Kangra, December 25
People here are facing a lot of inconvenience due to the non-availability of small denomination stamp papers for the past one month. Due to this, they are forced to purchase stamp papers of Rs 20 and Rs 50 instead of Rs 1, 2, 5 and 10 denominations.

Aman Guleria, district assistant secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Kangra, charged the state government of “fleecing the common people to generate revenue”. He alleged that the state government had been fleecing the common man, who was already reeling under the trauma of severe price rise.

Guleria said people had to pay Rs 20 or 50 for a simple affidavit which required a Rs 3 stamp paper. He said more than a month had passed, still small denomination stamp papers were not available in the local treasury here and stamp vendors were selling Rs 20 and Rs 50 denomination stamp papers to those who needed small denomination stamp papers.

There are 14 stamp vendors in Kangra and Nagrota Bagwan and two at Baroh, who are selling the higher denomination stamp papers.

Kamlesh Kumari, treasury official, Kangra, said there was a shortage of small denomination stamp papers for the past one month.

Kangra district treasury officer SS Guleria said Rs 1, 2 and 5 stamp papers were not available in the district for the past few days. However, he said Rs 10 denomination papers were available at Dharamsala.

He said he had asked for the small denomination stamp papers, however, had not received them yet.

Palampur, December 25
Palampur town has been facing serious environmental threats as the green cover of this picturesque town is reducing day-by-day. There is no check on the felling and lopping of trees. The deodar trees, which were the beauty of the town are vanishing constantly. Hundreds of Deodar trees have been affected by an unknown disease and have dried up in the past few years. Once upon a time, Palampur was covered with dense deodar trees, but today only a few of them are seen.

Despite tall claims made by the state government to protect the environment of the state, in Palampur town there is no-one who could save the green-cover. Most of the government agencies have become silent spectators, there is nobody in the administration who could take steps to preserve the greenery of the town.

It is unfortunate that that no efforts have been made to plant new deodar trees in the town for the past five years. Besides, there is no post-plantation care. It is on record that a few years ago, trees were planted near the PWD Rest House but today none of these trees exist and the area is covered with bushes. If no serious efforts are made, Palampur will soon loose its green cover.

There are many other such instances where they have been axed over-night by the various government departments without any permission, keeping aside the stringent forest-laws enacted by the government. As per provision of the law in such cases, it was mandatory on the part of concerned departments or municipal council to seek prior permission from the Forest Department, which is ultimately granted by the Deputy Commissioner.

Meanwhile various voluntary organisations and environmentalists have lodged serious protest with the authorities for reckless felling and looping of the deodar and the illegal sales of tea-gardens which were the beauty of this hill station.

It may be recalled that one deodar tree takes 70 years for full growth. Palampur and Massori are the only hill stations in the country where deodar trees are grown between the heights of 3000 feet to 4000 feet from MSL.

Dalhousie, December 25
It was Rajkumari Ravi Nandini who has been pivotal in the victory of her mother Asha Kumari, a Congress candidate from the Dalhousie Assembly constituency of Chamba district in the recently held Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha 2012 elections.

Rajkumari Ravi Nandini, daughter of Asha Kumari, acted as a “spearhead” of the electioneering of her mother all through the remote areas and had been liked by all sections of society, including the minority community which is in large numbers in the constituency.

During the elections, Ravi Nandini had been keeping a close liaison with the veteran Congress leaders like Dharam Singh Pathania, Kamal Thakur, Mukesh Sharma and many others who all guided her regarding the scenario in the constituency, thereby giving a fresh impetus to the election scene.

As a consequence, the Congress stalwart, Asha Kumari, won the seat by a huge margin of 7,365 votes routing the sitting Bharatiya Janta Party MLA Renu Chadha.

Asha Kumari belongs to a royal family of the erstwhile Chamba state, and is a five-time MLA from the Banikhet Assembly constituency. After the delimitation of constituencies, it had been renamed as the Dalhousie Assembly constituency.

Asha Kumari of the Congress secured 25,541 votes while Renu Chadha of the BJP secured 18,176 votes. After her victory, Asha Kumari was greeted by a crowd of her supporters in the area. The Congress workers also held a grand procession to celebrate the victory of Asha Kumari. She won the Assembly elections for the fifth time.

