H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

HP to act tough with borrowers
PARWANOO, Jan 10 — The Himachal Pradesh Government has decided to act tough with borrowers, including industrialists, who have not repaid their bank loans. A letter that the State Home Secretary shot off to the Director-General of Police says, all district police chiefs should register criminal cases against defaulting borrowers on complaints from banks.

HP to implement insurance scheme
SHIMLA, Jan 10 — The Himachal Government has decided to implement the indexed group personal accident insurance scheme for all its regular, ad hoc, contractual, part-time and daily-waged employees of various departments, boards, corporations and universities on compulsory basis. The scheme will cover over 1.35 lakh employees.

CM shielding minister: Cong
SHIMLA, Jan 10 — The State unite of the Congress has charged Mr P.K. Dhumal, the Chief Minister, with "shielding" the Public Works Minister in the "bitumen emulsion" scam and asserted that only a CBI probe into the case could bring the guilty to the book.

Report sought on poll code violation
SHIMLA, Jan 10 — Mr Bhim Sen, the Chief Electoral Officer, has sought a report from the Deputy Commissioner of Solan of the alleged violation of the model code of conduct for election by Mr P.K. Dhumal, the Chief Minister, who inaugurated two roads and a bridge in the Solan constituency where by-election is scheduled for February 17, yesterday.

Pradhan's wife ‘remarried’ in records
NURPUR, Jan 10 — Mohinder Singh, pradhan of Panchahra gram panchayat in Nurpur assembly segment, was in for a surprise when he, along with his wife, Kanta Devi, had gone to Ganoh polling booth to cast his vote in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. He found the name of his wife missing from the voters' list.

HP docs sore over appointment
NAHAN, Jan 10 — The Himachal Pradesh Medical Officers Association, (HMOA) at an emergency meeting held here yesterday, decided to boycott all national health programmes in protest against appointment of Additional Director of Health Services from Himachal Pradesh Administrative Services. The Sirmour unit of the HMOA has appealed to the state body of the association to issue necessary directives in this regard to all district units.

Disbanding of posts decried

Probe to cover all PWD divisions

Cong Councillor expelled

HP to act tough with borrowers
By Rajendra Sharma
Tribune News Service

PARWANOO, Jan 10 — The Himachal Pradesh Government has decided to act tough with borrowers, including industrialists, who have not repaid their bank loans.

A letter that the State Home Secretary shot off to the Director-General of Police says, all district police chiefs should register criminal cases against defaulting borrowers on complaints from banks.

The letter added that at a recently-held State-level meeting the bankers brought to the notice of the State Government that some of the borrowers had disposed of their properties and assets that they had mortgaged with banks.

The Home Secretary took a serious note of police officials disregarding directions of the government.

Seeking anonymity certain bank managers complained that notwithstanding their repeated requests in writing and in person, station house officers were not registering criminal cases.

Intriguingly, certain SHOs have written to banks that financial transactions were civil matters. Therefore, they should move court for the realisation of their loans.

Bankers reveal the recovery of loans become difficult since the Reserve Bank of India reduced interest rates.

To begin with the rate of interest fixed by the Reserve Bank of India ranged from 15 per cent to 18 per cent. Later on it ranged from 12 per cent to 16 per cent. This was done because credit off-take had declined. Resultantly, it had affected the profitability of banks.

Some of the industrialists are pestering the government and the banks to grant them concession on the rate of interest. Bankers are, however, reluctant to reduce the interest on the loans which were released prior to the reduction in the rate of interest.

Discouraged by the poor revenue recovery, coupled with financial constraints, the State Government has stopped developing industrial plots at Baddi and Parwanoo — the main industrial hubs in Himachal Pradesh.

The Department of Industries had allotted 165 industrial plots at Baddi, 201 at Parwanoo and 56 at Barotiwala. Now the government merely issues "essential certificates."

Mr K.R. Sham, Manager at the Solan District Industry Centre, admits that entrepreneurs face certain difficulties in obtaining essential certificates from the government.

HP to implement insurance scheme
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Jan 10 — The Himachal Government has decided to implement the indexed group personal accident insurance scheme for all its regular, ad hoc, contractual, part-time and daily-waged employees of various departments, boards, corporations and universities on compulsory basis. The scheme will cover over 1.35 lakh employees.

A spokesman for the State Government said the scheme would be implemented through national insurance company. Initially it would be for one year only and could be renewed thereafter at new premium to be settled at that time.

