Shimla, June 30
The state government today decided to hike electricity duty for big industries from 2 per cent to 7 per cent. The duty has been increased to 15 per cent for medium industries and 20 per cent for large industries. At present, both medium and large indutries are in the same slab, attracting 13 per cent duty. The state Cabinet decided to amend the Himachal Pradesh Electricity (Duty) Act and promulgate an ordinance to give immediate effect to the decision which will enable the government to mop up additional revenue of about Rs 45 crore in remaining part of the current financial year.

The government also decided to amend the hydropower policy to free independent power producers (IPPs), executing mini hydroelectric projects up to 5 MW, from the compulsion of signing power purchase agreement (PPA) with the state power utility.

Henceforth, the PPA will be signed only by mutual agreement and the IPPs will be free to sell power to anyone. Earlier, they were required to sell power to the state utility at rates determined by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission. It also decided to allow partnership firms to implement hydroelectric projects.

So far, joint ventures were required to form only special vehicles for the purpose.

Go-ahead was given for setting up a pithead power plant by the Himachal EMTA Power Limited (HEPL), a joint venture of the Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (HPPCL), and Eastern Minerals and Trading Agency (EMTA), in West Bengal.

The plant will be set up at coal pithead allocated by the Union Ministry of Coal to generate 660 MW thermal power by investing about Rs 4,000 crore. The state will get 330 MW power from the project. The main objective of having a thermal plant is to meet the shortfall during winter when generation from hydel projects falls due to decline in discharge of rivers and streams.

Shimla, June 30
The state government today decided to implement the Market Intervention Scheme for mango to ensure minimum price in terminal markets and save growers from exploitation at the hands of middlemen.

The “seedling” and “grafted” varieties of mango will be procured at the rate of Rs 4.58 per kg and Rs 5.25 per kg, respectively, from July 1 to August 15. The decision was taken by the state Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister PK Dhumal here today. State-owned the HPMC, HIMFED and HP Agro Industries Corporation will be the procurement agencies.

In all, 34 fruit procurement centres will be opened in mango growing belts and more centres will be considered, if required. Procurement agencies will be entitled to handling charges of Rs 1.30 per kg.

It granted approval for starting efficient ambulance services under the Emergency Medical Response and Transport System for the benefit of expecting mothers and patients in the Private Pubic Partnership (PPP) and entered into an agreement with the Emergency Management and Research Institute, Hyderabad, for the purpose.

The Cabinet approved amendment in Rule 69-A of the Himachal Pradesh Motor Vehicles Rules, 1999, deleting the category “Goods Carriages” from the regime of composite fee prescribed in the state rules.

Under the new national permit scheme, truck owners will be required to deposit a permit fee of Rs 15,000 with the respective regional transport officer (RTO)to transport goods all across the country, instead of three states permitted earlier, for one year without any hassle.

A provision for depositing permit fee in cash or online has also been made.

It gave nod for starting two additional courses from the 2010-11 academic session in civil engineering and electronics and communication engineering in Jawaharlal Nehru Government Engineering College, Sundernagar, and sanctioned creation of 10 posts in teaching and non-teaching categories. It also sanctioned 25 posts of teaching and non-teaching categories for the proposed Himachal Pradesh Technical University.

The Cabinet granted permission to expand jurisdiction of municipal bodies of Mandi, Solan, Palampur, Nahan, Nalagarh, Sarkaghat, Rewalsar and Arki. It also approved amendment in the Transport Policy-2004 to carry rationalisation of uneconomic routes being operated by the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation and decided to make primary health centres at Chhatri in Mandi and Naina Tikkar in Sirmour functional.

Shimla, June 30
The government today appointed DGP (Vigilance) DS Manhas, a 1977-batch IPS officer, as the next Director-General of Police (DGP) following retirement of present incumbent GS Gill today.

The Selection Committee which met here today under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Asha Swaroop recommended the name of Manhas for being posted as the DGP. Other members included Principal Secretary (Home) Subhash Negi and two senior most IAS officers on the rank of Additional Chief Secretary.

