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| Tuesday,
April 24, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Unlicensed
food trade in HP: CAG Speaker revives House
panels Nation put in the dock:
Mankotia Declining trend in family
planning And now hospital bed
scam |
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Walkout mars Legal Aid
Day Morcha to fight corruption Booked for beating up
worker Project ‘disturbing’
biodiversity
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Unlicensed
food trade in HP: CAG Shimla, April 23 The situation as so bad that out of the 24 sanctioned posts of various categories for the main composite testing laboratory at Kandaghat,23 were vacant since April 1984. There was no public analyst-cum-chemical examiner in the laboratory and out of the two sanctioned posts of deputy public analyst only one was posted there. The remaining 21 posts of chief technical officer, senior scientist, junior schentist and senior analyst were vacant, according to the report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG). It has been pointed out that the state food (Health) authority and licencing authorities do not maintain database of food manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. The record of licences issued in the state was also not maintained. Not even a single licence was issued by any of the 16 licensing authorities before expiry for six years between 1995 to 2000 in three districts. Thus unlicensed trade was allowed. This was because of the fact that there is no penalty against the defaulters and food vendors who run shops without valid licence. Medical fitness of licencees was not ensured. The report pointed out that despite the availability of sophisticated equipment, machinery and chemical reagents, analysis for pesticides residue and some bacteriological and toxicological tests were not conducted at the Kandaghat laboratory due to shortage of qualified technical staff. |
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Speaker revives House
panels Shimla, April 23 The Speaker also reconstituted, renamed and reduced the number of departmentally related standing committees to four from the existing six. Thakur Gulab Singh said adequate and proportionate representation has been given to all political parties on these committees. According to the notification issued by the Vidhan Sabha, senior Congress members have been made chairmen of the important committees of public accounts, which will be headed by Mr J.B.L. Khachi, the Rural Planning Committee will be chaired by Mr Rangila Ram Rao and the Subordinate Legislation Committee will be headed by Mr Chander Kumar. The Public Administration Committee will comprise the departments of GAD, Revenue, Excise, Police, Cooperation, Food and Supplies and Administration of Justice. The Human Development Committee will comprise the departments of Education, Health, Planning, Finance, Sports and Art and Language. The General Development Committee comprises the departments of PWD, IPH, Power, Transport, Tourism and Urban Development. The Rural Planning Committee will look after the departments of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Forests, Industries, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj. |
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Nation put in the dock:
Mankotia Kangra, April 23 Mr Mankotia was addressing a press conference here today. Mr Mankotia said the gruesome and brutal killings of the 16 BSF men and day-to-day killings of the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir due to the wrong policies of the central government were demoralising for the Indian security forces and the Army. He said on the one hand the central government had claimed India become a global power but on the other hand due to the wrong policies of the Vajpayee government the nation was being put in the dock on Kashmir and Bangladesh fronts. Mr Mankotia described Mr Vajpayee as a weak and helpless Prime Minister who was allegedly extending protection to his personal secretary and Security Adviser, Mr Brajesh Misra, and the OSD, Dr N.K. Singh in the PMO despite the Tehelka expose. He said the BJP had been raising slogans of Hidutva, high moral principles and honesty only to grab power but it now stood completely exposed. He described it as a betrayal of the trust and faith reposed in it by the masses. He denied sepeculation that the Congress in Himachal was heading for a verticle split following difference between Mr Virbhadra Singh and Ms Vidya Stokes. He said differences, if any, would be sorted out by the intervention of the party high command. He said both Mr Virbhadra Singh and Ms Vidya Stokes were experienced, dedicated and far-sighted leaders with total faith in party president Sonia Gandhi. |
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Declining trend in family
