Shimla, April 10
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau today questioned Subhash Ahluwalia, former private secretary of Virbhadra Singh, in connection with his assets. Subhash Ahluwalia’s wife, Meera Ahluwalia, was also questioned about her foreign jaunts, allegedly sponsored ones.

Ahluwalia and his wife were summoned to the Vigilance Bureau office here in the police headquarters today. The questioning with regard to allegations against them continued throughout the day. They have now been asked to furnish some details in writing to the bureau. Ahluwalia, an IAS officer, was private secretary to Virbhadra Singh while the latter was the Chief Minister.

While Ahluwalia faces allegations with regard to his assets, the inquiry against his wife is with regard to her foreign travel without seeking government permission.

Meera Ahluwalia was the Principal of the local Rajkiya Kanya Mahavidyalaya till the Congress was in power before being transferred after the BJP came to power. Subhash Ahluwalia, too, was transferred out of Shimla and posted as settlement officer, Dharamsala, in the administrative reshuffle ordered immediately after P.K. Dhumal assumed charge as the Chief Minister.

There are allegations against her that she travelled to the USA and Bangkok on sponsored trips. It is also alleged that despite being a government employee she did not seek prior approval before proceeding on these trips. As per service rules, an employee has to inform and seek government permission before traveling out of the country.

Though there had been a lot of talk about an inquiry against Subhash Ahluwalia and his wife, it is for the first time that the couple has formally been questioned by the Vigilance Bureau. Some of the other allegations that the bureau is inquiring into against Mrs Ahluwalia is that she works as a dealer for certain private companies, including Amway, Tupperware, LG and a cosmetic range of products.

Subhash Ahluwalia’s name had figured in the chargesheet that the BJP had given to the Governor, seeking a probe. BSP leader Vijai Singh Mankotia had also levelled serious corruption charges against Ahluwalia while he was still in the Congress and the party was in power.

Interestingly both Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal and Virbhadra Singh have been accusing each other of indulging in political vendetta. While defending Ahluwalia in the past Virbhadra Singh said the former was given the post of settlement officer, Dharamsala, which he had held even 10 years ago when the BJP assumed power in 1998.

Shimla, April 10
Employees of the state government will have to complete at least one tenure in the tribal and hard areas for promotion and those in the Health and Education Departments will have to put in three years in rural areas after every 10 years of continuous service as per the guiding principles framed by the government to make the transfers more effective.

Announcing the new policy framed on the basis of the recommendations made by the Cabinet subcommittee headed by public works minister Gulab Singh in the Vidhan Sabha today, Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal said the ban on transfers had been lifted with immediate effect and all transfers would be ordered in accordance with the guiding principles up to May 31.

He said the minimum tenure at a station had been fixed at three years for all categories of employees and it would be specifically mentioned in the transfer orders whether the employee concerned had to wait for the reliever or not. The transferred employee would have to join duty at the place of posting immediately after being relieved.

To enforce the condition of mandatory tenure in the tribal and hard areas an appropriate provision would be incorporated in the recruitment and promotion rules.

The condition would not be applicable for those having five years or less to go for superannuation. Such areas had been redefined and the areas which had been connected by roads and had other facilities had been taken out from it.

Senior officers and district-level officers would not be posted in their home districts and transfers would be normally effected only in April and May and keeping in view the academic session in educational institutions.

Dhumal said the policy also had provisions to safeguard the interests of couple cases, widows, wives of service personnel, disabled and those on the verge of retirement.

The committee made it recommendations after studying the reports of the Narain Swamy Committee (1979), K.L.Vaidya Committee(2001) and the Kaul Singh Committee( 2006).

Shimla, April 10
Despite unprecedented buoyancy in tax and non-tax revenue collection, the financial situation of the state continues to be a matter of concern due to rising fiscal liabilities and increasing non-plan expenditure, as per the report of the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) for 2006-07. The report was presented in the Vidhan Sabha today.

The fiscal liabilities of the government increased consistently and stood at 64 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP), which was quite high especially when compared with the norm of 31 per cent laid down by the 12th Finance Commission. The total fiscal liabilities shot up from Rs 12,393 crore in 2002-03 to Rs 18,071 crore in 2006-07, which included market loans to the tune of Rs 4,583 crore. These liabilities stood at 2.31 times the revenue receipts and 6.04 times of the state’s own resources. The ratio of fiscal liabilities to the GSDP increased from 65.55 per cent in 2003-04 to 71.81 per cent in the following year. However, it came down to 63.86 per cent in 2006-07, indicating some progress towards debt stabilisation.

The revenue receipts increased from Rs 6,559 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 7,835 crore in 2006-07. Overall expenditure increased from Rs 7,301 crore to Rs 8,780 crore during the period. Salaries, wages, pensions, subsidies and interest payments continued to consume around 94 per cent of the non-plan revenue expenditure.

The accumulated losses of statutory government corporations stood at Rs 644.51 crore, with state road transport corporation accounting for Rs 405 crore and the state electricity board for Rs 239.17 crore and the return on the investment was negligible.

