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| Sunday,
April 29, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Shanta
Kumar summoned in defamation case Probe
graft charges against CM: Virbhadra POSTINGS/ TRANSFERS Bias in
fund allocation: Cong Panel to
decide Cong men’s cases |
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HVC
expresses concern over drought Mayor,
Dy Mayor walk out of meeting Gastro
cases: action to follow if water samples fail Pathania
made HPTDC Chairman High-rises
mar hill station 3
killed, 52 hurt in road mishap Hamirpur
tops in small savings Tibetans
to observe martyrs day Ex-servicemen
denied lower air fare 
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Shanta Kumar summoned in defamation case Dharamsala, April 28 The complainant, Mr Mahajan, had filed the case against Mr Shanta Kumar under Sections 500, 501 and 502 of the IPC, in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kangra at Dharamsala. Mr Sat Mahajan, who was at that time contesting the Lok Sabha election against Mr Shanta Kumar, took the plea that the statement issued by his opponent that he had sworn a false affidavit for entering his family’s and his own name in the voters’ list at two places-Nurpur and Pathankot, had affected his reputation. Parliament elections were held in September, 1999, and Mr Sat Mahajan and Mr Shanta Kumar, had contested against each other. Mr Mahajan, stated that the news which appeared in a Hindi daily, had affected his poll prospects. The court took the view that there was sufficient prima facie evidence to issue process against Mr Shanta Kumar, in the defamation case. |
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Probe graft charges against CM: Virbhadra Manali, April 28 He was addressing a gathering at a block-level panchayat sammelan organised by the Kulu Assembly constituency unit of the Congress at Manali here today. While demanding a CBI probe into the charges levelled against Mr Dhumal, he said though there were some differences among leaders of the Congress, yet the party was disciplined and united. He underlined the significance of the panchayati raj system. Lashing out at the state BJP government for “lack” of all-round development in the state during its three-year tenure, he said. It was useless to expect development from a government which was not even in a position to release salaries to its employees. He expressed concern over the financial crisis in the state. Mr Virbhadra said the state government and the NDA government at the Centre were the most corrupt in the political history of India. He said the government had taken loans of Rs 2,400 crore during its three-year tenure and alleged that the state government was selling out the interests of the Himachali people. Prominent among those who expressed their views were former Minister of State for Horticulture Satya Prakash Thakur, former Speaker Kaul Singh Thakur, former minister Raj Krishan Gaur, former Health Minister Ram Lal Thakur and former Deputy Speaker and MLA from ANI Ishwer Dass. |
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POSTINGS/
TRANSFERS Shimla, April 27 Mr Prabodh Saxena, Deputy Commissioner,
Mandi, has been shifted to Kangra in place of Mr R.C. Kapil, who has been appointed Managing Director of the HP State Cooperative Bank
here. The rebel ministers and legislators of the Kangra district had been demanding removal of Mr Kapil following registration of an FIR against four of them. Mr Jagdish Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, has been sent to Mandi to head the district. Mr Bharat
Bhushan, Managing Director of the State Cooperative Bank, has been appointed Deputy Commissioner of Chamba in place of Mr
T.D. Negi, who has been shifted as Managing Director of the HP Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation. He will also head the Women Development Corporation,
Solan. Mr J.S. Rana, Director, Urban Development, has been appointed Deputy Commissioner of
Bilaspur. Mr V.K. Bansal, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Trainings and Foreign Assignments, has been appointed as Secretary, Technical Education. Mr
A.R. Basu, Secretary, Lokayukata, has been appointed as Secretary, Trainings and Foreign Employment. Dr V.P. Gupta, Secretary, Manpower Planning, goes as Secretary,
Lokayukata. Mr S.K.B.S Negi, Commissioner, Transport and Ms Manisha
Nanda, Director Social and Women Welfare, swap places. Mr J.R. Gazta, Special Secretary, Revenue, has been appointed as Special Secretary, Irrigation and Public Health. Mr R.D.
