Shimla, February 5
The Cabinet has decided to regularise the services of 13,205 daily wagers who have completed 10 years of service with the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal here today. While 7,842 daily wagers will be regularised in the PWD, the number of such persons will be 5,363 in case of the IPH Department.

Briefing mediapersons about the Cabinet decisions, chief secretary Ravi Dhingra said the decision was likely to put additional financial burden of Rs 165 crore on the exchequer. Those daily wagers who had completed their tenure between 1999 and 2003 would benefit from the decision, he added.

As per another decision, the 17-MW Chanju-II power project in Chamba and the 5.5-MW Bharari project in Shimla district would be executed as per the earlier decision taken by the Cabinet. As such, the two projects would be executed on the basis of the MoU signed during the tenure of the previous regime.

As per the decision taken by the Dhumal regime recently, all power projects above 5 MW would be allotted through competitive bidding. In case of these two projects, the MoU had been signed during the previous regime, but could not be implemented as the model code of conduct coming had come into force.

The issue with regard to the formulation of a transfer policy was also discussed by the Cabinet. It was decided to constitute an officers’ committee to look into various aspects and place before the Cabinet its proposals for final approval. The committee would be headed by the chief secretary, while other members would be the secretary (personnel), the secretary (finance), the special secretary to the Chief Minister.

The committee after looking into various issues is likely to place its proposals before the cabinet in its next meeting. The Virbhadra regime had constituted a committee under its IPH minister, Kaul Singh Thakur to formulate the policy. Now the officers committee will look into various employees related issues.

In another significant decision, the government enhanced its premium share from 5 per cent to 50 per cent under the crop insurance scheme. Aimed at giving relief to the farmers, it would come into effect immediately.

As per the earlier arrangement, the Centre and the state governments were paying five per cent each towards the premium, while the remaining 90 per cent was being borne by farmers.

The Cabinet also decided to exempt Himachal forest services officers, assistant conservator of forests and range officers from the 3 per cent reservation for the disabled. This has been done in view of the arduous nature of their duty.

The Cabinet also took a decisions with regard to setting up two toll barriers in Solan district. It also approved filling of four posts of assistant geologist and 10 posts of extension officer in the Industries Department and so other posts in the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Solan, February 5
With the state adopting a faulty excise policy, the excise revenue declined throughout the state causing a loss of several crores to the state exchequer.

The state had changed its excise policy last year after the neighbouring Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh adopted a new system of vend-wise allotment rather than the auction system prevailing earlier. However, the policy devised by the state left a number of chinks that created problems for the licensees.

Sources said the policy was dictated by certain liquor barons in Delhi, who were endeavouring to monopolise the trade, and the concerned politicians preferred to toe their line rather than adopting a state-friendly policy. It was for these reasons that certain chinks were deliberately left in the policy so as to revert back to the earlier system.

Foremost, the government maintained a high percentage of VAT as well as the excise duty.

While the neighbouring states have VAT of 4 per cent, in Himachal it was as high as 12 per cent. This made liquor costlier in Himachal in comparison to the neighbouring states. Further, it fixed the minimum as well as the maximum retail price of various liquor brands. While the lower rate did not have much of an impact, the fixation of the maximum price made liquor uncompetitive.

Licensees who incurred losses worth several lakhs rued that the policy further made it mandatory to lift a specific quota of Indian Made Foreign Spirit (IMFS) and this further acted as an impediment.

Since no such binding exists in the neighbouring states, it led to large scale smuggling of cheaper liquor in all bordering states, including Solan, and Sirmaur.

Licensees rued that disproportionate quota distribution led to faulty evaluation of vends, which was not commensurate with their selling capacity.

While a liquor vend located on the Mall Road here was priced at Rs 57 lakh, another one lying on the Saproon Bypass was priced at a mere Rs 13 lakh. It was logical that a vend on the national highway would sell more but was priced less.

Further, by allowing applicants from even the neighbouring states, there was a rush of those with criminal background enter the trade. The government should only allow bonafide Himachalis to enter the trade as is the trend in Haryana, opined officials of the Excise Department. This would also provide employment to Himachalis, they added. Traders were also demanding that new applications should be invited with amended policy, and this alone would bring returns or else there would be few takers for the vends.

The department had convened a meeting with the licensees recently and suggestions were invited from them for incorporating in the policy. Officials confirmed that certain changes could be brought about in the policy though the exact figures of revenue loss had not emerged by now.

Shimla, February 5
There was no respite from extreme cold conditions as various parts of the state witnessed spells of snowfall and rain accompanied with high velocity winds today. With the weatherman saying that the western disturbance over North Pakistan will continue to influence the state till February 8, the people will have to cope with these weather conditions for some more time.

