Shimla, July 16
The uncertainty over the appointment of the next Director General of Police (DGP) has finally ended with the government today appointing Sanjay Kumar, a 1985 IPS officer, as the officiating DGP after the retirement of the present incumbent B Kamal Kumar.

Sanjay Kumar, who will be returning from a Central deputation with the Railways here on July 22, has been made Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Law and Order. He will officiate as the DGP after the retirement of Kamal Kumar on July 31.

Since Sanjay Kumar does not fulfil the condition of having at least 30 years of service, he has been made ADGP, Law and Order, but given the designation of officiating DGP after Kamal Kumar's retirement.

In fact, none of the three senior-most officers in the state, Somesh Goyal, Sanjay Kumar and SR Mardi, fulfil the 30 years minimum service condition. As per seniority, ID Bhandari is currently the senior-most IPS officer in the state. He belongs to the 1982 cadre, but he was removed from the top police post in the state following the phone tapping controversy. Though he is the senior-most and belongs to the 1982 batch, the possibility of his being made the DGP once again is remote. He is posted as DGP, Home Guards and Fire Services.

After Bhandari, the senior-most IPS officer is Somesh Goyal, belonging to the 1984 batch. He is currently on a Central deputation in Delhi. Sanjay Kumar is of the 1984 batch and is an immediate junior to Goyal. The third person, whose name was among the three senior-most officers being considered for the post, was SR Mardi, currently serving as the ADGP, CID.

The appointment of Sanjay Kumar has also put an end to the possibility of an IPS officer from outside the state being made the DGP. The government had considered the names of SK Sharma, ADGP, Human Resource Development, Punjab, along with a few other names.

Mandi, July 16
Technical education is in a mess here as there are virtually no takers for 15 private engineering colleges in the state. As many as 1,500 applicants have applied for 7,490 BTech seats available in private engineering colleges and 360 BTech seats in two government-run engineering colleges this year.

Private colleges allegedly had started enrolling students, who had not qualified the JEE test, ahead of counselling by the state technical university on July 19, revealed sources.

“They are risking the careers of students, violating the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) norms and the HP Private Technical Education Institutions Admission and Fixation of Fee Act, 2008,” experts said.

“The Act prohibits these institutions to admit students in BTech courses, who have not qualified the JEE. It also renders them liable for withdrawal of the AICTE’s approval,” said Vijay Chandan, director, state Technical Education.

Private engineering colleges have been getting the generosity of the state government over the years allowing them to admit students as they please. “This, in turn, makes a mockery of the AICTE norms,” said education experts.

Private engineering colleges have availed huge seats, which they fill abusing the Supreme court order.

The Apex Court has allowed them 15 per cent seats as management seats, but without violating the AICTE criteria. As many as 50 per cent seats in private colleges remained unfilled, while there was cent per cent occupancy in the two government engineering colleges last year.

This year, State Technical University has received just 1,500 applications for 7,490 BTech seats in 15 private engineering colleges and 360 BTech seats in the two government-run engineering colleges, Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College at Sundarnagar and Atal Bihari Vajpayee Engineering College at Pragtinagar.

Like in the past, the Private Engineering Colleges Association is pressing upon the state government to wave off the JEE test condition and allow them to admit students. “These students otherwise end up paying through the nose in private engineering colleges outside the state,” said Nikka Ram, chairman, SIRDA Group of Institutions, who is also the member of the association.

But as per the AICTE and the norms of the state government, no students can be enrolled in engineering colleges who has not appeared in the JEE and attained 50 per cent marks.

Chandan said the government had not issued any notification to wave off the admission clause for private colleges so far.

Dharamsala, July 16
The political permutations and combinations to find out Congress candidate for the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency have started. Minister for Industry Mukesh Agnihotri held a closed-door meeting with Deepak Thakur, an international hockey player from Una district, yesterday.

Sources here said Deepak was being considered as a Congress candidate from the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency with the backing of Agnihotri, who is the blue-eyed boy of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

The sources said Agnihotri told the international hockey player to consider contesting parliamentary election from Hamirpur.

The Congress was of the view that fielding an international hockey player would counter Anurag Thakur, who is also famous for promoting sports in the state.

Deepak is presently employed with the Indian Oil Company. However, he was, not available for comments despite repeated calls on his cellphone.

The Hamirpur parliamentary constituency has become a bastion of the BJP. The party has been winning the constituency for the last more than a decade now. The Congress has failed to put up a formidable challenge to former Chief Minister PK Dhumal or his son Anurag Thakur, an MP from the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency.

The Congress has won three out of five Assembly seats from Una district. Though Deepak seems to be the choice of Agnihotri, other Congress leaders from Una, including parliamentary secretary and newly appointed AICC secretary Rakesh Kalia are also in contention.

Deepak was once in contention for the Congress ticket from Hamirpur in view of the fact that the Congress was also thinking of putting a star candidate from the constituency due to the fact that it has been on a losing streak from the area.

