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Monday,
April 7, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Model
PPA for small hydel projects okayed Wrong seed
supply hits potato farmers Get ready
for LS poll; Dhumal Minister
refutes Dhumal’s charges No trust
move against nagar panchayat chief |
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Ban on
RSS ‘shakhas’ flayed Decision
on new dists hailed Phone connections
cross 1 lakh-mark Ex-servicemen’s
committee Move to
auction Kamla Nehru Park opposed 
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Model PPA for small hydel projects okayed Shimla, April 6 The model agreement, in which the commission has tried to balance the conflicting interests of various stakeholders, the generating company, the purchaser board and the consumers, will go a long way in cutting delays in the finalisation of tariff and terms and conditions at which power will be purchased. Besides, it will ensure that projects are completed in a time-bound manner and that only genuine companies seriously interested in building and operating mini and micro hydel power projects remain in the field. The commission had earlier issued guidelines for signing PPAs and directed the state electricity board to file a model power purchase agreement for projects up 5 mw generation capacity being executed by independent power producers in the private sector. The board filed the model PPA in February 2002, which has been approved by the commission with 37 modifications. All conceivable checks and balances have been built into the model agreement to ensure an equitable deal to all concerned and safeguard long-term interests of the state, the board and the consumers. The board will purchase power at the rate of Rs 2.50 per unit for a period of 40 years under the agreement. Over the period, it is a
fairly attractive proposition for the board, but may not be so for the IPP. However, the benefit will accrue only if the IPP operates the project for the stipulated period. To ensure this the commission has incorporated a provision for bank guaranties, liquidated damages, letter of credit and various insurance. For instance, in case of mis-declaration of availability of power, the IPP shall be liable to pay liquidated damages for double the difference between declared availability and actual availability for the entire period. The IPP will furnish irrevocable guarantee for a reasonable amount in favour of the board within a year of execution of the PPA, which could be encashed in case of failure of the IPP to pay liquidated damages. The value of letter of credit (LOC) due for the first year of operation will be equal to the possible value of invoice based on maximum generation in any one month. The value of LoC will be equivalent to the highest invoiced amount in any one month during the previous three years of operation. The cost of reinstatement of LoC will be borne by the board. The IPP will purchase and keep alive third party insurance, natural peril insurance, construction insurance, business interruption insurance, statutory workers compensation insurance and employees liability insurance. There will be an agreed time schedule for the construction of the project and all generating units will have to be synchronised on or before the scheduled dates. In case of failure to do so, the IPP will be liable to pay reasonable liquidated damages to the board at the rate of Rs 1000 per mw per day of delay, subject to a maximum of 180 days, after which it will constitute company event of default. Further, the IPP will have to pay Rs 4000 per kw for the difference between the contracted and listed power capacities. The approved PPA comes into force with immediate effect. The commission has also expressed concern over climatic changes and their impact on hydrology and underlined the need to undertake detailed studies of proposed project sites before allotting fresh projects. |
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Wrong seed supply hits potato farmers Una, April 6 Farmers paid the advance payment at Rs. 500 per 80 kg bag and atleast 70 farmers of Una district deposited Rs 10 lakhs as advance money for 2000 bags of potato seed. The department used to distribute the purchased seed on behalf of farmers through its sale centres in Una, Pujawar, Gagret Amb and Sloh. This year the Agriculture Department purchased the potato seed from the Lahaul Spti Co-operative Society but instead of selling it through its sale centres to potato growers supplied the entire potato seed to a private co-operative society at Sabji Mandi, Una, which sold the seed at Rs. 675 per 80 kg bag and all farmers of this district had to come to Una for the purchase of the Potato seed from a private co-operative society. To their disappointment the potato growers found that the seed supplied to them was not what they demanded and in place of “Kufri jyoti,” the seed supplied to them was a mixture of “Kufri jyoti”
and “Kufri Chandramukhi” potato seed. Mr Anil Singh Mankotia, a farmer of Panjawar told this reporter that “Kufri jyoti” seed gave white flower while “Kufri chandramukhi” gave pink flower on plant. He said most of the farmers who had sown ‘Kufri jyoti’ in this season sold their produce to Pepsi who used it for making potato chips as its requirement was potatoes which contained less sugar. Many farmers who purchased
potato seeds of “Kufri jyoti” complained to the Deputy Director, Agriculture, for providing wrong potato seed to them on which he formed a team of Agriculture Department officials led by Dr. B.K. Sharma, Pathologist of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra Centre of Palampur Agriculture University. The team visited various potato farms and found that potato sown consisted of more than 60 percent of “Kufri chandramukhi” seed. Dr. Sharma said the seed was a mixture of ‘Kufri Jyoti’ and ‘Kufri chandramukhi’.
