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Virbhadra accepts Sikhs’ demands
Badal against politics of confrontation
State may lose Mahaseer seed farm
Resentment over mass reversion of staff
14.8 kg charas seized, foreigner among 2 held
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Poachers pose menace to sanctuary
Kidnapping: DSP takes over probe
Women conductors for HRTC buses
Bypass hits tourist flow to Barog
Nine students arrested
Admn move to create parking space
Gaiety Theatre set to regain old glory
One killed, 2 hurt in mishap
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Virbhadra accepts Sikhs’ demands
Shimla, September 12 Presiding over concluding functions of fortnight-long celebrations, Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, accepted the demands raised by Mr Parkash Singh Badal, SAD president, who was the chief guest. He announced that his government would provide Punjabi teachers in schools where the Punjabi-speaking population was concentrated in the state. He said hitherto, Punjabi teachers were provided only on demand if more than 25 students opted for the language. He said he could have introduced Punjabi in all schools if the government had not been facing a financial crunch. He also accepted the demand for handing over the historic Lohgarh Fort of Banda Bahadur to the Sikhs. He said the matter would be brought before the Cabinet in the next meeting and the property would be transferred to the Guru Singh Sabha of Paonta Sahib. Mr Badal said the teachings of the Gurus were more relevant today. He said Guru Granth Sahib was a complete treatise which took care of every aspect of life and society, including governance. He said promoting Punjabi would go a long way in spreading the message of the Gurus. Prof P.K. Dhumal, a Former Chief Minister, expressed concern over attempts to tinker with history and the Guru Granth Sahib by some historians. He said it should be to ensured that no one dared distort history or tinker with holy books as it involved the sentiments of the people. The local Singh Sabha organised a blood donation camp and a langar on the occasion. The Jathedar of the Akal Takht, Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti, and Giani Puran Singh, head priest of Harmandar Sahib, also addressed the gathering. |
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Badal against politics of confrontation
Shimla, September 12 Talking to newsmen, he said the politics of confrontation would lead the country nowhere. It was not good for a democratic set-up where issues had to be resolved through consensus and mutual agreement. He said political parties should give up the confrontationist approach and come together to tackle pressing problems. He said farmers were committing suicide, industry was in bad shape and unemployment was increasing with each passing day. These important issues could be handled effectively only if there was unanimity among the political parties. He said once the elections were over and a new government assumed office the opposition and the ruling parties should sink differences and address the real issues. As far as possible issues should be decided through consensus. He said confrontation and political vendetta never paid as was evident from the happenings in Punjab. He said Captain Amarinder Singh had appointed chairpersons of boards and corporations by the dozen and over 100 lawyers had been made Assistant Advocates-General without any rhyme or reason. |
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State may lose Mahaseer seed farm
Mandi, September 12 The controversial fish farm project came up for discussion at the Planning Board meeting chaired by Chief Minster Virbhadra Singh at Shimla recently, and he is expected to decide the issue within a few days as officials feared that the funds allocated for the project might get lapsed. The Director, Fisheries, Mr BR Kandual, told The Tribune that the Tata consultants that Dharampur MLA Mohinder Singh is talking about had also observed that the Sidhpur site lies in the flood-prone zone. “The maintenance cost will be high as the wall to protect the farm from floods will cost
more than Rs 1 crore”, he says. The Tata consultant firm had recommended neither the Sidhpur site nor any other
site." It was due to political considerations that the Dharampur MLA is making claim that the Sidhpur site was recommended by the firm,’’ revealed the Fisheries
officials." The Central Government had sanctioned Rs 1 crore to NMSFF on March, 2002, and has already recommended Rs 1 crore more for the project, sources revealed. The government has identified 30 bighas of land about 2 km downstream from Machial in Jogindernagar subdivision in Mandi district. The site lies near the confluence of Rana Khud and Shanan Khud and is rich in Mahaseer, making it a natural choice, said Mr
Kaundal. Though Mahaseer fishe are depleting in the Beas and other rivers in the state because of water pollution, silt discharge, mining and debris from roads and refuse dumped in the river from the town upstream, Mahaseer fish is found in the plenty in Gobind Sagar in Bilaspur, Maharana Pratap Sagar in Kangra district and other reservoirs of the country. The Mandi-Sidhpur Beas belt once used to be rich in Mahaseer but today the species is depleting because the pollution in the river caused by the silt from Pandoh dam, mining in khuds, roads’ debris and trash and junk dumped upstream at Mandi and other towns that have come up along the Beas river over the years. Mr Mohinder Singh, Dharampur BJP MLA, had threatened to move court if the NMSFF site is shifted from Sidhpur in his home constituency to Machial or any other site, giving 15 days time to the government to decide the matter. On the other hand, Mr Harsh Mahajan, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Housing Minister, had said that the site was flood-prone and Machial was found to be a better site. |
