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Dhumal urges BJP
workers to gear up for LS poll
Cong ready for LS
poll, says HP minister BJP seeks white
paper on Central aid |
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NDA has no
alternative: Shanta Probe tender
procedure for lotteries, says ex-minister CM’s call to
save forest cover HC issues notices
on appointment of
rights panel chief Paramedical staff
posts: HC issues notices to govt Plan to secure
heritage status for rail track Chamba’s literacy
rate lowest in HP 11 centres to
supply necessities All IGMR docs
given jobs, says NSUI 100 attend
Tibetan Medical Council meeting
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Dhumal urges BJP workers to gear up for LS poll Tounidevi (Hamirpur), January 6 Mr Dhumal was addressing BJP workers in the Bamsan Assembly segment in connection with the party’s “Vijay vikas pakhwara”. He said, “the BJP will contest the next elections on the plank of able leadership of Mr Vajpayee, positive performance of the NDA government in the country and dismal performance by the Congress government in the state.” Mr Pyere Lal Sharma, district BJP chief, Mr Baldev Sharma, MLA, were among those present at the meeting. Mr Dhumal exhorted the workers to be “vigilant” against the Congress and its leaders and expose them. He claimed that the NDA Government had achieved new milestones during its five-year tenure and was set to form a government on its own and win more than a two third majority with the help of its allies. The BJP leader said the Congress had pushed the nation and Himachal Pradesh towards fiscal bankruptcy. He criticised the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, for “resorting to undemocratic moves to harm his political opponents.” Later, talking with mediapersons, he said the foreign origin issue of Ms Sonia Gandhi would figure again in the next elections. He claimed that some Congressmen were opposed to her being projected as the future Prime Minister. Mr Dhumal alleged that the Congress government in the state was working against interests of the people . Replying to a question, Mr Dhumal said ongoing talks between India and Pakistan would yield favourable results and peace would be restored in the region. Mandi: Mr Suresh Bhardwaj, MP, urged party workers to gear up for the next Lok Sabha elections, here today. Addressing party leaders and workers from all over the district, including , Thakur Rup Singh, a former minister, and Mr Dile Ram, district BJP chief, he stressed the need to activate the party from the village and grass-root level to ensure that all four seats were won by the BJP. “Let us learn a lesson from our debacle in the Vidhan Sabha elections and emerge victorious in the coming elections”, he said. Mr Bhardwaj was accompanied by the state organising secretary, Mr Ram Swarup. Later, addressing a news conference at Circuit House, he said the NDA government, led by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had brought credit to the country on all fronts. “Our foreign policy has yielded great dividends and India has acquired a place of respect in the community of nations”, he asserted. He attributed the defeat of the BJP in the state elections to weakness in organisation. He denied that the cause of the defeat had been corruption by a few ministers and claimed that the five-year tenure of the BJP was marked by a record development in the state. Mr Bhardwaj denied that the state BJP was faction-ridden, adding that his unanimous election as the president of the state unit proved that the party was united. He alleged that the Congress had brought the development in the state to a virtual halt during the past 10 months. |
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Cong ready for LS poll, says HP minister Hoshiarpur, January 6 He claimed that development work in the state had come to a standstill during the BJP regime and restarted only after the installation of the Congress government. He said seven new colleges, 20 senior secondary schools, 50 high schools and 200 middle schools would be opened in the state during the current financial year. Besides this, elementary education would be made compulsory in the state, he added. Referring to a shortage of staff in many government hospitals and schools, Mr Kuldip Kumar said requisite staff had been provided in these institutions. As many as 145 new doctors were being recruited and 181 nurses had already been employed. Priority would be given to people from the state for the recruitment of doctors. He said the state government had recently cleared nine hydel power projects for international bidding and complete transparency would be maintained during the finalisation of bid. He claimed that the BJP government in the state had signed MoUs for many of the hydel power projects haphazardly by ignoring interests of Himachal Pradesh. A Cabinet sub-committee had been constituted to review all such
MoUs. He said top priority of the government was to tackle unemployment problem. Employment to about 7,000 unemployed youths would be provided. Pending cases of pensions in various categories had also been cleared, he added. |
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BJP seeks white paper on Central aid Chamba, January 6 Talking to mediapersons here today, Mr Kishori Lal, a former Industries Minister and a senior BJP leader, also asked the government to give an account of the expenditure incurred on the actual schemes for which funds had been sanctioned. |
