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Ispat case
LS, Assembly polls may coincide in Sujanpur
Vigilance made haste in filing chargesheet: HPCA
Chander promises to link Chamba by tunnels
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Kinnaur school without principal, adequate staff
Class XI Paper Leakage
HPU prof presents paper in USA
government, forest Land encroachment
‘Bamboo cultivation will provide jobs’
Transmission line construction bumps into avalanche-prone zone
3-day MTB Himalaya begins on April 11
60 jhuggis burnt in Baddi
Brother booked for rape
Rs 6.16 lakh seized from Saharanpur residents
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Facts placed before CBI: CM
Tribune News Service
The Chief Minister addressed election rallies in favour of Rajinder Rana, Congress candidate from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat at Ghumarwin, Bharadi and Barthi areas of Bilaspur. Reacting to media reports that he had been questioned by the CBI, he said he had brought certain facts to the notice of the premier investigating agency which were in his knowledge. “The BJP was hatching a political conspiracy to tarnish my image as they were completely frustrated and crestfallen seeing the public response that the Congress was getting,” he said. He said all kinds of false allegations were being levelled against him to gain political mileage. He launched a scathing attack on BJP leader and former Chief Minister PK Dhumal for taking credit even for the work which was done during the Congress regime. “His becoming the Chief Minister was a historical misfortune for which people of the state had to pay a heavy price as all development works had come to a standstill,” he remarked. He accused Dhumal of stooping low by removing the foundation stone laid by him during the Congress rule. Virbhadra accused the BJP of fanning communal sentiments and creating a divide among people. "Senior Congress leaders, who fought for the freedom of the country, made a supreme sacrifice for ensuring the unity and the integrity of the country, but BJP leaders were divisive just to achieve their petty political gains," he said. He urged people to vote for a secular party which would ensure unity, communal harmony and peace in the country. The Chief Minister also contested media reports that the Narendra Modi wave was sweeping the country. He said the Congress would win all four Lok Sabha seats in the state and Modi was not a new face to people of the state as he was in-charge of the state BJP during two Assembly polls when the BJP lost on both occasions. Virbhadra sought votes in favour of Congress nominee Rana by stating that he had made a big sacrifice by resigning as the MLA from the Sujanpur Assembly segment, from where he had won as an Independent. "He has made a supreme sacrifice for the Congress by giving up his MLA-ship and this gesture of his must not go waste," he remarked. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh will address election rallies in the Manali Assembly segment in Kullu district tomorrow. Pointing finger
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LS, Assembly polls may coincide in Sujanpur
Shimla, March 27 “The seat has been declared vacant after the acceptance of Rana's resignation by the Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha and a copy of the notification in this regard has been sent to the Election Commission of India,” sources in the state Election Department said. There is sufficient time for the Election Commission to take a decision in this regard as filing of nominations will commence on April 12, but the Election Commission is expected to take an overall view keeping in view the Assembly seats lying vacant in other states. It is for the first time in Himachal that a sitting MLA has resigned to contest the Lok Sabha poll on the Congress ticket and the seat has fallen vacant about four weeks before the filing of nomination papers. As such, there is no precedent of holding the by-elections within a span of one month. The political scenario in Hamirpur district will undergo a dramatic change and local issues and rivalries will come to the fore in case the by-election is held along with Lok Sabha poll and chances of Rana contesting both the Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections will be dim. The simultaneous by-elections will also create problems for both the BJP and Congress as senior congress leader Narender Thakur has returned to the BJP and is keen to contest the Assembly polls while his sister-in-law is another contender who had lost badly to Rana in the last elections. Further, former Chief Parliamentary Secretary Anita Verma, who also lost to Rana by over 14,000 votes in 2012 poll, is also a strong contender for the Congress ticket. After rejoining the BJP, Narender Thakur, son of former BJP stalwart Jagdev Chand, had announced that the BJP candidate Anurag Thakur would get a massive lead in the Sujanpur segment with his support and in case, he is denied the BJP ticket, political equations would change again. Sources said the state Election Department was ready for the by-election as it needed about 140 additional electronic voting machines (EVM) which were available in the state. In 2009 Lok Sabha poll, sitting MLAs Virbhadra Singh and Rajan Sushant had contested the Lok Sabha poll and had resigned after they were elected and by-elections were held later. |
