H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Govt instructions give criminals advantage
Mandi, March 11
Criminals operating high-tech mobile phones and other gadgets have an advantage over the police as the Central Government has issued fresh instructions to the cellular and telephone service providers not to provide details about the user's phone unless the investigating officer has prior permission from the Deputy Inspector General of Police concerned or the Home Secretary or the Chief Secretary of the state.

IPH Dept fraud: probe begins
Reckong Peo, March 11
The Irrigation and Public Health Department has begun an inquiry into the alleged fraud in the department that came to light in Kinnaur district. A portion of the sanctioned flood relief money was allegedly utilised for a construction work without fulfilling the procedure of inviting tenders and seeking prior approval from the authorities concerned.

Oppn to power policy likely at PFC meeting
Shimla, March 11
The recently approved power policy protecting the interest of the state is likely to face stiff opposition from various power companies and other states at the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) meeting to be held here tomorrow.

Crime in Baddi up
Baddi, March 11
With virtually no augmentation in the police force despite large-scale industrialisation and influx of migratory labour, the law and order situation in the industrial belt of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh has become a cause of concern for the residents.

Shimla, March 11 The intense cold wave sweeping the tribal belt, mid-hills and higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh continued unabated today as high-altitude areas in the tribal region had another spell of heavy snowfall while adjoining areas received widespread rain. People enjoy the weather in Shimla on Saturday. — Photo by Anil Dayal

Public information office sought
Kangra, March 11
Senior citizens have sought a public information office at SDM office here for administrative efficiency, transparency and e-governance.

Robbers steal water meter from CM’s house
Shimla, March 11
Robbers stuck at Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s private residence at Holy Lodge here and escaped with water meter, official sources said today.

Doctor killed in mishap
Shimla, March 11
Dr Beant Singh, who was working in the local Din Dayal Upadhyai Hospital, here was killed when the Maruti Gypsy he was travelling in rolled down a deep gorge near Huli, about 60 km from here, late last night.

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Govt instructions give criminals advantage
Kuldeep Chauhan
Tribune News Service

Mandi, March 11
Criminals operating high-tech mobile phones and other gadgets have an advantage over the police as the Central Government has issued fresh instructions to the cellular and telephone service providers not to provide details about the user's phone unless the investigating officer has prior permission from the Deputy Inspector General of Police concerned or the Home Secretary or the Chief Secretary of the state.

These instructions have come after the recent Amar Singh phone-tapping episode that hogged the limelight.

These instructions have been issued recently to the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and private mobile phone service providers, sources revealed.

With this, the task of nabbing an accused or monitoring his movement has become very difficult and time-consuming.

The time-factor is very crucial in nabbing criminals, particularly kidnappers, extortionists and impersonators, according to officers. "They can be located promptly from calls made by them from their mobile phones," they say.

The latest instructions have made the job of investigating agencies time-consuming and taxing. "By the time we get written permission, the criminal is miles away", they rue.

"Instead, the SHOs concerned should be authorized to give such permission in the city or state concerned," they point out.

BSNL's Chief GM, HP, Mr Rajinder Singh, while confirming receipt of the instructions from the Centre, said: "Phone-tapping and phone-monitoring are different issues. But we cooperate with the police when required. The instructions are not clear," he added.

The Home Secretary, Mr Vijay Kumar, said since Parliament enacted law, they had to follow it. "But there has to be balance between invasion of privacy and assisting investigations," he added. The Director General of Police, Mr Ajit Narayan, said they were finding ways to get prompt information from service providers.

IPH Dept fraud: probe begins
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Reckong Peo, March 11
The Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department has begun an inquiry into the alleged fraud in the department that came to light in Kinnaur district. A portion of the sanctioned flood relief money was allegedly utilised for a construction work without fulfilling the procedure of inviting tenders and seeking prior approval from the authorities concerned.

Mr A.K. Vaidhya, Superintendent Engineer (SE) of the department based at Rampur Bushahr reached Reckong Peo, the district headquarters of Kinnaur, this afternoon and held a meeting with the local officials of the department before beginning the inquiry into the matter.

