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NIT: Better marks, more WB funds
Crimes against women on the rise in state
MLA for probe into job statistics in
Chamera-III
'Traffic Signal' hits red light over word ‘kinner’ |
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Tibetan kids ‘held captive, beaten up’ by Chinese police Rupa BJP Mahila Morcha chief Kokje, CM condole death of Hokishe Sema CM: No legal hurdles in appointment of CPSs Inter-state gang of car lifters busted Servant case: Pratibha seeks apology from BJP MoU to set up cement plant
in Chamba dist signed Kulu sex racket: 3 remanded in police custody Meeting on land allocation to homeless
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NIT: Better marks, more WB funds
Hamirpur, February 1 The NIT here has bettered its previous year’s score of 5.5 points. The NIT was given two grants of Rs 10 crore each by the WB last year and this year. The authorities are hopeful of an increase in financial aid in view of it being given more points than many other NITs across the country. NIT Director I.K. Bhat told The Tribune here today that as per a survey conducted by ‘DataQuest’ in June 2006, NIT, Hamirpur, was ranked 34th among India’s top 100 schools and 7th among the NITs. “This year, we are sure that we would jump many places as the infrastructure on the campus has improved and many new courses have been introduced in different departments. The improvement in WB score would mean more WB grants to the institute,” he said. Considering that 17 NITs were set up in the country in the 1960s and NIT, Hamirpur, came into existence only in 1986, it is a commendable achievement for the institute to leave many of the older institutes behind in terms of providing better infrastructure, courses and placements. “The WB financial aid to many technical institutes has been reduced after their assessment count went down. The audit team took a stock of the 20 tasks assigned to our institute,” Mr Bhat said.
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Crimes against women on the rise in state
Dharamsala, February 1 Latest figures suggest that crime against women has increased steadily. As many as 878 cases of various natures of crime against women were reported in the state during 2006, as against 874 cases in 2005. As per the figures available from the state Police Headquarters, 23 women were murdered and 113 raped during the last year. During that period, 274 cases of molestation, 257 cases of cruelty to women, 61 cases of abetment to commit suicide, 29 cases of eve-teasing and many other crimes were also reported. The figures are apart from the numerous cases that go unreported. Alarmed at the situation, the state police has launched an awareness campaign with focus on educating the masses on how to put a halt on such crimes. “The police is cautioning public against such crimes. We are educating the masses. We go to schools, villages and other places to educate them,” said Arvind Sharda, district police chief of the tribal district of Kinnaur. Another senior official of the state police at the Police Headquarters said the police in its statewide campaign was going to schools to impart martial art training to girl students. The conviction rate in crime against women is very slow in the state, thanks to the tardy judicial process and lack of adequate women police to investigate cases of crime against women. The strength of women police force is even less than five per cent of the total police force in the state, said a police official.
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MLA for probe into job statistics in
Chamera-III
Chamba, February 1 Mr Bharmouri, who represents Bharmour tribal Assembly constituency where the Chamera Stage-III project is under construction, apprehended the HCC was not ensuring 70 per cent employment to local residents of Himachal Pradesh as per directives of the government. The project, which is being constructed at a cost of Rs 1500 crore, should at least have scope of generating employment for a lot of people while the so-called 70 per cent employment had a few locals (Himachalis), he told reporters here today. Alleging irregularities in giving jobs by the company, Mr Bharmouri said doubts about transparency with regard to employment to locals needed to be dispelled. Similar was the situation with other companies engaged in the execution of 70 MW Budhil hydroelectric project near Bharmour tribal township, Mr Bharmouri said, adding no company would be allowed to harness river waters of the tribal terrain unless it took care of the interests of the locals and provided employment to them as per the government’s guidelines. Viewing seriously the scenario of jobs to Himachalis in the hydropower projects in the area, Mr Bharmouri said he would take up the issue of criteria for jobs according to capacity of hydropower projects so that private enterprises might not act arbitrarily.
