Shimla, December 3
A majority of Supreme Court judges have been taking along their spouses during their official foreign visits at the cost of state exchequer.

Information obtained under the Right to Information Act by Dev Ashish Bhattacharya , an RTI activist, from the union ministry of law and justice has revealed that in all 72 foreign visits were made by judges over the past five years and in 42 cases the judges were accompanied their spouses.

While the expenses on board and lodging and TA and DA were not available the total amount spent on air fare came to Rs 2,88,56,488 during the visits made from April 1, 2003, to March 31,2008. The Chief Justice of India (CJI) K.G.Balakrishnan had the maximum 12 visits , followed by former CJI Y.K.Sabharwal who went abroad 10 times and former CJI R.C.Lahoti with six visits.

On the other hand former CJI V.N.Khare went abroad only twice and did not take his wife along. Similar was the case of former judge Ruma Pal who also made only two foreign visits during the period.

Bhattacharya said he had only been supplied part of the information he had sought. His query whether the judges were allowed to take along their spouses during foreign visits under the rules had not been answered. There was no response to query whether or not they went by the shortest route. There were discrepancies in the expenditure on air fare of judges visiting the same place for the same event. For instance, two judges who went along with their spouses to London to attend the seventh worldwide common law judiciary conference in April-May 2007 spent Rs 6,70,976 and Rs 3,47,656 on air fare. The difference was too large.

He said as an RTI activist he was focussing on judiciary as it was the only organ of the democracy on which the people still had faith and looked towards it for protecting their rights and ensure the rule of law. It was important that the judiciary maintained complete transparency in its internal functioning and puts in place systems to keep intact the public confidence it enjoyed.

Shimla, December 3
It may sound strange but even a ‘deity’ can take offence for being booked for creating noise pollution and that is precisely the reason why a local deity, Chamunda Mata, decided to make an appearance outside the district court complex today.

Today Sansar Sagar, priest of the Shiv Parvati Chamunda Mata temple in Phagli, presented himself in the court as the matter regarding noise pollution being created at the temple was scheduled for hearing. This was the third time that he was to make an appearance in the court, but today “Chamunda mata” too decided to accompany him.

It was almost a month back that residents of the Phagli area had complained to the police that the music being played on the loud speaker in the temple had become a cause of disturbance for the locals and besides that every now and then her palanquin was also on the move.

Following this, the police had booked the priest and others accompanying the deity under Section 6 of the Pollution Control Act for causing noise pollution.

The scene became interesting when Heera Devi, wife of priest Sansar Sagar, got into a trance outside the court itself. The deity along with her palanquin was also present outside the court while all this was happening. Those present on the scene, including some court employees, immediately arranged for coconuts, which were offered to pacify the agitated deity so that the situation came under control.

The priest said the police must stay away from matters pertaining to the deities and other gods and goddesses. “It is matter of the sentiments and faith of the people and the police cannot dictate terms in such matters,” he said defiantly after the court appearance.

Dharamsala, December 3
Concern was expressed by experts at the poor implementation of law meant for the benefit of disabled persons.

In a programme organised by the Chinmaya Organisation of Rural Development (CORD) the experts said 2.13 per cent of the Indian population is affected with some form of disability. This percentage makes it the largest minority group in the world. In addition to that, 70 per cent of the disabled population of the world resides in rural India.

A lot of legislations have been passed time-to-time for the benefit of physically and mentally challenged minority group of the country. Initially, the Mental Health Act, 1987, was passed by the Parliament. It deals with the health services to be provided to the mentally challenged section of society.

The Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992, was passed with an aim to regulate training of rehabilitation professionals. Another act, Persons with Disabilities Act was passed in 1995 with the aim of promoting equality to disabled persons and eliminating discrimination of all kinds against them.

The National Trust Act was passed in 1999. In October 2007, India ratified the United Nations convention resolutions on the rights of persons with disabilities. This was a shift from welfare approach to right-based approach.

However, despite all these legislations and acts not much has been done for the welfare of disabled section of society in the country as yet.

The CORD organised a lot of functions for disabled persons here today to mark the World Disability Day today. The functions were meant to instill confidence and awareness among the disabled persons.

BILASPUR: People suffering from physical deformity and special children deserve our help and support to stand on their feet and become a dignified citizen of our society.

This was stated by Additional District Magistrate Subhash Chaudhary while presiding over the district-level “viklaang divas” organised by the district Social Justice and Empowerment Department here.

He said those who were fortunate should not shirk their responsibility in this matter and take lead wherever they could in making these persons self-reliant and self-supporting.

UNA: Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal said the disabled and under privileged needed to be encouraged and not sympathised upon for their physical disability. He was speaking at the concluding two-day state-level sports championship of disabled persons here at Indira stadium, today.

