Shimla bypass, main pipeline damaged
SHIMLA, Aug 8 — About two dozen sheep were washed away and some cowsheds and houses were damaged in Dello village in the Jogindernagar area of Mandi district, while main pipeline of water supply scheme of the Shimla Development Authority was badly damaged, washing away 30-mt stretch of Shimla bypass and over a dozen trees as incessant rains continued to play havoc in most parts of Himachal Pradesh.

CM: no going soft on corruption cases
 JWALAMUKHI, Aug 8 — The Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, has refuted the charge that his government is going soft on corruption cases against the previous government, saying that all cases are being investigated at appropriate levels.

12 DCC posts for Virbhadra camp
SOLAN, Aug 8 — The president of the HP Congress Committee, Mr Sat Mahajan, in a move seen here as an apparent bid to close party ranks before the Lok Sabha polls, has nominated 12 Vibhadra Singh loyalists to various DCC posts.

HP looks to finance panel for succour
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Aug 8 — Expectations are high here that the 11th Finance Commission will make recommendations to bail Himachal Pradesh out from the current financial crisis.

This hill state has been reeling under acute financial strain for the past about 10 years when the recommendations of the ninth Finance Commission became applicable.

The ninth Finance Commission dealt a grievous blow to special category states like Himachal by discontinuing the pre-1989 practice whereby the Centre covered both the Plan and Non-Plan resource gap’s of these states. Thereafter, the financial position has been deteriorating.

Although the Chief Minister, Mr P. K. Dhumal, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Virbhadra Singh, and many others have urged the 11th Finance Commission headed by Prof A. M. Khusro to restore the earlier practice of the Centre meeting the state’s budgetary gap, the demand is unlikely to be met as the financial position of the Centre is also not particularly happy.

However, during his recent visit here, Professor Khusro endorsed the demand that the special category states should be given some "special treatment". He also took up the matter with the Union Finance Ministry.

He said some dynamic ways had to be found for rationalising expenditure so as to reduce the deficit.

Although the Centre has been providing small financial aid to the BJP government of Mr Dhumal from time to time to bail it out of the crisis, it will be of little help unless some large package is announced for the state.

Various bills and proposals of the state government for raising its resources have been put in cold storage by the Centre.

The bills for imposing water cess and tax on generation are being tossed from one ministry to another at the Centre. These bills proposed to raise an annual revenue of about Rs 500 crore for the state.

The claim of the state government to the payment of arrears of more than Rs 2,000 crore from the BBMB is pending in the Supreme Court.

Until these claims of the state are settled, Himachal has no other escape but to go in for open market borrowings as has been done by successive governments, a senior officer said.

The state government recently enhanced the limit of market borrowings of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board by Rs 600 crore. The limit of raising loans has now been increased to Rs 1,500 crore against Rs 900 crore earlier.

Mr Dhumal has urged the 11th Finance Commission to either recommend the writing off of 25 per cent of the central loans outstanding against Himachal as on March 31,2000, or assure a surplus of at least 10 per cent over and above the total revenue deficit assessed by the state government for the period 2000 to 2005 in its award. The liability on account of interest payments is estimated to be over 18 per cent of the total revenue expenditure during 1999-2000.

Besides various other measures for providing financial relief to the state, Mr Dhumal also demanded that the loans based on small savings should be converted into loans in perpetuity.

The state has been incurring heavy non-plan revenue deficits which have increased from Rs 119.59 crore in 1990-91 to Rs 260.98 crore in 1994-95 and estimated to be Rs 969.43 crore during the current year. Throughout the nineties, the state continued to incur large fiscal deficits culminating in a figure of Rs 1820.37 crore for 1999-2000.

The tax base has remained limited with about 71 per cent of the proceeds being contributed by two sources — sales tax and excise. Contribution from the third largest source — taxes on goods and passengers — has shown a declining trend, while other sources have made a nominal contribution.

The total liabilities of the state shot up to Rs 5,146 crore in 1998-99 from Rs 687 crore in 1987-88.

Apple growers rally against imports
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Aug 8 — The Himachal Pradesh Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association has decided to organise protest rallies against import of apple under the open general licence (OGL).

The decision was taken in a meeting of the executive committee of the association here today.

Mr Lekh Raj Chauhan, president of the association, said that rallies will be organised at tehsil and block level.

The executive committee reviewed the impact of imported apples on domestic produce. Growers said that inspite of a poor apple crop, they were getting a lower price than last year because of cheap imports.

