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Mandi bypoll
Fear of life-saving drug shortage lurks
Sonia urged to form policy to protect Himalayan region
Congress general secretary Kuldeep Rathore addresses mediapersons in Shimla
on Friday. Photo: Amit Kanwar |
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Move to upgrade IGMC in pipeline: Kaul Singh
2 cops told to face trial for beating up arrested man
DAV College lecturers suspend 88-day protest
Roads to be repaired soon, says minister
Ex-servicemen seek new pension policy
HPCC chief's signature forged
Man dies in freak accident Woman dies of burns
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Stakes of Virbhadra high as counting takes place
today
Kuldeep Chauhan Tribune News Service
Mandi, June 29 Party workers say the 53 per cent turnout in the bypoll has kept both the parties on tenterhooks. Congress leaders appeared more confident and attacking than their BJP counterparts in public meetings and rallies. “This is more so because the state has been witnessing a trend that the ruling party has been enjoying an advantage in the Lok Sabha elections,” political observers claim. The Congress has batted on “development” under Virbhadra Singh. The BJP played the Modi card at the fag-end of its campaigning by putting up huge hoardings of Narendra Modi with Jai Ram to woo silent voters. Virbhadra is eyeing third consecutive win, but with a higher margin as the Congress has been winning the Mandi seat since 2004. Congress candidate Pratibha Singh had won the seat in 2004. Virbhadra Singh had won it in 2009 at a time when the BJP, which was in power in the state from 2003-2007, had wrested all other three seats from the Congress. The Congress high command gave its nod to field Pratibha this time. Earlier, Pratibha was denied the ticket from the Rohru Assembly segment in the byelection and the party had lost the seat to the BJP. Virbhadra considers Mandi his “karambhumi” as he had won the seat in 1971, 1980 and 2009. Though Jai Ram is considered to be the strongest candidate from Mandi, he had shown his initial reluctance that put the party on the defensive in the campaigning, but later picked up the fight when the campaign ended on June 20. Only 23 cast votes in Shalkhar village
Out of 312 voters, only 23 voters cast their votes in the Shalkhar polling station in the remote Sumdoh border area of the flood-hit Kinnaur constituency for which the Election Commission had ordered repoll today. The voters’ angers continued to simmer as only 23 voters exercised their franchise. They had boycotted the poll on June 27. The villagers protested that they had been cut off from the rest of the state and remained without electricity and other facilities since June 17 when the flood damaged the National Highway-22 and all link roads. The villagers were demanding the shifting of three patients to hospital in a state-run helicopter on June 26 and June 27. Though two patients were shifted, the third patient remained there and the voters boycotted the poll, said district officials. State electoral officer Narender Chauhan said only 23 votes were cast. The counting for Kinnaur would be done in Reckong Peo as all EVMs had been shifted there. The counting would start tomorrow in all counting centres in the Mandi parliamentary constituency under strict security, he added. |
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Fear of life-saving drug shortage lurks
Solan, June 29 As many as 348 drugs and 652 combinations have been brought under the DPCO on May 15, making these cheaper. The first notification for the fixing of ceiling prices for 151 products was issued on June 14 and the second list of 40 products was issued on June 21. Drug manufacturers have been given 45 days to implement the ceiling prices on the new as well as existing drugs. With almost six lakh retailers in the country, it will be an arduous task to recall all drugs from the market and re-label these with new prices. The exercise will take 90 to 120 days and this will cause shortage of various drugs in the market for the next three months. In a representation to Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad, various pharmaceutical associations, including the Himachal Drug Manufacturers Association, have demanded that the existing batches already present in the market may be spared from this exercise. Pointing out problems involved in implementing the ceiling prices for the drugs already sold in the market, association
general secretary SL Singla said the period was short as reaching out to almost six lakh chemists was a time-consuming exercise. The companies would have to write to their distributors for recall of the products who, in turn, would have to write to stockists and they to retailers so as to paste stickers on the scheduled drugs available in the market within 45 days. |
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Sonia urged to form policy to protect Himalayan region
Shimla, June 29 He also urged Sonia to grant liberal financial assistance to the state for relief and restoration works. In a letter to the UPA chairperson, he said it was a high time that political leaders rose above party lines and came out with an effective strategy to preserve the Himalayan environment and in turn the lives and livelihoods of the local people, who were being increasingly marginalised by unbridled promotion of commercial interest. He called for a review of the existing policy of setting up cascading hydropower projects, over 1,100 of which were coming up in Himachal and Uttarakhand so that higher hills were left undisturbed and rivers were not dried up completely. Only environmentally sustainable projects and those which caused minimum deforestation and dislocation of people should be allowed. Keeping in view the typical hill topography, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi had also urged the government to prepare a blueprint to develop Himachal as a horticulture state. |