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Resentment over mass reversion of staff
Shimla, September 12 They insisted that the Rampur project should not be assigned to the nigam even as its management agreed not to relieve the 775 employees of the board whose reversion orders were issued two days ago. Delegations of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Employees Union and the Project Engineers Association of the board met Mr Virbhadra Singh here today and impressed upon him that given the negative and
adamant attitude of the management of the nigam, the joint venture between the state and the Centre would not be able to function smoothly. Mr K. K. Vaidya, president of the association, said the best possible solution to put an end to the persistent wranglings was that the state should acquire the 75 per cent equity share of the Centre to make the joint venture a state-owned enterprise. He said the matter should be taken up with the Centre immediately. The engineers asserted that it was possible to acquire the equity share of the Centre in a phased manner from the income generated from the Nathpa Jhakri project itself. The 1500 MW project would generate a revenue of Rs 1,700 crore annually and as such its total cost of about Rs 8,600 crore would be recovered within five years. They stressed that the government should not buckle under pressure from the nigam, which was trying to dictate terms to the state and instead assign the Rampur project to the board for execution. Even if the project was to be allotted to the nigam the terms and conditions on which the staff from the board was to be taken should be decided unambiguously. The state should insist that employees should be taken on deputation. Mr Chander Singh Mandyal, general secretary of the employees union, said that the mass reversion had been ordered in violation of the agreement. He urged the Chief Minister to hold a meaningful dialogue with the Union Power
Minister, Mr P.M. Sayeed , and ensure that the interests of the state were safeguarded. |
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14.8 kg charas seized, foreigner among 2 held
Mandi, September 12 A local youth Budh Ram (25), from Jara village in the valley, who acted as the courier and a Netherlander, Mr Baspian, who had married a woman from Manikaran was living in a rented house in Karja on the left bank of the Beas River near Manali. Both had been arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. While Baspian was arrested in Delhi yesterday and was brought to Kulu today, Budh Ram was arrested yesterday at Manali. The police claimed that these two were only a tip of the ice berg, but it had no incriminating evidence against more such foreigners who have married local women just to cash in on the charas smuggling that gave them big money in the international markets in Singapore, Europe and America. On Friday night an unidentified person booked three seats in a HP Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) bus. The briefcase was booked with a separate seat. When the conductor failed to verify the owner of the briefcase, he handed over the case to the HPTDC office. Baspian boarded the bus from Kulu, but when he reached Delhi in the morning he found the case missing. So he got in touch with Budh Ram in Manali. Meanwhile the HTPDC office informed the police about the unclaimed briefcase. When the police opened the briefcase it found 14.8 kg of charas contained in a torn blanket piece. By then Budh Ram called up the HPTD office, requesting them to send the case to Delhi, saying that he was a passenger waiting in Delhi. But he was caught at the PCO nearby as the police traced his call said police sources. The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Kushal Bhardwaj said that the police then sent a team to Delhi in a HPTDC bus and caught Mr Baspian there when he approached the bus conductor to the get the brief case. He was immediately arrested. The police claimed that many foreigners were using the local poor people, mainly Nepalis as couriers, who got Rs 5,000 to 10,000 per consignment to be delivered to the destinations in Delhi, Mumbai and Goa before these consignments were taken out of the country. Budh Ram had told the police that he had been paid Rs 2,000 to do this job. The Kulu police has arrested over 56 persons, including eight foreigners and 16 Nepalis in over 51 cases, under the NDPS Act to date in this year, added the police sources. |
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Poachers pose menace to sanctuary
