Shimla, June 11
With the BJP regime in the hill state completing half of its five-year term, the party is keen to have better coordination between the government and the organisation so as to have a people friendly image, which will increase the political base of the party.

The Chief Minister and his ministerial colleagues will hold a monthly meeting with state-level office bearers of the party to enable an open and healthy discussion on various issues. The party will give feedback to the government on its policies and programmes but more importantly they will point out the shortcomings if any so that desired results are achieved.

Even though there has been a lot of talk of having better coordination between the government and the party, in reality the interaction is rare and more of a formality. “Now with a proper mechanism in place, the party can regularly give in their suggestions and feedback on the functioning of its government and monitor the progress at the monthly meeting,” a party MLA said.

A section of the BJP leaders, including party legislators, are not too happy with certain decisions of the party like setting up of private universities without strict regulations. “What can be more embarrassing for us when our own student outfit, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), is openly airing its resentment against the policies of its government,” a party MLA said.

The BJP also intends to launch its “Mandal Milan” programme, offering a platform for its constituency-level party workers to interact with the Chief Minister and senior leaders, soon after the return of the Chief Minister from Patna, where the national party meet is being held. “The programme will be launched from the constituencies where the BJP is not in power so that the party functionaries are able to put across their grievances before the Chief Minister and their problems are redressed,” said Ganesh Dutt, state BJP spokesperson.

Party sources said another old programme, “Prashasan Janta Ke Darbar”, launched by the BJP regime when it came to power in 2007 had not yielded the desired results. All ministers and party MLAs would be directed to take the programme more seriously so that problems of the people could be redressed at the lowest level if possible.

“The effort is to ensure that the BJP regime is a people friendly government where topmost priority is accorded to the common man and it is easy for him to get redressal of his problems,” Dutt said.

Solan, June 11
Failure of the authorities to check indiscriminate mining along riverbeds in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial belt has caused colossal damage to the bridges forcing the Public Works Department (PWD) to spend crores on its repair.

Though the state government had delegated powers to various officials, including SHOs, junior engineers of PWD and Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department, forest guards, besides their own mining officials, little seems to be done to check illegal mining.

This has taken a severe toll of various bridges, including Balad, Bagvania, Mahadev, etc, leading to scouring of their riverbeds from 2.5 m to as much as 8 m in the 
last few years.

It was this laxity which led to sinking of a pier on the Balad bridge, while the Mahadev khud bridge and Chikni bridge too suffered massive damage in the last few years. Figures available from the NH PWD revealed that restoration works worth Rs 77 lakh were carried out on the Mahadev bridge to protect it while another amount of Rs 80 lakh were spent on Bagvania bridge, Rs 44 lakh on Sandholi bridge and Rs 47.46 lakh on Balad bridge in the past few years merely for protection works.

Damage to the Chikni bridge was so colossal that it collapsed even before repair works could be undertaken on it. Despite a lapse of three years its repair could not begin. Sanction for Rs 9 crore had finally been received while its approval was still awaited from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. It has now been decided to construct the bridge by laying solid well foundation which is deeper than the normal bridge foundation, confided an official.

This laxity has caused the public dear with the NH-21A remaining obstructed due to two bridges facing damage in a single day. While an expecting mother bore the brunt after she failed to reach the hospital in time the general public suffered the most.

SE PWD while ruing indiscriminate mining said restoration works had now begun on a war footing on the Balad bridge while the traffic had been routed through Barotiwala, besides constructing an alternative route through the riverbed.

He added that the Bagvania bridge where a slab had been laid after one of its pier suffered damage would be open for traffic by June 24.

Though the state government had not renewed the lease of the mining areas, it was utter failure of the various authorities that crores were wasted in merely protecting the bridges.

Shimla, June 11
The government today issued amended guidelines for constitution of management committees for government high schools and senior secondary schools. The Single School Management Committee (SMC) will be constituted for middle, high and senior secondary schools for all classes taken together in a school. All parents, guardians and teachers of students studying in a school will be its members with voting rights to all and they will constitute the general house. Headmaster or principal will the member secretary.

In case of high schools, the general house of the management committee will also elect four additional parents of children studying in classes IX and X to the executive committee.

Further, there will be two teachers form the concerned schools (other than the principal) who will be elected as members of the committee, over and above the members of management committee already constituted for elementary classes.

Thus, presuming that there will be at least 60 students of middle level, the executive committee for the high school will have one president, one member secretary, one pradhan or up pradhan of the area, six parents of children from elementary classes, four parents from students of classes IX and X and two teachers as members.

In senior secondary schools, the number of parent members will be four from classes IX and X and four from classes XI and XII. Besides, any three teachers representing different categories within the school will also be elected members for all classes.

This implies that there will be maximum 20 members in the executive committee. President will be a parent of any student of class VI and XII. The committee will also takeover all role and function of the PTA (Parent Teachers’ Association) and can continue collection of funds from parents of children from class IX onwards.

However, no such compulsory collection of funds is to be resorted to in relation to parents of children of class I to VIII.

Shimla, June 11
Condemning the hike in power tariff, the Congress today demanded a roll back of the enhanced electricity rates, while the CPM demanded a subsidy so as to save the common man from being burdened further.

In a statement issued here today, Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) General Secretary Kuldeep Rathore said mindless of the burden it would be on the common man, the BJP regime had ordered a hike for the second time since it came to power.

“What is most unfortunate is the fact that despite being known as a power state, the people will have to shell out extra to foot the hiked power bills,” he said.

