Shimla, April 12
All hydro power projects coming into operation from now on will have to pay cost of 1 per cent of total generation capacity to project affected families, a condition which has not been enforced strictly so far.

The Union Power Ministry has directed the Himachal Pradesh government to enforce this condition. The ministry has already sent the directive with regard to the Chamera-III project in Chamba and the Parbati project in Kullu.

The directive about providing cost of 1 per cent power to affected families with regard to the Kol dam in Bilaspur and Rampur in Shimla district are expected anytime now.

The condition will apply to independent power producers as well as state and Central government agencies. With 60 private power companies having moved court against the order, the matter is sub-judice.

Sources said affected families in case of Chamera-III (231 MW) would get monetary benefit from June 30, 2012, when the project came into operation.

A sum of Rs 3 crore has been deposited by the executing agency, the National Hydro Power Corporation, with the Himachal Energy Directorate. The Chamba administration is likely to release the list of affected families soon.

The condition of 1 per cent free power for affected families, besides 12 per cent free power to the state government, will henceforth be made a part of the advertisement when bids are invited.

The directorate is likely to include this condition in case of the 20 new projects with a total capacity of about 1,000 MW which are likely to be advertised shortly.

The condition will also apply to the National Thermal Power Corporation, executing the 800-MW Kol dam project. With the 412-MW Rampur project expected to come into generation on September 24, 2013, affected families will benefit.

The number of families that stand to benefit from this decision will run into thousands considering the large number of projects that have come up in the state till now.

The income that displaced families are likely to get will vary from Rs 20,000 to over Rs 1.2 lakh, depending on size of project and number of affected families. The benefit from big projects to affected families is likely to be huge.

Solan, April 12
The abysmally poor condition of various roads falling in the Kasauli tehsil has not only put a question mark on the working of the Public Works Department (PWD) but has also exposed shoddy substandard work and poor maintenance.

Various roads, including Dharampur-Kasauli, Garkhal-Jagjitnagar, Chamiya-Band-Patta Mehlog-Haripur Dhar, Kasauli-Jangeshu, Kumarhatti-Sultanpur are an apology for roads as they are fraught with potholes which not only makes the ride bumpy but also are illustrations of sub-standard work and little maintenance.

Though some repair work has been initiated on the Dharampur-Kasauli road, but apart from patchwork, nothing much has been done to improve its condition. This exercise was repeated last year too but the poor work has not only left the road in worst condition but also has enhanced the wear and tear of vehicles.

A question mark has also been put on the working of the field staff as they failed to monitor the work and this was illustrated by the fact that the newly repaired Sanawar-Dharampur road had worn off even before completion and its condition has worsened after the recent showers. Though it was again being repaired, but a question mark has been put on its quality.

Lamenting the poor condition of roads leading to Kasauli Adarsh Sharma, a tourist from Chandigarh, said he was tired with the drive and instead of spending a leisurely time in this tourist place he ended up being harassed with the overtly bumpy drive amidst the potholed roads.

While the state government talked of carving out new roads it was worth mentioning that poor maintenance of existing roads had added to the hardships of the common man. It was worth mentioning that Kasauli was connected by two roads from Parwanoo which included the National Highway 22 and the Jangeshu Road.

The poor condition of roads has instigated Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), General Secretary, Vinod Sultanpuri, to raise the issue before the state Congress president Sukhwinder Singh Thakur during his recent visit to Solan.

While ruing the poor and substandard repair work, he said it was appalling to note that the field staff was turning a blind eye to the damage done to the roads due to poor repair and it left the roads with more potholes than before.

Executive engineer, Kasauli division, OP Verma, who was transferred a week ago, has now sought a stay, thus, creating a situation where the work was suffering.

Chief Engineer, PWD, (south) DK Nayyer, said the department was aware of the situation and repair work would soon begin on various roads.

Nadaun, April 12
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has accused former Chief Minister PK Dhumal and his son Anurag Thakur of commercialising politics.

Addressing a public meeting here today, he lambasted the previous BJP government for various alleged misdeeds. He stated, “Rajiv Bindal, Dhumal and Anurag had formed a clique to purchase land with the help of revenue officials. We have demanded a thorough probe into all irregularities committed during the previous regime.”

