McLeodganj, January 23
The state government has no intention to trifurcate the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB). An indication to this effect was given by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal here today.

He said state was trying to find a legal solution to the problem under the Electricity Act, 2003. Efforts were being made to retain the board in the present form abiding by the provisions of the Act.

The CM indicated that the proposal put forward by the state engineers association that the HPSEB should be notified and given licence to operate as a transmission utility, might be opted by the state government.

The last extension granted by the Centre to trifurcate the HPSEB lapsed in July last year.

The CM said Kangra district had got Rs 22 crore under the Rajiv Gandhi Village Electrification programme.

He said the work on Rohtang tunnel moved at a very slow pace during the Congress rule. “It has picked up momentum now after the matter was lobbied with the Centre. Besides a tunnel for road traffic, another one for railway traffic has also been proposed through the Rohtang Pass,” he added.

He lashing out at the Congress for its protest over the shortage of doctors at zonal hospital Dharamsala. He said there were just five doctors posted at the hospital during the Congress regime, while the figure was 24 now.

He said Dehra had not been finalised as the venue for the central university. The Union Government had sought 550 acre land for the project. A Central team had visited various places, including Shahpur, Dehra and Palampur. Now, it was for the Centre to decide the venue.

The CM also laid the foundation stone of a 33/11-KV substation in the Naddi area. The substation was likely to be completed by January next year. It would improve power supply in Naddi, Kajlot, Kareri, Bhagsunag, Dharamkot and Forsetganj areas.

He also inaugurated the Sidhwari-Kaned-Barwala augmented lift water supply scheme completed at a cost of Rs 85.37 lakh.

The scheme would benefit a population of around 12,000 in 11 villages.

Shimla, January 23
Going full steam into promoting eco-tourism, the Forest Department will lease out 10 sites, including its rest houses, at some of the most pristine locations to private entrepreneurs. However, there will be strict restrictions to ensure that there is no environmental degradation.

The MoU for handing over of these 10 sites, advertised in September last year, will be signed on January 27. Ever since the creation of Eco-Societies (ECO SOCS) under the eco-tourism policy in 2005, this is the first major leap that the government is taking towards promoting eco-tourism in a big way.

The Forest Department had advertised 80 sites including some of its rest houses under public-private partnership (PPP). There was an overwhelming response as 126 proposals were received from 40 entrepreneurs. The focus will be on ensuring maximum possible number of jobs to Himachalis.

In the Shimla-Solan sector, the five sites being leased out include Moti Kuna Hills (just off the Dharampur-Kasauli road), a site near Barog on the Kumarhatti road, Chewa village (near Old Barog) and Sonu Bangla (near Tara Devi), formerly owned by the Maharaja of Patiala.

The other sites includes Dhuan Devi rest house, located on a hillock overlooking Mandi town, the Kangra forest rest house, the rest house at Ala (near Dalhousie) and tenting sites at Naddi (near McLeodganj) and Khol Pukhar.

“While the MoU for the 10 sites will be signed on January 27, some other sites will be offered shortly,” said Vineet Kumar, Conservator, Eco-Tourism. He emphasised that the condition of providing 70 per cent jobs to Himachalis will be applicable on the projects coming up under the eco-tourism plan.

Shimla, January 23
The soul of Sultan Mohammed , who was illegally deprived of his land after Partition, can now rest in peace. The state high court has quashed the notifications and mutations effected in favour of the central government whereby his land was declared as ‘evacuee property’ paving restoration of the land to his family members after a gap of 61 years.

Justice Rajiv Sharma while allowing the petition of his son Meer Baksh and others held the action of declaring the property of predecessor-in-interest of the petitioners Sultan Mohammed as evacuee property void ab initio. The respondent had no jurisdiction to declare the property as ‘evacuee property’ since Mohammed had never migrated to Pakistan. He had always remained in India and died in India. The land which had been wrongly declared as ‘evacuee property’ could not be further allotted to other persons. He also directed that in case the land in question could not be restored to the petitioners, the same should be allotted by the state within Mandi district.