The CPM, too, lashed out at the BJP regime for the power hike. Member, State Secretariat of the CPM, Tikender Singh Panwar said, “A hike ranging from 30 paisa to 55 paisa per unit will hit the consumers, who will have to pay an additional sum of Rs 250 crore in an year. On an average per family will have to spend Rs 3,000 extra from their budget towards paying electricity bills.”

BILASPUR: State vice-president, Congress, and former Power and Forests Minister Ram Lal Thakur has strongly criticised the government for increase in rates of power in state.

He has also warned that if this increase is not immediately withdrawn, the Congress would be forced to begin an agitation and expose the double face of the BJP.

Addressing mediapersons at the Circuit house here today, Ram Lal said it was strange that a state that produces surplus electricity, has taxed its consumers with Rs 256 crore in one go giving an excuse that the rates were still less than that of the adjoining states.

KANGRA: Former Transport and Tourism Minister and sitting MLA from Nagrota Bagwan GS Bali today lambasted the Dhumal government for its anti-people policies, the decision of power tariff hike and its adamant attitude that had resulted in unrest among different sections of the society forcing them to resort to agitations, protests and indefinite fasts. Bali was addressing a press conference at his residence here today. 

Dharamsala, June 11
National general secretary of the Janata Dal (United) Javed Raza today came out in support of Tibetan cause. While addressing a press conference at Mcleodganj here today he said the Janata Dal (United) was trying to revive the All-Party Forum for Tibet.

The JD (U) leaders Sharad Yadav and George Fernandes have been taking up the issue of Tibet in Parliament. They are also now trying to revive the All-Party Forum for Tibet.

He also said the central government should change the policy it has been adopting since the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru gave asylum to the Dalai Lama and his followers.

Besides Javed Raza, earlier the other JD (U) leaders, including Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes, have also visited Mcleodganj recently and expressed solidarity with the Tibetans living-in-exile. George Fernandes stayed here for over a month as he tried Tibetan medicine for his ailment. Nitish Kumar had visited Mcleodganj to invite Dalai Lama for inauguration of the Budha Park being brought up in Patna. According to sources Dalai Lama offered to donate a relic related to Budha for the park.

Javed Raza while responding to queries from newsmen also demanded a fresh CBI inquiry into the Bhopal gas tragedy and the way the accused were allowed to flee the country by senior Congress leaders and the then CM of Madhya Pradesh.

He also alleged that the present UPA government had failed to control price rise in the country. The common man is reeling under price of essential commodities and the government is not doing anything regarding it. The internal security situation in the country has also worsened and Naxalites are becoming bolder. They are openly killing security forces and destroying the national infrastructure.

The government is afraid of using force against the Naxalites that are using bombs and other destructive weapons against our security forces, said Javed Raza.

Shimla, June 11
Expressing deep disappointment over the “institutional failure” of the State Power Utility and reluctance of the state to carry out reforms, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission has warned that “it will have to pay large deemed costs in future if it did not improve efficiency, ensure accountability and build requisite infrastructure, and this will be at the cost of consumers”.

While addressing the strategic and policy issue in the latest tariff order, the commission has lamented that concepts like competition, non-discriminatory open access, efficiency parameters and grid augmentation were given a short shrift. Large dichotomies existed in the overall sector and the state had created parallel entities leading to major cost surges in every field. Worse “tenurial instability” in the utility was leading to skewed policy initiatives and a total lack of focus and accountability.

The vertically integrated utility continued to build hydro projects at Rs 12 crore per megawatt, while the private sector still executed these at half the cost. The impact on consumer tariffs was mind-boggling and there was an urgent need to address the issue of cost escalation in the public sector. Nearly 30 per cent of the cost is focused on employees, which compared extremely unfavourably with almost all other utilities in the country. Despite this, employee output and efficiency parameters were low.

Commenting on the performance of the utility, it observed that just 30 per cent of the funds approved for infrastructure development had been spent and as far as the transmission sector was concerned the situation was worse with actual spending not exceeding even 10 per cent of the allocations. Its impact on stability, maintenance and protection functions of the system were colossal as evident from increasing power breakdowns and outages.

Distressed over the of attitude of the state with regard to giving functional focus to an overall balanced policy for development of transmission resources, the commission observed that “the government is functional in a co-terminus phase with the utility whereas it should workout a regional planning process to develop a suitable transmission tariff framework for intra-state conveyance which is sensitive to distance, direction and quantum to help transmission system users to share costs in proportion to their actual utilisation while suitably discouraging non-optimal transmission investment.

A large component of these new assets need to be built in public-private partnership between the State Transmission Utility and private players”.

A pious hope remained that with restructuring on the horizon, perhaps there will be some light at the end of the tunnel. However, past experience did not give great credibility to such a hope, it laments.

Shimla, June 11
Refusing to succumb to government pressure, Junior Basic Training (JBT) trainees today took out a silent march with black strips tied around their mouth.

They have been observing fast unto death for the past 11 days, demanding signing of a job guarantee bond so that they are assured of employment after completing their course. They took out a procession from the DC Office till Naaz where they held a meeting and raised anti-government slogans.

The JBT trainees who held a state-level meeting here on June 9 refused to withdraw their agitation even after holding a meeting with Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. Orders from Director(Elementary Education) that all JBT trainees must join classes or else face disciplinary action by June 10 failed to have any effect on the students.

The government has now given them time till June 15 to join classes failing which disciplinary action would be initiated.