Dharamsala, December 20
Pandemonium ruled the Vidhan Sabha on the penultimate day of the winter session as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members staged a noisy protest after Speaker BBL Butail rejected their adjournment motion seeking a discussion on charges against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

BJP legislators walk out of the Vidhan Sabha in Dharamsala on Friday. Photo: Kamaljeet

As soon as the House assembled, Rikhi Ram Kaundal raised the matter, urging the Speaker to allow the adjournment motion, for which 14 members had given a notice.

Kaundal said charges had been made against the head of the government and clippings of newspaper reports had been appended to the notice. Butail said he had studied the notice and found that there no supporting facts and the motion could not be allowed solely on the basis of news reports.

At this, Rajeev Bindal and other members were on their feet, pleading that the motion should be allowed. Kaul Singh Thakur countered their plea, asserting that the purchase of shares of a company was not an offence. He said Tarni Infrastructure Limited was a listed company and it was no ground for bringing an adjournment motion.

Ravinder Singh Ravi of the BJP said it was a serious matter as Virbhadra Singh and his family had purchased shares of the company which was owned by the person from whom they had taken unsecured loans.

Butail was not impressed by the plea. He rejected the adjournment motion, which led to protests from BJP members, who started raising slogans. As the Speaker proceeded with the Question Hour, they trooped into the well of the House.

The ministers answered the questions in the din and nothing could be heard. The entire business listed for the day, including three Bills, was transacted amid slogan-shouting.

The call attention motion regarding contamination of water sources in Shivpuri and Samnoli villages due to dumping of waste from hotels in Chintpurni and the discussion on norms for laying foundation stones and inauguration of projects and schemes could not be taken up as BJP members concerned were in the well of the House.

Dharamsala, December 20
Leader of Opposition PK Dhumal today urged Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to clarify his position on charges regarding unsecured loans taken by him and his family and purchase of shares of Tarni Infrastructure Limited.

Addressing mediapersons here today, he said that it was a serious issue which warranted an immediate discussion, but the adjournment motion of the BJP was not allowed for the second time today.

The motion was disallowed on the opening day of the session on the plea that no specific matter had been raised and a number of issues had been clubbed.

However, today, when the party gave a notice on the specific issue of purchase of shares by Virbhadra Singh and his family, the Speaker rejected the notice on the grounds that there were not enough facts.

The Chief Minister owed an explanation to the people as Tarni Infrastructure Limited was owned by Wakamulla Chandersekhar, from whom he and his family had raised loans, Dhumal said.

What was the need to raise loans when the Chief Minister already had over Rs 10 crore in his bank account, Dhumal asked.

He said buying shares of companies was a normal thing, but in this case, a power project awarded to one of the companies of Wakamulla, which was cancelled by the High Court, was restored even after the proposal was rejected by the Cabinet thrice.

Virbhadra Singh and his wife and son had together purchased 9.8 lakh shares, Dhumal said. Virbhadra Singh had not deposited various amounts due and had stated to the media that he was delaying matters as the power policy was being changed, which smacked of connivance, Dhumal claimed.

As Virbhadra Singh had shown his wife and son as his dependants, he was required to reflect their assets in the affidavit submitted during the nominations, Dhumal said.

However, there was no mention of loans or shares in the affidavit filed with the nomination papers for the Assembly elections last year, Dhumal added.

However, Pratibha Singh had mentioned the loans in the affidavit filed by her while contesting the byelection to the Mandi parliamentary seat, but there was no mention of shares, Dhumal said.

The Chief Minister should clarify his position, Dhumal asserted.

Dharamsala, December 20
Lambasting the BJP for staging protests in the Vidhan Sabha, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Mukesh Agnihotri today said the government would last the full term of five years.

He said the tactics of the Opposition to stage repeated protests in the House without any valid grounds would not work.

Speaking to mediapersons, he said the BJP gave notice for an adjournment motion to discuss charges against the Chief Minister for a second time within four days.

As per business rules, an adjournment motion on an issue could not be brought twice in the same session, he said. It was against the rules of business and had been rightly rejected by the Speaker, he added.

The BJP, which was not keen on having meaningful discussions on any issue in the House, had been using it as a ploy to disrupt proceedings, he said.

The party had been unnerved by the achievements of the Congress over the past one year and its leaders were making frivolous charges to undermined the performance of the government, he claimed.

Intriguingly, the BJP leaders were levelling charges before the media outside the House and the issue was being raised in the House on the basis of it, which indicated that the drama was stage-managed, he said.

Virbhadra Singh had a 52-year-long career in politics and his clean image would not be sullied by such baseless and motivated allegations, Agnihotri said.

It was a short session of six-day duration and the BJP had wasted most of the time in slogan-shouting and not come forward to discuss any important issue, he said.

Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma said it was amusing that fingers were being raised by BJP leaders over the purchase of shares of a company by Virbhadra Singh and his family.

If it was an offence, the Bombay Stock Exchange should be wound up, he said. The BJP was raising matters on such flimsy grounds as it did not have any real issues to discuss, he claimed.

Shimla, December 20
Ramdev today said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had done well in the Delhi Assembly elections only because of the anti-Congress sentiment and the party, which had no political stature, owed its existence to Anna Hazare.

BJP legislators walk out of the Vidhan Sabha in Dharamsala on Friday. Photo: Kamaljeet

Addressing a press conference here today, Ramdev did not spare AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, stating that the AAP had benefited only due to Anna Hazare.

"A person who has forgotten his own guru certainly does not respect the guru-shishya tradition. I really do not know how much to trust such a person," he remarked.

He added that he was uncertain whether the AAP was opportunist, naturalist or populist and only time would tell.

Ramdev felt that the credit for the passing of the Lokpal Bill must not be given to the Congress or the BJP, but to Anna Hazare.

"For a political party to be honest alone is insufficient, like Communists. It is essential to have a nationalistic approach and ideology," he said, in an oblique reference to the AAP.

He was critical of the AAP for shying away from forming the government despite all its conditions having been accepted.

"I think that they are waiting for some political party to take the responsibility of fulfilling the promises made by the AAP to the people during the elections," he said sarcastically.

Ramdev was all praise for BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. "It is due to his good performance during the last decade that Modi has attained such a stature. Rahul Gandhi is no match for him as he has not earned but inherited his political stature," he said.

In reply to a question, he said the BJP had attained this stature only because of leaders like Lal Krishan Advani, whose contribution could not be ignored.

"The BJP will win at least 250 seats as the Congress is struggling to prove its existence," he said. He said the Congress was in panic mode after the drubbing it received in the Assembly elections in four states.

Ramdev said Modi would address a function of his Swabhimaan Trust in Delhi on January 5 on the occasion of the completion of 10 years of the Trust. Modi would talk about issues like price rise, black money and corruption," Ramdev said.

He announced that a big yoga utsav, to be attended by almost 1.5 crore persons, would be held in Delhi on the eve of Holi in March next year.

Kangra, December 20
The state government is contemplating looking for alternative modes of transport in Shimla and Dharamsala towns in order to deal with traffic blues.

Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma said this while presiding over a meeting held in this connection at Dharamsala today. He said in the wake of the increasing number of vehicles in most of the towns, a need has arisen to search for alternative options of transport in different cities. In the first phase, Dharamsala and Shimla would be taken care of.

He said a new alternative mode of transport would help in reducing the vehicular pressure on the roads in the two towns and would help people have better alternatives for transport.

Urban Mass Transit Company Ltd representatives, who were present at the meeting, today suggested that Metro Cable and Mono Rail could be the two viable alternatives to meet the eventuality of traffic crisis in these two towns.

Sharma said that in order to provide better transport facilities, mono rail, metro cable and handola were viable options and a meeting for a discussion with experts would be held in Shimla on December 27.

Chief Secretary P Mitra, Secretary Town Planning and Urban Development Subhashish Panda, Director Town Planning and Urban Development Meera Mohanti and other senior officers were present at the meeting.

Shimla, December 20
Reeling under the impact of severe recession and the natural calamity that hit Uttarakhand and Kinnaur, the tourism industry is pinning its hopes on a good tourist season around Christmas and New Year, with chances of snowfall being high.

This year, the business of the hotel industry was impacted by almost 40 per cent as tourist arrivals were far less than last year.

With Christmas and New Year the peak tourist season in places like Shimla, Manali, Dharamsala and Kasauli, the hotel industry is hoping to make some gains, especially in case it snows.

“This year, there has been poor business as arrivals are down by almost 50 per cent in Manali because of the catastrophe in Uttarakhand and Kinnaur. We are hoping and praying that we can recover around Christmas and New Year,” said Anup Thakur, president of the Manali Hoteliers Association.

He said reports about possible snowfall had led to a lot of queries and hopefully, there would be a good season. Similar sentiments were echoed by Shimla Hoteliers Association president Harnam Kukreja.

“It has been a particularly bad year with adverse news of the calamity in Kinnaur impacting the entire state. We hope that the year-end will be a good season,” he said.

Hoteliers across the state say other factors, including poor infrastructure like bad roads, erratic air connectivity and no activities for prolonging the stay of tourists, are also adversely affecting the tourism industry.

There are more than 500 hotels in Manali and 300 in Shimla, besides many guest houses. There has been talk of creating new tourist destinations as most popular places like Manali, Shimla and Dharamsala are saturated, but there has been little headway and most proposals remain on paper.

