Dharamsala, October 29
The Excise and Taxation Department today sealed Rangar Breweries Limited situated in the Mehatpur industrial area of Una district. The brewery is owned by liquor baron and high-profile politician of Uttar Pradesh D.P. Yadav. This brewery used to manufacture both Country Liquor and Indian Made Foreign Liquor.

The action came in the wake of seizure of 12,000 litre spirit by the Una police on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. The spirit was allegedly smuggled out of the brewery for processing illicit liquor.

Bansi Lal, driver of the tanker in which spirit was being transported without any valid documents, and Harjeet Singh, his associate, were arrested by the police.

Later, general manager of the brewery Vinod Malhotra, employee Rakesh Kumar and contractor Harjinder Singh were also arrested. They were escorting the tanker in a car. A revolver and Rs 3.53 lakh were seized from them. A case under the Excise Act, the Arms Act and Section 188 of the IPC was registered against them.

Preliminary investigations revealed the spirit was loaded in the tanker from Rangar brewery.

The police was also looking into the role of the officers of the Excise Department in the alleged irregularity.

It may be mentioned that an inspector-rank officer of the department is especially posted at each brewery who keeps the lock of the brewery in his possession. He opens and closes the lock of the brewery everyday.

A senior officer of the Excise Department said smuggling of the spirit was not possible unless the seal of the lock was tampered with. The Excise and Taxation Department had also begun investigations into the matter.

Meanwhile, the GM of the brewery, who was today remanded in police custody by an Una court till October 30, complained of chest pain last night. He was admitted to the district hospital of Una. He was having high blood pressure and was still under medical observation.

Shimla, October 29
While the model code of conduct prohibits launching of new schemes, the ongoing programmes started before the announcement of elections could continue.

Chief electoral officer Manisha Nanda said here today that as per EC guidelines for the candidates and political parties, relief and rehabilitation measures to the people in areas affected by floods, droughts and other natural calamities could be commenced and continued. Grant of cash or medical facilities to terminally or critically ill persons could also continue with appropriate approvals.

She said public places like “maidans”, helipads and rest houses would be made available impartially to all parties and contesting candidates for holding election meetings to ensure a level playing field. The local police authorities should be informed of the venue and time of the proposed meetings well in time and all necessary permissions taken. In case there are any restrictive or prohibitory orders in force at the venue of a proposed meeting, these would have to be respected. Exemption, if necessary, must be applied for and obtained well in time. Permission must be obtained for the use of loudspeakers or any other such facilities for the proposed meetings.

Assistance of the police should be obtained in dealing with persons disturbing meetings or creating disorder. The time and place of the starting and termination of any procession and the route to be followed must be settled in advance and necessary permissions obtained from the police authorities. The passage of the procession must be such that there was no hindrance to the traffic. All workers must display badges or identity cards and unofficial identity slips issued to voters should be on plain paper and not contain any symbol, name of the candidate or name of the party.

Only those having a valid authority letter from the Election Commission could enter any polling booth. Demonstrations or picketing before the houses of individuals by way of protesting against their opinion or activities shall not be resorted to. Subject to the local laws, no one can make use of any individual’s land, building, compound wall, vehicles etc. for erecting flag staffs, putting up banners, pasting notices or writing slogans without specific permission of the owner.

On the day of elections, no person who has been assessed to be having a security threat and, therefore, given official security could enter the vicinity of a polling station premise (within 100 m) with his security personnel. Similarly, such persons could not be appointed election agents, polling agents or counting agents.

Shimla, October 29
The BJP poll managers seem to be facing a tough time chalking out the election programme of BJP leaders, Shanta Kumar and P.K. Dhumal, the two front-runners for the post of Chief Ministership as both have to be given equal importance and any wrong signal from their side will go about one being projected as the preferred one.

The BJP poll managers, especially the State Election Management Committee, has a difficult task at hand as the tour programme of the two leaders has to be finalised with perfect balancing act. The two leaders are expected to tour the three tribal constituencies on November 6, 7 and 8 and there is a possibility that they might share the dais at one place to campaign for the first phase of tribal polling on November 14.

These are the tentative dates for the tour of the tribal segments by the two leaders who are likely to be present at the two-day workers training camp for the Mandi parliamentary constituency at Kullu, tomorrow. Though senior national-level BJP leaders will tour the state extensively during the campaigning for the second phase in which 65 constituencies will go to polls on December 19, efforts are being made to get Sushma Swaraj or Navjot Singh Sidhu to have a whirlwind tour of the three tribal seat.

One out of the two leaders is likely to address election meetings on November 10, 11 and 12 in all three constituencies.

