Dharamsala, November 11
Sleepy town of Dharamsala was abuzz with activities today on the day of verdict on Aman Kachroo’s case, who was ragged to death at Dr Rajender Prasad Medical College at Tanda.

People who were not related to the case were also present on the court premises to witness the judgment and the courtroom too was jam-packed.

Friends and batch mates of the four accused present in the court refused to comment on the verdict, in which all four accused were found guilty, but students and the administration of the medical college were open with their reactions.

Sanjeev Chaudhary, officiating principal of the Tanda medical college, said before the quantum of punishment was announced, “Nobody is above law and whatever the decision comes is accepted.”

“Lot of changes have been noticed among the students after the Kachroo incident. They have become more sincere and have been working hard to take the college’s name to new heights with their achievements,” Chaudhary added.

Students on the other hand had mixed feelings over the whole incident. Aman Kachroo’s batch mates remember him as a quite student.

A final-year student and Aman’s batch mate, said, “We have mixed feelings. We feel bad for Aman and his family but we also sympathise with our seniors who have been found guilty in the case.”

The students agreed that after the Kachroo’s case no ragging case had been witnessed and rapport between seniors and juniors was very cordial.

Akshay Sharma, a second-year student said, “The incident was unfortunate on the part of the students, the college and the country. A medical student (a future doctor) died because of the negligence of seniors and out of something which was done for fun.”

Another second year student agreed to his friend’s comments and added that the system was also somewhere responsible for the incident as it failed to completely curb the menace.

The mood of the college was peaceful. Everybody has been working hard to maintain the reputation of the college, maintained the administration and the students.

Dharamsala, November 11
All the four accused in Aman Satya Kachroo ragging death case were today sentenced to 4 years rigorous imprisonment by additional district and sessions judge Dharamsala. This sentence has brought to end the budding careers of the students who made it to the Tanda medical college after competing through tough Pre Medical Test (PMT).

Ajay Verma, one of the students convicted in the case, was to pass out from the college within a period of 4 months. A resident of Hamirpur, his father Dharam Chand is working in a multinational company in Delhi. The family had aspired their son to be a doctor. However, all that has gone down the drain when a wanton act of beating up the first year student, Aman Kachroo, on the pretext of ragging ended in his death.

Abhnav Verma, another convict, was a IInd year student and son of Dr DK Verma, a surgeon and head of Department in Indira Gandhi Medical College at Shimla. He was also a brilliant student before he got involved in the incident along with two other classmates and Ajay Verma, his senior. While in Dharamsala jail for the last 16 months, he has completed two diplomas in women rights and disaster management through distance education courses of IGNOU.

Another convict, Navin Kumar Verma, also a IInd year student of the college, is the son of a retired headmaster from Bilaspur of Himachal Pradesh. Hailing from a backward area, the parents were proud of their son’s entry to the medical college, despite tough competition and limited seats. However, today they were left concerned over the future of their son.

Mukul Sharma, a IInd year student, who has also been convicted, is the son of a serving headmaster in a government school. His parents, like the rest of them, had high hopes, which were now dashed. Mukul, it is said, was swayed into ragging at the behest of his classmates and seniors.

The parents of the accused kept a low profile and refrained from making any statements to media.

Shimla, November 11
Accusing the Dhumal government of making frequent changes in the power policy to oblige private companies, state Congress president Kaul Singh today demanded a white paper on the amendments made over the last three years along with the reasons for doing so.

He also announced that after coming to power, the Congress would revive the state administrative tribunal and the state human rights commission, which were scrapped by the present regime.

Addressing his first press conference after taking over the reins of the party for a second term, Kaul Singh said Chief Minister PK Dhumal had realised that the BJP would be wiped out in the next assembly poll and he was selling off the state’s vital economic assets and interest in a haste. The decision taken by the state Cabinet two days ago to give up the “first right to refusal” and allow independent power producers to sell the entire power to anyone, was the latest in this regard. The decision was surprising as the government had itself been projecting shortfall in the availability of power in future and pitching for thermal generation to the tune of 1500 MW.

The power purchase agreements already signed, were being raised to give a free hand to even those companies to sell power to anyone, which were bound to supply it to the state electricity board at the rate of Rs 2.87 per unit determined by the state electricity regulator. The government had been changing policy for extraneous reasons and only a white paper would bring out the factual position.

The BJP, which raised much hue and cry over the Ski Village Project and alleged that it would dilute Section 118 of the Land Reforms and Tenancy Act, had virtually made a mockery of law by opening floodgates for the outsiders. It had not recovered even the lease money from power companies to which land had been allotted, and the Jaypee Industries owed several crores of rupees to the government.

Shimla, November 11
The Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) will offer special discount ranging from 20 to 30 per cent at all its 57 hotels in the state from November 15 to April, 8.

Vineet Kumar,Managing Director of HPTDC, said the Corporation was also making attractive packages for Christmas and New Year between December 23 to January 2. “The special discounts will however not be available between this period around New Year but attractive packages will be offered to the tourists,” he said.

He said the discounts would however vary from hotel to hotel and the details would be available on the website of HPTDC. He added that the tourists could also avail instant reservation facilities on hotels and transport services.

Shimla, November 11
The Union Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned a sum of Rs 6 crore for infrastructure development in the historical town of Paonta Sahib associated with the 10th Sikh Guru - Guru Gobind Singh as part of its mega circuit development scheme for two states.

