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| Thursday, July 5, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Cong wants Indira’s portrait back
No move to disinvest in Nathpa project:
CM Illegal mining continues
unabated 291 HVC members ‘have quit party’ |
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DISTRICT DIARY HP BJP to launch Vikas Jyoti
Yatra Chohan’s return disturbing:
Cong Resident docs end strike on HC
order
Judicial remand for rapist father Villagers block
traffic Chamba dist to have DIG (Operations) INTUC serves notice on PWD Fulfil demands, say forest rangers Another chance for
students
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Cong wants Indira’s portrait
back Shimla, July 4 An AICC spokesman, Mr Anand Sharma, told newsmen here today that the Governor and the Himachal Pradesh Government owed an explanation to the people of the country for this act. Mr Sharma accused the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre of redefining what India is and re-writing history. He said that the authorities who ordered the removal of the portrait had shown disrespect not only to the memory of Mrs Gandhi but also to the history. Mr Sharma said that on a number of occasions earlier too the Congress had taken note of the concern articulated by eminent historians, academicians and scholars about the new curriculum and attempts to saffronise the education system by distorting history and misrepresenting facts. Meanwhile, the secretary to the Governor has in a clarification today said that certain changes were carried out in the interiors of Raj Bhavan on the advice of the chief architect and the then Governor, Mr Vishnu Kant Shastri had nothing to do with it. The portrait of Mrs Gandhi had suitably been placed in another room. He said that it was
unfortunate that the name of the Governor had been dragged into this episode and political colour added to the story. On the other hand, the PCC chief, Mrs Vidya Stokes, has demanded that the portrait of Mrs Gandhi should immediately be reinstalled at its original place and if this was not done, the Congress would resort to an agitation. She demanded a high-level inquiry into the removal of the portrait and urged the Governor to look into the matter and bring the culprits to book. The CLP leader, Mr Virbhadra Singh, too has described the act as a highly objectionable action and has accused the BJP of trying to fiddle with history. |
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No move to disinvest in Nathpa project:
CM Shimla, July 4 Talking to newsmen after inaugurating the new complex of the State Pollution Control Board, here, he admitted that the government was not in a position to contribute its equity share owing to tight financial position. It would have to raise loans to contribute to the equity and it would start receiving the dividend after a gap of several years. As such might not be an economical proposition. The state could go in for disinvestments, provided its financial interest, were safeguarded. He said the NTPC, which had ample surplus funds, had made a serious bid to take over Nathpa Jhakri Power Corporation when Mr P. Kumarmanglam was the Union Energy Minister. However, since then no concrete proposal had been made to the government. Mr Dhumal said the government was considering to entrust two more hydel projects to the NHPC which was doing a good job in executing the Chamera-II project work which was 18 months ahead of schedule. The government now planned to hand over the Hibra and Kuther projects, which also fall in the Ravi basin, to the corporation. Handing over major projects in a river basin to one executing agency would go a long way in reducing the cost of construction. The 86 mw Malana project, the first hydel project to be completed in the private sector, would be inaugurated later this month. It has been completed three years ahead of schedule. He said there was no major difference between the BJP and its coalition partner, the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC), on the environmental issues. The HVC was opposed to the setting up of cement plant as it considered it an environmental hazard. However, the BJP maintained that with the availability of modern technology cement plant could be set up without polluting the environment. Moreover, it was in favour of exploiting the state’s natural resources like limestone for providing jobs to people and improving the economy of the state. However, it would not be done at the cost of environment. Regarding the open criticism of his government’s policies by Mr Sukh Ram, he said the BJP was indebted to the HVC supremo who extended his support for forming a non-Congress government in the state at a crucial juncture. He said political leaders had at times make statements under pressure from the cadres but ultimately what the leadership decides only matters. Mr Sukh Ram had repeatedly said that his party’s support to the government would continue and the BJP also wanted its support even though it had acquired a majority in the state Assembly. The complex costing over Rs 1.25 crore had been built by the board from its own resources. |
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Illegal mining continues
