Shimla, December 30
Taking a few tips from Narendra Modi in good governance, the BJP would try to replicate the Gujarat model in Himachal by having an ideal government which can triumph the anti-incumbency factor and repeat itself.

To ensure that there is perfect coordination between the party and the government, certain guidelines will be framed by senior party leaders. The top brass of the BJP, including party chief Rajnath Singh, have already been consulted on the issue.

Himachal would be the first state where the BJP will introduce the system of annual review of the performance of the government as well as the party. The national party chief would personally review the performance of the government not just with respect to the fulfilment of the promises made in the election manifesto but also all other issues relating to governance.

Satya Pal Jain, in charge of party affairs in Himachal, confirmed that Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal, Shanta Kumar, state party chief Jai Ram Thakur and other state leaders would chalk out the broad guidelines to ensure that there is perfect coordination between the government and the organization.

Jain said that to ensure that the party did not become victim of anti-incumbency there had to be checks and barriers along with effective review from time to time.

He added the code of conduct which would apply to the ministers and MLAs would also have to be adhered by all those holding offices in the government as well as party functionaries.

“Like Gujarat, we want that in Himachal too the BJP regime headed by Dhumal is able to repeat itself as Narendra Modi has proved that it is very easy to contain anti-incumbency through good governance,” he said.

He added thrust would be on taking the party into confidence be it about the tours of ministers and MLAs in various areas or the formulation of schemes and policies.

During his election rallies in Himachal Rajnath Singh had emphasised that the party should not make any promises at the time of polls for electoral benefit which it could not fulfil later. He said the promises made during elections must be fulfilled after the formation of a government.

Shimla, December 30
With a major administrative reshuffle on the cards, bureaucrats in the state have already started lobbying for key postings.

Since Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal left for Delhi immediately after the swearing-in ceremony, major decisions in that regard are likely to be taken when he returns here tomorrow.

Dhumal today met former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Delhi and would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow.

Today, Bhim Sen was appointed as the principal secretary to the Chief Minister, while B.K. Aggarwal has been made the additional principal secretary in the CM office.

Arun Sharma has been appointed as the private secretary again as he held the post even during the previous Dhumal regime. Bhim Sen was also the principal secretary to the CM during Dhumal’s earlier stint.

Though a major shake-up in the IAS and IPS cadres might not be ordered immediately, certain changes could be made in key positions like that of the chief secretary.

Shimla, December 30
BJP’s win in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh has taken senior party leader L. K. Advani closer to the chair of Prime Minister, party’s national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

“Back to back results in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are pointer to things which will come the BJP way at the centre. The poll outcome of the two states is inching Advani towards the PM chair,” he told reporters last night.

Naqvi said the way the NDA is winning in states reflected that the party was on its way to power at the centre with people’s support at the next parliamentary elections.

“Gujarat and Himachal will decide the course of national politics,” Naqvi stated.
— PTI

Shimla, December 30
The anti-Virbhadra Singh camp has stepped up the campaign for change of the CLP (Congress Legislative Party) leadership in the wake of the party’s debacle in the assembly poll. The factional fight in the party has resumed with full intensity.

PCC chief Viplove Thakur and senior leader Vidya Stokes, a strong contender for the post, are already in Delhi to press the high command for a change in leadership.

Leaders of the rival camp have suddenly become vocal in criticism of Virbhadra Singh as evident from the reaction of Viplove Thakur who termed the electoral debacle as the defeat of the government and not of the party.

She said the fact that most of the ministers had lost the elections clearly indicated that the ire of the electorate was directed against the government and not the party.

According to party sources, the CLP meeting scheduled for December 31 has been cancelled under pressure from the detractors of Virbhadra Singh.

They maintained that the first meeting of the CLP at which a new leader is elected has to be held in the presence of an observer of the high command.

However, the Virbhadra Singh camp maintained that the meeting was not convened for election of the leader but was only a get-together of newly elected legislators.

A senior leader said Virbhadra Singh did not receive the necessary support for contesting the elections and the effort, it seemed, was to cut him to size rather than defeat the BJP.

The vacant positions in the ministry were not allowed to be filled and his plea for changing candidates to counter anti-incumbency was also ignored.

Had the party listened to him and went to the polls with a proper strategy it would have been a different story.

Even then Virbhadra Singh campaigned throughout the state as a solitary crusader and did his best to bring the party to power.

All other party leaders were pinned down to their constituencies and could not spare even a day to campaign in other segments.

The Congress think tank now realises that the high command committed a grave mistake by focussing only on Gujarat and completely ignoring Himachal Pradesh.

