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Sanitary conditions worsen at Palampur
Row over purchase of operating microscope
Bureaucratic set-up, stagnation blamed
Epidemiological unit to combat animal diseases
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Shrines of faith face total neglect
Chamba millennium celebrations from Oct 20
Power board’s no to advisory directives
AITUC seeks Hooda govt’s dismissal
Hike in water tariff resented
Hotel being run sans permission
BJP threatens stir on market fee
Nalagarh-Parwanoo belt records rise in crime
HP to get national award for progress
Lawyers to gherao Vidhan Sabha
CM denies report on beating up of youths
41 got degrees
Cane charge on Honda workers condemned
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Sanitary conditions worsen at Palampur
Palampur, August 1 The non-filling of the post of Executive Officer of the Municipal Council for the past four months, because of certain political considerations, has aggravated the situation as there is none to manage the affairs of the council. The state government had given the additional charge of the post of Executive Officer to the local SDM, but because of his busy schedule he has been finding it difficult to function on both the posts. Several development projects have been hanging fire as there is none to take a decision. The Himachal Pradesh High Court had given clearance for the construction of a complex of the council two months ago with certain amendments, but the council had failed to take up the project. Likewise the three-storeyed parking project, which was to be constructed near Sabzi Mandi, has also been delayed for wants of funds. Thakur Balwant Singh, vice-president of the council, while talking to The Tribune said that the Municipal Council had no place to dump its garbage. Earlier it used to dump the garbage in a forest near Kalu Di Hatti, 2 km from the town, but since it was a reserve forest, the authorities had fenced the area and served a notice on the council not to dump garbage in the forest. He said the local MLA, Mr B.B.L. Butail, had offered a piece of land at Chokki village for dumping the garbage, but later he withdrew the offer because of opposition by residents of the village. Meanwhile, the tourist season is in full swing, domestic as well as foreign tourists have been visiting the town daily but they are greeted by heaps of garbage emitting a foul smell at every nook and corner of the town. |
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Row over purchase of operating microscope
Dharamsala, August 1 According to sources, the department has even furnished receipts of purchase of the same equipment by the PGI, Chandigarh, and Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, to the medical college authorities, highlighting a difference of around Rs 10 lakh in the price. Now, even though the operating microscope has been delivered to the department, the doctors are not keen on getting the equipment installed. “A hospital in Maranda, near Palampur, was given 30 per cent discount and the PGI got the same equipment at 17.5 per cent less. After this was substantiated with receipts, the medical college authorities could have easily cancelled the tender, especially when the delivery period of 21 days had lapsed,” said a doctor on condition of anonymity. The department has also raised objections to the policy of having a local dealer for the imported equipment and buying it from the sole dealer in the country. “The dealer in Himachal Pradesh is only buying and reselling the microscope to us, which means that there will not be any follow-up maintenance and service and we will have no one to fall back on in case the equipment develops any fault. Besides, it is also not sure whether the dealer would be able to supply the spare parts,” added the doctor. He further said that even the certificate given by the dealer that he had not sold the equipment to anyone at a lower price than this is meaningless as this is probably the first time he is selling the operating microscope. “In places like the PGI, it is the sole dealer in India quotes the price in case of imported equipment,” he said. The operating microscope is used for almost all operations of the eye, including cataract and eyelid surgery. The sophisticated equipment comes with close-circuit camera attachments to teach students of the medical college and the operations can also be recorded for file study. When contacted, Dr N.K. Kaushik, Principal of Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College, said that he would look into the issue to ensure that proper procedure had been followed. “But the question regarding higher price arises only if a lower price had been quoted,” he said. Regarding the deal through a local dealer and not directly with the sole dealer of the company in India, he said a policy in this regard had been framed by the state government to promote local businessmen and the medical college was bound to follow it.
