Shimla, November 25
Aimed at rationalisation of schools with meagre strength, the government has approved the provision of free transport facility to students travelling 8 km every day to attend school. It has also adopted new parameters for upgrading middle and high schools.

The decisions were taken by the state Cabinet, which was chaired by Chief Minister PK Dhumal 
here today.

To upgrade a middle school to high school, the feeder school must have the strength of at least 25 students and the minimum walking distance of 3 km from the nearest high school. To upgrade a government high school, the feeder school must have enrolment of at least 40 students with the minimum of 5 km distance from the nearest government senior secondary school.

It decided to continue implementation of the Market Intervention Scheme for procurement of citrus fruits, including kinnow, malta and orange, and procure B and C grade citrus fruits at the rate of Rs 5.85 per kg and Rs 5.25 per kg, respectively, and galgal fruit at Rs 4.15 per kg during December 1, 2010 to February 15, 2011.

It granted approval to re-designate 297 panchayat sahayaks as panchayat secretary who have successfully completed the prescribed eight years of service on a monthly salary of Rs 7,810.

The Cabinet decided to empower the MC to approve all building plans under the single-umbrella system. Maps were earlier being approved by the Town and Country Planning Department.

It also approved the changes in Regulation with regard to minimum plot size from 250 sq m to 200 sq m with reduction in the front and setback from 3 m to 2 m.

It approved The Himachal Pradesh Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2010, and second amendment to the Himachal Pradesh Tax on Entry of Goods into the Local Area Act, 2010.

It approved the draft of the Himachal Pradesh Anatomy (Amendment) Bill, 2010, and amendment to the Himachal Pradesh Municipalities Act, 2010, to incorporate provisions of direct election to the posts of presidents and vice-presidents in various municipalities.

Shimla, November 25
With Union Rural Development Minister CP Joshi as the chief guest, the one-day conference of the State Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan, to be held here tomorrow, will set the tone for the Congress campaign for the coming panchayat polls in the state.

Although the panchayat election is not conducted on party symbols, the main political parties field candidates. The ruling BJP and the opposition Congress go all out to ensure the victory of their supporters and even main leaders carry out intensive campaigning.

Chief Minister PK Dhumal has been touring the state for the past over one month holding public meetings and laying foundation stones of various projects to woo the voters.

The conference will be attended by the members of the AICC and the PCC, MPs, MLAs, office-bearers of the state and the district and block presidents. It will be followed by rallies across the state. The main objective of bringing the Union Minister to the conference is to counter the BJP charge that the Centre was handing out a raw deal to the state and apprise the party men of the achievements of the UPA government.

The focus will be on flagship programmes of the Centre for rural uplift like the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Bharat Nirman Yojna and the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojna. Besides, the conference will also expose the acts of commission and omission of the Dhumal government and its failure on various fronts.

According to PCC chief Kaul Singh, apart from “corruption” and “lack of governance” his party’s campaign will revolve around issues directly affecting the people like victimisation of Congress-affiliated panchayat functionaries, collapse of the PDS, shortage of doctors and teachers in the interior areas and shortage of fertilisers and other farm-inputs.

Further, a series of rallies will be organised to provide a momentum to the campaign. He will address rallies at Kullu on December 1, Jogindernagar on December 3, Kangra on December 4 and Dharamsala on December 5. At least one rally will be held in each district and the effort will be to cover all major areas.

Dharamsala, November 25
Satish Kumar, husband of Anu Bala, a resident of Baba Baroh village, who allegedly lost her baby due to false HIV test report by a private laboratory near the Tanda medical college, today lodged an FIR.

He alleged that the doctors had to perform operation early to rescue the child as his wife was declared HIV positive due to which their child died. The doctors also performed tubectomy operation on his wife due to which she could not conceive now.

He also alleged that their family was facing social backlash after her wife being declared HIV positive. His sister’s marriage had been called off and people were now afraid of making connections with his family, Satish Kumar alleged.

He demanded that a case should be registered against all accused in the matter. Maya Devi, mother-in-law of Anu Bala, has also written to the Chief Minister seeking intervention in the matter.

The police has registered a case under Section 420 of the IPC. The state government had entrusted the inquiry to Dr Bharti from the Tanda medical college. Dr Bharti said he had recorded the statements of 20 persons involved in the case. However, the inquiry was still going on.

Dr Suresh Verma, head of gynaecology department in the Tanda medical college, admitted that tubectomy operation was performed on Anu Bala.

He said the operation was performed on the request of the patient as they already had a child. The first child of the couple was also born by operation. Since this time also an operation was performed, the couple wanted the tubectomy operation to be performed on Anu Bala.

