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Cap challenge to CM
Accept relief or lose it, govt to oustees
Now, doctors under scanner |
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Milk chilling plant starts
Silt level in Sutlej above danger mark
Society helps contain difficult strain of TB
Bank’s financial assistance
Dalai Lama’s sister nominated for award
Three held
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Cap challenge to CM
Shimla, April 16 Ostensibly, the "designer cap" has been introduced to assert the cultural identity of the Kangra region but the real objective is to make political gains by sharpening the regional divide between the new and old Himachal areas. The regional divide got somewhat blurred during the BJP regime as the political rivalry between senior party leaders,
P.K. Dhumal and Shanta Kumar, undermined the political solidarity of the new areas and it became more of a tussle between Hamirpur and Kangra. Unlike the lower hills, donning caps has been a tradition in the cold climes of the upper Himachal areas. The people of Kulu, Lahaul, Kinnaur, Shimla and other areas have been wearing the familiar round caps which were similar in all respects, except the colour of the band on the front fold. However, it was the cap with the green or maroon band traditionally worn in the erstwhile Rampur Bushair state which became popular as the "Himachali topi". The cap with a "green band" assumed political significance as Virbhadra Singh, who has been at the helm for long, donned the cap. It became his hallmark and a symbol of the Congress. In fact, not only the supporters of the Congress but also senior officers patronised the green cap to show their loyalty to Virbhadra Singh. As a result, the BJP leaders cautiously avoided the cap with a "green band" and instead preferred the maroon or the multi-coloured caps. Whenever the BJP came to power, green caps invariably vanished from the scene. The new tri-coloured cap is Major Mankotia's answer to the green cap. Politicians from the new areas have been raising the bogey of regionalism in every Assembly elections. To begin with, it was "upper hills" versus "lower hills". However, as both late Ram Lal and Mr Virbhadra Singh came from the apple belt, the divide took the shape of the "apple" versus "orange", the main crop of lower hills, after the exit of Dr Y.S. Parmar, the first Chief Minister of the state. The regional factor came into play after the hill areas of the Punjab were merged into Himachal Pradesh during the reorganisation of states in 1966. As leaders from the old Himachal continued to dominate the ruling Congress, discontent started brewing among partymen in the merged areas who felt ignored. In a bid to upstage the established leadership of the party, leaders of the new areas raised the issue of discrimination on regional consideration. The BJP, then Jan Sangh ,which had significant presence in these areas , took a cue from the disgruntled Congressmen and exploited the regional sentiment to expand its base. As the influence of the BJP largely remained confined to the new areas and the Congress continued to maintain its hold over the old areas, the people were emotionally divided on regional lines. While in power, Mr Dhumal earned the wrath of Kangra as three ministers and as many legislators from the district revolted against him. The BJP paid a heavy price for it in the 2003 Assembly elections. The situation is not so disquieting for the Congress as Maj Mankotia has emerged as the lone voice of dissent against the Virbhadra Singh government. The charges of discrimination against Kangra being levelled by him will certainly damage the Congress but to what extent only time will tell. Whether the new cap will help establish a separate identity of Kangra or the cap politics will end in another fiasco remains to be seen. |
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Accept relief or lose it, govt to oustees
Solan, April 15 A notification issued to this effect by the SDM Arki has granted a final opportunity to the villagers to either accept the award or face its deposition in the government treasury under Section 16 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. Following the notification, the villages today held a meeting at Danoghat to chalk out their future course of action. Demanding cancellation of the compensation being offered, they said new compensation rates should be worked out. The meeting also received support from the CPI. Party state secretary Des Raj lent support to their cause during his address. The villagers demanded an inquiry by a retired Judge into the meagre compensation announced by the land acquisition collector. About 70 families will be affected by the acquisition of around 454 bighas in the Mangal panchayat. The fact that the villagers had refused to accept land award of between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2.75 lakh announced by the land acquisition officer, its grant had remained pending. The villagers have been demanding compensation at the rate of Rs 7 to Rs 10 lakh on a par with that provided to Kol Dam oustees. The dam is barely a few kilometres from this village. Peeved at this notification, the villagers said they would not accept anything less than Rs 7 lakh and added that the 27 persons who had received compensation were employees of the tehsil and had surrendered less than two bighas of land. Opposing the acquisition, Nand Lal, a villager, said they would rather initiate an agitation than accept the compensation granted. They said the company should ensure that each land owner earned at least Rs 4,000 per month as interest to sustain himself. Officials of the cement company, however, opined that they had offered maximum compensation and could not bargain further with the villagers. With a number of other benefits like allotment of cement depots, transportation work, etc. to those affected, the compensation provided was fair, they added. |
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Now, doctors under scanner
