Shimla, April 20
The state will switch over from the annual system to the semester system for undergraduate courses from the ensuing academic session. The duration of the semester will be 16 weeks with a minimum of 90 teaching days.

As per the proposal finalised by the Education Department in consultation with the Himachal Pradesh University, admission for the first batch under the new system will begin from June 10 and classes will start from June 21.

The new system will be introduced for first-year students in the arts, science and commerce streams. Second-year and third-year students will pass out under the old system.

There will be no reappear or compartment examination. Those who fail to clear any subject in the first semester will get an opportunity to clear it in the third semester.

A choice-based and credit-based grading system with credits for various courses on the pattern of the Central University will be followed. Students will have flexibility and a wider choice of subjects across various streams.

The task of framing the curriculum and other examination-related matter is being carried out by the university. An interactive meeting involving officials with the department, the university and various colleges will be held on April 29.

Decisions on issues like internal assessment, vacation schedule and implementation of the Rashtriya Ucchttar Shiksha Abhiyan will be taken after detailed discussions during the conference of college principals here on April 30.

Issues like a complete delink between postgraduate programmes of the university and undergraduate programmes at affiliated colleges, particularly lack of concern to improve the quality of education, will be discussed.

With the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development proposing a four-year undergraduate programme, the idea to have a separate board of examination for undergraduate courses to lessen the burden of the university will come up.

Solan, April 20
With little concern for the environment, the alignment carved out by the Public Works Department (PWD) to construct the Parwanoo-Gadhiyar road has led to heaps of debris flowing into the Kaushalya.

The PWD has allowed the construction and has failed to seek permission from the Pollution Control Board to dispose of the debris in an environment-friendly manner.

The debris is visible from the National Highway 22 which is parallel to this road. The construction of this road began in September last by using excavators and carrying out blasting. This led to a huge amount of debris flowing into the river.

The Pollution Control Board failed to take note of damage in time. A notice was issued recently directing the PWD to stop work and ensure safe debris disposal.

The road alignment is partly through hard rock and partly through a sliding zone. The slope varies from steep to precipitous on government land and moderate on private land.

The Forest Department had imposed a penalty of Rs 27,99,788 on the PWD, but had fail to undo environmental damage. The PWD had failed to maintain a majority of roads in the Kasauli subdivision.

The Bhojnagar-Kamli, Kasauli-Jangeshu-Parwanoo, Patta Mehlog-Band-Chamiya, Kasauli-Jagjitnagar and Kumarhatti-Sultanpur link roads lack maintenance with officials quoting paucity of funds as the reason.

With the Executive Engineer with the PWD having obtained a stay on his transfer, the work of the department has been suffering, thereby adding to the delay in undertaking precautionary measures.

Pollution Control Board Executive Engineer Deepak Aggrawal confirmed that a notice had been issued to the PWD following the unscientific dumping of debris.

Shimla, April 20
The government will reexamine the issue of filling on a regular basis posts of prosecutor and consider winter and summer vacations on the pattern of subordinate judicial officers.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said this while presiding over the annual conference of the State Attorneys Association here last evening. He said prosecutors had been playing a vital and increasing role in the justice delivery system.

He added that there used to be a few prosecutors who used to take care of only criminal cases when the prosecution department had been set up four decades ago.

He said assistant public prosecutors and public prosecutors had subsequently been designated as attorneys and they had started looking after civil and revenue work as well.

Virbhadra Singh said officers with the department had also been efficiently looking after litigation work and had also been posted with various departments.

He said the responsibilities of prosecutors, attorneys and law officers had increased and they needed to keep abreast of latest amendments in the law and latest verdicts of courts.

He said about 50 per cent of the officers had been provided laptops and law software and the rest of the officers would be provided those in a phased manner.

The Chief Minister said the conviction rate in Himachal Pradesh was higher compared to other states due to sincere efforts and hard work of attorneys.

He added that there was scope for improvement and the conviction rate should be more than 70 per cent in cases of heinous crime to have a deterrent effect on wrongdoers.

He said the government had been providing basic facilities to prosecutors and necessary measures were being taken to provide official accommodation to them.

He said a budgetary provision of Rs 2.1 crore had been made this fiscal year for the construction of attorney offices at 15 places which was in progress.

Bilaspur, April 20
Krishan of Haryana lifted the coveted Bharat Kesari Trophy in wrestling after defeating Abdul Ghani of Chamba in the final bout of the third Jai Lakhdata Peer Maha Dangal at Chehad near Ghumarwin, 27 km from here, on Friday.

