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Hamirpur Byelection
Sector Magistrates appointed
BJP’s posers to Cong
Hamirpur Byelection
Shimla MC Elections |
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Kangra court complex inaugurated
Graft charges levelled against DC
Boundary wall of school broken
Award for SJVN
CSK Farm Varsity
Baddi-Chandigarh road in trouble again
Students face shortage of textbooks
Patients suffer in the absence of anaesthetist
Murder: Family seeks CIA probe
National highway blocked
Water shortage irks villagers
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Hamirpur Byelection
Shimla, May 19 Rajender Thakur has now been posted as the director, town and country planning. The step was taken after the Election Commission asked the state government to remove him from the post of deputy commissioner. Chamba DC Pushpender Rajput has been posted in place of Thakur. In its reply to the Election Commission two days ago, the government had said that Thakur had been posted as the DC as there were hardly any IAS officers available. Moreover, he was quite senior in the state services. Another reason cited by the government was that the DPC had already been held and Thakur was due to be inducted into the IAS shortly. However, dissatisfied with the reply of the state government, the Election Commission directed that Thakur be removed. The BJP had pointed out that Thakur had a close association with forest minister and Congress candidate Ram Lal Thakur. State BJP chief Jai Ram Thakur had pointed out that Rajender Thakur had served in the industries and youth services and sports departments when Ram Lal was the minister. Moreover, he had also served in Bilaspur, home district of the minister. The party had sought intervention of the commission on the plea that all other districts had IAS officers as DCs, but an HAS officer was holding the charge of DC in Bilaspur.
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Sector Magistrates appointed
Hamirpur, May 19 Hamirpur tehsildar Balwan Chand would be looking after 103 polling booths in Hamirpur, Bamsan and Mewa segments. Badsar tehsildar Jai Chand would look after 86 booths of Mewa and Naduanta segments, while Bhoranj tehsildar M.R. Mastana would be responsible for 78 booths of Bamsan and Mewa. Sujanpur tehsildar would man 49 booths and Bhota tehsildar would look after 98 booths.
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BJP’s posers to Cong
Hamirpur, May 19
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Hamirpur Byelection Our Correspondent
Bilaspur, May 19 Addressing a series of election meetings at Barthin, Geharwin, Samoh, Jhandutta, Nakhledha, Kalol, Jejwin, Marottan and Jablu in Gehadwin Assembly segment in Bilaspur district yesterday, Dhumal reminded the Chief Minister that he (Virbhadra Singh) was in a habit of first throwing a challenge and then forgetting about it. Dhumal said newspapers had reported that the Chief Minister was furious at his local workers when few people had turned up at his election meetings. He said the Chief Minister should now realise that the people were now disillusioned with his government and were not going to fall for their false promises and declarations. He said the present price rise was the direct result of collusion of top Congress leaders with hoarders and profiteers from whom they had got huge amounts as bribes under the name of election fund and now the Congress governments were allowing them to loot the common masses. Dhumal categorically stated that his fight in this election was not with Ram Lal Thakur but it was with the Congress government and Virbhadra Singh should accept his challenge, that if he (Dhumal) won the election, which he was going to do with a huge margin, the Chief Minister should resign from his post.
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Shimla MC Elections Tribune News Service
Shimla, May 19 Having spent most of his time in the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency, he has been able to spare only two days for campaigning for the MC elections here. He is so much in demand as the main “vote catcher” that he will address 25 public meetings in just a day and a half so that no ward is left uncovered. “We are eagerly awaiting his arrival as his appeal will make a lot of difference,” say most of the candidates. During the past two days, his wife and Lok Sabha member Pratibha Singh has been addressing public meetings in the town. She addressed public meetings at Patiyog, Malyana, Engine Ghar and Sanjauli today. Though the legislators from Solan, Shimla and Sirmaur districts have been deputed to campaign in various wards for the party candidates, the Congress campaign is likely to gain momentum only after the Chief Minister arrives here tomorrow. Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee chief (HPCC) Viplove Thakur has also not been able to spare time for the MC poll campaign as she is busy in Hamirpur. “The public meeting in each ward will be of 90 minutes only so that no ward is left. Only the Chief Minister will speak at these meetings,” said a senior leader. While admitting that the BJP might have improved its position in the past few days with former union minister Shanta Kumar holding public meetings, the Congress leaders say the Congress will surge ahead once Virbhadra Singh starts campaigning.
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Kangra court complex inaugurated
Kangra May 19 Justice Gupta was inaugurating the new court complex building today. He said the disposal of cases was presently going on a very slow pace and needed a change so that speedy justice could be provided to the people.