Bilaspur, December 25
International Handicapped Day was observed at Chetna, a social organisation, Bilaspur. There was a cheerful environment throughout the day to make handicapped children and others happy who had gathered here recently.

While addressing the participants at the function, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Pune Ram Pahadia, said it was a serious offence to insult or try to humiliate any handicapped person due to his physical or mental inability. It could attract imprisonment and a heavy fine. The International Handicapped Day function was organised jointly by the State Welfare Department and the State Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and Minority Affairs Department in collaboration with Chetna.

Pahadia said the District Legal Services Authority provided all help to such persons to go to a court of law and get redress for their grievances or to get justice against any wrong done to them by any body. He further mentioned that such help was totally free and they had to incur no expenditure at all. They only needed to write their complaint or grievance, on a simple paper for this help, to the district authority. He said handicapped persons were an important part of our society and they deserved all help and encouragement from society to ensure a worthy, befitting and a satisfactory life for them.

The Additional Deputy Commissioner, Darshan Kalia, who presided at the function, said when one lost any of his or her natural faculty, nature balanced it in one or the other way. He said there were striking examples of great personalities who were handicapped by birth, still they were well known throughout the world for what they did for society. To name a few of them, he mentioned partial vision of film music maestro Ravindra Jain, hearing-obstructed artist Satish Gujral, well-known wheelchair-stuck scientist Stephen Hawkins and radium inventor blind, deaf and mute Madame Marie Curie.

District Bar Association President Tejaswi Sharma also addressed the function among others. Handicapped children happily danced and sang national songs and presented a colourful cultural programme. They also participated in on-the-spot painting and games competitions and were given attractive prizes by the chief guest.

A district medical board consisting of Dr Ahmad, Dr Supriya, Dr Ambudhar and Dr Dhiman examined 42 handicapped persons from all parts of the district and issued certificates to 23 of them for getting benefits from the government.

Palampur, December 25
The Beopar Mandals of Palampur, Kangra, Nagrota Bagwan, Jwalamukhi, Pragpur and Dehara Gopipur in separate resolutions today demanded the reopening of the office of Commissioner of Income Tax ( Appeals) at Palampur which was closed by the Income-tax department. This office had jurisdiction on appeal matters over eight districts of the north zone of the state.

Ved Parkash Sharma, president of the Kangra Beopar Mandal, told mediapersons here today that all the Beopar Mandals of the district had passed separate resolutions and faxed the copies to the Finance Minister and Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes, New Delhi, requesting him for his immediate intervention.

He said all branches of Beopar mandals of the district had also urged the CBDT chairman to personally look into the matter and take care of the interest of tax-payers who had been adversely affected by attaching the north zone of the state with CIT (A) Solan. He regretted that appeals filed seven years ago from this region are to be disposed off by the CIT (A) Solan.

Copies of the resolutions which were released to the press said that there was adequate workload on the Commissioner of Income tax (Appeals) Palampur, CBDT should immediately restore this office keeping in view the hardships being faced by the tax-payers who had to visit Solan or Parwanoo to represent their appeal cases.

It may be recalled that earlier Taxation Bar Associations of Kangra, Chamba, Una, Hamirpur and Mandi had also demanded the restoration of the office of CIT (A) at Palampur. A memorandum to this effect was also handed over to the Union Minister for Commerce Anand Sharma during his visit to Kangra and association urged him to take up the matter with Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Chamba, December 25
The members of the district units of the All-India Trade Union Communist (AITUC), Centre for Indian Trade Union (CITU) and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) have demonstrated and sought a dharna at the district headquarters last week to register their protest against the “anti-labour” and “anti-employee” policies of the Union Government on a call given by the Central Trade Union’s coordination committee.

The AITUC vice-president, TR Bhardwaj, CITU district secretary, Sudesh Thakur, and BMS district president, Ramesh Chand Rana, led the demonstration and addressed the gathering at Chamba last week.

Speaking on this occasion, these trade union leaders flayed the Centre for its indifferent attitude toward the labourers and the employees in the country.

They alleged that the Union Government had been working under the pressure of the USA and the capitalists, and taking decisions and formulating policies to favour their interests. In the aftermath of these policies, the labourers and employees were being exploited on a large scale and also getting a raw deal, they lamented.

