H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Dhumal govt most corrupt: LJP
Nurpur, September 6
Mr Ramel Badiyal, state president of the Lok Janshakti Party, has termed the Dhumal government as the most ‘corrupt’ regime ever in the state. Addressing a press conference here today, Mr Badiyal said the BJP had promised to give 80 per cent of jobs in the private sector to Himachalis, but the government had sold these to outsiders.

Gastroenteritis hits 100 in Hamirpur village
Hamirpur, September 6
Nearly 100 persons, including women and children, have fallen ill after drinking contaminated water in Debrehra village of the Hamirpur district. The village falls in the Assembly constituency of Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.

No funds to give salary: VC
Palampur, September 6
Over 3,000 non-teaching and teaching employees of HP Agricultural University continued their strike for the second day today in protest against the non-payment of their salaries for August.

Temple loses interest on gold deposit
Kangra, September 6
The Bajjreshwari temple has been making a recurring loss of nearly Rs 2 lakh annually for the past 12 years as the temple management has failed to deposit 10.5 kgs of gold, offered by the pilgrims, with a nationalised bank and earn interest.

Pilgrims converge on Chamba
Shimla, September 6
Thousands of pilgrims have converged on Chamba in Himachal Pradesh to participate in the annual “Chhari yatra” to Manimahesh (13,000 feet) in the tribal subdivision of Bharmour beginning tomorrow even as three persons died due to inclement weather there last night.

Headless body raises questions
Solan, September 6
The Parwanoo police recovered the headless body of a middle-aged man near a Mahindra van which had apparently rolled down into a 600 metres-deep gorge overlooking the Kaushalya rivulet near Datyar, 35 km from here, on Wednesday.

‘Make training job-oriented’
Shimla, September 6
Prof J.P. Bhatti, Director, Population Research Centre, has said human capital formation and human resource development should aim at bridging the yawning gap in the demand and supply of persons with critical skills needed for industrial and service sectors in the underdeveloped countries.

Telephones remain out of order for 9 hours
Hamirpur, September 6
Telecom services remained paralysed for more than nine hours in the district last night. The services were disrupted around 5.30 p.m. last evening and were restored only at 2.00 a.m. this morning.

Panel sets aside order
Shimla, September 6
The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has set aside the order by the District Consumer Forum, Kangra, wherein the forum had directed Dada Motors of Ludhiana to replace a Tata-make Bus to Rajinder Kumar of Hamirpur within 30 days.

Dhumal govt most corrupt: LJP
Our Correspondent

Nurpur, September 6
Mr Ramel Badiyal, state president of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), has termed the Dhumal government as the most ‘corrupt’ regime ever in the state.

Addressing a press conference here today, Mr Badiyal said the BJP had promised to give 80 per cent of jobs in the private sector to Himachalis, but the government had sold these to outsiders. He demanded a white paper on the share in jobs for Himachalis in the hydroelectric power projects embarked upon by the government in the state.

While commenting on the proposal of carving out new districts, Mr Badiyal said It was political incompetence of the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, who had promised to carve out six new districts but had failed even to create one. He alleged that Mr Dhumal himself had created a controversy over the setting up of district head-quarters of the proposed new districts by instigating his own partymen.

The LJP president said Rs 6 crore scam in the state Health Department was the biggest scam during the rule of the present government. Three department directors had been jailed in the case but the real culprits were still roaming scot-free. He sought the resignation of the Health and Family Welfare minister, Mr J.P. Nadda, over the issue.

Asked whether the LJP would forge alliance with other parties in the ensuing Assembly poll in the state, Mr Badiyal said the party would contest on all 68 seats alone. He claimed that the LJP headed by Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, a former Union Telecommunications Minister, would emerge as the third political force after the elections.

Gastroenteritis hits 100 in Hamirpur village
Our Correspondent

Hamirpur, September 6
Nearly 100 persons, including women and children, have fallen ill after drinking contaminated water in Debrehra village of the Hamirpur district. The village falls in the Assembly constituency of Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.

Mrs Gambhri Devi and Mr Bansi Lal have been brought to the Zonal Hospital here for treatment. They have been put on drip, according to Dr Suman Sharma, Chief Medical Officer, Hamirpur.