Parking is one of the biggest problems tourists face in practically all major tourist towns. The Tourism Department, along with the district administration, has made arrangements to ensure that high tourist influx in the last week of December is handled properly.

Besides ensuring the deployment of police personnel to maintain law and order, certain areas are thrown open to enable parking of thousands of vehicles which are driven into the town.

Most of the hotels, including those owned by the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation, have planned big festivities on both Christmas and New Year for tourists as well as local residents.

Solan, December 20
A case of illegal axing of 349 trees has come to light at two sites near Salogra in the Solan forest division where an attempt was made to clear land and pave the way for illegal sand min.

The case came to light on Wednesday evening when forest officials, acting on a complaint, went to inspect a site at Salogra where 214 trees had been axed. They detected another site at Jokhri where 143 trees had been illegally axed on private land.

Solan DFO Prem Mahajan said a damage report of the two sites had been prepared, wherein it was assessed that 346 oak trees and 11 trees of various broad-leafed categories had been illegally axed.

He said the remnants had been seized from the sites and from the possession of nearby villagers. He said an FIR would be lodged tomorrow against the owners of the private land as the Land Preservation Act, 1970, had been violated.

The miscreants took advantage of the fact that the charge of frest guard was being held on an additional basis in the area. While there were eight shareholders of the land at Jokhri, the names of the owners who owned the Salogra land was being probed.

Since sand mining was a lucrative activity, which is underway in surrounding areas, the land owners, in a bid to make easy money, had surreptitiously axed hundreds of trees to pave the way for mining, sources said.

The land which had been cleared comprised moderate slopes and much damage had been done as the slow-growing tree specie was crucial from the point of soil and water conservation. This was not the first case of large-scale illegal felling in the area.

People earlier divided the land among a number of shareholders and then each sought permission to legally axe five trees a year, which is lawfully permitted. Large stretches of land had been cleared by adopting this tactic.

Bilaspur, December 20
Constables Beli Ram and Chaman Lal of Bilaspur here have been suspended from service and a departmental inquiry has been ordered against them for dereliction of duty as an undertrial named Balbir Singh escaped from their custody.

Reports said they were taking Balbir Singh to a court at Theog for hearing in an old case registered against him there, from Government Jail Raghunathpra near here, when he fled from their custody.

Bilaspur, December 20
The government is spending Rs 24 crore on sports and youth activities in the state, while it has also doubled prizes of all sportspersons who excel in national and international events in sports.

This was stated by Ram Lal Thakur, chairman of the State Planning Development and 20-Point Implementation Committee, while addressing a concluding function of the annual HP University Inter-College Basketball Championship at Ghumarwin, near here, yesterday.

He said, “Defeat should not discourage us , but should inspire us to work harder so that the winning trophy comes to us next time”.

He said all great men, who achieved something in life, were those who were defeated several times in the beginning, but they took lesson from their reverses and worked harder to get what they wanted.

Principal Jagdish Lal said 19 teams from as many colleges from all over the state competed in the championship.

State champion team of SBSD College, Bhatoli, defeated the host team of Swami Vivekananda Government College, Ghumarwin. The third position went to Government College, Kullu. 

Sundernagar, December 20
The National Green Tribunal will now decide the case of thousands of residents who are living downstream of Barot whether the water will be released in Uhal river during lean season.

From Barot, the water of the Uhal has been diverted for power generation in the 110-MW Shanan Power House (run by the Punjab State Electricity Board) at Jogindernagar.

The PSEB does not allow a drop from the Barot barrage during the lean season as a result of which the population living downstream does not get any water which they had been using for irrigation. Interestingly the Uhal stream is considered the best for the production of rare trout fish, since no water was released during eight months, the production has been adversely affected.

The residents had been raising a hue and cry in the past, but the PSEB authorities never bothered to resolve the issue.

The state govt issued a notification in 2005 that every hydel project had to release at least 15 per cent of water downstream the project so that no loss was caused to farmers. As per the notification, the violation was termed as an offence under the provision of the Environment Protection Act and the Water Act.

The PSEB challenged the notification before the High Court in 2005.

Now after the creation of the National Green Tribunal, this case has been transferred from the High Court to it. The tribunal has listed this case before a Circuit Bench in Shimla and fixed its hearing on January 2, 2014.

Palampur, December 20
Tension prevails in Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University Hostel here following an incident of beating up of a student by his fellow hostellers. The student was given first aid and is reported to be out of danger.

University authorities constituted a high-level committee to look into the matter.

The students who indulged in the incident of beating have been identified and they are absconding.

A similar incident was reported from the university hostel in September last when the university authorities slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 each on the defaulters.

Besides, they were rusticated from the hostel.

Meanwhile, a senior officer of Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University said Vice-Chancellor KK Katoch had taken the incident very seriously as he did not favour indiscipline on the campus and in hostels. In case the assailants are proved guilty, the university would not hesitate to expel them from their respective colleges, he added.

