No consensus on Shimla seat
SHIMLA, Aug 2 — The ruling BJP in Himachal Pradesh is not in a mood to surrender the Shimla (reserved) Lok Sabha seat to the Himachal Vikas Congress, its alliance partner, until the latter identifies a candidate with winning prospects.


Case against Una nursing home
UNA, Aug 2 — The police has registered a case against the Nanda Nursing Home for allegedly causing the death of a pregnant woman, Meena Kumari, on the complaint of her husband, Mr Raj Kumar of Nangal Salangri village.

SFI members hold dharnas
SHIMLA, Aug 2 — Members of the Students Federation of India today staged dharnas in all major towns of the state to highlight their demands.

Two held in murder case
KULU, Aug 2 — Two more persons were arrested in connection with a youth murder case today and while two others were still not traced.

29 hurt as bus overturns
HAMIRPUR, Aug 2 — Twenty-nine persons were injured, four of them seriously, when a Thakur Bus Service bus overturned near Tooh village when the soil caved in. The bus was carrying a marriage party of 60 persons from Bhota to Tooh village.

Landslide poses danger to houses
SHIMLA, Aug 2 — A landslide on the Shimla bypass road at Kusumpti has endangered six houses located uphill.

Name nominee, BJP tells HVC
No consensus on Shimla seat
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Aug 2 — The ruling BJP in Himachal Pradesh is not in a mood to surrender the Shimla (reserved) Lok Sabha seat to the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC), its alliance partner, until the latter identifies a candidate with winning prospects.

The two alliance partners have not been able to reach a consensus on the Shimla (reserved) seat despite a series of meetings between leaders of both parties. Mr Sukh Ram, HVC chief, is adamant that the BJP should leave the seat for his party.

However, the BJP leadership has pointed out the "poor" performance of the HVC in the constituency in last year’s Lok Sabha elections and claimed that Mr Sukh Ram should allow the BJP to contest all four Lok Sabha seats as the party has prospects of winning.

The Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, told TNS here today that the state BJP had recommended the names of the three members of the dissolved Lok Sabha — Mr Shanta Kumar, Mr Maheshwar Singh and Mr Suresh Chandel — for the Kingra, Mandi and Hamirpur Lok Sabha seats, respectively. No name had been recommended for the Shimla (reserved) seat so far as negotiations were continuing with the HVC.

Every single seat was precious for the BJP, either it was won by its own candidate or that of its ally. However, the winning prospects had to be kept in mind.

Mr Dhumal said a two-member committee, consisting of the state BJP chief, Mr Suresh Chandel, and Mr Khushi Ram Balnatah, had been set up to negotiate the issue with Mr Sukh Ram.

There should be a national debate on whether to retain the parliamentary system or switch over to the presidential form of government. A decision should be taken on the basis of the consensus reached after the debate.

To ensure stability of the government at the Centre and also in the states, the system of simultaneous elections right from the Parliamentary to the panchayat level should be introduced. This would ensure that the party once voted to power would complete its full term of five years.

The anti-defection law should be so amended that any number of members of a party defecting should be disqualified.

Mr Dhumal listed the issues which would be the election plank of the BJP, particularly in Himachal Pradesh. These include the national image of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, which no leader of any other party had, and the performance of the BJP government at the Centre and the state.

The BJP did not want to politicise the Kargil issue, but the Congress party had been dragging the conflict to its election meetings, he claimed.

He alleged that the Congress had internationalised the Kashmir issue long ago in 1949, when then Prime Minister Pt Jawaharlal Nehru himself took the issue to the United Nations. The achievement of the BJP government on the diplomatic front was such that almost every country was supporting India on the Kashmir issue.

Mr Dhumal said that stability of the government would also be an important election issue. The Congress party, which was preaching stability, had "no moral" right to speak on the issue as it itself toppled seven governments at the Centre since 1978, he added.

Death of pregnant woman
Case against Una nursing home
From Our Correspondent

UNA, Aug 2 — The police has registered a case against the Nanda Nursing Home for allegedly causing the death of a pregnant woman, Meena Kumari, on the complaint of her husband, Mr Raj Kumar of Nangal Salangri village.

Mr Raj Kumar said that on July 23, 1999, when his wife went into labour, she was brought to the Nanda Nursing Home, where Dr Suresh Nanda told them that an operation was required because it was a breach case. The doctor demanded Rs 20,000 for the operation out of which Mr Raj Kumar paid him Rs 10,000.

The operation started at 7 a.m. and after some time, Mr Kumar was informed that a son had been born though in reality a daughter had been born to him.

Mr Raj Kumar further alleged that after the operation, his wife looked pale and the doctor informed him that a second operation was required. The doctor asked him to arrange blood.

Mr Raj Kumar said that though blood was arranged, his wife died on the operation table. After her death, the doctor allegedly took signatures from him on blank papers and told him to take the body to the village at the earliest.

Later, it was found that this nursing home was not even registered.

On the other hand, Dr Premlata Nanda, owner of the nursing home, claimed that Dr Suresh Nanda was not even present at Una when the operation was conducted. She further claimed that the operation was a success but excessive bleeding led to Meena Kumari’s death.

