Hamirpur, September 20
While the Hamirpur Nagar Parishad had not utilised a solid waste management plant, set up about five years ago near Dugnedi village on the outskirts of Hamirpur, to its optimum, nagar parishad workers continue to dump the garbage on a nearby hill polluting water of two supply schemes drawn from the Hathli.

The plant was established in a deep forest near Dugnedi village, about five km from here, by the Hamirpur Nagar Parishad in 2005 by spending about Rs 1.3 crore.

The main purpose was to segregating the garbage and preparing manure from the solid waste and disposing of the garbage in a scientific manner without polluting the environment. Strangely, the authorities concerned have not only failed to utilise the plant to its optimum but the employees are still dumping garbage on a nearby hill, polluting potable water schemes. A team of journalists that visited here recently found a lot of garbage dumped on the nearby hill, flowing into Hathli .

The potable water for two schemes i.e. Nalti and Masyana- Bazuri is drawn from the Hathli khud, which supply water to many villages in the surrounding area.

A villager from Dugnedi, Bimla Devi, said: “The authorities had earlier assured that the garbage would not be dumped in the open and they would prepare manure after establishing the waste management plant but to no avail.”

Another villager Sanjeev Kumar said: “The garbage dumped on the hill is polluting water in the Hathli khud from where water is drawn for our potable water supply scheme.”

President, Hamirpur Nagar Parishad, Deep Kumar said: “We have issued an instruction not to dump garbage outside the waste management plant and will look into the matter at the earliest.”

Palampur, September 20
Over 12 villages in the Sulaha area of this subdivision did not get potable water for the past 10 days as the Irrigation and Public Health Department has failed to restore the Parot Kharot Drinking Water Supply Scheme that was affected by the cloudburst a fortnight ago.

Despite repeated requests by the local residents, no efforts were made to restore the water supply. Long queues of men, women and children are seen in front of natural water sources daily in these villages. Dheera, the biggest village of the Sulaha area, is the worst-hit. Residents of Dheera rued that there was no one to listen to their complaints.

Though the water crisis had already been brought into the notice of ruling party MLA Bipan Parmar but to no avail. The residents alleged that the IPH Department restored the drinking water supply last week only when there was a political function in the village. As soon as the function was over, the entire area again plunged into potable water crisis, they added.

A senior officer of the IPH department said the water supply scheme was affected due to the flow of silt into water tanks. The water supply would be restored in the next three days.

Shimla, September 20
The statewide protests by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) notwithstanding, the government had given a go ahead to two more private universities.

The Cabinet approved a proposal on Saturday for enacting legislations for setting up Bahara University at Waknaghat and Sri Sai University at Palampur, however, the decision was kept away from the media for reasons best known to the authorities.

According to sources, since the Vidhan Sabha will be in session only in December, Ordinances will be promulgated to bring the universities into existence.

The government had earlier issued an Ordinance for setting up Markandeyshwar University near Solan. While the government has been setting up private universities in tearing haste, it has shown little inclination to put a regulatory mechanism to oversee their functioning in place and address the issues thrown up by setting up of universities almost round the year and allowing them to start courses anytime during the year, making a mockery of the academic calendar.

Consequently, universities are running different sessions for various courses and there is no uniformity. More importantly, there are no norms for admission to various courses, all those willing to shell out a hefty amount are welcome, merit does not figure in the scheme of things. Merit is the biggest causality in new institutions which start after the commencement of academic session as all deserving students have already taken admission and only those who are ineligible or have no merit are left. Admitting such students in bulk will not be in the interest of the newly set up university, as the “lack of merit” will be reflected in the academic performance in the very first year.

The Bill to regulate functioning of private educational institutions was referred to the select committee of the Vidhan Sabha.

The government seems to be keen on setting up as many private universities as possible before the Bill is passed and takes shape of a law.

Shimla, September 20
Pubic Works Minister Gulab Singh has underlined the need for expeditious disposal of revenue matters to ensure timely justice to the people.

Presiding over a meeting to review the status of revenue and settlement cases in Shimla district, here today, he said 98 per cent villages in the district had already been computerised in regard to revenue matters and the remaining would be provided this facility soon. He emphasised that cases relating to partition, mutation, demarcation and correction of entries into revenue records should be resolved at the earliest. He asked the subdivisional magistrates and tehsildars to put in extra efforts to speedily decide the revenue disputes and appeals.

The minister informed that out of the total 4,362 mutation cases, 2,920 had been settled and 637 other revenue cases disposed of at the level of tehsildar and naib tehsildar. He directed concerned officials to decide the remaining cases within a month. He asked the subdivisional magistrates and tehsildars to conduct field inspections to ensure speedy redress of land disputes.

He also informed that land settlement in 4,273 villages of Shimla division had been completed and work was underway in 577 villages. He asked the revenue staff to pursue the cases of encroachments and ensure that the government land was not occupied illegally. He said Rs 1.7 crore were being spent on the construction and maintenance of patwarghars this year in the district.

Principal Secretary-cum-Financial commissioner Revenue Parthsarthi Mitra asked officers to ensure early resolution of land disputes.

Shimla, September 20
Seeking intervention of the High Court in the education scam, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) today demanded resignation of the chairman of the HP School Education Board, CL Gupta.

SFI activists today burnt effigies of Gupta at various places, expressing resentment against the education scam that had exposed the unholy nexus between officials of the education board and those engaged in selling degrees to students who don’t even appear in examinations.

“It is only through the High Court’s intervention that an action could be taken against those behind the scam,” Vikram Singh, state president of the 
SFI, said.

