Shimla, July 6
In a bid to decongest Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), the government has decided to shift the dental college and nursing college from the capital to Gharog near Ghanahatti and add a new wing to Kamla Nehru Hospital to develop it as a full-fledged Mother and Child Care Hospital.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh here today. The meeting was held to discuss the decongestion of the IGMC campus and identification of an alternate site.

The Chief Minister said more than 5,000 patients, attendants and other visitors daily visited the IGMC, which was over-crowded and, thus, shifting out some wings was the only option.

“The dental wing will continue in the IGMC for the convenience of OPD patients to provide emergency care,” he said.

He said a Rs 100-crore hospital with a bed capacity of 100 would be constructed at Gharog to cater for patients of nearby areas. He added that additional accommodation like hostels and residential complex for medical and paramedical staff would also be constructed there.

He said a new multi-storeyed OPD block with a parking facility for 400 vehicles would be constructed between the Cart Road and the Lakkar Bazaar road. Besides this, Rs 50 crore would be spent on constructing an OPD, trauma centre, causality, minor operation theatre. Rooms for medical specialists would also be constructed. He said old blocks of the present OPD would be demolished after the construction of new OPD building to provide more open space.

Virbhadra said Kamla Nehru Hospital would be developed as full-fledged Mother and Child Care Hospital.

“A new block having a capacity of 100 beds and parking for vehicles will be constructed, besides deploying additional specialist doctors so that the hospital can provide efficient services to patients,” he said.

The Chief Minister said Deen Dayal Upadhaya Hospital would also be developed as City Hospital with adequate parking and other facilities. He directed the architects to plan accordingly and ensure quality work for all new hospitals keeping in view the future needs.

He added that a super-speciality hospital would be set up and directed the Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, to identify land for it.

The Chief Minister said adequate Specialists Medical Officers should be deputed in Rampur hospital which was not only catering to the local medical needs, but also of Anni, Nirmand, Karsog, Kinnaur and Spiti areas. This would help in reducing the influx of patients coming to the IGMC.

Shimla, July 6
The wildlife wing of the Forest Department has decided to prepare a DNA data bank of animals and adopt international norms for conducting post-mortem to help tracking cases of wildlife crime, including the smuggling of animal parts, which are on the rise in the state.

The wing has decided to adopt a more scientific and sophisticated procedure to undertake post-mortem of animals which will meet the laid-down international norms. This will also help wildlife officials to prepare a DNA data bank through hi-tech profiling which can help in tracing cases of smuggling of animal parts to other states.

There are almost 24 cases of wild animals, including leopards and deer, being found dead, either as natural death or having been killed. There have been cases when body parts of animals, including animal skin, teeth, nails and other parts, have been seized while being smuggled out of the state.

“We have decided to adopt international norms for post-mortem which will help us prepare a DNA databank,” confirmed AK Gulati, Principal Chief Conservator, Forest. He added that an online DNA data bank would be prepared. This would prove helpful in tracing the cases of smuggling of animal body parts, he added.

The police has seized animal parts along the inter-state border in towns such as Nalagarh of Solan, Chamba and Shimla. “If we have a DNA databank, it will be helpful in tracing the area from where the animal parts have been smuggled after killing the animal,” said Gulati.

With body parts of animal fetching a very high price many poaching gangs are active in the state. The post-mortem procedure being adopted by the Wildlife Department was basic as it only recorded the basic indicators such as the cause of death. The animals “on demand” are leopards, deer and wild boars.

Shimla, July 6
Ram Lal Thakur, Chairman, State Planning Development and 20-Point Programme Committee, has ridiculed the statement of BJP general secretary and MLA Randhir Sharma on taking out the Shri Naina Devi area from the domain of wildlife sanctuary.

In a statement here today, he said, “It appears that Sharma is unaware of the fact that the state government had already issued a notification on June 7, 2013, for de-notifying the areas of the wildlife sanctuary under which 48 villages have been excluded from the Shri Naina Devi Wildlife Sanctuary,” he said.

Ram Lal said it was BJP which proposed to declare Naina Devi as wildlife sanctuary comprising 123 sq km as per a notification on October 23, 1999, and now when the Congress government had de-notified the areas, the BJP leader was making hue and cry.

Bilaspur, July 6
A leopard killed a calf of Sukh Ram of Swara village in the Dhadhol area near Ghumarwin last night.

Reports said the calf was tied with other cattle in the courtyard of the house when the leopard mauled it.

Several village elders, including Kamal Nain Singh, Balwant Singh Patial, Roshan Lal, Yash Pal, Gajender Singh, Ram Pal, Sat Pal Sharma and Zorawar Singh, said villagers were scared of leopard attacks as several of their cattle had been killed during the last few weeks.

They urged the forest authorities to catch the leopard and provide them relief.

Mandi, July 6
The Directorate of Technical Education has decided not to allow those students to appear in the annual examinations who have not appeared in the mandatory pre-admission test (PAT) for various courses. As many as 22 private polytechnics and other vocational training institutes in the state have been enrolling even those students who did not take entrance test.

There are virtually no takers for 9,260 seats in the 22 private polytechnic colleges across the state.

"So far, only 243 students have enrolled in these colleges in the first round of counselling," coordinators at the Directorate of Technical Education, Sundernagar, said.

