Shimla, January 19
The ruling BJP finalised its candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections today. The party’s central election committee approved the names recommended by the state election committee (SEC) at Delhi.

The SEC met at Himachal Sadan this morning to decide on the names of candidates to be fielded for the Lok Sabha elections. The entire top brass of the state BJP agreed on the names of Rajan Sushant for the Kangra seat, Maheshwar Singh for Mandi seat and Virender Kashyap for the Shimla (reserved) seat. The party had earlier approved the name of Anurag Thakur from Hamirpur.

State chief of the party Jai Ram Thakur confirmed that three names, besides Anurag Thakur from Hamirpur, had been cleared by the central election committee of the party. He added the BJP was on a firm footing and it would win all four seats from the state in the Lok Sabha elections.

All senior party leaders, including Chief Minister PK Dhumal, Rajya Sabha member Shanta Kumar, state party chief Jai Ram Thakur, in charge of party affairs Satya Pal Jain, organisation secretary Mahender Pandey, attended the meeting.

DHARAMSALA: Meanwhile, BJP state unit chief Jai Ram Thakur said that the party had taken a lead over the Congress in declaring its candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. This would help the party in winning all the four seats.

Rajan Sushant is considered to a loyalist of former Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha member Shanta Kumar. He had been nursing a grudge as he was not picked up by Dhumal in the Cabinet this time. However, now he has been decided as a consensus candidate by both Shanta Kumar and Dhumal camps.

Initially the BJP also contemplated fielding one of the OBC ministers belonging to district. However, the ministers were not keen on contesting the Lok Sabha polls. Rajan Sushant is likely to take on Chander Kumar, the sitting Congress MP from Kangra. He would also have to counter the disenchantment among the residents of Dharamsala against the alleged shifting of proposed central university venue to Dehra that is likely to be one of the election agendas for the Congress.

Chander Kumar is considered to have strong vote bank in OBC community that has sizeable presence in Kangra.

MANDI: BJP’s central election committee fielding Maheshwar Singh from the Mandi seat has upset the applecart of his opponents, deputy speaker and Banjar MLA Khimi Ram and Kullu BJP MLA Govind Thakur.

This decision has cut to size the clout of the Khimi-Govind lobby within the BJP in Kullu politics, revealed insiders.

Though Maheshwar Singh has silenced his opponents for the time being, but his real test would come when he faces the Congress heavyweight Virbhadra Singh in case the Congress fields him from Mandi. He has to keep his rivals, including former Yuva Morcha chief and young contender for the Lok Sabha ticket Ajay Rana, in good humour to gain votes.

Comenting on this, Maheshwar Singh said that it was due to state and national leaders and party workers that he had been given the party ticket.

Dharamsala, January 19
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal will reach here on his winter sojourn tomorrow. As per the official programme, he will stay here till December 25.

This means the CM will stay at Dharamsala for just six days as against the past practice of staying here for more than a month. Former CM Virbhadra Singh, who was accused of regional bias toward lower areas, used to stay here for the entire month of January.

Sources said the CM’s stay here was not likely to be extended as he had to attend several programmes in other parts of the state after January 25. The budget session would begin at Shimla on February 12. The shortened winter sojourn of the CM at Dharamsala has peeved local people who were expecting him to stay here for a longer period.

However, BJP leaders maintain that CM’s stay at Dharamsala this winter has been shortened due to his busy schedule. Moreover, the CM himself belongs to lower areas and hence his shortened stay here should not worry them.

However, this might give the Congress another issue to criticise the BJP. Meanwhile, the CM will meet a Spanish delegation at the circuit house here tomorrow evening. On January 21, he will lay the foundation stone of the Institute of Fashion Technology at Khaniara and inaugurate at a state-level sports meet at Kangra.

On January 22 to 24, he will stay in Kangra. He is likely to sit in the local secretariat to listen to the grievances of locals. On January 25, he will preside over the state-level Himachal Day function at Dehra.

Kullu, January 19
The valley as a whole has been put under the threat of ecological degradation due to haphazard and unchecked quarrying and mining on the river beds of the Beas, the Parbati and their tributaries. The illegal mining on the sides of the national highway and other roads had already cost huge amounts to the government exchequer and now the same practice on the right bank of the river Beas along the Kullu-Manali airport has raised the threat of damage to the airport runway. The massive digging for sand and stones from the bank of the river would make way for the water to flow along the boundary wall of the airport in the summers while the water level increases by about 10 to 20 feet.

The 90 per cent of the surface along the airport runway has become hollow and depressed due to massive mining and the authorities remain indifferent.

The airport authorities could approach the state department with complaints but had no authority to book the offenders. And their complaints go hey-wire.

The department found itself helpless because of the shortage of staff and the "support to the illegal mining" by government departments like the PWD and the IP&H.

K L Verma, mining inspector, here said that the issuing of licence for mining had been stopped since 2000 after the amendments to the Forest Conservation Act as the river bed and other areas wherefrom mining rights were given fell in the third class forest land. He said that the total mining being done in this district was illegal. Verma said that the department was having a total of five mining guards in the district, including Ani and Nirman, the areas touching Shimla district and the Sutlej. They have been a doing good job as they are booking 50 to 60 cases of illegal extraction.

