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Hi-tech way to check fake ration cards
PTA Teachers
‘PTA teachers not govt staff’
Decision to intensify stir
Mohanty urges ex-servicemen to maintain army regimen
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Challan filed against ex-drug controller
More trouble for Ahluwalia
Hira elevated as ACS
Salaries increased
Mandi college: Six Congmen join strike
Second dose of measles vaccine
recommended
Girl dies in accidental firing
Pension fund trust opposed
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Hi-tech way to check fake ration cards
Shimla, October 23 The Civil Supplies Department has been unable to weed out bogus ration cards and a recent survey carried out by it revealed excess ration card population of 2,05,579 which availed the facility of subsidised ration across the state. The financial burden on the government is enormous as not only the economically weaker sections are provided essential commodities, but even the above poverty line (APL) families are supplied items like pulses, edible oil and salt at subsidised rates. The department has now decided to use hi-tech IT innovation to find a permanent solution to the problem under which sales operations will be computerised. The machines will have biometric features for the identification of cardholders from the thumb impression and, thus, ensure that no fake cardholder gets the benefit of subsidised ration. Biometric data of two or three members from every family will be stored in the computer for the purpose of identification so that genuine cardholders did not face any difficulty in drawing their monthly quota of ration. The issue was discussed with the UNDP team that visited the state early this week to monitor the progress of ongoing projects funded by it. The team was impressed by the “Sugam” centre established at the deputy commissioner’s office and agreed to provide fund for opening a similar centre in one more district. The centre provides IT-enabled services to the public. Since Shimla was a big city, the government proposed to open three more centres in collaboration with the local municipal corporation that would provide space in its existing offices at Dhalli, Tutu and the Ridge for the purpose, Aggrawal said. |
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PTA Teachers
Dharamsala, October 23 Even the teachers who are qualified for being recruited as lecturers in colleges are now being ousted from the posts of teacher in government schools. Rajni Thakur is MA in Hindi from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She also has MPhil and BEd. degrees and has qualified UGC NET examination, the basic eligibility for recruitment as a lecturer in colleges. During the stint of the previous government, she was recruited as a trained graduate teacher (TGT) in Dehra subdivision of the district against the PTA posts. However, in an inquiry instituted by the present government, Rajni Thakur has been ousted from the job. Talking to The Tribune, she alleged she had been ousted on the complaint of one Anjana Kumari, just a graduate. “Despite the fact that I have much better qualification, the inquiry officer has quashed my selection which is very disheartening,” she said. However, Rakesh Sharma, SDM, Dehra, who ordered the quashing of selection of Rajni after conducting an inquiry, has justified the move. He said though Rajni had better qualification, there was no weightage for it under the selection criteria. Under the selection criteria adopted for the selection of PTA teachers, the marks up to postgraduation level were considered. “Moreover, there was a basic flaw in the selection. In records, we haven’t found any marks allotted for the interview to the selected candidates. Due to these basic flaws in the procedure, the selection of the batch in which Rajni Thakur was selected has been quashed,” he added. Though the teachers have been ousted, no action has been recommended against those who overlooked merit during the selection procedure of PTA teachers. Some of the affected teachers have demanded if they were at fault and have been ousted from the job, the government should also take action against the officials who selected them. The fact that only the candidates are being ousted illustrates that the move is politically motivated, they say. |
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‘PTA teachers not govt staff’
Bilaspur, October 23 This was stated by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal while speaking at a function organised in connection with the seventh anniversary of Kam Dhenu, a self-help group, at Namhole, about 25 km from here, on Tuesday. He declared that the government had signed an agreement with NABARD for Rs 155-crore loan for setting up 20,000 poly-houses for helping farmers to modernise their farming. He said PTA teachers were not government servants as they were never appointed by the government and it had no responsibility towards them. He announced a grant of Rs 10 lakh each for the Tepra Dabar road, the Sai Sikroha road, metalling of Tepra Bahadurpur road, and five other link roads under Namhole and Ghyal panchayats. He ordered the Tourism Department to take suitable steps to make proper arrangements to develop Bahadurpur as a tourist spot. |
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Decision to intensify stir
Shimla, October 23 The state body of the association which met here today said though the chain hunger strike being observed here in the sate capital would continue but now efforts would be made to reach out to the people at the block level about the injustice being meted out to PTA teachers by the government. The secretary of the association, Shishu Pal Gazta said now rallies would be held at the district level where the state office bearers would participate. He said all PTA teachers had been asked to boycott classes so that the government could be pressured into accepting the demands of the teachers. |
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Mohanty urges ex-servicemen to maintain army regimen
Mandi, October 23 He was addressing ex-servicemen, Veer Naris, widows of ex-servicemen, and gallantry award winners of Mandi district, at a rally organised by ARTRAC, Shimla, here today. He said he was worried that ex-servicemen were moving in different directions, forgetting their in-service discipline and “ready combatness” protecting not only themselves and their families, but also others. Around 5,000 ex-servicemen had gathered here for the rally. Mohanty became the first high-ranking officer to address the ex-servicemen rally after 1927, when a British Army officer had come to Mandi. He described Himachal as the “land of professional soldiers”. He said the government had doubled the monthly pension for the gallantry award winners from May. Responding to the demands of the ex-servicemen as listed by the Mandi Ex-Servicemen League, he said increasing the liquor quota was impossible as the Centre wanted to stop the “fast-increasing menace of alcoholism which was bad for health”. Mohanty’s wife, Pratibha Mohanty, later gave a sum of Rs 1,000 each to over 80 Veer Naris, whose husbands had sacrificed their lives for the nation. |
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Challan filed against ex-drug controller
Solan, October 23 An amount of Rs 4,88,500 was recovered from him on the spot and was nabbed while he was entering the premises of Promod Pharmaceuticals at Khera village. Confirming this the DSP Vigilance, Gurmeet Singh, said the challan had been filed well in time before the court of special judge here today. A case under Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered and he had been handed over to the bureau for further investigation. Later, another case of disproportionate assets was also registered against him at Shimla. With pharmaceutical industry being a multi-crore venture in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area bureau sources said lakhs of rupees were being received by the drug licensing authorities for issuing the manufacturing license and giving product approvals. Further, each unit manufactured hundreds of products and each of them had to seek an approval. |
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More trouble for Ahluwalia
Shimla, October 23 The IT authorities has ordered scrutiny of returns filed by Ahluwalia for 2007-08 to reassess the facts of his bank accounts and properties within Himachal and outside, commissioner Income Tax, HP, Akhilesh Ranjan said today. “We have gathered details of the bank accounts and properties of Ahluwalia within Himachal and outside the state and the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau are scrutinising them,” Ranjan said. The Income Tax commissioner said if prima facie any discrepancy was found in the 2007-08 returns of Ahluwalia, the department would order for reopening details of his returns of past four years. Ranjan said the department has ordered the scrutiny suo motu after the Vigilance arrested Ahluwalia on the basis of FIR lodged by it against him. Ahluwalia, in his bail plea, had quoted from the Income Tax returns to argue that his income and assets were not disproportionate.
