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Money for marks in MBBS exams?
BJP strategy boomerangs
BJP-backed candidates sweep zila parishad elections
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Will not tolerate rebels:
BJP
Kin of party bigwigs post wins
Election officers suspended
BDC chief poll on Jan 10
HC quashes govt decision to repatriate 20 employees
SJVN inks integrity pact
‘Vig-Eye’ to combat corruption
Laying of transmission line
Chamba needs pension office for ex-servicemen
3 Nepalese get 10-yr RI for possessing charas
Postal Delays
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Money for marks in MBBS exams?
Shimla, January 5 The Vigilance Bureau has taken into its custody the entire record, including examination and result sheets, to look into the allegations. The two doctors, both from the department of pharmacology, who have come under the Vigilance scanner, had come here from Punjab and Rajasthan as external examiners for the conduct of examinations at the IGMC in the last week of December. Officials of the Vigilance Bureau had also contacted these two doctors on their cell phones not only to ascertain their role in such an illegal act but also to ensure their location. The Bureau has so far not questioned MBBS students, as they are still busy with their examinations. Additional Director General of Police (Vigilance) KC Sadyal confirmed that the two doctors were being summoned to look into the allegations of money being charged from the MBBS students who were taking the examinations. He confirmed that the record pertaining to examinations had been taken into the possession of the Vigilance Bureau from the IGMC authorities, who have also been asked about the visit of these doctors. The Vigilance Bureau had got a tip-off that such illegal exchange of money was allegedly taking place at the IGMC during the examinations. “Similar charges were levelled last year also, but when we found some evidence this time we have decided to probe the entire matter thoroughly,” an officer said. He added that the external examiners rather than staying here during the entire examination period were allegedly signing on blank result sheets and leaving early. Police officials said there were allegations that money was being charged from the students to ensure that they pass the examinations. “This system not only brings into suspicion the role of external examiners but also of the examiners at the IGMC as they have a lot of leverage to fill in whatever marks they wish to, as the external examiners leave before completion of the examinations after signing blank sheets,” sources said. The police has so far not registered any case as this will be possible only if some students come forward to substantiate the allegations or there is concrete evidence in this regard. Police sources too said for the past some time such allegations were being made but in the absence of evidence from students it would be difficult to nail any examiner. |
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BJP strategy boomerangs
Shimla, January 5 It has provided the Congress, which has been in complete disarray due to factionalism, a golden opportunity to stage comeback. Worse, the anti-establishment sentiment among the people, usually discernible at the fag of the term of the government, has surfaced two years before the next Assembly poll. The dominant issues and factors in Assembly elections are entirely different but the urban local body poll verdict has provided an unmistakable indication of the “changing mood of the people”. The BJP has been on a high ever since it came to power winning 41 out of the 68 seats in the 2007 Assembly poll and has reasons to be concerned as it is the first electoral setback which shows a declining trend in its popularity. The party further improved its performance in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections by winning three out of the four seats and it even captured the Congress bastion of Rohru in the subsequent byelection. The 48 urban local bodies with over 3 lakh voters, out of the total 44 lakh electorate, provide a good sample to gauge the mood of people as they covered the entire state, except the two sparsely populated tribal districts. The BJP has lost in all major towns which are considered to be its strongholds. The debacle in Kangra, the largest and politically most significant district of the state, which has been its traditional stronghold, does not augur well for the party. The good show by the Congress has come as a shot in the arm of Kaul Singh who has been entrusted the reins of the party by the high command for a second consecutive term recently. The first victory in the electoral arena under his leadership will strengthen his position and he will be in a better position to exercise his authority in the party where senior leaders like Virbhadra Singh, Vidya Stokes and Anand Sharma have been calling shots. His second term has indeed commenced on a promising note. The impact of the win will be visible shortly as Kaul Singh has to constitute his new team of office-bearers. The composition of the team the state executive committee will give an indication how far he has been able to withstand factional pressures. |
