 |
|
|
No follow-up done on Vaishno Devi pattern
Y.S. Parmar remembered
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
GPS monitoring of buses
Renuka residents reject rehabilitation plan
Record generation of power
Apple growers rue black marketeering of cartons
Automatic packaging unit
CID to close 26 sub-units in state
CM lays foundation stone of helipad
Plea to regularise services
IOC rebate on LPG cylinder
Panchayat chiefs seek facilities on MLAs’ pattern
Workers’ union holds seminar
ASI suspended on graft charge
Uma Bharti visits shrines
Nagni Fair celebrated with fervour
One held under Foreigners Act
2 youths electrocuted
|
|
No follow-up done on Vaishno Devi pattern
Shimla, August 4 It was on the invitation of the then chief minister Dhumal that he had visited major shrines, including Chamunda, Brajeshwari Devi and Jwalamukhi, so that he could make suitable suggestions. He had submitted a detailed report to the state government but little had changed since then. This just shows that despite the initiative having been taken in 1999 to develop the various shrines in Himachal which are thronged by pilgrims from world over on Vaishno Devi pattern not much was done. Moreover, it was at this very shrine that 36 pilgrims had lost their lives in the melee following power failure in 1983. The only difference being that at that point of time the temple had not been taken over by the government but even after its takeover in 1985, steps have not been taken to prevent or minimize the loss of life in case of a mishap. Amidst reports that there was small deployment of police personnel at the shrine considering that the number of pilgrims yesterday was over 20,000, the state police has decided to increase deployment at Chamunda, Chintpurni, Brajeshwari in Kangra, Jwalamukhi, Naina Devi, Baba Balaknath in Hamirpur and other shrines. The IG (Law and Order), S.R. Mardi, who is still at the Naina Devi shrine today said the police would prepare a detailed plan which would be strictly implemented at all the shrines. Director, Tourism, Ram Subhag Singh, when contacted, said that the temples were directly under the control of the temple trust and whenever a request comes to the department for undertaking of works for the convenience of the pilgrim, it was readily done. The fact that the tourism department talks of developing temple tourism, it can also play a crucial role in creating better facilities as it gets lots of funds from the Centre, he added. Meanwhile, rattled by the tragic stampede at Naina Devi temple, the worst ever in the history of the hill state, the government today decided to formulate a foolproof plan to regulate the movement of devotees during fairs and festivals at all prominent shrines of the state. The decision was taken at a meeting convened by Dhumal here today , to review arrangements for management of crowds during peak pilgrim seasons an various shrines to avert such fatal incidents A committee consisting of principal secretaries, home, secretary language and culture and additional director-general of police would formulate appropriate guidelines for adoption by the temple authorities to cope up with any emergent situation caused due to surging crowds of pilgrims during peak season. He said the divisional commissioner and deputy inspector general of police concerned would review the arrangements during such fairs and festivals at district level and issue directions to the district administration for maintaining law and order, especially with regard to regulation of the rush of devotees at the prominent shrines in their respective areas.
|
||
|
Probe begins on Aug 5
Bilaspur , August 4 A notification issued here today says that any person who knows anything about this accident and who is interested in helping the inquiry officer in his efforts to come out with the truth should give in writing on oath or should present himself in person for recording his evidence in this matter at PWD rest house at Naina Devi between 10 am to 5 pm till August 10 from the morning of August 5. The notification said that three employees of the office of the Divisional Commissioner would be available at Nain Devi to record the evidence of any person who had personal knowledge of the incidents which had resulted in a large number of deaths of devotees. Earlier, Chief Minister Prof Prem kumar Dhumal had ordered an inquiry into this mishap.
|
||
|
PMO seeks report
Bilaspur (Hamirpur), August 4 A director-level officer in the PMO has sent a message to the Bilaspur district administration through the office of resident commissioner of the state in New Delhi. The PMO has asked to give detailed report on deployment plans of sector officers and police officials. Rakesh Kapoor, assistant commissioner to DC, Bilaspur, said, “We have received a fax from the PMO through the RC office in New Delhi. We will submit the desired information as per the direction.” |
||
|
BSNL starts helpline
Shimla, August 4 A helpline number (01978-288500) has STD facility that will be available free of cost to devotees and others.
