Shimla, December 30
Accusing the UPA regime of indulging in “vote bank politics”, BJP prime ministerial candidate LK Advani today warned that his party would not tolerate any kind of conciliation on the issue of terrorism.

Addressing a rally on the occasion of completion of one year of Dhumal regime in the state, he said the UPA government must act firmly on terror issue as there could be no compromise on the issue of national security.

“Despite several shortcomings in the law being enacted to deal with terrorism in the country, the BJP supported the government as all political parties need to stand united to send across a strong signal that we are one in our fight against terrorism,” he maintained.

Lashing out at the UPA regime for its alleged failure in executing Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru and stopping Bangladeshi infiltration, he said the Congress must shun politics of vote bank.

“The Centre needs to send across a strong signal to all those sympathising with separatist forces sitting in and outside India that there will be no compromise on the issue of terrorism,” he retorted.

He said the Mumbai terrorist attacks had led to a feeling of fear and insecurity among the people and the government needed to reassure the country that there would be no repeat.

Assuring his party’s full cooperation in dealing with terrorism, he said the BJP would not accept a soft stand against the separatists in Jammu and Kashmir and any kind of discrimination with the people of Jammu and Ladakh region.

“Earlier also, the UPA regime had succumbed to pressure from the separatist forces and reverted its decision on giving land to the Amarnath Shrine Board for creation of temporary facilities for pilgrims,” he said.

“The objective behind holding “Vijay Sankalp” rallies all over the country is not to project an individual as the Prime Minister but to create real “surajya” where poverty, unemployment, illiteracy find no place,” he said.

Without directly asking the people to vote for the BJP, he said the electorate must cast their vote after sensible thinking so that they get good governance and a strong leadership that could protect national interests.

“The gone year has not been good. There were terror attacks, price rise and economic recession, but let’s hope the next year will be a better one,” he said.

Lauding the one-year performance of the Dhumal government, he said Himachal was surging on the road of development under the BJP rule and had emerged as a model hill state.

“The state has emerged as a leader in areas like environment protection, health, reducing carbon emissions, education, literacy, road connectivity and power generation,” he said.

Amid all the festivity marking the completion of one-year rule of the BJP in the state, a tragedy struck as a person, who had come to attend the function, died at the rally site on the Ridge.

Bhagwan Dass, 80, hailed from Naya Nagar in the Subathu area of Solan district. He suddenly collapsed while the rally was on. He was taken to the nearby sanatorium in Chaura Maidan, but could not be saved.

Shimla, December 30
Even as Himachal continues to plead its case for seeking a larger share from Punjab in the Shah Nehar irrigation project, a sum of Rs 17.28 crore has been given by the Punjab Government to the hill state.

Although Himachal is demanding a sum of Rs 212 crore from Punjab as its share in the Shah Nehar project, the estimated cost of which has gone up to Rs 310.98 crore, Punjab has agreed to pay only Rs 88.89 crore out of the total project cost of Rs 143 crore (as estimated in 1997). Punjab had already paid a sum of Rs 64.41 crore over the past four years.

Ravinder Singh Ravi, Irrigation and Public Health Minister, today confirmed that Punjab had released an amount of Rs 17.28 crore as its share in the irrigation project approved in 1997.

“We are contesting our case before the Central Water Resources Ministry and the Planning Commission to ensure that Punjab gives its share of Rs 212 crore as the cost of the project has gone up to Rs 310.98 crore,” said Ravi.

He said a high-level meeting was held in Delhi on July 10, where Punjab had agreed that after giving its full share of Rs 88.89 crore to Himachal, the Shah Nehar project must be treated as a single project and all allocation from the Centre must go to Himachal. “Himachal will continue its fight to seek the enhanced share from Punjab so that the hill state gets its due,” he said.

Work on the Shah Nehar project for which agreement was signed in 1983 began in 1997. It will irrigate 15,267 hectares in Himachal and is expected to be completed by 2011. Punjab had agreed to provide money to Himachal in lieu for the water it had stopped for creating a dam for its Mukerian project.

IPH officials said while the two head regulators of the project were located in Punjab, most parts of the two canals were in Himachal.

