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BSP to go it alone in Assembly poll
Lifting of ban on monkeys sought
Get Uniforms, Books, Bags
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Project for cheer pheasant breeding
Modesty of 18-month-old outraged
Churah Mukti Morcha to field candidate
Building violations galore in Dharamsala
Sue me, Shanta dares Virbhadra
Cong will retain power: Viplove
Rangila Ram lambasts BJP
NSUI lends support to Lyngdoh report
Flood control steps yield results
Bridge repair to take 15 days
21 drug samples taken
Water bottling firm fined
Registration of cattle begins
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BSP to go it alone in Assembly poll
Dharamsala, July 25 Lashing out at both the Congress and the BJP, she said people of the country were now looking for a change and the BSP was the only possible option keeping in view the streamlining of their policies and programmes as per the demand of the time. Announcing to introduce reservation on economic basis in the government and the private sector, she demanded from the UPA government to implement the formula across the country. She said the present state government had failed to fulfil aspirations of the people. Looking at Major Vijay Singh Mankotia, who resigned from the state legislative assembly today, she said senior Congress leaders of his stature were leaving the Congress just because of the “injustice” the common people and these leaders had faced at the hands of this government. She hinted at making a formal announcement of Mankotia being BSP’s chief ministerial candidate in the public rally at Kangra tomorrow. In the evening, she held a meeting with the state leadership of the party in which state president Balwant Singh, national general secretary Man Singh Manhera, her close confidant Satish Mishra and three former ministers, Mankotia, Vijay Joshi and Kewal Singh Pathania, were also present. |
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Mankotia quits as MLA
Shimla, July 25 Mankotia has mentioned in his resignation that since he was quitting the Congress, he was resigning as an MLA. He had been elected from the Shahpur constituency in Kangra district on the Congress ticket. Explaining the reasons for his resignation Mankotia has said that despite his raising several issues, especially corruption, with the party and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, no action was taken. He is also learnt to have made mention of the CD that he had released against the Chief Minister and his wife, Pratibha Singh. |
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Lifting of ban on monkeys sought
Mandi, July 25 The JAC will stage a statewide protest on August 10 to highlight the farmers' woes whose 40 per cent to 90 per cent crops are destroyed every year by monkeys and wild boars. HGVS president and JAC convener Kuldip Tanwar, who toured Kulu and Mandi districts, said: "The JAC will raise the issue in Parliament as "forests fall in the Concurrent List. We are for a major change in the forests policy so that farmers' crops and other interests are saved". The immediate solution to control the soaring population (over 4 lakh) of boars and monkeys lies in the lifting of the ban on export of monkeys and culling operations by the Forest Department. Kheti Bachao Andolan spokesperson Om Parkash and Kisan Sabha (Sirmaur) president Ramesh Verma, said:" The farmers have stopped cultivation in 40 per cent of the area in the 2301 panchayats hit by the wild animal menace but nobody is bothered about that". Tanwar asserted the lifting of the ban on export would take away over 40000 to 60000 monkeys every year for lab research". Verma said that 20 panchayats in the Nauradhar-Renuka belt had passed a resolution asserting that the culling of monkeys should continue and monkeys should be either killed or lifted for export. |
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Get Uniforms, Books, Bags
Shimla, July 25 The alternate schools were being run at five places in the town jointly by the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan, the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment and various voluntary organisations. It was a dream comes true for most of the children here. The local beopar mandal today provided them with uniforms, school bags and books which made them feel like any other child their age attending school. It was on the basis of a survey conducted by the staff of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan that 265 street children between ages of six to 14 years had been identified who were not attending school. The objective is to persuade their parents to send them to school. In most cases, these children have been forced to work to supplement the family income. They were working at dhabas, selling balloons, toys and other stuff or working as junk collectors. Most of the children belong to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh Nepal and Jharkhand. “We are forced to work with contractors even by our parents and we cannot afford to disobey him,” said Akhilesh from Lucknow and Ranjeet from Bihar. Under the project, 33 children have been enrolled at the alternate school in Tutu, 24 in Government School at Tutu, 22 in Government Primary School at Engine Ghar in Sanjauli and 27 in Dhalli. State coordinator Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan Naresh Bhardwaj said the government was considering giving the children some vocational training along with formal education. |
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Project for cheer pheasant breeding
