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Anandpur Sahib-Naina Devi Ropeway
BJP tells youth to gear up for polls
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Aiyyar takes a dig at BJP
Residents protest against hospital owner
Shifting of District Courts
Student Council in ABVP kitty
CPM protests against corruption
Power firms to face action: CM
Telephones out of order
Make exam scam report public: Rahi
Workshop on cyber crime
Review decision to sell carton factory: Farmers
Camp on breast cancer today
Bindra is SJVN finance director
State tourism hotels to serve local dishes
Hotels ready to serve dhaam
16,203 BPL families get smart cards
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Anandpur
Sahib-Naina Devi Ropeway
Shimla, December 11 The Punjab government has sent a letter to the state, giving three options under which the project can be executed even though the profit sharing will be equal by the two partner states. With various options, including getting it done on the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis or get it executed through a special purpose vehicle, it is likely that the ropeway will be made by a public sector undertaking of Punjab. “The offer made by Punjab is acceptable to us and it is due to the interest taken by their Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal that we can sign an agreement shortly and in every likelihood their PSU will execute the project,” said Arun Sharma, director, Tourism and Civil Aviation. He, however, added that the land acquisition would have to be done by the respective governments in their jurisdiction while the profit would be shared equally. The estimated cost of the ropeway with a span of 3.5 km is likely to cross Rs 70 crore. However, considering the number of pilgrims, who visit Naina Devi every year from Punjab, the project has very high economic viability. Moreover, it will help in reducing the traffic congestion on the Naina Devi route as most pilgrims will prefer the ropeway because it will take less time apart from the adventure aspect. Both governments have been keen to see the project come through but with bureaucratic wrangles, it could not be pushed. In fact, now with Punjab offering to execute the project with the help of funds lying with one of its PSUs, work on it can start shortly after the signing of the agreement. Sharma said Himachal would need to acquire more land than Punjab as most of the area falls in the hill state. Though the shrine of Naina Devi falls in Himachal, the maximum number of pilgrims are from various parts of Punjab and they visit it throughout the year. Though the ropeway project had been envisaged long back, after the Naina Devi mishap where some pilgrims were killed in a stampede, Himachal is keen to see it through as it will help the state regulate traffic and flow of pilgrims.
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BJP tells youth to gear up for polls
Solan, December 11 Addressing a meeting of yuva morcha activists at Baddi, Attri said they should gear up to ensure the victory of the BJP-supported candidates in the ensuing panchayat and civic body polls. Educating the youth about the achievements of the PK Dhumal government he said the state had excelled at the national level in the field of education, health and micro-investment and this was made achieved under the leadership of the Chief Minister. He said the government had made available 28,000 jobs in the government sector in the first three years itself while the Congress had barely provided 3,386 jobs in the last tenure though it had come to power with the promise of employing one member of each family in a government job. He said the Congress had failed to protect the interests of the state as the central industrial package, which was announced by former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee that had been curtailed. He said the BJP government had provided hundreds of employment avenues for the youth by introducing several self-employment schemes.
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Aiyyar takes a dig at BJP
Hamirpur, December 11 Addressing a state-level conference of the RGPRS here today, he said, “I consider him as the most dangerous man but he being the Chairman of the PAC, if his party continues to boycott Parliament, it is an act of no-confidence against him.” Aiyyar said, “The ongoing boycott of Parliament has delayed passing of several important Parliament business, including passing of women reservation bill to give 50 per cent reservation to women.” Giving a clarion call for the ongoing PRI election in the state, he said, “The state RGPRS has chalked out a programme with a slogan “BJP Hatao”, but they should make it “BJP Hatao and Panchayati Lao”, so that power brokers can be defeated at the grassroot level and people associated with this organisation form the next Congress government in the state.” He said the funds allocated for development by the Central Government are not reaching at the grassroot level and even former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had said 85 per cent of funds allocated for this purpose were being spent for administrative set up by the babus. Addressing this conference, HPCC president Kaul Singh Thakur gave a call to defeat BJP candidates at every level in this election. Lashing out at the state government, Thakur said, “The BJP government has implemented several anti-people policies like bus fare hike, increase in electricity charges and land selling to outsiders. The law and order system has deteriorated and biggest scam of the sale of fake certificates had occurred during the present regime.” State convener of RGPRS Ranjeet Singh Verma and several other leaders also addressed this conference.