planning Shimla, April 23 While achievements under the programme have been declining with each passing year, important indicators like infant mortality rate have been on the rise indicating that all is not well with the child health programme in the state. The infant mortality rate has shot up from 61 per thousand in 1995-96 to 64 per thousand in 1998-99. The annual natural growth rate per thousand of population has increased marginally from 14.50 in 1997-98 to 14.20 in the following year whereas the effective couple protection rate has come down from 57.73 per cent in 1995-96 to 52.69 per cent in 1998-99 against the goal of 60 per cent. The state, however, has achieved the target of crude death rate of 9 per thousand fixed under the National Health Policy for the year 2000. The Comptroller and Auditor-General has in its latest report observed that achievements during 1995-2000 have been declining despite inflated reporting. For instance, the achievement under intrauterine device (IUD) has come down from 47,562 in 1995-96 to 34,752 in 1999-2000, even though the total IUD issued during the period has been 36,000 less than the reported figures of achievement. The achievement under conventional contraceptive users has declined from 78,769 to 65,917 despite the fact that the figures have been overstated by 82,000 during the period. The number of oral pill users has increased by 31,000 and the total 1.47 lakh tubectomy operations reported by sub-centres have been 50 per cent higher than the fallopian rings used during the five-year period. The report also revealed that the state has diverted Rs 27.94 crore of the total Rs 135.27 crore received from the Centre for the implementation of the programme. A sum of Rs 83.75 lakh has been utilised for meeting establishment expenditure of staff deployed for state schemes and maintenance of vehicles used for other activities. The failure to adopt the community need assessment approach has resulted in shortfall in achievement under the programme between 13 to 46 per cent. The Health Department has also opened institutions without observing prescribed norms. While in five districts, 23 community health centres have been opened against a requirement of 16, in other six districts, 54 opened against the required 37. Similarly, 45 primary health centres have been opened in excess of norms in five districts and 44 short of norms in six districts. In three districts 152 sub-centres were opened for a population of less than 2000 as against the norm of 3000 as on March 2000. The department has neglected the post-partum programme as evident from the fact that only 12 posts of doctors have been sanctioned against the requirement of 70 posts, 67 posts of paramedical staff against the requirement of 177 and 43 posts of other categories against 71 required. There has also been a huge shortfall in sterilisation cases of direct acceptors ranging from 11 to 100 per cent and in other family planning methods from 89 to 100 per cent in five post-partum centres. Against 75 sterilisation cases per bed per annum to be performed in each centre, the actual sterilisation ranged between two and 26 cases. No coordination committee has been set up for monitoring and evaluation of the programme and out of Rs 6.72 crore received from the Centre under the reproductive and child health programme Rs 5 crore remained unspent and blocked with various executing agencies. |
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And now hospital bed
scam Mandi, April 23 A member of the Himachal Pradesh Steel Munufacturers Association told mediapersons here today while the steel manufacturers of the state had signed a contract of supplying the beds at a rate of Rs 1900 per bed, these beds had been purchased from a Chandigarh firm at the rate of Rs 3900 per bed. The hospital bed scam came to light when a consignment of 75 beds arrived in the Civil Hospital, Jogindernagar, where these were not required immediately. The District Chief Medical Officer, Dr N.L. Negi, when asked to explain the purchase of these beds said these would be used when the hospital would be upgraded. Meanwhile, these beds have been dumped there. When the local mediapersons contacted the state Director of Health Services, Dr Sukh Ram Chauhan, he expressed his inability to give the facts immediately. He added that the details about the purchase of the beds could be obtained from the Deputy Director concerned, Dr S.R. Dhiman. Repeated efforts to contact the Deputy Director proved futile. It is being openly alleged the people “at the top” are involved in the scam and all norms and rules have been thrown to the winds. Local steel manufacturers say as a cover-up device these beds have been branded as “mechanical beds” along with the ISI mark. But they argue that in no way these beds are superior to the ones for which they had signed the rate contract. The small-scale industrial units are sore over the manner in which the supply of beds have been obtained from outside Himachal Pradesh at very exorbitant rates notwithstanding the fact that quality products are being manufactured within the state. |
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Walkout mars Legal Aid
