Shimla, October 8
The Anti-corruption and Vigilance Bureau finally arrested Subhash Ahluwalia, senior IAS officer and ex-principal private secretary of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, in the case of disproportionate assets today.

A team headed by DSP N.K. Sharma, anti-corruption zone (South), arrested him from his residence in Panchkula. He was being brought to Shimla and would be produced in the court tomorrow. A case was registered under Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against him four months ago after a preliminary inquiry conducted by the police revealed unaccounted assets and money.

While confirming the arrest additional director general of police I.D. Bhandari said investigation had been almost completed and a foolproof case of disproportionate assets had been made against him. The challan would be put up in the court very soon.

As per the case file during the five years Congress rule Rs 1.15 crore was deposited in 16 bank accounts pertaining to Ahluwalia, his wife, son and daughter. The immovable assets included houses at Panchkula, Gurgaon, Shimla and Kansal village, near Chandigarh, and a benami orchard at Mashnu in Rampur. The assets created during the period were much more than the known sources and Ahluwalia was asked to reveal the sources of the excess income of about Rs 50 lakh.

All his accounts were frozen by the court and it was only last month that the court allowed Ahluwalia and his wife to operate their two bank accounts to enable them to meet their daily living needs, medical requirements and other essentials.

An inquiry against his wife Meera Ahluwlaia, a government college principal, with regard to her foreign travel without seeking government permission is under way.

Noose has been tightening on Ahluwalia whose name figured in the chargesheet submitted by the BJP to the Governor against the Virbhadra Singh government while in opposition. The Congress leader Vijay Singh Mankotia had, while he was in Congress, levelled serious charges against him and demanded his removal while Congress was in power. 

Baijnath (Dharamsala), October 8
The Dussehra will be celebrated with fervour across the country. However, in Baijnath, a town of Kangra district located about 60 km from here, the people do not celebrate Dussehra.

A strong belief that celebrating the festival would bring wrath of Lord Shiva on them keeps residents of the town away from burning effigies of Ravana, his brother Kumbhkaran and son Meghnath. The residents when contacted by The Tribune said that Ravana was great a devotee of Lord Shiva.

Some people in the town tried to celebrate Dussehra about a decade ago. They burned the effigies of Ravana. However, all of them died before next Dussehra. The people took as wrath of Lord Shiva, so nobody dared to celebrate the festival again.

The belief of people that keeps them away from the festival is also associated with the famous Shiva temple located in the town.

As per the legend, it is believed that during the Treta yug, Ravana in order to have invincible powers worshiped Lord Shiva in the Kailash mountains. To please the almighty he offered his 10 heads in the ‘havan kund.’ Influenced by this extra ordinary deed of the Ravana, the Lord Shiva not only restored his heads but also bestowed him with powers of invincibility and immortality.

Ravana also requested Lord Shiva to accompany him to Lanka. Shiva consented to the request of Ravana and converted himself into ‘ling’. Lord Shiva asked him to carry the ling and told him that he should not place the ling down on the ground on his way. Ravana stared moving in south direction and reached Baijnath where he felt the need to answer nature’s call. On seeing a shepherd, Ravana handed over the ling to him and went away to get himself relieved. On finding the ling very heavy, shepherd kept the ling on the ground and the ling got established there.

Another interesting thing about the town of Baijnath is that there is no shop of goldsmiths. Though nobody knows the reason for it none of the goldsmiths comes up with his shop in Baijnath town.

The Baijnath temple is believed to be constructed in 1204 AD by two merchants Ahuka and Manyuka. Two inscriptions in the porch of temple indicate that it existed even before the present one was constructed. It is beautiful example of early medieval north Indian temple architecture. The structure is now under the protection of the Archeological Survey of India.

Manali, October 8
At a distance of around 1 km from Manali town stands a temple in a pagoda-shaped structure. Built around 500 years ago and popularly known as the Dhungri temple, it is dedicated to goddess Hadimba Devi, wife of Bhim, one of the five Pandvas.

Unless the palanquin of Hadimba Devi arrives in Kullu, the Dussehra festivities cannot begin. Devotees set out on a journey from the Dhungri temple today morning, carrying a decorated palanquin of the goddess for Dhalpur Maidan of Kullu so that the Dussehra celebration can start on time.

Numerous gods and goddess, accompanied by their devotees, assemble in the Dhalpur Maidan for the Dussehra festivities. The palanquin of goddess Hadimba is taken to a place around 2 km short of the Raghunath temple where a special messenger carrying a silver “chhari” comes to escort the deity to the temple of Raghunath, the presiding deity of Kullu Dussehra. From that temple, all gods, goddesses and a large number of priests and devotees head towards Dhalpur Maidan.

Solan, October 8
With the inquiry report indicting Dr Dinesh Sharma for his failure to attend to an ailing patient, Jaiprakash, at the Tuberculosis Sanatorium on Saturday night a question mark has been put over the role of the sanatorium staff.

Jaiprakash (34), who hailed from Kinnaur, was admitted at the sanatorium on September 30. He was suffering from multiple drug resistant tuberculosis and his condition deteriorated on the night of October 4 following which the hospital staff went to call Dr Dinesh Sharma at his residence. However, despite several knocks at his door the doctor failed to answer the emergency call and this negligence led to Jaiprakash’s death.

It was after the matter was reported to the medical superintendent at Solan that Dr Reeta Nayyer was directed to rush to Dharampur. Dr Nayyer who reached around 3 am could do little as the patient had already breathed his last almost three hours before.