Nazim, Resident Commissioner, Pangi, has been appointed Director, Urban Development. Mr Manish Garg, Additional Deputy Commissioner,
Mandi, goes as Resident Commissioner, Pangi. Mr Rajneesh, Sub-Divisional Officer,
Manali, has been appointed ADC, Mandi. Mr P.S. Kuthleria, Additional Excise Commissioner, has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Revenue. |
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Bias in fund allocation: Cong Kulu, April 28 He criticised the Dhumal government for bringing amendments to the Panchayati Raj rules at a time while elections were announced. Mr Virbhadra Singh rediculed the statement of Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, that financial chaos in Himachal was the outcome of policies of the Congress party. He said the BJP-HVC government had been “misruling” the state for the past three years. The state has been put under financial burden for more than Rs 2200 crore. He said by the end of the current year, the state would be under financial burden of more than 5000 crore. He expressed concern over
bankruptcy of Himachal, which was evident from the instructions of the Reserve Bank of India, issued in February and now in April again. This has put a question mark on the working of the present state government. The former Chief Minister said those who had been criticising the taking of loans by the then Congress government, have crossed all limits, overestimating their own capacity of repayments, to put the state in financial
bankruptcy. To a question on vertical division in the Congress party in the state Mr Virbhadra Singh refuted the charge and said the Congress party, in Himachal was united. He said the Congress president and the CLP leader were organising the meetings in the state to strengthen the party. He called upon Congress workers to arrange village level meetings to expose corrupt and inefficient governments at the Centre and the state. Earlier Mr Virbhadra Singh was given a warm reception at Bajaura. Kaul Singh Thakur, a former Speaker in Himachal Vidhan Sabha and MLA, Asha Kumari a former Minister were also accompanying the former Chief Minister. |
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Panel to decide Cong men’s cases Shimla, April 28 Mr Kuldeep Rathore, the party spokesperson, told newsmen here yesterday that the two leaders were given seven days’ time to explain their position regarding statements in the media criticising the party leadership attributed to them but they failed to reply to the notice. Further action in the matter would be taken by the disciplinary committee. He said the two leaders had not been expelled from the party, as was being alleged, and they would be given full opportunity to put their case before the disciplinary committee. Referring to the financial crisis Mr Rathore said the BJP-HVC government was using the previous Congress government as a scapegoat to cover the financial mess created by it. When the Congress left the office the total loan liability was only Rs 800 crore. The coalition government had during the past three years raised loan to the tune of Rs 2400 crore and it planned to raise another Rs 2318 crore during the current year as indicated in the Budget. He said the party was fully geared up for the Kangra rally to be held on April 30. |
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HVC expresses concern over drought Shimla, April 28 Mr S.L. Verma, general secretary of the party, said there were complaints that the fodder being imported from the neighbouring states was not of good quality. He also emphasised the need to deploy tankers to supply drinking water in the areas facing water shortage. Meanwhile, Mr Sukh Ram, the party President, has appointed office-bearers to look after the party affairs in various districts. Mr Vijay Kumar Joshi, the working president, will be the in charge for Sirmaur, Solan, Kinnaur and Shimla districts; Mr Shiv Lal, general secretary, for Mandi, Kulu, Chamba and Lahaul-Spiti; and Mr Chamba Lal Gachli, a general secretary, for Bilaspur, Hamipur and Una districts. Mr S.L. Verma will be the in charge of the party office at Shimla and also take care of media affairs. Mr Kundal Singh will be the in charge of party head office at
Mandi. |
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Mayor, Dy Mayor walk out of meeting Shimla, April 28 Mayor Jenny Prem and Deputy Mayor, Shashi Shekhar belong to the Congress. Trouble started when the Urban Development Minister, Mr Roop Dass Kashyap, intervened in the debate and said the responsibility of repairing the roads in the city lay with the municipal corporation which had a large sum of unspent money with it. The Congress councillors said they were not taken into confidence while
allotting the work of laying water pipes by the Irrigation and Public Health Department. |
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Gastro cases: action to follow if water samples fail Hamirpur, April 28 Addressing a press conference here last night, Mrs Thakur said that the Department of Health was treating the patients. She advised people to visit government hospitals if they felt any stomach disorder due to the food taken at a lunch at Hamirpur recently. Mrs Anuradha Thakur, Deputy Commissioner, Dr S.S. Guleria, CMO, Mr R.M. Sharma, SP and Mr R.N. Sharma, SE, Irrigation cum Public Health also attended the press conference. She said that in the future people would have to inform the district authorities if they wanted to hold big lunches and dinners during the summer season, when there was an acute shortage of water in the state. She said that the water samples of all such house would be tested and then a clean chit would be given to the people concerned to go ahead with lunch or dinner. Mrs Thakur said that though thousands of persons