Shimla, July 19
People of the state will feel the pinch of the high inflation rate all the more with the State Electricity Regulatory Commission increasing the electricity charges for domestic consumers by a significant 12 per cent. The overall average increase for all the categories comes to 9 per cent.

The tariff has been raised for the second consecutive year; last year the charges were increased by 30 per cent.

The hike will impact all domestic consumers, including the BPL families, which will now be entitled to subsidy only on 40 units instead of 50 units.

Unlike the past, the commission has announced the tariff without the government subsidy and as such the actual implication will be known only after the government announces the quantum of subsidy. The BPL tariff has been increased from Rs 1.80 to Rs 2.10 per unit and for other consumers the number of tariff slabs have been increased from two to four. The new per unit rates for other domestic consumers are: Rs 2.35 (up to 40 units), Rs 2.50 (41 to 125 units), Rs 3.45 (126 to 250 units) and Rs 3.50 (above 250 units). Earlier, there were only two slabs of Rs 2.20 (0-150 units) and Rs 3.45 (151 units and above). The rate from pre-paid consumers has been hiked from Rs 2.20 to Rs 2.50.

The consumer service charges have been increased from Rs 25 to Rs 30 per month per consumer.

However, for BPL consumers the total consumer charges have been pegged at Rs 10 per month. The charges for the non-domestic, non-commercial and commercial categories, streetlighting and small industry (0-20 kW) have been left unchanged.

For small and medium industry (20-100 kW) the charges have been raised from Rs 3.05 to Rs 3.30 and for the EHT supply up to 300 kVA from Rs 2.60 to Rs 2.85 and above 300 kVA from Rs 2.80 to Rs 3.25. Similarly, for the HT supply up to 300 kVA, the rates have been hiked from Rs 2.80 to Rs 3.05 and above 300 kVA from Rs 3 to Rs 3.25. In case of bulk supply, the charges for the HT supply go up from Rs 3.15 to Rs 3.50 and for the EHT supply from Rs 3.05 to Rs 3.35. The demand charges and customer service charges have also been increased for these categories.

The increase will fetch an additional revenue of Rs 227 crore to the distribution company. Chairman of the commission Subhash Negi said the increase of over Rs 200 crore on purchase of power and another Rs 200 crore in employees’ cost due to pay revision left no alternative but to revise the rates upwards.

Shimla, July 19
The rains this year have so far been 8 per cent less than the previous year and the government is keeping complete preparedness to ensure that in case of a “threatening situation”, there is prompt action.

As per the data complied by the Met office, the rains up to July 19 have been 242.4 mm whereas in case of a normal monsoon, it should have touched 264.8 mm. Even though the rains have not been uniform, as certain districts like Sirmaur have received excess rains while the tribal area of Lahaul and Spiti is far deficient, overall it is expected that the monsoon this year will be normal.

Barring last year, when Himachal received 13 per cent excess rains, during all previous years since 2005, the rains have been less than normal. As compared to 242.4 mm rainfall received so far, last year the state had received 305.4 mm of rainfall by July 19, which was 12 per cent higher than normal.

“We are expecting normal rains this year even though there could be variation from district to district which is the case always,” said Manmohan Singh, Director of the local Met centre.

While Sirmaur district has received 766.6 mm rainfall, which is 71 per cent higher than normal, Lahaul and Spiti has received 27.4 per cent which is 81 per cent less than normal.

“The rains normally follow a very erratic pattern as even last year it rained heavily towards the fag end of September; so we are keeping complete preparedness,” said Sunil Chaudhary, Deputy Commissioner, Kinnaur.

He added that two days ago the water level of the Sutlej rose two metres above normal but that was more on account of glacial melting and not heavy rains.

He said so far no alert had been sounded in Kinnaur district as this is done only once the water level was four metres above normal.

“However we are coordinating with the Police, Public Works, Revenue and IPH departments and control rooms under the SDMs have been set up in the three subdivisions of Pooh, Reckong Peo and Bhavanagar,” said Chaudhary.

