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Ragging Death
Power Projects
Bishop Cotton strike ends
36 candidates in fray for 4 seats
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45 candidates file papers for 4 seats
Poll Issues
Cong leaders indulging in baseless politics: CM
BJP complains against mayor
6 RPGMC students expelled
Mumbai resident falls into gorge, dies
EVMs for visually impaired
5 held with jewellery, currency notes
1 killed, 3 hurt in mishaps
Redundant ‘kisan books’ become Cong tool against Sushant
CM releases book
Hazaar-patis rub shoulders with crore-patis in poll fray
Steps taken to check forest fires
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Ragging Death
Shimla, April 25 Sources in the health department said replies from all 40 persons who had been issued show-cause notices had been received as April 23 had been fixed as the deadline. “The action to be taken against the 40 persons, including former principals, wardens and members of various committees like the disciplinary and anti-ragging, would be fixed within the next week after going through their replies,” said a senior bureaucrat. Sources said in some cases the persons concerned could be let off with a simple warning while in others there could be sterner action. It is on the basis of the inquiry conducted by the ADM, Kangra, into the death of Aman Kchroo, a first-year student at Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College due to intense physical ragging that show-cause notices had been issued to 40 persons. The ADM in his report had clearly pointed out that it was due to the casual approach of the college authorities in handling ragging related incidents and its failure to take effective punitive action that had culminated in the unfortunate demise of Kachroo. Meanwhile, the state health department in its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on April 23 has stated that rather than taking temporary measures like appointment of an administrator, deploying police force and making the SHO of the area accountable, it would be better to strengthen the individual college administration and make it more accountable. The health department in its affidavit has said that deploying additional police would only vitiate the academic atmosphere of the college. It has also stated that there was no need for an inquiry by a retired IAS officer against Prof S. Sankhyan who was the principal when the unfortunate ragging as he had already been placed under suspension. |
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Power Projects
Shimla, April 25 Addressing a press conference here today the president of the Himalaya Niti Abhiyaan, Kulbhushan Upmanyu, and coordinator Guman Singh said that the government must come out with the factual position with regard to felling of trees and diversion of land. “What is most painful is the fact that while common man had been denied timber distribution (TD) rights, big companies like the JP are being given permission to fell thousands of trees,” they said. They said a document had been prepared highlighting the problems being faced by people on account of coming up of cement plants, SEZ, ski-village, power projects at the two-day central committee meeting which concluded here today. “We will hand over this document highlighting the problems of the people to the Governor, the chief minister, all political parties and all senior bureaucrats for action,” said Guman Singh. Guman Singh said the fact was that environment was not only being devastated but thousands of people had been displaced with no concrete rehabilitation package for the uprooted families in the name of development. He demanded that the surplus land that had been acquired for the Bhakra Dam at a pittance should be given back to the people rather than giving it out for purposes like a police battalion, army transit camp of a Navodyalaya School. They lamented the insensitivity of various political parties towards the issue of environment. Abhimanyu said that a separate model of development with alternate methods must be adopted for the hills in view of the fragile ecology. ?A list of development works must be prepare with the red list being a no-entry in the Himalayas like the cement plants, a yellow list with projects to be undertaken with advanced and alternate technology and a green list which would list efforts like planting trees, fodder plants and medicinal plants and herbs which could be beneficial to the locals.
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Bishop Cotton strike ends
Shimla, April 25 The settlement was arrived at after the management agreed to reinstate 23 of the 33 terminated employees. “The management has agreed to take back 23 employees while inquiry will be conducted by ADM or SDM against the reaming 10 employees,” SP RM Sharma confirmed. He said the inquiry would be completed within two months after which a decision would be taken about these employees. The 33 employees had been terminated by the school management on the charges of pilferage and indiscipline. During this period the 10 employees would continue to get subsistence allowance. President of the BCS Workers Union Chunni Lal said the strike had been called off and all workers barring 20 would report on duty from tomorrow. He said the workers had agreed to the settlement before the Labour Commissioner in the interest of the school and students. The situation had turned violent after there was a clash between the relatives of a teacher who had been humiliated by the striking employees yesterday. Following this the police had intensified patrolling in the vicinity of the school. The 33 terminated employees had been on strike since February 27.