Kangra, December 20
The Himachal Pradesh Association of School Principals today hailed the decision of the state government for framing a new policy for recruitment of Block Resource Centre Co-ordinators (BRCCs) working under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

Spokespersons of the association Joginder Singh Rao and Narender Sharma demanded immediate replacement of all the BRCCs by the fresh appointees.

The association demanded departmental as well as Vigilance inquiries into the alleged misuse of funds involving teachers training workshops, diversion of funds from one school to another without seeking requisite permission from the chairman concerned of the project and allegedly false claims of travelling expenses by the BRCCs.

The duo said there was no dearth of capable and dynamic teachers at the primary and upper primary levels and only efficient teachers should be shortlisted and engaged to work under the SSA and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) so that the desired targets could be achieved.

They pointed out that implementation of both the centrally sponsored schemes - SSA and RMSA - was adversely affected during the previous tenure of the previous government for political reasons, thereby resulting in failure to deliver due results in many areas.

The association urged the Chief Minister to make a fresh appointment in accordance with the new policy. It maintained that any Junior Basic Teacher or Trained Graduate Teacher with requisite qualification and experience was eligible to work as a BRCC.

The association said that practically, the role of the BRCCs was just to co-ordinate between the schools in the field and the project authorities. It said with the repatriation of the old BRCCs, they would be able to re-orient their teaching methodology since for a long time, they had not been in touch with the latest teaching pedagogical approaches.

The duo said it may be recalled that the association of school principals had been constantly voicing its concern for replacement of Block Resource Centre Co-ordinators with the new appointees since there had been a lot of resentment among all categories of teachers against the working and conduct of these co-ordinators.

Kullu, December 20
Jagdish Chand, Deputy Director, Education, presided over a workshop on the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, at the Bachat Bhawan here today. Officials of various departments participated in the workshop and discussed in detail issues related to the Act on the routine functioning of their respective departments.

He urged the officials to adopt transparency and provide a truthful reply to the information sought by people.

He told the officials to present prompt reply to information sought even before the stipulated time period under the Right to Information Act to make people believe 
that the administration was on the forefront of accountability.

Solan, December 20
As many as 600 villagers today blocked the National Highway (NH) 21-A near Dattowal in Nalagarh subdivision in protest against the slow progress in completing the 14-km stretch of the NH.

The villagers had earlier given an ultimatum to the authorities to expedite the work or face an agitation.

The villagers, including schoolchildren and women, sat on a dharna near Dattowal from the morning to 2 pm, raising slogans against the authorities and holding placards. The movement of traffic was paralysed for several hours as the agitating villagers refused to budge from their stand and pressed for an assurance from the authorities.

SDM Yunus, who reached the spot to defuse the situation, assured the people that a major part of the work would be completed by February end and the top would be laid after that as it could not be done now due to the cold.

He said since the work had been sublet a number of times after the first contractor abandoned work, its progress had suffered.

The contract to construct this 14-km road was awarded to Trilok Chand Gupta and Company in 2011 and was slated to be completed by December 2014.

The Rs 26.4 crore project was running behind schedule as barely 8 per cent work had been completed till now.

Anil Sharma, Chief Engineer, national highways wing of the PWD, said they were aware of the situation.

Nurpur, December 20
The Block Development Committee (BDC) of the Nurpur block yesterday held a meeting, which was presided over by its chairperson Abhilasha Chib. The Block Development Committee unanimously approved Rs 79 crore MGNREGA works for the next fiscal year 2014-15.

The Block Development Committee chairperson exhorted the committee members to educate village women about the recently launched National Rural Livelihood Mission and advised women of below poverty line families to form self-help groups to take benefits of this scheme.

Block Development Officer Saleem Azam Khan, who was also present at the meeting, apprised the BDC members of the Rajiv Ann Yozna, the Rajiv Awas Yozna and the state government’s drive to prepare new ration cards and advised them to disseminate information in their respective gram panchayats so that beneficiaries could come forward to take benefit of these public welfare schemes. 

Una, December 20
The Una-based 6 HP Independent Company NCC Unit today honoured Lt Amit Rana and Lt Jaspal Rana, both of whom got commissioned into the Indian Army after passing out from the Indian Military Academy Dehradun on December 14. While Lt Amit hails from Bathu village of Haroli segment, Lt Jaspal belongs to Handola village of Kutlehar segment.

Commanding Officer of the Unit, Lt Col Mangat Saini said these officers, who come from remote villages and from humble family backgrounds, set an example for other youth to follow their path. Lt Jaspal had made an entry into the Army as a soldier and he later appeared in an examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission to be selected for the training in Dehradun, said the CO. — OC