Mandi, March 22
Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, yesterday launched Lok Sabha election campaign in the state from the Balh valley of this district on first Navratra. Lambasting the NDA government at a rally at Kansa Chowk he said its economic policies were bound to result in economic slavery and alleged that multi-national companies were being allowed to “loot and exploit” the nation at the cost of farmers and domestic industry.

The Chief Minister said that the NDA government had no policies or programme to offer and was playing up insignificant matters like the foreign issue of Mrs Sonia Gandhi to mislead the people.

He exhorted people to elect all four Congress candidates from the state.

Ridiculing rath yatra of Mr L.K. Advani, Mr Virbhadra Singh said his similar misadventures earlier had only incited communal violence.

Presence of Mrs Pratibha Singh on the stage and her speech made it clear that she was a candidate from the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency on which no decision has been taken so far in view of reluctance of Thakur Kaul Singh, whose name had been sent to the AICC for the Mandi seat. Other three names have been finalised.

The Chief Minister made a call to Congress man, who had left the party for one reason or the other, to come to the fold of the party to strengthen secular and democratic forces for the unity of the country.

On this occasion HVC leader and former Minister Prakash Chaudhary, HVC leader and former MLA Shiv Lal and Chaudhary Mahant Ram were garlanded and admitted into the Congress party. The Chief Minister declared that a crackdown had been launched against corruption from the day the Congress came to power. “Our main issue during the election campaign was uprooting corruption and transparency in the functioning of the government and we have done that”.

He said various scams including those in the HP University and the Subordinate Services Selection Board where records used to be destroyed after three months to escape action, had been unearthed and action initiated. He lamented that jobs were either available at the behest of the then Chief Minister or for a consideration ignoring merit.

Mrs Vidya Stokes, HPCC President, in a attack on the NDA government, alleged that it had failed to solve main problems of unemployment and poverty. She welcomes the new entrants and asked them to work with devotion.

Mrs Pratibha Singh, lauded the role of the Nehru family in the development of the country and paid tributes to Mrs Gandhi and said that Himachal owed its existence to Nehru and Indira. She said the Congress would emerge stronger and united under the leadership of Mrs Sonia Gandhi.

Hamirpur, March 22
Senior leaders of the BJP hailing from 17 Assembly segments in the districts of Hamirpur, Una, Bilaspur and Dehra subdivision of Kangra will meet at Hamirpur on March 24 to finalise their election strategy for the Lok Sabha poll. The party has already decided to field Suresh Chandel, member of the dissolved House again.

The Congress has also fielded Mr Ram Lal Thakur, HP Industries Minister, as its nominee from the Hamirpur seat. It will be second time that both Mr Chandel and Mr Thakur will be in fray against each other. In last 1999 Lok Sabha elections, Mr Chandel had routed Mr Thakur by a margin of 1,29,247 votes.

It will be the first meeting of the party to be held after the announcement of ticket to Mr Chandel. All district presidents, general secretaries, mandal president and general secretaries, MPs and MLAs have been invited to attend the meeting, which will be held at Hotel Hamir.

Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, former Chief Minister, and Mr Suresh Chandel, party candidate, will also attend it.

Shimla, March 22
The state unit of the BJP has termed the one year rule of the Congress as a dark period during which development came to a standstill and the state machinery was blatantly misused to harass and malign political opponents.

Stating this at a press conference, Mr Randhir Sharma, spokesperson of the party, said the Virbhadra Singh government had made no serious effort to implement election promises made during the assembly poll. In its election manifesto, it had promised to regularise the services of the daily-wage workers with seven years of service but after coming to power it retrenched over 3,000 workers, he said.

Similarly, the promise to fill all vacant posts in the backward sub-cadre within six months was also not kept and most of the posts of doctors, paramedical staff and teachers were still lying vacant. As many as 150 posts of doctors, 90 of nurses, 370 of paramedical staff and 250 of teachers were vacant, he added.

The Congress had promised to provide drinking water and road connectivity to all villages within three years but so far even a proper survey for the purpose had not been carried out, he said.

The government was functioning in a dictatorial style and had not even spared autonomous institutions like universities and constitutional bodies like the state Public Service Commission. Investigating agencies were working overtime to implicate the party’s political opponents in false cases, he alleged.

With such a dismal track record, it was hardly surprising that no Congress minister was prepared to contest the Lok Sabha poll, he said adding that the BJP was set to make a clean sweep of all four seats in the state.

The state unit of the BJP has urged the Central Election Commission to appoint observers to check the misuse of official machinery and violation of the election code by the Congress government in the state.

Kangra, March 22
The Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education today cancelled the English examination of Class VIII at three centres in the state on the recommendations of flying squads. The examination has been resheduled for April 2.

The chairman of the board, Mr B.R. Rahi, today told this correspondent that the SDM, Nalagarh, who was heading a flying squad had recommended the cancellation of the English examination held at Government Senior Secondary School, Nalagarh, where girl students were indulging in mass copying yesterday.

