Shimla, March 14
The police has issued a high alert in the districts of Mandi, Sirmaur, Chamba and Kullu considering their vulnerability in view of the regrouping of militant organisations like the Babbar Khalsa, the Hizbul Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The state police has been alerted by the Central Intelligence Agencies to step up vigil in areas, which can be used by Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir-based militant organisations that are trying to regroup themselves. There have been incidents in the recent past, especially in the districts of Kangra and Sirmaur, which indicated that militants from the Hizbul Mujahideen and the Babbar Khalsa are active in the area.

It is after receiving directive from the Centre that the state police has asked the deputy commissioners (DC) and the superintendents of police (SP) of these four districts to step up vigil against any suspicious character who can be involved in terrorist activities.

Even though senior police officials rule out the possibility of militants striking in the state, they admit that the hill state could be used as a safe haven whenever security agencies and the Army builds up pressure and intensifies its combing operations in Jammu and Kashmir. In fact, Chamba district shares a boundary of over 240 km with militancy-infested state of Jammu and Kashmir and militants have always used the higher reaches and abandoned “kothas” of the Gujjars for seeking refuge, during the summer months.

The arrest of two Hizbul Mujahideen militants from Kangra district had sounded alarm bells for security agencies in the state as the arrested terrorists were highly dreaded and wanted by the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

Similarly, activists and sympathisers of the Babbar Khalsa had been active in the state. They had even put up some posters in the Paonta Sahib area of Sirmaur district.

In fact, the issue of a possible threat on account of regrouping of militant outfits had come up for discussion during a meeting on “Intelligence and Security” of eight Northern states here last month. Senior police officials from Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh had discussed the issue and it was decided to have a rapid information sharing system as a precautionary measure against the regrouping of militants. The 240 km border that Chamba shares with Jammu and Kashmir is guarded by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Himachal Pradesh Armed Police. 

Bilaspur, March 14
The police of Shah Talai has arrested six persons for allegedly smuggling khair wood from the Kot Dhar area today.Those arrested include, the driver Ajit Singh of Bharadi, Ashwini, Tarsem, Jai Dev, Ram Chand and Sanjay Kumar from Kothi village.

Reports said the police party, led by ASI Pradip Kumar, barricaded the Kainchi Mode-Bhagatpur area.

When the van, bearing the registration number HP -23B-5143, did not stop, the police chased it and recovered 17 logs of khair wood. Later, it was found that they had cut four khair trees in the jungle to convert in to these 17 logs, which would cost Rs 22,000.

The police has registered a case under Sections 41,42 of the Indian Forests Act and Section 379 of the IPC.

The wood and the van have been confiscated.

The police is investigating the matter.

Shimla, March 14
Coming down heavily on the government for opening the floodgates for “substandard” and “useless” private universities, Leader of the Opposition Vidya Stokes today warned that the state would soon be bracketed with states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, infamous for easy |availability of “fake degrees” rather than quality education.

Initiating a debate on the general budget in the Vidhan Sabha, she said these institutions neither had qualified faculty nor enough students to justify their existence. The faculty members were being paid a pittance as salary and when they demanded a hike they were told to bring students to the institution, which reflected the sorry state of affairs. The people of the state would get “fake degrees” on their doorstep. The policy of undermining the government institutions and promoting private institutions at their cost was fraught with danger and the ultimate sufferer would be the students.

She took the government to task for alleging discrimination by the UPA regime and said the fact was that the state was not able to spend the funds being given by the Centre. The government had been presenting surplus budget which made it evident that it was flush with the Central funds. Further, it could spend only about Rs 600 crore under the MNREGA for which the Centre had sanctioned Rs 1,000 crore. Moreover, funds provided under the JNURM for providing housing facilities for the poor in Shimla had been diverted to Sundernagar and Sarkaghat. Instead of diverting funds, the government should had formulated a separate scheme if it was so keen for the project at these two places.

The budget had hardly any finds for development and if one takes out the provision made for maintenance, leakages and misuse the net availability came down to just 15 per cent. The government had failed to exploit the power potential and projects were being delayed because of lack of monitoring and only Rs 450 crore had been earmarked for power.

Suresh Bhardwaj (BJP) attacked the Centre for giving a raw deal to the state in expansion of rail network. While no new project had been included, the budget for the Nangal-Talwara link, which was to be completed by 2008, had been curtailed. Despite the adverse recommendations of the 13th Financial Commission which would affect successive governments in the state, the Chief Minister had managed to present a balanced budget and tried to provide some relief to every section. 

Shimla, March 14
While the government has enacted laws to set up 11 private universities in the state, only two of them fulfil the eligibility criteria laid down by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and have been recognised so far.

As per latest list of the UGC, there are 77 registered private universities out of which nine are in Himachal.

However, only the Jaypee University of Information and Technology and the Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences (SUBMS) have been recognised by the UGC.

The UGC put the list on the web after complaints that the state private universities had affiliated colleges off campuses and were running centres on franchising basis surfaced. The started off-campus centres were in violation of the Act and the judgment of the Supreme Court.