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BJP-backed candidates sweep zila parishad elections
Hamirpur January 5 In Hamirpur district zila parishad, the BJP-supported candidates have won in 12 out of 18 wards and in all six panchayat samitis of the district. But in a major setback to the ruling party, the Congress supported candidate has won in the Samirpur zila parishad ward where Chief Minister PK Dhumal’s house falls. Congress-supported candidate Promila Devi has won here for the second time in a row. In Hamirpur district zila parishad, the BJP-supported candidates have won in 12 wards and in two wards the Congress-supported candidates have won, while four wards have gone to the Independents. In the panchayat samiti elections, the BJP supported candidates have won majority in Nadaun, Hamirpur, Bijhad, Sujanpur, Bhoranj and Toani Devi blocks. In Nadaun block, the BJP-supported candidates have reportedly won 17 seats and Congress-supported eight. One seat has gone to an Independent. In Hamirpur block, the BJP-supported candidates have won 11 seats and the Congress-supported four panchayat samiti seats. Under the Sujanpur block, the BJP-supported candidates have won nine seats, while the Congress supported candidates 4 and Independents two. In Bhoranj block the BJP-supported candidates have won 12 panchayat samiti seats while the Congress-supported candidate has won one, while seven seats have gone to Independents. In Toani Devi block, the Congress-supported candidates have won eight panchayat samiti seats and the BJP-supported 15 seats. The zila parishad members who have been elected are: Anjana Kumari (Bagehada), Lekh Raj (Chabutra), Sarla Dogra (Warin), Sushil Kumar (Gasota), Anil Kumar (Jangal Ropa), Joginder Kumar (Sarahkad), Promila Devi (Samirpur), Vimla Devi (Dhamrol), Madan Lal (Kharwad), Raj Kumari (Bhoranj), Sarla Sharma (Saur), Yashvir Singh (Bijahdi), Shiam Singh (Badsar), Arvinder Kaur (Bani), Asha Devi (Lahda), Naresh Kumar (Dhaneta), Chandu Lal (Amlehad) and Neelam Kumari in the (Sapdoh) zila parishad ward. |
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Will not tolerate rebels:
BJP
Dharamsala, January 5 Indicating towards the Independent winner to the post of president, Kamla Patial, Kapoor said the BJP did not need her back into the party as it had already won a majority in the council. With this, Kapoor has put to rest speculations that Patial might return back to the BJP after winning as the president of the Dharamsala MC as an Independent. Patial was a special invitee of the Mahila Morcha of the BJP. However, after her decision to contest as an Independent, the party removed her from the post. As she is considered close to Chief Minister PK Dhumal, after her victory it was being expected that she might return to the party fold. Kapoor, however, today categorically ruled chances of her comeback into the party. Patial, who is also the former president of Dharamsala municipal council, is the arch-rival of Kishan Kapoor. During the current elections, she got the support of Kapoor’s detractors within the party. She, like Kapoor, also belongs to the Gaddi community that exercises considerable clout in the Dharamsala area. Kapoor also claimed that the BJP had given the best performance in the Dharamsala MC elections by getting clear majority in House. This was a result of development works carried out by the present government. |
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Kin of party bigwigs post wins
Mandi, January 5 Leading from the front, Saroj Dhumal, sister-in-law of Chief Minister PK Dhumal won the zila parishad seat from the Cauri ward in Gopalpur block. Earlier, PK Dhumal’s brother, Prithviraj Dhumal, was elected as panchyat pradhan in Dharampur block. Champa Thakur, daughter of Congress president Kaul Singh Thakur won the zila parishad seat from the Kot ward. But Kaul Singh Thakur’s first cousin, Megh Ram, had lost the panchayat pradhan poll to BJP’s Ranvir Singh, in Bijni panchayat coming under the Drang assembly segment of Kaul Singh. Vandana Guleria, daughter of Transport Minister Mohinder Singh Thakur, won the zila parishad seat from Sajaipiplu ward in Sarkaghat subdivision. District Congress president Puran Chand won the Tandu and the district Congress SC cell president, Chaman Rahi, won the Chambi zila parishad reserved seats. The BJP Mandal chief, Shayam Lal, won the Taliyar zila parishad seat. But the bureaucrats had a bad day in the elections. Sarla Rathaur, wife of the DC, Solan, Amar Singh Rathaur, lost to a village simpleton , Nisha Devi, for the post of pradhan of the Bhoor panchayat in his home town of Dharampur. Even the CPI and the CPM opened their accounts. Contesting for 12 zila parishad seats, the left candidates, Shayam Singh and Ram Lal, won the zila parishad, Sarahan and Bagshaid wards,
