 |
|
Talks
on Tibet must continue: LS poll
‘halts’ demolition drive HP Govt
told to remove hoardings
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
University
in “financial mess” Project soil being dumped into Beas tributary
Cable
operators resent tariff hike in Ten Sports BJP’s
poser to CM on INTUC chief Nine HP
barriers auctioned Polytechnic
students boycott classes 250 MW
unit synchronised Taxi
driver shot at, 3 held Two
houses destroyed in fire 
|
|
Talks on Tibet must continue: Dalai Lama Dharamsala, March 10 In a message read out on this occasion, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said he was hopeful that this year would see a significant breakthrough in Sino-Tibet relations. He said he would try for seeking a mutually beneficial solution that would address the Chinese concerns as well as achieve for the Tibetan people a life in freedom, peace and dignity. The Dalai Lama said despite decades of separation, the Tibetan people continued to have faith in him and he felt it was his responsibility to act as their “free spokesman”. The Dalai Lama said Chinese President Hu Jintao had personal knowledge of the Tibet issue. He said he was willing to meet the leaders of the People’s Republic of China in an effort to secure a mutually acceptable solution to the issue. He said his envoys had established direct contact with the Chinese Government on two trips to China, which was a positive and welcome development. The spiritual leader said the issue of Tibet was complex and crucial for the Tibetan as well as Chinese people. He said to dispel the existing distrust and build confidence, the process of face-to-face meetings and discussions must continue. He said his envoys had been directed to visit China at the earliest to continue the process. The Dalai Lama said the present situation in Tibet benefits neither the Tibetan people nor the government of China. He said the policies being followed by the Chinese authorities in Tibet were having negative effects on the distinct cultural, religious and linguistic identity of the Tibetan people. He welcomed the recent improvements in Indo-Chinese relations and said India should play a constructive and influential role in resolving the Tibetan problem peacefully. The Dalai Lama expressed his gratitude to the Indian people and the government for their support. Tibetans of Bir, Tashijong and other areas also took out a procession at Palampur. |
|
LS poll ‘halts’ demolition drive
Dalhousie, March 10 The earlier attempts to remove such structures during the past decade were also an exercise in futility. A few structures have been partially touched by the local Municipal Council while illegal skyscrapers, served with notices by the Department of Town and Country Planning, were allegedly nourished and nurtured. All these structures had the facility of water and electricity in contravention of the rules. What to talk of demolition of such structures, even the supply of water and electricity has not been disconnected till date. Most of the these unauthorised buildings running hotel business and other trades have been registered by the Departments of Labour, Industries, Excise and Taxation, Food and Supplies, Weights and Measures and the Himachal Pollution Control Board, knowing full well that these are illegal. Certain government financial institutions have also financed the construction of some of these structures. It may be recalled that the local Municipal Council was dissolved a few months ago for the mushroom growth of illegal and unauthorised structures in Dalhousie. However, those guilty of ignoring their unauthorised construction have not been punished. Official sources say that more than 150 illegal structures in and around Dalhousie have been served with notices. However, these cases are being dealt with under the retention policy of the state government. |
||
|
HP Govt told to remove hoardings Shimla, March 10 Ms Nanda issued the direction on the basis of newspaper reports in this regard. She said detailed instructions would be issued after receiving the order of the commission. A spokesman of the Public Relations Department said necessary orders had been issued to erase such messages from the hoardings and repaint them with slogans spreading social messages. He said the department had not received any directions in this regard so far and had taken a suo motu action. The issue of hoardings generated much heat during the 2003 Assembly elections as the Dhumal government had got installed about 100 hoardings with the help of private sector. The Congress, which was then in the opposition, raised an objection and complained to the Central Election Commission which ordered the removal of all such hoardings. |
|
