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Lok Mitra Kendras become friendlier
Forest management sans working plans
Gurdas Mann regales audience
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Leopard found dead
Patwari held for graft
Bus operators booked for cheating
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Lok Mitra Kendras become friendlier
Shimla, June 3 The Information Technology (IT) Department will sign a tripartite agreement with the BSNL and two companies running the services next week to pave the way for payment of landline bills at the LMK. There are a total of 3.55 lakh BSNL land phones and over 55,000 postpaid mobile phone customers in the hill state who will be able to avail this facility. “We are keen to increase the utility of these centres by adding more services so that people, especially those residing in the rural areas, have facilities closer to their home,” said Rajneesh Kumar, Director, IT. He added that the facility of payment of electricity bills at the LMK
was becoming a very convenient option and within the last six months payments worth Rs 1.50 crore had been made through this mode. The 2000 operators running the LMK will get Rs 5 per telephone bill, which will be a big incentive for them. Currently, they get paid at the rate of 1 per cent of the electricity bill not exceeding Rs 2.50 per bill, but the department is contemplating increasing this amount to Rs 5 per bill. During May, electricity bills worth Rs 55 lakh were paid through the LMK. In its endeavour to add more services to the LMK in public interest and to make these more viable for the operators, the IT has tied up with the HRTC to enable booking of tickets for its long routes. “The software for this is ready and we have identified about 500 long routes for which one can get a ticket through the Internet, from a LMK or directly from the 10 online counters at places having more traffic,” informed Rajneesh. The LMK were launched with the objective of helping people avail government services closer to their homes. To begin with, the services being rendered by the LMK were only confined to voter registration and getting various applications and forms, but now the facility of issuance of jamabandi (record of right) by the Revenue Department at the LMK is also benefiting people. So far, almost 10,000 jamabandis have been issued through various LMK. |
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Forest management sans working plans
Shimla, June 3 The lack of concern for the proper management of the forests can be judged from the fact that out of the 34 forest working plans covering 38 divisions, 21 have already expired and another eight will expire in the next three years. The working plans for Shimla-Theog and Una expired last year and that of Outer Seraj will expire the current year. The plans for Chamba, Hamirpur and Nahan-Paonta will be valid up to 2013 and Renuka and Nichar-Pooh up to 2014. At present, only three working plan officers are in position at Rajgarh, Nalgarh and Dehra, whereas to clear the backlog of 21 plan at least eight officers are required. This is despite the fact that the Supreme Court had ruled that green trees could be axed only in accordance with the plans duly approved by the Centre. It also laid down that fellings must keep pace with natural regeneration of forests for which adequate funds be kept apart. The department had been toying with the idea of outsourcing the task of preparing plan, but it is not permitted under working plan code and the Centre has also made it clear that only work like carrying out socio-economic surveys could be assigned to exeprts. The department has come out with a proposal to have a permanent setup with four conservators assisted by other staff specifically looking after the working plans. There is a view that the task should be assigned to territorial officers who have the necessary staff and other infrastructure to carry out the job. They will be forced to visit the forest, which will ensure better management.
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Gurdas Mann regales audience
Shimla, June 3 He started off with “Guru and Hari Om Jaap” and rendered one foot-tapping number after the other bringing the crowd to its feet. “Chhalla, Cycle Mitran Di, Dil Da Mamla, Jogia Jogia and Mur Mur Yaad Sataye” were other folk songs which drew wide applause from the audience. Governor Urmila Singh inaugurated the festival by lighting a lamp. She also released a souvenir brought out to mark the festival. DC Onkar Sharma, who is also the chairman of Shimla Summer Festival Organising Committee, honoured the Governor with a shawl and a memento. Leader of Opposition Vidya Stokes, Mayor of the Shimla Municipal Corporation Madhu Sood, Vice-Chairman of HIMUDA Ganesh Dutt and senior civil police and army officers were also present.
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BILASPUR: A leopard was found dead on a link road by some villagers of Thaharla in Kotla gram panchayat on Thursday. Panchayat vice-president Suman Thakur informed the police about the leopard who further informed forest officials. Forest Range Officer Sankalp Sharma and Block Officer Rattan Dhiman said the leopard was injured on its right foot. Though post-mortem report would confirm the cause of the death, the wound seemed to be caused by a trap laid by some villager in the fields. — OC
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Patwari held for graft
Dharamsala, June 3 Sources said the patwari was arrested on the complaint of Naresh Kumar. The complainant had alleged that the accused patwari was demanding Rs 500 from him for issuing papers of his land. The Vigilance officials led by Inspector Sureshtha Thakur laid a trap for the accused and he was caught red-handed accepting a bribe of Rs 500 from the complainant. —
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Bus operators booked for cheating
Solan, June 3 Baddi SP Gurdev Chand Sharma said the police had registered a case of cheating and forgery against bus operators, Maggu Tourist Company, Golden Bus Company and Yadav Bus Services for seeking contract carriage permits under fake local addresses while operating from Chandigarh. It was a complaint lodged by the Private Bus Operators Union that the case came to the light and initial investigations into the addresses of the three private operators led to the revelation that permits had been sought on fake addresses. The Golden Bus Company had the highest number of 16 buses operating in the BBN and the permit was sought against Rohit Raghuvanshi, a resident of Atta Chakki Mill, Jharmajri. The Yadav Bus Service had sought a permit against Rewati Devi, a resident of ward number 1, Ropar Road, Nalagarh. Three buses were operating against this permit. The Maggu Tourist Company had availed a permit against Ved Prakash, a resident of Bhatoli Kalan, Sai Road, Baddi, and five buses were operating under it. The SP said these buses would be impounded soon and investigations into how these permits had been procured on fake addresses would be conducted. As per norms such contract permits are approved by the State Transport Authority (STA) and transporters seeking such permits are supposed to apply to the STA after entering into a contract with some industrial unit for which the buses wish to extend their services. |
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The Shimla International Summer Festival commenced on a lively note with famous Punjabi folk singer Gurdas Mann regaling a packed house with his famous numbers here last evening.
He started off with “Guru and Hari Om Jaap” and rendered one foot-tapping number after the other bringing the crowd to its feet. “Chhalla, Cycle Mitran
Di, Dil Da Mamla, Jogia Jogia and Mur Mur Yaad Sataye” were other folk songs which drew wide applause from the audience.
