Dharamsala, March 12
Against its own directive the Election Commission of India has decided to appoint 10 senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers of Himachal as election observers.

The commission’s letter to all Chief Election Officers of states earlier this year had directed that the senior forest officers of IFS cadre should not be deployed on election duty. Besides, the commission had also directed against appointment of doctors and veterinary pharmacists, officers working in grade-B in veterinary hospitals, medical practitioners, territorial staff of the forest department, All India Radio and Doordarshan officials on election duty.

However, despite the said directive 10 senior IFS officials of Himachal, including Sushil Srivastav, JS walia, TD Sharma, TS Thakur, Avtar Singh, UK Banerjee- all Chief conservators- M Narayanappa, Surender Kumar, AC Sharma, Conservators and Sushil Kapta, deputy conservator, have been directed by the election commission to attend the briefing on March 15 at the Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

The sources available here said that in the briefing other officers of the rank of additional PCCF, CCF, conservator of forests and senior deputy conservator of forests from other parts of the country have been called.

The officers are being deployed as election observers in the coming Lok Sabha Elections. Their exact place or the state in which they are being deployed has not been revealed so far.

Shimla, March 12
‘We were also humiliated and tormented in the name of ragging. Now it is our turn to pay back’, this simple logic of seniors has been perpetuating endless and rather vicious cycle of ragging in educational institutions, defying all laws, court directions and restrictions.

The shocking death of a first-year student in the Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College Aman Satya Kachroo has only brought to surface the cruelty being perpetrated on freshers in various professional institutions across the state.

The mentally and physically harassed students are too scared to complain against seniors.

Occasional cases of suicides and physical abuse provide some indication about the prevailing stifling environment in the institutions. There have been three cases of suicide in a private dental college at Paonta Sahib in as many years and in at least two of them, harassment was indicated.

The local Indira Gandhi Medical College and Government Dental College are no exception. The phobia of ragging haunts the new entrants so much that most of them prefer to stay away from hostels for the first few months to escape the wrath of seniors. Only those who have some acquaintances among seniors or the teaching faculty dare stay in hostels. Worse, the ragging is not confined to the college premises, the freshers could be in trouble anytime and anywhere.

Even those who hire private rooms are not safe as they are continuously stalked by the seniors and the plight is worse if a student is caught alone. Last year some freshers, who hired accommodation in Bharari locality, were herded into a nearby forest and ragged for hours.

Freshers are made an object of ridicule by specifying peculiar dress codes, funny haircuts and forcing them to perform strange acts in public. Treated like slaves, they are virtually forced to work as domestic aids. All hell breaks loose if anyone dares to defy the orders or report the matter to the authorities.

Principal of the IGMC Dr S.Kashyap maintains that preventive steps taken by the administration have improved the situation but admits that the new entrants are still wary of joining hostel in initial months and the parents also feel that their wards will be better off staying in private accommodation. Steps include activation of anti-ragging committee, affidavit from parents that their wards will not indulge in ragging and holding freshers party early, within three to four months of the start of session.

In case of dental college the overwhelming number of girls in recent batches has eased the situation. In the latest batch out of total 60 students more than 50 are girls. There was one complaint but the matter was amicably settled after the senior apologised.

Some private institutions like Centre for Advanced Study and Engineering (CASE) at Baddi have provided a separate hostel for first-year students so that they do not have to brush with seniors.

However, die-hard seniors wait anxiously for a year for them to join the main hostel where they under go deferred ragging but of much less severity.

However, principal of the engineering college D.K.Aggrawal points out that there is no organised ragging after the first year and most of the complaints pertain to altercation among students.

Recently, some students who tried to enter the juniors’ hostel were expelled and taken back only after they tendered a written apology and paid a fine of Rs 25,000 each. Deterrent action is the only way to deal with ragging cases, he asserts. 

Shimla, March 12
Governor Prabha Rau today stressed the need for setting up more agriculture and horticulture-based industries and processing units in the state for improving the lot of small and marginal farmers.

Rau was presiding over the state-level national Productivity Award ceremony for micro, small and medium entrepreneurs in Himachal Pradesh here today. ‘Despite progress in farm technology, farmers are still not getting the advantage of latest scientific know how,’ she said.

