Chamba, October 22
An automatic milk chilling plant, constructed with an outlay of Rs 72 lakh at Parel in the suburbs of the town, would be dedicated to the farmers of the district within next three months, said Mr Harsh Mahajan, Animal Husbandry and Urban Development Minister here today.

Mr Mahajan said that the milk plant had the capacity of 5,000 liter per day for the processing the milk and manufacturing of ghee, curd, butter etc. The plant would benefit the people as now they could sell their milk produce to the plant on remunerative prices, Mr Mahajan said.

In order to mitigate the low-voltage problem and feed the electricity supply to the new habitations in the mountainous region of Chamba, the Union Government had recently approved a project of Rs 90 crore for the installation of three 132 KV power sub-stations each at Chamba, Gehra and Tissa in Chamba district, disclosed Mr Mahajan.

Mr Mahajan said that the Himachal Pradesh Government had constituted a committee to monitor the implementation of Right to Information Act under the chairmanship of state Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, adding that the committee would ensure providing information to the people about the development programmes and activities of the government. — OC

Shimla, October 22
The survey for the Chandigarh-Baddi railway track would be completed by the end of next year.

“The Chandigarh-Baddi project was taken up on a persistent demand from the Himachal government,” Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu told reporters here.

The construction of a railway track would facilitate industrial workers who commute between Chandigarh and Baddi.

With the Chandigarh-Ludhiana rail link on the verge of completion, the proposed link would connect Baddi to Ludhiana, which would give a boost to industrialisation in the state.

Mr Velu said a survey on the Chandigarh-Morinda and Bilaspur-Bhanupali railway link was in progress.

However, there was no proposal to study the feasibility of the Baddi-Nalagarh-Ropar railway line, he said.

He said the proposal to convert the narrow gauge railway track stretch up to Parwanoo of the Kalka-Shimla track into a broad gauge has been abandoned as it was not found to be viable.

Earlier, Mr Velu inspected Shimla railway station and announced the best maintenance award of Rs 25,000 to the station staff. He also gave Rs 5,000 to loco staff for maintenance of old steam locomotive.

Shimla, October 22
Mr Virbahdra Singh, Chief Minister, has approved the appointment of 1,650 daily-wage workers on regular basis in the state Public Works Department. He has also cleared the appointment of 560 dependents of employees of the departments, who died in harness, on compassionate grounds.

A spokesman of the Public Works Department said here today that the government had delegated power of making appointments on compassionate ground to all Superintending Engineers with respect to work charged beldar and daily-wage employees. He said since these employees were not entitled to pension, providing employment to their dependents on compassionate grounds was essential. This was the main reason behind decentralisation of powers.

He said out of 560 approved appointments, 131 pertained to dependents of those who were working on daily-wage basis and died during service. Besides, 208 dependents had already been appointed on compassionate grounds during the past two years after the present government came to power. In all, 768 such appointments had been approved in the department since the present government came to power.

He further said the government had taken a decision to regularise daily-wage workers in a phased manner and the Chief Minister had approved the regularisation of 1,650 daily-wage workers.