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Incur expenditure as per norms,
Virbhadra creating regional imbalances: Dhumal
22-member team to retrieve bodies of ‘Swedish nationals’
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Power board staff up in arms over repatriation order
‘Tiranga yatra’ a divisive ploy, says Congress
Rs 6 crore for tribal districts
Gang of childlifters
busted
Fish farm: MLA threatens to move court
Justice for rape victim finally
Shortage of medical officers irks people
NHPC bags GPEMA award
Two killed in factory blast
Sack Virbhadra, says NGO leader
Govt directed not to announce JBT result
New SP takes charge
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Incur expenditure as per norms, says CM
Shimla, September 9 The Chief Minister, was presiding over a state-level Planning Development and 20-Point Programme Review Committee meeting here today. “Since the Annual Plan size had been proposed at Rs 1,400 crore, 20 per cent expenditure should have been made in the first quarter. Unfortunately there is a shortfall,” he said. Mr Virbhadra Singh informed that on the request of the state government, the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) had been reintroduced for undertaking road construction. “This will help provide continuity to the ongoing construction of roads, bridges, irrigation schemes and other social sector activities,” he said. In order to ensure speedy and effective implementation of the Plan, the Chief Minister directed the minister in-charge to undertake review of their departments once in two months and the Administrative Secretary to do it on a monthly basis. “There should be no complacency in implementation of the Plan programmes so that the satisfactory tempo of development can be further speeded up,” he stressed. Mr Virbhadra Singh regretted that during the past few years, the performance of the state in the implementation of the 20-Point programme had slowed down, which was a matter of concern. He said all efforts must be made to ensure its speedy implementation. Reviewing the progress of the Agriculture Department, the Chief Minister pointed out that there was need to oversee the progress of the watershed committees, as there were complaints that some of them were not functioning properly. Expressing concern over soil erosion on account of indiscriminate quarrying of sand and stones from riverbeds, especially in the border areas, he said strict action should be taken against the defaulters. Mr Virbhadra Singh said the government had decided to open atleast one Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in each of the assembly constituencies and this task would be completed during the next two years. |
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Virbhadra creating regional imbalances: Dhumal
Nurpur, September 9 Addressing a press conference here today, Mr Dhumal came down heavily on the Virbhadra Government for sacrificing the interests of the biggest and most politically significant district during the downsizing of the ministry by removing four ministers from the district. He alleged the government had been creating regional imbalances in the state by ignoring the interests of a particular area. “All development activities in the state have come to a standstill and the government has failed on all fronts,” he added. Lashing out at the Virbhadra Government, Mr Dhumal said it had worked against the interests of the people of the state and the Guler Assembly byelection would reflect its impact. “By signing an MoU with the Centre, the state government had played with the interests of the youths, employees, farmers, students and the disabled,” he lamented. He said by reducing funds under the drought relief programme for Kangra district, the government had played a joke on the people. Later, Mr Dhumal addressed a public meeting at Indora in his subdivision. KANGRA:
Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal on Wednesday said the coming by-election in the state was of paramount importance and the signing of an MoU with the Centre and the dropping of the three ministers from the Cabinet by Mr Virbhadra Singh would have far reaching consequences for the political scenario of the state. Mr Dhumal was talking to mediapersons at the local PWD Rest House on way to
Jawali. |
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22-member team to retrieve bodies of ‘Swedish nationals’
Mandi, September 9 The team, that also includes police and medical staff, will hit the spot on September 13 in the morning. The decision was taken by experts and district officials at Keylong at a meeting chaired by Deputy Commissioner, Lahaul and Spiti, Mr B.R. Verma, after a state government chopper did the recce of the glacier this morning. Sources said a Swedish woman, who had been missing since February, 1982 had been reported to have been travelling in north India, had been identified as Marcot Lydia. It was after this that the Swedish Embassy requested the state government to retrieve the bodies. Mr Verma said the decision was taken as the recce revealed that the it was possible to reach the spot on foot, chasing the trekking route used by the missing foreigner trekkers. “These bodies will be airlifted to Keylong for identification”, he said. |
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Power board staff up in arms over repatriation order
