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Thind Case: Gupta gets bail
RS Seat
Chief Minister PK Dhumal offers sweets to Vimla Kashyap who will become the first BJP woman leader to make it to Parliament after filing nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha seat at Shimla on Tuesday.
Tribune photo: Amit
CM rules out revival of carton factory
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BJP chief announces new team
Farmers against new TD policy
White paper sought on fiscal position
Tourists throng temples
Dharna staged
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Thind Case: Gupta gets bail
Solan, March 16 The police, meanwhile, was on the lookout for the wife of a senior bureaucrat who had purportedly given Rs 8 lakh to Gupta along with two affidavits to impress upon Mittal to deny his statement made earlier before the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau. The lady official, who was principal of the SCERT, had attended office till Thursday. She had officially gone to attend a two-day workshop of the NCERT at Delhi, which concluded today, confided the SCERT staff. While investigations were underway in the case, it was learnt that the cash was handed over to a bureaucrat and a key politician to exclude 33 bighas of land at Kalujhinda, near Baddi, which was part of acquisition by the Himachal Pradesh Housing and Urban Development Authority. The land belonged to one Mahesh Gupta who was proposing to set up a paper mill there in the name of his son Ankit Gupta. Mahesh had been introduced to the senior bureaucrat by the suspended ADGP BS Thind through Ashok Mittal. According to investigations carried out by the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, Thind later made him meet a senior Congressman, who allegedly gave a written recommendation to the CEO of HIMUDA to exempt this land from acquisition. Gupta had earlier approached the minister concerned who had directed the HIMUDA CEO to examine the case and report any possibility of exempting the land. But, since the land fell along the road head and was strategically placed at the centre, its exemption would have scuttled the whole project. The then CEO, therefore, expressed his inability to do so. The bureau had been inquiring into the role of all concerned and it was known that Rs 8 lakh had exchanged hands in this case in 2005. An attempt was therefore made on March 11 to return this amount to Ashok Mittal so that he could deny his earlier statement in the case. But it had backfired as the tout who had come to deliver the amount on behalf of the bureaucrat’s wife had been caught red-handed. |
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Vimla Kashyap files papers
Tribune News Service
Shimla, March 16 Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, ministers, state BJP president Khimi Ram and over 20 MLAs were among those who proposed her name in four set of nominations filed on her behalf. Today was the last day for filing nominations. Her name was cleared by the BJP high command yesterday. As the Opposition Congress has not fielded any candidate, Kashyap will be formally declared elected after the last date of withdrawal on March 19. The BJP has a strength of 42 members in 68-member House and support of three Independent MLAs while the Congress has only 23 members. The seat is falling vacant due to expiry of the term of Union Industry and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on April 2. It will be for the first time that two out of three Rajya Sabha members from the state would be women. Viplov Thakur of the Congress is a sitting Rajya Sabha member. Vimla Kashyap would be the first BJP woman candidate to go to the Rajya Sabha from Himachal and seventh woman MP from the state. Leela Mahajan, Satyawati Parmar, Usha Malhotra, Chandresh Kumari and Viplov Thakur (all Congress) and Mohinder Kaur (Janata Party) were others who entered the House of elders.
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CM rules out revival of carton factory
Shimla, March 16 Intervening during the question hour in the Vidhan Sabha, he said the Congress regime should have made efforts to operate the sick unit in the PPP mode. The fact was that the machinery installed at the factory had become junk and private parties were not interested in it. In fact, there was no response to the tenders invited by the government in this regard. The Congress did little for the fruit growers and only used apple as a ploy to exploit their sentiments for political gains. Leader of Opposition Vidya Stokes, however, maintained that the leading growers of the state should be involved to help revive the unit. She said the management of the factory should be entrusted to professionals. Earlier, replying to a question of Subhash Manglait (Congress), Horticulture Minister Narinder Bragta said the machinery was purchased for Rs 7.7 crore from Japan and another Rs 4.80 crore was paid as duty. The loan liability increased to Rs 10.5 crore due to devaluation of rupee against yen. The failure of the Congress government to manage the PSU professionally made things worse. The accumulated loss was over Rs 75 crore and the manufacturing cost was so high that resuming production would only add to the loss.
