H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Expelled Cong men’s fate left to top brass
Dharamsala, January 29
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee president and Energy Minister Vidya Stokes today said it was the Congress high command that would decide the readmission of partymen who had been expelled during the last Vidhan Sabha elections for anti-party activities .

WB to fund three polytechnics
Sundernagar, January 29
The quality of technical education is improving in Himachal Pradesh. This was stated by Mr B.R. Verma, Director, Technical Education, here yesterday. He said three polytechnics in the state had been selected for the Technical Education Quality Improvement project out of 20 institutions in the country. 

Govt in fiscal crisis
Hamirpur, January 29
In view of a fiscal crisis, the state government has banned the payment of all financial bills except those of salary, telephone, power and pension to the retired persons.

Sulabh to run garbage plant
Hamirpur, January 29
The local municipal council has decided to hand over the running of the garbage treatment plant and the sanitation work under its jurisdiction to Sulabh International.

Rs 4 cr water scheme in pipeline
Dharamsala, January 29
The Himachal Irrigation and Public Health Minister, Thakur Kaul Singh, said today that a Rs 4 crore scheme was in the pipeline for augmenting the water supply of Dharamsala town and once completed, it would solve the water scarcity problem.

HP steps for lift irrigation schemes
Our Correspondent

Dharamsala, January 29
Himachal Irrigation and Public Health Minister Thakur Kaul Singh yesterday said the department had initiated steps to enhance the capacity-utilisation of various lift irrigation schemes in the state, particularly in Kangra district.

The minister who was on duty in the mini-secretariat here was talking to mediapersons. Earlier, he presided over a meeting of IPH officials of the district and reviewed the ongoing schemes for irrigation , sewerage and water supply in the district.

Thakur Kaul Singh said it was indeed a matter of concern that there was  only 40 per cent capacity-utilisation in most of the lift irrigation schemes with the result that water was not available at the endpoint of the scheme. He said earlier the IPH Department used to provide channels up to the fields which led to under-utilisation and wastage of water. He said now the command area development projects were being executed and under the scheme channels up to the endpoint were being provided. He said this would ensure capacity-utilisation of 70 per cent.

Thakur Kaul Singh said till now, 28 such projects had been sanctioned in Kangra district at a cost of Rs 28 crore. He said to ensure repair of all pumps, the two workshops at Baggi in Mandi district and Gagret in Una district would be strengthened so that any damaged pump was repaired on a priority basis.

The IPH minister said though the budget provision for Kangra district  for various water supply, irrigation, sewerage, tubewells  and allied schemes  for the current year was Rs 98 crore, the amount would be enhanced to Rs 110 crore so that more development works were executed by the IPH Department during the financial year. This was about 35 per cent more than the sanctioned budget, he said.

Thakur Kaul Singh said Himachal had suffered in the past due to  great shortage in the non-Plan sector and this adversely affected the Plan. He said now the 12th Finance Commission would be requested to provide more funds for non-Plan. He said the state government had from the current year ensured that Plan funds were not diverted as this had an adverse effect on plan projects.

Expelled Cong men’s fate left to top brass
Our Correspondent

Dharamsala, January 29
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president and Energy Minister Vidya Stokes today said it was the Congress high command that would decide the readmission of partymen who had been expelled during the last Vidhan Sabha elections for anti-party activities .

Talking to mediapersons here today, Ms Stokes said the matter of forming a joint strategy with other political groups in the state would also be decided by the high command.

She said it was deplorable that certain senior BJP leaders had started "spreading lies" about Congress President Sonia Gandhi and had also included Ms Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Mr Rahul Gandhi in the malicious campaign." She said it was an internal party matter whether the two contested the elections or not.

The HPCC president said four factors would be considered while deciding the party candidates for the state — winability, acceptability, credibility and respectability. The decision would be taken soon, she added. The AICC in-charge for Himachal, Mr. Ashok Gehlot, would visit the state soon and immediately after this the names would be finalised, she said.

WB to fund three polytechnics
Our Correspondent

Sundernagar, January 29
The quality of technical education is improving in Himachal Pradesh. This was stated by Mr B.R. Verma, Director, Technical Education, here yesterday. He said three polytechnics in the state had been selected for the Technical Education Quality Improvement project out of 20 institutions in the country. He said the Rs 1,550-crore project was being funded by the World Bank. The selected polytechnics included those from Sundernagar, Hamirpur and Kandaghat.

