Shimla, March 29
Ruling BJP and the Congress today traded charges in the assembly over adoption of double standards in investigating similar cases and use of police force for framing its political opponents while in power.

It was during the assembly debate on cut motion pertaining to demands of the police department that HPCC chief Kaul Singh Thakur accused the BJP regime of adopting double standards in investigating similar CD cases in which name of its MP, Virender Kashyap, had figured. “While in one case involving Congress leader a police case has been registered, in the other, the police is trying to trace the source and not the substance which reflects its double standards,” he quipped.

Replying to the cut motion, Chief Minister PK Dhumal dismissed the Congress’ allegations of political vendetta being unleashed on its party members.

“I only want to remind the Congress how BJP men were lathicharged on the Ridge and stone pelted on them while they were protesting peacefully outside the assembly while in the opposition,” he retorted.

Giving details of the police investigation in the CD case involving BJP MP, he said no offence had been made out even though the inquiry was still on. “It is not a case of cheating or dishonest inducement as it was a sting operation made public after eight months which reflects the malafide intentions,” he said.

He refuted the allegations that police force was being used to frame political opponents. There had been a general decline in the crime graph as thrust was on modernisation of the police force along with training and computerisation. “The police is vigilant against reports of militant outfits targeting shrines in HP and security has been beefed up to ensure that terrorists, whether from Jammu and Kashmir or Babbar Khalsa, use Himachal as safe haven,” he assured the House.

Earlier, initiating the debate, CLP leader Vidya Stokes regretted that rather than checking crime, the police was busy framing Congress men in false cases. “The CID wing should be made autonomous so that it is free from political pressures and can work independently,” she said. She also termed as unfortunate names of senior police officials, including an IG, allegedly being linked to a girl’s suicide.

Gangu Ram Musafir of the Congress said it was unfortunate that certain police officials were behaving arbitrarily while there were incidents of looting, dacoity and other crime. Mukesh Agnihotri expressed concern over militants from neighbouring states using HP as safe haven and threats from ultras.

Congress legislator Harshwardhan said there had been a spurt in crime in the border areas due to industrialisation and tourism for which effective steps needed to be taken. Kuldeep Pathania of the Congress said despite a spurt in organised crime, the police did not investigate cases even after registering them.

Others who spoke included Rajesh Dharmani, Surinder Bhardwaj, Yog Raj, Subhash Manglet, Neeraj Bharti and Nand Lal. The cut motion was, however, defeated by voice vote as dissatisfied Congress refused to take it back.

Shimla, March 29
Seventeen persons had died and 122 injured due to accidents during execution of work under the rural employment guarantee scheme (MNREGA).

This was stated by Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Minister Jai Ram Thakur in reply to a query about compensation to victims under MNREGA by Rajesh Dharmani of the Congress during Question Hour in the assembly today.

The minister said the state government had made no separate provision for relief as the guidelines had been laid by the Centre. “There is a provision for providing Rs 25,000 relief in case of death or permanent disability while in case of injury, total hospitalisation and treatment cost is borne” he said.

In reply to another query about the poly-house scheme, Chief Minister PK Dhumal informed the House that an agreement for setting up of 1,985 poly-houses had been signed.

“After receiving complaints, empanelment of some companies had been cancelled as 792 poly-houses were complete, 875 were under construction and 318 cases were pending,” he said.

He assured that work on all 1,985 cases would be completed by May this year.

Shimla, March 29
Keeping in view sensitivity of a suicide case by a local girl, Ritu, in which FIR has been registered against IG (Law and Order), his wife and son, the matter is being handed over for investigation to the CID wing of the police. SSP RM Sharma today wrote to DGP G.S. Gill for handing over investigation to the CID wing keeping in view the fact that it was a very sensitive matter.

The family of 29-year-old Ritu, who was a teacher in a B.Ed College in Totu, alleged that vital evidence had been destroyed and apprehended that fair probe was not possible due the involvement of a high-ranking police officer. It was only late last night that the Shimla police registered a case against IG, Law and Order, Pradeep Kumar, his wife, son Siddhartha, a judicial officer with regard to the suicide by Ritu. The case has been registered against the three under Sections 306 and 201 of the IPC for abetment to suicide and causing destruction of evidence.

