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UPA report card by May 23: Sinha
Yashwant’s romance with journalism
Vajpayee to address party MLAs on June 2
CM disburses loans worth Rs 25 lakh
Govt keen to end water woes
Surgani power station completes 25 years
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HP Govt acquiesces to construct Ravi Dass temple
Skeleton sent to forensic lab
BJP flays MBBS seat quota for J&K students
Potatoes grow above ground!
Children film festival from June 3
Gurdas Mann to pep up annual summer fest
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UPA report card by May 23: Sinha
Shimla, May 21 Talking to media persons here, he said that political opportunism had been at its peak during the one-year regime of the UPA government. “Developments in internal security matters like tackling of terrorism in North-East and how Naxalism is being dealt with are some of the core issues,” he stated. Expressing concern over the area of economics, he said there had been a sharp decline and an indicator was the decline in the core industry which had come down. “It is a post-election coalition having a common minimum programme but whose one-year performance has been far from satisfactory,” he remarked. Talking about party discipline in the BJP, he admitted that there had been decline but this was common to all political parties. “The BJP has an inner party democracy where the leadership evolves unlike most other parties where individuals run it with an iron hand,” he said. “The communal riots in Gujarat did impact the election results and was definitely one of the reasons for the poor performance of the BJP,” he said in reply to a question. What happened in Gujarat was unfortunate and everybody in the BJP felt it should not have happened but then Ahmedabad was a very difficult city to control in an hour or two, he added. |
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Yashwant’s romance with journalism
Shimla, May 21 The show to be telecast every Friday on the Zee channel at 8.30 will see the bureaucrat-turned politician talking to the common man on the street rather than being a scripted programme in the studio. “It would be wrong to say that I am trying my hand at journalism because I am fed up with politics. I wanted to do something different for a change,” he said here yesterday. “My four-day stay in the state has really been unwinding. Leave aside politics, I did not even get time to see the newspapers,” he said. During his stay in the state he recorded two programmes in which he spoke to a woman farmer of Solan who had changed the entire cropping pattern of the area by taking to cultivation of off season vegetables. “The other was a talk with a driver of the HRTC who goes from Kaza to Mulling everyday, which is probably one of the most hazardous and risky drives in the region,” he stated. “Professionals joining politics is a very healthy trend as they only enrich it as they have come by choice and not like lower-rung politicians who are there because they have nothing else to do,” he opined. He said it was his wife who was still very uncomfortable in politics and it had been rather difficult for her as she had married a bureaucrat and not a politician. “In fact, journalism really interests her and she guides and advises me,” he said. |
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Vajpayee to address party MLAs on June 2
Shimla, May 21 Mr Vajpayee will be arriving in Manali on May 27 for a week-long summer holiday. He will address BJP legislators and senior party leaders at Manali on June 2. The national vice-president of the BJP and in charge of Himachal, Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the state BJP chief, Mr Suresh Bhardwaj, a former Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, and a former Union minister, Mr Shanta Kumar, will be attending the meeting. |
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CM disburses loans worth Rs 25 lakh
Shimla, May 21 This was stated by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh while disbursing Rs 25 lakh to the minority beneficiaries under self-employment ventures. “He said, the government is committed towards safeguarding the interests of the minorities and effective steps have been taken in this direction during the past two years.” He said the government had constituted separate boards for the Scheduled Castes, OBC, Gaddi, Gujjar, Labana and Gorkha so that efforts could be made for their welfare. “The welfare of the weaker sections and the underprivileged form the top agenda of our government.” He said 256 physically impaired persons had been provided Rs 2.08 crore under various schemes of the corporation. “This year we have set a target of reaching out to 213 minority families by providing them loans worth Rs 2.50 crore during the current financial year,” he stated. He said this included Rs 1 crore earmarked especially for the physically impaired people. The Chief Minister said about 25,000 jobs had been created in various government departments and since there was no ban on recruitment, all functional posts were being filled. |
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Govt keen to end water woes
Shimla, May 21 Presiding over the third meeting of apex committee of the State Water and Sanitation Mission, here yesterday, he stressed the need for ensuring maximum community participation under “Swajaldhara” and to educate the people about its benefits so that maximum area and population could be covered under this scheme. He also laid emphasis on rain-water harvesting in areas which faced scarcity of water. He also directed that funds being provided under “Swajaldhara” be utilized property so that maximum amount could be secured from the Government of India. Mrs Rajwant Sandhu, Principal Secretary, Irrigation and Public Health, asked the engineers to expedite the work on ongoing schemes so that new schemes could be taken in hand. He informed in the meeting that under ‘Swajaldhara’ there was a provision of providing 10 per cent of the cost of the scheme for operation and maintenance. It was also stressed in the meeting that inspection reports regarding completion and implementation of the schemes should be submitted in a timebound manner following due procedure for which guidelines had been issued by the government. |
