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Power producers sore over unbundling model
Govt to promote golf: Dhumal
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CM urges docs to serve state
Minjar fair from July 25
Shah Nehar Project
Online Clearances
HC celebrates ruby jubilee
Chief Minister PK Dhumal and Justice Kurian Joseph (right) present a memento to Supreme Court Judge Altamas Kabir in Shimla on Saturday. — PTI
Water scarcity hits villagers
Shikari Devi sanctuary may shrink
Talent hunt on June 7
Ex-servicemen rue pension anomaly
Summer fest on June 19
Kashang workers want dues, basic amenities
Electricity board signs purchase agreement
Retd diploma engineers meet CM
MLA inaugurates police post
Medical specialists rue govt apathy
CM releases publication
Two killed in accident
Wife shot dead
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Power producers sore over unbundling model
Shimla, May 30 The IPPs have been running from pillar to post for the past two years to sort out problems relating to evacuation of power as there was no separate state transmission utility (STU) to address these issues. They had pinned their hopes on “unbundling” of the board. However, the government carried out the exercise to finalise the model without consulting the main stakeholders, particularly the IPPs and the industry, much to their discomfiture. Worse, even the painstaking effort put in by consultants appointed by the board on the direction of the state electricity regulatory commission (SERC) for carrying out unbundling had also not been taken into consideration. The board had, while segregating its accounts pertaining to distribution, generation and transmission on the recommendations of the consultants, kept all high tension lines of 66 kv and above with transmission wing which is headed by a chief engineer and having a staff of about 2,000 personnel, including five superintending engineers looking after two circles and design offices. All, that was required to be done for “unbundling”, thereafter, was to transfer the entire wing along with the assets to the transmission corporation which is proposed to be designated as the STU. Instead, the government has come out with a “weird” model as per which bulk of the assets and staff will be left with the distribution company which cannot be given transmission licence under the Electrify Act, 2003. As a result, problems of IPPs pertaining to evacuation, will further compound and issue of open access will become more complicated. Uncertainty apart, the wheeling will be very costly affair as charges for evacuation through distribution network are in excess of 90 paise per unit in comparison to average transmission charges of 20 to 25 paise per unit. If the assets are transferred to the STU, the charges will even out to reasonable levels. In Uttarakhand, the STU is constructing 33 kv lines but in the proposed model. Even HT lines of 220 kv have been given to the distribution company, making mockery of the exercise. Of the 19 lines given, seven are not owned by the state utility while three are yet to be constructed. With over 500 projects of 5MW or less coming up in interior areas, the transmission corporation may be required to erect even 11 kv lines which will not be possible under the proposed model. |
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Govt to promote golf: Dhumal
Naldehra, May 30 Prithvi Singh bagged the second position in the championship in which 36 golfers participated. The prize for nearest to pin was won by Ankush Das, for longest drive by Ashwani Mehta, for maximum birdies by Prithvi Sen and for maximum eagles by Arjun Sood. Presiding over the prize distribution function, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the state government would encourage golf in a big way as part of its plan to promote sports tourism in the hill state. The game could play a pivotal role in attracting high-end tourists to the state. The government was strengthening infrastructural facilities for various sports and adventure activities, he added. He said the Naldehra golf course was one of the oldest and located in idyllic settings amidst dense forest. It had, over the years, attracted golfers of eminence from across the world. He said it was heartening to know that young golfers were coming forward and winning prizes, inspiring other sportspersons to excel in their respective games at the national and international level. He commended the sponsorship of Carlsberg for playing host to the tournament for the second year consecutively and hoped that regular events would continue to be held at the venue. Surender Attri, director, Carlsberg India, said the event had been very successful and a record number of golfers participated in the event. |
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CM urges docs to serve state
Shimla, May 30 Speaking at the “Scientific Interaction on Future of Healthcare in India”, organised by Medanta Medicity, Gurgaon, here late last evening, he said the local Indira Gandhi Medical College was the premier institution of the state which had produced best doctors over the years. At present, out of 13 departments in the college, six were being headed by medical specialists from the state. The government was making concerted efforts to strengthen infrastructure with a view to deliver quality health services to the people and services were being ensured in remote and far-flung areas of the state. The state had been ranked the best in the country in delivering health services to its people. Dhumal said the government had tried its best to provide services of specialists and other doctors over the last two years and the effort was to ensure better healthcare facilities to the people on their doorstep. Dhumal also stressed for organising such interactive seminars and conferences in the state so that medical professionals could keep abreast of the latest advances and innovations in the field. Head of the Medanta Medicity Dr Naresh Trehan offered to provide consultative and in-house training to the upcoming medical professionals of the state.
