The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Rs 50 crore loss due to late commissioning of power projects Tribune News Service Shimla, April 30 The state electricity board is likely to lose revenue to the tune of over Rs 50 crore because of its failure to complete the 126 MW Larji and the 12 MW Khauli projects as per the revised schedule. As per the projections for the current year, the anticipated generation of electricity was 1945.13 million units, which was almost 580 million units more than last year. The increase in generation was on account of the scheduled commissioning of Larji from April and Khauli in May. The first unit of Larji could not be commissioned as scheduled even though civil works have been completed and dry run of the first unit has been started. The project could not be completed due to delay in laying of control cables between the power house and the pothead yard. Sources pointed out that the delay was because of poor planning and casual attitude of the management which made Larji the costliest project to date with per megawatt cost exceeding Rs 10 crore, almost double that of the Nathpa Jhakri project. Worse, the third unit has not been even assembled so far and as such it was not likely to be commissioned by June as announced. The situation was opposite in case of Khauli project with electrical works completed well in time and the civil works falling behind schedule. The two generating units, each of 6 MW , were in place but the fore bay (small reservoir) has not been completed. The peak generation period is from May to September when 60 to 65 per cent of the total power is generated. As a result the daily loss of generation will range from 1.4 million to 2 million units. The fund -starved board will lose revenue ranging from Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore every month. The delay is all the more appalling as the demand for power is increasing due to industrial boom in the wake of special package granted by the Centre to the state. The demand for industrial power is increasing by 25 to 30 per cent annually but the generation was not keeping pace with it. The government has approved projects involving an investment of Rs 17,500 crore and the demand for power is likely to shoot up over the next two years.
	SWAN facility to help e-education in state Tribune News Service Shimla, April 30 The Telecommunication Department will shortly launch the state wide area network (SWAN), which will inter-connect upto the block level, and will help the state government in promoting e-help and e-education. Addressing a press conference here yesterday, the new Chief General Manager, BSNL, Himachal Circle, Mr Shri Kant Sharma, said talks had already been held with the government with regards to promotion of e-governance. “With the launching of the SWAN, the hospitals can have a link up as the government is keen to implement its e-help and e-education programmes,” he disclosed. He said Himachal had a high tele-density of 12.14 per cent and out of a total 7.25 lakh BSNL customers there were 2.20 lakh mobile phones users. “We hope to connect all blocks and tehsils of the state with mobile facility within this year and clear the waiting of 36,000 land phones,” he informed. He added that every village having a population of more than 2,000 would be provided with mobile facility. Out of a total of 75 blocks 67 had already been covered, while 65 of the 75 tehsils were already having mobile services. As far as the subdivisions were concerned 44 out of 51 had already been provided with mobile facility. He said the BSNL mobile services were already available in all 12 districts and the national and state highways and efforts were on to improve the services in areas where the signal was weak. “Our endeavour is to provide best possible services and we are keen to improve customer care and increase network of franchise,” he stated. Mr Sharma said as compared to a capital of Rs 150 crore which was spent on development activities last year, this year Rs 220 crore will be spent out of the capital budget. He said a total of Rs 15 crore remained as the outstanding amount to be recovered from the defaulters. Giving details of a major problem being faced by the department, the General Manager, Shimla division, Mr Pradeep Nagpal, was the theft of cables. “During the past nine months alone there have been 130 cases of cable theft, worth Rs 50 lakh,” he said. He added that due to theft of cables the services were affected . He said after bringing the matter to the notice of Secretary (Home) and DIG (CID), a joint operation had been launched by the police and the department to nab thieves. He said a gang of seven persons had been arrested on April 17, but the number of such persons were much more.