Mr Raj Kumar , however, claimed that the ultrasound had shown that the foetus was normal and not a breach case, as was claimed by the doctor.

Police accused of indifference
No trace of Chamba hostages
From Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, Aug 2 — Even after exactly one year of the Chamba massacre when 35 persons were killed by militants in the Kalaban and Satrundi areas of Chamba, bordering Jammu and Kashmir, there is still no trace of the five persons, who were taken hostages by the militants.

Life for the families of these missing persons is agonising, as they have no idea, whether they are alive or dead. There has been reportedly little effort on the part of the state government and the police authorities to trace out these persons, reflecting little respect for the sentiments of the families of those missing. Though, monthly meetings are held between the DCs and SPs of Chamba and Doda districts, but there is no trace of the missing persons whether they are still in the captivity of the militants, or are dead.

It was on the night of August 2 last year that J and K militants, killed 35 labourers, who were engaged in the construction of a road between Bairagarh and Pangi. It was the biggest ever carnage in Himachal.

The militants also took along seven persons as hostages and used them as porters to carry the explosives that they took away from the site of the road construction. But two of the persons, who were taken along were sent back by the militants, as they belonged to a particular community. The police even failed to extract much information from these two persons, despite the fact that they had accompanied the militants to a long distance, well within Jammu and Kashmir.

After last year's incident the Himachal Government, apart from its own forces, deployed the ITBP and the CRPF along the border with J and K. In order to cut-off any local contact with the militants, this year the government did not permit the Gujjars and the Gaddis, to go up to the higher areas, with their animals.

Though there were no incidents during this period, but only a few days back the locals spotted two strangers in the Dharwas area of the Pangi region. A school boy, along with his servant, spotted two persons with beards and guns roaming in the area. The two strangers, according to the boys, were speaking Urdu. They even enquired about the deployment of the police in the area. They also threatened the boys not to disclose the incident to anyone and fled away. The Superintendent of Police, Chamba, Mr R.M. Sharma, too, confirmed the incident and said that an alert had been sounded.

After the Kargil incident, the intelligence agencies fear that efforts would be made to create internal problem in the country by sending in more militants. As such there has been apprehension that people of Himachal being soft targets, the militants could try and strike in the Chamba area of Himachal.

Though the police has taken precautionary measures to check further infiltration, but not made much efforts to look for the five missing persons. The DGP and the IG (Law and Order) were, however, not available for comments.

SFI members hold dharnas
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Aug 2 — Members of the Students Federation of India today staged dharnas in all major towns of the state to highlight their demands.

According to reports received here, dharnas were organised at Solan, Mandi, Una, Rampur, Hamirpur Dharamsala and in some other towns. Protestors also submitted memorandum addressed to the Vice-Chancellor of the Himachal Pradesh University.

A dharna was held here in the university campus. Students demanded immediate declaration of scheme for holding elections to the Students Central Association.

The main demands of the federation include withdrawal of fee hike, rationalisation of hostel allotment, action in cases of impersonation in examination brought to the notice of the authorities by it, discontinuation of courses under self-financing schemes and ratification of new syllabus of law course.

The federation threatened to start an indefinite stir if their demands were not accepted by the university.

Two held in murder case
From Our Correspondent

KULU, Aug 2 — Two more persons were arrested in connection with a youth murder case today and while two others were still not traced. Mr Ashwani Kapoor, Deputy Commissioner has called a meeting of representatives of the Jari panchayat, NGOs and management of the Malana Power Company today at Jari Para. The Deputy Commissioner has ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident and Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Kulu has been asked to submit his report within 15 days.

The Superintendent of Police said additional police force has been positioned at Jari. The body of the deceased has been handed over to family members after a post-mortem examination.

29 hurt as bus overturns
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, Aug 2 — Twenty-nine persons were injured, four of them seriously, when a Thakur Bus Service bus overturned near Tooh village when the soil caved in. The bus was carrying a marriage party of 60 persons from Bhota to Tooh village.

The injured were rushed to the Primary Health Centre, Bhoranj. Twenty-five of them were discharged after first aid. Mr Gian Chand, is reportedly sustained multiple fractures.

Mr Bimal Gupta, DSP, Hamirpur, visited the spot and supervised the rescue operations. He said case under Sections 279 and 337 of the IPC had been registered at Bhoranj police station and documents of bus taken into possession to ascertain whether the bus had the route permit of this route.

Landslide poses danger to houses
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Aug 2 — A landslide on the Shimla bypass road at Kusumpti has endangered six houses located uphill.

According to Mr Suresh Dutta and Mr Tek Chand, who live in the area, the landslide was triggered off because of the vertical cutting of the hill by the Public Works Department for widening of the bypass road. They said they had objected to the cutting of hill atop which their houses were located. The PWD authorities had assured that a retaining wall would be constructed to stabilise the hill after widening of the road.

However, the wall was never constructed as a result of there was a landslide two days ago. If a retaining wall was not built immediately, the entire cluster of houses might come down with the sliding hill mass, they feared.