Shimla, June 2
The case registered against suspended SHO Amar Singh for use of force against ABVP activists in the Himachal Pradesh University campus was today transferred to the CID branch to ensure fair investigation.

Following the magisterial inquiry against the suspended police official in the wake of a clash in the HPU on May 28, a case had been registered against Amar Singh in the Bolieauganj police station.

The case against the SHO was transferred by DGP Ashwani Kumar to the CID branch. “Since the issue pertains to the conduct of a police officer it was felt that it would be more appropriate if the CID investigates the case so that there is no scope for doubt,” said R.M. Sharma, SP.

Investigations are now likely to be entrusted to an SP or a DSP.

The incident took place in the boys hostel on the night of May 28 following a clash between SFI and ABVP students in the campus earlier during the day.

Meanwhile, the HPU campus today remained peaceful as examinations are to start on June 5. SFI and NSUI activists held demonstrations against the HPU authorities near the Telegraph Office. They alleged that students from the SFI were being implicated in false cases under pressure from ABVP leaders.

Two reserves of the police are still deployed in the university with a gazetted officer personally residing there 24 hours. The university authorities have been directed by the police to ensure strict implementation of the recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee and the High Court directives.

The HPU authorities have been told to deal sternly with anyone who violates the condition under which no dharna, slogan raising or poster writing can be done within 200 metres of the campus. 

Shimla, June 2
Using the modern geo-information technology tools and remote-sensing techniques, the state will present a three-dimensional picture of the state to seek more funds from the 13th Finance Commission for infrastructure development and public services on the basis of typical hill topography. It is also seeking a special debt-relief package to enable the state wriggle out of the debt-trap from the commission headed by Dr Vijay Kelkar scheduled to visit the state from June 6 to 9.

The 3-D geographical area of the hill state worked out by the Geo-Informatics Research Centre of the Palampur agriculture university, is 56 per cent more than the 2-D area in which the folds and undulations of mountainous terrain are not accounted for. As against the 2-D area of 55673 sq km, the 3-D area comes to 86,384.77 sq km. The exercise carried out on the request of the Planning Department has provided scientific backing to the argument of the government that cost infrastructure and public services was much higher in the hills than in the plains.

In the districts which encompass high mountain ranges the 3-D area is almost double the 2-D area. The government has submitted the districtwise data in this regard to the commission. For instance, the 3-D area of Chamba is 11674.52 sq km as compared to the 2-D area of 6,528 sq km, Kinnaur 11,762.31 sq km (2-D 6,401 sq km), Kulu 9,693.98 sq km (5,503 sq km) and Lahaul-Sipti 22,892.62 sq km (13,835 sq km). However, the difference is minimal in Una 1,569.40 sq km (1540 sq km), Hamirpur 1,146.64 sq km (1,118 sq km) and Solan 2,284.50 sq km (1,936 sq km).

The successive governments have all these years been pleading for special norms for devolution of funds on the plea that the cost of physical infrastructure and public services was higher.

The government has urged the commission to make a paradigm shift from in-resource transfers to the state to help it contain the past model of incurring high debt to meet its developmental requirements. It was all the more necessary, particularly for the 2010-15 period, as the state has to absorb the financial shock of pay revision.

The ratio of the state’s debt to the GSDP (gross state domestic product) at 63.8 per cent is one of the highest in the country. Similarly, the per capita debt is also very high at Rs 26,860. As per the projections made in the memorandum submitted to the commission the annual interest liability will more than double from Rs 1737 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 3610 crore in 2014-15. Unless the commission recommends a substantial debt-relief package to the state, debt servicing will continue to pre-empt the revenue expenditure and it will not be able to come out of the debt-trap.

Kangra, June 2
The three doctors of the RP Government Medical College, Tanda, booked by the police for allegedly ragging their juniors in the college hostel, continue to evade arrest.

SDPO, Kangra, Umapati Jamwal had a meeting with college principal Suresh Sankian today. Jamwal said the victims revealed that the accused entered the room of junior student Mukhul in the night and brought three more juniors to the same room from another floor of the hostel and thrashed them. Their screams made other juniors to flee from the hostel.

After 21 junior students lodged a complaint with the police, a case was registered under Sections 342 and 323 of the IPC and Section 3 of the Anti-Ragging Act was registered against Varun, Ashish and Pardeep.

Meanwhile, parents of around 15 students met the college principal and demanded security for their wards. They also sought strict action against the guilty.

Warden of the boys’ hostel Rajesh Sharma said the college management had decided to call parents of all students to form a parent-teacher association. Sharma said all hostel residents had been warned to behave properly. A strict vigil was being kept to avoid any such incident, he added.

Principal S.K. Sankiayan said junior students had been shifted to the “new entrants’ hostel” and the security doubled there. He said the college council had decided to expel the erring doctors. Now, it was for the police to arrest them, he added.

Mandi, June 2
Taking a serious note of the controversial royal property sale deed, the state government has expedited efforts in the direction of acquiring historic Damdama Palace, home to the presiding deity of Shivratri fair Rajmadhav temple, as residents had demanded that entire heritage property be converted into a museum along the lines of Kangra Art Museum.