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Vigilance made haste in filing chargesheet: HPCA
Shimla, March 27 In a statement issued here today by office-bearers of the HPCA, it
was stated that the Vigilance Bureau had shown undue haste in submitting the chargesheet in the HPCA case only to divert the attention of the people from the controversy
surrounding him in connection with the Ispat pay-offs. Reacting to media reports of the State Vigilance Bureau submitting a fresh chargesheet, the HPCA said the Vigilance Bureau move had deliberately been timed as a diversionary tactic to divert attention from the CBI probe on Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. When the matter was already sub-judice before the Himachal Pradesh High Court, there was no basis for fresh chargesheet in the case, they said. They said the Chief Minister was unable to digest the credit being given by people to the HPCA headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur. They said the HPCA would continue to contribute towards boosting the economy of the state through big cricketing events which would help boost tourism. |
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Chander promises to link Chamba by tunnels
Chamba, March 27 Former MP Chander Kumar, who is a Congress candidate from the Kangra Lok Sabha constituency, said this while addressing mediapersons here today. He said the survey work on the Holi-Chamunda tunnel had already been initiated by the present Congress government under the leadership of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. The Congress works more and boasts less, Chander Kumar said, adding that Chamba was the first district in the state to have the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojna (RGGVY) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) which had benefitted the people of Chamba district and achieved pragmatic results. Chander Kumar said that recently Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad, who belonged to the adjoining Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, had sanctioned a medical college for Chamba for which a provision of Rs 150 crore had been earmarked. Chander said the Congress had never discriminated the Kangra Lok Sabha area claiming that it was the Congress regime which opened the Central University in Kangra district, laid the foundation stone of a proposed steel plant and set up a super-specialty clinical unit at the Tanda medical college. Former MLA and district Congress committee president Surender Bhardwaj, HPCC secretary Pawan Nayyar, Chamba Block Congress Committee president Yoginder Sharma were present on the occasion. |
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Abstain from mudslinging, Satti tells CM
Una, March 27 He was referring to the CM’s use of words such as “dictator” and “vindictive” against Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal, while addressing a district party workers’ meeting at the BJP office here. Satti said if Virbhadra Singh continued to use such words, the BJP would retaliate and seek answers on such issues which would not only be embarrassing, but also uncomfortable for him to respond to. He said the Congress leader’s allegation had no substance or element of truth, adding that during elections, the CM should speak on public issues such as unemployment, inflation and corruption rather than trying to create sensationalism by levelling personal allegations against his opponents. Satti said the BJP was in the process of printing pamphlets containing the achievements of the party leaders, which would be circulated in every household. He advised party workers to shun personal vendetta against one another and work unitedly. He also delegated duties to booth and zila parishad-level party workers. District BJP president Balbir Bagga, general secretary Yashpal Rana, media in charge Hari Om Bhanot, former MLA Sushma Sharma and president of the Una Municipal Committee Mamta Kashyap were also present. |
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Kinnaur school without principal, adequate staff
Shimla, March 27 The parents told The Tribune that JP Company had neglected the school management ever since it starting mulling over the deal with the Abu Dhabi-based TAQA company to sell the 12,000-MW Karchan-Wangtoo and 300-MW Baspa power projects recently. They said the school was affiliated to the HP School Education Board, had enrolled about 400 students over the years and had charged a hefty fee from students. "We have raised the issue with the management, but to no avail," rued parents, whose children were studying in the school. The parents said school examinations for the senior classes were at hand. "The staff is not enough to teach even science subjects," they resented, urging the Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner to take action against