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Minjar fair from July 25
Chamba, May 30 The DC said sub-committees had been formulated to carry out tasks assigned to them. — OC |
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Shah Nehar Project
Shimla, May 30 Chairman of the Morcha Subhash Sharma said doubts were raised when the work was awarded to of the contractor from outside the state by the Dhumal government in 2001 and Dr Rajan Sushant, the MP from Kangra, had opposed the decision. The fears expressed by Sushant, who took a stand against his party’s government, had come true after eight years. Farmers were paying a heavy price for the indiscretions of the previous BJP regime, he added. The present government had played havoc with the education system by allowing running of coaching centres and liaison work for admissions to various instutions in the neighbouring states to set up private universities. All these institutions had come up without requisite infrastructures and faculty. Information regarding the details of promoters of these universities were not being provided under the RTI Act and the HBM had been forced to file a complaint with the state information commission in the matter, he said. The issue was first raised by the HBM, followed by the CPM, the Congress and now senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar had expressed anguish over commercialisation of higher education. The murky happenings in the private nursing college at Palampur had sent shock waves across the state. The government was promoting real estate business in the garb of making the state an education hub, he said. He demanded a white paper to help make public the details of expenditure and funds provided by the companies for holding the IPL matches at Dharamsala. He alleged that the cement companies were fleecing people of the state by selling cement at much higher rate that the neighbouring states.
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Online Clearances
Solan, May 30 A field analysis proved that it was a mere eyewash and the system failed to fulfil its objective. An investor, pleading anonymity, said he had applied for consent to operate last year but the permission was granted only after he personally pursued the matter for almost a month this year. Despite providing all information in the online format, the head office kept sitting on the matter and asked for various paper formalities, reducing the utility of online clearance, he added. In yet another case, an investor said he had obtained the permission after five months of pursuing. He was made to submit hard copies of several documents though they had been uploaded in the first instance. He added that the whole procedure was tantamount to harassment and it failed to serve any purpose. With no trained manpower to handle daily changes in the site and absence of an instruction sheet, the system failed to benefit the users. Since the NIC, Himachal, had failed to take over the site due to lack of space, the users felt online system should have been introduced after taking all aspects into consideration. The ineffectiveness of the online system was further corroborated by 212 pending cases of industrial units which were operating without consent for years together now. This information was revealed through an RTI reply to environment activist Manshi Asher by the PCB who said though operating a unit without consent was a prosecutable offence, the board failed to initiate any action in such cases for years now. The board also faced technical problems in operating the site and since its control lay with the Ahmedabad-based NIC, no one was available to attend to queries in case of problems. The site had developed some technical problem recently and it remained non-functional for almost 15 days, causing problems to investors.
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HC celebrates ruby jubilee
Shimla, May 30 A total of 14 former Chief Justices and judges of the Supreme Court and High Court were present on the occasion of “Samman Samaroh” organised by the Himachal Pradesh High Court here today to mark the yearlong Ruby Jubilee celebrations. Justice CK Thakker, besides talking about the landmark judgment of banning ragging in the educational institutions, made mention of the Umed Ram Sharma case, where it was defined that a road in a hilly terrain was the Right to Life enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India. While reminiscing her tenure here as Chief Justice, Leila Seth said she enjoyed her stay in the hill state amidst the pristine environs and love and warmth of the hill people. Chief Minister PK Dhumal said the government would be spending Rs 106.25 crore for creation of infrastructure for the judiciary. Justice Joseph said a green bench had been set up to look into the environment and forest related cases and all 11 judges, including himself, have declared their assets, details of which were on the High Court website. He said the cases of senior citizens and very old matters were being given priority to decide them in a time-bound manner. He also announced that last Saturday of March every year would be celebrated as High Court Day. Milestones
Having disposed of 13,752 cases in a record time of merely 65 days, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has earned the distinction of having the highest disposal rate in the country, surpassing the Kerala High Court. On assuming office here in February earlier this year, Chief Justice Kurian Joseph has set a deadline of two months for disposing of all cases filed up till 2000. The disposal of cases per judge at the national level is 2,324, while Kerala topped with a figure of 2,500. Himachal now has a disposal rate per judge at 3,750, the highest in the country |
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Water scarcity hits villagers
Solan, May 30 Earlier, water was being supplied on alternate days but its supply had been reduced to third day now. Interestingly, no water was supplied to the villagers after Tuesday. Despite this long gap, the field officials took no interest to either inform the senior officials or even look into the cause. When informed on Saturday, the assistant engineer swung into action to find the cause and said since tankers could not be refilled, they were unable to make alternate arrangements. It was interesting to note that none of the hotels located in the area were engaging tankers to meet the burgeoning rush of tourists.
