 |
| Tuesday, January 23, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
|
HP to
restructure power board ZP
chief’s poll put off for third time Rawat
elected ZP chairperson STD calls
within HP to go R-Day bonanza Cong
leader warns ‘biased’ HP officials |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Energy
meters must for polluting units Dry
weather delays sowing Illegal sale of land
continues in Barog CID team
raids computer shops Civic
body poll results Pathania,
Butail on Senate
|
|
HP to restructure power board SHIMLA, Jan 22 — Switchover from the present vertically integrated engineering hierarchy to horizontal disaggregation is the key to restructure the state electricity board in Himachal Pradesh which has, unlike other states, decided to carry out reforms without “unbundling” the board. Under the reform model, the vertically integrated levels from chief engineers down to the junior engineer will be dismantled to have maximum horizontal disaggregation so that sub-functions like distribution, operation and maintenance, construction and consumer services can be effectively segregated at the field level. To begin with, three circles, one in each zone, are being reorganised. They are Shimla in south zone, Mandi in central zone and Dharamsala in the north zone. On an average, each circle has five divisions and each of them is looking after all functions. These divisions will now be reorganised and assigned specific functions. For instance, out of the five divisions under the Shimla circle, two divisions will look after the operation and maintenance work, one design and construction and the remaining two will take over the commercial functions, including billing and consumer services. The reorganisation exercise has provided the much-needed opportunity to rationalise deployment staff to the management. Technical staff will now be allocated to the operation and maintenance division and clerical staff to the commercial division. The horizontal disaggregation, Mr Harsh Gupta, Chairman of the board, asserts will go a long way in bringing efficiency in the functioning of the board. Engineers and other staff will be able to concentrate on the duty assigned to them. There has been some opposition to reorganisation, specially from the clerical staff, but Mr Gupta feels that they will see reason and appreciate the government’s decision of carry out reforms within the existing set-up instead of dismantling the board. The reorganisation of the three circles will be completed by March 31 and the divisions will start functioning from April 1. All circles will be reorganised on this pattern by the end of the next year. Simultaneously, plans have been made to bring down the transmission and distribution losses by replacing the low-tension lines with high-tension lines and ensuring total metering in a phased manner. The board has submitted schemes involving an expenditure of Rs 169 crore to the Centre for funding under the accelerated power development programme. The Centre has set aside Rs 1,000 crore for the programme, out of which Rs 200 crore has been earmarked for special category states. By taking lead among the special category states. The state hopes to corner Rs 125 crore to Rs 150 crore from the fund. It has also decided to go for unmanned power substations. At present, substations on 33 KV and higher capacity are manned and the wage bill comes to Rs 5 lakh annually. Under the restructuring, three independent profit centres, one each for transmission, distribution and operation and maintenance of existing generating plants, are also being set up. Computerised billing will be introduced in all profit centres within three years and computer-aided engineering management system will be put in place in distribution profit centres to manage, control and monitor to achieve 100 per cent loading of manpower resources in the operation and maintenance, planning and construction. Besides, computerised plant and circuit management system, fault information reporting system and other engineering applications will be brought in all profit centres. The centres will break away from the normative pattern to dynamic staffing. |
|
ZP chief’s poll put off for third time SOLAN, Jan 22 — The election to the posts of chairman and vice-chairman of the zila parishad, scheduled for today, were postponed for the third time for want of quorum in the 17-member House. The elections will now be held on January 31. While Congress members turned up in strength for the crucial meeting, the nine BJP and the lone HVC member stayed away. It is learnt that the local BJP leaders, including the sitting MLA, Dr Rajiv Bindal, the Chairman, HP State Marketing Board, Mr Virendra Kashyap, and the Minister of State for Town and Country Planning, Mr Hari Narain Saini, held a meeting at the local Circuit House this morning for arriving at the names of consensus candidates. The Dhumal faction reportedly pressed the name of Mr Rajendra Singh, a parishad member from Dabhota in Nalagarh subdivision while the Shanta faction wanted Ms Chand Rani, a member from Chamdhar in Dun constituency for the chairperson’s post. The secretary-general of the HVC, Mr Chaman Lal Gachli, joined the meeting and demanded that a Scheduled Caste person should be nominated for the post. This led to a heated exchange between Mr Hari Narian Saini and Mr Gachli. Mr Gachli stated that he was not interested in any particular person and he would have no objection if the name was decided after a draw of lots. The draw went in favour of Mr Daulat Ram. However, this name was not acceptable to Mr Saini who walked out of the meeting. Peace was restored after some persons escorted Mr Gachli out of the room and Mr Saini rejoined the meeting. Dr Bindal denied that their was any difference of opinion among parishad members belonging to the BJP. He said they could not attend the meeting as two members, Mr Gautam from Arki and Mr Bhim Dutt from Dharampur arrived late. However, his claim was belied by the fact that some leading Dhumal faction members met the state BJP chief, Mr Jai Kishan Sharma, when he stopped here briefly on his way to Chandigarh late last evening. These leaders demanded the expulsion of some Shanta faction members, including former minister M.N. Sofat, whom they accused of having let the party down in the recent elections. Today, the Solan Nagar Mandal of the BJP also passed a resolution repeating their demand for the expulsion of Mr Sofat and some Shanta loyalists from the party. Meanwhile, Deputy
