Shimla, January 10
While government senior secondary schools in the interior areas are starved of staff, a large number of teachers manage to stay at the station of their choice for long durations in violation of the transfer policy.

The guiding principles for effecting transfers of government employees lay down that the normal stay at a station will be three years, However, information obtained under the Right to Information Act (RTI) by Dev Ashish Bhattacharya, an RTI activist, has revealed that as many as 2,532 teachers, out of the total 9,772, have stayed put even after completing the stipulated period. Further, as many as 1,903 teachers are posted within 10 km of their official place of residence. The RTI information has also revealed lopsided distribution of staff, particularly in the postings of principals.

The maximum number of such favoured teachers is in Una district, bordering Punjab, where 532 out of the total 980 teachers are overstaying. It also has the highest number of 602 teachers posted within 10 km of their place of residence. Even more significant is the fact that there is not a single vacant post of principal in Una and only one in Hamirpur, whereas 44, out of the total 92 schools, are without principals in Shimla district and 18 out of 25 in tribal Lahaul Spiti district. Other districts with significant vacancies of principal included Sirmour (20 out of 79 posts), Bilaspur (15 out of 79 posts) and Chamba (15 out of 81 posts). In all, 138 out of the total 1,100 posts of principal, almost 14 per cent, are vacant.

Interestingly, Lahaul Spiti and Kullu have not a single teacher posted within 10 km of place of residence, whereas the reply to RTI query in respect of Shimla was “record is not available”.

Besides Una, Kangra (585) ,Hamirpur (222) and Bilaspur (150) were other districts with a large number of home place postings.

Out of the 962 principals in position, 62 are enjoying home place posting and 46 have competed the normal tenure of three years.

“What is the purpose of framing the guiding principles if these are not to be enforced,” questioned Bhattacharya. The provisions of the guidelines can be relaxed with a prior approval of the Chief Minister to be obtained on file through the minister in-charge. However, he wanted to know whether or not the Chief Minister had condoned the long stay of such a large number (over 26 per cent) who had not been shifted after completion of three years. More so, the government had itself admitted in the guiding-principles document that employees of the health and education departments manage to stay in one station, especially in urban areas, for a very long time, depriving other deserving persons of opportunity.

Dharamsala, January 10
Water supply in major cities and towns of the state might get disrupted. The municipal councils and corporations of these cities have failed to make payments to the public health department in the state. The public health authorities are now threatening to withdraw supply to these cities and towns.

The major defaulter in this area is Shimla. The Shimla Municipal Corporation owes Rs 68 crore to the department of public health. Following it is the Solan Municipal Council as it has not paid the water bill of about Rs 8 crore to the department. In Kangra district, the Palampur Municipal Council is the biggest defaulter owing about Rs 1.5 crore to the public health department.

Minister for Irrigation and Public Health Ravinder Ravi, when contacted by The Tribune, said the department had no other option but to withdraw the water supply to the said cities and towns in case the outstanding dues were not cleared. He said according to information, water bills were being collected by the respective municipal corporations and councils but not being paid further to the public health department. Due to non-payment of dues, the public health department was finding it difficult to maintain the water supply schemes, he added.

Besides, it was also hitting the expansion plans of the department, the minister said.

Sources available here said poor financial condition and water theft in urban areas were the main reasons for non-payment of water dues by the local governments. In Shimla alone, there were about 1 lakh power connections and just 17,000 legal water connections. The low number of water connections in Shimla just illustrated the water theft cases in the biggest city of the state.

In other cities too the number of water connections were far less than the number of power connections. However, since in urban areas the water supply was the duty of the local government, the role of public health authorities was just limited to providing water from the source.

Most of the Union government schemes for developing water supply schemes were now coming with riders. Though the Union government was providing money for installation of the schemes, the operations of scheme has to be the prerogative of the state or local governments.

For maintaining the schemes, people would have to pay bills that have to be used for maintaining the schemes. In case people failed to pay bills, it has to be subsidised by the government.

In the present case, when the liability of the public health department has risen to about Rs 100 crore towards various local governments, it seems that the government would have to bail out the department.

Shimla, January 10
The mandatory registration of cattle will go long way in proper implementation and monitoring of various schemes to boost the animal husbandry sector.

The scheme for registration of cattle is being implemented in six districts and so far 11.2 lakh heads of cattle have been registered under the scheme in Solan, Shimla, Chamba, Hamirpur, Una and Kangra. The livestock census work has also been completed. Simultaneously, computerisation of data is nearing completion and it will be made available online soon. A semen bank is being set up at Tal in Hamirpur under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna. A sum of Rs 1.6 crore has been sanctioned for the construction of new building of veterinary hospitals. The state has submitted a Rs 20 crore project to the Centre for giving boost to dairy development activities under the National Agriculture Development Scheme.

