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More snow, more chill
Hospital facilities
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Villagers boycott Yol Cantt Board poll
CM favours traditional farming
15 computers go missing from college
Notification to check hoarding
Hamirpur bypoll on May 22
Tourist Target
MC unlikely to hike water charges
Motorcycling event from April 20
Long stay to invite transfer: Nadda
Firemen clear debris from the store of a scrap dealer that got burnt at Majhog village in Hamirpur district on Tuesday night. Tribune
photo by Dharam Prakash Gupta
Training camp for karate instructors ends
Karate instructors undergo training at a camp at Barot in Mandi district.
Photo by Mahesh Chander Sharma
Modi group to donate Rs 51 lakh
Road Rage
Student commits suicide
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More snow, more chill
Shimla, April 16 Keylong in Lahaul-Spiti recorded 20 cm of snowfall, while Chitkul in Kinnaur received 15 cm snowfall. Nako, Shipki La, Namgya and other areas also had snowfall. Heavy rain triggered landslides at several places in Kinnaur. The main highway leading to Pooh was blocked at Purbani and Thopan. People in the tribal belt reeled under intense cold as mercury plummeted below the freezing point. Kalpa in Kinnaur recorded the lowest temperature of -1°C and maximum of 7.5°C. Namgya, Chitkul, Keylong Gispa and other area also experienced sub-zero temperatures. In Kullu, snowfall was witnessed in areas from Marhi and Kothi to Rohtang Pass. Obviously, tourists were a delighted lot. Dhundi and Patsio also had heavy snow. Shimla, Kullu, Sirmaur, Solan and parts of Mandi district were lashed by hailstorms, followed by heavy showers. Narkanda, Kufri and Chail wore a white mantle as a thick layer of hailstones covered roads, rooftops and hill slopes. The state capital experienced frequent spells of hail and rain throughout the day that brought down the minimum temperature to 11.6°C. By the evening, 5 mm rain had been recorded. Hailstorms caused extensive damage to the apple crop in upper Shimla areas and part of Kullu. Bhuntar had 18 mm of rain, Palampur 16.2 mm while Sundernagar, Una, Nahan, Kullu and Manali also had moderate rain. According to local Met office, the current spell of inclement weather will continue for the next 24 hours. CHAMBA: The Pangi valley in Chamba district has been experiencing fresh snowfall since last night which was recorded to 10 cm at Killar, the subdivisional headquarters of the valley. As a sequel to this, the valley has been cut off from rest of the state. Giving this information on phone today, J.S. Pathania, resident commissioner of Pangi, said the interior parts of the tribal valley which had recently been reopened to transportation services were again closed for vehicular traffic; adding that it would now take some time to clear the snow from the road. The entire region of Chamba had been lashed by hailstones and downpour accompanied by lightening and thunderstorm this morning according to reports pouring into the district headquarter town of Chamba. The reports said the hailstones had played havoc with the fruit crops mainly of apple, plum, apricot, peach and pears; revealing that the hails had damaged the fruits crops to a large extent. The preliminary official reports assuming tentative losses to the fruits crops divulged that the hailstones had caused a substantial loss. Meanwhile, the agriculture experts predicted abrupt loss to the wheat crops in the low-lying areas at the time of harvesting the ripe wheat crops. KANGRA: Kangra valley shivered after Dhauladhars received snow on Wednesday. Plummeting temperature forced people to wear woollens again. Rain started during the night and the valley remained overcast throughout the day. There was heavy rain in the afternoon. Nagrota Bagwan, Dharamsala, Gaggal, Shahpur, Palampur Mallan and Chamunda also witnessed rain. Reports of hail were received from some parts of the valley. Icy cold winds swept the area. Schoolchildren were the worst affected. People preferred to remain indoors in the afternoon. However, clouds vanished by late afternoon and it was sunny again. |
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Residents take to streets
Lalit Mohan Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, April 16 Carrying placards and banners, protesters roamed through the lanes of Dharamsala before handing over a memorandum to the district administration authorities. The hospital caters to Kangra and Chamba districts and surrounding areas. It has a sanctioned strength of 37 doctors. However, just 21 doctors are posted here at present. Out of these, many have proceeded on long leave. The result: There are just five to seven doctors at a time to cater to 285-bed hospital. Earlier, the Tanda Medical College was also housed in the zonal hospital building and doctors of that hospital also used to cater to the patients coming here. However, after objections from the Medical Council of India, staff of the medical college has now been shifted to Tanda. This has caused acute shortage of medical specialists in the hospital. There is also an acute shortage of paramedical staff here. Out of sanctioned strength of 14 pharmacists, nine posts have been lying vacant since long. Minister for transport Kishan Kapoor, who represents the area, however, said the protests were politically motivated. He said the hospital was facing staff shortage even during the Congress regime. However, nobody had protested at that time. “Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal has already announced that the government has initiated the process of recruiting 250 medical officers. The vacant posts will be filled in the near future,” he said. Sources in the Department of Health said the government had adopted a policy to recruit doctors on contract. It was offering Rs 16,000 per month to a graduate doctor and Rs 25,000 per month to a medical specialist. However, few doctors were coming forward to join government service, especially in the rural areas, at that salary. The private hospitals and institutions were offering much better salaries to doctors, they said. The issue is likely to generate to more heat here with most of the public organisations in no mood to relent till the facilities at the zonal hospital are improved.
