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Thursday July 9, 1998

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Settle issue out of
court: MLA
HP share under
reorganisation Act
SHIMLA, July 8 — A former Chief Minister and Congress MLA, Thakur Ram Lal, has stressed that the Himachal Pradesh Government should find an out-of-court settlement with Punjab and Haryana to secure its 7.19 per cent share under the Punjab Reorganisation Act.Thakur Ram Lal was participating in the debate on the budget proposals in the Vidhan Sabha today.

Militants kill 4 from Chamba
SHIMLA, July 8 — Kashmiri militants killed four residents of Kihar in Chamba

Militants kill 4 from Chamba
Tribune News Service
SHIMLA, July 8 — Kashmiri militants killed four residents of Kihar in Chamba district who had gone to collect herbs in the hills of Doda district of Jammu.
This was disclosed in the Vidhan Sabha today by Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal.
The Chief Minister said a police party consisting of 25 personnel had been sent to the spot. Giving details of the incident, he infomed the House that a group of five from Chamba district left on June 23 to collect herbs. One of them, Narain Singh of Kangel village in Kihar, was left behind because of an injury in his leg. When his companions did not return to the village, on July 6 he informed the police.
The authorities came to know of the killings when one Majid Gujjar informed the D.S.P., Salooni, yesterday that he had seen four bodies in the Sumbain khud. On receiving the information, a police party consisting of an officer, four Head Constables and 20 constables, along with a number of villagers, left for the site.
Mr Dhumal said the killed had been identified as Dula Ram of Kalsara village, Ginder of Kangel village and Madan and Kishen of Bairaga village. The Chief Minister announced a relief of Rs 25,000 to the next of kin of each of the killed.
Mr J.B.L. Khachi (Cong) accused the ISI of Pakistan of being behind such incidents.
This is not for the first time that Kashmiri militants have struck in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. They kidnapped 150 residents of Kihar last year.

Settle issue out of court: MLA
HP share under reorganisation Act
Tribune News Service
SHIMLA, July 8 — A former Chief Minister and Congress MLA, Thakur Ram Lal, has stressed that the Himachal Pradesh Government should find an out-of-court settlement with Punjab and Haryana to secure its 7.19 per cent share under the Punjab Reorganisation Act.
Thakur Ram Lal was participating in the debate on the budget proposals in the Vidhan Sabha today.
He suggested that the BJP-HVC combine government headed by Mr P.K. Dhumal, should seek the intervention of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, to get the issue settled out of the court.
The issue of securing its share under the Act was taken to the Supreme Court by the previous Congress government headed by Mr Virbhadra Singh.
Thakur Ram Lal said that taxes worth Rs 50 crore imposed in the Budget would further burden the common man. The prices of daily use commodities have already soared high.
Thakur Ram Lal warned that an economic emergency might have to be imposed if the prices continued to soar without any effort to control them.
He said that certain parties were trying to derive political mileage out of the

Pokhran nuclear tests. The BJP government at the Centre should explain whether these tests were properly timed.
He pointed out that India had made it clear that it had an up-to-date nuclear weaponry way back when such tests were conducted during the regime of Mrs Indira Gandhi.

He also complimented Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru and Mr Rajiv Gandhi for introducing the scientific temper in the country in a big way.

He urged the government to provide a job to at least one person from each family in the state. The number of educated unemployed has risen to 7.40 lakh, he said.
He demanded that instead of centralising the recruitment process in one single institution, this should be done departmentally for the lower level jobs and teachers. Many educational institutions were without teachers.
Mr J.B.L.Khachi (Cong) accused the BJP-HVC government of interfering r J.B.L. in functioning of the Panchayati Raj institutions, urban local bodies and the cooperatives.
He warned that the Congress would not allow any dilution of the powers of these institutions.
He welcomed the taxes proposed in the Budget and said that all taxable people should be proud of contributing to the kitty. Himachal Pradesh should not become a state of parasites.
Mr Khachi accused the BJP-HVC combine of having tried to mislead the people by unleashing a false propaganda that the funds for the tribal areas were diverted elsewhere during the Congress regime. However, this has been nailed with the reply of the government to a question in the Vidhan Sabha that no such diversion of funds was done.
He said that the Budget proposals have inspired only the ministers and those who were trying to find a berth in the ministry.
He said that the country was proud of the nuclear explosions at Pokhran, but the fallout of the sanctions imposed by the U.S.A. will be felt in the next six months.
Mr Khachi said that a time-bound implementation of the programmes announced in the Budget should have been promised, instead of a phased manner.
He assured support of the Congress to the state government in case any of the big states tried to bully Himachal in securing its share of the Punjab Reorganisation Act.
He warned that the private sector should not be allowed to monopolise hydroelectric generation which was the ultimate source of revenue with Himachal Pradesh.
Himachal should have a token share in all such hydel projects which were being offered to the private sector.
He said that some projects should be assigned to the HPSEB whose manpower should not be made to sit idle by offering the projects to the private sector.
Initiating the debate on the Budget, Mr R.R. Kaundal (BJP) alleged that the Congress presented a tax-free Budget in the past four years, but resorted to backdoor taxation outside the house.
He said that no steps were taken to mobilise resources during the Congress regime during which unproductive expenditure had increased.
Mr Vidya Sagar, Agriculture Minister, and Mr Karam Singh, Minister of State for Primary Education, also spoke.
During question hour, the Industries Minister, Mr Kishori Lal, informed the House that a task force has been set up by the state government to frame the new industrial policy within three months.
Mr Kishori Lal, who was replying to a question of Mrs Viplove Thakur (Cong) said that the Himachal Pradesh Government will seek continuance of transport subsidy for the industry from the Centre on the pattern of the North-East states.
In a written reply to Mr Harshwardhan Chauman (Cong), the Health Minister said that out of the 207 sanctioned posts of doctor and para-medical staff in Shillai, Rajpura and Sangraha blocks of Sirmour, 115 posts were lying vacant.
He said that out of the sanctioned posts of 33 doctor, nine were vacant, 11 posts of pharmacist were vacant against the sanctioned strength of 24, as many as 10 posts of laboratory assistant were vacant against the sactioned strength of 17 and 14 posts of staff nurse were lying vacant against a sanctioned strength of 23.