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Shimla, May 11 Arrangements have been made for the counting of votes for the four Himachal Pradesh seats on May 13. According to the State Election Office here, counting, which will start at 8 am, will decide the electoral fortune of 23 candidate who are in the fray for the four seats of Shimla, Mandi, Kangra and Hamirpur.
CM criticises BJP over ‘poll scare’
Virbhadra refutes Sushma’s charge
Hotel owner accuses BJP of tampering with voters
list
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2 poll officials arrested
Poll boycott
Dalai Lama back from
USA
Sub-judge’s court at Kasauli from June
Dr Johl advocates cost-effective
research
Marriage of minor girl
prevented
A new-look ministry on cards
4 hurt as bus overturns
Man gets life term for
murder
Leopard mauls boy’s hand
School wall collapses
Lawyers strike work
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Arrangements in place for counting
Shimla, May 11 Prominent among them are BJP leader and former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar, party state unit leaders Suresh Chandel, Maheshwar Singh, all members of the dissolved Lok Sabha. Pratibha Singh, wife of State Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Industries Minister Ram Lal Thakur, Forest Minister Chander Kumar and Col Dhani Ram Shandil, all from the Congress. As much as 55 to 60 per cent polling was recorded in the state yesterday and no untoward incident was reported during the poll process. The counting will be held at 20 centres set up at sub-division and district headquarters in the state. Each Parliamentary constituency comprises 17 Assembly constituencies. Mr S. K. B. S. Negi, Deputy Commissioner-cum-Returning Officer for the Shimla (SC) constituency, here said instructions had been issued for the announcement of trends and results through the public address system outside the counting halls. The results are expected by noon. Polled electronic voting machines have been deposited in strongrooms at 44 places near the counting centres and are being guarded by security personnel. Chamba: The counting of votes for the four Assembly segments of the district — Bhattiyat, Banikhet, Rajnagar and Chamba, falling in the Kangra Lok Sabha constituency — would start at 7 a.m. on May 13. Mr Rahul Anand, the Deputy Commissioner of Chamba, who is also the District Election Officer, said on Tuesday that the poll parties along with their electronic voting machines (EVMs) had reached their respective collection centres. He said the poll process has peaceful and the average percentage of poll turnout in the district was 59 per cent. A complaint of a scuffle between the activists of the Congress and the BJP outside the Nalher polling booth was lodged with the Election Commission. The BJP activists had suspected bungling in the poll process. The complaint had been disposed of on the spot, he claimed. The counting of votes for the Bharmour tribal Assembly constituency, which falls in the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, would be conducted at two tribal townships — at Bharmour for the Bharmour tribal subdivision and at Killar for the Pangi tribal subdivision. There were 502 polling stations in the district. Of these, 398 fall in four Assembly segments — Bhattiyat, Banikhet, Rajnagar and Chamba, which were part of the Kangra Lok Sabha constituency. The remaining 104 polling stations falling in the Bharmour tribal Assembly constituency were a part of Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, Mr Anand said. NURPUR: About 65 to 70 per cent turnout was recorded in Nurpur and its neighbouring Assembly segments in yesterday’s polling for the Kangra Parliamentary constituency. According to the information 64.77, 67.28, 71 and 68 per cent polling was recorded in Nurpur, Gangath, Jawali and Guler Assembly constituencies, respectively. In the Nurpur segment, there were only 66 voters at the Kalangan polling station out of which 38 exercised their franchise. —
UNI, OC |
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CM criticises BJP over ‘poll scare’
Shimla, May 11 Addressing press conference here, he said senior BJP leaders, including Mr Arun Jaitley Union Law Minister and Mr Suresh Bhardwaj, state BJP chief, had been alleging that there would be large-scale violence and rigging, particularly in the Mandi constituency, just to malign the Congress. Mr Jaitley had even demanded deployment of special observers and urged the Election Commission to declare the entire Mandi constituency as hypersensitive. He said Himachal Pradesh had been traditionally a peaceful state and it had no record of election-related violence or other irregularities. By making an unnecessary hue and cry in this regard, the BJP leaders had insulted the people of the state. Regarding the allegation that the state government had tried to create hurdles to scuttle Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s election rally in the state, he said the Congress had reserved the Dhalpur ground in Kulu and Paddal ground in Mandi for its concluding rallies on May 8. The BJP had applied for reservation of these venues but kept issuing statements in the press that the party was not being given the ground for Mr Vajpayee’s rally. It was the magnanimity of the Congress that it cancelled its Mandi rally to enable the Prime Minister to hold an election meeting. The BJP made numerous frivolous complaints of misuse of state machinery and violation of the Code of Conduct, none of which was found true by the Election Commission, he added. Regarding the alleged irregularities in the Vivekanand Medical Research Trust, he said the government would take appropriate action in case there was some complaint. |
