Shimla, January 14
With an enhancement of Rs 300 crore, the annual plan size for the year 2010-11 will be Rs 3,000 crore.This was stated by Chief Minister PK Dhumal while initiating the two-day long discussion on Annual Plan: 2010-11 with MPs and MLAs to fix the priorities, here today. This plan size is Rs 300 crore more than the annual plan size of Rs 2,700 crore approved for the year 2009-10.

Inviting suggestions from the MPs and MLAs, Dhumal reiterated his government’s resolve for speedy, uniform and balanced development of the state with a special attention to backward areas. “A sum of Rs 63 crore has been proposed under the Backward Area Sub Plan (BASP) for the year 2010-11 as against Rs 57 crore approved for the year 2009-10,” he disclosed.

The chief minister emphasised the need for refixing of norms under the BASP as most of the backward areas had crossed the developmental indicator fixed under the plan. He urged MPs and MLAs to give their suggestions about this so that steps could be taken accordingly.

He said with a view to expediting the formulation of the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs), it had been decided to propose six new schemes by the MLAs for the year 2010-11. The maximum limit of each scheme has also been increased from Rs three crores to Rs five crores and as such schemes worth Rs 30 crores could be sanctioned in the Assembly constituency each year as compared to Rs 27 crore earlier, he added.

He said this would go a long way in accelerating the pace of development in every part of the state.

He said against a target of Rs 406 crore fixed for the priorities of the MLAs under NABARD for the year 2008-09, schemes worth Rs 425 crore had been sanctioned. For the current financial year, a target of Rs 454 crore had been under NABARD.

Emphasising the need for raising resources for the development of the state, Dhumal urged legislators to give their suggestions. He also asked the officers to submit quarterly report to him regarding steps taken to raise resources and bring down unproductive expenditure. 

Kullu, January 14
Parents of Aninder Kaur, who lived in a rented house at Rampur Bushair after getting married in court, has alleged that their daughter went missing on January 4 from Ani with her husband under mysterious circumstances. They had lodged a complaint at the Ani police station on January 4, but the police has not arrested her in-laws and her husband as they have connived with the police keeping her sudden disappearance under wraps, they alleged.

Narrating his tale of woes to The Tribune here, Jasvir Singh, father of the missing daughter, who is a retired employee from the Food and Civil Supplies Department, rued that they had lodged the complaint at the Ani police station on January 4, soon after the mobile phone of his daughter went switched off, which continued to be so till today.

“The police neither lodged the FIR nor did it arrest the accused in the case,” he said.

He charged that his daughter was married to Pravin Kumar about five years ago. “My daughter used to live at Rampur Bushair in a rented house after her marriage and was promised by the family that she would be given share in the property,” he added.

He said that she, along with her husband and father-in-law, came for the registration at Ani on January 4 .

“I met my daughter in Ani on January 4, but when we tried to contact her in the evening, her mobile phone went unanswered for hours together and then it went switched off till today,” he said.

Jasbir Singh alleged that her daughter was either being kept in the hiding forcibly or she had been killed by the family.

“We came to know later that Pravin was already married and his parents were not happy with him,” he said.

He said the police had neither traced their daughter nor did it arrest her in-laws and Pravin as they had an axe to grind. The police is playing a partisan role as it did not lodge the FIR in the case so far, he charged.

Ani DSP Manohar Lal claimed that the police had lodged the FIR under Section 364 of the IPC in the case. The police is trying to locate the missing woman as it was case of dispute over the property.

His daughter is safe and the police will shortly trace her, he claimed.

Shimla, January 14
All mega cement plants, except one, coming up in the state have fallen well behind schedule due to problems in acquisition of land, opposition from local people and failure of the promoters obtain various mandatory clearances.

The only exception is the cement plant being set up at Bagha in Solan by the Jaypee Company which is likely to be commissioned within the current financial year. Trial run of the plant has already started. Five other plants have not made much headway and have fallen behind schedule by more than two years. They are not likely to come up even by March, 2013, and, as such, they will not be able to avail benefits even if the industrial package is extended beyond March, 2010.

The allotment was made between 2005 and 2007 and the time allowed for implementation was five years.

The cement industry remained in recession for more than two decades and only two plants were set up, one at Barmana and the other at Daralghat, over the past 25 years in the state which has large limestone deposits. However, the spurt in construction activity during the recent economic boom and the grant of industrial package to the state, generated interest in the industry. The companies made a beeline for securing cement projects and, over the past four years, as many six mega projects, including expansion of the existing plant at Daralghat involving an expansion of over 6,000 crore, were sanctioned.

