Una, April 12
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in his first reaction on the Anna Hazare movement said the common man had found expression in the crusade started by the social activist.He, however, said the politicians as community should not be considered as evil. They were just a reflection of the society at large.

To reform the political system, society had to be reformed at large. It would also be wrong to presume that all politicians were corrupt.

The change in the political leadership would come automatically if the basic values of society were changed, he said.

Dhumal further added that the movement of Anna Hazare would have the positive outcome for the country and the society. It had created national awareness against corruption that would yield positive results.

When asked about the demand raised by senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar that all corrupt officials in the state should be behind bars, Dhumal said the present government was taking action as per law. Already two IAS officers facing corruption charges had been forced to retire prematurely. However, there was a laid down procedure for removing IAS and HAS officers. When any officer was proved guilty, the state government took action against him, he said.

Dhumal said: “As a first step to endorse the movement of Anna Hazare, we have invited suggestions to strengthen the office of already existing Lokayukta in Himachal. Anybody is free to give suggestions on improving the functioning of Lokayukta. The state government is willing to consider these suggestions”, he said.

The Chief Minister, who was in Una today, inaugurated new building of Irrigation and Public Health Department constructed at a cost of Rs. 85 lakh and Ground Water Building costing Rs 53.87 lakh. He also inaugurated fire station building at Rampur (Una) built at a cost of Rs 92 lakh, Sugam Centre in the Deputy Commissioner office and laid the stone of ITI Girls Hostel, Una, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 125.56 lakh.

Dhumal said the computerisation of all public services was being carried out in a time-bound manner and Una was among the first districts where Sugam Centre had been set up. Sugam Centre would be instrumental in providing all facilities to general public under one roof.

IPH Minister Ravinder Ravi and parliamentary secretaries Varinder Kanwar and Satpal Satti were those who accompanied the CM.

Paplohl( Hamirpur), April 12
“Factional-ridden” district Congress leaders once again could not show unity even before Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief Kaul Singh Thakur when some of them washed their dirty linen in the open in a programme organised in the Badsar assembly constituency today.

A few Congress leaders openly started accusing each other in a public meeting organised here in connection with the Baba Bhim Rao Ambedkar anniversary.

The dispute arose when former BDC president and one of the main organisers of a Dalit rally took the name of expelled former Congress MLA Manjit Dogra from the dais to which Congress leader Vidya Zar strongly protested. It resulted in ruckus at the meeting.

The leaders and their supporters were calmed down after the intervention of senior leaders and even Kaul Singh Thakur made an appeal to the Congressmen to observe restraint.

Addressing the rally, Kaul Singh Thakur lashed at the BJP government for allegedly patronising forest, liquor and land mafia in the state.

He said, “While the nexus of mafias is operating, the state government has failed to act against it and even in the Badsar area a strong liquor and forest mafia is operating”.

Thakur announced: “I will not contest any election after 72 years of age and work for the party, but it is also a fact that some people in the party take this announcement otherwise which is quite surprising.”

He said, “The Congress has already started a process of building a secondline leadership in the party and this leadership is now ready to take over the reigns of the party.” 

Shimla, April 12
After remaining in political oblivion for almost three years, former Congress minister Vijay Singh Mankotia today jumped on the Anna Hazare bandwagon to announce his return to active public life.

“Corruption is eating into the vitals of democracy and it is a major issue agitating the minds of the people as evident from the massive response to the campaign started by Anna Hazare. I have been fighting against graft all through my life and I had even paid the political price for it. Veteran Gandhian Hazare had inspired the whole nation and I have also decided to end my self-imposed exile from public life to join the fight”, he stated, while asserting that his decision was not taken on political considerations.

Rampant corruption and failure to take effective action to contain it had led to a dangerous situation where people were losing faith in the system. It was time for everyone to come out in support of Anna Hazare and save the country from collapse, he said.

Mankotia said he would not float any new outfit and carry out his crusade against corruption under the banner of “Adalat-e-Awam” , a non-political body he set up after he announced sanyas from politics following his defeat in the 2007 assembly poll. Apart from various sections of society, he would mainly bank on the support of the youth and ex-servicemen.

He said he would organise a convention at Dharamsala in May in which delegates from the entire state would chalk out a strategy to take forward the campaign against corruption.

