Shimla, March 30
With investigation in the suicide of BEd College lecturer Ritu yet to begin even after two days of the incident, the police today finally handed over the case to the CID and appointed an IG-rank officer to deal with the inquiry.

With a case being registered against the IG, Law and Order, Pradeep Kumar, his wife and son Siddharth, a judicial officer, in connection with the suicide, the police has been acting at an amazingly slow pace. It was only late in the night today that the CID took over the case.

IG (CID) OC Thakur has been appointed as the in charge of the inquiry.

It was probably the demand by CLP leader Vidya Stokes for a CBI probe into the matter and call attention motion notice by HPCC chief Kaul Singh Thakur for raising the issue in the House that the police action came, though much delayed. A case has been registered against the IG, his wife and son under Sections 306 and 201 of the IPC after 29-year-old Ritu, teacher in a local BEd college, committed suicide on Sunday morning.

The family of the deceased had already alleged in the FIR that since the name of a senior police officer was involved, they did not expect a fair probe. The fact that the IG, along with the additional SHO of the Boildeauganj police station and his driver were the first ones to enter the room where the mishap happened, the family apprehended that crucial evidence, including the suicide note, could have been removed.

The manner in which there was a delay of almost two days in finalising the investigating authority and dilly dallying on the part of the CID to take over the case despite the DGP’s orders, a question mark has been put on the role of the police.

Locals and students of the BEd college have been demanding removal of the IG from his present posting and handing over the case to the CID. With the name of an IG being linked to the suicide case, the police simply sat over the case and acted only once pressure was mounted on them. Senior police officials, when contacted, either remained inaccessible or feigned total ignorance about the progress of the case.

SSP RM Sharma had, however, written to the DGP to hand over the case to the CID yesterday as it involved an IG-rank officer.

Shimla, March 30
Minister for urban development Mohinder Singh today ruled out possibility of the government framing any new retention policy to regularise unauthorised structures in view of the order passed by the high court in this regard.

Replying to separate questions of Suresh Bharadwaj (BJP) and Sohan Lal (Congress) he said under the rules deviations from approved building plans could be compounded only up to 10 per cent. However, from 1997 to 2008 as many as seven retention policies were framed to provide for regularisation of more than 10 per cent.

It all began in 1997 when water and power connections were allowed to unauthorised structure on certain conditions. Subsequent retention policies of 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2009 provided for regularisation of deviations from 20 to 50 per cent.

He informed that from 1999 to 2006 as many as 6,891 applications for regularisation of unauthorised structures were received, out of which 1,810 were rejected and 1,532 structures regularised. Under the amended rules, framed in February, 2009, in all 1,307 applications were received, out of which 679 were rejected. He said construction was allowed in the heritage zone and green belt only on old lines. 

Nalagarh, March 30
Castigating the UPA-led central government for adopting a partisan attitude and curtailing the central industrial package, Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur said today that this was a retrograde step. He said it was unfortunate that the Congress-ruled Jammu and Kashmir had got extension of the central industrial package till 2017 while it failed to be extended in BJP-ruled Himachal and Uttarakhand.

Thakur was addressing a gathering at Nehla Khera village near Nalagarh after inaugurating the fifth unit of Dev Bhumi Ispat which had been set up with an investment of Rs 30 crore and would provide employment to 500 persons. 

Dharamsala, March 30
Micro-hydel projects have failed to fulfil the desired expectations in Himachal. According to the data presented by the state government in the Budget this year, since 1995-96, 618 upto 5 MW micro-hydel projects have been sanctioned. However, out of these, till date, just 26, have been commissioned.

This means that just 4 per cent of the total micro-hydel projects sanctioned in the state have been commissioned. The Himachal government has, over a period of time, adopted a policy to give preference to state residents in allotment of such projects.

However, according to sources, most of the Himachal residents, who have been allotted the projects, do not have adequate finance to bring up the projects. The present cost of bringing such project is estimated at about Rs 8 crore to Rs 10 crore per MW, depending upon the terrain.

For setting up a micro-hydel project of 5 MW, a Himachal resident would require an investment of about Rs 50 crore. Banks are also generally not willing to finance the projects due to lack of guarantee for their investment.

To help Himachal residents in bringing up the projects, the state government mooted a proposal to provide finance through the Kangra Central Cooperative Bank, the biggest cooperative bank of the state. However, the proposal that was passed by the bank board at the behest of the state government has been declined by NABARD, the monitoring body for cooperative banks.

NABARD has held that investments of small entrepreneurs cannot be put at risk through large projects.

Due to non-availability of finance, most of the people who have been allotted the micro-hydel projects have put them on sale. Middlemen are trying the sell the projects at prices ranging from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 80 lakh per MW, depending upon the number of no objection certificates (NOCs) obtained from the government.

The middlemen are also offering to get the NOCs cleared at a cost.

However, the high prices being demanded by middlemen and uncertainty of water sources of various rivulets on which the hydel projects have been based, are keeping investors at bay.

Experts in the field, when contacted, said the state government should fix a time limit for commissioning of micro or any other hydel projects in the state. In case the commissioning is delayed, the state should charge royalty from allottees in cash. By allowing inordinate delay in the implementation of hydel projects, the state is failing to harness in hydel power potential that can make the state economically self-reliant.

The state can also offer guarantee for loans of genuine small investors to help them bring up the projects.