Reacting to the news report published in The Tribune on Friday, the Secretary of the IPH Department in a fax message given to Mr Vaidhya had asked him to inquire into the matter within 48 hours and send a detailed report to his office by Monday morning.

Earlier, it had come to light that the local office of IPH Department illegally handed over the construction work of constructing a crate wire wall in the Sutlej basin at Tangling village to contractors without fulfilling the procedure of inviting tenders. These contractors hailing from Rampur Bushahr were allegedly enjoying good relation with a senior official of the department.

Interestingly, the work of constructing the crate wire wall was completed by the contractors even before the money was received by the department in this regard from the funds of flood relief that was allocated to the district administration from the state treasury.

Moreover, the material related to the construction work was also released to the contractors by the official concerned even as no tenders were invited in this regard by the department.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the local officials were trying to hush up the matter by distorting the records of the store from where the material related to the construction work was released to the contractors and completing the procedure of inviting tenders hurriedly.

On the other hand, sources in the district administration revealed that the District Magistrate of Kinnaur, Dr Amandeep Garg, did not grant approval to begin with the construction work without fulfilling the departmental procedures mandatory to carry out such works. He had approved only the estimate expenditure related to the construction work. The officials of IPH Department posted here were claiming that the DM had granted approval to begin with the construction work.

Oppn to power policy likely at PFC meeting
Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 11
The recently approved power policy protecting the interest of the state is likely to face stiff opposition from various power companies and other states at the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) meeting to be held here tomorrow.

The Union Power Minister, Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde, will preside over the national- level meeting, which is to be attended by state Power Ministers and representatives of various power companies. The primary objective behind holding the meeting is to have an interaction so that efforts can be made to rejuvenate the power sector.

Some of the major power companies like Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN), National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and other states are likely to object to many issues, which have been incorporated in the new Power Policy of the state.

The fact that Himachal Pradesh has made it mandatory that 15 per cent of water should be released into all rivers and streams having power projects will affect generation at these projects. “These can be termed nothing short of arm-twisting tactics as power generation will go down and the economics of the project will go haywire as the DPR were prepared on the basis of full water,” said an official.

The issue of water release on the other hand is very important for Himachal Pradesh as in case of less water discharge the ground water situation will further worsen.

According to Himachal Pradesh, this step has been taken to protect the flora and fauna downstream, preventing ecological and environmental damage. “If 15 per cent of water is not released, our drinking water and irrigation projects will also be hit,” said an official.

Another major bone of contention is the state’s demand for equity participation in all projects in the state. So far it is only in the Nathpa Jhakri project that Himachal Pradesh has an equity share of 25 per cent. It has been demanding equity in the 1200 MW Parbati project in Kulu being executed by the NHPC and 800 MW Kol Dam in Bilaspur being executed by the NHPC.

Another demand of the under which it is pressing for 12 per cent of free power for the first 10 years, 18 per cent after 15 years and 30 per cent after 25 years is also causing a lot of discomfiture to other states and power companies. 

Crime in Baddi up
Our Correspondent

Baddi, March 11
With virtually no augmentation in the police force despite large-scale industrialisation and influx of migratory labour, the law and order situation in the industrial belt of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh has become a cause of concern for the residents.

Yesterday’s broad daylight robbery near Jagaatkhana in Nalagarh has once again exposed the vulnerability of the area. Two armed assailants fled after looting two lakh from the occupants of a car at gunpoint.

The district police is now coordinating with the Ropar police to trace the whereabouts of the assailants. A joint search has been launched to nab them, said Solan SP Gianeshwar Singh.

The region has achieved the dubious distinction of being a haven for criminals who commit crimes like murder, day light robbery, etc. The presence of a large number of industries in the region often leads to frequent cash transactions. Daring crimes like a robbery in a bank at Dhabota, the murder of a postal employee at Nalagarh in broad daylight, looting of cash from a petrol station on the Swarghat-Ropar road in the past some time indicate the climbing crime graph.

Despite various proposals by the district police to augment the police force, little has been done by the state government to upgrade the strength. A comprehensive manpower-enhancement scheme has also been mooted to the government to ensure adequate staff availability a few months ago.

