P R A D E S H
Saturday, November 13, 1999
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H I M A C H A L P R A D E S H |
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Saturday, November 13, 1999 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Fellow feeling triumphs Dhumal : hike HP's quota in forces |
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‘Amend’ posting
policy for doctors HP stops bill encashment Nari Niketan inmate
‘raped’ Power engineers oppose move MC to replace kiosks with shops Non-teaching staff threaten stir Posts vacant at HPU centre |
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Fellow feeling triumphs DAMTAL (Kangra), Nov 12 — It was virtually a sea of humanity flowing into this sleepy town bordering Punjab after the train blast. Though Himachal was carved out from Punjab 33 years ago, the people of both states became one in their efforts to rescue passengers of the ill-fated train. Workers at the nearby stone crushers immediately rushed to the site. A worker, Surinder Singh, rang up his proprietor, Mr Babu Pishori Lal Sahni, who directed the workers to swing into action. The workers, including Sonu, Jagdish Raj, Harjit Singh and Pardeep, carried the injured in tippers (a vehicle used by stone crushers) to the Military Hospital and the Civil Hospital at Pathankot. In the meantime residents of Damtal reached the site and began rescue work even before the arrival of officials of Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. Mr S.K. Sandhu and Mr Varinder Kumar, Deputy Commissioner and SSP, Gurdaspur, respectively, were the first to reach the accident site. Officials from Himachal took longer to reach. People from the three states brought eatables and blankets to the Military Hospital for the victims and their attendants. Had it not been for their timely help, the figure of casualties would have been much higher. Soldiers on board the ill-fated train narrated their narrow encounter with death. The compartment in which the blast occurred was the second from the engine. Sepoy P.K Saikia, belonging to 35 Rashtriya Rifles, who was on his way home, saw his fellow passengers falling victims to the splinters of the bomb. "For a moment my mind turned blank but soon I realised that my companions, with whom I was playing cards only a few moments back, were no more," he said. Saikia, who is injured in the face, said "the deafening sound still reverberates in my mind". Cries for help and wails of women followed the eerie silence that descended on the compartment after the blast, said Sepoy P K Das. "Even after the
blast, the train dragged nearly half a kilometre before
it came to a complete halt, Das, who was in the adjacent
compartment, said. |
Dhumal condemns train blast SHIMLA, Nov 12 — The Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, has condemned the bomb blast that took place near Kandrori in Pooja Express in which 12 persons lost their lives and 49 were injured. The Chief Minister has expressed sympathies with the bereaved families and announced special grant of Rs 25000 each to next of kin of those killed in the bomb blast and Rs 5000 each to the injured. He has also directed to provide all possible assistance for the treatment of the injured persons. Mr Dhumal, who was in
Delhi, rushed to Nurpur this morning and visited the
Military Hospital, Pathankot, to enquire after the
welfare of the injured. |
Dhumal: hike HP's quota in
forces SHIMLA, Nov 12 — The Himachal Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, has urged the Centre to suitably increase the recruitment quota to armed forces from Himachal Pradesh keeping in view the topography, male recruitable population, non-existence of worthwhile alternative employment revenues and the track record of gallantry awards earned by soldiers from the state. In a letter to Mr George Fernandes, Union Minister for Defence, Mr Dhumal urged for raising of a separate Himachal Regiment, like the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, Assam Rifles and Punjab Regiment in the larger national interest. The Chief Minister has urged the Defence Minister to review the decision of recruitment to the defence services on the basis of recruitable male population. He said agriculture was the main source of employment for the majority of people and there was hardly any big or medium industries in the state which could provide employment. In these circumstances, a large number of educated unemployed were keen to join armed forces, he added. He said that Himachalis had shown high degree of devotion to duty and since Independence, Gallant soldiers of Himachal Pradesh had won two Param Vir Chakra, one Ashok Chakra, 14 Mahavir Chakra, 15 Kirti Chakra, 63 Vir Chakra and many other gallantry and distinguished services medals. In Operation Vijay, 52 soldiers from the state had sacrificed their lives and out of four Param Vir Chakra, two had been given to late Captain Vikram Batra and rifleman Sanjay Kumar from Himachal. The Chief Minister hoped
that the Centre would review its policy of recruitment
for meeting the aspiration of the people of Himachal
Pradesh. |
‘Amend’ posting policy for
