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Saturday,
April 14, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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McLeodganj sans basic facilities ZP chief lauds BJP govt White paper sought
on defence deals It’s monkey rule in parts of Shimla Family planning camps on regular basis: DC Sambhar rescued
from tank |
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Man held for wife’s murder ‘Disclose’ Nalwadi
fair income 2 members of car
thieves’ gang held
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McLeodganj sans basic facilities Dharamsala, April 13 Hoteliers, travel agents, taxi owners all hopeful of a good tourist season, say that no doubt the government has given incentives to give a boost to tourism, but in the absence of even the basic infrastructure facilities, there is hardly anything that you can offer to those visiting the area. With the Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama, making McLeodganj, his abode, thousands of tourists, a large number of foreigners, return here year after year, only to see the situation worsening every year. Heaps of garbage, stinking and overflowing drains, congested and pot holed roads and no parking places, sums up what all the place has to offer to the tourists. The tourist season is already in full swing with some of the big hotels, registering 90 per cent occupancy. “Ever since the teachings of the Dalai Lama, in early March, it has been an excellent season, even though we have had to cope up with a number of problems like acute water shortage,” exclaims a hotel owner in McLeodganj. One is invariably stuck up in a traffic jam in McLeodganj, as the temple road, leading to the palaces of the Dalai Lama, is not only very narrow, but the haphazard parking of vehicles adds to the problem. “The parking slot at the entrance of McLeodganj, was opened only at the time of the inauguration and now remains closed, as even a mild shower makes the place slushy, unfit for driving,” said Mr Jagmohan Gupta, owner of Ways Tours and Travels. Giving incentives alone cannot help as the government needs to spruce up the place, by providing all basic facilities. Despite a ban on the construction in certain pockets in McLeodganj, high rise buildings can be spotted in every corner. Even though the Kangra valley falls in the highly seismic Zone V, constructions continue unabated, as multi- storeyed hotels, shopping complexes are being erected in McLeodganj. The digging up of the roads for laying of the sewage lines for the past one month is causing a lot of problem in Kotwali Bazar, the heart of the town. The dug up pits have been lying open for over a month, causing traffic jams and pollution. The Regional Mountaineering Centre at Dharamkot in McLeodganj, also attracts a large number of tourists from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. “A group from Gwalior, has just left after completing their course and we have lot of bookings for the season,” disclosed Mr S.R. Saini, in charge at the institute. However, the devastating earthquake in Gujarat, has affected the inflow from this state, who otherwise constitutes a major chunk of the tourists here. With the government’s tall claims of cleaning up the slum-like conditions here, proving to be false, a water sanitation and cleanliness project, launched at the initiative of hollywood star, Richard Gere, has been started. However, majority of the people feel that unless the government and other agencies are involved in it a handful of foreigners cannot teach us how to stay clean and keep our environment healthy. Majority of the hoteliers and others in the tourism industry feel that they owe it all to the Tibetan leader, Dalai Lama, that tourists still come here year after year, despite the situation deteriorating than improving. |
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ZP chief lauds BJP govt Nahan, April 13 He charged that all five Congress MLAs of Sirmaur district were anti-development and made no construction for the development of Sirmaur. He further said that MLAs were creating hindrances in development works going on in the district. He said that particularly in Pachhad Assembly segment, record development works took place in the past three years due to which Congress MLA of Pachhad was completely a confused fellow now and was releasing baseless statement to the press. He said that during the tenure of this government one ITI, three plus two schools, two high schools, 12 middle schools, 12 primary schools, three veterinary dispensaries, and one subdivisional-level ayurvedic hospital were opened in the Pachhad area. Besides this a stadium costing Rs 85 lakh was being constructed at Rajgarh, three lift irrigation schemes worth Rs 1.50 crore had been completed and Rs 1.50 crore spent on road in the Pachhad area. |
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White paper sought
on defence deals Jaisinghpur, April 13 Addressing a rally organised here on Wednesday, Ms Chandresh Kumari ridiculed the Vajpayee and Dhumal-governments. She said those who talked of ushering in ‘Ram Rajya’ had been exposed respectively by tehlaka.com and levelling of corruption charges-against the Dhumal Government by his own Cabinet colleagues and party MLAs. She termed the Three years’ tenure of Dhumal Government as anti-poor, anti-farmer and anti-labourer. The prices of essential commodities had-sky-rocketed as well as surchage on water and electricity levied. She expressed concern over the apathy of the government towards drought conditions prevailing throughout the state. She demanded the government should provide subsidised fodder and ration to the farmers. Later, Thural Block Congress led by the MP submitted a memorandum to the Governor demanding resignation of the state and Central governments. |
