Shimla, October 30
Noisy scenes were witnessed as BJP and CPM councillors today disrupted the proceedings of the local Municipal Corporation (MC) general house over an acute water shortage affecting the state capital for the past six months.

Eight BJP and two CPM councillors were on their feet the minute the house started. BJP councillor Pradeep Kashyap demanded that there should be a discussion on the issue or else the house will not be allowed to proceed with its work.

The BJP and CPM councillors marched to the well of the house and kept raising slogans against the Congress regime. They demanded that the Mayor should inform the house as to when the residents would get respite from the continuing water problem. The agitated councillors said it was for the first time that rationing of water had been continuing for the past six months.

The councillors also raised the issue of faulty distribution system of the MC. They were sore that while certain localities were being supplied water daily, others were going dry for more than three days.

Mayor Narender Kataria pointed out that there was a continuous problem in Churhat water supply scheme due to the construction of a by-pass. Broken pipelines were to be repaired each time. As far as silt or any other problem due to natural calamities like floods and rains was concerned, there was little anyone could do to prevent it.

He said that the MC staff managed to replace the broken pipes of the Gumma water supply scheme in less than 24 hours. He said normally this work would have taken at least three to four days. The proceedings of the house were completed amidst slogan shouting and continuous disruption by the BJP and CPM councillors. 

Dharamsala, October 30
The local Municipal Council has allegedly violated the model code of conduct by opening tenders for allotting works costing more than Rs 3 crore last week. These tenders were called for various developmental works in the town through an advertisement in a local newspaper on October 12, two days after the announcement of Assembly elections in the state.

It was alleged that the tenders were opened under political pressure to give monetary benefits to supporters of the ruling party who had applied for the tenders.

As per details available with The Tribune, the MC passed official orders of calling tenders for various parking lots at McLeodganj and Dharamsala on October 7 this year. Later, an advertisement was given on October 12 in a local newspaper. The tenders were to be opened on October 25 by the MC authorities had the elections not been announced. However, under political pressure these tenders re were allegedly opened on October 27 in the absence of the MC executive officer.

V.K. Kaul, president of the Employees Confederation of Himachal Pradesh, asserted that the tenders were opened in violation of the model code of conduct. He alleged that the tenders were opened in gross violation of the rules. “Tenders of more than Rs 5 lakh are required to be opened in the presence of the director of the Urban Development Department or his nominee”, he said. But, in this case not even the executive officer of the MC was present at the time of the opening of the tenders.

Randhir Sekhri, president of the MC, admitted that the tenders had been opened by the municipal authorities but the work had not been allotted yet. “It is a long process and we have to go for negotiations with the applicants before allotting the works”, he said.

He said a go-ahead had been obtained from the district magistrate-cum-district returning officer of Kangra district before opening the tenders.

“Now, we are considering approaching the Election Commission through the chief electoral officer to grant sanction to the opening of the tenders and allotment of the works”, he said. If the sanction was not granted by the Election Commission, the municipal authorities would wait till the poll code was over to allot the tenders, Sekhri added.

Shimla, October 30
With the name of sitting BJP legislator Rajiv Bindal figuring in more than 12 questionable land deals in the Solan area, the BJP might have to rethink before making corruption the main poll plank during the Assembly elections.

The BJP has all along been saying that corruption will be the main poll plank during the Assembly elections but now with the name of its own MLA figuring in several land deals, the party has been caught on the wrong foot. The election manifesto committee of the party and senior BJP leaders have ranked corruption as the main issue against the ruling Congress in the elections.

Even though senior BJP leaders, including, state party chief Jai Ram Thakur, dismiss the allegations saying that the Congress is trying to frame BJP leaders with an eye on the Assembly elections, a lot remains to be explained with the name of its MLA figuring in the land deals.

The BJP intends making the audio CD released by BSP leader Vijai Singh Mankotia against the Chief Minister the main issue in the elections. With the name of Virbhadra Singh and his wife being dragged into corruption charges, the BJP wants to encash it thoroughly as he will be the star campaigner for the Congress. “By making Virbhadra Singh our main target we will put him on the back foot and this is important as he enjoys a wide mass base all over the state,” admits a senior BJP leader.

With the name of Bindal figuring in land deals, the Dhumal camp has also been put on the defensive as the Solan MLA is known to be close to the former Chief Minister “It’s a different matter that we have to defend our colleague publicly but the fact is that the high command is already aware of the land deals which leave a lot of scope for probe,” said a senior leader.

With the BJP also having to do a lot of answering till date about the irregularities in appointments in the Subordinate Services Selection Board at Hamirpur and the question papers scam that rocked the university, the name of Bindal figuring in the land deals has once again given enough opportunity to the Congress to hit back.

