Dharamsala, June 22
The bodies of the 19 Gujarati tourists killed in the bus accident here yesterday, along with the 20 injured passengers, were today taken to Pathankot by two helicopters of the IAF, from where they were flown to Vadodara.

Tourism and Transport Minister G.S.Bali said the 25 relatives of those killed in the accident and who had arrived here yesterday from Gujarat were also sent in the same choppers, which made two rounds to Pathankot around 10 am today.

Meanwhile, the interim report on the causes of the accident has pointed out that human error was responsible for the bus falling into the gorge.

It says that the driver of the bus was very tired and that is why he failed to manoeuver the bus on the sharp U-turn. Moreover, he was not very familiar with the terrain of the area. A possibility of a technical flaw has been ruled out.

The inquiry is being conducted by Mr H.K.Gupta, Divisional Manager of HRTC, and Mr Vikas Labru, Regional Transport Officer, and a final report would be submitted soon.

Ishwar Singh, the driver of the bus is, however, believed to have said he had tried to apply the brakes but they did not function and one of the front wheels of the bus went off the road, causing the entire bus to roll down.

“The BSNL has volunteered to bear the expenses incurred in airlifting the bodies and injured passengers to Vadodara.

Two officials of the state government had been sent to take part in the cremation ceremony.

Shimla, June 22
The Himachal High Court has issued notice to the state government on a petition filed by the main accused in the porn CD case Vijay Sood, wherein he challenged the order passed by Session Judge, Shimla, who had rejected the bail application of the petitioner.

Issuing notice the Chief Justice Vinod Kumar Gupta directed the state government to file its reply by June 27.

The petitioner had in his petition alleged that the procecutrix had made a false statement alleging that the petitioner had doped her and committed sexual intercourse and threatened her that if she complainted about it she would be exposed. On this Section 376 of IPC was also added along with other sections in the FIR and the petitioner was arrested by the police and he was remanded to police custody.

The petitioner further alleged that the police and the trial court had ignored the fact that the procecutrix was making a complaint to the police after more than five years and also ignored the fact that the procecutrix when confronted with her photograph in the sex act had no option but to concoct a story showing that any sexual act by the petitioner with her was without her consent and against her will.

This was done with an intention to exculpating her otherwise she would have been indicted under the Immoral Trafficking Act.

That the petitioner in his petition prayed that the order of the Sessions Judge be annulled and set aside and the petitioner be set at liberty.

Shimla, June 22
Prasar Bharati will not install any new television transmitter and instead popularise the satellite-based DTH (direct to home) television in the areas which did not receive the Doordarshan signal.

Stating this at a press conference here yesterday Mr K.S. Sarma, Chief Executive Officer, Prasar Bharati, said that a DTH set which allowed 33 channels cost only Rs 3,500 and was affordable. In Himachal Pradesh DTH sets were to be provided free of cost in the tribal districts of Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur as announced by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, during his recent visit to the state. A proposal to provide television sets to public institutions along with the DTH set was under consideration.

Underlining the need for a broadcast regulatory authority he said the relevant Bill was likely to be introduced in Parliament in the monsoon session. He said Prasar Bharati had, on its own, decided to limit advertisements to just 35 seconds in a 10 minute bulletin.

He announced that the “news on phone” service would be introduced in nine more cities including Shimla, Raipur, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Guwahati, Banglore, Imphal and Thiruvananthapuram shortly. News updates would be available through this service round the clock.

He said the combined revenue of the Doordarshan and All India Radio, which stood at Rs 825 crore last year, was likely to cross the Rs 1,000 crore mark in the current year.

Solan, June 22
Stressing on the need to regulate entry of private developers in Himachal after the introduction of the HP Apartments Act minister for housing and urban development, Harsh Mahajan, said the go ahead given by the Centre to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in this sector had necessitated this move. He said with investment of Rs 11,000 crore coming in Himachal emphasis of the government was to set up industrial townships in the key industrial areas.

He said housing was a major issue in prime areas like Baddi, Barotiwala, Nalagarh, Poanta Sahib, etc., and the government was serious in to provide housing to all sections of industrial workers and 500 flats would be constructed in Baddi in a year. Talking to media persons here last evening he said while private developers would be required to obtain a licence from the government. They would be told to abide by the hill architectural norms like floor area ratio, maintenance of green space and ensuring that the scenic beauty of the hills was not overlooked.

He said objections had been invited for finalising the rules of the act after which they would be notified. Allaying fears of colonisers monopolizing the construction in Himachal he said the Himachal Pradesh Housing and Urban Development Authority (HIMUDA) would be choosy in granting licence to the private builders. Only genuine parties would be given nod to invest here. Agreeing that the government had delayed planning of housing provision in the key industrial areas like Baddi-Nalagarh areas he said they would ensure that the executives who preferred staying in Chandigarh and its satellite towns were provided quality housing in Himachal soon. He said work to acquire land for the long planned township at Waknaghat was under way but it could take another year.

He later directed the HIMUDA officials here to explore the feasibility of constructing a community hall over a three storeyed housing board colony in Rabon and said if found fit from the technical point it could be granted the consent for construction.

Nahan, June 22
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today announced opening of a degree college at Shilai and declared that the college could be opened within 20 days if about 20 rooms, as required for the college, could be arranged by the local authorities and people.

He said that at least 50 bighas of land was required for openeing the college.

He said Sirmour district was backward in the matter of higher education, hence colleges were being sanctioned.

The Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha, Mr G.R. Musafir, said that tremendous development works had commenced over the past two years in Sirmour.

The Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Mr Harsh Chauhan, said that the previous government of Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal made airy announcement, which never materialised.

Dr Prem Singh said that the BJP only befooled common man and did not contribute anything for development.

The Chief Minister today dedicated the drinking water supply scheme, constructed at a cost of Rs 2.16 crore, to the people of Shilai.

The Chief Minister also dedicated the Block Resource Centre constructed at a cost of Rs 10.50 lakh at Shilai, laid the foundation stones of science block of Government Senior Secondary School.

Shimla, June 22
The Himachal Pradesh electricity board has constituted a three-member forum for redress of grievances of consumers in belated compliance of the direction of the state electricity regulatory authority.

The forum will be headed by Mr V.K. Bhatanager, a retired IAS officer, and will have Mr M.L.Gupta, a retired Chief Engineer, and Mr M.R. Sharma, a retired Chief Accounts Officer of the board, as members.

The Electricity Act, 2003, makes it mandatory for the state utilities to have an independent complaint-handling mechanism. The commission had framed the necessary regulations in October, 2003, and also issued directions to the board to set up the forum, but it had been reluctant to do so. It maintained that there was no need as it already had dispute redress committees.