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Two-child norm for panchayat poll goes in HP
Probe on into bank guarantee by firm
Admin sleeps as private contractors dump debris into Beas
Dam oustees’ land grabbed in Rajasthan, two booked
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Major de-addiction campaign launched
Plan to increase generation capacity at Luri
Lawyers stage dharna against tax
120 liquor bottles seized
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Two-child norm for panchayat poll goes in HP
Shimla, April 7 The Excise and Taxation minister, Mr Rangila Ram Rao, introduced the Bill, for the imposition of professional tax on people in various professions, trades and employment. The tax will be payable by all salary and wage earners with more than Rs 4,000 salary per month, lawyers with more than five years of practise, owners of hotels, nursing homes, doctors, film distributors, journalists, educational and computer institutes, transport companies, contractors, persons running STD, ISD booths and cold storage. The minimum rate of the professional tax has been fixed at Rs 50 while the upper limit will be a maximum of Rs 200 per month. The Bill provides for deduction of the tax at source and the appointment of a Commissioner and assessing authority. The government is likely to get a revenue of Rs 45 crore annually from the imposition of Professional Tax to finance the expanded social security system for the benefit of the poor. The categories exempted from the tax includes daily wage earners, employees hired by the state government on a contract basis, co-operative societies, small and petty dealers with annual turnover up to Rs 4 lakh, agriculturists including orchardists, support service providers in villages like carpenters, blacksmiths, barber, dhobi and other rural artisans, freedom fighters, pensioners, military, Navy and Air Force personnel, including central paramilitary personnel. Mr Rao also introduced the Himachal Pradesh Local Area Development Tax Bill with a view to mobilising additional resources for integrated development of the local areas. It provides for the levy of tax on entry of certain goods into local areas for consumption or use and motor vehicles for sale and use in such areas. Once the Bill comes into force it is expected to earn a revenue of Rs 15 crore annually to the state government. Later, the House passed the HP Panchayati Raj (Amendment ) Bill, which was laid in the house earlier by the Rural Development Minister, Mr Sat Mahajan. The Bill provides for doing away with the two-child norm for contesting panchayat elections, making the provision for debarring encroachers from contesting elections more stringent and holding of indirect elections of UP Pradhan. Mr Mahajan said the government would consider making concession in case of members who were living separately from the joint family as far as the disqualification of a person, whose family member or relative had done encroachment, was concerned. The House also passed the HP Agriculturists and Horticulturists Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation Bill), today. |
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Probe on into bank guarantee by firm
Shimla, April 7 Replying to a question by Mr Vikram Singh of the BJP, the Irrigation and Public Health Minister, Mr Kaul Singh Thakur, said the matter was being probed by the police and a case had been registered against Software Technology Group International Limited. The firm had been given the contract on March 22, 2004, for installing computers in government senior secondary schools in the state. “ The contract was revoked after the verification from the State Bank of India, Dehra Dun, revealed the bank guarantee was fictitious and forged with the signature of the senior manager,” informed Mr Thakur. He said at the time of awarding of contract there did not seem any reason for doubt as the documents had proper bank stamps. The Education Department on its part had taken all necessary precautions, he added. Mr Karamdev Dharmani of the BJP raised the issue of poor implementation of the ban on polythene, especially in the rural areas. “ I agree that use of polythene bags is still there in certain areas and there is need for regular raids and checking by the officials concerned,” said Mr Thakur. He said the Secretary, Information Technology, had directed all Deputy Commissioners to undertake random checking of premises of traders and retailers where polythene bags were being sold. He also stressed the need for creating awareness so that the ban on polythene could be made effective. The minister informed that ever since the ban on polythene bags 1,040 cases had been registered and a sum of Rs 2.81 lakh collected as fine. The Forest Minister, Mr Ram Lal Thakur, informed the House that the Rs 540-crore Mid-Himalayan watershed project, funded by the World Bank, would be launched from January next year.” |
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Admin sleeps as private contractors dump
Mandi, April 7 The contractors and the PWD trucks carry the debris from the roadsides and dump it into the Beas river near the roadside just below the Divisional Commissioner’s office in the Bhiuli area. The trucks can be seen carrying the debris from the Saketi bridge worksite and take it to the Old Mandi bazaar and throw it down into the Beas river with impunity, polluting the water. Even the MMC’s trucks carry the trash from the town and dump it into the Beas river, about few hundred metres from the Brindavani barrier, say the residents who live nearby. The trash and junk produced by the government offices, dhaba owners and hoteliers and local residents end up into Saketi khud and the Beas river. Even the sewerage line is damaged near the new bridge site and is leaking into the Saketi khud, complain the residents. The Bangla Mohala site nearby the historic Panchvakhtar temple is virtual a breeding ground of stale water and trash, they rue. The Bangla Mohala, Mangwani, zonal hospital areas, Sakeodi nallah, has become the breeding grounds for the mosquitoes. The MMC’s president, Ms Sushila Sonkhla, said they had allotted a dumping site to the truckers and tractors nearby the Brindawani barrier. “We collect the waste from the dumpers and then dump it there. We need to take mass awareness to dump the wastes into the dumping site”, she added. The Chief Engineer, Mandi division, Mr R.K. Sharma said even petrol pump owners and private builders on the National Highway No.21 are dumping the debris in the river. “We have no designated site for dumping the debris except for the world bank-aided project. I will direct the Executive Engineer to see that the debris are not dumped in the river”, he added. |