It was two days back that the Tourism Department of the state received the sanction from the Centre for creation of better tourism facilities in the town, famous for the historic shrine of the Sikhs. The money has been sanctioned for the contiguous areas of Paonta Saheb in Himachal Pradesh and Yamunanagar in Haryana, as part of the mega circuit development.

Sources informed, though the state Tourism department had urged the Centre to include Renuka, Saketi Fossil Park and Nahan area under the project, the Union ministry specifically approved the amount of Rs six crore for Paonta Sahib. The money is likely to be spent on creation of parking facilities, parks, roundabouts and better roads.

It was in the memory of the 10th Sikh Guru - Guru Gobind Singh that the Gurdwara of Paonta Sahib was built. It is believed that it was during his stay here that the Dasam Granth was written by the revered Sikh Guru. It is because of this fact, that the Gurdwara enjoys high historic and religious importance among the followers of the Sikh religion across the world.

Infact, the town is visited by Sikh pilgrims from all over the world, especially on festivals. The existing facilities arev said to be inadequate, keeping in view tourist inflow into the town which can now be given a facelift with the Rs six-crore grant from the Centre. Though a sum of Rs five crore was spent on the Nahan-Saketi-Renuka circuit in 2004 as part of circuit development, even now a lot reamins to be done.

The religious shrine of Renuka , located near a lake is also a famous tourist destination visited by many tourists from Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh.

Besides, the Fossil Park at Saketi, located on the border of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, is also a place with a lot of fossils, but has failed to come up due to the absence of basic infrastruture.

Infact , Saketi is one of the few sites which has been publicised by the state Tourism Department for setting up of a big project, including a film city, as a vast expanse of land is available at the place.

Shimla, November 11
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned Rs 82.48 crore to the state for the creation of rural infrastructure under the tranche-XVI for the year 2010-11.

With this, the aggregate sanctions during the year have gone up to Rs 290.92 crore. The funds have been sanctioned for the construction of a major rural water supply project and 16 other water supply projects and four flood protection works.

The major project is located in Bilaspur district for source augmentation of various water supply schemes in the Bilaspur Sadar, Ghumarwin and Jhandutta blocks. It will benefit 93,967 residents in 180 villages. The project has an outlay of Rs 50.24 crore and the Bank assistance will be Rs 45.22 crore.

The 16 other projects include three gravity water supply schemes and 13 lift water supply schemes in Hamirpur, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi and Solan. The total outlay is Rs 17.50 crore and bank assistance is Rs 15.75 crore. In all 61,803 residents will be benefited by these projects.

The four flood protection projects in Hamirpur, Kangra, Solan and Una include the Swan River Flood Management and Land Development Phase II. The total outlay is Rs 22.63 crore and 15000 hectares of land will be protected.

The banks, till date, have sanctioned Rs 2,982 crore under all tranches of RIDF to the state out of which Rs 1841.47 crore has already been disbursed.

The sanctioned projects cover 1,472 irrigation projects, 762 rural roads projects, 218 bridges, 118 watershed projects, 40 flood protection works, 1,213 primary school buildings, 64 science laboratories in schools, 25 IT projects, 530 rural drinking water schemes, 397 animal husbandry centres and hospitals, 16500 poly houses with related minor irrigation structures and more than 20000 hectares of micro irrigation structures.

Dharamsala, November 11
The Himalayan Open Paragliding Championship was declared open by Ramesh Dhawala, Food and Civil Supplies Minister at Billing, in Kangra district today.

While talking to mediapersons, the minister said more such paragliding sites needed to be identified in the state in order to boost the adventure sports activities and provide an opportunity of self-employment to the local youth.

He said the Department of Youth Services and Sports and Tourism should work together to promote such games in the state, which would not only attract the sports lovers and also provide employment to the local population.

He said there was a need to look into the safety aspects of the championship and appealed the pilots not to fly after consuming intoxicants. He said, “The state has been encouraging adventure sports and apart from paragliding, water sports, skiing and aero-sports will also be promoted to make the state a hub of such sports.”

Earlier, JR Katwal, director of Youth Services and Sports, welcomed the minister and detailed the itinerary of the championship. He said 130 participants were taking part in the contest adding that it was for the first time that the novice category was being given an opportunity to participate in the championship so as to improve and polish their skills and make them competent to participate at the national and international level.

The Sub-Divisional Magistrate and other officials of the state government and from the Aero Club of India were also present on the occasion.

Solan, November 11
The police claims to have solved a case of looting which had taken place on June 19 where a jeweller, SK Sood, a resident of Waknaghat, was tied up and cash and valuables worth several lakhs were looted from his house.

While talking to mediapersons today, SP Hardesh Bisht said it was confessions made by members of a gang whom they had arrested a few days back that led to solving the case.

The police had also made some recoveries from Pawan, Gopal and Naresh who had been arrested earlier. A Safari that was recovered from Pawan from his Burail-based rented accommodation was bought from the Rs 12 lakh which were looted from Sood’s house. Though other valuables, including gold worth Rs 4 lakh and silver, were also taken away, the police managed to recover 400 gm of gold from the gang till now.

The SP said whatever was looted was shared among the gang members after the crime. The police was working on to recover other valuables and it was known that gold was sold off to a jeweller at Baldora in the Sarkaghat area of Mandi district.