the management. Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner DK Sharma said they would take action if the company management was found to be playing with future of students. Joint president, Karchan-Wangtoo project, Shayam Chaudhary, who looks after the school management, claimed they had sent a name for confirmation to the corporate office to get the new principal. "We have proper parent-teachers committee and sort out problems in the school, which will be run on professional lines,"
he claimed. n Parents said JP Company had neglected the school management ever since it starting mulling over the
deal with the Abu Dhabi-based TAQA company to sell the 12,000-MW Karchan-Wangtoo and 300-MW Baspa
power projects recently n They said the school was affiliated to the HP School Education Board, had enrolled about 400 students over the years and had charged a hefty fee from
students. |
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FEISE anguished over examination mess
Ashok Raina
Kangra, March 27 It has held the Board of School Education responsible for a complete mess in the examination system. It says it has been thrusting its will on the internal examination of Classes IX and XI. President of the forum RK Prashar today said here that the examination system in schools had gone awry, with schools virtually forced to accept the three-tier examination system. School heads have been facing problems in the smooth conduct of examination at the end of the academic year. He said the annual examination of elementary classes is conducted according to the schedule provided by the state project director of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. Question papers for elementary classes are supplied by the SSA through the education board and the evaluation is done at the school level. Board Classes X and XII are both provided question papers and the evaluated for the final result is got done by the education board itself. He said as far as the non-board Classes IX and XI were concerned, question papers were supplied by the education board but their answer scripts were evaluated and results declared at the school level. He said the alleged leakage of question papers of physics, chemistry and maths of Class XI in a private school in Baijnath sub-division once again brought a bad name to the education board. It was a result of the messy system of examination that had been thrust on students and teachers in schools, he added. The forum questioned as to why the board of school education had allegedly been allotting examination centres to private schools arbitrarily without ascertaining the antecedents of such institutions since such incidents of misconduct of examination in the past had been endemic in the private schools. The forum reiterated its demand that the education board dispense with the need to provide question papers for Classes IX and XI to the schools and let the schools hold examination for these classes at school level. Prashar urged the state government to bring Class VIII within the ambit of the Board of School Education and also do away with the ongoing counter-productive system of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) for elementary classes, especially to prevent dilution in the learning standards of pupils at elementary stage.
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‘Administration should be citizen-centric’
Una, March 27 Speaking at the two-day workshop on Sevottam organised by the Himachal Pradesh Institute of Public Administration (HIPA), he said the administration should be citizen-centric. The DC said Sevottam was a combination of two Hindi words, "Sewa" (service) and "Uttam" (excellent), which stood for excellence in service delivery. He said it was an administrative measure to improve the quality of public services and included three main components, improvement in the Citizen Charter and Service Standards, Public Grievances and Service Delivery. This, he said, also aimed at making the administrative system transparent and responsive. Jain stressed on
the need to take the services of e-governance for service delivery. |
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VHP to launch woman awareness campaign
Nurpur, March 27 Presiding over a meeting of the Nurpur district unit, she said the Vahini had its units in 221 villages in this state and now by launching such awareness campaigns, it would strengthen its organisation at the grassroot level. Prime objective of the campaign is to strengthen women physically, morally and mentally keeping in view burgeoning women atrocities and social evils. The Vahini would also educate womenfolk against falling moral values and disintegrating families in society, she asserted. She said a women sammelan was being organised on March 30 at Nagrota Baghwan in Kangra district and an international VHPs half-yearly meeting had been scheduled after a gap of 24 years in Himachal at Jwalamukhi from June 20 to 26. She said laws were in favour of women, rights were with women, but our women needed education on how they should perform their duties. Rajni Thukral, north-zone convener, Durgavahini, was also present. |
