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Restore roads within fortnight: Virbhadra
Over 200 families need immediate rehabilitation
A truck stuck in boulders after a landslide in Kinnaur on Friday.
Shoolini fair begins
Congress banks on development card
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BJP to challenge sanction for CUHP campus site
Indrunag hill in Dharamsala. Photo: Kamaljeet
Polling date postponed to June 27 in Kinnaur
Computer teachers seek policy on Punjab pattern
Tunnel to link Bharmour, Kangra underway: Minister
5,809 solar lights sanctioned for Hamirpur dist
Poll staff leaves for their destinations in Bharmour
Govt failed to provide relief to victims in Kinnaur: Dhumal
Case mgmt info system goes hi-tech
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Restore roads within fortnight: Virbhadra
Shimla, June 21 Virbhadra Singh spent the day visiting affected areas and interacted with officials and victims at Nako, Reckong Peo, Pooh and Gyabang. He told officials to seek assistance from private companies engaged in constructing power projects, if required, to ensure early restoration of roads. He directed Horticulture, Revenue and Agriculture Departments to send teams to every village for spot assessment of loss so that compensation could be provided to persons affected without delay. He said the matter of financial assistance would be taken up with the Centre. He said focus should be on evacuating stranded persons by ensuring the maximum number of sorties. He said about 60 persons from Tabo stuck at Pooh should be airlifted on a priority. A total of 176 stranded persons were airlifted today, taking the total persons evacuated to 755. A total of 106 persons, including 16 foreigners, were evacuated from Sangla and 70 persons from Reckong-Peo and Pooh. Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha president Anurag Thakur visited Tapri and other affected areas and met victims. CM's visit, victims' boon
Virbhadra Singh's visit proved a boon for two local boys, Thupten Negi and Hamish, who were stuck at Pooh due to landslides and had given up hope of making it to Chandigarh on Sunday for appearing in an examination. They met the Chief Minister and sought his help. He told them to board his chopper. They were dropped at Reckog Peo from where they were sent in another chopper to Rampur Bushahr. Medical student Malvika, who had to reach Shimla for counselling, was told to board the Chief Minister's chopper as well. The Chief Minister directed the administration to ensure that 18 foreigners, including 14 bikers, who were stranded at Nako, were airlifted in time so that they could take their scheduled flights from New Delhi on Sunday. The met him while he was interacting with the affected. |
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Over 200 families need immediate rehabilitation
Mandi/Reckong Peo, June 21 The fate of 12 shepherds and 12 members of the rescue team from Ropa is not known for the last five days. Relief operations have not reached Pooh subdivision, which has been cut off for seven days. “Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Airtel have not activated networks while water and electricity supply has yet to be restored,” said Panun Negi, a local resident. The Public Works Deprtment did not have machinery on standby to restore link roads. Ninety per cent apple orchards had been affected in Pooh subdivision which was under two feet of snow, said residents. Over 1,000 labourers stranded in Pooh and Moorang had started their journey to Reckong Peo in search of food, shelter and employment. An aerial recce by a team led by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today reestablished its link with the people, living without electricity, communication and road connectivity since Saturday. Only tourists were being evacuated in relief operations carried out in Air Force helicopters and a state chopper. Food and shelter had not reached rain-ravaged villagers in Kinnaur, said residents. More than 200 houses had become unsafe, said Jagat Negi, Kinnaur legislator and Deputy Speaker, who was monitoring relief operations at Reckong Peo. Residents said 75 families from Pangi, 50 from Yanpa, 40 from Brua, 31 from Talangi, 20 from Sudhong, 20 each from Sapni and Sangla, 15 each from Powari and Barang and 10 each from Kopa and Rogi needed immediate help. Negi said they had apprised the Chief Minister of the situation. “The Border Roads Organisation has not moved machinery to capacity and we have hired JCBs and bulldozers,” he said. Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner JM Pathania said rescue and rehabilitation measures had picked up as rescue parties reached the victims on foot. |
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Shoolini fair begins
Solan, June 21 The fair has a historic significance and it begins with a traditional puja of Goddess Shoolini at the temple where a large number of devotees turn up to seek the blessings of the deity. Later, a procession accompanying the bedecked palanquin of Goddess Shoolini was taken out from the temple. People in large numbers from surrounding areas visited the town to take part in the fair. The palanquin was received on the Old Court Road by DR Shandil, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment. Cultural programmes, which are part of the fair, will be presented by artistes who have come from various parts of the state. Kul Rakesh Pant, president of the municipal committee, Deputy Commissioner Meera Mohantry and other officials of the district administration were among those present.