Demanding a legal action against Gupta, they said the manner in which the government had failed to take any concrete action hitherto, it was evident that those involved in the scam had full patronage of the government that was now out to shield them. “Rather than removing the chairman, the government is trying to give him a clean chit and hush up the matter,” he added.

The SFI leader said in case the government failed to act, the SFI would launch a state-wide agitation so that the guilty could be punished. The SFI activists from various educational institutions in the capital also burnt Gupta’s effigy outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office and demanded his immediate removal.

Shimla, September 20
The proposal to authorise the local Municipal Corporation (MC) as the single agency for approving building maps in the entire town could see winding up of the heritage, core, green and restricted area committees which had been providing valuable inputs with experts as its members.

In fact the committees were constituted with the purpose of ensuring that the various regulations under the Town and Country Planning Act were properly implemented and there were no violations.

The proposal being prepared by the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department will be placed before the Cabinet which will empower the MC with control over construction activity in all zones of the state capital. Such a move will make the MC all-powerful and can lead to dilution of restrictions in various zones of the town. The existence of these committees had to some extent been instrumental in keeping a check on haphazard construction activity in the maze of concrete jungle that the “Queen of Hill” has turned into.

The Heritage Advisory Committee headed by the Chief Secretary was entrusted with the task of ensuring that the British legacy in the form of precious heritage remains intact. Any such approval with regard to construction or alteration along old lines in the heritage zone was approved by it.

Similarly, ensuring that the green areas considered as lungs of the town remained intact could see dilution with one single agency enjoying all powers.

Doubts are being raised about the technical expertise that the MC has and its capability to handle the entire burden. Moreover, the manner in which in the past MC has turned a blind eye and in some cases regularised gross violations by influential people, there are apprehensions if it will be a wise move to give them all powers.

With the Chief Secretary heading the State Heritage Advisory Committee; the Secretary, Town and Country Planning, heading the Core Area Committee; and the Director, Town and Country Planning, heading the Restricted Area Committee; there was some scope for checks and balances which would be over once the MC is made the supreme and single agency.

Shimla, September 20
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has urged the Centre to include the Agro Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) and the State Agricultural Marketing Boards in the Direct Tax Bill, 2009, to help exclude such institutions from the purview of Income Tax Act.

In a communication to Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, he said the income of the APMCs and the board established under the Himachal Pradesh Agricultural and Horticultural Produce (Development and Regulation) Act, 2005, had been exempted from the purview of Income Tax Act, as per Section 10 (26 AAB) with effect from April 1, 2008. However, it had been learnt that in the draft Direct Tax Code Bill, 2009, these institutions had not been included in the Seventh Schedule, which provided for exemption from income tax to such institutions.

He said the APMCs and the boards were neither carrying out any business activity with the motive of profit earning nor engaged in trading merchandise, processing, buying or selling units. Further, all such bodies were confined to local jurisdiction and managed by local authorities democratically to protect the interests of the farming community. The APMCs were collecting 1 per cent market fee on the sale or purchase of the produce and the amount was being spent on development of marketing infrastructure within their jurisdiction. The revenue collected through market fee was being utilised for creation of basic amenities for farmers like auction platforms, cover sheds, internal roads in the market yards, drainage, providing drinking water, electricity supply, maintaining cleanliness and hygienic conditions in the market yards, farmer’s rest houses, godowns and other required infrastructure.

The Chief minister said the Direct Tax Code Bill, 2009, would have a negative impact on the functioning and development of the APMCs and the boards and harm the interests of farmers.

He requested the Union Minister to include these two important institutions under the Seventh Schedule of the proposed Bill to protect the interests of the farming community. The government had constituted the APMCs and the board with the objective to boost marketing activities at the grassroots to protect the farmers from exploitation by middlemen.

A network of agriculture marketing yards has been created in the state to cater to the marketing requirements of the growers to ensure remunerative returns to farmers.

Solan, September 20
Acting on inquiry reports received in a case relating to recovery of multi-colour slips and Rs 800 along with some coded entries in a register recovered by a senior police official at Parwanoo barrier’s beat box, Solan SP Hardesh Bisht today suspended 11 policemen posted at the barrier.

It was perhaps for the first time that such an action had been initiated against policemen who had allegedly been making collections from the trucks after issuing them coloured slips as coded entries were found in the register against truck numbers.

Though initial efforts of police officials to corroborate the same from the truckers had failed to yield any result, the two inquiries conducted separately by the Parwanoo SDPO and the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had established the fact that the policemen collected money from the truckers.

While an inquiry conducted by the bureau on the basis of firsthand evidence collected by their DIG Anurag Garg had indicted the policemen, a separate inquiry conducted by the Parwanoo SDPO had also cited similar findings.

The Solan SP, while confirming the suspension of 11 policemen, said the action was initiated against one ASI, two head constables and eight constables who were present on duty. This was taken on the basis of reports submitted by the bureau and the Parwanoo SDPO who had recommended action after inquiring into the matter.

The matter pertains to September 12, when DIG (Vigilance and anti corruption bureau) Anurag Garg, while crossing Parwanoo was caught amidst a heavy traffic jam. Finding no traffic policeman to help clear the traffic the DIG himself aligned from the vehicle and made a cursory check of the nearby beat box where he found yellow, green and pink slips along with some coded entries made against some truck numbers in a register lying there.

Taking a strict action, the 11 policemen were immediately transferred to police lines at Solan and the beat box was ordered to be removed as it served no purpose.