Shimla, July 25 The Rs 3.30-crore project will be implemented over a period of five years. The bird will be bred using the parent-rearing technique for releasing in the wild. The proposed conservation breeding centre will be set up at Chail. The department has about 24 birds of the species at the Blossom Pheasantry, Chail, where breeding was taken up on experimental basis three years ago. However, only two pairs of wild origin could be used as founder breeding stock. A CZA team will visit Chail shortly to inspect the site. It will have a minimum of seven big enclosures, each having an area of around 200 sq m. Close circuit television facility will be provided to closely study the behaviour of the birds. The department has the requisite expertise to undertake the project. A team comprising Dr Lalit Mohan, a zoologist-cum-forester, and Sat Pal Dhiman, range Officer, has achieved success in “parent rearing” of the endangered pheasant in captivity under a pilot scheme. England is the only other country in the world where such a feat has been accomplish. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has made Lalit Mohan a member of the pheasant specialist group and species survival commission in recognition of his achievement. |
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Modesty of 18-month-old outraged
Nahan, July 25 The mother of the girl was away to her dhaba in the village market at the time of the incident. Her brother was alone at home with her daughter. When she came back home to take some articles for use at the dhaba, she found her daughter bleeding. The villagers came to her help and the accused was caught by the Sangrah police. The girl was shifted to Dadahu this evening and the accused was also brought to the Renuka Police station. Lakshmi’s husband was a Nepali and was running a dhaba at Sangrah. The younger brother of Lakshmi was brought up by Lakshmi and her husband just like their own child. After the death of her husband, Lakshmi began running the dhaba and her younger brother also stayed on in the house. Today he tried to out rage the modesty of his niece. Sources said the villagers escorted the widow and the victim up to Dadahu. They helped her lodge a complaint in the Renuka police station. Sirmaur SP J. P. Singh confirmed that a case under Section 354 of the IPC was registered for out raging the modesty of a little girl. He said the victim and the accused were being sent to the Nahan district hospital for a medical examination. |
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Churah Mukti Morcha to field candidate
Chamba, July 25 Convener of the morcha Narayan Soni said it would be for the first time for the people of the Churah area to field their own candidate for the Assembly elections. |
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Building violations galore in Dharamsala
Dharamsala, July 25 As per the details procured through the Right to Information Act from the local
municipal council, 34 violations of building laws, land use and encroachments on forest had been detected since 2000 in Dharamsala and McLeodganj where the encroachers had already raised illegal structures.Surprisingly, for the period from 2000 to 2003 the municipal council has failed to provide the addresses and names of the encroachers against whom no notices were issued but action was in progress. In all other cases, the executive officer of the municipal council has stated several notices had been issued to the violators from time to time and the follow-up action was in progress. However, the MC authorities failed to reply as to what action was in progress against all such violations. No illegal structure has been demolished by the local body in the past seven years even as several notices for demolition were issued. It has come to light that a couple of government officers, including the superintendent of Posts and Telegraph and the regional manager of the HRTC were also served notices for violation of building laws but no further action was taken even two years after the serving of the notices. The land mafia-official nexus has made the situation so bad that time is not far when the natural pristine beauty of the hill town would get buried under a jungle of concrete. |
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Sue me, Shanta dares Virbhadra
Nahan, July 25 Shanta Kumar announced that ‘zero tolerance on corruption’ would be the main election plank of the BJP in the forthcoming Assembly elections. He claimed that the pace of development had slowed down, prices of essential commodities were going up, relief of government welfare schemes was not reaching the right persons and the state was plunged into a debt-trap only due to rampant corruption in the ruling party at every level. The BJP leader charged that due to lack of vision the Congress government had failed to derive due benefits from the industrial package for the state and its people. Only some land sharks, including some ministers, had minted crores from this package while a major part of the state did not get any industry in this package. Industries were allowed only to a chosen few in overcrowded places like Baddi. HAMIRPUR: Former Chief Minister and local MP Prem Kumar Dhumal said the election for the state Assembly may be held in November 2007. Talking to mediapersons informally he said three tribal MLAs from Kinnaur, Bharmour and Lahual and Spiti had filed a writ petition in the high court seeking elections in the tribal areas during November to hold simultaneous polls in all 68 Assembly constituencies of the state. |
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Cong will retain power: Viplove
