 |
|
|
Cong retains Shimla MC
Cong: It’s a vote for development
BJP accuses Cong of poll malpractices
Governor presents Air-India awards
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CM dares BJP to list development works
Suspected polio case in Kangra
Dalai Lama’s security reviewed
‘Muskan’ to adopt 30 poor children
SDO caught taking Rs 30,000
10 houses gutted
Plan to ensure total sanitation
Pensioners seek travel on
LTC pattern
Roads in Baddi to get facelift, finally
Acquisition of farmland
Villagers take seige of Birla Textile unit
Woman commits suicide
Another found hanging
Congress victory celebrated
SJVN raising day
FIR against PWD
|
|
Cong retains Shimla MC
Shimla, May 25 Negating the anti-incumbency factor and issues like price rise and unemployment, the Congress restricted the BJP to merely eight seats (gain of only one ward as compared to the 2002 poll). The prestigious Shimla municipal corporation (MC) has been under Congress rule ever since it came into existence in 1986.
The CPM won two seats with a gain of one as compared to the last elections. The results have come as a bolt from the blue for the BJP, which was expecting to gain hold over the MC with issue like price rise and unemployment affecting the common man greatly. The Congress candidates won in the Bharari, Kaithu, Boileauganj, Tutikandi, Krishnanagar, Benmore, Engine Ghar, Sanjauli Chowk, Dhalli, Chamyana, Kasumpti, Chotta Shimla, Patyog, Khalini and Kanlog wards. The BJP candidates were able to register victory in the Ruldu Bhatta, Annadale, Tutu, Nabha, Phagli, Ram bazaar, Lower Bazar and Jakhu wards. The CPM, which earlier had only the Summer Hill ward under its control, won in another ward of Malyana. The only upset for the Congress was the fact that its senior leaders like Ashok Sood, councillor from the Lower Bazar ward, Manoj Kumar from the Jakhu ward and deputy mayor Shashi Shekhar lost the elections. It was Manju of the Congress, who won by the biggest margin of 817 votes from the Kanlog ward. In a direct contest with BJP candidate Brij Sood she polled 1,683 votes. Followed by her was BJP candidate from Annadale Pradeep Kashyap, who defeated his nearest rival of the Congress Ravinder Nath by 805 votes. The Congress candidates in Tutikandi and Benmore won the elections with a slender margin of 105 and 121 votes.
|
|
Cong: It’s a vote for development
Shimla, May 25 Singhi Ram and Harsh Mahajan, both ministers, said the state capital was inhabited by people hailing from all parts of the state and as such the municipal poll was nothing short of a referendum which reflected the mood of the electorate. It also reflected that there was no anti-establishment sentiment among the people even though the party had completed four years in office. The people had reposed faith in the leadership of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh under whom the party fought the elections unitedly. As employees constituted a majority of the electorate the result also indicated that they were satisfied and supportive of the government. It was also a vote for good governance the party had provided. The mega schemes being implemented under the Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission convinced the electorate that only the Congress could solve the problems of the city. The manifesto for the poll would be adopted as an official document and implemented in letter and in spirit.