Rajasthan has 16 private universities followed by Uttar Pradesh which has 11. Himachal has set up 11 private universities but only 9 have been registered with the UGC and two have been recognised.

The seven registered, but not reconciled, universities include Chitkara University, Eternal University, Indus International University, Arni University, Manav Bharti University, Baddi University of Emerging Science & Technology and the Maharishi Markandeshwar University. These universities have even not supplied the information sought by the UGC for inspection. 

Bilaspur, March 14
The Naina Devi Mandal Congress Committee has criticised officials of the IPH for not providing clean drinking water to several areas of the constituency.

According to the committee, the department has ignored the requests of the people of several villages to repair the hand pumps, pumping out dirty and polluted water.

Addressing mediapersons at the circuit house here today, president of the committee, Sarpal Singh Thakur and the district general secretary of the Congress Ram Saran Thakur, said the party had started “Jan Jagran Abhiyan” in the constituency. They claimed to have found that the only hand pump at Kothipura was pumping dirty, and polluted water, which the people were being forced to consume. They feared that consuming this water might spread epidemics in the summers.

He also showed a bottle of polluted water from this hand pump and said people of the area had drawn attention to the issue but no action. He said such was also the condition of several hand pumps at other areas.

Shimla, March 14
The Congress has alleged that the government was favouring the cement companies at the cost of the Himachalis, due to which it was being sold at a higher rate than the neighbouring states.

Minister of the Food and Civil Supplies Ramesh Dhawala faced a volley of questions in the Vidhan Sabha on the issue as the members of the Opposition refused to accept his plea that the government had no control over prices of cement.

Mukesh Agnihotri (Congress) alleged that the government had regularised the land acquired by Jaypee Company and was giving funds for organising T-20 cricket tournaments in the state but was selling cement at a higher rate.

Kaul Singh (Congress) said the government had enough power to make the cement companies fall in line but the state government was not taking the required steps to control the situation. He said the government should convene a meeting of the companies, to which Dhawala agreed.

Earlier, replying to the question of Roop Singh (BJP), Dhawala said cement was being sold at Rs 280 to Rs 310 per bag by various companies. The prices were decided by the companies after taking into account the cost of production, freight, local taxes and marketing strategy.

Replying to a question, minister of public works Gulab Singh said out of the 794 roads being constructed at a cost of Rs 1,708 crore, work on 156 roads was held up due to forest clearance and on another 53 because of the non-willingness of local people to make the land available free of cost.

The government had deposited Rs 46.6 crore as net present value for 525 roads, while an amount of Rs 12 crore was yet to be paid in rusticity of 269 roads. The government had prepared a Rs 1,000 crore plan for metalling the roads but the Centre had asked the state to obtain forest clearance.

In a written reply, he informed the House that eight tunnels were being planned to reduce the distance between Bangan-Dhaneta, Bhubhujot, Holi-Uttrala, Kainchi Mor-Mailla, Ranital and Kharapathar. A tunnel from the Himfed petrol pump-IGMC was also being planned to reduce the traffic congestion in Shimla. 

Shimla, March 14
Made wiser by endless delays, deviations and legal wrangles in the construction of bus stands on build operate and transfer (BOT) basis, the government has come out with an improved flexible model to ensure timely construction of such projects in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

Under the new model, the promoter will also design the project in accordance with the building norms, like FAR (floor area ratio) and ground coverage, prescribed by the Town and Country Planning Department for different towns. However, while taking advantage of the flexibility in respect of design, the promoter will have to ensure that the bus stand portion of the project is completed first and made functional within a year. The commercial portion can come up later.

Bids will be invited soon by the Himachal Bus Stands Management and Development Authority for construction of seven bus stands on the new DBOT (design build operate and transfer) mode at Hamirpur, Una, Parwanoo, Manali, Baddi, Chintpurni and Dhalli in the first phase. The main reason for selecting these towns in the first phase is that land is already available for the purpose and work can be started straightaway, says Bharat Khera, chief executive officer of the authority.

The projects are being taken up on the basis of financial viability studies conducted by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited, which was assigned the task of preparing feasibility reports for 10 projects taking into consideration the commercial utilisation of space. The concession period for the projects will be 25 and 30 years depending on the viability and projects will be awarded to party which offers the highest amount as the annual concession fee.

In all, the authority planned to construct 22 bus stands but it was forced to adopt the PPP mode as the government did not had funds for the purpose.

The seven projects alone will involve an investment of over Rs 110 crore which is a huge amount to invest. As the financial viability will depend on the commercial space, the promoters will be able to design viable location-specific projects to make the best use of the site.

Bilaspur, March 14
Several social organisations and senior citizens have opposed the relocation of the sub post office from the Raura sector to the industrial area. According to them, the decision was taken without the 
opinion of any public representative or the nagar parishad.

The post office has been moved as the Postal Department felt that the current location was not generating revenues. The post office will be shifted to the new location by March 23.

