H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Virbhadra’s remarks on HPSEB staff unfortunate, says Dhumal
Shimla, February 15
Former Chief Minister and BJP leader P.K. Dhumal today lashed out at Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for putting the blame for low power generation in the state on the engineers and technical staff of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board.

BJP crying foul on non-issues, says Virbhadra
Shimla, February 15
Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, today accused the BJP of adopting double standards on the issue of public services tariff commission and said that the party leaders had started “crying foul” even before the proposal in this regard had taken shape.

Breakdown of Nathpa units worries Centre
Shimla, February 15
The Union Ministry of Power has expressed concern over the frequent breakdowns of generating units in the 1500 mw Nathpa Jhakri Project and asked the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam to take effective steps to ensure that all six units were operational during peak season in the ensuing year.

Govt to rationalise services of Revenue Dept’s field staff
Nurpur, February 15
The Himachal Pradesh Government will rationalise the services of its field staff in the Revenue Department so that the services of the patwaris and tehsildars in the revenue, soil-consolidation and land settlement wings of the Revenue Department can be utilised properly.

Senior forest corpn officials shifted
Shimla, February 15
The timber grading scam took its toll when the government yesterday ordered a major shake-up in the State Forest Corporation, shifting most of senior officers, including three directors. Mr Kishan Das, Executive Director of the corporation, has been posted as Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Headquarters).

Monkeys rule Kalka-Shimla highway
Parwanoo, February 15
The monkey menace along the Kalka-Shimla national highway continues to affect motorists despite a drive launched by the Wildlife Department to trap the monkeys. The departments’ drive seems to be failed as monkeys can be seen sitting along the highway waiting for motorists to throw eatables at them.

Shift ITBP HQ to border area
Chamba, February 15
In the wake of recent incident of disruption in the communication link between the Commandant, Headquarters, of 18th Indo-Tibet Border Police (ITBP) stationed at Chamba and its Sonthit checkpoint situated at an altitude of about 3,300 metres on the sensitive Kihar border sector of Chamba district in Himachal Pradesh adjoining Jammu and Kashmir, which is the most rugged and mountainous region, the shifting of the command centre of the ITBP Commandant has become indispensable and is in question at all levels.

Three booked under Gambling Act
Baddi, February 15
Tightening its noose around gamblers, the police has arrested three persons and recovered Rs 6,540 and satta slips in three cases last evening. Anup from Ward No 3 of Nalagarh was arrested at Baddi and Rs 1,470 was recovered from him. 

Virbhadra’s remarks on HPSEB staff
unfortunate, says Dhumal
Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 15
Former Chief Minister and BJP leader P.K. Dhumal today lashed out at Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for putting the blame for low power generation in the state on the engineers and technical staff of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB).

In a statement issued here today, he said that the engineers of the HPSEB had done a commendable job whenever they were entrusted with some big responsibility. “Instead of indulging in self-introspection to see what went wrong in his 13-year rule, he is blaming the HPSEB employees, which is wrong,” he remarked.

Mr Dhumal said that the HPSEB engineers and staff had set a fine example in the country by laying transmission lines so that 
even the remotest part of the state was electrified. As such the state had 
excellent power supply 
and a majority of the villages were electrified, he added.

Citing an example, Mr Dhumal said that when the Malana project was completed by the private sector in less than three years’ time, the HPSEB laid transmission lines till Nalagarh in a record time so that the power could be taken to the national grid.

“It is unfortunate that Mr Virbhadra Singh is all praise for those employee leaders who only indulge in politics and issue statements in favour of the Chief Minister and is demoralising those who have a fine work record,” he stated. He said this only reflected that sycophancy had become order of the day to please the Chief Minister.

In a separate statement, former BJP minister J.P. Nadda expressed surprise at the statement of Mr Virbhadra Singh that they would go slow on the issue of trifurcation of the HPSEB. “This reflects the ignorance of the Chief Minister who does not know that the trifurcation is mandatory under the Electricity Act, 2003, and has to be carried out by June, this year,” he stated.

He said that the Chief Minister was forgetting that it was not within his purview to unbundle the HPSEB but it was mandatory under the law to trifurcate the board into generation, transmission and distribution wings.

BJP crying foul on non-issues, says Virbhadra
Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 15
Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, today accused the BJP of adopting double standards on the issue of public services tariff commission and said that the party leaders had started “crying foul” even before the proposal in this regard had taken shape.

Talking to media persons here, he said with no real issues to highlight, the BJP leaders had of late been trying to mislead the people by raising non-issues and distorting facts to tarnish the image of the Congress government. He said it was the Dhumal government which set up the Electricity Regulatory Commission in the state for the first time in 2001. If setting up such commission was an anti-people step, as was being alleged by the BJP, why did the party took the lead in doing so.