Shimla, April 16 The district police has written letters to five doctors of the Cardiology Department at the IGMC, seeking details about their foreign jaunts ever since the catheterisation laboratory at the hospital started functioning. The police is now trying to investigate the system of procurement and supplies of stents and other consumable items. The doctors have been asked to give complete details about the number of foreign trips, whether these were sponsored and if permission from the Finance Department and state government was sought for the same. Interestingly, the police has asked the doctors to furnish information about the number of stents that they have used on patients since the cath lab was installed at the IGMC and how many of these were elective surgeries and how many emergency cases. Police sources said the main reason for seeking details from the doctors about their foreign trips was to ascertain that no undue benefit had been given to any pharmaceutical company while ordering stents or other material. “We have found that there have been some irregularities in calling of tenders and maintaining records and supplies by M/S Spectrum Medical Devices, New Delhi, who supplied the stents and other companies and suppliers,” said a police official. In the report filed by the police in the High Court, on whose direction the FIR was lodged in the expired stents case, the police has raised a number of questions about the tender process and maintaining of records of the supplies. The quality and standard of material and devices for use in the cath lab was not mentioned in the tender and no samples of items were checked and kept. The police report also points out certain shortcomings like no inspection of stents or other material by an expert committee after these were received. “It was left to the para-medical staff of the cath lab to check and receive the supplies, even though they were not directly responsible for it,” the police report reads. A total of 14 expired stents had been supplied to the IGMC, out of which two had been used on a patient during angioplasty performed on October 20 last year. Later, one of the doctors noticed that the supplier had pasted a sticker on the actual date of manufacture, (January 2005) and written January 2006 on it. After there were reports of expired stents being used on patients, the High Court had asked the police to register FIRs against the guilty and also directed the Chief Secretary to convene a meeting to review the system of acceptance of the lowest tender in supply of medicines. A three-member police team headed by DIG (South) is investigating into the matter. |
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Milk chilling plant starts
Chamba, April 16 The Animal Husbandry Minister, Mr Harsh Mahajan, stated this here today that the milk plant had been financed under the ‘green gold project,’ which was to be operated by the Himachal Pradesh Milk Federation. Mr Mahajan said the milk plant had the capacity to process five thousand litres of milk per day and manufacture ghee, curd and butter. The plant would help people, particularly those engaged in rearing livestock in this hilly terrain, thereby earning their livelihood by selling their milk produce. Mr Mahajan said an economic revolution could be brought through livestock rearing for which the state government was making all-out efforts to equip and strengthen the milk chilling plant. Talking about the achievements in animal husbandry in the state, Mr Mahajan said for improving the quality of semen straws, equipment worth Rs 1.14 crore had been purchased for Sperm Station Palampur under the “National Project on Cattle and Buffalo Breeding” being implemented by the Himachal Pradesh Livestock Development Board in the state. The state of the art sperm station has also been established at Palampur. Mr Mahajan informed that the existing 1564 artificial insemination centres had been converted into mobile artificial insemination centres adding that artificial insemination facilities had been provided in 471 more institutions while the infrastructure had been created for 365 institutions. As many as 1100 in-service veterinarians had been trained in artificial insemination techniques and 500 more veterinary pharmacists had been deputed for training, Mr Mahajan added. Mr Mahajan claimed that 324 veterinary institutions in the far-flung corners of the state had been linked with telecommunication services. |
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Silt level in Sutlej above danger mark
Reckong Peo, April 16 The project is generating only 500 mw of power against its total capacity of 1500 mw, said a senior official. It may be mentioned that excessive silt content in the Sutlej during the summer months has always been a distressing experience for the project ever since its inception. The rains that lash the region early this week triggered landslides leading to soil erosion at many points, thereby increasing the level of silt in the river and its tributaries in the up-stream areas of Kinnaur district. Meanwhile, the official revealed that some repair work was being carried out at the power project and it was, therefore, mandatory to shut down these two units of power generation for at least a couple of days. On the other hand, power generation in the 300 mw Baspa-II power project of the Jaypee Hydro-Power Corporation Limited situated at Karcham, near here, was yet to be restored even after 11 weeks of its shutdown. Landslides triggered by heavy snowfall and rain struck the power house of this project on January 19 this year, damaging the switch yard following which power generation was suspended immediately. Senior officials of this power project maintained that the repair work was going on at a rapid pace and power generation would possibly begin by the end of the month. Apart from the financial loss of replacing the machinery of the switch yard, the company was also losing at least Re 50 lakh per day in the form of shutdown of power generation.