Satish Kumar has, however, alleged that they were forced to sign papers for operation.

Shimla, November 25
Unable to spare funds for the construction of bus stands, the government has now decided to undertake some viable projects in the public-private partnership mode on the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.

The Himachal Bus Stands Management and Development Authority has awarded the feasibility study of 10 projects, including three for commercial utilisation of space, to Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited.

The company will study the topography and carry out traffic survey to work out the financial viability for execution of the projects on the BOT basis after allowing for commercial space and the period of concession.

The new bus stands are proposed at Hamirpur, Una, Parwanu, Manali, Baddi, Chintpurani and Dhalli.

Learning a lesson from the failure of the earlier effort to construct bus stands in Una and Mandi on the BOT basis due to delay in handing over land, the authority has decided to take up the projects at places where land has been already transferred in its name. The companies which were awarded the two projects backed out and now the Mandi project is being implemented by the authority, while Una has been included in the seven projects to be executed on BOT basis.

In all, 22 bus stands were to be constructed by the authority but due paucity of funds it was forced to go for the PPP mode.

The seven projects alone will involve an investment of over Rs 110 crore which is a huge amount to invest. As the financial viability of the projects will largely depend on the commercial space, the company will also study the market trend which was location-specific to make the best use of the site.

The company is likely to complete the feasibility study and prepare a blueprint for the projects to be offered to the private sector for implementation on the BOT basis. Thereafter, expression of interest will be invited. The authority hopes to complete the process by March next.

Shimla, November 25
The police will now take up a project for alternative livelihood in Malana of Kullu by involving various government agencies so that area-specific high-return crops can be introduced to wean away the locals involved in the notorious drug trade.

The police, which undertook the operation in Malana and other remote areas recently, is preparing an alternative livelihood project for which funds will be arranged from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the state government. The project will involve experts from the field of horticulture, agriculture, herbiculture, tourism, forest and the power sector so that high-return crops can be introduced.

“We will soon write to the state government as well as the NCB so that a project can be launched to help the locals earn good money by taking to cultivation of high-return cash crops,” said ID Bhandari, ADGP (CID). He added that effort would be to provide every kind of help, right from providing the raw material, expert advice and marketing options till the villagers start getting handsome returns.

Even though Malana is known world-over for the high-quality “Malana Crème” as there is extensive cultivation of cannabis and poppy in the area, the plight of the common villager is pitiable as it is mostly the middlemen who derive the maximum profit. In fact, many foreigners are known to be controlling the entire illegal activity and imported hybrid variety of cannabis and poppy has been introduced to ensure higher returns.

Vinod Dhawan, SP (CID), who visited the remotest areas of the Malana valley during the operation, says the police is keen that the villagers, rather than just confining themselves to agricultural activities, should grow high-altitude apple, take to tourism activities and at the same time form societies to take up execution of 2 and 5 MW power projects.

“Unless and until we do not offer and ensure lucrative proposition, it will not be easy to wean away people from the drug trade, so efforts will have to be put in for at least five consecutive years so that during the gestation period, the government help keeps flowing,” he suggests.

He adds that the younger generation can be involved in tourism activities for which they can be trained. Under the project they plan to undertake agro zoning of the area and accordingly introduce cash crops. It is also planned to introduce herbiculture by encouraging villagers to undertake commercial cultivation of herbs and medicinal plants as these can fetch good money as there is huge demand for such products.

Shimla, November 25
The government is making extensive use of information technology (IT) network to provide advisory services to farmers through AGRISNET, designed primarily to provide specialised information to suit the needs of farmers on crop diseases, prescribed treatment, pest management and best practices etc.

This was stated by Chief Minister PK Dhumal in his inaugural address at the two-day regional conference on “Improving Public Service Delivery and Role of e-Governance” of Administrative Reform’s Secretaries here today.

He said AGRISNET portal also provided market information and online forms for various schemes in the agriculture and allied sectors.

The Chief Minister said Himachal Pradesh was the first state in the country to set up and operationalise statewide area network - HIMSWAN, to provide connectivity to various government departments and field offices. The state had won two Web Ratna Awards for Police Portal and Web Portal.

He said in terms of spatial coverage 125 Point-of-Presence (PoP) had been provided connectivity under HIMSWAN at 90 tehsils across the state and in terms of horizontal connectivity 1,160 offices of various departments had been linked to HIMSWAN.