The fact that Manhas was made the acting DGP when Gill proceeded on a long leave almost two months back, it was being considered a foregone conclusion that Manhas would get the top post. The formality was completed today when he was formally made the DGP.

Interestingly, Anirudh Uppal, a 1976-IPS officer currently on central deputation with the National Security Guards (NSG), today met Chief Minister PK Dhumal and expressed his desire to return to the state to hold the post of the DGP.

Manhas is from the 1977 batch and is due to retire in September 2012. Incidentally, both Manhas and Uppal will attain superannuation at the same time in September 2012.

The senior most IPS officer in the state is DGP (Prisons) Sohan Singh who is from the 1974 batch and is due to retire in October 2011.

Next in seniority is RN Gupta from the 1976 batch who is currently on central deputation and will retire in January 2013. He is followed by Uppal from the 1976 batch and then Manhas from the 1977 batch.

Dharamsala, June 30
The Rayat-Bahra Educational Group that is coming up with a private university in the state has adopted environmental campaign of ‘garbage girl’ of Bhagsunag, Jodie Underhill.

At a press conference held here today KL Manuja, director, planning, in the group presented a cheque of Rs 25000 to Jodie.

Speaking on the occasion Manuja said the Rayat-Bahra group chairman, Gurvinder Singh Bahra, had decided to adopt the environment campaign of the ‘garbage girl’ after he came to know about her work in the media. The group is coming up with Bahra university, about 16 km from Shimla, and would continue to contribute positively towards saving the pristine environment of the Himalayas.

‘Our chairman has stated that besides providing quality education, the group would also continue to support other environmental non-government organisations in the state as a corporate policy.’

‘In our university we are introducing a new concept of education. We are bringing the industry and students on a single platform. The group has entered into MoUs with 16 leading corporate houses to provide in-course training to students in Bahra university,’ Manuja said.

Jodie, while speaking on the occasion said she was grateful to the management of the Rayat-Bahra group for supporting her endeavour to keep the higher reaches of the Himalayas clean from solid waste.

Jodie single-handedly started an endeavour in April, 2009, to remove solid waste from Triund, a trekking paradise located 8 km from Mcleodganj. She uses mules and volunteers to bring back the collected garbage every week, trekking 8 km to Triund and back.

For her endeavour, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal is going to confer an award on Jodie.

Jodie said at the start of the year she was funding the clean-up Triund campaign from her own pocket. “The financial support from the group is a welcome step. This will help me further expand my clean-up campaign in the region.”

Jodie said she intended to extend her campaign to the Mani Mahesh area where nine lakh pilgrims come every year and a lot of litter is scattered in the upper reaches of the Himalayas.

Manuja said the upcoming Bahra university would also work for educating the people regarding environmental issues. 

Shimla, June 30
The fact that dropout rate of girls in a hill state like Himachal with difficult topography is lower as compared to boys is indicative of the fact that the former are all set to beat boys as they outshine their male counterparts in merit lists both at the school and college level every year.

According to the latest “Child Statistics” released by the Department of Economics and Statistics, the overall dropout rate of boys at primary level stands at 2.97 as compared to 2.34 among girls.

In eight districts out of a total of 12, the dropout rate of boys is higher than girls.

The most inspiring fact is that girls, whose literacy figure stood at 67.4 per cent in the 2001 census, have galloped to 76 per cent, registering an increase of almost 10 per cent.

Boys, on the other hand, have started lagging behind as during this period their literacy has gone up marginally from 85.3 per cent in 2001 to 87 per cent in 2001.

Even as Himachal boasts of a literacy rate of 82 per cent, girls still lag behind with their literacy percentage being recorded at 76. Though boys are ahead at the moment with a literacy figure of 87 per cent, it appears that soon girls will not only catch up with them, but will also overtake them. These are the latest literacy figures according to the National Sample Survey upto March, 2009.

At present, there are a total of 6.23 lakh children enrolled at the primary level (upto class V) in 10,751 schools till March, 2010. There are an additional 4.12 lakh children in the upper primary level. The gross enrolment ratio at the elementary level till September, 2009, was 118.15 while the net enrolment ratio 99.67.