doctors SHIMLA, Nov 12 — Mrs V.S. Rama Devi, Governor, has expressed concern at the shortage of doctors in rural and remote areas and called for evolving a system of difficult and soft posting, alternately, for medical personnel on the pattern of the Army. Inaugurating the 20th annual conference of the Northern Chapter of Association of Surgeons of India here today, the Governor said as more than 80 per cent of the population lived in villages it was essential to provide an effective medical cover to the rural people. There was a good network of health institutions in the state but not enough doctors. She called upon doctors, particularly the young ones, to come forward and volunteer their services for difficult areas where these were most needed. She said often the doctors posted for a tenure of three years in remote areas were force to serve there for up to 10 years. Such lapses in postings discouraged them from joining duty in difficult areas. She said there should be no interference in postings of doctors from any quarter and those serving in difficult areas should be brought back and given easy postings on completion of tenure. Referring to the advances in medical science, she said the world had entered the hi-tech era. Improvement in technology had helped win people's faith in surgical practice and they were no more scared of surgical intervention. However, the cost of surgery was prohibitive. Doctors were not aware of the high cost of products they were using. It was time they focussed their attention on this crucial aspect and laid emphasis on low-cost surgical management. Mrs Rama Devi urged the medical fraternity to make best use of the revolution in the field of information and technology which had made available facilities like the Internet. Through the Internet the doctor could keep abreast of the latest developments in their respective fields. Until recently the surgeons' mainstay was to examine the patient by surgical intervention. Now the situation was different. One could keep inside the patient's body with the help of sophisticated gadgets. Computers, magnetic resonance imaging and fibre optic systems had provided great tools in the hands of surgeons. Mr Gulab Singh, Speaker, who presided over the function, expressed concern at the rising cost of medical treatment and underlined the need for adopting less expensive methods. He said though the state-of-the-art medical facilities were available at big hospitals, these remained out of reach of the poor. At least 250 surgical
specialists from Northern India are participating in the
three-day conference-cum-continuing medical education
programme. |
HP stops bill encashment SHIMLA, Nov 12 — The government treasuries in all districts have stopped encashment of bills of various departments as the financial position of the state government has further worsened. Reports said that except salary and wage bills, no other bills were being encashed by the district treasuries. Although the Finance Department sources denied having issued any instructions for not entertaining other bills, an official of a district treasury claimed that such orders had informally been received from the department. It is learnt that the treasuries were not entertaining the bills pertaining to contingency account and office expenses since November 6. An officer said that neither were the treasuries returning the unencashed bills which had piled up there. Another officer said his suggestion for fragmenting a bill of about Rs 75,000 for being passed was turned down by the treasury. The officials in the treasury were expecting that fresh orders for encashment of the bills might be received next week. It may be recalled that the state government had run into overdraft last month. Meanwhile, the financial position of the state government has been going from bad to worse during the past sometime. While in the Opposition, the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, had been criticising the previous Congress government for having raised loans from the open market. But now he was following in its footsteps in a bid to tide over the crisis. A loan of about Rs 500 crore has been raised through two public sector undertakings. The Finance Department had earlier this week given a presentation of the grave financial position to the state Council of Ministers. There were reports that certain top officers were defying the orders of the state government for cutting expenditure. Certain bureaucrats were continuing to unofficially use more than one official vehicle. The same was being done by certain ministers, it is alleged. During his recent visit to Delhi, Mr Dhumal is learnt to have met the Union Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, and sought a package for meeting the financial crisis. The state government was
also expecting that the Eleventh Finance Commission will
come to its rescue by making suitable recommendations. |
Nari Niketan inmate
‘raped’ DHARAMSALA, Nov 12 — The charge of rape by a minor girl of Nari Niketan, Kangra, against the chowkidar of the niketan, has again exposed mismanagement by the authorities. A 15-year-old girl at the Nari Niketan, who had been residing here since April, disappeared on November 8. She was traced yesterday by the police from the Jawalamukhi area. The young orphan girl, has lodged an FIR with the police alleging that she was raped by one of the employees of the niketan and was harassed by another employee. The Kangra police has registered a case under Section 376 against the chowkidar and Section 354 of the IPC against the sweeper. While the chowkidar has been arrested the police is on the look out for the other boy. The medical report of the girl is being awaited. It is not for the first time that this kind of an incident has taken place at the Nari Niketan. The place was in the news when two women died under mysterious circumstances, some time ago. Housed in a dingy and dilapidated building in old Kangra, the Nari Niketan has seven inmates, whereas it can accommodate, 25 women. There have been complaints of poor quality food and unhygienic living conditions at the place. According to DSP Pritam
Singh Thakur, the girl was brought up by a family in
