Hamirpur, April 30
The local Regional Hospital is going to become one of the few hospitals not only in the state, but also in the country to start a burn-treatment centre.

The district health authorities have already taken steps to start this centre on the top floor of the RDC and the Regional Hospital will soon have a separate building for it.

While the Central Government has decided to open six burn-treatment centres in the country, three of these will be opened in the state. Regional Hospital at Hamirpur, Dr Rajinder Prasad Government Medical College and Hospital at Tanda in Kangra district and Zonal Hospital at Mandi have been selected for opening these centres.

All these centres will have specialised facilities to treat the burn cases.

At present, the facility to treat patients with burn injuries is available at the Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital at Shimla, but many cases of burns are referred from the state to the PGIMR at Chandigarh or other places.

The new burn centres will have all the facilities to treat such patients and also have equipment for plastic surgery, preparing skin cells and skin grafting.

The Central Government is providing Rs 1 crore each for all the burn-treatment centres which have six beds with air-conditioning.

Two plastic surgeons, three specialists and paramedical staff have also been appointed in the centres.

The Hamirpur district health authorities have already received Rs 43 lakh to start this centre.

A piece of land measuring about 400 sq m near the CMO’s residence has been identified to construct a separate wing for this purpose.

Hamirpur CMO Dr DS Chandel said, “The burn-treatment centre has already started functioning in the Regional Hospital and we have submitted a proposal to the government to build a separate wing for it here.”

Baddi, April 30
The Baddi-based unit of Dabur India Limited has been found violating employment norms laid down by the state government. It has neither complied with the mandatory norm of granting 70 per cent employment to Himachalis nor the employees are provided with identity cards.

This revelation came to light during a surprise raid conducted by Industry Minister Kishan Kapoor at Baddi today.

Kapoor said complaints about the unit failing to comply with norms were being received from various sources and it was also known that the unit management was rude towards the officials of the state government.

He said a major violation of failure to maintain 70 per cent mandatory Himachalis in their unit was detected and it was also found that the employees had not been granted identity cards. Though as per the norms each employee is supposed to be issued an identity card within three days, this norm failed to be abided by.

The unit had employed more non-Himachalis and the percentage of Himachali employees was much less than the mandatory 70 per cent. This was a serious violation of the state’s industrial policy and the unit could face action like discontinuation of the various incentives available under the Central Excise Policy. This was the first case where such large-scale irregularity had been detected by the minister himself in the state’s industrial hub of Baddi which housed almost 70 per cent of the state’s industry.

Kapoor said the records of all units of Dabur India had been seized and they would be scrutinised by the officials of the department at Shimla.

He added that all units were accountable to the state government as they were using the state’s resources and such irregularities would be dealt with sternly.

The minister said there were reports about many other units too failing to abide by the norms and this would send a clear message to all such erring units to either abide by the norms or face action.

Kapoor was accompanied by the officials of the Industry Department and the Labour and Employment Department.

Sundernagar, April 30
Rajnath Singh, a senior BJP leader and former party president, while addressing a huge gathering of the Bharatiya Janata Mahila Morcha (women wing of the BJP) here today appealed to volunteers of the mahila morcha to work hard and throw the Congress out of power so that the country could be saved from corruption and inflation.

He was impressed to see a huge gathering of workers of the mahila morcha here and said the BJP was the first party which provided reservation for women within the party. He said the party had given 35 per cent reservation to women workers.

Rajnath praised Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal for moving a step ahead and providing 50 per cent reservation to women in elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI).

He said when the Congress came to power it had declared that inflation would be controlled within 100 days, but even after 1,000 days in power both inflation and corruption were increasing at a rapid rate.

He said during the tenure of the BJP no scam was there, but the Congress regime was full of scams.

He said the Congress had failed to bring crores of money deposited in Swiss banks by corrupt leaders, public servants and businessmen, and added that if the BJP was voted to power it would bring back the money to India within one-and-a-half year and, thus, unemployment and inflation would automatically be brought under control.

Chief Minister Dhumal, while speaking on the occasion, said during the present tenure of the BJP government it had started many programmes for uplifting women in the state. It provided 50 per cent reservation to women in the PRI elections. He said due to the policies of the government sex ratio of women had increased in the hill state.

Khimi Ram, president, state BJP, Pragya Tripathi, convener, mahila morcha, and Meena Anand, president, state mahila morcha, also spoke on the occasion.

Sundernagar MLA Thakur Roop Singh, while welcoming the delegates of the mahila morcha, said the Sundernagar unit of the BJP was the only unit which was headed by a woman president.

The BJMM had started a campaign against corruption from Kullu which was launched by Smriti Irani, national mahila morcha president.

District president of the BJP Dile Ram, PWD Minister Gulab Singh, Panchayati Raj Minister Jai Ram, and other senior BJP leaders were also present on the occasion.

Nurpur, April 30
To facilitate people seeking information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, all the government departments will prepare computerised Management Information System (MIS) so that they are not required to go for appeals for any information.

State Chief Information Commissioner Bhim Sen said this while talking to mediapersons here today. He said this had been envisaged to make the RTI Act more efficacious and people friendly. Record management had an important role in the RTI Act, he added.

