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Medical specialists’ incentives up
TET mandatory, Sibal writes to CM
Govt to file appeal against ski village verdict
Chikni khad route poses threat to motorists
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Deviation From the Originally approved Plan
CEC to hold meetings with parties, officials on July 12
Contractual Appointments in Boards
Kalam to visit Baddi varsity on July 14
2 children loot couple, decamp with Rs 2.10 lakh
Stone of Irrigation, Public Health complex laid
Cricket stadium misused for political activities: Cong
Baba Hardip re-elected state president of INTUC
High-Security Registration No. Plates
Body of student recovered from Guj river, 1 arrested
Consumer commission dismisses ADM’s appeal
Cong levelling baseless charges: BJP
Poor signals irk mobile users
Cheques distributed
Single teacher runs primary school
70-yr-old man killed in clash over land
Conductor, driver hurt in road mishap
Tourist killed in gliding mishap
2 ex-pradhans, secy booked
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Medical specialists’ incentives up
Shimla, July 9 The decision was taken by the Cabinet at its meeting held here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister PK Dhumal. It was decided to revise the incentives being given to contractual medical specialists and medical officers appointed through the Rogi Kalyan Samitis. The Cabinet also approved the purchase of Toyota Corolla Altis cars for use by the 11 Judges of the High Court. Gynaecology, surgery, anaesthesia, paediatrics and radiologist specialists posted in Pangi, Pooh and Dodra Kwar will be entitled for a special incentive of Rs 25,000 per month, while specialists posted in Kinnaur (except Pooh and Hangrang), Bharmour, Chopal, Chohara, Sangrah, Shillai, Ani, Tissa, Chhota Bhangal (Multhan) and Bara Bhangal will get Rs 20,000 as incentive. The Cabinet also decided to open a new tehsil at Tauni Devi in Hamirpur district and upgrade the sub-tehsil at Multhan (Chhota Bhangal) in Kangra district to a tehsil. It was also decided to open new sub-tehsils at Tihra in Sarkaghat, Nagrota Suriyan and Darlaghat in Arki. The Cabinet decided to create a new development block for the Naina Devi Assembly constituency at Swarghat in Bilaspur district. It also decided to provide 8 kg of foodgrains to each family member of ration card holders in Dodra Kwar in Shimla district and Bara Bhangal in Kangra under the public distribution system by relaxing the norms. The Cabinet decided to create 84 posts of different categories to make the offices of the Himachal Pradesh Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board functional and 13 posts in Government Degree College at Kotla Behar in Jaswan, Kangra. The Cabinet also approved the pre-mature release under “mercy petition cases” in favour of four convicts undergoing imprisonment. Key Cabinet Decisions
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TET mandatory, Sibal writes to CM
Shimla, July 9 Union Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal has, in a letter to Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, informed that the condition of passing the TET was introduced in August 2010 under the Right to Education Act to serve various objectives. These included bringing national standards and a benchmark for “teacher quality” in the recruitment process. Dhumal had taken up the matter with the Union Minister for granting exemption from the TET in respect of JBT trainees who were selected for the training prior to the implementation of the Right of Education Act. Sibal said besides Himachal, in some other states also admission to a two-year DEd programme (equivalent to the JBT programme in Himachal) was made on the basis of merit and a selection test. However, even where such admission procedure was followed and students passed the two-year programme, the requirement of passing the TET was still applicable for all appointments of teachers. This condition applied to all schools throughout the country, both government and private schools. |
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Govt to file appeal against ski village verdict
Stating this here today while interacting with mediapersons after the screening of a documentary on the assistance provided from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund to various needy persons, Chief Minister PK Dhumal said the project was being vehemently opposed by local people. Local deities, whose writ ran supreme, were also not in its favour. It was not the government but local residents who had gone to court against the project. Though it was a project to set up a ski village, over 400 huts were proposed to be built, which virtually made it a “colonising venture”. The government would go by the wishes of the people, who did not want the project, and it had decided to file a review petition. Referring to Virbhadra Singh’s statement that the Chief Minister victimised political opponents, Dhumal said the former Chief Minister tried his best to implicate him and conducted a series of Vigilance inquires against him, but could not find anything to book him. He said he had no role in the registration of the CD case against Virbhadra Singh and he was making baseless charges in this regard. The CD was recorded during the Congress rule and it surfaced in the public domain. |
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Chikni khad route poses threat to motorists