Sharma said the other two named in the FIR include the additional SHO Mathura Dass and driver of the IG. He said a post-mortem report had confirmed death due to suicidal hanging. The FIR mentions that Ritu and Siddharth had known each other for the past 15 years but his mother was opposed to their marriage. It also mentions that Ritu was upset as Siddharth had told him that his marriage had been fixed elsewhere.

Students of B.Ed College where the girl was teaching blocked traffic near Totu, demanding action against those responsible for driving the girl to commit suicide.

Shimla, March 29
Taking a serious notice of the repeated incidents of leopards escaping from the local animal rescue home at Tuti Kandi, the state Wildlife Department today suspended a deputy ranger and a guard for negligence in duty. It has also decided to formulate a protocol for regulating all routine activities in zoos and rescue homes, including entry of attendants and other staff, for feeding of animals and cleaning of enclosures, to prevent recurrence of such happenings.

The action against the staff has come in the wake of the escape of a leopard from the rescue home yesterday while the enclosure was being cleaned by attendants. It was for the second time over a short period that such an incident had taken place. Only last month, two leopards had escaped during night and, after inquiry, a chowkidar was suspended.

However, this time, instead of taking action against the attendants, the department suspended deputy forest ranger Sukhdev and forest guard Dinanath for dereliction of duty.

Sanjeeva Pandey, Chief Conservator of Forests, Faunal Diversity and Protected Areas, said animals were to be fed by attendants under the supervision of these two officials but they were not present. It was their responsibility to ensure that the attendants performed the daily duty in a proper manner and followed the laid down procedure.

Simultaneously, a protocol specifying the precautions to be taken while feeding animals and cleaning enclosures in which everything, including order in which various doors will be opened and locked, is being formulated to eliminate chances of human error. The attendants will be provided training for the purpose. A proposal to install electronic locks was being finalised and in the meantime, the double lever locks have been installed.

Further, the portion in which enclosures of animals like leopard and bear are located, will be fenced to have second line of protection to prevent animals from escaping from the home even if they manage to come out of the enclosure.

Mandi, March 29
After the exit of Forest Minister JP Nadda from the Dhumal ministry, lobbying has intensified among the “berth hopefuls” for the vacant ministerial berth and post of deputy speaker, chief parliamentary secretaries and other posts as Chief Minister PK Dhumal has decided to go for “another round of induction” into his ministry to keep the “factional, regional and caste divide in good humour to face the panchayati raj polls due this year”.

Sources close to Dhumal said former forest minister Roop Singh Thakur, Gerhwin MLA Rikhi Ram Kaundal, Bharmour MLA Tulsi Ram, Ramlal Markande (Lahaul-Sipiti), Randhir Sharma (Kot Kehloor), former general secretary HN Kashyap, Suresh Bhardwaj (Shimla MLA) and Kushi Ram Balnatah (Rohru MLA) and HN Saini (Nalagarh MLA) are doing the rounds for various posts.

The lobbying has intensified considering that Nadda has joined BJP chief Nitin Gadkari’s team as national general secretary and can ruffle feathers in the state party as Nadda is considered to be a supporter of the Shanta Kumar faction, sources revealed.

“Kaundal is being tipped as a hot contender for the post of forest minister as it will give representation to the Dalits and Bilaspur will be compensated for Nadda’s exit,” the sources added.

After winning battle for the state chief for his supporter Khimi Ram, Dhumal is now preparing a ground for third round of induction.

Even Ganesh Dutt (Shimla), chairman HIMUDA Ram Swarup Sharma (Mandi), chairman civil supplies Chander Mohan Thakur (Sirmaur) and president HP State Cooperative Bank have been rewarded berths in the state executive, Balnatah and Bhardwaj are ignoring party’s ‘one post, one person’ principle, rued insiders, who have been left in the lurch, most of them Shanta’s supporters.

