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Sunday,
March 17, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Virbhadra’s loyalists hold meeting Power on demand by 2012: Prabhu Ban on resin export goes in state Work on Rohtang tunnel to begin in April HPSEB Budget
estimates tabled |
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Exhibition of Pahari paintings 
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Virbhadra’s loyalists hold meeting Solan, March 16 The meeting which, according to party sources, was basically convened to condemn the recent statements of six DCC presidents demanding disciplinary action against CLP leader Virbhadra Singh for allegedly casting aspersions on the capabilities of PCC president Vidya Stokes at Nadaunta recently, recorded an impressive turn out. Scores of party activists were seen hanging around in the corridors apparently after failing to secure a seat inside the meeting hall. Mr Ram Asra, president, DCC, Solan was among the six DCC presidents who had signed the anti-Virbhadra Singh statement. Other DCC leaders also joined in the fray issuing press statements terming Mr Virbhadra’s alleged remarks about Ms Vidya Stokes as amounting to questioning the wisdom of AICC president Sonia Gandhi who had appointed Ms Stokes as PCC chief. Enraged loyalists of Mr Virbhadra Singh saw in this a clever attempt to bring their leader in the bad books of the party supremo. The meeting started by passing a resolution, by voice vote, congratulating Ms Sonia Gandhi on the party’s impressive comeback in Punjab and capturing the power in Uttaranchal and Manipur. This was followed by a resolution criticising the PCC president’s silence over the demand of the loyalists of Mr Virbhadra Singh for disciplinary action against the six DCC presidents who had violated party discipline in openly criticising the CLP leader. Soon after a resolution expressing no confidence in the present DCC was passed. The DCC body was termed as having been illegally constituted after the organisational elections held in November 1997, were challenged by Mr Virbhadra Singh faction through a complaint lodged with the party high command on the grounds of alleged rigging. The meeting was attended by sitting Congress MLAs Raghu Raj and Dharam Pal, former DCC president Arun Sen, Solan Municipal Council president Shammi Sahni, former Zila Parishad Chairperson, Nirmala Devi, five sitting Zila Parishad members, four Municipal Council members and about 50 panchayat pradhans. Those who attended today’s meeting later joined a rally in which speakers criticised the Union Government’s Budget proposals. A memorandum to this effect was handed over to the Deputy Commissioner for onward transmission to the President, Mr K.R. Narayanan. |
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Power on demand by 2012: Prabhu Bhakra, March 16 Mr Prabhu was here to rededicate the renovated Bhakra Right Bank Power House to the nation. The generation capacity of the power house has been increased from 660 mw to 785 mw. Originally constructed with the help of the erstwhile Soviet Union with five units with a capacity of 120 mw each, the renovation and upgradation has been done by the original Russian firm. It was later upgraded to 132 mw each in 1980 by a small modification, utilising the margin available in the generation machines. Mr Prabhu said the country was now producing nearly one lakh mw of power and would be required to supplement it with another 1 lakh mw within the next 10 years. Of the projected demand, 20,000 mw should come through renovation and upgradation of the existing plants. This way the country would be able to save a lot of money as the cost of putting up a new generation plant would be Rs 4 per mw while generating additional 20,000 mw from the existing capacity would cost between Rs 10-12,000 crore. Mr Prabhu said since the power sector was critical for the overall development of the country, he had travelled to 15 states during the past one fortnight. The Central Electricity Authority has been asked to conduct residual life assessment of the power generation machinery of the entire nation and suggest ways on how the existing machinery could be renovated and
modernised. He said for the accelerated power development programme, the Centre would extend financial help to states. Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh may be given financial assistance. Appreciating the special efforts made by the research and renovation unit of the
BBMB, Mr Prabhu announced a special incentive of Rs 1600 to each member of the BBMB team. The cost of the renovation of the right bank power house, he said, had gone up from Rs 51 crore to Rs 92 crore, which came to Rs 70 lakh per mw against Rs 5-6 crore per mw for a new hydro power plant. The BBMB had done pioneering work in renovation, modernisation and upgradation of its power plants, raising its installed capacity from 2554 mw to 2861 mw at a nominal expenditure. Mr Rakesh Nath, Chairman,
BBMB, said work on the upgradation of all five units in the Left Bank Power House, remaining one unit a Ganguwal and Kotla power houses and two units at Pong Dam, would be taken up during the 10th Five-Year-Plan to add 108 mw capacity to be available during crucial peak hours. Also present at the ceremony were members of the
BBMB, Chairman of the PSEB, Mr Sudhir Mittal, representatives of the Punjab and Haryana Electricity Regulatory Authorities and senior functionaries of the district administration. Schoolchildren and a cultural troupe of the BBMB presented a brief but impressive programme. Mr Suresh P. Prabhu laid a wreath at the Bhakra Memorial. Mr Prabhu also visited Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib at Anandpur Sahib where he was presented with a
siropa. |
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Ban on resin export goes in state Shimla, March 16 Mr Dhumal, while replying to questions during the debate on the Budget proposals for 2002-2003 also announced removal of the pay anomaly between the specialist doctors Himachal Pradesh and those in Punjab and said that the former would be given increments on a par with their counterparts in the neighbouring state. He also announced a total exemption of entry tax in the state on two wheelers. Mr Dhumal said that by lifting the ban on export of resin, the state government had provided a level playing field to the private traders and the HP Forest Corporation. The corporation earlier had a monopoly over the trade. An export duty of Rs 200 per quintal will have to be paid on resin being sent outside the state. He said the state government had reduced the water tariff and taken steps to provide relief to certain categories of electricity consumers. Maintaining his cool throughout his speech, Mr Dhumal replied to many issues raised by the Opposition. He said the Congress in the state was trying to derive strength from its victory in Punjab and Uttaranchal without realising that the winds could change. The Chief Minister accused the Congress for the present financial crisis in the state. He said that the previous Congress government had led the state into a debt trap by raising loans