 |
|
All eligible to get pension in HP
Virbhadra’s assurance to minorities
Plan to amend Panchayati Raj Act
950 gm charas seized
Dental college strike termed illegal
Air Force guard
commits suicide
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
All eligible to get pension in HP
Shimla, November 25 This was announced by Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, while addressing a gathering after inaugurating the two-day Ekadshi fair at Balag in Theog
yesterday. He said the state was giving top priority to social security, pension would be given to the poor, old, handicapped and widow. He said the scheme was initially introduced by the Congress government in the state and it was later adopted by various other states in the country. He said the number of pensioners had increased to about 2 lakh out of which 28,481 pension cases were sanctioned by his government last year. He said that the government was spending about Rs 50 crore annually to provide pension to the people. The state had been adjudged as the best in the country in delivering social service to the people while in over all performance the state had been ranked third in the country. Mr Virbhadra Singh said the government was laying special emphasis setting up of vocational training institutions as there was demand of skilled manpower not only within the country but abroad as well. He said the government had decided to open one industrial training institute in each assembly segment in a phased manner. Efforts were afoot to upgrade the government polytechnic, Sundernagar to engineering college. He said the Regional Engineering College, Hamirpur, which now had been upgraded to National Institute of Technology was one of the 14 such institutions in the country. He announced the upgradation of the Government Middle School, Dadhali, to high school from next academic session. |
|
|
Virbhadra’s assurance to minorities
Shimla, November 25 The Chief Minister while presiding over the first Minorities Welfare Board meeting, here today, stated this. He said the government had constituted an independent State Minorities Finance Development Board which was catering to the development needs of the minorities by providing them liberal loans at low rate of interest to start self-employment ventures. He said the state had over 2.75 lakh minority population, which was 4.5 per cent of the total population as per 2001 census and consisted mainly of Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians. “The government has introduced Urdu, Punjabi and Bhoti languages in educational institutions from class six to eight as optional subjects and 100 such schools are being identified where 20 or more students will opt for these languages,” he informed. Mr Virbhadra Singh said the Gujjar and Gaddi communities had also been provided scheduled tribe status in the state so that the development process percolated down to the minorities as well. He said efforts would also be made to provide land for the construction of houses for the landless. He directed the officials to identify government land for graveyards for minorities in the areas having their concentration to facilitate proper last rites. He said encroachments on old graveyards would also be removed. He also directed the authorities to strictly enforce the ban on smoking in public places, especially in buses, trains and public transport. “All the
madaras, functioning in the state, will be registered ,” he said. |
|
|
Plan to amend Panchayati Raj Act
Nurpur, November 25 Mr Mahajan said that under the new Act the villagers would participate in the panchayat-level development activities and the ward members of a gram panchayat would elect up-pradhan. “The post of the up-pradhan in a gram panchayat is considered to be insignificant, but the new system will empower him to head the panchayat budget committee,” he informed. He pointed out that the defunct gram sabhas were being revived. “The panchayat budget proposals will thoroughly be discussed at the meetings of the gram sabhas and finalised with consensus,” he added. Mr Mahajan, who is also the Revenue Minister, said that the government had also planned to revamp the revenue administration and added that all tehsil headquarters would be made online with the district headquarters, the Directorate of Land Record, the Financial Commissioner (Revenue), office of the Revenue Minister and the Chief Minister within next one year. He said that at least one tehsil in each district would be made online for computerisation of land record by the end of next month. The Revenue Minister revealed that four committees had been constituted headed by different Deputy Commissioners in the state to examine the reforms in the Revenue Department, the prevention and removal of encroachments, survey settlement and consolidation and disposal of court cases. He said that in order to expedite the long-standing land demarcation and other related cases, the Revenue Department would engage retired tehsildars, naib-tehsildars and kanugos. |
|
950 gm charas seized
Mandi, November 25 Last evening, the Department of Customs, Kulu, laid a trap at Aut, about 45 km from here, and seized an unclaimed bag that contained over 950 gm of charas. “The local bus was coming from Kulu to Mandi. The consignment was hidden in a bag kept under the seat,” said Customs officials. “It was just within an hour that the bus came from Kulu and we stopped it and found a bag that turned out to be unclaimed,” said Mr K.N. Bhardwaj, Superintendent (Customs), Kulu. “The bus conductor claimed that he had no knowledge of the bag as he was busy issuing tickets to passengers.” Source said charas smugglers operated daily, changing the mode of transport as and when required. “It appears that they ferry small consignments as ‘unclaimed bags’ on local buses or long-route buses on the highways. If these consignments are delivered safely at the ‘desired points’, even conductors are rewarded. These small items are then assembled at safe places before they are delivered into the final hands in cities,” the sources said. It was on the basis of a report published in The Tribune, which highlighted how smugglers tried newer methods of transport to divert contraband consignments to drug markets in Delhi, Goa, Mumbai and cities in Punjab and Haryana, that the Customs Department first laid the trap. Consequently, the Mandi police seized 10 kg of charas from a person from Sainj in Kulu district at Mandi when he was trying to smuggle the consignment to Delhi in an HRTC bus on Tuesday night. |
|
Dental college strike termed illegal
Sundernagar, November 25 On the night of November 23, two of the employees were removed by the police and were admitted in the sub-divisional hospital as three more joined the strike. Today about 50 women from different localities came forward in support of the striking employees and held demonstration in the campus of the college. They were, later, dispersed with the help of local police. The authorities said the strike was illegal as per the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act. They added that the striking employees were called for the talk yesterday but none turned up. Talks would be held tomorrow. |
|
Air Force guard
commits suicide
Solan, November 25 The 48-year-old guard, who finished his duty at 2 a.m., did not wake up the other guard who was to take over the duty after him. It was a checking officer who noticed Shanta Kumar’s body when he came there around 3.45 a.m. The police, which was informed about the mishap later, sent the body for post mortem. The body was later handed over to the Air Force authorities for conducting the last rites. The police officials, who have ruled out any foul play, have registered a case. |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