Solan, March 29
The Parwanoo police finally filed a challan in the infamous BS Thind case before the sessions court for trial today.

The Ministry of Home had earlier granted prosecution sanction to the police to proceed against former ADGP BS Thind who was booked for extortion, cheating, criminal intimidation and conspiracy in June, 2008, after Parwanoo-based businessman Ashok Mittal had furnished an audio CD allegedly having evidence of Thind demanding lakhs from him in lieu of getting his shop vacated.

The case, which was registered in 2009, was investigated in depth and various angles involving it were thoroughly probed before filing the challan. Since the case involved a former ADGP, police officials were leaving no stone unturned to make a strong plea before the court. The ADGP who was posted at the State Human Rights Commission when the case was registered was later suspended. He was booked under Sections 384, 420, 120B and 506 of the IPC and Sections 9 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The 54-minute audio CD contained detailed conversations of the deal and sources revealed that this had cast a shadow of doubt over the role of at least two more SPs. The matter pertained to 2004 when Thind was the ADGP handling crucial departments, including law and order and the CID.

A dispute was reportedly going on between Mittal and his brother regarding vacation of a shop at Parwanoo and a deal had later taken place between Mittal and Thind wherein the latter had promised to get the said shop vacated provided a sum of Rs 6 lakh was given to him. Mittal had reportedly recorded this conversation and it was handed over to the state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau along with a complaint by Mittal in 2008.

The police had investigated various aspects of the case and the authenticity of the voice in the CD being Thind’s had been established by the forensic report. It remains to be seen how well the case will stand in the court of law now, as it is for the first time that such a senior official was facing trial in a case of such nature.

Kangra, March 29
Residents of Gagruhi village, falling under the Jawalamukhi police station, today threatened to block the National Highway- 88, connecting the state capital with divisional headquarters of Kangra region, at Majhin Chowk on April 5, if the rape case of nine-year-old girl was not handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Dinesh Kumar, father of the rape victim, today submitted a memorandum to the Dehra SDM, demanding the case to be handed over to the CBI.

He, in the memorandum, alleged that the police had failed to nab the accused in the case even after 29 days of the crime.

SDM Rakesh Sharma confirmed that the father had submitted the memorandum, demanding the rape case be handed over to the CBI as the police had allegedly failed to nab the culprit.

Dinesh Kumar levelled charges that the accused had political patronage that had crippled the progress of the case and the police could not lay hands on the accused of this heinous crime even after lapse of nearly one month.

The girl, Shikha, was a class IV student. On March 1, while she was on way to home, a youth allegedly followed and raped her.

Kangra District Police Chief Atul Fulzele said the accused could not be identified and, hence, could not be nabbed till date. He, however, denied that there was any political pressure on the police to protect the accused.

Shimla, March 29
The state-level Single Window Clearance and Monitoring Authority today granted provisional approval for setting up three new industrial units in the state with proposed investment of Rs 120 crore.

Presiding over the meeting of the authority, Chief Minister PK Dhumal said the proposed units would help generate employment for 793 persons. He said despite slowdown, the state had succeeded in attracting prestigious industrial houses to set up manufacturing facilities. Only recently, the Hero Honda Motor Company had approached the government which wanted to set up a manufacturing plant with an investment of over Rs 2,000 crore.

He said Himachal Pradesh was probably the only state where all basic amenities of land, electricity, water, road were being made available to entrepreneurs at the lowest tariff. The state would welcome companies keen to set up their eco-friendly industrial units as protecting environment was its top priority. Entrepreneurs were being motivated to set up units in the interiors of the state where additional facilities and incentives were being available to them, he added.

The government had set up the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Development Authority (BBNDA) for the planned growth of the industrial belt and had also opened offices dealing with revenue cases, drug control, police, excise and single window clearance authority in the area so that entrepreneurs would not have to spent time and money on travelling to distant places.

Industries Minister Kishan Kapoor detailed out achievements of the state in the industrial sector during the past two years and said more entrepreneurs were coming forward with their proposals which were being scrutinised closely.

