Shimla, December 21
Amidst an air of political uncertainty, it is the bureaucracy which is having a tough time avoiding unnecessary controversy, especially in view of the Cabinet meeting fixed for December 27, a day before the counting of votes.

The Cabinet is scheduled to meet here on December 27 but it is still not certain as to what will be the agenda in view of the election code of conduct, which will remain into effect till December 31. As the government cannot take any major policy decision it remains to be seen what issues will be taken by the Cabinet.

While the agenda is yet to be prepared it is learnt that the government is keen that decisions on certain cases of relaxation under Section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act and the signing of MoUs for one or two mega hydel projects are taken before the counting of votes.

It is reliably learnt that many senior bureaucrats, holding posts of secretary are keen to proceed on leave so as to avoid getting dragged into any controversy, when the possibility of change of power seems almost certain.

“Some of the secretaries have even declined to give any agenda items so to avoid getting into trouble with the Election Commission of India and, above all, from the new political bosses,” admitted a senior IAS officer.

The bureaucrats want to use the occasion of the marriage of a senior colleague’s daughter in Delhi as pretext for obtaining leave.

Interestingly, despite a government holiday today many bureaucrats attended office to ensure that there are no controversial files or remarks which could land them in trouble once witch-hunt starts with the change of regime.

Many officers are scanning files and documents in their offices before the change of power for any objectionable noting or writing which could go against them.

The BJP has already demanded that the Election Commission of India should prevent the government from taking any important decisions as the people have already given their mandate.

“Since the status of the government has been reduced to a caretaker one it should not be allowed to take any important decisions,” said Satya Pal Jain, in charge of BJP affairs in Himachal.

The bureaucracy does not want to take any chances, especially in view of the infamous hard disk case which was used as a major issue against the previous Dhumal regime.

The bureaucrats are being very cautious so as to ensure that they do not become a target of political victimisation as is in normal with the change of government.

Mohini (Banjar), December 21
The smoldering scars of devastating fire that have left 230 villagers, including more than 100 children homeless in the freezing cold in this village as the question traumatising their mind is, how to rebuild houses as they do not have woods nor other materials and money to do so and it can snow any time.

“I have lost everything in the fire as we were sleeping when I heard the cries in the village”, said Magi Devi, who looked helpless as she had lost her valuables, winter rations and fodder for her cattle. “How will we rebuild our houses as we have neither money nor other materials for the purpose”, rued Dola Ram and Kamla Devi, who not only lost their houses but also their lifetime earnings in the fire that broke out, when the villagers were fast asleep after casting their votes on December 19.

There are over 46 houses that have been destroyed completely in fire and over seven houses that have been partially damaged, rendering over 230 persons houseless in the freezing winter months as it can snow anytime in winter there.

There are over 16 families of Dalits, who are covered under the IRDP programme and are hard hit by the fire. Total loss has been estimated worth Rs10 core and the total loss is being assessed. The government should give them timber as they needed wood to rebuild the houses. All houses were built with local wood and stones.

The fire tenders were rushed in from Kullu who managed to salvage around 22 houses on the outer fringe, said the villagers.

Though the district administration has announced free ration for three months and Rs 5,000 for each, who has lost house in the fire and Rs 3,000 to each member whose house is partially damaged, but villagers are traumatised as they have lost every thing in the fire.

The villagers said they were sleeping when the fire broke out in a house that had stocked dry grass for cattle and turned into blazing bomb engulfing one after other houses in no time as most of the houses stocked grass for winter in one of the storey of each house. The police has ruled out foul play in the incident, but it is investigating the cause of fire.

Relatives and friends of the villagers have come to their rescue and have provided them with ration and blankets. Other villagers have accommodated those whose houses have been burnt.

Banjar subdivision SDO (civil) P.R. Verma, who is monitoring the relief operation in the village, said the administration was assessing the total loss and was going to give free ration for three months.

The victims have been given tents, blankets and tarpaulins for a temporary arrangement. “We have requested the Forest Department to provide free tree and help rebuild houses under the IRDP and other schemes”, he further added.

Nurpur, December 21
The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) has stalled roof repair work of Government Senior School at Nurpur.

The strong winds had swept over the lower Kangra district in April this year causing extensive damage to the roofs of a large number of old building in the area.

The steel roofs of two portions of the scattered building of the government senior secondary here were also blown off.

Till now no government agency could repair the roofs causing a lot of inconvenience to the students.

Inquiries revealed that the Education Department had prepared a repair estimate of the building from the technical staff of the office of the block development, Nurpur. The repair work was estimated to be worth Rs. 3.30 lakh.

The state education department reportedly sanctioned and released the funds for undertaking requisite repair work of the building.

Meanwhile, the school authorities deposited the funds with the PWD for undertaking the repair work of the building.

Intriguingly, the PWD authorities turned down the repair estimate cost and a fresh estimate of Rs 4.64 lakh was prepared.

But so far, the repair work could not be started. In this connection Nurpur division executive engineer N.K. Kapila admitted that the Education Department had deposited Rs 3.30 lakh with the PWD and the latter had awarded tender to a private contractor.

