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Staff to get 6 pc DA, regular jobs for daily-wagers
People brave rain to salute Tricolour
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Celebrations elsewhere, too
Rs 5-lakh reward for panchayat
Alert sounded in areas along Sutlej
BSc (agriculture) syllabus made uniform
2,494 students to cast vote in HPU poll
Health insurance for BPL families
Cleanliness drive fails to have mass impact
Cong men told to counter BJP ‘campaign’
Anurag rejects Ram Lal’s claims
Damage to bridges hits devotee turnout
Protest against Omar’s remarks
Celebrations spoiled in Dharamsala
Announcements for Sirmaur
6 hurt in landslide
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Staff to get 6 pc DA, regular jobs for daily-wagers
Nahan, August 15 Dhumal paid floral tributes to the freedom fighters and martyrs of the country. He also recounted Dr Y.S. Parmar’s contribution for the state. He announced to release 6 per cent dearness allowance (DA) for around three lakh employees and pensioners in the state. The DA would be paid from January. He also listed various other measures taken by the government for the benefit of employees. Efforts were on to create more employment avenues for the youth. Around 26,000 posts would be filled in the government sector during the current financial year. This included over 18,000 posts in the education sector alone, he added. He announced regularisation of around 6,000 daily wagers who had completed eight years of service in different departments (as on March 31,2008). Contract employees fulfilling the above condition would also be regularised. Commending the services being rendered by home guards, he announced a hike of Rs 20 in their daily wages (from Rs 130 to Rs 150). The move would benefit around 4,500 home guards. He announced remission of three-month jail sentence for 561 convicts and announced freedom for 43 of them. He also announced the Employees Excellence Award Scheme. Good performance would fetch a cash prize of Rs 50,000, a certificate and a medal to any such individual employee, while a group of employees would be given Rs 2.5 lakh, a commendation certificate and a medal. He also launched the Atal Bijli Bachat Yojna by distributing free CFLs to domestic consumers at the function. Launching the Soil Health Cards scheme, he said the soil of the fields of 1 lakh farmers would be tested under the scheme during this year. He said the Centre had agreed in principal to construct the Pathankot-Jogindernagar-Mandi-Manali-Keylong-Leh broad gauge railway line, which involved an expenditure of about Rs 14,000 crore. He thanked the HP Cricket Association for its decision to construct a cricket stadium in every district. He called upon the people to provide land for stadiums in their district. He congratulated Olympic gold medal winner Abhinav Bindra for brining laurels to the country. A cultural programme was also presented on the occasion. The CM gave away prizes to the winners of different contests. Wards of Kargil martyrs were also honoured on the occasion. State BJP president Jai Ram Thakur, Sukh Ram, Harsh Wardhan Chauhan, Prem Singh, Kush Parmar (all MLAs), chief secretary Asha Swaroop, officiating DGP Sohan Singh and many prominent citizens and officers were present on the occasion. |
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People brave rain to salute Tricolour
Shimla, August 15 It was amidst pouring rain that public works minister Gulab Singh Thakur unfurled the Tricolour and took salute from contingents of the police, home guards and NCC cadets. The rain continued all through the programme, but it failed to dampen the spirits of schoolchildren, who entertained the gathering with a colourful cultural programme. Addressing the gathering, Thakur traced the history of the state’s march on the road to development and also listed important decisions taken by the Dhumal government for the uplift of the people over the past seven months. He said the state had suffered a loss of around Rs 1,000 crore due to heavy rain and floods and the government had sought Rs 734 crore from the Centre for relief and restoration work. Chief Justice the Himachal Pradesh High Court Jagdish Bhalla unfurled the national flag in high court complex. All judges of the high court and district courts, members of the Bar Council and Bar Association were present. Similar functions were also held in all subdivisions and tehsil headquarters of the district.