He said a CESCO certificate of international recognition would be started at the polytechnic in Kandaghat soon. He said the polytechnic would get the ISO 9001 certificate by the first week of April as all formalities had been completed. He said directorate was formulating plans to improve the quality of technical education in the state.

Three killed in HP landslide

Chandigarh, January 29
Three labourers were buried alive in a landslide in Rohroo town of Shimla district while there were renewed light to moderate spells of snow in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir during the past 24 hours.

According to a Shimla report, the labourers, Chet Bhadur from Nepal and Jitender Yadav and Vinod Prashad from Bihar, were buried alive in a landslide while doing digging work for the construction of a building yesterday.

According to a report from Srinagar, the 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was reopened to traffic today.

The highway was closed yesterday after massive landslides in the Ramban area.

After day-long efforts, the road was cleared this morning, enabling the nearly 60 stranded vehicles to resume their journey, Senior Superintendent of Police, National Highway, Amjad Parvez Mirza said. — UNI, PTI

Govt in fiscal crisis
Our Correspondent

Hamirpur, January 29
In view of a fiscal crisis, the state government has banned the payment of all financial bills except those of salary, telephone, power and pension to the retired persons.

Mr Rakesh Korla, District Treasury Officer, also admitted that payment of bills, other than that of salary and contingency bills, had been stopped. He, however, said it was a temporary measure and the payment of rest of the bills would be made in due course.

Sources said today that payment of bills to the tune of several crores had been stopped and worst affected were those who had performed various works of the state government on contract basis.

Meanwhile, the Department of Excise and Taxation has taken stringent measures to collect sales tax in time so that there was no fiscal crisis with regard to grant of salary and other perks to the staff.

Source said the department had refused to entertain the returns of those traders who had deposited less sales tax this time as compared to the previous quarter. The department has also directed such traders to deposit more tax otherwise their returns would not be accepted.

Sulabh to run garbage plant
Our Correspondent

Hamirpur, January 29
The local municipal council has decided to hand over the running of the garbage treatment plant and the sanitation work under its jurisdiction to Sulabh International.

The agency will start working once the formalities are finalised, according to Mr Ajmer Singh Thakur, Executive Officer of the civic body.

A meeting of the civic body was held here today with Ms Roshni Devi, its president, in chair.

It was also decided to name the chowk near the fire service office as Captain Mridul Sharma Chowk. Captain Sharma laid down his life fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir recently.

The civic body also decided to lower the daily rent of the newly constructed Town Hall to Rs 7,100, 5,100, and 3,100 for 24, 12 and six hours, respectively. The rate for seven consecutive days would be Rs 5,000 per day.

Legal view to prosecute Katwal sought
Our Correspondent

Dharamsala, January 29
Himachal Pradesh Transport Minister G.S. Bali said today that legal opinion was being sought whether HPSSSB Chairman S.M. Katwal can be prosecuted for phone tapping. Addressing mediapersons here today, Mr Bali said Mr Katwal, who was facing many cases of corruption in selection of candidates by the HPSSSB during his tenure, had taped conversations between him and the leader of Opposition, Congress MLAs and even the Governor’s House. He said this showed the criminal bent of mind of Mr Katwal and  legal action may be instituted against him for this.

Mr Bali alleged that Mr Katwal was biased against OBC candidates and the fact stands proved by the fact that a youth of the community was thrice rejected in interview by Mr Katwal. The young man has now been selected as an HAS officer which proves his capabilities. He said there were many such cases.

Rs 4 cr water scheme in pipeline
Our Correspondent

Dharamsala, January 29
The Himachal Irrigation and Public Health Minister, Thakur Kaul Singh, said today that a Rs 4 crore scheme was in the pipeline for augmenting the water supply of Dharamsala town and once completed, it would solve the water scarcity problem.

Addressing mediapersons here, he said water from the Gaj river would be lifted and all old and leaking pipes in the town would be replaced in a phased manner. He directed IPH officials to ensure accountability in cases where leakages remained unchecked despite complaints.