Shimla, February 10
The faus paux committed by publishing a wrong map of the country in the official diary for 2009 has landed the BJP government in an embarrassing situation with the opposition Congress demanding action in the matter in accordance with the law.

The objectionable map is the one often published by countries inimical to India in which the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Aksai Chin area under illegal control of China have been excluded.

General secretary of the Congress Kuldeep Rathore said that it was a serious matter which could undermine the integrity and unity of country as hostile nations could exploit it to their advantage at various international fora. Such acts were committed by anti-national elements or by forces inimical to the country. He urged the President of India and the Governor of the state to take notice and ensure that due action was taken and those responsible for the lapse were brought to book.

He said that the most shocking aspect was that the source of the map had not been quoted which indicated that the government had not abided by the law in 
this regard.

Rathore dismissed the inquiry ordered by Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal as an eyewash and a cover-up and said it would only be used to pin down lower rung officers who could be made scapegoats to bail out the government. The Congress would not allow the government to brush the issue under the carpet and soon chalk out its strategy to ensure that the BJP regime was made to pay for the blunder.

The withdrawal of diary would not undo the damage caused to the national interests by the illegal act of the government and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K.Advani and national president Rajnath Singh must offer public apology to atone for the act.

Dharamsala, February 10
Farmers of Baijnath area today rose in protest against the recently notified Dhauladhar wildlife sanctuary. Hundreds of farmers from Baijnath and its surrounding areas today organised a protest rally here today. They raised slogans against the forest department and also submitted a demand charter addressed to the state CM to the district administration.

The recently notified Dhauladhar wildlife sanctuary is spread across an area of 944 sq kilometres. Now that the area has been converted into wildlife sanctuary it has fallen under the jurisdiction of the wildlife department.

As per the orders issued by the Supreme Court, the Central Empowered Committee of the court had issued orders prohibiting removal of dead, dying and diseased trees from any national park or the sanctuary area. Even the removal of grass, non-forestry activity, felling of trees or bamboo or removal of biomass has been prohibited from the said areas without the permission of the Supreme Court.

The member-secretary of Central Empowered Committee (CEC) in direction to Chief Secretary of state had also stated that certain instances have come to their notice where felling of trees, bamboo, digging of canals, underground mining, collection of sand or boulders, laying of transmission lines etc have been allowed without the prior permission of Supreme Court. The CEC has said that the said activities were a violation of the Supreme Court orders.

Due to the above said facts the farmers of Baijnath area are now apprehending they would not be allowed to enter the forest areas adjoining their village. In most of the areas the farmers collect firewood from the forest areas. Now that the area has been declared as wildlife sanctuary, farmers would not be allowed to even collect firewood from the forest.

The protesting farmers while talking to The Tribune said that they had been submitting memorandums to the government against notifying their forest under the wildlife sanctuary. However, their demands have fallen on deaf ears of the government. They threatened to intensify their agitation in case the notification for declaration of Dhauladhar wildlife sanctuary is not withdrawn.

The experts over the matter are of the view that while declaring the areas under the wildlife sanctuaries the government should also give a rehabilitation package for affected human populations.

Shimla, February 10
Speculations regarding the government seeking a “vote on account” were set to rest with the Dhumal regime deciding to bring a regular budget for 2009-10 in the Vidhan Sabha session commencing on February 12.

With the impending Lok Sabha polls making only a short budget session possible there were reports that the government could seek a vote on account for three months and pass the regular budget after the polls. More so, because the House has adopted the committee system for proper scrutiny of demands of the various departments. The exercise is carried out during the weeklong recess after the debate on budget. There is no room for recess in a short session.

The government had kept both the options open, but the air was cleared after the Speaker said a regular budget would be presented on February 16 and passed on February 26.

He said so far 402 starred and 141 unstarred questions have been received from members and a majority of them pertain to poly-house scheme being implemented in the state. A good number of queries pertain to development of tourism in the state, while rest of the questions mostly pertain to development works being carried out in the constituencies of the members.

There would be 11 sittings in all and being the first session of the calendar year it would start from the customary Governor’s Address. The motion of thanks on the Address would be passed on February 17 and the supplementary budget wound also be passed on the same day.