Bilaspur, March 29
Chief Minister Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal is credited with increasing the budget of Scheduled Castes sub-plan from 11 per cent to 25 per cent as soon as he came to power in the state as the BJP has welfare of downtrodden people foremost in its mind.

This was said by HP Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Rikhi Ram Kaundal while presiding over the district-level review and monitoring committee meeting of the District Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan here at the Bachat Bhawan today.

Kaundal said during this year the Chief Minister had kept an amount of Rs 668 crore for this purpose so that poor sections of society improved their lot as quickly as possible with the help of various government schemes launched throughout the state.

The Deputy Speaker said Rs 25.86 crore were being spent in this district during the current year under this plan and most of the departments deserved praise as they had already met their cent per cent targets assigned to them while the remaining departments should also strive hard to achieve this goal at the earliest.

Kaundal said Rs 2.26 crore were being spent on social service pensions to 7,458 old and infirm persons and widows in district here this year. He said district officers should ensure personally that the target groups got the real benefit of these schemes and the money was not wasted in other irrelevant activities.

Hamirpur, March 29
This parliamentary constituency has received Rs 196.5 crore for construction and improvement of roads, bridges and other related works for National Highway (NH)-70 and NH-88 in the past two years due to my constant efforts, says Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur.

The NH division of HPPWD, Hamirpur, got Rs 5798.55 lakh during 2008-09 and Rs 138.44 crore under different projects during the current financial year.

In addition to these under the corridor concept on NH-88, Rs 124 lakh are proposed and this proposal is on the agenda of next meeting of expenditure finance committee being held on April 12.

Giving details of various projects, Anurag Thakur said for the construction of a modern bridge at Sukrala Nullah on NH-70, Rs 176.85 lakh had been sanctioned and for widening, strengthening and improvement of roads at different places.

Shimla, March 29
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has directed Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) to constitute a committee to look into the issues of wrong questions that appeared in the entrance examination of MD and MS and submit report to the court.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Ram Bhawan Misra directed the university to include three members in the committee from outside the state. The committee would look into the entire issues raised by petitioners and students. The court had directed the students to submit their objections to the questions in the entrance examination to the university.

The petitioners have mentioned that key answers of about 62 questions were wrong. It was alleged that the university had acted with negligence. The in house mechanism of the university found that three questions were wrong. Hence, they were deleted. The students mentioned that 62 questions were doubtful. The university had assured the court that in future every effort would be made to eliminate mistakes.

The court appreciated this statement of the university, but added that this doubt was required to be eliminated for such prestigious examination.

Solan, March 29
The Kasauli police arrested one Dinesh Kumar, a resident of Una district, for posing as a captain of the Indian Military Intelligence and intimidating two women of Garkhal village today.

Parwanoo SDPO Ramesh Pathania said two girls — Kamlesh and Rina — had complained to the police that Dinesh was regularly calling them on their cell phones and he coerced them to join investigations as their names and telephones had figured in some secret mission.

The two women received these calls on March 2 and, thereafter, Dinesh started intimidating them that he would come and pick them up from Garkhal where they resided with their families.

The police, after receiving a complaint, traced the call to Haroli area of Una and sought help of the local police there to identify the man. He was posing as an officer of 8 JAK Rifles and had been telling the two women that they would have to accompany him to Delhi for interrogation.

Police investigations, however, revealed that no such officer was posted either in the military intelligence or 8 JAK Rifles.

It was, however, found that he had earned employment as a cook in the Army but since he failed to complete the initial six-month training, he had been dismissed.

He was undergoing trial in nearly eight cases related to cheating and theft in Hamirpur, Shimla and Una. In one of the cases, he had duped some 20 youths of Rs 20,000 each on the pretext of securing them recruitment in the Army at Jabalpur. He checked in a hotel with them at Jabalpur but later disappeared, leaving them in the lurch.

The police was now interrogating him on various issues relating to calls made to the two girls. A case under section 419, 507, 509 and 506 of the IPC had been registered for cheating and criminal intimidation.

He was arrested from Shimla today and was brought to Kasauli later in the afternoon.