Radio station awaits staff
KANGRA, Jan 29 — All India Radio FM station at Dharamsala is awaiting requisite staff as most of the posts at the station have not been filled since it was set up in 1994.

20-hour traffic snarl
PALAMPUR, Jan 29 — Vehicular traffic on the Pathankot-Mandi national highway remained suspended for more than 20 hours following an accident near Baijnath.

HPSEB to lose Rs 40 cr despite tariff hike
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Jan 29 — Despite recent increase in power charges, the state electricity board will be losing over Rs 40 crore a year for supplying power to domestic consumers at subsidised rates.

At present annual consumption of power is 2088 million units. The domestic consumers have been all along getting power at highly subsidised rates. While the average cost of power comes to Rs 2 per unit, till the latest revision the average sale rate was Rs 1.53 per unit. With the revision of supply rate for various categories the average sale rate will go up to Rs 1.81 per unit. As such the board will be losing 19 paise for every unit of power supplied. The board was losing Rs 100 crore annually before and the recent hike will reduce the loss to Rs 40 crore.

The subsidy for those consuming up to 45 units comes to Rs 1.50 per unit and for consumers in 46 to 150 unit slab it will be Rs 1.25 per unit.

Power tariff was still very low compared to the neighbouring states. While the rate for 1.45 units slab was 50 paise per unit, it was as high as Rs 1.29 for 1.30 unit slab in Punjab and Rs 1.91 for 1.40 unit slab in Haryana. Similarly, the rate beyond 500 units was only Rs 1.25 in Himachal as compared to Rs 2.63 in Punjab and Rs 3.06 in Haryana.

Difference in rates for commercial consumers was also quite huge. While in Punjab and Haryana the per unit rates were Rs 3.19 and Rs 3.92, respectively in Himachal it was Rs 2.10 up to 200 units, Rs 2.50 for 200-500 unit slab and Rs 2.80 for more than 500 units.

The government created an avoidable controversy by increasing the tariff on the sly. While there is merit in the board's plea that the revision was due in April 1998 on account of increase in cost of various inputs and release of enhanced payscales. It has no plausible explanation for not making the decision public. The decision was taken in August and implemented from September but the people came to know about it only when they received inflated bills in December.

The issue assumed political colour as the Congress, the main Opposition charged the government with playing a fraud on the people by not making the decision to hike the tariff public and also keeping the Vidhan Sabha in the dark about it.

The government came out with a justification after the Congress threatened to launch an agitation. Indeed the BJP, which had been criticising the Congress government for imposing taxes through the backdoor, has been caught on the wrong foot. Successive Congress governments did impose taxes after presenting tax-free budget but it never effected increase in tariff without making the decision public.

The BJP-HVC government has maintained that it was trying to raise the much needed resources for the state by following the principle of tax the rich to subsidise the poor but the manner in which it carried out the exercise did raise doubts regarding its intentions in the public mind.

Opposition decries BJP for price hike
From Tribune Reporters

SHIMLA, Jan 29 — Mr Harsh Mahajan, Vice-President, Himachal Congress Committee, has criticised the Centre for increasing the prices of essential commodities distributed through the public distribution system.

He said the Government had played a cruel joke with the poor people by hiking the rates of essential commodities. The decision was condemnable as it had come days before the presentation of Budget. The exercise was aimed at curbing the fiscal deficit which had increased due to failure of the Government to check wasteful expenditure.

Interests of the farmers in the country had also been ignored by the BJP as the price of urea had increased.

He alleged that the State Government had become bankrupt and was in no mood to control the expenditure. The government was on a permanent holiday and ministers were never available in offices.

Thakur Kaul Singh and Mr Phunk Chog Rai, General Secretary and Secretary of the committee, respectively, also criticised the hike which, they said, would hit people of remote and tribal area hard where only one crop was possible in a year. They demanded immediate withdrawal of the hike.

DHARAMSALA: The Himachal Congress chief, Mr Sat Mahajan, on Friday came down heavily on the BJP for burdening the common man with hike in prices of essential commodities.

Mr Mahajan said after the hike in power tariff in Himachal the Centre had now hiked the prices of food items like rice, wheat and sugar. "A Government which talks of bringing about development has now burdened the public with taxes, every since it came to power," he said.

The Congress chief said it was the Congress Government which had given relief to the people by presenting a tax-free Budget every year.

Rain revives cold wave

CHANDIGARH, Jan 29 (UNI) — Widespread snowfall in higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir coupled with dense fog and rains in lower reaches and plains during the past two days revived cold wave conditions in most of north-west India.

The day and night temperatures plummeted by two to six degrees celsius below normal as normal life was disrupted.

Reports here said that heavy snowfall had disrupted vehicular traffic. A number of far-flung areas in Himachal were cut off from rest of the state.

The Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) said that in view of heavy snowfall in the tribal belt of Himachal the possibility of snow avalanche had increased and the people were warned against venturing out till this evening.

