Dharamsala, March 18
A three-member team of the Medical Council of India today visited Tanda medical college to investigate into the ragging case and know the circumstances that led to the death of first-year student Aman Kachroo recently.

The team, however, reportedly failed to extract much information from students and staff of the college. The team comprised Joint Secretary (Health) P Prasonnary, head of the urology and transplant surgery department of the DMC, Ludhiana, Dr Baldev Singh and professor in pathology from AIIMS, New Delhi, Dr Manoj Kumar. The team held a press conference on the college premises in the evening.

The visiting members said, “Nobody in the college is ready to open his mouth. However, a questionnaire has been distributed among 250 students and faculty members of the institute to extract information about the episode. The questions aimed at knowing whether ragging was prevalent in the college and what circumstances had led to the death of Aman.

The team reached the college campus around 10 am. A meeting was held with the college principal in the rest house. Later, members of the team called about 250 students and faculty members to the college auditorium and questioned them regarding the incident. However, none was forthcoming with any information. They were then distributed questionnaires to collect indirect information.

The members said they were collecting information about ragging for the period from 2005 to 2008. The report so generated would be handed over to the MCI on March 25. The MCI would further submit it to the Supreme Court.

The members said the penalty to be imposed on college would be decided by the MCI.

They questioned the warden and the manager of the hostel in which the Kachroo episode had taken place. They also questioned the former principal of the college, who had resigned after the incident.

The state government was planning to spend Rs 100 crore under the aegis of the Union Government to upgrade facilities at the college. There was also a plan to start postgraduate classes from the coming year.

However, as per recommendations of the Raghavan committee that had advocated disaffiliation of institutes that failed to check ragging incidents, the expansion plans of the college might be in jeopardy.

The visiting members of the MCI team, however, declined to comment on the likely action against the institute or its authorities.

All four accused students in the case are in police custody till March 19.

Shimla, March 18
The special court today rejected the bail application of forest range officer, Theog, PC Sharma, who was booked in a case of alleged misappropriation of public funds.

Special Judge JL Gupta rejected his bail plea after perusing the record of the case and sent him on police remand till 
March 21.

According to the State Vigilance Department, the forest range officer was allegedly involved in bungling of funds under the Catchments Area Treatment Plan in Theog forest range. A case was registered against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act. It is pertinent to mention here that the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had recovered Rs 60 lakh from the office of a forest range officer, Theog.

However, the court granted bail to divisional forest officer (DFO) Bharkha Ram, who is also allegedly involved in this case.

Bharkha Ram, who after rejection of his bail from the high court was arrested by the Vigilance Bureau on March 13. The DFO faces charges of misappropriation of funds meant for the Catchments Area Treatment Plan in the Theog forest range.

Sharma was caught with Rs 60 lakh, which he had allegedly withdrawn after seeking sanction from the DFO.

Solan, March 18
With virtually little progress in getting NH-21A, falling between Baddi-Pinjore, repaired despite sanction of funds the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industries Association (BBNIA) and the Laghu Udyog Bharti (LUB) has finally filed public interest litigation (PIL) in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The PIL was admitted today before a division bench, headed by the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court and presidents of BBNIA Rajinder Guleria and LUB MP Sharma, brought before the court the issue of repair of NH-21A lying between Pinjore-Baddi and its four or six laning as per the traffic volume.

Guleria said, “It was utter failure of the Haryana PWD in undertaking timely repair and widening of this road despite our repeated requests that we were forced to seek judicial remedy. This was lamenting to note that the matter was also pursued with the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways but the abject neglect of the Haryana Government has forced us to take this drastic step.”

A BBNIA delegation also had a series of meetings with the officers of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways at Delhi and persuaded them to provide relief to the daily commuters by initiating some repair. Though the chief engineer from the ministry had also inspected this road a few days back and had meeting with representatives of the association, little was visible on the road, the association rued.

Peeved at this abject neglect of the ministry and the Haryana Government the BBNIA in association with LUB filed a writ, which was treated as PIL. In its petition the association urged the HC to give directions to officials of the Haryana Government and the ministry for immediate repair of NH-21A from Pinjore to Marranwala to Baddi without any delay and also requested to give directions for its widening as per the traffic volume.

The Bench of the HC in its orders has given directions to the State of Haryana through its secretary PWD, engineer-in chief, executive engineer in-charge as well as to Union of India through secretary Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to file its reply within a period of four weeks. The next date of this case has been fixed for April 24.