|
||
|
Arrangements reviewed
Kangra, August 4 K.K.Pant, Kangra DC, and Atul Fulzele, Kangra district police chief, visited the Bajjreshwari temple, Chamunda Devi shrine and the Jawalamukhi temple today. The officers reviewed the arrangements made by the temples to face the rush of the pilgrims during the Sharad Navratras. They directed the police, civil authorities and the temple managements to take steps to curb
rumours. |
||
|
Y.S. Parmar remembered
Shimla, August 4 Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal was the first to garland the statue of Parmar at the historic Ridge. He was followed by his Cabinet colleagues, former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, state BJP president Jai Ram Thakur, state Congress president Kaul Singh Thakur, members of the legislative assembly, mayor of the Shimla Municipal Corporation Narender Kataria and municipal councillors. Later, a function was also organised on the Vidhan Sabha complex. The Chief Minister said Dr Parmar was a democrat in the real sense. He was a true son of the soil and a down-to-earth leader who struggled all through his life to secure a separate political identity for the hill people. He formulated policies and programmes for the socio-economic development of the rural people and laid the foundation for building a model hill state in the country. He said Parmar was born in a remote village of Sirmaur district and was fully aware of the practical difficulties of the common man. Despite limited educational and other facilities in the villages, he went on to obtain a PhD degree. He had envisioned a self-reliant, prosperous and developed Himachal Pradesh and the state government would endeavour to realise his dream in the right earnest, the CM said. Deputy speaker Khimi Ram said Parmar enacted many laws, rules and regulation keeping in view the requirements of the people of the state. He said he would always remain a source of inspiration for the people of the state. A two-minute silence was also observed in memory of those who lost their lives in stampede at Naina Devi temple shrine yesterday.
|
||
|
GPS monitoring of buses
Shimla, August 4 After successful trials, the corporation has decided to install the system in Volvo, air-conditioned and deluxe buses. The system will be provided in about 35 vehicles, mostly plying on Delhi-Shimla, Delhi-Manali and Delhi-Dharamsala routes. The system will not only allow live tracking of buses, but also provide complete information about speed, distance stoppages and status of ignition and air-conditioner. The data of all journeys undertaken by buses will be recorded and analysed for speed violations and unscheduled halts. The GPS will make use of the maps available on Google Earth for live tracking of buses. Besides enabling the corporation authorities to closely monitor the performance of its crew, the system will also help people to know the location of buses by accessing the given website so that they can plan their travel accordingly. The initial cost of each system will range from Rs 11,000 to Rs 14,000, depending on the services sought. The corporation will also have to pay a monthly charge of Rs 500. Managing director of the corporation T.C. Janartha said if successful, the system would be installed even on buses plying on interior routes. The corporation also plans to introduce electronic ticketing system to help check pilferage. The fare for all destinations will be fed in the machine and a single ticket will be issued to passengers.
|
||
|
Renuka residents reject rehabilitation plan
Nahan, August 4 Led by samiti convener Yogendra Kapila and president Pratap Singh Tomar, residents took out a silent protest march through the Dadahu market and submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the naib tehsildar, Dadahu. Through the memorandum, the samiti has expressed concern over the danger to Renuka Lake due to the proposed blasting to be undertaken for the construction of three tunnels on the Giri bed. Members of the samiti said they would not allow submerging of the Dadahu-Sangrah road up to Danoi bridge as this would mean 16-km extra journey for residents of over 40 panchayats to reach Sangrah after the construction of the dam. The samiti has demanded that the site of the dam should be changed from Dadahu to Mohtu village as this would save Renuka Lake, the Sangrah road and hundreds of bighas of the forestland of the Renuka wildlife sanctuary. They have requested the Chief Minister that the land acquisition process for the dam should not be initiated till their demands were met. They said if they did not get fully developed residential and agricultural area of their choice with proper basic amenities and Rs 30 lakh per bigha as the cost of land, they would not leave their villages at any cost.
