P R A D E S H
Wednesday, October 6, 1999
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H I M A C H A L P R A D E S H |
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Wednesday, October 6, 1999 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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No festivities for apple
growers |
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HP govt revamps DRDA SHIMLA, Oct 5 — The state government has reconstituted the District Rural Development Agency, which will be headed by the chairman of the Zila Parishad. Takeover of lift opposed Withdrawal
of contracts stayed Om
Prakash is HP rights panel chief Kingpin
held in fake currency scandal Charas
seized, five held |
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No festivities for apple
growers SHIMLA, Oct 5 — The apple growers of Himachal Pradesh have nothing to cheer themselves as festival season is coming close. The failure of the apple crop this season has completely shattered their economy. With the production declining to an all time low, they have hardly money to enjoy festivities. The festival season which begins with Navratri and culminates in Divali, has a special significance for the growers as it comes after the harvesting season. They have time as well as money to rejoice and celebrate. In the normal course it is time for acquiring new things. Come Navratri and the growers go on a buying spree. But this year they are worried about the future. With virtually no returns from the crop, which sustained them through the year, they will find it difficult to make both ends meet. Indeed, the growers never had it so bad. After the bumper crop last year, when a record 2.16 crore boxes of apple were produced, the state is heading for the lowest output this season. The harvesting is almost over. Only 21 lakh boxes have been exported from the state up to September 30 as compared to 1.65 crore boxes last year. With harvesting remaining in parts of Kinnaur and some high altitude areas the total production is likely to be around 25 lakh boxes. Last year out of the total 4 lakh tonnes apple produced in the state as much as 70,000 tonnes was procured by the government under the market intervention scheme. This year the total production will be only around 45,000 tonnes and 1160 tonnes has been procured for processing. The decline in production has led to sharp increase in prices. Even inferior quality fruit was getting good return. However, the growers did not benefit from the upswing in the market as they had little fruit to sell. Even at the fag end of the season the good varieties were fetching a good price. For instance, the royal variety was being sold at Rs 400 to Rs 450 per box as against Rs 250 to Rs 300 per box last year. The peak prices during the season were as high as Rs 900 per box as against Rs 520 per box last year. The import of apples under the open general licence (OGL) scared the growers. However, this year only a small quantity of fruit has been imported without affecting the market of domestic apples. Over 10,000 tonnes of imported fruit was sold in the Indian market at prices ranging from Rs 70 to Rs 100 per kg. The high prices of
imported fruit indicated that it may not pose a serious
threat to the domestic fruit. The growers are, however,
worried as they feel that once the import starts on a
large scale, the prices would come down and they may not
be able to compete. The experts maintain that it was too
early to gauge the real impact in just one season. It
will take a few seasons to assess how the imported fruit
would be received by the consumers. |
Stress on armed forces' role in
nation building SHIMLA, Oct 5 — Lt-Gen Y.M. Bammi (retired) said here today that the Indian armed forces were not only defending the country's frontiers but were also playing an important role in nation building. Delivering a lecture on the "Contribution of armed forces in nation building" at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, here today, he said the Indian troops, though themselves under division after the partition, escorted refugees to safety, established and managed camps and provided medical cover to them. Highlighting their role in integrating the far-flung areas of the country, specially in the North-East, Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, General Bammi elaborated the socio-economic development, educational and medical facilities and employment avenues provided by the armed forces to the people of such region. The construction of roads by the border roads organisation also went a long way in assimilating the people into the mainstream of the nation, he observed. By adopting Hindi as the main language for all training, Jai Hind as the form of salutation and opening-up enrolment to all people of the country, the armed forces provided a model of national integration and religious tolerance. Even the pensioners spread this message in their villages and home towns and thus a soldier worked to unite the nation during and after active service, he said. He explained the role played by the NCC in this field, and felt that its scope should be enlarged. Also introduction of compulsory national service for all government cadres could be considered to infuse a national spirit in them. He stressed the
importance of the role of academicians and media in
spreading information on the contribution of the armed
forces in nation building. |