	1984 riot victims demand adequate relief Our correspondent Kangra, April 30 Resentment prevails among the victims of the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 in this subdivision against inadequate compensation given to them. Following the Nanavati Commission report, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had assured the riot victims that they would be given justice and adequate compensation. This had kindled a ray of hope among them here. In 1984, Dharamsala, Nagrota Bagwan, Rait, Shahpur and Gaggal were part of this subdivision and 48 Sikh families had suffered the brunt of the riots. The local administration had as an immediate relief distributed Rs 1,17,087 among the affected families, which received relief from Rs 500 to Rs 4,000 each. The riot victims told The Tribune that there were no details available in the local SDM office about the losses suffered by them. Mr Surender Singh said his car, a hotel and a chemist shop were totally destroyed during the riots and police officials had mentioned this in an FIR in the local police station. He said despite huge losses the authorities had assessed his compensation at Rs 93,000, which according to him was unjustified. He said he suffered a loss of Rs 10 lakh that time. Critical of the then administration, Mr Surender Singh alleged that he was hiding in his house when the administration made the assessment of his loss from an office room without informing him. Another 1984 riot victim, Mr Yogesh Singh Ahluwalia, said though he lost one building completely and three other buildings were damaged by mob, compensation given to him was Rs. 64,470. He said ironically the compensation decided for his tenant was Rs 3,77,000. The victims demanded a high level inquiry into the assessment of the compensation and the non- availability of records of losses suffered by them. They also demanded adequate compensation. Meanwhile, the SDM, Kangra, Ms M. Sudha Devi, told The Tribune that the immediate relief given to the riot victims was meagre and nominal. She said she had asked the Tehsildar to submit the details of the losses suffered riot victims.
	Stress on keeping apples juicy Tribune News Service Shimla, April 30 Keen to see Himachal apple competing in international market with the best fruit from the world over, the Horticulture Department is now encouraging growers to adopt better post harvesting techniques like cool chain so that it retains crispness, colour and juice for maximum possible time. Even though apple production in Himachal has increased manifold in the past one decade the growers have failed to adopt the sophisticated post-harvesting techniques, which further enhance the quality of the fruit. The plucking, grading and packing is still done on old lines, reducing the shelf life of the fruit. Surprisingly, hardly any grower has availed of the post-harvesting facilities under Minimation-III of the Horticulture Technology Mission being implemented in the state. “In case the growers adopt the sophisticated post-harvesting techniques the shelf life of the fruit will increase and it will fetch better price,” said Mr R.P. Sharma, Director, Horticulture. The shelf life of apple at room temperature is 15 to 20 days while after keeping in cold storage it increases to eight months. The government owned HPMC has the cool chain facility at Patlikuhl but there are hardly any takers. By this method the fruit which is plucked when it is optimum ripe is washed and pre-cooled within two hours of harvesting. The temperature of the fruit is brought between two to four degrees, before it is put under refrigeration in a cold storage. The growers in the state are also not familiar with tools like fruit pressure tester which indicates the firmness, refractometer and starch iodine test which measures the sweetness and checks if the fruit is ripe and ready for plucking. “The charges for putting the fruit through cold chain are very high and moreover with the kind of roads and transportation system we have it is not easy to bring the fruit on time for being put the fruit through cool chain process,” said a grower.
	Common man feeling cheated: Dhumal Our Correspondent Palampur, April 30 Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, said here today that the Congress government in the state had failed to come to the expectations of the people who had given it a strong mandate three years ago. Talking to the mediapersons here last night, Mr Dhumal said Congress government had failed to full- fill the promises made during Assembly elections and now the common man was feeling cheated. He said it had assured the youth that it would open new avenues of employment if it was voted to power but soon after assuming the power the government imposed a complete ban on new recruitments in the state. Later, after the signing of MOU with Centre for introducing financial discipline in the state, it further shattered the hopes of unemployed youths in the state as it agreed to impose total ban on recruitments for next the five years. Mr Dhumal alleged that though the Congress government promised to provide clean administration to people of the state, the situation had gone from bad to worse in the past three years. The corrupt officials had been given key posting and amazing huge wealth. He said despite the fact that ministers and even the Chief Minister were well conversant with the situation, they were helpless to initiate any action against the corrupt officials. He alleged that big contracts in PWD and IPH Departments were being given to the contractors belonging to the Congress and close to ministers and MLAs through back door at higher rates. He alleged that in one of the contracts recently allotted at a very high rate the state exchequer suffered a loss of rupees one crore. The BJP had raised all such issues in the Assembly but failed to get satisfactory answers from the government. Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal disclosed that all development activities in the state had come to a standstill since the Congress government had assumed power in the state. Condition of most of the state highways was pitiable whereas these were well maintained during the BJP regime. The state was passing through serious financial crises, but the Chief Minister was unconcerned. Though the UPA government led by the Congress was in power at the Centre, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh could not get even a paisa as additional grants to the state. He said that during NDA regime, BJP government had succeeded in getting Rs 4000 crore as additional grants to state from the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Former Chief Minister strongly criticised the state government for not allowing the BJP MLAs to distribute pensions to old-age persons, widows, BPL families and Antodaya families under a programme launched by the welfare department. The state government completely ignored the BJP legislatures despite the fact that they were elected public representatives. He said it was not at all fair on the part of government and the BJP would not tolerate such injustice.