The state government, in order to ensure that literacy among girls is at par with boys, has made education for girls free so that even those belonging to weaker socio-economic backgrounds can afford to go to school.

It a result of these endeavours, coupled with the determination in girls to do well for themselves, which has brought forth these positive results.

Efforts are on to provide good facilities in schools, including safe drinking water and toilets, so that there are no handicaps which prevent children, especially girls, from going to school.

Shimla, June 30
Waiting in the wings to takeover as the new Chief Secretary, Rajwant Sandhu will be joining tomorrow as officer on special duty (OSD), a month before superannuation of the present incumbent Asha Swaroop.

She has returned from a central deputation early just to get acquainted with her new assignment and, in all probability, will join as an OSD. It will be first time in the state that the new incumbent will remain the OSD for a while before taking over, though this practice is often followed at the Centre in case of Cabinet Secretary. There are already three Additional Chief Secretaries in the state---Avay Shukla, Harinder Hira and Sarojini G Thakur---all junior to Sandhu.

Asha Swaroop, who is due to retire on July 31, is a 1973-batch officer, while Sandhu is a 1975-batch IAS officer of the state cadre. She was on deputation as Secretary, Drinking Water, in the Union Ministry of Rural Development.

She is followed by 1974-batch officer C Balakrishnan, currently on deputation as Secretary, Union Ministry of Coal. He has undergone a bypass surgery and, thus, not keen to return to the state.

Another officer of the same batch, Parminder Mathur, has already retired.

Additional Chief Secretary, forests. Avay Shukla is also a 1975-batch officer currently. However, Sandhu is senior to him. As such, the government has gone by seniority in selecting the new incumbent. Moreover, Shukla is due for superannuation in December.

Rajwant Sandhu will retire only in March, 2012, and thus have a decent tenure of 20 months.

She will be the third woman officer to hold the coveted post. The first woman to get elevated to the top bureaucratic post was Rajendra Bhattacharya who remained in office for about a year.

Rajwant Sandhu’s appointment to the post means that 1976-batch officers Harinder Hira, Additional Chief Secretary, Sainik Welfare, and S Vijay Kumar, who is on central deputation, may not get an opportunity to hold the top position. Even Sarojini Ganju Thakur, a 1977-batch officer and Additional Chief Secretary, will retire in the intervening period.

Shimla, June 30
The Institute of Integrated Himalayan Studies organised a short marathon in collaboration with CMS Vatavaran, a non-government organisation, to promote awareness on ‘low carbon practices’. The marathon was flagged off by Mayor of Shimla Municipal Corporation Madhu Sood; director Institute of Integrated Himalayan Studies SP Bansal; and dean Himachal Pradesh University CL Chandan.

The participants ran from the Institute of Integrated Himalayan Studies to Dr Ambedkar Chowk. The event kick-started week-long activities on environment and wildlife. It was preceded by a presentation on low carbon practices by Bansal.

Nivedita of St Bede’s College won the race, while Rahul Negi of ECI Shalley Day and Sohan of Frankfinn Institute bagged the second and third positions, respectively.

Shimla, June 30
The Himachal Pradesh High Court today quashed the order passed by Special Court, Solan, vide which it had granted approval for undertaking narco test of former Additional DGP B.S. Thind in a case of alleged extortion registered against him by a Parwanoo-based businessmen.

While setting aside the order passed by the Special Court, Justice DD Sood observed that in view of the judgment passed by the Supreme Court the order passed by the special judge cannot be sustained. It is pertinent to mention here that the Supreme Court in its recent judgment declared compulsory use of narco analysis, brain mapping and polygraph tests as ‘illegal’ on suspects.

The high court passed this order on a petition filed by Thind wherein he challenged the order of the Special Judge at Solan on the ground that narco test was a violation of Article 20(3) of the Constitution.

It is pertinent to mention here that the police had filed an application before the Special Judge, Solan, for seeking permission for narco test of Thind. Acceding to the police request, the Special Court granted approval for conducting narco test on the suspended ADGP.

The police sought this test for baring the truth with regard to his involvement in the Parwanoo CD case.