He said he also inspected the seed bags of potato given to the farmers and found ‘Kufri jyoti’ was labelled with bags. He also admitted that ‘Kufri chandramukhi’ contained more sugar and was sown in the rainy season. Mr Anil Singh Mankotia demanded a probe in the scam and said why “Kufri chandramukhi” seed were labelled as “Kufri jyoti” and who was responsible for this? He said potato crop would not be purchased by Pepsi. Now they would be forced to sell their crop at throwaway prices. He demanded a vigilance inquiry into the whole affair.
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Get ready for LS poll; Dhumal Baroha (Hamirpur), April 6 The BJP leader asked workers to go to the masses. He lambasted those who were creating problems by resorting to indiscipline. The party lost the last Assembly elections due to the negative role of such persons, he said. He alleged that Congress leaders and workers were trying to terrorise BJP leaders in the state by registering false cases against them. BJP workers were not afraid of such tactics and would give a befitting reply to the Congress and its leaders. Describing the one-month performance of the Congress government in the state as dismal he said the government had failed on all fronts. It had resorted to mass transfers of government officials and had done nothing concrete. He hit out at the Congress and its leaders for the Jammu and Kashmir crisis. The crisis was due to wrong policies of the Congress under Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister. Had he taken timely steps to solve the Kashmir problem in 1947, the present crisis would not have been there, he added. Prof Dhumal claimed that NDA government at the Centre had done a lot to solve the Kashmir crisis and had taken it up at world forum. Mrs Kavishka Kaushal, who contested the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha elections on HVC ticket, announced her intention to join the party in the presence of Prof Dhumal today. |
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Minister
refutes Dhumal’s charges Shimla, April 6 He said the charge that the present government was hushing up cases involving Congress leaders and fabricating new ones to harass the political opponents, was wrong and baseless. There was not a single case which had been hushed up or fabricated. If there was any, Mr Dhumal should come forward with specific details instead of giving sweeping statements. He said that now the boot
was on the other leg and the people had not forgotten how Mr Dhumal had tried to fabricate false and baseless against Mr Virbhadra Singh, the Chief Minister, and other Congress leaders to damage them politically. He said that present government had been given a mandate for eradicating corruption and Mr Virbhadra Singh had made it clear that guilty persons, howsoever influential, would not go
scot-free. Referring to the comments of Mr Dhumal on transfers, Mr Singhi Ram said the transfer of officers was a routine matter and these were effected to tone up the administration. He said that Mr Dhumal should not forget his regime when bureaucrats were frequently transferred and reshuffled. He alleged the BJP-HVC regime had not only destroyed the state’s financial health but also ruined the government services by “saffronising” them. It gave a goby to the establishment norms, conventions, rules and regulations, which formed the basis of a good governance, he alleged. The present government was trying hard to set things right so that polices and programmes for the betterment of the people and allround development of the state could be implemented effectively. He said that the government had adopted its poll manifesto as a policy document and given directions to all concerned to implement it in letter and spirit. |
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No trust move against nagar panchayat chief Nadaun (Hamirpur), April 6 Mr Kapil was elected nagar panchayat chief two years ago during the BJP rule. Four members of the nagar panchayat who have shown lack of faith in Mr Kapil are: Mr Santosh Sandhu, Krishna Chaudhry, Poona Soni and Reena Kumari. There are seven members in the nagar panchayat. Mr R.S. Jasrotia, SDM, Nadaun, confirmed that four members of the nagar panchayat had moved a letter to the Hamirpur Deputy Commissioner, showing their lack of faith in Mr Kapil. He said as per orders of the Deputy Commissioner a meeting of the panchayat would be held on April 22 and accordingly the motion would be discussed. He said if the motion was approved, fresh elections for the post of the nagar panchayat would be held. However, when contacted, Mr Kapil claimed that he was still in majority and he would prove the same on April 22. |
