Shimla, July 18
The suspended state drug controller, Sher Singh, charged with a disproportionate assets case could face departmental action for his failure to take action against more than 16 pharmaceutical companies whose samples failed laboratory test, as the percentage of medicine was far less than that prescribed on the label.

The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau will ask the Health Department to initiate departmental action against the officer for dereliction of duty. Despite samples of 16 prominent pharmaceutical industries failing to clear the sample test, no action was taken against them under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act by the officer.

“Under the law it was mandatory for him to take action against the defaulter companies within six months of the failure of the sample, but no action was taken by him,” DGP (Vigilance) DS Manhas said.

He added that since it was not possible to take action against any of these pharmaceutical companies some of whom could have closed down operations, the Health Department must initiate departmental inquiry against him.

Amidst rumours that efforts were on to reinstate the officer owing to his clout, but the fresh Vigilance move could add to his woes. The fact that most of these drugs, whose samples failed, had 20 to 40 per cent less drugs than the levels indicated on the label could have seriously affected the medical condition of those patients who were prescribed the drugs.

As per the data collected by the Vigilance Bureau, the companies whose samples failed included Intect Drug and Pharmaceutical Company (Panipat), Mefro Pharmaceutical (Mohali), Allied Chemicals (Jaipur), Venus Remedies (Panchkula), Core Health Care (Gujarat), Roma Pharma (Solan), Toshika International (Chandigarh), Ehal Con (Rajashtan), Satyam Surgical (Dera Bassi), Sai Surgicals, Sunrise Para Chemicals, Meridian (Solan), Lark Laboratory (Okhla), Idma (Panchkula), United Pharmaceuticals (Ludhiana) and Overseas Health Care (Phillaur).

Sher Singh who fell into the Vigilance net for allegedly accepting money is already facing a disproportionate assets case. Sources informed that his total assets amassed over the past seven years and were worth Rs 1.35 crore. “Out of this amount it is estimated that Rs 45 lakh assets are allegedly over and above his known sources of income,” the sources added.

The Vigilance is still in the process of getting his known properties and assets evaluated, which includes a house in Mohali and Solan, plot in Baddi, movable assets as well as foreign remittances.

Shimla, July 18
The government has decided to float tenders to invite open bids from private players to design, develop and build an Information Technology Park with an estimated investment of Rs 460 crore.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet held here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister PK Dhumal. The IT park will be spread over an area of 65 acres of government land at Waknaghat in Solan district and generate employment for about 25,000 unemployed youth, he added.

Financial capability and experience will be the criteria for determination of the eligibility of the bidder. The government will act as a facilitator and provide external infrastructural facilities only.

The Cabinet also decided to extend maternity benefits to all categories of women employees under the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, who are not covered under the CCS (Leave) Rules, thereby bringing all women employees under the ambit of its provision.

The Cabinet accepted recommendations of the HP Subordinate Services Selection Board to appoint 224 candidates as Trained Graduate Teachers (TGT). It also decided to grant permission to 139 SCVT (State Council for Vocational Training) centres on the recommendations of the Director of Technical Education and Vocational Training, to conduct courses in hotel management, mass communication, travel and tourism, pump operation, marketing and advertising, motor winding, beautician, LMV driver-cum-maintenance mechanics, multi-purpose mechanic, plumbing and sanitation, textile technician, textile dyeing and printing.

Each centre shall be conducting not more than four of the above courses at a time.

It also approved the Himachal Pradesh Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Ragging) Bill, 2009, and Himachal Pradesh Excise Bill, 2009, for being presented in the coming monsoon session of the HP Vidhan Sabha.

The Cabinet decided to permit execution of the 40 MW Baggi Hydro Power Plant by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), with the condition that the state shall get 12 per cent free power as royalty and additionally 15 per cent of actual energy generated.

The BBMB would have to engage 30 per cent of HPSEB staff at executive level on deputation and implement rehabilitation and re-settlement scheme in accordance with the Relief and Rehabilitation Policy for power projects.

Shimla, July 18
The Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court, Justice Jagdish Bhalla, today dedicated the judicial complex at Mandi constructed at a cost of Rs 3 crore to the people through teleconferencing.

Justice Bhalla said the new complex would enhance efficiency of judicial officers. He urged the District Bar Association to cooperate with judicial officers in order to strengthen the judicial system.

“Delivering speedy justice to people is essential to sustain credibility of judiciary and judges as well as advocates must ensure that people get justice by spending minimum amount at their doorstep,” he said.

Earlier, Justice Deepak Gupta inaugurated the judicial complex constructed at a cost of Rs 1.04 crore in Gohar subdivision of Mandi. Speaking on the occasion, he said the courts were being computerised and this would facilitate judicial officers and advocates in functioning more efficiently.

