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Bandh throws life out of gear
Meanwhile, Lahaul-Spiti buzzes with activity
HRTC to engage private operators on rural routes
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Centre turning blind eye to corruption: Anurag
Dubious colleges thrive on fake certificates
Eight monuments declared protected
Recruitment drive for women engineers
Hotels to rain discounts
‘Use funds properly in tribal areas’
Posts of clerk in Gramin Bank
4 held for abducting girl
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Bandh throws life out of gear
Shimla, July 5 People were in for major inconvenience as the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) buses remained off road. Chief Minister PK Dhumal registered his token participation in the bandh by walking from his residence to his office. Only those travelling in their private vehicles could reach offices and schools on time. Traffic was blocked at many places, including Victory Tunnel, Sanjauli, Chotta Shimla, 103 tunnel, Summer Hill, Khalini, BCS and Tara Devi, in the morning hours. Schools which remained open had a very thin attendance. All shops and commercial establishments, barring banks and chemists, remained close. Tourists faced inconvenience too as they could not find anything to eat. To ensure that traffic remained off road, trucks and buses with deflated tyres had been parked at several places. Divisional Manager, HRTC, Raghubir Chaudhary assured that the long route night services buses would start plying as people had got bookings done. In a statement issued here today, former BJP spokesperson, Ashok Kapatia declared the the bandh was complete and successful, a clear indication that the UPA regime had lost the public mandate. In Chamba, the bandh had a partial impact on the transportation services. Chamba received newspapers and milk supply as usual. Shops and commercial establishments were seen open. Meanwhile in Nurpur, BJP activists blocked traffic for two hours at Kehrian chowk near Jawali. The industrial area of Baddi Barotiwala, Nalagarh and Parwanoo remained unaffected while the other towns of Solan, Kasauli, Kandaghat experienced partial shutdowns. Other places like Darlaghat and Shalaghat lying along the NH-88 experienced a sizeable impact. Though the BJP’s beopar mandal president hails from Nalagarh, it was life as usual in this industrial belt. Even the industrial town of Parwanoo was abuzz with activities. Public and private operators had suspended their services and majority of schools too remained close. In Kangra, besides banks and government offices, commercial activities were reported from nowhere in townships of Kangra and Dehra subdivisions. However, HRTC and private buses plied normally. The traffic was affected in Nagrota Bagwan badly. Pilgrims visiting Kangra and Jawalamukhi had to suffer as restaurants and dahbas observed closure. There was no protest held by the BJP or the CPM in these two divisions. In Kullu, Manali and Bhuntar markets wore a deserted look. BJP activists headed by district BJP president Ram Singh took a procession from Ramshilla to Dhalpur. Even here too, tourists had to face hardships. |
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Meanwhile, Lahaul-Spiti buzzes with activity
Keylong (Lahaul-Spiti), July 5 “Why we should care for the Bharat Bandh when the BJP, the Congress, the Left or any other party don’t care for us when the 13,050 ft high Rohtang Pass cuts us off from the rest of the country for six months,” reacted an eminent poet and writer Ajay here. “Who will feed us if we shut down here even for a day?,” said Amarnath, a hotelier. “May-October is the only working season in this snowbound district and if we shut down we will starve in winter. Political parties are not going to give us anything,” he said. Bikers, jeep safaris shepherds, caravans, Army’s oil tankers and trucks plied on the Manali-Keylong-Leh highway as usual today. There was no police presence in Keylong, Udaipur and Kaza across the 15,000 ft high Kunjam Pass as Bharat Bandh was no news here. It was a normal 14-hr long working day here, said GREF engineer monitoring the work on the highway. Most shops and schools remained open as nobody was aware about the Bharat
Bandh call. “The Central government took 55 years to lay the foundation stone of the 8.8-km long Rohtang tunnel to give an all-weather connectivity to Lahaul. How do they expect us to respond to the Bharat Bandh call?” asked Dinesh, a young skier in the town. “I am not aware about the Bharat Bandh call as nobody asked me to shut down my shop today,” said Sandup, a vegetable vendor, whose Lahauli saag was selling like hot cakes here. Incidentally, the Vidhan Sabha committee led by Sundernagar MLA Rup Singh Thakur and local MLA Ramlal Marandey reviewed progress of works here. |
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HRTC to engage private operators on rural routes