|
|
BJP accuses Cong of poll malpractices
Shimla, May 25 State BJP chief Jai Ram Thakur and general secretary Khushi Ram Balnatah said the Congress had won the MC poll as a result of malpractices like irregularities in voting lists and delimitation of wards to suit the party. They said that the vote percentage of the BJP had gone up considerably while the winning margin of the Congress candidates had come down. “This trend is a reflection of the future political developments in the state and the voters mood for a change,” they said. They said the BJP respects the voters’ mandate and will play the role of an aware and constructive opposition to ensure development of the town. |
|
|
Governor presents Air-India awards
Shimla, May 25 Governor V.S. Kokje presented the state-level teacher award to Sanjeev Attri from Sirmaur and state-level student award to Akshut Mannu Joshi from Solan here. In collaboration with its media partner, The Tribune, Air-India had invited bid forms from seven districts of Himachal. Ms Manu Sehgal was given the runner-up district award from Sirmaur. The Governor said Air-India had done a commendable job by giving recognition due to teachers and students. "In recent years teaching has ceased to be a profession and is considered a routine job," he remarked. He said Air-India had given an opportunity to students and teachers from the remote areas of the country to travel abroad. "The rank and bolt awards for students and teachers has been a successful endeavour by Air-India in reaching out to the deprived," he said. The Tribune assistant editor Roopinder Singh interacted with the award winners. "The fact that the selection process has thrown up winners from the remotest parts of the country is the best thing about this reaching-out project of Air-India," he remarked. Air-India general manager T.K. Palit said the aim of the project was to promote the concept of "responsible and active citizenship". Sharing his Singapore experience, state teacher award winner Sanjeev Attri said it was an opportunity given by Air-India not only to see Singapore but also closely study its educational setup.
|
|
|
CM dares BJP to list development works
Hamirpur, May 25 Addressing mediapersons here, he said development would be the main election plank of the Congress in the Hamirpur byelection. He said "the overall development undertaken by the Congress governments in Hamirpur right from its upgradation as a district till now would be our main appeal to voters for their
support". He said "though the BJP is trying to sidetrack the issue of development it is a fact that development works like opening of educational institutions, including the NIT, construction of roads, opening government offices etc barring a few were undertaken by various Congress governments. Even during the present tenure the Congress government has started the biggest drinking water scheme at a cost of about Rs 68 crore to provide drinking water to 224 villages of Bamsan and
Mewa". Attacking the working of the SSB under S.M Katwal, the Chief Minister said "this was the only office which used to burn all records after three months but a few documents have indicted the Dhumal government for irregularities." About the Hamirpur byelection he said "it is not a struggle between Dhumal and me. In fact, it is a struggle between Shanta Kumar and Dhumal." Meanwhile, state HPCC president and Rajya Sabha MP Viplove Thakur has termed BJP leaders as a ' gang of liars'. Addressing election rallies in support of Congress candidate Ram Lal Thakur at Karer, Chauntra, Kadohta and Jakhyol under the Mewa assembly constituency she said "while the BJP has compromised with corruption, their leaders are now trying to mislead people through their lies." |
|
Suspected polio case in Kangra
Dharamsala, May 25 Hundreds of children in the affected village and its surrounding areas have been given polio drops. District health officer Dr P.R. Katwal said two stool samples of the infected child, Nikhil (5), a resident of Karoti village near Jawalamukhi had been sent to the CRI laboratory at Kasauli for clinical tests, the report of which was awaited. The district health officer said it would be premature to say that it was a case of poliomyelitis until the report of the clinical test came in as acute flaccid paralysis could also be caused by many other viruses. Moreover, there were also symptoms of Guillain Barre (GB) syndrome in the infected child as per the patient’s history prepared by a private hospital of Jalandhar, he said. Nikhil’s father, Rajesh Gautam, said his child was on many occasions administered polio drops by the health authorities in the past five years. Detailed report of the case had also been dispatched to the state government.
|
|
|
Dalai Lama’s security reviewed
Dharamsala, May 25 Security of the Dalai Lama in the wake of recent arrests of foreigners from McLeodganj was the key issue that dominated the meeting attended by senior district officials. He also reviewed the security of 17th Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorjee who is their revered leader of the Tibetans after the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama.
