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Avalanche ravages apple orchards
Kokje: Govt to rein in unproductive expenses Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal exchanges greetings with former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and
CLP leader Vidya Stokes on the first day of the winter session of the Vidhan Sabha at Dharamsala on
Friday. — Tribune photo by Kulwinder Sandhu
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Doc held for carrying out sex test
Small Hydel Projects
Transfers: One’s loss is other’s gain
Winter games to start on Jan 27
Road contractors await payments
Lightning destroys building
Himfed staff demand probe
Woman held in raid on resort of Viplove’s son-in-law
SAI to conduct trials from Jan 15
Expedite road repair, says minister
Plea to check rash driving
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Avalanche ravages apple orchards
Shimla, January 11 With almost 135 cm of snow recorded in Kinnaur district over the past few days, the avalanche caused damage in the Poari area last night. According to information from Kinnaur, three vehicles were completely damaged as they got buried under the avalanche. However, there have been no reports of any casualty. The administration has sounded an alert and asked the people not to venture out and stay at safe places. With very heavy snowfall the possibility of more valances can not be ruled out. Kinnaur experienced very light snowfall after 8.30 am today. Power supply in many areas has been severely affected due to the heavy snowfall with telecommunication services also being affected. According to the local meteorological office, 3.4 cm of snow was recorded at Kapla. There was 58 cm of snow at Dhundi, 26 cm at Patsio, 20 cm at Solang and 13 cm at Bhang Manali. Other places in the state also experienced rainfall. Places like Sundernagar received 7.1 mm, Shimla - 0.9 mm and Bhuntar in Kullu - 3.5 mm. The forecast for the next 24 hours indicates rain or snow at isolated places. The minimum temperature recorded at Shimla was 0.3 °C while the maximum touched 7.5°C. The day temperature in Sundernagar was 13.4°C, while the night temperature was 5.1°C. The temperature in Bhuntar was 4.2 °C, Kalpa was -3.1°C and Keylong was - 6.3°C. Vehicular traffic on the Khara Pagthhar route in the upper Shimla areas could not be restored even today. The traffic is being diverted via
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Kokje: Govt to rein in unproductive expenses
Dharamsala, January 11 Addressing the legislators on the first day of the winter session of the Vidhan Sabha here today, Governor V.S. Kokje said his government would put more emphasis on the financial discipline and drastically cut down unproductive expenses. Admitting that the state was passing through a crucial financial crisis, he said: “We have inherited huge debts to the tune of Rs 22,000 crore as a financial legacy from the previous government and the government is paying sum of Rs 3,000 crore per year as interest and instalment of the principal loan amount, whereas Rs. 4,000 crore is being spent on disbursement of salaries and pensions per year”. He assured that his government would make all-out efforts to create additional sources for the development of the state and to safeguard the interests of the poorest of the poor and the deprived ones. The government would come up with a suitable policy to generate employment opportunities and encourage self- employment. The government was concerned about unemployment amongst the educated youth and would endeavour to explore the possibilities of generating employment and self-employment avenues in the hydropower projects and industrial units of the state. The government had enhanced daily wages from Rs 75 to Rs 100 and social security pension from Rs 200 to Rs 300 per month. The government had also decided to grant free travelling facility to women on “Raksha Bandhan” and “Bhaiya Dooj” throughout the State on state-owned buses, besides declaring both these days, besides Karva Chowth, as holidays for women employees, he said. Coming down heavily on the participation of government employees in political activities, he said: “My government will not tolerate politicisation of employees”. However, at the same time he said the government expected its employees to discharge their duties with complete dedication and discipline. The Governor said the government was committed to the formation of society, which was clean, fearless, free of corruption and atrocities at all levels. It would work without prejudice and pre-conceived considerations while dealing with those found guilty. He promised that the government would order fair inquiries and investigation into all cases of corruption.
