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Samiti to continue Mandi agitation
Principal refuses to relinquish charge
A mock drill being organised by the National Authority Disaster Management at Lower Bazaar in Shimla on Saturday. Tribune photo: Amit Sharma |
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Auditor directs naib tehsildar to deposit ‘funds’
Virbhadra lashes out at Dhumal
Governor gives degrees, awards to students
Ex-MLA assails move to attach dist hospital
Office-bearers appointed
Conference on hydel projects held
Water supply scheme proposed for ADB funding
NCC annual camp begins
Hill fair-08 begins
Traditional fervour marks Renuka fair
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Samiti to continue Mandi agitation
Shimla, November 8 Addressing a press conference here today, the convener of the samiti, Sunder Lohia said that they would not allow the handing over of the 300 bedded zonal hospital at Mandi to the private sector under the green field project. “The Mandi zonal hospital with all its equipment is valued at over Rs 500 crore and we will not let it pass into the hands of a private company,” he said. He said the samiti would also oppose the move of the government to transfer 25 acres of prime land near Raghunath Temple to the private party as it is valued at over Rs 80 crore. “We welcome the announcement for the setting up of an ESI hospital at Nehar Chowk but will continue to fight out till the government abandons its project of setting up a private medical college in Mandi,” he said. Lohia demanded that the agitation would be suspended only if the
government withdraws the notification issued on July 15 for the setting up of medical colleges in the private sector at Mandi, Una and Hamirpur. He also lashed out at the statement of the health minister, Dr Rajiv Bindal for having termed the samiti as anti-Mandi. Lohia said it was due to the struggle by the samiti and hunger chain strike since October 20 that the
government had been pressured to open an ESI hospital and medical college. “It is sad that instead of protecting the interest of the people of Himachal and its people, both the BJP and the Congress are playing politics on the issue of medical college,” he regretted. |
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Principal refuses to relinquish charge
Solan, November 8 What was even more worrisome was the fact that the said principal, R.K.
Rattowal, who was posted at the Government Senior Secondary School at Patta Mehlog and was transferred to Chandi, has locked all official computers as well as records since October 18 while the Education Department has remained a mute spectator. Panchayat pradhan Pawan Kumar said this had severally affected the working of the school, which had about 600 students. The teachers are unable to concentrate in their teaching as they are forced to listen to two principals as new principal Ramji Dass too had joined the school on November 4. According to the villagers, Rattowal had been serving the school since June 2006 and he commuted daily from Chandigarh. He was earlier transferred in February 2007 on complaint basis, but he had sought a stay from the state administrative tribunal. The pradhan alleged that this stay had been sought on faulty basis as he had shown that he had been transferred within nine days while the posting had been executed after 10 months. A piquant situation had arisen in the school as Rattowal had not only refused to relinquish charge, but also he had paid no heed to the directions issued by the deputy director of the Education Department to relinquish
charge. Rattowal had locked the official records and stamps, which are now creating problems for the new incumbent. The school staff alleged that he had locked the office too and they were unable to execute their official duties. The pradhan had now written to the secretary of the Education Department to relieve Rattowal and ensure smooth working of the school after the deputy director failed to get him relieved.
Rattowal had in his defense produced some stay orders pertaining to 2007, but since the tribunal had ceased to exist now its cases had been transferred to the high court thus the orders had no validity asserted the pradhan. Deputy director K.R. Garg said he had directed Rattowal to produce his stay orders before the secretary of the Education Department and if they were valid he could stay on, but otherwise he would have to join at Chandi. |
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Disaster management policy to be approved soon
Shimla, November 8 This was stated by senior adviser of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Brig (retd) B.K. Khanna while addressing a press conference here today. Brig Khanna, who was here in connection with the holding of a mock drill in case of an earthquake, said a disaster management plan was also being prepared so that all agencies can be activated immediately at the time of any disaster. “The district-level disaster management authorities will be set up all over the country in order to tackle calamities like earthquake, flood, cyclone or mishap in a chemical factory,” he said. He added that the disaster management authorities had already been created in Himachal. Sounding an alert for Himachal, he said many parts like Kangra, Chamba and Shimla fell in the highly vulnerable seismic zone IV and V. “There is need to sensitise the community on the precautions and the steps to be taken in case of a disaster,” Khanna said. He added that the mock drill was being undertaken to ensure that in case of a disaster all concerned agencies get activated and know their job with perfect coordination. He informed that today mock drills were held in the Lower Bazar area and Sanjauli with regard to earthquake. “Next time the mock drills that will be held will be with regard to flash floods which can occur in Himachal,” he added. Brig Khanna said it was in 2005 that the NDMA was created with the Prime Minister being its chairman. “Now a provision for heavy penalty and imprisonment has been made in the disaster management policy in case of callousness at any level which was not there earlier,” he said.
