Shimla, May 24 : President Pranab Mukherjee Friday expressed concern over repeated disruptions in parliament and state legislatures.

Addressing members of the Himachal Pradesh assembly at its Golden Jubilee celebrations, Mukherjee appealed to leaders of political parties to discuss and find a solution to this problem.

"Every legislator has got his job after begging people for their votes, and after gaining their trust. It would not be fair if he does not discharge his responsibilities," he said.

Shimla, May 4 : While 'khap panchayats' (caste councils) in Haryana continue to frown on inter-caste and sub-caste marriages and punish those who do so, marrying outside one's caste is ever so profitable in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh - it'll get couples all of Rs. 75,000.

To prompt young men and women to break the caste barrier, the cabinet headed by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has enhanced the inter-caste marriage incentive from Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 75,000. It's given to couples where one of the spouses belongs to a Scheduled Caste.

Shimla, May 1: The performance of the four-month-old Congress government in Himachal Pradesh will be reviewed by party vice president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi May 3, party leaders said here Wednesday.

Gandhi will hold a review meeting with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and state party president Sukhwinder Sukhu. The meeting will also be attended by AICC general secretary Birender Singh Chaudhary, who is in charge of the party affairs in the state, and his deputy Anees Ahmad.

Shimla, May 1 :  President Pranab Mukherjee will be the chief guest at Himachal Pradesh University's convocation here May 24, while Human Resource Development Minister M. M. Pallam Raju will be the guest of honour, an official said Wednesday.

Vice-Chancellor A. D. N. Bajpai said Mukherjee would confer the degrees.

During his visit to the hill state, Mukherjee is also scheduled to deliver the first Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Lecture at the Indian Institute of Advance Studies (IIAS) here and address a function to mark the state Vidhan Sabha's golden jubilee. (IANS)

April 24 : Central Bank of India would open more branches in Himachal Pradesh and finance infrastructure development and other private projects to increase the credit-deposit ratio, chairman of the bank M. V. Tanksale said here Wednesday.

"We are going to expand our activities in the hill state by financing hydropower, horticulture, infrastructure development and tourism projects," he told reporters.

He said with 4,300-odd branches and 2,500 ATMs, the bank has a turnover exceeding Rs. 4 lakh crore.

Dharamsala, April 11 : Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has described the people in his homeland as his "boss" and said they were setting themselves afire owing to the desperate situation there.

"For years, I have considered myself a free spokesperson for the people of Tibet, but those people are my boss. Those who are pursuing this course of action are doing so not because they are drunk or beset by family problems but because of the desperate situation in which they find themselves," said the Nobel Peace laureate in Bolzano, Italy, Wednesday.

Shimla, April 10 : State-run Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation showed undue favour to a private contractor during 2009-10 which led to a loss of Rs. 2.61 crore to the exchequer, the CAG has said.

The power corporation, executing the 111-MW Sawara Kuddu Hydro Electric Project in Kinnaur, funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) favoured Patel Engineering Ltd., it said in a report Tuesday, which was tabled in the assembly.

The Bharatiya Janata Party was ruling Himachal Pradesh during that period.

Shimla, April 4 : Cement companies operating their plants in Himachal Pradesh have been asked to lower their retail rates, state Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said Thursday.

"The cement companies will have to reduce the prices of a cement bag sold in the hill state," Agnihotri said in the assembly, in his reply to a debate on a private member's resolution moved by Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajiv Bindal on tapping limestone deposits.

Shimla, April 4 : Himachal Pradesh will recruit 100 doctors through walk-in interviews to overcome the acute shortage of doctors in the state, Health Minister Kaul Singh said here Thursday.

The cabinet at its last meeting gave the nod to recruitment of doctors on priority, the minister told the assembly.

"A total of 198 doctors are currently doing post-graduate studies. We will recruit 100 doctors from among them this year, and the same number next year," he said.

Shimla, March 28 : Himachal Pradesh's opposition BJP Thursday walked out of the state assembly against the refusal of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to reopen eight colleges.