He informed that the ASI staff was not allowing the PWD to undertake the repair work of the building as the whole school building was situated within the premises of the old Nurpur fort.

He claimed that the repair work could not be started due to the hurdle of ASI. “The department has approached the ASI,” he added.

Nurpur, December 21
Villagers of Pandrer gram panchyat in the sub-division suspect murder of a village youth Nek Ram, whose body was found under mysterious circumstances in the Letri rivulet on Wednesday.

Rejecting police investigations, which declared it a case of suicide, the villagers submitted a memorandum to the director general of police through local panchayat demanding impartial and judicial probe into the incident.

Raising eyebrows on the investigations and postmortem examination, the villagers ruled out drowning as the cause of death and claimed that the body was found in about eight-inch deep water.

They alleged that the private parts of the deceased were not examined during the postmortem examination, which indicated murder. The villagers suspected the body was “drowned” after the murder.

They rued that the police suspected it a case of murder when the body was recovered but declared it a suicide case the next day.

“Pant and chappel of the deceased were recovered from isolated places, which indicate that he was killed and then thrown in the rivulet,” the villagers asserted in the memorandum.

DSP (Nurpur) Krishan Shandil clarified that the police had lodged the case as per postmortem report received from the Tanda Medical College.

He said the police would reinvestigate the case keeping in view the facts submitted by the gram panchayat.

He admitted that the doctors had not examined the private parts of the deceased while conducting postmortem, as alleged by the villagers.

Shimla, December 21
A majority of the hotels in the state capital are already fully booked for Christmas and New Year as tourists have already started pouring in in view of the government holidays.

The police, Tourism Department and other local agencies are making arrangements to ensure that the visitors enjoy their holidays and all goes well.

This is one time of the year when the highest number of tourists from all over the country visit the ‘Queen of Hills’ within such a short period.

Both Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) as well as private hotels have arranged special dance parties and other events to celebrate Christmas and usher in the New Year. The HPTDC-owned Hotel Holiday Home here is already fully booked till December 31.

The Tourism Department-owned hotels in the suburbs of the state capital like Golf Glade at Naldehra has about 80 per cent occupancy with all cottages and hotel rooms being fully booked from December 25 to 31.

“We are hoping to do good business as there are many holidays around Christmas and the response so far is quite good,” says the owner of a private hotel.

The majority of those associated with the tourism industry are hoping that there is a ‘White Christmas’ as snow will ensure that there are a lot of tourists.

A mild snowfall in Shimla and Kufri on December 10 earlier this month had attracted a lot of tourists.

The Tourism Department will keep its tourist information centres open from 8 a.m to 9 p.m daily to provide all possible assistance to the tourists arriving here.

Special checking will be undertaken to ensure that there is no fleecing by hoteliers, taxi owners or porters.

Cultural programmes will be organised from December 24 to 31 at certain points like The Ridge and other tourist destinations for the entertainment of tourists.

The district administration will throw open certain roads in Chaura Maidan and other parts of the capital to enable more parking space.

The district police too has made arrangements to maintain law and order and ensure proper traffic management.

Special police force will be deputed not only at The Ridge and The Mall but also in various parts of the capital.

Kumarhatti: The year-end celebrations have set the cash registers of local hotels ringing, with early snowfall.

The hotels are getting healthy booking with heavy rush of tourists to celebrate Christmas and New Year in hills.

The winter tourist season has picked up largely due to earlier snowfall this month. Last year the tourist flow was low due to lack of snowfall. Most hotels were offering special discount packages to attracting more tourists.

In his reply, Dr. Sharma stated that he had applied for permission to leave the station well in time but the department did not reply.

Sundernagar, December 21
The festival of Id-Ul-Zuha was celebrated throughout the district with fervor and gaiety today.

In the morning, members of the Muslim community were seen offering namaz despite the chilly in the area.

At Dinak village adjoining Sundernagar more than 2,000 Muslims assembled on a ground and offered nawaz and thereafter greeted the members of other communities.

At Sundernagar nawaz was offered at Bhojpur mosque, in Mandi town it was offered in two mosques, similar reports were received from Nagwain and the Katola areas of the district.

Thousands of goat and sheep were sacrificed on the occasion of Id at various places in Dinak village, which is situated in the Balh Valley. About 2,000 animals were sacrificed.

Abdul Rehman said the cost of the animal was according to the beauty of the animal and not as per the weight.

Shimla, December 21
Governor V.S. Kokje and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh have felicitated the people of the state on the occasion of Id-ul-Zuha.

Kokje said the festival symbolises love and festivity and spreads the message of brotherhood and peace.

The Chief Minister said Id helped in strengthening the bond of brotherhood with a strong message of universal peace.

Hamirpur, December 21
Chief Ministerial candidate of the BJP Prem Kumar Dhumal has suggested the Congress party leaders to get prepared to leave the government gracefully after the result of the elections were declared and not make attempts to stick to power, as they are becoming a laughing stock by approaching the court.

Talking to The Tribune at his village Samirpur today, he said: “The Congress would not only be defeated in people’s court but would be defeated in judicial court too.”

