Shimla, July 3
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal expressed his disappointment over the Union Railway Budget presented in the Lok Sabha in which the hills state has been totally ignored.

He said it was not fair on the part of the Centre to ignore interests of the people of Himachal Pradesh. Although he had been pursuing the matter with the Prime Minister, Union Finance Minister and Union Railway Minister for inclusion of new railway projects and expansion of the existing railway line, but nothing came out of it, he said.

The projects he had taken up included Mandi-Manali-Leh rail line, which had strategic importance from Defence point of view, the Bilaspur-Bhanupalli railway line and the
Chandigarh-Baddi Railway line, for which surveys had already been conducted.

He said it was unfortunate that the Centre had ignored all these projects in the Budget.

He alleged that Himachal Pradesh was ignored because it was a peaceful state whereas states like Jammu and Kashmir and the north eastern states, which faced problems on the law and order front, were given special package or special railway corridor. Such policy was not in the larger interest of peace-loving people of state, the Chief Minister added.

Meanwhile, the state BJP chief Jai Ram Thakur also said people of Himachal had been very disappointed as despite having two union Cabinet ministers the claims of the state had been practically ignored in the Railway Budget presented today. “People of the state have been disappointed as the Pathankot-Jogindernagar-Leh rail line has not even been considered despite the fact that the Congress had tried to take credit though it was the brainchild of Chief Minister PK Dhumal,” he said.

He said there was no mention of even the Bhanupalli-Barmana rail line for which the state government had made a provision of Rs 37 crore. “There is practically nothing for Himachal in the budget as no budgetary provision has been made for the Una-Talwara and Parwanoo-Kalka rail lines,” he regretted. 

Shimla, July 3
With a view to preventing recurrence of ragging incidents leading to serious consequences as in the Aman Kachroo case, the state police has asked Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) and all SPs to ensure that anti-ragging mechanism is in place in all colleges falling under their jurisdiction.

The IG (Law and Order), Pradeep Kumar, has written to Vice-Chancellor of the university Sunil Kumar Gupta to take up this matter with all private and government colleges, including technical institutes affiliated with it, to have anti-ragging committees and disciplinary committees to check the menace.

“I have asked SPs of all 12 districts to ensure that educational institutes, both technical and non-technical falling under their jurisdiction, should have anti-ragging measures in place,” he said. He added that they had been asked to remain extra-vigilant at the beginning the new session.

Following the death of a first-year student, Aman Kachroo, at Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College, Kangra, due to the alleged ragging, Gopal Suramaniam, the amicus curiae appointed by the Supreme Court, had made certain recommendations. He had suggested that the SPs and SHOs concerned under whose jurisdiction educational institute falls could not be absolved of the responsibility in case ragging-related incident takes place. In fact, the college authorities are including a police officer in its anti-ragging committees that are being constituted in various colleges all over the state.

“We have decided to hold a meeting with heads of all educational colleges in the district so that they can be sensitised and informed about the strict adherence to the Raghvan committee recommendations with regard to check ragging,” said Shimla SP RM Sharma. He informed that a DSP rank officer had also been included in an anti-ragging committee constituted at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC).

A copy of the Raghvan committee recommendations and observations made by the Supreme Court appointed amicus curiae have been provided to all district police chiefs. The amicus curiae has suggested that the SHO, under whose jurisdiction a particular college falls, should be made responsible to ensure that no ragging takes place in the educational institute.

Shimla, July 3
A high-powered committee on narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances has decided to adopt a multi-pronged approach to combat the growing drug menace in the state.

It has decided to take care of all aspects ranging from cultivation and trafficking of such substances and rehabilitation of addicts.

The committee, headed by Chief Secretary Asha Swaroop, at its first meeting held here last evening acknowledged that it was not a mere law and order problem to be tackled by the police alone. However, it was a social evil that needed to be eradicated with collective efforts of the government and society and by involving various other departments, educational institutions, students’ parents and panchayati raj functionaries.

Taking a firm action under law against drug peddlers, a coordinated campaign will be mounted to wean people off from the production, consumption and trading of drugs.

A massive awareness drive will be launched in schools and colleges by involving the education department and parents of students for which material will be provided by the police.

Sports and other co-curricular activities will be increased to ensure that students were not swayed by drugs.

The public relations department will also educate people about the adverse fall out of drug trafficking on society. Possibility will be explored to delegate powers under Section 53 of the NDPS Act to revenue, excise and other departments concerned to check trafficking and illegal sale of drugs by chemists to supplement efforts of the police.

Officials of forests, revenue, agriculture, horticulture and other departments would be sensitised about the problem and advised to inform the police whenever they came across poppy or cannabis being grow in or around villages.

The agriculture and horticulture departments will also prepare projects for raising alternative high-value crops like vegetable seeds and medicinal plants in areas under illegal cultivation of cannabis and poppy mostly in Kullu, Mandi, Chamba and Shimla.

Shimla, July 3
The government will construct a new circuit house and more accommodation for lower categories of employees in the state capital.

Stating this while reviewing functioning of the general administration department here today, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said suitable land would be identified for the project and efforts would be made to start work at the earliest.

He said it had been a long-felt need of the city to create adequate boarding and lodging facilities to cater to the hospitality requirements of state guests, officials on duty and visitors from within and outside the state. He directed the authorities to initiate effective steps to finalise the proposal.

The existing PWD rest house near Raj Bhawan would also be renovated. There were only 1,937 housing units available in the capital and thousands of government employees were awaiting allotment from the pooled accommodation.

He asked the department to identify old government buildings which were being used as pooled accommodation and prepare detailed plan to replace the same with new multi-storeyed residential buildings. 

