H I M A C H A L    P R A D E S H    E D I T I O N

EC Directive
Administrative officers transferred
Shimla, October 27
In compliance of the Election Commission’s directives, the government today ordered the transfer of Himachal administrative officers, who had either completed three years of service or were posted in their home district.

Now Cong to complain to EC
Shimla, October 27
The Congress will complain to the Election Commission of India (EC) regarding the threats and pressure being exerted by the BJP leaders on official machinery, which was affecting their functioning.

Jain: Cong has no right to continue after
Dec 28
Shimla, October 27
Confident of making a comeback in Himachal, the BJP said Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh would lose the legal, moral, constitutional, democratic and conventional right to continue in office after the counting of votes on December 28.

EC directive on photo I-cards
Shimla, October 27
The Election Commission has ordered the use of photo identity cards during the first phase of polling in Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Bharmour on November 19. Chief electoral officer Manisha Nanda said here today that there was 89.14 per cent electorate photo identify card coverage in Lahaul-Spiti.

Tribal Seats 18 in fray
Shimla, October 27
The number of total nominations for the three tribal constituencies has gone up to 18. Nine nominations were filed on the last day today. Jagat Singh Negi, sitting MLA of the Congress from Kinnaur, Sushil Kumar of the BSP and Bhagat Singh Kinner of the Lok Jan Shakti party filed their nominations on the last day.

Strategy for traffic management
Solan, October 27
Acting on the directions of the state high court, a team of officials comprising home principal secretary Vijay Kumar, DGP Ashwani Kumar, SP Solan Diljeet Singh, DIG Railway and Traffic Haryana Rajpal Singh and DIG R and T Himachal Ashok Sharma, DC Mohan Chauhan and DSP Parwanoo Bhaghat Thakur recently conducted an on-the-spot inspection of the Parwanoo-Kalka-Pinjore area to chalk out a traffic management plan.

Kullu Dussehra ends Kullu, October 27 Unlike yesteryears, the closing ceremony of the Kullu Dussehra, was done by the principal secretary, Art and Culture, due to the model code of conduct and not like the conventional practice of closing functions by the Chief Minister. A view of the Raghunathji shobha yatra on the concluding day of the Dussehra festivities in Kullu on Saturday. — Photo by Mahesh Chander Sharma

Removal of hoardings starts
Kumarhatti, October 27
Acting upon the directions of the high court, the Public Works Department-National Highways, has started the drive to remove hoardings along the Kalka-Shimla National Highway. In the first phase, hoardings on both sides of the highway have been removed from Parwanoo to Dharampur.

Freedom fighter dead
Sundernagar, October 27
Thakur Karam Singh (89), a freedom fighter and Congress leaders who remained chairman of the Territorial Congress, first finance and PWD minister of Himachal Pradesh, expired after a prolonged illness at Kutachi village in Mandi district yesterday.

Infantry day celebrated
Dharamsala, October 27
The Rising Star Corps of the Army celebrated Infantry day with traditional fervour today. The General Officer Commanding (GOC) paid floral tributes to the war heroes at Yol Fort and honoured soldiers who fought gallantly, while defending the country.

3 killed in accidents
Kullu, October 27
Three persons were killed and 15 injured, two of them seriously, in three accidents in Kullu today. Ashish of Kangra district and Ravi Kant of Sundernagar were killed near Sarsari on the Bhuntar-Manikaran road after their Maruti car (DL 4C 3682) skidded off the road and rolled down into a gorge.

Victims identified
Kullu, October 27
The six persons who were killed in an accident in the main shaft of the Parbati hydel project have been identified.

Post re-designated
Dharamsala, October 27
The state government today issued a notification re-designating posts of district inspector as the food and supplies officer in the pay scale of Rs 7000-10980 (class-II) with immediate effect.

Awaiting wages for one year
Chamba, October 27
Forty labourers working under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme have submitted a complaint to the state government alleging that they had not been given wages for the past about one year.