University in “financial mess” Solan, March 10 The state government had made it mandatory for the university to generate income and projected a target for each financial year since 2000. While the income generation target was by and large achieved all these years the situation appears to be grim this year. Though the Comptroller, Mr R.P. Sharma said they were yet to compile various reports from various research stations and the figure was slated to go up but not much could be achieved till March 31 opined sources in the university. About Rs 20-30 lakh were awaited on account of fee from students. Income was generated through various sources, including the sale of fuel, wood and saplings which added about Rs 5.5 lakh and Rs 20 lakh respectively to the university coffer. The sources, however, said with hardly any curb on the wasteful expenditure, little success could be achieved in generating adequate income. They emphasised the need to project the correct financial picture of the university before the government. While the university authorities have been professing to have brought down the deficit from Rs 10 crore to Rs 6.52 crore it was a distortion of facts opined officials. A liability of about Rs 10 crore was outstanding in the university which was projected as a deficit of Rs 6.52 crore and another Rs 2.64 lakh was `known to be diverted from earmarked funds for various purposes in the university. The officials opined that the liability of the pension scheme, which had till now not been credited to the corpus since the inception of the scheme in 1999, had never been reflected in the university’s financial position. This enhanced the deficit of the university by another few crores as two equal half yearly instalments of Rs 22-25 lakh are supposed to be credited to the corpus fund. While this had delayed the grant of pension benefits to the retirees they often have to wait for months to avail of these benefits. With no fresh recruitments having made since the past about two years a net saving of Rs 50-60 lakh has been made by the university yet its financial condition has going from bad to worse. The Comptroller said a meeting would soon be convened to take stock of the situation where figures of total income generated would be compiled. |
|
Project soil being dumped into Beas tributary SUNDERNAGAR:
The Marketing Yard project in Mandi has been embroiled in controversy from the very beginning. The multi-crore project which will benefit farmers and growers of Mandi district was cleared by the Central Government without any provision for a dumping site. This project came into limelight about three years ago when its foundation stone was laid by the then Chief Minister, Prof P.K. Dhumal, at Bhuli in Mandi town. As this site did not suit government officials, it was shifted to the Kagni Forest, 2 km from Mandi town towards the Balh valley, in spite of opposition from adjoining villages. In 2001, a part of the Kagni forest was cleared to start construction of this project and a large number of trees were felled without mandatory permission from the Central Government. After this was highlighted in The Tribune, Rs 5,000 was recovered as a fine from the Marketing Board for illicit felling of trees. It took more than one year to get sanction from the Central Government after which the foundation stone of the project was laid by the Deputy Commissioner, Mandi, in December, 2002. In January, 2003, the cutting of the forest area began. Everything was smooth till the contractor started dumping truck-loads of soil in to the Suketi khud, a tributary of the Beas. Besides eating up the forest area, the dumping of soil is polluting the Beas. Mr B.D. Sharma, Secretary of the Marketing Committee, Mandi, confirmed that no specific dumping site was suggested in the tender but the contractor was asked to dump the material within 20 metres of the site. A dumping site was to be shown by the engineer in charge of the H.P. Marketing Board with the approval of the Environment Ministry. Officials of the Forest Department also confirmed that no provision for a dumping site was made in the project report. Forest officials have neither raised any objection nor earmarked a dumping site. As a result, the project was passed without any dumping site due to which the Kagni forest is being damaged. Forest officials did not take any steps to nab the culprits but just imposed a token penalty. The damage to the forest, is, however, continuing. the Forest Department recently issued notice to the Marketing Committee to clear the soil lying on the spot as it was diverting the flow of water and causing damage to aquatic life. |
|
Cable operators resent tariff hike in Ten Sports Solan, March 10 With Ten Sports having exclusive rights to telecast this cricket series the cable operators rue that they were being forced to sign a new agreement which would make them liable to pay a monthly rent of Rs 25,600 per month with six months advance payment. A monthly rental of Rs 4,200 is being paid at present by the cable operators as per an earlier agreement which expires in March. The cable operators, however, offered to pay a monthly rental of Rs 6,300. While the company officials at the regional office at Chandigarh maintain that they were charging rates comparable to other sports channels like Star Sports and ESPN, they stressed that they had urged the cable operators to increase their subscribers and bring them on a par with other sports channels. Cable operators lament that they were in no position to pay this enhanced rental as it would burden the subscribers who will have to shell out more. Urging the government to telecast India-Pakistan cricket series on Doordarshan the cable operators have appealed to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to intervene in the matter and find an solution to it at the earliest. |