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36 candidates in fray for 4 seats
Shimla, April 25 Chief Electoral Officer Anil Khachi informed that during the scrutiny nine nomination papers had been rejected after they were found to be invalid in the presence of the election observers. In the Mandi seat, the papers of Kashmir Chand (BSP), Karan Singh (INC) and Ram Swaroop (BJP) have been rejected, leaving seven candidates in the fray. A total of eight candidates are now in the fray for Shimla (SC) Lok Sabha seat after the nomination papers of three candidates were rejected today.The papers of Kaushalya Devi as an Independent candidate had been rejected on technical grounds while the papers of Gangu Ram Musafir covering candidate of Dhani Ram Shandil of the INC and Chaman Lal of the BSP had been rejected. In Hamirpur, the nomination papers of Raj Kumar (BSP), Satpal Singh (BJP), Lalit Singh (Bharatiya Cahitnaya party) were rejected leaving 11 candidates in the fray. In the Kangra seat, no paper was rejected during scrutiny, leaving 10 candidates in the fray. |
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45 candidates file papers for 4 seats
Shimla, April 25 Out of 45 candidates, six have filed their nomination papers as BJP candidates and an equal number as Indian National Congress (INC) candidates. The CPM has one candidate, Samajwadi Party one, Lok Janshakti Party two, Shiv Sena three, BSP seven, Rashtriya Raksha Dal two, Rashtravadi Sena three and Bharatiya Chaitanaya Party one. Besides, 13 candidates have filed their nomination papers as Independents. Those who filed nominations yesterday included Nirmla Sharma of Rashtravadi Sena and two Independents- Roshan Lal and Partap Singh from the Kangra seat and Karan Singh (covering candidate of the), Ram Swaroop (covering candidate of the BJP) and Shan Mohammad (Independent) from the Mandi seat. Lalit Singh filed his nomination papers from the Hamirpur seat as the Bharatiya Chaitanaya Party candidate and Gangu Ram Musafir (covering candidate of INC), Roop Ram and Kaushalya Devi (both Independents), Surender Kumar Justa (Lok Janshakti Party) and Brij Lal (Shiv Sena) entered the fray Chief Electoral Officer Anil Khachi informed that 10 candidates each have filed nominations from Kangra and Mandi, 14 from Hamirpur and 11 from Shimla (SC).
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Poll Issues
Nurpur, April 25 Addressing an election meeting at Sadwan, near here, yesterday evening, she said the inflation rate in the country had come down to the lowest and country’s economy was remained intact notwithstanding global recession. “Unlike developed countries our banking sector has no adverse impact of global recession due to the best economic management of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She said the BJP was raising corruption issue but it virtually boomeranging itself as none but Cabinet ministers and BJP MLAs had levelled serious corruption charges against the then Chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal during his previous regime and they had even tendered their resignations As far as the issue of unemployment is concerned, Stokes said the UPA government had effectively launched the NAREGA scheme with 100 days of rural employment and promised to enhance 200 days, if it voted to power whereas the Dhumal government had badly exposed on this issue by ousting PTA teachers She said the issue of terrorism was no means as the Kandhar episode and the terrorist attacks Octogenarian Congress leader and former minister Sat Mahajan and state general secretary Ajay Mahajan also addressed the meeting. Stokes also addressed poll meeting at Bhalakh in the Indora Assembly constituency.
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Cong leaders indulging in baseless politics: CM
Chamba, April 25 Addressing mediapersons here last night, the Chief Minister said the Congress leaders have failed to debate on the basic issues and policies on the election dais, which could prove useful to the masses. He said disgruntled leaders have never succeeded in winning the elections. “New political alliances are joining the NDA while almost all old alliance partners have left the Congress-led UPA,” Dhumal said; quoting Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Haryana, Assam Gana Parishad, Gorkha Parishad, etc which had joined the NDA fold. He alleged that the UPA government’s Finance Minister had given a wrong picture of the impact of the global recession and misguided the people of the country while in reality India and China were the worst-affected nations in the wake of current recession; adding that if the conditions remain the same it would lead to unemployment across the country. He said 97,000 small industries have already been closed down in the country due to recession. “The politics for the BJP is a means of service to the masses and this is the only reason that the masses were leaning towards the BJP,” the CM said; adding that the present political scenario was in favour of the NDA. Mentioning about the strengthening position of the NDA, Dhumal said the BJP was going to win most of the seats in Assam, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Uttrakhand, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan and other states in association with its alliance partners.
