Suraj Bhan and apprised him of the political situation and the stand of his party. He said the HVC would not like to create political uncertainty in the state and continue to support the BJP-led government. |
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Probe rebels’ charges: Stokes Solan, March 6 Ms Stokes, who addressed a well-attended Congress rally here, said the BJP rebels’ charges against their own government had helped the Congress in its “task of exposing the misdeeds of the ruling BJP-HVC combine.” She criticised the present government over the handling of the drought situation and wondered as to what had prevented the Chief Minister from declaring Himachal as drought-hit state. She said while successive Congress governments had helped usher in the Green Revolution, the BJP-led governments at the state and the Centre had created a state in which farmers had been forced to commit suicide. Ms Stokes claimed the days of the “inept” Dhumal government were numbered and elections seemed to be round the corner. Former Chief Minister, Ram Lal Thakur said the drought had taken a toll of over 70 per cent crops in Himachal. He regretted the government had “mismanaged” the state’s economy, claiming that the rate of growth had fallen from over 7 per cent in 1998-99 to 6.1 per cent during the current year. Mr Thakur said the cut of Rs 338 crore imposed by the Planning Commission in Himachal’s Annual Plan was a direct result of the government’s “ineptitude” in handling the state’s economy. Prominent Congress leaders, including Mr Gian Chand Tutu, Ms Viplove Thakur, Mr K.D. Sultanpuri, Mr Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Mr Harsh Mahajan, Mr Kewal Singh Pathania, Dr Kailash Parashar and Ms Krishna, addressed the rally. |
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Dhumal, Shanta gheraoed Chamba March 6 As about 200 persons blocked the way of the Chief Minister, the police and the district administration were caught unawares. The protesters were demanding an apology from Mr Kishori Lal, for making some derogatory remarks against the community a few days ago. To pacify the crowd the Chief Minister said he was apologising on behalf of Mr Kishori Lal. The protesters, however, insisted that the apology should come from the minister only. |
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Move
to make India ‘hunger-free’ Chamba, March 6 Mr Shanta Kumar, distributing Antodya ration cards and subsidised grains to 40 families, disclosed that the scheme announced on the birthday of the Prime Minister on December 25, last year had been launched in a record period of over two months. He regretted that even after so many years of Independence the needy were being denied the benefits of the schemes. “Unfortunately the gap between the rich and the poor has been widening as the various schemes launched by the government have not been able to bring about the desired results,” he opined. Mr Shanta Kumar, said it was with great difficulty that the Rs 2300 crore scheme was approved as it not only involved a huge amount of money but the tedious task as selecting one crore families in the country. He said despite financial constraints the government was trying to provide for the poorest of the poor by launching a number of schemes like the ‘Annapurna Scheme’ and ‘Food for Work’. “We will provide foodgrains to the state government at half the price for any welfare scheme meant for the old and underpriviliged classes,” he stated. Mr Shanta Kumar, said the scheme had simultaneously been launched at Jaipur and Bhopal. From today itself 11 lakh families in the three states of Himachal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh would start getting subsidised ration. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister, Mr
P.K. Dhumal, said the ‘Aan Antodya Scheme’ would help five crore persons in the country in getting two meals a day. “In Himachal itself, 78,700 families will benefit from the scheme launched by the Centre on the occasion of the birthday of the Prime Minister, Mr Vajpayee,” he said. Mr Dhumal, said Himachal had emerged as a model hill state and as per the UNDP figures, Himachal had achieved 90 per cent literacy and 68 per cent people were getting piped water. “In the entire country it is Himachal, which is spending the highest percentage of money on the education sector at Rs 1.03 per person. The Chief Minister said his government was laying emphasis on micro-planning so that the schemes for the welfare of the people reached them. “With the decentralisation of power and the panchayats playing a bigger role in selecting the IRDP families and those wanting a job, the people at the grassroots level are likely to benefit,” he said.
Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated a bridge at Bagga. |
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HP Govt wants
back Annandale Ground Shimla, March 6 Subsequently, it was leased out to the Indian Army which has been maintaining it. However, a few years ago the state government sought the return of the ground, but the move was abandoned following resistance of the Army. The Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, told the TNS he would take up the matter with Defence Minister George Fernandes as there was no other playground in the town. The ground was first with the Western Command. It was subsequently transferred to the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) which has come here in its place. Besides, developing a golf course, the ground was also being utilised as a helipad for the state government and military flights. However, there were complaints that the Army authorities at times did not behave properly with senior civil officers landing there. Doubts are being expressed whether the civil authorities will manage to maintain the ground like it is being done by the Army. The state government faced with funds shortage is not even able to maintain its existing sports infrastructure. The ground was initially leased to the Shimla Municipal Corporation on January 1, 1934, by the Punjab Government. It was resumed by the district administration of Shimla in October, 1982, from the Army, but was again leased out following intervention of the Defence Ministry. A top-level joint committee of the Army and the state government has tried to identify some other place for being given to the Army for conducting its training
programmes, but no suitable spot has so far been found. |
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Baramula martyrs cremated Bilaspur, March 6 Subedar Shriram died fighting a suicide squad of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday. The terrorists had mounted a sudden attack on the J & K Light Infantry Camp at Baramula. Additional District Magistrate S.L. Sharma laid a wreath on the martyr’s body on behalf of the Himachal Governor, Dr Suraj Bhan, while Subdivisional Magistrate Rakhil Kahlon laid a wreath on behalf of the Chief Minister, Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal. Solan: Subedar Tara Chand (45) of 8 Jammu & Kashmir Rifles, who laid down his life fighting insurgents at Baramula on Sunday. Subedar Tara Chand was cremated with full military and state honours at his native village, Khera, about 6 km from Nalagarh on Tuesday. Thousands of grief-stricken villagers of Khera and adjoining places received his body when it was brought to his village on Tuesday morning. The SDM, Nalagarh, Mr K.C. Chaman, placed a wreath on the martyr’s body on behalf of the Governor, Mr Suraj Bhan. Capt Sidharth Sharma laid a wreath on behalf of the Chief of the Army Staff. Mr Chaman handed over a cheque for Rs 10,000 to the martyr’s widow, Ms Roshni Devi, as ex-gratia grant from the state government. |
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Private trees to get
royalty Shimla, March 6 Under the new system the owners of trees will receive a royalty at rates fixed by the corporation and they will have nothing to do with the sale of the timber. The loss or profit in working the trees will be entirely of the corporation. So far, the corporation had been working private forest lots on the basis of economics and as such the returns depended on factors like conversion ratio and sale price of timber which encouraged malpractices. The role of the special power of attorneys (SPAs), who sold trees on behalf of the owners and made much money as middlemen, will be reduced considerably in the new system. Since the sale price of timber could not be manipulated, to ensure maximum return the standing volume of trees and the conversions ratio were inflated by the SPAs in collusion with the field staff of the Forest Department and the corporation. The malpractices started right from the marking of trees when the standing volume was inflated manifold so that timber from illicitly felled trees and those allotted to right holders under the timber distribution (TD) rules could be accommodated later during felling. The SPAs paid a meagre price for the trees to the owners for the trees and the amount earned through the sale of illicit timber was shared by the SPAs and the field staff. The corporation has already fixed the rates of royalty. For deodar it will be 60 per cent of royalty payable for government trees and in case of other timber species like kail and pine it will be 36 per cent. The tree owners will get Rs 50 to Rs 60 per cubic metre more than what they were receiving under the economic system. The owners will receive 50 per cent of the payments at the time of handing over of the trees and the rest after converted timber reaches the roadhead from the forests. As the tree owners will be paid at fixed rates, they will have no interest in getting the volume inflated. Consequently there will be little scope for accommodating illicit timber in the working of private lots. The corporation, however, will have to improve its functioning as the owners will not have any stakes once the trees are handed over to it. The corporation has decided to adopt the same system for marking private trees as was being followed in the case of government forests. The trees will be marked by joint teams of the department and the corporation. The assistant managers of the corporation will carry out 100 per cent and the divisional managers at least 25 per cent checking of the marked trees before taking over the private lots to wipe out any possibility of malpractices during marking. Every year the corporation fells 70,000 cubic metre (standing volume) of private trees and its turnover on account of private sales is around Rs 20 crore with a profit of about Rs 2 crore. With a complete ban on green trees the workload has been decreasing with each passing years. For instance during 1996 it felled about 1.75 lakh trees as against 1.25 lakh trees last year. The number of blazes for tapping resin from private forests has also declined from 17 lakh to six lakh. Over all the workload has come down by one third. Forest fires belie
