Shimla, October 13
The multiplicity of subjects under the choice-based credit system (CBCS) introduced from the current academic session under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) has made framing of date sheet for the final semester examination a difficult task.

The number of subjects has increased from 40 to 128 and with students given an option to choose subjects from the traditional streams of science, arts and commerce, the examination process may have to be spread over 40 days, which is not practicable. The Directorate of Education has started an exercise in consultation with the principals of degree colleges to help Himachal Pradesh University to finalise the date sheet so that the examination is completed within three weeks without any clash of papers.

The examination for the first semester of the three-year degree course is scheduled to commence from November 21. Director of Education Dinkar Burathoki held a meeting of principals at Bilaspur in this regard last week. The principals of main colleges were assigned the task of preparing draft date sheets on the basis of which the schedule will be finalised after sorting out any clash of papers. As examinations will have to be conducted twice a year under the semester system, the university has decided to switch over to information communication technology enabled online process for submission of examination forms.

There are about 48,000 students in the first semester in 110 colleges and they will be required to submit examination forms and make payment of fee online for which the last date is October 30. Besides photograph and specimen signature, they will have to upload scanned copies of matriculation certificate and that of the last examination passed. Aadhaar number will also have to be mentioned in the form and attested copies of certificates will have to be submitted later with a hard copy of the form. Students will be able to download admit card seven days before the start of the examination.

The affiliated colleges will be required to give an exact number of students studying a particular subject under various courses as per the new system. 

Shimla, October 13
Four persons, including a woman and two children, were injured when a cooking gas refill exploded in a house in the Jutogh locality on the outskirts of the town in the wee hours of the day today.

There was a huge burst of flame in the kitchen as soon as Satya Devi (38) tried to light the gas stove at 5.15 am. The explosion also brought down the tin roof of the kutcha house which was totally damaged. Two adjoining houses also suffered damage and developed wide cracks.

Besides Satya Devi, Nitin (20), Vicky and Yash, both children, were also injured in the mishap. They admitted to the IGMC Hospital with 20 to 40 per cent burn injuries.

Shimla, October 13
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has said the government is giving priority to provide roads, better health and education facilities to the common people.

Virbhadra was addressing a public meeting at Sarahan in Rampur subdivision of Shimla district yesterday. He said the technical knowhow and perspective of development were changing very fast and ropeways could become an effective means of connecting different areas in the hills.

Dharamsala, October 13
With the commissioning of the Shah Canal and Rs 400 crore spent on the project, the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department is striving hard to ensure that 2,000 cusec water coming through the canal is put to optimum use. The department is now counselling farmers of the region to suggest how the canal water can be put to an optimum use.

Parvez Akhtar, Chief Engineer, IPH, told The Tribune that a joint committee had been formed in which Agriculture and Horticulture Department officials had been included. The officials have been asked to integrate their schemes as the drip irrigation scheme in the command area of the canal. The idea is to promote agriculture and horticulture schemes in the command area of the canal.

However, sources here said small land holdings of farmers were the basic problem in making an optimum utilisation of the canal water.

The canal is now bringing Himachal’s share of irrigation water from the Pong Dam after about 50 years to the farmers of Kangra district.

Besides constructing the main canal, the department is also constructing RCC minor and sub-minor canals for carrying water to fields. As per the design, canal water would provide irrigation facilities to 93 villages of the Indora area. The Irrigation Department is in the process of forming “krishak vikas sanghs” in each village. The government had approved an additional Rs 68 crore for developing drains in the command area of the canal, the sources said.

The agreement for the construction of the canal was reached between Punjab and Himachal in 1983. The initial cost of the project was Rs 143 crore. While Himachal was to contribute 40 per cent cost of the project, Punjab had to contribute 60 per cent. However, the Punjab government contributed just Rs 66 crore for the project. Due to the delay, the cost of constructing the canal increased to Rs 392.85 crore. The Union Government has now contributed 90 per cent cost of the project under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme, while the remaining 10 per cent has been contributed by Punjab and Himachal in 60:40 ratio.

Shimla, October 13
Dasehra was celebrated with gaiety and religious fervour across the state. The main festival was held at the historic Hanuman Temple in Jakhoo, the highest point of the town, where Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh joined the celebration with a large number of local residents and pilgrims from various parts of the country.

