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Saturday,
January 11, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Dhumal: no
pact with national parties ‘Vishwas Yatra’ reaches Parwanoo Avoid negative campaign: Jaitley Cong leaders vying for Kumarsain ticket |
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Farmers in distress as rain eludes Hamirpur Assistant librarians’ interview on Jan 15 Andretta remembers B.C. Sanyal Land dispute forces closure of liquor vend Residents resent levy of toll tax 2,98,181 BPL families identified
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Dhumal:
no pact with national parties Solan, January 10 Talking to mediapersons en route his vishwas yatra at Garkhal, near Kasauli, the Chief Minister expressed optimism of returning to power with an overwhelming majority. He said the Congress would be routed in Himachal Pradesh like in Gujarat. He said the Congress was facing a 1977-like situation today as an anti-Congress wave was gaining ground which would prove productive for the BJP. Ridiculing the Congress and other parties for having raised baseless issues with the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr G.M. Lyngdoh, the Chief Minister said the fact that these objections were completely overruled by Mr Lyngdoh proved that they carried no weight. While refusing to comment on the support being amassed by suspended BJP leader M.N. Sofat, he said every individual had a right to contest election in a democratic set up. He also said the fact that the vishwas yatra was gaining massive support even in areas like Sirmaur, where the BJP had gained no seat, and Solan, where it had secured only two seats, proved that the people would vote in its favour now. The Chief Minister addressed a thinly attended public meeting at Garkhal to muster support for Mr Virender Kashyap, Chairman, HP Marketing Board. |
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‘Vishwas
Yatra’ reaches Parwanoo Parwanoo, January 10 A rally was held at the bus stand in which around 4,000 people, including residents, took part. Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, while addressing the rally, highlighted the development works undertaken by the BJP government. He added that the industrial town would be developed as a model town. He said the new industrial package announced by the Central Government would bring boom in the growth of industry in Himachal Pradesh, which would help remove unemployment from the state.
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Avoid negative campaign: Jaitley Chandigarh, January 10 While urging 35 party, VHP and RSS leaders to encash upon the success in Gujarat, Mr Arun Jaitley asked the leaders to win the Himachal Assembly elections due in February to provide a platform to the party for subsequent elections in bigger states and Parliament. Mr Jaitley asked the cadres to avoid a negative campaign and focus on the success of development in the state during the five-year term of the BJP under Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. BJP Organising Secretary Sanjay Joshi, RSS Regional Coordinator Madan Devi, party observer O.P. Kohli, BJP state general secretary Ram Swarup Sharma, Shanta Kumar, Suresh Chandel, Maheshwar Singh, Kripal Parmar and Mr Dhumal attended the meeting, amongst others. It was also attended by RSS general secretaries namely Mr Surendra Ranta, Mr Gian Sanotra and Mr Baldev Raj Sood. The Union Rural Development Minsiter and in-charge of the campaign in the Assembly elections, Mr Shanta Kumar, expressed his displeasure at the constitution of the ticket distribution committee with only one representative of his group figuring in it. Though the matter of the constitution of the manifesto committee was raised, it was postpone for now. Mr Jaitley also attempted to rope in the Punjab unit of the BJP in campaign having a separate meeting with the unit president, Mr Brijlal Rinwa, the general secretary, Mr Avnash Jaiswal, Mr Harpreet Garewal and in charge of the RSS Punjab media cell, Mr Ram Gopal. Mr Jaitley reminded them of repeating the success of Gujarat keeping in mind the future elections. The meeting of the leaders of the Himachal BJP discussed possible allegations and their counter by the party and that development would be the election plank. RSS leader Madan Devi asked Mr Jaitley to hand over the election campaign to the RSS if differences between party leaders were not sorted out. Mr Jaitley said the criterion for the distribution of tickets would be clean image of a party nomination seeker. The BJP general secretary also met leaders from Himachal last night.