Strict security measures would be enforced during the session in view of the Mumbai attack and only those with a valid pass would be allowed entry into the Vidhan Sabha complex.

Shimla, February 10
Taking serious view of the failure of the state electricity board to put complaint redressal mechanism in place for the convenience of consumers the state electricity regulatory commission has ordered independent investigations to ascertain the reasons for inordinate delay. It has also imposed a penalty of Rs 2,000 per day which will continue till the toll free call centre to be set up by the board to facilitate lodging of complaints and other customer-related services starts functioning.

The board was required to establish the call centre by December 2006 in accordance with the directions of the commission, but it failed to do so. The board was given repeated extensions, but it still could not comply with the directions. The call centre is essential as the performance guaranteed standards prescribed by the commission under which time frame had been fixed for attending consumer complaints could not be enforced without it.

The board informed the commission during a review hearing that the call centre was partially ready and made functional shortly. However, the commission refused to take the word of board as it had been carrying out its direction in the right earnest and ordered investigation into the delay to be carried out by the secretary of the board. As the board was granted extension only up to December 2007, it would be required to pay penalty at the rate of Rs 2,000 per day with effect from January 1, 2008, till the date when the call centre is made fully operational. This is in addition to the lump sum penalty of Rs 25,000. The total penalty till today works out to Rs 8.35 lakh.

The computerised call centre will help maintain complete record of the calls received from customers and their complaints on the basis, which the performance of the board in rectifying faults and redressing other complains of the consumers, could be effectively monitored.

Shimla, February 10
Impressed with the initiatives taken by Himachal in its march towards being a carbon-neutral state, the World Bank (WB) has agreed to fund environment-related projects to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore, details of which are being worked out.

The Asia head of the bank today spoke to Chief Minister PK Dhumal on the telephone and inquired about the projects. With Himachal being the first state in the country to have sought carbon credits under various environment-related projects, the WB representatives gave the offer to provide funds to the state at the summit organised by The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), Delhi, on February 7.

“It was at the summit organised by TERI in Delhi where the WB representatives had made the offer of providing Rs 2,000 crore to Himachal for environment-related projects,” Chief Minister PK Dhumal said. The Department of Environment was giving shape to these projects to be submitted to the WB, he said.

Enthused by the offer coming their way from the WB directly, officials of the Department of Environment are preparing the projects that will have to be submitted in a week. Senior officials of the Department of Environment held talks with the Finance Department authorities to seek approval for the projects.

Sources said the WB had already agreed in principle to provide financial assistance to Himachal and only formalities remained to be completed.

Although the carbon footprint per capita of Himachal has been assessed at 0.4 tonne, which is far less than the national average of 1.05 tonne, the hill state is keen that the figure is brought down further.

Himachal took the lead in the country when it sought carbon credits for a number of steps taken by it to protect the environment. These steps include the ban it has imposed on green felling, which has resulted in increase in the green cover. Similarly, the state has launched the Atal Bijli Bachat Yojna under which free CFLs have been provided to all consumers. An MoU has also been signed with GAIL for providing gas through a pipeline to meet the requirements of the industry and transport sectors. The state is also in the process of framing a policy and action plan on climate change.

Una, February 10
The long pending demand of people of the Kutlehed constituency for getting a subdivisional magistrate (SDM) office at Bangana was fulfilled with Chief Minister PK Dhumal announcing the same while addressing a public meeting at Barnoh village, near here, today.

He also announced that Rs 19.6 crore would be spent over Samoor Kalana and Takoli Khad for water harvesting projects and tube wells in the Kutlehed area.

Dhumal dedicated the lift drinking water supply scheme, which would provide drinking water to 17 gram panchayats has been completed at a cost of Rs 5.49 crore.

He said the state government had succeeded in delivering relief and benefit to almost every sector of society during the past one-year. He said the state government had almost achieved the target to provide employment to 26,000 unemployed educated youths. Though the NDA government announced an industrial package for the state up to 2013, the previous Congress government reduced the same to 2010. The CM said the state government had taken up the matter with the Central Government to get the same extended up to 2013.

The CM said there were certain areas in the state, which could be termed as difficult areas where people lack benefit of development and the Kutlehed constituency is also a difficult area where drinking water supply and connectivity of roads is much less than rest of the district.