She stressed the need for providing special inputs to farmers so that they can grow more food besides maintaining quality. ‘The productivity award ceremony has been organised by the National Productivity Council, Ministry of Commerce and Industries to encourage, motivate and recognise productivity improvement efforts made by small, marginal and medium entrepreneurs in Himachal,’ she said.

The Governor said this year the National Productivity Council was celebrating its golden jubilee and was focusing on bringing about prosperity through productivity. She said that there was the need to organise grassroots level training and awareness camps for industrial workers, entrepreneurs and managers apart from providing consultancy to the government and industry.

‘Himachal is one of the leading fruit growing state in the country and the need of the hour is to develop processing units making quality products which can face stiff competition in the market,’ she said.

She further said that off- season vegetable processing units and potato chips making units could be set up in the state as quality raw material was readily available.

She hoped that the awards would further encourage and motivate the winners to achieve higher productivity and modernise their units. 

Dharamsala, March 12
A court in Britain has reportedly asked the Himachal Pradesh Police to speed up the probe into the murder of a British charity worker.

“We (the police) have received findings of a coroner’s court in Britain through the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) regarding the murder of Michael Blakey,” Additional Director-General of Police ID Bhandari said.

Blakey’s battered body was found beneath boulders in a shallow stream running through an old British cemetery here in November, 2006. He had been bludgeoned to death. Blakey was part of an Indian charity that was running community-based projects in the Kangra valley.

“The findings will help speed up investigations and tie the loose ends in the case,” he said.

The coroner’s court of Lancashire has sent an inquest report that includes statements of Blakey’s colleagues and friends, including the victim’s co-volunteer Rachel Owen and her Indian husband Pawan Bhardwaj, who is believed to be the prime suspect in the case.

Bhandari said the police still suspected the involvement of Bhardwaj in the crime.

“Bhardwaj was arrested and questioned for several days, but was later released,” he said. He was released after taking a lie-detector test in New Delhi.

He said the police was investigating the case on two counts: the first being that Bhardwaj was jealous of his wife’s friendship with Blakey and the second reason could be that Blakey might have uncovered some financial chicanery in the charity, perhaps involving Bhardwaj. At present, both Rachel and Bhardwaj are settled in Scotland.

According to the police, Blakey visited this hill town in 2004. He met Rachel, who was planning to run a charity here with a Buddhist monk Jamyang. Blakey showed interest in the charity and helped Rachel form the Tong-Len charity.

Between 2004 and 2006, both Blakey and Rachel visited Britain many times to generate funds for the charity.

Bhardwaj met Rachel in a small tea shop belonging to his uncle in October, 2005. They fell in love. In July 2006, they married as per traditional Hindu ceremonies.

Three months after the marriage, Blakey suddenly went missing from the monastery where he was staying. On November 28, 2006, two days after his disappearance, his body was found in a graveyard.

According to the police, Blakey had suffered extensive injuries on the head and died of asphyxia. Afterwards, the body was sent to his family in Britain.

“Even the role of the police official (who questioned Bhardwaj in 2006) seems to be doubtful. Departmental inquiry against him is on and action is likely to be initiated against him soon,” Bhandari said.

“Now (after receiving the findings of the coroner’s court), the police will examine the case afresh. The report of the coroner’s court carries the psychiatric analysis, which says Bhardwaj has a bipolar personality,” he said.

“As the case is still under investigation, we will send a notice to Bhardwaj in Scotland to join the investigation. If he fails to join the probe, arrest warrants will be issued against him,” he added. — IANS

Dharamsala, March 12
China is hoping that the Tibet issue would disappear after the demise of the Dalai Lama. However, it is a grave mistake on their part. The Tibetans are prepared for another 100-year struggle on the issue of Tibet. The inspiration is there and we have nothing to worry.

Samdhong Rinpoche, the Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile, said this while talking to newsmen here yesterday.

On the issue of resumption of talks with China, he said the ball is now in China’s court. The Tibetan government-in-exile is ready for the resumption of talks with China if the communist leadership takes initiative for the purpose.

