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Power panel sends
SOS to govt Order against hotel withdrawn Change of exam centres causes resentment among NIOS students
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Board to re-conduct exams at three centres Abducted boy recovered Polytechnic students suspend stir Bail for selection board
ex-chief 
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Power panel sends
SOS to govt Shimla, March 19 While the statutory functions and the overall workload of the commission have increased manifold with the enforcement of the Electricity Act, 2003, the lack of support from the government has severely hampered its functioning. Set up in January 2001, the commission has been making do with a skeleton staff for the past three years. The extent to which the commission had been starved of manpower could be judged from the fact that only 21 persons are in place against a required strength of 93. The government had sanctioned the bare minimum 31 posts, including 12 officers, to make it functional initially and promised to provide more staff later. However, in effect the strength of staff has come down. As many as six posts of officers are vacant. These include the all-important post of executive director, technical analysis division, one of director, and three of deputy directors. Further, the executive director tariff and financial analysis division, will be retiring on March 31. Thus there will be just five officers to carry out the job of 33 officers. The commission is a quasi-judicial body but it is still without a law division. It had submitted a proposal for creation of 62 posts, including that of the director (law), to the government after the new electricity Act came into force but these have not been sanctioned so far. To cap it all, the commission has sent back and the government are at loggerheads over the appointment of secretary. The commission has sent back Mr Akshay Sood to his parent department after the government gave him the additional charge of the post but he has so far not handed over his charge. The government has not even approved the service regulations as a result the commission is not in a position to fill even the sanctioned posts. In absence of these regulations no one is willing to come on even on deputation. The commission has urged the government to allow it to appoint officers on a contract basis if it was not feasible to approve the service regulations by the middle of this month. The state power board filed the application for determination of power tariff on February 29 and it supplied all information asked by the commission by March. Section 64 of the Electricity Act lays down that the tariff application had to be decided within four months. As such the commission has to pass the order by July 4 which may not be possible unless it was provided requisite staff to carry out the task. |
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Order against hotel withdrawn Shimla, March 19 A Division Bench headed by the chief justice V.K. Gupta observed that the order passed by Secretary, Town and Country Planning was pre-meditated and had been given in haste without affording an opportunity to the proprietor of the hotel to present his side. The court directed the state government to grant at least one week’s time to the proprietor to present his case before the date of hearing fixed by the Town and Country Planning or Urban Development Department. Taking a serious note of the working of the state government the Bench further observed that the government should consider the case with regard to the regularisation of the two upper storeys of the hotel. Petitioner has submitted that the construction of the hotel had been carried out as per the plan approved by Municipal Corporation as well as by the state government. He said now the state government, with ulterior motive of harassing him, was raising baseless objections and passing illegal orders. The petitioner has further submitted that as per the court order notice was issued by the state on March 8 to present his case on the very next day (March 9). In spite of the request of the petitioner Mr Harsaranjit Singh, he was not granted more time to present his case before the authorities. The Division Bench took a serious note of the fact that since August 28, 2003, the government had not thought it proper to issue even a show-cause notice to the petitioner and only on one day’s notice the government had decided that the construction of two upper storeys was illegal and the same were to be razed. After the statement of the Advocate General and orders of the High Court this matter is to be dealt with at government level after affording proper opportunity to present the contention of the hotel owner. |
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Change of exam centres causes resentment among NIOS students Solan, March 19 Slated to begin from April 6, the examination centre of the students appearing from Solan has been shifted to Arki Boys Senior Secondary School, about 51 km away. Similarly the students appearing from Arki will now have to come all the way to Solan for their exams. The exams are held in the afternoon session from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and there are hardly any buses plying in the evenings, thus the students will have to face problems while commuting at odd-hours. While expressing surprise over the change in centres, Mr B.K. Sharma, principal B.L. Central Public School, here said they had written a letter to the secretary as well as the chairman of the NIOS at Delhi to allow the earlier centres to continue. He lamented the fact that centres which had been in existence for the past 10 years had been changed causing inconvenience to students. The principal of the Arki Boys School echoed similar sentiments. With the Arki centre catering to 34-35 panchayats a student appearing from a remote area would be compelled to travel as much as 80 km for appearing in the exams. |
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Board to re-conduct exams at three centres Kangra, March 19 Mr B.R. Rahi, Chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education, told this correspondent today that the board had decided to conduct re-examination in English for plus one at Government Senior Secondary School, Sulyalee, on March 21. The re-examination in chemistry and accountancy for plus one will be held on April 2 at Government Senior Secondary School, Indora, and the re-examination in physics for plus two at Government Senior Secondary School, Jogindernagar, in Mandi district on March 28. Mr Rahi following the reports of mass copying at these centres, the board took the decision on re-examination today. He said to conduct the re-examinations in different papers of plus two and matriculation at Government Senior Secondary School, Rajputan Vadiara, in Una district was under the active consideration of the board and a final decision would be taken shortly. At this centre a bundle of the answersheets was left overnight at the centre. A re-examination in that subject, too, was under the active consideration of the board, he added. NURPUR: To bring a qualitative change in the present education system, the state government had announced to introduce English from Class I in primary schools. The Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education has decided to implement the government’s decision from the coming academic session. Mr Rahi said the board had published English books for Classes I to IV. He asked all private school managements, recognised by the board, to introduce these books from the coming session. Mr Rahi said action would be taken against those private schools which violated the guidelines of the board in this connection. The board was also introducing new syllabus for science in plus one and plus two classes from the coming session. |
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Abducted boy recovered Mandi, March 19 Mr Ajai Yadav, SP, said today that the mother of the child, Jeet Kaur, had yesterday lodged an FIR that her child had
been allegedly abducted by Ashwani Kumar of Batala. The police then kept his local residence and telephone under observation. Police parties were also sent to different places in Punjab. Mr Yadav said the police got a clue from a telephone call received from Hoshiarpur at his local house at Naulakha near here. The call revealed that the boy had been kept in a gurdwara or serai at Hoshiarpur. After a number of raids child was recovered from a gurdwara last night and was brought
here. The boy was handed over to his mother. A case has been registered. |
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Polytechnic students suspend stir Kangra, March 19 The polytechnic college students had been boycotting classes since March 10 demanding “golden chance” for the students who were yet to pass the first and third semester examination and sought that they should be allowed to appear for the fourth and six semester exams. The students staged a dharna at the college gate for four days. The dharna was, however, lifted today. The students suspended their stir today following a meeting with the Chairman of the Board of the School Education yesterday. The Chairman had assured the student leaders that the board would look into the matter after consultation with the gazetted lecturers and Principals of the polytechnic colleges. |
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Bail for selection board
ex-chief Shimla, March 19 The court directed Mr Katwal to join investigations at Dharamsala while passing the order. Mr Katwal had moved the High Court after the special Judge, Hamirpur, had rejected the bail of Mr Katwal and Mr Vidya Nath, a member of the board, and asked them to surrender within two days. |
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Nahan Head Constable
killed in J&K Nahan, March 19 Pritam Singh (38) is survived by his wife Kaushalya Devi, one daughter and two sons. Pritam joined the CRPF in 1984. He had
returned to Srinagar just a few days back after availing two months’ leave. |
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