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Congress banks on development card
Mandi, June 21 The Congress is banking on the development card with Virbhadra Singh attacking the son of the soil card of the BJP in Mandi and trying to corner Dhumal on the phone tapping case and land deal issues. The BJP has played the Modi card, putting up his hoardings along with BJP candidate Jai Ram Thakur's at key locations. Shanta Kumar said at a recent press conference here that Modi was not declared the prime ministerial candidate and only headed the election committee. Dhumal had welcomed Modi’s elevation and claimed at gatherings that the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre would be ousted under Modi’s leadership. Dhumal had alleged that the Virbhadra Singh government was a government of tired and retired people which had undone or renamed what the BJP had done in the last five years. Jai Ram had raked up the issue of Pratibha Singh’s tenure from 2004 to 2009, claiming that she did not distribute Member of Parliament Local Area Development funds when she was the Member of Parliament. Pratibha Singh had dared Jai Ram to get information under the Right to Information Act on the issue. The 11 lakh voters in the 17 Assembly segments are silent, but say they need development. They want link roads, doctors and low-priced medicines at primary heath centres, medical specialists in remote and tribal areas, good condition of roads and cheap transport to markets for cash crops. Dozens of villages in the Chauhar valley and the Shikari Devi area in Mandi and Tirthan in Kullu district have no link roads. People who live around forests and in tribal areas demand implementation of the Forest Rights Act. “The youth need jobs as they have no land to fall back on to produce cash crops,” said Shayam Lal, a Berozgar Sangh member. “Development is an issue among voters,” said Harsh Mahajan, Congress in charge of Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti. State BJP president Satpal Singh Satti claimed that the Congress was behaving like the Opposition. The other two candidates, Lawan Thakur of the PRISM Party, and Subhash Snehi, an independent candidate, have hardly been noticed. The Himachal Lokhit Party led by Maheshwar Singh is opposing the BJP while the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is opposing both the Congress and the BJP. While development remains high on the voters’ mind, the Congress and the BJP levelled allegations and counter-allegations and made claims and counter-claims on development. |
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BJP to challenge sanction for CUHP campus site
Dharamsala, June 21 Former minister and BJP MLA from Dehra Ravinder Singh Ravi said it was strange that the department was selected for giving geo-technical sanction as it was common knowledge that Indrunag hill, where the government intended to construct the campus, was fragile. The two experts of the department who had experience to assess the environment impact of mining in rivers and rivulets studied in just one week the geo-technical impact of constructing a huge campus on a fragile hill that falls in Zone Five in terms of seismological activity, he said. Ravi said besides launching an agitation over the move, he would move the Himachal Pradesh High Court. He demanded that the geo-technical sanction should be conducted by geological experts. The recent catastrophe in Uttarakhand had proved that politically motivated studies could wreak havoc, he alleged. Sources here said the site selection committee of the Union HRD Ministry that visited on June 12 and 13 the additional 120 hectare being offered for the campus in Dharamsala told the government get the geo-technical sanction for the new site and demanded a detailed map of the new land. The state government had deputed Atul Kumar and Sarit Chander, geologists with the Industries Department, to carry out the geo-technical study and they gave their report within one week, declaring the land fit for construction. The report was submitted to Kangra Deputy Commissioner Paul Rasu yesterday. The sources said the geologists had given approval with a few riders such as constructing retaining walls in certain areas so that landslides could be avoided. CUHP Vice-Chancellor Furqan Qumar said the report of the committee along with the geo-technical report would be submitted to the Union HRD Ministry, which would take the final decision. |
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Polling date postponed to June 27 in Kinnaur
Mandi, June 21 The Election Commission today issued a fresh notification and postponed the polling date to June 27 in the rain-ravaged tribal Kinnaur constituency, said Narender Chauhan, the state electoral officer. All other Assembly constituencies would go to the polls on June 23 and the counting would be conducted on June 30 and results would be declared on the same day, he added. The decision followed after the high-level team under Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Additional Election Commissioner PL Negi surveyed the rain, snow and flood-ravaged Kinnaur district and recommended to the commission to postpone the poll for June 27, sources said. The poll parties were sent to the polling stations today from Reckong Peo as all road links and the National Highway No. 22 were breached at several places in the district. The district administration expects that the life would be normalised by June 25 when the parties would be dispatched to the polling stations, the sources said. DC-cum-District Retuning Officer, Kinnaur, JM Pathania said there were over 90 polling stations that had become difficult to reach with the electronic voting machines. The parties would move on foot to reach the polling stations as it was unlikely that the link roads would be restored by then, the officials said. The poll parties have been dispatched to Tabo and Hurling in the Spiti valley where the Kaza-Tabo road have been breached at Shchhling, said BS Thakur, District Returning Officer, Lahaul-Spiti. The District Returning Officer, Mandi, Devesh Kumar said 70 micro observers had been appointed to monitor the 62 polling stations in the nine Assembly constituencies of Mandi district for a free-and-fair poll. They would report at polling stations at 11am on June 22, he added. Micro-observers for Kullu, Lahaul-Spiti and Bharmour have also been appointed.