The new plants will come up at Nalini and Al Sindi in Mandi, Gummah in Shimla and Broh-Shind in Chamba. So far, environmental clearance has been obtained for the Nalini plant but land is yet to be acquired. The local people were opposing the plant tooth and nail. International cement giant Lafarge Company is making serious efforts to get its project going at Al Sindi but it is encountering stiff resistance from a section of people. As a result, not much headway has been made.

Companies allotted the Gummah and Bro Shind plants have not taken any effective steps to implement the projects. However, the expansion project of the Ambuja Company at Dalralghat is likely to be commissioned within the financial year.

Work on the Kariyali-Kothi-Salbagh cement project in the Shimla district, for which prospecting licence for the limestone deposits has also been granted to the Dalmia industries, is in preliminary stage. 

Solan, January 14
The much-awaited JP Associates’s Cement Grinding and Blending Plant was commissioned at Bagheri today.The plant, with an estimated annual capacity of 1.75 million tonnes of cement, is poised to provide employment to over 500 persons, besides generating indirect employment to many.

This will help raise economy of the region.

A plant spokesman said since a large number of truckers would be employed for transporting purpose, it would help generate employemnt.

Unique features of the plant include blending operation for which WAMS of Italy has supplied the blender. Multi-compartment silos have been commissioned and the company has installed pollution control equipment to keep emission below 50 mg/Nm3.

With commissioning of the plant, many ancillary business like hotels, repair shops, diesel pumps etc., shall come up in the vicinity to support the operation of the plant.

Incidentally, this is the first cement unit in the state in past more than 10 years and with start of operations of this unit, cement prices are expected to come down in the region, further benefitting the locals.

Shimla, January 14
Acting on the directions of the High Court following a massive fire at the landfill site, the Forest Department has moved the case for diversion of nine hectares land at Baral village on the Tutu-Tara Devi bypass for scientific dumping of non-biodegradable waste.

It was only yesterday that the Forest Department submitted the case for diversion of nine hectares of forest land for developing a landfill site to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest. Though the chunk of land has about 1,200 trees, it is outside the demarcated protected forest (DPF).

The High Court had given two weeks’ time to the Forest Department to process the case and forward it to the ministry of Environment and Forest who have been directed to process it within four weeks time. It was the massive fire, which kept on raging for almost three days turning the skyline of the hill town hazy around Christmas, which led to the intervention of the court.

The landfill site at Baral is right next to the proposed site of the solid waste management plant to be shifted from Darni Ka Bagicha on the bypass to the outskirts of the town.

“At present, the total solid waste generated from the town daily is about 60 tonnes and the proposed landfill site will cater to the requirement of the town for the next 30 years when the garbage generated daily is 600 tonnes,” said engineers in the local Municipal Corporation.

However, with huge amount of funds to the tune of almost Rs 10 crore required for developing the landfill site at Baral, funds will have to be arranged. The MC will have to pay a sum of Rs 1.91 crore as tree cost and money for compensatory plantation for diversion of the nine hectares forest land for developing the landfill site.

It is only after the detailed project report (DPR) is prepared that the exact cost for developing the landfill site would be known. The MC has also been directed to shift the solid waste management plant from Darni Ka Bagicha to Baral village at the earliest.

The Union Ministry of Urban Development has already sanctioned a sum of Rs 4.50 crore for the shifting of the plant to the new site.

Even though 2.5 hectares of land had been diverted by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest to the MC for shifting its plant in 2005 but work could not start as the locals had been protesting the coming up of the plant at the new site.

Following the High Court directives, the Forest Corporation has even cut over 250 trees a few days back for which permission had been granted in 2005. With the court being very strict about the entire shifting process and scientific dumping of all kinds of waste, the MC will have to expedite work.

Hamirpur, January 14
Aggrieved by the alleged apathy of the state government, around 3,000 trained graduate teachers (TGTs) working on contract basis in various schools of the state have threatened to start an agitation if their grievances are not resolved at the earliest.

Interestingly, while the state government has granted new pay scales to these teachers recently, they continue to face anomalies in payment of their salaries.

