Bilaspur, July 24
Hamirpur BJP MP and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has demanded that the elections to the Kinnaur, Bharmaur and Lahul-Spiti tribal seats should also be held with other 65 assembly segments and October-November was the best time for holding simultaneous elections in the state.

Addressing a BJP rally at Champa Park here this afternoon, Dhumal said that if the elections to these three tribal constituencies were held earlier the Congress government was sure to misuse its power to win these seats as it did during the recent Hamirpur Lok Sabha byelection.

He flayed the Congress government for failing to fulfil even a single election promise Neither employment opportunities were generated nor prices were controlled. Congress leaders were neck-deep into corruption and the CD released by Vijay Singh Mankotia was conclusive proof of graft even at the highest level.

Dubbing the Chief Minister as a “ghoshana mukhyamantri” Dhumal said he was in the habit of making announcements one after another without bothering at all for their implementation.

He said the Chief Minister had announced medical colleges as if he was opening primary schools even though these schools had been crying for proper staff.

He asked the Chief Minister where were the medical colleges he had announced last year for Mandi, Kullu and Hamirpur towns.

As much as Rs 600 crore to Rs 800 crore is required to open a medical college and the Chief Minister who could not provide doctors even in district hospitals was announcing to open medical colleges only with view to earning cheap publicity.

Dharamsala, July 24
The BSP has ruled out the entry of senior Congress leader and former union minister Sukh Ram into the party.

Talking to the mediapersons here today, BSP general secretary Man Singh Manhera said there were no such talks at any level with Sukh Ram in this connection.

Neither, Sukh Ram had approached the BSP leadership so far showing willingness to join the party.

The BSP leader made it clear that the party would welcome only those with a clean image. "We do not want tainted leaders at any cost", he commented.

However, he revealed that Lok Janshakti Party MLA from Nahan Sadanand Chauhan was in touch with the BSP leadership and talks had been held many a time for his entry into their party. "We will welcome him if he wishes to join the BSP", he added.

The party was in touch with many Congress and BJP leaders to persuade them to join the BSP which was emerging as a third force in the hill state.

He claimed that party chief Mayawati's public rally at Kangra on July 26 would prove a turnaround in the state going to the polls in six months.

Mankotia said that if the Chief Minister did not withdraw his statement and apologise publicly, he would sue him in the state high court. Mankotia said he would resign as an MLA later in the day pave the way for his entry into the BSP on July 26 at Kangra.

Major Vijay Singh Mankotia discusses arrangements for the July 26 "sarvjan samaj" rally with state BSP president Balwant Singh at the municipal stadium in Kangra on Tuesday. — Photo by Ashok Raina

Shimla, July 24
Decks have been cleared for the allotment of four major hydroelectric projects with an aggregate capacity of 628 MW for which global bids were invited by the government.

According to sources, the State Infrastructure Development Board, the nodal agency, has approved the recommendation of the expert committee of the state electricity board, which evaluated the bids. The proposal for allotment of the projects to the highest bidders is likely to be put up before the Cabinet on July 28.

The Malana Power Company of the LNJ Bhilwara Group is the highest bidder for the 200-MW Bara Bhangal project on the Ravi in Kangra and the 140-MW Chango-Yangthang project on the Spiti river in Lahaul Spiti.

It offered an upfront premium of Rs 61.25 lakh per megawatt for the Bara Bhangal project.

The company quoted the highest upfront premium of Rs 36 per megawatt for the Chongo-Yangthang project.

GMR Energy, an infrastructure firm, was the highest bidder for the 180-MW Bijoli-Holi hydroelectric project on the Ravi in Chamba district with an upfront premium of Rs 91 lakh per megawatt.

DCM Sriram Infrastructure quoted the offered highest upfront premium of Rs 40.5 lakh per megawatt for the 108-MW Chhatru project.

As many as 18 top companies, including Larsen & Tubro, Lanco, Jaypee Associates, Torrent-Gammon Consortium, Reliance Energy and Essar had participated in the tender.

The companies will be required to deposit 50 per cent of the upfront premium at the time of signing the MoUs and 25 per cent while signing the implementation agreement.

They will have to give 12 per cent free power as royalty for the first 12 years, 18 per cent for the next 18 years and 30 per cent thereafter.

Shimla, July 24
The state government has written to the Union Home Ministry to take up with Nepal the issue of handing over Nepali nationals involved in heinous crimes in Himachal Pradesh.

