Shimla, May 14
Senior officers responsible for the large-scale irregularities in the 126-MW Larji project may finally be held accountable for their acts of commission and omissions which led to huge time and cost overruns in its execution. The state electricity board, which has been dithering on the issue of pinpointing responsibility for the past three years, has left the matter to the State Regulatory Commission.

The commission had instituted an independent probe after the board failed to conduct an inquiry as per its direction.

The two-member expert panel, comprising former BBMB chairman R.N. Aggrawal and former Thein Dam general manager C.L.Aggrawal, had uncovered large-scale irregularities in execution of the project and indicted the management of the board for the lapses. It had held the chairman, members and the chief engineers concerned responsible for the high cost and recommended action after fixing the responsibility.

The board had challenged the commission’s right to conduct an inquiry in the high court and contested the case right up to the appellate tribunal and the apex court. It gave a commitment to the court that it would conduct its own inquiry which will also take into account the findings of the independent probe and take action against the guilty. However, it kept sitting over the matter. Now it has informed the commission that it was not in a position to pinpoint the officers responsible for the lapses and urged the commission to carry out the exercise.

The commission will now appoint its own committee to fix responsibility which may finally bring the erring officers to book. The commission had already rejected the cost of Rs 1293 crore filed by the board for determination of tariff for the Larji project and gone by the cost of Rs 960 crore worked out by the independent probe panel, maintaining that the consumers could not be penalised for the inefficiency of the board.

The inquiry committee had also, prima facie, found evidence of large payments to contractors on “non-competitive” rates under extraneous pressures and circumstances and recommended a further vigilance probe by an independent investigating agency. A case has already been registered in this regard.

Shimla, May 14
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has started probing the allegations levelled in the BJP chargesheet against four senior ministers in the Congress regime.

The ministers in the hit list of the BJP include former tourism and transport minister G.S. Bali, former IPH minister Kaul Singh Thakur, former industries minister Kuldeep Kumar and ex-forest minister Ram Lal Thakur.

The Vigilance Bureau is already investigating allegations of disproportionate assets against former civil supplies minister Singhi Ram, who has been in a lot of trouble due to the forged marksheet involving his daughter. A case has also been registered against him under Section 420, IPC.

In the latest development the Vigilance Bureau has sought the entire record pertaining to recruitment of conductors during the Congress regime from the HRTC. The chargesheet which was handed over to the Governor while the BJP was in opposition has been made the basis of the inquiry against Bali.

The Vigilance Bureau has sought these details from the MD, chief general manager and the administrative officer of the HRTC. It is alleged that about 90 persons from Nagrota Bagwan, the home constituency of Bali, and over 40 from Rohru, the segment represented by the then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, got the jobs as conductors.

“We have simply handed over the chargesheet to the Vigilance Bureau and it is they who will undertake the fact finding mission to ascertain if there is any truth in the allegations,” said senior officials who were tight lipped about the issue. Other allegations in the BJP chargesheet levelled against Bali pertained with regard to the setting up of the Himalayan Ski Village, construction of bus stands at some places in the state and the holding of the Mumbai musical blast.

The other minister who could be at the receiving end is sitting MLA and former irrigation minister Kaul Singh Thakur. The Vigilance Bureau is also collecting information with regard to the firms given undue benefits by the Irrigation Department. The Vigilance Bureau has already registered an FIR in the Drabla road construction case work on which was undertaken by the IPH Department.

The other two ministers facing the Vigilance probe are Kuldeep Kumar and Ram Lal Thakur. As per the BJP chargesheet there are allegations against Kumar with regard to sale of industrial plots in the Baddi-Barotiwala industrial area.

The Vigilance Bureau is looking into allegations against former forest minister Ram Lal Thakur that he had favoured certain firms in granting licences for converting steel scrap into iron ore.

Shimla, May 14
The Centre has sanctioned additional assistance of Rs 201 crore under the Calamity Relief Fund to compensate the state as a long-term measure for the losses incurred due to floods last year, revenue minister Gulab Singh said addressing a meeting of officers of the Revenue Department here today. As most of the population residing in villages was dependent upon agriculture, land was the most important natural resource after water. It was essential to ensure proper management of both land and water. He directed the field officers to hold regular revenue camps in order to dispose of cases related to various revenue matters.

