Shimla, March 7
Preferring the soft option of borrowings to mobilisation of additional resources Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal today proposed no fresh taxes in the budget for 2008-09 and left the whopping resource gap amounting to 25 per cent of the total expenditure to be met through loans.

However, despite the tight fiscal situation he brought cheer to different sections of society by announcing interim relief to employees and pensioners, free health insurance scheme for families below poverty line and abolition of the prescription slip fee in hospitals, continuation of the subsidised ration scheme, increase in honorarium of all categories of elected representatives of panchayati raj institutions and urban bodies, introduction of pre-matric scholarships for OBC students, hike of Rs 2 per litre in the procurement price of milk and various other benefits.

He also announced a plan to fill 26,000 posts in various departments to create employment opportunities for the youth.

Obviously, conscious of the fact that it was his first budget after poll Dhumal was not in a mood to administer the bitter dose of taxation for improving the financial health of the government which has been turning from bad to worse. The net result will be that out of the total budget of Rs 12542 crore the state will have to raise loans tocover the resource gap of Rs 3137 crore, raising the loan liability by Rs 1931 crore during the year after accounting for debt repayments.

More importantly, he announced 5 per cent interim relief for the employees on the Punjab pattern with effect from November, 2006, and earmarked Rs 300 crore for the purpose. He also decided to continue with the subsidised ration scheme started by the previous Congress regime in the election year by making a provision for Rs 90 crore.

There were also some new initiatives like the establishment of a directorate of energy to focus on the power sector, an incentive scheme to ensure better tax realisation, three new medical colleges in Una, Hamirpur and Mandi districts in private-public partnership, construction of Ambedkar Bhawans in every assembly constituency at a cost Rs 10 lakh, establishment of a science college, doubling of the insurance benefit under "matri shakti bima yojna" from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 and reintroduction of the "mukhyamantri gram path yojna".

In the case of nagar panchayats, the monthly honorarium of presidents is proposed to be increased from Rs 1000 to Rs 1200, of vice-presidents from Rs 800 Rs 1000, and of members from Rs 500 and Rs 600. In the case of municipal councils the emoluments of presidents are to revised from Rs 1500 to Rs 1800, of vice-presidents from Rs 1200 to Rs 1500 and of members from Rs 500 to R 700.

For the Mayor of Shimla, the amount will be hiked from Rs 2700 to Rs 3500, for deputy mayor from Rs 1800 to Rs 2500 and for members from Rs 1500 to Rs 2000.

Similarly, in the case of zila parishads the honorarium of chairperson will go up from Rs 3000 to Rs 3500, of vice-chairpersons from Rs 2000 to Rs 2500 and of members from Rs 1350 to Rs 1500.

For panchayat samitis the amount for chairperson will be enhanced from Rs 1500 to Rs 1800, for vice-chairperson from 1000 to Rs 1200 and for members from Rs 1000 to Rs 1200. The enhanced amount for gram panchayat pradhans will be Rs 1200 and up-pradhdnas Rs 1000. The sitting fee for members of gram panchayats is to be increased from Rs 125 to Rs 150.

The functional posts to be filled include 18,000 teachers, 3000 police personnel, 1081 gram rozgar sewaks, 1000 nurses, 250 dotors, 260 panchayat secretaries, 85 ayurvedic medical officers, 1000 personnel in eco-battalions and 50 coaches. Besides, three new reserve police battalions will provide jobs to 3,000 persons while 300 posts are to be filled in the Agriculture and Horticulture Departments.

The amount under the MLA local area development fund is proposed to be increased from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh with a stipulation that the additional amount of Rs 5 lakh will be spent on the mukhyamantri gram path yojna.

A special dispensation of Rs 95 crore had been given to the HRTC which had accumulated losses to the tune of Rs 450 crore.

Out of the total budget of Rs 12,542 crore, the total receipts are pegged at Rs 9398 crore. The tax revenue is estimated at Rs 3195 crore, non-tax revenue at Rs 1231 crore and central receipts at Rs 4971 crore. The gap will be met through loans. The net capital expenditure will increase from Rs 1098 crore to Rs 1931 crore.

The capital outlay for health is to raised from Rs 33.67 crore to Rs 104 crore, for panchayati raj institutions from Rs 87 to Rs 131 crore, for urban bodies from Rs 57 crore to Rs 98 crore. A provision of Rs 197 crore has been made for capital works in schools and colleges as against Rs 81 crore allocated this year.