The executive committee demanded that the price of processable apple under the market intervention scheme should be increased to Rs 4.50 per kg from Rs 3.75 per kg in view of the hike in the cost of production and marketing.

The committee observed that collection centres for procurement of apple under the market intervention scheme have not been started as yet, with the result that growers of lower hill areas have been deprived of the benefit of the scheme. They demanded that the list of collection centres should be released. Last year collection centres had started functioning from the July 25.

The growers stated that the state government had not shown due concern for the almost total failure of the apple crop this year. No official assessment and estimate of damages of crop was available even though losses went into several crores of rupees. The demand for deferment of loans had similarly brought no response.

The growers demanded that the Department of Horticulture and scientists of the University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan, should come out with an authentic analysis of the causes of failure of the apple crop and chalk out a programme to ensure a better crop next year including measures to fight apple diseases like pre-mature leaf fall and mite.

Shimla bypass, main pipeline damaged

SHIMLA, Aug 8 (PTI, UNI) — About two dozen sheep were washed away and some cowsheds and houses were damaged in Dello village in the Jogindernagar area of Mandi district, while main pipeline of water supply scheme of the Shimla Development Authority was badly damaged, washing away 30-mt stretch of Shimla bypass and over a dozen trees as incessant rains continued to play havoc in most parts of Himachal Pradesh.

Water supply in several areas of New Shimla was badly hit as the main water pipeline burst after the landslide and gushing waters swallowed the trees enroute. Efforts were afoot to restore the damaged pipeline and the road, but it was likely to take sometime.

Meanwhile Beas, Ravi and other rivers were in spate and several low lying areas were submerged under water. The rains had caused numerous landslides in the interior areas disrupting normal traffic.

Reports of heavy rains had also been received from Upper Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur, Mandi, Kulu, Bilaspur, Sundernagar, Hamirpur and Kangra districts.

Meanwhile, Vidhan Sabha Speaker Gulab Singh Thakur yesterday visited the affected families in Dello village and assured then relief for rehabilitations.

Meanwhile, after a brief spell of mild weather, today again most of the areas in the state experienced heavy rainfall.

Link roads in several areas of Mandi, Kangra, Chamba and Shimla districts were closed for vehicular traffic.

The Shimla-Kalka National Highway was shrouded in fog at certain places, forcing vehicular traffic to move with headlights on.

Shimla and its surrounding areas were lashed by rain today bringing considerable fall in the temperature in the region.

The town was enveloped in a dense fog this afternoon. Upper areas of Shimla district, including tourists resorts, had also rain and fog.

CM: no going soft on corruption cases
From Our Correspondent

 JWALAMUKHI, Aug 8 — The Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, has refuted the charge that his government is going soft on corruption cases against the previous government, saying that all cases are being investigated at appropriate levels.

The government would act on the basis of "solid evidence" to ensure that no guilty person was spared and no innocent harassed, Mr Dhumal said while talking to mediapersons here today at the local rest house. He said the CBI was entrusted with the task of investigating the HVC charges against former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in the interest of a fair and a impartial probe.

Referring to the alleged financial bungling by the previous Congress government, Mr Dhumal said the government had already detected that over Rs 7.50 crore had been paid by way of commission for raising loans.

Replying to a question, he said despite inheriting a "near bankrupt" economy his government had been able to adequately respond to the development needs.

He also said the total loan liability had crossed Rs 6,000 while the annual interest payment was around Rs 650 crore which was high for a state like Himachal Pradesh with a total budget of Rs 300 crore.

Mr Dhumal categorically made it clear that the state government is committed to fulfil its poll promises. He added that almost all promises had been fulfilled and others would be implemented soon. He said the BJP had never opposed the implementation of the Mandal Commission report and added that the Supreme Court's directive pertaining to the commission's report would be implemented soon.

He said the policy for allotting khair wood and katha manufacturers was under review and a new policy ensuring competitive rates would been forced after scrutiny of the existing policy. Benami land transactions and unauthorised constructions regularised by the previous government would also be exposed, he added.

12 DCC posts for Virbhadra camp
From Our Correspondent

SOLAN, Aug 8 — The president of the HP Congress Committee, Mr Sat Mahajan, in a move seen here as an apparent bid to close party ranks before the Lok Sabha polls, has nominated 12 Vibhadra Singh loyalists to various DCC posts.

Even though senior party functionaries had been "officially" denying any rift in the district Congress, it was an open secret that there was no love lost between supporters of Mr Virbhadra Singh and Mr Sat Mahajan.

