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Sukhu to take AICC route to avoid opposition
Preparations begin for President’s arrival on Dec 17
HPU staff call for non-coop stir
Housing projects to draw investors: Minister
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Law to debar teachers from politics: CM
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh being honoured by Vice-Chancellor of CSK Agricultural University KK Katoch in Palampur on Thursday. photo: Kamaljeet
Turkish team visits Swan river watershed project
BJP move a survival tactic: Cong
A file photo of the Rohru-Hatkoti stretch.
BJYM supports Bragta’s march
Winter kits given to students
Man killed in road accident
CM for more facilities to sportspersons
Four cops felicitated in Mandi
Jail inmate hangs himself in Nalagarh
Five booked for assault on revenue officials
Two held for smuggling wood
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More than one district unit in big districts Pratibha Chauhan Tribune News Service
Shimla, November 13
The matter, which is generating heat, is likely to be raised during the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) executive meet, scheduled for November 28. “I am still holding consultations with senior party leaders but I have made up my mind to place the matter before the AICC for the final decision,” said Sukhu. He said any further decision would depend on what the AICC decided. He added that DCCs would be set up in Kangra, Mandi and Shimla and the big Assembly segments of Lahaul-Spiti, Rohru and Bharmour would have two Block Congress Committees (BCCs). It is being felt that since there is too much of opposition to the proposal, he has decided to get it enforced through the high command. If the AICC gives its nod, senior party leaders will be left with little option but to accept it even if they are opposed to it. Transport Minister GS Bali, who hails from Kangra, has already expressed his reservations on the issue and went to the extent of stating that he will take up the matter with the high command. “Having more than one District Congress Committee in Kangra, Mandi and Shimla is the need of the hour for better, effective and more accountable functioning of the party,” stresses Sukhu. Sukhu also intends creating two BCCs in the geographically difficult and bigger Assembly segments of Lahaul-Spiti, Bharmour and Rohru.“It is very difficult for party men from Pangi to attend meeting of the Bharmour DCC and the same applies for people of Keylong and Kaza in Lahaul-Spiti and Dodra Kawar in Rohru,” he said. He says having two BCC units for big segments will help in better functioning of the party. As per the proposal, Kangra, which has 15 Assembly segments, will have three DCC units while Mandi and Shimla will have two DCC units each. Mandi has 10 Assembly segments while Shimla has eight. Most other districts have four or five districts each, which Sukhu feels can be managed well by a single existing DCC. In the pipeline
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Preparations begin for President’s arrival on Dec 17
Hamirpur, November 13 The office of the President has sent the consent message to the director of NIT, including his travelling schedule. He would be the chief guest at the seventh convocation of the institute. The construction wing of the institute has swung into action to give a facelift to the auditorium, the venue of the convocation, and also the administrative block, guest house and other buildings. Apart from the President, many other dignitaries, including Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani, Governor of Himachal Pradesh Urmila Singh, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Union Health Minister JP Nadda and MP Anurag Singh Thakur are expected to be present at the event. It is learnt that the President would fly in by a plane of the Indian Air Force to Chandigarh, from where he would travel by an IAF Chopper to the NIT helipad. He would confer the degrees to the students and fly back. His stay at the NIT would be of about two hours. Rajneesh Srivastava, Director, NIT, said degrees would be given to the students who had qualified the engineering course in 2013. The renovation of buildings was a routine practice before every function and festival, he added.
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HPU staff call for non-coop stir
Shimla, November 13 The JCC has taken a serious note of the “non-cooperative” attitude of the university authorities and decided to pay back in the same coin by adopting a non-cooperation attitude towards the university administration. “All non-teaching employees of the university are requested not to cooperate with the university authorities during office hours and resort to work to rule till the demands of the employees are addressed positively,” said JCC chairman Dr Hiteshwar Singh Thakur. The JCC also took a strong exception to the promotion orders of some employees issued yesterday and said the action of the university was “shocking and provocative” as the orders were in complete violation of the decisions taken by the Executive Council, the apex decision-making body. “The university administration has not only ignored the interest of senior employees, but also taken actions which are against the law of natural justice, past practice and against the decision upheld by the court,” Thakur said, adding that the JCC condemns the unlawful action of the university authorities and requested the administration to modify and issue the revised orders immediately as per seniority and prevalent rules and regulations in the interest of the employees’ community. “The university authorities held meetings with representatives of the JCC recently, in which the decisions were taken in favour of the employees. However, later the university backed out of its commitment and did not implement the decision forcing the employees to resume the agitation,” he added. Meanwhile, the JCC leaders staged a dharna in front of the Vice Chancellor’s office to press for acceptance of their demands and vowed to continue the agitation till the demands were accepted.
