Winning students celebrating their victory in SCA elections at a postgraduate college in Hamirpur on Friday. A Tribune photograph

Shimla, August 21
The SFI not only retained its hold over the Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) here, but improved its last year’s performance as the ABVP failed to wrest control of the Communist citadel.

The SFI won all four Students Central Association (SCA) seats. The lone post of vice-president has been won by the ABVP in the HPU after a gap of several years.

With the BJP being in power in the state, the ABVP was very hopeful of improving its presence on the campus.

Barring minor skirmishes, the polls went off peacefully. Over 75,000 students cast their votes in the polls, which were held in the HPU, Dharamsala Regional Centre, 97 affiliated colleges, Sanskrit colleges and the local evening college.

SFI candidates who swept the polls include Gaurav Thakur (president), Vinita Thakur (vice-president), Kusum (secretary) and Pappu Kumar Vardhan (joint secretary).

As far as the girls college RKMV is concerned, the SFI made a clean sweep.

In the Sanjauli College, it was the SFI which won two seats. In the Courtshera College, it was SFI and the ABVP which shared two seats each.

The SFI accused the authorities in the HPU and other colleges of trying to give undue benefit to the ABVP.

“Seeing the popularity of the SFI, the ABVP used unfair means to win the elections,” said Kapil Bhardwaj, state vice-president, SFI.

Similarly, there was some commotion at the RKMV when the authorities disallowed polling agents of all outfits to enter the counting hall till the counting began.

The police had to use mild force against clashing students of ABVP and the Bilaspur Students’ Association (BSA) in Bilaspur after results went in favour of the latter.

HAMIRPUR: Poll results have been a mixed bag for all three main student organisations namely the SFI, the ABVP and the NSUI, in the elections for college bodies which concluded on Friday.

In the prestigious Hamirpur College, SFI candidates maintained their hold for the second consecutive time by making a clean sweep.

Anu Kumari was elected as the president, Manoj Kumar as vice-president, Anil Kumar secretary and Nitish Sharma as joint secretary.

In Baba Balak Nath College, Chakmoh, ABVP candidates won all four seats.

NSUI candidates Umesh Kumar, Raksha Devi, Vinay Kumar and Pooja Kumari won all four seats in Government College, Badsar.

In Degree College, Dhaneta, all four seat were won by independent candidates.

In Degree College, Nadaun, while Keshav, Rajani Devi and Jyoti Malhotra of the ABVP were elected as president, vice-president and joint secretary, respectively, Aditya Mandial of the SFI was elected as the vice-president.

SOLAN: The NSUI on Wednesday managed to win 14 of the 20 seats in the district in five colleges. The SFI managed to procure three seats.

Five colleges falling in the district comprised Government Degree Colleges at Solan, Arki, Nalagarh, SD College, Subathu, and Sanskrit College, Solan, where polls were held for the first time. The NSUI manage to sweep all four seats at Nalagarh College.

In the local degree college, two seats each were bagged by the SFI and the NSUI while at Arki, the ABVP and the NSUI shared two seats each. In SD College, Subathu, the NSUI managed to procure three seats while one was won by the SFI.

SUNDERNAGAR: The ABVP won all seats in Maharaja Laxman Sen Memorial Degree College here. Manoj Kumar was elected as president, Navjot as vice-president, Yadvinder as general secretary and Rimpi Gupta as joint secretary.

In Govt Sanskrit College, Roop Lal of the NSUI was elected as president while the other three seats were won by the ABVP.

In Lamba Thach Degree College, the ABVP won all seats.

NURPUR: The ABVP swept all seats at Government College, Indora, by winning all four posts of the SCA whereas its rival, the NSUI, won three out of four seats in Arya Government College.

In Arya Government College, the posts of president, general secretary and joint secretary were swept by NSUI candidates, Amit Kumar, Pooja and Jatinder Kumar whereas ABVP’s candidate Mamta Sharma could manage post of vice-president.

Significantly, the Azad Chhatar Sangh (ACS), which had consecutively won last two elections of the SCA in this college, had merged into the NSUI.

KANGRA: The NSUI was back in MCM DAV College after four years, bagging posts of president, vice-president and joint secretary.

The post of general secretary was bagged by ABVP candidate Deepika Sharma. In Govt. College, Nagrota Bagwan, all four posts were bagged by the NSUI.

Ranvir Kumar, Arjun Singh, Bhawana Verma and Monika were elected as president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary respectively.