Dhumal said the government had created a web-enabled grievance redress system called “e-Samadhan” where anyone could register his grievance pertaining to any issue. He said it had ensured inclusive service delivery mechanism and disposal rate ranged between 80 to 90 per cent in all such cases monitored by the CM office.

He said the SMS Gateway Service had been introduced to deliver SMS alerts on mobile phones for citizen-centric services and save their multiple visits to different departments in respect of status of driving licences, vehicle registration, certificates, arms licences and public grievances.

The Chief Minister said IT was a technology and the real improvement in service delivery to common man in different sectors would only be possible through re-engineering of various processes involved in activities in those sectors.

Shimla, November 25
While the Shimla Bar Association is agitating against the shifting of the district judicial complex to Chakkar, the Public Works Department is working overtime to complete the new complex by June 2011.

Members of the association staged a one-hour protest here today in support of their demand for a review of the decision to shift the courts to the new location. They maintained that it was neither suitable for advocates, nor litigants as it was far away from the main town.

They also demanded a CBI inquiry into the selection of the site for the new complex by the high-powered committee and allotment of work for the construction of road and building.

The government maintained that the construction was started after an application was filed in the high court regarding inadequate facilities at the existing judicial complex. Thereafter, the site was selected and foundation stone of the new complex was laid by then Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan. The construction of the complex was at an advanced stage.

The new complex is being constructed at a cost of Rs 37.44 crore keeping in view the future requirements. It will have a plinth area of 10,648 sq m and include 21 court chambers, Bar library, Bar room, copying agency, record inspection room, district attorney office, legal aid room, post office, dispensary, bank, electrical and building services room, malkhana and police lock-up, separate canteens for advocates, staff and general public.

A four-storey car parking with floor area of 3,680 sq m involving an expenditure of Rs 6.5 crore has also been proposed. There is also a proposal for construction of 12 residences for judicial officers in the complex. A new road has been constructed to provide connectivity to the NH-22 and NH-88.

Hamirpur, November 25
While the district administration has notified the reservation roaster for different categories in the coming Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) elections for Hamirpur district, Congress leaders have alleged that the roaster had been leaked out to ruling party leaders even before its notification to give them advantage in this election.

The Congress leaders said this information was leaked at government level and someone had already supplied the reservation roaster to the ruling party leaders.

Former vice-president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee Rajender Zar alleged: “To give advantage to the ruling party of the state, the information about the reservation roaster for PRI election was deliberately leaked before its notification to the ruling party leaders.”

He said, “These leaders were having complete information about the reservation roaster and were even making public announcements about the reservation for women, the SC and ST categories.”

“In some cases, the local leaders of the ruling party were busy in even announcing candidates for the three-tier PRI election, which clearly indicated that they had prior information about reservation roaster,” he added.

Terming this as a serious matter, the Congress leader has also demanded strict action against the people concerned in the alleged leakage of roaster information.

DC Hamirpur Rajender Thakur said, “We had taken every precaution to maintain strict secrecy while preparing reservation roaster and there is no question of leakage of this information to anyone before this notification.”

Solan, November 25
Peeved at the strict attitude adopted by the district administration in disallowing display of wares on the Mall Road, the traders today sat on the road blocking traffic from 12.30 pm to 1 pm.

This created chaos as traffic came to a halt on the busy road with scores of vehicles getting stranded on either side.

The traders were protesting the recent campaign launched by the administration where police officials had removed display of all wares on the roadside as it had reduced the road width, thus, causing traffic blues.

This had irked the traders who felt that they were not obstructing the traffic by displaying wares in front of their shops.

The situation was resolved after a meeting was convened by the SDM where the DSP (headquarters) and traders put forth their views.

The SDM, later, decided that yellow lines would be marked on the road which would decide the limit for displaying wares and also parking scooter and other smaller vehicles.

Movement of pedestrians had become a risky proposition on the Mall Road due to the heavy volume of traffic and narrowing of the road due to display of wares by shopkeepers. With two schools located along the Mall Road, children too faced the risk of accidents due to the increasing traffic.

Mandi, November 25
The two accused in the drug processing machine seizure case, Oot Ram and his son Sita Ram of Pukhri village in Kullu, were sent in three days police remand by the Kullu chief judicial magistrate after the vigilance team produced them in the court today. But the third accused Shiv Ram remained absconded.

The vigilance team has arrested them yesterday and seized opium, charas and opium processing machine used to produce drug derivatives from the opium.

Mandi SP (vigilance) Virender Sharma said the team was trying to nab the third accused in the case.

The vigilance is interrogating the two accused at the vigilance thana in Kullu to get to the bottom of the case, he added.