Shimla, July 21
The municipal corporation (MC) today resumed its anti-encroachment drive and issued notices to 100 dhara (unauthorised structures) owners to vacate the government land illegally occupied by them in a month.

The MC was forced to suspend its anti-encroachment drive in view of the MC elections that concluded on May 23.

“Around 100 dhara owners, most of them in the Krishnanagar locality, have been issued notices, giving them one month to vacate the land, or they would be evicted forcefully,” said an MC official.

According to sources, the structures in the Krishnanagar area were earlier spared as the area was represented by mayor Sohan Lal. With the ward being reserved for women this time, Sohan Lal did not contest the election. Now, the MC has resumed its anti-encroachment drive in the area.

Though there are over 5,000 dhara owners in the town, around 1,200 structures have been raised on forestland. Despite the dhara owners moving the court against the MC move, they did not get any respite.

They were given some time to make alternative arrangements. Some of these structures are more than 20-year-old and have regular water and electricity connections.

Acting on the directions of the high court, the MC had earlier evicted around 500 dhara owners from the forest, revenue and PWD land in various localities of the town. These evictions took place in Kaithu, Portmore, Tuti Kandi, Phagli, Lal Bagh, Sanjauli and Chotta Shimla areas.

Nurpur, July 21
Expelled Congress leader and MLA from Shahpur Assembly constituency, Vijay Singh Mankotia, fired another salvo against Chief minister Virbhadra Singh.

He alleged that he had been demolishing the Congress leadership from merged areas of the state, ever since he was ruling the state as Chief Minister since 1983.

Addressing a press conference here, Mankotia who joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alleged that the CM had targeted his opponents by either sabotaging their elections winning prospects or fielded independent candidates to defeat them in the Assembly elections.

Mankotia asserted that he had launched a tirade against corruption and discrimination in the state.

He said he would make documentary proofs public against ministers barring one or two on the eve of the Assembly elections due in February next year.

Calling upon Congress MLAs and leaders to set free the party from the political grip of the Chief Minister, he alleged that the high command was also hand in glove with the CM which refused to take action against him in the wake of his alleged involvements in money transactions and had in return had expelled him from the party.

Solan, July 21
Taking strict note of the expose of the ‘fake drugs racket’, the health authorities today swung into action and directed drug inspector Manish Thakur to lift drug samples from retail and wholesale counters as well as manufacturing units from across the district.

The directorate of Ayurveda also directed it’s officials to raid a unit manufacturing ayurvedic drugs at Baddi.

Drug inspector Manish Thakur, while confirming this, said they had lifted samples from various units located in the bordering areas of Nalagarh-Baddi as well as Parwanoo. The spurt of sudden raids has created a furore among the manufacturers who were caught unawares.

Arun Rawat, spokesman, HP Drug Manufacturers Association, said if fake traders were around they should be taken to task as they brought a bad name to genuine traders.

The officials, however, said there was little probability of fake drugs being manufactured here as the manufacturers had invested huge amounts. Such practices thrived in shady buildings which required little investment and could be used for such fraudulent purposes, they added.

The Health Department swung into action after a national channel named Baddi as a ‘key destination’ of fake drug manufactures. It may be mentioned here that Solan district alone has more than 400 pharmaceutical firms and has emerged as the pharma hub after the 2003 central industrial package.

The entire area is looked after by merely one drug inspector. This gives him less than one day to inspect one firm. The government had given little thought to employ adequate staff and this is considered a major reason for the proliferation of fake drugs here.

It may be noted that the district had come into limelight in 2004 when a consignment of nearly 40 tonnes of fake hypnotic drugs had been seized at Delhi by a team of Narcotics Control Bureau.

These drugs were manufactured by a Solan-based firm and were sent through railways. With nearly 35 drug firms, both old and new, present in Solan alone, the fake drug trade could not be ruled out. The district police had some time back raided a pharma unit here where the manufacturing practices were found lacking and neither the director, Health, nor the drug controller, were available for comments despite repeated attempts to contact them.

Solan, July 21
The officials of BSNL are facing an increasing influx of litigations due to delay in delivery of telegrams.

