H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Decision to send back Registrar reversed
Shimla, September 2
A major confrontation between Raj Bhavan and the state government was averted following an impromptu meeting between Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, and Mr V.S. Kokje, Governor, leading to reversal of a decision of Dr S.D. Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, to unilaterally send back the Registrar, Mr R.D. Panwar, to his parent department, of the Himachal Pradesh University here today.

• Teaching suspended in HP varsity

SFI, NSUI win SCA poll in Shimla district
Shimla, September 2
The ABVP wrested two seats from the SFI in the election to the Students Central Association of the Himachal Pradesh University campus here today. Mr Bijendra Mehra of the SFI was elected president defeating his nearest ABVP rival Rohit Kumar by 867 votes.

• ABVP wins SCA poll in Hamirpur

ABVP supporters celebrate after election results were declared on Hamirpur College campus on Tuesday. — Tribune photo Chander Shekhar Sharma

Rs 15.71 crore for afforestation
Dharamsala, September 2
Himachal will spend Rs 15.71 crore on afforestation during the current financial year and an area of 15,000 hectares will be brought under trees.

Services board not to be shifted
Una, September 2
Mr Virbhadra Singh, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, today announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh for the Una Press Club, while addressing a press conference here at the PWD rest house. He said the BJP, while in power had floated the idea of creating about six new districts in the state knowing well that it was not possible.

Nadaun youth launches channel in Dubai
Hamirpur, September 2
Ajay Sethi, who was born at Nadaun, has launched a channel — 7 to 9 — for the Indian diaspora in Dubai. This Hindi channel remains on air from 7 am to 9 pm every day and offers a blend of popular music, serials and Bollywood buzz to Indians living in Arabian countries.

High Court notice to DC on beer bar
Mandi, September 2
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has issued notices to the Deputy Commissioner and the Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner asking them to explain why a beer bar has been opened in a residential area of Thenehra Mohalla of Mandi town.

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Decision to send back Registrar reversed
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

Shimla, September 2
A major confrontation between Raj Bhavan and the state government was averted following an impromptu meeting between Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, and Mr V.S. Kokje, Governor, leading to reversal of a decision of Dr S.D. Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, to unilaterally send back the Registrar, Mr R.D. Panwar, to his parent department, of the Himachal Pradesh University here today.

The government had reacted sharply to the action of Dr Sharma and the Education Minister, Mrs Asha Kumari, had criticised the decision and said that all required steps would be taken to set the matters right. It had taken a tough stand on the issue and Mr R.D. Panwar, Registrar, had made it clear that he would not relinquish charge until he was asked to do so by the government.

A meeting of the executive council will be convened soon to decide the issue of appointment of a regular registrar and other matters.

Teaching suspended in HP varsity

Shimla, September 2
Teaching in all teaching departments at postgraduate centre of the university will remain suspended on September 3 and 4. The Dean, Students Welfare, Prof B.S. Marh, disclosed this here today.

However, no reason has been given for the suspension of the teaching work. — PTI

SFI, NSUI win SCA poll in Shimla district
Tribune Reporters

Shimla, September 2
The ABVP wrested two seats from the SFI in the election to the Students Central Association (SCA) of the Himachal Pradesh University campus here today.

Mr Bijendra Mehra of the SFI was elected president defeating his nearest ABVP rival Rohit Kumar by 867 votes. Rina Chandel, also of the SFI, defeated Babu Lal (ABVP) by 981 votes to win the post of joint secretary.

Mr Nitin Vyas (ABVP) was elected vice-president defeating Mr Ranjit Chander (SFI) by 864 votes, whereas Sanjeev Deshta (ABVP) was elected general secretary defeating Jai Lal (SFI) by 907 votes.

The SFI and the NSUI did well in colleges of Shimla district and the ABVP a poor third. While the SFI made a clean sweep of all four seats in the local RKMV College, Rampur and Nerwa colleges, the NSUI swept the poll in Arki and Nalagarh. In Theog and the local Government Boys College, Sanjauli, they shared two seats each. The NSUI bagged three seats in Seema College, whereas the ABVP secured three seats in the local Kotshera College.