Virbhadra Singh lit the effigies of Ravana, Kumbhkarna and Meghnath. He said Dasehra was celebrated to commemorate the prevalence of good over evil. It was one of the prominent festivals organised all over the country by people of all faiths and religions.

Earlier, the Chief Minister paid obeisance at the temple.

Dharamsala, October 13
Dasehra was celebrated with fervour across the country today. However, in Baijnath town in Kangra district, 60 km from here, people do not burn the effigy of Ravana, symbol of evil. Even the markets remained closed both in Baijnath and Paprola today.

A strong belief that celebrating the festival will bring the wrath of Lord Shiva on them keeps residents of the town away from burning the effigies of Ravana, his brother Kumbhkaran and son Meghnath as per the tradition on Dasehra. Residents said Ravana was a great devotee of Lord Shiva.

Some people in the town tried to celebrate Dasehra about a decade ago by burning the effigy of Ravana. However, all of them died before next Dasehra. People took it as the wrath of Lord Shiva and nobody dared to celebrate the festival again.

The belief of people that keeps them away from the festival is also associated with the famous Shiva temple located in the town.

As per the legend, it is believed that during the Treta yug, Ravana to have invincible powers worshipped Lord Shiva in the Kailash mountains. He even offered his 10 heads in the hawan kund. Impressed by his extraordinary deed, Lord Shiva not only restored his heads, but also bestowed him with powers of invincibility and immortality.

Ravana also requested Lord Shiva to accompany him to Lanka. Shiva consented to his request and converted himself into a ling. Shiva asked him to carry the ling and told him that he should not place the ling down on the ground on his way. Ravana started moving in the southern direction and reached Baijnath where he felt the need to answer nature’s call. On seeing a shepherd, Ravana handed him the ling and went to relieve himself. On finding the ling very heavy, the shepherd kept the ling on the ground and the ling got stuck there.

Another interesting thing about Baijnath is that there is no shop of goldsmiths. However, nobody knows the reason for it. 

Bilaspur, October 13
Congress state general secretary Ram Lal Thakur has pointed towards the alleged suppression of the Rs 5-crore hawala money haul case of 2011 in Una district in which Buddhist guru Karmapa was also named as an accused.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Ram Lal said people still remembered the sensational recovery of Rs 1 crore from a car on the Punjab-Una border by the Una police as the purchase-cost of some 52 kanals of prime land at Dharamsala, when a former owner of a newspaper was also arrested with two other accused.

Ram Lal Thakur urged Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to order a detailed inquiry into the case “as this case was hushed up” by some top BJP leaders with the intention to grab this precious land at Dharamsala. He said people had the right to know why the case was suppressed and not a single accused out of the four persons was brought to book and why the case was not sent to court.

Congress general secretary Ram Lal Thakur asked how was it that a bank officer, who remained in jail for 32 days in the case, was still in service on the same post in the same bank and not a single accused had been punished till now.

He released some documents concerning this land deal and its sale etc and asked former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal to answer why he gave permission for the purchase of land under Section 118 to a foreigner not once or twice, but five times during his tenure.

Replying to BJP general secretary Randhir Sharma's question, Ram Lal Thakur said he did not own any assets other than his legal income and had been regularly filing his income tax returns.

Kamand (Mandi), October 13
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi, boasts of being the first among new IITs to shift its first batch of 108 BTech students to its new campus in September 2012, but the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), the executing agency, has missed its deadline to shift the entire campus to Kamand this year.

The CPWD has so far completed only 10 per cent of works mainly in the south campus. The IIT Mandi north and south campuses are coming up on 538 acres.

In the north campus, the CPWD had targeted to ready the buildings on 1,15,000 sq m in May 2013-2014. But the work was allotted this month, which delayed construction by two years, said insiders.

The Union Cabinet has yet to approve Rs 1,100 crore meant for the construction of more buildings in the north and south campuses, sources said. “It gave Rs 180 crore for construction on 1.26 lakh sq m area in the north campus this year for which the ground-breaking ceremony was held on October 8 after the CPWD allotted its work to a private firm,” said a source.

The Central government has also given Rs 50 crore for the construction of water and sewerage lines in the south campus, where the CPWD has already completed 11 buildings, which house over 260 students.

The CPWD attributed the delay in shifting of the entire campus this year to the holdup in the allotment of work to the contractor in the north campus. “Five buildings have to come up on the north campus to house students and administrative staff there,” the sources said.