The main demands of these trade unions included the implementation of prevailing labour laws to protect the interests of labourers and employees, providing them the minimum salary of Rs 10,000 and curbing the dearness besides many other demands related to them, these leaders revealed.

These union leaders have also warned to participate in the nationwide stir planned by the Central Trade Union’s coordination committee scheduled for February 21 and 22 next year, if the Union Government failed to withdraw the anti-labourer and anti-employees policies.

Shimla, December 25
A group of cricket loving Tibetan Buddhist monks, based at Shimla, have expressed their disappointment over Sachin Tendulkar announcing his retirement from the one-day format in international cricket. Most of these monks are the great grandchildren of refugees who migrated from Tibet after China's occupation there.

But being born and brought up in India, they have inherited the 
country's immense love for cricket and adore Tendulkar as their cricketing idol.

On hearing the news, monks from the local Tibetan Buddhist monastery felt that it was too early for Tendulkar to hang up his boots from ODI format of the game.

“We are a bit disappointed that he took retirement so quickly. I believe that he must have taken the right decision as per his own thinking. Now we cannot say that he should be brought back. But we are saying that if he returns to the game then we can hope to see him play again,” said Nawang Jimpa, a young monk, Tibetan monastery, Shimla.

Tendulkar, on Sunday, announced his retirement from one-day cricket, bringing to an end a glorious 23-year-old career in the format during which he rewrote numerous batting records.

“I have decided to retire from the One-Day format of the game. I feel blessed to have fulfilled the dream of being part of a World Cup wining Indian team. The preparatory process to defend the World Cup in 2015 should begin early and in right earnest,” Tendulkar said in a statement released by the BCCI .

“I would like to wish the team all the very best for the future. I am eternally grateful to all my well wishers for their unconditional support and love over the years,” he added.

Tendulkar goes out after amassing 18,426 runs in 463 one-dayers at an average of 44.83. The diminutive right-hander has an astonishing 49 hundreds in the format, including a double hundred, the first in this form of the game. — ANI

Bilaspur, December 25
The Himachal Pradesh State School Lecturers Association has strongly condemned the ‘rationalisation policy’ being implemented by the state Education Department. It has said this ‘anti-people policy’ will be opposed by the association as it will not only abolish thousands of posts of lecturer from present schools but would also make several important subjects like mathematics, economics, chemistry, physics and commerce unavailable at Government Senior Secondary Schools (GSSS), making thousands of students deprived of all opportunities to improve their career prospects.

Talking to mediapersons recently, state president of the association Narottam Thakur, general secretary Rajender Thakur, vice-president Bhupender Thakur, chief adviser Krishan Chand and chief organising secretary Pankaj Sharma said the association had unanimously decided to oppose the policy and it would not accept it in any case as it would destroy the entire educational structure of government schools of the state under the cover of the so-called ‘rationalisation’ while actually it seemed to be a crude and disguised ‘attempt to benefit private schools’.

They said under this policy, out of the total 1,327 GSSSs in state, in which 93 per cent of the two lakh students of 11th and 12th classes are studying, 761 posts of economics lecturers would be abolished, retaining only 566 of these posts.

Similarly in mathematics, 400 posts of present lecturers would be abolished, making it an unimportant subject. Department has given such proposals of abolishing posts in all important subjects in thousands, without suggesting what they would do with the lecturers declared ‘surplus’ under this policy, thus making their careers totally unsafe.

State association decided to start an agitation against this policy and said all school lecturers in the state would wear black badges till the closure of schools for winter break and in the meantime, the association would talk to the new government which would be formed after December 20.

They said if this retrograde policy is not immediately abandoned by the new government, they would have no alternative except to decide the future course of a massive state-wide agitation (which would also be joined in by students and people of state), forcing the government to accept their demand in public interest.

Nurpur, December 25
Nurpur town has witnessed manifold increase in private vehicles during the past one decade, but lack of parking lots in this town has added to the woes of vehicle owners.

Although the local municipal council (MC) has so far developed only one parking lot in ward number four on court road, it is inadequate for parking numerous vehicles.

