P R A D E S H
Sunday, February 21, 1999
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H I M A C H A L P R A D E S H |
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Sunday, February 21, 1999 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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BJP
"saffronising" education |
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Health Minister's assurance to
doctors KANGRA, Feb 20 — The Himachal government has assured the medical officers that four-tier time scales to the doctors on the Punjab pattern, for which a notification had already been issued but the Finance Department had withheld the arrears, would be released within seven days. Officers'
brawl flayed 16
injured as bus overturns Bank
staff hold rally FD
withholding arrears: doctors CRPF
centre okayed |
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BJP
"saffronising" education SHIMLA, Feb 20 — Mr Virbhadra Singh, leader of the Congress Legislature Party in Himachal Vidhan Sabha has warned that the Congress party would not allow BJP government's move to infiltrate RSS-BJP cadres in educational institutions to achieve "saffronisation" plan in Himachal. In a statement here today, Mr Virbhadra Singh said that the BJP Government headed by Mr P.K. Dhumal was only interested in politicising educational institutions without any consideration to improve quality of education. The entire effort of the government was aimed at saffronising educational institutions by infiltration of RSS-BJP cadres in these institutions to further its "narrow, partisan and parochial ideology". He warned that the Congress party would vehemently resist the attempt of the government and not allow educational institutions to become a tool in the hands of the BJP government and the Sangh Parivar. Mr Virbhadra Singh said the RSS loyalists were being infiltrated in institutions of higher education. The recent move of the government to get the post of Vice-Chancellor of the Horticulture and Forestry University vacated by cancelling the leave of Dr L.R. Verma was a step towards making the post captured by some RSS activist. Dr Verma has been asked to report back to the Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) here as Professor in the Bio-Sciences Department and vacate the post of Vice-Chancellor of the Horticulture University. All this was undermining educational system in the state and had lowered prestige of the institutions. He took exception to the appointment of a junior professor under the personal promotion scheme as pro-Vice-Chancellor of the HPU ignoring the joint seniority list of professors of the university. He pointed out that after this another relatively junior professor of the university had been appointed Vice-Chancellor of the HPU ignoring the claim of several senior teachers. Appointments in the university have been motivated primarily by ideological considerations rather than seniority and merit. Mr Virbhadra Singh said that the Principal of the Regional Engineering College, Hamirpur had also been removed by "devious" means by cancelling his deputation from the HPSEB to accommodate the Chief Minister's own nominee. The Chairman of the School Education Board, Dr A.C. Pal, was thrown out of office as soon as the BJP-HVC combine government came to power and an "RSS activist" was appointed to the post. He alleged that an attempt was being made to extend saffronisation to the HPSEB by seeking to amend the Electricity Supply Act to enable RSS-BJP loyalists to be appointed members of the board. Creation of the Subordinate Services Selection Board is totally redundant as the works assigned to it were being efficiently performed by the Public Service Commission. The board was created only to adjust loyalists of the Sangh Parivar, which had exposed the real intentions of the government, he alleged. Mr Virbhadra Singh claimed
that functioning of the Congress government had always
been more liberal and transparent than that of the
present BJP government. The Congress government did not
politicise educational institutions. |
Sector watch bodies to curb crime KULU : Ever since Kulu
district came into existence in 1964, the sanctioned
strength of the police staff has remained more or less
constant. Over the past 35 years crime, both in terms of
number and nature, has increased manifold. The population
of Kulu town has more than trebled. Kulu valley has
emerged as a major tourist destination over the part
decade and the crime rate has almost equalled that of any
other town in the country. Sector watch committees (SWC) under citizens were formed in every mohalla consisting of four residents, a Home Guard and a constable. Each committee was also provided with a chowkidar drawn from retired Home Guards or constables to ensure that proper patrolling is maintained. This would also provide reemployment to the members of the force. The committee members have been assigned duty of monitoring the working of the sector watch committees, which would keep the police chief informed on the SWCs' performance. SWC members would motivate the residents and bring awareness among them for the safety and security of their area. They would keep a watch on strangers and suspicious characters. Mr Zaidi pointed out that each member of the SWC will be given an identity card. They have been asked to write their experience on day-to-day basis in notebooks being maintained by the police or home guards. The policemen have been advised to report to the local residents who shall supervise the police and home guards' patrolling. The SP stated that regular review meetings would be held every month to bring about changes, if felt necessary. Mr Zaidi said it was heartening to note that an overwhelming response was received from the residents of their town who welcomed the idea and had been participating in this scheme. It was his endeavour to keep Kulu town free from crime and criminals. If successful, this scheme would be extended to Manali and Bhuntar. This step by the SP is a