As of now, the Mandi IIT has enrolled over 560 students of whom 260 have been shifted to the new campus, while the remaining 300 are still in the transit campus at the Mandi college. The IIT had started functioning from its transit campus in Mandi in 2010.

Work worth Rs 150 crore to construct seven more buildings was yet to be finalised, the sources said. “We expect the north campus work to be ready in two years time,” the CPWD engineer said.

IIT Mandi Director Timothy A Gonsalves said, “The north campus is expected to accommodate students and institute’s growth till 2018. The campus has hill-friendly gable houses that jell well with the local ecology.”

The CPWD claims that the master plan for complete campus development is ready. It will cater to 6,000 students, 600 faculty and associated staff.

Solan, October 13
A piquant situation has arisen in the bordering industrial belt of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) after the imposition of a ban on the movement of quarry material to other states. Owners of stone crushers are unable to sell their stock even within the state as transportation of material requires crossing of inter-state barriers.

This is not only leading to a shortage of quarry materials like cut stones and sand for various government projects on the NH-22, but also causing a loss to the state exchequer.

Builders operating in Parwanoo and Solan are now procuring quarry material from Haryana as no material can be brought from the BBN area. Even the Haripur-Band Road fails to carry heavy trucks carrying quarry material.

Officials said a project of the Northern Railways, which was functioning in four places on the NH-22 and at Kalka, was also finding it difficult to arrange quarry material as it had already entered into an agreement to procure the material from the BBN area, but now owing to the ban this material could not be procured.

A representation was also given to the Chief Minister where representatives of the Stone Crushers Association said the ban on the movement of quarry material to other states was adversely affecting their work. They added that though they were not averse to fulfilling the needs of the state, since this demand was barely 40 per cent, the remaining material failed to be sold out as no material could be transported outside the BBN.

Transporting any material to any other part of the state from the BBN required crossing of inter-state barriers and this was a major obstacle in selling quarry material even within Himachal.

With the sale of quarry material having been reduced due to the ban, employees working in stone crushers are facing problems as reduced work makes it difficult for the owners to retain workers with less work. An expenditure of Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh is incurred on paying labourers every month and an equal amount is incurred on power bills, according to an estimate.

The state collects total royalty of Rs 63.54 crore in lieu of minor mineral which includes building stone, sand and cut stones and the BBN contributes a major share in this revenue.

Though stone crushers are now hopeful that a partial relaxation will soon be granted for transporting grit, it remains to be seen how the state government deals with this issue which has created a shortage of quarry material within the state. 

Hamirpur, October 13
Despite a ban on the sale of gutka, khaini and pan masala, these products continue to be sold openly due to technical flaws in the ban order.

A regular user of pan masala said, "Pan masala, gutka and other commonly used harmful chewing items are available at a higher price and vendors are selling these to regular users." A pouch of gutka is sold between Rs 5 and Rs 10, while khaini is sold between Rs 20 and Rs 50 depending on the size and brand.

The government had banned the storage, sale and distribution of gutka, pan masala and khaini in the state in July 2012 and given a relaxation to sellers and stockiest to clear their stocks by October 2, 2012, and after the ban, a person engaged in this activity was to be dealt with the provisions of the Food Safety Act.

While the illegal sale of these products continues, manufacturers and sellers of these items have devised a new method to market such products by selling these as tobacco items. They are packing these products in pouches marked as tobacco products, which are not covered under the Food Safety Act.

Hans Raj, Director, Health Safety and Regulation, said, "This is in our knowledge and we have taken up the issue with the Central government to take corrective measures." 

Dalhousie, October 13
Residents' demand was fulfilled when Dalhousie MLA Asha Kumari inaugurated a Fire Brigade post at Banikhet yesterday.

Speaking on the occasion, Asha said the fire post would mitigate the emergency requirements during fire incidents and other natural calamities. The local populace would also be imparted training through mock drills in which they would be made familiar with precautions to be taken while combating disasters.

The MLA directed the revenue authorities to identify suitable land for the construction of the fire station building.

She also thanked Tilak Thakur, a local resident, for providing accommodation for establishing the new fire post. She asked officials of the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department to take immediate steps for providing round-the-clock water supply to the fire post.

