Shimla, May 18
The Himachal High Court will become the fifth court in the country to make public details of the assets, properties and liabilities of its 11 judges, including the Chief Justice, which will be put on its official website of May 21.

Chief Justice Kurian Joseph today confirmed that details of properties and assets of the judges would be made public on May 21 by putting it on the official website of the court. It was after taking over as Chief Justice in Himachal in February earlier this year that he had announced that the property details would be made public shortly.

In fact, Kerala was the first high court in the country from where Justice Joseph came, to react to the Supreme Court’s decision to disclose assets, as details of the asset of its judges was put on the court website on September 30, 2009.

Besides the Supreme Court judges, so far, it is only the High Courts of Kerala, Karnataka, Delhi and Punjab and Haryana where all judges have made public details of their assets and properties.

It was following a long debate on the controversy over transparency and accountability that the judges of the Supreme Court had declared their assets on November 3, last year.

Judges of the Delhi High Court followed suit and made public details of their property on February 5 earlier this year. High Courts of Kerala and Karnataka have already declared assets of their judges earlier.

Chief Justice Joseph had made it clear on assuming office here that that he was very much in favour of the judges making public details of their assets, properties as well as liabilities and this would be done in the hill state shortly.

It is reliably learnt that the judges in Himachal have made disclosure about assets, including both movable and immovable, owned by them and their spouses. Even though details of the bank accounts, including account numbers and amount, have been furnished to the Chief Justice, the former will not be put on the website for obvious reasons.

Details of liquidity in bank accounts, properties, jewellery, both in gold and diamond along with weight, and shares in companies, have been provided to the Chief Justice.

However, the monetary value of properties is not likely to be posted on the website, as is the case in property details made by judges of other high courts.

Solan, May 18
With a sharp decline of almost 30 per cent in power availability, industrial areas of the state have been adversely hit, forcing investors to switch over to generation sets or suspend their operations during the scheduled cuts.

The investors raised the issue of erratic power supply yesterday before the state electricity regulatory commission during the hearing on the tariff petition. They put forth their view regarding failure of the board to supply regular power and insisted that this issue be considered while devising the tariff for the current year, confided Rakesh Bansal, convenor, CII.

Umesh Garg from Ruchira Papers in Kala Amb lamented non-availability of a proper schedule in the industrial area and the repeated tripping causing daily loss.

He said this situation had been going on for almost two months and though a schedule was devised for a brief period, most of the cuts were unscheduled. A proper schedule would allow them to plan their operations and avoid undue losses, he added.

Investors elsewhere in the industrial areas of Tahliwaal, Gol Thai, Paonta Sahib, Sansarpur Terrace, Kala Amb, Una, Parwanoo, Kandrori, etc., too faced hardships as load reductions, ranging from 2 MW to 30 MW, were being imposed in these areas, forcing the industry to scale down their production processes.

The key industrial area of Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh faced power shortage of 20 MW to 50 MW while in Parwanoo, the industry was forced to face load restriction of 8 MW.

Officials said the new directions of the central regulatory commission hiked the penalty for overdrawals from the northern grid and this deterred them to draw more power from the grid, especially with the frequency remaining low.

Investors in some parts of the state, including Nalagarh, were forced to shut their operations every third day, causing high production losses. Steel rolling mills and induction and arc furnaces suffered the most as did continuous process industries, including paper mills. 

Solan, May 18
Loss worth Rs 4 crore was incurred by a packaging unit, Windsor Pack, located at Bhud village near Baddi, when its production area caught fire around 6 am this morning.

Though the exact cause of fire could not be known, it was learnt that the production area, housed on the second floor where costly machinery worth Rs 3.5 crore was placed along with raw materials, caught fire. Fire officer Sukhdev Singh said the team rushed to the spot at as soon as they received the information and three fire tenders, including one from Nalagarh and two from Baddi, were used to control the fire. It was intense fighting by 14 firemen that helped control the fire after two hours, he added.

