H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Stokes warns Dhumal govt
Shimla, August 19
Mrs Vidya Stokes, Pradesh Congress Committee chief, has warned the Dhumal government that her party will launch a statewide stir if it continues to frame its leaders in false cases.

Commandant’s attitude irks Subathu civilians
Solan, August 19
Longstanding civic issues have led to a piquant situation between the Commandant of 14 Gurkha Training Centre and civilians of Subathu cantonment.

New land policy a farce: Mankotia
Nurpur, August 19
Mr Vicky Mankotia, a member of the HPCC has flayed the encroachment regularisation policy of the state and termed it as a farce.

Anti-Sukh Ram meeting held
Mandi, August 19
At a meeting of the anti-Sukh Ram Confederation (Mahajor held at the Kot panchayat headquarters in the Tungal valley today, leaders of various parties accused Sukh Ram of neglecting the constituency. 

Insurance staff for 30 pc salary hike
Shimla, August 19
The Northern Zone Insurance Employees Association has demanded a 30 per cent increase in salaries in the next wage revision, which became due on August 1.

Bar on “pattas” for encroachers
Shimla, August 19
The populist decision of the Dhumal regime to regularise encroachments on government land struck a road block today when the state high court ordered that no “pattas ” (ownership right) would be granted to the encroachers under the impugned rule till further orders.

No girls fielded by ABVP, NSUI
Kangra, August 19
The local MCM DAV College is witnessing a charged poll atmosphere with both NSUI and ABVP trying to woo students.

3 killed as bus, truck collide
Shimla, August 19
Three persons were killed and as many injured in a head-on collision between a private bus and a truck near Totu on the Shimla-Nalagarh road here today.

Case politically motivated: YC
Shimla, August 19
Mr Sukhwinder Singh, president of the state Youth Congress, today said that the registration of an FIR against senior Congress leaders on the basis of the Kainthla Commission report was an attempt to divert attention from the petrol station and LPG agency allotment scam and threatened to launch a statewide stir if the leaders were harassed by misusing the state machinery.

Stokes warns Dhumal govt
Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 19
Mrs Vidya Stokes, Pradesh Congress Committee chief, has warned the Dhumal government that her party will launch a statewide stir if it continues to frame its leaders in false cases.

Reacting to the registration of an FIR against the CLP leader, Mr Virbhadra Singh, five legislators and two other leaders on the basis of the Kainthla Commission report, she said the timing of the action taken at the fag-end of the government’s term left no one in doubt about the real “motive”. She said the party would not allow the designs of the BJP to succeed and fight it unitedly.

Regarding the decision to put the proposal for creating new districts on hold, she said the ill-advised move had met the fate it deserved. The procedure adopted by the government was flawed from the very outset. While Mr P.K.Dhumal, Chief Minister, not only failed to take political parties and the people concerned into his confidence, the necessary spadework was also not carried out.

She reiterated the demand for the resignation of Mr Ram Naik, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, over petrol stations scam. 

Commandant’s attitude irks Subathu civilians
Romesh Dutt

Solan, August 19
Longstanding civic issues have led to a piquant situation between the Commandant of 14 Gurkha Training Centre and civilians of Subathu cantonment.

An eight-member committee of prominent citizens held a press conference at Subathu today in which they said the Commandant had withheld permission for organising a religious fair and barred civilians from using certain public roads, besides trying to close down a girls’ school.

The issue that agitated the residents was that permission for holding the Gugga Mari mela, scheduled for next month, was withheld by the Commandant. The fair is usually held after obtaining permission from the Commandant which had been granted readily for the past 82 years.

Citing a communication from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) which had barred fairs inside the cantonment areas “without obtaining due permission as per the prescribed procedure” as reason, the Commandant had allegedly withheld permission to the Mela Committee. He had asked the committee to first approach the Deputy Commissioner and get his recommendation. Later the application would be forwarded to the MoD.

The residents said the MoD letter was issued in 1995. Keeping in view the sensitivity of the issue, the predecessors of the present Commandant had been granting permission without adopting the “prescribed procedure”.

One of the members of the Mela Committee said the Commandant had no intention of stopping the mela and that he was bound by strict Army rules.

The members also alleged that a certain road had been declared out of bounds to the civilians for some hours on “grounds of security”.

A representative of Ravidaspura, a Dalit colony, complained about the firing range close by.

The Commandant could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. A senior government official, however, said the issues could be resolved if both sides held talks, adding that the “Army is not an occupation Army. It is ours.”

New land policy a farce: Mankotia
Our Correspondent

Nurpur, August 19
Mr Vicky Mankotia, a member of the HPCC has flayed the encroachment regularisation policy of the state and termed it as a farce.

Talking to mediapersons here yesterday Mr Mankotia said like ‘Kisan Pass Books’ (KPBs) this policy was only to befool the poor and to benefit the rich and influential in the state. He alleged that it was a campaign to collect money from people. “The application form for the regularisation of encroachments is being distributed for Rs 50 which can be given for Re 1 only. Moreover, the exercise to regularise encroachments on government land has benefited only the rich and habitual encroachers and field staff of the Revenue Department”, he said.

