Vaknaghat, April 20
Himachal Governor and Chancellor of Jaypee University of Information and Technology V.S.Kokje today presided over the first convocation of the university at Rachiana village and gave away degrees to 196 students.

Delivering his keynote address he said the state had established a strong foundation for basic education and a good beginning had been made by enacting the Private Universities Act. This would help associate competent private players for imparting the much-needed vocational education. While Jaypee University had made a good beginning it was an example for others to emulate. He said the scope of employment for the technically competent graduates had increased manifold in India due to liberalisation and globalisation.

Speaking on the occasion Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who was the chief guest, awarded gold medals to Rohan BInny Arora, B.Tech. (electronics and communication Engineering), Mayur Mantri ,B.Tech (IT), Manish Jain, B.Tech (computer science engineering and Vishal Kapoor, B.Tech (bio-informatics).

Addressing the staff and students, he said this was the first IT university to be established under a state statute in India. He lauded the university’s efforts in maintaining high standards of excellence and said it was heartening to know that 95 per cent of the students graduating last year had procured jobs while those from the 2007 batch had job offers in hand.

He said the need of the hour was to strive for quality right from the stage of admission up to the academic training, co-curricular activities and the evaluation stage. He announced setting up of 50 computer labs in Government Senior Secondary Schools and also initiation of integrated community services centres up to the block and tehsil levels to provide citizen-centric services.

He said Himachal was leading the nation in the field of e-governance and the state had extremely talented IT professionals.

Earlier, addressing the gathering founder of Jayprakash Seva Sansthan Jai Prakash Gaur announced enhancement of the quota of Himachali students from the existing 5 per cent to 10 per cent. He said a no profit, no loss coaching centre would soon be opened at Shimla where the state’s students would receive preference in securing admission. He urged the students to exhibit the highest level of respect for the parents.

Earlier, while welcoming the guests Manoj Gaur, chairman, said the percentage of Himachali students in the university was as high as 23 per cent and the enhanced 5 per cent would take it to 30 per cent. The university had received a top ranking amongst the upcoming universities by the AICTE. The sansthan endeavoured to educate about one lakh students by 2015.

Nahan, April 20
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama today arrived on a two-day visit at Yongdrung Mon Monastery situated in the Dolanji Tibetan settlement in the Kala Ghat area of Rajgarh subdivision. Tibetan residents of the area gave him a grand traditional 
welcome.

Residents of the area were very happy and celebrated this day as one of biggest occasions of their lives as His Holiness the Dalai Lama was in their village after nearly 20 years. The district administration had made tight security arrangements on this 
occasion.

The Dalai Lama performed pooja inside the monastery. Earlier the Dalai Lama addressed a huge gathering at Solan and was received by a number of dignitaries, including the Vidhan Sabha speaker Gangu Ram Musafir, MP D.R. Shandil, local MLA Dr Rajiv Bindal, Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Kumar.

As per the programme announced by the organisers, the Dalai Lama will take part in several religious functions at Dolanji this evening and tomorrow. He will address Tibetan social workers that were ensuing several welfare programmes for Tibetans and would dedicate a newly constructed library to the residents. On this occasion the students of local Tibetan school will present a cultural programme. The Dalai Lama will leave for Dharamsala on Sunday.

Dharamsala, April 20
The district police of Kangra demanded a detailed report of tax evasion from the excise department for looking into the possibilities of registering a criminal case against the liquor baron.

Confirming this, Santosh Patial, ASP, had written a letter to the local office of the excise department to furnish details of the raids.

Local liquor baron was allegedly found selling the left-out stock of liquor of the last financial year without paying the excise duty. The excise department had further seized more than 1,000 bottles of various brands of liquor from two liquor shops in the past 24 hours.

The department has put a halt on the raids from today and begun scrutinising the records of the stock and permits issued during the month of March. On the other hand, it was also learnt that all previous liquor contractors throughout the state were doing a similar type of tax evasion. 

Shimla, April 20
With summer season peaking in Shimla, water is in short supply and civic officials have decided to ration it.

While the hill station with a 250,000 population needs eight million gallons of water daily, it has only six million for distribution, according to the Shimla Municipal Corporation.

Civic officials had announced that water would be supplied on alternate days to meet this shortage. But, the supply is being given at low pressure every third day.

According to one estimate, 1.5 million gallons of water are lost due to leakage as a majority of the pipes were laid out decades ago.

Most of the 450 hotels, restaurants and guesthouses meet their needs by procuring water in tankers from faraway streams as the local reservoirs have only limited supply for residential areas.

The water crisis is likely to worsen in the coming weeks as the dry spell grows along with the tourist rush.

Relief is only expected when the 45 km away Giri river water supply scheme starts supplying water to a thirsty Shimla by year-end. — IANS

Kullu, April 20
Fissures among Malana villagers divided along political lines cropped up today when one conservative group of 15 villagers again stopped the work at the Head Race tunnel (HRT) and Adit tunnel of the 100-MW Malana stage II being executed by the Everest Power Company Ltd (EPCL) on River Malana in the district.