	BJP plans protests to demand CBI probe Tribune News Service Shimla, April 30 The Bharatiya Janata Party will organise statewide protests in June to press its demands for a CBI probe into the charge sheet submitted by it to the Governor last month. Stating this at a press conference here today, Mr Suresh Bharadwaj, state BJP chief, said it was a well- documented charge sheet in which serious instances of corruption and various other irregularities involving ministers and senior officers were highlighted. However, the government had so far not made any effort even to ascertain the factual position. The party would not take things lying down and it had decided to take the charge sheet to the people to expose the misdeed of the Virbhadra Singh government. The party activists would stage dharnas and demonstrations at all the district headquarters and assembly segments. The dates would be finalised at a meeting of the state executive to be held in the last week of May. The party will start a membership drive in May for which the target was to increase the enrolment by at least 20 per cent. The party had collected a record Rs 32 lakh through the “ajiwan sahyog yozna” and the amount this year was likely to exceed it. Mr Bharadwaj claimed that the “Bharat suraksha yatra” of Mr Rajnath Singh, BJP President, evoked unprecedented response. Such was the enthusiasm among the people that Mr Singh had to address unscheduled public meetings at about a dozen places including Namhol, Nauni, Sundernagar, Jogindernagar and Nurpur. The success of the yatra reflected the desire of people to bring BJP back to power in the state and as also their disillusionment with the Congress government.
	NHPC violating job quota: HP engineers Tribune News Service Mandi, April 30 The Himachal Pradesh Project Engineers’ Association (HPPEA) has charged the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) of violating the joint agreement that ensures 30 per cent executive jobs at all levels to the engineers from the state. According to top sources, the issue will come up at the meeting of the NHPC with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh tomorrow in Shimla. The HPPEA members said the NHPC had employed just five engineers in the 2051 MW Parbati hydropower project in Kulu district. The engineers rued that the state government claimed to provide 70 per cent jobs in the project to Himachalis, but it had even failed to enforce the clause of providing 30 per cent jobs to engineers from HP cadre. The engineers charged the Department of the Multipurpose Project and Power (MPPP) of not pleading their case. “The powerful NHPC lobby is manipulating the agenda of meetings over a period of time”, they alleged. The Principal Secretary, MPPP Mr J.P. Negi said, “At the tomorrow’s meeting the government would not only review the 30 per cent clause of employment, but it would induct its policy that ensures 70 per cent employment in the NHPC to Himachalis in its projects”. Refuting the charges of the HPPEA, the NHPC’s General Manager Parbati (stage II), Mr A.K. Mishra, claimed that the agreement provided for 30 per cent employment to engineers from the state after fulfilling certain conditions. “I have no figure immediately available, but the corporation has employed executives and non-executives from the state in the projects”, he claimed.
	CM for satellite towns to de-congest Shimla Rakesh Lohumi Tribune News Service Shimla, April 30 Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said satellite towns would be developed around Shimla to decongest the city. Unplanned colonies would not be regularised and the Special Area Development Authority (SADA) set up for peripheral areas for merger into the Shimla Municipal Corporation, Shimla shortly, he added. Addressing a public meeting at Bhatha Kuffar, near here, after dedicating Rs 1.19 crore Regional Office, godown and shopping complex building of the state Civil Supplies Corporation today, he said the capital had been expanded to the maximum and there was need to develop planned satellite townships at places like Shoghi, Ghanahatti, Fagu, Mashobra, Kufri and Junga. Mr Virbhadra Singh said the state government would also consider identifying the buildings in Shimla which had carried illegal construction in addition to the approved structure and formulate a policy for their regularisation. Water and electricity connections would be allowed in such cases as one-time policy of the government. He said the pressure on the town was mounting with migration of people from rural areas in search of employment and providing basic civic facilities to people was a challenge for the government. He criticised the previous government for misleading people on the regularisation of encroachments, creation of new district and kisan pass books. He said previous government encouraged people to encroach upon government land which increased the number of such cases from 65,000 to four lakh. He said in no case encroachments on government and forest land would be regularised while the state government would consider sympathetically the cases of poor, houseless and deserving people. The Chief Minister announced upgradation of Government Middle School, Chamiana, to senior secondary level on the condition that the gram panchayat would transfer land to the Education Department.
