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Budget Session
Cabinet meeting: State to engage grameen vidya upasaks
Don’t take false credit: Cong
Security agencies collect data on Pak nationals
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Accused forest official finally suspended
Medical camp wound up amid controversy
Handicapped return without disability exam
Medical College
Sabha condemns temple demolition
Attack on Cong MLA condemned
Child drowned
Villagers block traffic
Brother-in-law held for rape
Power theft detected
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Budget Session
Shimla, February 11 Armed with the latest issue of publication of wrong map of India in the official diary of the state government, the Congress is all set to make it a major issue during the assembly session. “It is a very serious issue and we seek the dismissal of the BJP regime on the sensitive matter, which could have far reaching implications,” said Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief Kaul Singh Thakur. With an eye on the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress seems to be in a mood to make the most out of the issue, which has already become a cause of major embarrassment to the government even though an inquiry has been ordered into the lapse. The HPCC chief said the issue just could not be brushed under the carpet as India was pleading its case at various international forum like the UN, staking claim to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and here the state government has very casually given up claim on these areas,” he said, emphasizing the sensitivity
of the matter. The efforts of the Congress members will be to corner the government during the 11-day session on other issues like no relief in the bus fares hike ordered earlier despite reduction in prices of petrol and diesel, sacking of PTA teachers on political considerations, unfair treatment to vidya upasaks and JBT passouts and the inconvenience being faced by employees on the winding of the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT). The BJP on the other hand would try to drive home the point that within a short span it had been able to get several prestigious projects like the NIFT, the Food and Craft Institute, approval for extension of Bhanupalli-Bilaspur line uptill Leh, enhanced social security pensions and daily wages and several other benefits to employees. Sources in the Congress said that the Congress would also take on the government on the issue of taking false credit for schemes and projects which had been given to it by the Congress-led UPA regime. “ Be it the central university, the IIT, NIFT, poly house project or approval to the Manali-Leh rail line, all the projects have been cleared by the Centre for which the BJP regime must be grateful to the UPA regime,” said Congress leaders. With Lok Sabha elections round the corner it is being expected that the brief budget session would be a lively one with both the ruling and the opposition party hitting out at each other. |
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Cabinet meeting: State to engage grameen vidya upasaks
Shimla, February 11 The decision was taken at a meeting of the cabinet chaired by chief minister, P.K. Dhumal here today. It has been decided that these grameen vidya upasak teachers would be given training during the vacations of the academic sessions of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 to qualify as trained BJT teachers. In order to deal with the monkey menace, the cabinet approved the setting up of the fourth monkey sterilization centre at Una. The cabinet also approved contractual salary of ayurvedic medical officers (AMO) being appointed through rogi kalyan samitis on the analogy of the National Rural Health Mission. An AMO shall draw a contractual salary of
Rs 16,000 per month for serving in rural areas, Rs 18,000 for serving in Kinnaur, Bharmour, Chotta and Bara Bhangla in Kangra and Rs 20,000 for posting in Lahaul-Spiti, Hung Rung sub division of Kinnaur and Dodra Kawar in Shimla. It was also decided to recruit 25 more ayurvedic medical officers on contract. The cabinet also approved the appointment of 1,172 mahila gram panchayat swasthaya sahayaks in the first phase, to be extended to all the panchayats. The cabinet approved allotments of 25 projects up to 2MW, totalling to 26.95 MW capacity and four projects upto 4 MW for allotment to domicile applicants. It also approved enhancement of social security pensions to ex-servicemen and widows who are not availing pensionary benefits under any other scheme from the existing Rs 2000 to Rs 330 per month. The cabinet approved four posts of professors in various departments of the Indira Gandhi medical College to fulfil requirements of the medical Council of India. Approval was also granted to the new policy for serving GDOs to take admission to postgraduate degrees and diploma classes in governemnt medical colleges. Approval was granted for merger of Shimla forest division (urban) with Shimla forest division (Regional) and Shimla wildlife division. |
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Don’t take false credit: Cong
