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Friday,
June 22, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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CBI PROBE AGAINST VIRBHADRA
Mohinder hits out at his bete noire Fake contractors make
a quick buck Misuse of free medicare to be stopped |
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Medicos’ indefinite stir from today Council’s help
sought for
tracing doctors Ayurvedic doctors
demand parity Reschedule PMT date: parents Teachers beat up pupil, apologise St. Bede’s bags 6 positions in BA exam ‘Enrol students with compartment in BA’ Subsidy on cartons okayed Unscheduled bus
stoppages irk residents
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CBI PROBE AGAINST VIRBHADRA Shimla, June 21 Interestingly, the demand has come when the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh were drawing near and the opponents of Mr Virbhadra Singh are reportedly aspiring to knock him out of the electoral arena once they succeeded in getting some case registered against him by the CBI. They have mounted pressure on the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, to ask the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to get the inquiry against him expedited. The HVC activists, in a bid to pressurise Mr Dhumal, at their recent meeting even threatened to withdraw the party’s support to the BJP government in case the CBI probe was not expedited. The BJP-HVC combine government referred a “charge sheet” against Mr Virbhadra Singh to the CBI for inquiry shortly after assuming power in 1998, but nothing has so far come out of it. What has annoyed the Virbhadra Singh camp is that those persons who along with the HVC were instrumental in authoring the so-called charge sheet against him, have now been admitted in the Congress by the PCC chief, Mr Vidya Stokes. It is being alleged that the Stokes camp has joined hands with Mr Sukh Ram to demand CBI action against their common foe, Mr Virbhadra Singh. Mr Sukh Ram has apparently so far not digested the registration of cases by the CBI in some cases of seizure of unaccounted wealth from his residence and has been blaming Mr Virbhadra Singh of having got him trapped in “false” cases. Mr Virbhadra Singh was Chief Minister when these cases were registered against Mr Sukh Ram by the CBI and he was thrown out of the Congress. Having himself remained in the CBI lock up for interrogation after his return from abroad, Mr Sukh Ram had sometime ago reportedly threatened that he would make it a point to see that Mr Virbhadra Singh was put behind the bars in Kaithu jail here. |
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Mohinder hits out at his bete noire Mandi, June 21 Addressing mediapersons at the local Circuit House, he ridiculed that Sukh Ram was claiming to be the champion of telecom revolution in Himachal. In fact, he laid 1200-km optical fibre cable in four years mostly in his own area connecting his own village and orchard with it at the cost of other parts of the district, he said. He disclosed that Union Communications Minister, Mr Ram Bilas Paswan, had announced that 4000 km of optical fibre would be laid in Himachal at the cost of Rs 320 crore. Of this, a sum of Rs 80 crore would be reimbursed to the PWD for repairing the roads damaged during the laying of the OFC. He alleged that the HVC supremo had been “blackmailing and exploiting” the government for his personal interests and was least interested in the development of the district. He accused him of promoting the politics of castism. He said the country was fed up with the leadership of old and crippled persons and added that young leadership should replace the “dead wood” to lift the country out of the mire of hunger and poverty. He said people like Sukh Ram should renounce politics. Commenting on the threats of withdrawal of support to the Dhumal government, he said Sukh Ram knew that the day he withdrew support he would be behind the bars. Mr Mohinder Singh, who has joined the Lok Jan Shakti and the Dalit Sewa of Mr Paswan claimed that the people of Himachal had been disillusioned both with the BJP and the Congress and were looking for an alternative. He also criticised the Chief Minister for the ongoing financial crisis under which the state was reeling. The state had been brought on the brink of bankruptcy. He said a large number of foundation stones had been laid for bridges and other projects, but work had not started. Development activities had come to a halt as officials and employees of the PWD and other departments were sitting idle except in the constituency of the Chief Minister, he alleged. |
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Fake contractors make
a quick buck Kasauli, June 21 Surprise raids conducted in the region, about 40 km from here, by the mining officer early this month led to the seizure of as many as 66 such receipts from the drivers of trucks and tractors. While the drivers allege they are forcibly issued these receipts and made to shell out money the mining officer stated that no such contractors were authorised to collect any money by the Mining Department. In fact, the state government had permitted the panchayats to collect a small sum of Rs 10 and Rs 5, respectively, from the truck and tractor drivers who picked up quarrying material from their areas. The notification regarding the same was circulated to the panchayats in April this year, stated the officer. It is interesting to note that only those indulging in illegally lifting quarrying material are issued these receipts by these fake contractors. The truck and tractor drivers have to shell out Rs 100 and 50, respectively, per trip to the river beds. In return the theft remains unreported to the authorities. This explains why the racket has been flourishing for over a year or even more as indicated by the receipts seized from the drivers which date back to last year. The mining officer stated the riverbeds of Sarsa-Balad rivers were oft-visited spots illegal traders from Punjab and Haryana. It is worth contemplating as to who is operating behind these fake contracts and where the money thus duped from the illegal traders finds its way. Some locals when contacted were aware of this nefarious activity which they stated had been going on for quite sometime. It was also learnt that these self-styled tax collectors start work from the wee hours of the morning and continue till late evening. Most of these slips bear the names of fake Shiv Mandir building societies under the names of various gram panchayats like Bhatoli Kalan and Chundi village. Some slips carry no such names but a sales tax column besides a column requiring some munshi’s signatures to mislead the drivers. The serial numbers of these receipts recovered by the mining officer run into thousands with 1594 being the highest number. The money thus earned by these fake contractors can be well estimated. Inquiries made by the mining officer revealed that no such societies existed. It seems to be a well-planned strategy to make a fast buck. What is baffling is the manner in which these unscrupulous elements have been operating with impunity for over a year now. It is noteworthy to mention that the said area is known for illegal quarrying. The mining officer added that during a recent raid as many as 34 cases were detected. A sum of Rs 37,600 was seized by compounding 27 of these cases. This amount could go up in lakhs if the government provided adequate budget for plying sanctioned vehicle throughout the month. He also said the seized receipts had been sent to the higher officials for suitable action. It was ironical that though the locals had been making a hue and cry over the illegal quarrying in the region some of them were conniving with fake contractors to perpetuate the illegal activity.
