 |
|
Thursday,
December 26, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
Shanta, Dhumal sink differences Dharmani is
HP Cong secy YEARENDER — 2002
HIMACHAL PRADESH
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Labana Welfare Board
reconstituted Three killed in
tractor mishap 9 students hurt
in clash Trekking expedition flagged off
|
|
Shanta, Dhumal sink differences Shimla, December 25 The party high command, which is keen to repeat the performance of Gujarat in the hill state, had been perturbed over the widening differences between the two leaders. Mr Shanta Kumar had openly come out against Mr Dhumal on the issue of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies and alleged that the whole exercise was a conspiracy to decimate him politically. However, it was the direct intervention of the trinity of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, his deputy, Mr L.K. Advani, and the party President, Mr Venkaiah Naidu, which brought about a rapprochement between the estranged leaders. Only last week the warring leaders of the rival Congress, which has also been plagued with infighting, had decided to sink their differences and join hands to defeat the BJP. Mrs Vidya Stokes, PCC chief, and Mr Virbhadra Singh, Leader of the Opposition, even held a joint press conference and met the Chief Election Commissioner to demand the enforcement of the code of conduct for the elections. The unity in the Congress had indeed alarmed the BJP which lost no time in putting its own house in order. Having patched up the differences, the party now plans to make the two leaders share a public platform. As a first step, Mr Shanta Kumar may join the “vishwas yatra” being undertaken by Mr Dhumal at some places. The two leaders will also address joint public meetings. According to party sources, Mr Shanta Kumar will mainly concentrate in Kangra and Chamba districts which fall under his parliamentary constituency, but may also campaign in some other districts. Party workers are enthused over the development, which is likely to improve the electoral prospects of the party, particularly in Kangra and Hamirpur districts. The party has made development its main agenda. Earlier, it organised “vikas yatras” all over the state to apprise the people of its achievements on the development front and has now been pursuing the “vishwas yatra” to help translate the achievements into electoral support. However, the open factional war on the issues of the creation of new districts and delimitation severely affected its image. Now that Mr Shanta Kumar, who has been critical of the government’s functioning, has decided to put his “heart and soul” into the campaign, the situation is likely to change for the good. |
|
Cong launches
poll campaign Kumarhatti, December 25 At a public gathering in a Kanda village near here, today, Mr Virbhadra Singh, CLP leader, came down heavily on the Dhumal government for failing on all fronts, saying that corruption would be the main poll plank of the Congress in the coming Assembly elections slated for February. He ridiculed the BJP decision to regularise encroachments on government land by small and marginal farmers.
|
|
|
Dharmani
is HP Cong secy Shimla, December 25 The PCC has also extended the last date for submitting application for the ticket from December 30 to January 6. The applicants will have to pay Rs 5,000 to the party through bank draft or cheque along with the application. Meanwhile, Mrs Mohsina Kidwai, AICC General Secretary, will be on a three-day visit to the state from December 28. She will address Congress workers at Raja Ka Talab, Kangra, Nadaun, Hamirpur and Bilaspur. Mr Satyajeet Gaikwad, Secretary of the AICC, will address District Congress Committee workers’ meetings at Mandi and Kulu on December 27 and 28. |
|
|
HP YC
Secy appointed Shimla, December 25
|
|
YEARENDER — 2002
HIMACHAL PRADESH Shimla, December 25 The state saw hectic political activity characterised by intense infighting in the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress in the run-up for the Assembly election. The delimitation exercise, which was subsequently deferred, only widened the factional divide in the two parties. However, it was the BJP which suffered the most as a large section of the party led by the senior-most leader, Mr Shanta Kumar, came out openly against the draft delimitation and termed it as a conspiracy of Mr P.K. Dhumal, the Chief Minister, to decimate his political rivals. The Congress wanted the exercise to be deferred in view of the impending elections but its leaders except Mr Virbhadra Singh, whose Rohru constituency was proposed to be reserved for Scheduled Castes, did not oppose it as vehemently as their counterparts in the BJP. The move to create new districts had to dropped as it caused a vertical division in the ruling party with all the three BJP MPs from the state urging the high command to stall the ill-advised and ill-timed exercise in the interest of party unity. There was spate of expulsion and suspensions of party leaders as the factional