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Nyay Rally
Dhumal, Shanta seek BJP top brass’ help
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Cong flays ‘nyay’ rally
Minister all praise for PCC chief
‘India among top four economies of world’
Solar passive design made mandatory
Govt’s move to amend lease rules raises eyebrows
Salary Disbursal
Narcotic smugglers take to psychotropic drugs
Seizure of Pine Logs
Burglars decamp with jewellery
Three booked
Clarification
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Nyay Rally
Shimla, May 9 “The Congress has always tried to create fear in the minds of minorities about the BJP so that they do not vote for us,” he said. “What is most unfortunate is the fact that today appeasement of terrorists is being interpreted as being secular,” he opined. He lamented that the mastermind of Parliament attack, Afzal Guru, had still not been sentenced and it was uncertain if Kasab would be hanged. He lashed out at the UPA regime for being soft on terrorism and failing to keep internal peace. The BJP chief clarified that unlike the Congress, the BJP did not wish to divide the country along caste, religion and regional lines to keep its vote bank secure and intact. “Today, internal and external security of the country is under threat as the UPA has completely failed to check Naxalites, Maoists and Pakistan-sponsored terrorism,” he remarked. He said the BJP was not just a party with a difference but its outlook was nationalistic and mission to usher in prosperity and development. Accusing the Centre of ignoring Himachal because the people had elected a BJP government, he assured that the entire BJP party was with the people of the state in its fight for justice. “When it comes to making the supreme sacrifice while fighting enemies, it is soldiers from Himachal. However, when it is the question of rights of the state, the Centre if totally ignoring the hill state,” he said. He said the BJP was always in favour of social and economic equality unlike the Congress whose only contribution had been to widen the gap between the poor and rich and adding to BPL families whose number had touched 42
crore.
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Dhumal, Shanta seek BJP top brass’ help
Shimla, May 9 Speaking at the “nyay rally” which turned out to be a grand show here today, Dhumal said Himachal was no longer willing to tolerate the injustice being meted out to it and had made up its mind to fight for its right in the court of law as well as in the people’s court. “I request the senior BJP leadership, including LK Advani, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Dhumal and myself should lead a delegation to raise the issue of discrimination with Himachal by the Centre,” Shanta said. Echoing similar sentiments, the Chief Minister said the pain of people of Himachal must be conveyed to the Prime Minister by the BJP leadership. “I want to ask the Centre is it a price that people of Himachal are being made to pay for their patriotism, supreme sacrifices and peaceful nature, which is considered our weakness,” quipped Dhumal. Dhumal said when Vajpayee as the PM gave the package to Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Uttarakhand, ruled by three different parties, then why was the UPA regime discriminating against Himachal now. “What is of utmost concern is that even after 43 years the Centre has not been able to give Himachal its due under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966,”
he lamented. Both Shanta and Dhumal expressed gratitude towards the Supreme Court for directing the Centre to give Himachal its share in a time bound manner and resolve the dispute between the states. They said the PM had agreed that injustice had been done with Himachal with regard to special industrial package and recommendation of the 13th Finance Commission. Dhumal listed out the areas where Himachal had been given a raw deal, including withdrawal of industrial package, reduction in quota of foodgrains and kerosene, failure in expansion of rail network, population criteria in making Army recruitment and reduction in financial assistance by 13th Finance Commission. “The list of injustice meted out to Himachal is endless and the Congress is asking what is the “nyay” rally for,” he said. National BJP general secretary and Forest Minister JP Nadda, in-charge of BJP affairs in Himachal Satya Pal Jain, state BJP chief Khimi Ram also addressed the gathering. |
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Cong flays ‘nyay’ rally
Shimla, May 9 The resolution was passed by the general house of the party which met at the Congress Bhawan under the chairmanship of PCC chief Kaul Singh where CLP leader Vidya Stokes, Anand Sharma and other senior leaders were present. The party termed the BJP’s charge of discrimination against the state by the UPA regime as “false and baseless” and said the spate of agro-based environment-friendly projects, announced by the Union minister had given a befitting reply to the BJP. The rejuvenation of tea gardens, setting up a spice park, constructions of cold stores, fruit grading and packing houses and skill development centres covered every part of the state. Refuting the charge of discrimination, Kaul Singh said the NDA regime had given only Rs 13,000 crore to the state during the 1998-2003 period, whereas the UPA government released over Rs 25,000 crore over the 2003-07 period. The grant of central university, IIT, ESIC Medical College and Passport Office at Shimla and liberal funds under various flagship programmes were enough to give a lie to such motivated charges. The BJP was misleading the people by alleging that the industrial package had been scrapped whereas only the benefit of excise duty exemption had been curtailed under the sunset clause and no other incentive had been affected. Anand Sharma had come out with an industrialisation plan which would have a long-term impact on the hill economy without causing any harm to the fragile
environment. |
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Minister all praise for PCC chief
Shimla, May 9 He was all praise for Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Kaul Singh and Leader of the Opposition Vidya Stokes who, he said, was doing well in exposing failures and shortcomings of the Dhumal government inside the Vidhan Sabha
