 |
|
‘Rajas’ on warpath over temple trust
Cong chief against panchayat elections on party symbols
CM rules out Cabinet reshuffle
HP to be hub of technical education: CM
HP to sell power through PTC
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Record apple crop likely
Two teachers sacked
Residents force demolition squad to retreat
6 hurt in mishap
|
|
‘Rajas’ on warpath over temple trust
Mandi, October 23 “Kardars” are also a divided lot over the recent war of words between the former rajas. Virbhadra Singh had created a stir among the former “royals” of Kullu kingdom when he announced during the Dasehra closing ceremony there that a trust should be formed to manage the affairs of the temple. He also accused Maheshwar Singh of misusing his position as the chief representative of Lord Raghunath for furthering his political motives.In a counter move, Maheshwar Singh accused Virbhadra Singh of meddling in the affairs of deities by stopping the procession on the Dhalpur Maidan on October 18. He threatened to move court if the Chief Minister did not take back his words. “Kardars” are a divided lot over the issue of forming a temple trust. They believe that petty politics has been taking its toll on the sanctity of Kullu Dasehra ever since Maheshwar Singh joined the BJP in 1978. But “kardars” who support Virbhadra Singh contend that the Lord Raghunath temple should have its own trust just as big shrines, once owned by the then rajas like Bhimakali of Sarahan, the “Kul Devi” of former Bushaihar kings, whose Virbhadra Singh is a present scion, have temple trusts. Fearing the wrath of deities, some “kardars” do not want comment. Kullu Dasehra will lose its sanctity if politicians “use deities” for furthering their political motives, commented Daulat Ram, sevadar of Bijli Mahadeo, second biggest presiding deity of Kullu district. Shimla: Maheshwar Singh yesterday came under sharp attack from senior Congress leaders for criticising Virbhadra Singh over the temple trust issue. Agriculture Minister Raj Krishan Gaur and Chairman, State Marketing Board, Satya Prakash Thakur in a joint statement said the reaction of the BJP leader to the Chief Minister’s suggestion reflected his fear of losing the central position in the deity culture of Kullu. They said trusts had been formed in respect of a large number of religious institutions to ensure their proper management and transparency. |
|
Cong chief against panchayat elections on party symbols
Nahan, October 23 She said that as panchayats had judicial powers it would not be fair to politicise these institutions. She said the Congress would try to elect good and active people to run panchayats. She said that history of the BJP was of divide and rule. She said that there was no difference between her and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. She said that as per directions of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, AICC President, she had the right to ask PCC members to furnish property details and all party MLA’s and Ministers were PCC Members. She said that all ministers had been asked to give prior information of tours in the area to the block presidents of
Congress party. She also addressed party workers of the Nahan Congress Mandal at the Congress Bhavan here today. Mr Kuldeep Rathour, State-General Secretary, Mr Rattan Singh, District President, Mr Jaggi Sharma, Nahan Mandal President; Rupender Thakur, General-Secretary DCC, Kush Parmar and Ajay Bhadur Singh, ex MLA’s also addressed the meeting. |
|
|
CM rules out Cabinet reshuffle
Shimla, October 23 He told mediapersons that he was not contemplating any balancing act by way of dropping some ministers and inducting some from Kangra. “At times I came to know from media reports what I was propose to do” he remarked sarcastically. He said it was the prerogative, of the Chief Minister to induct and drop ministers and he could do it any time. However, at the moment there was no such move. Panchayat elections had nothing to do with Cabinet reshuffle and reports in this regard were misplaced, he added. Reports had appeared in a section of print media that two ministers could be dropped and three new ministers from Kangra district, which bore the brunt of downsizing, inducted to balance caste and regional equations. |
|
|
HP to be hub of technical education: CM
Dharamsala, October 23 He said the government was encouraging private sector participation and investment in this field with emphasis of opening more engineering colleges, pharmacy colleges and nursing colleges. He said the state government was also planning to open 15 nursing and five paramedical colleges in the state to provide world-class health professionals. The government would open one ITI in all 68 constituencies of the state. A new engineering college would start functioning at Sundernagar from next year. Dr S.K.
