Shimla, July 22
Frequent changes in the power policy over the past six months has muddled the hydropower scene, particularly the mini, micro and small hydel projects, sending wrong signals to the independent power producers (IPPs).

The confusion is being confounded due to seemingly conflicting policy announcements which were delaying a decision on 168 mini power projects the process for allotment of which was started almost 18 months ago. Worse, the basic issues like potential optimisation, overlapping of projects, evacuation of power and tariff-based bidding were still not being addressed. A situation has been reached where some small projects (up to 25 MW) like 13-MW Suil in Chamba, 7-MW Shalvi in Shimla and 7.5-MW Kilhi Bahl in Kangra are being offered through the competitive bidding route and at the same time some mini projects (up to 5 MW) allotted through the MoU route are being upgraded up to 20 MW.

At the very outset the BJP government made a welcome announcement that all projects of more than 5 MW would be allotted through the competitive bidding route. Subsequently, it decided to go for free power-based bidding in place of upfront premium. Thereafter it decided to allow nine mini projects of 5 MW to raise their capacities and only last week it was announced that all projects up to 5 MW would be deemed as small projects. The IPPs who had purchased the hydropower policy document for Rs 1000 are a confused lot as they have not been informed about the amendments.

Successive governments have been anxious to allot projects to the private sector and they have not given any thought to issues like overlapping and capacity optimisation. The IPPs who were desperate to secure projects have been coming up with big and small self-identified projects on the same streams. They submitted proposals for setting up two or three 5 MW projects when Himurja, the nodal agency for mini and micro-hydel projects, invited offers and came up with a single 25 MW or 30 MW project on the same stream in response to bids invited by the state electricity board. Further, to keep the generation capacity within 5 MW several projects were proposed on one stream.

Now that the government has decided to bring all projects up to 25 MW in the small category, the cascading smaller projects should be clubbed into bigger projects to help optimise the potential, bring down the generation cost and minimise damage to environment. Further, to ensure transparency all projects, except those up to 2 MW which are exclusively reserved for Himachalis, be allotted through competitive tariff-based bidding.

Shimla, July 22
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has sought details from Subhash Ahluwalia, former principal private secretary of Virbhadra Singh, about any foreign remittances received by him from his children, who are working in the USA.

Ahluwalia is facing a Vigilance inquiry with regard to alleged disproportionate assets amassed by him. He was questioned by bureau sleuths yesterday in which he has been asked to furnish details of the expenditure with regard to his daughter’s postgraduation in computer sciences from George Washington University.

Since Ahluwalia’s son, daughter and son-in-law are working in America he has been asked to furnish details of foreign remittances received. While his daughter did her engineering from Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, New Delhi, the son studied at Jaypee IT University, Waknaghat

The bureaucrat has been asked to furnish all details at the earliest so that the bureau can complete its investigation. The Vigilance Bureau has collected details of all transactions in 16 accounts held by Ahluwalia and his wife, Meera.

He has been asked to furnish details about the expenditure he made from the big withdrawals from his accounts in the recent past. He could be summoned for questioning again by the Vigilance Bureau.

The Vigilance bureau also questioned him about a 12-bigha orchard purchased by his close relative in the Dhar Gaura area in Rampur.

His relative who bought the land from an old woman, who is no more, was also questioned by Vigilance Bureau a few days back.

The land was purchased in 2007 for Rs 3 lakh and it was being suspected that it could have been bought by Ahluwalia.

However during interrogation he is learnt to have denied owning the orchard.

Shimla, July 22
Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal has said today that the government is exploring the possibility of providing an insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh to its employees at a minimal premium.

Reviewing the functioning of the Finance Department here today he stated that the state had 2.82 lakh serving government employees and about 90,000 retirees.

Dhumal said house building advance facilities were being extended on a demand basis and the effort was on to provide insurance cover to the employees. The government had paid Rs 300 crore to the employees as arrears on account of 5 per cent interim relief.

Dhumal said the government had submitted financial proposals worth Rs 69,377 crore to the 13th Financial Commission which included pre-devolution revenue deficit of Rs 55,986 crore, environment protection grant of Rs 10,523 crore, Rs 1,191 crore grants for panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies and a special purpose grant of Rs 2,677 crore.