fight in both the Congress and the BJP intensified. They took action against Mr Mohinder Sofat, Mr Narinder Thakur, Mr Kamal Padha, Mr Rakesh Chauhan, Mr Kamal Nanda and some other leaders for flouting party discipline. The Congress also expelled Mr Kuldeep Pathania, Mr Manjit Dogra, Mr Shaunkiya Ram and some lower-rung leaders. However, it withdrew action against Mr Shaunkiya Ram and Mr Kuldeep Pathania towards the end of the year. Mrs Sonia Gandhi addressed three rallies at Shahpur, Mandi and Shilaroo to mobilise the party workers for the impending elections. The BJP also held a rally at Sundernagar, which was addressed by Mr Venkaiah Naidu, the party President Mr P.K. Dhumal, kicked off his “Vishwas Yatra”, virtually launching the party’s poll campaign. Mr Vidya Sagar, Agriculture Minister, resigned in protest against failure of the Dhumal government to grant 27 per cent reservation in government jobs to the other backward classes (OBCs). The government made a determined bid to pin down the leader of the Opposition, Mr Virbhadra Singh, against whom about half-a-dozen cases were instituted in connection with the alleged land grab in violation of the Ceiling Act, irregularities in allotment of khairwood to Sagar Katha Udyog and Kainthla Commission report, which had indicted eight Congress leaders, including six legislators, for abducting Independent legislator Ramesh Dhawala in the wake of a hung Assembly. The open criticism of the report provoked Mr H.R. Kainthla, who conducted the inquiry, to initiate contempt proceedings against Mr Virbhadra Singh. While a sub-judge, Rampur, dismissed the complaint filed by the government against Mr Virbhadra Singh, in a land scam case his daughter, Ms Meenakshi, lost the legal battle in a related case. She challenged the provisions of the Land Ceiling Act but her petition was dismissed by the High Court and the finally the Supreme Court. The humiliating defeat of the BJP in the Shimla Municipal Corporation poll rallied the party. Ever since the party has been coming out with one policy or the other to please the voters. It “illegally” rolled back the power tariff hike without approaching the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, which had passed the tariff order, conceded the demands of various sections of employees, reversed the process of economic reforms, fearing an adverse reaction from various section of people in the election year, reduced water charges, came out with several policies to regularise encroachments and illegal structures and even allowed construction in restricted core and sinking areas in the state capital. The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, visited the state twice to lay the foundation stone of the Rs 800-crore tunnel under the Rohtang Pass to provide an all-weather road link to the landlocked Lahaul Valley and a Rs 150 crore heritage project in Solan. The state earned the distinction of having the country’s first University of Information and Technology. The international university was set up by the JP Industries at Vaknaghat was inaugurated by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani. |
|
Labana Welfare Board
reconstituted Shimla, December 25 The non-official members of the board are Dr Surat Naik, Mr R.C. Bartha, Mr Soni Lal Naik, Mr Gopal Das Bhatia, Mr Charan Singh Karmani, Mr Madan Lal, Pradhan, Mr Balwant Kaushal, Mr Hari Singh Naik, Mr Tulsi Ram Naik, Mrs Champa Devi, Mr Hari Saran, Mr Ram Rattan, Mr Rishi Kumar, Mr Piar Chand Khasria, Mr Narain Dass Naik, Mr Sarwan Kumar, Mr Jagdish Chand, Mr Vinod Kumar Kalia and Mr Ram Kumar. The Himachal Government also extended the term of the Gorkha Kalyan Board for a period of three years. The board was constituted in 1999. |
|
Three killed in
tractor mishap Mandi, December 25 One person died during the night while the two others succumbed to their injuries today. All three bodies were handed over to the relatives after post-mortem. The police has registered a case and the driver has been arrested. The victims have been identified as Sanjay (24) of Jawaharnagar (Khaliar), Prashant (22) and Molak Singh (65), both of the Jail Road colony.
|
|
9 students hurt
in clash Shimla, December 25 The trouble started when ABVP activists attacked SCA president Kuldeep Bhardwaj in his hostel room. As a result SFI activists gathered and a free-for-all ensued. About seven ABVP activists and two from the SFI were hurt in this clash. Kuldeep Bhardwaj has lodged an FIR against ABVP activists Lalit Mohan, Shamit Singh, Neeraj and Aman Garg at Boileauganj police station. |
|
Trekking
expedition flagged off Dalhousie, December 25 Mr R.K. Sejwal, programme director of the association said this year nearly 770 participants from 15 states were participating of which nearly 30 per cent were women. Mr Anil Pathak, field director of the programme, said everyday approximately 60 persons would be trekking from Dalhousie to Kalatop and Kalatop to Khajjiar the next day and Khajiar to Chamba on the last day. |
 |
| 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 | |
