New Delhi, November 3
With the Himachal Pradesh Congress Election Committee due to meet here tomorrow to discuss candidates for the Assembly poll in the state, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said loyalty to the party, belief in its policies and winnability will be the main criterion for finalising nominees. The Chief Minister, who spent a hectic day meeting the ticket aspirants, told The Tribune that performance of his government would be the main poll plank of the party. “We have worked for equal development of all regions. The party is opposed casteism and regionalism,” he said.

Asked about remarks of senior AICC leader R.K. Dhawan about not projecting a Chief Ministerial candidate before the poll, the Chief Minister said it was a Congress tradition. “It has always been like this,” he said.

However, he added that rubbing it in day after day might cause some misunderstanding among partymen. “So far as I am concerned, I am least bothered about it. I will do my duty honestly and faithfully,” he said.

Asked if some MLAs could be denied the ticket, he said the possibility could not be ruled out. The Chief Minister, however, said no criterion had been evolved to give tickets to those who had lost by narrow margins in the last Assembly poll.

On the party’s election strategy, he said the party might not hold many big rallies and instead focus on mass contact programme and house-to-house canvassing. He hoped that candidates would be declared early to give them adequate time for electioneering. Denying anti-incumbency, the Chief Minister said he had been visiting all areas of the state frequently. “The government has been on the move and reaching new horizons,” he said.

He said that the government had worked for the welfare of all sections and its ranking among the frontline states in education, roads, social welfare and electrification showed the progress achieved on all fronts. “The progress is visible in every sphere,” he said.

On the plans of the BJP to make corruption a poll issue, the Chief Minister said it was a case of kettle calling the pot black. Pointing to the BJP rule under former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, he said “It was seeped in corruption.” He said there were several BJP leaders “who had a history of going from rags to riches. The conviction of a former chairman of Himachal Pradesh Subordinate Services Commission was indictment of Dhumal,” he said.

He said the BJP rakes up mandir-masjid issue at the national level raises issues of casteism and regionalism in the state. “They have nothing new to say,” he said.

Shimla, November 3
With Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh being in favour of denying ticket to some of the ministers and sitting MLAs, the Congress could field some new faces not just to counter the anti-incumbency factor but also to give chance to the younger lot.

The CM left for Delhi today for participating in a meeting of the state election committee to be held there tomorrow. He is likely to take a strong stand on the issue of fielding new faces even it if amounts to denying ticket to his own loyalists.

He is against giving ticket to those ministers and legislators whose performance had not been very satisfactory. “If he is willing to replace horticulture minister Singhi Ram from his hometown Rampur, he will not hesitate to accept young faces at the cost of older leaders or who have poor acceptability among party workers” admitted a senior minister.

With some of the senior leaders including Mr Sukh Ram and revenue minister Sat Mahajan who are touching their eighties, opting out of electoral politics, the party could decide to replace some of the other older leaders as well. This could include horticulture minister, Mr Raj Kishan Gaur and Power minister, Vidya Stokes. With the Congress being largely dependent on the popularity and wide acceptability of Virbhadra Singh, his opinion would matter in ticket allotment.

“There is resentment among party workers against senior leaders for not making way for the younger lot despite the fact that during the last elections they had said that it would be their last election,” maintained a contender for the party ticket.

Bharmour, November 3
With faction fights marring the poll prospects of both the Congress and the BJP, a third force, the BSP is bound to gain, if not completely, but partially, it may eat into the votes of both the parties. As only 10 days are left for campaigning, the poll pot here is boiling with contenders going all out to woo voters.

BSP candidate Balbir Pathania may play a spoilsport for Congress candidate Thakur Singh Bharmouri and BJP candidate Tulsi Ram. While two Idependents, Munish and Chandu Lal would hardly make any difference to any of the contestants.

Pathania speaking over the phone said he was on a tour to Kidi belt and was making all-out efforts to win this time. People living around Chakrouta near Lahal, the native village of Pathania, say that he can harm the Congress more than the BJP.

Bharmouri, who is contesting for the seventh time, had earlier won this seat four times. During 2003 Assembly elections, he had won by a wide margin of 9,692 votes routing Tulsi Ram of the BJP. Presently he along with his supporters is going all out to capture the seat again. He is harping on the development work made during his tenure.