While higher reaches of Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti, besides Shimla, Solan, Kangra, Chamba and Sirmaur witnessed sporadic rain and snow. Narkanda, Kharapathar, Kufri, Chail and Shimla had spells of mild sleet and snow.

Icy winds continued to lash the region throughout the day even as the sun and clouds played hide and seek. Dharamsala recorded 5mm rain while Una and Sundernagar had 1 mm each.

Kalpa was the coldest with a minimum of -9°C, followed by Keylong that had a low of -8.9°C. In the lower hill areas, Bhuntar was the coldest with a minimum of 3°C and maximum of 17.2°C. Sundernagar had a low of 4.8°C and high of 17.2°C, while Dharamsala recorded a minimum of 4.3°C and maximum of 9.8°C. Nahan was comparatively warm with a minimum of 9.4°C.

The local Met office has given a warning of heavy snowfall and rain at isolated places over the next 48 hours. There is a possibility of moderate to heavy rain or snowfall in the city and its surrounding areas.

Nurpur: The traffic on the National Highway No. 20 that got disrupted due to the collapse of a retaining wall of the highway bridge at Trilokpur, near Kotla, following heavy rain on Sunday evening could not be restored for the third day today.

The Kotla-Soldha state link road is witnessing heavy traffic jams. The work of widening the highway near Kotla is in progress. After the collapse of the retaining wall, the traffic was diverted via Kotla-Soldha link road. To ease out traffic pressure, only one-way traffic is being allowed on the road, but it is leading to huge traffic jams. The supply of newspapers and daily-use items has also been affected.

Superintending engineer, NH, Shahpur, said the restoration of vehicular traffic on the highway would take around a week. A balley bridge had been proposed as an alternative to Trilokpur bridge, he added.

Kangra: The entire Kangra valley today shivered following the cold wave conditions. It rained for the entire day. The Dhauladhar ranges were receiving heavy snowfall since last night. The life was left out of gear for the day due to the cold. In Naddi and Bagsunag, snowflakes accompanied the rains this afternoon.

Mandi, February 5
None of India’s four major ski resorts- Narkanda and Solang Nalla in Himachal Pradesh, Gulmarg in Jammu and Kashmir and Auli in Uttarakhand- are recognised by the Federation De Internationale of Skiing (FIS), the international body of skiing that governs the sport in the world. Reason: these ski slopes have no snow groomers, no gondola lifts, no snowmaking machines and theses ski slopes do not confirm to the FIS benchmarks.

Though Uttarakhand has taken a lead allocating a budget of Rs 60 crore for the development of Auli ski slopes as recommended by the FIS expert this year, but Himachal has lagged behind in this aspect and has not invited any FIS expert here, sources revealed.

Parshu Ram awardee and skiing Olympian Chuni Lal, who is also two times slalom national championship winner said, “The three Himalayan states are natural reservoir of snow and winter sports, but the state governments lack political will to develop the ski resorts as per the FIS standards.

A FIS expert Walter Triller inspected Auli and Gulmarg ski slopes a few moths ago, but found none up to the established benchmarks of skiing in the world. He had recommended the development of ski slopes of Auli by clearing as many as 1,000 trees on the slopes to the Garwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN), the nodal agency in Uttarakhand.

Talking exclusively to The Tribune on phone WFI’s president, S.S. Pangti said, “Triller inspected Auli again in October and he advised the GMVN on how to improve the slopes to make it a venue for the south-Asian winter games, to be held here in 2009. GMVN has agreed to clear the slopes and is working on the project.”

The two Norwegian ski experts had inspected the ski slopes of Narkana and recommended cutting down of around 12 trees for the development of slopes, making them FIS-savvy a few years ago, revealed the skiers-cum-officials in the HP winter games association. “They have asked to equip ski resorts with the snow-making machines, snow-groomers, ski resort café, and gondola lifts. But these remained buried in the bureaucratic files.”

Ski experts also say that a ski resort must have a regular drop of 250m and a regular width of 40m on a regular gradient. “It needs gondola lifts to carry the skiers to the top, a café catering to skiers and the artificial snowmaking machines and snow-groomers. But alas none of India’s ski resorts have these facilities and benchmarks.”

The Power Himalayas, a local firm is setting up a ski lift at Solang Nala near Manali. “We are in touch with Power Himalayas and in the days to come we may conduct winter games there as well,” said WFI officials.

