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Virbhadra’s statement
‘BJP indulging in false propaganda’
Price Rise |
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Projects caught in land dispute
Jain defends Kashyap in CD case
CII for greening industry
Major Issues
Tourist flow up by 17 pc
BJP men burn Virbhadra’s effigy
RTI reveals fraud in bridge construction
CID focuses on TV channel
‘Release DC’s cars’
Anurag defends hotel project
1 killed in accident
‘Utilise plan funds fully’
Training camp for rural youth
Prabha Rau leaves for Jaipur
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Fissures in state Cong come to fore
Lalit Mohan Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, January 23 Kaul Singh, the present state president of the Congress, who is a strong contender for the post, has the support of Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Vidya Stokes. Kaul Singh, who is seven-time Congress MLA, is likely to emerge strong in the state in case he is elected as state president, the sources added. Earlier, he was nominated as the state president by the party high command. However, thereafter, Kaul Singh has been at the receiving end from a section of Virbhadra Singh supporters. He got an unruly reception from Virbhadra Singh’s supporters during the election campaign for the Rohru byelection. However, when contacted, Kaul Singh chose to give a measured reaction to strong criticism he faced from the former Union Minister. “I am more interested in fighting the BJP over the issue of corruption rather than fighting my own party men. Virbhadra Singh might have given the statement in a fit of rage,” he said. Virbhadra Singh had also alleged in his reported statement that CLP leader Vidya Stokes had gone soft on the government probably due to her age. Though Stokes was not available for comments, her supporters alleged that there was not much age difference between both the senior leaders. However, the Virbhadra Singh camp wanted to replace Kaul Singh. They are supporting various names including Harsh Mahajan, former Congress MLA from Chamba, Chander Kumar, former Congress MP from Kangra who is also being projected as an OBC leader, and Gangu Ram Musafir as state presidents. The recent aggressive attitude adopted by Virbhadra Singh indicates that he was trying to go all ends out to retain his hold over the state Congress. This means that the forthcoming organisation elections for the state body of the Congress might witness pitched battle between pro and anti Virbhadra Singh camps. The sources also told The Tribune that the Congress high command wanted to strengthen the party in lower areas of the state. So, the next president of the party could also be from lower areas. A section of the Congress is also for bringing back Vijay Singh Mankotia to strengthen the party in Kangra district.
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‘BJP indulging in false propaganda’
Shimla, January 23 Addressing a press conference here today, he said the main factor behind price rise was hoarding and profit making by big dealers and it was the responsibility of the state government to invoke provisions of laws like the Essential Commodities Act to check such unscrupulous traders. Raids conducted in Uttar Pradesh and other states had unearthed huge stocks of sugar and other commodities. He said he wanted to know how many raids had been conducted against big wholesalers in Himachal Pradesh and what action had been taken to curb hoarding. He said as a Chief Minister, he had introduced a novel scheme under which every ration card holder, including above poverty line (APL) families, were given subsidised ration, which included three pulses. It was not based on foodgrain supplied by the Centre. The entire stock was purchased from open market at lowest possible rates in bulk and supplied after giving further subsidy. The scheme was virtually on the verge of collapse under the BJP regime which not only substituted pulses but had been blaming the Centre for not giving enough quota, he added. The charge that the state was being discriminated in the matter of allocation of funds by the Centre was politically motivated as it was receiving a special dispensation being a special category state. If the state did not get funds from the state, it would not be able to pay the salaries of employees, he added. Chief Minister PK Dhumal had no vision and he had been pursuing short-sighted populist policies which invariably boomeranged. During his last term, he promised to regularise encroachments which encouraged people to occupy a large chunk of forest land. Trees were cut overnight and the parties concerned submitted affidavits that they were in possession of land. Since forest land could not be regularised, these people were now embroiled in encroachment cases from which they were finding it difficult to wriggle out, he said. |
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Left flays Centre, state govt
Tribune News Service
Mandi, January 23 On the one hand, the price rise had pushed majority of countrymen, including farmers and labourers, to starvation, bankruptacy and suicidal deaths, on the other, the minuscule minority of big companies was becoming richer day by day at the cost of suffering majority, they further charged. CPM leaders VK Raghvan and Rakesh Singh and the CPI leaders Amarjit Kaur and Des Raj declared war against the rising prices of commodities, urging people to see through the double-face of the Congress and the BJP which have done nothing to check the price rise. National CPI secretary Amarjit Kaur quoted the report of the Arjun Sengupta Commission on the state of poverty in the country, which was never presented in Parliament. At least 87 crore people, 77 per cent of the population, still make their living by a paltry income of Rs 20 per day, another 41crore people earn Rs 14 a day and 20 crore people earn just Rs 9 per day and in contrast the world’s first top four billionaires are in India”, she added. Kaur held the big multinational companies responsible for rising inflation, alleging that they controlled 80 per cent of the foodgrains trade, creating false scarcity and demands to make maximum profits. “The government says there is no money as it has to pay interest on borrowings. But there seems to be no will to keep check on the black money amd huge tax evasion worth billions of rupees, which are getting multiplied every year,” she stressed. Kaur said despite being rich with resources, the liberalisation polices had pushed majority of farmers and common man to starvation and suicidal tendencies. India survived world’s worst recession just because the Left initiated programmes like NREGA and kept ventral hold on economy, she added. Over the CD issue, Singha charged both the BJP and the Congress with diverting public attention from the real issue of price rise and unemployment. The BJP had increased the bus fares, hospital and electricity charges and chopper charges for the tribals and now it was shedding crocodile tears on the issue of price rise, he added. Singha said children were not getting the mid-day meal in schools.
