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Medical tests of 2 girls confirm rape: Police
Anti-Ragging Ordinance finalised
Prerna Case
Promotion of 10 tehsildars |
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CM for creating land banks for educational campuses
Blacklisting of Totu NGO demanded
Totu incident condemned
Protest against Forest Dept
Record power generation at Nathpa-Jhakri project
Mentally challenged woman raped
Police remand of 4 accused again extended
Villagers oppose hydel project
Seminar on ‘importance
of vote’ held
Auto company told to replace engine
D’sala to host 4 IPL ties
MCI team leaves; 300 statements recorded
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Medical tests of 2 girls confirm rape: Police
Shimla, March 19 The four accused Vijay, principal and three teachers Amarjit, Dinesh and Vinod were sent to police custody till March 23. The medical examination of all six girls, including four minors, was conducted at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) after their parents arrived here today. District police chief R.M. Sharma said as per the medical report the allegations of rape had been confirmed in case of two girls aged 21 and 18 while in case of the four minors, there is no evidence of recent rape but their sexual abuse in the past could not be ruled out. “Doctors said further tests, including ultrasound tests, would be conducted on the four minors to ascertain if they had been sexually abused in the past,” he said. He said the semen stains and other evidences had been collected, which would be sent for DNA sampling. “We cannot register a case against those running the institute till their connivance or abetment is established, which has so far not come to our notice,” he said. The police has also sought the help of a qualified interpreter in sign language, who will help the police in recording the statement of the victims. The six girls who have levelled charges of rape were today taken home by their parents after their medical examination.
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Anti-Ragging Ordinance finalised
Shimla, March 19 The draft Anti-Ragging Ordinance has been finalised and it is likely to be put up before the State Cabinet for approval tomorrow. Ragging has been made a non-bailable offence which could attract a maximum sentence of three years and a fine up to Rs 25,000 under the proposed law. Punishment has also been proposed for abetment to ragging. It will be mandatory for the principal, warden or other controlling authorities to take immediate action on complaint of ragging by any student, failing which they will be liable for action. The principal will issue a notice to the student against whom a written complaint is received within 24 hours and conduct inquiry to ascertain the truth. If prima facie substance was found in the complaint he will immediately lodge an FIR with the police. Failure to do so will be construed as negligence on the part of the institution. The victims of ragging usually do not come forward to lodge an FIR with the police as they are too scared to do so. The proposed law will not be confined to the premises of educational institutions but also cover ragging outside the campus. Not only that it will not cover only students but any person (including non-students) who indulges in ragging anywhere. This provision has been necessitated as senior students often bring outsiders to harass the juniors. The new law has been framed taking into consideration the lapsed anti-raging ordinance of 1992, the recommendations of the Raghavan Committee and the latest directions issued by the Supreme Court on February 1, 2009. Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal had soon after the death of Aman Kachroo, a first-year student of Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College, Tanda, announced that an anti-ragging law would be enacted within a week.
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Prerna Case
Shimla, March 19 Following the shocking incident involving Prerna, Chief Minister PK Dhumal today directed officials of the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment to prepare a complete list of all such NGOs who are running institutes for persons with disabilities to ensure that they meet all requirements and maintain standards as laid down in the Persons with Disability Act, 1995. Officials confirmed that no checking of the institute was done by the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA), under which Prerna was receiving Rs 30,000 per month as grant since 2006. The officials of SSA were supposed to inspect the institute regularly but they did not do so after November. It is learnt that the department has already started the exercise to prepare a list of all such organisations in the state to ensure that there is regular checking. Meanwhile, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Sarveen Chaudhary visited Prerna and spoke with students and staff. |
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Promotion of 10 tehsildars
Shimla, March 19 The court passed this interim order on a petition filed by three district revenue officers wherein they had challenged the seniority list of tehsildars issued by the government. The court took a serious note of the action of the state government whereby it had passed the promotion order without informing the court as the case is pending before the court. While passing this order a division bench comprising of Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice VK Ahuja further restrained the state from reverting these three officers. The court observed that for more than a decade the petitioners were shown senior to the 27 officers who are also a party in this case as private respondents. This seniority has been changed all of a sudden. The petitioners already stand promoted as district revenue officers and they will suffer irreparable loss if they are reverted in view of latest seniority list issued by the state. It was alleged in the petition that for the last 10 years they were shown senior to the respondents. The petitioners filed objections to the tentative seniority list despite their objections the state had issued final seniority list in December 2008, the petitioner shown juniors to the private respondents. It is also alleged that the respondents are being given the benefit of having been appointed tehsildars from the dates prior to their appointments. During the hearing of the case it was brought to the notice of the court that the chief secretary issued order promoting 10 tehsildars to the HAS. The court further observed that we are also constrained and pained to observe with the manner in which the state had acted in hot haste manner in ordering the promotions on March 16. When the matter is subjudice before the court and is being contested, we expect the state to at least appraise the court of what is happening. |
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CM for creating land banks for educational campuses