in the district. Out of the 36 zila parisahd seats, the BJP claimed that the party won 20 seats, while the Congress ended as the poor second winning 13 seats in the district. Congress contested the BJP claims saying that the party pradhans had won 70 per cent of the seats in the district. |
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Election officers suspended
Dharamsala, January 5 The election officer of the Kangra district, RS Gupta, said, “Sansar Chand had been working as a lecturer in a government school and he had been appointed as an assistant returning officer during the election for Malan panchayat.” He further mentioned that Sansar Chand was deployed for the counting of votes for the post of vice-president where he first declared a particular candidate the winner and later he announced another candidate as the winner for the same post. This is a serious negligence on the part of the election officer,” said Gupta. “We then received a complaint which we have forwarded to the state election commissioner and they have now issued orders for the inquiry. We have suspended and chargesheeted the officer,” Gupta said. The other election officer, who has been chargesheeted, has been working as a principal at the Government college, Jaisinghpur. “PC Verma, college principal, had refused to perform the election duty when asked by the SDM and the returning officer, said Gupta. The actions have been taken against the two officers under the Himachal Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act. Gupta further said the oath ceremony of the newly-elected members of the zila panchayat would take place on January 12 at the zila parishad hall. He also added that the ceremony of the newly-elected panchayat members would be conducted on January 10. |
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BDC chief poll on Jan 10
Solan, January 5 This sudden summoning of the elected members made them rush to Solan, and now they have been directed to meet the Chief Minister tomorrow in Shimla. The counting had finished as late as 2pm last night in some places. As if this was not enough, the SDMs have been directed by the state government to issue directions to all the BDC members to elect the chairmen and vice-chairmen on January 10 at 11am and also take oath the same day. A newly-elected member said it was strange as to why they were asked to rush to the DC office where results were declared in the presence of the entire posse of elected members. Results are generally declared by the respective SDMs who are the assistant returning officers for these elections. The move to announce elections of chairmen and vice-chairmen, and oath taking of the members within a short span of five days, appears to be aimed at curtailing any move of horse-trading in places where such a scope existed. |
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HC quashes govt decision to repatriate 20 employees
Shimla, January 5 The petitioners further contended that the conscious decision taken by the state government could not be changed or reviewed by a subsequent government without any cogent or convincing reasons. On the other hand, the state opposed the contentions of the petitioners on the ground that the initial recruitment of the petitioners on secondment was contrary to the recruitment and promotions rules. It was also contended that the previous government had a policy which could be changed by the subsequent government, and it was also contended that the petitioners had no lien over any post in the State Secretariat. According to the facts of the case, the petitioners and some other persons were appointed as clerks in the Himachal Pradesh State Secretariat on secondment. They were all working in different departments or government undertakings. The petitioners were permanently absorbed in the State Secretariat by the decision of the cabinet on July 21, 2007. After the change in the government it was found that the petitioners had been wrongly absorbed in the State Secretariat, and therefore, they were ordered to be repatriated to their parent department vide order dated February 26, 2008. These orders of the government were challenged by the petitioners before the erstwhile State Administrative Tribunal, and the same were upheld. Feeling aggrieved the petitioners again challenged it before the high court and in its earlier order the high court had disposed of the petitions with the direction to the state to reconsider the case of the petitioners and take a fresh decision. After deciding the earlier petition, the state issued show-cause notices to the petitioners and after considering the replies of the employees again rejected the claims of the petitioners and ordered for their repatriation to their parent departments on July 18, 2009. These orders were again challenged before the high court in this petition. After considering the pleas of both the parties the court set aside the repatriation decision of the state. However, the court made it clear in its order that the same will become operative after April 1 ,2011. |
