Shimla, January 10
Rohru, the Vidhan Sabha seat of the Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, has been reserved and Gagret, the seat of the Industries Minster, Mr Kuldeep Kumar, has been de-reserved , while the complexion of several key Assembly segments has been completely changed in the delimited constituencies notified today.

Kangra, the biggest and politically most significant district of the state, has lost one Assembly seat and Kulu district has gained one. The number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes has gone up from 16 to 17 in the delimited category, but there is no change in the number or status of seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes.The Kinnuar, Lahaul-Spiti and Bharmour constituencies will continue to be reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Solan, which has the highest percentage of Scheduled Caste population, is the additional constituency to be reserved. Some of the constituencies have even been renamed.

Thural, the constituency of the BJP legislator, Mr Ravinder Ravi, has been wiped out, reducing the number of seats in Kangra from 16 to 15. A new constituency, Manali, has been created in Kulu, increasing the number of seats in the district from three to four.

There is no change in the status of four parliamentary constituencies and Shimla will remain reserved for Scheduled Castes.However, the Jwalamukhi Assembly segment has been shifted from the Hamirpur constituency to Kangra to make up for the loss of Thural segment. The Dharampur Assembly segment has been shifted from Mandi, which gained one seat due to creation of Manali, to Hamirpur. Rampur(SC) will continue to be a part of the Mandi parliamentary constituency.

In Shimla district, Rohru has been reserved for Scheduled Castes and in its place Kusumpti has been deserved. The Kumarsen segment has been wiped out and a new constituency, Shimla (Rural), has been created.

In Kangra, Gangath has been renamed as Indora, Jwali as Fatehpur, Guler as Jawali. The Pragpur (SC) has been de-reserved and renamed as Jaswan-Pragpur after merging parts of the old Jaswan constituency and a new constituency Dehra has been formed with the remaining areas. Rajgir (SC) has been renamed as Jausinghpur (SC) and Baijnath has been reserved for Scheduled Castes.

In Chamba district, Rajnagar (SC) has been renamed as Churah (SC), and Banikhet as Dalhousie, while in Mandi district Chachiot has been renamed as Seraj.

In Hamirpur district, Mewa (SC) has been re-christened as Bhoranj, Naduanta as Badsar and a new constituency, Sujanpur, has been carved out ,while Bamsen, the seat Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, a former Chief Minister , has been merged into Hamirpur.

In Una, Chintpurani has been reserved for Scheduled Castes and Gagret de-reserved, while Santokhgarh has been renamed as Haroli. In Bilaspur, Kot Kehloor has been renamed as Sri Naina Deviji.

Now that the delimitation exercise has been completed, the million-dollar question is whether the Assembly poll scheduled for February 2008 will be held as per the delimited constituencies or the existing ones.

Hamirpur, January 10
Even as the National Highway Authority is yet to consider the idea of double-laning of National Highway-88 passing through the heart of Hamirpur, traffic bottlenecks have become common on the busy stretch.

The only solution in sight is the ambitious Rs 16-crore project of making a bypass from Pucca Baroh to Mattan Sidh, which would ease the traffic congestion to some extent as heavy vehicles which do not have to pass through Hamirpur would use the bypass.

Talking to The Tribune, Mr Satish Nag, Executive Engineer, National Highway Authority, said acquiring land on National Highway-88 in the main market would be an impossible task as there are shops on both sides of the road. Double-laning of the stretch is, therefore, not a part of any proposal.

This was one key reason that the decision to make a bypass was taken so that the flow of heavy traffic is reduced considerably.

"The bypass will be around 6 km long and be the ideal route for trucks and buses which at present have no option but to pass through the town.

A massive exercise of acquiring land for the bypass is complete and the project has been included in the next plan of the National Highway Authority," he said.

Meanwhile, traffic snarls are a common sight throughout the day on the highway.

The flow of traffic is also obstructed by the buses coming out of the inter-state bus terminus, which is located right in the middle of the market.

"Since most passengers prefer to alight outside the bus stand, most buses stop at the entrance of the bus stand and this invariably leads to traffic jams.

The presence of traffic policemen makes little difference, as scores of buses and trucks, besides vehicles of locals, get struck up in the traffic blockades. Considering this, the administration has mooted a proposal to shift the bus stand for long distance buses outside the municipal limits," said an official.