Former BJP MP from Hamirpur Suresh Chandel, too, lost his membership after his name figured in the ‘cash-for-query’ scam that shocked everyone.

Shimla, October 30
The State Employees Confederation has sent a complaint to the Election Commission alleging that the government is sending certain officials to the World Travel Market, which is to be held in London from November 11 to 15, in violation of the model code of conduct for elections.

The confederation has pointed out that officials who are not entitled to participate in the event are being sent just to exercise influence over them during the Assembly elections. As per the decision of the Finance Department only some specified categories of officials can be sent to attend such events.

According to the confederation, the action of the government to send officials on foreign tour is politically motivated. It has urged the commission to summon relevant records to ascertain if the code of conduct is being violated by the decision.

Nahan, October 30
Noisy scenes and walkout of party workers marked the meeting of Congress men of Paonta-Doon Assembly segment, convened in the Kissan Bhawan at Paonta Sahib today.

Followers of Congress leader Kirnesh Jang and former parliament secretary Rattan Singh, who had came in large numbers put their claims before the Congress observer Virender Singh Visht and demanded tickets for their leaders. They also made it clear that any outsider would not be tolerated in Paonta.

Things were moving smoothly till Rattan Singh did not speak. As soon as Rattan Singh began speaking, many workers looked uncomfortable. It further fueled their anger when Rattan Singh made some remarks about the Jang family. These remarks created a chaos at the meeting.

Noisy scenes were witnessed, workers objected every word spoken by the former parliament secretary and did not allow him to speak further. Majority of workers walked out from the meeting in protest against ‘objectionable remarks’ and the meeting which was convened to make a consensus on one candidate ended in a din.

However, leaders of the Bahati community sought separate time to plead their case for a party ticket. They would be heard tomorrow by the observer. Bahati, a community in majority in the segment, had staked a claim for a ticket for the first time and had put up the name of their leader Nand Lal Parwal.

After the meeting, Kirnesh Jang, who is a strong contender for a party ticket from the segment refused to comment on the remarks made by Rattan Singh. He told mediapersons that party workers of the segment had unanimously resolved that they would oppose any ‘para shoot’ candidate from outside the Paonta area.

He hoped that sentiments of Congressmen of the area would be honoured by their leaders. 

Shimla, October 30
With a series of mega hydroelectric projects coming up in the turbulent Sutlej and its main tributaries their adverse environmental fallout is emerging as a major issue in the tribal Kinnaur Assembly constituency.

There have been major agitations against the 1,000-MW Karcham Wangtu project being executed in the private sector and the 480-MW Khab project, assigned to Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam over the past three years.

The people of the area see the power projects as a serious threat to the environment in the ecologically fragile tribal areas that have of late been experiencing frequent flash floods and cloudbursts and facing water scarcity due to drying of natural sources. They blame the large-scale overground and underground construction activities, particularly the boring of long tunnels and large-scale excavation for underground power plants and other facilities for their woes.

In a bid to convert the prevailing resentment among the tribals on this count into votes all the non-Congress parties are making it a major poll issue. BSP candidate Sushil Shana had been in the forefront of the stir against the Khab project was arrested during the stir which was called off only after work on the project was suspended. He hopes to influence the electorate of the Pooh area by exploiting the issue.

The Lok Janshakti Party(LJP), which has entered the fray for the first time, has adopted the slogan “Save Jal, Jungle Aur Zameen” given by Chipko Moverment leader Sunderlal Bahuguna who maintains that preserving water, forests and land was essential for survival. The party candidate Bhagat Singh Kinner, who was actively involved in the movement against the Karcham Wangtu project, is striving hard to drive home the point that large-scale construction activity in high hill areas would hasten the melting of glaciers being caused by global warming. He is totally against big projects.

BJP candidate Tejwant Negi had also supported the agitation but his party is not totally against power projects. It promises that the interest of people will be protected and mistakes committed in earlier projects will not be repeated.

The Congress asserts that projects will not be allowed to come up at the cost of environment and takes credit for the hydropower policy which makes it mandatory for the executing agency to spend 1.5 per cent of the total cost of the project for the development of the local area and release a minimum 15 per cent discharge in the river downstream for the survival of aquatic life and drinking and irrigation schemes.

With projects having an aggregate generation capacity of over 3600 MW to be executed during the 11th and 12th Plans, including the 480-MW Jhangi-Thopan, 480-MW Thopan, Poari, 402-MW Shong Tong-Karacham, Kashang I,II and III (total 243 MW), 100-MW Tidong-I and 450-MW Khab-I and 186 MW Khab-II, besides 1000-MW Karcham-Wangtu already under implementation, the environmental fallout cannot be ignored.

