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Stokes-Kaul Singh combine dominates polls
Suman Verma is Kangra Cong chief
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DCC election: Toss brings in unanimity
Kachroo Death Case
Bragta meets Delhi officials over apple issue
Act amended to check encroachments
Change in cops’ uniform
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Stokes-Kaul Singh combine dominates polls
Shimla, July 20 The process was completed in 10 out of the total 13 district units. While the elections to the two tribal districts of Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti could have been delayed, disputes in two out of the four block units held up the election in Bilaspur district. Unlike elections of the block units, which threw plenty of disputes and war of words with rival group alleging irregularities, the election to district bodies were held by consensus and there were no contests. Stokes’ loyalist Kehar Singh Khachi was installed as the president of the politically significant Shimla (rural) district, while an Anand Sharma-loyalist Pradeep Bhuja bagged the top post in Shimla (urban) district. Sunil Bittu, a close associate of Nadaun MLA Sukhwinder Singh who is the right hand man of Stokes, was elected president of the Hamirpur District Congress Committee. Kaul Singh ensured unanimous passage for his loyalist Puran Chand to the top party post in Mandi district and former minister G.S.Bali installed his staunch supporter Suman Verma as the president of the largest and politically most important Kangra district with the support of anti-Virbhadra Singh camp. Rahul Singh of the Stokes camp was elected president of the Solan District Congress Committee, while Surinder Bhardwaj and Buddhi Singh Thakur emerged as the unanimous choice for Chamba and Kullu districts, respectively. Harsh Wardhan retained the post in Sirmour district with four out of the five block units coming out in his support. Virender Dharmani was elected president of Una district unit. The supporters of the union steel minister, who has been calling shots in the party all these years, have been sidelined as never before. The ball is now in the court of the high command as the party will go by the tradition of leaving the choice of the next Pradesh Congress Committee chief to the party president Sonia Gandhi. |
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Surender dist Cong chief
Chamba, July 20 A Congress spokesperson said Kamal Thakur had been elected as senior vice-president and Ved Kapoor as treasurer of the party.
— OC |
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Sunil re-elected
Hamirpur, July 20 The election process began at the Circuit House in the presence of DRO Surender Chauhan at about 10 am. Later, he announced that delegates from all blocks had unanimously elected Sunil Sharma as the new district president. Suman Bharti was elected as the senior vice-president and Anju Thakur as treasurer of the Hamirpur district Congress committee in these elections.
— TNS |
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Suman Verma is Kangra Cong chief
Dharamsala, July 20 However, the returning officer declared the names of only three office-bearers. Besides the district president, Ajit Mahajan was elected as vice-president and Piarai Lal Sharma as treasurer. Both factions in the Congress seemed to be happy with the election of Suman Verma as district president. A member of close coterie of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said the new district president was from their group. Interestingly, the name of Ajit Mahajan was proposed by Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) member from Shahpur Kewal Singh Pathania who was earlier crossing swords over the missing membership forms. The other major district leaders also claimed proximity with the new district president. Elections to the HPCC members in Indora and Jawalamukhi blocks were marred in controversy. Kangra district was politically the most significant area in the state. The district had about 23 per cent state’s population and contributed 16 Assembly seats in the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha. The Congress suffered a major setback in the district in the last Assembly elections as it managed to bag just four of 16 Assembly segments here. The major challenge before the new district president would be to bring together various warring factions of the Congress. Though Congress leaders have been playing the role of opposition at individual level, they have failed to act as collective opposition in the district. However, now it remained to be seen if stalwart leaders of the Congress would be able to come together under the new district president. |
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DCC election: Toss brings in unanimity
Mandi, July 20 Puran Chand Thakur, one-time supporter of Congress president Kaul Singh Thakur, and Balh MLA Parkash Chaudhary, a staunch supporter of former Telecom Minister Sukh Ram and his son Mandi MLA Anil Sharma, finally agreed to go for the toss. However, lady lucky smiled on Puran as he won the toss while Parkash had no option other than withdrawing from the contest. Puran was later declared as the DCC president unanimously by the committee in the presence of district returning officer Krishan Mohini and state president Kaul Singh Thakur. Interestingly, both Puran and Parkash refused to withdraw their names when elected delegates, PCC members and block presidents gathered here for the DCC election. The political temperatures ran high among the partymen as both staked their claims. However, Puran Chand proved his mettle at his own in Drang and in the district despite the fact he has always been dubbed as the “stooge of Kaul Singh”, Congress men commented. As the battle for the DCC progressed, Puran and Parkash persisted with their stands despite persuasion from senior party leaders from both factions asking them to withdraw in one’s favour. But they agreed to go for the toss with former Joginderngar MLA Surinderpal acting as an umpire to decide one name for the post. In a bid to send positive signal, Mandi Sadar MLA Anil Sharma then proposed the name of Puran Chand for the DCC post while former Nachen MLA Tek Chand Dogra seconded it. Former Karsog MLA Mast Ram proposed the name of Jankidas Dogra, a Virbhadra Singh’s supporter, as vice-president and he was supported by PCC member Vir Singh Chauhan from Seraj. Bhupender Pal from Seraj was elected as treasurer of the party. Mohini later briefed the press claiming that the election was unanimous. |
