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Cong adopting negative tactics in House: BJP
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CPM demands growth-oriented Budget
CII wants toll barriers abolished
Land Purchase on Fake Certificates
MNREGA: Khalwahan gram panchayat sets an example
Virbhadra to lead poll campaign, says Ram Lal
Dealers told to pay relief
Constables to be designated beat officers
Leopard mauls 8-year-old boy to death
DYFI to launch save-Annandale drive
Sabha wants relief enhanced
Forest Dept defends accused officials
Placement week on
Implement forest rights Act, CM urged
Truck driver killed in road accident
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CM may present please-all Budget
Shimla, March 18 Having cleared 80 per cent of the arrears, amounting to about Rs 2,200 crore, on account of the pay revision over the past three years, the financial stress has eased somewhat, providing some leeway for populist measures at the outset. However, the inflationary impact of the Union Budget is likely to make things worse as the year progresses. The government has not as yet released the instalment of the dearness allowance which became due in July last, while the Centre is expected to announce another instalment from January shortly. Each instalment puts an additional annual burden of Rs 325 crore on account of salary and pensions. Thus, inflation will be a major worry as being the election year the government will be hard-pressed to release the dearness allowance as and when it becomes due. Besides, the government has to raise some resources for funding the annual plan for which it has sought a special assistance of Rs 1,896 crore as against Rs 1,000 crore for the current year. The government will be in a relatively comfortable position at the start of the year as the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) has been projected at Rs 63,084 crore for 2011-12. With the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act in place, the fiscal deficit is expected to be within acceptable limits. It will be interesting to see if the government adheres to the fiscal correction path chalked out by World Bank while granting a Rs 900 crore development policy loan to pull it out of the debt-trap as per which the ratio of fiscal deficit to the GSDP was to be reduced from 3.4 per cent in 2007-08 to 2.2 per cent in 2011-12. In the 2009-10 Budget, the fiscal deficit to the GSDP ratio was projected at 5.08 per cent, but it came down to 3.47 per cent at the close of the year. The projected figure for the current year is 2.7 per cent, whereas it has to be brought down to 2.2 per cent. The next year will be crucial as the revenue deficit grant will decline progressively as per the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission which has pegged the total expenditure on account of salaries and pension at 35 per cent. |
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Cong adopting negative tactics in House: BJP
Shimla, March 18 Spokesperson for the party Ganesh Dutt said the Budget session was the most important, but the state Congress leadership had been forced to adopt such destructive approach because of the immense pressure created by Union Minister Virbhadra Singh, who had been repeatedly saying that the party had failed to play the role of an effective Opposition. He said such gimmicks would not take it anywhere and it was time that the party leadership pondered over whether continuing the deadlock in the House would serve its political interests. The BJP had also protested in Parliament on the issue of corruption, but it did not stall the proceedings of the House continuously and gradually came down to the boycott of Home Minister P Chidambaram and that too was ended in due course. Referring to the demand for a CBI probe into charges against Health Minister Rajeev Bindal, he said the government was prepared for a probe by any agency, provided the party came up with some credible evidence to warrant such action. Merely harping on charges and not providing an iota of evince to support these would not help. He said if the Congress was really serious about eradicating corruption all its MLAs should make public the assets they possessed when they first got elected to the state Assembly or Parliament and the wealth amassed by them till date. |
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CPM demands growth-oriented Budget
Shimla, March 18 The party asserted that the neo-liberal policies being implemented in the state had the growth of the primary sector, which employed 68 per cent of the workforce. Over the years the government had withdrawn public investment in agriculture because of which its Gross State Domestic Product had decreased. This did not augur well for the overall prosperity of the state as bulk of the people were dependent on it. The other worrisome feature was decrease in the plan spending and capital expenditure, which meant very little investment for the development of hydropower and other capital intensive sectors. The state had not been able to assert its right of 25 per cent equity and correspondingly 15 per cent distress cost share. This could have generated revenue for the state. The government’s efforts in promoting tourism with slogans like “Har Ghar ki Kahani” had not yielded results as it had not cared about providing proper infrastructure to attract tourists. Several schemes like heli taxi had failed. Though the per capita income had increased by 15 per cent, the gap between the rich and the poor too had increased phenomenally which must be addressed in the Budget. |
