Shimla, March 9
Increased borrowings to bridge the resource gap has driven the debt-ridden state off the fiscal correction path chalked out by the World Bank while granting the development policy loan to pull it out of the debt-trap.

The loan the government proposed to take during 2008-09 is almost double the amount of Rs 1,125 crore fixed by the bank. As per the fiscal correction path, the net loan was on average to go up annually by about Rs 1100 crore over the five-year period from 2007-08 to 2011-12 to help contain the outstanding debt at the level of Rs 24,000 crore. However, the figure will be reached by the end of the 2008-09, throwing the fiscal correction plan haywire. By keeping the borrowings within manageable limits the bank sought to improve the ratio of fiscal deficit to the gross state domestic product from - 3.4 per cent to - 2.2 per cent over the period.

Having veered off the correction path the state will have no option to renegotiate the terms and conditions of the development policy loan afresh with the bank and redraw the fiscal path. If the performance in the first two years is any indication, the fiscal indicators, instead of improving, are likely to deteriorate which will not please the World Bank. The only redeeming feature, unlike the past, is that the loans are not being raised for meeting the revenue expenditure and these will be utilised for productive purposes. Besides, the government had also indicated that it would fulfil the commitment made in the MoU by freezing subsides at the current level of Rs 322 crore, including power subsidy of Rs 140 crore, and maintain the government guarantees within the reform target.

A matter of grave concern is that the state’s dependence on borrowings is increasing despite unprecedented buoyancy in revenue over the past five years. The central grants and the state’s own tax and non-tax revenue have been increasing at a robust rate. The state’s own income has shot up from Rs 1,276 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 3,532 crore (projected) in 2008-09. The tax revenue has increased from Rs 984 crore to 2,300 crore and the non-tax revenue from Rs 292 crore to Rs 1,231 crore over the period. The main contribution came from royalty and share in hydroelectric projects which increased the income from the power sector from a meagre Rs 35 crore to Rs 886 crore.

The central transfers, including share in taxes, also swelled from Rs 2,705 crore to Rs 5,865 crore. As such the increasing dependence on loans clearly points to failure of the state to maintain financial discipline. The state has also breached the target to bring down the fiscal deficit to 3 per cent of the state domestic product set under the fiscal responsibility and budget management act. The fiscal deficit for 2008-09 has been projected at 5.4 per cent but the Planning Commission had approved higher borrowings during the year.

Shimla, March 9
The government will consider issuing Himachali certificates to industrialists who meet the qualifying parameters, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said addressing an interactive meeting organised jointly by the Baddi-Barotiwala- Nalagarh Industrial Association and the CII in collaboration with the government and the Baddi-Barotiwala- Nalagarh Development Authority yesterday. Dhumal also assured the status of a tehsil to Baddi.

He announced that the Parwanoo-Barotiwala road would be given priority, a drug control authority office would be opened near the industrial area, PWD division there would be strengthened and a circle office of the state electricity board would be located closeby.

The setting up of a medical college in the area would also be considered, besides strengthening the Baddi-Barotiwala- Nalagarh Development Authority.

The government would consider charging domestic power tariff for housing units constructed in industrial areas for industrial workers. The government would take up all problems of industries with the Centre at the appropriate level. He warned that action would be taken against officers not complying with government orders.

The Chief Minister said that government was open to setting up a medical college and a speciality hospital in the industrial area and efforts would also be made to open public schools and other centres of excellence to provide quality education.

He also released a publication 'A Guide for permission Under Section 118 of Land Reforms Act' compiled by Solan DC Amandeep Garg.

Health minister Rajiv Bindal said the government would consider strengthening of drug licensing authority in the state after examining all related aspects.

President of the state council of CII Rajender Guleria suggested various corrective measures to improve the working and living conditions in the industrial belt while president of the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industrial Association A.R. Singh underlined the need for creating quality infrastructure at Baddi on a par with Gurgaon.

