Chandigarh, March 1
Former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar is tipped to bag the lone Rajya Sabha (RS) seat from the state.

His name is likely to be recommended by the state election committee of the state BJP, which will meet in Shimla on March 3.

Confirming this to The Tribune on the eve of the state assembly session, which commences from March 4, Satya Pal Jain, in charge of the state BJP’s affairs, said the final decision will be vested with the central election committee of the party.

“But the state committee is likely to propose his name. Most BJP leaders of the state have desired his nomination,” Jain said today.

Shanta has been three-time MP from the Kangra Lok Sabha constituency (1989, 1998 and 1999). He, however, lost the last general elections to Chander Kumar of the Congress.

In the just-concluded assembly poll, the stalwart was pitched in a fiery contest for the top slot in the state, but paved way for P.K. Dhumal, after the party high command decided to project the latter as its chief ministerial candidate.

The Himachal Rajya Sabha seat will fall vacant on April 2, with the present MP Suresh Bhardwaj completing his term.

If victory for Shanta comes through, he will become the first-ever former Chief Minister of the state to enter Rajya Sabha.

Going by the party’s strength in the state assembly, sailing for its candidate will not be difficult. The Congress for its part is yet to decide if it will put up a candidate for the RS elections.

When asked if the party in Himachal will honour its poll promise of appointing only non-MLAs as chairpersons of boards and corporations, Jain said, “We are committed to the promises made to the people and party workers. Those who could not be allotted tickets in the past elections will be preferred to head boards and corporations.”

Reacting to another query about the state BJP’s proposal to appoint parliamentary or chief parliamentary secretaries, Jain said there was none.

“We were the ones to challenge such appointments which were later struck down by the former state government. We had then welcomed the decision.

During the last assembly elections we had reiterated that we will not appoint parliamentary or chief parliamentary secretaries. We will stick to that,” Jain said.

The state legislature party will also meet in Shimla on March 3 to discuss issues related to the the Budget session in the state.

Jain, Dhumal and Shanta will attend the meeting which will focus on better coordination between the legislature and party organisation.

Shimla, March 1
With a healthy recovery rate of over 75 per cent in respect of agricultural loans and no suicides, farmers’ indebtedness has not been an issue in the hill state.

Nevertheless, the loan waiver announced by P. Chadambaram in the Budget will provide relief to about 2.5 lakh small and marginal farmers, who account for 90 per cent of the total amount of Rs 110 crore overdue on the cut-off date.

In spite of a good recovery rate, the per capita farm credit is only about Rs 48,000, which is on the lower side as compared to the situation in bigger states like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh where it has crossed Rs 2-lakh mark. Obviously, the small size of holdings is not conducive to investment and poor farmers have been mostly engaged in subsistence agriculture.

The state has 9,13,914 farmers with 9,78,756 hectare of operational holdings. The average holding size comes 1.1 hectare. Marginal farmers account for 67.3 per cent and small 19.1 per cent of total farmers.

As such, 86.4 per cent of the total farmers qualify for loan waiver. The farmers mostly go for crop loans as there is little scope for mechanisation of farm operations on small holdings.

The total agriculture loan as on the cut-off date is around Rs 1,829 crore, but the amount overdue was only Rs 110 crore. In fact, farm credit went up only after the Centre started a campaign to double its quantum in 2004. It increased from Rs 350 crore to over Rs 1,000 crore in just three years.

Diversification to floriculture, off-season vegetables, mushroom cultivation and horticulture has been mainly responsible for higher agricultural credit over the last couple of years. Some farmers also take credit through agricultural societies, but the amount is marginal.

Other projects were 4-MW Balh-Paddar (Mandi), 3-MW Joiner-II, 1.1-MW Durgerh, 3-MW Balij Ka Nullah and 2-MW Balehi Ka Nullah (all in Chamba) and 4.5-MW Luni and 4.5-MW Eiqu (both in Kangra).

