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Thursday,
June 20, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Centre tells HP to get encroached land vacated CPM: Sec 144 imposed to crush farmers’ stir Cong against creating more districts 9 police officers transferred |
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Socio-economic survey to start from July 1 Bank Branch Manager convicted PTU holds seminar on IT CPI activists stage dharna Villagers allege land grab
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Centre tells HP to get encroached land vacated Shimla, June 19 The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has in a communication to the state government made it clear that encroachments on forest land will not be allowed to be regularised in any eventuality. It has also mentioned a recent ruling of the Supreme Court in this regard. The state has been directed to set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to monitor the progress of the entire encroachment drive on a regular basis. The government has been directed not remain a silent spectator and take all requisite steps to tackle this menace effectively. Similar instructions have been issued to some other states also. In Himachal Pradesh, the situation has been worse as vast stretches of forests have been transformed into apple orchards and potato fields allegedly by politically-influential encroachers. The maximum forest land has been encroached in Shimla and Kulu districts. Worse, there is no proper record of the area under illegal occupation as, unlike urban areas, the forest encroachments are mostly in the interior pockets. The forest and revenue officials seldom venture deep into forests to take even notice of these let alone taking action. As per official figures about 9000 cases of encroachment, involving about 17,200 hectares of forest land, have been recorded. No serious effort has been made by the government to eject the illegal occupants. On the contrary, successive governments have framed policies to regularise the encroachments, though it is a different matter that these policies could not be implemented. Besides political pressure, the influential offenders have also been intimidating the officials. The Chopal, Rohru, Jubbal and Kotkhai areas have been notorious in this regard. The situation has not improved even after the Divisional Forest Officers( DFO’s) were conferred powers of Collector for removing encroachments. For instance in Rohru, DFO has over the past three years passed eviction orders in 250 cases but not one of them has been implemented. The eviction orders have remained on papers. In the past, forest officers have allegedly earned the wrath of the government for taking initiative for removing encroachments. Mr M.B. Srivastava had dared to launch a drive to evict encroachers in the Jubbal Kotkhai area three years ago, was unceremoniously shifted under political pressure. Not only that the entire field staff, which was local, turned against him. It remains to be seen if the latest instruction of the Centre to the state to remove encroachment under a special drive and make the Chief Secretary accountable yields the desired result. Meanwhile, Dr Rajan Sushant, Revenue Minister, announced that all encroachments on government land will be regularised by August 15. Presiding over a meeting of revenue officers organised to apprise them of the changes effected in the land laws, he said archaic land laws were mainly responsible for the problems being faced by the people. The new revenue policy of the government aimed to provide relief to the poor and punishment to big offenders. |
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CPM: Sec 144 imposed to crush farmers’ stir Shimla, June 19 It said the BJP-HVC government in the state was resorting to the use of police and administrative force to crush the stir of farmers affected by the construction of the Nathpa Jhakri Project. The farmers had been agitating for the implementation of a seven- point agreement reached between the NJPC management and representatives of the Nathpa Jhakri Kisan Sabha on January 11 last. The construction of the 27 km tunnel from Nathpa to Jhakri had ruined the cultivable agriculture land of more than 80 villages. The excavation of the tunnel had resulted in the degradation of ecology of the area, natural water sources had dried up, ground water was seeping into the tunnel affecting the agriculture and horticulture production. Nigualsari and Shah villages had started sinking, it said. Only 51 families had been provided employment, while compensation had not been paid to farmers whose land was acquired for the construction of the tunnel at Ratanpur and road leading to the surge shaft. The party asserted that the NJPC was duty-bound to restore ecology of the area by constructing irrigation project, compensate those whose houses had developed cracks, provide employment to the left-out families and implement the agreement letter and spirit. It warned the state government against the use of force on the peaceful agitating farmers and urged it to withdraw the prohibitory orders.