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Move to upgrade IGMC in pipeline: Kaul Singh
Shimla, June 29 He was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day continued medical education programme organised by the Department of Gastroenterology at the IGMC here. Delegates from AIIMS, the PGI, Chandigarh, Hindu Rao Hospital, Apollo Hospital, GB Pant Hospital, the SGPC, Lucknow, and Dr Manju Shri Gautam from Texas (US) attended the conference. Kaul Singh said he had met Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and the proposal for upgrading the status was under the consideration of the government. “Our endeavour is to develop the IGMC as a prestigious institute so that it can provide qualitative health services to people,” he said. The minister said as the field of medical science was fast developing and witnessing many changes, it became vital for doctors to keep pace with new technologies and advancements. He said 11.6 per cent increase was made in the 2013-14 Budget, wherein Rs 1,187 crore had been provided for the health sector in Himachal Pradesh and Rs150 crore for developing a superspeciality multi-complex and hospital at Tanda in Kangra. |
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2 cops told to face trial for beating up arrested man
Sundernagar, June 29 As per the case, Sohan Singh of Darvyas village, Mandi district, was having a land dispute with his brother in 2011. On March 27, 2011, ASI Lachhi Ram and constable Vijay Kumar registered a false case against Sohan and detained him. Sohan suffered multiple injuries on account of beatings given by them. The police officials allegedly also threatened to kill Sohan. Sohan afterwards filed a criminal complaint against the two police officials. Going through the evidence produced by the victim in the court, the court summoned the two police officials. Both the police officials filed a revision petition before the judge on the ground that no case was made out against them. The court held that no offence was made out against these police officials under Sections 166 and 500, IPC, as the alleged offence was committed during the discharge of their official duties and no sanction was obtained under Section 197, CrPC. |
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DAV College lecturers suspend 88-day protest
Kangra, June 29 Dr Kapil Vaid, president of the local unit of the HPNGCLA, said here that they had been protesting against the attitude of the college administration in resolving the issues regarding the enhancement of ADA from 12 per cent to 72 per cent from college resources, medical and house rent allowances and grant of pay band III and IV due to some of its members. He said for the past 88 days they had been holding dharna outside the Principal’s office. Dr Kapil said the protest was suspended in the interests of students whose admissions were completed on June 25. The HPNGCLA would try to hold negotiations with the DAV management in the interests of the college, students and lecturers. He alleged that the problems were compounded by the fact that college Principal Dr VK Bhatia did not take any interest in the problems of the staff and was frequently on leave as a result the issues which required immediate attention of the regular principal got sidelined. He demanded that the upper girls’ hostel should be started for the convenience of the students. |
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Roads to be repaired soon, says minister
Shimla, June 29 He held a review meeting of the ongoing relief and rescue operations. He said as per estimates of the Border Road Organisation (BRO), the road from Kashang to Akpa would be opened by July 15, Akpa to Spillow by July 10 and from Spillow to Pooh and Pooh to Chango in first week of July. Fuel had been moved to various locations to run the machinery involved in restoration of roads. Kaul Singh said agriculture and horticulture departments had been directed to prepare rehabilitation plan for farmers. He said the Deputy Commissioners had been directed to provide immediate relief to the people. |
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Ex-servicemen seek new pension policy
Palampur, June 29 Addressing the ex-servicemen, CD Singh Guleria, president, Ex-servicemen League, said despite a number of meetings, rallies, protest marches held all over the country, the Union government had failed to implement the new pension policy for ex-servicemen. He said the recent decision of the Union government to grant them an enhanced pension after 33 years' service had resulted in widespread resentment as under this formula their pensions had come down. He said the Union government had also failed to implement the decision of one-rank one-pension. He said the ex-servicemen's was the only cadre in the country where the pensions were never enhanced. |
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HPCC chief's signature forged
Shimla, June 29 In his complaint Sukhwinder has stated that he got to know that somebody had forged his signature to obtain some information under the RTI Act from the office of the Chief Engineer, HP Public Works Department, when he got the documents. On perusal of the matter he sought information and discovered that his signature had been forged. |
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effective policy to protect the ecologically fragile Himalayan region in the wake of the recent disaster which wreaked havoc in Uttarakhand and Himachal and ensure that all the development projects conformed to it.
