Shimla, August 12
The fee structure committee for private dental colleges has found that most of the private dental colleges in the state are making do with a part-time “visiting” faculty which had no interest in research. It has urged the government and the Dental Council of India (DCI) to take suitable action to curb this malpractice failing which it would be forced to refuse to fix the fees for admission to the defaulting colleges, resulting in their ultimate closure.

The committee, which scrutinised the expenditure and inspected the facilities for the purpose of determination of fee structure for 2003-04 to 2005-06, found that 50 to 80 per cent of the faculty was visiting only for a few days in a month. It also gathered that some of the faculty members were running regular dental clinics in towns at considerable distance form the college.

Admitting correctness of the salaries being paid to such faculty members and passing on the burden to the students would tantamount to putting the stamp of approval of the committee on this malpractice. During the course of interaction with various authorities, it was made out that such practice was prevalent across the country but this explanation was not acceptable, it observed.

The committee maintained that it was impossible to impart concentrated knowledge in a day or two as compared to the step-by-step knowledge given over a longer period of time by regular teaching staff. Moreover, part-time faculty was forbidden by the regulations of the DCI.

It also drew the attention of the Centre, besides the DCI and the Himachal Pradesh University and called for effective measures to check such malpractices. The DCI could conduct a region-wise and subject -wise survey to assess the availability of faculty members and in case of their paucity, amend the regulations to provide for a senior faculty member in a particular subject sharing his time in more than one institution in a manner that the quality of teaching did not suffer.

Meanwhile, the students who took admission in various private colleges against the state seats, will have to pay more and those against the management seats less as the committee, while determining the fee structure, has done away with the dual fee structure in accordance with directions of the apex court. The government had fixed the provisional fees of Rs 20,000 for state seats and Rs 2.50 lakh for management seats for the year 2003-04 for all the colleges. The committee has fixed a single fee for three years from 2003-04 to 2005-06 which is Rs 84,000 for Bhojia Dental College, Rs 65,000 for Himachal Institute of Dental Sciences, Paonta Sahib, and Rs 63,000 for the Sundernagar Dental College.

Official sources said that those who had taken admission against the state seats could get relief only from the apex court. Some petitions were already before the court in this regard.

The fees for the NRI category was provisionally fixed at Rs 2 lakh per annum for 2004-05. For the current academic session the committee decided to adopt the pattern of the government dental college which charges $ 8000 (Rs 3,45,000).

Chandigarh, August 12
With digital technology assuming a centrestage in day-to-day activities, the recently established Computer Forensic Division (CFD) of the Directorate of Forensic Science at Shimla is being upgraded through the procurement of advanced computer hardware and software from the United States and the United Kingdom.

The CFD, which forms a part of the Government Examiner of Questioned Documents' laboratory, was set up a few months ago and is the first laboratory in North India to carry out forensic examinations in computer-related crimes. Two other laboratories of this kind in the country are located in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

"We are in the process of procuring an integrated digital image backup system from the United Kingdom," Mr N. C. Sood, Government Examiner of Questioned Documents, Shimla, told The Tribune. "This system is used for making replicate images of computer disks and it can perform the task in just about an hour, as compared to other systems which take up to eight hours," he added. It was on the image on which forensic examination was conducted as working on the original changed the "hash" value, thereby losing its evidence value.

In view of the digital revolution in telephony, data storage and transmission, monetary transactions through the electronic media and the observable trend in crimes related to these fields, the computer forensic was assuming more and more significance, he said.

Mr Sood, who was here to attend a seminar on the emerging trends in white-collar crimes, said the CFD was developing two systems referred to as Encase Enterprise for forensic examination pertaining to the Internet and computer networks. These systems would be used to track and analyse the flow of data on networks and identify its source.

A few months ago, two advanced and expensive software kits, called Logicube Forensic Tool Kit and the Encase-4, were imported from the United States. Also used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI), these are meant for imagery interpretation and analysis. Besides, they can also retrieve data from formatted computer disks and SIM cards of cellular phones as well as help authenticate the identity of an individual by comparing his photographs with digital images.

Ever since it was set up, the CFD has undertaken forensic examination in about half-a-dozen computer-related criminal cases. 

Shimla, August 12
The Himachal Pradesh High Court yesterday directed the state government not to allow any mining work or sanction any mining lease over the shamlat land owned by the villagers in Shiva Rudana tehsil Paonta Sahib, in Sirmour district without the consent of owners.