Commissioner Sunjay Murthy had convened a general house meeting of the new parishad for tomorrow. The members would be required to install an acting chairperson who would have to be the oldest among them for the purpose of conducting the meeting. Meanwhile, Mr Virendra Sharma of the BJP and Mr Jagdish Chand of the HVC were elected president and vice-president, respectively, of the Block Development Committee, Dharampur, today. Both their elections were decided by toss. The winning candidates and their rivals secured 10 votes each while one vote was declared invalid in a House of 21. Ms Vandana Bansal and Devi Saran Khullar, both of the BJP, were declared elected as president and vice-president of the Nalagarh Block Development Council. |
|
Rawat elected ZP
chairperson CHAMBA, Jan 22 — Mrs Nisha Rawat of Sirh ward has been declared elected as the chairperson of the local Zila Parishad. In a direct contest, Mrs Rawat of the Congress and Mrs Bimla Devi of the BJP got eight votes each in the 18-member parishad who had to try their fortunes in a draw Mrs Rawat went on to become the chairperson. But, on the other hand, BJP’s nominee, Mr Daljeet of Bakani ward was declared elected as vice-chairman of the parishad by defeating Mr Pawan Kumar of Byana ward by a margin of two votes and Mr Daljeet got nine votes and Mr Pawan Kumar seven votes. Meanwhile, Mr Harsh Mahajan, a local MLA and vice-president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee said it was yet another indicator of the BJP’s failure on all fronts and a mandate particularly against the Union Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar’s bungling in the PDS system which had hit the poor sections of the society. He alleged that even the cross-voting could not help the BJP. |
|
|
STD calls within HP to go
R-Day bonanza SHIMLA, Jan 22 — Telephone subscribers in Himachal Pradesh will be able to make all intra-state calls without using the subscriber trunk dialling (STD) facility from January 26. Giving details of the concessional tariff and new numbering plan, Mr N.S. Gill, Chief General Manager of the Himachal Telecom Circle, said that the numbers, hitherto available through STD facility along, could now be accessed by using dialing 95 in place of zero, followed by the STD code and the telephone number. The existing numbering plan with codes 91 and 92 would be changed in a phased manner by March 31 next. The calls within the state up to 50 km would come under a pulse time rate of 180 seconds, between 50 km and 100 km under 120 seconds (as against 15 seconds at present) and from 100 km to 200 km under 30 seconds. However, there would be no peak off rates under these slabs and the concessional charges would not be applicable to calls made to or from mobile phones. The monthly rental for rural subscribers under telephone exchanges with capacity ranging from 1000 to 30,000 lines has been increased from Rs 100 to Rs 110 and for exchanges of more than 30,000 line capacity from Rs 137.50 to Rs 150. In case of urban subscribers making up to 200 calls the rule for exchange of up to 30,000 lines capacity has been revised from Rs 100 to Rs 120 and for capacity between 30,000 and one lakh lines from Rs 137.50 to Rs 180. |
|
|
Cong leader warns
‘biased’ HP officials KANGRA, Jan 22 — Mr G.S. Bali, AICC member and MLA, Nagrota Bagwan, today warned those state government and police officers, who allegedly behaved in a partisan manner towards the BJP during the zila parishad polls in this district, were under a close watch of the Congress. Mr Bali was addressing a press conference here today. He alleged the ruling BJP was indulging in horse trading during the zila parishad chairman polls and was using unfair means to influence the zila
parishad members. He alleged that the BJP was using services of some police and government officers for this purpose he claimed that these officers were not impartial and were under close seruting of the Congress. He said the elected zila parishad members, which include 15 women, were feeling harassed due to the frequent postponement of the chairman elections according to the convenience of the ruling BJP. He sought legal opinion about the delaying tactics adopted by the BJP by not allowing to complete the quorum for holding the polls by asking their members to abstain from polling and only ministers and MLAs reach the polling venue. He reiterated his demand to provide central security to the elected zila parishad members who were spending sleepless nights at unknown destinations in view of the alleged threat of kidnapping by the BJP minister. Mr Bali presented a zila parishad member Rajesh Kumar of Kaniyara Ward No. 10 and announced that the member joined Congress today, which has taken the number of Congress supporters to 31 in 58-member zila parishad. Mr Bali criticised the BJP government for its failure to overcome the financial crunch in the state which was being reflected in acute power crisis in the state and had affected the business and small scale industries’ performance in the state. It had added to the sufferings of the common people, he added. He said this was contrary to the claims of the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal and his government that the state was a power state. He said that the state had faced the power crisis for the first time due to the government’s failure to coordinate with other power producing states. |
|
|
Energy meters must for