Shimla, March 1
SP R.M. Sharma has laid down time frame for police investigation and made it mandatory for the SHOs to take up cases.

After a review of the progress of cases at a meeting here today, he issued instructions that each SHO must have at least five cases at a time.

As far as possible, they would be required to investigate sensitive cases involving offences against women and other heinous crimes.

He also laid a time frame as per which investigations into cases relating to petty offences would have to be completed in 15 days, while those relating to heinous crimes like murder in 90 days and economic offences in six months.

In case any investigating officer failed to complete investigation in the stipulated period, he would have to seek permission for extension of time, explaining the reasons for the delay.

As per another important instruction, the police will have to invariably register a case after medical examination, even if it involves simple injuries.

Generally, the police refuses to register FIRs in cases of simple injuries on the plea that no case is made out.

Taking a serious notice of the fact that some policemen remained out of station for days together citing various reasons like court evidence and other such matters, he said anyone remaining out for more than eight days in a month would be placed at the disposal of armed battalions so that functioning of the police stations was not affected.

Solan, March 1
Expressing concern at being meted out a raw deal in all joint venture projects between the neighbouring states, Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal said today the state had not been granted any compensation to rehabilitate the families who had offered their land for construction of the Bhakra and Pong Dams.

They had not only been denied their legitimate rights but had been made to suffer for no fault. Dhumal was addressing the staff, locals and management of Ambuja Cements Limited at Rauri village near Darlaghat after laying the foundation stone of their second unit.

He rued that since the Government of India had failed to provide these families their due, thousands had been rendered homeless while their rehabilitation was still awaited.

He said it was unfortunate that Himachal which had played a key role in various spheres of national development, including power sector, defence as well as preserving natural ecology had failed to get any compensation even for those rendered landless after 1950.

He said though the environmental degradation was a matter of concern but with a view to bring about development we have to strike a balance between the two.

This alone would create employment opportunities in the state as little had been done to extend any Central aid to the state.

He assured setting up of two ITIs and a trauma centre near Nauni in Bilaspur. He also thanked the Ambuja Group for opening a diagnostic centre and a Government High School at Nalagarh. He also inaugurated an INTI under-skill and entrepreneur development unit in their unit.

Health minister Dr Rajiv Bindal requested the industrial house to employ more local youth and said their government had accorded top priority to the social welfare sector.

Mandi, March 1
Even as the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) and Sarva Devta Seva Samiti (SDSS) have agreed for allocating over 50 per cent of the budget of the International Shivratri Fair for the devtas and their representatives but they accuse the Shivratri Mela Committee of ignoring their demands.

Furthermore they also accuse each other of playing ‘petty politics’ in the name of promotion of bajantris, folk musicians who play divine music during procession of devtas in the fair. This petty politics, in turn, is bound to harm the traditional fair in a long run as the blame game has continued here since last year.

The IPTA, which is championing the cause of bajantris has garnered the public support of the counsellors and representatives of various sabhas and few writers and a faction of the SDSS led by former president Prem Singh Thakur for getting honorarium for the bajantris during the week long festival starting here from March 6.

IPTA convener Lawan Thakur said, “Bajantris play folk and divine music ruing Shivratri, which is dying slowly. Traditionally they come from the lower caste and are very poor. They get anything from the devta committee even in villages.”

Last year, out of its budget of Rs 75 lakh the mela committee gave just Rs 2 lakh ration and Rs 4 lakh as nazrana for over 189 devtas, which came for the Shivratri fair.

He said they have given a memorandum signed by various people including SDSS member to the DC-cum-president Shivratri Mela Committee, demanding an honorarium for the bajantris and allocation of 50 per cent budget for Devtas and their representatives. “Feudal system should be replaced with democratic system,” he added.

President SDSS Shivpal Sharma accused the IPTA and former president SDSS of dividing the Dev Sanskriti into bajantris, devalus, kardars, pujaris, and jamanis, who carry palanquin, and other groups.

