Shimla, March 2
Provoked by stinging remarks of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on corruption, the entire BJP group today staged a walkout in the vidhan sabha.

Winding up his reply to the four-day debate on the motion of thanks on the Governor's Address, he said while in power BJP leaders sunk neck-deep in corruption and they had no moral authority to raise an accusing finger on the Congress government.

Having a dig at the party, he wanted to know from the opposition benches the circumstances which led to the dismissal of Mohinder Singh, a senior minister in the Dhumal government, from the Cabinet. The remarks infuriated the BJP members who indulged in heated exchanges with the treasury benches. In the din nothing could be heard and the entire BJP group walked out of the House raising slogans in protest.

He said the government would look into allegations of corruption if BJP leaders came out with some concrete evidence to warrant a probe but they should refrain from making baseless charges. Moreover, the lokayukta was there and even the Chief Minister was within its purview. Complaints could be filed with the lokayukta along with supporting documents. They could also approach the criminal and civil courts depending on the nature of allegation.

It was out and out a political speech exposing the negative role of the BJP in the formation of the hill state which was repeatedly interrupted by the BJP members leading to noisy scenes. Gangu Ram Musafir, Speaker, had to intervene time and again to restore order. The conduct of the opposition prompted Virbhadra Singh to remark that the BJP members were not behaving in a disciplined manner in the absence of their leader P.K. Dhumal and that deputy leader I.D.Dhiman had failed to control them.

Pandemonium prevailed for some time when Virbhadra Singh said that the Jan Sangh, the earlier avtar of the BJP, had opposed transfer of hill areas of Punjab to Himachal and observed a "shok divas" when these areas became a part of the state on November 1, 1966. He said the BJP had no role in the creation and development of the state all these years but today its leaders posed as the champions of the state's cause.

Cited figures, he said the Congress started from scratch to build a modern state which led the country in education and health infrastructure, boasted of 29,000 km of motorable roads and cent per cent electrification.

The objective was now to make it a "knowledge hub" of the country by opening new universities, medical colleges , engineering colleges and transforming some of the existing ones into centres of excellence.

Nurpur, March 2
The telecommunication network in Nurpur and Jawali subdivisions was paralysed after lightning struck the BSNL’s main MBM C-dot telephone exchange at Jassur near here yesterday. BSNL employees worked round the clock to restore the network, which could be possible only after 43 hours early this morning.

The telecommunication link of all 29 telephone exchanges of lower areas of Kangra district remained suspended with district headquarters at Dharamsala. According to official information, as many as 15,000 telephone lines out of 24,000 lines were remained out of gear.

According to Vijay Kumar Sharma, divisional engineer telecom (DET), Jassur, the lightning damaged telecommunication equipments worth lakhs of rupees in the main telephone exchange providing telecommunication service to 24,000 subscribers. He informed the lightning had struck mobile tower of a private company installed near the transformer of state electricity board, which was only meant for supplying uninterrupted supply of electricity to the telephone exchange.

“Through this transformer the lightning hit the exchange damaging its vital equipments,” he said, adding after consulting higher ups the electrical authorities would be served legal notice for allegedly giving electricity supply from the transformer just three days before the lightning mishap without prior knowledge of the BSNL authorities.

Kangra, March 2
Undeterred by what the fate has in store for him 45-year-old Rajesh Kumar, a balloon seller belonging to Backloo village in Chamba district, had been running from pillar to post in search of his son, Sonu, who was adopted by a sadhu and a Sadhvi for providing better education. Later on, Sonu’s parents were communicated through a letter that he was missing from their ashram. Both sadhu and sadhvi have been absconding since then. “ From this day my trauma started. I have been running from pillar to post to get my son traced”, he says.

Rajesh Kumar said today that he had lodged a missing report in the Dalhousie police station. After that he had approached the deputy commissioner and Chamba SP, DGP, and even the state human rights commission but Sonu could not be traced. He, then, approached police authorities to send a team along with him to Punjab for conducting raids on the hideouts of the swami.

Rajesh Kumar had on August 23, 2000, gone to Manimahesh to earn his livelihood. Swami Hari Harnand Puri of the adayot sanyas ashram, Pathankot, took 1990-born Sonu from his mother, Prakashu Devi, with a promise to provide better education to him. This was for the last time Prakashu Devi saw her son.

Deputy inspector general of police (northern range) P.L.Thakur said today that the department had been trying hard to trace the boy. Thakur said unfortunately both sadhu and sadhvi were absconding since 2003 so was difficult to move further. However, on the request of Rajesh three police teams had been rushed to Punjab along with him to conduct raids on various hideouts of the sadhu and investigations were going on, the DIG added.