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Projects caught in land dispute
Solan, January 23 Now, with work on both projects getting initiated, a dispute has arisen about who owes the right to use the land. While the Industries Department had, after much effort, managed to seek Rs 10.5 crore under the Assistance to States for Infrastructure Development of Exports Scheme from the Centre in December, 2008, the HP Drug Manufacturers’ Association (HDMA) had, in October last year, got possession of the conventional hall existing on the same land for setting up a skill development institute from the Industry Department. It is worth mentioning that the Industry Department was developing the said land and the HDMA was in the process of erecting a gate and setting up the requisite infrastructure when the dispute arose today. It was a visit by P Mitra, Principal Secretary, Industries, that the issue was discussed threadbare at a meeting held with the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industrial Development Authority (BBNDA). While the Centre has already released Rs 5.4 crore as its first instalment, the funds would lapse if not put to use soon. The department had already wasted a year after receipt of funds as little had been done till date. The department was caught in a fix and it was after seeing the drawings of the trade centre that they realised that the conventional hall, where the institute was suppose to come up, was the key area of their trade centre and it could not be spared for the institute. The land in question was still vested with the Industries Department and the BBNDA had, some time back, written to the HDMA about how it had begun work in the conventional hall when a trade centre was supposed to come up on it. |
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Jain defends Kashyap in CD case
Shimla, January 23 “There is a world of difference in the cases of Bangaru Lakshman, Suresh Chandel (both of whom were caught in camera accepting bribe) and Kashyap. While Chandel was an MP, action was taken against Laxman as the persons who committed the sting operation came forward and owned it. In contrast, the video CD was allegedly shot on April 17, 2009 and Kashyap had not even filed his nomination for the Lok Sabha poll till then, he told mediapersons at a press conference here today. He said Kashyap was only an individual at that time and as such he was not covered under the Prevention of
Corruption Act. He saw the Congress hand behind the triple CD conspiracy and said Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh, who took no action in the matter as Chief Minister, had been trying to weaken the case against him all through. A former Congress minister Vijay Singh Mankotia released the CD on May 28,2007, but the Virbhadra Singh regime took no action on it till December 30,2007, when he lost power. In fact, a Congress party office-bearer approached the high court with a plea that BJP leaders be refrained from playing it. He said it appeared to be another attempt to influence investigations into the case as copies of these CDs had not only been sent to the Governor and the Chief Justice of the high court but also to the judge handling the case. Jain made it clear that a CID inquiry had been ordered into the two audio CDs and further action in the matter would be taken only after it was completed. Those behind the CD conspiracy would be exposed and brought to book. However, Congress leaders were demanding that a case be registered on the basis of unclaimed and unauthenticated CDs. He said it was strange that Virbhadra Singh had chosen to make the state police officer who recommended that a case be registered against him as his private secretary on becoming the Union minister. Not only that he had also served a legal notice to file defamation case against the DGP, vigilance, which in effect amounted to a threat. |
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CII for greening industry
Solan, January 23 The proposal was submitted at a CII interaction with the state government officials where at least 45 industry delegates participated. Removing the impeding barriers towards building a greener Himachal, additional chief secretary Sarojini Thakur mooted a bench mark for the industries to help the state achieve its goals of being carbon neutral and in turn creating more jobs and also help develop infrastructure for health. Emphasising on cluster approach, wherein specific sectors will be identified in all major industrial areas, she said an action plan would be formulated for enhancing efficiencies in energy conservation, waste management, water conservation which would contribute in monetary as well as in ecological terms. Aimed at being as an eye opener to the current scenario on climate challenge, Seema Arora, principal councillor and head, CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development, proposed specific activity areas to help the government and industry which included carbon dioxide emission quantification and disclosure to make real and rapid progress towards carbon positive status. Focusing on the areas of intervention, she highlighted the need for environmental compliances, waste management, pollution prevention, energy management and water management which could help benefit the industries in creating a positive image and hence reduced monitoring by regulatory agencies. This would in turn improve the efficiency of the industry by saving costs. |