However, the highest increase has been effected in the sub-plan for scheduled castes from Rs 231 crore to Rs 594 crore. As many as 2000 hand pumps will be installed in drought-prone areas and export restrictions on khair wood will be lifted to benefit farmers. The government will introduce a special insurance scheme for weavers.

Synthetic athletic tracks will be laid at Dharamsala and Hamirpur and a special drive will be launched for filing 3 per cent job quota for sportspersons. The limit for subsidised loan for ex-servicemen is to increased to Rs 1 lakh. A sum of Rs 11 crore will be spent on police housing and Rs 5 crore for constructing houses for revenue personnel.

Highlights

l Subsidised ration scheme to continue.

l Free health insurance scheme for families below poverty line.

l Increase in honorarium of all categories of elected representatives of panchayati raj institutions and urban bodies.

l Three new medical colleges in Una, Hamirpur and Mandi districts.

l Amount under the MLA local area development fund is proposed to be increased from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh.

l Plan to fill 26,000 posts in various departments to create employment opportunities for the youth.

l The prescription slip fee in hospitals abolished

Shimla, March 7
In his reaction after presenting the first budget in his second innings as the Chief Minister, Dhumal said it was a tax-free budget, where no one had been burdened. "I have tried to give relief to the common man despite the fact that the Union Budget was completely silent on the biggest issue of price rise, which is affecting every section of society," he said.

Forest minister J.P. Nadda remarked that despite the financial mismanagement created by the previous Congress regime which made everyone believe that the fiscal situation cannot improve, the Chief Minister has turned the tables around very effectively.

The state BJP chief, Jai Ram Thakur said it was a pro-common man budget which would give a lot of relief to the rural populace. "The chief minister has tried to tackle the problem of unemployment as he has announced the filling of 18,000 posts of teacher during the next financial year along with 1,000 posts of nurse and other para-medical staff," he said.

The entire ministerial team of Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal hailed the budget proposals for 2008-09 as pro-poor, common man-friendly and growth-oriented.

Ministers Gulab Singh, Ishwar Dass Dhiman, J.P. Nadda, Ravinder Singh Ravi, Kishan Kapoor, Narinder Bragta, Ramesh Dhawala, Rajiv Bindal and Sarveen Chaudhary said that all sections of society had been given something special in the budget without putting any additional tax burden.

The proposals would help strengthen roads, spread the light of education to all corners, ensure healthy life and create self-employment opportunities to bring prosperity in every home.

Special attention had been paid to education, health, drinking water supply, sewerage and sanitation, urban development and social welfare. The farming community had been taken good care by allocating Rs 548.13 crore for the agriculture and irrigation sectors.

The installation of 2000 hand pumps in the drought-prone areas would solve the problem of water scarcity. The increase in the procurement rate of milk by Rs 2 per litre would also benefit farmers. A special provision of Rs 9 crore had been made to end the financial woes of MILKFED.

They said that employment opportunities would be provided by filling 18,000 posts to meet the shortage of teachers, besides thousands of direct and indirect jobs to be created through new police battalions.

Shimla, March 7
Former union minister and national vice- president of the BJP Shanta Kumar is all set to enter the Rajya Sabha unopposed as the Congress has decided not to field its candidate.

The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) is learnt to have taken a decision today with regard to not fielding its candidate for the Rajya Sabha election. Though it was being expected that with a strength of only 23 legislators in the assembly, the main opposition party might not field its candidate but with the CLP taking a formal decision on this, the election of Shanta is likely to be unanimous.

Senior BJP leaders, including Shanta Kumar himself, have had talks with CLP leader Vidya Stokes and former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh with regard to his unanimous election. “Even though the numbers are not with us but we could have still put up a candidate, but as a step towards healthy democratic norms we have decided not to put up our candidate,” admitted a senior Congress leader.

At present, the BJP has a strength of 41, Congress 23, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) one (1) and three independents in a House having a strength of 68. In fact, the BJP high command had decided to give the Rajya Sabha seat to Shanta Kumar when the party decided to project P.K. Dhumal as its chief ministerial candidate before the elections were held.

Earlier, it was being expected that Shanta Kumar would file his nomination on March 10, but with the meeting of the BJP parliamentary board getting postponed to March 11, he would complete all formalities at a later stage.

With the state election committee of the BJP already proposing the single name of Shanta for being fielded as the Rajya Sabha candidate, the central parliamentary board will merely complete the formality by putting its stamp on the state body’s decision.