Mandi, March 9
Even as finance minister P. Chidambaram has announced the loan waiver of Rs 60,000 crore for farmers, Himachal Gramin Bank (HGB), a major regional rural bank (RRB) has yet to reach out to the major rural pockets in the apple belt of Chopal, tribal belt of Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur districts where farmers cry for banking facilities as the HGB has so far paid its attention to lower Himachal only.

Although the HGB has covered the rural pockets in lower parts of the state, the bank has yet to identify the rural pockets without banks in Chopal and Jubbal in Shimla district, rural pockets in Sirmaur and the tribal districts of Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur, farmers told The Tribune.

Even though the HGB has applied for a licence from the RBI to open six branches this year, but all of them are to be located in the urban or semi-urban centres which already have several banks facilities.

Interestingly, three of which- Char Majri, Khroni, Bagheri- are located in Nalagarh area, the home town of the seating chairman of HGB Gurdial Singh, revealed sources. Three other proposed branches-Rohru, Theog and Paonta Sahib- are located in urban centre, where farmers already have the bank facilities, sources said.

Former vice-pardhan Gram panchayat Dewat in Chopal tehsil, Pradip Banchta said Dewat is a major apple belt in the Shimla district. The road has been built under the Prime Minister Gramin Sarak Yojna, but farmers have no banking facilities in Dewat, a central place in the area, he added.

Similarly, Bamta, Saranha, Kupvi, Pulwahal in Chopal teshil and Aunti and Surachali in Jubbal teshil are other apple-belt where farmers have no banking facilities, although the HGB claimed that it has opened 118 branches in the state, said general secretary, the state Vegetables and Fruit Growers’ Association S.P. Katyal.

The apple and potatoes farmers in Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur said that they need facility of RRBs in the area so that farmers could benefit from the banking facilities as RRBs provide loans on lower rates as compared with commercial banks which have stringent procedures to avail the loans.

Chairman Gurdial Singh said, “The HGB has opened 118 branches most of them in rural areas and is opening six branches, including Rohru, Theog and Poanta Sahib in Shimla and Sirmaur districts this year. “If we get recommendations we will do surveys in the other areas as well. We have covered Kullu, Mandi, Kangra, Solan, Hamirpur and lower areas and moving to upper areas of Shimla, Sirmaur including tribal districts, he claimed.

He said the bank has disbursed agricultural loans worth Rs 77 crore in 2007, against a target of Rs 100 crore, which the bank would likely to achieve by March 31, 2008.

Mandi, March 9
Backed up by the HP Jana Adhikar Sangharsh Manch (JASM), which has demanded an immediate release of Rs 4,000-crore package for the state on account of injustice done to the people of the state, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has held successive central governments responsible for not giving the state its due shares. Regarding the hydropower project built on the rivers before the formation of state as per provisions of the Punjab Re-organisation Act, 1966 he said his government had taken up the matter in 1998.

The HP JASM has decided to launch a state-wide campaign against the central government’s apathy towards the state as spelt out in the Punjab Reorganisation Act.

Dhumal agreed that all parties in Himachal were united behind the legitimate HP rights and shares in projects and dam water as per the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, but it was central government’s responsibility to give Himachal its due as per the agreement”.

He said that central government had pleaded On the other, convener, HP JASM, Mehar Singh Chauhan and general secretary, BD Lakhanpal, who has submitted the 36-paged memorandum to President of India and Dhumal on Friday at Shimla asserted that the manch would launch a state-wide campaign to make people, including students in colleges and universities aware about how the successive central governments had denied them their rights and their due shares in hydroprojects owned by Punjab in state’s rivers, in which the state had to get 17.19 per cent share”.

Dhumal said each state had their political compulsions and the centre should resolve the matter. But Punjab and Haryana are bigger states and their voice matter more than that of Himachal, which is a small state, he added.

Shimla, March 9
Medical specialist at local Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Dr Sanjay Mahajan will present his research paper on “Fatal scrub typhus despite azithromycin during pregnancy in Indian Himalayas” at the 5th international conference on rickettsial and rickettsial diseases being held at Marseille in France from May 18 to 20.