Kangra, October 13
Resentment prevails among a large number of BSNL subscribers of the town and its suburban areas for the non-delivery of landline telephone bills for August and September due to the alleged negligence of the BSNL authorities.

Most of the landline telephone subscribers had been receiving computerised messages to pay their telephone bills within time or they would have to pay late fee. 
On enquiring about the non-delivery of bills, the subscribers were asked to collect duplicate bills from the BSNL department.

The postal authorities here said earlier they had been receiving bills directly from Dharamsala, but now they received these via Pathankot.

Ramesh Chand, Post Master, Head Post Office, said they had received bills for Sunarh village yesterday. He said these bills were dispatched from Dharamsala on October 9 and reached the town from Pathankot yesterday. Ramesh said bills were sent to the post office concerned yesterday and would be distributed tomorrow, which was the last date for depositing these bills. He said the post office had also received some landline bills of Kangra yesterday for further distribution.

BSNL General Manager JC Maneria said he had no information about the delay in the distribution of landline bills. He said the BSNL would take up the matter with the postal authorities, adding that BSNL customers could be provided with duplicate bills from local telephone exchanges.

DGM, Finances, Des Raj, who is supposed to monitor the bill delivery system, said he was not in a position to say anything about it. 

Shimla, October 13
Vikramaditya Singh was unanimously elected president of the Himachal Pradesh State Rifle Association here today. The general body of the association also unanimously elected the governing body. Besides, a six-member governing council comprising representatives from different districts was elected.

Vikramaditya said the main focus would be on bringing talented sportspersons to the fore and providing them better opportunities to excel in their field.

He said efforts were on to establish an international-level shooting range in the state for which a site had been identified near Ghanahati in Shimla. Besides, efforts would be made to establish a 10 to 25-m shooting range in every district. An indoor shooting range had been completed at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex.

The association would provide best equipments to shooters for which assistance from the state and the Government of India would be sought.

State Coop Bank Chairman Harsh, who is also a life member of the association, DC Dinesh Malhotra and other members and life members were also present in the meeting. The association has elected the following office-bearers: Surat Singh Thakur — senior vice-president; Rajesh Parmar, Vikrant Singh Rana and Rajeev Sehgal — vice-presidents; Ishwar Rohal — gen secy; Rana Vijay Singh — chief adviser; Manish Giri — joint secy and Rajeev Sood — treasurer.

Kangra, October 13
Vice-Chairman of the Forest Corporation Kewal Singh Pathania has dared the Dhumal family to identify a single patch of land in the state which has been purchased or grabbed by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

Pathania was addressing a meeting of workers of INTUC, mid-day meal scheme and the Congress at Shahpur yesterday. He said PK Dhumal as Chief Minister had recommended a CBI inquiry against Virbhadra Singh, but he came out clean.

He said it was because of the personality of Virbhadra that he was voted to power the sixth time.

Pathania alleged that the issues against Virbhadra were raised by BJP leaders only after the Vigilance started investigation in the HPCA. Meanwhile, people lauded the decision of the Chief Minister to set up an Engineer-in-Chief office, IPH, at Shahpur and thanked Pathania for pleading their cause before the Chief Minister.

Bilaspur, October 13
Yet another “Baba” is in the grip of the police here for allegedly trying to sexually assault a 9-year-old girl at Markad Maakadi gram panchayat at the Bate Krishna temple in the Jukhala area, 27 km from here, yesterday.

Reports said “Baba” Dharam Dass (65) called the girl to his room adjoining the temple and asked her to clean his room. But immediately thereafter, Dharam Dass also entered the room and bolted it from inside and tried to sexually assault the girl, who shouted at the top of her voice.

Other children playing outside also raised an alarm and several villagers rushed to the spot and broke open the door and found the girl in the grip of Dass.

People thrashed Dass and handed him over to the police who arrested him and registered a case after recording the statements of the girl and witnesses there. The matter is being investigated.

Dharam Dass belongs to the upper area of Shimla district and has been living in the temple for the last several years.

Hamirpur, October 13
An embezzlement in the fund deposited by taxi operators has come to light in Hamirpur. An office-bearer of the Veerbhoomi Taxi Operators Union, Hamirpur, reportedly deposited a portion of the tax and gave them the receipts issued by the Excise and Taxation Department by forging the figures.

The matter was detected by members of the union when it was found that despite paying tax dues regularly, a large amount was still pending against them.

