Dharamsala, June 10
Kangra Deputy Commissioner RS Gupta has directed the police to book the operators of such study centres, who are running them illegally in Dharamsala and its surrounding areas. The orders were passed by the DC after many study centres allegedly failed to produce their papers.

The DC today convened a meeting of the operators of the study centres here. But, the administration had to take help of the police to summon them, as many of them did not turn up or produce their papers.

Peeved at this, the DC gave a two-day ultimatum to the operators to produce their papers or face police action. The step was taken after the dubious study centre issue was reported by The Tribune.

As per the UGC directions, a copy of which is available with The Tribune, no state university could operate outside the jurisdiction of its respective state that has allowed its installation. However, many state universities from South India or eastern states have opened their centres in Dharamsala and its surrounding areas.

Also, as per the judgement passed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court only those universities could run courses through distance education mode that have the joint approval of the Distance Education Council, UGC and the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). However, the centres of outside state universities in Dharamsala do not have joint permission from the said authorities .

Though the students enrol in these courses, there full time classes are held in small rental buildings. The fee for such courses is generally nominal, but the operators charge fee of regular courses from the students.

The AICTE has posted a notification on its official website that the students doing technical courses as MBA, MCA or B.Tech through distance education mode would not be eligible for the government jobs. The AICTE has approved just the MCA course through distance education in just nine universities across the country.

The Union Minister of HRD in a notification issued in 2006 had clarified that research degrees as PhD cannot be offered through distance education. However, many centres offer Ph.D and M.Phil degrees through distance education and openly advertise and display their hoardings here.

The DC, while talking to The Tribune, said small centres offering computer education would be forced to display boldly that the degrees they were offering were not eligible for the government jobs and those offering invalid degrees through distance education would be forced to close down, he added.

The Himachal cabinet had also recently ordered checking of the study centres across the state and closure of those that were duping students.

Shimla, June 10
While sparing below poverty line (BPL) families, small industries and agriculture sector, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission today ordered a steep hike in energy charges across the board affecting an increase ranging from 30 paise to 55 paise per unit for various categories, including domestic consumers.

The tariff for BPL remains unchanged at Rs 1.80 per unit (70 paise after subsidy) for 50 units per month. However, for the domestic category the tariff has been raised by 30 paise per unit for all three slabs. For monthly consumption up to 150 units the tariff has been increased from 70 paise to Re 1 per unit and for 151 units and above from Rs 1.70 to Rs 2 per unit, presuming that the government continues with the same level of subsidy. The third slab of 300 units and above has been scrapped. The new rates for the two slabs without subsidy are Rs 2.20 and Rs 3.45 per unit. The rate for pre-paid meter consumer has been increased to Rs 2.20 per unit (Re 1 per unit after subsidy).

The government will have to provide Rs 163 crore to maintain subsidy at the exiting level. Accordingly, the average cost of supply has shot up from Rs 3.60 per unit to Rs 4.42 per unit, an increase of about 23 per cent. The aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) of the state power utility has been assessed at Rs 2,687.84 crore, up from last year’s Rs 2341 crore.

The tariff for non-domestic non-commercial category has been increased by 40 paise from Rs 4.05 to Rs 4.45 per unit and for commercial category Rs 4.30 to Rs 4.60 per unit. The rate of agriculture power has been left unchanged at Rs 1.80 per unit (50 paise after subsidy). Street light charges have been raised from Rs 3.60 to Rs 4 per unit. The tariff for small industrial category remains unchanged at Rs 3.70 per unit. The tariff for extra high-tension (EHT) supply has been revised from Rs 2.35 to Rs 2.80 per unit and for high-tension (HT) from Rs 2.20 to 2.60 per unit. However, the overall impact after taking into account peak charges will be 55 paise per unit.

Announcing the tariff order for 2010-11 here today, chairman of the commission Yogesh Khanna said there was no option but to increase tariffs in view of the very steep increase in power purchase costs coupled with diminishing quantum of surplus power for sale outside the state. Further, employee cost had gone up substantially due to implementation of revised pay scales with initial impact of Rs 168.82 crore which included interim relief, arrears, terminal benefits and actual outgo in pay for the current year. Although the due instalment of dearness allowance had not been announced, a provision had been made in the ARR.