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HPU prof presents paper in USA
Shimla, March 27 Dr Vir Bala presented a paper, “Citizen Journalism through Mobile Communication: An Approach for Crisis Management”. The conference was attended by 280 delegates from 14 countries. The professor was the lone representative from the country. In the paper, she cited three major events -- the Mumbai terrorist attack, Delhi gang-rape and exodus of people from the North-East in South India -- as examples of how the use of mobile phone and SMS could shape events. In the case of the exodus of people hailing from the North-East based on unverified SMS led to a peculiar problem. She highlighted the fact that during a crisis, the audience or the receiver became totally passive and failed to reason the credibility of a message. On the other hand, in the case of the Delhi gang-rape of a young girl, people expressed their angst against the crime by
commenting on social media such as Twitter and Facebook. They were seen venting their outrage and lending solidarity to protesters demanding justice for
the victim. The paper highlighted how mobile phones, SMS service and social media could be used for seeking feedback from citizens to enable issue-based as well as subject-specific interaction and for the dissemination of updates during a crisis. |
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government, forest Land encroachment Lalit Mohan Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, March 27 The matter came to the fore after district revenue officials carried out an elaborate exercise to ascertain the amount of government land encroached upon by power-project owners in 2012. In certain cases, the power projects have come up at locations entirely different from that originally leased out to them. This brought the power project companies in direct confrontation with the local populace, whose interests such as rights over traditional water sources had been compromised.
An official requesting anonymity said it was calculated that in case the land encroached upon by the power project owners was leased out to them, they would have to deposit about Rs 30 crore to the government. A notice had been issued to these power projects owners, where they were asked to deposit the lease amount as per the government policy. However, they have not deposited the fine so far and are continuing to function on the land that was never leased out to them, he added. Sources said the government can regularise the land encroached upon by the power project companies after charging the lease money from them along with the fine in general cases. However, in cases, where the forestland had been encroached upon, permission would have to be taken from the special empowered committee of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest. The recent judgment of the Green Bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court had taken a serious view of the post facto permission granted to the cement and thermal plant of JP Industries in Solan district.
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‘Bamboo cultivation will provide jobs’
Una, March 27 Pardeep Thakur, Conservator of Forests from Hamirpur Division and Dr Vipan Guleria from the Regional Horticulture Research Station, Jacch, in Nurpur gave information on the use of bamboo for livelihood generating activities. The experts said from 2008 onwards, 370 hectares of forestland and 150 hectares of private land had been brought under bamboo cultivation during successive years in Una. They added that during the monsoon season, another 14 hectares would be brought under bamboo cultivation. The conservator said plans were afoot to train youth in income generating activities through bamboo products, for which the aspirants would be taken to exposure visits and given professional training. Dr Guleria said the Forest Department had introduced new species -bambusa nutans, locally called naal, and bambusa bambos, known as kante baans for the diversification of species in forest areas. The information regarding the use of insecticides and fungicides for the protection of bamboo saplings was also provided to the forest staff and locals. |
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Transmission line construction bumps into avalanche-prone zone
