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BJP for poll under President’s rule
Early elections create piquant situation
BSP ‘ready’ to take on Cong, BJP
HRTC chief Janartha denies attending party
Bank ‘rescues’ borrowers
of three villages
Anganwari selections under scanner
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Diploma engineers allege discrimination
BJP offers free legal aid to scribes
D.C. Anand held, bailed out
Inquiry against panchayat secy ordered
Police remand for five in murder case
CPI to contest 3 Hamirpur seats
Workshop on digital photography
Produce mentally ill before court
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BJP for poll under President’s rule
Shimla,
October 11 The BJP was fully geared up
for the elections but it was the Congress which had been caught unawares
as it could not now make announcements to woo the voters due to
announcement of the poll dates. “Corruption, price rise and
unemployment are the main issues which the BJP will raise and make the
voter aware of the failure of the state as well as the UPA regime on all
fronts,” he remarked. The BJP would contest all 68 seats
independently and would not have alliance with any other party. “The
BSP is no threat to the BJP as it will make a dent in the Congress vote
bank, helping the BJP indirectly,” he said. Jain said the state
election committee of the BJP would hold a meeting at Jwalamukhi on
October 14. “The party will announce the names of the candidates for
the three tribal seats before October 27 while the remaining candidates
would also be finalised at the earlies,” he informed. Avoiding a
direct reply on the question of projecting a leader under whom the
Assembly poll would be contested, Jain said Shanta Kumar and P.K. Dhumal
were both seasoned leaders and assets to the party. “The decision to
project a leader could be taken before or after the polls, depending on
the situation,” he said. He said though there were no hard and fast
rules as far as the criterion for ticket allotment was concerned the
regional and caste considerations would be kept in mind. “Winnability
would be one of the major factors and all options, including fielding
new faces, were open,” he said. Hamirpur: Former Chief Minister and
Hamirpur MP Prem Kumar Dhumal on Thursday “welcomed the decision of
the Election commission to hold elections in Himachal in December but
demanded the dismissal of the state government since a code of conduct
has been invoked and the state government has been left with no work
literally.” He demanded that “all hoardings with pictures of the
Chief Minister and other leaders should be removed within 48 hours after
the invocation of the code of conduct, all interviews should be
cancelled and terms of the World Bank loan should be made public.”
Commenting about the role of officers in the present situation, Dhumal
said “they should perform their duties according to the norms”.
The BJP leader also demanded immediate recall of the Chief sectary
from the present tour of the CM to the USA “since no officer can
accompany the Chief Minister or any other minister after the
notification of elections.” |
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Early elections create piquant situation
Shimla, October 11 While the term of the 10th Vidhan Sabha expires on March 3, 2008, the election process for the constitution of the next Assembly will be completed by the end of December. It will lead to an enigmatic situation where the new legislators will be elected but the existing one could continue legally for another two months to complete the five-year term to which they were entitled under Article 172(1) of the Constitution, unless the Governor dissolves the House sooner. Such a situation will come up for the first time in the state and perhaps in the country too. The role of the commission is limited to the conduct of election and under the People’s Representation Act it can start the poll process within six months of the expiry of the term of the outgoing Assembly. It does not have the power to dissolve the House. The Constitution lays down that the term of the Assembly will be five years unless dissolved sooner. In the normal course the dissolution of the Assembly is effected only on the advice of the Council of Ministers by the Governor in accordance with Article 163 read with 174(2). The Governor has the discretionary power but it has to be exercised only wherever specifically provided for. The question whether it will be a
fit case for use of discretionary power is open to judicial scrutiny. In case the ruling party retains power it could choose its own timing to dissolve the House. But if defeated it would lose the moral authority to govern the state but legally it could continue in office till the completion of the term. Further, once the election process is over it will be not a caretaker government but a regular one which will be quite interesting. Earlier, whenever the election was due in the winter polling in the three tribal segments, which became snowbound, were deferred for June. It is for the first time that the elections have been advanced by four months to facilitate a simultaneous poll in the tribal areas. The announcement of elections has come a month too soon for the Congress and it has upset its declared programme to make 33,000 recruitments. The process of selection of forest guards, police constables and anganwari workers was at an advanced stage. In fact the written test and interviews had been completed and only results were to be declared. The process could be completed only with the permission of the Election Commission of which there was little likelihood. It has also paid put to the government’s plan to hold the winter session of the Vidhan Sabha in the first week of November at Dharamsala, the headquarters of the biggest and politically most significant
Kangra district. |
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BSP ‘ready’ to take on Cong, BJP