Resentment
Kullu, October 27
The announcement by the agriculture minister to contest from the Kullu Assembly constituency in the forthcoming elections has caused resentment among other aspirants from the Congress in the district.

EC Directive
Administrative officers transferred
Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 27
In compliance of the Election Commission’s directives, the government today ordered the transfer of Himachal administrative officers, who had either completed three years of service or were posted in their home district.

S.R. Thakur, ADC Kaza, has been posted as the land acquisition officer (LAO) at Parvati project in Kullu. Additional director, Rural Development, Rajesh Kumar, and Deva Singh Negi, ADM at Pooh, will swap places.

SDM Paonta Sahib, Sandeep Kumar, and SDM, Rohru, Amarjeet Singh, will swap places. B.R. Kaundal, RTO, Kullu, has been posted as ADM, Kaza.

R.S. Verma, SDM, Kaza, has been transferred as AC to DC, Mandi, while Shashi Thakur, AC to DC, Kullu, has been posted as ASO, Kullu.

D.K. Rattan, SDM, Rampur, has been posted against the same post at Baijnath and Ashwini Raj Shah, AC to DC, Mandi, has been posted as SDM, Padhar. Chet Ram Kaundal, ASO, Kullu, will be AC to DC, Kullu. Daleep Negi, SDM, Kandaghat, has been transferred against the same post at Rampur.

M.L. Mehta, AC to DC, Sirmaur, has been posted as AC to DC, Kinnaur, against a vacant post. Deputy director cum RTO, Shimla, Ashwani Ramesh, has been posted as SDM, Kaza. Mohar Singh Chauhan, LAO, Talwara, has been posted as AC to DC, Kangra, at Dharamsala.

Subhash Chand Saklani, deputy secretary, Lokayukta, has been posted as SDM, Kandaghat and Jai Nand Sharma, ASO, Chopal, has been posted as AC to DC, Sirmaur.

Now Cong to complain to EC
Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 27
The Congress will complain to the Election Commission of India (EC) regarding the threats and pressure being exerted by the BJP leaders on official machinery, which was affecting their functioning.

Addressing a press conference here today, the HPCC spokesperson, Kuldeep Rathore said the Congress had taken a serious note of the manner in which the leaders were trying to pressurise the official machinery. “The BJP is living in a fool’s paradise if they think that they are all set to capture power in Himachal,” he commented.

The Congress leader said the party will also bring to the notice of the EC the fact that a media centre had been set up by the BJP in the official residence of its MLA, Harinarain Saini in Metropole. “Since the accommodation has been given to him by the HP Vidhan Sabha its use as a media centre is certainly wrong and objectionable, “he said.

Regarding the EC’s directive that the money for the use of chopper be charged from Chief MinisterVirbhadra Singh and his ministers, Rathore said the party would make the payment since Virbhadra had gone there not for his personal work but to take up the issue of timing of elections with the commission.

Refusing to comment on the decision of the EC he said the party did try to put forth its view on the timing of the election but as far as any decisions of the commission was concerned, the party would honour it.

Rathore said that the Congress had taken the lead by announcing its candidates for the three tribal seats and the party was fully geared for the polls. “On the other hand the BJP is a divided house with practically every senior leader being in the race for the Chief Ministership,” he said.

Jain: Cong has no right to continue after Dec 28
Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 27
Confident of making a comeback in Himachal, the BJP said Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh would lose the legal, moral, constitutional, democratic and conventional right to continue in office after the counting of votes on December 28.

Addressing a press conference here today, BJP in charge of party affairs in Himachal Sat Pal Jain said in case the Chief Minister tried to continue in office after the counting of votes on December 28, the Governor had the power to dissolve the House. He said Virbhadra should step down gracefully on his own.

“In case Virbhadra Singh has any such intentions of continuing till March 9, the people who voted him to power will ensure that he is removed immediately after the BJP has been given a mandate by the public,” he remarked. “The Chief Minister is intentionally trying to mislead the people of the state as far as the holding of the Assembly elections is concerned,” he remarked.