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BJP complains against mayor
Shimla, April 25 The state secretary of the BJP H.N. Kashyap in his compliant sent to the ECI today alleged that mayor Narender Kataria was moving around in the town with the MC officials under the garb of inspecting development works. “Using pretext of inspecting development works, he is making promises to the people of the area and seeking votes in favour of the Congress nominee,” he has written in his complaint. Citing an example Kashyap said today the mayor visited ward number 11 and sought votes for the Congress nominee. He urged the ECI to stop this kind of misuse of position to ensure free and fair elections. He added that in a peaceful state like Himachal this kind of misuse of position would only vitiate the atmosphere.
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6 RPGMC students expelled
Kangra, April 25 Disclosing this, Dr Anil Chouhan, principal of the college, told mediapersons today that the parents of the six students had been called to take their wards away from the college campus for one month. The parents have been conveyed that if they did not report to the college by Monday their wards may be further penalised. He said, as reported by the chief warden on April 18 night, six students of second year indulged in indiscipline by creating nuisance by blowing motorcycle horns and using abusive language against each other and in order to inculcate the sense of discipline among the students the college council took this harsh decision. He said the students had left the campus at 6 pm and returned back at dead of the night, perhaps drunk, and created ruckus. The six students denied allegations that they were drunk on the occasion. The expelled students were identified as Digvijay Singh, Raj Kumar, Antrish Chandel, Maninder Singh, Parveen Kumar and Abimanu Patial. First Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meeting was held here last evening which decided to persuade 10 other hardcore students to shun off the path of indiscipline and their parents be summoned to check their wards. If these steps failed to have good results adverse remarks should be written in their character certificates. The meeting was chaired by Dr Anil, principal, and presided over by Dr Narender Awasthi, president, PTA.
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Mumbai resident falls into gorge, dies
Dharamsala, April 25 Sources said Prag had come here along with a troop of 31 persons, including his family members and friends. They went on trek to Triund, a tourist spot near the snowline of Dhauladhar mountains. The trekkers go on foot uphill about 7 km from Dharamkot to reach Triund. While returning from the tourist spot, Prag slipped and fell into the gorge. He was taken out from the gorge by locals and taken to zonal hospital, Dharamsala, where he was declared dead. Police officials said since it was an accident no case had been registered. Prag’s body was handed over to his wife who was also accompanying him
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EVMs for visually impaired
Shimla, April 25 The Kangra parliamentary constituency has the highest number of 440 visually impaired registered electors, followed by the Mandi constituency (235), Shimla constituency (200) and Hamirpur constituency (195). According to Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Khachi, out of the total 1,070 visually impaired electors only 27 electors are Braille literate. It was for the first time that the Election Commission had introduced Braille signage features in the EVMs for the convenience of visually impaired electors so that they could cast their votes without the help of companions. All presiding officers in the state would be provided Braille Ballot Papers to assist Braille literate voters. |
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5 held with jewellery, currency notes
Bilaspur, April 25 SP Kuldip Sharma said today that the Talai police party on patrol duty found these five persons namely Sandip Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Mukesh Kumar, Surender and Baba roaming about in suspicious circumstances at a police naka during the night and recovered 313 .630 gm gold jewellery from their possession, along with Rs 28,600 currency notes. Cost of the jewellery has been assessed at more than Rs 4 lakh. The SP said a number of thefts of jewellery and other articles were being reported from various places since past some time here in the district and the police had started a special drive under all police stations to spot the culprits on basis of some clues available at these theft spots. These persons were rounded up under this campaign and they could not explain the possession of this jewellery and the money with them to the police. |
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1 killed, 3 hurt in mishaps