and outside. His views are in sharp contrast to that of Virbhadra Singh who has, on more than one occasion, accused the state leadership of the party of “not performing” the role expected of it as the main Opposition in the state. He had been targeting both Stokes and Kaul Singh in this regard. The Congress has been a “house divided” with Stokes and Virbhadra Singh heading the rival camps for long. Elevation of Kaul Singh as president did not make much difference, though he tried hard to take along the two factions. Much will now depend on the outcome of the ongoing organisational poll, the process for which is likely to be completed by July with the installation of the next Pradesh Congress Committee chief. |
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‘India among top four economies of world’
Shimla, May 9 “India is already among the four fast-growing economies along with China, Brazil and South Africa, thanks to its consistent, stable and farsighted foreign policy, the foundation of which was laid by leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru, much before the country achieved Independence,” he said, while presiding over a national seminar on “Impact of Congress on Foreign Policy of India” organised by the party as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations. He expressed confidence that India would get a permanent seat in the Security Council. Head of the Political Department of the Aligarh Muslim University Abdulrahim P. Vijapur said the resolution on foreign policy adopted by the AICC in 1921 was a landmark in the history of the country and the party decided to open a foreign department, as early as 1928. |
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Solar passive design made mandatory
Shimla, May 9 So far, there are only a handful of government buildings which have adopted solar passive design. The Restricted Area Committee (RAC) for Shimla town, headed by director, Town and Country Planning (TCO), at its meeting held here recently, directed the local municipal corporation (MC) to approve building plans for about 35 structures in restricted area of the town only once solar passive design was incorporated. The building plan of these houses had been placed before the RAC for approval. However, with none of them having solar passive design, they have been put on hold. “Approval from the TCP would be conditional and the plan will be approved by the MC only if provision for passive solar design has been made in the building plan,” confirmed a senior official. He added that directions had also been issued to all agencies concerned in the state to implement the provisions in letter and spirit. Meanwhile, now house owners will be forced to incorporate it which would be a major energy saver step in a cold state like Himachal where crores are spent on providing heating in houses and offices. Even though the construction cost could go up marginally to have solar passive design, it will prove to be cost effective in the long run as electricity consumption in winters would go down considerably. |
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Govt’s move to amend lease rules raises eyebrows
Shimla, May 9 The state assembly had passed a Forest Act (amendment) Bill only a few months ago, seeking to de-notify certain categories of forest land on the plea that non-availability of government land was posing problems in implementation of development schemes. The government was not in a position to provide even two biswas of land to poor landless for construction of house. If government land was scarce, there was no need for amending rules for granting land on lease to private companies. The reasons are not far to seek. The government is out to oblige private companies and devise another mode for bypassing Section 118 of the state Land Reforms and Tenancy Act. The new clauses, to be incorporated in Rule 4 and 5 as proposed by the Cabinet sub-committee, will enable the government to give land on lease for universities, hydroelectric projects, tourism units, industries, yogic and meditation activities. No maximum limit has been proposed and land will be given on basis of essentiality certificates to be issued by the concerned departments. The existing limit of two bighas for land, to be leased for sports activities, is proposed to be waived and instead “an area certified by sports department” will be leased out. Effectively, it will allow transfer of bigger chunks of land, causing further furore as opposition Congress and the CPM are already demanding an inquiry into the land allotted to the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association. In the past, influential parties have managed to get huge chunks of land, far more than requirement, on the basis of essentiality certificates but not utilised it for the bonafide purpose. For instance, flats were built on land acquired for tourism ventures but no action was taken against them. Further, land acquired years ago has not been fully utilised till now. Instead of amending lease rules, the government should acquire the “unutilised land” and give it for such purposes. Moreover, there is no point in giving land on lease for commercial ventures as it will not revert back to the government. Past experience shows that lessees mostly refuse to pay the lease amount and drag authorities to courts on one pretext or the other. It was for this reason that practise of giving land or built up property on lease was stopped. |
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Salary Disbursal