Mr Virbhadra Singh said that the government would take all aspects into consideration and see to it that interests of the people were safeguarded while considering any proposal to set up public service tariff board. He said that the objective would be to bring about efficiency in the administration and ensure transparency in its functioning.

He claimed that his winter sojourn to the lower districts was a grand success as he intensively toured all the assembly segments of Kangra, Una and Hamirpur districts to review development schemes and launch new projects. He said that people turned in large numbers and the grievances were redressed by passing befitting orders on the spot.

The Chief Minister said that his government had already initiated fiscal reforms to enforce strict financial discipline and cut down unproductive and wasteful expenditure. It managed to get the Annual Plan for 2005-06 increased by Rs 200 crore which was a big achievement. He said that there was no ban on recruitment to government services and the process for filling the various functional posts was under way at different levels.

Mr Virbhadra Singh said that his government was giving due consideration for the induction of the chief parliamentary secretaries and parliamentary secretaries in the state and appropriate action in this direction would be taken in due course of time.

The government would be making all-out efforts to make elementary education in the state compulsory. He said about 2,000 middle schools would be opened in the state and need-based expansion of the educational institutions would continue while emphasis would be on the consolidation of the educational institutions.

Breakdown of Nathpa units worries Centre
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 15
The Union Ministry of Power has expressed concern over the frequent breakdowns of generating units in the 1500 mw Nathpa Jhakri Project and asked the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam to take effective steps to ensure that all six units were operational during peak season in the ensuing year.

Mr R.V. Shahi, Union Secretary for Power, during a meeting held to review the functioning of the project took a serious notice of the damage being caused by silt to the 250 mw units. He was not satisfied with the explanation of the management that the abnormally high content of quartz was responsible for damage to guide vanes, runners and other parts of turbines which require frequent replacement and repairs. He rejected the view of the management that quartz contents in the silt increased from 32 per cent to over 60 per cent because of landslides, which, he asserted, were a common phenomenon in the hydroelectric projects.

Mr Shahi’s concern is understandable as there has been a shortfall of over 1200 million units in generation so far during the current financial year which will further increase by March 31. The project is designed to generate 6951 million units of electricity in a normal year but this year so far only 4800 million units have been generated. While about 500 million units of generation was lost due to the Parchu lake threat which forced the authorities to shutdown the project for 10 days, a shortfall of 300 million units was caused because of the high silt level in the Sutlej. The remaining shortfall is attributed to breakdown of machinery and low discharge.

Mr Shahi asked the engineers to ensure that damage-prone parts of all six units were coated with a protective layer of tungsten carbide to prolong their life. He also stressed that atleast five units should be kept in running position and not more than one unit was shutdown for repairs at a time so that full capacity could be utilised for peaking and ensuring full generation during peak season from May to September.

There has been instances when three or four units have been under repair. In case the project fails to achieve full generation due to high silt content and the resulting damage to the machinery the cost of generation, which is already on the higher side, will further go up. The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has fixed the cost at Rs 2.38 per unit which could cross Rs 3 per unit due to shortfall in generation.

Govt to rationalise services of
Revenue Dept’s field staff
Our Correspondent

Nurpur, February 15
The Himachal Pradesh Government will rationalise the services of its field staff in the Revenue Department so that the services of the patwaris and tehsildars in the revenue, soil-consolidation and land settlement wings of the Revenue Department can be utilised properly.

Addressing mediapersons here last evening, the Revenue Minister, Mr Sat Mahajan, said the Revenue Department had invited the lists of patwaris and tehsildars from all over the state so that the rationalisation could be given effect.

He said the Revenue Ministry in the state was seeking permission of the Finance Department to recruit 241 patwaris to fill the vacant posts.

The jobless trained patwaris will be undergo refresher courses before recruiting in the Revenue Department,” he added.

“In order to fight the menace of corruption in the Revenue Department, the government will make it mandatory to display the list of fees in the offices of the tehsildars and patwar circles so that people should not pay more for getting copies of revenue records and other jobs,” he informed.

Mr Mahajan pointed out that the Revenue Department was facing a challenging job to recreate the destroyed and disarrayed record of land prepared during the settlement operation in the state in general and Una district in particular.

He informed that the NABARD had sanctioned nine tubewells for the Nurpur Assembly constituency in which Rs 3.60 crore would be spent.

Senior forest corpn officials shifted
Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 15
The timber grading scam took its toll when the government yesterday ordered a major shake-up in the State Forest Corporation, shifting most of senior officers, including three directors. Mr Kishan Das, Executive Director of the corporation, has been posted as Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Headquarters).

