Solan, April 17
Union Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma kick-started the poll campaign of the Congress by addressing a public meeting at Ganj Bazaar here today.

Urging the people to vote for the Congress, he said only their party had the vision to take the country ahead on the path of progress.

Recalling the Congress-led UPA government’s contribution to Himachal, he said the state had got its first IIT and IIFT and this would help produce technically skilled youths to help develop the nation.

He said the investment of more than Rs 20,000 crore the state attracted after the central incentive package would go a long way in ensuring its all-round development.

Lambasting the BJP for allegedly stooping to an abysmally low level of politicking
by levelling baseless allegations against the Prime Minister, he said they lacked
any political agenda.

On the issue of BJP terming Manmohan Singh a weak Prime Minister, he said it was shameful that such words were coming from LK Advani who was not only responsible for freeing dreaded terrorists, but had also blatantly lied to the nation that he lacked knowledge about that act.

He said unconditional signing of the nuclear deal with the USA was a major achievement of the UPA government.

It was the strength of their foreign policy that they had managed to put pressure
on Pakistan to admit that the November 26 Mumbai attacks was masterminded
from their soil.

The NDA, on the contrary, had succumbed to terrorists’ pressure and freed terrorists who later masterminded several attacks on the nation.

He said apt handling of the Mumbai attacks led the Security Council to ban terrorist organisations identified by their government.

He urged the people to vote for Congress nominee DR Shandil, who was contesting from the Shimla parliamentary seat. Leader of the opposition Vidya Stokes and DR Shandil also spoke on the occasion.

Solan, April 17
The Parwanoo police has unearthed a fake driving licence racket being operated from here. A large number of licence forms and 15 fake licences were seized from the Taksaal-based residence of a youth, Sanjay Puri, last evening. Puri later confessed to have prepared around 150 fake licences.

Initially, a senior HAS officer at Shimla was also a party to the crime who was duly given commission on every licence, Puri told the police. The police was, however, inquiring into the allegation.

SDPO, Parwanoo, Ramesh Pathania said, “We received information about prevalence of fake licences among Bihari and Nepalese youth about 15 days ago. Four such licences were seized from various individuals during preliminary investigations.”

Further investigations revealed that the racketeer operated by word of mouth. All confiscated licences carried the address of Sood General Store, Lower Bazaar, Chopal. Puri used to charge anything ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 2,500 for each licence, depending on the paying capacity of his client. He used to call his “clients” to some local hotel to deliver the fake licences.

Initially, he worked as a commission agent at Shimla. Later, he came in contact with one Yogesh Mittal and the duo initiated this business at Parwanoo.

Mittal got prepared fake seals and stamps for the purpose which were now being used by Puri.

Mittal was arrested by the Haryana Police in some case and Puri had been operating the racket thereafter. Sensing trouble, he had disposed of the seals and stamps a few days, he told the police.

The SDPO said a case under Sections 419, 420, 468 and 471 of the IPC had been registered against him. He was later produced in a Kasauli court that remanded him in police custody for three days.

Shimla, April 17
All candidates in the fray for the Lok Sabha elections will have to file two different affidavits while filing their nomination papers as per the directions of the Election Commission (EC) of India.

Stating this here today, Chief Electoral Officer Anil Khachi said affidavit in form-26 should certainly contain information regarding pending cases, where charges have been framed and which are punishable with an imprisonment of two years.

They also have to mention if they have been convicted by any court of law for a sentence of one or more year.

Similarly, the second affidavit must contain information about the criminal antecedents and full details of pending cases, irrespective of framing charges as per the ruling of the Supreme Court.

Khachi said the EC had directed that all entries in the affidavits both in form-26 and in the form prescribed by the commission should be preferably typed or hand written. No columns are to be left blank in the affidavit.

Dharamsala, April 17
The BSP candidate from Kangra parliamentary constituency, Narinder Singh Pathania, a resident of Suliali village in Nurpur tehsil of Kangra district, today filed his nomination papers before KK Pant, district returning officer for the constituency.

The BSP candidate became the first candidate to file papers at 3 pm on the first day of filing nomination papers for the Kangra parliamentary constituency. He was accompanied by other senior BSP leaders, including state in charge Bhagwan Singh.

As per the affidavit filed, the BSP candidate who is retired colonel from the army has Rs 28000 in cash. His wife also has Rs 12000 in cash.

