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July 22, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Stokes quits panel PM’s Community Information Scheme for HP also Withdrawal of case against lecturer sought Govt misleading people: Virbhadra Governor holds meeting on IITT College |
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Illegal gun factory unearthed, 2 arrested Book on Miter Sen released
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Stokes quits panel Shimla, July 21 A former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader, Thakur Ram Lal, accompanied Mrs Stokes when she met the Governor. According to Mr Kuldeep Rathore, Secretary of the PCC, both Mrs Stokes and Thakur Ram Lal urged the Governor to reinstall Mrs Gandhi’s portrait to remove the controversy which had hurt the sentiments of the people, they said. They made it clear to the Governor that there was no justification of appointing the committee as there was clear-cut evidence that the portrait existed there on the wall and was removed recently. The CLP leader, Mr Virbhadra Singh, had already resigned from the committee whom he described as a gimmick and demanded that the portrait should be restored. |
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PM’s Community Information Scheme for HP also Shimla, July 21 Stating this at a press conference here today, Mr Pramod Mahajan, Union Minister for Information and Technology, said that the scheme was being implemented in the eight north east states at a cost of Rs 200 crore, covering 484 tehsils of the region. Since Information Technology was most useful for overcoming the topographical constraints, his ministry wanted the scheme to be extended to Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttaranchal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand states. He said the ministry had already taken up the matter at the highest level and was hopeful that the Prime Minister, Mr A.B. Vajpayee would accord approval to the proposal. He said the scheme would also have to be cleared by the Planning Commission. Mr Mahajan expressed satisfaction that the worldwide economic slowdown had not affected the IT sector in the country. WIPRO, the largest IT company, recorded a 93 per cent growth in profit which was remarkable and augured well for the industry. The current slowdown was a temporary phase and it might not last beyond December. In fact things had started looking up already and if the present growth rate of industry in the country’s software exports which stood at Rs 25,000 crore would cross the Rs 2,50,000 crore mark a 10-fold increase, over the next 10 years. He said that IT sector had registered phenomenal growth over the past 10 years with software exports shooting up from Rs 200 crore in 1991 to Rs 25,000. However, a major drawback had been that it was confined to southern and western part of the country. Besides it benefited only the English-knowing people of urban areas. To remove this imbalance, the government started the software technology park scheme so that the states left behind in the IT revolution caught up with southern states. Earlier, the hill state was put on the global Information Technology map, with the inauguration of the Earth station and the software Technology park by Mr P.K. Dhumal, Himachal Chief Minister. The international gateway, he said would provide 100 per cent uptime high-speed Data Communication connectivity to the world to software developers. The software export units would get soft point (International private lased circuit) and softlink (Wideband Internet connection) from the gateway and enable the state to take a giant leap forward in the field of software exports. The park has been set up at a cost of Rs 6 crore out of which Rs 3.30 crore had been given by the Centre. The facilities created under the project would be run and maintained by the Software Technology Parks of India. The state government would encourage flow of investments including FDI by offering customised package of incentives for prestigious investment proposals. The Sale Tax on IT products would not be fixed above the agreed uniform floor rate and state government would urge the Government of India for zero Sales Tax on IT products, he added. IT software units would be permitted to be set up in residential areas subject to load restrictions. Exemption from land and building tax would be given to the land and building within the declared STP, IT habitats and hi-tech city for 10 years from the date of their having been declared as such by the state government. The state government would facilitate the creation of a venture capital fund of Rs 20 crore in association with the state co-operative bank, SIDBI and other financial institutions to meet the equity requirements of the Small and Medium Enterprises. He said that general permission has been accorded to run a three-shift operation to the IT software and services industry. The government would facilitate the creation of the State-of-the-Art IT infrastructure including the setting up of software technology park, Earth Station, Hi-Tech Habitats and laying of optical fiber cable for broad band connectivity. Mr Pramod Mahajan announced that Software Technology Parks India would grant 50 per cent concession to entrepreneurs, who set up units in the STP Shimla for one year. He also complimented the state for extensively using IT governance in Hamirpur district. |
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Withdrawal of case against lecturer sought Solan, July 21 The decision to boycott classes was taken at a meeting of the college staff council convened for taking stock of the situation arising out of the “false” implication of the lecturer in the case and the clash between groups of students. Later, a delegation of lecturers headed by the Principal, Ms Usha Julka, met the SP, Mr Rakesh Aggarwal, and the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mr S.C. Kalsotra and Handed over a memorandum to them. They threatened a statewide agitation by college lecturers if the “false” case was not withdrawn immediately. The delegation apprised the two officers of their findings, according to which the lecturer concerned merely intervened to avoid a clash between students after learning that some of them had brought sharp-edged weapons on the campus. Efforts made by the lecturer led to the recovery of a sword, a khukri and a piece of iron pipe from a shop situated close to the college. The lecturer deposited the arms with the Principal who informed the SP over the phone. Members of the delegation maintained that a clash took place between two groups of students in which a former student, Bhupendra Sharma, was seriously injured. On the arrival of the police. The Principal handed over the weapons to it. Later, the ASP, Mr Sundar