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Sunday,
September 8, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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HP seeks
one-time debt swap
Parallel
meetings show cracks in Congress Virbhadra,
Stokes told to hold joint rallies Parmar
varsity’s VC gheraoed |
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Attachment
warrant recalled Gastroenteritis
under control Don’t
neglect villages, doctors told HP
fiscal status alarming: MLA Two
women commit suicide in Parwanoo Agitating
students lift traffic blockade Rehabilitation
plan for Chamera oustees finalised
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HP seeks
one-time debt swap New Delhi, September 7 Speaking at the Finance Ministers’ Conference here today, Chief
Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said special category states had to bear
larger social obligations because of difficult topography and sparse
population.
He said commercial banks should be allowed to lend in core
infrastructure areas to meet specified objectives.
According to an official spokesman, the Chief Minister said
principles of managing commercial entities could not be applied to
state governments in view of welfare functions and larger
responsibilities of funding social infrastructure.
He called for time-bound implementation of value-added tax system
to stop the practice of prevalent rate wars and ensure level playing
fields.
The Chief Minister said the state government had transferred four
areas — land revenue, cess on sale of liquor, royalty on minor
minerals and fee on extractions of minor forest produce — to
Panchayati Raj institutions, which had eroded revenue-raising capacity
of the government.
He outlined the difficulties in implementing apex courts directives
on pay and perks of judicial officers due to extremely stressed fiscal
situation and age-old parity with pay scales of other state government
employees.
The Chief Minister requested the Centre to bear 50 per cent burden
of pay and pension enhancement due to the fifth Central Pay
Commission, till such burden was fully taken care of by a future
Finance Commission.
Meanwhile, the first Information Technology University of the state
will be inaugurated at Solan on October 8 by Deputy Prime Minister
L.K. Advani.
The JP University of Information Technology, being set up at a cost
of Rs 100 crore, will initially have five courses, with two more to be
added in the next two years.
Mr Dhumal, who met Mr Advani today, said the university would also
start postgraduate courses in the next five years and have a Centre of
Excellence.
The Chief Minister said the Centre had identified technical
institutes of Shahpur, Mandi and Nahan for introducing information
technology and electronics maintenance trades and the Government
Polytechnic, Sundernagar, was imparting technical and vocational
training to disabled persons in the state.
The Chief Minister sought 25,000 metric tonnes of foodgrain per
month for the state for six months at BPL rates under the drought
relief scheme. |
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Parallel
meetings show cracks in Congress Dharamsala, September 7 This was evident from the parallel meetings organised here on Friday. While some office-bearers owing allegiance to the All-India Mahila Congress president, Ms Chandresh Kumari, held a meeting in the town, the other group close to the HPCC president, Ms Vidya Stokes, organised a workers conclave at Dari near here. The Block Congress office-bearers declared the Dari meeting to be unconstitutional and threatened to issue show cause notices to all those who participated in it. Refuting this, the DCC general secretary and the Congress candidate in the last Vidhan Sabha elections from Dharamsala, Mr Ram Swaroop said the meeting was chaired by former minister and general secretary of the HPCC Maj. Vijay Singh Mankotia. Talking to mediapersons here today, Mr Ram Swaroop said the workers of the constituency had gathered at Dari to register their protest against the uncalled for remarks by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms Jayalalitha, against the Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi. He alleged that these remarks were made at the behest of the BJP leaders and that this was the first meeting organised by the Congress workers in the state to register their protest. He said it was unanimously decided that in case the BJP did not desist from dragging Ms Sonia Gandhi in such controversies, the Congressmen of Dharamsala would launch an agitation. Mr Ram Swaroop clarified that though he was the party candidate in the last election, anyone had the right to apply for the ticket and the decision taken by the high command, as per decided norms, would be accepted. He denied that any voice of rebellion was raised during the meeting on the issue of his being denied a ticket. |