Pangti said the facilities do not come cheap and the government needs a political will to put in place all facilities at ski resorts. “We always take up matters with the government of India time and again, but initiative has to come from the state governments as well,” added WFI secretary R.K. Gupta.

Shimla, February 5
The 1988-batch officers of the Indian Forest Service, who have been waiting for their first promotion for the past over six years, are likely to get their due shortly.

The government has given the go-ahead for filling new vacancies created at the senior levels following the recent cadre review. The batch was due for promotion in 2002 and their counterpart in other states got promoted around 5 years ago. However, they have been denied this benefit so far allegedly due to indifferent cadre management.

There have been no posts at the higher level all these years and to make things worse the number of senior duty posts were curtailed to 102 from 105 during the 2002 cadre review. The situation has improved after the recent cadre review with an increase of six additional posts at the senior level. The total strength of the state cadre has been increased to 106.

The number of principal chief conservators for forests (PCCF) has been increased from one to two, additional principal chief conservators for forests from two to four and the chief conservators of forests from 6 to 11. However, the posts of conservator of the forests have come down from 19 to 17.

Principal chief conservator for forests Pankaj Khullar said exercise had been started for filling vacant posts. In all, one post of the PCCF, nine posts of the chief conservator of forests and eight of the conservator of forests were being filled. Relevant documents like vigilance clearance certificates and annual confidential reports were being collected for holding the meeting of the promotion committee. Three candidates would be considered for every post. The effort was to complete the exercise during this month.

The promotions were likely to cover candidates up to the 1990 batch. Those belonging to the next four batches, already eligible for the benefit, will have to wait for some more years for their first promotion.

Shimla, February 5
It was courtesy launch of the e-governance HIMSWAN project here today that Chief Minister P. K. Dhumal interacted with Govind Ram Arya, his principal while he was in Class X at Tauni Devi School in Hamirpur.

It was the launch of the HIMSWAN project that became an occasion for interaction between the chief minister and his principal after a long gap. The chief minister sought the blessings of his teacher who congratulated him on his success and return to power.

The launch of the project also saw the chief minister taking some of the officers to task on issues concerning areas under their jurisdiction. This gave an idea to all those present at the function the extent to which the chief minister or any senior functionaries can monitor the progress of any project or the movement of files with the help of this e-governance project.

The chief minister also interacted with DC, Bilaspur, and inquired him about the Truck Union dispute. He directed the DC to ensure that the movement of traffic was not disrupted on the main road due to the dispute and proper law and order should be maintained.

Similarly, in his interaction with SDM, Sarkaghat, the CM inquired about as to when work on the mini-secretariat would be completed. The CM caught the SDM on the wrong foot when he said within four months. “On January 25, you told me it would be completed within three months and now you are saying four months,” said Dhumal.

The SDM was asked by the CM to ensure that the work is completed within three months.

The naib-tehsildar, a lady officer in Dadahu area of Renuka, Sirmour, too was caught unawares by the chief minister when he asked her as to how many cases of mutation she had done in the last one year.

The officer, who said 10 cases were pending, was asked by the CM how many cases she had disposed off? Not aware of the exact number, she said about 200 to 300. “There is a difference of 100 between the two figures, so what is the exact figure,” he asked. She preferred to choose the higher number and said 300.

Not sure if the figure was correct, Dhumal said he would direct DC, Sirmaur, to give him the exact figure. It seems the launch of the HIMSWAN project could catch many others unawares. Thanks to the e-governance project.

Kangra, February 5
An undertrial, involved in murder cases and convicted under Section 498A for rioting and rape, slipped from the police custody at the local bus stand today, the police said.

Kangra police chief Atul Phooljalai told The Tribune that accused Gulshan Kumar, son of Prakash Chand of Ghawal village, was undertrial in a rioting case under Jawalamukhi police station and in a rape case too. He said the accused was allegedly involved in some murder cases too.

He was taken by two police head constables from Dharamshala Jail to Dehra AJMIC court for hearing. SSP said after attending the court, the two police head constables accompanying the accused had kept him without handcuffs when arrived at Kangra bus stand, from where he slipped from the police custody.

He said a case under Section 224 of the IPC had been registered in the Kangra police station against the accused for slipping from the police custody.

The undertrial told the two police personnels at the Kangra bus stand that he wanted to go for urinal and gave them a slip during the process, he said.

The accused could not be traced as yet and the police parties had been rushed in different directions to raid his suspected hideouts.

He said SDPO Kangra Jeet Singh Thakur had been asked to submit a report about the incident.