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Celebrations elsewhere, too
Mandi, August 15 Nadda gave away cash prizes worth Rs 3 lakh each to Killing and Chamyar panchayats and Rs 1 lakh each to Barasu, Kuthera, Kot, Darat Bagla, Chhapprahan, Khalardu, Sanvi, Dwahan, Gattu and Salaparh panchayats for their achievements under the total sanitation campaign in the district. Meanwhile, the Indian Peoples Theatre Association (IPTA) celebrated Independence Day here with the poor section of society at the Suda Mohala locality. SOLAN: Minister of horticulture and technical education Narender Bragta unfurled the national flag on the occasion of Independence Day here today. He distributed cash awards to panchayats for their exemplary performance under the total sanitation campaign in the district. A cash award of Rs 3 lakh was given to the Sakodi panchayat in the district-level category, while the Kot panchayat of Kandaghat, Top Ki Ber of Solan, Chamian of Dharampur, Bhiyunkhari of Nalagarh and Shanan of Kunihar got Rs 1 lakh each. Five progressive farmers were also given cash prizes of Rs 10,000 each on the occasion. These farmers included Hardyal Singh of Rahoon village, Raghubir Singh of Nagar village, Inder Singh of Dolag, Mohan Lal of Rani Gaon (for agricultural activities) and Kiran Kaundal (for animal husbandry). KULLU: Social justice and empowerment minister Sarveen Chaudhary unfurled the Tricolour at Dhalpur Maidan here. Greeting the people on the occasion, Sarveen called upon the youth to emulate the sacrifices of martyrs and maintain communal harmony. She said promoting the spirit of nationalism and patriotism among the younger generation would be the real tribute to the heroes who sacrificed their lives for the country’s freedom. Functions were also held at Parbati hydropower project at Nagwain and all subdivisional headquarters of the district.
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Rs 5-lakh reward for panchayat
Bilaspur, August 15 The minister unfurled the national flag and took the salute from the contingents of police, home guards and NCC cadets. The minister congratulated the Kandraur gram panchayat of the district that stood first at the divisional-level for achieving the target of total sanitation programme. The minister handed over a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to the president of the panchayat. Mehri Kathla gram panchayat was given a cheque of Rs 3 lakh for grabbing first position in maintaining total sanitation in the district, while at the block-levels, Barmana gram panchayat, Gatwad gram panchayat, Bakroa gram panchayat were given prizes worth Rs 1 lakh each for bagging first position in their development blocks of Bilaspur Sadar, Ghumarwin and Jandhutta, respectively. As many as 11 gram panchayats were also given prizes worth Rs 10,000 each for making this campaign a success. Anil Kumar (Jhabola), Swatantar Sankhyayan (Jukhala), Babu Ram (Syola) and Pyar Chand (Dhalate) were given prizes worth Rs 10,000 each for their achievements in the fields of agriculture, horticulture and dairy farming. |
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Alert sounded in areas along Sutlej
Shimla, August 15 The administrations of these districts have asked residents living in low-lying areas close to the Sutlej to be cautious as there has been heavy rain and the water level in Pareechu has gone up. Due to excessive water in the reservoir at Bhakra Dam, seven of the nine sluice gates have been opened to allow the flow of water. Normal life has been disrupted due to incessant rain. Power, water supply and vehicular traffic have been badly affected in most parts of the state. There has been 101.4 mm rainfall in Shimla since 8 am yesterday. Huge deodar trees have been uprooted at several places in the town, including Khalini, Chhotta Shimla, Kaithu, Sanjauli and New Shimla, Vikasnagar and Bemloe. Vehicular traffic at BCS on the Shimla-Dhalli bypass remained disrupted for almost three hours in the morning due to the collapsing of a tree. Similarly, traffic remained disrupted at the Khalini chowk as a huge tree got uprooted and damaged an electric pole. Power supply in most parts of the town
has been erratic due to heavy rain. There has been 229 mm of rainfall in Sundernagar during the past 24 hours, 243 mm in Bhuntar, 4.4 mm in Kalpa, 88.4 in Una and 20.2 in Solan. According to the local Met office, there will be more rain during the next 24 hours. |
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BSc (agriculture) syllabus made uniform
Dharamsala, August 15 Authorities of Palampur Agriculture University said the ICAR formed four deans committees to review the syllabus of B.Sc agriculture. As per the recommendations of the committee, the students of the agriculture universities in the country can compete on equal basis for postgraduate and research programmes. Earlier, the syllabus of B.Sc agriculture varied in various regions as per the requirements of the area. In Palampur Agriculture University, general B.Sc. agriculture course has been upgraded to B.Sc agriculture (honours) from the current academic session. Many changes have been made in the syllabus to make the course job oriented. Earlier, students of B.Sc agriculture used to spend 6 months with farmers in the field as a part of their course. Now, they have been given an option to either spend 6 months with the farmers or with the industry. The agro-based industry is growing in the country and the change is aimed at preparing the students for the future scenario. Mathematics has been replaced with statistics to train the students for gathering data for research. Sources in the university told that the syllabus of B.Sc agriculture was changed through out the country keeping in view the future scenario. Earlier, the agriculture scientists were recruited to conduct research at universities or help farmers after getting recruited to Agriculture Departments of various states. The basic objective was food security of the country. The new course would polish the students across the country to join companies and corporate world, besides helping the farmers.