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BJP chief announces new team
Shimla, March 16 Even as his new team is dominated by loyalists of Chief Minister PK Dhumal, the BJP chief said he had not only given representation to all four parliamentary constituencies but also care had been taken to ensure that each and every Assembly segment also gets share in the organisational set up. He said he had constituted his new team after holding consultations with all senior leaders not only at the state-level but also district and mandal-level leaders were taken into confidence. He said the heads of other frontal organisations would be announced later. Those who have been appointed vice-president include Kripal Parmar, Harinnaraian Saini, Renu Chaddha, Praveen Sharma (Una), Bikram Thakur, Rupa Sharma, Ajay Rana and Maya Rana. Mahender Pandey has been retained as the state organisation secretary. The three posts of general secretary have gone to Ramswaroop Sharma (Mandi), Vipin Parmar and Chandermohan Thakur. The eight secretaries include Navin Dhiman, Balbir Kashyap, Rakesh Jamwal, Bhubnaeshwari Kapoor, Praveen Sharma, Neena Sharma, Rama Verma and Naino Devi. Kapil Sood has been appointed as the treasurer. The three party spokespersons include Randhir Sharma, Ganesh Dutt and Nardev Badola. A total of 88 persons have been taken as members of the state executive.
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Farmers against new TD policy
Mandi, March 16 Protesting against the TD policy under the banner of Kisan Sabha here today, the farmers resented that the TD policy notified in January, 2010, was devised to benefit the town-based selected few rich consumers who can afford to buy timber at the rate of Rs 60,000 per cubic metre from the forest sale depot. Joint secretary of the Kisan Sabha Bhupender Singh and vice-president Paras Ram claimed that no farmer could afford to buy timber under the fresh rate list as hike was more than 12,000 times. Most of the villagers live in a joint family, but the new TD policy entitles just one member for the TD once in 30 years or once in a lifetime. “Even the forest corporation has no depot in the rural areas,” they claimed. Submitting their memorandum to the conservator of forests, the farmers further urged that the state government should regularise encroachments as population had increased several times over the decades while 25 per cent of land available for cultivation had shrunk drastically in the state. Mandi conservator BD Suyal said the pressure on the forests had increased manifold with the
increase in population and other factors. |
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White paper sought on fiscal position
Shimla, March 16 The demand was made by party legislator Harsh Wardhan while participating in the budget debate in the Vidhan Sabha. He said the borrowings had reached 23 per cent and funds available for development had come down only 27 per cent in the Budget which was a matter of concern. Since Chief Minister had indicated that situation would worsen further due to raw deal meted out by the Finance Commission, it was important to have an in-depth assessment. He said the state had been demanding green bonus for protecting forest cover but the state had been recommended the least amount by the Finance Commission, the reasons for which should also be looked into. The government opted to increase VAT on 107 items of common use and impose entry tax which would hurt the common people. Former Speaker Gangu Ram Musafir said despite provision for fresh taxes, the Budget had a huge deficit of Rs 691 crore.
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Tourists throng temples
Kangra, March 16 District police chief Atul Fulzele said thousands of pilgrims thronged the
Bajjreshwari, Jawalamukhi and Chamunda temples in the district on the first day of the Navratas and all arrangements for security and law and order had been completed. He said five armed reserves had been deployed at the three temples and 300 Home Guards too were deployed to regulate pilgrims’ traffic.
— OC
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Dharna staged
Bilaspur, March 16 Parishad’s president Bhupender Singh Thakur and spokesperson Chambel Singh Dhiman said these gram panchayats have become virtually “orphan” since these were merged into the Bilaspur Sadar constituency.
— OC
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Nalwadi fair from today
Bilaspur, March 16 |
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BJP candidate Vimla Kashyap today filed her nomination papers for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the state.
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, ministers, state BJP president Khimi Ram and over 20 MLAs were among those who proposed her name in four set of nominations filed on her behalf.