He was given a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and a Bhim “gada” (Malli Gurj-silver mace) by chief guest Additional Magistrate Pradip Thakur. The runner-up of the competition was given a cash prize of Rs 75,000 and a “gaagar” (pitcher of brass) in front of a huge gathering of enthusiasts drawn from several parts of Bilaspur and adjoining Mandi and Hamirpur districts.

The Himachal Kesari title was won by Sandip of Delhi, as he downed Vishal of Khanna, Punjab. Sandip got “Malli Gurj” and a cash prize of Rs 31,000 and Vishal got a “gaagar” and a cash prize of Rs 25,000.

Kargil War hero and Param Vir Chakra winner Sanjay Kumar of Bakain village near Kalol in the district and philanthropist KK Kashyap of the area were special guests of honour. A large number of prominent leaders of the Congress and the BJP were also present on the occasion. Kashyap announced to sponsor studies of 10 poor students of area.

President of the nagar parishad Reeta Sehgal, Block Congress president Nand Lal Sharma, former MLA Tilak Raj Sharma, Dangal committee president Hariya Ram, general secretary Kamal Thakur and treasurers Jogender Singh and Vinod Soni, former BJP block president Krishan Singh Thakur and promient BJP leaders Vikram Sharma and Prakash Chand Pajyala were also present.

Bilaspur, April 20
The government is aware of problems of forest officials, including the field staff, and those will be solved at the earliest. This was stated by Chief Parliamentary Secretary for Forests and Fisheries Rajesh Dharmani last evening.

He was addressing a joint conference of staff with the Bilaspur forest division and members of the Forest Employees Association as the chief guest at Ghumarwin in the district.

Dharmani assured the employees that he would apprise the Chief Minister of their problems. He agreed that they should get mobile allowance the year round and fire bonus as well.

He said 205 posts of forest guard would be filled soon to bring to an end paucity of field staff. He said forests were the most precious wealth of the nation and precious heritage.

Dharmani expressed concern that several forests had been losing worth due to fires in summer. He urged them to ensure that no fire was lit near any forest and take the help of villagers to control fire at the earliest.

Conservator of Forests Anil Thakur said the employees had been performing their duty well whenever a leopard struck in an inhabited area.

Divisional Forest Officer DR Kaushal said seminars had been organised to mobilise employees and villagers against forest fires in various areas of the division.

Forest Employees Association president Kamal Kishore and general secretary Prem Singh Patial, Madan Sharma, Rattan Lal, Krishan Lal and Som Prakash were present.

Sundernagar, April 20
Former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today said though the Congress government in the state had completed 115 days of its term, it had not done anything which could be termed as its achievement.

Addressing mediapersons in the Balh Assembly segment, he said the Congress government was only busy in transferring employees in the past three months. Congress leaders were trying to settle scores with BJP workers by transferring their relatives. When the transferred employees tried to know the reasons of transfers, the Congressmen denied their involvement in the transfers.

He claimed that some of the employees were transferred even six times within the past three months.The public was fed up with the Congress. The BJP would form the next government at the Centre, he added.

He criticised the Congress that it had changed the names of schemes and institutions in the state which were named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

He said if the practice of changing names of the institutions was not stopped by the ruling government then the BJP, after coming to power, would change the name of Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, to Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical College.

Earlier in the day, the former CM received a warm welcome by the BJP workers at Slapper on the border of Mandi district. The workers of the Nachan and Balh Assembly segments also welcomed him at Dhanotu and Narchowk. He was accompanied by BJP leaders of two newly created districts, Sundernagar and Mandi.

Hamirpur, April 20
Leaders in the Surinder Mankotia group of the Himachal Pradesh State Non-Gazetted Services Federation have claimed that their group is in a majority and they are ready to face elections any time.

Addressing the state general body of the NGO federation here today, state unit president Mankotia refuted allegations of other groups. “Attendance has proved that the majority are with us,” he claimed.

“Leaders of most unions are present. We have a one-year term left, but are ready to face elections any time. The process for elections to the state body is being delayed due to a court order,” he added.

Other speakers charged certain leaders with vested interests and trying to mislead employees. They demanded immediate convening of Joint Consultative Committee meetings at the state and district level.

The federation thanked the state government for allotting it a room at the Secretariat in Shimla. Several leaders from various districts expressed their views during the general body.

Dalhaousie, April 20
As many as 80,000 pilgrims from far-flung areas of Chamba district paid obeisance at the Bhadrakali Bhalei Mata shrine, near here, during the Navaratras. Bhadrakali Bhalei Mata Temple Committee president Kamal Thakur said the committee had decided to organise a jagran on April 28. Singer Kavita Paudwal would perform at the jagran.