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Residents protest against hospital owner
Sundernagar, December 11 The agitated mob also accused the police of favouring the doctor by not registering the complaint. Relatives of the deceased said Vijay Kumar Jain ( 50), a local merchant, was not feeling well on December 8 and was taken to BBMB Colony Hospital from where he was referred to a private hospital, Shusruta Hospital, by Dr Javed. Not satisfied by the treatment there, the relatives requested Dr Sanjay Dhiman, also owner of this hospital, to refer the patient to other hospital but no attention was paid to the requests, they said. Vijay died yesterday around 10.30 pm but no treatment record was given to the attendants. After the cremation of Vijay, a large number of residents from various localities of the town today gathered outside the hospital and started raising slogans against Dr Dhiman and Dr Javed. According to them, there was a nexus going on in the town. Doctors of various government hospitals refer patients to private hospitals for known reasons. The mob was demanding the registration of case against the doctor. However, the police which remained on the spot for nearly two hours declined to register the case. According to Deep Chand, SHO, Sundernagar, no case was made out. According to the family members, the police team was siding with the doctors so they would bring the matter to the notice of Mandi SP. Dr Sanjay Dhiman had also been penalised by the Consumer Forum, Mandi, and was directed to pay Rs 22,000 for giving fabricated report of blood sample.
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Shifting of District Courts
Shimla, December 11 President of the HP High Court Bar Association Ashok Sharma said the issue was discussed at length and it had been decided to find a solution to the stalemate by holding talks. He, however, added that it had also been decided that in future there would be no abstention from the court. He said in fact it had been decided at the General House that the Bar association would request the Chief Justice to declare one Saturday as a working day to be able to compensate for loss of work. He said the decisions had been conveyed to the Chief Justice and other judges. Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and other judges of the high court yesterday addressed the General House with respect to the issue of shifting of the district court. “We will hold talks with the executive committee of the District Bar Association, Shimla, to resolve the stalemate over the issue of shifting of the district courts from the present location in the DC Office Complex to the new complex at Chakkar,” he added. The District Bar Association has been protesting the shifting move on the plea that the new complex is located far away and this will cause inconvenience to all, including the litigants and the general public.
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Student Council in ABVP kitty
Shimla, December 11 Shalini Sharma, from Postgraduate College, won the post of secretary as she polled 56 votes against 26 by NSUI candidate Arvind Dhiman and 15 by Mool Raj of the Students Federation of India (SFI ). Anchal Rana (ABVP) from Government College, Dharamsala, won the seat of joint secretary as got 57 votes as compared to 24 by Mohit Thakur of the SFI and 16 by Dhiraj Sharma of the NSUI. Those elected for the Standing Committee include Arun Kumar of the NSUI from Government College, Jaisinghpur, Atul Awasthi from Mandi and Raman Thakur from Sujanpur Tira, both from the ABVP. Out of a total of 120 votes, 97 were polled. The polling was more or less peaceful except a minor argument between ABVP and SFI activists when two students were caught casting fake votes. There was confusion over a vote in the name of Praveen Kumar of M.Sc (Physics) which was wrongfully given to a student of the same name doing M.Phil in the same department. Alleging large-scale irregularities in the polls, the SFI activists staged a demonstration outside the DC office, demanding action against ABVP activists caught casting fake votes. Shalini creates history
Shalini Sharma has created history by becoming the first-ever girl student to have won the post of secretary of the Students Council of HPU. The secretary of the Student Council is the representative of the entire student community of the state in the highest decision-making body of the HPU, the Executive Council. The 120-member electoral college of the Student Council is constituted by the presidents of the Student Central Association of all colleges in the state, presidents of the Postgraduate Centre, HPU, and Regional Centre, Dharamsala. Besides this, those excelling in studies in the undergraduate and postgraduate courses also have a vote. Those who have made outstanding contribution in the NSS, the NCC and cultural activities too are members of the electoral college. |
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CPM protests against corruption
Shimla, December 11 Taking the state BJP to task he said a scandal similar to the CWG etc had taken place in the sale of Gumma carton factory worth Rs 30 crore for just Rs 1 crore to a junk dealer. The BJP government in the state was also catching up on the corruption front. The drug controller, who was arrested in a corruption case, had been reinstated that too at the behest of the Health Minister. Rampant corruption is taking place in health and education sectors. Private universities had been opened in undue haste allegedly with heavy kickbacks. Fake marksheets and degrees of the school board and Himachal University also exposed the nexus between the officials and the leadership of the incumbent government. The CPM would expose both parties during the ensuing campaign against corruption. |
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Power firms to face action: CM
Dharamsala, December 11 Congress MLA from the Bhattiyat constituency Kuldeep Singh Pathania has stated this in the House. He raised the query seeking information from the CM regarding the power projects not allowing the discharge of 15 per cent water downstream. The Chief Minister said certain power project companies had gone to the High Court against the decision of the state government to allow 15 per cent discharge of water downstream river. He also assured the House that in case any violation was noticed, appropriate action would be taken. GS Bali raised a question regarding the number of the unemployed youth registered in the state and the number of jobs provided in both private and public sectors in the last two years. Minister for Industries and Labour Kishan Kapoor said 8,28,340 persons had been registered as unemployed with the state government. Replying to a query from Rajesh Dhirmani, Congress MLA from Ghumarwin, the Chief Minister informed the House that the government had earmarked 64 acre for the IT park in the Waknaghat area of Solan district. The idea was to develop the park in public participation mode. However, due to economic slowdown, the project could not come up. He also said 70 units in the IT sector had been set up in the state involving an investment of Rs 52.61 crore and providing an employment to 731 persons. The government had also earmarked 35 acre land in Nalagarh for development of the bio-technology park.