Since the Postal Department has withdrawn its combined post office and telegram offices facility from various rural areas, the BSNL has been forced to distribute telegrams by ordinary post to these areas

Earlier the Postal Department had an arrangement with the BSNL to forward it’s telegrams booked at the combined offices through their modems. They were received at the BSNL’s rural exchanges and distributed through the department. But now the department has refused to continue with this facility in the rural areas.

Consequently, the BSNL has been forced to send the telegrams received at the district headquarters to various rural areas through ordinary posts. This often delays the telegram by several days. People have to wait for the telegram’s delivery for days together.

In a complaint received by the local BSNL authorities, principal, Government Senior Secondary School, Goela, Kasauli tehsil, has sought an explanation from the department as to why a telegram reached the school after a lapse of 14 days.

Though the telegram was supposed to inform the school authorities about the extension of the aggrieved teacher’s leave, it was delivered days after the teacher had resumed duty. There were several similar complaints.

This delay has put many employees in a difficult situation. A number of complaints received by the BSNL have asked them to explain how a telegram was sent by ordinary post and why it was delivered days after being booked. Still worse, many people have sent legal notices to the department to explain the reason for the delay.

The BSNL officials when quizzed said since the postal department had decided to close some of it’s combined post offices located in rural areas, it had become liable on the department to deliver the telegrams.

Earlier these were received the same day at the BSNL’s sub-exchanges and then distributed through the Postal Department but now they have refused to distribute them. The BSNL was therefore, forced to send the telegrams booked at the headquarters, through ordinary posts.

The officials added that since both the departments are part of the Ministry of Telecommunications, this arrangement had been adopted ever since the BSNL came into existence in 1996. But now the Postal Department had decided to do away with some of its telegram booking centres where the average bookings was abysmally low. Officials emphasised that there was an urgent need to educate the masses about this change as it lead to undue litigation.

Solan, July 21
The seriousness of the state’s Health Department in dealing with fake drugs has been put under a scanner with its Kandhaghat-based lone composite testing laboratory (CTL) working without a permanent head and lacking requisite facilities to carry out crucial drug testing.

The charge of its crucial drug laboratory was entrusted to the food analyst last year after the earlier incumbent heading it retired. Despite a lapse of nearly a year, the government has neither advertised the post nor placed a suitable official as laid down in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.

The Health Department has accepted the fact in a recent reply to the high court where it has said the laboratory was being headed on a temporary basis by another incumbent.

The state laboratory is lacking the requisite expertise and thus the fate of the samples tested here was questionable. Even if a drug sample was found to be fake, a manufacturer could challenge it on the basis of the testing authority that was not qualified as per the provisions of the laid Act.

This has landed the department in a soup in a recent case as well as when a fungus-ridden glucose had been sent for testing here. With no sterility testing facility available these samples had been failed merely on the basis of physical testing.

Experts said sterility testing facility was mandatory for intra-venous fluids as it was injected directly through the blood. While it was a crucial parameter to test the purity of any intra-venous fluid (IVF) the lack of it had raised question marks on the laboratory’s functioning.

The Jalandhar-based firm which had supplied the fungus-ridden glucose samples has now challenged the laboratory report. The health director was not available for comments.

The CTL officials agreed that the laboratory lacked the sterility facility but added since some expansion work was underway it would soon come through.

The absence of a permanent head had severally affected the working of the laboratory, as it was the only laboratory in the state to test drug samples drawn from various retail and wholesale outlets as well as manufacturing units.

Kumarhatti, July 21
Two persons were killed in separate road accidents near Baddi on Saturday.

A pedestrian was hit by a speeding tanker (HR-37A-1695) at Rattapul on the Pinjore - Swarghat National Highway No-21A. The deceased, a migrant labourer, was walking along the road when the tanker going towards Nalagarh, hit him.

He was tossed up in the air before landing on the ground. He died on the spot. The driver fled from the spot and could not be arrested. The labourer’s body was sent to the Civil Hospital, Nalagarh, for a postmortem examination. His identity could not be established yet.

In another accident, Pyare Singh (36) was killed when his motorcycle (HP-12A-4643) was hit by a trailer (HR-38E- 0196) at Bhud on Swarghat highway. The accident took place at around 12.45 pm. He was rushed to the Civil Hospital, Nalagarh, but he died on the way.