Nurpur, April 25 Her husband injured seriously in the mishap and was referred to the DMC, Ludhiana. The Indora police had arrested Hardeep Singh, driver of the truck and a case under Sections 279,337,338 and 304(A) had been registered against him. In another road mishap Balkar Singh, alias Rocky, son of Parshotam Singh of Sadwan village, injured when the maruti car, which he was driving overturned near Raja Ka Bagh yesterday morning. According to the police, he had allegedly stolen the car parked on roadside at Jassur and tried to flee after committing the crime but the vehicle met with an accident on its way to Pathankot. He had been admitted in the local civil hospital and a case under Sections 379,279 and 337 had been registered against him. |
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Redundant ‘kisan books’ become Cong tool against Sushant
Dharamsala, April 25 The Congress leaders while talking to The Tribune alleged that during the stint of Sushant as revenue minister the state government spent Rs 20 crore on making kisan passbooks. It was maintained that in future for all revenue purposes, including sale of land, mortgage or taking loans the farmers would just have to bring kisan books. There would be no need for them to take revenue records as ‘farad’ from the revenue officials for any revenue related matter. The kisan books contained details of revenue records of lands of the farmers. However, the passbooks served no purpose. Former Congress MLA Sujjan Singh Pathania and district general secretary Ajit Mahajan while talking to The Tribune said all the farmers of the state had spent time and energy to make kisan books. However, all the exercise proved to be farce and public money went waste. The sources here also said that the passbooks were redundant as the revenue officials did not own them. They still ask the farmers to bring fresh farads for any sale deed, mortgage of loan cases. The plea of revenue officials is that the revenue record gets updated regularly while the record in kisan books is old and cannot be relied on. The Congress leaders also alleged that Sushant during his stint as revenue minister asked villagers in Pong Dam oustee areas to apply for regularisation of encroachments made on government land. The people applied to the government for regularisation of encroachments. However, same applications proved to be the basis for registration of cases against the people. The BJP spokesperson when contacted said that the move for regularisation of encroachments was made for Pong Dam ousteees. It was the Congress government that used the applications made by people for regularisation of encroachments to register cases against the applicants. Regarding the redundant kisan books the BJP spokesperson said the documents still served the purpose as now every farmer had record
his land.
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CM releases book
Shimla, April 25 The book contains information about the value of vote in the democratic system of governance and the methods adopted by different political parties to woo the electorate to support their ideology. Besides retaining the original empirical structure of the election process in the US presidential election and UK elections, information about the ensuing parliamentary elections in India is also mentioned in the book. Dhumal congratulated the author for his maiden venture and compiling valuable information to the readers interested in understanding the future political process of different democracies.
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Hazaar-patis rub shoulders with crore-patis in poll fray
Hamirpur, April 25 However, two candidates, who have filed their nomination from the Hamirpur constituency, have only few thousand rupees in their bank accounts. Interestingly, both these candidates owe loans to banks and other financial institutions to the tune of few lakhs. Lalit Singh, who has filed his nomination papers as a Bharatiya Chaitanya Party candidate, has only Rs 15,000 in cash and no deposit in any bank as per details of the affidavit filed by him along with his nomination. Though he possesses agricultural land worth Rs 22 lakh and a Maruti car, he owes Rs 1,50,000 to the PNB and a cooperative society. Similarly, Pankaj Kumar Katna, who has filed nomination papers as a Shiv Sena candidate, has Rs 1,277 in his two bank accounts and Rs 25,575 cash. His spouse has Rs 571 in a bank account. As per his affidavit, he has no land as property in his name or in the name of any other member of his family. He also has a debt of Rs 3,01,329 and Rs 90,000 to the SBI and Rs 2,11,329 to a financial institution. He also possesses a Mahindra Max pick-up Jeep and two insurance policies; one in the name of his wife and the other in the name of his daughter.
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Steps taken to check forest fires
Bilaspur, April 25 He said 71 per cent of the forest area in this division is prone to fire as 28 per cent of the area is covered with grass and shrubs and another 23 per cent is covered with pine trees. The situation is made more complicated by 3,570 private grasslands where some villagers start fire to destroy thorny bushes and most of which become cause of such forest fires. Rana said 100 special fire watchers have been appointed in the entire area and nine watchtowers have been set up to spot and immediately report any incident of fire.
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