Shimla, February 11 Addressing a press conference here today, HPCC chief Kaul Singh Thakur said that chief minister P.K. Dhumal and his government must not mislead the public by taking credit for projects given to it by the Centre. “Despite surviving on the crutches of the UPA regime, the Dhumal government is taking credit for schemes given to it by the Centre,” he remarked. He said how could the BJP regime stake claim to getting the central university and the IIT approved for Himachal when the then Finance minister, P. Chidambaram had announced at a rally on the Ridge on October 2, 2007 that the two premiere institutes had been approved for Himachal. Similarly it is under various centrally sponsored schemes that the state was getting money for health, education, agriculture and employment generations schemes, he added. He also accused the BJP of using religion for its political motives. “In the past 18 years the BJP has not been able to get the Ram temple at Ayodhya built and now under pressure from the RSS it has once again been forced to make it an election issue. “The UPA is all set to form the next government as its schemes have benefitted the common man,” he said. He said the Congress had yet to decided on the candidates for the Lok
Sabha elections. The Congress chief also took serious objection to the manhandling of Congress MLA from Santokhgarh, Mukesh Agnihotri by police and BJP workers at Una
yesterday. |
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Security agencies collect data on Pak nationals
Dharamsala, February 11 Highly placed sources told The Tribune that the data collected by security agencies had revealed some startling facts. Hundreds of Pakistan residents have been found to be staying in the state. In Una district alone the security agencies have found about 100 Pakistan citizens. Most of them have valid documents. However, the spending power of the Pakistan residents without any known source of income has raised suspicion. The security agencies are also keeping a close watch on Chinese nationals in the state. The Chinese nationals are working on World Bank financed projects in Una and Shimla district. In the recent past the Una police has sent a report regarding two Chinese nationals to foreign affairs wing of the union ministry of human affairs, who went untraceable in the district. The Chinese nationals were workers of a Chinese company carrying out road construction work in Una district. The SP, Una, N Venu Gopal when contacted admitted the report regarding untraceable Chinese nationals had been sent to the union ministry of human resources. He, however, added that the report regarding the Chinese nationals was sent as their business visa was nearing expiry. As per the directions of foreign affairs wing of the union ministry of home affairs no foreign national should be allowed to stay back when his visa expiries. Since the visa date of Chinese nationals was about to end and they were not traceable, the report was sent to the union ministry, he said. The sources here also said that concerns were being expressed regarding allowing Chinese nationals in upper reaches of Shimla district bordering Tibet. They have also objected to be given topography maps of higher reaches to the Chinese nationals on the pretext of construction of roads. The data collected by security agencies has raised the apprehensions that the foreign nationals with ulterior motives might be using a peaceful state like Himachal for hiding purpose. In order to update the security around vital installations in the state the Himachal police has envisaged a plan to give special training to guards. There are about 14 guards of the Himachal police, each comprising five specially trained police personnel, who are deputed for providing security to vital security installations. |
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Shimla gets season’s first snowfall
Shimla, February 11 According to UNI, this was Shimla’s first snowfall of the season. The entire state was lashed by rain and snow in the higher reaches during the past 24 hours brining relief to the farmers and fruit growers. The state capital too had snow, for the second time this winter as the residents woke up to see the town under a white mantle. While Jakhu and the surrounding areas had about 6 inches of snowfall, the lower areas had much less. Most parts of the state had snow with Shimla recording 15 cm, Keylong 28 cm, Bhang 11 cm, Solang nullah 12 cm, Dhundi 22 cm and Kalpa 30 cm. The Director of the local Meteorlologiacl Centre, Manmohan Singh said there was possibility of rain and snow at many places during the next 24 hours. “Light to moderate rain and snow may continue, especially on February 13 as the western disturbance is likely to persist,” he said. The lowest temperature was recorded at minus 6.7 degrees Celsius at
Keylong, Shimla 7.1, Sundernagar 8.6, Bhuntar 8, Kalpa minus 1.8, Dharamsala 5.5, Una 6.4,
Mandi- 10, Nahan 10.8, Palampur 8.5 and Solan 2.5. S.P. Bhardwaj, Joint Director in the Dr Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry said that the rain and snow would be beneficial for the crops. “The snow will help reduce the temperature to meet the chilling requirement so the apple and other fruits,” he said. He added that even though the farmers and fruit growers were worried on account of the dry spell but the fresh spell of rain and snow will be of great help. With the met office predicting more and rain snow, the farmers and fruit growers are hoping that there is a good spell of rain and snow over the next few days so that enough moisture is retained in the ground. MANDI: The light to moderate snow fall reported from the apple-belt of the Mandi-Kulu-Shimla on Wednesday brought “mixed cheers” for farmers in the state. They rued that they could not take advantage of snow as they did not get the fertilisers in time. The snow melted as soon as sun shone in the lower apple belt, but the higher altitude experienced moderate snowfall and wore a white mantle, reported farmers. According to farmers the late snowfall was the desperate need for dried orchards located in the sunny sides of the region. The Rowanda in Mandi recorded about 3 inches of snow, Dalash-Jaban apple belt in Kullu reported about 2 inches to 4 inches of snow, informed farmers. Manidner Jishta, an orchardist