Shimla, December 11
The brief winter session of the Assembly at Dharamsala is likely to be an animated one with the ruling BJP all set to corner the Congress on the issue of the affidavit given by the UPA regime in the Supreme Court against grant of 12 per cent free power to Himachal.

During the six-day Assembly session beginning on December 14, the strategy of the BJP would be to highlight the anti-Himachal stand adopted by the Congress-led UPA regime on the issue of grant of free power and restoration of the industrial package till 2013. Since it is for the first time that the Assembly will be held after filing of the affidavit, the BJP will definitely put the entire blame on the Congress regime for going against the spirit of the agreement reached under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966. The BJP is likely to draw attention towards the fact that the Congress-led UPA regime has always discriminated against Himachal and failed to protect its interests.

“Filing of the affidavit by the Centre in the Supreme Court is an issue which goes totally against the interest of the hill state and this is an opportunity we would not like to go without gaining political mileage,” admitted a BJP leader.

On the other hand, Congress members are likely to raise the spread of swine flu and deteriorating law and order situation in the state as the main issues. In fact, Congress legislators have given a notice for call-attention motion on these two issues. With a sudden spurt in swine flu deaths in the state, the Opposition will focus on the lack of preparedness on the part of the health authorities as the main reason for the spread of H1N1 infection.

Besides this, the Congress members will also raise the death of over 12 persons at the Rohtang Pass due to heavy snowfall, recently. They will seek an explanation from the government as to why these persons were allowed to cross the Pass, that too inadequately clad and prepared, when it was evident that the weather could turn hostile.

Khushi Ram Balnatah, the newly elected MLA from Rohru, will also take an oath as a member of the Assembly at Dharamsala. The fact that he has registered victory from the Congress citadel of Rohru is all the more significant which the BJP would like to signify.

So far, the Assembly has received 237 starred and 131 un-starred questions to be taken up during the session.

Shimla, December 11
Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) and Hospital would soon be provided with an eye bank, which would be the first in the state, and a separate ward would be set up for thalassaemia patients visiting the hospital for medical check-up.

This was stated by Chief Minister PK Dhumal while addressing various NGOs at a blood donation camp organised by Umang Foundation working for thalassaemia children here today.

Dhumal said the IGMC had been equipped with the best medical facilities. However, there was a need to set up an eye bank to cater the requirements of the people with visual impairment.

“Setting up one such bank at the IGMC is the priority of the government as this will help motivate people to donate their eyes which could be transplanted to the visually impaired people,” he said. Necessary preparations were underway to complete formalities for setting up of the eye bank. He appealed the people to donate their eyes for the noble cause of humanity, which could help many get vision.

He assured that the demand of thalassaemic patients for providing them a separate ward would soon be fulfilled as IGMC authorities had geared up its machinery for creation of a separate ward where they could relax during their visit to the hospital for blood transfusion and other medical check-ups.

Lauding the efforts of voluntary organisations, he said out of about 17,000 units of blood collected since January this year, 610 units were collected by Umang Foundation for thalassaemia patients. At today’s camp, a total of 50 units of blood was donated which included donation by four blind and an equal number of deaf persons.

He appealed to people to volunteer their services to people who were in dire necessity of help and blood donation was one such cause. He also honoured office-bearers of various NGOs for their valuable contribution and announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh to Umang Foundation to further its activities.

Shimla, December 11
Hearing in the defamation case filed by Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh against Vijay Singh Mankotia has been deferred till March 12, 2010. The case was listed before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Yashwant Singh Chogal today for the purpose of cross-examination of the witnesses of complainant.

But during the hearing of the case, Mankotia filed two applications before the court - one for the summoning of some witnesses and other to produce the record from the office of the DGP Anti-corruption and state vigilance - pertaining to the FIR registered against the former Chief Minister on August 3, 2009.

In his application, Mankotia also urged to summon the report given by the Central Forensic Laboratory, Chandigarh, on the audio CD containing the voice of Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh.

Besides, Mankotia has also filed another application for cancelling the exemption from the personal appearance granted to Virbadra Singh on the ground that he has reasons to believe that the complainant is unnecessarily harassing him. Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh had filed a criminal defamation case against Mankotia for allegedly defaming him by releasing the audio CD containing his and his wife’s voices. The court has given time to Virbhadra Singh to file reply to these applications on March 12.

Solan, December 11
The abrupt transfer of 41 investigating officers within the Solan police district has created chaos among policemen as no replacement staff has been provided to various police posts and police stations in lieu.

While all 41 policemen, comprising nine assistant sub inspectors, nine head constables and 21 constables, have been directed to report in the district headquarters of Solan, this has further reduced the staff elsewhere in the district.

The transfers appear to have been instigated by the string of five thefts which took place on the Mall Road here after breaking locks of the shops on Monday evening. This had stirred quite a protest from the beopar mandal. The mandal, while ruing the lack of timely police action, had condemned the inaction so much so that even local MLA and Minister for Health and Ayurveda Dr Rajiv Bindal had to intervene and assure them of better law and order situation in the future.

