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Saturday,
July 5, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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4 pc sales tax on fertiliser withdrawn Govt no to probe: BJP men walk out Chamera unit’s testing successful Stokes’ assurance on Baspa project |
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Board steps to check copying ‘yield results’ Murder charge set aside Plea to fill posts of teacher HVC session
on July 6 DIG’s cook
commits suicide
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4 pc sales tax on fertiliser withdrawn Shimla, July 4 Replying to the debate on the Budget for 2003-04 the Chief Minister said discipline among employees would be enforced and they would not be allowed to indulge in politics. He said indiscipline had assumed such proportions that the leaders of an employees’ union of the state Electricity Board had courage to issue advertisements against the Congress party and its leaders in newspapers. The total cost on advertisements must have been about Rs 50 lakh. If the officers failed to act he would take action against them. He said while the employees were free to carry out legitimate trade union activities they were debarred from indulging in political activities under the conduct rules. Indiscipline during the BJP-HVC regime was rampant as employees were encouraged by political leaders to issue statements in the favour of the ruling party. Mr Virbhadra Singh maintained that his government was not anti-employee and it had done much for their welfare besides fulfilling its financial commitments towards them. He said the government would take all decisions regarding employees in a transparent manner and said it proposed to renegotiate the MoU to be signed to pursue fiscal reforms with the Centre as it had some harsh prescriptions. He said the first MoU was signed by the Dhumal government in 1999 to secure the reform-linked revenue deficit grant from the Centre. Mr Virbhadra Singh rejected the BJP’s criticism that deficit was on the higher side. Quoting figures he said cumulative deficit as percentage of the total budget for 1998-99 was 34.29 per cent whereas it was only 17.72 per cent for the current year. He said a lot of noise was made about debt burden but the fact was that the previous Congress government raised Rs 3576 crore as loan for 1994-98 period whereas the Dhumal government borrowed Rs 8897 crore during its five-year term. Blaming the Congress for the debt burden was like the kettle calling the pot black. He said the plan size had also been increased by Rs 311 crore over the last year even though non-plan expenditure of order of Rs 836 crore had been excluded from the plan. The last year’s plan was Rs 1840 crore and without exclusion of non-plan expenditure the plan size came to Rs 2171 crore. He lamented that the BJP government took no action to implement the directions of the Supreme Court regarding pay scales and service conditions of the subordinate judiciary. He said his government would enact the necessary legislation soon. However, he maintained that the order had larger implications. The government after complying with the order proposed to raise the issue before the apex court. The state government had the constitutional right to decide on pay scales and service conditions of the subordinate judiciary and this right could not be taken away by a judicial verdict. He said the government had not imposed any ban on the recruitment for government jobs and it did not propose to take any such step in future. He said all functional posts in Health, Education and other departments would be filled. However, there was only a limited scope for the employment in the government sector. Steps would be taken to create jobs through accelerated industrialisation and ensuring jobs for local people in hydel projects. A high-powered committee had been set up to review all MoU’s and agreements signed by the previous government to ensure that appropriate employment clauses were inserted. |
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Govt no to probe: BJP men walk out Shimla, July 5 The BJP members led by Mr Ravinder Ravi walked out as soon as Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, finished his reply to the debate on Budget. Mr Ravi pointed out that the issue of law and order had not been touched by the Chief Minister and he had even failed to make a mention of the brutal lathi charge on the BJP workers on the Ridge. He insisted that the government should accept its demand for judicial probe into the incident. Mr Virbhadra Singh maintained that he had already replied to the queries of Mr P.K. Dhumal, leader of the BJP group, in this regard and said it did not behove the BJP legislators to make further queries after the point raised by their leader had been settled. While Mr G.R. Musafir was about to adjourn the House, all BJP members walked out. The Speaker announced that the House would reassemble after a nine-day recess on July 14. In the intervening period the House committees would scrutinise the demands of various departments and submit reports. Later, Mr Dhumal told newspersons that as the government had turned down the demand for judicial probe, the party would organise protests, dharnas at all district headquarters to press for the demand. He said the Chief Minister also refused to roll back the hike in sales tax on diesel and market fee. The BJP had also urged the government not to restart lottery as it was not in the interest of the people but its this plea was also ignored. Regarding the announcement of Mr Virbhadra Singh that action would be taken against all those employees who made political statements during the elections, Mr Dhumal said that it reflected his autocratic mentality. |
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Chamera unit’s testing successful Chamba, July 4 Talking to newspersons here today, Mr Parminder Singh, General Manager of the project, said that the 300 MW Chamera project with three generating unit of 100 MW each was being constructed at an estimated cost of about Rs 1700 crore. The General Manager said that various works on the project were being executed on a contract basis through a joint venture of Indo-Canadian Hydro Consortium inclusive of Jai Parkash Industries Limited, SNC Lavalin Inc., SNC, Lavalin Acres Transnational, Canada and GE, Canada. The major works on the project such as 39-metre-high concrete gravity dam at Bagga extending its reservoir in 3.6-km stretch on River Ravi, 8-km-long headrace tunnel, 3.5-km-long tailrace tunnel, and an underground powerhouse near Jarangla Nalluh had already been completed, he added. |
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Chamera oustees: 50 more seek compensation Chamba, July 4 In their applications, they have stated that their land and houses submerged in dam waters of the Chamera project in Chamba district but they being innocent at that time 20 years ago, remained deprived of being enrolled in the list of those ousted families claiming the compensation. The claimant families have attributed this lapse to the Revenue Department, due to mess-up in the record by the Revenue Department. The official sources further revealed that the process of submitting applications by the left-out ousted families was still continuing to get them registered with the district administration. These applications would be scrutinized after the process is over. On the other hand, the NHPC has already approved financial package of the 8.76 crore to 312 affected families of Chamera Hydroelectric Project, Stages-I and II in Chamba district on the recommendations of a high-powered committee constituted by the Himachal Government and this amount was recently deposited by the NHPC with the state government. Meanwhile, members of ousted families are thinking of launching agitation to get their claim of compensation and they are organising demonstrations in front of the office of the Chamba Deputy Commissioner, daily to get compensation released as soon as possible. They have warned to intensify the agitation if the compensation approved by the NHPC for them was not released. |