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It’s monkey rule in parts of Shimla Shimla, April 13 The authorities have also stopped engaging monkey catchers as they have substantially increased the rates for catching a monkey. Housewives are the worst-affected as monkeys tear the clothes which are kept out in the sun for drying. They have also started damaging vehicles parked in the open. At times, people have also been attacked by monkeys, which move around in groups. Monkeys can be seen roaming in the corridors of Snowdon Hospital. The files in the secretariat have also been torn by them. Many people have purchased air guns to chase away monkeys. However, none has so far sought permission from the wildlife authorities to kill monkeys because of a religious taboo. The Centre had sometime ago turned down the proposal of the state government to kill monkeys and had suggested that some biological method should be adopted for controlling their population. The job of finding some suitable method to sterilise them was assigned to the scientists of the Palampur-based agriculture university. |
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Family planning camps on regular basis: DC Shimla, April 13 He was presiding over a meeting organised to review the progress and finalise the action plan for the current year under different national health programmes in the district. Mr Katoch said 2,050 cataract operations were performed against the target of 1,800 under the National Programme for Control of Blindness. As many as 10 eye camps were organised in the interior areas of the district for the benefit of the rural population in last year. He said under the school eye screening programme, 9,869 school students were screened for defective vision and 231 poor students were provided with spectacles free of cost by the District Blindness Control Society and a target of 2,000 cataract operations had been fixed for the current year. Mr Katoch said 6,101 sputum examination were conducted under the National Tuberculosis Programme against the target of 4,050 and 450 cases found positive were treated free of cost. He said 1,040 awareness camps were organised in rural areas of the district to educate the people about STD and AIDS and 6,050 patients were given treatment for STD/HIV/AIDS etc. This year such camps were being organised from April 16 to April 30 in the district, he added.  |
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Sambhar rescued
from tank Jaisinghpur, April 13 Earlier, in the morning a herd of sambhars strayed into the chougan of the town when a dog chased them and the poor sambhar who got separated from the herd, ran towards the house and fell into the open pit. The rescue operation of the sambhar by the youths was carried out under the supervision of forest and police officials. Later, the sambhar was taken to Gopalpur Zoo in Palampur by forest officials. |
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Man held for wife’s murder Palampur, April 13 Last night, they had an altercation on some issue following which Kanwaljit Singh beat her up with a cricket bat and later took out his licensed gun and fired two shots at her killing her on the spot. The DSP said a person from the locality phoned the police about the incident. He, along with the SHO reached the spot and found the body of Maninder Kaur lying in a pool of blood. The police recovered the weapon used in the crime. A case under Section 302 of the IPC has been registered. |
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‘Disclose’ Nalwadi
fair income Bilaspur, April 13 They also criticised the contract system in mela land allotment and sale of land through auction to small shopkeepers which resulted in escalation of prices by these shopkeepers and looting of customers. |
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2 members of car
thieves’ gang held Palampur, April 13 The SSP said three members of the gang who belonged to Kangra district had been operating from New Delhi. They had been stealing these vehicles from New Delhi and selling here on throwaway prices in Kangra district. He said the police had recovered two new Maruti vans stolen from the Capital which were sold in Palampur. He said the gang had also stolen from Palampur last week six cars, including two Esteem cars, which were being taken to New Delhi for further disposal, but the police swung into action and arrested the kingpin of the gang and recovered the vehicles. He said one of the accused, Sunil Kumar, had been released on bail while the remaining four were still in police custody. |
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Rathore made HP Cong spokesman Shimla, April 13 He will assist Mr Rangila Rao, chief spokesman, on media affairs. |
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Asa Ram Bapu
in Kulu Kulu, April 13 According to sources, Bapu will hold orations at Lal Chand Prathi Kala Kendra, Dhalpur, on April 14 and 15. |
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Private bus set ablaze Dharamsala, April 13 A case has been registered. |
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3 die as truck rolls into khud Shimla, April 13 The deceased have not been identified. The injured person was admitted to the Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital.
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