P R A D E S H
Saturday, September 18, 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, September 18, 1999 |
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Cong must disclose its
allies: Sharma Cong ignored defence needs: Dhumal |
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Teachers resent varsity
apathy YC chief to address poll rallies
today Charas worth 1.95 cr seized 4 killed in mishap Fake detergents seized |
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Cong must disclose its
allies: Sharma SHIMLA, Sept 17 — The senior vice-president of the BJP, Mr K.L. Sharma, has said that the Congress Party should take people into confidence about its electoral understandings with other parties before the elections for the Lok Sabha were completed. Mr Sharma, who was talking to newsmen here today, alleged that the Congress was shy of coming out with details of its pre-poll and post-poll allies. Cracks had started appearing in the Congress tie-up with Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ms Jayalalitha. The Congress Party, which had failed to remain united, was not in a position to provide a stable government. Only the BJP along with its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was capable of providing a stable government as it had already made its position clear regarding its pre-poll alliance, common manifesto and unanimity on leadership of Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. The BJP wished that the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Chandra Babu Naidu, should make his TDP a partner in the NDA government at the Centre, but he would continue to support the Vajpayee government in case political compulsions did not allow him to share power at the Centre. The era of coalition governments had come to stay in the country. Mr Sharma refused to reply to a question regarding the stand of the BJP on Article 370, which provides special status to Jammu and Kashmir. He said that Article 370 was not on the agenda of the BJP as of today. The only thing left with the government after the success in Kargil was to come down heavily on the menace of terrorism in the Kashmir valley to bring it to a logical conclusion. The emergence of a
non-Congress government at the Centre was an indicator of
the two-party system. The anti-incumbency factor was not
working against the BJP either at the Centre or in
Himachal Pradesh. |
Cong ignored defence needs:
Dhumal SHIMLA, Sept 17 — The Himachal Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal yesterday said that the successive Congress governments had ignored country’s vital defence needs and succumbed to international pressure time and again to defer the testing of strategic weapons like Agni missile. In a statement here he charged the Congress and the Third Front governments with curtailing the defence outlay which had weakened the security of the country. He said it was the good fortune of the country that the Kargil intrusion occurred when the Vajpayee government was in power. It had inflicted a humiliating defeat on Pakistan. Had the Congress been in power, Mr Dhumal said, it would have surrendered the occupied land as it did in the 1948 and 1962 wars. The Chief Minister said the Army had recorded impressive victories in the 1965 and 1971 war, but the Congress governments at the Centre had failed to protect the national interest and surrendered India’s military advantage. For unexplained reasons Indira Gandhi had returned to Pakistan the areas of the Pak-held Kashmir valiantly liberated by the Indian forces. There was no instance in the world where a victorious country had surrendered on a platter its own territory to an aggressor, he added. He urged the Congress to tell the people whether it considered Pakistan as an integral and inseparable part of India, if so then why did its government surrendered to Pakistan the areas got liberated by India from illegal occupation of Pakistan? he asked. On the contrary, Mr Dhumal said, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had displayed exceptional grit and determination in refusing to talk to Pakistan unless it vacated every inch of land and even turned down the invitation of President Bill Clinton to visit the USA. The Vajpayee government had withstood the economic sanctions imposed by USA and other countries following Pokhran-II explosion. The economy of the country was never as strong as today in spite of the sanctions with prices falling sharply and inflation dipping to a record low in past 20 years, the Chief Minister said. Meanwhile, Mr Ganesh Dutt, a spokesperson for the BJP, on Thursday claimed that the BJP was a true well-wisher of apple growers and had already taken steps for getting apple delisted from the open general licence (OGL). Talking to newsmen here, Mr Dutt alleged that the Congress was trying to mislead the apple growers on the issue. Apple was included in the OGL during the Congress regime at the Centre and the state in 1994. He contradicted the statement of the Congress leader, Thakur Ram Lal, that apple was included in the OGL in March this year by the BJP government. He demanded that the