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Housing projects to draw investors: Minister
Hamirpur, November 13 He said the state had launched new housing projects which would open doors for investment of billions of rupees in the state. Hamirpur had witnessed all round development and these projects would get state-of-art townships to the district. The process of identifying land had been started so that work could begin at the earliest. Such projects not only bring changes in lifestyle but also help in ushering economic development in the state, he added. Later, Thakur Dass Rathee, the ‘Pahari nati king’, stole the show and enthralled the audience with his popular numbers. Earlier, Indian Idol finalist Pooja Bhardwaj and Pahari singer Dheeraj Sharma also performed. The function was attended by dignitaries, including ID Lakhanpal, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Kuldeep Singh Pathania, Vice-Chairman, Kangra Central Cooperative Bank, Anil Verma, Director (tourism), Rohan Chand Thakur, Deputy Commissioner and Chairman of Hamir Utsav organising committee, and SP Ajay Bodh.
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Law to debar teachers from politics: CM
Dharamsala, November 13 Urmila Singh, Governor and Chancellor of the university, presided over the convocation. Virbhadra Singh was the chief guest on the occasion. The Governor and the Chief Minister awarded degrees, certificates of honour and gold medals to 317 meritorious students out of the total 686 students on the occasion. In her presidential address, the Governor urged the students to keep themselves updated with the current affairs, besides upgrading their skills in order to face various challenges in future. She said to excel in their field, they should be experts in their subjects. The Governor said research was very vital for the growth of the agriculture sector and efforts should be made to strengthen this area. Intensive research should be done for developing new varieties of crops suitable to different climatic conditions. She said there was a vast scope for crop diversification and off-season vegetables in the state and the university had significantly contributed towards strengthening the socio-economic standards of the farming community. Felicitating all degree recipients on the occasion, the Governor urged them to serve the state and the country with dedication. She also released a monograph on high precision farming on the occasion. The Chief Minister said there was a need to develop region-specific vegetable varieties for optimum production with low input. The main focus should be on growing vegetable crops that fetch high market price nationally and internationally. He said crop diversification was the top priority of the government. “By implementing various policies, we have been able to increase the area under vegetable crops, including off-season vegetables, to 68,000 hectares with a production of 13.56 lakh metric tonnes. This has brought economic revolution in rural areas,” he added. The CM said the state was producing more foodgrains than its requirement due to improved technology. “Fast adoption of new technologies such as polyhouse farming and organic agriculture has further multiplied the visibility of the state at the national level,” he said. The Chief Minister said water harvesting was another priority area of the government and this should be the focus area of the scientists. He said about 70 per cent farm operations were being performed by women and the state had taken a lead by organising them to self-help groups besides linking them with bank credit. “I am not against students activities in higher centres of learning provided that they adhere to discipline and not resort to mischief,” he said. Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated Rs 86-lakh solid waste management project at Surad in GP Lohana, Palampur. He also laid the foundation stone of the foreign registration office at Dharamsala to be constructed at a cost of Rs 1.6 crore. Earlier, Dr KK Katoch, Vice Chancellor of the university, welcomed and honoured the Governor and the Chief Minister. Speaker of the HP Vidhan Sabha BBL Butail, Agriculture Minister Sujan Singh Pathania and Urban Development and Housing Minister Sudhir Sharma were among others present on the occasion. 686 students awarded degrees
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Turkish team visits Swan river watershed project
Una, November 13 The Turkish project is also being funded by the JICA and the delegation was here to learn from the experiences of the Swan River project, which is in the final stages of implementation in 96 gram panchayats here. Chief Project Director of the project Suresh Kumar briefed the delegates about the project activities, which included soil and water conservation activities, besides livelihood improvement initiatives for the rural folk. The team later visited Sali area of the Thada panchayat and observed soil and water conservation activities of the area, besides sharing the experiences with the agriculture user group of rainwater harvesting structure, a plantation protection group and a nursery rearing project, being managed by local women’s self-help group. The group has already visited agriculture development projects being implemented with the assistance of JICA in Hamirpur, Bilaspur and Mandi districts of the state.