unabated Nahan, July 4 Despite efforts made by the Mining Department the illegal mining is continuing at nearly a dozen points in the 4-km area on both sides of road from Biala village towards Girinagar. On a visit to this area, local residents told this correspondent that during night hours blasts took place on these points and limestone was loaded and transported to nearby factories in Dhaulan Kuan, Paonta and Kala Amb. There is no barrier on these routes. The residents said those engaged in this illegal business were influential people of the area having muscle and money power besides high political links. Normally, the residents do not open their mouth against these persons. They say that nearly a dozen trucks of limestone are being transported from this area nowadays and in the dry season more limestone is extracted from these hills, which is causing a loss to the tune of lakhs per month to the state government. This correspondent went from the Girinagar side and arrived at about 8 p.m. at Biala village where five truck drivers were ready to load their trucks with limestone. Two trucks loaded with limestone were going towards the Dhaulan Kuan side. When the driver of the van in which this correspondent was travelling tried to stop the trucks, the drivers sped away. The illegal mining mafia has constructed at least two private roads to transport limestone from the mining pits. These roads, according to the residents, have been constructed through the forest area and the maximum land under these illegal mining pits and the land destroyed by ITS belongs to the Himachal Government or is the reserve forest area, falling under Paonta Forest Division. At several places the road has been badly damaged and at two places, about 3 km from Biala village, the road has almost disappeared under the debris of the mining pits. The residents fear that landslides may occur again during this rainy season, if preventive steps are not taken and mining activities are not stopped. At three different places limestone extracted from these pits was dumped on the roadsides, which according to the residents, was to be transported at night. Some residents fear that the illegal mining activities and uncontrolled blasting may cause damage to the tunnel of the Giri Nagar Power House. |
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291 HVC members ‘have quit party’ Dharamsala, July 4 He said the popularity graph of the HVC had come down and it would be difficult for the party to win any seats. Certain office-bearers of the Dharamsala block of the HVC announced their decision to quit the party on the occasion. The state delegate of the HVC from Dharamsala along with other office-bearers said 291 HVC members had quit the party and would take a decision on joining any other party after due consultations. He said keeping in view the severe financial crunch being faced by the government, 522 posts in the HPSEB and 35 in the PWD sub divisions had been closed down. “It would have been far better if the government had removed the flect of chairmen, vice-chairmen and directors of various boards and corporations, instead of abolishing the existing government jobs,” he
stated. Mr Mohinder Singh, said the Dhumal government and Mr Sukh Ram, who had come to power by promising 27 per cent reservation to the OBC community. He said if Mr Sukh Ram had genuine
concern for the OBCs he should announce reservation for the OBCs or resign from the post he holds before July 6, the day he will be holding a rally at Kangra, on the occasion of the foundation day of his party. The HVC state delegate, Mr Sudesh
Bhardwaj, said they had been compelled to take the decision as there was no democracy in the party. “We were being asked to target CLP leader, Mr Virbhadra Singh, and spare Ms Vidya Stokes, in the Congress and do the same in the BJP by hitting the Chief Minister, Mr
P.K. Dhumal and sparing Union Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar,” he stated. |
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DISTRICT DIARY Chamba The residents and hoteliers of this picturesque hill resort, who are nowadays busy in their hotel and allied business to entertain tourists from home and abroad, have strongly demanded that bus services should be introduced to Dharamshala, Kulu, Manali, Shimla, Jammu, Chandigarh and Delhi to give the tourism industry a much-needed fillip in Dalhousie, Khajjiar and Chamba hill resorts famous for their scenic beauty. The HRTC buses should start in the early hours of the day to enable the tourists and passengers to reach their destination on time. The bus terminus edifice at Dalhousie is not only devoid of the requisite staff but is also in bad shape. The people have sought the opening of a region depot of the HRTC either at Dalhousie or at Chowari, both places are tehsil headquarters. The only Region Depot Workshop at Chamba can barely look after the large number of breakdown of buses on winding roads of this mountainous valley. Residents of Chamba as well as tourists are sore at the private bus operators for their hopeless services in the region. The drivers of private buses do not follow the timetable for arrival and departure of buses and are often drunk, they allege. The drivers of private buses don’t wear prescribed uniforms and there is hardly any check by the authorities concerned on the services and safety aspects of the ramshackle old buses which ply jam-packed with commuters. These buses are neither cleaned properly nor maintained. As a sequel to this, breakdowns en route are common in this rugged and hilly terrain of Himachal Pradesh. The timings of private buses are changed without notice which cause a lot of harassment and inconvenience to the passengers. The complaint book, too, is not available. A report on Chamba accidents submitted to the government by the competent authorities some time ago uncovers that the main cause of breakdowns and accidents in this area is the narrow roads without parapets. However, the possibilities of accidents owing to the ramshackle old vehicles cannot be ruled out, the authorities admit. *