DK Sharma, District and Session Judge, Mandi, also spoke on the occasion.

Shimla, July 18
The HP High Court has directed the Municipal Commissioner, Shimla, to ensure that the entire town is free from stray dogs within three weeks.

It further directed him that he would be personally held responsible in case any stray dog is spotted in the town. While passing this direction, the court also directed for taking care of these dogs and directed the Municipal Corporation to ensure safety and well being of dogs in the process of relocation. It also directed the state government to provide every assistance as emergent measure to the corporation to ensure that dogs are relocated in accordance with the law.

While passing these directions, a Division Bench comprising Justice RB Mishra and Justice Rajeev Sharma also directed the corporation to deposit Rs 1 lakh in the registry of the court to grant interim compensation to the boy attacked by stray dogs and to submit complete address of the boy.

This order came on public interest petition wherein petitioner had highlighted the issue of stray dogs in Shimla. The petitioner said the stray dogs had taken over the Queen of Hills and were present in every nook and corner of the town. Stray dogs had become a menace and danger to citizens and were commonly seen even in hospital compounds, the petitioner added. The petitioner alleged that the boy had sustained serious injuries and is under treatment at the IGMC, Shimla.

The court observed that the moot question for consideration is whether such situation could be permitted to prevail. It said it is the statutory duty of the corporation to ensure that the entire town is free from the menace of stray dogs.

Now, the matter would be listed after six weeks.

Dharamsala, July 18
Stone age existed in the Shivalik hills of Himachal around 5,000 years ago. A father-son duo from Patiala has found proof of the fact in the form of stone-age tools that have been recovered from Jandori ki khud, a tributary of the Sutlej, in lower areas of Bilaspur district, adjoining Punjab.

In an article published recently in research journal “Current Science”, Dr Anujot Singh Soni and Dr Vidwan Singh Soni have proved that the stone age existed in the north-western sub-Himalayas even up to 5,000 years ago or so.

After locating large assemblages of the so- called Palaeolithic stone artefacts from river terraces laid down around 6,000 years ago as published in the journal, they have now found new evidence during an excavation conducted in Himachal Pradesh where they uncovered a huge assemblage of stone flake-tools mixed with pottery pieces.

The assemblage also contained many large-size flakes and cobble-tools. The tools were discovered in datable context, that is at variance with the earlier speculations based on meagre collections of the early stone-age tools found in the Shivaliks. It proves that most of the vast spreads of Palaeolithic stone-tools found in the sub-Himalayas abundantly belonged to this newly identified Holocene Lithic Industry.

This father-son duo has further discovered that from about 20,000 to nearly 4,000 years ago, the intrusions of south-east Asian stone-age people into Shivaliks had been occurring via hill routes.

When contacted, Dr Vidhwan Soni said he would present a paper on his latest findings in China during the “International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES)” meet at Kunming, being held from July 25.

“These discoveries will throw an entirely new light on prehistory of mankind in India and has the potential to change existing facts,” he said.

Vidhwan Singh Soni had, earlier, found fossils of mammoths and other ice age animals from a site near Bhakra Dam in Himachal. He also said his quest for discovering more prehistoric sites in Shivalik hills would continue.

Palampur, July 18
In the Maruti car scam case, the Baijnath police today interrogated officials of the Competent Motors, Mandi and Hamirpur, from where the accused had purchased 53 Maruti cars on the demand drafts of third persons.

The police also inspected the entire records of the company and it was established that all demand drafts of the victims were encashed in the bank account of Competent Motors, Mandi.

DSP Rakesh Singh said a gang of five to 10 persons was involved in the scam. They had collected the demand drafts and cash from the victims under the pretext of supplying them cars at half the price. He said as per records available with the police over 106 persons were cheated by the accused. Besides, over 50 victims had given cash to the accused.

In beginning to gain confidence of customers, these persons also provided cars at half the price. Later, when majority of customers failed to get cheaper cars, they approached the company and were shocked to see that someone else had taken cars against their demand drafts.

The DSP said if involvement of the Competent Motors was established, the police would not hesitate to arrest its officials.

Shimla, July 18
The state has bagged first position in implementation of the 20-point programme in the country in areas like poverty alleviation, employment generation, housing, health and education.

The state’s achievement has been ranked 2 per cent more than Gujarat, 4 per cent higher than Uttarakhand and 5 per cent higher than Andhra Pradesh. The four states had been ranked among the top in the implementation of the 20-point programme.

