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Friday,
September 14,
2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Health
scam: BJP chief on the mat Tussle
between MC, Bragta hots up Balh
valley ravaged HC directs
Power Secretary to file reply in 2 weeks Decision
on Director’s post reversed |
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Uneasy calm on varsity
campus No headway
in kidnapping case Blind
persons' association stages
dharna All-religion conference
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Health scam: BJP chief on the
mat Shimla, September 13 Mr Sharma who was addressing a press conference in connection with the “Vikas Jyoti Yatra” had no
plausible explanation as to why the party had been adopting double standards when it came to taking action against political persons
allegedly involved in the scandals. He sought to draw a distinction between the allegations against Mr Mohinder Singh, a former PWD Minister, who had to quit in the wake of dissidents campaign, and the ministers involved in the health scam. He said the party was not in favour of the removal of any minister in connection with the health scam at this stage and maintained that action would be taken against political persons if found guilty during inquiry. He said a case had been registered and some officials had been arrested and investigations were on. He also cut a sorry figure while explaining the failure of the party to fulfil its promise to make public the assets of its legislators within three months of the elections. He tried to wriggle out of the situation by saying that barring a few legislators, most of them had submitted details of assets to the Chief Minister. However, when asked why the details of the assets had not been made public as promised, he kept quiet. Giving details of the “Vikas Jyoti Yatra” the party was organising to apprise people about the achievement of the Dhumal government on the development front, Mr Sharma said the yatra to be launched on October 17 would be preceded by a series of programmes to mobilise the party machinery. A three-day training camp would be held from September 28 to 30 for ministers and state executive members. It would be followed by meetings of the district units on October 3 at which party workers would be educated about the achievement. On October 11 meetings would be held in all 68 constituencies to prepare the workers at the grassroots level for the yatra. The yatra would be launched on October 17 and on the following day yatras would be held in all constituencies which could cover three to five panchayats every day. Workers would also distribute pamphlets and other printed material on achievements. They would sleep in villages and interact with local people to get a proper feedback. Thereafter a workers’ conference would be held in each of the four Lok Sabha constituencies from November 2 to 5. He said starting work on hydro-electric projects to make the state self-reliant was the main achievement of the government. The completion of these projects would fetch an additional revenue of Rs 3,000 crore to the state annually by the year 2010. |
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Tussle between MC, Bragta hots
up Shimla, September 13 The latest bone of contention was the summoning of the Congress councillors by the minister for reviewing the development of each ward in the presence of ruling BJP activists of these areas. The Congress councillors boycotted the yesterday’s meeting when they came to know that activists of the
BJP, who were not elected to the SMC, had also been invited. The 25-member SMC has 23 Congress
councillors, two BJP councillors and 3 councillors have been nominated by the state government. The fight between the two parties has intensified as the elections for the SMC are drawing nearer. The 5-year term of the body will complete in May next, but there are speculations that it might be dissolved earlier. While Mr Bragta was allegedly trying to take the credit for the works that are going on in the town, the Congress councillors pointed out that all this was being done with the grants being provided by the Norwegian agency
(NORAD) and other organisations. The Mayor, Ms Jeni Prem, and the Deputy Mayor, Mr Shashi
Shekhar, today came down heavily on Mr Bragta for having invited the BJP activists in the meeting of Municipal
councillors. In case Mr Bragta was so keen about the development of the town, he could have discussed those issues in the meeting of the general house of the SMC of which he was an associate member, they said in a statement. They said Mr Bragta had not sanctioned a single penny out of his own funds for the development of the town and all works were being funded by the SMC. They said the officers of the SMC, who are on deputation from the state government, succumb to the pressure of the minister and did not take the councillors seriously. Building plans of BJP supporters were being approved for the past about two years, whereas the common public was being made to run from pillar to post. Officers of the SMC were delaying the approval of water connections of people, the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor alleged. |
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Balh valley
ravaged Mandi The project has diverted 4,716 million cubic metres of Beas waters into the Sutlej through a 38 km-long conductor system comprising two tunnels and an open hydel channel. The Pandoh-Baggi tunnel terminates in the big reservoir from where the water goes into the Sundernagar-Slappar tunnel. The fall of the water into the Sutlej has been utilised for generating 990 MW of power at the Dehar plant which caters to the needs of the entire region. The daily income is in crores of rupees. However, the people of Himachal are intrigued by the fact that their state is not a partner in a project built on its land and financed up to 90 per cent by the Central Government. They blame the Centre for this gross injustice. Mandi district is the worst hit by the project. The Balh valley, the granary of the district, is fast turning into a wasteland due to silt being thrown out of the hydel channel and the open reservoir. The fertile valley has gradually been ravaged since the completion of the project in November, 1977. In fact, the problem of the disposal of the huge quantity of silt had not been looked into seriously at the time of the designing the project. What is worse is that the BBMB authorities have not found a permanent solution to the menace of silt for the past 24 years. The problem has been examined by various agencies and debated in the Vidhan Sabha and Parliament also, but no solution has been found so far. Some compensation has been paid by the BBMB. The National Engineering Institute of Nagpur had been assigned the job of recommending a solution to the silt menace. It had sent a preliminary report last year. Recently, it submitted the final report suggesting short and long-term solutions. The