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HP policy against power sector reforms
Reservation of three MC wards finalised
VC’s orders spark controversy
Teaching starts at college
Probe sought into KGB episode
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Farmers protest against monkey menace
Barmana truckers call off stir
Army placement cell planned
CM ignoring lower Himachal areas: Legislator
Kokje, CM felicitate Manmohan
Rs 17-cr Nabard funds for 47 HP projects
Captain’s body recovered
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HP policy against power sector reforms
Shimla, September 26 The policy also goes against the power sector reforms the main objective of which is to bring down the generation cost by creating a competitive environment. In fact, the government of India is in the process of formulating guidelines in this regard. However, the state has come out with its own policy. Further, the experts have been of the view that the projects should be awarded on tariff-based bidding so that the cost of generation to ensure that cost and time over-runs did not increase the cost of generation. As such the policy allowing the MoU route for projects up to 100 MW is a retrograde step which will only push up the generation cost. Highly places sources in the government revealed that the Finance Department had in its advice on power policy stressed that the competitive bidding route should be followed in assigning projects for execution to the private sector. While inviting bids the government should clearly lay down the conditions for free power to be given as royalty. It had even suggested that after technical evaluation of bids the project should be awarded to the company which paid the highest premium to the government upfront. The government had even cleared the proposal but later it was reviewed and it was decided to allow the MoU route for projects up to 100 MW. At a time when the state High Court was insisting that the government must invite tenders for even awarding pretty consultancy assignments allotment of hydroelectric projects, on which hundreds of crores of rupees are spent, was likely to raise eyebrows. The PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry had opposed the MoU route which lacked transparency. Mr K.N. Memani, President of the chamber, maintained that the projects should be assigned through the competitive bidding route to ensure fairplay and create a competitive environment in the edge in the sector as power was a critical component of the industrial infrastructure. |
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Reservation of three MC wards finalised
Solan, September 26 The municipal committee of Solan, which has a population of 34,206 spread in 13 wards, has an SC population of 5,889. Two wards have been reserved for SC, while four have been reserved for women, including one for SC women. Ward number three, nine and 10, which were hitherto open, have now been reserved for women, while ward number 13 and seven have been reserved, respectively, for SC women and SC males. The municipal committee of Nalagarh, has a population of 9,443 spread across nine wards. Its SC population is 1,423, comprising 15.06 per cent of the total population. While one ward has been reserved for SC, three have been reserved for women. Ward numbers four, five and six have been reserved for women, while ward number one has been reserved for SC male. The municipal committee of Parwanoo has a population of 8,609 spread across nine wards, with SC population of 1,029. Ward number six has been reserved for SC women and wards numbers two and three have been reserved for women. The nagar panchayat of Arki has a population of 2,877 spread across nine wards with SC population of 480 comprising 16.68 per cent of the total population. Ward number four and five have been reserved for women, while ward number one has been reserved for SC male. The nagar panchayat of Baddi has a population of 22,601 spread across nine wards with an SC population of 1,542 comprising 6.82 of the total population. Ward number three and five have been reserved for women, while ward number seven has been reserved for SC women. Officials said wards which were reserved earlier in 2000 have been opened for the general category, while those having second highest SC/ST population have been reserved this time. No ward can be reserved for two consecutive terms. The ADC, Mr S C Negi, SDM , Naib Tehsildaar (elections), municipal councillors and local MLA Rajiv Bindal were also present on the occasion. |
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VC’s orders spark controversy
Palampur, September 26 While the authorities maintain that the exercise is aimed at improving the work culture, the faculty feels it puts a question mark on their credibility. Talking to The Tribune, Dr D.R.Verma, secretary to the Vice-Chancellor, said the directions had been issued to assess the workload of each teacher and should be seen in the right spirit. “This would eventually help in redeployment of staff in case of any shortfall in a departments. It would also help ascertain how much time is taken to complete a given course,” he said. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr D.S.Rathore, who issued the orders last week, is away to Pakistan and was not available for comment. As per the directions, every teacher will have to download the performa from the university website and put an alphabet as the code, signifying the nature of job for every hour from 10 am to 5 pm. This information would be open to verification by heads of departments and deans. An hourly account of each working day would have to be set to the VC office through e-mail every Tuesday. Mr Ashok Sharma, president of the HP Agricultural University Teachers Association, said there were other well-established methods of assessing the workload and performance of a teacher. “The monthly report of teachers goes to the Chancellor and research projects are also assessed by funding agencies,” he said. Moreover, most of the faculty consists of Ph.D teachers, who at times work till late in the night on research work. Considering this, the new orders would be a sheer waste of time and should be immediately withdrawn, he added. The association today staged a protest rally outside the VC office to condemn the circular. There are some teachers who see the directions as a way of maintaining discipline. “In case of unnecessary delay, it would be easy for the authorities to know the lack of facilities in certain departments,” said a teacher. |
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Teaching starts at college
Solan, September 26 The girl hailing from Mandi, who was residing in room No 102 of Sarojini Hostel, along with two other inmates, had beaten up the hostel warden on Wednesday. The warden had gone to the room to check their attendance in the evening. The three girls have now been issued notices for indiscipline. Rumours were rife on the campus that the three girls had brought a book on witchcraft which led to ‘evil spirit’ overpowering one of them. Other inmates had started vacating the hostel after the rumour. The Principal, Mr Mata, said the girl who was taken to the hospital the same night had been declared normal by a local doctor. He observed that the girl probably suffered from some hysterical problem. Mr Mata said the examinations had been rescheduled and normal teaching work started today. The parents of the hostellers were being persuaded to send their wards back, he said.