* * The Thein Dam ousted families are sore at the issue of employment to their educated wards as they were earlier assured by the government of provision of jobs in lieu of their land and houses which stands submerged in the dam waters. The Thein Dam now Ranjit Sagar Dam was constructed by the Punjab Government on the Ravi at Shahpur Kandi near Pathankot. It was commissioned a few months ago. In all, 537 families belonging to Dalhousie subdivision in Chamba district were uprooted from the catchment areas, which are now submerged. But out of these, only 319 families have so far been provided employment. One of the ousted families of Thein Dam Mr P.C. Oberoi, says several representations have been made to the Chief Ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, but no action has yet been taken. Mr Oberoi who is having copies of the letters exchanged between Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab Chief Minister, and Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, Himachal Chief Minister, the Punjab Chief Minister Mr Badal had agreed to provide jobs to the remaining affected families in the light of their technical and higher education, but the commitment is being outrightly ignored by the government itself. Mr Oberoi while threatening to resort to direct action, has asked the government to provide jobs to the left-out families. Lt Gen A.K. Puri, Director General of the Border Roads Organization (BRO) has last month dedicated the Killar-Sansari Nala road to the tribal people of mountainous Pangi tribal subdivision in Chamba district and introduced the first bus service plied by the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) on this road having a distance of 16 km. In fact, the construction of a 16 km Killar-Sansari Nala road and a bridge across Sansari Nala is the milestone in the history of a tough tribal Pangi ravine, which remains snowcapped during the winter. This road has now linked three panchayats of the tribal Pangi subdivision namely Sural, Luj and Dharwas, besides providing a major link between the tribal Pangi subdivision of Himachal Pradesh and the neighbouring state of Jammu and Kashmir bordering Sansari Nala. With the construction and commissioning of this road, a distance of about 100 km has been reduced via Kistwar, Batot and Jammu to reach the district headquarter town of Chamba, otherwise the residents had to come via Rohtang Pass of the Lahaul Valley of Chamba. The credit for the construction of this road and Sansari Nala Bridge goes to the engineers and other officials of the BRO who constructed this link road and bridge making strenuous endeavors despite odds in the snow-bound to tough tribal terrain. |
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HP BJP to launch Vikas Jyoti
Yatra Solan, July 4 The yatra has been scheduled for sometime after the rains. Mr Ganesh Dutt, who held a press conference here yesterday, claimed that the Chief Minister, Prof P.K. Dhumal, has set in an unprecedented pace of development, setting “new records in the growth of basic infrastructure facilities in the hitherto neglected rural areas”. The Opposition Congress had launched a campaign of misinformation and succeeded in creating doubts in the minds of the common man about the progress made during the BJP’s three-and-a-half-years rule. This impression needs to be corrected. He also lashed out at the Congress’ “double faced policies”. “The Congress, by not condemning Jayalalitha’s political vendetta in unequivocal terms and also by siding with the anarchist Laloo Prasad Yadav’s party in Bihar and only helped the cause of those who were out to destroy the country’s democratic system”. Mr Ganesh Dutt said the BJP, President Krishnamurthy would be visiting Himachal Pradesh on July 7 and 8, adding that the party units had been geared up to accord a rousing reception to the party President. |
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Chohan’s return disturbing:
Cong Shimla, July 4 Mr Sharma, who was addressing mediapersons here today, said a delegation of the Congress led by Mr Moti Lal Vora, who is incharge of the Congress affairs in Punjab, yesterday presented a memorandum to the President, Mr K.R. Narayanan, about the developments in Punjab. He said the return of the elements who defied the Constitution and preached secession in Punjab was a disturbing development. The Congress spokesman said the people of Punjab who had suffered a lot would not allow anyone to vitiate the atmosphere and disturb harmony and peace. Mr Sharma alleged that the BJP-led government was disposing of prestigious public sector undertaking in an untransparent manner. The manner in which consultants were appointed to fix the reserve price for disinvestments of the Air India was not in the interest of the country. He said the Congress was concerned over the continuous slowdown in the economy. The government has admitted that the growth rate will be far less than 5.2 per cent. He said the NDA government was squarely responsible for the economic mess. Mr Sharma said that the Congress was not opposed to disinvestments except of some public sector undertakings which are in sensitive and defence sectors. |
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Resident docs end strike on HC
