The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Himachal Pradesh Edition

Sukh Ram’s conviction embarrasses Congress
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 20
The conviction of former union telecom monster Sukh Ram by a Delhi court in a case of disproportionate assets has come as an embarrassment to the Congress which could have repercussions in the ensuing Lok Sabha poll.

Cases against the veteran Congress leader had been going on for the past over a decade but he has not only managed to survive politically but also kept his electoral base in tact all these years.

In fact, he was instrumental in bringing the BJP to power in the state in 1998 after he parted ways with the Congress and floated his own party in the name of the Himachal Vikas Congress.

The honeymoon with the BJP lasting five years apart Sukh Ram remained a Congressman all through during his long political career spanning over five decades.

He virtually announced his retirement from electoral politics in 2007 to make way for his son Anil Sharma who successfully contested the assembly poll from Mandi.

Sukh Ram still has a strong following in the state, particularly his home district Mandi, thanks to the telecom revolution he brought in the state as union minister.

Though he had declined to contest Lok Sabha poll in view of cases pending against him, he was considered to be the strongest candidate from the Mandi seat along with former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

Thus, the development could hurt the electoral prospects of the Congress in the ensuing polls, though leader of the opposition Vidya Stokes maintains that it will not have any impact on the party’s prospects.

The cases were old and moreover, it was not the final verdict as he would certainly appeal against the decision, she adds.

The BJP, though obliged to Sukh Ram for bringing it to power, will try to make most of the issue during the electoral battle.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has already given an indication to this effect by urging Sukh Ram to come out with the names of the Congress leaders who conspired against him.

The BJP did form the government with his support but he resigned from the ministry after charges were framed against him by the court.

Further, he was in the Congress when the cases were registered against him and he was in the same party even now, he pointed out.

The actual impact of the “Sukh Ram factor”, which weighed heavily in the past elections, will be known only after the polls.

But it’s a sad day for the veteran leader who had only recently declared that he would not contest elections until discharged honourably in all the cases against him.

PTA teachers defer stir
Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 20
The PTA Lecturers and Teachers Union has decided to defer the proposed agitation in view of the examination of the class XI and class XII.

In a statement issued here today, state president of the union Vivek Mehta said the decision to defer the agitation had been taken in the interest of students and the fact that the government had given positive indications for solving the problem of the PTA teachers.

“In our meeting with the Chief Minister last evening, we have been given assurance that no PTA appointee will be removed from service intentionally and even in those cases where they have been removed because of transfer or promotion, orders will be modified,” he said.

Mehta said the Chief Minister had, however, not given any assurance with respect to formulation of a permanent policy for the PTA teachers.

He said the representatives of the PTA union had even raised the problem of language teachers, who had not received any grant for the last two years.

“The Chief Minister has assured us that he would look into our problem and discuss it with the department officials,” he said.

Mehta said some of the teachers who had been wrongly removed by applying the new policy of May 27, 2008, in retrospective to their appointment had been given relief by the high court.

He added that the decision would give relief to several other teachers who had been thrown out on wrong grounds.

The PTA that had called off its agitation sometime back after receiving an assurance from the government that they would get justice had again made up their mind to protest against the injustice being meted out to them.

Now, the union had decided to postpone the agitation and give more time to the government to act.

Budget doesn’t address state’s problems: Musafir
Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 20
Former Speaker and senior Congress leader GR Musafir has termed the budget for 2009-10 as an incomplete document that failed to address the problems the state would encounter due to the economic slowdown.

Participating in the budget debate, he said the state would feel the impact and it was for the government to take required steps to mitigate the woes of the people. However, no concrete measures had been outlined in the budget.

The financial position was worsening and no effort had been made to contain the outstanding debt that was rising at an alarming rate, he said.

While the plan spending was increasing, the growth rate was declining and this phenomenon required careful analyses to pinpoint malaise plaguing the economy.

He also disapproved of the policy of appointing staff on contract basis against regular posts and following proper recruitment procedure.

He pointed out that no provision had been made for the implementation of the pay commission report and also the annual plan of Rs 2,700 crore was yet to be approved by the planning commission.

Randhir Sharma (BJP) said it was for the first time in 2008-09 that the state had recorded a higher economic growth rate than the country.

While the national growth rate was 7.2 per cent that of the state had touched
7.7 per cent.

