Shimla, March 6
The Ruling Congress virtually launched a campaign for the February 2008 Assembly election by organising a rally, coinciding with the completion of its four years in office here today.

The election call was given as Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, declared a rally. In next months a series of rallies will be organised in the state. The rally will be at Una on April 6. More rallies will be at Palampur, Mandi, Kulu, Paonta Sahib and Chamba.

He said BJP euphoria over the election results in Punjab and Uttarakhand would be short lived as ground realities of Himachal, were different.

He blamed the NDA government for it maintaining it gave free hand to hoarders and profiteers by diluting the provisions of the essential commodities act. The state could do nothing against unscrupulous traders who indulged in hoarding and black marketing. The UPA government had restored the provisions and he had already issued instructions to the deputy commissioners to conduct checks to ensure that price lists were displayed and essential commodities sold at fixed prices.

Simultaneously, the government had decided to supply rice, wheat, three pulses, edible oil and salt to people on subsidised rates through the public distribution system. Not only that the government also had set apart Rs 130 crore in the Budget to provide subsidised power to various categories of consumers. All this reflected the Congress concern for the poor.

While the BJP tried to divide people on regional lines for political gains , the Congress always strove to strengthen emotional unity of people.

The construction of a Vidhan Sabha complex at Dharamsala was part of the efforts in this direction. The Congress government could go to any extent when it comes to providing succour to the poorest of the poor.

Unlike the BJP regime, which tried its best to implicate him in false cases during its five-year tenure, he had consciously decided not to indulge in political vendetta against opponents. Investigation agencies had been directed to pursue the cases only if there was substantial evidence which could stand judicial scrutiny. He asserted no one would be booked on false charges but there would be no compromise with corruption as his government was given mandate to fight graft which flourished as never before under the Dhumal regime.

Had his government followed the policy of the BJP almost entire Cabinet of Mr Dhumal would have been facing trial in courts. He said the Rs 800 crore scandal about talked which some time back would also be brought to light.

He blamed the BJP for the non-filling of posts and maintained the government had created thousands of posts and also initiated the process to fill them. However, the BJP which never wanted the Congress to take credit for providing employment , created hurdles by filing one PIL after the other through its sympathisers. The legal hurdles were being overcome and government was committed to fill all 33,000 posts in various departments.

More employment opportunities were being created in the private sector. The state had attracted and an investment of Rs 24,000 crore in the past four years in the industrial sector which would help provide jobs to over 3 lakh persons. Similarly, work was under way on hydroelectric projects with aggregate generation capacity of about 10,000 MW which would also create thousands of jobs. 

Shimla, March 6
Manufacturer and supplier of the glucose bottles that were found infected with fungus had been blacklisted and legal action would be taken against them under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940.

This was stated by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh during question hour in the state assembly today. “On receiving complaints the samples were sent to the composite laboratory, Kandaghat. When the lab confirmed the presence of fungus in the glucose bottles the entire supply was withdrawn and the company and supplier debarred,” he informed. BJP legislator Rajiv Bindal raised the matter during the question hour.

The Chief Minister said notice had been served on the supplier and action would be taken against the supplier after March 8. Out of 26, 023 bottles, fungus was detected in only two batches supplied to hospitals in Hamirpur district.

“Even though drug inspectors regularly check the samples of various medicines but I too agree that there should be a system of random checking to ensure that the supply is in accordance with what the company has claimed,” he stated. The Chief Minister said the state-level drug purchase committee decides about the medicines to be purchased. He, however, added that effort was to get drugs from the reputed pharmaceutical companies.

Former Chief Minister and BJP leader P.K. Dhumal suggested that instead of purchasing medicines from the suppliers, the government should buy these directly from the company. This would ensure quality and medicines would be purchased at lesser rates than that of the supplier.

In reply to another question raised by I.D. Dhiman and Jai Ram Thakur of the BJP, revenue minister Sat Mahajan said all 299 panchayats, where pradhans and other members were elected unanimously, had been given a grant of Rs 2.50 lakh. “As these panchayats utilise the money they would be given the remaining amount of Rs 7.50 lakh later on,” he added.

BJP members, including Dhumal, said the entire amount of Rs 10 lakh should have be given and panchayats should be given the rights to utilize the amount on any development work they wish to spend it on.

Kangra, March 6
Resentment prevails among the mobile subscribers of the post-paid category for barring their out going calls today despite payments made to the BSNL in time and thus putting the subscribers to inconvenience.

Some mobile post-paid subscribers of the nigam, who had paid the bills through SDO (telecom) here well in time last month found their out going calls barred this morning without reason. The trouble was allegedly because of the mismanagement in the mobile accounts sections of the nigam, which left the subscribers in the lurch.

A survey conducted by The Tribune found that mobile customers were communicated through a message that ' your outgoing facility has been deactivated please contact AO ( mobile) or customer care or 9400024365'. The customers, tried to get in touch with accounts officer( mobile) but he was not available.

