 |
Saturday,
December 29, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
|
Virbhadra, Stokes share dais
Permanent Health Director within 15 days Kashmiri labourers return to valley Directorate building
inaugurated |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Execute 2nd phase of Balh project: Speaker B.Ed. colleges flout NCTE norms Milk Federation
HQ inaugurated HPU nod to
diploma course in criminology Anti-ragging squads in medical colleges
|
|
Virbhadra, Stokes share dais Shimla, December 28 Both factions shared the dais and there was no visible tension between them. A former Chief Minister, Thakur Ram Lal, was also present at the meeting of the general house of the PCC which was addressed by Mr Bhajan Lal. Mr Bhajan Lal urged the two factions to sink their differences and unitedly fight the ruling BJP. Mr Virbhadra Singh and Thakur Kaul Singh, MLA, touched the issue of alleged irregularities in the organisational elections in Himachal Pradesh and said that the petitions were still pending disposal by the high command. Later, addressing mediapersons, Mr Bhajan Lal demanded that the BJP government at the Centre should be dismissed for having failed to protect the country from the external forces and deteriorating law and order. He said the foreign policy of BJP-led NDA government had been a total failure as the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, could not visualise the gameplan of Pakistan and went to Lahore with fanfare in a bus while the enemy had taken up positions on the Indian soil in Kargil. Mr Bhajan Lal said India committed the second mistake by recognising General Pervez Musharraf as President of Pakistan. He said the terrorist attack on the Parliament House had come because of the weak-kneed foreign policy of the BJP government. He said it was the responsibility of the Centre to ensure peace and tranquility in the country in which the Vajpayee government has badly failed. No development had taken place eversince the present government came to power. Mr Bhajan Lal said the Congress had strengthened with Mrs Sonia Gandhi taking over its reins and the prospects were bright for the party in the forthcoming elections. He said the BJP would be thrown out of power in Himachal Pradesh as people were fed up with the misrule. He said that the membership drive would be carried out throughout the state and funds collected under the Manmohan Singh formula. Referring to Haryana, he said corruption was rampant under the present regime. The people were facing acute shortage of water and electricity. There was discontent among the youth because of the growing unemployment. |
|
Permanent Health Director within 15 days Shimla, December 28 The charge of the Director was currently being held by the Secretary (Health), following the arrest of the Director, Dr K.S. Rana, by the Vigilance Department. Mr Nadda said the departmental promotion committee would meet soon to finalise the name of the new Director and there was no question of a bureaucrat being appointed. However, there was no move to remove the HAS cadre officer from the post of Additional Director of Health Services, he said. The government was contemplating to increase the number of seats in Indira Gandhi Medical College to 100 from the existing 65. The government had fixed the norms for deployment of doctors at various levels in all health institutions in the state. He said the government had adopted the policy of consolidation of health
institutions under which existing institutions were being strengthened by providing medical, and paramedical staff, besides equipment and other infrastructural facilities and undertaking need-based expansion to ensure better healthcare facility to people at their doorsteps. Mr Nadda said 829 new doctors had been appointed, besides imparting training to over 700 para medical staff, out of which over 300 had been appointed, and others were undergoing training. On the completion of the training, they would be appointed so that the medical services did not suffer for want of staff. He said various Central sponsored health programmes were being implemented. These included the Rs 53-crore HIV and AIDS control project being implemented with assistance from NACCO. He said the government had not only visualised an ideal and prosperous Himachal Pradesh, but also a healthy state. Health Vision-2020 envisages primary health security at all levels and need-based health-care facilities in all health sub-centres and primary health centres. The Health Minister said in comparison to the national coverage of population by health institutions, Himachal Pradesh was far better. According to national norms, a health sub-centre should have a population coverage of 3,000 and in Himachal Pradesh it was 2,695. Similarly, the primary health centre had a coverage of 18,467 in Himachal Pradesh in comparison to the national norm of 20,000. To bring efficiency and qualitative improvement, the government had taken up steps in the direction of administrative decentralisation and transparency in the Health Department. He said administrative and financial powers had been delegated up to the primary health centre level. Block Medical Officers had been vested with more powers. He said purchase committees had been set up for making the purchase process more transparent. The government had formulated its own drug policy to ensure the availability of medicines. He said the list of essential medicines had been published. To ensure that senior citizens did not face any inconvenience in getting medical aid, special OPDs were being held in all zonal and district hospitals for them on a particular day in a week. He said the medical college at Tanda also come up as one of the premier health institutions in the state, and the government had made liberal allocation of funds to the hospital. |
|
Kashmiri labourers return to valley Shimla, December 28 It is estimated that nearly 1000 labourers have gone back not only because of the tension on the borders, but also because of strict checking of their antecedents by the police following the terrorist attack on Parliament House. It is learnt that most of the labourers, who have left, belonged to Pulwama district of Kashmir. Those belonging to Anantnag are mostly staying back because of the peak tourist season here. Many of them are expected to leave the town when the tourist influx declines next month. The buses going towards. Pathankot and Jammu were mostly carrying the Kashmiri labourers. The local police has intensified the verification of the Kashmiri labourers following reports of some terrorists having sneaked into the Rampur area. However, the Jammu and Kashmir police was reportedly causing delay in verifying the antecedents of the labourers who were to be issued identity cards here. Dr Farooq Abdullah, Chief Minister, Jammu and Kashmir, had recently said here that there would be no delay in verification cases as these would now be handled by the newly appointed IGP (law and order) who would also coordinate with the Himachal Pradesh and Punjab police on such matters. |
|
Directorate building