He was touring the state to interact with local sub-divisional magistrates to ensure proper record management by government departments in tune with the RTI Act as per the mandate of the respective department.

Expressing satisfaction over the functioning of the RTI Act in the state, Sen claimed that the Act was strengthening democracy, besides bringing accountability and transparency in the government machinery which ultimately assisted in checking corruption.

“The applicants seeking information under the RTI Act should be lucid in their queries while submitting their application for getting data or information without any ambiguity so that wastage of time and energy can be avoided in preparing information in the government offices,” he exhorted.

“Under the RTI Act, a provision has been made to inspect records by an applicant by paying a requisite fee as per time schedule, but it is allowed only in those cases in which lengthy record information is sought by him,” Sen informed.

He also underlined the need to educate the masses to make the proper use of the RTI Act and said an awareness campaign could be launched in the future for this purpose.

Bilaspur, April 30
Vivek Kumar, former president of the state NSUI and a prominent Youth Congress leader from the Jhandutta constituency, has demanded the resignation of Jhandutta constituency BJP MLA Rikhi Ram Kaundal, who is also the Deputy Speaker of the HP Vidhan Sabha, on moral grounds. He has stated that the government has ordered a state Vigilance inquiry against his son Raj Kumar Kaundal pertaining to the allotment of contracts in violation of government rules and instructions.

Talking to mediapersons here, Vivek asked how could this inquiry be considered impartial if the MLA did not resign and continued to hold the high office.

Vivek said an RTI information had revealed that Raj Kumar Kaundal, son of the MLA, was awarded as many as 98 contracts worth more than Rs 3 crore within a short span of two years under the PWD in Ghumarwin subdivision in which the Jhandutta constituency also falls.

He said this was despite the fact that according to government norms no near relation of an MLA or a minister could get contracts in his constituency and not more than two contracts could be allotted to a contractor at a time. But in this matter, both these standard rules were broken and all this was allegedly done “under pressure and political interference” with a view to benefit Raj.

Vivek said the Congress had demonstrated against this “nepotism” and presented a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the SDM, Ghumarwin, and consequently the government had ordered this inquiry.

Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Rikhi Ram Kaundal, when contacted, said false allegations had become a habit with Congress leaders and “I have nothing to do with Raj Kumar Kaundal who has separated from me and my family since 2007. I am not aware of any inquiry whatsoever against me. The question of my resignation on any grounds does not arise at all”.

Kangra, April 30
Resentment prevails among teachers over the alleged indifferent attitude of the state government towards their demands. They have threatened to resort to a statewide agitation if the government fails to accept their demands.

Chairman PC Kapoor and secretary general Onkar Rana of the Himachal Government Teachers’ Union in a statement here said the lukewarm attitude of the government towards their genuine demands was deplorable. They added that their long-pending demands included that the government should seek an option from postgraduate and trained graduate teachers for their promotion either as lecturers or headmasters, rules and instructions enacted and making 25 per cent direct recruitment of headmasters, implementation of 4-9-14 ACP, revision of allowances and fulfilment of demand regarding administration allowance to the headmasters of middle schools. They said despite repeated requests, the state government did not fill 236 posts of headmaster in senior secondary schools.

Shimla, April 30
The Students Federation of India (SFI) on Wednesday demanded that the state government put an end to its aggressive policy of privatisation and commercialisation of education by enacting a legislation to regulate the mushrooming of almost two dozen private universities in the hill state.

The state committee of the SFI, which met here on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Vikram Singh, expressed concern over the declining standard of education due to the government policy of privatisation of education. “The government has granted approval to almost 20 universities in a small state like Himachal and out of these also only two have UGC approval,” he said.

Vikram also lashed out at the proposed move of shifting engineering and science courses from Himachal Pardesh University (HPU) here to Technical University, Hamirpur. “The move will weaken HPU which is already facing a severe financial crunch,” he said. — TNS

Dalhousie, April 30
A case of illicit felling in the Chundi forest falling in the Himgiri area of Churah subdivision in the district has come to light, according to a report received here today. But no culprit has been identified so far.

The report revealed that on April 25 two deodar trees had been found felled clandestinely in the Chundi forest near Kalog village.

An FIR in this connection had been lodged with the Tissa police station on the statement of Chundi beat forest guard Chaman Singh under the relevant sections of the Indian Forest Act and the Indian Penal Code.

In the FIR, Chaman stated that when he, along with Himgiri beat forest guard Narender Kumar, were on a patrol, they detected the illicit felling of two deodar trees near Kalog village.

Shimla, April 30
The Himachal Pradesh Power Engineers Association has demanded that the HP State Electricity Board (HPSEB) be headed by a technocrat as bureaucrats are not aware of the intricacies and complexities of the power sector.

The executive body of the association, which met here on Wednesday, said to make HPSEB a competitive and self-sustainable distribution company it was essential that an electrical engineer was appointed as Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Board. “The HPSEB can achieve enhanced operational efficiency and coordinated development of the power sector only if it is headed by an electrical engineer,” said Ram Prakash, general secretary of the association. — TNS