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Monday,
June 24, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Lok Janshakti ready for poll Cong statements misleading: BJP Stents hold new hope for cardiac patients Work on NH-70 stopped Solang project dedicated to people |
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Admissions to BDS course delayed 15 get Balraj Sahni awards DCC demands park for senior citizens 62 artists display works at exhibition Water scarcity in Hamirpur areas Soldiers’ families to be honoured Goldstar award for Shimla dentist
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Lok Janshakti ready for poll Shimla, June 23 Stating this at a press conference here today, Mr Subhash Sharma, all-India secretary of the party and in charge of Himachal Pradesh, said the people had become disillusioned with the two main parties and were looking for a third alternative which a national party like the Lok Janshakti could provide. Although the party was preparing to contest all 68 Vidhan Sabha seats in the ensuing elections, it was not averse to entering into an electoral alliance with like-minded parties. He said corruption would be the main poll plank of the party as the Dhumal government had failed to provide a corruption-free administration to the state and its legislators had failed to make public their assets, even though the BJP had promised to do so in its election manifesto. The financial situation had turned from bad to worse and the government was under a heavy debt, he added. The government had also not been able to convince the Centre regarding the state’s case for imposition of tax on hydel generation and the union Power Ministry had rejected the demand. There had been much talk about information technology, but nothing concrete to show on the ground. The popularity graph of the party had nosedived because of its dismal performance. The defeat of the BJP and its coalition partner HVC reflected the declining popularity of the two parties. Earlier, the party held a meeting at which it decided to launch a membership campaign from July 1 during which 50,000 members will be enrolled. Mr Ramel Singh Wadyal, president of the state unit, said Mr Ram Bilas Paswan, national President of the party, would address a rally at Shimla in August-end and at Nahan in September. He also announced the office-bearers and state executive of the party. Mr Mulkh Raj Sharma and Mr Fateh Singh have been made vice-presidents, Mr Z.A. Bhutto general secretary, Mr Prem Bhatia secretary (organisation), Mr Dev Raj Dhiman joint secretary and Mr Ashok Thakur secretary and spokesperson. |
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Cong statements misleading: BJP Shimla, June 23 Mr Ganesh Dut, the BJP spokesperson, said at a press conference here today that instead of fighting a legal battle, Congress legislators were giving statements to create an impression that their leader was being victimised and implicated in false cases. Not only that, the partymen had held a demonstration at Rampur, where the local Subdivisional Magistrate had filed a case against Mr Virbhadra Singh in court, he added. He said the former Chief Minister had not only illegally retained the land which should have been with the government after the implementation of the land ceiling act but had also sold trees standing on it worth crores. Mr Dut said the BJP would make corruption during the previous Congress government an election issue, but he was all at sea when asked what about the health scam and other scandals which had taken place under the Dhumal regime. He also failed to give a convincing reply as to why BJP legislators had not made their assets public though the party had made a promise in this regard in its election manifesto. He refuted the charge of Himachal Vikas Congress MP Anil Sharma that there was nepotism and favouritism in recruitment by the Subordinate Services Selection Board and that candidates from Hamirpur, the home district of the Chief Minister, were being preferred. He said all appointments had been made on merit by the board. He said the party would organise workers’ meetings at constituency and district levels in July and August, followed by training camps. In September and October, the Chief Minister would visit all constituencies, he added. |
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Stents hold new hope for cardiac patients Shimla, June 23 Delivering a lecture on the latest advances in the treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) here today, he said a number of companies had come out with quality stents, which reduced the recurrence of stenosis after angioplasty to a meagre two per cent from the average 40 per cent. As many as three Indian companies had also produced quality stents duly approved by the European Regulatory Authority, though their price was as high as those of the imported ones. The cost of procedure was higher as a stent cost around Rs 1.5 lakh and to implant all three arteries, the cost would be over Rs 5 lakh. It would, however, come down by half as more companies start production over the next few years. Being less invasive it was still preferable over the heart bypass surgery. It was performed under local anesthesia and the patient could go to work within a week. On the other hand in case of bypass surgery a patient took three months to recover, he said. In the USA, the ratio of angioplasty and bypass surgery was 2:1 whereas in India it was 1:4 indicating a vast scope for the interventional cardiac procedure. Though