Shimla, June 6
Beside seeking an environment protection grant of Rs 10,523 crore for preserving the green cover, Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal made a strong plea before the 13th Finance Commission for allowing the state to impose a cess on power generated in the state which had been denied its legitimate share in the inter-state power projects. He urged the commission to provide Rs 69,377 crore to the state for meeting the revenue deficit for the 2010-15 period and implementing some special-purpose projects.

Presenting the state’s case for a higher devolution before the commission headed by Dr Vijay Kelkar, which arrived here today on a three-day visit to the state, Dhumal said under Article 288(2) of the Indian Constitution such a tax could be levied by a state government with consent of the President of India and Dr Rangarajan Committee had also recommended it to help solve the problems of the special-category states. He said the state could raise Rs 250 crore annually if a cess of 10 paise per unit was imposed.

He urged the commission not to mechanically use the per capita income as a proxy for determining the prosperity or revenue potential of the state. Instead, it should rather examine the structure of the economy, decompose the components of economic growth, look at the rural-urban composition of the population, remoteness of markets and the credit -eposit ratio before coming to any conclusion.

Himachal had been dependent on central transfers, ranging from 60 to 71 per cent and its own resources increased for the 2003-07 period at a compound growth rate of 17 per cent, which demonstrated the state’s commitment to generating own resources. The non-tax revenue shot up from Rs 175 crore (4.78 per cent of the total receipts) to Rs 1337 crore and now comprised 17 per cent of the revenue receipts.

He said the share of all states needed to be increased to 70 per cent of the divisible pool out of which 50 per cent should be earmarked for the states, including all surcharges, and increase the state’s share in horizontal transfer to 2 per cent. He said that the state’s revenue for 2010-2015 was projected to at 11.57 per cent per annum and the revenue expenditure at 9.02 per cent per annum over the base year of 2010-11.

He urged the commission to recommend doubling the size of the Natural Calamity Relief Fund for special-category states as a 100 per cent central grant.

Vijay Kelkar complimented the state for its outstanding performance on the human development front that fostered inclusive growth, better literacy and infant mortality rates, rapid strides in girl education and successful introduction of VAT. 

Solan, June 6
The state Finance Corporation has served a notice to Sohan Lal, brother of former Congress minister for civil supplies, for default in depositing regular loan instalments.

Sources confirmed that Sohan Lal, who had availed about Rs 20 lakh loan in 2006 in lieu of his corrugated boxes unit located in Sector 5 at Parwanoo, had failed to deposit regular loan instalments and the outstanding amount had amassed in lakhs.

The corporation while tightening its noose had now issued him a notice to repay the outstanding amount or face take over of his unit by June 16.

Sohan Lal had been running his unit, Bhima Industries, from an industrial shed in Sector 5 at Parwanoo. It was learnt that though the shed had been allotted a number of years ago the unit had been set up after the 2003 Central Industrial Package. It may be mentioned that Singhi Ram is already facing a Vigilance inquiry for presenting a fake class XII mark sheet for his daughter and now the noose was being tightened against his brother.

Shimla, June 6
Notices seeking payments up to Rs 1.50 lakh each from over 1,500 house owners of sectors 3 and 4 in New Shimla by the Himachal Pradesh Urban Development Authority (Himuda) has led to a lot of resentment among residents.

It was about 10 days back that the residents started receiving notices from Himuda that the one-time payment must be made within a month failing which a penal interest of 15 per cent would be charged. The payment has been sought by Himuda in lieu of the compensation awarded by the High Court to the original landowners. The amount to be paid would be Rs 613 per sq mt. Those owning the bigger size-D plots measuring 250 sq mts could have to pay up to over Rs 1.50 lakh while flat owners would have to pay a lower amount.

The Residents Welfare Association of Sectors II and III along with a few house owners of Sector II taken up the matter with the authorities concerned. The residents rue that though as per the lease deed signed by them they are liable to pay money for any compensation awarded in future the amount being demanded was too exorbitant.

“This decision of Himuda is illegal, unethical and highly objectionable since not only are we being asked to pay huge sums in one go but even the ground rent has been doubled and the value of plots increased by 30 per cent,” explained Dr Kuldeep Maria, president of the Sector IV Residents Welfare Association. The residents had brought the matter to the notice of the CEO of Himuda and the minister concerned.

Residents to claim that Himudahas failed to provide the facilities promised when the plots were given to them and now more money was being demanded. “We are willing to pay the amount but Himuda should explain to us the basis on which the magical figure of Rs 613 per sq mt has been worked out as it is too high” the residents demand. They complain that even the green areas that were to function as lungs have been converted into plots and sold off. Even other facilities like parking,and proper roads have not been provided.

The residents demanded that Himuda should take a fresh look into the matter and stay the execution of the notices. The residents plan to move the court if they fail to get relief.

Nurpur, June 6
Residents of Khazian village of Khel gram panchayat on the Pathankot-Mandi National Highway are living under constant fear of havoc of torrential rains and cloudburst coming after a few weeks. They witnessed the havoc played by cloudburst, which hit on August 9 last year. They have not forgotten that calamity which had damaged about six houses along with their belongings. Big boulders along with rubbles had dashed their houses.