Mandi, July 25 The party would also not be affected by the BSP, she claimed. The BSP had become a party of “disgruntled leaders” like Vijay Singh Mankotia, Vijay Joshi and others who had been changing their political loyalties for the sake of power time to time, she added. She is on a three-day tour of Jogindernagar, Drang, Mandi Sadar, Gopalpur, Sundernagar constituencies. |
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Rangila Ram lambasts BJP
Shimla, July 25 In a statement issued here today he said it was intriguing that as long as Pratibha Patil was in Rajasthan, the BJP never uttered a word against her. The party that had been making much of its commitment towards women lost no time in carrying out a shameful campaign against her thereafter. He said it was not for the first time that BJP had resorted to such tactics. Earlier, it had taken an ambiguous stand on the issue of granting 33 per cent reservation to women in democratic institutions. The only role the BJP played over the past 60 years had been that of dividing society on caste, religion and region basis. Even in Himachal, it always came to power by raising the bogey of regionalism, casteism and communalism. |
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NSUI lends support to Lyngdoh report
Shimla, July 25 President of the union Kewal Pathania said the recommendation of the committee set up by the apex court would go a long way in creating a peaceful atmosphere conducive for academic activities in universities and colleges. He said the implementation of the recommendations was being opposed by some students’ bodies whose members had been known to indulge in criminal activities. He said steps like debarring those involved in criminal cases from contesting the Central Students Association and reducing the timeframe for completion of elections to a week were in the interests of the students as it would save time for academic activities. He said the vice-chancellor had assured the union that the results of all classes would be declared by July 31 and no students would be denied an opportunity to participate in the elections to the Central Students Association. The elections were normally held between August 10 and 20 and this year would not be an exception. Pathania said that his union would plant 2 lakh saplings in the state under its “green Himachal, clean Himachal “ campaign which would formally be launched by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh from Shimla on August 2. |
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Flood control steps yield results
Una, July 25 He said 65-km stretch of the 85-km river fell in Una district, while the remaining portion was in Punjab. He said embankment work has been completed in 13-km stretch of the river from Jhalera village towards Santokgarh. An area of around 1,505 hectare was reclaimed up to March, 2007.Another 550 hectares would be reclaimed by March, 2008. Most of the land so reclaimed had been put to agricultural use, he added. He said the total cost of the project would be around Rs 106 crore. DC Rajesh Kumar said as the agricultural activity had begun in reclaimed areas and farmers started using pesticide to save their crops, contamination of groundwater had also begun. He advised the Public Health Department to take samples of tubewell water being provided in the area. He said embankment on both sides of the river would help control floods. |
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Bridge repair to take 15 days
Solan, July 25 Locals revealed that the excessive load of trucks had worsened the condition of the bridge. The PWD stopped all traffic over the bridge last evening. The department managed to carve out an alternative way for traffic on this busy road. With the bridge being in the industrial area, hundreds of trucks used to cross over every day. PWD executive engineer Anil Sharma said the repair work would be completed within a fortnight. The department had earlier failed to take note of the deteriorating condition of the bridge. |
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21 drug samples taken
Hamirpur, July 25 The drug inspector said the director, health services, had ordered the taking of samples as a special drive. The samples of coldarine, glycodine, benadryl and other decongestants were taken under this drive. The raids were conducted at Bijhadi, Bhota, Saloni, Mehrain and Hamirpur. As many as 106 samples of medicines have been taken from April to July. These samples have been sent to laboratories. |
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Water bottling firm fined
Shimla, July 25 According to the complainant, he had purchased a bottle of Bisleri from a shop in Shimla and found some foreign material in it. Disposing of the complaint, President of the forum D.K. Sharma said the contents of the bottles were found contaminated and not fit for human consumption. The marketing of bottles of water containing foreign material in the name of safe and pure drinking water by the manufacturer amounted to unfair trade practice and deficiency in service, the forum observed. |
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Registration of cattle begins
Shimla, July 25 According to a spokesperson of the Animal Husbandry Department, registration of animals had started in Shimla and Chamba districts and so far 8,000 animals had been registered. The government had last year made the registration of cattle mandatory under the Panchayati Raj Act. He said that a Rs 6.12-crore project had been submitted to the Animal Welfare Board for setting up three “go sadans”(cattle homes) at three places which would have a capacity to accommodate 2,000 animals. Once the project was approved the campaign would be extended to other districts. |
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