Shimla, March 18
The Himachal Government is preparing a detailed report on the drought-like conditions created in the state due to scanty rains and snowfall during the winter season to seek assistance from the Centre for carrying out relief measures and providing water and fodder in the affected areas.

Stating this while reviewing the functioning of the revenue department at a meeting here today, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the state was likely to face a severe problem of water scarcity and animal fodder shortage during ensuing summer and the rabi crop would also be affected.

He said the field staff of the revenue department had been directed to send detailed reports of crop loss.

The state had suffered heavily due to incessant rains during monsoon with loss on account of damage to crops and public and private property amounting to over Rs 2,000 crore. The Government of India had so far not provided any funds for carrying out relief and rehabilitation measures to the state.

Dhumal said out of the total 1,51,320 cases of mutation, demarcation and partition as many as 1,20,929 cases had been disposed of between May 1, 2008 and January 31 2009.

He directed the revenue authorities to examine the possibility of empowering naib-tehsildars to decide the partition cases and if required necessary amendment be made in the prevailing provisions after seeking the legal opinion.

He asked the deputy commissioners to expedite disposal of all pending revenue cases at their level in a time-bound manner.

The computerisation of land records was nearing completion and data entry in respect of 18,344 villages out of the total 20,871 revenue villages had already been completed. So far 83 tehsils had computerised the Records of Rights in respect of 16,952 villages.

He underlined the need to speed up digitisation of cadastral maps pilot project launched in Sirmour and Chamba districts.

To prevent use of fake stamp papers Himachal Pradesh Stamps Franking Impression, Rules, 2008 were required to be implemented to save cumbersome paper work and ensure transparency in land deals.

Chief Minister directed the authorities concerned to get the relief and rehabilitation cases relating to Pong Dam, Bhakra Dam and Chamera Project settled at the earliest.

Mandi, March 18
Thanks to the shrinking water discharge in the rivers due to the prolonging dry spell, the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board-run 13 hydropower projects have hit their lowest mark in power generation. Most of these projects are generating just half of what these were producing during the same month last year.

In fact, rivers like the Beas, the Sutlej, the Ravi and their tributaries have turned into lean streams. According to the inputs gathered here by The Tribune, the 126-MW Larji project generated just 7 lakh units of electricity today, which was less by one million units produced on the same date last year.

The reason: The water discharge in the Beas stands at 52.5 cumecs as compared to 89.5 cumecs last year on this day.

The story of power generation at various projects on the Sutlej is no different. The 120-MW Bhawa project was producing just 5.5 lakh million units of electricity, which was quite less than 7.7 lakh million units produced on this day last year, sources added.

The power generation is at its lowest at the 6-MW Binwa, 10.5-MW Gaj, 12-MW Baner, 12-MW Khauli, 60-MW Bassi, 22.5-MW Ghanvi, 2.5-MW Nogli, 1.7-MW Chaba, 7-MW Giri, 16.95-MW Andhra and 3-MW Guma projects, where the production has come down to half of what was produced last year, sources revealed.

Among the worst-hit projects is the Binwa project, which is producing just 1.7 lakh units as compared with 5 lakh units produced in mid-March in 2008. The Gaj, Baner and Khauli, Ghanvi projects are producing only 40,000, 40,000, 5,000 and 70,000 units this year as compared with 1.2 lakh, 1.1 lakh, 1.6 lakh and 1.4 lakh units, respectively, last year, sources added.

In the Pabbar valley in the Yamuna basin, the Andhra project was producing 45,000 units, the Giri project was producing 45,000 units as compared with 1.7 lakh and 1.95 lakh units, respectively, produced in 2008 on the same day, sources revealed.

Engineers said sources of rivers had receded drastically and the discharge hit a new low. The situation could turn alarming if the dry spell continued further, they added.

Dharamsala, March 18
Proprietor of MK Enterprises Transport Company Mukesh Sharma, who is one of the main accused in the bitumen scam, might join the investigation soon.

Brother of Mukesh, Rakesh Sharma, said the former would join the investigation in near future. The company had transported 60,000 drums of bitumen from HPCL and Indian Oil depots in Panipat to Himachal. “We have got receipts of all deliveries made to the PWD or other departments in the state,” he added.

The company also had receipts carrying signatures of PWD officials concerned in respect of supplies made at Una, where allegedly 900 drums of bitumen had gone missing, he claimed.