Coming down heavily on the previous regime, the Congress leader criticised renaming after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of various government schemes, saying it was against tradition to name government schemes after living persons. He claimed, “Dhumal had tried to commercialise the name of the former Prime Minister as well.”

The HPCC president charged Dhumal with not carrying out enough development work in Hamirpur district despite remaining the Chief Minister for two terms. He appealed to the people to defeat from Hamirpur Dhumal and Anurag in the next general election.

Targeting Anurag, the HPCC president said, “He is doing politics in the garb of cricket, but stadia built by the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association are of no use to local players as they cannot play there.” He could not hide agony of losing from Nadaun in the Assembly elections.

He said, “I must have committed mistakes for which you did not elect me, but will continue to work for you.” District Congress president Sunil Sharma, local MLA ID Lakhanpal and former MLA Kuldeep Pathania also spoke.

Nurpur, April 12
Rajya Sabha member and senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar has expressed concern over deteriorating moral values and character in society.

Addressing a gathering after inaugurating newly built Atam Pragya Ashram at Bagni near here today, he said private electronic channels had been promoting vulgarity and criminalisation and our youngsters were falling prey to these temptations.

He said the inculcation of moral values and character building had become a challenge in society and this responsibility now had come on the shoulders of religious organisations and spiritual preachers.

He exhorted the founder of the Ashram to inculcate character building, moral values and honour for women among the youths.

Swami Ved Parkash, founder of the ashram said the prime aim of the Ashram was to disseminate the message of Indian culture and religion and educate youngsters of the area about human and moral values and character building. Office-bearers of the local Arya Samaj committee were also present on this occasion.

Shimla, April 12
The government has decided to start the Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme (DBTS) in Solan and Kullu districts from July, taking up the number of districts covered to six.

Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Mandi and Una districts are already covered under the scheme aimed at minimising pilferage, duplication and leakage in distribution of cash benefits under various programmes, including social security pension.

Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy stated this while presiding over the 127th meeting of the state-level bankers’ committee here today. He said the benefits would be directly credited to bank accounts of beneficiaries through the Aadhar platform to help bring in more efficiency and transparency.

He stressed the need to review various steps relating to conceptuality of the scheme, digitising data, Aadhar enrolment and opening bank accounts. He expressed satisfaction over banks surpassing five of the six national parameters stipulated by the Reserve Bank of India during 2012-13.

He said banks had made fresh disbursement to the tune of Rs 6,260 crore to 3.34 lakh new beneficiaries, achieving 93 per cent of the target up to December 2012.

He said bankers should come forward to fix a new scale of finance for organic farming to support progressive farmers and enhance flow of educational loans on easy terms.

He appealed to bankers to utilise services of Lok Mitra Kendras which were functioning in both urban and rural areas of the state.

As many as 236 villages without banking facility had been covered by engaging banking correspondent agents and six by opening brick mortar and ultra small banking outlets. The state had a network of 1,634 bank branches and convener UCO Bank had proposed setting up call centres in urban areas and establishing farmer resource centres in rural areas.

Shimla, April 12
The HP high Court has restrained the state government from making any appointment to the post of junior basic teacher (JBT) till the persons who have passed their JBT training in the 2002-04 batch are appointed.

The order was passed by Justice Sanjay Karol on adjudicating execution petition filed in this regard. While passing the order, the court observed that no post of JBT shall be filled without complying with the earlier judgement of the high court, wherein the court had directed the state government to consider the petitioners’ case for the appointments on the batch-wise basis in accordance with law and policy so adopted by the state while giving appointment to similarly situated persons.

The court has passed the direction following the earlier order wherein the court had directed the state government to take a decision with regard to filling-up of the backlog of posts of the JBT in the entire state in accordance with the reservation policy and also procedure prescribed under the rules. They further alleged that in the recruitment and promotion rules for the post of JBT, there was no requirement for clearing the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET). It further alleged that in the case of present petitioners, the state was insisted upon the TET test for the post.

Justice Karol observed that significantly, while complying with earlier directions, the state government had given appointment to the persons without insisting upon the condition of clearance of the TET. The court stated, therefore, that this discriminatory approach could not be allowed to be adopted by the government in the case of the present petitioners. The court said a uniform policy and approach had to be adopted qua all similarly situated persons and government could not be permitted to any pick and choose.

