Mandi, April 22
Over 65 leprosy patients here are up in arms against the state government’s move to close down the leprosy hospital here. The government has given them an option to either shift themselves to the leprosy hospital at Kandbari in Kangra district or vacate the 52 bighas of prime government land on which they have raised a leper colony over the years.

The leprosy patients have been sitting in dharna for the past few days here, protesting against the government’s move to get the land vacated. They have been demanding that they should be allowed to stay on and the land should be transferred in their name permanently.

“Our children study in the school here and the leper colony is our new home now”, they plead. In fact, the state government issued a notification on February 14 closing down all but two leprosy hospitals in the state, stating that “these hospitals remained underutilised as leprosy has been almost eliminated from the state”.

With this order, the leporsy patients at leprosy hospitals in Kulu and Mandi are being asked to shift to the leprosy hospital at Kandbari in Kangra district. The other patients are being asked to shift to Mandodhar in Solan district.

Coming to the rescue of the leprosy patients here is the Kusht Rogi Kalyan Samiti (KRKS) formed by local residents, who have pleaded with the government to rehabilitate the patients at the same place. The samiti also fears that the prime land, is being given to some influential person to build a private hospital or at up some other venture there.

The president of the KRKS, Mr R.C. Vaidya, says that there are more than 10-15 lepers who still need daily change of bandages. “The leprosy patients are not accepted by society. We have taken up the matter with the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, regarding not shifting them from here.” The NGOs volunteer their services to the patients from time to time”, he adds.

Interestingly, the family members of the leprosy patients, who earlier almost discarded them now come to the leper colony as the patients get pension. They also hope that they will hit the jackpot as soon as the land is transferred in their name, say health officials. “The patients now grow vegetables and other crops on government land every year”, they add.

The Chief Medical Officer, Mandi Dr P.S. Dogra, said the leprosy hospital had no patient under treatment and all of them had been staying on the land for some years. “The leprosy hospital has been shifted to Kangra as it remains underutilised”, he adds.

Palampur, April 22
Mr K.B Rahalan, president of the Palampur Welfare and Environment Protection Forum, today demanded a high-level probe into the functioning of hospital welfare samitis in Kangra district.

In a press statement issued here today, Mr Rahalan said in the past four years these samitis had collected crores of rupees from poor patients. These amounts had been shown as spent on the welfare of patients but no one knew where these funds were spent and what type of welfare these samitis carried on. He said the functioning of these samitis had turned into a scandal and it needed a high-level probe.

Mr Rahalan said he had already written to the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, to take cognisance of news reports appearing in the Press regarding bungling in the functioning of hospital welfare samitis and order a probe so that public money being wasted was saved.

He said it was a matter of surprise that the government had kept these samitis outside the purview of audit by the Auditor-General or an internal audit by the Health Department. This had resulted in large-scale misuse of public funds. He said the government should also order the probe of purchases made worth lakhs of rupees made by these samitis.

He said money collected by these samitis should be brought under a strict check of the state government and officials should not be allowed to misuse the funds collected from poor patients. He said it was really a matter of shame that money collected from poor patients was spent on luxury items by the SMOs.

Shimla, April 22
Despite all the talk of downsizing of the government set up, the strength of employees has been increasing.

The latest employees census reveals that the total number of state government employees, including daily paid, work charged, voluntary and tenure staff has increased from 2,13,855 in March, 1997, to 2,36,659 in March, 2003. The number of regular employees swelled from 1,20,703 to 1,47,039, tenure employees from 1721 to 4175, part-timers from 6,308 to 13,163 and work-charged employees from 19,294 to 29,205 over the period.

There has been, however, a decline in the number of daily-wage workers from 26,318 to 38,774 mainly on account of regularisation of those who have put in more than eight years of service.

The percentage of women employees rose from 19.5 to 21.5 per cent, Scheduled Castes from 18 to 18.4 per cent and Scheduled Tribes from 4.5 to 5.2 per cent. The percentage of gazetted officers also increased marginally from six to 6.11 per cent. There were 8,983 gazetted officers in all.

While 5.17 per cent employees were drawing monthly emoluments upto Rs 5,000 as on March 31, 2003, 8.71 per cent were drawing salaries in excess of Rs 15,000. The percentage of employees earning between Rs 7,000 to Rs 15,000 per month was as high as 65 per cent.

As many as 93 senior officers were receiving Rs 35,000 per month, 397 between Rs 30,000 and Rs 35,000 and 850, including four non-gazetted employees , between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000.

With a strength of 61,009, the Education Department accounted for 41.49 per cent of the regular employees, followed by health (8.78 per cent) and police (8.56 per cent). The Shimla district had the maximum number of 28,757 regular employees out of which 16,324 were stationed at the state capital. It was followed by Kangra district with 27,717 employees, with 4080 of them based at Dharamsala, the district headquarters. Mandi had the third highest number of 20,256 employees of which 2,670 were posted at the district headquarters.

The 24 state public undertakings had 44,707 employees, including 4,142 non-regular, with the state electricity board accounting for the maximum 28,400 employees, followed by 7,958 in the state road transport corporation. As many as 5,151 employees were stationed at Shimla.

In addition the local bodies also had 4,065 employees of which 2,947 were regular. The Shimla Municipal Corporation had the maximum number of 1,452 employees.

Palampur: The tea industry in the Kangra valley has been passing through a crisis. Despite a bumper tea crop in the valley this year, there is no buyer for Kangra tea, in the international and national market at Calcutta.

Over one lakh kilogram of tea has been piling up in different parts of the valley as well as with brokers in Calcutta for the past one year.