from Dalash, said that the area recorded 2 inches of snow today. Similar reports were given by farmers in the higher altitude orchards in Janjheli-Balichowki in Mandi, Shilgrahan-Shantha in Chopal recorded 10 inches of snow, Jubbal, Kotkhai, Tikkar, Kutara-PaddeNal- Sungri apple belt also experienced two inches in lower belt and 10 inches of snow in the higher areas since last night. Pramod Chauhan from Kiari Kotkhai said that the snow had brought the much-need white manure for the orchards. This will fit the bill of filling the 1200 hours of chilling requirement of the apple trees, a must for the good crop, he added. KANGRA: The Kangra valley was lashed with rain during the night and the Dhauladhar mountain ranges overlooking the valley experienced snowfall in the wee hours of this morning brining down the temperature considerably. The valley experienced rains since last evening, which continued till this morning. The Dhauladhar mountain ranges and the lower foothills experienced snowfall in the wee hours of this morning pushing mercury considerably down. The valley recorded a temperature of 7.2°C and 8.4 mm of rainfall during the last night. The morning was cold but the day was sunny today. Reports of heavy snowfall were received from the Bara Bangal areas of the district and from Billing too. Rains were reported from Palampur, Chamunda, Baijnath, Nagrota Bagwan, Shahpur, Mallan, Jawalamukhi, Dhera and Dharamsala. |
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Accused forest official finally suspended
Dharamsala, February 11 The conservator of forests A Rama Mohan Reddy while talking to The Tribune said that the after suspension the accused officer had been directed to report at Dehra
forest division. The accused beat officer who was caught poaching bar headed geese protected under schedule 9 of the wildlife act was, however, still absconding till the filing of this report. The wildlife department officials have conducted raids at his residence but the house has been found locked. The sources here said that the wildlife department officials had resisted pressure from within the department and politicians to bring the guilty to book. The local veterinarians also declined to cooperate with the wildlife officials in the case. They declined to carry out the post-mortem examination of dead birds recovered from the accused beat officer. The wildlife authorities then had to seek the services of their official veterinarian posted at Hamirpur district. Initially it was difficult to recover the bullet pellets from the dead birds. An x-ray of bodies of birds was then conducted in which the pellets were seen and later recovered. The gun and pellets would now be sent to forensic laboratory for matching. The viscera of dead birds has also been sent for chemical examination, the sources available here said. The environmentalists have lauded the role of wildlife staff posted at Nagrota Surian range for resisting pressure and bringing the culprit to book in the case. |
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Medical camp wound up amid controversy
Hamirpur, February 11 The report of inquiry conducted was submitted to the Hamirpur chief medical officer (CMO) and forwarded to the state health services director. It is notable that a free medical check-up camp which was being organised by a New Delhi-based Life Charitable Welfare Society at Blute had come under scanner after a few cases of ‘reaction’ to multi-vitamin injection were reported. It was reported, “A New Delhi-based homoeopath claiming to posses divine power to heal every disease and his team had administered injections to many patients and some of them reported reaction to this treatment.” Telling about the contents of the report CMO Dr DS Chandel said, “The inquiry had confirmed that a quack claiming to have a homoeopathic degree had come from New Delhi in the camp and treated 150 patients with Neurobeuon and a few other injections from February 7 to 10 and eight patients had reported reaction to these injections.” This report also said that the department had no information about this camp and no permission was sought from it. The camp was disbanded by the Health Department on February 10 and doctor and other members left the place.” District health officer Dr PR Katwal had confirmed that this camp was disbanded after these reports yesterday. |
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Handicapped return without disability exam
Nurpur, February 11 They had come to the local Civil Hospital yesterday for preparing disability certificates in the Disability Camp jointly organised by the state Health Department in collaboration with the Kangra district Red Cross Society. According to information, the Health Department had been organising such camps at the Civil Hospital on second Tuesday of every month in which beneficiaries got themselves examined and disability certificates prepared. This much-awaited camp was organised after a gap of three months and a large number of disabled persons from far off places had turned up, but due to non-availability of an orthopaedic surgeon they could not be examined. They were advised to prepare their disability certificates from the Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO) office at Kangra, which sparked off a lot of resentment among them. Hospital in charge Dr Deepak Sharma said disability certificates of 80 persons could not be prepared for want of an orthopaedic surgeon and other 47 persons were issued certificates. Inquiry revealed that, however, an orthopaedic surgeon had been appointed in the hospital here, but so far he was not issued his speciality degree certificate by the Health Department. In this connection he had already written to the Kangra CMO and local MLA expressing his helplessness in examining the disabled persons in the camp. Meanwhile, CMO Dr Anil Mahajan said he was not intimated about it in advance otherwise an orthopaedic surgeon from Palampur could have been sent. |
