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1 lakh trees to face axe for Central varsity
25 firms keen on skill training in colleges
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Subletting
of Quarters
Mohali Firing
Govt supplied poor quality seeds: Cong
Companies delay opening of LPG agencies to reduce losses
IPL tickets being sold in black: Bali
Helpline for children starts in Manali
Chanju project stone to be laid tomorrow
One held for raping, making obscene MMS of minor
CPM warns of stir against unit tax
One killed for stealing mobile phone, 4 held
1 dies as bus, tipper collide
Youth killed in road mishap
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1 lakh trees to face axe for Central varsity
Dharamsala, May 12 Inquiries by The Tribune have revealed that the figures are now official, with Department of Forest officials finally calculating the number of trees that are standing on the land earmarked for Central University. Sources said the state government had earmarked about 150-acre forest land near the Indrunag temple in Dharamsala for bringing up the administrative complex and management courses blocks of Central University. As per the calculation of the officials, 9,000 trees are standing on the land. It is, in fact, the thickest patch of forest in the lower Dharamsala area. The sources also said the felling such a large number of trees in the Indrunag temple hill might disturb the ecology of the area. The hill was already very fragile and felling of trees on it would make it more prone to erosion, especially in an area like Dharamsala that receives heavy rainfall. In Dehra, the government is diverting about 400 hectare forest land for bringing up the project. As per the report sent to the state government by the Forest Department, the land has more than 90,000 trees standing on it. Many of these trees were planted under the grants provided by the Union Government for increasing the forest cover in the state. The sources said diverting such a huge chunk of forest land was also against the policy adopted by the Himachal government. The government had decided against diverting the forest land for projects to preserve the green cover in the state. The green cover in Himachal is already thinnest among all hill states in the country. Even Uttarakhand that has higher population than HP has better forest cover. State officials are, however, justifying the decision to divert forest land for the Central University project on the plea that it will not involve felling of all trees. They are maintaining that the actual proposed construction of Central University will be just on 44 acres. The rest will be left as the green area. Earlier, fearing that the Union Ministry of Forest might not give permission for diverting such a huge number of green trees for other purpose, the state officials had requested the Central University authorities to scale down their demand for land. The officials were of the view that since the university infrastructure was to be constructed on just 44 acres, there was no justification in diverting 7,000 kanal forest land for the project. However, since the Central University authorities did not budge on their demand for land, the state government was now sending the case for diversion of about 7,000 kanals forest land that has about 1 lakh green trees on it for clearance to the Union Ministry for Environment. Environmentalists from the district have, however, opposed the use of the forest land for the project. KV Rehlan, an environmentalist from Palampur, said no project should come up at the cost of green cover. The government should use barren land for bringing up the university.
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25 firms keen on skill training in colleges
Shimla, May 12 There are six ISO-9001 certified companies among the applicants which have come up with the proposals to provide training to students not only in soft skills required for employment in the business process outsourcing (BPO) centres, but also specialised training in information technology, accounting, office tools and marketing. The companies have also assured placements to over 60 per cent trainees through tie-ups. There are 68 degree colleges in the state and the plan is to introduce training programmes in the institutions located in district headquarters. The companies will use the available infrastructure to provide training to the selected students for which they would charge a fee. The CMC Academy, a subsidiary of the Tata group with expertise in IT programmes, Pearson Educomp, a joint venture company specialising in mentoring fresh talent of passouts into ready-to-deploy workforce, i360, having expertise in industry specific domain, Hero Mindmine, Cad Desk and several other companies have responded to the EoI. The PPP mode was chosen for the programme to bridge the gap between the educational institutions and the corporate world to help increase employability of the passouts from colleges. The big corporate houses are keen to provide training as it will help meet their own requirement of skilled manpower. At present, there is a paradoxical situation with the number of jobless increasing with each passing day and at the same time the industry is not finding the required manpower. If implemented successfully, the programme will help bridge the skill gap and ensure employment to the fresh graduates.
