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Misuse of sensitive posts worries BJP
Virbhadra should step down: Cong leader
Forest corpn may finally come out of red
72-cr Central project
on e-governance
HPEESA expresses concern over ‘big tenders’
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Govt takes over Lord Shani Temple
Vigilance probe against PWD officer on
Probe ordered into alleged atrocities
Mankotia seeks relief for paddy growers
NSUI demands white paper from industries
Students’ bodies poll today
Injured worker succumbs
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Misuse of sensitive posts worries BJP
Solan, August 28 Mr Shastri said there was an urgent need to make appointments in these departments time-bound and ensure frequent rotation of officials posted there. Besides monitoring the working of these officials, the system needs to be streamlined, he stressed. He was talking to mediapersons here after directing the district BJP unit to constitute district and subdivision level intellectual cells. While welcoming the expansion of industries in the state, he said eco-friendly units based on agriculture produce should be given preference. He said the failure of the government to identify adequate land for the industrial expansion had led to the conversion of agriculture land into industrial plots. This trend, would have an adverse fallout on the state’s agrarian economy, he added. He advocated the 70 per cent employment provision to Himachalis in the industries. He said an assessment scheme should be introduced to check the efficacy of government employees. He laid stress on the need to open information centers where the state’s youth could be guided to procure jobs abroad. |
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Virbhadra should step down: Cong leader
Dharamsala, August 28 “The Chief Minister should be appointed the PCC chief and some experienced Congress worker from the lower Himachal region should take over as Chief Minister,” reads the letter. Mr Pathania said it was imperative that the party formed the government and the government formed the party. Referring to the “recent remarks” made by the leadership regarding the PCC chief, Ms Viplove Thakur, Mr Pathania said, “These irresponsible remarks have not only lowered the credibility of the government but also put a question mark on the decision of Sonia Gandhi to appoint her as PCC president. Since she was from the lower Himachal region, her appointment had infused a feeling of trust in the party, which had now been affected by the recent developments.” Pointing out the increasing differences between the state government and the PCC leadership, Mr Pathania sought intervention of Ms Sonia Gandhi. In his letter, Mr Pathania further said the entire process of downsizing had in a way ‘downgraded’ the people of lower Himachal, which was also responsible for the party’s loss in Guler byelections even though the Congress had been winning the seat for the past 15 years. The poor representation of Kangra in the government had led to widespread resentment. Mr Pathania said he had written the letter in larger interest of the party, on the basis of the information he had gathered through the media. He said copies of the letter would also be sent to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, PCC chief Viplove Thakur and AICC general secretary Ambika Soni. |
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Forest corpn may finally come out of red
Shimla, August 28 The losses of the corporation has been declining over the past three years and if the trend continues it may earn profit this year. The accumulated loss of Rs 38 crore apart, the financial health of the corporation is improving. It suffered a loss of Rs 20 crore in 2002-03 which came down to Rs 12 crore in 2003-04 and Rs 1 crore in 2004-05. The turnover of the corporation has also increased from Rs 120 crore to Rs 140 crore over the period. Mr Pankaj Khullar, Managing Director of the corporation, said the turnaround has been achieved by drastically cutting down expenditure, particularly the cost of working forest lots. The felling of lots which was being carried out at 110 per cent over the scheduled rates three years ago was now being carried out at 25 to 30 per cent. This year the market is also favourable so far, thanks to the decline in import of resin products from China and South-East Asian countries. The rate of resin, the main product of resin, was Rs 3 per kg higher than last year. The rate of turpentine oil has also gone up by about 10 per cent. The slowdown in imports has also increased the demand for indigenous products. The sale of rosin in the first quarter of the current financial year has fetched almost Rs 1 crore more than the last year i.e. from Rs 4 crore to 4.78 crore. In case of turpentine oil the sale shot up from Rs 67 lakh to Rs 1.13 crore. The corporation sold over 11,000 quintals of rosin in the first quarter of the current year against about 10,000 quintals last year. The sale of turpentine oil increased from 16,274 to 15,758 litre. The corporation is now planning to set up “katha” manufacturing unit at Bilaspur. The project will be assigned to the private sector on turnkey basis. The corporation will not make any new recruitment for the purpose and utilise the existing infrastructure for the project. About Rs 1.50 crore would be spent on installation of machinery and the cost was likely to recovered within three years. |
