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Cong walks out on exam scam
Heated debate on shortage of docs
Curbs on 8 pvt varsities |
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CIVIC POLLS
Kuldeep Rathore
Togadia calls for fighting jehadis
196 denied pension on pretext of fund shortage
Fund
Misuse by Panchayats
Now chief engineer to clear
micro-hydel projects
Sena Jhanda Divas celebrated
600 hotels inspected
Tea stall owner burnt alive
NSS cadet to attend SAARC
meet in Japan
Shiv shines in Golf Cup
SDM office staffer booked for cheating
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Cong walks out on exam scam
Dharamsala, December 7 While the minister was clarifying on the issue raised by HPCC president Kaul Singh, opposition members stood up from their seats alleging unsatisfactory reply. They then walked out of the House raising slogans against the present government. Later, Congress leaders also went around the assembly complex raising slogans against the government. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal termed the walkout of the Congress as unfortunate. He said the Congress was not serious about the discussion over the issue. While clarifying the government stance over the issue, he said the probe had found that exams were conducted in building of a Congress leader. He did not give the name of the Congress leader. He termed it as a system failure and indicated that some action could also be taken against the former board chairman CL Gupta and secretary. Dhumal said it would be probed that how 800 students were allowed to submit examination forms by the use of discretionary powers of the officials. Elaborating about the corrective measures being taken by the government in the case, he said the government might finish board examinations for 10+1 in the state education board. Earlier while speaking over the issue, Kaul Singh demanded a CBI inquiry or probe by a sitting judge of the high court for investigation into the matter. The last 15 years record of the education board should be scrutinised to go into the depth of the matter. He also said the government was just concentrating on catching small fries in the case. The big fish or higher officials were being allowed to go scot free. He also demanded that the parents of all 208 accused students in the case should also be booked. He also lamented the fact that the results of certain meritorious students were delayed just to delete their names from the merit list. Vidya Stokes said Himachal had been defamed due to scam. The education board chairman and the secretary should be punished. She alleged that the government was going soft on the main accused in the case. Roop Singh BJP MLA claimed that the scam had been going on when the Congress was in power. Roop Singh said the state government should contemplate placing a bureaucrat as chairman of the board instead of posting teachers that was the prevalent practice. Harshwardhan Chauhan, Congress MLA, alleged that the state government was neglecting government educational institutions and promoting private institutions. He also lamented the fact that the Onkar committee report that probed the exam scam had not been placed before the House. In Vidhan Sabha
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Congress demands CBI inquiry
n No board exams for class 10+1 likely
n Bureaucrat likely to head education board
n Former board chief and secretary may face action |
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Heated debate on shortage of docs
Dharamsala, December 7 Members of the Opposition pointed out from the figure placed before the House that there was no vacancy of doctor in Solan district that was the home district of the Health Minister. The minister pointed out that since coming to power, the present government had improved the availability of doctors in the state. The BJP MLA, Urmil Thakur, raised a question about mobile towers in Hamirpur town and rules under which they were allowed. The Chief Minister, while replying to the query, said the town and country planning department had made draft rules for allowing towers in the residential areas. “We had asked for objections from people, however, none came up. The objections that had come were from mobile tower companies.” Gangu Ram Musafir through a query raised by him alleged that the amount released by the government of India for welfare of the Scheduled Castes was being diverted and misused. Minister for Social Security Sarveen Chaudhary, however, said the entire fund was being utilised and the grant under component had in fact been increased by the government of India.
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Curbs on 8 pvt varsities
Dharamsala, December 7 The universities include Eternal University, Manav Bharti University, Arni University, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Chitkara University, Indus International University, Shoolni University of Bio-technology and Management Sciences and Baddi University of Emerging Science and Technology. The individual amendment Bills of the universities that were presented before the House today said the private universities were not allowed to confer honorary degrees or other academic distinctions. The universities had also been barred from offering distance education. Earlier, the universities were allowed to offer distance education as per the guidelines of the UGC. The Amendment Act also stated that a one-month period was not reasonable for approval of fee structure. The government should be allowed three months for approving proposals relating to fee structure by the private universities. The bills for two new universities, including Bahra University in Solan and Sai University in Palampur, were also tabled in the House. The amendments had also been incorporated in the bills of new universities. Congress Chief Whip in the House Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, while talking to The Tribune, said amendments should also have been enforced on JP University. It was strange that JP University had been left out, he said. The Himachal Pradesh University Amendment Bill 2010 also been tabled in the House. The bill intends to delete Section 35-A of the Himachal Pradesh University Act 1970. Under the new amendment, Himachal University now would have to take permission from state government for creation of posts, positions or giving assignments. Besides the 10 bills of private universities, eight other bills were also tabled in the house. The major bills that were tabled in the House include the Himachal Pradesh Motor Vehicles Taxation (amendment) Bill, 2010, the Himachal Pradesh Paraveterinary Council Bill, 2010, the Himachal Pradesh Tax on Entry of Goods into Local Area (amendment) Bill 2010, the Himachal Pradesh Taxation (on certain goods carried by road) Amendment Bill, 2010, the Himachal Pradesh Passengers and Goods Taxation (amendment) Bill, 2010, the Himachal Pradesh Anatomy (amendment) Bill, 2010, the Himachal Pradesh Value Added Tax (amendment) Bill, 2010 and the Himachal Pradesh Municipal (amendment) Bill, 2010. Rs 23,245 cr debt on HP The state has a debt liability of Rs 23,245.47 crore. As per the repayment schedule of the state government, it will be able to clear its debts by 2040-41. Debt on each Himachal resident is also Rs 33,090. This was revealed in the House by the state government in response to a question raised by Congress MLA Rajesh Dhirmani and Gangu Ram Musafir.
