Dharamsala, November 19
High prices of cement in the state, despite the heavy presence of cement industries, has become a rallying point for the dissident faction of the state BJP.

Minister for Industries Kishan Kapoor, who is a Shanta Kumar loyalist, has already unilaterally given a deadline to cement companies in the state to reduce cement prices in Himachal by November 21.

Highly placed sources here told The Tribune that the minister had based his demand for reduction in cement prices in the state on a strong rational.

The minister maintained that a Central commission formed for the calculation of cement prices in the country had estimated the production cost of 50-kg cement bag at Rs 136.

With the current price index, the cost of production of a 50-kg cement bag for the industry in Himachal comes to about 150, the minister maintained in a communication to the cement industry.

He said despite all kinds of taxation, the cement industry was making exorbitant profit at the cost of the common man.

Kapoor said a 50-kg cement bag was being sold in the state at rates ranging from Rs 330 to Rs 350 per bag, whereas in Punjab it cost Rs 25 to Rs 50 cheaper than in Himachal.

In a communication to cement industry representatives, he maintained that a leading cement company was selling its 50-kg cement bags produced in Madhya Pradesh at a cost of Rs 227 per bag in Faridabad district of Haryana. However, it was selling its cement bags produced from its plants in Solan district at a cost of Rs 300 or more even in adjoining areas of the state.

He has asked the cement industry to reduce the prices of cement in the state to at least at par or lower than the adjoining state of Punjab.

The sources told The Tribune that cement industries had responded to the threat of the minister by offering to reduce the prices of 50-kg cement bags in the state by Rs 5 per bag.

Kapoor, who was in Delhi today, admitted that cement company officials had offered to reduce the prices by Rs 5 per bag.

He, however, said such a marginal decrease in the price was not acceptable to the government, adding that the issue had already been raised in the state Assembly. The entire Assembly was in favour of reduction in cement prices.

He also added that the state government was providing about Rs 300 crore subsidy in terms of excise duty waiver and Rs 39 crore as transport subsidy to the state cement industry. Besides, the cement industry was getting cheaper power.

In turn, state residents should at least get cheaper cement, he alleged.

The cement industry has, however, maintained that the high cost of cement bags in the state was due to high transportation costs. They alleged that truck unions were charging exorbitant tariff from the cement industry that had to be ultimately transferred to consumers.

Solan, November 19
Union Minister Virbhadra Singh today attacked the BJP for the rising corruption in the state and said land mafia was active and prime land was being sold off for a song to outsiders.

Addressing a series of rallies at Nainidhar, Naya Panjhor, Gattadhar and Dharva in the Renuka constituency, the Union Minister said all developmental works had come to a standstill and the condition of roads was deplorable. Health services were suffering and despite a grant of budget worth crores, the state government had failed to spend it on developmental activities. He said the state government had closed 735 schools and this was indicative of their anti-people stance.

He said the largescale corruption prevailing in the state was clear from the fact that some BJP MLAs had opened a front against their own government by constituting a Bhrashtachar Mukti Morcha.

Receiving an overwhelming support from the public in his rallies, the Union Minister said the byelections would set the mood for the party’s victory in the Vidhan Sabha elections of 2012.

Mandi, November 19
Reaction here to former Telecom Minister Sukh Ram’s conviction in a 15-year-old corruption case has followed predictable lines. His “diehard fraternity of fans” described his conviction as a “political conspiracy to discredit his telecom revolution in Himachal” and his detractors welcomed the conviction and demanded Sukh Ram’s alleged ill-gotten property be confiscated.

“Sukh Ram developed Mandi town and the district,” claimed Kundan Thakur from Kotli. “He is the father of telecom revolution the in the state and the country. He is the only leader who opposed cement plants and advocated promotion of pollution-free industries in Himachal Pradesh,” he argued passionately.

Thakur claimed his conviction was a result of a “well-orchestrated conspiracy hatched by his detractors in league with certain industrialists” to finish him off politically. “They could not digest the telecom revolution,” claimed Thakur, a former district Congress president.

On the other hand, the convener of HP RTI Bureau, Mandi, Lawan Thakur alleged, “We hail the judgment. We have requested Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to suspend him and the government should seize his ill-gotten property.”