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2,494 students to cast vote in HPU poll
Shimla, August 15 The police has made elaborate security arrangements to ensure that the elections pass off peacefully. Additional deployment of forces will be done not just at the HPU, but also at all colleges two days before the polling and counting. A contingent of over 100 police personnel will be deputed on the HPU campus and five other colleges in the state capital two days before the elections to avoid any violence. District police chief
R.M. Sharma said regular patrolling and checking of hostels would also be done to ensure that no outsiders were residing on the university campus. He said all necessary arrangements had made to ensure free and peaceful poll. Ever since the Students Central Association
(SCA) elections were held in the HPU campus in 1979, there have been several incidents of violence, including murder of three students (Bharat Bhushan, Naseer Khan and Kuldeep
Dadhwalia). It was for this very reason that the holding of student elections was temporarily suspended in 1985. However, they were once again resumed in 1988 after students held agitations demanding holding of elections. With violence marring the elections in 1995 in which one student was killed, the holding of elections was once again suspended. It was in 2000 that the authorities were once again forced by students to resume elections to student bodies. During the past 10 years, there have been 90 police cases with regard to student politics and elections on the HPU campus. While 58 were registered at the Boileauganj police station, the Sadar police station got 32 such complaints. Out of these, 70 cases are still pending in courts. There was acquittal in nine cases and conviction in one. As there were incidents of violence on the campus two months ago, the police has asked the HPU authorities to be strict with regard to implementation of the recommendations of the Lyngdoh
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Health insurance for BPL families
Nurpur, August 15 Talking to mediapersons here on Tuesday, health minister Rajiv Bindal said in the first phase, Shimla and Kangra district would be covered. As many as 1 lakh beneficiaries of these districts will be issued HIS smart cards. He said the Union and the state government would contribute 75 and 25 per cent, respectively, to the total insurance premium. “The state government is paying Rs 6.3 crore to the insurance company as annual premium,” he added. He said under this scheme, the beneficiaries could receive health treatment from any government hospital in the state as well as in the country. To improve health services in the state, the state government had appointed 139 doctors this month and would appoint 125 another doctors in October, Bindal said. He said the government was also strengthening the Tanda Medical College in Kangra district. Talking about the recent revocation of the notification issued by the previous Virbhadra Singh government to create 59 posts in the local civil hospital, Bindal ridiculed the previous government for issuing such notification just a few months before the Assembly elections. He said it was only to befool the people of the area.
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Cleanliness drive fails to have mass impact
Shimla, August 15 The centrally-funded scheme that motivates the rural folks to switch over to cleaner and hygienic toilets has even failed to make the state scavenger free. The target was to implement the plan by March 2008. Instead of making it a mass campaign, government agencies have been harping more on the few villages where the scheme was successful. This has led to a situation where some villages located in the interior areas have adopted sanitation, while others located right next to the urban dwellings are far away from sanitation. For example, Shaktighat panchayat in Dharampur block, where a lady pradhan, Leela Devi, has made her area sanitation free while another panchayat Garkhal-Sanawar, located enroute Kasauli, is yet to even have toilets for all its households.