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Telephones out of order
Sundernagar, December 11 Consumers noticed that their telephones were out of order initially they thought that it was due to ongoing strike of BSNL employees but after lodging complaint it was noticed that the problem was due to damage of cable. SDO, telecom, said the cable was damaged due to ongoing work of the Irrigation and Public Health Department regarding which the report had been lodged to the police. — OC |
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Make exam scam report public: Rahi
Hamirpur, December 11 Rahi said in fact the education board had cancelled the affiliation of this school in 2006 for various irregularities and even the High Court had upheld this decision and put a fine of Rs 50,000 on the school management. He said, therefore, it was misleading to say that then school board authorities had failed to act against the school. Rahi also demanded making the inquiry report public in the fake certificate scam so that accountability of employees and the authorities of the education board was fixed and guilty were brought to book.
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Workshop on cyber crime
Hamirpur, December 11 MD of COMTECA Prateek Soni said his institute was planning to organise such workshops in other parts of the state soon.—
TNS |
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Review decision to sell carton factory: Farmers
Shimla, December 11 In a statement issued here today, vice-president of the HKS Tikender Singh Panwar said as per the managing director (MD) of Agro Industries Packaging India Limited (AIPIL) the factory had incurred heavy losses due to appreciation in the value of Yen. “Since the MD himself admits this fact, efforts must be made to make it viable through aggressive marketing strategy and making it run to its full capacity of 2 crore boxes,” he said. He said the government could not sell off machinery with a reserve price of over Rs 23 crore for merely Rs 1.08 crore to a scrap dealer when it had still not outlived its life. “The life of the plant is 50 years and, moreover, it has not been run to even 3 per cent of its full capacity of 2 crore boxes so the government must make it operational,” he demanded. Panwar had two days back brought the sale of the machinery to a scrap dealer for Rs 1.08 crore to the notice of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), seeking a thorough examination of the move. “For a small state like Himachal even a loss of Rs 30 crore is huge and the government cannot callously waste public money using its discretion and that too to benefit its own men,” he alleged. The HKS had earlier said this year the apple growers had to pay at least Rs 15 per carton extra as the private producers of packaging material hiked the prices in the absence of AIPIL factory being functional. This, he added, had resulted in a total loss of over Rs 45 crore to the apple growers. He demanded that the government must review its decision to wind up the factory as it was against the interest of the apple growers and the state as a whole as cartons could be produced for all other fruits as well as for the corporate houses who had placed orders worth several crores in 1995.
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Camp on breast cancer today
Hamirpur, December 11 It will be held in association with the Healthand Family Welfare Department. Spokesperson of the trust Kalpana Sanghaik said the camp would begin at 9.30 am, which was supported by the National Rural Health Mission and specialists gynaecologist from the Health Department would examine women
and give them tips about various aspects of breast cancer. |
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Bindra is SJVN finance director
Shimla, December 11 The post fell vacant following the appointment of KK Garg as the director (finance) in IRCON. Bindra was working as the general manager (finance) with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation before taking over the new assignment. A professional degree in Chartered Accountant, Bindra started his career from the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation and had long stint at the THDC Limited. He joined the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in 2005 where he was looking after all construction activities as well as the operation and a key member of the finance on all major contracts.