welcome move after seeing the performance of the police
which could not detect even a single theft in the past
year. There had been over 50 thefts during the past six
months and citizens had lost faith in the police. |
Pak Hindu shrines in bad
shape: Shanta PALAMPUR, Feb 20 — Former Chief Minister and MP, Shanta Kumar expressed concern over the condition of the Hindu shrines and Gurdwaras in Pakistan. Mr Shanta Kumar, who had gone to Pakistan along with a delegation of MPs and journalists from India last week, said Hindu shrines and Sikh gurdwaras in Pakistan were in bad shape and most of them were on the verge of collapse. He said ‘Katasraj’ and a gurdwara at Lahore, where Guru Arjun Dev was put to death by Mughals were the worst affected, as these had not ever been white-washed for the several years. He expressed the hope that the proposed visit of the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to Pakistan would be most fruitful and it would be able to solve many problems being faced by the two countries. The people of both countries were in favour of a peaceful dialogue for the settlement of all pending issues including Kashmir. He said during their discussion with MLAs and MPs of Pakistan, they found that no third party mediation was needed to solve the Kashmir issue. They told the Indian delegation that both the Prime Ministers should sit together and have open discussion to clarify all misgivings and misunderstandings. He said during their
meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the
Indian delegation urged for the free exchange of
newspapers and Mr Sharif promised that during his meeting
with Mr Vajpayee, this issue would be finalised. Both
countries had banned the supply of their newspapers in
1971. |
Health Minister's assurance to
doctors KANGRA, Feb 20 — The Himachal government has assured the medical officers that four-tier time scales to the doctors on the Punjab pattern, for which a notification had already been issued but the Finance Department had withheld the arrears, would be released within seven days. Himachal Health Minister JP Nadda, stated this to a delegation of the Himachal Medical Officers Association when it called on him. Dr Susheel Sharma, spokesman for the association in a press release, said here today that the Health Minister assured them that a final letter regarding nonpractising allowances to the doctors would also be issued. Dr Sharma said that the state Finance Department earlier issued some conflicting letters regarding the nonpractising allowance of the doctors. Mr Nadda, also assured the doctors that the government would grant house rent allowance, rural allowance, conveyance allowance and postgraduate increments to the doctors in the state as early as possible the statement added. The Health Minister told doctors that to remove stagnation in the Health Department fill all vacant posts of the joint Director, Deputy Director and the Chief Medical Officer would be filled shortly. He assured the medical officers that there would be uniform timing in the hospitals in the state on the Shimla pattern.
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CBI probe sought into murder case SHIMLA, Feb 20 — A CBI inquiry into the murder of Parmod Kumar, a taxi driver of Hamirpur, has been demanded by his mother. Parmod Kumar, who belonged to village Tappre in Tauni Devi of Hamirpur, was murdered a few months ago. His brother Kuldeep Singh has written a letter to Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, saying that the state police has failed to trace the murder. He has pointed out that Mr Dhumal had himself demanded a CBI inquiry into the murder. Parmod Kumar was kidnapped from village Gowardu on February 22 last year and his body was found four days later on February 26.
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Officers' brawl flayed SHIMLA, Feb 19 — Is an attempt being made to dilute action against senior police officers who were involved in a brawl in the circuit house of Hamirpur? The incident of grave misconduct and indiscipline by the police officers is being widely criticised. Although the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, and the Director-General of Police, Mr T.R. Mahajan, have said that strict action would be taken against the guilty officers, but the delay is causing doubts. Some of the officers are said to be close to Mr Dhumal. The unsavoury incident took place on Saturday last while recruitment of constables. It was a free for all when some officers of the rank of Superintendents of Police and their junior DSPs allegedly exchanged blows in full public view. In a never-before such incident, there were reports that the junior police officers badly beat up their seniors. All this is reported to have ignited due to some derogatory remarks made by a senior officer against a particular community. Reports said while their colleagues were being thrashed up by the junior officers, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mandi, the SP, Kulu, and a commandant of armed police fled from the scene. The Director-General of Police, Mr T.R. Mahajan, said he had already received the inquiry report regarding the incident and action would be taken soon. He denied that there was any delay in action against the guilty. It is being alleged that no FIR was registered regarding the incident and only a report was filed in the "roznamcha" (daily diary). There were allegations
that the local doctors had been pressurised to engineer
the medical report. |
16 injured as bus overturns KANGRA, Feb 20 — Sixteen passengers of an HRTC bus were injured, two of them seriously, when it overturned near Gurnard village near Dadaseba this morning, the police said here today. Additional Police
Superintendent Venogopal said the HRTC bus No HP 20-0640
was on way to Talwara from Hoshiarpur when failed to
negotiate a sharp curve and overturned. The injured were
admitted in the nearby hospital at Dadaseba. The bus
belonged to the Una depot.