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Computer teachers seek policy on Punjab pattern
Nurpur, June 21 Association president Daljit Manhas in a statement here recently said a private Chandigarh-based company had re-hired the services of 1,329 computer teachers working in government senior secondary schools since 2001 by conducting fresh interviews in March this year. He rued that these teachers, along with 200 more recruited for high schools, had not got their salaries since May. “The whole administration of computer teachers is being monitored by the Higher Education and Education Departments. The computer fee of Rs 110 per student is being charged by the state Education Department and about Rs 1.45 crore is being deposited in the state exchequer per month. Then why is a private company interfering in the computer education project in Himachal Pradesh?” he asked. He also alleged that thousands of unemployed computer trained youth who had given interviews to the private company in March last felt cheated as the company had collected Rs 350 per candidate, but so far they had not been selected and given appointments. “High schools are without computer teachers even after three months of current academic session having started,” he lamented. |
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Tunnel to link Bharmour, Kangra underway: Minister
Chamba, June 21 Addressing a public meeting, Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri said the draft project report for the tunnel connecting the Holi area of Bharmour in Chamba district with Chamunda in Kangra district was being prepared. He said the tunnel would shorten the distance between the two stations by around 250 km and it would be an all-weather highway with year-long connectivity. Former Congress Member of Parliament Chander Kumar and Himachal Road Transport Corporation Vice-Chairman Kewal Singh Pathania also spoke. They said the Congress government under Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had taken landmark decisions for the well-being of the people of the state which would be implemented in its five-year tenure. They favoured providing 70 per cent employment to local residents in hydro power projects of the region. They alleged that the previous government had failed in resource generation and management during its tenure.
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5,809 solar lights sanctioned for Hamirpur dist
Hamirpur, June 21 Sharing this information with mediapersons here today under the monthly press meet to highlight developments under various schemes in the district, Deputy Commissioner, Hamirpur, Ashish Singhmar said: “Beneficiaries in 73 panchayats of the district would get Rs 9,51,86,274 as subsidy under this scheme as 90 per cent cost for providing streetlights in panchayats is being borne by the Central Government.” He said the JLNSM was a major initiative of the Centre and the state government to promote sustained ecological growth and in this district, the Himurja Department would ensure that maximum panchayats get benefits of this scheme to make best use of solar energy to provide economically viable, pollution-free and clean energy. The Himurja Department had also decided to train two people in each panchayat for the maintenance of solar lights and complaints regarding these lights would be monitored from the DC office, he added. The DC said subsidy was also being given by the department for installation of solar water heaters to individual beneficiaries. |
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Poll staff leaves for their destinations in Bharmour
Chamba, June 21 The Bharmour tribal Assembly constituency that is a part of the Mandi parliamentary constituency (Lok Sabha seat) is going to the bypolls on June 23. The DC stated that in addition to the expenditure observer and the general observer, 58 micro-observers had also been deployed for the smooth conduct of election process. Moreover, control rooms had been set up and sector officers had been appointed to monitor the poll process through the SMS facility for which Rs 200 had been provided as mobile allowance to the poll personnel, the DC said. Five complaints with regard to the violation of model code of conduct for elections had so far been received which were being investigated, he added. |
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Govt failed to provide relief to victims in Kinnaur: Dhumal
Shimla, June 21 In a statement issued here today, Dhumal said the tardy and inept handling of the situation in undertaking relief and rescue had exposed the government’s non-seriousness on the issue. “Many sick and ailing people, both locals as well as tourists, are waiting to be airlifted but the evacuation process is extremely slow,” he said. He said while Uttarakhand had been given liberal funding to deal with the catastrophe, Himachal has not received any help from the Centre. “All that Himachal has received in the name of help is merely two choppers that too have had to remain grounded for want of aviation fuel for some time,” he said. "Either Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has failed to present Himachal’s case effectively or the Centre is not bothered about the state and takes its request too lightly,” he added. Dhumal demanded that directions should be given to restore power supply and provide adequate supply of food stocks, LPG cylinders, diesel and petrol in rain-affected areas. |
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More than 200 families in rain-ravaged seven villages in Kinnaur who have taken shelter in caves, schools and panchayat buildings need immediate rehabilitation as the villages have become unsafe.
Dharamsala, June 21
