The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Himachal Pradesh Edition

Factory blaze: CM orders probe
Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 4
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has ordered an inquiry into the fire incident that took place in an AC manufacturing unit in Nalagarh industrial area on Tuesday night.

He has also set up a committee to identify shortcomings in various units in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial belt so that necessary steps can be taken to avoid such incidents in future.

The inquiry will be conducted by the Additional District Magistrate, Solan. It will cover all aspects relating to the incident, including the cause of fire, preventive measures taken by factory owners, assessment of loss of life and property and corrective measure, if any, required to be taken to avert such accidents in future.

The inquiry officer has been asked to submit the report within 15 days. The newly constituted committee will inspect all industrial units within its jurisdiction and take stock of the fire-safety and security systems in place there. The committee has been directed to submit its report within a month.

Gas pipeline up to Baddi by year-end
Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 4
The Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial belt will be the first area of the state to be connected through a gas pipeline by the end of this year.

This was stated by Chief Minister PK Dhumal at a high-level meeting with Lalit Man Singh, chairman, and BS Negi, member, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board of India (PNGRB), here today.

“The Baddi area will have piped gas facility after it is connected through the Nangal area of Punjab, where the laying of the main pipeline is in progress at Dadri-Nangal,” he said.

“The state will create a corridor to identify the areas where piped gas facility could be extended for commercial use,” he said.

The gas pipeline facility will save electricity besides contributing significantly towards protecting environment.

After having gas pipeline till Baddi, efforts would be made to extend it up to Bilaspur so that Ambuja plant at Darlaghat and the ACC plant at Barmana could also benefit.

Dhumal said the industrial houses would benefit by way of cheaper fuel and cleanliness at their manufacturing units.

“A good network of CNG fuelling stations would be created along the passage to facilitate CNG-fuelled vehicle,” he said.

He said 3,000 trucks ferried cement and clinker to and fro daily from factories, which led to a lot of pollution.

This, he said, would come down drastically once piped gas facility was made available to major industries.

“The CNG fuelling is much cheaper and with three new cement plants proposed in the state at Bagga in Solan, Sundernagar and Karsog, the facility will prove to be a major boon,” he said.

HC issues notice to govt, labour commissioner
Legal Correspondent

Shimla, June 4
The Himachal Pradesh High Court today issued notice to the state government, managing director of the HP Power Corporation Commission and labour commissioner on a petition challenging the selection process of assistant engineer (civil) on batch-wise basis.

While issuing notices a Division Bench comprising Justice RB Mishra and Justice DD Sood directed that process of inviting applications in view of the advertisement issued in this regard may go on, however, the same would not be finalised.

The order came on the petition filed by some candidates wherein they have challenged the condition of the advertisement issued for these posts vide which only those candidates, who have passed out from the Government owned/managed engineering/polytechnic colleges located in the state, are eligible for interview and appointment on the ground that this is in violation of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. The court listed this matter for further hearing on June 15.

Cabinet expansion may take some more time
Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 4
For fear of fuelling dissidence, the much talked about Cabinet reshuffle may not take place. However, the likelihood of the two vacancies in the Cabinet being filled along with appointment of chairmen of boards and corporations shortly is very high.

The issue regarding a possible Cabinet reshuffle and other appointments came up for discussion at a meeting of the top brass of the state BJP in the presence of central leaders at Chandigarh last evening.

For the past 15 days, there have been talks of a Cabinet reshuffle with a minister being made Speaker, appointment of another minister as political adviser to the Chief Minister and possible dropping of two members of the Cabinet.

Besides Chief Minister PK Dhumal, Rajya Sabha MP Shanta Kumar and state BJP chief Jai Ram Thakur, all-India BJP general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal and zonal general secretary (organisation) Manohar Lal were also present in the meeting.

The meeting was basically convened to discuss party’s performance in the Lok Sabha elections, but other issues were also discussed.

“Weighing all pro and cons, the leaders came to the conclusion that a reshuffle at this stage, when two byelections are around the corner, might not be a very wise decision,” said a senior leader.

Most leaders felt that 16 month was too short a period to assess the performance of ministers and the matter could wait till the two byelections were over.

Those attending the meeting confirmed that two vacancies in the Cabinet could be filled this month itself as the go-ahead from the high command had been obtained.

Along with this, the long-overdue appointment of chairmen of boards and corporations was also likely to take place soon.

The party also discussed the issue of ensuring BJP victory in the byelections to the Rohru and Jwali assembly segments.

Rival BJP factions exchange blows
Our Correspondent

Palampur, June 4
All is not well in the ruling BJP as factionalism in the Baijnath unit of the BJP has come to the fore.

Till yesterday it was restricted to issuing of press statements against each other, but now the police had to come for the rescue of BJP workers.

