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Cancellation of land sale deed of Bhushan
society
Bhushan’s remarks baseless: CM
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Tension in HP varsity as 4 SFI activists held
Power sector govt’s priority: CM
800 temples told to beef up security
Central team visits medical college site in Hamirpur
Raid-de-Himalaya to be flagged off on Oct 4
Kangra people donate for J&K flood victims
Probe sought into sadhvi murder case
5 of family booked for rioting, trespassing
Teachers’ union meet to finalise charter of demands
Relay fast by Gramin bank staff enters Day 9
Farmers express resentment against fee hike
Film fest from Oct 30
Teachers for appointment through selection board MP panel calls on CM Schoolgirl falls off hill, dies
Classical music fest opens
Protest over fee hike continues Nigerian national gets 5-yr jail 5 injured in road mishap Wine seized
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Cancellation of land sale deed of Bhushan
society Our Correspondent
Palampur, September 18 Addressing mediapersons here today, Himanshu Kumar, spokesman of the society, said since Prashant Bhushan was pursuing the cases of corruption against Chief Minister Virbhadhra Singh in the Delhi High Court, the Himachal Government had bent upon to finish the society. He said it would fight the case till its logical end as the society had done nothing wrong. It had followed the terms and conditions laid down in transfer documents of land and had permission by the state government to purchase it. He said the society had set up a educational institution on this land as per essentiality certificate issued by the Education Department. He said the main object of the society was to run a multi-purpose educational institution for the welfare of local residents. No member of the society had vested interest and the society was set up for the public cause. He said hundreds of local village children had been using the Children’s Learning Centre and School facilities provided by the society on a daily basis. They were also given books from library, conduct experiments in science lab with the guidance from trained staff, learn art and craft, music, dance, theatre and sports through various workshops which were conducted regularly free of charge. The institute had also collaborated with local government schools and organised workshops. He also released photographs of the school. Kumar asked the state government to depute a high-level team to see the educational activities being carried out by the society on its premises and only then truth would come out. He regretted that the state government was misleading the public by launching a sinister campaign against the society. Kumar said there were dozens of such educational societies whom the state government had granted the permission to buy land and run educational institutions but only the Kumud Bhushan Educational Society was singled out.
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Bhushan’s remarks baseless: CM
Shimla, September 18 It was a baseless allegation which became evident from the history of the case as the Congress had nothing to do with it. Virbhadra said the Kangra DC had given the order as the society had failed to utilise the land for the purpose for which it was given. “In fact, my government will inquire into cases of sale of land under tea garden, whether in the past or now as such land cannot be sold,” he remarked. He said the government would take steps to ensure that there was no violation of norms laid down for tea gardens and there was no sale of such land except when it got divided within the family. “Tea gardens are exempted from the Land Ceiling Act and we will ensure that no one has misused the provisions and indulged in sale of land,” he said. Regarding the encouraging results for the Congress in the bypolls, Chief Minister said the unnecessary hype that had been created about Modi and not the BJP had begun to subside. He, however, said it was too short a period to assess the performance of the Modi regime and the Prime Minister must be given more time before forming an opinion. “Now elections are being fought on issues and not on emotions like the last Lok Sabha poll,” he said. It was a positive development that people had begun to vote on the basis of the performance, manifesto and issues. Virbhadra said the construction of the Pathankot-Mandi-Manali-Leh rail line would be beneficial to Himachal as it would pass through its hinterland and help in giving a major boost to the industry and tourism. He said the government was keen that a rail link from Mandi should also pass through the heart of Kangra hills and the mid-Himalayas to finally join the broad gauge rail line at Pathankot. This would not only give boost to tourism activities but would also be of strategic importance, he said. Virbhadra assures HPCA of cooperation
The Chief Minister said the government would extend cooperation to the HP Cricket Association (HPCA) for matches as it would involve the prestige of the state and the country. “Since it is a commercial venture, it is fair that the HPCA pays for all services rendered to it and it will also have to clear all pending bills,” he said. |
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Tension in HP varsity as 4 SFI activists held
Shimla, September 18 Students who laid siege to the campus and allegedly manhandled Vice-Chancellor Prof ADN Bajpai were booked under Sections 341 and 147 of IPC for rioting and wrongful restraint. The four SFI leaders arrested by the police are SFI HPU campus president Hoshiyar Singh, Puneet Dhanta, Vikram and Rahul. The alleged “roughing up” of the Vice Chancellor by SFI protesters demanding rollback of fee and holding of direct elections to students central
