Shimla, August 23
Despite the absence of former Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal and Vijay Singh Mankotia, the three-day monsoon session of the Himachal Vidhan Sabha beginning from August 27, is likely to produce much fireworks.

Dhumal who has been leading the BJP in the house for the past over four years resigned after getting elected to the Lok Sabha from the Hamirpur constituency. Mankotia who was elected on the Congress ticket quit the Vidhan Sabha to join the BSP recently.

It will be a matter of relief for the ruling Congress as Dhumal is an experienced parliamentarian and Mankotia has been causing embarrassment to the Treasury Benches by raising inconvenient issues in the house.

In Dhumal’s absence, senior leader I.D. Dhiman will play the role of the leader of opposition in the house. He has already been elected as the leader of the legislative party.

The BJP will not let go any opportunity to out the government and it may well turn out to be the last session if the government decides to go for simultaneous poll in the tribal areas.

In such an eventuality, Assembly elections due in February 2008, will have to be advanced by at least two months which will not leave any scope for holding the winter session.

There are a host of issues like the controversial birthday party of former tourism minister G.S. Bali, audio CD released by Mankotia against the CM, the reinstatement of additional DGP B.S.Thind and the missing suitcase incident for the BJP to whip the ruling party.

Some of these issues are already pending before the state high court but that hardly makes a difference to the party which is keen to set the ball rolling for the ensuing Assembly poll. It has been raising these issues and has announced its plans to gherao the Vidhan Sabha on August 29.

Besides the huge loss of life and property due to cloudbursts and flash floods, irregularities in recruitment to government jobs, shortcomings in the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and rising prices will also be discussed.

The debate in the house will set the agenda for the Assembly poll.

Shimla, August 23
Priyanka Gandhi’s dream of having an abode in “Queen of Hills’ seems to be turning into reality as she has been granted permission by the state government to purchase land near Charabbra on the outskirts of the capital.

Priyanka, who has special fondness for Shimla, had scanned the entire area around Mashobra, Charrabra and the Retreat in May this year to choose a site where she could have a house away from public glare. Her search for land around Shimla has finally ended as she has liked a four-and-a-half bighas of land on the valley side below the Kalyani helipad.

The secretary (revenue) has granted permission to acquire land by giving relaxation in section 118 of the Land Reforms And Tenancy Act, which bars non-agriculturists from buying agricultural land in the state. Treating it as a special case Priyanka was granted permission in no time so that the final purchase could be made at the earliest.

The site liked by Priyanka is private land and she has reportedly given the power of attorney to a local person to fulfil all formalities for the transfer of the land in her name. At present the land has a dilapidated structure and a small pond. 

Dharamsala, August 23
The district administration of Kangra has pulled up seven block development officers (BDOs) for having failed to implement the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme in many panchayats falling under their respective blocks.

This employment generating developmental scheme was introduced in Kangra district from the current financial year with the motive to provide minimum 100 days of work to the rural folk within 5-km radius in the ongoing development works of their village.

No matter, NREGA had been successfully introduced in as many as 633 village panchayats but there were still 127 panchayats left in the district. It was supposed to be introduced in all 760 village panchayats of the district so as to carry out rural development works effectively.

As many as 22,000 applications seeking job cards were pending before various offices of the BDO's in the district and were not being processed speedily.

So far, only 61,399 rural families of the district had been issued job cards that enable them to get jobs under this scheme.

Taking serious notice of this incompetence of the BDOs, additional deputy commissioner K.D. Lakhanpal has pulled up seven BDO's of Nagrota Surian, Baijnath, Panchrukhi, Sulah, Nurpur, Fatehpur and Dehra for their incompetence in implementing the scheme.

All the seven BDO's had been given warnings. The ADC had in written asked them to implement the scheme as soon as possible in all villages panchayats left in their respective areas.

Lakhanpal claimed, “We have already disbursed a total sum of Rs 33 crore under this scheme at the rate of Rs 2.5 crore per block to initiate with the development works and provide jobs to the local people”.