Senior party leaders, including in charge of BJP affairs in Himachal, Satya Pal Jain has on several occasions clarified that no decision had been taken so far regarding projecting a Chief Ministerial candidate and this could well be done after the poll. “The party has not option but to keep absolutely mum on the issue or else infighting will cost heavily to the BJP,” admit senior leaders.

With the party being divided into Shanta and Dhumal camps, the party cannot afford to send a clear cut signal as to who is the more preferred one, as it would lead to a lot of infighting.

Shimla, October 29
The advancement of the Assembly elections in the tribal areas has spoilt the festival season of tribesmen in Kinnaur district.

While they are happy that early poll has given them an opportunity to play a role in the formation of the government, they also rue that it is being held during the festival season, which for them is the best part of the year.

After harvesting their apple, chilgoza, rajmash and other crops, tribesmen indulge in festivities in November. The Lavi fair is held at Reckong Peo and Rampur which provides a ready market for their agricultural produce, high-quality pashmina wool, shawls, caps and other products. Tribesmen from Spiti bring the world famous Chamurthi horses for sale at the fairs.

This year the Lavi fair of Kinnaur commences at Reckog Peo on November 30 which is also the last date of withdrawal of nominations.

After a week-long fair, tribals will move down to Rampur to participate in the Lavi fair. The fair will conclude on November 14, the day Kinnaur Assembly constituency goes to the poll along with Lahaul-Spiti and Bharmour.

This year they will have to choose between the Lavi fair and the elections. It will be tough call as maximum business is witnessed by tribesmen which is the last day of the fair at Rampur.

Congress candidate Jagat Singh Negi said tribals who have stocks of dry fruits, wool and pashmina would certainly opt for the fair at Rampur due to economic reasons. BJP candidate Tejwant Negi, however, sees an opportunity for mustering support at the Lavi fair at Reckog Peo which attracts people from the entire district. He is hopeful that traders will return to their villages from the fair at Rampur for a day to cast vote.

Shimla, October 29
The state government today announced training/immunisation programme for Haj pilgrims from the state to be held in the next week.

Since flights for pilgrims would take off from November 11 onwards from New Delhi, the training/immunisation programme had been fixed prior to that, a spokesman of the Haj committee said.

For pilgrims from Chamba and Kangra districts, the programme would be organised on November 7 at Chamba, the spokesman said. For Mandi the date would be November 6, for Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Solan and Shimla November 5 and for Sirmaur November 8.

The spokesman said the pilgrims were requested to attend the programme. — PTI

Kumarhatti, October 29
Accelerating its efforts to make monkey culling drive a success, Solan district Kisan Sabha has convened a public meeting on November 4, in which all political parties would participate. The meeting would be held at Shangri village in Chamat Bharech panchayat. The meeting has been convened to get views of all parties on the issue of monkey menace.

General secretary Pyare Lal Sharma said the sabha wanted a clear-cut policy of each party on the problem. He said the problem had crossed limits and arable land on a large-scale had turned barren. Farmers were reluctant to plough their fields due to fear of monkeys, he said.

Sharma said the state government instead of supporting the culling drive had created hindrance in its way. He said no compensation was being given to the affected farmers despite repeated representations by them. He said the need of the hour was to lift the ban imposed on the export of monkeys as well as setting new sanctuaries and appointing watchmen at different locations, he said.

The BSP, the CPI and the CPM have assured to take part in the meeting, he said, adding that the pradhans of 50 gram panchayats in Solan district would also participate.

Shimla, October 29
The sparse population scattered in remote villages, inhospitable weather and difficult terrain has been no deterrent for the electorate of the tribal segments of Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur and Bharmour, who come out in strength to exercise their right to franchise.

Irrespective of the time of polling, the turnout has been generally higher in the three tribal constituencies than most of the segments in the hill areas.

For instance, the most difficult segment of Lahaul-Spiti, which remains closed for about seven months due to snow recorded 77.77 per cent turnout as against the average polling of 74.50 per cent in 2003 Assembly election. Similarly, in 1998, 73.51 per cent of the electorate voted which was higher than the average turnout of 71.23 per cent for the state. In 1977, it was only slightly lower than the average polling of 58.57 per cent for the state at 55.53 per cent.

However, in Kinnaur, the percentage of polling was higher even in 1977 when 62.20 per cent of the electorate cast their vote in the segment. The turnout in Kinnaur and Bharmour segments has been around the average polling for the state. In Kinnaur, the polling percentage was 72.38 per cent during the 2003 poll and 72.43 per cent in 1998. In Bharmour, it was 73.56 per cent and 73.76 per cent in 2003 and 1998, respectively.

This is despite the fact that not many leaders are able to campaign in these remote segments because of topographical constraints. This time, the election is being held in advance and as such, the three segments will have a role in the formation of the government. 