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Tulsi Ram elected Speaker
Dharamsala, January 11 Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, IPH Minister Ravinder Ravi and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.P Nadda moved three motions in his favour. Accepting the motion pro-tem Speaker Rikhi Ram Kaundal announced the unanimous election of Tulsi Ram as Speaker by voice vote. The Chief Minister thanked the opposition on behalf of his party and the government for maintaining the tradition of electing the Speaker unanimously. Leader of the Opposition Vidya Stokes and MLAs Kuldip Pathania, Jai Ram Thakur, Suresh Bhardwaj and Tejwant Negi said that Tulsi Ram deserved to become the Speaker. The opposition members were hopeful that the new Speaker would uphold the dignity of the Constitution and set a healthy trend by giving more time to them for discussions in the House. Earlier, Rikhi Ram Kaundal administered oath to all 67 legislators. Neeraj Bharti (29), son of Lok Sabha member Chander Kumar, who had been elected from Guler in Kangra district, was the youngest MLA to take oath today. Rakesh Pathania, independent MLA from Nurpur, touched Dhumal’s feet before taking the oath, something followed by most legislators who came after him to take
the oath. Dy Speaker’s election today
Khimi Ram, legislator from Banjar in Kullu distric, would be elected Deputy Speaker by the House on Saturday. An official spokesman said here that due to limited time and the Governor’s Address the election for this post could not be held on the first day. |
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Doc held for carrying out sex test
Hamirpur, January 11 Hamirpur SP Asif Jalal has confirmed the arrest of Dr. P.C Verma, running the Sai Kirpa Scanning and Diagnostic Centre near the district hospital here this evening under thePNDT act. Chief medical officer Dr P.L Poonam said “This is the first case where a local doctor has been found carrying out sex determination tests.” The police had been getting complaints against the doctor and the diagnostic centre for quite some time now. The SP said “On the basis of the information given to us, we formed a joint team of the police, medical officers and a pregnant woman. The team visited the doctor in the clinic and later the pregnant woman gave a statement that the doctor had told her the gender of her unborn child and on her statement the doctor was booked.” The CMO said “The pregnant woman, Saroj has confirmed that she had gone for the sex-determination test to the diagnostic centre. |
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Go for competitive bidding
Rakesh Lohumi Tribune News Service
Shimla, January 11 It is essential not only to bring transparency in the process of allotment but also to ensure timely completion of projects. The allotment of micro-hydel projects through the MoU route has attracted much criticism and had invariable led to charges of corruption and nepotism as independent power producers (IPPs) have been making a beeline for such projects. The previous government had started the process for the allotment of 168 projects with aggregate capacity of 290 MW, including self-identified projects, for which 1,609 applications were received. The government should cancel the process and invite fresh bids for assigning projects on the basis of upfront money. In fact, the Uttrakhand had adopted the competitive bidding route for the allotment of all hydroelectric projects, irrespective of the generation capacity. The state must follow suit. In case the government is keen to award such projects to the local entrepreneurs, it should invite bids from Himachalis only. The implementation of microhydel projects assigned through the MoU route has been tardy and only a few of them have been commissioned. Once the IPP has to pay upfront money in advance, the stakes would be high and he would do his best to implement the project at the earliest. Apart from extending competitive bidding to microhydel project, the government must put in place a mechanism to ensure prompt clearance from various departments. At present, the IPP has to obtain “no objection certificates” from 11 departments which takes a long time. Besides the electricity board, the pollution control board and the local gram panchayat, clearances are required from forest, environment, wildlife, irrigation and public health, public works, fisheries, tribal and revenue departments. This cumbersome time-consuming process invariably delays implementation of projects. The IPPs want the state to adopt the Gujarat pattern, where a high-powered committee takes care of all clearances. It sends the requirements of each project to the concerned departments with the stipulation that clearance should be given within 30 days. The progress is monitored by the committee on monthly basis and the IPPs do not have to run from one agency to the other for obtaining clearances.
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Transfers: One’s loss is other’s gain
Solan, January 11 Interestingly, while the university gave relief to two scientists owing allegiance to the BJP, it targeted another two having RSS background. Those transferred to Chamba research station, I.D. Sharma from the Department of Entomology and Diwakar Tripathi of the Department of Soil Sciences, have not been relieved from their posts, while the other two have already joined here. Rajeshwar Chandel and S.K. Bhardwaj, who owe allegiance to the BJP, were transferred to the Chamba research station as soon as the former Congress government took over the reins in 2003. While Chandel spent over four years there, Bhardwaj’s tenure since 1995 comprised almost eight tribal posting. The transfer orders of Chandel and Bhardwaj were issued directly from the Chief Minister’s office. The other two scientists are now awaiting the cancellation of their transfer orders. The delay is being attributed to CM’s preoccupation with the Cabinet formation exercise. These transfers had created a stir in the university circles. The VC was summoned to the CM’s office after the issuance of these orders and firmly rebuffed for such transfers. The transfer of I.D. Sharma, who was the principal investigator of an ICAR-funded project involving study of pesticide residues, has not gone well with the scientist community.
