Shimla, April 21
After the long, harsh winter, the residents could be in for a sweltering summer with the temperature already being higher than normal for this time of the year.

The maximum temperature in Shimla today touched 24.9°C as compared to 23.4°C recorded yesterday. The minimum temperature of 14.5°C too is on the higher side. According to the local meteorological office the summer this year could be quite severe due to various factors like global warming.

However, the weather could be cloudy with some rain during the next 48 hours when the western disturbances, currently over Jammu and Kashmir, approach nearer. According to the Met office, it will be only a brief spell of clouds and rain but the increase in temperature is likely to continue.

The maximum temperatures in other places today were- Sundernagar- 35°C, Dharamshala- 30.6°C and Kalpa- 20.5°C. The minimum temperature at Sundernagar was 12.3°C, Dharamshala- 15.3°C and Kalpa- 3°C.

Even before the actual start of the summer, the residents are already facing an acute water shortage. Many localities, especially on the outskirts, are not receiving regular supply.

It is much before the onset of the summer that the local municipal corporation (MC) has started rationing of water with supply being given on alternate days to all parts of the state capital.

The delay in the launch of the Giri water supply scheme could aggravate the water problem. The additional floating population of tourists to the ‘Queen of Hills’ will make the situation even worse.

Waknaghat, April 21
Exhorting the big industrial groups to invest in the educational sector Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal said today that the state had immense potential to be developed as a quality educational hub. 

He said the pollution free atmosphere provided the perfect ambiance for setting up educational institutes. He was inspired by former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee to develop this idea.

He was addressing the second convocation of the Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat, today, where he conferred degrees on 280 students of Ph.D, M.Tech and B.Tech

Dhumal said the explosive growth of the knowledge economy, where 69 per cent of the population was less than 35 years of age, had spurred consumption demand. The scenario for setting up IT universities was bright as the Indian IT sector had recorded a compounded annual growth rate of more than 40.5 per cent which was almost double the growth rate of the industry in many developed countries.

Earlier, while delivering the keynote address the university’s Chancellor and Governor V.S. Kokje said the institute would soon enter into an MoU with the DRDO for various research projects.

He gave a detailed account of the university’s achievements and said 90 per cent of the outgoing batch of 2009 too had been placed.

Chairman of JP Group Jaiprakash while addressing the gathering said a medical college would soon be opened at Palampur and they would open another such university at Hamirpur.

He said it was a matter of pride that though they had enhanced the quota of Himachali students from 3 to 10 per cent last year but almost 18 per cent students had procured admission on merit. He expressed his willingness to enhance this quota to 50 per cent but added that they would need more land to accommodate students and teachers in its hostels.

The Chief Minister later gave away gold medals to outstanding students of M.Tech and B.Tech. Viplav Shankar Mishra was awarded with the Chancellor’s gold medal. Abhishek Gupta, Hemant Bhargava, Aayush Singal, Khyati Adlakha, Chetan Dhawan, Karnika Thakur, Neeraj Gandotra and Shilpy Arora were awarded the vice-chancellor’s gold medals. The students received placements in top firms like IBM, TCS, Infosys, Sapient, Wipro, Satyam, NIIT, HCL, etc.

Shimla, April 21
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has called upon voluntary organisations to supplement the efforts of the government in creating health awareness among the people and help combat dreaded diseases like AIDS.

Addressing the annual day function of Ashadeep, a government organisation here, yesterday evening, he said AIDS had so far remained incurable and only precautionary measures could protect society from the disease. Combating AIDS was a challenge to those medical researchers, who were working to find a permanent cure for the disease.

He said although a number of voluntary organisations were engaged in creating awareness about AIDS, the common man was still unaware about it. He emphasised the need to take the campaign against the disease to the remotest corner so that the rural masses were also educated about it. He said the number of AIDS patients was increasing all over the world at an alarming rate which, if not controlled, could pose a grave challenge to the existence of a healthy society.

The NGOs were playing a pivotal role in generating mass awareness among people about welfare and health oriented programmes and had been instrumental in supplementing the endeavour of the state government in achieving the objective of building a healthy society. He lauded the efforts of Ashadeep in encouraging voluntary blood donation.

The organisation deserved appreciation for the service it was rendering towards providing blood to needy people and other assistance required for operation and treatment. He said such NGOs were a source of inspiration to rest of the voluntary organisations.

He also released the souvenir brought out by the organisation to mark the annual day celebration.

The Chief Minister honoured Dr Ramesh Chauhan, Dr Ashok Sharma, Geeta Katoch, V.K. Gautam, Rama Sharma, Madhu Sudan, Manjusha Pathania, Himalaya Negi and Vanita Sharma who had contributed significantly towards promotion of the aims and objectives of the Ashadeep and were regular blood donors.

Shimla, April 21
Even though it is the party high command which will have the ultimate say in deciding the BJP candidate for the Hamirpur parliamentary byelection due on May 22, Anurag Thakur, son of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, is emerging as a strong candidate who can ensure victory for the ruling party.