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Bureaucratic set-up, stagnation blamed
Mandi, August 1 Talking to The Tribune, engineers revealed that majority of the engineers, who have worked in the 1500 MW NJPC (70 per cent board’s engineers), 1020 MW Tala project in Bhutan (80 per cent engineers from HPSEB), are being absorbed by the NHPC and the NTPC and the SJVN. “They feel frustrated due to poor pay packets and stagnation when they come back in the board”, they rued. The members of the Project Power Engineers’ Association blamed the exodus on the bureaucratic set-up, which has no stakes in reforms, as they stay on to please their political bosses. The HPSEB’s chairman, Mr Kanwar Shamsher Singh, is on extension for three years after he retired as Chief Secretary. The other two technical members of the board, Mr RL Chauhan and Mr DN Bansal, are also retired chief engineers on extension, they revealed. The IAS lobby in the state has been ruling the board, scuttling any move of reforms to maintain its hold on decision-making as the chairman and another member are IAS officers, they rued. The engineers are not promoted even after 20 years as the board has no major project and takes up only unviable projects like the 126 MW Larji. “The board has become a stagnant bureaucratic set-up rather than a competent commercial organisation like the NTPC, NHPC and the like, the engineers said. The majority now stay on in the professional organization, where they get better pay packet, career and growth”, they added. With this exodus, the board is facing shortage of qualified engineers as majority of manpower with the board now consists of diploma engineers or unqualified surveyors promoted as engineers, sources in the board revealed. Engineers cite the much- awaited reforms like the trifurcation of the board into generation, transmission and distribution power utilities, which is mandatory under the new Electricity Act and workless culture and the retired non-professional heading the board as main reasons for their exodus from the broad. They said that the state government was being guided by vote-bank politics by its highly politicised employees’ unions, delaying reform process. The state government has created the HPSEB’s two subsidiaries, the Jal Vidyut Nigam (JVN) and the Pabbar Valley Power Corporation (PVPC), but they are also headed by the retired chief engineers, giving no chance to brighter young lot, who are result oriented, rued the engineers. Both are headed by the retired chief engineer Mr P.S. Khurana and Mr R.L. Chauhan, who is also the chairman of the National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, besides a member (Civil), HPSEB. Commenting on trifurcation and reforms within the board, Mr Shamsher Singh Kanwar said that the process was on and today they had a meeting with the legal adviser on the reforms from New Delhi. “We are taking steps in that directions as it takes time as the board has some social obligations as well”, he claimed, adding that there might be a shortage of engineers, but they are on deputation from the board”. On retired IAS officers or technical members on board, Mr Kanwar claimed that the retirement age for board is 65 years. “If we consult technocrats nobody will be ready to go to remote places where they are transferred”.
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Epidemiological unit to combat animal diseases
Chamba, August 1 Disclosing this here on Saturday, Mr Harsh Mahajan, Animal Husbandry and Urban Development Minister, stated that for keeping a check on animal health status, the animals entering into Himachal Pradesh from the neighbouring states, four veterinary checkposts were working at Milwan in Kangra district, Swarghat in Bilaspur district and Pandoga and Mand in Una district. In the event of any outbreak of disease, two fully-equipped disease investigation laboratories located at Kamand in Mandi district and Shimla undertook disease diagnosis work swiftly. The disease investigation work helped in arriving at a definite diagnosis of the disease, thereby allowing rational treatment on modern scientific lines and saved farmers from huge economic losses. Mr Mahajan said that 14 mobile veterinary dispensaries were functioning well along with a wide network of 2133 animal health institutions comprising seven veterinary polyclinics, 328 veterinary hospitals and 1784 veterinary dispensaries for catering to the needs of about 52 lakh livestock wealth of the state. “Specialised veterinary services of surgeon, pathologists and medicine specialists are available in veterinary polyclinics whereas treatment of animals is being provided both at the institution as well as at the doorstep of farmers by all the veterinary institutions in the state”, claimed Mr Mahajan. For the prevention of highly contagious animal diseases, prophylactic vaccination against ‘foot and mouth’ disease, haemorrhagic septicemia and black quarter was being done through the network of these institutions besides undertaking regular dipping and drenching of animals against ectoparasites and endoparasites. Mr Mahajan informed that through the network of these animal health institutions, 22,43,508 animals were treated for both contagious and non-contagious diseases last year.