Shimla, September 9 The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Employees Union has termed the “mass repatriation” of deputationists in the nigam as an act of provocation and urged the government to review the decision of handing over the Rampur project to it. The project engineers association sees it as yet another attempt to browbeat the government into signing an accord against the interests of the state. Moreover, when the next meeting between the Union Minister of Power and the government is scheduled to be held on September 17, such en bloc repatriation of 775 officials is uncalled for, they feel. Mr K.K. Vaidya, president of the Project Engineers Association, said the nigam had resorted to unfair appointments during the execution of the Nathpa Jhakri Project, going against the agreement and unnecessarily built an oversized cadre of its own. If at all a surplus workforce had been generated, there should be retrenchment of the appointed staff rather than repatriation of board personnel. Mr Chander Singh Mandyal, general secretary of the union, said the management of the nigam had all along been giving a step-motherly treatment to the employees of the board. He said it was high time Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, intervened to get the repatriation orders withdrawn. He said the employees had been demanding that the Rampur project be got executed through the board. Mr Mandyal alleged that the management again proposed to shift the corporate office from Shimla to Delhi, for which a sum of Rs 25 crore was learnt to have been sanctioned. |
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‘Tiranga yatra’ a divisive ploy, says Congress
Shimla, September 9 Addressing a press conference here today, he said it was shocking that in pursuing its “divisive and disruptive” political agenda, the “party with a difference” had not spared even the National Flag. He said there was no bar in the country on hoisting the Tricolour, but there was code to be followed to ensure due respect to it. The BJP had not only violated the code but also insulted the Tricolour by hoisting much bigger party flags alongside. Protesters could also be seen playing cards sitting on the National Flag, he alleged. The National Flag had not been hoisted at the headquarters of the RSS till 2002, but there was not even a murmur of protest, he added. He alleged the BJP was using the issue to further its “destructive agenda” and create problems for the government and the administration by arousing passions. It was not a “Tiranga” but “dunga” (riot) yatra that the BJP was trying to take out, he said. The party had not reconciled to the fact that it was no longer in power, he added. Replying to a question, Mr Sharma asserted that there were no serious differences between the Congress and the Left. The two parties had different ideologies but a common secular agenda. A committee had been formed to ensure proper coordination and the common minimum programme was being implemented in the right earnest, he added. |
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Rs 6 crore for tribal districts
Shimla, September 9 This was revealed by Mr Kuldeep Kumar, Cooperation Minister, at New Delhi yesterday. Mr Kuldeep Kumar, who called on Mr Kanti Lal Bhuria, Union Minister of State for Agriculture said about 83 cooperative societies of Kinnaur and 116 of Lahaul-Spiti would benefit from project. He said the infrastructure of the cooperative societies would also be strengthened by providing proper training to the members and employees of the societies. He further said that seven districts of the state were already covered under the integrated cooperative development project, while the project was being implemented in three district of Solan, Mandi and Una. Mr Kuldeep Kumar urged the Union Minister to repeat the project in those districts which were earlier covered in order to benefit those cooperative societies which were earlier left out. |
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Gang of childlifters
busted
Dharamsala, September 9 SP S. Zahur Haider Zaidi told The Tribune that they had reasons to believe that the children were being sold to remove their body organ and then sell those to the needy at hefty prices. A police officer said the four members of the gang, who were arrested yesterday, had told the police that the children were sold to a Jalandhar-based doctor to work as domestic help. But he said the police did not buy their theory and investigations were on to explore all possibilities, including removal of body organs for sale. He said this aspect was important in view of the fact that vital body organs of teenagers were preferred in cases of transplants. He said the child lifters belonged to a particular community and the doctor also belonged to the same community. The police was working on the aspect that the lifters could be related to the doctor. “Police parties have left for Jalandhar to work on all these points and the help of police from other districts is also being sought to get to the root of the racket,” he said. “Since a racket involving trade of body organs had been busted in Punjab, there is a big possibility that those running the racket might have started lifting children in their early teens from Himachal Pradesh. Otherwise, the number of cases of lifting of children have been very few in this region,” he said. A case has been registered against the gang members in Baijnath and the vehicles used by them for committing the crimes have been impounded. The matter came to light when members of the gang tried to lift two children, Ajay (9) and Vijay (10), from Mukan Langhu but had to flee when the children raised an alarm. “The names of the members are being kept secret. |
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Fish farm: MLA threatens to move court