This order was passed by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice V.K. Gupta and Mr Justice K.C. Sood on a petition filed by residents of Shiva Rudana village. They alleged in the petition that they were the joint owners of the common/shamlat land measuring 2123 bighas 15 biswas. There were rich deposits of high grade limestone in the shamlat land. The land in question vested in state and on June 16,1984, the state government granted mining lease over 100 bighas, including this shamlat land to Namarata Minerals and chemicals for extraction of high grade limestone. The mining lease was granted for 25 years and expired on June 16, 2004.

The petitioner alleged that the company, even after the expiry of the period of lease, continued extracting high grade linestone. When complaints were lodged they came to know that the state government intended to renew the mining lease to the private company. Petitioner contended that the state government was not competent to grant any further lease or to renew the lease which had expired.

The court further directed that the action of the state government for extraction of limestone from the village comman land after June 25, 2004 was illegal, arbitrary and without jurisdiction.

Dalhousie, August 12
The recent announcement by the Himachal Chief Minister, Mr Vibrhadra Singh, about the merger of the Dalhousie Municipal Council forests with the State Forest Department on the pattern of the Shimla Municipal Council forests has created panic among the encroachers who include private individuals and the Central Government authorities.

The Chief Minister has brought hope that the shrinking forest cover of the famous Dalhousie Hill will be preserved. This was the only solution to eliminate the environmental hazard in this hill town.

According to official sources, during the British regime, the municipal council was appointed by the Punjab Government Notification No. 1828 on July 17, 1867 Prior to the notification, these forests were with the Raja of Chamba state. In 1913, the Punjab Government declared these forests as “reserve forests”. The local forest rights were granted in reserve forests as per the Revenue Settlement of 1890 which was admitted in the forest Settlement of 1912. As recorded in the year 1933, the forests owned by the municipal council in its periphery spread over an area of 1,329 acres.

Taking into account the dense composition of the mixed vegetation of Dalhousie Hills, replete with rhododendron, oak and deodar trees, the British founded it as a sanatorium for normal duties.

The vast tourism potential here is because of the abundant forest cover on the hills. That is why Dalhousie is known as one of the important tourist resorts of Himachal Pradesh. But unfortunately in recent years, the infrastructure has expanded causing shrinking of the forest.

Heavy cutting in the municipal committee forests, faulty garbage management, improper drainage and throwing of debris and rubbish, indiscriminate, quarrying in nullah beds and unplanned housing has resulted in degradation of critical forest groves. As a result of encroachments in the forest cover no replenishment ot plantation was done and activities for the conservation of forests were being neglected.

Dharamsala, August 12
The Zonal Hospital, Dharamsala, is in for a major staff crisis, as most of its surgeons will be shifted to the newly built, attached hospital of Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College in Tanda, which is almost ready to become operational.

Nearly half the doctors in each department of the Zonal Hospital are at present taken from the faculty of the Medical College, to which it had been attached to so far, besides the equipment of the college in use for diagnosis and surgery.

Dr D.P. Dogra, Medical Superintendent, said the hospital would face a major shortfall of staff if the vacant posts were not filled before the hospital in Tanda becomes operational. “Even though all major equipment, including the MRI, CT scan and X-Ray machines belong to the hospital, some of the faculty members have been using their own attachments. But since the new hospital is being set up from scratch, we hope that these would be left behind,” he said.

Putting to rest apprehensions that the Zonal Hospital might be downsized to a Civil Hospital due to inadequate staff, Ms Chandresh Kumari, local MLA and former Health Minister, said she had already taken up the matter with the Chief Minister, demanding the filling of 14 vacant posts of doctor, including specialists, so that the hospital could continue to function efficiently.

“There is no question of the Zonal Hospital being downsized or the building being put to some other use and we would resist any such move as it caters to the medical needs of a large population of the area,” she said.

Requesting anonymity, a doctor said general duty officers (GDOs) posted in the Commmunity Health Centres in the periphery of Dharamsala were likely to be shifted to the zonal hospital to make up for the shortfall. “But there would definitely be a shortage of specialists in most departments,” he said.

For instance, in the Department of ENT, all doctors are from the medical college. In the Department of Medicine, there is only one medical officer and in the Department Pediatrics, there are only two medical officers. The rest of the doctors in both departments are from the medical college.