Taking a strict note of the series of thefts and especially the police laxity, Dr Bindal had directed the police to spruce up their working so that a common man felt secure.

Since the best investigating officers from across the police district were picked up and placed in the headquarters, it had severely disrupted the police working elsewhere. “There seemed little rationale in overstaffing the police station and police posts in Solan while virtually depriving the others of even a decent staff strength, especially so as the police staff was already abysmally short elsewhere in the district,” said sources.

Even police stations, lying along the highway where crime rate was usually high, were not spared and places like Dharampur, Parwanoo, Subathu, etc., were forced to bear the brunt of these transfers. Police officials were worried at the fate of various cases which were being investigated by these policemen. Little importance had been given even to police rules which stipulated that an investigating officer should not be transferred before two years as it hampered investigating work.

The policemen were disheartened at these transfers as being the fag end of the academic sessions, the entire families would be displaced along with the children. The children in the board classes would suffer the most, rued policemen.

Solan SP Prem Thakur, however, said the step had been taken to strengthen the headquarters and since as many as 25 policemen were soon going to be posted in the district, they would be suitably adjusted at various places. He agreed that vacancies had been created in the district but asserted that it was a temporary situation.

Dharamsala, December 11
Posing a grave threat to the environment, many industrial units in the state are coming up on the river beds. The idea behind setting up industrial units on river beds, braving risk of floods in monsoons, seems to be simple---- easy discharge of polluting effluents in the rivers.

A survey by The Tribune in various industrial areas in Una and Kangra districts has revealed that many units have been set up right on the river beds. Most of these units are those which discharge toxic effluents. In Santoshgarh area of Una, a paper unit is coming up on the Swan river bed. A paper industry generally discharges toxic effluents.

Interestingly, in Gagret industrial area, a battery manufacturing unit, which is also set up on the river bed, is bearing the expenses of flooding during monsoons almost every year. However, unit owners are not in a mood to move it away from the river bed.

Similarly, in Kangra district too, many industrial units have been set up right on the banks of rivers.

Officials of the Department of Industries said they had given permission to industries after getting a nod from the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) and Pollution Departments. The IPH Department has to see if the unit is set on a river bed or not and the pollution department has to give clearance to unit from its own perspective.

Some of the IPH Department officials claimed that the river beds, where the industries were being set up, were on private lands. The government has not issued any directive against sale or alternative use of private lands even if they are on the river beds. We have written to the government many times to give us powers to stop encroachments of river beds, they claimed on the condition of anonymity.

However, according to sources, in many cases, the proprietors of industrial units get the nature of land changed from river bed to agricultural or barren land in connivance with revenue officials. The officials of the departments concerned just rely on papers while issuing the no-objection certificates rather than carrying out a field survey.

Already a lot of hue and cry has been made by the environmentalists due to alleged pollution being caused by Himachal-based industries in Ropar international wetland area. This is a clear indication of how much respect units have for the environment.

Dharamsala, December 11
Scientists from the Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology (IHBT), a CSIR centre at Palampur, and a few from Europe, deliberated on the possible future dimensions of research, keeping in view food security.

A joint workshop was organised by Forschungszentrum Julich Gmbh, Germany, and Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, on “Bio-economy and Optimising Plant Performance”.

The six-member delegation from Julich was headed by Prof Ulrich Schurr, director, Institute of Chemistry and Dynamics of Geosphere, and vice-president, European Plant Science Organisation.

Explaining the definition and scope of bio-economy, Prof Christian Pattermann, former director of the European Commissions Directorate for Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology, highlighted the need for research on plants, animals, insects and microbes for sustainable production of food, feed, fuel and fibre in convergence with biotechnology. The team of IHBT scientists, led by director Dr PS Ahuja, deliberated on the critical issues of applying knowledge and infrastructure to underpin a future bio-based economy with sustainable plant production.

Una, December 11
Chief Minister PK Dhumal has urged the Central government to enhance the industrial package up to 2020 so as to provide proper environment to industrialists who wants to set up industries in the state. He was talking to mediapersons at Mehatpur, 12 km from here, at meet the press programme.

He said industrialists would invest in the state only when they were sure of getting industrial package for at least 10 to 12 years. If the Central government was not in a position to extend industrial package up to 2020, it should at least extend it up to 2013, which was announced by the NDA government earlier, he added.

Dhumal also lashed out at the allegations of Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh that after one religious body of the state, the CM’s family owned the maximum land here.

Bilaspur, December 11
Led by Ghumarwin MLA and district Congress committee president Rajesh Dharmani, a large number of prominent Congress leaders including state secretary Hoshiar Singh Thakur, Tejaswi Sharma, Daya Ram, zila parishad chairperson Anjana Dhiman and Ghumarwin Nagar Parishad president Sat Pal staged a dharna outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office today.

They were protesting against the failure of the government to take suitable action to set up a central school which was sanctioned by the central government for Ghumarwin town last year. They alleged that the government was “playing politics” with this project since this would give credit to Congress president Rajesh Dharmani as he had got it specially sanctioned after having a word with the party high command. They later met DC Nandita Gupta and presented a memorandum to be forwarded to the CM.