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Misuse of free medicare to be stopped Shimla, June 21 Mr Nadda, who was addressing mediapersons here, accused the Congress of having imposed user charges when it was in power in 1974 and then increasing these by 50 per cent in 1988. The BJP government was now only streamlining collection of these charges to undertake structural reforms in health services so as to obtain expertise of certain foreign aiding agencies. The government had not imposed any new user charges or levy of any kind in the health sector. He said the BJP government in 1992 for the first time decided to provide free treatment to the antyodaya families, accident victims, unattended patients, patients treated under various national health programmes etc. Mr Nadda said leaders of the Congress, who had imposed the user charges had suddenly woken up after 27 years to criticise the move of the government to streamline collection of these charges. The intention of the government was to benefit the poor patients who were so far generally denied free health care and influential persons pocketed the benefits. He made it clear that various foreign agencies had stressed for structural reforms in health services before providing financial aid for medical programmes. The stress of the government was on stopping misuse of the free treatment by influential people and encourage community participation and community ownership of health institutions. The health vision 2020 policy of the Himachal Pradesh Government had been appreciated by the funding agencies and many other state governments had sought copies of the document. The Health Minister said the government was highly subsidising the medical treatment and a fee of Rs 14 was being charged in government hospitals for X-rays against the cost of Rs 30 for the film alone. Processing and
establishment charges of each X-ray cost the government Rs 65. In the private sector the cost of one X-ray was Rs 120 and upwards. Similar was the position with regard to the charges for laboratory tests. He clarified the money collected through user charges would be spent by the hospital welfare and management societies for upgrading the facilities without depositing the money in government treasury accounts. Mr Nadda said the government would continue to provide normal budget to the hospitals. The budget for Kamla Nehru Hospital here was increased from Rs 1 crore in 1998-99 to Rs 1.27 crore in 2000-2001 and for Deen Dayal Upadhaya Hospital it was increased from Rs 3.48 crore to Rs 3.57 crore. The budget for the IGMC has been enhanced from Rs 3.93 crore to Rs 4.81 crore during the period. He also made it clear that there would be no effect on the services of employees by creation of the hospital societies. They would continue to be employees of the state government. |
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Medicos’ indefinite stir from today Shimla, June 21 A spokesman for the Medical Students Welfare Association said the decision to recruit 115 doctors on the contract basis in one go was part of the gameplan of the political bosses to give jobs to outsiders. He said only 74 students had passed out after completing internship from Indira Gandhi Medical College and as such the remaining posts would be filled by recruiting doctors from outside the state. There would be no jobs for those who pass out after three months. Dr Rajiv Chauhan, spokesman for the Resident Doctors Association, said in the past the appointments were made on an ad hoc basis and not on contract. There was no need to change the policy now. He said besides those passing out from the college interns, and resident doctors students of IGMC would also participate in the stir. Dental doctors are already up in arms against the government over the failure of the state public service commission to select any one passing out of the College. It is learnt that the government had written to the commission not to engage any expert from within the state for interviews to select dental doctors. The commission was also asked to define the role of departmental representatives in the interview. |
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Council’s help
sought for tracing doctors Shimla, June 21 Stating this to newspersons here today, the Health Minister, Mr J.P.