Shimla, October 29
The local municipal corporation today managed to replace the broken pipeline from the Gumma water supply scheme near Craignano as most parts of the town remained dry due to a major fault in the main scheme which provides 30 lakh gallons of water to Shimla daily.

It was with great difficulty that the MC staff and hired workers slogged the whole night to remove the old broken pipes and fit new ones to restore the supply at the earliest. Since the pipes were broken in the morning there could be no pumping to the reservoirs in the state capital.

Mayor Narender Kataria said water would be supplied to the affected localities the minute a bare minimum water level was attained. He admitted that rationing of water had continued far too long this year.

The residents who have been getting water supply on alternate days for the past eight months have had to face a lot of problems in the recent past as far as water supply is concerned. As the pipelines from the Churhat scheme broke on two occasions, the fresh problem in the Gumma scheme has added to the worries of the MC.

While the Gumma scheme provides 30 lakh gallons of water to Shimla daily, 22 lakh gallons is received from the Ashwini khad and six lakh gallons from the Churhat scheme. Any disruption in supply from the Gumma scheme affects water supply in the state capital.

Bilaspur, October 29
State unit spokesman of the BJP Randhir Sharma today demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged financial irregularities in the Rs 365 crore World Bank financed Mid-Himalayan Watershed Development Project and in the Rs 73 crore irrigation project in Changer area of Kot-Kehloor constituency.

Addressing a series of election meetings in Kot-Kehloor constituency at Rani Kotla, Dabber, Kot, Suin-Surhad and Bhojpur etc, Sharma alleged that there had been complaints of financial irregularities and corrupt practices in these projects. He said it was the government’s duty to ensure that public money was not wasted and utilised properly.

Sharma criticised Virbhadra Singh’s government for ignoring the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes by stopping scholarship schemes like the Ambedkar Medhavi Chatravriti Yojna, Valmiki Medhavi Chatravrity Yojna and Thakur Sen Negi Chatravriti Yojna for students of these communities.

He said these three schemes were launched during the BJP government under the leadership of Prem Kumar Dhumal and 3,000 students were getting Rs 10,000 each as scholarships under these schemes every year.

Sharma alleged that despite repeated protests from the BJP, the Congress did not provide reservation to these categories, while filling up thousands of posts of PTA and anganwadi workers. He said large-scale bungling was done while filling posts under these schemes.

Sharma also demanded forest minister Ramlal Thakur’s explanation as to why he had changed the khair wood export policy thus depriving thousands of farmers to earn their livelihood. 

New Delhi, October 29
The Supreme Court today stayed the Himachal Pradesh High Court order making it mandatory for the school education board to have invigilators from outside the institution for annual examinations in schools.

The stay was granted by the court after the state government said the order would render the conducting of already-rescheduled examinations virtually impossible due to the announcement of Assembly elections.

Taking cognisance of the HP Board of School Education appeal against the high court order of September 10, a Bench of Justices H.K. Sema and P. Sathasivam granted stay and allowed the government to conduct the examination with in-house invigilators from the schools where the examination centres would be set up.

School board counsel M.N. Rao and state’s additional advocate-general J.S. Attri told the court that the examinations, which were to be earlier held in the first week of December, had been rescheduled from December 24 due to elections and deploying invigilators from other schools at last moment would be impossible.

Since it was difficult to send teachers to far-flung schools, particularly in remote tribal areas, the high court order restraining the board from having in-house invigilators would “virtually result in the collapse of the examination system”, Rao said.

He said the high court order amounted to a direct “interference” in the policy decision of the government. The policy of having in-house invigilators was brought in by the government by taking into consideration various aspects, including the topography of the state, he said.

The high court had gone beyond the plea raised in the petition on which the order was issued, he said. The petition filed by the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha dealt with the government notification not permitting the setting up of examination centres in private schools, but the high court widened its scope to give an extended direction to prevent in-house invigilators, he added.

While disposing of the petition, the high court had said the violation of its order would make the in-house examination superintendent, the deputy superintendent and other invigilators liable to be proceeded against under the HP Board Act and rules framed under it.

The high court had also directed the board to frame fresh guidelines for deployment of invigilators in future by keeping in mind the demand of private institutions, giving it four-week time.

Solan, October 29
Despite stern directions by the government regarding felling of green trees in the state, a case of axing of trees has come to light in Kotala-Ka-Nala locality here.

Residents of the locality have lodged a complaint with the police in this regard. Complaints have also been made to officials of municipal council and the Forest Department. The trees were apparently axed over the past two-three days. “Some persons wanting to make some other use of the existing land seem to have done this,” alleged the residents.

