 |
Monday,
August 19, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
Jaitley
manages to keep HP unit intact BJP hails
Cabinet decision on Gujarat HRTC staff
go on fast HP seeks
funds for ayurveda 300 cases
of women’s harassment |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ninth
Plan: HP top performer Shanta
barred from laying stone 3-way
contest for varsity SCA Strict
vigil for Manimahesh yatra 1 held
for bid to rape Italian Encroachment:
2 held, bailed out More
buses on Dharampur route sought Restore
petrol station, urges deaf woman Leopard
declared man-eater
|
|
Jaitley manages to keep HP unit intact Shimla, August 18 Widening differences on the issue, with an ever-increasing number of partymen opposing the move, had caused a vertical split in the party. While Mr P.K. Dhumal, the Chief Minister, was determined to push through the proposal, Mr Shanta Kumar, the Union Minister for Rural Development, Mr Suresh Chandel and Mr Maheshwar Singh, both MPs, several ministers and other leaders were opposing the move on the plea that the party was not taken into confidence and that the precarious financial position of the government did not permit it. In the situation the rival factions were heading for a showdown and today's meeting of state executive of the party for which Mr Arun Jaitley, the national general secretary, had specially come from Delhi, turned out to be a smooth affair. Much behind the scene activities preceded the meeting. Mr Jaitley discussed the issue with Mr Dhumal, before the start of the meeting and he is learnt to have impressed upon him that the party could not afford a division in its ranks on the issue on the eve of the Assembly election. He also discussed the issue with other leaders and also during the meeting of the state office-bearers which preceded the party meeting. It is worth mentioning that government had earlier ignored the suggestion of partymen and the Opposition Congress to defer creation of new districts in view of the setting up of the delimitation commission, which would redraw the boundaries of parliamentary and Assembly constituencies. Mr Jaitley did the trick today and it was a major achievement given the adamant stand of the government on the issue. It was being alleged that the main objective of the exercise was not administrative convenience but to cut Mr Shanta Kumar, the arch rival of Mr Dhumal, to size by carving out new districts from the existing Kangra district. Mr Jaitley, however, maintained that creation of new districts should have to await due to the unforeseen development the setting up of the national delimitation commission. He said the delimitation had to be carried out on the basis of the census and administrative units of 1991 as such new districts could not be created. |
|
BJP hails Cabinet decision on Gujarat Shimla, August 18 Addressing a press conference here, he said by doing so the government had shown political and constitutional statesmanship. He said the government had leaned in favour of constitutionalism and there was no question of undermining a constitutional authority. If a constitutional authority disregarded a constitutional process then there was a serious threat to the system. By correcting such aberrations one only strengthened the constitutional authority. Elaborating, he said, Article 174 of the Constitution clearly laid down that more than six months should not elapse between the two sessions of the Vidhan Sabha. The only exception was a situation when there was a breakdown of law and order and Article 356 had been imposed. Without it, the Constitution did not permit it. To a question, he said the Election Commission had no jurisdiction either to suggest imposition of the President’s rule or create a situation which necessitated it. He said if one went by the reasoning of the Election Commission for deferring poll in Gujarat, it would not be possible to hold elections in a few states at all. There had been instances when elections were held in Assam when only 2 per cent electorate cast votes. Similarly, in Punjab elections were held when terrorism was at its peak. Mr Jaitley denied that the party president, Mr Venkaiah Naidu, was involved in any land scam and said the reports published in section of the Press in this regard were wholly incorrect. |
|
HRTC staff
go on fast Palampur, August 18 In a press note here today Prem Singh Rawat, General Secretary, of the Sangh, said that main demand was to save the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation from serious financial crisis. He said the corporation had fleet of 2000 buses and had been facing losses year after year. Despite its daily revenue collection being over Rs 70 lakh. The employees of the corporation were concerned at the losses while private transporters in the state had been increasing their fleets year after year, he pointed. Mr Rawat alleged mismanagement and wrong policies of the government had brought the corporation on the verge of bankruptcy. He said government interference in the affairs of corporation had vitiated the situation. The annual liability of the state government towards the corporation is over Rs 90 crore and till date total liabilities of the state to corporation had touched over Rs 300 crore, but no money was paid to corporation till date. Besides top