Daroh (Kangra), March 20
Himachal is poised to emerge as the first state in the country to have all police stations inter-connected through the Internet.

The effort aimed at modernising the police functioning comes under the Community Integrated Police Application Scheme.

This was stated by Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal while addressing a meeting of police officials at the Police Training Centre here today.

He said the state had already achieved the distinction of being the best-policed state in the country.

He said all police stations in the state would get ISO certification by the
end of 2012.

The police stations at Dhalli in Shimla, Mandi and Una were likely to get ISO certification in the next couple of months, he said.

The Police Housing Scheme would be taken up with the Finance Commission and the executing authorities would be directed to implement it effectively. He emphasised the need to register every suspicious foreign visitor.

Efforts were afoot to change the uniform of the police after examining all related aspects to bring about uniformity in the police cadre, he added.

DGP Ashwani Kumar briefed him on the five-year police plan. The emphasis would be on making the police people friendly, he said.

Earlier, the CM presided over the passing out parade of 294 lower, inter and upper course trainees. He announced 15 per cent teaching allowance to all officers and trainers of the centre on a par with other counterparts of the cadre.

He said 1,400 police constables would be recruited district-wise in proportion to the population of these districts. He said forensic labs were being set up at Dharamsala and Mandi to speed up the investigation process at the zonal level.

This would also help in reducing pressure at the CFL, Junga. Adequate posts would also be created to man zonal labs.

He said a sum of Rs 10.81 crore was being spent on the modernisation of the department and efforts would be made to procure more funds under the programme from the Union Government. He said that 1,007 recruitments would be made in the 4th IRB.

He also assured improvement in the infrastructure at the police training centre. He also announced to give to Rs 25 lakh for the State Police Sports Welfare Fund and Rs 20,000 out of his discretionary grant to the Class IV Police Employees Welfare Fund. He awarded outstanding trainees and decorated them with promotional ranks.

R.M. Sharma, Commandant, PTC, Daroh, read out the annual report of the centre. He said that 13,500 trainees had been trained under 75 courses so far.

Bilaspur, March 20
Bhakra Dam and 70-km-long largest man-made lake of country, Gobind Sagar, have brought plenty and bounty to at least four adjoining states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi through the electricity and irrigation channels.

But it also has brought perpetual and unending chain of sufferings and difficulties to lakh of people who are living on all around of Gobind Sagar in Bilaspur district.

A couple of village leaders urged mediapersons here today to rush to Luhanu ghat of Bilaspur town and see for themselves the daily ordeal through which they and their families have to go through while crossing erstwhile the Satluj river, which is now named here as Gobind Sagar.

Mediapersons found that their motorboat was got stuck almost in the mid-stream of the river Satluj due to sudden shifting quick sand and silt of receding Gobind Sagar and they had to board down from the motorboat almost in the mid-stream and wade through a large tract of tricky silt and water to reach the other bank to Bilaspur town.

Most of the passengers of this motorboat were commuters and they told media persons that they have to go through this ordeal and hazardous journey every time they have to cross the Gobind Sagar on this ghat, but nothing concrete has been done by the government to provide relief to them and to save them from this difficulty of crossing the river despite their repeated peaceful agitations and also representations to the government leaders.

They were also sour that former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was misled by a couple of the Congress politicians and this resulted in Virbhadra Singh laying foundation stone of this Berry-Darolan bridge on Gobind Sagar at wrong place at village Talwar, a sight where this bridge would be of no practical use to most of those who daily cross it in thousands and who have been the most sufferers of this silt of Gobind Sagar and who have been clamouring for the bridge.

They urged Chief Minister Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal and also Bilaspur sadar MLA forest minister J.P. Nadda and Geharwin MLA Rikhi Ram Kondal to solve their persisting problem by linking Berry-Darolan with Khairiyan so that it provides them direct link to Bilaspur town.

Shimla, March 20
Switchover to the e-tendering system which completely eliminates human involvement in the process for procurement of material, has enabled the HRTC to save over Rs 1.25 crore over nine months.

The new system has not only brought transparency in the process of material procurement but also enabled the HRTC to make purchases at highly competitive rates. The number of suppliers participating in the tenders has gone up manifold and rates of most of the items have come down.