The BDO's had been asked to bring the proposals of all development works that the panchayats demanded so that the money could be released to them accordingly.

He said every block of the district had been given a sum of Rs 40,000 each in the first installment to create awareness among the rural folk about NREGA so that maximum number of people come forward for the jobs.

Shimla, August 23
The 1,500-MW Nathpa Khakri project was again shutdown last evening after the level of silt suddenly rose in the Sutlej. The silt content in the river increased to 5,500 ppm (part per million) forcing the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam authorities to suspend generation. The project could be safely operated without damaging the turbines only upto a silt level of 4,000 ppm.

It touched 14,500 ppm before during the night but came down to 7,600 by this evening.

General manager of the project N.C.Bansal said the silt level had shot up even though there had been no rain in the region and the discharge in the Sutlej was also on the lower side at 723 cumecs.

The silt was flowing into the river from Tibet region and not from the cold desert area of Spiti.

The project has been shutdown due to high silt level for the second time during the current monsoon season. Earlier, this month generation remained suspended for more than five days. 

Shimla, August 23
The BJP today threatened to launch an agitation if the government failed to make arrangements for transportation and packaging material for apples as growers were finding it difficult to send their produce to the market.

In a statement issued here today, former horticulture minister Narender Bragta said that despite the apple season being in full swing many roads were lying closed and apples were rotting in orchards.

“Despite tall claims of the government the collection centres have still not started functioning and trucks are not available to transport the fruit to the market,” he said.

He threatened that in case the government did not swing into action immediately, the BJP would be forced to launch an agitation. “On the one hand the growers have been hit by natural calamities and hailstorms and now they have to face problems like unavailability of cartons and trays,” he lamented.

He said there was a shortage of trucks in Jubbal, Kotkhai, Rohru, Chopal, Kumarsein and Theog, resulting in huge losses to the growers. “There is bound to be a shortage of trucks when the ones carrying apple boxes are not being unloaded at Dhalli and Chandigarh for four to five days,” he said.

Kangra, August 23
A house wife, Bala Kumari (36), resident of Dadari village of Harbag panchayat, falling under police station Jawalamukhi, died under mysterious circumstances as her body was recovered from a water tank in the village this morning, the police said here today.

According to the Jawalamukhi police, Bala Kumari was reportedly mentally sick and had left her house in the night. The villagers detected her sleepers on the bank of a water tank this morning and Vivek Kumar, a local resident, recovered her body from the tank, the police said. — OC

Solan, August 23
Assuring the industry of better facilities and immediate repair of bridges in the industrial area chief secretary Ravi Dhingra today directed the PWD to ensure immediate repair of bridges in the Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh area. He directed the officials to make the Balad bridge functional for small vehicles so that investors could be saved from inconvenience.

The chief secretary was interacting with the BBN Industries Association along with a battery of senior officials, including additional chief secretary (Industries), Parminder, V. C. Pharka, pr. secretary (GAD), Tarun Sridhar secretary, (TCP), Anil Khachi, director of industries, S.K. Gulati, secretary, pollution control board, deputy commissioner, Solan, Mohan Chauhan and chief executive officer, BBN Development, Amandeep Garg along with other officers of state government were also present.

CII chairman and past president BBN Industries Association Rajender Guleria and president BBN Industries Association A.R. Singh took up various problems of industries with the chief secretary, particularly the matter of lack of infrastructure and road connectivity with other states.

Guleria pointed out that the condition of roads in the area was in a very bad shape and the work on National Highway No. 21A falling in Himachal was going on at a very slow pace and the collapse of Balad bridge has further added to the problems of the industries in the area. He also took up the matter of four laning of the road from Baddi to Nalagarh without waiting for Haryana to do so in its own territory.

A.R. Singh also presented various demands of the industries. He apprised the chief secretary regarding bad condition of Nalagarh-Ropar road and precarious condition of small bridges on this road. Arun Rawat apprised the chief guest that the BBN Industries Association was fully aware of its corporate social responsibility and has already taken in hand various projects like developing facility for hazardous waste and common effluent, development of parks and erection of gantry signage and rain shelters in this area on BOT basis etc.