The minister said that a three-month long special campaign would be launched for clearing cases of mutation. A special date should be fixed for the purpose. He directed the officers to ensure completion of land ownership transfer formality within 15 days in the case of death of the landowner. He stressed the need for an effective policy for simplifying the process for partition of land.

The cases of demarcation should be settled within three months and the district collectors concerned should monitor the land records regularly. Himachal was the first state to adopt land reforms. He directed officers to settle pending cases of land consolidation at the earliest.

A land evaluation committee should be constituted at the district level under the chairmanship of the deputy commissioner concerned for proper evaluation of land and to check evasion of stamp duty.

The minister stressed that relief and rehabilitation packages for the families affected by the construction of various industrial and hydroelectric projects should be finalised before the start of work. 

Hamirpur, May 14
Former Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha member Shanta Kumar has accused the UPA government of failing to control the prices.

Addressing public meetings at Bhumpal, Jol Sappar and Dhaneta today to canvass support for Anurag Thakur, he said “I fail to understand how state governments can check prices when the demand and supply of essential items are looked after by the central government.”

He said “the NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee had not only maintained a smooth flow of essential items but also controlled prices, besides providing free and cheap ration to the weaker sections of society.”

The BJP leader said “while the UPA government has failed to maintain the balance between demand and supply it has not acted against hoarders and unscrupulous traders.”

He criticised the UPA government “for allowing MNCs in the trade of grains which has added to their profits but cheated the poor.”

Shanta Kumar also blamed the UPA government for abolishing POTA and failing to check terrorist activities owing to the lack of law to control such activities.

Hamirpur, May 14
Congress candidate for Hamirpur byelection O.P. Rattan continued his attack against the BJP while campaigning in the Bamsan and Mewa constituencies of Hamirpur district today.

He addressed a series of election rallies at Sher Swahad, Jatwad, Chamned, Amned, Nehal, and Tahl etc. Taking a dig at the BJP, he said, “The state government had come to power on the promise of changing the living condition of the people and it has done so within four months by increasing bus fare and reducing PDS ration.”

“The schools are facing shortage of teachers and the Hamirpur district hospital does not have adequate number of doctors,” he said.

“The simmering discontent in the BJP would lead to the fall of the state government before completing its full term of five years,” he claimed.

Shimla, May14
The state government has urged the Centre to set up a regional centre for glacier studies and strengthen the meteorological network to deal with problems like floods, cloudbursts and other natural calamities that have been becoming a recurring phenomenon in the environmentally fragile hill state.

The issue was raised by minister for environment and scientific technologies J.P. Nadda at a session regarding upgrading and strengthening of the science and technology infrastructure in the state. The session was chaired by Union minister of science and technology Kapil Sibal in New Delhi yesterday.

Principal secretary Harinder Hira and director (environment and scientific technologies) Nagin Nanda also participated in the deliberations. Nadda said the states had meagre resources, but an added responsibility of protecting the fragile hill ecology.

He said climate change due to global warming was already beginning to have a major impact on the world economy. In the long run, it could even threaten the very existence of human life on the earth. Mountainous ecosystems were very sensitive to such climate changes. Melting glaciers, depleting water resources, decline in winter precipitation, change in tree line, shifting agriculture and horticulture species and extreme weather events were clear indicators of that, he added.

He said there was a strong case for opening a centre for glacier studies in Himachal Pradesh. Besides, the meteorological network also required strengthening by installing Doppler radars and putting in place an early warning and weather forecasting system.

Nadda said that the Union secretary appreciated the concerns of the state and assured that one of the three regional centres being planned in the country would be located in Himachal Pradesh and wanted the state to make a suitable site available for the purpose.

He also agreed to establish forewarnings and forecasting system along with Doppler radars and said “thematic specific vision groups” would be constituted in one month to draw a science and technology action plan for the state.

Shimla, May 14
In view of the Jaipur serial blasts, the police has sounded an alert and stepped up vigil along the border of the state.

A high-level meeting of senior police officials was held to assess the situation and review the security arrangements and ensure that there was no law and order problem.