associations (SCAs) of the university and affiliated colleges evoked sharp reaction from the government, university administration and teachers’ association, who not only condemned the action but also demanded stringent action against the accused. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said there was no place for violence in educational institutions and all issues should be resolved amicably. “No violence would be tolerated at any cost and stringent action would be taken against those indulging in violence and unlawful activities, vitiating the academic atmosphere,” he added. The Vice Chancellor also took exception to yesterday’s incidents and said “it was a black day for the university”. “We will take strong action against the students indulging in violence and process for expulsion of these students has been initiated,” he added. The SFI on the other hand alleged that innocent students were being implicated in false cases and arrested and warned that in case the arrested leaders were not released, the SFI would launch a “jail bharo” agitation. The SFI gave a call for state-wide education bandh which evoked mixed response, but the SFI leader claimed that it was a big success. The SFI activists who protested in support of their demands of rollback of fee hike and direct elections to the SCAs to restore peace near the NPU Library said the university must accept the main demands failing which the agitation would be intensified. DSP Shiv Chaudhry
said cases had been registered against eight students out of which four had been arrested. Police teams have been constituted to nab the remaining students
who have fled the university campus. Administrative officials tender resignations
Administrative officials tendered resignation from all additional responsibilities citing disturbed conditions on the campus as the reason. “How can
we work when the officials are not allowed to enter the campus,” they said. The HPU administrative officials, including dean of studies, dean
students welfare, dean CDC, registrar, chief warden, dean planning and teachers’ welfare
and controller of examination, tendered their resignations to the Vice Chancellor. HPUTA expresses solidarity with VC
The government nominees in the HPU Executive Council, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Inderdut Lakhanpal, MLA Bamber Thakur, Harish Janartha and Chandershakher condemned yesterday’s incident and urged the state government to take stringent action against the students involved and provide adequate security to the VC. Expressing solidarity with the Vice Chancellor, the Himachal Pradesh University Teachers Association (HPUTA) also condemned the incident. President of the association Dr Raghuvinder Singh said nobody would be allowed to spoil the academic atmosphere of the university and the association condemned the behavior of the agitating students. |
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Power sector govt’s priority: CM
Shimla, September 18 Addressing a two-day conference on “Challenges and Barriers in Hydro Power Development”, he said the power producers no longer needed an NOC from various departments such as Revenue, Public Works, Irrigation and Fisheries for acquiring land. “This has been done to make the procedure less cumbersome as power is a major revenue generating sector for the state,” he said. He said the state was aware of the problems faced by power producers and was making all-out efforts to address them. “Local committees have been formed and people are being consulted before commissioning the project,” he said. Besides, the Local Area Development Fund had been set up for the development of the project-affected areas and adequate compensation and funds for social and other developments activities was also being ensured under the HP Hydro Power Policy, 2006, Virbhadra Singh added. He said India’s power sector faced a lot of challenges, such as poor infrastructure, high cost of production of electricity harnessed from coal, shortage of natural gas and non-availability of nuclear resources. There were around 27,436 mw hydel potential in the state, out of which 9,202.89 mw had already been harnessed and 11,361 mw was under different stages of development. “Harnessing hydro-power potential becomes all the more important in our endeavour for having a low carbon economy and the Himachal Pradesh Government is keen that the power producers are facilitated while setting up their projects,” he added. The CM stressed that in order to ensure early completion, the project reports must have all technical inputs and geological investigations to minimise risk that can arise at a later stage. Speaking on the occasion, Sujan Singh Pathania said the government had constituted the HP Power Corporation with the objective of enhancing the existing hydel potential and explore the possibilities for inviting the investors by providing several sops to them. R Jeyaseelan, Former Chairman, Central Water Commission (CWC), said due care must be taken while undertaking geological studies as safety against future risk and natural calamities was a must. “There is simply no scope for short-cuts in hydro power projects and unfortunately the data collected is not analysed on time, resulting in problems and delays at later stages,” he remarked. DK Sharma, Managing Director, HP Power Corporation Limited, said energy consumption in the state had undergone tremendous growth, from 39 units in 1972 to 1,072 units today. MLA Ravi Thakur, Chief Secretary P Mitra, Principal Secretary (Power) S K B S Negi and Director General, National Water Development Agency, Masood Hussain, were also present. |
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800 temples told to beef up security
Shimla, September 18 About 85 temples have been enlisted in list “A”, 150 in list “B” and about 500 temples are in “C” category. The temple management committees have been advised to appoint security guards, install CCTV cameras, put theft alarms in place, improve lighting systems, get lockers and maintain a record of visitors, he added. As many as 25 temples are under the control of the government and their security is the responsibility of the district administration concerned. Home Guards have been deployed in 41 temples while the security of other temples is in the hands of local committees or villagers. Sources in the police department said over 150 temples and monasteries have been targeted by burglars in the past one decade. The problem is gigantic as every village in the state has its own place of worship and majority of these have priceless idols and jewellery and burglars keep looking for an opportunity to strike. There are around 26,500 places of worship in the 20,118 villages of the state, including 5,000 temples. As per the data available with the police, precious items, including valuable idols and jewellery, valuing Rs 1.12 crore, have been stolen from the temples since January 1, 2013 to July 15, 2014 and a total of 102 cases of thefts were registered. The DGP said there has been a decline in the cases of temple thefts as the police have solved 21 cases and arrested 27 accused while investigations were in progress in 21 cases and challan have been put in courts in 18 cases. Shrines categorised
