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Tourist information centre hangs fire
Ghuggar Nullah road under repair for past 3 years
capt saurabh kalia case |
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killing of rabbits
Need for quick, impartial action in domestic violence cases, says lawyer
Ghumarwin town, villages lack drinking water
Inter-school tech quiz held in Dalhousie
Trekkers made aware of laws protecting women
Butail opens blood donation camp
Industries hire youth from other states
SECURITY FOR MATCHES HELD AT DHARAMSALA
MLA for probe into corruption charges
Rai school lift IPSC girls’ basketball trophy
vignettes
Himachal diary
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Tourist information centre hangs fire
Palampur, June 18 The state government in the first phase had also allocated Rs 10 lakh for the centre. In the absence of political and administrative will, the construction of the building could not be taken up in the past four years. Sources said Sharma wanted to shift the site of the tourist information centre near Rotary Bhawan in the heart of the town which was not acceptable to the local municipal council. Thakur Balwant Singh, president of the council, was in favour of setting up of the centre on the NH at the entry point of the town. Because of the tussle between the MLA and the council, the construction was not taken up. Later, the state government cancelled the
project and directed the council to surrender the funds given to it. Meanwhile, Brij Bihari Lal Butail, Speaker of the state Assembly and local MLA, said he was making efforts to revive the project and had requested the government to release the funds. He said he had already approved the site for the project. If the funds were released, the centre would come up within a year, he said. He held the previous BJP government responsible for the delay, saying it was not interested in the development of the town.
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Ghuggar Nullah road under repair for past 3 years
Palampur, June 18
The road has been under repair for the past three years. It is one of the busiest roads of the town which leads to residential areas, ancient Nala mandir and the lone cremation ground in five panchayats. Despite repeated requests to officials of the Public Works Department, neither the drainage system has been improved nor the damaged stretch of the road has been repaired. Overflowing of the drains has aggravated the situation. Senior officials of the Public Works Department and local leaders are well-conversant with the situation, but seem incapable to initiate action. Sources said the PWD had already spent over Rs 10 lakh on the road in 2010-11. In the absence of a proper drainage system, the road was washed away in the first pre-monsoon showers. Brij Bihari Lal Butail, local MLA and Speaker of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly, says he has given three months to the Public Works Department to overhaul the road. Rajya Sabha member Shanta Kumar had also given funds for the construction of the road and strengthening of the drainage system. Nobody knew in the Public Works Department where this money was spent. KB Ralhan, spokesman for the Palampur Welfare Forum, alleged that the Public Works Department was not serious in repairing the road despite having funds.
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‘India needs to exert pressure on Pak’
Kangra, June 18 The Government of India should exert pressure on Pakistan for the possibility of a positive outcome, he said. He said the issue would be confined to the flies of either the Union External Affairs Ministry or in the PMO. — OC
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Tanda medical college asks Maneka Gandhi to name complainants
Ashok Raina
Kangra, June 18 The rabbits were killed for animal experimentation in the college during the teaching of postgraduate students recently. The MP raised the issue on the complaint of six students of the Pharmacology Department at the college. The college authorities have asked PETA activist Dr Chetaniya Koduria and Maneka Gandhi to divulge the names of the complainants. Dr Kansal in a letter to Dr Koduria and Gandhi rebutted the allegation and termed it as an undue harassment of DRPGMC doctors. He said, "No rabbit has been killed in our department to this day and there are four MD students in our department and not six. Even after repeated requests to name the complainants, our request was not heeded by the activists, thus the authenticity of the complaint cannot be established”. He said for MD (Pharmacology) students, the experimental pharmacology syllabus was clearly defined by the Medical Council of India (MCI) and Himachal Pradesh University. Dr Kansal made it clear to both the activists that they intended to use animals for research purposes after going through syllabi recommended by the MCI and other recognised universities and institutions and they abide by the guidelines of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. The college authorities asked Maneka to take up the issue with the MCI and the universities concerned to avoid any animal killings in the medical colleges for experiments, before hitting at the college authorities on baseless complaints. Dr Chauhan said appropriate action might be taken against the college authorities if found involved in animal killing at any point of time.
