Shimla, January 24
Taking exception to the manner in which national leaders of the BJP were coming out in defence of “cash in camera” scam involving party MP Virender Kashyap, the Congress has decided to approach the Lok Sabha Speaker to seek his dismissal from the House.

The party has decided to prepare a detailed memorandum pertaining to the incident which took place in April, 2009, just before the Lok Sabha poll which will be submitted to the Speaker for taking appropriate action against the member. Not only that, a copy of video CD will also be handed over to the Speaker along with it. The party has also decided to observe February 1 as the “anti-corruption day” to expose misdeeds of the Dhumal regime brought to fore by the triple CDs. The strategy of the party is to keep the heat on and maintain pressure on the BJP on the issue of corruption, phone tapping and surveillance of Congress MLAs.

Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh said he was at a loss to understand why the BJP high command was so anxious to defend Kashyap that every day a national leader landed up in Shimla from Delhi or Chandigarh to bat in his favour without even bothering to know the facts. First it was general secretary Vijay Goyal and then Satya Pal Jain who was not only the in charge of party affairs, but also functioned as the legal counsel of the Dhumal government, he added.

The video CD had also made obvious the reasons for opening floodgates for private universities and other educational institutions. It was a ploy to grant permission to outsiders under Section 118 of the Land Reforms and Tenancy Act to acquire land. Dhumal had already announced opening of 18 private universities and more were in offing. The state had virtually been put on sale, he added.

The saddest part of the episode was that even the BJP high command was compromising with corruption by defending leaders involved in such blatant “cash in camera” episodes.

Meanwhile, Kaul Singh asserted that the Congress was united and its focus was the BJP government. He said Virbhadra Singh had, during the party meeting, expressed some reservations about the performance in the Vidhan Sabha but the issue was thrashed out. The state leadership has been doing its best but there was always room for improvement, he added. 

Hamirpur, January 24
District president of the BJP Desh Raj Sharma has termed “the CDs released recently accusing Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal of his alleged incriminating talk with DGP (Vigilance) DS Manhas and MP Virender Kashyap for allegedly accepting money for getting the work done from the government, as a bundle of lies as they have been doctored through cut and paste work.”

Talking to mediapersons here today, Sharma said, “Why the person releasing these CDs is not coming forward if the contents of the CDs are true?” he questioned.

The BJP leader He also criticised Congress leaders for creating hue and cry over the issue and said, “Why the Congress leaders do not own responsibility for the CDs while demanding action in this matter.”

Sharma said, “The BJP will organise a campaign against price rise and hold protests against the UPA-led central government for its failure to control the prices and check the inflation.”

He said, “While the life of a common man has become miserable due to skyrocketing prices of essential commodities the central government has not taken any concrete step to control the prices.”

The BJP leader said, “Under this campaign the party activists will hold dharnas from February 1 to 10 at mandal-level and later on at the district headquarters.”

Dharamsala, January 24
A nonagenarian freedom fighter, Prithvi Singh, from the Dehra area is in a destitute state. Though age has taken toll on his body, with eyes and ears going weak, his spirit still seems to be undeterred. The shrill in his voice attracted everybody’s attention when he presented himself before Chief Minister PK Dhumal at a programme organised in Dehra today. Prithivi Singh came with a laminated certificate carrying his photo with Netaji Subash Chander Bose. He narrated his tale of woes with dignity and demanded what was his right from the system.

Prithvi told the CM that though he was a freedom fighter and had been struggling against the system, he was finding it hard to make both ends meet. “I do not have anything to eat,” he said plainly before the CM.

The candid admission of the freedom fighter moved the CM and other officials present there. The CM asked the local magistrate to immediately process his case for old age pension and freedom fighter’s pension. However, his state illustrates how destitute the senior citizens are in society.

Later, when questioned by mediapersons, Prithvi said he had applied for freedom fighter pension a few years ago. However, unfortunately he had shown his photo with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to officials concerned. Since the Congress was the ruling party at that time, they considered him a BJP worker and allegedly did not process his case for pension. Now, that Dhumal has intervened, it remains to be seen how quickly misery of the old man will be resolved. 