|
||
|
Record generation of power
Shimla, August 4 The project of the company, Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN), generated 1,090.525 million units of energy in July, which is 218 million units higher than the target set in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) singed with the union ministry of power. The power generation in July 2007 was 1,078 million units. During the first four months of the current financial year, the project has generated 3,106 million units of electricity. H.K. Sharma, chairman and managing director of the SJVN, has complimented the executives and other staff of the project for achieving the milestone. He said the achievement was a result of excellent operation, maintenance, silt and reservoir management. Sharma visited the 412-MW Rampur project that was being executed by the SJVN and reviewed the progress of various ongoing construction works. He expressed satisfaction over the pace of work, which was progressing as per the schedule.
|
||
|
Apple growers rue black marketeering of cartons
Solan, August 4 Since private manufacturers handle the trade, little could be done to control the prices. “We are facing the worst situation in the past nine years. Even the cartons of the most inferior quality are being sold for Rs 34 to Rs 35 each while the best quality carton is available for as high as Rs 38 per carton,” rued Prakash Thakur, a leading grower of Kotgarh area. Most of the carton-manufacturing units are located at Parwaoo and Kala Amb and these have joined the strike that began on August 1. Though their federation had asserted that they would not stop the supply of cartons to facilitate the apple growers, the opportunity has been used by some to make easy profits by effecting extraordinary hike in prices. The manufacturers of corrugated boxes, however, opined that the abrupt hike in the price of paper in the past three months had made their business uneconomical. Mukesh Jain, vice-president of the Himachal Federation of Corrugators, said, “We did not want to bother apple growers. We had specifically decided to exempt apple cartons from our strike. But it was regrettable that some black sheep were using the occasion to make profits.” He said the week-long strike was called off today after the MNCs came forward to effect some hike while promising to consider more hike in the near future. “What had forced us to resort to strike was an abrupt hike in the price of paper over the past three months due to which we had failed to comply with our previous orders,” he added.
|
||
|
Automatic packaging unit
Shimla, August 4 This was stated by Chief Minister
P.K. Dhumal in a meeting with the New Zealand high commissioner here today. With the coming up of the plant, the produce would have quality packaging and cargo safety. “We will explore the possibility of setting up the plant in joint venture with the private sector. Efforts are also on to bring more area under apple cultivation by providing high-yielding rootstock to help increase fruit production in the state,” he said. The state also needed to make efforts to upgrade marketing infrastructure, he added. |
||
|
CID to close 26 sub-units in state
Sundernagar, August 4 There were 26 sub-offices of the CID, which were functioning in the state with a minimum strength of three officers at one station. But as per the latest instruction received from the CID headquarters, these sub-offices were to be closed. Sources said this was done to create police station at Shimla with its investigation teams at Mandi and Dharamsala. So the officers were asked to report at these places. The sources said it was not an appropriate time to take this decision, as more intelligence network was needed in the state due to blasts in other states. Interestingly, this instruction was issued when the police headquarters had instructed to keep more vigil at the state due to serial blasts in other states.
|
||
|
CM lays foundation stone of helipad
Shimla, August 4 He also dedicated a Zila Parishad building to the people of the area, completed at a cost of Rs 75 lakh and the ITI Tribal Girl Hostel completed at a cost of Rs 53 lakh. A Krishi Vigyan Kendra completed at a cost
of Rs 33.66 lakh was also inaugrated by the Chief Minister He also laid the foundation stone of 33/132/ 220 KV sub-station
at Karian estimated to cost Rs 82 crore at Chamba. The Chief Minsiter said a large number of hydel projejcts were under execution on the Ravi river basin. He said that the new 220 KV sub-station would be instrumental in the evacuation of the power generated in the valley. He said that 960 villages with a
population of 2.92 lakh would also be benefited with improved power supply. Prof Dhumal said that two 132 KV electrical sub-station would
also be constructed at Kurthala in Tissa and Lahal-Ghrola. — UNI |
||
|
Plea to regularise services
Shimla, August 4 The office-bearers of the association met the Chief Minister and requested him to regularise their services on the terms and conditions on which they had been appointed. They lamented that they had been serving at a consolidated salary since 2002. “Our appointment had been made for one year with the condition that in case no regular appointment was made within that period, our services would be regularised,” said Joginder Singh Thakur, general secretary of the association. “Inflation has made life difficult and we have not been given even the 50 per cent DA on basic salary, although it was given to all government employees,” he said.
