Shimla, January 7
The BJP high command has asked Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal and senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar to arrive at a consensus on the names of MLAs for their induction into the Cabinet.

Both leaders, who have been camping in Delhi since yesterday, held a meeting with party chief Rajnath Singh in this regard today.

The two have been asked to finalise a list keeping in view various factors so that all sections and districts get due representation.

Even as serious parleys are being held with the high command in the presence of the Chief Mminister and former union minister, a majority of the aspirants are camping in Delhi to ensure that they get a ministerial berth.

However, the high command is of the opinion that Shanta and Dhumal must have consensus on all names and there should be practically no intervention from their side.

It is reliably learnt that the approval of senior leaders, including L.K. Advani and Rajnath Singh, would be taken before the list is finalised.

It is learnt that Shanta Kumar, who lost out in the race for the post of Chief Minister to Dhumal has given a list of names to be included in the Cabinet.

It is not certain till now whether Dhumal would induct all 11 ministers in one go or he would leave a few berths vacant so that there is scope for later adjustments.

While a minimum of two ministers each are to be inducted from Kangra and Mandi, the number could even be higher keeping in view the fact that several senior leaders have won from these two districts.

Two party MLAs would be adjusted against the posts of Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Sources said Shanta was keen to see his loyalists like Krishan Kapoor and Ramesh Dhwala in the Dhumal cabinet.

On the other hand the Chief Minister is also keen that his supporters are adjusted, especially Ravinder Singh Ravi from Kangra and Dr Rajiv Bindal from Solan district.

Though state BJP chief Jai Ram Thakur is not strictly considered in either the Shanta or Dhumal camp he could also get inducted, with the party making a comeback under his presidentship.

With the BJP making a clean sweep in Kullu and Solan, at least one minister each would have to be inducted from here.

Representation will also have to be given to at least one of the four women MLAs who have won on the BJP ticket this time along with a tribal getting representation in the ministry.

Shimla, January 7
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has urged the Centre to introduce two Shatabdi trains to connect the state in the Railways budget.

The Chief Minister met Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in New Delhi today and demanded that a Shatabdi train should be introduced between Delhi and Pathankot for the convenience of the people of Kangra and Chamba districts.

He also urged the minister to extend the New Delhi-Kalka Shatabdi to Una town of Himachal Pradesh.

Dhumal also requested the Centre to expedite work on the Bhanupalli - Bilaspur -Beri railway line.

He told the Railway Minister that work on the Nangal-Talwara railway line was progressing at a snail’s pace as only 35 km of track had been constructed so far.

He informed the minister that a total of Rs 200 crore was required to complete the project and urged him to make adequate budgetary provision for its early completion

He also requested the Centre to expedite work on the Chandigarh - Baddi broad-gauge track.Lalu Prasad Yadav assured the Chief Minister that the Centre would make sufficient provision for these projects in the Railway budget.

New Delhi: Dhumal has urged the Centre to set up premier education and health institutions in the state to make it an education hub.

The Chief Minister met Finance Minister P. Chidambaram here on Monday and sought follow-up action on the announcements for setting up an IIT and a central university in the state. He also sought more such institutes.

He urged the Centre to sanction Rs 800 crore for the Shimla water supply scheme under the Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Mission.

He sought extension of the industrial package to the state up to 2013.

The Chief Minister said the state government had sent proposals for 856-MW projects to the Centre.

The Power Ministry had recommended these projects to the Department of Economic Affairs for getting funds from the Asian Development Bank.

He demanded that 90 per cent of the funds should be in the form of a grant.

Shimla, January 7
There state has witnessed rain and snow at isolated places and there is a possibility of heavy snowfall during the next 48 hours.

According to the Meteorological Office, another active western disturbance (WD) is likely to affect the northern parts of India from January 8 to 11. This is likely to result in an extended wet spell over Himachal over the next 48 hours.

While there have been reports of rain and snow at some places during the past 48 hours, the minimum temperature has gone up at various places.