They threatened the company officials that “they would pelt stones if they did not stop the work. The other group did not participate in the protest and
obeyed the “verbal compromise” reached between the company and villagers yesterday mediated by Kullu DC Chamel Singh.

The EPCL had to stop the work being carried out by the Himalayan construction company at around 11 am today and sought the assistance of the district administration.

Sources disclosed that Kokia group enjoyed the support of local BJP leaders and hence opposed the work, while the other group led by former ward member Budh Ram enjoyed the support of the local Congress leaders.

Even the company was to be blamed for the present plight, as they first tried to woo certain influential Malana villagers and ignored others and when the things went out of control they sought administrative help, officials said.

EPCL General Manager B.V. Bhaskar told The Tribune that the contractor resumed the work today, but one group of 15 persons came to the project site and stopped work.

Singh said he had asked the company to resume the work again as he had told the villagers to first identify works that they could do. “Tunnel and other works need big machineries and could be done by the registered firms only for quality and safety of the project. 

Mandi, April 20
Family members of Chandra Ram, whose body was lying in a forensic lab at a hospital in Italy, have urged the Ministry of External Affairs to make arrangements to bring back his mortal remains to his home town here so that his last rites could be performed.

The family members met the DC, Mandi, here, and informed him that they had received a letter from the hospital in Italy on April 13, stating that the killer of Chandra Ram was in custody and his body was kept in the forensic lab of Policilioniko De Medona general hospital in Italy since November 12, 2006 after he allegedly was killed by an attacker.

The letter mentioned that Chandra had been working in Osiyana restaurant in Italy for the past few years and was killed by an attacker, stated the family members, who hail from Lohara Swan village in Balh valley in the district.

Mandi DC Subhasish Panda said he had taken up the matter with the Home Department and it would inform the Indian consul in Italy.

Mandi, April 20
The citizens council mandi (CCM), today urged the state government to open a proposed university in the private sector at Mandi, which was the central zone of the state.

In a press release issued here, president CCM, PC Bisht, stated that since there was no university in the government sector in the central zone, the state government should open a private university in the central zone of Mandi, to cater to the Kullu-Bilaspur, Mandi, Hamirpur and Lahaul-Spiti districts.

He said Shimla and Dharamsala zones had at least one university, but Mandi zone had none. It would raise educational standards in the central zone, and would serve a large number of aspiring youth, he added.

General secretary, TP Kapur, added that students from colleges had to seek advanced degrees from other universities, and had to spend a good amount of money as there was no university in the central region.

Shimla, April 20
The reorganisation of the Education Department to create a separate wing of elementary education has created several anomalies like inequitable distribution of teaching work, disproportionate deployment of teachers and lack of uniformity in the time-table.

The state School Lecturers Association has urged the government to modify the notification pertaining to distribution of work which had created a situation where lecturers in english and mathematics had been allotted 36 periods, and the rest of the lecturers only 20 periods per week. The number of periods for Plus two classes had also been reduced from 24 to 20 which would affect the students.

Further, there was no specific provision for teaching sanskrit, geography, science and commerce where these posts did not exist. The lack of specific lecturers for these subjects had created confusion. Besides, approximately 5,000 trained graduate teachers (TGT’s), who had been rendered surplus, needed immediate placement.

The NCC would also be abolished as there was no provision for such training for students aged upto 13 years , while, there were no teachers in the secondary section with requisite training to function as NCC officers.

It has urged the government not to reduce the number of periods from the existing 24 per week for Plus two classes, and depute TGT on secondment basis until the required number of lecturers were recruited at the secondary level in a phased manner. — TNS

Bilaspur, April 20
Kanta Devi of Dhaloh village in Ghumarwin subdivision of the district has long tale of her woes to tell when some body approaches her in the female ward of Regional Hospital here, she has been admitted for the last couple of days with multiple injuries on her body.

Kanta Devi told mediapersons that she had been a victim of persistent mental and physical torture and merciless beatings by some of her in-laws and relatives and her repeated approaches and FIRs’ to the police at the Talai police station had been of no help to her.

Kanta Devi said taking advantage of the continuous absence of her husband, who was away at Dubai, some of her relatives were out to grab her land and other property. She said that now her life was in danger as she had been threatened with dire consequences. She said if the police and the district administration did not provide her protection she would not survive another attempt on her life.

Kanta Devi said since the past two years, she was facing wrath and fury of her relatives. For the first time she had registered an FIR on June 20, 2005 with the Talai police station, but the police did not take any action. She reported at the police station for the second time on June 6, 2005, but to no avail.

She even met the subdivisional magistrate at Ghumarwin on December 27, 2005 but even this did not bear any result and her ordeal of torture did not end.

This time the attack on her was of a very serious nature and she was brought here with multiple injuries. She has given a detailed representation to the SP, urging him to intervene and provide her justice and help her save her life. SP Balbir Thakur has given her assurance that he will order a detailed inquiry into the matter and ensure her justice and safety.