Meanwhile, both the police officials, Dharam Chand and Lal Singh, were arrested and bailed out and were placed under suspension for dereliction of their duties. Departmental actions against the two head constables would follow after the receipt of the detailed report of the SDPO Kangra, he added.

Bilaspur, February 5
Randhir Sharma, BJP MLA from Kot-Kehloor constituency and BJP state spokesman, has expressed special thanks to irrigation and public health minister Ravinder Singh Ravi for taking up the matter of speedy completion of Rs 88 crore Central government financed medium irrigation project of Changar area in his constituency on priority.

He expressed confidence here today that soon sufficient funds would be provided by the Centre for speedy implementation of this project. The faster completion of this project would bring prosperity and would prove a virtual boon for thousands of farmers of this otherwise arid area. It would help farmers to grow cash crops and provide them with an opportunity to improve their dwindling financial position. He said this project would convert this area in to a green valley.

Sharma said the Himachal government has sanctioned Rs 29.32 lakh drinking water supply scheme for providing drinking water to around 12 villages of Jukhala valley in his constituency, including Syohla, Pandhoh, Chidaki, Pahalwana etc which would remove water scarcity of thousands of people there. He said this project would be launched soon and would be completed within a period of six months.

Solan, February 5
A sudden change in the ambitious scheme introduced for the employees of the state government by the BSNL may prove dear to its subscribers with the latter preparing to knock the door of the consumer forum.

In a bid to enhance its subscriber base, the BSNL had launched this scheme in 2006, whereby; it allowed free calls within a user group for an unlimited period. The scheme became so popular that the customer base of nearly 70,000 subscribers was gathered by the BSNL within a short span of time for its three user groups. But now the BSNL authorities without giving any prior information to the subscribers have curtailed the free calls from the earlier unlimited to 1,500 minutes in a month.

Even the earlier free unlimited roaming facilities have been curtailed to barely 10 hours in a month. No official was ready to talk on record about these sudden changes. The changes were however corroborated by the customer care of the BSNL, which confirmed that the new changes had become operational from the beginning of this month.

The plea put forth by the BSNL officials was misuse by some subscribers. Though they agreed that the scheme was not accruing any loss to them, but it had to be changed as there was no other way to check the misuse.

This change has created a lot of resentment amongst its users, who are now exploring the legal angles to seek reprieve. The fact that the terms and conditions of the scheme have been changed midway contrary to the terms of agreement tantamount to cheating the customers.

A section of subscribers said it was even more shocking as to why the BSNL had not bothered to inform them about these changes.

IT secretary Sanjeev Gupta, who had initiated this scheme said though the BSNL had sought permission to curtail the HP Government Plan but he had refused permission for it.

A section of the subscribers however asserted that the BSNL was following a planned move to reduce the benefits and this would adversely benefit the private cellular companies.

The users opined that when there was no loss from the scheme the very motive to reduce its benefits was aimed at accruing indirect benefits to the private players.

It was also unfair to first throw bait by floating an unlimited scheme and then curtail its benefits midway. The scheme, which had promised free SMS within a user group had failed to give this benefit, had faltered on this account too.

Officials, however, took the refuge of a clause stating that the subscribers would abide by the terms and conditions, including those with are changed from time to time.

Bilaspur, February 5
Making things difficult for at least two top Congress party leaders of this district, the zila parishad here has unanimously passed two resolutions in its last quarterly meeting urging the government to order a high level probe into the implementation of two projects here in the district during the former Congress regime.

Confirmed reports here said zila parishad member advocate Chaman Thakur, a BJP activist, took up the matter of alleged unprecedented irregularities and misuse of funds under the Mid-Himalayan Watershed Development Project, which is being implemented by the state Forest Department through panchayats and is financed by the World Bank to the tune of Rs 365 crore. Thakur said common farmers were totally ignored, much against the objectives of the project.

Another zila parishad member Bambar Thakur, a former youth Congress leader who had deserted the party for contesting recent Vidhan Sabha election, raised issue of digging of hand pumps not only in Bilaspur district but also in several areas of the state on a very high rate by a single contractor. He alleged that this contractor was in relations of a Congress leader and that was why he was favoured. Even the former Chief Minister who was also apprised regarding this highly objectionable deal ignored all objections of the parishad in this matter.

BJP MLA from Kot-Kehloor Randhir Sharma assured that he would take up the matter with the Chief Minister and would ensure that an impartial enquiry is held into both these issues and anyone found guilty would be punished according to the law.

The meeting of the zila parishad was presided by its president Santosh Dhiman, while vice-president Hoshiyar Singh Thakur, both Congress leaders, along with the entire house of 14 members, were present.