Expenditure had been substantially in excess of the amounts sanctioned by the legislature and as on August, 2007, an expenditure of Rs 15,614 crore incurred since 2001 required regularisation in terms of Article 205 of the Constitution.

The report has also pointed out several shortcomings in the implementation of various development schemes and there have been cases of under-utilisation and wasteful expenditure. Central funds for national highways were under-utilised as the Government of India withheld or disallowed various claims of reimbursements on account of violation of norms. Labour was deployed in excess of prescribed norms and lack of proper survey and estimation resulted in time and cost overruns. Against an allocation of Rs 45 crore during 2004-05, the PWD could utilise only Rs 39.56 crore. As a consequence, the Government of India reduced the allocation to Rs 39 crore for the following year.

There was excess expenditure on maintenance to the tune of Rs 17.97 crore. Further, the labour deployed was in excess of state’s own norms, leading to avoidable expenditure of Rs 7.26 crore. A bypass to Kullu town was constructed at a cost of Rs 25.26 crore, but it could not be put to use due to non-completion of a bridge at Jia.

The department did not formulate any long-term plan for providing phase-wise connectivity through rural roads to villages. Out of the 770 projects taken up in 14 divisions, only 189 had been completed by March, 2007. Of these, 28 were completed after delay ranging from 10 to 216 months.

Funds under the integrated child development services programme remained unutilised year after year and 10,894 additional anganwaris were not opened. While staff costs of administrative expenses increased from 57 to 70 per cent, the expenditure on programme implementation decreased correspondingly during 2002-05.

Dharamsala, April 10
The Kashag (council of ministers of the Tibetan government-in-exile) and the Tibetan Solidarity Committee have urged the Tibetans, who have been organising protests against the Olympic torch across the world to respect the law and order of the host countries.

In a message to all Tibetans they have stated that the Dalai Lama has appealed to all that whatever campaigns they initiate it should be non-violent and peaceful. “We are proud to say that majority of the Tibetan people have responded to this appeal favourably,” the Kashag stated in its appeal to Tibetans today.

The Kashag would once again like to appeal to all quarters of the Tibetans to desist from any kind of violent methods, particularly to respect the law of the host country and to ensure that the sentiments of the people of this nation are not hurt by our actions when the Olympic Torch relay passes through India on April 17, 2008, they said.

Since March 10, Tibetans in all three provinces of Tibet; Kham, Admo, and Utsang, have been peacefully protesting the unjust and repressive policies of the Chinese Government, even at the cost of their lives, the Kashag has stated.

Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama arrived in Japan today for a stopover on his way to Seattle in United States, as per the spokesperson of Tibetan government here. 

Shimla, April 10
The Single Window Authority of the Industries Department has cleared proposals for 10,498 new industrial units and expansion of 310 existing units since the grant of special incentive package.

This information was given to the House by Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal during question hour. He said setting up of 3,708 new units and expansion of 266 existing units had been undertaken so far. These units had been established at an investment of around Rs 3,374 crore. Around 51,647 persons had got employment at these units.

The proposals for industrial projects involved an investment of Rs 29,033 crore and would generate employment for 3,64,196 persons. Out of total employment provided so far, 79.87 per cent were Himachalis as against the 70 per cent norm. Agreeing with G.S. Bali that employment was on the lower side, he said that it was mainly due to the fact that the previous Congress government had allowed units with low employment potential instead of labour-intensive industries.

He said efforts were being made to disperse industries, which were mainly concentrated in the Baddi-Nalagarh belt, to other parts of the state. Since only two years were left for the expiry of the package, it would not be possible to make industrial units opt for interior pockets, he added.

Dhumal assured Rakesh Pathania that investigations would be conducted into the case pertaining to mutation of land carried out in revenue records of mohal Jassur after showing the retired General Anant Singh Pathania dead. Appropriate action would be taken against the guilty officials.

Replying to a question by Rikhi Ram Kaundal, he said as the Home Guards was a voluntary organisation, the services could not be taken over by the government.

However, the government had been from time to time providing more facilities to them and enhancing their honorarium. It provided them 15 per cent reservation in police recruitments in 2002 to enable them to secure government job. They were also being given preference in recruitment as forest guards and fire brigade personnel.

Mandi, April 10
Manoj Kumar(37), a teacher in a private school here, bled to death after he was allegedly hit on the head by a baseball stick by seven staff members of an “ahata-cum-liquor retail store” in the Sauli Khad locality.

The police today rounded up 13 persons, all employees of the Shruti and Company run by a Nalagarh-based liquor baron, in connection with the murder.

While six the seven main suspects- Rakesh, Deepak, Dile Ram, Hans Raj, Girdhari Lal, Jeevan- have been arrested, the seventh is on the run.

The goons hit the victim allegedly with a baseball stick which was recovered by the police from the spot. The teacher had gone to the ‘ahata’ for his usual drinks. As he went inside the kitchen to ask for some eatables, he was thrashed up by the staff, revealed sources.

The police has sealed the ‘ahata’ and collected bloodstains from the kitchen, raising suspicion that the deceased might have been hit inside the ‘ahata’. It is suspected that the staff had concocted a story by throwing the body 30 meters away from the spot of the crime, revealed residents.