Solan, July 9 The Chikni bridge, which had collapsed in 2007, is yet to be constructed and given the tardy pace of construction work, investors wonder if it will be completed even by next year. Though an alternative provisional track had been constructed for the movement of vehicles in the khad, the rains have reduced the utility of that route. People working in industrial units set up on the other side of the road fear that heavy rain might halt their movement. The season’s first rain had on Friday led to a truck turning turtle in the middle of the Chikni khad. Every day vehicles face problems while trying to cross the khad. Several trucks, utility vehicles and private cars cross the khad daily as hundreds of people are employed in industrial units located on the Swarghat road. Rajnish Kumar, a senior HR executive working in an industrial unit, said though bigger vehicles somehow managed to cross the Chikni khad, there was a threat to smaller vehicles, which often got stuck. Employees of industrial units have to cross the Chikni khad daily to reach their workplace. Though they can take a detour through the NH-21-A, it is not only a longer route but also leads to wastage of time and fuel. The Ministry of Highways and Surface Transport took three years to grant approval for this Rs 8.23-crore project in August 2010 and now the pace of work is slow with barely a few pillars having come up at the site. |
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Deviation From the Originally approved Plan
Shimla, July 9 The panel has been set up on the advice of the CEA, which first brought to the notice of the state that the project had been over-designed and as a result its installed capacity had been effectively raised to 1,200 MW. The CEA had granted techno-economic clearance (TEC) to a 1,000 MW project, but the company installed four 300 MW machines in place of 250 MW each as approved. The committee will go through the entire record on the basis of which the TEC was granted for the project, particularly the details pertaining to the civil, electrical and mechanical components, before visiting the site for physical inspection. A detailed questionnaire has already been sent to the company in this regard. The committee will, on the basis of the reply of the company, ascertain the deviations from the original design and thereafter visit the project site for physical verification. A representative of the CWC has been included to ascertain the deviation in the water-conducting system in which the diameter of the 17-km-long head race tunnel (HRT) is reported to have been increased from 10.15 m to 10.50 m. It will significantly increase the “cross-section” to allow a higher discharge to run the higher-capacity machines. Originally, an MoU was signed in 1993 for 900 MW, but in the implementation agreement signed in 1998, the capacity was raised to 1,000 MW. Principal Secretary, Power, Deepak Sanan said further action in the matter would be taken after receiving the report of the joint inspection committee. The government had already rationalised the policy for regularising the excess capacity by doing away with the exemption on up to 20 per cent increase from the installed capacity. As per the amended policy, independent power producers will have to pay an upfront premium at the rate of Rs 20 lakh per MW or the one offered during bidding in case the project has been allotted through the international competitive bidding route. Earlier, nothing was charged for an increase in the capacity up to 20 per cent. The 3 per cent additional free power will be given to the government only on the enhanced capacity and not on the total installed capacity as earlier. |
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CEC to hold meetings with parties, officials on July 12
Shimla, July 9 Chief Election Commissioner of India V Sampath, along with another member of the commission HS Brahma, will hold meetings with representatives of various political parties and the top brass of the administration, including the Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police, here on July 12. The commission will hold a meeting with three Divisional Commissioners and the Inspector-Generals of Police of the three ranges, Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police as well. Even though it was being expected that the poll would be held earlier than December, the visit of the Chief Election Commissioner has given further credence to such speculation. The two main political parties, the Congress and the BJP, have already gone into the election mode with both holding rallies and central leaders visiting the hill state off and on. The possibility of the elections being held anytime between Dasehra (October 24) and Diwali (November 13) is high. “Keeping in mind the two main festivals and the possibility of snow in the higher reaches, it is this intervening period which is most suited for the Assembly poll, but ultimately it is the Election Commission which will decide the dates,” said an official. During the last Assembly elections in 2007, polling in the three tribal seats had taken place on November 14 and in the remaining 65 seats on December 18, with the results being declared together. This had led to a major problem with the election code of conduct being in effect for almost three months. The Assembly elections will be interesting as major changes in the constituencies have taken place on account of the delimitation process with a rotation in the reserved segments. Though the number of Assembly seats will remain 68, the number of segments in Kangra has gone down from 16 to 15 while one constituency has been increased in Kullu district, taking the total to four. Voter Count
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Manimahesh pilgrimage to start from Aug 10