Shanta Kumar will be elected against the Rajya Sabha seat, which fell vacant after the election of Suresh Bhardwaj as MLA from the Shimla assembly constituency.

Shimla, March 7
The Congress today termed the budget as disappointing and a complete jugglery of figures with an eye on the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

CLP leader Vidya Stokes said the budget had nothing special to offer to the people. "The budget is very disappointing as it does not spell out any specific schemes for generating employment, especially in the rural sector," she remarked.

Stokes also disputed the statement of the Chief Minister that contrary to the claims of Rs 30,000-crore industrial investment during the Congress regime only Rs 3,374 crore had been made in the state. "It is misrepresentation of figures as during our regime the single-window clearance had approved projects worth Rs 27,000 crore with the creation of 2.70 lakh jobs but the Chief Minister is quoting figures of the investments already made," she said.

HPCC chief Viplove Thakur said the entire focus of the budget was on centrally sponsored schemes with very little of their own.

"The jobs that the BJP regime is talking of creating, especially in the government sector, is exactly what the Congress regime had proposed but unfortunately due to the election code of conduct coming into effect, these could not be filled," she remarked.

Former IPH minister Thakur Kaul Singh said the budget was a complete jugglery of figures to woo the voters with an eye on the Lok Sabha elections. "It was the Virbhadra Cabinet which had taken a decision about issuing of notification for opening a medical college in Mandi and that too before the election code of conduct came into effect.

Shimla, March 7
For every Rs 100 spend by the government the state will have to borrow Rs 25.

Salaries of employees account for Rs 27, pensions Rs 10, interest payments Rs 15, loan repayments Rs 9 and maintenance Rs 7. Thus, only Rs 32 will be spent on all other activities, which include major development works.

Out of every Rs 100 of revenue receipts the central grants and share in central taxes account for Rs 62 and states own tax and non-tax revenue bring only Rs 38.

The total outstanding loans of the state at the end of the current financial year will amount to Rs 22,930 crore. This year alone the net addition will be Rs 1,003 crore. The fiscal deficit for the period 2008-09 is expected to be 5.4 per cent of the gross domestic product.

The committed liabilities include salaries (Rs 3,376 crore), pensions (Rs 1,206 crore), interest payments (Rs 1,834 crore), loan repayments (Rs 9,92 crore), maintenance (Rs 868 crore), grant in aid (Rs 580 crore), subsidies (Rs 327 crore) and establishment (Rs 157 crore).

New Delhi, March 7
The Supreme Court has passed strictures against former Himachal Chief Minister Virbhardra Singh for recommending the grant of bus route permit to a transporter in Kangra district and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the transport authority for implement it in violation of the Motor Vehicle Act.

A Bench of justices S.B. Sinha and V.S. Sirpurkar directed the Transport Department to deposit Rs 1 lakh imposed as cost within four weeks with the National Legal Services Authority, failing which an interest at the rate of 12 per cent per annum will have to be paid by it.

“The Chief Minister or any authority, other than the statutory authority could not entertain an application for grant of permit and could not issue any order there upon,” the court said.

It went a step further to state how strictly the provision of the Motor Vehicle Act has to be applied, clarifying that even the transport authority, set up under the act itself, including the appellate authority “cannot issue any direction, except when the matter comes up before it under the statute.”

The recommendation was made by Virbhadra Singh on application of transporter Rajinder Singh from Bijnath area in 2004, to director transport, who had recommended it further to the Regional Transport Authority which had duly acted upon the recommendation.

The grant of permit to Rajinder Singh, a Congress activist, was challenged by Pancham Chand and some others on the ground that he was given priority purely on “political” consideration though their applications were pending with the authority for over a year, Pancham’s counsel Ravi Bakshi had pointed out.

Agreeing with Bakshi’s contention that the intervention of the then Chief Minister in the grant of bus route permit amounted to “interference” in the independent functioning of the transport authority, the Bench said, “We fail to understand as to how an independent quasi judicial body, like the Regional Transport Authority could affirm an affidavit together with the state (in the high court to defend its action and the state government).”

“It was not supposed to take any stand one way or the other. It had no business to defend the state or the Chief Minister,” the court said.

Former Himachal additional advocate General J.S. Attri, who had appeared in the case on behalf of the Transport Department, had argued that the permit was granted by keeping in view the need of the public and “not under the direction of the Chief Minister.”