Shimla, July 5 It has decided to privatise 216 identified rural bus routes on which the corporation has been incurring heavy losses. The corporation will take private buses on wet lease for introducing services on these new routes. It will continue to provide service until the government completes the process of allotment of routes to private operators and they start plying buses. The private operators are averse to operate buses on rural routes and if the government succeeds in its endeavour the annual operational loss of the corporation will come down by Rs 6 crore. The increase of 30 per cent in bus fare affected in March last will increase revenue by Rs 30 crore annually but the recent hike of Rs 2 per litre in the price of diesel will put an additional burden of Rs 10 crore. The impeding decontrol of prices will increase the price by about Rs 3 per litre which means a further burden of Rs 15 crore. The income is Rs 22 per bus per km as against the expenditure of Rs 28 per bus per km and with a total mileage of about 16 crore km the annual operational loss is likely to touch the Rs 100 crore mark. However, new roads are being constructed every year on which bus services have to be provided as there is no other means of transport in the hill state. “We have decided to hire private buses on wet lease for operating services on routes on which no services are being operated at present. Under the arrangement the corporation will only provide conductors and the entire expenditure on operation of bus services will be borne by the private party,” explains Bharat Khera, managing director of the corporation. The main problem of the corporation is its high employee cost which accounts for almost 50 per cent of the total annual expenditure of Rs 450 crore. It will spend Rs 180 crore on diesel, about 40 per cent, regarding which not much could be done. The wet lease arrangement will enable it to operate buses on more routes as part of its social obligation without adding much to the employee cost. |
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Rousing welcome to Queen’s Baton
Shimla, July 5 Thereafter, it was taken to the historic Ridge over a distance of about 2 km in a relay with prominent sportspersons playing the baton bearers en-route. They included national shooter Virender Banstu, international boxer Anurag Verma, international athlete Aman Shaini, volleyball player Ravinder Banstu, international boxer Rajesh Bhandari and State Parsuram Awardee Chaman Dhaulta. Hundreds of people, including tourists, lined up along the road to greet the baton. In the final leg Arjuna awardee athlete Suman Rawat carried the baton from the Scandal Point to the Ridge where Chief Minister PK Dhumal received it the in presence of hundreds of spectators. Later, a colourful cultural programme was also organised at the historic Gaiety Theatre to mark the occasion. The Queen’s Baton Relay entered the state yesterday from Una and reached Dharamsala last evening. Today it passed through the famous pilgrim town of Jwalamukhi, where the team paid obeisance at the Jwalaji temple, Hamirpur and Bilaspur. The Queen’s Baton Relay will proceed to Uttarakhand tomorrow from here passing through Solan, Nahan and Paonta Sahib. The baton will be handed over to the Uttarakhand authorities at the Yamuna bridge on the border. BILASPUR: The Queen’s Baton Rally received a grand welcome from thousands of people of the district led by Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Rikhi Ram Kaundal and MLA Randhir Sharma as it entered the district on Monday afternoon. The event was made much more memorable with the participation of 11 sportspersons and distinguished personalities of the district. |
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Centre turning blind eye to corruption: Anurag
Solan, July 5 Lambasting the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, he said they were shying away from addressing the crucial issue of corruption and numerous such cases that had surfaced had been conveniently left unaddressed. Illustrating his point, he said though names of three key ministers had figured in the controversy regarding IPL tournaments, only one of them had resigned while no action was taken against the other two. Even another major telecom scam worth hundreds of thousands of crores attracted no action from the UPA government. He said the frequent price rise affected by the UPA had unnerved the common man exposing how the UPA differed in merely professing that it was pro poor while its policies proved the very opposite. Attacking the UPA government on its failure to deal with the terrorists in a befitting manner, he said the central government failed to crack down on the Maoists as their allies were covertly supporting them. He said the BJYM would mobilise youth, which comprised a force, and launch an agitation against the UPA’s anti-poor policies. Earlier, Health and Ayurveda Minister Dr Rajiv Bindal welcomed Anurag for achieving this crucial portfolio that had encouraged the state’s youth. Speaking on the occasion, Kasauli MLA Dr Rajiv Sehzal said the youth had for long remained ignored and it was time to harness this force to fight for the cause of the common man. Other MLAs of the district, MP Virender Kashyap and other office-bearers of the BJP were present on the occasion. |
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Dubious colleges thrive on fake certificates
