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39 tourists rescued from Sangla, 80 still stranded
A man looks at a car which was buried after a landslide in Chhota Shimla on Friday. — PTI
Good rains boon for kharif crops, bane for veggies
CD case hearing on Monday
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Panel starts probe into exam scam, 2 postmen held
7 labourers injured in furnace blast
Employees put up joint front against government
1,350 take part in sports meet
Details of benami Tibetan properties sought
Ashok Sharma Bar panel chief
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39 tourists rescued from Sangla, 80 still stranded
Shimla, September 24 About 120 tourists had been stranded in the Sangla valley with the main roadlink via Karcham being blocked due to heavy landslides at various places for the past five days. A district official said out of the 39 evacuated, 26 were foreigners while the remaining 13 were from West Bengal. He said about 80 more tourists were still stranded in Sangla. It was owing to bad weather late in the afternoon that the chopper had to suspend rescue operations. In case the weather improved, efforts would be made to evacuate the remaining tourists. While some of the tourists, including some who had taken ill, were dropped at Rekong Peo, others were dropped in Shimla. Officials said efforts were on to get the road connecting Sangla and Karcham cleared as both PWD and labourers of JP company were at work. The district administration had made arrangements for treatment and medicines for the sick tourists, a majority of whom were lodged in hotels. Even though the main roads connecting Shimla with Jubbal, Rohru and Rampur are cleared, most of the link roads are still in a bad shape with vehicular movement still not being restored. This is hampering transportation of apple from orchards as growers are facing a lot of inconvenience. With the Meteorological Centre indicating dry weather and clear sky in the low hills, the rains could finally be on their way out. However, there could be rain at isolated places in the middle and high hills of the state during the next two days.
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Good rains boon for kharif crops, bane for veggies
Shimla, September 24 Farmers, who were reeling under the impact of three successive crop failures, have something to cheer at last. The state will be achieving the kharif target of 9.37 lakh tonne, including 7.80 lakh tonne of maize and 1.50 lakh tonne of paddy, for the first time. Last season, when the region experienced a poor monsoon, the production was only 6.55 lakh tonne against the target of 9.20 lakh tonne. Lack of rain during winter severely affected the rabi crop and the production was only 4.50 lakh tonne as against the target of 7.25 lakh tonne. The impact of unfavourable weather conditions is more severe in the hill state as almost 80 per cent of the cultivated area is rain-fed and the farmers are dependent on the rains. “Normally, the monsoon is over by the first week of September and harvesting of maize starts by the middle of the month. The protracted monsoon caused some damage to maturing crops, almost 15 to 20 per cent in some pockets in lower areas of the state, affecting production”, points out Director of agriculture J.C.Rana. However, the excessive rains took a toll on vegetable crops, particularly tomato and capsicum, which suffered much damage in Solan, Shimla and Kullu districts. The harvesting season which is extended up to mid-October has been shortened and as a result, the vegetable production during the season is likely to be only 5.50 lakh tonne as against the expected 6.50 lakh tonne. The beneficial impact of the excessive rains will be felt even in the coming rabi season as the overstretched monsoon has ensured that there will be enough moisture in soil for timely sowing, which commences from October 15. The last two rabi crops failed due to the prolonged dry spells which affected sowing. |
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CD case hearing on Monday
Shimla, September 24 Senior counsel and former Advocate General of Punjab R.S.Cheema appearing for the minister contended before that the FIR had been registered on the basis of a CD whose origin was not known.
— OC |
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Panel starts probe into exam scam, 2 postmen held
Dharamsala, September 24 The committee, headed by director industries Omkar Sharma, issued an appeal to public to provide any kind of information regarding the scam to it. The identity of those revealing information would be kept secret, he said. Later, while talking to TNS, Sharma said: “Our basic objective is to find out loopholes in the education board system that led to scam. We have asked the board authorities to provide us the details of system of allotment of roll numbers, examination centres, procedure of secrecy branch and preparation of results. Other members of the committee are joint director college Yogesh and deputy director elementary education Dharamsala Satish Dhiman. Meanwhile, the police arrested two more postmen, Mukesh posted at Gurkeri and Swaroop Singh posted at Tiara yesterday. Sources said during interrogation the postmen had admitted that they used to deliver registered post to an aide of main accused Kashmir Singh, a teacher in a private school.
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7 labourers injured in furnace blast
Dharamsala, September 24 Those critically injured include Manmohan Singh, Rajvinder Singh and Swati Lal, residents of Nepal. They have been admitted to Ravi Hospital at Pathankot. Other labourers received minor burns and have been admitted to a local hospital. Most injured were Nepalese who were working in the unit. Sources told The Tribune that the blast occurred when a labourer put some scrap in the furnace. The scrap containing some explosive substance exploded and spread the melted iron in the surrounding areas causing injuries to other labourers. Kandrori is located near the firing ranges of the Army. Scrap dealers collect shells of explosive from the firing ranges. Earlier also, blasts had occurred in the area, even on the premises of scrap dealers. But no mechanism has been evolved so far to check the supply of explosive shells to scrap dealers.
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Employees put up joint front against government
Shimla, September 24 The decision to wage a joint struggle on issues like release of the arrears of pay revision and grant of other financial benefits was announced by president of the confederation Vinod Kumar and general secretary of the federation Purshottam Guleria at a press conference here today. He said the immediate matter of urgency was the release of arrears of pay revision by Diwali. The employees would not allow any delay in this regard and take action to get the demand accepted.
— TNS |
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1,350 take part in sports meet
Kullu, September 24 The government had initiated many schemes for their all-round development besides promoting education standards. Special scholarship schemes were introduced for those under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe category. Rs 2,567-crore budget had been earmarked for the education sector this year. As many as 1,350 children from 12 districts of the state participated . — OC
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Details of benami Tibetan properties sought
Dharamsala, September 24 Sources said the ED had sought ownership details of Nyimgmapa Centre and Dip Tasecholing Celukpa Monastery at McLeodganj, Gyuto Tantric University at Sidhbari, Jamyang Choeling Nunnery and Shugsup Nunnery at Garoh near here. It has also asked for details regarding the action taken by Kangra revenue authorities in this regard. They also sought the status of properties of TSR Monastery in the Trilokpur area of Kangra district in the name of Sewa Devi Negi, a resident of Himachal Pradesh. The ED is mainly concerned with enforcement of provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973. The sources said the ED had traced the source of money used to create one of these properties, to China. The money was routed from China to Bangkok from where it went to the US and reached India. Deputy Director, ED at Chandigarh Zonal office, V Neeraja said the EDwas inquiring into these properties. She, however, said the inquiry had been going on for the past two years and was also being conducted by the income tax authorities. So far, it has only been found that most properties where the Tibetan institutions have been set up, are in the name of Himachal residents. |
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Ashok Sharma Bar panel chief
Shimla, September 24 Inder Sharma was elected the treasurer of the Bar Association. Ashok Kumar has been elected as the president for the third time.
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With some respite from incessant rain lashing the state, 39 tourists, including 26 foreigners stranded in the Sangla valley in Kinnuar, were evacuated by a helicopter.
Dharamsala, September 24