Kugti Sanctuary (Chamba), September 12 Poaching for the skin and the flesh of wild animals to be used for medicinal purposes had become a danger to the breeding of wildlife. It had also put on some species to the brink of extinction in the natural habitat of Kugti. After Sangla in Kinnaur district, spread out over an area of 650 sq km, Kugti was spread over an area of 379 sq km. It was the second largest sanctuary in Himachal Pradesh. It was about 95 km from Chamba. Wild animals coming at night to drink water in the Budhal river, a tributary of the Ravi, killed by the poachers. According to officials of the Wildlife Department, this vast sanctuary, was being looked after by only a Deputy Range Officer, and three forest guards, which is quite inadequate. The species found in the sanctuary were — thar (kerth), ibex, musk deer, barking deer, goral, brown bear, black bear, leopard, snow leopard and birds, including monal, koklas and snow cock. Sadly the state government had not conducted any census of various surviving species and sub-species in the Kugti sanctuary for the past many years. The government reportedly was also not ensuring a proper care of the wildlife population in this sanctuary. Sanctuary officials, however, maintained that no case of poaching and hunting of wild beasts had so far been detected in this sanctuary. |
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Kidnapping: DSP takes over probe
Palampur, September 12 Parkash Chand and Rajo Devi told mediapersons here today that Vivek, a Class V student was kidnapped from the village on evening of August 20, when his mother had gone to fields. When she came back in the evening Vivek was missing. She searched for him but to no avail. She then informed her husband Parkash Chand who is serving with the Punjab Police at Jalandhar. Initially the police was reluctant to register the FIR but lodged the FIR in Baijnath police station on August 21. Vivek’s parents said that some villagers in a nearby tea garden had found clothes, some hair of Vivek along with an iron rod. They informed the police same day. Later when the police came to the village someone removed the iron rod, when the police was present. The rod was allegedly used to kill the boy and was the lone evidence as weapon of offence. But even after recovery of clothes and iron rod from the tea garden the police did not register a case of murder and it
still continued its investigation for kidnapping. When angry villagers went to Baijnath police station to register their protest against the police failure to recover Vivek, they were kicked out of the police station. Even women were not spared. There was resentment against the non-cooperative attitude of the police. Mr O.C. Thakur Deputy Inspector General of Police (Northern) Range, arrived here today evening and held a meeting with the local police officers. He directed them for a speedy investigation of all cases of kidnapping. Later, a deputation of villagers from Sagoor village also met the DIG and urged him to hand over investigation of kidnapping cases to some other police officers, since the Baijnath police had failed to recover Vivek and other missing children. Mr Thakur said he had handed over the investigation to the DSP (Headquarter) and Additional S.P. Kangra. He said any police officer that had shown laxity in the investigation of these cases would not be spared. |
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Women conductors for HRTC buses
Dharamsala, September 12 Even though the existing staff at the local Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT) is still a bit apprehensive whether or not these three women would be able to continue with the “men’s vocation”, the women conductors are all set to add a new chapter to the history of the Transport Department. For 35-year-old Kanta Pathania, one of the three women conductors, the job is as safe or as unsafe as travelling in a bus full of men. “It was a challenging job and I decided to accept it. Now, there is no looking back,” she says. “Moreover, women are serving in police and medicine professions which were once considered exclusive for men only. It is all about having faith in yourself and doing everything with confidence. At present, we are travelling under the direct supervision of a trainer. Still, there are times when passengers are taken aback to see a woman issuing tickets and turn too inquisitive,” beams Ms Kanta. Although the three women conductors are travelling on buses only during daytime, they said they had no reservations about travelling at night as well. They are even sitting at the booking office when not on the bus to know more about the job. “My family, including my husband, have been very supportive and they did not raise eyebrows when I decided to take the job of a woman conductor. There are some friends who felt that it would be a tough job to deal with all kinds of passengers travelling in the buses, especially at night. But I was ready to face it,” says Ms Kanta. HRTC officials in Shimla said it was the first time that women conductors had been introduced in this part of the country. “They have already completed their 10-day training and their formal recruitment orders are likely to be issued soon, provided they are willing to continue with their job. It followed a novel proposal prepared by the Transport Ministry to promote participation of women in every sphere of life,” said an official. According to the local HRTC office of Division-3, which includes Dharamsala and Chamba, the proposal was finalised about seven months back and a total of 18 applications were received, of which five were selected and sent for training. “They have been trained in issuing tickets, keeping proper records, punching and also how to conduct the bus during boarding. They have picked up pretty fast. They have already been issued the valid-conductor licence,” said an official. |
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Bypass hits tourist flow to Barog