Owing to congested streets and approach roads to residential areas, it is difficult to drive vehicles near houses. Vehicle owners have been using children parks, roadsides, streets and other public places for parking their vehicles.

However, neither the local administration nor the MC has taken any effective steps for solving the problem.

According to information, about a decade ago, the MC had proposed a parking lot-cum-shopping complex near Hanuman temple on one side of the main market of the town. This proposal had been submitted for financial nod to the Union Urban Development Ministry. But nobody knows the fate of that proposal and nobody had taken up the issue with the department concerned.

Markets of the town are in a dire need of a parking facility. The local ‘beopar mandal’ has attributed the fall in trading activities in the town to the lack of parking facility in markets.

Meanwhile, MC chairperson Krishna Mahajan said the MC would take up the issue of the earlier proposed parking lot-cum-shopping complex with the new government.

Solan, December 25
Dr YS Parmar, Department of Entomology, University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, in collaboration with ICIMOD, Kathmandu, organised a one-day orientation workshop on ‘Beekeeping in Curriculum Developed Under Participatory Approach’.

It was attended by 70 people, including beekeepers from Himachal, Uttrakhand, NGO,s, NABARD bank GM, AGM, BKDO, officials of the State Horticulture Department and scientists of the university.

The Director of Research, Dr RC Sharma, while addressing the gathering said the project was being run in other Hindu Kush regions while the university had undertaken major work under this project in Kullu. He said the vital role which honeybees played in the pollination of a large number of cultivated crops was often underestimated and the main significance of honeybees and beekeeping was pollination and generation of hive products like honey and beeswax was of secondary importance.

The project coordinators, Dr HK Sharma and Dr JP Sharma, Professor and Head, Department of Entomology, elaborated on the works executed under the project and said they had been creating awareness among the beekeepers about the management of honeybees, queen rearing, the role of bees in pollination etc with the participatory approach of beekeepers. A book on “Training of Trainers in Beekeeping” was also released which was developed with the help of scientists and beekeepers.

The chief guest at the workshop, Vice-Chancellor of this university, Dr KR Dhiman, said beekeeping could be adopted as an enterprise by the landless people also. He said beekeeping was becoming an important component of present strategies for sustainable mountain agriculture and integrated rural development programmes.

He informed that at present there were about 16 lakh bee colonies in beehives, maintained by more than 2 lakh beekeepers in India, with estimated annual production of around 65,000-70,000 metric tonnes of honey and provide employment to around 1.75 lakh persons.

Chamba, December 25
The second annual national seminar of the Economic Association of Himachal Pradesh on “Development Paradigm: A Contemporary Perspective” concluded at the local government postgraduate college recently.

The seminar was inaugurated by the Vice-Chancellor of Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, Prof ADN Vajpai.

In his inaugural address, Prof Vajpai emphasised that we must put more stress on ‘swadeshi’ and human capital instead of physical capital. Himachal Pradesh could grow by utilising its resources more wisely. Production by machines was not the ultimate goal of development and we must pay more attention to human capital, Prof Vajpai contended.

Among others who attended the seminar were the Head of Punjab School of Economics, GNDU, Amritsar, Prof Vikram Chadha, Prof Satish Sharma of GNDU, the Executive Member of the Indian Economic Association, Prof NS Bist, the Head of the Department of Economics, Prof Aparna Negi, and Dr Tilak Raj from Panjab University, Chandigarh, and other scholars hailing from different parts of the country.

In his keynote address, the chairperson of the national seminar, Dr ML Sharma, stressed that equitable growth for the nation was the need of the hour.

The seminar coordinator, Dr Shiv Dayal Sharma, in his deliberation said that there was a need to switch over to ‘swadeshi’ technologies, techniques and model instead of adopting western techniques, technologies and model for the development of the nation, thereby maintaining equilibrium among ethics, economy, environment and employment.

The panel discussion was also held and Prof NS Bist, Prof Aparna Negi, Prof Satish Verma, Dr ML Sharma participated and discussed the development paradigm and concluded by advocating that there should be new paradigm of development based on ‘swadeshi’ and based on local needs and they should not rely upon the western model of development.

The seminar concluded with a shame-e-ghazal programme presented by Dr Vidya Sagar Sharma. Photo: A group photo of the participants in the second annual national seminar of the Economic Association of Himachal Pradesh held at Chamba.