costly, the stent implant was still cheaper than some already accepted cardiac devices like automated intracardia defibrillator a special pacemake to detect and treat irregular heart beat. Dr Bhandari said multivessel stenting would form only a small proportion of patients for this procedure and the prime indication should be proximal left anterior descending artery (LAD) where surgery had competed more favorably with stenting since it supplied nearly two-thirds of the heart muscle. The other arteries (circumflex or right coronary) could continue to receive the cheaper earlier conventional stents. Even in multivessel stenting if the LAD had a coated stent and the other two arteries had normal stents the results should be comparable to current surgical practices, he felt. According to Dr Bhandari, heart care facilities in the country were comparable with the one available in advanced countries. He said Indian cardiologists were among the leading in the USA, the UK and other countries. As such there was no dearth of human skills required, the country only lacked latest technological facilities. He said heart diseases could be controlled by changing the lifestyle as had been done in the USA where the incidence had declined from 50 per cent to four per cent over the past two decades. In India, it was on the increase and as per the WHO projections it would be the major problem by 2020, along with diabetes. |
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Work on NH-70 stopped Hamirpur, June 23 Although work for the construction, widening and metalling of the road under the project between Hamirpur and Nadaun is in full swing, there are no reports of further taking up of the work between Hamirpur and Awahdevi. At the time of the sanctioning of the two national highways crossing through Hamirpur town, it was hoped that both the projects would be completed within the tenure of the present government. But the pace of progress at present shows that it may take at least 10 more years for its completion. The route alignment of the road passing through the Hiranagar area of Hamirpur town has been changed a number of times and the final route is still to be decided. This has been done to save the green forest of the area and to provide an alternative road between Nadaun and Awahdevi, bypassing Hamirpur town. The newly formed division of the Public Works Department at Tounidevi started widening roads between Hamirpur and Tounidevi, but the work was stopped abruptly when the department started making roads on the fertile land of the people near Kot village and Thana Daroghan. People objected to their fertile land being used to make national highways. They moved the court and got a stay order. The matter is still lying pending with the court. A subdivisional office of the National Highways, Pandoh, is functioning at Samirpur, the native village of the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, but without any work for the past one-and-a-half years. The total monthly bill of the office comes to around Rs 1 lakh. PWD officers refuse to say why work on the NH-70 has been stopped. However, insiders say that it is because nearly 700 houses would have to be demolished to construct this road. No government at this juncture, with the Assembly elections due within months, can dare to take such an action and risk facing the wrath of the people. Moreover, the major part of the NH-70 falls in the area of the Chief Minister and he doesn’t want to annoy his people. |
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Solang project dedicated to people Manali, June 23 Prof Dhumal said the government had relaxed the conditions for mini and micro hydro projects with generation capacity of 25 mw. He said decision had also been taken to encourage educated unemployed youth having engineering knowledge to execute power projects by forming cooperative societies the government
would give preference to the bona fide Himachalis for undertaking such projects, however it would not be a condition applicable to the entrepreneurs from outside the state. The Chief Minister said 196 mini and micro hydro power projects of 450 mw capacity were being executed in the state with the help of independent power producers and state government undertaking. The government had a plan to declare mini-micro hydro power generation as a cottage industry so that all areas of the state could be involved in the process of making Himachal Pradesh a model power state. Twelve hydro power projects were under execution in Kulu district alone. Welcoming the Chief Minister and other guests, Mr Chander Sen, MLA, urged the youth to form cooperative societies and take benefit of the various schemes launched by the government to start their own ventures. Mr Harinder Thakur, member, HPSEB also spoke. Mr Arun Sharma and Mr Amitabh Sharma, Chief Managing Directors of A Power Himalayas Limited, Mr Ravinder Ravi, Minister for State for Technical Education and Power, Mr Suresh Bhardwaj, MP, Rajya Sabha, Mr Rakesh Pathania, MLA, Mr Khimi Ram Sharma Chairman, Zila Parishad, former minister Kunj Lal Thakur and Mr Ram Singh, President, Nagar Parishad, Kulu, were among others present on the occasion. Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated the newly upgraded Government High School at Prini village, about 5 km from here. The Chief Minister announced that the village would be developed as a model village at a cost of Rs 42,29,000. |
