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Rape incident raises serious
concerns about tourists’ safety
BJP to check indiscipline
Pay attention to public
complaints: Minister
Power crisis continues
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Incident exposes poor hygiene at schools
Case against car dealer,
agent
Road safety project launched
Industrial corpn records
profit
Shoolini fair begins
Leopard rescued
Officers told to remain
vigilant
House gutted
One killed
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Rape incident raises serious
concerns about tourists’ safety
Shimla, June 19 The “Dev
Bhoomi” has indeed been desecrated by the heinous act and the stray
occurrence may give a setback to the efforts of the state to project Himachal
Pradesh as a favoured destination for foreign tourists. Over the past five
years, tourism industry has witnessed phenomenal growth with total number of
tourists visiting the state shooting up from 47 lakh in 2000 to 97.49 lakh last
year. More importantly, the number of foreigners went up three-fold from 1.11
lakh to 3.77 lakh over the period. But there is no effective mechanism in place
to guide the visitors who often fall prey to lust of anti-social elements. Of late about 400 traffic police personnel have been trained to perform the duties of tourist police and deployed at key destinations. However, problems are arising because the government has virtually given up the regulatory responsibility in respect of taxis, hotel guides and others associated with tourist trade. Inspector-General of Police S.R.Mardi said tourists were advised to take the help of tourist traffic police for hiring taxis and efforts were on to take various other measures with the cooperation of the hotel industry to ensure safety of the visitors. Secretary, tourism, Manisha Nanda, said it was an unfortunate incident but maintained that it would not affect tourism in the state. DHARAMSALA:
The rape of a British tourist in Palampur has sent shock waves among the
foreign tourists who are thronging the tourist places these days. However, a
few foreign tourists when contacted by The Tribune said they still considered
Himachal as a safe destination. Nick, an Australian, said “the people here
are very friendly and we can easily roam about without any fear but Palampur
incident has come as a shock”. Diana, a Russian tourist, said, “I could
never imagine any such thing in Himachal. We stay out here till midnight and
have not encountered any problem. The locals are very hospitable as the
foreigners are a source of income for them.“ MANDI: Most foreign tourists
find Himachal as a “peaceful and safe tourist destination” but they
expressed their concern over some foreigners “missing under mysterious
circumstances in the Himalayas”. The lure of the Himalayas and a kick of
hashish were major attraction for them. “We have come to know from the
media reports that certain foreigners have gone missing from the Kullu-Manali
and Macleodganj areas in recent past,” said Deaud and John, tourists from
Israel. “But we have not faced any problem here and we are on a second visit
in three years”. DIG, central range, Anurag Garg, said these were isolated
incidents of rape but adventure-loving foreigners took risky trekking routes or
rivers or mountains and accidents did take place. (With inputs from Lalit
Mohan in Dharamsala and Kuldeep Chauhan in Mandi) |
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BJP to check indiscipline
Shimla, June 19 Buoyant after the party’s victory in three of the four Lok Sabha
seats, claimants for the party ticket from Rohru and even Jwali are openly
staking claim as they feel the BJP has a fair chance of winning. This has
resulted in bickering in the party with the party unit at the mandal level also
throwing in its weight behind such leaders. “Party men are free to express
their opinion within the party forum but no meeting can be held to pass
resolutions to support or oppose anyone,” said state BJP chief Jai Ram Thakur. He added that it was too early to decide on the candidates and it was only after the elections were announced that the procedure for selection of candidate would be initiated. The BJP mandal unit of Jwali had last week extended its support to Sudha Sushant, wife of former MLA from Jwali and now MP from Kangra Rajan Sushant. Though no reaction from the party has come out so far but senior leadership has not taken too kindly to such open support. “Such
type of meetings and resolutions adopted by the mandal unit would be viewed as
an act of indiscipline by the party which would be dealt with sternly,” said
Thakur. Besides the name of Sushant’s wife, his brother Madan Sharma and
Arjun Singh, former BJP mandal president, are also emerging as front-runners
for the party ticket. On the other hand the situation in Rohru, the seat held by former chief minister Virbhadra Singh is also getting murkier with party men openly squabbling to get the party ticket. Even though the elections have to be held within the next six months, a section of the party men is already opposing the candidature of Khushi Ram Balnatah, who has contested four elections unsuccessfully against Congress stalwart Virbhadra Singh. “A
person like Balnatah who has contested four elections despite a foregone
conclusion of defeat cannot be denied the ticket now when Virbhadra is out of
scene and the chances of BJP victory are certainly better,” said a senior
party leader. |
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Pay attention to public
complaints: Minister