Jain clarified that under Article 324 of the Constitution of India and Section 15 of the Representation of People’s Act 1951, the EC had powers to hold elections six months before the tenure of the Assembly was over. Reacting sharply to the BJP being termed as a party which was greedy for power and an opportunist, he said the Chief Minister as well R.K. Dhawan should have not used such derogatory and uncalled for language.

He said the BJP central election committee would be meeting at Delhi on November 22 and 23 to finalise the candidates for the 65 Assembly segments which will go to the polls on December 19. He said the interested candidates could give their applications at the mandal level by October 31, while the district bodies will send their recommendations by November 10.

EC directive on photo I-cards
Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 27
The Election Commission has ordered the use of photo identity cards during the first phase of polling in Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Bharmour on November 19.

Chief electoral officer Manisha Nanda said here today that there was 89.14 per cent electorate photo identify card coverage in Lahaul-Spiti. The percentage was 89.32 in Kinnaur and 72.36 in Bharmour.

She said the photo identity cards issued by the electoral registration officer of other Assembly constituencies would also be taken into account, provided the name of the voter finds place in the voter list pertaining to polling station where the voter had come to cast the vote. She said it would be ensured that people were not able to vote at two places.

Nanda said even those would also be allowed to vote who did not have photo I-cards, provided they could establish their identity by way of a passport, driving licence, PAN card or even service identity card.

She, however, added that all these documents should have been issued on or before September 30.

Tribal Seats 18 in fray
Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 27
The number of total nominations for the three tribal constituencies has gone up to 18. Nine nominations were filed on the last day today.

Jagat Singh Negi, sitting MLA of the Congress from Kinnaur, Sushil Kumar of the BSP and Bhagat Singh Kinner of the Lok Jan Shakti party filed their nominations on the last day.

Interestingly, Congress MLA from Lahaul-Spiti Raghubir Singh filed nomination as the INC candidate. He was denied the party ticket by the Congress. Bir Singh filed nomination as the BSP candidate from Lahaul-Spiti. Prem Singh of the BSP filed papers as a covering candidate, while Sham Chand filed papers as an Independent candidate. Daya Ram and Manish Kumar filed their nominations as Independent candidates from the Bharmour seat.

2 injured in Cong-BJP clash
Our Correspondent

Chamba, October 27
At least two persons were seriously injured in a group clash between the Congress and BJP activists at Jabbal in Bharmour Assembly constituency, about 75 km from the district headquarter town of Chamba, last evening.

The clash occurred when Congress workers were raising slogans in support of their candidate Thakur Singh Bharmouri near the house of BJP mandal president Chaman Lal.

Reports revealed that the cross-FIRs of both the Congress and the BJP had been registered. Police sources said Congress worker Satish Kumar and BJP mandal president Chaman Lal received serious injuries. Both were rushed to a nearby civil hospital where they were undergoing treatment.

The law and order officials reached the spot to investigate the incident.

Strategy for traffic management
Our Correspondent

Solan, October 27
Acting on the directions of the state high court, a team of officials comprising home principal secretary Vijay Kumar, DGP Ashwani Kumar, SP Solan Diljeet Singh, DIG Railway and Traffic Haryana Rajpal Singh and DIG R and T Himachal Ashok Sharma, DC Mohan Chauhan and DSP Parwanoo Bhaghat Thakur recently conducted an on-the-spot inspection of the Parwanoo-Kalka-Pinjore area to chalk out a traffic management plan.

The team decided to constitute a task force comprising SDMs and DSPs of Solan and Kalka to examine the problem. The team would study the various aspects, including the bottlenecks. The DIG Haryana said given the acuteness of the problem they would get a survey conducted from an independent agency to chalk out a permanent solution.

Officials said major bottlenecks, including one in Parwanoo town, Pinjore-Parwanoo crossing, Kalka Bazaar, Pinjore bifurcation leading to Baddi were identified as the major trouble shooting areas.