Bharmour, July 9 A preliminary meeting of sub-divisional-level officers was held under the chairpersonship of Additional District Magistrate (ADM), Bharmour, BR Kamal at Bharmour last week to thrash out a careful strategy for the comfort of pilgrims. The ADM directed the officials to carry out necessary repairs and remove debris of landslips on the 13-km-steep footpath leading to the Manimahesh lake. He also directed the officials to identify the locations for setting up transit health centres, huts for rest and stay, toilet blocks en route the Manimahesh lake, besides making adequate arrangements for parking-lots. The ADM said he himself would visit the Manimahesh lake in the last week of July to see the arrangements and apprise the Deputy Commissioner of Chamba, who is the chairperson of the Manimahesh Pilgrimage Management Committee, so that elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of the pilgrimage could be finalised. |
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Contractual Appointments in Boards
Shimla, July 9 The court also directed the State Pollution Control Board and the Department of Environment, Science and Technology to file a short reply in this regard within three weeks. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice DC Chaudhary passed these orders on a petition filed by Pushpinder Jaswal alleging that the boards and corporations were making recruitments without following the proper procedure. The petitioner stated that the State Pollution Control Board had issued an advertisement for recruitment of assistant law officers, junior scientific officers, junior environmental engineers and junior scientific assistants on a contract basis. The board had not framed any recruitment and promotion rules and appointments were made by favouring certain candidates. The petitioner alleged that the board was misusing its powers by making such appointments in the absence of any rules. He mentioned that Article 321 of the Constitution provided for appointments in boards and corporations through the state Public Service Commission. However, the government had not taken any steps to enact such a law. The petitioner urged the court to direct the respondent to implement the constitutional provisions and quash the selection process initiated by the State Pollution Control Board. The matter has been listed for further hearing on August 21. |
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Kalam to visit Baddi varsity on July 14
Solan, July 9 Lovi Raj Gupta, Vice-Chancellor of the university, said today that Kalam would visit the university on July 14 and launch the local chapter of his ace project. Explaining the concept of the mission, its national coordinator Manjit Singh said, “This movement aims at inculcating the ‘spirit of giving’ among the youth and envisions a nation where the youth are forthcoming to build a stronger India and the government is free of corruption. At present, the mission has eight chapters that cover a wide array of social, environmental and ethical issues which require urgent attention. Gaurav Jhunjhunwala, secretary, BUEST, said Kalam would award letters to students who had been adopted by various industrial units under their “academic adoption programme”. |
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2 children loot couple, decamp with Rs 2.10 lakh
Nurpur, July 9 They put the cash in a bag and came to a chemist shop to purchase some medicine. All of a sudden, two children, aged 14 to 15 years, diverted the attention of the woman by saying that her clothes were dirty due to vomiting. She immediately reacted and kept her bag containing the cash on the floor to check her clothes. Meanwhile, the children fled after taking the bag. On raising an alarm, the duo was chased by locals, but they threw the bag in the street and decamped with the cash. The police on being intimated reached the spot and took the footage of the CCTV of the bank to identify the accused juveniles. It has registered a case and intensified its investigations. |
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19 nabbed in theft cases
Sundernagar, July 9 SP, Mandi, Abishek Dular said on July 7 three persons took away a bag containing Rs 1.50 lakh from Hukam Chand, an elderly person and resident of Ner Chowk. As per report lodged by the victim at Balh police station, he had withdrawn the amount from a bank and when he came out some persons threw dust in his eyes and took away the bag. The SP said the police deputed DSP Abimanu, along with a team, to investigate the case. The police scanned the recording of a CCTV footage and identified these persons and today nabbed 19 persons from two hotels of Mandi. Of them 16 were adult, two women, one juvenile and one infant, and recovered Rs 2.80 lakh from them They belonged to Rajgarh district of MP. The two women, one carrying an infant, were produced by the police before the media in the SP’s office today. |
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Stone of Irrigation, Public Health complex laid
Shimla, July 9 The complex spread over an area of 7, 914 sq metre will cost an estimated Rs 24.03 crore. As much as 4,319 sq metre will be available for parking, enough to accommodate about 80 light vehicles. Dhumal said the new complex would enable various wings of the department, which were being strengthened, to function under one roof. The government had opened the offices of the Chief Engineer at Hamirpur and the Superintendent Engineer at Bilaspur. A Water Management Board had also been constituted. He said a total of 53 additional posts had been sanctioned to make the new offices functional. He said with change in climate due to global warming, the responsibility of the Irrigation and Public Health Department had increased manifold. It was required to provide piped drinking water facility to people in villages. To ensure safe drinking water in drought-prone areas, where running schemes go dry due to the depletion of sources, the department had been installing hand pumps. |