Shimla, June 19 Presiding over a meeting of officers of the corporation to review its functioning here today, he suggested that the officers should issue passes with three-month validity and passengers could be given the facility to pay by the 1st or 2nd of each month if full amount was not be paid at the time of issuing the pass. A
condition that the pass would be valid for the month only after the payment was
deposited could be imposed. He further directed the officers to identify ‘dhabas’
on roads with the toilet facility to avoid inconvenience to female passengers. He said destination boards on buses should be displayed properly and announcements of arrival and departure of each bus should be ensured. The minister said there was a need to improve performance besides curtailing unnecessary expenditure to make the corporation financially viable. |
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Power crisis continues
Solan, June 19 Peeved at the non-availability of power in the peak summer season residents of Nalagarh gheraoed the local office of the state electricity board after facing power cuts in their residential areas late last night. The irate residents gathered around the Nalagarh office of the board around 11 pm and shouted slogans against the department till 12:30 am. They expressed resentment against imposition of power cuts in the residential areas though the board had assured them of uninterrupted power supply. Officials of the state load dispatch centre (SLDC), however, opined that they were hopeful that the situation would improve by today evening. The SLDC was continuously monitoring the situation and officials said as soon as signs of improvement were visible they would resume normal power supply to the industrial belts. The board had decided to impose power cuts here as the power consumption is maximum here and in case they had to divert power supply from any other area it would have affected a larger population, observed officials. Barely 40 per cent supply was available and this too had declined further. Normally, Himachal supplies almost 300 MW power to Haryana, Punjab and Delhi during these months. Officials stressed that there was no power shortage, but owing to this extraordinary situation they were compelled to provide power to the central grid leading to shortage in the total supply. The investors, especially those running continuous process industries, including pharmaceuticals, steel furnaces, food-based, textiles, etc, faced the maximum brunt as their entire processes were rendered redundant with the abrupt unplanned power cuts. Expressing
concern over this situation, general secretary of the Parwanoo Industries
Association RK Bansal said, “The situation has gone from bad to worse in the
last fortnight as unscheduled power cuts ranging from two to three hours are
imposed daily. Since there was no prior information about even the daylong
power cuts there was little we could do to make arrangements to deal with the
situation.” NURPUR: The electricity consumers in lower Kangra district on
Friday experienced unannounced power cut enforced by the Himachal Pradesh State
Electricity Board (HPSEB). According to information, the HPSEB has started daily power cut from today due to sudden fall in generation of electricity in hydropower projects. The industrial consumers will daily experience power cut from 7 am to 5 pm whereas only one hour cut has been scheduled for other power consumers. Power controller of the HPSEB RP Dhiman said due to increase in gap between demand and supply of the electricity the board had enforced this cut from today. He revealed that there was daily demand of 180 lakh units against the supply of 130 lakh units. |
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Food Poisoning
Hamirpur, June 19 Since it was reported that students of the school had suffered from food poisoning after eating food made from water contaminated by a dead snake found in the water tank, the incident speaks volumes about the condition of drinking water arrangements in the schools. The state government had observed a special total sanitation week throughout the state from April 1 to 7, this year. Surprisingly, while several organisations were covered under this total sanitation week for creating awareness about the need for maintaining cleanliness of drinking water sources, the first day of the campaign was devoted to schools of the state, emphasising on the need of cleaning drinking water tanks. More disturbing is the causal approach of the Education Department in getting mid-day meal cooked and its exposure to various contaminations, which could endanger the lives of young children. Hamirpur Deputy Commissioner Abhishek Jain today convened a meeting of concerned officers and issued strict directions to ensure cleaning of all water sources, including water tanks in the schools. He had asked to clean all water sources and carry proper chlorination, weekly cleaning of water tanks in all schools and maintain a register to note down the dates of cleaning in which anganwari workers should also be involved. He
also directed the IPH Department to clean all drinking water sources and asked
education authorities to maintain proper hygiene in cooking and serving mid-day
meals and to carry out necessary repairs of all water tanks and to put lids on
them.” |
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Case against car dealer,
agent
Mandi, June 19 The complainants alleged that they had given Rs 1.25 lakh bank drafts to Acharya and Rs 10,000 in cash under this special offer. However, over 53 customers have got the cars while another 53 customers who have booked the cars through Acharya never got it, they charged. On