The Left bank canal has a total length of 26 km, out of which only 4.7 km fell in Punjab. The right bank canal has a length of 49 km.

“We have made 50 per cent reservation in panchayati raj institutions for women, enhanced daily wages from Rs 75 to Rs 100, provided Rs 160 crore for subsidised ration and ensured harnessing of hydropower potential in the state,” he said.

Solan, December 30
In a shocking revelation a flesh trade racket operating from a private resort, located on the Khil-ka-Mor road, near Kumarhatti, was unearthed in a surprise midnight swoop by a police team led by Parwanoo SDPO Ramesh Pathania.

The police on receiving a tip-off from mediapersons raided the Kapcon Resort and found six girls and six men indulging in obscene acts on the second floor of the resort. The girls, aged between 18 to 25, had been brought here from Delhi in a red Tavera (DL-4C-AD1959).

A press sticker had been affixed on the Tavera to escape any police hassle. The girls confessed to have started from Delhi at 4am yesterday and reached the resort around 5.30pm. The men had arrived in two separate vehicles, a Logan (PB48C-2099) and a Zen (PB43B-4390).

The men, hailing from different parts of Punjab, include Mohinder Kumar, Mukesh Kumar, Naresh Verma all hailing from Mandi Gobindgarh, Arvind Verma hailing from Sirhind, Sunil Mahajan from Amritsar and the kingpin, Mahesh Gupta, hailing from the Mangholpuri area of New Delhi have been arrested. The police said Mahesh Gupta had arranged girls from Delhi and all other men had arrived from Punjab.

The girls said they had been brought here for a dance performance and were promised a payment of Rs 1,000 each. All of them were fatherless and had not been educated beyond class V. They pleaded poverty as reasons for entering this trade.

The police confiscated large quantities of contraceptives and liquor from the site in the nearly three-hour long raid.

All were found in an inebriated state while each girl was also found carrying various skimpy dresses and lot of cosmetics. Out of the 10 rooms and three cottages available in the hotel none had any visitor.

The police on entering caught hold of the manager, Pritam. Wads of fresh currency notes of Rs 10 denomination were found scattered in one of the rooms where a dance was underway while a total of Rs 46,000 was recovered from those arrested.

A case under Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, 1956, was registered against all 12 arrested. They were produced before a local court here from where they were remanded to two days in police custody, Solan SP SPS Verma informed.

He said preliminary inquiries have revealed that similar activities had been going on in the resort for quite some time now.

Interestingly, as per the police inquiries the resort owners appear to be Rajinder Singh, Jarnail Singh and Pritam Singh, who are non-Himachalis.

The hotel interiors, however, showed Lt Col (retd) RN Kapoor as the managing director and Neeraj Kapoor as the executive director.

The resort wore a deserted look as none of the staff was found there this morning when mediapersons visited.

The police officials said more such raids would be conducted on various hotels and resorts, as it appeared that such nefarious activities were operating on the sly in the area.

Una, December 30
A number of gangs of robbers and dacoits from Punjab are active in Una district of Himachal Pradesh. The arrest of many dacoits belonging to Punjab over the past one year by the Una police is a clear illustration of the fact.

Proximity with Punjab and many escape routes in the form of link roads have made the district an easy hunting ground for Punjab-based gangs.

Talking to The Tribune, Una SSP CN Venu Gopal, however, claimed that the new system of sealing the district boundaries by setting up nakas and check posts, coupled with systematic patrolling, had helped the police bust many gangs of dacoits operating in the district.

A gang of eight persons murdered Dilbag Singh (a resident of Jalandhar in Punjab) in the district and escaped in an Innova vehicle. The accused were arrested by the Una police by tracking their mobile phone calls.

The gang was notorious for committing murders and dacoities in the border areas of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal.

A gang of six persons from Fatehgarh district of Punjab recently snatched Rs 11 lakh from a trader in the Bangana area. Within 16 minutes, a police party intercepted the gang and two persons were apprehended.

Other members of the gang were also arrested within three days and the looted amount was recovered from them.