Even otherwise, the state had the requisite jurisdiction to issue instructions laying down the policy for grant of bus route permits, Attri said.

Shimla, March 7
The Dhumal regime will fix responsibility and initiate appropriate action against the official who had issued the notification for the opening of a government medical college at Mandi.

This was announced by chief minister, P.K. Dhumal during his budget speech today. "The Election Commission of India too has taken a very serious view of the fact that the notification was issued after the election code of conduct had come into effect," he said.

Dhumal said that the government will inquire into the matter and fix responsibility so that action can taken against the erring official. He said while in its previous tenure the Congress government had opened Tanda Medical College in haste, this time the party wanted to play the same cruel joke on the people of Mandi.

He said responsibility would also be fixed in the case where route permits had been issued in violation of the norms.

"The Supreme Court has imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh as the former Chief Minister had overruled the State Transport Authority and asked for issuing a permit against the government policy," he said.

Sidelights

Former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was conspicuous by his absence during the budget presentation as a result of which there were few interruptions or objections from opposition MLAs. Virbhadra, is expected to attend the House on March 10. Barring some remarks by former IPH minister Kaul Singh, most of the Congress MLAs, including CLP leader Vidya Stokes, chose to remain quiet as Dhumal presented the budget.

«

In sharp contrast to earlier budgets presented by Virbhadra Singh when Rampur and other parts of Shimla remained major beneficiaries, the focus in Dhumal's budget was not just on Hamirpur but also Kangra, the home district of Shanta Kumar.

Mandi, March 7
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today announced an increase of 25 per cent in “nazrana” or honorarium for the devtas participating in the international Shivaratri fair and promised more facilities for them.

He also went on to add that the government had urged the Human Resource development

(HRD) minister to open an IIT in Mandi and would expedite the construction of the Inter-state bus terminus on a “build, operate, own and transfer (BOOT) basis in the town.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the “Jaleb procession of the weeklong Shivratri fair in which over 175 devtas have arrived today, Dhumal said the “nazarana” for the devtas would be increased by 25 per cent this year as “devtas are the fountainhead of the Shivratri fair and the government had given relief to all sections of the society in the state”. “Over 175devtas have arrived for the fair and 25 more are about to arrive, which is a record participation in the fair so far, he added.

Responding to the aspirations of the residents of Mandi, Dhumal said he had written a letter to the HRD minister and had taken up the matter with the Central Government that IIT should be started in Mandi, the announcement for which was made by the finance minister P. Chidambaram on October 2 last year on the behalf of the Prime Minister.

Referring to the long-pending demand of the residents of Mandi, Dhumal said the government would explore and expedite the process for the construction of the bus stand in Mandi by getting more land for the purpose. The bus stand will be built on BOOT basis, he added.

Dhumal said the government had created 25,000 jobs in different departments of health, education, police and others and had increased honorarium for the panchayati raj institutions (PRIs), councils, nagar panchayats as per its poll promise to the unemployed youth and other sections in the state.

He also inaugurated the Nehru Yuva Kendra national integration camp in which over 200 youths from 10 states were participating here. The troupes from UP, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Mizoram and HP also participated in the Jaleb ceremony.

Dhumal arrived here late due to the Budget session in Shimla and a drizzle acted as as the dampener at the fair as the “Shiv stuti and legendary marriage of the Lord Shiva with goddess Parabati performed by the school children in a colourful presentation were cut short due to bad weather in the evening.

There was no garland and other ceremony as dhumal had already directed that there would be no such ceremony at the government functions.

Meanwhile the Jaleb procession ceremony was attended by PWD minister Gulab Singh Thakur, social justice and women empowerment minister Sharvin Chaudhary, deputy speaker Khimi Ram, BJP state unit chief Jai Ram Thakur, all MLAs from Mandi district and ex MP Maheshwar Singh and other dignitaries.

The Shivratri Jaleb procession was led by Dev Chamahu, Dev Choonj and Maharishi Markende and Shridev Ghtotkach and other devtas from Rajmadhav temple to Paddal Maidan, with “bajantris” playing beats of drums and shehnai and “karnals” and other traditional instruments, dancing and singing traditional songs on the way where thousands of devotees stood on the roadsides to watch the ceremony.

President Shivratri mela committee-cum-DC Mandi district Onkar Sharma read out the brief account of the mela and later he presented a cheque of Rs. 1.26 lakh from the mela committee to Dhumal for the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.