Shimla, October 1
While maintaining that the Indian forces were well trained to offset any strategic advantages that China has, Lt-Gen A.S. Lamba today admitted that the construction of the Manali-Leh rail line would give India an operational benefit in the form of an alternative route, which will help in forward induction.

Lt-Gen Lamba who took over as the GOC-in-C of the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) said here today that the shift in the preparedness of our forces from being west-centric to addressing threat from China would take care of all future risks from any quarter in the world. He said with the kind of rail link China had it certainly gave it the logistical benefit of moving its troops and equipment faster, thereby compressing the movement to one season.

Lt-Gen Lamba while admitting that India had till recently been Pak-centric in its thinking said the strategic security balances seemed to be fast turning from unipolar to bipolar and further into multipolar keeping in mind the dynamics at the regional level. “The threat on the eastern side can be appropriately addressed only through synergy with the Air Force, the Navy and other strategic resources,” he opined.

He assured that the the Army was fully prepared and geared up for the next and not the last war.

“Training on the western side is definitely far more difficult due to various factors like shortfall of training areas and hostile and extreme weather conditions all the year round but there is no reason to suspect India’s preparedness as we are well guarded and our troops well trained,” he assured. He added there was no way India could be caught off guard as our defence forces had come a long way since 1962 and there had been a review of threat in view of changes happening on the East.

He said in the changing scenario the biggest challenge for the developing countries was to optimise the budget restraints to meet our need for equipment and manpower training. “The ARTRAC here is the think tank of the Army and carries out highest level of doctrinal and conceptual changes keeping in view the future requirements to ensure victory,” he remarked.

Shimla, October 1
The Atal Bihari Bijli Bachat Yojna under which 64 lakh compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) were distributed free of cost to domestic consumers will lead to significant energy savings, though far less than the initial projections made by the state electricity board.

The monthly data indicates that about 12 to 14 million units of electricity are being saved, after taking into account the normal annual growth of around 9.5 per cent in domestic power consumption. The saving in April was 11.83 million units and in May 13.92 million units. As such the total annual savings was likely to be 150 to 160 million units.

In terms of installed capacity the energy saving will be equivalent to 30-MW of power as against 70-MW estimated by the board when the scheme was framed. The board had subsequently scaled down the quantum and in the application for tariff before the state electricity regulatory commission pegged the energy savings at 200 million units.

Nevertheless, it was quite significant as the board will have to purchase less power to meet the peak winter demand and it will have more power at disposal for sale outside the state during summer.

In all 1,45,456 CFLs were fused with the failure rate at 2.56 per cent, well below the provision of 5 per cent in the contract for supply. The companies replaced the faulty lamps as per the terms and conditions of the agreement under which fused devices were to be replaced up to a period of 18 months.

The board has engaged a consultant for preparing the project design document (PDD) for claiming carbon credits. The document was likely to be finalised within this month after which validation exercise will be carried out. Field exercise for determining the actual quantum of energy savings has been started with a sample of 1,000 domestic consumers, 500 each in baseline survey group (incandescent lamps users) and project survey group (CFL users), belonging to different economic status. Their energy consumption is being metered from September onwards and the comparative figures will enable to calculate the actual saving of energy for the purpose of carbon credits.

If the PDD is approved and validated, the board may earn up to 1.5 lakh CER (certified emission reduction) annually. At the current rate it will fetch over Rs 1 crore annually for the next 10 years.

Shimla, October 1
People living in remote areas will no longer have to make repeated visits to various offices in connection with routine matters like obtaining a driving licence, renewal of arms licence and other services with the state government launching its own SMS gateway to provide citizen-centric services through mobile phones here today.

They will have to visit the office concerned only once to submit the application in which the mobile phone number will have to be mentioned. Thereafter, the applicant will be kept informed about its status through SMS. For instance the date by which a document will be ready for delivery will be conveyed to the applicant through automatically generated SMS.

The state-of-the-art telecom network and the high mobile phone density in the hill state will vastly expand the scope for communication and the delivery of Information Technology (IT) enabled services to the people with the launching of the gateway. To begin with, services available at the Sugam centres are being introduced in Shimla, Solan and Hamirpur districts.