About 85 temples have been enlisted on the list “A”, 150 list “B” and about 500 temples are in the “C” category. Temple management committees have been advised to appoint security guards, install CCTV cameras, put theft alarms in place, improve lighting systems, get lockers and maintain a record of visitors. |
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Central team visits medical college site in Hamirpur
Hamirpur, September 18 “A two-member team from the Union Health and Welfare Ministry comprising Chief Engineer and Chief Architect had visited the site proposed for setting up a medical college and had approved the site after finding it suitable for the college,” said Chief Medical Officer PR Katwal. The team had also assured that some infrastructure would be raised before August 2015 that would enable starting of admissions for the first batch in the medical college, he added. He said the college would initially be attached with district hospital, Hamirpur, and later it would have its own indoor and outdoor patient handling facilities. Members of the Central team that visited the site were accompanied by Katwal. It was learnt that since the land was a non-forest land, it doesn’t require environment clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest. This would help the government in early transfer of the land to the Health Department without wasting time on the cumbersome procedure required for transferring of forest land for non-forest activity under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. The medical college was announced by the UPA government soon before the announcement of the of last Lok Sabha elections. With a budget allocation over Rs 180 crore, the hospital is expected to provide quality health care facilities to the people of Hamirpur, Bilaspur districts and also border areas of Kangra. The funding for the medical college would be on a 90:10 sharing basis between the Centre and the state government. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had assigned the task of identifying the land for the medical college to the district administration. |
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Raid-de-Himalaya to be flagged off on Oct 4
Shimla, September 18 He said the state government would provide helicopter services to meet any emergency during the event, besides private helicopter would be kept ready for evacuation. The event is being organised by the Himalayan Motorsport Association, Shimla, in collaboration with the Departments
of Youth Services and Sports and Tourism, Himachal Pradesh. He said the event this year was a real life thriller as it would pass through some areas where temperature dips below -20°C. Due to the recent floods in Jammu and Kashmir, the rally route was reviewed and revised to facilitate the ongoing relief and rescue efforts in the state, he added. Care was being taken to schedule day movements so that as far as possible, all competitive sections run during day time, he said, adding that the safety plan envisaged the use of roving mobile teams and mobile ambulance units in addition to the required number of fixed ‘fast intervention vehicles’ and ambulances. Giving details of the event, he said the first leg of the event would finish on October 5 at Manali after taking off from Shimla. The second leg of the event will commence on October 6 from Manali and would pass through the Kunzum La to halt at Kaza. In the third leg, the participants would take off from Kaza on October 7 and would move through Komik, Dhankar and would again halt at Kaza. The 4th leg after taking off from Kaza, would pass through Gramphoo, Darcha and would rest at Sarchu on October 8. The fifth leg of the 16th Raid-de-Himalaya would take off from Sarchu and would pass through Debring, Daat and would again halt at Sarchu on October 9. In the final leg, participants after pushing off from Sarchu on October 10 will move through Keylong and will be back to Manali where the prize distribution ceremony would be held on October 11. |
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Kangra people donate for J&K flood victims
Kangra, September 18 Santosh Kumar, who is heading a three-member group of MBA Travel and Tourism students of CUHP, visited different hotels, shops and education institutions here and collected funds. Abeshek Walia and Sandeep Kumar, MBA students of CUHP, said students and doctors of the DRPGMC, Tanda, responded well to their call and they donated money for this cause. Meanwhile, Vice-Chancellor, CUHP, YS Verma said students were eager to collect funds for helping the people of Kashmir. He said all the employees of the university had donated their one-day salary for the flood victims to be contributed to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. Meanwhile, faculty members of the DRPGMC, Tanda, in association with the Teachers’ Association of Medical College, Tanda, donated their one-day salary for the cause. Sheera Thana villagers collected Rs 21,000 for the relief of the flood victims. |
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Probe sought into sadhvi murder case