On the contrary, the state government upgraded the Baddi police post to a police station while downgrading the existing police station at Barotiwala to a police post. Making only a marginal enhancement in the police strength, the arrangement has drawn flak from both industry and the local residents.

There are scores of escape routes in the area due to the presence of a number of river beds. The criminals often slip into the nearby Punjab after committing heinous crimes. The police has now beefed up security around the banks and the industrialists have been directed not to follow similar timings while making cash transactions from the banks.

Though there are three barriers at Dhabota, Derowaal and Bagheri, more needs to be done to strengthen security around them.

The SP, Solan, said with thousands of industrial units coming up in the region, the need to hire armed private security guards was being felt. The association in the industry had been requested to hire such guards. Emphasis had been given on reducing cash transactions and disbursing salaries through cheques, he added.

Cold wave unabated in HP, rain in lower areas

Shimla, March 11
The intense cold wave sweeping the tribal belt, mid-hills and higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh continued unabated today as high-altitude areas in the tribal region had another spell of heavy snowfall while adjoining areas received widespread rain.

The tribal valleys of Lahaul-Spiti and Pangi groaned under piercing cold-wave conditions, with minimum temperatures falling to between minus 5°C and minus 13°C.

Sissu, Koksar and Keylong in the Lahaul Valley recorded 60 cm, 40 cm and 15 cm of fresh snowfall, respectively, while the Rohtang Pass had 50 cm of snowfall.

Fresh snowfall and rain hampered road-clearing operations of the Border Roads Organisation.

Shimla, Solan, Mandi and parts of Sirmaur, Kulu and Chamba districts experienced moderate rain, providing relief to farmers and fruit-growers.

The higher hills in Chamba district experienced heavy snowfall last night, intensifying cold-wave conditions in adjoining valley areas.

Having intermittent moderate rain since last night, Shimla experienced 28 mm of rain, with the day temperature dipping to 3.6°C and the maximum to 10.5°C. — PTI

Public information office sought
Our Correspondent

Kangra, March 11
Senior citizens have sought a public information office at SDM office here for administrative efficiency, transparency and e-governance.

The demand was raised during a meeting of the Senior Citizens Forum here today.

Mr B.L. Sharma, general secretary of the forum, said the Right to Information Act was operational and the state government had framed the Right to Information Rules.

He said opening the office would help keep the people in general and senior citizens in particular aware of details of ongoing projects on development works.

He demanded that display boards containing significant data of the subdivision, documents required for driving licence, check list for registration of vehicles, schedule of fees for licence and registration, check list of documents required for various certificates and important information pertaining to elections and photo identity cards be put up at the SDM office.

Robbers steal water meter from CM’s house

Shimla, March 11
Robbers stuck at Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s private residence at Holy Lodge here and escaped with water meter, official sources said today.

Though the Shimla Municipal Committee fixed a new meter at his residence immediately after receiving the complaint, the state police was in a tizzy as to how the meters were stolen.

The sources said the police was reviewing the security arrangements at Mr Singh’s residence after the incident. — UNI

Doctor killed in mishap
Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 11
Dr Beant Singh, who was working in the local Din Dayal Upadhyai Hospital, here was killed when the Maruti Gypsy he was travelling in rolled down a deep gorge near Huli, about 60 km from here, late last night.

Dr Beant Singh was on his way back home after attending a health camp at Kotkhai when the mishap took place around 11 pm. The driver of the government gypsy was also seriously injured in the accident.

The Himachal Medical Officers Association has expressed shock and grief at the death of Dr Beant Singh.

Parwanoo to get dumping site
Our Correspondent

Parwanoo, March 11
The local MC has received funds to the tune of Rs51 lakh from the state government under a project to manage waste in the town. Under the project a site measuring over 2,500 square metre in Sector 5 of would be earmarked as dumping site, said Mr Sushil Kumar Mittal, Executive Officer of the MC.

The work on the dumping site would start in April and by March next year dumping of waste material there would start, he added. The work to collect and dump the waste material would be given on contract, Mr Mittal said.