According to Ashwani Kumar, president of local yuvak mandal and the worst sufferer of the cloudburst, the affected families had been given only Rs 20,000 each by the then government as immediate relief but nothing had been done to protect their land as well as house holdings by the government. He in his tears revealed that his father could not tolerate unprecedented loss occurred due to the calamity and died suddenly with its shock just after a week of the cloudburst.

The other worst affected persons Pritam, Chuni Lal, Lekh Raj and Bobby Rana revealed that they had submitted a memorandum to PWD minister Gulab Singh last month. They demanded protection of their house and land holding by constructing a protection wall.

“They have received compliance of the minister on May 23 in which the Kangra DC had been directed to take necessary action,” they added. They lamented that no government agency had so far taken any step keeping in view the forthcoming rainy season. They also expressed their anguish that the PWD authorities had not removed even rubbles that entered their houses during cloudburst. They have also demanded to removal of these rubbles from their houses before the rainy season.

In this connection when A.K. Abrol, executive engineer PWD division, Nurpur, informed that the department had received a sum of Rs 6 lakh in May for clearing rubbles and building a protection wall in the cloudburst affected village. He claimed that the remaining rubbles were being removed and protection work would be initiated within few days keeping in view the necessity of the same.

Shimla, June 6
The Meteorological Department will be able to make more precise weather forecast after the launching of the Insat III-D satellite next year and the ongoing automation and densification of meteorological observation network, according to Dr L.S.Rathore ,additional director general of meteorology.

A Rs 900-crore project was being implemented in the 11th Plan for the automation of the entire spectrum of metrological observations under which 55 state-of the-art Doppler radars, high-speed data processing computers and other equipment would be installed across the country, Rathore told The Tribune here today. He was in the city in connection with the stakeholders’ meeting organised by the local Met centre for the implementation of the agromet advisory service in the state.

The fully automated and densified network would provide data about wind speed, humidity, temperature and other information required for weather forecast every 15 minutes. The data generated by the radar system would enable Met scientists to predict events like cloudburst, hailstorm, snow or downpour four to six hours in advance. The department had further improved the numerical weather prediction model and with the availability of high-resolution images and other information from the Insat III-D satellite it would be in a position to make weekly forecast with greater accuracy using 3-D computer simulation, he explained.

So far the weather forecast was being made for 127 agro-climatic zones but after the automaton project the prediction would be made for 612 districts, enabling the agriculture universities to generate advisories for farmers at the district level. 

Shimla, June 6
Nature Watch India (NWI) has drawn the attention of the government to the damage being caused to the ecologically fragile hill environment by excessive thrust on industrialisation, mega housing projects and hydel power and called for a policy review to combat the micro-factors responsible for climatic change.

NWI convener Rajeshwar Negi said the threat to the environment was being caused by land use conversion. Over the past 35 years about 20 per cent of the forests had been lost to farming, infrastructure development like roads, institutions and housing. 

Shimla, June 6
Javed Ali, who has sung the title song of ‘Jodha Akbar’, stole the show on the fourth night of the International Summer Festival, here last evening.

Javed kicked off the festival with his hit number ‘kehne ko jashne bahara hai’ of Jodha Akbar.

With the weather God being kind, the venue was packed to capacity with locals as well as tourists.

The song ‘kajrare re’, which he sang with Priyani, regaled the audience. Local artists sang pahari songs and presented naati, which was appreciated by the audience.

Dharamsala, June 6
Three doctors of Tanda medical college, who had been eluding the police since a case for ragging juniors was registered against them, were arrested at the judicial complex Dharamsala today. The sources available here told that the accused doctors, including Varun Verma, Ashish Sharma and Pradeep Atri came to the court of district and sessions judge, Dharamsala, this morning.

They moved an application for anticipatory bail that was denied by the judge. As soon as the doctors came out of court complex after denial of bail to them, the police arrested them.

The police sources here told that they would produce the arrested doctors in the court tomorrow.

The accused doctors allegedly ragged first year students on May 30. After being trashed by the accused doctors the junior doctors fled their hostel through Baner Khad in the night and reached the local police station.

The college authorities initially tried to strike compromise between the first year students and accused doctors. However, after the matter was reported in media the police registered a case under the Anti-Ragging Act against the accused doctors.

Hamirpur, June 6
R.L. Raghu, district and sessions judge, Hamirpur, sentenced a tantrik to five years imprisonment with a fine of Rs 25,000 for killing a woman last year on the pretext of treating her.

On Thursday, the judge found Laxam Dass, a tantrik, of Tarota village, guilty under Section 304 of the IPC.

In October 2007, Lata Devi was continuously beaten by hot tongs and tortured by Dass for more than a week in the name of warding off evil spirits.

Devi was found unconscious in the room on October 23, 2007, and taken to Jangal Beri health centre, where she was declared dead. The tantrik would have to undergo an additional imprisonment of one year, if he failed to pay the fine. 

Bilaspur, June 6
The police here has arrested Sandip Mehta, local director of a cable network called Cheena Broadband Digital, for violating the Copyright Act and it is also searching for its managing director for the same offence.

Earlier last month, the police had raided the premises of this cable network here at Diara sector in town and had arrested three technicians and employees of this network. It had also taken into its possession the equipment and accessories used for the purpose for illegally showing a film named “Vivaah” on their network.

The police is now said to be after network operator Mukesh Malhotra, who is said to be the managing director of this network, here.

Mehta was later bailed out.