Shimla, June 4
The election for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor of the local municipal corporation could not take place today as councillors belonging to the BJP boycotted the oath-taking ceremony.

Even though 15 councillors belonging to the Congress and two to the CPM took oath, the election for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor could not take place due to lack of quorum. A minimum of 19 councillors out of the total strength of 25 have to be present for the election to take place.

T.D. Negi, director, urban development, has now put off the election for tomorrow, which will be held even if the eight BJP councillors decide to boycott it again.

The election of the mayor and the deputy mayor was to be held today after the oath- taking ceremony but with the BJP councillors walking out in protest without taking oath, the election could not be held.

Even as senior Congress leaders, including irrigation and public health minister Kaul Singh Thakur, food and supplies minister Singhi Ram, animal husbandry minister Harsh Mahajan and local MLA Harbhajan Singh Bhajii were present at the MC office, election of the mayor could not take place as BJP councillors left the MC office.

The BJP councillors led by Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Bhardwaj and other party leaders raised slogans against the government and the Congress outside the MC office. They said that the notice was only for oath taking and not for the election of the mayor and the deputy mayor.

Later, talking to mediapersons, Bhardwaj said that the BJP councillors would take oath in the next meeting and the BJP could also put up its candidates for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor.

He said that as per the roster the post of mayor should have been reserved for women. "The BJP will continue its protest as the Congress has misused power to deny the women their right," he remarked. He urged the women councillors in the Congress to support the BJP on this issue.

He said the BJP was seeking legal opinion and could move court on the issue of the post of mayor being reserved for women as per the roster. He added that the BJP was also examining the irregularities in the voting list from the legal viewpoint and could move court on the issue.

Hamirpur, June 4
While the Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for the counting of votes for the Hamirpur parliamentary byelection tomorrow, political parties and candidates, after remaining busy in analysing the polling trends for the past two days, are now preparing themselves for the final results.

The counting will decide the fate of six candidates, although the main contest seems to be between BJP candidate former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and forest minister in the present government Ram Lal Thakur of the Congress.

In all, 7,00,028 voters out of total 11,52,368 expressed their choice through electronic voting machines (EVM’s) in 17 assembly segments. The counting of votes would begin at 8 am at four centres at Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Una and Dehra simultaneously. The result is expected to be out by the afternoon.

Shimla, June 4
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh declared 12 gram panchayats, one in each district, having best performance in maintaining the girl child ratio and announced a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh each.

Presiding over the state supervisory board meeting, constituted under the pre-conception and pre-natal diagnostic techniques here today, he said his government had instituted the award of Rs 5 lakh to reward the panchayats which registered the highest increase in female births in the district. It would be over and above the regular budgetary provisions to carry additional developmental activities in the respective gram panchayats.

Methi (Bilaspur), Sinhuer (Chamba), Kakkar (Hamirpur), Kudag (Kangra), Namgia (Kinnaur), Deotha (Kullu), Goharma (Mand), Neri (Shimla), Bhanat (Sirmour), Hinner (Solan) and Badhera Raj (Una) had been adjudged the best panchayats with high female births and would get the award of Rs 5 lakh each.

Concerted efforts were under way to check female foeticide stringent action would taken against the individuals and the clinics undertaking sex-determination tests.aThe steps initiated by the government included free education to the girl child up to the highest level, free uniform and textbooks, scholarships ranging from Rs 300 to Rs 1,000 for all categories, nutritional supplements to pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls' skill training under the Kishori Shakti Yojna and cash rewards to the families adopting terminal family planning after the birth of the first or second girl child. He expressed concern that despite the growing economic prosperity with high levels of education and health indices, the status of women continued to be low. The sex ratio was lowest not only amongst the poor or the illiterate but also the educated and rich.

Hamirpur, June 4
Newly appointed BJP in charge of Himachal affairs Sat Pal Jain, who is here before the counting of votes, claimed today that the party is confident of victory in the Hamirpur Lok sabha byelection.

Talking to mediapersons here he said " we would not stop after this victory but party activists would carry on their work further till the next Assembly elections to capture power in the state."

About the allegations of corruption against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh, Jain said: " a Congress MLA has levelled serious allegations of corruption against the CM which is a serious matter."

Raising a poser he said, " why Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are silent about the issue and asked them to clear their position on this issue."

He accused the Congress of adopting double standards on the issue of corruption and asked it to come clean on the issue. The BJP would continue its campaign on this issue even after the elections and urge the Lok Sabha Speaker to act against MP Pratibha Singh.

Shimla, June 4
The apple growers are a worried lot despite the prospects of a good crop after a lean season last year.

Frequent hailstorms over the past two months have not only caused extensive damage to the crop but also severely affected the quality of fruit. Worse, the spell of freak weather is continuing unabated. The apple growing areas are being lashed by high-velocity winds accompanied with rain and hail every other day. This is leading to wide variations in the temperature which could lead to abnormal premature droppings of fruit. The unfavourable weather conditions are keeping growers on the tenterhooks.