Independent India provided ample opportunities of occupational mobility to the people, but Fateh Singh and clan are sticking to the inherited occupation of knife-grinding. As I walked up to him, Fateh Singh was using his hands and feet with deftness to sharpen a knife (see photo). When business world is looking towards value additions; this person is busy providing a minor yet so majorly important service even in the present-day society attuned to use-and-throw culture.

Born in June 1948, Fateh Singh, who missed his graduation by one year due to financial constraints, had started subscribing to the family kitty from 1970 onwards by sharpening knives standing from 11 am to 6 pm at Lower Bazaar (LB) Fire Station (present Delhi Stores).

I found him a satisfied person who felt that his todays were sunnier than yesterdays and he thanked God for giving him enough to comfortably run the kitchen and the household. He is unlike those who have their coffers full but still cry wolf. His only disappointment is that he has to wind up the job when it rains cats and dogs while on drizzles, he works with umbrella or tarpaulin over his head.

He said that he had applied to the government for a suitable space in the bazaar only once in 1981, which did not bring any result. He is not aware of the fact that the government hears but does not listen; sees but does not look. For the government to look and listen, a gruelling struggle is required; otherwise the accepted policy is not to disturb a sleeping person.

“When you do not have any shop or shed with you, where do you keep the machines at night?” I was curious. Fateh Singh had taken a nearby small wooden shed on rent for the purpose which got destroyed in 1996 LB fire burning his machines and material.

After that with little financial help from the government to all fire victims, he got constructed from his share a pathetic-looking shed made of iron sheets (see photo).

His grandfather, Dulara Singh, was at Nahan doing gun-repairing and home-made gun business during the days of Raja Amar Prakash (1911-1933). He, during the Viceroyalty of Lord Irwin (1926-1931), reached Shimla and then settled here adopting what is now their family occupation, sharpening the cutting instruments.

Dulara’s son Kishen Singh was a very pretty, chubby- looking child and had learnt the skill of making keys to locks from the proverbial mother’s womb. He was still in his knickerbockers when a peon had asked him to prepare a key at the residence of an English Sahib for a lock for Rs 10, half of which he would take for getting him the work. Kishen Singh did the job.

Memsahib was highly impressed by the work and the good looks of the child, in most ordinary clothes, fascinated her. She made Sahib pay more than the amount fixed. Kishen, who had seen a 10-rupee note for the first time, did not know how to halve it to share it with the peon.

It was the peon who told him that the note could be encashed for 10 one-rupee coins. Kishen Singh, after that, became the blue-eyed boy of the British officers here. They wanted him to join the General Headquarters, but he preferred doing independent business and continued with the grinder machine. He begot five sons, Fateh, Iqbal and Amarjit, who are in the family business working at LB, while Harbhajan Singh is in the State IPH Department and Avtaar Singh is engaged in business of iron bars.

They purchased a piece of land measuring three biswas (463 square yards) at Engineghar in Sanjauli and the five brothers built a house there by and for themselves. They live together but have separate hearths and lead a fulfilling life. Fateh Singh told me that their entire family followed three-pronged path: “Keep away from all intoxicants; be vegetarians and do honest business. Half earned through honesty is better than full through fraudulence.” And this is his counsel to the youth of today; he also claims with pride that his progeny strictly adheres to these tenets.

Tailpiece
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”. — Abraham Lincoln

Adi Chitra, an exhibition of tribal paintings organised by the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) at the Gaiety Theatre provided a glimpse of the tribal life in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhatisgarh.

The 12-day show (see photo) which will conclude on December 31 was perhaps the first to be held in the state capital. In all over 600 art works were on display and besides paintings some metal craft pieces were also showcased.

The focus was on Saura, Warli and Gond paintings and also the Dokra, the metallic art of hollow casting. Saura, one of the most ancient tribes of Orissa, practised a fascinating art of painting which adorned the walls of homes, is deeply rooted in the religious beliefs, superstitions and rituals to placate the deities. The Gond art is a typical creative form in which the tribals traditionally used brush made of bamboo and make colours from different type of mud. In the 1980s, some Gond artist started painting on paper and the results were astonishing as they use very bright colours and decorated the works with dots and lines.