A Rs 300 crore “Doodh Ganga” scheme, with extensive provision for formation of self-help groups, liberal loans and various other incentives and facilities, has been launched. Special emphasis is being laid on the health of cattle, improving breed of livestock and strengthening the marketing infrastructure. The scheme envisages formation of 10,000 self-help groups to benefit 50,000 rural families. In the last two years, a sum of Rs 127 crore has been spent on various schemes.

The Shepherd Insurance Scheme, sponsored by the Central Wool Development Board, is being implemented and against a target to cover 15,000, 8,000 shepherds have already been insured. A number of schemes have been launched to promote pisciculture in the last two years. Fishermen working in reservoirs have been insured for Rs 25,000 in case of permanent disability; and Rs 50,000 in the eventuality of death under Fisherman Accidental Insurance Scheme. The insurance premium of Rs 14 is equally shared by the Centre and the state government. Insurance cover was provided to 6,560 active fishermen in the year 2008-09.

The government has launched the ‘Fishermen Relief Fund Scheme’, formulated to mitigate the losses to the fishermen. Each reservoir fisherman contributes Rs 6 every year to this fund. A contributory saving-cum-relief scheme’ has also been introduced under which as many as 2,446 active fishermen have been provided benefits to the tune of Rs 13 lakh. More than 6,795 fishermen have been provided full-time employment in major reservoirs of the state. In the last two years, 10,239 tonnes of fish has been produced fetching revenue of exchequer revenue of Rs 282.14 lakh.

Shimla, January 10
Expressing concern over the recent downgrading of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU), a member of its executive council has urged Chief Minister PK Dhumal to take serious notice of the matter and take urgent steps to take care of the ills plaguing the institution.

Time and again the issue of vacant positions has been raised and some posts were advertised but not filled. He had also raised the issue in the Executive Council meeting but despite assurances no concrete action was taken. More than 150 posts of teacher and 250 of non-teacher are lying vacant. He said shortage of staff was one of the main reasons for the delay in declaring results.

Casual approach towards the decisions of the Executive Council was one of the reasons for the current undesirable state of affairs. The meetings of the council were not held for months together. Further, as per “rules of business” the court of the university should meet at least once in a year and at one time, the Governor who heads as Chancellor, had observed that it must assemble twice a year. The authority of these apex-governing organs had been eroded as a result of which the functioning of the university had been severely hit.

Despite decisions of finance committee with regard to disputes of pay-fixation cases, University Grants Commission (UGC) scale for “administrative officers” and regularisation on completion of eight years service, necessary orders had not been issued so far. Approval of the state government was not conveyed over the years under Section 35-A of the Act, which also delayed the “recruitment process” and promotions of non-teaching staff against upgraded posts. The non-implementation of the decisions taken by the executive council is a serious matter and it is the duty of the Vice-Chancellor to see that these were implemented.

He cautioned the Chief Minister that if immediate measures were not taken to stem the rot, further downside of the university was inevitable. It could ultimately result in denial of funds from the UGC.

In near future, about 24 teachers will retire and as many as six non-teaching employees would also be superannuating every month, leading to further deterioration in the functioning of the HPU if required measure were not taken urgently.

Hamirpur, January 10
MP Anurag Thakur today inaugurated a function organised by the Hamirpur chapter of Human Rights Mission here.

Thakur said people, specially in developing countries, should be be aware of their rights. He said the police was the reflection of the society and human rights organisations played an important role in creating awareness.

Commending the role of Human Rights Mission in this context, the MP said the organisation had done a good work in defending the rights of the people.

Talking about role of the media in eradicating social evils from the society, he said the media had a very important role to play in this regard.

Hamirpur SP Asif Jalal, while speaking on the occasion, said the police was there to protect the people and citizens should cooperate with the police in establishing rule of the law.

He also urged the people to be aware of their rights and obligations as no society could progress without cooperation between the people and police. President of the Human Rights organisation, Chandigarh, detailed out various cases of human rights violation taken up by the organisation. 

Manali, January 10
Snow continues to elude ski lovers for the second consecutive year in the upper Manali region. The famous Solang ski slopes, 13 km from here, which offers one of the most spectacular ski slopes in Western Himalayas, present a deserted look.

The ski slopes, with normally used to have about three to four feet snow, are totally devoid of snow which has disappointed sports lovers.

This year Manali and its environs experienced the first snowfall on November 9 and then on January 4. The main ski slopes of the Solang valley had received only about 15 inches of maximum snowfall till date. However, due to rise in the atmospheric temperature, the snow melted very fast.

