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Nation’s unity under threat, says Shanta
Hints at quitting politics
CD Case
Cabinet nod to excise policy
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Baddi unit fined for violating norms
3 held with charas
Co-op society under scanner
Hike in bus fares flayed
Doctors flay assault
CM’s case adjourned
HP bus fares to go up by 30 pc
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Nation’s unity under threat, says Shanta
Shimla, March 6 Addressing party workers from all over Himachal at the state-level rally against price rise, he said the UPA regime had failed to take effective steps to check price rise despite the fact that they had come to power on this promise. “Either the UPA regime must check price rise or else they have no right to continue in power as people had virtually been pushed to the brink of starvation,” he remarked. “It is the result of the widening gap between the rich and the poor in India that people have taken to terror activities, which are a threat to the national unity,” he added. He said it now appeared that the government was willing to compromise the unity of the country by granting autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir. He added it was due to corruption and mismanagement that the government had allowed traders to make huge profits. “It is so painful to read statistics in the United Nations Food Programme Report that 28 crore people in India live below the poverty line and 12 crore are virtually starving,” he said. The fact that the number of Indians making it to the list of richest people internationally and nationally only hints that this a pro-rich government whose decisions are harming the interest of the common man. Addressing party workers, in charge of BJP affairs in Himachal Satya Pal Jain said the situation was so grave that today all parties had joined hands on the issue of price rise. Speaking on the occasion, state BJP chief Khimi Ram said despite price rise, the BJP regime in Himachal had tried to give relief to all sections of society so that they would not reel under the impact of price rise. “A sum of Rs 150 crore is being spent in providing subsidised ration to people annually to provide them some relief,” he said. Later, all senior leaders, including Shanta, Jain, Khimi Ram, MPs Virender Kashyap and Anurag Thakur and senior party functionaries marched to the Governor House in a procession to hand over a memorandum addressed to the President of India to the Governor at Raj Bhawan.
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Hints at quitting politics
Shimla, March 6 Having made an appearance at the state-level rally organised by the BJP against price rise here today, he surprised everyone by stating that he was gradually not just withdrawing from state politics but from politics on the whole. “I feel people like me are a complete misfit and as such not required in today’s politics,” said an emotional Shanta, much to the surprise of the party workers assembled here from all over the state. There was so much pain in his voice that he even went to the extent of saying that at times he ponders that he should not just retire from politics but from this world, hinting at the sorry state of affairs. Though in the past Shanta has expressed displeasure over issues like corruption, it is for the first time that he hinted at an early exit from politics. Incidentally, this is the first time after the installation of Khimi Ram as the state party chief, much against his wishes, that Shanta Kumar attended a party function. He has in the past expressed disapproval over the manner in which officers facing serious corruption charges were being shielded by the BJP regime. Supporters of Shanta Kumar say he was pained at the fact that he was being completely ignored and not taken into confidence on party matters. “Be it the manner in which the state BJP chief was elected against his wishes and now no consultations being held with him for deciding on the name of person to be elected to the Rajya Sabha has pained him,” said one of his staunch loyalists. Shanta is learnt to be unhappy over the manner in which his own party’s government in Himachal was functioning. He was candid enough to admit after CDs involving his own party men, including an MP, came out that it was disgraceful for the party. Having kept himself completely aloof from the state politics ever since PK Dhumal won the race for chief ministership two years back, it is for the first time that Shanta Kumar has aired his disapproval at the state of affairs from a party forum publicly.
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CD Case
Shimla, March 6 Virbhadra Singh filed this application on the ground that he reasonably believed that the recently released two audio CDs contained voices of Dhumal and Minhas. He further alleged that in these CDs, there was a reference to the CD circulated by Vijay Singh Mankotia and from the perusal of the transcript of these CDs, certain directions were given by the Chief Minister to Minhas which was directly related to the said CD. Virbhadra Singh further alleged in his application that from the perusal of the transcript, it would be evident that there was involvement Dhumal and Minhas in one form or the other so it would be just and fair to add both these persons as party respondents in his petition. Virbhadra Singh also filed an another application for directing Secretary (Home) and DGP (Vigilance) to send these two CDs attached with the application to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh, for giving the opinion about the voices by comparing the same with the voice samples of both of them.
