Presided over by chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal the cabinet approved revised vacation schedule in all summer and winter closing educational institutions in the state. The vacations will  aggregate 52 days in total and will be applicable from the next academic session. Monsoon Break of 22 days would be applicable to all the summer closing educational institutions, except in the district of Kullu and Lahaul & Spiti, from July 20 to August 10 every year. A 6 days festival break will start from four days ahead of Diwali while winter break will start from 1st January to 24th January every year.

In Kullu district the monsoon break will be of 22 days from July 20 to August 10 and festival break of six days to start from one day before Dussehra Festival and 24 days winter break will start from 1st January shall end on January 24 every year. For Lahaul and Spiti District 42 days summer break will start from July 17 and end on August 27 while 10 days Dussehra break will start one day before Dussehra Festival.

In winter closing schools, 15 days monsoon break will be between July 27 to August 10 and six days festival break will start four days ahead of Diwali festival. Winter break will start from 1st January to 31st January every year. Kinnaur, Pangi and Bharmour Tribal Areas shall also be governed under the schedule as applicable to Winter Closing Schools elsewhere in the State.

The cabinet approved amendment in the Hydro Power Policy-2006 to facilitate power producers in obtaining techno economic clearances more conveniently and carry evacuation of power in optimal manner.

It consented to create 32 posts of Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors for Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Tanda to man super speciality departments under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna and to meet the requirement of the Medical Council of India.

It approved continuation of 20 upgraded posts of Assistant Engineers in Public Works Department in its different wings, upto 31st March , 2011. It approved construction of a Circuit House at Willy Park in Shimla.

It approved transfer of 13 Gram Panchayats from the jurisdiction of Police Station Renuka Ji and hand over the same to Police Station Sangrah in district Sirmour. It also approved amendment in the Oustees Plot Allotment Rules at New Township, Bilaspur with a view to protect the interests of the left out oustees of Bhakra Dam.

This is a blog post from Himachal Live News

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Police said the accident took place near Neogulseri when the driver lost control over the vehicle killing all the three occupants on the spot.

The deceased were identified as Pardeep Kumar, his mother Sukh Devi and his niece Sumreen. The district administration provided immediate relief of Rs 10,000 each to the next of kin.

Pradeep Kumar was also the block Youth Congress general secretary.

This is a blog post from Himachal Live News

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A company spokesman said the funding has come after a year of considerable growth in audience, technology and revenue. He said the investment will help grow the company’s network of writers and accelerate it’s technology platform development. The company also plans to launch local sites targeting the European and US audiences which already drives over 60% of the traffic, he added.

Satyan Gajwani, Director of Business Development, Times of India Group said, ‘We are excited at the opportunity to help new, emerging media companies develop their businesses and grow the space. The entire Instamedia team has amazed us with their drive, creativity, and clarity, and we are confident that they will continue to create a large presence in the digital content ecosystem globally.’

Ankit Maheshwari, CEO and co-founder of Instamedia network said, ‘The Times Group will be a great long-term, strategic partner. They understand this space very well and bring a lot of experience and expertise to the table. We are also honored to have Satyan Gajwani join our Board of Directors. It will be a challenge for us to meet his energy and passion.’

Instamedia is an end-to-end provider of online media production and distribution solution for media houses through its SaaS based cloud service. It has been at the forefront of the new media revolution by constantly evolving to match today’s substantial shift in content creation.

The network runs sites in verticals like lifestyle, green living and technology. In addition, its popular citizen journalism platform Instablogs has over 4 million monthly unique visitors. Together, these fifteen sites offer advertisers a great way to connect with their audience.

The company also has an in-house platform Instapress, which streamlines collaboration between various content contributors, with objective measurement tools to track effectiveness.

The company is launching its fully hosted content solution, Instapress Content Server (ICS), which will allow other media networks to use the technology to drive greater ROI and performance from existing content production teams. Instapress currently powers a few popular sites of one of India’s top media & entertainment companies.

Instamedia recently opened its second office in Noida to scale up operations.

This is a blog post from Himachal Live News

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Nahan-Shimla, Nahan-Paonta-Dehradun, Nahan-Chandigarh, Paonta-Shillai-Ronhat highways, all roads linking tehsil headquarters of Rajgarh, Renuka, were blocked due to numerous landslides bringing normal life to a still.

One person was buried alive, while two others were injured when a house collapsed near Delhi Gate in Nahan.

The victim was identified as Sumer Chand, 70, while injured persons were Roshan Saini and Ashwani Kumar.

In another incident, two persons were critically injured when another house collapsed in Kotla Mullar village.

Hundreds of vehicles carrying horticultural produce and vegetables and over two dozen buses, including state government-run buses, were stranded at various places. Badhana, Killaur and Dhanda villages in Paonta area received heavy rains throughout the night.

In Killaur, situation was reported to be grim. The rains also disrupted power supply in Nahan and some other areas.

About 300 bighas of cultivated land with paddy crop was completely submerged under water. All the major rivers, including the Yamuna, Giri, Bata and Tons were in spate, inundating several low-lying areas.

This is a blog post from Himachal Live News

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Shimla: The 12th Raid-de-Himalaya Rally 2010 will be organized from 10th October to 15th October this year. The rally will be flagged off by by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal from Peterhoff in Shimla.