Shimla, March 2
The Himachal Government has decided to set up a disaster management board to put in place a permanent mechanism to deal with natural calamities and frame out a new relief manual to provide succor to the affected families.

Revenue minister Sat Mahajan said this during the question hour in the Vidhan Sabha. He added that the board to be headed by the Chief Minister would take care of the long-term measures required to handle floods, drought, earthquakes and other exigencies. The state had sought Rs 159 crore from the Centre for this purpose. The Centre had already sanctioned Rs 105 crore.

He said a new relief manual was being framed to provide direct relief to the farmers whose crops were affected by natural calamities. Under the existing manual there was no provision for providing cash compensation to the farmers. The new manual would enable the government to extend substantial assistance them.

He said the Centre had released Rs 102.84 crore under the calamity relief fund to the state during the current fiscal till February 15. The total loss on account of flood and drought over the period had been estimated at Rs 620.72 crore. Replying to a question of Chandresh Kumari (Congress), the Chief Minister said the state lost the Central grants worth Rs 29.15 crore for the modernisation of police during 1999-2003 as the previous BJP regime failed to release a matching account as required under the scheme. He said the government would again take up the issue with the Centre and seek funds.

Leader of Opposition P.K.Dhumal said his government wanted the Centre to give funds on 90 per cent grant and 10 per cent state share basis instead of 50-50 basis as the state comes under special category.

When Kuldeep Pathania asked about the proposal to upgrade or open new administrative unit like sub-tehsil, tehsils and subdivisions he said at present there were 12 districts, 51 subdivisions, 75 tehsils and 34 sub-tehsils in the state. Recently, Sri Naina Devi sub-tehsils was upgraded to a tehsil and three new sub-tehsils , Namphol and Bharari in Bilaspur and Galore in Hamirpur, were created. Besides it was decided in principle to create a new sub-division at Bhoranj. There was no proposal to upgrade the sub-tehsil Sinhuta or create a new sub-tehsil at Kakira.

Shimla, March 2
It is for the first time in the past 16 years that there has been no heli-skiing in the Manali area due to lack of early powder snow, which in the past has been attracting high-profile tourists from around the world.

An Australian company has been organising heli-skiiing in Manali and Rohtang area since 1989. The company which used to hold week-long heli-skiiing for about 10 weeks starting from January end up till April could not launch operation this year due to lack of dry powder snow which is received early in the winters.

Though there has been snowfall in the Manali area but much delayed as a result of which it is not powder snow but heavy watery snow, inappropriate for heli-skiiing. heli-skiiing is only being done in Manali and Gulmarg in Jammu and Kashmir in the country.

High-end globe trotting tourists from Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Australia and Canada have been coming here year after year to enjoy the thrill sport. With Manali being much safer as compared to Gulmarg, foreigners prefer to come here.

“In case the snow pattern in Manali continues to be like this year, it would be difficult to have heli-skiiing in the area,” said a local travel agent.

The company also intimated the tourism and civil aviation department about its inability to hold heli-skiiing in Manali this winter due to absence of powder snow. Having signed an agreement with the state government for holding operations in the state, a sum of Rs 300 per person goes into the government’s kitty.

“With an average of almost 250 persons coming to Manali for heli-skiiing every year, the government gets about Rs 15 to 20 lakh from the activity,” informed a senior official. The company has to seek prior permission of the union ministry of environment and also the civil aviation department to hold operations in the area.

The helicopter is used to drop the skiers close to the ridges where skiing is done. Normally the area towards Rohtang, above Bhrigu Lake, Faujal nullah and above Jagatsukh area is used for heli-skiiing.

It is mostly foreign pilots whose services are engaged for heli-skiiing. Besides, guides and other technical persons are mostly from New Zealand, Canada and parts of Europe.

Being a high-risk sport, food, fuel and other necessities are dumped in plastic barrels at various points in the area as a precautionary measure and safety against any mishap or forced landing due to inclement weather conditions.

Kumarhatti, March 2
Balbir Thakur, a reporter of a vernacular daily based at Baddi, was allegedly attacked with a sharp-edged weapon by his neighbours at Jharmajri last night.

The incident occurred after he tried to intervene in their quarrel with a migrant labourer. Balbir, who was the president of the local Bhatolikalan panchayat and media spokesman of the Solan district BJP, was approached by the labourer at around 8.30 pm.

He was hit on the head and was taken to the civil hospital, Nalagarh. Later, he was shifted to zonal hospital, Solan.

The police has arrested Ramesh, Harbans and Sanju. Local journalists' associations have condemned the attack and sought stern action against the accused.