Bhomik, Director, NIT said M. Tech programme in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering with intake of 18 students in each discipline had been started and the registration of Ph.D students in all discipline would be started within a month. The Chief Minister gave away medals to meritorious students on the occasion, besides awarding 222 B.Tech, degree, six B.Arch and 20 Director’s medals. |
|
|
HP to sell power through PTC
Shimla, October 23 Until last year, the government had been supplying free power to the state electricity board at a nominal rate of 70 paise per unit. The board further sold it to various deficit states. Early this year, it decided to sell the free power through the PTC which paid it Rs 2.65 per unit. Encouraged by last year’s experiment, the government has now decided to have an agreement with the PTC. As per the proposal, it will supply power to the corporation at a base rate of Rs 3 per unit and in case it manages to sell it at a higher rate, the additional income will be shared by the state and the corporation in the ratio of 95 is to five. The matter is likely to be put up before the state Cabinet tomorrow. In a normal year, the quantum of free power amounts to about 1,700 million units. The base rate will ensure a revenue of over Rs 500 crore and if the PTC manages even a part of it on higher rates, the state could earn much more from the arrangement. The returns will go up further as and when the government starts drawing free power as royalty from the projects owned by the state electricity board. Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, had in his Budget speech announced that the government would charge royalty from the board. At present rates, the government would get about Rs 40 crore but the amount would go up significantly after the commissioning of the 126 MW Larji project next year. |
|
Record apple crop likely
Shimla, October 23 This is for the third consecutive year when there has been a bumper crop and growers have been able to get very good prices. A total of 2.3 lakh boxes have already been exported to various destinations like Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and Bangalore, surpassing last year’s figure. With another month to go before the apple season gets over, it is being expected that almost eight lakh boxes from Kinnaur and four lakh from upper reaches of Shimla will reach the markets. More than 60,000 trucks of apple have left the state. Last year, 2.37 crore boxes were exported from the state, while this year the figure was likely to touch 2.4 crore. “We are hopeful that the production this year will be marginally higher than last year’s, around 5.4 lakh metric tonnes,” said Senior Marketing Officer K.K. Joshi. Besides the apple that is exported, there is internal consumption and some fruit is taken by various agencies like the HPMC and HIMFED under the minimum support price scheme. “The total apple production this year is likely to touch 5.4 lakh metric tonnes as compared to 5.28 lakh metric tonnes last year,” said Mr Joshi. Apple growers too are happy that despite various odds like floods in Kinnaur and prolonged monsoon, they have been able to get good prices, even better than last year’s. Against an expected production of 16 lakh boxes from Kinnaur district, only half the number has reached the markets, as large number of roads got damaged in the floods. “Fortunately for us the apple season started late this year and by then some of the roads had been repaired, saving the crop from rotting before transportation,” said a grower from Kinnaur. Another factor that hit the growers in the middle apple belt to some extent was the prolonged monsoon because of which the size and colour of the fruit was adversely affected. The apple season is likely to get over by November 20, as fruit from the upper areas of Kinnaur, including Pooh and Kalpa, is yet to arrive in the market. Similarly, fruit from some of the orchards located in the higher reaches of Shimla districts like Baggi and Narkanda will also be plucked now. |
|
Two teachers sacked
Nahan, October 23 Shillai Education Block sources said today that on the instructions received from the office of Dy Director, Primary Education, Sirmour, recently appointed contract assistant teacher Vinita in the primary school, Chachrada, and Ms Sangita in the primary school, Dhaka, were removed from their posts and two new teachers had been appointed in their place. It may be recalled that (MLA), Shillai, Mr Harsh Verdhan Chauhan, had made a complaint to the state government alleging bungling in issuing of appointment letters to four candidates selected by the committee headed by SDM Paonta. The Department of Primary Education had ordered an inquiry into the whole
episode. As per the inquiry report it was found that two candidates of merit
list prepared by the SDM, Paonta, were allegedly ignored in the appointment process and the two above mentioned girls were given appointment in their place. The Primary Education Department took serious view of inquiry report submitted by the SDM Paonta and Dy Director, Primary Education, Sirmour, and placed under suspension the Block Primary Education Officer of Shillai on October 8. When contacted, removed teachers said they were a victim of political conspiracy and would move to the court against their removal from service after having 14 days in office. They claimed that they were eligible and maritorious candidates for these posts. |
|
Residents force demolition squad to retreat
Bilaspur, October 23 When the team reached there for demolishing two house-cum-shop complexes, the residents bolted themselves inside these structures.. With canes of kerosene in their hands, they shouted from the windows of these buildings that if any attempt was made to touch their premises, they would set themselves ablaze. The demolition campaign was later put off for the day. Earlier, the team had demolished five houses, allegedly constructed on government land, at College Chowk. Meanwhile, BJP leader and former Health Minister Jagatprakash Nadda and some other party leaders were arrested for opposing the demolition of shops constructed on government land. Other BJP leaders who were arrested included district general secretary Swatantra Sankhayayan, Zila Parishad member Subhash Thakur, Nagar Mandal president Chaman Gupta and Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha unit president Rooplal Thakur. Although District Magistrate Manish Garg had enforced Section 144 in the area, thousands of persons had gathered at the place of demolition. Mr Jagatprakash Nadda and his supporters were taken to the police station in a bus and released after about three hours. Mr Jagatprakash, later, blamed Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for the demolition operation. |
|
6 hurt in mishap
Mandi, October 23 The accident occurred when the driver lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a curve.
— UNI |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