Training gun on his arch-political rival Virbhadra Singh, Mankotia said he would move the high court for cancellation of bail granted to the Union Minister on the ground that he was influencing the witnesses. He said two key witnesses had already filed affidavits, stating that they had never made any statements in the case.

Shimla, April 12
State BJP chief Khimi Ram has criticised the state Congress president Kaul Singh for terming the Dhumal government as the most corrupt and said that the party which was steeped in corruption had no locus standi to make such allegations.

In a statement here today, he said the charges that the government was patronising forest and land mafia and misusing Section 118 of the Land Reforms and Tenancy Act were baseless and politically motivated. He advised Singh to take care of his own party, which was vertically divided, instead of making such allegations against the BJP.

He challenged Kaul Singh to provide information about violation of the Section 118 and assured that due action would be taken in such cases. However, if the allegation was not true he should offer a pubic apology. He denied the charge that the government was allowing outsiders to acquire land in the state and alleged that the Section 118 had been amended five times by the Congress regimes.

Shimla, April 12
The Congress will carry out an extensive campaign in the apple belt of Shimla to highlight the woes of the fruit growers and expose the anti-apple growers’ attitude of the Dhumal government.

Secretary of the party Rohit Thakur said here today that the Congress would not allow the “birthday” politics of the ruling BJP to divert the attention of the people from the sale of apple carton factory and the losses of over Rs 700 crore suffered by the apple growers in the last season due to the failure of the authorities to keep the road open and make adequate arrangements for the marketing of the fruit.

April 10 would be remembered as a “black day” by growers as all hopes of reviving the carton factory were buried with the laying of the foundation stone of an engineering institute on the premises.

Not only that even the fruit procured under the market intervention scheme rotted along the roadside and to cover up its lapses the government came out with a scheme to make vermi-compost from apple.

He alleged that the fruit worth over Rs 30 crore had been spoiled and the growers had not been paid the arrears amounting to over Rs 58 crore.

More than six months had passed and the compost had not been prepared and the highly acidic contents in the apple had caused the deodar in the vicinity of the composting pits to dry up.

Dhumal had during his earlier tenure laid the foundation stone of a winery at the same site where an engineering college was being set up but even after 10 years there was no sign of the project.

The Shimla district had the maximum fruit production but Dhumal announced setting up a fruit technology and fruit processing college at his home district Hamirpur. Even the funds sanctioned by the Centre under the Urban Renewal Mission for providing housing facility to the poor in Shimla had been diverted to the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency.

The Pradesh Congress Committee chief would extensively tour the district and the party would also organise some big rallies before the onset of the apple-harvesting season, Rohit added.

Shimla, April 12
Sanawarians from across the border will be part of the Founder's Day function of the Lawrence School, Sanawar, to be held on April 15.

A 20-member delegation from Lawrence College, Ghora Gali, Muree Hills, in Pakistan will attend the prize distribution ceremony of the Hodson Run, a historical annual cross-country race of the host school and one of the most popular sporting events of Sanawar. Principal, Lawrence College, Pakistan, Air Commodore Farooq H. Kiyani (Retd), will be the chief guest during the prize giving ceremony. Both schools were co-founded by Sir Henry Lawrence during the pre-independence era at Sanawar in 1847 and Ghora Gali in 1860.

“One of the oldest co-educational residential school in the world, Sanawar traditionally celebrates its Founder's Day every year in early October for a host of practical reasons but it was actually founded on April 15, 1847, says Praveen Vasisht, the headmaster.

The long distance race in which the entire school participates is named in the memory of Major William Stephen Rakes Hodson, a young promising officer who was deeply involved in building and starting of the school as a military asylum in 1847.

In 1857, Major Hodson raised a cavalry regiment, Hodson's Horse, in the British Army which exists today as the 4th Horse Regiment in the Indian Army.

Last year, they celebrated their 150th Founder's Day on October 9, when their Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was the Chief Guest. A contingent of 17 students and five teachers, including Praveen Vasisht and his wife from Sanawar, attended the celebrations.

The Pakistani delegation will stay overnight at Dera Beas, courtesy Babaji, who is an old student of the school, and reach Sanawar by evening on April 13. The next day the delegation will call on Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. It will attend the Hodson Run ceremony on April 15 at Sanawar before leaving for Delhi and Agra to visit places of historical importance.

Vasishth said it was a quirk of destiny that the schools founded by the same person were now in different countries but they shared a common history, ethos, emblem and motto. Such occasions provided a unique opportunity and strengthen the bonds of amity and peace between the two nations.