Counsel for petitioners had strenuously argued since Sultan Mohammed never left for Pakistan, there was no occasion for the custodian to declare the 48 bighas land owned by him and 43 bighas under his possession as tenant in pargana Ner Chowk in Mandi as an evacuee property. He had, in fact, made representations to the central government for restoration of land in 1957 and 1967 and the petitioners had also made a representation in 2000.

The court rejected the plea of the respondents that predecessor-in-interest of the petitioners should have assailed the decisions by filing appropriate appeals and that the court had no jurisdiction. It took notice of the fact that the respondents failed to place on record the orders rejecting the representations the perusal of which was necessary to ensure that there was due application of mind while passing the orders. It held that an order which was bad in law from the very inception could be assailed directly in a writ petition.

Dharamsala, January 23
The state Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau is failing to muster the courage to take action against former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. SM Katwal, a retired IAS officer and former chairman of Staff Selection Board, who had been levelling charges of corruption against the former CM, stated this in press statement issued today.

He alleged that the BJP used the allegations levelled by him and former minister Vijay Singh Mankotia against Virbhadra Singh in the election campaign for the last Assembly elections. However, after taking to power the present government had developed cold feet over the matter.

Katwal alleged that an audio CD was released by Mankotia in which allegedly Virbhadra Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh and a senior government officer were in conservation about collection of huge amounts of money. The CD played a very important role in election campaign of the BJP. The case in this matter was registered only after the intervention of the Himachal High Court.

In the course of inquiry into the case many responsible witnesses including me, gave witnesses that voices on audio CD were those of Virbhadra Singh, his wife and former Shimla DC Mohinder Lal, Katwal alleged.

Later reports were also released that the Central Forensic Science Laboratory had also corroborated that the voices on audio CD were of the said persons. Despite such elaborate evidence the government had developed cold feet on the matter.

Katwal also alleged that in jobs for chit scam also the FIR was registered only after the high court directed the investigating officials to do so. The former government filed a cancellation report in the court, which was rejected. In this case since the senior leaders were involved no progress was made.

Shimla, January 23
The worldwide economic slowdown and recent terror attacks have severely hit the tourism industry in the hill state. There are reports of 50 per cent fall in the tourist traffic in hotels in November and 30 per cent in December as compared with the corresponding figures for the previous year.

This was revealed by a quick survey conducted by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Hoteliers were forced to offer discounts during the peak season, the survey said.

The outlook for January-April period this year is also bleak as there has been an increase in cancellations. Unless the corporate sector is given incentives by way of tax exemptions, it will be difficult to stimulate the sagging tourism industry, the survey points out.

There have been few queries for hotel bookings after mid-November.

The chamber has suggested that the government should reduce luxury tax on coaches and hotels and also curtail road tax on tourist vehicles.

Terming the home stay scheme as highly beneficial from the tourism point of view, the chamber has suggested that subsidy be given to rural people for adopting it.

Shimla, January 23
While the quality of education at the primary level has shown improvement over the past four years in the state, the government schools are falling behind private institutions in terms of outcome levels.

Himachal Pradesh has been among one of the better performing states in education and the latest annual status of education report on the quality of education in the country conducted by Pratham, a non-governmental organisation, reveals that it has maintained its place in the top bracket, particularly with regard to enrolment.

However, a disturbing trend is emerging. The government schools are slipping on the outcome front. In 2005, the performance of government schools in reading and mathematics was higher than that of private schools, but the trend has been reversed by 2008. Now, the children of private schools are almost on equal footing in reading and better in mathematics. Not surprisingly, enrolment in private schools in the state during the same period has increased from 7 per cent in 2005 to 24 per cent in 2008. The highest percentage in private schools is in Kangra district (37.6) and Hamirpur (35.1), while Chamba has the lowest percentage of 7.8.