Being the home constituency of the Chief Minister, the party high command would give weightage to his opinion. Even though the names of some sitting legislators like Satpal Satti and even forest minister J.P. Nadda are doing the rounds, the party is not keen to field MLAs as this will lead to another byelection.

Anurag, who is politically active and has some contribution in sports promotion in Himachal, is keen to make his electoral debut provided the high command gives the go-ahead.

The names of former minister Praveen Sharma from Una , who lost the assembly election, is also doing the rounds. A confidant of the Chief Minister, he could be favoured by Dhumal in case his own son does not find favour with the high command.

The name of Narender Thakur, son of former BJP stalwart Jagdev Chand, is also being taken in party circles. Interestingly, even thought the party does not seem to be favouring the candidature of former MP Suresh Chandel, whose name figured in the ‘cash-for-query’ scam, he is keen that the party gives him a chance to get a verdict from the public.

Chandel is meeting the central leadership to impress upon it that despite losing his Lok Sabha membership he was innocent and this he could prove by getting people’s verdict by contesting this byelection. However, the state leadership, including in charge of party affairs in Himachal Satya Pal Jain, is reluctant that the party should field Chandel. “Fielding Chandel will clearly give a chance to the Congress to make corruption an issue which is the last thing that we would want to do,” said a senior leader. 

Shimla, April 21
The inability of the state government to take any action against those involved in the fake bank security scam in the Public Works Department provides an indication of clout in the contractor lobby in the state.

Even the RBI had taken notice of the reports published in these columns and asked the banks to take appropriate action in the matter. But the PWD authorities have for obvious reasons tried to hush up the matter and did not even bother to know the status of such guarantees.

Some of the banks like the UCO Bank have already initiated an action against the officers involved. Some have been suspended and others posted out of the state. The bank on its own inquiry detected 34 unauthorised guarantees.

The state government had not taken action against either the officers of the department or the contractors involved in the scam. Even those who submitted forged bank guarantee documents have been spared. Some of the executive engineers, instead of recovering the advance amount from contractors, made further payments to them during March even after the concerned banks inserted advertisements in the newspapers that all such unauthorised guarantees stood cancelled.

Intriguingly, the banks have admitted that a large number of fake bank guarantees have been issued but the department had been trying to underplay the scam by maintaining that only eight guarantees have not been confirmed.

Whatever little information the department was able to gather indicated that as on March 27, as many as 15 bank guarantees aggregating to Rs 7.13 crore had not been confirmed in Dodra Kawar, Jubbal, Rohru, Rajgarh, Sangrah, Kasuali, Bharmour, Mandi-I, Jogindernagar and Karsog. Out of these five guarantees amounting to Rs 3.60 crore pertained to one contractor. Some of the executive engineers got the fake guarantees replaced by genuine ones.

The central vigilance commissioner has issued special instructions that all bank guarantees should be confirmed and in case the amount involved in fake guarantees exceeded Rs 5 crore the case should be referred to the economic offences wing of the CBI.

Hamirpur, April 21
With the recovery of the body of a missing boy near his village last night, which led to some incidents of violence today, the police has launched a hunt to nab two migrant workers allegedly involved in the murder.

The body of Munish (15), a class X student, who was allegedly kidnapped on April 16, was recovered from the fields close to a ravine in Jassai village under Nadaun police station around 11.30 p.m. yesterday. The body, dumped in a trench, was covered with stones and a gunny bag.

It seemed the boy was murdered in cold blood with his hands, mouth and legs tied behind with a shirt. A trench was found dug near the outhouse where the suspected labourers were residing.

The police has registered a case of murder and launched a drive for tracing two migrant labourers Beeru Ram and Ranjeet Kumar, working as sharecroppers with local farmer Bahadur Signh in Jassai village. Both hail from Toahli village in Shahjahanpur district of U.P.

Enraged over the murder of the boy, villagers attacked a few migrants in Dhaneta and also brunt down a katha bhatha of local contractor Shushil Sharma.

According to reports, a few enraged youths targeted the jhuggis of migrant labourers who were sustained injuries.

Hamirpur SP Asif Jalal said it seemed that Beeru Ram and Ranjeet Kuamar (both brothers) had murdered the boy for ransom. The suspects’ brother-in-law had been detained by the UP police in Shahajahanpur district. Both had a criminal background and a case was already registered against them.

Hamirpur DC Nandita Gupta visited the house of the boy and handed over Rs 1 lakh as compensation.

Hamirpur, April 21
The police has arrested the husband and mother-in-law of Anita, who succumbed to her injuries yesterday, on the complaint of Anita’s father. She had received 80 per cent burns on April 14 in her in-laws’ house and later died in medical college, Tanda, on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the maternal uncle and other relatives of the deceased did not allow her cremation today emphasising that the cremation should not be carried till the post-mortem report arrived.