RKMV College: president — Monika Chauhan, vice-president — Ambika, general secretary — Puja, and joint secretary — Promila (all of SFI).

Government Boys College, Sanjauli: president — Damodar (NSUI), vice-president — Hitender (SFI), general secretary — Jeet Ram Sangroli (ABVP), and joint secretary — Gian Singh ( SFI).

Kotshera College: president — Bhupesh, vice-president — Girish Verma, General Secretary — Tek Chand (all ABVP), and joint secretary — Shalooni Thapa (SFI).

Rampur College: president — Puran Chand, vice-president — Divender Singh, general secretary — Yashwant Singh, and joint secretary — Hem Singh (all of SFI).

Nerwa College: president — Yogesh Negi, vice-president — Rajita Verma, general secretary — Naresh Lota, and joint secretary — Om Prakash (all of SFI).

Theog College: president — Dinesh Kumar (NSUI), vice-president — Kalpana Devi (SFI), general secretary — Rakesh Chand (NSUI), and joint secretary — Rakesh Verma (SFI).

Seema College: president — Sandeep Chauhan, vice-president — Raj Guru (both NSUI), general secretary — Suresh Chauhan (SFI), and joint secretary — Pawan Mehta (NSUI).

ABVP wins SCA poll in Hamirpur
Our Correspondents

Hamirpur ,September 2
The ABVP won the SCA elections in the three of the five colleges of this district where the polling took place today. The ABVP made a clean sweep in Hamirpur, Chakmoh and Talkwari colleges. Its candidates won seats of president, vice-president, general secretary and secretary in these colleges.

The NSUI retained its hold in Nadaun College and won the elections at Sujanpur Tihra College.

The polling in the colleges was around 60 to 70 per cent. Mr Abhishek Trivedi, SP, said the polling was peaceful.

Activists of the ABVP took out a victory procession in the town in the evening.

DHARAMSALA: Despite some setbacks, the NSUI won the maximum seats in the district. The ABVP won all seats in Regional College and Government Degree College. Its candidates had been elected unopposed in Evening College.

IN Baijnath, the NSUI won the post of president while the SFI won the posts of vice-president and general secretary. The ABVP won the joint secretary post.

In Capt Vikram Batra Government Degree College, Palampur, the ABVP candidates won the posts of president and general secretary while the NSUI won the posts of vice-president and joint secretary.

In Thural, Kangra and Indora colleges, the NSUI won all four seats. At Baroh, the NSUI candidates were elected as president and joint secretary while the SFI won the posts of vice-president and general secretary.

Students took out victory processions. According to reports, the NSUI won 23 posts, the ABVP 19 and the SFI 8.

Four girls who contested independently in KLB Palampur, were declared winners.

BILASPUR: The ABVP captured all four posts at Government Postgraduate College here. Deepak Kaushal was elected president, Manender Singh, vice-president, Kumari Nidhi general secretary and Sachin joint secretary.

SUNDERNAGAR: The ABVP won all four seats in Maharaja Laxman Sen Memorial College. The following have been elected office-bearers: president — Abhishek Pandit; vice-president — Vidya Sagar; general secretary — Nikhil Kashyap; and joint secretary — Ansul Goel.

The ABVP has won for the third successive year.

KULU: The NSUI, Azad, ABVP and the SFI won a seat each in the postgraduate college. The NSUI won the post of president, the ABVP of general secretary and the SFI of joint secretary.

SOLAN: The NSUI swept the poll to the Students Central Association in Nalagarh and Arki while it won the post of joint secretary in the local college. The NSUI won all posts in SD College, Subathu.

KANGRA: The NSUI won all four posts at MCM DAV College here for the third consecutive year. Atul Choudhary was declared elected president, Bansdeep Gorla vice-president, Arun Kumar general secretary and Vivek Kanwar joint secretary.

