Shimla, July 4
While maintaining that correspondence with other states on the issue of appointment of Director General of Police (DGP) keeps taking place from time to time, Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy today said it was too early to speculate about the appointment of an IPS officer from outside the state cadre to the top police post.

Reacting to reports that SK Sharma, a Punjab cadre IPS officer, was being considered for the post of DGP in Himachal, he said the government had been doing correspondence with other states on the basis of applications received from senior officers.

There are reports that the government has had a rethink on the issue of getting an outside cadre officer for the post of DGP after it received some adverse reports in this regard from various quarters.

The present DGP B Kamal Kumar is due to retire on July 31 and the search is on to find his successor. Sharma's name was doing the rounds as Himachal had got in touch with Punjab seeking its nod for his inter-state cadre deputation and had also intimated the Union Home Ministry about the development.

"A final decision on the issue can be taken only with the approval of the screening committee and council of ministers," he said. Roy said all applications received are taken up with the Union Home Ministry, taking into consideration all merits and demerits.

Shimla, July 4
The Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department will undertake zoning for all district headquarters and major towns of the state to restrict haphazard urbanisation, especially in the congested and old areas so as to identify no-construction zones.

The TCP has been asked to undertake zoning for the crowded towns like Mandi, Chamba, Solan, Una, Kangra and other district headquarters so that the high density areas, where there is concentration of activity, can be identified. So far, it is only Shimla, Dharamsala, Manali and Dalhousie which have been divided into core, restricted and other areas.

The issue of restricting the construction activity in the congested areas is likely to be placed before the Cabinet shortly. The government has already taken a decision not to allow any new construction by government departments and state public sector undertaking in the congested areas. The endeavour is to not congest the already crowded parts of the cities.

"The TCP is already undertaking the zoning exercise so that the construction activity can be restricted in the core areas of all district headquarters and major cities," said Sudhir Sharma, Urban Development and TCP Minister.

He said the infrastructure level, concentration of activity, parking facility, approach and other parameters would be taken into account while demarcating the zones.

Sharma said the zoning by the department which was already under way would help identify the commercial, residential, sliding and the core areas. "The restriction on the new construction in the congested areas will apply to government buildings, but we are contemplating that even for private individuals, only reconstruction along old lines should be allowed," he remarked.

Keen to develop satellite towns so as to reduce any further burden on the already crowded citiess like Shimla, Manali, Kullu, Dharamsala and Mandi, the government is keen to rope in foreign direct investment (FDI).

There has been talk of developing satellite townships for the past decade but there has been no substantial headway. As such, the government is keen to get FDI so that satellite townships can be developed and burden on the tourist destination can be reduced.

Himachal falls in the high seismic activity zone IV and V and moreover some of the popular tourist towns of Shimla, Kullu-Manali, Dharamsala, McLeodganj and Dalhousie are bursting at the seams. Resources like water, roads, parking are proving to be inadequate to handle the influx of visitors.

Shimla, July 4
Several second generation leaders, many relatives of senior party leaders, and new faces have found place in the new Pradesh Congress Committee approved by the Congress high command today.

Besides president Sukhwinder Singh, the new committee comprises seven vice-presidents, nine general secretaries and a treasurer in the team of office-bearers. There are 14 members in the executive committee and senior leaders and ministers have been accommodated as 20 permanent invitees.

Shimla district has the highest nine members, followed by Kangra (8) and Solan (7). The tribal areas have been given adequate representation with four members and there are eight Scheduled Caste members.

Among the relatives, Vinod Sultanpuri, son of former PCC chief KD Sultanpuri, and Ajay Mahajan, son of the late Sat Mahajan from Kangra, have been made general secretaries. Madan Chaudhary, a son of veteran leader Lajja Ram, Tara Thakur, daughter of the late Moti Ram Thakur, and Mahesh Raj, son of former minister Mansa Ram, have been included in the executive.

Nikhil Rajour, brother of senior Congress leader Viplove Thakur, has been made a vice-president along with Kailash Prasher, a loyalist of Anand Sharma, AN Vidyarthi, a former Chief Secretary, and Geeta Negi from Rohru. Other vice-presidents are Gangu Ram Musafir, Chander Kumar and Harsh Mahajan, all senior leaders.

Senior leader from Sirmour Harsh Wardhan, Ravi Thakur from Lahaul Spiti, Sunil Sharma, a loyalist of Sukhwinder Singh, from Hamirpur, Sunder Thakur from Kullu and Susheela Negi from Kinnaur are the new general secretaries. The other two general secretaries are senior leaders Ram Lal Thakur and Harbhajan Singh. Surender Chauhan from Shimla is the treasurer.

The members of the executive are Kuldeep Rathore, Sudhir Sharma, Rajesh Dharmani, Rohit Thakur, Ajay Bahadur Singh, Sanjay Awasthy, Satpal Raizada, Mahender Chauhan, Nasima Bagum, Namita Roshan Lal, Mahesh Raj, Madan Chaudhary, Urmila Sharma and Tara Thakur.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Union Minister Anand Sharma, Vidya Stokes, Kaul Singh, Dhani Ram Shandil, GS Bali, Sujan Singh Pathania, Anil Sharma, Thakur Singh Bharmouri and Mukesh Agnihotri (all ministers), Viplove Thakur, former PCC chief, Asha Kumari and Kuldeep Kumar (former ministers), Rakesh Kalia and Sohan Lal, (CPSs), Anita Verma, Joginder Kawar, Lakhwinder Rana, Shashi Chaudhary and Kuldeep Pathania will be the permanent invitees.