A few parents, who came to leave their daughters at the institute, today blamed the
authorities of handling the issue ineptly. |
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Probe sought into KGB episode
Mandi, September 26 Talking to reporters before he chaired the district BJP meeting here today, Mr Shanta Kumar alleged that Dr Manmohan Singh should seek public opinion on this sensitive matter “as the then ministers were involved in selling secret information to the KGB”. He alleged that even today the Congress-led UPA government had unleashed an era of corruption. “In the secret Swiss accounts, Indians own over Rs 1,00,000 crore, an information that the ambassador passed on to the country recently,” he alleged. Mr Shanta Kumar alleged that the communists had held the government to ransom, which was being run by Ms Sonia Gandhi, Congress President, through remote control. Referring to the Virbhadra-led government in the state, Mr Shanta Kumar said that he was more concerned with the reappointment of the Chief Parliamentary Secretaries, unseated by the High Court, than about the welfare of the common man. Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee had set a model for small-sized ministry, but the Congress-led governments have opposed this, Mr Shanta Kumar regretted. |
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Farmers protest against monkey menace
Nahan, September 26 Protesters blocked traffic for about two hours at Tikkar Chowk on the Nahan-Shimla highway which was lifted only after getting an assurance from the Tehsildar to pace their problem before the Chief Minister.” Protesters, raised slogans against the inaction of the state government to deal with the monkey problem which had taken a very serious turn now with the manifold increase in their population. Protesters submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through Tehsildar, Pacchad. Besides presidents and other office-bearers of six panchayats of the area, members and office-bearers of over 15 mahila mandals took part in the protest march. |
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Barmana truckers call off stir
Bilaspur, September 26 The four truck unions of Darlaghat, at the meeting on Monday decided to continue the strike as the Ambuja Cement had not accepted their demand. “The unions will protest in front of the factory premises on Wednesday”, said the truckers. Meanwhile, woes of industries in the North have increased as over 1 lakh tonnes of cement and clinker has piled in the ACC cement factory at Barmana in Bilaspur district and the Ambuja Cement plant at Darlaghat for the past six days, hitting the normal supply. “There is no question of raising the freight as we are paying more than double the maximum freight limit set up by the state government”, claimed Mr Rakesh Sharma, Manager, Commercial, Ambuja cement, Darlaghat. On the other Darlaghat Truck Operators’ Union, president, Mr Roshan Lal Jagotra, said the management had not hiked the freight though diesel and petrol prices had been hiked twice by Rs 4.55 per litre in the past three months. “The management, is paying Rs 43.30 per km per tonne. Under the freight formula signed with Ambuja cement it should be hiked to Rs 45.09 per km per tonne” he claimed. |
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Army placement cell planned
Dharamsala, September 26 Lieut-Col Bhaskar Gupta, PRO of HQ 9 Corps, said, besides helping the ex-servicemen of the area in getting jobs in central and state government departments and Army institutions, the cell would save them from fleecing at the hands of private agencies. Most of the ex-servicemen looking for a job after retirement have to rely on private agencies which exploit them. To remove these problems, the placement cell will reach out to the ex-servicemen community. An officer of the rank of Lieutenant Colonel has been appointed as officer in charge of the cell. |
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CM ignoring lower Himachal areas: Legislator
Sundernagar, September 26 Talking to mediapersons here yesterday, he said due to heavy rain in the lower parts of Himachal the maize crop had been destroyed and it would be difficult for the farmers to survive in the absence of financial support from the government. He said he was hopeful that the Chief Minister would announce a package for the farmers as he had raised the issue even in the Assembly. He said the Chief Minister had announced a relief package for the farmers of Kinnaur as their peas crop was destroyed due to non-transportation due to flash flood in the Sutlej while he was ignoring the farmers of the lower Himachal. |
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Kokje, CM felicitate Manmohan
Shimla, September 26 The Governor said the country had got a Prime Minister who was a renowned educationist under whose leadership the country was making rapid strides. Mr Virbhadra Singh said the country and its people were benefiting from his able and farsighted leadership. He said the country was forging ahead on the path of progress, especially in the field of science technology and infrastructure, under his guidance. |
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Rs 17-cr Nabard funds for 47 HP projects
Shimla, September 26 These projects will provide assured irrigation to about 1998 hectares of land and help increase productivity, besides facilitating crop diversification.
— UNI |
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Captain’s body recovered
Shimla, September 26 The body was recovered from the river near Powari in the district and was identified to be that of Capt Mandal Vokil. Kinnaur SDM Sumit Khimta said the body was identified from the driving licence recovered from his pocket. At least 34 soldiers, including Lieut-Col Amarjit Singh, Capt Mandel Vokil and Naib Sub Vidhy Dharan, were killed after an under-construction Bailey bridge over the Sutlej
collapsed. — UNI |
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