The district administration is in constant touch with the authorities at the Nathpa Jhakri and Karcham Wangtoo power projects, whose dams help check flooding by regulating the flow.

Last year the state had received the heaviest rainfall during the past six years as it received 8,751.1 mm which was 13 per cent in excess. The monsoon period is counted from June 1 to September 30.

Hamirpur, July 19
The Hamirpur district health authorities have sought an explanation from the staff found absent at the Regional Hospital, Hamirpur, during an inspection conducted by the Joint Director, Health, Dr DS Chandel, yesterday.

However, the Himachal Pradesh Health Department Federation has denied the report of the staff having been found absent.

Acting on the Joint Director’s directions, Dr CP Verma, Senior Medical Superintendent, Regional Hospital, Hamirpur, has sought an explanation from the 24 staff members found absent during the inspection.

Confirming this, Dr Verma said, “The hospital has issued notices to the staff members for remaining absent from duty and has asked them to explain their position.”

Meanwhile, the Himachal Pradesh Health Department Federation has taken exception to the report regarding the absence of staff from duty and has accused the Joint Director of “acting with ill-will” towards a section of the hospital staff.

In a press note issued here today, vice-president of the federation Anil Soni said, “Most of the staff members marked absent by the Joint Director were on leave or were doing shift duties.”

Shimla, July 19
With 12 private universities already functioning in the state and letters of intent (LoIs) having been issued for eight more institutions, the tiny hill state will have more than 25 universities if all goes as planned.

However, Education Minister Ishwar Das Dhiman said no new universities would be opened in the districts which already had one and only Kullu and Mandi had been left out where no LoI had been given. The maximum number of eight private universities, including the Jaypee University of Information and Technology (JPUIT), set up earlier, were in Solan. Kangra district had two and Una and Sirmaur one each. He said in all 19 LoIs had been given for setting up private universities of which four had been issued by the previous Congress regime.

Besides, there were four state government universities and a central university in the state. He conceded that no survey was carried out to ascertain the requirement of private universities in the state. However, to justify the decision to open private universities, he cited the statement of Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal that the country needed over 50,000 colleges and 1,000 universities to raise the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) from the existing 18 to 25 per cent by 2016-17.

He said the government had already enacted a law for setting up a regularly commission to oversee the functioning of private institutions which would start functioning shortly.

Already some steps had been taken to streamline the functioning of the universities and these had been asked to put the bio-data and photographs of the faculty on their websites along with the names of students enrolled till date. These steps would certainly help in ensuring transparency in the functioning of the universities, he added.

Bilaspur, July 19
The Himachal Pradesh State Beopar Mandal has expressed satisfaction over the decision of the government to not implement the proposal to impose 5 per cent VAT on cloth and also the decision to remove the already imposed 5 per cent VAT on ready-made garments, which was being charged since the day VAT was imposed in the state years ago.

In a statement to mediapersons here today, State Beopar Mandal president OP Saini (Nahan), state vice-presidents Janak Raj Sharma (Kullu), Dev Dutt Gupta (Chamba), Navin Chand Sood (Palampur-Kangra) and Lala Rattan Chand (Hamirpur) thanked Chief Minister PK Dhumal and said the decision had proved the sensitivity of the government to the difficulties of shopkeepers and consumers, who would have certainly suffered due to this tax imposition.

Meanwhile, district Cloth Merchants Association general secretary Jagdish Katoch said a meeting of the association under the chairmanship of Gita Ram Sharma here today adopted a resolution thanking the government.

Dharamsala, July 19
The Congress has written to Governor Urmila Singh on the decision of the state government to close down 126 primary schools in Kangra district.

HPCC delegate Kewal Singh Pathania, in a representation to the Governor, has alleged that students in far-flung areas of the district were likely to leave schools due to the government decision.

In the Shahpur constituency, students in Kalroo, Patada and Nagreta villages will now have to travel 3 to 4 km to attend primary schools, he alleged.

Pathania said since the Union Government was giving liberal grants under the Sarv Siksha Abhiyan, there was no need to close down the schools.