Shimla, March 27 The transmission line aims at providing dedicated electricity supply to speed up an otherwise slow place of construction of the 8.82-km-long tunnel which is already running behind schedule. Citing past experience, residents said the transmission wing of HP State Electricity Board Ltd had laid the foundation for the transmission towers to be raised on shaky fragile spots across the Rohtang Pass. The towers are proposed to be laid in the 10-km-long Gramphu-Goofa avalanche-prone zone. Residents’ fears turned out to be true. It was in this zone that a major avalanche damaged Border Roads Organisation’s machineries recently and the under-construction bridge about three years ago. More so, the HPSEB had laid some towers in the avalanche-prone zone in 2007 to test its feasibility, but these were uprooted by the avalanche, said board engineers. The 26-km-long transmission line will have 70 towers between Kothi (Manali) and Goofa in the Lahaul valley and 26 towers between Goofa and Sissu. The board is also constructing a 33-kV sub-station at Sissu. “We have procured high-strength material that will resist the ice and wind pressure and ice load in the snow-bound area,” said the Chief Engineer, Transmission. Lahaul-Spiti DC BS Thakur said the board had received Rs 26 crore for the line that would provide dedicated electricity supply to the 8.82-km-long Rohtang tunnel. “We will build a 33 kV sub-station at Sissu," he
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Met predicts snow, rain in next 24 hours
Shimla, March 27 Manali received 19 mm of rain followed by Kalpa 16 mm, Sarahan 12 mm, followed by Khadrala 9 mm, Saloni and Theog 8 mm, Kheri and Moorang 7 mm each, while Tiss, Kotkhai and Jubbal received 5 mm of rain. There was no appreciable change in the minimum and maximum temperatures and Bharmaur recorded a minimum temperature of -3.1 °C, Kalpa 1°C, Keylong 1.3°C, Manali 5 °C, Dalhousie 7.4°C, Mandi 9.4°C, Shimla 9.6°C, Bhuntar 10.5°C, Dharamsala 11°C, Solan 11.2°C, Hamirpur and Kangra 13.2°C each, Nahan 14 °C and Una 14.2 °C. Una was the hottest with a maximum of 29.2°C followed by Kangra and Sundernagar 24.1 °C each, Nahan 23.9°C, Solan 22°C, Dharamsala 21.8°C, Shimla 18.4°C, Bhuntar 15.4°C, Manali 8.4 °C and Kalpa 4.4 °C.
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3-day MTB Himalaya begins on April 11
Shimla, March 27 Apart from this, cyclists from Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chandigarh will test their skills, endurance and courage in the challenging Himalayan terrain and battle past slopes, streams and tracks extending to 115 km in two days. On Day One of the mountain biking race, the cyclists would start from Shimla en route Shoghi, Anandpur, Dugla Nala, Junga, Janedghat and reach the picturesque Chail resort climbing an elevation of 1,500 m covering 60 km. The riders will cover an elevation of 1,300 m, travelling 55 km from Chail to Shimla via Janedghat, Sadhupul and Shoghi on the second day. The Himalayan Adventure Sports and Tourism Promotion Association (HASTPA) had carefully chosen the tracks in view of the election fever gripping the state during the event, Ashish Sood, Operations Head of HASTPA, said. “The tracks are full of natural beauty and away from political activities,” he added. The riders would pass through off-road tracks, broken tarmac, rocks, sands, mud, streams, tarmac and single tracks, he further added.
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60 jhuggis burnt in Baddi
Solan, March 27 However, no loss of life was reported. These dwelling units, which were on private land, belonged to migrant labourers of Uttar Pradesh. They were away on work when the incident took place. Fire fighters managed to control the fire in two hours. Officials, including SP S Arul Kumar and SDM Lalit Jain, rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation. They announced an immediate financial aid of Rs 1,500 to each affected family. Domestic items and cash worth Rs 12 lakh had reportedly been lost in the fire. The police had booked the owner of the land under Section 336, IPC, as he was taking rent from the jhuggi dwellers.
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Brother booked for rape
Solan, March 27 Anita Sharma, who takes calls at the helpline number, informed the police about the call. The police traced the victim, who told them that she had been abused for past several years. The victim had dropped out from school. Her father was a habitual drinker and mother tended to small jobs to earn some money. Her brother was into substance abuse, the police said. SHO Anil Dhaulta said her medical examination was being conducted and a case under Section 376 of the IPC and the POSCO Act had been registered against the accused, who is still at large. This is the second case in the past one week, where a minor had been sexually abused here.
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Rs 6.16 lakh seized from Saharanpur residents
Una, March 27 The SP said in view of the Lok Sabha elections, a police check-post was set up near the main bus stand under the command of Una SHO KL Beri. At about 4 am, a Santro car (HR-99UB-9329) was intercepted and on checking, a bag containing the cash was recovered from it.
— OC
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Shimla, March 27