Siund (Kullu), October 30
Even as the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), which is executing the 2,051-MW Parbati project here, has attributed the recent mishap to the sudden “winch failure” due to some unexplained reason, labourers working there have raised questions over the quality of the “winch” and the safety standards adopted by the contractors.

The labourers are a scared lot after recent accident in the 1,545-m-deep “pressure shaft” inclined at 30° to the main tunnel leading to the powerhouse on Saturday evening.

What has come as a shock to the labourers was that the 1.5-km-long “iron rope” connected to the winch and the trolley in which six ill-fated labourers were going down in the pressure shaft, got snapped and crashed them to death at the bottom of the tunnel.

The labourers have raised questions over the safety standards adopted by the contractors and subcontractor and the quality of the winch that the manufacturers use. The bodies of the six labourers could be retrieved only after 18 hours.

There was none to check whether the winch was functioning properly or not before the six labourers got into the trolley, labourers said.

The trolley had a free fall of around 500 m after the iron rope of weight around 40 tonne got snapped. The labourers who were in the trolley were badly crushed, sources said.

“Now we are scared to enter the pressure shaft,” labourers said.

General manager of the NHPC (stage II) Atul Kumar said the accident took place due to the winch failure. “The iron rope that supports the trolley fell on them and they were killed on the spot,” he said.

He said a team of experts and manufacturers of the winch would inspect the site shortly. Both contractors had been asked to put proper safety measures in place to restore the confidence of the labourers, he added.

The NHPC has announced a relief of Rs 1 lakh each to the families of the victims and dispatched their bodies to their native places for last rites, he said.

Dharamsala, October 30
A panel of the Supreme Court has summoned three IAS officers of the state, principal secretary of the Forest Department, the chief executive officer of the state Bus Stand Management and Development Authority and the District Magistrate of Kangra, to New Delhi on Wednesday.

The purpose is to record their statements in connection with the controversial bus stand and hotel-cum-parking lot coming up allegedly in violation of the land use norms at McLeodganj.

Chairman of the committee V.P. Jayakrishnan visited the spot on September 27 and 28 and listened to the views of the complainant, contractor and officials of the departments concerned.

A petition in this regard was filed before the CEC by Atul Bhardwaj, a Dharamsala-based environmentalist, and Samir Mehta of the Bombay Environment Action Group. They had demanded to demolish the illegal construction and punish the guilty who gave permission to construct these without seeking prior permission from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The conservator of forests (central) of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had already rejected the proposal a few months back. Despite that, huge concrete structures had been raised by the contractor there.

Dharamsala, October 30
The state government had ordered the transfers and postings of as many as 13 tehsildars with immediate effect in the public interest.

The tehsildar of Kotkhai Yashpal Singh had been transferred to Sangrah, T.S. Negi from Rampur to Bilaspur, Netar Singh from Palampur to Kumarsein, HR Bhatia from Dharamsala to Kotkhai, Rakesh Kumar from Indora to Ghumarwin, Hem Chand from Fatehpur to Bhoranj, Dhanbir Thakur from Bilaspur to Shimla (rural), J.C. Sharma from Sangrah to Naina Devi at Swarghat, Yashodhan Singh from Salooni to Indora, Jagdish Ram from Dehra to Hamirpur, Parveen Tak from Shimla divisional commissioner’s office to stamp cell state secretariat Shimla, Prabhat Singh from Ghumarwin to settlement officer Barsa and Bishambar Nath from Naina Devi to Solan.

A senior officer of the Revenue Department said a prior permission was taken from the Election Commission for these transfers.

Meanwhile, Ashwani Kapoor Kangra DM today requested the chief electoral officer of the state Ms Manisha Nanda to immediately order the transfer of Sansar Chand block development officer of Sullah (Kangra) outside the district.

The DM said there were lots of complaints against the said BDO. He was alleged of using his power to woo the voters in favour of a particular political party.

Shimla, October 30
A two-day conference of the Indian Academy of Vaccinology and Immunology (IAVI) will be held at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh, Solan district from November 2 in which experts from across the country would discuss the latest in the field of vaccination, including the one for dreaded disease, bird flu.

The conference to be held in the Central Research Institute (CRI), Kasauli, would be attended by about 200 eminent scientists from different parts of the country involved in preparation of vaccines, a CRI press note issued here said today.

N.S. Dharamshaktu, deputy-director general of health services, New Delhi, would grace the occasion as the chief guest, it said.

The scientists would deliberate on topics like reserach and development of newer vaccines, including the one for bird flu, pre-clinical animal studies, clinical trials, regulatory issues, vaccines for pandemics and the Indian Pharmacopoeia 2007-a new perspective, the press note quoting CRI director K.R. Mani said.]

IAVI is the only association in India which deals with vaccinology. It was founded in 1990 and its first annual meeting was held at Pune. — PTI