“Dalhousie MLA Asha Kumari has been invited to grace the occasion,” Kamal said. He said the work of a rain shelter, costing Rs 14 lakh, to cover the entire courtyard of the temple had been completed.

Palampur, April 20
State Agriculture Minister Sujan Singh Pathania has exhorted the farming community to take full advantage of various government schemes to increase their production. He was addressing farmers, scientists and farm officers after inaugurating a two-day state-level Kisan Mela and Progressive Farmers Meet-2013, jointly organised by CSK HP Agriculture University and the State Department of Agriculture, here today.

The minister said with an increase in demand and cost of food products, there was a need to increase investment in agriculture.

He said Rs 369 crore earmarked for the development of the agriculture sector in the current financial year. He also detailed schemes for farm mechanisation, poly-house cultivation, subsidies on maize, paddy and seeds to the tune of 50 per cent, and steps to increase area under organic farming etc.

Dr SK Sharma, Vice-Chancellor of the host university, elaborated about academic, research and extension programmes of the university. He assured the minister that efforts would be made to transfer the new farm technology to the farmers.

Dr JC Rana, Director of Agriculture, HP, cautioned the farmers and scientists about new threats like climate change, decreasing farm land, crop damage by wild animals, etc.

Dr KK Katoch, Director, Extension Education, said the university was taking steps for food and nutritional security and poverty elimination by transferring useful knowledge and technology through various modes of communication.

Dr PK Sharma, Dean, College of Agriculture, also expressed his views.

Earlier, the minister visited a mega farm exhibition organised by the university and Department of Agriculture. He also released ‘University Anthem’ written by Dr Hirday Paul Singh, Joint Director (Inormation and Public Relations) and some books authored by the scientists.

Jagjivan Pal and Kishori Lal, MLAs from Sulah and Baijnath constituency respectively, and Dr Gurdev Singh, Director of Horticulture, also attended the inaugural ceremony of the mela.

Chamba, April 20
To keep a close watch on anti-social elements in Chamba, District Magistrate (DM) Kadam Sandeep Vasant issued orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) as emergency measures here today. The orders will be in force till June 15.

Announcing these orders, the District Magistrate stated that people were coming to Chamba district to earn their livelihood by engaging themselves in trading services by doing the work of shawl vendors, pheriwalas, cobblers, repairers of utensils etc and offering contract labour services in hydroelectric projects. This had reportedly increased the crime rate in the district.

In his orders, Vasant directed the law-enforcing agencies that no employer, contractor and trader could engage any migrant labourer in petty non-formal job or service or contract labour unless and until such a migrant labourer had furnished his particulars, along with a passport-size photograph, to the Station House Officer (SHO) concerned for identification and verification of his antecedents.

“No such person visiting the district can engage himself in any kind of self-employment or seek employment in non-formal trades or services without informing his intention to this effect to the SHO concerned,” the DM said.

The District Magistrate warned that any violation of the orders would lead to stringent punitive action under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code.

He also directed the Superintendent of Police to submit a report of the persons recorded at different police stations during this period so that persons having a criminal record could be kept under surveillance and the movement of anti-social elements restricted as a preventive measure.

Shimla, April 20
Tarun Shridhar, an IAS officer of the 1984 batch, has been appointed as Principal Secretary, Horticulture and Fisheries, on his return from Central deputation, relieving Dr PC Kapoor of the additional charge.

Seven state administrative service officers have also been shifted. Hans Raj Chauhan, Settlement Officer, Kangra Division, Dharamsala, has been posted as Managing Director, Kangra Central Cooperative Bank, relieving the Kangra Deputy Commissioner of the additional charge.

Ranveer Singh Rana, Additional Deputy Commissioner,DRDA, Chamba, takes over as Settlement Officer, Kangra Division, while Deva Singh Negi, Additional Director, Urban Development, becomes Director, Land Records, Shimla, relieving Dhruv Vashist of the additional charge.

Sandeep Kumar, awaiting posting, takes over as Additional Deputy Commissioner, DRDA, Chamba, and DC Rana, on his return from foreign training, takes over as Project Director, Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan,

Ashwani Ramesh, Project Director, Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan, has been posted as Joint Director, Higher Education, relieving Ashish Kohli of the additional charge. Sanjeev Kumar, Sub Divisional Officer (Civil), Pangi, Chamba, takes over as Regional Transport Officer, Hamirpur.