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CII wants toll barriers abolished
Solan, March 18 Apart from this, there is a suggestion to exempt all passenger transport vehicles from the entry fee and to earmark a dedicated lane for their movement. Rajeev Malhotra, Chairman, Himachal chapter of the CII, said the state barriers should be computerised to avoid unnecessary hassle and congestion at these points. The CII has also recommended withdrawal of the entry tax on goods that are being utilised as industrial inputs. Taxes such as entry tax lead to fragmentation of domestic Indian market and cause distortions in the economy. Further petrol and diesel should be taxed at the rates applicable in the neighbouring states as the rates are higher in Himachal as compared to the other states in the northern region. The state government should pursue the revision of the upper limit of the Central Capital Investment Subsidy from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 75 lakh with respect to the amended SSI limit in line with the revised definition of MSMEs. In the present business scenario, an MSME has to compete on the same terms with the bigger industry for all resources like land and labour, and there is not much special incentive from the government. In this regard, the CII has requested the state government to pursue the matter with the Government of India for interest subvention of 2 per cent on credits for MSME units, treating the MSME sector on a par with agriculture for lending under the priority sector by scheduled commercial banks. Malhotra added that to meet the requirements of the Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh (BBN) Development Authority, funds to the tune of Rs 150 crore should be made available in the state Budget for 2012-2013. The industrial area of Parwanoo should also be included in the BBNDA. |
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Ensuring quality education biggest challenge: CII chief
Shimla, March 18 “The country needs trained manpower and the private sector has a big role to play, but we cannot allow a free-for-all situation as mushrooming of substandard institutions will spoil the future of whole generations. There is need for taking urgent steps to effectively regulate the private institutions as lack of quality will tarnish the image of the private sector,” Thadani, who was in the city in connection with the annual session of the CII, Himachal, told The Tribune. He said the country required to revamp the existing curricula and introduce industry-relevant courses to bridge the widening gap between demand and supply. A possible way to effectively regulate and make curriculum relevant was to set up a joint council in which both industries as welll as universities were represented. Minimum standards with regard to physical infrastructure and faculty had to be met at all costs and private universities should not become a pretext for acquiring land, Thadani, who is also the Chairman of the National Accreditation Board for Skill Development Centres, pointed out. He said the CII had taken an initiative in this regard in association with Punjab Technical University and not only got the curricula revised, but also started a system of seamless internship which benefited both students and the industry. The institutions trained the students as per the requirement of the industry, which deployed one batch after the other as interns without a break. Himself associated with NIIT University, Thandani said industries and universities had to join hands to make education relevant and produce employable manpower. Chief Executive Officer of the leading IT company, NIIT, Thadani saw no threat to the software industry from China and the economic turmoil in the West. He said Indian industry would now grow because of its high skills and quality of service, which China lacked. Moreover, the demand for IT services was set to grow with projects like UID and the companies would gain from the domestic market. The exports had already reached $80 billion and the focus would be on the domestic market. |
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Land Purchase on Fake Certificates
