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Saturday,
June 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Controversy
over Gaddi status ‘Virbhadra
should quit on moral grounds’ AIDS
vaccine in market by 2003 Cancer
control project launched |
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Girls
dominate merit list Daily
wage earners’ services regularised Guru
Arjan Dev’s martyrdom day observed
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Controversy over Gaddi status Shimla, June 14 The BJP faction led by the Union Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar, has already taken a lead by organising a massive rally at Dharamsala to celebrate the achievement. The Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, and his loyalists in Kangra were kept at bay by the organisers who included the Transport Minister, Mr. K.K. Kapoor and Dulo Ram, MLA. Speaking to TNS at Dharamsala Mr Dulo Ram said that he had not been taken into confidence regarding the rally by the party spokesman, Mr Ganesh Dutt. On the other hand, the Dhumal camp was claiming that the Scheduled Tribe status has been granted because of the pressure that was mounted by the Chief Minister who also wrote a series of letters to the Centre on the issue. They, however, also give due weightage to Mr Shanta Kumar by saying that he had also been pressurising the Centre for this purpose. The Shanta supporters have been claiming that the Centre had rejected the plea of the state government and it was only because of the efforts of Mr Shanta Kumar that a special survey was done and the tribal status was granted to these communities. Mr Shanta Kumar represents the Kangra constituency with the highest concentration of these communities in the Lok Sabha. According to the record, Mr Dhumal had written official letters to the Union Welfare Minister, Mrs Menaka Gandhi, on October 23, 1998 and January 24, 2000, and then again to Mr Jual Oram, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs on August 4, 2001, pleading the case of these communities. The issue of granting the Scheduled Tribe status to the Gaddis and Gujjars of the areas of Punjab, including Kangra, Kulu, Chamba, Hamirpur, Una, Solan and Shimla, which merged with Himachal Pradesh in 1966, had been hanging fire since then and this was pointed out to Mrs Menaka Gandhi by Mr Dhumal in his letter of October 23, 1998. Interestingly, those belonging to these communities residing in the old Himachal were enjoying the status since long back. According to the official record, the issue of granting tribal
status to these communities was first of all raised by the then Congress Government in 1981 when Thakur Ram Lal was Chief Minister. Mr Virbhadra Singh, who succeeded him in 1983, vigorously pursued the matter with the Centre. The Vidhan Sabha unanimously passed resolutions on many occasions seeking tribal status for these communities. |
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‘Virbhadra should quit
on moral grounds’ Nahan, June 14 Mr Ravi said in the next Assembly elections, the BJP would raise corruption and development as the main election issues. He alleged that Congress leaders had touched new heights in corruption. He said even though Mr Virbhadra Singh had in his affidavit admitted that he had retained excess land, the Congress was trying to prove that he was innocent. The minister said the government was trying to include Kala Amb engineering college in the government sector and fighting the case in the Supreme Court. He expressed hope that the government would win the legal battle. Mr Ravi said the state government had sent a proposal for Rs 714 crore to the Centre for the improvement of the electricity system in the state under the Accelerated Power Development Project. He said the Centre had sanctioned the project for Nahan, Solan, Shimla and Hamirpur electricity circles. The state has received the first instalment of Rs 12 crore and work has been started, he added. Earlier, the minister presided over a meeting of the district welfare committee here in the Deputy Commissioner’s
office. PAONTA SAHIB: Mr Ravinder Ravi, Technical Education and Electricity Minister, said here during a press conference that under the Accelerated Power Development Project for Sirmaur district, Rs 21 crore had been sanctioned. He said within two years, two 33 KV substations would be set up at Puruwala and Baghthan and four 33/11 KV substations at
Rajgarh, Dadahu, Kala Amb and Do-Sadka. In Sirmaur district, 231 new transformers and 15 electrometers would be installed in industrial and commercial units. He said two more ITIs would be started at Rajgarh and
Shillai. |
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AIDS vaccine in market by 2003 Shimla, June 14 Supported by a strong scientific research back-up the drug industry had done rather well during the past few years. Its success could be gauged from the fact that as many as 11 important new medicines were ready for commercial release. The trials of these drugs had been completed, he told The Tribune during an interview here today. The new medicines would help treat diseases like diabetes and cancer the incidence of which was increasing with each passing day. The most important among these was the AIDS vaccine, which had been developed by scientists of National Institute of AIDS Research in collaboration with the International AIDS Vaccine Institute. The vaccine would be available by 2003. Its efficacy was expected to be over 50 per cent, Dr Ganguly said. The Regional Research Institute of the CSIR (Jammu) had developed Vijaysar, a plant-based medicine for treating diabetes. Its commercial production had been entrusted to the Dabar company, Recombitent insulin, produced indigenously through genetic engineering would also be available over the next two years. This would help reduce the cost of medicine by about 60 per cent. Besides some antiretroviral were also in the pipeline, he added. He said the success of the indigenous pharmaceutical industry had brought down the prices of drug not only in India but the world over as in case of hepatitis-B vaccine and the anti-AIDS medicines. The cost of AIDS treatment had come down from $ 10,000 to $ 350 a year. The medicine is being produced by Cipla Company, which had been doing rather well along with Dabar and Ranbaxy. The Ayurvedic drug industry had developed several plant-based medicines over the past few years. The country had woken up late to the need of patenting the traditional knowledge but concerted efforts were now being made in this field. The ICMR alone had funded several projects to prepare database for patenting. It had produced two monographs covering about 500 plans and the third was under preparation. Only yesterday an Indian scientist got the patent for “jamun” as an anti-diabetic agent. In all three such US patents had been received in recent past. An indigenously developed new diagnostic technique, which enabled early detection of AIDS, was being patented, Dr Ganguly added, Dr Ganguly