Shimla, March 19 Presiding over the 222nd meeting of the board of directors of the corporation here today, he said leading educational organisations were coming forward with proposals to set up world-class professional institutions here. Letters of intent were being issued after scrutiny of such proposals to give impetus to employment-oriented courses and bring qualitative improvement in the educational standards with the participation of private players. Land banks would help save time of entrepreneurs for development of infrastructure and generate income avenues. He also advised the organisation to remain in touch with various departments to bag construction projects. He said the SIDC had emerged as the first public sector undertaking to pay dividend to the government. He said the exemplary endeavour of the corporation would inspire other undertakings to emerge out of the red. He said all PSUs needed to explore the possibilities of getting business from both public and private sectors. He directed the authorities that the property dispute regarding the Nahan foundry be settled on priority by taking up the matter at the highest level since its valuable land had been encroached upon in the neighbouring states by vested interests. If required, the matter would be raised in the forthcoming chief secretaries’ He said modalities were being completed for the merger of the foundry with the SIDC and it would be in the best interest of the organisation if all land disputes were settled. He said properties at Ambala, Bahadurgarh, Narela Ludhiana, Sonepat,
Shahpur, Raisi and Daurala were under litigation. Applications should be moved in respective courts for early hearing in these cases, he said. |
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Blacklisting of Totu NGO demanded
Shimla, March 19 Chairman of the Society for Disability and Rehabilitation Studies Ajai Srivastava said the two major Acts- Prevention of Disability Act, 1995, and Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992, had been violated by Prerna. Besides strict action against them the principal secretary and director, Social Justice and Empowerment, must be penalised for not keeping a check on the institute. The Special Olympic, Himachal Pradesh, also demanded blacklisting of Prerna and a judicial probe into their functioning. “Strict action must be taken so that no organisation brings a bad name to NGOs working in this area,” demanded Jyoti Bhardwaj, vice-president, Special Olympics. The CPM while condemning the incident demanded that the government should undertake regular checks of all such institutes as many of the NGOs were receiving liberal grants from the government. They demanded that strict action must be taken against the guilty. Convener of the BJP Media Cell Ashok Kapatia assured that the BJP regime would ensure that strict action is taken against the guilty. |
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Totu incident condemned
Bilaspur, March 19 Addressing mediapersons at Chetna’s head office here today, its general secretary Dr Mallika Nadda expressed shock that this institute was being run by an organisation functioning at Ghumarwin, near here, and is headed by a prominent Congress woman leader and three out of the four accused belong to Bilaspur district. Nadda demanded strictest possible action against the culprits so that the shaken confidence of people in such voluntary organisations is restored and such hapless girls could seek the help of NGOs working for their welfare. She said even earlier there were reports regarding highly objectionable activities of this organisation and as now that some proofs are with the police the government should probe the activities. Leaders of other social and religious organisations- Jagdish Kumar Nadda, RamLal Pundir, OP Garga, Krishan Lal, Mohinder Bakshi, Omparkash, Santosh Kunari of Himalaya Parivar, Durga Puja Samiti, Special Olympics for the Handicapped, Senior Citizens Association and Patanjali Yoga Samiti have also expressed shock and condemned the incident and demanded exemplary punishment to the guilty.
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Protest against Forest Dept
Shimla, March 19 The protesters also included women who were the main sufferers because of the ban as they could not venture into forests for collecting fuel wood and fodder. President of the sabha Tikender said the Forest Department had imposed ban on fuel and fodder without any rhyme or reason. The state high court had only stayed the grant of trees for timber used for building houses but the department had put a blanket ban on exploitation of all type of forest produce. In fact, the entry of right holders had been prohibited into the forest areas. The people had no option but to start direct action as they were totally dependent on forest for fuel and fodder. He also criticised the government over the manner in which the Forest Dwellers Act was being implemented. The act was very clear regarding the provision to provide 20 bighas of land to the people of the tribal area but the government had been unnecessarily showing ambiguity in its implementation.
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Record power generation at Nathpa-Jhakri project
Shimla, March 19 With a daily generation of 8 million units, the project is well on its way to achieve the “excellent” target of 6,600 million units for the first time since it was commissioned in 2003. Last year, 6,449 million units were generated during the entire year, surpassing the “very good” target of 6,397 million units. In the preceding year, only 5,947 million units were generated and the project had not even achieved a “good target” of 6,100 million units. The project was designed to generate 6,950 million units for a maximum silt level of 5,000 ppm (parts per million). It was based on the hydrological data as per which there were to be only four such days when the silt level will be higher than the permissible limits. However, the number of such days was actually much higher and the project had to be shut down repeatedly during peak season as the silt, which mostly comprised extremely hard quartz particles, caused extensive damage to the turbines. The Union Ministry of Power lowered the maximum silt level to 4,000 ppm to save the machinery from silt damage and the target was scaled down to 6,600 million units. The number of high silt days for which the project could be shut down was raised from four to 11. However, the battle against silt was won by taking steps like raising the height of the dam at Nathpa from 1,485 m to 1,495.5 m, coating the vulnerable parts of turbines with tungsten carbide-based material and ensuring better reservoir management, general manager of the project NC Bansal said. The 10-m increase in the height of the dam more than doubled the length of the reservoir to 3.1 km, which helped in higher sedimentation of particles, allowing operation of the project at higher levels of silt.
