H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Power failure hits health services
Nurpur, January 30
The sudden failure of power supply in the local Civil Hospital has not only left the hospital premises in dark but has also affected the functioning of health services since January 24. Indoor patients had to use candles for two days before the electrical wing of the Public Works Department made a temporary arrangement.

MC plan to beautify Shimla
Shimla, January 30
In order to give a neat and clean look to the “Queen of Hills”, the local municipal corporation may make it mandatory that the rooftop of every house be painted in a single colour. The matter came up for discussion today at the pre-House meeting of the MC.

Record of warmest January day in Shimla broken
Shimla, January 30 
With the day temperature touching 21.4°C today, the record for the warmest ever day in the month of January was broken. According to the local Meteorological Office, the highest day temperature recorded in the month of January till now was 20.7°C recorded on January, 24,1993.

One-month remission for Hamirpur jail inmates
Hamirpur, January 30
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today announced remission of one-month’s imprisonment to prisoners lodged in the district jail, which he visited to lay the foundation stone of the modern jail complex.

Slums thrive unchecked
Parwanoo, January 30
The slums have spread like an epidemic in the industrial town of Parwanoo. Ineffective local administration and dilly-dally approach of state government to provide a labour colony for workers have led to the situation where vacant lands have been encroached upon by slum dwellers.

Extension reforms programme launched
Shimla, January 30
In order to ensure effective extension and transfer of farm technology, the state government has launched an extension reforms programme in seven districts of the state.

Senior citizens seek nomination on civic bodies
Kangra, January 30
Senior citizens have demanded that the state government should make a provision for nominating them on the municipal corporations, municipal committees and nagar panchayats as members.

Society chief refutes MLA’s charge
Dharamsala, January 30
The Hamirpur-based Sarv Kalyankari Society has condemned the allegations made by the local MLA, Ms Anita Verma, about the welfare society, seeking an inquiry into its accounts.

Khanna heads power regulatory panel
Shimla, January 30
The Himachal Government today appointed Mr Yogesh Khanna, Additional Chief Secretary in charge of Finance as Chairman of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

52 donate blood
Nahan, January 30
The District Aids Control Society and the Nehru Yuva Kendra today organised a camp at Nahan in which 52 volunteers donated blood.

• Sudhir Sekri is MC president

Power failure hits health services
Our Correspondent

Nurpur, January 30
The sudden failure of power supply in the local Civil Hospital has not only left the hospital premises in dark but has also affected the functioning of health services since January 24. Indoor patients had to use candles for two days before the electrical wing of the Public Works Department (PWD) made a temporary arrangement.

Inquiries reveal that clear instructions have been issued to government departments to install and maintain power in government offices or residence through electrical wing of the PWD, but the Health Department has not only ignored these directions but has allegedly used non-technical, non-specified mechanism in the government health institutions to maintain and restore power supply.

There is no supply of power in the general OPDs, dental OPD, X-ray room and minor operation theatre which has hit the functioning of the hospital catering to the needs of Nurpur, Jawali and neighbouring Bhatiyat subdivisions. According to Subdivisional officer, of the electrical subdivision (PWD) Nurpur, who is now supervising the restoration of the power supply in the hospital the failure of power had resulted due to short-circuiting and overloading in the main and sub main control of power supply which had burnt and destroyed electrical cable, even.

When contacted Mr M.R. Dhroch, Executive Engineer, Electrical (PWD) admitted that not only the Health Department but other government departments were also not following the guidelines laid down by the state government.

He informed that PWD electrical wing had been submitting repair and maintenance estimates to the government but the authorities were preferring the services of private contractors for this.

MC plan to beautify Shimla
Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 30
In order to give a neat and clean look to the “Queen of Hills”, the local municipal corporation (MC) may make it mandatory that the rooftop of every house be painted in a single colour.

The matter came up for discussion today at the pre-House meeting of the MC. The House is likely to take a final decision on the issue tomorrow, following which all rooftops in the town will be painted either red or green.

Some of the members said after the colour of the roof was finalised, the MC would make it mandatory that all new buildings which come up in the town should have their roofs painted in that colour. As far as some of the old buildings were concerned, where there was a dispute between the tenant and the landlord or the owner could not afford, the MC would help.

Councillors are of the opinion that as part of the beautification of the town, painting the roofs in one colour is a must. At present a large number of the houses, especially in Lower Bazar, Middle Bazar and The Mall look very old and dilapidated, making the area look like a slum.

However it is being felt that this task can be achieved only by building public opinion and convincing the people to keep the town clean and beautiful. Earlier also, the issue of painting the roofs in one colour has been discussed.

Besides, the MC will be preparing estimates for undertaking repair work of roads, walls and nullahs as Rs 1.55 crore has been received from the state government under rain damages.

Record of warmest January day in Shimla broken
Tribune News Service

One-month remission for Hamirpur jail inmates
Tribune News Service

Hamirpur, January 30
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today announced remission of one-month’s imprisonment to prisoners lodged in the district jail, which he visited to lay the foundation stone of the modern jail complex.

He made a surprise visit to the district jail and inter acted with the jail inmates. He gave a patient ear to many prisoners and listened to their grievances.

The Chief Minister said the modernisation of jails and police stations was being carried out expeditiously by ensuring sufficient provision of funds. He said the jails in the area would be shifted to more spacious and convenient locations so that prisoners were housed in humane conditions.

