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Power generation up by 47 pc at Nathpa Jhakri
Resentment over I-cards to use path
Job Scam
Para-teachers to get extension
Apple growers suffer due to shortage of trucks
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‘Lift ban on export of monkeys’
Fake Currency
‘Panjiri’ for anganwari children
Rs 10-cr for releasing Ravi water
Declining sex ratio
Two electrocuted
Taxi operators on strike again
Left bodies hold march
Cloudburst damages 47 rural water supply schemes
Leopard kills 4-year-old
2-yr jail for possessing charas
NTPC told to speed up rehabilitation
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Power generation up by 47 pc at Nathpa Jhakri
Shimla, August 11 The board of directors of the SJVN in a meeting held in New Delhi yesterday declared 32 per cent dividend amounting to Rs 235 crore. The power generation at Nathpa Jhakri surged from 4,055 MU to 5,941 MU during 2006-07 resulting in good profit. The dividend will be shared between the equity partners of the company, including the Central and the Himachal Government in the ratio of 75 and 25 per cent. Under this arrangement, while the Centre will receive Rs 176.25 crore, Himachal will be getting its share of Rs 58.75 crore. The SJVN has already paid an interim dividend of Rs 50 crore to the Centre and Rs 16.67 crore to Himachal, while the balance share will be shared shortly. The SJVN is a joint venture of the Centre and the Himachal Government incorporated in the year 1988. During the current financial year, the power station has already generated more than 3672.5 MU of power which is 359.5 MU more than the MOU target. This generation is also 617.84 MU more than the corresponding period last year. A target of generating 6720 MU of electricity has been fixed for the current financial year. While HP is supplied with 12 per cent of the electricity generated at Nathpa Jhakri hydro power station free of cost, it also gets 25 per cent of the balance generation at bus bar rates. The remaining 66 per cent electricity is supplied to the beneficiary states of northern grid, including Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.
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Resentment over I-cards to use path
Sundernagar, August 11 A deputation of residents met today the Sundernagar SDM and submitted a memorandum in protest against the instructions issued by the BBMB authorities in July 2007 in which the residents were asked to get identity cards issued. According to residents, the 990-MW Dehar Power House started functioning about 30 years back and the residents had been using this path even prior to the construction of the power house. Afterwards, when the power house was constructed, the main path leading to these six panchayats was being used by the residents. But recently, the SE of Dehar power house has written to all these panchayats to ask its residents to register themselves before the BBMB authorities and get identity cards issued for using the path which crosses through the power house. The residents have opposed the decision of BBMB authorties and said that they have given land for the construction of the power house (Beas Sutlej Link Project) and further stated that they had been using this path form the time of their forefathers and no untoward incident had happened so far. The residents demanded that their problem be solved failing which they would agitate. They requested Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh through a memorandum to pass necessary directions to the BBMB in this regard, so that they would not be harassed unnecessarily by the police while crossing the path. |
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Bindal justifies appointments
Ambika Sharma
Solan, August 11 He said it was intriguing that the vigilance and anti-corruption bureau had registered cases against them, whereas no such irregularity had figured in the audit paragraphs of the special audit conducted by the Congress. Addressing mediapersons, Bindal and Devinder Thakur here claimed that no merit was ignored while making 27 appointments in the committee between 1998 and 2000. Bindal challenged Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to prove that irregularities had been committed in appointments made during his tenure as chairman of the committee. He emphasized the fact that the BJP had furnished evidence of appointments made by the Chief Minister in various boards, corporations as well as universities on chits in a chargesheet presented to the Governor. But no probe had been initiated to look into these cases. He leveled charges of political vendetta on the Congress and said the present government had been incessantly registering false cases against BJP workers and these new cases were continuation of the same agenda. Drawing a parallel between irregular appointments made by the previous Congress regime, Bindal said these cases lacked any concrete basis. Bindal however failed to reply to as to why no action had been taken against those found guilty of having given appointments on chits during the previous regime of the present Chief Minister. He said the appointments could not be cancelled as it would have deprived jobs to nearly 4,000 youths. He said recruitments made between 1998 and 2000 were fair and comprised either regularization of daily wagers or those given on compassionate grounds. He claimed that due permission from the directorate of urban development as well as finance concurrence had been sought and after finalising them they were sent to the directorate.
