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| Monday, April 3, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Irregularities
in award of contracts |
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| Kerosene, LPG price hike flayed CHAMBA, April 2 — Mr Dharam Singh Pathania, chairman of the Salooni Development Block in Chamba district has flayed the hike in kerosene and LPG prices which have hit the common man hard. 
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Irregularities
in award of contracts SHIMLA, April 2 — A special audit conducted by the Comptroller Auditor General of India has revealed serious irregularities in the award of contracts and grant of undue favours to contractors to the tune of Rs 3 crore in the 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Project. The audit ordered on the basis of newspaper reports and registration of some cases by the state Vigilance Department has also detected irregular and false travelling allowance claims by the senior officers of the Nathpa Jhakri Power Corporation which is executing the project. On one of the cases relating to the grant of undue favour to a contractor, the work of strengthening the road leading to the project colony at Jhakri was awarded for Rs 77.15 lakh in December, 1998, whereas according to the latest Himachal Pradesh Schedule of states (1999) its cost came to Rs 57.47 lakh. The startling fact which came to light was that the tender committee while approving the bid mentioned that an estimate of Rs 86.71 lakh been sanctioned for the work, which was not true. The estimate was never revised on present rates or sanctioned and as per the then existing Schedule of Rates its cost was estimated at only Rs 47.05 lakh. Besides, the authorities also increased the time limit for the completion of work and included the escalation clause after the award of contract, which has against the normal practice. The auditor after the perusal of record arrived at the conclusion that at number of norms prescribed by the company were violated. The project authorities had favoured the contractor in awarding him contract to the tune of Rs 25 lakh. In a large number works awarded from June 1993 to May 1995 the committees constituted for the evaluation of bids did not recommend the deletion of escalation clause 10 (C) in contracts, having a completion time of less than one year and thus failed to safeguard the interests of the corporation/ Scrutiny of records revealed that works awarded between June 14, 1993 and March 8, 1994, the corporation paid Rs 90.19 lakh as exclamation changes due to the non-deletion of the clause for account of delay ranging from one to 28 months. Despite being award of the instructions regarding deletion of the clause dated March 24, 1994, the corporation did not delete the clause while awarding contracts as a result of which it ended up paying Rs 1.65 crore as escalation charges in works awarded upto May 1995. Thus the non-deletion of the clause cost put avoidable extra burden of Rs 2.56 crore on the corporation. It also detected leave travelling allowance claims by a senior Vigilance officer which amounted to the embezzlement of Rs 10,000. The audit also revealed serious irregularities in the award of contract for the construction of a VIP guest house at Jhakri. The undue favour granted to the contractor and faulty planning cost the corporation a sum of Rs 45.92 lakh. The Central Vigilance Commission is learnt to have taken cognisance of some of these irregularities and started inquiry. Meanwhile,
investigations into the four cases registered by the
state were proceeding at snails’ pace. Since the
NJPC is a joint venture of the state and the Centre, the
government is keen to handover the case to the Centre
Vigilance Commission. However, an inordinate delay in
taking a decision is only helping the accused officers,
who are continuing in key posts in the project, even
after the registration of cases. |
NHPC ready
to take up Hibra project DALHOUSIE, April 2 — The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) has expressed its willingness to the Himachal Government for taking up 231 MW Hibra and 260 MW Kuther hydroelectric projects located upstream of the ongoing 300 MW Chamera Hydroelectric Project (stage-II) on the Ravi basin in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. Disclosing this here today, Mr S.K. Dodeja, Executive Director (region-II) of the NHPC, said, the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, had conducted a high-level meeting a few days ago in this regard with the executives from the state, the NHPC and representatives of the local areas. Mr Dodeja indicated that discussions were in progress for undertaking the infrastructure work of these prestigious hydroelectric projects, and added that it was for the first time that decision on each and every pending aspects was taken in totality. Speaking about the start of construction work on the Chamera project (stage-II) on October 16 last year, Mr Dodeja said in the past five months, approximately 2 km of tunnelling had been completed and this progress had been achieved with old equipment. He was optimistic that with the arrival of new equipment from Canada there would be increase in the speed of work. Mr Dodeja said the excavation of main power tunnel and tailrace tunnel for a length of over 500m had also been completed and added that diversion tunnel for diverting the river Ravi at the dam was also under construction and was expected to be completed within this year. Mr Dodeja said road widening works were in progress in Baloo-Hardaspura, Chamba-Karian and Karian-Bagga portions. He