All the old jails would also be renovated and maintained in a phased manner, he added.

He said the government was also ensuring that the prisoners were given vocational training during their imprisonment so that on the completion of their sentence they could start some self-employment vocation to earn their livelihood.

Local MLA Ms Anita Verma, former MLAs Mr Kuldeep Pathania, Mr Ranjit Verma and Mr Karam Singh Thakur accompanied him.

Later addressing the office- bearers of the SC and ST Welfare Association, the Chief Minister said the government had provided 9 per cent of budget for the development of the tribal areas by formulating the Tribal Sub-Plan. He said this had benefited the ST community immensely.

The Chief Minister paid tributes at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhi Chowk in Hamirpur on his death anniversary.

Slums thrive unchecked
Jagmeet Y. Ghuman

Parwanoo, January 30
The slums have spread like an epidemic in the industrial town of Parwanoo. Ineffective local administration and dilly-dally approach of state government to provide a labour colony for workers have led to the situation where vacant lands have been encroached upon by slum dwellers.

The industrial plots on prime locations have fallen prey to slums. Interestingly, these industrial plots that were meant to be used for industrial propose were currently serving the purpose of residential places for labourers. Thousands of labourers and industrial workers are living in ‘jhuggis’ in extremely unhygienic conditions.

Around 9,000 labourers and their families hail mostly from Bihar, UP, Rajasthan and Nepal. Many of them are engaged in units here while others do business on rehris or shops.

Ironically, the lack of land has come up as a major hurdle in the growth of the town. Sector 2 of the town is the worst affected. Every available vacant area has been encroached upon by slum dwellers. A plot measuring over 5603 square meters allotted to Banta Engineering in 1979 is a slum now. The plot remained vacant as the buyer of the plot had been residing in Shimla and had not started commercial activity on it. As a result, almost the whole plot has been encroached on by migrant labourers from UP and Bihar. A slum colony has come up which has become an eyesore for the nearby residents.

Requests to the authorities concerned to check the growth of slums have fallen on deaf ears, rued an industrialist residing near the slum. The slum has become a den of crime and nuisance, he blamed. Residents blame politicians for the problem who encourage slums due to migrant votebank. The police seldom verify the antecedents of the jhuggi dwellers.

Extension reforms programme launched
Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 30
In order to ensure effective extension and transfer of farm technology, the state government has launched an extension reforms programme in seven districts of the state.

The programme is being run by a society called the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) in these districts. The main task of this agency is to identify the gaps in technology dissemination and research and extension plan.

In order to improve the economic condition of farmers, there is a thrust on diversification of cropping pattern. Emphasis has been laid on growing off season vegetables, quality vegetable seeds, potato, ginger, soyabean, oil seeds and pulses. The total cultivated area in the state is about 6.20 lakh hectares and 80 per cent of this is rain-fed.

According to an official spokesperson, a project based approach has been adopted to increase vegetable production.

Senior citizens seek nomination on civic bodies
Our Correspondent

Kangra, January 30
Senior citizens have demanded that the state government should make a provision for nominating them on the municipal corporations, municipal committees and nagar panchayats as members.

Stating this here today, Mr B.L. Sharma, general secretary of the Senior Citizens Forum, Kangra, said the senior citizens included well-decorated Army, Navy, Air Force officers and jawans, besides engineers, doctors, educationists and economists of repute with tremendous experience at their back in their respective fields and were ready to render their services to society.

Mr Sharma suggested that the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, should take the necessary steps in this direction. 

Society chief refutes MLA’s charge
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, January 30
The Hamirpur-based Sarv Kalyankari Society has condemned the allegations made by the local MLA, Ms Anita Verma, about the welfare society, seeking an inquiry into its accounts. Mr Rajinder Rana, chairman of the society, clarified that the society did not receive any help or grant from the government or any other agency and its welfare activities were financed by a group of like-minded people.

He said the society was involved in welfare activities like financial help to needy students by way of fee, uniforms and scholarships and helping in organising marriages of girls from economically weak backgrounds.

Terming the statement issued by Ms Verma yesterday as malicious, Mr Rana said the Hamirpur MLA should inquire into the funds of a scores of NGOs with doubtful credentials which got grants from different agencies but did not pass the funds to the needy.

Khanna heads power regulatory panel
Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 30
The Himachal Government today appointed Mr Yogesh Khanna, Additional Chief Secretary in charge of Finance as Chairman of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

The post had been lying vacant after the tenure of its Chairman, Mr S.S. Gupta, got over on January 7. Mr Khanna, who is a 1971-batch IAS officer, was due to retire in February 2007.

The notification for the appointment of Mr Khanna was issued after the Cabinet approved his name. He will now have a five-year tenure as Chairman of the commission. The commission is being reconstituted after the government decided to convert the one-member commission into a multi-member panel.

52 donate blood
Our Correspondent

Nahan, January 30
The District Aids Control Society and the Nehru Yuva Kendra today organised a camp at Nahan in which 52 volunteers donated blood.

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Commissioner R.S. Negi called upon the youth to engage themselves in such constructive works that gave a new direction to society and led to development.

Many of the donor girl volunteers were from remote areas of Sirmaur district. As many as 18 girls donated blood on this occasion.

Sudhir Sekri is MC president
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, January 30
Congress nominee Sudhir Sekri was elected president of the Municipal Council here today. Mr Subhash Nehria, also supported by the Congress, was elected the vice-president of the council.