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Para-teachers to get extension
Shimla, August 11 This was stated by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, while addressing the second state-level para-teachers conference here today. “The government which had framed the para-teacher policy as a stop gap arrangement for a period of one year, has extended it to four years and would look for a suitable policy to secure their services,” he said. He added that efforts would also be made to make a similar policy for PTA teachers so that their services are also recognized and rewarded. The CM said the government had created vast employment avenues and there was no question of removing anyone. “The interests of the para-teachers are safe in the hands of the government,” he assured. The CM said the state government had taken up the issue of opening a Central university in Himachal for which the Centre had agreed in principle. “Fulfilling its budget assurance the government has opened an industrial training institute in every Assembly constituency in the state,” he said. He said the government would open more colleges in rural areas with a view to provide opportunity to rural youth to go in for higher studies.
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Apple growers suffer due to shortage of trucks
Mandi, August 11 Because of this, truckers offload apple consignments lifted from Kiratpur and from Haryana. As a result, growers suffer heavy losses as transportation is delayed for many days, which further damages the fruit as the apples are a perishable commodity, said Rajiv Bragta, a grower-cum-truck operator. The growers rued that nothing has been done as the state still had to sign an agreement with the Delhi government. On the other hand, truckers pleaded that the Transport Department should work out a temporary arrangement, like Haryana, with Delhi also, allowing fruit trucks in Delhi without NP. President Balh Valley Truck Operator Union, M.L. Joshi said they had taken up the matter with the transport minister so that neither the growers nor the truckers faced any problem. "We have to pay Rs 5,000 for NP issued for a whole year, which was useless for HP truckers as apple and potatoes season lasted for three months only”, Joshi said. He said HP had a temporary arrangement with Haryana for a quarter charging Rs 1,500 for trucks to ply within each state. He said truckers did not want to pay fees to get the NP for three months. “Another reason why HP truckers shy away from entering Delhi is that they did not comply with the pollution control norms which are implemented in Delhi,” he added. Joint commissioner, HP transport, Rakesh Sharma said the state had no agreement with Delhi like it had with Haryana for three months under which each trucker had to pay Rs 1,500 as fee.
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‘Lift ban on export of monkeys’
Shimla, August 11 After holding an agitation at the district, block and tehsil levels, they submitted a memorandum to local officials addressed to the Chief Minister asking the state government to put pressure on the Central Government to lift the ban on the export of monkeys imposed in 1978. They submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. — PTI
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Accused referred to PGI
Our Correspondent
Bilaspur, August 11 Earlier he and his two associates Susheel Rana and Bhagat Singh, who travelled with him in the car were remanded in police custody for five days by the court. Reports said Narender is said to have fallen sick the day he was arrested and he complained of a chest pain the next morning. He was immediately rushed to the district hospital but when his condition deteriorated, he was referred to the PGI at Chandigarh. The police has not yet recorded his statement as he was not fit to record a statement.
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‘Panjiri’ for anganwari children
Shimla, August 11 All anganwaris in 15 blocks of six districts will be covered under the scheme through a pilot project to be launched in November. The HP Milk Federation has been assigned the project by the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment. Milkfed will prepare panjiri from high-nutrition cereals and soya using pure ghee.
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Rs 10-cr for releasing Ravi water
Chamba, August 11 The reservoir had come up following heavy landslides from the hillsides along the Ravi that blocked the river course two years ago, thereby washing away several bighas of land in around one-km stretch of the Kuleth-Jubbal area. The recent rains had also triggered landslides and caused danger to the Kuleth and Jubbal villages. Bharmour MLA Thakur Singh Bharmouri said today that the scheme envisaged the diversion of the river course. The scheme would aim at removing debris from the river course. |
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CM expresses concern
Tribune News Service
Shimla, August 11 He said this while presiding over a function here today to give awards to pradhans of 12 gram panchayats having the best female sex ratio during 2005. He said though the state was better placed as far as the national figure of female sex ratio of 793 was concerned, the state needed to maintain constant vigil so as to improve it. He said the sex ratio was relatively bad in districts of Kangra, Una, Hamirpur and Bilsapur. “The government is concerned about the falling sex ratio and legal provisions are being enforced to check female foeticide and punish the guilty,” he said. Prenatal tests were an offence and laboratories conducting such tests were subject to seizure of their equipment and repeated offences could lead to three-year imprisonment. “The gram panchayats can play a very important role in checking this disturbing trend as it is only through mass awareness that the problem can be effectively tackled,” he said. He said the government had launched various schemes like giving incentives to those adopting family planning after the first or the second girl child under the Indira Gandhi Balika Yojna. “Cash rewards are also being given to persons providing information about female foeticide, but the grassroot level units of democracy can do a lot to solve the problem,” he said. The panchayats that have been given the award include Methi panchayat in Bilaspur, Sinhhuer in Chamba, Kakkar in Hamirpur, Kudag in Kangra, Namgia in Kinnaur, Deotha in Kullu, Goharma and Kolang in Lahaul Spiti, Mathear in Mandi, Neri in Shimla, Bhanat in Sirmaur, Hinner in Solan and Badehar in Una.
