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Teaching of English from Dhumal seeks White Paper on projects Shopkeepers defraud residents of Plea to probe scam in Fire Dept accepted Katwal moves court against CM, 7 others |
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Rs 30 lakh to beautify McLeodganj Panchkarma to be introduced in HPTDC hotels Hoax message foxes BSNL subscribers Vegetable seller murdered Seven die as van falls into khud
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Teaching of English from Class I okayed
Dharamsala, January 15 Briefing mediapersons here today, Chief Secretary Arvind Kaul said the Cabinet gave its approval for employing 22 specialist doctors and 45 MBBS doctors to man the state health services. All these appointments will be made on contract basis. It was also decided to recruit 45 trained dais and initiate steps to train more than 600 para-medical staff and nurses. The Cabinet decided to redesignate various health institutions in the state such as Primary Health Centres, subdivisional hospitals and zonal hospitals. The Cabinet approved to introduce teaching of English from Class I in all schools of the state. As per the decision of the Cabinet, the panchayats in the state, where no panchayat secretary is working, will have a panchayat sahayak. Mr Kaul said in all about 1800 panchayat sahayks would be recruited on contract. The Cabinet approved the recruitment of 70 persons as forest guards on compassionate grounds. Earlier, only Class III and Class IV jobs could be given to the dependants of those who died while in harness. The decision was taken as only functional posts were being filled in the state and there was ban on other recruitments. The Cabinet also approved opening of 136 new veterinary dispensaries in the state. The Cabinet okayed regularisation of unauthorised constructions in New Shimla, Tutu and Dhalli. The owners of these buildings will have to pay charges on graded rate. The Cabinet also decided to convert all lease-hold plots or houses in the state and the ordinance will be issued in this regard. A Bill will be brought before the Assembly later under the title H.P. Housing and Urban Development Authority Bill. The Cabinet decided to introduce single-window system for approval of all applications for setting up of large and medium scale industrial units in Himachal Pradesh. The committee headed by the Chief Minister will have the Industries Minister and concerned Secretaries as members and will meet twice a month to clear proposals. It was also decided to set up a committee with Industries Minister, Labour Minister and Excise Minister as members to take up the cases for revival of sick units in the state. The Cabinet gave its approval for levying sales tax on lottery tickets. It was also decided to name the Government Senior Secondary School at Rehan after Comrade Ram Chandra. |
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Dhumal seeks White Paper on projects
Hamirpur, January 15 At a press conference held at Circuit House here yesterday, Prof Dhumal asked the Chief Minister to issue a White Paper listing complete details of the projects completed and name of the area where projects wee undertaken during the 10-month-old Congress rule. He said: “Whatever the Chief Minister and his other ministers spoke at two meetings in Hamirpur district on Tuesday was a bundle of lies. Mr Virbhadra Singh should release such details of the developmental activities to prove his point”. Mr Baldev Sharma, MLA, Mr Pyere Lal Sharma, district unit BJP chief, Mr Babu Ram Mandyal, former MLA also attended the press conference. The BJP leader denounced the statement of the Chief Minister that the Central Government was discriminating against the non-NDA government in the matter of sanctioning of funds for various projects. He claimed that Himachal Pradesh had received grants and other benefits worth several hundreds crores of rupees from Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who considered Himachal Pradesh to be his home state. Prof Dhumal demanded a CBI probe into the JBT entrance results declared by the HP Education Board which was cancelled by the state government.