The party fancied its chances in Gujarat and had virtually written off the hill state which was a blunder.

Sources close to Virbhadra Singh maintained that he was not very keen on the CLP leadership and rather prefer to work for strengthening the party organisation.

It was up to the high command to assign a responsibility where his services could be best utilised in the interest of the party.

Hamirpur, December 30
Congress candidate from the Nadaunta constituency Vidya Zar has blamed former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for her defeat in the elections.

Had he acted tough against the rebel party candidate, the situation would have been different, she said.

Talking to reporters here, she said during his public meeting at Mehere in the constituency, Virbhadra Singh had advised her and rebel party candidate Arvinder Kaur to unite in the interests of the party instead of acting tough against her.

Zar lost the election by 15,564 votes, while the rebel party candidate got 5,629 votes and the BSP’s Yashpal Singh 5,066.

Quoting the former Chief Minister, Zar said he had termed both of them as “his daughters” and this had adversely affected her prospects, besides affecting the morale of the party activists.

“I was receiving overwhelming response from the public during the elections until Virbhadra Singh’s statement, which was exploited by BJP’s Baldev Sharma to his advantage,” she claimed.

She said the Naduanta Block Congress would meet on January 5 to find other causes of the defeat of the party candidate.

Zar had also lost the 2003 elections after a rebel candidate contested elections from the segment. — UNI

State Beopar Mandal president Hem Chand Sood said the trading community could not forget Jaimal Singh’s significant role in solving problems traders and shopkeepers of the state.

Shimla, December 30
When it snowed early this month in many parts of the state, guess who caught the cold first - the Congress, which had to cancel a series of election rallies of party chief Sonia Gandhi and other leaders.

In Himachal Pradesh, the winter of discontent for the Congress began with the party’s defeat in the Hamirpur parliamentary by-election in June-end.

BJP’s Prem Kumar Dhumal - now the Chief Minister - had trounced former forest minister Ramlal Thakur by over 80,000 votes.

Then there were charges of corruption, contained in a CD, against former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife. Rebel Congress MLA Vijay Singh Mankotia had released the CD.

The Congress received another shock when a TV sting beamed news of transport minister G. S. Bali organising a vulgar birthday party.

Mankotia later joined the BSP to become its chief ministerial candidate. He, however, lost the election from the Dharamsala seat.

In the din of the assembly poll campaign, then Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh made a controversial remark that he would stay on in his chair till the term of the Assembly ended in March.

To many in the opposition BJP, it meant that the “Raja Sahib” of Bushehr had reconciled to an impending defeat. Virbhadra resigned three days before the end of the year after his party’s defeat.

Singh now faces renewed attempts to dislodge him from the party leadership. Senior leader Vidya Stokes is said to be making efforts to replace Singh as the leader of Congress Legislature Party.

If that happens Virbhadra Singh might meet the fate of Capt Amarinder Singh, who also has a royal background.

After losing power in Punjab, Amarinder was replaced as the leader of the opposition by Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. Stokes enjoys good rapport with party chief Sonia Gandhi.

She had unsuccessfully tried to elbow out Singh for the Chief Minister’s post after the party’s victory in 2003 also.

The BJP owes its resounding victory to the united efforts put in by party stalwarts, Shanta Kumar and Dhumal, who toured the state after the Hamirpur poll, keeping their ears to the ground for the assembly elections.

This was the first time in the state’s electoral history that the two-phase polls at the three snow-bound tribal seats of Kinnaur, Bharmour and Lahual-Spiti were linked with the rest of 65 seats.

Results of all seats were declared on December 28. Riding on an anti-incumbency wave, the saffron party won 41 seats in the 68-member House.

In the previous polls, while the Congress had 41 MLAs and enjoyed support of six independents, the BJP had 17 and an independent supported it. The LJP had one seat from Nahan in Sirmaur district.

Two seats fell vacant, one after Dhumal’s election in Hamirpur; and another when Congress rebel Mankotia quit the Shahpur seat to join the BSP. — PTI

Palampur, December 30
Families of over 60 martyrs have high hopes from Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal as most of the projects initiated by the BJP government in memory of soldiers killed in the Kargil war have been left half way by the Congress government for wants of funds and other official bottlenecks.

This was one of the issues responsible for the debacle of the Congress in Kangra and Hamirpur districts in the Assembly elections.

Despite repeated requests to the state government by various organisations and families of martyrs, there was none to listen their grievances and take care of these projects.

Even the assurances by former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to families of these martyrs could not be implemented and remained confined to files only.