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Agitation against Delay in Theog-Hatkoti-Rohru road Tribune News Service
Shimla, November 13 In a joint statement released here today, they said it was the Congress government which had declared this road as state highway to provide better connectivity to the people keeping in view its importance in apple belt. They said the World-Bank funded Theog-Kotkhai-Hatkoti-Rohru road, having a length of 80.684 km amounting to Rs 228.25 crore, was awarded to a Chinese company Longjian Road and Bridge Limited on February 29, 2008, which was to be completed within 36 months but the work was delayed due to lack of interest and callous attitude of the then BJP government. The Congress, after coming to power, got the revised estimates and bid documents of the work and split the work in two parts, Theog-Kotkhai-Kharapathar (48 Km) and Kharapathar-Hatkoti-Rohru (32 Km) and the work costing Rs 322.76 crore was awarded to C&C Constructions on November 19, 2013, with the stipulated completion date of contract as June 30, 2016. They said that the contractor could not achieve the desired progress due to bad weather, early rains, prolonged apple season and unavailability of construction material. The government had issued notice to the firm to expedite the work on which it had given assurance to complete the work within stipulated period. Detailing the progress of the Theog-Kotkhai-Kharapathar road, they said 2 km earth work had been completed while 300 metres had been in progress. The construction of two bridges was in progress, 900 metre retaining wall and three culverts had been constructed and 100 metre wall work and 4 slab/pipe culverts was in progress. The work of subgrade in 1 km was in progress. While on the Kharapathar-Hatkoti-Rohru road, earth work had been completed in 3 km and was in progress in 2.6 km. Similarly, construction work of one bridge, 500 metre retaining wall and 4 culverts was in progress. They said the government was reviewing and monitoring the road progress regularly to complete the road in time bound manner.
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BJYM supports Bragta’s march
Shimla, November 13 Refuting the charge of Congress that the padyatra was a political drama, Bragta said the aim was to expose the insensitive attitude of the government towards the miserable plight of the people who had been suffering for the past four years. He said Chief Minister Vibhadra Singh had not even cared to travel by this road during past two years. The BJYM said it would enable the BJP to expose the lies of the Congress. BJYM state president Sunil Thakur alleged that the Congress indulged in cheap politics on the Theog-Hatkothi road in the last Assembly elections and promised to complete it in 100 days but the condition of the road had deteriorated.
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Winter kits given to students
Una, November 13 The sweaters were distributed at a function, which was organised at the Thakurdwara temple in Bhadsali village. Samiti president Chitt Vilas Pathak, secretary Succha Singh Kang and a senior member, OP Dogra, were present on the occasion. Dogra said the woollen were given to school teachers for further distributing them to deserving students of government schools based in Khadd, Panjawar, Deolibari, Panwda, Mubarikpur, Sanghnai, Ispur, Talai, Nangal Salangri, Dohak, Thanakalan, Palkwah, Churdi and Balh Khalsa villages.
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Man killed in road accident
Mandi, November 13 In another case, Atma Ram of Saranala village under Sadar tehsil was injured when a rashly driven jeep (HP-49-1167) coming from the Kullu side hit him. He was rushed to a nearby hospital. The Aut police have registered a case against the jeep driver. |
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47th HP Police Sports Meet Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, November 13 Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh stated this while presiding over the 47th HP Police Sports Meet at Dharamsala police ground today. He said the importance of sports should not be underestimated as many children learn life’s important lessons in the sports field. Also, games can lead to a happier, healthier and more productive life. Congratulating the Police Department for hosting the meet, the Chief Minister said the Jawans, despite their busy schedule, had taken out time for the meet, which was laudable. The state government was promoting sports in a big way and had honoured various sportspersons who had brought laurels in various national and international championships. He said the government had always worked for the welfare of the police Jawans and had initiated various measures to strengthen the department as a whole. The state would endeavour to provide more facilities to the sportsperson, besides making provisions for their timely promotions, he said. Virbhadra Singh announced Rs 18 lakh for laying sewerage in Police Lines, Dharamsala, Rs 24 lakh for renovation and betterment of roads in second IRB Sakoh and Rs 32 lakh for repair of police accommodation in Kangra. He congratulated the winners of the events and distributed prizes among them. He also released a souvenir on the occasion. Earlier, the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone of Foreigners Registration Office, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 1.65 crore, a Police Administration Block, to be constructed at Rs 1.50 crore and Police Barracks worth Rs one crore at Dharamsala. Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjay Kumar welcomed and honoured the Chief Minister and provided details of the sports meet and the latest techniques adopted by the Police Department to streamline law and order. He also listed the achievements of sportsperson who had brought laurels to the Police Department and urged the CM to open more women police stations in the state. The DGP also placed forth few demands and urged him for funds to strengthen the police force. The Jawans of the Punjab Police showcased their skills in equestrian and tent pegging, besides their expertise in horse riding. As many as 500 police personnel of the northern zone, southern zone, central zone and central range participated in the tourney. The southern range was declared the best team, while the central unit was adjudged best in cultural performances. Various events like soccer, equestrian, volleyball, basketball, handball, kabaddi etc were held on the occasion. A colourful cultural programme was also organised. GS Bali, Transport Minister, Sudhir Sharma, Urban Development Minister, MLAs Ajay Mahajan, Yadvender Goma, Sanjay Ratan, Vijay Singh Mankotia, Vice-Chairman of HP State Tourism Development Corporation, Kewal Singh Pathania, Vice-Chairman of HP State Forest Corporation and ex-MLA Surender Kaku was also present.