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Winter games to start on Jan 27
Shimla, January 11 Over 600 special athletes and players from all over the country would participate in the games being hosted by the Himachal Pradesh chapter of the Special Olympics Bharat. Malika Nadda, chairperson of the state unit of the Special Olympics said skiing, snowboarding and ice-skating would be organised during the games. Chairman of Special Olympics Bharat Air Marshal Denzil Keelor, Troy Gresion from Asia Pacific, Johan Nagrajan and other dignitaries would attend the inaugural ceremony to be presided over by Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal. The main events would include floor hockey, alpine skiing, snowshoeing, snowboarding, figure skating and speed skating. The ice-skating events would be held at Shimla and skiing and snowboarding events at Narkanda. The winners would represent India at the world winter games for special athletes to be held in the USA from February 6, 2009. Nadda said she would take up the case for setting up a winter games centre in the state with Keelor. |
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Road contractors await payments
Palampur, January 11 It may be recalled that Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had sacked the engineer-in-chief of the PWD on December 30 immediately after taking over the reins of the state. He was given extension in service by the previous government. During the previous regime, all powers for the allocation of funds were centralised by the engineer-in-chief and the secretary PWD. Chief engineers working at Mandi, Shimla and Dharmsala were not authorised by the previous government to release funds. A contractor working in Baijnath division said he had already submitted a bill of Rs 58 lakh for the works executed under the scheme but the payments were yet to be released by the office of the engineer-in-chief at Shimla. Similarly, many other contractors are also waiting for their payments. |
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Lightning destroys building
Dalhousie, January 11 According to a delayed report received here today, during the thunderstorm, a lightning struck the house and sparked fire, which burnt the house completely. But with the strenuous efforts of the villagers who doused the flames, the entire village was saved from engulfing in the fire. Meanwhile, the revenue officials rushed to the spot and assessed the losses caused due to fire, which were put at more than Rs 40 lakh. The officials distributed Rs 30,000 as an immediate relief to the affected families on the spot as per the relief manual of the government. Efforts were on to rehabilitate the sufferers. |
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Himfed staff demand probe
Solan, January 11 General secretary of the union Rajender Thakur said the arbitrary grant of promotions had deprived many honest and senior employees of their due promotions. Some tainted functionaries of the federation were given undue benefits. It was shocking how a chairman had written the annual confidential report (ACR) of some officials, he added. The chairman was not entitled to write ACRs, he said. He alleged three such officials were given undue promotions by circumventing the criteria of seniority-cum-merit to merit-cum-seniority basis. Thakur said officials had indulged in bungling of funds related to construction of an official building at Panjri-Tutikandi-Shimla where a sum of Rs 1.3 crore had been spent. Despite the hefty expenditure, the federation cared little to put the building to good use and this was despite a lapse of six months after its completion. The union has demanded a thorough probe into various irregularities. |
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Woman held in raid on resort of Viplove’s son-in-law
Dharamsala, January 11 The Kangra police raided a resort owned by the son-in-law of former state Congress president and Rajya Sabha member Viplove Thakur at Ladiara on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. The police has taken into custody a woman, who is a native of Dassuya (Punjab), presently living at Nurpur, under suspicious conditions as she is said to be changing her statement repeatedly. Thakur, who was in Chennai revealed that the police had raided the resort owned by her son-in-law last night but she did not have any further details with regard to the police action. ASP Prem Lal confirmed the raid and revealed that the woman was arrested under Sections- 2, 41 and 109 of the CrPC under suspicious conditions. However, he said that a local court bailed out the woman today. However, Kangra DM Ashwani Kapoor said he had no knowledge about the incident. SP Gyaneshwar Singh said he was on leave.
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SAI to conduct trials from Jan 15
Shimla, January 11 A spokesman of the Youth Services and Sports Department said the trial would be held in the disciplines of athletics, basketball, hockey, kabaddi and volleyball. The centre is a joint venture of the SAI and Himachal government He said the sportspersons, preferably belonging to Himachal Pradesh and in the age group of 14-19 years, who had won medals at district, state and national level competitions were eligible to participate in the selection trials. The sportspersons should report at SAI Training Centre, Dharamsala on January 15 at 9.00 am along with original and attested copies of date of birth certificate, sports achievements certificates and four passport size photographs. |
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Expedite road repair, says minister
Mandi, January 11 After formally assuming the charge of his department in Shimla yesterday, Thakur, who was on his way to Dharamsala via his home district today, said the government had decided to take up the improvement of roads on priority and he had directed the PWD to expedite work in that direction. |
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Plea to check rash driving
Kangra, January 11
It also asked the police to control rash and negligent driving in the town which had claimed many lives.
P.R. Agnihotri, president of the local unit of the SPWA, said these specialists would help pensioners get proper treatment here.
He also demanded LPG should be made distributed in the town through the Civil Supplies Department to meet deficiency of the cooking gas. |
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Dharamsala, January 11