Shimla, July 4
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh lauded the UPA regime for approving the Food Security Ordinance yesterday. Terming it a historic decision, Virbhadra said the move reflected the commitment of the UPA Government towards the welfare of the poor and the downtrodden. He said the National Food Security Bill would give legal entitlement to over 67 per cent population of the country for subsidised grains under the targeted Public Distribution System.

He said this included 75 per cent rural and 50 per cent urban population of the country. The objective of providing food and nutritional security to the masses was laudable as it would ensure "Food for All", he added.

Virbhadra said the MGNREGA, RTI Act, Aadhar Cards and now the National Food Security Bill were some of the significant and historic decisions taken by the UPA Government, which would go down in the annals of the country as major milestones.

Kangra (OC): Meanwhile, Sanjay Rattan, Congress MLA from Jawalamukhi, said the decision of the Congress Government vindicated the fact that it was concerned about the welfare of the persons living at the lowest ebb.

Shimla, July 4
Fresh bids for the 960 MW Jhangi-Thopan Powari project may be invited on the basis of upfront premium of the old policy which was amended by the BJP government.

The existing policy says that the independent power producers (IPPs) are required to pay a fixed upfront premium of Rs 20 lakh per megawatt and quote additional free power on the basis of which the projects are awarded.

The power department has proposed that fresh bids should be invited as per the old policy under which the IPPs are required to quote an upfront premium to bag the project with fixed percentage of the total power generated from the project to be provided free of cost as royalty to the state over the entire period of 40 year after which the project is reverted back to the government.

The rate of royalty was 12 per cent for the first 12 years, 18 per cent for the next 18 years and 30 per cent for the for the last 10 years.

The Congress had been critical of the amendment made by the BJP to the policy to switch over to free-power based bidding and had maintained that it caused a huge loss to the state exchequer. The government only got upfront premium of Rs 20 lakh per MW and IPPs managed to secure projects. However, the state did not get any revenue as projects have still not even taken off and most of these may take another decade or more for commissioning.

The upfront money-based competitive bidding for projects of more than 100 MW introduced in 2006 fetched Rs 485 crore from three projects with combined capacity of 1,125 MW. The second lot of seven projects with the aggregate generation capacity of 1,848 MW brought an upfront premium of Rs 862 crore.

Principal Secretary SKBS Negi said the proposal would soon be put up before the Cabinet which would take a final view. There were 29 big and small projects of 1,720 MW aggregate capacity which would be advertised in accordance with the decision of the Cabinet.

The projects include 960-MW Jhangi-Thopan-Powari, 98-MW Sitingari, 76-MW Mane Nandang, 65-MW Pattam, 60-MW Lara, 60-MW Ropa, 49-MW Siul Surgani, 37-MW Balsoti, 18-MW Janglik and 16.5-MW Duneli-Darkund.

Bilaspur, July 4
BJP state general secretary and Naina Devi constituency MLA Randhir Sharma has issued an ultimatum to the state government that if a notification to take Shri Naina Devi areas out of the wildlife sanctuary (WLS) was not issued within the next one week, the BJP would launch an agitation against the slackness of the government and its failure to provide the much-awaited relief to thousands of farmers of the area.

Addressing a workers’ meeting at Naina Devi, 95 km from here, Sharma expressed surprise that though the Supreme Court had passed an order on February 1 for issuing the notification to take the area out of the WLS, four months had passed, but the government had been sleeping over the issue and thousands of people were suffering.

He said during the BJP rule, the government had taken serious steps for the purpose, adopted a resolution in the Vidhan Sabha and pursued the case at the Supreme Court.

Several BJP leaders, including Ashutosh Sharma, Ramesh Kumar, Gurbhchan Singh, Chain Singh, Anirudh Kaushal, Ranjeet Singh and Madan Lal, were present at the meeting.

Shimla, July 4
Governor Urmila Singh administered the oath of allegiance to KS Tomar as Chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (HPPSC) at Raj Bhawan here today.

Born on May 8, 1955, Tomar is an MA in English Literature from DAV College, Dehradun.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, his ministerial colleagues, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries, members of the HPPSC and senior officials attended the function.

Tomar said a toll-free helpline would be launched to assist the candidates to get all information.

Kangra, July 4
Magician Samrat Shankar made an appeal to keep the art of magic alive and said the state governments should come forward to check its misuse for commercial gains. Shankar was addressing a press conference here today.

He said entertainment tax should be levied-off from magic shows because it was "one of the majors arts and a treasure of India" which was on the verge of extinction as television had overshadowed it. He further said, "I have requested the Himachal Pradesh government to give me five acres of land at Shimla or Manali for setting up a magic academy." — OC