Despite an extradition treaty with the Himalayan kingdom, this was not being done.

The state police is yet to arrest more than 15 Nepalis wanted in heinous crimes like murder and rape as they returned home after committing the crime here.

Sources in the Home Department said though an extradition treaty with Nepal was there but under it only Indian nationals who fled the country after committing crime here were handed back to India.

Sources said there had been several instances when on the request of the Indian Government, the Nepali nationals committing crime in India were not handed to India.

The Home Department and the police has felt the need for taking up the issue with the Centre so that they are able to arrest the culprits wanted in very serious crime.

In quite a few cases, the Himachal police is aware of the identity and location of the suspects as after committing the crime in Himachal they are leading normal lives back home in Nepal.

The police efforts to seek their extraditions have not yielded results, as it only applies to Indians who go their after committing crime and not to Nepali nationals.

There is a huge population of Nepali workers in the state, especially in the districts of Shimla, Sirmaur, Solan, Kinnaur and Kullu.

In fact, the apple economy of the state is totally dependent on the Nepali labourers who stay in the apple orchards round the year and tend the plants.

Mandi, July 24
Medical experts and members of the HP Medical Officers’ Association (HPMOA) have described the ongoing checking of odd chemist shops by taking random samples as an “eyewash”.

The Health Department was yet to put “big wholesalers”, who get supplies from Saharanpur, Gaziabad, Delhi, Agra and other places, under the scanner".

It may be mentioned that a report on fake drugs was carried in these columns on July 12.

The Forest Department had directed 10 drug inspectors to collect samples from chemist shop in Mandi, Palampur, Kangra, Dharamsala, Solan, Shimla and other places over the past three days.

Medical experts, however, alleged the drugs inspectors rarely took samples from “big wholesalers or drugs suppliers” in Mandi, Baldawara, Shimla, Sanjauli, Kullu, Nurpur, Bilaspur, Nalagarh, Solan, Hamirpur or Dharamsala.

“The big fish are not touched as certain wholesalers, suppliers and traders are allegedly the fund-raisers for local politicians or parties,” insiders alleged.

Though the "whole sellers supply both allopathic or ayurvedic drugs and the surgical instruments to the government hospitals or deports", but the drugs inspectors rarely collect random samples from them checking them whether drugs were genuine or not, alleged members.

"Last year just 120 samples were collected in Mandi district, which has over 300 chemist shops and over a dozen small or big drugs wholesalers".

Medical experts said the government should constitute a three-member board of inspection for checking fake drugs in each district and drugs inspector should be accompanied by other senior medical officer during the random checking as it would end the corrupt inspector Raj in the state.

General secretary of HPMOA J.N. Chouhan said the department should take random drug samples from all big suppliers, stockists and chemists in the state and those found guilty should be strictly punished and their assets checked and seized.

HPMOA members said the fake drug menace was the result of weak enforcement of law and inspector raj. “Samples should be sent for testing to professional laboratories either in Chandigarh or Hyderabad as the composite testing lab at Kandaghat is ill-equipped,” they said.

General secretary of the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industrial Association Arun Rawat said the state had become a pharmaceutical hub and chances of manufacturing of fake drugs in the belt could not be more than 5-10 per cent as most of the drugs manufacturers had adopted good manufacturing practices.

Principal secretary (health) Harinder Hira said the department had been collecting random samples from drugs manufactures, retailers and wholesalers routinely, but they could not check samples from the “drugs suppliers as they were spread all over the country”.

“We can examine a possibility of sending samples for testing to professional laboratories as it is a costly affair and needs clearance from the Finance Department,” he added.

Solan, July 24
Flaying the state government for employing unqualified teachers through the Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) the state-level association of unemployed youth said today it was a ploy to adjust favourites.

Over 600 youths from all over the district today took out a rally in protest against this faulty recruitment process and later handed over a memorandum to the Chief Minister as well as the Governor through the deputy commissioner.

The Association of Trained Graduate, Postgraduate and C and V Teachers asserted that the PTA recruitments were a cruel joke on them as trained youth were bypassed for employment.

Association president Sushil Kaushal said the government was promoting backdoor entries by employing those who had failed to clear the commission examinations.

The association demanded a transparent procedure in making such recruitments, adding that the applications should be sent through the employment exchanges.

The association asserted that despite opposition to the PTA policy by unemployed youth the government was going ahead with it.

The government had appointed nearly 15,000 teachers through this faulty policy to adjust favourites bypassing merit.