Solan, March 18 Deputy Commissioner C Palrasu said proceedings in 70 cases for violation of Section 118 of the HP Land Reforms and Tenancy Act, 1972, were in various stages since the past several years. In the latest case, the Deputy Commissioner had issued a notice for initiating proceedings to vest back a Barog-based private hotel after it was found to have violated Section 118 by purchasing 1.13 bighas of land in 1980 without seeking permission from the state government. An additional 5 biswas was bought by the hotel owner in 1997. The owner had, however, lost the case in the apex court in trying to regularise it following which the state Cabinet had decided to regularise it after “compounding it” for Rs 2 lakh in 2007. However, since there was no such head under which this payment could be deposited, the Deputy Commissioner’s office has been trying to ascertain its procedure for years now. The state government decided to vest back this property in December 2011, directing the Deputy Commissioner to initiate proceedings for 1.13 bighas of land while for the remaining 5 biswas, Section 118 proceedings are under way. Interestingly, the opposition Congress, which is now crying foul over misuse of Section 118 in Solan, had regularised this case through a Cabinet decision though there was no such provision in the Act. The Deputy Commissioner said in another such case proceedings to vest back property located in Barog would soon begin as violation of Section 118 had come to the fore after an inquiry conducted by the SDM. In yet another such case, which was being investigated by the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau in Kullu, a Noida resident had been booked for fraud after he had procured a fake Himachali agriculturist certificate and had later bought properties in Kasauli. The Deputy Commissioner said he had begun proceedings for violating Section 118 and directions had been issued to revenue officials to ensure that he did not sell or purchase properties in the future. Several cases of such violations were detected in Baddi also where action was awaited. In one such case involving 64.5 bighas, where land was purchased on fake kisan pass books, proceedings to vest back the land was yet to begin. |
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Fire destroys 16 buildings in Chamba
Chamba, March 18 Property worth crores has been destroyed in the fire rendering 29 families homeless. Highly inflammable goods like paints, thinners, turpentine oil and other related articles had been stocked in the market. Shops-cum-houses of 10 families had been completely gutted, while 19 families who were tenants had suffered a huge loss to their belongings because of the fire. On receiving information, the district administration, led by District Magistrate (DM) of Chamba Sharabh Negi, reached the spot and pressed into action the services of the Fire Brigade, Home Guards, police and Indo-Tibet
Border Police, along with local people, to douse the flames. The DM said here today that five tenders had been invited from nearby projects of the NHPC and the fire could be brought under control by 8 am. A magisterial inquiry had been ordered and Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Rohit Rathour had been assigned the task to conduct the inquiry and submit its report to the DM within one month. The DM said the possibility of power short-circuit could not be ruled. Officials were on the job to investigate the cause of the fire and work out the exact losses. Meanwhile, the families rendered homeless had been accommodated in the local tribal hostel and municipal rest house, he further stated. The District Magistrate said an immediate relief of Rs 25,000 each had been provided to those whose houses had been totally gutted and Rs 10,000 each to those whose houses had been damaged partially. Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Speaker Tulsi Ram and local MLA BK Chauhan visited the fire site and directed the administration to provide the fire victims all possible assistance. Chief Minister PK Dhumal also expressed sympathy with the victim families. Cong condemns admn for slow action
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee district spokesman Dharam Malhotra has reproached the district authorities, including Fire and Irrigation-cum-Public Health Departments, for their sluggishness and inaction attributing to the heavy losses of property, shops and houses. In a press note here today, Malhotra said he himself was at the site at 5 am and the authorities arrived at 7 am. The Fire Brigade and the police stations were located hardly 100 m from the fire spot, he added. Malhotra applauded the efforts of the local youth and residents who helped in saving families, their belongings and controlling the fire from spreading. He requested Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Virbhadra Singh to help the victims by getting funds from the Prime Minister’s
Relief Fund. |
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MNREGA: Khalwahan gram panchayat sets an example
Sundernagar, March 18 Sarpanch Bhume Ram said as many as 850 persons of the area had been registered in the beginning of the financial year and job cards were issued to nearly 90 per cent who had completed 100-day job. The rest 10 per cent had crossed 90 days and were to complete 100 days by the end of March. He said nearly Rs 90 lakh had been spent so far and Rs 80 lakh out of this had been spent on developing agriculture lands of farmers. The Khalwahan gram panchayat has the credit of holding the first Lok Adalat in the state under provisions of MNREGA to settle the issue of 15 persons to whom the gram panchayat had failed to provide employment despite registration. The Lok Adalat, at the gram panchayat level, then compensated 15 persons with unemployment allowance under