“The main objective was to ensure transparency, prevent delay and eliminate scope of corruption in public dealing offices, though it could be used for a host of purposes in the day-to-day functioning of the government,” Chief Minister P.K.Dhumal said while launching the gateway by ending a message to various groups of persons.

In the next phase, he explained, the people would be able to lodge complaints pertaining to erratic water supply, power outages and other daily problems. The biggest advantage would be that the department concerned would be able to evaluate the performance of employees by monitoring the nature of complaints and the time taken for redressal.

The CM said 3,366 lok mitra kendras were being set up across the state to provide easy access to the rural people to IT-enabled services. They could download forms, file applications and get their grievances registered through e-mail.

Principal secretary, B.K.Aggarwal, said SMS gateway was a major milestone in bringing efficiency in the government functioning and providing various services to the people at their doorstep. Besides government departments, the institutions like the school board of education could use it for providing results to students through pull-SMS services.

Dharamsala, October 1
The exile Tibetan NGOs today marked 60 years of the Chinese Communist party rule by organising protests and wearing black badges. They said the people of China, Tibet and East Turkestan stand united in opposition to the tyrannical rule of the Chinese government.

Despite much change and economic progress in China in the past 60 years, the people of China live under the abject deprivation of basic human rights that we in the free world were bestowed with.

Ven Ngawang Woeber, representing four NGOs, said, “It is on this day, 60 years ago, that the seed of Chinese Communist Party was sowed and since then 56 ethnic minorities under the Chinese rule have lived under darkness. The dark cloud ruled over Tibet and consequently, Tibet today is a threatened country and Tibetans live in a dire and a critical condition. Today is not a day of celebration but a day of mourning.”

The NGO representatives said the protest was a symbolic gesture to call for the end of autocracy and give way for democracy. “We empathise with all repressed regimes, which for 60 years remained under the shadow of the Communist regime. While we stand unreserved in our vehement condemnation of atrocities of the Chinese government, we deem it peremptory for the Chinese people to come to terms with the immutable truth. In a genuine bid to achieve this, we will also initiate and embark on a ‘Chinese outreach programme’ where we request Tibetans and our supporters to communicate with the mainstream Chinese people via the internet portal, the facts about the illegal occupation of Tibet and Tibetan’s 50 years of peaceful resistance.”

During the 60 years of Communist rule, the Chinese government has perpetuated inexplicable crimes against humanity and consequently tens of millions of people have died from its political persecution. The Chinese government lacks the credence to represent China as a member of the United Nations. China’s increasing global presence, economic clout and despotic political overtones could endanger welfare and well being of mankind. Therefore, today we call on the Chinese government to end its one party autocracy and abide by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and become a responsible and respected member of the international community.

Dharamsala, October 1
IPH Minister Ravinder Ravi launched a fortnight-long blood donation-cum-awareness drive on the National Voluntary Blood Donation Day at Palampur today.

He said the proportion of voluntary donation in the state increased from 69 per cent in 2006-07 to 81 per cent in 2008-09. West Bengal and Maharashtra have achieved 85 per cent voluntary blood donation, hill states like Tripura 93 per cent, Chennai and Daman and Diu have achieved 95 per cent whereas Dadra and Nagar Haveli has achieved the WHO target of 100 per cent voluntary blood donation.

He added that Himachal was a leader in health and had won seven awards in the India Today conclave. He also said 150 advanced ambulances equipped with emergency life support systems would be placed into services soon for further improving the responsiveness of the health system. He appealed to all citizens, and educational institutions to come forward and adopt voluntary blood donation as a mass movement and make Himachal a model state.

Rajgir MLA Capt Atma Ram thanked all donors and exhorted others to follow their example.

RK Sood, District AIDS Programme Officer, Kangra, said the Blood Safety Programme of the National AIDS Control Programme aims at ensuring access to safe blood and blood products to all.

Kangra CMO Dr Anil Mahajan said the people were afraid to donate blood due to fear of weakness or ignorance about the need of blood, consequently there was always a shortage of blood.

“The total annual requirement of blood in India is 1 crore units of blood while the total collection was about 65 lakh units. As per NACO CMIS report, 12,720 units of blood were donated in HP in 2008-09. In Himachal only 0.2 per cent people donate blood, which is not sufficient to meet the demand of 60,000 units,” he added.

Mandi, October 1
The Right to Information (RTI) Act has unearthed a Rs 7.96 lakh racket in the field irrigation scheme of the Agricultural Department for Bandish village in Katola gram panchayat near here.