The premium is Rs 40 per annum per employee for an assured sum of Rs 2 lakh. The benefits in case of death, permanent or total disablement and loss of two limbs or two eyes or one limb and one eye would be Rs 2 lakh while for loss of one limb or one eye it would be 50 per cent of the sum assured, he added.

The scheme would not cover the workers of departments like PWD, IPH, and bodis like the HP Housing Board who were already covered under a similar scheme floated by New India Assurance Company.

The policy would be issued to the heads of departments by designation on individual name basis. The head of department would submit a consolidated list of employees to the National Insurance Company, Shimla, within 30 days on a prescribed format.

Meanwhile, A.K. Goswami, chief secretary today handed over a demand draft of Rs 54 lakh on account of premium of indexed group personal accident insurance scheme to Mr O.P. Sukhija, Regional Manager, National Insurance Company here.

CM shielding minister: Cong
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Jan 10 — The State unite of the Congress has charged Mr P.K. Dhumal, the Chief Minister, with "shielding" the Public Works Minister in the "bitumen emulsion" scam and asserted that only a CBI probe into the case could bring the guilty to the book.

Addressing a joint press conference here today, Mr Sat Mahajan, the Pradesh Congress Committee chief and Mr Virbhadra Singh, Leader of the Congress Legislative Party, said that no State investigating agency could conduct an impartial inquiry into a case involving a senior minister. The State Vigilance Department had registered a case against the Chief Engineer concerned, who was subsequently arrested, but it was not looking into the role of the minister in the large-scale purchase of bitumen from a black-listed firm.

Mr Virbhadra Singh said the bitumen scandal was only the tip of the iceberg. The family members of the minister had allegedly set up state of art stone crusher. It was supplying grit to the department. Should a minister be allowed to commit such improprieties, he asked?

The Dhumal Government, he alleged, had failed to protect the interest of the State while assigning hydel power projects for execution. There was no employment guarantee for Himachalis in the agreements signed for the execution of Parbati and Karcham Wangtu projects. Mr Dhumal had only taken the projects investigated and finalised during previous Congress regimes a step further.

Government employees had been ordered on political considerations. In all over 1.25 lakh transfers had been ordered and the sympathisers of the Congress had been shifted to far off places. Even the selection of families under the Integrated Rural Development Programme was being done on political consideration. The exercise to review the list of IRDP families was to exclude Congress supporters and include BJP supporters.

Report sought on poll code violation
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Jan 10 — Mr Bhim Sen, the Chief Electoral Officer, has sought a report from the Deputy Commissioner of Solan of the alleged violation of the model code of conduct for election by Mr P.K. Dhumal, the Chief Minister, who inaugurated two roads and a bridge in the Solan constituency where by-election is scheduled for February 17, yesterday.

Mr Sen said although he had so far not received any written complaint from any political party, the matter had been brought to his notice telephonically.

Mr Virbhadra Singh, the Leader of Congress Legislature Party, said that his party had taken serious notice of the blatant violation of the code of conduct by Mr Dhumal who, on the very first day of its enforcement went on an inauguration spree in the constituency. Mr Dhumal inaugurated the Mamleek-Salot road, Mamleek-Dumehar road and a bridge over Gambhar Khad.

He said the action of the Chief Minister indicated the intentions of the government and his party apprehended large-scale misuse of government machinery during the ensuing by-election. The ruling combine had resorted to such malpractices in the Baijnath byelection and the Lok Sabha poll.

Mr Virbhadra Singh said his party would lodge a strong protest with the Election Commission and urge it to take effective measure to prevent the misuse of official machinery and other malpractices during the byelection.

Minister: no grant for cooperatives
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, Jan 10 — Mr Rikhi Ram Kaundel, Minister of State for Cooperation has said the state government will not provide any grant to the district-level cooperative federations to improve their working. Only two of the 12 district cooperative marketing federations were working properly, he told mediapersons here yesterday.

He said the government had put most of the district federations under liquidation and the liquidators had been asked to clear the old debts by selling their properties and then restart their business on their own. He said overstaffing was one of the reasons for the federations plight.

He said the staff of these federations would be amalgamated into the Department of Cooperation, in a phased manner.

He said the government was also planning to bring all cooperative federations like Wool Federation, Milk Federation and Fisheries Federation under the control of one department only. Presently these were controlled by various departments and the job of the Department of Cooperation was just to audit their accounts.

