Nahan, November 13
Six persons, including three of a family, were injured after a fire broke out in the cracker market at Nahan Chowgan ground, gutting 24 shops, here yesterday. Three other shops were allegedly looted by some miscreants.

Four of the injured were taken to the district hospital. Later, three of them — Simran (5), her nine-year-old brother Aditya and their father V.K. Walia (35) — were shifted to the PGI, Chandigarh. The fourth has been identified as Dinesh Kumar (33), a shopkeeper.

Deputy Commissioner M.L. Sharma has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. SDM Manmohan Sharma will hold the inquiry and submit his report within one week.

When contacted, the SDM said an immediate relief of Rs 3.16 lakh had been given to the fire victims by the administration.

However, according to sources, the Walia family has refused to accept financial help from the district administration.

According to eyewitnesses, the fire broke out in a shop selling crackers near the main gate of chowgan around 2 pm. Within 10 minutes, the fire reduced 24 shops to ashes.

It is alleged that a fire tender stationed close by failed to extinguish the blaze. Some local youths fought the fire before another fire tender reached the scene.

Later, some shopkeepers raised slogans against the Fire Department and blocked traffic at the Delhi gate. They also held a protest march in the market.

Shimla, November 13
The Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, today said that a high-level committee will be set up to look into the quality of roads constructed during the BJP regime, as he had been receiving numerous complaints in this regard.

Mr Virbhadra Singh added that there were also allegations of there being a nexus between contractors and politicians. He said there were some instances where no work had been done while the road had been shown as complete on papers and the funds allocated for it too had been exhausted.

"There was a nexus between the contractors and the politicians, including ministers in the previous BJP regime, and in certain cases only 10 per cent of the funds had been spent on actual work while the remaining had been siphoned off," he said. He added that majority of the roads, where money had been siphoned off, had been constructed under NABARD programme. The government was now collecting details about all such roads.

The Chief Minister said the special committee wo9uld visit all such roads to check the quality of work and the quantity of material used. It was on the basis of the report that the committee would submit that action would be taken against the erring contractors. "Efforts will also be made to get to the nexus between the contractors and the politicians during the BJP regime so that such elements can be exposed and the necessary action can be taken," he said.

Citing some examples of poor quality of work and funds being siphoned off he said the Sidhpur-Baghi-Sungri-Bahli-Takletch road in Shimla 
and some other roads in Kinnaur district were constructed only on paper.

Shimla, November 13
Demanding the immediate release of the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, state units of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal have threatened to hold demonstrations across the state.

In a statement issued here today, the VHP leader, Mr Arun Phalta, said the arrest of the seer was an attempt to insult the highly revered seer and cause humiliation to the Hindu community.

He termed the arrest a political conspiracy. He said rallies would be held all over the state against the arrest.

The state chief of the VHP, Mr Ashutosh, said the manner in which the seer was arrested, when there were three holidays, indicated that it was an attempt to humiliate him and hurt the sentiments of the Hindus.

“The arrest of the Shankaracharya is a conspiracy by those who are unable to digest his growing popularity and also an attempt to appease the minorities,” he alleged.

The Savarkar Vichar Manch also criticised the development and said an awareness campaign would be launched in the state to highlight the manner in which the arrest was made.

Meanwhile, a BJP leader, Mr Ganesh Dutt, has said that the arrest of the seer has hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community and the UPA government should tender an apology.

“Ever since the UPA government has come to power, there have been repeated attempts to hurt the sentiments of the Hindus and distort the history of the nation,” he alleged.

Nurpur, November 13
Recent raids conducted by a team of the Health and Family Welfare Department (HFWD) along with a special police force at Nurpur, Indora, Damtal and Guliali areas of this subdivision have failed to check the flourishing practice of quacks. It was alleged that many of the quacks were tipped off about the raid well in time. As a result, most of the treatment ‘vends’ either remained closed or allopathic medicines were removed from the premises. Interestingly, only two out of over 151 unauthorised practitioners could be booked for keeping allopathic drugs.

There had been reports that poor and illiterate people had been falling prey to such quacks.

The Tribune had highlighted on September 27 the mushrooming of clinics by quacks which were ill-equipped. The HFWD had then swung into action and collected the figures of private medical clinics and practitioners operating in the Nurpur medical block.

The Block Medical Officer (BMO), Nurpur, had submitted a list of over 150 such clinics and practitioners to the higher authorities. Dr Deepak Sharma, BMO, admitted that over 90 per cent of the identified clinics were unauthorised having no legal certificate to run them. Neither the BMO nor the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) have any power to check and take action against the quacks and illegal clinics. The inspection wing of the HFWD have some powers. The health department authorities are helpless in this connection,” he added.

Enquiries revealed that following the direction of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the neighbouring Punjab government had mounted pressure against the illegal practitioners and quacks in its own state, who then flooded the border areas of Himachal Pradesh and set up their clinics in rural areas of this subdivision.

Meanwhile, the Free Thinkers Club, a local social organisation which is up in arms against quacks and ill unauthorised clinics in the area has warned to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) if the state government failed to check this. The president of the club, Mr Vipan Mahajan alleged that there was a connivance between the quacks and the inspecting wing of the HFWD. The Chief Medical Officer, Kangra was contacted several times but he was not available.

Bilaspur, November 13
The manner in which erstwhile princess Raj Rajeshwari’s (65) body was brought to her palace here last night by her two servants has raised doubts about her natural death.

Her helpers, father and son, who were said to be kept by her as chowkidars, said she had died following a massive heart attack. They also produced a death certificate but her family doesn’t believe it to be a “natural death”.

Her brother Kirti Chandra urged the district administration to order a post-mortem examination by a board of three doctors.

The body was cremated today after the post-mortem examination.

A large number of people, including Forest Minister Ram Lal Thakur, Congress MLA Tilak Raj Sharma and Mr Suresh Chandel, MP, were present at the funeral.

One of the doctors who conducted the post-mortem examination said the body bore no injury marks but the viscera had been sent to a laboratory for examination and only then would the actual cause of death be confirmed.

It is said that Rajeshwari has left a will which gives her movable property to the two helpers while Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has been named chairman of the trust of her immovable property, including the palace.