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Cricket stadium misused for political activities: Cong
Shimla, July 9 Addressing a press conference here, he said the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association and the BJYM, both of which were headed by Anurag, had become synonymous. The government had obliged the association by giving land for the stadium and a five-star hotel. The facilities were being misused for political activities. National BJP leaders were also enjoying these facilities and they stood fully exposed. Regarding the U-turn by Shanta Kumar, he said the veteran BJP leader was a confused man as his conscience said one thing and for reasons best known to him he was being compelled to toe a different line. He had been expressing concern over growing corruption all through and repeatedly saying that the BJP’s mission repeat would not be possible without the breakaway HLP leaders, but now he was saying that the mission would succeed. All his supporters had left the party and joined the HLP and they had been making serious charges of corruption against the Dhumal government. Some others like Rajan Sushant (MP) and Khushi Ram Balnatah (MLA), who were still in the party, were openly criticising the government. The “misdeeds” of the BJP had already been exposed and the people were waiting to throw it out of power. Cosmetic efforts to bring unity would not work. Rathore accused the government of undermining the authority of the State Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission. The commission was issuing notices to private universities for advertising unapproved courses and the government was going out of the way to allow these courses by throwing the norms prescribed by the UGC to the winds. In short, the government and the commission were working at cross purposes. If the government did not want to regulate the private universities, it should scarp the commission altogether rather than creating such a mess. |
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Baba Hardip re-elected state president of INTUC
Bilaspur, July 9 He was authorised by the general house to form the state executive committee within a month. Chandigarh INTUC president Kulbir Singh and prominent leaders Vikram Chopra and Harjinder Singh were present as central observers. Addressing mediapersons, Baba Hardip Singh said only former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had “ the capacity and capability” to bring back the Congress to power in the state and turn the “mission repeat” of the BJP into “mission defeat”. He said the entire INTUC was unanimously behind him. The Baba was very critical of BJP government leaders, several of whom he said were neck deep in corruption. He said the slogan of the BJP of 70 per cent jobs to youth in all industries and projects was misleading as not more than 30 per cent youth had been given employment in these industries and that also menial and low-category jobs. He said all administrative and officer jobs were being manned by men from outside the state. “Government leaders are in league with these industrialists and have no interest to protect interests of Himachali youth,” he asserted. The state president said many officers of the Labour Department were functioning as “agents” of industries and they had been failing to protect interests, labour laws, legal and constitutional rights and even human rights of labour employed there. But the situation would not last long and impending Congress government in the state would end this mess. The conference adopted resolutions demanding the immediate declaration of benefits of 4-9-14 years to employees, conversion of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation into Roadways and filling of all vacant posts in all departments by regular employment and stoppage of exploitation of labour and employees in the state. Present on occasion were Sita Ram Saini, BS Varma, Umesh Kumar Sharma, Bhup Singh Chauhan, Ramesh Saini, Thakur Dass, Ashok Kumar, Abdul Rafiq, Hitender Pathania, Sohan Varma and Jagat Ram among others.
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High-Security Registration No. Plates
Palampur, July 9 Vehicle owners are feeling cheated as despite paying money in advance and submitting documents to the company they have failed to get the number plates. Official sources said the Director, Transport, Himachal Pradesh, had assigned the job to a private company of Delhi. The company had neither adequate equipment to print the number plates nor man power. Enquiries revealed that while awarding the contract, the Director, Transport, did not verify the credentials of the company. Now the matter has reached the state high court. Over three lakh vehicles have been registered with different Motor Licensing Authorities in the district. Besides, 5,000 new vehicles are registered every month. It is impossible to issue number plates to all three lakh vehicles in the next six months, unless the high court passes a timebound order and directs the company to pay interest or fine if the delay occurs. KB Ralhan, spokesman, Palampur Welfare Forum, today appealed to the state High Court to dispose of the matter on priority. He said the role of the office of the Director, Transport, also should be probed by the court.