Dharamsala, July 3
The policy adopted by the current BJP government for allotting power projects was causing financial loss to the state exchequer. This was stated by GS Bali, former minister and MLA from Nagrota Bagwan, while talking to mediapersons here today.

The companies that were allotted power projects in January this year had failed to deposit even the earnest money till date, he added.

The present government had allotted power projects of 1,900 MW generation capacity in January this year under the new policy. As per the rules, about Rs 350 crore should have been deposited with the government. However, till date just Rs 20 crore had been deposited, he said.

He alleged that as per old policy prevailing at the time of the Congress, the companies were made to bid for per MW power. Besides, they were bound to give 12.5 per cent royalty of free power to the Himachal government. However, the present government changed the policy and fixed Rs 20 lakh per MW as fee and told the companies to bid for maximum free power that they could offer to the state government. The result was that the companies, that had been allotted power projects, were not even depositing the amount fixed for per MW power, he added.

He said the government should cancel projects of companies that had deposited fixed fee for power projects with the government. By allowing companies to extend the date for depositing the amount, the state government was causing financial loss to state exchequer.

He also alleged that small power projects were hitting the interests of farmers. The companies running such projects could not store water.

However, in many cases, the water was being stopped by such power projects.

The result was that natural khuds and rivulets had dried up. 

Dharamsala, July 3
The Central Water Commission (CWC) has sanctioned the Rs 147-crore Phina Singh canal project of the state government.

This was disclosed by Minister for Irrigation and Public Health Ravinder Thakur while addressing a press conference here today.

He said the CWC had also cleared Rs 311-crore for the Shah canal under the accelerated irrigation benefit scheme. The agreement for constructing the Shah canal was executed between the Punjab and Himachal government in 1982. The initial cost of construction of canal was about Rs 143 crore. Share of the Punjab government in the cost of canal was 60 per cent, that came to about Rs 88 crore.

However, the Punjab government contributed just Rs 67 crore.

Due to delay in construction, the cost escalated to Rs 311 crore. Now, the Union government has agreed to contribute 90 per cent of project cost as grant. The remaining 10 per cent cost would be shared by Punjab and Himachal in 60 and 40 per cent ratio, respectively.

He claimed that the previous Congress government had failed to take benefit of accelerated irrigation benefit scheme of the Centre.

The minister also said due to deficient rainfall this year, the state government had to deploy about 650 water tankers across the state. On each tanker, the government had to spend Rs 2,200 to Rs 3,000 per day.

The minister also flayed the recent fuel price hike affected by the UPA government. He said rise in price of diesel would have direct impact on prices of essential commodities.

Palampur, July 3
Palampur and its adjoining areas like Maranda, Gopalpur, Nagri, Chamunda and Bundla were lashed by heavy rain accompanied by hailstorm and high-velocity wind, causing widespread damage to the fruit crop. Many parts of the town were flooded with rainwater.

Low-lying areas were adversely hit. Higher reaches of Dhauldhar ranges and Bara Bhnagal experienced unusual snow in the month of July.

According to reports, several trees were uprooted and power supply was also affected. Hailstorm and rain continued for more than a hour. Vehicular traffic was also affected at many places.

A spokesman of HPAU agronomy department said overall the rain was very beneficial for paddy plantation in the region. Besides, it would give boost to the maize crop which was affected by the drought, he added. 

Shimla, July 3
Public Works Minister Gulab Singh said the government would encourage to build tunnels for better road connectivity and construct by-pass roads around major towns to ease traffic congestion.

Addressing mediapersons at a “meet the press” programme, here today, he said pre-feasibility reports had been prepared for five tunnels, four of which were proposed to be constructed in Shimla. However, the most important tunnel would be the one proposed under Bhubhu jot to connect Mandi and Kullu districts, which will reduce the distance between Jognidernagar and Kullu by 63 km.

Some more tunnels were also in the pipeline, including one at Ranital and other under Swarghat. He said tunnels not only protected environment but also reduced cost of travel by shortening distances.

In many cases, the cost of tunnel worked out to be less than that of the long-winding road on slopes required in its place.

Traffic congestion had been another major concern for which the government had decided to construct by-pass roads in major towns in a phased manner.

The government also planned to connect all villages with a population of 250 or more by roads by 2012 and a Rs 412-crore proposal had been submitted to the Centre for approval. 

Bilaspur, July 3
The BJP government in the state is trying to escape from its responsibilities to solve problems of people of the state and is behaving in such a manner as if this is the entire responsibility of the central government.

This was stated by state Congress vice-president and former minister Ram Lal Thakur while addressing mediapersons at the Circuit House this afternoon.

He asked if all problems and difficulties of the state people had to be solved by the central government then what was the role of the state government?

Thakur alleged funds of most of the centrally-financed projects like the Mid Himalayan Watershed Project and NREGA scheme were being misused.

He urged the Centre to come forward with a system of introducing district and block-level monitoring committees of the people to ensure the proper implementation and to avoid misuse of funds. — OC

Bilaspur, July 3
Peeved at the inclusion of some Muslim leaders in the State Waqf Board, two leaders, state general secretary of the state Muslim Welfare Society Sabar Din and president of the district Muslim Committee Khair Din, have urged Chief Minister PK Dhumal to order proper scanning of conduct of the members as there were some “allegations” levelled against some of them.

They said the members should not have been included in the organisation that caters to the welfare of the community.

Addressing mediapersons here today, the leaders said the BJP government should not commit the same mistake that the former Congress government had once committed by nominating Muslim leaders to this body, who did not belong to the state and had nothing to do with the Muslims of the state.

The leaders demanded that those who did not belong to the state should be dropped out of the board as was done by the former regime of Virbhadra Singh when one of the board office-bearers was shown taking a bribe on TV channels from a Hazi.
— OC