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Police
lathicharges Kol Dam workers, 35 hurt
CM wants Central
aid for water scheme HPSEB suffers
losses due to water shortage |
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BJP seeks cash
relief for farmers Bilaspur gets
grants for college, roads Panel formed to
expedite case disposal Zila Parishad
members blast officials Stop exploitation
of workers, says CITU leader Engineer facing
graft charge reinstated
Mysterious
explosion rocks building Dental
colleges’ fee structure notified Punjab taxi
owners block traffic Murder accused
nabbed while trying to escape Sale of spurious
drinks on rise
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Police lathicharges Kol Dam workers, 35 hurt Sundernagar, July 27 As per information received here, the confrontation between the agitating workers and police personnel started as the workers did not allow the work to start on the left bank of the project site. Meanwhile, the agitation by the workers’ union affiliated to the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh entered its 15th day. The workers have been demanding higher wages, which is not acceptable to the Kol dam
authorities. Today the authorities concerned tried to get the work started with help of other workers’ unions but the agitating workers tried to stop this. The police intervened and lathi- charged them in which more than 35 workers were injured a few of them seriously. Two policemen were also injured. Two police vehicles were also damaged. As many as 25 workers were detained by the police. The representatives of the agitating workers have demanded the immediate suspension of the police officials involved. They further accused the state government of siding with the Kol dam
authorities. Interestingly, the Kol dam authorities have denied the incident and claimed that work was going on peacefully. The strike has been declared as illegal by the state government. The situation is still tense and work on the spot has been stopped. |
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CM wants Central aid for water scheme Shimla, July 27 The Chief Minister made this request to the Minister for Urban Development, Ms Selja, who is visiting the state. He informed her that a plan to meet the water requirement of the state headquarters by augmenting the existing water supply by getting water from Pabbar Lake and Chander Nahan Lake in Rohru had been chalked out. Ms Selja said, that the maximum possible funds would be provided for the Shimla water supply scheme after working out the modalities. She assured the Chief Minister that money would be provided for the construction of rehabilitation colonies for the slum dwellers and for replacing the old fleet of buses of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation. Mr Virbhadra Singh said the scheme would solve the water problem of the town for the next century as it would cater to the requirement of a much large population. “The original water supply scheme had been designed for a population of 30,000 and after augmenting it from time to time it was catering to a population of 1.20 lakh but this too is insufficient to meet the requirement,” he remarked. The Chief Minister also said that the government was formulating a plan to develop satellite towns for 30, 000 to 50,000 people in the periphery of the major towns to ease congestion and reduce population pressure. “We also propose to rehabilitate the slum-dwellers by making colonies for them as most of them are migrant labourers from outside the state,” he said. |
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HPSEB suffers losses due to water shortage Shimla, July 27 Talking to mediapersons here on Monday, she said that due to poor monsoons and slow melting of snow, practically all the power projects of the HPSEB were generating power less than normal. The HPSEB power projects, which have been affected by slow melting of snow resulting in water shortage, include
Bhaba, Bassi, Ghanvi, Giri, Binwa and the Andhra projects. The worst affected by this unusual phenomena is the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, which has been forced to stop its operation of the sixth 250 MW unit of the 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri project. Mrs Stokes, informed that the losses incurred by the water shortage had resulted in Rs 50 crore losses from April, onwards. |
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BJP seeks cash relief for farmers Hamirpur, July 27 Farmers who had already lost their last rabi crops due to the scanty rainfall are now losing their kharif crops, which have been badly damaged due to non arrival of rains. The irked farmers feel by declaring only three districts of the state as drought hit, the state government had played a joke with the people of Hamirpur district. The district BJP today termed the decision of the state government as anti people. Mr Pyere Lal Sharma, Mr Vinod Thakur, the President and the General Secretary and Mr Rajendra Rana, the Joint Media In charge of the state BJP today criticised the government for not caring about the people of lower hill areas of the state and working purely on other considerations. They said the crop loss in the district was more than 40 per cent but the state government was not doing anything to improve the situation. The BJP leaders demanded immediate declaration of district as worst drought hit and cash relief to the farmers for losing their crops. |