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Auditor directs naib tehsildar to deposit ‘funds’
Solan, November 8 Interestingly, though the Department of Urban Development had time and again termed this honorarium as contrary to the rules, the official continued to draw this amount. Keshav Ram had been handling this additional charge as secretary of the nagar panchayat after its demand was put forth by the nagar panchayat in 2003. Thereafter, a resolution was passed unanimously by the nagar panchayat to pay him an honorarium of Rs 3,000 in June 2004. Its copy was later sent to the Department of Urban Development for approval. The department had, however, refused its permission on the plea that any official who held such an additional charge was not entitled for such an allowance. President of the nagar panchayat Satish Kashyap told The Tribune that such an arrangement had been going for the past almost five years and as soon as he assumed charge in January 2006 a fresh letter had been written to the directorate to get approval for this honorarium. The directorate not only refused permission, but also directed the nagar panchayat to immediately stop grant of this honorarium and recover the amount received by the official. This, however, did not deter the secretary and he continued to receive this amount despite objections raised by the directorate. It was finally an audit conducted in August this year, which highlighted an amount of Rs 1.38 lakh drawn by the secretary as erroneous. The auditor had now directed the official to immediately deposit this amount with the nagar panchayat. The audit had also directed the official to deposit another amount of Rs 11,000, which he had received towards payment of his telephone bills from the nagar panchayat. It was learnt that earlier he had been claiming reimbursement of his complete telephone bill, but later after the new body took over in 2006 this expenditure was curtailed to Rs 500 per month. In a meeting of the nagar panchayat held on Friday a resolution was passed to plead the government to recover this amount immediately. Further, the auditor had sent a copy of this recovery to the director as well as the secretary of the Urban Development, besides providing the nagar panchayat separate information so as to ensure compliance of this recovery. This case had brought to light how the government officials misused public funds and this had also cast a finger at the working of the earlier body as they had not only granted this amount to the official, but also they continued to do so without any approval from the directorate. |
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Virbhadra lashes out at Dhumal
Bilaspur, November 8 Addressing mediapersons at the circuit house here today, the former CM lamented that the Chief Minister ignored his oath, which he had taken while taking over the office that he would protect the
Constitution and the rights of citizens. He said he had thrown all democratic norms to the winds and not only employees and officers were being harassed under a concerted plan, but also political opponents framed in false cases. He said he remained the CM for five times, but never took revenge on political opponents or those who did not agree with him. Virbhadra said the BJP government had done nothing except doing propaganda and taking advantage of all projects and schemes, which were started by the former Congress government. He said the Kol dam drinking water supply scheme was also an old scheme sanctioned during his government by the Centre and a token amount of Rs 4.53 crore was sanctioned for it on January 23, last. He expressed surprise that the Chief Minister was coming to lay the foundation stone of this project on November 9 at Kandraur , near here, while there was no surety when the dam would be actually
completed. He said the foundation stone was nothing but an election stunt as Dhumal once again would be a candidate for the parliamentary elections, which were round the corner. He strongly assailed the BJP government for removing PTA teachers from service and said their removal was
totally unjustified and unconstitutional. |
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Governor gives degrees, awards to students
Shimla, November 8 The Governor said the present education system must prepare students to take up challenges like global, economic and technical competition, global warming, crumbling physical infrastructure, energy and fuel scarcity and increasing fiscal deficits. “A vast section of the society is still grappling with poverty and discrimination which continues to plague society and it is the responsibility of students to take on the responsibility of eradicating these inequalities so all sections get equal opportunities,” she remarked. Rau said even today the objectives spelt by ancient Indian thinkers were very relevant even in the present-day context and defined the goals of education very aptly. “The job of educational institutes if to prepare the students to grow as human beings and offer them platforms for continuing higher education,” she said. Speaking on the occasion, chief minister P.K. Dhumal said the state
government was proposing to set up a special education zone (SEZ) in collaboration with international universities to impart world-class vocational education to the youth in emerging disciplines like IT, bio-technology, pharmacy and other allied technologies. Dhumal said it was a matter of great pride that Himachal had 20 per cent of college going students while the national figure in this regard was still 10 per cent. The Governor awarded degrees to 144 students and gold medals to 188 students who passed out between 2004 to 2006. Out of a total of 527 students only 332 were present to receive the degree from the Chancellor. With the holding of the convocation, the backlog has been cleared till 2006. |