Kangra, May 9 The lecturers are against the state government for adopting double standards and today alleged that the state government was deviating from its own orders and has decided to stop their vacation salary and annual increment. President and Vice President of the Himachal Contractual College Lecturers Association, Virender Kumar and Gian Chand respectively, said Himachal Pradesh High Court had ordered the state government on September 1, 2008, to pay vacation salary to the contract lecturers and the state government implemented the decision on June 10, 2009. They added that the contract lecturers were disbursed vacation salaries of September 2008 vacations, but the state government on March 17, 2010, issued another order that all direct and adhoc appointees, whether recruited earlier or in future, would not be entitled for the salary of the vacation. Both the leaders described it not only unethical but also illegal. They alleged that the state government had been violating the agreement of their appointment. They said the agreement reads that the contract employees would get emoluments equal to basic pay (minimum of the pay scale of the post) and all allowances for the said post on the regular basis. They alleged that there was a revision of the pay scale in 1998 and the regular lecturers were given 8,000-13,500 scale, while as the contract lecturers were not brought under the purview of this pay revision. They alleged that the contract lecturers were even deprived of the dearness allowance, which they used to get before the implementation of this pay revision. |
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Narcotic smugglers take to psychotropic drugs
Dharamsala, May 9 The district police last night at a naka in Sansarpur terrace area intercepted a motorcycle rider. On search, they were astonished to find 1,000 injections of diazepam, 90 of Phenergan and 105 of Norgesec Ampoules in custody of Surinder Singh and pillion rider Badal Kumar, both residents of Jammu. The police has registered a case under the NDPS Act against the accused. Meanwhile, Kangra SP Atul Fulzele, when contacted, said it was not the first time that smugglers trying to bring in psychotropic drugs had been arrested by the police. “Earlier, too, we had arrested many such persons along the borders of the district, especially in Damtal area,” he said. He said interrogation of the accused in such cases had revealed that they generally sold psychotropic drugs to youth and students. A psychotropic injection, which otherwise costs Rs 10, is sold at prices ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 100 to those addicted to it. Since the police and drug enforcement agencies have tightened the noose around chemist shops selling such psychotropic drugs, narcotic smugglers are now taking to the trade. The SP also said in the recent past, the district police arrested a wholesale drug dealer of Jalandhar in this connection. The dealer was allegedly supplying psychotropic drugs in entire Himachal. “We are looking for the sources from where such small drug peddlers are getting the supplies of psychotropic drugs,” the SP said. He also added that it was difficult to detect drug peddlers operating on motorcycles, selling psychotropic drugs to youth without the active cooperation of local people. The police had also arrested a shopkeeper from Dharamsala for allegedly selling ink remover bottles to schoolchildren. |
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Seizure of Pine Logs
Dharamsala, May 9 Inquiries from forest officials revealed that due to relaxation in felling rules by the state forest department, felling of trees has increased in the region. Under the Land Preservation Act, the government has allowed any person to fell three green trees in a year without prior permission, five trees by informing the range official and 10 trees by informing the district forest official. Under the guise of the said relaxations, many have started felling green trees in their land. Pine trees can hardly be used for construction of houses, furniture or any other personal use. Despite that, the government has allowed people to fell pine trees from their private land. Felling is more rampant along the state highways where the land cleared after felling of trees can be put to commercial use. Kangra forest conservator admitted that after relaxation of rules, people can fell trees from private land. He, however, added that people were allowed to fell tree for their personal use. In case they tried to sell the trees, culprits could be booked under the Forest Act. However, the rules under the Land Preservation Act, are different for each district. Forest officials, however, admitted that due to shortage of staff, it was very difficult for them to keep a check on illegal feeling, especially on private land. |
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Burglars decamp with jewellery
Hamirpur, May 9 ASP Gurdev Chand said; “Vijay Kumar Sharma living in Krishna Nagar of ward no. 1 was out of station along with his family when the crime took place. People living nearby heard sounds in the house and later found burglars inside the house; they immediately bolted the door from outside but the burglars managed to flee from the rear door.” The burglars decamped with ornaments of about 2 lakh and Rs 14,000 in cash, the police said. |
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Three booked
Nurpur, May 9 According to the police, the complainant has also alleged that the accused did not allow him to take water from a village bauali (natural water resource) from where upper caste villagers used to take water. DSP Hari Ram said he was investigating the case himself. Meanwhile, the villagers against whom the case was registered claimed that they had only asked the members of the Dalit community for not taking bath or washing clothes in the bauali and had not stopped them for taking water from it. |
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Clarification
Hamirpur, May 9 He said, “Though a discussion had taken place at the meeting, any resolution to expel him from the BJP for carrying activities through his voluntary organisations was not carried.” “We have been urging both to observe constraint and work unitedly for the party,” he added.
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Accusing the Congress of indulging in “appeasement of terrorists” for vote bank politics, national BJP chief Nitin Gadkari said today that the BJP was not against any caste, religion or creed but against those who were killing innocent people.
Addressing an impressive “nyay” rally held here today at Chaura Maidan to seek justice from the Centre for people of the state, he said the Congress had always tried to present the BJP as a villain.
Shimla, May 9