On the other hand, as many as 1,758 seats out of 1,940 seats had been filled in government-run polytechnic colleges in the state so far, said Vinita Arya, in charge of counselling. “The last date is July 29 when a clear picture will emerge,” she said.

As many as 15,410 students appeared for PAT conducted by the technical education board. Students prefer government-run institutes because these charge a fee which is less than half of what private colleges charge.

“Barring a select few, most of the private institutes are here to make money as they lack infrastructure like labs and teaching staff,” students said.

However, the Private Polytechnic College Association is lobbying hard with the government for allowing non-PAT students to be admitted to private colleges. “They are otherwise moving outside the state for admissions and end up paying more than the double of what they have to pay in the state for various courses,” they claimed.

Nikka Ram, Chairman, SIRDA Group of Institution, who is also a member of the association, said, “The admission norms should be fixed as per the All-lndia Council of Technical Education (AICTE) so that the maximum number of students can take admission in unaided or self-financed institutions”.

Vijay Chandan, Director, Technical Education, said private technical colleges were not permitted to admit students, who had not appeared and qualified PAT examinations. “If they do, they will not be allowed to sit in the examination conducted by the Technical Education Board as the government has made it a policy,” he said.

Solan, July 6
Tarun Shridhar, Vice-Chancellor (VC), Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, today ordered the re-evaluation of answersheets.

He took up a serious view of the goof-up by officials of the university in uploading two different lists of results of MSc entrance examination on the official website on July 3.

Registrar Rupali Thakur said a report on the goof-up had been submitted to the VC and, consequent to its receipt, he had directed university officials to manually re-evaluate the answersheets to ensure that merit was not compromised.

In another development, the VC has suspended RK Walia, in charge of the university’s Computer Instrumentation Centre, after holding him responsible for the whole episode. The VC will conduct an inquiry.

The university’s image had been severally tarnished following uploading of two different lists containing 53 changes in the marks procured by the students who had appeared for the MSc entrance examination on July 1.

The district unit of the SFI staged a protest at DC Chowk here and demanded an independent inquiry to bring out the truth.

Terming it an attempt to adjust favourites in various MSc courses being run by the university, SFI activists comprising its district president Devi Chand Rawat and general secretary Mohit Verma submitted a memorandum to the Assistant Commissioner and demanded an inquiry into the episode.

Meanwhile, the students, who were affected by the changed list, said they would lodge a complaint with the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau if the issue was not resolved.

The students also demanded stern action against the computer programmer for having attempted to change the list to extend undue favours to some favourites.

While the students have dismissed the university’s explanation of a dummy list having been uploaded to merely check the programme, they wanted to know at whose behest the second list had been prepared and who were the favoured students.

Dharamsala, July 6
The 78th birthday of the Dalai Lama was celebrated today at Dharamsala, headquarters of Tibetan government-in-exile, in his absence. It is for the first time that the Dalai Lama is absent from Dharamsala on his birthday.

He had left for Bylakuppe in Karnataka yesterday where his birthday was celebrated officially today. The organisation of a major event like the birthday celebrations of the Dalai Lama in Karnataka has further fuelled speculations among locals in Dharamsala that the Dalai Lama might shift there at some stage.

The activities of the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala have been decreasing since he retired as political and administrative head of Tibetans-in-exile. His teaching in Dharamsala have also decreased causing concern in the local tourism industry that is heavily dependent on Tibetan tourism.

Today also the Dalai Lama did not give any political message. The message of Sikyong (leader of Tibetans-in-exile) Lobsang Sangay was read by acting Prime Minister-in-exile Pema Chhinja in Dharamsala. The Tibetan exiles here offered prayers at the main temple of the Dalai Lama at McLeodganj. Cultural activities were organised by local Tibetan artistes at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA).

In his message Lobsang Sangay lauded the efforts of the Dalai Lama in spreading Buddhism across the world.

He said the Dalai Lama was one of the world's most respected and admired figures. Like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa, his contribution to the betterment of greater humanity extended far beyond his own religion and time. His enduring contributions were evident from the over 150 major awards, prizes and honorary doctorates that had been conferred on him, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, United Nations Earth Prize in 1991, US Congressional Gold Medal in 2007 and the Templeton Award in 2012. The Templeton Award citation acknowledged the Dalai Lama for encouraging serious scientific investigation and reviews of the power of compassion and its broad potential to address the world's fundamental problems.

Kangra, July 6
Two labourers were killed on the spot and eight others injured, five of them seriously, when a tractor trolley in which they were travelling rolled down into a gorge at Tarkhankad village near Salol falling under the local police station last evening, the police said here today.

The Kangra police said the tractor (HP 40 B 1364) was carrying "bajri" from the Gaj river for village development work undergoing under MNREGA. Thirteen persons were

travelling on the trolley when the tyre slipped and the trolley overturned falling into a gorge.

The two deceased youths were identified as Sanjeev Kumar (25) and Ranjeet Kumar (19), who were working as labourers. The injured were rushed to the DRPGMC, Tanda, in 108 ambulances. The seriously injured were identified as Dhir Singh, Puran Chand, Ishwar Dass, Sawita Kumari and Manjoo Bala.

The police registered a case under Sections 304-A, 279 and 337, IPC, and arrested driver Sanjay Kumar.