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Body of student recovered from Guj river, 1 arrested
Kangra, July 9 The police said the arrested youth was identified as Rakesh Kumar of Rajol village. Some more persons were wanted in the case. The body of Shubham of Kaliyara village was recovered from Ansoie village near Rajol on Sunday under suspicious circumstances. Kewal Singh Pathania, Congress leader, and Balbir Choudary, pradhan of Kalyara village, alleged that Shubham, along with another youth Ankush, were going on a scooter near Ansoie village on Saturday and some villagers attacked scooter driver Ankush suspecting him to be involved in a theft case which had taken place in the village recently. Shubham, when chased by people, ran away from the spot. It was alleged that Shubham jumped into the Guj river to save himself from the public wrath. His body was recovered from the river the next day. Tension gripped the area following the recovery of the body and and the failure of the Gaggal police to reach the spot in time. Residents of Kalyara village and Rajol, led by Pathania, blocked the Pathankot-Mandi national highway for nearly one-and-half hours at Rajol. They were demanding action against those involved in the crime. It was following the assurance of ASP Nihal Singh and SDM Sandeep Sood of an appropriate action against the guilty that the blockade was lifted.
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Consumer commission dismisses ADM’s appeal
Sundernagar, July 9 The complainant, Lawan Thakur of Mandi, an RTI activist, had applied for some information in 2008 and the PIO had charged Rs 260 for 26 pages at the rate of Rs 10 per page, whereas the rate was Rs 2 per page. The complainant filed a complaint before the Consumer Forum, Mandi, and during the pendency of the complaint, the ADM refunded the excess amount. The forum held the ADM guilty of deficiency in service. The ADM placed the appeal before the commission which was taken up for hearing today. The commission turned down the plea that the remedy for the complainant was to file an appeal before the appellant authority under the RTI and not before the consumer forum. The commission dismissed the appeal and the order of the consumer forum was upheld.
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Cong levelling baseless charges: BJP
Hamirpur, July 9 Mankotia said, “A few Congress leaders of the state, despite themselves being booked in corruption charges, have now started a sinister campaign against Chief Minister PK Dhumal and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur with a clear motive to tarnish their image, since they enjoy immense public support in the state.” Mankotia has warned the Congress leaders to either come out with documents in support of unfounded allegations or get ready to face libel cases.
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Poor signals irk mobile users
Dalhousie, July 9 Residents of these areas allege that besides the poor signals, they often catch signals from towers in the neighbouring Punjab area which causes a great loss to them as they have to pay the roaming charges. BSNL users have already apprised the authorities of the problem. Moreover, their landline phones are also not working properly. This is being attributed to landslides near the Kakira township. The mobile users have urged the service providers to provide better services by setting up towers in their areas.
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Cheques distributed
Bilaspur, July 9 BDTS president Lekh Ram Varma said here the Chief Minister handed over cheques of Rs 1 lakh each to Sukh Devi and Suneeta Devi in connection with the society’s social responsibility scheme under which financial help was provided to families of BDTS members. Varma said Promila Devi and Roshani Devi were given Rs 25,000 each, while Roshan Lal was given Rs 10,000. A cheque of Rs 50,000 was also given to the orphanage of the Divya Manav Jyoti Sansthan, Dehar, near here.
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Single teacher runs primary school
Chamba, July 9 Inhabitants of the area, including parents and members of the school management committee, have apprised the Education Department about the problem being faced by children of the area as a single teacher is unable to cope with the burden of the syllabi of all the classes of the school. Meanwhile, the matter with regard to the lack of staff in the school has also been brought to the notice of the district officials.
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70-yr-old man killed in clash over land
Kangra, July 9 On Sunday a land dispute at Badiyara village resulted in a bloody clash between two groups of relatives. During the clash Puran Chand was killed on the spot and his wife Bishewa Devi and son Anil Kumar were injured. Bishewa Devi was admitted to DRPGMCH at Tanda. Sohan Singh and his two sons Raju and Pinku of the same village were arrested.
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Conductor, driver hurt in road mishap
Chamba, July 9 The report said the truck, which was loaded with tower poles, was on its way from Bhadwar (Kangra district) to Chamba. The truck was badly wrecked. A case of negligence against truck driver Mulakh Raj had been registered at the Chowari police station in the district, the report said.
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Tourist killed in gliding mishap
Chamba, July 9 The deceased had come to Khajjiar, along with his family, the SP added. A case against
Papu, owner of the glider, had been registered.
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2 ex-pradhans, secy booked
Mandi, July 9 The police said the trio had been booked after it received a written complaint from the BDO, Paddar, in the case. The funds were given for different development works in the panchayat, but these were not used properly, the police added. The police had started investigation in the case.
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Shimla, July 9