The Virbhadra Singh loyalists, who appeared to be in a majority, were feeling sore over the replacement of the DCC President, Mr Arun Sen, a close relative of Mr Singh with Mr Lajja Ram, sitting Congress MLA from Baddi.

Some Virbhadra loyalists met Mr R.K. Dhawan, General Secretary of the AICC in charge of Himachal Pradesh, during his recent visit to Shimla and had demanded representations on the DCC. Party circles said the new nominations had been made as per instructions issued by Mr Dhawan to Mr Mahajan.

Mr Trilok Singh and Mr Babu Singh, both of Nalagarh, and Mr Liaq Ram Sharma of Solan, had been nominated vice-presidents of the DCC executive body. Mr Ajay Singh of Solan and Mr Ramesh Thakur of Kandaghat had been nominated general secretaries, Mr Budh Ram of Manpura, Nalagarh, Mr Om Parkash of Kuftu, Kandaghat, Ramesh Chauhan of Kumarhatti, Solan, Mr Mohan Mehta of Solan, Ram Gopal Sharma of Chail, Gita Ram Attri of Chhausa, Solan are the new secretaries. Former President of the District Youth Congress Arun Sharma has been nominated Secretary, Publicity.

HVC announces nominee for Shimla
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Aug 8 — The Himachal Vikas Congress has decided to field Lt-Col Dhani Ram (retd) from the Shimla (reserved) seat in the Lok Sabha poll.

The coalition partners, the BJP and the HVC, are contesting the elections in alliance. While the BJP is contesting Mandi, Kangra and Hamirpur, the Shimla seat has been given to the HVC.

The candidature of Colonel Dhani Ram was announced by Mr Sukh Ram, President of the HVC, after a meeting of the state Election Committee of the party here today. He said there were 14 aspirants.

He said the BJP had agreed to leave one seat for the HVC at the very outset but it was apprehensive about the choice of candidate. The BJP high command was now more than happy with the HVC decision.

Mr Sukh Ram claimed that the candidature of Colonel Dhani Ram had the support of the state Ex-services League. He said the victory in Kargil was a big achievement of the BJP-led government at the Centre. He cautioned political parties that while raising the Kargil issue nothing should be said which could hurt the sentiments of soldiers who had made great sacrifices for the country.

Regarding the decision of the Speaker to uphold the tactical split of the HVC and the merger of the splinter group with the BJP at the time of the formation of the government, he said he had himself split the party to frustrate the attempts of Mr Virbhadra Singh to form the government.

However, it would have been appropriate had the Speaker waited for his reply and taken his view point as President of the HVC into consideration while taking a decision.

SFI to stage rally on August 13
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Aug 8 — The state unit of the Students Federation of India threatened to launch a state-wide stir if the Himachal Pradesh University authorities failed to announce the schedule for holding elections to the student central association by August 13.

The federation also decided on staging a state-level students rally at Shimla on August 13 to warn the government. Mr Sitaram Yechuri, a national leader of the CPM, will be the main speaker at the rally.

Other demands of the association include withdrawal of the fee hike and an immediate end to the system of raising funds through parent teachers associations.

Dhumal visits martyrs’ families

SHIMLA, Aug 8(UNI) — Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal visited the family of Martyr Lance Naik Padam Singh of 14 J and K Rifle at Bhaurio village in Gangath area of Kangra district to console the bereaved family yesterday.

The Chief Minister handed over a cheque for Rs one lakh to the wife of the Lance Naik and assured her of a government job shortly.

He said that National Saving Certificates worth Rs four lakh would handed over to the family by August 15.

Mr Dhumal said a primary school to be opened in Bhaurio village which will be named after the war martyr since his own village is in a far flung area .

Earlier, the Chief Minister visited Amb Pathiar near Jawalamukhi to meet the family of Grenadier Yoginder Singh and lower Sunehet the village of Grenadier Surjeet Dadval to express his sympathies.

Havildar Pyar Singh cremated
From Our Correspondent

BILASPUR, Aug 8 — The body of Havildar Pyar Singh of Khatehad Jhandutta village 50 km from here, was cremated at the village on the banks of the Seer khud with full military and state honours today. Thousands of people attended the funeral procession.

The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Ramesh Kapil, laid a wreath on behalf of the Governor. Wreaths were also laid on behalf of the Chief Minister, Opposition leader Virbhadra Singh and the district administration.

Earlier the body of Pyar Singh was kept at Jhandutta for the people to pay their last respects.