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Four cops felicitated in Mandi
Mandi, November 13 |
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Jail inmate hangs himself in Nalagarh
Solan, November 13 The sentry, guarding his cell, got suspicious when Giri did not come out even after 15-20 minutes and he discovered his body hanging in the toilet. He used his blanket for commiting suicide. The body was seen hanging at 9:45 am and though the policemen tried to rush him to the First Referral Unit located nearby, doctors pronounced him brought dead. Superintendent of Police, Baddi, G Shiva, said the police station’s munshi had been placed under suspension while a Home Guards sleuth, who was guarding this cell, had been replaced pending an inquiry which had been ordered. He also added that the deceased was known to taking drugs and since he could not consume it in the police custody, the desperation could have driven him to take this extreme step. The incident had, however, brought the working of the police under a scanner as the deceased had been remanded to the police custody only yesterday and though no foul play had come to light, how an unused water pipe was left unattended in the jail reflected the callous attitude of the authorities. The deceased had used a blanket which he was carrying along with him The accused, who hails from Chatra in Jharkhand and was working as a driver, was charged with Section 406 and 407 of the IPC pertaining to breach of trust in a case registered on April 6. He had sold off 500 cement bags which he was supposed to deliver in Karnal but had vanished with the money. The truck was found parked near Baddi a few days later and the police had since then been trying to locate him. A judicial inquiry, which is being conducted by the additional CJM HS Verma, was also initiated in this case today. A team of doctors, led by Medical Officer, Nalagarh, who conducted the postmortem, said the deceased had hanged himself from a water pipe which was no longer in use. |
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Five booked for assault on revenue officials
Mandi, November 13 Sadar Tehsildar Ajay Prashar said Naib Tehsildar Gopal Singh Kataria and Patwari Kehar Singh were attacked by a group of villagers when they went for demarcation of land in the village. He said the patwari sustained injuries in the attack. Sadar SHO Sanjiv Sood said a case had been registered against Chet Ram, Giri Singh and three other persons for attacking the revenue officials. He said Chet Ram had also lodged a complaint against the revenue officials. “We will first inquire into the complaint and then take action accordingly,” the SHO said. HP Revenue Officers Association chief media coordinator Ajay Prashar condemned the attack and demanded immediate arrest of the accused. He also demanded police protection for the revenue officials in such cases.
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Two held for smuggling wood
Mandi, November 13 The accused have been identified as Kamal Kishor, a resident of Prundal, and Ishwar Das, a resident of Tarwaan village in the district. An official of the Forest Department said the seized wood was of deodar and kayal varieties and its cost was estimated to be more than ~1 lakh. Padhar SHO Bhim Sen said a case under Sections 379 and 34 of the IPC and Sections 41 and 42 of
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Hamirpur, November 13
The state government is mulling a legislation to debar teachers from participating in political activities.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said this on the sidelines of the 12th convocation of CSK HP Agricultural University,
Palampur, today. He said teachers should carry out their responsibilities in a dignified manner and not indulge in politics.
Irrigation & Public Health Minister Vidya Stokes, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Rohit Thakur and MLA Mohan Lal Brakta have termed the proposed agitation by the BJP regarding the Theog-Hatkoti-Rohru road as a drama to remain politically alive. They said the BJP was misleading the people to cover up the failures.
Sukhu’s plan is being opposed by almost all ministers and party MLAs. Though he tried to convince the senior party leaders, including Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and ministers, to give their consent for the move, aimed at strengthening the party, he failed to get their support.