Shimla, April 23
Anurag Thakur, son of Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal, will be the BJP’s candidate for the Hamirpur parliamentary byelection, due on May 22.

The state Election Committee of the BJP unanimously approved the name of Anurag at its meeting held in Chandigarh today.

Now, approval by the high command is a mere formality after which Anurag will make his electoral debut.

Meanwhile, with the HPCC receiving only one application for seeking the party ticket for the Hamirpur Lok Sabha byelection, the party is considering fielding a sitting MLA so that it can put up a formidable fight.

Senior Congress leaders will hold a meeting with the in charge of party affairs in Himachal, R.K. Dhawan, at Delhi on April 26 to finalise the name and forward it to AICC chief Sonia Gandhi for approval. PCC chief Viplove Thkaur, former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and CLP leader Vidya Stokes will attend the meeting.

The PCC has asked those keen to contest to apply by April 24. So far only Ranjit Singh Verma, a former MLA, has applied for the ticket.

With the chances of a Congress win in the byelection being bleak, the party feels that it had nothing to lose in case it fields a sitting MLA. As per the feedback taken from meeting of office-bearers and party workers from Hamirpur, Una, Bilaspur and three assembly segments of Kangra held here two days back, it is felt that the candidate should be from Hamirpur, preferably a sitting MLA.

Party office-bearers pointed out that since the BJP had a thumping lead of over 62,000 from Hamirpur district itself, this time the party should field a candidate from the home district of the chief minister. The lead taken by Prem Kumar Dhumal during the Hamirpur Lok Sabha byelection from Una, Bilaspur and three segments of Kangra was merely 22,000.

Senior party leaders are also of the opinion that by fielding a candidate who has already lost the assembly elections or some other lightweight, a signal will go that the Congress has already conceded defeat. “The Hamirpur seat has traditionally been a BJP stronghold so the stakes are not too high for the Congress, yet we will field a strong candidate who can win,” said Kuldeep Rathore, HPCC spokesperson and general secretary.

With chances of Chief Minister’s son Anurag being fielded by the BJP, it is being felt that the Congress should give the ticket to a young face from Hamirpur so that the contest is tough and not a cakewalk for the ruling party. The name of state Youth Congress chief and sitting MLA Sukhwinder Sukhu is doing the rounds.

It is being felt that Sukhu would be an ideal candidate as he managed to register a win even in the assembly election from Nadaun despite Hamirpur being the home district of Dhumal. The other possible candidates could be Mukesh Agnihotri from Santokhgarh, O.P. Ratan from Una Sadar and Ranjit Singh Verma from Bamsan in Hamirpur.

Palampur, April 23
Vehicular traffic on the Palampur- Hamirpur state highway remained suspended for three hours today as hundreds of villagers staged a dharna on the highway at Alampur, 30 km from here, in protest against the alleged highhandedness of the Lamabagaon police and illegal detention of Roshan Lal, a resident of Alampur.

It is learnt that Paras Ram and his son, Bhavan Kumar, had beaten up Roshan Lal on Monday when he was on his way to Jaisinghpur. Roshan Lal, who received serious injuries, lodged a complaint in Lambagaon police station against the culprits. Instead of arresting the culprits, the police registered a case against Roshan Lal and his son and lodged them in the lock-up. Later, a few villagers along with women went to the police station and asked the SHO to initiate action against the culprits and release Roshan Lal. It is alleged that policemen on duty abused the women and threatened them with dire consequences. They were forced to leave the police station.

Later, hundreds of villagers came out on the state highway, blocked vehicular traffic and demanded action against the Lambagaon SHO.

They also shouted slogans against the police. Palampur DSP Dinesh Sharma reached the spot and persuaded the villagers to lift the traffic blockade. He assured the villagers that stern action would be initiated against the erring policemen. The Kangra SSP has ordered a probe into the incident.

Shimla, April 23
Transport minister Kishan Kapoor said today that efforts would be made for setting up of transport towns at Barmana (Bilaspur) and Baddi (Solan) at the earliest.

