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Narinder’s Defeat
Medical college to help smokers quit habit
Varsity begins initiative to generate resources
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Driver sacrifices life to save passengers
Missing truck driver found murdered
9 industrial projects cleared
Rare Pheasants Camp for foreign students on Indian culture
La Montessori School to have space lab
Sutlej basin or dumping ground
More duping cases surface
e-billing jacks up power board revenue by 30 pc
House, 3 cowsheds damaged
Penalty imposed on SDM
FIR lodged
Traders decamp with money
‘Double gain’ of state revives industry’s hope
Review meeting held
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Narinder’s Defeat
Hamirpur, June 2 Some of these leaders had already been drawing flak from supporters of party candidate Narinder Thakur for not putting in their heart and soul into the campaign. Even during the campaigning, supporters of the party candidate had brought this fact to the knowledge of party leadership and the election observer. Some of them had said, “Some Congressmen were not fully cooperating in the party’s election campaign and party candidate Narinder Thakur was left to fend for himself during the election.” Even after the election result, it was being said that when Narinder Thakur had managed to make deep inroads into the BJP’s area of influence, many party MLAs, former ministers and other key party functionaries could not maintain their hold on voters. While only two Congress MLAs and one former minister could secure lead for the Congress candidate, other MLAs and party stalwarts could not produce expected results.
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Medical college to help smokers quit habit
Dharamsala, June 2 A large number of patients of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and lung cancer report at hospitals here. These diseases are caused primarily by smoking. What is more dangerous is that smoking is spreading among students of medical colleges. In a survey conducted in Amritsar medical college 3 to 4 per cent of students were found to be addictive to smoking. In final year the percentage grew to about 15 per cent. This percentage in Himachal colleges might be more, however, no survey has been carried out as yet to establish the fact. He further said in the proposed de-addiction programme, heavy smokers were being given nicotine therapy. The smokers who would be willing to enter the programme would be given medicine containing nicotine dose which would be reduced slowly. Initially, the medicine would be provided free of cost with the help of the Cipla pharmaceutical company. For light smoker various motivation programmes have been designed. Despite ban by the Supreme Court smoking has not stopped in Himachal. Ban on smoking at public places has remained on paper in the state. Due to non- implementation of ban on smoking at public places the health of people is being affected due to passive smoking. The Department of Pulmonary Medicine in Tanda medical college has decided to start the programme after the observation of No Tobacco Day. ‘By just observing the day would not help people give up the habit. So we have decided to launch a programne for kicking this habit through prolonged counselling and providing medicine,’ Dr Bhatia said. The experts have decided to conduct a study on economic impact of smoking on poor families.
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Varsity begins initiative to generate resources
Dharamsala, June 2 The agency concerned will plan training and consultancy projects by deploying existing teaching and non-teaching staff of the university. These staff members will be assigned duties in addition to their existing duties. An advisory committee, a management committee and a human resource development committee have been constituted for the smooth implementation of the programme. These will be headed by the Vice-Chancellor of the university while senior officers like directors, deans, registrar and comptroller will help in managing the programme. Income programme heads (IPH) will be declared for each activity, including tea production and marketing, nurseries, green houses, seed production, livestock-related products and services, vermin-compost and bio-fertilisers, honey products and mushroom-related products and services. The central administrative body of ENVOP will be housed in the building of the Department of Horticulture. However, its staff and units will be stationed all over the university. University Vice-Chancellor Tej Partap has approved a new team for the programme. Head of the Department of Horticulture Jagmohan Badyal will be the acting programme director while DK Sharma, Dinesh Badiyala, Arun Kumar and Arun Sharma will be its members. The team has been asked to put in place the entire set-up for the programme this year. The university has been forced to make plans for generating extra income as the establishment expenditure has tremendously increased following the implementation of new pay scales for the staff. The university has to depend on central institutions and bodies for its research projects.
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Driver sacrifices life to save passengers
Bilaspur, June 2 He was a resident of Galote village near here. As the vehicle that he was driving was giving some trouble, Purushottam got down the bus to inspect it. Meanwhile, the bus suddenly started trundling down the steep incline. Purushottam was taken by surprise. Realising that the vehicle was moving towards the khad, he tried to get into the bus to control it. He succeeded in steering the vehicle away from the khad side while clinging to the driver’s window, but was himself caught between the sliding vehicle and a roadside rain shelter and was virtually crushed between the two. He breathed his last on way to the PGI, Chandigarh. Passengers did everything possible to save his life, but in vain. They said they would remain indebted to him for saving their lives. The body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem examination. A case has been registered.