polluting units SHIMLA, Jan 22 — The Himachal Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board has decided to make installation of energy meters on effluent treatment plant mandatory for all polluting industrial units. Mr Nagin Nanda, secretary of the board, said the decision had been taken in view of the complaints that certain units did not run effluent treatment plants all the time. He said the board was also issuing directions to the units to install appropriate devices for interlocking the production process with operation of effluent treatment plant. Referring to the large-scale death of fish in Sirsa river last week Mr Nanda said the laboratory test report of the viscera would make it clear that they did not die due to release of toxic waste by any industrial unit. As per report the concentration of cyanide, a highly toxic compound which caused instant death in aquatic animals was as low as 0.000021 mg which was insignificant. Similarly cyanide level in various tributories of the river and various physio-chemical parameters such as dissolved oxygen and biological oxygen demand were also well under control. The board, Mr Nanda said, had been constantly monitoring the industrial units and in the Baddi area alone 21 industries had been issued closure or electricity disconnection. |
|
Dry weather delays
sowing KASAULI, Jan 22 — A scanty rainfall in Solan district has adversely affected agriculture here. The whole state has been badly hit with the drought with Solan being one of the worst affected where against a normal rainfall of 79mm not even a drop has been received till now. This has affected 3,000 hectares. Reports indicate that all 2,337 villages in the district are badly affected. Agriculture is the primary occupation of about 61 per cent people here who grow vegetables and other crops, including potato, tomato, ginger, besides stone fruits and apples. The prevailing dry weather has unduly delayed their sowing operations of the seasonal crops. For over a decade the weather phenomenon has witnessed a shift with December and January being the dry months with little or insufficient rain snow and February and March receive the usual rain and snow delaying the winter, extending it well into spring. Talking to agriculture scientists at the Mashobra Research Centre near Shimla, Dr Vijay Singh Thakur brought out the fact that a weather analysis of the last decade reveals that on 1990 and 1991 when there was a record apple harvest all snowfall in 1990 was just 5.4 cm, though there was continuous rains from November to March amounting to 68 mm. But 1991 was an exceptionally dry year where snowfall was negligent and rainfall was 15.5 mm. In spite of this the season had the second best apple crop in the entire decade. |
|
Illegal sale of land
continues in Barog KUMARHATTI, Jan 22 — Even as the state government has formed the Special Area Development Authority (SADA) and registered the benami land transaction cases in the Barog and Chewa panchayats, the illegal sale of land is reportedly continuing on a large scale. According to information, the land in these panchayats is being sold illegally at exorbitant rates through property dealers. Prospective buyers, mostly from Chandigarh, Punjab and Delhi, are allegedly being misinformed by the property dealers about the revenue status of the land. The buyers are lured by the property dealers, who manage to get a hefty amount for the land deed. It may be recalled that the unprecedented sale of land, particularly near Barog, prompted the state government to launch a special drive against benami land deeds last year. As many as 56 benami land transaction cases were detected in the three-month drive by the Revenue Department, cases were registered against the
violators. Some cases of cheating came to light when people approached the panchayat to settle land dispute cases,” said Mr Sanjay Kumar, a newly elected vice-president of Barog panchayat. He alleged that the property dealers were selling land by showing land belonging to someone else. |
|
CID team raids
computer shops SOLAN, Jan 22 — A team headed by a CID officer from Shimla last evening raided a politician’s house and some computer shops here and collected specimens of the printouts of individual printers in connection with anonymous complaints against some Himachal Pradesh ministers. The issuance of these complaints had rocked the state Legislature with the Excise and Taxation Minister, Mr Parveen Sharma, tendering his resignation to facilitate a fair inquiry into the charges levied against him in one of those letters. It was believed that each computer printer left a unique finger print of its own sweets. These fingerprints were created in the machines mechanism by the typical practices of the individual owning machines. |
|
Civic body
poll results KUMARHATTI, Jan 22 — The BJP and the HVC won the post of the chairman and the vice-chairman of the Dharampur Panchayat Samiti, respectively, today. Interestingly, Mr Jagdish Sharma, returning officer for the election, had to draw lots for choosing the candidates as Congress candidates polled equal number of votes for both posts. For the chairman post, Dr Virender Sharma defeated Mr Sher Singh and for vice-chairman post, Mr Jagdish defeated Mr Inder Gupta. JAWALAMUKHI: Mr Rajan Sharma of the Congress was elected president while Ms Vanita Bushan of the BJP vice-president of the Jawalamukhi Nagar Panchayat. The election was held on Monday under the supervision of Mr Gopal Sharma, SDM, Dehra. |
|
Pathania, Butail
on Senate SHIMLA, Jan 22 — Mr Gulab Singh Thakur, Speaker, has nominated Mr Rakesh Pathania and Mr B.B.L. Butail to the Senate of the state agriculture university, Palampur, for a period of two years. He also nominated Mr Dulo Ram to the State Technical Education Board and Mr Des Raj to the State School Education Board, for a term of three years. He was authorised to nominate members to these statutory bodies by the state Assembly during the winter session. |
 |
| 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 | | 120 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