Reports here said that besides the tribal belt, Rohtang Pass Manali, Solang Nullah, and Tundi among other far-flung areas in Himachal were lashed by heavy snowfall. The 320-km-long Hindustan Tibet highway beyond Shimla was blocked by heavy snow.

The entire Shivalik range including Kasauli Hill Resort, Chail, Solan Barog had seasons first snow yesterday.

In Kashmir valley, Gulmarg, Kokernag, Ragni, Uri, Kanjalwan, Dawar and Neeru too reported heavy snow during the past 48 hours.

Dense fog overnight and this morning disrupted normal schedule of train, bus and air services in the region.

National capital of Delhi reported mists while Hindon, bordering Uttar Pradesh, Srinagar, Udhampur (J & K), Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana (Punjab), Ambala and Sirsa (Haryana) were engulfed by heavy fog.

Delhi was warmer this morning as minimum there rose to 10 celsius, two degrees above normal. The capital reported 8.2 mm of rainfall. Some areas there were lashed by heavy hailstorm yesterday.

Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, reported the low of 0.4 °C and 2.7 mm of rain or snow till this morning.

Amritsar turned out to be the coldest place in Punjab with minimum temperature dipping to 2.7 °C , two degrees below normal. Patiala reeled under a low of 5.6 degrees celsius.

Patiala recorded 8.8 mm of rain. Ambala turned out to be the coldest place in Haryana with a low of 5.4 °C, two degrees below normal, and 9.7 mm of rainfall. Hisar recorded six mm of rainfall till this morning.

Shimla, capital of Himachal Pradesh, wore a white mantle after yesterday’s heavy snow, the minimum temperature there dipped to sub-zero of 0.2 °C this morning. However, during the day the weather brightened up.

Chandigarh and its adjoining areas in Punjab and Haryana shivered under intense cold wave conditions with mercury this morning dipping to 6.4 °C, two degrees below normal, in the city. As the day advanced sun peeped through scattered clouds to bring some respite to people. The day temperature hovered around 17 °celsius against 13.2 degrees of yesterday, yet about three degrees below normal. The city recorded a total of 18 mm of rainfall during the past 36 hours ending at 8.30 am this morning.

The weatherman here has forecast light to moderate snow and rain at some places in Himachal and adjoining areas of Jammu and Kashmir while isolated light to moderate rain in Punjab and Haryana during the next 48 hours.

Radio station awaits staff
From Our Correspondent

KANGRA, Jan 29 — All India Radio (AIR) FM station at Dharamsala is awaiting requisite staff as most of the posts at the station have not been filled since it was set up in 1994.

According to sources there are three posts of the programme executive (PEX) and only two of these were filled. Of the two PEXs only one has been attending the office regularly.

When he goes on leave the Station Director has to do the job of the PEX to run the four-and-a-half hour programme daily. This station does not have a field radio reporter.

There is no librarian and the post continues to remain vacant for the past five years and a regular announcer has been given the additional charge of the radio library.

There is no regular class IV staff. To keep the station clean some posts were filled on contractual basis.

Dr Jatinder Udhampuri, Station Director, when contacted said in the absence of regular staff, casual artistes were filling the slot.

Swami seeks probe into missing file
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 29 — Swami Krishnanand, President of the All-India Hindu Maha Sangh and founder of the Naina Devi Gufa and Sadhu Ashram, has in a letter to the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, demanded an inquiry into the missing file of a murder which took place at the gufa more than two years ago.

The swami told TNS that an inquiry into the murder case had been conducted twice by senior officials of the district administration of Bilaspur, but so far no action had been taken, and it was now being reported that the file concerning the inquiries was missing.

The 91-year-old swami also said earlier his efforts to see the Deputy Commissioner had failed in spite of the fact that he had written to him three times and visited his office the same number of times. However, at his last meeting when he barged into the room of the Deputy Commissioner, he was ill-treated when he demanded provision of security for him as ordered by the Lok Ayukta of Himachal Pradesh.

The swami, it is reported, has probably earned the wrath of the district officials for demanding publication of the income and expenditure statements of the temple in the state. While offerings worth crores of rupees were being received, there had been no developments at the temple site, he said.

The swami urged the Chief Minister to ensure that the temple offerings were put to right use. He also said the law and order situation at the gufa during the shravan mela was poor as the district authorities had not taken any interest in making proper arrangements.

20-hour traffic snarl
From Our Correspondent

PALAMPUR, Jan 29 — Vehicular traffic on the Pathankot-Mandi national highway remained suspended for more than 20 hours following an accident near Baijnath.

According to reports available here, a petrol tanker turned turtle while negotiating a sharp turn last evening. Because of heavy rain and snow the ill-fated tanker could not be removed immediately from the road causing inconvenience to the public.

The district administration and the police failed to initiate any action. It is learnt that the administration was busy in making arrangements for the visit of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal to this area.

Later this afternoon the road was cleared for the traffic.