The Warli tribes of Maharashtra give expression to their creative imagination in brown and white. The background of the canvas is painted brown using cow dung and mud and the painting medium is prepared from rice and fabricol.

The works have their own charm. The Dokra is a metal craft of Chhattisgarh in which artistic grills are made using traditional hollow casting technique.

Kangra, December 25
A blood-donation camp was organised recently on the premises of the Dronacharya College of Education, Rait, in which 31 blood donors donated blood for the needy and ailing patients on the principle of ‘Serve man, serve God’.

The camp was organised by the college management in collaboration with the Rotary Club, Shahpur, Rover Ranger Club, Red Ribbon Club, Women empowerment cell and the Environment Club of the college.

Dr Vandna Sharma of the DRPGMC, Tanda, said on the occasion that donating blood helped to maintain our health on one hand and on the other hand, it provided help to the needy, deserving and ailing patients. She suggested that a healthy person must donate blood to help someone else to live.

Yudvir chand, President Rotary Club, assured the youth that those who were enthusiastic and active blood donors remain vary of most diseases. He said that blood donation was one among the greatest donations one could make.

GS Pathania, Managing Director of the college, said the college was organising regular programmes to create awareness among the masses and particularly among the youth.

Bilaspur, December 25
“There cannot be any donation more virtuous than blood donation, since it’s one of the most indispensable life saving elements.”, said the Deputy Commissioner, Ritesh Chauhan, while acting as the chief guest at the Satya Sai Seva Sangthan function, held at Thakurdwara near Jhandutta, recently. The function was organised to honour the blood donors of district.

Chauhan said that there was no alternative to blood and it’s deficiency could only be supplemented by donating blood to the needy patients, while unavailability of blood could lead to disaster for the life of a needy patients.

He said that all the able-bodied healthy persons, between ages of 18 to 60 could easily donate blood and it would not be harmful or cause any sort of weakness or deficiency in the body of donor. He further said that the process of recovery of blood, in the donor’s body, did not require any special diet, other than what was usually taken by the donor, prior to such a donation. He encouraged all the social and religious organizations to profess such campaigns.

Alongside, Jhandutta Government College Vice-Principal, R. D. Sharma and Sangathan district President, Pyare Lal Janeyoo, addressed the function.

Blood donors, who were honoured by the Deputy Commissioner included Vipin Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Sohan Lal, Prof. Ashwini Chandel, Dr. Vikram Kapil, Dr. Jagvir Chandel, Ravi Kumar, Jai Singh, Kuldip Singh, Rajender Singh, Kashmir Singh, Rakesh Kumar, Ranveer Singh, Anil Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Des Raj, Rakesh Manohar, Avtar Singh, Sanjay Kumar, Roshni Devi, Renu Bala, Shaksh, Kshama Kumari, Madhu Bala, Poonam, Kiran, Usha Nadda, Sanjiv Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Surender Singh, Dr. Kashmir Singh, Vikram Singh, Girdhari Lal, Ravi Kumar, Raj Kumar, Jai Singh, Kuldip Singh, Kishori Lal, Yashwant Singh, Baldev Singh and Suman Kumari etc

Bilaspur, December 25
Led by veteran freedom fighter KL Dabra, a large number of prominent residents, representatives of various political parties and social organisations and panchayati raj institutions paid tributes to prominent freedom fighter and former Civil Supplies Minister late Daulat Ram Sankhyayan, on his 93rd birth anniversary here recently.

The event was held at Swatantarta Senani Park, near the Circuit house.

Leaders also paid tributes and remembered all freedom fighters of the state and Bilaspur district, including late freedom fighters of ‘Praja Mandal Movement’ and the Indian National Army (INA) of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, including Devi Ram Upadhyaya, Kanshi Ram Upadhyaya, Thakur Dass Upadhyaya, Daya Ram Upadhyaya, KL Tadu, Prem Lal Gupta, Dharam Dass Saraf, among others. Later a ‘shradhanjali’ meeting was organised at the Circuit house, which was presided over by Randhir Sharma, MLA. Two minutes’ silence was observed as a mark of respect and gratitude of society towards the martyrs.