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Surgani power station completes 25 years
Surgani (Chamba), May 21 This was stated by Mr S.K. Dodeja, Chief Executive Director, Narmada Hydroelectric Development Corporation, Madhya Pradesh, while inaugurating silver jubilee celebrations of the power station at Surgani, about 40 km from Chamba. Mr Dodeja said the power station had completed 25 years of successful power generation. Since its commissioning the station had generated more than 16,620 million units of electricity worth Rs 680 crore. This was the first project of the NHPC work on which was started in January, 1978. Mr Dodeja said the project had been set up with indigenous technology and put into commercial operation in 1982. Constructed at a cost of Rs 149 crore it provided electricity in the Northern Grid at Talwara at a rate of 69 paise per unit. |
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HP Govt acquiesces to construct Ravi Dass temple
Shimla, May 21 This was stated by Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, during a meeting with the Joint Action Committee of the Shri Guru Ravi Dass Temple, Dalit Sangharsh Committee here, on Wednesday. He said the government had always been keen on the welfare and betterment of the weaker sections and minorities and had the highest regard for their religious sentiments. He added that the government, on the request of the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti, would assist in construction of the temple at a place where police station, Santokhgarh, was located by providing land and financial assistance. Mr Virbhadra Singh said the police would be shifted to a more spacious and open area in or around the town. Efforts would be made to construct the temple as per the availability of space and the requirements of the devotees of the area in a befitting manner so that they could carry their devotional activities more conveniently. The Chief Minister said the government would consider to compensate the damages suitably after receipt of the inquiry report of the Divisional Commissioner so that affected parties were provided relief for the losses they had suffered during the period of the agitation for reconstruction of the shrine. |
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Skeleton sent to forensic lab
Mandi, May 21 The skeleton has been sent for forensic examination to ascertain whether the remains are that of Prem Singh, an ex-serviceman, who had gone missing from his native village in Kataula about two months ago. The police said the family members of Prem Singh had identified the clothes and shoes. SP Ajay Yadav, who visited the spot, said the police did not rule out foul play in the case. The villagers had protested in front of the Deputy Commissioner office recently urging the administration to expedite the probe into the case. |
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BJP flays MBBS seat quota for J&K students
Shimla, May 21 The BJP spokesperson and MLA, Dr Rajiv Bindal, alleged that it had been done only to appease a certain section of people. “This kind of reservation is made only for states which do not have their own medical colleges whereas Jammu and Kashmir has two medical colleges,” he said. Accusing the government of following a policy of appeasing Muslims, he said the reservation had been made with the same objective. |
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Potatoes grow above ground!
Solan, May 21 Having procured the seed from a government agency at a rate of Rs 10 per kg the farmers were hopeful that they would get a better yield. Prakash Dutt from Nainatikker village, Rakesh, Ramesh, Rup Dutt, all from Majgaon village, and Ranjit from Anji village told The Tribune that though they had been growing potatoes for the past several years, never had such a phenomenon been witnessed by them. It was on Wednesday morning that the farmers noticed the abnormal growth where there were no tubers below the ground but a bunch of potatoes were growing above the ground. While the size of the tubers was normal, it was not known what kind of potato would finally be produced, said the farmers. Worried at the abnormal growth of their crop, they have divided to approach the Agriculture Department. |
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Children film festival from June 3
Shimla, May 21 The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Sushil Negi, said besides this festival, the routine cultural evenings and star nights would be held from June 3 to 7. Mr Negi informed that all the three theatres in the town, Ritz, Rivoli and Shahi, would screen children films from 9 a.m to 11 a.m, except on Sundays. “Schoolchildren above the age of 15 years would get information as well as education at a nominal ticket of Rs 5 only,” he added. |
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Gurdas Mann to pep up annual summer fest
Dharamsala, May 21 Addressing a press conference here today, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Bharat Khera, said that local art and culture would also be showcased at the fest by roping in a host of local artistes. “For the first time, we have sought sponsorship from corporate houses, enabling us to include new features like baby show, flower show and dog show,” he said. The programme would begin with performances by the home guard band all the three days and the audience would get to see variety with a qawwali competition by Ehsan Bharti Ghungruwalla, popular for producing 40 different types of sounds of ghungru orally, said Mr Khera. While the cultural programmes would be held between 7:30 pm to 9 pm, exhibitions by different departments and other competitions would be held during daytime, he said. The Gurdas Mann nite has been scheduled for May 29, Hema Sardesai would be performing on May 27 and the qawwali competition would be on May 28, along with the baby show and dog show. The flower show would be held on the morning of the concluding day. “We have tied up with the Inner Wheel, Lions Club and the District Red Cross Society, besides sponsors like BSNL, Airtel and Pepsi to bring in the famous artistes so that the programme gets a wider appeal,” said Mr Khera. |
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Memo against transport cartels
Chandigarh, May 21 3 injured in accidents Parwanoo, May 21 
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