Expressing his surprise at the Congress’s move to approach the court demanding deferment of counting process, Dhumal said: “The Congress and the state government, which had asked the Election Commission to hold early election in the state, is now scared of results.”

Questioning the Chief Minister and Sat Mahajan about their move of approaching the court, he asked “When both of them are challenging the exit poll results, why are they trying deferment of election result if they are winning?”

Talking about legal position in this matter, Dhumal said: “No court can interfere in the matter once the election process begins; there is no such provision in our Constitution and the People’s Representation Act.”

He said: “While there is no possibility of the court interfering even if the counting is deferred, the election code of conduct would remain enforced till March and the government can not take any policy decision and what would this defunct government do by remaining in the office?”

Dhumal has urged the Governor to ensure that no official record is disturbed as according to his knowledge few top people in the government and officers are trying to destroy the official record in the HP secretariat.

Palampur, December 21
The state agriculture university here, which is a pioneer institution of farm research in the state, has demanded central university status to refine its research potential and extension activities.

The proposal sent by Dr. Tej Pratap, vice-chancellor of the university, to the union government through the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) outlines to convert this university into ‘central university of hill agriculture and technological sciences’.

It may be mentioned that the union government has already announced one central university for the state.

Further, the state government has, in a policy decision, decided to set-up this central varsity in Kangra district.

The university authorities feel that instead of raising new infrastructure, the established set-up of the farm university can be utilised for upgrading it into a central university.

They argue that the university has land and research stations across agro-climatic zones in the state, besides, adequate land in the main campus. The central university will also have opportunities of opening new colleges at its regional centers.

Moreover, the state government has already set-up facilities for research and extension in all the agro climatic regions of the state.

Although the facilities in these unique environments are weak but have great potentials for building into centres of excellence for education, research and training.

As per the case proposal sent to the ICAR authorities by the vice-chancellor, the proposed university will fulfill the need for creating a strong institutional set up.

Kangra, December 21
Himachal Pradesh medical officers today demanded that state government, after the declaration of poll results, should pass a legislation on the pattern of Andhra Pradesh to provide legal protection to doctors and medical staff serving in government hospitals and other institutions from attacks and assaults committed by attendants of the patients and other anti-social elements on them.

Raising the demand here today, Dr Susheel Sharma, spokesman of the Himachal Pradesh Medical Officers Association (HMOA), said Andhra Pradesh government has passed a law in the state where doctors and the medical staff on duty if attacked by the attendants of the patients or assaulted by the anti-social elements would be treated under non-bailable offence with a sentence of three years. He said such a law should be passed in the first session of the new assembly.

He said the doctors had heaved a sigh of relief following the judgment of the apex court that mere allegations of negligence of the doctor in treating a patient should not be treated as ‘Doctor's negligence’ unless a medical board recommends for the case of negligence to be registered against the said doctor.

He, however, said that HMOA would never support the deliberate act of negligence of a doctor but would not tolerate registration of cases against doctors without the recommendations of the medical board.

Sharma further said the HMOA general body would meet at Nahan on December 23 to discuss different long-pending demands of the doctors.

He said Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh despite assurance of giving four increments to specialist doctors, did not do anything thus forcing these doctors to leave government jobs and join the private sector thus putting the poor people of the state to inconvenience.

He demanded PG increment for specialist doctors besides rural allowance to doctors on the Punjab pattern. He further demanded a house rent of 10 per cent to doctors.

Bilaspur, December 21
In an attempt to control the prices of commodities in various markets in this district, the Weights and Measures Department inspected 612 shops and trading premises in Ghumarwin, Naina Devi and Jhandutta tehsils and challaned 147 of them for various offences under the HP Weights and Measures Act during the past eight months.

Inspector, weights and measures, P L Chandel said here today that 68 cases were settled by Balbir Singh, assistant controller, weights and measures, and a total fine of Rs 1,11,600 was recovered from the defaulters.

Chandel said that these challans were made for charging more than the written price, packed commodities not carrying the full address of the manufacturer, overcharging on cold drinks, weighing sweets along with cartons and weights of shopkeepers being without official seals.

Dalhousie, December 21
Captain N.S. Bhandari, chairman, Guru Nanak Public School, today flagged off first batch of the ‘National Himalayan Winter Trekking Expedition’ from a local youth hostel.

The expedition has being organised by the Youth Hostels’ Association of India (YHAI) at Dalhousie for the 16th year in succession.

Captain Bhandari, while addressing the trekkers, said: “You are from different states and would be trekking snow-covered hills together. This is real national integration. You will know the value of friendship when you are together passing through rough terrain. Himachal is called ‘Dev Bhoomi’, you are blessed to be here.”

Dr Harish K. Saxena, chairman, YHAI, and president of the International Youth Hostels Federation, too addressed the participants.

His speech was relayed live from Delhi. He hoped that the participants would enjoy the trekking and make long-lasting friendships.

He also recalled his experience of trekking through the same route 35 years ago when the area was a thick jungle.

P.K. Savani, field director of the programme, elucidated the aim behind organising such expeditions. He said about 800 participants from 16 states would participate in the programme.