Presiding over a meeting of officers of the Transport, Town and Country Planning and Housing Board Departments here today, he said the process for identification of land for the transport towns should be initiated at the earliest. “Almost 50 bighas of land would be required for the setting up of transport towns so that all possible facilities can be provided to drivers, vehicle owners and travellers,” he said. Workshops for vehicles and spare parts shops would also be set up there.

Kapoor said dormitories would be made to provide facilities to drivers. Besides, dhabas, restaurants, toilets, banks and petrol pumps would be set up there.

The minister said with the coming up of the two transport towns, the problem of parking would be solved to a great extent. “This will go a long way in decongesting traffic on the main national highways,” he said. He assured that the aspect of environment protection would be taken into consideration while constructing these towns.

Rajinder Singh, Director Transport and Amit Kashyap, Secretary, State Transport Authority, were also present.

Shimla, April 23
There has been a continuous increase in the temperature in the “Queen of Hills’ with the mercury being almost 5°C higher than normal for this time of the year.

The maximum temperature in the capital today touched 26.1°C while the minimum hovered at 16.3°C.

According to the local Meteorological Department, the increase in temperature is likely to continue over the next few days. “The western disturbances, though placed directly over Himachal, have not been able to check the increase in temperature as it is too weak to cause rain or clouds,” said Met officials. They said the weak WD was unlikely to have any kind of impact on the weather conditions in Himachal.

The temperatures in other parts of the state also recorded a sharp increase. The maximum temperature in Una was recorded at 40°C while Dalhousie touched 26°C, five degrees higher than normal. The maximum temperature in Kalpa was 22°C while the minimum rose to 5°C.

With the mercury soaring in the plains, the inflow of tourists to the hill town has increased. Most of the hotels of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) and private units have good occupancy.

Nurpur, April 23
Subash Chand of Sadwan village near here has urged Chief Minster P.K. Dhumal to order a probe into the mysterious death of his son, Praveen Kumar, whose body was found near Sariri village on March 28.

He submitted a letter to Dhumal in this regard today.

He has mentioned in the letter that his son was an LIC agent. On March 22, he went to Bharmour for collecting LIC premium from policyholders. On March 31, he got information that Praveen’s body was found near Sariri village. Next day, he received the body from the Chamba police along with his mobile phone and a bag. He said the premium collected by Praveen, his diary and LIC documents were missing.

He suspected that his son had been killed under a conspiracy allegedly hatched by another LIC agent working in the Bharmour area.

He said the suspect had threatened Praveen with dire consequences if visited his area in connection with LIC business. Urging the CM to order an independent probe into the suspected murder of his son, he has also demanded culprits’ arrest.

Sundernagar, April 23
The police today registered an FIR in connection with the controversial purchase of a dredger worth Rs 10 crore by the BBMB last year. The issue was highlighted by The Tribune in its issue of September 23, 2007, (Row over BBMB Dredger Deal).

According to Mandi SP M. Chandra Sekhar, he had marked an investigation into the issue on September 29. Records as regards the deal were sought from the BBMB but the officials did not cooperate. Letters were written to the BBMB on October 3, 25, November 1 last year and on April 19, 2008, in that regard, he added.

Meanwhile, the police gathered documents from various sources and arrived at the conclusion that loss was caused to the BBMB while ordering dredger from the IHC, Holland. It was also found that the original records at one of the offices of the BBMB had been tempered with and various other offices had tried to conceal the truth.

As per the investigation carried out by the police, a prima facie case was made out and hence an FIR (No 174/08) was lodged under Sections 420, 467, 471, 202 and 120-B of the IPC today, he added.

As per the Environment Management Plan, the BBMB had to purchase a dredger to speed up dredging in the balancing reservoir. A purchase committee was constituted. The six-member committee was headed by the chief engineer, BBMB, Sundernagar. The additional SE, electrical and workshop division, BBMB, was the secretary of the committee.

It was later on alleged that the committee report was changed at one of the offices and acting on the tempered report, an order to purchase the dredger was placed with the IHC, Holland. M/S Startek and M/S Bharti Shipyards were the other two bidders.