MNREGA, 2010. The Gramin Kamgar Sangathan, a volunteer organisation working for the welfare of rural workers, had raised the issue of half-heartedness of the state government in implementing provisions of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act and organised a rally and fast in 2008. “This started bringing changes in the gram panchayat working and the sangathan educated the gram panchayat members about the provisions of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act,” claimed Sant Ram, state president of the sangathan and resident of the same gram panchayat area. He said the Panchayati Raj Department always made “silly” excuses over the non-implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Despite the availability of a budget and a majority of the Central government funds lapsed unused every year, he added. |
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Virbhadra to lead poll campaign, says Ram Lal
Bilaspur, March 18 Ram Lal Thakur said the BJP being in power had several initial advantages and only a competent and experienced leader should be entrusted to take the BJP by the horns and defeat it decisively in the next election. He said even today the mass appeal and popularity of the former Chief Minister was unparallelled in the state. Ram Lal said the challenge of the party in power should not be underestimated and workers should not rest on their oars thinking that misdeeds and anti-people policies of the BJP government in the state were sufficient to root out the party from power in state. He said workers must fan out in villages and tell people from door to door all the beneficial policies and programmes of the Congress and the present Central schemes being implemented in the state. This meeting was called by prominent leader Bambar Thakur and presided over by former MLA and Parliamentary secretary from Ghumarwin Kashmir Singh Thakur. |
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Dealers told to pay relief
Sundernagar, March 18 The complainant had purchased a laptop from Pathania Infotech System and paid a price of Rs 41,600 for it on October 29, 2009, and as per an offer on the subsidised payment of Rs 5,499, HP Redemption Support had to supply a Motorola mobile phone to the complainant. The complainant paid Rs 5,499 through a draft to HP Redemption Support, Chandigarh, on November 7, 2009, but the handset was not supplied to the complainant following which he filed a complaint before the consumer forum. Pathania Infotech System admitted the purchase of laptop and also the fact that the mobile phone was to be supplied by HP Redemption Support (which did not appear in the forum). It was further alleged that by not supplying the mobile handset, the latter had harmed the image of the former. The forum held that both parties were jointly and severally liable for the refund of the amount as the handset that was given with the laptop under an offer to the purchaser was not supplied to him and it amounted to deficiency in service as provided under the Consumer Protection Act. It ordered both parties to refund the amount of Rs 5,499 along with an interest of 9 pc per annum from the date of deposit and also directed to pay an amount of Rs 5,000 as relief along with Rs 2,000 costs to the complainant. |
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Constables to be designated beat officers
Mandi, March 18 The move aims at giving a “psychological boost” to the beat cop by designating him beat officer and streamlining the working of the police administration, said police officials. Though the Police Department had been assigning beats to constables throughout the state earlier also, they had not been made accountable. The Mandi District Superintendent of Police has assigned beats to each constable in 10 police stations and 14 police posts in the district. In towns like Mandi, Sunderngar, Sarkaghat, Jogindernagar and Karsog, a beat officer will now look after three different municipal or nagar panchayat wards. In the gram panchayat area, the beat officer will take care of four panchayats in the district. In 473 panchayts in the district, there will be 119 beat officers. Talking to The Tribune, SP, Mandi, Abhishek Dular said, “The beat officers will maintain beat books recording all information on crime, challans and summons. A beat officer will be responsible for all crimes and
information related to his beat and will report to the respective Station House Officer (SHO).” He said this exercise was being undertaken to streamline the working of the police administration. Each beat officer would stay in the beat for a tenure of two or more years,
Dular added. |
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Leopard mauls 8-year-old boy to death
Hamirpur, March 18 Narrating the incident, the boy’s father said, “Ankit went to the toilet at about 6.30 am today. But when he did not return for quite some time, we went out to look for him. On spotting blood drops we raised an alarm.” “Soon villagers assembled there and we went in search of the boy following the blood trail and pug marks. Later we located the boy’s body lying in the bushes in a ravine, about 1 km from our house,” he added. The leopard had torn open the child’s throat with its claws. Divisional Forest Officer, Hamirpur, PK Thakur said, “The boy’s body has been sent for postmortem and Rs 25,000 given to his family members. The entire amount of Rs 1 lakh, given under the Wildlife Compensation Act, will be handed over after getting the postmortem report.” The leopard had been escaping the trap laid by the Forest Department after it had attacked a few cattle in the past 10 days in the village. The DFO said, “The department has already declared the leopard a man eater and deployed a team of shooters to kill it to save people from further attacks.” Education Minister ID Dhiman and Conservator of Forest Sameer Rustogi also visited the victim’s family today. President, Himachal Kissan Sabha, Kuldeep Tanwar has demanded a relief of Rs 10 lakh for the boy’s family. |