|
|
|
‘Muskan’ to adopt 30 poor children
Dharamsala, May 25 Rajendra Rajan, chairman of the trust, said that school uniforms, notebooks, bags, apart from other basic requirements, would be provide to the identified children at a function here on May 31. A seminar to focus attention on the plight of such poor children and the role of media in bringing qualitative transformation in their lives would also be organised that day. Media experts, including chief editor of Divya Himachal Anil Soni, editor of Uttam Hindu Irvin Khanna and divisional commissioner of Kangra B.K. Aggarwal, among others, have been invited to the seminar. |
|
|
SDO caught taking Rs 30,000
Mandi, May 25 Acting on a complaint from the contractor, the anti-corruption team led by DSP Gurdev Sharma laid the trap for the SDO after the team had inputs that he had come to Mandi for some work and had been insisting on payment of Rs 30,000 as ransom for releasing bills worth Rs 26 lakh from the contractor, claimed the bureau. Sharma claimed that the SDO was caught red-handed in the town today after he accepted Rs 30,000 from the contractor. “We have recovered Rs 30,000 from his possession after we arrested him”, he claimed. Sharma said the accused had been identified as Manoj Kumar, posted as SDO at CPWD office in Kullu. |
|
10 houses gutted
Mandi, May 25 Properties worth Rs 80 lakh were destroyed in the fire. According to villagers, the fire broke out at 10.45 pm last night, due to a short-circuit triggered in the service meter of a house of one Tek
Chand. The short-circuit was triggered due to strong wind blowing in the area. The sparks fell on the wheat stacks kept near the house that caught fire. The fire soon engulfed the entire
village, the police said. The Jogindernagar SDO (civil), Ratan Gautam, rushed to the village with a team of officials and distributed an immediate relief of Rs 80,000 and tents to the fire victims. “As many as 13 schoolchildren will get books and school uniforms tomorrow”. Congress workers from Drang, Chander Sekhar and Vaman Dev also visited the fire victims and gave blankets to them. Gautam told The Tribune that 10 houses and property worth Rs 80 lakh were gutted in the fire. Over 17 families were hit by the fire. He said the revenue team was assessing the loss of properties. |
|
Plan to ensure total sanitation
Mandi, May 25
The campaign has the involvement of school-based eco-clubs, teachers, anganwari workers, sanitation literacy volunteers and NGOs. Reviewing a meeting of district officials, NGOs and resource persons, president of the Total Sanitation Mission-cum DC of Mandi Subhasish Panda said: “As many as 1,482 schools in the district have no toilet. The construction work for toilets has been started in 332 such
schools.” |
|
|
Major cremated with honours
Solan, May 25 His Kotla-Nullah-based residence sunk in gloom and despondency as his mother Urmil Sood, wife Shelly, elder brother Dr Suneet and sister-in-law Dr Punam, waited for his body to arrive. His childhood friends and acquaintances were also shocked at his untimely demise as they assembled together for his last rites. His mother was inconsolable. Major Karol (31) leaves behind a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Saranya and wife Shelly. He was married in June 2005. He was the youngest of the three siblings and his elder sister Aarti resides abroad. Recalling his son’s keen desire to reign in the sky, Urmil Karol said he always aspired to become a pilot. She said he was fond of sports and loved playing football and volleyball. He completed his schooling from St Luke’s School and later took admission in B.Com in the local college here. He cleared the NDA examination in 1999. He received a three-year training at Kharagvasla and was commissioned from the IMA, Dehra Dun. His desire to soar the skies took him to Congo for training in aviation trade. He served the Aviation 210 Rocket Regiment.
|
|
Pensioners seek travel on
LTC pattern
Kangra, May 25 In a meeting of the Pensioners Welfare Association today, president P.R. Agnihotri, and spokesperson B.L. Sharma, said pensioners should be provided with PTC on the pattern of LTC as was being provided to the pensioners in Punjab. The two leaders have urged Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to accept their long-pending demand of enhancement of their pension at the age of 65 and 75 years. |
|
|
Roads in Baddi to get facelift, finally
Baddi, May 25 Among major tasks planned by the BBNDA is to improve the condition of roads and improving parking facilities. In fact, the authority has sanctioned various other development projects to improve infrastructure in the area. Dr Amandeep Garg, CEO of the BBNDA, said major repair of Baddi-Sai road had been planned. The PWD would carry out the work, he asserted. The repair of roads and drains in the industrial area Baddi-DI, Baddi-SFS and EPIP Phase 1 were also on the anvil. The HPSIDC would be the executive agency for this work involving Rs 77 lakh, Dr Garg said. The widening and re-carpeting of roads from Alpla to new road in EPIP Phase 2 Thana Baddi and widening and strengthening of Baddi-Sai road from Vardhman Chowk to IA HIMUDA have also been planned, he said, adding that special focus was being paid to develop parking areas. Meanwhile, a camp office of the BBNDA would be made operational at Nalagarh in a month. The idea behind this is to make things easy for villagers residing in and around Nalagarh, said Dr Garg. It may be mentioned that the state government has recently expanded the limits of the BBNDA by including 124 revenue villages under its jurisdiction.
