H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

CM hints at hike in power tariff
SHIMLA, March 16 — The Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, has indicated that a further increase in electricity tariff might be ordered by the Himachal Pradesh Government shortly.

HVC to contest poll on its own
KANGRA, March 16 — The Himachal Vikas Congress of Mr Sukh Ram has decided to go alone in the forthcoming panchayat, zila parishad, and nagar parishad polls in the state after blaming its ally, Bharatiya Janata Party, for slackness in setting up coordination committees for the poll.

Police staff may launch protest
KANGRA, March 16 — Class III police employees of Himachal Pradesh have threatened to resort to protest by wearing black badges, closing the police mess and by taking out silent processions if the state government failed to accept their demands, including the grant of house rent allowance, medical allowance and ration money on Punjab pattern within 10 days.

Dhumal to inaugurate power project today
CHAMBA, March 16 — The Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, will dedicate a 2 MW Sal-II project "Padma Shri Kailash Chand Mahajan Hydroelectric Project" — to the residents of Chamba and unveil a plaque of the late Kailash Chand Mahajan at the power house premises tomorrow.

Governor greets Muslims
SHIMLA, March 16 — The Governor, Mr Vishnu Kant Shastri, has felicitated Muslims on the eve of Id-ul-Zuha.

Aerial recce held in Chamba region
CHAMBA, March 16 — An intensive aerial recce was conducted today jointly by the Indo-Tibet Border Police authorities, the Deputy Commissioner and SP of Chamba by two choppers over the border region of Chamba district in the state and Doda and Kathua district in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of spotting of 10 suspected militants in the Padhri Pass area recently.

Better bus service demanded
KUMARHATTI, March 16 — Resentment prevails among residents of the town over the lack of streetlights. The area surrounding Kumarhatti in Chewa panchayat has been facing an acute shortage of water Mr Hemraj, a local ‘dhabawala’ on the Kalka-Shimla national highway claims that there is only 10-minute water supply daily which is insufficient to meet their requirements.

Case filed against striking workers
KUMARHATTI, March 16 — The agitation by Samtel India’s workers received a jolt yesterday when two workers of the company lodged a complaint that they had been roughed up by other workers at their house at Taksal village, 20 km from here.

CM hints at hike in power tariff
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, March 16 — The Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, has indicated that a further increase in electricity tariff might be ordered by the Himachal Pradesh Government shortly.

Mr Dhumal, which replying to the four-day debate on the Budget in the Assembly today, said the hike had become imperative because of the increase in the cost of generation. Earlier, the tariff had been hiked in September 1998.

He made it clear that the tariff structure in other parts of the country had also to be taken in view.

He said the BJP government had increased the power tariff only by 18 per cent in the last two years, whereas the previous Congress government had put a burden of Rs 358 crore on the consumers by increasing the tariff thrice in three years.

Intervening, Mr Virbhadra Singh, Leader of the Opposition, claimed that the tariff for domestic and agriculture consumers had not been increased during the Congress regime.

Mr Dhumal justified the rationalisation of taxes which will have an impact of Rs 24 crore on various commodities and said a relief of Rs 4 crore had also been proposed in the Budget.

He said his government would never compromise with corruption and strict action would be taken against those involved in it.

The Chief Minister announced the setting up of a six-member high power committee to suggest measures for making the administration more efficient and also to ensure punctuality in government offices.

He said nothing had been concealed in the Budget documents and his government believed in transparency. However, the Congress tried to conceal the real deficit in the Budget to 1989-90 which misled the Ninth Finance Commission resulting in a lesser allocation of Rs 700 crore to the state, he alleged.

The anticipated deficit of about Rs 1511 crore has been brought down to just Rs 260 crore by the BJP government because of better management of central assistance finances, cutting wasteful expenditure and various other measures, he said.

HVC to contest poll on its own
From Our Correspondent

KANGRA, March 16 — The Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) of Mr Sukh Ram has decided to go alone in the forthcoming panchayat, zila parishad, and nagar parishad polls in the state after blaming its ally, Bharatiya Janata Party, for slackness in setting up coordination committees for the poll.

Disclosing this while talking to mediapersons here yesterday state chief of the HVC Women's Wing, Ms Veena Sharma, said that if the PWD Minister, Mr Mohinder Singh, fails to reply to the party's show cause notice by March 31. He will be expelled from the party and Chief Minister Prof P.K. Dhumal will be approached to expel him from his Cabinet. She said Mr Mohinder Singh was inducted into the Dhumal cabinet as a representative of the HVC and had no right to continue if expelled.

Ms Veena Sharma, who was accompanied by the district chief of the HVC's women's wing, Ms Shushma Thakur, said that 5000 women members were enrolled as HVC members in the Kangra district and the target for enrolling 10,000 women members would be met by the end of this month.

Police staff may launch protest
From Our Correspondent

KANGRA, March 16 — Class III police employees of Himachal Pradesh have threatened to resort to protest by wearing black badges, closing the police mess and by taking out silent processions if the state government failed to accept their demands, including the grant of house rent allowance, medical allowance and ration money on Punjab pattern within 10 days.

