Dharamsala, November 13
The disciplinary committee of the college, headed by Principal Anil Chauhan, will decide the fate of Ashish Sakhlani, the roommate of Aman Kachroo.

Ashish had landed in trouble earlier this month when four college girls had complained to the college authorities that Ashish had posted obscene remarks about them on his Facebook account.

The Principal said he had received a complaint against Ashish from the students on November 2. He said, “I called him and he admitted before me that he had posted the messages and later deleted these”.

The Principal had set up a three-member committee to inquire the incident. Ashish was immediately suspended from the hostel and was not allowed to attend classes till the inquiry was pending.

The Principal today said he had not received the inquiry report as yet, adding that he had learnt that the committee members had recommended six months’ suspension for the accused.

The final decision regarding the quantum of punishment to the accused would be taken by the disciplinary committee after going through the comments, he said. The action against Ashish is likely to be taken by the end of next week.

Ashish has also accepted before the committee that he had posted obscene messages against the four colleagues, the sources here said. The sources said the women commission of the state had also sought the report from the college.

Palampur, November 13
At the end of day one of the Himalayan Open Paragliding Championship at Bir-Billing in Kangra, Akhilesh Yadav, Anand Ovhal and Akash Singha, bagged first, second and third positions, respectively, as per the results in the Novice Category declared yesterday.

In the Open Category, Raj Kumar, Roshan Lal Thakur and Dhan Raj Patil were ranked first, second and third as per Task I of day one. The only woman pilot to make it to the target was Veranian Anstasiia from Russia.

In the Novice Category, those who were able to achieve rankings in the first 10, besides the first three, included Sikander Thakur, Shiv Chand, Suhas Chaudhari, Sundar Rai, Vishnu Sharma, Gurbinder Singh, and Bijoy Borha.

In the Open Category, Arvind Kaul, Lianzamawi, Raj Kumar Thakur, Bhanwarlal, Yagya Dutt, Raju Rai and Subhash Chand were placed in the first 10.

The window on the second day of Cross-Country of the Himalayan Open Paragliding Championship, was open to solo professional pilots in the Open Category with different tasks covering 38.77 km and the window for the Novice Category (both solo and tandem) and were to cover air distance of 18.60 km, which was double the route assigned yesterday in the Novice Category. This was stated by Dr SP Katyal and Samson Dsilva, members, technical committee, here today.

According to DS Gulia, in charge, Safety and Rescue, 15 rescue teams were formed which were deployed in Utarala, Chauntra Sector, Sansal Sector, Bakhed Sector, Ghatta, Jogindernagar, Palampur, Deol and in other vulnerable points, including at take-off and at landing zones.

He said 140 pilots glided today, which included professionals and amateurs. Only four women pilots participated in the competition, out of which, two were from Russia and one each from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Katwal said it was for the first time in the history of the championship in the state that such a large number of contestants had taken part.

Hamirpur, November 13
Chief Minister PK Dhumal said the discussion was on to take decision on holding the coming elections of Nagar Panchayat on party symbols and decision in this regard would be taken soon.

In reply to a question while talking to mediapersons at regional hospital today, after inaugurating the new complex of eye department, Dhumal said, “The process of panchayat and urban election will be completed by January 22 and process is already on to complete the formalities for the election.”

He said, “The state government will start free ambulance services in the state on December 25 on the birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and this service will be available in all places.”

Dhumal said, “We are holding talks with insurance companies to provide health insurance cover for all families on payment of premium by them and after proving free medical treatment to all families living below poverty line in the state under the Rashtriya Swasthaya Bima Yojna (RSBY). The state government would also extend the health insurance cover to every family on payment of some premium.

He said Hamirpur district had taken many strides in the health sector and the number of institutional deliveries had reached above 85 per cent, the district had topped in the RSBY, the female sex ratio had increased and even number of AIDS-affected patients had come down to 5th position in the state.

He said ultrasound facility would be extended to Nadaun, Bhoranj and Sujanpur for three days in a month.

Dhumal said, “The state government is starting a Volvo bus service from Hamirpur to New Delhi which will leave Hamirpur at 7.30 pm.” Earlier, the Chief Minister also inaugurated new eye ward in the regional hospital, Hamirpur.

Solan, November 13
With no end in sight to the 38-day stand-off between the management of Ambuja Cements and four truck unions, the former today gave an ultimatum to the Deputy Commissioner to either initiate transportation activities till November 14 or else give it adequate security to hire trucks from outside.

In a letter written to the Deputy Commissioner, the unit’s joint president, Chanchal Kumar stated that they would be forced to hire trucks from outside if the dispute was not resolved amicably till November 14. The management has further stated that in case the transportation activities failed to be resumed, they would depute their Darlaghat-based staff to other places.