— OC |
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Shopkeepers defraud residents of 20 lakh, disappear Hamirpur, January 15 Mr Sunder Lal, ASP, Hamirpur told the Tribune here this afternoon that a case under Section 420 of the IPC had been registered against three owners of the agency. The agency had opened its office in the Housing Board Colony area of the town about one and-a half month ago and had also obtained central/state sales tax registration certificate from the local Excise and Taxation Department authorities by giving them an advance of Rs 50,000 as security. The agency used to collect money from the local people in advance and supplied goods 15 days later. The Hamirpur police taking cognisance of the situation had put up a board near the shop warning people against buying goods from the shop. However, residents continued to deposit the money in cash with the hopes that the firm would deliver the goods as it had done earlier. All three owners of the agency suddenly disappeared yesterday. The police later reached the spot and sealed the shop. Before sealing, the shops were opened today and it was found that the goods were not more than Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000. A large number of people who had deposited their money with the agency were seen standing outside the shop today. One of them had deposited a sum of Rs 80,000 for getting dowry items for the marriage of his daughter. Another had given the same amount of cash for having a new Maruti car. The ASP said had the people heeded to their warning in time, they would not have lost their hard-earned money. |
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Plea to probe scam in Fire Dept accepted Shimla, January 15 The Shimla district police investigated the case during the BJP regime. It gave a clean chit to some officials and filed the challan against six employees in the court under various Sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act. However, the Virbhadra Singh government handed over the case to the CID (Crime branch) after it received complaints that the investigations has not been conducted properly. The CID conducted further investigations which revealed that the amount misappropriated was around Rs 29 lakh, much more than for which the challan had been filed. On the basis of the inquiry report, it filed an application in the court seeking permission for reinvestigation of the case, which was allowed today. Besides, Mr Gopal Das Verma, Mr Amar Singh, a retired Chief Fire Officer, Mr Sant Ram, cashier, Mr Nirmal Singh, Mr Babu Ram and Mr Jaganath are the other accused. |
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Katwal moves court against CM, 7 others Hamirpur, January 15 Mr Katwal has charged all these persons, including the Chief Minister with influencing him to give jobs to their near and dear ones. He has alleged that when he did not oblige their candidates they threatened him. He was subjected to harassment when the Congress government came to power. Mr Katwal has prayed the court to register cases against all eight named persons and punish them under the law of the land. The court fixed January 17,2004 for the official reply. — OC |
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Rs 30 lakh to beautify McLeodganj
Dharamsala, January 15 Rupees 30 lakh has been sanctioned for the construction of an international level auditorium and convention hall at McLeodganj. The work on this project will start soon. The minister visited the century-old St John Church in Wilderness near Forsytheganj and was concerned over environment in the area. He said the building was a heritage building and rupees 10 lakh had been sanctioned to beautify the area. Experts from Bombay have been invited to visit Dal Lake in Upper Dharamsala to suggest ways to convert it into a tourist spot. Maj. Mankotia said that a water treatment plant would be set up and seepage from the lake checked. He said rupees nine lakh were sanctioned earlier of which only rupees four lakh were spent.
The minister said that facilities around Bhagsu will be provided. He said a two-day summer festival based on traditional Gaddi and Tibetan culture would be started from this year. |
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Panchkarma to be introduced in HPTDC hotels Dharamsala, January 15 The Chief Minister reiterated the commitment of his government to ensure better health facilities in the state and said it has been made mandatory for all doctors to stay at the places of their postings. He said 1,141 ayurvedic health institutions were working in the state. State Health and Family Welfare Minister Chandresh Kumari also addressed the gathering. NSUI president Kewal Singh Pathania accompanied the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister later laid the foundation stone of Rs 1.10 crore bridge over Daroon Khad on Dharamsala-Yol-Palampur road. He also addressed the HP Gaddi Kalyan Board and the HP Gurkha Welfare Board meetings in government college auditorium. |
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Hoax message foxes BSNL subscribers Solan, January 15 The message, which provided a free talk-time of Rs 150 to the prepaid subscribers on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of BSNL directed the subscriber to forward the message to five others to become eligible to avail themselves the free talk time. This created traffic rush on BSNL SMS as subscribers to forward these messages. What caught attention of some subscribers was that BSNL had completed less than four years and it could not be a gift from BSNL. Subscribers rang up BSNL officials to find out the period of free talk time after they found no change in their balance after forwarding the message to five others. This created confusion among the prepaid subscribers the post paid subscribers were sad at not being given the offer. They argued the offer should have been extended to them also since they incurred more on mobile bills. This put officials in confusion but the higher-ups in Shimla told that similar situation had been created elsewhere also. General Manager of Solan SSA Mr S.K.Bose clarified that BSNL was launched in 2000 and had only completed a few years and a denial had already been flashed about the offer through the official website of BSNL. Tahe fact that the messages were received from the near and dear ones of the subscribers, no message centre could be traced to catch the hoax caller added the officials. |
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Mandi, January 15 A case under Section 302 of the IPC was registered. The body was handed over to relatives after postmortem examination. The police has taken into possession some incriminating documents from the second floor of a house under construction and from the field where a scuffle is suspected to have taken place between the victim and the assailants. Former Forest Minister Thakur Roop Singh and local MLA Sohan Lal have expressed their concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in the town. — OC |
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Seven die as van falls into khud Shimla, January 15 All victims belonged to Ghasni Shyamanagar village. Owner of the van Satish Kumar was also killed. The deceased have been identified as Mehar Singh, Amar Singh, Jagdish, Babloo, Prem and Rajinder. The bodies were recovered and sent for a post-mortem examination.
— TNS |
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Public holiday on Feb 6 Dharamsala, January 15 All government and semi-government offices and educational institutions would remain close on that day, an official spokesman here said. — PTI |
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Leopard cub found Mandi, January 15 |
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