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'Traffic Signal' hits red light over word ‘kinner’
Shimla, February 1 People of Kinnaur who are referred to as ‘kinner’ and their history and culture known as Kinner history are forming an action committee, to file a public interest litigation against the use of 'kinner’ word for eunuchs. People of the tribal district of Kinnaur are referred to as 'kinners' and anything associated with them is called 'kinner' culture. An action committee is being formed to urge Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh to take up the matter with the Centre so that nobody could make wrong use of the word. The matter will be raised by the committee at various forums in and outside the state. Writer and HP Tourism Development Corporation official, S.R. Harnot today tried to speak to Director of Traffic Signal, Madhur Bhandarkar over the telephone. “He spoke to us very rudely and said it was the print and electronic media which first had used the word Kinner for eunuchs and as such he is not the only one who has used it,” said Mr Harnot. Mr Harnot had objected to the use of Kinner word for eunuchs in January 2000. “The matter was discussed even in the state Assembly in April 2001 but after that no efforts have been made by the government to stop the use of 'kinner’ word for eunuchs,” he said. Mr Harnot along with other intellectuals, writers and some people belonging to Kinnuar district have decided to move court so that the wrong use of Kinner word can be stopped. “We have no objection to the screening of the movie provided the word kinner is dropped as it is an insult to the people of Kinnaur and their rich culture an ancient which finds mention in the puranas,” said a senior bureaucrat. BJP leader, Tejwant Negi, member of the state BJP executive committee today threatened in case the wrong use of 'kinner’ word is not dropped, Traffic Signal would not be allowed to be screened at any theatre or other place in the state. “The use word of kinner for eunuchs is an insult to the people of Kinnaur district”, he said.
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Shimla, February 1
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Tibetan kids ‘held captive, beaten up’ by Chinese police Kangra, February 1 According to one of the Tibetans in the group, now in exile, at least 25 Tibetans were taken into custody by the Chinese police on September 30, including at least 10 children aged between 8 and 15, and were severely beaten up and tortured. Some of the children were detained for over three months. Sources here said contrary to this first-hand account, official statements by the Chinese authorities to the West claimed that the children were treated humanely and released immediately, and that opening of fire on the group of unarmed Tibetans crossing the Nangpa La en route to India was part of “normal border management”. But one official asserted that the Tibetan children in the group had been sent India to be trained by the Dalai Lama only to return to China and carry out his instructions. The sources said here today that an earlier incident to the September-30 Nangpa La shooting had also been confirmed, with eyewitness accounts of Chinese troops opening fire on another group of Tibetans travelling into exile in mid-October 2005. Two women from the group said they were fired upon when they tried to cross over to India in mid-October, 2005 before being captured and beaten up during interrogation.
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Kokje, CM condole death of Hokishe Sema Shimla, February 1 In his condolence message, Mr Kokje said that Dr Hokishe had contributed a lot during his tenure as Governor from 1983 to 1986. He worked relentlessly for the betterment of the people of Nagaland as Chief Minister and as a member of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly. As a member of the Rajya Sabha he raised issues concerning the people of Nagaland at the national level. Mr Virbhadra Singh also condoled the death of Dr Sema. He said that Dr Hokishe Sema was a leader of masses who contributed immensely towards the development of Nagaland.
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CM: No legal hurdles in appointment of CPSs Shimla, February 1 Talking to mediapersons here today, he said the proposal to create posts of CPSs and parliamentary secretaries would be put before the Cabinet on February 6. On when he proposed to make the appointments, he refused to give a clear reply. The Chief Minister lambasted the BJP for its "stage-managed protests to hog headlines in the media”.There were only a handful of protesters, whereas hundreds of local people turned up to welcome him, he claimed. He said the protests were against the shifting of the India Reserve Battalion, a decision effected more than eight months ago, which clearly indicated that they were a "managed affair" just to achieve narrow political ends. The battalion had to be shifted, as there was no infrastructure at Jungal Beri for locating it.
