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Cabinet approves nursing college at IGMC
Rail Budget
Enterprising pearl farmers duped
Govt urged to hold meeting
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‘Give priority to displaced persons’
Kisan sabha opposes timber policy
Cong seeks white paper on employment
of Himachalis
Cong body to oppose govt policies
Woman raped
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Cabinet approves nursing college at IGMC
Shimla, February 25 The government had, in the past, already granted approval for the setting up of 14 nursing colleges, three of which have already started functioning. The Cabinet also granted approval for filing of 188 posts of trained graduate teachers (TGT) in arts, non-medical and drawing masters to meet the staff requirement in 47 newly upgraded middle schools. Posts of 47 water carrier have also been approved for these schools in the elementary education department. The Cabinet also approved setting up of school management committees under the Free and Compulsory Education Act-2009. These committees will ensure involvement of parents and teachers in the management of schools and in achieving the objective of free and compulsory education under the Act to the children, including universalisation of elementary education under the National Education Policy. The Cabinet approved upgrade of the post of assistant professor, community medicine to that of associate professor, community medicine at the IGMC, Shimla. It also approved filling the post of director in the Directorate of Sainik Welfare Department. The Cabinet approved extension of monetary benefit to the winners of distinguished service awards at par with gallantry award winners of the armed forces, who have got similar distinguished award twice. This would carry cash award as well as annual annuity. The Cabinet gave approval to Abhishi Educational Society, Ner Chowk, to establish a technical college under affiliation to HP Technical University instead of setting up of university as requested by it. Similar approval was given to KC Social Welfare Trust, Nawanshahr, for setting up of technical colleges under affiliation to the HP Technical University instead of university. It was also decided to regularise contractual junior engineer of panchayat samitis, who had completed eight years of service, in respective zila parishads in the Panchayati Raj Department. |
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Rail Budget
Shimla, February 25 That Dhumal was deliberately spreading misinformation to malign the UPA regime was evident from his statement that even the Bhanupali-Bilaspur line had been ignored, he said. The fact was that the first phase of Rs 365 crore to lay 20 km of track had already been sanctioned and work for land acquisition was underway for the 3-km of line from Bhanupali. Moreover, it was obvious that the Bilaspur-Manali-Leh line could not be constructed without first laying the track from Bhanupali to Bilaspur. The new line proposed from Ghanauli to Dehradun via Baddi, Kala Amb and Paonta Sahib would link all industrial areas and also improve connectivity within the state, he added. Besides five important rail projects, including Bilaspur-Manali-Leh line, were included. However, Dhumal was not happy because he was pursuing the Pathankot-Jogindernagar-Mandi-Manali-Leh link. The railways had already got pre-feasibility study carried out for the Bilaspur-Leh link. There projects would be taken up after carrying out feasibility studies and preparing detailed project reports. While Dhumal was alleging discrimination, his MP son Anurag Thakur was all praise for the rail Budget and giving credit to his father. He was right in hailing the Budget but the credit for it went to the two ministers from the state in the Union Cabinet and he and other leaders had also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee, Kaul Singh said. |
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Enterprising pearl farmers duped
Una, February 25 The nucleus is small round piece of calcium made from shell of mussels. It is kept in the body of mussels after a small surgical cut. The nucleus causes irritation in the body of mussel. To remove the irritation, mussel starts coating nucleus layers of calcium that ultimately takes the shape of pearl. The farmers, who demanded nucleus from the department, were supplied with pieces of marble by officials. Investigations by The Tribune revealed that the fisheries department officials bought marble pieces that had holes from a roadside vendor. The pieces were basically meant for making fake pearl necklaces by them. Ashok Kumar Verma, assistant director, Department of Fisheries, when contacted, admitted that they had bought some pieces of marble from a roadside vendor. He said the marble pieces were supplied to farmers on an experiment basis. However, since the experiment failed, we gave up the idea, he added. The street vendor Rakesh Kumar, when contacted on the pretext of buying nucleus, claimed that officials of the Department of Fisheries had bought about 1 kg pieces of marble from him. Meanwhile, the farmers have alleged that the department had played a cruel joke on them. They alleged that they had been demanding nucleus as support from the government department for promoting pearl farming. However, till date the department had been able to supply just fake material to us. Verma, when asked about inability of the department to supply nucleus to farmers, said they had contacted Radius Corporation in Chhattisgarh for supply of nucleus meant for freshwater mussels. However, the corporation was charging a rate of Rs 22,500 per kg. “Since it is very costly, we are now trying to import it from China where the cost is about Rs 6,700 per kg,” he said. The farmers are, however, alleging that they need just about 1 kg nucleus to start with. They are also willing to chip in the cost in case the department was finding it hard to spend Rs 22,500 for ‘A’ grade nucleus. They have demanded an inquiry into the matter. The farmers have also demanded that the government should call in experts from other states for training them in pearl farming. |
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Govt urged to hold meeting