Contrary to him, Tulsi Ram is speaking about corruption, dearness, unemployment and nepotism in the recruitments and other activities generated during the Congress regime.

Tulsi Ram has won twice from Kugti, a remote village about 28 km from Bharmour. During a survey conducted around Lilh-Vales, Khadamukh, Holi and Bharmour, it was noticed that political parties were more keen on door-to-door canvassing than on distribution of posters.

Even the district administration has done its home work well. Returning officer N. K. Lath said out of the 104 polling stations in the constituency, 18 polling stations located on the borders in Pangi had been identified as hypersensitive and 17 polling stations were identified as sensitive. The hypersensitive polling booths are Rei, Udeen, Puto, Preygran, Takwas, Hudaan Bhatori, Sural Bhatori, Rusmus, Chaloli, Dharwas, Luj, Holi, Khani, Malkauta, Sachuin, Kidi, Bharmour-I and Bharmour-II The returning officer said the Bharmour constituency had been divided into three sectors, Bharmour, Holi and Pangi for the conduct of smooth elections.

The district administration had proposed strict vigilance along the border. The security forces manning the border areas had been asked to put a check on infiltration from the J&K side if any. In the past, there had been some instances of infiltration.

Shimla, November 3
Nabard has sanctioned Rs 15.56 crore to Himachal Pradesh for 24 water supply schemes in villages, official sources said. The amount has been given under tranche-XIII of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), a Nabard statement said.

The cumulative sanctions from Nabard aggregated to Rs 1,633 crore under the RIDF to the state of which Rs 1043 crore had already been disbursed, it added.

On the completion of these new drinking water facilities, 44,794 persons in rural areas of five districts were likely to get improved and assured potable water supply.

Three schemes for Bilaspur district will involve a total cost of Rs 4.56 crore, four schemes for Kangra (Rs 1.08 crore), Kullu (Rs 2.93 crore), eight for Mandi district (Rs 3.07 crore) and three for Shimla district ( Rs 5.65 crore) with an overall government contribution of Rs 1.73 crore.

In aggregate, Nabard has so far sanctioned 1,254 irrigation projects, 484 projects for rural roads and 169 bridges, 118 watershed development schemes, 31 flood protection works and 1,213 primary school buildings.

Besides, it has also sanctioned 64 science laboratories in schools, 25 IT projects, 324 rural drinking water supply schemes and 19 animal husbandry centres/hospitals in HP. — PTI

Bilaspur, November 3
President of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), Anurag Thakur, has declared that the state association will spend Rs 30 lakh for developing a cricket stadium at Luhanu sports complex here.

He said the stadium had been in a state of utter neglect since the past about five years, but now it would be made capable of holding Ranji trophy matches.

Inaugurating the seven-day first 20-20 inter-school under-15 cricket tournament here, he lamented that sports minister Ramlal Thakur, who had foisted his son as president of the Bilaspur District Cricket Association, had not bothered to develop the stadium.

Shimla, November 3
Seeking an apology from the Congress for the financial mismanagement, BJP leader P.K. Dhumal today demanded that the state government should make public the hidden cost of the Rs 800-crore loan being taken from the World Bank.

In a statement issued here today, he said the efforts of the Virbhadra regime to raise the Rs 800-crore loan was nothing but a last ditch effort to befool the electorate of the state. “It is merely an election ploy which will further plunge the state into a financial quagmire,” he remarked.

He said it was due to the shortsightedness of the government that funds worth thousands of crores were lying unspent under various schemes, while efforts were being made to raise more loans.

Dharamsala, November 3
Ramesh Chand Khaula, a member of the state Congress committee and vice-president of the Dehra block samiti, joined the BSP at a function held at Jawalamukhi on Thursday in the presence of the BSP general secretary Man Singh Manhera and state convener Vijay Singh Mankotia. As Khaula, a Congressman for 37 years, realised that he was not likely to get the Congress ticket, he decided to join the BSP.

Dharamsala, November 3
The Dalai Lama was given a warm welcome by Tibetans on his return to Dharamsala after a month-long visit to the USA and Canada. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honour on October 17 there. He arrived at the airport this afternoon.