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Stormy Session
Pension disbursal through banks foolproof: Minister
Incentive scheme a non-starter
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CD Case
Record generation at Nathpa Jhakri
Lack of rains affects crops
Campaign to destroy cannabis
Minjar fair ends
MLA invites widows to tie rakhi
IAS officer granted bail
Removal of kidney alleged
3 killed as truck turns turtle
Cash, clothes stolen
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Stormy Session
Shimla, August 3 The matter was raised immediately after the question hour by Leader of Opposition Vidya Stokes who urged Speaker Tulsi Ram to take up the adjournment motion in this regard for which notice had been given under rule 67 by Harsh Wardhan, Mukesh Agnihotri and Surinder Bharadwaj, besides her. She said the appointment of the CPSs was illegal and in violation of the 97th amendment of the Constitution and the judgment of the high court. In the meantime, Chief Minister PK Dhumal continued with the listed business at which the Congress members started raising slogans accusing the ruling BJP of adopting double standard on the issue. As the din became louder the Speaker gave his ruling on the notice that the appointment of CPSs had been made under the law enacted by this House in 2006. Since they are no longer covered in the definition of ministers their appointment did not attract the provision of the 97th amendment. Dissatisfied by the ruling, the entire opposition staged a walk out from the house. Disapproving of the Congress action, Dhumal said it was only expected of a party which was without a leader, policy or issue. He said double standard was being adopted by the Congress, which passed the law to facilitate such appointments, and not the BJP. There was nothing illegal and the appointments had been made in accordance with the Act. The appointments made during the Congress regime were illegal and set aside by the high court as the posts were not created and approval of the Finance Department was also not obtained. It was the Congress government, which approached the Supreme Court against the high court order. The Congress was evading discussion on vital issues like situation arising due to prolonged drought regarding which the revenue minister was making a statement. “If the opposition was concerned about the woes of the affected people it could have waited for it and debated the issue.” Later, talking to mediapersons he said the Congress complained of a short budget session, but now when the government had convened a long monsoon session it is shying away from discussing issues. He expected more such walkouts during the session. |
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Pension disbursal through banks foolproof: Minister
Shimla, August 3 This was stated by Social Welfare and Empowerment Minister Sarveen Chaudhary while replying to a question of Mukesh Agnihotri in the Vidhan Sabha. She added that 2002 pensioners were not traceable and 820 had died. The system of payment through bank was foolproof as biometric smart cards, which carried photograph and fingerprints of the pensioners, were being used for the purpose. Out of the total 10,770 pensioners, 9,772 had been issued smart cards and the rest would be provided soon. The switchover to e-banking would save Rs 2 crore. The system had already been introduced in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and some other states. Forest Minister JP Nadda informed Kaul Singh that forest fires affected 25,392 hectares of area this summer, causing a loss of Rs 2.76 crore. The government had submitted a Rs 2.64 crore incentive plan to involve people in fire prevention through the joint forest management committees. He said the department was dealing with fire incidents sternly and this season 62 FIRs had been registered and a move to convert 302 other complaints into FIRs was also under consideration. The mobility of the field staff had been increased
and mobile phones had also been provided. Chief Minister PK Dhumal informed Rajesh Dharmani that 3,935 daily-waged workers had been regularised in 2008-09 up to January 15, 2009. Answering another question, he told Rakesh Pathania that all government departments, board and corporation had been issued directions to prepare job profile and formulate performance indicators for employees and officers. |
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Incentive scheme a non-starter
Shimla, August 3 While a majority of the government departments have not carried out any exercise to shortlist and recommend names of deserving employees, a few responded with “nil” reports in the performa sent by the Personnel Department for the purpose. Specific reports that there was no deserving employee for the reward included the offices of deputy commissioners of Kullu and Mandi, settlement officer, Kangra, director of fisheries, additional director general of police, home guards, resident commissioner, New Delhi, and divisional commissioner, Kangra. Only the Irrigation and Public Health Department and the state khadi board had recommended the name of an employee each, but the performa was incomplete giving rise to queries. It is quite difficult to believe that there is not a single employee in so many departments who is performing his duties diligently to deserve the award. Obviously, officers have not bothered to carry out the required exercise for assessing the performance of employees. A senior bureaucrat said the indifference of assessing authorities was quite surprising because officers usually complain that only a few employees perform the duties diligently and the rest while away their time. Now, when they have been given an opportunity to reward good performers they are unable to pick one out of them. Either they are finding it difficult to assess the performance to shortlist the names or are simply indifferent to the scheme. Under the scheme a maximum of five awards will be given in a year, which will be presented on the Civil Service Day observed on April 21. The award carries a cash reward of Rs 51,000 in case of an individual and Rs 2.5 lakh for a group with the stipulation that the individual amount will not exceed Rs 50,000. Meanwhile, it is learnt that the state has recommended the name of principal secretary, Ajay Mittal, for the award instituted by the Centre. During his stint as director of the Himachal Institute of Public Administration he brought about remarkable improvement in the facilities and took several initiatives to make it financially viable. |