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Inept handling by Cong annoys Virbhadra
Rakesh Lohumi Tribune News Service
Shimla, January 23 The five-time chief minister is unhappy with the performance of the ‘meek leadership’, particularly within the Vdhan Sabha, which failed to corner the government on various issues. “The party has, indeed, failed to effectively discharge its responsibility, despite requisite numerical strength which earned the party recognition in the Vidhan Sabha. The BJP government would not have dared to victimise common workers if the leadership had adopted an aggressive posture and stood by them,” he told The Tribune. However, he conceded that the party had been prompt in taking up the triple CD case. He said he was not critical of any particular leader but being part and parcel of the party he felt sorry for the workers who were a demoralised lot. The most recent instance is the transfer of the woman employee who has been transferred 340 km away within days of the death of her husband. The only crime she committed was that her son Yadupati, leader of the NSUI, had organised a protest against the government in Mandi. The only way out to make the party vibrant was to ensure a free and fair organisational poll so that a leader who enjoyed popular support was elected as the new PCC chief. For this the membership list had to be scrutinised thoroughly as there were complaints of manipulations, including instances of photos in the general electoral rolls being pasted on the list. When asked about the triple CD pack, which surfaced recently, he said the conversation involving the chief minister and the DGP, vigilance, had only confirmed his charge that phones of Congress leaders were being illegally tapped. Going by the approach adopted in the ‘unclaimed’ CD released by Vijay Mankotia, an FIR should be registered immediately. He said in one of the audio CDs, Dhumal had stated that his phone was tapped by Shanta Kumar which was ‘unimaginable’ as a veteran leader, who had maintained a high standards of decency all through, could not stoop so low. Moreover, what mattered was who ultimately used the CD to drive political mileage.
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Tourist flow up by 17 pc
Shimla, January 23 In the year 2008, 93,72,697 domestic and 3,76,736 foreign tourists visited the state. The percentage increase in the foreign tourists was more than 6 per cent which is quite significant in view of the fact that the country had witnessed a negative growth in the tourist arrivals in the year 2009 on account of global recession and outbreak of swine flu. Sharma said endeavours of the state government was to open up lesser-known destinations in all districts by developing requisite infrastructure. The state was poised to witness a boom in the hitherto unexploited sectors of rural tourism in the wake of rural development initiatives taken in the shape of poly house cultivation, organic farming, micro irrigation and optimum utilisation of available raw material. He said the home stay scheme was being marketed more aggressively and more tourists were expected to visit the state. Apart from rural tourists, the state was poised to take a leap forward in education, tourism, medical tourism, heritage and geo-heritage tourism. Promotion of adventure sports and measures taken to counter the ill-effects of global warming and environment degradations would soon make the classification of hotels totally redundant, he added. He said some of the new initiatives started in the capital had evoked enthusiastic response from citizens of Shimla. This effort to involve all stakeholders in the historical and built up heritage would open new vistas for promoting tourism. The Tourism Department was coming up with a quiz-based on facts concerning history and culture of the state capital soon. “Har Ghar Kuchh Kahta”, was a project for each habitant of the city and anyone willing to be associated as citizen editor of the coffee table book, could get in touch with the department, he added. |
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BJP men burn Virbhadra’s effigy
Hamirpur, January 23 Reports of burning of the effigy have also come from Toani Devi and Sujanpur. The BJP activists assembled at the Gandhi chowk at Hamirpur this morning and burnt the effigy, raising slogans against Congress leaders. Those present on the occasion were Mandal BJP president Adarsh Kant, general secretary Bidhi Chand, BJYM leader Narinder Attri, Nagar Parishad member Vijay Pal Soharu
and other. They accused the Congress for allegedly making attempt to tarnish the image of top leaders of the BJP through “doctored” CDs released recently to divert the attention of people from the good work done by the Dhumal government. |
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RTI reveals fraud in bridge construction
Mandi, January 23 Though the police registered a case of cheating and forgery under Sections 420, 467, 471 of IPC today on the complaint, it has yet to nab
the culprits. According to RTI applicant Dhan Dev, a resident of Khalagwar, he had sought information under the RTI Act on construction of bridge and kuhal constructed between October 8, 2008, to October 31, 2008. The RTI information revealed that 10 persons had been shown as executing the work within 20 days. The RTI further revealed that these persons were paid Rs 20,450. Similarly, a kuhal was also constructed for which no persons were shown in the muster rolls. However, a sum of Rs 20,450 was shown as paid fraudulently. The RTI applicant charged that both works were executed fraudulently and money was cornered by influential persons. He lodged an FIR at the Paddar police station today and demanded an action against the culprits. The Mandi SP stated that a case had been registered. |