The officials observed that ever since the new traffic management plan had been introduced for Parwanoo town about six months ago, it had brought down the accident rate drastically.

Since the town lacked a specific bus stand, the vehicles used to stop at several places to lift and drop passengers, this often led to accidents. While the new plan had taken care of this vulnerable situation, it was felt that the majority of the traffic bottlenecks were due to spill over of traffic from the adjoining, Kalka.

Officials also observed that this rush was maximum during the apple season when hundreds of trucks moved on the road. It was also felt that the two major traffic problems which arose in the current season at Parwanoo was largely due to two incidents where a landslide obstructed the traffic movement for several hours and on another occasion a cloud burst at Koti Railway station in August had led to thousands of vehicles getting stranded on the roads for several hours.

In the light of these factors, the officials emphasised the need for a better traffic management at Kalka and Pinjore. The team also noted that the morning and evening hours led to addition of hundreds of vehicles at Pinjore and Kalka which commuted to and fro to the industrial area of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh. With shrinking roads due to encroachments and display of wares on the road sides, it became virtually difficult to handle the increasing flow of vehicles.

The officials later held a meeting with the Panchkula SP and other officials of Haryana to seek their suggestions.

This committee was formed after a PIL was filed in the high court seeking redress of chronic traffic problem which often delayed vehicles for hours and also created problems for the patients who were being rushed to the PGI, Chandigarh, in an emergency condition.

Kullu Dussehra ends
Our Correspondent

Kullu, October 27
Unlike yesteryears, the closing ceremony of the Kullu Dussehra, was done by the principal secretary, Art and Culture, due to the model code of conduct and not like the conventional practice of closing functions by the Chief Minister.

Principal Secretary Ashok Thakur was the chief guest at the Lal Chand Prarthi Kala Kendra. Thakur emphasised on the preservation of India’s rich cultural heritage. He said cultural roots needed to be strengthened, while progressing and meeting global challenges. He said the Department of Language and Art was looking after the cultural preservation activities in the stete.

He said the Dev Sadan being constructed at Dhalpur would have a museum where the historical background of Kullu’s devi-devtas and cultural heritage of the district would be preserved and would also be made available for research scholars.

Meanwhile, the ‘Rath yatra’ from the camp temple of Raghunath Ji started with hundreds of deities to the southern end of the Dhalpur Maidan called “Lanka Baker” where seven animals were sacrificed in respect of Goddess Kali. The yatra reached back to the northern end of the maidan from where it started on the first day of the Kullu Dussehra.

The idols of Lord Rama, Sita and Hanuman were taken back in a decorated palanquin to their sanctum at Raghunathpur here, accompanied by about a hundred local devi-devtas. All gods and goddesses will now start their journey back to their respective villages.

Removal of hoardings starts
Our Correspondent

Kumarhatti, October 27
Acting upon the directions of the high court, the Public Works Department-National Highways, has started the drive to remove hoardings along the Kalka-Shimla National Highway.

In the first phase, hoardings on both sides of the highway have been removed from Parwanoo to Dharampur.

Earlier the highway was dotted with a number of hoardings put up by various companies and hotels. The hoardings were set up in gross violation of the law which stated that hoardings over 16 square feet of size could not be put up along the highway.

The law also states that to set up hoardings of less than the prescribed size, its location should not be a hindrance to traffic. However, most of the hoardings were set up without paying attention to rules.

The hoardings were not only a problem for motorists but a major blockade for sight seeing at various places. They also posed a danger to traffic.

The high court had ordered to make the highway free of hoardings. Confirming the development, DC Solan Mohan Chauhan said all hoardings over 16 feet square would be removed.

Freedom fighter dead
Our Correspondent

Sundernagar, October 27
Thakur Karam Singh (89), a freedom fighter and Congress leaders who remained chairman of the Territorial Congress, first finance and PWD minister of Himachal Pradesh, expired after a prolonged illness at Kutachi village in Mandi district yesterday.