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Cong leaders vying for Kumarsain ticket Shimla, January 10 Among those vying for Congress ticket from the constituency is Vijaypal
Khachi,
son of late J.B.L. Khachi, who is trying to don his father’s mantle with the help of the old party loyalists. But the other section of the Congress is opposed to his candidature and it does not want it to be a family affair. I.D. Bali, a senior advocate, is staking claim to the party ticket and so is a staunch Virbhadra loyalist, Dr Pramod Sharma, a professor of management studies at Himachal Pradesh University and head of the Kumarsain-Sunni Sangarsh Samiti. Another strong contender for the Congress ticket is party spokesperson Kuldeep Rathore. His claim is that he has been with the party from the NSUI and Youth Congress days and belongs to the Vidya Stokes camp. A talk rife among the political circles is that Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Vidya Stokes may shift to Kumarsain as she belongs to the Kotgarh area. Senior Congress leaders of the area say that Mrs Stokes will have an edge in this constituency as she is a chief ministerial candidate and her presence will end factionalism in the party as she is also a stalwart like late J.B.L. Khachi. According to local Congress leaders, Mrs Stokes can rally around three regions of the constituency. A cheerful news for the Congress is that BJP candidate Sandeepani Bhardwaj, who hails from the Kumarsain area, has been facing opposition from the Sunni area where Mrs Veena Thakur, BJP Mahila Morcha president, has staked claim. BJP activists of the Sunni area assert that in the past in this Congress bastion, only opposition candidates from the Sunni area have won. They cite the example of Bhagat Ram Chauhan, who won on a BJP ticket, defeating late J.B.L. Khachi. However, according to Mr Bhardwaj’s supporters, he has undertaken a number of development works and will get votes in the Sunni areas as he has promised to open a degree college there after being elected. |
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Farmers
in distress as rain eludes Hamirpur Hamirpur, January 10 However, the long dry spell has harmed the cause of the land of the district. The farmers fear that if there are no rains by January 13, their Rabi crop will be a big failure. They had lost their last Rabi crop in 2001 as there were no rains. The district had received bumper Rabi crop in 2002. The crop was sold at good rates to the traders of Punjab and other parts of northern India. The farmers had sown wheat crop on 36,700 hectares and the production target was fixed at around 68,000 metric tonnes. However, according to Dr H.R. Sharma, Deputy Director of Agriculture, the production had crossed 70,000 metric tonnes mark. Besides pulses, oilseeds and commercial crops like potatoes and vegetables had also shown good results. The Department of Agriculture is also perturbed over the non-arrival of the rains. The Department had fixed a target of around 80,000 metric tonnes of wheat. A section of farmers have not yet sown their wheat crop as they are still waiting for the rains, according to Dr Sharma. Talking to this correspondent here today, he said the department had done the spadework. However since the district was rain-fed, the crops mainly depended upon the arrival of rains, he said. He said nearly 10 to 20 per cent of the total crop sown in the district had already been badly damaged and if the present conditions continued, the crop loss would go up 40 to 50 per cent. Dr Sharma said there was a need to bring more areas of the district under irrigation as the crops in the irrigated areas were better as compared to the non-irrigated areas of the district. A visit to various parts of the district by this correspondent revealed that the farmers were highly upset and dejected over the non-arrival of rains. At many places, they have decided to organise yagnas after January 13 to please the Rain God. According to farmers, their cattle wealth will remain without fodder due to the scanty rains. According to them, the pastures have been completely burnt due to extensive cold. Braham Dass, a farmer of the Mewa area, said if there were no rains within the next few days, it would be presumed that the crops would be 100 per cent failure. Sohan Singh, another farmer of the Langwalti area, was in tears when this correspondent sought his comments on the Rabi crop. He said luck was not in favour of the farmers of the district this time. He said he had lost everything during 2001 when there were no rains and he had to sell most of his household items. |
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Assistant
librarians’ interview on Jan 15 Shimla, January 10 He said interviews for candidates sponsored by the employment exchanges of Chamba district (except Pangi) and Nurpur, Kasba Kotla, Jwali and Indora of Kangra district would be held on January 14. At the office of the Deputy Director, Education, Dharamsala. For the candidates sponsored by the Employment Exchanges of Palampur, Lambagaon, Dehra Baroh, Baijnath, Nagrota Surian and Dharamsala of Kangra district, interviews would be held on January 15 at the office of the Deputy Director, Education, Dharamsala, he added. The spokesman further said for the candidates sponsored by the employment exchanges of Kullu district and Sarkaghat of Mandi district, interviews would be held on January 14 at the office of the Deputy Director, Education, Mandi. He said for the candidates sponsored by the employment