Dharamsala, April 12
A committee appointed to make draft amendments to the charter of Tibetans-in-exile on the devolution of the Dalai Lama's political and administrative authority presented its report to the parliamentary secretary general yesterday.

"The committee completed its task to draft amendments to the charter in accordance with the resolution passed by the parliament to implement the devolution of the Dalai Lama's formal authority to the elected leadership," said Kalon Tripa, Samdhong Rinpoche, who was a member of the drafting committee, while talking to newsmen after submitting the draft.

He further said the political authorities enshrined under 39 different articles in the charter need to be amended. Proposals had been made to amend all 39 articles. The powers enshrined in these articles were reassigned either to the Speaker of the parliament, prime minister or the parliament's standing committee. All powers as per the proposed amendment would be divided among the elected leadership, Samdhong Rinpoche said.

The draft amendments to the charter will be tabled for deliberation during the national general meeting of Tibetans to be held at Tibetan Children Village school in Dharamsala from May 21-23.

Based on the recommendations of the general meeting, the Tibetan parliament will convene an additional session from May 25-28 to give its final approval to amend the charter.

Sources said the committee had proposed to devolve the administrative authority of the Dalai Lama to the prime minister. The administrative powers of the Dalai Lama included making all constitutional appointments.

However, most of the members of the parliament were for retaining the Dalai Lama as the ceremonial head of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Nurpur, April 12
The police today found a decomposed body of a turbaned man in his fifties on the roadside at Bhadroya on the Kandwal-Bhadroya link road.

According to the police, the Kandwal police chowki received an anonymous call about the body. The police immediately rushed to the spot and also intimated police stations of Punjab. The Punjab Police also reached the spot and tried to identify the body.

According to SHO Rajiv Atri, the deceased bearing a red turban seems to have died about 10-15 days back. The police also found empty liquor bottles and bottles of celphos tablets near the body. — OC

Kangra, April 12
Nearly 1 lakh pilgrims visited the Bajjreshwari temple here in connection with the Navratras which concluded today on the occasion of Ramnavmi.The pilgrims from all over the country thronged the temples of Bajjreshwari, Jawalamukhi and Chamunda in Kangra district during Navratras.

Kangra SDM Neeraj Kumar said pilgrims from Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir visit the Nagarkot Dham, one of the 52 shakti peeths, during Navratras to seek blessings from Goddess Bajjreshwari.

The pilgrims were seen reciting bajans and raising slogans “jai mata di' during their visit to the temple.

A yajna was held in the temple during Navratras which concluded today and local MLA Sanjay Choudary also participated in it.

Temple officer Ram Jeet said more than Rs 18 lakh were offered to the deity in the temple by the pilgrims during Navratras. He said 64 gm of gold and nearly 5 kg of silver was also offered to the deity.

Residents demanded that the money which was offered in the temple be utilised by the temple trust for creating facilities for pilgrims in the town.

Sundernagar, April 12
The five-day-long Devta Mela concluded here today. MLA Roop Singh Thakur was the chief guest on the occasion. He along with BJP leaders and officials of the district administration took part in the sobha yatra taken out today. This year 150 hill gods participated in the mela.

On the concluding day of the mela, the hill gods were brought to the Mahamaya temple where a puja was performed and then a procession started from there. The hill gods were first taken to the Royal Palace where members of the royal family performed a puja. Afterwards, the shobha yatra took a round of the town and concluded at the Jawahar Park, where the chief guest offered “nazrana” (gifts) to the deities and the fair concluded.

Roop Singh Thakur said the government had been hiking the “nazrana” of devtas time to time in order to preserve the traditions of the state.

He further added that this year community lunches were organised for the contingent of hill gods who participated in the fair and it would made a regular feature in the coming years.

Una, April 12
A news item “District administration for takeover of historic gurdwara” published on March 30 in these columns, it is clarified that the district administration had written to the state government for takeover of Gurdwara Vadbagh Singh and not Gurdwara Manji Sahib. While Gurdwara Manji Sahib is under SGPC, Gurdwara Vadbagh Singh is under the control of a private dera.

Meanwhile, leaders of SAD (Amritsar) have opposed the move of the district administration to take over Dera Baba Vadbagh Singh. They have demanded that instead the SGPC should take over the dera.