Nadda, said most of the doctors who had breached the bond had given wrong addresses and were not traceable now. He said such doctors did not belong to a single batch and their number had been increasing since 1966, when the IGMC was set
up. As per the bond, they were supposed to serve in Himachal Pradesh for a specified period after the completion of their MBBS course. Mr Nadda said legal course would be adopted once these doctors were traced. He said it had principally been decided to do away with the system of obtaining a bond of Rs 5 lakh from the MBBS students from the coming session because the future scenario indicated that there might be no shortage of doctors in the future. |
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Ayurvedic doctors
demand parity Nahan, June 21 He said on the one hand the government had said it would promote ayurvedic system of treatment as ayurvedic doctors had to serve in the far-flung and remote areas, on the other the government had not removed anomalies in the pay and allowances of ayurvedic and allopathic doctors for the past many years. He also demanded that ayurvedic doctors should be declared Class-I gazetted officers on the Punjab pattern. He added that ayurvedic officers were sore over the attitude of the government on the pending demands of the association. |
Reschedule PMT date: parents Shimla, June 21 They said during the previous years, the test was held in the end of June or the first week of July. But this year, the test was being proposed for the first week of August, which was too late by all aspects. After the test, students tried for admissions in private colleges in South India on the basis of the capitation fee. But they would not be able to opt for admissions in the South if the test was conducted so late, they said. |
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Teachers beat up pupil, apologise Nahan, June 21 The father of a Class VII student, Narender Kumar, had lodged an FIR at the Rajban police station of Paonta subdivision, alleging that his son was beaten up by PET and drawing teachers and one other. The student was referred to the Civil Hospital here for medical examination. However, no injury was found as per the medical report. Residents gathered in the school compound and staged a dharna for over an hour. Some turned violent and were controlled by the district president of the BJP, Mr Daleep Singh Tomer. They said they would not send their wards to the school until action was taken against the teachers. The district police chief, Mr S.P. Singh, had directed DSP, Paonta, to arrange a meeting of both parties to resolve the matter. The meeting took place on June 19, at Chandi which was attended by Mr Davender Thakur, DSP, Paonta, and District Education Officer M.Y. Ansari, among others. Villagers claimed at the meeting that the student was one of the most intelligent students of the school and was beaten up in connection with a punctured volley ball. Mr Ansari criticised the behaviour of the teachers. He said those teachers who did not discharge their duties properly and indulged in corporal punishment would not be spared. The teachers tendered their apology for the “misconduct” but said their intention was not to harm him. They said such incidents would not take place in future. The FIR has now been withdrawn. |
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St. Bede’s bags 6 positions in BA exam Shimla, June 21 According to a spokesman for the HPU, of the 18,221 students, who appeared in the examination, 15,630 were successful. The total pass percentage was 85.82. All first 11 positions have been secured by girls, of which, nine have gone to the St. Bede’s. Neha Munshi of St. Bede’s secured first position by getting 784 marks out of a total of 1000. The subsequent positions were obtained by Deepti Bansal (731 marks), Garima Pant (723), Anju Thakur (711), Nisha Misra (705), Supriya Thapar (703). All these girls belong to St Bede’s College, Shimla, followed by Kanan Sharma of Government College, Chamba (700), Anuradha Sarin of St Bede’s (699), Jyoti Thakur of RKMV, Shimla and Harpreet Kaur of St. Bede’s shared the ninth position by securing 694 marks and Shivani Thapar of St. Bede’s got 10th position by securing 693 marks. |
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‘Enrol students with compartment in BA’ Shimla, June 21 The SCA has also demanded that the construction work of the HPU tribal hostel should be immediately started. It said the B.Ed. Arts classes, which had been approved by the executive council, should be started in the HPU campus from the new session. It asked for the plying of more buses for university staff and students. The SCA has threatened the university authorities of launching an agitation if steps are not initiated in this regard. |
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Subsidy on cartons okayed Shimla, June 21 An official spokesman said here today that the Agro Industrial packaging India Ltd would manufacture 35 lakh telescopic cartons, 5 lakh cartons of 10 kg capacity, one lakh plum cartons of 5 kg capacity and one lakh almond cartons. Private corrugators will manufacture 10 lakh telescopic and flower cartons, 5 lakh 10 kg capacity cartons for apple, peach, pear and mango 20,000 cartons for packing strawberry and one lakh cartons each for plum and almond. A subsidy of Rs 10, Rs 5, Rs 3, Rs 1.50 and Re 1 will be available on the AIPIL manufactured telescopic cartons for apple, kinnow and flowers and 10 kg pear, peach, mango and strawberry carton and almond cartons, respectively. The subsidy for privately corrugated boxes will be Rs 8, Rs 3, Rs 1.50 and Re 1, respectively. The telescopic carton manufactured by AIPIL will be Rs 24.50 and HPMC, HIMFED and H.P. Agro Industries will be the procurement agencies. A subsidy of Rs 500 per truck will be given to fruit growers of Solan, Sirmour, Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur and Kangra districts for importing eucalyptus and poplar wood for making packing boxes. A subsidy of Rs 1000 per truck will be given to the fruit growers of Shimla, Mandi, Kulu, Chamba, Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts with effect from April to March 2002. The maximum subsidy would be Rs 12,000 per grower for this financial year. |
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Unscheduled bus
stoppages irk residents Kumarhatti, June 21 The plight of the passengers can be gauged from the fact that Mr Babu Ram Sood, former elected member of the Daghshai Cantonment Board, who now runs a departmental store at Dagshai, takes a taxi to carry material from Dharampur to Dagshai as on many occasions due to such stoppages he had to miss the bus from Dharampur to Daghsai. There is only bus service to
Dagshai. |
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