Shimla, July 27
Mrs Viplove Thakur today took over as President of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee with Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, and Mrs Vidya Stokes, Power Minister, leaders of the rival party factions, extending full cooperation and support in strengthening the party.

The function held at the party’s office at which she took over charge from outgoing PCC chief Kuldeep Kumar, turned out to be a show of unity. Assertions of Mr Virbhadra Singh that she would not only have his good wishes but also his personal support must have reassured Mrs Thakur who hails from the Stokes’ camp. In her brief address Mrs Thakur said her focus would be on strengthening the party at the grassroots. She said she would strive to activate Block Congress Committees which were the backbone of the party.

She said she was overwhelmed by the support of partymen and their response to her appointment had given ample indications that the party stood united. She said she had been actively involved with organisational work since she first became General Secretary of the PCC in 1982. She had worked in this capacity with almost all party presidents over the past two decades.

The Congress was on a strong footing in the state as evident from the fact that it won the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls convincingly.

However, when the party was in power the workers tend to become complacent and this had to be checked.

Earlier, Mr Virbhadra Singh said the newly elected PCC delegates had left the choice of President to Mrs Sonia Gandhi, national party President, and her decision was acceptable to all.

Mrs Stokes said Mrs Gandhi had chosen Mrs Thakur for the important post keeping all factors into considerations and it would strengthen the party.

This for the fourth time in the history of the state’s Congress that the reins of the party had been handed over to a woman. Mrs Satya Dang was the first woman to hold the post, followed by Mrs Sarala Sharma and Mrs Stokes.

Dharamsala, July 27
The newly-appointed Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief, Mr Viplove Thakur, today said there was no groupism in the party, even as she asserted that party units at the block level would be rejuvenated.

Talking to The Tribune over the telephone, she said she would strive to make the party responsive to the needs and aspirations of people at the grass root level. She would also endeavour to act as a “link between the government and the party” as she would periodically apprise the Chief Minister of the people’s expectations at the grass root level.

She said a programme to galvanise the party up to the village level would be finalised at the state party executive, which would meet shortly. “I want to make sure that the units at block level are not defunct. For instance, if a widow seeks justice, the government officials and party workers should be responsive enough,” she said.

Asked if her being perceived more close to the Vidya Strokes camp would make it a bit difficult to take everybody along, she said since her appointment had been made by Ms Sonia Gandhi and all the so-called groups had endorsed her choice, she expected co-operation from everyone. “Moreover, no group had projected any candidates and there were no stakes involved,” she clarified.

A senior Congress leader, however, said it would be a tough balancing act for Ms Thakur to take all the factions of the party along, especially because she was not the CM’s choice, even though he has now welcomed her appointment. “However, the party would not be polarised as it would have been if Major Vijai Singh Mankotia had been appointed the PCC Chief. Then the friction between the factions would have intensified,” he said.

Ms Thakur, meanwhile, said that her agenda would be to ensure the party’s victory in the 2008 elections. “We would soon chalk out a policy for proper implementation of the policies of Ms Sonia Gandhi and the state government,” she said.

Asked if she too planned to make report cards of Cabinet ministers and gauge their popularity at the village level, as declared by Punjab PCC chief Shamsher Singh Dullo, she said such steps might become necessary as the next elections drew near. “But the specifics will be finalized only after the state party executive meets,” she said.

The appointment of Ms Thakur, who was elected from the Jaswan constituency in Kangra district, has been welcomed by Congress workers of the lower Himachal region. The dropping of three ministers — Major Mankotia, B.B.Butail and Ms Chandresh Kumari — had led to widespread resentment, sparking off the controversy over discrimination against the lower Himachal region.

Shimla, July 27
The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board is heading for a serious financial crisis as the government continues to dither on the issue of unbundling.

With outstanding loan liabilities mounting to Rs 2550 crore against an assets base of about Rs 1600 crore and the cumulative cash loss set to cross the Rs 900 crore by the end of the current financial year, the board is already in a debt trap. The financial health of the board has deteriorated to such an extent that it is raising fresh loans to repay the old ones. It sought to raise a loan of Rs 238 crore for debt servicing in the annual revenue requirement for the current financial year which was disallowed by the state electricity regulatory commission in view of its alarming debt -asset ratio.

The board is utilising the employees’ provident fund and pension fund to meet its day-to-day expenditure as is evident from the fact that it has invested only Rs 391 crore of the total Rs 562.73 crore accumulated as provident fund. Similarly, Rs 70 crore of the pension fund has also not be invested.

Despite its worsening financial health, the board is reluctant to carry out reforms. Things would not have come to such a pass had the board complied with the directions of the regulatory commission. As a result of the indifferent implementation of reforms, the employee cost has, instead of coming down increased to Rs 1.34 per unit, the highest in the country.

In a bid to encourage the board to carry out reforms, the regulatory commission introduced incentive-linked advisories and also spelt out a 10-year roadmap for a turnaround in the latest tariff order.

However, the board seems reluctant to implement the advisories which would not only bring an additional revenue of Rs 50 crore to it during the year but also increase its efficiency.

The commission has taken a serious view of the negative attitude of the board and made it clear that it would not be allowed to camouflage its inefficiency and financial indiscipline by taking recourse to fashionable words like “micro-management” , “beyond jurisdiction” and “internal matter” to defy and disobey its well-meaning directions.

It has afforded a last opportunity to the board to comply with the directions failing which it will not hesitate to use its mandate effectively.

Shimla, July 27
The state unit of the BJP has accused the Congress government of shielding the high-ups involved in corruption cases and demanded a CBI probe into the charges against Mr Ram Lal Thakur, Forest Minister, and Mr G.S.Bali, Transport Minister.