A Tata Sumo vehicle was intercepted by the police and two accused, Gurtek Singh and Jaswinder Singh of Hoshiarpur in Punjab, were arrested. Later, an investigation revealed that Jaswinder was a professional thief and was looking for an opportunity to committee robbery in Una district.

The Una police had also busted two gangs of vehicle thieves in the recent past. One of the gangs was headed by Balbinder Singh (alias Banti) and the other by Kulwinder Singh. The second gang was known as Kaku gang.

A gang of cable thieves operating in Una, Kangra, Hamirpur, Bilaspur and Mandi districts was also busted. The gang members were notorious for stealing BSNL cables, the SSP said.

The SSP claimed the police had also been successful in checking narcotics trafficking in the district. In the past one year, the police seized 7 kg poppy husk, 2 kg charas, 3 kg opium and some illicit liquor.

Stolen property worth Rs 27 lakh was recovered. The district police was successful in solving 15 murder and 11 rape cases over the past one year, he claimed.

Bilaspur, December 30
The Himachal Government College Teachers Association has expressed its resentment over irregularities, breach of norms and guidelines of the UGC and rules by the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) held on December 24.

It demanded that all deserving cases of teachers should be immediately considered and decided according to the UGC regulations and be given the long-deserved benefit of the senior scale and the selection grade.

Addressing mediapersons here state general secretary Suresh Kumar Soni said this DPC meeting was held after it repeatedly met the Education Minister and the Chief Minister but the members of the DPC totally ignored the merit and UGC norms and behaved in a wayward manner.

They said out of the total 89 senior scale and 232 selection-grade cases, it only awarded these benefits to 23 and 92 persons, respectively, and denied due benefit to all remaining deserving teachers.

The state association has demanded that this list of senior scale and selection grade should be revised within next 15 days, failing which the association would be constrained to decide its future course of action against this flagrant denial of rights of teachers without any justification.

The association pleaded that those teachers who had done PhD during the service were entitled to get selection grade in nine years as per the UGC directive, but this benefit was also denied to these deserving cases.

The association expressed surprise that the department had committed an irregularity by convening a special DPC to oblige only one person, and that too it was to give the benefits in advance.

The association held top officers of the department responsible for this “mess, anomaly and anarchy”.

They said the Principal Secretary, Education, and the Director of Higher Education were responsible for these injustices. Soni demanded that all pending cases should be decided and settled at the earliest.

The notification also bans offering of prashad and coconuts to the deity in the temple and nobody would be allowed to carry these items with them during the fair in the area.

Dharamsala, December 30
The government has diverted all development works in rural areas through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

However, this has created some problems for panchayats that do not have enough unemployed persons.

The matter came to the fore recently when residents of three panchayats represented their grievances before Minister for Transport and Urban Development Kishan Kapoor at Dharamsala secretariat.

The residents of three villages, Upper Badol, Sidhbari and Mahant panchayat alleged that the development works in their areas had be stalled.

Most of the residents in the said villages are employed in either the government or private sectors.

There are very few residents in the said villages that are unemployed. The situation is such that all unemployed residents of the said villages have been given 100-day employment under the NREGS for the current financial year.

As per the guidelines of the NREGS and as interpreted by the officials concerned under the scheme, employment cannot be given to any person for more than 100 days in a year.

Now, despite the fact that sufficient funds are available under the NREGS for carrying out development works in the said villages, the money cannot be spent as there is no labour available.

As per the NREGS guidelines, 60 per cent component of the total budget has to paid to hired labour. Only 40 per cent of the total budget can be spent for purchasing material.

The Block Development Office (BDO), Dharamsala, also informed the minister that though ample funds were available under the NREGS they could not be spent unless there was ample labour available in the villages.

The BDO also said the power to decide the usage of funds under the NREGS had also been vested with the panchayats. Unless the panchayats moved a resolution for a particular work, the budget under the NREGS could not be spent.

The minister has directed the district administration to look for alternative options to carry out development works.

Dharamsala, December 30
To counter the ruling party’s propaganda regarding their achievements in first year of its rule, the Congress has formed a chargesheet committee under Baijnath MLA Sudhir Sharma.