The police is matching the blood samples of the deceased and the cook, who claimed that the kitchen had bloodstains after he cut his foot. The police is trying to ascertain whether the teacher was murdered inside the ‘ahata’ or in front of Riverbank restaurant where his body kept lying all till this morning.

While the police claimed there were 20 eyewitnesses to the incident when the teacher was being beaten up in front of the restaurant-bar-cum hotel between 10.30 p.m. and 11 p.m. yesterday, the owner of the restaurant and its staff said that they had shut the hotel around 10.30 p.m. and came to know about it in the morning when they saw cops on the spot.

The post-mortem report showed that the victim died of the head injuries and excessive bleeding. The death could have occurred anytime around 11 p.m. The viscera of the victim has been sent to the Junga lab to ascertain whether he was intoxicated or not, sources in zonal hospital revealed.

Mandi SP M. Chandra Shakher said the staff and the victim fought twice before he was chased and hit by employees of the “ahata-cum-liquor shop”. The police reached the ‘ahata’ around 11.30 p.m. but the body was spotted around 1.10 a.m. The police has impounded two vehicles of the liquor company and scooter of the deceased, which he had parked at the ‘ahata’.

Nurpur, April 10
The incident of alleged hooliganism by former municipal councillor Chuni Lal under the influence of liquor at the civil hospital on Tuesday took a new turn when he lodged a cross-FIR against a hospital employee alleging that he thrashed him causing fractures in the foot and the spinal cord.

The police has registered a case. A team of three doctors constituted by the hospital administration had referred him to Tanda medical college as the orthopaedics surgeon posted there was on leave. An X-ray was conducted, but its report was still awaited.

Meanwhile, hospital in charge-cum-SMO Subash Thakur has denied allegations of the complainant and alleged that a false case has been framed against the hospital employee.

The agitating hospital staff today formed an action committee to take up the case. The NGO Federation held a meeting on the hospital premises this evening. This was presided over by president S.K. Dogra. The federation decided to extend support to the hospital staff.

Kangra, April 10
A Faizabad resident, Ram Drej, was today thrashed by a mob at Ban Ganga, before he was handed over to the police allegedly for stealing clothes of the people, who were taking bath at Ban Ganga. A case under Sections 41(2) and 109 of the Cr.P.C was registered against him.

According to the eye witnesses, Ram Derj, a resident of Faizabad in Utter Pradesh, was today caught by a mob and was thrashed for allegedly picking up the clothes of some pilgrims at Ban Ganga locality of the town, and the pilgrims whose clothes the victim had picked up could not be traced till this evening.

Ram Drej, who was profusely bleeding was handed over to police by the mob. The police has not registered any case against those who thrashed him and handed him over to the police. The police officials investigating the case said those who thrashed him could not be identified.

Kangra DSP Umapati Jamwal confirmed the incident and said Ram Derj was given medical treatment after the incident. He said that a mob handed him over to the police.

He, however, said the matter was being investigated and the case was registered against Ram Derj.

The residents here said the pilgrims should not be allowed to take law in their own hands to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of the town and the police authorities should take effective steps to maintain law and order.

Kangra, April 10
Attendants of a patients allegedly assaulted a female doctor on duty at the civil hospital here last night. The doctors of the hospital today lodged a protest over the deteriorating working conditions for the doctors in different hospitals of the state, particularly the local civil hospital.

SMO S.B. Sood said Sawiti Aggarwal, who was on duty last night, was harassed, humiliated, abused and threatened of dire consequences by three attendants of a patient while she was in the duty room. He said a case was got registered after the CMO gave approval for that.

Sawiti Aggarwal said she was in the duty room on the second floor of the building when three attendants of a patient came there. They asked her to examine a patient downstairs. They looked drunk, so she told them that she would come down with a Class IV staff member who would come to inform her about the patient. “I went downstairs as soon as the Class IV employee came there. The three youths threatened me of dire consequences if any thing happened to their patient, they abused, harassed and humiliated me,” she said.

After giving first aid to the patient, she referred him to RP Government Medical College and Hospital.

Kangra DSP Umapati Jamwal said a case under Section 353 of the IPC had been registered against Kuldeep Raj of Zamanabad and two others.

Shimla, April 10
The HP High Court today granted bail to the former state drug controller Sher Singh, who is allegedly involved in a corruption case.

While granting the bail, Mr Justice Deepak Gupta observed that though the petitioner is charged with a grave offence, these charges still have to be proved. If proved guilty, the petitioner shall naturally have to under go sentence imposed upon him, but merely on the allegations that the petitioner has collected large sums of money and has also purchased many properties, bail cannot be denied to him.

However, while granting the bail the court imposed conditions upon the petitioner to ensure that he does not flout the facility of bail granted to him.

According to the prosecution, the FIR was registered against the petitioner on February 22, wherein it was alleged that the petitioner had committed an offence punishable under Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. It is alleged that on February 22, the police officials received some information that the petitioner was taking bribes from various pharmaceuticals companies in consideration for passing their drugs, some of which were substandard.

Raid was conducted and Rs 47, 200 from his car.