Dhumal announced Rs 25,000 each of six mentally challenged children who had been selected for participation in the World Special Olympics.

Una emerged as overall champion among girls followed by Mandi and in boys category Shimla bagged first position while Kullu was declared runner-up.

Shimla, December 3
Himachal Pradesh has been conferred the national award for outstanding performance in welfare and advancement of handicapped and disabled persons in the state by the Union Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment.

The State Minorities Finance and Development Corporation has been adjudged as best state channelisation agency of the National Handicapped Finance Development Corporation in the country by the Centre.

It had disbursed a total loan of Rs 6.25 crore to 589 persons so far for various self-employment activities, including training and development of human resources in the state.

Minister for social justice and empowerment Sarveen Choudhary said the state government would implement scheme for promoting employment of disabled persons in the private sector under which employers would be exempted from making contribution to employees provident fund and employees state insurance for the first three years for the employees with disabilities recruited after April 1, 2008.

The employer’s contribution would be provided by the Central Government. The government would shortly start a campaign for providing employment to disabled persons in the private sector under the incentive scheme.

It would organise a state-level function at Shimla during January 2009 to celebrate the bicentenary of Louis Braille, who developed the Braille books for the blind to raise awareness about the need for educational and social development of the disabled.

Dharamsala, December 3
Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal after taking to office had announced that atleast one minister would sit everyday at the Dharamsala secretariat to listen to grievances of the people from lower areas of the state. The idea was that the people should not travel to Shimla for their day-to-day problems.

The initial promise made by the Chief Minister was that all ministers would sit at the Dharamsala secretariat in circulation. However, later it was decided by the government that only the ministers from Kangra district would sit at there.

The four ministers from Kangra district, including Kishan Kapoor, minister for transport and urban development, Ramesh Dhawala, minister for food and civil supplies, Ravinder Ravi, minister for public health, and Sarween Chaudhary, minister for social justice, started sitting at the Dharamsala secretariat in circulation on weekly basis.

Large number of people used to come and meet the ministers at the secretariat to get their grievances redressed. However, since last about one month even the said ministers from the district have stopped sitting at the secretariat.

Officials of the district administration when asked did not have any knowledge as why the ministers have stopped sitting here.

The officials while speaking on the condition of anonymity said the decreasing number of people coming to the secretariat to meet the minister was one of the reasons for discontinuation of the practice.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) had been very successful in Kangra district. The villagers now do not need to go to higher officials for their petty problems like construction of drain or street. They can now get these problems resolved at panchayat level using the component available under the NREGS. Since most of the people in the district are now getting employment under the NREGS, they are not coming to officials or ministers.

The other theory that is forwarded is that the entire government is likely to move to lower areas this month for winter sojourn.

The ministers instead of sitting at the Dharamsala secretariat are now moving just their respective constituencies. The programmes are limited to their constituencies as per the old practice.

Whatever might be the reason for discontinuing the practice of making atleast one minister available to the people at the Dharamsala secretariat it will give another reason to the opposition to claim that the present government had gone back on its promise made to people of the region.

Dharamsala, December 3
The Himachal Pradesh School Education Board (HPSEB) has cracked whip against the alleged unrecognised schools running in the state.

Chairman of the HPSEB Chaman Lal Gupta has written to the police and director of the state education to take action against schools that are being run without affiliation with any of the education boards.

The list of schools that has been forwarded by the HPSEB chairman to the police includes Adarsh Bhartiya Model School (Bhojpur), Kangra district, Maharish Vidhya Mandir, Sihali, Kangra district, Maharishi Vidhya Mandir, Banali, Kangra district, Shivalik Senior Secondary School, Mairinwala Nandpur, Solan district, and Nav Jyoti Senior Secondary School, Kishanpura, Solan district.

The chairman has said he was receiving compliant from various sections of society that the said schools were duping the students.

The parents of students are also being warned that they should not admit their wards in these unrecognised schools, he said.

Besides the said schools, the HPSEB had also received complaints regarding the affiliation granted to certain schools in violation of norms during the stint of the previous government.

The inquiry was initiated against the affiliation granted to these schools. However, nothing is known about the output of the inquiry.

Many private schools have mushroomed in rural areas of the state. The people running these schools are claiming that they are providing education in the areas which the government had failed to reach.

However, the fact is that due to meagre income these schools are not in a position to provide minimum wage to teachers or even the basic facilities to students.

Shimla, December 3
The State Electricity Board has ceased to be a legal entity, with the Centre refusing to grant any further extension for it to continue in the unbundled form as required under the Electricity Act, 2003.

Through a written communication the Union Ministry for Power has informed the state government that license of the state transmission utility has expired and it should be prepared to face legal consequences. It means that the board has no lawful authority to carry out its functions and all its actions and activities are illegal.