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Need for quick, impartial action in domestic violence cases, says lawyer
Bilaspur, June 18 This was said by HP High Court senior advocate Trisha Sharma while speaking about legal provisions and protection in cases of domestic violence on the closing function of the two-day seminar, organised by the District Legal Services Authority here recently. Sharma said violence like these could be of physical, mental and even economic nature and it was the duty of the police to take immediate and impartial action to provide justice to victims. She said the main cause for domestic violence emanates from the families having soured relationships of daughter-in-law with her in-laws. Lack of trust and coordination between couples were also one of the reasons for the same. She said a family should treat its daughter-in-law as their new daughter and give her love and respect, which would help in curbing such social evils. Assistant Commissioner Prabha Rajiv and Additional Superintendent of Police Vinod Sharma also addressed the seminar. District and Sessions Judge Rajiv Bhardwaj, Chief Judicial Magistrate Aman Sood and Civil Judge Gurmeet Kaur and advocates, police officials and leaders of NGOs were among those others present.
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Ghumarwin town, villages lack drinking water
Bilaspur, June 18 Senior lawyers and prominent residents of the town have expressed strong resentment against this “mismanagement and carelessness” on the part of the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department that has failed to maintain a regular and clean drinking water supply in this small town. They said the drinking water had been lifted from the nearby Seer khud where pumps often go out of order due to accumulated silt because of floods or heavy rains. This cripples the entire supply to town and adjoining areas. They expressed surprise that though this had happened several times earlier, yet the department had never bothered to solve the problem so that uncertainty could end. There is no proper filtration of drinking water as filtration beds were not properly maintained and there was every possibility of water pollution spreading diseases particularly during summer and rainy seasons. The residents urged the Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Rajesh Dharmani, to take immediate steps to ensure clean and regular drinking water supply to the town and adjoining villages like Ballu, Takrehada, Kularu, Rachheda, Tarontada and Dhatoh .
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Inter-school tech quiz held in Dalhousie
Dalhousie, June 18 The event provided intellectual platform for the students of different schools to interact with each other. Besides the students of the host school, students from Dalhousie Public School, Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School and Air Force School, Pathankot, participated in the contest. The students of Hill Top School stood first, followed by Sacred Heart School and the Dalhousie Public School respectively. Dr Dalwinder Singh gave away prizes to the winners. He said such quiz competitions helped in enhancing the technical skills of the students. — OC
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Trekkers made aware of laws protecting women
Dalhousie, June 18
Speaking on the topic, ‘Judicial Edifice - Protective Umbrella or Legal Cinderella’, she highlighted various remedies available in the Constitution of India, Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Evidence Act to combat crimes against women. Besides these, there are specific rights available to female victims, as ruled by the Supreme Court of India, through its landmark judgments from time to time, Madhuri added. “A cursory look at the protective and punitive provisions against atrocities on women leads us to believe that our judicial system requires better attention, especially in implementation. But going by the increasing rate and horrendousness of crime against women, like the gruesome attack on 23-year-old ‘Damini’ in New Delhi on December 16 last year, we are compelled to state that our rape laws are only paper tigers”, she said. The real challenges come from persistent government apathy, bigoted mind-sets, half-hearted police measures, disproportionate punishments and muscle power of the goons, she said. Despite guidelines and judgments of the Apex Court of India from time to time, like establishment of criminal injuries compensation board, nothing tangible has been seen and felt till date, said Madhuri. Lest public anger should go waste, Madhuri exhorted the female campers to spread awareness among the female kind about their basic rights. “The girls must stand up on their feet, learn self-defence methods like karate, keep their ears, eyes and mouths open, raise alarm at the slightest danger and above all, start a crusade against the monstrous ogres in human form by holding aloft the revolutionary flag hoisted by Justice JS Verma in the form of latest amendments in the criminal law”, she said. Expressing thanks to the gathering, the university’s youth welfare director, Dr Jagjit Kaur lauded the presentation of Madhuri Sharma.