He was cremated at his village Rao Pali in Balh with state honours today. Chief Minister Virbhadar Singh, Congress and BJP leaders and a number of official were present on the occasion.

He breathed his last at Kutachi village at 8 pm yesterday. As per his wish, his body was brought to Rao Pali village. He is survived by three sons, Khushal, Pawan and Aashish.

Chief Minister Virbhadar Singh visited Rao Pali village and attended the funeral and paid tributes to the veteran leader. A police contingent performed a drill as a mark of state honour. His sons lit the pyre.

Virbhadra Singh said Karam Singh was a true Gandhian and his death had caused a loss to the public and the Congress.

Kalu Singh, Ram Lal (Congress ministers), Sohan Lal and Tek Chand (MLAs), Roop Singh and Dile Ram (formers ministers of the BJP), Jai Ram (state president of the BJP), Damodar Dass (BJP MLA) and a number of other Congress and BJP leaders were present on the occasion. Mandi DC Subhshish Panda, Mandi SP M. Chander Shekher and a number of official were also present.

Infantry day celebrated
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, October 27
The Rising Star Corps of the Army celebrated Infantry day with traditional fervour today. The General Officer Commanding (GOC) paid floral tributes to the war heroes at Yol Fort and honoured soldiers who fought gallantly, while defending the country.

October 27 is a historic and momentous day for the Indian Army as on this day in 1947, the Army led by the infantry, landed in Srinagar and undertook its first military operations in Jammu and Kashmir, preventing Pakistani raiders from capturing the Kashmir valley. The day commemorates the heroic action of the Indian infantry post independence.

3 killed in accidents

Kullu, October 27
Three persons were killed and 15 injured, two of them seriously, in three accidents in Kullu today.

Ashish of Kangra district and Ravi Kant of Sundernagar were killed near Sarsari on the Bhuntar-Manikaran road after their Maruti car (DL 4C 3682) skidded off the road and rolled down into a gorge. Kapil and Mukesh were injured in the accident. They were shifted to the regional hospital.

In another accident, Shankar fell down from a mini bus at Badah on the national highway and died on the spot. In yet another accident, 13 persons were injured when a Maruti van crashed into a roadside parapet at Pirdi, around 3 km from here. Two of them were critically injured and shifted to the PGI, Chandigarh. — OC

Victims identified

Kullu, October 27
The six persons who were killed in an accident in the main shaft of the Parbati hydel project have been identified.

Those killed were: driller Harishreshwar Brahma (35) of Jaipurki in Assam, S. Laxminarayan (27) of Beswapuram in Andhra Pradesh, K. Mehwa Reddy (47) of Antrasinh in Orissa, G. Ishwar Reddy (33) of Sasanam in Andhra Pradesh, Rajesh Pradhan (23) of Jeelenda in Orissa and Yashwany Rao (35) of Balkawan district Deoria, Uttar Pradesh. — OC

Post re-designated

Dharamsala, October 27
The state government today issued a notification re-designating posts of district inspector as the food and supplies officer in the pay scale of Rs 7000-10980 (class-II) with immediate effect. The provision of special allowance admissible to the district inspectors has also been scrapped.

The notification was signed by additional chief secretary Parminder Hira Mathur on October 10, on the day of announcement of state Assembly elections, but it was published in the state gazette today. — TNS

Awaiting wages for one year
Our Correspondent

Chamba, October 27
Forty labourers working under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme have submitted a complaint to the state government alleging that they had not been given wages for the past about one year.

In their complaint, these labourers, who belonged to Malunda panchayat of Bhattiyat tehsil in Chamba district, expressed their anguish over the delaying process adopted by the officials concerned.

Resentment

Kullu, October 27
The announcement by the agriculture minister to contest from the Kullu Assembly constituency in the forthcoming elections has caused resentment among other aspirants from the Congress in the district.

Raj Krishan Gaur, while addressing a media conference Thursday, said senior leaders were requesting him to contest for another term and that he had decided to contest from the Kullu constituency. — OC