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No need for Cabinet reshuffle: CM
Renowned singer Peenaz Masani comes down from the stage to mingle with the crowd during her performance in a cultural programme held to celebrate the birthday of transport and tourism minister G.S. Bali at Nagrota Bagwan in Kangra district on Friday. — Photo by writer
Minister’s birthday delays interviews
Women wait for interviews for the posts of anganwari worker and helper at the Child Development Project Office (CDPO) in Kangra on Friday. The interviews were delayed by six hours as the SDM who had to conduct the interviews was away in connection with the birthday celebrations of transport minister G.S. Bali. — Photo by Ashok Raina
Nod to HPU teachers’ recruitment policy
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Dept yet to begin monkey culling
Mankotia’s Resignation accepted
BSP no threat to BJP, says Shanta
Mismanagement of mandis decried
Annulment of notification brings relief to consumers
Town Hall to get facelift
Mandi Urban Coop Bank depositors restive
29 drug samples taken
Student commits suicide
French trekker falls to death
IT camps today
Woman's Death
‘Decreasing male-female ratio cause of worry’
Notice to govt to expand judicial complex
15-year-old boy drowns
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No need for Cabinet reshuffle: CM
Nagrota Bagwan (Kangra), July 27 He was talking to The Tribune after presiding over the 'bal vikas samaroh' organised to mark the birthday celebrations of tourism and transport minister G.S. Bali. The birthday celebrations in which thousands of people participated took a political turn when the Chief Minister and ministers used the opportunity to lash out at the BSP that has posed a new political challenge to the Congress in the forthcoming Assembly elections Reacting to the BSP chief Mayawati’s rally at Kangra yesterday, Virbhadra Singh said the people of the state had seen many so-called third fronts emerge at the time of elections but they could not survive for long. He said the people would not be misled by vested interests or false promises as they knew well as to who were their real benefactors. He further claimed that Kangra district had always been paid special attention in terms of development. Zonal administration and developmental offices had been opened at Dharamsala with a view to facilitating the delivery of services to people near their homes. A new Vidhan Sabha complex was constructed at Tapovan in Dharamsala in a record time. Bali welcomed the Chief Minister and thanked him for opening a degree college at Nagrota Bagwan and granting 95 per cent grant to the Changar college. A blood donation camp was organized on the occasion. A cultural programme was also organised in which famous singer Peenaz Masani and others performed. |
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Minister’s birthday delays interviews
Kangra, July 27 As many as 105 women candidates of five panchayats — Matour, Nandrul, Birta, Ganah and Halardkalan — were called for the interview today at 10 a.m. in the CDPO office but no interview was conducted till 3.30 pm. The women candidates were waiting outside the office They were later on told that the interviews would start at 1 p.m. but that too did not materialize. Child development project officer S.K. Choudary, said 105 anganwardi workers and helpers were to be interviewed today but SDM who was heading the interview committee was busy at Nagrota Bagwan as he was on duty with the Chief Minister who was there for Bali’s birthday celebrations. Resentment prevailed among the candidates and men accompanying them who had to wait . The process of the interview, however started at 3.30 p.m. only after the SDM arrived from Nagrota Bagwan. As many as 192 posts of Anganwari workers and 192 posts of aganwari helpers are to be filled for which the interviews were in process.
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Nod to HPU teachers’ recruitment policy
Shimla, July 27 The policy was approved at the meeting of the EC chaired by vice-chancellor, Dr Anil Wilson, here today. The policy has been framed by Dr Wilson himself. “This objective, just and transparent system would enable the university community and civil society to repose complete confidence in the selection process,” said Dr Wilson. According to the policy, the selection would be made on the basis of 100 marks out of which 80 would be for scholastic component and 20 for the interview. In the scholastic component, 40 marks would be allotted for the postgraduation score, three marks for M.Phil, seven for Ph.D, 10 for various publications, 5 for having received a gold medal, five for co-curricular activities and 10 for experience. Interestingly, the candidates would have to fill in all these marks based on their scholastic achievements. The policy has been framed by the HPU in light of a Supreme Court judgment in which it was said that calling too many candidates for the interview makes the process ‘superficial’ and that candidates should be short-listed for interview. Fifteen candidates would be interviewed for one vacancy with an increase of five candidates for every additional vacancy. The candidates would be short-listed according to their merit in the scholastic component. The EC also approved the seniority list drawn by the Recruitment and Promotion Committee under the VC. This would clear the decks for the filling up of a large number of vacant posts among section officers, assistant registrars, deputy registrars, additional controller of examinations, planning and development officers and several other posts through seniority. Regarding academic decisions, the EC gave approval for new syllabi for various subjects, including physics, chemistry and mathematics. |
