Shimla, March 21
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today claimed that the Budget presented by him was growth-oriented and people-centric with focus on social equity and apprehensions expressed by the Opposition reflected its closed mindset.

Taking the Opposition on while replying to the debate on Budget proposals for 2013-14 in the Assembly, he alleged that the Opposition had drawn a wrong conclusion as it had not read the Budget document carefully.

He claimed that the Opposition has been taken aback with the fulfilment of the promise of the Congress to the unemployed youth and was raising an unnecessary hue and cry over it.

“They are not able to decipher the script behind the announcement of the skill development allowance which will not incentivise idleness but make the youth productive,” he remarked.

He said the youth would be provided an incentive for five years to take up self-employment ventures. He said measures for jobs included setting up a state skill development council and giving a boost to industry, tourism and hydro power.

A total of 51 legislators took part in the debate on Budget proposals which lasted 16 hours and 29 minutes. Virbhadra Singh said a meeting with the Planning Commission had been fixed for April 10 to discuss the annual Plan.

“The state government had a loan liability of Rs 21,241 crore on March, 2008. It will increase to Rs 28,513 crore by March, 2013. The loan liability has increased by Rs 7,272 crore between 2008 and 2013,” he said.

He refuted Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators’ allegation of insufficient financial assistance by stating that the increase in special Plan assistance to Rs 1,400 crore in 2012-13 showed the liberal attitude of the Centre.

Virbhadra Singh said growth rates for 2010-13 were above national growth rates but growth rates of the state had declined in the last three years.

He elaborated that the growth rate went down from 8.7 per cent in 2010-11 to 7.4 per cent in 2011-12 and further declined to 6.2 per cent in 2012-13.

“The growth rate was 9.1 per cent in 2006-07 during my previous term,” he added. He cited several steps taken to give relief to the common man.

“The budget under the food subsidy scheme is up to Rs 175 crore. An amount of Rs 270 crore has been budgeted for electricity subsidy to domestic consumers. The social security pension has been increased,” he said.

“The housing subsidy has been increased from Rs 48,500 to Rs 75,000. We have provided a grant and equity of Rs160 crore to the HRTC and given free travel facility to government school students,” he added.

“While in power, the BJP had left no stone unturned to harass parent teacher association teachers,” he alleged. He added that they had framed a policy, enhanced the grant and reinstated many such teachers.

Referring to the bad condition of roads, he said this legacy was inherited from the BJP government. “This is not our doing and the common refrain is that roads exist between potholes and not the other way round,” he remarked.

Shimla, March 21
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today accused the Congress regime of deceiving the unemployed youth by not fulfilling the promise of providing unemployment allowance even though it was the highlight of its election manifesto.

Leader of Opposition PK Dhumal said the Budget presented by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh mentioned a skill development allowance for those between the age of 25 and 35 years.

“The manifesto made no mention of an age limit, Why are there conditions now when recruitable age for government jobs is 45 years?” he asked.

Dhumal rejected the Chief Minister’s plea that he did not want the youth to become idle and practically everybody settled down by the age of 35 years.

“You have tried hard to hide facts and made a good attempt but shortcomings are too glaring to be concealed,” he remarked after the Chief Minister’s reply.

Dhumal said the BJP was not satisfied with the Chief Minister’s reply as they were hoping that he would announce that schemes started by his regime would be continued.

He said schemes named after Atal Bihari Vajpayee had been discontinued and names of others changed. He rued that there was no mention of the Mata Shabri scheme providing 50 per cent subsidy on liquefied petroleum gas connections. He said the Chief Minister had disappointed the opposition by not agreeing to reduce the increased value added tax on plastic shoes worn by the poor.

“You have reduced value added tax on branded shoes from 13.5 per cent to 9 per cent and increased it on plastic shoes from 5 per cent to 9 per cent which will hit the common man,” he remarked.

Talking to mediapersons later, Dhumal alleged that Virbhadra Singh had used the argument of inflation to suit his convenience and his reply was full of contradictions.

“The statement that officers have been directed to get maximum funding under NABARD schemes and Centrally sponsored schemes does not give any idea of the quantum of funding,” he claimed.

There was confusion over the reported BJP walkout after the Chief Minister’s reply. Dhumal said dissatisfied BJP members staged a walkout while Speaker Brij Bihari Lal Butail said the House had been adjourned when BJP legislators left the House and it could not be considered as a walkout.