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Dam oustees’ land grabbed in Rajasthan, two booked
Nurpur, April 7 The Jawali police yesterday lodged a forgery case under Sections 420,468,471 and 120(B), IPC, against a local stamp paper vendor Lal Chand Chowdary and Vijay Kumar of Chalwara village for their alleged connivance to sell about 125 kanals of murabba of Amer Singh, a dam oustee of Farian village, allotted to him in Vijay Nagar tehsil of Sriganganagar in
Rajasthan. The accused allegedly forged a sale agreement on behalf of Amer Singh with his fictitious signature and sold his land to Subash Singh, a resident of Rajasthan, with a consideration of Rs 8 lakh. According to the Jawali police, when the complainant, Amer Singh, who is also the president of the Pong Dam Oustees Committee, and had been allotted the murabba in Rajasthan, happened to visit that place on March 3, he found that his murabba had been sold to Subash Singh by way of a sales agreement on a stamp paper purchased on his name from a stamp paper vendor at Jawali with purchased serial number 372 on July 7,2004. In order to know the actual position, the complainant returned home and moved an application with the Jawali Tehsildar on March 22. The vendor was summoned with his record and it was found that no entry with its serial No. 372 had been made on July 7, 2004. |
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Major de-addiction campaign launched
Shimla, April 7 The HP State Chemists and Druggists Association has joined hands with the police and the Psychiatry Department of Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) for the mission Posters and pamphlets brought out by the Chemists Association have been sent by the state CID to all police stations, panchayats, schools and other institutions. The pamphlets stress on the need for drug de- addiction and the services of the Psychiatry Department at IGMC, in this regard. Studies conducted by the Department of Community Medicine, IGMC indicate that youth between the age of 15 and 25 are getting hooked to drugs like cannabis (charas), opium, sedatives and cough syrups. “Very few addicts are willing to come forward to overcome the problem as there is tremendous peer pressure. Schools have a tendency to outrightly deny that the problem exists among their students,” points out Dr Ravi Sharma, head, Psychiatry Department at IGMC. |
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Plan to increase generation capacity at Luri
Shimla, April 7 As per the pre-feasibility report
prepared by the state electricity board, the project was to have an
installed generation capacity of 465 MW. The dam was to be constructed
at Nathan, 11 km downstream Luri, and the power house near Tattapani, 4
km upstream the Chaba project. It involved construction of a 16-km long
headrace tunnel. Engineers of the SJVN found that the dam site at
Nathan 90 m of head is not utilised. The engineers of the nigam have
worked out that if the dam is constructed around Sainj instead of
Nathan, the installed capacity will be increased by about 235 MW. The
length of the headrace tunnel will increase to 27 km. The height of the
dam will be restricted to 80 m to keep the level of the reservoir well
below the tailrace of the upstream Rampur project which is also being
executed by the nigam. The power house of the Rampur project is to be
constructed at Bael, near Dut Nagar. The exact site of the dam will be
decided after the report of the Geological Survey of India. A team of
the GSI is visiting the area later this week. The project is being
designed for a higher discharge than the 1500 MW Nathpa-Jhakri project
as it will also utilise the water of six streams which join the Sutlej
between Nathpa and Sainj. The Nathpa Jhakri project has been designed
for a discharge of 383 cumecs, whereas for the Luri project it will be
477 cumecs. The nigam is also preparing the detailed project report of
the 400-MW Khab project to be set up upstream the 1500-MW Nathpa-Jhakri
project in Kinnaur. |
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Lawyers stage dharna against tax
Shimla April 7 The dharna was staged on a call by the Bar Council of Himachal Pradesh. The Bar Association of the High Court held a meeting and decided to abstain from courts. It appointed proxy counsel to conduct the cases listed for the day. A dharna was staged in the High Court complex. Members of the SAT bar and District Court Bar Association also staged a dharna. Vice-Chairman of the Bar Council Ravinder Thakur said advocates in their early years of practice faced financial hardship and the government had done nothing for the fraternity till date. A meeting of the Bar Council would be held in the third week to April to decide the future strategy in this regard, Mr Thakur said. |
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120 liquor bottles seized
Parwanoo, April 7 The youths, who were coming from Kalka side, were asked to pull over by the police night patrol party. The liquor was being carried in a sack. The youths — Banti Kumar and Anil Kumar — belong to Old Panchkula. A case under various Sections of the Excise Act has been registered. Also, the police seized 12 bottles of country-made liquor from a dhaba owner in Darlaghat. The dhaba owner was booked under the Excise Act.
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