Singh said lack of hydrants hampered the in house fire fighting as the unit’s fire fighting arrangements were only capable of providing preliminary relief. The unit had been directed to upgrade its system about 15 days ago as its equipment was found inadequate, given the investment and costly machinery, he added.

However, timely fire fighting helped avert spread of flames to the nearby block where a large quantity of inflammable material was stacked. Ideally, a unit should invest 20 per cent cost of its plant and machinery on effective fire fighting equipment. This aspect was largely amiss in the industrial areas, leading to colossal damages in case of fire incidents.

He said despite a massive fire incident in an air conditioner manufacturing unit which claimed nine lives last year, investors were still negligent.

Shimla, May 18
Vice-President Hamid Ansari today advocated the need for auditing of public funds spent by NGOs, autonomous organisations, societies, trusts as well as subsidies component due to its significant impact on government budget and burden on future generations.

Speaking at the commencement of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of the National Audit and Accounts Academy here today, he opined that organisations, which came under the definition of “Public Authority” in the Right to Information Act, 2005, should be subjected to audits of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

Ansari was also very candid in expressing his viewpoint on subsidies when he said complex economic arrangements of today’s era demanded that public debt management and provision of subsidies be subjected to public audit as it had a significant impact on government budget. He made reference of the speech by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee last month where he had sought the focus of public audit on containing expenditure on subsidies without adversely affecting the targeted beneficiaries of such subsidies.

The Vice-President, while touching another key issue, stated that audit could achieve its aims only if there was timely and unhindered access to records. Commenting on the follow-up mechanism on the reports, he said out of 9,000 audit paragraphs in reports between 1994 to 2008 presented to Parliament, 3,000 had not even received first response and the situation in assemblies was not much different.

Another pertinent issue was the lack of any statutory authority vested in CAG for summoning officials and fixing responsibility for any loss caused to the exchequer or even recommending disciplinary action, Ansari added.

He also stressed the need for systematic review of the working of public audit and CAG which was undertaken by the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution. “Recommendations of the commission like having a collegiate decision making system and consultations with Parliament Speaker before appointment of CAG, deserve careful scrutiny and public debate in context of the proposed changes to the Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service Act of 1971,” he stressed.

While lauding the important role played by auditors in development, he said in the fast-changing national and global economic landscape, government accounting had remained relatively static it he last 50 years.

He also released a book “Gold to Diamond”, detailing the history of the academy, and a postal stamp featuring CV Raman, who was a member of the Audit and Accounts Service.

Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai and Director General of the National Audit and Accounts Academy SB Pillai also spoke on the occasion.

Shilaru (Shimla), May 18
Union Sports Minister MS Gill today asserted that regulation fixing age limit and maximum tenure of sports bosses fully conformed to the rules of the International Olympic Council (IOC). However, he made it clear that the government would abide by the verdict of the Delhi High Court which was adjudicating public interest litigation in this regard.

“The ministry has not framed any regulations but comes out with a rather softer version of 1975 guidelines which were further endorsed in 1987 and 2001 after the high court asked about the status holding if these were legally enforceable,” Gill, who was here to inaugurate the synthetic hockey turf at the High Altitude Training Centre, said while interacting with mediapersons.

He pointed out that the original guideline had restricted the tenure to eight years but he increased it to 12 years just to ensure that it conformed to the rules of the IOC. Similarly, the IOC, which faced a similar situation, decided to fix a retiring age of 70 years for sports administrators in 1999. As such, the regulations of the sports ministry were not in conflict with the rules of the IOC. Further, there was a complete unanimity in both Houses of Parliament and cutting across party lines, all members were in favour of enforcing the regulations, he said.

The matter was before the court and the aggrieved sports bodies were also fighting their case. The court had asked for more information regarding the affairs of the sports federations and everything would depend on the outcome of the legal battle, he added.