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72-cr Central project
on e-governance
Shimla, August 28 In the first phase of the project the state Secretariat and offices of the Deputy Commissioners were linked. The second phase will facilitate high speed data transmission through 2 mbps link. The extended network will not only enable the state to switch over to e-governance but also help people to avail a host of services and even make payments of tax and other charges anytime and from anywhere in the state. Initially, the integrated community services centres scheme will be launched (on pilot basis) in Shimla, Mandi and Kangra districts and later extended to the entire state. Various administrative services and information will be then available under a single roof down to the tehsil level. A hospital management information services project is also being started at the Indira Gandhi Medical College, here. The centre for advanced computer has been asked to provide the specialised software for the purpose. The system will be extended to selected hospitals subsequently. The facility of video conferencing which is available to district headquarters at present will be extended to the block level. A tele-medicine project is also coming up in the districts of Kinnaur, Kulu and Sirmaur. It will help provide services of experts to common man up to the primary health centre level. The government has also decided to link the IGMC hospital with the PGI, Chandigarh. An information technology park is being set up in the private sector at Waknaghat in an area of 126 acres. |
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HPEESA expresses concern over ‘big tenders’
Mandi, August 28 Talking to reporters here, president, HPEESA, Mr Anand Behal, said the small dealers and suppliers would be hard hit by the state government decision to invite the “big tenders” for new deals. Mr Behal said the new process would spell their doom. “We pay 12.5 per cent as VAT and 4 per cent as central sales tax (CST). On the other, outside competitors will pay 4 per cent CST under the new tenders system”, he explained. “Not only this, most of the suppliers and manufacturers in the state are small-time investors and can not survive under the unfair competition, said Mr Tosh Kumar, an HPEESA member. “The bids should be in small amounts so that each member gets a chance to compete,” added Mr Chandan Bhatia, press secretary, HPEEA. The HPEESA members pointed out that the outside suppliers and manufacturers would acquire the C-form and pay 4 per cent CST, whereas they would pay 16.5 per cent to compete for the tenders. “So we will face an unfair competition as the outside suppliers have no offices in the state”, they added. The HPEESA requested the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, and the Power Minister, Ms Vidya Stokes to maintain the status quo or split the big tenders into smaller ones so that they can survive in the competition. “The state will earn revenue and the small investors will survive in the market”, they added. |
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Govt takes over Lord Shani Temple
Hamirpur, August 28 A team of the district administration officials, led by the SDM, Mr R.K. Pruthi, formally took over the control of the temple from the previous committee this morning. The other members of the team included the DSP of Barsar, Mr Mohinder Singh, the Tehsildar, Mr B.D. Sharma, and police and revenue officials. It is the second temple in the district which has been taken over by a government-owned trust after it took over Baba Balak Nath Shrine at Deotsidh. The temple has been brought under the provision of the HP Hindu Public Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowment Act. The annual income of the temple last year was around Rs 15.30 lakh. The team locked all the rooms and cash boxes and confiscated the entire record of the previous temple committee. Temple committee chief Om Parkash, who was at his residence, was summoned to the temple and shown the orders of the Hamirpur Deputy Commissioner.
