Sujanpur Tihra (Hamirpur), October 31
There is a need for re-writing history based upon research by scholars to make future generation proud of their glorious past.

This was stated by Chief Minister PK Dhumal while addressing the inaugural session of a three-day long seminar organised by Thakur Jagdev Chand Memorial Shodh Sansthan Samiti, Neri, at Sujanpur Tihra today.

He said there were some historical facts which did not coincide with the actual happenings and some of these were even contradictory.

He said distorted histroical facts required modification and Thakur Jagdev Chand Memorial Research Centre was doing a great service in re-tracing the history of the country by gathering new facts.

Dhumal said Sujanpur was historically a very important place and important town which found mention in literature and other historical documents of the country.

He said the state government would be restoring historical monuments in this town and create quality infrastructure to meet the demand of the present day requirement.

About Rs 25 lakh grant would be provided for creation of parking slot in the town and Rs 35 lakh on a tourist information centre which would cater to the information requirements of the visitors.

He said Rs 15 lakh would be spent over creation of basic wayside amenities while Rs 40 lakh would be spent for the restoration of the Narvdeshwar temple and construction of main gate of the fort.

Dhumal said since Chogan happened to be the identity of the town, the government would spend Rs 10 lakh for its beautification. Dhumal also released a souvenir on this occasion.

Former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar, while addressing on the occasion, underlined the need to remove discrepancies in the history of the country.

V.Emkbold, Ambassador of Mongolia in India, presided over the inaugural session and lauded the endeavour of the research centre in re-tracing the history of the country. 

Shimla, October 31
The 10 per cent reduction in bus fares effected by the state government from April last has hit the loss-making state road transport corporation hard.

While the expenditure of the corporation is increasing, the income is declining by about Rs 2 crore every month as evident from the figures for the first six months. Thus, the corporation which has already accumulated a loss of Rs 513 crore is set to plunge deeper in the red. It is operating services on 1965 routes out of which as many as 928 are loss-making. Its fleet of 1953 buses covers a mileage of 16.13 crore km annually and the losses are swelling with the increase in mileage.

The total income during the current year was likely to come down to around Rs 350 crore from last year’s Rs 372 crore and with the normal increase the total expenditure is likely to touch Rs 450 crore mark. The loss may be in three digits for the year. The expenditure per bus per kilometre has gone up to Rs 26.50 and the income is only Rs 21.40.

The corporation has been suffering due to irrational grant of permits and manipulation of the time-table which invariable helped the private operators. The average occupancy in its buses has come down from 83 per cent to 54 per cent over the past two decades. The irrational grant of route permits has led to a situation where people are not getting adequate bus services despite excess buses on roads. With 2708 private buses providing passenger transport services the state has the highest number of buses per lakh of population. As against the national average of 42 buses per lakh of population the hill state has 75 buses per lakh of population.

In such a scenario cut-throat competition among operators is inevitable and the public sector undertaking will always be at the receiving end. There are other factors like free and subsidised travel facility to various categories like freedom fighters, disabled, MLAs, MPs , mediapersons, police personnel and students which add to the losses. Further, the corporation spends Rs 153 crore, more than 50 per cent of its total annual revenue on salaries, pensions and other benefits being provided to employees.

Last year the government provided a grant-in-aid of Rs 48 lakh and capital assistance of Rs 31 crore but still the corporation incurred a loss of Rs 40 crore. The financial health will worsen further during the year. 

Shimla, October 31
The intervention of the Congress high command has worked and the party’s campaign for the Rohru by-election has picked up after initial hiccups and factional war over denial of ticket to Pratibha Singh. Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh, who returned after addressing a series of election meetings along with Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh, said the party was now confident of winning the seat.

He said the former Chief Minister was putting his heart and soul into the campaign and he would also camping at Jawali. The Congress men were a united lot and the unpleasant incident of the opening day of the campaign had been put behind, he added.

The party was now eyeing victory and it had decided to hold two big rallies on November 5, one in each constituency, to wind up the campaign in style.

The rally at Rahan would have former Punjab Chief Minister as the main speaker, while Virbhadra Singh will address the final election meeting at Rohru.

He said while the Congress had united, the BJP was facing increased dissidence and rebellion. In Jawali, its candidate Baldev Raj had slipped to third position and rebel Madan Sharma, brother of Kangra MP Rajan Sushant, was challenging the Congress.

He said a host of inconvenient issues like corruption, lack of teachers and doctors in government institutions, shortage of ration in PDS outlets and sacking of PTA teachers were being effectively raised by the party to nail the BJP.

Dharamsala, October 31
Where the expertise of professional mountaineers and Army authorities failed, the traditional knowledge of a “Gaddi” (the tribal shepherds) youth helped in rescuing the body of Russian pilot Elliyayudin from a narrow gorge in Dhauladhar mountains at a height of about 14,000 feet.