He said the decision to cancel this examination was taken at a high-level meeting today.

He said the recommendations of the ADM, Una, who was heading a flying squad, to cancel the examination held at Government Senior Secondary School, Charatgul, and Government High School, Dehdala, were discussed at a meeting today.

Mr Rahi said the ADM had reported that there was mass copying in both the centres and re-examination of the Charatgul center would be held at the Government Senior Secondary School, Dehlan, on April 2. The re-examination of the Dehdala centre would also be held at the same centre.

Nurpur, March 22
Education being provided to deaf and dumb students is far from satisfactory. The Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education has failed to prepare separate syllabus and to hold separate examination for them despite representations to the government by parents and wards.

Enquiries reveal that the government set up a separate school wing up to matriculation standard in Government Senior Secondary School (boys) at Dharamsala — district headquarters of Kangra district in 1988. As many as 55 students from all over the district have been studying in this school. Only one teacher has been posted in the school.

Barog, March 22
The inordinate delay in settling the benami land transaction cases registered in and around here under the Section 118 of HP Land Reforms and Tenancy Act 1972, four year’s back has caused resentment among the settlers and locals here. As many as 60 benami cases had been registered in the beginning of 2000 and hardly 20 cases have been settled so far.

Interestingly, even most of the “settled” cases had to be dropped for want of concrete evidence. The state government has not even managed to forfeit a single property proved to be benami as per the rights vested under Section 118 (3) of the amended Tenancy Act in 1987. Inquiries revealed that the fate of most of the cases was uncertain because of the want of adequate evidence. A piquant situation has arisen, as the cases hold no base due to the lack of evidence. Besides the alleged malicious and erroneous reporting of status of land in doubt by revenue officials while registering the cases, the officials were also accused of ‘forcing’ locals to become witnesses in cases.

Bilaspur, March 22
Six women were killed when the truck in which they were travelling rolled down into a gorge at village Nalag on the Solan-Bhararighat road in Solan district today. Seven other persons were injured in the accident.

Bilaspur SDM Baldev Thakur said two women were killed on the spot while the other four succumbed to injuries in the district hospital here. Four of the victims have been identified as Krishna Devi, Leela Devi, Dropati Devi and Sita Devi, all belonging to Sai Nerwa village of the district.

Mandi, March 22
The ban on the quarrying of sand and stone imposed by the Chief Minister during his visit of Balh Valley a month back has been revoked by the government following resentment among people. The Tribune also had carried a story on thousands having been rendered jobless by the ban.

Disclosing this at a Kansa Rally yesterday the Chief Minister said the ban had been revoked to mitigate hardships of people and added the Mining Officer had been directed to allow quarrying in Kansa at Suketi, tributaries of Beas. For quarrying elsewhere rules would be relaxed and rationalised, he maintained. These orders he said had been passed before the declaration of Lok Sabha elections.

Hamirpur, March 22
Auction of liquor shops in Hamirpur district was held today.

Sixtythree country-made and foreign liquor shops of Barsar revenue subdivision fetched Rs 6.91 crore.

Sundernagar, March 22
Nalwar fair was inaugurated today by Mr K.S. Narang, Divisional Commissioner, Mandi, here today.

The procession of fair was started from PWD Rest House to Nagaun Khud, where the Chief Guest performed puja of bullocks. Later he hoisted flag of Nalwar fair at Jawahar Park.

Addressing the gathering he said that fairs reflected culture of the hill state and this heritage should be preserved. He said that in such fairs one should keep in mind that environment should not be harmed.

Palampur, March 22
Surgical operations in the civil hospital here have come to a halt due to shortage of nurses and other paramedical staff.  Official sources said here that in the past one month not even a single major surgery could be done here as there were no paramedical staff to assist doctors resulting in great inconvenience to public. Many patients have been waiting for their turn for surgery.

All emergency cases  are being referred to Zonal Hospital  Dharamsala or the PGI at Chandigarh daily for treatment. Enquiries revealed that since mid February there was shortage of paramedical staff in the hospital, particularly the nurses who play important role in the post operative care of the patients.  In the absence of nurses surgeons have to cancel scheduled operation. The Chief Medical Officer has not initiated any action to send paramedical staff here.

It is also learnt that 12 posts of nurse have been vacant in the hospital for the past one year. No efforts were made to fill these posts. In past three months the state Health Department had ordered the transfer of six nurses from here but their substitutes were not posted.

Mandi, March 22
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh inaugurated the multi-crore Hari Har Hospital at Gutkar, 6 km from here yesterday. The multi-speciality hospital is first of its kind in the state.

Hamirpur, March 22
Water is a precious commodity and we should work for its conservation. This was the crux of the day-long seminar, organised on the occasion of the World Water Day here today.