Una, July 22
Goods worth several crores were damaged in a devastating fire that broke out in the Gagret unit of Luminous Power Technologies Private Limited last evening.

The goods damaged in the fire included batteries, UPSs and inverters. The fire was first noticed by workers of a neighbouring factory. Officials of the Luminous factory were informed and they reached the spot immediately. However, Una fire brigade officials took around two hours to reach the spot after being informed. The single fire tender that was pressed into the service failed to control the fire.

Later, five other fire tenders were requisitioned from Hoshiarpur and Talwara. However, the fire could be brought under control only by the morning. By that time, the entire stock of finished goods worth crores was destroyed.

HR manager Gobind Ram said there were few workers in the factory at that time because it was a weekly off day. They came to know about the fire very late. A short circuit could be the reason behind the fire.

There is only one fire station in the district. Moreover, the few fire tenders available there are very old. Obviously, the arrangements are not sufficient enough for cater to the entire district that has industrial complexes at Tahliwal, Mehatpur, Gagret and Amb.

Shimla, July 22
The Centre has sanctioned 46 additional engineering seats in various technical institutes all over the country for bona fide Himachali students.

This was stated by Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal while addressing Himachal cadre IAS and other officers, who are on deputation with Central ministries, in New Delhi today. He said a notification in this regard would be issued shortly.

“The additional seats have been sanctioned following a persistent demand by the state to maintain its quota in engineering colleges as was available during the previous years. The quota had been curtailed due to the new admission procedure adopted by the Centre,” he said. The seats had been allocated for the current academic session and the admission process would be completed shortly, he added.

Dhumal said a high-level central delegation headed by joint secretary of the Human Resource Development Ministry would visit the state in the first week of September to finalise the sites for the setting up of an IIT and a central university.

He said senior officers of the state government would be sent to Delhi to hold discussions with central ministries so that the state could derive benefit from the various development schemes and projects.

Shimla, July 22
Vice-chancellor of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) Sunil Gupta has said that efforts are being made to start new job-oriented and professional courses keeping in view the market demand.

He was speaking at a function organised to mark the 38th anniversary of the university here today. He called upon the university community to work together for the overall development and progress of the institute. “The university has done commendable progress over the past 38 years and is poised to achieve excellence in academics and sports,” he said.

The central placement cell would be strengthened so that students could get jobs in multinational companies (MNC). This year, 22 students from the Law faculty had been shortlisted by MNCs this year, he added.

He said efforts were being made to fill need-based positions in teaching and non-teaching departments.

Palampur, July 22
Kiran, a rape victim from Sahapur area of this district, has alleged that the Kangra police had failed to arrest the culprits who were still hiding in their native villages. Talking to mediapersons at local Press Club here last evening Kiran said she had called on Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal at Palampur and sought immediate arrest of the culprits. She said the Kangra SSP, who was also present, misled the Chief Minister that the culprits had been granted anticipatory bail. In fact, no such bail was granted to the culprits by the Himachal Pradesh High Court till yesterday, she claimed.

It may be recalled that Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had categorically stated here on July 18 that when the accused had been bailed out by the high court, how could the police arrest them.

Meanwhile, Sahapur SHO Bhadur Singh also confirmed that the accused were still at large but no anticipatory bail had been granted to them by the state high court. The SHO said he had not received any intimation from the high court regarding the grant of anticipatory bail to the accused. He said a wireless message was always flashed to the police station concerned from Shimla in such cases to appear along with the record of the case. The high court had so far not called for the record of this case from the police station, the SHO added.

The SHO said the police was making all efforts to arrest the culprits.

Mandi, July 22
Villagers and local leaders from Bari and its surrounding areas staged a dharna in front of the Mandi SP’s office here today. They were demanding action against those behind the sudden disappearance of contractor Tek Chand. They said they would block the national highway if the police failed to arrest the culprits in a couple of days.

CPI state president Des Raj said the police had failed to solve the mystery surrounding the kidnapping of Tek Chand even after 20 days. He said if the police could not do anything, the case should be handed over to the CBI. Later, they also submitted a memorandum to the Governor. BJP leader and ex-serviceman from the Bari panchayat Gajpla Singh Mandyal also addressed the protesters. Villagers, including Tek Chand’s wife and daughters, demanded the arrest of the culprits named in the FIR.