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Missing truck driver found murdered
Solan, June 2 Sikander had left for Shahpur in Kangra after getting his vehicle loaded with iron bars from RR Castings, near Jharmajri, on Sunday. He, however, failed to reach the destination. The police was informed about his disappearance this morning. Baddi SP Sumedha Diwedi said, “The recovery of truck from Kiratpur and the body from Nerli village hinted that there was some foul play behind the incident. The entire stock of iron was also found missing. It appeared that he was hit with stones that were found lying near the body. However, the exact cause of death would be known only after a post-mortem examination.” A case of murder under Section 302 of the IPC has been registered. Sikander belonged to Gol Jamala village in Nalagarh subdivision. This happens to be the second case of murder in this industrial area within a fortnight. Earlier, an industrial worker was found murdered on the Kashmirpur bridge. |
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9 industrial projects cleared
Shimla, June 2 The major investors whose projects were cleared today included the ESSAR Group, Paragon Knits Limited, Gujarat Flourchemical Limited, UB Biscuits and Wind Turbine Equipments. The projects would generate employment for about
2,943 persons. Dhumal said the industrial units would be made to employ local people after upgrading their skills. The government had created quality infrastructure for technical education in the state and preference had been given to disciplines that could help in getting employment in the industrial sector. Providing 70 per cent employment to local people at all levels had been made mandatory for all industries. Over the past 18 months, 97 new industrial proposals involving an investment of Rs 7,938.58 crore and potential to generate employment for 23,054 persons had been cleared. Thirty expansion proposals involving investment of Rs 975.53 crore and generating employment for 3,563 persons had also been cleared, he added. Till date, industrial investment of Rs 8,914.11 crore had been attracted and employment avenues created for 26,617 persons. Despite economic slowdown, the pace of industrial development had not declined in the state. Almost all multinational pharmaceutical companies were setting up units here, he added. Chief Secretary Asha Swaroop emphasised the need for regular meeting of the authority, preferably every month, and proper scrutiny of proposals before the |
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Rare Pheasants
Shimla, June 2 The wildlife authorities have sought the expertise of the UK-based World Pheasants Association and the Wildlife Institute, Dehradun, to prepare a release protocol. The chicks have been bred under the conservation and breeding programme being undertaken at Sarahan, near Rampur, for the western tragopan and at Chail for the cheer pheasants. “There are eight pairs of chicks of the endangered western tragopan while 30 eggs have been laid so we are hopeful that we will have a sizeable number of chicks at the pheasantry at Sarahan,” said KS Thakur, Conservator, Wildlife. He added that certain areas had been identified which would serve as natural habitat and the birds would be left under close monitoring and surveillance. He said before releasing the birds into complete wilderness, it would
have to be ensured that they learn to fly, hunt for their food and develop all other survival instincts “It is only once the birds perfect this art that we will release them into the forest because we
cannot take a chance with even one bird as they are too precious,” he said. In fact to accommodate more birds and chicks a new pheasantry is being made at Rampur where a minimum of 100 birds can be kept. Similarly, even at Chail further expansion is being done to have more space. The breeding in captivity is a highly technical and sensitive task where the conditions have to be kept ideal with zero scope of error. Another task at hand is to ensure that the birds of the same bloodline do not breed as this results in genetic disorders. As such the birds have to be tagged properly so that the problem of inbreeding does not develop. Efforts are also made to capture a bird from the wild so that a new bloodline is added to prevent inbreeding. There are a total of 51 different types of pheasants, out of which 17 are found in India and seven in Himachal. The wildlife authorities are focusing more on undertaking breeding
and conservation programmes for the most endangered species western tragopan, cheer and monal. A Pheasants Core group has also been constituted to elicit opinion of experts, environmentalists and senior officials.
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Camp for foreign students on Indian culture
Dalhousie, June 2 Rattan Lal from the ICCR, Delhi, is the liaison officer of this programme. Forty-five students, including 18 girls and 27 boys hailing from 14 countries, have arrived here. They belong to Kazakhstan, Yemen, Laos, Fiji Islands, Mongolia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Palestine, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Mauritius. Local municipal councillor Asheesh Chadha inaugurated the camp. He said such sort of camps would go a long way in promoting Dalhousie as an international tourist destination. Since students are visiting Kathalog and Kohladi villages, it would promote village tourism and would also help them in having a feel of the state’s culture. During the camp, besides other programmes of the foreign students, the Chamba food specialíty locally known as ‘dham’ would be served to them. They would also play friendly football and basketball matches with local school students.