Nahan, July 21
State president of HPSEB Project Engineers Association Er. R.K. Kohal, has urged the Chief Minister to appoint directors and other allied staff in the newly created Himachal Power Corporation to make it fully functional.

This was stated in a press release released here today. Kohal said when a memorandum was submitted to create a new power corporation by the association, members were assured by the CM that the new corporation would be a body of professionals from top to bottom.

He said it would be a unique venture to fulfill the aspirations of the state in the field of generation, marketing and in other areas as well. It would also break stagnation in the promotions of the engineers who were waiting for the past over 20 years to get their first promotion and would open fresh employment avenues for the young engineers, he added.

The association has expressed its concern over the grant of extension in service to the officers at the higher-level on their superannuation by the state government. They said these actions had demoralised the engineers and aggravated the stagnation problem in the HPSEB.

The association has also demanded fresh recruitment of engineers at the junior-level as due to non recruitment their would be acute shortage of engineers at the lower-level after 9 years.

Rohvain Patta (Hamirpur), July 21
Kamal Pathania, a resident of Rohvain Patta under Bhoranj block of the district, has done wonders in agriculture by adopting scientific farming. has grown a fine quality of capsicum crop in a greenhouse which is not only fetching him a price of Rs 100 per kg in the Delhi market but he hopes to get in return the expenses of about Rs 3 lakh in a single year.

Pathania, who after graduating from Hamirpur was running a taxi till he came to know about the incentives given to farmers by the Horticulture Department under the Horticulture Technical Mission. The young farmer has already sold about 9 quintal of seegenta variety of capsicum, of which single fruit weighs up to 400 gm in attractive and different red and yellow colours.

To start with, Pathania established a greenhouse over 500 sq m of unutilised piece of land in his village to leave the profession of a taxi driver. He later set up a water tank with filter for drip irrigation and linked it with a device for putting fertilisers and pesticides, besides using vermi-compost.

Pathania said, “I initially invested Rs 52,000 and sought a loan of Rs 4.50 lakh from a bank and the government provided me subsidies of Rs 1.62 lakh and officials of the Horticulture Department provided me with all technical help.”

For marketing his produce, he has made arrangement through the HRTC buses to send the crop daily to the Delhi market. He hopes to sell 30 quintal of capsicum by the end of the year and would return the loan of Rs 2.50 lakh in one year.

As a world of inspiration to the youths Pathania said “Instead of hankering after petty jobs, the youths should avail the government incentives and earn an honourable living.”

Hamirpur horticulture deputy director Dr. R.N. Sharma said “Many youths are coming forward after witnessing the success of Pathania and several green houses have already been setup in Bijahadi, Moharal and other places.”

Shimla, July 21
Accusing the government of giving step-motherly treatment to vidya upasaks and gramin vidya upasaks appointed during its regime, the BJP yesterday demanded that they be regularised.

In a statement issued here , state BJP chief Jai Ram Thakur said the government was not fulfilling the commitment made to vidya upasaks and gramin vidya upasaks whose services had to be regularised within five and four years, respectively. He said after the completion of five years of service the vidya upasaks had to be given the status of JBT teachers.

He said as far as salaries were concerned these teachers were discriminated against as their appointments were made by the BJP government. “While teachers are getting salaries between Rs 8,000 and Rs 12,000 and PTA appointees over Rs 5,000, the vidya upasaks were getting merely Rs 3,450 and Rs 2,900,” he said.

Shimla, July 21
The e-courts project was today launched in Himachal Pradesh with High Court Chief Justice V K Gupta presenting laptops to judicial officers here.

The Chief Justice distributed laptops to judicial officers here at an impressive function attended by several judges of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Justice Gupta said e-courts project would be helpful in quicker dispensation of justice in the state, an official press note said.

He said computerization had brought immense change in the functioning ofthe judiciary. Presentation of laptops to judicial officers was a part of the scheme to computerize the district courts in the state, he said.

The Chief Justice said training would be imparted to those judicial officers who were not acquainted and well versed with computers.— PTI