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Hamirpur Lok Sabha byelection on June 2
Old-age pension
Now plants will counter planetary ill-effects
Staff shortage hinders forest care
Fire rages in Nahan forests
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Water harvesting plan to be extended
MC Elections
Industrialists meet Sukhbir
A club for the lonely
Career counselling centre soon
Three killed in two mishaps
Bhareri school employee booked
Mexican tourist goes missing
Phones go dead in Paonta
‘Voters kept out of lists’
INA freedom fighter dead
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Hamirpur Lok Sabha byelection on June 2
Shimla, April 24 Scrutiny will take place on May 16 and the last date for withdrawals is May 18. Votes will be counted on June 5 and the process will be completed by June 8. The model code of conduct has come into force with immediate effect in the districts which wholly or partly comprise the Hamirpur constituency. The commission has decide to use electronic voting machines in the by-election. Voter’s identification will be mandatory and separate instructions will be issued to allow additional documents, apart from electoral rolls and photo-identity cards, for the purpose. The seat fell vacant following the removal of BJP MP Suresh Chandel, who was one of the 10 members of parliament caught in the “cash-on camera” scam. Suresh Chandel had won the seat thrice in succession. |
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Money orders to give way to e-payment
Rakesh Lohumi Tribune News Service
Shimla, April 24 The RBI will provide software package to facilitate e-payment and training to staff for its implementation. Under the new system, pension will be automatically transferred to the account of the pensioner every month. The pensioners will not have to wait for the money orders that often get delayed, particularly in the far-flung rural areas. The government has purposely chosen the welfare department for introducing e-payments as it will not only ensure timely disbursement of pension, but also save around Rs 8 crore spent annually on sending money orders to over 2.50 lakh old-age pensioners. The department can utilise that amount on other welfare measures. Besides, it will considerably reduce the workload of the department and help save manpower. All 12, 13,276 households in the state were brought in the banking network last month under the drive for “total financial inclusion”. Norms were diluted and 81,371 “no frill” accounts were opened to ensure that there was no un-banked household in the state. The pensioners will be given option to continue with the money order system, if they find it inconvenient to avail the banking facility. If the new system functions smoothly, it will be introduced in other departments in a phased manner. In the second phase, 90,000 government pensioners will be brought under the e-payment system. The modalities for collaboration with the RBI will be finalised during the ensuing visit of its Governor Y.V. Reddy, who will be in the city from May 9 and 11. The software packages required by different departments for the purpose will be provided by the RBI. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh will also take up with him the matter of opening a regional office of the bank in Shimla. At present, the officials have to go to Chandigarh for petty matters.
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Now plants will counter planetary ill-effects
Hamirpur, April 24 Not only will the department provide information about the efficacy of each plant to control planetary impact on different persons according to their signs but will also establish a Navgrah Vihar near Baba Balak Nath temple at Deoth- Sidh. Hamirpur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Sanjay Sood, who has gathered information about planetary effects of trees from ancient scriptures told The Tribune "All our Puranas especially Matsaya and Vishnu Purana, the Vedas and Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta etc. have many references about the effects of trees." Utilising the information, the forest department will advertise about the qualities of different plants at prominent temples, prominent places and children park. Any person desirous of using trees to counter planetary ill effects and bring good luck will be provided information about the tree suitable according to his birth sign and plants will be given from existing 37 nurseries the DFO said. Some of the trees which have been found efficacious in the scriptures according to birth signs are aak (calotrasfisprosera) for sun sign, plash (buteamanospeema) for moon, khair (acacia cactechu) for venus, putkai (acaranthuspra) for mercury, pipal (ficus religiousa) for brihaspati, gular (ficus glomerta) for venus, shammi (prosopis cinnercia) for saturn, drub (cynodon dectylon) for dragon (rahu) and kusha (desmostaicia Bipaerata) for treating and curing effects of
ketu. |
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Staff shortage hinders forest care
Shimla, April 24 It was after much deliberation that the government handed over the forest land from the municipal corporation (MC) to the Forest Department last year, but with skeletal staff, neither development works nor any urban forestry programmes have made much headway. Despite the government granting clearance for felling of 769 trees, which had dried up and was declared unsafe within the MC area quite some time back, felling was yet to start as the forest staff was still engaged in its enumeration. Similarly, the task of preparing a working plan for scientific management of the forests in Shimla is also hanging fire because of the staff shortage. It was way back in 1985 that a working plan of the forests in Shimla was undertaken. While a total of 1020.32 hectares of forest fall in the catchment area, 443.19 is within the MC area and 9.5 hectares in craignanao. Though there is talk of protecting the thick deodar forests with focus on regeneration and scientific management but not much headway has been made. Headed by a DFO, the local forest division has 14 beats. Six posts of forest guards are lying vacant as only eight beats have a forest guard each. Similarly, three posts of deputy rangers are lying vacant despite a lot of burden as far as court cases concerning encroachments. |
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Fire rages in Nahan forests
Nahan, April 14 The fire has damaged thousands of trees. Fire could not be controlled as it was very difficult to reach near flames due to dense Lantana bushes in the area. Spokesman of the Forest Department said though the fire was out of control yet the fire fighting team had managed to create a fire line in the area to save the government forest from catching fire. He hoped that soon the fire would be under control. |
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Water harvesting plan to be extended
Shimla, April 24 After conducting a survey, 12 projects involving an expenditure of Rs 9.94 crore have been formulated and the Centre has released the first instalment of Rs 1 crore for the implementation. Director of agriculture J.C. Rana said the projects would help conserve the land, water and bio-resources, which in turn would strengthen the agriculture sector and pave the way for its sustainable development. In Hamirpur, the project had not only provided water for irrigation, but also rejuvenated natural sources of water that had almost dried up. |
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Parties chalk out strategy
Tribune News Service
Shimla, April 24 The Congress today constituted its election manifesto committee headed by revenue minister Sat Mahajan. The Congress screening committee will be headed by forest minister Thakur Kaul Singh. “We have fixed April 27 as the last date for applying for the party ticket,” said Viplove Thakur, HPCC chief. The BJP, too, is engaged in preparing its election manifesto under the chairmanship of Ashok Sood, who is the state BJP treasurer. The party has already received over 250 applications in the past 15 days, while the Congress received six applications today.