He asked the Bar members to contribute in disposing of the cases quickly in order to provide speedy justice to their clients. He said if speedy justice was given to litigants not only the litigants would be benefited but both lawyers and the judges would also be comfortable. He said judicial work in the new court complex would start from Monday. The new court complex was inaugurated in presence of the transport and tourism minister G.S.Bali, Justice Surjit Singh Judge of H.P. High Court, Bar members and other dignitaries. The old court building, which was constructed after the earthquake that shook Kangra valley in 1905, was inadequate to face the rush of litigants, lawyers and the court staff. The government raised a loan of Rs 25 crore from HUDCO for the construction of different court complexes in the state, which included court complexes of Kangra, Jawali, Baijnath and Indora. On the occasion, Bali demanded that another court complex should be constructed at Nagrota Bagwan (the constituency he represents) claiming that more than 50 per cent of the cases in Kangra court were from Nagrota Bagwan constituency. Among others who addressed the gathering were Justice Surjit Singh, Judge HP High Court, K.S. Chandel, District and Sessions Judge and Himal Chand, president, Kangra Bar Association. Other senior officers.
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Graft charges levelled against DC
Nahan, May 19 The DC K.L. Narang, conducted a series of investigations into the accounts of expenditure, which were found to be fake and much higher than the actual prevailing rates of the works undertaken by the chief executive officer at the behest of the commissioner of the Renuka Development Board. The accounts maintained by former chief executive officer Rajinder Thakur had been cleared by the commissioner. The DC reportedly also questioned additional deputy commissioner Rakhil Kahlon with regard to the frivolous and dubious expenditures running into a huge amount without any locus standi, sources said. The report of expenditure made under different heads revealed that Rs 7.23 lakh was spent on Dashavtar Mandir, Rs 4.85 lakh on parking area, Rs 4.25 lakh on Sanan Ghar, Rs 8 lakh on toilets, Rs 1 lakh on levelling of Mela Ground, Rs 90,000 on Kubja Pavillion and Rs 50,000 was spent on Vikas Karya. The expenditure was incurred between 1 September, 2003, to 9 January, 2006, which also included the period of current Sirmaur DC R.S. Negi, who was now on leave. Mr Negi on being contacted, told The Tribune that being a responsible officer he had checked the accounts of expenditure and did not find anything objectionable. Meanwhile, additional deputy commissioner Kahlon told the Tribune, that she was not involved in the alleged fake expenditure incurred by the Renuka Development Board and never ordered any work without the consent of the DC of Sirmaur district.
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Boundary wall of school broken
Mandi, May 19 Panchayat pradhan Man Singh said the boundary wall of the school was broken by the miscreants last night. “It was noticed this morning. The wall was built at a cost of Rs 50,000 under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and was yet to be handed over to the school” he said. He said he had brought the matter to the notice of the Mandi DC and SP today and urged them to take action against the culprits. The pradhan suspected the hand of some local villagers in the mischief, alleging that they had done this to defame him due to some political motive. But some villagers felt otherwise. They suspected that inferior material was used to construct the wall and pradhan himself was involved in it as he was also the head of the Village Education Committee (VEC). School in charge Damayanti Devi said they had noticed the damage in the morning when they came to school. Though the police has begun the inquest proceedings, but no one was arrested in the case. Primary education deputy director Nirmal Sharma expressed her ignorance about the case and she passed on the buck to the primary education office. Mandi ASP Rajesh Dharmani said he had received the complaint from the pradhan today. |
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Award for SJVN
Shimla, May 19 The award has been given following assessment of five perspectives, including financial strength, achievements, internal process, innovation and learning. The award, which includes a silver shield and a certificate, was presented to chairman and managing director of the SJVN H.K. Sharma. |
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CSK Farm Varsity Our Correspondent
Palampur, May 19 Vice-chancellor Dr. D. S. Rathore inaugurated a tea processing unit worth Rs 60 lakh in the Department of Tea Husbandry in the university, here today. He said soon, high quality university produced and manufactured Kangra tea will be introduced in the market. Around 50,000 kg tea will be manufactured per annum. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education have extended financial assistance in the construction and machinery procurement for the tea-processing unit. Dr. K.L. Sharma, head, Tea Husbandry Department, said till now university had been getting processing done outside. The university has its own tea gardens and with the new processing facility, manufacturing will be done under the guidance and supervision of experts in the departments. Dr S.C. Sharma, director of research, Dr O.P. Sharma, dean, college of agriculture and other senior officers and progressive tea growers of the area attended the inaugural ceremony.