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Society helps contain difficult strain of TB
Parwanoo, April 16 Formed in April 2002, under the chairmanship of the Solan, DC, the main objective of the society was to provide free treatment to MDR patients. It was formed to assure proper treatment to selected patients with the help of funds collected from the state government and public donations. The MDRTB is a contagious disease. It is a potential health threat if not cured properly. One patient can infect 20 healthy persons if not checked on time. In the past few years MDR has emerged as a major health hazard. The MDRTB is such a stage of TB where the patient stops responding to conventional drugs used to cure TB. Death rate in MDR cases can be very high in case timely treatment is not given. A patient becomes helpless if once declared a case of MDRTB unless treated judiciously with an accurate combination of drugs, efficacious anti-TB treatment in right doses and under competent medical supervision. About Rs 2 lakh is required for the treatment of an MDRTB patient that generally takes 18 to 24 months. Most patients suffering from this disease are from a poor economical background. A major hurdle in detecting the spread of MDRTB is the lack of timely and adequate medical treatment as TB is mostly rooted in rural areas where people are uneducated and poor. An ordinary TB case could become MDRTB due to haphazard or inadequate treatment, discontinuation of treatment by patients due to lack of awareness, improper treatment and wrong advice by the physician. The main aim of the society was to help such patients and arrest the spread of the disease. It is remarkable that despite meager financial grant from the government and social organisations the society has managed to help needy patients. There has been no budgetary provision and the government policy for MDRTB and even the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme is silent on it.
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Living a life worse than animals
Kangra April 16 Mr B.M. Dutt, director of the Nari Shakti Sangathan, Khabli, an NGO, told mediapersons here today that Bidhi Chand did not even have clothes to wear. He had been serving in the village before he grew old and suffered a paralytic attack. Since then, there had been no one to look after him, he added. Some villagers covered his nude body with blankets but those too had got spoiled as he could not take care of himself. “As he is a paralytic, he cannot even wash his hands after he attends to the nature’s call in the basement where he is lying. Some villager provide him with food,” he said. Mr Dutt said he had written a letter to the President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, requesting him to direct the authorities concerned to shift Bidhi Chand to some old-age home where he could be properly looked after at the fag end of his life. He said he had also informed the Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, and the SSP, Kangra, besides the subdivisional authorities to come forward and help the aged hapless paralytic man. |
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Bank’s financial assistance
Shimla, April 16 The bank has sanctioned 3140 projects with a loan assistance of Rs 1241 crore, out of which Rs 854 had been disbursed to the state by March 31. The maximum funds had been made available for rural roads with a total sanction of Rs 701 crore, followed by irrigation and watershed development (Rs 353 crore) and drinking water supply Rs 113 crore. |
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Dalai Lama’s sister nominated for award
Kangra, April 16 Besides her, two others — the AOCM, an organisation for orphans, and Craig Kielburger of Canada — have been nominated for their work towards protecting the rights of children. The award is given in recognition of efforts to fight for the rights of children who live as refugees, are affected by wars, or have been enslaved and to provide them education. According to WCPRC sources here today, Jetsun Pema has been nominated for her 40-year struggle for the cause of Tibetan children who have been living as refugees in India. Her work has saved the lives of tens of thousands of Tibetan children. She has been credited with setting up Tibetan Children Villages and providing them with home, education and hope for the future. |
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Scion of Chamba dead
Chamba, April 16 The body of Brijendra Singh would be brought to his native town Chamba by air tomorrow for cremation. Brijendra Singh was 55 years of age. He is survived by his wife, Asha Kumari, MLA of Banikhet, and a daughter, besides two brothers, Raja Prem Singh, the eldest, and Raja Hem Singh, the youngest. Born on January 24, 1951, Brijendra was admitted to Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi on Friday night when his gastric ulcer burst. The Himachal Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, the Animal Husbandry and Urban Development Minister, Mr Harsh Mahajan, other dignataries and the elite of Chamba region have expressed their deep grief over the death of Brijendra Singh. |
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Kokje, CM condole Brijendra’s death
Shimla, April 16 He was admitted to the hospital after he complained of pain in the chest two days ago. He is survived by his only daughter, besides wife. Mr Virbhadra Singh conveyed his heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved family and prayed to the almighty to give peace to the departed soul. The Council of Ministers and Mr Kuldeep Singh Pathania, Thakur Singh Bharmauri, Mr Surinder Bhardwaj, all MLAs, also condoled the death. Brijendra Singh was the second son of Raja Laxman Singh, the last ruler of Chamba riyasat. |
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Three held
Palampur, April 16 A police spokesman told mediapersons here today that a service revolver, along with 12 bullets belonging to ASI in-charge police posts Ladh Bharol, was stolen on February 5, from his residence. Till now the culprits had avoided arrest. But today the police conducted a raid at Bir Road near Baijnath and arrested Surjit Singh, prime accused in this case. |
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