Shimla, February 25
Transport Minister Krishan Kapoor today introduced the Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill in the Assembly seeking to exempt people living outside “urbanisable” areas in notified planning areas from permission for carrying out traditional development activities up to prescribed limits.

At present, 20 planning areas and 34 special areas had been notified in the state that had 23 towns. The provisions of the Act were in force in an area of 1,196 sq km where permission for development activities was essential. In all, 1,072 villages spread over 1,015 sq km were covered. Most of the planning and special areas were under agriculture and forest cover. People living in these areas were facing difficulties in getting permission for construction of houses and cowsheds.

To solve their difficulties, it had been proposed to exempt 898 villages having an area of 834 sq km from development permission. However, permission would be essential in rest of the 174 villages (having “urbanisable” area of 181 sq km).

After the proposed amendment, there would be no requirement to seek development permission in rural areas for the construction of residential buildings up to three storeys and other related basic activities like commercial, industrial, public amenities, agriculture and horticulture up to prescribed limits.

He also introduced the state municipality disclosure bill seeking to provide transparency and accountability in the functioning of municipalities. Under the proposed law, municipality will be required to disclose audited financial statements (balance sheets), receipts and expenditure, and cash flow on quarterly basis, within two months of the end of each quarter and within three months for full year.

They would also have to provide particulars of all plans, proposed expenditure on major services and other activities preformed besides reports on disbursements made.

Mandi, February 25
Taking action against violation of the Supreme Court order that bans hoardings on the national highways (NH), the state government today started pulling down some of the hoardings from several spots on the NH selectively and shifted the government hoardings to private or premises of government institutions or within the limits of the towns in  the state.

Investigation revealed that the government hoardings, including political hoardings, showing BJP candidate Maheshwar Singh along with BJP national leaders continue to violate the election ethics and code of conduct on the ground that the Chief Election Commission of India has yet to impose it, as it has yet to announce the date.

The ruling BJP and the opposing Congress continue to violate the SC order that bans putting up billboards and hoardings along the national highways, on public transport vehicles and in public places.

The big government hoardings have been pulled down from some spots along the highway and from transports buses today. Some of the state government hoardings, showing Chief Minister as new messiah of development have been shifted from the NH site to the premises of the ITI in the town. But some hoardings located near the Bhiuli bridge on the junction in the town continue to be violating the SC order.

The BJP blamed the Congress for putting up hoardings when they were in power and even now when they were out of power in buses and public places.

State president Jai Ram Thakur said it was government privilege to take its policies and programme to people through publicity and hoardings.

The officials are tightlipped, as they have no direction to remove hoardings pleading that the Lok Sabha election code of conduct is yet to be imposed by the CEC of India because Lok Sabha dates are not announced.

On the other hand, Congress spokesperson Sohan Lal Thakur charged that the state government had removed over 20 hoardings from buses showing the policies of the UPA government and was targeting the Congress while it itself continue to violate the court order and elections norms.

Shimla, February 25
To check the problem of beggary, the police will approach the Home Department to issue a revised notification with regard to the Himachal Pradesh Prohibition of Begging Act, 1979.

The problem of beggars, especially during the tourist season, is a major nuisance in the state capital and other parts of the state. Though keen to check beggary, the police is unable to take effective legal action in the absence of revision of the notification issued almost 30 years ago.

District police chief RM Sharma said the police would approach the Home Department to issue a revised notification in that regard. “We will urge the Home Department to revise the notification so that we can enforce it strictly,” he said.

A large number of beggars can be seen near various tourist spots and temples. The police has already identified a number of places where these beggars generally stay.

The police authorities maintain that it will become easy for them to check the menace of beggary after a revised notification is issued.

Shimla, February 25
Speaker Tulsi Ram today counselled mediapersons to be careful while reporting proceedings of the House.

He said the dignity of the House and the prestige of the members must be maintained and they should scrupulously avoid all references which showed the members in poor light. His comments came after Kuldeep Pathania of the Congress raised a point of order drawing attention of the Chair to certain newspaper reports which projected the members of the House in a bad light.