The previous Congress government had provided only 3,386 jobs during its five-year tenure, whereas the BJP regime had recruited 26,000 employees in the first year.

Govt gets respite on unbundling
Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 20
The BJP government has got the much-needed respite on the issue of unbundling of the state electricity board with the union ministry of power giving extension till June 15,2009, in view of the impending Lok Sabha poll.

A general decision has been taken for all states which have so far not carried out the unbundling exercise in accordance with the Electricity Act 2003.

Since the code of conduct could come into force any time the states would not be in a position to take any major decision till the election process was over.

However, the states have been asked to submit the road map for the unbundling so that exercise could be effected at the earliest.

The board had become an illegal entity as the Centre had declined to give an extension beyond July 31, 2008, and informed the state that its transmission utility licence had expired.

The state electricity regulatory had also served a notice on the government seeking information about the legal status of the board.

Question Hour
Plan to amend law on care of parents
Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 20
The government, which took lead by enacting a law making it mandatory for children to take care of their old parents, proposes to make it more comprehensive by incorporating some of the provisions for the central Act passed subsequently.

This was stated by Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Sarveen Chaudhary while replying to a question of Satpal Satti (BJP) in the Vidhan Sabha during question hour today.

She said the effort of the state in enacting the Maintenance of Parents and Dependents Act to secure the welfare of parents during their old age was appreciated by the Centre and it also decided to enact a similar law.

The central law had some good features that were not part of the state act.

For instance, the central law provided for suo motu action in such cases and also covered non-resident Indians.

The state law would be suitably amended to include such missing provisions.

Over the past three years, 80 complaints were received out of which 68 had
been disposed of.

In 30 cases, the respondents were asked to pay for the maintenance of parents, while 16 complaints were rejected.

In 22 cases, the parties reached a compromise and 12 complaints were pending,
she said.

Chief Minister PK Dhumal assured the House that those involved in cases of harassment of students in professional colleges would be dealt with sternly.

Over the past four years, three cases of suicides by girl students had taken place in a private dental college at Paonta Sahib. In one of the cases, some teachers and students were found involved in harassment of victim.

A case was registered against three teachers and eight students and a challan was also presented in the court.

The administration of the college had been asked to appoint a psychologist as counsellor to help develop positive attitude among students.

It had also been advised to hold frequent parent-teacher meetings to sort out
the problems.

He said strict action would be taken if any cases of harassment by teachers were brought to the notice of the government.

Dehradun girl is winter queen
Our Correspondent

Manali, February 20
Annie of Dehradun was crowned winter queen at the Winter Carnival-2009 here last night. Gita of Mandi was the first runner-up and Garima of Shimla was declared second runner-up at the five-day carnival.

The results of other competitions are: personality contest (Men): Aaki of Chandigarh was first, Vikrant of Manali stood second and Chitvan of Jaipur stood third.

Voice of Himalayas: Ramesh Thakur of Kullu was first and he won a cash prize of Rs 75,000, Mukul of Solan was second and won a cash prize of Rs 50,000 and Deepika of Mandi was declared third and won a cash prize of Rs 25,000.

Annie of Dehradun was declared Miss AHM-2009, Shakshi of Jammu won the Miss Best Hair Style, Sanehl of Karnataka was declared Miss Photogenic and Chanchal of Jaipur was declared Miss Beautiful Smile.

The best-behaved team award went to the Gotke College, Karnataka and Mandavya Kala Manch, Mandi, won the overall trophy.

Traffic jams way of life at Palampur
Ravinder Sood

Palampur, February 20
The traffic situation in Palampur town has gone from bad to worse over the past two months as the administration has failed to identify proper parking places for vehicles. Frequent traffic jams have become a common feature in the town.

Long queues of vehicles can be seen in almost all parts of the town during morning and evening hours.

In the absence of any initiative by the local administration to tackle the situation, its failure to identify parking places and shortage of traffic police personnel, the situation has gone beyond control.

Though Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had laid the foundation stone of a parking lot for 300 vehicles around six months ago, construction work had not begun so far.

Municipal council president Ajit Bagla said Rs 30 lakh was sanctioned for the project, but tenders could not be invited because of directions from higher authorities.

The MC was keen to go head with the project, but the BJP government had changed its plan, he alleged.