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Admissions to BDS course delayed Nurpur, June 23 The candidates whose names have figured in the existing PMT merit list are worried about their future due to the apathy of the university which has been dilly-dallying in the sponsorship for the BDS course in the dental colleges at Baddi and Sundernagar. Intriguingly, the earmarked seats of Government Dental College, Shimla, and Dr Rajinder Prasad Medical College, Kangra, have been filled and the session began in January this year. The other selected candidates in the queue are supposed to get admission in private dental colleges, recognised by HP University, at Baddi Sundernagar. They have urged the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, to intervene and ensure admissions without further delay. |
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15 get Balraj Sahni awards Shimla, June 23 The awardees were given a Himachali cap, scarf and memento. They included Mr T.R. Sharma, Principal Chief Post Master-General, Rajasthan, for his contribution in the field of post and telegraphs, Dr O.P. Saraswat, Director Distance Education Centre, Himachal Pradesh University, for literature, Dr K.K. Rattu for electronic media, Mrs Vijay Laxmi for education, Mrs Sneh Lata Bhardwaj for her book “Tukre Tukre”, Dr Jai Dev Retola for medical services, Mr Pardeep Aggarwal for orthopaedic surgery, Mrs Dolly Ahluwalia for costume designing, Mr Inder Jeet Duggal for health communication, Mr Vinod Kohli for journalism, Mr Ram Bagan and Mrs Rajni Bagan for performing arts, Mr Bishamber Lal Sood for promotion of Hindi, Mr Ramesh Dudani for promoting tourism activities and Mr S.D. Sharma for journalism. The award of T.R. Sharma was received by his brother B.P. Sharma in his absence. The Governor also presented the Gopi Krishan National Awards to Prof. Richa Jyotendar of Mumbai and Mr Ratheesh Babu of Bhillai for excellence in classical dance. Dr Ashok Gupta and Mr Kamal Tiwari were also honoured on the occasion. Dr Suraj Bhan emphasised the importance of art and literature in creating awareness in the society. He said various art forms were effective tools of communication and play an important role in enlightening the people. The Governor announced a grant of Rs 11,000 out of his discretionary fund for the artists’ association. He appreciated the solo and group dances presented by the troupe from Bhillai. |
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DCC demands park for senior citizens Una, June 23 He said there was no park for the old, retired people or children to spend their morning or evening time. He said with a fourfold increase in vehicular traffic on the state highway and even on link roads, walking on these roads was not safe. Mr Renny said a few years ago, Mr B.K. Aggarwal, the then Deputy Commissioner, provided some funds for the development of a park on a hillock near the local Indira Ground and Rs 2 to 3 lakh were spent by the municipal council also. But later on, for want of funds, work on the park came to standstill and some farmers encroached upon this government land and started cultivation. He said keeping in view the interests of senior citizens and children, the district administration must provide funds for the development of the park and remove the encroachments. |
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62 artists display works at exhibition Shimla, June 23 As many as 13 artists were awarded for their outstanding works in different media. Sanju Jain from Bhopal, Danny B. Singh (Shimla) and Chaman Sharma (Solan) were adjudged first, second and third, respectively, in painting. In graphics, the works of Kishore (Sangrur), Prabh Simran (Bhopal) and Sangita Pathak (Bhopal) got the first three prizes, respectively, and in the category of drawing, N.P. Pandey (Hisar), Kavita Singh (Chandigarh) and Sadhna Sangar (Chandigarh) were the winners. While K.K. Kamra (Delhi) received the first prize for his metal sculpture “The Lady”, Sanjay Manjul, Dhani Ram and Ruppender Butter received special prizes for their works. |
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Water scarcity in Hamirpur areas Hamirpur, June 23 All water sources in the Seer Khud, the sources of water supply in these areas of the district, have dried up completely. So much so, not even a single drop of water is available in ponds and wells in these areas. Mr Jai Singh, Up-Pradhan of the Kakker gram panchayat of the Mewa area, told The Tribune that people had to come to Chandroohi village to fetch water. |
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Soldiers’ families to be honoured Chandigarh, June 23 These families will be honoured at a function at Children’s Park, Sujanpur Tira, on June 30. While Vijay Chopra, Chief Editor of the Hind Samachar Group of Newspapers, will be the chief guest, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal will preside over the function. |
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Goldstar award for Shimla dentist Shimla, June 23 The honour for international excellence was presented to her for her outstanding services to humankind in the medical field by the Nepal Tourism & Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Balbahadur, and Mr Kazi Shrestha, President of Nepal Chamber of Commerce. |
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Suraj Bhan releases book
on journalism Shimla, June 23 |
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Minjar Fair from July 28 Chamba, June 23 |
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Virbhadra turns 68 Shimla, June 23 |
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