Mr Mankotia, who is a contender for Congress ticket from the Jawali Assembly constituency, said a Congress rally was being organised at Bharmar next month. Mr Mankotia dared the state Revenue Minister and sitting MLA of the Jawali Assembly segment, Mr Rajan Sushant, to declare his assets before and after winning the last Assembly poll. 

Anti-Sukh Ram meeting held
Our Correspondent

Mandi, August 19
At a meeting of the anti-Sukh Ram Confederation (Mahajor held at the Kot panchayat headquarters in the Tungal valley today, leaders of various parties accused Sukh Ram of neglecting the constituency. Over 100 village leaders, including pradhans, participated in the meeting.

Kot panchayat pradhan Beli Ram, who presided over the meeting, said though people of the Tungal valley had stood behind Sukh Ram, he betrayed their confidence by neglecting the development of the area.

He said whenever people went to him with their demands, he evaded them by saying that the work could be done only if he became the Chief Minister.

Former president of Mandi Municipal Committee Pushp Raj Sharma said no engineering or medical college had been opened in the area.

Insurance staff for 30 pc salary hike
Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 19
The Northern Zone Insurance Employees Association has demanded a 30 per cent increase in salaries in the next wage revision, which became due on August 1.

The seventh annual conference of the association, which concluded here today, justified the increase on the basis of the excellent performance of the Life Insurance Corporation over the past five years. The number of policies per employee had shot up from 603 to 1,070 and the income from premium increased from Rs 13 lakh to a whopping Rs 43 lakh per employee.

There had been virtually no new recruitment over the past decade and the corporation had achieved this through computerisation and improving efficiency.

The conference called for scrapping of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority on the ground that the government was backing out of its assurance to strengthen the LIC and GIC given by it at the time of the enactment of the law to set up the authority.

In fact it was doing exactly the opposite by bringing in the demerger Bill to convert the four subsidiaries of the GIC into independent companies and the brokers Bill for the benefit of foreign insurance companies.

The parliamentary committee had recommended merger of the four subsidiaries so that the GIC could compete with foreign companies. However, its recommendation was not accepted.

Bar on “pattas” for encroachers
Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 19
The populist decision of the Dhumal regime to regularise encroachments on government land struck a road block today when the state high court ordered that no “pattas ” (ownership right) would be granted to the encroachers under the impugned rule till further orders.

The order was passed by a Division Vench comprising Ms Justice Kamlesh Sharma and Mr Justice Kuldeep Chand Sud, here today, while hearing a public interest litigation filed by Mrs Poonam Gupta and Mr Hridesh Arya. The counsel for the petitioners Mr Rajeev Sood pleaded that the retrieval of land would be a difficult once the “pattas” were issued. The court ordered that proceedings for the regularisation of encroached land “may go on” but no “pattas” should be issued.

The petitioners had challenged the government policy to regularise the encroachments on the grounds that the state was the custodian of entire land it owned and it could not distribute it in an illegal and arbitrary manner. Further instead of evicting the illegal occupants the government was rewarding them. The policy negated the rule of law and was indicative of bad governance.

The entire exercise was based on extraneous considerations and it would have a disastrous effect on the society. They sought the quashing of the policy and eviction of the encroachers from the land, besides action against the revenue officials who allowed encroachments.

No girls fielded by ABVP, NSUI
Our Correspondent

Kangra, August 19
The local MCM DAV College is witnessing a charged poll atmosphere with both NSUI and ABVP trying to woo students.

The NSUI has fielded Ahsootosha, Sandeep Kumar, Rajeev Kapoor and Arjun Singh for the posts of president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary, respectively, whereas the ABVP has fielded Akhil Kholi, Mohit Mahajan, Rahul and Sachin for the respective posts.

Last year, the NSUI candidates had been elected unopposed as the ABVP had not fielded its candidates. No girl has been fielded this year despite the fact that the college has a large strength of girls.

The police has been put on maximum alert to avoid any untoward incident and the girls have been asked to vacate hostels.

3 killed as bus, truck collide

Shimla, August 19
Three persons were killed and as many injured in a head-on collision between a private bus and a truck near Totu on the Shimla-Nalagarh road here today.

The victims were travelling in a vegetable-laden truck which was on its way to Shimla from Rampuri. There was no passenger in the bus. UNI

Case politically motivated: YC
Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 19
Mr Sukhwinder Singh, president of the state Youth Congress, today said that the registration of an FIR against senior Congress leaders on the basis of the Kainthla Commission report was an attempt to divert attention from the petrol station and LPG agency allotment scam and threatened to launch a statewide stir if the leaders were harassed by misusing the state machinery.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the fact that the government had taken more than four years to register a case and that too just before the elections indicated that the action was politically motivated.