The participation is no longer confined to the northern region as companies from far-off southern states are also bidding for supply orders. It is a win-win situation for the HRTC as it does not need to advertise the tenders in newspapers which helps save Rs 18 lakh to Rs 20 lakh annually and it was getting material at lower rates.

In all the HRTC makes purchases of spare parts, vehicles and other material worth over Rs 45 crore to 50 crore every year. It has so far floated 30 e-tenders since June, 2007, for procuring various items. The maximum saving has been effected in the re-treading of tyres with the entry of companies from the south which quoted much lower rates.

Under the system registered vendors are given intimation about tenders through e-mail and bids are filed online for which vendors have been allotted a user name and password. Thus, the entire process does not involve any paperwork.

Further, the technical bids are scrutinised and evaluated by the computer in accordance with the fixed parameters.

The financial bids of the vendors whose technical bids are rejected automatically discarded by the computer and financial bids of only those companies that qualify after the evaluation of technical bids are considered.

With the computer taking over the job of scrutinising and evaluating tenders there will be no scope for manipulation at any stage.

The e-ticketing scheme for the high-end Volvo and de luxe buses introduced in July has also been a success and bookings to the tune of Rs 80 lakh had been done through the Internet so far.

The government plans to introduce e-procurement in a phased manner. The National Institute of Smart Government recommended that in the first phase the PWD, IPH Department, HPSEB, Forest Department, State Civil Supplies Corporation and the Health and Family Welfare Department should be covered.

It will take care of all aspects of procurement right from tendering, contract management, automated indent and inventory managements, payments based on evaluated work flow, e-auction and e-reverse auction.

Shimla, March 20
Governor, V.S. Kokje today honoured 10 persons from Punjab, Himachal and Haryana with the Godfrey Phillips Bravery awards here for their rare acts of physical and social bravery.

Those honoured with the physical bravery awards include Late Sukhbir Singh from Hisar (Gold), Thakur Singh from Kangra (Silver), Mam Chand from Kurukshetra (Bronze) while Rajni Chauhan from Chandigarh got a special award.

Those honoured for the exemplary social acts of courage include Lt-Col Bishna Dass from Patiala, Hem Raj Chaddha from Hamirpur (Silver), Meera Thakur from Chandigarh (Silver), Manju Kaushik from Mahendragarh in Haryana (Silver) and Vinod Paul with a special award.

Charanjit Kaur from Patiala was honoured with the ‘Mind of Steel’ award for the courage she has shown in overcoming her disability due to polio to make a mark at the international level in the Para Badminton championships held in Thailand last year.

“Since inception of the Godfrey Phillips Bravery awards in 1990, these have grown from merely recognising and awarding brave civilians to initiating on ground activities to promote safe and voluntary blood donation and women empowerment,” says Harmanjit Singh, General Secretary, Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards. Starting from Delhi in 1990, Godfrey Phillips now has presence in 16 states across India and has recognised 1,000 brave acts so far, he adds.

In each of these categories, the winners are awarded gold, silver and bronze awards with cash awards of Rs 50,000, Rs 40,000 and Rs 30,000, respectively, along with a certificate.

Besides the recent ‘Mind of Steel’ award carrying a cash prize of Rs 50,000, there is also a lifetime achievement award for social service.

Kumarhatti, March 20
An Army man has been accused of sexually exploiting a teenaged girl on the pretext of marrying the girl.

In a compliant lodged by the victim at Nalagarh police station , Sikender, employed in an Army unit based in Jammu and Kashmir, had been exploiting the girl sexually for the past over one year. The girl and the accused hailed from a village adjoining Nalagarh.

The girl said Sikender forcibly kidnapped her on February 7 last year when she had gone to pay obeisance at a Pir Bawa shrine near her village. He raped the girl after promising to marry her. Sikender used to exploit the girl whenever he came home on leave.

On March 6, Sikender again came on leave and continued his sexual relations with the girl. However, he refused to marry the girl when she asked for this.

On March 15, a panchayat was also convened to settle the issue but the accused refused to marry the victim.

This has forced the girl’s family to approach the police. A case has been registered against the accused who is at large.

Shimla, March 20
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has directed the commissioner, Shimla Municipal Corporation, to remove the encroachment, temporary projections and over hangings on the Mall Road and Lower Bazar area by April 30.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Rajeev Sharma on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Neelam Sharma in this regard passed this order.