Shilaru (Shimla), May 18
The Indian hockey team can now take full advantage of the 8,000 ft high altitude training centre here with the laying of the synthetic turf to improve performance.

Undergoing training at high altitude helps players a great deal as it increases the concentration of red blood cells allowing higher intake of oxygen during physical exertion and is great for the endurance of an athlete. Moderate to high-altitude living increases red blood cells concentration, allowing more oxygen to reach the muscles during exercise and also boosts the levels of certain beneficial chemicals in the body. The enhanced levels last for quite sometime enabling the players to perform better.

Union Minister for Sports M.S.Gill while formally inaugurating the highest synthetic hockey field in the country expressed confidence that golden days of hockey would return and with the availability of synthetic turf at more places the players would be better trained for international championships. He maintained that India would have comfortably beaten South Korea in the Azlan Cup had rain not washed off the final.

He said the synthetic turf had been laid at a cost of Rs 3.43 crore and the Sports Authority of India would take all the required measures to strengthen infrastructure and other facilities so that players from all over the country could make maximum unitisation of the high-altitude training centre. Already, the two halls had been renovated and a change room, a store and toilets constructed at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore.

There was a proposal to construct a 200 m six-lane synthetic athletic track and gymnasium and the roads and boundary walls would also be improved. A 100-bed men’s hostel and 50-bed women’s hostel, a medical centre, staff quarters and a guest house were already in place.

Dharamsala, May 18
Chairman of the Kangra Cooperative Bank RS Mankotia and managing director JS Pathania have blamed the previous Congress government for failed pension scheme of the bank. While talking to newsmen, the duo blamed officials at the helm of affairs during the Congress regime for the pension fiasco.

The contributory pension scheme of the bank had allegedly gone defunct two months back due to alleged mismanagement.

About 200 pensioners failed to get pension from March due to the imbroglio.

Inquiries by The Tribune revealed that the pension scheme was started in 1998. It was decided then that the bank would contribute Rs 50 lakh as corpus fund in the scheme the interest for which would be used for pension scheme while the capital investment would remain in the name of the bank.

Employees were to contribute 1.5 per cent of the basic salary as contribution that was later raised to 2.5 per cent. Though the scheme was started in 1998, the bank management decided to extend benefit to employees who retired since 1988. The only condition was that the employees who retired at that time had to contribute 1.5 per cent of the basic salary received from 1988 to 1998 along with an interest of 10 per cent per annum.

According to sources, an employee who retired before 1998, contributed his share of just Rs 22,000 towards the pension scheme and on the same day took away Rs 38,000 as commutation of pension. By contributing just Rs 22,000, besides taking the commutation amount, the employee also took a pension of more than Rs 5,000 over the last 12 years.

With such anomalies, the bank is now left with no fund to pay pension to its employees. Pathania said the cooperative societies registrar, in a letter to the bank recently, had made it clear that the bank could not make any contribution to the corpus created for pension of employees.

“We will have to recover the amount from the pension fund along with the interest which amounts to Rs 10 crore. If the amount is recovered, then no fund remains in pension fund,” he said.

Shimla, May 18
A three-day international conference on “History and Memory” began at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), here, today.

Inaugurating the conference, Prof Peter D’Souza, director, IIAS, said history and memory had a special place in the life of the institute which began in 1965, at the time when Dr S Radhakrishnan was the President of the nation.

It was also a time when India was on trial as to whether it would survive as a democracy following the death of Nehru and the two wars, one with China and the other with Pakistan.

The institute had tried to forge partnerships with the rest of the world to reflect common concerns and the present conference was the culmination of this ongoing effort.

Prof Shashi Joshi, convener of the conference, said coherent narratives were important while trying to locate memories.

She said questions of use and abuse of history had been much deliberated and that the idea that history could be truthfully written was now abandoned.

History can be partial, incomplete, selective and biased since it is written by victors and not by people who actually are part and parcel of history”, Joshi said.