Barog, September 12 The bypass linking Kumarhatti to Solan, was constructed as the realignment of Kalka-Shimla highway. The worst-affected are dhaba owners. Generally, on the weekend it was hard to handle the rush of the tourists but now says a dhaba owners,” I had to retrench most of the workers.” The “nonchalance” of the PWD to take care of the highway passing through Barog after the inauguration of the bypass has further forced the motorists to avoid it, says Sanjay Kumar, up-pradhan of the local panchayat. The delay to undertake repair has led to big potholes on the road, particularly near Deonghat, he said. The local Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation-run hotel has also witnessed a fall in business. |
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Nine students arrested
Solan, September 12 The students were protesting against a medical report prepared by Dr Tewari where a fellow student, who had received stitches in a student clash on Thursday, was shown to have received only minor injuries. The DSP, Mr Gurmeet Singh, however, said that a fresh medical examination could be got conducted by a board of doctors to
satisfy the agitating students. As many as 15 students were arrested last Friday when activists of the NSUI and the ABVP had clashed on the campus of Nalagarh Degree College. |
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Admn move to create parking space
Solan, September 12 Though a number of new parking places had been suggested to ease congestion but paucity of funds was a major constrain in developing them. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Rajesh Kumar, directed the municipal committee here to generate a consensus in the committee for construction of a multi-storey parking place near Laxmi cinema hall. A plan had already been prepared some time back and the committee had been directed to get the place vacated from the lessee whose lease time had expired long back. The district administration was also pursuing a case for transfer of two sites of defence land along the state government land for creation of additional parking space. A proposal to get the Army land transferred measuring 2248 sq. mt. lying near the old bus stand here in lieu of a land measuring 3165 sq. mt. lying in Kather village belonging to the state government lying on the National Highway had been mooted. This would, besides facilitating the Army in getting an uninterrupted traffic-free road exclusively for defence use here, enable the state government to create additional parking space near the old bus stand. Another proposal involving construction of a bus stand at Dharampur involving exchange of 3.18 bighas of Army land with a piece of 5.16 bighas land located at Sihardi Mauja was also under consideration. The district administration had pursued the exchange of land at these two places in the civil military liaison held in July 2002 at Shimla. It had now taken up the matter with the Ministry of Defence for a final clearance. An on-the-spot inspection, conducted by the defence officials in March for this exchange, had approved the proposal and a no objection certificate had been issued by Army officials here. The Deputy Commissioner, said they were hopeful of receiving a positive response from the ministry and efforts would be made to arrange suitable funds for the projects. With traffic increasing on the roads with each passing day there was a sharp rise in the cases of accidents. The town’s Mall Road had been closed for traffic in the evenings to facilitate the people. |
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Gaiety Theatre set to regain old glory
Shimla, September 12 The government is now keen to revive theatre again by setting up a Gaiety Theatre Dramatic Society. Shimla has been home to amateur theatrical groups right from the British days when the Amateur Dramatic Club (ADC) was established. The history of the ADC goes back to the times when theatre was looked upon as a major and serious source of entertainment and considered to be a cultural necessity for the English elite. The theatre produced the best of the plays performed in London. The leading theatre personalities who were connected with the club included Field Marshal Lord Roberts who also remained Command-in Chief of India, Major P.H. Dnyer, a distinguished producer, Lord Bill Beresford, a famous poet, and Rudyard Kipling. Today the Gaiety Theatre is a monument with archaeological importance. Initially, it had a provision for a town hall and a theatre at the ground and first floor levels and a ballroom at the second floor above the Ridge road level. It had five storeys and an attic structure. On the recommendations of The Indian Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, restoration has been under taken on the proposal of an architect who was conversant with conservation of Gothic-styled heritage structures. At present, the first phase is in progress. A roof is being provided all over the structure to act like an umbrella over the original structure as left after 1911. This will save the building from further damage due to rain water percolating into the structure walls. Constructions raised after demolishing the upper floors will be removed and structural repairs will be carried out. The roofing is being done by slate. |
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One killed, 2 hurt in mishap
Nahan, September 12 According to reports received here, the driver of the truck, Inder Pal Singh of Nahan, died on the spot, while Rakesh and Harjinder, both residents of Nahan, were injured. The injured were rushed to Nahan District Hospital. |
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