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NDA has no alternative: Shanta Chamba, January 6 Addressing a press conference here this afternoon, Mr Shanta Kumar said that seeing an early possibility of the Lok Sabha poll, the Congress had become frustrated and started its search for coalition partners. On the other hand, the NDA, comprising 24 political allies, was forging ahead on the path of success and development, leaving all previous governments behind, he said. Mr Shanta Kumar said there was no comparison of the achievements attained during the five-year regime of the NDA government under the leadership of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He said the main issue of the NDA was development and efficient governance. The NDA would win more seats in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections compared to previous elections and open more avenues of development, he claimed. Commenting on the new government in Himachal Pradesh, he stated that the performance of the Congress Government was not worth mentioning. If the centrally sponsored schemes like the Prime Minister Gram Sarak Yojna were excluded, development works in Himachal Pradesh were equal to nothing, he alleged. He said that the economy of the country had been revitalized and the growth rate had increased to 8 per cent. Mr Shanta Kumar informed that he had so far sanctioned Rs 2.73 crore from his MP Fund towards development works in Chamba district. |
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Probe tender procedure for lotteries, says ex-minister Shimla, January 6 Addressing mediapersons, here today, he alleged that the procedure for tenders had been tailored to benefit a particular party and the manner in which the number of sets for the weekly lotteries was reduced from eight to three and the bids processed pointed to a major scam. He said finally bids were considered only for two sets and out of the 11 parties two were short-listed for award of the tender. Out of these, one of the parties had earlier been blacklisted and had been engaged in a legal battle with the government. Thus, effectively, only one party was left and according to the rules and procedures, a single party could not be awarded the tender on the first call. However, the government seemed keen to favour the party as was evident from the fact that the Department of Lotteries had been working overtime to finalise the bid and it functioned even on a Sunday. He urged the government not to finalise the bid in undue haste and cancel the tender. He said re-starting of lotteries was not in the interest of the state as it led to the exploitation of the poor who squandered their hard-earned money in the hope of striking it rich overnight. The former minister warned the government against the retrenchment of workers engaged during the BJP rule and said he would launch a statewide stir if the move was not dropped. He said he would unite the workers and involve them in campaigning against the Congress during the ensuing Lok Sabha poll. Mr Mohinder Singh said the much-publicised review of the MoUs signed by the previous government for the execution of hydel projects was a farce. He said it was a political exercise and nothing would come out of it. The MoUs were reviewed first by a high-powered committee headed by the Chief Secretary and then by a Cabinet subcommittee but the fact was that not a single company had been even issued a show-cause notice. He said his party would not contest the Lok Sabha poll but it would work to defeat the Congress. |
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CM’s call to save forest cover Shimla, January 6 Addressing a meeting at Sehkhal in Rohru today he said that the forest wealth of the state was worth over Rs one lakh crore and its preservation was essential for the sustenance of life. He said that besides meeting local people’s for fodder and fuel needs forests also helped maintain hydrological cycle which in turn maintained the water level. Mr Virbhadra Singh said that the decision of the government to ban green feeling was yielding results and green cover had increase by 1600 square kilometre in the past few years. The Chief Minister urged the apple growers to diversify into floriculture, off-season vegetables and cultivation of medicinal plants to safeguard their economic interest due to unfavourable weather. He said dependence of one crop could harm their economy in case of crop failure. He praised Solan district farmers for growing off-season vegetables and wanted farmers in other parts of the state to emulate them. He said diversification in agriculture would improve their economic status. He said there was vast scope for off-season vegetables, herbs and floriculture which could supplement their income. The Chief Minister said that since there were limited jobs in the government sector, the educated youth should adopt latest farm-know-how to improve productivity. The state had climate for growing medicinal and aromatic herbs which were in great demand. The government would extend all help to them in taking up the cultivation of herbs on a commercial scale. Earlier, he inaugurated the Deoli Tikkar Road and the Samoli-Dhara-Shekhal road. |