as per reports had taken part in the lunch at Hamirpur yet the number of persons who had visited the district hospital was not more than 207 by the evening of April 27. She said that the number of persons who had taken medicines from private medical practitioners was still not known but being worked out. To a question, she said that resoling of five km road stretch between Dosarka and Pucca Bharo via Hamirpur town would be completed before the start of monsoon season. She pulled up officers of the Department of the PWD for not tarring or repairing this road. She said that laxity in the matter would not be tolerated. She asked the officers of the Irrigation and Public Health Department to repair all hand pumps in the district in general and Hamirpur in particular. She said that at least four hand pumps in Hamirpur town itself needed immediate attention on the department, as these were the main source of the water for the town people. She said that these hand pumps should be made operational and cleaned by next week. She released a detailed list of the projects undertaken and completed costing Rs 100 crore in Hamirpur Assembly segment alone. |
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Pathania
made HPTDC Chairman Shimla, April 28 Mr Pathania was, so far, vice-chairman of the HPTDC. Mr Pathania, who is considered close to Mr Dhumal, reportedly had been seeking a berth in the Council of Ministers. However, with many ruling BJP legislators making a beeline for Ministerial posts, Mr Dhumal gave up expanding the ministry. Earlier, the Chief Minister was chairman of the HPTDC. There were reports that some more politicians might be appointed chairman and vice-chairman of certain boards and corporations to accommodate supporters of the Union Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar. |
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HPTDC to focus on adventure tourism Dharamsala, April 28 Mr Pathania said the corporation owned 76 properties of which 56 were hotels. He said two marketing offices would be opened in Bangalore and Baroda to increase the influx of tourists from these areas. The HPTDC already had marketing offices in major cities of the country, he added. Mr Pathania said he was strictly opposed to the privatisation of government units but was open to private investment in the new joints. “It is only under compulsion that we will either lease out or sell about a dozen of the distress units of the corporation,” he said. He said he was opposed to privatisation as it was only through the government set-up that more jobs could be created to tackle the rising problem of unemployment. He said to bring more professionalism in the HPTDC, crash courses for waiters, assistant managers and senior managers would be held in Chail. He said the profit of the corporation was expected to increase as a very good tourist season was under way. Asked about his elevation from the post of Vice-Chairman to Chairman because of discontent for not being made a minister, he said he did not believe in pressure tactics and would continue to remain a Dhumal loyalist. |
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High-rises mar hill station Dalhousie Dalhousie is famous for its picturesque settings. Perched at the northern end of the Dhauladhars, the hill town is full of natural wonders. But, sad to say, it has become a cesspit of the land mafia, involved in constructions despite a recent ban. Taking into account the stringent building scheme sanctioned for the town’s Municipal Committee, construction work on unauthorised housing has not yet been halted. The construction activity is coming up in a prohibited area. The urban authorities are required to review the permission granted for the constructions done five or more years ago, but these have evidently not been heeded so far. The hill town has become a haven for the land mafia. Politicians of all shades are in league with the mafia. The norms and provisions of the H.P. Town and Country Planning Act are openly being violated posting a threat to the wooded hills. The media has highlighted the problem on
several occasions, but the Department of Urban Development has always turned a blind eye to the menace. The Town and Country Planning Department appears to be ineffective. It, perhaps, believes in issuing notices or in other words, it is “a paper tiger”. The building scheme of the Municipal Council, stipulates that except for the Bazar ward, which comprises Rathlog, Potreyan, Tehra and Bakrota, no residential building shall be raised on any estate with an area of less than half of an area. In the case of an existing estate, no partition shall be allowed with each house. Revenue mismanagement is another problem which Dalhousie faces. Government officials, under whose nose the magnates raise haphazard and multistorey structures even in narrow stretches, however, maintain that all these constructions are coming up in consonance with development plans. But it is not known whether the building byelaws have been adhered to in letter and spirit or not while according approval to the development plans of such multistoreyed structures. since there is no sewerage system in Dalhousie, sewage from private houses and hotels are conveniently dumped into nullahs in certain areas. The dense forest is used as an open-air lavatory. Now it is learnt that the sewerage scheme has been cleared by the government and is under way. |
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3 killed, 52 hurt in road mishap Mandi, April 28 According to the police, two persons died on the spot while one succumbed to injuries and was declared brought dead in the hospital. As many as 45 persons were discharged after first aid while others were admitted in Zonal Hospital here. Some were admitted to the Civil Hospital, Kulu. All the injured persons are said to be out of danger. Those killed have been identified as Tota Ram, Devinder Kumar and Ramu, a Nepali citizen. |
