Teachers abound in cities, interiors feel the pinch
SHIMLA, Nov 16 — While primary schools in remote and difficult areas are crying out for staff, there are hundreds of surplus teachers in schools located in convenient urban stations.

Engineering college without Principal
SHIMLA, Nov 16 — The President of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), Mr Kewal Singh Pathania, has said most of the professional institutions in the state were functioning on ad hocism without a proper infrastructure.

Plea to construct link road
KULU, Nov 16 — Residents of three panchayats of Deem, Chayal and Sarahan in the Buter Seraj area of this district have demanded the construction of the Bagipul-Jaun link road.

Saw mill gutted
MANALI, Nov 16 — A saw mill was gutted in a fire that broke out at Cojra village, 8 km from here, early morning today on Manali-Kulu left bank route.

CAT Bench in HP sought
SHIMLA, Nov 16 — The legal cell of the HP Youth Congress has demanded the immediate creation of a permanent Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal here.

Official mindset ‘must change’
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 16 — Mr N. Vittal, Central Vigilance Commissioner, has called upon the bureaucracy to reorient itself and develop a new mindset to meet challenges posed by the liberalised environment in the wake of economic reforms.

Delivering a lecture on "Reform and governance issues in states" here last evening, he said the five decades of the permit and licence raj had resulted in a mindset oriented more towards dispensing power and patronage where economic issues were concerned. There was an urgent need for the civil servant to appreciate the changed role of the government from that of a controller to a regulator.

He lamented there was resistance on the part of government departments to part with power to new regulatory authorities. It was high time that the revised role of the regulatory authorities and that of the service provider, government departments, was appreciated not only at the top level but across the bureaucratic spectrum.

The single-window system for investors had not become effective at the ground level due to bureaucratic hurdles.

He blamed redtapism, cumbersome laws and procedures and lack of transparency and accountability in the administration and loopholes in the legal system for rampant corruption. The corrupt and criminal escaped punishment by taking advantage of delay in the process.

Often before the departmental action was taken and the guilty punished, the charged officials had already retired or even expired. At least four files were put up to the CVC every month where the charged officers had expired.

Besides judicial reforms to plug loopholes in the justice administration system, there was a need to explore the possibility of using information technology to the extent possible to expedite the process without sacrificing the sacred principles of law and justice.

Underlining the need for transparency and accountability, he said if the society tolerated non-performance of duties, there could be no accountability. The public must be made aware that they should hold persons in governance responsible. This called for greater transparency which could be brought about by switching over to electronic governance, using information and technology, as had been done in Andhra Pradesh.

It would lead to better governance and also less corruption. It would also help in processing papers and information speedily and provide ready access to precedents.

The issue of greater transparency in government called for certain legal measures also. The Official Secret Act, which was well designed to ensure official secrets, particularly those having a bearing on national security and other sensitive matters, could be misused to deny citizens the right to information. Therefore, there was a growing demand for right to information Act.

Teachers abound in cities, interiors feel the pinch
From Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 16 — While primary schools in remote and difficult areas are crying out for staff, there are hundreds of surplus teachers in schools located in convenient urban stations.

An exercise carried out by the Directorate of Primary Education with a view to rationalising staff deployment has revealed that 4,454 posts of teacher were vacant, mostly in interior areas, and at the same time, 1,463 teachers were surplus in schools in and around main towns.

Obviously the norms for teacher-pupil ratio have not been enforced in the state. As a result of which schools in difficult and remote areas have a very adverse teacher-pupil ratio and those in or close to towns have a much higher number of teachers than required.

The problem is acute in districts like Shimla, Chamba and Kangra where a large number of teachers are in surplus. For instance in Chamba, which has a large number of schools in hard areas, there were 253 surplus teachers in urban areas whereas 559 posts were vacant. Similarly in Shimla district, 537 posts are vacant mostly in schools located in Chopal, Nerwa and other remote pockets, and 253 teachers are in surplus, half of them in schools in and around the state capital.

In Kangra as against 304 surplus teachers, 534 posts are vacant. However, the maximum number of 1,100 vacant posts are in Mandi district, where the voluntary teachers scheme could not be implemented due to court cases. Even in the tribal Kinnaur district, there are 34 surplus teachers and 50 vacant posts due to irrational deployment.

Mr Karan Singh, the Minister for Primary Education, admitted that there was an urgent need for rationalising the staff deployment to provide adequate number of teachers in schools located in the interior areas. He said the situation would improve following the recruitment of 2,100 vidyaupasks, now underway. The government proposed to send the surplus teachers to interior areas where a large number of posts were vacant.

Once the rationalisation exercise is completed the number of vacancies will come down to around 900.

He said a large number of vacancies were due to indiscriminate opening of schools by the previous Congress government on the eve of last Assembly poll. While schools were notified, no provision for staff and building was made. In fact, over the past one and a half years the present government had made these schools, which were existing only in papers, functional.

A stadium that was not to be

NURPUR: It was about ten years back on January 16, 1990, when Mr Virbhadra Singh, the then Chief Minister, laid the foundation stone of Brij Raj Stadium on a vast ground at Chaugan, with great fanfare. Sports lovers of the region were excited as their dream was likely to be fulfilled. But to one's surprise no construction has commenced till now, thanks to the apathy and red-tapism of the state government.