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Medical College
Mandi, February 11 Convener of the MMCSS Sunder Lohia stated this after the MMCSS meeting held here today. We have given voluntary mass arrests on January 27, but the state government had defied all limits of democratic process in the country. And now we have decided to gherao the Vidhan Sabha, he charged. Congress president Puran Thakur, CPI state general secretary Des Raj, district CPM general secretary Bhupender Singh and president and general secretary of the citizen council, Mandi, YN Vaidya and OC Malhotra and other representatives of the other organisations attended the meeting and decided to gherao the Vidhan Sabha on February 17. Bhupender Thakur said the samiti had also decided to gherao the BJP MLAs and ministers as and when they find them as they have failed to protect the genuine interests and rights of the people of the central zone of Mandi. |
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Sabha condemns temple demolition
Bilaspur, February 11 The sabha has urged the Chief Minister to order an immediate high-level inquiry into this incident and action against those who indulged in the crime of hurting religious sentiments of lakhs of people. Addressing mediapersons here this afternoon at the Circuit House, sabha president Tulsi Dass Bansal accompanied by some office-bearers of the sabha, said the sabha would be constrained to start an agitation if police action is not ensured against the culprits under the Scheduled Castes Atrocities (Prevention of) Act. He said these culprits have even built local political pressure on the police and when he, along with others, went to the Bilaspur Sadar police station the official present refused to register an FIR and insisted that they should give an application. He said later an ASI visited the spot and instead of taking any action against the temple demolishers he threatened and questioned them that why they had built a temple on government land. The sabha claimed that the temple was set up about 12 years ago to commemorate the birthday of the Guru. |
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Attack on Cong MLA condemned
Una, February 11 He said the attitude of the BJP government for not inviting MLAs of the Opposition party on the occasion of state functions even in their own constituencies is undemocratic and by doing such things they were not gaining anything. He said at present the BJP government is keeping in view the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections making announcements of various projects to lure voters in their favour. |
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Child drowned
Baddi, February 11 A team of IPH men and policemen immediately swung into action to rescue the child who seem to have drifted away in the flowing water. The men were uprooting the large water pipes in an attempt to fish out his body, but despite all efforts no success could be achieved in tracing the boy till filing of this report. It was the laxity of the IPH Department which had left the kuhal exposed virtually exposing it to accidents, rued the family members of the child. |
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Villagers block traffic
Dharamsala, February 11 Shivani had committed suicide on January 21 at the house of her parents in Basa village. Parents alleged that she had committed suicide due to alleged mental torture by her husband. They got a case registered with the police. The residents of Basa alleged that the police allowed the accused husband of Shivani to flee after his bail application was rejected by the high court. They alleged that the certain politicians were shielding the accused. The villagers gave a two-day ultimatum to the police authorities to arrest the accused pending which they threatened to intensify their agitation. |
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Brother-in-law held for rape
Kangra, February 11 Dehra SDPO Kulwant Singh said the victim, Simru Devi (42), mother of three children, had gone to the fields when her brother-in-law followed her and allegedly raped her in the fields. The DSP said Simru Devi lodged a report with the Jawalamuhki police station last evening and a case under Section 376 of the IPC was registered. He said Raj Singh, husband of the victim, was already undergoing a sentence in a rape case. The victim visited her husband in the jail on Tuesday and narrated her story to him. Raj Singh directed his wife to lodge a report before the police. The police said the victim was sent for a medical examination. The DSP said Prabhat Singh who was absconding to evade his arrest was arrested today and would be produced before the court tomorrow.
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Power theft detected
Baddi, February 11 Ganesh Fats, the erring unit, which had been operating since the past several years, was raided around
6 am today. Rana said they had put the unit under surveillance since January 8 after receiving information about power theft. The surprise raid revealed how adroitly the unit had managed to divert the power supply in a manner which left the billed amount to only a fraction of its consumption. The officials said the actual assessment of the power theft was still being calculated and it would take time to find out since when this nefarious trick was underway. The unit received billed amount ranging from Rs 6
to 7 lakh on a monthly basis as per the records.
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