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La Montessori School to have space lab
Kullu, June 2 Chairman of La Montessori Schools Kanwar Ripudaman Singh said the programme was launched by the Scoperta Technologies in association with ISRO and the Indian Planetary Society, Mumbai. The main objective of the programme was to provide space education in different schools of India. Arun Kumar, chief managing director of Scoperta, visited the school today. He delivered lecture on space education and confirmed that the organisation would start diploma courses in the school, which would be affiliated to ISRO, NASA and the Indian Planetary Society. He said after finishing with the root-level preparation of children the next project would be to open an engineering college affiliated to AICTE, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, NASA and ISRO. This would be the first engineering college in Asia. The eligible students would be sent to NASA on 100 per cent scholarship every year, he claimed. Ripudaman, while introducing luminary personalities of the project, said the best minds of the world were together under this banner. Dr JJ Rawal, a top space scientist of the world, is the president of this project. |
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Sutlej basin or dumping ground
Shimla, June 2 The member, state secretariat, Tikender Singh Panwar, has sought immediate intervention of the chairperson of the PCB to check the illegal and unscientific dumping of debris by the group into the Sutlej. “The construction activity has severely affected the livelihood of the people in the adjoining villages of Kilba, Runang, Urni, Yula, Meeru, Chagoan, Tapri, Sapni and Kanai,” he said. He added that the indiscriminate blasting and unchecked air pollution was causing loss to the locals whose apple crop had been severely affected as pollination could not take place. “The Sutlej basin has been converted into a dumping ground as the muck being extracted from the head race tunnel is being disposed of unscientifically,” he said. Citing examples of gross violation of the norms he said at certain points the retaining walls just touched the river flow which was against the laid down norms and to top it all the walls had been raised at 90 degrees angle, another violation. “It is because of this negligence that at many places between Wangtoo to Karcham, the retaining walls have caved in the river, posing a serious threat,” he said. |
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More duping cases surface
Shimla, June 2 Sahota, who was arrested by the local police yesterday, has been remanded to police custody till June 5. “We are trying to get across to the real agent of this illegal racket through the contact number that we have found in the mobile phone of Sahota,” said district police chief RM Sharma. After learning about the arrest of Sahota, two other persons today approached the police. An ex-serviceman from the Solan area filed a complaint with the police that he had paid Rs 2.5 lakh to Sahota, who promised to send his son abroad. The money was paid from the amount he got after his retirement. Another family from the Kotkhai area too approached the police with the same complaint.
— TNS |
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e-billing jacks up power board revenue by 30 pc
Shimla, June 2 The revenue on account of sale of power for the month of April from five subdivisions in the city division, where spot billing has been introduced under a pilot scheme, has shot up to Rs 377.56 lakh from Rs 242.81 lakh last year. The gross increase comes to over 55 per cent. However, after setting off the increase on account of 3.5 per cent rise in the number of consumers and 8.3 per cent hike in electricity tariff, the comparable figure works out to Rs 321.88 lakh. Thus, the net increase comes to over Rs 79 lakh for a single month. The annual impact will be over Rs 9 crore. It is a huge amount when one takes into account the fact that the state government is paying a subsidy of Rs 140 crore to domestic consumers annually. So far, only 30,000 out of total 52,591 consumers have been covered under spot billing. As the high-tension connections cannot be brought under spot billing, only about 36,000 consumers will be covered under the pilot project in the city. The actual saving is much more as bill distributors have been eliminated. There are 49 divisions and 258 subdivisions in the state catering to about 18 lakh consumers. The domestic and commercial power fetches about Rs 500 crore annually and as such a nominal increase of 20 per cent will bring additional revenue of Rs 100 crore. Similarly, a 5 per cent increase in the revenue from industrial and bulk consumers will bring additional revenue of Rs 65 to Rs 75 crore annually. Thus, computerised billing will generate additional revenue more than the amount being paid as subsidy by the government. The data also points out to large-scale under-billing and other malpractices. Apart from under-billing, the meter readers had been issuing bills on average basis, without obtaining the actual reading. It also explained the reason for stiff resistance to spot billing. Now, meter readers have no option but to visit each and every household and issue bills on the spot. The board has procured 60 spot billing machines for 94,000 consumers and it proposes to get 20 more for total coverage.