Lal, summoned the lecturer to the police station for recording his evidence. However, he was arrested after a period of alleged illegal detention and “forced” to buy his freedom after arranging a bail. The delegation condemned the police action and demanded withdrawal of the case against the lecturer. The president of the Himachal Pradesh College Lecturers Association, Mr P.S. Thakur, threatened a statewide agitation if the police did not undo the wrong done to the lecturer. The district president of the NGOs federation, Mr Jai Nand Sharma, and the chief adviser of the body, Mr A.R. Verma, in a joint statement issued here yesterday, condemned the police action of detaining a lecturer in police custody without seeking permission or informing the head of the department. When contacted, the ASP said he had arrested the lecturer “on the grounds of available evidence and his failure in giving convincing details of the circumstances which led to the receipt of information about students carrying shard-edged weapons”. Mr Sundar Lal said the arrest was made after the injured person registered an FIR against the lecturer. Meanwhile, the college principal said the SP had assured that the case against the lecturer would be withdrawn in case he was found innocent. She said the SP would be visiting the college tomorrow in this connection. |
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Govt misleading people: Virbhadra Kangra, July 21 Mr Virbhadra Singh while talking to the members of the Trigarth Press Club here yesterday said the government may propagate any thing through the media regarding “development” but it was a hard fact that except for one or two Assembly segments the development projects in the entire state have come to a standstill. Mr Virbhadra Singh refuted the claim of the Chief Minister, Prof P.K. Dhumal, that his government during the last 35 months had accelerated the pace of development and said the government was almost bankrupt and do not even had funds for salary of the employees. He alleged that the current financial crunch was due to the mismanagement by the government. He said the state government had not even been able to save the size of the state annual plan which was reduced by Rs 338 crore last year by the Planning Commission. He said this year also the size of the annual plan projected by the state government was Rs 1720 crore same as in the last year. |
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Governor holds meeting on IITT College Shimla, July 21 Dr Suraj Bhan, who is also Chancellor of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU), had invited the HPU authorities, people from the Technical Education Department, the AICTE, the Management of the college and the district authorities for solving the problems as the students were suffering. The HPU had recently suspended affiliation to various courses being run by the college. Dr Suraj Bhan suggested the examinations of all students who could not appear in the examinations conducted by HP University during May/June, 2001 in the subject of electronics and communication engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and engineering may be allowed on a par with those students who had been allowed to appear in such examinations by the Himachal Pradesh High Court under the carryover system. Prof S.K. Gupta, Vice-Chancellor, HPU, informed that Himachal Pradesh University had already suspended affiliation to the IITT College of Engineering, Kala Amb, in respect of electrical engineering, electronics and communication engineering and computer science and engineering from the academic year 2001-2002. However, it would not affect the earlier students. |
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Illegal gun factory unearthed, 2 arrested Chamba, July 21 The police arrested two brothers Rattan Kumar and Bhag Chand and a case number the 156/01 has been registered under Sections 25 and 54 of the Arms Act, 1959 by Chamba police station. Superintendent of Police, Chamba, Sanjay Kundu told reporters today that acting on a tip-off, the police party headed by the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ms Ranjna Chauhan, raided the house of Rattan Kumar at Bharian village and recovered the unlicensed arms and ammunition. The SP said that the accused had manufactured five unlicensed guns without numbers which were to be sold to the customers adding that four barrels of air gun were under the process of manufacturing. He said that Rattan Kumar, who was a licensed gunsmith and was carrying on the business of repairing the guns for the past several years but on investigation it was found that he had been not maintaining records of his gun shop since 1999. He said that the accused had been involved in illegal business of supplying self-manufactured (modified) guns to their customers who were understood to have been using these arms for poaching trade in the far-flung forests of Chamba district. The SP said that the accused were using dyes for stamping the self-manufactured guns and it was suspected the same modus operandi could be used for evil designs at the instance of anti-social elements. The SP said that the investigations in the case were in progress and expressed apprehension that the possibilities of using these arms and ammunition by the anti-national elements could not be ruled out. However, the police was trying to get more clues from the accused, the SP added. Meanwhile, checkpoints on all border belts of the sensitive Chamba district had been sealed and a strict vigil sounded in the wake of this incident of detecting arms and ammunition from the gunsmith. |
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Book on Miter Sen released Shimla, July 21 He said OBCs were being given reservation of 18 per cent in Class III and IV services and 12 per cent in Class I and II services. He said benefits were also being given to them under various schemes by the OBCs Finance and Development Corporation and other departments. The Chief Minister, who was presiding over meeting of the Gorkha Kalyan Board here, said the Gorkha community would also benefit from these schemes as they had also been included in the OBCs category. Mr Dhumal said Himachal Pradesh Other Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation had given loans amounting to Rs 4.65 crore to 320 eligible persons during last year under subsidised rates and a target of benefiting 325 persons had been fixed for current financial year. The Chief Minister released a book on famous litterateur Master Miter Sen at the meeting of Board. The Chief Minister lauded Master Miter Sen’s contribution in the field of literature, art and music. He lauded the efforts of the academy in bringing out the book on Master Mitar Sen. |
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