In Bababaroh College, the ABVP bagged all four seats. For the first time, elections for the SCA in the DRPGMC, Tanda, were conducted on Friday but all office bearers were elected unopposed.

DALHOUSIE: The NSUI captured all four seats of DAV College, Banikhet, in the elections held on Friday. Jitender, Munish, Feroz and Shakti were elected as president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary respectively.

CHAMBA: The NSUI bagged three seats while the SFI one in Postgraduate Government College, Chamba.

Suresh Chand of the SFI was elected as president while Gajinder of the NSUI was elected as vice-president.

CHOWARI: The SFI bagged all four seats of the SCA in the elections held at Government College, Chowari. Bali and Sonu Kumar were elected as president and vice-president respectively.

Mandi, August 21
Even as the BJP-supported students’ outfit the ABVP today swept Students’ Central Association (SCA) polls in six colleges including the Vallabh Postgradule College, here, the Congress-supported NSUI, which won in two colleges, smashed window panes, demanding recounting of votes as they blamed college authorities of irregularities in favour of the ABVP.

The NSUI charged that there were irregularities in the counting of votes as the margin of victory was narrow in most seats. They raised anti-ABVP slogans in front of the principal office.

College principal Kusum Bakshi said counting was done in a transparent manner in the presence of NSUI, ABVP and SFI agents and the results were declared after cross- checking details.

After the results, ABVP leaders took out a victory procession in the town and burst crackers to celebrate its sixth consecutive win in the SCA polls at the Mandi college.

They said the NSUI had no moral courage to accept defeat gracefully and their charge was baseless.

The ABVP swept SCA polls at Government College, Lamba Thatch, Dharampur, MSLM college, Sundernagar, and Sarkaghat, won three seats each at Basa Sanskrit College, Sundernagar and Karsog.

Dharamsala, August 21
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has issued contempt of court notices to the managing director, establishment officer and former general manager of Kangra Cooperative Bank, Dharamsala.

These officers have been issued notices for allegedly violating orders of the high court of July 27, 2009, under which it had directed the bank to carry out the process of promotions from grade-IV to grade-III strictly in accordance with the law and without violation of any orders of the government in this regard.

The petitioner, Yashvir Singh Pathania, has alleged that in violation of the high court orders, the general manager of the bank promoted 96 persons, which included his son and two others, who were allegedly ineligible for promotion.

The general manager was slated to retire on July 31, 2009, and was not competent to order any promotion on his own as his powers stood ceased three months before retirement, the petitioner has alleged.

On the petition, these officers of the bank have been asked to be present in person in the high court on August 28.

It may be mentioned here that registrar, cooperative societies, and law department during the stint of previous Congress government in the state, had ordered the bank to terminate services of some employees who were allegedly backdoor entries.

However, instead of making compliance to the orders of the registrar, the bank promoted some recruits in question to officer cadre, allegedly superseding more than 100 other genuine, senior and eligible employees.

Shimla, August 21
The government has decided to order a probe into the alleged irregularities in allowing waiver of special road tax to the tune of Rs 28.37 lakh to favour a private bus operator of Sarkaghat during the previous Congress regime.

The issue was raised in the Vidhan Sabha by Rakesh Pathania (Independent) who termed the waiver as a “shady” affair as no FIR was lodged in respect of the buses which met with accidents.

Transport Minister Mohinder Singh said it was a serious mater as the amount involved was huge. The tax arrears pertained to three buses (HP-28-2511, HP-28-2911 and HP-29-3211).

The reason given for waiving tax was that these vehicles were involved in accidents and did not ply on the allotted routes for the period for which the tax was waived.

A notification, exempting bus operators from payment of arrears of special road tax, was issued on May 2, 2006.

He revealed that bus no HP-32-2911 was not registered with the concerned authority. It also did not have information regarding lodging of any FIR in respect of the vehicle. The Director General of Police said no FIR was ever registered.

In such a situation only an in depth probe could bring the “truth” behind the tax waiver to light.

Earlier, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Sarveen Chaudhary informed Vipin Parmar during the Question Hour that the government would soon amend the policy for recruitment of anganwari workers so that it conformed to the high court decision.

She said in all, 18,248 anganwaris were functioning in the state catering to about 4,24,000 children up to six years of age.

The number of children aged between 3 to 6 years who were being provided pre-schooling, was 1,73,968.

There were only about 750 cases pertaining to alleged irregularities in recruitment pending with various appellate authorities, right from the high court down to the Deputy Commissioner.

