Chamba Dharamsala Mandi Shimla

58-km trek to set up booth
SHIMLA, Sept 2 — It will be a hazardous trek of 58 km for officials deployed at the highest polling booth at Pandar (9500 ft) in the far-flung Dodra Kawar area in Shimla district.

Chandel challenges ex-CM on recruitment
SHIMLA, Sept 2 — Mr Suresh Chandel, President of the state unit of the BJP, has challenged Mr Virbhadra Singh, a former Chief Minister, on recruitment issue.

All set for Manimahesh Yatra
From Balkrishan Prashar

MANIMAHESH (Chamba): Manimahesh — the abode of Lord Shiva — is located on a massif at an altitude of 5,656 metres. At its foot is Manimahesh Lake (4170 metres). This holy place falls in the Bharmour tribal valley of Himachal Pradesh.

The Manimahesh yatra has already been declared a state-level fair by the Himachal Government. And now this pilgrimage centre has gained importance almost all over the country. But a word of caution: be physically fit, if you are proceeding on the yatra.

This year the Manimahesh yatra would begin from September 3, but the holy "chhari" (mace) would start a week before the holy dip from the district headquarters town of Chamba and reach Manimahesh Lake on September 17. Pilgrims will take a holy dip the next day on the occasion of Radha Ashtami. The chhari will be taken to Manimahesh from Chamba via Rakh, Khadamukh, Bharmour, Hadsar and Dhanchho. Manimahesh can be approached directly from Pathankot via Chamba and Bharmour, which is a popular itinerary.

What is more characteristic of the yatra is that the devotees and pilgrims who join it tread barefoot and sing bhajans in praise of Lord Shiva.

To begin with, pilgrims taking part in the yatra are few in number but the more it advances, more pilgrims join it. The chhari halts at certain places fixed since the days of yore.

Surprisingly, Manimahesh peak has remained unconquered so far. However, in 1968, an Indo-Japanese team of mountaineers headed by Nandini Patel attempted to scale the peak. Now it is believed that this mountain possesses divine powers and would remain unconquered. The mountaineers, however, attribute their inability to scale this peak to the harsh mountain terrain.

Concerted efforts by all government departments are on to make arrangements for the pilgrimage. A fleet of special buses of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation are also being plied between Pathankot, Chamba, Bharmour and Hadsar. Free "langars" are planned by non-governmental organisations en route Bharmour to Manimahesh.

58-km trek to set up booth
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 2 — It will be a hazardous trek of 58 km for officials deployed at the highest polling booth at Pandar (9500 ft) in the far-flung Dodra Kawar area in Shimla district.

The polling station is a two-day trek (58) km from the nearest roadhead at Netwar in Uttarkashi district of U.P. The polling party will have to take the Uttarkashi route as the approach from the Himachal side is more inhospitable involving crossing a high pass.

The returning officer of Shimla (reserved) Lok Sabha constituency, Mr Ram Subhag Singh, told reporters here today that all arrangements had been made for smooth polling on September 25.

He said 68 polling parties will move for their respective places from here on September 22 and 854 parties will move on September 23.

A total number of 1691 polling booths will be set up in the three districts of Shimla, Solan and Sirmour for an electorate of 9,44,121. The total number of voters in these three districts, which are part of the Shimla (reserved) Lok Sabha seat, is Shimla (410439), Solan (278313) and Sirmour (255369).

He said that 125 polling stations have been identified as "hyper sensitive" and 243 as "sensitive". These include Rohru Chirgaon, Barthata, Nerwa, Kotgarh, Narkania, Junga, Dhalli, Kumarsein and Deha.

Mr Ram Subhag Singh said that besides police, 230 NCC cadets will also be deployed on polling duty. Counting of votes will be centralised here for the district.

The counting in Solan district will be done at Solan, Nalagarh and Arki and at Nahan, Paonta Sahib and Rajgarh for Sirmour district.

The lowest polling booth (1370 ft) is being set up at Behral in the Paonta Sahib area of Sirmour.