heavy management of the HRTC was another reason for huge losses. He said the government sanctioned 800 such routes to the corporation where revenue receipts were almost zero causing annual loss of Rs 35 crore to the corporation. Why these routes were not given to private transporters and why HRTC was being forced to ply buses on these routes? He said the government had given largescale concessions in bus fare to certain sections of society at the cost of the HRTC, but no re-imbursement was ever made to the corporation. Mr Rawat said the employees of the corporation were committed to bring this public sector unit into profit. The Sangh, therefore has launched a statewide agitation. He said relay fast would continue till August 21, and thereafter employees would stage dharanas at all divisional headquarters of corporation in the state. He said an important meeting of the state action committee had been convened at Jassor on August 29 to draw up further line of action. |
|
HP seeks funds for ayurveda Shimla, August 18 The state government has received Rs 75 lakh from the Central Government for the Ayurvedic Pharmacy, Jogindernagar, and Rs 56.24 lakh for drug testing laboratory there, according to an official spokesman here. Ayurveda is gradually gaining ground in Himachal Pradesh. More and more people are opting for the traditional system, which has of late found acceptance in the West. Belatedly though the government has also started paying attention to the neglected system and a number of steps have been taken to strengthen the basic infrastructure facilities. As many as 158 new ayurvedic institutions have been opened in the state during the past four years taking the total number to 1,158. Besides, two ayurvedic hospitals and 98 ayurvedic health centres and four new amchi clinics, two each in Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts, based on the Tibetan system of medicine have been set up in the tribal areas. To promote cultivation of herbs a Rs 8.27-crore “Vanaspati Van Proyojna” is being implemented with central assistance in Chamba and Kulu districts. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has sanctioned Rs 5.16 crore for the project so far. A herbal garden has been developed over 25 acres in Jogindernagar where more than 225 species of various medicinal plants have been conserved. “Panchkarama” the ayurvedic system of treatment would be introduced in ayurvedic hospital in the state. A project worth Rs 73.20 lakh based on panchkarama has been approved and would initially be started in four hotels of Himachal Pradesh Tourism
Development Corporation at Sarvari in Kulu, Hotel Uhl in Jogindernagar, Hotel Tea Bud in Palampur and Hotel Chail Palace in Solan. |
|
300 cases
of women’s harassment Kangra, August 18 He was here to inaugurate a one-day awareness camp for women at Guptganga, organised by the HP Forest Workers Association under the banner of the Malaysia-based International Wood Workers Association. As many as 45 women attended the camp, the fourth of its kind in Chamba and Kangra districts. He said the aim of the camp was to create awareness among women about their rights and means to protect these. Ms Veena Sharma, coordinator of the camp, said the police cell for women at Dharamsala lacked infrastructure which resulted in women rarely registering cases in this cell. Mr Bawa said women creche workers and helpers were being paid Rs 500 and 200 monthly, respectively, which amounted to their exploitation. The meagre amount, too, had not been paid to them for the past six months, he added. He said maids were exploited at homes by being made to work for eight to 10 hours daily. The INTUC chief threatened to gherao the Chief Minister, the Transport Minister and the Managing Director of the HRTC if HRTC workers, who were on agitation, were not called for talks to sort out their long-pending demands. He said the Chief Minister was fooling daily wage workers by assuring them that their services would be regularised after 10 years. Citing the case of the Public Works Department, he said if the 8,385 daily wage workers who had served from eight to 14 years, only 1,135 had been regularised. He said on the contrary the Virbhadra Singh government had regularised 34,000 daily wage workers. |
|
Ninth Plan: HP top performer Shimla, August 18 The state had utilized Rs 6,528.97 crore against the original outlay of Rs 5,700 crore and revised outlay of Rs 5,872.09 crore, which came to 114.5 per cent of the original and 111.2 percent of the revised outlays, respectively. A spokesman for the state government said here yesterday that this had been possible due to the vigorous implementation of various plan programmes as well as effective steps taken in the direction of resource mobilisation. He said the 10th Five Year Plan for the state had been approved for Rs 10,300 crore out of which Rs 1,900 crore was being spent during 2002-2003. He said to ensure effective implementation of the plan, frequent review and monitoring were being done so that the pace of development in the state could be accelerated further. |
|