The association demanded batchwise filling of vacant posts with the applications summoned through the employment exchanges.

The PTA appointments had become a cause of major contention among the unemployed youth as there were limited employment avenues available for them.

Since the PTA appointments were made by the panchayat pradhans they failed to give precedence to merit, alleged unemployed youth.

It was a mockery of education where a less-educated pradhan was supposed to interview a postgraduate teacher. The system had reduced the state-cadre posts to the panchayat level, they rued.

Nahan, July 24
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today lambasted the BJP for launching a “mudslinging campaign” against him.

He said character assassination should be stopped for the sake of clean and issue-based politics. He was addressing a gathering at Nohra Dhar, around 140 km from here on the occasion of 58th state-level vanamahotsava function.

He called upon top leaders of political parties to take initiative to stop politics of mudslinging. He also ragged leaders of the Third Front.

He announced upgrading of Government High School, Lana Cheta, to GSSS level and said Bogdhar ITI would be made functional very shortly.

Kumarhatti, July 24
A young woman reportedly set herself on fire after a domestic feud at Purla village near Parwanoo today.

Phulan Devi (22), from Bihar, has been admitted at the PGI, Chandigarh, with 90 per cent burn injuries.

Her condition was stated to be very serious. Phulan sprinkled kerosene over her body after a fight in the house.

She was residing in a rented accommodation along with her husband and some other relatives.

The gram sabhas had recommended around 500 rural schemes under the NREGY. Mahajan said Rs 20 lakh would be spent in every gram panchayat under the scheme.

Khairi (Chamba), July 24
The Chamera Power Station (Stage-I) has earned a net profit of Rs 224.94 crore against Rs 196.62 crore earned during the previous year.

General manager of the power station Rakesh here today said the project produced 2362.56 million units of power as against the annual target of 1764.96 million units.

He claimed said the project had been conferred with the bronze award by the Prime Minister for outstanding performance in generation of power in 2006.

The project had also won the “Golden Peacock Environment Management Award” and the “Greentech Environment Excellence Silver Award in Hydro Power Sector” for 2006; he added. He said the project had also got the “Excellent Rajbhasha Award” for 2006 under the “Rajbhasha Shield Yojna-2”.

Shimla, July 24
The Himachal Government is all set to introduce single file system and switchover to e-mail for internal communication to help cut delays.

Chief secretary Ravi Dhingra said here today the issue of a single file system which had been hanging fire for quite sometime had already been discussed at the meeting of Committee of Secretaries.

Some of the departments were ready to switchover to the system immediately. A final programme would be worked out at the next meeting to be held shortly.

It would save both time and effort as the secretariat staff would not be required to create duplicate files.

He said the officers and the employees were not IT savvy so far and to encourage them to make use of computers, he had issued directions that applications for leave and tour programmes should be submitted by e-mail.

Urgent instructions were also being sent from his office by e-mails and the officers concerned were being asked to inform about the action taken by e-mail only. The effort was to develop IT culture in the government.

Dhingra said speedy redressing of public grievances was a priority with him. The people were free to send their complaints regarding any department directly to him. He has set up a cell to monitor the follow up action taken for the redressing of grievances.

Another area of focus was computerisation of revenue records. The process has already been completed in 90 out of the total 110 tehsils.

He had issued directions to the deputy commissioners to speed up the process and ensure that the job was finished at the earliest.

These Tibetans, who enjoy refugee status in India, have been given one month to remove illegal structures failing which they would be forcefully evicted.

In case any candidate did not receive the call letter, he could procure the same from the commission’s office on any working day.

It would be mandatory from August 1 for employees leaving service to submit duly filled social security number form attested by the employer along with their photograph.

Shimla, July 24
The Union Ministry of Road Surface Transport has provided an interceptor to the Transport Department to help detect and check traffic offences which often lead to fatal accidents.

The Rs 21-lakh interceptor was formally flagged off by principal secretary, transport, Avay Shukla here today. With the interceptor, offences relating to overspeeding, drunken driving, using of mobile phone and smoking while driving and violation of traffic rules can be detected and proved.

The interceptor provides complete video-recording of vehicles moving on the road along with speed to provide incontrovertible evidence in cases of infringement.

The hill state is prone to fatal accidents. During 2006 there were 2728 road accidents in which 845 persons died.

The interceptor will also help detect accident-prone points and shortcomings like deficiency in road geometry, faulty traffic control lights to help upgrade the system.