It was 3.7°C at Shimla, 3.2°C at Sundernagar, 1°C at Bhuntar, 4.6°C at Una, 11.5°C at Dharamsala and 11.3°C at Nahan.

A cold wave has been sweeping the tribal areas and other higher reaches with sub-zero temperatures being recoded at all these places.

Around 30 cm of snowfall was recorded at Dhundi, 27 cm at Solang nullah, 23 cm at Patsio, 10 cm at Kalpa, 8 cm at Keylong and 3 cm at Bhang, near Manali.

There was 0.2 mm rainfall at Sundernagar, 16.5 mm at Bhuntar and 3 mm at Dharamsala.

The minimum temperature at Patsio was -17°C, -8.4°C at Keylong, -5°C at Solang Nullah and -3°C at Dhundi.

Shimla, January 7
While indicating its intention to de-link sawmills from availability of private timber, the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court has urged the government to furnish all relevant data necessary to ascertain the sawing capacity of the 450 unregistered mills, which were closed down on its orders.

Supporting the case for lifting the ban on unregistered sawmills, the government has informed that 6.01 lakh cubic metre of private timber was available annually in the state.

The data will enable the committee to decide the cases for setting up forest-based industries.

It is for the first time that the exact data about the availability of private timber, on the basis of assessment of tree cover outside forests, has been made in the hill state.

So far the Forest Survey of India (FSI) has been providing reports on the status of forests on government land every two years.

Massive felling of trees on private land has taken place over the years but no steps could be taken to check it for want of authentic data.

Unlike Uttrakhand, Gujarat and some other states, the government has not made any effort to assess the tree cover on private land.

It took initiative only after the CEC sought the data in connection with the matter pertaining to the closure of about 450 unregistered sawmills.

These are in addition to over 3,000 registered mills. The maximum of 319 unregistered mills are in Hamirpur district.

The State Forest Department utilised the services of the FSI for the purpose. It carried out the assessment of the tree cover outside forests on the basis of satellite images.

The department also carried out its own assessment, on the basis of field survey and after taking accessibility of the areas on which trees were standing, has worked out the annual availability at 6.01 lakh cubic metre. Most of the sawmills have been set up in areas where hardly any private timber is available.

The Forest Department maintains that the sawmills mostly used private timber and trees allotted to right holders under the TD (timber distribution) rules.

However, last year, the high court had also imposed a ban on the grant of trees under the TD rules.

With a complete ban on green felling the question before the committee is whether enough timber is available for such a large number of units.

Shimla, January 7
Accusing the BJP of trying to implement the Hindutva agenda from the backdoor, the CPM today demanded that the decision of allowing RSS armed parades in public premises and school grounds must be revoked.

In a statement issued here today, Secretary of the state CPM Rakesh Singha said public places could not be allowed for training of communal army.

“The RSS is not a social organization as claimed by Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal but it is the right-wing political organisation with a fascist ideology,” he remarked.

The CPM leader said that the decision to allow the RSS function in public premises was most unfortunate.

“Since the RSS is the steering wheel of the BJP, it ensures that its ideology is implemented through the political wing, the BJP,” he said.

Citing incidents like the communal massacre during post-Godhara and the more recent attack on Christians and their places of worship, Singha said the Dhumal regime must revoke the decision.

“It is unfortunate that after starting on a positive note where pro-people decisions like enhancing of pensions and daily wages were taken, the Dhumal regime has now reverted to the Hindutva agenda.”

Singha also crticised the government for its decision to revoke the takeover of temples by the previous Virbhadra government.

“This decision of the Dhumal regime is only negating the well-intentioned legislation of nationalising temples.”

“It is not that the faith in God is lessened by government takeover but the fact remains that the step is aimed at giving benefit to individuals through the offerings.”

The CPM criticised the government for showing political immaturity in the manner in which the transfers of IAS and IAS officers were ordered.

“The administration is an important organ of the state and its saffronisation would only weaken democracy,” he warned.