HP Youth Cong dissolved HAMIRPUR, Oct 5 — Mr Sukhvinder Singh Sukhoo, president of the Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress, has dissolved the state unit of the body with an immediate effect. He made this announcement here today. Mr Sukhu, however, said that district presidents and block presidents would not be replaced at the moment. Talking to mediapersons, he said the new body would be announced within two months. He said he took this step in order to infuse new blood into the organisation and to streamline its working. He said many persons had got appointments in the organisation due to their higher political links but failed to perform their duties during elections. It was essential to weed out such elements from the organisation to make it more viable and effective. He said the observers
appointed by him during the elections would submit their
reports and accordingly decisions would be taken about
the working of various district bodies. |
HP govt revamps DRDA SHIMLA, Oct 5 — The state government has reconstituted the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), which will be headed by the chairman of the Zila Parishad. All MPs and MLAs of the district and one-third of the panchayat samiti chairpersons, to be nominated by rotation in alphabetical order for one year, will also be members of the DRDA. These must include one member of the scheduled castes or scheduled tribes, one woman, the deputy commissioner-cum-chief executive officer, DRDA, head of the central co-operative bank of the district, chairman of the Regional Rural Bank, district lead bank officer, representative of the Reserve Bank of India at the district level, NABARD representative at the district level, general manager of the DIC, representative of the KVIB, district welfare officer, one representative from a technical institution, two representatives of NGO‘s and two representatives from the weaker sections. The project director,
DRDA, will be its member secretary. Its governing body
will provide policy directions, approve the annual plan
and also review and monitor its implementation. |
Takeover of lift opposed SHIMLA, Oct 5 — The Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (Class III) Employees Association has opposed the move of the local Municipal Corporation to takeover the lift at the taxi stand. The association condemned the municipal councillors for demanding transfer of the lift from the Tourism Corporation to the Municipal Corporation. It lamented that the corporation, instead of augmenting its income from various sources, was trying to grab a profitable unit of the corporation. It threatened gherao of
councillors, if they pursued the demand any further. It
also decided to meet the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal,
and urge him to reject the demand. |
Withdrawal of contracts stayed SHIMLA, Oct 5 — The Himachal Pradesh High Court has granted an interim stay on the withdrawal of certain PWD contracts by the Executive Engineer of Sangrah division in Sirmour district. A Division Bench consisting of the Chief Justice, Mr D. Raju and Mr Justice L. S. Panta, yesterday observed that these contracts were withdrawn without giving any reason and opportunity to the petitioner. The petition filed by Mr Sahi Ram Chauhan alleged that the contracts were withdrawn on political grounds. The headquarters of the PWD division was earlier shifted from Haripurdhar to Sangrah on political considerations, he claimed. These works were granted
on June 18 and were withdrawn on August 21. |
Om Prakash is HP rights
panel chief SHIMLA, Oct 5 — The Himachal Government has appointed Justice Om Prakash as chairman of the state’s Human Rights Commission. The post has been lying vacant ever since Justice P. Balakrishna Menon quit office about nine months ago. Earlier, Justice Om Prakash was sworn is as the Lokayukta of Himachal and the government had proposed to give him the additional charge of the Chairman, Human Rights Commission. However, the Governor turned down the proposal as it violated the Human Rights Protection Act which laid down that the Chairman could not hold any other office of profit. The government has found a way out by appointing Justice Om Prakash as the Chairman of the Commission and he will now hold the additional charge of the Lokayukta. Incidentally, his
predecessor Justice Balakrishna Menon held the post
illegally as the clause debarring the Chairman from
holding any other office of profit was overlooked while
making the appointment. |
Kingpin held in fake currency
scandal KANGRA, Oct 5 — The police has arrested the kingpin of the gang involved in the fake currency notes scandal from Phillaur in Punjab and seized the computer machine used in making the fake Rs 500 notes. His arrest was made following interrogation of Ram Murli of Nakoodar who was arrested at Chintpurni on Friday last along with 28 notes of Rs 500 denomination. The district police chief, Mr K.C. Sadiyal, said today that Ram Murli had disclosed that the counterfeit notes were being supplied to different agents in North India by their kingpin from Phillaur. He said the Kangra police got in touch with the Punjab Police and raided the residence of the kingpin and arrested him. Some counterfeit notes along with a computer were recovered from him. Mr Sadiyal refused to
divulge the name of the kingpin saying that it would
hamper the investigation. |
Charas seized, five held SOLAN, Oct 5 — Acting on a tip-off, a police party intercepted a car near Oachghat, about 10 km from here, on the Solan-Rajgarh road and recovered charas valued at Rs 35,000 yesterday. Five persons have been arrested in this connection. They are Avtar Singh of Libana village (Lalru, Punjab), Manjit Singh and Swarn Singh of Sarasni village (Lalru), Mohan Lal of Nai Abadi Mandi (Lalru) and Gol Nath of Shiv Math (Lalru). A case under Section 20
of the NDPS Act (1985) has been registered and the
vehicle impounded. |
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