Kullu, December 30
Terming the Congress-led UPA government as the “most corrupt”, BJP president Nitin Gadkari today said the Congress had lost its mandate to govern the country as it had been reduced to a minority on the issue of the Lokpal Bill, which it never wanted to come into force.

Gadkari gave an “election call” to the voters and urged them to re-elect the BJP government in the state in the Assembly elections due next year as “the BJP has fulfilled the promises made in its manifesto within four years of its rule and has won 52 awards for its achievements”.

Addressing a party rally at Dhalpur Maidan here on the completion of four years in office by the Dhumal government, Gadkari attacked UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of corruption, the Lokpal Bill and rising prices, and blamed the Congress for “multiplying the miseries of the common man and farmers”.

Gadkari claimed that the Congress had been exposed on the Lokpal Bill as most of its partners, including the TMC, the SP and the BJD(U), had opposed it in the Rajya Sabha.

He also spoke about the 2G spectrum, Commonwealth Games and telecom scams under the UPA regime and said black money had been stashed in foreign banks.

He alleged that the UPA government had given a free run to looters, while farmers were committing suicide. A majority of the daily wagers were forced to survive on a paltry income of Rs 1,000 per month, he added.

He claimed that only the BJP could give the country a clean and secure future as it had done during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime.

“The Congress has ruined the federal structure and has divided the nation on religious and communal lines to appease the voters,” he alleged.

Gadkari praised the Dhumal regime for fulfilling all promises made in its manifesto, saying that “over 60 per cent party men approve of his government for good governance and development”.

Chief Minister PK Dhumal was in the election mode and announced sops for students, anganwari workers and employees. He counted scores of schemes that, he claimed, had benefited every section of society.

BJP national vice-president Shanta Kumar focused his speech on initiatives like the state’s share in BBMB projects, private players in the power sector and 12 per cent royalty taken in 1977 by the Janata Party and in 1990 by the BJP government when he was the Chief Minister. “It’s been a long struggle for the BJP right from 1977 and the state is reaping the harvest now,” he said.

BJP general secretary JP Nadda, BJYM chief and Hamipur MP Anurag Thakur, state BJP president Khimi Ram, PWD Minister Gulab Singh Thakur, Heath Minister Rajiv Baindal, IPH Minister Ravinder Ravi and Shimla MLA Suresh Bhardwaj also spoke on the occasion and highlighted the achievements of the government.

Gadkari reached at Dhalapur Maidan at around 2.40 pm, almost three hours behind schedule due to foggy weather.

Interestingly, pro-Shanta Kumar ministers Ramesh Dhawala and Kishan Kapur and 14 others, including members of the Bhrashtachar Mukti Morcha and its convener Maheshwar Singh who had met Gadkari in New Delhi against the functioning of the Dhumal government, were conspicuous by their absence.

Kullu, December 30
The absence of two anti-Dhumal Cabinet ministers - Ramesh Dhawala and Kishan Kapur - Kangra MP Rajan Sushant, four BJP MLAs and 10 other dissidents, who have united under the banner of the Bhrashtachar Mukti Morcha (BMM), has brought bad news for the state BJP ahead of 2012, when the state is likely to go to the Assembly poll.

Though the BJP has tried to play down the absence of the BJP dissidents, party workers have expressed concern over it, saying that bad days lie ahead for the party in 2012 as voices of revolt are becoming shriller by the day.

Most of those who were absent at the BJP rally at Dhalpur Maidan, organised on the successful completion of fours years in office by the Dhumal government, belong to the Shanta Kumar faction.

Their absence assumes political significance as BJP dissidents, including members of the BMM and its convener Maheshwar Singh, had met party chief Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi against the functioning of the Dhumal government.

Interestingly, Shanta Kumar, who is the BJP national vice-president, attended the rally, but he focused his speech on 1977 and 1990, when he was the Chief Minister.

“Good governance and development should not smack of corruption,” he said in his speech. This statement had sent confusing signals among party men and the Sangh Parivar at a time when the BJP dissidents had raised a banner of revolt, said a party worker on the sidelines of the rally.

BMM spokesperson Mohinder Sofat said they had nothing to do with the rally as they had not been contacted by the party. “We have covered nine districts and have constituted a 42-member state executive and will chalk out our future agenda,” he said.

State BJP president Khimi Ram said the two ministers could not attend the rally as they were busy elsewhere and had informed him about their inability to attend the rally.

Shimla, December 30
The image of the hill state took a beating as serious irregularities and glaring deficiencies kept surfacing in private universities through 2011, lending currency to the Opposition charge that the government was promoting institutions of doubtful credentials in the name of making it an education hub.