NAHAN: The ABVP candidate has been elected president of the Student Central Association of Nahan Government Postgraduate College, while the NSUI candidate has been elected its vice-president. The NSUI also won the post of general secretary. The SFI won the post of joint secretary.

The newly constituted Shivalik Hills Students Union has captured all four seats at Paonta Degree College here.

Rs 15.71 crore for afforestation
Our Correspondent

Dharamsala, September 2
Himachal will spend Rs 15.71 crore on afforestation during the current financial year and an area of 15,000 hectares will be brought under trees. This was stated by Himachal Forest Minister Chander Kumar at Dhan village of Jwali subdivision. The minister said Rs 1.5 crore would be spent in the Dharamsala forest circle comprising Kangra and Una districts and an area of 1,500 hectares would be brought under forests.

He said at present 20,600 sq km area of Himachal was covered with forests. According to the norms laid down in the National Forest Policy, 66 per cent area of Himachal, which means 37,033 sq km, should be under forests and every effort was being made to achieve this target . He said it was heartening that the forest cover in Himachal had increased by 1,859 sq km Despite a heavy demand for fire wood and timber, etc.

Mr Chander Kumar emphasised the need to involve people in making the afforestation programme a success and said targets fixed under the participatory forest management programme could only be achieved if the local people wholeheartedly participate in the programme.

He said though the results were heartening, this should not lead to complacency and efforts to bring more areas under forests and protect trees should continue. He said forests were important for environmental stability as well as for our water, fuel, fodder and other needs.

The minister said recently the Forest Development Agency had been set up at Dharamsala and an integrated afforestation and eco-development programme for covering 47 villages was launched on which Rs 2.88 crore will be spent.

He said a participatory approach will be ensured in the working of this programme and residents of each village will be involved in micro planning.

Services board not to be shifted
Our Correspondent

Una, September 2
Mr Virbhadra Singh, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, today announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh for the Una Press Club, while addressing a press conference here at the PWD rest house. He said the BJP, while in power had floated the idea of creating about six new districts in the state knowing well that it was not possible.

The Chief Minister declared that the ruling party had no plan to wind up the SSSB Hamirpur or shift it from Hamirpur. New members have been appointed and if the need arose more members would be appointed, he said.

He declared the Una Utsava, which he had inaugurated yesterday, as a state festival. It would he celebrated on September 1 every year, the date on which Una district was created in 1972.

He said the state government had decided to boost private institutions in the field of medical, engineering and technical education.

Nadaun youth launches channel in Dubai
Chander Shekhar Sharma

Hamirpur, September 2
Ajay Sethi, who was born at Nadaun, has launched a channel — 7 to 9 — for the Indian diaspora in Dubai.

This Hindi channel remains on air from 7 am to 9 pm every day and offers a blend of popular music, serials and Bollywood buzz to Indians living in Arabian countries.

In an interview at Nadaun, the well-built and handsome youth said he had gone to Kenya in 1984 to work in the automobile sector. He earned fame there and later switched over to the electronic media. “I got a good friend in Abdullah Murad and floated the channel. This channel gets its programme content through Star TV at present, but will have own software soon,” he said.

The channel is planning to telecast films in Hindi and Urdu for viewers in India, Pakistan and Arabian countries. He said the channel had been entertaining viewers in the UAE, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Iran, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

High Court notice to DC on beer bar
Our Correspondent

Mandi, September 2
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has issued notices to the Deputy Commissioner and the Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner asking them to explain why a beer bar has been opened in a residential area of Thenehra Mohalla of Mandi town.

The High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of a letter written jointly to the Chief Justice by Asha Chopra, Jyoti Hans, Chanchal Thakur, Himachali Devi, Satya Sharma, Suman Thakur, Upendra Sharma, Uma, Pushpa Minhas and Tanya Minhas and treating it as a public interest litigation.

The women alleged that the officials concerned had not been listening to their pleas that the beer bar was a nuisance in the residential area near the Sunken Garden complex.