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Ex-MLA assails move to attach dist hospital
Hamirpur, November 8 Addressing mediapersons here today, she said attachment of district hospital with the private medical college would not only deprive the poor people of the benefits given to them through government hospitals, but it would also make the health facilities quite costly. She said, “The state government has already issued notification to this effect and the Congress will not only make people aware about the perilous consequences of this move, but also oppose this move tooth and nail.” Verma had also sought cooperation from every section of society to oppose this move and had appealed to the citizens of Hamirpur to come forward against the attachment of district hospital with a private medical college. She also accused the BJP government for taking false credit for several schemes, which were in fact initiated by the previous Congress government and said even the ESI hospital at Mandi had been announced by the UPA government to fulfil the commitment made by union finance minister P. Chidambaram at Shimla. She also demanded an inquiry into the alleged misuse of funds during the Hamir Utsav and said there was utter mismanagement during the festival. |
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Office-bearers appointed
Shimla, November 8 MLA Mukesh Agnihotri, general secretary of the HPCC Kuldeep Rathore, former MLA O.P. Rattan, member executive Vineet Gautam, and secretary M.P.S. Rana have been appointed as the members of the media monitoring committee. Mukesh Agnihotri and Kuldeep Rathore have been appointed as the state spokesperson of the HPCC. The coordinators appointed for the four Lok Sabha constituencies included Subhash Manglet (Shimla), Anand Kumar (Mandi), Deepak Sharma (Hamirpur) and Kewal Singh Pathania (Kangra). The HPCC chief also appointed the spokesperson for all 12 districts namely - Bilaspur- Jitender Chandel and Kamlender Kashyap, Chamba- Jagdish Handa and Dharam Singh, Hamirpur- Yugal Kishore and Joginder Thakur, Kangra- Sanjeev Dutt Sharma, Virender Katoch and Virender Chauhan, Kullu- Sunder Singh Thakur and Dalip Bisht, Lahaul Spiti- Rajinder Babu Karpa, Mandi- MLA Prakash Chaudhary, Nagehwar Dutt and Alka Handa, Shimla- Gopal Chauhan and Ishwari Nand Mehta, Sirmaur- advocate Amar Singh Chauhan, and Virender Sharma, Una- MLA Rakesh Kalia, Ranjeet Singh Rana and Shiv Saini, Solan- Arvind Gupta Bindu and Lakhvinder Rana, Kinnaur- S.C. Negi.
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Conference on hydel projects held
Shimla, November 8 This was stated by additional chief secretary Avay Shukla while presiding over the second conference on hydropower projects organised by the Himurja and the Ministry of Renewable Energy at the Himachal Institute of Public Administration here today. “Entrepreneurs must also restrict the number of transmission corridors while making optimum utilisation of land so that there are no environmental hazards and inconvenience to the people,” he said. He said the provision of muck dumping sites must be identified and submitted when the project is submitted right at the outset. Ajay Mittal, secretary of the MPP and Power, said the holding of the conference would provide a platform for holding fruitful deliberations with entrepreneurs on various issues related to hydropower generation. Participants from various agencies attended the conference. |
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Water supply scheme proposed for ADB funding
Shimla, November 8 Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said here yesterday that an official confirmation had been received from union urban development minister by S. Jaipal Reddy in this regard. He said Water and Power Consultancy Limited, a Government of India undertaking, had proposed three different alignments for the gravity pipeline for carrying water from Pabbar to the state capital. After a joint inspection of all alternate routes a team of senior officers recommended that pipeline should be laid through Deudi-Chirgaon-Rohru-Mehandli-Pujarli-Kadyon and thereafter, through a tunnel under the Ganeshidhar. |
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NCC annual camp begins
Dalhousie, November 8 As many as 750 NCC cadets, including boys and girls of the senior and junior divisions drawn from
various government colleges, industrial training institutes and schools of the state, are participating
in the camp. Col Jasdeep Sandhu said during the camp, training in weaponry, drill, firing, battle craft and hygiene and sanitation would be given. Cultural activities would also be organised. Nearly 15 NCC officers and 35 instructors had been deployed to impart training. |
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Hill fair-08 begins
Hamirpur, November 8 Addressing students on the occasion, Thakur talked about the importance of extra-curricular activities and appreciated the efforts of students and management of the NIT for organising the fair. The first cultural evening began with Hindi Kavya Sammelan organised by the Hindi club. Several students presented poems in this session. The students of dramatic club presented choreography on ‘Good and Evil’. Folk dances of Kashmir, Punjab, Maharashtra and Gujrat were the attractions of the day. A fashion show was also organised. |
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Traditional fervour marks Renuka fair
Renuka Ji (Nahan), November 8 The palanquin of Lord Parshuram was brought in a traditional manner from the ancient temple at Jamu Koti village to senior secondary school ground on the bank of the Giri river at Dadahu. Traditional musical instruments -ransinghas, drums, and trumpets were also played. Dhumal led the shobha yatra and took silver palanquin of the lord on his shoulders from Dadahu to Renuka Ji. A large number of devotees participated in it. |
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