Parents of martyr Yoginder Singh, who sacrificed his life fighting Pakistani intruders in Kargil on July 25, 1999, are deeply shocked over the attitude of state government in not completing a road named in the memory of their son. Even after eight years, only 1-km stretch of the road could be completed, they said.

Kuldip Kumar, father of the martyr, said Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had visited their house immediately after the sacrifice of his son and announced that Amb-Pathiar road leading to their village would be named as “ Saheed Yoginder Singh Road”.

Dhumal had also assured them that the road would be completed in six months. He said 3-km road leading to the village had been left incomplete by the HPPWD for reasons best known to the state government.

Amar Singh, vice-president of the local panchayat, said despite their repeated requests to the executive engineer, PWD, Dehara Gopipur, no steps were initiated for the completion of the road.

Another soldier of the village Commandant Lal Chand regretted that the government did not value the supreme sacrifices made by the youths of Kangra while fighting militants in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country.

The XEN admitted the construction of the road had been delayed because of delay in the acquisition of land.

The parents of the martyr said the state government had power under the HP Land Acquisition Act to compulsorily acquire land.

Why these provisions were not invoked for such projects when the government had been liberally using these provisions for acquiring land for SEZs.

The construction of Sorabh Van Vihar named in memory of Capt Sorabh Kalia, who was the first to make sacrifice in the Kargil war from Himachal, is also in a state of neglect.

Ever since the Congress government assumed power in the state not even a single brick was added to the project.

The government had virtually abandoned it merely on political considerations because of the fact that the project was initiated by BJP leader Shanta Kumar while he was a minister in the Union cabinet.

He had also given over Rs 1 crore for the project from his MP discretionary fund. Besides, Rs 1 crore was sanctioned by the state government.

Today, the project site is covered with thick lantana bushes. The building and the roads constructed inside the complex compound are crying for immediate maintenance.

Over Rs 2 crore spent on the project by the state government had gone down the drain. The Forest Department executing the project has also withdrawn its staff posted as caretakers in the absence of funds allocated by the state government.

A senior official of the Forest Department admitted no funds were sanctioned by the Congress government for the project in the past around five years, therefore the department left the execution work in midway.

Shanta Kumar, former Chief Minister, said Rs 50 lakh given by the Union Ministry of Tourism for Sorabh Van Vihar in 2003 were surrendered by the state government merely on politically considerations. He had got these funds released, he said.

The parents of Capt Sorabh Kalia are also hurt over the attitude of the state government in not completing the project announced in the martyr’s name. They said such projects should be kept away from dirty politics.

Now the families of martyrs have high hopes from Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal as he had already assured them that the project named in memory of martyrs would be completed on priority.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said necessary directions would be issued to the departments concerned to complete these project on priority under a time-bound plan. He said there would be no shortage of funds for such projects.

Dalhousie, December 30
The Himachal Pradesh Youth Development Federation has urged the newly sworn-in Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal to do justice with the people of Chamba district.

They have asked him to give top priority to the hydropower projects identified on the river Ravi and its tributaries during its rule from 1998 to 2003, which were proposed to be executed by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC. These projects need to be assigned to the NHPC for early execution.

Welcoming the newly formed BJP government in the state today, the state president of the federation Ajeet S. Bhardwaj in his ‘letter of congrats’ to the Chief Minister said these hydropower projects included 260-MW Kuthehar, 200-MW Bajoli Holi, 200-MW Bada Bhangal on the Ravi, 60-MW Hadsar, 45-MW Kugti, 45-MW Bharmour on the Budhil rivulet, 120-MW on the Sindi rivulet, 30 -MW Tundah Stage-I and 15-MW Stage-II on the Tundah stream and 7.5-MW Siul on the Siul stream which if taken up in a phased manner could generate ample employment openings and livelihood to the poor and needy of this far-flung corner of the state.

Bhardwaj also insisted on the Chief Minister to take up the much-awaited project of setting up of a cement plant based on the Baroh-Sikridhar limestone deposits in Churah sub-division of Chamba district.

The two-million tonne capacity cement plant to be set up at a cost of about Rs 800-crore would provide direct employment to 1,000 persons and indirect employment to over 5,000 persons, Bhardwaj said.

Bhardwaj regretted that the cement plant could not be put through due to the halfhearted approach of the previous Congress government despite the fact that the environment clearance had already been accorded when Dhumal was the Chief Minister.

Bilaspur, December 30
Himachal state chief information commissioner P.S. Rana has taken to task a high-level official of the PWD for withholding information under the RTI Act.

He has directed PIO-cum-SE (10th circle) at Bilaspur to furnish information on all points referred to in the application dated November 8, 2007, filed by trade union leader Paras Ram Parmar, free of cost in a week of the order under intimation to the commission.

