Shimla, March 14
Indiscriminate opening of private universities in the state will further erode the financial base of fund-starved Himachal Pradesh University (HPU), which has been perpetually under financial stress.

The university will be deprived of affiliation fee, inspection fee, examination fee, registration fee and other charges for various courses for every institution upgraded into a private university. The maximum amount ranging from Rs 85 lakh to Rs 95 lakh is received from engineering colleges and the government has already upgraded three colleges. Further, the government has already given nod for 18 private universities, which are in the process of starting various courses. As a result the university will lose annual revenue of Rs 5 crore annually as they become functional over the next three years. If the government had allowed private colleges instead of universities, the HPU will have earned huge revenues in perpetuity.

Worse, with no regulatory body to oversee the functioning, it has become easier to establish universities than colleges in the private sector. Consequently, even those with no experience in the field of education and lacking financial and administrative capability to run such institutions are vying for setting up universities with the sole motive of making a quick buck. The state government has indeed obliged many such parties. Private parties are no longer interested in setting up colleges. Even otherwise with so many private universities around private institutions are no longer viable. The mess created by allowing private BEd colleges in “wholesale” is being repeated by granting universities, which will jeopardise the future of students.

In the situation the financial health of the HPU will further worsen in days to come and once the new technical university becomes functional it will be deprived of an annual revenue of about Rs 8.5 crore from 13 engineering, pharmacy and other colleges affiliated to it.

The university is already in a bad shape with over 120 posts of teacher and over 160 posts of non-teaching staff lying vacant. If these posts are filled the annual burden will be over Rs 6 crore. The government has increased the grant-in-aid to Rs 50 crore but no new posts are being sanctioned since long and new courses have been introduced only under self-financing scheme.

The state can be made a higher education hub by setting up private colleges and other institutions of “excellence” and not by allowing universities of doubtful “credentials” over which the government has no control. In fact, parents of those studying in colleges being upgraded to universities are worried about the future of their wards and want they should be awarded degrees of HPU. A way out could be to set up institutions in PPP (public private partnership) with the state university rather than opening private universities.

Shimla, March 14
The state government is not averse to setting up of a joint committee with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), which could meet frequently to solve the problems faced by entrepreneurs.

This was stated by Chief Minister PK Kumar Dhumal while addressing captains of industries at a seminar organised by the CII on “Himachal Pradesh: Drivers of Growth”, here last evening.

He underlined the need for setting up industries based on agriculture, herbs, fruit and other local raw material so that people of the rural areas were directly benefited. He said over 70 per cent population was dependent on agriculture and improving farm productivity and ensuring remunerative returns to farmers were key to economic prosperity.

He said the government had taken many initiatives in this regard, including poly house scheme and doodh ganga yojna.

The government had set up land bank of 800 bigha for setting up new industries in the state. The government of India had not extended the industrial package as yet, but the state had a number of other added advantages like cheap supply of electricity, industry-friendly environment and responsive administration, he added.

Chief Secretary Asha Swaroop said share of industries in the State Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was growing up speedily. She listed various steps taken by the government for solving the problems of entrepreneurs.

Harpal Singh, chairman, CII, northern region, said the fact that Himachal had emerged as a fast-moving state in the country was a welcome sign for industrial development. Some of its initiatives had attracted global attention which augured well for the state.

State chairman of the CII A Sehgal said various steps were being taken for skill upgrade to improve employability. The CII had adopted seven IITs under the PPP mode for skill development and a skill development centre had been set at Parwanoo. 

Dharamsala, March 14
Teachers in the Education Department are being promoted despite doubtful degrees. Information procured under the RTI has revealed that the state government has no clear policy of verifying the degrees while given promotions.

The teachers generally are doing their post graduation from out-of-state universities through distance education mode to get promotions in the department.

Many of them have done degrees from MP Bhoj (open) university, Bhopal, and Vinayika Mission University, Tamil Nadu.

A few of the affected teachers who have postgraduate degrees from Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) had sought information from the Education Secretary under the RTI to get a clarification in the matter. They had asked if MSc, Botany and MSc Zoology courses, being offered through distance-education mode by various out-of-state universities, were valid in the state.

The secretary directed the RTI query to the HPU. The university, in its reply, has stated that MSc courses being offered by out-of-state universities through distance education have not been equated by them.

The university has also held that the equivalence of degrees for the purpose of employment or promotion has to be decided by the government. The government has, however, not given any reply to the query that if they got the degrees equated before giving promotions or jobs.

Another query under the RTI from the Distance Education Council of the UGC revealed that it had given recognition to MP Bhoj University in August, 2007. However, the government has offered promotions to a large number of teachers who have completed postgraduate degrees from MP Bhoj University before 2007.

The sources here also told The Tribune that as per the Supreme Court judgment that has been put on the website, state universities cannot open their off-campus centres outside the territorial jurisdiction of the respective states that have authorised them to open the universities.

The UGC, in the directions issued to all states, has also stated that opening of off-campus centres was illegal and should be stopped. 

