Hamirpur, July 2
Concerned over the poor results in government schools in exams conducted by the HP Board of School Education, the state government has decided to stop increments of lecturers and teachers, working in those schools where the pass percentage of students in a class will be 25 per cent or less than it.

For implementing this decision, the state government has issued directions to the Education Department and all Deputy Directors have been asked to submit details of such schools and teachers posted there during the past nine months prior to the examinations.

Teachers and lecturers of the schools, where less than 50 per cent pass percentage would be reported, would also be issued warnings and action be taken where poor results are reported.

The state government has formed this policy to bring improvement in the teaching and the quality of education by making the teachers accountable for the poor results.

But there was a technical problem in fixing the accountability of a lecturer or a teacher of that subject and to resolve this issue the government has decided to take overall average result percentage into account to determine the pass percentage.

At present, teachers and lecturers taking Class VIII and XII will be covered under this policy.

The basic purpose of fixing the responsibility of the teachers for the poor results of students in a particular school is to improve education standards through determined efforts of the teachers.

Principal Secretary, Education to the HP Government Shrikant Baldi said, “There was some technical problem in implementing this policy, but now we have clarified things and increments of teachers and lecturers where less than 25 per cent results are reported will be stopped. Warnings for the repeated poor results will also be issued”. 

Kala Amb, July 2
The electricity board has ordered an administrative inquiry into the case of unauthorised power usage where a commercial connection issued to a welding shop at Kala Amb had been extended to the neighbouring Haryana village to run two brick kilns and a tubewell.

Board chairman RD Dhiman said the Chief Engineer (South) had been assigned the task to enquire into the matter and he would submit his report within a month.

Dhiman added that they had provided all requisite documents to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau after they detected this case on June 24.

Records pertaining to SDOs and JEs, who had been posted in that subdivision since 1999, had already been made available. Further action would be taken after the receipt of this administrative report.

The case had shocked the board as well as the bureau as an underground connection had been provided 700 metres away to run a tubewell, two brick kilns and to light up 12 huts of Satinder Mohan at Naraingarh in Haryana who had availed a power connection for a welding shop at Kala Amb. 

Shimla, July 2
While favouring bringing the PMO under the Lokpal Bill, former Finance Minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha today demanded that the CBI must probe the role of Home Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum scam as was being done in case of A Raja and Kanimozhi.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said he was in favour of the PMO being covered under the Lokpal Bill, but the NDA would clarify its stand as a meeting was being held today.

“It is only after realising that the Bill has to be passed in Parliament and not at the India Gate did the government bother to talk to Opposition parties and not just civil society activists like Anna Hazare,” the BJP leader.

Citing several examples which established that then Finance Minister Chidambaram was in the know how of the financial irregularities in the 2G scam, he said his role must be probed like that of Raja and Kanimozhi. “Several informations collected under the RTI Act have indicated that Chidambaram was as deeply into the 2G spectrum as the other accused and his role needs to be probed,” he demanded.

He said Chidambaram had sent a note to the PM recommending that no action should be taken against those companies who had got access to spectrum. “Serious allegations were also levelled against the Home Minister in the Radia tapes between Chidambaram and Raja, which necessitate the need for a CBI probe against him,” he asserted.

The BJP leader said the country did not require a weak and indecisive PM, but a strong PM who could take on the challenges that the nation has faced.

He also expressed displeasure at the manner the UPA regime and also the Lok Sabha Speaker had dealt with the Public Accounts Committee, the oldest British time committee. “The manner the UPA regime, aided and abetted by BSP and SP members, dealt with the PAC is unparalleled in the history of Parliament,” he rued. 

Shimla, July 2
Seeking to live with dignity and honour, single women in Himachal today sought 50 acres of land on lease from the government to undertake commune farming as they had constituted the first of its kind Ekal Nari Kisan Cooperative Society in the country.

With 60 per cent of the total beneficiaries under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Assurance Scheme being hill women folk, the Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan said it was keen on generating self-employment rather than seeking benefits from the government. Members of the society handed over a memorandum to the government listing their demands.

“We urged the Chief Secretary to provide land on lease to our society so that we can live with dignity through our hard work,” said Nirmal Chandel, State Coordinator of the organisation.

“They are not seeking ownership of land, but only lease as has been done in the case of Swami Ramdev and others so that they can till the land, grow vegetables and sell dairy products,” said Subhash Mendhapurkar, Director of Sutra, who has been guiding and assisting the sangathan in its fight for justice.