The rally would cover a distance of 2500 km and will end at Manali on 15th October. The rally will pass through Shimla, Nalagarh, Solan, Manali, Kaza, Keylong, Sarchu and then will return back to Manali.

175 teams will participate in the event which is the highest this year. Teams like Thundervolt with their driver Suresh Rana, W+K Team with their driver Sunny Sidhu, champion of Moghul Rally and team of the Indian Army would also participate in the Raid.

In the X-treme Motorcycle category, Team Contiger of Austria has fielded 6 Motorcycle entrants, which also include woman biker Klaudia Honeder. Team W+K Racing’s Jonah Street, who was a Dakar 2010 top ten finisher is also participating in the event.

Due to the ongoing relief efforts at Leh the Kashmir leg of the Raid has been dropped this year and the rally will concentrate around Spiti for the most part using the rough roads around Kaza.

The Himalayan Motorsport Association, the organizers of this event would contribute towards flood relief in cash and kind once the event concludes.

The Raid-de-Himalaya rally is being organized by the Department of Youth Services and Sports in collaboration with Federation of Motor Sports Club of India and Himalaya Motor Sports.

This is a blog post from Himachal Live News

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The on-going apple season in Himachal Pradesh has put the entire livelihood of apple farmers at stake. The government’s indifference in handling the situation has been pathetic as only action happening is in the media where tall claims are being fed in daily statements by the ministers.

Earlier apple used to be a high paying crop, one reason people were well off in the apple belt. Nothing wrong in this as the money so earned was by of hard work in the orchards. Shanta Kumar once traveling through Kumarsain, seeing the sun lit roofs in Kotgarh valley had quipped, ‘Yahan to chandi ki chatt lagi hain’. (People here have roofs of silver)

It is under this mind set that his party approaches the apple belt of the state. With time the apple producing areas in the state increased to Karsog and Balh valleys in Mandi district, Kullu, Kinnaur and far up to Chamba and Spiti. So what happened? Anywhere the apple came in the state, the area became an eyesore for this party.

Shanta Kumar’s earlier stint as Chief Minister was a disaster when he tried to bully the apple farmers. I had written about this in detail in my Hindi blog. Ninteen years is a long time to forget old hatred. With time new faces came into the BJP who talked a lot about ‘emotional unity’ in the state. This time the apple belt too was generous with the BJP and handed over the three most prestigious seats in Shimla district with record margins including the state capital Shimla and two other seats, Jubbal Kotkhai and Rohru, which were earlier represented by former Congress chief ministers.

These pictures were sent to us by Pawan Thakur

This is a blog post from Himachal Live News

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Speaking to the media today, Dr. Arun Kumar, Directory Tourism, said the book, The Churches and Christian Cemeteries of Himachal Pradesh, lists various graves and cemeteries where many Europeans lie buried.

He said the book would be available during the Common wealth games at New Delhi. The book would also be made available in British and embassies of other European countries. Besides, the book will also be available at all Himachal Tourism information centres within and outside the state.

The book mentions details of the oldest cemetery in Shimla near Oak Over, where the burial ground was opened in 1828 and the first grave is dated 1829. The Cart Road cemetery is also mentioned in the book where Major Samuel Boileau Goad was buried. Major Samuel was one of Shimla’s most prominent residents and owned 33 of Shimla’s most valuable properties including Barne’s Court, Kennedy House, the Park and Holly Lodge.

The book also has details of memorials at Nahan, Kasauli, Kangra, Palampur, Mcleodganj, Dalhousie and Chamba besides details of cemeteries at Sanjauli, below St. Bedes, Kanlog, Jutogh, Kotgarh and Subathu etc.

The book also has a mention about a memorial to Penelope Chetwode at Khanag, near Ani in Outer Seraj of Kullu district. Penelope was the daughter of Field Marshal Baron Chedwode who had served as Commander-in-Chief. She remained in love with Himachal hills till her death in 1986 on a trek between Shimla & Kullu over the Jalori Pass.

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Work at many private hotels, banks and government insurance companies including the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) was severely affected as the employees observed a day long strike. Employees of the State Bank of India (SBI), however, did not participate in the strike.

Speaking to Himachal Live, Jagat Ram, state president of CITU said the strike was a success and a complete shutdown could be seen at private hotels, central & state government offices including hydropower projects across the state.

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District and Sessions Judge B.R. Chandel rejected the plea filed by Indian Army Captain of the General Reserve Engineer Force, a wing of BRO, who was posted at Koksar in Lahaul and Spiti district.

Purohit, who was caught by CBI sleuths Aug 20, was granted interim anticipatory bail by the court Aug 23.

CBI Superintendent of Police R. Upasak told said that Purohit was summoned to the investigating agency’s headquarters after the rejection of his plea for extension of his interim anticipatory bail. He said the CBI was investigating facts about supply of diesel to the BRO and its total consumption. It also summoned all the fuel logbooks of the BRO for verification.

Upasak said the army officer was trapped by two decoy customers, who presented themselves as contractors of the state public works department. They entered into negotiations with him and he was ready to sell 800 litres of diesel to them.

The diesel that Purohit was allegedly trying to sell was meant for the BRO’s Project Deepak which maintains a 222-km stretch between Manali and Sarchu, part of the 475-km Manali-Leh National Highway-21.

This is a blog post from Himachal Live News

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