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Cong against creating more districts Mandi, June 19 Addressing a news conference at the local Circuit House, Mr Rao expressed surprise that on the one hand the government closed the offices of the Commissioners at Mandi and Dharamsala as austerity measures and on the other hand it was toying with the idea of creating new districts. He warned that the Congress would launch a statewide agitation against the formation of new districts and added that people of Mandi would not tolerate if any part of the district was merged with any other district. Mr Rao pleaded that in the interest of the state it was imperative to cut down the bulky administrative set-up. This small state could not afford the present
top heavy administration, he added. He said despite liberal financial assistance from the Centre the pace of development in the state had slowed down considerably and the funds were being laundered on “unproductive and wasteful ventures”. He said the BJP had brought the state on the brink of bankruptcy. It raised a lot of hue and cry when the Congress Government raised a loan of Rs 800 crore. Ironically the ruling party had raised loans of Rs 3400 crore. He alleged large scale discrimination in the matter of development with the constituencies of Congress MLAs. All funds were being diverted to selected constituencies. He alleged that in the matter of employment, jobs were being given on chits and the Subordinate Selection Board at Hamirpur had become a den of corruption. Mr Rao blamed the government for inept handling of the drinking water crisis in many parts of the state particularly in the Sarkaghat subdivision of Mandi district where people were facing acute drinking water shortage. When asked whom the Congress was projecting as Chief Minister, Mr Rao said the policy of the party was not to project any person as Chief Minister before the elections. “We followed it in Punjab and Uttaranchal and the same is true for Himachal Pradesh”. Answering another question, Mr Rao said the main issues in the forthcoming elections would be corruption, discrimination in development and financial mess created by the BJP. |
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9 police
officers transferred Shimla, June 19 Mr Sonam Chhopal, Additional Superintendent of Police, Kulu, goes to the India Reserve Battalion, Una, in the same capacity. Mr Vinod Kumar, on return from a UN deputation, has been as Additional Superintendent of Police, Enforcement, Shimla, while Mr B.M. Sharma, who also returned from a UN deputation takes over as Additional Superintendent of Police, Una. Mr Prem Lal, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Hamirpur, goes to the CID (Headquarter) in the same capacity vice Mr Satish Kumar who has been posted as Deputy Superintendent of Police, (Enforcement) Shimla. Mr Chaman Lal, DSP, Police Training College, Daroh, has been posted as DSP Hamirpur. Mr Kuldeep Chand on return from the UN deputation takes over as DSP, Police Training College, Daroh. Mr Kishan Chand on return from UN deputation goes as DSP, Bilaspur, vice Mr Surinder Sharma who has been shifted as DSP, Mandi. |
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Socio-economic survey to start from July 1 Dharamsala, June 19 He said information collected through sample surveys was used for research , planning and policy formulation and wrong data might lead the policy planners astray. In his introductory address, Deputy Director, NSSO, Mr A.K.Sadhu, said the 58th round of socio-economic survey in Himachal would start from July 1 and continue till December 31. He said the survey would concentrate on disability, housing conditions, village facilities and slums particulars along with household consumption, expenditure and employment. Mr Sadhu said lack of awareness amongst residents of if the rural areas in Himachal was causing certain problems for the investigators . He assured people that the economic information about an individual gathered during any sample survey was confidential and would not be leaked to tax collection agencies . He appealed to the people to come forward and provide correct relevant information and thus help in proper planning. Mr Vijay Kumar, Director, NSSO (FoD) also attended the seminar. Investigators of the NSSO from Bilaspur, Mandi and Kangra districts of Himachal Pradesh are participating in the training camp. |
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Bank Branch Manager convicted Sundernagar, June 19 The convicts were further sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year each and to pay a fine of Rs 5,000 each under Section 420 of the IPC and rigorous imprisonment for six months each and a fine of Rs 1,000 each under Section 120B of the IPC. The third convict was sentenced to one year of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 under Section 420 of the IPC was imposed on him. He was further sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for six months and a fine of Rs 1,000 under Section 120B of the IPC was imposed on him. The sentence order was passed yesterday. The case of the prosecution was that the convicts prepared false loan papers in the name of Pyare Lal and Bhadru Ram and lured them to sign the papers in August 1988. Later on, the complainant said before the Deputy Commissioner, Mandi, that Sher Singh took them to Himachal Gramin Bank on the pretext that some financial help was being provided to poor people by the government through the bank and took their signatures on the papers. Both of them were paid Rs 150 each. However, when they later received notices from the bank asking them to return Rs 11,000 (Rs 9,561 along with interest) that they realised they had been cheated as they never received the loan amount. |
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PTU holds seminar on IT Dharamsala, June 19 Addressing the seminar a speaker, Mr M. Dewan, said that information technology had opened many avenues which were earlier not available to students. He said PTU would soon set up its own placement cell. The cell would help students avail themselves of job opportunities in government, semi government and private organisations. He said PTU was focusing on higher technical professional education which was job oriented. The university had tied up with some nationalised banks for grant of educational loans to its students which could be repaid after the completion of courses, he added. Mr Dewan said PTU had set up more than 150 centres and courses offered by it were far cheaper and more authentic. He said that all degree courses offered by the PTU under distance education programme were UGC approved and did not fall under the purview of the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). The centre here gains significance as it is being set up by Mr Ashish Bhagria, a computer graduate who is physically handicapped. |
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CPI activists stage dharna Sundernagar, June 19 In a seven-point memorandum submitted to the Governor, they urged that user charges and hike in water charges be withdrawn. The Communist leaders demanded a probe into the functioning of the Subordinate Services Selection Board, Hamirpur, regarding the functioning of the board and demanded that corrupt officials be brought to the book. They said the services of those workers who had completed five years of service be regularised and contract system be abolished. |
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Villagers
allege land grab Kangra, June 19 In a letter to the Forest Minister, Mr Roop Singh Thakur, residents through their village pardhan alleged that certain persons had encroached upon valuable forest land in Nagrota Surjan forests. They had approached the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Dhera, personally without any result. The letter said the residents had approached senior forest officers at Dharamsala too but in vain. The letter further added that the IPH and HPSEB had sanctioned water and power connections respectively to these alleged encroachers thus legalised the illegal encroachments. They have demanded that the encroached land be taken away from the illegal encroachers and the guilty punished. |
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Phone on demand in Kangra, Chamba soon Dharamsala, June, 19 |
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Panchkarma
medical camp held Shimla, June 19 Dr Sushant, who visited Panchkarma Medical Camp, organised by the Department of Ayurveda at Pari Mahal here, said it was a classical ayurvedic speciality which was advocated for the radical cure of diseases and played an important role in preventive as well as curative aspects. He said this ancient therapy was being revived for the past few years to promote holistic health. |
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