Solan, September 9
The issue of imposition of 10 per cent house tax in the municipal committee area has created dissension in the political circles here. While the Congress councillor, Mr Sanjay Awasthi, has threatened to relinquish his post if the tax was not rolled back, the local BJP MLA Dr Rajiv Bindal has threatened to launch a public agitation against it.

Eying the forthcoming election to the civic bodies, the issue has generated much hype. The people, in turn, have been made to bear the burden of 5 per cent conservancy tax and 10 per cent house tax. While none is in a mood to annoy the masses, both parties are leaving no stone unturned to dub the tax imposition as a handiwork of their opponents.

The local municipal committee has levied the tax after a state government notification made it mandatory to impose it or face non-grant of octroi grant in 2004. The earlier BJP government had first notified the imposition of this tax in February 1997 at a rate varying between 5 to 10 per cent, stated Dr Bindal. He, however, asserted that they had managed to keep its imposition on hold till their government was in power.

Instead of pleading the case for non-imposition for this tax, the municipal committee levied it surreptitiously without eliciting public opinion and seeking objections, he added. Their councillors had, however, opposed the move and even recorded objections by filing dissenting note in the proceedings of the committee.

Mr Awasthi, while squarely blaming the BJP MLA for having raked up the issue in the floor of the House, rued that had Dr Bindal not demanded to know how much tax had been collected and on what rate, there was little probability of notices being served to people for non-payment of this tax. Since the tax was calculated on the same basis as the earlier charged 5 per cent conservancy tax, the people had been burdened with 15 per cent tax. This was not just against the Municipal Committee Act which entailed imposition of a tax between 7.5 to 12 per cent but taxing for the masses. He said the matter would be represented before the Chief Minister and some relief sought.

The BJP had constituted a sangarsh samiti under the chairmanship of Mr J.L. Sharma to oppose the move and gather public opinion in this matter. The samiti had, however, fallen flat after the chairman showed reluctance to head the samiti.

Shimla, September 9
The Government Examiner of Questioned Documents (GEQD), the second oldest forensic science institution in the world after Scotland Yard, has become the first such forensic laboratory in the country to qualify for ISO 17025 certification to secure international accreditation.

The laboratory applied for international accreditation through the National Board for Testing and Calibration of Laboratories, coordinating body for International Standards Organisation (ISO) certification, last year. The ISO has already communicated to the GEQD that it had qualified for ISO 17025 (2005), the latest standards, and the certificate will be presented to it shortly.

The laboratory came into existence in 1904 when the then British government sought to identify the “traitors” by intercepting the letters of freedom fighters and political leaders. It gradually acquired the shape of a forensic science institution which investigated forged and suspicious documents, counterfeit currency and fake signatures. Of late its services have been expanded to take care of digital crimes , credit cards frauds and other hi-tech offences. State-of-the-art facilities have been created for computer and mobile phone forensics and it had already examined and disposed of some important cases pertaining to pornographic CD’s. A full-fledged computer forensic division has been set up for the examination of digital evidence including mobile storage media.

It has developed facilities for linking the suspect computer with the hard prints for investigating cases for forged instruments like fake currency and various certificates.

Mr I.S. Rao, Assistant Government Examiner and Quality Manager and Coordinator for international accreditation, said the credentials attained by way of the accreditation would facilitate acceptance of the reports of the laboratory in the world and the traceability of the examination procedures to all such laboratories internationally and also the American Standards for Testing Materials (ASTM) standards.

Mr N.C.Sood, Chief Executive Officer of the Laboratory, said that securing international accreditation under the quality assurance programme was a big achievement which would help reinforce confidence of police, the central and state investigating agencies, judiciary and financial institutions like banks who have to deal with hi-tech crime. 

Mandi, September 9
With uncertainty looming large over repair of the Koksar bridge, peas growers have been forced to sell their crop at throw-away prices to local traders as they fear that the crop will rot otherwise.

Meanwhile, over 50 foreign and 100 domestic tourists are still stranded between Koksar and Keylong for the past five days, according to reports from Lahaul.