inaugurated Shimla, December 28 Speaking on the occasion, Mr Dhumal said the benefits of various inventions and researches should percolate down to the masses so that people could benefit from them. He said with the setting up of pesticides laboratories in the new building all tests relating to agricultural activities would henceforth be done at Shimla and not at the test laboratories outside the state. He said the scientists should provide technical know-how to the farmers and help them grow cash crops as it would improve their financial position. He further said that there was a great demand for various herbal and aromatic plants. He said the annual allocation for agriculture had been increased from Rs 59 crore in 1997-98 to Rs 113 crore during the current financial year. A sum of Rs 30.58 crore was being spent on the execution of 340 micro-irrigation schemes under RIDF-V and VI financed by NABARD, besides Rs 8.23 crore National Resource Management Project was also being financed by NABARD for Hamirpur district, he said. Mr Vidya Sagar, Agriculture Minister, said the government had provided funds for completion of the five-storey building to house the directorate and the testing laboratory. |
|
Execute 2nd phase of Balh project: Speaker Mandi, December 28 The ejection of the silt from an open hydel channel and the reservoir of the BSL project has “ravaged” the fertile Balh valley of this district since the completion of the project in 1977. However, the problem of the disposal of the huge quantity of silt had not been conceived while designing the project and the BBMB had allegedly been evading a permanent solution for the menace since the past 24 years, as a result of which a large area of the valley had turned into a desert. The problem had been examined by various agencies from time to time and even raised in Parliament and the Vidhan Sabha. The National Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, had been assigned to submit a report suggesting a permanent solution about two years ago. It submitted an interim report last year and subsequently released the final report, suggesting a 14-point solution to the problem. The institute had reportedly recommended construction of a tunnel to carry the silt from Pungh of the Sutlej. An official of the BSL project said the implementation of the recommendation had been started but it was time-consuming. He agreed that ultimately the BBMB would have to construct a tunnel as suggested by the Nagpur institute. In response to the demand of people Thakur Gulab Singh said the government should immediately take up the execution of the second phase of the Balh valley medium irrigation project to make optimum use of water. He also advised the Department of Agriculture to extend coordination to the Food Corporation of India for the procurement of bumper maize crop. The Speaker directed PWD officials to take up repair work of the link roads on a war-footing in order to enable farmers to take their produce to market. He also asked the officials to complete various poverty alleviation and social welfare schemes within the scheduled time and warned that no complacency would be tolerated. He directed the Deputy Commissioner to give special attention to the implementation of self-employment scheme. He expressed surprise that of the 500 cases of self-employment referred to nationalised banks, only 281 had been cleared. |
|
B.Ed. colleges flout NCTE norms Shimla, December 28 According to sources, students of the colleges are facing difficulties as libraries are in bad shape and they do not have access to many books. In some colleges, retired teachers are taking classes and some of them do not possess required qualification. The sources say even the government B.Ed. colleges in Shimla and Dharamsala are facing in the same situation. In Dharamsala, teachers are not from the Education Department. In the university, science students are facing problems as equipments are not up to the mark and computers are non-functional. There are 315 seats in the two government colleges — PG centre at Shimla, and PG centre at Dharamsala — and 540 seats in the private colleges. The National Council of Teachers Education (NCTE) in this session had also ordered a ban on fresh admission in the private college, which lacked proper infrastructure. But it has given one-year extension to the colleges so that students may not suffer. When the NCTE team visited the B.Ed. colleges it found the colleges lacking in basic facilities. The same issue had come to the fore last year and the NCTE had given one-year extension. But the colleges have not fulfilled the norms laid down by the NCTE yet. The NCTE may cancel the affiliation in the coming session if the colleges do not fulfil the conditions. According to the NCTE norms for affiliation, a college must have proper infrastructure including a library, a playground and a teacher for every 10 students. The teachers should either hold a doctorate or be UGC qualified. The Students Federation of India (SFI) has alleged that the colleges are charging more fee than the prescribed amount. The colleges are in Solan, Nalagarh, Hamirpur, Sundernagar, Poanta Sahib, Tarakbari and
Batoli. |
|
Milk Federation
HQ inaugurated Shimla, December 28 Speaking on the occasion, Mr Dhumal said the white revolution would change the economic scenario in the state. He said there was a need to adopt dairy farming as career. It would provide an employment opportunity to the youths and improve their economic status he said, adding that Anand dairy of Gujarat was a model in dairy farming in the country. The Chief Minister said the cattle owners should get high milk yield species of animals. He said these animals also needed to be provided good medical care and feed. Mr Dhumal said Rs 8.07 crore integrated dairy development project was being implemented in the state. He said the average milk procurement had increased from 5,400 litres per day to 14,317 litres. |
|
HPU
nod to diploma course in criminology Shimla,
December 28 The decision was taken at a meeting of the council which was held here yesterday under the chairmanship of Prof S.D. Sharma, Vice-Chancellor. It was decided that one seat for diploma in human resource development in the Department of Public Administration would be reserved for defence personnel from the next academic session. The council approved the grant for one merit scholarship for students of masters in journalism and mass communication from 2002-2003. It was decided to start BCA, advanced postgraduate diploma in information technology and e-commerce from 2002-2003 through distance mode of education at the International Centre for Distance Education and Open Learning (ICDEOL). It
was also decided to start M.Phil through ICDEOL in Hindi, English,
history, political science, economics and commerce. |
|
Anti-ragging squads in medical colleges Shimla, December 28 It was also decided that disciplinary committees would also be set up in these institutions under the chairmanship of the Principal concerned and strict action would be taken against those indulging in ragging. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