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DYFI to launch save-Annandale drive
Shimla, March 18 Announcing the plan, it said a signature campaign would be organised to expose the ulterior motives of both the state government and the HPCA (Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association) behind the demand for the hand over of the ground for constructing a cricket stadium. The DYFI stood for restoring the Annandale ground to the youth of the state, to be utilised for multi-purpose activities like in the past and in no case be handed over to golfers or the HPCA, which had vested interests. It would revive the old traditions when Shimlaites used to enjoy almost all festivals and sports events at the Annandale ground, the most prominent being the famous Dasehra. The cricket stadium at Dharamsala, constructed by the HPCA, was virtually out of bounds for the local youth. |
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Sabha wants relief enhanced
Shimla, March 18 Convener of the sabha Kuldeep Tanwar said human life could not be compensated by money, but still a reasonable amount must be provided to the families of such young victims. The families were virtually ruined by such grievous loss. Since forest was in the concurrent list, the Centre and the state should share the financial burden on this account. He urged the government to immediately convene a meeting of the State Wildlife Board and recommend enhancement of the compensation to Rs 10 lakh. He blamed the flawed development model adopted by the state for the increasing human-animal conflict. The policy of monoculture being pursued by the Forest Department for raising new plantations was not conducive for wildlife. Large-scale plantation of pine forests did not support the food chain of animals like leopards, monkeys and langurs. Such animals were becoming a big threat to human life and crops.
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Forest Dept defends accused officials
Mandi, March 18 Following a complaint, the police swung into action and arrested the duo, identified as Kashmir Singh and Inder Singh, under Sections 409 and 120-B, IPC, last evening. However, they were released on bail today. SP, Mandi, Abhishek Dular said the police had started a probe after the accused forest officials were arrested yesterday. They were allegedly sawing logs into sleepers. The timber had been seized. On the other hand, DFO, Jogindernagar, PL Gupta said he had inspected the site and found timber documented and stored as per provision. The timber was stored from the drift wood recovered from a flooded river, he added. Gupta said the timber was being sawed for use in the repair of the rest house, Dharampur, and was not meant for sale. In fact, he had given them oral instructions to use the timber for the repair of the rest house and they had all documents with them, he claimed. Giving a clean chit to the two forest officials, Conservator of Forests, Mandi, CB Pande said the staff was not found involved in an illegal activity as per the preliminary inquiry. “However, I have sought a report from the DFO in this regard,” he added.
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Placement week on
Solan, March 18 Among the companies which have come forward are Genpact, ICICI, Marsh & Mclennan, Abacus Offshore from Seychelles, Aditya Birla Group, Religare, India Infoline, Vardhman Group and Edelweiss. A university press statement said as many as 25 students had been given jobs by Genpact and
Marsh & Mclennan, ICICI and Religare and an average pay package of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh per annum had been offered to
the students. More placements were expected by the end of the placement week, said Dean Munish
Sapra.
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Implement forest rights Act, CM urged
Shimla, March 18 In a letter to Chief Minister PK Dhumal, it has pointed out that the forest rights Act would have a lasting impact on the life of people, but its implementation was pending. Only a few individual claims in the tribal region had been settled and no community claims had been decided so far. The process of implementation was started only in the tribal region from April 2008 and had still not been completed.
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Truck driver killed in road accident
Nurpur, March 18 The Jawali police said Ashok’s body had been handed over to the family after postmortem conducted today at the Civil Hospital here. A case under Sections 279, 337 and 304 of the
IPC had been registered in this connection.
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