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Butail opens blood donation camp
Palampur, June 18 Butail dedicated an ambulance, blood donor couch and blood storage refrigerator, donated by the Rotarians to the Blood Bank Society. — OC
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Industries hire youth from other states
Solan, June 18 Though the state has drawn an investment of Rs 13,500 crore after the grant of the industrial package in 2003, the number of youth employed in the industries was barely a few thousands. During the last five years, 3,835 industrial units were set up and during the same period, 215 closed. The total investment was Rs 428 crore and 18,511 persons got employment. This was in indication about the gap existing in the required skills and their availability. Though the investors were suppose to recruit 70 per cent Himachali youth and it had been made a mandatory condition, its adherence appears to be limited. According to the latest figures of unemployed youth registered with various employment exchanges in the state, there were as many as 8,39,007 youth falling in this category with a It was observed that the unit managements generally retained the biodata of Himachali youth who turn up for various interviews and these are produced before the authorities when inquires are conducted regarding the 70 per cent employment that is supposed to be made. At times, interviews are held and advertisements are issued as eyewash while clearly denying local residents an opportunity to get jobs. Though there are some skills which are absent in the local youth like textile engineers and pharmaceutical machine operators, even pharmacy graduates, MBAs and engineers fail to find good jobs in the industries and the top managements of majority of the units were dominated by outsiders. Labour Commissioner Nandita Gupta said they would soon prepare a database of skills which were lacking in the local youth so that steps could be taken to train them and enhance their employability. She said various departments like the Tourism and the Himachal Roadways Transport Corporation had been asked by the state government to work out skill training programmes that could help provide employment to the youth as it was found that youngsters below Class XII level lacked skills for employment and they contributed a large chunk of the unemployed youth. Monthly job fairs would be organised in districts and another one was being held at Dharamsala on June 13. The youth registered in specific trades would be informed about the same through the short message services, she added.
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SECURITY FOR MATCHES HELD AT DHARAMSALA Kuldeep Chauhan Tribune News Service
Mandi, June 18 The RTI activist claimed that during the recent Vidhan Sabha elections, Virbhadra Singh had said that the Congress would order the recovery of entire pending bills from the IPL authorities for providing security to them. Even after six months, when Virbhadra Singh is the Chief Minister, the government has taken no steps to recover the security charges from the IPL organisers. Bhattacharya, in a written communication to The Tribune, claimed that on March 29 he had sought information from the Home Department whether the government had issued directions to the IPL matches organisers, but the answer was in the negative. Vijay Kumar, PIO-cum-Deputy Secretary, Home, informed Bhattacharya vide letter no. Home(A)F(10)-1/2013 dated June 12 that the home department had not received any direction from any quarter on the issue, he claimed citing the RTI information. The matches were held at the HPCA stadium at Dharamsala, he added. Bhattacharya claimed that the Chief Minister must fulfil the promise made to the people and use the funds for the welfare of the people. He cited the example of Kolkata. "Jagmohan Dalmiya remained the BCCI chairperson for a long time and now also he is heading it. But the Kolkata police and the municipality charged the BCCI/IPL authorities for all official expenses, he claimed. He stated that the government should issued directions to the Indian Premier League organisers so that money due from them was recovered.
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MLA for probe into corruption charges
Bilaspur, June 18 Talking to mediapersons at Circuit House here recently, the MLA said that such malpractices affected the image of the Congress government and his own. The cops concerned were openly declaring that the money “goes to the top”. He asked if it was a mere coincidence that out of the 7,000 traffic challans issued during the past five months here in the district from January 31, 5,000 of these were issued in his Bilaspur Sadar constituency, out of which 4,000 were issued in Bilaspur town alone . Other three constituencies also have vehicles more than Bilaspur Sadar but only 2,000 challans came to their share. He asked the Superintendent of Police to either take immediate action against the erring officials or explain who were at the top who were gaining from this "open loot of public". Bambar said that his pro-people approach to solve problems was not being liked by some local politicians and they had ganged up to mar his image.