Shimla, January 24
The Urban Transport Management of Shimla Town scheme, under which 75 buses have been purchased for plying in the state capital, is heading for collapse even before it has become fully operational.

The new fleet of buses, provided by the Centre under the Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, has started incurring huge losses as the government not only failed to carry out the mandatory reforms but also reduced the fare. By the end of December, the total loss had crossed Rs 16 lakh even though only 41 buses were operational. The loss was mounting with every additional bus as the income was only Rs 10 per km per bus and expenditure came to Rs 26 per km per bus. Thus, a loss Rs 16 per km per bus was being incurred which was unsustainable for a local bus service.

The Centre had, while providing the first instalment of Rs 3.04 crore for the purchase of buses, made it clear that the released second instalment of equal amount would be subjected to the progress made in carrying out reforms.

As little headway has been made in carrying out reforms, prospects of the Centre releasing the second instalment are bleak. The state road transport corporation, which purchased the buses, is in no position to pay Rs 3.04 crore due to the supplier of vehicles.

The government gave the nod for setting up a society to independently manage the fleet but failed to carry forward the process of reforms to make it a financially self-sustaining entity.

The urban transport fund has not been set up and only a separate account has been created for operating the scheme. Taxes pertaining to vehicles like the registration fee, driving licence fee, token tax, bus route permit fee, green tax, parking fee and other such charges were to be deposited in the fund to meet the operational expenses as meagre fare will not suffice. Any revenue raised by putting advertisement has also to go to the fund and steps like raising the parking fee, were to be taken to discourage use of personal vehicles.

The government has not shown any keenness to carry out the reforms and only taken a retrograde step to reduce the fare which would plunge the state road transport corporation, which has already accumulated losses to the tune of Rs 520 crore, deeper into the red. The total cost of buses was Rs 6.75 crore, out of which the state had to contribute only 10 per cent share of Rs 67 lakh. 

Dehra (Dharamsala), January 24
It was bonanza time for residents of Dehra area today. Chief Minister PK Dhumal, who presided over administration on people’s doorstep programme, conceded most of the applications that came before him.

Even people who applied for financial help for medical treatment taken in private hospitals about five years ago were given some aid by the Chief Minister.

The most interesting aspect of the programme was that even Congress MLA from Pragpur Yog Raj came with a delegation of his constituency voters to the CM. Yog Raj, when contacted by The Tribune, said he had already assured the CM that he would welcome him whenever he came to his area.

“I would always appreciate his good works and only criticise the government when it works against the aspirations of people in the area,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dhumal listened to grievances of over 945 applicants which included deputations. While various demands were solved on the spot, officials were ordered to settle other problems on priority basis in a time-bound manner. He also directed Kangra Deputy Commissioner RS Gupta to review the cases referred to various offices for immediate disposal.

Most of the cases related to road repair and construction, drinking water, health treatment, old age, handicap and widow pension, transportation, education, police and revenue.

Speaking on the occasion, CM also urged people to take benefit of various schemes envisaged to boot up their economy in the villages.

The Chief Minister presented cheques for Rs 10 lakh as financial assistance and relief to genuine cases on this occasion.

He announced a grant of Rs 15 lakh for treatment of patients, repair and construction works and various developmental works in the Dehra subdivision. A delegation of Sports Club and Press Club Dehra, computer training teacher besides trained JBTs also met Chief Miniter and he assured to consider their cases sympathetically.

Ravinder Ravi, IPH Minister, Ramesh Dhwala, Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Sarveen Choudhary, Social Welfare and Empowerment Minister were also present on the occasion. 

Nurpur, January 24
Manju Devi (25) reportedly committed suicide by hanging herself with ceiling fan yesterday at her in-laws’ house at Jorot village in Jawali subdivision. She was married to Mangal Singh, Army personnel, 18 months back. Her husband was on a sick leave since last month due to depression and was away along with his mother when she committed suicide.

According to the police, when both returned they found her hanging with the ceiling fan and took her to a private clinic but was declared dead by the doctor.

The police has reported the matter under Section 174 of the CrPC and sent the body to the Civil Hospital for postmortem. The police suspected no foul play in the death of the woman.