The committee would visit all villages to collect data regarding possible misrule of the present government. Congress spokesperson Kewal Singh Pathania and Sudhir Sharma gave this information while addressing a press conference here today.

The Congress leaders alleged that the first year of the BJP rule had been marked with transfers, ouster of candidates selected against government jobs by the previous government and victimisation of Congress workers.

In the present year the ruling party had affected thousands of transfers against their own transfer policy. The affected employees approached the state administrative tribunal against the transfers and were granted stay.

However, despite the fact that the BJP in its election manifesto had promised to raise permanent benches of administrative tribunal at Kangra and Mandi, their government abolished the administrative tribunal.

The employees of lower areas are now being forced to travel to Shimla for contesting their cases in the high court.

The Congress leaders said they would seek information under the RTI Act regarding the transfers. The previous government had recruited 13,000 teachers in various government schools.

The Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) were given the right to select teachers, as they were most concerned about the quality of education being imparted to their wards. However, the present government ousted most of the PTA teachers.

Kullu, December 30
The BJP leaders in this district have nothing to claim for celebrations at the completion of one-year of the BJP government in Himachal Pradesh; however, the claims of development these leaders were claiming looked to be ridiculous.

Dalip Bisht, district Congress spokesperson, said here that Chief Minister PK Dhumal has inaugurated all those establishments in this district started by the previous Congress government.

He said whether that was the second phase of the regional hospital or the Dev Sadan in Kullu the works were the initiations of the Virbhadra government.

He said the government in power had the prerogative to inaugurate the completed works, but claiming those works to be their achievement was to fool the people.

He said the Congress Party questions the local leaders to name “one” work that had been started in Kullu during the past one-year of the BJP.

The Congress press release said here today that the present state government had gifted the people of the state “decrease in quota in the fair price shops; increase in bus fares; PTA teachers oppression; transfer of specialist doctors from Kullu and schools without teachers.”

The Congress lamented that the poor have been put to more difficulties and the BJP leaders were celebrating the “so called achievements”.

The press release further alleged that all the three MLAs of Kullu had done nothing for the district.

It claimed that the tenders’ date of the Banjar-Bathad, Manglore-Thatibeer and Jibhi-Gadagusheni roads have expired and nothing could be done.

Mandi, December 30
Taking the Congressmen head-on, member of the media advisory committee Praveen Sharma today denied the allegations levelled against Health Minister Rajiv Bindal that he was “selling” medicine from the factory as he neither owned any such factory nor he has done anything to promote the sale of such drugs in the state.

In a press statement Praveen Sharma ridiculed the statement of the Congressmen, including district president Puran Thakur and media spokesperson Chander Sekhar, as they have no basis in making wild allegations against the minister stating that it was figment of their imagination.

He stated that the Congressmen have no issue and they are hitting below the belt. The minister does not own any factory in his name and there is no question that he was selling or promoting the medicines or other products through the government-run PHCs and CHCs as reported in the media.

Hamirpur, December 30
A two-day national-level conference on emerging trends in computing and communication began here today.

The conference is being organised by the Computer Science and Engineering Department of the NIT.

This conference was inaugurated by NIT director IK Bhatt by lighting a lamp. US patent consultant Sanjeev K Singh, general manager of the BSNL SL Singh, Registrar of the NIT, Hamirpur, AL Sharma were the guests of honour on the occasion.

Bhatt talked about latest developments in engineering and technology and urged the young engineers to undertake research in emerging areas so that technology could be used for the welfare of masses.

He also stressed upon the need of using technology for the uplift of the deprived sections of society.

Talking about community development programmes, he said 65 faculty development
workshops, training programmes for tribal development and 16 workshops on
technical education awareness had been organised in tribal areas of Pangi,
Lahaul and Kinnaur.

The first keynote talk was delivered by SL Singh. He spoke on emerging communication technology in India and gave an overview of technological developments in India. Sanjeev K Singh talked on intellectual property rights.

Earlier, Lalit Awasthi welcomed the guests and apprised the gathering about new trends in computing and communication. Kamlesh Dutta thanked the participants.

Experts from various IITs, NITs, ISRO and other research institutions are participating in the conference.