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Dept yet to begin monkey culling
Palampur, July 27 Forest Minister Ram Lal Thakur told mediapersons that specific instructions had already been issued to the Forest Department and forest officials would gear up its campaign to kill monkeys so that standing crops could be saved. However, conservator of forests, Dharamsala, R.C. Kang was unaware of the directions of the state government. While talking to The Tribune he said his office was yet to receive such directions from the government, but The Tribune had a copy of the government orders. It is most surprising why the Forest Department was delaying its campaign to kill the monkeys in Kangra district which was the worst affected. There are more than one lakh monkeys in Kangra district and over 80 per cent live in Palampur, Dharamsala, Kangra, Baijnath, Paprola and Nurpur and other villages far outside the forested areas. The gravity of the situation could be judged from the fact that all panchayats in the district had been badly affected by the problem. The villagers feel the problem has become more acute due to the fact that monkeys have been provided “over protection” under laws like the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Wild Life Protection Act. Besides, number of social organisations unnecessarily come to their rescue without knowing the fact that monkeys had made the life of common man hell in the state. |
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Mankotia’s Resignation accepted
Shimla, July 27 A press release issued by the Vidhan Sabha secretariat said that the resignation was received by fax on July 25 had been accepted with effect from July 27. Mankotia had met Musafir in this connection on July 19. This is the second seat to fall vacant in as many months. Earlier, the Bamsen seat fell vacant when former Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal resigned after being elected to the Lok Sabha from the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency. Meanwhile, Vijay Joshi, who has been expelled from the Congress for anti-party activities, said that leaders like Mankotia and him had only been demanding action against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh only to cleanse the Congress of corrupt leaders. The party would be made to pay dearly by the people for protecting the corrupt. He said the BSP juggernaut had just started rolling with Mayawati’s successful rally at Kangra yesterday and many prominent leaders from both Congress and the BJP would join the party in the days to come.
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BSP no threat to BJP, says Shanta
Sarol (Chamba), July 27 He ruled out any possibility of fractured mandate claiming that the BJP would get an absolute majority. “The masses wanted a change by bringing the BJP to power and if the party assumed power there would be zero tolerance to corruption”, stated Shanta Kumar. Himachal was not UP where the BSP had a definite vote-bank of about 20 per cent. The people wanted to vote out Mulayam Singh Yadav “The political scenario of Himachal Pradesh is different where the difference of votes between the BJP and the Congress is not much”, Shanta Kumar stated; adding there was no vote-bank of the BSP in the hill state. Shanta Kumar alleged the Congress was synonym with corruption as revealed in the much-publicised CD involving Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, his wife Pratibha and a senior bureaucrat. He alleged the Congress government was delaying the appointment of 21,000 anganwari workers. Later, a rally was organised at Chamba, besides a workers’ meeting under the chairpersonship of Shanta Kumar. The BJP workers were advised to highlight the party achievements. |
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Mismanagement of mandis decried
Solan, July 27 He said instead of executing developmental works for the benefit of the agrarian community, political interests reigned supreme and developmental works were being affected. He said it was unfortunate that though as many as four foundation stones of sabzi mandis at Vaknaghat, Sadupul, Bhojnagar and Gamber Pul had been laid by them but no work could begin on any of them. He alleged that though they had made the provision of a token budget for these four sabzi mandis, the present committee took no interest in executing their works. While land had been bought at Gamber Pul, the papers for the Bhojnagar mandi had been sent to the DC for transfer to the marketing committee. Even though an NOC had been sought for this work the present committee failed to give it any preference. He said the BJP on the other hand, had acquired nearly 10 bighas of land for the local marketing committee though barely 2.5 bighas had been identified by the Congress government. He took the working of the present committee to task and said instead of expanding facilities, they had demolished two bathrooms and converted them into shops, while no other work had been executed by them.