added. |
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Cancer control project launched Shimla, June 14 The project will initially cover Hamirpur, Bilaspur and Mandi. The ICMR will create the entire infrastructure and also meet the financial implications of the project. The MoU was signed in the presence of the health minister, Mr J.P. Nadda, by Prof N.K. Ganguli, Director General of the ICMR and Dr Kishore Chaudhary, Deputy Director General, on behalf of the ICMR and Mr Vineet Chaudhary, Secretary, Health, and Dr H.L. Kapoor, Principal of the IGMC, on behalf of the state government. Mr Nadda said the uniqueness of the programme was that the project was the first of its kind in the country. Three agencies, ICMR, Regional Cancer Centre of the IGMC and the Directorate of Health services, would be involved. The project would be monitored and evaluated by the ICMR and a referral chain for final diagnosis and treatment would be established. He said the performance of Himachal Pradesh in the implementation of various centrally-sponsored health programmes had been the best in the country. The first regional cancer centre in any medical college in the country was established in the IGMC. Prof Ganguli said the ICMR would provide DNA-based technology and other equipment for the detection of cancer at an early stage. He said by the year 2015 heart-related disease, cancer and diabetes were expected to surpass the number of other communicable disease, including AIDS. However, such disease could be controlled if people took precautions. |
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The Mall has lost its charm Shimla The authorities have also turned a blind eye to the violation of conventions on The Mall, which was constructed during the British regime basically for pedestrians. Smoking, spitting and throwing garbage on The Mall is prohibited and punishable, but people can be seen violating the rules in this regard. The Municipal Corporation has at many places painted warnings of a fine of Rs 50 for spitting on The Mall, but people who chew paan rarely pay heed to these. Dustbins are flowing with garbage. Road dividers were put on The Mall a couple of years ago so as to regulate the movement of pedestrians, but hardly anyone follows these dividers. There was a ban on local people walking on The Mall during the British regime as whites only enjoyed that privilege. Old-timers point out that earlier people were not allowed to stand in groups and chat on The Mall. Policemen would keep marching up and down the road requesting such people to move on. However, at times now movement gets blocked as tourists, particularly youth, often in groups right in the middle of the road and there is no one to ask them to move from there. The authorities have also failed to shift the fire engines which are an eyesore on The Mall. The open space outside the police reporting room at times is turned into a parking place for vehicles when a VIP comes to attend a function at the Gaiety Theatre. The architecture of buildings on The Mall is also changing right under the nose of the corporation. |
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Girls dominate merit list Dharamsala, June 14 Declaring the results, Mr Vikas Labroo, Secretary of the board, said the pass percentage was 47.38. In the combined merit, Priyanka Sharma of science group and student of DAV College, Kangra, topped securing 437 out of 500. Out of the first 10 positions, nine girls had been placed in merit. Second position was secured Vineet Diwan (science group) of Him Academy Public Senior Secondary School, Hamirpur, while Rita Kumari (Arts group) of Government Senior Secondary School, Bathu Tippari, has got the third position. A total of 42,943 students had appeared for the plus two examinations this year out of which 20,057 passed while 11,528 were placed in compartment. Those students who had got compartment could appear in the September examination by deposition Rs 130 as fee by July 3. Last date for submission of forms with late fee was August 16. |
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Daily wage earners’ services regularised Shimla, June 14 Disclosing this while addressing a meeting of senior officers on the implementation of Budget assurance, Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal said their services would be regularised against the existing vacancies in a phased manner. The Chief Minister said the proposal to start information technology in all schools in high and senior secondary level was under consideration and added that computer courses had already been introduced in 236 senior secondary schools. He said the government was exploring the possibilities of self-employment in various sectors and said it had already decided to give 1,000 permits for plying maxi-cabs on a commercial basis.
PTI |
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Guru Arjan Dev’s martyrdom day observed
Paonta Sahib, June 14 SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh Governor Suraj Bhan paid tributes to Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Sikh Guru, at a function organised on his martyrdom day here on Friday. Speaking at the function, organised by the Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Dr Bhan said the sabha’s demand for establishing a Guru Gobind Singh “peeth” in Himachal Pradesh University would be considered sympathetically. The Governor was presented with a “siropa” by sabha chairman Baldev Singh on the occasion. |
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