Shimla, July 5 A private Teachers Training College at Dhaliara was allowed to start a B.Ed course in 2007 by the National Council for Teacher Education, Jaipur. While the college was allowed to admit 100 students, within nine months it was given permission to take in 100 more students and the very next year this college was allowed to start a M.Ed course with 25 seats. But had the council been more vigilant, points out Ahluwalia, it would have found that the details of the faculty furnished by the college are different in the prospectus and in the lists furnished by it to the council and the Himachal Pradesh University. If the qualifications attributed to the faculty were checked, the council would have found even more serious anomalies, he points out. For example, a person with a BA degree with 41 pc marks was passed off as holding a PhD and shown as the Principal. A lecturer, who happens to be the wife of the director, is claimed to have secured as many as four degrees, B.Com, M.Com, B.Ed and M.Ed, all in the first division and all from Magadh University based at Bodh Gaya in Bihar. But in replies to several RTI applications, Magadh University and the Bihar Intermediate Council have denied any knowledge or record of such people having appeared in examinations conducted by them. If an RTI application can bring out the truth, wonders Ahluwalia, what prevents Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) and the NCTE, Jaipur, from checking records before granting recognition or affiliation. The scandal, believes Ahluwalia, is similar to the one involving the Medical Council of India. But while the then MCI president was arrested by the CBI at the intervention of the PMO, not much attention is being paid to the flourishing racket of private teachers in training colleges. According to reports as many as 60,000 teachers have been found to have gained employment in various states of the country by furnishing fake certificates. |
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550-year-old mummy faces decay
Gue (Spiti), July 5 The existence of the mummy was bared to villagers only when the stupa (chorten) housing it gave way during an earthquake that rocked the area in 1975. The mummy remained in the mud and stone structure near the stupa till last year, before being shifted to its new location on a spur. “With no technical expertise from authorised agencies, fungal growth has set in and if immediate care is not taken the mummy can be lost forever,” says Chering Topke, a senior member of Gue village committee looking after the preservation of the mummy. He says the mummy was found preserved in a squatting posture holding a rosary in hand, which later came off. Being the only Chief Minister to have visited the village, PK Dhumal too assured the villagers of all help to preserve the mummy and develop the place as a tourist destination. Prem Sharma, Director (Language, Arty and Culture), said he would soon write to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to extend help for the preservation of the mummy, which he said, was an invaluable treasure. It was a team of conservation experts from Vienna University engaged in preservation work at Nako village in Kinnaur who undertook carbon dating by taking a piece of cloth found on the mummy. It was on the basis of this that the mummy was estimated to be about 550 years old. Echoing similar concern is 60-year-old Sama Tenzin. He says the mummy was in quite a good condition till it was shifted to the concrete structure in which it was placed inside a glasshouse. “Since the glass is closed from all sides, the lighting of incense and an oil lamp inside it, led to fungal growth,” he adds. Even though the glass cage has been opened from the top to let fresh air in and allow the fumes to escape out, the mummy is still in need of some kind of preservation to ensure that it lasts. “Ever since the mummy was discovered we have not used any kind of balm to keep it protected and even then the teeth, nails and hair on the head are intact,” says Chering Chia, an elderly village woman who prays twice a day before the mummy. Though the Tourism Department has taken up a project for the restoration of the lama mummy at Gue at a cost of Rs 4 lakh since 2007, technical expertise from agencies like the ASI or the Indian National Trust for Culture and Heritage (INTACH) is still lacking. |
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Eight monuments declared protected
Shimla, July 5 Stakeholders and other interested persons had been asked to file their objections, if any, within two months, prior to final notification declaring these monuments as state protected. While Kamalah Kila in Mandi is an old fort, the rest seven monuments are all temples. They include Maghru Devta shrine (Mandi), Chaunda Mata Mandir and Mahadev Bhuvneshwar Temple (both in Chamba), Dada Siba Temple and Janakinath Temple (both in Kangra) and Shiv Mandir, Aman (Hamirpur). Nanda said in most of the temples, idols and other artefacts of archaeological importance were found, which needed to be protected at all costs. She said at present, there were about 40 monuments of the state which had been declared as “national protected monuments”.