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Ban on RSS ‘shakhas’ flayed Shimla, April 6 Mr Ganesh Dutt, party spokesman, said the RSS was a patriotic non-political organisation and it could not be compared with a Muslim fundamentalist outfit.. The party spokesman said the state government was expected to distinguish between fundamentalist organisations and patriotic organisations. Such curbs on the RSS were not imposed even during the emergency. He warned that the Sangh and its sister organisations would not take such steps of the government lying down. |
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Decision
on new dists hailed Dharamsala, April 6 In a statement issued here today, Mr Dewan said the move to carve about six new districts was not only illogical, but also an expensive for fund-starved Himachal
Pradesh. He said the appointment of six Additional Deputy Commissioners was politically motivated. He said people had rejected such move of the BJP and voted it out of power. He said the setting up of courts of Divisional Commissioners would go a long way in solving the land revenue-related problems of the people. He termed the decision of the previous government to close divisional revenue courts as foolhardy which only hurt the common man who had to run to Shimla for petty matters. |
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Phone connections cross 1 lakh-mark Dharamsala April 6 Disclosing this, the General Manager of Dharamsala Telecom Circle, Mr
D.P. Chaturvedi, said this had been achieved by utilisation of 1,49,228 lines in 189 telephone exchanges in the circle. Mr Chaturvedi said last year, 5,507 telephone connections on land lines, 664 on WLL and 4,380 on mobile connections were sanctioned. He said eight new telephone exchanges were installed during the year. He said the department had laid 285.7 km of optical fibre routes in the circle which had helped in maintaining the system and providing better services to the subscribers. The general manager said the BSNL introduced mobile services during the year in Dharamsala, Palampur and Dalhousie towns and towers were erected at various places to ensure trouble free services. The department also introduced many subscriber-friendly services in the circle. Mr Chaturvedi said for the current year the BSNL had fixed the target of opening seven new exchanges and to provide 26,000 new connections through land lines, WLL and mobile services. The department would instal one more Internet node at Dharamsala in addition to the existing one. He said all telephone exchanges of 1,000 or more capacity would be covered under the computerised fault repair service. Mobile phone services would be introduced in Chamba town during the current year and towers along the national highway at
Daulatpur, Nagrota Bagwan, Kotlas, Nurpur, Bakloh and Dradha would be commissioned. |
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Ex-servicemen’s
committee Shimla, April 6 The Governor, will be its Chairman, the chief secretary will be the first Vice-Chairman and Commander, Headquarters, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh (1) Sub-Area, Ambala, the second vice-chairman. Representative of the Defence Ministry, Secretary to the Principal Secretary (Finance) Secretary State Housing Board, the Director, Education and Engineer-in-Chief, Public Works Department, will be its members. The Director, Sainik Welfare, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, will the member secretary. |
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Move to auction Kamla Nehru Park opposed Dalhousie, April 6 In a joint press release here today, Dr. J.S. Chandel, state Vice-President and Mr Paramjeet Singh, President, Dalhousie unit of the Bharat Vikas Parishad, said the memorandum raising objection had already been sent to Himachal Education Minister Asha Kumari and Chairperson of the Nehru Foundations, New Delhi, to save Dalhousie from further degradation. They condemned the resolution merely for monetary gains. They describe this step as “completely arbitrary uncalled for.” They also urged the state government to come out with a detailed development plan for the beautification of the park, which beckoned tourists every
year. They also said the saplings planted by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamla Nehru during their visit to this town were at present in a state of neglect. |
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Kishori
Lal is PPRO Chamba, April 6 According to these orders, the gazetted officers posted at the district headquarters in the state have been designated as ‘Police Public Relations Officers’
(PPRO) who would be responsible for maintaining cordial relations with the media. |
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