Dehra, as she is an orphan. Six months ago they left her
at the Nari Niketan. He said the girl has alleged that
she was raped two months ago, and she had reported the
matter to the Superintendent, the next day. The
Superintendent is on leave for the past one week, and not
available for comments. The girl, who is being
interrogated refused to talk to anyone. |
Anti-polythene drive fails JAWALAMUKHI: The much-talked-about anti-polythene drive in the town faces an untimely death following the dumping of polythene waste in different areas. The uncaring attitude of citizens has shattered the plans of social workers to free this town from synthetic pollution. Polythene menace has gripped the entire town whether it is nullahs, residential areas or backyards of business establishments. The worst affected are the nullahs, where a lot of polythene bags and packets thrown into them has made them stagnant. People living on either side of these nullahs have to bear with the stink caused due to the waste in polythene bags. The nullah, which runs between the temple compound and Pajari mohalla, is filled with polythene waste, says a social activist, Mr Anil Chandan. These nullahs are seasonal. All the filth wrapped in polythene bags comes to the door-step during the rainy season when nullahs become streams of filth. Bada Nullah, the largest, gets half of the city garbage. Quintals of polythene waste have been strewn round the nullah near the Jawalamukhi temple. Kitchen and other waste in such bags not only produces a nauseating stink, it also results in the loss of soil on its banks. The stink is so strong that even rag-pickers avoid collecting polythene from these nullahs. "We prefer to collect dry polythene bags as collecting wet ones from the stinking nullah is unhygienic and an invitation to health hazards, says a rag-picker. The area between the Bus Stand and Mandir Road gets the largest amount of polythene waste. The nullah is without a lining at some places which leads to the waste coming on to the path. The Bus Stand and Mandir Road at times gets blocked in the rainy season and causes inconvenience to passers-by. Scores of polythene bags can be seen near the old bus stand. While residents blame the Nagar Panchayat authorities for the polythene waste which is spread everywhere by winds, social workers and anti-polythene campaigners blame residents for littering different areas with polythene waste. The local Nagar Panchayat officials lament that despite providing each house with a waste collection bag, the result is not encouraging. The practice of throwing garbage in polythene bags continues unabated. The non-availability of eco-friendly and cheap packing substances has aggravated the situation. The situation has become so grim that polythene bags have started accumulating, even under hoardings carrying anti-polythene slogans. The Nagar Panchayat
authorities are hopeful of getting rid of the polythene
menace. However, a solution lies not just in
commissioning the waste removal schemes but in setting up
a number of waste collection centres. The town’s
elite feels that it cannot get rid of this polythene
unless responsibility is fixed on residents. Unless those
throwing garbage in polythene bags and outside dustbins
are fined, this tendency of littering would be difficult
to curb. |
Power engineers oppose move SHIMLA, Nov 12 — The Himachal Power Engineers Association has opposed the "hasty" move of the government to restructure the state electricity board and urged it to form a professional committee before taking a final decision on the matter. The association, which deliberated on the issue at an emergency meeting here yesterday, cautioned the government not to go by the dictates of financial institutions and bureaucrats and instead ask a committee, comprising technical, legal, financial and commercial experts, to go into the details of proposed reforms and restructuring of the power sector. The committee should conduct diagnostic study to identify areas requiring reform and prepare a proposal on its basis. It should clearly project the scenario after the reform and highlight the gains in comparison with the existing set-up, the association urged. In other states, which were facing power shortage, the reforms had been initiated under pressure from the financial institutions as they required huge investment to bridge the demand and supply gap. Further these states had not achieved 100 per cent electrification and their transmission and distribution were very high. Besides, non-recovery of dues and heavy subsidy on power to the farm sector were crippling the boards. Moreover, where ever the reforms had taken place the results had not been very encouraging. In Himachal the conditions were entirely different. All consumers were billed and paid, only domestic consumers were subsidised for social reasons. There was no gap in the demand and supply position, though the state was fighting for its legitimate claim in inter-state power projects all these years. The topographical and geographical conditions were also different, the association said. It was also pertinent to mention that the board was managing only 300 MW of power with a maximum demand of 650 MW only. Creating three different entities would only lead increase in tariff. Most of the ongoing projects were in the hands of private parties or joint sector and there was not much to do by the way of the rationalisation of tariff. The neighbouring state owed Himachal Rs 2000 crore and these should be realised at the earliest. It urged the government
to allow the grant autonomous status to the board and
give it a professional management headed by a technocrat.