|
|
|
Acquisition of farmland
Kumarhatti, May 25 In a communiqué to the Nalagarh SDM Manmohan Sharma, Tilak Raj Gupta, member secretary of department, has stated that the land where it was proposed to set up the industrial area, was an irrigated land. In view of this, the department has decided not to acquire the land, it added. It is further decided to delete the khasra numbers of the land as well as irrigated land falling under Gurumajra, Chanalmajra, Manakpur, Shahpur and Lodhimajra villages. Interestingly, the letter was written on May 7, but officially it was still the same situation as it was after the issuance of notification under section 4 to acquire the land. When contacted, the SDM said no such communication had been received so far to annul the land acquisition. In fact, it was the state government that has to issue communication to cancel the land acquisition notification, he said, adding that we are still supposed to meet the compliance under section 4. It may be mentioned that the government’s move to acquire land had sparked widespread resentment among farmers of the area, who had formed the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Bhoomi Bachao Sangresh Samiti to oppose the move.
|
|
|
Villagers take seige of Birla Textile unit
Kumarhatti, May 25 The trouble started after the official allegedly slapped the worker following the altercation over some matter. The residents from workers’ native village thronged the unit and started criticising the management for its highhandedness. Sensing trouble the police was called up. The management has accused the villagers of manhandling and threatening to close down the unit. By the evening a compromise was struck between the villagers and the management.
|
|
|
Woman commits suicide
Kumarhatti, May 25 Sarita Sharma (35), a divorcee, was found dead inside the room when her neighbour approached her for some work. Sarita was running an STD/PCO booth on the Subathu road. In a suicide note, Sarita stated that nobody should be blamed for her death as she did not wish to live. Sarita, who hailed from Ramshehr, stated that she was fed up from her life.
|
|
|
Another found hanging
Kumarhatti, May 25 Reeta (26) was missing since last evening after she had gone to offer grass to the cattle. The cowshed was about 1 km from her home. Her family members kept searching for her all night. This morning her body was found hanging from a tree near the cowshed. Reeta allegedly hanged herself with the rope used to tie the cattle. SHO Sita Ram Sandhu reached the spot to investigate the case. The body has been sent for the postmortem examination at the Civil Hospital, Arki.
|
|
|
Congress victory celebrated
Kumarhatti, May 25 President of the committee Ramesh Chauhan said the victory of the Congress was the victory of the people. They had reposed their faith in the policies and programmes of the Virbhadra Singh-led government, he added.
|
|
|
SJVN raising day
Shimla, May 25 At the company’s flagship Nathpa Jhakri Power Station, the day’s celebrations commenced with the unfurling of the company flag which was followed by spot activities for children. In his message to the employees, chairman-cum-managing director, Hemant Kumar Sharma, emphasised the need for financial performance and technological innovation in the field of silt management. |
|
|
Shimla, May 25 An FIR had been lodged with Bhabanagar police station against the PWD on the statement of Army havildar Leela Dhar, who was on duty at the helipad of Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam where the copter had to land, DSP Prem Chand said. The DSP said that despite several reminders the PWD neither informed the district authorities nor put a warning board near the span-bridge about the laying of wires for Nathpa village. Blades of the cheetah helicopter which was landing at the SJVN helipad got entangled with power chord used for carrying trolleys on the dam and caught fire. — PTI
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