After investigation by the operators, it was revealed that the tax was not deposited in full with the department.

This happened as an office-bearer of the taxi union, who was collecting money from the taxi operators, “embezzled” the fund by not depositing the tax with the department.

He was collecting money and giving forged receipts.

According to taxi operators, “It was detected by us when we found that dues deposited by us as tax were not actually received by the department and only partial amount was being paid in a number of cases.”

“The office-bearer used to deposit only a portion of the amount received but gave them receipts issued by the department by altering the figures.”

This issue has also put a question mark on the working of the department since a large amount of tax not being deposited with the department remained undetected for so long.

President of the taxi union Rakesh Thakur said, “The tax is being collected and will be deposited soon.”

Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Hamirpur, Ravinder Kumar said, “We are auditing tax collection record of all commercial vehicles but no official of our department is involved in this matter.”

Shimla, October 13
The State Pollution Control Board (PCB) plans to solve the problem of waste management by utilising it for the generation of energy.

Kuldeep Singh Pathania, Chairman of the State Pollution Control Board , said in his view waste had to be treated as a raw material resource for energy in future. The board would use its expertise in the field of waste management for converting it into energy.

The focus areas of the study tour were solid waste management and recycling, municipal, industrial and bio-medical waste, waste to energy technology, landfill management, waste consultancy, waste water management and recycling, clean technologies and environment and sustainability.

Kuldeep Singh Pathania said a conference would be organised soon where organisations and companies involved in waste management would be invited to present their technologies to entrepreneurs and municipalities of the state to help make Himachal Pradesh cleaner and greener by adopting appropriate technologies. The State Pollution Control Board would facilitate and organise such programmes and ensure that modern technologies of waste management were adopted in the state.

Mandi, October 13
Farmers have dismissed animal rights activist and MP Maneka Gandhi’s charge that the population of monkey has declined from three crore to three lakh in the country due to their elimination, saying that “more than three lakh monkeys exist in Himachal alone”.

They have no option other than growing alternative crops such as jimikand, ginger and tamarind which are not eaten by monkeys. Farmers at Dharwar in Dharampur have already started growing these crops.

The farmers have taken a lead even as the Neri Research Centre of Dr YS Parmar University, Nauni, has prepared a vision document in association with the Department of Agriculture to promote the cultivation of the crops which are not eaten by monkeys.

The farmers expressed shock over Maneka's comment in Dharamsala recently. Her assessment was baseless as more than three lakh monkeys existed in Himachal alone, claimed Bhupender Singh, a Himachal farmer leader.

But Maneka did not understand the pains of the farmers who had left farming due to monkey menace, rued Rup Lal, Tek Singh and Kuldip Saklani, farmers from Dharwar. 

Bilaspur, October 13
The district unit of the Brahmin Sabha here has resented the provision of reservations on caste basis and stressed that this system has done harm to society.

A meeting, presided over by president Sita Ram Sharma on Friday, adopted a resolution, urging the government to ensure that the reservation was based on financial condition of family and not on its caste.

The meeting urged that the Himachal government should not blindly enforce reservation in promotions as this provision was fraught with several dangers and would do more damage to social structure and offices than it would provide any benefits to individuals.

Present at the meeting were Hira Lal Sharma, Pyare Lal Sharma, JK Sharma, Sunder Lal Dogra, Uttam Chand Sharma, Gita Ram Sharma, OP Garga, Ishwar Dass Garga, Shyam Lal Sharma, KK Bhardwaj, Sri Ram Bhardwaj, Roop Lal Sharma, Dr Ramesh Kumar Sharma, Bishambhar Dutt Sharma, Rikhi Ram Sharma, Ashwini Sharma, Hari Ram Sharma, Vidya Sagar Sharma, Jagdish Gauttam and Anup Sharma among others.

Hamirpur, October 13
The death of Leela Devi, a resident of Barada, after delivering a baby at the Hamirpur Regional Hospital on Friday, has led to a controversy as Jaswant Singh, her husband, accused doctors of negligence. Leela was referred from Toani Devi Hospital to the Regional Hospital. Jaswant said, “The doctor did not attend to my wife despite my request.”

The Chief Medical Officer said, “This matter has been brought to my notice. Leela reportedly died of some infection and I will enquire into the allegation of negligence by the doctor concerned.”