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Villagers boycott Yol Cantt Board poll
Dharamsala, April 16 They boycotted the elections demanding de-notification of the cantonment board and formation of panchayat of their villages. The British formed the Yol Cantonment Board in 1941. The board was formed to provide urban facilities to areas that come in periphery of the cantonment area. The Army holds the board elections and also provides funds for the development of area. Subash Sharma, former president of the board, while talking to The Tribune alleged that the cantonment was a bane for them. Their area is predominantly rural. However, due to existence of the board they were bereft of the benefits being provided by the government to rural areas for panchayats. The government is implementing rural employment guarantee scheme in the state. However, the scheme would not be implemented in their villages just because of the fact that they were under the cantonment board. The villages here cannot avail loans and other facilities being extended to farmers as the area was classified as urban. They have also accused the Army authorities of failing to take care of the area that falls under the Yol Cantonment Board. They alleged that though the board had existed here for the past more than 67 years now most the roads in their area were kutcha. Ninetyfive per cent people residing in the said three villages do not have access to pure drinking water. For every petty development work the villagers have to wait inordinately for permission from the Army authorities at Delhi that had hit the development of their area. The Army authorities have also raised a wall separating the villagers from their area. They were being forced to suffer just because of old archaic notification brought by the British government.
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CM favours traditional farming
Bilaspur, April 16 Addressing a largely attended public meeting at Guga in the Kot-Dhar area in Geharwin constituency about 90 km from here today afternoon after inaugurating a 6 km stretch of the 20 km long Bohad-Malhote road constructed at a cost of Rs 2.10 crore, Dhumal said this would benefit population of 2,500 people of six villages of the area. He also flagged off a HRTC bus on this road. He said an amount of Rs 80 crore would be spent on construction of roads, bridges, sewerage and water supply schemes in Geharwin constituency during the current financial year. He said the government is paying special attention to health sector and this year budget for health had been increased by 209 per cent. He said this would improve health facilities in all village areas of state. He declared that all remaining gram panchayats in state would be connected with motorable roads during the current financial year. Dhumal said the government had decided to post at least 3 women constables in every police station of the state which would create congenial atmosphere and also win the trust of public, particularly women. He announced up-gradation of
Marotan, Buhad and Guardari health sub-centres to primary health centres. He also ordered completion of construction of ayurvedic dispensary there at the earliest. Forest Minister J.P.
