Shimla, November 14
Close on the heels of the arrest of the machine man, Jaijeet, who secured the PMT question paper from the Maxwell Printing Press in Lucknow, the arrest of another key suspect, Ram Bahadur could speed up investigations in the HP-CPMT case.

Ram Bahadur, who is suspected to have taken the question paper from Jaijeet and given it further, was arrested by the Punjab police yesterday as the same set of people were involved in the Punjab PMT leak also. Adarsh who along with Ram Bahadur had brought the question paper to Delhi is already in the custody of the Himachal police.

The Himachal police is hopeful of getting the custody of Jaijeet, whose police remand will get over in two days in Chandigarh. “Once we have the custody of Jaijeet and Ram Bahadur, we will be able to expedite the investigations in the case in which about 20 arrests from all over the country have been made.”

With all three persons-- Adarsh, Ashok and Ram Bahadur --who secured the question paper from Jaijeet being arrested by the police, investigations into the case are likely to be speeded up. Interestingly, one of the accused, Praful, who was arrested from Delhi by the Himachal police had himself topped the Gujarat PMT, which was later cancelled. He is believed to have tutored the candidates at a mock class.

Police sources said Ram Bahadur along with Adarsh had brought the question paper to Delhi. Mock classes were held for 16 candidates in Mussoorie and five candidates in Delhi who secured the top positions in the HP-CPMT.

The 17 students who figured lower in the PMT merit list were allegedly provided the question paper by Ashok Thakur, who surrendered before the police in Lucknow. 

Dharamsala, November 14
In view of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to India on November 20, six Tibetan NGOs and support groups have decided to organise demonstrations in Delhi. Dalits of the “Delhi chalo” programme are being finalised and representatives of the NGOs said Tibetans from different settlements in the country are being mobilised for the protest.

Mr Kelsang Phuntsok, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress said, demonstrations were organised earlier whenever a Chinese leader visited India.

The TYC will hold protests at its own level, Tibetan NGOs have also come together to make a point. The recent killing of a Tibetan nun along the Tibetan border by Chinese security personnel, deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet and the illegal imprisonment of Tibetan youth were issues we want to condemn, he said.

The six NGOs include the Tibetan Youth Congress, the Tibetan Women’s Association, the Friends of Tibet and National Democratic Party of Tibet and nearly 3,000 Tibetans are expected to take part in the demonstration in Delhi to be held on November 20.

The NGOs would protest against the recent shooting of defenseless Tibetan refugees by Chinese forces at Nangpala Pass as fresh evidence of China’s alleged atrocities in Tibet.

Mr Tenzing Tsundue, general secretary of the Friends of Tibet has already been restricted by police, not to leave territorial jurisdiction of Dharamsala till November 25 during the Chinese leader’s visit. “The visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to India is a rare and important opportunity for Tibetans to raise voice for the restoration of Tibet’s independence,” said Tenzin Choeying, national director of the Students for a Free Tibet India.

He said, “It’s our duty to use the freedom we find in India to bring attention to the Tibetan issue and push for an end to China’s ongoing occupation of our country. Rather than focusing on the actions of Tibetan youth born and raised in India the Indian government should be concerned about what the Chinese are doing on their borders that threatens the national security of India.”

In his letter to the Indian Prime Minister, seeking a meeting with Mr Hu Jintao, Tsundue has said “It is because of the lack of this access that I have been demonstrating in your streets, drawing world’s attention to the atrocities that Tibet is subjected to. If such an opportunity to speak to Hu Jintao face-to-face does not arise this time too, we will again be compelled to come out on streets in large numbers to voice our anger and frustration.”

Kangra, November 14
Dharna by the lecturers of the local MCM DAV College yesterday entered the fourth day. They have threatened that if their demands were not met with by the DAV Management at New Delhi, they would intensify their agitation.

Sitting on a dharna outside the college gate during their vacant periods, the lecturers stated that they had been demanding merger of the 50 per cent ADA with the basic pay and arrears, implementation of the senior and selection scale and advance increments of M.Phil and Ph.D.

They said that they were agitating against the DAV management in New Delhi and not against the state government. They threatened that if their demands were not met they would intensify their agitation. They have communicated to the management that they had been protesting for the last 14 months in support of their demands without hampering the teaching work.

They alleged that an agreement reached on October 22, 2005, between the HPNGCLA and HP Non Government College Principal's Association regarding the merger of the 50 per cent ADA with the basic pay was not implemented by the two DAV Colleges of the state, including MCM DAV College Kangra, out of the seven private colleges in the state. They demanded that if the state government freezed the grant-in-aid, the DAV Management should generate its own resources to meet their demands.

He said the management was facing a great difficulty in managing the colleges. It had no resources to meet such big expenditure. Sharing such a big burden was not possible for the management without aid from the government. He said recently every lecturer was given a Rs 3000 pay hike.

According to the sources, the DAV management was contemplating to implement ' No work no pay' if need arises.

Nurpur, November 14
The Kangra district unit of the Himachal Pradesh Government Teachers Union has opposed the move of the Education Department to alter recruitment and promotion rules for principals of senior secondary schools in the state.

In a joint statement released by Mr Onkar Rana and Mr Rakesh Katoch, respectively, president and general secretary of the union, here today demanded that such a drastic step should not be taken by the government without taking teachers’ union into confidence as the union had been representing as many as 40,000 government school teachers.

The union leaders demanded setting up of a separate physical education cell in the Directorate of Elementary Education. They reiterated creation of posts of assistant physical education officer at the district and block levels.

Demanding recruitment and promotion rules for the newly created posts of headmaster in elementary schools and senior block elementary education officer, the union leaders said the government should also earmark promotions of TGTs to the post of headmasters in elementary schools like promoted lecturers.

They also demanded release of DA installment due since July, 2006.

Shimla, November 14
Recording a phenomenal growth, the number of blogs has crossed the one lakh mark in India in just two years, heralding a new age of "people-to-people" communication.

Stating this while formally launching public-version Instablog Community, Mr Ankit Maheshwari, Chief Executive of Instablogs Networks, Asia's biggest and world's fourth largest blog network, said the number was likely to double over the next six months. The country was set to dominate the blogosphere with its wealth of intellect. Precisely for this reason his company, which already had over 100 blogs under its flagship, had taken the initiative to upgrade from a network of loosely tied blogs to a social network of blogs. The new e-venture would give a new direction to "participatory journalism".

He said operating from the Software Technology Park complex here was very convenient as unlike Delhi there were no power cuts and it was cheaper. Even the cost of employees was lower.

Instablogs Community would provide a countrywide interface to the growing number of bloggers and enable them to effectively use the new medium. Its user-friendly interface allowed new writers to submit articles just like an e-mail and also offered social tools to facilitate easy interaction among members to help build a steady readership. Even existing bloggers could benefit by integrating their blogs with Instablogs Community, asserts Mr Maheshwari.

All articles submitted by members would be kept unfiltered and un-edited. Instablogs Community editors could only accept or reject a story they could not edit anything. The facility of instant messaging and adding other members to ones friends’ list would itself encourage more participation.

The new forum would further boost the reach of Instablogs Network which was already serving over a million visitors per month by generating consumer-oriented news through its 16 channels.

Dharamsala, November 14
A 63-year-old watchman of a cooperative society, was found murdered in the Krishi Seva Sarkari Samiti complex at Harsar under Jawali subdivision, nearly 40 km from here.

The motive of murder appeared to be theft as the killers hit him from behind and then entered the complex to steal any valuable inside and things were found ransacked.

A police official said according to the locals, the victim appeared to be hit on his head with a stone or sharp-edged weapon and must have died on the spot.