Kangra, April 13
The Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee, will not assign any responsibility to the former Union Minister, Mr Sukh Ram till the election process is over. The party leadership will hold a meeting with the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, after the elections to consider the issue.

Addressing a press conference here today Ms Vidya Stokes, state Congress Committee chief and Power Minister, said there was no hurry giving him major party responsibility.

When asked why the Congress readmitted him in to the party told when cases of corruption against him were still pending, she said Mr Sukh Ram was an old Congressman and the situation demanded his homecoming in order to fight communal forces in the country and the state.

She said Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee had a double faced personality. On the one hand he had promised two million jobs for the unemployed but on the other hand he had directed the state government to reduce the employment opportunities by 2 per cent annually.

She said the NDA government had wasted Rs 1,000 crore from the exchequer on its India shining campaign.

Shimla, April 13
The BJP has accused the Congress of neglecting the interests of ex-servicemen and serving personnel during its rule and asserted that steps taken for the welfare of these sections made it evident that the Vajpayee government was their benefactor.

Mr Randhir Sharma, a spokesperson of the party, said that by extending the facility of voting by proxy to Army personnel the Vajpayee government had provided them the opportunity to participate in electoral process. He alleged that the Congress had opposed this measure.

Mr Sharma claimed that by constructing 198881 houses of Army personnel the government had for the first time made a sincere effort to help the serving personnel to live with families. The Vajpayee government also provided time-bound promotion avenues to lower ranks in the Army under which a sepoy would get promoted naik and havialdar after 20 years of service.

The BJP spokesperson said that in an effort to help serving personnel the NDA government went beyond the fifth Pay Commission recommendations and enhanced the maximum age for entry into the Army for women and Army widows. It also extended superspecialty health facilities to the parents, widows and children below 25 years of Army personnel.

It also went to the credit of the Vajpayee government that it made arrangements for the transportation of bodies of jawans who laid down their lives while defending the country to their homes for cremation with full military honours. It also sanctioned petrol stations, gas agencies, Rs five lakh for house construction, Rs two lakh each to parents and children of those who sacrificed their life for the country. Further, Rs 10 lakh each was granted to families to Kargil heores and Rs 7.50 lakh for those killed in other operations. Besides, Rs 2.50 lakh each had been sanctioned to Army men killed by landmines during operations.

Hamirpur, April 13
Former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal yesterday criticised Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for giving a wrong picture on employment in the state during the one-year Congress rule. He said people of the state should not believe him.

Before leaving for Chandigarh to canvass for party nominee, Satya Pal Jain, Mr Dhumal said the Chief Minister was giving misleading figures on employment. He claimed that no employment had been provided to the youth under Congress rule as the government had imposed a blanket ban on employment.

Hamirpur, April 12
The Himachal Chief Electoral Officer, Ms Manish Nanda, appealed to people to register themselves as voters, as the final voters’ list would be published on April 23. She said this while reviewing the programme for holding the Lok Sabha elections in the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat here yesterday.

Kangra, April 13
Forest Minister and Lok Sabha election candidate of the Congress from the Kangra parliamentary constituency Prof Chander Kumar yesterday demanded an inquiry into the collection of crores for Vivekananda Medical Institute Trust Palampur by misusing the government machinery and details of these collections should be made public.

Prof Chander Kumar was speaking at “Meet the Press” programme organised by the Trigarth Press Club here today. He said that Union Health Minister Sushma Swaraj was responsible for depriving the people of the state of better health care by not accepting the request of the state government to develop Dr R.P. Government Medical College Tanda on the pattern of the AIIMS. He said that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had communicated with the Union Health Ministry in this regard but without any action from the New Delhi. He said that on the one hand the Union Health Minister did not even respond on Tanda Medical College issue but on the other hand she blamed the Virbhadra Singh Government for not writing to them for developing Vivekananda Medical Institute and Research at Palampur on the pattern on the AIIMS.

He said the BJP-led NDA Government was be-fooling people through ‘Feel Good’ but actually BJP leaders believe in ‘Deal Good’. He said that scams and corruption touched was unchecked during the Vajpayee Government and former BJP Chief Bangaro Laxman and others were the examples.

He asked what was the reason behind the resignation of Mr Shanta Kumar as Union Minister. He alleged that Mr Shanta Kumar was failure as a Chief Minister. He criticised BJP leader Shanta Kumar for opposing the merger of Kangra district with Himachal Pradesh in 1966 when he was vice-president of the Zila Parishad. He said that Jana Sangh leaders including Mr Shanta Kumar raised a slogan.

‘Statehood Maroo Thood’ in the state and opposed statehood to HP. He lauded Fazal Ali and Jawaharlal Nehru and Mrs Sonia Gandhi for creating Himachal Pradesh as a full-fledged state.

He said that what agreement Mr Vajpayee had signed with Pakistan that people of Himachal Pradesh paid the price for it every day when youths of the state in Army and Security forces attain martyrdom fighting Pakistan-sponsored militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the Defence Minister and the Prime Minister should have been sued for the negligence of their government on the Kargil front.

