Shimla, September 20
The Congress has rejected the “clean chit” given by the Vigilance department to BJP leader Rajender Rana in the alleged call-girl episode and termed it as a crude exercise to hush up the matter and reiterated its demand for a CBI probe.

Kuldeep Rathore, general secretary, Pradesh Congress Committee, said there were glaring inconsistencies in the report which had raised more questions and left no one in doubt that the purpose of inquiry was to bail out bigwigs involved in the case.

The report was a pure concoction, factually incorrect and did not reveal the truth. The government needed a clean chit urgently to save its face, he said. However, in process the Vigilance left gaping holes in the report which defied explanation.

According to the report, two rooms were booked by Suresh Attri, an environment department officer, for Anil Sharma, who came from Chandigarh along with Rana.

However, Rana had, soon after the incident, stated in media that he went to the private hotel after he failed to get accommodation at state guest house — Peterhof.

The report maintains that girls present in one of the rooms were relatives of Sharma but the relationship had not been mentioned.

More importantly, Rana, who came along with Sharma, had stated that he was not aware of the presence of any girl in the hotel.

Further, if Sharma had come in connection with a business, why did he bring along his relatives who travelled in a different vehicle, he questioned.

He further added that there was no need for an officer of the environment department to book rooms for a businessman.

There was a nexus between businessmen, politicians and officers which could be unearthed only if the inquiry was entrusted to an independent agency like the CBI.

The manner in which the government had given charge of environment-related departments to a blue-eyed officer, provided ample indications of it.

Rathore asserted that the Congress would not allow the government to brush the matter under the carpet and would continue to put pressure for an independent probe into the incident.

Dharamsala, September 20
The state of Himachal Pradesh was carved out of Punjab in 1966. Una district,
which was a tehsil of Hoshiarpur district in joint Punjab, was also included in
Himachal Pradesh.

Former tehsil was converted into district in this state. However, Lal Singhi village of Una, 1 km from the district headquarters, is still a part of Hoshiarpur district according to revenue records.

According to “farad” (revenue paper indicating ownership of land) issued to villagers by revenue officials, Lal Singhi is still located in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab.

Residents of Lal Singhi village have not been able to sell their land as the original record of the village was lost after Una was merged in Himachal Pradesh.

The residents, even after more than 40 years of formation of the state, have not been able to either divide their land or get it demarcated.

Recently, the government allowed the registries of land in the village. However, mutations of sold land were not affected as the original record was not available.

Since the land has also not been divided between families, frequent disputes mar the development of the area.

After the village raised a hue and cry over the matter, the previous government made efforts to locate the record.

Teams of revenue officials were sent to Hoshiarpur to locate old records. However, the record could not be located.

Thereafter, a new record was prepared. However, the newly prepared record was not accepted or implemented.

The present government also issued directions to prepare record of the village based on actual occupations.

However, officials of settlement office apprehended that this also might not solve the problem. They said actual possessions were already disputed in the village.

Despite all work in progress, it is unfortunate that the Himachal government has not been able to prepare new record of just about 3,600 hectares land in the village to settle the problem of residents permanently.

Settlement officials here blame the first deputy commissioner of Una for failing to procure the record.

Una Deputy Commissioner KR Bharti said new record had to be prepared by the settlement office, adding records prepared twice had been rejected. Lack of record is also leading to encroachments in government land in the village.

Solan, September 20
Peeved at the draconian provision of denial of bail to pharmaceutical manufacturers in cases relating to spurious drugs, the Himachal Drug Manufacturers’ Association (HDMA) has termed the amendment in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act equivalent to POTA and TADA.

The amendment, 36 AC Bail Provisions of the Act, would deny licenced manufacturers found guilty of selling adulterated and spurious drugs any bail opportunity and would also make them liable for life imprisonment.

Association president Sanjay Guleria said this stringent provision should not be levied on manufacturers for minor offences as it was observed that majority of such charges were found to be framed against manufacturers in the past.

While there was no sufficient safeguard to prevent power abuse, rigid bail provisions would lead to unreasonable restrictions on personal liberty of manufacturers.

The association has stressed that a distinction should be made between offences relating to adulterated drugs and other offence of minor nature which will lead to arrest even in cases of substandard drugs.

It demanded that the 36 AC (b) should not be applicable on licenced manufacturers. The plea was also based on the assertion that cases of spurious drugs was not more than 0.3 per cent in the country and in majority of them, involvement of anti-social elements was dominant.