About 100 petitioners had claimed that they had passed the JBT in during 2002-04 batch but due to a dispute of affiliation they could only complete the JBT in 2008-10.

Petitioners mentioned that the state government had appointed the batch of 2002-04 according to old rules where as the petitioners were being discriminated. The petitioners said the petitioners had been made to suffer for no fault of them as also keeping in view the fact that the petitioners’ precious six-seven years of career had already been wasted.

A further direction was given to the respondents to consider the case of the petitioners against candidates for batches 2002-2004 & 2003-2005, respectively, or to give them some kind of preference/priority over other candidates in the interest of justice. The court has passed the today’s order in the execution petition filed by the petitioners.

Solan, April 12
The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC) in collaboration with the state government will soon undertake a surveillance study in Solan to determine the incidence of the cardio-metabolic diseases and their risk factors among the rural population.

The study, which is being undertaken on a pilot basis for the first time in India, would help formulate evidence-based health policies based on the data generated through this study, said Dr Dev Jindal, research officer, CCDC. He said a special software had been developed to cater to the needs of the study and as many as 30 people have been trained to gather information from the people.

He said an electronic tablet-based survey would be carried out in the areas falling under various community health centres of Solan, which would cover over 40,000 adults aged 20 years and above over a period of one year from May this year to April 2014. Each person will be interviewed for 30 to 45 minutes so that comprehensive data of their lifestyle can be generated

The project will commence with a large baseline survey to gather information encompassing broad categories such as demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population, presence of heart diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic diseases risk factors, previous or existing complications such as heart failure, stroke or kidney failure, quality of life, disability, health care utilisation and expenditure of care.

The survey at the household-level will be comprehensive and will also include information related to lifestyle of people. Issues like alcohol use, dietary habits, physical activity, stress and tobacco will be specifically enlisted in this. Apart from this, physical features like height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure and fasting blood glucose estimation will also be done during the household visit.

Dr Prabhakaran, Executive Director, CCDC, Dr Nikhil Tandon, Professor, department of endocrinology and metabolism, AIIMS, and Dr Ajay VS, senior research fellow, CCDC, are the investigators of the study. Dr SP Singh, Chief Medical Officer, Solan, and Dr NK Gupta, MOH, Solan, is providing the requisite support to the study.

Chamba, April 12
The recent decision of the state government, to accord approval to the allotment of three hydroelectric projects on the tributaries of the Ravi in Chamba district to Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Ltd (HPSEBL), has brought cheer among residents here.

The decision will also strengthen the civil wing of the HPSEBL, thereby paving the way for the restoration of its Hydel Investigation Circle at the district headquarters of Chamba, which was closed down by the previous BJP government last year.

Conveying his gratitude to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Congress leader and Municipal Commissioner Neeraj Nayar said the hydel projects included 16.5-MW Sai Kothi, 16-MW Devi Kothi and 14-MW Hail, while the work on the 48-MW Surangani-Sundla hydroelectric project was already underway.

Nayar said the allotment of these projects would generate more earning and employment for people of the area and also fetch revenue to the state exchequer.

This decision would also fulfil the long-awaited demand of the Pangi tribal people for the proposed traffic tunnel beneath the Chenni Pass, as the inlet portal of the tunnel was located close to the Hail hydropower project, Nayar added.

Meanwhile, the staff of the HPSEBL working at Chamba submitted a representation to the Chief Minster and former Cabinet Minister Harsh Mahajan, appealing them to restore the offices of the Hydel Investigation Circle at Chamba so that the work on these sanctioned projects could be undertaken without further delay. 

Palampur, April 12
Former minister Ravinder Singh Ravi claimed here today that the Congress government had failed to get adequate funds from the Planning Commission. Addressing a press conference, he said the Planning Commission had approved an outlay of Rs 4,100 crore, but it was not clear how the state would meet the shortfall of Rs 2,100 crore.

He urged Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to clarify the position and apprise people of how he would meet the shortfall of Rs 21,00 crore.

He said the Centre had reduced by Rs 13,500 crore Central assistance to states for 2013-14 and categorically said it was not in a position to release additional grants.