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CIVIC POLLS
Shimla, December 7 General secretary of the party Kuldeep Rathore said here today that the state
election commission had given the option to the political parties but the
Congress had taken up the challenge and its candidate would contest on the party
symbol. Screening committees had been constituted for the selection of
candidates. However, the BJP government had already started harassing the prospective candidates to dissuade them from entering the fray. Not only that, the model code of conduct for election was being observed only in breach as evident from the fact that hoardings displaying the achievements of the government had not been removed, decision like revision of wages and granting benefits to employees, which could influence the voters, were being announced making a mockery of the code of conduct. The ongoing T-20 tournament was deliberately being organised during polls by Anurag Thakur, the cricketer son of Chief Minister, to drive political advantage. He condemned the decision of the Himachal Urban Development Authority (HIMUDA) to sell flats and plots to outsiders without any reservation quota for the local people. The policy of the government to oblige the builders had made the flats out of reach for even the well-off Himachalis. The Section 118 had been virtually made redundant. He demanded that HIMUDA should provide at least 50 per cent of the flats to local people at reasonable price and it should be made mandatory for the private builders to reserve 25 per cent of flats for the Himachalis. Referring to the move of the government to issue notices to top Congress leaders Kaul Singh and Vidya Stokes, Rathore said the party men would not be cowed down by such tactics. He had already received a legal notice but it would not deter him from raising issues concerning the people. |
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Togadia calls for fighting jehadis
Shimla, December 7 The VHP leader arrived here today to take part in the Hanumant Shakti Mahayagya and Hindu Sammelan organised by the Hanuman Shakti Jagran Samiti, Shimla. Togadia said the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya was not just a question of religious sentiments of the Hindus but it was a matter of national pride on which there could be no compromise. He said attempts were being made to implicate all those, including saints, who had stood up in support of the construction of the Ram temple and the Hindus in general.
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196 denied pension on pretext of fund shortage
Kangra, December 7 Those who had contributed for 15 to 22 years for the pension fund with a hope to get pension at the fag end of their lives were a disappointed lot. Ashwani Sharma, who retired as zonal manager from the KCCB, said on January 1, 1998, a pension scheme was framed with the approval of the Registrar, Cooperative, Himachal Pradesh. Those who had opted for the scheme were required to contribute from back date of January 1, 1988, at the rate of 1.5 per cent of the gross salary along with an interest of 5 per cent for this decade. Sharma said they had contributed funds for this purpose from back date and also paid regularly every month to the pension fund corpus. He said according to the scheme, the corpus was to be maintained by the bank and was to be reviewed after every five years which the bank allegedly failed to do. He said the general house of the bank, while considering the allocation of funds out of its profit, passed that the Welfare Employees Fund and the corpus were one and the same for granting pension to the pensioners. Sharma claimed that as per the information gathered through RTI, there was Rs 19.17 crore in the Employees Welfare Fund, Rs 8.44 crore in PF corpus as on April 21, 2010, when the scheme was discontinued. He further claimed that the bank had earned of Rs 15 crore out of the Welfare Employees Fund through its investment but such earnings had not been credited to the welfare fund account. He said the bank required to pay Rs 1.76 crore annually to these pensioners whereas the bank was reportedly earning Rs. 4.56 crore as interest on the investment of funds from these two accounts. A seniormost officer of the KCCB said the bank had failed to review the pension scheme from time to time and the funds were drained out putting the pensioners in trouble. He said the funds in these two accounts were sufficient to sustain the pensioners at least for 50 years. These pensioners sought the intervention of Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal to get them relieved from the harassment due to the a stoppage of this pension scheme. |
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Govt, DCs told to file reply
Legal Correspondent
Shimla, December 7 A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joesph and Justice VK Ahuja passed this order on a petition alleging that the deputy commissioners of the state have failed to make recovery from office-bearers of the panchayats who have embezzled funds as per the audit reports of the panchayats under NREGA rules. The Bench after hearing the petition directed the respondents to file reply before December 15. The petitioner has urged the court to direct the respondents to restrain such office-bearers, who have allegedly misused public funds, from contesting panchayat elections. The petitioner further alleged that the audit report revealed that 30 per cent of the office-bearers of the panchayats had misused the amount under the NREGA scheme by placing on record false accounts and fake attendance certificates. He added that the audit report had attained finality but despite this fact the deputy commissioners had failed to discharge their duty under the HP Panchayati Raj Act. He also mentioned that under Section 142 of the Panchayati Raj Act, the deputy commissioners were empowered to make recovery of embezzled amount but till date nothing had been done.