|
||
|
IOC rebate on LPG cylinder
Chamba, August 4 In an official handout issued here recently, the director, the Himachal Pradesh Food and Supplies Department, disclosed that new tariff of refill cooking gas cylinders had been implemented since June 5. According to the new tariff, the gas cylinder weighing 14.2 kg was priced Rs 352.90 and the cylinder weighing 5 kg was priced Rs 132.20. The director said that the LPG distributor was getting Rs 20.50 as a commission on the delivery of each cylinder. |
||
|
Panchayat chiefs seek facilities on MLAs’ pattern
Nahan, August 4 Simrat Singh, president of the union, after forwarding the resolutions to the Chief Minister today, said the union had unanimously adopted a resolution to demand pension to the presidents and the vice-presidents of the panchayats on the patterns of MLAs. The union demanded for an increase in their monthly honorarium to a minimum amount of Rs 5,000. The union demanded that construction of cemented roads should also be allowed under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, as construction of only katcha roads were allowed under the scheme that was not yielding the desired benefits to the rural people. It also demanded that the funds received from the Union Government under the Backward Region Grant Fund should be spent thorough the panchayats, so that the money was utilised as per the local needs. They alleged that the funds were being released to different departments,
which were getting the work done on the basis of contract. |
||
|
Workers’ union holds seminar
Nurpur, August 4 Madan Rana, the acting president of the state BMS, while presiding over the seminar, demanded for the restoration of pension to government employees that was stopped in 2003 by the previous Virbhadra Singh government. He demanded for the revival of harness policy under which dependent of the deceased employee got
the job. Local MLA Rakesh Pathania, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said he would take up the demands of the
IPH workers with the Chief Minister. |
||
|
ASI suspended on graft charge
Mandi, August 4 The ASI had allegedly taken Rs 1.8 lakh from two traders from the Banjar area three days ago. A departmental action will follow against the ASI and five other policemen after the Mandi ASP submits the inquiry report into the case to the department tomorrow. Two small-time traders, Mahinder Singh (Teel) and Netra Singh (Pujali) in the Banjar area of Kullu district, had sent a complaint to Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal yesterday. They had alleged that the ASI and other policemen forcibly took Rs 1.8 lakh from them after implicating them in false case of gambling at the Balichowki police post three days ago. Mandi SP M. Chandra Sekhar said, “The ASI has been put under suspension. An inquiry into the incident will be over by tomorrow.” |
||
|
Uma Bharti visits shrines
Kangra, August 4 Uma Bharti was on her way back from Jammu and halted at Pathankot for a night today. She arrived at Chamunda temple at 1 pm and
later visited the Baijnath temple. After paying obeisance at the Chamunda Devi shrine, Uma Bharti said she was in the state to visit different shrines. Uma Bharti said she had no intentions to return to the BJP or to join any other major political party. |
||
|
Nagni Fair celebrated with fervour
Nurpur, August 4 He asked local gram panchayat and the temple management committee to formulate a plan to
develop the temple to attract pilgrims throughout the year. He announced a sanction of Rs 4 lakh from the MLA’s discretion fund for construction of toilet and panchayat bhavan for Nagni gram panchayat. |
||
|
One held under Foreigners Act
Mandi, August 4 Mandi SP M. Chander Sekhar said Tenzing’s documents were not valid and he was arrested under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act.
|
||
|
2 youths electrocuted
Nahan, August 4 Sanjeev Kumar (22) and Vijay Kumar (18), both residents of Majra village, had reportedly climbed up an electricity pole near the cardboard factory here with an intention to
steal wire. As the electricity connection to one of the factories had been cut long back, they might have thought that there was no current in the wires. They cut the safety wire that fell on two live wires. This caused a short circuit and current started flowing in the pole, killing
the youths. Paonta SHO B.D. Bhatia ruled out any foul play behind the deaths. A case has been registered. |
||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Shimla, August 4