“We have raised the demand of 50 per cent budget of the Shivratri for the devtas during the general house of the mela committee meeting chaired by PWD minister Gulab Singh Thakur recently as devtas are a source of traditional attraction.”

DC Mandi district Onkar Sharma said, “We are organising folk music festival during the mela to encourage folk musicians, bajantris. It is not possible to allot 50 per cent budget for devtas alone. We have raised 10 per cent nazrana for devtas this time. Each devta committee has its own set up in which administration has no role to play.”

Hamirpur, March 1
The order of the state information commissioner (SIC) to pay compensation to a person seeking information under the Right to Information Act (RTI) by the Badsar SDM has brought to light the fact as to how serious the SIC is in dealing with cases of delay in supply of any information.

The officer has been asked to pay a compensation of Rs 500 for inordinate delay in supplying the information to Onkar Singh, resident of Hamirpur, in its order passed by SIC on January 30, 2008, even though the officer had supplied the information free of cost due to delay.

Onkar Singh had sought information under the RTI Act from the temple officer (SDM Badsar) Baba Balak Nath Trust, the copies of bills of the purchase of furniture and tracing rolls in the office of senior architect of the Trust etc on July 2, 2007 .

After receiving this request, the SDM office asked Onkar Singh to deposit Rs 50,000 for supplying photostat copies of the documents, after a month.

Since the desired information to the applicant was not provided well in time, he complained to SIC after which the SDM office provided him the information.

Though the information was supplied to the applicant free of cost, the information was supplied in 324 pages and the estimated cost was just Rs 3,240 and not Rs 50,000, the amount asked by the SDM office.

Later the applicant appealed to SIC for compensation for delay in giving him the information. The SDM had stated that the applicant was given the information free of cost, but he was asked to pay a compensation of Rs 500.

Telling about the provision of the RTI Act in this context, state chief information commissioner P.S. Rana said, “Any demand of exorbitant charges for supply of information can be reviewed under the RTI Act in case the applicant appeals and cases of delay in supply of information are taken very seriously by the SIC.”

The SDM said, “The delay in supply of information was due to the reason that the PIO was not designated at that time and the information sought was to be contained in 6,000 pages and that was the reason as to why Rs 50,000 was asked to be deposited.”

Dharamsala, March 1
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has asked the official machinery to be sensitive towards the problems of the common people and take prompt action for disposal of their grievances.

He was addressing a meeting of the heads of all departments of the south zone on the last day of his winter sojourn here, last evening.

He said application received by any officer should be processed within a stipulated time and applicants should be intimated of the action taken by the concerned department by post or any other means.

He said that every officer should perform their duties with devotion and provide relief to the aggrieved parties as per the norms of the government.

Dhumal said the administration was the face of the government and successful implementation of every policy and programme was entirely dependant upon their performance.

Dhumal said during his winter sojourn of 17 days, he had visited Una, Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Mandi and Kullu districts and spent most of the time at Dharamsala.

Chamba, March 1
The BJP has warned a former MLA of Bharmour, Thakur Singh Bharmouri, to desist from issuing misleading statements against the Speaker of Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Tulsi Ram.

In a statement issued here on today, the district in charge of the BJP Naresh Mahajan alleged that Bharmouri had been issuing such statements out of frustration as a result of his defeat in the Bharmour tribal assembly constituency in the recently held elections.

Mahajan said before levelling baseless charges against the Speaker, Bharmouri should introspect and apologise for the indiscreet remarks against the Speaker.

Bharmouri had always victimised the government officials with malice attitude during the Congress rule, Mahajan further alleged.

Nahan, March 1
The Kala Amb police today arrested two residents hailing from Mandi district on the charge of raping a 32-year-old factory worker last evening.

The woman, a resident of Khadar village in the Renuka area, has lodged an FIR alleging that she was raped at her rented accommodation at Trilokpur village by two persons who entered her room forcibly.

A case was registered and the accused arrested. Those arrested were Tilak Raj (32) of Trahina village (Mandi) and Ram Singh (25) of Surahan village (Mandi).