H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Hydel project allotments improper, says report
Shimla, October 30
The Cabinet subcommittee set up by the government to review MoUs signed by the previous Dhumal regime for the execution of hydel projects has taken a serious view of the procedural lapses and lack of transparency in the allotment of projects to various private companies.

Dhumal lambasts Congress
Hamirpur, October 30
Senior BJP leader and former HP Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has lambasted the HP police and investigating agencies of the Himachal government for “trying to harass BJP leaders and workers at the instance of Congress leaders and workers”.

BJP workers lash out at party MP
Hamirpur, October 30
BJP workers of Hamirpur district today blasted party MP, Suresh Chandel for “ignoring” them during the past four years and to create dissidence in the organisation.

BJP accuses government of vendetta
Shimla, October 30
The state unit of the BJP has alleged that the investigating agencies and prosecution were hand in glove with the accused ministers as result of which cases against them were not being pursued in right earnest.

Paraglider injured
Dharamsala, October 30
Mr Vijay Soni paraglider from Pune, who is participating in the international Pre-World 2003 Para Gliding competition was injured when he was forced to land in Ghamota village about 25 km from here.

Sainik School turns 25 on November 2 Sujanpur Tihra (Hamirpur), October 30 Located on the western side of the historic Chaugan maidan here, the local Sainik School completes 25 years on November 2. It was on November 2, 1978 that the then Indian President Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy had inaugurated the school here. The Sainik School at Sujanpur Tihra which is celebrating its silver jubilee on November 2. — Tribune photo by Chander Shekhar Sharma

Highway in need of repair
Parwanoo, October 30
The Parwanoo-Kasauli state Highway 42, commonly known as Old Kasauli Road, has been crying for attention for the past many years. The 18-km stretch of the road is very bumpy.

Hydel project allotments improper, says report
Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 30
The Cabinet subcommittee set up by the government to review MoUs signed by the previous Dhumal regime for the execution of hydel projects has taken a serious view of the procedural lapses and lack of transparency in the allotment of projects to various private companies.

The committee, headed by Mrs Vidya Stokes, Power Minister, which finalised its report today, pointed out glaring irregularities in the award of most of the 17 big projects and 110 mini and microhydel projects between 1998 and 2003. The report will be considered by the Cabinet during its meeting scheduled for November 5.

A company placed at the 17th position on the basis of technical and financial capability evaluation was allotted the project. The qualifying norms of 30 per cent and 20 per cent marks for non-Himachalis and local companies, respectively had been given the go-by and even those which could muster only 13 per cent marks on the basis of technical and financial capability evaluation were rewarded with projects.

According to highly placed sources the committee found that 10 out of the 17 big projects were liable to cancellation on account of various irregularities. However, the Cabinet, which has to take the final decision, is likely to adopt a practical approach and may recommend cancellation only as the last option. While the government is keen on exposing the alleged irregularities to put the BJP on the mat, it does not want to send the wrong message to the private sector by penalising the companies.

Companies which have achieved milestones as per the MoU are not likely to be touched. Further, some projects have already been cancelled or reallotted to the state sector. These include Kugti, Hadsar, Buddhil, Sal-1 and Sainj. Fozal, which was assigned to a company placed at the 17th position, may also be cancelled. In the case of the Chirgaon Manjhgaon project no company fulfilled the prequalification norms.

Out of the 110 mini and micro projects 64 had submitted detailed project reports and 33 others were progressing as per the milestones set in the MoUs. As many as 14 were as good as cancelled and seven fell through during the pre-feasibility stage.

Dhumal lambasts Congress
Our Correspondent

Hamirpur, October 30
Senior BJP leader and former HP Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has lambasted the HP police and investigating agencies of the Himachal government for “trying to harass BJP leaders and workers at the instance of Congress leaders and workers”.

Talking with a group of reporters at his Samirpur residence yesterday, he said the way these agencies were working, was undemocratic and against the rules.