Shimla, September 20
The State Electricity Regulatory Commission has pulled up the state power utility for issuing power availability certificates (PACs) on recommendations of the State-Level Single Window Clearance and Monitoring Authority without proper evaluation.

It has led to a situation where it will have to buy power on short-term basis from the market at very high rates and supply it to power intensive units at a lesser tariff.

“Our understanding is that adequate evaluation of each case is not being made by the power board before it gives its views in the single window authority. In future, in case negative-list industry or power-intensive industry is supported in these structures, the power board will require a commitment from the government to mitigate the uncovered costs from year to year,” says an observation made by the commission in its final order in the case pertaining to grant of PACs to two big steel units requiring 88 MW in Sirmaur district.

The commission pointed out that the board was facing widening demand and supply gap, especially in winter months, as a result of which it would have to incur additional expenditure on this account and this position would continue till 2011-12.

It would certainly impact the tariff determination in relation to the board and also likely to affect the interest of other power consumers in the state.

While considering proposals for PACs the board should examine the disproportionate and adverse impact on its aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) as also to the stability of the grid and ask the government to make provision for subsidy in case the single window institution rides rough shod on the board’s objection, it asserted.

Power commitment, by way of issuance of the PAC, was a contractual obligation to supply the electricity to prospective entrepreneurs on some future dates.

As such the state government and its functionaries had to be very vigilant in making future commitments and in providing incentives to the prospective entrepreneurs to make their investments in setting up their industrial units in the state.

Normally, before such a project is undertaken, a detailed consideration of the
need, viability, financing and cost-effectiveness is carried out at various levels
in the government.

If there is a good reason for a project not to be undertaken, then objection has
to be raised when it is under consideration and before a final decision is taken
to undertake it.

Hamirpur, September 20
The Opposition seems to be in no mood to let the governmenet off the hook over the alleged call girls scandal. Himachal Pradesh State Congress chief Kaul Singh Thakur has demanded a CBI probe into the scandal.

Addressing mediapersons here today he said, “Giving clean chit to a politician involved in the scandal at Shimla was a farce and raises doubts on the working of the Vigilance Bureau. The agency, after keeping quiet on the issue for a long time, has now given a clean chit.”

Demanding a CBI probe, he said, “Only a CBI inquiry can unleash the truth and the government should immediately hand over the case for investigation to the CBI.”

Commenting on the issue, Thakur said, “The BJP government had appointed a property dealer from Hamirpur for an important post and alleged that he was a blotch on the working of the government.”

Thakur accused Chief Minister PK Dhumal for taking false credit of schemes launched by the Central government.

Contesting to the claim of filling up 18,000 teaching posts by the state government during the current term, he challenged, “The state government should come out with a white paper on this issue and if this claim is proved right, I will retire from politics.”

Congress MLA Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Congress president Suneel Sharma and other Congress leaders were also present at the meeting.

Shimla, September 20
Alarmed over the rising number of HIV+ cases, the State AIDS Control Society has stepped up its campaign to spread awareness, carry out blood screening and extend facilities for providing anti-retroviral therapy for the infected patients.

The total number of HIV+ cases detected in the state had increased to 3,530 till March, 2009. The number of full-blown cases of AIDS had also gone up to a significant figure of 608 in a population of about 65 lakh.

The society is focussing on creating awareness which is key to protect people from the dreaded disease.

A special campaign “Zindagi Zindabad” was launched in four districts in the state---Hamirpur, Shimla, Kangra and Solan--- under which 350 integrated performances of folk shows, quiz and video shows were organised.

The society has pressed into service mobile publicity vans to reach out about 90,000 people in 350 locations.

A state-wide toll free HIV-AIDS helpline had been started to provide information about various aspects of the AIDS control programme.

The response was good and as many as 1,825 calls were received during a period
of four months.

The Red Ribbon Clubs are also gaining popularity in the state, especially in educational institutions, and so far 166 such clubs have come up in colleges and another 75 such clubs have been formed by various NGOs.

An anti-retroviral therapy centre (ART) is functioning at the IGMC, Shimla, where 591 patients are undergoing treatment.

Shimla, September 20
As many as 34 bikers participated in the “Mountain Cycling” event organised by the BSA Adventure Hills in collaboration with “Team Avalanche”, a local adventure club, near here today to promote cycling in the city.

The event saw participants riding 18 km on all kinds of roads and walking tracks around Mashobra and Kufri, much to the delight of the crowd.

The first part comprised an uphill track leading to the “Retreat”, the summer residence of the President of India.