The body of the said Russian pilot, who had come to Bir Billing area to participate in a para-gliding event, was spotted in high reaches of mountains near the Himani Chamunda temple about three days ago. District authorities had summoned the help of experts from the Manali Mountaineering Institute and Army authorities for rescuing the body. However, for three days none of them managed to pull out the body from the narrow gorge.

Sources available here said Shayam Lal, a Gaddi from Holi region of the experts, did not feel that a young boy, small in stature, could be of any help to them. They allegedly refused to take him along.

However, this hurt the self-esteem of the young Gaddi boy who felt that the experts were disrespecting his traditional knowledge of the mountain region. He, with minimum resources available with him, left to rescue the body alone this morning. He trekked about 21 km from the high reaches of the mountains and recovered the dead body from the narrow gorge.

While the team of mountaineers and police personnel were going towards the spot to make another effort to recover the body, they found the young Gaddi boy coming back with it.

Shimla, October 31
The Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has opposed the policy of establishing deemed universities and private universities in the name of promoting quality education and termed it as commercialisation of higher education.

It is one of the five major issues being debated at the three-day 55th national convention of the parishad which commenced at Una yesterday.

The resolution that was to be adopted at the convention stated that from reckless manner in which permission was being granted to set up private universities it is evident that the motive was commercial and had nothing to do with improving the quality of education. There were already 180 deemed universities and another 300 were proposed. In fact, it appeared more of real estate business as evident from the case of Orissa where an aluminium mining company had been provided with 8,000 acre land to set up Vedanta University in violation of all rules and regulations.

The parishad also did not spare the Himachal government which had already given nod for setting up 14 private universities and the process was still on. Such a large number of private institutions could not be justified in any manner for a small state with just 12 districts, out of which the two tribal districts had a scant population.

Dharamsala, October 31
Agriculture experts who attended the workshop on rabi crops at CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University here today stressed upon the need for redrawing cropping plans recommended to farmers.

They were of the view that due to global warming and its impact on climate, the traditional agriculture plans and varieties recommended to the farmers were becoming redundant. There was a need to adapt to changing climate and develop technologies and varieties that are suitable to uncertain climate, they added.

Around 200 officials from the State Department of Agriculture, scientists of the university and progressive farmers deliberated upon various issues concerning ensuing rabi crop season during the conference.

While inaugurating the workshop, Dr Tej Partap,Vice-Chancellor, said challenges posed by global warming had started showing its effect on the hill agriculture in the form of delayed rainfall, drastic variation in temperature etc. The recommended varieties and technology on various crops was becoming irrelevant and there was an urgent need to concretise farm plans to face the changed scenario. He proposed that university scientists and farm officials must jointly survey various districts of the state and collect relevant data to formulate strategies for near future to deal effectively with the situation.

He also discussed problems of increasing cost of farm inputs, energy cost, mechanisation of hill farming and marketing problems faced by the farming community of the state.

Dr JC Rana, director, Agriculture, HP, said there was no dearth of money for agriculture and the university should develop packages for protected cultivation, develop small hand tools and implements for hills and make efforts to develop specific varieties for poly houses.

He also lamented that stagnation in productivity had come in major crops and efforts were required to increase production. Dr Rana elaborated on various programmes and schemes of his department.

Mandi, October 31
The State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (SVACB) is facing a peculiar problem while investigating “political chargesheets” as its investigating officers (IOs) fear the “wrath of political bosses”, mainly former ministers, they are investigating.

Moreover, the Bureau has dumped the Congress chargeheet submitted in 2002 and has taken up the BJP chargesheet for investigation as priority after the change of guards in the state. There is a hot talk that the Congress chargesheet would become priority in 2012 as and when there is change of guard in the state, according to sources.

The BJP’s chargesheet against former ministers--- Kaul Singh Thakur, GC Bali, Ram Lal Thakur, Kuldip Kumar, Singhi Ram and even Brackel issue and Bitumen scam --- of the former Virbhadra Singh government, has turned out to be another “political stunt” as, so far, the Vigilance has closed 10 cases finding them baseless, the sources added.

The government has not given its “permission to investigate the controversial Brackel case” pertaining to the award of two hydro projects in Kinnaur so far. The BJP had levelled serious charges in the MoU signed by the then Congress government with the Brackel company and figured in its chargesheet. However, when it came to power, the BJP government did a U-turn till the government was forced to cancel it.

Even investigation into other 33 complaints of the BJP chargesheet, that included financial irregularities, disproportionate assets involving former ministers of the Virbhadra Singh government, are moving in a sluggish pace as either the IOs fear the wrath of “big fish” or complaints are not being corroborated by evidence on the ground.

DS Manhas, DG, SVACB, when quizzed on the chargesheets, said, “Out of the 52 complaints in the BJP chargesheets, we investigated 33 complaints and 10 cases have been closed as they were baseless. Action has been taken in Bitumen scam case.”