The minister said the National Consumer Development Council had formulated a Rs 50-crore project for Solan, Chamba, Kulu and Kangra districts to give a new look to the cooperative movement in these districts. He said the council would release funds for providing infrastructure and other facilities to the rural-based cooperative societies in these districts. He said there were 4,400 cooperative societies in the state.

The minister said the report of the subcommittee regarding remuneration to the Co-op secretaries was lying with the Chief Minister. This report would be implemented before the next session of the Vidhan Sabha. He said the co-op secretaries would be given wages on a par with clerks but their services would not be regularised or taken by the government under its direct control. There were 2,300 such persons working in state.

Mr Kaundel said the department had decided to utilise the services of 41 M Com and B Com unemployed youth of the district to do audit work of various cooperatives in the district.

The minister said the government would provide autonomy to the cooperatives and a Bill to this effect would be introduced in the ensuing session of the Vidhan Sabha.

Pradhan's wife ‘remarried’ in records
From Our Correspondent

NURPUR, Jan 10 — Mohinder Singh, pradhan of Panchahra gram panchayat in Nurpur assembly segment, was in for a surprise when he, along with his wife, Kanta Devi, had gone to Ganoh polling booth to cast his vote in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. He found the name of his wife missing from the voters' list.

Mohinder Singh submitted a complaint to the Election Commission of India on Nov 3, 1999, which was forwarded to the Chief Election Officer, Himachal Pradesh, for inquiry.

On Saturday, pradhan received the inquiry report from the Chief Election Officer, Shimla.

The inquiry revealed that the name of the pradhan's wife, which figured in the voters' list of Ganoh polling booth at serial no 30, was suddenly deleted following an objection raised by one Jatinder Singh of Panchahra village during a review of the voters' list before the Lok Sabha poll. Jatinder Singh had demanded that the name of Kanta Devi be deleted on the grounds that she had 'remarried'. Intriguingly, the village patwari in his report also verified her 'remarriage'.

The Panchahra pradhan told mediapersons here yesterday that his wife was with him and the question of her 'remarriage' did not arise.

HP docs sore over appointment
From Our Correspondent

NAHAN, Jan 10 — The Himachal Pradesh Medical Officers Association, (HMOA) at an emergency meeting held here yesterday, decided to boycott all national health programmes in protest against appointment of Additional Director of Health Services from Himachal Pradesh Administrative Services. The Sirmour unit of the HMOA has appealed to the state body of the association to issue necessary directives in this regard to all district units.

Briefing mediapersons after the meeting, Dr Kailash Chander Barwal, general secretary of HMOA Sirmour, unit informed that the meeting criticised the state government for its failure to release pay scales on time on its own after the completion of four, nine and 14 years of service by the doctors. The association also demanded 10 per cent house rent allowance keeping in view the emergency services rendered by the doctors.

Disbanding of posts decried
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, Jan 10 — The Congress has opposed the decision to disband the offices of three divisional commissioners in the State. The decision will complicate the legal process in dealing with the appellate cases. Mr Ram Lal Thakur, MLA, and Vice-President of the HP Congress, said this here last night. Mrs Anita Verma and Mrs Asha Kumar, Vice-President and General Secretary of the State unit of party, were also present.

Addressing a press conference here, he said this decision would invite constitutional complications as most of appellate powers lay with divisional commissioners. He demanded that instead of disbanding the three offices, one more office of the divisional commissioner should be opened at Hamirpur for the benefit of the people of Hamirpur, Una and Bilaspur districts.

Probe to cover all PWD divisions
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Jan 10 — The departmental inquiry ordered by the government into purchase of bitumen emulsion will cover all divisions under the Central Zone of the Public Works Department (PWD).

An official spokesman today clarified that no division of the zone falling under Hamirpur and Mandi districts had been left out of the purview of the inquiry which was already underway.

Cong Councillor expelled

SHIMLA, Jan 10 (PTI) — The Himachal Congress President, Mr Sat Mahajan, today expelled Mr Sohan Lal, a Congress Councillor of the Shimla Municipal Corporation, from the party for six years for alleged anti-party activities.

Mr Sohan Lal was charged with creating indiscipline in the party and speaking against the party leadership. The Shimla (Urban) DCC had recommended action against him. He had even defied the party whip during the election of the Mayor, party sources claimed.