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Shrines of faith face total neglect
Kangra, August 1 Mr R.K. Raina and Bushan Lal
Pandita, the two members of the group, said that Kashmir is the land of saints, sufis and munis and Anantnag district being part of the Kashmir Valley is no exception. They said the district had religious wealth in the form of numerous shrines and places of worship enjoying reverence and allegiance of people professing different faiths. There are numerous sepulchers of saints in enchanting environs. Visiting these shrines, one feels in close proximity with the Almighty. Some of the shrines have historical importance in addition to religious significance attached to them. The shrines belonged to both Hindus and Muslims and are visited by thousands of devotees. Both the Kashmiri visitors, who have migrated to Jammu and are practising law in Jammu High Court, said that they were pained and agonised after visiting Nagabal and Devi Bal shrines in Anantnag town as both the shrines were in a bad shape. They said that Anantnag finds its place in
Geetaji. The town has a number of springs which include Inder Nag gushing out from hillock, two sulphur springs and other springs in the Anantnag Bhawan Complex popularly known as Nagabal complex. They said this center of faith of the Kashmiri Pandits,
Nagabal, has about seven temples — two Shiva temples, one Radha Krishen
mandir, one Durga Temple, one Ganesh Temple, Sita Ram Temple and Hanuman Temple in this complex. They said the famous Hindu religious shrine has a holy spring, which originates from here and the formation of which is attributed to Vishno or Narayana and is said to be a Vedic
‘tirath’. The spring rises beautifully from the foot of a small hillock and is dedicated to the worship of Ananta or
Vishno. It enjoys a commanding position having a big tank, which encloses the spring. There are long shady
chinnars, which stand guard round the tank. These tanks are full of sacred fish and the place also serves as a shelter and provides shade to weary pilgrims. They further said sheds adjacent to Shiva temple on the bank on the Inder Nag has crumbled down. They said on the one hand the state government. was asking Kashmiri Pandits to return to the valley on the other hand these shrines of faith were facing total neglect. They said after visiting the shrine what shocked them most was the oldest Shiv ji temple in which the deity of Lord Shiva was in a pitiable condition. They suggested that Nagabal Prabandak Committee should come forward and seek the assistance from the state government to improve the lot of this centre of faith of the entire community. They said that the group visited Devibal temple in Anantnag town, which is dedicated the holy spring of Khir
Bhawani. They said that it had been attracting a good number of devotees and is considered a holy place by the Kashmiri Pandits. Devibal is said to have the same importance as that of Khir Bawani temple in Tulamula of Ganderbal district. It is believed that once the famous saint of Reshi
Molu, held in great esteem by Muslims and Hindus alike, had prayed for the holy Darshan of Goddess Durga. She is believed to have acceded to his request and appeared in his dream in which She is said to have communicated to him that She is already present in the form of a small spring. According to another belief, it is believed that Wazir Panu had a dream in which Goddess Durga told him that She was living underneath the spring. He located the spring and asked one of the priests namely Balkak to look after it. Maharaja Pratap Singh, while on his way to Jammu or back to Srinagar would stop here and offer prayers to the Goddess. Mr R.K. Raina and Bushan Lal Pandita said that this shrine is locked but the premises was full of dirt and rubbish. They demanded that state government must initiate a move to improve the lot of this shrine. |
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Chamba millennium celebrations from Oct 20
Chamba, August 1 The Chief Minister, who was presiding over the prize distribution function of the eight-day long Minjar Fair at the historic Chowgan in Chamba today, said the millennium celebrations would be a confluence of the age-old culture and traditions of the erstwhile state of Chamba. He said Chamba, which was known for its architecture and paintings, had a distinct identity owing to its long chequered history. Describing the “Chamba Millennium” celebrations as second Minjar, the Chief Minister said efforts would be made to invites artistes of national and International level for the celebrations. Speaking about the conservation and preservation of ancient monuments of Chamba, the Chief Minister said he had directed the authorities to take sterner measures to check soil erosion around the 1000-year- old Suhi Mata temple, the recent rains had triggered landslides in the area which had threatened the stability of temple. Sufficient funds would be provided, for this, the Chief Minister said. The Chief Minister announced that the state government had sanctioned the setting up of an automatic dairy plant with an outlay of Rs 70 lakh at Chamba and the plant would start functioning shortly. For the promotion of thriving tourism industry in Chamba region, a Rs 10- crore project had been okayed, the Chief Minister said. Regarding health services in Chamba district, the Chief Minister also announced that a CT scan unit worth Rs 1 crore had been sanctioned for the regional hospital at Chamba. Taking a serious note of the cases involving doctors who had been transferred from the remote areas and had moved out without handing over the charge to their substitutes, he said the matter would be dealt with seriously and FIRs would be registered against them. The Chief Minister said the state government had been laying emphasis on qualitative education and English was being taught from class I onwards from this academic session in all government schools to enable the children studying in government schools compete with those studying in public schools. The Chief Minister gave away prizes to sportspersons and other participants of Minjar Fair. Mr Harsh Mahajan, Animal Husbandry and Urban Development Minister, Mr Thakur Singh Bharmouri, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Mr Kuldip Pathania, Chairman, Himachal Pradesh Finance Commission, Mr Surinder Bhardwaj, an MLA from Rajnagar constituency and President of the District Congress Committee also spoke on the occasion.