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Virbhadra, Stokes told to hold joint rallies Shimla, September 7 Ms Moshina Kidwai, who convened a meeting of the committee set up by the high command to ensure better coordination between the warring factions at Delhi yesterday was upset that the differences between the top leaders still persisted. She emphasised in the meeting, which was attended by senior leaders of both groups, that projecting a united image before the electorate was essential to win the elections. The 10-member committee has five leaders from each faction. The party leaders were asked to promptly set up committees at the polling booth level for the ensuing elections. Each such committee should have minimum of 10 members. They were also advised to keep a close watch on the process of delimitation of constituencies and ensure that the exercise was not being used by the ruling BJP to its advantage. |
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Parmar varsity’s VC gheraoed Solan, September 7 University employees had been agitating against the non-payment of their salaries for the month of August since September 1. The non-payment of salaries on time had harassed staff particularly those of lower income groups, who had been hard pressed trying to make their both ends meet. Employees had been sitting in ‘dharnas’ and holding gate meetings peacefully for the past one week but opted for an impromptu dharna when they sighted the MLA, Dr Rajiv Bindal, who had come to the campus to attend at Senate’s meeting at 11 am today. The agitators gheraoed Dr Bindal and started raising slogans against the government and university authorities. They accused the government of neglecting university staff and authorities over alleged mismanagement of the institution. Dr Bindal invited their representatives for talks inside the Vice-Chancellor’s office and assured them he would do his best to help ease the financial position of
the university. The employees dispersed after the talks, which lasted for well over two hours. Later, a harried looking Vice-Chancellor told newspersons that the university could not pay the salaries on account of the non-receipt of the requisite grant from the Department of Horticulture and Forestry. He said as against the approved annual grant of Rs 23 crore against salaries and wages, the institution had received only Rs 7 crore till date. He said he would be ‘immediately’ proceeding to Shimla to pursue authorities concerned to release the grants needed for the disbursement of salaries and wages. The president of the University Teachers Association, Dr B.B.L. Kaushal, said all research, teaching and extension work at the university would be stopped in case the university authorities failed to disburse salaries and wages soon. A former BJP minister, Mr Mohinder Nath Sofat, in a press statement issued here today urged upon the Chief Minister to immediately come to the aid of the financially starved university. Meanwhile, the Senate meeting, scheduled for today could not be held with most of the senators, including the Horticulture Minister, Mr Narendra Bragta, Mr Kush Parmar, MLA, and Secretaries of the Horticulture and Forests Departments failing to reach the varsity campus. Apprehending trouble the district administration had deployed police force in ‘adequate’ strength under the control of Additional S.P. Mr Devendra Thakur, on the campus. |
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Attachment
warrant recalled Shimla, September 7 Mr Justice R.L. Khurana passed this order on an execution petition filed by ECH-ESS Builders, Shimla, wherein, in was alleged that government had not satisfied the award passed by the arbitrator on January 22, 2002. The execution petitioner filed the petitioner field urging the court to direct the judgement debtor to satisfy the decreetal amount. The petition was listed before the court on July 19 this year when the respondent state sought time to seek instructions. Thereafter it was again listed before the court but the judgement debtor did not file reply or satisfy the decree of the arbitrator. Mr Justice Khurana, in his order passed on August 22, observed that the judgement debtor had neither filed reply nor deposited decreetal amount hence it was issued the warrant of attachment and directed to submit the list of properties. After the issuance of warrant of attachment today the state government came into action and deposited the decreetal amount with interest of Rs 10,60,783 and moved an application for the recall of warrant. The high court today recalled the warrant of execution after persuing the record that the judgement debtor had satisfied the decree. |
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Gastroenteritis
under control Hamirpur, September 7 He said all patients of the disease were getting treatment and two of them were still in the Hamirpur Zonal Hospital. He added that water source of the village had been chlorinated and medicines were being given to the patients. Meanwhile, Dr Suman Sharma, CMO, Hamirpur, and Chief Engineer of the Irrigation and Public Health, Mandi Zone, today visited the village and met the affected persons. They also supervised the water source and were satisfied with the water supply system. Mr N.M. Sharma, Superintending Engineer, Public Health, Hamirpur, in a statement to the Press clarified that outbreak of gastroenteritis was not due to the consumption of government water. He said that Gasota water supply scheme provided water to 19 villages, including