His brother Om Prakash has demanded an inquiry into the insouciant attitude of the staff, which led to the death of his brother.

The MS, Dr Anil Gupta, was thereafter entrusted to submit an in-depth inquiry report into the matter to the health director. Dr Gupta when quizzed said that the doctors were supposed to stay within the campus and it was only under special circumstances that some relaxation could be granted. He agreed to the negligence of Dr Sharma and said the report had been sent to the directorate.

Director health Dr Sulakshana Puri who was yet to receive the report said that due action would be taken against the erring doctors if the report so indicated and she agreed that the doctors were supposed to stay within a radius of 8 km from their place of posting which otherwise could attract action.

Shimla, October 8
The people in the hill state have been spending much more than their counterparts in plains on medical treatment because of lack of advanced health care facilities in the state.

A countrywide survey carried out by the National Council of Applied Economic Research has revealed that Himachalis with an annual average income of Rs 94,184 spend Rs 43,738 on health care. As such, they spend 46 per cent of their annual earnings on health care as against 37 per cent by the people elsewhere in the country. In case of rural areas, the average expense was still higher (Rs 41,646) as the people have to travel to distant places within and outside the state for treatment.

Only 0.59 per cent families (national average 0.98 per cent) have opted for health insurance. This is despite the fact that 6.32 per cent families are aware about health insurance and its importance. Director and head of Max New York Insurance, which commissioned a survey to know the expenditure and saving habits of Indians, said the abysmally low levels of health insurance made it clear that there was a vast scope for growth in the sector. More so, because savings were not being invested prudently with more than 80 per cent families opting for bank deposits, 5.5 per cent for post office deposits while 13.6 per cent kept their money at homes. It was largely because of financial illiteracy and lack of investment guidance.

The survey covered 342 towns and 2,000 villages across 250 districts with a sample size of 63,016 households equally divided between rural and urban areas.

Solan, October 8
Students of the Institute of Engineering and Emerging Technologies (IEET), near Baddi, observed a strike and boycotted the house examination demanding removal of institute’s director H.S. Shan.

They raised slogans demanding resignation of the director. They said the new director, who had come from the IEET, Bhaddal, was trying to impose undue restrictions on them going beyond university regulations. This included a restriction as regards minimum lecture requirement on the basis of which some students had been refused roll numbers for the house examination.

Girl students complained about the alleged poor condition of their hostel. Both water and power supplies were erratic, they alleged. They also criticised the management for allowing a male faculty member to act as the chief warden of their hostel. The main grouse of the students was at the alleged hasty schedule of house examination under which they were being made to appear for two to three papers in one day. This hardly allowed them sufficient time to prepare for the papers properly, they alleged.

The director H.S. Shan was not available for comments.

Chairman of the institute K.D. Shridhar came to the institute to pacify the students in the evening. He held talks with students and listened to their grievances, but could not convince them to end the strike. The students maintained since Shridhar refused to remove the director or agree to their other demands, they had decided to continue their strike.

Shimla, October 8
The BJP has accused the opposition Congress of instigating the agitating PTA teachers to indulge in violence and warned that the party would be made to pay dearly for such misdemeanours.

General secretary of the party Khushi Ram Balnatah said the Congress had been all through provoking the teachers for agitation and they staged a demonstration in front of the Vidhan Sabha during the recent monsoon session at its behest. The leaders of the PTA teachers association had a meeting with former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh at his private residence a day before to finalise the plan.

He said that the allegation of the Congress leaders that the police lathi charged the agitating teachers on the directions of Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal was false and politically motivated. He said instigating various sections of people to agitate against the government was part of the Congress strategy and it had been doing so every time the BJP came to power. It provoked employees, apple growers and unemployed youth during the earlier tenures of the BJP in office.

Meanwhile, two ministers Ravidner Ravi and Narinder Bragta and state party chief Jai Ram have urged the Congress to not politicise the PTA appointments issue regarding which several petitions had been field in the high court by the meritorious candidates who were ignored. The unqualified teachers were being removed after conducting due inquiry and affording an opportunity to appeal. If the Congress government had made these recruitments following rules and regulations, there would have been no such controversy.

Shimla, October 8
The agitating PTA teachers association further intensified their stir with five of its members starting a fast unto death near the state secretariat in support of their demands.

Vice-president of the association Pankaj Kumar said the government would not be allowed to crush the stir by the use of police force. He alleged that the police had falsely implicated teachers in cases and demanded withdrawal of all such cases. He said the agitation would continue until the demands were met.

The main demands of the teachers include framing of viable policy to regularise the services of PTA teachers and that no teacher should be removed from service. The ongoing process of inquiry being discontinued and the government should first give a clear definition of an “unqualified teacher”.

Bilaspur, October 8
The state unit of National Students Union of India (NSUI) has strongly condemned police lathi charge and sudden attack of police horses on peacefully demonstrating PTA teachers at Shimla outside the HP Secretariat on Monday and said that this had fully exposed the real face of the BJP government which does not tire claiming itself to be a pro-people government.

Addressing mediapersons here at circuit house yesterday, NSUI state president Vivek Kumar said not only men teachers, but even women teachers were mercilessly beaten and dragged resulting in several injuries, which speaks volumes regarding the police atrocities committed on them who only wanted to present a memorandum to the Chief Minister.