President, Mandi Traders Union, Ashok Kapur said, “Sukh Ram set up the Indira Market in this town and took telecom services to villages in the state. The man from Mandi reached the national stage and his conviction is unfortunate at 85 years of age.”

Many in the ruling BJP still dine with the “grand old Panditji” whenever they get an opportunity to do so, in Mandi or outside. Certain BJP men in the state regard Sukh Ram as their “political guru” as it was he who had launched them into politics and helped form the BJP-HVC coalition government that lasted its for full five years. Current Chief Minister PK Dhumal also owes a lot to ‘Panditji’ for successfully heading the first full-term BJP government in Himachal Pradesh.

For the Congress, however, Sukh Ram’s conviction is an “albatross round its neck” as Sukh Ram still retains some links with the party and his son Anil Sharma is a Congress MLA from Mandi Sadar.

“The conviction is bound to affect the anti-corruption campaign against the ruling BJP,” said an HPU teacher requesting anonymity.

BJP spokesperson Ganesh Dutt said, “His conviction has proved that the Congress has a culture of corruption and none other than Sukh Ram has charged that he is a victim of a political conspiracy hatched by some partymen.”

A CBI court judge in Delhi today sentenced Sukh Ram to five years’ jail and imposed a fine of Rs 4 lakh. Sukh Ram will have to spend time in jail as the sentence is more than three years and will have to appeal to the higher court next week,” said legal experts here.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal pays floral tributes to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the Ridge in Shimla on Saturday. A Tribune photograph

Devotional and patriotic songs were sung to mark the day. AN Sharma, Commissioner, local Municipal Corporation, and Onkar Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, were also present on the occasion.

Blood donation camp held

KANGRA: Fiftyone Youth Congress workers donated blood on the occasion of the National Integration Day coinciding with the 94th birth anniversary of Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India, at Shahpur, today.

The workers were led by the former NSUI state chief Kewal Singh Pathania. Pathania said nearly 200 Youth Congress workers today took an oath to contribute to national integration and serve society in the right perspective.

On the occasion floral tributes were paid to Indira Gandhi and speakers highlighted her contribution to the national reconstruction and integration. Her courage, vision and dynamism were also highlighted.

Youth leaders said Indira Gandhi believed to be a modern nation, India had to make special efforts to see that all those sections of the society who had not enjoyed the opportunities of development and progress should be helped.

Panchayat offers homage

BILASPUR: The Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan, led by its district president and former MLA Babu Ram Gauttam, remembered former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her birth anniversary at Ghaghas, near here, today and paid floral tributes to her in the presence of a large number of panchayat representatives gathered from all parts of district.

Dr Gauttam said the first woman Prime Minister of India would always be remembered in history as the “Iron Lady” who took such daring, drastic and path-breaking decisions like the abolition of privy purses of former princely states, nationalisation of banks, abolition of the ageold exploitation poor villagers though “sahukari system” prevalent in villages, historic victory in the India-Pak war, formation of Bangladesh, launch of “Garibi Hatao” programme and initiation of 20-point programme and atom bomb explosion etc which gave a new dimension to the growth of Indian economy and boost to the nation’s prestige in the world.

A large number of prominent Congress leaders, including Zila Parishad member Basant Ram Sandhu, former Bilaspur Nagar Parishad president Gopal Sharma, Nagar Parishad member Birdeen, Bilaspur Sadar Youth Congress president Baldev Thakur and panchayat presidents, vice-presidents and members were present. 

Shimla, November 19
HPCC chief Kaul Singh Thakur today assigned election duties for the two byelections in Renuka and Nalagarh to party legislators and other senior leaders to ensure the victory of Congress nominees.

He has directed all the leaders to start campaign by November 21 and get in touch with Gangu Ram Musafir, in charge for Renuka, and Sujan Singh Pathania, for Nalagarh, at the earliest.

Those who have been asked to campaign in Nalagarh include party MLAs GS Bali, Mukesh Agnihotri, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Yog Raj, Rajesh Dharmani, Rakesh Kalia and Sudhir Sharma, former minister Brij Bihari Lal Butail, former MLAs Sohan Lal and Biru Ram Kishore and other leaders, including Ajay Mahajan, Vinod Sultanpuri and Ram Kumar.