Solan, April 23
Acceding to the long pending demand of giving the employees of Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, a second option to switch over to the GPF-cum-gratuity scheme from the existing CPF scheme vice-chancellor Dr K.R. Dhiman said today that he would soon take up the matter with the state Finance Department.

Talking to The Tribune at Nauni he said he was seized of the crucial issue, which was affecting nearly 100 employees of the university. The employees had been demanding a second option to avail this scheme on the analogy of the two other universities in the state, which had already introduced this scheme. The university employees were given an opportunity to exercise their option to opt for either the GPF-cum-gratuity scheme or to continue in the CPF-cum-gratuity scheme in 1997, but majority failed to avail its benefits due to ignorance.

Dhiman asserted that he had already perused the issue and he would pursue it to ensure that employees get its benefits.

Addressing mediapersons for the first time after assuming charge as the VC he spelt out his priorities and said they would soon prepare a perspective plan so as to prioritise their research and developmental activities.

In a reply to question the VC assured that once a new variety was released the farmers would get seeds within a period of four years. He said it was a matter of concern that the technological adoption was a low 10 to 15 per cent. It is worth mentioning that though the university had been priding itself to release new varieties of high yielding tomatoes for the past several years but its seeds were yet to reach a farmer.

Director Research Dr D.R. Sharma added that a mega seed project worth Rs 2.57 crore had been sanctioned for the university and it was aimed at bridging this gap between the lab and the farm.

Solan, April 23
In a bid to undo the error of appointing the same official as a drug licensing authority as well as a drug inspector the Health Department has now separated the two. The change was brought about after The Tribune highlighted the issue, whereby, it was stated that the licensing authority’s functioning as a drug inspector was a violation of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.

Battling staff shortage the department has however ended up issuing two notifications each superseding the other in a fortnight’s span to undo their earlier error. The notification had failed to bring about a rational distribution of work and has rather ended up burdening the field staff.

While, the first notification was issued on April 1 had entrusted the drug inspector (DI) posted at Bilaspur the job of looking after almost six of the total 12 districts. A subsequent notification issued as a corrigendum to the first one reduced this workload to four districts. The two districts of Una and Sirmaur were deleted later as they already have separate drug inspectors.

According to the April 5 notification, the Bilaspur DI was supposed to look after almost half of Himachal with Sirmaur, Bilaspur, Shimla, Kinnaur, Una as well as Solan. This area was earlier under the purview of the licensing authority at Shimla who had been directed to act as the drug inspector for these districts as per the March 12 notification.

Though the government had been talking of restructuring the department so as to facilitate the investors was left wondering how a lone official would handle almost five districts. There was a dire need to appoint more drug inspectors so that each district could be handled by at least one officer opined officials in the district. An official was suppose to conduct routine inspections of wholesale and retail counters as well as inspect manufacturing units on a regular basis. How a lone official could look after a wide area spreading from Kinnaur to Solan was not understood.

The DI’s rued that with virtually no support staff they had to tend to the clerical work as well and they were overburdened. Illustrating their point they said a state like Punjab had appointed 14 new drug inspectors so as to facilitate the industry there while here the old staff of 10 DIs, including a suspended official, continued to handle the emerging pharmaceutical hub of the country.

Shimla, April 23
In order to provide high-tech facilities to patients and reduce the burden on the intensive care unit (ICU), high-dependency beds will be installed in the main units at the IGMC here.

Patients in the main units like medicine, surgery, paediatrics and casualty will get life-support system in the wards itself. Costing around Rs 10 lakh each, these beds will have facilities like ventilator, monitor etc. To begin with, the hospital will acquire about 12 such beds. Very few government medical institutes in the region have this facility.

“These beds will help in the reducing burden on the ICUs and provide critical care to many patients unable to get a place in the ICU,” said senior medical superintendent S.S. Manhas.

The hospital has 763 beds although the sanctioned strength is 661 only.

Manhas said efforts were being made to provide the best possible services to the people. He said the functioning of some of the departments of the GMCH, Chandigarh, would be followed to improve facilities at the IGMC.

Shimla, April 23
The Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) will be organising a week-long food festival from May 1 here, as tourists have begun thronging the various hill resorts following steady rise in temperature in the plains.