The number of “out of school” children in the 6 to 14 year age group has come down from 1.3 per cent in 2006 to 0.6 per cent, next only to Kerala and Goa (0.2 per cent each), in 2008. The Bilaspur district has achieved 100 per cent enrolment, while in case of Hamirpur the percentage of such children was as low as 0.2. The educationally most backward district of Chamba was at the bottom with 2.3 per cent.

Similarly, in the 11-14 age group, the percentage of “out of school” children declined from 1.8 to 1.1 over the period. The teacher-pupil ratio has improved from 1:21 in 2005 to 1:18 in 2007.

Solan, January 23
Deputy Commissioner Dr Amandeep Garg today held a meeting at Kander village in Arki tehsil where the aggrieved villagers of Bhalag and Chalan aired their grievances arising out of land acquisition made by the JP Cement Plant.

He said, “I have directed them to form a committee comprising of aggrieved villagers and their genuine demands, including relief and rehabilitation of the 23 families, which face displacement, would be suitably addressed.”

The villagers also rued that the cement plant’s muck, which had been dumped unscientifically had inundated their fields and this had damaged their standing crops. The villagers were adamant to surrender their land and they were persistent that a suitable relief and rehabilitation package should be extended to the 23 families, which face displacement.

The district administration today gave them a patient hearing and ensured that all their genuine grievances would be settled.

Officials of the cement plant, however, said they had paid land compensation at the rate of Rs 4.25 lakh per bigha of cultivated land and Rs 1.25 lakh bigha of uncultivated land as had been decided by the revenue officials in 2006. While out of the total 1,300 bighas of land a majority had been acquired after handing over the due compensation, the villagers had refused to accept award
of the remaining 250 bighas where the plant was being set up.

Sundernagar, January 23
Some residents of Keran village did not allow employees of Harish Cement Ltd to conduct the counting of trees, which were standing on the land to be acquired for the mining site of the proposed cement plant to be set up at the Chambi area of Sundernagar.

The team of employees have to come back without conducting any counting of trees as the local residents did not allow the vehicle to move further and misbehaved with them.

As per information some officials came to Keran this afternoon and wanted to conduct the counting of trees but some women came on the spot and asked the team not to conduct the counting. Meanwhile, some more residents came on the spot and did not allow the vehicle to move further and detained the team for more than an hour. The residents were angry as according to them when they did not wanted to give land for the plant why the counting was going on.

Mandi, January 23
In the blame game, Batot Hydel Project Pvt Ltd which is executing the 3.5 MW Batot project in Chamba district today claimed that the company owed labour payment worth Rs 4.51 lakh only and not Rs 20 lakh as claimed by its Mandi-based labour contractor Lalit Sharma and went on to accuse him of exhorting money from the company in the name of “labourers payment” misrepresenting the facts in the media.

HR manager and in charge of the project TV Subhramanayam claimed that the company owed payment worth Rs 4.51 lakh and was ready to pay subject to condition what the Chamba labour officer decides. However, the company would never let down the labourers who have worked in the company, he clarified.

Dismissing Lalit Sharma’s allegations that company had to pay Rs 20 lakh as baseless and motivated to exhort money, Subhramanayam claimed that the company had terminated the contract with him, as he was not paying to the labour hired by him. But we are ready to make payment to labourers who were on the rolls and worked in the roads and tunnel work, he added.

Project in charge PL Thakur said the company had made payment worth Rs 3.5 lakh to the labourers and would settle payment that does not exceed Rs 4.51 lakh and not Rs 20 lakh as the contractor was claiming. Sharma’s bills worth Rs 13 lakh were paid till August 2008, he claimed, blaming the non-payment of labourers on Lalit Sharma.

On the other hand, Lalit Sharma stuck to his stand, charging that the company was not paying him bills worth Rs 20 lakh due to which he could not pay the labourers. The company was harassing him by not making the payment of his bills, he charged.

The Chamba SDM said the administration would take action in the case if the labour payment was not made.