Dharamsala, October 11 He said the announcement of the poll ahead of the scheduled date would not have any bearing on the poll strategy of the BSP. He reiterated that his party had decided to contest all 68 Assembly seats in the state. He disclosed that he had two rounds of meetings with Ms Mayawati and discussed the poll strategy for Himachal Pradesh. Revealing that Mayawati would tour the whole state, Mankotia said that the BSP had already prepared a
tentative list of its candidates, which would be finalised shortly. Meanwhile, sources revealed that the BSP had decided to hire a helicopter for Major Mankotia for the election campaign so that he could effectively reach the tribal areas for campaign. |
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HRTC chief Janartha denies attending party
Kulwinder Sandhu Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, October 11 He said he and his wife were already in the town for some official work. They were staying in a tourism corporation-run hotel at McLeodganj. “Since, there was some official work with the transport minister; he called me at Asia Health Resort to discuss the matter. My wife accompanied me so that we could also wish him on his birthday,” Janartha said. He and his wife stayed there for a while. Cake-cutting ceremony was taking place at that time. He said he was unaware of any other dance party held in that resort. “We stayed there for few minutes and discussed some official matter and returned to our place of stay,” he said. After his statement was recorded, Bali’s counsel S.D. Sharma demanded ‘substantial justice’ for his client. It was required at the earliest as the elections had been announced and his political career was at stake. He said on the basis of the statements recorded by eyewitnesses and the video footage broadcast on the news channel, no inference could be drawn against his client. There was no vulgarity in either the dress-up or dance, he added. He said the alleged dance girls hired for the party were the winners of the President’s Medal as claimed by the organiser of the party; therefore, one could well imagine their reputation. It was wrong to say that they were call girls, it was defamation, he said. “I request your lordship to make a reference in the report that the reputation of both girls as well as his client were unnecessarily maligned so that the aggrieved parties can file a defamation case against the news channel in the interest of justice,” he said. Advocate Rakesh Bharti, a member of the fact-finding team of the BJP, claimed the statements of all eyewitnesses were self-contradictory. He denied the allegations of any conspiracy by the BJP to malign Bali. He said it was purely a media exposure, which could also not be termed as a ‘sting operation’. Later, Justice Garg told The Tribune that he would abide by the orders of the Supreme Court as the Star News had reportedly filed a special leave petition (SLP) before it. Bali turns up in court
Former transport and tourism minister G.S. Bali remained present in the courtroom throughout the proceedings today. While his advocate argued his case before the probe panel, Bali himself gave him some valuable points in his defence. He looked a little depressed while the BJP counsel was arguing against him. |
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Bank ‘rescues’ borrowers
of three villages
Nurpur, October 11 Under the national programme of financial inclusion of backward and rural areas, the local branch office of Himachal Gramin Bank launched a special drive to educate the borrowers of
Kandwal, Chandrahan and Jandi villages of the panchayat in August which brought fruitful results yesterday. The Kandwal panchayat yesterday resolved that all money borrowers had become debt-free from local moneylenders and private financiers operating from the neighbouring Pathankot area in Punjab. It also extended its gratitude to Gramin Bank. Inquiries reveal that poor labourers and marginal farmers of these villages had fallen prey to moneylenders who had been exploiting the former by lending them money for their petty needs and recovering exorbitant rate of interest ranging between 100 to 120 per cent per annum. As many as 33 such beneficiary borrowers availed loans from Gramin Bank under different schemes at nominal interest rates and repaid the outstanding money to the lenders. One labourer working in a stone crusher revealed that he had borrowed Rs 5,000 from a moneylender and was paying Rs 500 per month as a monthly interest. |
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Anganwari selections under scanner
Sundernagar, October 11 Meena was selected in Gopalpur Assembly segment by a board headed by the SDM, Sarkaghat. Later, Nirmala Devi appealed before the DC and challenged the order of selection on the ground that Meena was not eligible for the post as her family income was more than Rs 12,000. As per norms laid by the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, the family income of an anganwari worker should not be more than Rs 12,000 per annum. Nirmala alleged that Meena allegedly showed her family income to be Rs 5,500 per annum. The appellant tendered a certificate issued by the patwari which proved that Meena got Rs 12,500 as land income and her husband worked in a private firm and was an LIC agent. She alleged that Meena’s mother-in-law also got pension from the Social Welfare Department. Panda ordered an enquiry which was conducted by the tehsildar at Sarkaghat. The inquiry revealed that the annual income of Meena’s family was Rs 16,500. Kangra: Additional deputy commissioner K.D. Lakhanpal who is also the inquiry officer investigating into the anganwari recruitments today said the appointments of some anganwari workers had to be quashed as they had been appointed by violating norms. He said these illegal appointments which were detected during verification of allegations by some workers. He said 192 anganwari workers were recently appointed in 192 anganwari centres in Kangra block and 276 complaints were received by him regarding it. He said the complaints were regarding income of the family, employee working in private sector and about the pensions of the father and mother-in-law besides, separation of the family. He said some appointments would be quashed once the inquiry was completed. However, he refused to give the exact number of appointments to be quashed.