Meanwhile, the traffic police had allowed the entry of heavy vehicles in the town. This was expected to aggravate the problem of traffic jams in the town.

The narrow Mandi-Pathankot national highway passing trough the town could not take this much of traffic load.

Besides, the municipal council had allowed fruit and vegetable vendors to sit alongside the highway.

Earlier, the SDM and the DSP had banned the entry of buses in the town and made the Holta bypass operational, but the administration had now again allowed the entry of heavy vehicles into the town because of political pressure.

Scanty rains leave 17480 hectares area unsown
Lalit Mohan
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, February 20
The scanty rains during rabi season this year has adversely hit the farmers of the state. According to the data collected from the department of agriculture 17480 hectare area in the state remained unsown due to lesser rains.

Besides, the low rainfall has also affected the yield of both wheat and vegetables
in the state.

Professor NN Angiras, head of department of agronomy in Palampur agriculture university, when contacted, said this year 102.9 mm rainfall was received in Himachal in rabi season extending from October to January.

It was 51 per cent below normal range of 211.4 mm that is received in the state.

Out of this 21.5 per cent rain was received in October, 1.2 per cent in November, 30.6 per cent in December and 46.8 per cent in January.

Angiris said that the scanty rains in rabi season had become a phenomena but for the past year.

During 2005-06 and 2006-07 even the lower rainfall amounting to 64.5 mm and 61.6 mm, which was 65 and 71 per cent, respectively, lower than normal.

This year November was practically dry in the state with very little rainfall received in Shimla, Kinnaur, Mandi and Kullu districts.

During December good amount of rainfall was received only in the higher altitudes of Kullu, Lahaul and Spiti, Chamba and Kinnaur districts. Whereas, either no or little rain was received in Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Solan and Una districts this month.

The experts are of the opinion that due to change in climate that can be attributed to various reasons, including global warming, agriculture experts would have to draft sowing plans for farmers.

In case the farmers continue with the practice of growing traditional wheat and rice crops in rabi and kharif season they are likely to suffer losses due to uncertain rains.

Man found dead
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, February 20
Ramesh Chand Chaudhary, assistant manager of the Central Bank of India branch at Yol was found dead under mysterious circumstances near the Dharamsala bus stand.

The police sources here said that the deceased was a resident of the Amb area in Una district and was posted at Yol.

From a preliminary investigation, the police officials revealed that it seemed to be
a case of accident.

A liquor bottle was also recovered from near the body. It seems that the deceased was drunk and fell down in the ditch.

1 killed, 6 hurt in mishap
Our Correspondent

Kullu, February 20
One person was killed and six injured, two of them seriously, in an accident when the stacking tower structure collapsed inside the tunnel at Shlah village, near here, of the third phase of the 2,051-MW Parbati Hydro Electricity project.

According to sources, these workers were working in the distilling chamber when the 10-metre high tower gave way killing one of them on the spot. The injured were rushed to the regional hospital here.

The deceased was identified as Durga Dass, son of Mukul Dass of Kangra. The injured were identified as: Abhimanyu, Chandan Gupta, Sukhdev Singh, Virender Gupta, Prakash Bahadur and Ravi.

Administrative officer of the L&T Company Vinod Sharma said all possible help would be rendered to the victims.

Meanwhile, the trade union leaders condemned the indifference of the L&T management towards the written warning given by the CITU about the miserable condition of the stacking tower.

CITU president Dalip Singh and secretary Prem Dev said the company did not heed to their demand for strengthening the tower and alleged that the accident happened due to the indifference. The police reached the spot to take stock of the situation.

Mild snowfall in apple belts worries orchardists
Our Correspondent

Chamba, February 20
Orchardists of Chamba district are worried over the untimely and mild snowfall in the high altitude areas of the region where the apple orchards exists.

They are still hoping for snowfall because apple plants need required temperature for a certain chilling period during the winter season for bumper apple harvest.

The areas of Bharmour, Holi, Tissa and Salooni, besides certain other pockets in Chamba district are replete with thriving apple cultivation.

According to Janam Sing, Subahas Kumar and Harbans Lal (apple growers of the area), livelihood of hundreds of families is dependent on the apple crop as it is the cash crop for these hilly people.

Last year, the orchardists have to suffer a huge loss due to damage to their flowering apple plants in the absence of timely snowfall.