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Rai school lift IPSC girls’ basketball trophy
Dagshai, June 18 As many as nine teams, including DPS, RK Puram, New Delhi, who had won the tournament last year, and Mayo Girls’ School, Ajmer, who had emerged runner-up in 2012, also took part in the tournament, which was played on a league-cum-knockout basis. In the final, Moti Lal Nehru Sports’ School, Rai, defeated Pine Grove School, Subathu, 45 - 42 in a nail-biting finish where the winning basket was scored barely 10 seconds before the final whistle. Pine Grove eves dominated the match and gave their counterparts a tough time and it was only in the last quarter that Vidhi Kundu of MLNS School, Rai, managed to pierce through the strong defence of the opponent team to score and take the match away from the Pinegrove eves which had been leading throughout the match. Vidhi Kundu from Moti Lal Nehru Sports’ School, Rai, Sonepat, was adjudged the best player of the tournament. She scored 33 points in the final match. In the semifinal, Motilal Nehru Sports School, Rai, outperformed Yadavindra Public School, Mohali, by 53 - 24 points. The highlight of the match was the individual performance of Vidhi from Moti Lal Nehru Sports School, Rai. In another match, Pine Grove School, Sabathu, defeated last year’s champion DPS, RK Puram by 28-22 points. For the third position, DPS, RK Puram, defeated Yadavindra Public School, Mohali by 32 - 16 points. In the final, Moti Lal Nehru Sports’ School, Rai, defeated Pine Grove School, Sabathu, score being 45-42. Dr Vijay Datta, Principal, Army Public School, welcomed Capt (retd) VK Verma, principal and director, Moti Lal Nehru Sports School, Rai, who gave away prizes to winners. Capt Verma also announced the IPSC team from among the participating teams for the School Games Federation of India to be held later this year.
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After Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh is smoke-free
by Shriniwas Joshi
It was done in the presence of hundreds of people whom the Deputy Commissioner referred to as ‘representative population from all walks of life of Shimla’ - Mahila Mandals, Panchayats, students, teachers, shopkeepers, big businesses, universities, police, administration, doctors and officials (see photo). Shimla town was declared smoke-free on October 2, 2010, thus attaining the rank of being the second town in India after Chandigarh to go off-smoke.
Moreover, you have a tool, COTPA, in your hand, which you can use to ask a person to stop smoking if he happened to do so in a restaurant. The international standards lay down that a place can be declared smoke-free if 80 per cent compliance of each of the prescribed five indicators is there. The five indicators are percentages of display of no-smoking signage, no evidence of active smoking, no evidence of smoking aids like presence of ash-trays, lighters, matchboxes etc, no evidence of recent smoking, no evidence of availability of cigarette or bidi butts. Shimla district has secured 83.80, 97.06, 93.87, 97.40 and 88.75 percentages respectively in these indicators. An overall percentage of 92.17 places the district at second place after Bilaspur that has scored 92.74 per cent; Mandi with 91.23 per cent is at the third place. The percentage compliance of entire Himachal Pradesh is 85.42 and none of the districts has scored less than 80 and so the entire state can be termed as smoke-free. The Deputy Commissioners of all the districts except Kinnaur have signed the Smoke-free Declaration Forms for their districts. Kinnaur, due to exigencies of its own, could not do so but would soon join the bandwagon. The compliance survey, the results of which have made Himachal Pradesh a smoke-free state, was conducted by the teams of the Department of Community Medicine of Indira Gandhi Medical Education College and the Population Research Centre of Himachal Pradesh University. My worry is that Kangra, Chamba and Hamirpur are sitting on fence with scores of 80.17, 80.30 and 80.86 respectively and may slip down if the tempo against smoking that has developed in the districts is not sustained. It may not prove a point that literacy and smoking or slant for intoxicants has no co-relation because Hamirpur is our most literate district and is dangling on the eighties only. It, however, definitely proves that the implementation of COTPA in these districts is lax. COTPA became an Act in 2003 and its rules were finalised, after several changes, on October 2, 2008. The Act, de-facto, came into practice on that date. After three years of its implementation, a voluntary organisation, Himachal Pradesh Voluntary Health Association (HPVHA), the State Chapter of the Voluntary Health Association of India, conducted a base-line survey in 2011 to assess the progress made in Himachal Pradesh. It was dismal. HPVHA and the State Health and Family Welfare Department then joined hands and worked so well in tandem that the result is here when the entire State of Himachal Pradesh can boast of being smoke-free after Sikkim. No doubt, man can move the mountains if he wills to do so.