He said it would be difficult for Himachal Pradesh to maintain pace of development and complete development projects. He said Himachal Pradesh was a special category state, but new Central guidelines had exempted such states.

Ravi said the Centre had not made any provision in the Budget for a grant of Rs 2,100 crore. He claimed that the state had suffered a loss of Rs 539 crore on account of grant cuts. — OC

Chamba, April 12
The town is on a tinderbox as the firefighting system has been in a state of neglect for years. As many as 25 fire hydrants are out of order, seven have been buried under sub-soil, two have been stolen and one has gone dry.

The elderly reminisce that 98 fire hydrants were installed in 1937 and kept functional. Only four fire hydrants had been added since then. District Home Guards Commandant Kuldeep Sharma said only three fire hydrants were operational.

The possibility of the others being functional cannot be relied on because of low water pressure as fire hydrants require optimal pressure to douse flames in case of of a fire breakout.

Shimla, April 12
The Centre has agreed to provide Rs 8.58 crore for implementation of the Information Technology project to make the Vidhan Sabha online.

Speaker BBL Butail, who called on Union Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal at New Delhi today, said the funds would be released in April and the online constituency management component of the project would be launched by President Mukherjee on May 24 during his ensuing visit to the state.

The complete e-Vidhan Sabha Project would be launched in September during the golden jubilee function of the Vidhan Sabha. Besides, a conference of the speakers of all the Vidhan Sabhas of the country would also be organised.

Butail said the project would enable the legislators to monitor the current status of the activities happening in their constituencies. It would also help to computerise the total process involved in working of the legislative Assembly and its secretariat, including the working of various committees and members of the Assembly by providing high emphasis on integration of all the government departments for physical and financial monitoring of schemes and programmes approved by the Vidhan Sabha.

He invited the Union Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister to visit the golden jubilee function of the Vidhan Sabha for the launching of complete the e-Vidhan Sabha Project. 

Mandi, April 12
The BJP on Wednesday accused the ruling Congress of misleading the public on the issue of closing down of the government degree colleges opened by it and renaming the schemes named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Ajay Rana, newly appointed state spokesperson of the BJP, said the Congress government’s skill development programme had not addressed the problems of the unemployed youth of the state. “Instead of doing something concrete for the youth, the government has closed down degree colleges and renamed various schemes launched in the name of Vajpayee,” he alleged.

Ignoring a similar charge of renaming schemes against the BJP by the Congress, Rana said the governance was a continuous process and the Congress was setting up a wrong precedent.

“The high court has accorded stay on the closing down of the colleges, which had bared the truth before the public that the colleges were started with the proper procedure,” he added.

Bilaspur, April 12
Vimla Devi (28) of Kyariyan village, under the Kutehlla gram panchayat in the Suharghat area, was found drowned in a nullah near the village, 45 km from here yeaterday.

Vimla had gone to wash clothes of her family at the nullah. When she did not return, the family went to search for her and found her drowned in the water.

Family and villagers informed the police who took the body into its possession and registered a case.

Victim’s husband Prakash Chand told the police that Vimla often used to suffer from fits and it was just possible that she slipped into deep water at the time of any such a fit.

Meanwhile, led by panchayat president Purushottam Chand, village elders have urged the district administration and the government to provide financial help to the family. 

Shimla, April 12
Former minister and senior Congress leader Harsh Mahajan has been elected unopposed as Director of the Himachal Pradesh State Cooperative Bank (HPSCB) from Shimla district today.

Mahajan, who was appointed chairperson of the bank three months ago, was so far a nominated Director. The Directors of the bank come from Kinnaur, Mandi, Bilaspur, Sirmaur and Shimla for which election was scheduled for April 23. However, in case of Shimla, other candidates who had field nominations, including state BJP chief Sher Singh and party secretary Sanjay Sharma withdrew from the contest.

It is for the first time that a Director has been elected unopposed from Shimla district. It was all the more creditable for Mahajan as he originally hailed from Chamba and had been elected to Vidhan Sabha from there.

Mahajan said he was appointed for a period of five years and there was no need for him to go through the election process. However, he preferred to take up the democratic route. As an elected Director, he would be vested with moral authority, though it would not make any difference in his functioning.

A large number of Congress leaders and workers congratulated Mahajan on his victory.