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Treatment plans must be broad based
Govt to develop 4 model villages
“Aryans” against vulgarity in songs
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3 killed, 4 hurt in road mishap
CM befooling people, alleges BJP
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Panchayat poll peaceful
Shimla, December 18 The polling in 1096 panchayats was held and no untoward incident occurred during the polling. The polling was held in all the districts excepts some areas of Lahaul and Spiti and Bharmour. KANGRA: The first phase of the panchayat, block samiti and zila parishad poll in this subdivision went off peacefully today. Deputy Commissioner Bharat Khera visited a number of polling booths to ensure a free and fair poll for the panchayats and zila parishads. District police chief S.P. Singh said there was no untoward incident at any place in the district. Mr H.S. Pundeer, SDM, said the polling on 160 polling stations went off peacefully to elect members and pradhans of 22 panchayats in the first phase today. Nahan: The first incident of election violence in Sirmour district was reported from Kamrou village under Paonta subdivision this morning in which four persons were critically injured. It has been alleged that one of the candidates seeking election to the post of president of the Kamrou panchayat opened fire into the air to terrorise his opponents. As per reports from Kamrou village, about 80 km from here, a quarrel took place between supporters of two candidates on the issue of the alleged voting by Nepalese. Supporters of Mr Deudu Ram said they would not allow 55 Nepalese and outsiders to vote in the panchayat elections, despite their names being on the voter list. They said they had made a complaint to the Election Commission also. This resulted in a quarrel between both groups. As per eyewitnesses, the quarrel took place on the Paonta-Shillai PWD road and people ran to safer places when they heard the gunshot. However, no quarrel was reported at polling stations. Both groups used lathis and four persons received injuries. When contacted, Mr S.R. Sharma, SP, confirmed the incident and said cross FIRs had been registered at the Paonta police station. Meanwhile, talking to mediapersons at the Kamrou village, Mr Deudu Ram, alleged that he had made a complaint regarding the fake voters. Sources this evening confirmed that an inquiry regarding the validity of these voters had been marked to the police late last evening. |
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Panchayat poll in Pangi by summer
Chamba, December 18 Giving this information here today, an official spokesperson said the Pangi tribal block comprised of 16 panchayats and a zila parishad ward named
Killad, which was reserved for women of the Scheduled Tribe. The spokesperson said that the 18 panchayats in the district were elected unopposed, while three pradhans of different panchayats were also elected unopposed, thus about 400 members, including the
pradhans, were elected unopposed. Meanwhile, the first phase of elections to the Panchayati Raj institutions
(PRIs) in 90 panchayats in the district today went off peacefully. |
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Treatment plans must be broad based
Shimla, December 18 Inadequate CAT plans and the “indifferent” implementation have been mainly responsible for increasing the level of silt in rivers and the devastation being caused by flashfloods which have become a regular feature. Power generation companies, which provide funds for CAT plans, have been far satisfied with their implementation. They maintain that the Forest Department does not have the requisite staff and the infrastructure to spend the funds made available under the CAT plans. They are reluctant to release funds and want it to furnish utilisation certificate in respect of the amount already released. As many as 5,400 hectare of forest land has been diverted for the construction of power projects, transmission lines and roads and mining since 1982. The Forest Department is given some funds under the CAT plans which are mostly used for afforestation and soil conservation measures. The power companies want that CAT plans should be executed like externally funded projects and take care of their priorities. For instance, the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam which is facing unending problems in operation of the 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri project because of excessive silt, wants the plans to take care of its immediate concerns. It wants a focused approach as piecemeal execution of works over a large degraded area does not yield the desired result. Engineers of the nigam have identified 19 soil erosion points along the Hindustan Tibet road and six nullahs which are bringing huge amount of silt into the Sutlej. The situation will improve only if such works are taken up on priority under the CAT plan. In all, over Rs 300 crore will be available under CAT plan for Sutlej basin alone over the next seven to 10 years. The diverted forest land also includes areas falling in wildlife sanctuaries. The hydroelectric projects which involve diversion, besides construction of massive civil structures and roads, cause maximum damage to biodiversity. |
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Govt to develop 4 model villages
Mandi, December 18 These villages have been selected by the HP Town and Country Planning (HPTCP) within the planning area of these three towns to stop the haphazard development taking it toll on the villagers living in their surroundings, revealed the TCP officials. “The villagers will be given the basic amenities and be empowered to raise their resources so that they earn sustainable income from them, without selling their land to urban builders”. But the real test for the TCP is whether it would actually save the villagers from the pressure of unbridled urban growth and temptations from the land grabbers and property dealers who are already eyeing the land in these villages. The TCP has already done its home work and has identified their potential and has done some exercises with the villagers in these “model villages”, claimed the TCP officials. Maniana village on the Mandi-Riwalsar road is already facing pressure from the expanding concrete jungle of Mandi town. “To save it from concretisation the villagers need the stable irrigation facility to tap its potential to produce off-season vegetables. They can sell them ready markets in Mandi town”, said the officials. The same hold true for Raghunathpura and Jabli villages in Bilaspur town. Raghunathpura lies about 5 km from town near the Open Jail, while Jabli lies about 5 km from town on the Bilaspur-Chandigarh highway. Both villages have a potential to produce khair trees, vegetables and other cash crops”, the TCP’s survey observed. With Naggar already on the tourist map of the world because of Roerick Art Galley, Naggar castle and the seat of the valley’s 18 karus( deities), Naggar is being developed both as heritage and model village to preserve and conserve its vernacular architecture character. |
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“Aryans” against vulgarity in songs
Shimla, December 18 This is the pop music group “Aryans”, who were in the city yesterday on a promotional tour of their latest album “Kehta Hai Dil Yeh Bar Bar”. The group whose first album was launched in 1997 will also be performing here on the New Year’s Eve. “The fact that this is our fifth album in a row goes on to prove that one can not just survive but also be popular by presenting original and clean music,” opines Narain, a member of the group. He is an IAS officer, who has taken time off to indulge in his passion for music, which certainly is more satisfying. He said the latest album had cost them Rs 18 lakh and had nine numbers. “It is definitely the age of video but we will still like to sing for the common man who can only afford to buy an audio cassette and not a CD,” feels Narain. Unhappy with trend of vulgar remix music, he said their group would keep away from churning out such numbers even if they were in demand. “We want to reach out to the entire country and not a particular region, which is the reason why we have not delved into regional music” says Narain. Another sore point with the group is the trend of not giving any royalty to the group whose numbers are played on radio channels. “The music business is loaded in favour of the music companies and not the singers as they are the main beneficiaries,” he lamented. |
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3 killed, 4 hurt in road mishap
Shimla, December 18 The ill-fated vehicle was on its way from Devnagar to Neri. The deceased have been identified as Sham Lal, Ramesh Kumar and Bahadur Singh, all from Devnagar village. The driver, Vinod Kumar, was among the injured. The other injured, who were hospitalised at Neri, are Puran
Das, Yash Pal and Rumal Singh. |
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CM befooling people, alleges BJP
Nurpur, December 18 Mr Rana said the people of Kangra district were aware of political motive of Mr Virbhadra Singh, behind holding the winter session in Kangra district. He alleged the Chief Minister visited the lower areas in winters and laid numerous foundation stones of development works but most of the projects remained of non-starter. Mr Rana demanded a White Paper on laying of foundation stones and to make the details of progress of work on the projects the foundation stones of which had been laid during the past 33 months. |
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