Nadda, local Gharwin MLA Rikhi Ram Kaundal and Kot Kehloor MLA Randhir Sharma also addressed the function. |
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15 computers go missing from college
Solan, April 16 According to Nalagarh SDPO Sanjeev Lakhanpal, chowkidar of the college Geeta Ram lodged a complaint with the local police around 12 am last night that an unknown person entered into the college premises and tried to intimidate him as he was carrying a sharp edged weapon. This scared Geeta Ram, who was in his living quarter. The unknown person then took away 15 computers from the college and vanished. But according to the police, there were certain loopholes in the chowkidar’s version as he was inside a grilled cabinet where he had to merely press a buzzer to seek help in such emergencies. Further, the theft took place around 10.30 pm but despite Geeta Ram not being under any confinement did not call the police immediately. The SDPO said the case was being inquired into and connivance could not be ruled out. A case under Sections 453 and 380 of the IPC has been registered and investigations were
underway. |
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Notification to check hoarding
Shimla, April 16 Stating this while presiding over a meeting to review the supply position of essential commodities in the state here today B.K. Aggarwal, secretary to the Chief Minister, who also looks after the Food and Civil Supplies Department, directed the concerned staff to undertake frequent inspections and report shortcomings to the headquarter. He said the services of the flying squad should be utilised for checking hoarding and misuse. He said, according to the notification, any trader who stored more than 60 quintal of wheat or wheat products, 30 quintal of pulses (whole or split) and 20 quintal of iodised salt would require trading license as per conditions laid down in the above order. He also directed the officers to ensure adequate supplies of essential commodities, besides sufficient storage of edible material in the godowns of the state civil supplies corporation. Inspections of fair price shops should be carried out and bogus ration cards be cancelled after verifying entries made in the ration cards on spot by associating some of the consumers. He also drew attention to the misuse of kerosene oil and asked the district controllers to cross check its supply by undertaking tours of the assigned kerosene oil supply routes. He underlined the need for establishing quality control laboratories at every district headquarter to ensure quality of edible material. Necessary training should be imparted to the concerned staff for the purpose. Director of civil supplies R.S. Gupta briefed about the progress of the ongoing schemes of the department during the past six months. Senior officers of the department and the corporation attended the meeting. |
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Hamirpur bypoll on May 22
Shimla, April 16 The notification for the election will be issued on April 28 and the last date for filing nomination will be May 5. The scrutiny will be held on May 6 and withdrawals will be allowed on May 8. Elections will be held on May 22 and the result will be declared on May 25. There are 11,73,362 voters in the constituency comprising Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Una and Dehra subdivision of Kangra district. Chief electoral officer Manisha Nanda said the model code of conduct had come into force with immediate effect in the districts concerned. It will be the second byelection in less than a year. The first byelection held in June last was necessitated after the exit of BJP MP Suresh Chandel, who was caught in the cash-on-camera scam. He had defeated Ram Lal Thakur of the Congress by around 1,500 vote in the May, 2004. Hamirpur was the only seat that the BJP managed had to win in the state at that time. In the election in June, 2007, P.K. Dhumal defeated Ram Lal Thakur by 80,000 votes. However, the seat again fell vacant after he took over as the Chief Minister in December, 2007. With the General Elections due in May, 2009, the constituency will have another election within a year.
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94 lakh Tribune News Service
Shimla, April 16 The state had formulated a plan to attract high-end tourist under which heritage tourist hotels had been renovated. Besides, new hotels had been opened in tribal areas that would attract a large number of foreign visitors during the summer. Efforts were also being made to prolong the stay of tourist in the state by providing more facilities and popularising the lesser-known tourist destinations. Attractive packages and discounts were being offered during the peak season, he added. Special efforts were being made to promote places like Khadapathar, Chindi, Naggar, Shahtalai and tribal areas of Keylong, Kaza and Kalpa as tourist destinations. The concept of village tourism had been strengthened by enlisting existing private properties for tourism promotion and corporation would make reservation of all such premises through its official website. “The corporation has introduced a privilege card under which 20 per cent discount will be provided to the card holders for a period of three years on board and lodging etc. Air-conditioned Volvo buses have also been introduced on the Delhi-Shimla-Manali and the Delhi-Dharamsala routes to provide comfortable mode of transportation to the tourists,” he said.