The Deputy Director, Primary Education, Kangra, said primary schools which had less than 10 students had been closed down. There were 48 schools which had been closed down, due to which children would have to travel 2 to 3 km to attend schools. In such cases, the government had decided to give a special scholarship to such students so that their travelling expenses could be met.

In 49 schools, the “establishment” of the schools had been “put under other schools”, while the students would keep on attending classes in the same premises. The survey to identify the schools having less than 10 students was conducted about three months ago.

“However, since then parents from seven schools have contacted us with a plea that the schools have now mustered a strength of over 10 students and hence these should not be closed down. In such cases, the decision to close down the schools may be reviewed,” the Deputy Director said.

Shimla, July 19
The state HC has called for a report from Vivek Sharma, Judicial Magistrate, Dalhousie, for refusing to grant police custody to Tilak Raj, who has been allegedly involved in forgery of the panchayat records and got himself appointed as panchayat secretary and releasing him on bail on the same day.

The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice VK Ahuja also directed to call for the records of the case immediately and to put it up on the administrative side.

The matter was brought to the notice of the court when the accused had appealed against the orders of the Single judge, Justice Surjit Singh, whereby his appeal against the orders of the Sub-Divisional Collector, Bhattiyat at Chowari, was dismissed. The Sub-Divisional Collector had held that it was Surinder Singh and not Tilak Raj, who had been recommended to be appointed as the panchayat secretary by the panchayat.

Earlier, Justice Surjit had held that the register of the panchayat containing resolutions was tempered with and two sheets were inserted in it by removing the original sheets supposed to contain resolution regarding the appointment of the assistant secretary of the panchayat.

The court took it as a serious matter of tempering with the public records by an elected body performing both administrative and quasi judicial functions and directed the Chamba SP to look into the matter and submit a detailed report after probe.

Pursuant to the orders of the HC, a FIR was registered against Tilak and he was arrested on March 3, 2011, and he was produced before the Judicial Magistrate on March 4, but granted bail on the same day.

The court also directed the BDO, Chowari (Chamba) to submit the report regarding further action taken against the accused on the receipt of report from the investigating officer.

Dharamsala, July 19
The Una police is yet to get permission from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to prosecute the accused in the Karmapa currency case under the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA).

Sources told The Tribune that the police might file a charge sheet against the accused in court sans FCRA Sections.

Earlier, the Una police had registered a case under the FCRA against the accused in the case without taking permission from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. Police officials probing the case had maintained that they would seek permission from the Union Ministry later.

They had also written to the officials concerned of the ministry seeking permission for levelling charges under the FCRA against the accused in the Karmapa case.

According to the provisions of the FCRA, only an officer authorised by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs through a notification can probe charges levelled under the said Act.

Una SP Sumedha admitted that till date permission to prosecute the accused in the case under the FCRA had not been received. She, however, said the charges under the FCRA could be added later when the permission was received.

The police had registered a case under the FCRA as the accused had stated that Rs 6 crore recovered from the Karmapa monastery was collected through contributions from their foreign followers.

However, the Karmapa trust did not have permission to accept foreign contributions under the FCRA.

The SP said the challan in the Karmapa currency case was likely to be filed soon.

The Una police had registered a case in the matter on January 26 this year after the recovery of Rs 1 crore in cash from a vehicle of the Dharamsala-based businessman KP Baradwaj.

The money pertained to the sale of land belonging to certain residents of Dharamsala, including Baradwaj, who were selling their land to the Karma Garchen Trust, headed by the 17th Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorjee. In the follow-up raids, the police recovered Rs 6 crore in 25 foreign currencies from the Gyato Tantric Monastery in which the Karmapa has been staying since he came to Dharamsala in 2000.

The sources said the police was likely to build its case against the accused on the plea that they made illegal mony transactions. The transactions on account of selling land to the Karma Garchen Trust could not have been carried out till the state government gave permission to the institution for buying the land. The police might also question the legality of the Karma Garchen Trust.

The sources said some of the partners who were selling land had sent notices to the Karma Garchen Trust for annulling the land deal between them.