department’s claim Kumarhatti, March 6 The first forest fire was reported in January, when usually most of the forest is covered with green grass. But a prolonged dry spell for the past six months has resulted in the untimely forest fires in the region. According to a survey by this correspondent, in February alone around 30 pine trees were found totally burnt in the forest fire near Dharampur and Barog. The situation could be worse in the interior areas of Barog, Chewa, Bhojnagar, Kabakalan and Dharampur panchayats as not a single day has passed when the smoke of fire cannot be seen. However, inquiries from the Dharampur forest subdivision office, under whose jurisdiction most of the burnt area falls, revealed that most of the fire cases had taken place on private land. Though the forest officials admitted that this had adversely affected small trees but they did not see it as an alarming situation. The failure of the farmers to plough their fields due to lack of good rain from October to December made things worse as the dry fields were being burnt by the farmers resulting in the destruction of nearby sylvan surroundings. The situation further aggravated due to the premature falling of needles of pine trees making the forest more prone to fires. The curbing of timber demarcation (TD) allocation rights of the farmers by the Forest Department has made them indifferent towards checking forest fires. They are not willing to co-operate with the Forest Department to control forest fires as their traditional rights to collect fodder and wood from the forest have been curtailed. The Forest Department’s joint forest plan has failed to enthuse the farmers. “We were quite aware of the situation and very soon we are going to arrange meetings with the panchayats”, asserted Mr S.K. Sharma, DFO, Solan. |
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Vehicle lifters’ gang
busted, 1 held Jaisinghpur, March 6 He said two members of the gang, Arvind Sharma and Anil Sharma, were brothers belonging to Ambala. Arvind had been arrested by the Lambagaon police from Ambala, while Anil had made good his escape. The two accused hired a Maruti car (No. HP-29-0949) from Jogindernagar (Mandi) on January 12 for Kosari (Jaisingpur) and on reaching there, the driver, Daan Singh, was offered a rasgulla, which rendered him unconscious. On regaining consciousness, he found himself in a house in Ambala. He was given some food there and later hit on the head. Then he was taken to Jindalpur village (on the Ambala-Jagadhari road) and left there in a state of unconsciouness. Some villagers got him treated in a hospital and arranged for his return to Jogindernagar, where the police refused to register an FIR. Later, he got an FIR registered under Sections 379, 327, 328 and 34, IPC, at Lambagaon police station. |
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Panel to recommend reservation for Dalits Nurpur, March 6 He pointed out that the commission had been interacting with safai karamcharis working with local civic bodies. He said in Himachal Pradesh it was found that the safai karamcharis were still landless. As a result, they could not avail of loans for the construction of their houses. Mr Tela added that children of the Dalits even after getting higher education were deprived of employment opportunities. They had no option except to work as safai
karamcharis. |
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Muslims living in panic, says Virbhadra Sundernagar, March 6 Addressing a press conference here today he said that by registering a case against members of the minority community, the present government doubted their integrity. According to him members of the minority community were falsely implicated in the case. Mr Virbhadra Singh was here on the invitation of the Islamic Committee celebrated Id- at Dinak village later. In January certain persons had raised pro-Pakistan slogans on the eve of panchayat elections, after holding a magisterial inquiry four persons were booked all were from the Muslim community. Shimla, March 6 The government also decided to authorise the Range Officer concerned to issue permits for bringing resin from the forest to the depot of the Forest Corporation for sale.
PTI
Roads in Lahaul, Spiti
opened Shimla, March 6 Bus services were resumed between Keylong and Darch and Keylong and Sissu today. Mr C.R.B. Lalit, Deputy Commissioner, today inspected the road between Keylong and Sissu and found it fit for plying vehicles. He said bus services between Keylong and Udaipur will start plying after inspection on March 9. |
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Sacked employees demand justice Nurpur, March 6 These employees had recently met the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, and apprised him of their plight. |
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