Though the Union Government has banned scavenging, this panchayat still has dry toilets with scavengers. It leads to pollution where the human waste finds its way into public drains. The panchayat representatives have not only overlooked this problem, but it has also failed to enforce the basic norms of having a hygienic human waste disposal system. An attempt to cleanse the existing sewage systems led to the dumping of the sewage in some villages located on the Jagjitnagar road. This waste polluted the traditional water sources. It was the worst-ever pollution for a number of villages, rued a
villager. |
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Cong men told to counter BJP ‘campaign’
Shimla, August 15 Addressing party workers at an Independence Day function organised at the Congress Bhawan here, he said the UPA government and the previous Congress government had carried out unprecedented development in the state and sanctioned several major projects like an IIT, a central university and the Bhanupali-Bilaspur rail line. However, the BJP was trying to undermine the achievements of the Congress and trying to take credit for these. He said party men should counter the false claims being made by the BJP and educate the people about the achievements of the Congress. He said the communal politics being pursued by the BJP was the reason behind the current turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir. |
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Anurag rejects Ram Lal’s claims
Kumarhatti, August 15 Talking to mediapersons at Baddi yesterday, Thakur ridiculed Thakur’s claims of highjacking the poll process by using his official power. He said forest minister J.P. Nadda was elected unanimously with overwhelming support of the delegates in the poll. The process was carried out in a democratic manner, he said while terming down any possibility of using unfair mean. He said under Nadda’s leadership, the HPOA would strive to enhance sports facilities in qualitative and quantitative manner. To promote sports infrastructure in the state, Rs 40 crore would be incurred in coming five years, he said. Besides, a stadium would be set up in each district of the state involving a budget of Rs 25 crore, he said. Four sports centres would be set up in the state to promote the sports like shooting, judo and boxing, he said, adding, an Olympic festival would be celebrated in October. |
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Damage to bridges hits devotee turnout
Nurpur, August 15 These fairs are celebrated on every Saturday in the months of Shrawana and Bhadown every year, in which thousands of devotees from Himachal Pradesh and its neighbouring states throng the deity to pay their obeisance. But due to the damage of inter-state Chakki bridge which was washed away with flash floods in Chakki rivulet last year, the devotees from neighbouring states are not visiting the fairs, as they have to travel via Bharoya- Kandwal link road. And this route, connecting NH-20 at Kandwal, is lengthy and time-consuming. Similarly, Trilokpur bridge on the NH-20 near Kotla has been damaged two months ago. The NH authorities have built Bailey bridge on the same site and opened for vehicular traffic last month, but due to frequent passage of loaded vehicles with restricted 18 tonnes, the retaining wall of the bridge damaged. |
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Protest against Omar’s remarks
Kullu, August 15 The activists of the VHP, the RSS and the BJP assembled near the factory after the ‘Chakka Jam’ and shouted slogans against Omar Abdullah. It was alleged that few stones were also thrown on the residential part of the building, breaking the windowpanes. The police confirmed that stones were found inside the premises and a case had been
registered. |
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Celebrations spoiled in Dharamsala
Dharamsala, August 15 There was no march past parade due to rain. State education minister I.D. Dhiman unfurled the national flag at the district-level function organised here. The function was limited to a small hall where the local artists presented cultural programmes. The education minister, while speaking on the occasion, listed the achievements of the present government. |
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Announcements for Sirmaur
Nahan, August 15 He said the state government had got the Paonta Sahib-Rajban-Shillai-Meenus-Hatkoti Highway approved as a national highway and Rs 107 crore would be spent on it. He committed to set up IRB police battalion in the district. He said efforts would be made to connect Paonta Sahib with broad-gauge railway line. He announced to upgrade the ITI Paonta to government polytechnic college that would be made operational from next academic session . He announced to upgrade the local civil hospital to 100-bed hospital and sanctioned Rs 1crore to upgrade its infrastructure. Dhumal announced Rs 50 lakh for tourists facilitation centre at Do-Sadka near here. |
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6 hurt in landslide
Bilaspur, August 15 The injured included Lalit Kumar (Parnalli), Mansa Ram (Hatwad), Sunita Devi (Parnalli), Poonam (Solag), Sant Ram (Palog) and Parshotam Kumar (Makadi). They were rushed to the regional hospital here and are said to be out of danger. Additional District Magistrate C.P. Verma and ASP Bimal Gupta organised the rescue operations and got the injured admitted to the hospital. An amount of Rs 3,000 each has been given by the government to the injured. |
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Manimahesh pilgrims
Chamba, August 15
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