Mendhapurkar said the organisation had urged the Chief Secretary to provide them land preferably in Kangra, Una or Hamirpur, where the number of deserted and widows was over 36,000. “Neither do we have the resources, nor the means to buy land and whatever little money we have, we wish to utilise it for procuring seeds, cows and other inputs required for farming,” he said.

They also demanded that the social security pension should be enhanced from Rs 330 to Rs 1,000 and all single women be treated as BPL family.

The Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan, NGO of single women in HP, is one of the three organisations in the world that has been honoured with the Ashoka Foundation Change Maker Award. Two other women organisations from Mexico and Tanzania have been given $50,000 award money.

The society has been formed by single women, including divorcees, widows and deserted women, who are striving to lead an independent life with little support from anyone.

Shimla, July 2
The government today said special emphasis would be laid on the maintenance of roads in apple growing areas to facilitate apple growers to transport their crop to different markets.

This was stated by PWD Minister Thakur Gulab Singh here today while presiding over a meeting with senior officers of the department to review the arrangements made for the maintenance of roads in the state.

“I have directed the officials to also ensure the maintenance of link roads in the apple belt,” he said.

He said adequate arrangements would be made for ensuring better maintenance of roads during the rainy season. “The task of tarring the roads could not be completed due to early onset of monsoon,” he said. He said this would be achieved after the monsoon was over.

The minister said 137 dozers, 204 excavators and five small loaders would be pressed into service for the maintenance of roads. 

Keylong (Lahaul-Spiti), July 2
For locals and tourists, the “subscriber is not reachable” reply while travelling on the Keylong-Udaipur-Tindi-Killar road and on the Batal-Losar-Kaza in the high-altitude no-man’s land will be a thing of past.

The BSNL is set to start its mobile services through satellite connectivity at different spots on these stretches taking care of travellers in the snowbound region.

The satellite connectivity will also come to aid of tourists, locals, including migratory shepherds who get stranded in the snowbound area during freak snowfall from time to time, but without any connection with the outside world.

In 2009, over 1,000 tourists, locals and labourers travelling between Keylong and Spiti and between Keylong and Leh remained stranded for days in snowfall as the rescue teams could not establish any link with them.

So far most of the time, lines are jammed and get a standard reply: “All channels are busy or no connectivity or subscriber is not reachable”, rued residents.

But it will be so no more, if you believe the BSNL. The service provider is not only providing satellite phone services to Rohtang tunnel engineers, but it is set to start similar service to residents at Losar, a remotest village in Spiti on the Keylong Kaza road located at the base of the 15,000-ft-high Kunjam Pass and Batal located other side of Pass in the Lahaul valley.

BSNL Chief General Manager Rakesh Kapur said, “The BSNL will start satellite phone connectivity to people living in the remote Himalayan region. We have set up PCO at Batal and are launching the service in July at Losar and Nithar in Lahaul-Spiti district”.

Shimla, July 2
The HP High Court yesterday issued notices to the state government on a petition against the Senior Deputy Mayor of Amritsar, Ajaybir Pal Singh Randhawa, alleging that he had committed murder of his wife and daughter in Dalhousie (Chamba) on February 22, 2009.

Petitioner Ajit Singh Bains, a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and presently Chairman of the Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRC), alleged in his petition that the heinous crime of murder of wife and daughter by the politically powerful husband in a contrived accident had not been properly investigated and chargesheet had not been presented due to political interference and, therefore, a serious crime has been buried and the guilty had escaped scot-free despite evidence of intentional murder and criminal conspiracy.

The petitioner further alleged that Ajaybir Pal Singh Randhawa made a plan with his family to visit Dalhousie and other tourist spots in Chamba and during this visit instead of parking his car on the side of a mountain, which is a safer side, he parked his vehicle on the wrong side, adjacent to a deep gorge on the roadside.

The petitioner alleged that the wife and the daughter of Randhawa were in the car and he pushed the car slightly and his mission was accomplished as the rest of the job was done by gravity. To create an illusion of an accident he started shouting for help.

The petitioner alleged that he had committed this crime because he had illicit relation with some other girl and on this account he and his wife used to quarrel frequently.

He also had gone abroad with his girlfriend. The motive of the crime was love affair and, therefore, the desire to get rid of the wife who was not willing to leave him.

He alleged that the police hasd registered a case, but the cancellation report was filed before the court by the police on the instructions of political bosses. He urged the court that the matter be investigated by the CBI.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice VK Sharma also issued notice to Senior Deputy Mayor of Amritsar Ajaybir Pal Singh Randhawa and directed the Dalhousie police station to keep the car in safe custody.