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Stokes’ assurance on Baspa project Shimla, July 4 Replying to a question by Mr Harsh Wardhan in this regard, she said the supplementary PPA was necessitated as the cost of the project had increased due to the damage caused by the floods in the Satluj. She said the government was committed to safeguarding the interests of the state. She said as per the projections worked out by the board the government would gain after the project reached the breakeven stage as the rate of electricity would go up. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh also said that the escrow agreement had not yet been approved by the government and before signing it, the government would ensure that no losses are incurred. The Chief Minister said the government did not propose to enact any law to reduce the deficit in a phased manner and cap its borrowings on the pattern of Kerala. Replying to another question, he said out of the every rupee spent by the government, 38 paise went towards the payment of salaries and wages, 32 paise towards the repayment of loans and interest and the remaining 30 paise on development activities. |
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Board steps to check copying ‘yield results’ Dharamsala, July 4 Talking to mediapersons here, Mr Rahi said during the March, 2002 examinations conducted by the board, there were 2830 cases of copying but this year only 1725 students were caught copying during the middle, matriculation, plus 1 and plus two examinations. Mr Rahi said in the middle class examinations, 205 cases were reported in which 163 students were punished with the cancellation of one paper while13 were disqualified for the entire term. Two students were debarred for one year and 27 given the benefit of doubt. In the matriculation examinations, 680 students were reported copying of which 421 were given minor punishment of cancellation of one paper while 50 were debarred from the examinations. Thirteen students were disqualified for one year and two students given the maximum punishment of two-year bar. One hundred and ninety four students were allowed to go free as no case was proved against them . In the plus one examinations, 405 cases were reported and 276 were punished with the cancellation of one paper, 13 with the cancellation of the examinations, eight were debarred for one year while four were debarred for two years. One hundred and four students were acquitted as no proof of copying was found against them. In the plus 2 examinations, 425 cases of copying were reported. Of these, while 129 were acquitted, one paper of 280 students was cancelled and 22 were debarred from the entire examination. Three were disqualified for one year and one was given the maximum punishment of two-year disqualification. The chairman said that this year all cases of copying had been decided in a time-bound manner. |
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Murder charge set aside Kangra, July 4 The prosecution argued that Man Singh had pushed deceased Sarwan Kumar, a member of the Schedule Caste, from a dhaank (Cliff) in Bared village at 11.30 p.m. on July 5, last year. The prosecution added that both accused and the deceased had consumed liquor and had scuffle and later accused Man Singh pushed the deceased Sarwan Kumar from the Cliff and killed him. The court in its order said, “The prosecution in totality of the material on record is not being able to bring home the guilt of accused how to connect the accused with the murder of Sarwan. The witnesses are procured and manipulated who have hatched a story against the accused on or after July 11, 2003 and consequently made improvements from the earlier version in order to implicate the accused. Consequently, it is manifest that the prosecution has failed to prove its case against the accused or to connect him with the imputed crime.” The Judge in his order said, “I am of the firm view that prosecution has miserably failed to bring home the guilt against the accused. Accordingly, accused Man Singh is acquitted of the offences charged.” The court ordered immediate release of the accused from police custody. |
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Plea to fill posts of teacher Chamba, July 4 In a press note issued here yesterday, Mr Suman Kumar Minhas, member of the state-executive of the HGTU, flayed the then BJP-led government for the declining system of education which led to about 450 posts of teacher at the secondary level lying vacant in Chamba district. Mr Minhas said these included 18 posts of principal and 46 of Headmasters. Many schools were functioning with inadequate staff for a long time. Mr Minhas demanded that the state government should fill vacant posts of teacher in a proper manner so that the entire educational network could be strengthened. |
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HVC session
on July 6 Hamirpur, July 4 Stating this here today, HVC leader Sukh Ram said time had come to think about the ground realities and decide the action. He refused to tell whether the party was going to take a decision about its merger with the Congress or not. |
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DIG’s cook
commits suicide Kangra, July 4 Kangra district police Chief S.Z.H. Zahdi today said
that Rakesh Kumar (43) was on leave and was disturbed. He said that
Rakesh Kumar committed suicide by hanging and had kept a suicide note
in his pocket. In his suicide note Rakesh Kumar said no one was
responsible for this suicide. However, he added that he was disturbed
because of the heavy debt on him. The body was sent for a postmortem
examination. Investigation under Section 174 of the IPC was on.
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‘Declare poll dates’ Hamirpur, July 4 He said that Mr Ganga Singh Thakur and Mr Prem
Singh Bharmauria had ceased to be the president and general secretary
respectively of the state federation.
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Rape case:
accomplices of ex-Major
booked Nahan, July 4
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Three shops gutted Jaisinghpur, July 4 The SDM, Mr Rakesh Sharma, who reached the spot with a water tanker has provided Rs 18,000 as immediate relief. |
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Schoolboy drowned Mandi, July 4 According to students, while Abhinav was swimming back to the bank of the river he got exhausted in the ice-cold water. Students raised the alarm and villagers reached the scene. He was brought out of the water and taken to a hospital in Shimla where he died. |
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