Following orders of the high court, the government had imposed a ban on green felling a few months ago. The court had passed the orders following a public interest litigation (PIL) issuing directions to the government to ensure complete ban on green felling in the state. Though, the green felling could earlier be carried out after obtaining due permission form the Forest Department and other authorities concerned, the provision was withdrawn following high court’s order.

An official of the council confirmed that no such permission had been granted for axing of trees in the municipal limit after the ban was imposed. The police said the matter was under investigations.

Nurpur, October 29
The state INTUC has demanded the release of bonus, interim and DA instalment to government employees and workers before Diwali.

State INTUC general secretary Rajnesh Sharma in a statement released here today appealed to the Election Commission to allow the state government to release these dues to the employees as it would not violate the model code of conduct.

He said INTUC would hold a meeting at Paonta Sahib on November 4 to chalk out a strategy for seeking the Congress ticket in the forthcoming Assembly elections so as to plead effectively the workers’ causes in the House.

“The state unit will forward its panel of prospective candidates to INTUC president G. Sanjiva Reddy for further perusal,” he added.

Kangra, October 29
State president of the Math Mandir Suraksha Samiti Mahant Swami Virendranand Giri has sought intervention of the Election Commission demanding that temples and educational institutions should not be used by political parties for political purposes during the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state.

In a letter to state election commissioner Manisha Nanda, Swami Giri said political parties should be stopped from misusing premises of temples, religious places and schools in the state for political purposes during the forthcoming elections. He said political parties, especially BJP’s sister organisations the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal, the Durga Vahini and the RSS, were misusing religious places and schools for political purposes by running their offices in these premises and by holding meetings there.

He said all political parties should be banned from organising public meetings in temples or educational institutions and demanded that the commission should direct all returning officers in the state to take effective steps in that direction.

Dharamsala, October 29
Additional District and Session’s judge K.S. Chandel today sentenced Ramesh Chand, resident of Kaloha village in Dehra (Kangra), to five years rigorous imprisonment on the charges of culpable homicide. A fine of Rs 10,000 was also imposed on him.

In case of default of payment of fine, he would have to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for one more year.

Deputy District Attorney B.K. Marwah said Ramesh pelted stones on one Kusum Lata and her three-and-half-year-old daughter, Raksha, following an altercation over the grazing of cattle on a piece of land on September 14, 2000, which led to the child’s death.

Marwah said the child’s parents did not inform anyone about the incident and buried her in the fields. However, the matter was taken up by the village panchayat and upon its insistence, the child’s parents lodged an FIR against the accused.

The police booked Ramesh under Section 304 of the IPC on September 21 and began investigations. The body of the child was taken out and a post-mortem was conducted.

The post-mortem established that the child died due to head and chest injuries.

Sundernagar, October 29
The Consumer Forum, Mandi, today directed the New India Assurance Company, Mandi and Nagpur (Maharastra) branches, to pay a sum of Rs 5 lakh along with 9 per cent interest per annum till the date of payment and Rs 2,000 as the cost of complaint, to Kuldeep Chand of Pung village. The complaint was made through his wife Kaushalaya Devi.

Kuldeep Chand was working as a haulpack operator with M/S Western Coal Field Ltd, Nagpur. On July 7, 2001, when Kuldeep was going to his home town at Sundernagar, he met with an accident at Delhi and suffered serious injuries. The medical board examined Kuldeep and his treatment ended on July 13, 2002. It was found that he was suffering from 100 per cent permanent disability and required an attendant regularly.

The company had obtained an insurance cover for its workers named as the Janta Personal Accident Policy which came in effect from September 6, 1999 to March 14, 2009, from New India Assurance Company.

As per the policy, the insurance company was required to pay the assured sum of Rs 5 lakh but it was not paid to him.

Kuldeep later approached the Consumer Forum which dismissed his complaint. Later, an appeal was preferred against the order before the State Commission in Shimla, which sent the case back to the Consumer Forum, Mandi.

The insurance company pleaded that the Western Coal Field Ltd had not paid the whole amount pertaining to the insurance policy so the policy was cancelled on September 14, 2002, and some litigation between the insurance company and Western Coal Field Ltd was still pending. It further stated that the complainant deserved to be dismissed on the ground of territorial jurisdiction and limitation.

The forum held that on the date when the complainant suffered injuries, the insurance policy was not cancelled, and rejected the points raised by the insurance company.

The forum further held that the complainant suffered 100 per cent disability due to which he lost his job but the insurance company did not bother to get his claim investigated.

The Consumer Forum directed the branch manager, New India Assurance Company Ltd, Mandi and Nagpur branches, to pay Rs 5 lakh along with 9 per cent interest per annum from the date of filing the complaint, i.e. from November 15, 2003, till the payment was made along with Rs 2,000 as cost of the complaint.