exchanges of Bilaspur and Una interviews would be held on January 14 at the office of the Deputy Director, Education, Hamirpur, while for the candidates of all employment exchanges of Hamirpur interviews would be held on January 15 in the same office. He said for the candidates of all employment exchanges of Kinnaur, districts interviews would be held on January 14 at the office of the Deputy Director, Education, Kinnaur, whereas for the candidates sponsored by employment exchanges of Keylong and Udaipur of Lahaul-Spiti, interviews would be held on January 14 at the office of the Deputy Director, Education, Keylong. He said for the candidates of the employment exchanges, Kaza of Lahaul-Spiti, interviews would be held on January 14 and in Pangi of Chamba district the interviews would be held on January 14 at the office of the Resident Commissioner, Killar, he added. The spokesman further added that interviews would be held on January 15 for the candidates of Mandi (except Sarkaghat) at the office of the Deputy Director, Education, Mandi. He said interviews would be held on January 14 at the Education Directorate, Shimla, for all candidates sponsored by employment exchanges of Sirmaur and Solan while interviews would be held on January 15 in the Directorate of Education, Shimla, for the candidates of all employment exchanges of the district. He further said in case interviews were not completed on above dates it would be held on January 16 at their respective offices. He said interview would commence from 10 a.m. |
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Andretta
remembers B.C. Sanyal Dharamsala, January 10 Though Padma Bhushan Prof Ram Kumar and others are away but Mr S.L. Sharma who recently retired as the Additional Registrar of the cooperatives, Mr Minni Singh, blue pottery artist and his wife besides Mr P.P. Singh were grief stricken at the death of Sanyal. The spartan mud house of Sanyal merges well with the rustic rural surroundings and except a few portraits of Norah Richards, mother of the painter and his own, there is nothing to show of his long presence at Andretta. Sanyal due to ill health had not visited Andretta for the past five years. Fondly called “babaji” by the locals, Sanyal was active till late 90s and used to visit them when at Andretta. Mr P.P. Singh fondly recalls his 12 years’ association and tells of the zest and creativity which was the basis of life of the great artist. Mr Sharma, Trustee, Woodlands Estate Society, said their ‘emperor’ was dead. He recalls the formation of the society with Sanyal as its chairman. He remembers him as a moody but upright and self respecting man who neither interfered in others work nor brooked any interference. Another trustee of the society, Mr Minni Singh remembers Sanyal as a fantastic gentleman. |
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Land dispute forces closure of liquor vend Parwanoo, January 10 As per the information, the liquor contractors of Haryana had been objecting to the opening of a liquor vend at the barrier by the HP contractor and they had complained about it to the DETC, Panchkula. On the instructions of the DETC, Mr Sanjeev Choudhary, the ETO of Kalka visited the Parwanoo barrier and ordered the closure of the vend. Mr Suresh Kumar, Naib Tehsildar of Kalka, produced the land revenue papers in which the structure was shown as a part of Haryana. On getting the information, officials from Solan along with DSP Parwanoo and ETO also reached the spot. The land which belongs to Sita Ram, a resident of Kalka, was registered at Kalka many years back and was shown in the Haryana revenue records.The liquor vend has been closed down temporarily. Around two years back, the Haryana and Himachal Pradesh authorities were at loggerheads over a piece of land at the barrier for the installation of a statue of Choudhary Devi Lal.
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Residents
resent levy of toll tax Parwanoo, January 10 The residents said ever since the Government of Himachal Pradesh had handed over the collection of toll tax at the barrier to the private contractor, the contractor had been issuing monthly passes to the residents and commuters by charging Rs 200 per month. But from the new year, the contractor had suddenly started issuing quarterly passes by charging Rs 600. They blamed the BJP government for harassing local residents and commuters by leving the toll tax at the barriers. The government had also increased the water tariff in the town and the issues of permanent bus stand, truck parking area, railway staton were still lying unattended to by the government.
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2,98,181 BPL families identified Shimla, January 10 The spokesperson said foodgrains under the above scheme were being distributed among each family at highly subsidised rates through the network of 3,969 fair-price shops functioning in tribal, non-tribal and other far-flung and inaccessible areas of the state. |
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Parwanoo, January 10