Shimla, March 14
Raising serious doubts over techno-economic feasibility of the Renuka Dam and pointing out glaring infirmities in its environment impact assessment (EIA), the report of the People’s Action for People in Need (PAPN) has stated that the ambitious project would prove to be an “unmitigated disaster” for both the environment and the local community.

The economic, technical, social and environmental viability of the project has not been established in a credible manner and no proper cost-benefit analysis had been carried out. The socio-economic and environmental costs involved were huge as more than 2,200 hectares of land, including 1,000 hectare of forests, in four tehsils of Sirmour will be acquired for the project, out of which almost 60 per cent will be submerged, displacing more than 750 families in 37 villages, the reports says.

“The economy of the local people, which has been thriving on agriculture and livestock rearing, will be shattered, creating crisis of livelihood. The social and cultural fabric of the villages will be destroyed as more than a hundred families are likely to be displaced from 24 villages. Dalit farmers, sharecroppers and tenants will be the worst impacted,” it pointed out.

Conditional techno-economic clearance (TEC) was granted in the year 2000 when the cost of the project was Rs 1,300 crore. The revised cost was likely to be Rs 3,600 crore which may not be feasible.

However, without obtaining the final TEC, process of land acquisition had been started which was patently wrong.

The study carried out by Nidhi Agarwal and Prakash Bhandari of the Environment Research and Action Collective recommended that the Central Water Commission and Ministry of Water Resources should carry out an independent review of the techno-economic feasibility of the project and a social impact assessment should be entrusted to a reputed social science institute and the report be made public.

Survey, updating and mapping of revenue and forest records should be carried out in consultation with people, sangharsh samiti and other concerned. At present, vast stretches of agriculture land, which had been provided irrigation facility, continues to be shown as “un-irrigated” in the revenue record.

Doubting validity of the agreement on the project among the five states as Haryana had not signed it, the report calls for an exploring options by way of an assessment, to be conducted in a credible and independent way, to meet the objective of “quenching the thirst of Delhi”. The report has recommended that the notices issued under Section 17(4) of the Land Acquisition Act be withdrawn immediately and a grievance committee be formed under the district collector to look into problems of the project-affected families.

Solan, March 14
Even as the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area comprises three industrial zones, investors in Nalagarh rue neglect of the area. While the area, which comprises nearly 150 small and big industries, figured nowhere in any new scheme or developmental project, the crucial Chikni bridge serving the area has been waiting for repair for the past more than two years.

Investors rued that the area never fared in the priority of the state government and whatever planning was executed, it catered to the Baddi-Barotiwala industrial area. While no project has been planned to seek funds from various central schemes to develop infrastructure and other facilities, a trade centre and transport nagar were being planned in the Baddi-Barotiwala area.

Anil Sharma, a top executive of an industrial unit, while lamenting step-motherly treatment to the area, said, “It was shocking that when the region faced shortage of power after burning down of a sub-station, the Nalagarh area was made to face more cuts than the Baddi and Barotiwala areas where the share of power available was much more.”

Though the area had large chunks of land, the broken Chikni bridge deterred investors to invest here and no voice had been raised from the existing industrial associations in this regard, rued industry executives.

Earlier, the Nalagarh area was looked after by the District Industries Centre at Solan after the Single Window Clearance Agency at Baddi was made an independent entity, this affected its working due to distance.

Officials, however, opined that since the area could not be marketed as an export hub in the absence of infrastructure development, they failed to get funds under various centrally-aided schemes where industrial corridors existed. It also failed to develop as an independent industrial area development agency due to lack of representation and hence it faced scarcity of funds for its development. 

Kangra, March 14
Thousands of pilgrims today visited the Bajjreshwari Temple here, one of the 52 shakti peeths, just ahead of the forthcoming Chaiter Navratra scheduled to start from March 16. The security had been further beefed up in view of the Khalistan Commando Force threat of attacking temples in Himachal Pradesh.

District police chief Atul Fulzele today told The Tribune that thousands of pilgrims thronged the shakti peeths of Bajjreshwari, Jawalamukhi and Chamunda temples in Kangra district today ahead of the Chaiter Navratra scheduled to start from Tuesday. He said all arrangements for the security, law and order besides for other convenience of the visiting pilgrims had been completed.

He said two armed reserves had been deployed at Bajjreshwari and Chamunda temples and three reserves at Jawalamukhi.

Shimla, March 14
Resentment prevails among retired senior diploma engineers of the state electricity board over the failure of the management to notify their revised pay scales in the pay fixation fitment table.

The affected diploma engineers have submitted representations to the chairman of the board Subhash Negi and drawn his attention to the fact that their pre revised pay scales of Rs 15,350 to 21,600 had not been included in any fixation table. They urged him to club the pay scales in the fitment table-21 pertaining to pre revised scales of Rs 15,800 to Rs 21,100.

As per the notification issued by the government the revised pension would be in no case lower than 50 per cent of the minimum pay band plus the grade pay corresponding to the pre revised payscales from which the pensioner had retired.

They added the board had duly notified 39 pay scales awarded in deviation from the PSEB and the state government along with 50 categories which have been granted higher pay scales than that of the PSEB to benefit individuals but the pay scales of senior diploma engineers had not been included in any fitment table.