The court further directed the commissioner to take up the matter with the state government as well as with the heritage committee for framing of appropriate bye-laws for the beautification of these areas.

The court also directed the commissioner that in his affidavit he will give the names of those shopkeeper who are not complying with the directions of this court so that the court may issue notices directly to the said shopkeepers and take appropriate action against them.

The court further directed the commissioner to appraise the secretary urban development as well as the elected members of the Municipal Corporation about the orders passed by the court.

Hamirpur, March 20
While the police is still trying to explore the roots of nexus between the unscrupulous depot holders selling highly subsidised ration meant for public distribution in black after the seizure of over 1,000 bags of ration on Sunday from the godowns of a local trader in the Jahu area.

This has definitely exposed the large chinks in the system. The way the authorities of the Civil Supplies Department and Civil Supplies Corporation are finding it difficult to pin point the depot holders from where this ration was sold to traders it looks the checks and balances are not foolproof.

This definitely is a matter of serious concern since huge subsidy is paid for providing cheap ration under public distribution system (PDS) every month by the Central government.

At present there are over 14 lakh ration card holders who get cheap wheat, rice and levy sugar through 4,345 depots and fair price shops. The state government is also providing pulses, cooking oil etc. through fair price shops as a succour to public from price rise.

In Hamirpur district alone a single item of rice supplied every month is 325 metric tonne for APL, 431 metric tonne for BPL and 271 metric tonne is supplied for Antyodya families.

“Though the allocation of ration under the PDS is based on the population but a large population do not avail this facility which provide ample scope for depot holders to sell the subsidised ration in the open market at a higher prices by manipulating records,” sources said.

“Since inspectors appointed by the Food and Civil Supplies Department to keep an eye on the pilferage only go by the records which can be easily manipulated by the depot holders and the ration gets sold in the black,” an insider said.

“Political links also play a major role in the black marketing and main person involved in the Jahu seizure was stated to be very close to a minister from the area in the previous government,” officials in the department told.

Food and Civil Supplies director R.S. Gupta on being asked what steps the government would take to stop such cases said, “Responsibility would be fixed on the inspectors of the area where depot holders are found selling the PDS ration in black and we would take serious action against the guilty.”

Sujanpur Tihra, March 20
The first evening of the three-day long cultural programmes being organised in the state level Holi festival at Sujanpur Tihra on Wednesday was devoted to Shri Ramakrishna Kala Mandir cultural troupe New Delhi, which entertained the audience by presenting Krishna Lila.

The presentation by this troupe was so delicately enacted by the artists through dances and episodes from the life of lord Krishna from his birth to Mahabharata period that entire audience was spell bound.

While in his performance of Krishna as a child, Shiv Ram Mahanto impressed the audience by his acting, Rakesh Sai Babu in the role of young Krishna was also appreciated.

This entire presentation was so well crafted that the stage looked like a replica of Vrindavan and sprawling ground of Sujanpur Tihra really seemed fully painted in the colours of Holi.

Governor V.S. Kokje , who inaugurated the cultural programmes by lighting a lamp and also had words of praise for this presentation and artists of Shri Ram Kala Mandir New Delhi.

In the beginning of cultural programme, the Governor was welcomed by local MLA Urmil Thakur by presenting him a Shawl and a Himachali cap.

Shimla, March 20
The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Employees Union has condemned the creation of a separate power directorate as it would ultimately weaken the State Power Board.

In a statement issued here today, the union said the power directorate would take up the work, which was already assigned to the HPSEB and as such its creation would adversely affect the board.

“The hydel potential of the state will be exploited not by multiplication of companies but through powerful and effective decisions,” they said.

The union said the slogan should be ‘perform or perish’ and not ‘reform or perish’. The union leaders said one cannot compare the HPSEB with Uttrakhand as many parts of the neighbouring state like Garhwal and Kumaon are still not electrified.

The union leaders also said un bundling of the HPSEB would be wrong as it was not only providing subsidised power to the people but also undertaking social welfare duties.

“In case the Bboard is unbundled the poor consumers would be badly hit as the experience of other states has shown that un bundling has not really been useful,” they said.

He was addressing a district-level one-day camp of all heads of educational institutions - principals here today.