Dharamsala, July 22
Yet another case of blatant misuse of Pong Dam Oustees Development Agency (PODA) funds has come to the fore. Information received under the RTI has revealed that Rs 33 lakh was spent on constructing inns for the oustees in the year 2002 in Anupgarh, Ghadsana, Gamnewala and Ramgarh areas of Rajasthan and Raja Ki Talab area of Himachal.

The motive for construction of inns was to provide housing facilities for oustees travelling to and fro.

However, since its construction, they have remain unoccupied. The reason being the construction quality is so poor that they are unfit for occupation.

Following complaints against poor quality of construction, a technical audit team was sent by the Himachal government to inspect the inns in the year 2004. The team, in its report, declared all inns as unsafe for human habitation. Despite the report, no action has been taken against the people who were responsible for poor construction and wastage of money meant for the welfare of the oustees.

Ashwani Sharma, an oustee who has been carrying a crusade against alleged corruption in PODA funds, said about Rs 1.5 lakh was spent on furnishing the inns. However, no furniture is available in the inns now.

In addition to that, the office of Deputy Commissioner, relief and rehabilitation, spent about Rs 5 lakh on its inauguration. Buses were hired from J&K for carrying oustees to Rajasthan for the function which was presided over by the Chief Minister.

A few shops were also constructed in the inns. However, just one shop has been given to a beneficiary, that too without any rent.

Since the government has failed to take any action in the matter, Ashwani Sharma is now planning to move the court.

Mandi, July 22
Over 79 “babus” or clerks working in the Deputy Commissioner’s (DC) office for the past 25 years have turned the work place into their own fiefdom. The Right To Information (RTI) Act has exposed an “unholy nexus” of these clerks posted in the DC office, raising questions not only about the transparency of work in the office, but also making a mockery of the“transfer policy that advocates transfer of an employee after three years of service at one place”.

According to RTI information, there are over 79 clerks in 13 branches in the DC office. Most of them have not been transferred ever since they were posted in these branches.

There are examples of babus where they have not changed their seats for the past 20-25 years as there is none to challenge their monopoly. They are the ones who call the shots, the RTI revealed.

From the licence branch to the copying branch, revenue branch to “kanungo” branch, these babus have created a nexus, manipulating every job at hand as even successive DCs could not do much about them because of their political links.

The RTI further exposed that over 41 babus of the DC office had availed government accommodation despite the fact that most of them had their own houses. Some of them had sub-letted the government houses to others, submitting “false declaration” to the administration, the RTI showed.

RTI bureau president Lawan Thakur said the government should order transfers of all employees posted in the DC office for the past 20-25 years as they had blocked entry of other employees. Mandi DC Onkar Sharma dismissed the queries stating that the government did transfer them from time to time.

Shimla, July 22
Despite names of many bureaucrats in the state figuring in the “officers with doubtful integrity” (ODI) list prepared on the directions of the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), they have been assigned important postings with almost one-third of the districts being headed by them as DCs and SPs.

Notwithstanding the clear directions of the CVC that such officers whose name figures in the ODI should ideally not be given important public dealing postings, four DCs and three SPs in the state have the ignominy of their names being on the ODI.

It is mainly owing to their political connections and suitability to the “netas” that they have found favour not only with the present regime but also during the Congress regime. The manner in which a district police chief who was shifted sometime back for not the very best reasons has made a comeback in that very district, has left everyone completely flummoxed. It’s a different matter that his lobbying to get a plum district like Kangra failed to yield results.

The names of 72 officers, including IAS, IPS, IFS, HAS and other class I and II officers right up to the level of tehsildars figures in the list. The fact that the state is facing a shortage of IAS and IPS officers also compounds the problem of the political regime.

The posting of IAS officer Subhash Ahluwalia, facing a disproportionate assets case, as Divisional Commissioner, Kangra, sometime back had also raised doubts about the commitment of the government on the issue of zero tolerance towards corruption. “When he was posted divisional commissioner reservations had been expressed keeping in mind the charges faced by him and this opinion was conveyed to the top political bosses in black and white by the Vigilance Bureau, only to be ignored,” admitted a senior bureaucrat.

The ODI list is prepared by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau in consultation with the head of the department. Even though the list has to be updated annually, in the state this exercise has not been undertaken since 2006. As a fresh beginning, the ODI list for the Police Department has just been updated and the task hopefully will be accomplished for other departments, including the IAS, Indian Forest Service, HAS and other class one posts.

“Our endeavour is to update the list in all departments and we hope to accomplish the task at the earliest as per the directions of the CVC,” said DS Manhas, DGP (Vigilance).

Seeing the sensitivity of the issue, even the IAS and IPS Officers Association chose not to question the wisdom of the political bosses with regard to postings and refused to comment on the issue of a complete go by being given to the CVC directions.

Shimla, July 22
Mumbai-based ship manufacturing and repairing company ABG Shipyard Limited has bagged three out of the last five remaining hydroelectric projects in the state for which bids were invited last year.

A new entrant into the power sector, the company quoted the highest free power, over and above the mandatory free power to be provided as royalty, to secure the 126 MW Bardang project, 102 MW Rashil project and 104 MW Tandi project in the Chenab basin. As many as 13 companies were in race for the projects with aggregate capacity of 496 MW.