Day Solan, April 23 Mr Ramesh Chauhan, pradhan of Kumarhatti panchayat, who acted as the spokesperson of the group that walked out, told media persons, that utter confusion that prevailed at the venue of the function forced them to take the drastic action. He said that the BDO Dharampur had sent letters to all pradhans and up-pradhans of his block’s panchayats and Mahila Mandals informing them that the function would be held at the District Courts and would begin at 10 a.m. On the other hand, the BDO, Solan, had intimated that the function would be held at the Conference Hall of the Deputy Commissioner’s office, at 11 a.m. Consequently the invitees from Dharampur Block, who reached the district courts before 10 a.m. had to trudge to the DC’s office, where they learnt that the function would begin at 11 a.m. and not 10 a.m. Utter confusion prevailed when it was found out that there were not enough chairs to seat all invitees. “To cap it all, the dais remained bereft of the VIPs who were supposed to address the gathering. Unable to stand it any longer we walked out at 12.20 p.m.”, said Mr Chauhan. He sharply criticised the organisers over the shabby treatment meted out to “the elected representatives of the people.” When contacted, the ADC, Mr S.C. Kalsotra, said that the district administration had nothing to do with the organisation of the function beyond making available the Conference Hall to the organisers, adding that it was entirely the Legal Aid Authority’s (LAA) show. Mr Suresh Chaudhary, member secretary of the LAA, said that he could not comment on as to who was responsible for the alleged mismanagement. The LAA had been created by the government as per constitutional guidelines, guaranteeing free access to legal services to all citizens. He held that holding of the function was the responsibility of the government. The LAA came into the picture only as a body of resource persons. “I am here to enlighten the elected pradhans and others about the nature and extent of legal help available to the citizens from the LAA.” He said that he had reached here at 11.30 a.m. — the time given to him for the start of the function. The delay, if any in his reaching the venue proper a little late for some unavoidable reasons, could have been overlooked keeping in view the Day’s importance. “On my part, I had sometimes waited upto one hour just to ensure the gathering of the maximum number of people. The basic cause espoused by the LAA mattered more to him than meaningless issues like little delays or mismanagement.” Mr Kamaljeet Chauhan, chairman, Dharampur Block Panchayat Pradhans Parishad, said that it was distressing to note that such a chasm existed between the functioning of the government and the
LAA. He regretted that neither the District Panchayat Officer nor the BDOs attended the function what to talk of senior officers. Member secretary of the LAA is a District and Sessions Judge. |
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Morcha to fight corruption Solan, April 23 The SJP president, Mr Kul Rakesh Pant, and vice-president, Mr Dev Raj Duggal, while addressing a press conference later in the evening, said the meeting took strong note of adverse effect of the ongoing process of economic liberalisation and globalisation. They said Himachal Pradesh which has a predominantly agricultural economy was likely to suffer the most. They said the main products of the state like apple, wool, kattha, resin and off-season vegetables had already come under heavy pressure from similar imported products. They said cheap imports, if not stopped in time, would totally ruin the state’s economy. They said the meeting also expressed its grave concern over serious charges of corruption levelled against certain government leaders by their fellow ministers recently. They further alleged that both the BJP and the Congress were like-minded parties out to fatten themselves at the expense of people. The two leaders said the Lok Tantrik Morcha had been formed to wage a concerted battle against the rampant corruption, globalisation of economy and misgovernance of the BJP and the Congress. |
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Booked for beating up
worker Nurpur, April 23 According to the police, the Divisional Manager allegedly raided the depot a few days back and thrashed Kuldeep Chand. In the incident, the victim lost a tooth. Following a legal medical certificate given by a dental surgeon here in which the tooth injury was found grievous, the police reportedly altered the Sections 333 and 353 of the IPC in the FIR with non-bailable offence. Meanwhile, Kuldeep Chand, has been served a notice of termination of services by the alleged official. The Divisional Manager, on being contacted, admitted that the notice for termination had been issued to the worker under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act. Commenting on the FIR lodged against him, he said it was a concocted story to avoid departmental action by the daily wager. He said during the night on which the depot was raided, Kuldeep was found asleep on duty. |
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Project ‘disturbing’
biodiversity Shimla, April 23 The group organised a seminar yesterday in which environmentalists warned that the area was the habitat of the endangered westerntragopan and some other threatened species and was source of survival for about 10,000 families. According to Mr Rajeev Shaw, secretary of the working group, most of the participants felt that conservation of nature and wildlife could not happen without the involvement of the affected people in planning and decision-making. Their livelihood and survival could not be sacrificed. |
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N.L. Nadda Shimla, April 23 Shimla, April 23 |
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