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Mentally challenged woman raped
Mandi, March 19 The police has registered a case under Sections 450 and 376 of the IPC on Thursday. According to complainant Roshni Devi (names changed), Ishwar Das entered the house on March 16 when her sister-in-law Radha (name changed) was alone in the house and raped her. She said she was mentally and physically challenged. The police has started the investigation into the case.
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Police remand of 4 accused again extended
Dharamsala, March 19 The police levelled murder charge against the accused after the post-mortem report in which it was found that Aman Kachroo had died of neurological injury. Initially they were booked for causing death due to negligence under section 304 of the IPC. The sources available here told that police is trying to establish who among the accused hit Aman Kachroo that led to injuries to him. The role of doctor who treated him after injury might also be probed. |
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Villagers oppose hydel project
Chamba, March 19 The resolution said a rivulet of Kiri had been converted into weir site of the project, which was being operated for power generation near the Paliyur area of the district. As a sequel to this, water mills downstream had stopped functioning. Through the resolution the panchayat had demanded providing an ambulance for Primary Health Centre, Sahoo, from the project management at the earliest. |
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Seminar on ‘importance
of vote’ held
Shimla, March 19 Presiding over the seminar veteran journalist and former chairman of the Journalism Department of HPU Vepa Rao said apart form overwhelming participation of the people the quality of their vote mattered most in formation of the government. It was essential that they exercised their franchise after due deliberation and on merits of the candidates and parties rather than going by the slogans of regionalism, castes and other creed. They should also ensure that the elected representatives carried out the responsibility for which they were chosen. He regretted that the youths were not showing much enthusiasm in voting. Delivering the keynote address senior journalist PC Lohumi said not voting was like a criminal offence as it was the most important right enshrined in the constitution to decide the destiny of the nation. |
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Auto company told to replace engine
Bilaspur, March 19 The forum also ordered the respondents to pay Rs 22,000 to Ahmed as compensation of his financial loss and cost of litigation. Ahmed had purchased an autorickshaw from Messrs Palam Tractors but it failed to work smoothly. Despite efforts and requests, the company did not take any interest to replace the vehicle or get it repaired. Later, some manufacturing defect was found in the engine. He then approached the consumers forum. In another case, the forum ordered UCO Bank branch, Ghumarwin, to pay Rs 1 lakh (along with 9 per cent interest) to complainant Roshan Lal, a shopkeeper of the Dakkadi Chowk, Ghumarwin. He was deprived of fire insurance loss on this amount only because the bank had not paid the requisite instalment of premium within time. He had taken a loan of Rs 95,000 from the bank for purchasing merchandise for starting his shop, but one night it caught fire and he suffered a loss of about Rs 1.39 lakh.
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D’sala to host 4 IPL ties
Dharamsala, March 19 All matches would be organised at the Dharamsala cricket stadium. Earlier, the IPL had decided to host just two matches here. Anurag Thakur said the IPL matches were proposed to be held at the Dharamsala cricket stadium on May 1 and 3 and May 17 and 19. He said the teams of Priety Zinta and Shilpa Shetty, even Delhi Dare devils and Punjab Kings XI would clash at the Dharamsala stadium. Many bollywood and cricket starts, including Mohinder Singh Dhoni and Varinder Sehwag would be seen in action during the IPL matches. The state government has already given its nod for providing security for the IPL matches. Anurag said the organisation of IPL matches had come as an opportunity for the region. It would prove as a big boost for tourism in the area and promotion of game in the state. About 100 crore people watch IPL matches across the state. This would bring Dharamsala on the world tourism match. During the matches also thousands of people are likely to visit the area. He also said the floodlights that were the basic condition for organising IPL matches at Dharamsala would be installed at the stadium by April 19.
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MCI team leaves; 300 statements recorded
Kangra, March 19 Before leaving, head of the transplant unit of the DMC, Ludhiana, Baldev Singh expressed satisfaction over the cooperation extended to the team by Principal Anil Chouhan, members of the faculty and students. He said more than 300 persons, including students, faculty members, security and paramedical staff, deposed before the team over the past 36 hours. The questionnaires supplied to the students and faculty members were filled by them and submitted back. Official documents of the institute were also checked. He said it would take some more days to consolidate documents and statements recorded by the team before the report could be submitted to the MCI. The team was deputed to investigate into the case by the executive committee of the MCI. The team would submit its report to the MCI before March 25 for the onward submission to the apex court. Baldev Singh said it was a serious matter and the committee would submit the report expeditiously. Another member of the team, Manoj Kumar Singh, head of the department of pathology at AIIMS, described the death of Aman Kachroo as unfortunate. He said the MCI wanted to persuade students to stay away from ragging in future.
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Shimla, March 19