Shimla, March 21
The Assembly witnessed uproarious scenes today over the issue of sale of cement at prices higher than in neighbouring states. The Opposition was on its feet, accusing Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister GS Bali of misleading the House and withholding information.

Bali’s remark in his reply to a query of Independent legislator Rajinder Rana and Bambar Thakur of the Congress infuriated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators. His comment that the BJP had done nothing during its tenure to reduce prices of cement despite its production in the state agitated them and they raised slogans against him.

“The government is keen that cement companies should reduce the prices and we have constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to hold talks with the firms,” he said.

With Bali failing to satisfy BJP members Rajiv Bindal and Ravinder Singh Ravi about cost of production per bag and transportation charges, the Opposition alleged that he had the information but was deliberately concealing it.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s intervention put an end to the commotion. He said the government was aware of the problem.

“We are concerned as the margin of profit of companies is high. We will urge the firms to reduce the prices as people of the state where it is being produced are paying more than those in other states,” he said.

In reply to a question by Maheshwar Singh of the Himachal Lokhit Party, GS Bali, also the Transport Minister, said a departmental inquiry was being conducted into the purchase of 100 buses bought at a cost of Rs 19 crore.

He informed the House that Rs 37.6 crore had been given to the Himachal Roadways Transport Corporation (HRTC) in 2012-13 for purchase of buses. “There are some doubts about the price and quality of buses and a departmental inquiry is being conducted. The probe can be handed over to some other agency if need be,” he said.

“We will shortly launch the scheme ‘own your own vehicle’ in which buses will be run by the youth on routes which do not have bus service at present. He said a Golden Temple express bus service would shortly link Paonta Sahib with Dehradun and Amritsar.

Dharamsala, March 21
Two women sustained minor burn injuries when an unidentified explosive material fell from the sky at Patola village near the Chamunda temple at 9:15 am today. Sushil Kumar, an eyewitness, said they saw a fireball-like object of around 12-in diameter falling from the sky, which split into several parts after hitting the ground.

“A fighter jet had passed through the sky just a moment before the fireball fell,” said Sushil Kumar.

The injured have been identified as Saroj (32) and Arti (21). Both were rushed to the DRPGMC, Tanda, by locals from where they were discharged after first aid.

“I was washing clothes near my house. I heard the sound of an aircraft and a few moments later a burning object fell near us. It fragmented into several small pieces some of which fell on us,” said Saroj, adding that she and the girl accompanying her sustained burn injuries on arms and the back.

The suspicion of it being a meteorite started spreading soon after the incident. However a team of forensic experts from the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (RFSL), Dharamsala, that visited the area has ruled out the theory.

“Our team visited the area and found a kind of explosive material from the spot. However, the nature of the explosive could be ascertained only after proper analysis. The samples are being sent to the State Forensic Science Laboratory at Junga in Shimla,” said Dr N Prakash Dubey, RFSL, Dharamsala.

Dubey said there was an Army firing range in the area. So the possibility of it being some kind of explosive that got misfired could not be ruled out.

He said grey ash and burnt piece of rubber-like material was found at four spots and the forensic team had collected these as physical evidences.

“It definitely wasn’t a meteorite or natural object,” he said. SP, Kangra, Balbir Thakur said a case had been registered.

Mandi, March 21
The Himachal Pradesh High Court (HC) has set aside the promotion of 12 employees, including five Assistant Engineers, done on the basis of reservation by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) at its projects.

The HC has also quashed the impugned instructions of the state government on reservation in promotion for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) till it does a quantitative survey on reservation in promotion as mandated by the apex court.

The HC has directed the NHPC to promote and pay consequential benefits to the two petitioners, working at the Parbati-II project, within eight weeks from March 11, when the court decided the case.

Disposing of the two civil writ petitions, Justice Rajiv Sharma ruled that the concept of creamy layer applied only to Other Backward Classes and the Supreme Court had not held that it applied to SCs and STs as well.

The HC set aside the promotion of Sikander, Nagendra Kumar, Brij Mohan Singh, Prem Shankar, Sita Ram Meena, Inderdeo Kumar Verma, Sushil Kumar Sagar, Sonam Thendup Bhutia, Subhash Chand, Nelson Kindo, Bimal Naskar and Praveen Kumar Meena.