“Vigilance officials had asked us to supply VAT details as regards the bitumen drums transported by our company to Una. We procured details under the RTI Act and submitted these to vigilance officials,” he maintained. Even HPCL officials had confirmed the delivery of bitumen drums at their destination, he said.

About Mukesh, he said he was away to some works in Uttarakhand.

Vigilance officials have procured arrest warrants against Mukesh and they have been camping at Chandigarh to arrest him.

SP (Vigilance) Santosh Patial said details of the documents submitted by the transporters were being examined. “We have procured arrest warrants against Mukesh, but he is free to join the investigation,” he said.

Bilaspur, March 18
The state government has failed to keep regular ration supplies in the government depots putting people into great difficulty and thus proving its inefficiency to run even a state government properly.

This was stated by state Congress vice-president and former Minister Ram Lal Thakur while addressing a series of election meetings at Behal, Kodali and Jagat Khanam, near here, yesterday.

Thakur is presently organising second phase of his election campaign in the Naina Devi constituency.

Thakur, who was a former Forest Minister, said he had got sanctioned Rs 365 crore World Bank-financed Mid-Himalayan Project to the state during his tenure, but now he was shocked to find that the project had turned into a BJP affair and had allegedly become hot bed of irregularities and misuse of precious funds.

He demanded a high-level inquiry into all charges levelled against functioning of this project in the field and said if this demand was ignored then the Congress would have no alternative except to move court.

Kullu, March 18
A meeting of the district-level standing committee constituted for enforcement of the model code of conduct during the process of elections to the Lok Sabha elections-2009 was held here today at the Bachat Bhawan.

Members of the recognised political parties, authorities of the department concerned and the assistant returning officers attended the meeting.

While addressing the meeting, chairperson of the committee, district election officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, M Sudha Devi urged the members to ensure strict compliance of the model code of conduct issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the interest of free, fair and impartial elections.

She said the cases of violations would be dealt with stringently under the provisions of law. She further directed the political parties to abstain from defacing public and private properties by displaying posters, banners, handbills, cut-outs and hoardings.

She hoped that the candidates would abide by the guidelines of the ECI for the use of vehicles, loudspeakers, helipads/maidans and rest houses during electioneering campaign thereby creating a healthy and peaceful atmosphere.

Bilaspur, March 18
Achievements of the former BJP-led government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the Centre and its sanctioning of projects and other financial benefits worth thousands of crores to the then state BJP government would be some of the important election issues in this parliamentary election.

This was stated by former MP and now state party Election Management Committee chairman Suresh Chandel, a three-time BJP MP and a former party state president, while addressing mediapersons here today.

He said anti-people policies and decisions of the present Central Government led by the Congress and achievements of the Dhumal government during its rule would be additional issues, which would be highlighted among masses to prove the stark difference between the governments.

He said top party leaders Shanta Kumar and PK Dhumal would be the star campaigner for the party candidates and their statewide tour itinerary had been finally drawn. He said he was in no doubt that the party would win all four seats in the state.

Chandel lashed out at the Central Government for failing to fulfil even its declared commitments to the state and thus meeting a stepmotherly treatment to this hill state though the Dhumal government had left no stone unturned to ensure creation and filling of 26,000 posts and providing unprecedented benefits to all sections of society.

Rewalsar, March 18
A 22-year-old “mentally challenged” tribal girl from Lahaul valley, Dolma (name changed), who, along with her parents, was here on a visit to the ashram of their religious guru, Padam Sambhav, was raped by a roadside “chatwala” three days ago.

The victim was medically examined at the zonal hospital and the report had confirmed rape, sources said. The accused, 22-year-old Naresh Kumar of Riur panchayat area, was produced before a judge, who remanded him in police custody till March 21.

The parents of the girl had brought her here to be blessed by their religious guru. They told the police that they had come here in January from Keylong and wanted to spend winter here. “But our daughter was lured away and raped,” they rued and burst into tears.

Victim’s mother Yangmo (name changed) had stated in the FIR lodged at the Balh police station that her daughter had gone to the nearby market to buy some vegetables on Monday. “But when she did not come back even after a long time, I went out to look for her. But I could not trace her,” she added.

When she returned home, she saw her daughter was already there. “She told me about the incident,” she said. The FIR was lodged yesterday.

Mandi DSP Bhupinder Thakur said the accused had been arrested and remanded in three-day police custody.