Disclosing this here today Mr Des Raj, spokesperson of the Class III Police Employees Association, Himachal Pradesh, said the state government had made a five fold increase in the travel concession from Rs 20 to 100 but it was valid only in the state. He demanded an extension of this facility to other states too.

Mr Des Raj said they should be given Rs 350 as ration money, Rs 120 as cycle allowance, Rs 250 medical allowance besides 15 per cent house rent allowance for Class III police personnel living in barracks.

Nalagarh highway in neglect
From Prem Singh

NALAGARH: In the upper areas of Nalagarh subdivision in Solan district, one can feel the lack of basic amenities. The people of these areas are being forced to lead a life of struggle. Roads and bridges of this area are crying for repair. The Nalagarh-Shimla highway has not been repaired for a long time. As a result, traffic towards Nalagarh and Shimla is affected. This highway is in bad condition near Budlag, Gambher bridge, Sairy and Sairyghat.

Landslides are common during the rainy season. As a result, traffic is blocked for many hours. Besides, there is the problem of crossing the Gambher bridge.As the bridge is narrow and only one vehicle can pass at a time vehicles coming from the other side have to wait for a long time.

It is also worthwhile to mention that the number of the vehicles have increased because of the cement plant at Darlaghat. This company also has a unit at Dubbergee (Ganauli) near Ropar. As a result there is a lot of traffic over Gambher bridge on the Nalagarh-Shimla highway all through the day.

This heavy traffic has affected the condition of this bridge. This bridge has been not repaired for a long time by the P.W.D. authorities concerned. Transporters as well as bus, truck and other vehicle operators has been demanding repair of the bridge but no action has been taken by the state government yet.

The Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, has announced during his visit to the Maloun area that there was a plan to repair and widen this bridge soon. But it seems that this plan has remained only in the files.

Governor greets Muslims
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, March 16 — The Governor, Mr Vishnu Kant Shastri, has felicitated Muslims on the eve of Id-ul-Zuha.

He expressed hope that the festival would strengthen the bonds of brotherhood and give inspiration to masses to work for the betterment of society.

The Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, also greeted Muslims on the eve of Id-ul-Zuha.

He hoped that the festival would help in promoting national integrity and communal harmony.

Aerial recce held in Chamba region
From Our Correspondent

CHAMBA, March 16 — An intensive aerial recce was conducted today jointly by the Indo-Tibet Border Police (ITBP) authorities, the Deputy Commissioner and SP of Chamba by two choppers over the border region of Chamba district in the state and Doda and Kathua district in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of spotting of 10 suspected militants in the Padhri Pass area recently.

Giving this information here today, Mr Rajinder Mohan Sharma, SP, Chamba, said no movement of suspected and undesirable elements could be traced during the recce. He said the recce was supported by surface patrolling by ITBP jawans in the high altitude areas.

When asked about the spotting of "terrorists" on the Padhri Pass on March 8 and 9, in the Gujjar kothas, the SP pointed out that owing to heavy snowfall in the alpine border area on March 11 and 12,it had become difficult to trace their foot-prints.

Better bus service demanded
From Our Correspondent

KUMARHATTI, March 16 — Resentment prevails among residents of the town over the lack of streetlights. The area surrounding Kumarhatti in Chewa panchayat has been facing an acute shortage of water Mr Hemraj, a local ‘dhabawala’ on the Kalka-Shimla national highway claims that there is only 10-minute water supply daily which is insufficient to meet their requirements.

The district administration is unaware about the hardships faced by residents of Dagshai, 3 km from here. At present, only one bus service is available to them. As a result they have to depends upon taxis.

One of the oldest high schools, Government High School, Dagshai, is yet to be upgraded to the 10+2 level. The residents have appealed to the government to upgrade this high school so that their children could get better education.

Case filed against striking workers
From Our Correspondent

KUMARHATTI, March 16 — The agitation by Samtel India’s workers received a jolt yesterday when two workers of the company lodged a complaint that they had been roughed up by other workers at their house at Taksal village, 20 km from here.

According to information available, the scuffle took place when one Rajesh Kumar and his brother Jatinder went home to fetch some documents and some agitating workers confronted them.

Rajesh phoned the company which sent its security guards to the spot. The police has registered a case under Sections 39/2000 341, 323, 506 and 34 of the IPC against the workers.

The workers in a counter complaint said they had not initiated the quarrel.

Dhumal to inaugurate power project today
From Our Correspondent

CHAMBA, March 16 — The Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, will dedicate a 2 MW Sal-II project "Padma Shri Kailash Chand Mahajan Hydroelectric Project" — to the residents of Chamba and unveil a plaque of the late Kailash Chand Mahajan at the power house premises tomorrow.

Kailash Chand Mahajan has the distinction of being the only Padma Shri awardee in the state. This honour was bestowed upon him in recognition of his contribution during the 1971 Indo Pak War, while serving as Superintending Engineer in Punjab.