Shimla, February 25 Srivastava, who is himself a member of the committee set up under the Disability Act, said several issues related to persons with disabilities were pending with the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment and meetings of the statutory committees were not being held as per the norms. He said the functioning of the department had always been under scanner as far as disability rights and child rights were concerned. He expressed his grave concern on the failure of the minister for social justice and empowerment in bringing out the much-awaited state policy for persons with disabilities. It was pertinent to mention that the minister had made a public announcement in July, 2008, that a policy would be framed within two months but no follow up action had been taken in the matter. He demanded that the policy for persons with disabilities should be announced in the ensuing Assembly session. |
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Leopard strays into city, captured
Shimla, February 25 A resident spotted the nine-month-old cub in the vicinity of a house. However, when some passerby tried to shoo away the animal it jumped down on the roof of the adjoining house, ran downhill and disappeared into the bushes. In the process it also caused a bruise to a person who was sitting on the roof. Panic gripped the residents who made frantic calls to the police control room for help. A four-member rescue team headed by wildlife veterinary surgeon Sandeep Rattan, accompanied by local divisional forest officer Rajesh Sharma, arrived on the spot soon. They tried to trace the animal in the bushes along the nullah passing through the area on the basis of eyewitness account but could not find it. However, one of the residents finally located the animal, which was hiding in a cavity behind tall grass in the hill slope in the backyard of a multi-storeyed building close to the Mall Road. In fact, it was the long tail hanging out from the hideout that enabled to spot the animal. A dart with a dose of tranquiliser was shot at the hideout and the animal rushed out menacingly and tried to find a way out of the cluster of buildings. It ran uphill and tried to climb the deodar tree twice. However, the dart, much to the relief of the rescue team, had landed perfectly on the body and the sedative started to show its effect. The leopard did not make a third attempt to climb up and instead headed downwards and hid inside the building. The team located the animal and after it fell unconscious shifted it to Tuti Kandi rescue home. Rattan said the animal was in a bad shape as it did not have the left paw and it was a recent injury which had caused septicaemia. It was weak, emaciated and weighed only 15 kg, as it had not eaten anything for the past several days. |
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‘Give priority to displaced persons’
Kullu, February 25 Khimi Ram said the government had started this programme to facilitate the rural people to save their money and time for getting their problems solved on their doorstep. Deputy Commissioner RK Pruthi presided over the function. He said as many as 435 cases were discussed and most of them settled on the spot. Some of the cases needed investigations for which officials of the departments concerned were directed to settle the cases within the stipulated time period, he added. He further said villagers of at least 14 panchayats attended the camp.
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Kisan sabha opposes timber policy
Shimla, February 25 Sabha president Kuldip Singh Tanwar said the TD was a necessity in Himachal due to its topographical and climatic reasons. As the state fell under the temperate zone with extremely cold weather conditions, houses made of timber were more suited and could not be replaced by brick, mortar and cement. Further, the hilly terrain has low road density and, as such, it was very difficult for the people to carry industrial material like cement and sand for constructing such houses, he added. Also, the region, falling under the seismic zone, timber-framed structures were the best to meet such an eventuality. The forest laws and rules had been changed several times in the past and it was for the first time that the forest rights of the people had been abridged. Under the policy, timber would be provided at 30 per cent of the actual cost which meant that right-holders would have to spend a huge amount, even up to Rs 54,000, to get a cubic metre of deodar wood, which is beyond the means of small and marginal farmers. The policy promises of providing timber through silvicultural markings, whereas the reality was that most of the forests had not been marked for silvicultue and the salvage wood was not been extracted. It also did not provide the TD from salvage trees from the forests where the traditional rights of the people existed. They would have to get the timber from the forest corporation depots which were at either the subdivisions, or the tehsil headquarters. Tanwar said price of the TD had to be reduced and made reasonable and the quantity and the period had to be amended to meet the legitimate demand. |
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Cong seeks white paper on employment
of Himachalis
Shimla, February 25
It also sought a white paper on the investment made after the grant of package and employment generated for the Himachalis as a result.
Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh said industries which were using the state’s precious recourses but not providing any employment to the local people had come up. If the basic objective of creating employment was not fulfilled the package should be modified accordingly. He accused the Dhumal government of selling out the interests of the state by allowing outsiders to acquire land in the state on the pretext of setting up private universities that were not required at all in such a small state and they were a bigger evil than even the deemed universities, already being closed down. |
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Cong body to oppose govt policies
Hamirpur, February 25 In a press release, president of the district mahila
Congress Raj Dhiman accused the state government of discriminating against women in giving work under MNREGA and paying them a daily wage of Rs 40 instead
of Rs 100. She said, “The state goverment has also failed to provide ration through the public distribution system to people and even rates of vegetables produced locally have skyrocketed due to its inaction.” |
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Woman raped
Mandi, February 25 According to the complaint, the woman was collecting fuel wood in the Rukhtan jungle in Chachiot. Around 11 am, an unknown person who seemed as a blanket seller came on the spot and raped her forcibly as she was alone there, she charged.
— TNS
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