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Congress biased against state, alleges BJYM
Shimla, January 5 The state executive of the BJYM, which met here today, lauded the three-year achievements of the BJP regime headed
by Chief Minister PK Dhumal. The leaders, however, lashed out at the UPA regime for discriminating with the hill state in terms of monetary allocation and other development works on political considerations. Speaking on the occasion, Dhumal exhorted the youth to raise their voice against any act of injustice whether it pertained to corruption or emergence of anti-national forces. He said the future of the country was in the hands of the youth who must play a very constructive and a positive role. State BJP vice-president and former Rajya Sabha member Kripal Parmar was also present on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion, state BJYM chief Narender Attri said the BJP welcomed the convening of an all-party meet by the Prime Minister to foster peace but the UPA regime had failed to deal with separatist forces with a firm hand. He added that it appears that the UPA regime had virtually surrendered before the anti-national forces. |
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SJVN inks integrity pact
Shimla, January 5 The document was signed by chairman–cum-managing director of the SJVN HK Sharma and chairman of the Transparency International IPS (retd) PS Bawa in the presence of Vigilance Commissioner R Sri Kumar, independent external monitors and senior officers from the Centre and the state government. It is the first joint venture in the public sector undertaking (PSU) involving a state government to sign the pact. So far 39 central PSUs had signed the pact in the country. Bawa said so far no state government had come forward to adopt the pact. The state government was the partner in the SJVN and as such it was a good beginning which could pave for state governments to adopt the CVC-backed initiative to curb corruption in PSUs. The integrity pact was an anti-corruption tool to help governments, businesses and civil society intent on fighting corruption in the fields of public contracting and procurement. It made incumbent for the parties to make commitment to the effect that neither side would pay, offer, demand or accept bribes, and that bidders would not collude with competitors or bribe representatives of the government to obtain the contract. The pact not only had a moral force but was also legally enforceable. Independent external monitors were engaged to enforce the pact. He said the ONGC was the first organisation to ink the pact in 2006 and a study conducted to evaluate its impact revealed that the complaints and litigation had declined drastically and the cost of the contract had come down due to fair competition. The TI would shortly convene a meeting of vendors so that they could express their views regarding the corrupt practices prevailing in various organisations so that remedial measures could be taken for the same. |
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‘Vig-Eye’ to combat corruption
Shimla, January 5 “Given the magnitude of the problem agencies like the CVC and the CBI with limited manpower and resources, they are not in a position to fight the menace effectively. The involvement of society with active participatory role of citizens is the only way out to eradicate corruption and the commission has taken some important initiatives in this direction,” observed Kumar who was in the city in connection with the signing of an Integrity Pact between the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam and the Transparency International. The recent initiative Vig-Eye (vigilance eye), a new tool designed on the mobile platform, empowers the people by enabling upload of any credible information pertaining to corruption and corrupt public servants with all available evidence in the from of voice, data, image, video or documents using the cell phone. All that a citizen requires to do is to download the new application from the web portal of the commission and install it on the cell phone. The CVC will take prompt action on the complaint and inform the complainant about the final outcome, he explains. Kumar is confident that the new initiative will prove to be an important milestone in the fight against corruption as with 50 million mobile users in the country it will extend the reach of the CVC tremendously. Already over 200 citizens have registered with the commission within the three weeks of the launch of the Vig-Eye project and the next five years will see a majority of mobile users joining the network. The objective is to build a Team India in which every individual plays an active role in fighting corruption using the tools made available by the modern technology. One can get registered on the CVC website or by sending an SMS to 9223174440. Soon the service will be available on a four-digit number 1964 in all mobile networks. |