Shimla, July 16
The government today appointed former Assembly Speaker Gangu Ram Musafir as Deputy Chairman of the Himachal Pradesh State Planning Board.

Only the earlier approved four names of Musafir, Harbhajan Singh Bhajji, Prakash Karat and Kewal Singh Pathania have got the appointments today. Bhajji, former Shimla legislator and a staunch loyalist of state Congress president Sukhvinder Singh, has been appointed vice-chairman of the HP State Water Board.

Karat, who had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly elections in 2007 from the Arki Assembly segment, has been made vice-chairman of the HP Small Saving Board.

The additional names given by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to the Congress high command for being appointed as chairmen and vice-chairmen is yet to get the nod of the Central leadership.

Kewal Singh Pathania, who had been appointed vice-chairman of the Himachal Roadways Transport Corporation (HRTC), has been shifted as vice-chairman of the Himachal State Forest Corporation. Pathania was shifted from the HRTC to the Forest Corporation on the insistence of the Transport Minister.

Both Virbhadra and Sukhvinder had held talks with AICC general secretary Ambika Soni in New Delhi last week to finalise the list of names to be appointed as chairman and vice-chairmen. 

Shimla, July 16
With imports becoming uneconomical due to hardening of the dollar, major players in fresh fruit trade are gearing up to procure larger quantities of apple from states like Himachal to meet the demand.

The sharp depreciation in the value of rupee vis-a-vis US dollar, which is hovering around Rs 60, has indeed made the imported apple dearer and it no longer poses any threat to the indigenous fruit. A standard box containing 20 kg of good quality apple from countries like the US, New Zealand and Chile now costs around Rs 2,500 with 50 per cent custom duty as against Rs 1,300 to Rs 1,700 two years ago. Thus, the price in retail market will be around Rs 225 per kg, which is much higher than the returns from the best quality local fruit.

“We will certainly procure more fruit from Himachal this year and we have arranged additional storage capacity in Chandigarh, Haryana, Delhi and other places for the purpose,” said S Ramanujam, business head, Adani Agrifresh Limited. The company has three controlled atmosphere stores in Himachal with a capacity of 18,000 tonnes and it procured about 16,000 tonnes of apple last year. However, this year the procurement was likely to cross 25,000 tonnes as imports were no longer economical, he added.

Ramanujam said the prices were likely to be reasonable as the crop was good and the damage from hail was also confined to a few pockets. As such there would be no problem in getting quality fruit. The company had registered over 7,000 growers from whom fruit was procured and provided extensive training on pre and post harvest practices to them. It was directly buying fruit from growers and the returns to the growers were higher in “real terms” as they did not to have to carry out grading and packaging which was done by the company at its own centres.

“With the fresh fruit industry making more apple to make up for the reduction in imports due to the weakening of the rupee, the market will remain stable and the returns will also be good,” said Rajeev Chauhan, a leading growers and chairman of the Himalayan Apple Growers Society.

“The sharp decline in the value of the rupee had even made the Chinese apple dearer and it cannot be priced competitively anymore,” he said. As per official estimates, the total production is likely to range between 3.50 crore and 4 crore boxes. 

Hamirpur, July 16
The police seized Rs 4.63 crore from a car at Deothsidh under Badsar subdivision today. The occupants of the car reportedly managed to flee leaving behind the vehicle.

Sources said, “This unaccounted money was received as ransom by the accused from a family in Khanna in Punjab in lieu of the release of a child kidnapped by them a few days ago and smuggled into Himachal as one of them hailed from the Badsar area”.

“The Himachal Pradesh Police had reportedly received the information from the Punjab Police yesterday regarding the money after which it alerted the police of bordering districts,” the sources said.

The police had set up nakas at Hamirpur, Una, Baddi, Solan, Kangra and Sirmaur districts yesterday and the money was seized at Deothsidh in Hamirpur district today.

Jagat Ram, SP, Hamirpur, said, “We have registered a case under Sections 379 and 411, IPC, and launched a manhunt to arrest the accused”.

“A forensic team has also been called from Mandi to gather evidence,” he added. 

Solan, July 16
With Himachal Pradesh Technical University (HPTU) holding counselling for admissions to various postgraduate courses at a single centre in the state, private institutes have failed to fill a majority of their seats with the locations being far-off.

The HPTU is holding such a counselling for the first-time. Earlier all the institutes used to admit students on their own based on eligibility criteria laid down by the university.

The HPTU recently held a counselling for the Masters of Computer Application (MCA) course at Una, which was the sole centre catering to all the private institutes in the state.

Another counselling held at Dharamsala for various MBA courses has also left the students high and dry as many have failed to attend it. With both the locations being far-off for students residing in areas like Kullu, Shimla, Mandi, Chamba, etc, private colleges have failed to fill a majority of their seats.

The institutes offering MTech courses, however, had a different tale of woes. A large number of seats have been left vacant as they failed to admit students, who had passed BTech from various colleges in the neighbouring states, but had not cleared national-level eligibility test as this had been made a mandatory condition for all the MTech admissions.