The All-Party Bhakra Oustees Rights Protection Committee, nagar vikas sabha and the nagar parishad have said under such circumstances, several post offices should be shifted or closed. They said there was no guarantee that shifting the post office would be able to generate more income.

The senior citizens said this post office was crowded due to the shortage of staff. Several pensioners, telephone bill consumers, depositors, and other postal service users have been benefiting from this post office at the current location.

They said instead of shifting the post office, the services should have been strengthened. They said the Postal Department was misled to believe that this shifting would enhance revenues.

Mandi, March 14
The Forest Department today suspended range officer, Bali Chowki, Daleep Kumar; block officer, Thatchi, Sham Lal; and beat guard Duni Chand in the 448 deodar sleepers’ seizure case registered by the Vigilance last month.

The department took this action after an inquiry ordered into the case found that more than 35 trees were cut down illegally in the forest range. The Vigilance had seized over 448 deodar sleepers and the Forest Department and the police later swung into action and seized more than 100 sleepers from the area.

Though two officials have been transferred from the range, Sham Lal retired from service.

Conservator of Forest, Mandi, CB Panda said the principal chief conservator of forests had put the three officials under suspension. They were found negligent in their duties as illicit felling took place in the forest range under their nose. Even the retired official would be chargesheeted in the case, he added.

The preliminary departmental inquiry found lapses on the part of the three field officials, he added.

He said a charge sheet would be prepared with the help of the Vigilance which had seized the illicit timber from the area and arrested 12 persons in that connection. The charge sheet would be ready within 10 days, he added.

SP, Vigilance, Mandi range, Virender Sharma said they had seized all records of the department and were examining the documents.

“The department negligence has been found as they have not filed the damage report in the case so far,” he added.

Solan, March 14
With the drug controller banning six drugs, including paediatric use of analgesic nimesulide suspension and four other drugs, pharmaceutical manufacturers, in a bid to keep their popular brand names intact, were seeking product approvals for the same brands by introducing minor changes in its ingredients.

While the move would have helped manufacturers to sell the stock of their banned products, drug controller Navneet Marwaha has refused all such applications.

Marwaha said he could not create confusion in the market by introducing similar products with minor changes in its ingredients at a time when the banned drugs were in the process of being withdrawn.

Directions had been given to the manufacturers to introduce new brand names in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Drug Controller General of India.

As an added measure, the manufacturers had been directed to submit a clearance report, apart from affidavits, by making a search on the Government of India’s site so that undue litigation on similar brand names could be checked. Since the state drug licensing authorities were yet to be connected online with the central drug licensing authority, such controversies were rampant.

Marwaha had also directed the drug manufacturers to ensure immediate withdrawal of the banned drugs and the direction to bear the warning, “not for children below 12 years” on the drug nimesulide.

Marwaha, who convened an urgent meeting of the Himachal Drug Manufacturers’ Association comprising manufacturers from across the state and licensing authorities of Dharamsala and Solan recently at Baddi, also directed the manufacturers to ensure compliance of schedule so as to ensure quality drug manufacture.

HDMA president Sanjay Guleria said they had also requested the drug controller not to issue fixed drug combination (FDC) approvals to manufacturers who were not members of either the HDMA or the CIPI for 294 FDCs as the Madras High Court had granted its approval to them.

Shimla, March 14
The national convener of the BJP Frontal Organisations, Mahender Pandey, said the BJP would launch a public awareness campaign at constituency-level against issues like corruption, price rise and black money.

He was speaking at a meeting of the heads and senior functionaries of various cells like the BJP Mahila Morcha, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and other cells here today.

Pandey said national as well as state leaders would take part in the “padyatras” and rallies that would be taken out as a part of the campaign so that the common man could be made aware about these issues.

He said various cells of the party, including women and youth, had a very important role to play in shaping the future of the party and the state. “You all have a big responsibility to shoulder and if you do good work it will be clearly reflected and the party will stand to gain,” he remarked.

Pandey said the national BJP president, Nitin Gadkari, was giving a lot of importance to all party cells so that they were able to play an important role in strengthening the party. “It is with this very objective in mind that the party chief is organising workshops and seminars for the party workers so that they are well prepared for Mission-2014,” he remarked.

Shimla, March 14
The State Electricity Board Employees Union opposed the contemplative move of the government to reconstitute the board of directors (BoD) of the State Transmission Utility.The union stated that in the existing BoD, there were two directors from HPSEB Limited being 40 per cent equity partner in the company and remaining 60 per cent equity was owned by the government.

The union pointed out that 146 posts of different categories and assets like buildings and lines worth over Rs 250 crore had been transferred from HPSEBL to the STU. The value of the assets could be adjusted against the equity contribution of HPSEBL.

Moreover, as per the restructuring scheme, HPSEBL was the cadre controlling authority in respect of all personnel working in the STU and the State Transmission Plan could not be implemented without having any coordination it.

The union urged the Chief Minister to ensure that there was no change in the present composition of the STU and the changes might hamper the interest of HPSEBL and its employees for long run.