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Monsoon Session of Assembly from today
Heavy rainfall in state
Rain causes Rs 6.5-cr damage in Spiti valley
Propagate renewable energy, says CM
Doctors opting out of state service
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ABVP, NSUI win student elections
Ban cold drinks laden with pesticides: Dhumal
137 medical officers promoted
Creation of DA, DDA posts hailed
Chemists not to sell psychotropic drugs
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Monsoon Session of Assembly from today
Shimla, August 20 In the last session it was not the BJP but the Congress leader, Maj Vijay Singh Mankotia, who gave embarrassing moments to his own party government. However, the flamboyant ex-army officer has since mellowed down, and as such the ruling party could breathe a little easy. The functioning of Himachal Pradesh University will come under attack and the BJP will target Dr L.R.Verma, Vice-Chancellor, for whose scalp it has been gunning ever since the high court cancelled the medical entrance test. Mr P.K.Dhumal, leader of the BJP legislative group, holds Dr Verma responsible for various ills plaguing the university and maintains that he should been sacked for the scam. Instead, the Chief Minister had been going out of the way to protect him, he maintains. The amendments to recruitment and promotion rules to make provision for contract appointments is also likely to come under fire. The BJP considers the entire exercise a ploy to pave the way for backdoor appointments and apprehends that new rules will make the state public service commission and the state subordinate services selection board redundant. Routine issues like price rise, law and order situation and victimisation of employees associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) will also be debated. There will be six sittings in all and one day will be devoted to private members' business. Important legislative business will be transacted during the short session and several bills concerning fee structure of private medical ,dental and ayurvedic colleges, merger of special area development authorities of Dhalli, Kusupati and Tutu into the Shimla Municipal Corporation and public record bill for the preservation of old government records are likely to be passed during the session.
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Heavy rainfall in state
Shimla, August 20 Heavy rain lashed Shimla and its adjoining areas last night after receiving more than an hour’s downpour yesterday afternoon. The met office sources said it had recorded over 101 mm of rainfall, which started late last night and continued throughout the night. The sources said widespread light to moderate rains were reported from almost all places in the state during the past 24 hours, triggering landslides and disruption of vehicular movement on several state and other link roads. Sunni in Shimla district recorded 8.3 mm, while Kalpa in
Kinnaur district received 4.8 mm and Bhuntar in Kullu district received 5.7 mm of rainfall during the past 24 hours. Rain lashed almost all places in Chamba, Hamirpur, Solan, Mandi, Sirmour, Shimla, Kullu, Kangra and Bilaspur districts, while the tribal districts of
Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti received light rain last night. Tourists resorts of Kullu and Manali received intermittent rain, forcing people to remain indoor. The met office said the state capital recorded a night temperature of 17.4 °C and a day temperature of 22.4 °C, while Sundernagar and Bhuntar recorded minimum temperatures of 23.7 and 21 °C and maximum temperatures of 30.5 and 33 °C, respectively. Kalpa recorded a night temperature of 12.2 °C.
— UNI
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Rain causes Rs 6.5-cr damage in Spiti valley
Kaza, August 20 This was revealed in an official report sent to the District Magistrate based at Keylong by the local administration, early
this week. As per the report, the total loss to private property in the cold desert belt had been estimated at Rs 1.60 crore that included loss to crops and houses. The total loss of government properties, including roads, bridges, buildings and forest cover, had been estimated at Rs 5.50 crore. The natural disaster had thrown life out of gear in the valley and till date it had not become normal. The telecommunication system and power supply had been badly affected, besides, disruption in various road links connecting far-flung places. The total loss of the Public Works Department with regard to damage of roads/bridges had been estimated at Rs 4.47 crore while the loss of Public Health and Irrigation Department had been estimated at Rs 1 crore. As many has 25 houses and standing crop of peas and other vegetables had also been damaged in the natural disasters that struck the valley in the last two months. The district administration on receiving the report from the local administration of the Spiti valley had apprised the state government about the total loss and demanded adequate funds to compensate the tribal people.
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Propagate renewable energy, says CM
Shimla, August 20 The rally was flagged off by Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, who also released “Harit Prerna”, a magazine brought out by Himurja, the nodal agency for promoting renewable sources of energy. Addressing the gathering, Mr Virbhadra Singh stressed the need for propagating renewable energy as an alternative to meet the shortage of conventional energy. He said the state attained the target of cent per cent electrification way back in 1987-88 and a system improvement programme was under implementation to ensure quality power to the consumers. He said that the state had vast hydroelectric potential which was being exploited. It would be in a position to meet power needs of the northern states of the country. He said the increase in demand for energy was inevitable even if significant advances were made in regard to energy saving technologies. He said that with the increase in demand the renewable energy was liable to become commercially viable. The Chief Minister said that the state government had reserved mini hydel projects upto 2 mw exclusively for the entrepreneurs of the state and they would be given preference in the allotment of projects upto 5 mw. Himurja had so far commissioned eight such projects while 28 more projects were in various stages of construction. Later presiding over the Rajiv Gandhi Akshay Urja Diwas function organised at the Ridge, Mrs Vidya Stokes, Power Minister, said that memorandums of understanding for 264 small hydel projects upto 5 mw had been signed and out of these 29 projects with aggregate 113.80 mw capacity were likely to completed during the current fiscal year. She said that micro hydro-electric projects were been constructed in difficult and far-flung areas and these had proved quite successful. In China, and other countries, one small project catered to the need of just one village, saving the transmission and maintenance cost. Mrs Stokes said that till now 30,000 solar cookers, 3400 solar water heaters, 3000 solar street lights, 15400 solar domestic lights, 113467 pressure cookers and 11716 CFL system had been provided in the state on subsidy. The younger generation, particularly students, were eager to adopt renewal energy sources. Renewal energy was not environmental friendly but also cheaper. She distributed prizes among winners of various competitions organised on the occasion in which more than 180 students from 20 schools of Shimla participated.