Bank staff hold rally KANGRA, Feb 20 — Bank employees and bank officers of the nationalised banks here today hold demonstration and rally in protest against the failure of the talks between the United Forum of the Bank Union (UFBU) and the management represented by the Indian Banks Association ((IBA). The protesting bank officers, and the employees raised slogans against the "uncompromising" attitude of the IBA. Addressing protesting bank employees the state president Mr MS Shant of the UFBU said that the scaling down of the pay hike from 40 per cent to 18 per cent did not satisfy the IBA and the management was not willing to go beyond 10 per cent whereas the state and the central government employees got 40 per cent hike during the recent pay revision. He demanded a bipartite settlement of their anomalies and recruitment of the staff in the banks. He announced that the bank
employees and the officers would continue with the lunch
break demonstration up to February 24 and would join
countrywide two strikes on February 25 and February 26.
He said the bank employees in Himachal would join the
indefinite bank strike from March 17 on national level. |
Two held for carrying charas SOLAN, Feb 20 — The Nalagarh police arrested Rolaf Dagfin, 35 year-old Swedish national and Charan Dass, a resident of Sangrur, under the Narcotics and Psychotropic Drugs Act yesterday. Both of them had boarded a Delhi-bound HRTC but at Manali yesterday and appeared to be under the influence of liquor at the time of their arrest. They exchanged abusive language and created nuisance in the bus at 11 p.m. They brandished knives at the passengers when they protested against their behaviour. The driver drove the
vehicle to Nalagarh police station where both Dagfin and
Charan Dass were detained. A search led to the recovery
of 150 gram of charas from the Swedish national and 450
gram from Charan Dass, according to Additional
Superintendent of Police Himanshu Mishra. |
FD
withholding arrears: doctors DHARAMSALA, Feb 20 — The Himachal Medical Officers Association has demanded the release of the four-tier time scale to doctors, on the Punjab pattern, for which notification has already been issued. A press release issued here yesterday said that the Finance Department was unnecessarily withholding the arrears, to delay the matter. It was pointed out that the Finance Department had been issuing contradictory letters regarding the grant of non practising allowance to the doctors. The delegation which met
the Health Minister in Shimla recently, was assured that
they would be given house rent allowance, rural
allowance, academy allowance, conveyance allowance and
post graduate increment soon. The association was also
given an assurance that all vacant posts of Joint
Directors, Deputy Directors and Chief Medical Officers
would be filled at the earliest. |
CRPF centre okayed NURPUR, Feb 20 — Mr Rakesh Pathania, the local MLA and Vice-Chairman of the State Tourism Development Corporation, told mediapersons here yesterday that the Central Government had approved a group centre of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) being set up in the Kopra gram panchayat area here. A sum of Rs 70 crore would be spent on it. Youths would get an opportunity of recruitment here who, earlier had to rush to other states for recruitments in the CRPF. He said that at least 15000 family quarters would be built in the approved group centre. The centre would generate employment opportunities in the area. The State Government had sanctioned 32 tubewells in the Nurpur assembly constituency in the current year and 10 more were on the anvil. He said the Industrial Training Institute which was opened in godowns of the Agro Industries Corporation at Jachh was being shifted to Rehan.
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Truck falls in Ravi, 2 killed CHAMBA, Feb 20 — Two persons were killed on the spot and three others were seriously injured when a truck veered off the road and fell into the Ravi river at Dalli on the Chamba-Bharmour highway, about 60 km from here last evening. Body of one of the deceased, identified as Madan Lal had been recovered, while the search was on to trace the body of the second person. The three injured had been
admitted to District Hospital here, they included the
driver of truck. |
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