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400 constables to
be recruited soon
Snowfall brings
cheer to hoteliers Ministers to
officiate from mini-secretariat |
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Himachal — a
model for development Fake currency
baffles Hamirpur traders Nod to mining in
Ghaniara slate quarries Afforestation
project launched Cancellation of
JBT entrance results flayed Students help
ailing classmate
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400 constables to be recruited soon Una, January 25 Addressing a gathering on the occasion, Mr Virbhadra Singh said the government had formulated and ambitious plan to harness its identified 21,000 MW hydel potential in the next 10 years which would help the state to usher in an era of prosperity besides meeting the energy requirements of the northern India to great extent. He said 8,000 MW of additional hydel potential would be exploited within five years. He said the government has taken the decision. to ensure at least. 25 per cent equity participation in hydel projects that would be executed in the private and joint sectors so as to ensure maximum income to the state. He said 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakari project would be commissioned this year. Mr Virbhadra Singh lauded the people of state for maintaining peaceful environment in the state and said to strengthen the state police force, 400 more constables would be recruited soon. The Chief Minister said stress on education, health and roads had always been on priority agenda of the government and a separate cell had been set up for national highways in the PWD Department and about 330 road construction schemes were underway with the assistance of NABARD and the World Bank. Referring to Una district Mr Virbhadra Singh said the work would be speeded up on Rs 106 crore Swan Channelisation Project which would bring sea change in the economy and said 1,700 new industrial units had been given sanction by the government. The Chief Minister gave away the prizes of Himachal Pradesh Small Savings Prize Scheme of 2002-03 to the winners on the occasion of Statehood Day function. Mr Pratibha Singh, wife of the Chief Minister and Vice-Chairman, of the State Red-Cross Society, Mr Sat Mahajan, Rural Development Minister, Mr BBL Butel, Revenue Minister, Mr Vijay Singh Mankotia, Tourism, Minister, Mr G.S. Bali, Transport Minister, Mr Kuldeep Kumar, Cooperative Minister: and Virender Gautam, Chairman, Kangra Central Cooperative Bank, were also present on the occasion. |
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Snowfall brings cheer to hoteliers Shimla, January 25 Snow eluded the hill resort on Christmas and the New Year much to the disappointment of the winter revellers. However, the weather god finally answered their prayers and obliged. The belated snowfall has suddenly revived the winter tourist season when the industry had given up hope. The lean period has turned into a boom time. The hotels in the state capital are overflowing with tourists. Most of them have recorded 100 per cent occupancy over the past three days. “The snow could not have come at a better time for the hotel industry .It was weekend followed by an additional holiday on Monday on account of the Republic Day and the snow enthusiasts made the most of it”, says Mr Umesh Akre, vice-president of the State Hotel Association. Things would have been much better if the administration had been more alert and prepared to deal with the problems like disruption of power supply and blockade of roads, which usually accompany a heavy snowfall. The tourists were put to a lot inconvenience because of power shutdown and blockade of roads, he said . The hoteliers of Kufri and surrounding areas could not take advantage of snow as the hill resort remained inaccessible. It had about two feet of snow but the hoteliers and others connected with the tourist trade could have benefited. Snowfall has also brought tourists to places like Manali and Dalhousie. The hoteliers, taxi operators and travel agents are doing brisk business at all these places. The snowfall has also brought cheers to the winter sports lovers. The ski slopes at Solang Nullah, near Manali, are under one metre of snow which is sufficient for skiing. The State Mountaineering Institute has started ski training courses. |
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Ministers to officiate
from mini-secretariat Dharamsala, January 25 Replying to questions, the Chief Minister said he rejected the so called Katwal tapes with contempt and said there was no justification for any CBI probe as it was
concoction of a sick mind. He defended recommendations made by his ministers and said politicians always made recommendations but it was the job of the person in authority to decide. Speaking about the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, Mr Virbhadra Singh said the BJP had not sprung any surprise on the Congress and the party was ready for polls in the state and at the national level. He said it was for the high command to decide about any poll alliance in the state but reiterated that the Congress had no dearth of candidates in any constituency. The Chief Minister evaded questions about the Rajya Sabha nominee from state as a seat is falling vacant next month. The Chief Minister claimed that the BJP had always tried to exploit feelings of regionalism and caste in Himachal Pradesh. He said the then Shanta Kumar government had rejected Mandal