from the open market without a prior permission of the Centre as also pointed by the CAG. The Congress government had tried to conceal the actual budgetary deficit of about Rs 200 crore in 1989 by projecting a deficit of only Rs 8 crore. This had upset the financial situation of the state as the 10th Finance Commission had applied the Rs 8 crore deficit as a base for finalising the financial support for Himachal Pradesh. He said that in a Budget of Rs 1,890 crore, presented by the Congress government during 1994-95, the loan component was Rs 681 crore and in the Rs 2,819 crore-budget of 1997-98, it was Rs 1321.51 crore. Mr Dhumal said the loan liability on the state, when the Congress came to power in 1993-94, was Rs 1,874 crore which swelled to Rs 4966.91 crore during 1997-98. He said the government had decided to set up the Upper Sutlej Valley Power Corporation to expedite construction of hydroelectric projects which would provide royalty and share for the financially-hit state. Mr Dhumal said his government had an open mind on the users’ charges in hospitals which were imposed during the Congress regime in 1974. These had been streamlined by the present government and the doctors empowered to waive these charges in case of poor patients, he said. |
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Work on Rohtang tunnel to begin in April Shimla, March 16 The project, which will help provide round-the-year road connectivity to the land-locked Lahaul valley and Pangi area, will be executed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) through the Deepak project. Making a suo motu statement on the issue, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, said the project involved the construction of a 24- km-long approach road from Manali to the south portal of the tunnel along the right bank of the Beas, a 9-km-long tunnel and approach road of about 1 km from the north portal in Lahaul, near Goofa Hotel. The estimated cost of construction of the tunnel, as per the 1996 prices, is about Rs 500 crore while the cost of approach roads on both sides of the tunnel, including the cost of major bridges, land compensation and compensatory afforestation is Rs 184 crore at current prices. The construction of the tunnel will reduce the road distance between Manali and Sissu in Lahaul by 44 km. With its construction, Pangi, Lahaul valley and Ladakh will remain open for most part of the year. It will not only provide relief to the people of these areas but also create vast opportunities for the state in the tourism sector. Mr Dhumal thanked Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who made an announcement in this regard during his visit to Keylong in June, 2000. The state government was committed to provide all support and assistance to the Border Roads Organisation for the expeditious implementation of the project, he said. For this purpose it had decided to constitute state-level and district-level standing committees under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, Kulu, respectively. The Tribal Development Department would act as the nodal office for coordination and follow-up action at the state level, the Chief Minister said. The Manali-Leh road is presently only a fair-weather road because the mountain ranges through which the road crosses remain covered with snow during the winter months. The portion of the Peer-Panjal range between the Chandra and the Beas is one such bottleneck and the road negotiates these ranges with the highest point at Rohtang Pass. Although there are many ranges higher than Rohtang Pass on this road to Leh, it receives maximum snowfall and remains closed for a longer period in comparison to other passes. The project was initiated by the BRO in consultation with the state government. Investigations and study of the technical feasibility of the tunnel was entrusted to the Geological Survey of India in the early 1980s. Based on the latter’s recommendations, the feasibility study was entrusted to M/s RITES in August, 1990, and it submitted its report in 1996. Subsequently, on the advise of M/s Konkan Railway Corporation further geological investigations were carried out in the year 2000. While the Geological Survey of India confirmed the feasibility of construction of the tunnel along the alignment near Solang Nullah, it expressed apprehension about the stability of the 10-Km-long approach road leading to the tunnel and suggested another alignment at a higher elevation near Marhi. The BRO constituted a technical committee comprising its in-house experts as well as experts of the snow and avalanche study establishment in June, 2000 to examine the recommendations of the Geological Survey of India. The expert committee recommended the construction of the tunnel along the old alignment with marginal realignment of the approach road. This recommendation was accepted by the Government of India and the alignment of the tunnel has now been finalised. |
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HPSEB Budget
estimates tabled Shimla, March 16 The revenue expenditure of Rs756.16 crore has been estimated against that of Rs 685.25 crore of the current year. The expected increase of the revenue expenditure of Rs70.90 crore during the coming financial year has been attributed mainly to the increase in the cost of power purchase, normal annual incremental increase in expenditure on establishment and other charges. A proposed expenditure of Rs 514.33 crore has been anticipated during 2002-03 as against Rs 337.14 in the revised estimates for 2001-02. A sum of Rs 205.10 crore has been earmarked for the Larji project. |
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Exhibition of Pahari paintings Shimla, March 16 The museum acquired these paintings in 1975. Mian Kartar Singh of Nurpur Riyasat had a number of paintings said to be belonging to the collection of his ancestor, Ram Singh Pathania. The theme of the paintings are derived mainly from Ragmala, Ras-lilla and Vishnu Puran. According to Prof B.N. Goswami, an art historian, some of the paintings in the collection were painted by Pandit Seu of Guler. |
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‘Make Hola Mohalla
state-level fest’ Paonta Sahib, March 16 The demand was put forth at a meeting held at Paonta Sahib gurudwara recently. This would help highlight the significance of this historic place. |
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Expulsion of 2 NSUI leaders revoked Bilaspur, March 16 The order, copies of which were released to mediapersons have today, was passed by Ms Natarajan on March 14 and has referred to the expulsion of these two students’ leaders “as reported in some local newspapers”. |
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Police transfers Shimla, March 16 Mr Prithvi Raj has been shifted to the police headquarters, here. Mr S.R. Mardi, DIG, headquarters, has been sent to head the Police Training College at Daroh in Kangra. |
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Appointed Shimla, March 16 |
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Power supply Shimla, March 16 |
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