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Shortage of IAS officers in state
MC poll: BJP names 15 nominees
Extension of Watershed Project
Fine on JP Industries: Cong seeks CM’s resignation
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School uniform scheme to be launched on May 9 Pact to boost trade with Canada: Envoy Minister: HLP leaders should not be allowed to rejoin BJP Proclaimed offender arrested
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Shortage of IAS officers in state
Shimla, May 4 With 35 IAS officers already on central deputation, foreign assignments, study leave and trainings, the government does not have enough officers to take care of even the important departments. In some cases, officers are holding charge of almost six departments. Permission has also been sought by three more IAS officers to proceed on Central Government deputation, which the state government is in no mood to allow.
“We will soon seek an enhancement in the IAS cadre by at least 10 so that we have enough bureaucrats in the state,” said Sudripta Roy, Chief Secretary. He added that another option being explored to ease the position till the nod for cadre enhancement was obtained from the Centre was by asking Himachali officers who have been allotted other state cadres to come and serve in their home state for three years. Talks have already been held with Shamal Srakar, Additional Secretary in the Personnel Department at the Centre. The Department of Personnel has already prepared a list of 29 such Himachali officers who have completed the mandatory nine-year service in their cadre state before they can proceed on a central or inter-state deputation. “We will write to the chief secretaries of these states where Himachali IAS officers are serving to allow them a stint in Himachal if they have completed nine years service,” said Roy. Sources said some IAS officers who had already completed their central deputation tenure, too, were desperately trying to get an extension, which the government did not want to give, keeping in view the present situation. Interestingly, a move is also afoot to send back all eight Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers currently holding non IFS postings in the Secretariat and other departments. “Since there has been a cadre enhancement of IFS officers in Himachal from 110 to 116, it is obvious that the Forest Department is in need of its own officers. It is justified that they be sent back to their parent department,” said a senior officer.
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MC poll: BJP names 15 nominees
Shimla, May 4 Interestingly, the BJP has announced the name of the candidates for 12 of the 13 wards reserved for women in the MC. The only three wards not reserved for women from where the candidates have been finalised are Patyog, Khalini and Malyana. The ruling party is likely to announce the candidates for the remaining 10 wards within a day or two. However, as far as fielding candidates for the coveted posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor is concerned, the search is still on and the BJP may take a final decision on that only after Sunday. The dates for filing of nominations for the MC poll are May 5, 7 and 8. The CPM has already announced its candidates for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor and also for 16 wards. State BJP chief Satpal Satti, along with senior BJP leaders, including Ram Swaroop Sharma, state BJP general secretary, has been holding talks with party workers and senior leaders to field the most suitable candidates. With the number of claimants for the party ticket from the other 10 wards being high, the party could take some more time to finalise the names. The ruling BJP seems to have taken a lead over the Congress, which has so far not announced any candidates from the 25 wards of the MC. The names of BJP candidates from 15 wards are: ward No. 1 (Bharari) - Kala Sharma, ward No. 2 (Ruldubhatta) - Saroj Thakur, ward No. 3 (Kaithu) - Lata Kaushal, ward No. 4 (Annandale) - Lakshmi Kashyap, ward No. 5 (Summer Hill) - Sunita Devi, ward No. 6 (Totu) - Nirmala Chauhan, ward No. 8 (Tutikandi) - Kalpana Suri, ward No. 11 (Krishnanagar) - Rajni, ward No. 12 (Ram Bazar) - Rupa Sharda, ward No. 13 (Lower Bazar) - Bharti Sood, ward No. 17 (Sanjauli) - Satya Thakur, ward No. 20 (Malyana) - Suresh Chauhan, ward No. 21 (Kasumpti) - Kusum Thakur, ward No. 23 (Patyog) - Hira Lal Sharma, ward No. 24 (Khalini) - Jia
Lal. Of the list of 15 candidates, Saroj Thakur is the wife of sitting BJP councillor from Ruldubhatta while Lakshmi Kashyap is the sister-in-law of the councillor from Kaithu. Rupa Sharda, who has been fielded from Ram Bazar, is the wife of BJP city president Rajesh
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Extension of Watershed Project Rakesh Lohumi Tribune News Service
Shimla, May 4 The mission headed by Ranjan Samantaray, senior natural resources management specialist, will visit various areas proposed to be covered under the project for which it has agreed in principle to provide Rs 172 crore. The Planning Commission and the Central Department of Economic Affairs have already cleared the proposal. At present, the project is being implemented in 272 micro watersheds spread over 602 panchayats, 42 blocks and 10 districts of the state. The areas falling between the altitudinal limit of 600 m and 1800 m are being covered. Its extension to 102 additional panchayats will essentially help cover the left-out areas at the micro-watershed level. The implementation of the three-year extension phase will commence from 2013-14 and complete by March 2016. Besides undertaking various activities in new panchayat areas, focus will also be on the consolidation of the first phase to improve sustainability. Thus, the term of the project that was launched in 2006 will be effectively extended by three years, besides covering new areas. From the next year, the project will be implemented in 704 panchayats. Director of the project RK Kapoor said the team would arrive on May 7 and visit various areas in Solan, Sirmaur and Una districts over the next five days. Besides visiting these areas, it would evaluate the performance in panchayats already covered under the project. The team would submit its report after which an agreement with World Bank for the extension of the project was likely to be signed. Training was being provided to staff for satellite-imagery-based monitoring of plantations raised under the bio-project. Since the bio-carbon project would continue for decades, systems for its monitoring in accordance with the specified time line had to be put in place so that all relevant data like survival rate and growth rate could be accessed with the click of mouse.