The board should be allowed to function as a commercial
organisation with at least 3 per cent return as provided
in the Act. Tariff also required rationalisation as
against the average cost of Rs 2.28 per unit, the
recovery was only Rs 1.85 paise per unit. The domestic
tariff of Rs 60 paise per unit was the lowest in the
country. |
MC to replace kiosks with
shops SOLAN, Nov 12 — The municipal council at an emergency meeting of its general house held here today decided to replace nearly a score of kiosks with pucca shops in the upper bazaar of this town. This bazaar was devastated by a fire on the night of Divali on November 7. The council chairman, Dr Rajiv Bindal, told newspersons the step was taken to ensure that no fire ever ravaged the area. He said it was sheer luck that these kiosks escaped serious damage. The Minister for Urban
Development, Mr Roop Dass Kashyap, who inspected the
fire-hit market today, had assured all possible help to
the municipal council in erecting pucca shops. He also
expressed his sympathies with the sufferers whose shops
and residences were reduced to ashes in the fire. |
Non-teaching staff threaten
stir KANGRA, Nov 12 — More than 15,000 non-teaching employees of the Himachal Pradesh Education Department have threatened to launch an agitation if the government fails to accept their demands. Mr Sheer Singh Koshal,
state president of the HP Non-Teaching Employees
Federation, Education Department, said in a statement
today that the clerical staff in the department was
overburdened by work as 114 superintendent grade-II posts
were lying vacant in block education offices. He said the
posts should be filled immediately. |
Posts vacant at HPU centre SHIMLA, Nov 12 — Several posts have been lying vacant in the regional centre of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) at Dharamshala, which was opened about seven years ago. Mr Waryam Singh Bains, a member of the university court, said here yesterday and criticised the Vice-Chancellor for the delay in making appointments. They expressed concern
over the delay in implementation of the recommendations
of the Kaw Committee which submitted its report in 1986
regarding the ratio of employees. They demanded a
separate building for the office of the Controller of
Examinations. |
Notification on lottery ban SHIMLA, Nov 12 — The Himachal Pradesh Government today issued a formal notification banning sale of all types of lotteries in the state. The state Cabinet had recently banned the sale of tickets of all types of lotteries organised, conducted or promoted by all state governments and union territories, including the State of Himachal Pradesh. Any individual, company,
proprietor, agent or his representative or any other
person acting in violation of this notification, is
liable to be punished under the Lotteries Act, 1998, an
official spokesman said. |
Operation Rakshak martyrs cremated SOLAN, Nov 12 — Havildar Pradeep Kumar and rifleman Bal Bahadur Pun of the 3/4 Gurkha Regiment, who laid down their lives while driving away enemy intruders in the Karnah sector of the border district of Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir on the intervening night of November 7, 8, were cremated at Subathu today. Earlier, the bodies, which were flown to Delhi from Karnah, were brought to the grounds of the 14 Gurkha Training Centre. Commandant, Brig Kamal Sood and Deputy Commandant, Col. S.K. Mehta and other officers of the centre laid wreaths. Additional District
Magistrate L.R Chauhan and Additional SP Sundar Lal laid
wreaths on behalf of the Governor and the Chief Minister,
respectively. |
CM expresses sympathies SHIMLA, Nov 12 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, has expressed sympathies with the family of Subedar Ved Parkash of Rehal village near Tutu in Shimla district who lost his life while fighting terrorists in Rajori sector in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday. Mr Roop Dass Kashyap,
Minister of State for Urban Development has also
expressed deep sorrow over the death of the Subedar. |
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