Dharamsala, March 30
The process to choose the successor to Samdhong Rinpoche, Kalon Tripa (Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile), has begun at Dharamsala, the seat for Tibetan government-in-exile. The National Democratic Party of Tibet (NDPT), political party of Tibetans in-exile, has declared three candidates for the post of Kalon Tripa.

According to sources, the three candidates are Lobsang Sangey, a law researcher at Havard University, USA, Tethong Tenzin Namgyal, former minister of Tibetan government-in-exile, and Tashi Wangde, former Kalon Tripa, who is now Dalai Lama’s ambassador to France.

Samdhong Rinpoche, who is well conversant in English and Hindi language, is a close aide of the Dalai Lama. He was elected to the post in 2001.

During his stint as Kalon Tripa, he toed the line advocated by the Dalai Lama, and according to sources, he was a think tank behind the continued Tibetan struggle against the Chinese.

He supported the middle-way approach proposed by the Dalai Lama, in which the latter had demanded meaningful autonomy from the Chinese.

However, since the memorandum of autonomy has been outrightly rejected by the Chinese, a few hard line NGOs like the Tibetan Youth Congress, have been critical of the middle-way approach being advocated by the Tibetan government-in-exile. They are demanding that the Tibetans should harden their stand to demand complete freedom from China.

The NDPT has also reportedly told newsmen that their agenda would be complete independence in place of middle-way approach proposed by the Dalai Lama.

The new Prime Minister, who would be elected democratically in elections to be held in September next year, would have a challenge to take along with him the dissenting voices among the exile community of Tibetans.

The NDPT has also declared 45 nominees for members of parliament, including 15 each from Dotoe, Domey and U-tsang provinces in Tibet.

Hamirpur, March 30
While management of the Kangra Central Cooperative Bank (KCCB) is yet to decide about creating fresh corpus for paying pensions to employees of the bank, hundreds of existing pensioners are in a quandary as they would not get their pensions from April 1 due to lack of funds.

They would not be getting their pensions since the funds in the corpus, created for paying the pensions, have finished.

In this situation, bank officials are not issuing bills for paying the pension to its pensioners.

The bank had started a contributory pension scheme for its employees in 1998 and had created a corpus of Rs 50 lakh for this purpose. Employees of the bank and management were to contribute 12.5 per cent each towards the pension fund.

The pensioners were to get pension from this corpus through interest and funds available in the corpus. However, the problem started cropping up when funds dried in the corpus.

While pensioners are blaming the bank management for not reviewing the pension scheme, on the other hand, bank management says this situation has cropped up as employees later agreed to contribute only 1.5 per cent towards the contributory pension scheme.

However, the pensioners argue that since the KCCB has earned a profit of about Rs 45 crore during the past one year alone, the bank management should review this pension scheme and contribute more funds in the pension kitty.

JS Pathania, managing director, KCCB, said, “The decision about paying less contribution towards employees’ contributory pension scheme had been taken by bank employees and existing funds in the pension corpus have finished. However, the bank will review the scheme and consider creating fresh corpus for paying pensions.” 

Chamba, March 30
The high-altitude road from Chamba to Killar, crossing over the Saach Pass situated at an altitude of 4,413 metres, linking the gorgeous Pangi tribal valley with its district headquarters at Chamba, is expected to be opened for vehicular traffic by the last week of April if the weather conditions continue to remain the same.

While talking to this reporter recently, Vidhan Sabha Speaker Tulsi Ram said engineers of the state Public Works Department had been directed to remove snow from the Chamba-Killar highway at the Saach Pass and its nearby area at the earliest possible.

The Speaker said work was underway to clear the snow. He informed that some portion from Bairagarh to Kalaban in Chamba and Killar to Nurthalu in Pangi valley had been cleared of snow.

The Saach Pass in Chamba district overlooking the Pir Panjal ranges of Jammu and Kashmir had been closed for traffic due to snowfall in November last year.

The snow-clad Pangi valley remains cut off from the outer world during the winter due to snowfall for about six-seven months. The Killar township, at an altitude of about 2,600 metres, is a sub-divisional headquarter of the Pangi tribal valley.

Nurpur, March 30
The unemployed villagers of Sukhar Chowdharian gram panchayat of this subdivision submitted a memorandum to the government yesterday through local tehsildar, demanding an inquiry into the alleged irregularities committed in NREGA works being undertaken in ward number 1 of the panchayat.

Over 12 villagers signed the complaint and alleged that contrary to a provision of 100 days labour job in a year in the rural area, only 35 days of labour had been provided to the unemployed villagers in the past three years. They alleged that they had not been paid for the past five months.

The villagers have also demanded a probe into the alleged misuse of funds under the NREGA scheme in the gram panchayat.

Chamba, March 30
An old building of Chamba town, located just below the historic Gandhi gate, was destroyed in fire last night. The fire broke out at around 2.30 am and the entire structure went up in flames though it was situated just a few metres away the district fire station.

However, had the fire brigade personnel not acted in time, it would have destroyed the whole Chowgan Mohalla, revealed district fire officer VS Mahal.

Chamba tehsildar Amar Singh said loss due to the fire had been estimated at about Rs 6 lakh by the revenue officials. He said relief would be provided to the owners of the building as per the relief manual of the government. A case has been registered. — OC