Shimla, May 20
The Rs 64-crore Giri Lift Water Supply Scheme has come under a scanner even before it could achieve its full capacity to supply 20 million litres of water per day to the state capital.

The government suspects a big scam in the implementation of the project
commissioned last year in view of the constant leakage in the 43 km pipeline
and the high cost of execution.

The scheme was estimated to cost Rs 40 crore and the cost overran by more than
50 per cent.

Further, as against the designed capacity of 20 million litres per day the scheme has been supplying only about 8 million litres per day.

Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal suspects a scam in the implementation of the project.

He has ordered an inquiry into the matter and sought a detailed report on the scheme on the basis of which further action will be taken.

Preliminary information available with the government points out a “faulty design” and use of material unsuitable for hills.

The bends in the long pipeline have become permanent source of leakage. Technical experts maintain that it will not be possible to plug the leakage and continue.

The technical experts are of the view that ductile pipes used for bringing water from Giri are not suitable for the hill terrain. It was the main reason for persistent leakage.

However, engineers of the irrigation and public health department, however, maintain that the scheme has already been tested up to a capacity of 13 million litres per day and that leakage had already been plugged.

The 8 million litres per day being supplied was more than sufficient to meet existing requirement which was around 31 lakh litres per day.

The department was also facing problems in operating the machine due to the non-
availability of quality power.

The transformers were located far off as a result of which there was significant voltage drop, affecting pumping.

The matter has already been taken up with the Himachal state electricity board.

Shimla, May 20
The state government today extended incentive of concessional rate of central sales tax (CST) for industrial units, reduced VAT on canteen stores department (CSD) items and granted letter of intent (LoI) for setting up three more private universities in the state.

The decisions were taken by the State Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal here today.

As per the decision, CST will be charged at the rate of 1 per cent from industrial enterprises up to March 31, 2013, or till the time it is phased out by the Government of India.

Further, VAT on the CSD items, including IT products, will be levied at rates on par with states of Punjab and Haryana.

LoI were granted in favour of the Gopi Bai Foundation Trust, Kota (Rajasthan), the K.D. Education Trust , New Delhi and Sri Sai College of Engineering and Technology (Society), Badani (Pathankot) for setting up of private universities in the state.

The Cabinet mooted the idea to introduce carbon tax to ensure that the polluting industries switched over to the green technology under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

It approved amendment in the Mukhya Mantri Kanyadaan Yojna, 2006 to raise the income limit for beneficiaries from the existing Rs 7,500 per annum to Rs 15,000 and authorise district welfare officers to disburse the financial benefits.

It decided to issue final notice to the parties allotted hydroelectric projects who had failed to deposit the upfront premium.

All such companies will be required to deposit the amount by June 15, 2009, failing which the allotments will be deemed to have been cancelled.

It granted approval for filling three vacancies of inspector in the weight and measure department on contract basis

It decided to provide forest land under the control of the forest department to State Forest Development Corporation Limited on a token lease for setting up depots and carry on with their timber sale activities conveniently.

It decided to upgrade the posts of lecturer to that of senior lecturer in the nine polytechnics under the control of the department of technical education.

It gave nod for engaging surplus class IV employees of Agro Industrial Packaging India Limited (AIPIL) to fill vacancies of chowkidar in the department of environment, science and technology.

Shimla, May 20
Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal today asserted that electorate who boycotted polls en masse to register protest for whatever reasons deserved no special consideration.

Talking to mediapersons here he said that people of different areas could have genuine grievances but to boycott elections to highlight these was not done.

Not exercising the right to franchise as a mark of protest virtually amounted to negating the democracy.

Replying to a question regarding failure of certain private establishments to grant holiday to employees on the polling day he said action would be taken against those who failed to comply with the provisions of the negotiable instruments act.

He said that the government had decided to provide seed to farmers for the kharif sowing on 50 per cent subsidy in view of the massive damage caused to their crops during rabi season.

The deputy commissioner had been asked to grant transport subsidy to farmers for procuring fodder from outside the state. A detailed report on the loss caused to crops by drought was being prepared.

The government had decided to monitor the functioning of the departments directly dealing with public like the PWD and the irrigation and public health.

The public works department had procured 46,000 drums of bitumen during winter so that tarring of roads could be undertaken in the short working period during summer.

The government had increased the budget for maintainance of roads by 68 per cent and provided Rs 92 crore for the purpose.

Besides, surface renewal of existing roads, tarring of 1214 km of new roads would also be carried out.

Shimla, May 20
The amended retention policy, aimed at attracting votes in the Lok Sabha elections, failed to yield dividends to the ruling BJP as it could not secure lead in Shimla, Kasumpti and Shimla (rural), having maximum number of building bylaws’ violations.

As compared to 3,215 applications received for regularisation of unauthorised structures last time, the number of fresh such cases received by the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department from all over the state is merely 1,272. The number of cases from Shimla and suburbs alone is 813.

Being viewed as a populist measure, the retention policies have come in for severe criticism as these only ended up encouraging violators.

All new cases are to be processed by June 30. As per changed parameters, it is likely that many of these may also be rejected.