Under the employment generation programme, 8.17 lakh job cards had been issued in the state generating an employment of 1.54 crore man days and giving wages worth Rs 171 crore.

Under the Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna, the state had achieved 517 points as compared to Karnataka, which achieved 470. In the formation of self-help groups, the state had surpassed the target by achieving 104 per cent performance as 6,630 self-help groups have been formed against the target of 603.

The state’s performance under the accelerated rural water supply programme and providing food security had also been very good. More than 49,000 Scheduled Caste families had been assisted in their social economic uplift in the state.

The state’s performance in afforestation programme had also been spectacular with a percentage of 102, as plantation had been undertaken on 18,326 hectares.

Hamirpur, July 18
While non-regularisation of services of hundreds of contractual veterinary doctors by the state government is causing resentment among them, a large number of them are now planning to switch over to other jobs while dozens of them have already quit the services.

The long wait for regularisation of the services of these doctors is continuing since their appointment in July, 2003, till today, despite the fact that according to their contract condition, they were supposed to be regularised after putting in five years of service.

The state government had appointed 180 veterinary doctors on contract basis and many of them were posted in hard and tribal areas. In fact, as of today, 160 (60 per cent of the total strength) of these veterinary doctors are working in rural areas of the state.

Rueing the alleged apathy of the state government towards their plight, general secretary of the Himachal Pradesh State Veterinary Officers’ Association Dr Amit Mahajan said, “Though we have been serving the people in hard and tribal areas, the state government has not regularised our services even after putting in more than six years of service. Fortythree doctors have already left the jobs and many others are also thinking of quitting.”

Veterinary doctors maintain that “the state government is adopting double standards in regularisation of services of doctors since services of more than 500 MBBS doctors, appointed on contract basis in 2007, were regularised long back in the health department”.

There is a feeling among these doctors that their department has failed to put up a strong case before the government. At present, contractual doctors are being paid Rs 14,000 per month while their regular colleagues are drawing Rs 24,000.

Director of Animal Husbandry BC Bisht told The Tribune, “The state government has issued instructions about regularisation of all contractual employees who have completed eight years of their service. We have taken up the case with the state government. However, we are not certain whether they will be covered under general notification of regularisation or some separate notification will be issued in their case.” 

Shimla, July 18
All 101 police stations in the state will be provided with round-the-clock online registration of FIRs and complaints by March next year.

This was stated by Chief Minister PK Dhumal while chairing a review meeting of the Home Department, here yesterday. “Already 90 police stations have the facility of online registration of FIR and toll free telephone number (100), while the remaining will also get the necessary equipment by March next year,” he said.

Dhumal said the facility of online payment of traffic challans had also been launched by the police for hassle-free remittance of fine. Three police stations already had the ISO certification for ensuring high standards of professionalism while 12 more would be added to the list by the end of the financial year, he said.

The Chief Minister said besides pushing ahead modernisation programme, several confidence-building measures had been taken. “There is a need to launch a drive against drug menace by maintaining strict vigil in public places, around educational institutes and border areas,” he stressed.

He also directed authorities to identify the accident-prone points and put up warning signs, check pollution level and wrong parking on roads, especially those leading to hospitals.

Bilaspur, July 18
One person was killed while two others were injured seriously in road accidents here in the district last evening.

Scooterist Rattan Chand (50) of Kathlag-Markand village, near here, was killed when a truck hit his scooter near Ghaghas, about 11 km from here, on NH No 21. Rattan Chand was killed on the spot and the driver fled from the site of the accident but reported at the police station. He was arrested and a case was registered.

A truck hit a boy, Mohammed Ibrahim (5), resulting in serious injuries to him, at Ghumarwin at the Gandhi Chowk near here. The boy was first rushed to the local hospital and later to the IGMC, Shimla, due to serious nature of his injuries.

In another accident Mahinder Singh of Panol village was injured seriously while his motorcycle pillion rider Vishal received minor injuries as their vehicle collided with a truck near Suharghat on NH No 21. Mahinder Singh was first rushed to the local Suharghat health centre and was later referred to the PGI due to serious injuries.

Una, July 18
Virender Kanwar, Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS), attached with the PWD, held a meeting with PWD authorities here today to review the condition of roads in the district.

He directed the PWD officials to improve the condition of roads in Una district at the earliest.

Kanwar said during the current financial year, around Rs 16.3 crore had been sanctioned for construction and maintenance of roads and tarring of 137 km of road had already
been done.

The government had decided to beautify roads by planting 6,000 trees, he added. He said keeping in view the long-standing demand of people of Gagret, Daulatpur Chowk, Una and Bangana, the government had decided to prepare a plan to make bypass in these towns to avoid traffic jam.