Official sources said 9673.8-hectare area of the district is under apple cultivation and 4086.32-hectare area is under the cultivation of walnut and other dry fruits.

While the average production of apple every year is 11,262 metric tones and the production of walnut and other dry fruits is 1,322 metric tones.

Due to untimely and less snowfall in the last winter, the production of apple had gone down to near 40 per cent, the official sources revealed.

SC welfare board reconstituted
Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 20
The government has reconstituted the Scheduled Caste Welfare Board under the chairmanship of Chief Minister PK Dhumal to monitor the progress of schemes launched for the welfare of SCs.

The Social Justice and Empowerment Minister will be its vice-chairperson, while chief secretary, the principal secretaries, the secretaries of industries, finance, forest, PWD, Home, IPH, revenue, MPP and Power, education, rural development and Panchayati Raj, urban development, personnel, cooperation, social justice and empowerment, will be its members.

The Director, Social Justice and Empowerment, will be its member secretary.

The non-official members include Ramesh Solmi, Goshal (Keylong), Sita Ram, (Shambhuwala, Nahan), Ram Ditta (Sangni, Chamba), Chando Ram Baloria (Laad, Bhattiyat), Raj Singh (Dhama, Bhattiyat), Barfo Ram (Kohladi, Chamba), Megh Raj Dhengta (Kiarvi, Kotkhai). The tenure of the board will be three years.

Kidwai replaces Dhawan
Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 20
National general secretary of the Congress Moshina Kidwai has been made in charge of Himachal Pradesh in place of R.K. Dhawan.

The Congress high command has also constituted a five-member screening committee for the forthcoming Lok Sabha poll in the state under the chairmanship of Janarthan Diwedi.

The other members are Kumari Sheilja, Moshina Kidwai, Kaul Singh and Vidya Stokes.

Bali lashes out at govt for harassing oppn
Our Correspondent

Kangra, February 20
Former Transport Minister and sitting MLA from Nagrota Bagwan G.S. Bali today lambasted the Prof P.K. Dhumal government for allegedly harassing the opposition leadership and grassroots level workers were not spared on 'technical grounds' only to have political vendetta and that he deplored this government’s action.

Bali was addressing a press conference at his residence here today.

He said that the government had been raising a hue and cry about corruption
during the previous government after it assumed power and had been ordering
only the baseless inquires.

He asked if there was an iota of truth in the allegations, the action should have been driven by the moral authority.

He alleged that village pradans aligned with the Congress party were being harassed now by the government which he described was unfortunate.

While criticising the recent budget presented by the Chief Minister, he said there was nothing for the unemployed youths and women in it.

He demanded the government should have kept a provision of financial aid for unemployed youths in this budget.

He alleged that no posts were being filled in Dr R.P.Govt. Medical College at Tanda despite the earlier assurances by the government and demanded to strengthen the staff in this college.

He said 2500 youths were interviewed for 25 posts of ward boys for this hospital but appointments were not made even after the lapse of a few months.

He said the government should understand the seriousness of the problems both the visiting patients and the staff of the hospital were facing and that it should take steps to redress them.

Bus accident: Death toll rises to 5
Our Correspondent

Kangra, February 20
With two more injured passengers of the ill-fated bus, which rolled down into a gorge at Dehrian village on Baroh-Aerla road yesterday, succumbing to their injuries at Dr RP Government Medical College, Tanda, late last night, the toll has gone up to five.

Kangra ASP Shubhra Tiwari said the two dead persons were identified as Khatloo Ram (65) of Jandhra and Dhuni Chand (64) of Dhanuva.

She said both bodies were sent for a post-mortem examination today.

Thirty-six injured passengers were under going treatment at Tanda medical college. Driver of the bus was also among the seriously injured.

Awareness campaign
Our Correspondent

Kangra, February 20
President of the State Youth Congress (YC) Manmohan Katoch said the party would launch a public awareness campaign in the state.

It would expose propaganda of Dhumal-led BJP government, which was misleading the people by taking “undue credit” for the Centre-sponsored projects. He stated this while addressing mediapersons at Hotel Jawalaji in Jawalamukhi yesterday.

He said the YC workers would take achievements of Manmohan Singh government to the village-level and unravel the truth about the BJP’s false propaganda.