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Cabinet nod to excise policy
Shimla, March 6 Interestingly, the new excise policy also proposes to do away with plastic bottles keeping in mind the ban on plastic by the state government. In the first phase, 50 per cent of the plastic bottles of liquor will be replaced by As a step towards checking smuggling of liquor, the government will have secret codes which can be easily detected from the bottles to ascertain from which area and vend the liquor has been smuggled. This is likely to check smuggling in a big way. The revenue target of Rs 480 crore for the year 2009-10 has almost been achieved by the Excise Department. |
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Baddi unit fined for violating norms
Solan, March 6 The erring unit — Scott edil — has been directed to deposit this amount as compounding fee for violating provisions of the change of land-use norms. The pharmaceutical unit, which already has another unit at Jhar Majri, was expanding its operations by opening a second unit. Town and country planner Sandeep Sharma, while confirming this, said the unit had submitted its case for seeking permission and it was a site visit to the spot while examining the case that the violation was cited by them. The unit had already initiated construction even before taking any permission from the authority and this was an offence which attracted penalty. It is worth mentioning that since the central industrial package was expiring on March 31, investors are in a tearing hurry to initiate operations so that they could avail the package benefits. In a bid to complete all formalities, such glaring irregularities were coming to the fore. An official confided that he had received as many as 266 applications of new units which were seeking permissions, including consent, to operate from the State Pollution Control Board. Similarly, there was a rush of such cases seeking power connections, revealed an official of the state electricity board. While there was no announcement of enhancement of the central industrial package till now, hundreds of units, who were in the process of initiating operations or seeking various clearances, were not only using their political connections to hasten their work, but were also trying to evade formalities confided an official to meet the deadline. Officials said they were daily flooded with such calls from cohorts of politicians who insisted on early completion of such formalities. Still others, who had managed to complete their projects, were vying to invite the Chief Minister for inaugurating their units before March 31.
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3 held with charas
Kangra, March 6 Kangra District Police Chief Atul Fulzele said one Ajay Kumar Goswami, a resident of Bhatti of Dehra tehsil, was arrested on Friday following a raid at his shop at Baglamukhi temple and recovery of 19 gm of charas from his possession. He said the raid was conducted on a tip-off. In another case, during routine patrolling, the police recovered 110 gm of charas from the possession of Tarsem Lal, alias Samu, a resident of Chhatrahar, and Bir Singh, alias Biru, a resident of Bhaloon at Jassur in this district. All the three persons were arrested under the NDPS Act and investigation was in progress. |
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Co-op society under scanner
Hamirpur, March 6 The issue has been raised by Surjit Singh, president of the action committee formed by the members of the society to fight alleged malpractices in the society. This society had been in the news for the past some time due to alleged mismanagement of society funds. Last year, the management of the Jhaniara cooperative society had come under the firing line of its members for investing the society funds in various companies without the knowledge of the latter. Waiving off loans to the tune of Rs 32 lakh and payment of salaries to the secretary and joint secretary had also become issues of controversies a year ago. These issues had boiled to such an extent that old committee was voted out in the general body meeting and new committee was elected. President of the action committee Surjit Singh said, “Keeping in view the gross irregularities in the functioning of the society, a unanimous resolution was passed at the general body meeting held on March 10 last year that till action against the culprits is pending, the secretary and joint secretary of the society are to be paid Rs 8,300 and Rs 3,120, respectively.” However, according to action committee members, “Though action in the irregularities is still pending and investment of about Rs 9 lakh is under investigation, the management of the society had released salaries and other allowance to the employees and about Rs 3.5 lakh were withdrawn for paying the arrears.”
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ETO held for taking bribe
Mandi, March 6 They were arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act and would be produced before the court tomorrow. The vigilance team zeroed in on the office of the ETO and laid a trap today after it received a complaint from a local businessman Deepak Guleria. ETO Kumari Nirmal and her assistant Neeraj Kumar were caught red-handed while accepting cash from Guleria in their office. They had allegedly taken bribe from the complainant for giving him a favourable report. Talking to The Tribune after the operation, DSP Bhupinder Kanwar said the vigilance had received a complaint from Guleria that the ETO and her assistant were demanding money for giving him a favourable report with regard to filing of income tax returns.
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Hike in bus fares flayed
Bilaspur, March 6 Addressing mediapersons here today, state chief convener and former MLA Krishan Kumar Kaushal said the backbone of farmers already stood broken due to unprecedented increase in prices of essentials. “They had already lost four successive crops due to repeated drought conditions, and remaining crops were being destroyed by stray cattle wild animals and monkeys etc,” he alleged. Kaushal said the government had failed to solve any of these persisting problems and had now further burdened them. To top it all, the government is openly “siding” with contractors and millionaire Bhathi owners by not fixing the support price of khair wood, Kaushal added. —
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Doctors flay assault
Bilaspur, March 6 Addressing mediapersons after an emergency meeting of the district executive of the HMOA here, its president Dr Narender Sankhyan said the doctor was unexpectedly manhandled while he was seeing the patients after one of the persons asked him to accompany him to his house for checking blood pressure of a patient there. The doctor said since he had a number of patients to attend at the health centre, it was not possible for him to go to his home. This angered them and they roughed up with the doctor. The meeting urged the Chief Minister and the Health Minister to ensure punishment to the culprits.
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CM’s case adjourned
Shimla, March 6 In an another defamation case filed by Dhumal against Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, the statement of BJP leader Rasil Singh Mankotia was recorded and the evidence of the complainant was closed. Now the matter is listed for the statement of Union Minster under Section 313 of the IPC on April 17. Dhumal had filed both these cases against the Congress leaders for allegedly defaming him during the previous Assembly elections. |
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