Dr Sharma told The Tribune today that Health authorities after receiving a report on the outbreak of gastroenteritis from the ADM, Hamirpur, sent a medical team led by Dr Pritam Sharma, BMO, Tounia Devi to the village. It was followed by another team from Hamirpur led by the District Health Officer. Both teams examined 68 patients, gave them medicines and took samples of all water sources of the village. Water samples have been sent to Kandaghat laboratory of the department for a report.

The CMO suspected it to be gastroenteritis as patients had history of loose motions, temperature and vomiting. The CMO said that another team of the department led by Dr Kailash Kaushal had also left for the village to help treat the victims.

Meanwhile, officers of the Department of Irrigation and Public Health have also gone to Dabrehra to check water sources. They have also taken water samples from the main tank supplying water to Duhli and Dabrehra villages.

Mr Ram Pal, son of Mrs Gambhri Devi, said that onset the disease was sudden and everybody was taken by surprise. He said that he too had vomits and loose motions but now his condition after taking medicines was under control.

The villagers, however, are unhappy with the late arrival of doctors in the villages. They said that though paramedical staff had reached the village in time, the Medical Officer came in the afternoon. They said that contamination of water led to the outbreak of the disease. Water was chlorinated by Irrigation and Public Health Department officials after they came to know of the incident.

There are reports that Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in whose constituency this village falls has instructed the Health Department authorities and the district administration to ensure that medicines were given to the patients in time and no laxity in this matter would be tolerated.

Report says that he has asked the Director, Health Services to place more medicines at the disposal of CMO, Hamirpur.

No funds to give salary: VC
Our Correspondent

Palampur, September 6
Over 3,000 non-teaching and teaching employees of HP Agricultural University continued their strike for the second day today in protest against the non-payment of their salaries for August.

The employees assembled in front of the office of the Vice-Chancellor and staged a dharna. Later, a rally was also held where the employees decided to resort to indefinite strike till their salaries are paid.

A deputation of the employees called on the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Tej Partap and conveyed their decision to him.

Sources said the Vice-Chancellor expressed his inability to release the salaries in the absence of funds. He told the employees’ leaders that the Finance Department of the state government had sent a fax message to him today stating that university had to manage the payment salaries of its staff from its own sanctioned budget and the government had no funds for this purpose.

Meanwhile, a senior officer of the university told to mediapersons here this afternoon that the present situation had arisen because the university not been given grant-in-aid for the past five years as per its requirements. He said the Finance Department had been fixing the university budget in an arbitrary manner without considering the actual expenditure incurred in the previous year. This year, the allocation had been reduced by Rs 9 crore, putting the institution in a serious financial crises.

The Vice-Chancellor, Dr Tej Partap, said on April 1, 2002, the university had a total budget deficit of Rs 12.96 crore which was beyond his control to covers. Besides, there are other pending liabilities of Rs 5.27 crore on account of uncovered items.

Temple loses interest on gold deposit
Our Correspondent

Kangra, September 6
The Bajjreshwari temple has been making a recurring loss of nearly Rs 2 lakh annually for the past 12 years as the temple management has failed to deposit 10.5 kgs of gold, offered by the pilgrims, with a nationalised bank and earn interest.

Dr N.K. Lath, SDM, Kangra, who is also holding the charge of the Assistant Commissioner, Temples, said today that the RBI had approved the deposit of 10.5 kg of gold with the State Bank of India under the Gold Bond Scheme at an interest rate of 4 per cent per annum. The interest income would have fetched Rs 2.20 lakh annually to the temple. He said he had received a letter to this effect from the SBI, Mumbai.

Dr Lath said 10.5 kg of gold was deposited with an SBI, branch in Chandigarh on May 3 this year following an incident of theft in the temple in which Rs 80,000 and a few kilograms of silver were stolen.

He said the Bajjreshwari temple, one of the 52 shakti peeths in the country, was the first temple in the state to earn income from the Gold Bond Scheme. Asked for how long the gold had been lying in the temple Dr Lath said it had been lying idle since 1990 and was not deposited with a nationalised bank. The deposit would have fetched a revenue of Rs 2 lakh annually to the temple during the past 12 years.

Pilgrims converge on Chamba

Shimla, September 6
Thousands of pilgrims have converged on Chamba in Himachal Pradesh to participate in the annual “Chhari yatra” to Manimahesh (13,000 feet) in the tribal subdivision of Bharmour beginning tomorrow even as three persons died due to inclement weather there last night.