Kangra, September 18 Talking to mediapersons here, the swami said it was unfortunate that the sadhvi was threatened by some youths of the village on July 10, and she had reported the matter to the Baklo police post. But no action was taken by the police. He said the sadhvi had been serving people and the shrine for the last 45 years. He said despite the resentment shown by people of Kakeera and the business community, the police did not try to investigate the case and find those involved in the crime. The swami said he had written to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, state DGP Sanjay Kumar and Chamba SSP KD Chaudhary in this regard. |
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5 of family booked for rioting, trespassing
Nurpur, September 18 As per information, Ravi Devi, wife of Jaram Singh of the same village, was raising the boundary wall of the house on August 18 by engaging a mason. She alleged in her complaint that her neigbhour Mahashu Ram and four members of his family started quarrelling with her. The accused entered the house with sticks and thrashed her. She was injured in the assault and tried to report the matter to the police that declined to register an FIR by taking a plea that the injuries were simple. Then she filed a petition under Section 156 (3) of the CrPC in the court seeking its direction to the police to register her case. DSP Manoj Joshi said following the court’s direction, the police registered a case under Sections 147, 148, 149, 451, 323 and 506 of the IPC against all five accused. He said investigation had started into the allegations of the complainant and action would be taken after the completion of the inquiry process. |
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Teachers’ union meet to finalise charter of demands
Una, September 18 Kapoor said more than 300 posts of principals were lying vacant in the department, which needed to be filled up, while the services of principals and head teachers, appointed on ad hoc basis should be regularised. He said pay anomaly
in grade pay of physical education teachers upon their promotion to higher grade should also be removed. He said the decision of the State Education Board to start state open school centres in government schools needed to be reviewed. He said these centres were an additional burden on school teachers and principals, adding that the board should open such centres separately. |
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Relay fast by Gramin bank staff enters Day 9
Mandi, September 18 He said if their demands were not accepted, they would hold a state-wide strike on October 20 and then resort to indefinite fast from November 24. He said they had already submitted a charter of demands to bank chairman SK Chawla. However, Chawla yesterday said the protest was unnecessary. The main demands include a probe into the cases of corruption, recovery of cash incentive and income tax wrongly paid by showing excess profit, recruitment and promotions, absorption of sweepers against the vacant posts of office attendants, computer increment on a par with Punjab National Bank in light of 100 per cent computerisation and other allowances/benefits at par with PNB and biased transfer of officers of the
organisation. |
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Farmers express resentment against fee hike
Shimla, September 18 In a statement issued here yesterday, HKS state president Dr Kuldeep Tanwar said the government must intervene in the matter as this could deny the right to education to several students. “We must not forget that more than 90% students hail from rural background and it will just not be possible for them to afford education as the hike was abnormally high,” he said. He also lashed out at members of the executive council of the HPU. He said the HSK would fully back and support the agitation by student bodies against the fee hike as it would severely affect students from weak economic background. “The government is using the Vice-Chancellor to ensure fee hike and the VC in turn is keen to retain his chair,” he stated.
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Film fest from Oct 30
Dharamsala, September 18 Kulkarni is an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and his film ‘Three of Us’ premiered at Berlinale in 2008. The other films to be screened during the festival include Rohin Raveendran ‘Nair’s Little Hands’, ‘Tamaash’ by brothers Satyanshu and Devanshu Singh, Nishtha Jain’s ‘Call it Slut’, ‘Ika’ by Raam Reddy and ‘Border Patrol’, directed by Peter Baumann and produced by Nishad Chaughule. The 3rd edition of the DIFF will take place in McLeodganj between October 30 and November 2. Indo-Tibetan filmmaker couple Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam initiated the film festival with the aim to bring high-quality independent cinema to Dharamsala, encourage local filmmaking talent and create a meaningful platform for engage all the communities in the area.
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The Kumud Bhushan Education Society, headed by Prashant Bhushan, today alleged that the cancellation of sale deed of land purchased by the society at Kandwari in Palampur was politically motivated with an intention to dislodge it from its premises.
Refuting allegations by Prashant Bhushan that he was being targeted for pursuing corruption cases against him, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said it was unfortunate that a person with such stature should make such baseless charges.
“The land was granted to the Kumad Bhushan Education Society during the BJP regime and the notice to resume the land too was issued by Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, while the BJP was in power,” he said.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said the government had simplified the norms and formalities associated with setting up of hydro-power projects in the state so as to facilitate power producers, as power was a priority sector for the government.
a ban imposed on the Student Central Association
(SCA) elections by Himachal Pradesh University. Demanding a rollback of the increase in the fee structure and removal of the ban on the SCA elections, ABVP member Yogesh Thakur said they would not end their protest until their demands were accepted. He said two members of the organisation would sit on chain hunger strike at Government Vallabh College here.
TNS