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Subletting
of Quarters
Solan, May 12 The raids were conducted around 8 am today before the employees could leave for the institute. The team later visited the office of the institute Director to check the official records. The raids created a flutter as a number of employees had sublet their allotted houses either to their colleagues or in some cases to employees of other departments like the MES. The team detected 23 such cases, including three or four where the quarters had been let out to outsiders. The quarters, located in the Research and Training wing of the institute, had come under a scanner with the CBI receiving a complaint regarding subletting done in violation of rules. Officials said this system had not only created security issues on the residential campus, but also deprived senior employees from getting accommodation. While some employees waited for years to get an official accommodation, a section of the employees had sublet the quarters and were earning rent on them. This system had continued for years together and the genuine employees were denied their due right. The CBI had now directed the institute management to ensure that the irregularities were rectified within a month and a fine, including the rent along with other charges, were charged from both parties.
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Mohali Firing
Bilaspur, May 12 This assurance was given by Badal to Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal when he took up this matter with his Punjab counterpart on the phone on Wednesday and urged him to ensure punishment to the guilty and exposure of the conspiracy to liquidate Verma in Punjab. Dhumal also talked to the Punjab DGP and expressed his displeasure over the sequel of events at Mohali after the firing and escape of the culprit. The DGP also assured him that the accused would be arrested soon and suitably punished and the conspiracy, if any, would be exposed.
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Govt supplied poor quality seeds: Cong
Dharamsala, May 12 It alleged that the final crop from the poor quality seeds provided to the farmers was not fit for consumption. “Despite having four good quality of seeds like Kanku, Kayan 308, Sulphur and Sonalica, the government approached companies outside the state to make profits,” the Congress alleged. Kewal Singh Pathania of the HPCC said, “The state government bought three varieties of seeds of sub-standard quality from companies of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. The sub-standard seeds of 343, 373 and 502 varieties were distributed among farmers in the parts of the state”. He alleged that because seeds were prepared according to the weather conditions of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, these failed to produce a healthy crop in the different weather conditions of Himachal. The government bought seeds at Rs 2,000 per quintal and sold these to farmers at Rs 1,200 per quintal, which caused a loss of Rs 800 to the government also. The committee also asked why did the government not purchase seeds from its own agriculture university. The HPCC now demanded a compensation for farmers as per their estimated loss. It also demanded compensation for mango, litchi and lemon growers as the crops were damaged due to unseasonal rain and hailstorm.
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Companies delay opening of LPG agencies to reduce losses
Hamirpur, May 12 Though these companies have also taken steps to open new retail LPG agencies in the state, internally they are not very keen to increase the number of refill supply and are postponing giving new dealerships as this will result in further financial losses to the companies. In this context it is notable that the LPG supplying companies are bearing huge losses for supplying subsidised refills to consumers through the retail agencies. The Central Government has been giving huge subsidy to consumers which in fact is borne by the major LPG supply company like Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and other supplier companies. The IOC is a state-run company and major LPG supplier company in the country but it is bearing huge losses for supplying subsidised refills to consumers as per the Central Government policy and, thus, it always tries to reduce the supply to keep its losses to minimum. The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister had been making announcements to open new LPG agencies for different towns to cope with the increasing demand of cooking gas and recently announced to open about 73 new LPG refill outlets in a phased manner under the Rajiv Gandhi Gram Vitran Yojna. Area Manager, IOC, Shimla, said, “The company will open 43 LPG agencies under the Rajiv Gandhi Vitran Yojna, two agencies will be opened and two terminated agencies at Daulat Pur Chowk and Dadasiba will be revived and the case of LPG dealership for Nadaun is also under process.”
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IPL tickets being sold in black: Bali
Kangra, May 12 Bali was addressing a press conference at his residence here today. He alleged that he had documentary evidence to prove the charges against the IPL organisers and added that Rs 250 ticket was being sold at Rs 375. He alleged that there was no ticket counter in Kangra and Dharamsala which was ridiculous. He said good sense had prevailed on the IPL organisers who decided to reduce the charges of Rs 250 ticket by Rs 100 for students and youth following his intervention in the matter. He was critical of government for leasing out some properties of the HP tourism to private entrepreneurs and suggested that the government must access how many tourism units could be revived. |
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Medical students enthralled by Odissi performance
Kangra, May 12 Padma Shri Ranjana Gauhar began her performance with “mangal charan” followed by a mythological ballet on the life of Lord Shiva. She presented different dances with different themes and kept the audience spellbound. The best feature of her performance was her interaction with students of the medical college. She concluded the performance with famous theme of the Geet Govinda fame. The programme was coordinated by Sarita Negi, SCA president, and Deepanshu Dhiman of the SCA.