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Bilaspur gets grants for college, roads Bilaspur, July 27 Presiding over a 10-day National Service Scheme (NSS) camp of 60 girls and boys of Government Senior Secondary School, Jukhala, at Bandla village near here, last evening, Mr Sharma said seven roads had been sanctioned in the Bilaspur Sadar constituency under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna and Rs 6.25 crore was being spent on these roads. Mr Sharma said at least three new classrooms would be constructed in each middle school in the constituency and Rs 45 lakh would be spent on this project during the current financial year, while Rs 76 lakh would be spent on the Mannar-Kanjota drinking water supply scheme and Rs 46 lakh on the third phase of the Jablyana drinking water supply scheme. He said this year 375 new social security pensions had been provided to widows and elderly persons. Besides, one senior secondary school at Ghagas, one high school at Koohmajhwad and five middle schools at Diara, Sungal, Balhbhulana, Balohi and Baadi, had been opened and also two new animal husbandry dispensaries had been provided at Balhbhulana and Balh Churadi, he said. Mr Sharma said the government had decided that only very essential, and those on request, transfers would be ordered. He also said he would ensure that only barest minimum transfers were ordered and all unnecessary transfers were avoided. |
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Panel formed to expedite case disposal Shimla, July 27 This was stated by Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, while addressing a meeting of the secretaries, head of departments and managing directors of various board and corporations here today. The committee would carry out weekly review of cases and ensure that replies were filed in time. He expressed concern over laxity in the implantation of the 20-point programme, as a result of which the state had slid to sixth place from top. He said it was a national programme and concerned mostly with the socio-economic uplift of the weaker sections He asked the secretaries and head of departments to undertake monthly review to ascertain the progress made by their respective departments in achieving the physical and financial targets. Emphasising the need for speedy redress of public grievances, he said the Chief Minister’s office would monitor complaints and ensure that prompt action was taken. He also took serious notice of the fact that funds sanctioned under the Centrally-sponsored schemes were not utilised, depriving the state of grants from the Centre. He also called for observing financial discipline at all levels and said unproductive expenditure would be allowed. He said non-compliance of orders would be viewed seriously and clarifications, if any, would be sought without delay. |
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Zila
Parishad members blast officials Hamirpur, July 27 Mr Pyare Lal Sharma, district zila parishad chief, chaired the meeting. Jaid Nath and Sushila Sharma, two BJP members in the parishad, hit out at certain officers of the departments for ignoring them at the instance of some Congressmen who are not even members of the parishad. Officers of both departments said the works could not be started due to the early arrival of rain. The Chairman directed the officers to ensure that the recommendations of the members were implemented so that development activities were carried out. The meeting decided to hold a special meeting for discussing the roads construction under the PMGS Yojna. The working of a junior engineer of the watershed project at Bijheri came under sharp criticism and members demanded action against him for not performing well. They demanded his removal. |
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Stop exploitation of workers, says CITU leader Kumarhatti, July 27 Talking to The Tribune here today, he said the problem had gained alarming proportions in the industrial belt of Parwanoo, Baddi and Barotiwala. The worker class continued to suffer at the hands of contractors and employers here, he said. Equally alarming was the mushrooming of unscrupulous private job consultants, who managed to provide low-cost workers to employers, he added. “The Labour Department has proved a mute spectator to the menace and failed miserably in implementing labour laws properly. The exploitation of workers has increased with the setting up of a new industrial units after the announcement of the Central Government’s tax benefit package last year,” he asserted. The routing of workers through contractors often proved bad for workers. In most cases, the workers had to forgo their pending dues after the termination of their services, he said. Eight gardeners, who were sacked in March after 15 years of services with a leading industrial unit at Parwanoo, were still waiting for their full and final settlement dues, he maintained. “Permanent employment has become rare in new units despite the fact that Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act clearly prohibits employment of casual manpower for permanent work,” he asserted. Most of the workers engaged in new units were getting wages quite below the minimum prescribed rates, he said. He stressed the need to recruit workers through employment exchanges. The state government should frame rules to limit the role of mediators in recruitment and facilitate direct employment in industries, he added. Moreover, many units were not providing proper working conditions, he said. “Many new units are being operated from