Shanta barred from laying stone Kangra, August 18 Stating this here today the village pradhan, Jalian Khad, Mr Pramood Singh, said the civil dispensary here was to be upgraded to a primary health centre three years ago, but instead the dispensary was shifted to Takipur, he alleged. He said Union Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar, sanctioned Rs 5 lakh for the construction of the civil dispensary at Jalian Khad. Mr Pramood Singh said a local resident, Dharam Chand, donated 8 marlas for the purpose on the Dhaulatpur Jalian Khad road. He said the site was approved by the Health Department authorities and the villagers constructed two rooms for the said civil dispensary. |
|
3-way contest for varsity SCA Shimla, August 18 Besides the traditional rivals — the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — the National Students Union of India (NSUI) has also fielded candidates for the posts of president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary. The ABVP made a clean sweep last year to end the 15-year-old hegemony of the SFI. The NSUI, which was considerably weakened following a split, which led to the formation of the Himachal Students Union (HIMSU), came a poor third. The NSUI is likely to do better this time, as HIMSU is not in the fray. There are 2398 voters in all. As many as eight department representatives were elected unopposed yesterday. The ABVP claims that six of them are from its cadre. The contest for the key post of president will be among Bir Bahadur (ABVP), Kuldeep Bhardwaj (SFI) and Lalit Mohan (NSUI). The candidates for other posts are: vice-president-Amrik Singh (ABVP), Trilok Chand (SFI) and Feroz Khan (NSUI); general secretary-Nitin Vyas (ABVP), Sudhir Dutta (SFI) and Ramneek Sharma (NSUI); joint secretary-Brijesh Sharma (ABVP), Vishwa Bhushan Sharma (SFI) and Vidya Prakash (NSUI). |
|
Strict vigil for Manimahesh yatra Chamba, August 18 The SP, Chamba, Mr Ajay Yadav, recently toured he border areas of the district and look stock of the situation, taking into account the mounting pressure on ultras from across the border in Jammu and Kashmir to create trouble. The SP, said here yesterday that the second and third battalions of the Himachal armed police and the Indo-Tibet Border Police (ITBP) were on their toes to combat any untoward incident. He said the security forces had been asked to deal stringently with anti-social elements. |
|
1 held
for bid to rape Italian Kulu, August 18 In another case one Inder Singh, son of Chande Ram of Larikot village, was arrested in a case under Sections 376 and 506, IPC, on the complaint of Prem Chand of the same village that his 12-year-old niece was raped by the alleged accused. |
|
Encroachment: 2 held, bailed out Palampur, August 18 The police sources said that Mr Kaushal had received a complaint that certain persons were constructing a shop on forest land near the Karan Hospital, Palampur. The D.F.O. sent his staff to the spot. Despite repeated requests by the forest officials the encroachers continued with the illegal construction. They did not bother to honour the written notice served on them by the Forest Department. Later the D.F.O. personally tried to persuade the encroachers, but they did not relent. Later the DFO reported the matter to the local police and a case under Sections 506, 341, 186, 189 of the IPC was registered immediately. The two accused were arrested, who were later released on bail. |
|
More buses on Dharampur route sought Solan, August 18 He stated that presently only two buses plied on the route. One bus leaves Dharampur at 11.15 a.m. and another starts from Kasauli at 4-30 p.m. The timing did not suit the residents of Sanawar whose wards go to government schools at Dharampur and Kasauli |
|
Restore
petrol station, urges deaf woman Solan, August 18 Ms Sahni had stated that the pump was allotted to her out of the “Handicapped Women Quota “She was selected “purely on merit” out of a total of three applicants after completing all formalities. The pump was to be installed at Kumarhatti near here. Most of the civil works had been completed after expenditure which to her is heavy. She had further added that the cancellation of the licence at this juncture would ruin her and make difficult life more miserable. |
|
Leopard
declared man-eater Dalhousie, August 18 The DFO said to catch the wild beast alive, four traps had been laid at places where the movement of the leopard was frequent. He said a team of forest officials, headed by a range officer, had been provided with guns to kill the leopard. Mr Sharma said two skilled shooters and professional hunters, Dr Herbert from Jagadhri (Haryana) and Mr Ashish Dass Gupta from Parwanoo (Himachal Pradesh) and been called to kill the leopard. The DFO said a relief amount of Rs 1 lakh had been sanctioned by the state government for the family of the boy, Ajay Kumar, killed by the leopard. A sum of Rs 25,000 had already been given to the bereaved family, he said. Meanwhile, Mr R.C. Bragal, Conservator (Wildlife), Dharamsala, has also reached the spot to monitor the situation in cooperation with the local residents. A massive search operation has been launched to kill the man-eater. |
|
Leopard
on prowl Hamirpur, August 18 The leopard killed a mare in Putliar village of the area last night. Its owner Ramesh Chand found the mauled body this morning. The local people have demanded protection and cash compensation to those who had lost their animals to the leopard. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
