P R A D E S H
Monday, March 1, 1999
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H I M A C H A L P R A D E S H |
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Monday, March 1, 1999 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Rohru fire: Divisional
Manager suspended Ex-minister
flays murder of Dalit |
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HP seeks 10-year tax
holiday for industry NGO
federation splits |
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Rohru fire: Divisional Manager
suspended SHIMLA, Feb 28 — The fire which destroyed timber worth over Rs 1.25 crore at Sharontha village in Rohru subdivision on February 8 was not accidental but caused deliberately apparently to pilfer the valuable forest produce. The burnt stock of timber, comprising over 5,000 sleepers of kail, deodar and fir, was extracted from four forest lots being worked by the State Forest Corporation in the area. In all about 450 cubic metre of timber was reduced to ashes. On the basis of an inquiry conducted by Mr H.S. Kingra, a Director of the corporation, the Divisional Manager concerned has been suspended. Earlier, a guard and two chowkidars, were suspended and services of two other daily wage earners were terminated. The inquiry revealed that about 50 to 60 trees which were shown to be felled in records were still standing in the forest. The timber extracted from these trees, which were marked for felling, was shown to be part of the stock burnt in the fire. This indicated that the fire was a conspiracy to plunder the forest wealth. The manner in which the Divisional Manager concerned tried to get the burnt stocks insured by issuing a backdated cheque for the payment of premium had also raised suspicion. The cheque for Rs 1,39,985 issued in favour of the National Insurance Company, on February 4 reached the office of the company on February 15. By the time the company had come to know about the fire and it refused to insure that stock. Intriguingly, the cheque was issued from Shimla whereas, the covering letter was written from Sawara. The State Forest Corporation Employees Association had alleged that forest mafia, which was flourishing under the protective wings of the corporation, was behind the fire and demanded a probe into the matter. It also blamed the system of sending officers from the department to the corporation on deputation for the dismal state of affairs. Mr Jagdish Kumar and Mr
Gobind Chatranta, president and secretary of the
association, respectively, have welcomed the suspension
of the Divisional Manager. However, they want a high
level probe into the matter to expose the nexus between
the corporation forest mafia. |
Ex-minister flays murder of
Dalit JAWALAMUKHI, Feb 28 — Senior Congress leader and former minister Mr Gangu Ram Musafir today strongly condemned the gruesome murder of an 18 year-old Harijan youth Sunil in Aluha village under the Jawalamukhi police station. Talking to reporters here today, Mr Musafir demanded a high level inquiry into the sudden spurt in atrocities against Harijans after the BJP-HVC government came to power. Accusing the state government and police having failed to protect the lives of Dalits he alleged that the incident of murder of a youth 'Sunil' had exposed the ineffectiveness of the police force. The fourth incident of its kind in the past month it has sent shock waves in the area. He also condemned the arrest of Sheru an employee of the Excise and Taxation Department, who, he said, being implicated in a false case by the Dehra police. He demanded the immediate withdrawal of the case. He also demanded a white paper on the large scale transfer of Dalit employees, and demanded the government fill vacant posts immediately. Meanwhile a big rally and
demonstration was held at Dehra to protest against the
arrests of Sheru Ram. |
Mothers' revolution in HP DHARAMSALA, Feb 28 — The Mother-Teacher Association (MTA), has proved a great success in halting school dropouts in district Kangra. Within a short span of three months, almost 50,000 mothers have become actively involved with the MTA set up in every primary school. A total of 1.35 lakh children are presently enrolled in the 1700 government primary schools in district Kangra. The success of the MTA's appears to be greater than that of Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA), also formed in practically all the schools in the state. The fact that the mothers are more involved with the education and health of the child, has contributed to the success of the project. Not only is the creation of MTA's and involvement of the women in it, giving mothers a sense of pride, but an element of social sanction. Till now woman had tried to organise themselves under the mahila mandals. But these never really got the approval of the village or for that matter their own family members, being dismissed as "bela mandals" or useless organisations. But the MTA's are viewed differently. Women visit the school a month for the MTA meeting. With the focus on child psychology and child health, students are able to perform and communicate better. And the interaction between mother, children and the teacher builds confidence. Issues like personal hygiene, drinking water, proper seating and toilets in the schools are also taken care of because of the personal interest and intervention of mothers. What is all the more significant is the fact that without spending even a penny, the performance of the children has improved along with a considerable decline in dropout rates. Along with the betterment of children through the MTA's, the women have also started raising their own issues with each other and with teachers. Thus they have started enquiring about ways by which they can start earning money without leaving their homes. Those associated with the literacy campaign and the concept of MTA's feel that once the scheme is well entrenched itself, the women too can be guided more adequately. Other social issues plaguing the society can be effectively addressed with the help of these MTA's. The Director, State Research Centre, Mr K.S. Tanwar, while lauding the efforts of the administration in making the MTA concept a success but points out that it is important to sustain the euphoria. He feels that the concept is still at the inception level and will be implemented in the districts of Kulu, Sirmaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Chamba. He said that the MTA's