Verma said that the government departments were encouraging illegal mining by giving tenders to contractors. He questioned as to how the PWD and I&PH departments were maintaining "lead charts" which showed the source of acquisition of the material as per the tender conditions.

The authorities desired that the government should introduce stringent punishment to the offenders and provide more vigil-staff with arms besides empowering panchayats to keep a watch on the illegal mining.

Shimla, January 19
Caught in a piquant situation over the issue of registering of FIRs in cases of encroachment on government land, the government will take a decision in this regard at a high-level meeting to be held here tomorrow, keeping in view its political ramifications.

Ever since the high court directed the police to register FIRs in cases of encroachment on government land, whether on revenue or forest land, the authorities have started the work to identify such cases.

However, with the number of such cases likely to be over 3 lakh, the authorities are in a dilemma how to go about with the issue.

The matter will be discussed at a high-level meeting to be chaired by the Chief Secretary and senior officials of the forest and revenue departments tomorrow.

The government is already seeking opinion of the Law Department to find a solution to the problem so that the matter can be dealt with tactfully, especially in view of the fact that the high court directives will have to be followed.

Today itself, forest officials in Shimla district had approached the police to register FIRs in various subdivisions. Sources said the number of encroachments on forest land in Theog subdivision alone was estimated to be around 4,300, 1,600 in Chirgaon and over 25,000 in Rohru. “Although encroachment is a cognisable offence and an FIR will have to be registered, it is not possible for the police stations to handle such cases as the number is likely to be in lakhs,”a senior police official said.

The maximum number of forest encroachments are likely to be in Shimla district where people have felled trees to bring up orchards on forest land.

Some of these encroachments are almost 20-year-old and the extent of encroachments is huge.

According to the police, since DFO, SDM and Tehsildars are empowered under the Public Premises Eviction Act, 1971, to issue eviction orders, the cases should be dealt with by them rather than registering police cases.

Similarly, under the Road Side Development Act, the executive engineers can exercise eviction powers.

Shimla, January 19
The tribal areas of Himachal were lashed with heavy snow with Dundi in Lahaul-Spiti receiving about 70 cm snowfall while the tourist resorts of Manali, Narkanda and Kufri experinced light to moderate snowfall.

According to Met office, the tribal area of Pangi had 30 cm snowfall, Kalpa 14 cm, Keylong and Petsio 10 cm each while the tourist resort of Manali had 17 cm snowfall. Sacch Pass, Barmour and Tisa areas also had heavy snow.

The mid and lower areas of the state received light to moderate rain. Bhang Manali had 24.8 mm rainfall, Jogindernagar 10mm, Gumrur 9.5mm, Nadon7.5 mm, Bhoranj 6.3 mm, Bhunter and Sundernagar 7.7 mm, Sunni 7.8 mm, Karsog 6 mm, Shimla 5.2 mm, Hamirpur 4 mm, Rampur 3.5 mm, Una 2 mm and Mandi 1.4 mm.

According to agriculture experts, fresh snow and rainfall was good for the rabi crop and provided required chilling hours for a good apple crop in higher areas.

The minimum temperature dropped in most places during the past 24 hours. Keylong was cold with minimum temperature at minus 6.9 degrees Celsius, followed by Kalpa at minus 5.5 degrees, Manali 1.6 degrees, Shimla 4 degrees, Bhuntar 5.2 degrees, Una 5.4 degrees, Sundernagar 5.6 degrees, Dharamsala 6 degrees, Mandi 8.3 degrees and Nahan 11.3 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, due to inclement weather emergency helicopter flights remained suspended for the sixth consecutive day in Lahaul-Spiti, Bhuntar and Chamba districts. Kingfisher flights from Shimla airport were also suspended today causing inconvenience to passengers.

The Met office has forcast more rain and snow in many places in the state in the next 24 hours. — UNI

Shimla, January 19
With a number of hydroelectric projects being executed by independent power producers (IPP’s) falling behind schedule, the state will miss the target of generating 122 MW of power by the end of the current financial year under the mini and micro-hydel sector.

The allotment of projects to IPP’s was started in 1995, but till date only 19 projects with an aggregate generation capacity of 63 MW have come into operation.

As many as 13 more projects with a combined generation capacity of 59.70 MW have been scheduled to be commissioned by March 2009. However, a majority of them will not be completed on schedule.

According to sources in the Himurja, the nodal agency for the implementation of mini and micro-hydel projects, the progress is tardy and only 83 MW of power will be generated by the end of this year.

The projects falling behind schedule include Iku, Awa, Luni and Neugal-II (each of 4.5MW), which were being implemented by Subhash 
Projects and Marketing Company.

Some other projects, which are lagging in implementation, are Shyang, Terela and Baner.

Out of total 304 micro-hydel projects with an aggregate capacity of 1,031 MW allotted so far, 19 projects have been completed. While 56 projects are reported to be under construction and their work is yet to be commenced.