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House, 3 cowsheds damaged
Chamba, June 2 It was also feared that some livestock has been washed away in the flashfloods in the Bhajotra area. Meanwhile, a team of revenue officials from the Salooni tehsil had rushed to the incident site to take stock of the situation and to conduct relief and rehabilitation operation in the area. |
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Penalty imposed on SDM
Sundernagar, June 2 A case was filed by Devi Singh and others alleging that the Municipal Committee, Sundernagar, Mandi district, was making recovery of house tax wrongly. They said the SDM was a party in the case, who according to the plaintiffs (applicants) did not have any authority regarding the recovery of tax. The court issued directions to the SDM to appear personally before the court. However, the SDM did not appear before court and on this the court initiated proceeding under Section 32 of Civil Procedure Code and issued show-cause notice to the SDM. The court imposed a penalty of Rs 1,000 as the counsel present in the court did not pay the amount so it directed the Mandi DC to realise the amount from the SDM’s salary.
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FIR lodged
Nurpur, June 2 The complainant has alleged that she had taken a bank loan to the tune of Rs 50,000 to take admission in the nursing course in 2007. She stated that she had submitted a bank draft for Rs 50,000 and Rs 10,000 in cash to the director for this purpose. She also took three months training, but all of a sudden the training institute downed its shutters in December 2007, after the winter vacation, and shifted it to Amritsar.
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Traders decamp with money
Nurpur, June 2 On knowing about the sudden disappearance of the showroom operators, the irate people thronged the showroom late last night and took away items kept in its godown. The loot could only be stopped with the intervention of the police, which rushed to the spot and locked the premises. According to DSP Hari Ram, the police had inquired into the addresses of operators of the showroom and on verification they were found out to be fake. He said the police had arrested six members of this trading company- M. Kuber, K. Kumar, D. Walan, K. Mukesh, B. Bhasker and K. Kumar- on May 28. However, they were bailed out the next day with personal surety bonds. They had to appear in the court of the sub-divisional magistrate today for further action under Section 116 of the CrPC, but on their failure to appear the magistrate served notices to those who had extended sureties in the case.
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‘Double gain’ of state revives industry’s hope
Solan, June 2 Improving road connectivity and expediting the Baddi-Chandigarh rail link were the main demands of the industrialists having their units in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) area, said president of the BBN Industries Association Rajinder Guleria. Emphasising the need to improve infrastructure, the Parwanoo Industries Association (PIA) said since the incentive period was reduced from 2013 to 2010, the Centre made a neat saving of Rs 35,000 crore and if only 50 per cent of that was invested in infrastructure, it would propel the state on the growth trajectory. As a measure to cut down on fuel, the association advocated for the supply of natural gas by extending the gas pipeline to Himachal. Other crucial suggestions included availability of credit at reasonable interest to enable the industry to compete globally. There was no sale outlet of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam in the state that forced industrialists to make purchases from traders. A depot should be opened at Parwanoo or Baddi, he added. The slump-struck automobile industry was, however, hopeful of tiding over the recession soon. Senior executive of Indo Farm tractors CN Dhar said, “We want the present rate of excise duty to continue as its reduction will not augur well for the industry in the state. Since there are some signs of revival, we hope the tax structure is also revised suitably. There is a need to do away with the fringe benefit tax as we are forced to maintain cumbersome details. We are not against taxes, but their realisation should be made simple.” The pharmaceutical sector is hopeful of seeing a reversal in excise duty, which was scaled down from 16 to 8 per cent over the past one year. RK Arora, chairman of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs, said, “Refund of duties on raw material can help us offset the impact of reduced excise and this will help the pharmaceutical industry in the state.”
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Review meeting held
Shimla, June 2 The minister today presided over a meeting of the department to review the smooth availability of foodgrains under the PDS. “Every family in the state is being provided 1 kg each of kala chana, urd and chana dal, 2 litre edible oil and 1 kg iodised salt,” he said. He said seeing the popularity of the subsidised ration scheme the government had decided to continue with it. “There are total 15.75 lakh ration cards out of which 10.5 lakh are above poverty line families,” he said. He added out of the BPL families, 1.97 lakh are covered under the Antodya Ann Yojna. He said each BPL family was being provided 15 kg rice and 20 kg wheat at the rate of Rs 3 and Rs 2 per kg, respectively.
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