The pilgrims will have a holy dip in the Dal Lake on “Radha Ashtami” on September 14.

The ‘pavitra chhari’ yatra is considered akin to the Amarnath yatra, covering a distance of about 90 km, including 13 km on foot.

The yatra will reach Manimahesh on September 13 and start the return journey the next day after a holy dip in the icy-cold waters of the crystal-clear lake located at the foot of the Manimahesh range of mountains, commonly known as Manimahesh Kailash (18,564 feet). Then they have a ‘darshan’ of the Manimahesh Kailash peak. UNI

Headless body raises questions
Our Correspondent

Solan, September 6
The Parwanoo police recovered the headless body of a middle-aged man near a Mahindra van which had apparently rolled down into a 600 metres-deep gorge overlooking the Kaushalya rivulet near Datyar, 35 km from here, on Wednesday.

The body was badly devoured by wild animals and maggots. The man appeared to have been dead for at least 12 days while the vehicle met with accident only three days back, as per a report lodged by the vehicle’s owner, Mr Naresh Singh.

Mr Naresh Singh is the son of Mr Shingara Singh, Superintendent of Police, Rewari (Haryana).

According to the Superintendent of Police, Mr S.Z.H. Zaidi, there were three persons in the vehicle at the time of it’s crash, owner Naresh Singh, his driver Sunil Sharma and friend Bhagwan Yadav. As per the statements made by them, none was aware of the body lying near the accident site.

Mr Zaidi said he was convinced there was no connection between the two incidents.

In view of the controversy generated by the recovery of the body, the police had sent it to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital for a post-mortem, instead of the ESI Hospital at Parwanoo where all such cases are normally referred to.

‘Make training job-oriented’
Tribune News Service

Shimla, September 6
Prof J.P. Bhatti, Director, Population Research Centre, has said human capital formation and human resource development should aim at bridging the yawning gap in the demand and supply of persons with critical skills needed for industrial and service sectors in the underdeveloped countries.

Addressing participants from Ivory Coast, Namibia, Philippines, and South Africa at a training workshop on human resource planning being held at Himachal Pradesh University here, he said the underdeveloped countries faced a unique dilemma. On one hand there was a shortage of skilled manpower and on the other there was a large surplus of unemployed labour force comprising unskilled for semi skilled people. He said training and educational programmes in such countries should be properly tailored and planned keeping in view the present and future demands of human resources.

Mr N.S. Bist, Assistant Professor of Economics, in his summing up report informed that the discussions at the workshop centered on the major themes of human resource planning such as research methods of assessing the supply and demand of manpower for various sectors of the economy, decentralised planning, problems of urbanisation and unemployment, gender inequalities in human resource development and methods of motivating and developing excellence in leadership for human resource management. Prof Suresh Kapur, Dean of Studies at the university, said increase in the number of persons with required skills, education, and experience to meet the needs of the developing countries was very vital for achieving faster rate of development. He emphasised that in the age of globalisation the quantity and quality of education and training in the developing countries needed substantial improvement.

Telephones remain out of order for 9 hours
Our Correspondent

Hamirpur, September 6
Telecom services remained paralysed for more than nine hours in the district last night. The services were disrupted around 5.30 p.m. last evening and were restored only at 2.00 a.m. this morning.

Though no official reason was given for the failure of the telecom services, sources in the department say that high voltage had caused a major snag in the Power plant of the Hamirpur exchange.

When contacted, Mr Feroz Anwar, Deputy General Manager (Operation) admitted that phones remained dead during night hours. He, however, refused to give more details saying that he was not authorised to speak to the media on this issue.

Meanwhile, the telecom services completely restored today.

Panel sets aside order
Legal Correspondent

Shimla, September 6
The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has set aside the order by the District Consumer Forum, Kangra, wherein the forum had directed Dada Motors of Ludhiana to replace a Tata-make Bus to Rajinder Kumar of Hamirpur within 30 days. The firm had been penalized with a recurring amount of Rs 2,500 per day towards loss of income from non-plying of the bus till the same was replaced. The firm had been additionally burdened with a cost of Rs 10,000.

The firm challenged this order before the State Consumer Commission on the ground that the forum had no pecuniary jurisdiction to entertain this complaint of Mr Rajinder Kumar.