Mr Dhumal said his government had done nothing illegal and so he was not afraid of any probe. He suggested that instead of a probe by the local agencies, all such issues should be handed over to the CBI.

He alleged that the Congress was working purely on political considerations and regional bias. The decision of the government to recruit persons as para-teachers on sub divisional basis was an example of this. He said that if this principle was adopted, merit and seniority would suffer.

BJP workers lash out at party MP
Our Correspondent

Hamirpur, October 30
BJP workers of Hamirpur district today blasted party MP, Suresh Chandel for “ignoring” them during the past four years and to create dissidence in the organisation.

Mr Chandel faced the wrath of the workers at a meeting held here this afternoon. It was after long time that Mr Chandel had interaction with the party workers.

They alleged that Mr Chandel had ignored them and given weightage to party dissidents during last Assembly elections and earlier.

They also asked Mr Chandel to clarify his position with regards to sanctioning of funds under the MP Local Area Development Scheme in all five Assembly constituencies of the district.

Hamirpur district unit of the party is dominated by supporters of former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and they are aggrieved over the “stepmotherly” treatment being meted out to their leader on the issue of state presidency of the party.

However, Mr Chandel claimed that he had nursed all parts of the constituency fairly and had maintained proper interaction with them. He urged party workers to be united to face the next Lok Sabha elections in the state.

Earlier, while talking to reporters at the local rest house, Mr Chandel clarified that he was not in the race for state presidentship.

BJP accuses government of vendetta
Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 30
The state unit of the BJP has alleged that the investigating agencies and prosecution were hand in glove with the accused ministers as result of which cases against them were not being pursued in right earnest.

Mr Randhir Sharma and Mr Baldev Sharma, party spokespersons, at a joint press conference here today, alleged that the investigating agencies were being used by the Congress government to malign the political opponents and they were using dilatory tactics to thwart the progress of cases in the court.

Citing an example of the case against Mrs Asha Kumari, Education Minister, they said that the case was filed in August 2002 and so far she had not appeared before the court. Even the public prosecutor had been abstaining from the court.

The story of the Sagar Katha case in which Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, was one of the accused, was no different. The vigilance agency was pleading for a re-investigation of the case they claimed.

Paraglider injured
Our Correspondent

Dharamsala, October 30
Mr Vijay Soni paraglider from Pune, who is participating in the international Pre-World 2003 Para Gliding competition was injured when he was forced to land in Ghamota village about 25 km from here. Mr Soni was taken to Military Hospital, Palampur, where it was found that he had suffered a minor fracture.

On the third day of the competition today 26 paraglider took off for speed to race competition which was 112 km with three turnings. As the weather conditions were not very good, the competition was both for speed and race. About half a dozen pilots failed to complete the race and many landed at various places between Billing and Dharamsala.

As per the details made available by the technical committee, Mr Shorokhow Nikolay from Russia was leading with 2,000 points while Xavier from France was second with 1767 points closely followed by Eddic Kumar for India with 1727 points. In the women section, Anja from Germany continued to lead with 1593 points followed Ms Louis Burnhum with 1144 points. The results for the third day’s event were not available according to initial reports.

According to Ms Upma Cowdhary, Commissioner Tourism trials for national solo and tandem flights were also held today. Seven pilots participated in the solo event while 27 pilots with 27 co-pilots participated in tandem.

She said that one trial had been held earlier on October 2 in which seven solo and 14 tandem pilots were selected for national championships. The international event will continue for one more day. Earlier it was to finish today.

Meanwhile despite tall claims of the officials of the Himachal Tourism Department presently hosting the Pre-World Cup 2003 at Billing these days, chances of Billing of being allotted the Para Gliding World Cup 2004 are bleak. This fact emerged today during a joint press briefing by the Secretary, Mr Ashok Thakur and Commissioner, Tourism, Ms Upma Chowdhry at Bir.

According to Mr Ashok Thakur, Billing was on the world paragliding map as the best take off site during October-November and has all facilities for holding a world cup.