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Annulment of notification brings relief to consumers
Nurpur, July 27 This tariff will be doubled after every two months if the consumers fail to install meters. The government had issued a notification on March 23 in which urban consumers had been asked to install water meters within two months at their own and take the responsibility of maintaining them. The local consumers were issued notices by the department in May this year which caused a lot of resentment among the residents. There was a demand to install water meters by the IPH department on the pattern of electricity meters being installed by the State Electricity Board by taking security and a monthly rent from the consumers. According to department sources, the government had issued directions not to penalise consumers by overcharging water tariff but no clarification had been issued relating to the installation of water meters for which the principal secretary, IPH department, had issued a notification on June 15, 2005. The state government has constituted a committee which will review the modus operandi to install water meters. |
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Town Hall to get facelift
Shimla, July 27 With the restoration and conservation work on the 19th century Gothic-style Gaiety Theatre nearing completion, the government is now keen to take up repair of the municipal corporation building. However, unlike the Gaiety Theatre restoration work, the MC building project will be on a much smaller scale. "The MC building need not be vacated and will continue to function from here as only the repair work is undertaken," said Mayor Narinder Kataria. He said the main problem is the acute leakage from the roof. Kataria said the roof work, which mainly involved replacing the slates and rotten wooden planks could be taken up in phases while the MC continued to function from another portion. The façade of the MC building which faces The Mall will be retained as it is one of the most important heritage buildings in the erstwhile summer capital of the British. The window frames of the MC building, especially the side facing The Mall, would also have to be replaced. Though heritage conservationists would be consulted, the state PWD would undertake the main repair work in the MC building. As far as the restoration work of Gaiety Theatre is concerned the Department of Languages, Art and Culture is getting the entire work done with major financing from the Union Ministry of Culture. |
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Mandi Urban Coop Bank depositors restive
Mandi, July 27 In a memorandum to the Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and governor RBI, which was later released to the press here, the action committee of Mandi citizens’ council stated that the government and the RBI had assured that they would merge the bank with the HP State Cooperative Bank. “But there has been no action so far even as depositors have run bankrupt, dieing premature death due to financial crisis in their families”. the action committee chairman P.C Bisht stated. The action committee complained that recovery from the bank defaulters had come to a standstill as the Cooperative Department, the police and the bank administration seemed to have given up. “Depositors have lost faith and they will resort to action if nothing concrete comes out on the merger front”, members warned. Bank officials informed that the ball was in the RBI's court and no direction had come from the apex bank on the merger issue so far. |
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29 drug samples taken
Mandi, July 27 Drug inspector, Mandi, R.K. Chaudhary said the team raided the wholesalers and collected over 29 samples of drugs used for the treatment of epilepsy, cough syrups and other tables which were suspected to be fake. “We will continue the raids in Sarkaghat tonight and others places and send the samples for testing to the Kandaghat laboratory”, he added. Professor and head, Department of Pharmacology, IGMC, Shimla, Dr A.K. Sahai said spurious drugs entered the markets under the ‘fake brand names’ and could be caught by testing and checking their batch numbers. Dr Sahai cautioned that since the trend among drug manufactures was for making generic drugs, it contained salt names as it was cheaper as compared to drugs carrying the brand names.
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Student commits suicide
Shimla, July 27 He was found hanging in the verandah of his house. He was a student of class seven at the local government school and was the youngest of four siblings. His three sisters found him hanging in the verandah when they returned from school. Akhilesh had not been going to school for the past three days. His parents had gone to the Bhadal to pluck apples, while the children stayed back home. |
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French trekker falls to death
Kullu, July 27 Additional SP Hardesh Bisht, said here, the deceased was accompanying his friend Lauri and an Israeli national joined them while they were living at Vashisht village. He said initial investigations had confirmed that the case was an accident but we would further investigate after the postmortem examination report was received. Meanwhile, the police has informed the Embassy of France about the accident. |
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IT camps today
Palampur, July 27 He said the department had also decided to keep its offices open on July 28 and 29 to accept tax returns. The camp at Paprola would be organised at Baba Gian Dass Hall from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and the one at Dharmshala would be held between 11a.m. and 2 p.m. |
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Sister-in-law, husband arrested
Tribune News Service
Hamirpur, July 27 On the statement of the mother of the deceased, Champa Devi, the police has booked husband Subhash Chand and sister-in law Sumana Devi for allegedly torturing Rajani, forcing her to commit suicide. Champa Devi complained that her daughter Rajani, who was married to Subhash Chand five years ago, had informed her before the incident that she was being tortured by her in laws for not bearing a child. Later her son-in-law informed her that Rajani had set herself ablaze. Hamirpur DSP K.G Kapoor said Subhash Chand and Sumana Devi had been remanded in police custody till July 30.
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‘Decreasing male-female ratio cause of worry’
Kullu, July 27 To prevent this, the government had also announced incentive awards of Rs 10,000 to person or organization who would give authentic information about any clinic doing such illegal tests. Another step in this direction was to give Rs 5 lakh to one panchayat in the district which would show the best sex ratio. |
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Notice to govt to expand judicial complex
Shimla, July 27 A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vinod Kumar Gupta and Mr Justice Sanjay Karol directed the chief secretary and respondents to file their reply in four weeks. Petitioner alleged that the present judicial complex had no adequate court rooms, parking place, accommodation and chambers for lawyers. The case was fixed for further hearing on September 10. |
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15-year-old boy drowns
Dharamsala, July 27 As per the details, Arjun Singh, a student of Class 10 was taking bath along with his classmates on the banks of the pool. Suddenly he slipped and drowned into the pool as he did not know swimming. His body was handed over to his family members after the post-mortem examination. |
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Boy commits
suicide Shimla, July 27
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Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today ruled out the possibility of a Cabinet reshuffle, saying that there was no need for it.
Kangra, July 27