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Baddi-Chandigarh road in trouble again
Kumarhatti, May 19 Initially, the estimates were for Rs 8.30 crore in June, 2005. These were duly approved by the ministry, which floated tenders for the work. Trouble started after the minimum quote in tenders was higher than the prescribed limit of five per cent and hence revised estimates were sought. Punjab is to build its portion of the road from Siswan village to Tapriayan village on the Haryana border. The 18-feet wide road involves the construction of three bridges. Any delay in clearance to the revised budget could alter the projected cost again, thanks to varying prices of steel, cement and bitumen. The time required to complete the 5.23- km road is one-and-a-half year. A.K. Nagpal, superintending engineer, ministry of shipping, road transport and highways, and Amrit Inder Singh, chief engineer, NH, Punjab, met with T. Banerjee, chief engineer of the road transport and highways, New Delhi, to plead the case. Nagpal, while confirming the development, said the matter was under consideration. Things were expected to move positively, he asserted. We are not only liable to the public but also have to meet the guidelines of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, he pointed out. T. Banerjee, when contacted, failed to divulge any details on the matter. Meanwhile, the industrial fraternity in Baddi is fuming over the inordinate delay. While there is no problem from Haryana, the industrialists are hoping some concrete efforts by the newly formed Badal government in Punjab will help in quick completion of the project. |
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Students face shortage of textbooks
Palampur, May 19 The new session has already begun, and students have been running from pillar to post to get the textbooks. Most book stores of the board have not received the supply of textbooks for the past two months. An enquiry made has revealed that there has been a communication gap between the state primary education department and the H.P. Board of School Education, therefore the books could not be published. On the other hand, students have been forced to take books published by private publishers. As most of the help books were the translated copy of textbooks published by the board. H.P. school board of education chairman B.R. Rahi while talking to mediapersons said the scripts of all books were supplied by the Directorate of Primary Education to the board and then these scripts were converted into textbooks by the board. He further said when the scripts were not made available to the board, how could it publish the textbooks. He said the Hindi script was made available to the board but the English script was not supplied, therefore the books could not be published. A spokesman of the Education Department said the textbooks were being demanded by the private school therefore the board should make the scripts as well as the books available to private educational institutions. The Education Department had nothing to do with the availability of textbooks to private schools, he added.
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Patients suffer in the absence of anaesthetist
Chamba, May 19 Noted surgeon of Chamba Dr K.P. Singh, when contacted told this correspondent, that doctors and related paramedical staff working in the operation theater were helpless in conducting operations and so the patients struggled with their life. The post of ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist is still lying vacant since Dr Sushil Mahajan was transferred to Nurpur. |
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Murder: Family seeks CIA probe
Nurpur, May 19 Eldest brother Jarnail Singh and mother Pritam Kaur (80) of the deceased Kashmir Singh spoke to mediapersons at their residence this afternoon and accused the local police of hushing up the murder of Kashmir Singh who was killed following a conspiracy hatched by the suspect, whose name had been named in the FIR. They said the deceased had been killed by an unidentified speedy car on May 11. They alleged that the police investigations were being diverted from alleged murder to a road mishap as the suspect who hatched the conspiracy was influencing the fair and free investigations. They lamented that police could not nab the suspect, Naveen, even after eight days of the murder. He had been absconding since May 11. According to Nurpur DSP Kishan Lal Shandil the local police had registered a murder case under Sections 302 and 307 of the IPC. Denying the accusation of hushing up the case he said the police was working on different angles to nab the culprits.
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National highway blocked Our Correspondent
Kangra, May 19 Kangra deputy commissioner Bharat Khera said a private bus (M.P 53 C 5301) which was carrying pilgrims from Ujjain in Madaya Pradesh here met with an accident on Bathu bridge this morning, when it collided with the railing of the bridge. Kangra SHO Surender Sharma said following the accident, the door of the bus got opened and the conductor of the bus fell into River Bathu. His condition was stated to be serious. He said four injured passengers were admitted in the local civil hospital and the conductor was referred to Dr R.P. Government Medical College at Dharamsala.The national highway was opened after more than three hours when the bus was shifted by cranes from the scene of the accident. The traffic till then was diverted through link roads.
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Water shortage irks villagers
Palampur, May 19 A deputation of HP Kishan Sabha today submitted a memorandum to the SDM urging him for immediate supply of drinking water to their villages. The deputation told the SDM that Laharu, Salan, Balot, Bhalla, and Machlehar villages, had not received drinking water for the past 20 days and residents had been forced to shift to low-lying areas near the streams and khuds to meet their requirement of water. |
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