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State tourism hotels to serve local dishes
Dharamsala, December 11 He said initially the cuisines would be added in flagship hotels of the corporation, including Holiday Home and Peterhoff. These would initially be offered to groups coming to the corporation hotels. If groups opted for traditional cuisines, they would also be offered the dishes in traditional style. After Shimla, such dishes would also be added in other areas like Dhauladhar hotel in Dharamsala, the MD said. “We are planning to hire cooks for traditional dishes from the areas where these dishes are being cooked. Training can also be provided to the cooks in the HPTDC hotels later,” he added. The local dishes in Himachal vary according to region. Non-vegetarian food, with a generous dose of spices like cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and red chillies, is the norm. Dhaam is cooked only by “botis” (a particular caste of Brahmins who are hereditary chefs). Preparations for this meal begins a night before. It is served in courses on leaf plates. In the Kangra region, the typical menu for a dhaam starts with rice, moong dal (green lentil broth) and a madrah of rajma (red kidney beans) cooked in yoghurt. This is followed by “boor ki kari” and a dark lentil (mash dal). Topped by “khatta” (sweet and sour sauce) made of tamarind and jaggery, the “dhaam” ends with the sweet rice, mittha, as dessert, liberally mixed with raisins and dry fruit.
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Hotels ready to serve dhaam
Dharamsala, December 11 He said initially the cuisines would be added in flagship hotels of the corporation, including Holiday Home and Peterhoff. These would initially be offered to groups coming to the corporation hotels. If groups opted for traditional cuisines, they would also be offered the dishes in traditional style. After Shimla, such dishes would also be added in other areas like Dhauladhar hotel in Dharamsala, the MD said. “We are planning to hire cooks for traditional dishes from the areas where these dishes are being cooked. Training can also be provided to the cooks in the HPTDC hotels later,” he added. The local dishes in Himachal vary according to region. Non-vegetarian food, with a generous dose of spices like cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and red chillies, is the norm. Dhaam is cooked only by “botis” (a particular caste of Brahmins who are hereditary chefs). Preparations for this meal begins a night before. It is served in courses on leaf plates. In the Kangra region, the typical menu for a dhaam starts with rice, moong dal (green lentil broth) and a madrah of rajma (red kidney beans) cooked in yoghurt. This is followed by “boor ki kari” and a dark lentil (mash dal). Topped by “khatta” (sweet and sour sauce) made of tamarind and jaggery, the “dhaam” ends with the sweet rice, mittha, as dessert, liberally mixed with raisins and dry fruit. In the barren regions of Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti, there is more emphasis on locally-grown coarse grains like buckwheat, millet and barley. In areas with a pastoral tradition, milk and its products are liberally used in cooking. Himachalis are not particularly fond of vegetarian food and till recently tubers like potatoes and turnips are all they ate in the name of vegetables. Vaneet Kumar said the HPTDC was planning to add South Indian and continental dishes in its hotels. It had been observed that food menu, being offered by HPTDC hotels, was standard and had not been changed since long. Since tourists of all sorts were coming to the hotels of the HPTDC, inclusion of South Indian and continental dishes would add value to services being provided to clients. “We have identified a few cooks in the HPTDC who can cook South Indian and continental dishes. They will be deputed to train cooks at other hotels”, he said. He also said the HPTDC had written to the Indian Railways to lease it out a bogey train to take tourists in areas around
Shimla. What’s Dhaam Dhaam starts with rice, moong dal and a “madrah of rajma” cooked in yoghurt. This is followed by “boor ki kari” and “mah dal”. Topped by “khatta”, made of tamarind and jaggery, the “dhaam” ends with the sweet rice “mittha” as dessert, liberally mixed with raisins and dry fruit |
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16,203 BPL families get smart cards
Bilaspur, December 11 She said while presiding over the “Meet the Press” programme on Thursday, “Facilities under this programme are required to be given wider publicity so that all BPL families come forward to take full advantage and thus help to keep themselves in good health.” Gupta said only 975 BPL families in district had taken advantage of this scheme up till now, since it was inaugurated by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in October and the department has spent Rs 30 lakh on it till date. She said the government was fully aware of the staff shortage in this department and particularly specialists and every nerve was being strained to ensure that the maximum number of specialists and other doctors were made available in every health institution with view to give maximum health facilities to people right on their door steps. She said despite some difficulties, it was a great achievement for the state that it had attained first, second and third positions and has repeatedly won prestigious prizes from impartial assessors in the entire country in the matter of health facilities. Chief Medical Officer Dr Jitender Saxena said most of the new health programmes in interest of society were presently being run under the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) and total Rs 2.25 crore budget had been allocated to this district under this programme for this year and Rs 1.96 crore had been spent under this scheme up till now. |
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Pending in government files for the past several years, the Anandpur Sahib-Naina Devi ropeway project may finally see the light of the day as Himachal and Punjab can sign the agreement for the execution of the project aimed at promoting pilgrim tourism shortly.
Says call for JPC means no trust in Joshi
Dharamsala, December 11