He further said it was strange that even though the Zonal Hospital would be soon facing facing a major shortfall of doctors, the health department had recently shifted out two medical offices to the civil hospitals in Nurpur and Palampur.

The new hospital in Tanda has been built with a budget of nearly Rs 50 crore and is being projected as one of the best in the region. Once it becomes operational, the medical students would be saved from the botheration of shuttling between Tanda and Dharamsala, besides getting to learn with state-of-the-art facilities.

With the coming up of the new attached hospital, the major objection of the Medical Council of India (MCI) regarding inadequate space in the existing building for 500 beds and congested emergency and wards. There is hardly any earmarked space for the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Pediatrics ICU, Neo-Natal ICU and Cardiac Care Unit.

Ms Anita Verma, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, in charge of health, avoided a direct comment on the issue.

Shimla, August 12
While the BJP succeeded in putting the government on the defensive by adopting an aggressive posture on the “Mumbai musical blast” scam during the monsoon session of the Vidhan Sabha, which concluded yesterday, its strategy to stage a silent dharna in the well of the House on the final day boomeranged.

As the BJP members sat in the well with their lips sealed, Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, took the full advantage of the situation to blast Mr P.K. Dhumal, former Chief Minister, and the policies of his government. Supplementing the reply to the discussion on a private-member resolution urging the government to frame a policy for allotment of land to landless. Mr Virbhadra Singh used the encroachment policy of the previous BJP regime to launch a attack on Mr Dhumal.

The BJP members could do nothing as they were perched in the well with handkerchiefs tied on lips. That the protest proved counter productive was evident from the fact that Mr Dhumal had to hold a press conference after the session to rebut the charges made in the House.

The BJP staged a token protest on the issue of floods on the opening day of the session but its attack gained only on the penultimate day when Mr Ramesh Dhawala, former minister, forcefully raised the issue of “Mumbai musical blast”, which led to virtual disruption of proceedings. It was more of a dual between Mr Dhawala and Mr G.S. Bali, Tourism Minister, both of whom come from the state’s biggest and politically most significant Kangra district.

Solan, August 12
Alleging undue interference in student politics by the speaker, Mr Gangu Ram Musafir, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) today said he was pressuring their activists to desist from raising student-related issues in the campus by making telephonic calls threatening to transfer their parents. The ABVP today voiced protest against the undemocratic behaviour of the Speaker and said it did not behove a Speaker to behave in this manner as it was a constitutional post.

The ABVP activists later gheraoed the Principal of the local college, Mr D.S. Kheora, and locked him in his office from 11.00 to 3.30 p.m. today. Trouble started when a section of Congressmen were organising a blood donation camp at the campus. The ABVP students were peeved at the grant of permission for the camp. They raised slogans and all teaching work was suspended as the students were directed to join the procession. A protest rally marched through the campus and finally entered the Principal’s office.

He was restrained for over three hours and forced to admit that he had not given written permission for the camp but a verbal consent had been accorded telephonically. He took the plea that the permission was granted to the NSUI and not the youth Congress as was being alleged. This infuriated the ABVP activists further who rued that the principal was allowing outsiders in the campus which vitiated academic atmosphere.

Two ABVP activists later sat on a hunger strike demanding removal of the Principal.

The SFI took out a separate rally in the campus and blocked traffic on the Solan-Ooachghat road for about half an hour. They were protesting against the suspension of a Mudrike bus which affected students commuting from outstations. A case under sections 147, 149 and 341 of the IPC was later registered against the students activists for rioting, being armed and restraining way.

Kulu, August 12
An eloped couple today ended their love story after consuming poison. Padma, (35), mother of four children, and Khub Ram (31), father of two children, eloped on August 2, and could not be traced till Thursday.

They were found in an unconscious condition at a government ayurvedic dispensary at Bhekhali village about 5 km from here, on Thursday, while one, Durbasanand of the village, heard cries of the couple.

The police sources here said today that the male was found dead at the dispensary, while they reached there and a packet of celphos was found in his pocket.

The condition of the woman was critical and she was shifted to the Zonal Hospital, here, where she also died today. The SHO said a case was registered on the complaint of the husband of the woman.

The bodies of both were handed over to relatives after conducting the post-mortem.