Talking to The Tribune on the phone from Sissu village, farmers said they had taken bags of peas to Koksar, where labourers were charging Rs 300 per bag to take the consignment across the Chandra during night time when work on the bridge was stopped. “Though the charge at a private jhula installed by residents of Gohsal is Rs 10 per bag, it caters only to the needs of a single village”, said Mr Duni Chand Thakur from Sissu village.

Farmers said traders camping at Koksar on the Manali side were buying peas at Rs 14 a kg despite the fact that the farmers had to pay Rs 10 as transport charges per kg of peas. Meanwhile, over 50 foreign and 150 domestic tourists are still waiting in the valley for the Koksar bridge to be opened to traffic. Over 1,000 vehicles are stuck on both sides of the Koksar bridge.

Mr Raj Kishan Gaur, Agriculture Minister, who toured the valley yesterday, today told The Tribune that he had requested the BRO to expedite the work on the bridge.

Sangla (Kinnaur), September 9
Sangla, one of the world’s most beautiful valleys situated in the tribal district of Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh, is still cut off from the rest of the world. The only road connecting it through Rampur-Karcham was washed away around 10 weeks ago during floods in Baspa rivulet, a tributary of the Sutlej. The floods were followed by landslides triggered by heavy rain.

Thousands of people living in the valley and the adjoining areas of Rakcham and Chitkul are facing hardships in transporting essential commodities to the valley.

The 1-km stretch of the road was washed away near the 300 MW Baspa Hydro-Power Plant commissioned by Jai Prakash Associates Limited. However, no damage was caused to the plant. It is producing power regularly.

One has to trek at least 5 km on the rugged hills to reach Sangla. The essential commodities by and large are being carried to the valley by the Nepali Gurkhas although the gram panchayat of Sangla, with the assistance of Jai Prakash Associates Limited (JPAL), has set up a small ropeway trolley over Baspa rivulet to transport essential commodities for employees of the power plant, jawans of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBPF) posted on the other side and transport harvested peas crop out of the valley.

Officials of the PWD and the JPAL were working day and night to reconstruct the road, said Mr Murari Lal, deputy general manager of the JPAL. They hoped to complete the work in the next three weeks, he added.

However, the Executive Engineer of the PWD, Mr Harbans Singh Negi, said the target was to complete the work by September 25 keeping in view the harvesting season of apple.

Shimla, September 9
Power tariff in the hill state has been rolled back to July 2004 level with immediate effect with the State Electricity Regulatory Commission staying the power tariff order for 2005-06 announced on June 29 last.

The commission held that the directions and the tariff were a “quid pro quo” and mutually inclusive as per the regulations and since the high court had stayed the operation of certain directions, grave prejudice and irreparable damage would be caused to the larger public interest and the 16 lakh consumers if the “consequential”order to stay the tariff part was not issued. It further said that the stay order would run concurrently with stay ordered by the high court and remain in force till its pendency.

“Right and obligations have to go together and there could be no rights without obligations. The tariff order is an act of to balance the interests of all of the stake holders and any change in one part its bound to upset the balance sought to be achieved through it. Allowing tariff order to continue without the directions will be tantamount to betrayal of the consumers of the state.”, it further observed.

It also held that since the board had expressed inability to comply with the incentive-linked directives as per the road map laid by the commission for a turnaround it was no longer entitled to incentive of Rs 50 crore through the reform surcharge. The incentive linked directive had been held inoperative ab initio.

The commission stayed the tariff order on the petition filed by Mr Desh Bandhu Sood, President of the Citizens Rights Protection Forum, and some other consumers who pleaded that the stay granted by the high court on the operation of certain directions contained in the tariff order on the plea of the state electricity board would allow it to charge enhanced tariff from consumers without fulfilling its part of the obligations. Since the directions and tariff were integral part of a single order the consumers would feel cheated if directions were stayed but tariff part was allowed to remain if force.

The stay on tariff order will deprive the board of revenue of Rs 111 crore during 2005-06. Besides industrial and commercial consumers, the biggest beneficiary will be government, which is providing Rs 110 crore to the board as subsidy for domestic consumers.