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| Wednesday,
March 21, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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BJP rally
postponed for PM Pahari art
to go to Switzerland Drought:
Central team to visit HP Village afforestation project launched Residents
face water shortage |
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CM,
rebels’ patch-up takes its toll Van rolls
down into gorge, driver charred alive College, ITI for Sunni areas sought HP postings
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BJP rally postponed for PM Shimla, March 20 The rally will now be held on April 7 and the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, has confirmed his participation in it. This has come as morale booster for the Dhumal camp which had suffered a setback due to the revolt by four ministers and three legislators. Mr Dhumal confirmed that he had talked to Mr Vajpayee on telephone regarding the Hamirpur rally and he has accepted the invitation. This is the first non-Congress government in the state which has succeeded in reaching its third year. The Prime Minister was not available for the rally on March 24 because of the meeting of the National Executive of the BJP on that day. Mr Dhumal will leave for Delhi on March 24 to attend the meeting of the National Executive. The launching of the information technology scheme at Hamirpur on Saturday has also been cancelled. Meanwhile, the Dhumal camp was in an upbeat mood following reports of the BJP high command having succeeded in persuading the rebels not to precipitate the matters and also made it clear that Mr Dhumal will not be replaced as Chief Minister. The rebel ministers, who have been dropped by Mr Dhumal, might be reinducted in the ministry following a complete patchup between the Dhumal and Shanta Kumar factions, Mr Dhumal and the Union Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar, had a meeting at the Kangra airport on Sunday to bury the hatchet. Some leaders of the Shanta faction, including the former Speaker, Mr Radha Raman Shastri, the Vice-Chairman of the HRTC, Mr Khushi Ram Balnatah, a former minister, Mr Mohinder Nath Sofat, and a former MLA, Mr Jagat Singh Negi, are also camping in Delhi along with the seven rebels. One of these rebels said that they would return within a day or two as most of the top leaders were busy making arrangements for the meeting of the national executive and the rally. He said that they had demanded that Mr Dhumal and the general secretary in charge of the state, Mr Narendra Modi, should be replaced. The rebel leader did not rule out reinduction of the ministers following the talks with the central leadership. |
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Pahari art to go to Switzerland Dharamsala, March 20 Under the guidance of Dr Fischer, the Department of Language, Art and Culture, is setting up a Didactic Picture Gallery at the Kangra Museum, here. About a dozen painters from all over the state will prepare contemporary versions of the miniatures which will be displayed in the Didactic Picture Gallery, here in Dharamsala. A three-month exhibition of the good paintings would be held at Museum
Rietberg, Zurich, in Switzerland. The expenditure on photographic enlargements, labels, mats, post card lithographs and posters would also be borne by the commissioner in Switzerland. After the exhibition, the pictures would be returned along with additional material. Dr Fischer feels that the setting up of the Didactic Picture Gallery could pave the way for further galleries in other Himachal museums for Thanka paintings and textiles like the Chamba rumal and
Kulu-Kinnauri shawls. The splendour of Pahari paintings is proposed to be displayed at the permanent gallery comprising four rooms. The focus would be on iconography of the divine, techniques of Pahari painters, variety of the styles and patrons and connoisseurship. Under this project, about 250 paintings would be prepared by renowned artists like Vijay Sharma, Om
Sujanpuri, Anil Raina, Joginder Singh, Pritam Chand, Dhani Ram, Prakash
Dhiman, and Dev Badotra. The final paintings would be selected by a committee comprising Dr Fischer, Dr
V.C. Ohri, Dr V.N. Goswami and the Director and Secretary, Language, Art and Culture. The best works of the renowned Pahari painters, in accordance with their skill, preferences of style and subject would be picked up for display at the Didactic Picture Gallery. It is expected that by March next year, the framed paintings with labels and texts would be ready. The renovation of the museum galleries would be undertaken along with installation of proper light system. Dr Fischer, has been teaching at the South Asian Institute of Hiedelberg University, Germany. He is Senior Director of Museum
Rietberg, Zurich, for the past 25 years. He has extensively travelled in Himachal Pradesh and organised several exhibitions, including one on Pahari paintings. The Himachal Pradesh Government has been making efforts to revive the dying art form of Kangra miniatures and other Pahari styles. A workshop was organised at the museum here to impart training to those interested in the Kangra style of painting. Dr Fischer has authored two books, titled “Pahari Masters” and “Nayan Sukh — The Guler Painter” along with Dr
V.N. Goswami. He has written several research papers on tribal and Pahari art forms. |