The new tariff, which will be effective from April 1, 2010, and remain in force up to March 31, 2011, is estimated to fetch additional revenue of Rs 255.66 crore. The revenue from sale of power has been assessed at Rs 2,338.33 crore and sale outside the state at Rs 193.70 crore. The net surplus of 2008-09 is Rs 186.38 crore. Thus, 2010-11 will have a net surplus of Rs 30.57 crore, to be utilised by the board to offset any unforeseen expenditure.

Shimla, June 10
The government, till further orders, today decided to suspend the training of the agitating junior basic training (JBT) trainees of 2008-10 batch, who failed to join their respective institutions even after expiry of the deadline of June 10.

A spokesperson of the Education Department said in view of the suspension of training sessions, the hostels of these institutions would also remain closed. He said the trainees who had joined the training classes by June 10 and were not involved in any agitation would continue their training.

The government has asked the JBT trainees to give in writing by June 15 to the principal of DIET (District Institute of Education And Training) concerned that they were interested to pursue the course, so that appropriate decision could be taken for carrying out the training.

He appealed to the parents of the agitating trainees to take their children away in the wake of suspension of training and the government would not be responsible for any mishap due to the stir.

He said the government had already clarified that the JBT trainees of 2008-10 batch would be provided job on contract basis after completion of their training, as discussed in the meeting with Principal Secretary (Education) earlier.

Solan, June 10
Taking strict note of an attempt of Jai Prakash (JP) Associates Limited to hide facts relating to several court cases pending against their Bagheri-based cement grinding unit and integrated multi-fuel based captive thermal plant, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has served a show-cause notice to the plant asking why their environmental clearance should not be revoked. The notice, a copy of which is available with the Tribune, clearly mentions that these facts were hidden by the plant management from the Ministry and the Expert Appraisal Committee (Industry) in the meeting held on February 2 to 3 this year.

In view of these facts, the ministry has asked the plant management as to why direction for closure should not be issued, as it had hidden crucial facts. The environmental clearance had been granted to the project on February 27. Though the plant management was asked whether there was any public objection for the plant or any pending court cases, these facts were conveniently concealed.

These facts came to light after a local NGO Himparivesh sent a written complaint to the ministry stating how the thermal plant had been opposed severally in its two public hearings and court cases were pending against it. NGO’s general secretary Balkrishen Sharma said, “We sought information under the RTI Act from the ministry and we learnt that the plant management had given a false affidavit regarding no public opposition for this plant.”

A letter was then written to the Expert Appraisal Committee highlighting the facts of the case and the ministry, after verifying the truth, served this notice to the plant management. Sharma said it was a serious matter as violations of various environmental and forest laws had been made, while recommending the environmental clearance for this plant and this had happened due to false affidavit presented by the plant. The plant management had been granted 15 days time to the plant to submit their reply and if it was not found satisfactory the ministry could take necessary action as per its provisions. 

Shimla, June 10
High on the success of the IPL matches held in Dharamshala, the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) has now decided to take on the responsibility of promoting other sports with the help of corporate funding.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Hamirpur MP and HPCA president Anurag Thakur said Rs 80 lakh would be spent annually on promoting other sports, including tae kwon do, volley ball, judo boxing and football.

He said all these activities aimed at promoting other sports would be undertaken under the aegis of a trust, tentatively named as Himachal Institute of Sports. “With the funds in the kitty of the HPCA swelling from a mere Rs 20 lakh a decade back to current amount of Rs 98 crore has placed us in a position where we want to promote other sports as well,” he added.

Thakur said a sum of Rs 2 crore would be spent on setting up of the Cricket Academy at Lalpani in Shimla. It would have 180 pitches, where 150 players could practice with the facilities for other indoor sports. — TNS

Mandi, June 10
The State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau’s (SVACB) tirade against corruption sounds hollow as the it faces an acute shortage of auditors to expedite disproportionate asset (DA) and other “misuse of government funds” cases booked by the bureau over the years.

The public perception of the bureau track record is that it has been turned into an instrument for settling personal or individual political scores by the successive governments. The bureau faces the charge that it reopens cases closed by political opponents whenever there is change of guard in the state.