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Inter-state gang of car lifters busted Kangra, February 1 Ms Bindoo Sachedeva, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Dehra, said that Jagir Kaur, 58, was arrested today after a reinforcement was sent to Beas from here, headed by SHO Jawalamukhi. Mr Sansar Chand, investigating officer, said that the Punjab Police personnel were in connivance with the accused, so it was difficult for them to nab the accused woman, and it was only when the additional police force reached there that the woman was arrested. Ms Sachedeva said that on January 28, two women, Jagir Kaur and her daughter Bitoo, along with three other members of the gang, Jaswant Singh, Kali and Deepak, alias Deepu, hired an Indica car from Phillaur in Punjab for Jawalamukhi under the garb of pilgrims for paying obeisance at Jawalamukhi temple. For the night, the two women remained in one room, while three men and the driver of the car Gurvinder remained in another room of the hotel. At 3.30 a.m., the gangsters managed to take away the keys of the car from the pocket of Gurvinder and left Jawalamukhi in the stolen Indica car PB-37-D- 3800. During investigation, the police recovered the driving licence of Jaswant Singh of Beas from the bathroom of the hotel and the police, taking a lead from the licence, reached Beas in search of Jaswant Singh and struck at the right point and arrested Jagir Kaur, with whom Jaswant Singh was living, the DSP said. She said Jagir Kaur was identified by the driver Gurvinder of the car and the stolen car was recovered from Ria near Amritsar. She said other gang members Bitoo of Ludhiana, Jaswant Singh of Uttar Pradesh, Kali and Deepu, both residents of Ria, Amritsar, were absconding. Police teams have been rushed to arrest them.
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Servant case: Pratibha seeks apology from BJP Shimla, February 1 In a statement here today, the chief minister’s wife said it was a pity that the BJP leaders had cooked up an absolutely false story regarding their domestic servant and unnecessarily dragged her name to malign her image. She said the domestic servant Rajinder Singh was found working at a dhaba in Bhambla, where he had gone on his own accord after he was taken away from their residence here, Holly Lodge, by his uncle. The BJP had been crying foul in the matter and pointing unnecessary fingers at Holly Lodge, she said. Rajinder Singh had worked at Holly Lodge for some time for which due remuneration was paid to him. His uncle did not want him to continue and wanted to take him for pooja to his native place and hence, he left Holly Lodge after collecting his dues, she added.
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MoU to set up cement plant in Chamba dist signed Shimla, February 1 The two-million tonne capacity plant to be set up at a cost of Rs 800 crore will be commissioned after five years. It will provide direct employment to 1,000 persons and indirect employment to over 5,000. The MoU was signed by Mr Prem Kumar, principal secretary, industries, on behalf of the government and Mr Manoj Gaur, executive chairman of the Jaiprakash Associates, in the presence of Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, and Mr Kuldeep Kumar, Industries There were 10 companies in race, including multinationals, Lafarge and Heidelberg, two top cement manufacturing companies of the world. The project initially was awarded to the Larson and Toubro Company in 1995. However, work would not be started despite extensions of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as a result of which the government cancelled MoU and invited fresh bids. This will be second cement plant of the company which is setting up two-million capacity plant at Bagha in the Solan district. Mr Virbhadra Singh said as per the MoU the company would have to spend 1.5 per cent of the total cost of the project on local area development and employ at least 70 percent manpower from within the state. Besides, it would have to give job to at least one member of the families displaced due to the construction of the project. Such families would be given attractive rehabilitation package. The company would use the state-of-the-art pollution control technology as environment was the main concern of the government. Mr Manoj Guar said his company had already invested Rs 10,000 crore in hydro power, education and cement projects in the state and it was keen to enter other sectors as well.
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Kulu sex racket: 3 remanded in police custody Mandi, February 1 The persons arrested have been identified as Vilesh, a clerk in the SDM’s office, Rakesh and Bobby The police is mainly acting on the information provided by a victim, a minor girl, who claimed to recognise all persons who exploited her sexually after she had gone missing from her village in Sundernagar on January 8.
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Meeting on land allocation to homeless Mandi, February 1 Under the state government policy, 90 persons have been found eligible in the district. In Kulu district, the number is 146. But none of them has been allotted the land under the scheme so far as “the district administration is facing scarcity of land in these towns”. But in Lahaul-Spiti district, out of the 36 persons found eligible, 32 have been given the land. However, in Bilaspur and Hamirpur districts, none, who had applied under the scheme, has been found eligible for the grant of land so far. Mr Subrahmaniyam said he had convened the meeting of all Deputy Commissioners on February 3 here. “Besides the allotment of land to eligible persons, I will review the progress of all revenue-related matters and people’s grievances and find solutions,” he stated.
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