A two-member expert team headed by curator, Kangra Art Museum, Ramesh Chandra, and an engineer-cum-archaeologist Naresh Thakur today took stock of Damdama Palace, Baba Kot and Hawan Kund buildings and prepared the status report which would be submitted to Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal for further action in the case.

Efforts have been initiated at the instance of none other than the Chief Minister, who have learnt to have taken a serious note of “heritage property” being sold through the alleged benami deal as major buyer of the property was Khub Ram, who worked as a waiter at Bishop Cotton School, Shimla, revealed sources.

The expert team not only inspected former royal property, but also collected revenue and historic records of Wahe Tamam buildings. It also took viewpoints of writers, artists, media and others on historic buildings, which are rotting due to lack of restoration under the nose of the government.

President, Progressive Writers’ Association, Dinu Kashyap; convener, Indian People Theatre Association, Lawan Thakur; cultural writer Dr B.L. Kapur; and president, Janvadi Writers’ Association, Murari Sharma; and others stated in writing to the high-level team that Damdama Palace and Darbar Hall buildings should be acquired by the government immediately and be converted into a museum housing all arts and crafts of Mandi district.

Curator London Museum W.G. Archer, cultural historian Rahul Sanskrityan and writer Mulk Raj Anand had visited Chandramani Museum, Mandi, in past and had praised the collection, but the arts, paintings, ancient manuscripts and artifact were rotting in the private room till today here as the government had no space to house this art, Dinu Kashyap said, who is the younger brother of the Chandramani Kashyap, the great collector of arts.

Commenting on the issue Ramesh Chandra said, “The Damdama and other related buildings qualify for heritage property and the status report on these buildings would be submitted to the government shortly for further action.”

Solang Nulla, June 2
More than 100 paragliding pilots are operating unauthorised joyrides for tourists at this “vale of adventure” here without a mandatory approval from the “technical committee” constituted for the purpose, which is yet to get its nod from the Department of Tourism and Civil Aviation.

The pilots registered with the Manali-based Indian Paragliding Association, operating here claimed that they have own experts, who check the paragliders, fitness of the pilots, wind conditions and then operate the in-tandem flights for tourists everyday.

But there are two private groups, who are operating joyrides for tourists here without checking equipment and wind condition for flying, risking life of tourists. Besides, they charge at will ranging from Rs 700 to Rs 1,000 per person depending how one bargains with them, complained tourists.

The commercial joyrides have raised the safety concern here as four major accidents have taken place in April last, involving pilots of private groups. The most fatal is landing on back, which has resulted in grievous backbone injuries in many cases, revealed sources.

The operators charge at will making fast bucks from tourists as the department has not put technical committee and sign boards listing rates for tourists. The technical committee was proposed after the hazards came to light over years after six tourists, including pilots, died during commercial paragliding here.

Even children are taking hazardous rides here which are not operated anywhere in world because of its risk to injury. “The operator charge Rs 500 per child, risking the life of children,” revealed sources.

There is no medical cover for fliers. They just fill up the declaration form and pay Rs 700 per person and take the in-tandem flight.

The individual groups are operating touts who chase tourist vehicles from Kothi and Palchan side and bargain with them. “Even certain travel agents give paragilders on rent to certain learners and get commission in return,” said pilots.

An Olympian and paragliding pilot Hira Lal said lack of proper guidelines would bring bad name to the adventure sport. “The accidents can be minimised if experts are there to regulate paragliding,” he added.

IPA president L.R. Thakur said the association had requested the administration to put the technical committee in place to regulate commercial paragliding, but it had yet to start this exercise even as the tourist season is at its peak.

District tourism officer, Manali, Kumud Singh said the department had fixed the rates at Rs 500 and Rs 600 per flight at Solang and check the flying sites ensuring safety of tourists.

Commissioner, tourism, Ram Subhag Singh said, “The department is aware about the problem. The government had approved constitution of the technical committee and will notify it shortly to regulate paragliding in the state.”

Shimla, June 2
The state government has issued guidelines for the three committees set up to inquire into the cases of irregularities in appointments made through the parent teacher association (PTA) in schools.

Education minister Ishwar Dass Dhiman informed here today that a large number of complaints regarding irregularities in the appointment of teachers who made through in schools and colleges were received and the government had asked principal secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Deepak Sanan, to enquire into such recruitments. After considering his report and court decisions, the government constituted three committees to enquire into the cases of irregularities at different levels, including college, senior secondary school, high school and middle school.

He said the notification in this regard provided that the committees would hear the affected parties and complainants after going through the records and guidelines to be framed. The government had now issued the guidelines and the committees would have to follow these strictly while dealing with such cases of appointments. The complaints by the affected parties would have to be made to the chairperson of the committee concerned on an affidavit by June 20. The committees would inquire into the submissions made in the complaints.

He said the complaints pertaining to cases in which merit was ignored, the merit would be evaluated on the basis of laid down criteria. The concerned DC would decide whether he would himself chair the committee or nominate ADC or ADM for a college or for a group of colleges. For senior secondary and high schools, he would nominate ADC, ADM or SDM for a school or for a group of schools, he added. 