Commission recommendations and it was his government in 1993 which set up Other Backward Classes Commission in Himachal Pradesh which gave 18 per cent reservation to the OBCs. He said if the commission recommended enhancement of this, he would implement the recommendations without any delay. The Chief Minister said the newly set up Other Backward Classes Welfare Board would ensure timely and proper implementation of all welfare schemes meant for this category. Terming his 17-day tour of Kangra as successful, the Chief Minister said lakhs of people met him during his visits to different areas. He said during his stay, as many as 74 educational institutions were opened or upgraded while 14 schemes costing Rs 33 crore were inaugurated. He said foundation stones for 23 schemes which will cost Rs 38 crore were also laid by him. The Chief Minister later left for Una to preside over the state-level statehood day function there. |
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Himachal day Hamirpur, January 25 Dhumal said this while presiding over a party function on Himachal Day at Tikker Rajputan village, about 30 km from here, today. Ishwar Dass Dhiman and Baldev Sharma, both MLAs, Pyare Lal Sharma and Vinod Thakur, president and general secretary, respectively, of the district BJP, were among others present on the occasion. The party will organise Republic Day function at Baroha near here and Prof Dhumal will unfurl the Tricolour on the occasion. He exhorted the workers to remain in touch with the masses in the wake of ensuing Lok Sabha elections. Highlighting achievements made by the state after its formation, he said that the credit for this went to Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar, former Chief Minister of state. Dr Parmar had done a lot for making Himachal Pradesh a state of his dreams. Earlier, Prof Dhumal dedicated four rooms of Government High school, Bumbloo, to the people. |
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Himachal — a model for development Shimla, January 25 The state, which celebrated its statehood day on January 25, has achieved spectacular achievements on all fronts and today other hill states look towards Himachal Pradesh while framing policies and programmes to accelerate the pace of development activities. The conferment of statehood opened up new vistas for socio-economic transformation and making the dream of building a peaceful and prosperous Himachal a reality through systematic planning with major thrust on development of basic infrastructure like roads and power. Mr Virbhadra Singh, the Chief Minister, maintains that credit must be given for all that the state had achieved to the successive Congress governments which remained in power for most of the period. It was the foresight of its leaders who laid thrust on road construction, horticulture development, hydel power generation, rural electrification, drinking water and other basic amenities to the people to make it a leading hill state. Besides, the social and economic services also remained on the top of the agenda. The people of the state today enjoy markedly better standard of living. The literacy percentage is much higher than the national average. Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen the renowned economists in their book 'India Development and Participation' described the success on the literacy front as a remarkable illustration of the phenomenon of development in the Himalyan region. Surveys undertaken in the recent past ranked Himachal Pradesh at the fifth position in respect of various indicators of development. It has proved that governance matters more than the size of the state The state's literacy rate has increased from 63 per cent in 1991 to 77 per cent in 2001. Most of the villages are electrified and over 90 percent of them have piped water. The population living below the poverty line fell dramatically from 29 per cent in 1993-94 to just 8 per cent in 1999-2000. The per capita income has increased from Rs. 651 in 1971 to Rs. 21368 and the state's Domestic Product from Rs 245 crore to Rs 14717 crore. In 1971 out of the total 16,916 villages only 2,944 villages were electrified and about 1900 villages had the facility of drinking water. Today all the villages are electrified and over 98 per cent villages enjoy the facility of potable drinking water. The road length has also gone to over 23,000 km from 7,740 km. There are over 14,000 educational
institutions, including three universities, two medical colleges, one dental college, one engineering college in the government sector and a number of engineering and other colleges in the private sector in the state as against only less then 5000 institutions in 1971. The fruit production has gone up from 1.78 lakh metric tonne to over 4.60 lakh metric tonne and food production from 9.34 lakh tonne to over 14 lakh