Shimla, January 7
The BJP today promised to fulfil its commitments made during the elections, saying that it had announced an increase in the wages of daily workers and enhanced the social security pension within two days of its government coming to power.

As against political vendetta unleashed by the previous Congress Government, the Dhumal Government had already initiated steps to ameliorate the woes of the people, party spokesman Rajinder Rana said in a statement here.

He said the party was already on the job to make its slogan of ''change the government and change the situation'' come true and its decision to increase daily wages by Rs 25 and enhancing pension by Rs 100 were a step in that direction.

Accusing the previous Congress Government of political vendetta, regionalism and implicating its political opponents in false criminal cases, Rana said it failed on delivering on its promises made to the public.

Instead of carrying out development works, the Virbhadra Government appointed people close to its ideology through the back door, ignoring meritorious ones.

The BJP had made its election manifesto as the government's official document again to ensure that the promises made during the elections were fulfilled.

The party welcomed the government decision to release a sum of Rs 3 crore to the fire victims of Malana village in Kullu district.

Immediate cash relief of Rs 65,000 each to the affected families to reconstruct their houses was a welcome gesture, the party said in a press note. — UNI

Dharamsala, January 7
District Magistrate of Kangra Ashwani Kapoor today reviewed the progress of the construction work going on in the Vidhan Sabha complex, keeping in view the coming four-day session, commencing on January 10.

Newly elected local representative of the BJP, Kishan Kapoor, was also invited to review the ongoing work.

The Public Works Department (PWD) along with a work force of contractors has been working day and night to give final touches to the interiors, particularly the seating arrangement of the Speaker, ministers, MLAs, officers, mediapersons, state intelligence personnel and visitors.

It may be mentioned that the construction work on the complex had started more than 2 years back, but so far it has not been completed, probably due to lack of proper monitoring and lacklustre attitude of the bureaucracy.

Last year’s session was also held in this complex by making temporary arrangements that had put an extra burden of Rs 2 crore on the state exchequer.

The estimated cost of the complex was Rs 5 crore, but since it could not be completed in time, its cost has escalated by over Rs 4 crore.

A visit to the complex revealed that the landscaping work on the premises and parking area was still going on. Yesterday’s rain had made the upper crust of the ground muddy and difficult to get it levelled.

Window panes and curtains were yet to be fitted and minor electricity works had to be completed. In the House where the session would be conducted, the seating arrangement of the treasury and the opposition benches had been completed.

Mikes and headphones were being fitted and tested to ensure that they were snag-free.

A portion of the work force was busy giving final touches to the press gallery and media room, besides, the main lobby.

A worker who was busy fitting the curtains said they were working day and night to ensure that all work was completed by Thursday night.

Meanwhile, some officials of the General Administration Department and the Vidhan Sabha reached here last evening to make arrangements for the smooth conduct of the session.

There are 29 designated microscopic centres and 850 therapy centres in the district to serve TB patients. All government health institutions are treated as DOTS centres.

Bilaspur, January 7
Chief adviser of the Bilaspur district Non-gazetted Employees Association, Chetram Verma, has been elected district president of the association in place of Kesh Pathania who had resigned several weeks ago.

District general secretary Anil Chadha said Verma had been elected the district president in a meeting presided over by senior vice-president Chand Kumar. He said he would continue till regular elections of the district association were held.

The meeting disapproved of a statement by NGO leader Prem Singh Bharmauria and said the NGO’s federation was a non-political organisation and any attempt to drag it into political controversies would be strongly resented by its employees.

Another resolution extended the district units’ support to a prominent NGO leader Ram Singh and said the district unit would support him in getting elected as president of the state federation.

The association has welcomed the various decisions taken by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, including steps for formulating a transfer policy at the earliest, vacation of victimisation of employees, hike in daily wages of labour and three holidays to women employees and free travel to women for these functions.

The association has also urged the Chief Minister to release 5 per cent interim relief which had been withheld by the earlier government without any reason.

They got a monthly salary of Rs 750, which was insufficient for them to support their families.