While they continued to be supplied water on the sly, it was the common man which cried even for a
bucket of water. On being questioned, the field employees cut a sorry figure and put up excuses like lack of power supply and could not justify as to where the hotels received their water supply from. Hundreds of villagers, who were fed by the Larah water scheme, were left at the mercy of the field workers who distributed water at their whims and fancy with the junior engineer taking no interest to address any problem. Though the official had been chargesheeted in the past for his inept handling of such situations, there was no improvement in his
performance. The IPH Minister, when contacted, said there was sufficient water and it was a local distribution problem which the officials
should handle. Earlier, water tankers used to be pressed into service whenever availability of water became scare in the summers. However, strict orders issued by the Kalka SDM disallowing any tanker from Himachal from being refilled from Pinjore and other areas has put an end to this arrangement this year. Assistant engineer Deepak Aggrawal, while expressing helplessness, said since tankers had been disallowed by the Kalka administration, they had little option for refilling tankers. |
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Shikari Devi sanctuary may shrink
Janjheli (Mandi), May 30 Villagers have been demanding exclusion of all villages from the sanctuary. They say the Wildlife Protection Act has made their life miserable as it forbids any human interference in the area. “We cannot take out even dry grass, leave alone availing the TD and forest produce from the jungle,” the villagers rued. The wildlife-human conflict has built up in the sanctuary area. “We traditionally depend upon jungles for fuel wood, fodder and timber, but now none can touch it, though illicit cutting of trees or chopping of tree branches is rampant in the sanctuary area,” the villagers revealed. On the other hand, the wildlife wing has been finding it difficult to impose the Wildlife Protection Act in the sanctuary areas around these villages, officials said. Besides, thousands of pilgrims also frequent the sanctuary’s core area round the year, as the shrine of Shikari Devi is located in the middle of the sanctuary. DFO Wildlife BS Rana said rationalisation exercise of the Shikari Devi would take out 110 villages in the area. “This exercise will reduce its area from 213 sq km to 23 sq km,” he added. Even it is difficult to monitor the sanctuary from Kullu as they to have look after seven-eight sanctuaries in the area, claimed Rana. The wildlife officials said a high-level team from the Centre had already inspected the sanctuary in December, 2008. “Though the final decision will be taken by the National Wildlife Board of India chaired by the Prime Minister, the state government has given its nod to take out all villagers from all sanctuary areas in the state, they added.
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Talent hunt on June 7
Shimla, May 30 Director of the organisation Ekta Sharma said the innovative idea of holding fashion contests was expected to unearth a lot of hidden talent. Each contest will throw up six contestants, the winner, the first runners up and second runners up in the boys
and girls category, who would participate in the grand finale at Chandigarh to be held later in the year. The selected participants would be groomed and trained for the final event for 10 days. The fashion contests and auditions would be held at Shimla on June 7. The ultimate objective was to launch an academy for modelling, acting and dancing and start a media production house in Shimla, she added. Recently, auditions for the age group of five to 45 years were held from which 20 students of the academy were selected for national television channels, which included a group
of slum children. |
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Ex-servicemen rue pension anomaly
Bilaspur, May 30 Addressing mediapersons at the Circuit House here today, district president of the samiti Subedar Prakash Chand said the district samiti had urged for the removal of these anomalies several times, but no action had been taken since the scheme was announced. The samiti said it would mobilise ex-servicemen from all parts of the district and would hold a silent protest march from Shahid Smarak at Changar Sector in Bilaspur town here to the Deputy Commissioner’s office and present a memorandum through the DC to the Prime Minister and the President of India. They said war widows had been totally ignored and great injustice had been done with categories from sepoy to Subedar Major in this revised pension scheme, which required immediate reconsideration and amendments, while this revision should be effective from July 2009 and not from January 2006, as was announced.