the other hand, a high-level team from the Competent Automobiles rushed from
Delhi to probe into the matter after over “30 customers claimed to have given
Rs 1.25 lakh bank drafts in favour of the company through agent Acharya”. The company also lodged a complaint at the Balh police station today demanding security from the police charging that Acharya had stage-managed the anti-company protest yesterday. Director
Competent Automobiles KK Mehta said they have given two days time to sort out
the issue with the customers. But Acharya is not the company’s employee and
is just a broker bringing customers to the company, he added. Mehta said the company was looking into each details of booking. So far we have verified that over 39 vehicles have been delivered in this case for the full price. The company has never ever launched any scheme of Rs 1.25 lakh here, he claimed. On the other hand, Acharya, who also comes from Baijnath, claimed that he had collected drafts in favour of the company and deposited them with the company and took his commission. |
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Road safety project launched
Mandi, June 19 As a matter of fact, the “highways police patrol scheme”, which
was run on a trial basis in 2008 with financial support of the Ministry of
Surface Transport turned out to be successful in the region as the rate of
accidents went down in 2008. Around 100 people, including 36 pedestrians, were killed in 407 different road accidents in 2007 in the Mandi region. The rate of accidents declined in 2008 in which 70 people died in 360 road accidents, police sources said. Garg said the rate of accidents declined mainly due to high police patrol that helped checking rash, drunken and reckless driving on the highways. He said NH-21, NH-20 and NH-70 have been divided in eight sectors. He said mobile ambulance had four beds, stretchers and first aid kits to facilitate immediate relief to the victims. The mobile van is equipped with wireless sets, alco-meter and speedometers to check rash and drunken driving and overloading in private or HRTC buses on the highways, he added. Mandi SP Sonal Agnihotri said the police control room had been set here and people can dial 100 for any help- ambulance, information on rash driving or other violations on the highways. The
DIG said the “highways patrol scheme” would be extended to four other
districts of Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti. |
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Industrial corpn records
profit
Shimla, June 19 Chief Minister PK Dhumal while presiding over the 223rd meeting of board of directors of the corporation, here last evening, informed that a net profit of Rs 10.77 crore was recorded during the year 2008-09. He lauded the efforts of the management and staff and stated that under the present regime there had been a marked improvement in operations of the corporation. He approved a good performance incentive at the rate of 8.33 per cent for the employees for the financial year 2007-08. The board also reviewed the performance of the corporation for the current year and urged the employees to make concerted efforts to achieve the targets. Dhumal also reviewed the progress of development of the new industrial estates. He said an action plan would be formulated by the corporation for AISDE Phase-II (Assistance to States for Development of Export Infrastructure and Allied Activities), a scheme of Government of India, to upgrade the infrastructure in industrial areas so that additional funds under the scheme could be secured from the central government. |
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Shoolini fair begins
Solan, June 19 The fair began with a traditional puja of Ma Shoolini at the temple and was inaugurated by Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal. A large number of devotees turned up to seek blessings of the deity. Later, a procession, accompanying the bedecked palanquin of Ma Shoolini was taken out from the temple. It was received by the chief minister and local MLA Dr Rajiv Bindal. The procession passed through various areas of the town. The three-day fair culminates with the return of Ma Shoolini to her own abode located at Shilli Road. People from far and wide throng the town to seek her blessings. |
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Leopard rescued
Sundernagar, June 19 Mandi Forest Conservator BD Suyal said the pradhan of Neri Gram panchayat brought the matter to the notice of the forest staff on Wednesday. He said first aid was given to it at a veterinary hospital. According to forest officials, the snare might have been laid for capturing mongoose, which often attacked chickens of a nearby poultry farm. According to the DFO, Jogindernagar, Ajit Thakur, a case under Section 51 of the Wild Life Protection Act had been registered. |
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Officers told to remain
vigilant
Bilaspur, June 19 Gupta instructed the officers
to see that cases pending for the past one year were settled at the earliest.
She directed the officers concerned to review all cases at the end of every
month at the patwar circle level and also submit a report to her office giving
reasons for the delay. Other cases discussed at the meeting included kisan
passbook, land ownership registration, demarcation, dispossession orders, land
revenue recoveries and correction of records and audit objection removals.
Later, the DC also presided over a district-level meeting of district officers
organised to ensure efficiency in the administration. — OC
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