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Power board’s no to advisory directives
Shimla, August 1 The board has in an affidavit filed before the commission asserted that the regulator should not get into micro-management of any utility by giving such detailed directions. It cannot simply follow such directives only because of the financial incentives offered. Implementation of such directives at this stage would not be conducive to its proper growth. Instead the board has filed a review petition to seek upward revision of the tariff announced on June 29. Regarding the transfer policy laid down by the commission it has pointed out that the transfer and postings of employees were the prerogative of the employer. The advisory directive that transfers be got approved by a committee to be appointed by the commission would amount to serious inroad on the ability of the board to manage its employees. It would seriously affect the disciplinary control of the employees and, moreover, the board was obliged to follow the policy of the state government. Similarly, regarding the directive for reorganisation of distribution circles, the board maintained that a similar proposal was considered earlier and after feedback from the officers in the field it came to the conclusion that the new set-up instead of bringing efficiency and economy, creates more problems, affecting the quality and reliability of power supply. The board was of the considered opinion that making radical changes in the present set-up was fraught with danger as the new system might not work in view of the tough mountainous terrain. The directive for setting up a training academy for employees was also outrightly rejected by the board on the ground that it would not only be impossible to establish such an institution within the given time frame but also it would be a very costly proposition in the long run. The amount of Rs 5 crore was inadequate. The board also expressed its inability to implement the productivity-linked incentive for employees in the generation wing on the plea that it was a vertically integrated utility and providing incentive to staff working in only one wing would cause resentment among employees of other wings. In its petition seeking review of the tariff order for 2005-06 the board has pleaded for increasing the approved revenue to the extent of at least Rs 1,339 crore and further to increase the tariff to a level to meet the additional revenue gap of Rs 165 crore.
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AITUC seeks Hooda govt’s dismissal
Solan, August 1 Shouting slogans in protest against the Hero Honda management and the Haryana government, the rally culminated near the office of the Deputy Commissioner here. The union leaders demanded registration of a case against the Gurgaon DC and SP for having shed the blood of innocent employees. CITU state president Jagdish Bhardwaj, while addressing the rally, said the rights of the workers would be protected at all costs. He urged the Chief Minister to intervene in the contract labour practice which was under way in the Baddi-Barotiwala industrial area of the district as it could lead to another Gurgaon incident. Taking serious note of violations of the industrial act, he said as much as 20 per cent of the industrial labour record was not maintained properly in registers. These labourers were working on benami basis in various units and they were denied the mandatory ESI and EPF facilities while these should be extended right from day one. With a view to improve the work atmosphere the employees should also be provided vehicle facilities. AITUC demanded enhancement of the daily wages to Rs 140. CITU vice-president N.D. Raanot, while supporting the cause of the Honda employees, demanded a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for the injured.
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Hike in water tariff resented
Nurpur, August 1 The urban consumers are being served notices by the Irrigation-cum-Public Health (IPH) Department here directing them to get water meters installed at their own expenses before August 15 otherwise they would be charged Rs 100 per connection per month. At present, the IPH Department is charging Rs 40 per month per connection. Enquiries reveal that the state government through Principal Secretary, IPH Department, issued a notification on June 15 relating to enhanced water tariff and installation of water meters causing a lot of resentment among the consumers. Earlier too, a similar notification was issued in 2001 during the P.K. Dhumal Government tenure forcing the residents to hold protest rallies here. Keeping in view public outcry, the then government had rolled back the notification. Meanwhile, Mr R.K. Mahajan, president of the local municipal council, in a statement here today urged the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh to intervene on this issue in larger public interest and direct the department concerned to revoke the notification with an immediate effect. The local town welfare committee that had earlier organised protest rallies during the previous BJP regime against water tariff hike has also appealed to the Chief Ministers to revoke this anti-people notification before it was enforced.
