Shimla, April 30
Important cooperative institutions, which receive lakhs of rupees every year from various resources, have been indulging in gross misuse of funds in connivance with government officials.

One such glaring instance of persistent misuse of funds has been revealed by information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act in respect of the Una District Cooperative Society Development Federation.

The government has been providing funds to it for carrying out its mandate of imparting education, training and undertaking other promotional activities to raise awareness about cooperative movement.

However, information furnished by assistant registrar of cooperative societies (public information officer), Una, in response to the RTI application of DS Thakur, no educational, training and other promotional activities were performed by the district federation and the bulk of funds provided for the purpose had been paid as salary of a particular employee. Out of the total expenditure of Rs 8.57 lakh during the 2006-08 period, as much as Rs 7 lakh was spent on establishment, with secretary of the federation drawing about Rs 6 lakh as salary, the major beneficiary.

Interestingly, the salary of secretary of cooperative development federations in other districts compared to Una is too meagre. For instance, secretaries in Solan, Hamirpur and Una are drawing only Rs 500, Rs 1,800 and Rs 4,200 per month, respectively. However, in Una, the salary was Rs 26,520 per month as revealed by RTI information for June 2008.

Thakur, who himself remained chairperson of the state cooperative federation, maintains that it amounted to misappropriation of funds as under rule 56 of the State Cooperative Societies Act, no cooperative society can employ any official with a total monthly salary exceeding Rs 1,000 without prior approval of the registrar. Even promotion of an employee is deemed as an appointment under the rule.

On receiving complaints in this regard, Chief Minister PK Dhumal ordered an inquiry in July 2009 and the report was to be submitted within 10 days. However, the inquiry official took more than eight months to complete the job and yet overlooked the important inconvenient facts for which he had to use the RTI channel. 

Dharamsala, April 30
The two-day “Thanks Himachal” event being organised by the Tibetan government-in-exile began this morning amid mixed feelings of mutual appreciation and respect among the locals and Tibetan leaders in exile. The Tibetan authorities besides Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and local minister had taken care to call local leaders and prominent persons to be part of the event.

The Dalai Lama touched the chord with locals by stating he considered himself more of a Himachali or Indian rather than a Tibetan. “I have spent two third of my life in Himachal. I was five-year-old when I first arrived at Lhasa. At 16 I was declared as the temporal head of Tibet. At 24, I lost my freedom due to Chinese aggression and had to flee. After arriving in India in 1959, I first remained for a year in Mussoorie and then on April 30 next year I moved to Dharamsala. I today completed 50 years of stay at Dharamsala.” He thanked the local people for their cooperation with Tibetans living in exile.

Dalai Lama, however, appealed to especially the younger Tibetans to show respect towards the locals who have been hospitable to them for such a long period. ‘I have been receiving reports that the old Tibetans were very polite but the younger lot is more aggressive,’ he said.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal described the Dalai Lama as living inspiration of Buddha religion in recent times. He said that the presence of the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala has brought international respect and identity to region. Tibet and India are related historically and culturally, he said.

He also expressed the hope that the Dalai Lama would achieve the goal that he has been striving for in a peaceful manner for the last more than 50 years.

On reference from the Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche, the Chief Minister assured to take care of the problems of Tibetans living in exile within the constitutional framework.

Rinpoche while speaking on the occasion said there were 35824 Tibetans in exile living in 14 colonies across the state. The Tibetan government-in-exile is running 18 schools in which 9644 children are enrolled.

Artists from the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) presented a cultural programme on the occasion. The Dalai Lama honoured the Chief Minister by presenting him a Thanka painting.

Dharamsala, April 30
Going to the US is a dream of many Indians. However, at Dharamsala, the local police is grappling to handle a US citizen who is not ready to move out of India.

The police, on information from locals about two months ago, had arrested one Russel Copan from the Dharamkot area, 2 km from McLeodganj. Russel had been staying here for the past seven years. Not only his visa, but the US passport had also expired.

The police presented him in the local court which ordered his deportation. After the court orders, Russel became the guest of the police till he was to be deported.

The police informed US embassy officials who came here early this month. However, according to sources, Russel refused to sign the papers that could have helped the embassy officials in his deportation and issuing him a new US passport. The embassy officials have not returned ever since.

The police had housed Russel in the police lines along with two constables who were keeping vigil over him. However, Russel escaped from the police lines this morning.

Russel rang up this correspondent and said he would never go back to the US. “I have been living in India for the past seven years and have the claim to become a citizen of India. Tell the police that I would never go back,” he said and hung up the phone.

Kangra SP Atul Fulzele, when contacted, admitted that Russel had escaped from the police lines. He, however, added that legally he could not be kept in custody now.

Later, in the evening, the police sources here told that Russel has been apprehended in Mandi district. He is likely to be brought back to Dharamsala. The sources here also added that Russel was getting financial support from his girlfriend in Israel.

Earlier, Russel had been doing chores in small guest houses in McLeodganj and Dharamsala area to eke out a living. Since he was living in the area for the past seven years, Russel was well acquainted with locals and Tibetans living in exile.

However, the fact that he was over staying his visa was disclosed to the police by some of the foreigners whom he had befriended in the recent past.

Now, it is for the police to play gracious host to a US citizen who does not want to return to his native country.

Dharamsala, April 30
Litigants and members of the District Bar Association today came face to face at the court of divisional commissioner, Kangra. The members of the Bar have been protesting against divisional commissioner Omkar Sharma and demanding his transfer for the past many days.

Today, when they reached his office, raising slogans against him, a surprise awaited them. The litigants, mostly women, decided to counter the Bar members. The women litigants started raising slogans in favour of the divisional commissioner. Sensing the situation, the Bar members slowly slipped away from the scene.

