Shimla, March 17
Accusing the BJP of adopting double standards on the issue of the charge sheet, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said today that the party must approach the Lokayukta or else people would think that they were merely performing a ritual without any seriousness.

The Chief Minister, while winding up the debate on the Budget proposals for the year 2007-08 in the Assembly today, termed the charge sheet as a poorly drafted document with no evidence. He said the well-documented charge sheet supported by evidence brought out by the Congress during the BJP regime was ignored by the party which was now demanding a CBI inquiry into a similar document prepared by them.

"One cannot have double standards and if the BJP is so serious about the allegations made in the charge sheet, most of which is the same that was brought out last year, they should file an affidavit before the Lokayukta," he remarked. He added that Himachal was the first state in the country, which had made the Lokayukta and brought the Chief Minister under its ambit.

He said the government was not scared to face the CBI as 26 specific allegations levelled against him were probed for two-and-a-half years by the Central investigating agency, during the Dhumal regime. "Despite truckloads of documents and files being sent to the CBI, I was given a clean chit by the CBI in all the 26 allegations levelled against me, mainly by the Himachal Vikas Congress," he said.

He lamented that the level of debate in the House during the Budget session was against the established norms and tradition of the House as members indulged in mud slinging against the government without facts.

The Chief Minister made special reference of the fact that there was no mention at all in the Budget speech of leader of the opposition P.K. Dhumal about the charge sheet or corruption. "It appears that the BJP has left it to only one member who seems to be the defender of the ideology and faith of the BJP to agitate about the two issues," he remarked.

Shimla, March 17
Former Chief Minister and leader of the opposition P.K. Dhumal said today that instead of focusing the discussion on the Budget it was the fear of the charge sheet and the Congress defeat in Punjab and Uttarakhand which was reflected in the speeches of ruling party members.

Addressing mediapersons after the BJP members staged a walkout from the assembly today, he said contrary to their expectations the Chief Minister did not make any announcement in his reply after taking into account the suggestions made by opposition members.

He said it was a matter of concern that wrong figures had been quoted in the Governor's Address and the Chief Minister's budget speech.

He said the CM had given different figures of outstanding borrowings during the BJP tenure whereas the fact was that this figure stood at Rs 11,951 crore at the end of its tenure. Mr Virbhadra Singh should have clarified about quoting the wrong figure of Rs 3 crore instead of Rs 2 crore allocated for the construction of new college buildings.

Alleging a regional bias in the allocation of funds for development works, he said the provision of consolidated funds made for schemes in the south zone could have been made for other parts of the state as well.

He said the CM was giving wrong figures as far as the translocation of monkeys was concerned as over 3,400 had been left in other parts of the state. 

Shimla, March 17
The BJP members in the Assembly today staged a walk out in protest against the failure of government to address issues raised by its members and check the stray cattle and monkey menace in the state.

Immediately after Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh completed his reply on the Budget discussion, leader of opposition P.K. Dhumal stood up and said the provision of Rs 100 crore in the Budget for providing subsidised ration was too meagre.

He said by exempting food grains and other essential items from VAT, a lot of relief could have been provided to the common man.”The Chief Minister's contention that VAT exemption can not be given, as the benefit will go to traders which is not justified as it is the duty of the government to ensure that the benefit percolates to the consumers," he remarked.

He said the BJP members were staging a walk out as the government had not taken heed of the suggestions made by them and the government had also failed to check the stray cattle and monkey menace problem. Following this, the BJP members left the House raising slogans.

Condemning the action of the BJP, the Chief Minister said he had already anticipated the walk out which had been staged on frivolous issues.

He said a provisional Budget of Rs 100 crore had been made for subsidy on ration and the government was determined to hold the price line at any cost.

Nurpur, March 17
Students appearing in the class XII examination being conducted by the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education faced inconvenience in solving the chemistry paper on Friday as it contained a number of mistakes.

Mistakes were found in all three sets of question papers. Question Nos. 4, 12 and 28 in series A, question Nos. 21(a) and 24 in series B and question Nos. 13, 18, 25, 28(a) and 28(b) in series C reportedly contained errors.

The Wisdom Institute of Science Education, a coaching centre based at Rehan, today submitted a complaint to the board’s chairman as regards these mistakes.

Meanwhile, the examinees have appealed to the board to grant grace marks to them.

Chairman of the board B.R. Rahi admitted that there were verbal complaints about mistakes in the chemistry question paper held on Friday. He said as and when he received a written complaint, he would mark an inquiry to a committee of experts, which would make recommendations as regards grace marks. 

Solan, March 17
In a glaring irregularity that has cast aspersions on the working of Lawrence School, Sanawar, and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), hundreds of answer sheets of the board were reportedly used by the school during its internal examinations. Some of such answer sheets are in the possession of The Tribune thus lending credence to the theory of negligence on the part of authorities.

According to an estimate, thousands of such answer sheets are lying in the school. It is interesting to note that no teacher pointed out the lapse to the authorities concerned and they all instead checked these answer sheets and accorded marks to the students.

Panchkula-based regional officer of the CBSE D.R. Yadav admitted on the telephone that it was a serious lapse. He said he would inquire into the matter. “Ideally a centre superintendent (CS) is responsible for sealing the entire examination material. It is, however, the responsibility of the school authorities to send back all such unused answer sheets as the CS leaves after sealing the entire material,” he added.

He said it was surprising that such a practice had been going on in the school. Appropriate action would be taken on the receipt of such answer sheets by the board, he added.

Headmaster of Lawrence School, Sanawar, Praveen Vashishta, however, denied having knowledge about any such happening. “I am not aware of any such issue, but I will inquire as to how it happened and who is responsible for the lapse. Accountability of the Dean of Faculty concerned would be fixed as all examination related issues are dealt with by him,” the headmaster added.

He said action would be taken against those found guilty of the irregularity.

Dean of faculty V.K. Sharma denied having any such knowledge. However, he added that some unused answer sheets of the CBSE could have been lying in the stores and put to use during the conduct of internal examinations in the school. He said no such practice had taken place ever since he joined in June last year. Sharma said the answer sheets supposed to be used during the internal examinations bore the school name and were printed by them.

Mandi, March 17
The zonal hospital, here, today was linked to the Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, through a telemedicine link when the doctors examined and discussed an ENT patient online and decided a future course of treatment for him.

Talking to The Tribune, zonal hospital and IGMC's ENT specialist Chander Mohan discussed the case of a patient live through the telemedicine link,officiating medical superintendent zonal hospital Dr D.K. Arora said they discussed first patient Surinder Kumar online.the link would now be available to all patients in the town.

To ensure the convenience of patients and availability of specialists at IGMC, the hospitals linked would put a roster of fixed days in a week in place for each hospital, informed doctors.

Similar links would be available at regional hospital, Kulu, civil hospital, Banjar, in Kulu district, and Primary Health Centre, Jhenjheli, and Civil hospital, Karsog, in Mandi district and district hospital, Hamirpur, said health officials.