Those who have been entrusted the responsibility of the Renuka seat includes nine MLAs Surinder Bhardwaj, Anil Sharma, Prakash Chaudhary, Kush Parmar, Subhash Manglet, Sohan Lal, Nand Lal, Nikhil Rajour and Neeraj Bharti and party leaders Harsh Mahajan and Satya Parmar.

Solan,November 19
Two Congress leaders, general secretary of the DCC, Sirmaur, Amar Singh (47) and Ghuman Singh (44), were killed when the Wagon R (HP-17-2333) by which they were travelling rolled down into a 250-ft gorge near Gumrah village near Ronhat in Sirmaur district around 5:30 pm this evening.

Police officials said both were killed on the spot. The bodies were later taken to the local hospital at Shillai where doctors declared them brought dead.

The accident took place when they heading for an election rally at Koti-Bonch after a series of rallies of Union Minister Virbhadra Singh at Nainidhar, Naya Panjhor and Dharva today.

The Union Minister, who was campaigning for the second day in Renuka constituency, later cancelled the two other rallies and expressed shock and grief at the sudden death of the party leaders. — OC

Nurpur, November 19
A broad daylight theft was committed in a house at Bassa Waziran, near here, today. According to information, house owner Rajinder Kalia and his wife had come at Nurpur for shopping. When they returned home they found the lock of the entrance gate broken.

On entering the house, they found their bedroom and store ransacked. Thieves had decamped with gold and silver jewellery about 100 gm and 80 gm, respectively. According to DSP Rajinder Jaswal, following the victim’s complaint, the local police has lodged an FIR under Sections 454 and 380, IPC. — OC

Hamirpur, November 19
The National Institute of Technology (NIT), Hamirpur, recently received global recognition for video-conferencing for its contribution towards its effective use.

The video-conferencing project of NIT Hamirpur has been accepted by the “Telepresence and Video-conferencing Insight”, a well-established newsletter and a recognised British publication for telepresence video-conferencing and video-enabled unified communication systems.

The entries to be included in this newsletter were invited from across the world and the entry from NIT Hamirpur has been accepted.

The institute is a pioneer in the country in making effective use of video-conferencing and has used this technology for enhancing the quality of education and other purposes.

Video-conferencing has also been successfully used for arranging expert lectures, presenting research papers in international conferences and for collaborations with other universities, and had recently established a centre of excellence in material science in collaboration with Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

During Nimbus, 2010, an annual technical festival organised by NIT students, video-conferencing sessions with Dr John C Mather, a Nobel Prize winner in physics of 2006 and Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission, were held.

In 2011, a video-conferencing session with Dr Peter Norvig, Director, Google Inc, was also conducted.

The NIT campus is having a wide network of over 2,500 voice and data nodes over the fibre backbone with above 100 active devices, Wi-Fi, voice over IP (VoIP) and video-conferencing having wider Internet connectivity.

Dr Kamlesh Dutta, Head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, said: “The institute has also been designated as a nodal centre for migration of Internet services from IPv4 to IPv6, which is a next generation computing environment over Internet.”

Shimla, November 19
Expressing concern over the deteriorating financial health of the Himachal Pradesh University (HPU), the HP University Teachers’ Association (HPUTA) said today that the government was least concerned about bailing out the institute from this mess and on the contrary promoting commercialisation of education by opening private universities.

In a statement issued here today, Prof Mahavir Singh, president, HPUTA, said the financial crunch faced by the HPU was so grave that bills passed by the accounts and audit branch for over Rs 6.50 crore have been pending for want of funds.

“Retirement benefits, pension arrears, revised gratuity, revised pay scales worth several crores are lying pending as there is no money to clear these,” he said.

“It seems that neither the HPU authorities nor the Executive Council of the HPU has been able to take up the issue with the state government, which too seems unconcerned,” he said.

He added that the development works on the campus had also come to a standstill.

He said, “The harsh reality was that the higher education in the state was being treated as a commodity being sold by private universities in the name of privatisation” .

“Seeing the grim scenario, the HPUTA will meet the Governor soon, who is the Chancellor of the HPU, and the CM to apprise them of the situation and seek financial assistance.