The women litigants praised the divisional commissioner for expediting the hearing of their revenue cases that was hanging in fire since long.

The members of the Dharamsala Bar have been demanding that as per the earlier practice, the divisional commissioner should hold his court in the afternoon session, after 2 pm, as they were busy in judicial courts before that.

However, the divisional commissioner maintained that his decision was in favour of litigants, who come from far-flung areas.

The divisional commissioner had taken a decision to hold courts at the sub-division levels at various places. This had further annoyed advocates, who were losing business.

However, the litigants welcomed the move as they were getting justice on their doorsteps.

Shimla, April 30
Stepping up the attack on the IPL issue, Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh raised a demand for making public complete details of income and expenditure of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) for the past 10 years along with particulars of the members enrolled.

He also urged the Centre to enact a legislation to ensure transparency and accountability in the functioning of the sports bodies and prevent scope for money laundering as was being alleged in the case of the IPL.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said the Lalit Modi-IPL nexus had raised a host of issues with which the HPCA was intricately linked. A commercial body like the HPCA could not be allotted government land so that it could raise funds from private companies. If the government wanted to build sports infrastructure by raising donations from private companies, it should have set up sports development fund rather than facilitating flow of private funds to private body like the HPCA which had been virtually reduced to a captive family organisation, he said.

The Dhumal government was trying to mislead people over the issue of the IPL matches by alleging that the Congress was against the development of Dharamsala. However, the party was demanding a probe into “total affairs” of the HPCA and not confined to utilisation Rs 3 crore doled out by the government, he said.

He reiterated that the money was initially given to the HPCA but when the Congress raised the matter, the government took the stand that it was demanded by the deputy commissioner for infrastructural works. The plea seemed illogical as the infrastructure could not be developed overnight.

As far as the development of Dharamsala was concerned, it was the Congress which had set up various zonal offices, Vidhan Sabha secretariat, school board of education, Tanda medical college and other important institutions in the area whereas the concern of the BJP was limited to the IPL matches, he added. 

Shimla, April 30
Investigations into the theft of century-old bell from the Viceregal Lodge here has indicated that a gang of inter-state smugglers, eyeing valuable antiques adorning old temples and ancient Buddhist monasteries in Himachal, is very active as these artefacts can fetch big money in the international market.

The Shimla police has sought the assistance of the Varanasi police to trace one such person, who has been in touch with several people from Himachal who can help him acquire such valuables.

The Shimla police, through the Varanasi DIG, has requested that the suspect be produced here before May 5 and his premises be searched for the bell or any other antique stolen from the state.

It was on the basis of a telephonic conversation between some of the suspects that the police came to know that they had been eyeing a similar bell in the Bijli Mahadev temple in Kullu.

“The theft of the bell here took place after they did not succeed in a similar plan in Bijli Mahadev, which indicates that the smugglers could be eyeing some other antiques,” confirmed SSP RM Sharma.

He added that antique dealers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi were not only in touch with locals here, but had also made huge investments to lay their hands on the artefacts, viewed as possible pot of gold.

Shamshad, a GRP personnel from Mughal Serai, on the border of Uttar Pradesh-Bihar, confessed to the police that he had already invested Rs 10 lakh to get such antiques with the hope of making huge profit in the international market.

It was the telephonic conversation between a head constable deputed for the Dalai Lama’s security at Dharamsala and a resident of Palampur that gave the police vital information about a possible gang of antique smugglers having international links.

The suspect, a Varanasi-based dealer, was in touch with a few persons hailing from Ghannati, Dharamsala and Nalagarh in Himachal to smuggle such idols and artefacts for international sale.

The head constable, who is now being questioned by the police in connection with the bell theft, had given Rs 1 lakh to someone to find him an East India Company note, which he believed could fetch him crores. There are many others like him who are into such illegal gamble.

Even though the police is still clueless about the mysterious disappearance of the huge 35 kg bell that adorned the campus of the Viceregal Lodge, now known as the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, investigations have confirmed that such artefacts were vulnerable to thefts planned by smugglers.

Solan, April 30
Even as the government vows to address the cause of labour problem every year on the occasion of International Labour Day, little appears to be translated in reality, leaving much to be desired.

The Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area, which houses almost 70 per cent of the state’s industries, saw a huge influx of labourers after the 2003 central industrial package. Foremost was the problem of housing which these labourers faced. Paid a minimum of Rs 3,300, a majority of them failed to find decent accommodation and were compelled to share rooms at exorbitant prices of Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 per month. Lacking any sanitation, the shanty rooms added to the pollution, making habitation an unhygienic proposition for this class.

Subsequent governments have failed to do much for these labourers. Though two labour hostels had been planned since 2005, apart from availability of land, nothing has been done in the past seven years.

With centrally sponsored scheme MNREGA making 100 days of employment available to the migrant labour from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, their shortage has sharply hit the industries. This has given rise to proliferation of labour contractors, quite a few of whom are unregistered, who take advantage of the situation and the labourers fail to be paid ESI and PF benefits.

Though labour officer PS Verma explains that since migrant labourers work on short-term basis, they refuse deductions for PF and ESI after the MNREGA ensured availability of work in their parent state. However, this has indirectly encouraged the investors to engage such labourers often than required.

MR Chandel of the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, while ruing this unhealthy problem of contract labour, said this led to exploitation of workers.

It was interesting to note that though the subsequent governments have been professing that the incentives of a unit violating the mandatory clause of employing 70 per cent Himachali would be curtailed, not one such case has come to the fore. It was also interesting to note that though the government had been claming that lakhs of youth had found employment in the industries, the number was a mere 16.46 per cent of the proposed employment generated till March this year.

Though nine units were found violating this norm in 2008, they were let off after paper formalities.