— TNS |
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Recruitment drive for women engineers
Solan, July 5 He further said the drive would be carried out at hotel Peter Hoff here on July 10. Elaborating about the proposed university at Vaknaghat, Singh claimed it was for the first time in the region that an institution of higher learning had established direct linkage with the industry. The group has already entered a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 16 leading corporate houses and this would enable their time to time industrial training. Bahra university would give 60-bigha land in the institution to corporate houses where other infrastructure would be put in place by industries. Students would be adopted by respective industries vis-à-vis their specialisation. The leading corporate houses that have already signed MoU with Rayat Bahra group include IBM, Infosys, HP intel, Volvo Eicher, Delhi Stock exchange, Reliance money, Hash Bio tech. |
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Hotels to rain discounts
Shimla, July 5 Subhasish Panda, Managing Director of the corporation, said the discount would range from 10 per cent to 35 per cent in different complexes, but it would be available only for rooms and not the dormitory accommodation. The discount would be 20 per cent in the Chail complex, 10 to 30 per cent in Parwanoo-Barog complex, 10 to 35 per cent in Shimla, 20 to 30 per cent in Rampur, 25 to 30 per cent in Bilaspur-Kullu-Manali and Dharamsala-Jwalamukhi-Palampur and 30 to 35 per cent in Chamba-Dalhousie. The tourists could also avail instant reservation facilities to book accommodation and transport services “online” through the website of the corporation. |
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‘Use funds properly in tribal areas’
Shimla, July 5 Presiding over a review meeting at Keylong today, he asked the officials to work with dedication and renewed zeal so that these areas could be developed like other areas of the state. He also asked them to lay more stress on expansion and quality education. He said the developmental works, which would benefit maximum persons, should be given priority and officials should ensure that targets fixed under various schemes were achieved well before the stipulated period. The estimate committee is on a tour of Lahaul subdivision these days, inspecting and reviewing the on-going developmental works and schemes. Urmila Thakur, Vinod Kumar, Vipin Parmar, Parveen Kumar and Rajesh Dharmani also participated in discussion, while reviewing the progress of on-going schemes. |
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Posts of clerk in Gramin Bank
Shimla, July 5 This order was passed by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Kuldeep Singh on a petition filed by the Himachal Gramin Bank Employees Association and others. The bank management conducted the written examination for the 67 posts of clerk and declared its result on 17th January, 2010. After the declaration of the result, the successful candidates were called for interview from June 2 to 5 by the interview committee. The petitioner challenged the constitution of the committee on the ground that as per the rules, two senior officers of HGB will be the member of the committee but instead of that the board of directors of the HGB has nominated two officers of Punjab National Bank (PNB) as members of the interview committee who are on deputation with the HGB, which was against the rules. Declaring the interview committee as illegal, the court directed the bank to constitute a new interview committee as per the provisions of the bank rules to fill the posts. |
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4 held for abducting girl
Bilaspur, July 5 SP Kapil Sharma said Bablu (19) of Chitra village (Nepal), his father Krishan Bahadur (60), mother Kalawati and maternal uncle Bala Ram (33) were arrested by the police at Taklech, near Rampur Bushahar, in Shimla district on Saturday. The girl was recovered from them, who later restored to her parents here yesterday. He said the girl had given a statement that Bablu had promised to marry her but he had been repeatedly raping her since she was abducted by him and others. The SP said the mobile phones of the accused were under surveillance and it was on the basis of a phone call from one of the accused that their present location was identified and they were nabbed. |
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