Out of these, implementation agreements have been signed only for 105 projects and the rest are still in the process of obtaining various clearances.

The government allows three years for various clearances and two years for construction. As such projects should be commissioned in five years.

However, as many as 131 projects, that were assigned more than six years ago are still under execution. The government had served a notice for the cancellation of allotment to 29 IPP’s who failed to achieve the milestones as per an MoU.

The allotment of some projects where IPP’s have to start work is likely be cancelled. Delay in the commissioning of projects will hurt the state electricity board as it will be denied cheap power.

If all projects had been executed as scheduled, the board would have got over 600 million units of power at a reasonable rate of Rs 2.87 per unit fixed by the state electricity regulatory commission.

It is very attractive proposition in view of the fact that power from the board’s own 126 MW Larji project costs Rs 5.43 per unit.

Mandi, January 19
Over 38 labourers, including 10 from the district, who worked on the Batot hydropower project in Chamba have alleged they have not been paid their wages to the tune of Rs 20 lakh for the past over six months by contractors and the Batot hydropower company.

Though the SDM, Chamba, had summoned a meeting of six contractors, including manager of the company, at Chamba on January 6, the labourers said here yesterday that nothing had been done so far in this regard.

“Over 38 labourers worked on this project for over one year but they have not been paid wages since January 28 last,” one of the labourers alleged. He said they made several pleas before the company and contractors but they blamed each other for this. “We worked day and night on the project but the company has not bothered to pay, he rued.

Mandi-based contractor Lalit Sharma claimed the company had not paid him the payment so far since January 28 last. “Instead, it resorted to high-handedness and was harassing them”, he charged.

Chamba SDM Bhuvesh Negi admitted that the labourers had not received anything and the administration had asked the company and its contractors to sort out the matter among them.

Meanwhile, ASP, Chamba, DR Chaudhary said the labourers and the Mandi-based contractor had not lodged any complaint against the company or other local contractors working on the project with the police so far.

President of the project JN Ghoongar, however, when contacted in this regard did not respond to calls to seek his clarification on the matter. 

Kangra, January 19
The state government has excelled in implementing welfare schemes for disabled, women and weaker sections. Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Sarween Choudary claimed this while talking to mediapersons here today.

Choudary, who was here in connection with a court case lodged by the police against her and other BJP workers during the previous government, said the government had enhanced financial support to IRDP families from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 for the construction of their houses. For the repairment of their houses, it was enhanced from Rs 12,500 to Rs 25,000, she claimed. She said besides the implementation of the ‘Matar Shakti Beema Yojna’, other welfare schemes were also implemented for women and disabled people.

She further said BJP leaders, including Sanjay Choudary, would now jointly carry out BJP activities in this constituency to get lead for Rajan Shushant, a BJP candidate for the Lok Sabha polls from Kangra.She also took stock of the situation for organising a public show on the arrival of Chief Minister PK Dhumal while laying the foundation stone of Rs 450 Crore National Fashion Design Institute at Chaib on Wednesday.

Sundernagar, January 19
Farmers should adopt innovative and low-cost methods of farming, as it is need of the hour. This was stated by Vice-Chancellor of Chaudhary Sarvan Kumar Agriculture University, Palampur, Tej Partap Singh while addressing two camps of farmers yesterday. The camps were organised by the Mid Himalaya Water Shed Project, Panarasa Unit, and concluded here yesterday at the Kisan Vikas Kendar, Bajoura.

As many as 150 farmers drawn from 11 panchayats of Mandi were present on the occasion. Earlier, these farmers were trained in various by a subject matter specialist of the Krishai Vigyan Kendra.

The VC said it was very important to conserve water by making small tanks. He said the farmers should use low-cost innovative methods like growing organic vegetables so that they could increase their income.

Hamirpur, January 19
Hundreds of mid-day meal workers held a protest demonstration in front of the office of the deputy director of education, Hamirpur, today. The protest call was given by the state union of mid-day meal workers. Shouting slogans, the workers marched through a market and submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal through the deputy director.

General secretary of the union Nirmla Devi urged the government to provide them all facilities equivalent to government servants, including issuing them appointment letters, consider them as government employees and allow them casual, medical and other usual leaves given in schools.

The workers also held a rally in front of the deputy director’s office, which was addressed by various union leaders.

Bilaspur, January 19
The Himachal Pradesh State Employees Federation has expressed resentment over the alleged injustice being met out to thousands of class III employees in the matter of their retirement age.

The federation has urged the Chief Minister to ensure that they are also retired at the age of 60 years like other employees and officers.

Addressing mediapersons this afternoon, state unit president of the federation Ram Singh said all class IV employees, IAS and HAS officers and central government employees retired at the age of 60, but class III employees were declared “unfit” to remain in service at the age of 58 years and retired from the service.

He said the superannuation age of all employees and officers should be 60 years.

He also demanded that a special bench of the high court should be constituted to decide 26,000 cases that had been pending after the scrapping of the administrative tribunal.