The proposed stadium was to have been built at an estimated cost of Rs 14.84 lakh then. It would now cost many times more. Intriguingly, Mr Virbhadra Singh had laid the foundation stone on the Army camping ground comprising an area of 24,977 square metres , whose ownership vested with the Defence Ministry. The Public Works Department also spent Rs 1 lakh at that time on ground levelling.

During the Shanta Kumar regime, the stadium was shelved. Not a single brick was laid from 1990 to 1993. In 1993, Mr Virbhadra Singh again came to power and rekindled hopes among sports lovers. In the meantime, the foundation stone got damaged and its plaque defaced. The surroundings of the ground also become a haven for land encroachers.

On August 13,1996, a few months before the byelection to the Nurpur Assembly constituency, Mr Virbhadra Singh, visited the area after six years. He examined the site of the stadium. The PWD authorities installed a fresh foundation stone and a new plaque with old foundation-laying date inscribed on it.

In the meantime, the local MLA, Mr Sat Mahajan, was elected M.P. from the Kangra parliamentary constituency. Evincing interest in the construction of the stadium, he released Rs 6,74,398 transferring its ownership from the Defence Ministry to the H.P. Government on January 21, 1998. On the local Sub-Divisional Magistrate releasing the sum to the Army, the ownership was transferred to the state government. But till today, the revenue authorities have failed to take possession of the land and to hand it over to the PWD for undertaking its construction.

As a sequel, the construction of the stadium has been hanging fire. However, the PWD (Nurpur Division) put up a fence around the stadium by spending over Rs 1 lakh.

Mr N.K. Lath, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, when contacted by this correspondent revealed that after getting ownership of the land transferred to the state government, his office wrote to the Tehsildar on March 9, this year directing him to take possession of the land. But neither was the possession taken nor the land handed over to the PWD, he added.

The unprecedented delay in the construction of Brij Raj Stadium has caused resentment among youth. As a sequel, the foundation stone has started to get frayed.

Seminar, debate mark Press Day
From Tribune Reporters

SHIMLA, Nov 16 — Mr Vepa Rao, a senior journalist and Professor of Journalism in Himachal Pradesh University, has stressed the need for opening regional offices of the Press Council in different parts of the country for its effective functioning.

Speaking at a state-level seminar organised by the Directorate of Information and the Public Relations Department to mark Press Day here today, he said the council had great moral authority which could considerably bring down the number of defamation cases by providing justice to aggrieved parties.

The media would have to face new challenges in the time to come to meet the aspirations of the people and the growing competition.

Expressing concern over the declining values in journalism, he called for honest introspection by all concerned. He lamented that reporters were mostly obsessed with politics and did not pay enough attention to issues which actually affected the people.

Mr Chatter Singh Panwar, former Director of Information and Public Relations, stressed the need for better coordination between the Press and public relations staff.

Mr R.C. Kapil, Director, Information and Public Relations, underlined the role of the media in strengthening democracy in the country.

NAHAN: A district-level function was organised here to mark Press Day.

Mr Dharmendera Thakur, District Public Relations Officer, Sirmour, appealed to all participants to work hard to re-establish old Indian values of journalism.

DHARAMSALA: A discussion on "Press and Society", by journalists and people from other marks of life marked Press Day here on Tuesday.

The Resident Editor of Divya Himachal, Mr Anil Soni, said that one must realise that the task of the reporters was not an easy one.

The Deputy Commissioner, Mr B.K. Aggarwal, said that since society had entrusted the politicians, bureaucrats and reporters with great responsibility, they should do their duty with utmost sincerity instead of blaming society for all evils.

HAMIRPUR: Press day was observed here on Tuesday with Ms Anuradha Thakur, Deputy Commissioner, honouring two journalists on this occasion.

Engineering college without Principal
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 16 — The President of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), Mr Kewal Singh Pathania, has said most of the professional institutions in the state were functioning on ad hocism without a proper infrastructure.

In a statement here yesterday, he said Regional Engineering College, Hamirpur, was without a regular Principal for the past 18 months.

He demanded an inquiry into the purchase of computers by the college.

Mr Pathania alleged that exorbitant fees were being charged from the students at the Kala Amb Engineering College.

Plea to construct link road
From Our Correspondent

KULU, Nov 16 — Residents of three panchayats of Deem, Chayal and Sarahan in the Buter Seraj area of this district have demanded the construction of the Bagipul-Jaun link road.

They demanded an inquiry into the delayed construction of the road as the PWD had already allocated the work to some private contractors. They said a delegation would soon meet the Chief Minister in this regard.

Saw mill gutted
From Our Correspondent

MANALI, Nov 16 — A saw mill was gutted in a fire that broke out at Cojra village, 8 km from here, early morning today on Manali-Kulu left bank route. Property worth several lakhs of Rupees was destroyed in the fire. The mill belonged to Mr Bhag Chand. Fire tenders rushed to the spot saved the adjoining houses from catching fire.

The SDM, Mr Amrit Lal Sharma, reached the spot and granted an immediate relief of Rs 5,000 to the affected family.

CAT Bench in HP sought
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Nov 16 — The legal cell of the HP Youth Congress has demanded the immediate creation of a permanent Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) here.

Mr Ajay Mohan Goel, convener of the cell, yesterday pointed out that central government employees serving in Himachal Pradesh had to go to Chandigarh to pursue their litigation.