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Helpline for children starts in Manali
Kullu, May 12 He said these centres were established in the country under the aegis of the Women and Child Development Ministry and run with the help of the government, NGOs and educational institutions. This would also check the child labour and child exploitation menace. Nanta urged people to inform 1098 for any such help for the children. |
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Chanju project stone to be laid tomorrow
Shimla, May 12 A run-of-the-river scheme on the Chanju nullah, a tributary of the Baira stream in the Ravi basin, the project will utilise a gross head of 244.15 m to generate 152 million units of power. |
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One held for raping, making obscene MMS of minor
Nurpur, May 12 According to the police, a case under Sections 376, 506 and 294 of the Indian Penal Code, against the accused who was running a two-wheeler mechanic shop. The police has also medically examined the victim. It is alleged that Varinder known to the victim had given lift to her on his motorcycle when he was returning home from Indora to Kandrori a few months ago. He offered her a cold drink mixed with some sedative in a restaurant near Chinor village. After consuming the drink, she became unconscious. He allegedly raped her at the restaurant and made her obscene MMS. After that he started blackmailing her and even transferred the video recording into CDs. The accused allegedly sold these CDs further to some shopkeepers and local youths in Indora and Nagal Boor areas. Frustrated and fed up with the constant blackmailing, the victim narrated her tale of woes to her mother who immediately lodged this complaint with the Indora police. The local Deputy Superintendent of the Police rushed to the spot yesterday and managed to arrest Varinder. The police has also examined the restaurant where the accused had allegedly raped the girl and made the MMS. The police said another accomplice who assisted in shooting the objectionable video clipping of the victim was still at large. |
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CPM warns of stir against unit tax
Shimla, May 12 In a statement issued here today, state secretary of the CPM Rakesh Singha demanded that the government should repeal the Bill which was pending with the Governor. The Shimla Upnagriya Jan Kalyan Samanvay Samiti spearheading the campaign against the imposition of unit tax, gave a memorandum to Singha, seeking the intervention of the CPM on the issue.
— TNS |
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One killed for stealing mobile phone, 4 held
Dharamsala, May 12 ASP, Kangra, Omapati Jamwal said Uttam had gone to the house of Milkhi Ram. Milkhi suspected that Uttam had stolen his mobile during the visit. He kept a track of mobile usage by Uttam. On May 8 this month, Milkhi, along with three others, Surjeet, Gulab Singh and Loku, thrashed Uttam. They told the police that Uttam admitted to stealing Milkhi’s mobile phone. While they were taking Uttam to his house to recover the mobile phone, they once again beat him up. Uttam fell unconscious. He was later taken to hospital by his relatives where he was declared dead. Jamwal said the accused then fled to Kullu. But now all of them had been arrested and a case under Section 302, IPC, registered against them.
— TNS |
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1 dies as bus, tipper collide
Sundernagar, May 12 According to information, a Punjab Roadways bus, which was on the way to Chandigarh, struck against a tipper. The driver of the tipper Basant Ram (30) of Bir Tungal Mandi was seriously injured in the accident. Five occupants of the bus were also injured. Later, Basant Ram succumbed to his injuries while being shifted to the PGI, Chandigarh, and the other injured were discharged after first aid at the Civil Hospital Sundernagar. The police has registered a case against the driver of the bus.
— OC
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Youth killed in road mishap
Kangra, May 12 Both injured were rushed to Tanda Medical College Hospital where Anil Kumar, 25, a resident of Jasore, succumbed to his injuries. The other injured Jagdesh Kumar 26, resident of Jasore village, was under treatment. The police has registered a case on the complaint of Sunil Kumar, conductor of the HRTC bus.
— OC
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