Dabrehra. He ruled out water contamination from the source. He said all distribution lines were checked and there was no fault. Mr Sharma, however, appealed to the people to drink tap water only and ensure their surroundings were neat and clean. The condition of two persons, including a woman, who were getting treatment at the hospital here was stable. They still were getting medicines and would be discharged only after cured, according to another official spokesman. |
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Don’t
neglect villages, doctors told Dharamsala, September 7 Addressing surgeons from various institutions, while inaugurating the first ever continuing medical education seminar on “Antibiotics in surgery” organised by Dr R.P. Government Medical College, Tanda, here today, Mr Nadda asked the medical fraternity to do introspection so that they could advise people what was best for their health. He also advised them not to reject other systems of medicine. Mr Nadda said more than 52 million people world over died due to various diseases every year and almost one sixth of them died due to infection. The Health Minister said antibiotics were playing a crucial role in taking care of diseases but expressed his apprehensions about excessive use of antibiotics. He said this was creating new problems and only doctors could help in this regard. Mr Nadda said, according to a survey, Americans were spending billions of dollars annually on excessive use of drugs and this had become a socio-economic problem. He advised the doctors to keep in touch with new technological inventions so that people could be provided better healthcare service. He claimed Himachal Pradesh of having one of the best records in healthcare services in the country. He said the slogan of ‘healthcare for all by 2008’ may be politically correct but economically it was a distant dream. He asked doctors to be pragmatic in their approach. Referring to Dr R.P. Government Medical College, Tanda, Mr Nadda said that the BJP government was committed to ensure that it came up as one of the premier medical education institutions of North India. He said Rs 50 crore had been provided for the construction of a new hospital building at Tanda. |
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HP fiscal status alarming: MLA Kangra, September 7 Addressing a press conference here today, Mr Bali alleged that the decision taken to create new districts was ‘sabotaged’ due to the factionalism in the BJP and the government had to backtrack on the issue. He described the financial situation in the state as alarming. During the past four and a half years, the BJP government had procured loans to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore while the Congress government headed by Mr Virbhadra Singh had borrowed loans to the tune of Rs 800 crore only. The state was not able to pay salaries to employees of agriculture and horticulture universities. |
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Two women commit suicide in Parwanoo Solan, September 7 Ms Usha, 39, wife of an employee of ESI Hospital, Parwanoo, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan in her house in Sector 4 of the town. Investigations had revealed that her husband used to frequently beat her up under the influence of liquor. The police has summoned Usha’s parents who live in Shimla after registering a case under Section 306, IPC against her husband. His first wife, too, had reportedly committed suicide by setting herself afire. In another case, Tara Devi, 38, a resident of Gera village near Parwanoo, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from a rafter in the ceiling of her house. The police was investigating the case. Bodies of both women were sent to ESI Hospital, Parwanoo, for post-mortem. |
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Agitating
students lift traffic blockade Dharamsala, September 7 They lifted the blockade only after they got an assurance regarding the suspension of the two policemen who were identified by the students. Later, they marched in a procession to the office of the General Manager, HRTC, to lodge their protest against the conduct of the driver and conductor of the Pathankot bound bus from which the students were forcibly taken down and beaten. |
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Rehabilitation
plan for Chamera oustees finalised Chamba, September 7 There are 192 families under Chamera stage I and 120 under stage II. |
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Manmohan
Singh visits Paonta Sahib gurdwara Paonta Sahib, September 7 Mr S. Rattan Singh, vice-president of Gurdwara Paonta Sahib and Mr Harsh Chauhan, MLA, Shilai, received him at the Yamuna bridge. He was presented with siropa by Mr S. Rattan Singh. |
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