The HC rejected the contention of the government that it had carried out the promotions after due consideration. “The state cannot carry out reservation in promotion till the mandated exercise is carried out,” the HC ruled. One petitioner, Ravindra Nath, had listed 33 respondents and the other, Jyoti Punj Gaur, had named 23.

Shimla, March 21
Wrong billing to domestic consumers due to glitches in e-billing software has landed Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) in trouble with the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) taking serious note of the lapse and directing the board to fix responsibility for it.

Apart from wrong billing, the board has not been issuing bills to consumers in time and it has failed to recover increased municipal tax from consumers. The rate was revised from 2 paise to 10 paise per unit, but it was not charged from a majority of consumers and the HPSEBL planned to recover it from next month.

The commission took note of the fact that there was a delay in dispatch of bills, with some consumers receiving bills just a day or two before the due date, despite use of hand-held billing machines, as a result of which consumers were not getting adequate time for payment.

SERC Chairman Subhash Negi said consumers had to pay within 15 days of receipt of bill, after which a surcharge had to be paid, as per rules. He said there was no accountability for delay in issuing bills. He proposed to amend relevant regulations to ensure that the staff were held responsible for laxity and penalised for delay in issuing bills.

The commission also advised the board to focus on bulk consumers which accounted for a major part of revenue while rolling out its e-billing and payment system. It said 290 bulk consumers with a connected load of over 1 MW, accounting for 50 per cent of total revenue from sale of energy, should be covered in the first phase.

It said this category of consumers along with about 4,000 consumers with a connected load of more than 100 KW together accounted for over 70 per cent of revenue.

“There are about 21.29 lakh consumers and the revenue is about Rs 3,650 crore. If the board takes care of the 4,000-odd bulk consumers, a major part of revenue will be recovered in time,” Negi asserted.

The switchover to e-governance had not been smooth and the HPSEBL had lagged behind in implementing various modules and was facing problems due to malfunctioning of software.

It was forced to impose a penalty on HCL Infosystem Limited, executing the information technology project, after the data centre crash which paralysed e-billing services in the state capital for more than a week.

Unmanned payment kiosks in the town were prone to snags and the HPSEBL had been forced to depute staff to take care of problems there.

Shimla, March 21
Continuing its review of the policy and programmes of the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime, the Congress government today scrapped the gymnasium scheme under which gymnasiums were to be set up at the panchayat level.

The Cabinet which met here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh gave its nod for scrapping the scheme under which Rs 50,000 was provided to each of the 3,243 panchayats. A sum of Rs 17 crore was earmarked for the scheme which was launched in August last.

It was decided that the 135 panchayats which had spent the funds provided under the scheme could continue the gymnasiums. It decided that the remaining 3,108 panachyats were free to utilise the funds for setting up parks and other facilities for children’s recreation.

The Cabinet also gave its nod for amending the law to increase from 25 years to 40 years the minimum period after which a private university could be dissolved. All Acts under which 15 private universities have been set up would be amended. If a university was dissolved before 40 years, its land would be vested with the government.

The Cabinet also decided to set up a revenue sub-tehsil for Dhami and upgrade the primary health centre there to a community health centre.

Hamirpur, March 21
The District Magistrate-cum-DC, Hamirpur, has enforced Section 144 of the CrPC in Sujanpur to keep a check on the movement of anti-social elements during the Holi festival from March 24 to 31.

There will be a total ban on the carrying of arms, ammunition and explosives in the area during this period except for security personnel on duty.

Nurpur, March 21
A flock of 265 sheep jumped into the Pong Dam reservoir in the Sihal area under the Fatehpur police station when it was chased by some stray dogs. According to information, four shepherds from Bharmour in Chamba district had been grazing their sheep near the reservoir. Suddenly, some dogs chased them. The frightened sheep jumped into the reservoir.

Local villagers who initiated a rescue operation succeeded in fishing out 165 live and 55 dead sheep till this evening. Around 45 sheep are suspected to have perished in the deep water of the reservoir. The tehisldar, Fatehpur, the police and a team of veterinary doctors reached the spot. The dead sheep were buried after a post-mortem examination.

According to Tehsildar Joginder Pal, the shepherds would be given compensation after assessing the loss incurred. The police has reported the matter.