He said that 30,000 hand pumps were sunk when he was I&PH Minister. He said that as Forest Minister he saved 70,000 trees from felling and to compensate it the card board cartons and poplar were brought here from Haryana and freight was paid by the government as subsidy. He said the Congress was contesting the poll on development plank.

Kangra, April 13
The police here arrested a 30-year-old Russian woman who was living with a Tibetan at McLeodganj on invalid documents, the police said here today.

District Police Chief S. Zahoor H. Zaidi said today that Kishmat Ulneio Lidimica a Russian national was arrested under the Foreigner Act for expired visa and staying without passport.

Mr Zaidi said that the woman was nabbed today when an intelligence input told of her expired visa.

He said that she did not have passport with her when arrested. She told the police that she had lost her passport but later said that her passport was stolen by a Tibetan.

He said that she was living with a Tibetan at McLeodganj for past six months and her visa expired last month. Mr Zaidi said that the police had information that there were more foreigners without valid documents and the police was tracing them. He said such cases would be identified.

Palampur, April 13
With the onset of summers the Himachal Government has geared up its machinery to check forest fires  in this district. 

Talking to mediapersons  Mr S.P. Vasudeva, Conservator, Forest, said a fire fighting plan  approved by the Planning Commission in 1998 had already come into force in the state. He said the plan deals with various preventive measures to be taken from time to time to check forest fires.

He said the low-altitude areas where chil trees were grown posed major fire hazard and in Kangra district over 8300 hectares were under chil plantation.  He said the Forest Department was fully equipped to check forest fires. It had been decided  to maintain the old fire lines by clearing bushes and cleaning inspection paths and road passing through forests.  He said all Divisional Forest Officer had been directed to personally visit the forests and ensure that all pine needles were removed from time to time, since these needles were highly inflammable. 

Mr Vasudeva said, besides, departmental efforts, the state government had also asked local residents to extend their  cooperation to the Forest Department in checking fires. He said for the first time all panchayat pardhans and presidents of cooperative societies, had been included in the fire prevention committees formed by the government. A special programme had also been launched by the department  to educate people living in the rural areas about the ill effects of the forest fires.

He said there would be no shortage of funds for the fire prevention programme  launched by the Forest Department. He said in Kangra district alone over 200 fire watchers had been pressed into service till date. These fire watchers had been allotted definite areas for patrolling, cleaning of roads  paths and for removing pine needles. He said these fire watchers would also be available at odd hours.

Kulu, April 13
A four-day international symposium on “Snow monitoring and avalanches ISSMA-2004” was inaugurated today at the SASE headquarters near Manali by M. Natarajan, Chief Controller, R&D (ACE), DRDO.

Dr S.K. Srivastav, Director-General, Meteorological Department, presided over the inaugural function.

Mr Natarajan said SASE had developed an avalanche dynamics model and various snow-measuring gadgets with the help of the CSIO, Chandigarh. Major-General S.S. Sharma, KC, VSM (retd.) who is a specialist in snow and avalanches, said the symposium was organised by SASE under the aegis of the Department of Space, Department of Science and Technology, Indo-US Forum and co-sponsored by CDAC-Pune, IIT-Bombay, and industry partners. He further said the symposium aims at bringing scientists of repute and users on a common platform and to discuss new ways and means of mitigation of avalanches in mountainous terrain.

Kangra, April 13
The Kangra police in a crackdown on illicit liquor traders in the district arrested seven persons, including a woman, during the past 24 hours and recovered 37,800 ml of English wine, 26,250 ml of illicit liquor and 10,125 ml of country liquor from their possession. Cases under the Excise Act were against them, the police said here today.

The Kangra district police chief, Mr S. Zahoor H. Zaidi, said Salochan Devi, a Bengali woman, was arrested today from Fairyian village under the Jawali police station and 5000 ml of illicit liquor was recovered from her. He said Naresh Kumar, alias Dil Raj was arrested last night from Kopra village under the Jawalamukhi police station last night and 37,800 ml of English wine and 7875 ml of country liquor was recovered from him.

Three persons were arrested in raids at Kalholi village under the Baijnath police station last night and 13,250 ml of illicit liquor was recovered from their possession.

The arrested persons were identified as Kala, Dulo Ram and Dass Ram of Kalholi village.

Solan, April 13
A rape case of a 20-year-old daughter of a class IV employee of Lawrence school Sanawar has come to light. The family residing on the school campus today got a case registered under Sections 363, 366, 376 and 120 of the IPC with the Garkhal police post today.

The police officials investigating the matter said that the girl a student of Industrial Training Institute (stitching course) at Garkhal went missing on April 7. She did not return after leaving house for the institute that day. She was coaxed to leave home and accompany Haryana youth Rinku with a promise of marriage. The girl had become friendly with the youth who had stayed at her house for some time in the past.

Solan, April 13
A youth from Delhi was found hanging from a tree near the old bus stand here this morning. Resident of Motinagar Delhi, the police found several injuries on his head and parts of body. The body was spotted by an Army guard who later informed the police about it.

The body was sent to the district hospital here for a post-mortem examination.