The 104-MW Lara Sumta project in Spiti valley was bagged by Calcutta Electricity Company and the 60-MW Patam project by Chandigarh-based Surya Pharmaceutical Company.

The average free power offered for the five projects, over and above the mandatory 12 per cent (for the first 12 years), 18 per cent (next 18 years) and 30 per cent (remaining 12 years) to be provided as royalty came to 10.5 per cent as against the average of 15.5 per cent for the 14 projects allotted last year on the basis of free-power based bidding.

The highest free power of 12.64 per cent was quoted for the Patam project to be developed as a run-of-the river scheme on Patam Nallah, a tributary of the Chenab, to generate 286 MU of energy annually.

The free power quoted for successful bidders for the other three projects was Tandi project (11.10 per cent), Lara Sumta (10.59 per cent) and Badrang project (10.10 per cent). The low free power quoted by independent power producers (IPPs), being seen as a correction process as the first ever free-power based bidding, saw bid as high as 26 per cent. The successful bidders later realised that they had erred on the higher side as a result of which a majority of them sought more time for depositing the upfront premium.

The government, last week, allowed time extension of 30 days to the IPPs for depositing upfront premium in respect of Seli (320 MW), Kuling (40MW), Mane Nadang (70MW), Lara (60MW), Kilhi Bahl (7.5 MW), Siul (13MW) and Dugar (236 MW) projects. 

Shimla, July 22
Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh has accused the Dhumal government of encouraging outsiders to acquire land in the state and using covert means to circumvent Section 118 of the Land Reforms and Tenancy Act under which non-Himachalis are debarred from purchasing land in the state.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said the decision to grant Himachali certificates to outsiders residing in the state after 15 years would hurt the interests of the Himachalis, particularly in the matter of jobs.

There were already over 8 lakh unemployed youth in the state and granting Himachali certificate to outsiders would further affect their job prospects. Himachali certificates were granted only to those who were living in the state since generations. He said rules were being amended by the Cabinet in violation of the Act to facilitate transfer of land to outsiders under various garbs.

He alleged that covert means like “benami” deals were being done on a large scale and most of the land in the border areas of Sirmour and Solan districts had been taken over by outsiders. He demanded withdrawal of the amendments in rules for grant of Himachali certificates and demanded an inquiry into transfer of land to outsiders.

Precious land was being given to various favoured parties in the name of making the state an education hub and parties with no background or experience in the field were given a go ahead for setting up universities, he alleged.

Referring to the statement of Buta Singh, chairman of the National Commission on Scheduled Castes, that the state government was not implementing various schemes in letter and spirit, Kaul Singh said Chief Minister PK Dhumal had even failed to give due representation to the community in his ministry which had only one minister. In contrast, there were three ministers and two Chief Parliamentary Secretaries in the previous Congress government. 

Naina Devi, July 22
Lesser number of pilgrims made a beeline to the Naina Devi shrine on first shravan navratra today.

The temple officers and administration officials attributed it to the last year’s tragedy, which has forced many to either postpone or cancel their pilgrimage. However, some pundits at the temple were of the opinion that due to the solar-eclipse today, most of the pilgrims have headed for Kurushetra for taking a “purification” dip.

“It is believed that around 15,000 people paid obeisance at the sanctum sanctorum today,” said  Raj Purohit.

Last year, the same figure was around 50, 000 on the first day of the navratra. The shrine will remain closed from 12 at midnight till 2 am during, which temple officers and administration would count the offerings of the day as well as the head count. The organisers expect the number of visitors to rise by Thursday or Friday. Last two navratras are expected to draw even bigger crowd.

Acting on its last year’s programme, the organisers are sending groups of pilgrims in batch of 200 each. The pilgrims are packed up into a batch at the bus stand itself, from where they climb stairs to the shrine. A total of 1,028 police personnel have been deputed for the security and help of the pilgrims.

Shimla, July 22
The Sierra Club, the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organisation in the US, has awarded the “Green Energy & Green Livelihood Achievement Award” to Ecosphere Spiti, an organisation working in the tribal belt of Spiti in Himachal Pradesh.

Two organisations share the award — Ecosphere Spiti from the Spiti valley and Barefoot College in Rajasthan, led by social entrepreneur Bunker Roy.

Ecosphere Spiti has won the award for successfully creating sustainable livelihood linked to conservation and eco-tourism.

Each award comes with a Rs 20-lakh prize and a trophy to be presented at the awards ceremony in Mumbai on July 30.

The award represents the club’s growing interest in building international partnerships to address climate-change mitigation and adaptation.

Hamirpur, July 22
A girl was killed and two women were injured after lightning struck them while working in their fields this morning.

Police sources said, “Priyanka (14), daughter of Munshi Ram of Badehadi village under the Bhoranj police station, was killed when lightning struck her while she was working in her fields around 11 am and she died on the spot.”

Two women, Anuradha, wife of Chhangu Ram, and Sarojini Devi, wife of Om Prakash, of the same village also sustained burn injuries. The injured have been admitted to Government Hospital at Bhareri.

The district administration has announced an ex-gratia grant of Rs 10,000 to the family of the deceased and Rs 1,500 each to the injured.