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MC unlikely to hike water charges
Shimla, April 16 Most parts of the state capital are receiving water supply on alternate days. In fact, the situation is so bad that some localities, especially in the suburbs, get water supply every third or fourth day. Under these circumstances, the MC cannot afford to displease people further by enhancing water charges. Although the MC has yet to pay a huge outstanding amount running into lakhs to the IPH Department for the water supply received from it, generating revenue by enhancing water charges seems unlikely at present. The fact that the MC has to supply water to the Special Area Development Authority (SADA), which has been merged with it, has further burdened it. Mayor Narender Katari has said the MC would not order any hike in water charges. |
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Motorcycling event from April 20
Shimla, April 16 This round will also see the entry of foreign motorcycles in the competition as the organisers have included another class, A-1, in which motorcycles of any make or cubic capacity can be used by the participants. Earlier, there were six classes. The race will be held on a 7.4-km circular track providing a mix of tarmac and dirt, uphill and downhill stages. The event series, which has been granted ‘Challenge’ status by the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India
(FMSCI), is a listed event on the National Motor Sports Calendar. According to a spokesperson of the Team Avalanche, which is organising the event, more than 40 riders from across the country, including New Delhi, Chandigarh, Jammu, Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore are expected to participate in the second round. There will be two special classes to promote riders from Himachal Pradesh. |
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Long stay to invite transfer: Nadda
Kangra, April 16 He was talking to mediapersons here yesterday. He said the process of identification of the undeserving teachers appointed under the PTA policy of the previous government had been initiated on the district and subdivisional levels for their terminations. He said the government on the basis of priority would submit its view before the high court and the Apex Court for lifting ban on the tree felling. He said the involvement of former minister Singhi Ram and Education Board chairman B.R. Rahi in fake certificate case had exposed the previous government and now chargesheet against the previous government is submitted to Governor V.S. Kokje, which had been handed over to the Vigilance Department. This would expose some more ministers of the previous Virbhadra Singh government in days
to come. |
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One charred to death
Hamirpur, April 16 Harikesh and Bajrang, who were also sleeping with the deceased in the store, said, They were sleeping in the store of Nand Lal Kalia at Majhog. The fire was spotted by Harikesh around 1.30 am. He raised the alarm asking everybody to run away. While he and Bajrang managed to escape, Rinku was not that lucky. Hamirpur SP Asif Jalal said Kalia had stacked wire and scrap in the store. He suspected that one of his neighbours was behind the incident. Efforts were on to ascertain the exact cause of the fire. Hamirpur SDM Narinder Sharma said, “The charred body of Rinku was recovered from the place. The loss to the building was estimated to be around Rs 1.5 lakh while the loss of the scarp was being assessed. An interim relief of Rs 5,000 had been given to a relative of the deceased. Remaining compensation would be given to his family. The body had been sent for a post-mortem examination, he added. |
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Training camp for karate instructors ends
Sundernagar, April 16 According to a spokesman of the federation, the camp was meant for masters (senior instructors) who had been learning or teaching karate for more than 15 years. Fourteen senior instructors attended the camp. The training sessions used to start at 6 am and conclude at 10 pm everyday. Founder of the federation Surinder Kumar Thakur taught the participants about the traditional and spiritual aspects of karate and appealed them to preserve the traditional aspect of the martial art. Practical sessions were held at various locations in Mandi and Kangra districts near Barot. According to Rajan Sood, a director of federation, the federation has been imparting karate training to girls under the Sarv Siksha Abhiyan for the past two
years. |
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Modi group to donate Rs 51 lakh
Kangra, April 16 He said he would provide the world-class architectural design for this purpose free of cost to the temple trust of Jawalamukhi so that a beautiful roof from the main road to the shrine was constructed. Modi said Rs 51 lakh would be provided to the Temple Trust in near future by the MGlobal Trust, a charitable organisation of the company. Modi, who is chairman of the MGlobal Trust, was in Jawalamukhi town in connection with a conference on Hinduism. |
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Lawyer’s remand extended
Our Correspondent
Solan, April 16 Meanwhile, the Kasauli police recovered the screwdriver, which was used as the weapon of offence. According to Parwanoo SDPO Ramesh Pathania, the screwdriver was recovered near Tanwar’s residence at Mushwara village near Kasauli. According to Pathania, the car of the accused had been serviced just before the mishap and the screwdriver was lying in the dashboard. It had been thrown in the bushes near his house after the accused returned back on Friday night after committing the crime.
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Basu secures 2nd rank in IFS exam
Palampur, April 16 Kaushal said she had studied for more than 12 hours a day to qualify the IFS examination. She said she was inspired by her father and grandfather to compete for the IFS examination. Their inspiration forced her to resort to more hard work and today she had achieved her goal. She will join the IAS Studies Academy at Dehra Dun in July. |
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Student commits suicide
Dharamsala, April 16 |
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A six-day master karate training camp organised by Jun Do Kan Goju Ryu Karate Federation of India concluded at Barot in Mandi district today.
According to a spokesman of the federation, the camp was meant for masters (senior instructors) who had been learning or teaching karate for more than 15 years. Fourteen senior instructors attended the camp.
