Kangra, January 13
The body of youth Kewal Krishen, alias Menu, was today consigned to flames amid tension and a number of police personnel were deployed at Pathiar to protect the house of the upper cast girl near whose house Menu was found hanging in the wee hours yesterday.

The house of the girl was attacked and damaged by a mob last night. It also set a scooter on its premises on fire. The police chased the mob to control the violence.

Broken glass and household goods were scattered all over when this reporter visited the house. The family was shifted by the police to a safer place as a precautionary measure today.

The postmortem of the body was conducted and hundreds of people joined the funeral of Menu. Rajesh Kumar, pradhan of village Bulah Hatwas, where Menu lived, demanded a CBI inquiry into his death so that the parents of the deceased could get justice.

He told mediapersons that it was an alleged honour killing and first of its kind in the state.

Ajay Kumar, cousin of the deceased, said it was a love affair between the two. He said Menu was killed and hanged.

G.S.Bali, MLA, Nagrota Bagwan, said, “It is a serious matter and demanded that the police should inquire into every aspect of the murder or suicide whatsoever”.

Dinesh Kumar, SDPO, Kangra, said the police was working on different theories and but the post-mortem report was still awaited. 

Shimla, January 13
It will be “no play and all work” for the newly elected panchayati raj functionaries who will have to undergo continuous training for the next four years for discharging their responsibilities efficiently and effectively.

The rural development department has formulated a Rs 38 crore training project, for which 75 per cent of the funds will be provided by the Centre for the purpose. In all, 27,482 elected functionaries of the three-tier system will be covered.

The training will commence with the oath-taking ceremony during which they will be handed over books providing basic information regarding the functions and responsibilities of various panchayati raj institutions and functionaries.

The department has brought out three primers pertaining to gram sabha, gram panchayat and zila parishad in collaboration with the German Agency GTZ. The primers deal with basics like role of functionaries, holding of meetings, maintaining the proceedings register and accounts.

The newly elected representatives will undergo a four-day foundation course. As per the schedule chalked out by the department, training will commence in February and all functionaries will be covered by May 31.

Thereafter, the process of specialised training for which four modules have been developed will be started. The modules will take care of administration, judicial functions, financial management and works management.

The functionaries will be subjected to three-day training in each module in batches. The trainees will also be provided handbooks for ready reference in respect all the modules. The specialised training will be completed by March 31, 2012.

The modules have been developed on the basis of training need analysis carried out the under the GTZ programme. The analysis had underlined the need for maintaining uniformity in training and standardisation of training material. Both these issues had been taken care of while developing modules.

Major schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Yojna, the Indira Awas Yojna and Sanitation Programme will be dealt with in detail during training. Focus will also be on technical matters like preparation of estimates and ensuring quality of works.

After foundation course and specialised training refresher training modules will be developed on the basis of feedback, shortcomings noticed in the functioning of elected representatives, problems encountered in implementation of schemes and changes in existing schemes and introduction of new schemes. These course will continues round the year.

Shimla, January 13
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has penalised the Paramount Airways, Chennai, and the Director General, Civil Aviation, for deficiency in service and unfair trade practice and directed the parties to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation to the complainant, Sushil Justa of Shimla.

The forum headed by RL Azad also imposed Rs 1,500 as costs on the parties for causing mental harassment to the complainant .

According to the complainant, he was deputed on a training course in official capacity to Port Blair which was to be conducted by the National Productivity Council wef October 5 to 9, 2009.

The complainant booked a flight for return journey from Chennai to Delhi well in advance through the Paramount Airways, for October 10, 2009. On October 9, the complainant was informed by the firm that the flight had been cancelled due to some technical reasons.

The complainant made a request to the opposite party for making some alternative arrangement, but to no avail.

The complainant further alleged that in order to know the cancellation of the flight of Paramount Airlines on October 9, he checked on the Internet regarding the flight availability, which showed the ticket on the same flight available for Rs 7,373.

He further alleged that the flight had not been cancelled, but the passengers who had booked tickets well in advance at much cheaper rates were debarred and passengers on instant bookings were accommodated at much higher rates.

It is alleged that when the opposite party failed to make alternative arrangement, the complainant had to buy a ticket amounting Rs 5,750 from Chennai to Delhi for October 10 in some other airways. When the complainant approached the opposite party for refund, he was informed that the refund would be made to the travel agent only.

Notice of this complaint was issued to the opposite parties, who failed to put in appearance before the forum and as such was ordered to be preceded against exparte.

While allowing the complaint, the forum observed that “we have no hesitation in believing the allegations as averred in the complaint that the opposite parties failed to make alternative arrangement from Chennai to New Delhi and further failed to refund the booking amount of 2,955, which shows that the opposite parties had a clear-cut deficiency in service and unfair trade practice.”

Shimla, January 13
The state government today said it would provide helicopter services in the snow-bound areas on priority. An official spokesperson said here today that the leased helicopter was being used in public interest and tribal sorties were being scheduled on the basis of requests received by the district administration.