Her father Kartar Chand had alleged that her in-laws were ill-treating her and demanding money. He has alleged “that her in-laws had demanded Rs 20,000 during her delivery as hospital expenses and again Rs 50,000 some time back.” DSP Gulab Singh said, “We have registered a case under Section 498 and 306 of the IPC and arrested Vikas and Roshni Devi, husband and mother-in-law respectively of the deceased. We are waiting for the post-mortem report.”

Bilaspur, April 21
The state unit of BSP criticised the government’s step of increasing bus fares by 25 per cent and said this had totally disappointed and disillusioned people from the BJP government while masses had voted it to power with high hopes only three months ago.

Addressing mediapersons here this afternoon, in presence of district president Kesh Pathania and other office-bearers, BSP state general-secretary and former MLA Krishan Kumar Kaushal said a public utility and social welfare service like road transport in a poor state like Himachal Pradesh cannot be run on the principle of ‘profit and loss’ and any losses in such welfare services have to be borne by the government itself. He said the government is treating the HRTC like a business venture and had given justification of this extraordinary increase for covering up Rs 90 crore losses of the HRTC.

Kaushal pleaded that if the HRTC is to be run like a commercial service, then it must be run on the same principles and its entire management requires to be totally overhauled while the corporation should be reorganised with the same objective.

He demanded that the government should take a leaf from Haryana in this matter and should reorganise the HRTC in the same manner as the government had no right to burden people by this increased transport tax of Rs 55 crore every year.

He said an army of 400 HRTC officers was eating into the vitals of the HRTC and most of its earnings were being wasted in their salaries and in their other facilities while actually only 20 officers are required to run a total owned fleet of 1,600 buses of the HRTC.

The state BSP held both the BJP and Congress responsible for the failure to control prices of essentials and said nothing effective was being done either by the Congress led Central Government or the state government.

Shimla, April 21
The Forest Department has made elaborate arrangements to prevent and control fires during the summer.

Special attention will be paid to sensitive and fire-prone areas. Fire lines have been made to prevent fire from spreading and local people are being motivated to protect forests.

Rapid response teams, armed with fire-fighting equipment, have been put in place in the fire-prone areas. Forest officials attended meetings of gram sabhas held early this month to create awareness about the fire hazards and underlined the need for community participation in combating forest fires. Pamphlets have been distributed among the functionaries of panchayati raj institutions and mahila and yuvak mandals to educate them about precautionary measures to be taken to prevent fires.

Control rooms have been set up in every forest division and forest range headquarters. The police, ITBP, district fire officers and the Army had also been requested to render assistance to the Forest Department.

The telephone numbers for various forest ranges are: Mashobra-9418452790, Bhajji-9418088022, Dhami-98160-18491, Koti-9418104229 and Tara Devi -9418107137.

Shimla, April 21
The need for bringing in professionalism in the “management of communication” was highlighted at a seminar organised to mark public relations day, here today.

Prominent speakers pointed out the advances made in the field of communication coupled with the ongoing economic liberalisation and globalisation in the system of management and dissemination of information had undergone a sea change. Managing communication had become a highly specialised job, which needed a focused and highly selective approach in respect of the content, the mode of dissemination and the target section of society.

Presiding over the seminar, director of Public Relations, J.R. Katwal, said public relations (PR) had assumed a larger role and added importance in governance. It had also made it imperative to update the skills of PR professionals to enable them to meet the emerging challenge effectively. They must be able to use the advanced tools of communication at their disposal efficiently and effectively to ensure that the message of the organisation percolate down to the masses in the right perspective.

Katwal lauded the Shimla chapter of Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) for organising such events to promote excellence in the profession as well as creating awareness about national and social issues. Such efforts would go a long way in strengthening any organisation.

Former Editor of Dainik Tribune Vijay Sehgal said with the passage of time the responsibility of PR professionals and mediapersons had changed tremendously and their roles had become supplementary and complementary to each other.

Director, Symbiosis, Ujjwal K. Chaudhary, said the management of communication was a fast growing field and at present over 3,000 trained public relations professionals were required in the country every year. However, despite 432 universities and a large number of institutes of mass communication only 1,200 to 1,300 professionals were available. It was a clear indication that something was drastically wrong with the system.

Earlier, B.D. Sharma, chairman of the Shimla chapter of PRSI, informed that the Shimla chapter had been adjudged the best chapter for 2007 by the PRSI for outstanding performance.

Nurpur, April 21
Textbooks carrying the name of B.R. Rahi, former chairman of HP Board of School Education who is facing charges, are being sold in the market for new academic session.

Rahi is facing charges for his alleged role in the issuance of a fake certificate case.

But it seems that HP board still considers Rahi as its chairman. In Kangra district, a large number of textbooks carrying Rahi’s message as chairman of the education board are being circulated.

The board used to publish these books to provide them to the students. According to information, a bulk stock of text books was printed by the board last year carrying a message by Rahi on the introductory pages of the books. — OC