tonne. Referring to the steps initiated by the government over the past ten months to root out corruption, the Chief Minister said the exposure of corruption in some of the institutions in the state which had become fountainheads would go a long way in providing clean administration to the hill folk. The crusade against corruption would be continued without any let up and there would be no compromise on the issue. The social services sector had been given top priority with 45.93 per cent of the total Plan expenditure is being spent on this vital sector. As many as 17265 new eligible beneficiaries, (11725 widows and 5540 handicapped) had been sanctioned social security pension of Rs 200 per month from January 1, 2004 and over 11000 aged persons would start getting pension from April 1, 2004 .The number of beneficiaries would go up from 1.69 lakh to about 2 lakh and the annual expenditure on this account from Rs 42 crore to Rs 48 crore. The government also restored monthly honorarium of anganwari workers and anganwari helpers thereby benefiting 14708 workers and helpers. The decision had put an annual burden of Rs 2.65 crore on the state exchequer. Besides, Rs 4.63 crore would be paid as arrears. The state government is ensuring that all the posts reserved for handicapped persons were filled on priority. As many as 62 posts had been sanctioned recently for visually impaired persons. |
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Fake currency baffles Hamirpur traders Hamirpur, January 25 Traders of the town are upset over the circulation of brand new but fake currency notes in the market. They are finding it difficult to reject such notes as these seem to be genuine. Employees of various nationalised and co-operative banks also admit in private that they receive fake notes of various denominations every day. However, no such case has been referred to the police. Two of the leading businessmen of the town, Pawan Kumar and Vijay Kumar, told The Tribune here today that they had rejected such fake currency notes of the denomination of five hundred rupees offered by a young man who made purchases from them two days ago. The money was in brand new currency. The notes were fake from their appearance and ultimately the buyer had to make payment with the old currency notes. |
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Nod to mining in Ghaniara slate quarries Palampur, January 25 The slate mining and quarrying in Ghaniara was stopped about 10 years ago on the order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Ms Trisha Sharma, an environmentalist, who had stated that reckless mining and quarrying had become a major environmental hazard and was posing a serious threat to the eco system of the region. Since then there had been no mining in the area. Recently a team of geologists visited the Ghaniara slate quarries and reviewed the situation. It was decided to prepare a master plan so that mining could be regulated in a scientific way. It was also decided that the order of the Environment Ministry would be strictly implemented and mining and quarrying would be allowed only in 25 hectares of land. The area would be divided into two zones. Since the matter is still pending before the courts, the disputed quarrying area would be kept intact and no one would be allowed to enter in it. |
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Afforestation project launched Mandi, January 25 The minister said the project would bring 1,500 hectare of land under green cover by 2006-2007, besides generating employment opportunities for the local people. Mr C.S. Singh, Conservator of Forests, who is also the chairman of the newly created Forest Development Committee for the execution of the project, said for ensuring involvement of people in plantation, 50 village-level joint forest management committees had been constituted and registered under the Societies Act. |
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Cancellation of JBT entrance results flayed Hamirpur, January 25 Talking to reporters here today, he said the previous BJP government in the state had not declared the results of the JBT entrance test during its regime as the elections to the state Assembly were due and the model code of conduct had been enforced in the state. Mr Pyare Lal Sharma, district BJP chief, was also present at the Press conference. Mr Dhiman justified the demand of the party to sack the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, and the Chairman of the education board, Mr
B.R. Rahi, in connection with the JBT scam issue. He charged both these leaders with playing with the careers of lakhs of youth who had been made to suffer due to no fault of theirs. He alleged that Mr Rahi, during his tenure as a teacher, had remained busy in trade union activities and thus harmed the cause of his students. The BJP leader demanded a probe into the functioning of the education board ever since Mr Rahi took over as its Chairman alleging that the board had become an office of the Congress only. |
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Students help ailing classmate Hamirpur, January 25 Amit Kumar, 19, is under treatment at the PGI, Chandigarh for the treatment of kidney problem. He had jaundice which damaged his kidney. Mr Joginder Singh, father of the boy, is a constable with the CRPF and unable to meet treatment expenses. Feeling for Amit Kumar, students of the Nadaun College have joined hands to collect money for the treatment of Amit Kumar. They have so far collected Rs 10,000 according to Vijay Thakur, state vice- president of the NSUI and Mr Abhishek Joshi, vice- president of the Hamirpur district ABVP. Students have appealed to the people to donate to help save a life. |
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Himachal
day
Hamirpur, January 25