Sources revealed that the vigilance needs auditors in Shimla, Mandi and Dharamsala ranges and in its special investigation unit (SIU) to expedite DA cases. The vigilance has written to the government to recruit more auditors to speed up the DA cases as audit of such cases is a must and stand as a clinching evidence in the court of law, they asserted.

There is a deliberate negligence on the part of successive governments to ignore the recruitment of auditors in the vigilance. The vigilance has trapped over 24 gazetted officers over the years, but their prosecution remained murky in most cases as there are just one or two odd auditors in the vigilance, the sources added.

The low rate of conviction and high rate of pending cases in the vigilance has only added credence to the public perception that the “vigilance is a handmaid of the party in power in the state”.

Though DGP and DG vigilance DS Manhas claims conviction rate has gone up from 14 to 24 per cent in trap cases, it is miles behind that of Kerala which has conviction rate of 72 per cent, the highest in the country.

Dharamsala, June 10
The process to elect new Tibetan parliament-in-exile formally began here today with the election commissioner appointed by the Dalai Lama declaring the dates for election.

The election commissioner, while addressing a press conference here today, declared that elections for MPs in Tibetan parliament-in-exile based at Dharamsala would be held on October 3 this year. However, direct elections for Prime Minister would be held on March 30, 2011.

The election commission was installed by the Dalai Lama in 2008 to oversee the elections for the Tibetan parliament-in-exile. The move was aimed at showcasing the world that the Dalai Lama, who was in fact a ruler for Tibet, was ready to handover the command to people through democracy and act just like a symbolic and spiritual head.

With this the race for the successor for Samdhong Rinpoche, Kalon Tripa (Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile) has begun at Dharamsala. Earlier, the National Democratic Party of Tibet (NDPT), the political party of Tibetan exiles, has declared three candidates for the post of Kalon Tripa.

The three candidates include Lobsang Sangey, a law researcher at Havard University in the US; Tethong Tenzin Namgyal, a former minister in Tibetan government-in-exile; and Tashi Wangde, a former Kalon Tripa who is now the Dalai Lama’s ambassador to France, the sources available here said.

Nurpur, June 10
Following order of the local judicial court, the local police last evening booked a forgery case under Sections 420, 120(B), 431, 466, 468, 471 and 198 of the IPC against president of the Kangra district BJP Ranjit Pathania, along with residents of Bhadroya village Tarveej Singh and Vijay Kumar. According to sources, Ravinder Singh, Ajit Kumar and Des Raj Pathania are co-sharers in about 1,000 kanal of land in Nurpur subdivision. 

They had leased out their share of land to the accused and had filed a petition in court alleging fraud committed by the accused. The accused allegedly executed an affidavit illegally stamped by the notary on June 28, 2009, and forged their signatures. However, Ranjit denied allegations. — OC

Shimla, June 10
Taking a lead in dishing out delicacies prepared from organic products, all hotels owned by the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) will serve organic cuisine for health conscious customers.

Chief Minister PK Dhumal said this while inaugurating the three-day Organic Fair and Food Festival here today. The festival was jointly being organised by the Department of Agriculture, HPTDC, International Competence for Organic Agriculture and Agriculture Financial Corporation Limited.

The Chief Minister said consumers were changing their food habits by shifting to organic food keeping in view its nutrient value and flavours. “Time is opportune for the hospitality industry to start serving organic food to meet the market demand and the HPTDC will pioneer in the hotel industry to take the initiative,” he said.

He said it had scientifically been proved that organic products were safer with no health hazards and on the contrary it had several curative ingredients for various minor body ailments. “Prior to introduction of chemical fertilisers, organic was the only agriculture produce and it is time to revert back to organic farming since there is great demand in the market for organic products,” he said.

Dhumal said the government was according priority to organic farming and motivating farmers to revert back to the traditional organic farming system, which could fetch them remunerative returns and generate employment.

He said the government had launched three ambitious schemes aimed at giving boost to commercial farming so that it could emerge a source of income generation through employment and self-employment to the rural educated youth. People enjoyed Himachali cuisine prepared from organic produce, including pulses, grains, fruits and vegetables.