would be linked with the continuing education campaign
(CEC) to be launched in Himachal. So far the CEC has been
launched only in Mandi district where children, women,
youth, peasantry and senior citizens, constitute the
target groups. |
HP seeks 10-year tax holiday
for industry CHANDIGARH, Feb 28 — The Himachal Government has sought a 10-year tax holiday for the industry in the state, Mr Kishori Lal, Himachal's Industries Minister, told newsmen here this morning. He said his government was making all out efforts to have eco-friendly industry in Himachal. The BJP-HVC Government in Himachal, he said, was committed to the implementing the promises his party had made at the time of last elections. A Cabinet sub-committee was monitoring the progress made on the implementation of the promises made to the people. The promises were being implemented earnestly because the government had converted the party's election manifesto into a policy document. Mr Kishori Lal told newsmen that there were no differences on account of the implementation of the promises, and the functioning of the allies was quite smooth. The BJP-HVC Government was about to complete one year of its rule in the state which had achieved integrated development of all areas without any discrimination. He charged the Congress with misrule. He alleged that this had resulted in poor development and economic growth of the state. The Congress, he charged, was responsible for the poverty of the people for the way it had conducted itself during the 45-year rule. His Government, Mr Kishori Lal, said had taken up the real issues of unemployment, poor wages and slow growth of the industry and had taken some concrete measures during the year in the right direction. While more job opportunities were being created, daily wage was being raised to Rs 51 and incentives were being given to the industry. The age-limit for employment had been raised to 38 years. It had also been decided to recruit 50 per cent of the professionally trained persons through the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission and Class III and Class IV persons through the Subordinate Services Selection Board. He said emphasis was being laid on the development of infrastructure without which proper development of the state could not take place. Of the 400 doctors needed
to be recruited at the time his government had assumed
power, 250 had already been appointed and efforts were
being made to recruit more. |
NGO federation splits SHIMLA, Feb 28 — The state's most powerful and highly politicised employees body, the Himachal Non-gazetted Services Federation, today formally split with Mr Gopal Dass Verma, the outgoing President, refusing to accept the new body elected by the general house at Bilaspur yesterday. Terming the elections in which Mr Ganga Singh and Mr Prem Singh, Bharmauria were elected president and general secretary of the federation, respectively, as unconstitutional Mr Verma said the whole exercise was a conspiracy to split the federation. He said the election had been postponed for April 20 and 21 and as such the election held yesterday had no constitutional validity. He said he would move court to restrain, the new body from misusing the name federation. Mr Verma claimed that only small faction of delegates had participated in the election. Out of the 82 departmental associations, the delegates of 70 walked out of the meeting when Mr Ganga Singh insisted on holding elections. Similarly, delegates of only four districts, Mandi, Shimla, Una and Bilaspur participated in the elections. He said the state executive was still in office as it could not be dissolved by the president of a district unit as was done in Bilaspur yesterday. He said the fact that a majority of the office-bearers in the new body, including the president, the general secretary and two vice-presidents, were from the Public Works Department clearly indicated that the support base of the federation had been virtually confinded to a single department. It was thus not a true representative body of the employees. He said he would not allow the attempt of Mr Ganga Singh to set up a parallel organisation. The new president of the federation would be elected on April 21 as announced earlier. Mr Ganga Singh, on the other hand, maintains that election was held as per constitution and representatives from all the districts and departmental association participated in it. He said Mr Verma has no authority to postpone the election and only the federal committee was empowered to take such decisions. As such the general house which met yesterday went ahead with the election as per the original schedule. This is not the first time
that the federation had split. In 1980 the Madhukar
faction went on a 35-day strike to seek recognition from
the government. |
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