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Fine on JP Industries: Cong seeks CM’s resignation
Shimla, May 4 Congress MLA and chairman of the Media Committee Mukesh Agnihotri said today that the landmark judgment of the high court was a vindication of the Congress stand on the issue. “Despite the Congress raising the issue inside the Assembly and outside, the BJP regime dismissed the charges outrightly, which have now been proven wrong,” he remarked. Agnihotri said the BJP regime in the state had virtually put the state on sale with JP Industries being the biggest beneficiary. “We had questioned the wisdom of the government in regularising the plant worth crores for a mere Rs 5 crore and now the high court indictment is a clear pointer towards the largesse exhibited by the Dhumal government on this company,” he said. The Congress leader said no rules or regulations existed for the JP Industries in Himachal as it was able to get any favour whether or not the law permitted. “In light of the high court judgment, the Chief Minister has no moral right to continue in office and he must step down immediately,” he demanded. CPM leader and member of the state secretariat Tikender Panwar said the BJP was synonymous with JP Industries in the state as the company had been given the right to blatantly break all norms. He said the BJP regime had been obliging big industrial houses, especially the JP company, whose interest it had been protecting at the cost of the local people, environment and interest of the state. Kangra: Former state Transport Minister and sitting MLA from Nagrota Bagwan GS Bali on Friday described the judgment of the state high court imposing a fine of Rs 100 crore on JP Industries for allegedly violating the law of the land as historic and said it had vindicated his stand on the issue raised by him time and again. Bali was addressing a press conference at his residence here on Friday.
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School uniform scheme to be launched on May 9 Haripur Dhar (Nahan), May 4 Chief Minister PK Dhumal announced this while addressing his first rally at Haripur Dhar after the BJP won this seat from the Congress in a byelection held in November last year. Elaborating on the scheme, he said students till the matriculation level would be benefited by this scheme and a sum of Rs 64 crore was being incurred to provide uniforms to 10.5 lakh students. He said keeping in view the need for expanding health care and roping in private investment, the government was planning to open a medical college in the private sector in Sirmaur. He said Eternal University, Baru Sahib, had also sought permission for opening a medical college. Acceding to a demand of people, the Chief Minister opened the office of a Subdivisional Magistrate at Sangrah which will benefit about 75,000 people of the area. He said as promised all demands had been fulfilled by the government. The financial assistance under the Atal Awas Yojna had been increased from Rs 27,500 to Rs 48,500. He said women empowerment was his govvernment’s priority and they had taken several measures in this regard, including provision for 50 per cent reservation for women in Panchayati Raj Institutions and local urban bodies. He said efforts were affot to improve the facilities in panchayats and Rs 17 crore was being spent in all panchayats for the construction of gymnasiums. The Chief Minister thanked people of the area for electing Hirdaya Ram Chauhan in the byelections held in November last year. He said all possible efforts would be made for undertaking development of the area. Hirdaya Ram Chauhan thanked the Chief Minister for accelerating the pace of development in the Renuka area. Sukh Ram, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, also spoke on the occasion.
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Pact to boost trade with Canada: Envoy Shimla, May 4 “Already four rounds of talks have been completed and the agreement is likely to be given the final shape after the fifth round. However, in the meanwhile efforts are on to encourage bilateral collaboration at various levels by facilitating increased interaction among the captains of industries, business leaders and officials,” said Slessor, who was in the city in connection with a conference of the Agri-Business Forum to held at Vancouver and Saskatchewan in September. He said a number of delegates from the hill state, including government officers, were expected to attend the conference being organised by the Canada-India Foundation in collaboration with the states of British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Interaction would lead to new business ties and help attract private investment for the mutual benefit of the two countries. Economic ties between the two countries had been growing and last year exports from Canada to India registered an increase of 26 per cent, while the imports form India also rose by a significant 19 per cent which was quite encouraging. He said Canada had ample expertise in agro-based industry, storage, hydropower, tourism and environment from which Himachal could benefit.
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Minister: HLP leaders should not be allowed to rejoin BJP Dharamsala, May 4 Talking to newspersons here, Ravi said he was personally against bringing back those leaders into the party who had left it of their own choice. Hinting at Independent MLA from Nurpur Rakesh Pathania, he said in fact the party should bring back leaders who were ousted from the party. Shanta Kumar, at a press conference held at Dharamsala on Sunday, had showered praises on HLP leaders and maintained that making the “mission repeat” a success would be difficult for the BJP till all splinter factions of the party were brought together. Ravi’s statement has indicated that the Dhumal camp is not willing to take Shanta Kumar’s “onslaught” lying down. Ravi, who is considered close to Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, was today perceived as launching a counter-offensive to the stand taken by Shanta Kumar. Ravi once again expressed his resolve for the creation of new districts in the state. He said the government was seriously considering the idea of creating Palampur, Nurpur and Dehra districts out of Kangra district. He said a committee, headed by state president of the party Satpal Satti, had been formed for the purpose. He said the state government might also consider the demand for the creation of Rohru as a district. Ravi’s statement today is likely to fuel infighting between the Shanta and Dhumal factions in the state.
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Proclaimed offender arrested Mandi, May 4 The girl has been restored to her parents today after she was medically examined at the zonal hospital by the police. The kin of the girl and the panchayat pradhan from Randhara today met the SP and thanked him for restoring their daughter to them. Villagers demanded strict action against the accused. Abhishek Dular, SP, Mandi, said the accused kidnapped the minor girl with an intention to marry her, adding that “he has been charged for kidnapping and abduction and the police is awaiting the medical report of the girl.”
— TNS
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