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Manali hotels register 70 pc occupancy on New Year’s Eve
flashback 2011 |
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Projects to spruce up industrial area
HC directs govt to frame policy to check illegal mining
Cong condemns Gadkari for double standards
BJP’s term is black day in state’s history: Cong
Three officers transferred
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Manali hotels register 70 pc occupancy on New Year’s Eve
Manali, December 31 No doubt, hoteliers, including home stay unit owners, have registered a good jump in their occupancy rates, from 40 per cent during Christmas to 70 per cent on the New Year eve in the tourist town of Manali, but the crowd here is less as compared with that of the last year, when Manali ran a “house full” on the eve of 2011, said hoteliers. Tourists and New Year revellers have surfaced on the Manali Mall, which is spruced up under the beautification plan, but the crowd remains thin as compared to last year. “The reason can be that the Kashmir Valley has experienced snow, but Manali remained without snow during Christmas and today,” said Nakul and Smita Khullar, a young couple who runs a home stay heritage resort at Ramgarh on the Kullu-Manali stretch of the national highway. Most revellers from Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and other parts of the country make a beeline to Shimla and Manali with a hope that they will wake up to a snowy “white New Year” morning. But that is not to be this time as weathermen have predicted a bright new year tomorrow as far as hills of Himachal are concerned. Though Solang Nala, Marhi, Rohtang Pass uphill of Manali and Hatu Peak near Narkanda still have a white blanket of snow, but the guests look for a fresh snowfall, said the hoteliers. Flights to Kullu from Delhi remained erratic due to foggy weather conditions prevailing in the northern plains. Kashmir attracted more New Year tourists this time, said travel agents. However, the hoteliers did not lose hope as they reported a spurt in tourist arrival for the New Year bash after registering low turnout for Christmas. The HTDC-run hotels also ran almost a full occupancy on the New Year Eve, said the managers. Gajender Thakur, president, Manali Hoteliers Association, said, “It is a lean New Year celebration in Manali as compared to last year.” Thakur said big hoteliers had 100 per cent occupancy for the New Year celebration, but economy hotels had not exceeded 70 per cent occupancy this time. The weather is bright and the Manali-Solang Valley had experienced lean snow as compared with the Kashmir Valley a few weeks ago, which seemed to have cashed on the New Year celebration, he added. |
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flashback 2011
The introduction of SMS (short message service) to enable common citizens seek assistance or pass any information to the police using a mobile phone, provision of GPS (global positioning system) on police patrolling vehicles and prescription of time limit for the disposal of various matters at the level of the police station were some to the initiatives which will go a long way in reducing response time and bring efficiency in the functioning of the police. The SMS facility will keep the field staff on its toes as all the messages are immediately forwarded to the police officers concerned for taking appropriate action. The gist of the SMS is also forwarded through police wireless network. The SMSes received are placed before the DGP for further monitoring within 24 hours. The service was launched in July and so far over 2,600 messages have been received. Similarly, the GPS-enabled vehicles will enable the authorities to keep track of the patrolling party and, thus, ensure effective patrolling. Besides preventing misuse of vehicles, it will also enable the authorities to send the nearest police team to the spot in case of emergencies. In all, the GPS device has been installed on 101 vehciles. However, the most important was the decision to focus on untraced murder cases, some of which were more than 60 years old. Total 838 such cases were divided into three categories and steps delineated to ensure action to solve them in a time-bound manner, by ensuring personal monitoring by senior district officers. The cases where both the victim and the accused have also been identified, but no arrests made, special quarterly campaigns will be launched to apprehend the culprits. Details of proclaimed offenders in such cases will be entered separately in register number 4 at police stations. Cases where only the victims have been identified, will be transferred to special investigating units and efforts will be made to trace the culprits in the next three years. Cases where both the victim and the accused have not been identified, photographs of the bodies will be published in the criminal intelligence gazette and circulated in all states. The district police chiefs will submit a case-wise report every year in the first week of January and monitoring will continue for five years after the final report. The data till November shows a marginal decline in heinous crimes. For instance the number of murders came down from 132 last year to 122, rape from 160 to 157, kidnapping from 194 to 188 and molestations from 348 to 306. There has been an increase in the number of thefts from 838 to 978 and burglaries from 752 to 843. |
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Projects to spruce up industrial area
Solan, December 31 Stating this here today, GS Chauhan, General Manager, District Industries Centre, said all industries had been directed to participate in this fair and those failing to participate should ensure that they were abiding by the mandatory 70 per cent Himachali Employment norm as their premises would be inspected for the compliance of this norm. Chauhan said various developmental works had been carried out in Kala Amb and Paonta Sahib industrial areas to spruce up the infrastructure and make available better amenities for investors. He said Rs 10 lakh had been approved for broadening the Kala Amb barrier which would help in the smooth flow of traffic. Apart from this, Rs 34 lakh sewage works had been completed and Rs 50 lakh drinking water facilities constructed which included the construction of a 3-lakh litre water tank. In addition to this, works worth Rs 70 lakh were underway for the repair and maintenance of roads in the Paonta Sahib industrial area where Rs 68 lakh works were also being undertaken to provide potable drinking water by constructing a 3-lakh litre water tank and sewage facility to the Tarruwala-Gondpur area. With a sanction for Rs 2.32 crore to concretise the crucial Kala Amb-Tirlokpur-Mirchpur Road, having been acquired under the centrally sponsored ASIDE scheme, the Industries Department was ensuring that the investors were provided the best facilities so that investment could flourish, added Chauhan. |