— UNI |
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MC poll: BJP alleges irregularities
Shimla, August 28 Mr Jai Ram Thakur, vice-president of the party, alleged that procedure was not followed by the presiding officer at polling booth No. 4 and the ballot box was taken away after polling without informing the polling agents. The ballot box were to be sealed in the presence of the polling agents and their signatures were also obtained. However, this was not done for this particular booth where 303 votes were cast. He said in such a situation the ballot box could be tampered with, leaving scope for rigging. Mr Rakesh Kanwar, Additional District Magistrate, said the party had been asked to give a written complaint. He said an inquiry would be conducted to ascertain whether or not the presiding officer had followed the procedure. Further, a decision whether the votes of the particular booth were to be counted or not would be taken only by the returning officer tomorrow, he added. |
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Vigilance probe against PWD officer on
Palampur, August 28 An officer of the Vigilance Department told The Tribune here today that two drivers of the officer, Mr Tilak Raj and Mr Surjeet, who were the key witnesses in the case, had deposed before the special investigation team (SIT) of the Vigilance Department that in April, May and June this year the officer visited Una, Chandigarh, Shimla, Parwanoo and Solan eight times by his official vehicle in his private capacity. But in the log book of the vehicle these visits were shown as official ones to other places within jurisdiction like Palampur to Kangra, Sahpur, Baijnath and Dharamsala. In fact the officer never visited these places during this period. It may be recalled that most of the times the executive engineers concerned had to accompany the officer in their respective vehicles during his visits to their divisions but the entries in both the log books were different, the vigilance officer said. During investigation it is revealed that the log book was tampered with to convert the private visits into official ones. It is further learnt that both the drivers had also stated that the officer stayed in Himachal Bhavan, Chandigarh, and PWD rest house at Parwanoo on these dates, but as per the official record he was present at Palampur and shown to have made site inspections in and around Palampur along with his junior officers on these days. |
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Probe ordered into alleged atrocities
Dharamsala, August 28 The SHO concerned, Mr R.P.Jamwal, had been placed under suspension following the allegations and the matter had been referred to the DC for ordering either a magisterial probe or a police inquiry. Meanwhile, the SDM said he had begun work on the inquiry and the report would be submitted within the stipulated period.
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Mankotia seeks relief for paddy growers
Dharamsala, August 28 Addressing a press conference here, he said nearly 75 per cent of the crop had been destroyed by rain and the produce was not expected to be more than 25 per cent this season. Consequently, I have taken up the matter with the district administration to seek assessment of the affected areas done so that compensation could be given to the farmers, he said. Since most of the affected farmers have small land holdings, the amount of the compensation should be comparable to the amounts distributed by the government to the apple farmers in the upper Himachal region.
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NSUI demands white paper from industries
Solan, August 28 Asserting the need for each industrial unit to clarify their position on the status of employment, he said though the Labour Department kept a check on the government policy on employment but the organisation wanted each unit to furnish a separate white paper. Decrying the commensurate availability of technical manpower as per the requirements of the industry, he said the issue of revising the syllabus had been taken up with the government. He said the existing syllabus was not in sync with the technical requirements of the burgeoning industry. Addressing media persons on the eve of the elections of the students’ central associations in the state he said the NSUI condemned the recent incidents of student violence on the campus of Himachal Pradesh University. He said ABVP and SFI activists in an over enthusiastic attempt had vitiated the academic atmosphere in various colleges across the state. Supporting the government policy on contractual employment in educational institutes he said it had gained global acceptance and Himachal was not averse to such changes. |
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Students’ bodies poll today
Mandi, August 28 According to the college officials, the police has been deputed on the college campus to ensure a free and fair election. The SFI, the ABVP and the NSUI are locked in a triangular fight in the council poll in most colleges. In the local Mandi college, the NSUI, the ABVP and the SFI are claiming a clean sweep. The SFI claimed that it had captured the Riwalsar college unopposed and has an edge over its rivals in rest of the colleges in the district. The ABVP and the NSUI claimed the same, each one saying that they had a clear majority in most colleges in the state. |
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Injured worker succumbs to burns
Nahan, August 28 These employees were injured and three killed when a blast took place in the boiler of the factory on which they were reportedly working on Friday night. The police has registered a case against the Director and the General Manager of the factory under Sections 336, 285, 304-A and 34, IPC. The police has sent parties to arrest the accused. Deputy Commissioner R.S. Negi has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. |
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