He promised the people that all-out efforts would be made to provide essential development facilities to the people here. IPH Minister Ravinder Ravi also spoke on the occasion.

Solan, February 10
Having failed to open his account as an elected representative despite contesting on 10 occasions the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate for the Shimla constituency Virender Kashyap today pleaded before the people to put an end to his nearly 30-year-old struggle by voting in his favour.

He was addressing the people during a public meeting at Deothi village where Health and Ayurveda Minister Dr Rajiv Bindal laid the foundation stone of a new PHC building.

Kashyap said he had struggled hard for nearly 30 years for his political career. He had been working hard to develop the area and would continue to work for the people’s development.

Interestingly, out of the 10 elections which he had contested Kashyap had forfeited his security on six occasions.

This old-war horse was now seeking public sympathy for having failed to open a winning account in his political career spanning nearly three decades. Banking on the support of the ruling BJP government Kashyap now believed the tide was in his favour as two-time victorious Congress MP DR Shandil from this parliamentary constituency had a strong anti-incumbency factor.

This dismal record of Kashyap had once again generated a debate in the BJP circles as to why their party was banking on a candidate who had lost on 10 occasions and why the party had failed to nurture any other leader for decades now. Political observers also felt that whenever Kashyap contested as a candidate from other parties he took away a sizeable share of the BJP vote bank thus hampering the BJP from opening its account in this constituency.

The debate was gaining more ground in Solan district as for the first time all five seats had been won by the BJP in the last year’s Vidhan Sabha polls. It remained to be seen how much could Kashyap capitalise from this Vidhan Sabha victory and whether he could open his account now.

Shimla, February 10
Chief Minister PK Dhumal today sought restoration of the excise duty relief for industrial units given to Himachal for a period of 10 years in 2003, but subsequently reduced by three years (till 2010).

Chief Minister has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Minister for Commerce and Industries Kamal Nath to restore the critical component of the special industrial package given to Himachal in 2003 for a period of 10 years. “Although the incentives of income tax relief and investment subsidy are still valid for 10 years, the excise duty relief has been curtailed by the Centre up to March 31, 2010,” he said.

Dhumal advocated the restoration of the relief to attract industry. In his letter, he has stated that Himachal has also been hit by the adverse impact of economic slowdown. Though the state government was trying to cope with the situation, Centre’s help in this regard was a must, he added.

Una, February 10
Mukesh Agnihotri, MLA from Santoshgarh constituency, alleged that before inauguration of the Marketing Committee Building at Santoshgarh, 16 km from here, the Una police and BJP workers created ruckus and manhandled him and other Congress workers. He said they tried to stop the entry of the Congress workers at the function.

He said the name of Una MLA Satpal Satti was put on the inauguration stone, which was objected by him and Congress workers since Satti was not Santoshgarh’s MLA. He said in delimitation of constituencies Santoshgarh would form a part of the Una constituency from the next Vidhan Sabha elections. On this objection the plate was removed.

Mukesh He said no invitation was extended by the district administration for this inauguration function. He said at 8.30 am he received a call from Una DC as well as Una SP that due to some mistake the invitation could not be sent and they both urged him to attend the function.

Hamirpur, February 10
Reports of “reaction” to a few patients in a free medical check-up camp after being injected vitamins has not only put a question mark on this camp, but also alarmed the health authorities.

Complaints regarding reaction were received by block medical officer (BMO) Toani Devi today morning after some of them complained of vomiting, red rashes etc.

Such symptoms among a few patients were reported after hundreds of them were reportedly administered few injections in a free health check-up camp organised by a Delhi-based Life Charitable and Welfare Society at Blute, near Lamblu, two days back.

Acting on these complaints the BMO had asked a health supervisor to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

Interestingly, the society organising this camp had not obtained any permission from the Health Department or informed them about holding this camp, which otherwise is mandatory.

As per the complaints made with the BMO “some black fluids were injected in the health camp to patients ”.

Dr Gupta of Life Charitable Society said, “We had injected the patients with Neurobin Forte containing multi-vitamins in the camp, which help in improving liver and other organs and one patient had complained of vomiting the next day, but was fine later.”

“We have been administering these injections and no complaint has been received; since we were invited for the above camp by goshala people we did not know whether they had obtained the permission,” he said.