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CD Case
Shimla, August 3 Even though permission by the Home Department in this regard was granted on July 31, the matter was now being examined by the Law Department. Sources said once the matter was cleared by the Law Department, an FIR could be registered against Virbhadra. It was former Congress minister Vijai Singh Mankotia who had released an audio CD, allegedly containing the voices of Virbhadra, his wife Pratibha Singh and a former IAS officer, Mahinder Lal, who is no more. It was on the basis of this CD that Mankotia, who at that time was the state chief of the BSP, had demanded registering of an FIR against Virbhadra. Even though the voice of Pratibha had also been allegedly contained in the tape, whether a case would be registered against her was not certain. “Since she was not a public servant at the time the tape was recorded so she can be left out but that will depend on the opinion of the Law Department,” the sources added. The timing of the release of the audio CD by Mankotia was considered tactical, as it had been released just before the Hamirpur byelection was contested by Chief Minister PK Dhumal. Even though the Congress was in power in the state, the BJP was able to win the seat comfortably. Political analysts point out that with the byelections to the Rohru and Jwali Assembly segments due before November this year, the registering of the FIR and the audio CD case once again being in the focus could be a ploy by the ruling party to marginalise him. Even though it was still not clear as to who would be the Congress nominee from Rohru (the seat represented by Virbhadra Singh), the possibility of his wife Pratibha Singh contesting cannot be ruled out. With her name also figuring in the CD case, the Congress would think twice before making her the party nominee in case the FIR was registered. |
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Record generation at Nathpa Jhakri
Shimla, August 3 “During July the gross generation from the power station has been 1,143.7 MU against the target of 1,008.9 MU,” informed NC Bansal, head and general manager of the project. The previous best generation at 1,090.5 MU had been achieved during July 2008. Thus, the previous best generation has been surpassed by 54 MU this year. Even with regard to the cumulative generation from the power station from April to July, the target of 3,217.5 MW has been surpassed by generating 3298.9 MU. The increased generation has come at a time when the entire country is facing power shortage due to reduced generation on account of low rainfall. Being the largest hydropower project in the country, on an average the daily generation has been 36.9 MU. The plant availability factor (PAF) achieved by the power station during July 2009 was 105.263 per cent and the cumulative PAF was 1-2.878 per cent. This is the highest PAF achieved by any central sector hydropower station operating in the northern grid. Bansal informed that the station is targeted to generate 6,600 MU of electricity during the year 2009-10 as per the MOU entered into with the Union Ministry of Power. During the previous year, the station had generated a record 6,609 MU of electricity surpassing the MOU targets. |
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Lack of rains affects crops
Shimla, August 3 While making a suo motu statement in the Vidhan Sabha today Revenue Minister Gulab Singh said the loss of over 2,65,103 hectares was more than 50
per cent. The loss of fruit production was estimated at 47, 30,33 metric tonne. Both rabi and kharif crops had been affected by dry spell with deficiency of rain ranging from 22 to 75 per cent. The loss to crops in all the 12 districts was more than 50 per cent and in some it exceeded
80 per cent. The government had ordered remission of land revenue and provided a subsidy of Rs 5 crore on inputs for agriculture and horticulture. An amount of Rs 4 crore was released to Deputy Commissioners for transportation of drinking water, Rs 14.34 crore for installation of hand pumps and Rs 3.02 crore for transportation of fodder. The Agriculture Department had reported that sowing of kharif crop had been carried out on in 70 per cent of the area and it was being affected by drought-like situation. A detailed memorandum was being prepared to seek relief from the Centre. The budget available with the state under the calamity relief fund for 2009-10 was Rs 113.21 crore, in which the Centre’s share was Rs 84.91 crore, out of which Rs 21.22 crore had been released so far. Request had been made to release the balance amount and in the meantime, the government had provided Rs 7 crore from its own resources. |
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Campaign to destroy cannabis
Shimla, August 3 Deputy Commissioner JA Rana and SP RM Sharma today held a meeting with various departments in this regard. According to estimates, there had been about 2,000 hectares of land under cannabis cultivation in the district. The district police had identified the areas under cannabis cultivation on basis of satellite images received from the Narcotics Control Bureau. According to the police, the areas under cannabis cultivation includes Gumma in Kotkhai, Khara Pathhar and Kanchi in Jubbal, Jinna and Madog in Chopal, Dakchar and Shingla in Rampur, Jhakri and Kinoo in Nankhari, Dhadher, Sandhu, Ghorna and Sarog in Theog subdivision. The PWD would provide labour force to destroy cultivation on the private, forest and revenue land. “In case, the cannabis cultivation is found to be growing on private land, the owner would be asked to remove it on his own after issuing him a warning, failing which, next time a case under the NDPS Act would be registered against him,” said Sharma. A review meeting would be held on September 3 to see the results of the campaign.
