Dharamsala, January 12
Subsidy on essential commodities started by the previous Congress government from the current financial year for 14-lakh ration cardholders will continue.

This was stated by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal while winding up the discussion on the vote of thanks after the Governor’s address on the last day of the winter session today.

Assuring the House that the system of quality checking of essential commodities would be streamlined to ensure that the people got good food items at ration depots, he said if needed, the amount of subsidy would be increased to give maximum benefits.

The CM advocated preparing a white paper on the actual financial position of the state with suggestions from all members and experts on how to come out from the financial mess.

“We will stress upon resource mobilisation to generate more income for the state,” he added.

He also announced to open a special cell in his office to look into and redress grievances of the serving Army personnel, their families and the ex-servicemen; to provide daily wages of Rs 100 under the NREGA scheme, set up grievances cell for the common people at the grassroots level; strengthen emotional and social bond among the hill folk, irrespective of the demographic divide; come up with a marking system of cattle to deal with the growing problem of stray cattle and improve the standards of education in the state.

Dhumal further announced to withdraw all cases of political victimisation registered during the previous regime provided there had been no violation and no loss had been caused to public property in these cases.

Expressing concern over the haphazard growth of the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial hub, he said to provide benefit to the local landholders whose land was taken by the land mafia, the government would probe all ‘benami’ land deals.

Earlier, Leader of the Opposition Vidya Stokes praised the newly formed government for taking certain good decisions in social interest.

She, however, cautioned that in the days to come, the opposition members would come out as voice of the masses to point out all anti-social and wrong decisions of the government.

She highlighted some of the works done by her government in the last tenure and refuted the allegations of providing poor quality essential commodities to the people through ration depots.

Congress legislator G.S. Bali said the governments were in continuity and as such the development works should not be hampered on political grounds.

Dharamsala, January 12
Khimi Ram was elected Deputy Speaker of the 11th legislative Assembly on the last day of the two-day winter session here today.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, irrigation and parliamentary affairs minister J.P. Nadda moved two separate motions in his favour.

Irrigation and public health minister Ravinder Ravi and legislator Hira Lal seconded these motions, respectively.

Speaker Tulsi Ram accepted the motion and announced the election of Khimi Ram unanimously.

Soon after his election to the post, Prem Kumar Dhumal and Vidya Stokes (leader of the Opposition) took him to his seat jointly.

Khimi Ram assured the House that he would keep up with the healthy traditions and perform his duty as per the expectations of the members, irrespective of their political affiliations.

He has won the Assembly election for the second time consecutively from the Banjar constituency of Kullu district.

Born on May 18, 1949, at Phagu village in Kullu district, he joined as a trained graduate teacher in the Education Department in 1980 and resigned from the service in 1993.

He started his political career from the panchayat politics and remained president of the Kullu zila parishad. In 2003, he was elected to the Assembly for the first time.

Even Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal admired them for their impressing speeches and their aptitude to present relevant issues in a healthy and democratic way.

Shimla, January 12
Much-awaited Himachal State Wide Area Network (HIMSWAN) project was yerterday put under test and was expected to be implemented fully in a fortnight.

HIMSWAN - the e-governance project - aimed to connect the Himachal Pradesh Secretariat with various government departments throughout the state at district, sub-divisional and tehsil-level, official sources said.

“Teams of technicians have been sent in the field across the state to test the constituents of the project to include any improvement required,” said an official of the department of Information Technology.

He added the test would carry on for next 12 days, following which the project would be ready for implementation.

The project, which costs Rs 100 crore, was scheduled to be operational by April 2007, but was pushed back by delays, sources said.

“Delay in procurement of network equipments and some other procedural hurdles contributed in prolonging accomplishment of this project,” official source said.

He revealed that the project once functional would link state secretariat with various government departments at district, sub-divisional and tehsil offices with one another for immediate availability of data for queries and reports.

Through HIMSWAN, all government departments will be connected by high-speed WAN throughout the state. The initial phase of this project has already been completed. — UNI

Kangra, January 12
A nine-day national-level winter Karate camp was held at Gupt Ganga here in which 200 girls from 40 different schools of the state were being given training in martial art.

This was done keeping in view the escalation in crime and recent attacks on women in public in the country.

The state government decided to impart martial art to girls in the age group of 11 to 14 years so that they could protect them selves.

The camp has been organised by Jun Do Kan Goju Ryu Karate Federation of India As many as 375 karate trainees are taking part in the camp.

Under this programme more than 4,000 girls from different schools are likely to be trained. Five girls were selected from each school to attend the camp thus 200 girls along with 30 instructors are attending the camp. It is for the first time that the girls were allowed to attend such camps.

Besides these students, about 145 other senior karate trainees from various parts of North India were also learning the skill under trained instructors of the federation. Technical director of the federation Surender Kumar Thakur was heading the team.

Bilaspur, January 12
The Adarsh Youth Club, Mandi Manwan, was given a prize of Rs 10,000 for being the best youth club of the district for 2007 at a district-level function organised under the aegis of the Nehru Yuva Kendra at Harkukar, near Ghumarwin, today.

Ghumarwin panchayat parishad chairman Satpal presided over the function. District youth coordinator Som Dut Zard said the Paddam Dev of the Youth Club, Tepra-Namhole, and Naresha Sharma of the Mahila Mandal, Masaur Ghatt, were declared the best youths of the year and were given prizes of Rs 5,000 each.

Anuradha of government senior secondary school, Kothi, Nisha Sharma of government senior secondary school, Ghumarwin, and Poonam Thakur of the same school were declared first, second and third, respectively, in a declamation contest on the life, works and philosophy of Swami Vivekananda.

Ashutosh Sharma of Thompson Public School, Ghumarwin, Kishori Lal of the Yuva Mandal, Tikkar, and Suresh Kumar of government senior secondary school, Ghumarwin, stood first, second and third in a painting competition.

Shreshtha and Nancy Dhir of Thompson Public School, Kumari Ritika and Kumari Amita of SMV, Barotta, got top positions in the folk song contest.