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Summer fest on June 19
Dalhousie, May 30 According to Dalhousie Sub-Divisional Magistrate Subh Karan Singh, local officials have been directed to make elaborate arrangements for holding the festival and make it a success. To lure tourists and visitors to the hill station, a cultural bonanza began yesterday. Henceforth, folk artistes will perform traditional musical instruments and colourful dancers at focal points of the hill town on every Saturday and Sunday till the culmination of the summer festival. |
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Kashang workers want dues, basic amenities
Shimla, May 30 The Kashang Project Workers Union alleged that the workers were being made to live in pitiable conditions without basic amenities like adequate and clean water, proper shelter, toilets and washing facilities. No employment cards had been issued to most of the contract labourers and their wages had also not been paid for four months, the Union alleged. No overtime was being paid and wage slips were also not being issued, it said. The Labour Department office at Reckong Peo had virtually become the office of the private company and the voice of workers was falling on deaf ears, the Union added. The Kashang Hydroelectric Project was assigned to the state-owned Himachal Power Corporation, which awarded major works to Hindustan Construction Company. However, Hindustan Construction Company further allotted works to subcontractors, who were allegedly exploiting workers in connivance with Labour Department officials. |
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Electricity board signs purchase agreement
Shimla, May 30 The agreement was signed between SK Aggarwal, executive director, (commercial), NTPC, and Dr SD Rattan, chief engineer, HPSEB, here today. The HPSEB has given a requirement of 50 MW from the project which will be commissioned in four years. The tariff for the electricity supplied from the project will be determined by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. |
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Retd diploma engineers meet CM
Shimla, May 30 The pensioners drew attention of the chairman to the fact that they were being denied the benefit of revised pension due to failure of the management to notify their revised pay scales in the pay fixation fitment table. Their pre-revised pay scales of Rs 15,350-21,600 had not been included in any fixation table. The problem could be solved if it was included in the pay scales in the fitment table-21, notified on December 9, 2009, by the board. Dhumal assured them that the fitment issue would be resolved at the earliest and said appropriated instruction would be issued to the board authorities. |
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MLA inaugurates police post
Kullu, May 30 Addressing the gathering, the MLA said the Himachal government had earmarked Rs 46 crore for modernisation and computerisation of all police posts in the state. He said the government had also decided to establish four reserve battalions, including one for women, besides four Indian Reserve Battalions, to provide ample scope of employment to the youth. Thakur further said Rs 80 lakh were being spent on the SP office at Kullu, Rs 35.72 lakh on the DSP office at Prini near Manali and Rs 25 lakh on the residential accommodation at the Bashing police lines. — OC |
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Medical specialists rue govt apathy
Hamirpur, May 30 The medical specialists, having PG degrees and diplomas, appointed after 1996, are being paid salaries at par with general duty doctors (GDO) without much incentive. They have also not been given any special designation according to their qualification except in medical colleges and many of them are not even appointed block medical officers ( BMOs) as GDOs are getting appointed. Before 1996 all specialist doctors were paid four extra increments of Rs 1,000 per month for their PG qualifications but the specialists appointed after that are not getting this benefit too. Talking about this discrepancy, general secretary of the Medical Officers’ Association Dr Jiva Nand Chauhan says, “While all specialists have acquired extra qualifications and working in rural hospitals after years of hard work, they are not getting any benefit which is causing great frustration. It is surprising that newly appointed specialists on contract are getting Rs 15,000 extra per month” While new specialists are not keen on joining medical department and opting for private institutions, many of us are not finding the specialist’s job lucrative and are quitting, he added. Their other grievance is while in the central government the specialists are designated as specialist, senior specialist and chief specialist after five, 10 and 15 years of service, respectively, at par with assistant professor, associate professor and professors, no such benefit is given to them, and demand that they should be promoted on the same pattern in district, regional and zonal hospitals. Principal secretary, health, PC Dhiman said, “We would soon discuss this matter.”
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CM releases publication
Shimla, May 30 The publication has been brought out by Pandit Kishori Lal Sharma, convener of the manch. The Chief Minister congratulated the manch for bringing out such a valuable publication, which would provide a peep into the enriched ancient Indian culture, customs and astrological system of
the country. He said Indian culture had always been a source of exhaustive research and interest inspiring scholars. Dhumal said such
publications brought out by different organisations helped in reviving the rich ancient cultures. |
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Two killed in accident
Sundernagar, May 30 As per information received from the police, the accident occurred when a car coming from Bilaspur to Sundernagar dashed into a tree. Four persons were travelling in the car and have been identified as Harsh Gupta (44) and Yash Gupta, both residents of Puranabazar of Sundernagar town, Vishal, a resident of Chunahan village and Siven. While Harsh and Yash died on the spot, Vishal and Siven were injured. In another accident, a bike dashed against a stationary truck at Tarot on the National Highway 21, near Sundernagar. The occupants of the motorcycle were identified as Rajeev from Talyahar village and Bhupesh, a resident of Dhar village and have been referred to the PGI in serious conditions. —
OC
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Wife shot dead
Shimla, May 30 In yet another incident, body of a 20-year-old boy Manish was found in the Nav Bahar area, close to his house yesterday. The police is looking into the reasons for his death.
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Naldehra, May 30
Shimla, May 30