A polling booth for only 53 voters will be set up at Reasti hamlet in the Chopal area of Shimla district. The polling booth with highest number of voters is at Sheetalpur in the Doon area of Solan, with 1238 voters.

Shanta Kumar files papers
Tribune News Service

DHARAMSALA, Sept 2 — Former Chief Minister and BJP candidate from the Kangra Lok Sabha seat Shanta Kumar today filed his nomination papers.

Mr Shanta Kumar reached the Deputy Commissioner's office in a procession. He was accompanied by ministers and MLAs from Kangra and Chamba districts.

Addressing a public meeting after filing his nomination papers, Mr Shanta Kumar said it was the Congress which was responsible for forcing another election on the country. "It is painful that we are facing elections for the seventh time in the past 10 years and that too when the expenditure on one election is over Rs 10,000 crore", he said. He added that it was not the first time that the Congress had pulled down a government.

Mr Shanta Kumar said the Congress had become a party of power-hungry politicians who had no concern for people.

"Though we too wanted to run the government for a period of five years, we did not compromise with corruption as wanted by Ms Jayalalitha", he claimed.

HAMIRPUR (FOC): Mr Ram Lal Thakur on Thursday filed nomination papers in the presence of party leaders, Mr Virbhadra Singh and Mr Sat Mahajan.

Earlier, thousands of partymen from Hamirpur, Una, Kangra, Bilaspur and Dehra joined a procession held in the main bazar. Carrying placards and banners they raised slogans in favour of the party and its leader, Mrs Sonia Gandhi.

At Gandhi Chowk, the Congress organised a big rally where party leaders criticised the BJP for its anti-people policies.

Dhumal claims Vajpayee wave
From Our Correspondent

MANDI, Sept 2 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, today claimed that a pro-Vajpayee wave was sweeping the country and Himachal Pradesh had also been influenced by the "superb performance" of the Prime Minister during his short tenure.

Mr Dhumal, who launched the election campaign of the BJP candidate, Mr Maheshwar Singh from Mandi parliamentary constituency this evening, came down heavily on the Congress for criticising the Prime Minister on the Kargil issue.

He said he was deeply moved when widows of the previous wars pleaded with tears that they had been dealt with differently. He lamented that the then Congress government did not give due respect to martyrs.

Earlier thousands of people including Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, HVC chief, Mr Sukh Ram, Mansa Ram, Prakash Chaudhary ministers and BJP MLAs from six districts accompanied BJP candidate Mr Maheshwar Singh to the office of the Returning Officer where he filed his nomination papers.

HVC chief Sukh Ram alleged that Mr Virbhadra Singh had always obstructed his plans for the development of Himachal Pradesh when he was a minister at the Centre. "When I was Minister of State for Defence I had proposed a multi-crore defence factory for Jogindernagar. But Virbhadra Singh did not co-operate and refused to give land for that big project."

He said by replacing its Shimla candidate the Congress had exposed its "panic and frustration" and virtually conceded defeat.

He said it was a pity that the Congress had fielded unwilling candidates. As no one was ready to contest it had to bring in three sitting MLAs.

Chandel challenges ex-CM on recruitment
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 2 — Mr Suresh Chandel, President of the state unit of the BJP, has challenged Mr Virbhadra Singh, a former Chief Minister, on recruitment issue. He asked him to file an affidavit that during his tenure he did not recruit even a single person with the reference to the employment exchanges as required under the Compulsory Notification of Vacancies Act.

In a statement issued here yesterday, Mr Chandel said the failure of Mr Virbhadra Singh to file such an affidavit would automatically amount to acceptance of the Shukla Committee report and he should quit politics as declared by him.

Referring to his allegations that the Dhumal government had for the past one year only performing ceremonies of buildings and projects which were initiated by the Virbhadra government, Mr Chandel reminded Mr Virbhadra Singh that it was he who had been doing so during 1993-94 because all projects he inaugurated were started by the BJP government.