The situation has been aggravated by the unplanned digging up of all key roads in the town for laying of sewerage and underground telephone wires. Delegations of Residents' Welfare Committees of different colonies have been meeting the district administration officials in this regard to highlight the inconvenience being faced by the locals.

The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Rajneesh Kumar, said in view of these complaints, a committee with officials with the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Deputy Superintendent of Police and the Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department would be constituted to make sure that the digging work was carried out in a planned manner and traffic policemen were deployed to guide commuters through the diversions to alternative routes.

Manali, January 10
Snow continues to elude lovers of winter sports in this region. One of the most spectacular ski slopes in the western Himalayas, Solang, presents a deserted look this year. About 3 to 4 feet of snow used to fall in this area in the past. The national winter games used to be organised every year in these slopes.

The ski lovers are disappointed because only about 2-feet of snow fell in the month of December last year.

But, due to the high temperature the snow melted after one week. Even the higher reaches of the Pir Panjal range, including the Hamta, Bhrigu and the Sari ski slopes at the base of the Deotiba, at an altitude ranging from 10,000 to 14,500 feet, had less snowfall this year.

Mr H.S. Chauhan, Director, Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali, said every year during winter the directorate conduct skiing courses and imparts training to hundreds of participants at the Solang ski slopes.

About 50 participants are undergoing ski course at the Solang ski slopes. But, due to the lack of sufficient snow participants are left with no choice other than climbing up to the Phatru ski slopes to learn basic ski lessons.

A few private ski tour operators had either cancelled or postponed skiing courses till January 21.

This year, the Rohtang pass, the gateway to the Lahaul-Spiti, experienced the season's heaviest snowfall in December. But, the snow melted very fast due to the rise in the temperature.

Palampur, January 10
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said here today that his government was giving top priority to the widening of the state and national highways in the state. He said in the past five years the vehicular traffic on all highways had increased; therefore the state immediately needed to widen its four-lane roads.

The Chief Minister said this while inaugurating a Rs 3-crore bridge built on Neugal Khud at Bundla, 5 km from here this afternoon. He said in the next five years the state government would spend over Rs 3,000 crore on this project. The Chief Minister said the state government had already taken up this matter with the Union Government and the Ministry of Shipping and Transport for allocation of more funds for national highways of the state.

The Chief Minister said Simla-Kalka, Pathankot-Mandi and Kiratpur-Manali were the most important highways of the state; these would be four-laned soon to meet the rush of increasing traffic. Likewise, Shimla-Kangra, Shimla-Rohru, and Una-Dharamsala would also be made double-lane soon. He said the state government had decided to develop the state highways with their own resources or under BOT system.

The Chief Minister said the government had also planned to set up two international airports to boost the tourist traffic to the state. He said one airport would be set up in Mandi district while the other in Kangra district. He said land for both the airports had been selected by the government.

A team from Ministry of Civil Aviation would soon visit the state to finalise the projects. He said at present only 18-seater aircraft were landing in the state, which were not only inconvenient to the tourists but the its airfare was also very high, therefore tourists were avoiding visiting Himachal Pradesh and going to Kerala,Goa or Rajsthan. Lack of air net work in the state was major hurdle for the proper development tourist industry of the state; therefore, the state government had initiated these steps.

Later, the Chief Minister also laid the foundation stone for the expansion of drinking water supply scheme to the town. He said Rs 3 crore had been allocated to the IPH Department under a time-bound plan to complete this scheme. The Chief Minister said 88 per cent villages in the state had been provided tapped drinking water and rest of the villages would also be covered soon. He said the government had also planned the augmentation of all major drinking water supply schemes in the state.

Under this programme old water supply pipes would be replaced with new water supply pipes having a wider diameter.

Besides, under the “swajal dhara” programme, filtration and sedimentation system of the water supply schemes would also be strengthened so the people could get clean water.

Palampur, January 10
Chief Minister Virbhadara Singh today asked Mr Shanta Kumar, a former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader, who is also the chairman of the Vivekananda Medical Education Trust (VMET), to immediately submit the accounts of the trust to the state government pertaining to past four years so that people of the state could know how much funds were collected by the trust and how they were utilised.

The Chief Minister was addressing a new conference here this morning. He said that trust itself should have submitted the audited balance sheets to government long back, but it had failed to do so.

He said a letter to the trust to this effect had been issued by the government recently. He regretted that Mr Shanta Kumar, who was a quite senior leader of the BJP, should have behaved in this irresponsible manner. The VMET had collected crores of rupees from the public for setting up of a super speciality hospital but it had never come up. The Chief Minister said Mr Shanta Kumar was answerable to thousands of donors who had given donations to the trust.