The capital town, has a slight edge over the world-famous tourist resort, Manali, drawing maximum crowd of foreign and domestic tourists in the state.

“We have occupancy over 60 per cent at present and this is expected to touch 100 per cent in the coming week of May. We are getting bookings from across the country majority of which came from the metropolitan cities,” revealed R.C. Gupta, general-manager, HPTDC.

“We plan to organise food festival in Shimla and other tourist locations, especially for pleasure of tourists. This year the seven-day long food festival will start from May 1 and the ‘Kashmiri’ cuisine would be available for visitors to savour at Hotel Holiday Home,” he added. The private hotels across the town are also witnessing packed houses. — UNI

Palampur, April 23
The sale of medicines manufactured by standard companies in Kangra district has shown a fall of 25 per cent in the past few years. This is due to the fact that medical officers posted in the state government-owned hospital here had stopped prescribing them because such companies do not provide any incentives to the doctors.

Despite the fact that the medicines of standard companies are much cheaper, medical officers do not prescribe these medicines.

The Tribune had published a news item pertaining to the sale of medicines and the role of medical officers in Kangra district recently. More facts have come to light with regard to prices of standard companies and companies patronised by medical officers here.

Antibiotic Advent-625 of a standard company (Cipla) has an MRP of Rs 170 for six tablets but six tablets of the same salt by another company which is being prescribed by doctors here, known as Advellen, carries an MRP of Rs 340. Similarly, six tablets of Taraclave come at an MRP of Rs 340.

Moxiplus-CB, being prescribed by the doctors here, is priced at Rs 350 while a six-tablet pack of Marcin-625 is available for Rs 260.

While a 10-tablet pack of antibiotic Top Ceff-200 is available for Rs 99, doctors here are prescribing M-Fix-200 whose ten pills cost Rs 250.

In case of injections, the situation is worse. Mankind CB, Cipla Advent and Ranbaxy Oframax, antibiotics made by standard companies Mankind Pharma, Cipla and Ranbaxy respectively, are priced at Rs 120, Rs 130 and Rs 74. The injections which doctors here patronise are costlier - Documentin is for Rs 198, Moxiplus for Rs 170 and Monic for Rs 169.

Patients here are also cheated by doctors while recommending tonics. A Cadla product Him Up and Alembic product Ferisis are available for Rs 58 and Rs 64 respectively but no doctors prescribe it. Doctors recommend Lycod for Rs 127 and M-Clod for Rs 145.

A number of patients outside the civil hospital told The Tribune today that the recommended medicines had little effect. A wife of senior officer said that she had been told to take certain tonics by the doctors for three months to gain haemoglobin. Even after three months, her haemoglobin has remained the same.

It is also alleged that whenever there is a surgery in the hospitals, patients are asked to buy medicines as per the list supplied by the doctors and staff. Half of the medicines are left unused after the surgery in the operation theatre.

Many doctors, who also indulge in private practice against service rules, carry these medicines to their private clinics and sell them to their patients.

Kangra, April 23
Resentment prevails among the educationists of the state against the previous government headed by Virbhadra Singh for granting permission under SCVT to 257 private institutions to train 19,800 candidates in 16 trades without framing recruitment and promotion rules for these trained youths and for diluting the training conditions of these courses which has lowered down the standard of the technical education in the state.

This was disclosed by Dr R.D. Sharma, president Himachal Pradesh Educational Consultant Forum and former deputy director of Education here today while talking to The Tribune. Dr Sharma alleged that the state government by this decision had simply safeguarded the ‘monetary interests’ of these private institutions and ignored the interests of the technical education in the state.

He lambasted the previous government saying that it can’t escape from the responsibility by merely saying that it had written to the Directorate of Technical Education for framing R&P rules but due to the proclamation of elections in the state it could not be implemented.

Sharma deplored the government decision to lower down the educational qualification for the second batch of the pharmacist courses from class XII Science to Class XII Arts. Around 40 candidates for the pharmacist courses were admitted in 57 institutes without acceptable necessary qualifications of class XII Science thus after qualifying with class XII Arts these pharmacists were not acceptable to other states.