Many times tea racks of Kangra tea under the trade- mark of “Himalayan Teas” were put up for auction, but failed to attract buyer’s because of the high cost.

The sudden fall in the production and sale of Kangra tea has not only caused concern among tea growers here, but has also adversely affected the financial health of cooperative tea factories at Palampur, Bir and Sidhwari. Because of a slump in the tea market and piling up of stocks at different places, out of the four tea factories, two have been closed for want of working capital.

Whatever the capital the state government had provided to these units has been exhausted in losses suffered in the past three years.

The crises in the tea industry has forced over 100 tea growers in Bir and Baijnath areas of the district to abandon their tea gardens.

Earlier, co-operative tea factories at Bir and Baijnath were buying the produce. Since these factories have been closed, tea leaves in 500 acres could not be plucked this year.

Tea growers say with the closure of the tea factories at Bir and Baijnath, over 5000 persons have been rendered jobless. No tea grower in the area has plucked leaves in the past two years. Growers are yet to receive payment for their produce supplied to cooperative factories in 2000 and 2001.

The tea growers blame the previous BJP government which adopted an “anti-tea growers” policies and discontinued various incentives being given to the growers.

Earlier, the marketing and development of the tea industries was being looked after by the State Industries Department. But the BJP government, in a major policy decision, attached tea cultivation with the Agricultural Department.

The Agriculture Department failed to deliver the goods and neglected the development and marketing of tea in the region.

Shimla, April 22
As part of tourism promotion activities, especially during the off-season, the Tourism Department will hold the Shimla Marathon with the likes of Preity Zinta and other big names from various fields expected to grace the occasion.

The departments of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Youth Services and Sports in association with the Athletics Federation of India and Himachal Pradesh will organise the marathon on September 27 to coincide with the World Tourism day. The main objective behind holding the marathon for the first time in the Himalayan region is to generate awareness about eco-tourism and attract visitors during the off-season.

Though the modalities of the marathon are being worked out, it is expected that the track would be of 42 km and open to all age groups and sections. “Being a local girl who has made it big in the tinsel world, we are trying to get Preity Zinta to participate in the marathon as her presence will attract people,” said an official.

Reputed athletes from abroad are being contacted to participate in the event. The organisers are hopeful that enthusiasts, who hold interest in such events, would come in large numbers not just from India but abroad as well. The presence of film and glamour personalities like Preity Zinta should be able to attract local crowds from within the state in large numbers.

The marathon, which will have about five laps, is likely to pass through the thick deodar forests in the Jakhoo area of the town. It will cross through the Forest Road, Sanjauli, Ridge, Raj Bhavan, Chaura Maidan, University and the Mall.

“The holding of marathons in Delhi, Noida, Chennai and other places has been able to attract a lot of media attention and participation from all over the world, so we are hopeful that holding of such an event at a popular hill station should be a big hit,” point out organisers. They say that the marathon is part of the strategy chalked out by the Tourism Department to hold such events all through the year so that there is a constant flow of tourists to the state.

Chamba, April 22
The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) has introduced a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for its non-technical staff. According to a notification, all requests for VRS will be forwarded by the field officers within 90 days to the board Secretary.

The option for VRS under this scheme once exercised by an officer or any employee cannot be withdrawn. The acceptance or rejection of such option lies with the board.

The schemes is applicable to employees who have put in 10 years of service or have completed 40 years of age. The employees or officer opting for retirement under this scheme will be eligible for terminal benefits as available under the existing rules such as balance in provident fund, cash equivalent of accumulated earned leave, gratuity as per the Gratuity Act, pension, including commutation of pension, and family pension.

The Class IV employees and personnel working on computers in the ministrial cadres have also been excluded from the scheme. — UNI 

Shimla, April 22
Doctors at the cardiology department of Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) here have achieved a rare feat by undertaking simultaneous stenting of both the narrowed down vessels supplying blood to the kidneys in a single procedure.

In the case of narrowing down of vessels affecting blood supply to the kidneys, the general practice is to dilate the vessels and put a stent one by one in two different procedures over a period of time. The procedure called PTRA and stenting of instant restenosis, was performed on a 60-year-old patient, Mr Narsingh Dass, who had approached the doctors complaining of severe hypertension on April 19.

“We had placed stents in the two narrowed down renal vessels of the patient in two procedures performed in June and September, 2004 but by December, the problem reoccurred as his vessels again narrowed down,” explained Dr Arvind Kandoria, Assistant Professor in the cardiology department. Others who were part of the team that performed the procedure included Dr Rajeev Bhardwaj, Associate Professor and Dr Peeyush Vaidya, Registrar.

Dr Kandoria said that since the renal vessels of the patient had again narrowed down by 90 per cent, a repeat PTR stenting had to be undertaken. “Despite the high risk factor and a more complicated task we decided to place stents in the vessels in the same procedure on the same day on April 19,” he said. The patient has been discharged from hospital within two days.

Dr Kandoria explained that 95 per cent of the patients suffer from primary hypertension for which one cannot find the cause and out of the remaining 5 per cent, 2 per cent suffer from renal hypertension, as was the case with this patient. “Since the patient was to retire from government service on April 30, he would not have been entitled to any medical reimbursement for procedure performed after this date, so this was another reason why we decided to do simultaneous stenting of both renal vessels,” he explained.

The catheter laboratory at the IGMC started in 1997. It performs about 900 interventions annually. The Bypass surgery facility is likely to be started within the next six months as the operation theatre is ready and equipment is being installed.