Solan, June 2
With the police having virtually no record of the vehicles entering or leaving Himachal at the crucial Parwanoo barrier the anti-social elements are having a field day. While there have been a large number of cases where miscreants have dumped bodies in the district after committing crimes elsewhere. Even cases of large-scale smuggling of liquor and kerosene have come to the fore in the past one-month.

The police had earlier erected a barrier at Parwanoo but this was withdrawn sometime back as there were reports of alleged corruption for barrier postings. This has left the department with little surveillance at the barrier making it difficult to even stop vehicles in case of emergencies.

Officials in the department said there was an urgent need to put up close circuit televisions (CCTVs) to keep a tab on such anti-social elements. This would at least enable the police to have details of the vehicles entering and leaving the state so that they can be traced in case of occurrence of heinous crime.

Though a proposal to erect CCTVs had been mooted some years back where the deputy commissioner was supposed to have direct access to the view on the barrier, the project never got through.

With illicit liquor worth Rs 10.38 lakh and nearly 11,000 litres of kerosene being confiscated from Parwanoo in the past one-month the need for some monitoring mechanism was felt at the barrier. The need was also felt when the Parwanoo police failed to nab an Indica which was providing escort to an oil tanker carrying illicit kerosene after impounding the tanker near Timber Trail Resorts early this month.

With allegation of corruption rife at the barriers such an arrangement would also act as a deterrent and enable the government to keep a tab on officials.

It would help add the much-needed security to the crucial barrier, which houses the state’s gateway opined an official of the Industries Department.

Shimla, June 2
The HRTC has taken some steps to help increase the annual revenue from the courier scheme from the present Rs 12 lakh to Rs 1.13 crore.

Transport minister Kishan Kapoor today took a decision to this effect. It has now been decided that the regional managers would appoint collection and distribution agents at the rate of 15 per cent of the courier amount.

It has also been decided that a 5 per cent commission will be paid to the conductor for carrying the courier material safely from one place to another. As much as 5 per cent of the commission would also be given to the booking clerk who will collect the material from bus stands.

Also an yearly target of Rs 5 lakh for each unit except Rekong Peo and Keylong has been fixed. The target for Keylong and Rekong Peo would be Rs 4 lakh.

The rates will be depicted on display boards on all bus stands by the regional managers. The courier service will be available for all locations in Himachal, Delhi, Chandigarh, Punjab and Hardwar.

Shimla, June 2
The government has rejected the criticism that the interests of domestic power consumers had been overlooked in the latest power tariff order.

Chairman of the state electricity board Ajay Mittal said here today that the subsidy of Rs 140 provided to the domestic consumers was maximum possible as the previous government had agreed in the MoU signed with the World Bank to cap the power subsidy at the existing level.

He also made it clear that the government had no role in determining the electricity tariff. The tariff was decided by the commission which had also increased the charges of electricity for the domestic sector. No hike for domestic consumers was proposed in the tariff petition filed by board, Mittal claimed.

Mittal said with a view to reducing the burden on consumers, the government had already announced introduction of the "Atal Bijli Bachat Yojna" under which 4 CFL bulbs would be provided free of cost to all domestic consumers. The government was providing Rs 80 crore for the scheme which would help reduce power consumption and bring down energy bills despite the increased tariff.

Dharamsala, June 2
Tibetan leaders seem to have started a new campaign to seek support for their cause. A delegation of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, led by deputy speaker Dolma Gyari, met Cabinet ministers of the Indian Government and MPs during their recent visit to New Delhi.

A spokesperson of the Tibetan government-in-exile said the delegation met top politicians of 12 political parties. These included George Fernandes, L.K. Advani, Janeswar Mishra, Ajit Singh, Sharad Yadav, Buta Singh, Satyavrat Chaturvedi, Kapila Vadhasayan, Raghuvanch Prasad, prominent leaders of the Communist Party, Rahul Gandhi and many others.

“They supported our cause and expressed concern over the recent developments. Most of them have full support for the non-violent approach of Dalai Lama,” Dolma Gyari said.

Mandi, June 2
BJP media adviser Rajinder Rana today said former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s statement that party had managed to save its security in Hamirpur byelection have substantiated BJP’s claim that the Congress had lost its mass base and the people of state, particularly in Hamirpur, have doubly approved BJP’s policies and programmes.

Rana added that the Congress’ poor showing in Hamirpur byelection had also given public support to the policies being pursued by the BJP government. On Virbhadra Singh’s charge that his phone was being tapped Rana claimed that it was aimed at diverting public attention.

Nurpur, June 2
Residents of Sarnooh village in this subdivision and maternal relatives of murdered four-year-old Jakir Hussain of Ghandran village today submitted a memorandum to the state government through the local SDM, expressing anguish over police inaction in nabbing the culprits. The child was murdered about a fortnight ago.

Maternal grandfather of the child Vashir Ahmad along with family members and villagers submitted the memorandum, demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.