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Doctors opting out of state service
Dharamsala, August 20 While some have already put in their papers, there are reports that many others are contemplating to follow suit. A senior medical specialist posted in the zonal hospital here, who has recently submitted his resignation, told The Tribune, on condition of anonymity, that there was disincentive in the state health service. He said doctors holding postgraduate degrees were given the same pay scales as those holding MBBS degree. According to sources, while an eye surgeon with the zonal hospital has recently resigned and is on notice period, a general surgery specialist has gone on extraordinary leave. There are reports of specialists and doctors in general service in other districts who have either resigned or are planning to quit. When contacted, members of the Himachal Medical Officers’ Association confirmed that the non- acceptance of long-pending demands like grant of increments to doctors with postgraduate degrees and chalking out a criterion for posting of doctors of block and district levels was the reason for the exodus-like situation but they did not want to come on record. “There is no emphasis on research and no efforts are being made to make available proper infrastructure and remove the shortage of manpower in the zonal hospital,” said a specialist. The state Health Department, he said, was not accepting most of the resignations, and doctors were, therefore, proceeding on extraordinary leave. Unlike Chandigarh and Ludhiana, medical specialists here do not receive offers from private hospitals. Therefore, there are not much lucrative options. Most of those who have quit or are planning to quit will have to set up their own private clinics and hospitals. “I’m 50-plus and for me job satisfaction would have more priority than pay package. But if doctors are made to function with not enough infrastructure and absence of proper staff, it is bound to lead to discontent,” added the specialist. Similarly, he said, if a senior medical officers was posted at the block level in a far-flung area of the state, he would definitely feel frustrated. There should be a policy to decide doctors with what kind of experience should be posted at block and district levels, he added.
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ABVP, NSUI win student elections
Nurpur, August 20 In Government College
Indora, the NSUI bagged all four seats of the SCA. Vikram Katoch Bharat Bhushan, Anita and Sanjiv Kumar were elected president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary, respectively. The election of the SCA in Arya Government College Nurpur could not he held, as the college election returning officer-cum-principal had scrapped the election process two days before the election due to apprehension of
breach of peace on the college premises in the wake of hooliganism, which took place
during the time of filing of nomination on August 17.
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Ban cold drinks laden with pesticides: Dhumal
Shimla, August 20 Addressing a press conference here today, he criticised the government for not acting promptly in the matter after pesticides were detected in the products of two major multinational companies. More so, because a ban was in the benefit of the state economically as it would promote the sale of fruit juices produced in the state. The government should not lose any more time and prohibit the sale of contaminated soft drinks forthwith. He took the government to task for not taking up the issue of drought and flood relief seriously and this was established from the fact that the Central team, which visited the affected areas, had found chinks in the report prepared by the state. He said as per his information different departments had given different figures as a result of which the committee had no option but to ask for revised report. The BJP leader took strong exception to the decision of the government not to post regular teachers in place of the ad hoc teachers appointed through the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) and share 50 per cent of the salary burden on account of such appointments. It was another method to give jobs to favourites through the backdoor. He alleged blatant favouritism in the identification of poor families as a result of which in some panchayats the number of such families had come down drastically. Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, had failed to fulfil the promise to give land for setting up “go sadans” and instead it slapped an exorbitant lease fee running up to Rs 2.5 lakh on those running such shelters for abandoned cattle.
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137 medical officers promoted
Shimla, August 20 Regular promotions to the post have been effected after a gap of 17 years. However,
the condition of clearing departmental examination, which was waived in 1985, had been reimposed. While 40 promoted doctors have already cleared the examination, the remaining have to
pass it within a year, failing which they could be reverted. The association has urged the government to order postings with immediate effect so
that the doctors could join duties at the earliest.
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Creation of DA, DDA posts hailed
Dharamsala, August 20 The association welcomed the creation of three posts of Deputy District Attorney and seven posts of Assistant District Attorney in the offices of Superintendents of Police. The creation of these posts, Mr Sharma said, would go a long way in proper presentation and handling of criminal cases in courts.
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Chemists not to sell psychotropic drugs
Nurpur, August 20 The association also decided to sell medicines only to licence-holder retailers or registered private doctors in the region.
— OC
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