Not satisfied with the reply of the chief minister on the issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members, who had moved cut motions for re-notifying the colleges, staged a walkout.

Virbhadra Singh said these colleges were notified during the BJP regime just before the assembly elections without making budgetary provision and allocation of staff and infrastructure.

Shimla, March 23 : Septuagenarian Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh bestowing plum posts on two loyalists has drawn fire as this is being seen as a lack of confidence in the bureaucracy.

Subhash Ahluwalia has been appointed principal private secretary to the chief minister, the post he had occupied during Virbhadra Singh's 2003-07 stint. Ahluwalia is also media advisor to the government.

T. C. Janartha, who was Virbhadra Singh's private secretary during his 1993-1998 tenure, has been appointed officer-on-special duty (OSD) in the chief minister's office.

The committee headed by the Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri is on the job to fond out ways to reduce prices of cement in Himachal Pradesh (HP), Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh informed the state assembly yesterday.

Trying to convince the Opposition over unbending high prices of cement in the state, Mr.  Virbhadra said that the government was in talks with cement companies to convince them to reduce cement prices in the state.

Shimla, March 21 : The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday staged a walkout from the Himachal Pradesh assembly, expressing dissatisfaction over the chief minister's reply to a discussion on the state budget for 2013-14.

The opposition accused the government of being anti-poor and betraying the unemployed youth.

The BJP staged a walkout shortly before the house was to adjourn for the day.

Shimla, March 20 : A total of 51,94,552 Aadhaar cards have been generated in Himachal Pradesh by the Unique Identification Authority of India, the assembly was told Wednesday.

Every day, 50-60 people were being issued cards in every registration centre and by end of this year, the government aims to provide cards to 95 percent of the state's total population, Information Technology Minister Vidya Stokes said in a written reply.

She said to cover those left out, registration centres have been opened at the block level.(IANS)

Shimla, March 20 : President Pranab Mukherjee will address the Himachal Pradesh assembly May 24 to mark its golden jubilee, Speaker B. B. Butail said Wednesday.

The president will reach Shimla a day earlier. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was the first president to address the Himachal assembly Dec 23, 2004. (IANS)

Shimla, March 16 - Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has equated the state's police during the previous BJP regime with the German Nazi regime's dreaded Gestapo, the secret police.

He even blamed the previous regime for unauthorised surveillance of telephones.

His predecessor Prem Kumar Dhumal, however, dared him to prove his accusations. "If found guilty, hang me," Dhumal retorted.

Shimla, March 14 : After days of pleasant weather, the cold wave again tightened its grip over Himachal Pradesh Thursday as the state's higher reaches had a fresh spell of snow.

 However, there was widespread rainfall in low and mid hills, an official said.

The weather office here has forecast more snow and thundershowers till Friday.

Shimla was lashed by rain but nearby destinations, including Narkanda, experienced mild snowfall, the official said.

Likewise, the Solang ski slopes, 13 km uphill from Manali, saw more snow.

Shimla, March 13 : Himachal Pradesh's economy is expected to grow by 6.2 percent -- 1.2 percent higher than the national level -- in the next fiscal, the state's economic survey report said Wednesday.

"The economy of the state is expected to achieve a growth rate of 6.2 per cent in the current financial year which is comparatively better than the national growth of five percent," said the report, which was tabled in the state assembly by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

Shimla, March 12 : The four-laning of National Highway 22 between Parwanoo and Shimla will cost Rs. 2,730 crore, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said here Tuesday.

The construction work to be executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), likely to start in February 2014, would be completed within three years, he said in a written reply in the assembly.

However, he said, no funds have been sanctioned by the central government so far for the project.

While widening the 88-km stretch, Singh said the distance between both the towns would be shortened by 17 km.

Shimla, Mar 1 - Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is at the receiving end of the opposition's ire, thanks to the seeming indifference of the railway ministry towards Himachal Pradesh in allocating new projects.

As Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal presented his budget in the Lok Sabha Tuesday, the opposition pointed out that the railways had been tardy in making budgetary provisions for timely completion of ongoing projects in the state.