The opposition Congress and the CPM have been all along alleging that the real motive of the government was not to promote higher education but allow outsiders to acquire huge chunks of valuable land in the hill state in the garb of private universities. The shortcomings detected during the first-ever inspection carried out by the Education Department lent currency to the charges.

It was revealed that most of the universities lacked the requisite faculty, well-equipped laboratories, libraries and other facilities; a few private universities did not even fulfil the norms pertaining to the requirement of land, not to speak of the built-up infrastructure.

The biggest embarrassment to the government came from the revelation that one of the universities admitted students and started running classes even before it came into existence. Further, of the 12 universities, eight have come up in Solan district, three of these within a radius of 3 km (two in Sultanpur village). Intriguingly no upper limit on the quantum of land was imposed.

The universities were allowed to acquire 52 bighas (Sai University, Palampur) to 624 bighas (Arni University in Kangra), in some cases in violation of the Land Celing Act. Eyebrows were raised as the state’s apex Himachal Pradesh University has not been able to cover 50 bighas over the past 40 years.

The government has so far not granted permission for starting PhD, but some universities have already registered candidates and are now pressuring the government to give the nod. The mess in the private educational instutions has drawn the attention of the High Court and it has asked the CBI to inquire whether or not the norms are being followed by these. Only two days ago the court directed Himachal Pradesh University to streamline the process of admissions; private universities have refused to even follow the academic schedule.

The government did set up the State Private Educational Institutions (Regulatory) Commission to oversee the functioning of the institutions of higher education, particularly universities, but it has remained a non-starter so far. As a result, no action has been taken against the erring universities despite the fact that many of these did not abide by the directions issued by the department and advertised and started courses for which it had not granted permission. The first thing the regulator was expected to do was to ascertain whether or not the norms prescribed by the UGC were being followed and approval obtained from various regulatory bodies like the NCTE and the AICTE. However, no steps were taken in this direction and norms were being violated with impunity.

The issue of private universities is on top of the Congress agenda and it will be a major plank in the party’s campaign for the Assembly poll next year.

Solan, December 30
With Punjab and Haryana both backing out of the power banking agreement, HP State Electricity Board Limited has now invited short-term tenders to supply electricity during the winter months.

While Haryana had already refused to supply 165 MW of power as per the banking arrangement, it was learnt that even Punjab had also refused to give 75 MW of power, which was due from January to March as per its earlier agreement.

Since the state’s own power generation had been reduced to about 20 per cent, a shortfall of nearly 45 lakh units was being witnessed everyday. As against the requirement of about 255 lakh units, only about 210 lakh units were available in the state.

Officials in the board said notices were being served to Punjab and Haryana for having backed out of the banking arrangement. The board would now have surplus power in the summers as it will not be bound to supply surplus power to these states and it could sell this power in the open market.

The extreme cold conditions which has slowed down the flow in rivers and streams to a trickle have severely affected state’s own generation. As against the usual 100 lakh units, the daily generation now is barely 20 per cent.

The industry was already facing power cuts of nearly five hours per day as the board had left domestic consumers undisturbed.

Owing to elections in Punjab, the government did not want to draw flak for lack of power and, hence, it had backed out of the power sharing agreement with Himachal.

The Punjab State Power Corporation had imposed unscheduled power cuts in the domestic sector and had imposed a three-day weekly off on the category three (arc/induction furnaces) indicating lack of power, thus forcing it to back out of its power sharing arrangement with Himachal.

Kangra, December 30
The Himachal Swabhiman Party yesterday demanded that the Health Minister, Dr Rajeev Bindal, should resign on moral grounds or the Chief Minister should sack him in view of the recent Rs 22-crore drug scam in the state. It alleged that the government had a nexus with the drug mafia.

The charges were levelled by the president of the party, Subhash Sharma, while addressing a press conference at Dharamsala.

He asked the Health Minister to explain why he failed to take notice of such a big drug scam.

He alleged that BJP leader Anita Sandal, who was arrested in connection with a recruitment scam recently, was not expelled from the BJP. Besides, no action was taken against Gangath BJP MLA Des Raj, whose brother was nabbed by the police while allegedly transporting civil supplies essential commodities near Dah village to Punjab.

He slammed the Congress for its failure to play an effective role as the Opposition in the state.

Shimla, December 30
The opposition Congress observed “rosh diwas” by organising rallies and dharnas across the state in protest against four years of “misrule” by the BJP, symbolised by “rampant corruption, commercialisation of education, collapse of the public distribution system and growing unemployment”.

Protests were staged at all district headquarters, except Kullu where a rally will be held tomorrow.