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Virbhadra refutes Sushma’s charge
Shimla, May 11 He said the government did receive a communication from the union ministry in this regard. However, it wanted that Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College at Tanda be upgraded first as it was a premier institution on which over Rs 200 crore had been spent. He also criticised Mr Shanta Kumar, former union minister, for claiming that he was instrumental in securing a loan of Rs 100 crore for the Tanda medical college. He said the loan was advanced by Hudco and Mr Shanta Kumar had nothing do with it. |
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Hotel owner accuses BJP of tampering with voters
list
Kumarhatti, May 11 Ms Renu’s name was not in the list but her name was wrongly mentioned as that of the mother of her hotel worker, Dalip Kumar. She complained to the DC and the Tehsildhar. Mr Sanjay Kumar president of BJP’s Kasauli Yuva Mandal who was present at the booth during the incident said, the BJP had nothing to do with the omission of her name. The revised Barog voters’ list has 472 names. The old list had 540 names. |
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Dharamsala, May 11 District Police Chief S. Z. H. Zaidi here today said on a complaint filed by Naib Tehsildar of Jaisinghpur N.R. Thakur, the two officials were arrested under Sections 134 and 134-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1952. The arrested officials were identified as Anil Kumar, an engineer of the state electricity board posted at Mandi, and Gopal Singh of Bharmour of Chamba district. He said that arrests were made after the medical examinations of the officers and investigation. He said the two officials would also face departmental disciplinary action. Former Union Minister Shanta Kumar (BJP) candidate demanded re-poll in this station yesterday. — UNI |
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Poll boycott
Kulu, May 11 In Kulu segment
Kaniyal, the village of former minister Kunj Lal Thakur, recorded the highest 86 per cent polling.
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Dalai Lama back from
USA
Dharamsala, May 11 The Dalai Lama will be leaving for the United Kingdom later this month to address the Scottish Parliament on May 29. The Scottish Parliament invites heads of states to address its House. |
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Sub-judge’s court at Kasauli from June
Kumarhatti, May 11 The court would benefit thousands of people in and around Kasauli who at present have to go to Solan. Due to lack of adequate space at Kasauli, the court had been functioning from the Solan District Courts complex. Various sites in and around Kasauli were surveyed for shifting the court but land constraints delayed the move. Earlier, it was also planned to shift the court to Forest Rest House at Garhkhal, near Kasauli. |
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Dr Johl advocates cost-effective
research
Dharamsala, May 11 Dr Johl said India lost about Rs 500 on every quintal of food grain it exported. The cumulative loss till now was about Rs 11,000 crore, he said adding that despite this farmers were not ready to diversify as they did not find it a cost-effective proposition. He emphasised the need for cost-effective technologies to make the Indian economy competitive. Dr Johl said free market could be helping the country but was also causing a lot of problems for the common man and steps must be taken to redress these. Terming bio-technology as the science of new times, he said it could help in redesigning plants and animals. Most dreaded diseases could be cured with the help of bio-technology. He said Indian researchers must concentrate on scientific achievements and developing information technologies. In his presidential address, the Kangra Deputy Commissioner, Dr S. Baldi, asked the scientific community to find ways and means to help control unemployment. He said research should be undertaken to make tea gardens of Kangra cost-effective as it was labour intensive and could provide many jobs. He also suggested steps in encouraging farmers to adopt new crops like aromatic and medicinal plants and vegetables so that agriculture could become profitable. The Director of the IHBT, Dr
P. S. Ahuja, talked about new inventions at the institute. He said efforts were being made to ensure sustainable use of natural resources and develop new machines which saved time, energy and money. Schoolchildren from local schools were special invitees on the day.