The management has also decided to withdraw the hike of Rs 619 per tonne for transporting clinker which was offered by them to the truckers, if it was not accepted till November 14.

This ultimatum had created a dicey situation for the administration which feared that the truckers could resort to some violence in case the issue lingered on for some more time. With neither the truckers nor the unit management ready to budge, the impasse was continuing for over a month now.

The truckers, on the other hand, have convened a maha panchayat tomorrow where they have asked all political parties to support their cause. Jagdish Thakur, the president, truckers high-powered committee comprising representatives of all four truck unions said it was surprising that the management had barely decided to waive off .5 per cent of the 5 per cent discount which they were demanding on a freight rate of Rs 625 per tonne after several rounds of talks with the high-level committee constituted by the government.

Principal secretary to the Chief Minister Bhim Sen also held another round of talks with the unit management and truck operators late last night to work out a solution but failed to draw out a conclusion.

Bilaspur, November 13
Chief Minister Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal has dismissed the objections of the state Congress chief Kaul Singh Thakur against the opening of a large number of universities in the state.

He has asserted that the government is determined to provide training and study facilities to its youth at their doorsteps at cheaper rates to enable them to face all challenges of life and ever-increasing competition in every field.

The Chief Minister was addressing a public meeting after inaugurating Rs 1.32 crore five-story office building of Deputy Directors of Education at Bilaspur and also Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bhawan and the science block of Government Senior Secondary School. He also laid the foundation stone of Rs 1.47 crore Kothipura- Nuni-Raghunathpura drinking water supply scheme at Kothipura near here today.

He declared that the preference would be given to set up universities in districts where these were not opened and now a university would be opened in Chamba district while another university was being set up in Bilaspur district for which a go-ahead has been given to Symbosis International.

The Chief Minister declared that the Himachal government had decided to save apple growers from the exploitation of Delhi Azadpur Mandi intermediaries and now an apple mandi would be set up near Theog at Prala.

He said the government had removed all barriers of upper and lower areas of the state created by the former Congress government and it was giving full attention to solve problems of both apple and mango belts of the state.

He said anti-hail radar guns had been installed at Khada Pathar in Shimla district to save apple crops from hail and if this experiment succeeds, other areas of apple growers would also be provided this facility. He said the government was also seriously considering to save mango trees and crops in the lower hill areas from burning frost by adopting sprinkler technique successfully adopted by Israel.

The Chief Minister announced a grant of Rs 45 lakh for development works of Kothipura school and Rs 25 lakh for the construction of ayurveda dispensary at nearby Kallar on damand of local MLA Randhir Sharma.

Shimla, November 13
The HP Pensioner’s Association has urged the government to fulfill the commitment made to the pensioners regarding grant of all benefits being already availed by their counterparts in Punjab.

A team met the Chief Minister PK Dhumal here today to urge him to accept their demands. They submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister listing their main demands they said, must be met at the earliest.

“Though the government has granted revised pension but it is not completely congruent to what the pensioners in Punjab have been given,” said Hari Chand Gupta, spokesperson of the Association.

He regretted that despite the assurance by the Chief Minister on December 14, 2008 at a pensioners rally at Una, not much had changed. — TNS

Bilaspur, November 13
The District Congress Committee has taken a strong exception to the allocation of a number of government contracts to only contractor Raj Kumar in Ghumarwin.

Rikhi Ram Kaundal gram panchayat president of Ghraan, son of Deputy Speaker, has urged the Chief Minister to order a high-level inquiry into the ‘contract scandal’ and take suitable action.

Addressing mediapersons at the Circuit House, Santosh Dhiman, president of the district Congress and Dr Biroo Ram Kishore, a former MLA, said a government rule strictly prohibited the allocation of more than two contracts to a single contractor at a time, but Raj Kumar and his concerns were allocated 74 contracts in the Kalol area, 16 contracts in the Barthin area and three contracts in the Ghumarwin area, which amounted to Rs 4.16 crore, during the BJP regime.

They said this information was revealed through an RTI Act application and it required an immediate action. The leaders have also demanded an inquiry into the matter that the contractor acquired assets worth 34 times during this period of three years.

They warned that the district Congress would not let the issue be suppressed and if the inquiry was not ordered immediately, the party would resort to an agitation.

Santosh Dhiman and Biroo Ram Kishore also objected to the handover of the management of the Tourism Department-run Yatri Niwas at Shah Talai to the Deot Sidh Temple Trust of Hamirpur district.

He said this trust already had mismanaged serais and the building would become the victim to the same mismanagement. They also demanded an inquiry into the misuse of the HP PWD Rest House at Shah Talai by a few individuals without any registered entries or the required payments fixed by the government.