Shimla, April 10
Mired in controversy since change of power in Himachal, the Himalayan ski village (HSV) issue is once again back in court as the company has obtained a stay order against the show-cause notice issued to them by the government for cancellation of the agreement signed during the Congress regime.

With the Tourism Department not even giving 24 hours time to promoters to appear for personal hearing sought by them from the government, the company decided to seek intervention of the court. It was on April 8 that a Division Bench of the high court gave a stay on the show-cause notice and issued notices to secretary (Tourism) and other concerned officials who have been asked to file their reply within four weeks time. The matter will come up for hearing in court on May 14.

Sources said though the company was keen to address whatever objections the government had through the personal hearing, with not enough time being given even to make it for the hearing the promoters decided to knock the doors of the court.

“The company was informed about the personal hearing scheduled for April 3 at 11 am in Shimla on April 2 after 3.57 pm making it impossible for the director, who was abroad, and others to make it on time,” said Arjun Lal, legal counsel for the HSV. Doubting the sincerity and intentions of the government in giving them a genuine chance to be heard, the company decided to seek court intervention even though the Tourism Department gave April 9 as the next date for personal hearing.

The show-cause notice was issued to HSV on January 7, giving them one month’s time to file their reply. The company filed its reply on February 1, and later sought a personal hearing along with demand for providing them with some information and documents.

When the HSV matter was disposed by the high court almost two years back, the government had been directed to take a final decision at the earliest, which surprisingly had not come even after such a long time. Ever since the tumultuous public hearing on the project was held at Kothi, near Manali, on June 6, last year, the issue had been pending endlessly at the government-level whether it was concerning finalising the public hearing report, putting up the matter before the Cabinet or issuing a show-cause notice.

The manner in which the government has been dithering on taking a final decision on the fate of the HSV has sent very wrong signals to entrepreneurs who will think twice before investing in the hill state.

Dharamsala, April 10
Union Minister for Steel Virbhadra Singh has hinted that increase in steal prices in the country was a result of cartelisation by private steel and some public sector undertakings.

While talking to mediapersons today at Riat, 20 km from here, he said the government would take strong steps to curb the rising prices of steel in the country. He said the rise in prices could not be justified by the increase in international prices of steel.

Maximum amount of steel in the country is being produced from the iron ore mined from the country’s own mines. The prices have not increased in proportion to prices being raised by the industry. It not in the interests of the country and steps will be taken to curb the practice, he said.

Virbhadra Singh also accused the state government of adopting confrontational approach towards the Union Government. Despite the fact that liberal grants were being given to the state government, the BJP leaders from the state were levelling charges of bias by the UPA government.

About the industrial package, the minister said both he and Anand Sharma had lobbied for extension of the package to the state separately. However, the attitude of the state government had spoilt the case.

He also said he would not accompany the state government representatives for a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to lobby for extension of the industrial package. He said, “I will meet the PM separately on the issue.”

Interestingly, however, Virbhadra had been claiming earlier that the industrial package for the state would be extended.

He also flayed the state government for yesterday’s lathi charge on the Congress workers. The use of force against the peacefully protesting Congress workers was illegal. It is the right of the opposition parties of hold protest to highlight the grievances of the common people.

The state government could have controlled the crowd by water cannons rather than using brutal force on them, he added.

He also alleged that most of the development projects in the state were going on under the aegis of the Union Government. The awards given to the state government for various achievements were also given due to the works initiated by the previous Congress government.

Virbhadra Singh was here to on a visit to the Riat area. He was accompanied by his loyalist Kewal Singh Pathania, spokesperson of the HPCC for Kangra and Chamba districts.

Pathania thanked Virbhadra Singh for taking up the issue of the state with the Union Government.

Shimla, April 10
Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal was felicitated on his 67th birthday today by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, union ministers, chief ministers along with people from all walks of life.

Among those who called up to wish Dhumal on his birthday included National BJP President Nitin Gadkari, Governors and Chief Ministers of various states, MPs, his cabinet colleagues 
and MLAs.

Large number of people turned up at his official residence to wish him a long and healthy life.

There was an air of festivity as people from various parts of the state danced to the tunes of traditional musical instruments at his residence Oakover.

The Chief Minister thanked them for their gesture and good wishes, which, he said, would inspire him to work more vigorously to make Himachal Pradesh a model state in all respects.

Shimla, April 10
State Youth Congress chief Manmohan Katoch threatened to gherao Chief Minister PK Dhumal in case his government continued victimising Congress workers and tried to crush their peaceful protests using police force.

Addressing a press conference here today, Katoch said not even police bullets could stop the Youth Congress activists from raising their voice against nefarious designs of the government in crushing protest by the police.

“We have exposed the alleged corruption in the government and the undue benefits being given to the JP company, so yesterday’s lathi charge was a backlash of that criticism,” he claimed.

Katoch said the Youth Congress would not allow the interests of the state to be harmed in order to give benefit to corporate houses like JP group. “We will fight to protect the state and in case the government does not stop its atrocities we will gherao the Chief Minister, who is heading a corrupt government,” he alleged.

