Shimla, March 16
Revenue minister Sat Mahajan today challenged BJP leaders to lodge a complaint with the Lokayukta regarding the allegations made against him in the charge sheet submitted by the party to the Governor. He said if they failed to take a step in this direction he would himself approach the Lokayukta to get his honour vindicated.

Intervening in the debate on budget proposals in the Vidhan Sabha today, he said he was waiting for the legal action being taken by the government in the matter . He said never before in his long and “clean” political career such serious charges had been levelled against him.

He said false and frivolous charges had been made regarding the departments he was heading “just to tarnish my clean image.” The revenue department did not acquire or sell land “it only grants the necessary no-objection certificate.”

Referring to price rise he said rates of essential commodities had indeed increased but the UPA government had taken a series of measures to deal with the situation. The decision to ban the export of foodgrains and lower the import duties, coupled with discontinuation of forward trading, would go a long way in containing prices.

Similarly, the subsidy of Rs 100 crore on essential commodities would mitigate the impact of price rise. Not only that, the government was also providing a subsidy of Rs 130 crore to various categories of power consumers.

Comparing the performance with the BJP government he said the economy was booming with the GSDP growing at 9.3 per cent and the per capita income increasing from Rs 18,920 to Rs 36,000.The tax collection had shot up to Rs 2,002 crore from Rs 1,183 crore and the annual tourist arrivals soared to over 75 lakh from 51 lakh.

The number of jobless on the live registers had declined from 9.11 lakh during BJP rule to 7.98 lakh.

About the BJP demand for increasing the daily wage from Rs 75 to Rs 150, he said the party should make clear whether it was its official stand. Increasing the daily wage to Rs 150 and social pension from Rs 200 to Rs 500 was not feasible.

In the end the octogenarian leader announced that it was its last budget speech, implying that he had made up his mind to quit electoral policitcs.

Earlier , Mr Hari Narain Singh (BJP) and Mr Lajja Ram traded charges on the issue of acquisition of land for the construction of a bus stand at Nalagarh. 

Shimla, March 16
The Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) has demanded that the government should issue a complete list of all posts that had been filled in the past four years through the State Public Service Commission and the Subordinate Services Selection Board.

State chief Rakesh Jamwal today said despite the Congress having come to power by promising job to one person from every house, the number of unemployed youth was on the rise.

“Having failed to take effective steps to check the growing unemployment in the state, the government must provide unemployment allowance to jobless youth, who are mentally stressed,” he remarked.

He said in the past four years only 3,386 persons had been given jobs, while the unemployment figure had crossed 12 lakh.

“The government is once again trying to mislead the youth of the state like 2003 by making false promises and presenting wrong figures,” he said.

Jamwal said matters would become worse by signing the MoU with the Centre, the state government would have to wind up 2,000 posts every year. “A political resolution criticising the government for its failure on the issues of unemployment, price rise and corruption was also passed,” he said.

Shimla, March 16
Biometric e-passports with inbuilt security features will be introduced to facilitate hassle-free foreign travel from this year. The process for issuing passports will be simplified by curtailing formalities and number of documents required for the purpose.

This was stated by minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma while inaugurating the new passport office here today. He said it was the 32nd passport office in the country and five more were proposed to be opened at Amritsar, Coimbatore, Madurai, Raipur and Dehra Dun.

It would also provide consular services for those who had to submit attested documents for securing jobs and admission to various courses abroad. The ministry would soon launch a website for the Shimla passport office to facilitate online registration and inquiries pertaining to applications. Collection centres would be opened at Mandi, Dharamsala, Hamirpur and Kalpa to cater to the people living in far-flung areas.

The e-passports would have an electronic chip containing biodata and other details of the passport holder. After reaching the destination, the authorities would get all details about the traveller from the e-passport and there would be no need to ask any question.

To cut down the time for issuing of passports, the ministry has, in consultations with the Union Home Ministry and security agencies, identified 14 documents on the basis of which passports could be issued. These included PAN number, photo identity cards of employees, SC\ST certificates, driving licence, property documents and ration cards. Any three of these documents would be enough.

There would be no police pre-verification and only post-verification would be done to ensure prompt issuing of passports. With all these steps, the time for issuing of a passport under the “tatkal” scheme would be reduced from 20 to 14 days and for renewal from 14 to 7 days.

Last year, the ministry issued a record 44 lakh passports and the number was likely to go up significantly this year.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, was the chief guest at the function.