small rooms and shops. Most of these lack basic amenities like proper arrangement of light, toilets and potable water,”
he said. The Industry Department should cancel the registration of units that failed to provide proper work conditions to workers, he demanded. |
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Engineer facing graft charge reinstated Solan, July 27 It was learnt that despite his reinstatement two charge sheets has been finalised by the board and the Vigilance Department after an inquiry. Highly placed sources in the vigilance opined that even if the official re-joins, he would first have to be suspended as he had acted in violation of the rules. The board chairman, Mr Yogesh Khanna, was not available for comments. The orders of his reinstatement was received by the board today. It is ironical that the industrial units to whom these NOCs were issued illegally had demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter while the government had decided to reinstate him. An embezzlement of about Rs 3 lakh which was established in the inquires after a complaint was lodged by Mankotia Stone Crushers and Glenmore Cottages, Dharamsala, with the state Vigilance Department. The complainant had received no receipts for this fee for about six months from the Jassur office of the board. Separate inquiries were conducted by the vigilance and board teams from Jassur on instructions of the State Administrative Tribunal. The subsequent auditing of accounts had proved this embezzlement. The amount collected from industrial units was found to be on the higher side than that deposited with the board. It is interesting to note that though the minister, Ms Vidya
Stokes, had summoned the files pertaining to the case on July 10 but the file proceeded straightway to the Chief Minister’s office which cleared it. |
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Where devta tells them to grow cannabis Kulu, July 27 The benami contractors from outside pay a hefty Rs 500 per day to these school children to rub the cannabis to produce the resin. Children have more pores in their hands and, hence, more quantity and quality of charas, reveal sources here. Malana residents want no link with the outside world and have objected to the construction of a road. They are ready to pay Rs 100 per mule as freight charges. They have a middle school, a primary health centre and a telephone exchange, because these add up to services catering to foreigners, who scout for charas and bhang for local use and smuggling, disclosed officials after touring the village last year. In fact, the residents abandoned cultivating their traditional crops like barley, maize, millet and potatoes soon after the Malana charas became famous among drug users around the world in the 1980s. Efforts to educate the Malana people have failed as was the case with the joint operation launched by the Kulu police and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) last year that yielded little result as the “villagers believe that the cannabis cultivation will be legalised some day, hitting the jackpot”. Malana has produced two matriculates so far, as education ‘pollutes their culture’. They marry within the village and inbreeding is rampant, inform officials. To avoid the Narcotics Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the villagers have started cultivating the cannabis crop, pleading that they use its seed for dishes and shells for ropes. “Unless Jamlu devta tells us to grow other crops, we will grow only cannabis”, believes Chande Ram, a villager, who was here for treatment at Zonal hospital. The new face of cannabis trade is that the richer villagers employ Nepali labourers to sow the cannabis crop in the pastures above the treeline. These pastures are fertile as the dung left behind by the herds of nomadic shepherds add to the productivity, observe the officials, adding that they cannot be booked under the NDPS Act as it is in the forest land’. From the July to October, the cannabis harvesting season, there is almost ‘zero attendance in the school that has a strength of 60 children as they are summoned to the cannabis farms to rub resin and get Rs 500 per day from the contractor,” reveals an official, requesting anonymity. The district police destroyed over 17,000 bighas of cannabis last year, but the villagers remain unmoved as Jamlu devta has advised them to ‘grow more cannabis to avenge the offenders’. Though the Kulu police had caught Malana’s top smuggler Chande Ram with 107 kg of charas worth Rs 20 crore in 2002, and he was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment by the Kulu Sessions court judge last month, the villagers take it as a verdict against the Jamlu devta, the deity that presides over Malana’s own ‘parliament’, feted as an oldest surviving democracy in the world! The Superintendent of Police, Kulu, Mr Anand Pratap Singh who had spearheaded the cannabis-destruction campaign for two months seems to have given up. “The police can only enforce what the law under the NDPS Act permits them to do, but it is in the mindset among the villagers that needs to be changed”, he states. The revenue record shows that the entire Malana village owns 175 hectares of land, but the cannabis is cultivated in more than 15,000 bighas that produce 2.5 kg charas per bigha every year, reveal the officials. But officials suspect that it is economics more than anything else that motivates the Malana villagers to