institute has recommended that for a lasting solution it was necessary to construct a tunnel for pumping out the silt into the Sutlej. The state pollution control board had recently imposed a ban on the ejection of silt into the Balh villey which created panic in the BBMB as the Dehar power plant was virtually on the verge of closure. The ban, therefore, was lifted in the national interest with the hope that the BBMB would take up the construction of the proposed tunnel. Another devastating effect of the project is that all irrigation and drinking water supply sources in dozens of villages beneath which the tunnels of the project pass have gone dry. The occupants of 35 houses in Khiuri have their own tale of woe. It is here that the 13.10 km Pandoh- Baggi tunnel falls into the open hydel channel. They live in panic as their houses are being adversely affected due to the tremors caused by the strong current of water which strikes against the 10-foot-high RCC wall at the opening of the tunnel. Visiting journalists saw cracks in houses 100 metres from the opening of the tunnel. The project authorities have repaired some cracks, but insist that these had not been caused by vibrations. |
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HC directs Power Secretary to file reply in 2
weeks Shimla, September 13 According to the petitioner company, the HP
Government had, with a view to utilise the hydel potential in the state, devised a scheme to encourage private investment in their field. For this purpose, the project that started in 1995-96, involved allotment of sites to various investors for small hydel projects. The petitioner being interested in undertaking one such project, applied to the Director, Him Urja. The state government had approved the allotment of the project site with an estimated capacity of 1.50 MW to the petitioner company. The allotment was subject to a joint inspection of the site by Him Urja, the HPSEB and representatives of the company. After the joint inspection, the petitioner communicated with the Director, Him Urja, on January 25, 2001, for the allotment of the project site. After a long period of silence, the Secretary (Power), vide letter dated May 18, 2001, informed that the allotment in favour of the petitioner had been cancelled. It was contended on behalf of the petitioner that the action of the respondents was highly arbitrary, discriminatory and in violation of the principles of natural justice. |
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Decision
on Director’s post reversed Shimla, September 13 The Cabinet had earlier this week upgraded the three Joint Directors as Additional Directors. The beneficiaries are Mr Keshav Narain, Mr Chhering Dugge and Mr B.D. Sharma. The post of Director, Public Relations, was grabbed by the IAS lobby in 1993 when the last officer from the cadres of the department, Mr D.P. Joshi, who was holding the post, was shunted out as Adviser, Public Relations. Since then, no departmental officer has been given the top slot. It is learnt that the bureaucracy was resisting the move of the government to appoint a non-IAS officer on the post. However, the Chief Minister, Prof P.K. Dhumal, is learnt to have made up his mind to return the post of Director to the departmental officer as it was a technical job and raw hands had failed to deliver the goods. Mr B.D Sharma, who has remained as press secretary for a long time with successive Chief Ministers of the BJP and the Congress and also with the Governor during the President’s rule, was apparently being tipped for the post. However, a section of officers of the PR Department was annoyed that the appointment of Additional Directors had not resulted in a chain of promotions below the line. |
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Uneasy calm on varsity
campus Solan, September 13 In addition to the suspension and arrest of students, the university authorities in a sudden move, also decided to implement the report of Dr R.N. Sehgal Committee constituted to probe similar student clashes on November 23, 2000. The report had been submitted by the committee some months ago but the Vice-Chancellor had held its implementation in abeyance. When contacted, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof R.P. Awasthi, said he had not implemented the report after leaders of the rival groups of students submitted that they had solved their differences and that there would not be any repetition of the ugly November 23 incidents. Following this he felt that punishing students as recommended by the Sehgal Committee would serve no useful purpose. However, he said, this week’s fresh violence had left him with little choice. Accordingly he ordered disciplinary action, as recommended by the Sehgal Committee against 56 students. He placed 18 students under conduct probation for a period of one year, another 18 for one semester and fined 20 students. |
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No headway in kidnapping
case Kangra, September 13 The district police chief, Mr Sanjay Kundu, said today that Deep Kumar, 14, a resident of Punjab, engaged in door-to-door selling of plastic goods in the local villages returned home last evening and handed over Rs 800 to his handicapped father. He said, according to an FIR lodged by Mrs Sheela Devi, boy’s mother, eight to 10 persons came in a white Tata Sumo and kidnapped Deep. They also beat up Deep before pushing him in the vehicle and sped away towards Sameerpur. Mr Kundu said the police conducted raids at various places but no arrests had so far been made. |
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Blind
persons' association stages
dharna Shimla, September 13 The police forcibly removed the agitators to clear the traffic. Mr Sobhu Ram, president of the association, said Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, had promised to provide jobs to 19 qualified blind persons by June 15, but nothing had been done in this regard so far. He said Mr Dhumal had agreed to appoint them against 1 per cent quota. At present, there was a backlog and 499 posts were vacant. The number of the blind persons eligible for jobs in the state was only 266 and as such all of them could be given jobs. However, the government seemed reluctant to do so. The blind were taken to the nearby Chhota Shimla police station where the Additional Director Welfare, held talks with them. He assured them the government was sincere about implementing their demands. It was decided that the representative of the association would hold another meeting with the Director on their demands. |
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All-religion conference Nahan, September 13 Prof Samdon Repoche, Prime Minister, Government of Tibet-in-Exile, will inaugurate it. According to Mr Kulwant Singh Chaudhry, one of the organisers, Mr Surjeet Singh Barnala, Governor, Uttaranchal, will be honoured at the function. |
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