Govt urged to implement revised pay scales
Shimla, July 5
The Himachal Pradesh Employees’ Confederation has urged the government to implement the revised pay scales to the employees of the state in accordance with the recommendations of the Fifth Punjab Pay Commission.President of the confederation Vinod Kumar said the state was committed to follow the pay scales of Punjab and as such there should be no delay in implementing the report of the commission. 

Shimla, July 5
Taking a leaf out of Gujarat Chief Minister Narinder Modi’s book, the Dhumal government has decided to ensure personal involvement of bureaucrats for effective monitoring of the implementation of major development schemes.

Each officer, right from the senior-most bureaucrat and additional chief secretary Avay Shukla, has been assigned a district for the purpose. There are 12 districts in all in the state. The officials concerned will, in their respective district, monitor the implementation of all major schemes, including the National Rural Employment Guarantee programme, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, Indira Awas Yojna, Deen Dayal Kisan Bagwan Samridhi Yojna and important components of the 20-point programme.

Besides, the officials concerned have also been asked to keep a close watch on the progress of priority programmes of the government like computerisation of revenue records, Information Technology (IT)-enabled services and other initiatives on the governance front aimed at bringing transparency in administration and toning up public services.

The bureaucrats will visit the district assigned to them and interact with both the people and the field officials responsible for the implementation of various programmes to get authentic feedback. They will also hold frequent video conferences to monitor the programmes on a regular basis.

The officials will apprise the government about the progress of the programmes and discuss problems, if any, at meetings chaired by the Chief Secretary and the Chief Minister.

Districts have been assigned to officials keeping in view their familiarity with the region and field experience. For instance, Avay Shukla will monitor the Kullu district and Subhash Negi, the Chamba district.

Himachal Pradesh is the second state in the country to adopt such system for monitoring the implementation of government programmes. Gujarat, which is known for its good governance, was the first state to introduce the system. 

Mandi, July 5
The State Women Commission has directed director health services (DHS) to reply within a week’s time in the alleged case of medical negligence in which a patient Anita had delivered a “premature baby brought dead to labour room” on June 29.

On the other hand, the chief medical officer (CMO), Mandi, an inquiry officer in the case, gave a “clean chit” to the zonal hospital in this case.

Taking note of the case, Ambika Sud of the Women Commission, has directed the health director to file a reply on the alleged case of medical negligence as to why action should not be taken against the staff responsible for it.

Meanwhile, recalling her nightmarish experience, Anita and her husband alleged that on June 29 they came rushing in a vehicle to the hospital from Nagchala around 10.40 am, but found the gate leading to the labour room on the ground floor closed. Before they could enter the labour room, in a gap of 20 minutes, she delivered on the doorstep itself, they charged.

Pleading his case, medical superintendence Dr DP Handa said there was no negligence on the part of the staff as the patient had probably delivered the 31-week-old premature baby much before. Moreover, they tried to enter in panic through the ground floor gate which was shut most of the time due to interference to labour room and gynae ward, he claimed.

Handa said the patient had suffered acute pain a day before and her attending nurse told them that there was no movement of baby before she was rushed to the hospital. “The baby was dead before the patient was rushed to the labour room and her placenta was intact. She left the hospital against medical advise on the same day,” he added.

Even Mandi CMO DK Arora, who was asked to conduct an inquiry by the district administration, said the inquiry found “no negligence on the part of the staff on duty”.

Dr Arora said before the door was opened, the patient had already delivered the baby, which was brought dead to the labour room.

Sulakshna Puri, director, health services, said she had already asked for a detailed report from the Mandi CMO and would take appropriate action thereafter.

Shimla, July 5
The Himachal Pradesh Employees’ Confederation has urged the government to implement the revised pay scales to the employees of the state in accordance with the recommendations of the Fifth Punjab Pay Commission.

President of the confederation Vinod Kumar said the state was committed to follow the pay scales of Punjab and as such there should be no delay in implementing the report of the commission. The employees of the Central government and officials of all-India services had already been given revised pay scales recommended by the Sixth Central Pay Commission, he added.

He maintained that the Punjab Pay Commission had not done justice to the lower-rank employees and there were large-scale anomalies in the new pay scales, which needed to be rectified. The state government had already granted 20 per cent interim relief to employees, but they were becoming restive due to delay in implementation of the revised pay scales.

The confederation urged the Union Finance Minister to provide funds to the state for implementation of pay scales, which would put an additional burden of Rs 800 crore on the state. It would submit a memorandum to the two Union ministers from the state — Virbhadra Singh and Anand Sharma — in this regard.

Shimla, July 5
The Rs 353-crore Pandit Deen Dayal Kisan Bagwan Samridhi Yojna, a flagship programme of the BJP government, will go a long way in improving the economic conditions of farmers in the state whose fortunes have been oscillating between drought and deluge.

The scheme, being implemented in two phases, will help bring 14.70 lakh sq mt land under protected cultivation and 20,000 hectares under drip and sprinkler irrigation to help reduce the dependence of farmers on weather.

In the Rs 154.92-crore first phase, emphasis was on production of cash crops by adopting precision farming practices through poly-house cultivation, while in the Rs 198.09-crore second phase, the focus will be on diversification of agriculture through micro-irrigation and other related infrastructure.

As many 16,500 poly houses and 12,320 sprinklers will be installed in the first phase for which farmers are being provided 80 per cent subsidy.

Besides, 2,650 tanks and wells will also be constructed under this project for which 50 per cent subsidy is being provided. The project will generate employment to more than 10,000 persons and increase vegetable production by four to 10 times. So far, 929 poly houses have been sanctioned and work has started on 219 of them. Modules for imparting training to farmers, masons, artisans and officials engaged in implementation of the project have been drawn and 407 farmers, 117 masons and artisans and 351 agriculture officials have been trained in poly-house technology till date.

In the second phase, 17,312 micro-irrigation units will be installed and 16,020 water sources will be developed. A time frame has been drawn for disposal of applications at various levels by the agriculture department under which the entire process has to be completed within 25 days.

Specialist of the concerned block will visit the site and verify the feasibility and viability of the scheme within 10 days of the submission of application and make recommendations within five days to the district nodal officer who will issue authorisation to the beneficiary after scrutinising the application within 10 days.

Soil health card will be issued after testing samples to each poly-house grower with suitable recommendations about management of nutrition and biological properties of soil.

Vermi-compost units are being encouraged to ward off the biotic pressure due to pest and diseases and also to keep the soil healthy. In the past one year, 21,7565 vermi-compost unit have been established and 3,000 farmers have been registered for organic farming. As many as 1.6 lakh vermi-compost units will be established during the current financial year.

Kangra, July 5
Political parties should desist from changing the recruitment policies in the Education Department as it adversely affected academics of the state and thus the future of students.

This was stated by Dr RD Sharma, a noted educationist and chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Educational Consultants Forum, here today.

He said PTA teachers’ appointments by the previous government was against the rules. This was evident from the letter written regarding the PTA policy by the Advocate General to the Secretary Education which stated that the policy framed by the government on this behalf would not be of any assistance as no policy could be allowed to prevail against the R&P rules.

Four former deputy directors of education: RD Sharma (Kangra), SK Sharma (Shimla), JP Sharma (Chamba) and OC Kaundal (Una), said the educational system was spoilt by the faulty recruitment policies of the consecutive governments.

They suggested that the state governments should not change the recruitment policies of teachers with the change of the government. The recruitment by one government and sacking by the other was adversely affecting the academic atmosphere of the schools.