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CID focuses on TV channel
Solan, January 23 Interestingly, a Parwanoo-based reporter, who was working with the channel at the time of its recording in April last year, was detained and interrogated for hours today. CID officials chose to remain tight lipped and no information was shared with the media on the progress in this high-profile investigation. A special team of officials had been constituted and was directed not to divulge any information at any level to the media. Since the case involves important personalities like the Chief Minister, DGP of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau and an MP, top secrecy is being maintained in its investigations. Local MLA and minister Dr Rajiv Bindal is supervising the investigations. It is learnt that the CD recording had taken place at a Solan hotel. Earlier, the youth figuring in the CD was picked up from Dehradun. The search is on to locate the female who featured in the video. Highly placed sources, however, said they were yet to get to the bottom of the whole conspiracy and various angles were being explored which would take into account how the triple CD pack reached media offices and other key political personalities. |
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‘Release DC’s cars’
Bilaspur, January 23 This was said in a press release issued by the office of the Deputy Commissioner here today. The High Court has also ordered stay on orders of the lower court and has given a notice to Jeet Ram for March 9 in this case for further hearing of the matter. |
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Anurag defends hotel project
Dharamsala, January 23
A five-star hotel was primary requirement for organising international cricket matches at Dharamsala. The HPCA had spent about Rs 50 crore on the Dharamsala Cricket Stadium. Now we cannot allow it go waste just because of the fact that there is no five-star hotel in its vicinity. He said during the forthcoming IPL matches being held from April 16 to 18, the HPCA required over 650 rooms in Dharamsala. This would mean that almost all hotels in the city were likely to be booked. Besides, 23,000 tickets for the matches were likely to be sold and that would mean none hotel in the region was likely to remain vacant. In the proposed hotel project, the international company would build 80 rooms in just three months time period. |
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1 killed in accident
Bilaspur, January 23
He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital but he succumbed to the injuries there. The police has registered a case in this regard. In another incident, a woman, Gorkhi Devi, was seriously injured when she was attacked by a wild boar while she was cutting grass in her fields in Kharsi village last evening. The boar attacked the woman repeatedly and left her seriously injured. Listening to her cries for help, villagers came to her rescue. With serious injuries on her head, legs and arms, she was immediately rushed to Regional Hospital here. Her condition is stated to be stable.
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‘Utilise plan funds fully’
Shimla, January 23
She further directed to cover up shortfalls, if any, in the remaining period of this year. She said the review process should start in time so that timely action could be taken to cover up the shortfall. She also directed to utilise the funds under the Central Assistance Schemes in time so that further funds were released by the government of India. She also asked the departments to monitor implementation of plan schemes frequently.
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Training camp for rural youth
Bilaspur, January 23 District youth coordinator Som Dutt Zard said here today that this training would be imparted free of cost by the kendra in three phases. While the first phase of seven days would start on January 25, the second phase of eight days would begin in the first week of February and third phase of 15 days would begin in the last week of February. The kendra is presently selecting youths for training for which contact can be made with him in the kendra district office at Youth hostel at Jabbali near here. This training is being imparted under the scheme of “Youth leadership and personality development project”. |
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Prabha Rau leaves for Jaipur Shimla, January 23 She was given a warm send-off at a public ceremony held at the Raj Bhawan. She was also given a guard of honour on the occasion. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, Speaker Tulsi Ram, ministers and leader of opposition Vidya Stokes, MLAs, judges of the high court, chairpersons of various commissions, chief secretary Asha Swaroop, Lt-Gen A.S. Lamba, GOC-in-C, army training command (ARTRAC), additional chief secretaries, senior civil and police officers were present on the occasion. The new Governor Urmila Singh will arrive tomorrow and take oath on January 25. |
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Shimla, January 23