Interestingly, the ruling BJP failed to reap the benefits of offering a retention policy just before the Lok Sabha elections.

Contrary to expectations, the Congress managed a lead of 700 from Shimla, 265 from Shimla (rural), while BJP got a negligible lead of 75 votes in Kasumpti.

The vote percentage indicates that it is a complete myth that populist measures like retention policies can be sure means of getting votes.

The number of people who have applied under the fresh retention policy has come down as the extent of deviation to be regularised has been brought down from 50 to 40 per cent.

Moreover, only minor violations will be regularised and the unauthorised structures will not be considered for the purpose at all.

Though it was being said that the latest retention policy was ambiguous about the number of storeys, sources said only the prescribed number of storeys within a particular area, whether restricted or core, would be considered for compounding.

Solan, May 20
The Barotiwala branch of UCO Bank was allegedly robbed of Rs 6.81 lakh at gunpoint by four unidentified youths this afternoon.

The police said four armed youths entered the bank premises around 1.30 pm and caught hold of the lone security guard.

Out of the four youths, two took hostage all employees and the security guard in the bank’s main hall while the third entered into the manager’s room, leaving the fourth youth to take control of the cashier.

Later, two of them took manager Sudershan Sood and cashier VK Manchanda to the bank’s strongroom at gunpoint and forced the officials to hand over the cash from the strongroom to them.

After taking the cash in a bag, the two youths moved out of the bank on foot while the remaining two kept the rest of the bank staff silent. Later, both disappeared on a bike parked outside.

Police officials said the involvement of locals could not be ruled out, as the first two youths walked out conveniently.

According to eyewitnesses, the miscreants disappeared towards the Haripur-
Dhar Road. As a well-planned strategy, the miscreants first made the security
alarm defunct.

Bank officials informed the Barotiwala police, which soon arrived at the spot to take stock of the situation. The SP had to rush from Nalagarh where she had gone to inspect a murder spot.

DIG Pradeep Kumar when contacted said he was going there and informed that a case of robbery had been registered as the incident involved four robbers though the possibility of more men being involved could not be ruled out.

He said special police teams had been constituted and the bordering areas had been sealed. The police, however, failed to find any breakthrough in this robbery till the filing of this report.

Officials, however, maintained that since the miscreants escaped on bikes, it was difficult to nab them as there were a number of escape routes.

Employees of industrial units opined that this broad daylight robbery had once again exposed the declining law and order situation.

Hamirpur, May 20
The Additional District Magistrate (ADM), Hamirpur, who is conducting a probe into the allegations of beating up of inmates of the Bal Ashram, Sujanpur, by the staff has detected “gross irregularities” in the functioning of the ashram.

The ashram run by the Social Welfare Department came under the scanner of the ADM two days ago when he received complaints of alleged beating up of inmates, not serving them proper food, lack of facilities and putting inmates to manual labour.

On his visit to the ashram on Tuesday, the ADM found children peeling vegetables. The staff present there failed to provide him the record about the facilities being given to the inmates.

Noticing some other irregularities, he sealed the record of the ashram, which provides shelter to 25 orphans.

ADM Vijay Chandan said, “When I visited the ashram, some of the inmates were
peeling vegetables, which they are not supposed to do since the ashram has
proper cooking staff. However, no one came forward to confirm reports of beating
up of inmates.”

Chandan said, “We have prepared a report on the functioning of the ashram for submitting it to the director of the Social Welfare Board.”

MLA Kishori Lal has urged the government to assess the losses and provide relief to the affected people. The damage was maximum in Banjar and Aani subdivisions.

Several boulders rolled down the hill slopes, disrupting traffic at several places on the Aut-Pandoh stretch of the national highway.

The Kullu-Bhuntar road also remained blocked for sometime near Mohal due to the falling of a tree.

Kangra, May 20
Tension gripped the Kachiari locality on the outskirts of this town following the death of a ward member of the panchayat when he was crushed to death by a truck this evening, the police said.

The SDPO, Kangra, O.P.Jamwal, said Joginder Singh, 40, was waiting for a bus at Kachiari Chowk when a truck (HP 72 0388) turned from the Pathankot side towards the Kangra bypass and crushed him to death.

The irate mob broke the windscreen of the truck and blocked the Pathankot NH and Kangra bypass demanding arrest of the driver who after the accident left the vehicle and fled from the scene.

The traffic on both sides of the national highways remained blocked till the driver was arrested under Section 279 and 304 A of the IPC.

Jamwal said the truck driver, identified as Balraj, a resident of Bangana, later surrendered to the police. The body of the victim was later on taken for a post-mortem examination to Dharamsala.

Kangra, May 20
Government property worth Rs 5 lakh was destroyed in a devastating fire that broke out at Government Primary School, Dard, near Chamunda Devi Shrine yesterday.

Station in charge of a fire station Madan Singh said the entire building, which had six rooms, was engulfed in flames when fire tenders reached there.

He said two adjacent rooms, however, were saved by the firefighters during the operation. The cause of the fire could not be established.

Sources said the fire was noticed by some passersby at 8 pm and within a few minutes the entire building was engulfed in flames.

Desks and benches of the primary classes were reduced to ashes. The police is investigating into the matter.