ADGP (law and order) K.S. Ran said all security agencies, including the police, had been asked to be on the alert to ensure that no untoward incident took place. He added that vigil was already being maintained along the Chamba border that Himachal shares with Jammu and Kashmir.

Though there has been no militancy related incident in the state, but as a precautionary measure an alert has been sounded. The vigil along the Chamba border has been stepped up recently following reports that various militant outfits will try to create trouble and the possibility of increase in infiltration was higher in view of elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

KANGRA: Kangra ASP Preetam Singh Thakur today said high alert had been sounded to all SHOs and security tightened at Kangra Airport in Gaggal, Baglamukhi temple at Bankhandiin Dehra, local Bajjreshwari temple, Chamunda Devi and Jawalamukhi temples in the district. He said checking had been intensified at the entry points and intelligence agencies too had been geared up to keep a watch on the undesirable elements and their movements.

Shimla, May 14
A whopping Rs 7,000 crore of defence money pertaining to stores and equipment remains unaccounted for, prompting the Director-General of Defence Audit (DGDA) to call for a thorough scrutiny of defence accounts.

"This is a huge sum which has accumulated over the years," B.B. Pandit, DGDA, said. The instances of the "missing" money is related to cases where vouchers on which stores were brought on charge by military establishments could not be linked with the relevant issue vouchers and invoices, or cases where credits for stores could not be verified in the ledgers of the consignees.

This implies that while stores were moved from depots to various recipients, accounting documents do not support the movement or receipt of the goods. "As far as audit is concerned, the equipment or the money is missing unless it is accounted for in documents," a senior officer said.

The stores in question include food and rations, petroleum products, vehicles and associated spares, ordnance equipment and clothing, medical supplies, building stores, aviation components and other equipment disseminated regularly through the logistics supply chain.

Among instances compiled by the CAG are 12,071 vouchers amounting to Rs 3,118 crore which are outstanding because the credit for stores could not be verified. The oldest of such vouchers pertained to 1966-67.

Further, credit for imported stores and equipment valued at about Rs 1,742 crore could not be verified in the ledgers of certain depots of the three services as certified receipt vouchers concerning 696 specification certificates of quality were not made available for internal audit.

As many as 1,247 cases of losses involving Rs 1,764 crore are awaiting regularisation by the government. These are cases where the amounts involved are substantial enough to require sanction of the central government or the Defence Ministry. These include 744 cases of the Army, 205 of the Navy and 93 of the IAF and 205 of the ordnance factories. The cases of ordnance factories include 87 cases of losses exceeding the authorised percentage of rejection in production.

Solan, May 14
The delay in notifying enhanced wages by the state government has led to a spurt in industrial disputes. Strikes have become the order of the day in various industrial areas.

In the latest incident, workers of Cipla Pharmaceuticals, supported by the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), struck work in support of their demand near Malpur village. President of the sangh Mela Ram Chandel said the unit management had failed to provide PF number or even an attendance register to the staff. Hundreds of employees employed through contractors had not been issued identity cards, he added.

Earlier the workers of Euro Solo unit and Lenovo had also gone on strike in support of their demands.

Raising slogans outside gate of the Cipla unit, labourers were seen flaying the management attitude as they continued to stay away from work for the second day today.

The unit management, however, asserted that the main issue was enhancement of minimum wages as announced by the new government. They said they were already paying more than the prevailing rates and would pay as per the new rates once these were notified. No worker was being allowed to enter the unit. Even those desirous of joining the duty were kept away, the management claimed. The SP had been informed about this attitude of the union, but no relief had come forth so far. Even the Labour Department had failed to initiate any action in the matter, rued the management.

The CM had announced wage enhancement soon after assuming power. The workers have been eagerly awaiting the implementation of that announcement. A draft notification was issued on January 30 and objections were invited over the next two months. A board was constituted on April 5 and a meeting was convened on April 11 to finalise the issue. But formal notification could not be issued due to the sudden announcement of Hamirpur byelection.

The government has announced that the new wages would come into effect from January 1. Being the first-ever around 40 per cent hike in wages, the delay in notification is causing unrest among the workers. This was more so since some units had already implemented it without waiting for the notification.

Shimla, May 14
The government has decided to purchase cartons directly from manufacturers to help provide quality packing material to fruit growers at reasonable rates.