It was found the account office of mobile was ill equipped and accounts officer Girish Chand was not staying in the office and was staying in civil office only. Inquiry revealed that a junior accounts officer (mobile ) Satish Kumar was attending the office during the second half only.

Chief accounts officer M.L. Kaundal was not available in the office for his comments thus the mobile customers suffered for no fault of theirs.

When contacted JTO (mobile) said he was supposed to look for the technical side and only the AO could redress the problem of the customers. SDO mobile office was not available alleged the customers. 

Nahan, March 6
A person hailing from Punjab was arrested and goods worth few lakh were seized from his possession. Owner of Sood Transport Pvt. Ltd., Chandigarh, Rajeev Sood, had on February 8 lodged a complaint about the disappearance of a truck engaged by his company at a local police station. Thus, a case under sections 406 and 407 of the IPC was registered against the truck driver.

He alleged that his company had on January 25 engaged the truck (HR 37-4771) from Sardar Road Lines, Ambala, for transporting 110 air conditioners worth Rs 11.660 lakh from the Blue Star factory at Moginand in the Kala Amb industrial area to a godown at Sikandrabad. The truck was scheduled to reach Sikandrabad on January 31.

Blue star officials at Sikandrabad informed him that the truck had failed to reach its destination. Sood lodged a complaint about the disappearance of the truck. Rajvinder Singh, who had signed the documents as the truck driver was named in the FIR.

The SP said Rajvinder Singh, who served in the Army Engineering Core, Jalandhar, was arrested on February 14. A local court has remanded Gurmel Singh in police custody till March 8.

Dharamsala, March 6
As many as 520 students were caught for allegedly copying in the 10+1 and 10+2 examinations in Himachal Pradesh today. While on the first day of the examinations, yesterday, 238 unfair means of copying (UMC) cases were registered against students across the state.

Revealing this to The Tribune, chairman of the Himachal Pradesh School Education Board B.R. Rahi said nobody would be spared if found guilty of copying in the examinations.

Giving details of the UMC cases registered today, he said the maximum number of 221 students were caught in Kangra district, followed by 104 in Sirmaur district, 37 in Bilaspur, 39 in Chamba, 10 in Una, 38 in Mandi, six in Solan, 34 in Hamirpur and 31 in Shimla districts.

Commenting upon the growing menace of copying in the state, Rahi said the board had also resolved to enforce the copying act of the state that could lead to an imprisonment of up to five years for copying and promoting copying.

The board would also take stern action against the examiners, teachers, controllers and outsiders under the provisions of the copying act if they were found helping the students in copying, he said.

Action was also being mooted by the board against teachers and employees of the education department who were unwilling to carry out the examination duties at the examination centres.

The board has set up 57 flying squads to curb the menace of copying in 1,448 examination centres, set up to conduct the examinations of various classes. More than five lakh students are appearing in the school examinations during the current academic session.

The board has appointed as many as 1,448 centre superintendents, 1,525 deputy centre superintendents and 11,034 invigilators for the smooth conduct of the examinations.

The board had already banned the use of mobile phones and other communication devices by the staff on examination duty. It had also scrapped all examination centres in the private schools during this year for effective control of fair conduct of examinations.

Kangra, March 6
Persons serving in the Forest Department in Himachal Pradesh have threatened to launch an agitation if the state government fails to fill 50 posts of forest rangers by promoting deputy rangers to the cadre by the end of this month.

Disclosing this here today O.P.S.Gill, senior state vice-president of thee Himachal Pradesh Foresters Association said 103 posts of the forest rangers were lying vacant in the department and 50 were to be filled by promoting deputy rangers to the cadre. But despite assurances nothing was done in this direction till date. He said in the department, there were 297 posts of rangers but at present only 194 rangers were working and 103 posts were lying vacant.

He said the association had called on the principal chief conservator of the Forests but to no avail. He said forest minister Ram Lal Thakur was approached by the association on May 22 last year and he had assured them that posts would be filled shortly. — OC

Dharamsala, March 6
Lawyers’ strike in the district courts here entered the second day today. They are protesting against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s remarks in the state Assembly that the state government had no plan in setting-up a special bench of the high court at Dharamsala.

Work in district court here remained suspended. Hearings of cases were postponed affecting the common people involved in cases and also the under trial prisoners.

Sarjivan Gupta, a member of the district bar association said that the Chief Minister recently promised the District Bar Association at Palampur that the state government would soon set-up a special bench of the high court at Dharamsala keeping in view huge cases from this area pending before the high court.

He alleged the CM had betrayed the lawyers’ of the area by backtracking on the promise he made with the District Bar Association.

He said if the state government did not fulfil the demand of setting-up a special bench of the high court here, the lawyers here would be forced to continue the strike for an indefinite period to get the demand fulfilled.