Tearful adieu to martyr
DALHOUSIE, Dec 12 — The mortal remains of Vinod Kumar a jawan of the 20 Rashtriya Rifles were consigned to flames at Hatli village in Bhattiyat subdivision of Chamba district yesterday.

Fire brigade staff's plea to CM
BILASPUR, Dec 12 — The Himachal Pradesh State Fire Brigade Employees Union has urged the Chief Minister to ensure that the Fire Services Act,1984, is enforced in Himachal Pradesh and the Home Guards Department is separated from the Fire Brigade Department in order to improve efficiency.

Advocate Welfare Fund in Jan
SHIMLA, Dec 12 — The Himachal Bar Council has decided to make membership of the Advocate Welfare Fund compulsory for all practising lawyers.

HP staff seek pay on Punjab pattern
From Our Correspondent

BILASPUR, Dec 12 — The HP Government Teachers Union has criticised the state government and leaders of the Ganga Singh Thakur-led NGOs’ Federation faction who, it alleged, had conspired to deprive Himachal employees from pay scales and allowances on the Punjab pattern.

Presided over by a prominent leader Roshanlal Sharma, a meeting of the district unit of the union here today said the Punjab Government had released the house rent allowance to its employees from January 1996 at the rate of 5 per cent at the village level, 7.5 per cent at the block level, 10 per cent at the district headquarters level and 15 per cent at the capital level. Arrears of this allowance up to August 1997 had been deposited into the GPF, and all arrears from September, 1997 onwards had been paid in cash.

But the Himachal Government in its notification issued on December 9, 1999, had said employees in the state would be given house rent allowance less than 3 per cent of the basic pay. Its arrears from September, 1999 to November 1999 would go into the GPF account. The employees would get this allowance in cash from December, 1999 only.

The meeting said it was objectionable that the Himachal Government had not only reduced the rates of this allowance, but also deprived the employees of arrears of as many as 44 months. This was tantamount to "financial exploitation" of the already hardpressed employees.

The meeting also rejected the plea of the government and the Ganga Singh faction that this had been done as the state government was facing a "financial crunch". It asked how could a government be facing a "financial crunch" when its ministers were spending as much as Rs 7.53 crore on telephones and Rs 9.78 crore on their TA and DA within a period of six months only.

Tearful adieu to martyr
From Our Correspondent

DALHOUSIE, Dec 12 — The mortal remains of Vinod Kumar a jawan of the 20 Rashtriya Rifles were consigned to flames at Hatli village in Bhattiyat subdivision of Chamba district yesterday.

Mr Vinod Kumar was killed in an encounter with militants on December 10 during 'Operation Rakshak' launched by the Army and the paramilitary forces to combat militancy in the Doda region.

Vinod Kumar originally longed to 17 Dogra Regiment. His father Jodh Singh is an ex-serviceman who is at present serving as a wireless operator in the police department at Chamba.

Lt Col, R.D Verma, station headquarters, Dalhousie laid a wreath on the body of the jawan. He was given a three gun salute on behalf of the Army Commander, Northern Command. Colonel Verma who was accompanied by army officials, presented Rs 7500 as relief from the Army.

The Additional District Magistrate, Mr B.S. Thakur, also laid a wreath on the body on behalf of the Himachal Governor. A number of people paid tributes to the martyr.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner, Chamba, Mr K. Sanjaymurthy, sanctioned Rs 10,000 as relief to next of kin of the deceased.

Vinod Kumar was the fourth jawan from Bhattiyat subdivision of Chamba who sacrificed his life in Operation Rakshak launched to flush out terrorist from the Kashmir valley.

Youth organisers seek better deal
Tribune News Service

DHARMASALA, Dec 12 — The Himachal Pradesh Youth Organisers Union has requested the government to put an end to the step-motherly treatment being meted out to them in the Youth Services and Sports Department.

In a statement issued here today, the president of the union, Mr R.P. Sharma, said over the past few years the interests of the youth organisers were being ignored and District Youth Services and Sports officers had taken over full charge. "Youth organisers have not been given pay scales on the Punjab pattern and till date not a single post in the directorate has gone to them," he lamented.

Mr Sharma demanded that 50 per cent of the posts of District Youth Services and Sports Officer should go to the youth organisers. He alleged that some of the officers during the past few years had tried to sideline the youth organisers for their own vested interests.

He regretted that despite raising their demands in a peaceful manner on a number of occasions, the government had not paid heed to the pleas of the youth organisers in the state. He urged the government to accept their demands at the earliest.

HP engineers seek creation of office
From Our Correspondent

MANDI, Dec 12 — The Himachal Power Engineers Association, which met here yesterday, has demanded the creation of the office of Chief Engineer, Design, at a central place to strengthen all design units and for the timely finalisation of various power project schemes.

The association also resolved to create a protection circle under the Chief Engineer, M&T.

The association stressed that earnest efforts were required to minimise transmission losses and called upon the power engineers to leave no stone unturned to achieve this objective.

Earlier, Mr S.P. Sharma, Deputy Chief Engineer (Operation), was elected zonal president and Mr S.K. Sharma, Additional SE, zonal secretary of the Mandi zone of the Power Engineers Association.

The association also thanked the HPSEB management and government to concede its longstanding demand of redesignation of various categories of engineers.

Fire brigade staff's plea to CM
From Our Correspondent

BILASPUR, Dec 12 — The Himachal Pradesh State Fire Brigade Employees Union has urged the Chief Minister to ensure that the Fire Services Act,1984, is enforced in Himachal Pradesh and the Home Guards Department is separated from the Fire Brigade Department in order to improve efficiency.

Addressing media persons here today, General Secretary Sukhdev said the union's demands include that every fire station in Himachal Pradesh should have a station fire officer.

It condemned the low grade uniforms and other materials supplied to the employees by the department and demanded the payment of medical allowance and uniform allowance in cash.

Advocate Welfare Fund in Jan
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Dec 12 — The Himachal Bar Council has decided to make membership of the Advocate Welfare Fund compulsory for all practising lawyers.

The decision was taken at the joint meeting of the state bar council members and president and secretaries of various associations here today. The meeting also decided to launch the welfare fund scheme in the first week of January.