Tailpiece
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Visual representation of states by cultural ambassadors
Works of nine artists from across the country with different styles and working in varied mediums are on display at an exhibition organised at the Gaiety Theatre by Kalangan, a body formed by artists. Entitled as “Spandan” (vibration), the exhibition indeed brought alive the historic premises with vibrant colours and provided a glimpse of the cultural heritage of the region from which the artists came from. While the works of artists like Ramesh Nambiar from Kerela presented a realistic view of nature and a splendid landscape, Lalit Bhattacharya from Jaipur provided a glimpse of pre-historic rock paintings and Balram Verma from Kanpur brought alive the vivaciousness of the ghats of Banaras. Another artist, Mani Bhardwaj, from Jaipur created landscape and various compositions in a collage using paper cuttings. Yogita Dahiya from Haryana used oil and acrylic mediums to highlight various styles of “hairdo’s" of women and Deepika Khandpal from Rohtak focused on birds. Prashant Tripathi from Uttar Pradesh came out with a colourful series on Radha and Krishan and Pankaj from Rajasthan created a beautiful effect of water colours using acrylic medium in his works. An entirely new area of digital art was presented by Abhilasha from Udaipur. It is an emerging field and it was for the first time that digital art works were displayed alongside conventional art at an exhibition in the city. Chairperson of the Visual Arts Department of Himachal Pradesh University Him Chatterji, who was the chief guest, said that these artists were the cultural 'Shamed' cricket bodies The Himachal Lokhit Party, the breakaway BJP group, has ostensibly adopted a neutral posture in the Mandi Lok Sabha bypoll and will not support the Congress or the BJP. However, its policy to continue exposing the misdeeds and corruption of the BJP during electioneering is causing much embarrassment to the BJP and helping the cause of the Congress. The HLP has been more acerbic in attacking the BJP on the issue of Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, which is headed by the former Chief Minister PK Dhumal’s son, Anurag Thakur, who is also the national president of the youth wing of the BJP. K. Ram Balnatah and other leaders of HLP have held a series of press conferences terming the five-star hotel built by the cricket body at Dharamsala a scam and a security threat in view of the disclosures of underworld links in the IPL spot-fixing scandal. It had demanded takeover of the hotel and asked senior BJP leaders like Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley why they were still glued with the 'shamed' cricket bodies? Rural technological needs The National Institute of Technology (NIT), Hamirpur, has become one of the two NITs in the country, where a Rural Technology Action Group (RUTAG) Centre has been established. Set up recently, the centre was inaugurated by Dr R Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser in Prime Minister’s Office. The Centre will act as the nodal centre for upgrading rural technological needs and help people in finding solutions to their practical problems through innovations and upgrading their traditional techniques. Defining the main objective of establishing the Centre, Dr Chidambaram said, “Through RUTAG, we want to link rural technological needs with global innovations for upgrading rural technology.” Hamirpur NIT has already established links with several voluntary organisations (NGOs) in the state to identify problems at the grassroots level. The NIT, Director, Dr Rajneesh Shrivastava, has assured to help rural people of the state in upgrading specific rural technology through scientific knowledge, which several Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are already doing in the country. (Contributed by Rakesh Lohumi and DP Gupta)
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A tourist information centre proposed for the town is yet to come up as successive governments have failed to provide land for the same.
The foundation stone for the centre was laid in August 2009 by then BJP MLA Praveen Sharma on the Pathankot-Mandi national highway near the local bus stand. 
Works of nine artists from across the country with different styles and working in varied mediums are on display at an exhibition organised at the Gaiety Theatre by
Kalangan, a body formed by artists. Entitled as “Spandan” (vibration), the exhibition indeed brought alive the historic premises with vibrant colours and provided a glimpse of the cultural heritage of the region from which the artists came from. While the works of artists like Ramesh Nambiar from Kerela presented a realistic view of nature and a splendid landscape, Lalit Bhattacharya from Jaipur provided a glimpse of pre-historic rock paintings and Balram Verma from Kanpur brought alive the vivaciousness of the ghats of
Banaras.
The 14th of June was the day that wrote history in the hills of Shimla district. The Deputy Commissioner, Dinesh Malhotra, declared the district smoke-free under Section 4 of COTPA (The Cigarette and other Tobacco Product Act) by signing a prescribed Declaration Form (see photo).
I will have to dig more on the expression ‘smoke-free’ because I see people laughing in their cuffs when I say that such and such town or district is smoke-free. It means that there is no smoking in public places, work places, bus-stands, railway stations, rain-shelters, toilets, hotels, restaurants and the public conveyance. The Act does not bind a person who smokes at home or in a place not declared public. If a person goes to an open ground or to a street and smokes where there are isolated wanderers, he does not break any provision of the Act; but if a fair is held in that open ground and people in hundreds or thousands assemble there, it automatically becomes a public place and a smoker then commits an offence, if he smokes there.