Initially, the Horticulture Department had estimated the total production at 2.45 crore boxes but with the beating that the crop has taken due to inclement weather it could come down to 2.10 crore boxes.

As very few growers use anti-hailing nets, a majority of the orchards in Kotkhai, Kotgarh, Rohru, Theog and Chopal have been affected.

The Kulu and Kinnaur areas, which account for about 25 per cent of the total crop, have not been affected much by hailstorms. However, the Ani belt of Kulu has been affected. In all almost 70 per cent of the crop has been spoiled by hailstorms.

Last year only 1.32 crore boxes of apple were produced in the state, almost 50 per cent of the 2.65 crore boxes produced in the preceding year and 2.56 crore boxes in 2004. Various government agencies could procure only 7,000 tonnes of apple last year under the market intervention scheme of which only about 4,000 tonne was processed. This year the government may have to procure a much larger quantity as the hail-affected fruit does not fetch a good price in the market.

However, it will be a boon for the state-owned HPMC.

Mandi, June 4
A two-day workshop on “environmental geo-hazards, management and mitigation strategy for Himachal Pradesh” began here today. The workshop is being organised by the Department of Geography, Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, and the district administration.

Mandi MP Pratibha Singh inaugurated the workshop. She said the government was concerned over various geo-hazards like flashfloods, landslides, droughts, crop failures, earthquakes and avalanches and had put in place a disaster-management strategy worked out by scientists and experts.

She said the government would ensure that the “disaster management and mitigation strategy” worked out for the state during the course of the workshop would be sent to the Central Government for approval and implementation.

She said the scientists should prepare a database and suggest measures to minimize the damage in such cases by putting in place an early warning system.

Mandi DC Subhasish Panda gave brief account of how the district disaster management group manages disasters and sought scientific inputs and suggestions how to involve stakeholders in crisis management.

Divisional commissioner of Mandi KJBV Subrahmanayam gave a round-up of the disaster-management scene in the country and the state. He said schoolchildren should be told about disaster management.

Chief coordinator of workshop K.K. Sharma said GIS-based study sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology was complete for the entire state. “It will be taken up for discussion with the state government,” he added.

Shimla, June 4
The United Christian Forum for Human Rights has denounced the State Freedom of Religion Act as anti-minority, non-secular, arbitrary and violative of the fundamental human rights.

The forum at a meeting here yesterdays condemned the law and discussed the possibility of having a legal remedy.

Dr Gerald J. Mathias, president of the forum, called for careful study of the anti-conversion law and asked the members to exercise caution.

Dharamsala, June 4
The Herbs Antique Research Botanical Society (HARBS) has claimed to have rediscovered the rare herb 'swarnkshiri' or 'argemone mexicana' in Himachal Pradesh.

President of the society R.S. Guleria, who runs an ayurvedic drugs-manufacturing unit near here, said this rare herb is known to possess anti-HIV activity and is being studied by the scientific community to achieve a viable anti-AIDS medicine.

Before rediscovery, this plant was believed to have gone extinct.

'Argemone mexicana' is basically found in America. In India, apart from Himachal Pradesh, it was found in Kashmir and was locally known as 'Hirvi'.

The society this year plans to plant more than 1,000 'argemone mexicana' plants in the hill state. This plant has sharp thorns and secretes yellow milk-like substance when punctured.

Its seed oil is beneficial for skin diseases. The herb is taken with lime juice to cure malaria. Application of its roots is beneficial for scorpion bite. Its solution with milk or ghee is beneficial for eye diseases.

Its juice along with milk is given to leprosy patients also.

Palampur, June 4
Over 100 allopathic dispensaries opened on political considerations two years ago lack infrastructure like buildings, furniture, medicines and paramedical staff required to run these rural these health centers smoothly.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that though the government had posted MBBS doctors in these health centres they do not have even chairs and tables to perform their duty efficiently. There are no medicines worth the name available in these institutions. In most of the villages these institutions have been functioning either in school buildings, village panchayat bhavans or cowsheds.

Though the doctors posted there have been attending to the patients daily they were unable to provide them any medicines because neither these medicines were available in the health centres nor there was any chemist shop in the villages concerned. In many villages patients have to travel over 20 km to buy medicines. A doctor confided that in the absence of medicines, they had been advising the patients to follow home remedies and naturopathy.

Many health centres do not have class III and class IV employees, forcing the doctors there to perform odd jobs also. In one of the health centres the medical officer was found cleaning his room. The appointment of these doctors were made on a contractual basis at Rs 12,000 per month but now the government had regularised their services. Many doctors said they were sitting idle or examining only five to 10 patients daily.

In many remote villages doctors either do not come or come twice or thrice a month and that too just to draw their salaries. In one such health institution, a pharmacist said that as the doctor was preparing for his postgraduate entrance examination these days, he was looking after the centre.