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Two electrocuted
Kumarhatti, August 11 The labourers were busy on the mixture machine when a live wire got in touch with the machine. All were rushed to the Civil Hospital, Ropar, where one was declared brought dead.
The condition of the other four was critical. In another incident, a labourer was electrocuted to death in a pharma unit at Baddi this evening. Rijwan from Bihar was working on the roof of the unit when he came in touch with the live wire. He fell from the roof and died. |
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Taxi operators on strike again
Dharamsala, August 11 Tourists visiting here were put to a lot of inconvenience as taxi owners kept their vehicles off the road in protest against the metered taxi scheme. The strike was almost complete as the local cabs did not ply on long routes. The tourists were inconvenienced a lot as no taxis were available. The Transport Department had tightened the nose on the cab operators for not complying with the government orders on meters. As many as 93 taxis were challaned in Dharamsala, Yol and McLeodganj during the past few days. |
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Left bodies hold march
Nahan, August 11 They raised slogans against the state government and demanded immediate solution of simian problem and other problems faced by the farmers of the district. A large number of women workers started the protest march from Katcha Tank and went up to the office of the conservator of forests. A delegation of protesters met the conservator of Nahan circle and submitted a memorandum demanding immediate redressing of problems faced by the farmers.
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Cloudburst damages 47 rural water supply schemes
Nurpur, August 11 According to superintendent engineer R.K. Gupta, a loss of Rs 71. 93 lakh has been assessed .The department has been working on war footing to restore the damaged schemes. He said in the preliminary survey conducted by the department, nine lift irrigation schemes and flood protection works had also been damaged causing a loss of Rs 79 lakh in the circle comprising Nurpur and Jawali revenue subdivisions He said that maximum loss had been reported in the IPH division, Nurpur. Meanwhile, revenue minister and local MLA Sat Mahajan said all deputy commissioners in the state had been directed to assess the loss due to heavy rains and submit their report to the government by August 30. He said he would approach Prime Minister Manmohan Singh if the Union Road Transport and National Highway Ministry did not agree to build a Bailey bridge to provide an alternative to the washed away inter-state bridge on the Chakki rivulet.
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Leopard kills 4-year-old
Kharsi (Mandi), August 11 The forest team laid trap but failed to catch the man-eater as thick vegetation in the area provided a safe haven for the animals. The villagers are in a state of shock as the half-eaten body of Roni was found from the nearby jungle. The visibly shaken mother of Roni said “I was cooking food inside the house and my daughter went outside and was lifted up by the leopard. Before I could raise an alarm, the leopard was out of sight”. The villagers complained that the number of leopards had gone up in the Kangni-Kharsi-Laotu belt recently and animals continued to prowl around the villages on domestic cattle and livestock. Though the forest department has given a compensation of Rs 25,000 to the family of Roni, the villagers are a panicked lot as the team has yet to trap or kill the leopard. Conservator of forest, Mandi, B.D. Suyal said they had laid trap around the area and were keeping a watch on the movements of the animal. He said Rs 5,000 as ex-gratia relief and Rs 75,000 will be paid shortly to the parents of Roni.
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2-yr jail for possessing charas
Sundernagar, August 11 In case of default in payment of the fine, the convict would have to undergo imprisonment for further three months. He and Luxami Kant, a resident of Varanasi (UP), were arrested, while coming from Kullu on July 18, 2003.
— OC |
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