|
BJP’s poser to CM on INTUC chief Shimla, March 10 In a statement here he claimed that the Chief Minister preferred to keep silent on the charge of criminalisation of politics. He went to the extent of giving a “certificate of innocence” to INTUC President, Amarjit Singh, against whom more than 24 cases were pending in Haryana and he was also involved in criminal cases in Shimla. Senior BJP leader asked the Chief Minister to clarify whether he was the same Bawa who allegedly masterminded the manhandling of two dissident Congress MLAs and burning of the car of Mr Anand Sharma, AICC spokesperson, at Parwanoo six-seven years ago. Further, the government was also maintaining silence on the incident in a Manali hotel on December last when a Congress MLA from Rajasthan and son of an important Congress leader were involved in a shooting incident. The Congress government had tried to hush up the case. |
|
Nine HP barriers auctioned Solan, March 10 The auction was conducted in the presence of the Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Mr Amit Kashyap, the Assistant Commissioner, Solan, Mr Sanjay Bhardwaj, and other excise and taxation officials. The barriers were auctioned in three groups. M/s Rana and Company bagged the auction rights for the most coveted Parwanoo barrier, which recorded the highest ever revenue of Rs 3.62 crore. They bagged the rights for the third time in succession. The Baddi-Barotiwala barrier was auctioned at a rate of Rs 1,27,25,000. The rights were bagged by D S Textiles. Five other barriers of Deerowal were auctioned at Rs 56 lakh and the rights were awarded to M/s Rana and Company. |
|
Polytechnic students boycott classes Kangra, March 10 The students raised slogans in favour of their demands. Mr Ramit Dhiman, president to the Students Union of Polytechnic College, Kangra told this correspondent that students who had left maximum of four papers in the semester and were detained should be permitted in the regular semester. He said besides a golden chance be given to students this year too, one more chance be given to those students who have got a re-appear in the golden chance. The protesting students demanded that a Board of the Technical Education should announce the results of the examination before starting of the next semester. They demanded that results in the re-evaluation cases be declared within 10 days. Mr Ramit Dhiman said that the re-evaluation fee be reduced to Rs 100 from Rs 250. Striking students also demanded that the admission fee should be reduced from Rs 4050 to Rs 2025. They further demanded that 10 per cent seats be reserved in the NIT for diploma holders. The protesters stressed upon the state government that only diploma engineers should be made eligible for the post of Junior Engineers and the degree holders should not be considered for these posts. They demanded that reservation in the private industrial sector and the hydel projects should be increased to 80 per cent in Himachal Pradesh. |
|
250 MW unit synchronised Shimla, March 10 With this, its total capacity increased to 1250 MW, the highest for any hydroelectric project in the country under operation. The 1500 MW project is slated for completion by July 31. However, the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam is trying to commission it fully by May. Mr Y.N. Apparao, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the nigam, said the project had already generated 1000 million units so far, fetching a revenue of Rs 218 crore. He said synchronisation and commissioning of five units of 250 MW each within a period of six months was a unique achievement. |
|
Taxi driver shot at, 3 held Mandi, March 10 Informing this to mediapersons, the Superintendent of Police, Mr Ajai Yadav, said after receiving a message from the SP, Kulu, nakas were set up at Panadoh, Brindavan, Balh and Sundernagar. The Qualis was intercepted at Sundernagar by a police party lead by SHO Brijesh Sood and the accused were arrested and their weapons and cartridges were seized. The three accused, Gurpreet Singh, Gurdip Singh and Lakhbir Singh, belong to Nakodar area of Jalandhar. A case has been registered against them. |
|
|
Two houses destroyed in fire Mandi, March 10 The SDM, Mr Gopal Chand, rushed to the spot and distributed blankets and food to the victims |
|
|
Two die as car
falls into nullah
Shimla, March 10 The police said the injured person had been admitted to the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital. The deceased have been identified as Mohinder and Hira Chand.
— UNI, PTI |
|
|
Poll for RS
seat on March 26
Shimla, March 10 |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Dharamsala, March 10