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Marriage of minor girl
prevented
Solan, May 11 Taking advantage of her poverty and illiteracy, a distant relative, Kehar Singh, from Naraingarh, reportedly tried to make a fast buck by getting her married to a 25-year-old physically challenged youth, Krishan Kumar, of Kurukshetra. With timely intervention of the police, the marriage was stopped even though the groom and his father had reached Kamala Devi’s house to solemnise the ceremony. Interestingly, the middleman committed suicide before he could be nabbed by the police yesterday. The father and son duo, along with the girl’s mother, were arrested by the police yesterday and a case under Section 5 and 6 of the Child Marriage Restrain Act was registered against them. They were later let off on bail. Anita, a Class two drop out, unaware of what the fate had in store for her, initially had no idea what the celebrations at home were meant for. The Nalagarh DSP, Mr Virender Tomar, said though Anita was reluctant for the marriage she had little idea about its repercussions. Her mother tried to justify her act, saying that she herself had got married when she was 12 years old. She had also married her three elder daughters when they were 16 to 17 years old Kamal, who is a widow, maintained that poverty had compelled her to marry her daughters at an early age. The fate of the girl remains uncertain. Another attempt could be get her married, neighbours, who had reported the matter to the police, said. Being migrant labourers, originally hailing from Nahan, the family lives a hand-to-mouth existence. The police was consulting some welfare organisations to adopt the minor girl. |
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A new-look ministry on cards
Shimla, May 11 The ministry has to be pruned by the first week of July. The Chief Minister may wait till the Budget session, which is likely to be held in June. There are 16 Cabinet ministers and one chief parliamentary secretary, but Hamirpur, Solan and Sirmour have not been given representation. Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, has indicated that he will have two-tier ministry with a mix of experience, youth and talent. Efforts will be made to give representation to all areas and sections of people. In that case, eight ministers may be shown the door. The task of reconstituting the ministry will become easier if the two ministers, Mr Chander Kumar and Mr
R. L. Thaku emerge victorious. |
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4 hurt as bus overturns
Dalhousie, May 11 According to Mr J. S. Rana, SDM, Dalhousie, the bus driver failed to negotiate the curve and it overturned. The bus was carrying about eight passengers. The injured have been identified as Sumitra of Mangla village, Tilak of Khajjiar village, Sunil and his wife Vandana of Bakrota vicinity of Dalhousie hill town. All injured were discharged from the local hospital after first aid except Sumitra who had been referred to the Zonal Hospital, Chamba, for treatment, the SDM said. An immediate relief of Rs 1,500 had been sanctioned for Sumitra’s treatment. |
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Man gets life term for
murder
Una, May 11 In his order, the Judge said if the fine was realised, 75 per cent of the amount would be paid to the legal heirs of Riya Rana and 25 per cent to the state of Himachal Pradesh. Public Prosecutor K.S. Verma, in a press statement, said Harpreet Singh, along with Riya Rana, stayed at Sahil Hotel, Chintpurni, on July 6, 2002. They introduced themselves as husband and wife. On the next day, he booked the room for another day and informed the manager of the hotel that he alone was going to Chamunda in Kangra district and paid Rs 275 as advance. Later, the body of the woman was found in the hotel room. The police registered a case in this regard and Harpreet was arrested in Ludhiana. |
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Leopard mauls boy’s hand
Bilaspur, May 11 One hand of the boy was mauled. Villagers said this leopard had caused panic in the area as it has already killed several head of cattle and dogs. |
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School wall collapses
Palampur, May 11 Villagers told reporters that poor quality of material and weak foundation led to the collapse of the wall. They said remaining part of wall had also cracks and it should be dismantled. Mr Onkar Nath Sharma, a former panchayat pardhan, said that high-velocity wind and heavy rain led to the collapse of the wall. He denied that poor quality of material was used. |
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Lawyers strike work
Hamirpur, May 11 District Lawyers Association president Mahendra Singh said since the past 20 years, the timings of courts in all districts under Bundelkhand were changed from May 1 to June 30, during summers. However, this year the timings were not changed. —
UNI |
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