Dharamsala, March 17
Lt-Gen P.K.Rampal, GOC of 9 Corps, here today admitted that there was a threat of terrorist influx into Himachal Pradesh through the porous border between district Chamba and areas of Jammu and Kashmir. He added that there was definite information that ISI cells were active in the areas.

Lt-Gen Rampal was speaking at Civil-Military Liaison Conference at the 9 Corps Headquarters in Yol Cantonment. 9 Corps is the apex level military headquarters, which controls the troops spread over portions of J&K, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

He said that this disturbing information about the possible terrorist influx into parts of Himachal due to the length and difficult terrain of its border with Jammu and Kashmir, could have an impact on the security and peace in Himachal Pradesh.

He further said there were around 40,000 ex-servicemen in Kangra district whose welfare was important and their involvement in security and development could benefit the state.

On behalf of the civil administration, Divisional Commissioners of Kangra and Mandi, Mr B.K.Aggarwal and KGB Subramanium, along with the DIGs of Police, Mr PL Thakur and JR Thakur, participated in the conference. Kangra district police chief Mr SP Singh was also took part.

During the conference, issues relating to better co-ordination between army and civil authorities and welfare of families of ex-servicemen were discussed.

The matter relating to Khalistan Zindabad Force, a dreaded militant organization once again raising its head in some areas of Punjab and its impact on Himachal, was also discussed.

Issues such as upgradation of the Cantonment Board School at Yol, a separate access road to the slate godown village and construction of a check dam in the army environment park and construction of bypasses around the major towns along the Pathankot, Mandi, Manali axis were also discussed during the conference.

Baddi, March 17
Finally, traders of industrial townships of Baddi, Barotiwala, Nalagarh and Parwanoo will not have to pay the recovery of expenditure incurred by it for supply of power.

The HP State Electricity Board in a communication to its field offices has instructed to defer the recovery till further orders.

The order has come in the wake of the HP State Electricity Regulatory Commission (HPERC) order on the recovery of expenditure for supply of power under the HPERC Regulations (Recovery of Expenditure for Supply of Electricity), 2005.

The commission had taken suo motu notice of a news item published in The Tribune.

The commission issued notice to the HPSEB in the matter and proceedings were started against the board under cases No. 268/05 and 334/05.

The commission had held the board guilty on its interim order of December 9, 2005. It had charged the board with contravening the provisions of the HPERC Regulations.

With this, an amount of Rs 31,21,400, deposited by 72 consumers at Parwanoo for power connections, would be asked to be refunded to the consumers.

The board had received severe criticism from industry over the collection of these charges, which had earlier been ordered to be refunded.

But the augmentation charges were still being recovered from the consumers without the approval of the commission.

The board had continued to issue notices to consumers for further recovery of expenditure for the supply of electricity despite commission’s striking down of board’s circular.

During hearing of cases, consumer representatives had contended that the amount per KVA being recovered as per the annexure was almost 10 times of that recovered earlier.