Two rival factions of the BJP exchanged blows in a party workers meeting held at the Chamunda Hall, Baijnath, last evening.

It was learnt that the president of the Baijnath BJP unit CL Grover had convened a meeting to review the performance of the party workers in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election.

One group of the BJP opposed this meeting and termed it as illegal as it was called without approval of the party high command.

Some members of the rival faction came to the dais and dragged few workers outside the hall, manhandled them and later, blows were exchanged.

However, the hostile workers of the BJP approached the police for rescue and lodged complaint against few fellow workers.

Later, the police registered an FIR against two BJP leaders. Nirmal Kapoor, member of the Baijnath Block Development Committee, condemned the incident.

Three killed in accidents
Tribune Reporters

Dalhousie, June 4
Two persons died on the spot and one was seriously injured in a car accident which occurred near the Banikhet filling station on the Dalhousie-Pathankot highway, near here, last night, when their car veered off the road and rolled down the hillside.

According to official sources, the deceased had been identified as Rakesh and his daughter Surbhi who belonged to Chamba town.

The bodies have been extricated from the accident site and handed over to their kin after carrying out an autopsy.

The injured was identified as Sahil, son of Rakesh, who is undergoing treatment in the hospital, the sources informed; adding that the accident victims were on their way to Chamba after attending a wedding ceremony.

A case has been registered to investigate into the cause of the accident, the sources further said.

HAMIRPUR: A student of KG class lost his life on Thursday morning after being crushed under an HRTC bus.

Kartik (4) who was travelling in an HRTC bus on its way from Harsipattan to Una was crushed under the bus while alighting for his school at Do Sarka around 8 am.The police has registered a case.

Girls outshine boys in BCom-III result
Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 4
Girls outnumbered boys by bagging seven of the top 10 positions in the BCom-III examinations, the result of which was declared by Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) here today.

Karuna, a student of Government College, Paonta Sahib, emerged as the topper scoring 1,352 marks out of 1,700.

The pass percentage is 93.97 per cent with 1,511 students out of 1,608 clearing the examination held in March.

Krishan Lal of the local Evening College has been placed second in the merit as he scored 1,333 marks while Etika Jain of Maharaja Lakshmi Sen Memorial College, Sundernagar, stood third scoring 1,311 marks.

The fourth position was bagged by Shilpi Verma of Government College, Paonta Sahib, with 1,309 marks. Ishan Choudhary of DAV College, Kangra, was fifth with a score of 1,274.

Aarti Devi of Swami Vivekanand Degree College, Chintpurni, bagged the sixth place scoring 1,269 marks and Monika Jaswal of Government College, Una, stood seventh with 1,267 marks.

Mamta Singh of Government College, Chamba, was eighth as she scored 1,240 followed by Itika Kundra (1,239) of DAV, Kangra, and Navdeep Singh (1,237) of Government College, Sanjauli.

Action against those causing forest fires
Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 4
Forest Minister JP Nadda said the government would initiate serious legal action against those found guilty of causing deliberate damage to forest wealth.

He was speaking at a blood donation camp organised by the Forest Department at the historic Ridge Maidan, here today.

He expressed serious concern over the forest fires ravaging the precious forest wealth of the state.

“People with vested interest set the forests on fire not realising that in the process valuable forest wealth is getting devastated,” he said.

He added that forest guards had been deployed in the fire prone areas to minimise the damage due to fire.

Nadda said blood donation was a very noble cause in which everyone must make their contribution to save lives.

He lauded the effort of the Red Cross Society to hold a blood donation camp in collaboration with one department every month.

Mahalaxmi Iyer enthrals
Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 4
An enthusiastic crowd burst into non-stop dancing as renowned Bollywood playback singer Mahalaxmi Iyer rendered one hit number after the other on the second day of the Shimla International Summer Festival.

Her maiden performance in the “queen of hills” was a huge success which left the audience spellbound.

Establishing instant rapport she brought a packed house on its feet with her very first song. She teamed up well with upcoming singer Shri Ram to present some of her popular duets.

Earlier, Himachal folk singers Mohinder Rathore, Surinder Sharma, Kishen Verma, Divya Prakash and others also gave performances.

CPI condemns neglect of safety norms
Our Correspondent

Bilaspur, June 4
The state unit of the Communist Party of India (CPI) has condemned the indifference and total neglect of safety norms by some industrial units in the state resulting in deaths of poor labour as has happened at the air-condition plant at Baddi yesterday.

A meeting of the state CPI here today demanded a judicial inquiry into the accident.

Assistant secretary of the state CPI Pravesh Chandel said the party felt that most of the industrial units were coming to the state to enjoy its tax holiday and to make maximum money as soon as possible.

In the process they had been ignoring the safety and security aspects, he claimed.