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Kachroo Death Case
Dharamsala, July 20 The Kangra fast track court, earlier this week, had released on bail all the four accused in the Aman Kachroo ragging death case. They were released against a personal bond of Rs 50,000 along with a surety of same amount. They were released on bail after a time period of about 16 months. They were students of Tanda Medical College and had allegedly ragged first-year-student Aman Kachroo in March last year which resulted in his death. A case under Section 302 of the IPC was registered against the accused, including Abhinav Verma, Mukul Sharma, Navin Verma and Ajay. The Aman Kachroo foundation formed by his family, in a written statement issued to The Tribune, stated the decision to be “disappointing”. The bail to the accused has also evoked strong reaction from many other quarters. Since March last year, 12 more students have died and thousands have suffered humiliation and torture due to ragging. The anti-ragging call centre received 1.5 lakh telephone calls in the past six months. Around 350 cases of abuse were recorded in the same period but not a single case has reached its conclusion. The SC passed an order, asking the government to execute well designed plan to check ragging. However, nothing has been done as yet, president of the foundation alleged. |
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Survey shows people ‘happy’ with water supply
Shimla, July 20 The survey was conducted for the IPH by the Department of Economics and Statistics. The study was sponsored by the Communication and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU) of the State Water and Sanitation Mission. The findings of the survey, which were revealed here by IPH Minister Ravinder Ravi indicates that a mere 13 per cent of the rural households complained of getting insufficient supply. The IPH Minister said the survey would help policy makers in providing adequate and safe drinking water to the people of the state. He added that the survey findings showed that the successive governments in the state had worked hard to strengthen the IPH Department. The survey has revealed that as estimated 84 per cent of rural households of the state were served by tap while an estimated 16 per cent were served by other sources like bowris (5 per cent), hand pump (3 pc), well (2pc), river (3pc), spring (1pc) and other sources (1pc). The survey has been conducted in 1.56 lakh households falling in 77 IPH blocks of the state. With regard to the quality of water, the survey disclosed that 82 per cent of the households reported it satisfactory. Only 8 per cent households said water served by their principal sources was not satisfactory due to its colour and 10 per cent complained about the odour emanating from it. With regard to their daily water requirement, 77 per cent of the households said their demand was 200 litres. This daily demand of water has been found to be the highest in Solan district followed by Una and
Sirmour. |
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Bragta meets Delhi officials over apple issue
Shimla, July 20 It had already been decided that contempt proceedings would be initiated against the Delhi government by issuing a notice for not implementing the high court’s orders. It was further decided that the government would also not hesitate to file a contempt petition if, after issuing of the notice, the decision was not implemented. Meanwhile, Ram Subhag Singh, Secretary, Agriculture, also held a meeting with DM Sapolia, Principal Secretary, (Development), Delhi, and Secretary, APMC, Azadpur Mandi, and said the Delhi government was violating the Act by charging 6 per cent commission from agriculturists and horticulturists of the hill state since 2000. He said despite stay granted by the Delhi High Court in June last year, the commission was still being charged from fruit growers of Himachal. Growers from Himachal had suffered a loss of Rs 500 crore on account of the commission being charged from them and it was a matter of grave concern, he added. |
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Act amended to check encroachments
Shimla, July 20 This was stated by Revenue Minister Thakur Gulab Singh while presiding over a review meeting of the Revenue Department here today. He said the government would, however, take a lenient view regarding encroachment made by destitute single women, freedom fighters and those living below poverty line. He said computerisation of land records was the priority of the government and computer centres had been established in 109 tehsils, sub-tehsils and 51 subdivisional offices. He said computer awareness training was being imparted to over 1,200 patwaris and kanungoos to make them aware about the computer functioning. An amount of Rs 11.20 lakh had been released to Deputy Commissioners for imparting basic and computer software training to revenue personnel, he added. He said Rs 17.60 crore would be spent on computerisation of land records, digitisation of cadastral maps using latest survey techniques and computerisation of registration work. Thakur said land record data entry work had been completed in all 20,198 villages in the state. The data had been validated and made error-free in 19,987 villages and record of rights had been made online in respect of 19,396 villages. He said 3,366 common service centres were being set up in the state and till date 1,699 such centres had been made functional. |
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Change in cops’ uniform
Shimla, July 20 While issuing notices, the court directed it to file a response within two weeks. The division bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Kuldip Singh passed this order on a petition filed by the HP Police Employees’ Welfare Federation vide which it had challenged the proposed change in colour of its uniform. The petitioner federation further alleged that this action of the state divided the police force into two parts — senior police officers who would wear the khaki uniform and the the lower-rank officials who would wear the blue uniform. According to the petition, 16,000 police personnel would be affected by the decision of the state government. |
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