said the foundation stone of a Rs 3 crore permanent pre-stressed Sitla Bridge was laid by the Chief Minister on March 17 and was expected to be completed within two years. He indicated that the NHPC had already paid Rs 2.19 crore to the district authorities for government land in non-submergence zones, released Rs 25 lakh to the IPH department for lift irrigation scheme of Rajnagar and Kiani, Rs 5 lakh for Chakloo lift irrigation scheme and Rs 5.83 lakh to the Himachal Road Transport Corporation for re-routing of buses and for the delay caused due to the construction of Koti bridge. He further said the balance payment against government land in possession of Chamera Project (stage-II) had also been released. NHPC executive director said the Rs 10 lakh on account of the development of boats in the reaches of Chamera dam banks where bridges could not be constructed had already been released to district authorities. He said the 540 MW
Chamer project (stage-I) had generated a 2125 million
units last year against a target of 1825 million units. |
Smuggling
timber in a novel way MANDI, April 2 — Forest Guard Hari Singh and his helper Chet Ram yesterday detected a novel technique devised by timber smugglers to cross the forest barriers with trucks carrying contraband timber. When a truck, apparently empty, stopped at the Brindavan check post last evening and the driver and conductor asked the forest staff to examine the empty truck, Hari Singh detected an specially designed tool-box in which nine full-size sleepers cut into pieces of 7 ft and 3 ft had been concealed to escape the attention of the police and the forest authorities. On being found out, the driver and the conductor fled to the nearby forest. This was the first time that such a mode of smuggling timber had been detected, Mr Vineet Kumar, Divisional Forest Officer, said. He has impounded the truck. Under a new forest law, vehicles involved in smuggling are vested with the Forest Department.
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School
lecturers to hold rally SHIMLA, April 2 — The Himachal Government Senior Secondary School Lecturers Association will boycott “evaluation of answer sheets” of plus two examination in protest against the failure of the government to accept their long-pending demands for amendment in the recruitment and promotion rules, 1992. It has also decided to hold a protest rally here on April 7. The association had been demanding a change in the ratio of quota for promotion to the post of principal which was irrationally in favour of headmasters. The total number of headmasters was only 980 but they enjoyed 60 per cent promotion quota whereas lecturers, over 5800 in number, had to content with just 40 per cent quota. It wants the government to fix the quota on the basis of the respective strength of two cadres.
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SHIMLA, April 2 (UNI) — Himachal Pradesh Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri today said that Guru Gobind Singh embodied in himself the qualities of a saint and a soldier. Mr Shastri, chancellor of Himachal Pradesh University, was delivering valedictory address at a three-day national seminar organised by the university on “Guru Gobind Singh and Himachal Pradesh “. He said Guru Gobind Singh inspired the people to work for national regeneration and acquire spiritual knowledge and training in arms. The Governor said Guru Gobind Singh himself was a great warrior and military strategist, philosopher thinker and poet par excellence. Mr Shastri said the Guru’s message was love for universal brotherhood and welfare of mankind. To achieve his objectives, Guru Gobind Singh even sacrificed all his four sons. “We must follow his path for building a strong nation”, he added. The Governor said Guru
Gobind Singh inherited a tradition of sacrifice and
commitment and enriched it further. |
Parties
urged to review stand on Kashmir SHIMLA, April 2 — Mr Indresh, in charge of the Rashtriya Swayam Sewake Sangh in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, has urged national political parties to review their policy on the Kashmir issue so that a permanent solution could be found to the problem by evolving consensus on the issues. Talking to reporters here yesterday he said that the recent massacre of Sikhs in Chatti Singhpora had once again underlined the need to restore the balance of population. However, this could be achieved only by scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution which could be done only by consensus. He said the large scale presence of ISI agents, which had even infiltrated into the police was responsible for spurt in militancy. The police instead of nabbing the militants was implicating the special police officers and members of Village Defence Committees in false cases. He demanded thorough screening of the police to purge it of the anti-national elements. Mr Indresh said that
Pakistan and some fundamentalists within the country had
tried to divide Hindus and Sikhs on communal lines in the
wake of the massacre but the R.S.S. which had strong
presence in Jammu region foiled the designs by removing
all misgivings. |
Kerosene,
LPG price hike flayed CHAMBA, April 2 — Mr Dharam Singh Pathania, chairman of the Salooni Development Block in Chamba district has flayed the hike in kerosene and LPG prices which have hit the common man hard. In a press note issued here today, Mr Pathania requested the government to withdraw the hike. He also urged the government to supply kerosene at subsidised rates to residents living in the backward areas.
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