Sainik School turns 25 on November 2
Chander Shekhar Sharma

Sujanpur Tihra (Hamirpur), October 30
Located on the western side of the historic Chaugan maidan here, the local Sainik School completes 25 years on November 2. It was on November 2, 1978 that the then Indian President Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy had inaugurated the school here. It is one of the 18 such schools functioning in India under the direct supervision of the Union Defence Ministry.

The school has the credit of sending 221 of its students to the Indian Army as officers in various disciplines during past 25 years. This is the reason that the school is celebrating its silver jubilee function on November 2, where the HP Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, will be the chief guest.

A record number of 786 students have passed out from here with flying colours. It has sent 55 of its students to the medical stream, 137 to the engineering stream and 103 to various other government services. The school has also sent 43 students to the agriculture stream and 223 to other national-level institutions of India where they are performing their duties in various capacities.

The school has received the Defence Minister’s trophy thrice for its outstanding contribution in the field of sending its students to the National Defence Academy. The school had created a national record of sending 15 students of a last year’s batch to the NDA.

Old boys of the school are busy these days to make the silver jubilee function a memorable one. It will organise a function on this occasion.

The highlights of the function will be skydiving, paragliding and cultural programmes. Three M.I-17 helicopters would also present a flypast on this occasion, according to Col R.C. Laddha, Principal of the school.

Highway in need of repair
Our Correspondent

Parwanoo, October 30
The Parwanoo-Kasauli state Highway 42, commonly known as Old Kasauli Road, has been crying for attention for the past many years.

The 18-km stretch of the road is very bumpy. The traffic from Parwanoo to Sector IV here, which falls on this road, is very heavy because most of the residents of Parwanoo reside in this sector and Sector V. Loaded trucks also use this road to go to Sector IV and Sector V. Travelling on this road becomes unsafe as the traffic moves haphazardly, with drivers trying to avoid deep potholes.

The width of the road is also not as per the norms of the state highway. Encroachments on both sides of the road, from the Kasauli turning on the Kalka-Shimla highway, create problems for vehicles. Due to haphazard parking of trucks, traffic jams are common near Sector IV.

Residents of the town say that whenever any VIP is likely to visit Sectors IV or V, the PWD authorities in Kasauli come into action and repair the road by temporary patch work. The condition of this road is worse during the rainy season. Landslides occur and the road gets blocked. At times, road is not open to traffic for three or four days, creating problems for commuters and schoolchildren, who come to Parwanoo from Sectors IV and V.

The condition of the Kalka-Shimla road near the Parwanoo barrier, Shiwalik Hotel, bus stand and near Sheetla Mata Mandir is also very bad.

Justice Gupta to inaugurate court
Our Correspondent

Shimla, October 30
The Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, Mr V.K. Gupta, will inaugurate a Sub-Judge Court at Nadaun on November 4. On this occasion, Mr Justice Arun Kumar Goel and Mr Justice M.R. Verma will also be present. The Chief Justice will visit the Subordinate Court at Nurpur and will hold a meeting of judicial officers and members of the Bar and officers of the administration on November 3.

The Chief Justice will visit the courts at Dharamsala and Kangra on November 4 .

Hike in water charges decried

Shimla, October 30
The state unit of the BJP had opposed the hike in water charges by the local Municipal Corporation and said the consumers should not be penalised for the inefficiency of the corporation.

Mr Ganesh Dut, party spokesperson, said instead of increasing charges of water the corporation should impose tax on luxury items. — TNS

2 vehicles looted

Nahan, October 30
Two highway robbers with muffled faces looted two vehicles between Sanaura and Griri Bridge on Nahan-Rajgarh state highway in the wee hours this morning, 120-km from here, today.

According to police sources, the robbers blocked the road by putting huge boulders and stopped the vehicles returning from a marriage party. The robbers snatched a gold ring, a mobile phone handset, a wrist watch and Rs 6,100 in cash from the passengers at gunpoint and fled.