The chief secretary exhorted the industries to meet the pollution control standards as there was urgent need to save environment. He instructed the Pollution and Control Department to submit a report in this regard within a month.

Shimla, August 23
The elections to the Students Central Association (SCA) of Himachal Pradesh University and its affiliated colleges saw the NSUI and the ABVP gain some ground and the support for the SFI declining for the second consecutive year. The ABVP won elections in some of the colleges having a large strength of students.

While NSUI president Kewal Pathania claimed victory in 180 out of the total 336 seats for which elections were held, organising secretary of the ABVP Umesh Kumar said their organisation won 149 seats. He said the NSUI bagged 128 seats while the SFI got 43. He claimed the ABVP won the post of president in 35 colleges, the NSUI in 34 and the SFI in nine colleges.

Pathania said it was vote for peace on the campus and keeping professional politician away from educational institutions. The NSUI was the only organisation that supported the Lyngdoh committee recommendations and the verdict indicated that a majority of students were in its favour. The slogan “Padho aur padhne do” had a salutary effect not only on students, but also on parents.

He claimed the number of seats won by the NSUI was more than that of combined tally of the ABVP and the SFI.

Umesh Kumar said the ABVP had emerged victorious in big colleges at of Mandi, Dharamsala, Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Una and Kullu. The organisation polled almost 50 per cent of the total 60,000 votes, he said.

Dharamsala, August 23
The Kangra police has arrested Bidhi Chand who had brutally killed his three children at his in-laws house in Bakrarwan village of Nurpur subdivision on Tuesday.

Police sources said he was arrested from Kaudu Bela village of the district.

He was later produced before a judicial court that sent him to police remand till August 27.

Preliminary investigations revealed that he was a habitual drinker and did not enjoy good relations with his wife. His wife Shresta Devi said her husband used to beat her up mercilessly after drinking liquor. Further investigations were in progress, the police sources said.

Solan, August 23
A ticklish situation has arisen in the Excise and Taxation office here with the presence of two Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioners (AETCs) after the former official, S.K. Sood, gained a stay from the State Administrative Tribunal on August 14 and the incumbent AETC Inder Rana joined here soon after getting transfer orders on August 7.

S.K. Sood was transferred to Sirmaur after putting in merely a year here and he was due to retire in another year. This transfer was among nine others where AETCs from other districts were also transferred. Quite a few of them were transferred within a short period of their stay and at least two of them, including Sood and Tej Lal were due to retire in less than a year. Both these officials have sought a stay from the court.

This has created a situation where the two officials are now posted at Solan and Kangra, while there is none at Sirmaur. Officials in the department rued that it was surprising why such a large number of officials were posted as many of them had short stays. It was also in violation of the existing departmental policy wherein only 3 per cent officials of a cadre could be transferred at a given time.

However, with 10 of the 12 AETCs getting transferred, this percentage had risen to nearly 88 per cent.

Another excise and taxation officer Bimla Devi posted at Nahan who was due to retire in the next one-and-a-half-year was also transferred but she, too, has sought a stay.

Chamba AETC S.B. Bhargave was posted to Kullu within merely a-year-and-a-half of joining, while the official at Una, Hitesh Sharma, was posted to Chamba despite a short stay. Even the AETC at Shimla D.T. Negi who was posted to Mandi, has not joined till now.

Intriguingly, an AETC who was caught accepting bribe, while being posted at Kangra was given a lucrative posting at Una. The same official K.D.P.S. Chauhan was reverted back to the headquarters after an Assembly question in the then session of the Vidhan Sabha. He has again been given a field posting.

Interestingly, the senior officials who had put in five to six years at a single station had not been posted out. This included DETCs of North zone and Central Zones, while the former South zone additional excise and taxation commissioner was transferred within three-and-a-half-years of his stay and that, too, despite the official enhancing revenue manifold in his respective area.