grow cannabis. Malana became a favourite haunt for foreigners ever since the Parbati valley was opened for tourists in the 1980s. “The villagers get Rs 8000 to Rs 15,000 per kg on the spot without much effort”, disclosed officials who visited the village in June last year. Admitting that the administration is almost helpless to change the mindset of the people, Deputy Commissioner, Kulu, Mr R.D. Nazeem, said the administration had planned an alternative crop cultivation programme to dissuade villagers not to cultivate the cannabis plants. But the fate of the programme submitted to the NCB by Mr K.T. Thakur, District Agricultural Officer, Kulu in 2002 remains unknown. “The villagers are not willing to accept the crops which need effort, fertilisers and water as the crops are no match for what the cannabis fetches for them that too without any effort”, said Mr Thakur. |
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Mysterious explosion rocks building Shimla, July 27 There was no casualty. A window on the second floor of Manorama Bhavan where the blast occurred and some windowpanes were damaged. The flat in which the blast took place has been occupied by Santosh, a student of the local Government College for Girls. She was sleeping at the time of the incident. The residents initially mistook the boom for lightning and thunder. However, they were alarmed when they saw the damaged window and shattered glasses and immediately informed the police. Mr Jog Raj Thakur, district police chief, along with other officers, reached the spot and called forensic experts to ascertain the nature of explosion. The forensic team collected samples of the residual material for testing. Mr Thakur said preliminary investigations indicated that it was a cracker-like low-intensity explosion. It appeared to be the handiwork of mischievous elements. A case has been registered. |
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Dental colleges’ fee
structure notified Solan, July 27 The new fee structure, which comes into effect from the current academic session, has been devised by a fee structure committee. The Registrar of the HP university has issued a written communication to these four colleges to implement the new fee structure in their respective colleges. The recent written communication from the Secretary (Health) to the four dental colleges, Bhojia college, Nalagarh, Himachal Dental College, Sundernagar, Himachal Institute of Dental Sciences, Paonta Sahib, and MN DAV Dental College, Tatul (Solan), directs them to implement the annual fee as Rs 85,000, Rs 85,000, Rs 90,000 and Rs1,00,000, respectively, for the current academic session. The institutes have been strictly told not to collect any other amount in addition to this fee, including contribution to funds or security deposits. The directions further clarify that the provisional fee structure would be applicable to both state and management quotas. It would also include all fee payable by a student for a year except hostel fee, mess charges, university registration and examination fee, states the letter. |
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Food poisoning kills two Shimla, July 27 The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Sushil Negi, said the samples of the food consumed by these eight persons, hailing from Nalagarh in Solan, have been sent for laboratory tests. The SDM, Rohru, Mr Amarjeet Singh, said the viscera of the two persons killed, Surinder Singh (22) and Ram Lal (28), had been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory, Junga to ascertain the cause of death. The bodies of the deceased were sent to their native place,
Bola-da-Khala in Nalagarh, after post mortem. “Though the exact cause of the death would be known only after the laboratory test report is received, the apparent symptoms like vomiting indicated that the death was due to food poisoning,” said Mr Singh. He said these persons had arrived from Nalagarh yesterday only and after purchasing rice and pulses from the market had cooked them. The SDM, has given a relief of Rs 5,000 each as immediate relief to the families of those who have died. Those under treatment have been given Rs 3,000 each. |
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Punjab taxi owners block traffic Nurpur, July 27 |
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Murder accused nabbed while trying to escape Kangra, July 27 Kangra district police chief S. Zahoor H. Zaidi said three persons, Malkeet Singh, his wife Vashnov Devi and driver Jasbir Singh, all residents of Danuva village falling under Jwali police station, were arrested by the Jwali police under Sections 302, 201, 120B and 34 of the IPC, for allegedly conspiring to murder Piyar Singh, of the same village on July 16 last year. SSP Zaidi said one of the three accused, Jasbir Singh , who was produced before the court yesterday, gave the slip to the police while being taken back to jail. He said the police cordoned off the area and arrested the accused from Churan khud. The police registered another case against him. |
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Sale of spurious drinks on rise Hamirpur, July 27 However, the Department of Health had recently launched a campaign on the directions of the District Magistrate, Hamirpur, which was stopped later in the mid-way due to various factors. |
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80 tins of resin seized Kumarhatti, July 27 |
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