Mandi, September 9 Talking to mediapersons here today, Thakur Mohinder Singh claimed that Tata Consultancy had cleared the project when he had got it sanctioned from the Central Government in 1999-2000. “The then technical committee cleared the project terming the 88 bighas at Sidhpur best suited to mahseer seed farming. The present technical committee, set up by the Congress government, is nothing but a ploy to shift the funds to Chirgaon Fish Farm in the Rohru constituency of Mr Virbhadra Singh”, he alleged. He said the Congress government had set up a vigilance brigade in Mandi but it neither got anything incriminating against him nor Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal. Instead the BJP got a lead of 65,00 votes in the Dharampur constituency in the last Lok Sabha elections. Now the fish farm project has been made a target to avenge the defeat, he alleged. The former minister said the project was sanctioned by the then Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr K.C. Pant, and the then secretary, agriculture, to encourage the mahseer fish farming in the country. The government should bring out a white paper on the project soon, he demanded. Thakur Mohinder Singh said the site was inaugurated by him and a small fencing had been erected around the proposed site. There was no threat of flood here as it had not been reported for the past 80 years, he claimed. |
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Justice for rape victim finally
Solan, September 9 It was a moment of relief for Komal who had gone through the trauma of the most gruesome crime against a woman. Raped while having gone to the forest to answer the call of nature, it was not easy for the simple village girl to first convince the police that the doctor who had ruled out the crime in his medical report had indeed not made best use of his wisdom. The hapless girl, who had come to stay at her sister’s house, was made to run from pillar to post to get her medical examination conducted. First it was the unavailability of a lady doctor at Kunihaar and later an inappropriate report submitted by an
Arki-based doctor which ruled out rape that prolonged matters. Not only this the doctors at the District Hospital here refused to conduct a medical examination when she had been brought here the next day. It was after the intervention of the State Commission for Women that Komal was examined by the doctors at the IGMC, Shimla, after three days of the incident. The matter also drew the attention of the state High Court which directed that a rape victim’s medical examination be carried out essentially by a lady doctor. The medical examination conducted at Shimla and the report of the chemical analysis confirmed that the crime had been conducted. The trial lasted several months.
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Shortage of medical officers irks people
Hamirpur, September 9 However, the one of the medical officers has been shifted from here without any substitute and the other is on sick leave. A pharmacist is running the institution and he too is on deputation from Kashmir Hospital. About 80 patients visit the hospital daily but go back disappointed for want of medical treatment due to non- availability of the medical officer. When contacted, Dr Sudershan Sharma, BMO, Nadaun, admitted that there was shortage of medical officers in the institutions of the area, including Galore hospital. The matter has been referred to the state government for action. |
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NHPC bags GPEMA award
Dalhousie, September 9 Giving this information here today, Mr S.K. Dodeja, Executive Director of the NHPC, said that the award was given on the basis of a statement of facts and the factual data presented to the World Environment Foundation. Mr Dodeja said that the world congress on environment management appreciated the major environment thrust areas and the mitigatory efforts taken to overcome the negative environment impact of hydropower development. The efforts of the NHPC for socio-economic and community development in this region were vehemently applauded. The award gave recognition to the NHPC’s commitment towards sustainable development and protection and conservation of environment and ecology not only in Himachal Pradesh but also in other regions of the country wherever the NHPC was operating, Mr Dodeja added. |
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Two killed in factory blast
Una, September 9 The seriously injured Jasbir Singh (35) of Nikka Nagal village was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh. According to Kishmir Singh Rana, president of the BMS Employees Union, the victims were working on one of the tanks containing gas when the explosion took place. Avtar Singh died on the spot while Anil Kumar succumbed to his injuries in the zonal hospital. Personnel Manager Shekhar Bhanot of the factory said the cause could not be ascertained. He said a tank containing bio-fuel caught fire, probably due to a short circuit, leading to the accident. He added all employees were insured. Meanwhile, general manager of the unit Sanjay Gupta said he had ordered an inquiry into the incident and added that immediate relief of Rs 25000 had been given to the affected families. |
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Sack Virbhadra, says NGO leader
Shimla, September 9 In a memorandum submitted to Mrs Ambika Soni, general secretary of the All-India Congress Committee, here, he said in case the party failed to remove the Chief Minister, he would move the Supreme Court in this regard. |
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Govt directed not to announce JBT result
Shimla, September 9 This order was passed yesterday by a Division Bench, comprising the Chief Justice V.K. Gupta and Mr Justice M.R. Verma, on a petition filed by Vandana Kumari. She has alleged that
allotting 10 extra marks to the students of rural background was illegal and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. |
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New SP takes charge
Hamirpur, September 9 Mr Negi was on deputation with the SSB earlier. |
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