— PTI |
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Hira elevated as ACS
Shimla, October 23 Hira was presently serving as Principal Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs. She has earlier held important posts, including principal secretary, Health, forest, irrigation and public health (IPH). She also served as deputy commissioner, Chamba and was also the deputy election commissioner in the Election Commission of India. The post of chief secretary is already held by a woman, Asha Swaroop and another lady officer, Parminder Mathur who also happens to be the elder sister of Hira is serving as additional chief secretary. A government spokesperson said here today that the government was fully committed to providing opportunities to women to ensure their contribution in the development of the state. |
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Salaries increased
Hamirpur, October 23 He made a fervent appeal to protect the environment. “Protecting the environment is very important and the people of the state should come forward in the drive to save our planet from the doom. Students can also play very crucial role in the campaign,” he said. He lauded the role being played by Bharat Scouts and Guides in social service. He announced to give Rs 10 lakhs grant to the Scouts organisation, besides providing land at Salasi for setting up state headquarters and handing over Barthi hostel to Scouts. |
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Mandi college: Six Congmen join strike
Mandi, October 23 Former Mandi district Congress president Veer Singh Chauhan (retired professor) alleged that the samiti had written several remainders to the Chief Minister requesting him to invite members for talks and issue notification for the medical college in Mandi, but he had turned a blind eye towards genuine long overdue demand of people in the entire central zone. He said Dhumal should stop making “medical college as a prestige issue” and should immediately invite samiti members for talks. Those who joined the strike today included Veer Singh, Upender Singh, Ravi Singh Thakur, Partap Singh, Hira Lal (general secretary of the district youth Congress) and Labh Singh, district president of the Congress minority cell. |
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Second dose of measles vaccine
recommended
Kangra, October 23 Dr Surender Nikhil Gupta, epidemiologist, Regional Health and Family Welfare Training
(RHFWT) Centre, Chheb, has been invited by the Malaysian TEPHINET to present his research paper on measles in Malaysia next month. He had worked extensively on measles and rubella in the state and conducted analytical studies to estimate the measles vaccine efficacies. Dr Vijay
Sood, principal, RHFWT Centre, here today said the measles, a vaccine preventable disease, was mainly responsible for childhood morbidity and mortality and it was the fifth major killer among children under five years of age in the world. As per the WHO estimate, the annual global burden of the measles includes 30 million cases and one million deaths. He said, “If we analyse the WHO/UNICEF goal of 50 per cent reduction of the measles mortality and interruption of measles transmission in large geographical areas, the measles immunisation coverage in India increased gradually from 42.2 per cent (National Family Health Survey-1) to 50.7 per cent (NFHS-2) to 58.8 per cent (NFHS-3) over the years while in Himachal Pradesh the percentage has been 95, 103, 98, 102, 101 and 103 from 2001-2006, respectively.”
Sood said the state was entering into the elimination phase of measles and second shot of measles was now long due for the larger interest of the children. |
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Girl dies in accidental firing
Shimla, October 23 According to the police the mishap took place when Rajesh shot from his single barrel gun on hearing the dogs bark in the dark near his fields. He thought it was either a leopard or a bear, which normally wanders into the village. SP R.M. Sharma said that on hearing the girl shriek the accused ran down to see as to who it was. Rajesh called the villagers and raised the alarm, but when he realised that he had actually killed Lata, but he went missing,” said Sharma. It is still not certain why Lata ventured out into the fields so early when it was still very dark. The police said there was also a possibility that she was returning home from somewhere when her neighbour fired at her thinking that it was a wild animal. In the post-mortem examination report it was found that Lata had been hit on the head and died on the spot. Realising that it was a case of accidental firing, the families of the deceased and Rajesh tried to work out a compromise and decided not to approach the police. However later Jia Lal, the paternal uncle of Lata, who is employed in the ITI got a police case registered. |
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Pension fund trust opposed
Shimla, October 23 In a memorandum submitted to the chairman of the board R.K.Jain the union asserted that the setting up of pension fund trust would jeopardise the social security of employees. It also urged the board to amend the transfer policy framed recently,which laid down that Class III and Class IV staff would not be posted in the home district on the plea that the government had already deleted this clause in respect of technical staff. |
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