He has Rs 12,35000 in fixed deposits while his spouse has Rs 6 lakh. He owns Hyundai Santro car and Hero Honda motor cycle.

The BSP candidate’s wife has 70 gm gold jewels worth Rs 1,11,500. He owns 2166 sq metres agriculture land worth Rs 1,75000.

He also owns a house in Suliali village built in 3000 sq metres area worth Rs 1500000. Pathania has paid income tax of Rs 260 for the last financial year.

While talking to newsmen the BSP candidate said that he was harping on the vote of ex-servicemen and BSP vote bank.

“We are also depending on votes of higher castes as the BSP has fielded three candidates from higher castes in the state.”

BSP is the only national party that has fielded 500 candidates this time in the Lok Sabha polls, he said.

Shimla, April 17
Shikha Sood, a local girl who blew the lid over the murky happenings in Prerna School for the deaf and speech impaired, and three police personnel, who acted on her information promptly and booked four teachers for the alleged rape of disabled girls, were among the eight persons honoured by Governor Prabha Rau at a function in the Raj Bhawan here today.

Besides Additional Director-General of Police ID Bhandari, Superintendent of Police RM Sharma and Sub-Inspector (CID) Rajesh Joshi, four visually impaired students of Dhalli school were also honoured for achieving excellence in academics and sports.

Anil, Sanjay Kumar, Dharmender and Joginder passed the matriculation examination securing 70 per cent marks and they were also among the medal winners in national sports meet for special children.

The initiative to honour them was taken by the state chapter of the Society for Disability and Rehabilitation Studies.

Prabha Rau underlined the need to instil confidence in the disabled persons so that they could lead a life of dignity.

Society should treat handicapped persons with care and they should be brought into the mainstream. Such persons also have special abilities that should be encouraged so that they could also contribute in a positive manner.

Disabled persons should be motivated to become self-reliant so that they could learn to respect themselves and lead a honourable life, she said.

She called upon the people to liberally donate for social causes, especially for the welfare of poor and the handicapped.

All sections of society should realise their social responsibilities and contribute their bit for the welfare of handicapped and homeless children.

Chairman of the society Ajai Srivastava said his organisation had been raising the
issues concerning the rights of the disabled and advocating their cause at various
forums. The Governor also released a book, Sharda Mai-A new look, authored by
Prof Som P Ranchan.

Shimla, April 17
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) today gheraoed the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) as they observed ’Black Day’ in protest against unconcerned attitude of authorities towards students’ demands.

The ABVP activists waived black flags and raised slogans against the authorities at the Summer Hill Chowk.

They said the authorities had not bothered to fulfil the various students’ demands raised by the ABVP.

It was after receiving an invitation from the VC Prof Sunil Kumar Gupta to hold talks on April 18 that they agreed to call off their dharna.

The SFI also lashed out at the authorities for the hike in prices of MCA prospectus from Rs 160 to Rs 900.

They said a steep hike in the fees had been also made by the authorities making it difficult for many students to continue their studies.

Kullu, April 17
More than 250 villagers of Malana allegedly attacked the office of Everest Power Private Limited, the company constructing the Malana stage-II hydro electricity power project, near Malana, today.

Police sources confirmed that the villagers agitated against the company for not fulfilling the commitment of developmental works of the Malana area.

The villagers said the company had been evading meetings with the representatives of the villages for quite sometime and had also not done any committed work of development like roads, community centre etc.

Project manager MV Bhaskar admitted that no work could be done as per the commitment. He said the company had deposited Rs 60 lakh for the CAT plan and kept a target of Rs 2.29 crore for the social development plan for this financial year.

He said the agitators have damaged property inside the site but the amount of damage was not known as yet. Meanwhile, the DSP (headquarters) reached the spot with force and controlled the mob.

Kullu SDM Amrit Sharma rushed to the spot and amicably settled the issue for today. He said the company had given a demand draft of Rs 10 lakh for the Local Area Development Authority.

However, the villagers demanded a joint meeting with power project management in the presence of the administration representative.

Reddy said, “Even though most of you have come from the garden city of Bangalore, you must have seen the real beauty of nature in the hills. In today’s world, you kids are more glued to your computers and television screens and there is little scope for physical activities. These adventure camps provide you enough opportunity to strengthen you to face the challenges in life.”