This was stated by horticulture minister Narender Bragta at a meeting held to review activities of the HPMC, Agro Industries and Agro Packaging Corporations here today. He said the decision had been taken to ensure sufficient availability of cartons to fruit growers. He said the HPMC was being strengthened and facilities like modern packaging and grading houses and cold storage were being provided.

In the first phase of modernisation, five packaging grading houses at Gumma, Rohru, Jadol-Tikkar, Odi and Patalikuhal were being strengthened. The HPMC had a distinct identity in the country and its products were in demand in the country and abroad. Maintaining quality of products was very important and all-out efforts would be made for that purpose, he said.

The minister also reviewed activities of the Agro Industries Corporation. He said 21 trading units of the corporation had earned a dividend of Rs 3.83 lakh during the previous two years. He directed officials to diversify commercial activities to pull the loss-incurring units out of the red. Bragta assured that the government would consider conversion of loan advanced to the corporation into equity, waiving of interest thereon and allowing 5 per cent handling charges on bitumen.

Principal secretary, horticulture, P.C. Kapur stressed the need to make public-sector undertakings economically self-reliant.

Bilaspur, May 14
The Forest Department here in district has held one village woman responsible for starting a huge fire at adjoining government forest in Kalol forest range as she failed to control the fire that she had started earlier.

Chanchlo Devi of Kadoh Ghat village had allegedly started a fire in her grassland, but this fire went out of control due to sudden summer winds. It spread over to the adjoining forest of Kadoh and Jadhoo, resulting in loss of government property worth Rs 50,000. Forest officials and villagers later controlled the fire.

Forest range officer Madan Lal and block officer Bansi Ram Dhiman said a case had been registered against Chanchlo Devi and the police was investigating the matter.

Dalhousie, May 14
The Youth Hostel, Dalhousie, has been providing stay and other services to students of different states who come to Dalhousie on excursion or study tours. From today, free Internet facility will also available to laptop users coming to stay here.

Warden S. Simon said it would be the first government youth hostel in India to provide free ‘WI-FI’ facility to hostellers. The hostel was among the very few youth hostels in India to meet the minimum international standards, he claimed. Vikrant Mahajan, director of Satyam Infocreations, Dalhousie, inaugurated the service.

Ross Tinsley, a teacher from Ireland who is on a five-month tour to India and is presently staying at this hostel, was the first to use the facility.

Dharamsala, May 14
Being harassed by unidentified callers for the past two months, the Fire Service Department of Dharamsala is crying for help. “The unidentified callers ring at 101 toll-free number and start using vituperative language against us. We tried to avoid these calls by hanging up, but the adamant callers are not giving up,” a firemen at Dharamsala said.

“The unidentified callers are interfering in emergency services of the department. In summers, there are frequent fire outbreaks in the hilly areas. However, as the emergency numbers remain busy due to frequent calls by these callers, it deprives the department of vital information regarding the fire outbreaks,” he added.

The firemen on duty alleged that many times the fake callers had tried to give them false information regarding fire outbreaks. After few such incidents, they were now being forced to spend some time in crosschecking the information from the reported area, rather than immediately reacting to the emergency call.

He said they made a complaint regarding these unidentified callers to the local police and their higher authorities to nab the culprits. They had also installed caller identity equipments at the fire office. The numbers of unidentified callers had been passed to the police. 

Nurpur, May 14
The municipal council has passed a number of resolutions aiming at the development of the town. A meeting of the MC was convened here today. It was presided over by its president R.K. Mahajan. One of the resolutions approved the construction of houses in ward number 5 and 7 for the poor residents under the integrated housing slum development project of the Union urban development department.

Demands for constructing a bus stand in the town and a railway ticket counter at the Nurpur road would be taken up with the state government, the union railway minister and MP from the Kangra parliamentary constituency, he said.

The MC also decided to take legal action against the defaulters who were not paying their house tax.

Nahan, May 14
A labourer has been buried alive under the debris of a retaining wall that fell on him. The deceased, Ajay Thakur (35), was engaged in the construction of a house near I.T.I. on Nahan - Shimla road. His body could be recovered after continuous efforts of two hours from the bottom of a heap of debris on Monday evening.

He was rushed to the district hospital where he was declared dead.

A case has been registered in this connection.