The participants include scholars from various disciplines and from different countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, South Africa, Palestine, Hungary, Portugal, South America and the US.

Dharamsala, May 18
Rajya Sabha member and former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar has showered praises on the current BJP government led by Prem Kumar Dhumal. The praise has come after about two months when Shanta Kumar lamented the fact that Himachal was becoming a state of CDs.

He praised Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal for shielding the poor of the state by providing cheap food through the public distribution system. He urged the people to support the present government in various developmental works.

Shanta Kumar, however, stated that the present UPA government had done injustice with Himachal by reducing the industrial package for the state. He said the package was given by the NDA government in 2003 for a period of 10 years till 2013. However, the UPA government initially diluted it and then cut it short, thus hitting the investment in the region.

He also alleged that the UPA government had failed to control price rise in the country. Due to policies of the present government at the Centre, the poor are finding it difficult to manage even two square meals a day.

Shanta Kumar today inaugurated a community hall brought up in Darang village in Palampur constituency at a cost of Rs 14.75 lakh and a commercial centre at a cost of Rs 8.75 lakh.

Shanta Kumar was also accompanied by the local MLA Parveen Kumar, who stated that the state government was planning to install new transformers in the area to tackle the low voltage problem.

Dharamsala, May 18
With pulses going off the menu of poor people in the country, scientists from across the country gathered at Palampur Agriculture University (PAU) to mull over the issue.

About 250 scientists deliberated on the steps that could be taken to increase the yield of major kharif pulse crops in the country in a three-day conference held in the university.

While addressing the scientists in the conference, Tej Partap, Vice-Chancellor, said several new niche areas could be developed as pulse growing pockets all over the country, especially in north-eastern states.

As area under pulses was on decline, prices of pulses were alarmingly high. However, at the same time, the farming community was not much keen to grow pulses as they do not get remunerative price. Hence, this cycle needed to be broken by thinking new ideas to bring more areas under pulse crops, developing high yielding varieties and applying organic farming technology, he said.

VD Patil, Assistant Director General, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), elaborated on the government’s plans to increase pulse production. He said area under major kharif pulses like moong, urad, lentil, lathyrus, pigeonpea, etc had increased in southern states whereas it was on decline in north India. He also talked about the measures to control major diseases in these crops.

ND Majumdar, project coordinator, pigeon pea, presented report about the crop. He said a few varieties had been developed which could be included in mixed farming.

BB Singh, project coordinator, moongbean, uradbean, lentil, lathyrus and field peas, said a lot of research work on the crops was underway.

Nadarajan, director, Indian Institute of Pulses’ Research, Kanpur, said demonstrations to popularise the new technology for pulses would be conducted in an area of 6,000 hectares spread all over the country.

SP Sharma, Director of Research, PAU, elaborated about the ongoing research work on pulse crops in the university.

Ashwani Basandrai, organising secretary of the workshop, detailed about major pulse crops in the state.

JS Sandhu, Assistant Director General (seeds), ICAR, scientists of premier science and technology institutes of the country, university statutory officials and heads of the departments were also present in the convention. 

Shimla, May 18
Union Minister for Steel Virbhadra Singh today released copies of letters he had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, seeking extension of the industrial package till March 2013, to rebut the allegation of Chief Minister PK Dhumal that he was not pursuing the state’s case.

He said besides taking up the matter personally, he had written letters to Manmohan Singh on July 22, 2009, and February 17, 2010, and to Sonia Gandhi on January 13 and July 22, 2009.

Virbhadra said he was fully aware of the problems of the state and in his capacity as a minister at the Centre, he had been making all possible efforts to address them. However, Dhumal was making false and politically motivated statements against him to mislead the people.

He advised Dhumal to give up his confrontational approach towards the Centre and instead focus attention on implementation of development schemes in tandem with it. The interests of the state and its people would be well served by sincerely implementing the flagship programmes of the UPA regime, he added.