Hamirpur, January 7
With the ongoing power shortage in the state getting deeper, the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) has decided to introduce power cuts for 5 to 6 hours daily, in Hamirpur and its surrounding areas from January 8.

Though the board authorities have selected the cut period in a phased manner, Hamirpur town is going to remain without electricity for several hours now.

It is learnt that the board officials resorted to introduce the power cut in the area after getting the state load report from Shimla.

The board is having power shortage as the hydel power generation is at its lowest ebb due to low discharge in the feeding river. The fall in power generation is at the national-level too.

Sources said the board was now hard pressed to save on electricity to save the grid from getting shut and save power for the emergency.

Confirming the power cuts in Hamirpur and surrounding areas, chief engineer HPSEB (transmission) S.K. Chaudhary said, “We are making arrangements to purchase power from outside the state but meanwhile, saving on electricity is also important since the country is facing a fall in power being generated from oil, gas and hydel power.”

He said, “The power cut would be enforced from 7 am to 12 pm in the selected areas on an hourly basis.”

He said from 7 am to 8 am, the power cut would be introduced through Rangas - Housing Board Colony Feeder and the supply would remain suspended partially in Hamirpur town, Nalti and surrounding areas during this period.

From 8 am to 9 am, the supply from Hamirpur - Kutheda feeder would remain suspended affecting the electricity supply in parts of Hamirpur town, Kuthera, Kakkar, Chowki and surrounding areas.

In Industrial area / NIT feeder, electricity would be closed from 9 am to 10 am and area of Badu, Hira Nagar and surrounding areas would go without electricity during this period.

From 10 am to 12 am Rangas- Nalti feeder would be closed snapping power supply in DAV school area and Hamirpur town partially.

Hamirpur- Kuthera feeder would again be closed from 12 am to 2 pm affecting the electricity supply in areas falling under the feeder, including parts of Hamirpur town.

From 2 to 4 pm, NIT - Microwave station feeder would be closed and areas of Pakka Brow etc would face power cut. While Rangas - Nalti feeder would again be closed from 4 pm to 4.30 pm, Hamirpur - Kuthera feeder would remain shut from 4.30 to 5 pm. From 5 to 5.30, Industrial areas - Microwave feeder would be closed.

Shimla, January 7
Chief electoral officer Manisha Nanda today said a total of 187 candidates out of 336, who were in the fray, had forfeited their security deposits.

She said out of the 187 candidates, who failed to secure less than one-sixth of the total number of valid votes, 14 were women. She said the maximum number of candidates who had forfeited their deposit were - 7 in Arki, 6 each in Thural and Baijnath and 5 each in Shimla, Kasumpti, Sulah, Dharampur and Mandi.

She said 4 candidates each had forfeited their deposit in Shillai, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Nadaunta, Chintpurni, Nurpur, Palampur, Kangra, Banjar, Gopalpur and Drang.

She said under Section 158 - Return of Forfeiture of Candidates Deposit and sub-section (4) subject to the provisions of sub-section (3), the deposit would be forfeited where a candidate does not secure more than one-sixth of the total number of valid votes polled by all candidates.

Shimla, January 7
With the new government informing the high court that it was not interested in pursuing the revision petition for withdrawal of criminal cases against ADGP B.S. Thind, the criminal proceedings against him will continue.

The deputy advocate general said the state government wanted to withdraw the revision petition filed by it against the order of the trial court dismissing the application of the state for withdrawal of cases against the officer.

After considering the prayer of the state counsel, Chief Justice V.K. Gupta allowed the same and dismissed the revision petition.

The allegations against the police officer was that he had committed financial irregularities between 1993 and 1998 while he was the managing director of HP Agro India packaging Limited. A case was registered against him during the BJP regime in 1998.

However, when the Congress government came to power, the state filed an application before the trial court for the withdrawal of criminal cases against him on the plea that the case registered against him was not of criminal nature. The trial court had dismissed the application of the state.

The government filed a revision petition in the high court. However, with the change of guard in the state, the government has withdrawn the revision petition.