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HC issues notices on appointment of Shimla, January 6 Acting on a public interest litigation petition filed by Mr Diwan Chand Verma, a Division Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Mr Vinod Kumar Gupta, and Mr Justice M.R. Verma further directed the Chief Secretary to file a reply before February 24. The petitioner has prayed that the notification issued with regard to the authorising member of the commission, Justice Vaidya (retd), to act as chairman be set aside and the state government be directed to appoint a Chairperson of the state Human Rights Commission in confirmity with the provisions of the Human Rights Act. It has been alleged that Justice Vaidya does not fulfil the requisite qualification to be the Chairperson of the commission. According to the Act, only a retired Chief Justice of the high court can be appointed as the Chairperson of the commission. |
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Paramedical staff posts: HC issues notices to govt Shimla, January 6 While issuing notices to the Secretary (Health) and Director, Health Services, a Division Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Mr
V.K. Gupta, and Mr Justice M.R. Verma further directed the respondents to file their reply within eight weeks. The petitioner alleged in his petition that all over the state more than 900 posts of paramedical staff were lying vacant. The government had created the posts of female and male health workers in view of the fact that there was necessity of this type of workers who may work at the grassroots level of society. But now the state was prolonging the matter of filling these posts on the ground that trained multi-purpose health workers were not available. |
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Plan to secure heritage status for rail track Mandi, January 6 Disclosing this to The Tribune, Mr Maheshwar Singh, MP, said the Union Minister for Railways, Mr Nitish Kumar, would visit Jogindernagar when modalities to develop tourism in this part of the state would be sorted out. A network of flyovers would also be constructed on the line. He said efforts were being made to secure the status of heritage to the Kalka-Shimla and the Pathankot-Jogindernagar rail tracks. The minister was interested to develop the tracks as a tourism venture by the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation in collaboration with the state tourism authorities. The Kangra Valley Railway was constructed without destroying the grandeur of the mountainous Kangra valley, known as the Switzerland of Himachal Pradesh. The Kangra Queen meanders through green valleys, overlooking snow-capped mountains. Moving over innumerable bridges and culverts across rivers and streams, the train passes through Nurpur, Palampur and Baijnath to finally reach Jogindernagar. Mr Maheshwar Singh said the Prime Minister was evincing keen interest in harnessing vast power and tourism potential of Himachal Pradesh. He said Mr Kanshi Ram, Union Rural Development Minister, would be in the state for a three-day visit next week to see the progress of the ongoing projects of rural development and explore the possibilities of future work. He lamented that the performance of the Congress during the past 11 months had been dismal and added that its leaders had done nothing except criticise the BJP. |
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Chamba’s literacy rate lowest in HP Chamba, January 6 The report reveals that the rate in the district is 63.73 per cent. The female literacy rate is 49.70 per cent. The standard of education is still very low in the district. The literacy rate in Hamirpur district is 83.16 per cent where the female literacy rate is 76.41 per cent, which is the highest in Himachal Pradesh. Chamba district has a population of 4,60,499, which includes 2,34,812 males and 2,25,687 females. Surprisingly, the population of the Scheduled Tribes is 1,11,509 forming 28.35 per cent of the total population which is the highest as compared to other districts in the state. |
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11 centres to supply
necessities Shimla, January 6 Mr Singhi Ram, Himachal minister for Civil Supplies, at a meeting to review the functioning of the Civil Supplies Department said that the centres would save on transportation of the supplies on the cost, would be reimbursed by the Government of India. The centres had been sanctioned at Janjheli in Mandi, Ani and Banjar in Kulu, Udaipur in
Lahaul, Dodra Kawar, Narkanda and Chopal in Shimla, Shilai in Sirmaur, Pooh in Kinnaur, Arki in Solan and Bara Bhangal in Kangra. Consumers of far-flung areas will benefit from these centres as they would get commodities cheaper. |
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All IGMR docs
given jobs, says NSUI Dharamsala, January 6 Claiming this, Mr Pathania said efforts were on to formulate a policy under which doctors hailing from the state who had passed their MBBS degrees from medical colleges outside the state were given jobs. He said this policy would be approved shortly. Mr Pathania alleged that during the BJP rule many doctors with fake degrees and false antecedents were given jobs. Such doctors would be shown the door soon, he added. |
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100 attend Tibetan Medical Council meeting Dharamsala, January 6 Ms Pema Dorjee was elected the first chairperson of this body formed recently by practitioners of the traditional system of Tibetan medicine. Mr Lobsang Nyandak, renowned doctor of Tibetan system of medicine, congratulated the newly elected council members. |
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