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Saturday,
March 29, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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HP ASSEMBLY No takers
for housing board houses One held for posing as
police official BJP
‘ignored’ party workers |
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Four
Nepalese killed Shooting
of Jadeja’s film in Shimla Telecom
staff to stage dharna 372
heritage buildings identified
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HP ASSEMBLY Shimla, March 28 The BJP, particularly Mr
P. K. Dhumal, a former Chief Minister, was at the receiving end as the functioning of the ousted coalition came under fire. The Congress, which exploited these issues to the hilt in the assembly elections, was expected to embarrass the BJP by raising them in the House. It was the onslaught of Mr Sukh Ram, HVC supremo, who supported the Dhumal government for five years, which surprised everyone. He was insparing in his criticism of Mr Dhumal who, he alleged, betrayed those who brought him to power and paid the price for it. The Independents also trained their guns at the BJP. The Congress remained offensive throughout, forcing the BJP on the backfoot. There were no real fireworks during the session, though the BJP did adopt an aggressive posture on the issue of loans and even staged a walkout. The two parties differed on the debt liability of the government and the BJP maintained that the outstanding loans were much less than the figure of Rs 15000 crore being given out by the new government. Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, stuck to his position that the debt liability was Rs 15,425 crore after including the guarantees given by the government to enable various boards and corporations for raise loans. This was disputed by Mr Dhumal who said that guarantees could not be included in the outstanding loans and the actual debt liability was only Rs 12,366 crore. The BJP was, however, put in an awkward position on the issue of corruption as Congress members repeatedly referred to the allegations made by the BJP ministers against their own government. Sensing the mood of the House Mr Virbhadra Singh while replying to the debate on Governor’s address devoted maximum time to the issue of corruption. He said the congress had been given the mandate to eradicate corruption and announced that not only the allegations contained in the party’s chargesheet but also those made by the BJP ministers would be probed. The speech of Mr Sukh Ram also gave an indication of the changing political equations in the state. He was highly appreciative of Mr Virbhadra Singh who, he said, led the Congress to an impressive win in the elections. In fact, he used the session as an opportunity to extend a hand of friendship to end the two-decade-old political rivalry with Mr Virbhadra Singh. Interestingly, while Mr Sukh Ram was highly critical of Mr Dhumal, no BJP member said anything against him in retaliation. The election of Mr Gangu Ram as Speaker and Mr Dharam Pal as Deputy Speaker was a smooth affair as the BJP which has only 16 members in the 65 member House chose not to put up a candidate. The supplementary demands for 2002-03 and the Vote on Account for the first four months of 2003-04 was passed without any discussion. The House adopted an important resolution urging the government to refer the matter concerning enhancement of salaries and perquisites of the subordinate judiciary in compliance with the Supreme Court orders to the Centre. |
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No takers for housing board houses Shimla, March 28 Besides the high cost of the houses, the failure to get the link road between Chandigarh and Baddi laid has also dissuaded the buyers. Some of those who had booked houses for purchase also had backed out, after forfeiting the earnest money and paying the penalty. Mr Mukesh Agnihottari, Chief Parliamentary Secretary and in charge of the housing, said that the board had been left with no option but to diversify its activities for survival. The annual salary bill of over 800-strong workforce was over Rs 10 crore, whereas the works it was executing amounted to just around Rs 20 crore. Its turnover has to be raised from the present Rs 35 crore to around Rs 100 crore for optimum utilisation of the staff and other resources. Mr Agnihottari said that the board would also explore the possibility of taking up hydel power projects. It had plans to develop urban estates to ease congestion in towns like Shimla, Mandi, Palampur, Dharamsala and Solan. The sites for proposed urban estates would be located between Shimla and Solan, Palampur and Dharamsala and Sundernagar and Mandi. Each estate would have commercial sectors, residential areas, educational sectors and recreation grounds. |
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One held for posing as police official Nahan, March 28 Mr S.P.S. Verma, Superintendent of Police, Sirmaur, said Ashok Kumar had called a few persons for interview for the jobs in different departments’, today. In the morning head constable, Suresh Kumar asked boys and girls gathered at the Delhi Gate here why had they assembled there. Ashok Kumar was also standing there. It made the head constable suspicious. In 1998 the same head constable had booked Ashok Kumar under the Immoral Traffic Act and the SC/ST act. The head constable took Ashok Kumar to the police station and after preliminary investigations it came out that Ashok Kumar had duped Jagjeet Singh of Khamba Nagar in Paonta tehsil of Rs 44000/- on the pretext of getting a police job to his son Hardesh Singh. He also took Rs 24000/- from Ranjit Singh of the Giri Nagar area for a clerical job for his son in a court at Nahan. The police also recovered that “bogus CID inspectors had also promised a government job to Param Jit Singh son of Jagtar Singh of Rampur village for Rs 65000/- today, but before taking the money he was taken into custody. The police has registered a case under Sections 420 and 170 of the IPC and arrested Ashok Kumar today. Mr Verma added that the accused had also promised government jobs to the son and daughter of Mr Gurdyal Singh of Giri Nagar, a Foreman in the HPSEB. Ashok Kumar is of Jansha village, Tehsil Thanesar, Police Station and district Kurukshetra (Haryana). The SP said that he also posed as a cloth
merchant (Kapra Feriwala) to the police and had also provided some information
of crime to the police. |
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BJP ‘ignored’ party workers Sundernagar, March 28 A former minister, Mr Roop Singh and a former Speaker, Mr Gulab Singh, were present, among others. However, the MLA of
Balh, Mr Damodar Dass, and the MLA, Chachoit, Mr Jai Ram, were not present due to the Assembly session. Most of the activists blamed the organisation for the defeat, as according to them the party was not having any control over the government rather it was functioning under the government. The activists said the workers were ignored by ministers and many times they were told to meet them some other day as the meeting was going on. |
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Four Nepalese killed Shimla, March 28 The incident occurred when the huge boulder got detached from the earth and rolled down a slope where the labourers were at work, killing all of them on the spot. The deceased were identified as Vijay Lama , Uday Lal, Bambu Lama and Mantri Lal.
PTI |
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Shooting
of Jadeja’s film in Shimla Shimla, March 28 He is playing the lead role against Rimpi Gill, another newcomer, in the film being produced by Sukhna arts. The two gave some shots on The Ridge. It is the second film for Jadeja after “Kashish” which is yet to be completed. For Rimpi too it is the second film and her debut movie
“Hawaian”. |
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Telecom
staff to stage dharna
Shimla, March 28 In a joint statement issued here, both associations said the BSNL management had failed to implement the IDA scales even after completion of three years, despite an agreement between the DoT and the BSNL management.
UNI |
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372 heritage buildings identified
Shimla, March 28 The chief lister, Mr Gaurav Sharma, said there were several other heritage buildings and the listing would cover the architectural, historical and archaeological aspects and would be graded into three categories. The details about these buildings would be available on a website along with
visuals. PTI |
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