Katoch alleged that the government had decided to float tenders for mining work to benefit outsiders, especially Punjabis. “The decision is aimed at giving benefit to people from Punjab, including Akalis, as they have much more money than people of Himachal, who will not be able to compete in the tenders,” he said.

He said strict action must be taken against police officials who ordered the lathi charge without any provocation or warning. He said using police force to crush peaceful agitations by PTA association, CPM activists in Rampur and now the Congress workers had become the norm of the day during the BJP regime.

Solan, April 10
With a view to tapping high-end tourists, the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) has proposed to invite investment worth several crores at six sites across the state for setting up five and seven-star hotels.

“The HPTDC today submitted a proposal to the state government where these sites would be offered to private entrepreneurs. The investment has been proposed keeping in view the availability of land and its strategic location,” confided director tourism Dr Arun Sharma.

Out of the six sites, industrial belt of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh has also been included where 377.80 bighas of land near Baddi would be offered to a renowned hotel chain for investment worth Rs 300 crore. The site had been identified in 1999 and a golf course was proposed over it earlier. The plan had, however, failed to take off.

Similarly, a site measuring 600 bighas at Suketi Fossil Park in Sirmaur district would be offered for developing a high-end tourist resort. Another site of 103 bighas at Bara Gao and 3 bighas at Soja in Kullu district have also been proposed for tapping the high-end tourist influx.

The corporation, however, failed to find land at Kasauli, which was much in demand by the tourists, though the HPTDC’s land at Barog has been included in the proposal.

Dr Sharma said the idea was to ensure diversification of tourism activities so as to provide a niche for the renowned developers.

Though 15 per cent subsidy was available under the central industrial package for such projects, it failed to be tapped. However, some incentives have been proposed to bring in big brands in the state.

Hamirpur, April 10
The Forest Department has deployed a team of professional shooters to kill a leopard, which has been declared a man-eater by the Wildlife Department, after it killed an infant on April 6.

One-a-half years old Vanshika was picked up from her house by a leopard in Hayod village under Toani Devi forest range on Tuesday evening.

The divisional forest officer (DFO) Hamirpur (who also is the district wildlife warden) had moved a case to higher authorities to declare the leopard a man-eater.

Since the incident created scare among villagers, they demanded immediate killing of the animal. However, after the incident the principal chief wildlife warden had declared it as a man-eater.

More so, as earlier also two incidents of killing of children by leopard had occurred in the area and the leopard had to be killed by shooters.

“A girl named Tanu was killed by a leopard at nearby Panjot village in July, 2007; while in a similar incident another child Ritesh was also killed at Darat village in March, 2008.”

After getting permission from the higher authorities, the DFO deployed a team of professional shooters from the Galod area to kill the leopard, which had been engaged on an earlier occasion too.

While the DFO would be supervising overall operation, deputy ranger Mansa Ram would be assisting the team of shooters.

The four traps laid by the Forest Department in the forest to catch the leopard have borne no fruits till now.

A local forest official said, “The leopard was spotted on Friday and a shooter had even fired a shot but since it was at a distance it managed to escape.”

“A team member has reportedly been injured while searching for the leopard and has to be hospitalised,” he added.

Hamirpur DFO Rakesh Kumar said, “We are keeping an eye on the situation and shooters are deployed to kill the leopard after it was declared a man-eater by the higher authorities.”

Meanwhile, the Forest Department has laid a few more traps to catch the leopard and is making efforts to ward off scare of the leopard from the villagers by patrolling the area.

Shimla, April 10
Former minister and general secretary of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) Asha Kumari today demanded action against police officials who were responsible for unprovoked lathi charge on Youth Congress activists here yesterday.

The Congress leader who was among over 50 activists arrested and kept in police station yesterday said the lathi charge was uncalled for as the activists were returning home since the rally had already dispersed. “We want that responsibility be fixed so that it can be ascertained as to who ordered the lathi charge when the rally had got over peacefully and most of the activists had left the place,” she demanded.

She said what was even more shocking was the fact that the 50 activists who were bundled away to the police station were only demanding arrest of the driver of the vehicle, which had critically injured Youth Congress general secretary. “Is it a crime to demand the arrest of the driver and impounding of the vehicle which ran over a youth and on the contrary rather than arresting the driver, the police took us into custody,” she quipped.

Asha said it was unfortunate the manner in which the police force was used to crush the peaceful protest by Congress activists. She regretted that they were beaten up mercilessly in the presence of SP, additional SP, DSP and the SHO, whose accountability must be fixed.

She said many of the senior leaders, including herself and former MLAs Surinder Kaku and Krishna Mohini, were injured in the police action.

She said in the absence of any women cops, it was policemen who rained lathis on Congress workers, including women, some of whom were arrested.

Shimla, April 10
Financial health of the State Electricity Board, despite still being a bundled entity, is turning from bad to worse with the actual revenue gap crossing the Rs 1,000 crore mark.