Solan, August 21
The manner in which a unit had been auctioned illegally by the Indian Financial Corporation of India (IFCL) has put a question mark over the working of various government departments.

The property in question is a 53.13-bigha plot located at Jharmajri industrial area
of Baddi which was auctioned yesterday by the Excise and Taxation Department
for Rs 8.20 crore.

ETO SD Sharma said M/S Microturner had illegally acquired this plot for Rs 4.50 crore through an auction executed by the IFCL in December last year.

They then started construction activity on the plot in January and this was objected to by the department.

They approached the Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Development Authority (BBNDA) to withdraw a temporary power connection issued to them in lieu of undertaking minor repair, on the plea that the property was owned by Excise and Taxation Department.

Notices were also issued to all concerned departments, including the power board, BBNDA and state pollution control board, to ensure that no utility certificate was issued by them before they issued a NOC to the unit.

But caring two hoots to the laid norms, the power department not only issued a three-phase power connection but also made efforts to install a transformer to bear the entire power load for production.

Failing to stop the work, the Excise and Taxation Department got an FIR registered against the illegal occupation.

Foreseeing a law and order disruption, the SDM finally issued orders to attach this property and the department later sealed it on August 10.

Sharma said the unit had been carrying on production work at night and while the BBNDA kept insisting that there was no change in the shape of the plot a full-fledged boundary wall had been erected.

All this was done after procuring due permissions from the state pollution control board, IPH and power board, though the unit had no title on revenue records.

BBNDA CEO Mamta Chawdhary, when quizzed, said they had issued only temporary permission to procure a power connection to carry on temporary work.

The NOC had, however, mysteriously gone missing as the unit failed to produce it within 10 days when directed to do so on August 4.

Now what’even more intriguing is that the same unit has been acquired in auction by the same owners under the name of AK Automatics for a sum of Rs 8.20 crore.

Shimla, August 21
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal today said a force similar to the coastal guards should be raised for protecting the borders that the hill states share with China, Tibet, Nepal and other countries.

Pokhriyal, who was here to attend the BJP’s “Chintan Baithak”, took time off to discuss inter-state issues with his Himachal counterpart.

“The manner in which the coastal guards maintain vigil and surveillance along the coasts, there is need for a similar force which could protect international boundaries shared by Jammu-Kashmir, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh,” he said at a “Meet the Press” organised by the Shimla Press Club.

Pokhriyal said since the needs of the hill states were different keeping in view their typical geographical constraints, he had advocated for the adoption of special parameters by the Centre while approving schemes for hill states like Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

“The hill states have been jointly pursuing issues of common interest with the Centre so that they get their due,” he said.

Pokhriyal spoke about the potential for developing tourism circuits jointly as the two states shared the boundary and had scope for promoting tourism.

“We too are considering imposing a ban on polythene to keep the state clean and more importantly to cleanse the holy Ganga,” he said.

He also stressed the need for restoring of the special industrial package granted to Uttarakhand and Himachal so that rapid industrialisation along with creation of employment opportunities can take place.

Shimla, August 21
While the state electricity board has been reluctant to probe the burning of 220/66 kv substation at Katha in Baddi, the state electricity regulatory commission has issued a notice to it on the basis of news reports published in these columns.

Taking notice of the news reports, the commission observed that various issues raised in them would have a bearing on the aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) and power tariff of the board.

It issued a notice under Regulation 11 of the (Conduct of Business) Regulations to seek a detailed reply in the matter.

The notice contains extracts from news reports published from Shimla and Solan which pointed out that the board failed to comply with the provisions of the Central Board of Irrigation and Power Station manual and the change effected in the configuration of the substation eventually led to its destruction due to fire.

Further, it had spent about Rs 40 crore on the project estimated to cost Rs 17.12 crore and that overloading appeared to be the most probable cause of fire.

It has been reported that loss worth Rs 4 crore to Rs 6 crore was incurred by the board due to burning of the sub-station.

The exact cause of fire was not clear but presence of 54,000 litres transformer oil on the sub-station premises, according to eyewitnesses, indicated to a blast which later spread to the entire sub-station.

The report that the industry had agreed to use diesel generating (DG) sets to generate as much as 40 MVA power to enable the board to distribute the existing power between the units lacking DG sets, which would put an additional strain of nearly Rs 35 crore (50 per cent of which would be pooled in by the board and the remaining would be borne by consumers), would require approval of the electricity regulatory commission.

The board has been given two weeks’ time to submit its reply to the notice. The matter will be listed after consideration of the reply for further orders.