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Industrialists meet Sukhbir
Baddi, April 24 The road when completed would go a long way in easing the traffic on the Baddi-Pinjore road, said the deputation. Besides, the distance between Chandigarh and Baddi would be cut short by 26-km with the commissioning of the road. Badal assured the deputation to get the road portion falling in Punjab completed at the earliest. He further told the deputation that the road would be beneficial for the economy of Punjab as most of the raw material for the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area was imported from Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Mohali.
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A club for the lonely
Shimla, April 24 Founder of the Loner’s Club Chand Kapur said the overwhelming response from various parts of the hill state to the news story about the organisation published in The Tribune had encouraged her to launch a branch in Shimla. She was flooded with calls from persons eager to become part of the club. All those interested in joining the organisation would assemble on the Ridge near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi tomorrow and formally launch the branch of the club. She said the number of lonely persons who needed love and care was increasing with changing social values and family structure. They had no one to share their feelings or take care of their problems as everyone was busy with his own family. The best way out for them was to get together and form their own extended family to lead a life filled with happiness. |
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ABVP stages dharna
Shimla, April 24 Campus secretary of the ABVP Naveen Sharma said two exhibitions had also been put up by the ABVP on the Nandigram issue. He said the incident had exposed the double standard of the CPM and the SFI that claimed to fight for the cause of the farmers. He said it was unfortunate that the CPM, which was opposed to globalisation, privatisation and the entry of foreign companies into India, allowed the Nandigram incident to take place even when their party was in power in West Bengal. NAHAN: Members of the Nahan unit of ABVP took out a procession to protest against police atrocities on farmers in Nandi Gram in West Bengal, here on Tuesday. Students sat on a dharna in front of the DC office and latter assembled at Bara Chowk where they held a meeting in which all spokesmen of the ABVP criticised the communist government of West Bengal. They appealed that communist politics should be rejected as it was not in the larger interest of the nation. |
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Career counselling centre soon
Mandi, April 24 Mandi divisional commissioner,
K.B.J.V. Subrahmanyam said here the counselling centre would be set up at the postgraduate college in Mandi and cater to students from 20 degree colleges located in Mandi, Kullu,
Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Lahaul-Spiti and Solan districts. He said centre aimed at enhancing students’ soft skills, increasing his/her knowledge base and acquainting him/her with job requirements of scores of projects, industries and institutes that had come up in the industrial belt of the state over the years. The centre will start functioning in May.
— TNS |
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Three killed in two mishaps
Nurpur, April 24 In another mishap, three persons were injured seriously when their scooter was hit by a truck at Khushinagar near here. All three injured persons—Tarsem Lal, Ashok Kumar and Vijay Pal Singh — were rushed to the local civil hospital. Tarsem, who was seriously injured, was referred to Amritsar where he succumbed to his injuries. Ashok Kumar and Vijay Pal Singh were referred to Jalandhar and Amritsar, respectively. |
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Bhareri school employee booked
Hamirpur, April 24 On directions from the Education Directorate the school principal registered a case against junior assistant Dinesh Kumar after a departmental inquiry found him guilty of embezzlement of over Rs 2.60. The embezzlement was detected during the audit in 2003 and 2006. It was found that Dinesh Kumar, who collected Rs 1.29 lakh vide receipt Nos 120 to 219 but did not deposit this money in the school account. Later, other irregularities were also detected. Instead of depositing the money in the school account Dinesh Kumar kept on depositing it in his personal account. When this financial irregularity was pointed out to him he made a forged entry into the school’s bank passbook which was later confirmed by the bank management. The police has registered a case against Dinesh Kumar. |
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Mexican tourist goes missing
Dharamsala, April 24 Identified as
Jawao, he went for trekking on the Dhauladhar range along with a French national
Stane, who informed about the incident to High-Point, a local travel agency, after returning, early this morning. The police dispatched a five-member team under the leadership of local SHO R.P. Jaswal, who were still looking for the missing tourist. |
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Phones go dead in Paonta
Nahan April 24 Thousands of BSNL subscribers of the town and surrounding villages were left with no option but to depend on mobile services. Banks and industries had hard time as their communication system, including fax and e-mail did not work today. Paonta BSNL divisional telecom engineer Jawahar Lal said due to some faults, including disrupted electric supply in the telephone exchange paralysed the telephone system. He said it would take few hours to restore the system. |
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‘Voters kept out of lists’
Shimla, April 24 Sanjay Chauhan, Secretary, district committee of the CPM, sought the intervention of the commission as the names of a large number of voters had not been included in the voters list. The most glaring was the deletion of the names of almost 1,639 voters in ward number 11 - Krishnanagar.
— TNS |
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INA freedom fighter dead
Dharamsala, April 24 The funeral was performed at his village and was attended by hundreds of people. Governor V.S. Kokje and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh have condoled the demise of Bakshi.
— TNS |
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