Thereafter, the track dipped down to Mashobra and passing through Bekhalty road, reached Kufri via a tough 2 km uphill climb, the last point before the final descent back to the starting point.

Children from Stokes Memorial Public School displayed exemplary spirit by completing the entire route without assistance, even at places where the steepness forced them to dismount and push their bikes uphill.

Rakesh Verma, the lead cyclist in the event, said, “I have stopped using my motorcycle since I discovered the joys of peddling.”

Shimla, September 20
The Northern Railway has awarded the construction work of Bhanupali-Bilaspur-Beri broad gauge railway line for the construction of first 3 km of new railway line at a cost of Rs 17.25 crore.

This was revealed by Chief Minister PK Dhumal on receipt of a communication from the Northern Railway here today.

He said it was possible due to relentless efforts of the State government, which emphatically took up this ambitious rail project with the Centre.

“The construction of this railway line will ease out the traffic congestion, strengthen infrastructure development and help minimise pollution to a great extent,” he said.

He said with the coming up of Bhanupali-Bilaspur-Beri railway line, the state would get all-weather, accessible and sustainable transportation and would also open new vistas for tourism development.

He said the pre-feasibility survey of this rail link had been done by the state at its own cost. While the cost share of this railway line would be borne by the Centre and state on 75: 25 basis respectively.

Shimla, September 20
The first power plant of the region based on the “waste heat recovery” technology will come up at Barmana in Bilaspur district with the government giving approval for setting up an 8 MW unit to the ACC Limited--its Gagal Cement factory.

The plant, which will utilise waste heat generated from the kilns of the two cement plants of the company, will cost about Rs 71 crore. It will generate over 60 million units annually.

Besides generating power, the project will also help in bringing down emissions from the two units and enable the company to earn carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism.

While the installation capacity of the plant will be 8 MW, the net energy available will be about 7.5 MW as 0.5 MW energy will be used internally for operating the plant.

The proposed power plant will incorporate a waste-heat recovery boiler in which fed water is exchanged with exhaust gases to produce steam for the turbine system.

The Barmana plant has two big kilns which throw out 1,000 tonnes of hot air and gases every hour which carry abundant energy to generate power at a temperature of 320 degree Celsius.

The biggest advantage of the project is that unlike thermal plants, it will not require any fossil fuel or other material input for operation.

The power generated will be a by-product of the cement plant and will virtually be like renewable sources of energy.

The waste heat recovery system technology is being used in industrially advanced countries like the US and Japan for quite sometime.

In the recent years, China has adopted the technology in a big way and also refined it. In India, so far, only five such power plants have been set up by cement manufacturing units in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.

The total installed capacity is 35 MW against potential over 600 MW. The potential will be much more if all industries producing hot air and gases adopt the technology.

Shimla, September 20
To keep a tab on sale of stolen gold, the police has issued guidelines to all jewellers in the town to establish the identify of the seller and take his thumb impression.

The guidelines have been issued as several incidents of sale of stolen gold came to light. Jewellers have now been asked to establish the identity of the seller if it is an unknown person before buying gold from him.

“They have been directed to take an affidavit from the seller with his name, address along with the thumb impression, so that it is easier to trace out stolen jewellery,” said SP, RM Sharma.

He held a meeting with jewellers of the town and their association. He said in case the names turned out fictitious, the thumb impression would help identify the thief.

“To make the system foolproof, jewellers have been asked to make payments only through cheque and no transaction be made through cash,” he said.

Sharma said it was only a week back that a woman from the Krishnanagar area of the town was arrested in connection with a theft.

“While she claimed that she had sold the stolen 45 gm gold to a jeweller, the shopkeeper said he had only bought 26 gm and given her a receipt,” he said.

He said since it was difficult to verify who was speaking the truth, it was decided to have guidelines for jewellers to which they should adhere very strictly.

Chamba, September 20
Finally getting its act together, the district Narcotics Task Force has decided to wage a special campaign to uproot cultivation of cannabis (bhang) in the district.

The beginning of this crusade would be made initially from the far-flung Tikrigarh panchayat of Churah subdivision in Chamba district.

Deputy Commissioner Devesh Kumar said the exceptional squad constituted to uproot cultivation of cannabis would take up other identified areas in sequence after the assignment in Tikrigarh panchayat was over.

The DC directed the police to keep a strict surveillance on the anti-social elements involved in drug-trafficking and smuggling of narcotics and asked them to launch an awareness drive about the detrimental effects caused due to intoxicants.