The annual financial statement for 2010-11 and supplementary revised figures for last year presented by Chief Minister PK Dhumal in the Vidhan Sabha today showed that 2009-10 would close with a deficit of Rs 33.70 crore, mainly due to fall in receipts from the estimated Rs 3,018.93 crore to Rs 2,985.31 crore. The deficit has been attributed to reduction in power tariff by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, increase in wage bill on account of revision of pay scales and poor monsoon which affected generation.

If one takes into account the accumulated loss of Rs 230.36 crore, the total loss as on March 31 last will increase to Rs 264.06 crore. However, the figures only reveal part of the picture as the actual revenue gap is much higher and the board has been forced to resort to short-term borrowing to meet the day-to-day expenditure as evident from the running bank overdraft of over Rs 650 crore.

Not only that, it has not remitted the government Rs 282 crore collected as electricity duty from consumers. If one takes into account the receivables of Rs 125 crore from the Irrigation and Public Health Department, local bodies and other such agencies, the board owes Rs 160 crore to the government. The total revenue gap thus works out to be around Rs 1,074 crore.

The total outstanding loans amount to Rs 2,222 and out of the total outstanding government guarantees of Rs 1,678 crore, as many as 1,536 crore pertain to the board alone. Against average monthly receipts of about Rs 200 crore, the expenditure is over Rs 250 crore.

The dismal state of finances notwithstanding the board has projected an expenditure of Rs 3,565.60 crore in 2010-11, Rs 580.29 crore more than total receipts from the last year. The capital expenditure will be Rs 1,205.21 crore as against the revised amount of Rs 785.78 crore for the last year.

The board proposed to replace 70,000 old poles, install 2,092 distribution transformers, procure 1,384 new transformers, set up 41 new 33 kv substations, lay 7,903 km of HT and LT lines and electrify 44,496 rural houses during the year.

Mandi, April 10
Pensioners of the HPSEB senior diploma engineers’ association has demanded the pension benefits at par with those given to their counterparts in the PWD Department.

In fact, the State Pensioners’ Welfare Association has requested Chief Minister PK Dhumal to give pension benefits to diploma holders from January 1, 2006.

HP Pensioners’ Welfare Association general secretary DR Parwalia and vice-president AG Sheik stated that HPSEB diploma holders had been denied the pension benefits being given to their PWD counterparts. “We urge the Chief Minister to give them the same benefits so that all retired HPSEB diploma holders may also lead a dignified life after retirement.”

They stated that anomaly in the scale of HPSEB diploma holders should be rectified and they be included in the “No 21 table” of the board.

“We have raised this issue several times in the past too. However, the state government never paid heed to our demands,” they rued.

Bilaspur, April 10
The government is keen to solve problems of people even in the remotest corners of the state and the citizens have to be vigilant to ensure that they get maximum benefits from various types of facilities being provided by the government through number of development schemes already launched by the state government. This was stated by Himachal Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Rikhi Ram Kaundal while presiding over a five-day annual summer festival at Ghumarwin, near here, last evening.

He announced a grant of Rs 2 lakh for installing street lights in the mela area. Kaundal gave a cash prize of Rs 25,000 and a silver mace to the best wrestler Jonny Chaudhary of Sundernagar, who beat Sunny of Hoshiarpur in the final bout. Sunny got cash prize of Rs 18,000.

The coveted title of “Kehloor Kumar”, given to the best young wrestler of Bilaspur district, was bagged by Amit of Chatt village, who beat Gurmeet of Naina Devi. Amit got a cash prize of Rs 12,000 and a silver mace while runner-up Gurmeet got Rs 7,000.

Bilaspur, April 10
The police has arrested one Salma Begum’s husband Khalil Mohammed, brother-in-law Ramzan Mohammed and mother-in-law Khalifa Begum of Chajoli village in Dangar gram panchayat for allegedly torturing and compelling her to end life by jumping into the Sutlej from Kandraur bridge, near here, yesterday.

Reports said several people saw Salma Begum (24) suddenly jumping into the river from the bridge and reported the matter to the police. The police then contacted Salma’s mother Bashiran Begum of Ladraur village in Hamirpur district and registered an FIR against all above persons for maltreating her daughter. So far, her body could not be found.

SP Kuldip Sharma said here today that the trio was arrested under Sections 498 and 306 of the IPC after Salma’s mother reported the matter to the police.

KANGRA: A 25-year-old woman committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance following the torture she experienced at the hands of her in-laws.

District police chief Atul Fulzele said Kalpana Devi married Rajesh Kumar in 2007 at Gaggal. Mother of the victim Geeta Devi in her complaint alleged that her daughter was tortured by her in-laws which forced her to take this extreme step.

Kalpana had consumed poison at her home and was rushed to Dr RP Government Medical College at Tanda yesterday where she died today, he added. He said a case had been registered against her in-laws. Her husband Rajesh Kumar, mother-in-law Raksha Devi and father-in-law Prakash Chand have been arrested.