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Road widening puts trees in danger
Hamirpur, August 3 The widening of the road was undertaken by the PWD through a private contractor between Bharmelli and Chabootra about few weeks back. Though no tree has been felled, soil from their roots has been removed in such a manner that they seem to be hanging with little support. The digging of soil around the trees has been undertaken in such a manner that many of these trees may fall during heavy rains or strong winds. The widening work on this road has been undertaken along the Demarcated Protected Forest (DPF) in which any work cannot be undertaken without the clearance from the Ministry of Forest and Environment. Interestingly, the Forest Department has shown its ignorance about the action of the PWD and putting the pine trees into danger in a stretch of about 2 km. Environment activists term this action “as noble way of felling tress without seeking any environment clearance from the authorities since most of these tress would fall automatically in natural course.” Hamirpur Divisional Forest Officer Sanjay Sood said, “The matter is not in my knowledge and I will get it inquired.” |
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Minjar fair ends
Chamba, August 3 Nearly 1 lakh people hailing from different parts within and outside the state, including tourists, participated in the eight-day festivities of the fair. Earlier, a shobha yatra, starting from the Akhand Chandi Palace, passed through the main bazaars of the town and converged on the right bank of the Ravi for the immersion ceremony. Cultural troupes adorned in their colourful costumes and moving on the hymn of traditional musical instruments gave a magnificent look to the procession. |
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MLA invites widows to tie rakhi
Bilaspur, August 3 Rajesh said this section of our society requires help and support of those who have time and resources so that their difficulties could be reduced. He said he would try his best to inspire others to get involved in this campaign for their uplift in the society.
— OC |
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IAS officer granted bail
Shimla, August 3 Apprehending arrest in the fresh case registered against him, Gupta sought bail from the court. He was earlier arrested in an alleged bribery case in Parwanoo and remained in police custody for two days before he was granted bail. Gupta, a 1988-batch officer, had been in the thick of controversy even in his earlier stint in the tribal district of Kinnaur where there were allegations of irregularities in Desert Development Fund against him for which he faced vigilance probe.
— TNS |
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Removal of kidney alleged
Dharamsala, August 3 The complaint, a resident of 53 Mile village, near
Kangra, Sushil Kumar, recently reported to the police that his kidney was removed. He became aware of the fact after he underwent the ultrasonography test in Shimla medical college. The doctors who conducted the test told him that he had just one kidney. Sushil apprehended that his kidney was removed when he underwent an operation at the Palampur Zonal Hospital in 2005-06. In question is, Dr Rajesh
Ahluwalia, who had conducted the operation. When contacted by The Tribune, Ahluwalia seemed clam, despite a serious complaint against him. He said he had operated the patient for Berger’s disease (gangrening in feet) in 2005. In such cases we operate patients and inflict incision in some nerves located in lower abdomen to increase blood circulation in lower body areas. It is a general treatment for gangrening patients. “I remember operating the patient two times once on the right side of the lower abdomen and other time on the left side,” he added. “For removing a kidney one has to operate from the backside of the lower abdomen. The operations I conducted had nothing to do with the kidneys of the patient,” he said. When asked if there was an operational cut at the backside of the patient, Ahluwalia said he cannot remember it as the operation was conducted four years
ago. Kangra CMO Dr Anil Mahajan, who has been entrusted the inquiry by the district police, said he had sought details of the operation conducted on the patient in 2005.
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3 killed as truck turns turtle
Mandi, August 3 “The truck driver, while giving way to a motorcycle coming from the opposite direction at the narrow Balna curve near Kotli, came on the shallow roadside, which collapsed under its weight,” claimed relatives of the victims. The truck was loaded with bricks to be taken to a nearby village. Those killed had been identified as Om Parkash, Narain Das, Samrahan, Krishan Dogra, Jindu Ram, Dhartu, Madhav Ram, Jindu Ram, Sunari of Mandi Sadar. Surinder Kumar, a labourer of Sain village was rushed to zonal hospital in Mandi. The investigation revealed that a private company had dug up the road on the outer side, which was not permissible under the PWD rules. Villagers have demanded action against the PWD and private company, holding them responsible for the mishap. Mandi SP Sonal Agnihotri said the police had been investigating the case.
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Cash, clothes stolen
Palampur, August 3 DSP Rakesh Singh said the burglars had broken all locks of the boutique. Though, the beopar mandal had deputed a night watchman in the town, but he failed to notice the burglars. DSP added that the burglars had also stolen three ATM cards lying in the boutique and managed to withdraw an amount of Rs 15,000 from the PNB ATM. The police had registered a case but no arrest has been made so far. |
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