President, RTI Bureau, Mandi, Lawan Thakur has filed a complaint with the Chief Minister, including Mandi DC and SP, demanding probe into the scheme and action against both pradhan and officials concerned.

According to documents availed under the RTI by Lalit Kumar, a resident of Katola, the scheme was shown to be completed in 2007 by the soil conservation wing of the Agricultural Department.

“But villagers have not got water even till today as money was allegedly cornered by officials in connivance with members of the Krishak Vikas Sangh (KVS), a village-based committee, which executed the scheme,” he charged.

They further charged that the KCS managed “completion certificate” from the department just to grab Rs 7.96 lakh spent on the kuhal, even forging signatures of its members”.

Villagers rued that they received water barely for a month in August, 2007, after the kuhal was completed. “Since then the scheme is laying defunct and exists on papers, denying them water for growing vegetables,” they complained.

The villagers said they could not raise voice as the committee was headed by Katola pradhan Chane Ram, who was chairman, KCS, and enjoys clout with his higher political master.

The RTI further revealed that instead of digging proper concrete channel for the kuhal, the executive agency laid down the “old concrete pipes” temporarily which were never repaired.

Ravi Dut Sharma, a resident of Bandish village, claimed that the RTI documents were not shown to them and as such they do not know whether signatures were forged or not.

On the other hand, Chane Ram claimed that the kuhal was damaged by landslides during rains and the department had no funds to repair.

“I am ready to face any inquiry as I have done work in a transparent manner. GI pipes and RCC pipes were more feasible to bring water through the steep slopes to the village,” he said.

Deputy director (Agriculture) Manmohan Singh said the department would order an inquiry into the scheme before taking any action in the case.

Dharamsala, October 1
The Dharamsala police has achieved a major breakthrough in a scam being carried out across the country with the arrest of a Nigerian from Mumbai. A team of the Dharamsala police with the help of the Mumbai police raided the hideout of accused Bobby, Nigerian citizen, on September 29. He was brought to Dharamsala today.

Kangra SP Atul Fulzele, while talking to The Tribune, said a case against the accused was registered at the Nurpur police station. The accused had duped a resident of Rs 20 lakh. We got a breakthrough in the case with the arrest of one of the accused, Abdul.

From the leads provided by Abdul they started tracking the phone calls, SMS and e-mails being sent by Nigerian from his Mumbai hideout. During the raid at his hideout, the police recovered a laptop and other incriminating evidence. In the laptop an entire lottery format was available. From the format it appears that the accused were also running a fake online lottery to dupe people.

The SP said further investigation into the case was going on and we intend to expose the countrywide nexus of the accused.

According to sources, the police might bring into net a large number of Indians involved in the racket. The accused were allegedly using the account of many Indians to park their ill-gotten money. They allegedly in connivance with many accused used to ask the victims to deposit the amounts in borrowed account numbers. The account holders were paid 10 per cent of the total amount as commission.

The sources also said large numbers of residents of Himachal have been duped of lakhs by crooks from Nigeria and the racket was being run with the help of locals.

A district judge has also been duped of about Rs 3 lakh by some persons based in Amritsar in an online offer. Some amount of money duped from him was recovered after active role of highly placed officials of the Himachal police.

Shimla, October 1
Taking the ruling BJP on the issue of PTA teachers head on the Congress today promised that it would reappoint all sacked teachers on coming to power in the state .

Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh even assured that these teachers would be posted back in the same school from which they were removed. He said the Dhumal government was pursuing a one-point programme to throw out all those appointed during the Congress regime and the PTA teachers were only victim of this ill-conceived agenda. A few days back the dental doctors appointed by the Congress government were virtually sacked by not renewing the contract.

The Congress would not take such developments lying down as the action of the government was politically motivated. Further, apart from putting the concerned employees to hardships, the policy was depriving the people of various services. The schools were without teachers and there was no justification for sacking PTA appointees but the government was doing that as part of its strategy to wreak political vendetta. He alleged that some teachers were sacked at the behest of local BJP leaders. The postings of teachers were being ordered in such a way as would help remove the PTA appointees.

He hailed the decision of the high court that the PTA teachers who were paid from the state exchequer had the right to approach the court to seek justice.