order Shimla, July 4 The directions were issued by a Division Bench comprising Mr Chief Justice C.K. Thakkar and Mr Justice Arun Kumar Goel. PIL was filed by a local lawyer, Mr M.L. Sharma, who said that poor patients were suffering due to the dispute between the government and doctors. The intervention of the court had the desired impact on the government which signed an agreement with the RDA here. Mr Sanjay Karol, Advocate-General of the state, placed the copy of the agreement on the record of the court which was signed by the Resident Doctors Association leaders and Secretary, Health, of the state. In the agreement, the RDA and government agreed not to make any contractual appointment and all the recruitment of doctors would be made on an ad hoc basis through the Public Service Commission regularly. The RDA assured the court that their strike would called off today and all the services, including the Out Patient Department (OPD) and other emergency services, would be restored soon. The case is now fixed for July 19 for further proceedings. |
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Judicial remand for rapist father Parwanoo, July 4 The alleged accused was arrested by the police. The girl is a class X student of a local government school. Her father was working as a welder at Parwanoo and is a resident of Sector 5 here. The girl’s mother had died five years ago. The girl, in a statement to the police, said that her father began making advances towards her in May last year. She added in her complaint that she was mentally
traumatised, and had also to be admitted to hospital. She could not tell any one about the torture for fear of her father. Finally, she confided in the vice-president of Taksal panchayat’s wife, who informed her husband about the matter. She was later escorted to the police station. |
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Villagers block
traffic Una, July 4 Ms Swami said Mr Om Prakash threatened her in the presence of the police, but even then no action was taken against him and instead he was allowed to escape along with his family members. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr K.K. Pant and the SP, Mr Avishek Trivedi, reached the spot at about 9.30 pm and assured the people that action would be taken against those found guilty after an inquiry following which the traffic was restored. |
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Chamba dist to have DIG (Operations) Shimla, July 4 It is learnt that the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, yesterday gave his nod for the creation of the post following the winding up of three slots of DIGs of the Shimla, Mandi and Dharamshala ranges. The final decision on the creation of the post of DIG
(Operations) will be taken in the next meeting of the Cabinet. It is proposed that the DIG (Operations) will look after the districts of Chamba, Kangra, Una and Mandi. The DIG will initially be stationed at Dharamshala and his office will later be shifted to Dalhousie. The three police ranges were scrapped by the Cabinet in its meeting in March. |
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INTUC serves notice on PWD Bilaspur, July 4 This was stated by the vice-president of the state unit of the INTUC, Mr Parasram Parmar and District Joint-Secretary, Mr Sukhdev Bhatia at Suharghat, 40 km from here yesterday. They said the government had ordered to regularise the services of the daily wagers who have completed five years of service. But, yet the department had failed to regularise even those who had been in service since past 12 years. |
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Fulfil demands, say forest rangers Mandi, July 4 Mr C.L. Joshi, general secretary of the association, told mediapersons here yesterday that their demands included the implementation of the Pandey Committee report, making posts of HPFS as non-selection posts, restoration of rent free accommodation, filling of vacant posts and finalisation of promotions, amendment of recruitment and promotion rules, reservation of seats in M.Sc, Forestry, at Nauni for forest rangers and provision of protection, communication and mobility of the field staff. He expressed confidence that the Forest Minister, Thakur Rup Singh, would soon redress their grievances as promised by him at a seminar held under the auspices of the association in Dharamsala on Monday. |
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Another chance for
students Dharamsala, July 4 According to the Secretary of the Board,
Mr Vikas Labroo, the students would be given one final chance in
September. He said all such students should apply to the Board before
July 20. |
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Project on alternative
to chemical sprays Kangra, July 4 The university sources said Dr Ajay Shrivastava, agriculture scientist and principal investigator of the CSKHPKV Oil Seed Research, Kangra, had been awarded the project ‘biodiversity and efficacy of locally available plants and abnoxious weeds against pests in the oilseed crops in Himachal Pradesh’ by the Government of India, Ministry of Environment and Forest. The project would continue for three years. |
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Gen Oberoi calls on Governor Shimla, July 4 The Governor presented a Himachali cap and scarf to the Army officer. |
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Transfer orders amended Shimla, July 4 Mr Subhash Negi has been given charge of Industries Department besides Art, Language and Culture. |
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