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali, which used to conduct various ski courses during winter months at Solang ski slopes and imparted training to hundreds of participants, also disappointed many.

According to Mahavir Thakur, deputy director of the institute, the first 14-day basic ski course, which was to commence from January 11, had to be postponed till the fresh snowfall if the weather conditions remained the same in the region.

Similarly, the fate of the 7-day special ski course, starting on January 15, also hangs in the balance if the present weather conditions continued, he added.

Last year too, due to lack of sufficient snow on the main Solang ski slopes, participants were left with no choice than to climb up to the Phatru ski slopes to take ski lessons.

Shimla, January 10
The Himachal Power Engineers’ Association has opposed the appointment of director (electrical) in the state power generation corporation and state power transmission corporation through direct interviews and demanded cancellation of interviews fixed for January 14 and 16 for the purpose.

It has urged the government to appoint directors in the two corporations from among the serving chief engineers of the state electricity board. It has also demanded that the charge of the managing director of the power transmission corporation be handed over to the member, technical, of the board.

General secretary of the association Suneel Grover said the issue would be taken up with the chairman of the board for implementation of the decision taken in the meeting held between board management and the association in November wherein it was agreed that a panel of eligible serving chief engineers would be sent to the corporation for appointment of director (electrical). It urged the chairman to send a suitable recommendation to the government in this regard. In the meantime interviews be cancelled.

Also, if necessary, the recruitment and promotion rules be amended for the purpose. Moreover, the board has 40 per cent equity in the corporation and legitimately deserved such dispensation.

Hamirpur, January 10
The state government has revised food norms and cooking cost norms for the mid-day meal scheme for upper primary schoolchildren after the central government’s decision to enhance the food and cooking norms throughout the country.

The proposal to enhance these norms was under consideration of the central government in the light of increase in the prices of food articles and demand from the lower level to enhance the food norms for upper classes.

As per the new food norms for upper primary schoolchildren, the quantity of average rice per child has been increased from 100 gm to 150 gm. The quantity of pulses has been increased from 25 gm to 30 gm and quantity of vegetables has also been increased form 65 gm to 75 gm per child.

While quantity of salt remains unchanged, the quantity of cooking oil has been reduced from 10 gm to 7.5 gm.

The cooking cost norm per child has also been revised from Rs 1.93 to Rs 2.50 for primary children and for upper primary children it has been enhanced from Rs 2.75 to Rs 3.75.

For the primary children an honorarium of Rs 0.65 would be included for cooking in the average cooking cost while for upper primary it would be Rs 0.85 per child.

The enhancements in food and cooking norms have already been implemented from December 1, 2009, after direction from the central government. The central government has also agreed to provide transportation charges under the mid-day meal scheme after fixation of freight charges by respective DCs and DFSCs of the area.

Deputy Director of elementary education, Hamirpur, Bheem Singh Rana said all schools had already been issued directions to enhance food and cooking norms for mid-day meals which would definitely help in improving quality and quantity of mid-day meals served to schoolchildren.

Mandi, January 10
BJP comrades---politically marginalised Sundernagar MLA and former Forest Minister Roop Singh Thakur and the BJP’s greenhorn-cum-Dharampur MLA and Transport Minister Mohinder Singh Thakur--- today failed to make a significant hold on the district BJP after their party rivals, PWD Minister Gulab Singh Thakur and Rural Development Minister Jairam Thakur, held sway in electing Nachen BJP MLA and Dalit leader Dile Ram as the new district party chief for the second time in the presence of party state chief Khimi Ram.

The returning officer declared Dile Ram as the new party president unanimously after all “10 mandals” gave their consent at a meeting held here last evening.

Though party chief Khimi Ram claimed the election to be a unanimous choice, Mandi BJP remains as ever a house divided. In fact, the BJP has no choice than making a Dalit leader the party chief as Dalits have no representation from the 10-member assembly segments from Mandi, according to sources.

“Roop Singh, who was sidelined by the Chief Minister, wanted to have a foothold in the party to revive his political fortune or at least inducting his son so that he gets a party ticket in the next elections from Sundernagar,” the sources added.

The duo held a meeting at Sundernagar but had to be satisfied with the post of general secretary after the party agreed to give this post to Hari Ram Verma, the sources added.

On the other hand, Gulab Singh Thakur and Jairam Thakur agreed on the choice of Dile Ram. They pleaded the case of Dile Ram as unanimous choice after conducting talks with the BJP mandal chiefs at a meeting held last evening.

Meanwhile, the two meetings of the rival groups exposed the factional fight in the BJP. It was learnt that Dhumal had also given his nod in favour of Dile Ram.

Dile Ram later told reporters that he would work to strengthen the party in the district and increase its base at the grass-root level.