Mr Randhir Sharma, spokesperson of the BJP, said serious charges of corruption had been levelled against the two ministers but the government was reluctant to order inquiry against them. Besides financial bungling in the Mumbai Musical Blast, Mr Bali was charged with irregularities in purchase of buses and allotment of bus routes. He ridiculed the assertions of Mr Bali that he would come out with the account of the musical extravaganza featuring Bollywood stars and said when he had himself admitted that the tickets for the show were not numbered how the money collected could be accounted for. He said only a CBI probe could bring to book the beneficiaries of the scam.

He said the Forest Department had been rocked by scandals ever since Mr Ram Lal Thakur took over as the minister. The latest was the timber grading scam in the State Forest Corporation. While all officers of the corporation, who were suspended in connection with the scandal, had been re-instated, the employees leaders who raised the matter had been at the receiving end. The president and the general secretary of the employees union had been transferred. Earlier , there was the resin scam in which the corporation supplied resin to private parties at lower rates causing a huge loss to the exchequer.

He alleged that a khair wood mafia had emerged which was exploiting the farmers and as result of they were not getting remunerative returns for their produce. When Mr Thakur was Industries Minister, irregularities in approval of induction furnace-based steel units and allotment of industrial plots came to light, he added.

Chamba, July 27
Himachal Pradesh is the first state in the country to have six mobile schools opened by the state government for the children of nomadic Gujjar tribe whose principal avocation is rearing of livestock. This move of the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, is a boon to the nomadic Gujjar families of this alpine region to educate their offsprings in the state.

Disclosing this here today, Mr Harsh Mohajan Animal Husbandry and Urban Development Minister, said the mobile schools envisaged imparting education to the children of Gujjars on their way at suitable locations and wherever the government primary schools were located on the itineraries of Gujjars from where they come across to the other parts of the state.

The state government had indentified areas like Palyur, Dharbadi, Kunela Dharlamba Goat having considerable number of nomad Gujjar population in the Chamba region to be covered by such mobile schools whereas proposals for commencing four mobile schools has also been submitted to the government by local Gujjar families of this region which are in the pipeline”, Mr Mahaja said.

Speaking about the universalisation of elementary education, he pointed out that Rs 532 crore ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ was being implemented in the state. He said Rs 122 crore had been earmarked for the expansion and consolidation of infrastructure under this abhiyan during last year and Rs 90 core were allocated this year. Two hundred middle schools have proposed to be opened during the current financial year, he said.

Mr Mahajan disclosed that, 2,000 new middle schools were being opened in the state to ensure that the students had not to walk much to get education. For this 10,000 new rooms were being constructed in the middle schools under the abhiyan.

He said under the need- based expansion of educational institutions 727 new senior secondary, high and middle schools were opened in the state during the two years. He added that during the current fiscal year, 50 middle schools would be upgraded to high schools and 25 high schools to senior secondary level, besides three new degree colleges would be opened in the state.

The minister said the government had accorded sanction for the opening of 2,906 childcare and education centres in different parts of the state.

He stated that the state government had proposed to formulate ‘technical’ education policy to encourage private sector participation in the field with an emphasis on the opening of more engineering colleges, pharmacy colleges and nursing colleges so as to make the state a ‘technical education hub’ and provide the opportunities of quality education and employment to the youth. 

Mandi, July 27
With the new uniform sewerage policy coming into force from June in the state, residents resent the revised rates for sewerage connections, which have become mandatory under the new policy.

The new policy came into force in June this year after the Irrigation and Public Works Department issued a notice on June 15, announcing revised rates for sewerage connections in more than nine towns of the state where the IPH Department has almost started the sewerage treatment plants.

Though the sewerage policy came as a breather for the residents, including rivers which have been turned into a dead waterways carrying trash and junk, the members of the Citizens’ Councils (CCs) in the region rue that the IPH Department has raised rates, which are unaffordable for the common man.

“The IPH Department is charging Rs 1,000 per installed toilet for domestic consumers apart from Rs 250 as application fee for a sewerage connection”, rued Mr H.R. Thakur, member of the CC, Mandi. “Even for the commercial consumer, it charges Rs 1,500 per installed toilet besides an application fee of Rs 500”, added Mr Sanjay Sud, a travel agent-cum -hotelier at Manali.

Not only this, each resident will have to pay 50 per cent of the monthly water bill as the sewerage connection bill every month, residents said.

Members of the CCs said the new sewerage charges were quite high as it was the duty of the IPH Department to provide basic amenities like water, sewerage and waste collection facilities in a welfare state.

The IPH Superintending Engineer (Works), Mr R.K. Sharma, said these charges were one-time charges only. “After they pay these, they will have to pay 50 per cent of the water bill as the monthly bill for sewerage connection as well”, he clarified, adding that the new policy had been notified under Section 5 of the Water Supply Act, 1968, in the state.

Sources in the IPH Department said the private builders engaged by the HP Housing Boards would be charged the one-time sewerage connection charges as per the installed toilets in the buildings. “Those who own the flats will have to pay only the monthly charges”, they clarified.

IPH engineers said the water bills were nominal and, therefore, the sewerage charges would not be much of a burden on the common man. Earlier different IPH divisions had different rates. Now the residents in towns would have uniform rates under the new policy.

Mr Sharma said it was mandatory for the residents in towns, where the sewerage systems have been put in place, to have sewerage connections under the policy.

Shimla, July 27
The Himachal Government today suspended Mr Vijendra Kumar, Managing Director of the State Small Industries and Export Corporation who created a scene by locking some employees of his office and held out a gun to terrorise them, here yesterday.

The officer was booked under various sections of the IPC and arrested yesterday.

A local court today remanded him in judicial custody for seven days.

He had earlier created a ruckus in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office at Solan.