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Hamirpur
tops in small savings Hamirpur, April 28 Credit for this goes to people of this district and those engaged in collecting money from them and depositing it with post offices under long-term deposit schemes. The number of small savings agents here is 1,123, out of which 495 are active agents. The number of active mahila agents working under the Mahila Pradhan Kshetriya Bachat Yojna is 435. These women used to collect about Rs 1.25 crore per month, according to Ms Anuradha Thakur, Deputy Commissioner. She said the male agents were collecting about Rs 6.5 crore every month. The number of schools covered under the “sanchyaika” was 201 and a sum of Rs 2 lakh was collected from students every month in this district. The Deputy Commissioner said Hamirpur got the first prize for the third year in succession in small savings. The district collected a record amount of Rs 49.63 crore as against the annual target of Rs 36 crore. Last year, it had collected Rs 35.37 crore as against the annual target of 31.06 crore. She said at the time of creation of Hamirpur in 1972, the overall collections under the small savings were Rs 40 lakh only. Higher literacy percentage in the district coupled with the adoption of one or two children norm had helped it to stand first. Mr Birbal Sharma, an agent, collected a record of Rs 9.63 crore under long deposit and Rs 40 lakh under the public provident fund scheme. According to him, his son also collected more than Rs 2.5 crore during the last financial year. This programme helped people in the field of development as 80 per cent of the total collections were given to the state for development purposes as loan, Ms Thakur said. |
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Tibetans
to observe martyrs day Dharamsala, April 28 In a statement issued here today, the joint secretary of the TYC, Ms Dolma Chophel, said the Tibetans here would commemorate the third anniversary of the martyrdom of Thupten Ngodup by taking out a peace march from McLeodganj to Dharamsala tomorrow. Ms Dolma said Thupten Ngodup had made the supreme sacrifice during the TYC hunger strike in New Delhi in 1998 to let the world know of the urgency of the situation in Tibet and to highlight the depth of the suffering of the Tibetan people. She said for the past five decades, in addition to violating territorial integrity and freedom of Tibet, China had been committing untold human rights violations and at the same time relentlessly destroying the fragile environment of the roof of the world. She disclosed that now a new evidence had come to fact that the Chinese were shipping priceless religious artifacts from the Potala Palace in Tibet to Shanghai. She urged the UNESCO and other international monitoring agencies to look into the matter and prevent Chinese authorities from looting the cultural, historical and religious heritage of the people of Tibet. |
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Ex-servicemen denied lower air fare Kulu Major R.C. Sharma, president of the Ex-Servicemen’s League of Kulu and Lahaul and Spiti districts, stated: “Even gallantry award winners are not treated properly”. He pointed out that Col Prem Chand, whose one leg has been rendered partially useless while in service, was entitled to 50 per cent discount in air fares on all domestic sectors in the economy class by a decree of the President. Major Sharma said the Colonel had not even been paid the full award amount to date. Certainly not a morale-booster for those who wish to join the armed forces! “Our present day leaders sing songs of the valour of the armed forces, but the ground realities are different,” he added. Major Sharma, expressed his surprise that the freedom fighters, who were entitled to all benefits including free travel (with families) by all modes of transport were not being given their due. Elected MPs or MLAs, irrespective of their “truncated” tenure, were entitled to pension, free travel, interest-free loans (that are invariably waived off), all profit making enterprises at government expense. He assailed the system and blamed politicians for the decay and ills now plaguing the country. The president of the Ex-Servicemen’s League said when a government employee died in service, even a day prior to that, his next of kin was guaranteed a government job, apart from all service benefits due to a deceased employee. No such job is there for a serving soldier’s dependent who sacrifices his life for the country. No benefits to a martyr. Of course, a sewing machine is given to the widow of the martyr as a life long companion. It is evident that the politicians are always rewarded immediately and handsomely, but soldiers face routine neglect. Perhaps, a soldier is considered less patriotic than a present day politician, he lamented. The Ex-Servicemen’s League was concerned about the plight of its members and regretted inaction by the government when would politicians realise the plight of gallant soldiers, he asked. The need of the day was to amend the present system that was dominated by bureaucrats. Major Sharma requested the Prime Minister, for whom the welfare of serving and ex-servicemen of the armed forces was close to his heart, to redress the grievances of ex-servicemen. |
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Road through Kunjam Pass reopened Shimla, April 28 This was stated by Mr
L. R. Chauhan, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Kaza, today. |
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No power cuts Shimla, April 28 |
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