He said till January 12, a total of 263 persons had been ferried to and fro from tribal areas to Bhuntar and Chamba.

Giving details of the sorties in which several passengers, patients and bodies had been taken, he said on some days, flights were not possible on account of bad weather or due to the need for the rest of the crew members. He said four helicopter flights had been scheduled for Lahaul to evacuate the persons to Kullu on January, 13 and 14.

The spokesman said the principle of first-come first-served was being followed but aged persons, women, children, patients, persons appearing for examinations were being given preference. He said in event of cancellation of the whole flight scheduled for the day, passengers booked in such flights were sent through special flights that were arranged and announced separately as booking of subsequent scheduled flights could not be changed.

The spokesman said flights were being made available at the subsidised rate of Rs 1,500 for locals and government employees. As per rule, a person could avail only two to-and-fro flights but in exceptional case, relaxation was given. This condition did not apply to patients who could avail it as and when required at a rate of Rs 700. He added that a ratio had also been fixed in seats for locals and employees.

Shimla, January 13
The Centre-sponsored Restructured-Accelerated Power Development & Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) will cover 14 major towns of the state to help reduce aggregate technical and commercial losses in urban areas.

The programme, being implemented by Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited, will also cover the rural areas having significant loads, besides Shimla, Solan, Baddi, Nahan, Paonta Sahib, Kullu, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Mandi, Sundernagar, Dharamsala, Yol, Chamba and Una towns.

The main objective of the programme is to ensure quality power to consumers by modernising, upgrading and expanding the power distribution infrastructure.

Major works that to be undertaken include strengthening of 11 KV level sub-stations, transformer centres, load bifurcation, feeder separation, load balancing, replacement of electromagnetic energy metres with tamper-proof electronic meters, installation of capacitor banks and mobile service centres.

In exceptional cases, where the sub-transmission system is weak, strengthening at 33 KV or 66 KV systems may also be considered.

The R-APDRP schemes amounting to Rs 165.53 crore for Shimla, Solan, Nahan and Paonta Sahib have been sanctioned by the Power Finance Corporation and Rs 49.66 crore has been released.

The schemes for the remaining 10 towns namely Baddi, Kullu, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Mandi, Sundernagar, Dharamsala, Yol, Chamba and Una have also been sanctioned for Rs 156.65 crore recently.

Chamba, January 13
Two persons have been arrested for allegedly smuggling 3.8 kg of charas from the Chamba district to the neighboring states when they were intercepted by a team of police officials at Keru Pahar on the Chamba-Pathankot national highway, about 66 km from here.

Disclosing this here today, the Superintendent of Police Chamba, Madhu Sudan Sharma said a police team was on a patrol on the Chamba-Pathankot national highway and on a search of the baggage of these accused, the police recovered charas weighing 3.8 kg which was being carried by them in a tape recorder.

Both the accused had been arrested by the police on the spot and a case against them under Sections 20 and 29 of the NDPS Act (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act) had been registered at Dalhousie police station, the SP stated, adding that further investigations in the case were underway.

The SP said the accused had been identified as Anil Kumar of Rohtak district in Haryana and Lal Kishore of Batiana district in Bihar.

Solan, January 13
A case of cheating has come to light against the salesman of the Dhella Cooperative Society, Baddi, who misappropriated various ration items worth Rs 2.71 lakh meant for distribution under the PDS.

The police has registered a case after Mohan Lal, pradhan of the society, lodged a complaint against him.

According to a complaint, various items, including mustard oil, refined oil, sugar, wheat and pulses which were supposed to be distributed to consumers were listed against false entries in the register as the people failed to get adequate quota of ration.

The case came to light when people failed to get double quota of certain foodstuff, while as per the register they had been disbursed full quota. The pradhan managed to calculate the defalcation at Rs 2.71 lakh and he feared that a large part of this ration might have been sold in the open market at higher cost. — OC

Sundernagar, January 13
A seven-day-long special camp, organised by the NSS unit of MLSM Postgraduate College, concluded here yesterday. Sundernagar MLA Roop Singh Thakur was the chief guest on this occasion.

According to progamme officer of the unit, 90 volunteers, including 18 girls, participated in this camp. During the camp, the volunteers levelled one sloppy ground on the college campus and gave it a shape of playground. Beside this, the volunteers carried out an extensive cleanliness drive on the college campus and nearby Shri Mahamaya Temple. The volunteers organised a candle-light procession in the town to create awareness among the masses about AIDS.

A number of talks were also organized during the camp. Prominent speakers delivered valuable information on topics like free legal aid, women empowerment, domestic violence, RTI, J&K problem, contribution of leaders towards freedom struggle and role of ayurveda in the health sector.

Addressing volunteers, local MLA Roop Singh Thakur exhorted the volunteers to take part actively in social reforms. He lauded the role of the college NSS unit in propagating a number of reforms in the society. Thakur honoured volunteers on this occasion.