Citing such anomalies, Hamirpur district president of the Contractual TGT Association Anil Verma said, “In Hamirpur, while contractual TGTs are drawing a salary of Rs 14,430 per month, at Nadaun their counterparts are drawing Rs 13,900 per month.” He added, “There is discrepancy at many places as drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) are sending the salary bills for the payment of Rs 14,430 but treasury officers are passing the salary bills for Rs 13,900.”

Thousands of contractual TGTs are being even deprived of annual increments and leave benefits.

These teachers were appointed by the education department through HP Subordinate Services Selection Board and also through batch-wise. They are getting basic pay plus 50 per cent dearness pay (DP) at present.

Though they have met Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and Education Minister ID Dhiman several times and have been assured by them that their various demands would be fulfilled and pay anomalies removed, nothing much has been done, members of the association rued.

The issue of non-payment of annual increment is also a cause of concern of TGTs. The teachers said the department was creating problems in renewing their contracts after completion of a year and many DDOs were not accepting their request for deduction of contribution towards the group insurance scheme which entitles them insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh.

Informing about their future course of action, they said “Our members are becoming restive and we would be forced to adopt a path of agitation if our grievances are not resolved by the government.”

Baddi, January 14
With regulations governing the Indian pharmaceutical industry yet to attain global standards, the pharmaceutical sector is subject to exploitation. Even the failure to protect the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) has also hampered its growth.

This was stated by Dr Gilbert Wensel, Director, Venus Remedies Limited, while interacting with the media on the sidelines of a three-day international symposium, ‘Current Advances in Parenteral and Novel Drug Development’, held at Venus Remedies in Jharmajri near Baddi today.

Wensel said if corrective measures were not taken it would adversely impact the growth of the industry as the Indian industry has shown reluctance in accepting global standards. He said better regulation would ensure that it was no longer treated as a clinical site as it had a population of one billion, which was thrice that of the USA and twice that of the European Union, to cater.

However defending the government’s stand, Professor YK Gupta, Head, Department of Pharmacology, AIIMS, said India was the global hub of clinical research activity with the fourth largest pool of medical professionals in the world. He added there was a need to review and design good clinical practices’ guidelines and regulations to conduct trials as per the guidelines of the International Community for Harmonisation .

He said things were fast improving, though it would take time to match global standards as the total health budget of the US food and drug administration was more than thrice the budget of India.

Giving information about the latest research in parenteral drugs, Prof Pawan Singhal, Director, Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, St Boniface, Canada, said they were endeavouring to develop an innovative cancer drug which would have minimal side-effects. He said presently they were confronted with several side-effects like heart failure, reduced peak concentration in blood, etc. He said trials were underway in this direction.

Dr Manu Chaudhary, deputy managing director of Venus Remedies, however, opined that the failure to regulate grant of IPRs in India created problems in the global scanario and it was important to take corrective steps at the earliest. Since Venus topped in the manufacture of oncological products in the country, it voiced the concern of the industry. 

Bilaspur, January 14
Baba Ranjit Singh Thakur was unanimously elected president of the district BJP here last evening. Party’s district election in charge Dr Rajiv Bhardwaj said all the presidents of all the four mandal BJP committees and party district representatives were present during the election.

Thakur was BJP president of the Naina Devi Mandal up till now and is an old guard of the party. Earlier all three top leaders of the party - Forest Minister JP Nadda, Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Rikhi Ram Kaundal and party spokesperson and Naina Devi MLA Randhir Sharma - who were there during the elections, agreed on Baba Ranjit Singh’s name. 

Bilaspur, January 14
The Himachal government is planning to set up 15 universities in the state at the earliest so that the state develops into an education hub and students not only from the state, but also from outside the state can come here. This was stated by Naina Devi MLA and BJP state spokesman Randhir Sharma while presiding over the annual prize distribution function of the Government Senior Secondary School, Bassi, 80 km from here, yesterday.

Sharma said one of these universities was proposed to be set up in Bilaspur district and the Chief Minister has assured that universities would be allocated to Bilaspur and Chamba districts as soon as possible. He said five medial colleges and five polytechnics were also being set up in the state with the same objective.

Sharma urged all teachers to take their duties seriously and ensure that they take full interest in every student. He also urged parents to take proper care of their wards and ensure that they did not fall in bad habits which could spoil their career.

He announced a grant of Rs 3 lakh for construction of the school examination hall and Rs 11,000 for cultural programmes of the school. Principal Pramod Rana read the school progress report and gave details of the achievements of students.