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Laying of transmission line
Shimla, January 5 The Bench comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjay Karol passed this order on a petition filed by villagers alleging that while laying a high-voltage transmission line prescribed procedure was not followed and a two-month notice was also not given to the public to file objections. The petitioners further alleged that the names of the villagers were not mentioned in the publications inviting objections and, therefore, the publications were not in accordance with the guidelines. It was also alleged that the publication had not been made in two newspapers. It further contended that even if Jaypee Powergrid Ltd was deemed to be a Telegraph Authority it could only exercise such powers in accordance with the Telegraph Act and cannot take the law in its own hands. On the other hand, Jaypee Powergrid contended that the guidelines laid down were only directory and not mandatory and in any event no prejudice had been caused to the petitioners. It was further submitted that the publication had been made in two newspapers. While deciding the petition, the Bench observed that, “The government and its functionaries are always expected to behave strictly in accordance with the law. When private companies are given licences to lay electricity lines they seek a declaration to the effect that they should also be vested with these sovereign powers by virtue of the provisions of Section 164 of the Electricity Act, we do not see any reason that why they should not comply with the procedure prescribed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) for this purpose. A private company seeking such wide powers must comply in letter and spirit with the prescribed procedure. They cannot be heard to argue that the procedure is only in the nature of guidelines and not mandatory.” In the present case, the provisions of The Telegraph Act have been flouted by the respondents with impunity. The Bench directed Jaypee Powergrid Ltd to pay compensation of Rs 50,000 to the petitioners for the damage caused to their property without following the procedure prescribed by law. The Bench also directed the CERC to modify the guidelines to ensure that illiterate and poor villagers in the far-flung areas were made aware of their rights of filing objections and they were heard at a place which was convenient to them. |
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Chamba needs pension office for ex-servicemen
Chamba, January 5 Presiding over a meeting of the zila sainik welfare board here yesterday, the DC also said the mechanism of IT like e-mail, SMS etc for processing verification of recruitment, retirement and thereafter, and pension matters should be developed in the departments concerned of the district. The DC impressed upon the deputy director of the sainik board to make efforts in obtaining ‘no objection certificates’ for the applications of ex-servicemen for getting land on lease so that they could start their vocation. The DC said the ex-servicemen who intended to participate in the Republic Day parade could come forward and join. The SDM, Bhattiyat, tehsildars of Chowari and Sinhuta, had been directed to dispose of the cases with regard to the correction of caste of Gorkha community within a month. Major GS Puria, deputy director of the zila sainik welfare board, was among others who attended the meeting. |
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3 Nepalese get 10-yr RI for possessing charas
Sundernagar, January 5 Presiding officer of the court JN Yadav in a 20-page order said the convicts were from poor background and sole breadwinner of their families so the lenient view was taken while awarding the sentence. The police party from the State Vigilance and the Anti-corruption Bureau, Mandi, nabbed the convicts - Bal Bhadur, Deep Bhadur and Asha Devi (all residents of Nepal) at Panarsa Bridge around 9.30 pm and seized two bags containing 32 kg of charas from them. The convicts, who were coming from Kullu, tried to turn back after seeing the police.
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Postal Delays
Dharamsala, January 5 The students whose forms got delayed and were rejected by the education board due to postal delays can now submit these forms till January 31 along with a late fee of Rs 1,000. The education board’s decision will benefit about 1,000 students appearing for compartment and board examinations on private basis. On January 3 The Tribune reported that poor postal service in the state might cost a large number of students, who intend to appear in examinations to be conducted by the HPBSE, their academic year.
— TNS
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