	Fake work permit for Nepali migrants, village head held Kulwinder Sandhu Tribune News Service Reckong Peo, April 30 Fake work permits for the Nepali migrants are in circulation in tribal areas of Kinnaur district, which shares its border with Tibet (China). This came to light following the arrest of a village head by the police here last evening. He was allegedly found involved in issuing fake labour permits to the Nepali migrants. The police claimed, Bhagwan Singh an elected head of Ropa village also ran a travel agency to arrange fake work permits for Nepali migrants. The police claimed having recovered fake stamps of district authorities and original work permits in blank from his possession. Case under Sections 420, 468 and 471 of the IPC was registered against him. Earlier, Jai Chand, a Nepali national was arrested by the Himachal police for many heinous crimes, from whose possession fake work permit was recovered. During interrogation he revealed name of Bhagwan Singh and a few others through whom he got the fake work permit made. Recovery of blank work permits from the possession of Bhagwan Singh also indicates the involvement of official machinery in the fraud. This travel agent and his associates may be issuing fake inner-line border travel permits to the foreign nationals, investigation of which is on, revealed Dr Amandeep Garg, Kinnaur, District Magistrate. Meanwhile, police sources revealed Bhagwan Singh had told the investigating officer he had stolen the blank documents from the office of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate here. Evidence of Maoist activities in Himachal also came to the fore last month after the police recovered posters related to the separatist activities of Nepalis from Rampur Bushahr, Shimla, Solan and many other places of the state.
	Body found from gurdwara identified Tribune News Service Mandi, April 30 The police has identified the decomposed and strangulated body of the 64-year-old man recovered under mysterious circumstances from a locked room of a local gurdwara here on April 27. The victim has been identified as Mr Mohinder Singh, a resident of Nawanshahr, Punjab. He lived in Canada. The police has yet to trace the murderer, who vanished after dumping the body in the room. The Mandi police has registered a case of murder under section 302, IPC. The DSP, headquarters, Mandi, Mr KC Shandilya, said that Mohinder Singh had come to his home town recently. He had come from Manali with someone, who booked a room in the gurdwara in a fake name of one Gurbinder Singh, a resident of urban estate, Batala, he added. The police said brother of Mohinder Singh had identified the body and told the police that he had gone to Manali as a tourist. "He had called his nephew in Phagwara on April 24". The police revealed that the two persons probably had checked in on April 24. "He was strangulated to death through a thin rope tied around his neck. Even post-mortem examination report has confirmed the cause of death", the police said.
	Water shortage hits Dharampur Kumarhatti, April 30 Dharampur town is reeling under severe shortage of potable water these days. Panicked over situation a delegation of residents led by local panchayat chief met the Deputy Commissioner on Friday and apprised him of the alarming situation. Water is being supplied after a gap of two days. As per residents the duration of supply is short and pressure is low. The matter was also highlighted at a public meeting of the Chief Minister at Garkhal where resident blamed the IPH for not managing the water supply properly. The main reason for the problem was the biased policy of the IPH in the distribution of water in town, pointed residents. “Keeping in view the water crisis new constructions should be banned in the town. Not only the construction is going on in full swing but water is being supplied in plenty to these activities”, rued residents. At present around 1.50 lakh litre is being pumped daily from four hand pumps whereas the daily water need of town is over 3 lakh litres. — OC
	Poor phone service hits villagers Our Correspondent Kumarhatti, April 30 As many as 150 subscribers of the Naya Gaon telephone exchange under Banasar Panchayat are a harassed lot. The phone lines of the exchange have been causing problems for the past two weeks. The subscribers have not been able to make calls. If one does get a call, it gets disrupted abruptly. As per the complaints, cross connections were common problem. The exchange was not only ill-equipped but it was allegedly not being looked after well, the villagers said. The telephone operator made occasional visit to the exchange. According to villagers despite bad service the department had failed to take any action. Their plea to improve the situation had fallen on deaf ears. The 14 subscribers phone at Nabhon village under Pratha panchayat were lying dead for the past one month and the services were not yet restored.