Each private college was supposed to pay Rs 1 lakh for counselling for each course to the HPTU and student appearing in the counselling had to fill up a form for Rs 1,000 for each subject. Despite this, the managements of private colleges alleged that they were not provided adequate space to conduct counselling and with the first preference being government-run institutions, they failed to get adequate admissions.

Manoj Kumar, Registrar, HPTU, said since the number of students, who had applied for counselling, was much less vis-a-vis the number of seats available in various colleges, one centre each for MBA and MCA had been earmarked for counselling.

He added that since the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering had been made an essential condition for admission to all the MTech courses, no student who failed to qualify the exam could be admitted.

Managements of private institutes, however, rued that since counselling dates failed to be advertised, aspiring students had failed to appear and they had been unfairly denied a chance to take admission in institutes of their choice.

Shimla, July 16
Mandi MP Pratibha Singh today urged Union Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge to strengthen rail network in the state and declare the Bialspur-Manali-Leh line as a project of national importance.

Pratibha met the Union Railway Minister in New Delhi today. “Keeping in view the strategic importance of the Manali-Leh line, the Centre must accord top priority to this project as it serves as an alternate route to carry defence supplies to the Siachen glacier during the Kargil conflict,” she said. She added that the expansion of the rail network in the state would go a long way in not only strengthening the economy of the state, but also in promoting tourism. — TNS

Mandi, July 16
The CPM today termed yoga guru Ramdev as the “spokesperson” of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and accused him of poking his nose in politics in the guise of yoga and religion.

In a statement issued here today, CPM general secretary Bhupender Singh accused Ramdev of being behind the scene spokesperson-cum-yoga guru of the RSS.

Kangra, July 16
Saplings of different plants, including the 45 lakh of medicinal variety, will be planted on 17,500 hectares in the state during the current financial year.

This was stated today by Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri while addressing a public meeting at Dhaulatpur, near here, after he inaugurated the 64th circle-level Forest Maha Utsav by planting a medicinal plant "harad". The Forest Minister said 7 per cent broad-leafed and 20 per cent wild fruit variety plants would be planted, besides lakhs of medicinal plants during the drive.

The minister said under the Forest Circle Division, Dharamsala, this year, 464 hectares of land would be brought under the fresh plantation drive and nine lakh saplings would be planted.

Bharmouri said in this Forest Division, 15 lakh plants were produced in 41 nurseries. These would be distributed free of cost among people to be planted in their private land.

He said the government had regularised the Timber Distribution Rights. Under this, five trees for the construction of a new house and one tree for the repair of an old house would be sanctioned. He said besides for a marriage ceremony, timber would also be made available for the last rites free of cost.

Earlier, Amitab Ghautam, Conservator, Dharamsala Forest Circle, welcomed the Forest Minister. Among those present on the occasion were local MLA Pawan Kajal, former MLA Surender Kaku, DFO Basu Kaushal and other officers.

Shimla, July 16
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said despite the Centre starting the 108 ambulance service in Himachal, the previous BJP regime had named it as their own scheme to gain undue political mileage.

The Chief Minister was speaking at the flagging-off ceremony of 50 new ambulances under the 108 National Ambulance Service here today. With these 50 new ambulances, the total fleet of the service had increased to 162 in Himachal Pradesh, he added.

Despite the purchase of these ambulances almost two and a half years after the launch of the scheme during the BJP regime, these had cost less than the ones bought earlier, thus preventing extra burden on the exchequer, he said. He said the new ambulances were fully equipped and fabricated to provide emergency medical aid to the patients.

Virbhadra said 125 small ambulances would be purchased shortly to facilitate expectant mothers. He said the National Ambulance Service had proved to be a boon for people of the state as it had benefited more than three lakh patients, besides handling 2,500 fire and 10,000 police-related cases since its inception.

He said his government had accorded top priority to the health sector and there would be no dearth of money to provide the best possible health care to people of the state. Besides, the government was striving hard to put in place a number of initiatives in the health sector, all aimed at further improving the health profile of the people.

The Chief Minister said the state government had taken up the matter with the Central government for increasing 50 MBBS seats each at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) in Shimla and Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Tanda, in Kangra.

He said approval had been granted to fill up 475 vacant posts of various categories in the Health Department to provide the best health-care services to people at their door-steps. He said the government would ensure that doctors and paramedical staff were posted in remote and far-flung areas to serve people of rural area.

Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur said 100 posts of doctor would be filled up during the current fiscal year, while 100 more would be filled up the next year. He thanked the Centre for providing liberal financial assistance to develop the IGMC, Shimla, as Super-Specialty Hospital on the analogy of AIIMS.

Dalhousie, July 16
The police caught a man red-handed while he was burning telephone cables near Kalidhaar in outlying Bhattiyat sub-division in the district yesterday when a police party was on a patrol, a police statement here said. Copper weighing 6 kg was also recovered from his possession.

The statement said the accused had been identified as Mahinder Singh, alias Bittu, adding that a case under Section 379 of the IPC and Section 25 of the Indian Telegraph Act had been registered against him. — OC