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Drought: Central team to visit HP Shimla, March 20 It is reliably learnt that the team headed by Mr Sudhir Kumar, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, will visit the worst-hit districts of Kangra, Una, Hamirpur, Chamba and Bilaspur, besides some other areas. The team will visit several areas of the state during its four-day stay here. The state government has sought an immediate grant of Rs 80 crore from the Centre for taking steps to meet the scarcity of drinking water during the summers. In a report to the Centre, the state government said that as many as 15,571 of the 16,916 villages in the state were badly hit by the drought. Bilaspur and Solan were the worst-affected areas. Over 21 per cent agricultural area in the state remained unsown because of the long dry spell. About 87,980 hectares remained unsown. All 2,337 villages of Bilaspur and 911 of Solan districts were suffering because of the drought. The report estimated that the loss in terms of money was nearly Rs 145 crore to the Rabi crop and Rs 155 crore to horticulture. Meanwhile, Shimla and many other parts of the state had rainfall today bringing down the day temperature which has been welcomed by the farmers. Farm scientists said rain had come as a boon for the apple growers. |
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Village afforestation project launched Mandi, March 20 Speaking on the occasion, the minister said as many as 55 Village Forest Development Committees had been constituted in Jhungi, Rangoo and Sundernagar forest ranges comprising villagers, who were the real beneficiaries, to take up forest-oriented development schemes aimed at augmenting the green cover and at the same time ensuring employment for villagers. He said the project would be in progress for five years. A sum of Rs 1 crore would be spent yearly for the first two years in the three forest ranges while during the subsequent three years Rs 68 lakh would be spent on the maintenance of the project. The minister said the project envisaged plantation in around 2000 hectare with active participation of villagers. It was paramount to convince the beneficiaries that the forest wealth belonged to them and it was their duty to safeguard it, he added. He said the Centre-sponsored scheme would be extended to the rest of the state after assessing the positive results of the project launched in Mandi district. The Forest Minister said for the first time the entire amount for the project received from the Centre would be handed over to the Village Forest Development Committee for the execution of the project by the conservator of forest with the view to complete various works under the project in a time bound manner. The minister said the government was committed to accelerate the development of backward rural areas of the state on priority basis. A network of roads was being constructed with the help of NABARD in the Sundernagar-Karsog belt at the cost of over Rs 14 crore. |
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Residents face
water shortage Kulu, March 20 On the other hand, the executive engineer, IPH, told this correspondent that no such complaint had been received from any area. The assistant engineer, IPH, also stuck to this stand. He said though the water sources had receded, the situation was not draught-like. |
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CM, rebels’ patch-up
takes its toll Shimla, March 20 The developments in the two factions have started taking their toll with sudden removal of Mr T.G. Negi from the post of Secretary, General Administration Department (GAD) yesterday. The rebel ministers had included the slapping of notices by GAD for vacating their official bungalows in the list of their grievances, which they narrated to the BJP high command and the party president, Mr Jana Krishnamurthy. The notices of GAD were considered by them as yet another attempt of the Dhumal government to humiliate the rebels. It is being speculated in the corridors of the secretariat here that the DC and SP, Kangra district, may also meet similar fate as the rebels were upset over the registration of an FIR against the three ministers, Mr K.K. Kapoor, Mr Ramesh Dhwala and Mr Ravinder Ravi, and also Mr Dulo Ram, president of the district unit of BJP, Kangra, by the police. |
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Van rolls down into gorge, driver charred alive Kangra, March 20 The driver of the van, Sanjoo (25) was charred alive while Mrs Ajay Sood, a doctor, sustained minor injuries. She was admitted to the local sub-divisional hospital here and is stated to be out of danger. The van was totally burnt and the charred body of the driver was removed from the site by the police. |
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College, ITI for Sunni areas sought Shimla, March 20 A delegation of the committee led by Mr Pramod Sharma yesterday called on the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, and submitted a memorandum to him in support of its demands. The committee members alleged that the Sunni areas were being discriminated against with regard to setting up of a degree college. Students have to either come to Shimla or Karsog for college education. The memorandum demanded that an ITI should also be opened at
Basantpur. |
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HP postings Shimla, March 20 Mr S.K. Baldi, Managing Director, HPMC, has been given the additional charge of Agro Industries Packaging Ltd. Mr R.D. Panwar, Editor, State Gazeteers, has been given the additional charge of Additional Director, Urban Development. The SDO, Sundernagar, has been given the additional charge of Land Acquisition Officer, Kol Dam. |
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