In Shimla, Leader of the Opposition Vidya Stokes led the march from Congress Bhawan to the Deputy Commissioner’s office where a public meeting was held. Besides Stokes, party general secretary Kuldeep Rahtore and Rohit Thakur addressed the gathering. They also submitted a memorandum highlighting the acts of commission and omission to Governor Urmila Singh here late in the evening.

Terming the Dhumal government as the most corrupt, she said never before a political party had sold the assets and vital economic interests of the state in such a brazen manner. Corruption had become an integral part of the government functioning and there was no focus on governance. At a time when people were reeling under high inflation, the government had decided to close down 108 fair price shops. The public distribution system was on the verge of collapse.

It was a government of scams under which the land, builder and mining mafia tightened their grip on the state and unemployment reached records levels. There were numerous shady land deals and the Patanjali Yogpeeth of Swami Ramdev was among the beneficiaries.

Having a dig at the BJP, Kuldeep Rathore said BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who addressed a rally at Kullu to mark four years of the BJP rule in the state, was patting Chief Minister PK Dhumal for putting “Himachal on sale”. The government had made a mockery of Section 118 by allowing outsiders to acquire land in the state. Schools were being closed down and private universities, which did not have the basic infrastructure and qualified faculty, were being opened.

The party maintained that a government with such a track record did not deserve to remain in office and urged the Governor to sack it immediately to save the state from doom.

Shimla, December 30
The Shimla Nagrik Sabha staged a demonstration in front of the local office of the state electricity board at the Ridge here in protest against the exorbitant hike in the power tariff.

Activists of the sabha also lodged their protest against the proposal of the Shimla Municipal Corporation to increase the monthly charges of sanitation under the Shimla Environment, Heritage Conservation and Beautification Society.

The protesters held a rally at which the speakers lambasted the government for retrospectively hiking the electricity tariff, exposing its anti-poor attitude. They further asked the government to explain the situation that despite the state being termed as a “power state”, the people were being forced to pay higher charges for electricity.

The model of the PPP (Public Private Partnerhsip) being adopted in the state was actually a step towards privatisation of all essential services and people were being burdened further by recovering user charges. The sanitation charges were being proposed to be raised by Rs 5 per month for households and Rs 300 per month for sweets shops. In case of guest houses and hotels, an increase ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 per month was proposed.

The sabha threatened to launch a movement against the proposed hike and urged the corporation to drop it. The sabha alleged that the corporation was moving on the path of privatisation of services and after sanitation, distribution of water and operation of the pumping stations would be privatised.

Palampur, December 30
Irregularities in marriage registration have been detected in the office of the local SDM following complaints lodged by an NRI.

According to information gathered by The Tribune, a clerk of the SDM office had collected applications from applicants and promised them that marriage registration certificates would be dispatched to them after the expiry of the stipulated period of one month.

But, neither the applications were processed nor the marriage registration certificates were sent to them by the SDM office.

Meanwhile, the NRI applicant, who had submitted his application on May 2011, approached the office a several times, but failed to get the certificate.

Later, he sent a complaint to the SDM. After complaining to the authorities, marriage certificate was immediately issued to the NRI. Other documents and an unprocessed application were also found in the cupboard of the clerk concerned.

According to official sources, the clerk has already been transferred from here. However, the SDM assured to look into the matter and initiate action against the accused.

Shimla, December 30
The sustained drive launched by the State Bureau of Vigilance to finalise old cases during the current year resulted in disposal of 138 cases, out of which charge sheets were filed in 96 cases.

A total number of 1,184 complaints were received during 2011 and inquiries were initiated in 386 complaints and 37 cases were registered.

In all, 438 inquiries were disposed of during the year. Disciplinary action was recommended in 53 cases against government servants for their acts of omission and commission and irregularities committed by them. The accused included officers from the IAS, the IFS and officers/officials of the Revenue, the PWD, the Health and the Police departments.

A total of 35 traps were laid and cases were registered against 40 public servants, including eight gazetted officers. Three cases were registered against police officials, including one IPS officer, and three NGOs and an inspector posted in the bureau itself.

An amount of Rs 3.23 lakh was seized during the drives.

Under the Excise Act, the bureau seized liquor worth Rs 42.41 lakh, while under the Indian Forest Act, forest produce worth Rs 2.85 crore was confiscated. Significant seizures included 28 tonne of sanders wood from Jeori (Rampur) early this month.

Officials went beyond the mandate and seized 1.5 kg of gold and 49 kg of silver worth Rs 98.41 lakh in Mandi district. Subsequently, a penalty of Rs 13 lakh was also imposed on the culprits by the Excise and Taxation Department.

Workshops and training sessions to upgrade skills and capacity of investigating officers and technical experts and law consultants were engaged to improve quality of investigation. Recognising the efforts put in by the staff, eight officials were awarded in appreciation of their performance and contributions in 2011.