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Now chief engineer to clear
micro-hydel projects
Dharamsala, December 7 Earlier, the sanction was given by the state electricity board. The Cabinet has also decided to lay a time bar on giving techno-economic feasibility to avoid delays in sanctions. It also decided to amend the HP Regularisation of Encroached Lands in certain cases and Disposal of Government Lands Rules, 2002. A sub-committee under Revenue Minister Ghulab Singh has been formed to develop guidelines for implementing the decision. The move is aimed at regularisation of encroachments made by poor people in the state. In another major decision, the Cabinet decided to handover handpumps to panchayats and municipal councils. Earlier, handpumps were being manned by the IPH Department.
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Bilaspur, December 7 DC and Zila Sainik Board chairperson Nandita Gupta said this after inaugurating Sena Jhanda Divas here today. She said the Kargil War had seen our valiant soldiers win laurels and even the highest gallantry award of Param Vir Chakra was awarded to Havildar Sanjay Kumar. She said Sena Jhanda Divas was organised every year not only to pay homage to valiant soldiers who gave their lives for their motherland but also to show concern for families of such martyrs. The DC said 116 soldiers and officers of the Indian armed forces from Bilaspur had given their lives for their motherland during the 62 years of Independence. She said at present there were 286 war returnees who had lost various limbs in these wars while there were 8,416 ex-servicemen and 108 war widows, 1,406 widows of Army personnel apart from 4,150 serving soldiers and officers from the district. — OC
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600 hotels inspected
Shimla, December 7 A spokesperson of the department said the defaulters were challaned and an amount of Rs 5 lakh was recovered by way of fine. The drive of the department also covered the units of the state tourism development corporation. In all 210 units were inspected in Chamba district, 151 units in Kullu, 177 units in Kangra, Una and Hamirpur, 42 units in Mandi and Bilaspur, 52 units in Solan and Sirmaur and 35 units in Shimla. He further said on the basis of irregularities detected action was taken against the erring units and warning was also issued with direction to maintain proper hygiene in their establishments. |
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Tea stall owner burnt alive
Mandi, December 7 According to villagers, Mandas was sleeping alone in the rented wooden house when the fire broke out at midnight. They noticed in the morning that Mandas was burnt alive in the fire. The Thunag tehsildar visited the spot and gave Rs 5,000 as an immediate relief to the victim’s wife. Mandas had two sons and two daughters and was the sole breadwinner. The police has registered a case and suspected short circuit to be the preliminary cause of fire. — TNS |
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NSS cadet to attend SAARC
meet in Japan
Shimla, December 7 Sanjana was chosen from amongst NSS cadets from all over the country on the basis of her NSS activities and achievements. She will take part in various programmes to be held in various parts of Japan from December 8 to 17. It is under the nomination for High School Students for SAARC Youth Programme that she is visiting Japan being sponsored by Union Ministry of Sports. Sanjana excelled in the NSS activities while she was a student of Government Senior Secondary School, Matiana, and even led the first NSS contingent at the state-level Republic Day parade. “I am very excited at the opportunity that I am getting and I am keen to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan,” she said. Hailing from Kariyal village near Matiana, Sanjana is now a first-year student at RKMV, here. She is keen to take up law as profession and is already preparing to ensure that she gets admission into law course at a good university. She credits her parents, Surender Chauhan and Vidya, for her achievements and her NSS programme officer in school, Ajay Vashisht for guiding her.
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Shiv shines in Golf Cup
Shimla, December 7 The team event was won by Shimla with a total of 125 points. Shiv with 36 points and Arjun Lal with 34 points were the chief architect of the victory. The IAS team ended up at the second place with a tally of 116 points. Shiv won the gross event with a tally of 34. He was followed by Arjun Lal with 32 points. I.D.Bhandari was the winner of the net event with a score of 37 points, while Shiv with a tally of 36 ended up a close second. In all, eight teams participated in the two-day tournament sponsored by the local Koti Family. |
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SDM office staffer booked for cheating
Solan, December 7 The police said a case under Sections 409 and 420 of the IPC has been registered against DR Chouhan as funds worth several lakh had been embazzled from the SDM office between 2007 and May 2010. The charge had also been proved in an inquiry which was conducted by the DC Solan.Chohan had been suspended after the inquiry by the DC while no further action had been taken in the case. More officials could be in trouble as the embezzalment of more than Rs 20 lakh could not have been executed single handedly. The amount pertained to natural calamity funds, medical allowance and other maintenance charges of the office which was drawn but never disbursed to beneficiaries. |
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Unsatisfied by the reply of Education Minister Ishwar Dhiman over the examination scam, the Opposition today staged a walkout from the House.