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Diploma engineers allege discrimination
Sundernagar, October 11 State unit president D.S. Dhatwalia and general secretary K.S. Jamwal of the council said the statement of the HPSEB Engineers Association was far from facts. They said the promotion percentage for the post of senior executive engineer from the post of assistant engineer in the case of diploma holders was 25, whereas in the case of degree holders it was 75. On the other hand, degree holders got promoted as chief engineers after three promotions in 25 years without any improvement in qualification. In fact, diploma engineers were getting step-motherly treatment, they said. As per norms, there should have been 50 posts of senior executive engineer for diploma holders. However, due to late promotion of diploma engineers, these could not be filled in the past and even today there was a shortfall of 21 posts that had been occupied by degree holders. The council has appealed to the government not to ignore the interest of thousands of diploma engineers and fulfil their demands for the smooth functioning of the HPSEB. The Confederation of Diploma Engineers has also come forward regarding the demands of Diploma Engineers of HPSEB and further threatened if the demands of HPSEB Diploma Engineers were not fulfilled more than 5000 Diploma Engineers of Confederation of Diploma Engineers who were working in various departments would be compelled to launch a statewide agitation.
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BJP offers free legal aid to scribes
Shimla, October 11 National convener of BJP’s legal cell and in charge of BJP affairs in Himachal, Satya Pal Jain, said the registration of an FIR by the police against the reporter, bureau chief and chief editor of the newspaper reflected the dictatorial and fascist face of the government. Joint in charge of the media cell of the BJP, Praveen Kumar Sharma, also criticised the registration of a case against the Hindi daily. “The police is acting at the behest of the government and trying to suppress the voice of the fourth estate, media,” he said. He said the police failed to check the increasing crime in the state but was prompt in registering a case against the newspaper.
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D.C. Anand held, bailed out
Tribune News Service
Shimla, October 11 A case under Section 341, 323, 506 and 34 of the IPC had recently been registered in the Dhalli police station in this connection. Anand, Chairman of the Anand group of companies, was arrested and interrogated by the police after which he was granted bail. During interrogation he admitted that he had an argument with his sister over some family matter but he did not physically assault her. His sister, Urmilla Sawhney, had lodged an FIR that she had been physically assaulted by her brother. According to police sources, Anand denied having physically assaulted his sister. His sister has sought protection from the police, stating that she fears threat to her as well as other family members from Anand.
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Inquiry against panchayat secy ordered
Kangra, October 11 In a letter addressed to the block development officer (BDO), Kangra, special secretary to the Chief Minister, Dhruv Vashist, said a complaint was made by A.B. Rajbansh of Ansoli gram panchayat for the transfer of the panchayat secretary and the technical assistant. He said before any action could be taken, the BDO was asked to inquire into the matter. Rajbansh had made a complaint to the Chief Minister on September 22 levelling allegations of unsatisfactory conduct against the two besides, non transparency in work.
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Police remand for five in murder case
Chamba, October 11 SP Shiv Pal Singh Verma said Ghuman Singh, the constable involved in the case, had been suspended from the post. He said a case in connection with the murder was registered on October 8. Other accused were: Vijay Kumar, Bhagat Ram, Kalyan Singh and Anil Kumar. They all are residents of Pangi. |
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CPI to contest 3 Hamirpur seats
Hamirpur, October 11 District CPI secretary Mukesh Kumar said Vipat Rai, Hans Raj and Gian Singh would be the party candidates from the Hamirpur, Mewa and Naduanta Assembly constituencies, respectively. The party would also try to reach an alliance with a third front as an alternative to the Congress and the BJP. |
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Workshop on digital photography
Shimla, October 11 Director of the photo division (Government of India) Debatosh Sengupta, senior photographic officer Mahesh Shanker and senior executive from Delhi Satnam Singh formed the guest faculty. The workshop is being organised by the Information and Public Relations Department. Debatosh Sengupta said digital equipment had revolutionised and changed the concept of photography. Mahesh Shanker discussed various aspects of digital photography. Director of information and public relations Dinesh Malhotra said.
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Produce mentally ill before court
Solan, October 11 Chairman of the authority, J.K. Sharma, Civil Judge, senior division, while addressing a gathering on the occasion of Mental Health Day today, opined that such people had to be taken care of. |
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