He is the only participant from India to be invited to present his findings on the research conducted by him to ascertain the role of antibiotic azithromycin in patients suffering of scrub typhus during pregnancy where conventional drugs like doxycycline, tetracycline cannot be used due to their side effects on foetus. About 300 doctors from all over World working on rickettsial diseases will participate in the conference.

Dr Mahajan has been studying various aspects of scrub typhus for past four years. Earlier in 2006, while working in collaboration with a French laboratory he detected two new strains of this disease prevalent only in Himachal Pradesh, which were named as Indian Himachal Strains (IHS1, IHS2). He was awarded the national award by the Association of Physicians of India in January for his work on effects of scrub typhus on hearing in persons suffering of this disease.

During 2005-07, he conducted many interactive workshops on the disease at DDU Hospital, Shimla, with doctors working in various hospitals.

Nurpur, March 9
MP from Kangra Chander Kumar has raised the demand of setting up of a trauma centre at the Nurpur sub-divisional headquarters.

Talking to the mediapersons today, he said he had submitted a proposal to the union ministry of surface transport and national highway in that connection. He said the centre would cater to the needs of the lower Kangra district and bordering Chamba district.

He said upper areas of Kangra district had Tanda Medical College, the zonal hospital and a well-equipped civil hospital at Palampur, but the necessity of a trauma centre in lower areas of the district was being felt since a long time due to increasing number of road mishaps. Victims of accidents taking place in the lower Kangra area had to be rushed to private hospitals in neighbouring Punjab.

“The 100-bedded civil hospital at Nurpur has a blood centre and specialists and the trauma centre here will the requisite infrastructure if it gets nod from the union ministry of surface transport and national highways,” he added.

Shimla, March 9
The financial health of the public sector undertakings (PSU’s) in the state has further deteriorated with accumulated losses increasing from Rs 917 crore over a year to Rs 977 crore as on March 31, 2007.

As many as 18 out of the 22 PSU’s were in the red and only the state civil supplies corporation had been earning substantial profits. The state road transport corporation tops the list of loss-incurring units with a cumulative loss of Rs 437 crore.

It is followed by state power board (Rs 237 crore), state financial corporation (Rs 112 crore), Agro-Industrial Package India Limited ( Rs 65 crore), forest corporation (Rs 49.76 crore) and HPMC (Rs 39 crore).

The civil supplies corporation has earned the maximum cumulative profit of Rs 13.39 crore, followed by state ex-servicemen corporation (Rs 3.87 crore) and the state backward classes development and finance corporation (Rs 3.45 crore).

The government investment in the PSU’s increased from Rs 744 crore in March 2006 to Rs 761 crore in March 2007. The total number of employees decreased from 49,711 to 49,063 over the period.

Nurpur, March 9
The state BJP has hailed the landmark decisions unanimously taken by state Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in a meeting held at Chandigarh today.

Spokesman of the state BJP Rajinder Rana in a statement here said today the Chief Minister had shown his sensitiveness towards longstanding inter-state problems of the state by holding a successful meeting with his counterpart of Punjab within two months after coming into power.

He said the consensus on the longstanding demands of Kurali-Baddi link road, ropeway between Anandpur Sahib and Naina Devi and to expedite construction of Shahnehar project in Kangra district will improve cordial relations between neighbouring states and solve longstanding inter-state problems.

He said the agreement on selling electricity by the Punjab to Himachal in winter and by Himachal to Punjab in summer would solve power problem of both states and benefit industries, too.

Kumarhatti, March 9
Two persons were killed while another was critically injured when debris caused by a landslide fell on a JCB machine at Haripur village near Baddi yesterday. The incident took place at around 6 pm when the JCB machine was involved in the road construction work to a gurdwara.

The machine driver, Rakesh Kumar, who hailed from Sadol in Bilaspur district and helper Rajkumar from Pahaarpur in Ropar district died on the spot.

The dead bodies were handed over to the families after postmortem examination.