He said that proceedings were being reported with utter disregard to the dignity of the august House. Some other members, including Sukhwinder Singh and Rajesh Kalia, also joined him and expressed similar views.

Dharamsala, February 25
The Tibetans today organised a protest dharna and observed fast at main crossing of Mcleodganj on the eve of Losar (New Year celebrations). The celebrations that were to begin today on the biggest festival of Tibetans have been replaced by silent protests. The Tibetans here have resolved not to hold celebrations on Losar and instead hold silent protests to highlight the alleged atrocities committed by Chinese last year against Tibetans in Tibet.

Yesterday also the Tibetan had organised a protest rally against the Chinese. On Monday the Tibetans had burned the effigies of former Communist leader of China Mao Zedong and present Chinese president Hu Jintao. The effigies were burnt as apart of religious ritual performed by Tibetans to ward off evils and misfortunes two days before the commencement of new year. The sources available here said that the said demonstrations were part of wider protests planned by Tibetans in exile against the Chinese government on the eve of Losar.

Meanwhile, Dalai Lama in a message to his community has appealed to the Tibetans to exercise restraint while holding protests. He, however, minced no words in flaying the Chinese for alleged atrocities in Tibet.

In a message released to all Tibetans he has stated that last year in Tibet we witnessed hundreds of Tibetans losing their lives, and several thousands facing detention and torture.

Since they faced immense difficulties and sufferings, the occasion of this new year is certainly not a period when we can have the usual celebrations.

Just as we had suspected, the strike-hard campaign has been re-launched in Tibet and there is a heavy presence of armed security and military forces in most of the cities all over Tibet. In all the places those who dare to come out even with a slight hint of their aspirations have to face torture and detention. In particular, special restrictions have been imposed in the monasteries. Patriotic re-education has been launched and restrictions have been imposed on the visit of foreign tourists, he has stated.

Kangra, February 25
Residents of Panchrukhi and nearby villages have demanded better health care for people of the area by improving facilities in the dispensary at Panchrukhi, which is in shambles.

Satish Sharma, a resident of Ladoh village, near Panchrukhi, along with other villagers were critical of the government for ignoring health care of the area despite the fact that the state government was claiming spending crores of rupees for providing better health cover to people of the state. They claimed that the health services in Panchrukhi were not only insufficient, but were also poor.

Sharma said this was the only hospital that catered to 25 villages of the area and hundreds of patients visit daily to this hospital for their treatment. He alleged that there was an acute shortage of medicines in the hospital. Though the government had upgraded this hospital few years back, yet it was lacking basic amenities.

Sharma said at present there was no provision to attend to the emergency cases in the dispensary and it was lacking facility of a laboratory for common pathological tests.

Describing the hospital as ill-equipped Sharma said there was shortage of life-saving drugs, cotton, bandage and medicines. He alleged that doctors prescribe particular brands of medicines that were only available in the market and patients were forced to purchase it from chemists in the market.

A medicine for normal fever costs around Rs 300 to 600 and sometimes patients go without medicines as it proves a burden on their purse.

The villagers demanded intervention of the Chief Minister for providing better health facilities in this hospital.

Dharamsala, February 25
The Government of India has withdrawn Z-plus security from the Karmapa, the 17th head of Karma Kagyu, one of the four major schools of Tibetans.

The security of Karmapa who fled to India in 2001 has been downgraded from Z-plus to x-category. In Z-plus category one inspector and 20 other cops were guarding the Karmapa.

However, under the x-category now the Karmapa would get just one PSO on his security while on tours.

The SP, Kangra, Atul Fulzele, when contacted admitted that on the directions of union home minister the security of Karmapa has been downgraded. He, however, said that the police staff at his residence near Dharamsala had been retained and frisking of visitors had been intensified.

There was no reaction from the office of Karmapa or the Tibetan government- in-exile in this connection.