Paras Ram Parmar, who is also the president of the district INTUC here and is employed as “beldar” with the PWD, has submitted the application under the Right to Information Act, 2005, and had demanded that the name of the head draftsman who wrote the ACR of junior draftsman Ram Singh from April 1, 2003, to March 31, 2004, be given.

He had also wanted to know the name of the head draftsman who was posted in division number 2 at Bilaspur during the above period, besides seeking information if that “ACR has been written, and if not, why not?”

The PIO-cum-superintending engineer R.C. Gupta gave incomplete information on the plea that information related to confidential reports could not be disclosed as the same was not of any interest to the applicant.

He also took the plea that it might also cause unwarranted invasion of privacy of the individuals concerned. The PIO also pleaded that withholding of information was covered under exemption 8 (1) (J) of the RTI Act, 2005.

But the state chief information commissioner rejected the argument of the superintending engineer and said in order to bring transparency and accountability in the writing of ACRs in various offices, the names of the reporting authority, the reviewing authority and the accepting authority should invariably be disclosed if sought by applicants under the RTI Act.

Hence, the applicant was entitled to get the information sought by him as the same was not covered under any of the exemptions of Section 8 of the RTI Act, 2005.

The commissioner said the applicant had desired to know weather the ACR of an employee in the office of the PIO had been written, and if not, the reason behind it.

He had also sought the name of the head draftsman who wrote the ACR of the employee. The contents of an ACR could perhaps be treated as confidential, but the name of the reporting officer could not be.

Similarly, weather an ACR was written or not, could not be treated as confidential, he added. In case an ACR could not be written, there must be a valid reason in the office record for the same.

Disclosure of the name of the official who wrote the ACR or the reasons for not writing it could not be treated as confidential and could not be termed as invasion of privacy of an individual.

Withholding such information from a person would defeat the very objective of transparency and accountability in the working of the public authorities envisaged under the Act.

Kangra, December 30
Ninetyone-year-old Durga Dutt Shastri, a literary giant of Himachal Pradesh, passed away last evening.

He died at his native village Naleti in Dehra subdivision. He had received a number of national awards.

He is survived by his 82-year-old wife Ram Rakhe Devi and two sons. His son, Shesh Bushan, told The Tribune that Shastri had been ailing for some time.

Shastri was awarded the best teacher award by the President in 1969. He received a certificate of honour, a literary award, from President R. Venkataraman.

The UP government honoured him with tjhe Bhan Bhatt Puraskar twice in 1987 and 1991 for his literary contribution.

Shastri, a writer of 16 books, was awarded Varisht Vidvan Puraskar by the Himachal Pradesh governemnt. His mortal remains were consigned to flames at Naleti today.

Kangra, December 30
Himachal Pradesh Education Consultant Forum, a organisation working for promoting quality education in the state, sought a new educational policy from the BJP for imparting quality education.

R.D. Sharma, former deputy director of education and convener of the Himachal Pradesh Educational Consultant Forum, said the Dhumal government should nurture the economy by formulating dynamic rational policies, including an improved educational policy.

He criticised the previous Virbhdra government for allegedly spoiling the educational system by disregarding the recruitment and promotion rules in the appointment of TGTs and replacing them with para teachers etc.

He demanded that the BJP should withhold the decisions of the previous government to regularise PTA and para teachers by ignoring TGTs on a batchwise basis.

He deplored the Virbhdra Singh government for appointing PAT and para teachers without any qualification criteria, ignoring even the TGTs of 1986.

He pleaded that no new B.Ed college should be opened in the state till unemployed TGTs were absorbed.

Kangra, December 30
The first ever social audit regarding activities and works carried under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in Dagwar village by the village panchayat was held and certain lapses were detected.

Disclosing this here today Vikas Khanna representing PRIYA, an NGO, working for creating awareness among the people at the village level regarding NREGA and the Right to Information Act in Kangra and Hamiprur districts facilitated for today’s first social audit at Dagwar.

Khanna disclosed that the lapses detected were that the said panchayat had not issued any receipts to the applicants seeking employment under NREGA, thus depriving them of the right to get ‘unemployment wages’ after a fortnight after submitting the application.

He said the receipt was the only documents that could have helped them to have these unemployment wages. He said that the required medical facilities too were not found at the site of works as per the Act.

He said that the Dharamsala BDO, project officer, DRDA, account officer and engineers were also present during the social audit.

The members of 175 families out of 450 were briefed about the Acts. Khanna said that people were lacking awareness about the Act so they were being deprived of their rights.

He hoped that the ideas evolved during the conference would play a pivotal role in the technological advancement.