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Hotel being run sans permission
Solan, August 1 The Tourism Department in a bid to escape accountability now has served a notice on the hotel to explain how it had been operating without registration and permission from the department. The department woke up after the police started inquiries about its status. This has cast a shadow of doubt on the working of the Tourism Department. Though locals had made complaints to the administration about immoral activities from the hotel premises the police did precious little to unearth it till now. Police officials shrug off onus by saying that whenever they raided the hotel nothing unusual was found. The hotel initially had sought permission to operate as a mushroom project. But later it was converted into a hostel for students of a nearby engineering college. All this was going on without the permission. It was learnt that efforts were afoot by the hotel owners to procure permission for converting the mushroom project into a hotel but the efforts failed. The owner’s involvement in the flesh trade had been ascertained after all seven women nabbed had insisted on informing the hotel owner of their arrest. He was later arrested after a court rejected his bail application. The hotel owner was also booked in a number of other cases of fraud in Sirmaur district where he had duped people of lakhs under the pretext of a finance company. |
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BJP threatens stir on market fee
Shimla, August 1 Addressing a press conference here today, he said that the market fee was being charged at the rate of Rs 2 for 20 kg, Re 1 for 10 kg and 50 paise for 5 kg across the state. He said it was yet another anti-farmer decision of the Congress Government which had earlier reduced subsidy on apple packing cases and fungicides. He said while the apple growers wanted the government to take up the matter with the Delhi government to ensure that they were not charged illegal 8 per cent commission from the arhtias, the government imposed a market fee within the state. He said there was no point in charging market fee at places where no agriculture market existed. Wherever a market existed it lacked requisite facilities. He said the government was giving contradictory figures about the apple packing cases. While the state-owned Agro-India Packaging Limited had been virtually closed, the government had been claiming that four crore cartons were available which was ridiculous as the figure given was much more than the total requirement. He criticised the government for the slow pace of work on restoration of roads in Kinnaur. He said the harvesting of apple had already begun in the lower areas but the produce could not be transported as the bridges on the Sutlej, which were washed away by Parechu floods, had not been restored. In fact, there was little possibility of the Bailey bridges coming up at Kharo, Khab and Akpa during the current harvesting season.
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Nalagarh-Parwanoo belt records rise in crime
Baddi, August 1 The number of new units in the area has swollen multifold after the Central Government announced a package for the state. Most of the labourers engaged in these units were from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Despite tall claims of the state government about giving 70 per cent jobs to Himachalis and checking contract labour, majority of the manpower was being hired through contractors who preferred to engage migrant labourers at low cost. There was no check on the rising population of migrants in the area. The recording of migrant labourers has not been made mandatory in area yet. In the absence of any notification from the DC in this regard, the police was helpless to force units to provide information as regards migrant labourers. Moreover, the present strength of the police personnel deployed in the area was not enough to handle the increasing crime. The area has three police stations at Parwanoo, Barotiwala and Nalagarh. While the Barotiwala police station has one police chowki at Baddi the Nalagarh police station has two police posts at Jogon and Dabota. The police strength at all these was just over 100. The accident cases have also gone up in the Baddi area. This was being attributed to bad and congested roads, lack of proper parking facilities and shortage of traffic cops. The police admitted that some gangs of thieves were active in the area. The understaffed Police Department was finding it hard to focus on night patrolling. On an average, each police personnel has to perform over 12-hour duty per day.
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HP to get national award for progress
Chamba, August 1 The Chief Minister stated that Himachal Pradesh had emerged as the most progressive state in the country in the all-round development and providing social services to the people, thereby radically transforming their living conditions for the better. In a survey carried out by a prestigious weekly magazine, Himachal Pradesh had been ranked as socially most progressive state and one of the best governed states in the country, the Chief Minister added. Reiterating his commitment, the Chief Minister claimed that his government was fully committed for the betterment of the people. |
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Lawyers to gherao Vidhan Sabha
Sundernagar, August 1 According to Mr D.R. Sharma , chairman, action committee, a meeting of representatives of different Bar Associations was held at Bilaspur yesterday . It was unanimously decided to gherao the Vidhan Sabha on August 10. Mr Sharma further said that the government was burdening the common man by imposing taxes. He claimed that many employees associations would soon give a call for a statewide agitation against the imposition of professional tax. |
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CM denies report on beating up of youths
Chamba, August 1 Speaking to The Tribune here, this morning, the Chief Minister said that the news item was fabricated and false. The Chief Minister said that the youths had received minor injuries, although orders had been issued to institute an inquiry by a Divisional Commissioner after listening to their grouse. |
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41 got degrees
Dharamsala, August 1 Mr Sushil Singh, Director of the PTU’s zonal office in Ludhiana, advised the students to choose courses as per their interests and not go by the prevalent trend among students. Mr Ashish Bhagoria, Managing Director of the Dharamsala centre, gave an elaborate account of the activities carried out by the centre during the last session. He said more than 140 students were presently enrolled in different courses in Dharamsala. |
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Cane charge on Honda workers condemned
Shimla, August 1 Speakers criticised the Haryana Government for the incident which reminded of the black days of British regime. It could be compared to Jallianwala Bhag massacre. |
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Youth jumps to death
Solan, August 1 |
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