He said the present leadership of China might not be willing to engage us in the dialogue process, but they were not the permanent leadership. If the present leadership does not wish to take the credit of resolving the Tibetan issue, we were hopeful the next leadership would break the ice.

Rinpoche said the Tibetan side is fully determined in their struggle for genuine autonomy irrespective of Chinese leadership’s unwillingness to give any space to Tibetans.

Rinpoche said like the Dalai Lama, he believes that the people of China were with them.

Talks between the representatives of the Dalai Lama and Beijing came to a standoff after eight round of talks failed to bring out any positive outcome.

A memorandum carrying the framework for autonomy proposed by the Dalai Lama was presented by the Tibetan side during the eighth round of talks with China. However, the Chinese government officials rejected the memorandum stating the Dalai Lama is seeking one-third territorial area of China.

Sujanpur Tihra (Hamirpur), March 12
Playback singer and Voice of India-fame artiste Harshit Saxsena was the star performer at the last cultural evening of the three-day state-level Holi festival of Sujanpur Tihra here.

Harshit started with hit songs from the latest Hindi films. Songs like “Meri umar ke nojwano” from “Karz” made youngsters go dancing. He went on to enthral the audience till the end of the programme.

Singers Muskan and Mukul also regaled the audience. Local artistes from the Mandavay Kala Manch, Mandi, the Shakati Kala Manch, Junga, and folk artistes from Shimla district and other areas also performed on the occasion.

The second cultural evening of the festival on Tuesday was devoted to Pahari folk singers Karnail Rana and Dheeraj Sharma. Both of them presented choicest of Pahari folk songs and were able to establish personal chord with the audience.

The artistes of the Pulkit and Ramik group from New Delhi also entertained the audience. Hari Sandhu presented popular song of Mohammad Rafi like “Ik hasin sham ko dil mera kho gaya” etc.

Hamirpur DC Abhishek Jain was the chief guest at the closing ceremony. He performed pooja at the Murli Manohar temple. Later, a procession was taken to Chowgan in which the DC and other dignitaries participated wearing colourful turbans.

Sports competitions also came to end on the last day of the festival. In the final of the wrestling competition, Jauni of Ghumarwin won the championship by defeating Sanjay of Sundernagar.

Bir (Palampur), March 12
Hundreds of men, women and children from Chogan, Keor and other adjoining villages gheraoed the Baijnath police station on Tuesday evening.

They were protesting against failure of the police to take action against the Tibetan refugees living in the Tibetan Colony, Bir, who had made their lives hell and it had become difficult for women and children to come out of their houses and work in the fields.

It may be recalled that on Monday night local residents and a Tibetan (a resident of Hong Kong) had clashed when a drunk Tibetan manhandled a local taxi driver.

Later, he called other Tibetans from the adjoining colony and damaged nearly 12 taxis and also attacked local residents.

Later, the Tibetans also thrashed one Hans Raj of Keor village, who was passing through the colony.

The Baijnath SHO was personally supervising the situation. Five persons had been arrested so far. 

Bilaspur, March 12
Two youths of the Patti area in Tarn Taran, Punjab, who had run away after looting a petrol station situated on the outskirts of this town last night, were arrested by the police after a long chase. The petrol station belonged to Vikas Thakur, son of former Forest Minister Ram Lal Thakur.

SP Kuldip Sharma said the accused were identified as Amandip and Rajender of Assal village in Punjab. They were students of classes X and XI. The accused were reportedly returning from Manikaran in Kullu district.

They stopped their motorcycle at the petrol station and asked the salesman to fill petrol worth Rs 50. When the salesman opened the cash box, one of them suddenly took out a “khukhri” and struck him on the head several times. Later, they decamped with a bundle of currency notes lying at the cash counter.

Vikas Thakur informed the police immediately. “Nakas” were set up at various places to arrest the accused.

Around 50 motorcycle riders returning from Manikaran were detained and frisked by the police at the Suharghat barrier. The police was able to arrest the accused and recover blood-stained currency notes being carried in a bag.

The accused had no valid document in respect of the motorcycle that they were riding.

A sum of Rs 9,540 was recovered from them. The “khukhri” used in the incident was found lying near the petrol station. The salesman had suffered serious injuries. He was taken to the regional hospital, where his condition was said to be stable.