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HC directs govt to frame policy to check illegal mining
Solan, December 31 Acting on a civil writ petition, the high court has directed him to constitute a committee under his chairmanship which will determine the type of land, potential mineral availability in the land for setting up a stone crusher and the capacity of the stone crusher installed and raw material available to stone crusher owners. The court has taken a strict view of how the department had ensured that the lease holders had applied for a grant of mining lease for areas measuring less than 5 hectares after realising that lease on an area exceeding 5 hectares required permission from the MoEF. Though the lease holders had filed affidavits claiming that they would carry on mining activity in an area marginally less than 5 hectares, the court had sought details of such leases and when the department had carried out demarcation of such cases and the dates when boundary pillars were set up, along with photographs of boundary pillars. Though the department had claimed that such permissions were granted only for one year, the condition that the permission would automatically lapse unless the permission from the MoEF was obtained. The court has sought details of all such cases. The court also sought to know if mining in an area less than 5 hectares would generate enough raw material for stone crusher thus ruling out any tendency of illegal mining. A State Expert Appraisal Committee has been constituted for the technical assessment of such projects and a state Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Authority overlooks the final clearance of such projects in the state. The policy thus formulated will help check illegal mining by lease holders who despite having larger areas under them had opted to avail lease on an area marginally less than 5 hectares so as to avoid following lengthy procedures of obtaining permission from the MoEF which included getting the EIA study of the area along with proper rehabilitation and measures to offset the adverse environmental impact of mining. The MoEF had in 2006 amended its procedures by making EIA compulsory for mining in an area exceeding 5 hectares. |
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Cong condemns Gadkari for double standards
Shimla, December 31 General secretary of the Congress Kuldeep Rathore said Gadkari try to undermine the national leadership of the Congress by terming it as a party of “ma and beta” (mother and son), but he had no qualms in promoting the father-son duo of Chief Minister PK Dhumal and his son Anurag Thakur from the same platform. It speaks volumes about the hypocrisy of the BJP’s national leaders who have mastered the art of double speak, he said. Gadkari should first practise what he was trying to preach, he added. Gadkari’s stand on the issue of corruption also reflected the double standards which had become integral part of the BJP politics, Rathore said. Gadkari dubbed the UPA regime at the Centre as the most corrupt, but turned a blind eye to the corruption of his own party government in the state. Things had come to such a pass that some senior leaders of the BJP had set up a Bhrashtachar Mukti Morcha to fight corruption in the state, but Gadkari was conveniently ignoring all the issues being raised by them and patting the corrupt on the back, he said. It was not surprising that the turnout at the Kullu rally was far below the expectations and it was an indication that the BJP was on its way out, he pointed. The Congress observed the “Rosh Divas” to expose the act of commission and omission of the Dhumal government and it would pursue its campaign against corruption with fresh vigour, he said. He said the private universities scam would be one of the main issues in the next Assembly election. The commission set up by the government to regulate private education institutions is eyewash as it had not taken action in a single complaint of irregularity so far, he added. |
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BJP’s term is black day in state’s history: Cong
Kullu/Mandi, December 31 The Congress claimed that corruption in the Dhumal government had been exposed by the BJP dissidents who had united under the banner of the Bhrashtachar Mukti Morcha (BMM). The Congressmen shouted anti-government slogans and staged protest in front of the DC office today. Addressing the gathering, party in charge for Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti Harsh Mahajan, who is also the state vice-president, claimed that the government was on its way out and stood exposed in the eyes of the public. The BJP misused official machineries for its “lacklustre” rally here as most of the people left the venue when Chief Minister PK Dhumal and BJP chief Nitin Gadkari spoke, he alleged. Mahajan said the Congress would give the BJP a slight push to oust the “corrupt government from power in the coming 2012 Assembly polls”. Even the BMM and BJP MPs were accusing the Dhumal regime of promoting corruption and it had failed on all fronts, he added. He said the BJP government was being run on crutches of the funds being given by the UPA government under schemes like the National Rural Health Mission, Horticulture Technological Mission and MNREGA. Employees and teachers were agitating as the government had failed to give them pay scale on par with Punjab, he claimed. Former chairman, Marketing Board, Satya Parkash Thakur, claimed that the present government had been exposed as it had done nothing for Kullu district. The BJP men from Kullu were up in arms against the government and the party rally was a flop show, he claimed. Banjar Congress leader Karan Singh, Manali Congress leader Bhuvnesh Gaud, Kullu zila parishad chairman Harkrishan, and zila parishad members Premlata Thakur and Sundar Thakur participated in the protest. The Congressmen later submitted a memorandum to the Governor through the Kullu ADM as the DC was on leave. |
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Three officers transferred
Shimla, December 31 Bharat Harbanslal Khera, MD of the Financial Corporation, has been transferred and posted as the MD, Industrial Development Corpn. He will hold the additional charge of the post of the MD, Financial Corpn. RK Sood, MD, Small Scale Industries and Export Corporation, has been posted as the MD, Minorities Finance and Development Corpn, relieving Madhu Bala Sharma of the additional charge.
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Shimla, December 31