Congress should seek an apology from the apple growers
for having "misled" them on the issue. |
Sonia, Advani to campaign in
Mandi MANDI, Sept 17 — The Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani will address an election rally in the town on September 22 at Padal Stadium, it was officially confirmed here yesterday. Mrs Sonia Gandhi, AICC President, will also address a public meeting on September 20. This was disclosed to this reporter by Thakur Kaul Singh, former Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha and Congress candidate from the Mandi parliamentary constituency. Senior BJP leaders are
pressing the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee also
to address a rally here on September 21. However, the
visit of the Prime Minister has not been confirmed
officially. But the police and the district
administration have finalised the security and other
arrangements for the visits of these VIPs. |
Teachers resent varsity apathy SHIMLA, Sept 17 — The executive committee of the HP University Teachers Association has deplored the apathy of the university authorities and the state government towards the problems and demands of the teachers community. The executive committee has resented the unnecessary delay in the release of arrears to the teachers on account of implementation of the revised UGC scales. According to Dr O.P. Chauhan, secretary of the association, the latest letter of August 26, 1999, by the Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development, to the Secretary, Department of Planning, Himachal Pradesh reveals that the state government has perhaps not yet put forward its claims to the Central Government in this regard. The executive committee
of the teachers association has also taken a serious note
of the orders of the Vice-Chancellor making discretionary
allotment of university residential accommodation to two
teachers by allegedly flouting rules. |
YC chief to address poll
rallies today SHIMLA, Sept 17 — The president of the Youth Congress, Mr Munish Tiwari, will address election rallies at Parwanoo, Solan and Shimla on September 18. Mr Sukhwinder Singh,
president, State Youth Congress said that Mr Tiwari would
campaign for the Congress candidate, Mr Gangu Ram
Musafir, in the Shimla constituency. |
Charas worth 1.95 cr seized KULU, Sept 17 — The police today achieved a major success in its drive against the drugs when it seized 13 kg of super quality charas during a naka bandi at Ramshila Municipal checkpost. The police party led by Mrs Kamala, ASI, along with the ITBP personnel nabbed a British national Frederick George Cordingley carrying the contraband in a car. He was coming from Manali. The charas was concealed in the head lights, tail lights, door panels and under the rear seat of the car. The police got suspicious when he did not stop the car when signalled. He was chased and nabbed at the Municipal checkpost. The estimated cost of
the seizure is Rs 1.95 crore in the international market. |
4 killed in mishap SHIMLA, Sept 17 (PTI) — Four persons were killed and one injured today when a taxi carrying them fell into a gorge near Ghrat Nullah, 30 km from here, the police said. The victims have been identified as the taxi's driver-cum-owner Ishwar Dass, Sewa Dass and Babu Ram. The fourth person was yet to be identified, the police said. The taxi was on its way
to Sunni from here. |
Fake detergents seized SOLAN, Sept 17 — The police today raided a factory manufacturing fake "Wheel" brand detergent powder and "Clinic Plus" shampoos at Baddi and seized spurious raw materials. The SP Mr Rakesh Aggarwal, said the raid was conducted after a local police party intercepted and seized 1400 half kilo packets of fake "wheel" detergents from a bazaar yesterday. Three persons —
Rajinder Kumar, Vijay Kumar and Desh Raj, — who
brought the spurious packets in a jeep were arrested. The
jeep had been impounded and the cases of cheating,
forgery, false use of proprietary trade marks and
criminal conspiracy had been registered against them. |
Plane fails to land KANGRA, Sept 17 — A
Dornier 18-seater Indian Airlines aircraft which was to
land at Gaggal airport this afternoon, carrying 15
passengers and three Indian Airlines officers, on its
inaugural flight to Kangra valley, under the foothills of
sparkling Dhauladar, on its regular flight could not land
due to bad weather. |
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