The Act mandates segregation of the transmission, distribution and generation functions of the board and it could be allowed to continue as an unbundled entity beyond June 10, 2005, only with the mutual consent of the state government and the Centre.

The state had been dithering on the issue of unbundling the state utility and seeking extensions for the past three years.

The last extension expired on March 31, 2008, and it had sought extension for another year on the grounds that a lot of groundwork is required to be done to carry out the “unbundling” exercise.

However, the ministry was not convinced by the plea as the government had been extending the same argument since June 2005 to stall unbundling.

It gave only two months extension and that too for submitting the roadmap for unbundling. As the government sought more time for preparing the blueprint, it extended the deadline up to July 31, which had not been extended any further.

The tough posture of the Centre did prompt the government to prepare grounds for unbundling and as an immediate step towards fulfilling the requirement of the Act it decided to set up a separate company to look after the transmission activity.

The board did study the set up in Haryana and Delhi where the state utility had already been unbundled. As the board had already formed two generating companies, the obligations under the new law could be met by putting in place a transmission company.

However, hoping that the Centre will accept its request for granting extension up to March 2009, the government set up the transmission company only as a subsidiary of the board as a result the requirement of the law is not met.

Senior officers pointed out that the only way out for the government to wriggle out of the situation is to make the State Power Transmission Corporation an independent government company.

Mandi, December 3
District and sessions judge P.S. Rana yesterday sent Subhash (alias Bhau) to police remand till December 4. He was produced before the judge after his arrest in connection with the multi-crore benami royal property deal.

Though the two main suspects- Sanjay Kumar (alias Sanju) and Subhash- arrested in connection with the Tek Chand murder case were granted bail here on Monday, the police had arrested Subhash yesterday in connection with the benami deal.

The police had failed to put up a challan in the court in connection with the Tek Chand murder case and as a result both the main suspects were earlier released on bail.

However, they will undergo narco analysis and brain mapping tests in connection with the Tek Chand murder case at Ahmedabad from December 28 to January 3, police sources said.

The police investigation has reached a sensitive phase, but the “various lobbies are trying to weaken both the cases as the names of some influential big fish are suspected in the benami case”.

The police suspect that both cases-benami royal property case and Tek Chand murder case are interlinked.

SP, Mandi, M. Chandra Sekhar said both main suspects have been asked to stay in this station and their passport and other documents have been deposited with the police.

Shimla, December 3
The wildlife wing of the Forest Department has decided to regulate the plying of motor boats in the Pong Dam reservoir, which is a protected area amidst a populated area.

Additional chief secretary (Forests) Avay Shukla said yesterday that five diesel boats are being run in Pong Dam out which only three are licensed by the block development officer.

Operation in the lake by the two diesel boats plying illegally has been stopped by the DFO (Wildlife), Hamirpur.

Shukla said the DFO had stopped these two boats and the secretary of the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj had also been requested not to issue them licenses.

He added that already 15 motor boats were plying in the lake, which are being used by various government agencies like the BBMB, Fisheries, Forest and Water Sports.

He added that as far as fishing in the lake is concerned, it is a major livelihood.

He further said licenses had been issued by the Fisheries Department to 1,600 families, who have been into fishing since 1975.

“It is only if any alternate and acceptable livelihood options are provided to these families that the government could consider banning fishing,” he said.

Hamirpur, December 3
Although the management of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) has expressed ignorance about deployment of ‘booking agents’ on long-routes buses as routine conductors, the practice continues at many places.

These booking agents were engaged by the HRTC to sell tickets at a commission of 3.5 per cent at selected bus stands. Though these persons were engaged for a specific work, many of them are now being sent on routine duties as conductors in long-routes buses to Delhi, Jalandhar etc.

While their deployment as conductors has been questioned by many, sources in the HRTC maintain this has been done to cope with the shortage of regular conductors.

Putting booking agents on routine duty of conductors has raised questions since neither they have any employment contract with the HRTC nor they have been trained for the job.

“Putting these booking agents on the routine duty is not only illegal, but can also cause many administrative problems,” insiders maintain. “How can a person engaged for a purely temporary work can be entrusted the job of a conductor, who handles around Rs 30,000 per trip?” they say.

Chief general manager of the HRTC Rajiv Gupta said, “It is illegal to put booking agents on routine duty of conductors.” He said he would inquire into the case and take action, if necessary.

Kullu, December 3
Bhima Devi (3), daughter of Lal Chand, was charred to death and her brother Rupinder received burn injuries, while four houses were reportedly gutted in a devastating fire that broke out at Liyagi village near Manikaran here today.

More than 300 cattle heads, including 20 cows, 280 sheep and 2 mules, were also burnt to death. The cause of the fire was not yet ascertained.