The Parwanoo-based businessman had alleged in his complaint that he had paid lakhs of rupees to the IPS officer for getting his commercial premises vacated, which was in possession of his brother. It was on his complaint that a case of alleged cheating and extortion was registered against Thind.

Thind expressed reluctance to undergo the test saying that it was not required as he had been cooperating with the police in the probe.

Kullu, June 30
Expansion of the Kullu-Manali airport by way of extending its runway over the Beas river has turned out be non-feasible as per an inspection by a high-level team of the IIT Roorki.

According to sources in the Civil Aviation Ministry, the IIT team visited the airport and explored the possibility of expansion of the current single way runway twice. However, the team found that the construction of the concrete bridge over the Beas to extend the runway from 1,125 m to 1,200 m was not feasible.

After the state government took the matter with the Civil Aviation Ministry over the years, the ministry, including the Airport Authority of India (AAI), facilitated the IIT inspection. Even the Delhi Metro Company and others showed interest in the expansion of the airport runway and got conducted fresh survey from the IIT Roorki, recently, the sources revealed.

However, the team found that the river course runs through a narrow width near the edge of the runway and a concrete bridge over the Beas was not feasible, the sources added.

Experts from the IIT cited danger of boulders and flash flood in the Beas as potential hazards for a bridge over the river. The boulders that flow during floods are common in the river making the bridge unsafe for the runway, the sources added.

“The current runway is 1,125-m-long and runs in the east-west direction in Bhuntar town along the Beas. The expansion of the airport for accommodating bigger aircrafts is possible only by extending the runway over the Beas as there is no further space for expansion in any other direction,” the sources said.

As per the AAI’s safety standards, the runway of the Kullu-Manali airport located at an altitude of 1,089 m needs a minimum length of 5 km for landing of an airbus, civil aviation experts said. “But this length is not available in the current airport,” they revealed.

Travel agents and hoteliers along with the state government had taken up the matter of expansion of Bhuntar airport with Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. Patel had promised that he would explore the possibility of expansion, the sources added.

Principal Secretary, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Manisha Nanda said the government had not received any official report of the IIT inspection. “We have been taking up the matter with the ministry as the runway will facilitate landing of bigger aircrafts,” she added.

Shimla, June 30
The State Forest Corporation sold 1,03,672 cubic metres of timber to generate a revenue of Rs 108 crore during financial year of 2009-2010.

Presiding over a meeting of the Board of Directors of the corporation here today Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the corporation carried out a business of Rs 160.29 crore during financial year ending March 31, 2010, which was 18.5 per cent more as compared to preceding financial year.

The resin and turpentine business amounted to Rs 43.65 crore, an increase of 34.51 per cent.

He said resin prices had increased from Rs 42 per litre as on April 1 2009 to Rs 74.50 per litre by the end of preceding year and that of turpentine from Rs 55 per litre to Rs 69 per litre.

He said the corporation would set up a unit at Kullu to manufacture door and windowpanes with quality timber and meet the requirement of consumers.

It has diversified its activities and developed two eco-tourism units at Narkanda and Jalori which earned about Rs 10 lakh. A timber treatment unit was being set up at Jhaniari in Hamirpur and Baijnath in Kangra. 

Bilaspur, June 30
The state Congress has strongly condemned the government’s step of taking hotel Deoth Sidh out the Tourism Department’s control and handing it over to the temple trust of Deoth Sidh of Hamirpur district.

Talking to mediapersons here today, former MLA from Gehadwin constituency and convener of the state Congress Scheduled Castes Cell, Dr Biru Ram Kishore, who played a major role in getting this hotel set up near Shah Talai, said it was constructed for the benefit of thousands of tourists who visited the famous temple of Baba Balak Nath at Shah Talai and at Deoth Sidh.

The step seemed to be motivated by someone with vested interests, he added.

Kishore alleged that the hotel would be converted into another “nest” for conducting immoral activities as has been the condition of the HP PWD rest house at Shah Talai.

He said it was unfair to hand over the building to the temple trust of Hamirpur, especially when the building was located in Bilaspur district.