Mr S.B. Islam, Chief Conservator of Forests, Human Resource Development, will be the new Executive Director.

Mr P.K. Sinha, Director, Marketing, and Mr Mohinder Pal, Conservator of Forests, projects, swap places.

Mr S.S. Negi, Director, North, and Mr Amar Chand, Conservator of Forests (Silvi), Sundernagar, also swap places.

Mr S.D. Sharma, Divisional Manager, Shimla, and Mr Rajesh Ekka, Divisional Forest Officer, Soil, swap places.

Mr S.K. Gupta, Divisional Forest Officer, Forest Training School, Sundernagar, takes over as General Manager, Resin and Turpentine Factory, Bilaspur.

Mr Anil Joshi, DFO, Flying Squad, Sundernagar, and Mr Anil Sharma, Divisional Manager, Rampur, swap places.

Mira Sharma DFO (Headquarters), Rampur, takes over as DFO, Forest Training School, Sundernagar.

Mr J.S. Chauhan takes over as Divisional Manager, Baddi, vice Mr Khushdil, who goes as DFO, Flying Squad, Shimla, vice Mr Ajay who takes over as Divisional Manager, Marketing (Headquarters).

Mr Swaran Singh, Divisional Manager, Nurpur, and Mr S.K. Vashishth, Deputy Director, Changer Project, Palampur, swap places.

Mr J. Mandla, Timber Passing Officer, Pathankot, and Mr R.K. Kaushal, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Dehra, swap places.

Mr D.K. Khatta, Divisioinal Manager, Una, and Mr D.R. Kashyap, DFO (Headquarters), Bilaspur, switch places.

Monkeys rule Kalka-Shimla highway
Our Correspondent

Parwanoo, February 15
The monkey menace along the Kalka-Shimla national highway continues to affect motorists despite a drive launched by the Wildlife Department to trap the monkeys. The departments’ drive seems to be failed as monkeys can be seen sitting along the highway waiting for motorists to throw eatables at them.

Last month the Wildlife Department trapped around 1,300 monkeys along highway from Shogi to Parwanoo during a two-week long drive. Most of the monkeys were trapped between Parwanoo and Dharampur.

A visit to the highway showed that the situation had not changed despite the successful implementation of the drive. Though the team trapped more monkeys than expected yet they failed to get rid of all the monkeys due to high population density of monkeys in the area.

Ironically motorists are also responsible as they do not refrain from feeding the monkeys.

Meanwhile, the local Senior Citizen Association has urged the Wildlife Department to trap monkeys present in the town.

In a letter, the association has pleaded to control the simian population. “The monkeys have made the life of the residents a living hell, as even inside their houses the people don’t feel safe,” said Mr. J.L. Kaul the founder president of association.

Shift ITBP HQ to border area
Balkrishan Prashar

Chamba, February 15
In the wake of recent incident of disruption in the communication link between the Commandant, Headquarters, of 18th Indo-Tibet Border Police (ITBP) stationed at Chamba and its Sonthit checkpoint situated at an altitude of about 3,300 metres on the sensitive Kihar border sector of Chamba district in Himachal Pradesh adjoining Jammu and Kashmir, which is the most rugged and mountainous region, the shifting of the command centre of the ITBP Commandant has become indispensable and is in question at all levels.

As such the prime task assigned to the ITBP is to safegaurd the borderland of Chamba district adjacent to the militancy-infested belts of J&K, the head office of the 18th ITBP battalion needs be shifted to somewhere near the border area in the Kihar sector so that any untoward problem of the ITBP jawans could be tackled instantly.

At the moment, the ITBP Commandant’s office is housed in the PWD Rest House at Chamba about 150 km away from the alpine border ranges where the checkpoints are operating.

The Kihar border sector is basically the centre of operations where the Commandant’s centre is virtually required to be located.

Since the paramilitary forces deployed to combat terrorism on the Chamba borders are placed at the disposal of the Superintendent of Police, Chamba, there is no need of keeping the ITBP Commandant’s Headquarters at Chamba.

Three booked under Gambling Act
Our Correspondent

Baddi, February 15
Tightening its noose around gamblers, the police has arrested three persons and recovered Rs 6,540 and satta slips in three cases last evening. Anup from Ward No 3 of Nalagarh was arrested at Baddi and Rs 1,470 was recovered from him. 

Amit Kumar of Ward No 8 of Nalagarh was arrested near the Ram Lila ground and Rs 3,715 was recovered from him. 

In the third case, Jagdish Chand of Birla village was arrested and Rs 1,355 recovered from him. 

A case has been registered.