At the same time the state government could not run away from its responsibility as the government had its equity in the trust, the Chief Minister added. It had given land valuing Rs 35 crore, free of cost, to the trust and if it failed to fulfill its commitments to the public, the government would definitely initiate action again it, the CM added.

In reply to a question, the Chief Minister said if it was found that the trust was not functioning as per agreement with the government, the government would take stringent measures against the trust so that public money was protected. He said the government had already received reports that in last four years the trust had not initiated any steps for the setting up of the super-speciality hospital which was main aim of the trust when it was formed.

Criticising former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, he said during his regime major irregularities were committed, the trust deeds were amended and Mr Shanta Kumar was allowed to become a life trustee, which was totally against the norms of the trust. Mr Singh clarified that where there were family trusts only in those cases one could become a life trustee. Since VMET was neither a family trust nor Mr Shanta Kumar had made any big monetary contributions to the trust, he should not have become a life trustee.

The Chief Minster said that as per original trust deed the Secretary Health, Government of Himachal Pradesh, was the chairman of the trust, but during the tenure of the Dhumal government he was removed from the trust so as to accommodate Mr Shanta Kumar and his partymen in the trust.

The Chief Minister categorically stated that if irregularities like change in land use and misuse of funds were found, the state government would not hesitate to initiate action against the VMET. In that situation entire property of the trust could be vested with the state government, he threatened.

Kangra January 10
Former Himachal Chief Minister Shanta Kumar has described the decision of the Delimitation Commission of reducing one Assembly constituency in Kangra district a failure on the part of the Virbhadra Singh government as it has failed to place things in right perspective before the commission.

Mr Shanta Kumar, while talking to The Tribune here today, said there should have been equal distribution and the state should have been divided into 68 seats and the district should have not been made as the criterion for it. He said it was an injustice that in one segment there was a population of 70,000, whereas it was 30,000 in another.

When asked Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had raised many issues regarding the Vivekananda hospital of which Mr Shanta Kumar was the chief trustee, Mr Shanta Kumar said: "I can only take pity on him as he has nothing to say".

Solan, January 10
In a case of fraud a local lady was duped of Rs 1.20 lakh when a man posing as a subdivisional inspector in Food and Supplies Corporation, Chandigarh, married her and later vanished with her valuables.

Reena Sharma, a local resident, got married to Ashwani Sharma, on December 30 last year. She came to know about him through a matrimonial advertisement that appeared in a vernacular daily. She along with her friend, Meera Devi, contacted Ashwani, who told them that he was working as a Subdivisional Inspector in Food and Supplies Corporation at Sector 17 in Chandigarh. He promised to marry Reena at Chamunda Mandir in Kangra district. He came to Solan in Alto car (CH-33-8333) on December 28 and took them to Kangra.

The two women said they stayed at Jagtamba Hotel where rooms were already booked in advance. Two days later, a priest, Pyara Chand, solemnised the wedding. After this they returned to Solan. On January 2 Ashwani told her that he was buying a house at Chandigarh.

He prevailed upon Reena to hand over her valuables and jewellery, including FDs worth Rs 48,000, to him as he was short of Rs 3 lakh. Renna handed over all valuables to him.

Reena and Ashwani reached Chandigarh bus stand on January 2 where he told her that he had to go to airport for some work. He, however, never returned. Reena reported the matter to the police which registered a cheating case against Ashwani.

Shimla, January 10
Opposing the leasing out of prime land in the SDA complex in Kasumpti to the local MLA, the CPM today staged a demonstration in front of the Himachal Urban Development Authority (HIMUDA) here today.

The CPM also gave a memorandum, addressed to the Chief Minister, to the Chief Executive of the HIMUDA. “We have demanded the cancellation of the lease as the park is used by employees. Moreover as per the Supreme Court judgement, land use cannot be changed,” said Mr Sanjay Chauhan, Secretary, District Committee, CPM.

He said the area, which had been leased out, had been marked as park and was not meant for commercial purpose. He said the government must cancel the lease in the name of Mrs Kirti, wife of Mr Harbhajan Singh Bhajji, local MLA, and develop the park which was used by hundreds of employees.

Mr Chauhan said the leasing out of land was unlawful as it was against the Supreme Court judgement regarding change of land use. — TNS